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143-409: Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is an English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist views are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty ( Poor Cow , 1967), homelessness ( Cathy Come Home , 1966), and labour rights ( Riff-Raff , 1991, and The Navigators , 2001). Loach's film Kes (1969) was voted the seventh greatest British film of
286-556: A bourgeoisie indifferent to the proletariat . The history of socialism has its origins in the Age of Enlightenment and the 1789 French Revolution , along with the changes that brought, although it has precedents in earlier movements and ideas. The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1847-48 just before the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe, expressing what they termed scientific socialism . In
429-492: A neoliberal consensus replaced the social democratic consensus in the advanced capitalist world, while many former socialist politicians and political parties embraced " Third Way " politics, remaining committed to equality and welfare while abandoning public ownership and class-based politics. Socialism experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 2010s, most prominently in the form of democratic socialism. According to Andrew Vincent, "[t]he word 'socialism' finds its root in
572-471: A post-capitalist system based on some form of social ownership of the means of production. By the early 1920s, communism and social democracy had become the two dominant political tendencies within the international socialist movement, with socialism itself becoming the most influential secular movement of the 20th century. Many socialists also adopted the causes of other social movements, such as feminism , environmentalism , and progressivism . While
715-420: A welfare state . The socialist political movement includes political philosophies that originated in the revolutionary movements of the mid-to-late 18th century and out of concern for the social problems that socialists associated with capitalism. By the late 19th century, after the work of Karl Marx and his collaborator Friedrich Engels , socialism had come to signify anti-capitalism and advocacy for
858-399: A Kiss , 2004) explored an inter-racial love affair, Sweet Sixteen (2002) concerns a teenager's relationship with his mother and My Name Is Joe (1998) an alcoholic's struggle to stay sober. His most commercial later film is Looking for Eric (2009), featuring a depressed postman's conversations with the ex- Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona appearing as himself. The film won
1001-635: A car accident on the M1 motorway . Their son Jim (born 1969) became a filmmaker, while their daughter Emma is married to actor Elliot Levey . Loach is a patron of the British Humanist Association and a secularist , saying, "In particular, the indoctrination of children in separate faith schools is pernicious and divisive. I strongly support the British Humanist Association." Socialist Socialism
1144-551: A case for socialism including "[en]hancing trade union rights, planning the economy , investing in the regions, kicking out the privatised elements of the NHS ". He considered issues such as health, schools, poverty, inequality and climate change as more important than Brexit . In November 2019, Loach endorsed the Labour Party in the 2019 general election . In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, he signed
1287-419: A conscious desire in the working class to establish collective ownership commensurate with the collective efforts their daily experience. Socialists have taken different perspectives on the state and the role it should play in revolutionary struggles, in constructing socialism and within an established socialist economy. In the 19th century, the philosophy of state socialism was first explicitly expounded by
1430-473: A constant rate of profit, causes problems if the earnings in the rest of society do not increase in proportion. Socialists view private property relations as limiting the potential of productive forces in the economy. According to socialists, private property becomes obsolete when it concentrates into centralised, socialised institutions based on private appropriation of revenue — but based on cooperative work and internal planning in allocation of inputs—until
1573-516: A director for BBC Television . His 10 contributions to the BBC's Wednesday Play anthology series include the docudramas Up the Junction (1965), Cathy Come Home (1966) and In Two Minds (1967). They portray working-class people in conflict with the authorities above them. Three of his early plays are believed to be lost . His 1965 play Three Clear Sundays dealt with capital punishment, and
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#17327798540181716-504: A diverse range of philosophies such as civic republicanism , Enlightenment rationalism , romanticism , forms of materialism , Christianity (both Catholic and Protestant), natural law and natural rights theory , utilitarianism and liberal political economy. Another philosophical basis for a great deal of early socialism was the emergence of positivism during the European Enlightenment . Positivism held that both
1859-594: A film about stars, or riches or absurd adventures". Throughout his career, some of Loach's films have been shelved for political reasons. In a 2011 interview with The Guardian newspaper he said: It makes you angry, not on your own behalf, but on behalf of the people whose voices weren't allowed to be heard. When you had trade unions, ordinary people, rank and file, never been on television, never been interviewed, and they're not allowed to be heard, that's scandalous. Loach argues that working people's struggles are inherently dramatic: They live life very vividly, and
2002-403: A letter endorsing the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few." In August 2021, Loach was expelled from the Labour Party because of his membership with
2145-515: A livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society. — Albert Einstein , " Why Socialism? ", 1949 Socialist economics starts from the premise that "individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another. Furthermore, everything that people produce
2288-430: A long period." In July 2019, the BBC's Panorama aired an episode entitled "Is Labour Anti-Semitic?" . Loach commented, saying "it raised the horror of racism against Jews in the most atrocious propagandistic way, with crude journalism … and it bought the propaganda from people who were intent on destroying Corbyn". In 2016, Loach, a social campaigner for most of his career, said the criteria for claiming benefits in
2431-586: A lot in common, including contempt for the irritating British penchant for claiming cultural superiority. Melbourne is a very different place to Londonistan". An article in The Scotsman by Alex Massie noted that Loach had not called for the same boycott of the Cannes Film Festival , where his film was in competition with some Israeli films. Loach, Laverty and O'Brien subsequently wrote: We feel duty bound to take advice from those living at
2574-521: A lot to lose, it will come from people who will have everything to gain. A thematic consistency throughout his films, whether they examine broad political situations or smaller intimate dramas, is his focus on personal relationships. The sweeping political dramas ( Land and Freedom , Bread and Roses , The Wind that Shakes the Barley ) examine wider political forces in the context of relationships between family members ( Bread and Roses , The Wind that Shakes
2717-715: A prize at an Italian film festival. Three weeks after the end of the strike, the film End of the Battle ;... Not the End of the War? was broadcast by Channel 4 in its Diverse Strands series. This film argued that the Conservative Party had planned the destruction of the National Union of Mineworkers ' political power from the late 1970s. In 1989, Loach directed a short documentary Time to go that called for
