TOM CLARK: Pressure Drop: Democracy in Chains: The Reluctant Capitulation of the Recalcitrant Victim (John Giorno: An Unemployed Machinist)

Protester outside Greek parliament says it with a symbol: image via Paul Mason @PaulMasonNews, 15 July 2015

John Giorno:  An Unemployed Machinist

An unemployed
machinist
An unemployed machinist
who travelled
here
who travelled here
from Georgia
from Georgia 10 days ago
10 days ago
and could not find
a job
and could not find a job
walked
into a police station
walked into a police station
yesterday and said
yesterday
and said:

“I’m tired
of being scared
I’m tired of being scared.”

John Giorno: An Unemployed Machinist, 1964, from Balling Buddha (1970)

The machinist at work. This man is machinist on an old steamboat at Auckland: photo by Ben Raynal, 30 November 2011

Image from page 486 of "Canadian foundryman (1918)" (1918) | by Internet Archive Book Images

Machinist at work: photographer unknown, from The Canadian Foundryman (1918); image via Internet Archive Book Images/ University of Toronto Library

Statsakten (Celebration of Act of State at Akershus, marking transition to German supremacy in Norway under the national government of Vidkun Quisling): photographer unknown, 1 February 1942 (National Archives of Norway)

Prime Minister for Act of State Lunde. From left: General Feuerstein, Generaladmiral Böhm, Quisling, Rediess, Terboven: photographer unknown, 11 January 1942 (National Archives of Norway)

Parliamentary

Voting on the new austerity measures in the Greek parliament: Greek PM Alexis Tsipras: image via Aris Messinis, @ArisMessinis, 15 July 2015

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras during a parliamentary session in Athens: photo by Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters, 15 July 2015

Voting on the new austerity measures in the Greek parliament: Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotas: image via Aris Messinis, @ArisMessinis, 15 July 2015

Voting on the new austerity measures in the Greek parliament: image via Aris Messinis, @ArisMessinis, 15 July 2015

Greek Parliament agrees on bailout deal, Athens, Greece - 15 Jul 2015<br>Mandatory Credit: Photo by Xinhua/REX Shutterstock (4903851h) Alexis Tsipras addresses the Greek Parliament before voting Greek Parliament agrees on bailout deal, Athens, Greece - 15 Jul 2015 Tsipras on Wednesday called on his radical left Syriza party parliamentary group to remain united in critical times for the country, amid a string of anti-austerity strikes and protests. With a Syriza rebellion, the final outcome was a majority ‘yes’ to the measures.

Alexis Tsipras addressing the Greek Parliament before tonight’s vote: photo via The Guardian, 15 July 2015

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis leaves a parliament session in Athens on July 15, 2015. AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINISARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis leaving tonight’s session: photo by Aris Messinis/AFP, 15 July 2015

Greek finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos

Greek finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos

Here’s the current finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos: photo by Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters, 15 July 2015

Greek PM Tsipras reacts during a parliamentary session in Athens<br>Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reacts during a parliamentary session in Athens, Greece July 16, 2015. The Greek parliament passed a sweeping package of austerity measures demanded by European partners as the price for opening talks on a multi-billion euro bailout package needed to keep the near-bankrupt country in the euro zone. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

Another late night for Alexis Tsipras: photo by Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters, 15 July 2015

IMF head Christine Lagarde and Greek finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos in Brussels at the weekend: photo by Laurent Dubrule/EPA, 15 July 2015

Greek finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos holds his head as he attends parliamentary session in Athens. #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 15 July 2015

Greek finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos gazes toward he ceiling as he attends parliamentary session in Athens. #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 15 July 2015

Alexis Tsipras casts his vote in the Greek parliament: photo by Christian Hartmann/Reuters, 15 July 2015

Bill passes #Greece: image via Derek Gatopoulos @dgatopoulos, 15 July 2015

They've done a recount. Final count: 229 yes. 6 no. 6 present. 38 defectors from @tsipras_eu. 124 stick with him.: image via M. Caruso-Cabrera #MCaruso_Cabrera

Direct Action

#BREAKING: Rally broke up. Street war just started. #Greece: image via Dim Rapids @rapidis, 15 July 2015

#Athens #Greece tonight, People are angry: image via Conflict News @Conflict News, 15 July 2015

Anti-austerity protesters with petrol bombs clash with police in Athens. Photo by Louisa Gouliamaki: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 15 July 2015

Photos: Police getting attacked by Molotovs in #Athens #Greece tonight: image via Conflict News @Conflict News, 15 July 2015

Riot police officers run through fire as anti-austerity protesters throw petrol bombs, during clashes in Athens. Greece's PM Alexis Tsipras is fighting to keep his government intact in the face of outrage over an austerity bill that parliament must pass: photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP, 15 July 2015

Riot police officers run away from fire as anti-austerity protesters throw petrol bombs, during clashes in Athens: photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP, 15 July 2015

LIVE video and photos from protests in #Athens: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 15 July 2015

lets dance ... #Athens #Greece July 15 #ACAB #ThisIsACoup #Syntagma #Greekment #GreeceCrisis: image via #ThisIsACoup @Chara_fc , 15 July 2015

#Greece: Protestors hurl molotovs at riot police in #Athens during confrontations ahead of deadline for bailout deal: image via syndicalist @syndicalisms, 15 July 2015

Anti-austerity protesters with petrol bombs clash with police in Athens. Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 15 July 2015

Anti-austerity protesters with petrol bombs clash with police in Athens. Photo by Louisa Gouliamaki: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 15 July 2015

