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Scotland: for a democratic federal republic!
Submitted by AWL on 12 January, 2012 - 12:20
Written in 2009
Blink once, and the momentum for Scottish independence looks like a steamroller travelling faster and faster downhill. Blink a second time, and it looks quite different.
In 1969-71 large oil and gas reserves were discovered offshore from Scotland. The Scottish National Party boomed rapidly, reaching 30.4% of Scottish votes in the October 1974 general election. Its vote has bounced up and down since then, but since 1988 it has been almost always above or close to 20% in UK general elections.
In by-elections the SNP has continued to achieve particularly dramatic results. In the 2008 Glasgow East by-election a 22% swing to the SNP saw the party win the second-safest Labour seat in Scotland, and the 26th-safest Labour seat in the UK. Although the SNP failed to win the subsequent Glenrothes by-election, it did succeed in increasing its vote by over 13%.
In 1979 Scotland voted 51.6% to 48.4% for creating an elected Scottish Assembly, but the British government of the time had said that the Assembly would not go ahead unless the vote for it was 40% of the whole electorate, as well as a majority of those voting. By 1997, when a second referendum was held, the majority was 74.3% to 25.7% for a Scottish Parliament — and one with vastly greater powers than the Assembly on offer in the 1979 referendum.
In 2007 the SNP won 32.9% of the vote in the Scottish Parliamentary election. As the biggest single party at Holyrood, the SNP went on to form a minority Scottish government committed to independence. The SNP has pledged to hold a referendum on independence in 2010, following the conclusion of what it terms the "National Conversation" about Scotland's constitutional future, and talks of Scotland being independent by 2017.
By 2005, 68% of people in Scotland identified themselves as "predominantly Scottish", 21% as "equally Scottish and British", and only 9% as "predominantly British". Some opinion polls have also shown a majority for independence.
Now blink again.
The growth in electoral support for the SNP is not as impressive as it appears at first sight. The 18% of the vote secured by the SNP in the 2005 Westminster general election was just 3% higher than their vote in 1955 in constituencies where they stood candidates. Extending the comparison over a longer period of time, since the inter-war years support for the SNP has increased by an average of 1% per decade: 7% over 70 years.
The SNP's victory in Glasgow East was certainly spectacular — but the party took a conscious decision to put the demand for independence "on a back burner" for the duration of the by-election campaign. Similarly, in the subsequent Glenrothes by-election it decided to "park" the issue of independence.
A vote for the SNP is not necessarily a vote for independence. A survey of SNP voters in the 1997 general election found that 23% supported Scottish independence and withdrawal from the European Union (the SNP's official policy in the 1960s and 1970s), 37% backed Scottish independence within the European Union, and 34% backed "independence within the UK" (i.e. Donald Dewar's description of Labour's devolution policy).
Ten years later, in the Scottish Parliament elections which saw the SNP emerge as the largest party in Holyrood, it was a similar story: nearly one in four of those who voted SNP supported some form of devolution rather than full independence.
Over the last three and a half decades support for independence has increased by just 6%. 21% backed independence in 1974, when the first data were collected. Support declined after the 1979 referendum, and then began to grow again under Thatcher, reaching a peak of 37% in 1997. Since then, support has stabilised at around 27%. Over the same period of time support for devolution has increased by around 11%.
Of people questioned on the issue each year from 1997 to 2001, 49% had supported independence at least once, but only 5% had supported it at every asking. It is possible, by phrasing the question the right way, to get a poll majority for independence; but, given the option of a Scottish parliament with increased powers as an alternative to independence, in surveys between 1998 and 2001 between 54% and 62% went for that, with only 20% to 23% choosing independence instead.
Trends in the strength of Scottish identity have paralleled trends in support for independence. In 1974, when the question was first asked, some 66% of Scots defined themselves as Scottish rather than British (not to be confused with: only Scottish, not British). This fell to around 55% after the 1979 referendum, increased again under Thatcher, reached a peak of 80% after the opening of the Scottish Parliament, and then fell again to 70% by 2003 — an increase of 4% over three decades.
In the run-up to the SNP victory in the 2007 Scottish parliamentary election, which was widely expected, "Independence First" organised two demonstrations calling for a referendum on independence. The point of the marches was to allow people to show themselves more vigorously for independence than just to the extent of saying yes in an opinion poll or voting for the SNP.
(The referendum demand was just a convenient hook on which to hang the explanation for calling the demonstrations. There is little doubt that the SNP's decision to postpone a referendum to a more convenient time — i.e. following a possible Tory victory in the next Westminster general election — is rational from the point of view of attempting to achieve independence.)
The marches were supported by the SNP, the Scottish Socialist Party, Sheridan's breakway "Solidarity", and by the Greens.
The organisers claimed just 1000 people on the first march, on 30 September 2006. They gave no figures for the second, on 31 March 2007. The suggestion that it was smaller is confirmed by the pictures of it they have published. They also organised an electronic petition. It drew only 1300 names.
The tepidity of pro-independence opinion and the lack of enthusiasm for taking to the streets to demonstrate in support of independence is unsurprising given the tepidity of what the SNP presents as the gains of independence:
"With the right policies in place, we could make Scotland a much more competitive place to do business [i.e. cheaper for multinationals]. Policies such as cutting corporation tax to 20% [so, cutting public services, or raising taxes on workers?], reducing business red tape [i.e. regulations to protect workers and consumers], and implementing a distinctive immigration policy to target migrants with the skills we need [i.e. shutting out poor migrants and letting in only the well-off or well-qualified]".
There is in SNP publicity no talk of throwing off the yoke of foreign rule, or enabling the Scottish people to breath freely after ages under the boot of the conqueror. Nor, given the history of Scotland as a more or less equal partner in the British Empire and British capitalism, could there plausibly be, although it took the SNP nearly half a century to recognise this.
The SNP would keep Scotland within the EU, retain the House of Windsor as the monarchy, and keep the pound (although possibly only in the short-term). Many of the big-business people who support the SNP do so explicitly on the grounds that at present Scotland, with higher public spending per head than the rest of the UK but a lower tax take, suffers from a "dependency culture", and independence would bring a bracing shock of neo-liberal austerity.
Unless they are right, the difference in everyday life in an independent Scotland would be small. In fact, given New Labour's policies of battering the unemployed and creating ever higher hurdles to claiming welfare benefits, even if those business people were right, everyday life in an independent Scotland would not be substantially different from now.
"Scotland's oil" has been the SNP's main economic hope. "It's ours, all ours", they have cried, emulating Grampa Joad in the film version of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath". But now they probably need to add Joad's preface: "It's no good, but it's mine, all mine".
According to British government figures, about 81% of "probable" workable North Sea oil reserves, and 77% of gas, have now been extracted. The oil companies give a similar picture. The SNP insists that "half of the oil is yet to come", but with manifestly diminishing confidence.
These days, to calm worries about the obvious "start-up" economic costs of independence, the SNP plays more on the supposed competitive advantages of small countries in the EU (or half-in it, via the EEA).
Unfortunately, one of the prize success stories it has cited is Iceland, now in chaos following the collapse of its banks. Scottish banking has also lost its lustre. Before 2008, Edinburgh was headquarters for two of Britain's five largest banks, RBS and HBOS. Both have now had to be bailed out by London, HBOS via an assisted takeover by Lloyds TSB, and RBS via de facto nationalisation.
It is certainly true that other countries in what the SNP traditionally referred to as the "arc of prosperity" have not suffered the economic meltdown experienced by Iceland. Even so, the example of Iceland has sufficed to dent the image of small states banding together in a Northern version of the Golden Triangle.
Why, then, the first-blink picture? Granted that the flow towards independence is tepid and slow, why does it nonetheless appear to be so copious?
The immediate answer to that question is rooted in the changing nature of the relationship between Scottish nationalism (more accurately: Scottish identity and Scottish national consciousness) and Unionism, and in the more recent changes in the nature of Scottish nationalism itself.
Scottish nationalism was a non-existent political force throughout the nineteenth century and into the early years of the last century. This was because the British state and the British Empire — not independence — were regarded as the best medium through which to advance Scottish national interests. In that sense, as numerous historians have commented, Unionism was a historic form of Scottish nationalism.
Concerns about the preservation of Scottish identity or about the relationship between Scotland and England did not manifest themselves in a Scottish-nationalist project. Exemplified by the short-lived National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights of the early 1850s and the Scottish Home Rule Association founded in 1886, those who questioned the Unionist status quo wanted reform and improvement, not repeal.
That Scottish-nationalist Unionism has been in decline since around the time of the First World War. The economic benefits of the British Empire inevitably disappeared along with the British Empire itself. And the various institutions around which a British identity had gelled — such as the monarchy, the armed forces, and the Westminster Parliament — lost the status which they had once enjoyed at the high noon of the British Empire.
The most serious single blow to the tradition of Scottish-nationalist Unionism was delivered by Thatcher. This was not simply because her policies had an even greater socially regressive impact on Scotland than on England. More fundamentally, it was because she redefined Unionism in opposition to Scottish nationalism (and all forms of devolution) and then identified defence of the Union with her own brand of political reaction.
Thus, the 'glue' which had previously bonded together Scottish identity and Scottish national consciousness with Unionism gradually dissolved — not consistently, but in a succession of fits and spurts — throughout the twentieth century. This helped pave the way for the emergence of a modern Scottish nationalist movement.
And that nationalist movement itself has evolved over time. In its earliest versions — the National Party of Scotland, and the early years of the SNP — it was a mixture of pro-independence 'hardliners' and supporters of Home Rule, unclear as to whether it was an actual political party or simply a pressure group (directed in the main towards the Labour Party).
By the 1960s the SNP had consolidated into a political party, based on the demand for Scottish withdrawal from the UK and opposition to membership of the Common Market. It was a right-wing, narrowly nationalist party, easily dismissed by the Labour Party as "Tartan Tories".
The SNP of today is arguably less nationalist than it was in even recent decades (which must count as a factor in explaining the increased electoral support which is has been able to muster). Its earlier inward- and backward-looking bog-standard nationalism has given way to a more inclusive and "civic" kind of nationalism (which is not to deny that it could easily regress to an earlier version).
Rather than being a response to an increasingly aggressive British nationalism, the rise of Scottish nationalism and the SNP — a real enough phenomenon, albeit one which should not be exaggerated — can therefore be seen as a product of the decline of British nationalism.
Far from being horrified at the prospect of Scottish independence leading to the break-up of Britain, for example, opinion polls in England produce a bigger majority in favour of Scottish independence than opinion polls in Scotland ever do.
Scottish separation would certainly weaken Britain militarily (though only by a fraction: Scotland is 8% of the UK's population), and probably the British government of the day would not like it. But as long ago as 1995, John Major, as Tory Prime Minister, said that if Scots voted for independence, a London government "could not stop them."
No-one in mainstream British politics gainsays the right of Scotland to separate if a Scottish majority wishes it. A Tory government may even see electoral advantage from separation. And individual Tory politicians certainly do (though not ones based in Scotland).
