Morning Comrades! There are a number of wonderful points to go through today, new books, new ideas, journals of the women’s working struggles in India, hot shots and new gear. Let’s get that out of the way first and foremost.
I will be releasing the Patagonia / Antifa Rip this weekend, on a hoodie for the first time as well as the t-shirt for those of you that didn’t manage to get it the first time around. Yes, these are more expensive than usual and that’s due to this design being a 4 colour screen print. That my dear friends, is a massive pain in the arse to make and involves heaps more labour from our printing friends. That for clarification. The entire preview is now ready over at the online shop. As per usual the subscribing members to this newsletter will be getting an early link on Thursday alongside their discount code.
Now about the above image, I’ve had this idea that I wanted to share with you and it combines a lot of scientific utopian thought ala Gramsci as well as his idea about building power structures from below on the quest for cultural & political hegemony. Additionally, and importantly, it channels several Marxist Themes of Action rather than Reaction.
To cut to the chase, the so-called holiday season is approaching fast, kicking off with Halloween / Walpurgis Night, Thanksgiving leading into December etc. Now, in the typically western conditioned leftist tradition of being reactionary, I have and was tempted to once again call out these manufactured, hollow celebrations of capitalism, refuse to take part in them and show my disdain towards anyone that did. No more. Reactionary behaviour is what got us into this mess in the first place, so rather than reacting, I am proposing that on the date of October Revolution, November 7th we all start our own Thanks & Feast in honour of us, the People. Do what you may, personally I am planning a pot luck dinner as well as kickstarting a mobile Food Not Bombs Drive around town, but the point being is that WE ACT, rather than REACT. We can only move forward if we show, by example, of what it means to create a better future. Reaction is necessary as a defensive tactic, yes, but without acting to create a world by us for us, it won’t happen.
Surely, at this point you are asking what creating a new holiday, a get together has to do with creating a better world? Glad you asked. The creation of a worker owned, progressive, humanistic and post-capitalistic society is neither a one dimensional fight nor is it linear in historical progression. If we follow the ideas of Cultural Hegemony, and I sincerely propose we do, subverting the existing capitalistic power structure through cultural means ( i.e. a people’s thanksgiving for example ) is part of establishing a positive, progressive, utopian narrative. A small part, but important one nonetheless. Whilst it is important to keep Marx’s modernized ethos of “Each According To Their Ability, Each According To Their Needs” in mind, we all have to do our part. This brave new world isn’t going to happen on its own and it’s going to take all of us to create the world we at the very least deserve. So this 7th November, throw a people’s feast. Do as you see right in your community and let’s honour the revolution that rang the bell on the capitalists. By all means, share the idea, share the image, throw in your comments and let’s get to it.
Indian Women on an Arduous Road to Equality
You may have noticed that I started focusing more on reports and stories from the so-called periphery of our Western Empire. The reason being as I have written about previously, is that I see the move towards a marxist utopia here in action, and not in the heart of our destructive empire. We have our roles to play here, yes, but the turning theories into action is happening elsewhere. Hence the additional new-ish focus and the above is an incredible dossier on women, labour, the struggle for self-determination in India. If you read one story this week, make it this one.
Speaking of the rotten core of our Empire, Abigail Thorn just dropped an incredibly important and new episode of Philosophy Tube, entitled: Islamophobia, An Analysis. Whilst the title is a little misleading, because it is about so much more than that and essentially how our Christian / Capitalist / Colonizing Mindset got taken for a fuck-off destructive ride, well, you know, what it. Seriously.
Realizing that this will be the last book by David Graeber hurts a little to say the least but here we are, I honestly cannot wait to get my hands on this one.
Drawing on path-breaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we begin to see what’s really there. If humans did not spend 95 per cent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful possibilities than we tend to assume.
The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision and faith in the power of direct action.
Hot Shots. For you to share, to get curious about and you know.