ONE WORLD, OUR WORLD.

        Western democracy in action, the system is creaking under the strain of the desire for freedom and justice, how long before it completely collapses. We should always remember, we are governed by consent, we can always withdraw that consent, hundreds thousands have already done so.

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.  Thomas Jefferson.

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AH, ANOTHER ELECTION.

           It's election day, the day when we, the common herd, are promised the earth. The day when the Crooks and Liars hang about to see just how popular they are, will they get back on the gravy train or will they have to ask their cronies for pay back, for all the favours the handed out while they were in the trough with both hands. Will it be a new shining smile that will take their place in the hallowed halls of power. One thing for sure, whoever gets “voted” in will do their own standard of living a power of good.

         It never fails to amaze me that failed promises after failed promises from tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, and lots of people still run and cast their wee X in the belief that this crop of Crooks and Liars will somehow be different from the last lot of Crooks and Liars. They say that one of the signs of insanity is to keep doing the same thing time after time, but hoping for a different result, perhaps that is the answer. Or could it be that the Crooks and Liars, with the help of the media have woven a very clever illusion.

        In my long, long experience in watching these Crooks and Liars competitions they call elections, I have to admit that this one is about the quietest I have witnessed. I think I have had one party political leaflet through the door but no callers preaching their particular brand of lies, now that's hardly enthusiastic. Perhaps the reason for this could be that this particular gang of Crooks and Liars are aware of what the public at large think of them, and so are keeping a rather low profile.

       Low profile or not, low turnout or not, there will be a gang of Crooks and Liars taking their seats in those marble halls and divvying up the proceeds, each making sure that their future is secured in the system and seeing to the welfare of their cronies. That's how this system works, it's a privileged club and you and I are not members, we merely fund it.

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WE LINGER IN THE BORDERLANDS.

A quote from The Anarchist International:

          "We once made watches to buy time for ourselves. Some of us still do. But time is our enemy and we cannot toil for it any longer. The old world is gone and the Anarchist International persists, lingering outside of time on the borderlands between slavery and freedom."

Read the full article HERE:

        Hopefully, soon there will be no borderlands, as slavery disappears from our consciousness and freedom is the only reality.

THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE AND THE BATON.

       This video shows how “austerity cuts” are pushed through in Greece, the resentment and anger of the people at the savage slashing of their living standards, is met with unbridled brutality. While the unelected leader of the Greek government forces through the dictate of the financial Mafia, the state's muscle men are on the streets doing their damnedest to instil subservience through fear. It is not that the Greek state is any more brutal than any other European state, it is just that the Greek people are being hit harder by the “deficit reduction” plan, and are therefore showing more anger, so have to be beaten down harder by the Greek state, who are doing no more than any other state will do, should they feel the need. As the number of people in the UK being pushed into poverty rises, unemployment soars and social services are slashed, we can expect to see the anger spill onto the streets, it is then we will see the UK state unleash its well trained, well kitted out riot police to do its duty, and brutally subdue the will of the people. Nothing must stand in the way of the plunder of public assets, nothing must hinder the transfer of wealth from the public to the private bank accounts of the financial Mafia.

 

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MAY DAY ISTANBUL.

         As I stated in my last post, May Day was celebrated across the globe, and in most cities it was massive. Each city marked it in different ways, like I said Glasgow was a rather low key affair, not so in Istanbul in Turkey. Anger took a more volatile route.

During the day there was also some excellent advice handed out.

A free world with no money.

Your days of wealth are over.

Photos from Contra Info.

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MAY DAY ACROSS THE WORLD.

          Though the Glasgow May Day showing was a low key affair, the same could not be said about the rest of Europe. Across southern Europe the numbers were in the hundreds of thousands, unions in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and France used the traditional marches to express anger at the attack on their living standards from the financial Mafia's “deficit reduction” program throughout the Euro Zone forcing countries deeper into recession. In France the trade unions organized around 300 demonstrations across the length and breadth of the country including the capital Paris. The Interior Ministry stated that 316,000 people turned out, compared to 77,000 in 2011. In Italy demonstrators briefly clashed with police in riot gear in Turin and thousands marched in Rieti to listen speeches denouncing Prime Minister Mario Monti's reforms. Madrid saw tens of thousands march in the rain to the main square chanting and waving signs opposing the “austerity cuts”, Lisbon saw similar numbers, while in Athens around 5,000 workers, pensioners, unemployed and students marched with banners reading "Revolt now" and "Tax the rich".

