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new | 2011
- A Manifesto for Modern Times, by Carlos Salvador and Fred Angelis
- Engels: A Revolutionary Life, by John Green
- Stasi Hell or Workers' Paradise? Socialism in the German Democratic Republic - what we can learn from it?, by John Green and Bruni de la Motte
- Hung, drawn and quartered - the caricatures of Ken Gill, edited by John Green and Michal Boncza
- Red Reporter: Covert Correspondent for East Germany, by John Green
Tony Benn says of this book:
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A Manifesto for Modern Times
by Carlos Salvador and Fred Angelis
Paperback; 40pp
A Manifesto for Modern Times is not a party programme nor a blueprint for change. It is a discussion document in response to the turbulent era we are living through.
It is intended as a humble echo of the world-shaking Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848.
Its sole aim is to stimulate ideas and action, as well as to offer theoretical support to all those who refuse to submit to the tyranny of global capital and who dare to dream of a more just, greener and better society.
A different world is possible!
2009
Stasi Hell or Workers' Paradise? Socialism in the German Democratic Republic - what we can learn from it?
by John Green and Bruni de la Motte
Paperback; 50pp; ISBN 978-0-9558228-3-4
This book takes the German Democratic Republic as an example and examines what socialism in that country actually achieved in terms of social progress.
With the demise of the East European communist-led countries in the wake of the Gorbachov reforms, the "end of history" was proclaimed – there was no alternative to capitalism. However, with the present ongoing capitalist economic crisis, many people are asking if there is a workable alternative to the present system. Could socialism perhaps be the answer after all, despite the fact that the Eastern European versions failed?
This book is an attempt neither to justify nor denigrate everything that happened in the German Democratic Republic. It is, rather, an attempt to assess what aspects of GDR-style socialism were genuine achievements in terms of human progress and are perhaps worth salvaging, emulating or learning from. Enough has been said and written about how awful the system supposedly was: a people imprisoned by a wall and oppressed by an omnipresent Stasi security apparatus, ruled by a communist dictatorship. The authors have avoided going over the same ground because they felt such one-sided characterisations of the GDR are based largely on prejudice, ignorance and wilful animosity. They are more concerned with looking at what other (mainly western) writers have almost entirely ignored – those aspects of GDR society which were positive and which can provide us with insights about our own society and its failings as well as demonstrate that other alternatives are possible.
Hung, drawn and quartered – the caricatures of Ken Gill
edited by John Green and Michal Boncza
Paperback; 132pp; ISBN 978-0-9558228-2-7
They're fantastic! I knew Ken Gill drew cartoons, but I never realised his caricatures were so good.
Steve Bell, Cartoonist at The Guardian
Ken Gill was one of the leading lights of the trade union movement in the 1970s and 1980s, becoming the first communist elected to the TUC General Council (in 1974, with 7 million votes), and becoming General Secretary of the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union (MSF, now part of Unite) in 1988. Ken was voted the ‘Trade unionists’ trade unionist’ by his peers in a survey by The Observer in 1993. What better accolade could one ask for?
However Ken was renowned in trade union circles not just for his politics and commitment to working people, but for his perceptive caricatures of fellow union leadersand politicians with whom he negotiated. During the hours he had to sit through tedious meetings, he utilised the time to sketch those around him on anything that came to hand – the back of old agenda papers, serviettes or reports. Over the years this grew into a prodigious collection of portraits.
Ken's caricatures were so good that those portrayed were often keen to have them. He has a knack for capturing good likenesses and poked fun in a gentle fashion; they are rarely harsh or cruel. In that sense they reflect the man himself, who respects his fellow trade unionists and principled politicians, but deplores sell-outs, back-sliders and opportunists. Everyone knew Ken was a Communist but he was never dogmatic in his views and he recognised that true comrades do exist outside the Communist Party too. He felt perfectly at home with those on the left of the Labour Party who believed in socialism as he does, even if they may have differed on how to get there. This book offers a small segment of history as seen from the perspective of a leading trade unionist through the medium of caricature. The texts and anecdotes accompanying them are only intended as laconic complements.
I think this is a brilliant collection. Weirdly, I reckon the best is Bill Sirs.
