INTERNATIONAL LABOUR VIETNAM:SUPPORT VIETNAMESE WORKER ACTIVISTS:It’s just another day in another workers’ paradise, and three workers are due to go on trial for organizing a strike. The “proletarian justice” they may face can mean up to 15 years in prison. Here’s the story and appeal from the online labour solidarity…
In the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, three young labor leaders — Doan Huy Chuong, Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, and Do Thi Minh Hanh — have been jailed for 8 months, and are now facing as much as 15 years in prison face as much as 15 years in prison. The reason for this government prosecution and state violence against them is that they worked in an organised manner, distributed leaflets expressing discontent about working conditions and about the authorities, and helped organize a strike at the My Phong shoe factory.
Solidarity for the My Phong 3. Free all political prisoners!
Emma Goldman: Don't Vote. Lew Rockwell, LewRockwell.com Blog (2010-10-20). Writes Liz Roberts: Recently a friend of a friend on Facebook professed his love for the "opportunity to express our greatest blessing as a free society." That blessing, of course, being the ability to vote. He fervently insisted: "It is the time that "we the people" have the greatest power…(Linked Wednesday 2010-10-20.)
"What's it to you?": Canada Admits its Crime, Again. Larry Gambone, Anarchoblogs in English (2010-10-06). by Kevin D. Annett Thousands of children died in the (residential) schools and their families were not informed of the deaths or the burial sites. – Murray Sinclair, chair, "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" (TRC), to Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, September 29, 2010 The lingering remnant of my home-bred naivety…(Linked Wednesday 2010-10-20.)
Putting a new spin on "bank robbery" Phil Dickens, Anarchoblogs in English (2010-10-11). Via Ann Arky, who tips her own hat to Politics in the Zeros, I today came across this truly astounding story from the States;In yet another sign that the foreclosure crisis in the US may be getting out of hand, a Florida woman has gone to the press about having…(Linked Wednesday 2010-10-20.)
Emergency Arts gives LVZL a chance to expand! LVZL, LVZINELIBRARY (2010-10-19). It’s been a hectic few weeks! Zinebriated was a great end to the month of September! The open mic I’ve been co-hosting with my good friend Dj miss Joy at the Beat Coffeehouse(Human Experience Mondays 7pm) has been blooming this month with talent and support. The Vegas Valley Book Festival…(Linked Thursday 2010-10-21.)
Proudhon's "New Theory" (1 of 3) Shawn P. Wilbur, Out of the Libertarian Labyrinth (2010-10-18). Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, The Theory of Property, Chapter VI: “The New Theory” (1865)New theory: that the motives, and thus the legitimacy of property, must be sought, not in its principle or origin, but in its aims. Presentation of these motives. Philosophy has had, for three centuries, many institutions and many beliefs:…(Linked Thursday 2010-10-21.)
Proudhon's "New Theory" (2 of 3) Shawn P. Wilbur, Out of the Libertarian Labyrinth (2010-10-19). Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, The Theory of Property, Chapter VI: “The New Theory” (1865)[continued from section 1]§ 1. —”Necessity, after having organized the State, of creating a counter-weight to the State in the liberty of each citizen. Federalist and republican character of property. Observations on the electoral census and confiscation.” Considered in…(Linked Thursday 2010-10-21.)
Save & Restore. Chris Clark, Release Candidate One (2010-10-20). I let out the biggest "finally!" today during the Lion preview event, when Steve Jobs said one of the things Apple has learned from iOS apps that they are intent on bringing to Mac OS X apps is stateful pause and resume. In the Mac environment, with a more specific…(Linked Friday 2010-10-22.)
here's a brief illustration of what i mean on environment: Captain Capitulation, eye of the storm (2010-10-22). here's a brief illustration of what i mean on environment: biosphere 2 (earth was supposed to be biosphere 1). the idea was to create a completely enclosed ecosystem, a sort of model for the way they thought about the earth, or perhaps the way they thought about various local ecosystems: as essentially…(Linked Friday 2010-10-22.)
