Everything to Play For Review

 

Marijam Didžgalvytė (Marijam Did) has a book coming out in Autumn called Everything to Play For, How Videogames are Changing the World (EPF). I was one of the lucky few to be given an advance copy. My deadline for getting my notes into shape was extremely tight but I found the book an engaging read, EPF is a mix of autobiography, artistic review and criticism, sociological research, consumer activism, history of workplace organising and appeal for further activism and resistance to build a better gaming industry as part of a better society for everyone.

The book covers plenty of ground, and despite its grand scope EPF is newbie friendly - gaming terms are explained when they first appear in the text. Did’s target audience appears to be people who are committed left wingers of one stripe or other but are not into games or are sceptical of them and possibly even hostile to them. There are several passages lamenting the arbitrary treatment of games compared to film, art, literature etc. While every game terminology and technology is explained left wing terminology is only explained if it’s somewhat obscure. For example, the Situationist concept of Derive (Drift) is explained for the reader but Did’s usage of Historical Materialism is not.

I share Did’s frustrations on common left wing disdain for games and the blind spots that come with it. I’ve experienced the disapproval and belittling attitude first hand and I’ve been trying to chip away at that wall of disinterest for some time in my own small way. I was surprised when Organise expressed interest both in my writing and commentary about games in general as that is not a typical response for an older established platform. Film, music and literature are staples of left wing critical commentary, and entire schools of thought have risen to prominence pondering the impact of these media institutions on the minds of the working masses, but videogames are still shut out of those conversations. EPF’s publisher is Verso books, which is both another positive sign of change and a good platform to reach the audience of sceptics. Did makes an effective case that to ignore one of the largest industries on the planet is to seriously undermine any strategy for resistance to capitalism and hinders attempts to construct a world that is free from the exploitation and violence of infinite growth and productivity improvements.

The games industry is a major contributor to land clearance, modern slavery, resource depletion and pollution. If we wish to stop hyper-exploitation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other regions of the world we can’t limit ourselves to illegal logging and conflict diamonds, we have to challenge the role of tech and game companies in cobalt and other mineral mining. Tens of thousands of people around the world are employed in the games industry and just like their fellow workers on the docks, in the fields and factories they are exploited, overworked, underpaid, harassed sexually, bullied, fired on short or no notice, and through their labour create products that they will not own and will enrich someone else. Their struggles are just as worthy of moral and practical support.

Ignorance of these areas also presents the danger of sleep walking into a trap as the cultural, social and psychological effects of the lessons learnt in the gaming industry seep out into areas of our society and personal lives that at a glance are completely separate from the world of point winning and level climbing. Gamification is marketing buzzword, but annoyingly and dangerously it’s a buzzword that describes a real process that has proven time and again to be quite effective, at least effective at generating profit. The impact that the logic of video games being exported outside its traditional sphere is something we don’t fully understand yet as the process is still in early stages, but its quickly becoming inescapable even for those who have never touched a joystick and only use keyboards and mice for writing emails and browsing videos of cats being random. My audio book and podcasts apps recently added medals and experience points as an example of the future fast approaching.

All of these issues and more are summarised and examined in EPF, there’s lot of blood, sweat and tears that go into making plumbers jump up and down and hedgehogs collect shiny rings, and sadly that is often literal. I’ve never experienced crunch time developing a video game but I’ve experienced similar conditions in a factory, and its mind, body, and soul draining work, so I can empathise with conditions for game developers. There’s plenty to critique and lament in gaming spaces and the industry that shapes it right now, and EPF could easily have been another entry in the growing left wing genre of political pessimism, pointing out and cataloguing at length the many faults of the world as it is and then despairing about how insurmountable it all is. Thankfully EPF is not like that, although it does catalogue the many faults of the world as it is. It also credits the successes, games that engage politically with their players and raise awareness of issues, the growth of video game and tech worker unions, independent developers and games co-operatives that are experimenting with new ways of working that promote sustainability, collaboration and equability in compensation and decision making. EPF couples these positives with outlines of a potential better future for gaming that more support from the wider left could assist in making a reality sooner.

EPFs vision of a possible future is not a blueprint and there are parts of the puzzle that remain unanswered by the end of the conclusion. To me that isn’t a detriment; the history of the schools of socialism is littered with impressive schematics that breakdown and become obsolete within a year. The remaining ambiguities in EPF leave room for independent thought, and there were points in the text where Did asked a question and while reading I thought of a rough outline of an answer or potential avenue for discussion and examination. I really hope that in the near future I will find enough time to start writing some of them.

I’m not in the target demographic (well I am partially in that demographic - I am convinced that we need a revolutionary overhaul of society after all), but I’m not new to games and I doubt anyone who reads Red & Black Gamers would need the definition for a LAN party. If that’s the case should you still read EPF? I would hope that I’ve already answered that question, but just in case I’ll be blunt: yes, yes you should. I consider myself a well-informed gamer who has documented issues within the industry and supported early attempts at resistance, and yet I’ve learnt quite a bit, both new examples and some more information or another perspective on cases and incidents I was already aware of. To pick just one example I was aware of the game Dead Cells, but was not familiar with its studio Motion Twin nor that it is open about its support for Anarcho-Syndicalism.

“Follow games industry unions on social media and support their calls for action. Enjoy and encourage artistic experimentations in this field and support smaller creators. Do not dismiss political action within these spaces as isolated aberrations, but engage with them, give them merit, be curious.”

