Tag Archive for 'capitalism'

David Harvey at Occupy London

November 15, 2011 0 Comments

Via Elaine Castillo.

And this is actually how politics has been evolving, over the last 30 years in particular. More and more money buys influence and buys political power. It also structures the media. Increasingly we find it dominates what’s going on inside of universities. It dominates our educational system, so that universities increasingly become places where all you learn is neoliberal ideology. Where all you learn is corporatist manegerial techniques. And those corporatist manegerial techniques are about actually how to squeeze more and more money out of those who can least afford it.

David Harvey at Occupy London / November 12, 2011 / International Day of Solidarity from Elaine Castillo on Vimeo.

Get the full transcript here.

Tags: , , , , , . Categories: General and Politics

Remember, remember…

November 5, 2011 0 Comments

Tags: , , . Categories: General and Politics

Oil and the Left – Imre Szeman

January 12, 2011 0 Comments

An interview with Imre Szeman, via Platypus:

The tendency is to think of oil as an externality, an element of capitalism (energy) that can be easily substituted by some other element (solar, wind, nuclear, etc.) without much impact on the nature or character of the system. This is why, when there is talk about energy futures, it seems to be assumed that the economic system of that future will continue to be capitalism. “Oil capitalism” is intended to make us think differently and more deeply about the socio-ontology of capitalism. Could we have capitalism without oil? Plainly. Would it have the same character and form, especially on a global scale? I think not. This is more than a game of alternative histories, of asking, “What if there was no such thing as oil?” Rather, it is meant to confront some challenges coming in the future, and to get the Left to think about topics essential to social emancipation and justice. We tend not to think about the work that energy does socially, and will have to do even if political circumstances change.

Tags: , . Categories: Politics

Rich Man in His Automobile Unharmed

December 9, 2010 0 Comments

In an unprecedented move today, news outlets around the world shifted their focus from their usual pandering to systemic economic conditions and biased focus on root-causes of social issues. Instead they turned their lens to offer much needed coverage to the myriad challenges faced by centuries-old hereditary privilege and the beneficiaries of fully tax payer-funded education.

et tu Grauniad?

I wonder why they chose that route, seeing as the protest had been going on for hours before they set of for the Royal Variety Performance. Would have made sense to avoid driving through such a potential dangerous situation. Not very chivalrous I’d say, putting yourself and your wife in “the line of fire” like that. Though I suppose it helps shift the headlines…

The performance is a benefit for the Entertainment Artistes’ Benevolent Fund, which “cares for hundreds of entertainers throughout the UK who need help and assistance as a result of old age, ill-health, or hard times, and Brinsworth House, in Twickenham, Middlesex, is the Fund’s dedicated nursing home, caring for elderly members of the entertainment profession.” The EABF looks like it will need the help, since the same austerity regime that is now forcing students to pay for the irresponsibility of the rich will also require the same of the aged.

EDIT An hour later the CBC and BBC lead pages are the same, and others have followed suit:

The Paper of Record

No surprise here:

Egregious:

Tags: , , , , , , . Categories: Rant

k-punk: The Great Bullingdon Club Swindle

October 25, 2010 0 Comments

k-punk, via I cite.

The Great Bullingdon Club Swindle is larceny and deception on such a grand scale that one almost has to admire its breathtaking audacity. The Bullingdon Club has pushed Doublethink to new limits with its mantric repetition of the ludicrous claim that it was New Labour policy, rather than the bank bail-outs, that was responsible for the massive deficit. The strategy seems to be to employ the illocutionary power of repetition – if they keep saying it, then it will have been true. The Bullingdon boys are working a mass hypnosis trick, forcing through shock doctrine measures while the population are still in a kind of post-crash trance. But where, previously, neoliberals had used the crises in other political systems (state socialism, social democracy) as an opportunity to helicopter in their ‘reforms’, on this occasion they are using a crisis brought about by neoliberal policy itself to try to electro-shock the neoliberal programme back into life.

Read the rest.

Tags: , , . Categories: Politics