London – Cornucopia City

Rich Mlk the Poor

There is a powerful memory of Lisson Grove in 1981. And walking along the Edgware Road having just bought the 12″ version of Joy Division’s Atmosphere. There was some inexplicable urge to repeat that walk this afternoon. Leaving work, travelling under London on Crossrail, immersed in the city, a mixture of cinematography, the inner lifeContinue reading “Rich Mlk the Poor”

The Progressive Office Tower

I was thinking of a reference for Guy Debord in Paris in, I think 1957. It runs along the lines of ‘he tried to organise a walk, it rained, no-one turned up, he left, and didn’t try to do this again for perhaps a decade’. Where had I read this? I was thinking of itContinue reading “The Progressive Office Tower”

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”

The Archeology of the Hidden Transcripts

I am closely studying maps. Maps of a small area of London. Tudor Street in particular. From Tudor Street I walk along John Carpenter Street. The security guards at JP Morgan are suspicious. They are not in any sense an enemy. They are low paid and daily told what to do. I am waiting forContinue reading “The Archeology of the Hidden Transcripts”

A Universal Idea

What does the book look like if its read here, in this particular place? The book is Folk Opposition by Alex Nevin. It was lent to me in the summer. We were in the beer garden of a pub after the Radical Battersea Walk. It was one of those days when the temperature was overContinue reading “A Universal Idea”

The City of London & Gothic Marxism

The Nightmare Before Socialism There are several keywords here. The City of London, Gothic, Marxism, Nightmare, Socialism. There are connections in the dynamic forces of capital as it relentlessly accumulates. The Gothic may be an association with horror. It can also be traced as a historical development which begins to form in an expressly consciousContinue reading “The City of London & Gothic Marxism”

Theses on the Expansion of Capital and the Destruction of London

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”

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”

War or No War?

It was that rather lovely period between the end of the afternoon and the beginning of the evening. This is particularly enjoyable when one has finished work for the day and the light in the sky is rapidly changing. There is a tension between the disappearing sunlight and the emerging neon light. The are complementaryContinue reading “War or No War?”

Let’s Change the Way We Shop

Immersed. Immersed in projects about radical histories, radical walks, radical talks. The term Radical has an interesting history, a keyword in the Raymond Williams sense. The projects all link together with the State of the World and How that Might be Changed. But I need a break, an interruption, an interregnum. Something connected but notContinue reading “Let’s Change the Way We Shop”