The Antisocial Socialist

My latest review is up! It's of my favourite episode, so go check it out.

Coincidentally, it's up late because I was at the Historical Materialism conference all weekend. Had a great time, much of it spent hanging out with the Red Wedge people, but now I'm horribly tired and you would be amazed at just how much my email and laundry piles up when I have the audacity to be away from my computer for three whole days. To make matters extra fun, I have a grand total of one introvert night this week, the rest being consumed with various after school things that will no doubt leave me exhausted and behind on everything.

Ah well. The long weekend cometh. Thank fuck, because I haven't had a proper night's sleep for days and won't get one until then.

MY GOD YOU GUYS I AM SO TIRED. Totally worth it. But I feel like I'm going to sleep for a year and do nothing but watch TV and read cheesy fantasy novels for a bit.

Today's panels:

The Circuits of Labour and Capital. Translation: Migrant labour, and I chose this one both out of interest and because I knew three out of the five people involved. Alas, two didn't show (including the one who's in 2 Revolución). The other two were really good, though.

Marxist Aesthetics and Utopia. This was the perfect note to end on. Relevant to my interests in a big way, and we got into a debate about Tatlin's Monument to the Third International that ended up going way overtime and summarizing many of the themes in the conference as a whole. I Googled the presenter, Travis English, and I think he might also be the guy who does all of those cool minimalism posters that you see all over the intertubes. Not sure. Anyway, the discussion induced pangs in me because when I was thinking about grad school, I was thinking about working on Russian Constructivism stuff, which is at the intersection of art, design, and radical politics. Also, I love Monument to the Third International. It's brilliant on every level, encompassing both the power of the theory of dialectical materialism and the fragility of the revolutionary moment. And as someone pointed out in the discussion, as much as it was a failure in the sense that it was never built, given the history of the Russian revolution, it might have been more of a failure if it had been built. As an ethereal work that exists in the imagination instead of in reality, it's a more powerful symbol of revolutionary potential than if it existed as an actual physical object.


I shouldn't be so surprised to find out that people have Photoshopped the hell out of what it would have looked like if built.

SPEAKING OF SCULPTURE! Bad sculpture, this time. I failed utterly for the third day in a row to capture the glory that is the dick sculptures. However, I realized I could just Google it, and so here they are:


Fontana d'Italia by Enzo Cucchi.

Notice that the water is jetting out in the photo. In reality, it drizzles down the shaft and looks more like this. Ah, York. How much I do not miss you at all.

Anyway, all in all the conference was even better than my already inflated expectations, and I'm so glad I went. I think this is the longest I've been consistently in a good mood since Maggie's diagnosis.

Today was my first exciting day of intense Marxist theory, because I'm the kind of person who wants to spend an entire sunny May weekend at York University listening to academics. And it was so worth it! Delicious ideas, get in my brain.

Panels I went to:

Soviet Activity Theory: From L.S. Vygotsky to E.V. Ilyenkov. Why oh why have this at 9:30 in the morning when no one's awake? I knew one of the presenters and it turned out to be very interesting, despite me having zero background in the subject.

Marxism and Feminism: Revisiting and Extending the Dialogue. Much more accessible. I particularly liked Adrienne Roberts' discussion of the corporate appropriation of feminism as seen in "pink power" and microfinance.

Class and Literature. Also really good. The highlight, naturally, was Cristina D'Amico on charity in Brecht's plays.

Allan Sekula and Critical Realism in the Visual Arts. This was another one where I didn't know anything about the subject. Well, I know about critical realism in the visual arts, but I'd never seen Sekula's work before. It's hardcore.

Nice to be back on York campus too, now that I don't actually need to be there. York is a dreary wasteland in the winter, but quite nice in the spring, with everything in bloom and the gigantic dick fountains drizzling. (I attempted to take a picture of the dick fountains but it didn't come out. Tomorrow I shall try again.) The small presses were out in full force, tempting me with lovely books. I bought two (one on women revolutionaries in Nepal, the other is a surprise for someone) and decided to bring more money tomorrow.

I skipped out on the plenary and reception because I'm exhausted and need to pace myself over the next two days as well. There is such a thing as too much academic conference and I know my limits.

I saw most of Cambridge Spies years ago, but for various reasons never caught the last episode. Thanks to internet piracy, I now have the whole series.

From what I remember of it, I am kind of surprised that it doesn’t have an enormous fandom, and I was hoping that this wasn’t because it wasn’t as good as I remembered it being. The first episode confirmed that hope—it’s just as good as I remember it being.

