Table Of Content..O.N THE ROAD TO
ORTHO-MARXISM IS NO
JOKE! IT'S THE FREEDOM!I TN EEDST O BE
SMASHED UP WRECK ... PUSHED ASIDSEO THATA
NEW CRITIQUCEA N
FLOURIS.H. .
--
�
. ..
THEYK EEPT HE
REVOLUTIONARMYI LEUI N
CHECK!
EVEN 'RESPECTT'O P DOG KEN LOACH
TALKS OF HAVINGT O 'SEARCHF'O R
THE WORKINGC LASSES
PRINCIPIA
DIALECTICA
VolumOen eI ssuNeu mber1
Thet extb elowi sb asedu potnh ien augusrpaeleg cihv aetnt h'eW'h ati sL ivianngdW hati sD eadi n
thSei tuatIinontiesrnta tihoenldaa tlT 'h Aeq uariGuamlle ry,L ondoinnA ugu2s0t0 3:
WelcomteoT heA quari.uw.me. h opyeo uc ans wim!
Manyw ilclo meh erwei tbho tpho sitainvdne o staligdiecaa sb outth eS ituatiIonntiesrtn atMiaonnyaw li.lr le grtehtep assionftg h efi rspte rioofdt heS ituationist
Internattihoanitast l o:s ay atrhtei spteirci oTodd.a yt,h eS ituatiIonntiesrtn athiaosbn eaclo maec ceptaesad w holbey s ocieatndym osto fi sti deahsa vbee en
eithceor- optoered l sseu persebdyme odd ercna pitalism.
TheS ituatiIonntiesrtn atiisDo EnAaDl a ndt heg rieviison vge Irt.i si mperatfiovures t oc omet ot ermwsi tthh irse alaintdyt om oveo n.
Thep urpoosfec hissoc alleexdh ibiitsiq ouni tcel easro:m eo fu sw istho m ovef orwaorudto ft heS ituatiIonntiesrtn attiroennaclwh heesr teh eu suacll assist
discoucrasnes st iblehl e ar(da isfi tw erseo s implAel!r)e asdoym ep eophleer aen dt heraer feo rmulanteiwnc gr itibquutei sno rdeforr u st of inadn ew
'NorthwPeassts awgeem 'u stg ob actko t heM arxo fC apit(athlde e eMpa rxs ot os peaakn)d n ott ot heM arxo fT heC ommuniMsatn ifesto.
Fort heS ituatiIonntiesrtn ataisofo nraM la,r xo ft heM anifestthoec, l asstsr uggrleemsa intehded rivifnogr coefe mancipatBiuotan,s. s omeh avpeo intoeudt ,
the csltarsusg aglrees poafcr atp italWies nme.e tdo u pdatoeu tt heoirnyo rdetrob ring acbhoauntgW eh.a tg overpneso pilsec apiatsaa nla utomastuebjde ocrt
selfvalorivsailnuMgea .n ya rset isltlu!ci knt hec lassqiusacg miTrhee.S ituatiIonntiesrtn atciaonnnaohlte ltph emt og et ooufit ta ndt hiissa w ell knfaocwtn!
WORK ISA SPECIFIACC TIVITtYo c apitalIitis sam t.t heh earotfa s ystewmh,i cahu to-repirtosdweuilctfeh so euntd a ndw hicmha keosf m ena ndw omen
thheu marne souorfic teissn finiatuet o-reprodiutic stn iooatnm .a ttoefrl iberawtoirnk(g t heen tilreefti ,n cludAiTnTgA C,d emantdh astp eculasttioopn
hindertihnec gr eatoifoj no bsO!n) t hec ontrawreny e,e tdo fr eeo urslefvreoswm or,ka ndt oa chietvheiw si tholueta nionnga ny' laowf h istobruyti' n steoand
thed isgutshtae ta cihn diviedxupaelr iewnhceenfs a cewdi thhi osr h ero wne xisteansac s eu bjeocfwt o rakn dc ompetiTtraidoeun n.i onasn dp olitpiacratlhi aevse
reproduicnte hd emiird stth eh ierarcshtircuaclt oufrt ehsed ominasnotc iehteyn;ct eh es tagnaatnidom no dermni sewrhyi cwhe fi nda rounuds .
Ify ouh avuen derstsooomdeo ft hec ritipcoailnd tesv elohpeerdye ,o uw on'hta vwea steydo utri meI!n deeGdu,y D eborodn csea itdh atth eS ituationist
Internatwioounlahdle s uperseHdee wde.l comtehdei delae!i st huism portfaonertv eryownheov isTihtesA quarituomt rayn dc ontribiuntt heid si rection.
Nostalpgoisci tiwoinlbsle m etb yt heS ileonfct ehS ee a.
Thosweh oa rke eetno d evelaon pe wc riticqaunde e lvien tMoo ishPeo stonbeo'oskT imeL,a boarn dS ociDaolm inatair oeni,n terproeftM aatrixoc'nrs i tical
theoTrhye.y m ayf intdh erteh awth icthh esye ek.
'WhaitsL ivianngdW hati sD eadi nt hSei tuatiIonntiesrtn ati-TohneaM lo?v iiesa' v ailaabslea b oxs efrto mP rinciDpiiaal ectica.
