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September 29, 2012
Video from my talk at Trent University -- The Communist Horizon
Sep 29, 2012 8:44:47 AM
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Spanish Police Crack Down on Protesters Surrounding the Parliament
Anti-austerity rage intensified in Madrid, as protesters surrounded the parliament Tuesday night in a sign of mounting frustration towards the right-wing government. Their demands included the resignation of top officials with new elections, the halt to austerity measures, and the rewriting of the Spanish Constitution. The protesters charged the government with theft and criminal activity for implementing harsh austerity measures, hiking taxes, record unemployment and allowing mass evictions of unemployed families on a daily basis. As thousands converged outside the gates of parliament, hundreds of police clashed with protesters, detaining and beating many. Organizers of the action were harassed and intimidated by the police weeks before September 25th. Activists were detained, assembly meetings broken up and a cultural center was raided and shut down. The Spanish government, with help of the mainstream media, hyped the event as a possible coup d'etate. Nearly 2,000 police officers were deployed to prevent the protesters from reaching the parliament. Despite the main unions withdrawing their support, it's estimated close to 10,000 people attended. The call to surround the congress brought out Spaniards from all walks of life despite police repression to prevent activists from mobilizing. On numerous occasions, the police pushed and shoved us as we tried to film. Other journalists were beaten and injured by rubber bullets. via therealnews.com
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Venezuela: 'Capitalism is no longer an option' | Green Left Weekly
In Venezuela's October 7 presidential elections, the candidate leading the polls — President Hugo Chavez — is standing on a platform of pushing a socialist transformation. Leaked documents show his main opponent, Henri Capriles Radonski, has a neoliberal agenda. But publicly he presents himself as a social democrat who supports pro-poor policies such as the Chavez government's health and education social programs. Luis Hernandez Navarro wrote in the September 23 Guardian: “In Venezuela, to be a rightist is out of fashion.” “As is shown in several opinion polls,” he writes, “Venezuela has given birth to a new political culture where the socialist ideal is widely accepted. Half the population agrees with the idea of building a socialist country, against 29% who oppose it.” Hernandez Navarro pointed out: “The strength of this new political culture, and of the strides towards social inclusion made by the Bolivarian government, make things quite difficult for Capriles … He can't oppose this ideal in public without damaging his chances of victory.” On the other side, Chavez is standing for a drastic deepening of the process of change — in a context where, despite the changes, huge sections of the economy and state remain under the control of big business. via www.greenleft.org.au
Jodi Dean
Jodi Dean is a political theorist.
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Mark Langford:
What a godforsaken pack of filthy racists.
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Transcript from interview discussing Crowds and Party
Found the comments on 'supporting democracy' a problem. Criticism suggested on this theme but then contents switched and further elaboration was not there.
[a] surely development of participation exposes the shadow of the actuality of democracy under capitalism
[b] greater participation (in society and the workplace)is a form of a developing alternative, emerging out of the current society.
[c] lack of participation and power in society and the workplace brings to the sword edge social relations in society
Posted by: Dave Edwards1917 | September 30, 2012 at 05:41 AM
Wrote this on my blog as a note to self, although an imprecise note, "flip side" seems inaccurate: Listening to Jodi Dean discuss the "communist horizon" I had an epiphany about my recent epiphany concerning my melancholy vis a vis my financials etc. Previously I'd concluded that my humiliations and failures over a lifetime were not CHARACTER DEFECTS and I took comfort in the knowledge I have done the best I can and I am better off than many who have much more to complain about. But I only had it half right: yes, there were no character defects, but newly, the melancholy is a function of the cult of individualism that I live and breathe in which is capitalist society! The jouissance of feeling ":better off" is the flip side of the built in ideological bias against the class of working masses-- the situation of myself as opposed to the social Other, the antithesis of the communist hypothesis which posits the subject as "part of no part", as integrally situated in a social whole, i.e. the 99 percent, the working, dispossessed exploited class.
Posted by: Robert Allen | October 02, 2012 at 08:13 AM
Bob-- that it an important insight, a really crucial and original analysis. Thank you so much. I will likely use it somewhere --and give you credit. If you send me an email with your address, I will send you a copy of the new book (jdean at hws dot edu). (the melancholy is a function of the cult of individualism that I live and breathe in which is capitalist society! The jouissance of feeling ":better off" is the flip side of the built in ideological bias against the class of working masses-- the situation of myself as opposed to the social Other, the antithesis of the communist hypothesis which posits the subject as "part of no part", as integrally situated in a social whole, i.e. the 99 percent, the working, dispossessed exploited class.)
Posted by: Jodi Dean | October 02, 2012 at 07:24 PM