The more general answer to the question of why the flow towards independence appears to be so copious is that it is not just British nationalism which has declined but also — notwithstanding the growth in electoral support garnered by parties of the far Right — nationalism in Western Europe in general.
People in the USA, or China, or India, may feel a strong identity as American, or Chinese, or Indian, because they feel they are part of an "imagined community" mighty enough to shape the whole world. People in countries which have within living memory won their independence from a foreign yoke are "nationalist" in cherishing that achievement. There are other reasons why nationalism may run hot.
But in Western Europe, since the decline of the old colonial empires between the 1940s and the 1970s, nationalism has run tepid. No nation in Western Europe can hope to be a world-shaping power; none sees any risk of foreign conquest.
The European Union, with its bureaucratic ways, and a speed of progress glacial as measured by the ordinary pace of human life-events (though maybe not as measured against the broad sweep of European history), is not likely any time soon to create a warm "European" identity. As the ponderous manoeuvres around the draft European constitution and the subsequent Treaty of Lisbon show, it commands nothing more than grudging acceptance from its citizens, and sometimes not even that.
But for those citizens it satisfies the need to be part of an "imagined community" strong enough to hold its own in a difficult world. They no longer need to feel themselves part of a relatively big or powerful nation to get that security.
(Thus the desperation and ridiculousness in Gordon Brown's attempts to talk up "Britishness". People cannot feel warm about being British because Britain plays such a big part in the world (it doesn't), nor because they feel that Britain's autonomy is hard-won or under threat (it isn't).)
Broadly speaking, this is progress. It lowers one of the barriers to international working-class unity (though there are others: it does not exorcise racism or xenophobia). But for international working-class unity to stride over that lower barrier, it needs legs.
For several decades now, since the rise of Stalinism, the legs of the active advocates of working-class internationalism have been short. The collapse of Stalinism at the hands of triumphant global world-market capitalism had the short-term (but already decades-long) effect of making those legs shorter still.
That "releases" the desire for "imagined community" to flow — usually tepidly, but to flow nonetheless — into more local identities which in another era might be thought too flimsy either to protect or to project. It is not special to Scotland. Wales, Catalonia, the Basque country, Brittany, Flanders, Wallonia… all show the same pattern.
Belgian Marxists, commenting on the rise of Flemish and Walloon nationalism in their country, identify another factor in the increasing bureaucratisation, mediatisation, and neo-liberal consensus of mainstream politics:
"At present, communitarian demands are not put forward under the pressure of the masses. Quite the contrary. The communitarian terrain is the playing field par excellence for politicians in agreement on the neo-liberal austerity policy to pursue who wish to colour that policy with their own regional tint."
They report that at a hot point of the most recent conflict agitating the Flemish and Walloon nationalists — about the division or otherwise of Belgium's only officially-bilingual parliamentary constituency, BHV — a big majority told pollsters that they had no opinion one way or another on the matter.
There is a sort of analogy here with what happened in Yugoslavia from the 1970s, when the Titoist regime became more liberal. Basic social and political questions could still not be raised in official politics; but quarrels could be vented in terms of Croatia, or Slovenia, etc., getting a fair share.
It is not law that prevents mainstream political parties in Belgium or Britain from contesting the neo-liberal consensus; but, for now, the imperative of making each country "a competitive place to do business" (as the SNP puts it) works almost as well. So "to colour the neo-liberal policy with their own regional tint" is a safe and attractive ploy for politicians.
Will the rise of "safe", tepid, smaller-unit nationalism inevitably roll on and on to separation, in Scotland anyway? It may not, at least not in the assayable future. It may roll on to a greater and more complicated devolution of powers, without ever, on current trends, reaching the endpoint of separation. And the parallel slow trend to European unification may outpace it.
In Wales, for example, the Plaid Cymru vote has slid since 1999, and there is no strong pressure for more than minor modifications of the devolution already agreed. Yet Wales has arguably had more "national oppression" than Scotland, with the Welsh language — still spoken by about 80% of the population in 1800, and 54% of the population at the time of the 1891 census — discriminated against for centuries.
Official London encouragement for the Welsh language, which has set Welsh-speaking on the rise again since 1991, seems to have cooled down Welsh nationalism almost to stasis.
Wales is too trivial an example, and anyway has had more English immigration over the centuries than Scotland — only 75% of its population were born in Wales, as against 87% in Scotland? Its population is more Anglicised, not having had the "reminder" of distinct law, education, and banknotes which Scotland has had?
Then consider Québec and Flanders, both "further on" than Scotland in separatist impulses. For centuries the French-speaking majority of Québec suffered real oppression from the English-speaking majority of Canada, and glumly submitted to what 1960s Québecois agitators called a "conquered-people complex".
The Parti Québecois, committed to independence for Québec, won government for the first time in 1976-85. It was also in government from 1994-2003, and has won a bigger percentage of the vote than the SNP did in Scotland in 2007 in eight out of nine provincial elections since 1976. It has passed laws to make French the only official language in Québec, prompting considerable emigration of English-speakers from the area (the English-speaking minority declined from 13% in 1971 to 8% in 2001).
Yet today the PQ does not even mention independence in its platform, talking instead of expanding "sovereignty" while implicitly accepting for now that it will be within the framework of Canada. (Two referendums, in 1980 and 1995, have rejected independence, PQ leader Jacques Parizeau complaining in 1995 that the defeat was due to "ethnic votes").
Or Belgium. The state was created in 1830 with little to define its identity other than that it roughly corresponded to the part of the Netherlands which remained under Spanish (later Austrian) rule after the northern Netherlands won independence in the 16th century. That Belgium's Dutch-speaking north might be united with the Netherlands, or its French-speaking south with France, has never been implausible.
Until World War One the state, the aristocracy, and the high bourgeoisie were solidly French-speaking, disdainful of the mostly peasant Dutch-speakers. Flemish (Dutch-speaking) nationalism rose in the early 20th century and especially in World War 1. Between the world wars, Flanders and Wallonia became recognised as distinct regions with distinct official languages, though no political federalism was established.
After World War Two, Walloon (French-speaking) nationalism took the initiative in pushing for political federalism. In 1963, the "linguistic frontier" between the Dutch-speaking north and the French-speaking south was permanently "frozen" by law, in response to Flemish protests that this frontier was constantly edging north.
From 1964 economic output per head in Flanders moved ahead of previously-dominant Wallonia. Now it is 26% higher, with development centred round Antwerp, which is Europe's busiest port after Rotterdam. (The disparity is much greater than between Scotland and England; household income per head is on average lower in Scotland than in England, but only by 9%, which is also much less than the disparity between regions in England. North-east England is 8% below Scotland).
Flemish demands again started to set the pace. A series of constitutional revisions since 1970 have established political federalism of increasing complexity. The country of ten million people now has six parliaments and five governments. Since the late 1960s, all the mainstream political parties, conservative, liberal, social-democratic, and Green, have split into separate Flemish and Walloon parties, and several new Flemish-only or Walloon-only parties have risen up.
It has become increasingly difficult to form federal governments (which must, by law, include equal numbers of French-speakers and Dutch-speakers), and in recent years there have been long periods of no federal government at all. Quarrels about detailed revision of the federal structures continue.
It is all a long way further down the line than Scotland. Surely this must come to a split? Some newspapers report a split as inevitable soon; The Economist recommends it. Yet even now Belgian Marxists consider a split only a "long-term" possibility.
There is no majority for a split in Flanders, and a strong majority against in Wallonia. No big party advocates a split other than the fascistic Vlaams Belang. The Belgian bourgeoisie does not want a split (the VBO-FEB, the bosses' organisation, is, like the Belgian revolutionary left, among the few structures in Belgium which remains unitary).
There is no visible peaceful compromise about Brussels (officially the only bilingual area; 80% French-speaking, but inside the Dutch-speaking north). And meanwhile the Benelux union — the confederation of Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg, dating from the 1940s, which has its own committee of ministers, parliament, court of justice, etc. — rolls on. A new treaty to strengthen it was adopted in June 2008, without trouble.
The Benelux governments were able to act swiftly in concert in September 2008 to nationalise (in part) Fortis, their biggest bank and a successor to the giant Société Générale which once dominated the Belgian economy, when it faced collapse.
Scotland could probably go as far as Québec or Flanders without fully separating. But there are other complications and possibilities.
Belgian Marxists comment: "Because of the institutional labyrinth that Belgium has become under the blows of successive compromises which, besides, have only led to new problems, confusion reigns as to who is responsible for what. De facto, Belgium is run in a very opaque and anti-democratic way."
Centralised government over relatively large areas is often criticised as "remote". It has a democratic advantage, though: everyone knows who is responsible for the decisions. The diffusion of political pressure into intricately layered structures tends to make it more difficult to mobilise across-the-board movements for change.
The logic of particularism also has a harmful effect on the labour movement. The Belgian Socialist Party has never been radical, but it had a sometimes lively left wing into the 1970s. Its division into two parties, Walloon and Flemish, in 1978, has helped consolidate its neo-liberalism.
The unions have resisted better, but the FGTB (secular) metalworkers' federation split into three communal federations in 2006, and the CSC (Catholic) teachers are also split into separate Flemish and Walloon organisations.
Québec workers staged North America's biggest-ever and most radical general strike in 1972. Yet, partly because of the pressure of nationalism, Québec trade unionists are divided into three federations — FTQ, CSN, CSQ — with only FTQ affiliated to the all-Canadian union confederation, and all three more or less tied to nationalist rather than any sort of independent working-class politics.
Finally, all the scenarios above are for conditions of relative capitalist stability. But capitalism is, of necessity, sometimes not even relatively stable. The case of Yugoslavia shows what can happen in crisis.
It is difficult to know how much grip the official Yugoslav talk of "brotherhood and unity" of the different south-Slav nations ever had, since under the Titoist regime it was illegal to decry it, but probably some. When the old regime disintegrated at the end of the 1980s, chauvinists on the different sides — maybe smallish minorities at the start — were quickly able to set the tone, and reciprocally to boost each others' hegemony. What was previous tepid nationalism can quickly heat up.
In Flanders the Vlaams Belang is already consistently the biggest party in Antwerp. It is not inconceivable that a big crisis could boost it to majority status in Flanders, or at least to the level of forcing other parties to court its support or to adopt large parts of its policy in order to fend it off.
The Vlaams Belang is not just jockeying for electoral advantage when it raises Flemish-nationalist demands. It would see the disruption for Belgian capitalism from Flemish separation as a secondary consideration.
It really wants and needs Flemish independence in order to achieve its aims: stopping federal welfare funds going to Wallonia; Flemishing Brussels; reducing French-speakers in Brussels and its surrounds to second-class citizens; deporting many of the Moroccan and other immigrant workers in Belgium (mainly in Brussels, and mainly speaking French as their second language), and depriving those who remain of the vote.
The SNP is not like the Vlaams Belang, or Milosevic's Serbian chauvinists. The point is that gradual easing-apart, until one day Scotland becomes independent with scarcely a jolt, as recommended by the SNP today, is not the only way to Scottish independence. It may not even be the most probable one.
