I had two areas of concern. One was that Sami Ramadani’s expressed the opinion that the sectarian violence in Iraq is largely the creation of the occupying forces, and this seemed to be accepted by most delegates in an uncomplicated way, with some seeming to believe that it is all a dirty tricks campaign by the US.[Hyperlinks added --B]
The other area of concern was the debate over Iran... the whole debate went a bit weird because the platform speakers, Dilip Hiro and [Elaheh Rostami] Povey did seem to take the eccentric view that the Iranian government are brilliant, and the women’s movement and democratic movement in Iran are an example to us in the west (I exaggerate hardly at all).
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Stop the War conference report
Just read this The Socialist Unity Blog: (belated) Stop the War Conference Report by Andy Newman. Quite interesting, e.g.:
Socialist football
Check out the Socialist Unity Network's World Cup web aggregator for all yer soccer commentary.
Dead leftists flood Myspace
The great Cornelius Castoriadi (apparently a bi swinger who listens to the Manics), Walter Benjamin, Taurean Toni Negri (OK, he's alive), Michel Foucault (a member of the Barbeque Nation group on MySpace), Ernst Bloch, Trotsky (check his post on Palestine) and dead fascist Marty Heidegger (a Bowie fan), and Gramsci (warning - abrasive musical accompaniment) all have MySpace pages. Whodathunkit?
[via Counago and Staves]
[via Counago and Staves]
Free Ramin Jahanbegloo
Important dissident Iranian intellectual Ramin Jahanbegloo is in prison in Iran. Just look at the first line of the signatories of the petition to free him organised by L'Esprit: George Steiner, Richard Rorty, Timothy Garton Ash, Edgar Morin, Claude Lefort, Pierre Vidal-Naquet...
His Wikipedia page is keeping fairly up to date on his situation, and there are blogs you can check in with too: Ramin Jahanbegloo, Release Ramin Jahanbegloo, and Antiprison. More links: Eurozine, Open Democracy.
More on Iran: the yellow star story, gays and busdrivers.
His Wikipedia page is keeping fairly up to date on his situation, and there are blogs you can check in with too: Ramin Jahanbegloo, Release Ramin Jahanbegloo, and Antiprison. More links: Eurozine, Open Democracy.
More on Iran: the yellow star story, gays and busdrivers.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
World Cup Tour (Mp3)
The Entroporium is posting a series of cool mp3 links for each of the World Cup contenders. Readers of this blog will probably linger on the US, Iran and maybe Saudi Arabia.
Call Me Mickey does something similar.
Gorilla vs Bear also has mp3s to accompany the Cup, though not as well themed (illustrated by pics of scantily clad female fans).
Call Me Mickey does something similar.
Gorilla vs Bear also has mp3s to accompany the Cup, though not as well themed (illustrated by pics of scantily clad female fans).
Being jewish was always popular in my house
Boot Sale Sounds: Mickey Katz
Have I blogged about Mickey Katz before? Not sure, but click the link to listen to three Mp3s by the one of the gods of yidishkayt.
Have I blogged about Mickey Katz before? Not sure, but click the link to listen to three Mp3s by the one of the gods of yidishkayt.
Wankr (The death of E)
» Listr 2.0 - Coolz0r - Marketing Thoughts
This is a list of all the cool "Web 2.0" thingies that are so cool they don't need vowels, or at least 'E's. (Yes, there is a wankr, although it has its tongue firmly in its cheek, as it were.)
This is a list of all the cool "Web 2.0" thingies that are so cool they don't need vowels, or at least 'E's. (Yes, there is a wankr, although it has its tongue firmly in its cheek, as it were.)
Monday, June 26, 2006
Sarf London Blog Round-up Summer 2006
- Welcome To The World Of Blogs (from News Shopper): features Bob from Brockley! (Also: News Shopper: Your Shopper - Comments, Blogs and more: Your Blogs: Blogs Menu)
- Obligatory Slightly Lost post: slightly lost in the world: The great Brockley power-cut
- Dissolute Librarian - a queer corner of Vauxhall
- Desmond Dekker - another hero falls Forest Hill (and Streatham??) resident Dekker remembered - scroll to the bottom for Bal Tabarin Ballroom memories
- blog.myspace.com/aidanrad review of Holding On the best TV drama not written by Dennis Potter ever
- blog.myspace.com/benleach14: "The Great British Survey "
- infinite thØught: deleuze in sarf london: update promising title, no South London content really
Accent related:
- My Citrus Sarcophagus: My A-Z Sarf London accent
- the world according to littlemiss...: junk food detox: finds Iraqi ex-torturers being really sarf London luvvies sexy
- Chickchat :: I Love Your Accent! Funny cockernees in Manhattan
Islamophobes R Us
London Class War ask to be listed on IslamophobiaWatch's hitlist. London Class War are clowns, but I know what they mean.
