To mark the release of the film Marx Reloaded, Laurie Penny, author of Penny Red: Notes from the New Age of Dissent, will be joining Paul Mason, Robin Blackburn and Jason Barker at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on the 15th February to discuss the issues raised in the film.
Marx Reloaded features “a stellar array of philosophers” and promises “an electrifying examination of the contemporary relevance of Karl Marx’s ideas for understanding the current global social and economic crisis.” Watch the trailer here:
Visit the ICA for more information about the event and to book tickets.
As well as Laurie’s book, Pluto Press has a great range of accessible and innovative books by and on Marx. Here are our top recommendations…
The March 2011 programme for government promised a constitutional convention “to consider comprehensive constitutional reform” and to report within 12 months. Yet, the virtual silence on the idea in the intervening period sends signals that rewriting our Constitution is seen as being of little importance to Government and Opposition alike.
Kirby and Murphy draw on examples from Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Iceland of popular participation in constitutional reform to make their case for a similar approach in Ireland:
All these processes involved extensive public consultation. In each of them, the constitution that resulted was broadly progressive, guaranteeing a range of not just civil rights but also social and cultural rights, as well as introducing innovative environmental rights in the cases of Bolivia and Ecuador.
In the case of Venezuela, the new constitution has become a popular document, sold at street kiosks and carried around by citizens in paperback format who refer to it to claim rights from the state. Each of the Latin American cases has also introduced a range of democratic mechanisms to enhance greater accountability by public officials, including the possibility of revocatory elections, while in Iceland provision has been made for referendums if requested by 10 per cent of voters.
Visit the Irish Times to read the article in full.
Analyses Ireland’s economics, politics and society, drawing lessons from its cycles of boom and bust. Proposes new institutions for a fairer Ireland.
“A very important, timely and relevant contribution to the ongoing debate about Ireland’s future and the type of Republic we should aspire towards. Their argument that we must move forward informed by republican values of equality, interdependency and sustainability is both refreshing and compelling. This accessible book should help ignite active public debate. A very welcome addition to Irish political discourse.” – Eamon Gilmore, Tánaiste and Leader, Irish Labour Party
“Kirby and Murphy have marched out on the battleground of ideas, asking how our political economy can be reformed. Indeed, they are demanding it. We may be arriving a little late on the scene to question the form of modern capitalism, but the recent crisis has opened up the space for this debate. This is a work of scholarship written with the public in mind. Its contribution is delivered in a true and new republican fashion.” – Eamon Ryan, Leader, Irish Green party
Pakistani journalists protest following the death of Syed Saleem Shahzad
The official commission of inquiry into the death of the journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad has concluded that it does not know who was responsible for his murder. Shahzad’s courageous investigative journalism made him an enemy of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI). Many of his findings are contained in his book, Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11, published just days before his death.
Writing in Newsweek Pakistan, Khaled Ahmed writes that “the reaction from the journalist community has been one of intense disappointment”:
One commission member, PFUJ’s Pervaiz Shaukat, told an audience in Islamabad toward the end of the commission’s work that the journalists who could have given damning evidence either absented themselves from the inquiry or submitted statements that refrained from deposing against the ISI, the main accused in the case.
Ahmed comments on the arguments put by the ISI in their deposition to the commission:
The ISI told the commission that Shahzad kept his contact with them to the last, which, they said, proved he did not feel threatened by the agency! Their assertion that Al Qaeda could have killed Shahzad was backed by their taped conversation with another journalist, Hamid Mir, who “condemns Saleem Shahzad [as] being a dubious case [and] laments Americans for their extraordinary interest in this case.” The ISI sought to prove that Al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri and his agents, whom Shahzad’s reports revealed as his main sources of information, could have killed him.
The commission could have ignored this self-exoneration. In his deposition, Ali Dayan Hasan, who represents Human Rights Watch in Pakistan, said Shahzad “had been threatened by the ISI at the Oct. 17 meeting at ISI headquarters in Islamabad with the director-general of the media wing of the ISI, Rear Adm. Adnan Nazir, and another ISI official, Cmdr. Khalid Pervaiz.” Hasan says Shahzad took Admiral Nazir’s parting comments—“I must give you a favor. We have recently arrested a terrorist and recovered a lot of data, diaries and other material during the interrogation. The terrorist had a hit list with him. If I find your name in the list, I will certainly let you know”—as a threat.
Ahmed concludes:
The chapter on another death is thus closed. Shahzad joins a host of journalists who died in Pakistan’s killing fields. Their killers lost without a trace.
A unique insight into the post-Osama bin Laden generation of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders from a journalist who interviewed many of them.
“This is a disturbing book. … Shahzad considers the strategies of al-Qaeda and other radical Islamist movements in terms that are not often heard.” – The Times
“Buy Shahzad’s book. It tells us what the Pakistani government, whose corruption and brutality Shahzad died to expose, does not want us to know.” – Charles Glass
Sholette begins in the early ’80s, discussing an effort he was involved in to create an archive of political art. Both a history and a theoretically ambitious work, Sholette develops a theory of the mass of artists, mostly not legitimated by the commercial world, as the “dark matter” of culture. Although not honored, their work is necessary for the production of the art that is monetarily valued. Now, in part because of the new technologies, it is becoming more difficult to keep the “dark matter” hidden. He also considers the way practices of political art have changed as the traditional, bureaucratic, coherent project of the old left has given way to the new politics of the multitude. It’s impossible to do justice to the work in this space, but suffice it to say that this was perhaps my favorite book of the year.
