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901 [lbo-talk] London congestion charge, part three in a sixteen part serieszzzz.... -- rank: 1000

Doug: Isn't Johnson a right-wing racist twit? That's his reputation, but it is not entirely correct. He was the Conservative candidate, so he is definitely right wing - and I am not supporting him, just noting that Livingstone's Congestion Charge was among those policies that failed to win over the London electorate. On the other side, Livingstone was the preferred candidate of the City of London's financial sector, and the Hoxton/Limehouse glitterati for whom he has been working very hard the l ...

Document Size:	6784
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat May 3 00:25:12 PDT 2008

902 [lbo-talk] London congestion charge, part three in a sixteen part serieszzzz.... -- rank: 1000

Bus-travelling Congestion charge candidate Ken Livingstone failed to convince Greater Londoners that he was a better mayor than suburban motorist Boris Johnson in the elections just declared tonight

Document Size:	5009
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri May 2 16:11:43 PDT 2008

903 [lbo-talk] Seeger clarification -- rank: 1000

An Die asks whether I really mean to call Pete Seeger 'Despicable'? No. I mis-typed. I meant that the song was despicable (which it is). Seeger, I think is a bit one-note, but by no means despicable. Dylan might have been beastly to those around him, but let's face it, they were a bit complacent. I do like Woody Guthrie, especially on the Gran' Coulee Dam (and of course the Big Rock Candy Mountain). Right now, the Arctic Monkey's 'Riot van' is pretty evocative for me, being sung in the Yorkshir ...

Document Size:	5203
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Mar 31 02:07:21 PDT 2008

904 [lbo-talk] where have all the anti-war songs gone -- rank: 1000

"To be fair, they weren't new in the sixties either. The songs you cite were all written in the 40s, the 30s and the 19th century." The republican struggle in Ireland produced some good songs later than that, like 'the men behind the wire', a rousing singalong that led the British to arrest its composer, 'The Patriot Game' (which Brendan Behan wrote for a veteran of the 1956 border campaign, and Bob Dylan plagirised for as 'God's on our side' after hearing the Clancy brothers singing ...

Document Size:	5832
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Mar 30 13:30:09 PDT 2008

905 [lbo-talk] If it was free, it would not be Tibet -- rank: 1000

Sandy Harris writes "Different language, ethnicity and culture, their own government. What happened to self-determination? Isn't it Tibetans who get to decide if they're part of China?" Yes, but Tibetans have pointedly avoided pressing the demand for national independence in favour of autonomy. That has been the Dalai Lama's demand, and I think it is reasonable to assume that he reflects mainstream ethnic Tibetan attitudes. There were at various times currents that pushed rhetorically ...

Document Size:	6774
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Mar 24 08:41:11 PDT 2008

906 [lbo-talk] switch on the telly -- rank: 1000

Simon Norfolk's photos are exceptionally good. He did some of bombed out Afghanistan a few years ago which were extraordinary. His crack about people without TV might be an unconscious echo of an interview that comedian Caroline Aherne did a while ago, which ran something like 'you don't have a TV? What do you do at night?' 'We talk' 'But what do you talk about, you haven't got a TV!' Recently Big Brother 'star' Chantelle divorced the minor pop star she married after a BB romance because she wan ...

Document Size:	5127
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Mar 7 02:45:03 PST 2008

907 [lbo-talk] The state and capitalism -- rank: 1000

"Marx said somewhere that the allocation of time is the fundamental social problem - I don't see how that can be overcome in a "communist" society, unless that's a pure myth." Yes, but the attempt to allocate labour time through the blunt instrument of prices attaching to discrete outputs of those social production relations is already way past its sell-by date. The prices of most basic consumer goods are absurdly low, so that the cost of imposing market discipline is often g ...

Document Size:	6455
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Mar 4 15:24:16 PST 2008

908 [lbo-talk] to any LBOsters in London, 11 March -- rank: 1000

COME TO THE LAUNCH of my new book GREEN CAPITALISM: Manufacturing Scarcity in an Age of Abundance. TUESDAY, 11 March 2008, 6.00pm, downstairs at 72 Great Eastern Street, London, EC2A 3JL Have a drink and get your copy of Green Capitalism. 'A powerful new critique of green supremacy', Phil Cunliffe, Culture Wars 'James Heartfield does an excellent job' 'a thought-provoking essay' Frank Furedi, Spiked On-line GREEN CAPITALISM is published by Mute, ISBN 978-1-906496-10-4 and available now at www.he ...

