The Return of the Magonista?–Los Angeles and Borderland Revolt

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This article was written in the days immediately following June 6th. The author was not able to participate in the street movement due to geographical distance from Los Angeles. ConquestIn August of 1846, US troops under Stephen Kearney occupied Santa Fe without firing a shot. In January of 1847, a combined force of Hispano and …

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Dancing for FDR: How My Father Met My Mother (and Vice Versa)

A key drama at the heart of all our personal origin stories is the saga of how our parents met. Iโ€™ve known the basics of this piece of my family history as long as I can remember. My mom and dad met, so the story went, when they were paired as dance partners performing in …

The Karen Effect:ย A Cop Town’s Reckoning with Police Power

Americaโ€™s latest referendum on police power is coming from an unlikely place: Canton, Massachusetts, a mostly white upper middle class and pro-police suburb located just fifteen miles outside of Boston. Jury deliberations began this week in the second murder trial of Karen Read, who is accused of killing her cop boyfriend. For the past three years, the case has divided Canton, with a significant number of residents convinced that Read is being framed by the police and the wealthy local families with ties to them. While the case has all the elements of a true-crime saga, its significance lies in that it is shedding a light on the deepening crisis of police legitimacy among white Americans. In addition, it is also revealing–yet again–the pernicious effects of whiteness, as seen by the inability or unwillingness of Karen Read supporters to connect her fight against a corrupt police and legal system to the current anti-ICE/police uprising.

From Anaximander to Marx, part 3

The end of the road of the sect  For quite a few years after Healyโ€™s exposure I, and others, still carried on trying to build โ€˜the partyโ€™ which was really just a small group of self-appointed โ€˜revolutionariesโ€™. I only finally shed this delusion during the Yugoslav war. I was sitting in the cab of a …

From Anaximander to Marx, Part 2

Human society as an evolutionary process Darwinโ€™s โ€˜Origin of the Speciesโ€™ came about from the data gathered during his voyage on the Beagle. A deeply religious man, Darwin was brought almost to the point of mental breakdown because his religious view of the world could not be reconciled with the evidence he had gathered. His …

From Anaximander to Marx or how I spent half my life in a โ€˜revolutionaryโ€™ cult and the other half working out why

Bob Myers was born in 1949 in London to a middle class mum and a working class dad who had met in a factory canteen during WW2.  They were both involved in the Workers Educational Association and their house was full of books. Bob and his elder brother both became interested in politics at school …

From the Archives


Mask down, fists up: a day at work in the library

Like most workers, I donโ€™t wake up in the morning thinking Iโ€™m going to get swung at while at my job. Iโ€™m a librarian, not a professional boxer or an MMA fighter. But on a Monday afternoon in August, in this glorious year 2020, thatโ€™s just what happened. I asked a library visitor to pull …

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โ€œThe Last Stand of Freedom in Americaโ€

โ€œHow many of you have an easy life?โ€ the speaker asked the audience. To his dismay a handful of people raised their hands. โ€œWell, okay, I guess some of you have it good, but many of you clearly donโ€™t.โ€ His voice could be barely heard and the audience shouted at him to speak into the …

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