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Analysis & Polemic

May 6, 2002 - 9:04am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Work

Unfortunately we had already published several historical articles on Mayday when this arrived, thus an apology for the delay. Below you can find writings from Marx, Luxemburg, Jackie Dana, the Spanish FAI and ..... Lenin! Enjoy.

HotSauce! writes....."another May Day is upon us and every year I like to review what lead up to this world wide holiday that still remains unacknowledged HERE, where the struggle began......

May Day IS OUR HOLIDAY.... the holiday of people everywhere who are fighting to
create a new world. It is a day to re-affirm our commitment to international
working class solidarity, but it is also a day to pay honor and tribute to
the revolutionary struggle of the people against all types of
oppression, a day when we should continue to stand firm in our opposition
to this unjust society, to its managers and their collaborators. .

Below are a few articles about May Day's origins and history.--TOPLAB

May Day: The REAL Labor Day

by Jackie Dana

"Workmen, let your watchword be: No compromise! Cowards to the rear! Men to
the front! The die is cast. The first of May, whose historic significance
will be understood and appreciated only in later years, has come." --Albert
Spies, May 1886

May 6, 2002 - 8:40am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

hydrarchist writes


Extracts from

WHOSE ASTRONAUTS?

Imagination and the Multitudes in Italy in the Days of the Global Cacerolazo

by Wu Ming, February 2002



[the following essay was featured in /Giap/ - 2nd Series - #7, February 10th,
2002. It was reviewed by French magazine Les Inrockuptibles <http://www.wumingfoundation.com/italiano/rasse gna/inrockuptibles_wm.html>]





It is true that the "movement of the movements" - albeit sorely-tried - has
survived the 2001 butcheries of Genoa, Gothenburg etc. Indeed, it has started
over in spite of the many attempts at wiping it out, in Italy and possibly
the rest of the planet.

It is true that even September 11th and the following Fifth Reich ideological
flocking failed to stop the mobilization of myriads of people. Indeed, the
opposition to the enduring global war provided one more reason to take the
streets and organize.  

It is true that millions of exiles from the old "official" left are crowding
on the borders of this manifold movement. These people are demanding to take
part, they need issues, ideas, words and action to restore their hope in the
opposition to the present and allow them to figure out the future.

It's all true. That's why we have found ourselves facing a lot of new problems.


The first and bigger one is the problem of imagination, i.e. the relationship
between this movement's imagery and its imagination, the way the movement
thinks of itself and the way it figures out that new, possible world it talks
about [...]

So far, nobody has managed to interpret the multitude. At best we managed
to evoke the multitude, as happened in Genoa [July 2001], always semi-consciously,
the way apprentice sorcerers do.

May 1, 2002 - 12:47pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Rants

Eye halve a spelling chequer

It came with my pea sea

It plainly marques four my revue

Miss stakes eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key a type a word

And weight four it two say

Weather eye am wrong oar write

It shows me straight a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid

It nose bee fore two long

And eye can put the error rite

Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it

I am shore your pleased two no

Its letter perfect awl the weigh

My chequer tolled me sew.

Enjoy the poem

Author unknown

May 1, 2002 - 10:35am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Work

THE ORIGINS AND TRADITIONS OF MAYDAY

By Eugene W. Plawiuk

The international working class holiday; Mayday, originated in pagan
Europe. It was a festive holy day celebrating the first spring planting.
The ancient Celts and Saxons celebrated May 1st as Beltane or the day of
fire. Bel was the Celtic god of the sun.

