What in the hell …

I never liked or agreed with Alphonse’s arguments about Buffy the Vampire Slayer having fascistic content. I’m still not convinced (and - maybe I should say because - I’m a big fan of the show and of the comic book continuation[s]) (more…)

… if I write a blog post while here?

Dumb, I know. But these last few archive trips that’s totally what I’ve done or wanted to do. It’s partly boredom, I’ll be honest. But it’s also partly that looking at this old stuff gives me ideas. I expect this will continue some, and to deal w/ that I need to be conciser. Or more shorthandy anyway. I’ll try that now, in these notes on abstract labor.

Abstract labor is a theoretical category, a category of/in reflection on social relations. It is not in social relations, such that one could measure social relations as being themselves abstract. That is, there is no actually instantiated abstract labor (including labors of abstraction). Talk of abstract labor as an actually existing phenomenon - as opposed to as an implied understanding or a social logic - can obscure as much as it clarify. This sort of abstract labor talk does track onto important phenomena, however, such as financialization/monetarization, de-skilling, and immaterialization (and perhaps other changes in labor processes as well).

Somewhat related to financialization/monetarization, about wages, I think “abstract” is a particularly bad term with regard to wages. I’d prefer to say that wages are payment with many possibilities, or payment the uses of which are underdetermined by the form of payment (this is to some degree always true - payment in kind in wood, say, could be used to build or to burn or hit someone with, say). On the other hand, workers may well have their wages spoken for due to various types of commitments - legal contracts to pay debts, or things that they value. Also addictions. I’ve heard a sentiment expressed many times along the lines of “working to put my kid through school” or “working to pay the mortgage” or “saving up for that vacation.”

One aspect where I am willing to get on board with the abstraction stuff and with the immaterial labor stuff is that spending wages involves or can involve a sort of calculation of how the money will be spent, a labor of accounting as part of managing the reproduction of one’s labor power.

Part of what I’m now thinking about all the workers’ comp and injury stuff I’ve posted about before.

Insurance spreads risks, or at least the financial aspects of risks, across a broader pool, blunting the impact of accidents. One term for this is socialization of risk. (more…)

Like I said, the police have been cracking down here in the Twin Cities, what with the RNC protests and all.

In 1997 Amnesty International declared that police use of pepper spray is basically torture. More recently, the organization has called for an end to police use of tasers in the US. AI is a reputable human rights organization. Let’s assume that they’re right. Recently the cops in the Twin Cities have been using these weapons on protesters locally.

As an aside, I want to note two things. Pepper spray and “rubber bullets” (which are actually metal bullets, though they’re covered in rubber), stun grenades, tasers, and so on, these things are weapons. The police here are using weapons on unarmed civilians who are not breaking the law and for the few who are, the crimes do not warrant use of weapons. Second, these weapons are what are sometimes known as “non-lethal weapons”, and sometimes known by the more accurate “less lethal weapons.” “Non-lethal” is an Orwellian term. It’s kind of a parallel to “safe sex.” Sex with a stranger while wearing a condom is not safe. It’s just safer than now wearing a condom. Hence the more accurate term “safer sex.” By analogy, these weapons used locally are not “non-lethal.” There’s “less lethal”, which means they’re lethal less often. But they do sometimes kill. And they can and do injure badly, short of death.

Anyhow, this is torture.

And the cities here knew going into this that they would have police use of force. That’s why they negotiated for insurance to cover this, so any police brutality suits would not impact them financially but instead would impact the RNC. At least up to 10 million bucks.

Torture with full financial impunity. Genius.

Link dump.

Reflections on J18

Post-Script to Give Up Activism

The Necessity and Impossibility of Anti-Activism

Whose Ally?

Border Camps

What is the movement

Gleneagles, activism and ordinary rebelliousness

Anarchism and the Struggle to Move Forward

Discussion of summit hopping

Anti-G8 Protests in Calgary

from Media Mouse

Three Mayday Articles

Event Horizon

After the Dust Settles


Summit Protests and Networks

Smashing the Conventions

A prior linkdump

There’s a certain dreadfulness to time spent in anticipation of the unpleasant and unnecessary. Like being in a waiting room. (more…)