Author Archives: Julius Gavroche

South Africa: The apartheid of capitalism

From John Pilger, the documentary film Apartheid Did Not Die (1998) … In 1994 South Africa inspired the world as millions of people cued patiently to vote in the country’s first democratic elections.  It was the end of apartheid, the … Continue reading

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The passing of Nelson Mandela: Pursuing the promise of revolution

The death of Nelson Mandela can leave no one indifferent.  His ethical passion in the struggle against apartheid is an example to all.  His passing does not diminish what he remains for us all: a contemporary.

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Spain’s 15M: Doing revolution

The old revolutionary certainties have gone. John Holloway, Crack Capitalism What in our conduct, our action, makes it revolutionary?  Is it a simple matter to say of one activity that it is anti-capitalist, and of another that it is not?  … Continue reading

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The pacifying state (cont.): the sovereignty of the police

The transformation of political issues into security matters makes explicit the relationship, if not the identity, of sovereignty and the exercise of police power.  The “police – contrary to public opinion – are not merely an administrative function of law … Continue reading

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The pacifying state: Spain and the laws against rebellion

The State’s power is fundamentally rooted in its ability to define the limits within which its sovereignty is exercised; a power that rests upon the State’s ability to simultaneously stand outside those very limits.  This paradox is at the very … Continue reading

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Anarchist interventions in brazil’s winter of discontent

Exclusion of people from the means of life is internal to capitalism.  If the social relations that constitute capitalism’s fabric allow some to benefit from the domination intrinsic to those relations, the many are exploited and/or rendered superfluous as befits … Continue reading

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Whither the egyptian revolution?

What follows are reflections, readings, of events in egypt of the last few months, of a revolution seemingly appropriated or hijacked by military authorities.  They are testimonials, but also efforts to trace, open, paths beyond seeming failure …

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For Lou Reed

“There’s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.” “When you think the night has seen your mind, That inside your twisted and unkind, Let me stand to show that you are blind. Please put … Continue reading

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A Madrid October: The liminal reality of autonomous okupied social centres

… l’exclusion est une arme possible et nécessaire.  C’est la seule arme de tout groupe fondé sur la liberté complète des individus. … Cette discipline définit nettement une plate-forme incorruptible, dont l’abandon ne se rattrapera pas.  Autrement, il y aurait … Continue reading

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A Madrid October: 15M is dead. Long live 15M!

It would be difficult to think of 15M in the form of a movement.  If that is, as a movement which has an origin, a goal, some objectives and a trajectory … Nevertheless, an event is but a timid call … Continue reading

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