I Capital has no interest in history other than how it can be commodified into tradition and heritage. Tradition and heritage must be constantly manufactured and re-manufactured in a distorted image of the past. In the process the contradictions of Capital and class tensions appear to be resolved. But this is just appearance. The traditionContinue reading “Theses on the Expansion of Capital and the Destruction of London”
Category Archives: Capital
Abstract Concrete Alienation
The world produces too much, and not enough. Too much of the wrong things; nuclear bombs, anti-personnel mines, hypersonic missiles. And not enough food, medicines, good quality housing, schools, kindergartens. There is an endless building boom in Britain and a never ending housing crisis. There is a shortage of homes and a surplus of emptyContinue reading “Abstract Concrete Alienation”
The Hallucinatory Nature of the Expansion of Capital
Emerging from Vauxhall station is to be switched rather rapidly from the modernism of electrical underground travel to…..what exactly? Wide six lane roads with cars moving in all directions. It is a giant conveyor belt of motorism and stretches all around the world. From the edge of the road it appears to be a swirlingContinue reading “The Hallucinatory Nature of the Expansion of Capital”
Memory of a Demonstration
The burly man in an orange high-vis jacket stepped back from the opening door of the train. He made a gesture for me to board.‘After you’, I said, moving back a foot on the platform, ‘you’re the driver’.‘Is this train going up to London?’‘Yes, but I’m only going as far as Ashford’, he looked atContinue reading “Memory of a Demonstration”
Fitzrovia, Friday evening
At some point there has been a break in the continuum. The early ages can be traced out in more linear fashion. The buildings of Fitzroy Square, designed by the architect Robert Adam in the 1790s are not that remote from the arts and crafts influenced buildings of Belmont House and Tower House in CandoverContinue reading “Fitzrovia, Friday evening”
Get back into the Offices
Get back into the officesfor your daily dose ofalienationexploitationoppressionimmiserationatomisationisolation Get back into the officeson the basis of our needsthat is; the richthere is dirty money therehidden, tax havensshell companiestax avoidance schemes Get back into the officesour friendsthe Russian oligarchsare asking whytheir profits start to fall Get back into the officesthe KuwaitiSovereign Wealth Fundhave given soContinue reading “Get back into the Offices”
Notes for a War Diary
The word ‘agate’ had to be looked up because I realised I only had a vague notion of what ‘agate’ might be. It seemed a small, trifling thing, referenced in Franz Hessel’s lovely book Walking in Berlin. As he describes, ‘In the evening of that overfilled day, I was welcomed into the home of anContinue reading “Notes for a War Diary”
An Unexpected Use of the Word ‘Capitalists’
There are low slung grey clouds, a thick grey blanket across most of the blue that lies below. The sun is over there in the blue, the light of the holocene at the horizon level. It seems a great distance away, as if that sky over there is the sky of another planet, one whichContinue reading “An Unexpected Use of the Word ‘Capitalists’”
The Return of The Workers
I noticed in the supermarket a young woman cashier with long black straggly hair. She was wearing a black sweatshirt and it had writing along the lines of ‘Key Worker – feeding the nation’. She was working hard. A check out till is a conveyor belt and there is constant pressure to speed up. ButContinue reading “The Return of The Workers”
Sunday Morning, E15
The vote count for the 1892 General Election for the West Ham South constituency was held here (now the Old Town Hall, Stratford). When it was announced that Keir Hardie was the winner he went on to the balcony and addressed a crowd of between 15 – 20,000 people. “On taking his seat on 3Continue reading “Sunday Morning, E15”
Commodity Fetishism 