Without the impulse of a crisis the solid majority of Scotland's big-business which, despite the best efforts of the SNP to woo its support, continue to oppose independence, and the relative majority of its population which is against or sceptical about independence, may prove unbudgeable.
And in crises politics can change radically. Despite Parizeau's jibe about "ethnic votes", the Parti Québecois calls itself "social democratic" and in social policy is similar to European social democracies; but before its rise in 1968 the biggest Québecois-nationalist party, the Ralliement National (which then merged into the PQ), was markedly right-wing. The opposite evolution can happen.
Not all nationalist parties are right-wing; but nationalism, especially the nationalism of nations which are not oppressed and face no early risk of oppression, is fertile ground for right-wing politics. A right-wing split from the SNP which might win hegemony in a crisis would have real, urgent reasons for getting Scottish independence in order to pursue its politics.
The independentist left in Scotland lives in hope of the inverse scenario: that Scottish independence will come from a crisis, but a crisis that tips Scotland to the left — so that the independent Scotland will look like Cuba or Venezuela, rather than like the SNP's Iceland (in pre-credit-crunch times) or Norway or "Celtic Tiger" Ireland, let alone like a Vlaams Belang Flanders or Tudjman's Croatia.
Even apart from the illusions here as regards Cuba or Venezuela, there is a fundamental misperception.
Capitalist crises can indeed tip politics to the left. Our hope of socialist revolution is based on that fact. But in the integrated Europe of today, let alone centuries-integrated Britain, there is no way that a dramatic left-wing radicalisation could be limited in scope and aims to one country, or one small nation within a multinational country.
If it was true 160 years ago, in the Communist Manifesto, that "united action, of the leading civilised countries at least, is one of the first conditions for the emancipation of the proletariat", it is ten times more true today.
A sharp shift to the left by Scottish workers would go together with a sharp shift to the left by other European workers too — an increase in cross-border unity, a turn away from the petty grab-your-own politics of "it's our oil" or "no more French-speaking spongers here"… Or it would quickly peter out.
A sharp shift to the nationalist right on one side of the "linguistic frontier" in Belgium, similarly, would tend to trigger a shift to the nationalist right on the other side. A generalised shift to the right will tend to increase self-reinforcing communal/national division, rather than cross-border unity. It works in the opposite direction.
Thus, Scottish independence is likely to arise from a crisis, if it does, through a process in which right-wing nationalist politics gain weight both in England and Scotland. English nationalist politicians would cry to be rid of Scottish "spongers".
Already in Scotland research has found that "over a quarter of the English and over half the Pakistanis have experienced ethnic harassment " and "individuals who are relatively Islamophobic are likely to be relatively Anglophobic as well."
The harassment felt by English people in Scotland was much milder than that suffered by Pakistanis; self-defining Scots or Scottish nationalists were not on average more Islamophobic than other people in Scotland (and certainly much less so than Tory voters); and harassment of Pakistanis is worse in England than in Scotland.
But it is not hard to see how a right-wing Scottish nationalism burgeoning in crisis, and stimulated by right-wing English nationalism to its south, could combine Anglophobia and Islamophobia (notwithstanding the overwhelming shift by Muslim voters from Labour to the SNP following the 2003 invasion of Iraq). And it is certainly the case, as the same research shows, that SNP voters are more Anglophobic than those of any other party.
Without any great crisis prompting it, Wales saw over 200 houses burned out by nationalists between 1979 and 1990s on the grounds that they had been bought by English people; it cannot be inconceivable that something similar could happen in a Scotland shifting right in a crisis.
In short: Scottish nationalism is not an awakening against oppression, but a decomposition-product of the older, bigger European nationalisms. Its present trajectory points to nothing much more than a "minimal" independence or a slow increase in devolutionary autonomy. That has side-dangers of obscurity in politics and division in the labour movement. It also sets up tracks for a much more dangerous development in crisis conditions.
In one sense, however, this is all beside the point. The role of Marxism is not to be the Inspector General of history, nor are we the Gypsy Rose Lee of the future.
The task which Marxists set themselves is to intervene in the class struggle and to give political shape and direction to the elementary working-class struggle generated by capitalism. Spinning fantasies about the SNP's demand for Scottish independence is no part of the Marxist programme.
In its own way, the demand for independence raised by sections of the Scottish left is only the domestic — and rather mundane — expression of a far more widespread malaise on the left.
Independence for Scotland is a "good thing"? It is for those on the left who have reduced socialism to a matter of inflicting real or imaginary blows on "imperialism", with little or no concern about the politics of the agencies of this "anti-imperialist" struggle, or about the consequences for the working class of their victory.
And what could be more "anti-imperialist" than breaking up the state which once formed the hub of the British Empire?
Compared with the readiness of sections of the left to ignore, excuse and apologise for murderously anti-working-class organisations — such as Hamas, Hizbollah, or the Iraqi sectarian militias — cheering on the prospect of independence for Scotland is small beer. But it is the same political logic which underpins the one and the other.
As a standard, Marxists strive to counter the diversion of plebeian discontent into nationalist narrowness by advocating consistent democracy, by fighting for full national rights, by working to clear all genuine grievances of a "national" character out of the way so that workers can unite without rancour across national lines to combat the common capitalist enemy.
In the case of Scotland, this means upholding the right of the Scottish people to self-determination and to separation if they wish it. But to uphold the right to separation is not necessarily to advocate it. In Scotland, Marxists can make themselves positive advocates of separation only by painting up the SNP's "more competitive place to do business" model with supposed socialistic virtues, or by subscribing to the SSP's scheme that independence must mean, or will probably mean, independence in a crisis as a European fantasy-Cuba.
In other words, they can do it only by feeding nationalist illusions. But a first essential of a coherent socialist policy is to tell the truth.
As the Belgian Marxists note, we have an interest in clean, clear, straightforward political structures. In that respect, the creation of a Scottish Parliament, a sort of unofficial federalism, is a step forward from the strange previous regime where Scotland had different laws from England and Wales, but made by the same Westminster legislature.
The structure is still obscure and messy. The best way forward would be to advocate a democratic federal republic in Britain within a democratic federal Europe.
As Engels put it: "In my view, the proletariat [in general] can only use the form of the one and indivisible republic. In the gigantic territory of the United States, the federal republic is still, on the whole, a necessity, although in the Eastern states it is already becoming a hindrance. It would be a step forward in Britain where the two islands are peopled by four nations and in spite of a single Parliament three different systems of legislation already exist side by side."
Scotland, England, and Wales have a common labour movement, very similar social and legal conditions, a large crossover of populations (of the people now living in Britain who were born in Scotland, 15% live in England or Wales; of the people living in Scotland, 15% were born outside, most in England), and a common language, so it should be possible to achieve a "closer" federalism quicker within this small area than in wider Europe.
The socialists' aim, however, will always be to "level up" between the federal units and move to closer unity as fast as that can be done compatible with the wishes of the populations.
Above all, our aim is to unite the working class and the labour movement across national lines. Everything else is subordinate to that.
Submitted by Peter burton on Sun, 15/01/2012 - 20:35
What would a democratic federal republic look like and how would it function in practice ? How would it be different from Separation ? Wouldn't it inevitably lead to separation? What are its theoretical origins ?
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UK seeks 'urgent' migration talks with Europe after French snub | Refugees News
1 'Fight against people-smuggling'
2 'Boats must stop'
The United Kingdom's government has announced plans for its own talks on the Channel crisis with European ministers this week as it was frozen out of a crisis meeting in France.
Government ministers from Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands will meet in Calais on Sunday with officials from the European Union and EU border agency Frontex and police agency Europol following the drownings of 27 people in the Channel last Wednesday.
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel was barred from the meeting after Prime Minister Boris Johnson published the text of a letter he sent to French President Emmanuel Macron setting out London's demands for concerted action on refugees.
Instead, she tweeted on Sunday: "I will be holding urgent talks with my European counterparts this week to prevent further tragedies in the Channel."
There was no immediate comment from Patel's interior ministry on the venue or timing of the talks.
But Patel used a commentary piece in The Sun to spell out the need for joint action and for tougher UK legislation as she comes under pressure in right-wing media and from her own Conservative party to get a grip on the crisis.
"There is still so much more we can do and I am sorry not to be at a meeting with European ministerial counterparts today to discuss this pressing issue," she wrote in the paper.
"We need to be creative about finding new solutions that will have the maximum possible effect, which is why the prime minister and I stand ready to discuss proposals with our French counterparts at any time," Patel said.
"And I know from my discussions with my European partners in recent days and weeks that there is more that can be done. Together, we can break up the people-smuggling gangs and save lives – but we must act now."
'Fight against people-smuggling'
France is carrying out a national organised crime investigation into the sinking, the deadliest migration accident on the Channel on record. A total of 17 men, seven women and three minors died.
Iraqi Kurds and at least one Somali were among those on board, though most have not been publicly identified yet.
France's interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, said a car with German tags was seized in connection with the investigation.
The ministers' meeting in Calais will focus on smuggling networks, which charge from 3,000 to 7,000 euros ($3,400 to $7,900) for the journey across the Channel.
The aim of the meeting is "improving operational cooperation in the fight against people-smuggling because these are international networks which operate in different European countries," an aide to Darmanin told AFP.
Aid groups argue for more humane, coordinated asylum policies instead of just more police. At camps along the French coast, clusters of people from Sudan and Kurds from Iran and Iraq huddle under the chilly rain, waiting for their chance to cross the Channel – undeterred by Wednesday's deaths and the stepped-up beach patrols.
The number of refugees trying to cross the Channel in small boats has jumped this year amid pandemic travel restrictions and after Brexit. Overall, however, the number is low in Britain compared with other European countries.
'Boats must stop'
Despite the Calais snub, the UK pressed anew for action with France as demanded by Johnson in his letter to Macron, including joint police patrols on the northern French coast – something rejected in the past as infringing on French sovereignty.
More controversially, he also proposed sending back all refugees who land in England, which he claimed would save "thousands of lives by fundamentally breaking the business model of the criminal gangs".
"Those are exactly the kinds of things we need to do," Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News.
"Our policy is very clear: these boats must stop. We can't just do it on our own. We do need the cooperation of the French," he said.
But ahead of the Calais meeting, Britain and France faced mounting criticism for bickering instead of working together.
"Both countries are engaged in a blame game while children drown in our Channel," Lisa Nandy, foreign affairs spokeswoman for Britain's opposition Labour party, said on Sky.
"It's simply unconscionable," she said.
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Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic is a remix album by American recording artist Prince, under the unpronounceable "Love Symbol", as shown on the album cover. It was released on April 29, 2001 by NPG Records and contains remixes of songs found on Prince's twenty-third studio album, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999). It was issued via mail exclusively through the NPG Music Club, an Internet subscription service; due to this circumstance, the album was not able to chart.

