She Drew The Gun plays at the Glastonbury Festival’s 2016 Emerging Talent Competition.
Warm up your Friday a bit.
What is Neoliberalism?
George Monbiot explains.
So pervasive has neoliberalism become that we seldom even recognise it as an ideology. We appear to accept the proposition that this utopian, millenarian faith describes a neutral force; a kind of biological law, like Darwin’s theory of evolution. But the philosophy arose as a conscious attempt to reshape human life and shift the locus of power.
Neoliberalism sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. It redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling, a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency. It maintains that “the market” delivers benefits that could never be achieved by planning.
Read the full article: Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems | Books | The Guardian
The Religion and Socialism Podcast
I’m pleased to be working on a new podcast project for the Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America.
The first episode of the program is an interview with renowned theologian and ethicist Gary Dorrien of Union Theological Seminary. Professor Dorrien discusses the relationship between Christianity and socialism, and particularly focuses on issues of racial justice in the United States.
Here’s the iTunes listing. You can also find the program at Soundcloud or click on the player below to listen in your browser.
Europe Is Up All Night
If a suspected terrorist sneezes in Europe, we see security camera footage repeated day and night with endless speculation and commentary on CNN, but there has been a virtual mainstream media blackout here in the United States of news about the French working class rising up over the past two weeks.
On March 31, thousands of French activists gathered at the Place de la République to protest French President François Hollande’s labor reforms, and they’ve been staying “up all night” ever since. The “Nuit Debout” protests are now spreading to Belgium, Britain, Spain and Germany.
Solidarity With Fight For Fifteen
Our sisters and brothers who are hospital workers, home care workers, airport workers, fast food workers, nursing home workers and retail workers deserve a living wage and union rights. Support the Fight for $15 on strike today.
We Can Be Together
This has long been one of my favorite Jefferson Airplane songs, and I love this demo version from Paul Kantner. It’s amazing that all of the harmonic and rhythmic elements of the song were there right from the start.
I wasn’t able to find proper guitar tabs for this online, but as nearly as I can tell, he’s dropped both E strings on the guitar to D, so I’m experimenting with that tuning this week.
When You Begin to Understand Surplus Value
Chicago Brings The Solidarity
Chicago’s streets were a sea of union red last Friday for a day of action to protest the austerity policies of Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Rauner.
I’m proud to have joined twenty thousand souls at the Thompson Center that day. What struck me, once again, was the broad support and solidarity in this movement. It wasn’t just teachers, or students, or parents, or union folks. We were joined by activists from Fight for 15, Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ community, immigrant rights groups, neighborhood and community organizations and so many more. It’s always an inspiration to see.
Here are some great photos of the day from Bob Simpson.
You can also read this report from Gala M. Pierce: Striking for the city we deserve | SocialistWorker.org
Which Side Are You On?
A Braver, A Saner and Truer Thing
Where all your rights have become only an accumulated wrong, where men must beg with bated breath for leave to subsist in their own land, to think their own thoughts, to sing their own songs, to gather the fruits of their own labours, and, even while they beg, to see things inexorably withdrawn from them – then, surely, it is a braver, a saner and truer thing to be a rebel, in act and in deed, against such circumstances as these, than to tamely accept it, as the natural lot of men.
– Sir Roger Casement