THE CONTENT
Michel Prigent Welcome to The Principles of The Project 3
Len Bracken America's Iraqi Ulcer 4
Nik Holliman Some Human and Environmental Costs of Nuclear Power 6
Liz Hoskyns The Tragedy of Sexual Liberation 10
Enzo Paci Dialectic of the Concrete and The Abstract 14
Ron Heisler Walking Stewart: A Forgotten Great Freethinker 16
Sean Delaney A Contemporary Critique of the Suburbs 20
MaryWuana Hedonism, Nihilsm and The State 24
Steve Ash Prologue: A New Harlequinade 26
J iirgen Habermas Sovereignty and the Fiirherdemokratie 28
Plus: Critical Fragments
A M ERI CA'S
I RAQ I U LCE R
In June 2004, U.S. President George W Bush deaths and prison abuse photos make it unlikely mistaken when he maintained that Napoleon was
travelled to France to commemorate the sixtieth that Iraqi hearts and minds will be won over by the the World Soul who would give a positive legacy to
anniversary of U.S. troops landing on the beach of American side. Bush speaks about democracy and the French Revolution. The Terror turned outward
an occupied country as liberators. The satirical trade benefits for Iraq, but the world is well aware, under the emperor in a series of brutal and
Canard Enchaine, which refers to GI George as or should be, that a group lead by the first prime far-flung military campaigns, attempting to export
Omaha Bush, points out that his comparison minister of supposedly liberated Iraq, Iyad Allawi, the Continental System. Bush, with his War on
between the liberation of France from Nazi control was sponsored by the CIA and was responsible for Terror and free-trade globalization, is more like
and the occupation oflraq is only appropriate in terrorist bombings against Iraqis. The world must Bonaparte than he would care to admit. The Iraqi
the sense that nearly five hundred Norman women also know that untold, because unmetered, Iraqi ulcer, which has no cure because of the
were raped by American soldiers, according to oil has been plundered by the United States. Like long-established Iranian interest in the oil fields
historian Jean-Pierre Azema. The purportedly Napoleon before him, Bush is justly seen more as a around Basra and the Faw Peninsula, may be the
clever White House advisers should know that conqueror than a liberator. mistake that brings him down.
there must be at least a slight resemblance for Bush The Spanish ulcer, as the Peninsular War was Clinton's soft-power approach to foreign policy,
to successfully imitate Franklin Delano Roosevelt. called, played a major role in the French emperor's which the Bush team deems effeminate, was better
If Bush and his advisers ruled with a real sense downfall. He was intoxicated with power that was for business and reflected the power of Treasury
of history and knowledge of art -as opposed to becoming more and more illusory when he set his Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers
their biblical visions of apocalypse -they might sights to the east. Napoleon's 1812 invasion of within the administration. Whereas the logic of
instead compare the invasion and occupation of Russia diverted resources that might have otherwise capital figured highly in Clinton's foreign policy
Iraq with Napoleon Bonaparte's Peninsular War been used to fight the Anglo-Portuguese army decisions, supporting the global financial system
(1808-1814), and the Abu Ghraib photographs of under the duke ofWellington, who eventually and helping to overcome its crises, territorial logic,
prison abuse with Francisco de la Goya's ink drove the French out of Spain in 1814. If Bush often but not always in contradiction with capital
drawings and paintings of the torture and other could find the time away from his political logic, characterizes Bush's foreign policy. The pillars
horrors inspired by the nineteenth century French campaign and his golfing and ranching and bike of U.S. Middle East policy during the 1970s oil
campaign in Iberia. Napoleon was intent on wiping riding, he might venture into the National Gallery crisis, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have crumbled; they
out the dreaded Bourbons in Madrid and bringing of Art and take a gander at the portrait of have been replaced by Israel and now Iraq thanks
his backward southern neighbors into his Napoleon, hand in vest, by Jacques-Louis David. to this costly and disruptive land grab. Time will
Continental System but soon faced a massive The optimistic image of the emperor working tell if Iraq pays off for our li.rtle imperial statesman,
popular revolt in both Spain and Portugal. into the night on his legal code belies the historical that is, if the oil in the acronym and at the heart of
The warfare, from whkh the word guerilla traces realities of his reign. Perhaps Bush would see Operation Iraq Liberation can stave off threats to
its origin, was particularly intense in the interior; in something of himself in this little man -the what Sanguinetti aptly called the commodity
July 1808, a 20,000-strong French division was boldness and decisiveness -who wanted to rule the necessary for the production and consumption of
forced to surrender to guerilla forces at Baylen. world but whose reign was such a disaster for his other commodities.
The tactically successful French siege and storming country. Economic growth stagnated for a Len Bracken
of Saragossa showed the world, with 50,000 dead generation in France as a result of the Napoleonic
bodies filling the streets after the battle, that the Wars and the emperor failed to reconcile the
Spanish people would rather perish than submit to factional conflicts stemming from the revolution, N,b, We would like to point out that we don't
foreign conquerors. as he promised he would. necessarily agree with Len Bracken's use of the
U.S. forces face similar popular resistance in Like Napoleon and his consuls, historians will conspiracy theory of history, as put forward in The
Iraq. Moreover, the American retreat from captured view Bush and his epigones as being an elite that Shadow Government: 9-11 and State Terror as well
territory, as well as every kidnapping, sabotaged seized power in a coup d'etat -Florida was Bush's as in his The Arch Conspiracy, but his Aphorisms
convoy or pipeline, sets an inspiring example for Brumaire -and did .its best to entrench the Against Work is recommended reading for all those
radical Muslims worldwide. The countless civilian privileges of wealth and power with war. Hegel was stuck in the Value-trap everywhere.
