Radical media, politics and culture.

Anonymous Comrade submits:


"Anarchism and the Politics of Ressentiment"

Saul Newman

"A word in the ear of the psychologists, assuming they are inclined to study ressentiment close up for once: this plant thrives best amongst anarchists...."[1]

Of all the nineteenth century political movements that Nietzsche decries -- from socialism to liberalism -- he reserves his most venomous words for the anarchists. He calls them the "anarchist dogs" that are roaming the streets of European culture, the epitome of the "herd-animal morality" that characterizes modern democratic politics.[2]

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"Obit For A Former Contrarian"

Dennis Perrin, City Pages


A friend and protégé tries to make sense of what's happened to Christopher Hitchens

Bright spring afternoon. Hitch and I spend it in his fave D.C. pub just down the street from his spacious apartment. At the long polished bar, he sips a martini, I swig Tanqueray on ice offset by pints of ale. The pub's TV is flashing golf highlights while the jukebox blasts classic rock. We're chatting about nothing in particular when the juke begins playing "Moonshadow" by Cat Stevens. Hitch stops talking. His face tightens. Eyes

narrow. I know this look -- I saw it on Crossfire when he nearly slugged a Muslim supporter of the Ayatollah's "fatwa" against Salman Rushdie. I saw it during a Gulf War panel discussion at Georgetown when he responded to some pro-war hack with a precision barrage of invective, followed by the slamming down of the mike, causing a brief reverb in the speakers.

And here it was again.

Michael writes:

"Nothing So Mean Could Be Right"

Once again we enter that silly season in the lives of Americans when
numbers, oratory and brightly colored balloons substitute for thought,
probity and rational discourse. The political convention epitomizes this
circus approach to choosing those we laughingly and unthinkingly refer to as
"leaders."

Anonymous Kumquat submits:

"The Anarchist Ethic in the Age of the Anti-Globalization Movement"

Killing King Abacus


The question always before anarchists is how to act in the present moment of struggle against capitalism and the state. As new forms of social struggles are becoming more clearly understood, this question becomes even more important. In order to answer these questions we have to clarify the relationship between anarchists and the wider social movement of the exploited and the nature of that movement itself.

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"The Worst Kind of Lie"

John Chuckman, July 8, 2003

A few years sometimes make a big difference in human affairs. A few years ago an American President was put through the 18th century ordeal of impeachment, a vast, expensively-staged comic opera of white manes waving and grave baritones intoning, over a dribble on a dress and the lie he told to save himself embarrassment. Today we have a President who has hurled the world into two dirty, pointless wars after what undoubtedly qualifies as the longest sequence of public lies ever uttered in a free society, and yet in his homeland he remains popular and is collecting enough campaign cash to rival the Swiss bank balances of the Russian Mafia.

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"Racism, Exploitation and Neglect:

Bush and Africa"

Martha Honey, Counterpunch


It was a powerfully symbolic gift, coming as it did from one of the world's
poorer countries to the world's richest. In June 2002, a Maasai village in
Kenya presented its most precious resource, fifteen head of cattle, to the
United States as an expression of solidarity for the tragedy of September
11. "To the people of America, we give these cows to help you," read
banners at the ceremonial handover of the cattle from Maasai elders to the
U.S. ambassador. The gift was all the more poignant since the U.S.
government still has not compensated the families of the Kenyan victims of
terrorism who died in al-Qaeda's 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in
Nairobi.

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"The Illusion Is Liberty, The Reality Is Leviathan:

A Voluntaryist Perspective on the Bill of Rights"

Carl Watner


Delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia began their
deliberations on May 25, 1787. During the hot summer months when their
arguments seemed to extend interminably, Benjamin Franklin observed that
life went on around them despite their debates. At one point, he "is said
to have warned the delegates: 'Gentlemen, you see that in the anarchy in
which we live society manages much as before. Take care, if our disputes
last too long, that the people do not come to think they can very easily
do without us'."(1)

[This article continues from here.]

V: Analysis by Anecdote: Anti-war, Stopwar.ca and the City of Vancouver.

Solidarity is one of the catchwords of the left, always has been for
everyone, even a right social democrat. When people say 'solidarity' they
mean a multitude of things, but formerly it was said that (in the words of
Che Guevara) "Solidarity means sharing the same risks", yet now solidarity
now is used to mis-identify "I agree with you." But if it doesn't mean more
than that, it means nothing at all and is a superfluous word. I can only
give an example from my own recent activist life by way of telling
anecdotes. There are anti-war coalitions in every part of the industrialized
world now. They are, much like TUB's in imperialist countries, historically
relevant; nature abhors a vacuum and so do historical processes. It is worth
both the time and the energy to support the existing coalitions, to not
fight against them -- especially right now, during a reactionary triumphalism
emanating from Downing Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. However, we need to
have a look at what kind of politics these coalitions are bringing about,
and how they are functioning in terms of raising our own understanding of
what is happening.

Macdonald Stainsby submits:

Rise like Lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number --

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you --

Ye are many -- they are few. -- Percy Shelley

"Neither Trade Talks Nor Peace Talks:

Notes On Resistance"

Macdonald Stainsby, July 2003

I: Introduction: By Way Of Analogy.

II: A Better World Is Possible: Practice It Now.

III: Nationalism: Canada and North America.

IV: Trade Unions, Imperialism and Revolution.

V: Analysis by Anecdote: Anti-war, Stopwar.ca and the City of Vancouver.

VI: On The Question Of Leadership.

VII: Palestine: What Kind Of World Are We Struggling For?

VIII: An End To Shame & A New Beginning.

Anonymous Kumquat submits:

"A Cardinal Visits the Anarchists"*

Interview with Pierre Bourdieu

[Conducted by Archibald Zurvan
on Radio Libertaire, Translated by Sharif Gemie. On 1 March 2001, Pierre Bourdieu discussed his most
recent work, Contre-feux no 2, pour un mouvement
social europen
[Counter-Attack 2: For a European
Social Movement
] (Editions Raison d'Agir, 30 francs),
on the "Weekly Diary" programme of Radio Libertaire.
As Bourdieu has been placed on the black list
by those who dominate the media, "Science's Cardinal
Ratzinger" [1] (as he was described by the editor of
the Temps Modernes: see Le Monde, 18 September 1998)
came to debate some points with the anarchists.]


Radio Libertaire: Why have you accepted the invitation
from the anarchists' radio station? Is it to publicize
your "Raisons d'Agir" collection? Don't you know that
RL, which is almost the only independent radio
station, only has a tiny audience even if they
are the elite of the listening public? How do you get
on with the official media?

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