It’s difficult to know how to begin to write about the last few days here in the UK. The disturbances — shall we call them ‘riots’, ‘protests’, ‘unrest’, ‘civil disobedience’, ‘mob violence’? — that started last Saturday in Tottenham, just … Continue reading “London Calling…”
Alice Attie showed me her photographs of Harlem. The images haunted me and interpellated me as a New Yorker. A month before this, twenty-one photographs of the base of the eleventh-century Brihadiswara temple in Thanjavur, taken in 1858 by a … Continue reading “Harlem”
Last night I went to see the film The Last Mountain, an incredibly powerful documentary that chronicles the struggle of West Virginian communities against the pulverization of their land and lives by coal mining outfits like Massey Energy Corporation. Mountaintop … Continue reading “Act for Climate Justice”
The historical fact that Athens was the birthplace of democracy has been haunting the crowds assembled for nearly two months in the city’s Syntagma (Constitution) Square, right across from the House of Parliament, protesting undaunted against the government’s incapacity to … Continue reading “Indignant Politics in Athens – Democracy Out of Rage”
In the middle of winter, on a veranda looking into expansive fields from the edge of a north Indian village, a woman I know as Rambal’s Wife talks about the death of her son.1 A sister-in-law begins the story; Rambal’s … Continue reading “Globalizing Untouchability: Grief and The Politics of Depressing Speech”
A year and several months ago, I returned to New York from the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. While at the conference, I live blogged events in the many different forums of the conference, and also posted short analytical essays chronicling my reaction to the various interventions unfolding at the conference. Social Text online now presents these different pieces as a unified dossier in order to preserve this important historical moment.
An Interview with Matthew Frye Jacobson.
Michael Mandiberg: So tell us about the Historian’s Eye project…
Matthew Frye Jacobson: This started for me back in about 2007-2008. I was trying to think about different ways of getting intellectual work out in the world, continuous with all the writing I’ve done but in a different register. Read more
James Hansen: This is a time pregnant with danger. This danger exists because of a large gap between what the science has made clear and what the public realizes.It has become clear from the science that we are in a … Continue reading “The Science of Climate Change Panel”
Jonathan Neele: I speak for an alliance of 6 labor unions in the UK (www.campaigngcc.org/greenjobs). We have a campaign for 1 million green jobs in the UK. But I want to join with all of you in this campaign, because … Continue reading “Unions and Green Jobs Panel”
Oscar Olivera (OO) is a trade unionist and leader of the famous water wars which unfolded in Cochabamba in 2000 following the privatization of the city’s water supply. The water wars, which involved shutting down Cochabamba for six months, were … Continue reading “The Cochabamba Water Wars: An Interview with Oscar Olivera”
Before everything else, the Cochabamba conference was remarkable for bringing together a large group of radical activists from all around the world. The social connections and sense of possibility that resulted from the exchanges that unfolded in this setting … Continue reading “Cochabamba and Beyond”
On Sunday June 26, 2011, my wife and I, along with our daughter and son-in-law, were on the M15 bus traveling downtown to Chinatown for dinner. We had just left the celebration of a lifetime at the annual LGBT Pride … Continue reading “The Trouble with Tiaras: Facing Marriage Equality Head-on”
On arriving in Madison some years ago, I went to the huge farmers’ market that winds round the Capitol. Startled by the slow-moving procession of orderly, white shoppers all pacing in the same direction, I dubbed the market throngs “The … Continue reading “Which Way Wisconsin? The Meaning of the Madison Movement”
My remarks are structured around a consideration of four images.[1]I would like to extend my thanks to Gencer Yurttas and Phil Collins for the permission to publish the photographs that accompany this essay.These images will, I hope, enable us … Continue reading “Forging Life into a Weapon”
In my work, I have defended a nonviolent ethic through Derrida and Levinas, which begins with the commandment, “thou shall not kill.” But this ethic certainly does not end there. My book The Philosophy of the Limit gives us … Continue reading “Politics of Grieving”
