photo by SG

Friday, April 25, 2008

Last on my List

Okay, last post before I dig in for finals. A round-up of things I am considering:

1. Congratulations to the newest bourgeois revolution in the world: Nepal! Thanks to the Maoists, Nepal can finally move beyond the backwards monarchy and into industrial capitalism.

Oh I'm sorry, what did you say? "Communism"? No, we wouldn't want that. The Maoists have encourage foreign investment and want to work with the other bourgeois politicians. It's like that great prole.info pamphlet said: the best way for a third-world country to reach capitalism is to have a Communist Party takeover.

2. Props to CrimethInc on the clever detournment of Elle magazine's article about Anna, the FBI snitch. Great work, ya'll. Now, with all your clever graphic design knowledge and seemingly bottomless budget, could you go out and, ya know, get better politics?

3. Must. Use. College. Funds. To. Buy.

4. "We refute the reality of a communist movement because we require a purer form of communism, and that in itself seeks to retrieve the idea of such a movement but now preserved from its more obvious and embarrassing absurdities. Nothing of what we have achieved is as negative as the behavior and opinions of those who say yes to the world we live in, those who accept it without question and shove as much of it as they can down their gob without a thought about it – that's true nihilism. And we are very pale imitators by contrast."
-"FD", considering an article from '39 by a long-lost council communist. His original piece. I can't decide if this new "nihilist communism" thing is the cynical other side of the autonomist's coin or just masturbation. Either way, it's enjoyable.

Discovered through this awesome journal, Letters, that I hope comes out with a second issue soon.

Alright, that's the short list for right now. See you when the struggle gets hot. Err, or when I finish all my papers.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Welcome to the Terrordome

Via Al Jazeera:
"Food riots have erupted in Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Philippines and Haiti in the past month. In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops have been deployed to avoid food being seized from fields and warehouses"

Wake up, First World, the global South is knocking at the door. And it's got a bone to pick with you.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Going in Circles

A message to my fellow revolutionaries, brought to you by common sense:

Obama will not do anything to help the Left. If he gets elected, he will not "open space" for us to organize. He will not create discursive locations where we can begin enacting our agenda. If anything, history shows us the opposite is true; it is the ruling class's fear of the radical left that permits liberals to get elected.

Obama's comments this week where he repudiated Bill Ayers is a clear indication of how he will treat us. What's ironic is that when I met Bill in January, he sounded like he would be voting Obama. Barack's attempt to out-McCarthy Hillary will become old news to excited "revolutionaries" if he gets elected.

I've seen many people, including a big crew in SDS, foretelling the coming of a new age when we can "project" our agenda upon Obama. These folks believe that Obama's "Everyman" personality will allow us to try and push authentic leftist demands through him. We can demand change and when he doesn't give it to us, we can say "See, he's not the Obama you thought he was!" and gain the moral edge.

This, of course, is patently stupid. Obama is not just an easel. He is a human being, who can say "Fuck off, radicals." He has done so. He will continue to do so.

We already have the moral edge. We're fucking revolutionaries! We're fighting the worst, most detestable empire the world has ever known. And it's people like Barack Obama that make it so. If we only had to deal with straight-up evil fucks like Bush all the time, we would already have blown the roof of this farcical democracy. Obama comes from a long line of contemptible co-opters, the Democratic Party. He will change nothing, he will be nothing new, you cannot use him, he will use you. Yet somehow, every 4 years we somehow think things have changed. No, and they never will.

The Democrats are the enemy. Play with fire and you're going to get burned.