Musical Innerlube: 'Path' by Apocalyptica

"No slogans, no jargon, no unexamined assumptions, no party line"

The Euston Moment by Alan Johnston

Two years ago a 3,000-word political statement, the Euston manifesto, argued that much of the left had suffered a theoretical collapse and a collapse of sensibility. In the words of Nick Cohen's bestseller, the left had "lost its way". We called for a realignment of progressive politics.

By reducing the complexity of the post-cold war world to a single great contest in which "imperialism" or "empire" faced "anti-imperialism" or "the resistance", parts of the left had transformed themselves into a reactionary post-left that took its enemy's enemy for its friend. We were "all Hizbullah now"as the placards had it. Listen to John Rees, a leader of the Stop the War Coalition and Respect:

"Socialists should unconditionally stand with the oppressed against the oppressor, even if the people who run the oppressed country are undemocratic and persecute minorities, like Saddam Hussein."

America was the global oppressor and Bush was the "No 1 terrorist". Anyone shooting at Americans became, by that act, the resistance to empire. A collapse of sensibility followed. The reductionism in the theory licensed habits of mind and structures of feeling well-known among the older fellow travellers of Stalinism - apologia, denial, grossly simplifying tendencies of thought, moral relativism.

The consequence was profound political disorientation. Tony Benn sat in front of the mass murderer, Saddam Hussein, and asked him, "I wonder whether you could say something yourself directly through this interview to the peace movement of the world that might help to advance the cause they have in mind?" Days later Benn was less kind to an Iraqi oppositionist, spitting the words "CIA stooge!"

The Euston manifesto was a warning cry. Post-leftists, we said, were living in what Paul Berman called "foggy zones of half-believed beliefs, freed of any responsibility to subject any given opinion to the simplest of common-sense tests".

What were these half-believed beliefs?

A demented "anti-zionism". Paul Berman observed:

"During the last two or three years, large publics in western Europe and even in the United States have taken up the view that, if extremist political movements have swept across large swaths of the Muslim world, and if Ba'athists and radical Islamists have slaughtered literally millions of people during these last years, and then have ended up at war with the United States, Israel and its crimes must ultimately be to blame. And if America has been drawn into war in Iraq, it is because President Bush's second-level foreign policy advisers include a few Jews (though all of his top level advisers are Protestants), and these second-level figures have manipulated everyone else to the bidding of Ariel Sharon."

Anti-Americanism. A lunatic book like Thierry Meyssan's Le 11 Septembre 2001, l'Effroyable Imposture (translated into English as 9/11: The Big Lie) - was given respectful attention in Le Monde Diplomatique and sold 200,000 copies in France within one month of publication. The dinner party talk was that America "had it coming". Anti-Americanism was becoming a "self-sustaining hatred" as Andre Glucksmann puts it, akin to the other grand hatreds - of women and of Jews.

Occidentalism and self-hatred. Whatever "they" do, it is "our" fault. We are the great satan and they are "the resistance", so the worse their atrocity (decapitating aid workers, blowing up wedding parties, marketplaces, and mosques of the "wrong" sort, slaughtering election workers, assassinating elected MPs, hanging homosexuals, torturing trade unionists, flying airliners into buildings, using the mentally ill as suicide bombers, denying the Holocaust, threatening to "wipe Israel off the face of the Earth", killing those who would teach girls, that sort of thing) the more starkly was revealed the depths of ... our sin! Agency and moral responsibility lay with the west, so "they" could not really be held responsible. ("They" could not really come into focus at all.)

Albert Camus warned that a love of freedom and progress can become "weirdly inseparable from a morbid obsession with murder and suicide". In the foggy zone of the post-left there is a new ease with violence. The urbane intellectual shouts "Victory to the Resistance!" The affluent middle-class anti-globalisation protestors chant "Martyrs not Murderers". And John Pilger tells us we "can't be choosy".

Careless moral equivalencing that rots the ability to judge. Listen to leftwinger Ellen Willis. "Central to Bush's outlook is a Christian fundamentalism as hostile to liberalism as Sayyid Qutb". As hostile? Even the usually excellent Martin Bright has argued that '[Paul] Berman's description of a paranoid 'people of God' convinced of its own righteousness, prepared to kill its enemies and sacrifice its own in pursuit of a realm of pure truth might just as easily apply to the United States as to its Ba'athist and Islamist foes." Just as easily?