SOLIDARITY.

         This sort of activity was repeated across the globe, from Asia to America, from Europe to Australia. May Day is most certainly alive and kicking. There are some excellent photos of May Day rallies across the world HERE

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GLASGOW MAY DAY.

    This year May Day in Glasgow was a quiet affair, no bands playing, no dancing in the street, no marching through the city centre. In Buchanan Street there was the usual anarchist stall with its band of bright, young, friendly individuals eager to engage the public and hand out their literature. There was a small contingent from the Communist Party, complete with flag and papers, then there was the Wobblies, (IWW), with their stall, eagerly pushing their wares. On the whole it looked like the local Glasgow folks, though eager to take the literature on offer, had forgotten their working class heritage.

       Of course there will always be those who say why bother with May Day, it's just another holiday, sorry, your wrong. This is not a day to celebrate some royal event, or some imperialist battle fought a hundred years or so ago, or some day to remember the butchers of Empire. This is a day to remember all those who have struggled to improve the lot of the ordinary people, a day to celebrate working class victories won through bitter struggle, and in some cases paid for by imprisonment and even death. There are innumerable reasons for turning out on May Day, it is a day of hope, of solidarity among the working class across the globe. What are my personal reasons for turning up, this extract from NOLA ANARCHA puts it better than I personally could.

Why March on May Day in the name of Anti-Capitalism?
Because Capitalism is the Dominant Moment of the existing system of Global Domination. Because Global Capital strives for institutional domination, ideological domination, domination of the social imaginary, and domination of the practice of everyday life. Because Global Capital utilizes the hollow rhetoric of "limited government," even as it employs monstrous coercive force to impose economic oligarchy on humanity, and as it strives toward a totalitarian order of technological surveillance and control. Because Global Capital poses itself as the putative end of history, as even Stalinoid STATE capitalism mutates finally into state CAPITALISM. Because Global Capital mumbles pious platitudes about "free markets," even as it generates neo-feudalism on an immense scale and creates more literal slaves than those who toiled under classic slave economies. Because Global Capital creates massive planetary climate disruption and biodioversity loss that have culminated in the Sixth Great Mass Extinction of Life on Earth. In short, because Global Capitalism is the Universal Culture of Death: the culture of genocide, of ecocide, and of the degradation and destruction of the human spirit. It is because of all this, and out of love for Humanity and the Earth, and a passion to defend both Humanity and the Earth, that on May 1 some of us abandon the Everyday March of the Undead and join instead a March for Life and Liberation.

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AUSTERITY AND REPRESSION, PARTNERS!!

         As the austerity plans of the financial Mafia bite ever deeper, so the repression comes on harder. The state will always see the population as something that has to be controlled and in the “good times” it is relatively easy as people would rather get on with their lives than than take to the streets to change things. However as living conditions begin to deteriorate and more and more people are beginning to hurt, so the control becomes more difficult, complaint turns to anger, anger turns to protest and if the controllers can't get the lid on it, protest turns to insurrection. We should have no illusions about the extent the state will go to keep the established order in place. No matter how much democracy they preach, if the people look like they are gaining in their desire to change things, then the kid gloves come off and the full force of the state's armoury comes into play. In this country we don't need to go too far back in our history to see the extent of force the state will use. 1911 the dockers strike, troops on the streets, and two protesters shot by the military in Liverpool, 1919, 40 hour strike, Glasgow, machine guns on the roofs around George Square, soldiers with fixed bayonets on the streets and at the docks, tanks stationed in warehouses in the East End of the city. In this so called democracy, the will of the people is the last thing the establishment will tolerate.

