London – Page 3 – Commodity Fetishism

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”

Street Level Camaraderie

A day out in London, mainly to visit Tate Britain to study the art of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. More of that later. I don’t why people say London’s not friendly. I didn’t get a a minute’s peace. It was early and the streets and the underground were quiet with that particularContinue reading “Street Level Camaraderie”