I’m becoming a bit perturbed by a trend I’m noticing sometimes in the new kind of activist group that is developing internationally, such as DRY and groups I know that might be influenced by them (wink, wink)…  That is, sometimes people in these groups want to suppress any overt challenge to the capitalist system, because they are supposedly opposing “ideology.”  For me, when someone involved in a political group starts expressing a desire for “no ideology,” that’s when I reach for…  No, just kidding, we are all nonviolent here…  But I am inclined to agree with a number of posts or articles I’ve seen around, from present and former comrades, that an insistence on “no ideology” or “no politics” might come from a very ideological, political place, because in practical terms, and often by intention as well, such a stance is mostly a support of the ideology of the present system (which would theoretically just need a little tweaking or efforts to rid it of some specific form of “corruption,” etc.).  [Note:  Deleted a comparison originally written here, because I've decided it doesn't make sense, oh well.]

And certainly, my instinct is to avoid putting too much of my heart into a political movement that doesn’t really want to challenge the present system.  But, on the other hand…  If a group is doing an action that is good in practical terms and no one else is doing anything of any significance at the moment, then is that reason enough to stick with the group?  I think maybe it would be OK to do so, but always keeping some critical perspective…

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P.S.  I am aware (as a friend pointed out in conversation tonight) that there may be a difference between taking a “no ideology” stance as a matter of strategy for a particular action and taking it as a matter of belief.  The difference might be very hard to distinguish, but if people take the stance because they think it’s good strategy, that is a situation that I can ponder more, looking at arguments on both sides.  But what bothers me more is that there seems to be some people out there who really fundamentally believe that is important to oppose “ideology” or even “politics” even while they are planning a political action.

I read that people in London were shocked that a ballerina was found among the rioters. But to me, this was no surprise. Trust me, you better watch out when the ballerinas get involved!

Yes, you know that when there’s a riot in London, within hours, the kids are going to turn it into grime/dubstep/reggae/techno videos… The second one has a nice message at the end, but… While I have no objection to being critical of the indiscriminate nature of the damage such riots can cause, I would prefer to see more time spent on criticizing the causes of the riots – with an understanding that as the global social/economic situation deteriorates, this sort of thing is going to become more common, along with the more focused and coordinated kinds of uprisings that are easier for us to praise.

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P.S.  Not surprisingly, Hawgblawg came out with an informative post on the same subject at the same time, or maybe a day or half-day earlier.  However, I did not know this until after I put up this post.  This is not the first time these blogs seem to be mirroring each other – Hawglblawg also put up the same David Harvey clip as I did, shortly after I put it up.  But there’s been no communication between these blogs…  I’ve commented a couple of times, but without getting a response.  And one of my blogs is listed there, but it’s the Indian film blog (blogrolled there for a few years, since the days when it was more of a “global music” blog), but not this one.  In any event, those matters are, of course, tangential/trivial…  The blog itself always has good information about the protest activities and revolutions in the Middle East (as well as all the accompanying music), and I would highly recommend frequent visits there for updates.

Yes, I’m going off to that charging bull statue, not quite on Wall Street, but just a couple of blocks from the Staten Island Ferry (so I pass it basically every time I go into Manhattan anyway)…   It’s time for a People’s General Assembly.  Well, kudos to the people who are organizing this, and we’ll see how it goes.  Here’s a paragraph from the post at New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts:

This is a call for every teacher, home health aid, parent, student, tenant, librarian, city/state employee, childcare provider, nurse, patient, employed or unemployed worker or recipient of Social Security or any type of public assistance:  on August 2 come to Wall Street – the scene of the crimes now being perpetrated on the people – and make your voice heard!

The current depression-level crisis is not due to lack of revenue.  It’s due to theft.  The trillions that the banks are sitting on right now?  That’s our money.  Whether through taxes; the looting of pension and social security contributions; or the wealth we created from our labor – all of that belongs to us.  Come to Wall Street August 2 and strategize — on how to get that back!

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P.S.  Noting sometime later, after that meeting and more:  Oh, OK, this is interesting…  I don’t agree completely with some things in terms of process and focus, but its ever-changing, and it’s certainly keeping me busy in a way I haven’t been in a while.  I typed another post quibbling about the process, but I decided to delete that.  Must take a wait-and-see attitude and not be ready to dismiss so soon…

Found at Take the Square.

I just couldn’t come up with a shorter title to describe this fascinating international mix.  The group behind the video look interesting too.  It’s a good song and a moving video, and we even get to see Arundhati for a few seconds, too.

