widing writes:

A new life in a new city

People – let’s face it. If we all acknowledged the possibilities of dying tomorrow, few of us would be satisfied by how we have lived and are living our life today. Is the “concealment of death” just one of those many things necessary for the continuation of western lifestyle? I believe so. In the end it’s all about priorities set in a system proclaiming “there will always be a tomorrow”.

hydrarchist writes:

The Renaissance of Workerism (Operaism)

Part Two of a Trilogy

In the last Wildcat, No. 64/65 (March 1995) we published part one of an article on workerism that we expected to have a follow-up. It examined in detail (and it is still worth reading!) the origin of the concept of "worker inquiries" and the first experiences with them at the beginning of the 60s in Italy. In the mid 1990s, books had been published on workerism in West Germany and in Italy in the 60s and 70s. At the same time, the discussion turned on Karl Heinz Roth's book, Die Wiederkehr der Proletarität (The Return of the Proletarian Condition). We wanted to use his theses on the convergence of worldwide class relations and the arisal of a world working class as the starting point for a militant investigation. But Roth's idea of the "proletarian circle," composed of academics, left unionists and base initiatives, failed. After that, there was no need for workerism for a long time on the left.

Gina Lunori writes

"Revolution Time Again..."

Gina Lunori

"....the cost of avoiding this bloodbath at home includes inflicting a bloodbath on Iraq and funding bloodbaths elsewhere. We're not fooling anyone by puttering around and delaying and attributing our reluctance to pacifism...."

I've heard Republicans talk about getting the government off our backs often
enough now that I think it's sunk in. If I ever see a Republican who actually
means it, I think I may dust off my voting suit and try to find my way to the
polling place.

nolympics writes

"Interview with Paul Krugman"

Buzzflash

This interview with New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman appeared in Buzzflash. We republish it here as it represents a fairly popular trend these days of activists for the ruling class: jumping ship and denouncing the chief executive and his cabal.

Paul Krugman to BuzzFlash.com: "Well, a couple of things. The first is that a good part of the media are essentially part of the machine. If you work for any Murdoch publication or network, or if you work for the Rev. Moon's empire, you're really not a journalist in the way that we used to think. You're basically just part of a propaganda machine. And that's a pretty large segment of the media.

As for the rest, certainly being critical at the level I've been critical –- basically saying that these guys are lying, even if it's staring you in the face –- is a very unpleasant experience. You get a lot of heat from people who should be on your side, because they accuse you of being shrill, which is everybody's favorite word for me. And you become a personal target."

"Rush Limbaugh"

Louis Proyect, Marxmail

Rush Limbaugh, the dean of rightwing talk radio, was forced to resign as football commentator for the ESPN cable sports station (he actually got his start in broadcasting in sports) after stating on a pre-game show last Sunday:

"Is It Just About Schwarzenegger?"

Mike Davis

LOS ANGELES — Voters in California are set to go to the polls on October 7. The two-part ballot will ask whether state governor Gray Davis should be removed. It will then ask voters to choose from among 135 candidates, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, to replace Davis. Every candidate in California's dark recall election comedy should be obliged to answer the question, “Whither Duroville?”. Duroville is the California visitors never see and that pundits ignore when they debate the future of the world's sixth-largest economy.

Ned Rossiter writes: Here's a report on creative labour that I've written for the
fibreculture [fc] list.

"Creative Labour and the Role of Intellectual Property"

Ned Rossiter, September 2003

Here's my report based on the survey I conducted for the fibrepower
panel initiated by Kate Crawford and Esther Milne -- Intellectual
Property—Intellectual Possibilities (Brisbane, July 03). I wanted to
explore in some empirical fashion the relationship between
intellectual property and creative labour. Why?

Anonymous Comrade writes

"American Psycho"

John Chuckman

No, I did not read the book, but what words more perfectly describe George Bush making one of the oddest speeches ever made at the UN? There he was -- with his designer suit, costly watch, and constantly-manicured haircut -- stone-faced and unrepentant for the violent destruction he caused, for his obvious lying, and for his rage against the thoughtful objections of others. Actually, unrepentant seems an inadequate description, unaware or uninterested being closer to the mark.

radicaleyes submits:

"The Multitude and the Metropolis"*

Toni Negri

1. ‘Generalising’ the strike.

It is interesting to note how, on the occasion of the Spring and Summer 2002 struggles in Italy, the project of ‘generalising’ the strike of the movement of precarious and socially diffuse workers, men and women, seemed to be harmlessly and uselessly subsumed beneath the workers’ ‘general strike’. After this experience, many comrades who participated in the struggle began to realise that whilst the workers’ strike was ‘damaging’ to the employer, the social strike passed without notice through the folds of the global working day. It neither damaged the masters nor helped the mobile and flexible workers. This realisation raised a series of questions: how do we understand how the socially diffuse worker fights; how can he concretely subvert in the space of the metropolis his subordination to production and the violence of exploitation? How does the metropolis present itself to the multitude and is it right to say that the metropolis is to the multitude what the factory used to be to the working class?

"Edging Away from Anarchy:

Inside the Indymedia Collective,

Passion vs. Pragmatism"

Gal Beckerman, Columbia Journalism Review, September 17, 2003

"Who wants to be design coordinator this week?" The question comes from
Nandor, a red-bearded trollish man moderating an evening meeting of New York
City's all-volunteer Independent Media Center. He is composing the table of
contents for the next issue of the collective's biweekly newspaper, the
Indypendent.