Document Size:	5778
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Mar 4 05:58:04 PST 2008

909 [lbo-talk] Choosing the President by public auction -- rank: 1000

Reading that Barack Obama was forcing through his advantage by outspending Hilary Clinton two to one in Texas and Ohio, I am reminded of the Imperial Japanese interpretation of US elections, they choose their emperor by putting in bids in the manner of a public auction. The three plenipotentiary members of the Japanese embassy: Shinmi Masaoki, Muragaki Norimasa, and Oguri Tadamasa (pictured: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:JapaneseEmbassy1860.jpg ) who travelled to America in 1860 also report ...

Document Size:	5484
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Mar 2 01:56:13 PST 2008

910 [lbo-talk] Nader's typewriter -- rank: 1000

Doug, on Nader >> Why use a typewriter, and a manual one at that? It's just silly. to which Michael Smith replies >Maybe he just likes it better. But what of the campaign staffer who has to re-type Nader's speeches and manifestoes into an electronic version, so that it can be reproduced elsewhere? Are his efforts expendable?

Document Size:	4836
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Mar 2 01:36:45 PST 2008

911 [lbo-talk] Feeding Frenzy - London debate -- rank: 1000

Mute Magazine invites you to a discussion If the government is to be believed, we are undergoing a streak of freakily bad luck. First the credit crunch, then astronomical fuel price hikes and now a global food crisis. Could all these by any chance be connected? Neoliberal policy makers and money-men clearly don't think so, since they are advocating more of the same medicine as a cure - further deregulation of food markets, more restructuring of developing countries sweetened by aid packages, mor ...

Document Size:	7427
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Jun 27 14:31:53 PDT 2008

912 [lbo-talk] Help? EU workers compensation -- rank: 1000

Dear Lobsters, Can anyone help me out? I am defeated (not for the first time) by the myseries of Eurostat. I need to find some EU-specific numbers on Employees compensation as a share of national income (ideally recent, and in a time series). Also, if I had comparable numbers on corporate profits as a share of same that would be even better. You may well have noticed these numbers bandied about for the OECD, and for the US, but it is EU, or even west European numbers I need. cheers James

Document Size:	5058
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Jun 9 11:10:35 PDT 2008

913 [lbo-talk] negative and positive freedoms -- rank: 1000

Forgive (or indeed, just ignore) the delayed action response, but Doug wrote "Wait a minute. I thought "positive freedoms" were those you could exercise because you're well-nourished, well-housed, and well- educated, and so have a lot more of a chance actually to do something than you would in the libertarian paradise where you're just left alone." I don't know. Maybe we went to different pol sci classes. But when I was taught the positive freedoms *were* the "nourishi ...

Document Size:	6108
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Jun 1 11:52:54 PDT 2008

914 [lbo-talk] Dustup - final installment -- rank: 1000

Ted writes "these ideas provide the ontological and anthropological framework of all Marx's writings, early and late" but all of your examples seem to be taken from the 1844 Manuscripts, when Marx was still using Hegelian terminology. In Capital he distinguishes between 1. the "nature imposed necessity" (that man must rework natures gifts) which is a perennial problem and 2. The alienated human relations in the fetishism of commodities, which is specific to capitalism the ear ...

Document Size:	5161
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jul 31 10:19:25 PDT 2008

915 [lbo-talk] Dustup - final installment -- rank: 1000

"How do you get that? Gefallenheit is an ontological category, part and parcel of being human, for Heidegger. No society can evade it." Yes, that's what I meant. Heidegger's Fallen-ness is coeval with all society in contrast to Marx's 'alienation' which is specific to capitalist societies. On my reading, Ted's version of Marx is closer to Heidegger than Marx.

Document Size:	4948
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Jul 30 09:34:42 PDT 2008