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Men Without Language

to the primitive men of the inheritors, language is a crude and difficult device, inadequate to the intensity of their ‘pictures’; for pincher martin, isolated on his rock, language is superfluous or unsatisfactory, remembered pieces of civilisation with which the dark centre tries to “net down’ its environment; on the island of lord of the flies, the breakdown of language, of argument and consultation, is the breakdown of a society; jocelin in the spire has his head full of a dazzling vision which crowds out ‘the world of routine communication. Because language is a social activity, the medium within which a man’s experience becomes intelligible to himself and to others, golding’s sharp division of private and public reality is cancelled: communication is not a line thrown wide from one private cell to another, but a common process of making and receiving meanings.

The Exhibitionary Complex

Foucault knows well enough the symbolic power of the penitentiary: the high wall, no longer the wall that surrounds and protects, no longer the wall that stands for power and wealth, but the meticulously sealed wall, uncrossable in either direction, closed in upon the now mysterious work of punishment, will become, near at hand, sometimes even at the very centre of the cities of the nineteenth century, the monotonous figure, at once material and symbolic, of the power to punish, (p. 116) museums were also typically located at the centre of cities where they stood as embodiments, both material and symbolic, of a power to 'show and tell' which, in being deployed in a newly constituted open and public space, sought rhetorically to incorporate the people within the processes of the state. Even within the official zones of exhibitions, the exhibitionary disciplines thus achieved an exposure to publics as large as any to which even the most commercialized forms of popular culture could lay claim: 32 million people attended the paris exposition of 1889; 27.5 million went to chicago's columbian exposition in 1893 and nearly 49 million to chicago's 1933/4 century of progress exposition; the glasgow empire exhibition of 1938 attracted 12 million visitors, and over 27 million attended the empire exhibition at wembley in 1924/5.49 however, the ideological reach of exhibitions often extended significantly further as they established their influence over the popular entertainment zones which, while initially deplored by exhibition authorities, were subsequently to be managed as planned adjuncts to the official exhibition zones and, sometimes, incorporated into the latter.

Russia in transition

a new phase the polish-hungarian drama has thus opened a new phase in the internal development of the u.s.s.r. if until now the pressure which the workers exercised, on the factory level, against the bureaucracy was "economist" in character, and if they were not animated by any clear political idea, the development now reached a point at which the intelligentsia, or rather its ideologues and theorists, began to politicise the consciousness of the working class and to inject into it their own ideas —just as sixty years earlier social democratic intellectuals had carried the notions of political socialism "from the outside" into the spontaneous movements of the workers. what karl marx wrote the 18th brumaire about how the various factions of the french bourgeoisie by calling repeatedly on the army to "save society" set the stage for military dictatorship is well worth quoting here, for despite all the differences of time and place (and d e s p i t e marx's somewhat oldfashioned imagery), his words still apply: when barrack and bivouac were periodically thrown upon the head of french society to oppress its brain and keep it quiescent; when sword and musket periodically functioned as judge, administrator, guardian and censor, gendarme and nightwatchman; when military moustache and tunic were periodically acclaimed as the tute- lary deities of society—was it not inevitable that it should eventually occur to barrack and bivouac, sword and musket, moustache and tunic, to save society once for all on their own initiative, by declaring their own rule supreme and by saving . . .

Class and Classlessness

I shall then try to show that the working-class community was formed against pressures markedly similar to those upon which attention is focused today (opportunity, mobility, mass media), i  then examine class structure in britain today, and suggest that the trend is towards not classlessness but a strengthening of the english class system. There are, after all, severe and felt physical limits to working-class consumption: can you really buy yourself a middle-class style of life—or even believe that you are buying yourself a middle-class style of life—if you are a family man on a housing estate with a weekly wage of £10 or £11

Plan for Progress

18 thirdly, ensuring a balanced expansion of the british economy (a) by pursuing the hughes-alexander plan for an annual real wage increase; (b) by carrying out a major development of the national social capital, e.g. roads, railways, ports and port approaches, town and country planning and development—which are required not only for national economic development but also for international competition and for building confidence in the social sector; (c) by other measures of income redistribution—reorganisation of the tax system and a real onslaught on price fixing practices. secondly, and more important still, a one per cent contribution from britain's national income to the industrialisation of underdeveloped lands is going to be of very limited value either to the british or to the overseas peoples, if it is made up as at present largely of private capital investment, loans to private british companies (through the colonial development corporation) and other loans to governments and local corporations which carry high rates of return in profits or interest.