Is it a perfect book? No, but I don’t believe those exist and my negative notes were trivial, so I won’t bother including them as just mentioning them would give them greater weight than they merit. I think EPF is good contribution to the discourse about video games and I hope it proves to be a successful step in the process of getting video games as an industry, and as a subject for criticism, resistance and improvement out of the lefty sin bin and into the mainstream. Getting it on the bookshelf is a good start.■

Reddebrek
You can find more of Reddebreks writing and reviews on their website: reddebreksbowl.blogspot.com

Pre-orders of "Everything to Play For" are available from Verso Books with 20% off, £13.60 paper book / £8 Ebook which shipping commencing on 17 September.

The Workers Union by Flora Tristan

 

The Workers Union is a book written by Flora Tristan a French Socialist and early feminist. It was published in 1843 after she managed to raise enough donations to pay for its first printing. It proved popular, so much so that it had two more printings in its first year of circulation. In a way Tristan was also a pioneer in crowdfunding. The book is an odd creation, or rather its become odd thanks to the passage of time. 

It was written during the last years of the July Monarchy, where radical voices were scrutinised and spied upon by the police, and gatherings of a political nature were limited to seven people at most. So it can be hard to put hindsight aside while reading it. But the effort is worth it. I believe Tristan's thought is a sort of mix and transition from the old co-operative and guild socialism of the early 1800s, the ideas of Fourier, Owen, St Simon etc, who are usually written off with the pejoratives Idealists, and Utopians, and the later socialist ideas. The translator of the book is keen to stress the connections and relevance her ideas have to the socialism of Marx and Engels, and I can see connections. But I was also strongly reminded of similarities with the Mutualist ideas of Proudhon who has a book La Celebration du dimanche, included in Tristan's recommended reading list for a hypothetical learning library for workers. And certain passages in the Workers Union could've been recycled into many a pamphlet on the merits of the One Big Union popularised by early syndicalists.

Tristan is open about her inspirations, St. Simon, Robert Owen and Fourier among others are acknowledged and praised, but also criticised for their shortcomings. The socialism of Flora Tristan represents a unique combination from a time of change and transformation. The American Anarchist Tom Wetzel believes Tristan to be a forerunner to International Workingmen's Association (IWMA) and this Workers Union is indeed an early proposal and rough blueprint for an international workers organisation. Its a flawed one mainly advocating that combination of all workers will empower and fund important projects including representation, welfare and educational enterprises (the workers palaces) and compel governments to grant the rights of work and organisation. 

I don't believe such a program was viable especially given that a key part of this Union was the appointment of a sole individual as its defender and champion in open copying of the Irish masses subscriptions for O'Connell in his work for constitutional reforms for Ireland. There is at least an acknowledgement that a dictatorial figure would be less than ideal and an attempt to control this hypothetical workers advocate with an idea of setting up a committee to examine their conduct and use of funds, and who can revoke their mandate if not satisfied. It's difficult for modern readers to understand the fixation on a singular great man but in the 1840s and long after even the socialist movement was dominated by powerful individuals. 

There is also a section dedicated to a series of draft appeals to the powerful in society, including the King and the Catholic church which are unthinkable in this day and age. But there is at least some method to this madness, the appeals were essentially politely worded charges of hypocrisy and in Tristan's own words would serve the dual purposes of soliciting support from the few progressives in society and the lack of response or critical rebukes to such appeals would serve as proof of general antagonism to the workers and their initiatives. 

So I don't think this work should be read seeking a practical strategy. It is an historic document. The longest appeal by far is addressed to women. Although called the Workers Union many pages are dedicated to the plight of women in 19th century society and advocating for improvements and inclusion within the working class. A modern feminist would have much to criticise, it leaves intact the family and a women's role within it, i.e. carer, but it does demand and advocate for education and condemns unequal pay practises in work. It also repeats Wollstonecraft's demand of a declaration of the rights of woman to be paired with the rights of man declared during the French revolution. 

It is an odd document that deserves to be read with open but critical minds. 

Rainbow Revolutions - Review

 

Its Pride Month in my local Library, so out of curiosity I picked this off the stand and decided to see what material was being made for younger generations. I'm sure this book was published to target school libraries and young readers. The book is stuffed with beautiful and highly colourful two page pictures that introduce every section, and each section is itself set out in a two page summary of the key facts about the topic. And the section dedicated to discussing the impact of Section 28 mentions that had it still been in force that it would've been impossible for this book to have been published.

I'm not in the target audience for the book, and while some of the more well known sections left me feeling like some important bits were cut out I did still learn some things from it, and I found it to be an easy read, I started and finished it in one sitting.

I can say with confidence that this book is miles better than anything that was available to me on Queer history and identity when I was still a pupil. But then, that's not surprising, there was nothing like this in my school library because most of my early schooling was in the last years of Section 28. A fact that this book reminded me. Looking back this explains why we went from no talk or discussion about Queer issues until 2004-5 when we suddenly had special and clearly very rushed lessons in biology and sexual education about how some people are Gay, Intersex or Transsexual (the term used at the time) and that this was natural and wasn't something to be vilified.

I really like this book, Its making a strong attempt to be as inclusive as possible and acknowledges some of the failings of the older Queer rights and liberation movements, there are sections on issues affecting Trans people, Women, Ethnic minorities, bisexuals and so on. I was also pleased that while it was congratulatory over the recent legislative reforms won in some nations like same-sex marriage and discrimination protections, it always qualified them with reminders that phobia, discrimination violence and other challenges didn't disappear with them.

