Carlyle, Gabriel

Carlyle, Gabriel

Gabriel Carlyle

25 November 2014Feature

Opposition to WW1 in the West Indies

Evidence of opposition to the war in the West Indies can be traced in the various countries’ newspapers (which were invariably hostile to such activity).

In British Honduras, calls for men to enlist resulted in an unprecedented exodus of young men from the district of San Estevan in early 1916. Some fled across the border to Mexico, while others, who had heard that the governor was coming to their area on a recruiting drive, disappeared into the bush claiming that they had…

25 November 2014Feature

The 'great soul''s role in WW1

Given his canonisation by mainstream culture as the icon of peace and nonviolence, one might have imagined that Gandhi would have led a strong campaign of resistance to the war. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the case.

In April 1918, Gandhi gave his unconditional assent to British plans to raise half a million more Indian troops. Attempting to recruit 12,000 men from the Kheda district of Gujarat, Gandhi did not shy away from employing moral coercion, telling them…

25 November 2014Review

Black Dog Publishing, 2014; 304pp; £24.95

In the summer of 1946, ‘more than half the world’s supply of motion picture film... was loaded aboard US Army Air Force planes and dispatched to Bikini Atoll’ where it was used to photograph Operations Able and Baker – the second and fourth nuclear bomb explosions respectively – generating over a million still images and several million feet of moving image matter.

Some of these pictures are reproduced in this collection of essays and photographs, which ranges widely over the last…

25 November 2014Review

Northwest Press, 2013; 216pp; $29.99 from www.northwestpress.com

‘Could the refusal to accept the existence of bisexuality be a root cause of homophobia?’ is the intriguing question that motivated the ‘not-very-bisexual’ Zan Christensen to pull together this colourful comics anthology exploring people’s diverse experiences of ‘non-binary sexuality’.

A gay man, he had read an article in the New York Times concerning a psychological experiment suggesting that over 20% of self-identified ‘highly straight’ people secretly harbour some same…

25 November 2014Feature

The hidden history of the Global South and the First World War


Late 20th century nyau face mask. PHOTO © Hans Hillewaert

They must have been very pleased when they finally caught him. Desperate to find him, the British had placed his friends and family under surveilliance and – after six weeks of unsuccessful hunting – had even offered a substantial reward for his capture.

Like many other Muslims in the north of Nigeria, he was opposed to fighting in the First World War for fear that he might be deployed against his fellow Muslims in…

28 September 2014Review

Headliners & Forces Watch, 2014; 15 mins; available to view online. Copies on DVD plus accompanying materials available from ForcesWatch, 020 7837 2822 education@forceswatch.net

The UK armed forces currently make 11,000 visits to UK schools and colleges annually, and large sums of money have recently been set aside to expand cadet forces in state schools and to fund military-based ‘alternative provision’ projects.

This short film, made by young people for young people, examines whether recruitment is one of the aims of the new school cadet forces, interviewing cadets, as well as members of the Woodcraft folk who are campaigning against the…

28 September 2014Review

OR Books, 2014; 100pp; £6. Purchase online here: http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/old-wine-broken-bottle/

In his 2012 book Knowing Too Much, Norman Finkelstein argued that ‘a growing section of the disproportionately liberal US Jewish public... now knows too much about the realities of the Israeli-Palestine conflict to continue to lend Israel its blind support.’

Here he decisively skewers Israeli journalist Ari Shavit’s much-praised attempt ‘to repackage the old product... [so] that it sells despite its disquieting contents’, concluding that it ‘recycles too many shattered…

28 September 2014Review

(Haymarket Books, 2014; 130pp; $11.95

In 2008, Rebecca Solnit wrote a brief essay, 'Men Explain Things to Me', that went viral on the internet.

The title was inspired by an incident in which a male party host, on hearing that she had just published a book about the 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, insisted on telling Solnit all about the very important  Muybridge book that had come out earlier that year – only to discover, of course that it was Solnit's book that he was talking about.…

28 September 2014Review

Princeton University Press, 2014, 222pp, £13.95

In 1956 Oxford University decided to award former US President Harry S Truman an honorary degree. Outraged at his role in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, philosopher Elisabeth Anscombe made an impassioned speech against the move, prior to the vote.

For her, killing the innocent as a means to an end was murder. 'If you give this honour, what Nero, what Genghis Khan, what Hitler, or what Stalin will not be honoured in the future?' she implored.

At least two…

28 September 2014Feature

Another story-poster from PN's 'The World is My Country' project

The Women's Peace Crusade, 1916-1918
by Emily Johns

The Women’s Peace Crusade was '[t]he first truly popular campaign [in Britain], linking feminism and anti-militarism’ (Jill Liddington).

28 September 2014Feature

Gabriel Carlyle casts a sceptical eye over James Lovelock's much-vaunted ideas and independence at the Science Museum


James-Lovelock and his daughter Christine collecting air samples in
Adrigole, South West Ireland, 1970. Photo: Irish Examiner.

 

To say that James Lovelock is a divisive figure in the environmental movement would be a considerable understatement.

Describing himself as an 'old-fashioned green', he is fêted by some…

28 September 2014Review

Jonathan Cape, 2014; 192pp; £16.99

 

Most people in Britain, I suspect, know little or nothing about women’s struggle for the vote here. For those who know a little, I would guess that the suffragettes would be top of the list of recognised names, followed by Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Wilding-Davidson.

They might also recognise the name of the non-militant suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett, but that’s probably about it. Sally Heathcote Suffragette…

28 September 2014Review

PM Press, 2013; 128pp; £8.99

Most people who’ve heard of Karen Joy Fowler probably know her through her 2004 New York Times bestseller The Jane Austen Book Club, which got turned into a Hollywood film and was chosen as a title for the Richard & Judy book club. However, if you’ve never read her then you shouldn’t let the latter facts put you off, for Fowler is a delightful writer with a strong feminist sensibility, and this book – comprised of three short stories, an interview and a brief essay – provides an…

28 September 2014Review

OR Books, 2014; 199pp; £12. Purchase online here: http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/manning-trial/

Sentenced last year to 35 years imprisonment for leaking thousands of classified files to Wikileaks, Chelsea Manning’s real crime was embarrassing the US government and exposing some of the brutal realities of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Clark Stoeckley’s crudely-illustrated non-fiction graphic novel provides an accessible precis of Manning’s trial, taking us from her first pre-trial hearing in December 2011 through to her sentencing in August 2013. Along the way, we learn…

21 July 2014News

A sharp increase in civilian casualties in Afghanistan following the closure of some US/NATO bases suggests that ordinary Afghans are now paying the price for the US decision to block earlier peace initiatives.

On 9 July, the UN reported a 24% increase in civilian casualties compared to the same period in 2013, noting that: ‘In 2014, the fight is increasingly taking place in communities, public places and near the homes of ordinary Afghans, with death and injury to women and children in a continued disturbing upward spiral’.

According to the report, these developments were, at least in part, a consequence of the closure of US/NATO bases and command posts, which has led to an increased…