For Sunita Narayan

In solidarity with bookseller Sunita Narayan, this is from WTW:

"India: What is a “terrorist” book?

20 November 2006. A World to Win News Service. A contingent of 70 armed police invaded the Chandrapur Book Fair and surrounded the stall of the publisher Daanish Books 15 October. They made a list of some 200 books they found “objectionable” and “anti-national”. Among the authors were Clara Zetkin, Bhagat Singh, Che Guevara, Baburam Bhattarai, Li Onesto, Anand Swarup Varma and Vaskar Nandy. These books are not banned in India; they can usually be bought anywhere. Yet the police surrounded the bookstand for three hours. On the initiative of the Superintendent of Police, they returned the next day to seize 41 titles and arrest the owner, Sunita Narayan.

She was interrogated for 14 hours and finally charged under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, a law passed two years ago when the new government came in that was presented as a step away from the widely hated (and US/UK-inspired) Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). The section under which she is charged states, “Whoever conspires or attempts to commit, or advocates, abets, advises or incites or knowingly facilitates the commission of, a terrorist act or any act preparatory to the commission of a terrorist act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.” The authorities have made it very clear that her “terrorist act” was publishing progressive books.

Although Narayan was released three days later, after protests locally in the state of Maharashtra and on the national level, she was given written notice to present herself if and when the police summon her.

At a 20 October press conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi, a dozen independent publishers, half a dozen organizations and individuals condemned this arrest. In their statement, they pointed out that this was not an isolated incident:

“Similarly, a few weeks back, the performance of a play dealing with the history of Mumbai mills was forcibly stopped in Nagpur and the theatre group harassed.

“We are also concerned with the increasing menace of vigilantism by right wing groups in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Orissa, and the tacit or open support provided to them by the state agencies. This spells danger to the free exchange of ideas and the freedom to read, write, publish, disseminate and perform.”

end item"

So now we at Goldies anticipate controversy over our Mao Workshop even though we are not selling any of these revolutionary books by old retired Naxals and Che etc - but we already had some curious mail, including from India wondering why we were doing a conference on Maoism (a journalist from The Telegraph). Timely though - yesterday I was slightly dismayed to see that already the publishing machine that is Slavoj Zizek is introducing a new edition of Mao's "On Contradiction" in January with Verso - in some small way our efforts will help prepare the ground for that I guess, and Verso will profit - I am remembering with poignancy that it was the Black Panthers 40 years ago today that sold the Little Red Book as a fundraiser... in these times commodification of Mao expands exponentially.

Come to our workshop. Details here.

Global Warming in New Cross??

Neil of New Cross writes on Notes from an Island (a forum that will no doubt be one of those blogs eventually bought up by the multinational corporation that is Lonely Planet - we should start writing the people's own travel guide now, beachfront development plans are clearly afoot...) ...

"Work
We like to think of the Island as a place which has abolished work, but the other day we did come across somebody in a fluorescent yellow jacket clearly engaged in paid employment there. He appeared to be counting the traffic passing the Island, with others of his colleagues sitting on the corner of Pepys Road doing the same. In a recent chat with Ken, landlord of The White Hart, we discovered that there is a proposal to change the traffic flow and possibly even join up the Island with the mainland by the pub. Presumably then it wouldn't be an Island anymore. We would be prepared to surrender this sovereignty in the interests of reducing traffic accidents, but only if the conditions on the Island can be extended to the New Cross mainland - no borders, no prisons, no violence, lots of flowers..."

Visit the Island, virtual tour.

Words of Advice For Young People

"The gadgets are gone!" - Burroughs Adding Machine Ad.

I have long been misguided by the wise counsel of Bull Lee, whether it be on school, school recess, or the world of gainful employment. Viddy these links below to see-hear his routines on America, world, atomics... the fight against control is sure to leave you in hearty cheer.

Thanksgiving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Z_08o108E

Cut ups yes hello
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrmw3Rr9SQM

Ah Pook nuke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-cGJDvOY4k

ah pook 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd8SESU8Xpw

Apocalypse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlvB76AymiY


My favourite Burrough's quotes include (do the drawl):

"I don't know if its Marxist or not, but its the truth"

"We are all black centipedes at heart"

"Words of advice for young people"
(check this out on the Disposable Heroes mix on "Spare Ass Annie")

"A Johnson minds his own business"


The accompanying picture is of Grandpa Burroughs' 1954 version of the Adding Machine. The text says:

"Because it's built with a "memory," here's a calculator that does for you what a calculator should do. The all electric Burroughs Calculator with Memory Dials gives you instantaneous answers in one register, and automatically accumulates those answers in a second register (the Memory Dials) - for grand totals or net results. There's no rehandling of figures ...no chance for pencil and paper errors.
But that's not all. This new Burroughs calculator has the distinctive advantage of combining this answer - saving feature with the day in, day out advantages of a simplified, instant - action keyboard. The gadgets are gone! Every key is "live" and every key stroke counts. Finally, this truly extraordinary calculator has a very ordinary price tag. It's as easy to buy as it is to operate - just call your Burroughs man. Or write to Burroughs Corporation, Detroit, Mich".

