Žižek 'How Marx invented the symptom'

I enjoy Žižek, don't always understand him and don't always agree with him. He is great, fun and very stimulating. Just been reading 'How Marx invented the symptom' from his first book to be translated into English, The Sublime Object of Ideology.He combines Lacan and Marx, noting that Lacan suggests the psychoanalytic concept of the 'symptom' was invented by Marx.I am not in a position to

Impossible shelf

Impossible shelf by Frans Erens

Instructions for impossible shelf unit

Instructions for impossible shelf unitby Paul Fleet

Lily Allen message to the fascists

If you didn't catch this first time around, here it is again, great lyrics, to all those who confronted the English Nationalist Alliance in Brighton today or the EDL in Bradford on saturday, thanks for fighting the racists.

Message to the EDL

And report here on the abortive ENA march today in Brighton, claims Greens need to be out on the streets but I am sure his taunts about 15 year girls will get him flack, if the anti-fascists were mainly 15 year old girls, good for them.Nice message above from the Asian youth to EDLThe England Nationalist Alliance (ENA) marched through Brighton today. About 30 of “England’s finest”, protected by

Message from striking London Underground staff to passengers

WHY WE ARE STRIKING: TO DEFEND SERVICES, SAFETY AND JOBSLondon Underground plans to:get rid of around 800 station staff postsreduce ticket office opening times by around 7,500 hourscarry out essential maintenance checks on trains every four weeks instead of every two weekscut the number of train drivers’ postsTube trade unions RMT and TSSA have tried for months to persuade London Underground to

Spiderman arrested for skyscraper climate climb

Famous building scaler Alain "Spiderman" Robert was arrested after climbing the Royal Bank of Scotland in Sydney, Australia.He had climbed up and displayed a banner advertising One Hundred Months, the organization that believes we have a 100 month deadline to fix global warming or suffer dire irreversible consequences.Dressed as Spiderman Alain Robert climbed one of Sydney's tallest buildings to

Bars by Daniele de Nigris

Cubes by Daniele de Nigris

4 segments series by Daniele de Nigris

Fascists march in Brighton tomorrow- Mobilise against them

Fascist demonstration in Brighton on August bank holiday Call out for a counter mobilisation On August 30th, bank holiday Monday, two days after the English Defence League are planning to march in Bradford, the English Nationalist Alliance aim to march through the streets of Brighton. The ENA want to impose their nationalist, far right idea of English identity on us all, their approach to Muslims

BNP Doctor in slimming pill crisis appeal

I just don’t have the money to relaunch my cosmetic career . . . I’m in a bit of a state at the moment.“I need equipment, lasers and so on, but I’m broke.“In a way it might have been better if I’d been struck off . . . at least then I could have looked at starting afresh in a new career. This has left me hanging on for three years.”The racist BNP is in apparent free fall. Despite earlier crisis,

Mexicana Airlines Ceases Operations

When Mexicana Airlines went bankrupt in the beginning of the month, most people thought they would, give up some routes, make some cutbacks and do some deals and be right back in business. Today they halted all flights. It was Mexico's biggest airline and the country's first-- third oldest in the world operating under the same name (after KLM and Quantas) and operated both domestically and internationally. It was the biggest foreign carrier, passengerwise, using LAX. With 110 aircraft and more than 11 million passengers annually, it accounted for close to a third of all domestic passengers in Mexico, primarily by ramping up operations at its 2 discount subsidiaries, Click and Link (both of which also ceased operations).

Last week an investor's group, Tenedora K bought 95% of the business, the pilots unions owning the rest. The Chapter 15 bankruptcy petition, which lists more than $500 million in assets and $1 billion in debt, bars U.S. creditors from seizing planes or canceling contracts. The airline is expected to restructure and start up operations again but no one is saying when. Meanwhile, Aeromexico, Interjet, Volaris and American Airlines are offering to accommodate stranded fliers. The investment group has been trying to squeeze more concessions out of the airlines' unions.

