Radical media, politics and culture.

"Set the Media Free"

Ignacio Ramonet, Translated by Ed Emery

The media have been a recourse against abuses of power within the democratic structures of our societies. It is not unusual for the three traditional areas of power -- legislative, executive and judicial -- to make mistakes and operate less perfectly than they might. This is more likely to happen under authoritarian and dictatorial regimes, where the political realm is mainly responsible for violations of human rights and attacks on liberties. But there are serious abuses of power in democratic countries too, even when laws are the result of democratic votes, governments are elected through universal suffrage and justice is (at least in theory) independent of the executive.

"Globalization and Its Apologists: An Abolitionist Perspective"

John Zerzan

In its heyday in the American South, slavery never lacked for apologists. Writers, preachers, and planters chimed in to defend the peculiar institution as divinely ordained and justified by the racial superiority of whites over blacks. The Abolitionists, who burned the Constitution, hid fugitives, and attacked federal arsenals, were widely viewed as dangerous firebrands fit for prison or the gallows.

hydrarchist writes:

"Freeing the Mind:


Free Software and the Death of Proprietary Culture"

Eben Moglen, June 29, 2003

The subject matter we're going to talk about is variously named, and
the words have some resonances of importance. I'm going to use the
phrase "Free Software" to describe this material and I'm going to
suggest to you that the choice of words is relevant. We are talking
not merely about a form of production or a system of industrial
relations, but also about the beginning of a social movement with
specific political goals which will characterize not only the
production of software in the twenty-first century, but the production
and distribution of culture generally. My purpose this morning is to
put that process in large enough context so that the significance of
free software can be seen beyond the changes in the software industry
alone.

hydrarchist writes:

This from August's edition of New Left Review. South Africa as vanguard of post-colonial neoliberalism, and laboratory of its social consequences. From the townships around
Johannesburg, rebellion against the privatizations of the ancregime, and the enrichment of a new political class.


"Sparks In The Township"

Trevor Ngwane

Where were you born and brought up, and what was your family background?

I was born in 1960 in Durban. My father and mother were medical nurses. My grandfathers were both Presbyterian preachers, from Zululand. My father was an anc supporter. He spent some time in Dar es Salaam when I was small. I’m not sure that he went because of politics: people got out for lots of reasons, for opportunities or dignity. He came back for the sake of the family. But anyone who had been abroad was targeted by the Special Branch once they returned to South Africa. Although he was not really active, they used to visit him every week or so when I was a child; he died more or less a broken man. He definitely had an influence on me. I remember him showing me some political books: there was one in a brown-paper cover, so I never knew the author or title. When I was six we moved to Zululand. My parents worked in a hospital there run by a Scottish missionary, who tried to work along progressive lines. There was a black Jesus in the chapel, for example—that was something in those days; we used to point him out to each other. At that time, Buthelezi was considered quite a hero—he refused to accept ‘independent homeland’ status for Zululand, toured the country speaking out for black people and met with the anc. Even my father was fooled when he set up Inkatha with the colours black, green, gold: ‘It’s the colours of the anc!’ he told me; only the older people knew that then.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"A Platformist Response to 'Post-Anarchism':

Sucking the Golden Egg: A Reply to Newman"

Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation of Southern Africa

Comrades: The following is a response by the zabalaza
anarchist communist federation (zacf) of southern
africa to an article by saul newman entitled
"anarchism and the politics of ressentiment" which is
online at: here.
Red & Black Regards, Michael Schmidt (Acting
International Secretary, ZACF, Johannesburg)

