Awesome.
The Revolution Will Not Be Workshopped
fnbrill wrote:
thugarchist wrote:
Only if you're dumb enough to go to activist conferences.Tell us more...
I've never been to one. Just heard horror stories. Been to tons of anarchist bookfairs though. Never gone to a single workshop in over 20 years. I was at a bookfair in DC some 6 or 7 years ago. Decided to go watch some squatter videos being shown. Walked into the room and the smell of BO was so overpowering and nauseating I walked right back out.
thugarchist wrote:
I was at a bookfair in DC some 6 or 7 years ago. Decided to go watch some squatter videos being shown. Walked into the room and the smell of BO was so overpowering and nauseating I walked right back out.
I was at a labor history conference once and the smell of BS was overpowering...
guydebordisdead wrote:
thugarchist wrote:
Walked into the room and the smell of BO was so overpowering and nauseating I walked right back out.You should have worn deoderant in fairness.
Typical response from someone sucked into the oppressive mindset inherent to civilization.
OliverTwister wrote:
MJ wrote:
Just for perspective, this biting piece of satire was in Monthly Review's online "zine" adjunct...
Stalinists can be funny too!
The aptonymed MR was never stalinist but right-trot. They are contiguous to American Browderism-Stalinism via social-democracy rather than Leninism.
Oliver called the Monthly Review (MR which is also the initials for an old term "Mentally Retarded") stalinist.
The MR came from a split in the then trotskyist SWP(US) called the Cochranites. They sought to join the CPUSA and the CP's front groups, center it's publication around discussions with CPs, the reminants of the Socialist Party of america, etc. This is the general perspective of the MR. But what is common to all these groups is their movement towards social-democracy rather than their leninism. The CPUSA functions as a wing of local Democratic Parties (a hall mark of Earl Browder's 1940-50s policies), as does the largest factions of the old SPA, the Democratic Socialists of America and Social-Democrats of America. so the MR is one of the left liberal "socialist" theoretical magazines, supports the various left nationalist leaders in South America, discussed market-socialism earnestly, etc.
great, thanks, i didn't know that history. i don't like MR either, because it seems official-state-leftist, but also because it's unreadable.
however, my pride in being geek-of-all-geeks was wounded when i saw
Quote:
aptonymed
a word i'd never seen. i'm guessing it means "appropriately titled"?
I don't know what aptonymed means either, but I do know that Monthly Review did not come out of a Trotskyist split. MR was founded by Paul Sweezy, who never had any association with Trotskyism. Also, it was founded in 1949 which, I believe, was before the Cochran stuff. If anything, MR has always had an association with a kind of soft Maoism or Third World Marxism. Of the articles on market socialism that I have read in MR over the years, I don't recall any of them being positive. Most, particularly those that had anything to do with China, were highly critical. Also, they publish statements from and positive articles about the Nepalese Maoists on a somewhat regular basis. Not something that one would expect from a Trot publication. Or from social democrats, for that matter.
Are you sure you're not thinking of the history of a different publication? I think Bert Cochran did have something to do with some leftish social democratic journal... New Politics, maybe?
aptonym is a name which is appropriate to the person's life. ie John Banks for a Banker, Robin Banks for a bank robber, etc.
I'm rather embarrassed to admit that onthemarch is correct, the MR didn't come out of the Cochranites, but their (arguablly) most famous author did, Harry Braverman. I think onthemarch is correct I had transposed the history of New Politics with MR. I remember that MR was always Maoist-Lite in the 1960-70s, but this was quite common in some 1950s splits in the SWP(US).
Apologies.
The Revolution Will Not Be Workshopped
by Susie Day
WHOA — I just found out that the Left Forum — a conference attracting thousands of progressive activists and scholars — is happening this month in Manhattan. That means we pinkos and queers get one last chance to liberate society through thought provoking workshops and panels! I sure hope the Forum’s organizers/ snap up my cutting-edge proposals for world-shattering presentations! To wit:
*CLICK HERE! — SMASHING U.S. EMPIRE WITH EMAIL PETITIONS*
No time to get out on the street to protest? Never heard of H.R. 999.03? Too busy battling clinical depression to learn all the facts on nuclear annihilation, dwindling caribou populations, and U.S.-sponsored torture?
Click away despair and alienation with online, crisis-driven petitions!
This workshop will help you whittle down your need for direct human contact and debate, while building a desire to fill corporate and government email boxes with attention-getting, prefab letters saying NO! to oncoming disasters. Learn how groups such as MoveOn, Amnesty International, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, by telling you how to respond to pending legislation, give you the only democratic voice you have left. Except, of course, for rigged voting machines.