2860-406: A result of contradictions in society due to technological changes in the productive forces. Lenin theorised that under capitalism the workers cannot achieve class consciousness beyond organising into trade unions and making demands of the capitalists. Therefore, Leninists argue that it is historically necessary for a vanguard of class conscious revolutionaries to take a central role in coordinating
3003-480: A specific historical phase that would displace capitalism and precede communism. The major characteristics of socialism (particularly as conceived by Marx and Engels after the Paris Commune of 1871) are that the proletariat would control the means of production through a workers' state erected by the workers in their interests. For orthodox Marxists , socialism is the lower stage of communism based on
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#17327798540183146-541: A spokesman for the EIFF said that although it had returned £300 to the Israeli Embassy, the festival itself would fund Shalom-Ezer's travel from its own budget. Her film Surrogate (2008) is a comedy set in a sex-therapy clinic which is unconcerned with war or politics. In an open letter to Shalom-Ezer, Loach wrote: "From the beginning, Israel and its supporters have attacked their critics as anti-semites or racists. It
3289-412: A tremendous waste of material resources during crisis of overproduction . Excessive disparities in income distribution lead to social instability and require costly corrective measures in the form of redistributive taxation, which incurs heavy administrative costs while weakening the incentive to work, inviting dishonesty and increasing the likelihood of tax evasion while (the corrective measures) reduce
3432-459: A young schizophrenic woman's experiences of the mental health system. Tony Garnett began to work as his producer in this period, a professional connection which would last until the end of the 1970s. During this period, Loach also directed the absurdist comedy The End of Arthur's Marriage , about which he later said that he was "the wrong man for the job". Coinciding with his work for The Wednesday Play , Loach began to direct feature films for
3575-508: A £300 grant from the Israeli Embassy to fund Israeli filmmaker Tali Shalom Ezer 's travel to Edinburgh after speaking with Loach. He was supporting a boycott of the festival called for by the PACBI campaign. In response, former Channel 4 chief executive Jeremy Isaacs described Loach's intervention as an act of censorship, saying: "They must not allow someone who has no real position, no rock to stand on, to interfere with their programming". Later,
3718-757: Is a tactic to undermine rational debate. To be crystal clear: as a film maker you will receive a warm welcome in Edinburgh. You are not censored or rejected. The opposition was to the Festival's taking money from the Israeli state". To his critics, he added later: "The boycott, as anyone who takes the trouble to investigate knows, is aimed at the Israeli state". Loach said he had a "respectful and reasoned" conversation with event organisers, saying they should not be accepting funds from Israel. In June 2009, Loach, Laverty and O'Brien withdrew their film Looking For Eric from
3861-827: Is about the work of Save the Children , a British-based charity working for children around the world. This film looks at examples of the charity's work in England and Africa – the Starehe Boys Centre and School in Kenya. According to Garnett's biographer Stephen Lacey, the film-makers objected to what they saw as the charity's "neo- colonial attitude towards indigenous cultures". In the film, director Ken Loach visits an institution in Nairobi where children were forbidden to converse in their native tongues. Several Save
4004-533: Is alien to his work and only entered the lexicon of Marxism after his death". In Christian Europe , communists were believed to have adopted atheism . In Protestant England, communism was too close to the Roman Catholic communion rite , hence socialist was the preferred term. Engels wrote that in 1848, when The Communist Manifesto was published, socialism was respectable in Europe while communism
4147-468: Is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production , as opposed to private ownership . It describes the economic , political , and social theories and movements associated with the implementation of such systems. Social ownership can take various forms, including public , community , collective , cooperative , or employee . As one of
4290-449: Is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. Society as whole, therefore, should own or at least control property for the benefit of all its members". The original conception of socialism was an economic system whereby production was organised in a way to directly produce goods and services for their utility (or use-value in classical and Marxian economics ), with
4433-458: Is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilised in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee
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4576-564: Is perfectly understandable because Israel feeds feelings of anti-Semitism". He added that "no-one can condone violence". Speaking at the launch of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine on 4 March 2009, he said that "nothing has been a greater instigator of antisemitism than the self-proclaimed Jewish state itself". In May 2009, organisers of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) returned
4719-559: Is tantamount to dancing on Palestinian graves to the haunting tune of lingering dispossession and multi-faceted injustice". The letter was published in the International Herald Tribune on 8 May 2008. Responding to a report, which Loach described as "a red herring ", on the growth of antisemitism since the beginning of the Gaza War of 2008–2009 , he said: "If there has been a rise I am not surprised. In fact, it
4862-405: Is the accumulation of capital for reinvestment in production, but this spurs the development of new, non-productive industries that do not produce use-value and only exist to keep the accumulation process afloat (otherwise the system goes into crisis), such as the spread of the financial industry , contributing to the formation of economic bubbles. Such accumulation and reinvestment, when it demands
5005-418: Is the belief that socialists should stand in parliamentary elections within capitalist society and if elected use the machinery of government to pass political and social reforms for the purposes of ameliorating the instabilities and inequities of capitalism. Within socialism, reformism is used in two different ways. One has no intention of bringing about socialism or fundamental economic change to society and
5148-453: Is used to oppose such structural changes. The other is based on the assumption that while reforms are not socialist in themselves, they can help rally supporters to the cause of revolution by popularizing the cause of socialism to the working class. The debate on the ability for social democratic reformism to lead to a socialist transformation of society is over a century old. Reformism is criticized for being paradoxical as it seeks to overcome
5291-604: The 2014 local elections . Loach gave a press conference during the launch of Left Unity's manifesto for the 2015 general election . In a letter sent to The Guardian in 2009, Loach advocated support for the Palestine Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) along with his regular colleagues Paul Laverty (writer) and Rebecca O'Brien (producer). In 2007, Loach was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter calling on
