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

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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

60 coVEr dEsign tom lynton www.tomlynton.com

features

10 WE triEd to stop thE War, daddy Five years on, the schoolkids who protested against the invasion of Iraq and some who didn’t by lena De CaSPaRiS

cover story

15 opinion: talking With thE EnEmy GeRalD kauFman mP argues that the solution to Palestine lies in negotiation with Hamas

16 pakistan aftEr bhutto What happens next has ramifications worldwide. Report by GRaham uSheR from Islamabad

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20 rocking thE markEt ChRiStoPheR hiRD dissects the Northern Rock crisis

23 obituary: Economist of thE lEft anDRew Glyn (30 June 1942 – 22 December 2007). Tribute by bob SutCliFFe

26 flight fights DaviD matthewS surveys the new local residents’ coalitions fighting airport expansion

32 por ahora no pudimos Two critical articles examine the wider implications for Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution following the defeat of Chavez’s constitutional reform proposals in December’s referundum. Written by JavieR biaRDeau and ReinalDo ituRRiZa loPeZ . Edited by Pablo navaRRete

37 lock ‘Em up maRk thomaS explains the motives for his campaign to prosecute Gordon Brown

38 Essay: rEthinking political partiEs hilaRy wainwRiGht examines the role of the party in transformative politics and asks how the left might reimagine this crucial instrument of political change. MARK PERRYMAN responds in AGENCY FOR CHANGE

44 rEd light in bErlin Die Linke has been losing support as it fails to push the SPD-led coalition. Zoe Jewell talks to party leaders, activists and critics

48 bEyond brEad and buttEr GReGoR Gall analyses the new alliances being forged by public sector workers linking their demands for decent working conditions with the quality of services

50 go ghana black stars Reportage photography by tim vyneR

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corrEctions: dEc/Jan 2008 issuE Jan Goodey was not credited for her review of Radiohead’s In Rainbows. ‘Ethnic diversity in Turkey: silence, censure and celebration’ was co-authored by Lisa Di Carlo and Cynthia Cockburn. Readers who had difficulty reading ‘Keep Throwing Stones’ by Jane Shallice can see it on the Red Pepper website at www.redpepper.org.uk