Author: Neil Mather

• Watched: Kohei Saito: “Climate Crisis and Ecological Revolution”
  • On Degrowth communism.
  • I actually watched this a while ago, just noting it now.
  • I remember he mentioned commoning as an important aspect.

• Listened: The Santiago Boys.
  • Finished the first episode. (Ep 1: A Blast in Manhattan).
  • Chiefly about the political milieu in Chile at the time, and then how Fernando Flores invites Beer to work with them.

• Read: Red Enlightenment: On Socialism, Science and Spirituality
  • Enjoying it. I am sympathetic to the idea of a secular spirituality of some kind.
  • Jones is continuing his referencing to cybernetics and complex adaptive systems that was present in The Shock Doctrine of the Left, so I’m enjoying it on that level too.

• Listened: The Missing Revolution w/ Vincent Bevins
  • On the uprisings of the 2010s and their failure to manifest as leftist revolutions in the long-term.
  • On the problems of horizontalism. Bit of Horizontalism vs verticalism.
  • Interview is a bit one-sided, Marxist-Leninist, missing the nuance of Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal I think.
  • Still, really interesting, and based on on the ground accounts of what happened, so definitely to take heed of.

• Read: The Shock Doctrine of the Left
  • Finished it. Reading it in lots of 20 minute late-night bursts while doing childcare.
  • Very good. Primary focus on movement building, organising.
  • Combination of left politics and complex adaptive systems is right up my street.
  • Also touches on organisational ecology, care work.
  • Would like to apply some of the concepts to reclaim the stacks.
  • Particularly the description of using (and creating) shocks as points of leverage and transition is useful.

• Came across Graham Jones‘ work via #ACFM and enjoying it.
  • Reading: The Shock Doctrine of the Left
  • Listening: Red Enlightenment (podcast)

• Listened: #ACFM Trip 4: Love and Hate
• Listened: #ACFM Trip 5: Consciousness Raising
• Listened: #ACFM Microdose: Theories of Consciousness
• Listened: Why It’s Eco-Socialism or Collapse
• Interesting to see that ‘Challenging the size and power of the biggest tech companies was voted a top priority by Foxglove supporters in our new year survey.’
  • From Foxglove’s newsletter on 24th January 2024.
  • Very keen to see where they go with this

Listened: #ACFM Trip 1: Out of the Box

• First in the ACFM series.
• Discuss Acid communism, counterculture, consciousness raising. The role of culture in politics

• Listened: Trip 39: Protest
  • On the topic of protest.
  • Individual, collective. Marches, non-violence, direct action, boycotts etc.
  • Whats effective and what isnt? Effective might mean different things, e.g. could be political change but could also be just connecting and energising a movement.

• Listened: Microdose: A Festive 50 for 2023
  • Some good recs in here. To come back to and jot them down.

• Listened: Sellafield: Europe’s most toxic nuclear site
  • Great to be living so close to this.
  • Still, the story about how they revealed login credentials in the background of a Countryfile episode is hilarious.
• Listened: Hotel Bar Sessions: Trust