5434-723: The All-Russian Communist Party , interpreting communism specifically to mean socialists who supported the politics and theories of Bolshevism , Leninism and later that of Marxism–Leninism , although communist parties continued to describe themselves as socialists dedicated to socialism. According to The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx , "Marx used many terms to refer to a post-capitalist society —positive humanism , socialism, communism, realm of free individuality, free association of producers , etc. He used these terms completely interchangeably. The notion that 'socialism' and 'communism' are distinct historical stages
5577-811: The Front for Victory in Argentina, the PAIS Alliance in Ecuador, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front in El Salvador, Peru Wins in Peru, and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela , whose leader Hugo Chávez initiated what he called " Socialism of the 21st century ". Many mainstream democratic socialist and social democratic parties continued to drift right-wards. On the right of
5720-606: The Hutterites are not usually called "utopian socialists", although their way of living is a prime example. They have been categorised as religious socialists by some. Similarly, modern intentional communities based on socialist ideas could also be categorised as "utopian socialist". For Marxists, the development of capitalism in Western Europe provided a material basis for the possibility of bringing about socialism because according to The Communist Manifesto "[w]hat
5863-479: The Industrial Revolution , including poverty, oppression, and vast wealth inequality . They viewed their society as harming community life by basing society on competition. They presented socialism as an alternative to liberal individualism based on the shared ownership of resources. Saint-Simon proposed economic planning , scientific administration and the application of scientific understanding to
Ken Loach - Misplaced Pages Continue
6006-689: The Jewish Labour Movement . At the Labour Party Conference in September 2017, Loach said he had been going to Labour Party, trade union and left-wing meetings for over 50 years and had never heard antisemitic or racist remarks, although such views certainly existed in society. When asked about allegations of antisemitic abuse made by Labour MP Ruth Smeeth , he suggested that they were raised to destabilise Corbyn's leadership, due to his support for Palestinian rights. He
6149-546: The Labour Party by 2017, and was a member until his expulsion in the summer of 2021. In August 2015, he endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership campaign . In September 2016, Loach's one-hour documentary In Conversation with Jeremy Corbyn was released during the second leadership election . In May 2017, Loach directed an election broadcast featuring a profile of Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour Party's general election campaign. In all, he has made three broadcasts for
6292-533: The Magritte Award for Best Co-Production . Although successful in Manchester, the film was a flop in many other cities, especially cities with rival football teams to Manchester United. The Angels' Share (2012) is centered on a young Scottish troublemaker who is given a final opportunity to stay out of jail. Newcomer Paul Brannigan , then 24, from Glasgow, played the lead role. The film competed for
6435-716: The Melbourne International Film Festival , where the Israeli Embassy is a sponsor, after the festival declined to withdraw that sponsorship. The festival's chief executive, Richard Moore, compared Loach's tactics to blackmail, stating that "we will not participate in a boycott against the State of Israel, just as we would not contemplate boycotting films from China or other nations involved in difficult long-standing historical disputes". Australian politician Michael Danby also criticised Loach's tactics, stating that "Israelis and Australians have always had
6578-668: The Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival for his film The Wind That Shakes the Barley , a political-historical drama about the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Irish Civil War during the 1920s. Like Hidden Agenda before it, The Wind That Shakes the Barley was criticised by Ruth Dudley Edwards for allegedly being too sympathetic to the Irish Republican Army and Provisional Irish Republican Army , though it would transpire that Edwards had not seen
6721-540: The Peruvian Aprista Party went from ruling party in 2011 to a minor party. The decline of these mainstream parties opened space for more radical and populist left parties in some countries, such as Spain's Podemos , Greece's Syriza (in government, 2015–19), Germany's Die Linke , and France's La France Insoumise . In other countries, left-wing revivals have taken place within mainstream democratic socialist and centrist parties, as with Jeremy Corbyn in
6864-587: The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival "to honour calls for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions , by discontinuing Israeli consulate sponsorship of the LGBT film festival and not co-sponsoring events with the Israeli consulate". Loach also joined "54 international figures in the literary and cultural fields" in signing a letter that stated, in part, "celebrating 'Israel at 60'
7007-616: The Soviet model of economic development and the creation of centrally planned economies directed by a state that owns all the means of production , although other trends condemned what they saw as the lack of democracy. The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, saw socialism introduced. China experienced land redistribution and the Anti-Rightist Movement , followed by the disastrous Great Leap Forward . In
7150-570: The Stalinist era . Socialist realism was imposed under Stalin in artistic production and other creative industries such as music , film along with sports were subject to extreme levels of political control. The counter-cultural phenomenon which emerged in the 1960s shaped the intellectual and radical outlook of the New Left ; this movement placed a heavy emphasis on anti-racism , anti-imperialism and direct democracy in opposition to
7293-494: The dominant culture of advanced industrial capitalism . Socialist groups have also been closely involved with a number of counter-cultural movements such as Vietnam Solidarity Campaign , Stop the War Coalition , Love Music Hate Racism , Anti-Nazi League and Unite Against Fascism . The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. ... I am convinced there
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#17327798540187436-596: The profit system. Market socialism retains the use of monetary prices, factor markets and sometimes the profit motive . As a political force, socialist parties and ideas exercise varying degrees of power and influence, heading national governments in several countries. Socialist politics have been internationalist and nationalist ; organised through political parties and opposed to party politics; at times overlapping with trade unions and other times independent and critical of them, and present in industrialised and developing nations. Social democracy originated within
7579-455: The 1930s . In Literature and Revolution , Trotsky examined aesthetic issues in relation to class and the Russian revolution. Soviet scholar Robert Bird considered his work as the "first systematic treatment of art by a Communist leader" and a catalyst for later, Marxist cultural and critical theories. He would later co-author the 1938 Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art with
7722-562: The 20th century in a poll by the British Film Institute . Two of his films, The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016), received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival , making him one of only nine filmmakers to win the award twice. He also holds the record for the most films screened in the main competition at Cannes with 15. Kenneth Charles Loach was born in Nuneaton on 17 June 1936,
