Anndaluz

'The Soviet Union no longer exists. Yet a key issue remains. The working class is different from any other would-be ruling class.' A nuanced anarchist criticism of the Leninist project which identifies the key issue at stake for everyone who hopes that another world is possible.


I think the economic side of things needs explaining rather more directly. When Wayne Price writes that 'A state minority can substitute for the capitalists, but not for the working class.' , he is shifting from talking about the state as an instrument of subjugation to the problem of organising the production of goods and services in a complex society. A small group of hunter gatherers can probably decide quite quickly how when and who goes hunting and gathering. In an industrially developed nation of millions with complex and interdependent structures this is not straightforward. Historically there have been two 'solutions'
1. Let the Market take care of things. When a firm produces goods which don't sell for whatever reason the firm goes bust along with everyone involved's income. Let people starve. It's for the best.
2. Let a group of planners decide.
Before the Soviet collapse I heard two horror stories of the strategies adopted by factory managers to meet planning targets from a leftwinger from Eastern Europe. A factory producing screws exceeded it's numerical targets by the simple expedient of only producing one size and type of screw and a shoe factory produced a run of shoes (left foot only). My informant said the worst part of it all was that managers who were sincere communists and decent people were forced to behave like the most cynical and self serving bureaucrats to keep their factories going.


Britain 2009. The Mixed Economy. Everytime I buy a newspaper there's news of another round of redundancies and more house repossessions. Don't worry though, every Public Service is infested by consultants who will be improving services. They are forcing front line staff to spend more time producing correctly formatted proof of meeting targets. They're also really keen on getting business involved in the state sector.



I tried to categorise this as not safe for work but was just given a choice of sex tags to choose from. I then tried to tag it as not-safe-for-work but SU won't accept this as a tag. Sorry people.

"It was one of the powerful lessons of emigration that language is not only something you use, but something that lives within you, that shapes your perceptions, and constructs your very self. Without it, I lost my conduit to my own subjectivity. And so, I wanted badly to recreate in my second language the relationship I had to my first. In a sense, I wanted English to become a fully expressive instrument; and for that, I needed to learn not only its vocabulary and grammar, but its inflections and rhythms, its specific music."
The novelist Eva Hoffman writes about her early life as a pianist in post war Poland and emigration to the US and becoming a writer.

"This is where they say the Lollards (condemned as heretics) hid out in the 14th Century and it is easy to see why. Who would ever find this place without a map and a knowledgeable guide?"


'The Green Chapel - the very place where Sir Gawain met and battled with the Green Knight one new year's day long ago.'

Scientists find new ways to avoid chemical insecticides.

I think this computer security expert is saying Phorm opens the gate for all sorts of spyware.

"To allow someone to snoop on your internet traffic is to allow them to put a television camera in your room - except it [web snooping] will tell them a whole lot more about you than the television camera,"


"That information is very sensitive. I just feel it should not be collected. Once it exists it can be used later for other purposes. All sorts of nasty things you can imagine happening. This information is incredibly valuable. There will be huge commercial pressure to release it."

'A Syrian Arab (emphasis on Arab) awakening in a modern and bewildering world gone insane.' I have been meaning to review this heartfelt and intellectually challenging blog for some time. Just go there. Summing it up is beyond me and questionable.