With fears of an invasion which would cause disease outbreaks, school over-crowding, crime and wage deflation, the borders of California were sealed in 1936. In the preceding years of Depression California had already absorbed hundreds of thousands of migrants. Officers of the Los Anglese Police Department were deployed to reinforce state police at common points […]
Morbid Symptoms, Part I: Storm on Rikers Island
“I feel a sickness deep in my stomach every time the building’s alarm goes off,” confesses rookie jail guard Nicholas Billings. “It’s always the same feeling. I don’t care what anyone says, how tough they think they are. No matter how strong or well trained; deep down, jagged butterflies begin to swirl around your insides […]
The Infrapolitics of Voting in the South
Whatever the arguments against voting and participation in electoral politics – and they are sound arguments; the great sucking sound of the Democratic Party absorbing and digesting social movements is real – in certain circumstances struggles over voting reflect larger social tensions and conflicts beyond the act of voting itself. Such is the case in […]
Oh What a Lovely War
The “solemn” commemorations in Paris on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that finally put an end to the horrific bloodshed that had drowned Europe for just over the four years from 1914 to 1918, along with the more or less idiotic commentaries of American TV hosts on the reasons why we […]
End of a Philosophy
(from the chapter with that title in Facing Reality: The New Society … Where to look for it, How to bring it closer, A statement for our time—by CLR James, Grace C. Lee & Pierre Chaulieu, 1958) Fascism, Corporate State, One-Party State, Welfare State, Totalitarianism, all of these are ways in which rationalism attempts to […]
“Shit-Life Syndrome” (Oxycontin Blues)
The drug crisis is hard to ignore in the South – and not just in the rural areas. People keel over waiting for buses or lie slouched and zoned out in cars, as if some zombie-inducing viral contagion out of a horror flick suddenly descended. Overdosing has become such a part of the fabric of […]