7865-569: The BBC directed by Loach from scripts by dramatist Jim Allen . The first episode of the series caused considerable controversy in the British media owing to its critical depiction of the military in World War I , and particularly over a scene where conscientious objectors were tied up to stakes outside trenches in view of enemy fire after refusing to obey orders. An ex-serviceman subsequently contacted The Times newspaper with an illustration from
8008-717: The Barley , Carla's Song ), comrades in struggle ( Land and Freedom ) or close friends ( Route Irish ). In a 2011 interview for the Financial Times , Loach explains how "The politics are embedded into the characters and the narrative, which is a more sophisticated way of doing it". Many of Loach's films include a large amount of traditional dialect , such as the Yorkshire dialect in Kes and in The Price of Coal , Cockney in Up
8151-525: The Bolshevik-led revolution in Russia, many socialists including reformists , orthodox Marxist currents such as council communism , anarchists and libertarian socialists criticised the idea of using the state to conduct central planning and own the means of production as a way to establish socialism. Following the victory of Leninism in Russia, the idea of "state socialism" spread rapidly throughout
8294-682: The British Army to be withdrawn from Northern Ireland, which was broadcast in the BBC's Split Screen series. From the late 1980s, Loach directed theatrical feature films more regularly, a series of films such as Hidden Agenda (1990), dealing with the political troubles in Northern Ireland, Land and Freedom (1995), examining the Republican resistance in the Spanish Civil War , and Carla's Song (1996), which
8437-462: The Children employees were also on film making disparaging remarks about the parents of young Mancunians in their charge. Save the Children objected to the film and refused to pay for it. They prevented it from being shown until 2011 , when they eventually agreed to allow a screening by the BFI . Kestrel Films, co-founded by Tony Garnett and others, nearly went bankrupt in their legal battle with Save
8580-577: The Children. There was a screening at the University of Birmingham in 2014, at the University of Bristol in 2015 and one at the University of Warwick in 2017. The screening at Warwick was followed by a panel discussion, which was attended by the then Head of Humanitarian Affairs of Save the Children UK. A copy of the film is held at the BFI archives and it can be viewed (for free) by visiting
8723-620: The German political philosopher Ferdinand Lassalle . In contrast to Karl Marx's perspective of the state, Lassalle rejected the concept of the state as a class-based power structure whose main function was to preserve existing class structures. Lassalle also rejected the Marxist view that the state was destined to "wither away". Lassalle considered the state to be an entity independent of class allegiances and an instrument of justice that would therefore be essential for achieving socialism. Preceding
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#17327798540188866-602: The Holocaust was real. Loach was an official sponsor of the group Labour Against the Witchhunt , launched in 2017 to campaign against what it sees to be politically motivated allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party. In April 2018, Loach was reported to have said, at a screening of I, Daniel Blake organised by Kingswood Labour Party, that those Labour MPs who had attended a rally in Parliament Square
9009-656: The Junction and Poor Cow , Scouse in The Big Flame , Lancashire dialect in Raining Stones , Glaswegian in My Name Is Joe and the dialect of Greenock in Sweet Sixteen . Many of these films have been subtitled when shown in other English-speaking countries. When asked about this in an interview with Cineaste, Loach replied: If you ask people to speak differently, you lose more than
9152-474: The Junction , while The Big Flame (1969) for the BBC was an early instance of the word shit , and the certificate to Kes caused some debate owing to the profanity, but these films have relatively few swear words compared to his later work. In particular, the film Sweet Sixteen was awarded an 18 certificate on the basis of the very large amount of swearing, despite the lack of serious violence or sexual content, which led Loach to encourage under-18s to break
9295-593: The Latin sociare , which means to combine or to share. The related, more technical term in Roman and then medieval law was societas . This latter word could mean companionship and fellowship as well as the more legalistic idea of a consensual contract between freemen". Initial use of socialism was claimed by Pierre Leroux , who alleged he first used the term in the Parisian journal Le Globe in 1832. Leroux
9438-484: The Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival where Loach won the Jury Prize . Jimmy's Hall (2014) was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival . Loach announced his retirement from film-making in 2014 but soon after restarted his career following the election of a Conservative government in the UK general election of 2015 . Loach won his second Palme d'Or for I, Daniel Blake (2016). In February 2017,
9581-402: The UK were "a Kafka-esque , Catch-22 situation designed to frustrate and humiliate the claimant to such an extent that they drop out of the system and stop pursuing their right to ask for support if necessary". Loach married Lesley Ashton in 1962. They reside in Bath, Somerset , and have two sons and two daughters together. They had another son, who died at the age of five on 2 May 1971 in
9724-429: The UK, Herbert Morrison said that "socialism is what the Labour government does" whereas Aneurin Bevan argued socialism requires that the "main streams of economic activity are brought under public direction", with an economic plan and workers' democracy. Some argued that capitalism had been abolished. Socialist governments established the mixed economy with partial nationalisations and social welfare. By 1968,
9867-453: The United Kingdom and Bernie Sanders in the United States. Few of these radical left parties have won national government in Europe, while some more mainstream socialist parties have managed to, such as Portugal's Socialist Party . Bhaskar Sunkara , the founding editor of the American socialist magazine Jacobin , argued that the appeal of socialism persists due to the inequality and "tremendous suffering" under current global capitalism,
10010-453: The accumulation of capital generates waste through externalities that require costly corrective regulatory measures. They also point out that this process generates wasteful industries and practices that exist only to generate sufficient demand for products such as high-pressure advertisement to be sold at a profit, thereby creating rather than satisfying economic demand. Socialists argue that capitalism consists of irrational activity, such as
10153-401: The basis of society. Literature and art will be tuned to a different key. —Trotsky, Literature and Revolution , 1924 In the Leninist conception, the role of the vanguard party was to politically educate the workers and peasants to dispel the societal false consciousness of institutional religion and nationalism that constitute the cultural status quo taught by the bourgeoisie to
10296-539: The bourgeoisie produces above all is its own grave diggers", namely the working class, which must become conscious of the historical objectives set it by society. Revolutionary socialists believe that a social revolution is necessary to effect structural changes to the socioeconomic structure of society. Among revolutionary socialists there are differences in strategy, theory and the definition of revolution . Orthodox Marxists and left communists take an impossibilist stance, believing that revolution should be spontaneous as
