Radical media, politics and culture.
September 30, 2004 - 11:15am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

"Massus Interruptus"
Ken Coughlin


They say never trust a man who lacks the capacity to play. The same could
be said of a city. The grim streets of New York are traditionally all
about
business — the business of moving cars, often at a snail's pace, to be
sure,
but business is business, and the city moves on oil and gas, doesn't it?

September 29, 2004 - 9:34pm -- nolympics
Analysis & Polemic
War

nolympics writes

The writer is currently being investigated by the military and could face treason charges and the gulag if convicted. The investigation was prompted by this article.

"Why We Cannot Win"
Al Lorentz

Before I begin, let me state that I am a soldier currently deployed in Iraq, I am not an armchair quarterback. Nor am I some politically idealistic and naïve young soldier, I am an old and seasoned Non-Commissioned Officer with nearly 20 years under my belt. Additionally, I am not just a soldier with a muds-eye view of the war, I am in Civil Affairs and as such, it is my job to be aware of all the events occurring in this country and specifically in my region.

I have come to the conclusion that we cannot win here for a number of reasons. Ideology and idealism will never trump history and reality.

September 29, 2004 - 10:06am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Technology

hydrarchist writes:

"Reluctant Revolutionaries:
The False Modesty of Reformist Critics of Copyright"
Johan Söderberg, Journal of Hyper(+)drome.Manifestation

Any estimation of the long-term viability of the intellectual property regime rests on one fundamental assumption. Whether or not immaterial use values (non-rival goods) are believed to be qualitatively different from material use values (tangible, rival goods).[1] Which position is taken at this point is decisive. Hackers, activists, and scholars campaigning against copyright stress the discrepancy between endless informational resources and limited material resources. Those neo-classical economists that have paid attention to knowledge as a factor in economic growth generally agrees:

“If a public or social good is defined as one that can be used by additional persons without causing any additional cost, then knowledge is such a good of the purest type.”[2]

September 28, 2004 - 8:56pm -- nolympics
Analysis & Polemic
Drug War

Pot Shots. The Civics Teacher

Fred Gardner


Counterpunch



Bill Britt of Long Beach is the walking, talking soul of Prop 215 -him and a few hundred other people, up and down the state, who circulated petitions back in '96 and have fought tirelessly ever since, without much material reward, and risking retribution, to see that the law gets implemented.

Britt and his allies have convinced the Long Beach officials to adopt a policy whereby the police, upon finding marijuana plants, don't confiscate them until the status of the grower has been clarified. Few jurisdictions in Southern California are so enlightened.

September 28, 2004 - 9:03am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

"Ed Koch: Only Bush Can"

Nathan Guttman, Haaretz

The former Democratic mayor of New York explains why he has embarked on
a campaign for a Republican president as the candidate who will not
abandon Israel.

NEW YORK — Ed Koch will spend a lot of time next month on the New
York-Florida shuttle. The former mayor of New York and one of the most
prominent American Jews, Koch is setting out to persuade the Jews of
Florida that this time they should vote for George W. Bush.

Even he
himself, a sworn Democrat who was elected on his party's ticket for a
number of public positions over decades, has been persuaded that this
time it is necessary to cross the line and support the Republican candidate.
Koch, who will turn 80 in December, is considered the classic Jewish
Democrat. In his most prominent position as mayor of New York for three
straight terms between 1978 and 1989, and before that as a member of the
U.S. House of Representatives, he toed the traditional party line and
was punctilious about all the domestic issues that are so important to
Democrats, especially the Jews among them.

September 27, 2004 - 10:32pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Gender

"Intersections:

The LGBTQ Role in Society, the Struggle and Socialism"

Badili Jones

The discussion of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgendered and Questioning (LGBTQ) movement
concerns a movement of profound difference that
in and of itself is a convergence of differences
centered on the question of sexuality and gender
variance. Homosexuality and bisexuality is about
sexual orientation while transgenderism is about
gender. These differences at times intersect one
another.

