THE FALL OF COMMUNISM - LATEST ISSUE OF DGS
Friends, Readers and Contributors,
New issue of Democratic Green Socialist online magazine out now and free to view at:
www.democraticgreensocialist.org
For all those seeking a left antidote to the mainstream media free market triumphalism around the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Issue No 9 of DGS is a special issue dedicated to debate and discussion around 1989, the fall of communism and all things Soviet Bloc related
Also, DGS editorial on the Glasgow North by-election result
Please cascade this link forward to others in your e-address book, and feel free to post links to the issue or any of the articles on other blogs and sites
Full contents this issue are
Editorial:
Fall of the Wall – Twenty years on, DGS dedicates an entire issue to the fall of the Soviet Bloc and asks whether its time for a historical re-evaluation.
Lessons of the Glasgow North by – election
Histories, Analyses and Views - Part 1:
Auferstanden Aus Ruinen, Andy Newman argues we need to remember both the good and the bad about the DDR.
John Wight laments the passing of the USSR in a brief history of the Soviet Union.
Neil Davidson celebrates The revolutions of 1989.
Sinead Daly and Christine Thomas on Women & Family after the fall of the Wall.
Kevin Williamson argues Freedom is a Noble Thing
Science:
Steve Arnott on The cold war and the space race
Culture - Film
Graeme McIver reviews Goodbye Lenin, Anne Edmonds reviews The Lives of Others
Books:
Graham Jepps reviews The Case of Comrade Tuleyev by Victor Serge. Three cheers for more equal societies as Dave Watt
reviews The Spirit Level Art.
Liz Walker on Art and the Revolution - before, during and after.
Histories, Analyses And Views - Part 2:
Defend October, not Stalinism argues Luke Ivory.
As an ‘informed tourist’ Steve Mowat casts his eye From Berlin to Bulgaria and The People behind the Wall.
Gary Fraser on the sociological history of East Germany.
Dave Watt’s Mediawatch
Your Letters:
Graham Campbell on Glasgow North and the BNP, the Fraser Wight debate, immigration, and Left Unity
It is depressing that Green Socialist does not seem to have moved beyond a simple Cold War conception of Socialist Realism. Contemporary mainstream art historians manage to assess the realist art of the Soviet period without slipping into the simple schema of representational art = bad, ‘avante garde’ art = good but, perhaps burdened by the necessity of freighting their analysis with current ideological disputes, some leftwingers, cannot.
The struggle over style, form and content in the USSR was not disconnected from parallel controversies elsewhere and cannot be reduced and explanations for these divisions and divergencies cannot be found exclusively in the internal politics of the first socialist country.
Comment by Nick Wright — 16 November, 2009 @ 1:32 pm
Excellent issue of the Democratic Green Socialist-an example of left unity in action if you ask me.
Comment by Owen — 16 November, 2009 @ 3:47 pm
#1
Nick
I think you are a bit negative here, the issue of this on-line magazine has taien a number of contribution from sociallists of various different traditions and backgrounds, and in a modest way shared a cnstructyive and interesting dialogue.
Readers can make their own minds up about which of the contributions are more convincing.
BUt it is a step forwward to have such an exchange of views on this issue without finger pointing and name calling.
It is encouraging that there are now two scots publications, Scottish Socialist Review and Democratic Green Socialist that both share this broad collaborative approach, for slightly different audiences.
Comment by Andy Newman — 16 November, 2009 @ 4:00 pm
Not heard of scottish socialist review is that available online? I couldn’t find it when i did a search.
Comment by graham — 16 November, 2009 @ 4:28 pm
#4
I meant Scottish left review of course, my bad:
http://www.scottishleftreview.org/li/
Comment by Andy Newman — 16 November, 2009 @ 4:33 pm
Andy, I like reading the GS paper and I have a lot of time for the people involved but this article was very poor in its basic conception. It included lots of good stuff about avante garde art in the early Soviet period but is subjective and idealist in its treatment of Socialist Realism.
This is not a question of taste but of professional appraoch. My taste as such inclines towards formalist art and I am fascinated by the Soviet avante garde and they are a primary object of study for me – not surprising for someone who was at art school during the hey day of abstract expressionism. However, twenty years after the formal dissolution of the Soviet state it is time to apply the standard professional tools of an art historian to what was an important development.
If standard ‘bourgeois’ art historians can approach this stuff in all its diversity then any left wing critic with a grasp of the materialist method should try and avoid facile Cold War categories.
Comment by Nick Wright — 16 November, 2009 @ 5:09 pm
If the proprietors took some time to learn to use Cascading Style Sheets their publication would be infinitely more readable.
Comment by Eddie Truman — 16 November, 2009 @ 5:52 pm
Sometime in the early 1970s, an exhibition of abstract art took place in the USSR, I believe in or near Moscow. Quite a few people who went to it seem to have found it bewildering.
I like a lot of socialist realism, as much from a preference for representational art as for political reasons. Having said that, my favourite artist of the 20th century was George Grosz (1893-1959), some of whose political art retains power even today.
Comment by Mark Victorystooge — 16 November, 2009 @ 6:09 pm
Regarding the letter from Graham Campbell on the Glasgow NE by election. He already is on Redwatch and has been for years.
Comment by Jim Carroll — 16 November, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
I was surprised to see them persistently referring to the Glasgow North East by-election as the Glasgow North by-election (which is a separate constituency). This does not inspire me with confidence that they know what they are on about.
Comment by Campbell McGregor — 17 November, 2009 @ 12:09 pm
I agree with Eddie. Like a letter written in green ink, it doesn’t matter how rational the content is if the site looks like something produced by a one-man sect. Its look reminds me of those sites supporting the Juche Idea for Britain, or the correctness of Lin Biao’s line.
Comment by Ken MacLeod — 17 November, 2009 @ 9:10 pm
its all very well writing about the DDR, but why not educate yourself with the many films produced by the farmers and workers state.
Have a look at this film genossen about the anti fascist barrier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XzcAWwM_78
Comment by uncle erik — 17 November, 2009 @ 11:19 pm
how about aunty margot telling it like it is about the DDR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6joXVjrHwQ
Comment by uncle erik — 17 November, 2009 @ 11:23 pm