Women as Sex Vendors; or Why Women are Conservative

 

 A marxists' confused attempt to argue that women are a petits-bourgeois class in society, both reactionary and privileged when compared to men.

The propertyless woman today is rarely reduced to starvation. If the price (or wages) offered for the sale of her laboring power are unsatisfactory, she may always supplement them through the barter or sale of her sex. That there are no women hoboes in the civilized world today is incontestable proof of the superiority of the economic status of woman over man.

The arguments are diverse and often contradictory, and there is absolutely no acknowledgement nor attempt to grapple with the contemporary women's movement, whose very existence rebuked most of his points. At the beginning of the book, the author mentions that there are few women revolutionists, so I suspect he was using this as an excuse not to engage with it. The Women's movement in particular the campaigns for suffrage and full civil rights were overwhelmingly reformist, but they involved a very diverse coalition of women from all backgrounds and political lineages, including revolutionaries like Sylvia Pankhurst. But even though for many political and social reforms were the end point of the movement it was an international movement that mobilised thousands of women to intervene socially and politically with an incredible diversity of tactics, from respectable petitioning to acts of terrorism, one Suffragette -Mary Leigh- threw an axe at the Prime Minister Asquith. 

 

And in response to this demand for reforms the suffrage movement was met with systematic violence, that included police beatings, arrests and torture by force-feeding hunger strikers.  

And he weakens any revolutionary purity grounds by comparing men to women and concluding that men are serious minded and talk and discuss things of importance like civil engineering. So I suspect this refusal to even acknowledge the existence of a mass and diverse movement of committed political reformers willing to make extreme sacrifices is less to do with purity and more to do with cowardice.

Also, largely ignored was the related movement by women to enter the workplace, thus giving up their beneficial sex commodity privileges in favour of the far inferior selling of labour that men must suffer through. I say largely because the author does grudgingly acknowledge women work but it's sparse and highly revealing. Apart from references to stereotypical jobs for women like stenographers there's a speculative passage on the First World War leading to massive social upheaval if it continues and forces more women into industry, and a criticism of women bringing down wages, which lays the blame not on the bosses or the weakness of the labour movement but on women themselves.

Women compete for jobs with men today, force down wages to a lower level and demand more from men before they will marry. And yet we see $25.00 a week stenographers giving up their positions to barter themselves, presumably for life, to $35.00 a week clerks or salesmen, rarely because of the mating instinct, but usually because of the personal triumph this means in the competition between members of the sex, and the social approbation which marriage brings.

Why compete for jobs and then ditch them as soon as they can attract a man with even a slightly higher salary? Selling labour power in this book is a negative, inferior way of survival in class society according to this book. This is not explained, the fact that women were increasingly pushing for access to work should be recognized as a major issue for the overall "biological and economic" argument, but instead it's just brushed aside because many of these women were still marrying. And where on earth is the evidence for why these relationships happen to come from? Either the author is thinking of one specific woman who earned $25.00 a week as a stenographer who married a clerk on $35.00 a week and told them it was for the "personal triumph this means in the competition between members of the sex, and the social approbation which marriage brings" or they're making assumptions.

Furthermore, several points can only stand up if you ignore or weren't aware of men in the sex industry. A key argument is that women are better off in the 1910s America because they can sell their sex in both marriage and prostitution, whereas men apparently could not. This is simply incorrect, men do in fact sell their sex commodities, both in sexual work and in courtship and marriage. Ultimately the approach being used in this book is the shotgun technic, the author lacks a killer argument to be the foundation, so it moves from one point to another but the relationship between them is rarely made clear and is only assumed, and  in numerous cases contradict one another.

One passage assures the reader that women are as capable as men at everything, and it's the economic system we live in that is to blame. But then a few pages later it advises only hiring male stenographers because they're smarter than women in that role. Another passage claims that listening to boys is always intellectually stimulating because they talk about serious topics like civil engineering, careers and politics, whereas girls only talk about boys and dresses. Another section relies heavily on Engels' Origins of the family to make its points for it. Most of the quotes concern the decline of maternal societies with the advent of industrial capitalism, one quote even refers to this as the "historic defeat of the female sex". But after that, the book makes the argument that women as a sex are superior to men because there are laws to protect women and in capitalist society laws are only made to protect the propertied, ergo women have more economic power. So Engels is correct that maternal society has been abolished and the key feature of this society was that women occupied privileged positions of power over men, turn the page and this non-maternal society we live in has as its key feature women occupying privileged positions of power over men. Unless Engels and the other historians named in that section were being brought up simply as an appeal to authority, this actually raises many questions over the orthodox marxist approach to stages of development.

The legal framework argument would also make the outlawing of child labour prove that it is the adult population who serve at the beck and call of the youth. Indeed, quite a few of the arguments in this book could be taken and altered slightly for "Why Children are Conservative".  

The book maintains a detached tone, arguing that the conclusions of the author are the result of economic and biological analysis and the attempt to get at the root of the issue. There are a few moments where this slips, usually when the author attempts to generalize from anecdotes or make absolute statements about things that have very obvious counter examples. But when the issue of divorce comes up, this falls away completely. The entire section is just a highly emotive tirade about how the courts and public opinion always sides with the woman and never the man.

If she be discreet, she may entertain lovers galore; she may refuse to perform any of the theoretical duties of the home; she may refuse to bear children or to surrender to her husband, without censure, and often without the knowledge of the world. If she be addicted to drunkenness, people will divine that her husband must have treated her brutally; if she be seen with other men, folks suspect that he neglects her.

