Thanks to Contemporary Anarchist for drawing my attention to this protest against the occupation of Palestine being organised by a coalition called “Enough! Enough!“. London, June 9th 2007, 1:30, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Be there or be apathetic.
Date Archives May 2007
How we used to be
You may remember the vague speculation in my earlier Cutty Sark post about community being traditionally much more important to human beings than competition, and therefore being something we always reach back to even though contemporary society has more or less destroyed it. Well, as luck would have it I was beginning the somewhat daunting task of reading Chris Harman’s… Read More
“Capitalism Works”
When I talk about workers, particularly in poor countries, being exploited by large companies, a frequent retort is, “Well, the people want to work there. Who are you to tell them they can’t? Would they be better off if the factory closed down and they were out of work?” A good example of this argument can be found in a… Read More
Who cares about the Cutty Sark?
So the Cutty sark, a famous 19th-Century ship that’s become something of a tourist landmark in Greenwich, caught fire this morning. I was up early this morning listening to the radio and was mildly sad when I heard the news. Like most children who grew up in London, I was taken around the Cutty Sark on my summer holidays more… Read More
Orwell said it better
Now that I’m thinking a little more clearly, I can recognise that the hopelessness I’ve been feeling lately, which reached its height this morning, stems from a very old source. Here it is: Under the capitalist system, in order that England may live in comparative comfort, a hundred million Indians must live on the verge of starvation–an evil state of… Read More
Band-aid applied
Well, I feel a little better now. Looked through photographs covering the last year of my life while listening to a random selection of my songs on iTunes (came out as “Puppet Man” by The 5th Dimension, “Kinky Afro” by the Happy Mondays, “Easy to Love” by Billie Holliday, “You Call it Madness” by Nat King Cole, “I Need Love”… Read More
Hopelessness
Sorry for the lack of posting this week. I’ve been afflicted by an all-encompassing sense of hopelessness lately when I think about the world, and blogging has seemed pointless. I look at all the people absorbed in the minutiae of their North London lives, knowing that their way of life is dependent on the suffering of millions of people around… Read More
The Vocabulary of Protest
Some day I’m going to compile a list of all the adjectives used by journalists writing about protesters. Sometimes protesters are irresponsible, obstructive or stubborn, other times they are aggressive or violent, and usually the word anarchist crops up sooner or later. What’s interesting about these adjectives is that they are never chosen by the protesters themselves. Rule number one… Read More
Whatever…
Can I bring myself to write about Tony Blair’s long-overdue departure? Do I have the energy? The interest? Barely. I’m certainly not going to go into a long, earnest assessment of the pros and cons of his reign. The reason? Very simply, this is not news. It’s a classic example of what Daniel Boorstin described as a pseudo-event. It’s an… Read More