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The Role of Bonded Labour in Capitalist Development

(NB: The following is a short essay I wrote for the completion of one of my modules in my Masters at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London this past year, more of which I’ll be posting for comment as I get back into blogging. This one addresses the nature of bonded labour in capitalist development from a Marxist theoretical and historical perspective in light of the ILO’s campaign for decent work. I’m grateful for discussions with my tutor Frido Wenten and my comrade John Buttell which helped bring the following scattered thoughts to fruition.)

The Role of Bonded Labour in Capitalist Development

Within the past decade, civil society institutions in the west have devoted an increasing amount of attention to the problem of unfree labour in its various incarnations: child labour, debt bondage, slavery and indentured servitude. Their continued existence long after the legal extinction of slavery and other forms of bonded labour in most of the world, it is thought, makes combatting them today an especially pressing issue. Bales (2004), a prominent figure in the contemporary anti-slavery movement, estimated that there are 27 million people in the world today working under slavery, which he defines as a relationship in which the subject is controlled by violence, paid nothing, and economically exploited. The concern with ending these conditions demonstrated by NGOs and civil society actors has been matched by the International Labour Organization which announced a ‘global alliance against forced labour,’ (ILO 2005) and campaigns for the elimination of forced labour as two out of four of its core labour standards.

Campaigns to end bonded labour in the developing world have been subjected to a withering critique by the left for their single-minded focus on the worst conditions and the general belief that slavery, bonded labour, and other forms of work by coercion are somehow exceptional in the course of capitalist development, from its origins to the present day. The question therefore arises of whether forms of bonded labour are integral to capitalism, are optional to it, or are outside its sphere entirely.

This essay will attempt to answer that question from within a Marxist framework. While there are different approaches within Marxism to the question of free labour, tied to various discussions including the relationship between extra-economic coercion and pre-capitalist modes of development, uneven capitalist development, and the articulation of different modes of production within capitalism, little attempt will be made to address these here, except as they impact directly on the main argument. After defining Marx’s conception of free labour and the role of bonded labour in primitive accumulation, the critique will move on to a discussion of Banaji’s (2011) article on the “fictions of free labour,” in order to critically elaborate on contemporary Marxist theorizations. Finally, a case study will be attempted of the American South to illustrate concretely the existence of bonded labour within capitalist production. By this it should be shown that although Marx’s notion that ‘doubly free’ labour is constitutive of capitalism at a fundamental level, this functions as one end of a continuum with forms that are less ‘free’ and play a role in capitalism while not being integral to it in the same way.

Free and Unfree Labour in Marx

Marx most explicitly deals with the division between free and unfree labour in the discussion of primitive accumulation in volume one of Capital. His most lucid statement on the relation between free labour and capitalism is as follows:

The silent compulsion of economic relations sets the seal on the domination of the capitalist over the worker. Direct extra-economic force is still used, but only in exceptional cases. In the ordinary run of things, the worker can be left to the ‘natural laws of production,’ i.e., it is possible to rely on his dependence on capital, which springs from the conditions of production themselves and is guaranteed in perpetuity by them. It is otherwise during the historical genesis of capitalist production… (Marx 1992, p. 899)

Under primitive accumulation, then, the rising bourgeoisie needed the state to enforce conditions necessary to accumulation through violence. But compulsion which was not needed after these conditions were finally secured. Whereas Marx in this passage recognizes a role for both economic and extra-economic coercion under capitalism, he describes a broad qualitative separation between “direct extra-economic force” and “the silent compulsion of economic relations” which find their division expressed temporally in the divide between the period of initial accumulation and the subsequent history of capitalist development, when direct extra-economic coercion of the working population becomes the exception rather than the rule.

In the pages following the above passage, Marx develops a justly famous history of the period of primitive accumulation, centred on the coercive measures that were used to establish the preconditions for capitalist production in early modern England. The enclosure of common land and the expropriation of the free peasantry, the enforcement of brutal laws on begging and vagrancy, the establishment of hellish poorhouses and work-houses, and the purposeful driving down of wages follow each other in this history. What was meant by this process, according to Marx, is the creation of a class of wage workers that was “doubly free”—free to sell their labour-power to anyone they choose, and freed from any ownership over the means of production.

Marx evidently meant the formula of “double freedom” to be understood in an ironic sense. “Freedom” from ownership over the means of production is a negative freedom brought on by some of the most brutal methods in history, while it leads directly to the freedom of the wage-labourer to sell their labour-power. It would be best to understand Marx as using his caustic wit to express a real paradox that is central to capitalist social relations.1 This is implied in another formula in Capital: “the wage-labourer… is compelled to sell himself of his own free will” (Marx 1992, p. 932). Here, Marx again expresses the dialectical contradiction between the freedom to sell one’s labour that is brought into being by the “silent compulsion” of capitalist relations in the labour market. It would be a misreading of Marx, however, to imagine that because this freedom is the product of coercion, it is devoid of any real content.

