Note: Much of the material on China below is drawn from the important research being done by Chuang. Their blog is currently available here, and the first issue of the Chuang journal is due to be released in full early next year. Sabot There’s something about shoes. In the early workers’ movement, slowdowns, sit-downs and the destruction of machinery took on the name “sabotage,” from the sabot or wooden shoe. Though the...
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Fuck work. Fuck my job. Fuck all jobs, but fuck mine in particular. I work at a low- barrier women’s shelter. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the jargon of non-profits, low-barrier just means that it’s easy to get in: no screening, no drug tests, no nothing, really. You sign a release of information form so that the bosses can tell the city that you stayed there (and get funding based on the number of people who stay) and an...
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The following is a sort of response to an article some friends of ours wrote, called Hic Nihil, Hic Salta! (a critique of Barltebyism). Their article is a diagnosis of the “nihilist turn in communist and anarchist thought,” written to “provoke conversation.” We think that attempts to provoke conversation are generally tricks, the equivalent of opening with: “we just want to talk.” But we like our friends, and this particular...
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Dancing in a Circle Every year in late November there’s a débutante ball held in downtown Baltimore. It’s called the Bachelors’ Cotillion, an old patrician ritual of introducing young girls into high society. The “coming-out” party is one of the oldest of its kind in the country. On this night, the daughters of the elite are presented to eligible old men. For the opening dance, fathers take their offspring arm-in-arm in a slow trot...
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Black Versus Yellow Class Antagonism and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement NOTE: Thanks to all the friends in Hong Kong who provided first-hand information and photos for this article. PART 1 The History Global City Itinerant shoppers pose for selfies as the skyline of the finance district across the bay bursts into a kaleidoscope of green and yellow lights. Below them, the waters of Victoria Harbor stir quietly, foreboding a...
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