Comrade Conrad

Wow, been like six months since I posted anything here. No excuse – just haven’t bothered.But writing today cause I am off to New York tomorrow to see my brother, who is an applied mathematics prof at Stonybrook. No, don’t ask me what an applied mathematics prof is, cause it’s way beyond me. It’s math plus physics plus chemistry, and involves lots of theory, from what I can tell. At least, that’s what I gather from the little I understand when he talks.

Anyway, Occupy Wall Street is in full swing, and we’re excited about checking that out. Meeting up with an old friend of Meg’s who is in the city at the same time as us, and we all figure a protest gathering is an appropriate place to reconnect. And Mica is excited about Central Park and fashion and cool shops and cafes, as a 13 year old girl is inclined to be. Mostly I’m just glad to have some time with my brother, who I don’t see nearly enough and who has been going through a rough time lately.

And Conrad. Tonight I sent an email to an old friend and professor. Conrad came to UBC in the mid 90s as a visiting professor, fresh from his PhD at Austin. Coming out of the autonomist Marxist tradition and having worked with the awesome Harry Cleaver, Conrad landed in the Latin American Studies Dept at SFU while I was beginning my MA and the post-modern assault on class analysis was in full swing. He electrified the place – teaching us to read intelligent conservative thinkers if we wanted to really understand capital’s strategy for the class struggle; reminding us that there is lots to learn in voices we fundamentally disagree with; showing a communism that was not about the state, not about abstract ‘contradictions’, but about struggle, hope, struggle, hope, and ever wider horizons.

There were a few autonomists and anarcho-communists around at the time. Nick Dyer Witheford, Dorothy Kidd and others. And good radicals from other traditions -  Mike Lebowitz and the much loved and much missed Bob Everton. And a few of us students from various departments, too. And we talked and we organized and we learned from each other and tried to sort out how marxism and anarchism and post-structuralism informed one another and how they didn’t, and we formed a little reading group – the infra-reds – that met every few weeks to have our own little radical university.

It was an amazing time, and profoundly impacted me intellectually and politically. And there were lots of important mentors and comrades. But when I think of those days, when I think of the lasting impact on my thinking and my analysis, I think of Conrad. And I miss him. So it’s awesome to have found him, now teaching in New York, to have made contact again, and to soon have time to see him and catch up.

So this is a thanks. To Mike L., to Nick and Dorothy, to all the infra-reds. To Bob, who so impacted me politically and personally, and to Conrad, who so impacted me intellectually. Can’t wait to see you, comrade.

Back to Liberalism?

Elections, elections. Municipally, provincially, federally, we are gearing up for elections and I, as always am following every step, even though I know I ain’t voting for anybody I’m ever gonna hear about in the news.

I am intrigued, though, more this time than I have been for a long while. OK, skip the provincial end of things, which looks exactly like it has for a couple of decades, with a super hard right wing and a bull-shit “social democratic” alternative that is continuing its tried-and-failed strategy of playing to that right. But on the other levels, something interesting is happening.

Municipally, we’ve got a centrist bunch running the show. They broke with the electoral left (COPE) a while back to chart a more “voter-friendly” and business-friendly course that included support for the Olympics, privatization under guise of “public-private parnerships” (meaning privatization that the public still pays for, basically), and expanded venues for gambling. Fuckers. However, as I look now it is interesting to see that this municipal government has got pretty solid support in the city and is looking to coast through the election barring some unforeseen scandal. And the reasons given for that support, in poll after poll, are not linked to its tack to the right, but to the new things it’s been doing around sustainability. Bike lanes, community gardens, increased grants to neighbourhood groups. This is the shit that people are talking about and listing as reasons to keep the current bunch in.

Believe me, I hate the lot of them, and think they’re some of the slimiest opportunists I’ve ever come across. But beyond that, the fact that Vancouver seems to have built a pretty solid consensus around some old-school liberals and more focus on communities and ecology is an interesting development after such a lengthy period of pervasive neoliberalism.