Marx’s concern with the conditions of free labour, and that he thought much of the struggle to emancipate bonded labour, are evident throughout his entire career. To take just one example, his writings on the US Civil War (1861-1865) display his concern that the Union, representative of the system of free labour under capitalism, should be victorious over the slave-capitalist society of the South (Marx and Engels 1961).2 Here, Marx’s concern was that not only the condition of free labour was superior to that of plantation-slavery, but that only the extinction of this system, which he regarded as brutal and exceptional within the course of capitalist development, could lead to a united American labour movement—that white workers could never emancipate themselves while black workers were bound in slavery (Marx 1992).

Banaji’s ‘Fictions’ of Free Labour

Banaji’s (2003) article “The Fictions of Free Labour” represents an engagement with the contemporary debate on bonded labour, particularly the writings of Ramachandran (1990) on Indian agriculture and Brass’ (1999) broader theorization of unfree labour. It also represents a belated intervention in the “modes of production” debate in Indian agriculture, carried on during the 1970s in Economic and Political Weekly, in which Banaji made several key contributions.3 The article elaborates on a point made in an earlier article (Banaji 2011a): that the epoch of capitalist relations featured a wide variety of different modes of surplus extraction. Capital could extract a surplus through forms incidental to wage-labour such as slavery or debt bondage. In this earlier work, Banaji stresses the need to determine the underlying relations of production both by reference to the “laws of motion” analysed as particular to a mode of production, and by empirical study of each individual case.4

His later article shifts from this to regard the laws of motion—what Banaji calls the level of “social capital”—almost exclusively. Marx, in Banaji’s reading, developed an understanding of the labour-contract as a mystification and/or mediation of the worker’s subjection to the capitalist, and he quotes from Capital in support of his view that the nature of wage-labour cannot rely on the ‘free’ contract between capitalist and worker, which Banaji regards as merely an ideological legitimation of this subjection (Marx 1992). Rather than being non-capitalist, debt is actually a way by which the wage-labour typical to capitalism can be recruited. Both Brass and Ramachandran, by emphasizing the consensual wage-bargain between capital and labour as integral to capitalism, buy into a form of Marxism that is tainted by liberal mystification.

The upshot is that forms of ‘unfree’ labour such as sharecropping, labour tenancy, and debt-bondage “may just be ways in which paid labour is recruited, exploited and controlled by employers” (Banaji 2003, p. 83). Capitalism, in other words, can and has used a multiplicity of such forms of exploitation that are based on wage labour, and indeed more extreme ones—Banaji here cites sharecropping in the American South, the forced recruitment of labourers in French West Africa, and the use of slave labour in German-occupied Poland during the World Wars.

There is much to be said in criticism of Banaji’s essay. All the historical cases he mentions might well be recognized within the Marxist framework as exceptional circumstances—which Marx regards as aberrations from the norm. Furthermore, whereas Banaji says early on that it is impossible to draw a clear line between free and coerced labour, it is clear that Marx regarded these as distinct categories, even if they were not completely separable. As Bernstein (2013) notes, in Banaji’s account borders between primitive accumulation and industrial capitalism, along with those between capitalist and pre-capitalist societies tend to dissolve, eliding the historical specificity of capitalist economic coercion.

Rather than this absolutism of Banaji, it is more correct to view the distinction between free and unfree labour as a continuum, as Lerche (2007) discusses, in which forms of labour can be identified as free or unfree relative to each other. Or more precisely,

it has become clear that pure ‘free wage labour’ in the double Marxian sense is an ideal type, the conceptual nucleus of far more complicated historical realities. Pure free wage labour… forms a kind of analytical core surrounded by numerous rings of labour relations that we would like to call intermediary (Amin and van der Linden 1999, p. 7).

Banaji, therefore, starts out with a distinction that is useful—that all forms of labour under capitalism are subject to some form of coercion—but by focusing entirely on the level of social capital, his thesis becomes useless analytically. As Lerche (2007) notes, what Brass and Banaji, as well as and Rao (1999) all have in common is that their critiques operate at an abstract, a-historical level—which they share with mainstream conceptions of unfree labour, including ‘anti-slavery’ campaigners such as Bales and the ILO. As Banaji’s article in many ways shows us the dangers of abstraction, the essay will conclude with the illustration of one historical case study of unfree labour which he mentions—sharecropping in the American South.

Sharecropping in the Southern U.S.

Banaji deals with sharecropping in the southern U.S., relying solely on Angelo’s (1995) article, alongside similar labour systems in colonial India and the Byzantine Empire. This inevitably involves a series of major (and unwarranted) historical and theoretical abstractions. The remainder of the essay will take up the case of sharecropping in the American South to concretely demonstrate the nature of this form of “bonded” labour.