10439-573: The cinema, with Poor Cow (1967) and Kes (1969). The latter recounts the story of a troubled boy and his kestrel , and is based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines . The film was well received, although the use of Yorkshire dialect throughout the film restricted its distribution, with some American executives at United Artists saying that they would have found a film in Hungarian easier to understand. The British Film Institute named it No 7 in its list of best British films of
10582-422: The content of one of Loach's films in support of her argument, the then-recently released Jimmy's Hall . Loach first joined the Labour Party from the early 1960s. In the 1980s, he was in the Labour Party because of the presence of "a radical element that was critical of the leadership", but Loach had left the Labour Party by the early to mid-1990s, after being a member for 30 years. During the 1960s and 1970s, he
10725-495: The context of a future socialist society would amount to a distortion of these concepts by using them out of context. Utopian socialism is a term used to define the first currents of modern socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon , Charles Fourier and Robert Owen which inspired Karl Marx and other early socialists. Visions of imaginary ideal societies, which competed with revolutionary social democratic movements, were viewed as not being grounded in
10868-506: The direct allocation of resources in terms of physical units as opposed to financial calculation and the economic laws of capitalism (see law of value ), often entailing the end of capitalistic economic categories such as rent , interest, profit and money. In a fully developed socialist economy, production and balancing factor inputs with outputs becomes a technical process to be undertaken by engineers. Market socialism refers to an array of different economic theories and systems that use
11011-751: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Socialists have adopted the causes of other social movements such as environmentalism , feminism and progressivism . In 1990, the São Paulo Forum was launched by the Workers' Party (Brazil) , linking left-wing socialist parties in Latin America. Its members were associated with the Pink tide of left-wing governments on the continent in the early 21st century. Member parties ruling countries included
11154-619: The early 21st century. This phenomenon is known as Pasokification from the Greek party PASOK , which saw a declining share of the vote in national elections—from 43.9% in 2009 to 13.2% in May 2012, to 12.3% in June 2012 and 4.7% in 2015—due to its poor handling of the Greek government-debt crisis and implementation of harsh austerity measures. In Europe, the share of votes for such socialist parties
11297-488: The emergence of the Soviet Union as the world's first nominally socialist state led to socialism's widespread association with the Soviet economic model , academics have noted that some Western European countries have been governed by socialist parties or have mixed economies that are sometimes called " democratic socialist ". Following the revolutions of 1989 , many of these countries moved away from socialism as
11440-598: The endorsement of prominent artists Andre Breton and Diego Rivera . Trotsky's writings on literature such as his 1923 survey which advocated tolerance, limited censorship and respect for literary tradition had strong appeal to the New York Intellectuals . Prior to Stalin's rule, literary, religious and national representatives had some level of autonomy in Soviet Russia throughout the 1920s but these groups were later rigorously repressed during
11583-528: The existing economic system of capitalism while trying to improve the conditions of capitalism, thereby making it appear more tolerable to society. According to Rosa Luxemburg , capitalism is not overthrown, "but is on the contrary strengthened by the development of social reforms". In a similar vein, Stan Parker of the Socialist Party of Great Britain argues that reforms are a diversion of energy for socialists and are limited because they must adhere to
11726-405: The extension of freedom and equality in society. Many forms of socialist theory hold that human behaviour is largely shaped by the social environment. In particular, socialism holds that social mores , values, cultural traits and economic practices are social creations and not the result of an immutable natural law. The object of their critique is thus not human avarice or human consciousness, but
11869-529: The film was awarded a BAFTA as "Outstanding British Film". His 2019 drama Sorry We Missed You garnered good reviews. In May 2010, Loach referred in an interview to the three films that have influenced him most: Vittorio De Sica 's Bicycle Thieves (1948), Miloš Forman 's Loves of a Blonde (1965) and Gillo Pontecorvo 's The Battle of Algiers (1966). De Sica's film had a particularly profound effect. He noted: "It made me realise that cinema could be about ordinary people and their dilemmas. It wasn't
12012-637: The film. This film was followed by It's a Free World... (2007), a story of one woman's attempt to establish an illegal placement service for migrant workers in London. Throughout the 2000s, Loach interspersed wider political dramas such as Bread and Roses (2000), which focused on the Los Angeles janitors strike , and Route Irish (2010), set during the Iraq occupation , with smaller examinations of personal relationships. Ae Fond Kiss... (a.k.a. Just
12155-481: The first time on 1 September 2011, at the BFI Southbank. During the 1980s Loach concentrated on television documentaries rather than fiction, and many of these films are now difficult to access as the television companies have not released them on video or DVD. At the end of the 1980s, he directed some television advertisements for Tennent's Lager to earn money. Days of Hope (1975) is a four-part drama for
12298-408: The human spirit.", adding that "While it promised prosperity, equality, and security, it delivered poverty, misery, and tyranny." Some in the scientific community have suggested that a contemporary radical response to social and ecological problems could be seen in the emergence of movements associated with degrowth , eco-socialism and eco-anarchism . Early socialist thought took influences from
12441-567: The last third of the 19th century parties dedicated to Democratic socialism arose in Europe, drawing mainly from Marxism . The Australian Labor Party was the first elected socialist party when it formed government in the Colony of Queensland for a week in 1899. In the first half of the 20th century, the Soviet Union and the communist parties of the Third International around the world, came to represent socialism in terms of
12584-435: The law to see the film. In a 2014 article, feminist writer Julie Bindel criticised Loach's recent films for a lack of female characters who were not simply love interests for the male characters, although she praised his early films Cathy Come Home and Kes . She also wrote, "Loach appears not to know gay people exist". In the article, Bindel stated that she "hadn’t seen a Ken Loach film in years", and only made reference to
12727-637: The leadership of other trade unions to similar scrutiny from their members, but this has never been broadcast. Frank Chapple , leader of the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union , walked out of the interview and made a complaint to the Independent Broadcasting Authority . A separate complaint was made by Terry Duffy of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union . The series
12870-407: The logic of capitalism. French social theorist André Gorz criticized reformism by advocating a third alternative to reformism and social revolution that he called " non-reformist reforms ", specifically focused on structural changes to capitalism as opposed to reforms to improve living conditions within capitalism or to prop it up through economic interventions. Under Socialism, solidarity will be
