liberal shibboleths.
INTERNATIONAI. No7 November/December 1986
international REVIEWS Christmas crackers
THE CHRISTMAS season may be a bourgeois hype, but there's no getting round it — guilt or gifts, it's your choice! Books have been c
avourite recourse tor lettist
jitt-givers ever since Marx':
hildren presented their dad with c specially-bound edition of not-so-Dickensian Chrismas long ago. To help its readers through the traditionally desperate last-minute search for appropriate presents for comrades and friends, International offers the following suggestions. A good read remains the best antidote to the (transitional?) demands of the holiday season. Trotsky, David King, Basil Blackwell, £19.50. OK so it's pricey, but David King's oictorial biography of that notorious Russian trouble-maker (previewed exclusively in our last issue) is our recommended Christmas gift for that special someone! With an introduction by Tamara Deutscher and an excellent commentary by James Ryan, this magnificent 340 page book assembles the largest photographic record of Trotsky's life yet. For those with a sense of history... and of graphic design. Scarlet Song, Mariamma Ba, Longman African Classics, £2.95 (paperback). The last work of the late author, now translated from the French, portrays one woman's struggle with tradition and chauvinism in Senegal. Proof that the novel is alive and well - at least in Africa! The Chaneysville Incident, David Bradley, Serpent's Tail, £5.95 (paperback). Highly-praised in the States, this novel tells the story of a Black history professor's investigation into his father's mysterious death — a quest which precipitates an exploration of his enslaved ancestors with surprising results. Prisoners of the American Dream, Mike Davis, Verso, £7.95 (paperback). Not an easy read, but a landmark in the historiography of the American working-class and its search for an NTERNATIONAL No 7 November/December 1986
independent politics. If you want to required reading.
Virağo Modern Classics Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, Virago, £3.95. Reprint of classic 1937 novel by Black recently rediscovered by Walker, Morison, Angelou, et al.
know the whys and hows of Reaganism and the answer to the vexed question of American exceptionalism, then Davis is Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God (paperback). America's premiere woman story-teller, socialist.
Hungarian Tragedy, Peter Fryer, New Park, £2.95 (paperback). Fryer was Morning Star correspondent in Budapest during the 1956 uprising and subsequent Soviet repression. His brilliantly written, first-hand account of the events — reprinted on their thirtieth anniversary — split the British CP. Zeynep: That Really Happened To Me, Zeynep Hasbudak and Brian Simons, ALTARF, £2.50 Nine-year-old's account of life in Hackney and her fight against deportation to Turkey — a fight which she finally lost. Excellent campaigning book for children. Solik, Life in the Soviet Union 1939-1946, by KS Karol, Pluto, £7.95, (paperback). Autobiographical account of young Pole's extraordinary adventures during World War Two. Escape from the Nazis to the Soviets led to arrest by the NKVD, subsequent escape, enlistment in Soviet airforce, promotion to rank of Junior Commissar in the Caucasus, a second arrest and unexpected release. Exciting, readable, sympathetic account of the Soviet people by an anti-Stalinist
Cricket, CLR James, Allison and Busby, £14.95 (hardback). Nearly forty years of cricket correspondence, journalism, history and analysis, from the greatest of the small band of Marxist cricketing cogitators. Ideal gift for the leftish sports nut. Where Sixpence Lives, Norma Kitson, Chatto and Windus, £9.95. (Hardback). Finely-written autobiography: from Durban childhood through years of bitter struggle with the apartheid state to recent conflicts with London-based ANC bureaucracy. A Long Way Home, Claude MacKay, Liberation Classics, Pluto, £4.95 (paperback). First published in 1937, this autobiography of the Jamaican-born poet and novelist spans his years as a ¡leading tigure of the Harlem Renaissance and his off-and-on involvement in left politics. Features his trips through between-the-wars Britain, France, Soviet Union, and Africa, as well as encounters with Shaw, Wells, DuBois, Trotsky, Chaplin, and others. ERNEST MANDEL THE MEANING OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR The Meaning of the Second World War, by Ernest Mandel, Verso, £6.95 (paperback). Synoptic, readable account of the global clash — a war of conflicts within conflicts within conflicts - whose outcome is the world we live in. Error of Judgement: The Truth About the Birmingham Bombings, by Chris Mullin, Chatto and Windus, €10.95 (hardback). The story of the casual victims of mid-seventies anti-Irish hysteria who are 32 still seeking justice.
Book-burners delight — or Danish fashion show. See Jenny lives with ... Black American Politics, from the Washington Marches to Jesse Jackson, Manning Marable, Verso, £6.95 (paperback). Fine-grained historical study by as well as long-range analysis, with a fascinating and well-balanced account of the Jackson campaign and the strengths and weaknesses of the 'Rainbow Coalition'. Dvorak in Love, Josef Skvorecky, Chatto and Windus, £10.95 (hardback). latest warm and witty fiction with less enthusiasm than his previous efforts. Perhaps the change in scenery from Stalinised central Europe to racist turn-of-the-century USA had something to do with this. A tantastic yet deeply researched historical novel tracing, between the Czech composer and the
(paperback). independent Marxist. Excellent on detail
Cheated waters. (paperback). Bourgeois reviewers greeted Skvorecky's among other things, the surprising links development of Black American music.