Sharecropping was a system stamped by profound class struggles in the postbellum South. As Post (2011) notes, the defeated planter class initially imposed a series of laws known as the Black Codes which would reduce the former slaves to wage-labour on the plantations. The freedmen, however, having successfully thrown off slavery in a general strike with the support of the federal army, were not inclined to return to cotton-picking in conditions which they recognized as being similar to slavery. The class of freedmen, holding local political office and buoyed by the federal occupation of the South, were powerful enough to bury the Black Codes and substitute sharecropping, a system which allowed them considerably more autonomy. As Foner writes,

Planters strongly resented the sense of “quasi-proprietorship” blacks derived from the arrangement—the notion that sharecropping made the tenant“part owner of the crop” and therefore entitled to determine his own family’s pace of work… While sharecropping did not fulfil blacks’ desire for full economic autonomy, the end of the planters’ coercive authority over the day-to-day lives of their tenants represented a fundamental shift in the balance of power in rural society, and afforded blacks a degree of control over their time, labour and family arrangements inconceivable under slavery. (Foner 1988, p. 405-6)

Rather than providing abundant supplies of cheap labour as it is often seen, sharecropping instead tended to drive up labour costs across the board and blacks, being able to survive on their share in addition to traditional subsistence plots, had no desire to work longer hours (Post 2011). The planters increasingly turned to violence to reassert their power. Simultaneously, merchant capital entered the rural South offering loans to the freedmen against a portion of the crop, which was ruthlessly exploited to extract exorbitant levels of interest—providing the solvent that unglued black sharecroppers’ economic autonomy.

Even despite the great amount of autonomy the sharecropping system afforded the former slaves, even at its height it could never have been regarded as truly existing in their interest. The slogan “forty acres and a mule,” translatable as a demand for the federal government to empower ex-slaves as a class of petty farmers, had never received a hearing outside of the most utopian of the Radical Republican circles. Freedmen were in the end unable to resist reincorporation into the system of cotton production for the world market, a prospect they had vigorously rejected ever since Emancipation. They remained dependent on the planter and merchant to provide the seed and equipment, and bound to give up part of the crop they worked under a relationship of contractual obligation. In the last instance, the freedmen were much closer to the position of wage-labourers than that of their aspiration, petty proprietorship—a distinction which must be treated with some care.5

Even at its empowering height, Southern sharecropping was at best a bitter compromise that left both of the main classes deeply dissatisfied. It would best be regarded not as an iteration of “democracy against capitalism” and hence a non-capitalist labour system, as Post (2011) argues,6 but rather as a relationship of surplus extraction in which market relations were increasingly mediated through the personal relationship of the freedman to the merchant and planter. By the end of the Reconstruction period, sharecropping was no longer a system allowing blacks some amount of economic and political autonomy, but one that forced free blacks into dependence on their former masters in a barely disguised wage-relation.

This essay has demonstrated that forms of bonded labour have a contradictory nature under capitalism. As it has been seen, Marx (1992) recognized a role for generalized forced labour during primitive accumulation, regarding at as an exception afterwards. While Banaji (2003) dissolves the category of free labour in a fit of over-abstraction, the most defensible Marxist theory of the distinction between free and bonded labour would rest on a continuum, in which a number of mediated labour forms lie between the ideal type of doubly-free labour and absolute coercion. The case study of sharecropping in the American South allowed us a glimpse of the concrete dynamic in which one of these mediated forms was brought into being and reshaped through the class struggle between planters and freedmen. It shows that forms of bonded labour do not exist outside of the capitalist economy, and just like free labour may be shaped and negotiated by the struggle over terms and conditions of employment.

The existence of a defensible concept of capitalist bonded labour should encourage a return to the origins of the contemporary debate outside of Marxism, where debt-bondage, child labour and slavery are still thought of as exceptional in the course of capitalist development. A Marxist intervention into these debates would not only maintain the idea these “worst forms of exploitation” are just as capitalist as “free labour,” but would extend its inquiry into the forms of agency of employers and bound labourers. Examining the ways in which these intermediary labour relationships are constantly open to resistance and contestation would mark the beginnings of a project vital to the understanding of a global struggle seeking to emancipate labour from all forms of coercion, exceptional violence and normal economic laws alike.

1 This much is evident about much of Marx’s writing. Miéville (2006), for example, notes that his famous quip about the class struggle under capitalism—“between equal rights, force decides”—does not necessarily imply the insignificance of “equal rights.”

2 Chapter 3 of Anderson (2010) provides a useful summary of his writings and of his and Engels’ pro-Union activism within the British labour movement.

3 Most of the debate from the 1970s is collected in Patnaik (1990), including two of Banaji’s articles.

4 Banaji (2011b), an earlier version of which is collected in Patnaik (1990) is one such empirical study.

5 Amin and van der Linden’s (1999) model, referenced above, conceives of a triangular circuit of ideal free labour at the core with absolute bondage and self-employment as the two legs, which strikes me as useful here.

6 Whatever the merits of Woods (1995) analysis elsewhere, Post’s application of it to the postbellum South does not quite convince.