I fly a lot-- and on a lot of airlines a lot funkier than Mexicana. Sometimes Roland has to drug himself to get on puddlejumpers that fly domestically in places like Mali, India, Thailand and Egypt. So when we read last week that American Airlines isn't maintaining their planes properly, we let out a collective gulp. That's been a long time fear of ours-- corporate owners cutting back on resources for proper maintenance. And now the FAA is fining American for "$24.2 million for failing to adequately address a problem with wheel-well wiring that could cause fires in its fleet of 245 McDonnell Douglas MD-80 airplanes."

That comes right on top of the Justice Department signing off on a monopolistic merger between United and Continental that will create the world's largest airline-- and offer passengers ever fewer choices in the skies.

The airlines serve a combined 144 million passengers per year, flying to 370 destinations.

Critics of the merger between United and Continental have included Rep. James Oberstar (D., Minn.), the chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

During a hearing in June, Oberstar objected strongly to the proposed deal, arguing that continued consolidation in the airline industry will lead to "little choice for passengers, little choice for cities, little choice for competition."

"The Justice Department ought to turn it down," Oberstar said of the United-Continental bid to merge, adding, "The moment this thing is approved, I will draft and introduce legislation to reestablish market regulation by the government of airlines."

I wonder when the airlines really will start charging to use on flight toilets. They've certainly turning everything else they do into ways to rip off their passengers.

Abandon Affluence!

Ted Trainer wrote a piece for my first book 'Getting There- Steps to a Green Society' published in 1990 (on green strategy if you are asking).His book Abandon Affluence! looking at why capitalist growth was wrecking the planet was very important to my political education, he has feed his ideas into the Australian Green movement which is flourishing with Green Party gains and the amazing Green

FORWARD TO UTOPIA

This is an excellent article from Ben in Australia.A new urgencyThe failings of economistic 20th century leftism have allowed capitalism and consumerism to run rampant to the extent that the biosphere of the planet is beginning to experience a catastrophic breakdown, best known in the form of climate change (although broader than that most pressing problem). Climate change and the ecological

Mumia Abu-Jamal 'A Matter of the Mosque'

[col. writ. 8/22/10] (c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal In Manhattan, the controversy over the placement of a mosque (or Islamic house of worship) just a few mere blocks from what is now known as 'Ground Zero' -- the site of the New York plane strikes on 9/11, rages on. Sides have been assembled, and arguments have been hurled like mental Molotov cocktails on both sides of the fray. The

Thank God man-made global warming was proven to be a hoax.

Thank God man-made global warming was proven to be a hoax. Just imagine what the world might have looked like now if those conspiring scientists had been telling the truth. No doubt Nasa would be telling us that this year is now the hottest since humans began keeping records. The weather satellites would show that even when heat from the sun significantly dipped earlier this year, the world still

WHAT IS ECOSOCIALISM

A few years ago I came across a document called “The Ecosocialist Manifesto.” It had been co-authored in 2001 by Joel Kovel and Michael Lowy. I contacted Joel and arranged for him to write a piece on ecosocialism for Canadian Dimension. That article appeared in the November/December 2007 issue of CD. The cover of that issue reads “Capitalism vs. The Earth: The Ecosocialist Alternative.” Since

Illusion of distortion

Optical illusion by rwpike

Rainforest priest Paul McAuley under new threat

Many oil and gas projects in the Amazon have met fierce resistance from indigenous groups. Residents accuse the government of abusing their land rights and failing to consult them about big investment projects, the BBC's Peru correspondent Dan Collyns says. Brother Paul has repeatedly said that oil exploration and logging are threatening to the indigenous population of the Amazon. He admits that

Lemmings vs Escher

Lemmings vs Escher by Andrew "Bones" Jones

Hugo Blanco Tour

Hugo Blanco is a historic leader of the Peruvian peasant movement, who has been active for more than fifty years. In the 1960s he played a central part in the ‘Land or Death’ peasant uprising in the southern highlands of Peru. He was captured, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.The consistent struggles of the indigenous peoples of Latin America against neoliberalism and in defence of the

‘Greenslide’ a shift to left

‘Greenslide’ a shift to left — neither major party wins majority mandateTuesday, August 24, 2010 By Peter Boyle Rally for equal marriage rights, Sydney August 14, 2010. Photo by Peter Boyle. By denying both the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the the Liberal-National coalition an outright majority in primary votes and in House of Representatives seats, Australian electors voted “neither of the

Perspectiva M

Logo of the film exhibition Perspectiva M.