Another flabbergastingly stupid comment from Jim Pasco. Dr. Q, Gangsters in Blue (2010-10-18). Since the issue of filming police became a hot topic in the mainstream press (see here), I've been very interested in hearing the arguments that police use to justify placing limits on the right to record cops. To me, the idea that people ought to be allowed to film police…(Linked Monday 2010-10-18.)
Boofrickityhoo. Unqualified Offerings (2010-10-18). “Now, I do realize that there might be economic repercussions if bankers are unable to recover some of their losses. Fortunately, I have a solution: They can sell their own organs to raise cash.” (Linked Monday 2010-10-18.)
The Explosion of Pink. Rachel, Our Bodies Our Blog (2010-10-12). It's October, so the explosion of pink products at the grocery and other stores shouldn't surprise us: it's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the time of the year when we're asked to eradicate breast cancer by buying pink-ribboned products. Over the years, many women's health activists have criticized the pink…(Linked Monday 2010-10-18.)
Primary Sources for USA vs George Donnelly. George Donnelly, Anarchoblogs in English (2010-10-18). As promised, here are my primary sources for the short film United States of America vs George Donnelly: How US Marshals Framed a Peaceful Photographer. I apologize for the delay. I'm working on getting even more information and hope to release it soon. Here is the raw video footage from…(Linked Monday 2010-10-18.)
Kathryn Schulz on Wrongness. Igor Kandyba, FiveBooks (2010-10-17). The author of Being Wrong says punditry is conducive to bombast and certainty, both major contributors to wrongness. You are not more likely to be right if you're on the left, or on the right. !!!@@e2;20ac;2dc;If you think like a fox you're more likely to have a sophisticated, nuanced way of thinking….(Linked Monday 2010-10-18.)
Intellect as Evasion. Mel, BroadSnark (2010-10-14). Normally, I like Jay Smooth. But this video really irritated me. I understand why people are critical of the anti-intellectualism displayed by right wing populists who seem so disdainful of reading books, processing facts, or critical thinking of any kind. But it amazes me when otherwise observant people can't see…(Linked Monday 2010-10-18.)
To Protect and Serve. Daily Brickbats (2010-10-19). Cops are here to keep us safe. (Cont’d.) By running red lights, crashing into bicyclists, and leaving the scene of the accident. (Linked Tuesday 2010-10-19.)
Little Miss Muffet. Jill, I Blame The Patriarchy (2010-10-19). "Here is my question," announces blamer JenniferRuth. "Can arachnophobia be blamed on the patriarchy?" The answer is yes! Patriarchy is the gnarly firmament of dominant culture, and nothing may exist outside it; therefore absolutely everything can be blamed on it. This, friends, is the beauty of patriarchy-blaming. Whenever one encounters,…(Linked Tuesday 2010-10-19.)
Letters Respond to Lancet Home Birth Editorial With Feminist Perspective. Rachel, Our Bodies Our Blog (2010-10-19). In July, The Lancet published an editorial, "Home Births: Proceed with Caution," in which the editors discussed the apparent safety of home birth for most low-risk women, contradictory or low-quality evidence on infant outcomes, and the recent, controversial Wax meta-analysis. Perhaps most likely to cause feminist double-takes was the following…(Linked Tuesday 2010-10-19.)
Civic Engagement is for Suckers. Kevin Carson, Center for a Stateless Society (2010-10-19). I frequently encounter "progressives" who argue that political involvement is the only way to achieve significant change. Refusal to participate in the process is "defeatist" and "irresponsible." This, apparently, is what passes for gritty realism on much of the "progressive" Left. That argument is pessimistic beyond belief. The events of…(Linked Tuesday 2010-10-19.)
Molly'sBlog 2010-10-17 17:35:00. mollymew, Anarchoblogs in English (2010-10-17). AMERICAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT MINNEAPOLIS:RNC (FOUR) AGREE TO PLEA BARGAIN:This the latest from the Defend the RNC 8 group. The four remaining defendants will likely enter a plea bargain next Tuesday. What this means the future will tell. Here’s the story.@@@@@@@@@@Important Update on the RNC 8 Case: New Hearing Tuesday 10/19…(Linked Wednesday 2010-10-20.)