Works Cited

Amin, S. and van der Linden, M. (1999) Introduction. In: International Review of Social History. [Online] 41 (Supplement 4). p. 1-7. Available from: [Accessed: 2 December 2013]

Anderson, K. (2010) Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity and Non-Western Societies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Angelo, L. (1995) Wage Labour Deferred: The Recreation of Unfree Labour in the US South. In: Journal of Peasant Studies. [Online] 22 (4). p. 581-644. Available from: [Accessed: 5 December 2013]

Banaji, J. (2003) The Fictions of Free Labour: Contract, Coercion and So-Called Unfree Labour. In: Historical Materialism. [Online] 11 (3). p. 69-95. Available from: [Accessed: 1 December 2013]

Banaji, J. (2011a). Modes of Production in a Materialist Conception of History. In: Banaji, J., Theory as History: Essays on Modes of Production and Exploitation. p.45-101. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

Banaji, J. (2011b). Capitalist Domination and the Small Peasantry: The Deccan Districts in the Late Nineteenth Century. In: Banaji, Theory as History. p.277-332. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

Bernstein, H. (2013) Historical Materialism and Agarian History. In: Journal of Agrarian Change. [Online] 13 (2). p. 310-329. Available from: [Accessed: 28 November 2013]

Brass, T. (1999) Towards a Political Economy of Unfree Labour: Case Studies and Debates. London: Frank Cass.

Foner, E. (1988) Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: Harper and Row.

Lerche, J. (2007) A Global Alliance against Forced Labour? Unfree Labour, Neo-Liberal Globalization and the International Labour Organization. In: Journal of Agrarian Change. [Online] 7 (4). p. 425-452. Available from: [Accessed: 1 December 2013]

Miéville, C. (2006) Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

Marx, K. (1992) Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Vol. 1. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1960) The Civil War in the United States. New York: International Publishers.

Patnaik, U., ed. (1990), Agrarian Relations and Accumulation: The ‘Mode of Production’ Debate in India. p. 119-131. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Post, C. (2011) The American Road to Capitalism: Studies in Class-Structure, Economic Development and Political Conflict, 1660-1877. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

Rao, J.M. (1999) Freedom, Equality, Property, and Bentham: The Debate over Unfree Labour. In: Journal of Peasant Studies. [Online] 27 (1). p. 97-127. Available from: [Accessed: 2 December 2013]

Ramachandran, V.K. (1990) Wage Labour and Unfreedom in Agriculture: An Indian Case Study. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Wood, E.M. (1995) Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Batman, Terror and the Revolution

I was a bit reluctant to see The Dark Knight Rises, the latest and hopefully final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and this was every bit as much for the ubiquitous and overbearing advertising from my TV to my local grocery as for the sophomoric moral and political content supposed to be taken as deep psychological drama in the last two movies. For all I expected to be underwhelmed however, the latest film reached a level of awfulness I truly did not expect.

For the purposes of this missive, I propose to ignore for the most part the particulars of the acting and the intricacies of the plot – these are, I think, more or less at the high end of what we have come to expect from contemporary Hollywood. Instead, what I want to do is detail how exactly the film represents a recasting of hoary ruling-class tropes about revolution and popular democracy. That it comes out in the era of the Arab Spring, Occupy and the mass struggles against austerity in Greece and the rest of Europe should, of course, be a telling sign of the message that this particular movie carries, which it may have escaped had it been released even a few years earlier.

Such is the movie’s deeply anti-democratic (not to even mention counter-revolutionary) message that even the mainstream media in America has been forced to sit up and take notice – such bastions of the liberal media as Rolling Stone and The Nation have drawn the obvious connections between Bane and the Occupy movement in their reviews of the movie. That no media source outside of the left-wing ghettoes bothered to note the class prejudice and – yes – racism that ran just as deeply through the last two installments of the Batman trilogy is a sign of just how much Occupy has changed the political conversation in this country.

Therefore, what I am writing in this blog is not exactly original commentary. What I can offer, however, is an at least half-baked critique of the kind of ruling-class paranoid fantasy that The Dark Knight Rises very much has its home in. Of course, reviews in the left-wing press such as those of Socialist Alternative and Jacobin Magazine are also recommended. I will also ignore the specifics of whether Bruce Wayne happens to represent capitalist or feudal values, which the Jacobin review goes into excellently, but I think in a way that is a bit beside the point.

So, what do we have in The Dark Knight Rises? Quite simply, it is an anti-democratic tirade of the type that our ruling classes have trotted out from 1789, to 1917, to 2012. In the movie we have Bane, a super-villain wearing a very sinister mask and possessing an even more sinister British accent, who succeeds in rousing the population of Gotham City to overthrow the rich and powerful elite as represented by the reclusive Bruce Wayne and his compatriots. Predictably, of course, Bane’s revolution is nothing more than a plot to destroy Gotham with the use of fusion power which Wayne in his infinite wisdom has chosen to hide from the city for fear of it being used as a weapon.

The reasons Bane and his hidden comrade have for wanting to destroy Gotham, being obscure and hidden in the series’ mythology, do not particularly interest me. What is more telling are his methods. The viewer may remember that Bane launches his coup at the beginning of a football game, which he interrupts by slaughtering both teams. That the population of Gotham is roused to overthrow their rulers through a pantomime speech in the wake of such carnage might be a sign of either their inherent stupidity and obedience, or their criminal delight in violence, or both – we can’t be sure, because Nolan doesn’t take us close enough to actually ever see the motivations of Bane’s rank and file. Where we do see them for a moment, they seem to be a combination of scraggly young white men whose images the ruling class media associated with Occupy, and criminals mostly of minority populations. This plays to the worst elitist tropes about popular movements in the recent history of the West.