If her husband seeks satisfaction for his desires elsewhere, she may divorce him and secure alimony; if he deserts her the law will return him to her side, if it can find him. If he fails to bring home the wherewithall to provide for her, she may have him sent to jail. If she discovers that he is getting the affection and the sex life which she has denied him, outside of his home, and if she buys a revolver and murders him in cold blood, the jury will exonerate her.

If a wife deserts her husband and her children, the law does not make her a criminal; for wife abandonment, the husband is held criminally liable.

No matter what the offense of the woman, custom and public opinion demand that every "decent" man permit his wife to accuse him on "just grounds" and to secure the divorce and call on the law to force him to pay her alimony for the rest of their natural lives.

No matter what the provocation, legally or sentimentally, no man can be exonerated for killing a woman. No matter how little the provocation, legally or sentimentally, any woman may kill almost any man, and the jury will render a verdict of Not Guilty. She has only to say that he "deceived her."

I looked it up, and it's not true, until the 1970s the easiest way to get a divorce was to move to Nevada because its requirements were less stringent, and you only had to live in the state for six months to qualify. Failing that, another Western state would do. These `divorce mill` states as they were called wouldn't have been needed if the tirade above were true. Until no-fault divorce was made legal in the US, you had to prove one spouse was at fault, if both were found at fault the divorce request was denied. During the period that this book was written, the majority of divorces were given to the wife 

During the whole period under study the over-
whelming majority of divorces were granted to the
wife, and this majority increased slightly through-
out the period. There is a definite territorial
pattern: The proportion of decrees granted to
women in the South, particularly the South Atlantic
Division, was always lower than in other areas.
During the early years of divorce statistics the
overwhelming majority of decrees in several
southern States were granted to husbands, but
this majority disappeared about the turn of the
century. On the other extreme, wives have ob-
tained about three-fourths of all decrees in the
West and, since 1916, in the North Central Region

 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_21/sr21_024.pdf

However, this still shows the dishonesty of the author's framing, husbands could obtain divorces if they wished and could prove the fault. 

To be perfectly honest, I suspect this pamphlet was authored as an attempt to promote a conservative conception of the socialist movement. During the war, the suffrage movement was making progress and women were entering the workforce in large numbers. It was only a matter of time before the number of women agitators and revolutionists increased significantly. Of course since it can't even acknowledge the existence of these currents its ability to head this off was doomed from the beginning.

Bookshop

 Over the past few months I've taken a few steps forward into the world of publishing, mainly translation and non-fiction work. This page is essentially a storefront, with samples and links to the works. Any income generated from these goes into a fund I have for purchasing out of print books for scanning and transcription. Sadly, the prices have been creeping up over the years, and I'm no longer in a position to fund acquiring them out of my wages.

 Author page

 

 FAQ

These are for sale on the kindle store, but you don't need an amazon pad to read them, you just need an amazon account, you can access a kindle cloud reader on desktop computers and download an app for phones and tablets. You can also download the files and port them to your own devices.

 

On Offence and Defence: A Speech on War & Revolution

 A translation of a speech by Wilhelm Liebknecht a prominent Socialist leader in 19th century Germany. The contents of the speech are an attack on nationalism, militarism and capitalist morality and an appeal for international brotherhood and social revolution. It covers and criticizes early industrial capitalism and Bourgeois society for its failures to solve social issues and argues coherently that on the contrary they are often the root causes of these problems, from poverty to political violence.

e-book link

 Online version.

Milicianas, Soldaderas, Petroleuses and the Yellow Mimosa: A Brief History of Female Revolutionaries

 A short introduction to the exploits of several women who took up arms to defend their communities and build a better world for all. Covers some key individual women, including the Communard Louise Michel and the Ortega sisters. Covers women participating in combat in many struggles from the French Revolution to the Cold War conflicts in Central America in the 1980s.

E-book link 

 Also, available in paperback

Is Socialism Being Built in the Soviet Union?: A debate between three revolutionaries

 

English translation of Ĉu socialismo konstruiĝas en soveto? by Eugene Lanti and his comrade M. Ivon. The text is an early exploration of the still young Stalin regime and the development of the Soviet economy and society eighteen years after the Revolution. The work was based on Lanti's own experiences with the Soviet Union and its government as well as over a decade of correspondence with hundreds of Soviet citizens who had contacted him to discuss events and support his work in international solidarity as the head of the World Anational Association (Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda) a workers association that uses Esperanto to communicate and link workers all over the world.

Originally published in 1935 this is one of the early works to bring attention to some alarming features of Soviet rule and its experiments in building a "socialist" society. It covers many topics and had some predictions for the future and the approaching international conflicts. 

e-book link

Also, available in paperback

 Online version.

 

The Forerunners of Anarchism

  

An English translation of the French Individual Anarchist Emile Armand's Les précurseurs de l’anarchisme a philosophical history of Anarchist thought from the philosophers of Antiquity to the thinkers of the Industrial Revolution.

The book traces the evolution of thought and belief in liberty from Ancient Greek philosophers through dissident Christian movements and Enlightenment thinkers and the impact of the 18th century revolutions in France and America.

 e-book link 

Online version.

 

 

Darker Phases of the South

 Darker Phases of the South was Frank Tannenbaum's attempt to grapple with the totality of Southern society from its roots. It tackles the rise of the KKK and explains how such an institution could exist and thrive into the 20th century, the economic foundations of the South from cotton crops to land ownership and working conditions in its many Mill towns, and also the deplorable state of its prisons and shocking treatment of its prison populations. Finally, Tannenbaum attempts to promote a way forward for the South that would end these injustices and build if not a Utopia than a better society with less racial and social friction.

 e-book link

Also available in paperback

Note, this book is a re-issuing of a public domain and increasingly rare text and is only available in territories where the copyright has expired. 

