The Naschmarkt in Wien is as good a place as any to study the national question. It feels as if all the people of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire are here, selling the accumulated debris of the centuries. Amidst the tacky kitsch are art-deco dinner services, relices of war, objects of Empire. Some of the peopleContinue reading “All Collected up at the Naschmarkt”
Category Archives: Commodities
When Marx went to Morrisons…
…Hegel came too In the film The Million Pound Note Gregory Peck plays the character of the American sailor Henry Adams. He has been blown off course in his schooner, picked up in the Atlantic and ends up in London penniless. Two eccentric brothers, Oliver and Roderick Montpelier see him in the street (he isContinue reading “When Marx went to Morrisons…”
In the beginning was the commodity
The question is raised as to why Marx starts Capital with the ‘commodity’. It’s right there in the first line of the first chapter of the first volume: “The wealth of societies dominated by the capitalist mode of production appears in the form of an ‘enormous accumulation of commodities’ “. Why did Marx start withContinue reading “In the beginning was the commodity”
Reading Capital in the London Road
A new edition of the first volume of Marx’s Capital, translated by Paul Reitter has arrived. It’s a handsome book made with good quality paper, hard cloth covers and a bold dust jacket. It’s been laying on top of a huge illustrated catalogue of the Louvre in Paris. Perhaps by some mystical osmosis the ghostContinue reading “Reading Capital in the London Road”
Cosmopolitics
Unsure of the atmosphere on the streets. Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, Mortimer Street, Tottenham Court Road. Not sure what atmosphere I’m trying to find. The degradation of England is deliberate. The Tories have been in power for thirteen years. It would have been possible to have fixed poor housing, housing shortages, zero hours contracts, refugeeContinue reading “Cosmopolitics”
I Am, Your Image
I traced almost exactly the same steps as a week ago. So much has happened in those past seven days. So much should have happened and never did. A billion more car miles added to the death of planet earth, never ending smog, burning forests, dried up rivers, melting ice caps. Thousands more tonnes ofContinue reading “I Am, Your Image”
The Study of Consumption
There is no moral framework for production within capitalism. Nation states give priority to the production of nuclear missiles, chemical weapons, cluster bombs, police truncheons, tear gas, water cannon; feeding people and providing shelter, health services and education are secondary, or less. Even outside the arms industries there is plenty of immoral production; oil, builtContinue reading “The Study of Consumption”
The incidental dominance of exchange-value
A journey from reading the Grundrisse at 6am to a shopping centre and then EC1 at night. I spent a lot of time in a department store just watching the high definition televisions on display. It is as if the world is now a background which can be enhanced with film editing software, made brighter,Continue reading “The incidental dominance of exchange-value”
Art Deco & Electro-Gothic
Before one can start any sort of study there must be a great obstacle course of diversions to navigate through. And so the real study of the Gothic met a temporary set back today by hitting the submerged rocks of Art Deco. My little ship contains a notebook, a pen, some pencils, a sketch bookContinue reading “Art Deco & Electro-Gothic”
Wages, Price and Profit
The book is placed carefully on the table of the train. Moneybags should be so Lucky by Robert Paul Wolff. A woman is sitting at the table typing away. A paper cup is placed next to her laptop. I notice her reading the title.‘Have you read it?’ I ask‘No’, she replies. But she told meContinue reading “Wages, Price and Profit”
Commodity Fetishism 