Morning Comrades! I am going to drop the “Class War Is My Love Language” on Wednesday and donate the profits to help Palestine on the ground. So far the UNRWA looks to be the most effective organization but if you have additional places I should look at, please let me know. I’ll be finalizing the design over the weekend, drop a teaser on Monday’s email and then do a general drop via Wednesdays email.
I wrapped up my first stint lecturing philosophy at University this week and left my students a solid reading list for the summer. I am going to be sharing that over the next few weeks with you all, only because this is material that doesn’t necessarily require a university degree but nonetheless I find incredible valuable to know.
Workers and Capital by Mario Tronti. This is what David Harvey had to say about this: “Every generation of revolutionary anti-capitalists has to come to terms with how to read afresh the classic formulations of Marx and Lenin in ways appropriate to the conditions of their times. How Tronti and some of his close colleagues did this in the 1960s is a spectacular and inspirational example of how to re-theorize class formation and the practices of class struggle from a ground-up and workerist perspective. While our contemporary world may be very different, there is much to be learned not only conceptually but also methodologically from Tronti’s brilliant and incisive interventions at all levels in the politics of his era.”
The Authoritarian Personality by Theodor Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, et al. - one of the most classic texts to emerge from the Frankfurt School, this brilliant piece of work foreshadows our current bullshit and gives plenty of ways around it.
The Production of Money by Ann Pettifor. In this accessible, brilliantly argued book, leading political economist Ann Pettifor explains in straightforward terms history’s most misunderstood invention: the money system. Pettifor argues that democracies can, and indeed must, reclaim control over money production and restrain the out-of-control finance sector so that it serves the interests of society, as well as the needs of the ecosystem.
That should set you off until next week. Seriously, you don’t want to be missing these.
I am only going to suggest one film to watch this weekend and it’s the latest episode of PhilosophyTube. It should not be a secret by now that I do consider Abigail’s work to be absolutely brilliant, predominately because she does a grand job at exploring / explaining complex contemporary philosophy in ways that it not only becomes entertaining but more so, understandable. This new episode is called: Ignorance & Censorship and if you do one thing this weekend, please, watch this:
Whilst we are, understandably keeping our eyes on Israel & Palestine, Crimethinc did just put out an incredibly well written piece on the ongoing struggle, strikes and protests in Colombia. Read it here.
In other, typical corporate fuck any and all democracies world, here is a thing:
Whilst we are on the subject of US government fuckery, have a read through this thread:
To finish this one of, well, ACAB. Tell me, please, how this is meant to be be ok?