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-- Raj
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The Brass Liberation Orchestra does Whole Foods
There's lots to love in this short clip of a protest against Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's thoughts on health care (which come complete with wit and wisdom from Margaret Thatcher). ... read more »
Posted on 30 September, 2009 - 21:25
It has been a heartbreaking day. If you’ve only got a minute, please click on this link and sign the petition at the end of it. Normally, I think internet petitions are largely futile, but this time, I think it’s worth taking a moment to do. So, please click and sign, and I'll explain why it's worth doing below the fold. ... read more »
Posted on 29 September, 2009 - 06:43
Fake News, Real Fear, No Democracy
I'm looking forward to The Daily Show this evening - John Oliver was out interviewing the little woodland creatures (or so they appeared) who were part of the protest rainbow today at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh. Undoubtedly, they'll be made to look foolish (and in all likelihood, they had it coming). It's sad that Comrade Oliver couldn't interview folk from inside the G20 building - they are idiots of a far more dangerous stripe. But before I opine about them, a quick thought about what happened outside the G20 today. ... read more »
Posted on 25 September, 2009 - 23:29
I remember that, nearly a decade ago, the Global Justice movement was under fire for the way it organized. It seemed to be a moveable carnival of activism, known only by its dates (N30 for the WTO on November 30th, 1999 – Seattle, A20 for the Summit of the Americans on April 20th, 2001 - Quebec City, and so on).
The insider nomenclature, it was said, mirrored the politics. Activists hopped from one city to another, discussing globalization among themselves in a code that never really connected with the people living in the places where protests happened. Although the accusation was much truer about the conferences we were protesting against - the WTO, G8, G20, the IMF and World Bank’s Annual Meetings and so on - there was a sliver of truth in the criticism.
It’s a criticism that has been trotted out in modified form by, er, Barack Obama who’s in Pittsburgh today at the G20 meetings. In this interview he says:
“I was always a big believer in - when I was doing organizing before I went to law school - that focusing on concrete, local, immediate issues that have an impact on people's lives is what really makes a difference and that having protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally, is not really going to make much of a difference.”
So is it all terribly abstract and above peoples’ heads? If you’re listening to local talk radio, you might believe it to be. The shock jocks are howling about ‘anarchists’ with all the grace and the spittle that once only belonged to ‘Communists’ – see Monty Python below for a demonstration.
Posted on 24 September, 2009 - 15:07
Everyone's favourite guerilla political artists are back. Their latest hijink involves distributing fake versions of the New York Post. You can tell they're fake, because everything inside is factually accurate and scientifically informed. But don't take it from me - take it, at 1:11 in - from a representative of the New York Post.
"SPECIAL EDITION" NEW YORK POST from The Yes Men on Vimeo.
Posted on 22 September, 2009 - 01:17
Two thousand litres of oil per American
When it comes to broadcast media, nothing beats radio. It's fast, cheap, out of control, and the medium through which I've learned more about the world than any other.
So here's a post about radio. First, a rant. If there's a hell, the creators of the Chevron radio adverts (which sound like this) will one day finds themselves there, listening to their wretched creation on loop, in perpetuity. From the very first pensive piano note, everything about the ad spits disingenuity, deceit and greenwash. There hasn't been an occasion where I've heard the opening notes and not changed the station. The net effect is to make me want to give money to these people, who have a much firmer grasp of Chevron's environmental commitments.
Posted on 10 September, 2009 - 13:48
One of the things I've been up to recently is this piece, written with my co-authors of Food Rebellions. It's a look at the rise of philanthropy capitalism, and some worrying attempts to 'fix' Africa. You can read it all at The Nation, but there's a less elegantly formatted version below the fold. ... read more »
Posted on 7 September, 2009 - 05:35
At President Obama’s inauguration, Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger thumped out this splendid tune, a rendition of Woodie Guthrie’s classic This Land Is Your Land. The most delightful verse appears at around 2:25 -
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.
As one commentator has noted, this isn’t the version of the song that gets sung at the Democratic National Convention, preferred as a less chauvinist substitute for Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.
The Democratic Party doesn’t like to mess around with the fundamentals of private property – land in particular - and its obfuscating habits are being propagated internationally by the current administration, at an immense human cost. ... read more »
Posted on 10 August, 2009 - 08:31
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