The album is an alternative version of Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, containing 13 of the album's tracks, plus a previously unreleased track entitled "Beautiful Strange". Besides remixes of the mentioned tracks, Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic also contains several extended songs, plus a trimmed version of "Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do". The album also does not contain "Segue" tracks, that were used several times in the previous album.

Background and release
Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic is an alternative version of Prince's 1999 studio album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. Unlike Prince's previous efforts, the album was not released commercially. Instead, an internet subscription service co-founded by Prince, NPG Music Club, issued the album via mail. Due to this, Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic also was not able to chart anywhere. Recording sessions for the parent album took place in Prince's hometown of Chanhassen, Minnesota, at Paisley Park Studios, plus at Electric Lady Studios in California and O'Henry Sound Studios in New York City.

The album was released as a limited edition CD on April 30, 2001, exclusively through the NPG Music Club. Since then the album has been out of print and has been unavailable for purchase until 2019. It was made available through streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music on August 17, 2018 alongside most of Prince's albums between 1995 and 2010.

Ultimate Rave
In April 2019, Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic was released posthumously as part of the special edition box set Ultimate Rave which also contains the original album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic and the concert DVD Rave Un2 the Year 2000. The box set charted in the Netherlands.

Composition
Almost the entire album consists of songs from Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, minus "Beautiful Strange", which was a previously unreleased recording. Unlike the former album, Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic does not include any "Segue" tracks. The album opens with "Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic", similar to the opening song on the parent album. "The Greatest Romance Ever Sold" also includes a verse from Eve, along with an additional three minutes of production; the album's fourth song is the Nasty Girl remix of "Hot Wit' U", however, this version does not include the Eve verse.

An extended version of "Tangerine" occurs, followed by "So Far, So Pleased", a duet with Gwen Stefani. The aforementioned track and "The Sun, the Moon and Stars" both appear in their untouched versions on the album. A remix of promotional single "Man'O'War" is the eighth recording, immediately followed by a lengthier version of other promotional single "Baby Knows". "I Love U, but I Don't Trust U Anymore" is also the original version of the track from Rave Un2, and includes a verse from folk rock singer Ani DiFranco, who plays an acoustic guitar.

The album's eleventh song is the previously unreleased "Beautiful Strange", which was later used as the name of a DVD released by Prince in 2010. The following recording is "Silly Game", which is the album's final untouched song. Alternative versions of "Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do" and "Prettyman" close the album, with the latter being a hidden track.

Track listing

Personnel
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.

 Prince – all other vocals and instruments
 Mike Scott – guitar
 Ani DiFranco – acoustic guitar
 Rhonda Smith – acoustic bass, bass
 Kirk Johnson – drums, percussion
 Michael B. – drums
 Kenni Holmen – saxophone
 Kathy Jensen – saxophone
 Maceo Parker – saxophone
 Steve Strand – trumpet
 Dave Jensen – trumpet
 Michael B. Nelson – trombone

 Gwen Stefani – co-lead vocals
 Sheryl Crow – co-lead vocals and harmonica
 Marva King – backing vocals
 Larry Graham – backing vocals
 DuJuan Blackshire – backing vocals
 Johnnie Blackshire – backing vocals
 Kip Blackshire – vocoder vocals
 Chuck D – vocals
 Eve – vocals
 Bros. Jules – scratches
 Clare Fischer – orchestration

Charts

Release history

References

2001 remix albums
Albums produced by Prince (musician)
NPG Records remix albums
Prince (musician) remix albums

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Interiors A Theatrical Renovation Breathes New Life into the Stadtcasino Basel
A Theatrical Renovation Breathes New Life into the Stadtcasino Basel
"We wanted to bring together neo-baroque, classicist and contemporary elements to create a new kind of architecture that can exist only in Basel," say Herzog & de Meuron.
Ruedi Walti
Few firms are as adept at remastering historic buildings as Herzog & de Meuron. From the Tate Modern in London to Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, founders Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have proven time and again that strategic preservation is as innovative — if not more so — than new construction. Their latest project, an update to Switzerland's Stadtcasino Basel concert venue, is no exception.
Bespoke LED sconces in the stairwell riff on the existing chandeliers in the 19th-century venue while reflecting off the hammered-metal ceilings.
Dating back to 1876 and situated along the southern periphery of their hometown's Cultural Mile, the complex is home to one of Europe's oldest and most acoustically prized music halls. Herzog & de Meuron's challenge was to wipe clean the patchwork amalgam of previous renovations and replace it with a single coherent facade.
Heightening the drama in Stadtcasino Basel's main circulation paths, the Swiss studio transformed a centuries-old wallpaper design into an enveloping crimson brocade.
Rather than adding an anachronistic extension in a contemporary style, however, the architects digitally scanned the stone masonry of the existing neo-baroque exterior and scrupulously recreated it with reinforced concrete and painted wood, swelling the volume of the original envelope to gain much-needed extra space.
Aside from stitching together past additions, the project involved recreating the venue's seating, laying replica flooring and reinstating the original colour scheme.
Behind this evocative copy, the 8,488-square-metre Stadtcasino gives way to an equally theatrical interior. The walls and winding staircase are lined with a decadent, ruby-toned woven brocade, a reproduction of the original 19th-century wallpaper first designed for Paris's Palais Garnier opera house. Shadowy alcoves are illuminated by fluted LED lanterns, conceived as a contemporary response to the concert hall's monumental crystal chandeliers. A silvery hammered-metal ceiling catches their glow, adding depth and brightness to the otherwise moody and dramatic space.
A dramatic chandelier punctures the main foyer, surrounded by mirrored walls and upholstered balconies that echo the sensuous curves found elsewhere.
The extension also allowed for an enlarged foyer (with rotund scalloped balconies that function as plush seating above), service spaces, dressing rooms and rehearsal studios. In the concert hall itself, refurbishments and repairs restored the palatial interior to its original state following the first renovation in 1905. "We wanted to bring together neo-baroque, classicist and contemporary elements to create a new kind of architecture that can exist only in Basel," the studio says, "in this location so rich in tradition yet so contemporary."
Hospitality, interior design,