Along this road madness lay. The Euston manifesto set up a checkpoint and offered some alternative signposts.

It is vitally important for the future of progressive politics that people of liberal, egalitarian and internationalist outlook should now speak clearly. We must define ourselves against those for whom the entire progressive-democratic agenda has been subordinated to a blanket and simplistic "anti-imperialism" and/or hostility to the current US administration. The values and goals which properly make up that agenda - the values of democracy, human rights, the continuing battle against unjustified privilege and power, solidarity with peoples fighting against tyranny and oppression - are what most enduringly define the shape of any left worth belonging to.

And, like Roy in Bladerunner, for a short while Euston burned so very very brightly. But we had no staff or money and we never really sought such things. For Euston was a political moment, not a political movement. (If you speak post-structuralese, Euston was a "plateau" I suppose.) Those who wanted (or feared) "Euston branches" and "Euston policy papers" were disappointed (or relieved).

To boot, we lacked the doctrinal agreement to become a group. The manifesto was agnostic on which economic system to support, was oddly silent about Europe, and none of the authors could honestly say the environment was at the heart of our concerns. We had not even shared a common view on the war (despite the New Statesman's deliberate mis-framing of us as "the pro-war left").

But the Euston Manifesto did encourage progressives to speak up for their core values against the reactionary left. As Will Hutton predicted, Euston acted as a goad to map a new direction in foreign policy - a progressive democratic internationalism set against both a hubristic neo-conservatism and a reactionary "anti-imperialist" left. David Miliband's recent speech on the democratic imperative set out a post-Blair not an anti-Blair foreign policy. If Euston helped to create the political space for that speech to be given then it was all worth it.

The intellectual and campaigning energies that created the manifesto continue to pulse. Go online and look at normblog, Harry's Place, Engage, Labour Friends of Iraq, Democratiya, and the work of all the contributing online journals, blogs, signatories, journalists and activists. Consider the success of Nick Cohen's book What's Left. Watch the Channel 5 documentary No Excuses for Terror, or the Euston-organised parliamentary seminars on humanitarian interventionism and the terror threat, or the Engage rally against the academic boycott.

The dogged work of organising solidarity with the democrats in Iraq is continued by Labour Friends of Iraq. Engage still fights antisemitism. Eric Lee's cyber-campaigns for global labour rights grow more influential. Philip Spencer is forging links between Unite Against Terror and the French anti-terrorism group, MPCT, part of an international network of citizen responses to Islamist terror. International links proliferate.

The writings of Eustonians continue to pour out. Paul Berman's study of Tariq Ramadan, David Zarnett's ongoing, meticulous critique of the work of Edward Said, Marko Attila Hoare's careful mapping of the Balkan conflicts and the maladies of the left, Andrei Markovits's acclaimed study of anti-Americanism, David Hirsh's brilliant monograph (pdf) Antizionism and AntiSemitism: Cosmopolitan Reflections, Brian Brivati on genocide and intervention, Norman Geras on the deficits of international law, and much more.

At the online political journal Democratiya, many Eustonians now gather. A new book, Global Politics After 9/11: The Democratiya Interviews, has just been published by the Foreign Policy Centre. It carries a preface by the Eustonian political philosopher and Dissent co-editor Michael Walzer. What he writes about Democratiya was true of the Euston moment too:

Two commitments give shape to the Democratiya project. The first is to defend and promote a left politics that is liberal, democratic, egalitarian, and internationalist. Those four adjectives should routinely characterise left politics, but we all know that they don't. The second commitment is to defend and promote a form of political argument that is nuanced, probing, and concrete, principled but open to disagreement: no slogans, no jargon, no unexamined assumptions, no party line.

Second World War French Resistance fighter Germaine Tillion dies at 100

Germaine Tillion, a Second World War resistance fighter and celebrated anthropologist, died Saturday, her association said. She was 100.

Tillion, who wrote about her experiences in a Nazi camp, died at her home in Saint-Mande in the Paris region, said the head of the Germaine Tillion Association, Tzvetan Todorov.

