Making a movie against all odds
Review The Suppression of Salt of the Earth: How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America, by James L. Lorence, University of New Mexico Press, 256 pp, $21.95 To many older progressives, activists, union organizers, socialists and communists, the story of how the movie Salt of the Earth came to be, its production and blacklisting, is a cherished something to be told and re-told.
The floating zoo
Review Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Harvest Books, 336 pp., $14 Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a sensational tale of a boy, his religious beliefs and his zoo animals in a lifeboat. It is where Dr. Doolittle meets The Old Man and the Sea.
What the U.S got away with
Review An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King, by William F. Pepper, Verso, 320 pp., $25 William Pepper’s book An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King makes us realize that extra-judicial executions such as those carried out by the Colombian military and their proxies, the paramilitaries, are not exclusive to South America.
First Cities: Treasure shown and tragedy known
In 1997, an exhibit was conceived to welcome in the third millennium, by mirroring the time frame. “Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus” opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, May 8.
Tribute to Herb Kaye - 1917 - 2003
Herbert Kransdorf, long-time writer for the People’s Weekly World, died May 20, three days after his 86th birthday.
Rosanne Cash: Youll want to hear her stories
Interview/Review Rosanne Cash, a Grammy-winning singer with 11 number-one songs to her credit, is the daughter of country music legend Johnny Cash and a mother of five. In 1998 she lost her voice for two years and, when she got it back, turned around and released Rules of Travel to rave reviews.
Film memorializes protesters death
Film review Carlo Giuliani, A Boy airs on the Sundance Channel Monday, June 2 at 9:00 p.m. ET.
Censorship through omission
Book review The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters, by Greg Palast, Penguin Plume, 372 pp., $14.00
In Tribute to Grace Cummings
Grace Cummings died April 29 in Waterbury, Connecticut. She was 65 years old. For nearly 20 years Grace was a member of the Executive Board of New England’s District 1199 of the Service Employees union and a delegate to the Waterbury Central Labor Council. At the time of her death she was chair of the State Committee of the Connecticut Communist Party and a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).
Institutions offer help to Baghdad Museum
NEW YORK – The looting of Iraq’s National Museum in the wake of the U.S. military occupation of Baghdad provoked a worldwide outcry, especially after reports that U.S. troops “looked the other way.”Assessments of the extent of the damage continue.