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Home » News » US
Pope to Knights: Thank you for your steadfast witness to truth of marriage
Pope Francis blesses newly married couples at the general audience in Vatican City on August 5, 2015. Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA.
Philadelphia, Pa., Aug 7, 2015 / 02:05 am ().- Pope Francis thanked the Knights of Columbus for their support of Christian marriage in a message to their 133rd Supreme Convention this week. The letter comes less than two months before the Pope's visit to the United States for the World Meeting of Families at the end of September.
"Elevated by the Savior to the dignity of a sacrament, marriage is, in the Creator's plan, a natural institution, a life-long covenant of love and fidelity between a man and a woman, directed to their perfection and sanctification, and to the future of our human family," the Pope said in his message.
The support of the truth of marriage is a duty for all of the lay faithful, Pope Francis continued, because marriage "is essential to the wise and just ordering of society."
As marriage has recently been under attack in the United States, the Pope said he hoped the theme of the convention, "Endowed by their Creator with Life and Liberty," would spur American Catholics to "contribute to the reasoned defense of those freedoms on which their nation was founded."
The Holy Father expressed his hope and trust that the catechetical programs founded by the Knights ahead of the upcoming World Meeting of Families and the Synod on the Family would contribute to the witness to the truth about marriage.
Pope Francis' message to the Knights came during the same week as his general address on divorced and remarried Catholics. The Holy Father encouraged a more welcoming approach toward Catholics in these situations, and urged clergy to not treat them as though they are excommunicated.
"The Church well knows that such a situation contradicts the Christian Sacrament," the Pope said in his Aug. 5 General Audience at St. Peter's Square. Nonetheless, he added, the Church should always approach such situations with a "mother's heart; a heart which, animated by the Holy Spirit, seeks always the good and the salvation of the person."
In his letter to the Knights, the Pope also praised the group's efforts to aid persecuted Christians in the Middle East and in other parts of the world through their Christian Refugee Relief Fund, and appealed to them for their continued efforts and prayer.
At the Supreme Convention, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson unveiled a new portal on the Knights' website, christiansatrisk.org, where Americans can go to donate to help Christians in the Middle East. He also announced that the Knights will be selling wooden crosses made from the olive trees in Bethlehem as another way to fundraise for the cause.
"It is urgent that, from Catholics throughout the world, an unceasing sacrifice of prayer be offered for the conversion of hearts, an end to fanatical violence and intolerance, and a general recognition of those fundamental human rights which are not granted by the state, bur from the hand of the Creator, whom all believers invoke as a God of peace," he said.
With 1.8 million members around the globe, the Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. The group was founded in 1882 by the Venerable Father Michael J. McGivney. In 2014, the Knights raised more than $173.5 million for charity and performed more than 71.5 million hours of volunteer work.
Tags: Knights of Columbus, Pope Francis
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The article, "Raising Successful Children," by Madeline Levine recently published in the New York Times, addresses the danger of helicopter parenting and provocatively tees up the topic of what women's roles are as parents.
So to make it easier to "let go" as parents, we'd better make sure we have our own lives we are attending to.
When I turned fifty, I was in the midst of a period of self-questioning. How could I create a fulfilling day-to-day life now that my kids were leaving home? My friends were all beginning to ask the same question and the issue of finding something we loved to do was key.
We all know that once the kids leave for college we are not done with our role as parents. However, we have way more time to focus on ourselves, and for many women, reaching this point in their lives can be downright frightening. The jobs left behind ten or fifteen years prior are either no longer appealing or not available.
For many "on-rampers," getting back into the work force is fraught with panic on numerous levels. Lack of flexibility is a topic that gets discussed over and over and is a key deterrent to accepting any full-time work.
In the last five years, there has been a huge movement toward women becoming entrepreneurs and starting their own businesses. A study released last December by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found an estimated 187 million women starting and running businesses in 59 economies.
After I sold my publishing company (I was only forty-two) I signed on for a weekend immersion with Carole Hyatt, an amazing motivator and expert on career development. I did this to help me figure out what I should do with my life now that I wasn't working 24/7 on my business.
What are the key factors in deciding what to go for next?
We learned that the way you order this list will shift depending on where you are in your life, and you should revisit these and see which are your new priorities when you are in those transitional places.
So, as it turned out for me, I needed to get back into publishing; it took me over a decade to do so. I was initially excited to dedicate myself to being at home and parenting my ten- and twelve-year olds after selling my business but there was a piece missing…I missed working. Rather than being driven by the "bottom line," spirituality and intellectual stimulation were key for me. Those items shared the number one spot on my list and have stayed there for the next ten years. It wasn't clear what the exact work would be and I had to try on a few hats to land in a place that felt just right. Moving from yoga teacher, to building a yoga center, to business coaching, and currently teaching Entrepreneurship at Tufts University and finally circling back into publishing with the launch of Betterafter50.com. Clearly this was not a direct path but it was fully informed by the priorities on this list. Creativity moved to the number one spot and the rest of the list became reordered.
I knew I wanted to help others, and write, and I needed to add the creative piece to the mix to really feel whole. That's been the right recipe for me at this stage, but it has taken me a decade to figure it all out. So now I am publishing (again), and writing, and creating events where women can gather, connect and grow.
Check out our She Did It/Boston at Babson College, on Tuesday afternoon November 13. Betterafter50 is helping motivate other women who are entering the next phase of their lives. Whether it's starting a new business, getting fit, traveling, or even reconnecting with your latent artistic self.
Please come to our event to get that push you need to get going.
Interested in this organization and any seminars that are coming in the future.
This peaked my 50ish age, would love to know more.
Interested in future seminars of She Did It WA50.


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Q: Nav action not executing on Jetpack Navigation Facing a weird issue with Jetpack Navigation,any help would be much appreciated. I've a navigation graph as below:
I would like to navigate from one fragment to other two fragments, using jetpack navigation.
So far I've been able to navigate only to the second_fragment from entry_fragment as shown in the picture below.

My EntryFragment.class :
@Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
                         Bundle savedInstanceState) {

    View v = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_entry,container,false);
    v.findViewById(R.id.fragmentOneButton).setOnClickListener(ls);
    v.findViewById(R.id.fragmentTwoButton).setOnClickListener(ls);
    return v;
}

@Override
public void onViewCreated(@NonNull View view, @Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState);
}

private final View.OnClickListener ls = new View.OnClickListener() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(View view) {
        switch (view.getId()) {
            case R.id.fragmentOneButton:
                Toast.makeText(getActivity().getApplicationContext(), "First Button", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
Navigation.createNavigateOnClickListener(R.id.action_entry_fragment_to_first_fragment).onClick(view);
                break;
            case R.id.fragmentTwoButton:
                Toast.makeText(getActivity().getApplicationContext(), "Second Button", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                Navigation.createNavigateOnClickListener(R.id.action_entry_fragment_to_second_fragment).onClick(view);
                break;
        }
    }
};

On First Button Click I'm only getting the toast and on clicking the second button I can actually navigate to SecondFragment. What I'm i doing wrong here? and what is the best practice to navigate using Navigation.
Thanks in advance

A: try using NavHostFragment.findNavController(fragment).navigate(R.id.action_created_from_graph)
instead of Navigation.createNavigateOnCLickListener
I'm going off my memory, so the syntax might be a little off, but that's the jist of it.