Long Sunday

This blogger blogging on blogety bloggery is elegant at the end, and starts off with choice Teddy, the cuddly critic who is always super sharp, like the razor's used so well on Sunday Too Far Away.


short sunday long - by CR

jane dark's sugarhigh not only has some swift Adorno for us (especially good for LS) -

"The consciousness of the unfreedom of all existence, which the pressure of the demands of commerce, and thus unfreedom itself, does not allow to appear, emerges first in the intermezzo of freedom. The nostalgie du dimanche is not a longing for the working week, but for the state of being emancipated from it; Sunday fails to satisfy, not because it is a day off work, but because its own promise is felt directly as unfulfilled; like the English one, every Sunday is too little Sunday. The man for whom time stretches out painfully is one waiting in vain, disappointed at not finding tomorrow already continuing yesterday".

- but there's also a new term for us to learn today:

"The anxiety of having to pay the rent, having to show up for work on Monday, is now only a start. There is a new anxiety into which that anxiety now hemorrhages. It's no longer enough to find happiness is being always at work; that fades over the long Sunday. One must place that work within the space of flows, within the interlocking, competing and colluding organizations of interstatal politics and transnational capital, and this knowledge comes with a price: weltsystemangst, 'world system anxiety.'"

The pleasure of the world-wide accessibility of your texts. The sense that you type into Burma, Moscow, Brazil's backwater-ranches, Central Park West. The unbearably light weight of the whole that you move with your insomniac fingers. The job well down, everywhere all at once. And what drives it, what need it fulfills, what hole it fills.

The international-access - and international-labor - of the blog (especially as voluntary work) remains under-theorized...

Whatever. I must admit, I fantasize at times about international business travel. That I will be called to present in Sao Paolo, Cape Town, Copenhagen, and yes, above all, Shanghai. That it will be all Lost in Translation, all the way down. Laptoping myself towards the sublime.
.

Skyhooks - Whatever Happened To The Revolution (Live, 1974)

And this...

Skyhooks - Horror Movie (1975)

The 'hooks - from the first countdown and they were the first band I ever saw live, though it was in Sydney the year before this. "Shocking me right out of my brain" (the lyrics for that album, Living in the Seventies, were all great, especially Toorak Cowboy).
.

Gagarin grooves

This looks like space-fun for every day of the week, not just Sundays:

++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++
Sunday 19th November 6pm – 1am Radio Gagarin: Experiments in Sunday Socialism
+++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++
Notting Hill Arts Club, 21 Notting Hill Gate, London W126pm – 1a.m. £5.

London's only Balkan/Russian/ Baltic/Gypsy/Klez/ Mash/Thrash/ Trash/KULTURKlash!!!

Radio Gagarin's' bi-monthly Experiments in Sunday Socialism sessions fill Notting Hill Arts Club to overflowing with a tundra melting mix of live music, digital DJ prowess, performance art, east European cinema, poetry, puppetry, poverty, latkes, blinis and vodka. Live acts have included Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz, Oi Va Voi, DJ Shantel, Sophie Solomon, Nayekovichi, Babar Luck, Mama Matrix, Luminescent Orchestrii, Geoff Berner, Ghetto Plotz & Mukka. The Commissar continues to pledge exclusive new music from DESTROYERS -100% Balkan Mania, EMUNAH …The Cut Chemist Crew of NW London' and The Langham Research Centre Musique Concrete, performance from Friends of Gagarin, Marxist-Leninist alienation from art/animation/video installations for the Proletariat from state artists Adrian Philpott & Cathy Gale; frozen vodka & rakiya galore and resident DKs (Dancefloor Komissars) Max Reinhardt & Misha Maltsev sweating it out in the Gypsy Diskoteka til' the road of excess has led us to the place of wisdom. Early evening come to feed your soul with autumnal home-cookin in the Kitschen and take a rest from your fight for Revolutionary Determinism for a few moments in the Kinodrom with new and classic shorts from Eastern Europe.
Co-Produced by YaD Arts / Adrian Philpott/ Oi Va Voi / The Shrine
For more info: tel 020 7629 5555
http://www.nottinghillartsclub.com/
www.moralsupport.org.uk/productions_FoG.html
www.kosmonaut.se/gagarin
www.marxists.org/archive/ trotsky/works

Transcult Brit...

This should possibly go in my what's on section, but as its also an 'interest' and a cite, its here.