Brief summary for those who haven’t heard anything about it: In the 1930s, four (probably five) upper-class British Cambridge students were recruited by the Soviet Union to spy on the UK, and would have gotten away with it were it not for those meddling kids. What am I saying? They got away with it until the 50s and then defected to the Soviet Union. Yes, this is a real thing that happened. No, John LeCarré is not exaggerating in his books, or at least, not very much. They included Kim Philby, a high-ranking member of British intelligence, Guy Burgess, secretary to the British Foreign Minister of State, Anthony Blunt, art historian, professor, and knight until they found out about the spying thing, and Donald Maclean, the guy who wrote that “American Pie” song. Sorry, no, not that one. This one was a member of M16.

Also, they were all smoking hot, at least if the miniseries is to be believed.



Anyway, ( Episode 1, with one NSFW screencap )

Here are some stories that you should pay attention to:

bcholmes has a post on how the cholera epidemic in Haïti likely started because of UN peacekeepers.

Did the Star seriously just run an article slamming Jenny Peto's master's thesis? Yes they did.

Don Cherry is a douche. This isn't news, I just thought I should mention it. Also, that suit is fucking horrible.

Ontario's ombudsman reports that McGuinty's secret law but not really a law was illegal. Rumour has it he will next investigate the preferred defecation grounds of bears.

You might not have seen this in the news back in May, but there is currently a Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge around homelessness and inadequate housing. You can find more information here and here.

I can't go to this, as usual (though at least I'm apparently not missing China Miéville this time) but isn't the header the most wonderful thing you've seen in awhile? And they say Marxists don't have a sense of humour.

(The font is utter shit, though.)

outcastspice found this bit of hilarity from the National Socialist Post,* along with Jezebel's response. And because I can never pass up an opportunity to mock the National Socialist Post, let's take a closer look!

If the reports are to be believed, Women's Studies programs are disappearing at many Canadian universities. Forgive us for being skeptical. We would wave good-bye without shedding a tear, but we are pretty sure these angry, divisive and dubious programs are simply being renamed to make them appear less controversial.

Well, it turns out that our friends here don't actually support capitalism as much as they claim to. Because, as a general rule, universities don't really offer programs that no one takes, so presumably, there are students who wish to take Women's Studies courses and are paying for that privilege, and hence the universities offer them, and this sort of concession to supply and demand cannot be tolerated.

Who has an anti-feminist bingo card on them? Tick off "angry," and wait until you see the next paragraph.

( this could get long )

Wikipedia is still not a proper source.

Of interest primarily to local people, but I highly encourage those of you who are academics outside of Toronto to send letters of outrage. The university has no leg to stand on, and knows it, so it's engaging in a completely bizarre course of action--charges, investigations under the Code of Conduct, and harassment and intimidation--in order to curtail activism on campus.

(It will come as no surprise to you that several of the people being charged are friends of mine.)

URGENT CALL FOR SUPPORT – PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY**

UofT PRESSES CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST 14 STUDENTS AND ORGANIZERS MOBILIZING TO FIGHT FEE HIKES
University's level of hostility and repression against students unprecedented in the last decade

( Meeting information )

Dear Ally,

Over the past several weeks, a wide coalition of students, alumni and workers at University of Toronto have come together to protest and organize against proposed fee hikes and to demand accessible education. This coalition has organized public meetings, a sit-in and demonstrations which have received wide community support. Students have also conducted extensive research on the effects of fees and the fiscal policies of the university administration (see www.fightfees.ca).

Due to a peaceful sit-in, organized to protest against tuition fees on March 20, students are being subjected to an intense campaign of intimidation by the UofT administration and Toronto Police. Students have been followed by campus police, both on and off campus, as well as being monitored and photographed during meetings. UofT has pressed charges against 14 students and organizers, who have now had to turn themselves over to Toronto Police. They have been released on strict bail conditions, which ban them from associating with one another outside of courts and classes, as well as being barred from protesting anywhere on UofT property. In addition, several UofT students, staff and alumni have been completely banned from UofT property. One organizer, Oriel Varga, is currently being held in custody overnight. Additionally, UofT is investigating 12 students under the Code of Student Conduct. This crusade of intimidation comes at a time when the administration is publically lobbying for the deregulation of fees, and is thus undertaken to prevent students from continuing to organize around university fees.

( What you can do )