====================================================================== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. ======================================================================
Welcome to Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ January 11, 2010 *** May 2010 be a peaceful and creative year for all, a year when solidarity becomes a common purpose. *** Note from the Editors: It should not be too hard to envisage what's in the US store for 2010, the last year of the XXIst century's first decade. Abroad, more military intervention in the "Arc of Instability," which now includes swaths of the African continent, with renewed calls to strike Iran, intervene in Yemen, and any country where the mythical al Qaeda is supposed to have extended its Octopus- like deadly tentacles. At home, the ratcheting of fear mongering to deflect and keep in check through increased surveillance controls the populace's anger caused by deepening economic dislocations, and the biennial charade in the media that the mid-term elections will generate to the delight of ad agencies' and networks' profits -- with in-between coverage of tawdry celebrity scandals, a few random shootings, and environmental crisis. In other words, changes we all can believe in!?! What won't be discussed are the deep contradictions that are ravaging our socioeconomic system through overproduction and ever-expanding debt, which Michael Doliner thoroughly examines among other ever more self-evident contradictions entrenched within capitalism. Neither will the co-optation of NGOs in all fields of do-goodism by the moneyed elites that Michael Barker keeps revealing enter the conversation; and don't expect the views of Jan Baughman regarding the future of the American polity in the name of "safety" to find any echo in the main media; or, for that matter, the inanity of the policies enacted by the Establishment, which Gilles d'Aymery regularly covers in his Blips and Tidbits, as well as his stubbornly-repeated calls to move away from individualism to a system in which the collective well being of the whole takes precedence over the benefits of the few. Then again, that is the role of a small publication like Swans, to be the incubator for ideas that can bring real change -- ideas that must come from the future, as Michael Doliner points out echoing Marx. To do so, we will rely on an increasingly diverse bevy of contributors from all over the world. However, politics does not operate within a vacuum. It is only a part, a significant one undoubtedly, but still a part of the larger culture, which this publication will keep emphasizing with the hope that readers do connect the dots between culture and politics. Go back in time: not all cultural icons were revolutionaries but all revolutionaries espoused culture without claiming the iconic label. On that note, Femi Akomolafe waxes sardonic on all of the good things happening in the greatest country in the world, Nigeria. Art Shay takes a humorous shot at his journalist mission to screen for the kooky, single-subject topic, which in this article emerges as Lake Superior State University's annual list of banished words, while Peter Byrne pens a sobering fiction on racism in Italy. Reaching for the book, Charles Marowitz considers Robert Richardson's examination of Emerson's foray into the nature of language and the secrets of good writing, and Paul Buhle reviews the gem that emerged when left-leaning science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson and radical publisher PM Press joined forces. Silvia dello Russo and Guido Monte reach for the stars in their multilingual poetry, and we close with your letters in praise of Femi Akomolafe and Isidor Saslav, and in defense of Michael Barker's take on the ICNC crowd. Finally, we've made some subtle structural changes to Swans Web site and welcome readers' feedback. # # # # # All the articles and the Letters to the Editor can be accessed from Swans front page. Please go to: http://www.swans.com/ You can also access our past issues at: http://www.swans.com/library/past_issues/past_issues.html # # # # # Swans (aka Swans Commentary), ISSN: 1554-4915, is a bi-weekly non- commercial ad- free Web-only magazine which provides original content to its readers. We encourage pulp publications to republish Swans' Work in print format. Please contact the publisher at <aymery AT ix.netcom.com>. Please, do not repost Swans' Work on the Web and other mailing lists: "Hypertext" links to any pages of Swans.com are authorized; however, republication of any part of this site, inlining, mirroring, and framing are expressly prohibited. (You are receiving this E-mail notification for you have expressed your interest in Swans and the work of its team. If you wish not to receive these short notifications, simply reply to this E-mail (delete the content) and enter the word REMOVE in the subject line.) Cordially, Gilles d'Aymery -- Swans "Hungry man, reach for the book: It is a weapon." B. Brecht ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