Shows that the elite of the art world are sustained by new forms and styles created by artists outside the mainstream.
“With great verve and urgency, Gregory Sholette explores the economics of contemporary art production in an era of neoliberalism, and outlines the promises and pitfalls of various tactics of resistance. Dark Matter is a salient call-to-arms to all cultural laborers.” – Julia Bryan-Wilson, author of Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era
“Based on a multitude of examples from the heterocosmos of invisible art practices, Dark Matter is the ultimate companion to contemporary activist art. In his exquisite and theoretically informed style Gregory Sholette investigates the problematic functions of art practices in the processes of neoliberal appropriation, but above all the wild, explosive and deterritorializing lines that are drawn in the dark matter between art and politics.” – Gerald Raunig, philosopher and art theorist and author of Art and Revolution
The Guardian reported on Friday the case of Sarah Streatfeild, a violinist of 25 years’ standing with the London Philarmonic Orchestra (LPO), who was suspended after signing an open letter calling on the Proms to cancel a performance by the LPO’s Israeli counterpart.
It appears from the reports that the case has been framed in terms of Ms Streatfeild’s rights as a humanist, not to suffer discrimination. But it will be interesting to see whether (assuming her case does come to court) Ms Streatfeild goes further and relies in her case on the protection on freedom of expression provided by article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Convention has until now made relatively little dent in employment law. One obvious area of contrast is the policing of terrorism suspects, where in 2004, the House of Lords defied the government in holding that the European Convention outlawed the indefinite detention of foreign nationals in Belmarsh (A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department).
It is the same picture in family law, where judges relying on the Convention overturned a decades-old convention against cross-examining children who accused adults of physical or sexual harm (Re W). In housing law, meanwhile, the Convention has been used to give tenants protection against eviction, even in cases where legislation seems to have been written with the intention that certain kinds of tenant would have no defence to claims for possession (Manchester v Pinnock).
How the West Fuels War and Poverty in the Developing World
Vijay Mehta
“We live in a rich world and yet increasingly people are getting caught in the poverty trap and facing real hardship and pain. Vijay Mehta’s excellent book sets out the problems and solutions, and challenges us all to create the spiritual and political will to implement policies which will bring about real change and give hope to humanity.” – Mairead Maguire, Irish peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
“The Economics of Killing brilliantly links the deepening economic crisis facing the West with the dynamics of militarism that is wreaking havoc on the planet. Everyone who cares about the future must read this groundbreaking book.” – Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for the Palestinian Territories, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, USA
A common theme runs through our new books this month. From community organisation in the slums of Manila in Eradicating Extreme Poverty, to oil and violence in the Niger Delta in The Scramble for African Oil, to resource struggles and peasant rebellion in Bolivia in Flammable Societies, our books provide vivid examples of the lives and hopes of the global 99%, and suggest new progressive global policies in the face of economic crisis and climate change.
Edited by Xavier Godinot. Foreword by Christopher Winship
“This gem of a book gets under the skin of poverty. Years accompanying poor people in four countries in their daily struggle for survival reveal a world far more complex and fascinating than the $1-a-day platitudes of the conventional aid debate. Above all it shows the human reality of poverty: the endless struggle for respect, and against indignity and stigma. Read it to learn what development should be about.” – Duncan Green, head of research, Oxfam Great Britain
“This important publication argues convincingly that extreme poverty is a human rights crisis that demands urgent commitments from states to respect, protect and fulfil human rights for all. The book highlights the importance of engaging individuals directly as advocates for change to address extreme poverty in their own communities and for their fellow citizens.” – Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International
Oppression, Corruption and War for Control of Africa’s Natural Resources
Douglas A. Yates
“Essential reading for anyone seeking an understanding of the ‘resource curse’, the global exploitation of Africa’s resources and the troubled state of African politics. Drawing on a detailed knowledge of the region, Douglas Yates does a remarkable job of exposing the predatory forces responsible for the continuing impoverishment of Africa’s oil states – while also celebrating those heroic African figures who have resisted the onslaught.” – Professor Michael T. Klare, Hampshire College, Massachusetts and author of Resource Wars
“Yates brilliantly scales the walls of the oil fortress in Africa and shines a light into the complex politics – local, national and global – of the oil and gas industry and offers some insight into possible routes out of the swamp of failed oil-development.” – Professor Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley
Critical assessment of the impact of the oil and gas industry on socio-economic development across the world. Draws on original research.
