When fascism comes to town....

It will probably look a little something like this.






The expression, "a captive audience", redefined.

Welcome to the prison ship.

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Edit: Compare and contrast (via amtte).

Class struggle back on student agenda

Tying together a few political loose ends from now and various other points in recent history:

Amidst the decomposition of the old world, false consciousness -- which still reigns but no longer governs -- has the nerve to take to task a whole generation of young proletarians, who have re-launched the offensive against the society of the spectacle, for not being able to resolve all the questions at the origin of both their revolt and the crisis in which all the appointed powers are floundering. The real situation is very different: what the young proletarians are in fact being taken to task for is posing questions that power cannot resolve, for it is power itself that is being questioned.

-- Gianfranco Sanguinetti, Milan, March 1979
On Terrorism and the State

A recent article from the Independent:

The Independent
Students are revolting: The spirit of '68 is reawakening
Sunday, 8 February 2009

They are the iPod generation of students: politically apathetic, absorbed by selfish consumerism, dedicated to a few years of hedonism before they land a lucrative job in the City. Not any more. A seismic change is taking place in British universities.

Around the UK, thousands of students have occupied lecture theatres, offices and other buildings at more than 20 universities in sit-down protests. It seems that the spirit of 1968 has returned to the campus.

While it was the situation in Gaza that triggered this mass protest, the beginnings of political enthusiasm have already spread to other issues.

Oh yes. Below are some student occupation web sites triggered by the recent dramatic murderous increase in the plight of human beings in Palestine:

• ManUni Occupation - Solidarity with Gaza
• Cambridge Gaza Solidarity Campaign
• King's College Occupation in Solidarity with Gaza
• Leeds Uni Occupation
• LSE Solidarity with Gaza!
• Occupation Nottingham
• Oxford Occupation in Solidarity with Gaza!
• Queen Mary Occupation
• Sheffield Hallam Free Gaza Movement
• Strathclydeunioccupation’s Blog
• SUSSEX OCCUPATION
• The Warwick Solidarity Sit-In
• Plymouth occupation
• UAL occupation
• Cardiff University Occupation
• St Andrews occupation
• UEL occupation
• UWE occupation
• NY University occupation
• University of East Anglia (UEA) Occupation
• Goldsmiths Occupation
• Edinburgh Occupation
• Glasgow occupation
• Rochester NY occupation
• Dundee campaign
• Bradford occupation
• Free MAN MET! occupation
• SOAS occupation
• Essex occupation
• Birmingham occupation
• Plymouth occupation

Any others?

As the Independent article noted, political enthusiasm spreads to other issues, with the spirit of Mario Savio running through them:

http://www.anothereducationispossible.org.uk/

No wonder senior police officers are concerned about a "summer of rage" and less wonder still that such concerns were pre-empted by the Minstry of Defence, which wrote:

The Middle Class Proletariat

The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx. The globalization of labour markets and reducing levels of national welfare provision and employment could reduce peoples’ attachment to particular states. The growing gap between themselves and a small number of highly visible super-rich individuals might fuel disillusion with meritocracy, while the growing urban under-classes are likely to pose an increasing threat to social order and stability, as the burden of acquired debt and the failure of pension provision begins to bite. Faced by these twin challenges, the world’s middle-classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest.

Source: The DCDC Global Strategic Trends Progamme 2007-2036 [PDF]
Published by the Ministry of Defence

Viva la people's revolution!

New Banksy artwork hits the streets walls

The cheeky but elusive plaything of the middle-class art pretender, the graffiti artist Banksy, unveiled a new piece of artwork that passes comment on Britain's surveillance society. It is the second piece of Banksy artwork to appear in as many months. Last month the piece below appeared on the wall of a London chemist shop:

Banksy celebrates 60 years of Israel

There are many ways in which the image of children raising and pledging allegiance to the plastic bag flag of Israel Tesco could be interpreted, but it takes a touch of real genius to dumb commentary down to the level that the mainstream media did. News stories reporting on the appearance of the graffiti held that, "It was interpreted as support for the growing campaign to ban free plastic bags." Of course it was. Banksy 'backs ban on plastic bags'. What else could it be?