Tillion was sent in 1943 to the Nazi camp for women and children in Ravensbruck, Germany, for her work with France's underground Resistance network.

She was the recipient of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, one of France's highest distinctions. She was one of only five women to have received such an honour.

Tillion wrote extensively about her experiences in the camp, revisiting through her work the place where her mother died.

In a 1988 book on the camp, Tillion wrote that she had managed to survive thanks to luck, anger, the desire to bring crimes to light and to the bonds of friendship.

After the end of Second World War, Tillion devoted herself to documenting the history of France's Resistance to German occupation. She was also a prominent voice against the French colonial presence in Algeria and spoke out against torture.

~ more... ~

Top 10 Reasons To Take It To The Streets (by 'flycatcher')

From Political Cortex :

Here are my top 10 reasons to "take it to the streets." I think you know what I mean. Our best hope of salvaging what's left of our economy involves ordinary people like you and me engaging in peaceful public protest of the recent moves by the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury Department. All of these moves were sanctioned by our Congressional leadership -- meeting behind closed doors -- to ensure a soft landing for liars and cheats while decent people lose their houses, life savings, and pension funds.

If Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke admitted we nearly avoided a domino-like crash of the nation's secondary financial institutions (i.e., Bear Stearns) it admitted that it allowed the housing bubble backed by inflated ABS/MBS securities and the even more inflated securities derivative debacle to go on for way too long. I think we're past the point of no return. And I think so do many of you.

I'm not writing here trying to impress anyone. Many people have a better idea of how bad things are than I do. And I'm certainly no economist -- I'm just appealing for public support to voice opposition to the contempt for working-class people that we've endured for 8 years.

Why?

Is the Bush record any indication? Here's his legacy after nearly eight years in office and the full support of a doting MSM:

1. Trillions in unfunded Bush tax cuts for the "have and have mores." It might have been harder for George to sign off for his rich friends if he ever met real Americans face to face.
2. The $2 trillion Iraq/Afghanistan quagmire. That's before you add in the human cost and the lifetime of care so many US veterans will need to lead anything resembling a normal life.
3. The Fed's continuous low-interest "bubble-making" prime rates. Billions in worthless high-risk high-interest securities and the unfathomable derivatives of same have now been guaranteed by the Fed at bargain basement Fed prime rates. Add to that the Fed's pitiful stewardship of an oblique and out of control banking system otherwise known as "deregulation"...
4. ...Leaving the country with toxic high-risk, high default ABS/MBS securities and derivatives now totaling high residual balances on brokerage houses and secondary credit banks (i.e., 50-60%) of assets claimed on balance sheets). All thanks to deregulation of the banking system. Trillions of dollars of loans made with little effort, less market research, bad computer models, and just plain greed.
5. $4 trillion more of national debt than 2001. This increases at a rate of $43 million an hour.
6. The overall destruction of America's industrial base. Again at bargain basement prices. Even the unions are glad to lend a hand to become major players in the health insurance industry and pension funding.
7. "No bid" black budget, Homeland Security, and FEMA contracts which aren't submitted to so much as double-entry bookkeeping. Their real value only adds to the nearly $10 trillion national debt. Meaning...
8. ... it's even more likely we'll see the systematic destruction of the world's reserve currency with the same intensity as the destruction of Iraqi cities. Only we'll see it a little sooner.
9. The Fed bailing out criminals by putting up benchmark securities (i.e., Fannie Maes, Freddie Macs) as collateral for nearly worthless sub prime mortgages, markedly devalued hedge funds -- thereby allowing the Fed to create 21st Century versions of junk bonds. Because these outstanding debts are now financed at low Fed prime rate prices.
10. FINALLY convincing the world we really are nuts as the world starts to boycott the $2-3 billion a day in US Treasury securities the government needs to stay in operation. If this lasts the government will default sometime this summer and a run on the dollar will be more like a rout.

So whatever you've seen to date...you ain't seen nothing' yet.