13013-403: The long run. Marxists argue that the establishment of a socialist mode of production is the only way to overcome these deficiencies. Socialists and specifically Marxian socialists argue that the inherent conflict of interests between the working class and capital prevent optimal use of available human resources and leads to contradictory interest groups (labour and business) striving to influence
13156-539: The main ideologies on the political spectrum , socialism is considered as the standard left-wing ideology in most countries. Types of socialism vary based on the role of markets and planning in resource allocation, and the structure of management in organizations. Socialist systems divide into non-market and market forms. A non-market socialist system seeks to eliminate the perceived inefficiencies, irrationalities, unpredictability , and crises that socialists traditionally associate with capital accumulation and
13299-785: The market mechanism to organise production and to allocate factor inputs among socially owned enterprises, with the economic surplus (profits) accruing to society in a social dividend as opposed to private capital owners. Variations of market socialism include libertarian proposals such as mutualism , based on classical economics, and neoclassical economic models such as the Lange model . Some economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz , Mancur Olson , and others not specifically advancing anti-socialists positions have shown that prevailing economic models upon which such democratic or market socialism models might be based have logical flaws or unworkable presuppositions. These criticisms have been incorporated into
13442-448: The masses for raising the standards of education , as well as entry into the cultural sphere, but that the process of artistic creation in terms of language and presentation should be the domain of the practitioner. According to political scientist Baruch Knei-Paz in his book The Social and Political Thought of Leon Trotsky , this represented one of several distinctions between Trotsky's approach on cultural matters and Stalin's policy in
13585-456: The material conditions and man-made social systems (i.e. the economic structure of society) which give rise to observed social problems and inefficiencies. Bertrand Russell , often considered to be the father of analytic philosophy, identified as a socialist. Russell opposed the class struggle aspects of Marxism, viewing socialism solely as an adjustment of economic relations to accommodate modern machine production to benefit all of humanity through
13728-488: The material conditions of society and as reactionary. Although it is technically possible for any set of ideas or any person living at any time in history to be a utopian socialist, the term is most often applied to those socialists who lived in the first quarter of the 19th century who were ascribed the label "utopian" by later socialists as a negative term to imply naivete and dismiss their ideas as fanciful or unrealistic. Religious sects whose members live communally such as
13871-412: The material productive forces (in industry and commerce) brought into existence by capitalism predicated a cooperative society since production had become a mass social, collective activity of the working class to create commodities but with private ownership (the relations of production or property relations). This conflict between collective effort in large factories and private ownership would bring about
14014-415: The means of production by capitalists and consequently, overthrowing the state that upheld this economic order. For Marx and Engels, conditions determine consciousness and ending the role of the capitalist class leads eventually to a classless society in which the state would wither away . Marx and Engels used the terms socialism and communism interchangeably, but many later Marxists defined socialism as
14157-536: The models of market socialism developed by John Roemer and Nicholas Vrousalis . The Save the Children Fund Film The Save The Children Fund Film is a 50-minute British documentary from 1971 directed by Ken Loach and produced by Tony Garnett . Originally known as In Black and White , It was commissioned by London Weekend Television on behalf of the charity Save the Children . The film
14300-405: The national council of Respect the following November. When Respect split in 2007, Loach identified with Respect Renewal , the faction identified with George Galloway . Later, his connection with Respect ended. Together with John Pilger and Jemima Khan , Loach was among the six people in court who offered surety for Julian Assange when he was arrested in London on 7 December 2010. The money
14443-411: The natural and social worlds could be understood through scientific knowledge and be analysed using scientific methods. The fundamental objective of socialism is to attain an advanced level of material production and therefore greater productivity, efficiency and rationality as compared to capitalism and all previous systems, under the view that an expansion of human productive capability is the basis for
14586-418: The old social relations of production of capitalism that would generate contradictions, leading to working-class consciousness. Marx and Engels held the view that the consciousness of those who earn a wage or salary (the working class in the broadest Marxist sense) would be moulded by their conditions of wage slavery , leading to a tendency to seek their freedom or emancipation by overthrowing ownership of
14729-458: The organisation Labour Against the Witchhunt , with the party saying he was removed for failing to "disown" Labour members who had been expelled. In an interview with Jacobin the same month, Loach stated that he was not a member of any of the organisations which had recently been proscribed by the party, but that he "support(ed) many of the people who have been expelled, because they are good friends and comrades". He also argued that his expulsion
14872-621: The organisation of society. By contrast, Robert Owen proposed to organise production and ownership via cooperatives . Socialism is also attributed in France to Marie Roch Louis Reybaud while in Britain it is attributed to Owen, who became one of the fathers of the cooperative movement . The definition and usage of socialism settled by the 1860s, with the term socialist replacing associationist , co-operative , mutualist and collectivist , which had been used as synonyms, while
15015-430: The overall efficiency of the market economy. These corrective policies limit the incentive system of the market by providing things such as minimum wages , unemployment insurance , taxing profits and reducing the reserve army of labour , resulting in reduced incentives for capitalists to invest in more production. In essence, social welfare policies cripple capitalism and its incentive system and are thus unsustainable in
15158-613: The party. In interviews in September and October 2019, Loach said MPs around Corbyn had not acted as a team, and that most would prefer a rightwing leader. He said the Labour leadership had "compromised too much with the Labour right". He accused the right of the party, including Tom Watson , of aiming to destroy the socialist programme put forward by Corbyn. He suggested that sitting Labour MP's and councillors should reapply for their jobs before each election so that they could be judged on their record. He also said that Labour people should make
15301-462: The previous month opposing alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party should be deselected or, as he reputedly expressed it, "kicked out" because of their lack of support for the current manifesto. Asked for clarification, Loach said the quoted remarks "do not reflect my position" and that "reselecting an MP should not be based on individual incidents but reflect the MP's principles, actions and behaviour over
