Star Wars: The Last Jedi

 Film Review

 By Brent Cutler

Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Director: Rian Johnson; Writers: Rian Johnson, George Lucas  Stars: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Mark Hamill. Certificate PG-13; 212min.

The film is episode eight of the Star Wars series. Episode six, The Empire Strikes Back, saw the Evil Empire of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine defeated by the rebel alliance. In episode seven, The Force Awakens, we see the Empire reconstituted in the form of the First Order. We also see Kylo Ren, the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, turn to the Dark Side; meanwhile the rebels return to being rebels, an inter-galactic example of permanent revolution perhaps.

The Last Jedi shows a mixture of good cinematic effects, which perhaps can only be appreciated on the big screen, a complex story and an array of new characters.  There is discussion in the film about the past mistakes of the Jedi Order; an order that bares many similarities to the Warrior Monks of the Middle Ages.

The new characters emanate the middle and lower ranks of the resistance, and have a tendency to disobey orders and act independently; after all they are rebels. There is one section of the film where a rebel duo visit a planet inhabited by the super-rich, dominated by a mega casino and private security guards. It is later explained that these people obtained their wealth by selling weapons to both sides in the conflict; a possible attack on the arms trade? Must I not remind readers that good science fiction is as much about the present as about any imagined future.

The use of CGI (computer-generated imagery) enabled the film-makers to use the late Carrie Fisher to continue to play General Leia. Some may argue about the efficacy of this – are there not better ways to honour the memory of someone who may have led a somewhat tragic life but was still an outstanding actress? It also poses the question that if the recently deceased can be reused in films, why not bring long-dead actors back to life?

As someone who has seen every Star Wars film since 1977, it probably is worth a trip to your nearest multiplex. Which, unlike in 1977, you may now find surrounded by an array of overpriced restaurants staffed by 20-somethings on zero-hour contracts.

Canterbury Tales

the iconic heart of the city

By Carole Barclay

Canterbury, the historic capital of Kent, has attracted visitors for over 1,000 years. In the past it was the focus for the cult of St Thomas, the archbishop cut down in his own cathedral in 1170 for crossing the king once too often. Tourists now follow the footsteps of pilgrims in the majestic cathedral that is the hub of the Church of England and wander around the ancient streets that are still surrounded by a massive city wall that goes back to Roman days.

Many years ago the Anglican church was dubbed the Conservative party at prayer, so it’s not surprising to find the city’s hallowed streets used to project ‘traditional values’ and the myth of ‘old England’ that the ruling class use to justify their exploitation and oppression. But that was all shaken at last year’s general election when Labour defeated the Tories, who had held the seat in its current and earlier forms for 160 years, to elect Canterbury’s first ever Labour and female MP.

But throughout history the people of Canterbury have stood up for themselves, and beneath the city streets there’s a record of a violent and sometimes revolutionary past. When Wat Tyler led the Kentish rebels during the Peasants Revolt of 1381 his army was welcomed by the people of Canterbury, who help them to sack the castle and the archbishop’s palace.

Thomas Becket may have been a martyr for his church but he was not the only Archbishop of Canterbury to meet a violent end. Aelfheah was killed by Viking raiders in 1012 for refusing to pay a ransom. Archbishop Sudbury, the architect of the hated Poll Tax, was beheaded by an enraged mob in London during the Peasants Revolt and Archbishop Laud, a royalist lackey, was executed for treason by the Parliamentary authorities in 1645 during the Civil War.

The civil war ended with the execution of Charles Stuart in 1649 and the proclamation of the Republic of England, or Commonwealth as it was commonly known.

The end of the monarchy also meant the end of the Church of England, which was abolished and outlawed by the republican government led by Oliver Cromwell. In Canterbury Puritans ransacked the cathedral to purge it of ‘popish’ symbols. The hard-line faction on the city council even wanted the cathedral demolished. Wiser counsel prevailed however, and the building was put to good use to provide much needed accommodation for the local militia during the Commonwealth era.

The restoration of the monarchy that came soon after Cromwell’s death paved the way for the re-establishment of the Anglican church as the official Church of England and now the cathedral welcomes nearly a million visitors per year to marvel at the imposing edifice that is a tribute to the skill of medieval craftsmen.

Nowadays Canterbury is a centre of learning, with a large student population centred around the city’s three universities and other higher education institutions. The performing arts are well-served by the theatre named after Christopher Marlowe, the city’s favourite son, and the Gulbenkian arts complex on the campus of the University of Kent.

