'Peaceably if we can. Forcibly if we must'
(Chartist Slogan, 1839)
Having written for The Barbarism of Pure Culture blog since 2019 it has nicely, if modestly, evolved as a journal, specialising in the history of the psychedelic underground, the legacy of Situationists, improvised music, poetry and working class history. But, as it’s a journal, rather a blog/newsletter I have signed up for Substack, with the aim of doing things with a different emphasis, and more often.
A frequent comment in England regarding the ongoing street mobilisations in France against Macron’s retirement-robbery and neo-Gaullist authoritarianism has been ‘pity we don’t do that here’ – a sentiment by no means restricted to so-called leftist ‘extremists’. From the standpoint of a northerner long-exiled in London, I would say that we should and I will complain that we don’t. As I observed in the article ‘Cities of the Dreadful Future:
‘In the 21st century, as the British economy sinks into the North Sea under the mists of Brexiternity, the London skyline continues its upward trajectory of dystopian skyscrapers; all of which appear to give-the-finger to rest of the city as a Psychogeographical "fuck you" from the non-doms, oligarchs, banksters and money-launderers who run the British economy through their tropical tax havens. The once sweet River Thames, regularly polluted with waste by the Thames Water company (that flagship of Thatcher's privatisations), now flows softly only for tourists, millionaire party-goers on pleasure boats, and the tenants of the new yuppie-hutches which screen the river off from the Londoners who once enjoyed walking its banks.’
And no doubt, for a host of other reasons to boot, tomorrow will be worse. As Karl Marx once put, there are two sources of wealth, namely nature and workers, and capitalism has an inexorable tendency to screw the life out of both of them. As the “cancellation of the Future” – or rather of any positive “visions” of it – has been silently accepted by the pragmatists of the political class (Kier Starmer included’especially), study of the Past has become more urgent.
(Sketch by Richard Doyle, showing London Metropolitan Police attacking people attending a peaceful rally in the Bull Ring, Birmingham on July 4th 1839.[Image: Library of Congress])
Just over ten years ago, 1839: The Chartist Insurrection by David Black and Chris Ford was published by Unkant Publishing (2012). Ignored by the mainstream press, the book was well received in a few corners of the fringe media. According to Ben Watson, ‘In retrieving the suppressed history of the Chartist Insurrection, David Black and Chris Ford have produced a revolutionary handbook.’ In the foreword to the book, John McDonnell (Labour Member of Parliament and soon-to-be Deputy Chancellor of the Exchequer) wrote:
‘With its meticulous attention to detailed sources, its comprehensive scope and its exacting research, this book doesn’t just address the neglect of this important and interesting episode in Labour movement history, but more importantly it also challenges us to think again about the revolutionary potential of the British Labour movement.’
Unfortunately, in 2017 our publisher, Unkant went out of business. Hopefully, the book can find a new publisher, and one of the aims of this blog is to help it do so. And much more!