The mass demonstrations that have erupted since the police murdered George Floyd echo back to the fierce militancy and revolutionary art of the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising. While the rebellion was quickly suppressed, its legacy offers lessons and hope for the present wave of protests that are fighting back against police violence.
Read moreFour (More) Socialist Movies to Watch During Quarantine
Since millions of workers around the world are currently under quarantine, now is the perfect time for socialists to catch up on the classics of leftwing cinema. Here are four films for the lockdown that focus on themes of antifascism, labor, capitalism, and imperialism.
Read moreHackers and Slackers: Encounters with Science and Technology in Nineties Cinema
For cinema, the 1990s marked the era of special-effects blockbusters versus low-budget indies, many of which grappled with ideas about techno-optimism versus techno-cynicism. Despite being considered a cheesy decade for film, nineties cinema revealed profound social and political anxieties that stemmed from an era of globalization and cultural change precipitated by late capitalism and cutting-edge technology. For all the hopes that these new technologies were supposed to bring, nineties cinema exposed the skepticism and fears that lurked beneath the optimistic surface.
Read moreAdorno and the Culture Industry
Adorno wanted to understand how capitalism, especially through the culture industry, exploits us and pervades our everyday lives so that we could figure out how to liberate ourselves from it. Essentially, his underlying message is that liberation cannot happen if we remain blind and complacent to the system that oppresses us: it can only happen when the people rise up and revolt against it.
Read more“Freedom’s Just Another Word for Nothin’ Left to Lose”: Janis Joplin, the Mistaken Icon of the Counterculture
Janis Joplin died fifty years ago, and she is often remembered as the poster child of the counterculture. Yet, her values did not fully mesh with the counterculture ethos. Whether or not Janis deserves to be the icon of the counterculture depends on how the counterculture is remembered.
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