It’s not just the name of a Flipper album.
As part of an elaborate plot involving the shipment of massive amounts of KGB gold hidden among mountains of bagels — a mad dash across the globe made at the behest of an Athenian dog whose er, tentacles (if she had them) would extend deep into the heart of the famous anarchist quarter of Wellington — I’m taking a break from blogging for a few days, or maybe even a week or two.
In the meantime:
Anarcho-blogging roundup
Phil DickensI’m currently away from home (and thus my own PC) in London.I will be home tomorrow, and normal blogging service will resume therafter. Whilst I’m on this – extremely brief – blogging hiatus, though, here’s a quick roundup of other worthwhile anarchist and left-libertarian reads.The Cactus Mouth Informer tells us why ending povery isn’t like changing the fuse in a plug.The Liverpool Solidarity Federation congratulates German anarcho-syndicalists FAU-B on their court victory. Brighton SolFed have an emergency budget special edition of their newsletter out.Their local No Borders comrades offers some comment on recent forcible deportations both here and here. They also ask “Just Who Is Responsible For UK’s Worsening Treatment Of Migrants?“Adam Form has excellent reviews of both The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and Simon Pirani’s The Russian Revolution in Retreat, 1920-24. The latter offering historical context on the Russian revolution which ties in nicely with my Property is Theft post on Communism and the State.Seán from The Soul of Man Under Capitalism lifts The Veils of Illusion from Tory cuts and dissects the budget. Julia at 10 Minutes Hate has a similar assesment of the budget as well as a warning to children not to bully the weird kids.Slackbastard @ndy has coverage of Kiwis arrested in Toronto, as well as the continuing misadventures of Australia’s fascists here, here and here.To round everything off, whilst contemplating the ConDem government’s policy of “dis a disabled,” Bendy Girl is suffering Oxycontin withdrawal.There are more than a few good reads in there, which should tide things over until I return to Liverpool. If you still end up lacking anything to fill that time, I’d suggest that you’re not really using the internet properly.
Otherwise:
Intensive surveillance of ‘violent radicalisation’ extended to embrace suspected “radicals” from across the political spectrum.
Tony Bunyan
Spectrezine
June 30, 2010
Chronicle of a Riot Foretold
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counterpunch
June 29, 2010
“As the trial of former transit cop Johannes Mehserle for the murder of Oscar Grant rushes at breakneck speed toward its conclusion, spurred by the insistence of Judge Robert Perry and political imperative, ominous clouds of injustice begin to crowd the political horizon in anticipation of a verdict, which could come as soon as this week. But while it is this injustice that we should most fear, too many are focusing their fear and the fear of others on the possibility of a repeat of last year’s street rebellions should Mehserle be acquitted or convicted of a lesser charge…”
The first war on terror
Laura Miller
Salon.com
June 20, 2010
Miller reviews “A new history of bomb-throwing anarchists and conniving intelligence agents in the 1800s”; it is “chillingly familiar”. Three months earlier, so did Stuart Christie (The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents, The Guardian, March 27, 2010). I think The Slow Burning Fuse: The lost history of the British Anarchists by John Quail is neat, while the Kate Sharpley Library continues to find bodies buried beneath the mounds of bourgeois history. The International Campaign Against Anarchist Terrorism, 1880-1930s (Richard Bach Jensen) provides some historical context for the antics of the anarcholocos…
