Aid & Abet

I just got the new Upping the Anti in the mail and wanted to post that first, they published my review of Stephen Duncombe’s “Dream: Re-imagining Progessive Politics in an Age of Fantasy.” Yes, I know I talk about that book a lot.

Although I wish UTA was published more frequently, and I wish they were a little more organized with their process, I respect that each issue is thoughtful and thorough, and as a journal (and not a magazine) the articles, reviews, interviews, and editorials are quite indepth.

This new issue includes content on Palestine, Six Nations, migrant labor, and sex work to name a few–as well as letters and several long book reviews. I just read the editorial from the UTA collective and was interested to note a discussion the root of the word “catastrophy”–a similar discussion is included in the afterward of “Re:imagining Change,” the smartMeme reader released last month–that the word literally means “to overturn.” What follows is a critical discussion of two critiques of capitalism–Naomi Klein et al’s “disaster capitalism” and John Zerzan and Derrick Jensen’s primitivism. The editorial collective saying that these critiques focus on the production part of capitalism (either reforming it and making it better or getting rid of it all together) and are not sufficient. For one, they concentrate too much on ownership and labor, and not enough on the relationship with the natural world. Is that relationship always one of domination? They ask, “What sort of production might redeem both human and natural history?”

In this issue, I also really appreciated Dan Berger’s letter on last issue’s Green Scare article. Dan talks about how he is disappointed that some animal liberation and environmental groups have failed to have a critique of capitalism and the state, and the “troubling emphasis of tactics over politics.” I hope to do some writing and research on the Green Scare soon, but it will take me a while to get to it. I hardly ever agree with everything I read in the journal, but I always appreciate its thoughtfulness. I hope you support them by subscribing. You can do that here.