Review by Noaman G. Ali / Photos by Steve da Silva Rating: 4/4 Last week I sat in a meeting called by a councillor in one of Toronto’s “priority neighbourhoods,” populated by immigrants and working-class folks. He talked about how the police run drop-in programs for youth so that they can get to know them, and …
Rating: 3.5/4. Directed by Anand Patwardhan. Running time 185 minutes. A complex musical documentary about that side of India that we don’t see in the media: oppressive, exploitative and brutal. Jai Bhim Comrade is about the “untouchable” Dalit castes of India and the music of their resistance. The caste system means that people are born …
Rating: 3/4. Directed by Katja Gauriloff. Running time 90 minutes. Canned Dreams begins in Brazil, where workers rummage about looking for aluminum ore while a massive excavator smashes the rocks right next to them. They have no protective gear and are paid a pittance for their work. We meet a worker who has had a …
by Ashley M. Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment Edited by Carole Boyce Davies 241 pages. Ayebia Clarke Publishing. $24.95. Picture this. It is 1948 and at the age of 23, your citizenship is denied to you because of your political activities since you were 18. How would you feel? Claudia Jones, activist of Trinidadian origin, was …
by Kevin Edmonds Imperialist Canada By Todd Gordon 432 pages. Arbeiter Ring Publishing. $24.95 ($16.46 from online retailers). Most Canadians tend to view our country as a force for good in the world — we have even been subjected to beer commercials trying to convince us that we are a nation of peacekeepers, not soldiers.
by Noaman G. Ali The Communist Manifesto (Illustrated). Chapter One: Historical Materialism Edited by George S. Rigakos, illustrated by Red Viktor 29 pages. Red Quill Books. $12.50. The Communist Manifesto (Illustrated). Chapter One: Historical Materialism The crew at Red Quill Books has decided to put out a comic book version of Karl Marx and Friedrich …