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PIIGS Cover 2PIIGS awakening by Luciano Vasapollo with Rita Martufi and Joaquìn Arriola 

£5 (plus £1.50 p&p)  ISBN 978-1-907464-20-1

PIIGS awakening is the second in a Manifesto Press series dealing with the crisis of the European Union.

The writers are each established authorities with distinguished reputations within both the academic and the labour movement and their proposals carry the endorsement of the most militant sections of Italy’s trade union movement.

In describing the distinctive features of the Italian economy and its capitalist development they present a sharp analysis of the problems of the eurozone and of the particular ways in which the European Union places Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Greece at a disadvantage.

They go beyond analysis to propose a project that would disrupt the relations of power and subordination in the European Union and weaken the dominance of the euro.

Drawing on the experience of Latin American states and of Kerala in India they propose a changed monetary system.

The authors do not disguise the profound political obstacles that confront such a project and assert that without a radical class confrontation, and an organised subjective force actually able to search for solutions, the system will find new ways to keep the capitalist mode of production alive.

The transition to another mode of production, or, better, the transition to a socialist society implies not only a dramatic crisis, but an organised revolutionary subjectivity, to lead the class towards the way out of the capitalist mode of production.

     

Once upon a time in Bulgaria Cover 2Once upon a time in Bulgaria by Mercia MacDermott

£11.95 (plus £1.50 p&p)  ISBN978-1-907464

Mercia MacDermott’s illustrated account of her experiences in post war Bulgaria is, by turns, touching, hilarious and deeply illuminating of the life, customs, history and politics of the country where she remains a widely-published and notable figure.

Her book retells her experiences as a student volunteer in the post-war (Major Frank Thompson) student solidarity construction brigade, encounters with partisan leaders and literary figures, meetings with Georgi Dimitrov and Madame Dimitrov, and her life and work as a teacher and university lecturer, best-selling author, academic and literary figure.

    

Slave Songs Symphonies CoverPoems by David Betteridge
Drawings by Bob Starrett

£5.99 (plus £1.50 p&p) 48 pp ISBN 978 1907 464164

Slave Songs and Symphonies is an ambitious, beautifully crafted collection of poems, images and epigraphs. It's about human history, progressive art and music, campaigns for political freedom, social justice and peace. Above all it's about the class and cultural struggle of workers 'by hand and by brain’ to regain control and ownership of the fruits of their labour.

David Betteridge’s poems are leftist, lyrical, and learned, infused with sadness and compassion for the sufferings of our class, the working class. They are also inspired by visionary hope, and a strong belief that our class-divided society and culture can be transformed by radical politics and good art – and by radical art and good politics.

Bob Starrett’s drawings are much more than illustrations. They dance with the poems, commenting on them as well as illustrating them. They are like Goya’s drawings in their dark, ink-black truthfulness and their intimate knowledge of suffering and Blake’s 'mental fight'. Like the poems, they express and resolve the struggles they depict.

Slave Songs and Symphonies tells the story of how slave songs become symphonies – and helps makes it happen. It is not just about class and cultural struggle – it is class and cultural struggle.