15444-428: The principle of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his contribution ", while upper stage communism is based on the principle of " from each according to his ability, to each according to his need ", the upper stage becoming possible only after the socialist stage further develops economic efficiency and the automation of production has led to a superabundance of goods and services. Marx argued that
15587-481: The productive forces and technology was the basis for the expansion of human freedom and that socialism, being a system that is consistent with modern developments in technology, would enable the flourishing of "free individualities" through the progressive reduction of necessary labour time. The reduction of necessary labour time to a minimum would grant individuals the opportunity to pursue the development of their true individuality and creativity. Socialists argue that
15730-442: The progressive reduction of necessary work time. Socialists view creativity as an essential aspect of human nature and define freedom as a state of being where individuals are able to express their creativity unhindered by constraints of both material scarcity and coercive social institutions. The socialist concept of individuality is intertwined with the concept of individual creative expression. Karl Marx believed that expansion of
15873-598: The proletariat to facilitate their economic exploitation of peasants and workers. Influenced by Lenin, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party stated that the development of the socialist workers' culture should not be "hamstrung from above" and opposed the Proletkult (1917–1925) organisational control of the national culture. Similarly, Trotsky viewed the party as transmitters of culture to
16016-493: The prolonged Vietnam War gave rise to the New Left , socialists who tended to be critical of the Soviet Union and social democracy . Anarcho-syndicalists and some elements of the New Left and others favoured decentralised collective ownership in the form of cooperatives or workers' councils . In 1989, the Soviet Union saw the end of communism , marked by the Revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe , culminating in
16159-420: The public. At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or—this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms—with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of
16302-469: The publication of articles by Jonathan Freedland and Howard Jacobson which were critical of him, he said it was not acceptable to question or challenge the reality of the Holocaust, which was as real a historical event as the Second World War itself. The Jerusalem Post maintained Loach had not been quoted out of context, and that his words had been in response to the question about whether
16445-447: The purchasing of commodities only to sell at a later time when their price appreciates, rather than for consumption, even if the commodity cannot be sold at a profit to individuals in need and therefore a crucial criticism often made by socialists is that "making money", or accumulation of capital, does not correspond to the satisfaction of demand (the production of use-values ). The fundamental criterion for economic activity in capitalism
16588-498: The role of the capitalist becomes redundant. With no need for capital accumulation and a class of owners, private property in the means of production is perceived as being an outdated form of economic organisation that should be replaced by a free association of individuals based on public or common ownership of these socialised assets. Private ownership imposes constraints on planning, leading to uncoordinated economic decisions that result in business fluctuations, unemployment and
16731-420: The sharp end inside the occupied territories. We would also encourage other filmmakers and actors invited to festivals to check for Israeli state backing before attending, and if so, to respect the boycott. Israeli filmmakers are not the target. State involvement is. In the grand scale of things it is a tiny contribution to a growing movement, but the example of South Africa should give us heart. Loach had rejoined
16874-456: The social revolution to overthrow the capitalist state and eventually the institution of the state altogether. Revolution is not necessarily defined by revolutionary socialists as violent insurrection, but as a complete dismantling and rapid transformation of all areas of class society led by the majority of the masses: the working class. Reformism is generally associated with social democracy and gradualist democratic socialism . Reformism
17017-749: The socialist movement and eventually state socialism came to be identified with the Soviet economic model . Joseph Schumpeter rejected the association of socialism and social ownership with state ownership over the means of production because the state as it exists in its current form is a product of capitalist society and cannot be transplanted to a different institutional framework. Schumpeter argued that there would be different institutions within socialism than those that exist within modern capitalism, just as feudalism had its own distinct and unique institutional forms. The state, along with concepts like property and taxation, were concepts exclusive to commercial society (capitalism) and attempting to place them within
17160-422: The socialist movement, supporting economic and social interventions to promote social justice . While retaining socialism as a long-term goal, in the post-war period social democracy embraced a mixed economy based on Keynesianism within a predominantly developed capitalist market economy and liberal democratic polity that expands state intervention to include income redistribution , regulation , and
17303-687: The socialist movement, the Progressive Alliance was founded in 2013 by current or former members of the Socialist International . The organisation states the aim of becoming the global network of "the progressive , democratic , social-democratic , socialist and labour movement ". Mainstream social democratic and socialist parties are also networked in Europe in the Party of European Socialists formed in 1992. Many of these parties lost large parts of their electoral base in
17446-730: The son of Vivien (née Hamlin) and John Loach. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and joined the Royal Air Force at the age of 19. He later read law at St Peter's College, Oxford , graduating with a third-class degree . As a member of the Experimental Theatre Club , he directed a 1959 open-air production of Bartholomew Fair for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre , in which he also starred as Dan Jordan Knockem. Loach first worked as an actor in regional theatre companies and then as
17589-413: The stakes are very high if you don't have a lot of money to cushion your life. Also, because they're the front line of what we came to call the class war. Either through being workers without work, or through being exploited where they were working. And I guess for a political reason, because we felt, and I still think, that if there is to be change, it will come from below. It won't come from people who have
17732-402: The state to intervene in the economy in their favour at the expense of overall economic efficiency. Early socialists ( utopian socialists and Ricardian socialists ) criticised capitalism for concentrating power and wealth within a small segment of society. In addition, they complained that capitalism does not use available technology and resources to their maximum potential in the interests of
17875-439: The term communism fell out of use during this period. An early distinction between communism and socialism was that the latter aimed to only socialise production while the former aimed to socialise both production and consumption (in the form of free access to final goods). By 1888, Marxists employed socialism in place of communism as the latter had come to be considered an old-fashioned synonym for socialism . It