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text:
Tag: Kalamata
Greek Orthodox Priest asks mask-less faithful to leave during Christmas Church Service (VIDEO)
A Greek Orthodox priest in Kalamata from the Church of Agios Nikolaos in Flario, interrupted Christmas Day Divine Liturgy and asked those not wearing masks to leave the church.
GCT B December 29, 2020
Freediving World Record in Kalamata
French freediver Arnaud Jerald broke the world record in the constant weight freediving modality with bifins, by descending to 112m in Kalamata. The CMAS European Cup was hosted by the Freediving Club…
Greece to create international air force flight training centre in Kalamata
Greece and Israel are close to reaching an agreement on the establishment of an International Flight Training Centre in Kalamata, following a visit by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Jerusalem last week,…
Paul Antonopoulos June 23, 2020
On this day. Battle of Kalamata took place on 23 March 1821
The Battle of Kalamata took place on 23 March 1821 between the Greek irregular revolutionary forces and the Ottoman forces of the city. It was one of the first events of the…
Gct March 23, 2020
On this day in 1821, Greek War of Independence starts in Mani
On the 17th March 1821, war was declared on the Turks by the Maniots at Areopoli, in the Peloponnese capital of Mani. An army of 2,000 Maniots under the command of Petros…
"I'm not staying home, there is another 'coronavirus' there… my wife" (VIDEO)
An elderly gentleman from Kalamata, revealed that his biggest fear is not the coronavirus, but staying at home with his wife. The 'fearless' man made the statements on a local channel in…
GCT A March 17, 2020
AEGEAN breaks all-time record reaching 15 million passengers in 2019
Greece's leading airline AEGEAN has broken an all-time record reaching 15 million passengers in 2019, a 7 percent increase in total passenger traffic last year. In an announcement on Thursday, the company revealed it…
Gct January 17, 2020
Newborn baby found in garbage bin in the centre of Kalamata
Greek police announced on Wednesday they had arrested a 25-year-old Georgian woman on suspicion of attempted infanticide after a passer-by found a days-old baby abandoned in an underground garbage bin in the…
Gct December 19, 2019
Kalamata City Council blocks 5G pilot program due to health risks
Kalamata Council has decided to block further development and operation of the 5G network program, which is currently being piloted in the Peloponnesian city. The council held a meeting and considered the…
Gct December 5, 2019
Armenian Genocide monument unveiled in Kalamata
A monument dedicated to the Armenian Genocide of 1915 was unveiled in Kalamata, Messinia on Sunday. The ceremony was presided by His Holiness Archbishop Kegham Khatcherian, Prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church…
Gct November 18, 2019
Wife pours hot water and bashes 73-year-old husband to death with rolling pin in Messinia
A 68-year-old woman has been charged with murdering her 73-year-old husband in Messinia in the Peloponnese after she poured boiling hot water from a saucepan over him and bashed the elderly man…
Gct October 15, 2019
Greek students gather at Syntagma Square to protest against climate change
Thousands of students gathered in downtown Athens on Friday and marched against climate change, joining their voices with the rest of the worldwide student movement 'Fridays For Future,' a protest against the…
Iranian tanker heads to Greece after it was released from detention off Gibraltar
An Iranian tanker is reportedly heading to Greece after it was released from detention off Gibraltar. The Adrian Darya 1, previously named Grace 1, headed east into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday…
Gct August 20, 2019
International dance festival kicks off in Kalamata
Known for the world's best olives, the city of Kalamata has been also host to an international dance festival that has been attracting the best acts and huge crowds for the last…
Gct July 19, 2019
Temperatures set to soar across Greece this weekend
Temperatures are set to soar across Greece this weekend, as the atmospheric instability gradually subsides, the weather service of the National Observatory of Athens, meteo.gr, said on Friday. Very hot air masses…
Gct June 22, 2019
Temperatures rise to 30 °C in Athens and other parts of Greece today
Summer is definitely on its way as temperatures are set to reach 30 degrees Celsius today in Athens, Kalamata, Sparti, Thessaloniki and other areas of Greece. With only 1 day to go…
Gct May 30, 2019
Man tragically dies in Kalamata while filming firework celebrations for Pascha
A man has tragically died in Kalamata overnight while filming traditional fireworks displays during Pascha celebrations. The 53-year-old man has been identified as Kostas Theodorakakis, who was a publisher and owner of…
Gct April 29, 2019
Greece's Top 5 Destinations to Experience Greek Easter
There is something extra special about Greece over the Easter period, with so many religious festivities taking place and centuries-old traditions and customs coming to life during Greek Orthodox Easter. Holy Week is…
Alexia Amvrazi April 10, 2019
New study finds Kalamata produces healthiest olives in the world
Olives are known to be a key component of the incredibly healthy Greek diet, as they are very high in vitamin E and other powerful antioxidants and now a new study focusing…
Gct April 3, 2019
Greek FM: "When Greeks are united, they can achieve the impossible"
During events commemorating Greek Independence Day in Kalamata, Greece's Foreign Minister, George Katrougalos stated that "the message of the 1821 revolution is timeless and shows that when Greeks are united, they can achieve…
Churches allowed to open for Epiphany services despite lockdown ban
98-year-old Holocaust survivor vaccinated in Thessaloniki
Greek PM reveals when general public can expect COVID vaccine
Ancient Greek marble slab discovered in a garden in England
Meteora features in CNN's list of top 21 destinations for 2021
atkenos on The Bathtub Massacre in Cyprus
gmavro7 on Massachusetts teacher says she is "very proud" to have removed Homer's classic from school curriculum
joannej on Greek Orthodox Bishop: Do not take the COVID-19 vaccine because it is made from aborted fetuses
atkenos on December 28, The Holy 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia
atkenos on "Santa Ruins" in Turkey: The Destruction of Greek Cultural Heritage