Dissent in the age of Obama. Phil Dickens, Anarchoblogs in English (2010-10-05). Following on from Sunday’s post on Barack Obama’s appalling civil liberties record, I have come across an interesting opinion piece by Cindy Sheehan. It seems that Obama’s line of dissidents carries echoes of the Watergate Scandal and even the Red Scare. Her thoughts can be found over on Al Jazeera;Recently,…(Linked Wednesday 2010-10-20.)
Genes are left-wing. Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing (2010-10-13). Writing in the Guardian, clinical psychologist Oliver James claims that genetics has turned into a “left wing” science, because it has failed to identify any innate, genetic reasons why some people are winners and others are losers — suggesting that, instead, it’s society’s fault that some people end up on…(Linked Wednesday 2010-10-20.)
I’m pleased to say that my paper Women and the Invisible Fist: How Violence Against Women Enforces the Unwritten Law of Patriarchy[1] has been accepted for a panel at the Ninth Biennial Radical Philosophy Association Conference next month in at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
The RPA, if you’re not familiar with it, publishes Radical Philosophy Review, puts on conferences of its own, and puts on regular panels at the American Philosophical Association Eastern and Pacific Division meetings, on (engaged) radical philosophizing, critical theory, feminism, postcolonialism, academic Marxism, and the like. As RPA would have it, Founded in 1982, RPA members struggle against capitalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, disability discrimination, environmental ruin, and all other forms of domination. We also oppose substituting new forms of authoritarianism for the ones we are now fighting. … We believe that fundamental change requires broad social upheavals but also opposition to intellectual support for exploitative and dehumanizing social structures. Since this conference’s theme is Violence: Systemic, Symbolic, and Foundational, I figured that the Invisible Fist essay was apropos, and might provide a chance for some interesting Left / Left-Libertarian engagement and dialogue. Since the program committee seems to agree, I will be there representing the Molinari Institute.[2] If you happen to be around southern Cascadia next month, here’s my panel. It’d be great to see you there:
November 11th-14th
University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon Conference Program available online
V-E: A Culture of Violence Against Women
Friday, November 12th 2010, 3:45–5:15pm
Rouge Room, Erb Memorial Union
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
Chair: Gertrude Postl, Suffolk County Community College
Christa Hodapp, University of Kentucky. Identity Through Destruction
Charles Johnson, Molinari Institute. Women and the Invisible Fist
Jacob Held, University of Central Arkansas. Revisiting MacKinnon via Rae Langton: Pornography as Illocutionary Disablement and Civil Suits as a Means to Enfranchise the Silent Majority
I can’t speak for the others; but here’s my abstract. (If you’ve read the post with a similar title, you’ll already have a general idea; but there’ve been some changes, and like all academic enterprises, this one needs a tl;dr summary.)
When feminist theorists challenge the common dichotomies of pervasive private crimes from public policy, and of personal problems from political struggles against oppression, antifeminist critics often treat the challenge to this distinction as if it were a simple replacement of the private with a conventional understanding of the political – treating feminist analyses of patriarchy as little different from the use of conspiracy theories to explain the prevalence of male violence. I argue that, contrary to these canonical misunderstandings, the central insights of feminist analysis of patriarchal violence may be articulated with help from a surprising source – the work of radical libertarian social theorists, in particular the Austrian free-market economist Friedrich Hayek. Using philosophical analysis and critique to charitably reconstruct Susan Brownmiller’s "Myrmidon theory" of stranger-rape, as presented in Against Our Will, in light of Hayek’s conception of social order as importantly structured by emergent "spontaneous orders" which are "results of human activity but not of human design," I argue that the dialogue provides critical terms to articulate the radical feminist critique of rape culture, while also claiming and importantly enriching the concept of "spontaneous order" as a tool for radical social critique. When this analytic reconstruction is supplemented with a discussion of recent empirical data on the pervasiveness of rape, drawn from social-science and public health literature on male violence against women, it reveals a distinctive picture that should be of prime importance both to radical feminists and to serious libertarians: a pervasive, diffuse threat of violence that constrains the liberty of women in everyday life to move and act and live as they want, but which, unlike the kinds of State violence which male radicals are accustomed to discussing — modes of domination handed down according to explicit State policies, ratified through political processes, promulgated from the top down and consciously carried out by officially appointed or deputized agents of the State — expresses itself instead in attitudes, behaviors, and coercive restrictions that are largely produced by bottom-up, decentralized forms of violence without conscious collaboration or conspiracy, sometimes in conflict with the explicit provisions of the law, in which women are battered into the social position they currently occupy as if by an invisible fist. I conclude that this unexpected convergence of Brownmiller and Hayek provides (1) a mutually illuminating dialogue on methodology in radical social theory and analytical understandings of structural violence, (2) a surprising synthesis of radical critiques of the construction of identity with radical critiques of domination through the state, and (3) an opportunity to ramify and radicalize understanding of both the feminist insight that "the personal is political," and the Hayekian insight that society is structured by emergent orders that are "results of human activity but not of human design."
