Radical media, politics and culture.

Big Brother Watching:

The Predictions of Orwell

Rolando Perez Betancourt, Granma Diario, May 28, 2003


Without ceremony from those who, during the Cold War,
exalted him as if he were a god of letters, Englishman
George Orwell reaches his 100th birthday. Orwell was the
great critic of the Soviet State and of fascism, and his
sublime obsession was to transform political literature
into art.

Francisco Trindade writes:

"On the Confederation, or the Proudhonian Federal Structure"

Francisco Trindade


Proudhon ignores completely the characteristics of the political model that permits [estender] the State of right to the relations between the nations. For more on this, and on the technical responsability for the totality of the site, please visit:

http://www.franciscotrindade.com

"Speech at the European Social Forum, Paris, November 2003"

Toni Negri

[On Thursday 20 November 2003 the Global Radio-Padova website published the
text of Toni Negri's speech at the European Social Forum in Paris. The
original Italian text can be found on their website at
Global. Translated by Ed Emery.]

"I am Italian, so I shall speak in Italian -- particularly because I too
would like to begin by remembering with sympathy and with much emotion the
Italians who have died in Iraq in recent days. Italians have not been used
to having war-dead, not since fascism sent many of our friends and relations
into the monstrous adventures of the Second World War. The last thing we
needed was for a democratic regime to overturn the very terms of the Italian
constitution by sending poor wretches to die in a war which the vast
majority of Italians do not understand the reasons for, and which they
oppose.

"Noam Chomsky, Superstar"

Derrick O'Keefe, Seven Oaks Magazine

The Noam Chomsky phenomenon swept Vancouver this weekend. Chomsky, the MIT linguistics professor, prolific anti-establishment writer, and perhaps the closest thing there is to a living icon of the North American Left, spoke to a crowd of close to 20,000 at the March 20 anti-war rally at Sunset Beach, and then followed it up with two sold-out talks at the Orpheum theatre. It's worth looking at the lasting and massive appeal of Chomsky, to find out what it says about the man himself and the state of movements for social change.

"The Spaces of a Cultural Question"

Brian Holmes interviewed by Marion von Osten

[In preparation of
"Atelier Europa: A Small Post-Fordistic Drama," opening April 2,
2004 in the Munich Kunstverein.]

Marion: You are editing the next issue of Multitudes on cultural and
creative labor. Can you explain why and out of what perspective you look
on cultural labor and creative work, i.e. do you think it is possible to
explain the inner dynamics of post-Fordist production modes due to this
specific form of work and its conditions?

hydrarchist writes:

"Sharon's 'Disengagement' a Pacifier for the Majority:

An Anarchist Take on Israeli Politics"

Tanya Reinhart

Getting out of the Gaza Strip is an old dream of the majority in
Israeli society. Even before the Oslo agreements in 1993, the call
to get out of there was heard after every terror attack. Today,
according to the polls, it has the support of 60-70% of the Israelis.


But governments come and fall, and still, this majority has not
found the political power to realize its will.

"Is Truth Enough?

The Bush Administration's Lies and the Anti-War Movement's Truths"

George Caffentzis

[A transcription of a talk given to the "Truth and Consequences" Anti-War Forum at the
University of Maine, Augusta, Maine, on March 20, 2004.]

1. Polls and Truth

I was preparing an up-date on the developments in the oil industry in Iraq since the US invasion last year when I noticed on the front page of the March 17, 2004 Portland Press Herald a graph showing the results of a poll taken in eight countries concerning the motives of the Bush Administration in launching the war on terrorism (which it elides with its invasion and occupation of Iraq).

It was very disconcerting and has forced me to think again about politics and truth. Along with a little summary up-date of the situation of Iraqi oil industry one year into the occupation then, I want to look more carefully at the consequences of the truth for our political work.

"Spy, Adulterer, Whatever"

Jacob Sullum

Capt. James Yee's prosecutors make the case for due process.

When Capt. James Yee was arrested last September, it was easy to assume he was a spy. A Muslim chaplain serving suspected terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, he'd been caught traveling with "secret data." Anonymous government officials told the press Yee might be part of a spy ring at the military base.

The cloud of suspicion was so thick that even people who knew Yee well could not see clearly. His high school wrestling coach, with whom Yee had kept in touch over the years, told The New York Times : "I have to believe in my kids. But if that religion has brainwashed him to change his thinking, then maybe I am wrong."

"Bush: I'm God's Delivery Boy"

Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive

Bush's messianic militarism was on full display on March
11, when he addressed, via satellite, the National
Association of Evangelicals Convention in Colorado
Springs.


First, acting as pastor in chief, he said, "You're doing
God's work with conviction and kindness, and, on behalf
of our country, I thank you."


Separation of church and state, anyone?

mobiustrip44 writes:

"Homage to Castilla: 'Appeasement' in Spain"
Julian Sanchez, Reason Magazine


The bodies were barely cold from the attacks of "11-M" in Madrid, the ballots from Sunday's national election barely counted, but American pundits were already competing furiously to heap insult upon injury. The unexpected victory of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) over the more conservative Partido Popular (PP), which had backed the war in Iraq, was widely and roundly denounced as a clear case of capitulation to terror.

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