04 Principia Dialeictica
-•
L
N U CL EA R POW E R :
S OM E H UM A N
A N D
E N V I RON M E N TAL
COSTS - 2005
"U:'.'e are in such a state of danger with these new forces The proposed Penly nuclear reactor in Normandy Report of British Energy March 30 to June 30, 1
in ignorant or balefal hands. .. " will be plutonium-powered; which is both October 2004
". ..t he latest Government proposals to start the dangerous and unnecessary.
erection of twelve atomic power statiom in this Source: Greenpeace, December 2003 The Davis Beese nuclear plant in Ohio, USA, has
country within the next ftw years, I regard as mad " been closed since 2002 because an accumulation of
Frederick Soddy in: "Contemporary Issues'', No 21 RECYCLING acid nearly corroded through the 150mm-thick,
1954 p 221-222; No 22 1955 p 220 125kg of weapons grade plutonium shipped to steel, reactor vessel.
France by the US National Nuclear Security
SAFETY Administration will be processed for use in nuclear C02 EMISSIONS
Lobsters from Cumbrian, Irish, North Sea and power stations in France. Fossil fuels are used at many stages in the life-cycle
Norwegian waters and shellfish have been Source: Greenpeace, October 2004 of a nuclear power station: transporting uranium,
contaminated by technetium-99 that was routinely the fuel cycle, mining, concrete constructions for
discharged via Sellafield's reprocessing of spent SECURITY reactors and waste, production and formulation of
nuclear fuel. British nuclear power stations are almost equipment and materials; de-commissioning.
unprotected by radar and Dounreay and Sellafield
Infant mortality in the vicinity of Three Mile have only sketchy radar that cannot identify 'LEAD' TIME
Island, Pennsylvania, increased by 47% in the two low-flying aircraft. It takes up to 5 years to construct nuclear plants -
years after the partial core meltdown of a nuclear longer than for other generating options.
reactor in 1979 when large quantities of radioactive The visitor centre at Dungeness is closed owing
gas escaped into the atmosphere. Cancer related to the current security alert. INFLEXIBILITY
deaths among children under 10 years are 30% Sources: "The Sunday Telegraph'' 16 May 2004; 1 -0.6 GW plants are inflexible compared to fossil
more than the national average. a field observer at Dungeness fuel and renewable energy plants.
Source: Radiation and Public Health Project, 2004
Nearly 100 tons of plutonium, separated from THE 'IDEAL' COMPLEMENTARY 'GOOD'
A doubling in the spontaneous rate of leukaemia, nuclear waste in THORP, have been stockpiled by Companies that own aluminium smelters are given
releases of radon during the fuel cycle and human British Nuclear Fuels Ltd for future recycling at the cheap rates by large power station operators because
and animal cancers are results of nuclear-generated Sellafield Mox plutonium fuel production facility. they provide a base load demand. For example, a
electricity. Source: Dr David Lowry, 17 December 2003; loan of £33m was made to Rio Tinto Zinc through
Source: expert testimonies in Federal Court, strategy review of BNFL reliability the implementation of the Industrial Expansion Act
Jeannine Honicker versus Nuclear Regulatory that was used as a capital contribution to the
Commission, 2 October 1978 One of the aircraft crashed into the World Trade former Central Electricity Generating Board for the
Centre on 11 September 2001 flew directly over construction of Dungeness 'B ', in return for a
Iran's reported first nuclear power station is under Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York contract to supply electricity for a 20-25 year
construction 600 km west of the epicentre of the State. period from Anglesey's Wylfa nuclear power station,
Barn earthquake (26 December 2003). at a price related to the monetary cost of producing
RELIABILITY power at Dungeness 'B'.
Dungeness A and B are located on an area of active From October 2003 to Spring 2004 Heysham 1 was Source: "Aluminium and Anglesey" in: "The
coastal erosion. 260 000 m3 of shingle are out of action because the cooling pipes that convey Ecologist" June 1971; personal communication
transported each year by lorries to restore the beach. seawater leaked. Dungeness 'B' nuclear power with the author.
(C02 emissions) station was put out of action by a fault on the
Source: interview on "Farming Today'' BBC R4 22 national grid on 13-14 December 2003. Sizewell 'B' COMPETITIVE ELECTRICITY
April 2004 and Torness have also been out of action. This MARKET CONTRADICTED
resulted in a fall in output 12% (15TWh) £2m per day of public funding is committed to the
Radioactive waste is transported by rail through the Source: Minutes of the Extraordinary GM of Britain's nuclear power programme.
UK's most populated areas. British Energy, 22 December 2003; Quarterly
06 Principia Dialectica
By 2000 £6bn of public funds had been spent on The North Korean Government has offered to close At the time no one else seemed interested in any kind
the fast-breeder reactor at Dounreay. Lancaster City down a reactor that also produces weapons-grade of critique of nuclear power, environmental or
Council 'subsidised' the two Heysham nuclear plutonium. otherwise. "Why are you against progress?" was the
power stations by reducing their business rates. Source: report of the six-party talks, 6 January 2004 response from one serious-minded conservationist. It
Other local authorities have done the same for was also common ro encounter the argument that
power stations in their areas. In consequence an British nuclear power stations (and the former nuclear power would provide the answer to
additional £ 18 000 in interest payments was lost; CEGB) have a biased recruiting policy in favour of exponential growth in fossil fuel consumption and
but later refunded. The EC ruled that rates deferral ex-services people. The UKAEA has its own police the associated problems, and there was complacency
by four other local authorities is unlawful. force. about environmental problems and the question of
energy even within environmental organisations. It
British Energy, the group of 8 nuclear power RADIOACTIVE WASTE must be conceded though that a lot of effort was
stations, receives a government loan of £650m that BNF has buried 10 000 m3 of nuclear waste from expended at the time on "Red Data Book'' issues,
in June 2003 the EC provisionally ruled to be other countries. supersonic transport, waste, non-returnable bottles
unlawful state aid. Source: investigation by The Guardian newspaper and the trade in animal skins of endangered species,
Source: suspended Cllr Gina Dowding, "Going which left less time ro campaign about nuclear power.