Transcultural Britain is the 17th annual conference of the Association for the Study of British Cultures. Its held in Magdeburg at:

Otto-von-Guericke-Universität
Universitätsbibliothek (Gebäude 30)
lat:52°08'20"N long:11°38'50"E
[I do like that they broadcaast their location in the way that boats signal distress!]

The rubric for the conference begins: "More often than not, discussions of multicultural Britain have focused on ethnic minorities and migrant or diasporic communities in their difference from and – tense or productive – relation to the dominant 'white' British culture. However, what exactly does that presumed core culture consist of? Does 'British culture' really exist as that self-enclosed, autonomous formation which its advocates try to propagate? Has it ever existed in history? Our conference starts from the assumption that Britishness has emerged through histories of cultural transactions with multiple others: colonial, Celtic, continental, trans-Atlantic, diasporic ... These others were, and are, constitutive in the process of consolidating the myth of a purist national culture that paradoxically has, at least from the Renaissance onwards, continuously been characterised by the incorporation of 'foreign' cultural inputs. Britishness, in short, is itself fundamentally hybrid. However, one of the most striking responses to this condition seems to consist in the intensification of efforts at re-essentialising cultural identities in terms of 'race', ethnicity, religion, region, nationality".

My talk for it is:

Topic: "Diasporic Music in a Time of War: from the trade in hybridity to the tirade of Terror"

Abstract: A discussion of new work by diasporic world music stalwarts Fun-da-mental and the drum and bass outfit Asian Dub Foundation, relating to insurgency struggles, anti-colonialism and political freedom in the UK. The presentation will argue for an engaged critique of "culture" and assess a certain distance or gap between political expression and the tamed versions of multiculturalism accepted by/acceptable in the British marketplace. Examples from the music industry reception of 'difficult' music and creative engagement are evaluated in the context of the global terror wars.
.

Sputnik Monroe

I had to repost this from comrade Renegade-Eye - I normally never notice wrestling news (that will surprise some of you) but its a sport with heros, and here clearly is one of them. Good for Elvis-Sputnyk-pretty boy - etc etc.

And so thanks Renegade Eye for the obituary - sure its sad to only hear of him now the old bloke has gone, but still instructive, and he does look a bit like my dad...

"Afro-Americans in Memphis often have three portraits hanging in their homes, Jesus, Martin Luther King and wrestler Sputnik Monroe.

The wrestling legend who was born with the name Rocco Monroe DiGrazio, died on Friday in a Florida nursing home at 78 years old. He had been ill several years, including having half of his lungs removed. His father by blood died in an airplane crash before he was born. His mother remarried, and at 17 years old, he became Rock Monroe Brumbaugh.

His first wrestling name was Pretty Boy Roque, when he started grappling in 1945. His first gimmick was using the name Elvis Rock Monroe. If you say it fast it is Elvis Rock-N-Roll. Once on the way to a booking, he picked up an Afro-American hitchhiker, and brought him to the arena, where he was wrestling. He was walking arm and arm with him. A racist fan saw that, and called him names. The wrestler kissed the Afro-American hitchiker on the lips. The worse thing she could call him was Sputnik. It was the time the Russians sent Sputnik into space. The promoter kept the Sputnik name, for cold war heat reasons.

It was wrestling in 1957 Memphis, Tennessee where he made history. Until the late 1960s, professional wrestling in the southern USA, was segregated. Afro-Americans only wrestled others. The Afro-American fans sat in the bleachers. According to National Public Radio "Sputnik wasn't about to change anything about himself but his name. He continued to build friendships within the black community, and soon had a huge following. He was a heel, or a bad guy in wrestling parlance, but to his fans, he was a hero. Walking into the ring at Ellis Auditorium in downtown Memphis, he would be booed by many whites, but as soon as they were finished, Sputnik would turn to the top seats, the segregated top balcony, raise his arms, and bring down a groundswell of cheers. Sputnik wanted more of his fans to get into the auditorum, so he bribed a door attendant to miscount the number of African Americans admitted. Soon, there was no place else to sit but in the white section. Whether fans were black or white, promoters could see nothing but green, and with little fanfare, seating at Ellis Auditorium was integrated. Later, he tag-teamed with an African American, Norvell Austin. Many fans said it was the first time they ever saw a black wrestler in the ring."

His 1959 feud with Billy Wicks, set attendance records in Memphis that were never broken until recently.

His work against segregation was honored by the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum. They have one of his ring outfits on display

Sputnik was an authentic tough guy who boxed, wrestled in carnivals and in arenas. He had his last match at near 70 years old. He never left an opponent feeling better after a match with him. He made Memphis better.

Addendum: In the 1960s on television was a western called "Bat Masterson", starring Gene Barry. He was a gambler, and outlaw fighter who wore a derby and carried a cane and a Derringer pistol. Sputnik was in attendance, when the actor was doing a personal appearance. The wrestler took the cane, and broke it".

See: Sputnik Monroe on NPR

RENEGADE EYE
.