Thinking

Marxism 2007: Day Three (Saturday)

“Engels and the rise of class society” wasn’t quite what I expected. Firstly the speaker was not Mark Thomas the comedian-activist, but Mark Thomas the manager of socialist bookshop Bookmarks. And secondly, he was talking not about modern class society,…
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Marxism 2007: Day Two

The day started perfectly. A last-minute programme change and poor organisation meant that only two other people turned up to hear Ernesto Gonzalez and Andres Lofiego talk about their experience with occupying a printing factory in Buenos Aires. Sad for…
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Marxism 2007

I am attending the oddly-named Marxism 2007 conference for the next few days. I say “oddly-named” because the Bearded Wonder himself doesn’t get much of a look-in as far as I can see – the usual broader left-wing causes like…
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Shorthand thinking

Shorthand language results in shorthand thinking. Ideas are abbreviated to fit into a small space, not nurtured and allowed to breathe and grow.
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Get in touch with your inner racist!

When I lived in New York, there was a small shop across the street that was owned by a man from Afghanistan. I used to visit him in the days after September 11, and he had a bewildered, beleaguered look…
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Happy July 4th!

As Americans celebrate their Independence Day tomorrow by grilling dead animals and hoisting flags, I have a proposal to make for the rest of the world: let’s declare our independence from America. So many people are doing it already –…
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“The Muslims are breeding”

It’s sad that there’s a site called “Islamophobia Watch.” Not, as its critics would argue, because there’s no such thing as Islamophobia and it’s all just political correctness gone mad, but because it shows that every day, several times a…
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Heal Thyself

If, like me, you’re a meat-eater, you NEED to watch the video over at The Heathlander. Personally I love a bacon sandwich. But I am becoming more and more incapable of reconciling that with the way animals are treated. I…
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Reading Chomsky

When I first started reading Noam Chomsky’s work it was with a large amount of, dare I say it, shock and awe. Every few sentences I went scurrying off to the copious footnotes, unable to believe that the US really…
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