 

The Pyramid of Tyranny

e-book link, also available in paperback
Online version.

 

An English translation of F. Domela Nieuwenhuis's essay De piramide der tirannie (The Pyramid of Tyranny). The essay is an early attempt to grapple with and expose the systems of power within class society and how the people might one day disrupt and overcome this system of oppression. Though written over a hundred years ago, the society it critiques and attacks is still very much with us today. This means that aside from some cultural references, the work remains fresh and revealing.

The Libertarian Society: A translation from the French Workers Movement

 

e-book link, also available in paperback.

Online version.

Translation of the 1926 pamphlet advocating for a new society based on the principles of Libertarian Communism. The original author George Bastien was a lifelong union militant and Anarchist activist who spent many years fighting the class struggle in France and abroad. Libertarian Society was his answer to the sceptics who accused revolutionaries of being nothing more than violent destroyers and shows us how a potential new society could be built on the principles of solidarity, equality, liberty and mutual aid.

 

 

The labor movement: its conservative functions and social consequences

 e-book link, also available in paperback.

Frank Tannenbaum's examination of the labor movement and its social-political impact. Weighs up the strengths and weaknesses of the Socialist Party, the American Federation of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World methods of organising and the impact they have on the working class and wider society.

 

Robert Owen, Idealist

 

E-book link, 

Also available in paperback.

An introduction and evaluation of the Socialist and Co-operative ideas of Robert Owen, possibly the most influential of Britain's 19th century reformers and political advocates.  Written by C.E.M. Joad for the Fabian Society in 1917.

A modest defence of the Langoliers

 

 

Recently I've dived back into Stephen King, both his stories and the many adaptions for film and tv. I've just finished the novella the Langoliers, which has been on my to read list for a good while. As a young kid I remember watching the Langoliers TV miniseries on the Sci-Fi channel. It's quite a long run time for two parts, 90 minutes with advert breaks. It has a bit of a reputation, it's mainly remembered for early 1990s CG special effects, and memes about its dialogue. Not many King fans care for it, and I'd be lying if I claimed it made my top 10, but I do think it has its charms. Having read the novella and re-watched the mini-series which is just on youtube, I find the derision is a bit overcooked. 

It's not without its flaws, the dialogue is indeed very strange, but most of that is from the novella, I was surprised while reading, but the TV show is very close and faithful to the original story, it's easily one of the most faithful to source material adaptions in the Stephen King filmography. Often it's word for word, and that includes Mr Toomey's* infamous "Scaring the little girl? LAY-D"! Tantrum and Nick's bizarre American stereotype of an Englishman. Now, that doesn't entirely absolve Directer and teleplay writer Tom Holland here, you are allowed to make changes, and should do to account for format and other differences. Punching up or reworking the dialogue was an option and while it does have its charms, re-working was probably the way to go. One example of the faithful dialogue that should've been changed or just cut entirely was Dinah the blind girl's line about cereal and milk, "it sounds... a little like rice crispies after you pour in the milk". This is a slight change from the novella, there Dinah still says that, but all the other characters once they hear the sound make different comparisons, radio static, crunching etc, it supposed to reflect each character's experiences and inability to describe accurately an alien sound, which adds to the creepiness and gives a little more depth to each character. The show just cut all but Dinah's which limits the character development and comes across rather silly.

I say it should've been changed or just dropped entirely because it deflates one of the Langoliers key strengths, its sound design. The great strength of the show is that throughout part I and much of Part II, clunky lines aside, it does a lot to convey a sense of wrongness and building tension and dread. The sound design is key to that, muffling echoes when the characters arrive at Bangor airport, and most importantly, the noise of the Langoliers. There's a very low, almost unnoticeable at first background noise, that slowly, very slowly builds in volume and intensity as the threat approaches until as they draw near its impossible to ignore. And it is a strange sound that's hard to identify precisely. This is what hooked me to beg my parents and let me stay up late on two school nights in a row to watch the show. My parents have no interest or love for science fiction, view it with contempt, so to agree to let me stay up and watch it on the family telly that had cable took some doing. I was quite intrigued and wanted to know what had in fact happened, I doubt I'd ever seen a horror story like it, where the threat and hostility came from just how wrong and off the world was.

Unfortunately, its greatest strength is also the show's greatest weakness, it builds and builds and builds upon itself. The mystery of what happened keeps deepening, the Langoliers march from the distance continues, Craig Toomey's trauma and high-stress existence drive him further and further down a violent breakdown, endangering himself and the other passengers. And then finally, in the final third of the second episode, it all comes to a climax that fizzles out. The Langoliers show up and they are terrible indeed, just not in the way they were supposed to be. Even for the 1990s the CG effects are shockingly poor, I had seen Reboot and Insektors and enjoyed both immensely, their early episodes are in another league compared to this. I have seen concept art of what the Langoliers would look like as practical effect models, they look a bit better, but ultimately I think the design is a major limitation, the teeth simply must have looked better if they had gone that route instead, but as cheap and artificial as the CG one's look, they follow King's descriptions in the novella exactly. It's a testament to King's skill that he wrote a story whose pay off is floating meat balls with teeth to eat the world once time passes, and it was published as a serious work of horror laced fiction that takes a philosophical look at our relationship with time as a concept and force, it wasn't until a studio put it on the screen that people finally realized just how naff that is. Again, though, they must've known how silly and stupid that design would look like out of the minds of readers and in reality. I don't know why changes weren't considered. Then again, they might not have been able to come up with a satisfying alternative with the time and resources they had available.