        Today in Europe, Greece is at the forefront of the financial Mafia's plunder of public assets and as the anger of the people takes to the streets so the Greek police are given a free hand to brutally intimidate, repress and attempt to break the spirit of the Greek people. Our mainstream media seldom covers what is happening on the streets in Europe, we seldom see a mention of the police brutality in Greece, but it is there in force on a daily basis. The population of Greece is less than 11 million, approximately a sixth of the UK, yet in that country on average one person a week dies in Greek prisons or in a Greek police cell. The cold bloody shooting by a police officer of 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos to the weekly deaths in custody, is testimony to the brutality of the Greek state apparatus, we should never swallow the media crap that our police are somehow different, given the order the brutality level will rise.

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FOR SURE, THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'.

Sometimes a voice from the past can tell us the future, The Times They are a Chagin'.

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OLYMPIC FERVOUR.

        According to the mainstream media, we are all excited about the Olympics. Well I know the corporate sponsors are very excited, but you and me?Apart from it being an opportunity to pour massive amounts of public money into corporate bank accounts, at a time when our millionaire cabal of politicians are telling us we can't afford anything, it is also a wonderful opportunity for the powers that be to try to crank up public fear and flood the country with armed police. It appears that the security bill for the Olympics will be one billion pounds, a phrase that springs to mind would be, “austerity budget my arse”. Some of this billion pounds will be spent on putting surface-to-air missiles on the roofs of private residents' apartments in East London. The proposed site for this lunacy has over 700 residents living there, and they are none to pleased about this addition to their facilities. Can you imagine the scene if one of those adrenalin pumped uniformed watchful eyed individuals actually fired one of those missiles over an Olympic packed city like London? After an unbelievable explosion it would rain white hot shards of metal shrapnel down on the innocent citizens of wide area of London. Of course our millionaire government of the people, for the people, are quite prepared to do such a thing, well that's what governments do.

Photograph:The Daily Mail on "modern British policing" and preparation for the Olympics

         During the Olympics we can expect our cities to look a bit like a war zone, there will be armed police everywhere, but after the “Games” don't expect them all to disappear again. Over the years we have seen the police being militarised and this is another opportunity to go further down that road. We already have armed police strutting around airports, so why not shopping malls, outside banks, at football matches and of course those blood protesters need to be watched. Eventually we can expect our “community” policeman to look something like the photo.

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY.

         We are always hearing politicians talk of eradicating poverty with this scheme and that scheme, or appealing to the general public to support various charities. The thing about charities is that we are told of all those hungry people and are asked to contribute money to help feed them. From this we can deduce that the food is there, but the greedy bastards who have all that food will not send it to the hungry until we the general public pay them some money. They obviously don't think that charity has anything to do with them, except perhaps an opportunity to make some more money. Filling cans with money and buying food will never get rid of poverty, it is built into the system of economics that we live under. Destroy the system and there is every possibility we will eradicate poverty.

         Some interesting facts and figures from Anarchist Without Content:

In our modern world, poverty is not natural, but the result of institutions that are set up to benefit a few at the expense of the many. Relief efforts are currently failing because they do not address the root causes of poverty. These causes are not mystical or hard to identify, as the most important ones are global property law, international debt, unfair trade, top-down privatization programs, corporate tax shelters, the those problems are social and political. Furthermore, there is a history to these problems, and poverty will not be addressed until this history is reversed.

HISTORY

The colonial conquest of the New World, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, by European powers set up the structure of our current economic system.

History books have done a good job depicting the brutality of this period. In many places, Europeans wiped out 99% of the native populations. In places where the natives did survive, many of them were captured and made to do hard labor. In Potosi, Bolivia, for instance, native Bolivians were forced to work silver mines that snaked deep into the earth. So many miners died, that a popular saying goes “enough silver was taken from the mine in Potosi to build a bridge to Madrid, Spain, and if the bones of the dead miners were pulled from the bowels of the mine, one could build a bridge all the way back.”

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MAY DAY - MAY DAY - MAY DAY.