World Cup Post
I wish that I could say that the reason this blog has been so crap recently is that I've been watching the World Cup (but even that wouldn't be an excuse - Jew90 said he's taking a break, but he's still managed better than me). But - apart from the Mexico-Argentina match - I've found it so boring that I haven't bothered. But I did want to pass on Will's "Unphilosophy Football" shirts. (Slogans from this great site - needs a 2006 update!)
I also wanted to take a moment to scorn the "Marxist" lumpen-intellectuals who snear at the plebs who support their countries. SWP hack and Ipswich fan Histomat (who, I think, un-ironically takes a blog name from the term the Stalinists used to justfiy mass murder) says the only Marxist position is "Anyone but England", and calls on humourless Leninist apparatchiks like Chris Bambery to back up the argument. (Dave Renton is not humourless though.)
(Another variation on the anti-patriotic riff comes from anti-Zionist warrior Eugene P, whose blog I used to quite like but am finding increasingly irritating.)
Histomat is responding in part to what he calls the "nationalist" argument for supporting your own team, nicely put forward by Swindon Town fan Andy Newman, in a post that also reveals the true depths of the SWP's puritan witch-burning zeal. Ed Rooksby takes a middle - or "centrist" as the Trots would say - line. Even SWP loyalist Meaders sees that the Anyone but England position is daft - justifying playing a football match at a Respect meeting. Martin Wisse ditto, forcing Histomat to return to the fray.
A question: why is supporting your local team - Ipswich, Swindon - not another form of "nationalism"? Isn't local identity just as much an "imagined community"? And if the "imagined community of the nation" has no other source or function than the interests of the dastardly bourgeiosie, how can local patriotism be any different? (And for that matter, why is the nationalism of brown-skinned nations exempt from this formula?)
For what it's worth, on my working class multiracial South London street, there is no visible correlation between being white or a wanker and flying England flags. Although the white wankers at the corner of Salehurst Rd are flying England flags. And I'm not supporting England any more, just because they're simply crap.
Other World Cup stuff:
Tags: Ecuador... England... Football... germany... MEXICO... Portugal... soccer... world-cup-2006... Worldcup... world cup...
I also wanted to take a moment to scorn the "Marxist" lumpen-intellectuals who snear at the plebs who support their countries. SWP hack and Ipswich fan Histomat (who, I think, un-ironically takes a blog name from the term the Stalinists used to justfiy mass murder) says the only Marxist position is "Anyone but England", and calls on humourless Leninist apparatchiks like Chris Bambery to back up the argument. (Dave Renton is not humourless though.)
(Another variation on the anti-patriotic riff comes from anti-Zionist warrior Eugene P, whose blog I used to quite like but am finding increasingly irritating.)
Histomat is responding in part to what he calls the "nationalist" argument for supporting your own team, nicely put forward by Swindon Town fan Andy Newman, in a post that also reveals the true depths of the SWP's puritan witch-burning zeal. Ed Rooksby takes a middle - or "centrist" as the Trots would say - line. Even SWP loyalist Meaders sees that the Anyone but England position is daft - justifying playing a football match at a Respect meeting. Martin Wisse ditto, forcing Histomat to return to the fray.
A question: why is supporting your local team - Ipswich, Swindon - not another form of "nationalism"? Isn't local identity just as much an "imagined community"? And if the "imagined community of the nation" has no other source or function than the interests of the dastardly bourgeiosie, how can local patriotism be any different? (And for that matter, why is the nationalism of brown-skinned nations exempt from this formula?)
For what it's worth, on my working class multiracial South London street, there is no visible correlation between being white or a wanker and flying England flags. Although the white wankers at the corner of Salehurst Rd are flying England flags. And I'm not supporting England any more, just because they're simply crap.
***
Other World Cup stuff:
- More Mondial from Snoopy (plenty more, too, where that comes from)
- The Man from Catford: For Rooney, England and St George (he lives up the road from me, so I know whereof he speaks)
- Sadiq Khan's World Cup blog
- Daniel, Soccer Dad and Harry on the whole Ghana/Israeli flag thing
Tags: Ecuador... England... Football... germany... MEXICO... Portugal... soccer... world-cup-2006... Worldcup... world cup...
Make robots dance
Neocon prophet?
'Reading Leo Strauss,' by Steven B. Smith - New York Times
Via Jogo, who writes: "Short, tantalizing window onto Leo Strauss"
Meanwhile, my father, a veteran of the University of Chicago from the Strauss era writes:
"Just as an aside, when I was at the U of Chicago (65-66) Strauss was not then considered "conservative". In a way, he has become categorised in this way mainly by the activities and writings of people who were/are conservative and who have wished to claim a descent from him. It's true that others at Chicago with him, and sometimes seen as associated with him --such as Saul Bellow and Edward Shils -- also were not considered "conservative" then, but did definitely move rightwards thereafter, and perhaps Strauss has been too much, if wrongly, associated with that group as a whole."
