The Digger

Originally published:   Verso Books by Emily Janakiram (April 2, 2019)     |  "Silvia Federici has been one of the most influential and widely cited Marxist feminist scholars of the last 50 years. Her landmark work,  Caliban and the Witch , argued that witch hunts were an organized campaign of mass murder of women who defied the increasing implementation of a patriarchal, authoritarian order under a rapidly developing capitalist state. In this article, Emily Janakiram argues that her work, and particularly her essay “On the Meaning of Gossip” can help shed light on a much maligned yet invaluable part of solidarity among workers and "women. . ." "In her landmark  Caliban and the Witch,  Marxist scholar Silvia Federici argues that witch hunts were an organized campaign of mass murder of women–particularly low-class women, midwives, or “wise women”–who defied the increasing implementation of a patriarchal, authoritarian or...

Washington, D.C. — Following a meeting in the nation’s capital, they have formed a 29-person organizing committee with representation at the highest levels of American labor to lay the groundwork. Today the committee released  this statement of intent : "We, the undersigned unionists and activists, met on February 24 and 25 in Washington D.C. to discuss the next steps to a labor-based party. We unanimously concluded that Americans need a major new party rooted in labor, the struggles of working people and communities of the oppressed. We hereby constitute ourselves as the Organizing Committee of the Labor-Community Campaign for an Independent Party for this purpose. In the wake of the Gilded Age of robber barons and monopolies, unions and community groups organized mass strikes and social protest movements, and banded together in independent parties that led to landmark progressive reforms, from child labor laws to the eight-hour work day, from food and drug r...

April 16, 2019 US President Donald Trump has warned the International Criminal Court (ICC) of “swift and vigorous response” if the Hague-based tribunal investigates Americans and Israelis for war crimes. Trump issued the warning on Friday, after ICC judges rejected a request by the court’s prosecutor to probe atrocities committed by US forces in Afghanistan. Trump hailed the unusual ruling as a “major international victory,” claiming that the Americans and Israelis should be immune from ICC prosecution. “Since the creation of the ICC, the United States has consistently declined to join the court because of its broad, unaccountable prosecutorial powers; the threat it poses to American national sovereignty; and other deficiencies that render it i...

April 16th, 2019 Throughout history, dark and reactionary forces have always attempted to control the world; by violence, by deceit, by kidnapping and perverting the mainstream narrative, or by spreading fear among the masses. Consistently, brave and honest individuals have been standing up, exposing lies, confronting the brutality and depravity. Some have fought against insane and corrupt rulers by using swords or guns; others have chosen words as their weapons. Many were cut down; most of them were. New comrades rose up; new banners of resistance were unveiled. To resist is to dream of a better world. And to dream is to live. The bravest of the brave never fought for just their own countries and cultures; they fought for the entire humanity. They were and they are what one could easily define as “intuitive internationalists”. Julian Assange, an Australian computer expert, thinker and humanist, had chosen a new and mostly untested form of combat: he unleash...

April 13th, 2019 It’s Friday, April 5, 2019, at 9 PM. An entertaining talk show,  Skavlan . A dialogue between a prime minister and a special forces soldier who has no regret having kicked in doors and “killed a lot” in Afghanistan. He justifies himself by the most primitive and long-ago debunked theory about Good and Evil in this world. And then the listening prime minister expresses his  admiration . Something roamed around in my mind hours after the event and I had to check: Did he really say what I think I heard? It made me think about theories and worldviews on which political decisions can be founded. About the general, normalized fascination of war and killing, and about the soldier as hero and the victim as invisible, non-existent. It made me think about the sophisticated, almost imperceptible, media methods by which perpetrators of law violations and war crimes are turned (and turn themselves) into victims and perform smoothly as part of a F...

Uncle Tom’s Empire I don’t normally do this kind of thing, but, given the arrest of Julian Assange last  week , and the awkward and cowardly responses thereto, I felt it necessary to abandon my customary literary standards and spew out a spineless, hypocritical “hot take” professing my concern about the dangerous precedent the U.S. government may be setting by extraditing and prosecuting a publisher for exposing  American  war crimes and such, while at the same time making it abundantly clear how much I personally loathe Assange, and consider him an enemy of America, and freedom, and want the authorities to crush him like a cockroach. Now I want to be absolutely clear. I totally defend Assange and Wikileaks, and the principle of freedom of the press, and whatever. And I am all for exposing American war crimes (as long as it doesn’t endanger the lives of the Americans who committed those war crimes, or inconvenience them in any way). At the same time, while I tota...