So in summary, while I think the Langoliers time in the sun has passed, I do think it has its merits, and I am a little sad that most people just see the gay stereotype from the Beverly Hills Cop movies** running around an abandoned airport and passed gifs of his lines on social media. His character is one of the better ones in the show, and there is a lot of depth and emotional baggage and turmoil. I would like to recommend anyone curious to track down the novella, it's the first entry in the collection Four Past Midnight, and perhaps give the show a go, just try to go into it with an open mind, you don't watch all of it though, if you don't like Part I, you can stop, it's the strongest part and the best bits of Part II are what's good about Part I.

*I suppose since everyone else who talks about the show does, but Craig Toomey was played by Bronson Pinchot, star of Perfect Strangers. However, I'm not American, and that show wasn't big over here, I'm not even sure if it was ever broadcast, so I didn't recognize him, and I'm only aware of that fact because everyone else who talks about this show bringing it up, often at length.

** Yes, we did get those, including Beverly Hills Cop III, I suspect Bronson Pinchot doesn't have a very good agent, or has an amazing one with a massive grudge against him.

London Anarchist Bookfair 2021

 

 

 This weekend I packed my bags and went down to London to visit a bookfair. It was interesting, it was unbelievably hot, I've known Egypt, Cyprus and the Cambodian wetlands and I didn't sweat nearly as badly. Thankfully there was a small park directly outside with trees and shade. I had to cool off multiple times. I decided to trek down to the London because one of my translations was being printed by Seditionist press, unfortunately the printing wasn't completed until that Friday night so it and a bunch of other books weren't available. A pity but I got to check out some interesting literature and talk to some other people about a couple of topics while trying not to melt. 

It was my first time going to the London Anarchist Bookfair, based on some comments by organisers this one was smaller than it usually is, due to disruptions such as COVID and the resignation of most of the original committee a few years ago. Still seemed pretty busy to me, it might be my hearing, but I felt the acoustics weren't very good in the hall, I often struggled to hear what people were saying to me, and they had issues understanding me. 

Hopefully it'll continue to grow and develop, at least this time as far as I'm aware there was no massive incident that becomes fodder for gossip all over the world. It seemed like that happened every year when I read the forums, you could tell when the London book fair had happened when a new thread would pop up and had a dozen pages of responses within 24 hours. I didn't see anything controversial happen, and I haven't seen any of the usual fall out, so I guess nothing happened when I left. 

Sunday was dedicated to workshops which were recorded and will be available to watch soon on the bookfair's Kolektiva account.

Obligatory merch photo

 

Wilhelm Liebknecht on War & Revolution a translation

 

 

So its probably noticeable that the productivity on this blog has slowed considerably recently, and much of the focus has shifted to translations from Esperanto and its working class archives.  Apologies to any readers not in favour of this redirection. But I assure you the translations of brief articles and letters were leading to something. I've been able to translate several more substantial works that to the best of my knowledge have never appeared in English, including works by some prominent (at least in their day) socialist activists from multiple tendencies. I've decided to seriously consider publishing them in one form or another, and have made some progress with some very nice people. So far though, most of those projects are still being worked out, so there is still some chance of delays or unforeseen obstacles.

Though I'm happy to state that at least one project has been published and can be sent directly to your device of choice.

On Offence and Defence; a Speech on War & Revolution is my translation of a speech by the Socialist leader Wilhelm Liebknecht, recorded in the 1870s in the aftermath of the Paris Commune. It attacks nationalism, militarism and instead urges social revolution. It also expands into a general denouncement of industrial capitalism and rebukes many of the common anti-socialist talking points. It's aged rather well, all things considered. Please consider reading it if you're interested in political history and speech craft.

Capitalist Realism on the Korean Peninsula

One of the strangest features of the online left is the foreign admirers of the North Korean system. In a way it isn't that surprising if viewed as another depressing reminder that for many people what matters is the worship of power first, and for all its many faults and short comings the DPRK has managed to project an image of strength. That image loses its shine if you look to closely at just how old most of the armed forces equipment is, and how many of its missile tests fail, but still its ability to at least alarm and annoy larger regional powers and the USA is undeniable.

What really does baffle though is that how many of this admirers are wedded to this fiction that the DPRKorea and they themselves are some kind of socialist. Again sadly this isn't a new phenomena the history of socialism has always had admirers of force and despotism. But what's especially strange with the current generations of Kim and Xi admirers is that the nations they admire are pretty open about being open for business. And their rhetoric has been backed up by legal reforms dating back decades and the increasing presence of international business personalities getting invited to important party functions.

Its not hard to find evidence of the new growing market economy in North Korea, and the list of businesses investing in the country and the number of special economic zones continues to grow. I must have brought up the Korean Friendship Associations section touting its business interests section on a dozen occasions for just one example. But the information is largely scattered or in Chinese since that's were a lot of the companies come from.

So I wasn't surprised to see a book by one of the growing number of profit seekers, though I was surprised it hadn't come to my attention before. Especially when it also talked about the Korean Friendship Association and its role in drumming up investment opportunities for the country.

