Global warming is real, but it is not an excuse for misanthropes to voice their hatred of humanity. The debate about global warming parallels the debate about nuclear catastrophe. We are as close as we ever were to catastrophe, to… Read More ›
Month: June 2020
Two Poems
A Storm A storm is brewing. Rain is sudden, heavy, falling with shadows, a thunder of echoes on the horizon. The summer air is thick and slow, waiting to be moved by a long awaited wind. Soon, raised hands will… Read More ›
Tabla Tarangam!
Yogesh Patel A recent report exposes short comings of many publishers in the UK. Albeit, to call the behaviour racist would be unacceptable. I have met many and they are anything but. However, a burrito of ignorance and arrogance spiced… Read More ›
We need a Great Constitutional Assembly for Great Britain
A Freedom Charter for Great Britain? If we held a constitutional assembly, all the progressive forces in British society could finally agree on a common vision for the future and, having thrashed out this vision, unite around it. This is… Read More ›
Editorial: June 2020
Welcome to the monthly editorial and welcome to Ars Notoria. Strangely enough, the editorial for June 2020 will be published before the editorial for May 2020, but that is the arsy-varsy, topsy-turvy world of online publishing these days. We are… Read More ›
#8 Depression
Ars Notoria is pleased to present the eighth episode in the comic series, Depression, by Dan Pearce
Where’s your vision Sir Keir?
By Paul Halas The blame game continues. Meanwhile… While the general public and the media obsess about Coronavirus – both those who are terrified of it and the others who think the whole issue’s blown out of proportion – and… Read More ›
Taking Power in Guyana
PPP/C must seize the day by James Tweedie Guyanese caretaker president David Granger still refuses to admit defeat in elections almost four months ago. But the winning People’s Progressive Party/Civic seems reluctant to force a transition of power, despite the… Read More ›
Climate change: it’s later than we think
Socialists and capitalists together have ruined the planet. by Pete Field Even though climate scientists tell us we have not much time, their forecasts – despite their academic tentativeness – might actually be too optimistic. We already know for sure… Read More ›
Animation with a social conscience
Halas & Batchelor Cartoon Films 1940 – 1995 By Vivien Halas This year marks the 80th year since my parents, John Halas and Joy Batchelor founded Halas & Batchelor Cartoons, in its day a household name responsible for over 2000… Read More ›
The Danger of Working Class Fascism
Everyday working class, fascism is real by Phil Hall One of the dirty secrets of history is that fascists can also be working class. Marxists, communists and socialists claim that all fascism comes from the middle and lower middle classes,… Read More ›
Poet of Honour: Steven O’Brien
Pearl Fishers by Steven O’Brien Such ember-gold in your eyes,As no other girlAnd deep church-glass green,Purple, soft as smoke. Some daybreak soonWhen our blackbird is a high minstrelAbove the rippling treesSlip your hand in mine,No other girl but you And… Read More ›
Binary
by Yogesh Patel Saddens me we are binaryto my skin.Grandpa used to tell me a lie.Prof Macaulay would throwthe answer papers in the air.The ones landing on the table would pass!There is no random indiscrimination in most discriminations. Never for… Read More ›
#7 Depression
Ars Notoria is pleased to present the seventh episode in the comic series, Depression, by Dan Pearce.
An all-American coup
First Chávez, now Trump Photo by Alisdare Hickson (https://www.flickr.com/people/59952459@N08) by James Tweedie Sayre’s Law states that: “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.” Egyptian historian Charles Issawi’s maxim about… Read More ›
HOW DONALD DUCK SAVED MY LIFE…probably
COMICS – THE SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT By Paul Halas To this day there’s still an intellectual snobbery about comics in the UK, which is a shame as no other medium can communicate so well with so much economy. On… Read More ›
Is socialism a partial solution to discrimination?
