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How Kirk Douglas helped to beat the anti-communist blacklist
The Hollywood star has died at the age of 103. PETER FROST recalls how he helped break the notorious ban on writers and actors during the early years of the cold war
Kirk Douglas, circa 1955
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
Born on this day in 1931, the heroic revolutionary faces a dangerous new wave of White House aggression. We must treat his birthday as a rallying cry to resist the illegal siege of Cuba, writes ROGER McKENZIE
RAMZY BAROUD decries the rats of Gaza, the rodent and human type. Both abound as profiteering from tragedy reaches obscene levels
KIRK DOUGLAS, award-winning film maker and Hollywood star of over 85 blockbuster films, died earlier this week aged 103.
Born Issur Danielovitch, the son a Jewish ragman who took the name Harry Demsky, his mother’s name was Bryna and he would use her name for his own film company in later life.
His parents were from from what is now Belarus. Issur worked his way through university as Isidore Demsky, before becoming a professional wrestler to pay for classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.
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