Religion is the origin of all social thought – philosophy, science, law, ethics, etc. Like the social thought that we now consider secular, it is also imbued with a referent principle that provides a foundational justification for its imperatives and truth claims. For religion the foundational principle is the will of God, for liberal society it is natural law, for Marxism it is human
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The debate with the US ISO remains a source of much controversy, having ended with the biggest split from the Tendency to date. This makes it worth exploration and, I believe, it is an example of the way in which the SWP’s growing bureaucracy negatively impacted the IST. However, both of the dominant narratives of the events leading up to the ISOs expulsion are, in my view, one sided. The main On Sunday, March 10 the British Socialist Workers Party held a Special Conference to deal with the crisis that has been raging in its organization since its annual January conference. The trigger for the crisis was an allegation of rape against a member of the party’s Central Committee (CC) that was reviewed by a Disputes Committee composed of long-time colleagues and friends of the accused. I http://issuu.com/randalljaykay/docs: The above link is to an archive of various scanned articles and newsletters from the 1980s and 1990s that are related to topics such as anti-fascism, radicalism, socialism, anarchism, prisoners’ rights, anti-imperialism, First Nations rights and anti-racism, They are interesting historical documents, and many of the issues they discuss are still relevant today. Unfortunately some of them are difficult to read, at least on my computer monitor. Hopefully you have better luck. Left: A Freedmen’s school, a place of learning established by New Afrikans who had escaped the slave-system in the south of the united states. Right: a mob of euro-americans burns a Freedmen’s school to the ground. It is necessary, first, to overcome the opposition between a physicalist vision of the social world that conceives of social relations as relations of physical force and a “cybernetic” or semiological vision which portrays them as relations of symbolic force, as relations of meaning or relations of communication. The most brutal relations of force are always simultaneously symbolic relations. And acts of submission and . . . → Read More: Sketchy Thoughts: Two Aspects of Power: Consciousness and Physical Force Politically, sexual violence constitutes both a form of terrorism against its target, and an act of affirmation for the rapists and those who identify with them. It is not normally a form of “horizontal violence” – that would imply that other than this unfortunate slip-up, perpetrator and target would both share the same class position and interests. The prevalence of sexual violence, and its intractability, speaks against this naive theory.Rather than depoliticizing this question, sexual violence should be understood as a form of oppressive violence meant to either establish or defend hierarchies between people. Keeping some people – overwhelmingly . . . → Read More: Sketchy Thoughts: The Gendered Body Public: Egypt, Sexual Violence and Revolution This interview originally appeared in Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture, 5:2, 259-270. For a PDF of the interview, go here. It is also mirrored on the Kersplebedeb site here. In the 1960s and 1970s, many activists looked to the prisons for political leadership, while viewing prisons themselves as institutions of repression and social control integral to larger systems of oppression. Around the world, the prisoner emerged as an icon of state repression and a beacon of liberation. If the prison served as the bricks and mortar of oppression, the prisoner became the flesh and blood of . . . → Read More: Sketchy Thoughts: New Interview by David Gilbert I am thinking about this task I set before me. But what is this task? Every time I define it, I eventually realize that my solution is disconnected from life. This is happening more and more. When I examine a problem, and break it down into its essential parts, understand why, the answer is always the same. The difference is on the surface and it begins to disappear as you go deeper into it. To know what is correct, one must know the goal that is sought. The same is true for public policy, which is further burdened by the . . . → Read More: The Quantum Buddha’s Blog: The New Age The Idle No More grassroots movement has taken Canada by storm. On Monday, it held peaceful protests in major cities across Canada, calling for progressive action on aboriginal and land treaty issues. On Twitter, hashtags associated with the movement, such as #idlenomore and #nativewinter, are gaining in popularity. The movement’s new website (www.idlenomore.ca) carries refreshing READ MORE The Real Story of the 2012 US Presidential Election – the story the mass media missed altogether – And the critical lessons from history that we must learn now “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – anonymous “Evil can flourish only when good people do nothing.” – anonymous “Repeating [...] 
 2012 US Election, American politics, analysis, Barack Obama, consciousness, Corporate fascism, corporate rule, corporatism, corporatocracy, coup, crisis of democracy, democracy, Democrat, Democratic Party, ecological crisis, environment, Financial coup, Political Philosophy, politics, revolution, Sun Tzu, Uncategorized By South End Press Publisher: South End Press Pages: 368 ISBN: 978-0-89608-794-1 Format: Paperback original Release Date: 2011-05-01 Synopsis: The extent of the violence affecting our communities is staggering. Nearly one in three women in the United States will experience intimate violence in her lifetime. And while intimate violence affects relationships across the sexuality and gender spectrums, the likelihood [...] His tweets:Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrumpThis election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!7 Nov 12 Reply~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrumpMore votes equals a loss…revolution!It was early in the evening and Romney w… . . . → Read More: LeDaro: Barack Obama’s re-election angers Donald Trump For the five or six years this blog has existed I have strongly lamented the demise of posterity in our societies, our economies and our politics. In an era in which any perceived fetter on maximized production and maximized consumption was denounced as heretical, posterity was irrelevant, valueless or worse. Rejecting posterity has come at an enormous price, not to us but to generations that will follow. We have taken advantage of everything we could exploit and kicked the consequences down the road wherever possible. Apparently the Europeans have been little different. “Interestingly, the sheltered existence . . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: Chanelling the Spirit of Posterity, Long Dead Occupied Ottawa (formerly Occupy Ottawa) activists return to Confederation Park on Monday to celebrate the movement’s one year anniversary with art, performance, music, speeches and educational workshops. Occupied Ottawa, a part of the global grassroots Occupy movement against economic disparity and social injustice, “occupied” the park from October 15, 2011, until its eviction on November 23, [...]