B.Y.O. laptop or mouse to explore the latest clicking techniques, software, causes! Rid yourself of the unsightly “clicker’s callous” with a rigorous index-finger Pilates workout. A certified AP photojournalist, laid off because he can’t find political street demonstrations large enough to photograph, will be on hand to snap newsworthy pictures of you and your classmates, as you click /en masse/ on vital issues of the day.
*SHOULD LGBTTSIQQ ANARCHO-SYNDICALISTS GET MARRIED?*
Stooges of the imperialist bourgeois “Leave-It-To-Beaver” patriarchy have, in certain “liberal” quarters, deigned to give our lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-two-spirit-intersex-queer-and-questioning community the legal right to marry. Bite us. We don’t want scraps from Ward and June’s table — we want to shove the table through Ward and June’s picture window, set fire to the drapes, piss on the divan, and start the Revolution!
We demand Independence — not Codependence! We spit on engagement parties and registered silver patterns! We spit on tax breaks and the odious rights to joint property, inheritance, and hospital visitation! Granted, Tupperware gifts and a whiff of societal legitimacy might be “nice” — but who wants to overthrow the government with some politically correct, same-sex spouse nagging you to death? How many more letters must we add to “LGBTTSIQQ” before we say BASTA!? Let’s use our white, middle class privilege to get rid of our white, middle class privilege! Come join our anarcho-healing circle and discuss how we can create a world where everyone has value and is free to do whatever s/he wants. Except get married.
*A REVOLUTIONARY’S GUIDE TO “THE PEOPLE”*
Ever wonder why The Common People are so uncommon at radical events? Ever wonder why sensitive white people sit around for hours all by themselves, discussing how they can get more “people of color” into their groups, yet won’t give up an ounce of their organizational power?
Ever wonder why it’s easier to buy a Hostess Ding Dong than a Tofu Pup?
No? Then this course is for you!
Guaranteed authentic people from “The People” will be on hand to discuss a variety of issues, including shopping, green cards, abortion, THE FLAG, and what their lives are like when Leftist journalists aren’t interviewing them for documentaries. Includes radical walking tour of beauty parlor, Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits outlet, and the parking lot behind the candy store where drug deals take place. This is a workshop designed to enable the college-educated radical to get acquainted with the folks we’ve been using for years as oppression statistics. Come find out why The People United — Has Yet To Be Completed.
*DAS KAPITAL - IN STORY AND SONG*
How many of you Leftists have read all three volumes of Marx’s Capital?
Volume I? The Communist Manifesto? Know the difference between Karl and Groucho?
Let’s face it, most Leftists haven’t read much if any of Karl Marx’s writings on economy and revolution. Is that because we’re lazy and stupid? NO — it’s because we’re artistic! This workshop will help us understand the Great Man’s world-shaking concepts through dance, film, and other creative what-have-you.
One can’t really understand the Workers, for instance, until one can macram them as mere knots of labor, constrained and exploited in the dialectical basket of surplus value that cradles the toxically-fertilized hanging plant of capitalism. Or recreate an eloquently twisted 30-car pile-up out of junkyard metal, as a diagrammatic homage to Marx’s tortuous sentence structure. We have many
valuable prizes and a world to win, so bring crayons, finger-paints, maracas, and anything that resembles a carbuncle. You have nothing to lose but your leotards.
/You may also look for such fine presentations as:/
* *HOW TO DISRUPT PANELS WITH ANGRY, INANE QUESTIONS FOR MAXIMUM DIVISIVENESS*
* *GARNERING CELEBRITY SPEAKERS FOR CONFERENCES THAT CELEBRATE EQUALITY*
* *THE WHITE LEFT DIASPORA — FROM THE BAADER MEINHOF GANG TO THE WEAVERS — DIVERSITY IN MONOCHROME*
* *IS THE POLICE STATE ALREADY HERE OR WILL IT ARRIVE NEXT TUESDAY? — STUPID QUESTIONS WE KEEP FIGHTING OVER TO SEE WHO’S THE SMARTEST*
* *WHEN WILL THE 60S END? — PLAINTIVE QUERIES FROM FORMER WEATHER UNDERGROUND MEMBERS TIRED OF BEING INTERVIEWED*
* *IF JOHN McCAIN IS ANTI-ABORTION, WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE A TALKING FETUS?*