Chip Berlet This 63-page essay describes a wide range of contacts between what in a British context would be described as right-wing conspiracy theorists and the left. Berlet documents a range of contacts between the far-right Liberty Lobby, followers of LaRouche, Bo Gritz and the Populist Party, the Christic Institute, Radio Free America and a … Read more
Advertising In 1960s Iraq, the children of the poor carried their most treasured possessions to school in much coveted, branded soap-powder packets. When these eventually disintegrated, what remained was stuck up on the classroom wall. As a result, children could pick out the words ‘Tide’ or ‘Omo’. Praised by their teacher for doing so, a … Read more
Feminine Fascism: Women in Britain’s Fascist Movement 1923-1945 Julie Gottlieb, London: I.B. Tauris, 2000, £39.50 The Viceroy’s Daughters Anne de Courcy London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £20.00 Blackshirts on-Sea J. S. Booker London: Brockinday Publications, 1999, £18.00 Fascism is generally regarded as a fiercely masculine political movement committed to excluding women from the worlds … Read more
British traditions in decline include a sense of the ridiculous as a weapon of state, jingoism and understatement. The last of these was always a brilliant British con: you only have to look at the gothic majesty of the palace of Westminster (Parliament) to realise we have never really done understatement. ‘A sense of the … Read more
Extracts from an address by John Allman, Secretary of Christians Against Mental Slavery, to the civil rights rally in Houston, Texas, on 30 July 2004. My name is John Allman. I am honoured to have been invited to come here from England to talk to you about a new danger facing all mankind. A favourite … Read more
William Blum New York: Soft Skull Press, 2002, $15 www.softskull.com The working lives of writers, especially writers of non-fiction like Blum – or me – are rather dull. To produce Lobster and my other bits and pieces I have to stay in one place, read e-mails every day, books, newspapers, visit libraries, go to … Read more
Sallie Pisani, University of Edinburgh Press, 1992 (UK) University Press of Kansas, 1991 (USA) No price stated Pisani lays out her thesis on pp. 7/8. ‘My claim is that the emphasis on paramilitary operations in the literature has led to a distorted picture of covert operations in this seminal period. In fact, a recreation of … Read more
Back to the future: the USA, the UK and Iraq The US threatens to attack Iraq and is backed by the UK. There are objections in the UN Security Council from Russia and France. A large task force is assembled. Guess what happens next? Not a lot. There is a diplomatic crisis temporarily resolved after … Read more
Paul Lashmar Sutton Publishing, Stroud (UK), 1996 £12.99 (pb) Beautifully produced, large (trade) format, with many photographs, this is the story of the US and later US-UK spy flights round – and over – the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Alternatively, it is the story of a protracted series of skirmishes between the Soviet … Read more
The killing of WPC Yvonne Fletcher in public view and for no apparent reason remains one of the most notorious murders of recent decades. For sixteen years there have been few signs of any serious attempts to locate and bring to justice the perpetrator of this outrage. Finally, this April, in an outstanding piece of … Read more
