Now that taxpayers are each about to receive a £2,000 stake in Britain's banks (thanks, Darling), can I suggest that their former owners and major shareholders be expropriated and the monies received put toward a national holiday (indefinite) during which the new stakeholders and their non-citizen partners, together with those of the other bank-owning nations, decide which financial institutions to axe (all of 'em?) and which activities to continue under our direct control?

(No futurology. Cannot guarantee does not contain futurology)

B

Jon Amsden published these penetrating comments on the meltdown mailing list earlier today. McCain is gambling with the global system, a shrewd move because if he loses he wins. i.e. Whether this bailout finally goes through or not, sometime soon capital is going to need the US worker onside. Even if there is sooner rather than later a run on the US dollar, McCain will still be the populist who stuck by the workers when all  around him were bent on feeding big capital's crack habit.

after this i suspect other bankers will have to be written off as bad deaths, or their morts gaged on a mark to market basis. but if the price of citizenship continues rising for everyone without triggering a collective (& pro-refugee response), the asbotic reflux of 40 years of capitalist decadence will probably be articulated in ever more politically aphasic forms.

Please come to Clerkenwell County Court tomorrow morning to show solidarity with Lowell Spirit Grant.

Spirit is being taken to court by the overseas developers who bought his place from Hackney Council for a song and who now want to evict him, allegedly because of outstanding rent arrears.

Please come along to the court at 9.30 a.m. tomorrow morning - the hearing starts at 10 but we need to be outside to show that Spirit has lots of support.

The Gee Street Courthouse 29 - 41 Gee Street EC1V 3RE

Before New Labour came to power, when reform of Britain's House of Lords was in the air, Anthony Barnett and Peter Ca

i guess the idea that 'negative' social energies can be redirected and inverted into perfecting the reigning negativity is nothing new (ie 'the apprentice' - both the tv series and the picaresque proletarian of yore - is always encouraged to turn class hatred back on his own class in order to ascend from it), but this marks a new level of assimilation even for graffiti.

In a time of credit crisis, small to medium bank branches are failing, forcing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to go in and clean up the mess. Coming in stealthily to avoid public panic and sudden withdrawal of all a bank’s funds, which would result in a sinking of the bank and possibly others in the area, the FDIC makes a quick job of taking over the bank.

Thursday, July 17th meet 1:00 PM in Trafalgar Square (near the lions)

Mediamatic Hackers Camp @ PICNIC 2008
18 - 26 September 2008

The next Hackers Camp, organized by Mediamatic is coming up in the days preceding this years’ PICNIC event (PICNIC is a high-profile conference at the intersection of media, technology, the arts and entertainment). Mediamatic is a project partner of PICNIC.

There has been a recent public outrage over anti-piracy lobbyist amendments to a European Parliament Telecom reform bill. The amendments would both implement a 'three-strikes' rule, which would cut off internet access for anyone suspected of illegal file-sharing, as well as giving government control to which internet software and services could be 'lawfully' used. On 7 July 2008, in Brussels, politicians voted in favour of the addition of these amendments to the Telecom law which will be voted on in September.

Brian Marks seems to have rewritten George Caffentzis' 1980 'The Work/Energy Crisis & The Apocalypse' essay for our turbulent times, adding in a dose of fictitious capital a la David Harvey. But was/ is this analysis of (energy/capitalist) crisis accurate?

In particular the idea that the crisis imposes intensified looting (of workers) through inflation, transfering value back up to