MAY DAY --WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

        May Day, Labour Day, Workers Day, our day, a day when we the ordinary people of the world can celebrate the heroes from our ranks. Paying homage to the men and women who dedicated their lives to the cause of working class emancipation. People who sought nothing for themselves, many dying for their beliefs, individuals that sometimes stood like a colossus astride the political scene, others that worked tirelessly in the shadows, all for the greater good of all peoples, not more for themselves. Their statues, their plaques are no where to be seen, the establishment has them airbrushed out of history. Instead, the powers that be litter our public squares and parks with grandiose statues of arrogant warmongers, empire builders, kings of industry, rich merchants, all who made a fortune on the back of slave and/or cheap labour or the bloodshed of ordinary people. The establishment wants us to forget our heroes, no statues, no plaques, we mustn’t be allowed to think that fighting for the betterment of ordinary people is a worth while cause, much better to try to convince us that it is more honourable to be a self-centred arrogant pursuer of power and wealth at the expense of others. We mustn’t let this happen, we have to keep alive the names and deeds of that legion of men and women who dedicated their lives to our future well being and that of our kids.

       MAY 1st. Must always be a festive day, a day of celebration and pride, a day when we can all come together and wave our banners, party, and remember those names and deeds. A day to revive that spirit of co-operation in struggle and hopefully push our cause to a higher plain. Always on May 1st. not some conveniently arranged employer/union date, the nearest Monday, so as not to upset their production. It is our day, always claim it as a day of family fun, festivities and remembrance, a day of hope for the future of all the ordinary peoples of the world. Glasgow, like most cities, is fortunate in having its own legion of working class fighters, a legion that stretches back through the industrial age and beyond. To pick a few at random, names like George Barrett, Tom Anderson, John MacLean, Helen Crawfurd, Guy Aldred, Ethel MacDonald, Jenny Patrick, William McDougal --- and the names go on and on and on, events such as, The Cotton Spinners strike, the rent strikes, the first world war peace movement, the 1919, 40 hour week strike, etc, etc, etc. All names and events to be justly proud of but difficult to find recorded, all the more need to celebrate MAY DAY and keep alive that part of our history, our culture.

         Take to the streets this MAY DAY, bring the family, bring colour, bring music, bring the spirit of the working class, have fun, remember why we are there, be proud and strengthen your resolve to do more to push the cause of co-operation in struggle with all our people. Keep alive the names and deeds of our past, not those of a corrupt, brutal, exploitative system. Keep alive the dream of a society of free association, voluntary co-operation, and mutual aid, a system of seeing to needs and not to the greed of the few. This year with the financial Mafia on a high with their grand plan of “deficit reduction” shredding the living standards of all our people, it is more important than ever that we make a show of our power. We can stop the system simple by coming onto the streets and having fun, not the dedicated activists, but all of us, the family, the street, the housing scheme, community, we can make a better world, but only if we all really want to, for the benefit of our kids and grandkids.

Published on 16 Apr 2012 by buddhagem

On May 1, 2012 we will have a "Day without the 99%" We are urging all to not go to work or school, don't bank or shop, don't engage in the capitalist system that robs and steals from us; take to the streets and help us create a better world now! For more information:

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MATEWAN, ARMED STRUGGLE.

            Not many films are ever made that cover a strike from the strikers point of view, one such film was Matewan by John Sales. I think Matewan is one of the most powerful films made, it covers a miners strike in West Virginia when all the miners walked out, this action turned West Virginian into a battlefield with the miners fighting it out with armed strike breakers, who were paid and armed by the mining companies. After a harsh and brutal struggle the miners eventually laid down their arms probably from the excess fire power of the enemy, but also an appeal to patriotism played a part. This short clip shows one of the many powerful scenes and should be essential viewing.

         Times have changed but the struggle hasn't, it is still those who have to work to survive, and those who exploit them to enrich themselves and/or their shareholders. To them workers are just tools, expendable items that are bought at the cheapest possible price, and cast aside as profit margins dictate. As long as we have that duality, there will always be conflict and struggle.

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EUROPE, THE WORLD'S LARGEST SWEATSHOP.

        Though the following article sees the Greek situation spreading to all the Southern European states, I on the other hand, see it coming to practically all the European states. It would suit the corporate fascist in conjunction with the financial Mafia to turn Europe into one very large sweatshop. This would put them in a much stronger position when trading with all the other power blocks on the planet. Cheap labour and low corporation taxes, is the perfect recipe for for corporate greed. To expect our respective national governments to somehow protect us from this "grand-plan" is rather naive as they are the managers of the "grand-plan" on behalf of the financial Mafia, they are the servants of the corporate fascists. 