LIVE NOW: Media truck set alight in in #Athens #Greece tonight: image via YouTube Newswire @ytnewswire, 15 July 2015

#Athens #Greece tonight, People are angry: image via Conflict News @Conflict News, 15 July 2015

Global Civil War

"This is a coup, in fact, because they want to humiliate the government..."#ThisIsACoup: image via The Real News @The Real News, 13 July 2015

Wrote a small piece late last night for @LookLeftMag on SYRIZA. Finished with this. #ThisIsACoup: image via Ronan Burtenshaw @ronanburtenshaw, 15 July 2015 Greece

STATEMENT by 109 out of 201 members of Syriza’s Central Committee #ThisIsACoup: image via Makis Mantas @makismantas, 15 June 2011

Not sure why I hadn't seen this photo before...#Greece: image via Shawn Donnan @sdonnan, 15 July 2015

I'm sorry this isn't funnier, I meant it to be a parody, but it is alas, much too close to the truth. #ThisIsACoup: image via Rolf Dahl @RolfTheGreek, 15 July 2015 Greece

Hands up! #ThisIsACoup. If you call for democracy again I will shoot. : image via Viva la causa! 70 @torinoman, 15 July 2015 Greece

#exarchia #Athens: image via eatps @eatps, 1 July 2015 Greece

Spain showing solidarity with the Greeks... #ThisIsACoup: image via Exenl @Exen, 15 July 2015 Greece

More amazing #streetart in Thessaloniki #greece: image via Theo Lynn @theolynn, 15 July 2015 Thessalonica, Central Macedonia

Solidarity! #ThisIsACoup STOP repression! United against austerity & liberal extremism!: image via Revolución Real Ya @RRYrevolucion, 15 July 2015 Greece

7 comments:

TC16 July 2015 at 13:52
Toots Hibbert and the Maytals: Pressure Drop (Live, Winterland, SF, 1975)
L'Enfant de la Haute Mer16 July 2015 at 13:58
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UMATAscewLA/VaeUsn7EoLI/AAAAAAABDVw/1litKsI2ghU/s1600/image001.jpg
Mose2316 July 2015 at 23:28
Toots is from a nation that broke free of one ugly colonial power only to fall prey to the more surreptitious "pressure drop" of US.

While I think Tsipiras is mistaken I can't help but feel for him. Though there's been capitulation now there have been moments of great courage.

The Greek people give me much hope.

"Tired of being scared"

TC17 July 2015 at 03:08
Duncan,

Thanks very much.

Let's have no doubt, the Greek people have come out of this looking quite brave, if not heroic -- while also sadly doomed, now, in perpetuity as it seems, to the crushing German yoke.

One has to give them all credit for standing up to the vengeful capitalist juggernaut as long as they did.

To be honest I don't know how anyone on Earth stands up to it, any more, there, or here, or for that matter anywhere not hard-bunkered-in by impenetrable walls of solid invisible money.

And yes, about Toots, what's great in the art -- as indeed with the art of all artists of his generation from Jamaica (or perhaps anywhere) -- can't be separated from the historical suffering that lies behind it, and went into the making of it.

His first major hit came with a song that alluded in its title and last verse to the number he had been allotted during an 18 month prison term.

Toots & The Maytals: 54-46 Was My Number (1968), live at Winterland, 15 November 1975

The hateful jail-tag memory had shrunk in performances until, by that point, it was restricted to the final thirty seconds in a nine-minute song that was, curiously enough, more celebration than complaint.

A little over two years ago Toots was touring in the American South, when someone in a crowd at a concert in Richmond, Virginia threw a 1.75 litre wine bottle at him, doing serious damage to his head and effectively ending his performing career.

And while we're on music, musicians and performing -- this may not be to everyone's taste, but I was surprised to see an amazing set of nearly an hour's worth of system-challenging, Northern-style, permadrunk-to-a-purpose dialectical exposition going down two weeks ago in the least likely of places.

I don't know anyone else who appreciates this man's astonishing work, but I know you've done.

Concert for the Death of Europe: "You are a slave": Mark E. Smith and the Fall @Glastonbury Sunday 28 June 2015
TC17 July 2015 at 03:25
And by the by...

This witness at the EU rubber-stamp proceedings on the latest death-extension for Greece, going on at the moment, notes Schäuble frothing at the mouth -- suggesting the presence of life (of a kind) lurking inside there somewhere, after all?.

(Where there's froth there's, well, not hope perhaps, but... at least hydration.)
billoo17 July 2015 at 03:56
Thanks for that, Tom. Always loved Toots' Gold and Silver.
TC17 July 2015 at 05:01
What moral philosopher could be more pertinent.

Toots and the Maytals: Gold and Silver (1970)

All over this world, desolate, desolate.
All over this world, desolate, desolate.
All over creation, desolate, desolate.

(..)

All over this world, desolate, desolate.
All over this world, desolate, desolate.
All over creation, desolate, desolate.

God cast off the wicked man.
God cast off the grudgeful man.
God cast off the evil man.
God cast off the bad man mama.
God cast off the bad man mama.
God cast off the bad man mama.

Share up the gold and silver.
Split up the gold and silver.
Share up the gold and silver.
Show all the gold and silver and gold.

Share up the gold and silver.
Split up the gold and silver.
Share up the gold and silver.
Show all the gold and silver.

(..)

Share up the gold and silver.
Split up the gold and silver..

Thursday, 16 July 2015

Pressure Drop: Democracy in Chains: The Reluctant Capitulation of the Recalcitrant Victim (John Giorno: An Unemployed Machinist)

7 comments: