WHEN THE cultural questions'.
way they open up areas of debate.
narrow debate.
There issue for socialists that looms over all others in discussion of culture:
magazine •Wedge' launched in the summer of last year, the review in Socialist Challenge considered that its articles did not 'conform to any preconceived position on cultural Rather, the review added, 'they are suggestive in the With the publication this month of its third issue, GEOFFREY SHERIDAN argues that 'Wedge' has allowed preconceptions to creep in and is tending to the relationship and interface ocrween culture 13nG It is an issue which Wedge nas nOI far considered.
Wedge No 1 carried an In place of an editorial, held back policy statement as such, presented Among these was a rewrite of the women's slogan:
"There will be no cultural liberation without revolution - there will be no political revolution cultural liberation.
As Annie Janowitz's review politics In 0081s this formulation seemed to set up as beyond debate the stars revolutionary practice in relation to the class struggle as a whole.
CONFUSING Wedge No. around the theme of Looking at the left cultural aspects of the British left", presents us with a view of politics and culture that crucial points collapses the one into the other It is, I would say, the failure of the magazine Many real between the two acuvily and analysis that has led them to publish too much confusing and Two examples. In a five-page article on demonstrations, Carl (helped by Tim Pigott) argue against the traditional parades' which Hyde Park.
Examining the meanings' of demos, they conclude that the *pre-arranged demo, ought to marginal practice, and favour explicitly displays of all kinds' WHICH from offering But COUL several guidelines.
explained by the authors. political It is an inevitably without political noted, march politically central to marches. cultural The which is lobbying - a critique of analysis of and SOCIAlIST Kevin collective to distinction current issue.) areas of Whatevel such analysis, it is SECHUCHLOUS author.
and Malcolm Imrie DISTORTED public set oll trom and preference project ERewith police approval, The choice through which TOUCH MOTE *looks at the OBITUARY particularly the integration of "the whole gamut of cultural oppositional forms — music, theatre, dance, techniques cultural analysis should considered as appropriate and largely sufficient to expound on what are political events is not approach which leads LO false conclusions. The "meanings' they identify as determining the politics of a exclude curious. many article 80,000-strong march against the cuts in 1976 is thus eismissed as a taure because the police forced the demon- member strators to march out of Hyde Park in a narrow column and it language all ended up with parliamentary A second example. Six pages of Wedge 3 are devoted to an Socialist Worker that. ensuenge by McDonnell. (McDon requirement. neil, waraner, and imne are al members of the seven person collective which produced the avenues value we might place on a cultural approach to clear that it is fraught with difficulties, which again are ignored by the the subject The article is thus infused by his OWI for political which does correspond to that of either of paintings subjects the collective on the left. left' Is Itsel insistent on the "Wedge', 75p plus 20p p&p. from 44 Eccles Road, London SW11. Orleft bookshops.
The absence of any the cultural contribution of the ANL and RAR is mystifying; as is the content of a nine-page feature Martin Thom Ine production team) on the use of *animal by anti-fascists.
There is no doubt about the need for a culture magazine on the side of socialism. The sales of Wedge, around 2,000, show Openness is an essential There are too many difficult questions to be asked about culture; too many explored. suppose that any of us has more than a few tentative answers.
Debate on the relationship between culture and politics would serve a valuable function for the left; as would making available in a popular way the views held by Marxists such a: Brecht, Breton, and Trotsky on Carnivals, punk, the increasing use of film in struggles, debates on mass mead ssues conflicts over the recent Allen SCA SU all indicate an increasing awareness of culture But Wedge is in danger of prematurely closing important areas of discussion.
Although the current issue includes a very informative article by the Newsreel Film collective on their work, other articies that cultural productions •ranca content cannot succcce if they use a conventional, bourgeois' form of tation.
This highly contentious view appears to be unanimously held by the collective, and Wedge 3 effectively extends it to political activity.
ELITIST It is unfortunate, too, that the collective spurns contributions "celebrities'. There are far too few socialists who manage to work in the of us ti close the door on them. It is futile and elitist to the we need the journal. It's up to the weage collecuve recover the "suggestive way they open up areas of debate, and it is up to us, by discussing the collective and contributing to the magazine, to neip Wedge achieve the important role it can play.
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LOOKING AT THE LEFT
WEDGE 24525