The rebel undoubtedly demands a certain degree of freedom for himself; but in no case, if he is consistent, does he demand the right to destroy the existence and the freedom of others. He humiliates no one. The freedom he claims, he claims for all; the freedom he refuses, he forbids everyone to enjoy. He is not only the slave against the master, but also man against the world of master and slave. Therefore, thanks to rebellion, there is something more in history than the relation between mastery and servitude. Unlimited power is not the only law. It is in the name of another value that the rebel affirms the impossibility of total freedom while he claims for himself the relative freedom necessary to recognize this impossibility.
The Rebel
Albert Camus
The Rebel
Albert Camus
Interview with Jacques Ranciere
Libertarianism for Who?
Who is served by neo - liberal economics? Who is actually liberated? Those with the money? Is the essence of humanity to be determined by an inanimate object that human's themselves created? In the words of John Lennon and Francis Wheen 'strange days indeed'.
Neither Capitalism nor Communism, but Decolonization: An Interview with Walter
Mignolo by Christopher Mattison
The overall tendency, beyond the defense of capitalism, is that the world is in
need of a “new paradigm.” What this calls for is a horizon of life that will
guide both the remodeling of the current institutions and the creation of new
institutions. Read whole article
need of a “new paradigm.” What this calls for is a horizon of life that will
guide both the remodeling of the current institutions and the creation of new
institutions. Read whole article
Rachel Corrie - The Documentary
On the 16th of March, 2003, 23-year-old American
human rights worker Rachel Corrie was crushed to
death by an Israeli military bulldozer. She was trying to
prevent the Israeli army from destroying the home of a
physician and his family in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Here is the video made by human rights watchers in Gaza and an expose of the role of Israel in land grab and the abuse of an ethnic group. Click to watch
human rights worker Rachel Corrie was crushed to
death by an Israeli military bulldozer. She was trying to
prevent the Israeli army from destroying the home of a
physician and his family in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Here is the video made by human rights watchers in Gaza and an expose of the role of Israel in land grab and the abuse of an ethnic group. Click to watch
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Projectionism and the construction of 'God'.
Laurie Taylor discusses psychological projection.
'Projection' is a trait that undermines human potential and leads us as a species to be serial underachievers. Our capacity is so much greater but we relinquish it by propogating a myth that a supernatural being delivers us or orders us based on some subjective notions of what is 'good' and what is 'bad'. That is not to say that theology is redundant just that the desire for deity or theism is superfluous to our generic needs. Projectionism is of course omnipotent (no irony intended). The 'blame the victim' nature of economic individualism and socially conservative paradigms relies to a very great extent on projectionism. However the control of this projection needs to be explained by applying, for example, neo marxist and post structuralist theories. |
Debunking the claim that higher income tax rates reduce GDP
This is a massive conclusion to be drawn
and shows that the neo liberal propagandists of the Thatcher and Reagan era
either lied or were mistaken. The imperialist policies of the IMF and WTO... are
wrong! Whatever those on the right may argue this evidence is damning, and similar to the smoking gun lies of the lead up to the Iraq war, the agenda is not about increasing holistic growth but to increase the personal
growth of the very powerful with no concern for the national or international
interest. This also has repercussions for those on the right who argue that they
are patriotic or nationalistic. Pursuing this economic paradigm is in direct
contrast to this neo conservative hegemony. This must be shared broadly and used
in debate to counter the ignorance and deceit that is being universally
imposed. Please read article.
Dan Hind: What's the Point of Political Action?
But while broadcasters and politicians insist that they should define what is
and isn't political, direct action by citizens is changing their agenda and
forcing changes to the content of public speech. Party leaders have been forced
to notice problems they successfully ignored for at least a generation. A few
people acting as if they matter have done this. By all means, believe that you
are powerless to change things for the better. Irresponsibility has its charms,
after all. But bear in mind that you are wrong. You aren't powerless. Read more...
and isn't political, direct action by citizens is changing their agenda and
forcing changes to the content of public speech. Party leaders have been forced
to notice problems they successfully ignored for at least a generation. A few
people acting as if they matter have done this. By all means, believe that you
are powerless to change things for the better. Irresponsibility has its charms,
after all. But bear in mind that you are wrong. You aren't powerless. Read more...
Owen Jones Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class
In modern Britain, the working class has become
an object of fear and ridicule. From Little Britain’s Vicky Pollard to the demonization of Jade Goody, media and politicians alike dismiss as feckless, criminalized and ignorant a vast, underprivileged swathe of society whose members have become stereotyped by one, hate-filled word: chavs. Owen Jones, in his book Chavs, which has opened up a major debate about the stereotyping and hatred of the working class in Britain explores how the working class has gone from salt of the earth to scum of the earth. Exposing the ignorance and prejudice at the heart of the chav caricature, one based on the media’s inexhaustible obsession with an indigent white underclass, he portrays a far more complex reality. Moving through Westminster’s lobbies and working-class communities from Dagenham to Dewsbury Moor, Jones reveals the increasing poverty and desperation of communities made precarious by wrenching social and industrial change, and all but abandoned by the aspirational, society-fragmenting policies of Thatcherism and New Labour. The chav stereotype, he argues, is used by governments as a convenient figleaf to avoid genuine engagement with social and economic problems, and to justify widening inequality. |
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Chris Hitchens - Religion is Totalitarianism
“Hitchens said faith itself was the problem. That it undermined the ability of society to move forward. He thought the entire religious enterprise was foul.