Derek Wall and Adrian Ramsay - Deputy Leadership Hustings Round 2 - CAMBRIDGE

Derek Wall and Adrian Ramsay - Deputy Leadership Hustings Round 2 - CAMBRIDGELOCATION: 72 Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1RR - EMMANUEL UNITED REFORMED CHURCHDATE: September 2nd, 2010TIME: 1930 - 2130 - hustings commencing at 1945, ending 2115/20. All to be seated, hopefully, by 1940. FORMAT: 10 minutes introductory speeches each, then one hour of questions, with 3 minutes MAXIMUM to respond,

Trident

Trident by Andreas Aronsson

Strip from FoxTrot comics

A strip from FoxTrot comics by Bill Amend

Message from Australian Greens

The Greens are the breakthrough story of this election. I want to make sure you're the first to understand how significant these results are—and that we couldn’t have achieved them without your support.Yesterday, the Greens won the balance of power in the Senate, as well as our first lower house seat at a general election in Melbourne. We've achieved so much together this election that it's hard

Impossible stellated dodecahedron

Impossible small stellated dodecahedron by Vlad Alexeev

The Deputy Leadership hustings London 20/8/2010

A NOTE FROM JONATHON BUCKNER (Young Greens)Comrades,The Deputy Leadership hustings were held in London tonight.The turnout was very good, and the questions very interesting, ranging from AV to party strategy, disability issues within the Party to political philosophies, and lots of talk on economic issues....and the occasional mention of Latin America and Elinor Ostrom from Derek! Owen Clayton

WikiLeaks: The Global 4th Estate

VERY IMPRESSIVE POST I FOUND ON FACEBOOK, PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY AND IF YOU NEED TO LEAK, LITTLE VIDEO GUIDE ABOUVEWikiLeaks: The Global 4th EstateRecently, the whistleblower website WikiLeaks was thrust onto the world stage with two separate releases of US government classified documents. The first was a cockpit video from a 2007 Apache gunship attack in Baghdad and the second was the largest

SLA

'Forget Foucault' indeed, there is some droll material here.

Aidesep call rainforest protest mobilisation

There is a slogan that goes 'Another World is Possible'. Well I reckon the border between the world we have, based on injustice and ecological destruction, and a world that works, just and sustainable, exists somewhere in the Amazon of Peru and Ecuador, where the indigenous show signs of winning victory and making the necessary also the possible.Its easy to forget the struggles in Peru and

Impossible dodecahedron

Impossible dodecahedron by Paul Fleet

Caroline Lucas congratulates first Green Party MP in Australia

Just had this from Green Party HQ, good news.Australia elects its first Green MP... ...and the UK’s first Green MP broadcasts congratulations to Melbourne celebration party Today Australia became the second Commonwealth country this year to elect its first Green Party MP – and in a show of solidarity from the other side of the planet, the Australian Greens invited Britain’s first Green MP to

VOTE JERRY HICKS

Jerry is definately a man after my own heart and a good friend, grassroots trade union militant, working class hero and an ecosocialist, he has back me as Green Party Deputy-Leader and I am backing him for Unite General Secretary.If you are in Unite or have friends in Unite, please support Jerry Hicks and spread the word.What I Stand ForThis election comes at a defining moment for working people

Caroline Lucas Hugo Blanco joint meeting Brighton 14th October

Thursday 14 October 7pm Friends Meeting House Brighton: Hugo Blanco event organised by GL & SR. Caroline Lucas is attending. Wonderful first Green Party MP and indigenous leader from Peru on how we fight for the future.