text:
a literary journal published by the Black Earth Institute dedicated to re-forging the links between art and spirit, earth and society
Infinite Country
North: Truth
South: Courage
East: Rebirth
West: Mourning
V.III Dignity as an Endangered Species
V.II Roots + Resistance
V.I Rewilding
IV.IV Political Landscapes
IV.III SOUTH
IV.II Animals Among Us
IV.I Reimagine Everything Differently
III.IV The Future Imagined Differently
III.III Primal Paradox
III.II Voices of the Human Spirit
III.I Enlightened Visions
II.IV 1963-2013: A Civil Rights Retrospective
II.III The Future of Water
II.II Earth, Spirit, Society
II.I Trees
I.IV Wall Street
I.III Peaks & Valleys
I.II Rust Belt Tales
I.I A River Runs Through Us
Contributors Index
Black Earth Institute
Issues » 1963-2013: A Civil Rights Retrospective » Children of Hope » Tara Betts
They Do Not All Sound Alike:
Sampling Kathleen Cleaver, Assata Shakur, and Angela Davis
Originally posted on Sounding Out! The Sound Studies Blog
Assata Shakur, Image with quote courtesy of Flickr user Jacob Anikulapo
When underground hip-hop artist P. Blackk released Blackk Friday (2011), several reviewers insisted that he sampled political activist Angela Davis. Oddly enough, one of the reviews from The Meara Blog, featured the video for "Brainz," the song in question–and the video clearly showed that the sampled track was in fact not Davis but activist and lawyer Kathleen Cleaver. Why the automatic assumption that any black woman sampled from the 1960s is Davis? Why the collapsing and erasure of so many distinct and powerful voices?
Davis, Cleaver, and Assata Shakur are arguably the three most iconic women of the Black Power Movement, but they largely go unrecognized in mainstream history. Erasure by omission represents how many historical sources are resistant to identifying their specific contributions to grassroots organizing, intellectual life, and politics, while the male leadership of the Black Power Movement is often mentioned by name. So, the inclusion of Davis, Cleaver, and Shakur in songs by hip hop artists P. Blackk, John Forté, and Common simultaneously amplifies the distinctiveness of their voices while signaling conscious choices by younger male artists to align themselves with the political thinking espoused by these radical women in politically-rooted, layered tracks–even as these samples inadvertently reveal the mainstream public's tendency to treat black femaleactivists as interchangeable. Both in their moment and in its echoes, these women resist being grouped into an amorphous group of misconstrued black people, and these tracks highlight that.
Kathleen Cleaver, 1960s
In "Brainz," P. Blackk samples a 1968 speech by Cleaver. In the track, the basic bassline reverbs beneath the emcee's repeated hook. He begins the song with the "huh" sound that many emcees use to amplify enthusiasm, start rhyming, and alert whomever is listening that the words are about to arrive. Blackk repeats certain phrases and utilizes internal rhyme as he makes observations about the choices people should make to care for themselves, their children, and their communities. The most original slant rhyme emerges in the second of two verses, replicated here:
It's funny how we love chains and whips
when we were bound by em.
and we hate rock'n'roll and it was found by us.
You can't hate what's beautiful. I'm black and I'm proud,
but that ain't got nothing to do with my pants sagging down.
Society is pimping you.
I'm just a man who's a little more sensible.
I used to be invisible, now I'm invincible.
Not the stereotypical,
and I'm doing my thing in a game with no principles.
Knowledge and power, all I need, yeah, that'll do.
The difference between me and my peers is gratitude.
Younguns is dumb too and too cool,
but it's uncool living in a city that's gun-ruled.
Here, P. Blackk most closely echoes how Cleaver expresses a sense of embracing and affirming black beauty while still acknowledging flawed educational systems, materialism, the origin of rock music, intergenerational disconnects, and gun violence. As a member of the Black Panther Party, wife of Eldridge Cleaver, attorney and professor, Cleaver has been a spokesperson for African American struggles. When the chorus simply repeats "real n-gga wit a brain," P. Blackk is claiming the term that is still an affront to middle class people reaching for the civility of assimilation. He is insisting that some people are afraid of their intelligence and growing awareness as marginalized people and what actions that might entail. This fear of a nascent threat was at the root of resistance towards the slogan "Black is Beautiful" in the 1960s.
The Cleaver sample comes at the end of "Brainz," and in the music video appears in its entirety on a projection screen and against P. Blackk himself, decked in a white shirt and bow tie, as he "lectures" students in a darkened classroom. As different black historical figures, including the likes of Marcus Garvey, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, Ralph Abernathy, George Jackson, and James Baldwin, are projected on the screen behind Blackk, the instrumental audibly drops much lower so the only voice heard is Cleaver's.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjh6UDIzNeI]
(Cue to 3:05 for Kathleen Cleaver)
The footage from which her sample is taken has background sound such as others talking and a chant with cadences that were often heard at black political protests; these can be faintly heard along with the audible buzz of varied speaking voices in the crowd that surrounding Cleaver. She was not onstage nor the main focal point of the larger event, but P. Blackk's re-framing places her at its center. When one considers the position of Davis and Cleaver as esteemed and radical activists and professors, it's not surprising that P. Blackk video positions him as an educator, like these women, to further reinforce the point of Cleaver's words.
In "A Song for Assata," from Like Water for Chocolate (2000), Common retells some of the events detailed in Assata: An Autobiography, but his sample reinforces why her activism was so important to Common and others like him. Her looped voice concludes his song, incredulously repeating the question, "You askin' me about freedom?" In the sample Shakur explains how she knows more about what freedom is not, which is similar to a comment that Shakur made in Gloria Rolando's documentary Eye of the Rainbow: Assata Shakur and Oya. Shakur then defines how freedom allows one to be one's self, and the definition is faded down and the last of the soaring music rises slightly. When this fade occurs, we have a few examples of what Shakur imagines what freedom could potentially be, but it also leaves a sonic pause where listeners might contemplate how they define freedom for themselves.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAzTD5ASIf8]
The choice to fade out a sample says so much about not just the message that it (and Common) hopes to convey, but also reveals narratives that have been enforced consistently through institutions and time. I read the fade out as sonically emphasizing "the struggle," rather than the intellectual present of an activist speaking; it limits her to the role of an representing the past. In dream hampton's documentary Black August, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement organizer Meron Haile Selassie elucidates how women like Shakur are idolized:
Historically, the black liberation movement and actually all movements, let's be honest, have fallen short of trying to incorporate the role of women, what women need, and how we incorporate anti-sexist theory and anti-sexist work in our general liberation movement. And when the woman that we put on the poster every single year, Assata Shakur, is someone that these artists revere and talk about yet but they're somehow unable to see an Assata Shakur in the woman they're dating that's a painful realization.
In other words, even in black history and social movements, some women are canonized and celebrated and others are disregarded, which is not a far cry from the well-worn debate of using the word "b-tch" or "ho" and insisting that this namecalling does not address all women. Such overlooking and fading out is a subtler silencing of women.
Angela Davis speaking in Oakland, 1969
John Forte's "Drift On" works against the narrative of the fade-out in "A Song for Assata." In "Drift On," from his album The Water Suite (2012), Forte lyrically articulates the feeling of being distant from someone; however, it is the brief sample of a few seconds from Angela Davis that reinforces the possibility of redemption during and after confinement. Forté begins singing the hook over a guitar-like loop that functions almost like a chord, and his soft singing of the chorus contrasts with his solemn rhyming lines and the firm solemnity of Davis' brief sample midway through the song. A little more than a minute before "Drift On" ends, Davis speaks:
many people recognize that they can refashion themselves. They can rehabilitate themselves. They can live a life of the mind.
Davis stresses the words "they," "refashion" and the third, final "can" spoken in this sample. Her tendency to stretch and soften particular nouns and verbs in speaking is a consistent pattern in Davis' public speech, achieved by rhetorical devices such as metanoia– the immediate restatement of a phrase–and amplification. When Davis speaks in this manner, she makes listeners pay attention to the "they" whom she refers to as intellectually capable, but it also stresses "possibility" and redemption of the self.
It is important to note that the artists sampling these iconic Black women are men. Although women such as Me'shell Ndegeocello, and Terri Lyne Carrington and Diane Reeves have sampled Angela Davis on successful records, these records were not necessarily considered hip hop, which has consistently relied on men's voices to create a radical impression in music, like Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." Public Enemy long relied on voices like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., but happens to (and with) women's voices? Including these voices in hip hop shows that women do exist as thinkers, activists, and speakers, even if the exposure is being exercised by artists who are men.
However, each song extends the narrative of each woman in a different manner than they constructed for themselves. P. Blackk stops admonishing, advising, and insisting on pragmatic Afrocentrism so he can to listen to Cleaver explain why black beauty was finally being embraced in the 1960s. Cleaver, in her 1968 speech, eschews white standards of beauty to embrace herself, which P. Blackk uses to connect self-hatred in the past and self-destructive behavior in the present. Common ends "A Song for Assata" with Shakur so she can share some of her thoughts on freedom after the song relates major events from her life based on details and paraphrased lines from poems in Assata: An Autobiography. Forté uses the sample of Angela Davis to further a narrative that reveals how the prison industrial complex diminishes perceptions of the humanity and the intellectual capacity of prisoners in "Drift On."
These three hip hop songs align with a continuum of specific radical women during a time when there are few women getting consistent recognition in the genre of hip hop music, so it marks a curious point of departure where women can be part of conversations in a musical genre where they are not frequently prominent as vocalists. This sampling practice also places men and women in conversation–activists, artists, and listeners–in a manner that reflects strength, certainty, and a sense of coming together with specific political ideas in a manner that, importantly, does not erase intellectual, or sonic, difference.
Tara Betts is the author of the poetry collection Arc and Hue, a Ph.D. candidate at Binghamton University, and a Cave Canem fellow. Tara's poetry also appeared in Essence, Bum Rush the Page, Saul Williams' CHORUS: A Literary Mixtape, VILLANELLES, both Spoken Word Revolution anthologies, and A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. Her research interests include African American literature, poetry, creative writing pedagogy, and most recently sound studies. In the 1990s, she co-founded and co-hosted WLUW 88.7FM's "The Hip Hop Project" at Loyola University while writing for underground hip hop magazines, Black Radio Exclusive, The Source, and XXL. She is co-editor of Bop, Strut, and Dance, an anthology of Bop poems with Afaa M. Weaver.
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text:
Table No. 21
Table No. 21 Ratings & Reviews Explanation
Table No. 21 Photos
After working day and night to live a mediocre life, Vivaan and Siya Agasthi are thrilled to have won an all inclusive vacation to the exotic Fiji. Not only do they get to stay in a lavish hotel with a grand suite, the couple also receives an invitation for lunch to celebrate their wedding anniversary at one of the finest resorts in Suva, Fiji. The couples' excitement only increases when they meet the very suave Mr. Khan at the restaurant who gives them a chance to play a "tell all truth" game for a mind boggling 21 crores. The rules of the game are simple; answer 8 questions truthfully and complete the respected tasks and the money is all yours. Vivaan and Siya readily agree as they can take their winnings to Mumbai and live the life they both have always dreamed of. The game begins; Vivaan and Siya are off to a great start answering each question right as well as completing the tasks successfully. However the as they proceed, the questions and tasks get more and more personal. Each question ironically ties back to an important chapter of their lives. Vivaan and Siya have had enough and choose to quit the game. One important rule they forgot which Khan reminds them of, quitting is not an option. They both realize that the game isn't really a game but the only way to survive is to complete the game. Who really is Khan? Will Vivaan and Siya survive the game and win 21 crores? Your reservation had been made at Table No.21; come find out and don't be late!
Action & Adventure, Art House & International, Mystery & Suspense
Aaditya Datt
Aaditya Datt, Sheershak Anand, Shantanu Ray Chhib
Jan 4, 2013 limited
Rajeev Khandelwal (II)
as Vivaan
Tena Desae
as Siya
as Mr. Khan
Asheesh Kapur
Critic Reviews for Table No. 21
All Critics (3) | Rotten (3)
[Table No. 21] is an amateurish stab of a film around the broad theme of wrong-doing and revenge. The plot had potential, but the execution lets it down.
Mar 21, 2019 | Rating: 1.5/5 | Full Review…
This is one of those movies you can catch on television when nothing else is playing. Otherwise, Table No. 21 is safe to avoid.
Shilpa Jamkhandikar
It is not without some well-staged dramatics and the Fijian Tourism Board would be thrilled with the coverage, but Table No 21 is just a too over-the-top in its histrionics and downright silly in its plotting to offer any lingering impact.
Jan 14, 2013 | Full Review…
Simon Foster
Audience Reviews for Table No. 21
At times, what sounds interesting on paper fails to deliver on screen. Honest intentions, average performances & message oriented plot aren't enough for a film to succeed. Screenplay & execution too play a key role in deciding the movie's fate. Table No. 21 could have been an average thriller, if not engaging enough, but the way it proceeds is too silly to maintain the tempo. The twists & tricks are too predictable to be effective. The concept of the game is too good to be believable/acceptable, and is downright silly. Maybe that's something to be overlooked while watching a fiction. But the ending isn't convincing enough either.What should have been hard hitting & shocking fails to register any sort of emotional impact. Won't recommend.
Table No. 21 Quotes


Made for all kinds of fun on light trails and paved paths, the Talus 26 is designed for teens and tweens who are too big for a 24" wheeled bike, but not quite tall enough for an adult bike.
The Talus 26 is made with a durable steel frame, 21 easy twist-shifting speeds, and tires wide enough to tackle any bump in the path. The custom tubed frame paired with 26" wheels gives the bike a lower stand over height making it easy to get on and off the bike, Narrow handlebars and junior specific grips keep the bike comfy and easy to control for riders between 4'9"- 5'1" in height. Don't let being an in between size keep you off the bike! Allow the Talus 26 take you on your next adventure.