18018-545: The time he was buying the Daily Mirror newspaper and needed the co-operation of union leaders, especially Chapple. Which Side Are You On? (1985), about the songs and poems of the UK miners' strike , was originally due to be broadcast on The South Bank Show , but was rejected on the grounds that it was too politically unbalanced for an arts show. The documentary was eventually transmitted on Channel 4, but only after it won
18161-479: The time of a similar scene. Loach's documentary A Question of Leadership (1981) interviewed members of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (the main trade union for Britain's steel industry) about their 14-week strike in 1980, and recorded much criticism of the union's leadership for conceding over the issues in the strike. Subsequently, Loach made a four-part series named Questions of Leadership which subjected
18304-471: The twentieth century, published in 1999. During the 1970s and 1980s, Loach's films were less successful, often suffering from poor distribution, lack of interest and political censorship. His documentary The Save the Children Fund Film (1971) was commissioned by the charity , who subsequently disliked it so much they attempted to have the negative destroyed. It was only screened publicly for
18447-406: The use of wage labor "which rests on the exploitation and domination of humans by other humans," and ecological crises, such as climate change . In contrast, Mark J. Perry of the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) argued that despite socialism's resurgence, it is still "a flawed system based on completely faulty principles that aren't consistent with human behavior and can't nurture
18590-478: The voice. Everything about them changes. If I asked you not to speak with an American accent, your whole personality would change. That's how you are. My hunch is that it's better to use subtitles than not, even if that limits the films to an art-house circuit. Loach was amongst the first British directors to use swearing in his films. Mary Whitehouse complained about swearing in Cathy Come Home and Up
18733-491: The whole immense superstructure. —Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels argued that socialism would emerge from historical necessity as capitalism rendered itself obsolete and unsustainable from increasing internal contradictions emerging from the development of the productive forces and technology. It was these advances in the productive forces combined with
18876-441: Was a follower of Henri de Saint-Simon , one of the founders of what would later be labelled utopian socialism . Socialism contrasted with the liberal doctrine of individualism that emphasized the moral worth of the individual while stressing that people act or should act as if they are in isolation from one another. The original utopian socialists condemned this doctrine of individualism for failing to address social concerns during
19019-400: Was also asked about a conference fringe event at which Miko Peled suggested people should be allowed to question whether the Holocaust had happened. Loach responded: "I think history is for all of us to discuss. The founding of the state of Israel, for example, based on ethnic cleansing, is there for us all to discuss, so don't try and subvert that by false stories of antisemitism". Following
19162-522: Was an ex post facto action as the evidence the party cited in their letter informing him of their decision dated from before the organisations he was accused of being a member of had been banned by the party. Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said, "To expel such a fine socialist who has done so much to further the cause of socialism is a disgrace". His expulsion was also opposed by the Socialist Campaign Group but supported by
19305-1034: Was associated with (or a member of) the Socialist Labour League (later the Workers Revolutionary Party ), the International Socialists (later the Socialist Workers Party or SWP) and the International Marxist Group . He was involved in Respect – The Unity Coalition from its beginnings in January 2004, and stood for election to the European Parliament on the Respect list in 2004. Loach was elected to
19448-613: Was at its 70-year lowest in 2015. For example, the Socialist Party , after winning the 2012 French presidential election , rapidly lost its vote share, the Social Democratic Party of Germany 's fortunes declined rapidly from 2005 to 2019, and outside Europe the Israeli Labor Party fell from being the dominant force in Israeli politics to 4.43% of the vote in the April 2019 Israeli legislative election , and
19591-465: Was broadcast at a time when the debate was at a height in the United Kingdom. Up the Junction , adapted by Nell Dunn from her book with the assistance of Loach, deals with an illegal abortion while the leading characters in Cathy Come Home , by Jeremy Sandford , are affected by homelessness, unemployment, and the workings of Social Services. In Two Minds , written by David Mercer , concerns
19734-415: Was concerned, there is nothing in principle in economic theory that precludes an economic order based on socialist policies" and promoted substituting capitalist businesses with worker cooperatives . While democrats looked to the Revolutions of 1848 as a democratic revolution which in the long run ensured liberty, equality, and fraternity , Marxists denounced it as a betrayal of working-class ideals by
19877-517: Was due to be broadcast during the Trade Union Congress conference in 1983, but Channel 4 decided against broadcasting the series following the complaints. Anthony Hayward claimed in 2004 that the media tycoon Robert Maxwell had put pressure on Central Television's board (Central was the successor to the original production company Associated Television ), of which he had become a director, to withdraw Questions of Leadership at
20020-608: Was forfeited when Assange skipped bail to seek asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador, London . Loach supported the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in the 2012 London Assembly election . With the support of the activist Kate Hudson and academic Gilbert Achcar , Loach launched a campaign in March 2013 for a new left-wing party which was founded as Left Unity on 30 November. Left Unity candidates gained an average of 3.2% in
20163-667: Was not until after the Bolshevik Revolution that socialism was appropriated by Vladimir Lenin to mean a stage between capitalism and communism. He used it to defend the Bolshevik program from Marxist criticism that Russia's productive forces were not sufficiently developed for communism. The distinction between communism and socialism became salient in 1918 after the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party renamed itself to
20306-729: Was not. The Owenites in England and the Fourierists in France were considered respectable socialists while working-class movements that "proclaimed the necessity of total social change" denoted themselves communists . This branch of socialism produced the communist work of Étienne Cabet in France and Wilhelm Weitling in Germany. British moral philosopher John Stuart Mill discussed a form of economic socialism within free market. In later editions of his Principles of Political Economy (1848), Mill posited that "as far as economic theory
20449-560: Was set partially in Nicaragua . He directed the courtroom drama reconstructions in the docu-film McLibel , concerning McDonald's Restaurants v Morris & Steel , the longest libel trial in English history. Interspersed with political films were more intimate works such as Raining Stones (1993), a working-class drama concerning an unemployed man's efforts to buy a communion dress for his young daughter. On 28 May 2006, Loach won
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