I think Lenin’s Tomb has been posting a few astute articles in the last few days regarding this atrocity.  Here are pertinent quotes from the latest post:

However, if you want to understand the attitude of the punditocracy to fascist terrorism, consider the query put by BBC News to the former Norwegian Prime Minister yesterday:  ”Do you think not enough attention was paid to those unhappy re immigration?”  Or, consider this New York Times article blaming the failure of multiculturalism.  Or, look at this Atlantic article, which describes such racist terrorism as a “mutation of jihad” –  that is “the spread of the ‘jihad’ mentality to anti-immigrant and racist groups.”  You begin to get the picture.  The idea is to find some way in which all of this is still the fault of Muslim immigrants.  The logic will be:  the fascists express legitimate grievances, but go too far.  Or worse, in their natural outrage, they have allowed themselves to become like them.
. . .
But the ideas that led him to fascism are not at all marginal.  The Islamophobia that has been energetically disseminated by the belligerents of the ‘war on terror’, the view seriously entertained by many that Europe’s Muslim minority constitutes a threat meriting legal supervision and restriction at the very least, has provided the intellectual and moral basis for the mass murder of Norwegian children.  No one who is not prepared to countenance this can have anything morally serious or even creditable to say about this slaughter.  And anyone who starts from the idea of blaming Islam is placing themselves in a contemptible affinity with the perpetrator.

Of course, as it applies in Europe, it applies equally here in the U.S.A.

Her lyrics and image never did much for me, and I admit, I probably couldn’t identify most of her songs.  But Amy Winehouse did have something going in terms of authenticity and artistic ability (you could say “talent,” though for some reason I never much liked that word)…  I’m looking over some of her stuff, and I like her sound.  So, it’s a damn shame that she destroyed herself at that notoriously jinxed age for rock stars (Janis, Jim, Jimi, Kurt…), 27.  (Though that seems so young to me now…)

I originally typed a longer sermon with some socially relevant comments, but I’ve deleted it.  What the hell.  I’ll just say, don’t drink and do drugs.  There’s nothing genuinely rebellious about that and there’s nothing glamorous in it either.  In fact, I don’t know why people do it (especially so many people in show biz all through the ages), or why any people ever (maybe back in the ’60s?) thought there was something good about wrecking your mind.  You’re just helping the forces above you to keep you down, or to keep your independence stifled.  And you might kill yourself.

Oh, well.

I like this:

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And by the way, I like the way she phrases things as she’s singing.  She probably reminds different people of different singers from the old days of blues and soul.  For me, the first thing I think of is the Cat Woman.  On a lighter note (though still sad, since I was unhappy to see her go not too long ago also – sadder to see her go, actually – but at least she lived until old age)…

If I had to recommend just one famous, officially established, universally recognized and working economist from the U.S. to listen to right now, this guy could be it.  I don’t always have the vocabulary to follow everything he’s talking about, and there are people who I think explain economic principles in a much more understandable way (which is one reason why I find it much more enjoyable reading and listening to that last guy I posted, David Harvey)…  But nonetheless, among the academic big shots whom I’ve seen and liked lately, Michael Hudson probably has the greatest grasp on the details of the horrors of financial domination and the seemingly limitless, mostly one-way class war…

With “one-way” meaning…guess which side seems to be losing all the time now, with rarely even a rock thrown back in the U.S….  Though I am writing metaphorically here, of course; I am not literally instructing people reading this on the Internet to get out into the streets and throw rocks.  (Ahem…)  But I will tell you that I am glad I contributed my presence a little over 11 years ago to a majorly aggressive protest against a meeting of the IMF, facing tear gas and pepper spray, etc.  That, to me, was a much more significant way to be involved politically than it would have been for me to pull a lever in the presidential elections that I’ve skipped.  (And, by the way, I have skipped a few here and there during the past couple of decades…i.e., when I didn’t just register a “protest” vote for Ralph or the Socialist Party candidate…)  Actually, I have had this opinion (with this proudness) for a while, but recent events have made me feel particularly sure about it, considering the most recent actions of the guy in the White House whom so many “progressives” pulled that lever for a couple of years ago.  And by the way, Real News has quite a few videos on why the “debt ceiling debate” is a fraud and a charade on “both” sides.  I’d post more, but I don’t want this blog to become a Real News blog totally/completely…

So, for the sake of variety, the first video I want to post here is not from Real News, but from RT; i.e., the Keiser Report.  Here, Hudson discusses how IMF banksters are essentially enforcing a new kind of feudalism in Europe (with emphasis on Greece)…  And by the way, I was just sort of kidding when I said “for the sake of variety,” because this really is my favorite among the video interviews with Michael Hudson that I have seen in recent days:

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And now here’s another Real News video, in which Michael Hudson talks about how Greece is a “dress rehearsal” for the U.S.: