Karl Marx

Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie 

The more production comes to rest on exchange value, hence on exchange, the more important do the physical conditions of exchange – the means of communication and transport – become for the costs of circulation. Capital by its nature drives beyond every spatial barrier. Thus the creation of the physical conditions of exchange – of the means of communication and transport – the annihilation of space by time – becomes an extraordinary necessity for it. Only in so far as the direct product can be realized in distant markets in mass quantities in proportion to reductions in the transport costs, and only in so far as at the same time the means of communication and transport themselves can yield spheres of realization for labour, driven by capital; only in so far as commercial traffic takes place in massive volume – in which more than necessary labour is replaced – only to that extent is the production of cheap means of communication and transport a condition for production based on capital, and promoted by it for that reason. All labour required in order to throw the finished product into circulation – it is in economic circulation only when it is present on the market – is from capital’s viewpoint a barrier to be overcome – as is all labour required as a condition for the production process (thus e.g. expenses for the security of exchange etc.).

The sea route, as the route which moves and is transformed under its own impetus, is that of trading peoples ϰατ᾽ ἐξοχήν. [24] On the other side, highways originally fall to the community, later for a long period to the governments, as pure deductions from production, deducted from the common surplus product of the country, but do not constitute a source of its wealth, i.e. do not cover their production costs. In the original, self-sustaining communes of Asia, on one side no need for roads; on the other side the lack of them locks them into their closed-off isolation and thus forms an essential moment of their survival without alteration (as in India). Road construction by means of the corvée, or through taxes, which is another form, is a forced transformation of a part of a country’s surplus labour or surplus product into roads. If an individual capital is to undertake this – i.e. if it is to create the conditions of the production process which are not included in the production process directly – then the work must provide a profit.

Translated by: Martin Nicolaus

Εκ των έσω από κάτι σαν Anti Trump

While formally a weak country can bring a case against a powerful country, the remedy available is limited to authorization to use self-help. But small countries cannot harm big countries by closing their markets to them; they can only hurt themselves by doing this. The remedy thus has value only for powerful countries, both with respect to their relations with each other and with small countries.

The Perils of Global Legalism, Eric A. Posner 

University of Chicago Press

Benjamin R. Tucker / Individual Liberty

Methods - Passive Resistance

It is not wise warfare to throw your ammunition to the enemy unless you throw it from the cannon's mouth.But if you can compel the enemy to waste his ammunition' by drawing his fire on some thoroughly protected spot; if you can, by annoying and goading and harassing him in all possible ways, drive him to the last resort of stripping bare his tyrannous and invasive purposes and put him in the attitude of a designing villain assailing honest men for purposes of plunder, -there is no better strategy.

 

There is not a tyrant in the civilized world today who would not do anything in his power to precipitate a bloody revolution rather than see himself confronted by any large fraction of his subjects determined not to obey. An insurrection is easily quelled; but no army is willing or able to train its guns on inoffensive people who do not even gather in the streets but stay at home and stand back on their rights. Neither the ballot nor the bayonet is to play any great part in the coming struggle; passive resistance is the instrument by which the revolutionary force is destined to secure in the last great conflict the people's rights forever.

The idea that Anarchy can be inaugurated by force is as fallacious as the idea that  it can  be sustained by force. Force cannot preserve Anarchy; neither can it bring it. In fact, one of the inevitable influences of the use of force is to postpone Anarchy. The only thing that force can ever do for us is to save us from extinction, to give us a longer lease of life in which to try to secure Anarchy by the only methods that can ever bring it. But this advantage always purchased at immense cost, and its attainment is always attended by frightful risk. The attempt should be made only when the risk of any other course is greater.

Passive resistance and boycotting are now prominent features of every great national movement.

 

Οι τωρινές δηλώσεις των δυτικών εξουσιών, περί ειρήνης και δικαιοσύνης την ίδια στιγμή που εξοντώνουν χιλιάδες αμάχους, καταφέρνουν να στέκονται λογικά μέσα από την τεχνολογική ταχύτητα που εδώ και δεκαετίες δίνει ισορροπία σε οποιαδήποτε γλοιώδης αντίφαση. 

Ο ψηφιακά σπινταρισμένος εγκέφαλος συνεχίζει την καθημερινότητα με το ελάχιστο ανθρώπινο νόημα. 

 

Daniel Spicer

Peter Brötzmann: Free-Jazz, Revolution and the Politics of Improvisation

Το βιβλίο προτείνεται στους φίλους του είδους. Σημαντικές σε αυτό οι αναφορές των πρωτοπόρων της Ευρωπαϊκής Free Jazz στα γεγονότα της εποχής που καθόρισαν τις μουσικές διαφορές τους με την αμερικάνικη σκηνή.