Is the solution to racism, misogyny and prejudice a nicer capitalism or do we need a more profound transformation of society? What do we do when a right winger like Priti Patel claims that she is fighting prejudice? Do we… Read More ›
THAT REPORT
A short appraisal by MERVYN HYDE As a baby boomer, born one month after the war in Japan ended and growing up in a working class family, I grew up along with the welfare state and the NHS. From the… Read More ›
Guyana: Waiting for Granger to Go
Democracy delayed is democracy denied by James Tweedie Today is the 40th anniversary of the murder of Guyanese revolutionary writer Walter Rodney, a crime his family still believe was ordered by then prime minister Forbes Burnham. Three months – and… Read More ›
The Mystery of Apolitical Bob Dylan
By Phil Hall Prospero in his cell busy indwelling, might have time to ponder the mystery of the myth that is Bob Dylan. He is concealed behind a dark blue velvet curtain embroidered in gold; Dylan with a megaphone standing… Read More ›
Angry and Hungry
– and bloody annoyed at the constant micro and macro racism of the British police By Des Willie My day started as it often does when I’m shooting with the alarm going off way too early and just at the… Read More ›
2015 AND ALL THAT
How we regained faith in politics By Paul Halas Jeremy Corbyn was a phenomenon. This relatively obscure politician emerged from the backbenches to lead the party five years ago, and almost tripled the Labour Party membership. Labour became the biggest… Read More ›
#6 Depression
Ars Notoria is pleased to present the sixth episode in the comic series, Depression, by Dan Pearce.
– with The Greatest Of All Time…
In my wildest dreams I never thought I would hang out with my hero, Muhammad Ali. By Andy Hall In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would be hanging out spending time with my hero Muhammad Ali, let alone… Read More ›
From the forthcoming memoir: Eve and Tony
Extract originally published in The London Magazine By Eve Hall My heroine of very early days was Joan of Arc, whom I loved passionately. I dreamed of martyrdom and detested the English soldiers who burned her at the stake. Every… Read More ›
MAKING SOCIETY FIT FOR CHILDREN
Challenging the Neoliberal Onslaught By Richard House I recently interviewed tireless childhood campaigner Sue Palmer for the Morning Star on her campaigning work for children’s well-being.1 Sue founded and runs the excellent Upstart! organisation in Scotland,2 is the author of… Read More ›
How to be a Gourmet
– like Richard Steinhardt By Phil Hall Grandpa was an admirer of Napoleon and this was partly why he chose to live in Golfe Juan in 1972. The other reason they both chose to live in Golfe was because they had… Read More ›
Breakfast toad in the hole
A cracker from the renowned Circus Chef. “A bit of isolation cooking here. A breakfast toad in the hole and not one for the faint hearted. As we released the Giffords Circus cookbook a couple of days after lockdown began,… Read More ›
Poet of Honour: George Szirtes
George Szirtes We remain rainless. The late sun draped on washing like a faded flag. This is our nation with its fabled history of bloom, fight and fade. We’re fading. Leaders at press briefings continue to conjure the great spirit… Read More ›
Allow Me to Spit!
In the USA racism is the collateral damage caused by social inequality and injustice, and a history of slavery, segregation and discrimination. By Phil Hall ‘Killer Mike’ in his emotional response compared the killing of George Floyd by a policeman… Read More ›
#5 Depression
Ars Notoria is pleased to present the fifth episode in the comic series, Depression, by Dan Pearce.
The decade of political idolatry
It’s staggering that as the world spiralled into a political death loop over the past decade, and trust overall in our electoral systems has taken a severe beating, that another phenomena should have come about: the political icon. Leaders have,… Read More ›
Guest poet
Anandi Sharan Giving and receiving Giving and receiving isa matter of systems-logic.Listen to the poets!Here it is,metabolising civilisation.Is it not timeto make love?The rest is not in our control.It is up to the system.I once had a mad lifeand was… Read More ›
Who controls the Surplus?
The Problem of Surplus and the COVID-19 Pandemic. ‘Can we justify £16bn fortunes when nurses are poorly compensated, care workers are on zero-hour contracts and thousand are homeless?’ by Dr. Pete Stanfield dirig ancient Assyrian term for surplus (Veenhof, K…. Read More ›
Brave Green World
Can we look forward to a more sustainable future when the Coronavirus virus recedes? By PAUL HALAS For the first time in years the smog has cleared over San Francisco, Beijing, Delhi and Los Angeles. The criss-cross vapour trails in… Read More ›