Jump now to the federal level, where the Liberal Party, which has for decades been dancing farther and farther to the right, occupying the old conservative spot while former Tories jump full-on into fascism…these folks are actually running a traditional liberal campaign. Social programs. Spending. Rolling back tax breaks for corporations. Government investment in infrastructure, environmental protection and so on. Again, this ain’t the left. Hell, it ain’t even the most mild social democracy. But it is a difference from what we’ve seen over the past many elections, in which the whole tenor of the debate was formed around the tax-cut/ deficit/ free market discourse of the far right.

And, like in Vancouver, it’s resonating, at least so far. These guys are up in the polls, getting lots of press, and good press, and increasingly there is some actual discussion about a substantial shift – not from the right to the left, but from the far right to the old-school centre, to something that at least resembles the liberalism of old. And that is exciting.

Pathetic to say that, I know – to see liberalism and feel a rush of hope. But after a hugely successful run for the neo-fascists over the past twenty years, liberalism is a pretty welcome change. And the fact that it is working for them, and for our municipal government, provides me at least a small bit of hope that the era of wholesale self-interest, hyper-individualism and straight up mean-spiritedness might be facing a backlash, finally.

Anyway, I’m watching it all, and I’m interested, and I’m crossing my fingers without actually letting myself get too hopeful about a return to more liberal times.

Voting for any of it? Nope. No can do. They’re all bombing the shit out of Libya. They’re all privileging profits over equality. But I’m not so blind as to fail to recognize the difference between fascism and liberal democracy, not so blind as to equate traditional liberal capitalism with the market of the neo-con wet dream. And I am one to believe that cultural shifts matter, small and slow as they come.

Leaving Libby

I vote, each and every election. I don’t, however, vote for any of the major parties, the most ‘leftish’ of which is the New Democratic Party – a pretty standard social democratic outfit that gets the vote of the left simply because there’s no other viable option, and consistently steps further and further to the right in the vain hope that one day the bulk of Canadians will flock to them. This, contrary to all evidence here and around the world that such a strategy does nothing but shift the whole political debate to the right. So, no, I don’t vote NDP, instead casting my ballot each time for someone who may be marginal but at least speaks of an alternative, who at least takes positions, no matter how unpopular. Cause I don’t see my vote as a strategic tool in a limited system, but as a small but important opportunity to register, periodically, my values.

In my years of voting, though, I’ve made on exception to the above. When I’ve lived in her riding, and there’s been an election, I have always voted for Libby Davies. But not this time.

I wrote to her a couple of days ago to indicate that I couldn’t do it anymore, and though there is ample reason to boycott the NDP based on its total-failure to develop any domestic vision that seriously breaks with the neoconservative trend, for me the breaking point has been foreign policy. Last year, Libby made some pretty tame comments about Palestine and the Israeli occupation. She was raked over the coals for it, not just by the right but by her own party, and was made to issue general statements of apology and a targeted apology to the Israeli ambassador. Now, on the one hand that bolstered alot of support for Libby – she spoke out, vocally, despite her party’s crap position on Palestine. On the other hand, though, when called on it, Libby issued the apology rather than taking the opportunity to make an issue of the NDP’s moral cowardice on the matter. As one of the most popular NDP politicians in the country, and one whose constituents are intensely behind her like no one else, Libby of all people is well-placed to push this issue, and so I felt both a pride in her for making the statement in the first place and then a real disappointment that she took it all back when faced with the threat of party discipline. Mostly, though, what it demonstrated so clearly is that, regardless of the personal integrity or hard work of an individual candidate, the party system we have in place and the all-pervasive party discipline means that those good intentions mean pretty much fuck all when it comes to the policies a party will actually enact. So, Libby as awesome neighbourhood elected rep might mean good things for the access diverse local voices have to their member of parliament, but – policy wise, large-scale election-wise – a vote for Libby is and can only be a vote for the party as a party.

The final straw came this year. As the campaign to drum up support for military action against Libya began, as the conservatives jumped to the front of the line to start the bombing, all the major Canadian parties loudly proclaimed their unanimous support. And yes, by all the major parties we include the NDP. Really? The party that for many years had Canada’s withdrawal from NATO as one of its central principles is now wholeheartedly schilling for NATO bombings? I mean, even if we decide to buy wholesale the news coming out of Libya – which, really, all indications are has been profoundly biased and little more than PR for the always-anticipated military strikes – even if we buy this, are we really backing bombs for better oil access? After watching Iraq, after watching Afghanistan? This party still wants to make some claim to represent the left in Canada? Give me a fucking break.

