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"Zizek is not a Radical?"
Andrew Robinson and Simon Tormey
In the world of radical theory, Slavoj Zizek has
attained the status of intellectual superstar. Terry
Eagleton claims Zizek "provides the best intellectual
high since Anti-Oedipus", and with good reason. (1)
Zizek's work is passionate, exciting, funny,
frustrating, all-consuming, interdisciplinary and
paradigm-shaking. Further, he endorses immediately
"political" positions and claims that seem
uncompromisingly "radical" when compared to rivals
such as Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Judith
Butler. He relentlessly unmasks those he sees as
closet liberals in his enduring war on the terrorism
of political moderation, from "radical democracy" to
multiculturalism, denouncing all attempts to improve
liberal capitalism from within its own horizon. (2)
Moreover, Zizek's radicalism seems refreshingly
original and relevant whilst daring to confront the
existing socio-symbolic system. But is this
appearance of a radical break with a flawed present
sustainable?
"Behind the Balaclavas of South-East Mexico"
Sylvie Deneuve and Charles Reeve, Paris, August 1995
"Because those who are too quick to admire and who are suddenly convinced are rarely the salt of the earth." -- B. Traven, In The Freest State In The World, 1919, Insomniac Edition, Paris 1995.
1.
In the Golden Age of 'actually non-existing socialism' journeys were organised to the countries of the radiant future. Believers were then invited to express their enthusiasm for a reality staged by the lords of the manor. In this way people visited the soviet socialism of the USSR, the Maoist socialism of China, the miniature socialism of Albania, the bearded socialism of Cuba, the Sandinista socialism of Nicaragua, etc. Woe betide those who contested the objective, scientific and unquestionable character of these fabricated realities. Until the day these systems collapsed. People thought they had seen but had seen nothing!
THE TROJAN HORSE
Jay Bulworth
http://www.dissent.com.au
Katharine Gun is a 29 year old English woman who spent a part of her formative years in North-east Asia. As a result, she is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. She used to work as a translator at Britain’s super-secret GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), the signals intelligence agency that violates privacy every day by eavesdropping on phone calls, emails and other communications. Katharine exposed US espionage against member delegations at the UN Security Council in the lead-up to the war on Iraq. Espionage at the United Nations is prohibited under the Vienna conventions on diplomatic relations. When charged under the Official Secrets Act, she signalled her intention to argue the defence of ‘necessity’ – the prevention of an illegal war involving the loss of thousands of lives. On Tuesday 24th February 2004, her legal team served documents demanding to see any advice given to ministers about the legality of the war. Two days later, all charges were dropped and Katharine Gun walked free.
It should be noted that the leaks showed a “surge” in US espionage against member delegations. The US engages in such activity every day. What was unusual was the “surge”, or increase, in surveillance as the US tried to manipulate the vote and obtain authorisation for its war on Iraq. There are people of goodwill who believe in the sanctity of international law, and who feel disturbed by this event, as they do about the US-led aggression against Iraq without UN authorisation.
This article is for those people. It is written in order to dispel illusions in the United Nations, which was created as an instrument of US foreign policy. Furthermore, the reader should understand that the US began spying on member delegations even before the UN existed.
Big Brother Watching:
The Predictions of Orwell
Rolando Perez Betancourt, Granma Diario, May 28, 2003
Without ceremony from those who, during the Cold War,
exalted him as if he were a god of letters, Englishman
George Orwell reaches his 100th birthday. Orwell was the
great critic of the Soviet State and of fascism, and his
sublime obsession was to transform political literature
into art.
Francisco Trindade writes:
"On the Confederation, or the Proudhonian Federal Structure"
Francisco Trindade
Proudhon ignores completely the characteristics of the political model that permits [estender] the State of right to the relations between the nations. For more on this, and on the technical responsability for the totality of the site, please visit:
http://www.franciscotrindade.com
"Speech at the European Social Forum, Paris, November 2003"
Toni Negri
[On Thursday 20 November 2003 the Global Radio-Padova website published the
text of Toni Negri's speech at the European Social Forum in Paris. The
original Italian text can be found on their website at
Global. Translated by Ed Emery.]
"I am Italian, so I shall speak in Italian -- particularly because I too
would like to begin by remembering with sympathy and with much emotion the
Italians who have died in Iraq in recent days. Italians have not been used
to having war-dead, not since fascism sent many of our friends and relations
into the monstrous adventures of the Second World War. The last thing we
needed was for a democratic regime to overturn the very terms of the Italian
constitution by sending poor wretches to die in a war which the vast
majority of Italians do not understand the reasons for, and which they
oppose.
"Noam Chomsky, Superstar"
Derrick O'Keefe, Seven Oaks Magazine
The Noam Chomsky phenomenon swept Vancouver this weekend. Chomsky, the MIT linguistics professor, prolific anti-establishment writer, and perhaps the closest thing there is to a living icon of the North American Left, spoke to a crowd of close to 20,000 at the March 20 anti-war rally at Sunset Beach, and then followed it up with two sold-out talks at the Orpheum theatre. It's worth looking at the lasting and massive appeal of Chomsky, to find out what it says about the man himself and the state of movements for social change.
"The Spaces of a Cultural Question"
Brian Holmes interviewed by Marion von Osten
[In preparation of
"Atelier Europa: A Small Post-Fordistic Drama," opening April 2,
2004 in the Munich Kunstverein.]
Marion: You are editing the next issue of Multitudes on cultural and
creative labor. Can you explain why and out of what perspective you look
on cultural labor and creative work, i.e. do you think it is possible to
explain the inner dynamics of post-Fordist production modes due to this
specific form of work and its conditions?
hydrarchist writes:
"Sharon's 'Disengagement' a Pacifier for the Majority:
An Anarchist Take on Israeli Politics"
Tanya Reinhart
Getting out of the Gaza Strip is an old dream of the majority in
Israeli society. Even before the Oslo agreements in 1993, the call
to get out of there was heard after every terror attack. Today,
according to the polls, it has the support of 60-70% of the Israelis.
But governments come and fall, and still, this majority has not
found the political power to realize its will.
"Is Truth Enough?
The Bush Administration's Lies and the Anti-War Movement's Truths"
George Caffentzis
[A transcription of a talk given to the "Truth and Consequences" Anti-War Forum at the
University of Maine, Augusta, Maine, on March 20, 2004.]
1. Polls and Truth
I was preparing an up-date on the developments in the oil industry in Iraq since the US invasion last year when I noticed on the front page of the March 17, 2004 Portland Press Herald a graph showing the results of a poll taken in eight countries concerning the motives of the Bush Administration in launching the war on terrorism (which it elides with its invasion and occupation of Iraq). It was very disconcerting and has forced me to think again about politics and truth. Along with a little summary up-date of the situation of Iraqi oil industry one year into the occupation then, I want to look more carefully at the consequences of the truth for our political work.
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