Comrades!

The Turtle has been relatively quiescent in June and early July, and so this will be a shorter bulletin than usual. We have not been entirely idle, however, for we have published Dave Renton's article on the recent elections in South Africa, a splendid follow-up to The Voice of the Turtle's classic 1994 article, "Palash Liberates An Entire Continent". Dave has recently been teaching at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, and his essay provides a vivid impression of politics from below at a crucial moment of transition for the new democracy, as President Nelson Mandela makes way for President Thabo Mbeki. Other work on the site this last month has been mostly horticultural: dozens of dud links have been located and purged from the Turtle's pages; we have a fine new fizzing bomb icon to warm the feet of every article; and the Dictionary has been smartened a little.

But as good militants, we are terribly aware that the calm comes before the storm. In particular, we hope that the coming month or so will see the release of our "Summer Books Special", a happy collection of reviews of a variety of recent tomes. If you belong to the dwindling band of those who still read books, and who still think them important, we'd be delighted to feature your thoughts on the publications of 1998 and 1999: reviews of books on history, politics, culture and society are especially welcome, and we still aspire to coverage of contemporary fiction and poetry. We do not confine our desires to book reviews: the Turtle continues to welcome your discussions of the issues of the day, and indeed of yesterday and the day before that, whether they come in the form of articles or entries for the Dictionary of the Turtle.

Midsummer is, of course, a time of migration. Turtle editor Raj Patel has begun his summer researches, which will take him to Zimbabwe, and to India, in search of a gripping Ph.D. dissertation. Throughout the summer, therefore, Turtle HQ will be based in San Francisco, where Chris Brooke is furthering the cause of socialism by, um, studying Ancient Greek.

Avanti popolo!

The Editors