Howard Zinn, historian, professor and left-wing activist, died on January 27th at the age of 87. Best known for his book “A People’s History of the United States”, Zinn and his many other historical and dramatic writings were gaining in popularity at the time of his death.

Radical historian Howard Zinn passed away today at the age of 87. Here we re-publish a review of his documentary, The People Speak, which premiered on the History Channel in December, and is undoubtedly among the best programs in TV history.

John Lennon had a tendency to be touched by world events, which, combined with his instinctive sympathy for the ‘underdog’, led him towards political questions and saw him, for a period at least, describing himself as a socialist.

After great crimes ‘against humanity’, there is usually some kind of atonement, blame is apportioned, the guilty are charged and sentenced, and the lessons are hopefully learned. But not always. The Turkish genocide against the Armenians has still not received full historical recognition. The crimes of the Nazis against the Jews have been pored over again and again, but not how the Nazis rose to power with the help of the capitalists, both in Germany itself and in Europe, Britain, etc., nor that for Hitler, his main target was the organisations of the working class.

The Hong Kong government’s planned introduction of drug tests in schools is an attack on youth and on civil liberties.

In District 9, the new science fiction action thriller by first-time director Neill Blomkamp, an alien spaceship breaks down above Johannesburg, South Africa, leaving its inhabitants stranded on Earth, starving and impoverished. Blomkamp uses this set-up as a metaphor both for apartheid in South Africa and, more explicitly, for current immigration politics, replacing the “illegal aliens” with actual aliens.

Justice's Joshua H. Kortiz interviews hip-hop artist, Son of Nun (SON), a former Baltimore City School teacher and current MC who performs class-conscious, revolutionary hip-hop

In bringing Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel, Oil, to the screen as There Will Be Blood, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson has been faithful to the author’s socialist intentions. The adaptation also resonates with the politics of today as the neo-cons kill to keep democracy safe for big oil.

"Sicko" recently opened in British theaters, and Michael Moore's brilliant documentary on the U.S. health care system has been received enthusiastically across the Atlantic. This movie review by British socialists provides important insights into the attempts by British big business to privatize their health system along American lines.

This is a fascinating insight into Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement which has taken control of the Gaza Strip. Zaki Chehab, a leading Palestinian journalist, has closely followed its emergence over the last 20 years into a pivotal player on the Israel-Palestine stage. Hamas is the main rival to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Fatah (the faction of president Mahmoud Abbas and former leader, Yasser Arafat).

The 90th anniversary of the Russian revolution is being used by western commentators and historians to repeat old lies and distortions about the revolution and its aftermath. An exception is The Soviet Century by Moshe Lewin, which NIALL MULHOLLAND reviews as one of the few books published in recent years to shed new light on the subject.

The prevalence of eating disorders in the U.S. has reached epidemic proportions, now afflicting 10-15% of Americans. This is no accident, but is the result of a profit-driven culture that overemphasizes physical appearance and idealizes thinness, particularly among women.

Most histories of the struggle against French colonial rule in Vietnam reflect the Stalinist traditions of the Hanoi regime, and ignore or slander the heroic role of the adherents of Leon Trotsky and the Fourth International. Ngo Van’s book, based on his own experiences as a young Trotskyist in French occupied Indochina (the colonial name for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), helps set the record straight.

Media personality Don Imus, Hip-Hop artist 50 cent, comic/actor Michael Richards of Seinfeld fame and the resurgence of the gore and snuff films like the Quentin Tarantino presented Hostel I and II are at the center of an important debate about racism, sexism, violence and the use of language within U.S. society. To discuss these individuals or events in isolation is to underestimate the impact of capitalism on cultural products.

Anyone concerned about the challenges – and possibilities – of building a movement against Corporate America and their two-party system will be interested in An Unreasonable Man, an excellent new documentary about Ralph Nader.