We might also take note of the content of Bane’s message. Though he calls on the citizens of Gotham to rise up and take power, his reason for this is expressed in a few words about corrupt elites – which, of course, we do not see up close. An anti-elitist, anti-corruption message, of course, might be the program of anyone from the revolutionary left to the most tepid liberal populist politician. That it is enough to rouse the citizens of Gotham serves to tell us that any radical program of change, no matter how it is phrased or enacted, can only lead to disaster.

This, of course, has long been the message of our ruling class in relation to any social upheaval or revolution. We might note other cultural products which have carried a similar message – Across the Universe and other movies about the Sixties in America, as well as Dr. Zhivago, Anastasia and other movies about the Russian Revolution. These are all variations on a theme. That theme? Something like: while there may be some mild corruption at the top of our society, any attempt to address this through mass action has the effect of making things much worse. Because the lower classes of society are stupid, vicious and easily led by their noses, any mass movement that develops is under the open or hidden command of evil masterminds, usually disaffected elites themselves. A successful uprising by these people will inevitably lead to mass terror, disaster and/or the end of civilization.

This was the dominant ruling class explanation of the Russian Revolution, and it has remained this way, with perhaps the excision of the story that revealed the links between Leon Trotsky and sinister American Jewish businessmen (as it was told at the time). This, for example, is a famous counterrevolutionary propaganda poster from the era:

The same goes, more or less, for the French Revolution, about which the only thing most people know is the image of the guillotine. That The Dark Knight Rises can be called a fully self-conscious ruling class paranoid fantasy about a popular revolution can be told from Bruce Wayne’s funeral, at which Commissioner Gordon reads the following as his eulogy:

I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out… I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence… It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.

Charles Dickens wrote these words as an epitaph for the French aristocracy which was overthrown in the revolution of 1789. Whatever you think of the political character of the rest of his work (Bill Keach makes a good case here for considering his broadly progressive role in English fiction), A Tale of Two Cities, from which this monologue comes, is nothing less than the original fable on the dangers of popular revolution. That the revolutionary terror at its height only carried off a few thousand executions at the most, which should be seen as a self-defensive measure as part of a broad defensive mobilization on the part of the Jacobin regime did not in the end concern Dickens, who for all his professed radicalism shrank away at what was necessary to establish and preserve democratic rule. Neither does it concern Nolan when he apes Dickens’ Madame Guillotine by the revolutionary tribunals which condemn Commissioner Gordon and other of Gotham’s elites to “exile” by walking across the thin ice than surrounds Gotham in the winter.

What, if any, will be the impact of the film’s ideology? That it is this year’s summer blockbuster should give us an idea of its potential to influence the popular consciousness. Bourgeois cultural products which influence the prevailing “common sense” like this movie do not, of course, work by imposing their narratives fully on the minds of the population. Many will recognize the elitist and reactionary nature of this film, and will profess to just enjoy it “as a movie.” This is an equally dangerous mistake. To ignore the political content of art, which at a fundamental level is just as much an intervention into society as a pamphlet or a demonstration, is to give any reactionary a free pass to the mass consciousness, where a number of elitist ideas like the ones The Dark Knight Rises will reinforce exist already in a complicated relationship with other, even opposite, notions like those of freedom and democracy. To anyone who sees the police invade Gotham and recognize that we are supposed to cheer for them when they beat down the masses who have taken control of their city, on the other hand, the only credible response to this movie must be: I stand with Bane.

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On hiatus, perhaps

Okay children. I know it’s only been a month or so since I started blogging this but somehow I’m finding the need to take a break for a few weeks. For some reason fiction hasn’t really been working out for me. I’m guessing the high doses of politics (working toward an ISO branch at my school, fuck yeah) has gone to my head and now all I feel like reading is leftwing political tracts. Just for funzies, here are the books I have on my list (both not yet started and in various states of completion):

  • The Politics of Combined and Uneven Development: the Theory of Permanent Revolution by Michael Löwy
  • The Liberal Defense of Murder by Richard Seymour
  • Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights by Omar Barghouti
  • Trotsky’s Marxism and Other Essays by Duncan Hallas
  • Party and Class by Chris Harman, Tony Cliff, Duncan Hallas and Leon Trotsky
  • What is the Real Marxist Tradition? by John Molyneux
  • Revolution in Danger by Victor Serge
  • A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey
  • Class Struggles in Eastern Europe by Chris Harman

You might think, “wow, Bill, that’s really disgusting that you bought so many books without having a job, and while taking trips to New York city that cost $30 each time round trip, your mom will most likely skin you alive.” You would be correct, but there aren’t scholarships widely available to the school of class struggle unfortunately. One of the perks of this business is that you feel somewhat better about extravagant spending on books, which is a nice perk, and there are precious few of them (well, besides the feeling naturally superior to other people part which is pretty great).

On the other hand, there are some things I might be able to do for you if your thirst for amateur Marxist literary criticism is really that bad. 1) I wrote an essay on Blood Meridian (post #1) for English class, and while that isn’t necessarily Marxist, I did enjoy writing it and I might put it up there for the sake of having content once it clears grading. Similarly for a brief paper I wrote on Mayakovsky’s Mystery-Bouffe, which is a tad more political. Also with school ending tomorrow, I will have ample amounts of free time on my hands, which I plan to use some of to finally write an essay on Murakami’s politics, which I noted in the “about” section. I tend to go a little crazy without something specific to occupy my mind.