In a book displaying some of his work, Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall, Banksy writes how "We can't do anything to change the world until Capitalism crumbles." Whether Capitalism crumbles, or destroys itself -- as it is in the process of doing via a global economic crisis that requires the robbery without limit of the taxpayer, in tandem with 'wealth' creation through the invention of endless yet worthless money -- or whether Capitalism is smashed by the greater mass of humanity that seizes the enduring moment of Capitalism in crisis to overthrow once and for all the system that enslaves it, remains to be seen. Either way, it is clear to all that the personal and private interests of States and Corporations no longer offer any viable or tangible solutions for people or the planet.

Yet the daily diet of mass media mental floss has deleted from history Banksy's wealth of work that contains an inherent anti-capitalist bent and perverts his artistic statements to conjure a world view where there is nothing to worry about other than the annihilation of plastic bags. In the world of media darlings and art snobs Banksy has recanted his anti-Capitalist stance. He is committed to ridding the world of the plastic bags Capitalism produces in order to render the world a better place. Which is, unsurprisingly, utter rubbish, even if Banksy's work, which he donates freely to communities, is changing hands in private monied circles for stupid amounts of cash.

Banksy's latest work rails against what the media term the Big Brother society. Like the 'Nanny State' before it, the familial tag of Big Brother somewhat nullifies the harsh reality that the unbounded implementation of technologies of political control by State and Corporate entities represent. Even if you've read Orwell. The omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent tools of oppression, the prospect of which Hitler would have salivated at, are no longer invasive, intrusive and offensive monstrosities, but instead are divested of their true horrors.

Hello and welcome to Britain. It's only subliminal if you don't notice it.


Below is a similar sized piece that Banksy never quite got around to finishing.


Perhaps he might have finished it if he hadn't given up on anti-Capitalism.

Antagonista TV Presents Dr Michael Parenti

For anyone not familiar with the outstanding political and ideological analysis of Dr Michael Parenti, here's a few hours worth of vaguely chronological lecture material to bring you up to speed.

Without any shadow of doubt, Parenti -- while not perfect (who is?) -- puts the likes of the much vaunted media darlings of the left, such as Noam 'Who | Cares?' Chomsky, George Monbiot and all the rest of them, to shame.

Watch, listen and learn.

Michael Parenti 1 (1993) The Gangster Nature of the State Part 1


Michael Parenti (1993) The Gangster Nature of the State Part 2

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Dr. Michael Parenti: "Terrorism, Globalism and Conspiracy"
OCTOBER 9, 2002, VANCOUVER: Dr. Michael Parenti, one of North America's leading radical writers on U.S. imperialism and interventionism, fascism, democracy and the media, spoke to several hunded people at St. Andrews Wesley Church in Vancouver.

Dr. Parenti has taught political science at a number of colleges and universities in the United States and other countries. He was written 250 major magazine articles and 15 books and is frequently heard on public and alternative radio.

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Michael Parenti: Race, Gender and Class Struggle

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Michael Parenti - The Struggle for History
An excellent lecture by the well-known American political scientist, historian, and media critic, Michael Parenti. On history and who tells it (complete with Q&A).

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Lies, War, and Empire - Part I
Part I of a talk by Dr. Michael Parenti on "Lies, War, and Empire" given May 12, 2007 at Antioch University in Seattle.

Lies, War, and Empire - Part II
Part II of a talk by Dr. Michael Parenti on "Lies, War, and Empire" given May 12, 2007 at Antioch University in Seattle

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Michael Parenti - Contrary Notions
Scholar and Political Ideological Surgeon, Michael Parenti, lays the truth down on the intentionality of today's ruling elite and its harmful consequences. Discussion on Michael's latest book, "Contrary Notions". City Lights bookstore, San Francisco, Jan 22, 2008