But it’s the medieval sites that most tourists come to see. The cathedral is a must, despite the high admission charge, and a walk around the ramparts encompasses a massive Roman burial mound and the ruins of Canterbury castle. The shattered remnants of St Augustine’s priory, dissolved in 1538 when Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church, and the medieval buildings and churches that can be found throughout the old city are well worth visiting, along with the Roman and other local museums that trace the city’s history down the ages.

• Canterbury Castle

     

Labour fought slavery in the American Civil War; How do we fight it now?

By Chris Mahin

The main headline proclaimed the news in large capital letters set in thick black type: “THE CONSUMMATION!”

Below, only slightly smaller headlines continued: “Slavery Forever Dead in the United States. … No Human Bondage After December 18, 1865.”

The New York Times had good reason to use dramatic headlines in its 19^th December 1865 edition. Those headlines reported a momentous development: Slavery was now illegal throughout the whole of the USA. US Secretary of State William Seward had signed a proclamation the previous day announcing the ratification of the 13th Amendment.

The 13^th Amendment states that: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Like all proposed amendments to the US Constitution, it had to be passed by a two-thirds majority of each house of Congress and then ratified by three-quarters of the states. The 13^th Amendment was passed by a two-thirds majority in the US Senate in 1864 and then by a two-thirds majority of the House in early 1865. When Georgia became the 27^th state to ratify the amendment in early December 1865, the conditions were met for Seward to announce that the measure had become the law of the land.

It’s important that we consider what the passage of the 13^th Amendment means for today.

It was the 13^th Amendment – not Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – that made chattel slavery illegal throughout the whole of the USA. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 granted freedom only to slaves in territory controlled by those in rebellion against the federal government. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was an important blow against the slave-owners’ rebellion, it excluded hundreds of thousands of slaves in slave states that never seceded from the Union (like Delaware and Kentucky) and in parts of Virginia and Louisiana then occupied by the Union Army.

The sad truth however, is that whilst the 13^th Amendment made slavery and involuntary servitude illegal in the USA, it did not end slavery and involuntary servitude in the USA, nor did it bring about equality for the former slaves or their descendants.

Anyone who works in a factory where there is mandatory overtime knows that involuntary servitude still exists in parts of the USA. So does slavery. Many undocumented immigrant workers, for instance, work in sweatshops in conditions that amount to outright slavery. For millions of workers around the world, the growth of free trade for employers has meant an increase in slavery for workers. Today, those of us working in the USA find ourselves in a situation similar to the textile workers of Fall River, Massachusetts in 1844. They were told by the mill owners: “You must work as long and as cheap as the Slaves of the South, in order to compete with the Southern manufacturer.” For us, the “South” is the global South – the sweatshops outside the USA where workers are compelled to work under slave-labour conditions.

Before the Civil War, the most far-sighted leaders of the US labour movement spoke out against slavery, prompted by a combination of moral outrage and the practical necessity to oppose measures that would tend to drive the conditions of free labourers down to the level of slaves. The great opponent of slavery Thomas Wentworth Higginson was correct when he wrote in his memoirs that the anti-slavery cause was “far stronger for a time in the factories and shoe shops [of New England] than in the pulpits or colleges.”

When Lincoln called for volunteers after the secessionists attacked Fort Sumter in April 1861, carpenters, painters, shoemakers, tailors, clerks, mill operatives, printers and other workers left their jobs and joined the Union’s military forces.

Immigrant workers comprised 24 per cent of the Union Army and played an important role in the war. The De Kalb regiment was made up entirely of German clerks. The Garibaldi Guard was composed of Italian workers. The Polish Legion was organised by Polish workers. ‘The Fighting Sixty-Ninth’ – the 69^th Regiment from New York – included many Irish immigrant workers.

Entire local unions enlisted in response to the attack on Fort Sumter. A Philadelphia local union entered the following in its minutes: “It having been resolved to enlist with Uncle Sam for the war, this Union stands adjourned until the Union is safe or we are whipped.”

Slaves ran away, found their way to the Union Army’s lines, and insisted that they be allowed to join the army and fight.

All this is part of labour history and of our common heritage. We should never forget that hundreds of thousands of workers had to spill their blood to place the 13^th Amendment into the Constitution of the USA. Today, our challenge is to figure out how to make this country implement that amendment in fact, not just in words – in the midst of a new economy where there is slavery all around us. The workers of the Civil War era were not afraid to envision a completely new world; we should not be afraid to do so either.