Sorry, Libby. I like you. I like the way you represent this neighbourhood. I like that you speak out more vocally than your party apparatus is comfortable with. But it’s not possible to vote for you without voting for them. I tried for a long long time to make the distinction, but I just can’t justify it anymore. If you ever break from those folks, or make a push to reclaim the NDP as a party of the left – even the soft left, for god’s sake – I’ll give you my vote again. But not now. We are, in part, judged by the company we keep.

Not the Best of Me

I’ve got a pretty good life, all told. In fact, I count myself just about the luckiest guy alive – good job, little work but tons of projects, lots of friends and dinner parties, a beautiful and amazing child, and a partner and lover so perfect for me she is literally the stuff my younger-years dreams were made of.  A home people like to visit, that is welcoming and open and often full of laughter, learning, support, love. It really is more than I have ever imagined possible, so full of everything I wanted and much I didn’t even know I wanted til it was shown to me, til it was made possible. I, least of anyone, has any reason to complain, to whine, to wallow in self-pity.

And yet, there it is. That hollow feeling, that boredom, that emotional blank space, that feeling of being entirely disinterested, disengaged. Been with me for the last couple of weeks, and I’m having a hard time shaking it. And an equally hard time making any sense out of why, why now, why for?

All Kinds of Crazy

A hell of a week, I tell ya. Feels like there’s been all kinds of crazy swirling around me lately and while I myself am not directly implicated in all of it, it is fucking exhausting to deal with. I’m not about to out any individuals or any specific details here, but as a little sample of what’s going on:

March 16 – Sex, Revolution and Rock’n'Roll.

March 16 is of no particular significance to me. However, that is indeed the date today, and I am in need of a blog post. And so a little scan of the day in history, and I find there are things to remember and to celebrate, as there always are.

A few moments to remember, then, dealing with various interests of mine: books, radical left politics and heavy metal.

All Talk, No Action

Some time ago my brother and sister-in-law were up for a visit from their home in New York, and we sat in the living room bull-shitting about this and that. Not sure how the subject came up, but my sister-in-law joked to Megan, about me, “We call Brian the lazy brother”. Offended? No. Hurt? No. It was pretty awesome, actually. I am pretty much satisfied with my level of accomplishment, and actually pretty glad that I am not an all-out achievement-seeker. I like to rest. I like to lie back and laze. I like to lie in the bath and read books. And sometimes – often, actually – I like to sit on the couch at watch the walls for an hour or so at a time, doing and thinking absolutely nothing.

Rambling on Radicalism

“To be hopeful in bad times is not being foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of competition and cruelty but of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.” – Howard Zinn

So much promise and hope, and yet so much, still, of all the worst of us. That is, though, the stuff activism is made of, I suppose. While so much is so good, with many dear friends and promising small-scale commons, our little household has also been dealt with a whole lot of shit over the last year, as we came up against a hostile and profoundly aggressive radicalism that seems to be more interested in inventing ever more enemies for itself than in building alternative communities of solidarity, mutual aid and respect.

The End Times

I’m about to start reading Slavoj Zizek’s Living in the End Times. And as I look at it there on the side table, I filter through the news of the day, watching the devastation in Japan following its recent massive earthquake. The world changes, sometimes slowly, sometimes cataclysmically, and there seems no question to me that we are well into a dramatic geologic and ecological upheaval.

Eagleton, Zizek and Jesus, oh my!

More on the whole Jesus-theme today. Over the past few months I’ve read a couple of books dealing with the Jesus thing – Slavoj Zizek’s The Puppet and the Dwarf and Terry Eagleton’s Reason, Faith and Revolution: two books coming out of radical secular political traditions that grapple with the meat and potatoes of faith in general and Christian faith in particular, and do so with insight and with respect, both of which are all too rare in leftist treatments of religion. I also picked up Eagleton’s critical annotation of the Gospels – his contributions being an introduction and notes of interpretation and commentary appended to the biblical text. And I’d highly recommend all of these, though for different folks and different reasons.