Over the course of time these movements
for recognition and liberation have joined. This
movement has come to be commonly known as the
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and
Questioning Movement. Another term that has
gained common usage, especially among youth has
been the term "queer." "Queer" specifically
refers to a particular development and direction
of identity, culture and community that has
expanded to include all whose sexual life and
sensual social identities depart from the
heterosexual mainstream. Historically, the term
"in the life" developed in the African-American
community to have a similar meaning as "queer"
has in the overall community.

September 27, 2004 - 9:23pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
News

"You Scare Us:

Bush Is Giving Latin America the Willies"

Carlos Fuentes, Los Angeles Times

[Carlos Fuentes is the author, most recently, of "Contra
Bush," which will be translated into seven languages.]

LONDON — The United States is strong. Latin America is
weak. This is the basic truth that shapes their
relationship. There is no irrational animosity toward
the U.S. in Latin America. There is a measure of
suspicion balanced by enormous admiration for the
culture of Herman Melville to Walt Whitman to William
Faulkner, of Hollywood and jazz, of Eugene O'Neill to
Arthur Miller. Nor is there envy of the United States.
Latin America is deeply aware of its cultural values.
Our personality is not assailed by gringo fashions. We
absorb and adapt to the cultures of the world,
including that of the U.S.

September 27, 2004 - 7:50pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Rants

"How To?"

Tiqqun

How to?

Don't know what I want,

but I know how to get it.

— Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"

I

TWENTY YEARS. Twenty years of counter-revolution. Of
preventive counter-revolution.

In Italy.

And elsewhere.

Twenty years of a sleep behind security gates, haunted
with security guards. A sleep of the bodies, imposed
by curfew.

Twenty years. The past does not pass. Because war
continues. Ramifies. Extends.

In a global networking of local devices. In an
original calibration of the subjectivities. In a new
superficial peace.

An armed peace

well made to cover the course of an imperceptible
civil war.

September 27, 2004 - 2:15pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Work

"Exploring a Socialist Alternative to Neo-Liberalism"

M. Vijaya Kumar

(Excerpt from the paper presented at the National Seminar on Neo-Liberal Globalization: Critique & Alternatives at Hyderabad, India on 22-08-2004)

Fighting Globalization & Capitalism

Globalization has been overhyped, conflictual, contradictory and open to resistance and democratic intervention and transformation and not just as a monolithic juggernaut of domination. Globalization involves both a disorganization and reorganization of capitalism, a tremendous restructuring process, which creates openings for progressive social change and intervention. The information economy represents a major restructuring of the spatial relations between capital and labour; this does not indicate that their productive relations are necessarily altered in any significant manner. The information society/information economy despite claims to the contrary is not technologically determined. Indeed, as with capitalism in general there is a central contradiction in the development of the information society. The supposition that the class struggle is over is ridiculous if the issue of the ownership of knowledge resources is the focus of analysis; the suggestion that we have move
d beyond
capitalism is rendered non-sensical if we look at the division of ownership and the conditions of workers throughout the information economy. Just as all organized resistance to capitalism appeared to be stomped out it now threatens to rise again from the very ground.

September 26, 2004 - 1:22pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
The State

The Coming US Draft — Skills & Combat?

BlatantTruth.org



In May, the Seattle Post Intelligencer published an article about a document they received through the Freedom of Information Act. It was revealed that the SSS is currently "designing procedures" for the implementation of a "Skills Draft" and had held a top-level meeting on it with Deputy Undersecretaries at the Defense Department.

This draft would change the essential mission of the Selective Service and require "virtually every young American," male and female ages 18–34, to register for the Skills Draft and list all the occupations they are proficient in to fill labor shortages throughout nearly the entire government. If enacted, the Skills Draft proposed in this Freedom of Information Act-recovered document would change America as we know it.

Pages