Morning Comrades!
I am more than excited to finally be able to announce this first of many collaborations with my friends True Rebel here in Hamburg. We have been working on several ideas for over a year and I couldn’t think of a more fitting design to kick off this partnership.
Siamo Tutti Antifascisti
I’ll get into the story behind the design shorty, but a few important logistics first. True Rebel are making and shipping this shirt. You can buy this from me or them, either works. If you have bought shirts from me in the past and are worried about fit and quality, quite frankly, their shirts are probably a little better than mine. In-House printing, own blanks ( extremely similar fit ) and a dedicated shipping team - one of the benefits of working with a pretty serious sized retailer and brand. Obviously, if you have any questions, by all means, drop me a line.
If you are one of the patreons to this newsletter, your discount code applies here of course, but do then purchase it through the black lodges online shop.
A few words about the design and story here.
The front print you will have seen in various versions from me in the past. A more than solid evergreen. The back was inspired by a photo I took in Moscow years ago, where a concrete star was the base for the never to be extinguished flame in honour of all those people who died fighting fascism. Figured the eternal red flame was more than apt to symbolize the idea of all us being, indeed and naturally, anti-fascist.
If you are even in the remotest involved in any sort of European Anti-Fascist orgs you will have heard this slogan a million times over and you can skip this part. If not, here you go:
Siamo Tutti Antifascisti is Italian for “We Are All Anti-Fascists”. No one can accurately confirm the exact origins with some sources putting this back to the Italian Anti-Fascist movement in the 1930s whilst others put this firmly into modern times. Personally, I first heard this when I was in Genoa for the 2001 G8 protests, that excluding the G20 protests here in Hamburg, were some of the most violent protests I have even attended. Italy does these things differently and those stories will mostly remain under a tight lock for the time being.
Nevertheless, for the past 20 years or so you will have heard this line being sung loudly and proudly at every protest and it will never cease giving me goosebumps. A popular German Punk Band probably knocked out the best visual representation of the reality here in this video ( this here directs to the english lyrics ), in a way you could consider this the punk / modern version of Bella Ciao. Plus, nice shots of the hometown in here.
Secondly, who is True Rebel you ask? Glad you asked. Friends here in Hamburg, which I know is the cheeky short answer but that describes them best. They’ve been “at this” for far longer than I have, are retailers, local / national organisers, a hub for so many of “us”. They also have their own brand that I wear, my son wears a lot of their athletic gear for his Rugby and they do a lot of good.
Thanks for your interest and support as always.
Culture vs Banks
The ever wonderful Vijay Prashad recently wrote a great essay about culture and materialism, something that ties in really well with Wedneday’s essay on Freedom and Capitalism here. Basing his essay on a number of interviews with Héctor Béjar he essentially came to the same results as we did in here over the last 2 years or, that can be summarized by saying: they have us fighting a culture war so we don’t fight a class war. It goes without saying that the collective “left, for a lack of a better word, owns the arts and “cultures” - this is what Béjar is arguing, and has done for centuries around the globe. I cannot think, and nor could Hector or Vijay, of any genuine art or culturist from the regressive, conservative “right” - what they do have however is money, they are the capital and own the banks and with that they own the narrative and not only the narrative but determine the space in which all conversations take place. A clear, brutal and honest materialist analysis that whilst bothersome, important so that we can attack the problems humanity and the planet faces at their root. Ultimately anti-reactionary, the essay goes forth with a few ideas about the future that is very much worth your time.
If the debate on the major social processes of our time favours the left, this is not the case when it comes to discussions about the economic system. As Béjar put it, ‘the world still belongs to the banks’. It is bankers’ intellectuals – such as the professors who repeat the slogans of ‘market liberalisation’ and ‘personal choice’ as a cover to justify the power, privileges, and property of a tiny minority of people – who control intellectual property and finance. Bankers’ intellectuals do not worry themselves about the deep costs paid by the people for their bankrupt ideas. Salient issues – such as global tax abuse (which costs governments nearly $500 billion per year), the illicit tax havens that harbour trillions of unproductive dollars, and the great social inequality that has generated mass suffering – rarely figure into the concerns of bankers’ intellectuals. Though the right might be ‘intellectually poor’, their ideas continue to frame socio-economic policy across the globe.
Weekend Content
I am slowly but surely getting my head around Tidal, after using Spotify for so many years it is still a bit of a process to make it work as well as the previous platform, but time will tell. In any case, seeing that there is no social component to tidal I have no idea if anyone actually listens to these, not that that has ever been the motivation anyway, but here you are. This week’s playlist, something to take into your weekend and vibe out to.
I skipped doing an episode of Hot Shots this week, for one, I have spoken enough already but you can also re-visit this one from last week if you missed it. Also, for a much better talk, you can definitely tune in to the podcast by Capitalism & Cocktails that I was a guest on last week below. That one is heaps better entertainment than me ranting and raving above - also I was a little tipsy in the below because, yeah, negroni’s.
You DO want to watch the below. Time well spent I’ll say.
The below is from the Gravel Institute, fuck YT for putting an age restriction on anything that criticizes the police. Pfffft.
This is scary to me, but you know, nothing beats reality when it comes to horror films.
That’s it from me this week. Thanks for tuning in and deciding on spending some time with me and on here. Until Monday, I remain yours and without compromise,
V.