Paul Routledge, Labour Editor, The Times
Ken Gill's caricatures are not what you would expect from a militant communist trade union leader. But then again you wouldn't expect a militant communist trade union leader to draw caricatures.
As caricatures they are affectionate rather than grotesque, but there's a confidence in the line which gives a brilliant insight into the confidence and determination of the man holding the pen, and the extent of his ability as an artist. Knowing that most of his caricatures were drawn on the spot, scribbled down in meetings, it is impossible not to be hugely impressed with Gill's drawings.
Morten Morland, Cartoonist at The Times
Red Reporter: Covert Correspondent for East Germany
by John Green
2009; Paperback; 347pp; ISBN 978-0-9558228-1-0
‘Television correspondents often write books as recycled products of their foreign reports. They tend to be self-indulgent; self-criticism is not on their agenda. In contrast to such self-portrayals John Green stays reassuringly humble. He is plagued by doubts about his profession and is, in the end, determined to hang up his tools. That’s an honest move, more honourable and creditable than a number of other accounts that have been written by former comrades from the GDR.’
Peter Schütt, Die Tageszeitung
Red Reporter is the reminiscences of someone who worked for 20 years as a covert correspondent in the West on behalf of the German Democratic Republic’s (East Germany) state television. It reveals how the GDR – in its early years ostracised as an illegitimate state by the western world – obtained its Western news coverage and was able to report from countries viscerally opposed to socialism in any form. It also explains how this coverage was based on a tradition of solidarity with the struggling peoples of the world and as a means of promoting the idea of socialism.
John Green grew up in Coventry. After abandoning a zoology degree course after his second year at Bristol University, he switched to Drama. In 1964 he made the adventurous move to the German Democratic Republic to study film at the National Film School in Babelsberg, near Potsdam. He was the sole British student in the country. Returning to his native Britain in 1968, he became television correspondent for the GDR and spent 22 years reporting from around the world. Because the GDR, particularly at the height of the Cold War, was not officially recognised as an independent state, he and his colleagues were obliged to work anonymously and quasi-clandestinely in order to obtain the footage they needed.
‘Green’s reports from fascist Greece, Ireland, Grenada, Chile, El Salvador and the so-called Third World countries of Africa convey a fascinating insight into the life of a reporter from “the other side”.’
Dirk Ruder, Unsere Zeit
During the closing decades of the 20th century, the author travelled to many parts of the world in his work as a television correspondent, covering liberation struggles in Africa and Latin America, social and political campaigns in the USA and labour struggles in Britain and Western Europe. As a reporter on the front line he had a unique insight into the causes of conflict, the pertaining historical parameters and the political forces at work. In its scope this book offers a special view of history through the eyes, as the author puts it, of a foot soldier rather than through the lenses of the leaders and generals who invariably write history. The book is also a welcome antidote to the plethora of simplistic ‘Stasiland’ caricatures of the GDR as merely a tyranny, peopled only by spies and victims. It is an honest and revealing account, which will be of interest to anyone concerned with the communications media and politics.
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2008
Engels: A Revolutionary Life by John Green
Paperback; 347 pp; ISBN 978-0-9558228-0-3
Tony Benn says of this book:Friedrich Engels was the Che Guevara of his day. Like Che, he also came from a privileged background, but rejected middle class privilege to devote himself to the struggle for the liberation of working people, for justice and socialism. As a young man he fought in the hills of southern Germany with a small band of like-minded guerrillas. After defeat, he fled Prussian persecution to settle in Britain, where he spent the rest of his life.
‘A new and popular biography of Marx’s friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels, is long overdue and to be welcomed. He fought his life long for socialism, and most of those years were spent in Manchester and London. His life and his ideas on democracy, socialism and economics still have relevance for us today and can be an inspiration in a struggle that is never ending’.
Instead of continuing his adventurous life as a full-time activist, he took on a double life in order to support his friend, Karl Marx. In the middle class citadels of Manchester, he was known as a staid, honest and respectable businessman, but clandestinely he devoted himself to the struggle for socialism. His and Marx’s ideas and his vision helped transform the 20th century world and still resonate today. In this fascinating new biography, the icon Engels is given flesh and blood, bringing his life and times vibrantly alive.
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