Public" in: "The Guardian'' 19 November 2003, p.13 The MoD has dumped 17,000 tonnes of
radioactive waste on the seabed off Alderney. The second fact sheet on nuclear power is different
"TOO CHEAP TO METER" in its emphasis because some things have changed
The pending Nuclear Industries Bill is designed to DE-COMMISSIONING even though problems with nuclear power remain
write off billions of pounds worth of debt run up Dounreay's decommissioning involves 3000 people, unresolved; not least those of nuclear waste and the
by the industry and to oversee the disposal of waste of whom 1382 are UKAEA employees. The cost is cost of producing and buying nuclear-generated
through the Department of Trade and Industry. about £80m per annum. electricity. It opens with a critique by the physical
British Energy announced a loss of £115m for the Source: Robert Nicol, Head of Contracts and chemist Sir Frederick Soddy (my erstwhile tutor's
second quarter of 2004. Finance, UKAEA, March 2004 tutor), dating from 1954, who in 1903 with Curie,
Source: The Queen's Speech, December 2003; Laborde and Ramsay (and Aston's mathematical
British Energy, 1 October 2004 Winfrith in Dorset has yielded 240 tonnes of metal work) established that " ...t he energy liberated in
waste for disposal at Drigg in Cumbria, at a cost of the natural transmutation of the radio-elements,
'FOR MY NEXT TRICK' £2500 per ronne, following the decontamination of uranium and thorium, exceeded by a million fold
In 1977 radioactive waste from Dounreay stored in scrap metal from the decommissioned power plant the energy of ordinary chemical change ... " thus
a shafr in the cliffs exploded, spreading plutonium by sand blasting (more C02 emissions), in predating Einstein's statement of the equivalence of
over the beach. 18 years later the incident was preparation for metal recycling. mass and energy, and interpretation of Hasenohrl's
reported. Source: UKAEA, March 2004 equation in 1904.
The current US government suppressed the fact the OLIGOPOLISTIC POWER In 2004 there is a perceived renewal of faith in
mercury is discharged by power stations. The nuclear power industry is a virtual monopoly: nuclear power on the grounds that it is the only
Source: Environmental Protection Agency, 2004 The atomic engineering firm Westinghouse owns way for the industrialised world to deal with
65% of the world's licences for reactor building. increasing carbon dioxide emissions and hence the
From the 1980s to the 2000s the UK Government Source: Review of BNFL commissioned by the abatement of global warming and climate changes.
suppressed the development of marine generated DTI The Government has named possible sites for three
electricity yet maintained the OT! subsidy to the new plants. James Lovelock, the atmospheric
nuclear industry. (A "tidal lagoon" in the Severn Nearly 25% of the world's nuclear power stations chemist, and the Centre for Alternative Technology
estuary could generate as much power as 3 -4 are in the USA. recently declared their interest in the revival of the
nuclear power stations.) nuclear option, despite the contradictions of doing
Source: Friends of the Earth, Cymru CONTRADICTIONS AND CONTAMINANTS so. Additionally environmentalists such as David
After the Chernobyl disaster the Italians voted to Bellamy have opposed the development of 'wind
Sir Bernard Ingham, a paid lobbyist for British close down their nuclear power programme and farms'.
Nuclear Fuels, is chair of Country Guardian, a rejected plans to srore spent fuel.
group that opposes wind turbines in the The nuclear power industry is highly centralised,
countryside. Supporters of Country Guardian Power cuts occurred in Italy during Summer 2003 specialised, capital-intensive and opaque to inquiry.
include unions representing those working in afrer transmission faults developed at French As with all large infrastructure projects it receives
Britain's nuclear power industry. nuclear power stations. (France exports power to large public funding. Also, only a small group of
the UK at peak hours.) The UK imported 57 rons people are informed about the building and
BNFL has stored highly radioactive, spent, nuclear of Italy's spent fuel for plutonium and uranium operation of reactors. The rest of us have to rely on
fuel in its outdoors storage "pond" B30 at Sellafield recovery. what we are rold. Nuclear reactors require very
since the 1950s. BNFL has never divulged the strong structures ro provide protection against
quantity of material involved but it is estimated to Irradiated of the world unite, you have nothing ro accidents and they are very complex. Yet this makes
be 1.3 tonnes of plutonium -sufficient to produce lose but your faded genes. them also very vulnerable. Because of all this
an estimated 162 atom bombs. The European perhaps there is a determination ro hang to power.
Commission gave BNFL until !st June to produce There are now 435 nuclear power stations in the
a plan for cleaning up B30. world; 25% of capacity is in the USA. Germany Since 1954 and certainly since 1974 the world has
Source: European Commission, 30 March 2004 will close its old nuclear power stations but none become potentially a more dangerous place. It is
will be closed as a result of renewable energy use unlikely that national atomic energy authorities will
MILITARY CONNECTIONS OF THE 'PEACEFUL and RWE will continue building reactors. Swedes be able to make all the plants safe from terrorist
ATOM' PROGRAMME voted to close their plants. But radioactive material attacks or free of accidents on the scale of
Accidents in 200 I with fuel elements at 'bio-concentrates' and is not contained by borders. Chernobyl. There is too the pressure from rising
Chapelcross, Britain's last military nuclear power fossil fuel consumption, especially in China and
station, led to a decision on its closure. It produced HANGING ON TO POWER India, volatile oil and gas prices, and the eventual
plutonium for nuclear weapons, tritium for missiles The first fact sheet dealing with the costs of nuclear peak in oil production.