Other than that, I’m pretty confident I will return to fiction after a short time. This is a (small) transition for me as it will mark the first significant stretch of time I’ve been out of school since summer 2009. Around times like this I tend not to have patience for large projects, and as you can see from the above list my concentration is clearly shot to hell. But this year looks especially good for new fiction. China Miéville’s Embassytown comes out in a week, and in the fall we’ll see Amitav Ghosh’s River of Smoke (I plan to reread and review the prequel, Sea of Poppies, at some point before that) and FINALLY, the English translation of Murakami’s 1Q84, the reading of which will be the closest thing I can imagine right now to heaven, except of course being with my beautiful, intelligent and talented compañera Maria.

By the way I felt this from Victor Serge belongs here, and it should give you something to chew on til I next return:

For despite everything life goes on. Perhaps we shall be slaughtered tomorrow; that doesn’t matter. The main thing is to keep calm and resolute today, and to be able to think of something else from time to time. Today, Sunday, during the funerals of Tolmachev, Rakov, Kupche and Tavrin, there was an artistic oasis amid the sorrowful and threatened city. Hundreds of people came to the small white hall of the Conservatory to listen to music by Glazunov. The great composer was there himself, tall and stooping, his broad shoulders gaunt, with pallor, weariness and anemia visible in the heavy creases of his face… It was a charming morning of good music. There was a young woman, blonde, graceful and slender like a Greek statue, a wonderful artist. For a long time she too held this audience charmed by her violin-playing. Then, in a smart black dress-coat, as though at a fashion reception in the old days, Maximov sang Heine’s Leider.

One day, when these things are discussed with a concern for justice and truth, when, in the society of the future that we shall ultimately build, where all the wounds of humanity will have been healed, then the revolution will be praised because it never, even in its most tragic days, lost the concern for art; it never neglected rhythms, fine gestures, beautiful voices full of pathos, dream-like settings, poems, anthems played on the organ, the sobbing notes of violins. Never. And I cannot help discovering in this obstinate quest for beauty, at every hour of the civil war, stoicism, strength and confidence. Doubtless it is because the Red city is suffering and fighting so that one day leisure and art shall be the property of all.

(Victor Serge, “During the Civil War,” in Revolution in Danger: Writings from Russia 1919-1921, trans. Ian Birchall. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2011. 30-31)

Keep it real (but not too real) and love always,

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“No beauty if it is paid for by human injustice” : By way of introduction

Hello there. A while ago I started reading. Sometime later I figured out it would be best to read only good books. I read mostly novels, some short stories, and the occasional poem if I can be bothered (usually I can’t). Favorite authors: Haruki Murakami, Roberto Bolaño, Victor Serge, Kurt Vonnegut. I don’t read as much as I feel I could, but probably more than most people my age, who in my experience spend more time complaining about how they never have time to read than making good on it.

So one reason I started this blog is as a way to keep track of what I read. I tend to think a little bit too much about what I read, so I figure one way I could deal with that is to empty those thoughts onto an environmentally-friendly website. Also it might help me work out my ideas a bit more, which I hear might be a good thing if I’m planning on trying to make a living in this business.

A while ago I became a socialist due to the influence of a troublemaking uncle. I always had the problem though that I enjoy reading literature much more than even the best written polemic. So another idea I had for this blog is to explore the political content of what I read, which I tend to be thinking about anyway. I will not mercilessly criticize whatever I’m reading for failing to speak to the socialist alternative, but as Thomas Mann says, “for the rational man, everything is politics,” and I don’t feel as if I harm literature at all by practicing a little political criticism, along the lines of what Tadeusz Borowski says in his story “Auschwitz, Our Home”:

The Egyptian pyramids, the temples, and the Greek statues – what a hideous crime they were! How much blood must have poured on to the Roman roads, the bulwarks, and city walls. Antiquity – the tremendous concentration camp where the slave was branded on the forehead by his master, and crucified for trying to escape! Antiquity – the conspiracy of free men against slaves!

You remember how much I used to like Plato. Today I realize he lied. For the things of this world are not a reflection of the ideal, but a product of human sweat, blood and hard labor. It is we who built the pyramids, hewed the marble for the temples and the rocks for the imperial roads, we who pulled the oars in the galleys and dragged wooden ploughs, while they wrote dialogues and dramas, rationalized their intrigues by appeals in the name of the Fatherland, made wars over boundaries and democracies. We were filthy and died real deaths. They were ‘aesthetic’ and carried on subtle debates.

There can be no beauty if it is paid for by human injustice, nor truth that passes over injustice in silence, nor moral virtue that condones it.”

(Borowski, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen)

So that is my spiel. If I’m lucky, I might introduce a couple people to books I feel are really good, and possibly to a different angle on reading them. I would be really glad if I could do that.

