Spokesman Books

An early start to celebrations to mark Thomas Paine's bi-centenary (he died in 1809) begin in November at Diss Corn Hall . At 8pm on Friday 7th November Mark Steel kick starts the festivities, which continue through to June 2009, when Trevor Griffiths will read from his screenplay These Are The Times: A Life of Thomas Paine . Further details of this nearer the time. For tickets to see Mark Steel contact Diss Library or Tourist Information Centre .

The Politics of Community 40 Years on To celebrate the Community Development Journal's 40th Year Anniversary , we have commissioned an International Reader of articles featured in the Journal during this period, which represent the richness and diversity in community development theory and practice, and its changing focus. We are celebrating the Reader's launch with a free seminar , to be followed by refreshments. All are welcome, including students, practitioners, academics, policy-makers and anybody interested in the politics of community. Friday 10 October 2008 2 - 4 pm London South Bank University, Manor Lecture Theatre, London Road Building, 110 London Road, SE1 6LN Panel: Tony Benn Amanda Greenwood , Community Development Xchange Akwugo Emejulu , University of Strathclyde Gary Craig , Co-Editor Community Development in Theory and Practice: An International Reader Chair: Mandy Wilson , Community Development Journal To book a place, please send your completed booking f

New Statesman - 29 September 2008 John Pilger writes: … Two years ago, Stephen Cohen , professor of Russian Studies at New York University, wrote a landmark essay in the Nation which has now been reprinted in Britain.* He warns of “the gravest threats [posed] by the undeclared Cold War Washington has waged, under both parties, against post-communist Russia during the past 15 years”. He describes a catastrophic “relentless winner-take-all of Russia's post-1991 weakness”, with two-thirds of the population forced into poverty and life expectancy barely at 59. With most of us in the West unaware, Russia is being encircled by US and Nato bases and missiles in violation of a pledge by the United States not to expand Nato “one inch to the east”. The result, writes Cohen, “is a US -built reverse iron curtain [and] a US denial that Russia has any legit­imate national interests outside its own territory, even in eth­nically akin former republics such as Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia. [There