| the commoner |
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In
the beginning there is the doing, the social flow of human
interaction and creativity, and the doing is imprisoned by the
deed, and the deed wants to dominate the doing and life, and
the doing is turned into work, and people into things. Thus
the world is crazy, and revolts are also practices of
hope.
This journal is about living in a world in which the
doing is separated from the deed, in which this separation is
extended in an increasing numbers of spheres of life, in which
the revolt about this separation is ubiquitous. It is not easy
to keep deed and doing separated. Struggles are everywhere,
because everywhere is the realm of the commoner, and the
commoners have just a simple idea in mind: end the enclosures,
end the separation between the deeds and the doers, the means
of existence must be free for
all! |
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The
purpose of this site is to provide a brief list of online
materials that might prove useful if read critically. If you
have
suggestions for further relevant additions to this list,
please forward
them to:
wacsii@yahoo.com |
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'You
will hardly suggest that my opinion of the present is too exalted
and if I do not despair about it this is only because its
desperate position fills me with hope' Marx
to Ruge, May 1843 |
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1. Background
on Iraq
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The
Middle East Research and Information Project
(MERIP) provides
overviews and commentary on the region.
The
Iraq Research and Documentation Project
at Harvard University holds maps, chronologies, and a range of
translated documents.
The
Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq
presents, amongst other resources, a chronology of U.S.
Diplomatic and Commercial Relationships with Iraq, 1980 - 2 August
1990.
British/American
antiwar group Voices
in the Wilderness
runs the news portal Electronic
Iraq.
Practical
History has
compiled a chronology of 'a
century of war and rebellion'
in Iraq.
Le
Monde Diplomatique
has assembled a dossier
on Iraq, with
links to a variety of government and non-government sources.
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2. Seeking
to explain the current conflict |
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A range of arguments
have been offered as to why the US state has
embarked upon its present course of action. Immanuel
Wallerstein
believes that the war must be understood in terms of the
United States' long term decline as a great power.
Midnight
Notes suggests
that 'The Bush Administration's policy is not a product
of crackpots, it is a desperate initiative to try to militarily save a
failing world economic system'.
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Wildcat
holds that capitalist social relations are in crisis today, and can
only
be defended by war. More recently, the German group has offered its
own
"http://www.wildcat-www.de/en/actual/e020war1.htm"
review of
current debates</a> over the meaning of the current US war footing.
MERIP has published
Why
Another War?,
a detailed account of the Bush presidency's drive to war (this is a
large PDF file).
Michel
Chossudovsky
believes that the origin of war lies in
inter-imperialist rifts over oil, the military-industrial complex and
monetary. A leftwing critique of the 'war for oil' argument is provided
by Cyrus
Bina.
Through the
analysis of the political economy of the war on Iraq, George
Caffentzis
expands on the oil argument by detailing four possible meaning of
the "no war for oil" slogan adopted by the anti-war
movement. In a postscript
he interprets the current war on Iraq as a shift in the
neoliberal strategy, from the stealing to the robbery phase of
globalisation.
The
argument that the rationale for this war must be found in the
conflict of dollars versus euros is advanced by Geoffrey
Heard and
spelled out in detail by W.
Clark.
For critiques see John
Mauldin's
uncompromising piece. See also Paul
Krugman's
comment.
Werner
Bonefeld
argues that to be against this war implies being against its
preconditions.
Before
this war on Iraq, Silvia
Federici
reminds us of the inherent link between war and the project of
neoliberal globalisation (this is a pdf file).
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3. Opposition
to the war
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The reaction of
Middle Eastern populations will be decisive for the war's outcome, and
Al
Jazeerah offers
a unique window to their circumstances.
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4. The
military dimension
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Who to believe about the
progress of the various state war machines?
Russian
military intelligence
offers a very different account of the Iraqi war to that found in
Western commercial media;
Jane's
is a well-established source on global military matters, providing
some materials for non-subscribers;
Mike
Davis has
written about the 'revolution in military affairs' that Rumsfeld et
al. believe will win them Iraq.
Massimo
De Angelis
looks at the ways in which US military strategists have sought to
exploit the terrorist acts of 11 September 2001. He argues that the
notion of U.S. "national security" shows a link between war
and the neoliberal project.
The view of the White
House on the link between trade liberalisation, competition, global
capital and national security, is detailed in the official document "The National Security Strategy of the United States of
America".
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5. Uprisings in Iraq
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The last time workers
rose in revolt against the Iraqi regime, Western forces allowed Saddam
Hussein to crush them. What are the prospects for working class autonomy
this time round?
BM
Blob/BM Combustion
has provided accounts of the workers councils ('shoras') formed in
1991.
An anonymous account
of the uprisings,
first circulated in 1991, is also now online.
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6.
Exploring
further
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A number of online
sources are worth monitoring for news and analysis, starting with
Indymedia
- ZMag
- a-infos
- Interactivist
Info Exchange: Independent Media & Analysis
- No
War But The Class War
- Counterpunch
- Umanita'
Nova (in
Italian) -
Sherwood
Comunicazione
(in Italian) -
Global
Radio (Italian
news in English) -
Le
Monde Diplomatique
- Iraq
Body Count
- infoshop.org
- nettime
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The
Commoner - about us: |
| editor:
Massimo De Angelis |
thanks to everyone who has contributed to the journal
with writing, comments, suggestions and pictures. |
| design:
Gioacchino Toni | |
|
e-mail |
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