This from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

     It's not a great photograph but its sole virtue is that its tells a story, and so illustrates so much of what is happening in Greece today and for that reason I posted it.
      In it are all the elements of a new emerging economy that has been foisted upon Greece in the name of financial salvation. In the foreground is the child beggar, no more than 11, I'd venture, his Fagin like "handler" (How Dickens serves us in times of need) just off frame at the entrance of the Ble patisserie.
      Ble, which serves high end baked goods at the kind of prices that even New Yorkers/Parisians might baulk at is, itself a perfect example of how the economy is going. Inside the employees haven't been paid for months and yet remain working, as they know giving up a job there means certain unemployment, a fact the supervisor hovering in the background is no doubt aware of.
       300 Euro per month wages, total absence of labour protection laws and rampant poverty are the fate that awaits other southern European economies adopting the kind of austerity measures that Greece has implemented in the last three years.

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POLICE HELP POLITICAL PRISONERS!!!

          One reason I always stay optimistic about the future is the never failing ingenuity of the ordinary people. Repeatedly when faced with adversity, they cleverly turn it into an opportunity. No matter what the repressive authorities throw at them, given time they will always turn what looks like defeat, into victory. The rigid authoritarians can never defeat that fluid, clever ingenuity of the people. 

This from Contra-Info.

ATHENS: Police steel plates used to seal squat, sold by activists to help political prisoners.

      The Occupied Social Centre VOX, one of the two buildings that were evicted by police in Exarchia on April 20th, was re-occupied the next day by anarchists, neighbours and other people in solidarity, who tore down the steel plates sealing off its entrances.

        On April 26th a few of the comrades who had helped the squatters re-occupy VOX, reported that all of the steel plates used by the cops and their paid mercenaries to seal it off were kept and have now been sold in the market, and all profits (nearly 300 euros) will be given as financial aid to imprisoned fighters across Greece.        Congratulations, comrades!

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WHERE ON THE PLANET IS CAPITALISM WORKING?

         Europe is in turnmoil with every city across the continent having protests, strikes and angry people on the streets, America has the Occupy Movement growing on a daily basis, even sleepy old Canada where a pedestrian crossing the street without using the pedestrian crossing is considered news, is having its problems. Montreal say running battles with the Police at  the proposed North Plan. A plan to allow the corporate mining gangsters to plunder the Northern Territories of Quebec.

      It seems that capitalism is having a hard time at the moment. I suppose it would the kindest thing to keep up the pressure and put it out of its misery.

      This from Contra info:

      A demonstration against the neo-colonial project “Plan Nord” (North Plan), which seeks to exploit to a maximum extent the minerals in Québec’s northernmost territories for the profit of mining companies, has turned into a street battle between insurgents and riot police, with an intensity and length rarely seen in Montréal.

Gathering about 2,000 people including indigenous militants, ecologists, striking students, anarchists and trade-union militants, two demonstrations converged and heavily disrupted the Plan Nord’s Employment Fair taking place inside Montréal’s Palais des congrès (convention center) last Friday 20th of April.

At around 12h30, a group of demonstrators (mainly striking students) has succeeded in entering the huge building, even if it was heavily guarded by riot police.

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"ANARCHY", IN COMMON PARLANCE, CHAOS, VIOLENT DISORDER!!

        I have always maintained that if you ask 100 people what the meaning of anarchy is, you'll get 100 different answers. Most will be wrong and will be answers like chaos and disorder, and will be based on ignorance of all things anarchistic. The establishment, state, mainstream media are all involved in perpetuating that line of thought, probably because they see anarchism as their greatest threat.