“In their important book, McNeish and Logan take issue with conventional wisdom by reading the varied experiences of petro-states in the northern and southern hemispheres against one another to explode the overly simplified sense of good and bad oil governance. At the heart of these empirically rich and conceptually innovative contributions is a sensitivity to the intersection of petro-state power with territoriality and forms of sovereignty, a heady mix of forces which can produce inflammable political outcomes. Flammable Societies unsettles the field of oil studies by fusing visual, textual, historical and ethnographic approaches into a powerful whole. A path-breaking book.” – Michael Watts, Class of 63 Professor, University of California, Berkeley
“This collection offers fresh insights into the social relations of communities in which oil and gas are produced – from Scotland to Russia and Nigeria – and of resistance to oil-fuelled power. It challenges lazy, catch-all concepts about oil-producing economies and raises the standard of academic debate.” – Simon Pirani, Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and author of Change in Putin’s Russia
“We’re proud in Israel that over 1 million Arab citizens of Israel have been enjoying these rights for decades.” – Benjamin Netanyahu
“Nationality status in Israel is not linked to origin from, or residence in a territory, as is the norm in international law. Rather, the basic theocratic character of the Israeli legal system establishes ethnic criteria as the grounds for the enjoyment of full rights.” - Miloon Kothari, former UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing
“Many people will concede that the military occupation of non-citizens for over 40 years is undemocratic. Yet, inside the pre-1967 borders, Israel is far from the “liberal democracy” central to the propaganda, in areas like land, planning, housing, immigration and state budgets. Rhetoric and policies associated with the far-right in Europe – like an obsession with “demographics” and birth rates, or boosting one kind of population in a given area to counterbalance an “undesirable” minority – are mainstream in Israeli politics.” – Ben White
Argues that Israel’s insistence on declaring itself a Jewish state leads to discrimination, segregation and a guarantee of continued conflict.
“This book debunks convincingly and forcefully the myth of Israel being ‘the only democracy’ in the Middle East. As this book shows, the treatment of the Palestinians in Israel is the ultimate proof that the Jewish State is anything but democratic.” – Professor Ilan Pappe, University of Exeter and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and Out of the Frame
“Essential reading to understand why there can never be peace unless Palestinian citizens of Israel are granted full equality, something they are systematically denied by Israel’s aggressive, and increasingly unrestrained Zionist ethnocracy.” – Ali Abunimah, Co-founder of Electronic Intifada, author of One Country
Indispensable introduction to the Israel/Palestine conflict, examining the current structures of Israeli domination.
“A very strong and clear voice that does not shun from exposing in full, and in a most accessible manner, the essence of Zionism and Israeli policies in Palestine. In a world confused by competing narratives, disinformation and fabrication, this book is an excellent guide for understanding the magnitude of the crimes committed against the Palestinians and the nature of their present suffering and oppression.” – Professor Ilan Pappe, University of Exeter, Israeli historian and author of ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ (2007)
“This book deals rationally and cogently with a topic that almost always generates considerable heat even just with book titles. The reader may not agree with everything that White asserts but it is a highly commendable effort to throw light on a fraught subject.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
With the death of Kim Jong Il and the accession to power, nominal and perhaps actual, of Kim Jong Un, many have been asking what change this will make to DPRK policy towards the outside world, and in particular towards foreign business.
The short answer is that in the short to medium term, none.
More important is whether this is the right question to ask. It implies that the barriers to peaceful engagement, and to greater business interaction, lie on the North Korea side. That is not so. It is the United States which has erected sanctions against the DPRK, and cajoled others (but China only to a limited degree) to follow. It is South Korea under Lee Myung-bak that has carried out a hardline, confrontational policy towards the North, reversing the policy of his immediate, and not so immediate, predecessors. Interestingly the Korea Times has just published a strong attack on his policy from, by all people, the advisor to Roh Tae-woo, the last of the generals to run South Korea.
So the question should be, will there be a change of North Korea policy by the US and South Korea, and how would the North react? We can presume that China and Russia will continue as before and be anxious to promote peace and stability. The United States is difficult to read but with a presidential election coming up the chances of a peaceful initiative are slight. One of the problems of the American presidential system is that peace does not win votes for an incumbent presidential candidate but war – the famous ‘October surprise’ – might rally electors around the flag. However, a war in Korea would be a war with China and that, we can hope, would put it outside a calculated strategy (though not perhaps a miscalculation).
In a special edition of Press TV’s Epilogue programme dedicated to Penny Red: Notes from the New Age of Dissent, Darcus Howe argues that the book displays “a rare ability to capture the mood of the moment, she [Penny] is able to transform the people she interviews into living characters…We are on the cusp of radical change in Britain and Laurie Penny is in the vanguard of it.”
You can watch the show, which features Darcus and Occupy London activist Spyros van Leemnen discussing the book here:
Selected writings from a prominent voice of the new activist left. Reflections on being young, broke and angry in the twenty-first century.
“Cuts, sexism and riots, Laurie Penny’s fresh and angry voice captures the moment and the important issues – highly recommended.” – Polly Toynbee
“Penny is re-inventing the language of dissent, delivering verbal taser-barbs to the left and right, and causing apoplexy among the old men in cardigans who run the British blogosphere.” – Paul Mason, economics editor of BBC’s Newsnight
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