Activism, Activist Communique, anniversary, Arab Spring, Blog, Canada, Confederation Park, economic disparity, Facebook, grassroots movement, Maple Spring, Occupied Ottawa, occupy, occupy canada, Occupy Ottawa, Occupy Toronto, Occupy Wall Street, Quebec Student Protest, revolution, social injustice, Take Canada Back A substantial majority of Canadians want to see Barack Obama re-elected. Why? To be sure, the Republican offerings of late have been unpopular here and pretty much around the world, Israel perhaps excepted. It could be that Ike was last truly popular conservative president of the United States on the world stage. Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, Bush II – slim pickings at best. Anyone believe that gang left the world a better place than they found it? (Hint – if you do, seek help) The other team put forward Kennedy, Johnson (don’t undervalue his civil . . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: To the Big Picture, Does the White House Matter? Hordur Torfarson, one of the architects of the quiet but powerful Icelandic revolution, which forced the government of Iceland to resign after the banking crisis of 2008, and kicked out the IMF representatives from the country, is now teaching meta-modern democracy throughout Europe. Here he shares his advice to the Greeks, which is also applicable [...] The opening graphic in The Anti-Capitalist Resistance Comic Book is striking, showing a Black Bloc member squaring off against a cop, each as representatives of the clash between Empire and free peoples from centuries past. To what degree do you feel that the clashes at today’s summits represent a continuity with the history of anti-colonial resistance? To start with, I wouldn’t limit the concept of anti-colonial resistance simply to counter summit mobilizations. But in general, I do think there’s a connection in that free, autonomous societies have always resisted the rule of civilization and its empires, which the graphic you . . . → Read More: Sketchy Thoughts: Anti-Capitalism and Violence: Gord Hill Interviewed by Kersplebedeb because mass struggles include all kinds of folks By Way of IntroductionIn many neighbourhoods and cities and towns across Quebec, there is a new phenomenon of people going into the streets every night and banging pots and pans together to signal their opposition to the government’s new repressive legislation, Law 78. This is in the context of an upsurge of mass struggle and rapidly escalating tactics within a student strike that has been going on here for months. It is an unprecedented situation, and the struggle here seems to be transforming itself at what seems like breakneck speed. On . . . → Read More: Sketchy Thoughts: On Mass Struggles in the Metropole: Thoughts Inspired by Quebec On KPFA’s Letters and Politics show featured an interview with Gabriel Kuhn, on the subject of the West German Autonomen, and the book Fire and Flames (which Kuhn translated into english). i have mirrored the interview here; it is well worth listening to. i found his comments on the evolution of the Black Bloc to be of particular interest, and so i have transcribed the relative passages here: GK: The history of militant resistance is a long one; i think the particular form that the Black Bloc took on in Germany during the 1980s was determined by the . . . → Read More: Sketchy Thoughts: Fire and Flames, Black Blocs, and Militant Resistance Demographer Richard Cincotta of the Stimson Center in Washington DC has compiled some intriguing facts about revolution and the age of populations. His analysis not only enables him to predict if a revolution will occur in a particular country but whether or not a revolution will transition into a democracy. Studying oppressive autocracies around the world in the period 1972 to 1989, he found The people of Iceland forced their corrupt government to resign. They created a public assembly to rewrite the constitution. The banks were nationalized. The people decided not to pay the debt that private banks created. It was a revolution, a … Continue reading → It’s hard to make sense of the hubris and cruelty of European Union leaders towards Greece, unless their goal is to goad the Greek population into overthrowing their government. Why else would they demand from the Greeks ever greater levels of austerity, poverty and unemployment and then, when the government turtles and capitulates to their demands, tell them it isn’t enough? Just look at the I was reading about the terrible, terrible tragedy in Egypt last night and today – 74 dead at a soccer match – and the ensuing mass protests and national explosion of anger. And I was struck by how the battle is unfolding in Egypt, the way that the military dictatorship maneuvers and shifts as it tries to undermine the revolution. Even more, I was impressed at how spectacularly and immediately The Noise of Cairo is an upcoming documentary about the Cairo art scene after the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Produced by scenesfrom, this “cinematic kaleidoscope” interviews a dozen artists and explores the role played by creatives during the revolution. Via African Digital Art. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS: 2011: A YEAR OF REVOLUTION: 2011 was a remarkable year. As revolutions sparked throughout the Arab world the “lower” classes of many other countries also rose up as evidenced in Europe, North America and South America and now even in Russia. In sum there hasn’t been so much opposition to power for decades. It’s hard to say where this will all lead. As the following article says the year has been quite remarkable, and few (nobody ?) could have predicted its events.
The following article is from the online magazine ‘The Indypendent‘. The reader should note that . . . → Read More: Molly’sBlog: Molly’sBlog 2011-12-12 21:57:00 |
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