and electricity. power was produced in 1970 when it was circulated
Source: Ministry of Defence announcement, 30 to friends, people at Friends of the Earth and students. My own experience supports the contention of
June 2004 It was prompted by my research into environmental others such as the Rocky Mountain Institute, that
problems while on a Churchill Fellowship in ecology about six sevenths of the electrical power used today
Israel's Dimona reactor provided enough plutonium and my work with Peter Van Dresser and other solar is wasted. But unlike the Rocky Mountain Institute
ro manufacture over 200 warheads. energy buffi in New Mexico. Eventually it was that does not enter into a critique of the dominant
Source: Stockholm International Peace published in the "Bulletin of Environmental economic system, I would argue that the UK's
Research Institute Education'' under the editorship of Colin Ward. electricity demand of 337TWh could be reduced so
Principia Dialectica 07
much more because capitalism is such a wasteful In a community centre reductions in electricity use power stations and the science behind the
system. Of gas, water and electrical building by 80% were achieved in some parts of the building. technology, and the veil of secrecy has relieved the
services the level of wastage is more than six There are so many nonsensical barriers to energy exponents of nuclear power of any responsibility to
sevenths. About 80% of heating systems could efficiency and conservation ro deal with without prove that they are right even when they made
operate much more efficiently because many were harnessing renewable energies, although that is a mistake after mistake. The connection with the
initially designed according to commercial rather sound and 'elegant' direction to go in. But military has not helped.
than technical considerations such as efficiency or knowledge of an activity, building or process is
environmental conservation. required in order to achieve some results and this is CONCLUSION
acquired over time. Meanwhile everyone has Paradoxically the radioactive contamination of
In one residential project the annual consumption become eminently dispensable and the market nature has revealed knowledge about the way nature
of 1.5 million m3 of gas for space heating and hot forces us to rush. So where is the continuity to works -especially food chains and chemical
water can be reduced by 20% 'with the stroke of a come from that is needed to build up a useful pathways. The radioactive contaminants, from
pen' and by 50% by using very basic technology. analysis of how resources are wasted? nuclear tests especially, provided traceable 'markers'.
The system for pricing gas supports this wastage.
On a housing estate it was possible to eliminate An outright critique of the capitalist system by But this is not sufficient to justify nuclear tests or
£8000 worth of wasted electricity caused by environmental organisations and pressure groups is the Chernobyl plant. We would have probably
unnecessary and redundant floodlighting. In a long overdue but instead there is conformity and found out the same facts about the structure and
publishing company, electricity use in selected parts acquiescence, patchy reforms and gesture politics. function of nature by other means, although it
of the building was reduced by 75% and an increase By not embodying a total critique they risk being might have taken longer. And it certainly cannot be
in the efficiency of gas use for space and water left on the 'wrong' side of history. used to justify the aggressive attempt to hang on to
heating of over 30% was achieved. In many private power by a relatively small group of well-paid and
flats a reduction in power requirements for lighting We in opposition are always expected ro prove or privileged people who understand and are involved
of 88% and of gas consumption for domestic hot substantiate our criticisms but for 50 years there has in the technology of nuclear power.
water and space heating of over 30% was achieved. been a tight rein on any information about nuclear Nik Holliman
Elm Disease (Part 2)
That august journal Time Out, (for whom our Mr Elms scribbles
pontifications on a whole range of banalities as a Mackney Columnist) was
recently told in no uncertain terms by a member of one of the Notting Hill
Festival organisers. A cover picture for cheir supplement in August 2004 was
gready improved by an unimpressed member of a sound crew giving che one
finger salute. It got past the editor unnoticed. Us here at Principia Dialectica
can only assume chat Time Out annoys far and wide, with it's vacuous coverage
of all the latest Speccacular goodies being foisted upon us. Time Out is a
shadow of it's former Left wing procest rag self; these days you can literally
hear ic swelling with pride as it lines up to join the merry lemmings hurrying
co commodify each and every square inch of our Luvverly Capital.
AwNah!
Senile Stalinists (Part 2)
As for the Marx Memorial Library, they couldn't even bring themselves to
review MARX 2000 by Robert Kurz, despite his high regard amongst many
Chicken Hawks Marx scholars across all continents. No doubt Kurz's radical interpretation of
All chose in che U.S. Government/administration who did not fight in the Marx had the trustees of the Lenin/Stalin archives choking on their porridge
army during rhe Vietnam War: Paul Wolfowitz, Dick "Crooked Mouth' and nervously adjusting their pacemakers.
Cheney, George W Bush ...
Quoted on Europe 1 radio station by Fran�ois Heisbourg, 14 May 2004. "YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
AFTER SUCCESS THAN FAILURE."
Suckers Sigmund Freud
$1000 omelette 'available' in a NY restaurant, AK.A. THE ZILLION
DOLLAR FRITTATA. The omelette is stuffed with caviar and lobster. The Debts have reached £I trillion in the UK
BBC replicated the dish. It cost £100 co do. No employee at the BEEB (£17,000 for each person) according to Company Store Blues, BBC
canteen will ever taste such a delicacy; only chose at che top of the greasy pole Radio news.
can enjoy such a snack!
WORKER DEAD AT HIS DESK FOR FIVE DAYS
Gin Alleys All Over Again Bosses of a publishing firm are crying to work out why no one noticed chat
3 56 drinking places in che centre of Nottingham According co Panorama on 6 one of cheir employees had been sitting dead at his desk for five days before
June 2004. The police are lose for answers. anyone asked if he was feeling okay.
