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Variant 26 Summer 2006
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Front cover: ScotVEC Module
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Ker-Plunk!
Daniel Jewesbury
Belfast city centre has miraculously moved, whilst Ormeau Baths Gallery has stubbornly remained stationary; it was discovered by Arts Council of Northern Ireland consultants that it is therefore no longer conveniently located; coincidentally, the new city centre is on land owned by private developers and speculators...
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Irish Connections: Immigration and the politics of belonging
Bryan Fanning
"Claims of mutual solidarity between different post-colonial societies with a history of oppression play well as ideological politics but when tested – say, by the presence of migrants – reveal the racism and discrimination of one’s own society."
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Nobody has to be vile
Slavoj Zizek
"Liberal communists are top executives reviving the spirit of contest or, to put it the other way round, countercultural geeks who have taken over big corporations. Their dogma is a new, postmodernised version of Adam Smith’s invisible hand: the market and social responsibility are not opposites, but can be reunited for mutual benefit. As Friedman puts it, nobody has to be vile in order to do business these days..."
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www.lrb.co.uk
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“The Scottish Executive is open for business”
Chik Collins
Focusing attention on the neo-liberal agenda for a step change in opening up Scotland’s communities to private sector penetration, Collins lays bare the ‘fit’ between the Scottish Executive's latest regeneration statement and the economic perspective laid out by the Royal Bank. "An agenda that can do immense damage across Scotland – but with particularly unsavoury implications for the poorest communities in the shorter term."
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illustrations by Peter Kuper – www.peterkuper.com
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Turning Things Around
Peter Suchin
Considered review of four pamphlets published in connection with the South London Radical History Group: Down with the Fences!: Battles for the Commons in South London; Nine Days in May: The General Strike in Southwark; Poor Man’s Heaven – The Land of Cokaygne: A 14th Century Utopian Vision; Reds on the Green: A Short Tour of Clerkenwell Radicalism.
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Comic & Zine Reviews
Mark Pawson
The pick of an armful of publications from London Zine Symposium and Reading Frenzy @ Horse Hospital, including: Gum, Nervous System, Babylon By Bike, Paul’s No Good Comics, Savage Messiah, Beat Motel, Xtra Tuf, Stolen Sharpie Revolution, DIY in PDX, Beyer’s Beasts.
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http://www.mpawson.demon.co.uk
londonzinesymposium.org.uk
www.afootbooks.com
www.myspace.com/mynervoussystem
www.beatmotel.co.uk
www.readingfrenzy.com
microcosmpublishing.com
tincansound.com
www.darkhorse.com
www.publishandbedamned.org
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Social Capital and Neo-Liberal Voluntarism
Alex Law and Gerry Mooney
Law & Mooney argue that, notwithstanding the near hegemonic use of the neologism, in its very vacuity lies the widespread ideological appeal of social capital. In providing a highly circumscribed way to think and act in terms of social and political mobilisation, its dominance has had, and is having, worldwide repercussions.
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Critique : www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/03017605.asp
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Prison Radio versus Panopticism
Tom Allan
As a volunteer on Wandsworth prison radio station project, a thoughtful reflection on its role in seeking to develop prisoners' personal & technical skills to project their points of view through the media, and to strengthen the positive bonds connecting them to society.
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Photography by Miguel Ciriza
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The Internet and Democracy: Beyond the Techno-libertarian Rhetoric
Ann McCluskey
"If engaging with a computer enables ‘liberation’ and by extension, democratic good health, then no-one and nothing else need struggle to maintain a polity. ... But beyond the rhetoric of freedom, and in light of its commercial as well as social applications, what are the real possibilities for Internet technology in a democratic realm?"
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accompanying artwork by alhena katsof: and_
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Showing Rage and Resistance: Bristle
Jamie Dockery
A sharp look at the publication 'Bristle' : political street images & actions produced in Bristol.
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www.fugazi.net/dswat/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=922
www.bristle.org.uk
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