Category Archives: Resistance

Marxist scholar David Harvey has a new book out, The Enigma of Capital, and this means he’s been on the road giving talks to promote it.  One such lecture was at Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London this past April.  You can watch/listen to the talk here.

However, if you want the short version, I suggest watching RSA’s beautiful animation of it below.  It does a good job of adding some visual content to Harvey’s explanation of the crisis of capitalism.

h/t Gopal Balakrishnan

The Tower: A Songspiel is a new agitprop production from the fine people at Chto Delat.  The film is the final part of a trilogy that includes Perestroika Songspiel: Victory over the Coup (2008) and Partisan Songspiel: A Belgrade Story (2009).  The theme of this installment:

Filmed in April 2010, The Tower: A Songspiel is based on real documents of Russian social and political life and on an analysis of the conflict that has developed around the planned Okhta Center development in Petersburg, where the Gazprom corporation intends to house the headquarters of its locally-based subsidiaries in a 403-meter-high skyscraper designed by the UK-based architectural firm RMJM. The proposed skyscraper has provoked one of the fiercest confrontations UNESCO World Heritage Site, Gazprom has so far managed to secure all the necessary permissions and has practically ..read more

Roses, tulips, and other colorful flowers extend from the hands of Russian women like prostheses.  One day a year they replace the broom, the pot, and the child.  The flowers, like the wedding bands on women’s fingers, are a symbol of property.  Almost every woman strolling through the metro or down Moscow’s avenues has one hand around a man’s arm while the other clutches a bouquet. Thus, the object on their left hand says, “I’m taken” while the man on their right says, “by him.”

What an ironic scene International Women’s Day has become in Russia.  What was once a day calling for a “struggle against patriarchy,” has in many ways become patriarchy’s reinforcement. Nothing says this more than the popular gifts bestowed on this day of “struggle.” According to the Russian polling service VTsIOM, flowers are the most popular gift ..read more

In Russia, you can’t hold a public gathering or protest without a permit.  Okay, a lot of places have similar laws.  I can understand this even if I don’t agree with it.  But according to Vremya Novosti, the local court in Tver district in Moscow set a “precedent which threatens to turn into new accusations that the Russian government is violating civil freedoms.”  Not only is holding non-permitted gatherings consider illegal, now it’s also verboten for journalists to cover them.  “According to the [court's] ruling, journalists, who enter unsanctioned protests or marches to make their reports are equated with the participants in these protests and violators of the law.”  Nice.

The case involves Andrei Stenin, a photo correspondent for RIA Novosti, who was charged with participating in an “unsanctioned protest” in December in front of the Presidential Administration building.  If by “participating,” you mean entering the crowd to cover it, then ..read more

As hundreds of thousands protesters fill the streets of Tehran and other provincial centers,  one can’t help think that we’ve seen this all before.  So much about the Iranian protests look like the “colored revolutions” in Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, (the failed attempts in) Moldova and Belarus. In fact, “colored revolution” has become a preeminent phenomena in our young 21st century. It’s scripted like a bad TV drama with recycled plot lines, characters, and props.  Colored revolutions unfold like ready-made, recyclable skits.   Their ingredients include a “managed democracy,” a contestable election where the opposition claims “foul,” mass protests, a prominent place for “social networking” technologies (SMS, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, and the like), and the adoption of a color to symbolize all political demands.  The dramatic conflict plays out between the “state” and “the opposition” (whether the latter is actually outside the former matters little) over the legitimacy of the election.  ..read more