Mayhem all over Britain every weekend.
George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proof-reader at a new
Dutch Elm Disease York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared
Robert Elms, the radio and TV hack visited the Marx Memorial Library (run with 23 others. He quietly passed away on Monday, hue nobody noticed until
by hard line dust covered Scaliniscs) and said 'there was no evidence Marx Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was still working
came co the library, but Lenin, one of his comrades, did.' One of the editors of during the weekend. His boss Elliot Wachiaski said: "George was always rhe
Principia Dialectica was asked to take part in an interview along with someone first guy in each morning and che last to leave at night, so no-one found it
from Freedom about the Situationist lncernacional, hue refused owing co the unusual char he was in the same position all chat time and didn't say anything.
Elm disease: lumping Marx and Lenin together is a contagion that needs co be He was always absorbed in his work and kept much co himself." A
quarantined. It is imperative co distance the 1917 new Kremlin master from post-mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for five days after
Marx! Lenin was lucky that Marx was not alive in 1917, because the dialectical suffering a coronary.
mind would have savaged the Bolsheviks for what they were -a new class, a Birmingham Sunday Mercury, 7 January 2001.
bureaucratic one. Lenin paved the way for Stalin.
(Ironically, George was proof-reading manuscripts of medical textbooks when
We leave Mr Elms to ponder on this heavy matter. he died. You may want to give your colleagues a nudge occasionally. The moral
of the story -don't work too hard. Nobody notices anyway.)
08 Principia Dialectica
AnonymoNuesc es(siitnth ye ory)
". .B.u rt heg readti ffereinscc hea tth es ocipaolw eirm posicnogn� troovlet rh e
useo ft hinwgass i nr hen atuorfet hep ersoanuatlh oroiftt hyeP aroah,
SOME OBSTACLEOSN THEW AYT OT HE
NORTH-WESPTA SSAGE... obeyebdye vermye mbeorf c her ulisnegt -uIpna .n e xchansgoec iebtays eodn
commodiptryo ducthioowne,v errh,es ocipaolw ehra sl ost pcehrisso nal
characatnedir n i tpsl aciesa na nonymonuesc esswihtiycf ho rciest sueplofn
everiyn divicdoumamlo diotwyn eTrh.e w holoef t heh ier�archical
superstruocftt hueEr gey ptisaonc iehtaysd isappe,aa rnedt hec ontroovle r
theu sea ndd ispoosfat lh inigsns o we xerciasneadr chibcyat lhlemy e chanism
ofc hem arkeitna ccordawnictech h el awosf p rivaptreo perwthyi,ca hr ien f act
chel awosf r hes eparaotfie oxnc hanagnedu se."
Extrafcrto m' Intt&catnudMa aln uaLla boubry A lfrSeodh nR ech(e1 l9 78)
LOVEO FWOR K
DUET OA BSENCE
MOR AL OF REALL IFE AnonymoNuesc es(siipntr ya ctice)
POSTURING 'PALESTINIFAINR MS' MAKEM ILLIONSS'E LLINGC HEAPC EMENT
FOR ISRAEIH:AST ED BARRIERR eporctl aitmhsa Atr afkante wo fd eals
andd idn othing'
DailyT ekgra2p5Jh u l2y0 04
REALITY AND APPEARANCE
An ordeorf£ 1b illwioornt ohf d ayw asr ecenedxyp ortferdo Imr atno l caly.
"WARI ST HEM ASSACRE OF PEOPLEW HO DO NOT KNOW EACH
Despiatletl h en oisoefe mbargtorsa,dc eo ntinautae f su riopuasc eI.rm ight
OTHER FOR PEOPLEW HO KNOW EACH OTHERB UT DON'TKI LL
puty oui nm indo ft hec onversabteitowneH eint laenrd h iesc onomi•. wshtos
EACH OTHER"
hadt op utc hem ufflerosn h icsr ackpiodetoa f d estabilsitseirnldgiu nrgi ng
Pauvla kry
WorlWda rT wo bys wampitnhgem arkewti tcho untercfuerirte ncy.
POTATOEH EAD!
TheN azeic onomipsoeisn toeudtc haittw oulrde bouonndt heN azis
Gueswsh oc ameo utw itthh esheo wlers?
themselbveecsa,ut shee wye rleo ckiendt oc heg lobcaulr renmcayr kearsw ell.
Theyq uietrleyt urcnoet dh ed estrucotfci hoanot l df avouriintset e-ardh e
'A lowv otetru rnoiusat n i ndicaotfif oenw epre opgloei ntgot hep olls'
cheapceosmtm odiotfyt hema l-lh umanb eings.
'Wea rree adfyo arn yu nforeseeveennt th amta yo rm ayn oto ccur'
Gutted!
TheD ailyM aiils a popolewcirtifhcu rayg a.i..nr hriism bee cau'smeo rteh an
'FoNrA SA,s paciess tialh li gphr iority' 1,00p0e opjloei n rtahneko sft hel ontge rsmi clki vionngb enefeivte'rw ye� k.