The Working Week

in 1922 a new soviet labour code was enacted which included: "the stringent limitation of overtime beyond 8 hours a day (in 1930 reduced to 7 hours until just before the war); the provision of two weeks' holiday annually with pay; the exclusion of women and young persons from night work and from 'dangerous occupations'; the prohib¬ i t i o n of employment of children under 16 save in exceptional circum-stanccs by permission of the factory inspectorate and then for no more than 4 hours a day) and the limitation of hours of young persons between 16 and 18 to 6 hours, falling between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m." (h.dobb, 'soviet economic development since 1917'; p.415 note.) in 1931 the following resolution was passed: "this congress believes the time has arrived when the normal working week should be limited to a maximum of 40 hours in the case of day workers and in the case of process and shift workers to a working week of five shifts of eight hours without any reduction in the weekly wage and with the reduction of overtime to work of agreed urgency.

The Deep South

Mrs. jenkins disdainfully packs into one group the poorwhites who were anti-slavery because anti-negro, who vote republican, inhabit "lily-white" towns, form the bulk of the membership of the kkk, and live as did the characters in caldwell's tobacco road. Universities & left review 4 summer 1958 the deep south alfred h. greenberg ean jenkins, in her study of life in jexpresses the u.s. south (your winter 1958 issue), surprise at "the degree of restraint shown on both sides" in the recent events at little rock, ark.

Experiences of strangeness

Such willing participation in women's objectification indicates that male approval is more important to women than female approval, presumably because this is where power resides, and viner argues that this represents a greater expression of male power over women than that found in pornography. In what sounds like a return to 1970s segregationism, greer suggests that women and men may be incompatible, and that in the future women will live in extended groups, with older women helping with childcare.

Reading the signs

But these benign developments have been swamped by the environmental consequences of two decades of explosive economic growth in east asia and elsewhere in the developing world, and the recognition of a multiplicity of new forms of pollution and ecological stress: ozone depletion, global warming, etc. It is difficult not to conclude that, under current circumstances, the quantitative expansion of the global capitalist economy will lead to levels of natural resource loss and ecosystem disruption that will place constraints upon future economic development and pose threats to political stability, as great as those that were faced by the fragile agrarian societies of the pre-modern world.

Conscript A story

In one corner of the bungalow a group of conscripts plays poker on a metal trunk; across the way someone strums and continually readjusts the tuning on a guitar; near the door a large group listens to an olive-skinned 'ou man' with oily black hair who has just returned from the border and fields dramatic accounts of near-contacts with terrorists, daring escapades, sadistic officers, riotous booze-ups and how we are going to 'affkak' (shit off) in the bush. 'kom, jong the sergeant growls, continuing to pump his hips, 'moenie voorgee nie datjul' blerrie swartes nie lus vir 'n bietjie lekker pink doos is nie' (come, don't pretend you bloody blacks don't lust after a bit of luscious pink cunt).

Writing the obituaries

One of the things that i was most interested to discover while writing my last book, the village that died for england, was that throughout the twentieth century there is this tradition of people going out into the rural areas and trying to discover an england of 17  soundings connectedness: not of picturesque views, not of landscape reduced to a scenic resource for urban visitors, but an england of local vitality, which was still in touch with the traditions of the yeomanry and peasantry, with crafts and preenclosure land rights too. When i was working on my first book, on living in an old country, i came across all these forgotten inter-war books about the english countryside, published by companies like batsford - books about the old green roads of england in which people walked away from the cities and also from their memories of the 1914-18 war, and followed ancient tracks up onto the limestone, or the chalk downs which had such unique and consoling qualities for many of these early twentieth century hunters of rural virtue.

Angola under attack

South africa's ten year old undeclared war with angola had the country on its knees, and the angolan authorities were deeply sceptical about western journalists, who mostly reported angola out of johannesburg, or through interviews with the fluent and media-friendly leader of unita, jonas savimbi, at his headquarters in south east angola, under the vigilant protection of the south african military; and none were allowed in except with a programme carefully controlled by the authorities. 143  soundings since independence from portugal in 1975 south africa had repeatedly invaded and occupied the southern provinces; a camp of swapo refugees, including many children, had been massacred from south african helicopter gun ships at kassinga; an anc teacher at the university of lubango, jeanette schoon, and her small daughter, had been assassinated by a south african letter bomb; tens of thousands of peasants had been killed, kidnapped, or driven from their villages by land mines - victims of unita terror tactics.

Thrilled By Theories

Just as school science is not merely 'watered down' research science, so too popular science is not merely watereddown school science but rather something altogether different. The solidity of school science is surely a poor preparation for the fluidity of much philosophical science and political science, not to speak of the evanescence of much para-science.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

First, the collapse of communism has meant that more and more people the world over look to the us as a model society and as a source of benevolent influence: to counter this delusion involves first recognising the 31 'the us offers greater opportunity for integration than any society in the stuffy world of europe' fact that this is the case, something of no little political significance in itself, but also counterposing to it not the platitudes of anti-americanism but something more informed. In the post-1945 context, however, for all the talk of the influence of the second, communist, world, and of the third world, the greatest source of radical ideas in europe has been the us: the civil rights movement and its later, antiracist, variants; the student movement; the anti-war movement; women's liberation; gay liberation.

