Josh White / 15 May 2023
National Right Makeover
NatCon in London
Arriving at the Emmanuel Centre, I was confronted by loud classical music of the bombastic, patriotic variety.(...)
Communism
Joel Schalit / 21 Apr 2023
Liberation Day Today
Remembering WWII in Italy
In the lead-up to every Liberation Day on 25 April, adverts commemorating the event appear on most of the municipal billboards of my Torino neighbourhood.(...)
The Battleground / 20 Feb 2023
Retro World
The Battleground’s Spring Books List
Protests and war belong together. Not because they reflect each other but because conflict stirs the pot. Not just about itself but everything else.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 18 Jan 2023
Sex Against Fascism
Dušan Makavejev’s Innocence Unprotected
Serbian director Dušan Makavejev’s 1968 film Innocence Unprotected manages both to explore the legacy of wartime trauma seriously and to make fun of itself in the process. (...)
John Foster / 25 Nov 2022
Think Different
Culture from the Slums, by Jeff Hayton
Based on the flurry of academic titles about it over the last decade, punk has become as common to college curriculums as it is to the Top 40. Why this took so long is baffling.(...)
Josh White / 21 Nov 2022
Magazine for the Poor
Selling The Big Issue
You’ve seen them wearing red jackets, carrying a red magazine. (...)
Natalie Sarkic-Todd / 06 Sep 2022
Life Under Gorbachev
The End of the USSR
When Mikhail Gorbachev was appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR in 1985, I was studying Russian at university.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 06 Jul 2022
Working Through History
Folk on Acid, by OOPUS
If you stumbled upon Estonian band OOPUS at a festival, where many different acts are on the schedule, it might take you a few minutes to realize how special they are.(...)