Thi'ss urigsae p 'r oblcehme hya vbee egne ttipnugffy cheekoevde fro arw hile
'Quiftrea nktleya,c haerrtesh eo nlpyr ofescshiaottne acohu rc hildren' nowAs. witehv erryi ghc-wsicnagsr teo royn' benecfhieta tthse'fi guraerse
'ThAem ericpaeno pwloeu lndo tw antto k nowo fa nym isquottheasIt m ay usualsluys pebcuttu, s h eraet P rincipDiiaa kctaircfuleal ya warteh atth_< n on
lifoefw orkm akeyso ui l-la ndt heo neisn m ascd ange(rco ot hernso,tJ USt
orm ayn ocm ake'
themselavretesh )o sweh od on'ktn owi co,r f inodu rt ool acAel.rl h adce ad
rimen,e vetrob er e-coupIerda'r. se atlr ageIdlyl.n iesns osj okeb,u tt oa ll
'We'arlecl a pabolfme i stakbeuscI, d on otc arteo e nlighytoeuon n c he
thostea kiinteg a scyo urtoefst yh ew elfacrhee quienc: h ew ordosf t hahte avy
mistawkeems a yo rm ayn oth avmea de' metaolu tfciitr 1c9a7 9w hosnea mee scapues(s I roMna iden?)
..W.e SaluYtoeu !
'Iits np'otl luttihoanth 'asr mitnhge e nvironmlecnt'ths.e i mpuriitnio eusra ir
andw atetrh aatr deo inigt ' Thef ollowairntgi wcalsefi rsptu blisihne1 d9 22a ndr eprinitne d
lnternatiSointauka tioNnon1i 1sOt ctt,o b1er9 67T.h iisst hefi rsrti mier h as
'Itt'ism feo crh eh umanr acteo e nter ches ysstoelma'r
appearienEd n glish:
'WhenIh avbee eans kewdh oc austehde r ioatnsd t hek illiinnLA g, my
"Theriese verythtiobn egl ietvhear th eG ermaCno mmuniPsatr tiyna, s m uch
answehra sb eedni reacntds imple: iWsth obo l amfoer t her iotTsh?er ioters
asi ti sr epresebnyti etadsc tulaela deardsv,e ntuarnidsa cnsa rchiwsitlnslo, t
arceo b lameW.h o ist ob lamfeo crh ek illiTnhgesk ?i llaerrteso b lame.'
submittor hed ecisoifot nh eI nternacainodnf ailn,d iintgs oeultfs iodfie t w,i ll
trpyr obabwliyco hc he'rl eftweixntgr emeilsetm'e nttoss e utp a F ourh t
'Ia mn otp arotft hep robleIma .m aR epublican' .
InternatOiuornc aolm.r adKeo llanhtaasbi l owdnu rionugr c ongrienst sh e
samel itttrluem p.el tei sn os ecrfeotar n yonreh aocu rp artayst hem omenits
'Illegitisis moamceyt hiwnesg h outladl akb ouitn t ermosfn oth avinigc '
thel evoefrt heC ommuniIsnet ernacHioowneavle.Cr o,m radKeo l�lonhtaasi
'Publsipce akiinsvg e reya sy presenctheesd t aotfew hath'asp peniinnog u rp artiyns ucah": 'atya ci t .
woulsde emt harth ew orkimnags s-esw itCho mradKeo llonltea.atd i-nwgi ll
Allc ourtoefsyG eorBgutsI hI
bec ompelloendem, o nthe arloirel ra tteo,m akea t hirrde voluitnio ornd etro
estabal" itsrhu Seo"v ireetg imBeu.ew hya c hiradn dn ota f ourtshi,n cthee
MarkT homast,h es o-calcloemde disaani hde i sa na narcho-Zen-dHoeu bter.'
chirrde volumtaidoeni nt hen ameo ft he" veritraebgliemo'ef'S oviehtass
waso na r adicoh asth oww itChh arl"eTsh emPea rkS"p encSeorm.e a narcho
alreatdayk epnl acdeu ritnhge m ontho fF ebruairnKy r onsta(.d .t).T? h eraer e
Zenm eeticnhga wta s!
stillelf tweixntgr emiinsH tosl land, tmhaeyrbaeer set imlolr ei no ther
BBCRad io 4,A ugus2t 2 004.
countrIid eosn ,o tk nowi ft hehya vbee etna keinn tcoo nsideraHtoiwoenv.e r,
onet hinigsf osru rTeh.e inru mbeirsn ote xtraordainndia triy st hep eroifl
FOR FOX'SS AKE becominnugm erowuhsi cwho ulmde nacteh eF ourtlhn ter.nattthoeln eaal1.s f t
THE OLD divisbieotnw eteonw na ndc ounthriyLt o ndoonn cmeo rea tc he
byc hancierc amet ob es eurp ."
faegn do fS umme2r 004B.l iaanrd c ot.h ougthhte cyo uluds et hef ox
qu esciaosan d iversfiroonma lclh er eaplr obleamchs o mea ':'d abroaT�h.e Trotsk'Ay S,c hooolfR evolutioSntraartyeT ghyeT. h irCdo ngreosfts h e
onlsyn a-gi cb ackfirBeldi.-a rl ikCeh arlIe( sh ec hinhkesi sm oreh ke InternacCioomnmauln iseassr' e,p oritne'd N ouveEltka p1t9 22.
Cromweldle!c)i dcehda trh ef oxm ustg oi na na bsolmuatnen ewri tnho
recoufrrsoemt h eH ousoef L ordcsor ejetchtie sd icBtl.i haars s eatk inodf
Trotswktyno tn t oJ eutp a F ourItnht ernatiFoinnaalllt.y,h exee cutiobneecra mt
civwialri nm otioFno.x h unting rep'rOelsEden ngtlsa ncdo'm plete with all
theex ecuitne1 d9 40.
thosgeh astalnyc esttrraald it'iToonwsn.i wehso'l iviena m odermna nnefri nd
fo-xh unting baarnbdia nrdiecei cdi sB.u th owi si rp ossitbolb ea ns omerhmg "SHED OESN'TW ANT TO BE OFF CAMERA."
whenp eoplwaen tt oc arroynw itahc ertapirna ctiFcoexh? u ntianlgs o warren' Stud'B eatstyp eakaibnogu MAtD ONNA, well-kncoownnt ortionist.
emploqyusi tael ootf p eoplBel.i -awrh oi sa lwakyese cno f orcpeeo pblea ck
tow ork-i sc ontradibcyht iessdt aitnet ervenItrioonni.c faolxlehysa, v feo und
refuignem anyc ownosw intgo t hem asasm ountosff ooddi scaridne d
dustbiannsdf, r omal tlh ef asfto oodu detAss .f oBrl iahreh, a sl ost rhe
countryvsoitd.ee. .
