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Alastair Hatchett

In Brief

(June 1977)


From International Socialism (1st series), No.99, June 1977, p.31.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).


TWO important new books on the history and practice of sexual politics are published by Pluto this month. They will be reviewed soon, as both raise issues that need clarifying and discussing today. Sheila Rowbotham A New World for Women: Stella Brown-Socialist Feminist (Pluto Press £1.50), Sheila Rowbotham and Jeffrey Weeks Socialism and the New Life: The personal and sexual politics of Edward Carpenter and Havelock Ellis (Pluto Press £1.80).

Virago have also produced a book that illuminates the history of rank and file socialist and feminist struggles before the First World War. The Hard Way Up, The Auto-Biography of Hannah Mitchell Suffragette and Rebel (Virago £1.75). A fascinating story.

Ken Coates, Beyond Wage Slavery (Spokesman Books £2.45). Boring and pretentious, this book is only of interest to those comrades who take a (sectarian) pleasure in tracing the political downfall of those they disagreed with in 1968.

Burchett and Roebuck, The Whores Of War: Mercenaries Today (Penguin £0.75). Despite sexist title and liberal politics an interesting read, a book full of information that will be useful to all who want to knwo about the realities of mercenaries today.

Bob Dixon, Catching Them Young: Vol.1: Sex Race and Class in children’s Fiction; Vol.2: Political Ideas in Children’s Fiction (Pluto Press, £1.80 each). These two volumes are published this month. They’ll make a valuable contribution to the debates among teachers and parents about the real weight of ideological indoctrination that children suffer. Also new from Penguin is Leon Kamin The Science and Politics of I.Q. (95p). The American author attacks the notion that I.Q. is largely inherited. He argues that the

‘I.Q. test has served as an instrument of oppression against the poor, dressed in the trappings of science, rather than politics.’


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