Another Tuesday, another link roundup. I have the beginnings of a cold, it’s 31 degrees (feels like 34), and I am feeling a little bit sorry for myself, but my body is taking the strength it needs from Bernie’s polling numbers in Iowa. Of that we shall speak more later. But first, onto some other links …
Solidarity with everyone who marched in Invasion Day demonstrations around the country on Sunday. (I was on the BBQ at Musgrave Park - a rewarding, if greasy, job.) In the Guardian, local WAR activist and radio host Boe Spearim writes on the contested history and present of Invasion Day, AND gives some hot tips on excellent First Nations music to listen to.
Thanks to Matt for sending this piece on the politics of South Africa, a country which has been “a notable absentee from … the “season of discontent” that erupted in October 2019.” It’s a fascinating look at the history of South African post-apartheid politics, the void left by the absence of a “truly class-rooted political force”, and the prospects for a new South African left.
“Politics in the interregnum are located at an awkward place where as parties decline, the evisceration of other sites of political struggle and mass collective organizations such as trade unions, nonetheless make them important avenues of struggle, if not as shadows of their former selves ... The world is in no revolutionary situation, but it is one that presents many prospects for the left. Chileans are in the streets chanting: “Chile has woken and it will not sleep again.” A latecomer once more, it is time for South Africa to wake up as well. ”
I really enjoyed the first half of this Tysky Sour show, where Ash Sarkar and Michael Walker discuss the ‘culture wars’, race, and racism in the UK. They then go on to talk about the Labour leadership contest which I honestly can’t bring myself to care about. I am still in the grips of the world’s worst comedown as regards UK politics, but maybe you have more inner strength than me. In any case, the first half is definitely worth a listen!
Okay, let’s talk about our boy Bernie, one of the only bright spots in a pretty bleak landscape. HE IS GONNA WIN IOWA I CAN FEEL IT. The best part is that the Democratic establishment have finally realised that he’s a contender, but they’re so isolated and brain poisoned that they can only attack him in the language and medium of Online. This is not, as most of us have realised by now, a particularly potent attack. Anyway. The last link roundup featured a long article on the Sanders campaign, which I really recommend reading if you haven’t already. This week, read this on why Bernie needs to fight dirty, and also this on solidarity as the guiding principle of the Sanders campaign.
“But as the campaign has gone on and the base has grown, the slogan’s meaning has become more layered. “Not Me. Us.” is now also the first-person voice of that worker or student or senior or immigrant who previously had been suffering in silence and solitude, blaming themselves, and who now sees that they have more company than they ever dared to imagine. Now it also means: “I thought it was just me. Now I know it is us.””
Finally: vive la France! Big solidarity with those striking and protesting against Macron’s neoliberal pension reforms. (Just this morning they appear to have seized a castle?) Here’s a piece on the transit workers at the heart of the strikes, and one from late last year on the struggle and the ‘missing alternative’ of the ‘political left’. Both are from Jacobin - a lot of other English-language leftist sites have not really been covering the situation much. Reader DaltySog did share this piece in the Financial Times, noting that its tone and language is “absolutely illuminating”.
Until next week!
PS: After a long vacation/period of inertia, we have recorded some new Floodcast content and it should be up later this week! Stay tuned.
Photo by Ashim D’Silva on Unsplash