‘Complicity’ essay for Assembly catalogue 2000

Click on the pages to enlarge and read.

‘the best hated and most calumniated man of his time’

Engels speaking at Marx’s burial (Marx died on this day in 1883, the burial was 3 days later): On the 14th of March, at a quarter to three in the afternoon, the greatest living thinker ceased to think. He had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him [...]

We are all Troy Davis (well, hardly, but its a fucking outrage that the USA executed over a thousand people since 1975, and then some)

A cartoon made for Troy Davis by the activist known cartoonist Carlos Latuff by: We Are All Troy Davis Since I have been writing about this in relation to MIA, maybe its worth noting for the record, that the cited (is this only ‘citation’?) image cartooned here appeared in its original gross form in several films, including [...]

From the 6th floor of New Arts to here.

Dr Peter Phipps, Prof Klaus Peter Koepping and I, in some sort of three amigos mode, discuss the good ol days of trouble-making at the University of Melbourne.

A Complete System of Bayonet Exercise by Richard Francis Burton

Note to self:  Four years before the “Indian Mutiny” (first all India war of Independence), Richard F Burton published “A Complete System of Bayonet Exercise”, writing: “The Sepoy has not learned to trust to his musket as a European soldier does. The former, being inferior in physical strength, finds the firelock a cumbrous weapon, and [...]

Crash Course in Australian 1970s music

First band I went to see was Skyhooks, though apparently I was taken to Sunbury Festival, but I do not remember (first international act I saw was Deep Purple, followed soon after by the Sweet). Anyway, Australia had some fine live bands allthrough the seventies, and thanks to things like GTK, Meldrum’s Countdown and Rage, [...]

Coleridge invents trinketization

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was ahead of the game in so many ways.  His other work is of course crucial, stuff about an albatross, and the opening sequence to the newsreel section of Citizen Kane. A massive influence and to be adored. This piece is a small fragment written around 1800. To a critic Who extracted a [...]

Gore Vidal visit.

Oh oh, a post out of sequence (repel athq), but I am well impressed with octogenarian Gore Vidal’s current media blitz. South Bank Show, Hard Talk, the Guardian and the Hay Festival have all recently featured the sci-fi writing, historian, novelist, gayest pensioner, scourge of the dumb and daft (he says John McCain is “intellectually [...]

40 years ago today

Renegade Eye has posted a collection of vignettes from Nam to Yippie that deserve a look [then go fetch some stuff on Panthers and Naxalites - easy enough to find here and here] Wednesday, January 02, 2008 40 YEARS AGO TODAY This is an abridged edition of a great post at Canadian anarchist blog La [...]

Srebrenica by Ted/FDM

The ever insightful Ted Swedenburg does it well here: “One of the many fine songs on Fun’Da’Mental’s powerful 2006 release, All Is War: The Benefits of G-had, is “Srebrenica Massacre,” featuring vocals in Bosnian (a variety of Serbo-Croation, according to some) by Alma Ferovic. Since April I’ve given several talks about Fun’Da’Mental, which have included [...]

Free Stuff

CLICK www.fun-da-mental.co.uk Three free tracks from Fun Da Mental – as always uncompromising, provocative and sincere. 1.Happy to Be Clappy- exposing the deceit of the collaborators in current times and the consequences. 2. Darfur to Disneyland – Riyadh to Washington and all those in between. 3.Guilt of the Innocence – Only FDM will deal with [...]

1857.org.uk

Here is again the 1857 site, which now carries videos from the Manchester conference which are great – informative discussion of links between 1857 and imperialism today (oil, Iraq [EIC was in Basra from 1863], definition of terrorism, evaluations of Marx as journalist of 1857 etc). There is a good two hours to watch, but [...]

Marx had time for Chess in 67

Having revised the first version of Volume One of Das Kapital for the press, Marx took time out to play a certain Meyer… I have nicked this from Eli Wong, who got it via another fiendishly diligent fan, so this trace of Old Beardo from the annals of Chess history is gonna circulate like the [...]

Kennington and Oval

Today, avoiding real work that is piled up on my desk, and waiting on the gas inspector to check my pipes and tell me what I already know – ie that my listed Edwarding building is not allowed to have a gas boiler outlet sticking out where it does – for shame… well, I thought [...]

Gagarin grooves

This looks like space-fun for every day of the week, not just Sundays: ++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++Sunday 19th November 6pm – 1am Radio Gagarin: Experiments in Sunday Socialism+++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++Notting Hill Arts Club, 21 Notting Hill Gate, London W126pm – 1a.m. £5. London’s only Balkan/Russian/ Baltic/Gypsy/Klez/ Mash/Thrash/ Trash/KULTURKlash!!! Radio Gagarin’s’ bi-monthly Experiments in Sunday Socialism sessions fill Notting [...]

Sputnik Monroe

I had to repost this from comrade Renegade-Eye – I normally never notice wrestling news (that will surprise some of you) but its a sport with heros, and here clearly is one of them. Good for Elvis-Sputnyk-pretty boy – etc etc. And so thanks Renegade Eye for the obituary – sure its sad to only [...]

1857.org.uk – Commemorate the 150th anniversary of 1857 uprising from a peoples perspective

The 1857 uprisings were a part of the war of national liberation in South Asia · India and South Asia are still going through this struggle· We need to link the history of our people to what is happening today Aims and Objectives · Commemorate the 150th anniversary of 1857 uprising from a peoples perspective [...]

Patti

I’ve been trawling about wanting to find some sort of confirmation of the glorious rumour that media baron William Randolph Hearst (and his gun-toting, John Waters’ films cameo starring, socialite grand-daughter) was somehow tied up with the ongoing presence of an American Naval base – and dastardly prison/detention/concentration camp we know as Guantanamo – on [...]