Climate campers target the bankers

Thursday 19 August 2010 by Will Stone The RBS group has been targeted over its investment in the oil industryMore than 200 climate activists are laying siege to the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh in protest against the bank's oil investments.A hundred campaigners from Camp for Climate Action broke through protective fencing to swoop on the grounds of the bank's headquarters in

Second Wave of Global Protest in Support of indigenous Mapuche Hunger Strikers

MAPUCHE INTERNATIONAL LINK6 Lodge StreetBristol BS1 5LR, EnglandTel/Fax: + 44-117-9279391 Mobile: 078 139 79712E-mail: mil@mapuche-nation.orgWebsite: www.mapuche-nation.org Second Wave of Global Protest in Support of indigenous Mapuche Hunger StrikersPress Release – August 19th 2010.A second wave of global protest was in initiated by the families of Mapuche political prisoners and hunger

Climate camp takes RBS HQ, urgent help needed!

Just had this! If in Edinburgh go immediately, if not spread the wordAt 9.15PM tonight Climate Camp took the site on RBS HQ. Get on site asfast as you can! Defence help urgently needed. Come to RBS GogarburnGardens, off Gogar Station Rd.

Everything you wanted to know about Elinor Ostrom but were too afraid to ask

Well not quite but hopefully some food for thought.Interview with Elinor in Yes Magazine http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/america-the-remix/elinor-ostrom-wins-nobel-for-common-s-sense Whose Common Future, an Ecologist special issue on commons and ecological crisis http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/resource/reclaiming-commons Elinor's paper for the World Bank on climate change http://

Calendar 2010 of Gazdevice company

'What you call love,' says Draper, 'was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.'

This was an interesting project, I was approached by the Sustainable Development Commission to write a 'thinkpiece' on a post-capitalist economy, the first draft was returned with the suggestion that it wasn't radical enough, Professor Tim Jackson who is great borrowed the first bit of my title for his book....but not the second.I think people are mystified by my economics, they may still be

Vote Jerry Hicks!

Unite the Union Britain’s largest and most influential Trade Union gears up for the election of its General Secretary. This election comes at a time when the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition is about to announce its plans for massive cuts to be set out in their Autumn Budget in October. All eyes will be on where any possible fight back may emanate. Given the size and make up of Unite,

Pete Shields 'at its best Green politics is about a radical transformation of society'

The Morning Star/Tribune debate continues on socialism and the Green Party, see what you think of Pete's thoughts.Pete Shield has left a new comment on your post "Carl 'GPEW is close - very close - to becoming a g...": Carl,I just don’t think you get Green politics at all, its not another route to full employment and the empowerment of the working class a la Labour delusions in the 60s and

Impossible window

Impossible window by Valentin Dubinin

Indigenous candidate to run for Peruvian President

This is just from google translate, cos its late, I haven't time to go through it Basically Aidesep who are the indigenous organisation in the Peruvian Amazon, effective and strong at defending the rainforests, are going to run their leader Alberto Pizango as a Presidential candidate in next years Peruvian elections....this is partly in response to Government attempts to set up false indigenous

Impossible typeface

Font with some letters in form of impossible figures by Pat Mehbrei.

Carl 'GPEW is close - very close - to becoming a genuine and radical party of the Left

This is from Carl in response to my recent Morning Star articleHi DerekI guess I am with Keith on this one. Reaction to the article I wrote has been somewhat defensive. For example: "At its best, the Green Party is part of a tradition of English radicalism that includes Tom Paine and William Morris. It is attempting to address many of the important questions..."Not exactly an attack, as you would

Latin America facing the global ecological crisis

Latin America facing the global ecological crisis*Ignacio Sabbatella – University of Buenos Aires ignaciosabbatella@yahoo.com.arwww.marxismoecologico.blogspot.com In this article, we will try to outline briefly some of the challenges facing Latin America in relation to the environment. To this end, we will begin by analysing the structural factors underlying the global ecological crisis. We will