May 1, 2002 - 9:11am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

Historic Antiwar Demonstration

By Jack A. Smith

One of the most extraordinary antiwar manifestations in the long history
of peace activism in the United States took place in Washington April 20
when up to 100,000 people participated in different gatherings and then
joined for a unified march to a concluding rally in front of the
Capitol. The police estimated at least 75,000 demonstrators were in the
streets. The numbers alone were not historic, though the crowd was huge
by any standard. But three other factors contributed toward the
uniqueness of this action:

April 30, 2002 - 2:05pm -- nomadlab
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

Anonymous Comrade writes "This is a technical critique of Mike Albert's theory, I point out the positive aspects of his reinterpretation of Marxism, then tell what I think is wrong, and then offer a few suggestions for viewing his contribution in context of what I've said. This is technical but hopefully not BS

The article's legitmacy depends on the truthfulness of a certain type of perspectivism,
but I really hope that it rises above what latter day Nietszcheans have produced. But like them it focusses a lot on the roots of the percieved problems, hopefully the roots are not contradicted too much by the leaves, as it were.

April 28, 2002 - 1:17pm -- nomadlab
Analysis & Polemic
News

Anonymous Comrade writes "When the U.S. Navy announced it would again practice bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques in April 2002, most Puerto Ricans were stunned. The Navy had practiced in Norfolk, VA the last time and few thought they would return. It was particularly strange given that the Navy would bomb Vieques during the 3rd anniversary of the death of David Sanes (April 19, 1999), the security guard that died as a result of an errant Navy bomb that set off the most recent massive movement against the Navy in Vieques.

April 28, 2002 - 1:15pm -- nomadlab
Analysis & Polemic
Independent Media

hydrarchist writes "


This essay was written by some comrades at openflows and linked here as it may provide a fruitful catalyst for reflection on the role of Interactivist.

Open Source Intelligence


by Felix Stalder and Jesse Hirsh

version 1.0 April 2002


In the world of spies and spooks, Open Source Intelligence (OSI) signifies useful information gleaned from public sources, such as newspapers, phone books and price lists. We use the term differently. For us, OSI is the application of collaborative principles developed by the Open Source Software movement to the gathering and analysis of information. These principles include: peer review, reputation- rather than sanctions-based authority, the free sharing of products, and flexible levels of involvement and responsibility.

April 26, 2002 - 3:22am -- Stenglander
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

Anti-Capitalism as Ideology...and as Movement (Part Two)

The "movement" according to the traditional left[44]

One of the features of the scene out of which the "anti-capitalist
movement" germinated in Britain was the relative absence of the organized
left - in particular, the absence of the largest Trotskyist sect in
Britain, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). If Trotskyist groups can
be situated on a spectrum of purism to opportunism, the SWP can clearly
be located at the opportunist end. Any hint of a movement or campaign
developing in response to a state attack, a rise in racism, a war
or whatever, is met by an effort to set up or promote a front by the
SWP. However, efforts to relate at a local level to anti-roads and
similar campaigns fell flat, and their setting up of a front against
the Criminal Justice Bill (CJB) in 1994 also met with little success.[45]

April 26, 2002 - 3:08am -- Stenglander
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

hydrarchist writes: from Aufheben, September 2001:

Anti-Capitalism as Ideology...and as Movement?


Preface: From anti-"globalization" to opposing the war

The events of 11/9/01 occurred as we were preparing this edition of
Aufheben for printing. Naturally the development of a class opposition
to the ‘war’ has become a major concern of those who do the magazine.
With events changing from day to day, we have decided to limit our
comments here to a few updates to the Israel/Palestine article and
this preface to our article on the ‘anti-capitalist movement’.

Before the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Centre, a great
deal of attention had been focused on the mobilizations against "globalization".
At the mobilization in Genoa, confrontations between demonstrators
and police reached a new peak of ferocity. A lot of eyes turned toward
the next big event - the Washington meetings of the World Bank and
IMF - to see where it was all going. September the 11th changed everything.
A ‘war on terrorism’ has been declared. What sort of war this will
be remains to be seen. (Colin Powell’s definition of its aims as a
prolonged campaign against those who threaten, 'America, Americans,
its allies and American interests throughout the world' actually sounds
like a description of aims of standard US foreign policy.)

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