Interested? It’d be great to see you there. And, if you’re interested in supporting radical libertarian academic work, left / left-libertarian engagement, and the occasional quixotic effort to repurpose Hayekian economics for the purposes of individualist anarchist and radical feminist social theory, then you may also be interested to know that I’m raising some money on behalf of Molinari to help the Institute cover the costs of getting me out to the conference.[3] The budget is also attached, for the curious.
Flight
Round-trip from LAS to EUG
$240.80
Hotel
3 nights at conference rate
$310.26
Conference registration
$75.00
Transport to & from airport
Estimated
$25.00
Total:
$651.06
Meanwhile, I’m going to be in Eugene, Oregon and its immediate environs — I will probably also make at least one trip up to Corvallis, if I have the time — for a few days a month for now. Of course, I’ve been hearing all about Eugene all my damn life as an activist; but I’ve never made it out there yet. So, any suggestions on places to go (bookstores, infoshops, eateries, local sights), or people to meet? (How about you, gentle reader, if you’re in the area?) If so, drop a line in the comments!
[2]If the Marxians won’t come to Molinari, then I guess Molinari must go to the Marxians.↩
[3]All contributions go to the Molinari Institute, with an earmark noting that it’s for the RPA presentation; any proceeds above and beyond actual costs will go towards our slush-fund for future awesome left-libertarian academic engagements.↩
Another Isolated Incident. Radley Balko, Gangsters in Blue (2010-10-16). Montgomery, Alabama: "They could have at least apologized," says LaKisha Dixon. She just wants to hear Montgomery police officers say they're sorry. Last month, officers entered her home without even knocking on the door. Dixon and two children were inside. "It was three tall men with masks on and big…(Linked Monday 2010-10-18.)
On the Ground Floor... James Tuttle, On ALLiance (2010-10-17). Dear Friends, Fellow Workers and ALLies, A grand opportunity present's itself. We have the ability to aid a rising Anarcho-Star. Anna O. Morgenstern of C4SS.org and Tranarchism blog spot (and soon ALLiance Journal) fame is pursuing two literary projects, one fictional and the other non-fictional. At this time, and until…(Linked Monday 2010-10-18.)
The Real IP Pirates. Stephan Kinsella, Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (2010-10-16). It's bad enough that IP advocates dishonestly use the word "theft" to describe use of your own property in contravention of a monopoly issued by the state. (After all, as Nina Paley reminds us, copying is not theft; when you use information to guide your action or configure your own…(Linked Monday 2010-10-18.)
"Princess Boy": Addressing Children's Gender Non-Conformity. Sociological Images (2010-10-18). The important thing about this is a pair of fundamentally decent parents and a group of adults realizing that the only “issue” here is an issue with their own anxieties, which they are perfectly capable of overcoming. And thank goodness for that. Because of course there is no problem with Dyson; other than being weirded out by being put in front of a crowd of strangers for a teevee show, he is obviously happy as a clam. Not with being “non-conformant” (who the hell are these Genital Correctness busybodies that we’re supposed to ”
“conform” to? and why should we care what those assholes think?) but rather with just being his own self. The people who deserve a label are the power-freaking Genital Correctness Busybody Brigade, whose obsession with conformity and anxieties about sex-class drive them to treat little kids like crap for wanting to wear pretty things, or for playing games that they enjoy. Thank goodness they are absent from this conversation; it makes me feel that much better about the world. (Linked Monday 2010-10-18.)
