Spectre #2 (review)

["Tom Condit" <tomcondit@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Magazine review:
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SPECTRE, No. 2, issued January 6, 1996

_Spectre_ is put out by a small (five or six member) group of
mostly-young Trotskyists in the San Francisco Bay Area called the
Independent Communist Publishing Committee. As is evident in
their name, they don't consider themselves a "party", a "league",
or even a "tendency".

The best part of No. 2 is the cover story, which occupies one-
third of the issue. It's an extended essay on overtime,
stretchout and unemployment by Constance Bailey, based on Juliet
Schor's book _The Overworked American_ (Harper Collins, 1992).
Bailey interweaves material from Schor's book with press reports
and other anecdotal material and a good solid interpretation.
It's well worth reading.

The rest of the issue is for the most part not as satisfying: a
short piece on Mumia Abu Jamal; an article on big power maneuvers
in the Balkans; a commentary by "Dew U. Care" on the popularity
of vampire fiction, which doesn't have enough background on the
situations which gave birth to Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth
Bathory to let you make sense of them, then moves into a never-
quite-solidified comparison of vampires with capitalists (Bill
Gates in particular); and an article on left support for Clinton
which veers inexplicably into short criticisms of the positions
of Socialist Action and the Spartacist League on the Balkan
question. On the whole though, the issue is well worth its
quarter cover charge.

The I.C.P.C. have also published a pamphlet edition of "The Death
Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International",
adopted at the founding conference of the F.I. in 1938 and
sometimes known among Trotskyists as "*The* Transitional Program"
(as if there could only be one). At $1.80 U.S., including postage
in North America, this is probably the cheapest edition
available.

SPECTRE
P. O. Box 451
Oakland, California 94604
USA
25 cents street price
"Contact us for subscription rates"
16pp. 8.5 x 11 in. offset


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