The book was published in 2014 and largely concerns the period of 2002-9 though the economics and history of North Korea before that is also covered quite a bit and later portions are dedicated to summing up the early years of Kim Jong-Un's leadership. I was worried at first that this would be a greed is good manifesto or vanity project like most of the stuff I've read that was written by investors and CEOs, but thankfully aside from a few brief paragraphs the book largely glosses over his personal philosophy. If your curious Felix Abt is a believer in trade being the best engine for understanding, peace and better governance.

Which coupled with his insistence on describing the North Korea of Kim Il Sung has an advanced socialist/communist/marxist state I did find somewhat irksome. But the meat of the book is the economic history and present, and it doesn't disappoint. Nearly every page I found myself making a note of some interesting data or anecdote, I already knew North Korea had pretty extensive links to big business interests and had been legalising market economics after the collapse of its rationing system in the 80s, but I was still surprised at the extent.

Felix Abt's main business venture was building a joint North Korean and foreign owned pharmaceutical manufacturer called PyongSu which I believe is still trading, despite being hit by sanctions. While Felix was running the operation it grew to the point it was running its own pharmacies, so there is some competition and for profit healthcare and treatments available.

He also found time to lobby North Korean officials for many other business opportunities, some of which were rejected, some approved but never got further, and some got off the ground. One of the projects that had some legs, was the founding of the Pyongyang Business School 2004-2010. It was as the name implies a school to train students (mostly top Pyongyangites) in how to run business in the way its run all over the world. In his account the authorities were hesitant at first, not because they saw this as encroaching capitalism strangling their socialist system, but because it would need many foreign academics who might bring ideologically incompatible views and ideas. Once he convinced them they could run a business school without indoctrinating the students in anti regime ideas they approved it.

The project was in jeopardy, so I took extra pains to carefully select the lecturers. I mostly took on those with an academic teaching background plus long-running business experience in Asia and elsewhere. I briefed them thoroughly on the sensitive political nature of their lectures, urging them, for instance, not to talk about the South Korean chaebol like Samsung and Hyundai. I revised and sometimes censored their lectures and teaching materials.

The school would close not because of a backlash by the government hardliners, but because its foreign funders were squeezed out thanks to tightening sanctions and the Swiss government lost interest.

My involvement with the Pyongyang Business School ended at the end of 2010, when the business school was about to be closed. By the following year, the market-driven idealism of those earlier years had withered. Seminars ceased to be held on a regular schedule after the only remaining sponsor, the Swiss government, halted all its development cooperation at the end of that year following a decision by the Swiss parliament.

So yes for several years there was a privately run business school in the heart of North Korea. Although it closed Felix Abt frequently noted with pride that many of his students went on to high positions in the state administration or to run successful businesses of their own.

If anything a running theme of the book is that Felix Abt lays the blame for the slow pace of economic opening up in North Korea, not on the conservative ideologues or the military, but on the western powers for continuing to put tighter and tighter sanctions on the country. Time and again he complained about how his businesses kept facing bankruptcy from the being caught in political entanglements, and having looked him up he does have something of a reputation akin to an embargo buster for the Apartheid regime, since he came up with ways to get around sanctions using tricks and agreements with less reputable Chinese companies.

The last sections are also the most gushing over Kim Jong Un I've seen that wasn't under a masthead of some People's Vanguard.

It was the state farms that were tied down by these measures, which made them unable to compete in markets and to produce more. Having recognized this, Kim Jong Un worked out a new agricultural policy in 2012 addressing some of these problems. Indeed, farmers were told in July 2012 that the state would henceforth take only 70 percent instead of 100 percent from their entire harvest.

Kim Jong Un acknowledged in a landmark speech that he would make sure that North Koreans “will never have to tighten their belts again.” Indeed, ever since his succession, a number of economically oriented policy advisors have risen to power. This will lead to more streamlining of the bureaucracy and the creation of a more investor-friendly environment. I have met some of these new bureaucrats, whom I consider to be clearly pro-business and pro-growth. A few small changes have already been made in market policy: more flexible opening hours are allowed for markets, and more companies are permitted to interact with businesses abroad. These have led to changes in light industry and economic development in the broader sense. Kim Jong Un acknowledged in a landmark speech that he would make sure that North Koreans “will never have to tighten their belts again.” Indeed, ever since his succession, a number of economically oriented policy advisors have risen to power. This will lead to more streamlining of the bureaucracy and the creation of a more investor-friendly environment. I have met some of these new bureaucrats, whom I consider to be clearly pro-business and pro-growth. A few small changes have already been made in market policy: more flexible opening hours are allowed for markets, and more companies are permitted to interact with businesses abroad. These have led to changes in light industry and economic The government’s order applied to its own companies, but not to companies and banks under the party and the army. This was because there were three self-contained economies: the civilian economy under the civilian government, the army’s economy under the National Defense Commission, and the party economy under the Central Committee. This has led to unproductive frictions, and Kim Jong Un has started shifting economic decision making away from the party and army and to the cabinet headed by the prime minister. And that’s not all: even a number of military companies were recently moved away from the army and are now under civilian government control—an amazing move for a country with an “army first” policy.development in the broaThe government’s order applied to its own companies, but not to companies and banks under the party and the army. This was because there were three self-contained economies: the civilian economy under the civilian government, the army’s economy under the National Defense Commission, and the party economy under the Central Committee. This has led to unproductive frictions, and Kim Jong Un has started shifting economic decision making away from the party and army and to the cabinet headed by the prime minister. And that’s not all: even a number of military companies were recently moved away from the army and are now under civilian government control—an amazing move for a country with an “army first” policy.der sense.