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For An Ecological, Democratic & Just Tourism & World!
It is impossible to live pleasantly without living prudently and honourably and justly, and it is impossible to live prudently and honourably and justly without living pleasantly
Epicurus (341-270 BCE)
If only it was so easy! Perhaps it is?Ecoclub is a green portal established in 1999. We aim for an ecological, democratic and socially just tourism and world! Inspired by Epicurus and the Global Greens Charter, and committed to attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, we try to bridge green tourism with the global green movement. We believe in a gradual, peaceful transition to a better and happier world, a world with more freedom and justice, with fewer borders, class divisions, violence, exploitation and oppression, that respects human rights and animal rights. Examples and good practices of this better & happier world already exist and new ones pop-up every day, so we try to promote and propagate them.
The Four Ecoclub Criteria are:
1. Minimise your Environmental Impact.
2. Respect Human Rights, Labour Rights and Animal Rights
3. Meet Real Local Needs and help Eliminate Poverty & Injustice.
4. Increase Knowledge & Intercultural Understanding.
Our four criteria broadly correspond to Epicurus' pleasantly-prudently-honourably-justly as well as to the key pillars of the global green movement:
Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Grassroots/Direct/Real/Economic Democracy and Nonviolence.
Green Living, Work & Travel and a Greener World: The ongoing global environmental, socio-economic crisis and humanitarian-refugee crisis combined with the current Coronavirus pandemic, is of no recent historical precedent in terms of endangering our presence, let alone our well-being, on this planet. While technological and medical progress has allowed the human population to grow, despite hundreds of treaties and fanfare, progress is agonisingly slow in terms of reducing poverty and inequality and increasing environmental conservation, social justice and human rights. The problem, equitable distribution of decision-making and resources, goes all the way back to the dawn of the Anthropocene, to the first agricultural societies where accumulation, surplus, debt, money, markets and human-made pollution first emerged and have since been inextricably linked to the basis of human civilization, so there are no quick fixes that would not involve mass starvation and mass violence. It is also not realistic for 7.5 billion people to retreat back to the countryside, the forests and to a nomadic-mode of survival, nor should they, as cities can be the most eco-friendly environments, saving space and resources. But we believe that it is credible to argue, and practical to aim, that the prevailing globalised, socioeconomic system can be peacefully, gradually and radically transformed if a handful of key changes are introduced, in particular changes in how money, energy and food are produced, distributed and stored, and in the light of the Coronavirus crisis, how work is defined, organised, conducted and remunerated. At the same time we need to achieve quality, free education and health for all. For these changes to occur we need on the one hand progressive governments and on the other to help each other and do things differently, each and every day, at the grassroots. Not everything that counts can be quantified and accurately measured, and vice versa, but, we believe that professionals and small businesses in particular, should do their part by fully meeting quality green standards.
Ecology, Democracy, Social Justice and International Cooperation can help us move forward in the 21st century. We need synthesis and practical solutions rather than endlessly stating the problems, ignoring the problems or proposing impractical or violent paths. A steady, peaceful path towards change can only be ecological, voluntary and gradual and be based on scientific facts and technological progress. For Humanity to survive, let alone to progress further, we need, on the one hand, to constantly identify and oppose ecocidal aspects and actors of the global system, and on the other hand, to recognise and encourage ecological trends, currents and movements. We believe these include Green Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure that can create quality, meaningful & pleasant jobs where no other options exist and, as importantly, in opening hearts and minds, in greater mobility between nations and within societies, in re-distributing wealth peacefully, effectively and more equitably between and within countries without further harming the planet. We do not advocate less travel and more expensive travel for the privileged few. On the contrary, we consider Mobility, Leisure, Travel and Tourism as human rights and thus advocate better, greener, democratic travel for all!
We have no time to waste, yet this will probably be an Ultramarathon. The transition to a fully-civilised, peaceful, global socio-economic system and the full humanization of humanity (if it is ever to arrive - it could be that some cosmic accident or human-induced blunder puts an abrupt end) could take another 10,000 years (since the first agrarian societies emerged) or even another 4 million years (since Australopithecus afarensis walked upright!). However, we should remember (Lao-Tzu) that "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" and (Cavafis) that "when you set out for Ithaca ask that your way be long...". The simple truth is that, apart from inertia, nothing really prevents us from helping each other today and every day, from "living prudently and honourably and justly" and thus "living pleasantly", today and every day. Ecoclub, as a latter-day, virtual Garden of Epicurus, aims to unite progressive and open-minded citizens of the world who share the above ideas and are active or would like to become active in Ecotourism/Sustainable Tourism or other Green Economy sectors. Ecoclub is also a genuine example of the sharing economy. We share resources, information, knowledge, ideas, opportunities and we also share the costs of maintaining Ecoclub through very reasonable fees for green tourism businesses that want to be promoted.
Our Logo: The colour (teal) is one of a few colours named after an animal (a duck, the common teal, whose eyes are surrounded by this colour). The smiling sun symbolizes a pragmatic, positive, non-violent, non-sectarian, non-dogmatic, philosophical attitude to life which combines the Epicurean "LATHE VIOSAS" ("ΛΑΘΕ ΒΙΩΣΑΣ" = get through life without drawing unwarranted attention) and "ATARAXIA" (ΑΤΑΡΑΞΙΑ = tranquillity) with the will to assist others, solve real problems, "to get up again and start over", rise up every day, in a peaceful, daily revolution in all our individual and collective dealings; it also symbolizes solar power - renewable energy in literal and figurative terms and light - the light of science, enlightenment.
Ancient Greek Writing Tablet, Red figure Kylix by Eucharides, 480 BCE (U. of Pennsylvania Museum)Recommended Reading:
Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle (350 BCE)
Principal Doctrines - Epicurus (341-270 BCE)
Life of Diogenes - Diogenes Laertius (c. 3rd century CE)
Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch - Imannuel Kant (1795)
What is Property? - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1840)
The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels (1848)
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution - Peter Kropotkin (1902)
Ithaca - C.P. Cavafy (1911)
What is Mutualism? - Clarence Lee Swartz (1927)
Charlie Chaplin's Final Speech in "The Great Dictator" (1940)
Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Joseph Schumpeter (1942)
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943)
The Open Society and its Enemies - Karl Popper (1945)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights - UN (1948)
Why Socialism? - Albert Einstein (1949)
Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell (1949)
The Rebel - Albert Camus (1951)
The Revolution of Everyday Life - Raoul Vaneigem (1967)
Imagine - John Lennon (1971) - Lyrics - Video - Original Demo
Ecology and the Critique of Modern Society - Herbert Marcuse (1979)
The Rising Tide of Insignificancy - Cornelius Castoriadis (1979-1996)
New Libertarian Manifesto - Samuel Edward Konkin (1980)
The Magnificent Seven - The Clash (1981) - Lyrics - Video
Critique of Economic Reason - Andre Gorz (1983)
What is Social Ecology? - Murray Bookchin (1986)
Social Ecology versus Deep Ecology - Murray Bookchin (1987)
The Democratic Worker-Owned Firm - David Ellerman (1990)
Violence and Human Nature - Howard Zinn (1990)
Direct Action Manual - Uncompromising Nonviolent Resistance in Defense of Mother Earth - Earth First! (1997)
Green Liberalism: The Free and the Green Society - Marcel Wissenburg (1998)
Global Greens Charter (2001)
An Ecosocialist Manifesto - Joel Kovel & Michael Löwy (2001)
Change the World Without Taking Power - John Holloway (2002)
Bali Principles of Climate Justice - International Climate Justice Network (2002)
Ecoclub Interview with Megan Epler Wood - Antonis Petropoulos (2003)
Creating a Life Together, Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities - Diana Leafe Christian (2003)
Economic Democracy: A Grand Strategy for World Peace and Prosperity - J.W.Smith (2006)
Ecoclub Interview with Arq. Hector Ceballos Lascurain, the 'Architect of Ecotourism' - Antonis Petropoulos (2006)
Ecoclub Interview with Prof. Trevor Sofield - Antonis Petropoulos (2006)
Ecoclub Interview with Prof. Harold Goodwin - Antonis Petropoulos (2007)
Studies in Mutualist Political Economy - Kevin Carson (2007)
Ecoclub Interview with Martha Honey - Antonis Petropoulos (2008)
For All The People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America - John Curl (2009)
Ecoclub Interview with Brian Tokar - Antonis Petropoulos (2009)
Ecoclub Interview with Kevin Carson - Antonis Petropoulos (2010)
Crises of Capitalism - RSA Animate / David Harvey (2010)
Human Happiness & the Environment - Speech by José Mujica at the RIO +20 Summit (2012)
The Cambridge Declaration on [Animal] Consciousness - Philip Low (2012)
How Democracy Works in Nature - Jason G Goldman / BBC Future (2012)
Hope for Humanity - Speech by José Mujica at UNASUR (2014) Text - Video
Interview: José Mujica, The Philosopher President of Uruguay - Martin McQuillan (2015)
Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - UN (2015)
An Ecomodernist Manifesto - Various Authors (2015)
What kind of creatures are we? - Noam Chomsky (2015)
How Animals Vote to Make Group Decisions - Jan Hoole (2017)
Prosperity without Growth: Foundations for the Economy of Tomorrow - Tim Jackson (2017)
Xenos: Jacques Derrida on Hospitality - Peter Benson (2017)
The future: either green or dystopic - Antonis Petropoulos (2018)
Post-work: the radical idea of a world without jobs - Andy Beckett (2018)