Red and Black Revolution 09 - Summer 2005

Issue 9 of Red and Black Revolution from 2005.

Submitted by R Totale on January 1, 2022

The nomad, the displaced and the settler: Work in the 21st Century

A number of issues are being discussed. Firstly has the workplace changed fundamentally such that people increasingly are in temporary work rather than permanent work? Secondly is the division between work time and non-work time dissolving, are we spending more of our lives 'in work'? Thirdly are the non-work aspects of life becoming increasingly insecure?

Work in Ireland

Chainworkers means the 'workers in malls, shopping centres, hypermarkets, and in the myriad of jobs of logistics and selling in the metropolis'. Brainworkers means the knowledge workers, the programmers, the creatives and the freelancers. How do these categories pan out in the Irish labour market? Originally a box in the article The nomad, the displaced and the settler: Work in the 21st Century

After Nationalism

An analysis of why many on the left joined Sinn Fein and what their options are now. I joined Sinn Féin in the mid eighties with many others on the back of what we saw as a radical shift to the left and a commitment to build a 32 county Democartic Socialist Republic. I find myself outside that movement now, thoroughly disillusioned with it and its shift to a left nationalist and social democratic electoralist future.

The Ghost of Mayday Past

History of the Dublin 2004 EU Summit protests. Compared to many other European countries May Day demonstrations have always been small in Ireland. By the mid-1990's, May Day had become a fairly underwhelming event. So, given this dismal tradition why were the explicitly libertarian May Day events in 2004, comparatively speaking, such a success?

Learning from May Day: Anti-Capitalist Strategy direct action, militancy and building the movement

The experience of May Day brings up us back to some of the perennial questions thrown up by counter-summits protests: how do we broaden our movement and what role do direct action and confrontational tactics have in that process

Learning from May Day: Organisational Problems

Without a proper convergence centre in which to debate and discuss issues related to the protests many of the international activists. Legal and defendant support work was more piecemeal than it should have been. These problems were not just oversights, they are serious political problems

Book Review: To Live

The 'civil war' within the Civil War that occurred in Spain between 1936-39 is a difficult business to understand. Mick Parkin has succeeded admirably in his short novel To Live.

Book Review: Parecon: life after capitalism

Anarchists, in common with all radical proponents of social change are continually asked what their vision of a new society/economy is. The book outlines a radical vision of social and economic reconstruction whose core principles and values, Solidarity, Equity, Diversity and Self-Management, are very familiar to anarchists

Creating Solidarity in the Slums of Santiago

An interview with a comrade from the OCL, a Chilean anarcho-communist (platformist) organisation with a presence in the biggest cities of that country - Santiago, Valpara’so and Concepcion. This organisation has a policy of building up the movement amongst the popular rank and file, organising Frentes (Fronts or Networks) among the traditional popular factors in revolutionary struggle in Chile: workers, students and neighbours from the slums of the cities.

Attachments

rbr9.pdf (804.26 KB)

Comments

Related content

Submitted by drake on May 26, 2017

Responsibility, accountability and punishment all do have an essential and pivotal role in our society in order to live within boundaries of civility. Unfortunately, contemporary psychiatry views all of this differently. Throughout the course of time, as a society, we have institutionalized mental patients with some form of mistreatment and abuse. Locking patients in a cell, caged in 8’ by 10’ rooms, being subjected to humiliation, mental, verbal, physical and even psychological abuse is not the answer. Reasonable, caring people would definitely disagree. The million-dollar question is why as a civilized society do we not bring about desired changes? Even our elected government officials do not realize that there is room for much improvement. It’s quite obvious, it all has to do with maintaining social control and hold down behaviour to determine what is acceptable and is deemed abnormal, inappropriate, weird/strange, bizarre behaviour. However, we don’t track down, apprehend, lock up, and punish corrupt politicians who constantly implement arbitrary laws that only benefit the rich and ultimately stick it to the poor and other disadvantaged people. Do we go after Wall Street brokers who have literally stolen and screwed working class people’s lives and deprived them of their life savings? If that isn’t two-tier justice, I don’t know what justice is. The history of asylums can be traced back as early as 490 in Jerusalem, Unfortunately, even after all these years, advances in treatments are still lagging behind and are regressive in nature. Psychiatric wards have not fully evolved to treat patients with due respect, understanding compassion. To name a few people, going back in time, French historian, Michel Foucult, condemned the use of institutionalized torture. Former prominent psychiatrist, Franco Basaglia, condemned his own profession of its abuses, including torture, humiliation, clearly stating that it serves as unnecessary punishment and cruelty. Thankfully, the horrific tortures of asylums of the past are history now but there is still much room for improvement Today, at Riverview Hospital and places like Colony Farm in Coquitlam, B.C., patients are not re-habilitated but drugged into a stupor. Doctors, nurses and staff basically just pump their patients with mind-altering, brain/nerve damaging drugs; so therefore, the profession of psychiatry does not have the patients’ best interest at heart. How could those who study and train as medical doctors, swear under the medical oath not to do harm patients end up doing the exact opposite. If the majority of society was well informed they would find it utterly and totally untenable. There are solutions to urban psychiatric wards such as safe houses for people in mental crisis/emotional distress. A couple of examples are a runway house in Germany, Soteria house in California. The cost of “imprisoning” people in psychiatric wards is roughly about a thousand dollars per day per person to run and operate. I encourage and implore people to fully lobby their MP’s and their Provincial MLA’s to bring about progressive measures to treat patients with dignity and the respect they so fully deserve.