Liberation Theology in 60 seconds

Matthew Bain from Derbyshire Green Party has sent me this neat little intro to Liberation Theology, enjoy.His rather splendid blog is here.Liberation Theology is normally associated with Latin American Catholicism. However, it can be understood as a radical tendency existing within all the major world religions, which each contain currents emphasising the following themes:working with the

'Indigenous Insurgency'

Hugo Blanco kindly sent me a chapter from his new book published in Peru, I have roughly translated this section (google translate took most of the strain) which surveys the indigenous movement. The future is now, climate change is with us, the indigenous are fighting for our planet, will the Green movement support them? Its a key part of my political commitment to translate material like this,

Keith Flett challenges Derek Wall on green left politics

LettersTime to bring the greens and reds togetherSunday 15 August 2010 Printable EmailDerek Wall (M Star August 11) makes an effective defence of the Green Party of England and Wales as an organisation of a left - unlike, as he acknowledges, the neoliberals of the old Irish Green Party.The point does suggest a perhaps obvious issue, but one that Derek understandably does not dwell on.Namely that

Endless staircase

Endless staircase by Jose Perez (astral-freak)

Impossible stairs

Impossible stairs by Paul Fleet

'Great Southern Land'

Nice track from the Green Party's William H. Warren, hope he becomes a Senator for the Northern Territories.

'Keeper of the Stones' could be Green Senator.

'I’m running for the Greens because I feel let down by the major parties. We vote for them and they don’t represent us.I’m campaigning to end the NT intervention, against the Muckaty nuclear waste dump and for the environment. The environment is very important to me.I don’t think the government is doing enough for Aboriginal housing. Most of the houses built have been for administrators, not the

Help us build the Coalition of Resistance against cuts and privatisation

This neo-Liberal government is more radical than that of Mrs Thatcher, they are going to break Britain with the cuts, cuts that are not need in services if were to scrap Trident and tax the wealthy, the left in Britain have been in retreat for decades, we need to build the resistance or face chaos, please spread the word.Thank you adding your name to the Coalition of Resistance statement. Support

Electioneering for Caroline with Hugh Kerr

I must admit I got distracted into campaigning for myself at the General Election the aim was to keep really focussed on electing Caroline Lucas, I did do my modest bit this is from last year, many a time I rolled up to the Green Party HQ in Brighton, I think it is something I am going to be doing again, local elections in Brighton could see big gains for the Green Party next year and making sure

2009 sketchbook calendar

A 2009 sketchbook calendar for the visually intrigued by Robert Ausbourne.

Caroline Lucas 'Derek Wall has provided an inspiring introduction to green politics'

I was very pleased to have a foreward for my 'No NonsenseGuide to Green Politics' from Caroline Lucas.Roberto Perez, Nandor Tanczos and Cynthia McKinney alsoadded forewards.It was great to see her elected as our first MP, I wentdown to leaflet and canvass for her five or six times and tookformer MEP Hugh Kerr once, my eldest Vince Wall also came tohelp as well at least once.And nagged members of

This is how they are destroying our planet and its people

Just had this, its extremely disturbing and I appreciate that some of you will not want to watch the video with its evidence of violent injury....this is how the world works, resources stolen and people oppressed. Once again I must stress that my politics are based on the politics and economics of people like Hugo Blanco and Elinor Ostrom, respect the environment, respect people, respect future

Chavez in peace bid with Colombia

Just been sent this by Francisco, good news. Relations between Venezuela and Colombia have been tense so good to see peace breaking out. Suggests that the role of the US is much diminished. Interesting video as usual from Democracy Now . Chavez-Santos Summit in Colombia: UNASUR-brokered peace breaks out By Francisco DominguezSecretary Venezuela Solidarity CampaignThe already bad relations

Perspectives

Perspectives by Kieran Madden

Caroline Lucas 'Derek Wall has provided an inspiring introduction to green politics'

I was very pleased to have a foreward for my 'No NonsenseGuide to Green Politics' from Caroline Lucas.Roberto Perez, Nandor Tanczos and Cynthia McKinney alsoadded forewards.It was great to see her elected as our first MP, I wentdown to leaflet and canvass for her five or six times and tookformer MEP Hugh Kerr once, my eldest Vince Wall also came tohelp as well at least once.And nagged members of