PrinciDpiiaal ect0i9c a
T H E T RAG E DY
OF S E XUA L
L I B E R AT I O N
Is it feasible to criticise the permissive society the form of money, which they exchange for other but repression does not have to be of the kind that
without lining up with the moral majority and commodities, some of which are essential to life, existed in the 1930s. Herbert Marcuse, although he
Daily Mail columnists? I believe it is, and it is others patently not. The market has in itself an made a devastating critique of our technological
necessary today more than ever. What differentiates ability to create needs in people which they society in Eros and Civilization failed to foresee the
us from the Right is that they hark back to a past formerly didn't know they had. In Western society, extent to which the sexual revolution could be
that is largely imaginary, whereas we wish to move the economy is in fact based on consumption rather incorporated. He hoped that a release of repression
forward and look to the future. than production, as industrial capital has largely and a liberation of the id could mount a successful
The Right look back to a time when so called been moved to the so called 'developing world.' challenge to the status quo, in all fairness it did for
'family values' with the sexual politics of either where labour is cheaper. Hence, what Marx termed a short time for a privileged and lucky few, but was
heterosexual monogamy in the form of the 'commodity fetishism' has reached a ludicrous level. quickly re-incorporated. Many feminists held this
institution of marriage or chastity, choosing to People work in the administration of the service view in some variation or other. The major goals of
forget the hypocrisy and repression of the Victorian sector, producing nothing, spending what is a lot of the radical feminists (to abolish the nuclear family
era and the suffering that the double standards their time on socially useless labour in order to and socialise child rearing) has not come to
brought to both women and homosexual men in consume more and more. Wages are spent on fruition, and some thanks must go to their liberal
particular. It is on this basis that they criticise the intoxicants such as alcohol or drugs in order to heirs, now incorporated into positions of
'permissive society' wishing for a return to an escape from the drudgery of everyday life. management who defend the institution of the
idealised era when values were only skin deep. Alienated labour not only alienates producers family for matters of expediency or who view their
It is essential we critique our society's very from their products and their consumers but past position as 'naive.'
foundation, before we look at its effect on peoples' alienates people from themselves, thwarting growth In short, the commodity is an object, a thing. It
relationships. The value of today's capitalist society and creativity. This alienation cannot but have a is defined by it's use value. When it wears out or
infiltrate our lives at every level. To use the well detrimental effect on peoples' relationships with the owner tires of it, it is discarded to be replaced
worn feminist statement, one separates the personal one another. The system attempts to compensate with a new one. To realise how sex is a commodity,
from the political at one's peril. Indeed, the for this by the worship of the commodity, creating we must face the unpleasant fact that humans are
separation of the 'personal' from the 'political' more and more needs, more and more commodities the cheapest, most expendable of all commodities.
spheres is in fact one of the results of capitalist so that the cycle continues. .A nything that The system has written in fail safe protection, so
society itself. In pre-capitalist societies, the divide attempts to subvert the culture is quickly seized that when a human becomes redundant, it's
between private and public had not yet been upon up the establishment and turned into it's expedition is done as painlessly and as profitably as
invented. opposite-this is a process commonly known as possible-usually with the enlistment, willing or
Alienated labour has the result of separating the rarification. not, of a low paid slave army of women workers
producer from the product. With the advent of The sexual revolution of the 1960s is one such (domestics, home helps, mothers, sisters and
assembly line production craftsmanship example. What was initially a movement for human nurses.)
disappeared. In the days of craftsmanship an artisan liberation has now turned into it's opposite-a The most extreme example of commodification
would not only make his goods that he lived from vehicle for further repression. In consumer society of women is prostitution. Although we can snigger
but would also know his purchasers directly. Today the commodity along with the hierarchy of order and refer to it as 'the oldest profession' it has taken
a buyer of a product in a supermarket has no giving, are the main forms of oppression, on the form of a particularly alienated type under
interaction with the producers, of whom are more ideologically built into and dependent upon the consumer capitalism. In pre-capitalist patriarchal
than one individual since the commodity in itself (waning but still prevalent) nuclear family. Indeed, societies, (and even under early industrial
assembled by pans. In the era of globalisation the sex is now one of the most successful of all capitalism) all women were the property of men, a
commodity is removed from the consumer to a commodities available-moreover, it's success main difference being that the wife was the
degree hitherto unknown. Local markets are an ensures that it helps to sell all the others property of one man, the whore the property of
increasingly rare phenomenon, increasingly commodities. many. The whore was hypocritically shunned by
commodified for the tourist sector alone. The pioneering investigator of sexuality, Wilhelm society for providing the extra marital sex that the
The producers cannot look at what they have Reich failed to foresee this phenomena, having ruling class of men themselves demanded.
made and see the fruits of their labour and part of believed that an authoritarian society could not co One may well ask the obvious question-if we
themselves reflected back. Instead, they get paid in exist without sexual repression. Indeed, it cannot, are supposedly 'liberated' why does prostitution still
IO Principia Diale�tica