Spot The Difference

the point that emerges from tannen's book is not to get women to learn to speak more like men by compul¬ sory assertiveness training or to get men to be more like women by getting them to learn some awful kind of therapy-speak. As she says: 'pretending that men and women are the same hurts women, because the ways in which they are treated are based on the norms for men'.

Soul To Sole

as soon as a new style or feature comes on to the market - the pump by reebok, a baseball boot with an inflatable sole, is the latest - the old sports shoes are dropped and the new style is taken up. In philadelphia it is 25 marxism today may 1990 'fora brooklyn boy like buggin' out his nike air jordans are not just a pair of sports shoes but a badge of pride' 

Porridge And Treacle

Their one qualification over that of the pr person is that they know a considerable amount about the industry concerned, and charmingly communicate 'the process of securing an interview has become more tortuous, and the act of interviewing is often like wading through treacle* these facts in large slabs during the interview. Television john ellis explores off-screen tv bias porridge and treacle it has become almost a truism that television interviews are manipulated to suit the programme makers.

Value For Many

the left, on the other hand, is heir to a strong sense of collective identities, of marxism today december 1989  'we need a language of politics that is able to speak to difference and uncertainty within a framework of common principles' powerful inherited solidarities derived from class and work communities, and of different social constituencies, however inadequately in the past it has been able to deal with them. In the united states the protection of individual rights is enshrined in the constitution, and the claim to group rights has become the basis of many of the transforming currents of recent american politics, from the civil-rights and blackpower movements to the women's movement and lesbian and gay liberation.

Raising One Voice

Rosalind brunt suggests that the questions of life and death that hillsborough raised should also make us review the links between politics and everyday life familiar religious ceremony combined with newly-invented secular rituals t o link the recent disaster at hillsborough with the labour party policy review is to risk 'playing politics' with people's lives and deaths. Actual families 23 'football had a long history of spelling trouble, but now it was dramatically translated into a family game' marxism today disrupt, the prevailing stereotype of 'hooligan', an alien and inexplicable monster with no obvious social ties or family history, and offered in its stead a wide variety of real-life supporters, or non-official parties to the event, who became their own media representatives.

Voyages Of Rediscovery

this new vocabulary, epitomising the global power relations of late capitalism, is articulated around the twin concepts of tourism (travel abroad) and cultural tourism (the consumption of african cultural products at home). the renewed fascination new cartel which includes labels such as sterns, with africa in britain is inwomad, rogue and cooking formed both by post-colonial vinyl, imposes an artificial curiosity and nostalgia and a related and more pressing homogeneity on a range of african musical traditions post-industrial identity crisis and cultures.

Left And Rights

Without tough social and economic rights, rights with respect to the state could not be enjoyed in practice; and without rights in respect of the state, new forms of inequality of power, wealth and status could systematically disrupt the implementation of social and economic liberties. in general, what this discussion suggests is that the 'politics of citizenship' today must come to terms with, and attempt to strike a new balance between, the individual and the social dimensions of citizenship rights.

All Together Now?

in the largely non-union usa, for the small proportion of employees who are in a union (only about 17% of the workforce) the union mark-up on wages, (the amount by which union members get more than non-union employees), is sizeable - an average of 30%. first, that the sheer size of the non-union group, either in the workforce or in the electorate, is a constituency the unions simply cannot afford to ignore in favour of a rigid adherence to full-blooded collectivist attitudes - that full trade unionism, rooted in collective bargaining and collective representation, is the only appropriate union method for january 1989  'in the us unions have faced up to the depth of their crisis and are trying out radical solutions in a way unions in britain are still not' organising employees.

Cloak And Swagger

Charlotte du cann reports on the crisis of confidence in the world of high fashion hamnett's panic dressing: inspired by a victorian past in 1988 power dressing was replaced by panic dressing. (what were they hiding from?) in came some stern ration book tailoring: belted jackets, utility suits, short socks (why this austerity?) and some strict school uniform: well-mannered shorts and good girl pinafores (why were they on good behaviour?).

Reaching New Parts

for the first time, too, the labour party has recognised the consumer as a distinct political and economic entity, with a group on 'consumers and the community', and service industries are making an appearance in both this group and people at work. And for a party that has a tendency to pass resolutions committing itself to spend money on every good cause that passes its way, 'but as the labour party found,the "new forces" may well be as out of touch with local feeling as the old gang they ousted' any examination of both what it can do and, just as important, what it can't, is also a valuable exercise.

Dream Time Lost

by now, labour had also won power in the state of west australia, and opinion polls suggested that, if land rights were granted, the state government might fall in forthcoming elections. queensland premier bjelki-petersen even went so far as to endorse the view that the land rights movement was a communist plot to set up a separate sovereign state in northern australia which would then invite the soviet union onto australian soil!