feb/mar 2008 red pepper04

Editors Hilary Wainwright, Oscar Reyes dEputy Editor Tamanna Kalhar

production Steve Platt

dEsign & production Tom Lynton www.tomlynton.com

political corrEspondEnt Alex Nunns arts corrEspondEnts Cassandra Harwood, Lena de Casparis, Sally Tallant

sports corrEspondEnts Anne Coddington, Mark Perryman latin amErica Editor Pablo Navarrete

sub Editor Sarah Benton

WritErs Naima Bouteldja, Nick Buxton, Matthew Carr, Katie Coyne, Mihail Dafydd Evans, Gemma Galdon Clavell, Jan Goodey, Ben Hayes, Keith Hayman, Stuart Hodkinson, Solomon Hughes, Mathew Little, Vittorio Longhi, Melanie McFadyen, Enzo Mangini, James O’Nions, Roz Paterson, Angela Saini, David Sambrook, Chris Sands, Graham Usher, Derek Wall, Jonathan Wright

translators Ilaria Perlini, Roberto Navarrete

picturE rEsEarch Dan Tierney rEsEarchEr Jaimie Grant Visuals Martin Rowson, Ros Asquith, Andrzej Krauze, Matt Murphy, Tim Saunders

publishEr Fiona Osler fiona@redpepper.org.uk

officE managEr Dan Tierney subscription salEs Pack Post 01296 489550

accountant Bob Tydeman

accounts assistant Alice Kilroy WEb managEr Ian Gollan adVisErs Anthony Arblaster, David Beetham, Huw Beynon, Roy Bhaskar, Victoria Brittain, Sue Bowen, Tony Bunyan, Louise Christian, Tony Cook, Jeremy Corbyn MP, James Curran, Larry Elliott, Diane Elson, Max Farrar, Nigel Fountain, Trevor Griffiths, Barbara Gunnell, Nigel Harris, Billy Hayes, Pete Jenner, Penny Kemp, Bruce Kent, Hugh Kerr, Richard Kuper, Michael Kustow, Colin Leys, Su Maddock, Michael Mansfield QC, Martin McIvor, Aubrey Morris, Simon Mohun, Harold Pinter, Sheila Rowbotham, Denise Searle, Amanda Sebestyen, Jane Shallice, Aleks Sierz, Kate Soper, Jonathan Steele, Dave Timms, Guy Vincent, Gary Younge, Stuart Weir thanks to Darrell Joyce, Glenn Meredith, Abache Abreu, Andrea D’Cruz

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Red Pepper is published by Socialist Newspaper (Publications) Ltd (Reg. No. 02644973, VAT No. 507 5026 20) and printed by Cambrian Printers Ltd, Aberystwyth. Distribution: COMAG Specialist Division, Central Way, Feltham, Middx TW14 0RX (020 8844 1000) and Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN (020 8986 4854). Red Pepper accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material. Only submissions with SAEs will be returned. © Socialist Newspaper (Publications) Ltd 2008. All rights reserved ISSN 1353-7024.

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contents

regulars

03 Editorial Struggling on shifting sands 06 lEttErs agony subcomandauntiE 08 plattitudEs The world according to Steve Platt 19 knoW your EnEmy David Kilcullen, General Petraeus’s key adviser 24 pictorial From south to north

29 asylum Watch Minding your language 30 tEmpEraturE gaugE Growing money on trees 36 dEmocracy noW! Our prerogative 47 natural born rEbEl Farida Nekzad 66 booktopia Michael Kustow 67 rEarViEW Weapons of Mass Communication

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culture

BOOKS 62 planEtary mythology Romy ClaRk reviews The Myth of Mars and Venus 63 an intriguing bunch Sheila Rowbotham on radical alternative thinkers who sought to re-imagine or abolish the state 64 rEViEW roundup rEd pEppEr rEcommEnds FILM SPECIAL 54 WhEn thE EnEmy is at thE door will atkinSon talks to ken loaCh about film and social change 57 lEtting pEoplE spEak Siobhan mCGuiRk talks to kim lonGinotto about the power of documentaries

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59 guErrilla guidEs Documentary maker aStRa tayloR shares her filming tips 60 thE films WE miss and Why Film policy activist luCiana CaStellina tells us what we’re missing on the international cinema scene

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