This from The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest:

In common parlance “anarchy” refers to a state of chaos or violent disorder and “anarchism” to the rebellious or merely perverse pursuit of this state. Indeed, the word “anarchist” was first used in the seventeenth century as an epithet against the defeated Levellers in the English Civil War. While the ideas and practices that would become known as anarchism were distinctly foreshadowed by movements such as the Diggers and the Ranters in the seventeenth century as well as by eighteenth-century thinkers such as William Godwin (and arguably by far more ancient schools of thought, from the Cynics of the fifth century bce to the Taoists of a century later), it was not until Pierre-Joseph Proudhon turned this epithet into a positive self-description that we can speak of anarchism per se, as a historical entity. Historically speaking, however, anarchism is the name for a movement, originating in mid-nineteenth-century Europe, characterized by its vision of a society of generalized self-management, its opposition to all forms of hierarchy and domination, and its particular emphasis on means of transformative action that prefigure the desired ends. The word also serves to name the goal of the movement – substantive and universal freedom, sometimes called “anarchy” – elements of which may be found in every society that has ever existed, particularly among peoples living without private property and the state.

Principles and Practices

Popular misunderstandings concerning anarchism, fed by more than a century and a half of sensationalistic media representations, are widespread – and, unfortunately, many scholarly accounts of anarchism do little to correct these distortions. The association of anarchy with chaos and senseless violence, while owing something to a certain phase in anarchist history (that of “propaganda by the deed”), is readily dispelled by even a cursory reading of works by actual self-described anarchists: “Anarchism … is not bombs, disorder, or chaos,” writes Alexander Berkman (1870–1936). “It is not a war of each against all. It is not a return to barbarism … Anarchism is the very opposite of all that” (Berkman 2003: xv). Similarly, Emma Goldman (1869–1940) defines anarchism as “the philosophy of a new social order based on liberty unrestricted by man-made law; the theory that all forms of government rest on violence, and are therefore wrong and harmful, as well as unnecessary” (1910: 56). The entry on anarchism that Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) wrote for the 1910 Encyclopedia Britannica defined it as “a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government” (2002: 284). These three explanations of anarchism – it would be difficult to find any more widely accepted by anarchists – show that anarchism is a form of social order rather than mere disorder or absence of organization; the form of social order anarchism represents is intended to maximize freedom, and to do so without recourse to the kinds of coercive institutions that are typically assumed to be necessary, variously called “government,” “law,” or “authority”; and in place of these institutions, anarchists propose to produce social order through a system of “free agreements” to meet individuals' “needs.”

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HOMELESSNESS + EMPTY HOUSES = HIGH RENTS.

      Following on from an earlier post on homelessness and highlighting the contraditions in this type of society, thousands homeless, thousands of empty houses and the government doing its damnedest to keep them empty. Protecting empty property helps to keep rents high and in this society, that is more important than the needs and dignity of the ordinary people.

 

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WHY WORK?

       In today's society and for some hundrerds of years past, work has been the, be all and end all, of the ordinary person's life. We are brain washed into believing that it is necessary and the only method for our survival. It doesn't have to be that way, work can be transformed into creativity, and society structured to limit time spent on "necessary" work cut to a minimum and still see to the needs of all our people. We should examine what exactly work is in a capitalist society and who stands to gain the most for "our work".

This from Digital Elephant:

       The old work ethic has disappeared along with the massive obsolete structures of capital which required a permanent army of producers, yet work still has far more implications than mere survival. Millions of people still compete for the privilege of turning up day after day, year after year, to surrender body and soul in exchange for a wage. The alternative: to encounter one’s real desires and create the means required to realise them, could present some surprises and lead to undreamed choices. A job, boring or arduous as it might be, is the easy way out. It gives structure to our day and puts order in our expectations, giving us just enough in our pockets to acquire instant sublimation and quell any sudden surge of hatred towards what is stealing our time and our lives.
The pernicious mixture of hatred and dependency at the basis of the work relationship atrophies the individual, reducing life to a question of accountancy. ‘Free time’, a mere negative quantity ranging from a few hours between days at work, to months or even years between jobs, can be survived by performing a number of rituals. Shopping, watching TV, doing voluntary work or going on adventure holidays to far away places can fill gaps and prevent any feelings of anguish which might lead to putting the whole setup in question. If all else fails, capital’s white-coated auxiliaries are always on hand to prescribe the latest psychotropic fix tailored to produce a dim glow of indifference.

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