Wien – Commodity Fetishism

Red Vienna: A Reading List

The Architecture of Red Vienna – Eve Blau This is a brilliant book on the subject of the architecture, design and politics of Red Vienna. A template as to how the architectural histories of cities can be approached. The Austrian Revolution – Otto Bauer This is essential reading for the political context of the originsContinue reading “Red Vienna: A Reading List”

Watching Vermeer

Compulsion is a curious force. It suddenly wells up inside and shoots us off in the opposite direction to that of expected travel. Compulsion arrived at around 8.30 this morning and kicked me out of bed with orders to be at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien by ten o’clock. It was important that I was theContinue reading “Watching Vermeer”

Serendipity in the Rabenhof

To walk around Rabenhof is to step into an imagined world of what London could have been. Instead, London has been taken over by big capital; capital from the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, the Kuwaiti Sovereign Wealth Fund, Chinese companies, and a whole layer of global criminals that use the London property market toContinue reading “Serendipity in the Rabenhof”

Solve the housing crisis? Tax the Rich

The mantra of the right wing press in Britain is low taxation. But in reality this low taxation only really applies to the rich. Global organisations investing in large developments in London are given tax exemptions. There are many companies which pay low or no tax by using shell companies, tax havens and expensive lawyers.Continue reading “Solve the housing crisis? Tax the Rich”

Garden Cities in Vienna

From as early as 1915 onwards the people of Vienna began to appropriate land to grow their own food. By the time the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed at the end of October 1918 it was estimated that there were over 100,000 people living in makeshift shelters and working towards being self-sufficient. The empire was bought downContinue reading “Garden Cities in Vienna”

HET BOЙHE, in Vienna

Vienna has become a three dimensional open university of the street and the people. Each daily interaction; shopping in the supermarket, a ride on the U-bahn, sitting in the park, buying a map, taking out the rubbish, has a cinematic quality, although its unclear who the director of this film might be. There are fourContinue reading “HET BOЙHE, in Vienna”

Engels in the Margaretengürtzel

Imagine that a group of people could be brought into the present from a past time. And that group of people included Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, Vladimir Lenin and Otto Bauer (there are others but we can put them in the time machine another day). Marx and Engels could be rightly proudContinue reading “Engels in the Margaretengürtzel”

Support Your Local Planet

(Let us be clear – I am not against chemicals and chemistry…I am against the exploitation of chemicals and chemistry by the capitalists for the purpose of making profit at the expense of the general interests of people and the planet). The woman who walked through Karlplatz was wearing a t-shirt with the slogan, ‘SupportContinue reading “Support Your Local Planet”