Sunday, January 31, 2016

The Maoist Enemy: China’s Challenge in 1960s East Germany

DDR-Briefmarke_1951_Mao_Zedong_50Pf

This article examines the challenge of Chinese communism in East Germany in the1960s. It shows how the Sino–Soviet Split and the Chinese Cultural Revolution endangered the public transcripts of East German state socialism by undermining its organizing metaphors and principles. Chinese cadres used their East Berlin embassy as a stage, showcase and megaphone for their dissenting vision of communism throughout the decade, winning some support from elderly communists, young anti-authoritarianand students from the Global South. Studying the East German campaign againswhat was known as ‘Mao Zedong Thought’ sheds light on the transnational traffic of actors and ideas within the Second World in the turbulent decade of the 1960s. The official and vernacular response to the Maoist challenge suggests that East German ideology was constituted by a double demarcation in the 1960s, against Western social democracy and capitalism to its right and Chinese communism to its left

This article, from the Journal of Contemporary History 0(0), makes for a pretty fascinating read. Uploaded by Quinn Slobodian on Academia.edu  (also mirrored here).



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Friday, January 29, 2016

Meet The Women Of The Occupied Refuge (repost)

Kristi Jernigan arrived alone at the Redmond airport from Tennessee with nothing but a carry-on bag and her Bible.

Read the rest of this post on the original site at Meet The Women Of The Occupied Refuge



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Thursday, January 28, 2016

Meet The Women Of The Occupied Refuge



Kristi Jernigan arrived alone at the Redmond airport from Tennessee with nothing but a carry-on bag and her Bible.

Read the rest of this post on the original site at Meet The Women Of The Occupied Refuge



Monday, January 18, 2016

Eurocentric Anti-Eurocentrism



THE QUESTION OF "Eurocentrism" is a vexing problem not only for academia but for the left. In the broadest sense, Eurocentrism can be understood as the implicit view that societies and cultures of European origin constitute the "natural" norm for assessing what goes on in the rest of the world.

Read the rest of this post on the original site at Eurocentric Anti-Eurocentrism



Eurocentric Anti-Eurocentrism (repost)

THE QUESTION OF “Eurocentrism” is a vexing problem not only for academia but for the left. In the broadest sense, Eurocentrism can be understood as the implicit view that societies and cultures of European origin constitute the “natural” norm for assessing what goes on in the rest of the world.

Read the rest of this post on the original site at Eurocentric Anti-Eurocentrism



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Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Ottawa Anti-Prison Triple Launch, January 28th (Certain Days, Escaping the Prism, Lumpen)

triplelaunch

WHERE: University of Ottawa, Gradate Student Association, 601 Cumberland, Room GSAED 307 (in the same building as Cafe Nostalgica — see map below)

WHEN: Thursday, January 28th – 7pm

TRIPLE LAUNCH for …
– Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar 2016
– Escaping the Prism … Fade to Black, Poetry and Essays by Jalil Muntaqim
– Lumpen: The Autobiography of Ed Mead

AGAINST PRISONS, SUPPORT POLITICAL PRISONERS!
AGAINST REPRESSION, SPREAD RESISTANCE!
——-

Join us for an evening of conversation, poetry, and celebration against prisons, as we launch the Certain Days calendar, and two new books from Kersplebedeb Publishing: Escaping the Prism… Fade to Black by Jalil Muntaqim, and Lumpen: The Autobiography of Ed Mead. Former political prisoner Ed Mead will be joining us by skype.

This event is FREE; the Certain Days calendar and books from Kersplebedeb Publications will be sold.

Food will be served
Space is wheelchair accessible
Traduction chuchotée disponible de l’anglais vers le français
——-

TRIPLE LANCEMENT
– Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar 2016
– Escaping the Prism … Fade to Black, Poetry and Essays by Jalil Muntaqim
– Lumpen: The Autobiography of Ed Mead

Jeudi le 28 janvier à 19h
Édifice GSAÉD, pièce 307
601 rue Cumberland

CONTRE LES PRISONS, EN APPUI AUX PRISONNIER(E)S POLITIQUES!
CONTRE LA RÉPRESSION, ÉTENDONS LA RÉSISTANCE!

Rejoignez-nous pour une soirée de discussion, de poésie et de célébration anti-prison, avec le lancement du calendrier Certain Days et de deux nouveaux livres de chez Kersplebedeb: Escaping the Prism… Fade to Black, et Lumpen: The Autobiography of Ed Mead. Ed Mead, ancien prisonnier politique, nous rejoindra par skype.

Cet événement est GRATUIT; les calendriers Certain Days et les livres de Kersplebedeb seront en vente sur place.

Nourriture comprise
Espace accessible par chaise-roulante
Traduction chuchotée disponible de l’anglais vers le français
——-

gsd_ottawa

*Le calendrier Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners 2016, qui en est à sa 14e année d’édition, est un projet conjoint de financement et d’éducation entre des militant.es de Montréal et Toronto et les prisonniers politiques David Gilbert, Robert Seth Hayes et Herman Bell, emprisonnés dans l’État de New York.