In the midst of the establishment's persistent refusal
to understand anarchism, of its constant attempts to
portray us as a bunch of violent lunatics; in the face
of continual misrepresentations by the Marxists, of
their efforts to portray us as a petty-bourgeois
movement that rejects organisation and can never be
truly revolutionary; in the face of all this
systematic misunderstanding and refusal to engage, it
is a relief to encounter a piece of criticism that
makes some attempt to understand what anarchism is
about, notes some of our good points, offers (mostly)
coherent and (as far as I know) original arguments,
and at least attempts to present itself as making
constructive proposals. Nonetheless, I wish to argue
that Saul Newman's article ' Anarchism and the
Politics of Ressentiment' is based on a fundamental
misunderstanding of anarchism, and that its proposals
amount to a rejection of the real point of our
movement.

hydrarchist posts:

("Those of you who were at the No Border camp in Strasbourg last
summer, or at the Hub in Florence during the ESF, probably received a
copy of the maps made by Bureau d'Etudes with collaboration from
several others (including myself). You can find one example at
http://utangente.free.fr/index2.html. To give background on the
projects and their relation both to art practices and political aims,
I wrote this text for "Geography and the Politics of Mobility,"
an upcoming expo in Vienna (info below). I'll also be raising some
methodology questions at World Information this Friday morning in
Amsterdam." -- BH)

"Maps for the Outside:

Bureau d'Etudes, or the Revenge of the Concept"

Brian Holmes

The closure of the gallery space is a classic conceptual gesture.
Witness this proposal by Robert Barry: "My exhibition at the Art &
Project Gallery in Amsterdam in December, '69, will last two weeks. I
asked them to lock the door and nail my announcement to it, reading:
'For the exhibition the gallery will be closed.'(1) Conceptual art
can be defined, not simply as the refusal of the commodified object
and the specialized art system, but as an active signage pointing to
the outside world, conceived as an expanded field for experimental
practices of intimacy, expression and collaboration -- indeed, for the
transformation of social reality. (2)

"Americans Take to 'Fascist' Like an Ill-Fitting Trench Coat"

Geoffrey Nunberg

Nunberg (nunberg@csli.stanford.edu) is a linguist at Stanford University and the author of The Way We Talk Now. He is also a regular contributor to National Public Radio's "Fresh Air." Nunberg wrote this article for Perspective.

When I lived in Rome many years ago, one of the best late-night gelato bars was a place in the upscale Parioli district that was frequented by chic young people from the neighborhood, most of whom were partisans of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement. "Passiamo per i fascisti,'' people would say when they came out of a movie -- "Let's stop by the fascists.''

widing writes:

A new life in a new city

People – let’s face it. If we all acknowledged the possibilities of dying tomorrow, few of us would be satisfied by how we have lived and are living our life today. Is the “concealment of death” just one of those many things necessary for the continuation of western lifestyle? I believe so. In the end it’s all about priorities set in a system proclaiming “there will always be a tomorrow”.

hydrarchist writes:

The Renaissance of Workerism (Operaism)

Part Two of a Trilogy

In the last Wildcat, No. 64/65 (March 1995) we published part one of an article on workerism that we expected to have a follow-up. It examined in detail (and it is still worth reading!) the origin of the concept of "worker inquiries" and the first experiences with them at the beginning of the 60s in Italy. In the mid 1990s, books had been published on workerism in West Germany and in Italy in the 60s and 70s. At the same time, the discussion turned on Karl Heinz Roth's book, Die Wiederkehr der Proletarität (The Return of the Proletarian Condition). We wanted to use his theses on the convergence of worldwide class relations and the arisal of a world working class as the starting point for a militant investigation. But Roth's idea of the "proletarian circle," composed of academics, left unionists and base initiatives, failed. After that, there was no need for workerism for a long time on the left.

Gina Lunori writes

"Revolution Time Again..."

Gina Lunori

"....the cost of avoiding this bloodbath at home includes inflicting a bloodbath on Iraq and funding bloodbaths elsewhere. We're not fooling anyone by puttering around and delaying and attributing our reluctance to pacifism...."

I've heard Republicans talk about getting the government off our backs often
enough now that I think it's sunk in. If I ever see a Republican who actually
means it, I think I may dust off my voting suit and try to find my way to the
polling place.

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