Homage to Escher on garage door

Roberto Perez: Derek Wall 'shows us about strategy and struggle'

It was a real pleasure to spend some time with RobertoPerez when he did his speaking tour in Britain.When the Cuban economy was in severe crisis after cheapoil from Russia stopped with the fall of the Soviet Union,Roberto helped save Cuba from collapse by promoting permacultureand other low energy solutions.'The Power of Community' dvd is all about his work.When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990

Impossible corner

Impossible corner by Paul Fleet

Break the Bank Not the Biosphere

Mumia Abu-Jamal 'Wikileaks and the Imperial Press'

Wikileaks and the Imperial Press[col. writ. 8/1/10] (c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal The release of some 70,000 + files from the Afghanistan War has been treated by most corporate media as, at best, a minor irritant, and worst, an act of treason. The instincts expressed by these outlets betrays the same mind set that whipped the nation to war in the aftermath of 9/11. Media as servant of

Former Green Party chair Penny Kemp endorsese Derek

"I have known Derek Wall for many years and he would be an excellent Deputy Leader. We have written books together and Derek has continued to write books that combine social justice with ecology, a recipe for a world based on an equitable, sustainable path. Derek understands the political imperative that requires direct action and electoral activity to make the case for Green politics. He has

Trickle Down Economic Theory

Trickle Down Economic Theory by Ashley Jackson

Mark Steel endorses Derek Wall

"Derek stands out as someone extremely capable of fighting for the environment, and for putting the case for that fight clearly and enthusiastically in a way that connects with people not yet won to the cause. But he's also someone with a clear sense that to win that fight we must oppose the system that rewards bankers and penalises the poor, as that system appears to have all its priorities

Chessboard

Rendering of Sandro del Prete's Chessboard by rroger33

Derek Wall 'Why I joined the Green Party'

My first encounter with green politics was back in 1979 when I was 14. I was interested in politics and the environment and it happened that my next-door neighbors were hosting an Ecology Party meeting – they were wardens of the Almshouse in the small Wiltshire town of Corsham, where I lived. I went along. It was heady stuff. The schoolroom of the Almshouse contained a pulpit from which Patrick

Artworks by David Dory

Hugo Blanco ''Only the extinction of capitalism will ensure the surival of our species'

Can't wait for this, Hugo Blanco my good friend and comrade is touring the UK in just a couple of weeks time.Hugo Blanco ''Only the extinction of capitalism will ensure the surival of our species'Green Party and Respect members are organising the tour, ironically Eric Lubbock who is a Lib dem peer has been supportingthe indigenous in Peru and if he is well enought (Eric has two big operations

No Nonsense Guide to Green Politics

The No-Nonsense Guide to Green Politics measures the rising tide of eco-activism and awareness and explains why it heralds a new political era worldwide.Climate chaos and pollution, deforestation and consumerism: the crisis facing human civilization is clear enough. But the response of politicians to it has been cowardly and inadequate, while environmental activists have tended to favour

Every Which Way But Up

Every Which Way But Up by Designanator

Wisdom in Nature events advertised

Just got notice of some events from Wisdom in Nature, missed off the first two cos too late and I missed them because of my broadband problems...while I am not a Muslim, WIN the eco-Islam group are one of my favourite environmental networks, well worth finding out more about.PUBLIC MEETING - “WHY WE SHOULD END DOMESTIC FLIGHTS”Organised by the Campaign Against Climate ChangeWednesday 11th August

'No Nonsense guide to Green Politics' book launch

My No Nonsense Guide to Green Politics is going to be launched at Green Party conference, Saturday, 11th September, 4PM.Still having BT broadband problems (engineer around tomorrow afternoon) so not been on the internet much to invite speakers but the aim is launch good and proper with some important speakers.6PM after the launch will see the Hugo Blanco Green Party fringe.So hope to see some of