I saw the newspaper reports on what had happened to the water, and the role of the electricity company which had opened its dam in order to release its problem, washing away most of a town in the process, and its declaration that it was not responsible, that it would do it again. Somewhere I have the front page of the Irish paper in which it was reported.
This week was also the commemoration of Bhopal, in which a chemical company released noxious gases, to the disadvantage of a substantial population.
It was Bhopal which made me realise the real implications of planning, and that these things could be avoiced.
I was working in Vizag when they were planning the siting of the new steel works, and I was designing a MSc course for the university .
It seems to me now, as it did then, that the contradictory logics of the capitalist mode of production give space for revolutionaries to win arguments and make betterments and that these are opportunities we should seize.
It also gives us opportunities, in lists such as this, and perhaps in the associated journal with which it is attached, to hold onto histories, and establish stories, which may become part of an educational mainstream understanding which determine the conditions not of their own making in which people make history?
It is possible to be pessimistic, with the intellect, and optimistic, with the willie, so that when the employers want to make wage cuts an alternative to mass sackings, it is possible to organise a fight. That sort of fight is a different one from the Mayor for London's integrated transport network consultation, or the siting of a dam for hydraulics power works, or the compensation to be paid when the water is released, which isn't quite the same matter as the breaches of the river.
I don't think discussions have to go, I think making notes and recording how connections fit together is worth doing in itself, and the new technology allows us new ways of doing this, including this list. But this part of the discussion is off to discuss light rail with someone from the UITP.
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From: To complement the journal 'Capital and Class' (ISSN 0 309 8786) [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Stewart [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 08 December 2009 11:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: (C&C)RE: take a look at this
Where is this 'discussion' going? Talk about cities. Cork was under water and is still threatened by new breaches of the river Lee while 7,000 people are homeless in the Shannon basin and the IMF is on the brink of taking over the Irish economy demanding 6% cut in the pay of public sector workers.....while in the north of Ireland the only truly growing business is in the installation of new 'peace walls' or is it 'civil wars' as the new sectarian state 'flourishes'. Presumably all those gombeen sharks who grew fat on the proceeds of their property building boom now gone bust are joyous at finding a new outlet for their over production of concrete and cement. Belfast here we come!
And you cry...for what...
Paul
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From: To complement the journal 'Capital and Class' (ISSN 0 309 8786) [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Freeman [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 07 December 2009 23:37
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: (C&C)RE: take a look at this
Guys, sorry, I can't resist this.
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/18104/1/MPRA_paper_18104.pdf
City measurement is a new frontier. Cities do not define their boundaries by the same means as nations. They do not go to war, they do not make treaties. They do not, themselves, know where their limits lie. So, you have to think, before committing yourself to paper. You have to ask yourself 'actually, what do I mean by the word "London". Or the word "Paris". or the word (dear to my heart) "Glasgow". Or the word "Liverpool".
It is not as if nobody is thinking about the question of "where does the boundary of a city lie". Imagine how you would feel if somebody were to write "If the boundaries of Germany are changed, so it becomes a country of 120 million, is it simply the boundary change which makes the difference that makes the difference?"
So I plead with you, show respect. Think. Read, Don't just speculate. Cities are the future, but if you don't even stop to think what they are or how people that are engaged with them feel about what they belong to, what hope is there for rational discourse? In ancient history, wars were fought over who was a citizen of Athens, or Rome. In Mediaeval times, Florence, Milan, Venice were mercantile city-states in which military, agrarian, cultural and rhetorical spaces of ideas and materiality vied for hegemony. Is London any different today? People are studying the issue of "what city do I belong to" in great earnest and with much at stake. At least do them the elementary courtesy of reading what they have written.I understand the temptation to trivialise it,. but please do not succumb to it.
A
I try to.
A
Lindsay, John M wrote:
Why, one wonders?
Whereas taking a looking at the plan for Greater Paris, which is to be based on SuperTram, seems to me to raise something which is worth taking a look at, for some reason, one thinks of London as a wsorld city, whatever that means, because of its size.
If the boundaries of Paris are changed, so it becomes a city of 10 million, is it simply the boundary change which makes the difference that makes the difference?
Had Greater London not been formed, would one not have seen it?
But then there is the time, distance, price, for transport and I suspect London was seen as soon as the railways existed.
Now the Mayor for London’s Integrated Tramsport Network might stand against Supertram in the contest for world city, but does that have anything to do with capital, and class?
From: To complement the journal 'Capital and Class' (ISSN 0 309 8786) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Christian Garland
Sent: 07 December 2009 02:16
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: take a look at this
I came accross this site stuggba.com , you'll thank me for finding it. spread the word.
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