"Putin's Plan"

From: The Hibernation by Michael Idov

Putin's historic achievement is the creation, in eight short years, of what the chief Kremlin ideologist Vladislav Surkov terms suverennaya demokratiya ("sovereign democracy") and what's been rechristened, in liberal circles, suvenirnaya demokratiya: "souvenir democracy." In brief, this system consists of a narrow executive silo--about 50 Putin insiders spread out among government agencies--through which all policy is funneled, and a collection of decorative Western-style institutions pivoting around it. The fat around Putin's lean machine includes a costly, tautological United Russia party structure, useless regional governments (since 2004, the president appoints governors directly), and an equally useless State Duma, the lower house of the parliament. Under the rules imposed just in time for last December's parliamentary election, voters now pick between parties, as opposed to individual delegates--and Putin's status as the head of United Russia happened to put his name at the top of every ballot. You thus voted not for parliamentary representation but for something called "Putin's Plan." A United Russia landslide ensued, helped along by epidemic poll fraud: The official ballot counts amusingly spike on every round number (70, 80, 90), a pattern possible only with furious rounding-up. By January of 2008, newspapers began dropping the name "United Russia" from articles. What Russia had was, once again, The Party.

In the absence of any real legislative work, United Russia delegates are often businessmen pursuing tiny goals--importers out to lower a specific tariff, radio-station owners with sights on a particular frequency--or absurd celebrities who have pledged loyalty to the party. A notorious photo of twentysomething gymnasts-cum-lawmakers Svetlana Khorkina and Alina Kabaeva depicts them cavorting in the chamber like bored schoolchildren in the back of a classroom. In the run-up to the December election, many seats were bought and sold for the attendant perks, which include an apartment in Moscow, immunity against criminal investigation, and five aide positions to fill as one wishes. At least two sources tag the price of a Duma seat at around $1 million, 50 percent of which is instantly recoupable: Those aide spots go at $100,000 a pop.

Besides corrupting older institutions, the party feeds superfluous newer ones like Nashi--a politicized "youth movement" with its own network of mildly brainwashing camps (and a sprawling website that disseminates newsflashes like "Garry Kasparov's SUV ran over a young fan"). It may sound sinister, and its name, meaning "Ours," is terribly unfortunate--Nashist sounds like both "Nazi" and "fascist"--but, in truth, Nashi is a deeply dopey fund-waster. A quick conversation with a participant in any of Nashi's many rallies (for "Putin's Plan," against Kosovo's independence) will invariably reveal that the students have been bused in under threat of a failing grade or harder community service. The morning after Medvedev's victory, on Pushkin Square, I joined a group of about 60 young Nashi men and women with government-issue flags huddled, under freezing rain, in front of an outdoor stage. A government-approved rapper, swaying in his best approximation of Jay-Z, delivered an upbeat refrain: U menya vsyo okei, u menya vsyo okei--"I'm just fine, I'm just fine"--periodically throwing in a misplaced shout-out to "South Bronx." The wet crowd looked utterly miserable. More than a few boys clutched beer bottles. A violet-eared militia officer was the only one bobbing his head to the beat: At least he was getting paid to be there.

The final leg of Sovereign Democracy is in what used to be the private sector. A de facto nationalization of Russia's most flush industries--oil and gas--provides the cushion that keeps the bureaucratic deadweight afloat. Both functionaries and dissidents, struggling to put this socioeconomic model into first-world terms, like to say that the new Russia is being run like a corporation. To an extent, it is a corporation, and that corporation is Gazprom--currently headed by Dmitri Medvedev. The government is unhealthily symbiotic with the gas concern, which provides at least 8 percent of the country's GDP, serves as an unsubtle diplomatic chip, and, dissidents allege, helps the principals funnel vast fortunes abroad. Per Medvedev, Gazprom should be worth $1 trillion by 2017, which will make it the world's largest company. The rest of its directors' board teems with government officials and Putin and Medvedev's fellow St. Petersburg mayor's office alums. It could, in a pinch, make a decent shadow cabinet. In the late 1990s, a jokey draft of a "Gazprom- State Unity Bill," circulated in the Russian Parliament hallways, stated that, "in case of Prime Minister's incapacitation, his duties shall be carried out by the Chairman of the Gazprom Board of Directors, and vice versa." Less than a decade later, it's no longer a joke.