Launch of the "Justice for Walter Rodney" Committee

Many persons from around the world welcomed the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding the assassination of Walter Rodney on June 13, 1980. A number of concerned citizens from all parts of the world have come together to form the Justice for Walter Rodney Committee. Among the tasks of this newly established Committee is to work with others in all parts of the world to ensure that the processes of this inquiry are fair, transparent and does not dishonor the memory of Walter Rodney.

Since the formation of the Justice for Walter Rodney Committee, we have formally communicated with the Secretariat of the Commission with specific recommendations to enhance the process of a fair and transparent inquiry.

As a consequence of our involvement and our knowledge of the work of Walter Rodney we informed the Secretariat of the Commission that we are willing and ready to assist the work of the commission in arriving at the truth. Many of the media are certainly aware that most if not all of us called, and have continued to clamor over the last 34 years for an impartial international commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances, events, institutions, organizations, and individuals that played a role in the killing of Walter Rodney.

"We Are All Ibus, and Basta!"
French Interview with bolo'bolo Author P.M.

[Translated and Introduced by Patrice Riemens]

The year 1983 saw the publication, in German-speaking Switzerland, of one of the oddest books ever: bolo'bolo, writen by one 'P.M.'. The book was nothing less than an overture toward an alternative model of society - at the global scale. A concrete utopia of sorts, based a multitude of self-supporting communities called Bolos. Thirty years later, the model has lost nothing of its potency. What probably can't be said of capitalism.

ephemera politics of consumption issue released
volume 13, number 2
The politics of consumption

This age of austerity comes on the back of a lengthened period of apparently rampant consumer excess: that was a party for which we are all now having to pay. A spectacular period of unsustainably funded over-indulgence, it seems, has now given rise to a sobering period of barely fundable mere-subsistence. Consumption, narrated along such lines, is a sin which has to be paid for. Beyond the deceptive theology of consumption, however, lies actual politics. In May 2012, we hosted a conference at Dublin’s Royal Society of the Antiquaries of Ireland in order to analyse and debate the politics of consumption. This special issue is the outcome of the discussions which took place during that event. It features conceptual and empirical investigations into the politics of consumption, a head-to-head debate on the idea of consumer citizenship, a series of notes on the relationship between art, politics, and consumption, and reviews of two recent books. Taken together, these diverse pieces underline the need for a politically-oriented analysis of consumption, not only for the sake of informing academic debates but also for the sake of informing contemporary consumption practices. Consumption, we argue, is political: to approach it otherwise is to dogmatically seek refuge in a world of fantasy.

new ephemera issue on free work released
The relationship between freedom and work is a complex one. For some, they are considered opposites: ‘true’ freedom is possible only once the necessity of work is removed, and a life of luxury attained. For others, work itself provides an opportunity to achieve a sense of freedom and authenticity. In recent years for example, advances in human resource management have promoted hard work, a deep sense of commitment to one’s job, and the acceptance of working conditions that are ostensibly exploitative, as offering the promise of freedom. Recent corporate and entrepreneurial celebrations of playfulness also provide examples of the deep entanglement of contemporary forms of knowledge work with ideals of freedom.

In this issue of ephemera, our contributors inquire into the relation between freedom and work. They ask, for example, whether it is even possible to free oneself from ideals of freedom? Or is the fantasy of an imagined place of freedom, the utopia in which no work taints our lives, simply too prevalent? It may be the case that in contemporary life, we fool ourselves yet further when we ask for freedom within our working life. But can we free ourselves from the very prospect of freedom?