Four Novels: The Getaway, The Killer Inside Me, The Grifters, Pop. 1280, Jim Thompson, Black Box Thrillers, Zomba Books, £5.95 Deranged, psychopathic prose from a master of the American thriller. Not for the ideologically squeamish. She Came Too Late, Mary Wings, Women's Press, £3.95 (paperback). Original piece of crime fiction with lesbian heroine whose work on 'Women's Hotline' leads her into very Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin, Gay Men's Press, £2.95 The book-burner's delight! Buy now before it becomes a collector's item! Photo-montage of late seventies Denmark (complete with flares). This list was selected by CAROLINE RAULT and DAVE PALMER of Reading Matters Bookshop, 10 Lymington Ave., London N22 and MIKE MARQUSEE, author of the recently-published thriller, Slow Turn (Michael Joseph, £9.95).
INTERNATIONAL No 7 November/December 1986
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Blood Red Roses JEAN REILLY & DAVID GRANT Biood Red Roses: the life and times of a fighting woman. A film by John McGrath. When have the Communist Party ever betrayed the working class?' asks an indignant Bessie McGuigan, central character of this compelling and inspiring film. 'China 1927, Germany 1933, Greece 1945, Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968.. , retorts her eldest daughter, festooned as she is with Anti-Nazi League badges to hint that she may be somewhat sympathetic to the SWP.
The 'fighting woman' of the title is Bessie and she simply can not understand her daughter's criticism.
Through 'the party' she has conducted the most bitterly fought struggles for a better life for herself, her class and, of course, the very daughter who now accuses her of complicity in these betrayals through her membership of the Communist Party.
This is only one of many closely observed moments in this very enjoyable film. The character of Bessie is based on a real woman, one of three women militants who became renowned for leading strikes against multi-national companies intent on imposing redundancies in the west of Scotland in the 1970s.
At another level Bessie could have been any one of thousands of women, strong women, women who fiaht all their lives for a decent life for themselves and their children. Women who know without being told that they have the right to enjoy the Labour Party A journal of Marxism in
such a life, but who continue to have to play second fiddle to pompous and arrogant men like Alex, Bessie's husband in the film. Quick to use her fists and possessing a fearsome tongue from her earliest years, Bessie pursues the cause of the working class with a vengeance. Especially so after her cousin (also her closest friend), dies a premature death from industrial cancer. Through these struggles she discovers real independence and the confidence that allows her to feel that she is capable of anything that needs to be done to achieve the better life that she wants to see for all. She learns quickly about the nature of the trade union bureaucracy, dominated as it is by the CP in Scotland, and remains with the rank-and-file even when her husband enters the lower levels of full time officialdom in the engineering union. The subsequent tension this leads to, her euphoric victories and devastating defeats, political as well as intensely personal experiences, are not only thoroughly entertaining, they are also completely believable. Even the exchange with her daughter, while having an air of being a set-piece confrontation with a 'heavy' political message, is dealt with in a sufficiently sharp and economic way as to make it hit the mark. For it is true, that for women like Bessie the CP was the 'natural' place to be in the sixties and seventies. The Tories were in retreat and Harold Wilson's white heat of technological revolution smacked too much of the industrial 'progress' that had SUBSCRIBE! Annual Subscription rate: (10 issues) • £8.50 for inland subscriptions • £17.00 for inland multi-reader subscriptions • £18.00 for overseas airmail subscriptions, (U.S. $25.00) Name... Address. Post Code... Make cheques payable to International
killed her cousin and brought precious
little change to the lives of millions of Bessie McGuigans. Accusations of guilt by association do little to change
experiences and convictions built up through bitter struggle and sacrifice
These days, with money for radical film projects hard to come by, it is a pleasure to find a film that explores the life and times of a woman worker militant with such sympathy and commitment to her cause. it is also heartening to note that despite all her defeats she is not treated as a loser or in any way pitiful.
Moving into the maelstrom of the Thatcher years, the film contrasts Bessie's optimism in the face of all the odds - her love affair with a young man of 22 (the same age as her eldest daughter), her struggle to build a new home and finc work, her sisterly and comardely relationship with her adult daughters - with the pathetic whinings and guilt-ridden misgivings of her one-time mentor, Alex. Bessie's personal politics retain their integrity and are believable.
What is inexplicable is her loyalty to the CP. Not because she does not decide to up and join the far left, rather because it is odd that a woman like Bessie does not join and even lead the struggles that wracked the Labour Party in the 1980s.
This failure says something about the political bias of the authors of the playscript that the film is based on. Unfortunately, it means that the film tends to just tail off, rather than end with the vitality that punctuates the rest of the story.