 The government’s order applied to its own companies, but not to companies and banks under the party and the army. This was because there were three self-contained economies: the civilian economy under the civilian government, the army’s economy under the National Defense Commission, and the party economy under the Central Committee. This has led to unproductive frictions, and Kim Jong Un has started shifting economic decision making away from the party and army and to the cabinet headed by the prime minister. And that’s not all: even a number of military companies were recently moved away from the army and are now under civilian government control

He even notes approvingly that state owned companies are moving away from the old system of service provision to active trading for profit.

While I met a number of risk-averse leaders of socialist bureaucracies, I also met young company heads with sharp business acumen. One bright fellow was Dr. Jon Sung Hun, the president of Pugang, one of the country’s largest state-run corporations. His group, founded in 1979, had capital of $20 million and eight business divisions spread across many industries, such as mining, electronics, pharmaceuticals, coins, glassware, machinery, and drinking water factories. Collectively, Pugang realized annual revenue from sales of more than $150 million. The group had sales offices or agents all over the world, in Germany, Bulgaria, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Malaysia, to name some of its prime markets.

The whole book is like this, but in between the stories of wheeling and dealing there are more human stories about interacting with North Koreans for over seven years, which are also pretty interesting. Sometimes they relate to business stories, such as Felix saying how he found it cheaper and more effective to give people usb sticks instead of the more expensive traditional gifts, usb sticks are really popular because you watch movies, listen to music and read books that are at least frowned upon if not outright illegal.

He also describes the life of a urban worker including typical pay and conditions. Its pretty grim.

PyongSu had, like most if not all Korean companies, a canteen where the staff could eat. Some staff brought food to the workplace that they had prepared at home. It was usual for workplaces to feed the staff and their families, provided they were able to generate the necessary revenues.

"provided they were able to generate the necessary revenues".

Salaries at PyongSu were 35 Euros a month and this was typical of workers at foreign or joint owned businesses, but this was still higher than the average wage at a state owned factory. Though the workers at Kaesong Industrial park where an exception and typically got paid much more.

Furthermore due to the constant electricity shortages it wasn't unknown for a factory to only be able to work for two or three hours a day but the staff were still expected to be there for the full day and either had to make up the rest of the time on maintenance and cleaning or on extra ideological lessons.

Interestingly unions were mentioned just once,

The trade union cells and the party cells in the company were responsible for holding regular sessions for our staff, including exams.

It worth keeping in mind too, that while at times everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and at times staff morale was poor do to them not being able to turn a profit and maybe even facing closure, their are no mentions of workplace complaints from the North Korea staff, or mention of strikes or any resistance at his company or any of the others he was involved with or knew about. It just doesn't feature, the workers don't have any agency, especially not compared to this small but growing class of market traders and public/private business partners.

This is particularly curious since while many books on North Korea have a habit of painting the population as obedient drones, this book usually goes out of its way to destroy that notion. There are brief passages about flats putting bars on their windows because thefts are on the rise, being held up in traffic because someone in front has gotten out to argue in broad daylight with the police, women ignoring laws on appropriate fashion and the ban on them riding bicycles, officials admitting over drinks that they've had plastic surgery or that so and so has had an affair or that prostitution does happen. There's even a really interesting chapter about how the role of women in North Korean society has changed since the disruption of the famine. Women are now regularly ignoring the laws on dress and prohibitions on bike riding, which led to many of those laws being abolished in 2012. So it does strike me as very strange and ominous that at no point in his seven year stay plus seven more years of being heavily connected with country that not one example of workplace resistance became known to him.

Overall its a interesting read and quite informative on North Korea's growing market capitalist economy and life working in the country.

The government’s order applied to its own companies, but not to companies and banks under the party and the army. This was because there were three self-contained economies: the civilian economy under the civilian government, the army’s economy under the National Defense Commission, and the party economy under the Central Committee. This has led to unproductive frictions, and Kim Jong Un has started shifting economic decision making away from the party and army and to the cabinet headed by the prime minister. And that’s not all: even a number of military companies were recently moved away from the army and are now under civilian government control—an amazing move for a country with an “army first” policy.The government’s order applied to its own companies, but not to companies and banks under the party and the army. This was because there were three self-contained economies: the civilian economy under the civilian government, the army’s economy under the National Defense Commission, and the party economy under the Central Committee. This has led to unproductive frictions, and Kim Jong Un has started shifting economic decision making away from the party and army and to the cabinet headed by the prime minister. And that’s not all: even a number of military companies were recently moved away from the army and are now under civilian government control—an amazing move for a country with an “army first” policy.The government’s order applied to its own companies, but not to companies and banks under the party and the army. This was because there were three self-contained economies: the civilian economy under the civilian government, the army’s economy under the National Defense Commission, and the party economy under the Central Committee. This has led to unproductive frictions, and Kim Jong Un has started shifting economic decision making away from the party and army and to the cabinet headed by the prime minister. And that’s not all: even a number of military companies were recently moved away from the army and are now under civilian government control—an amazing move for a country with an “army first” policy.

Kim Jong Un acknowledged in a landmark speech that he would make sure that North Koreans “will never have to tighten their belts again.” Indeed, ever since his succession, a number of economically oriented policy advisors have risen to power. This will lead to more streamlining of the bureaucracy and the creation of a more investor-friendly environment. I have met some of these new bureaucrats, whom I consider to be clearly pro-business and pro-growth. A few small changes have already been made in market policy: more flexible opening hours are allowed for markets, and more companies are permitted to interact with businesses abroad. These have led to changes in light industry and economic development in the broader sense.