It was a real problem to have so many people who could not justify their belief in the invisible without a reasoned argument.” (Justin Trottier, president of the Toronto-base Canadian Secular Alliance and a leading voice in the Canadian atheism movement.) “I would say that intelligent atheists keep religious people on their toes” by forcing them to really think about what they believe." (Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest in New York.) |
The Reproduction of Everyday Life by Fredy Perlman
Penny Rimbaud of Crass exploring Political Anarchism
The role of the media in EXCLUDING the ideas that matter
Karl Korsech's book on Marx for your delectation
Thomas Paine
Benedict De Spinoza (1632-1677)
Spinoza’s ethical theory is largely one of liberation, a liberation that is directly tied to the cultivation of reason. In this respect, Spinoza’s ethical orientation is much more akin to that of the ancients than to that of his fellow moderns. Like the ancients, he sought not so much to analyze the nature and source of moral duty as to describe the ideal human life. This is the life that is lived by the so-called ‘free-man’. It is a life of one who lives by the guidance of reason rather than under the sway of the passions. Read More.
Animated Radicalism
It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself. Please Find.
David Harvey Explains Marx
A Talk on Marx's Method from David Harvey on Vimeo.
Explaining Communism in the 21st Century (in 2 Parts).
Callinicos, Holloway and Zizek |
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The History of Communism (click me)
Marx at the Margins: Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies
Louis Althusser
Alain Badiou
THE MARK STEEL LECTURES
The Karl Marx Lecture
The Rene Descartes Lecture
The Aristotle Lecture
The Che Guevara Lecture
The Thomas Paine Lecture
The Rene Descartes Lecture
The Aristotle Lecture
The Che Guevara Lecture
The Thomas Paine Lecture
David Harvey
The David Harvey and Chris Harman Debate
How the Right take advantage of economic crisis
Democracy via Marx
Chris Harman: Understanding where we are and where we can go
Anti Capitalism: Theory and Practice
Anti Capitalism: Theory and Practice (part 2)
Engels and the Origins of Society
Engels and the Origins of Society (part 2)
Analysing Inperialism
Base and Superstructure
Anti Capitalism: Theory and Practice (part 2)
Engels and the Origins of Society
Engels and the Origins of Society (part 2)
Analysing Inperialism
Base and Superstructure
Historian of the People for the People
In January 2010 Howard Zinn died (Click for obituary). Aged 87 he had dedicated his life to campaigning and demonstrating for civil rights. If this wasn't enough he also constructed a non elitist historical analysis in which he sought to make sense of American society by detailing the experiences of the American people from their perspective. Thus he advocated a phenomenological approach to the understanding of change and emancipation. His premise was that battles, strikes, resistance, slavery, oppression... are all experienced by the people acoss the whole of society and only makes sense in their own words. Enjoy.
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Norman Finkelstein
Dennis Potter
In his last interview from 1994, Dennis Potter shares his contempt for the oppressive nature of the media. In particular he reflects his desire to rid the world of Rupert Murdoch. A majestic playwright who helped change the nature of television this man was a shining light in the darkness of contemporary 'entertainment'.
Orwell aka John Freeman?
Can a Socialist Society Be Fun? ...I suggest that the real objective of Socialism is not happiness. Happiness hitherto has been a by-product, and for all we know it may always remain so.The real objective of Socialism is human brotherhood. This is widely felt to be the case, though it is not usually said, or not said loudly enough. Men use up their lives in heart-breaking political struggles, or get themselves killed in civil wars, or tortured in the secret prisons of the Gestapo, not in order to establish some central-heated, air-conditioned, strip-lighted Paradise, but because they want a world in which human beings love one another instead of swindling and murdering one another...
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia
Nicholas D. Wrathall’s spiky, engaging valediction to the writer, who died in August 2012 at 86. A portrait of a literary lion in winter, the documentary wants to be both a career overview for the uninitiated and a final platform for Vidal’s unyielding political scorn. It’s better at the latter than the former, if only because listening to Vidal was always better than hearing about him. Wrathall’s film catches its subject at his most physically frail yet more than ever assured in his outrage. Of post-9/11 America, Vidal thunders, “We have a totalitarian government that wants to watch everyone — we are totally policed. That is contrary to everything in our Constitution.”
Nicholas D. Wrathall’s spiky, engaging valediction to the writer, who died in August 2012 at 86. A portrait of a literary lion in winter, the documentary wants to be both a career overview for the uninitiated and a final platform for Vidal’s unyielding political scorn. It’s better at the latter than the former, if only because listening to Vidal was always better than hearing about him. Wrathall’s film catches its subject at his most physically frail yet more than ever assured in his outrage. Of post-9/11 America, Vidal thunders, “We have a totalitarian government that wants to watch everyone — we are totally policed. That is contrary to everything in our Constitution.”
In 2016, the year of the EU Referendum, of Syria, of Putin and of Trump, HyperNormalisation feels almost jarringly perfect. In many ways, it's the film that Curtis' whole career has been building towards as many of the cultural, social and political undercurrents he's explored (mass manipulation, the surprisingly compatible goals of Islamic and neoliberal fundamentalism, the unintended consequences of developed world interventionism) seemingly begin to form an unstoppable tsunami.