Morning Comrades! Another Friday and another email full of resources and topics worth discussing today such as a few notes on COP26, English “Democracy”, video resources without end, new books and more. Before all of that though I am extremely excited and happy to announce that this weekends drop is now live.
Collaborations have suffered through this pandemic and aside from the fact that Anthony is a dear friend, a brilliant brandalist, I am more than happy that we are donating all the money made from this 4 piece drop to Doctors Without Borders. Aside from being a sad necessity in the todays world, the grueling work these comrades do for pennies around the world is so urgently needed and more than worthy of our support. With that here are the four pieces available until Sunday and if you have any questions about these please drop me a line.
I had several longer drafts on the Conference of Parties (COP26) ready to send to you but after several days of research and editing I realized how tired I am of even bothering with any and all of these electorial conferences on anything, let alone accepting the fact that we need to immediately end capitalism if we want a chance to actually remain living on a habitable planet. It’s just been too many decades on my part wasting time thinking and reacting to these corrupt muppets of industry to even want to bother you with it. With that though, several key pieces I read / wrote over the last few days I will share with you, knowledge being important and all.
It is perhaps fitting that United States President Joe Biden arrived in Glasgow for the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) on the climate catastrophe with eighty-five cars in tow months after declaring ‘I’m a car guy’ (for details on the climate catastrophe, see our Red Alert no. 11, ‘Only One Earth’). Only three countries in the world have more cars per person than the US, and these countries (Finland, Andorra, and Italy) have a much smaller population than the United States.
Just before Biden left for the G20 summit, his meeting with Pope Francis, and COP26, he had his administration pressure the oil-producing states (OPEC+) to ‘do the needful when it comes to supply’ – namely to increase oil production. While the US pressured OPEC+ to boost oil production, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) released its key report on global emissions. UNEP pointed out that the G20 countries account for close to 80% of global greenhouse gases and that the three highest per capita major carbon emitters are Saudi Arabia, Australia, and the United States. Since the populations of Saudi Arabia (34 million) and Australia (26 million) are so much smaller than that of the United States (330 million), it is clear that the US emits much greater volumes of CO2 than these other two countries: Australia accounts for 1.2% of global carbon emissions, while Saudi Arabia accounts for 1.8%, and the United States 14.8%.
That’s from the above editorial piece that I would very much like for all of you to give a read. It nails it all. As to the rest, what else is there left to say other than calling bullshit on all of these conferences. Charades to keep the masses hopeful while the billionaires have already built bunkers to survive the man-made ecological disasters. 400 private jets a day landing and taking off in Glasgow, Bezo’s giving advice on what to do whilst the British Navy is steaming across to China putting out more emissions on one way of this trip than a car driving at full speed for 2 million miles, celebrities telling you to eat vegan whilst hoping to get their totally ethical cocaine through customs ( they always do ), whilst in backrooms companies like Exxon and co and literally writing the talkign points of all Western Countries whilst leaders from the Global South don’t even get air time. It’s all bullshit, real change will never come from above and the money wasted on these egotistic lunatics could have been used better.
Fuck. Them. All.
We don’t need them, we cannot afford them, they offer no solutions only death and we no longer can afford them.
With that, a few hot takes and other important pieces to read into.
Whilst I am on the subject of “news” from home, Giovanni Capoccia, Professor of Comparative Politics at Oxford University in a relatively short but precise series of tweets highlights just how rotten our so called “democracy” in the UK is and, well, I couldn’t agree more. As a serious side note though - this is the case all across Europe. Granted the corruption is insanely brazen in the UK, we just hide it better here on the Continent.
Feminism and Critical Masculinity.
Returning back to this segment today I wanted to highlight an amazing scholar, writer and thinker Silvia Federici who is an Italian and American scholar, teacher, and activist from the radical autonomist feminist Marxist and anarchist tradition. She was co-founder of the International Feminist Collective, and an organizer with the wages for housework campaign. In 1973, she helped start Wages for Housework groups in the US. In 1975 she published Wages Against Housework, the book most commonly associated with the wages for housework movement. Federici's best known work, Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation, expands on the work of Leopoldina Fortunati investigating the reasons for the witch hunts of the early modern period, but giving a feminist interpretation.
In it, she argues against Marx's claim that primitive accumulation is a necessary precursor for capitalism. Instead, she posits that primitive accumulation is a fundamental characteristic of capitalism itself—that capitalism, in order to perpetuate itself, requires a constant infusion of expropriated capital. Which, in case you were wondering, is absolutely correct and one of the best additions to Marxist Theory in decades. Below are a two videos that serve as an introduction to her work.
This work is as crucial as anything you can imagine. Pay attention.
I may have mentioned ( ahem, sorry ) that my first degrees are all in History and Historical Studies and despite Philosophy currently being at the forefront, History remains my passion and this is damn book is so insanely overdue I am lacking words at this point. It shouldn’t come to anyones surprise at this point that the “history” we are taught is immensely White-European Centric and, additionally, Male. Obviously, there is more. This is part of it and worth anyones times who is interested in History.
Part revisionist history, part historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes fascist thugs, famous artists, austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs, imperialists, G-men and architects.
Below are a few other programs to take into your weekend with you, as to avoid the brainrot on offer from the usual “entertain me with harmful propaganda” streaming services.
No Food & Drink This week as there was just too much other bits that needed talking about but both Ana and Tatjana will be back next week. For now, I hope you enjoyed this week and I shall see you all on Monday.
Yours, without compromise,
V.