Ex Althusserian Jacques Bidet wastes much ink explaining that we should faece facts, and that we can’t smash the cystern But as the reviewer points out, a recent book on the revolutionary Chartists steers a clearer path between the ‘liberal egalitarian’ social theorists of today and the rocks of a warmed over Althusserianism

New book on the Spanish revolution slurs the anarchists. Refuted here.

Harwich Redoubt, in Suffolk, England. This was a fort built to deter Napoleonic invasion. In Literature and Revolution, Leon Trotsky talks of the grandeur of the Medieval cathedrals – designed to overwhelm the peasant with utter fear of the earthly realm as much as to put him in awe of any transcendental power above. Similarly, [...]

From the journal Rethinking Marxism we found this hidden gem by Myka Tucker-Abramson, The Economic Reformation of Magic in Doctor Faustus: Editor’s introduction For those with an interest in considering Marxian approaches to literature, this issue offers Myka Tucker-Abramson’s ‘‘Is Marlowe a Marxist? The Economic Reformation of Magic in Doctor Faustus.’’ In a richly nuanced [...]

Not for the first time, PD tips off our loyal fanbase with some hot news that can only benefit youselves, and in so doing of course, the geist itself. The thanks we get is minimal, nay, non existent. Donuts like Neg Pot or 21st century trotskyoids who defend barbarian theologians take up all the airtime [...]

‘Managers of violence’ Buried in the BBC online archives is this fascinating 1974 documentary on the training of officers in the British army. Breaking in the young recruits in the early 1970s meant teaching them the dangers of home grown insurrection. The young toffs interviewed now look so young – like the children they recently [...]

Vayr-Piova in memoriam Our Goals and our methods in the scandal of Strasburg. From Internationale situationniste no 11, 1967 (…) ” The final departure from the office of the Afges [Students' Union] was not so dignified. At this moment, three situationists, found themselves excluded for having committed as a team -and for having to admit [...]

The excellent film shown on BBC4 on the 29th of January, called Flame and Citron made by Ole Christian Madsen (2008), clearly depicted what the DR was all about, especially the grey areas, of double agents for example. It analysed the calculations of politicians within the DR as to what will take place once Danemark [...]

Louise Michel and Nathalie Le Mel were both involved in the Paris Commune. Nathalie Le Mel used to run a communitarian restaurant in the rue Larcy in Paris, that street has disappeared. The restaurant was called “La Marmite”. (The cooking-pot). Nathalie le Mel and about 100 women fought the last battles of the Paris Commune [...]

Otto vonBismarck enraged at the constant criticism from scientist Rudolf Virchow , had his entourage call upon him to challenge him to a duel. “As the challenged party , I have the choice of weapons,” said Virchow, “and I choose these”. He held aloft two large sausages . “One of these is infected with deadly [...]