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Shop Tuesday Crush

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  • Novello Theatre
Novello Theatre

Novello Theatre

AldwychLondonWC2B 4LD
Nearest Tube
Covent Garden/Holborn
Nearest Train
Charing Cross

Seating Plan

Click seating plan to see full size version.Novello Theatre Seating Plan

Novello Theatre, London

The Novello Theatre is a London West End theatre on Aldwych.

The Novello was built as one of a pair with the Aldwych Theatre on either side of the Waldorf Hotel, both being designed by W.G.R. Sprague. The theatre opened as the Waldorf Theatre on May 22, 1905, and was renamed the Strand Theatre in 1909. It was again renamed as the Whitney Theatre in 1911 before again becoming the Strand Theatre in 1913. In 2005, the theatre was renamed by its owners (Delfont-Mackintosh) the Novello Theatre in honour of Ivor Novello.

The black comedy Arsenic and Old Lace had a run of 1337 performances here in the 1940s, and Sailor Beware ran for 1231 performances from 1955. Stephen Sondheim's musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum opened here on the day of Kennedy''s assassination, running for nearly two years. In 1971 the comedy No Sex Please – We're British opened here, remaining for over 10 years of its 16-year run until it transferred to the Garrick Theatre in 1982.

The Novello Theatre was extensively refurbished in 1930 and again in the early 1970s. For its 100th anniversary in 2005, the theatre underwent yet another extensive refurbishment. The current capacity is around 1,050.

The theatre reopened on 8 December 2005 with the Royal Shakespeare Company's annual London season, playing to 4-week runs of Twelfth Night, The Comedy Of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It, concluding in March 2006.

Currently at the Novello Theatre London is the West End production of Mamma Mia!, which has had over 40 million people dancing in the aisles around the world and continues to sell out Novello Theatre tickets as one of the most loved shows around.

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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

CFP: Tennessee Value and Agency Conference

Tennessee Value and Agency “TVA” Conference

2014 Conference – November 6-9, 2014
Practical Reason, Moral Judgment and Moral Sense, Sensibility and Sentiment in the Moral Life

Call For Abstracts

The 2014 Tennessee Value and Agency “TVA” Conference will take place November 6-9, 2014, on the University of Tennessee Campus, 1210 McClung Tower.  The conference will focus on (rethinking) the relationships between practical reason, moral judgment and moral
sense, sensibility and sentiment in the moral life, with an eye toward bringing structure and clarity to the aims and ambitions of current work in moral psychology and moral theory.  Keynote speakers will be Amelie Rorty (Tufts) and Talbot Brewer (UVA).  To have a paper considered for presentation, please submit a 500 word abstract (for a paper no longer than 40 minutes presentation time; if you plan to read your paper
this means a paper no more than 4000 words) by July 1, 2014, to   The authors of abstracts/papers selected for presentation will be notified by August 15, 2014, and the conference program will be set and announced by September 1, 2014.   Please direct questions (but not abstracts) to David Reidy,

The UT Philosophy Department’s annual Tennessee Value and Agency “TVA” Conference was inaugurated in the fall of 2012.  The Conference focuses on and advances work in two areas central to the Department’s research mission and graduate program:  value theory and agency/action theory.  Each year there is a conference theme, addressed by keynote speakers and roughly a dozen presenters selected by the conference organizers upon blind review of abstracts received in response to an internationally distributed call for abstracts.  (See the program for the 2012 “TVA” conference here, and the 2013 “TVA” conference here.)  The conference takes place over a Thursday through Sunday in the fall term.  The Conference is free and open to the public; students and scholars with special interests in the conference theme are encouraged to attend.  Participants and attendees enjoy high quality sessions with lively and productive discussions that typically spill over to receptions, meals, and so on.

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Celebrities We Lost to Overdose

It is a tragedy when anyone dies of a drug overdose. Drugs are no respecter of persons. It takes anyone at anytime, killing without prejudice. Why do humans like to get high? One answer is that drugs provide shortcuts to religious and transcendental experiences. If something can be ingested, injected, inhaled or absorbed into the human body, it can be abused. In the United States alone, nearly one-third of the population either abuses drugs or has a relationship with someone who is chemically dependent. Other countries face a similar problem.

Nearly half of drug abuse in the United States involves the misuse of prescription drugs. This is not only deliberate misuse, such as forged prescriptions, Medicaid fraud, and black market sales, but also errors made by physicians and accidental misuse of prescribed drugs—especially by the elderly. Many observers have become concerned about the astonishing increase in the use of Ritalin, a physician-prescribed drug given to American children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Many widely-used chemical substances damage the brain, heart and lungs of the user, as well as the bodies of the user’s unborn children. Drug use contributes to the leading causes of death in the world—heart disease, stroke and various types of cancer. It also generates an incredible financial burden for society. The total cost of substance abuse in America has been estimated at more than $240 billion per year. According to the World Health Organization, approximately one out of five hospital beds in the United States is occupied by someone with substance abuse as a contributing factor, and nearly 50 percent of all preventable deaths are related to some aspect of substance abuse. Substance abuse and its consequences are major medical and social problems.