*Escaping the Prism … Fade to Black
Jalil Muntaqim est prisonnier politique depuis 1971, ayant été ciblé par le programme du genre COINTEL du FBI. Ce recueil de poèmes et d’essais combinant le personnel et le politique nous font mieux connaître un militant pour la libération des noirs qui a passé presque toute sa vie en tôle. Avec une introduction signée Walidah Imarisha et un essai historique détaillé de Ward Churchill.

* Lumpen: The Autobiography of Ed Mead
Emprisonné pour la première fois à l’âge de 13 ans pour avoir brûlé une école et volé des cigarettes, Ed Mead a co-fondé la brigade révolutionnaire George Jackson de Seattle, avant d’être emprisonné après un hold-up raté et de devenir un organisateur dans plusieurs prisons, devenant actif dans le mouvement prisonnier queer notamment. Sorti de prison en 1991, il milite encore contre le système carcéral aujourd’hui.

* Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar 2016
Now in its 14th year of existence, the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal and Toronto and three political prisoners being held in maximum-security prisons in New York State: David Gilbert, Robert Seth Hayes and Herman Bell.

* Escaping the Prism … Fade to Black
Captured in 1971 and railroaded by a COINTELPRO-type FBI operation, Jalil Muntaqim is one of the longest held political prisoners in the world today. This collection of Jalil’s poetry and essays, written from behind the bars of Attica prison, combines the personal and the political, affording readers with a rare opportunity to get to know a man who has spent most of his life — over forty years –- behind bars for his involvement in the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. With an introduction by Walidah Imarisha, and a detailed historical essay by Ward Churchill.

* Lumpen: The Autobiography of Ed Mead
First imprisoned at the age of thirteen for burning down a school building and stealing cigarettes, Mead would become a revolutionary and co-founder of the George Jackson Brigade, a Seattle-based urban guerrilla group. Reincarcerated following a bank robbery gone wrong, he subsequently organized on the inside in numerous prisons, including with queer prisoners in the legendary Men Against Sexism. Released in 1991, he continues to work against the prison system to this day.
——-



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Monday, January 11, 2016

Women In Baltimore Public Housing Were Forced To Trade Sex For Basic Repairs (repost)

M.G.’s refrigerator in her apartment in Gilmor Homes, a public housing complex in Baltimore, had been broken for years. She filed numerous work orders seeking to get it fixed or replaced, but nothing ever happened.

Read the rest of this post on the original site at Women In Baltimore Public Housing Were Forced To Trade Sex For Basic Repairs



on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1Zg6M0v



Against sexualised violence and racism. Always. Anywhere. #ausnahmslos (“noexcuses”) (repost)

On the night of New Year’s Eve numerous women were sexually attacked in Cologne and other German cities in public spaces. These crimes demand thorough and comprehensive investigations. The prevailing impunity regarding crimes of sexualised violence must end.

Read the rest of this post on the original site at Against sexualised violence and racism. Always. Anywhere. #ausnahmslos (“noexcuses”)



on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1RG2UVJ



Women In Baltimore Public Housing Were Forced To Trade Sex For Basic Repairs



M.G.’s refrigerator in her apartment in Gilmor Homes, a public housing complex in Baltimore, had been broken for years. She filed numerous work orders seeking to get it fixed or replaced, but nothing ever happened.

Read the rest of this post on the original site at Women In Baltimore Public Housing Were Forced To Trade Sex For Basic Repairs



Against sexualised violence and racism. Always. Anywhere. #ausnahmslos (“noexcuses”)



On the night of New Year’s Eve numerous women were sexually attacked in Cologne and other German cities in public spaces. These crimes demand thorough and comprehensive investigations. The prevailing impunity regarding crimes of sexualised violence must end.

Read the rest of this post on the original site at Against sexualised violence and racism. Always. Anywhere. #ausnahmslos (“noexcuses”)



Thursday, January 07, 2016

Frameworks

buildingblocks

Frameworks are sets of definitions, ideas about how things relate to each other, construed relationships, or even (especially!) of other frameworks, with which people make sense of phenomena and of themselves. Interlocking sets of frameworks which are cohesive enough can create and maintain a distinct identity, a kind of super-framework called an ideology, creating distinct ways of seeing and explaining things, which may not be easily translateable or compatible with analysis created through another ideological lens. It’s like people with different ideologies are watching different movies, even when they observe the same reality. But each of those ideologies or uber-frameworks are made up of more specific less all-encompassing frameworks which can often (with some work) be transposed from one ideological frame to another.

At all levels frameworks have multiple functions, however not of equal importance. They always constitute tools with which to either to clarify or obscure different aspects of reality, implicitly (sometimes explicitly) encouraging or discouraging certain forms of action or behaviour. At the same time, they always constitute a signifier of identity, a flag people can wave, indicating they are on the same side, or at least the wish or illusion that that were so. Or put another way, different frameworks make reality appear differently; both external reality (the observed) and internal reality (the observer).

