Radical media, politics and culture.

"A Homemade Politics" Abahlali baseMjondolo

[Matt Birkinshaw, an anarchist from London, spent three months living in Abahlali baseMjondolo communes in Durban and Cape Town in 2008. This paper, prepared for a conference in Manchester, gives a brief but useful overview of the movement.]

Rights, democracy and social movements in South Africa Matt Birkinshaw – Alternative Futures and Popular Protest, Manchester Metropolitan University, 15-17 March 2009

To Guy Debord in Hell (please forward if necessary) Bill "Not Bored" Brown (http://www.notbored.org/1957-1994.html)

"Although I have read a lot, I have drunk even more. I have written much less than the majority of people who write, but I have drunk more than the majority of people who drink." -- Guy Debord, Panegyric (1989)

"Where's my mail? Who's fucking with my mail?" -- The Lone Ranger, in Lenny Bruce's posthumous film short, Thank You Mask Man (1968)

A Somali Pirate Story Jordan Zinovich with Hans Plomp

Comments

Great Cruise for Folks that Like to Shoot

I found a Somalia cruise package that departs from Sawakin (in the Sudan) and docks at Bagamoya (in Tanzania).

The cost is a bit high but it seems well worth it. What I found encouraging and enlightened is that the cruise is encouraging people to bring their own high powered weapons along on the cruise. If you don't have weapons you can rent them right there on the boat. They claim to have a master gunsmith on board and will have reloading parties every afternoon. The cruise lasts from 4-8 days. All the boat does is sail up and down the coast of Somalia waiting to get hijacked by pirates. Here are some of the costs and claims associated with the package: $800.00 US/per day per person, double occupancy (4 day minimum) M-16 full automatic: rental $25.00/day ammo at 100 rounds of 5.56 armor-piercing ammo at $15.95 Ak-47 rifle: no charge. Ammo at 100 rounds of 7.62 com block ball ammo at $14.95 Barrett M-107 .50 cal sniper rifle: rental $55.00/day. Ammo at 25 rounds 50 cal armor piercing at $9.95. Crew members can double as spotters for $30.00 per hour (spotting scope included).

They even offer RPG's at $75 bucks and $200 for 3 standard loads Mounted mini-gun available @ $450.00 per 30 seconds of sustained fire. Free complimentary night vision equipment. Meals are not included but seem reasonable. Coffee and snacks on the top deck from 7pm-6am. They offer group rates and corporate discounts, and even offer a partial money back if not satisfied.

Text from the ad:

"We guarantee that you will experience at least two hijacking attempts by pirates or we will refund half your money including gun rental charges and any unused ammo (mini gun charges not included).

How can we guarantee you will experience a hijacking? We operate at 5 knots within 12 miles of the coast of Somalia. If an attempted hijacking does not occur we will turn the boat around and cruise by at 4 knots. We will repeat this for up to 8 days making three passes a day along the entire length of Somalia. At night the boat is fully lit and bottle rockets are shot off at intervals and loud disco music beamed shore side to attract attention. Cabin space is limited respond quickly. Reserve your package before April 29 and get 100 rounds of free tracer ammo in the caliber of your choice.

Here are a few testimonials:

"FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!!" ---- Stan, Denver, CO USA

"I got three confirmed kills on my last trip. I'll never hunt big game in Africa again." -- Lars, Hamburg, Germany

"Six attacks in 4 days was more than I expected. I bagged three pirates and my 12 yr old son sank two rowboats with the minigun.

PIRATES 0, PASSENGERS 32! Well worth the trip. Just make sure your spotter speaks English." -- Ned, Salt Lake City, Utah USA

"I haven't had this much fun since flying choppers in NAM. Don't worry about getting shot by pirates as they never even got close to the ship with those weapons they use and their crappy aim -- reminds me of a drunken 'juicer' door gunner we picked up from the motor pool back in Nam." -- "Chopper" Dan, Toledo, Ohio USA.

"Like ducks in a barrel. They turned the ship around and we saw them bleed and cry in the water like little girls. Saw one wounded pirate eaten by sharks--what a laugh riot!! This is a must do." -- Zeke, Minnahaw Springs, Kentucky USA

Infrapolitics & the Nomadic Educational Machine Stevphen Shukaitis

“Stay just as far from me as me from you. Make sure that you are sure of everything I do. ’Cause I’m not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not Your academy” —Mission of Burma, “Academy Fight Song”

Interview with Julien Coupat LeMonde

Here are the responses to the questions that we [Isabelle Mandraud and Caroline Monnot] posed in writing to Julien Coupat. Placed under investigation on 15 November 2008 for “terrorism,” along with eight other people interrogated in Tarnac (Correze) and Paris, he is suspected of having sabotaged the suspended electrical cables of the SNCF. He is the last one still incarcerated. (He has asked that certain words be in italics.)

Q. How are you spending your time?

A. Very well, thank you. Chin-ups, jogging and reading.

From Barthes to Foucault and beyond – Cycling in the Age of Empire. Martin Hardie

'Whilst the onomania lasted, bickerings and divisions endured.'

Barthes is right in that he tells us that there is an onomastics of the Tour.

Why my vote goes to the pirate party Lars Gustafsson

According to an ancient source, the Emperor of Persia gave orders that the waves of the sea must be punished by beating, as the storm hindered him from transporting his troups by ship. That was quite stupid of him. Today, would he maybe have tried with Stockholm district court? Or a consultative conversation with the judge? It is odd, how strongly the situation spring 2009 – on the area of civil rights – reminds about the struggles over freedom of press in France, during the decades preceding the French revolution.