Great overview of that book’s life and times here

This review of a new book suggests that Allende chose to die as a symbol of geniune libertarian socialism, refusing to take the road towards totalitarianism as Castro did. Allende was close to the Cuban regime, with many advisors, but maintained his independence, believing that the machinery of civil society could be used to the [...]

Red soldiers enter Kronstadt after liquidation of the uprising. 1921 From left: P. Dybenko, Fedorov, I. F. Fedko An extract from a discussion between Simon Critchley and Tom McCarthy: SC: ‘Some people identify Nietzsche’s position with active nihilism. Now, they’re not wrong, but I think what Nietzsche means by active nihilism is what would have [...]

Self styled Leninst supports Serbian fascists: http://greatersurbiton.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/swp-blogger-richard-lenin-seymour-supported-serbian-territorial-expansion/

If you only do one thing today, be sure it is to read this moving and utterly horrifying true story of how one boy escaped the North Korean regime death camps here. A couple of years ago PD were buttonholed at a Historical Materialism conference by an ex-68er who defended the regime of North Korea. [...]

Hatchet job on SWP saint here Cliff wrote the three volume biog. of Lenin in the early 1970s, at the time he was fighting to move the SWP towards a Leninist model and away from ‘the Luxemburg model’, where adherence to central diktats was not seen as something to be admired per se, and more [...]

Zizek lucid: ‘You know, Ayn Rand was right: Money is the strongest means or instrument for freedom. She means this: We exchange only if both parties want it. At least formally, both sides of the exchange get something. Without money, direct means of domination will need to be restored. Of course, I don’t accept her [...]

Good commentary on Greece here. But the grating habit the Platypi have of putting ‘The Left’ in ‘italics’ (as in, huh, ‘so-called’ Left) unfortunately has them come across as snooty Robespierrists who imagine a good dose of Thermidor is just what the people need. Oh, hang on a minute….

PD Teaboy: Budgen, The Historical Materialism office dweeble, has just sent this through. It’s called Review 31 and claims to be a new literary review, with a ‘diverse mix of scholars and journalists.’ (sound of sniggering heard from behind the toilet partition). There is a piece in there by Ian Birchall on the new Mackenzie-Wark [...]

Spoiler alert: An adventure that starts off badly, and ends even worse