As frameworks get in more explicit contradiction with other frameworks, more complex and all-encompassing, closer to the level of ideology, their identity-aspect grows. Which is not to say that their tool-aspect necessarily diminishes right away. But a trend is clearly visible. For instance, beyond the level of ideology – on the level of broad ideological families, frameworks collecting and connecting frameworks of frameworks, for instance “left” and “right” – at this level it does indeed seem like the identity-aspect is almost always far greater than the tool-aspect, which often seems reduced to nothing. Conversely, frameworks that are shared by “everyone” will appear “non-political”, and will often have no visible identity-function, other than separating “normal” people from crazies and imbeciles.

Frameworks can be free floating, integrated into different ideological structures, built upon in various ways. But not without consequence. Frameworks carry with them implications, once one is integrated into an overarching ideology, that can affect what else might or might not be integrated into that ideology, and how. Frameworks can be duplicated, integrated into multiple, even adversarial, ideological structures. When that happens, they can provide a backdoor channel, a wormhole of sorts, connecting these adversarial structures. Allowing other ideas to flow between them, often unobserved. Potentially allowing one to reach into the other, to take control of each other, to flip sides. The ability to do so is not normally symmetrical.

Frameworks can clarify things. The more robust a framework, the more things it can clarify or reveal. Even a shoddy framework is normally good at revealing or clarifying something. But beyond what a framework is good at revealing, there are always a set of phenomenon for which it is suboptimal, i.e. that it partially clarifies, but also distorts. These phenomenon would often be completely invisible without the framework in question, and so the framework improves matters somewhat despite its distortions. But unless a much better framework is found for them, they will often come to be understood primarily through the lens of the framework which is suboptimal for them. The scope of phenomenon observed increases, but the clarity and focus of the framework is diminished. This process can be ongoing, and the more powerful the framework in question, the more difficult it is to resist or reign in. Furthermore, as people think in frameworks, and as phenomena often repeat certain patterns or resemble other phenomenon occurring on different levels or in different ways, a powerful framework will often be adopted as a metaphor or a fill-in for understanding things for which it was not initially intended, but which it superficially seems to fit well. This is another factor by which frameworks can end up distorting or occluding more and more things. The end point of these processes is normally not attained, but when it is, the framework becomes an empty signifier.

In 1999, two Dutch anti-capitalists, Eric Krebbers and Merijn Schoenmaker, wrote about the way in which certain arguments adopted by the left, fit very well into the ideological structures of the right, and how this laid a theoretical basis for left-right crossover:

“In his analysis of the crisis of antiracism, Pierre-André Taguieff describes the appropriation of leftist discourses by the neoracists as retorsion (not in the sense of revenge, but in a slightly less common French meaning of the use of an argument against its author). This raises the question of when a leftist discourse is open to retorsion. Or the other way around: How would a discourse have to be structured so that it would not serve right-wing propaganda.” (“De Fabel van de illegaal quits Dutch anti-MAI campaign” http://ift.tt/1OD7djQ)

Krebbers and Schoenmaker hit upon an interesting, and important, question. How do frameworks, when adopted by both left and right, work to prepare the ground for “left” groups and individuals to find themselves on the right? Do all such shared frameworks enjoy this potential equally? What determines whether frameworks play more in favor of one ideological structure or another? Is it the assumptions or implications carried by the framework itself? Or does it depend on external factors – which side has the wind in its sails, so to speak?

Several years ago, i wrote about this in what was basically a note-to-self, Afterglow, which was spurred by conversations i had been having at the time. Some of the concrete observations i made there – about gender and race being undertheorized by insurrectionary anarchists for instance – i now think were premature and possibly off-base. However, the process i was trying to think about, about conclusions surviving the death of their arguments, about ideas losing their mooring, is not unrelated to what i’m thinking about here.

Another question: what is the relationship between frameworks and that consensus reality known as hegemony? Modern “democratic” capitalism seems unparalleled in its ability to coopt countercultural and even politically adversarial phenomenon. How do ideological structures, i.e. meta-frameworks, relate to hegemony? How do they become integrated therein? Is the process similar to that whereby shared frameworks created shared connections between mutually antagonistic ideological structures? Or is something different at work?

In any case, this is really just another not to self, neither conclusive nor even looking for conclusions, more just sketching out some rough ideas and definitions for possible future use.

 



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Monday, January 04, 2016

The Terror of Modi: an Interview With Arun Ferreira



On May 26, 2014, Narendra Modi became the 15th Prime Minster of India.

Read the rest of this post on the original site at The Terror of Modi: an Interview With Arun Ferreira



The Terror of Modi: an Interview With Arun Ferreira (repost)

On May 26, 2014, Narendra Modi became the 15th Prime Minster of India.

Read the rest of this post on the original site at The Terror of Modi: an Interview With Arun Ferreira



on the main Kersplebedeb website: http://ift.tt/1R8q7kE