Via Jogo, who writes: "Short, tantalizing window onto Leo Strauss"
Meanwhile, my father, a veteran of the University of Chicago from the Strauss era writes:
"Just as an aside, when I was at the U of Chicago (65-66) Strauss was not then considered "conservative". In a way, he has become categorised in this way mainly by the activities and writings of people who were/are conservative and who have wished to claim a descent from him. It's true that others at Chicago with him, and sometimes seen as associated with him --such as Saul Bellow and Edward Shils -- also were not considered "conservative" then, but did definitely move rightwards thereafter, and perhaps Strauss has been too much, if wrongly, associated with that group as a whole."
Tag: neocon
Friday, June 23, 2006
Chomsky's Zionist past
This extract from a piece called "Zellig Harris, Avukah, and Hashomer Hatzir" in Robert Barsky's hagiography of the prophet Noam is very interesting, if you're interested in this sort of thing.
Where have all the Jewish foxes gone?
Very good guest post by Malachi on HP about Max Hastings' daft Guardian article on diaspora Jews. I was going to blog about this, but now I don't need to.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
The Challenges of Political Islam
The excellent AWAAZ - South Asia Watch are organising a conference on 29 June on political Islam. Looks very interesting - a sign of the increasing confidence of the secular British Asian left (people like Chetan Bhatt and Suresh Grover are speaking there) in challenging the apologetics of the Respectniks and other Islamofascist fellow travellers, while standing up for core left values like tolerance, pluralism and equality.
Possibly the ugliest website I've ever seen (Or: academic anti-zionism again)
The new higher education union in Britain, UCU, formed from a merger of the AUT (which voted for, then against, an academic boycott of particular Israeli universities) and NATFHE (which has voted for a boycott of Israeli academics unless they can be tested and proven to be good - i.e. anti-Zionist - Jews) will be deciding at its next conference whether or not to boycott Israel.
The UCU Left - whose website could win some prizes for horrific use of colour - are going to 'debate' the issue at their next meeting on 24 June. (Here's the programme). Whose debating? Sue Blackwell, who proposed the AUT motion for boycott, and Professor Jonathan Rosenhead (AKA "Johnathan Rosenhead"), another pro-boycotter.
So, here's a call to all genuinely left-wing UCU members, those who have more time on their hands than me, to go and fight for the real left-wing values by arguing against the boycott.
Tags: israel boycott, israel
The UCU Left - whose website could win some prizes for horrific use of colour - are going to 'debate' the issue at their next meeting on 24 June. (Here's the programme). Whose debating? Sue Blackwell, who proposed the AUT motion for boycott, and Professor Jonathan Rosenhead (AKA "Johnathan Rosenhead"), another pro-boycotter.
So, here's a call to all genuinely left-wing UCU members, those who have more time on their hands than me, to go and fight for the real left-wing values by arguing against the boycott.
Tags: israel boycott, israel
Monday, June 19, 2006
"Isryale"
Judeosphere on disgusting anti-semitic filth published by the Daily Kos in the guise of a critique of political correctness, corporate sponsorship and neo-con conspiring at Yale.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Against the boycott of Israel 2
Meretz USA and Ameinu have made a forceful statement against boycotting Israel:
CUPE-NATFHE Statement 06-11-06
CUPE-NATFHE Statement 06-11-06
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Libertarians on Chavez
Of Chavistas and Anarquistas: Brief Sketch of a Visit to Venezuela - Venezuela/Colombia Anarchist movement - Anarkismo
This is quite an interesting report on the Bolivarian revolution, which sees both the authoritarian and emancipatory side of the Chavez project. [Via RtbI, via Mutualist]
This is quite an interesting report on the Bolivarian revolution, which sees both the authoritarian and emancipatory side of the Chavez project. [Via RtbI, via Mutualist]
Fisking Central: one of my new favourite things
I've only just become aware of Fisking Central, but am very pleased to be considered one of their favourite things. Another one to add to the roll.
Against the boycott of Israel
Two good posts on Israel's enemies on the left, from an interesting perspective, on Neo-Jacobin, a blog I will add to my link list when I next get around to updating it:
And one from The Pecking Order, which I also intend to add to the list when I get around to it.
Added:
And a couple from Reasons to be Impossible, another impeccably non-Zionist source!
And one from The Pecking Order, which I also intend to add to the list when I get around to it.
Added:
And a couple from Reasons to be Impossible, another impeccably non-Zionist source!
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Fighting the boycott
Away from blogging this week, just checking in to send you to Engage to join the fight against an academic boycott of Israel.
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