Comrades --

The February Bulletin of the Turtle goes out to our friends and subscribers only a few days after fascist ministers have been sworn into the Austrian government, where they now occupy half the Cabinet. The moderate right People's Party made two promises when it campaigned in the general election last year: not to join a coalition with Joerg Haider's Freedom Party, and not to enter government at all if it came in third. Both of these promises have now been broken. This is not the first time that far-right parties in the fascist tradition have entered European governments in the recent past: the Italian Alleanza Nazionale formed a part of Silvio Berlusconi's governing coalition in 1994. But its 27% share of the vote makes the Freedom Party the more popular coalition partner, even if the party does not (yet?) control the Chancellorship, and the return to power of German-speaking fascists and apologists for the Nazi regime is, of course, disturbing. The violent protests on the streets of Vienna are a hopeful sign that the domestic opposition to the new coalition will be intense, and the Turtle -- which has long pondered the nature of fascism in its pages, and which published Dave Renton's helpful discussion of the Austrian situation shortly after the elections in October -- will continue to have its gaze trained on these troubling events.

After our short period of winter hibernation, the Turtle is awake once again and is working to implement our agenda. February sees the launch of a new section of the Turtle, for the Library of the Turtle is beginning to take on determinate form. The Library opens its doors with a celebration of political Manifestoes, and joining the Communist Manifesto -- which we republished in our pages last year -- are new electronic editions of the 1962 Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society, the Labour Party's 1945 election manifesto, and the more recent Manifesto of the People's Global Action Against "Free" Trade and the World Trade Organisation. We hope that the library will continue to expand, throwing attractive and accurate editions of classic texts from the history of struggle into recirculation for a new readership, and we await your suggestions, comments and contributions with interest.

There is new original material, too. Dominic Sandbrook's commentary on the New Hampshire Primary was posted to the site in the middle of January, just before the inevitable tides of history rendered it immediately out-of-date. And Peter Lowe has overcome his quota in fine fashion, sending us three recent accounts of what he has been reading, and what he thinks of it. The keystone of his arch is his thoughtful presentation on the positive valuation of confusion in Saul Bellow's 1964 novel Herzog, but it is usefully propped up by his reviews of recent books on William Makepeace Thackeray and the Battle of Stalingrad. It is not unknown for the Turtle to be periodically dominated by the contributions of a single author -- we all remember Anne Alexander's heroic 1995 efforts in Paper Turtle #6 -- and with this burst of productivity Peter has carried off the February Stakhanovite of the Month Award in fine style. We are happy to induct him into the Turtle's Hall of Fame.

We have been a bit slack with the preparation of our Monthly Salutes of late, but we are now right up to date and back on track. Our eulogy of the (sadly unsuccessful) campaign to elect Tom Ammiano mayor of San Francisco has finally appeared, and our February Salute is extended to the militant artists of Think Again -- or, as we like to call them, Agitart -- which has given us the much-needed excuse to plaster our Salutes page with dramatic imagery. Admire their work, visit their own website, and remind yourself how satisfying good propaganda can be.

More work is hauling itself over the horizon as this Bulletin goes out to the world. Raj Patel is back in Zimbabwe again, but his never-ending meditations on the vicissitudes of Global Trade Negotiations will shortly result in a fresh dosage of prose, and a number of Comrades Turtle purport to be hard at work on still more book reviews. And as ever, we welcome your contributions -- as Articles, Salutes, Poems, Dictionary Entries, Reviews, or anything else -- from new writers as well as old.

Finally, those Friends of the Turtle in the United Kingdom should look at their TV listings guides. Palash Davé has been a loyal supporter of the Turtle for many years now, and his debut documentary film on Christopher Hitchens, "Hitch Hike", will shortly be shown on Channel Four's The Other Side. We think it's going to be quite good, and we encourage you all to watch so you can tell us what it was like.

In the meantime, we can only draw air deep, deep into our lungs and end with the usual salutations --

Avanti popolo!

The Editors