Today, the medical model of addiction dominates the thinking in much of the Western world. This model suggests that people who abuse chemical substances or have behavior-related problems are victims of faulty genes that produce internal chemical imbalances. This can promote the notion that people have little control over their lives, and at times is used as an excuse for lawlessness by wildly mixing up moral responsibility with diagnosis. Indeed, much conventional wisdom about substance abuse undermines personal responsibility.

Factors Preventing Substance Abuse:

  1. Purpose in life
  2. Strong system of values
  3. Positive parental example
  4. Close relationship with parents
  5. Positive peer influences
  6. Academic achievement
  7. High educational aspiration
  8. Regular school attendance
  9. Regular church attendance
  10. Realistic long-term goals
  11. Knowledge of consequences
  12. Hope of a reward

It is alarming how many celebrities who have died secondary to drugs and alcohol over the years.

  • Corey Monteith, age 31, who played Finn Houston in the Glee TV series, was found dead in his Vancouver hotel room after taking a lethal cocktail of heroin and booze.
  • Sid Vicious, the bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols, died in his sleep after partying with heroin the night of his 1979 release from New York’s Rikers Island. His drug dealer that fateful night was his mother.
  • Dee Dee Ramone, Ramones founding member, bassist, singer and songwriter, died of a heroin overdose. Police found a syringe and five balloons of heroin near Ramone’s body.
  • Kurt Cobain, the Nirvana front man, was found in 1994 at his Lake Washington home. Although he shot himself—a suicide note was found—a high concentration of heroin and a small amount of diazepam was found in his bloodstream.
  • Peter Farndon, the founding member of The Pretenders, was found in his bathtub by his wife following a heroin overdose.
  • Lenny Bruce, standup comedian, died in 1966 after overdosing on heroin.
  • Jim Morrison, front man for the Doors, died on July 3, 1971, at age 27. He was found in a Paris apartment bathtub, reportedly dead from a heroin overdose after snorting what he thought was cocaine.
  • Jimi Hendrix was arrested in 1969 for possession of heroin, but was acquitted after claiming the drugs were planted in his belongings. He died of a heroin overdose the following year.
  • Hillel Slovak, founding member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, died on June 27, 1988 of a heroin overdose.
  • Elvis Presley died at age 42 on August 16, 1977 after being found unresponsive in his upstairs bathroom. Cause of death was cardiac arrest secondary to an overdose of prescription drugs, including codeine, Valium, morphine, and Demerol.
  • Chris Farley died in 1977 after a night of partying with a hooker. An autopsy revealed a cocaine and morphine overdose.
  • John Belushi, of Saturday Night Live fame, was found dead in his room at the Chateau Marmont hotel in 1982 from speed-balling: injecting a combination of heroin and cocaine.
  • Whitney Houston, 48, was found unconscious and submerged in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel just hours before a pre-Grammy party. She died of an accidental overdose of cocaine and other drugs.
  • Corey Haim, the former child star who played in The Lost Boys, died of an accidental drug overdose. It was determined that he’d been obtaining prescription drugs through various aliases.
  • Janis Joplin died of a heroin overdose. She was found wedged between a table and the wall with a cigarette in her hand.
  • Heath Ledger, 28, who won a posthumous Oscar for playing the Joker in The Black Knight, was found unconscious in his bed by his housekeeper. Ledger died of acute intoxication due to taking six different prescription drugs.
  • River Phoenix, 23, who was scheduled to perform on stage with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, died from an overdose of heroin and cocaine.
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman, Oscar winning actor who starred in over 40 films, was found dead of an apparent heroin overdose on February 2, 2014. He had been clean for 20 years. Hoffman was 46.
  • Len Bias, pro basketball player, died of a cocaine overdose in 1986.
  • Christopher Bowman, professional figure skater, died of a overdose of cocaine, diazepam, alcohol, and cannabis.
  • William Holden died at 63 after he fell and bled to death following a night of intoxication.
  • Michael Jackson died in 2009 of an accidental overdose of lorazapam and propofol administered by his private physician.
  • Marilyn Monroe died in 1962 at age 36 from an overdose of barbiturates. Officially ruled as a private suicide, although several conspiracy theories still persist.
  • Amy Winehouse, a talented singer with a unique take on jazz, died in 2011 at age 27, from alcohol intoxication.
  • Prince died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2009.
  • Anna Nicole Smith succumbed to an overdose of methadone and medication for anxiety and depression in 2007.
  • Tom Petty died from a fatal combination of fentanyl and oxycodone in 2017.
  • John Entwistle, bass player for The Who, died of a heart attack due to a cocaine overdose in 2002.
  • Len Bias, Boston Celtics second overall NBA draft pick, suffered cardiac arrhythmia after an accidental cocaine overdose, and passed away in 1986.
  • Truman Capote died of liver failure secondary to drug and alcohol abuse in 1984 [Ironically, he was brilliantly played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in Truman.]
  • David Kennedy, fourth son of Robert F. Kennedy, died from  an overdose of cocaine, meperidine, and thioridazine in 1984.
  • Judy Garland died in 1969 secondary to a barbiturate overdose.

Concluding Remarks

If you know someone who is struggling with active addiction, please talk to them about treatment. If you need help, contact your local Al-Anon chapter. If you are stuck in the bondage of addiction, there is hope. First things first: Contact your local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. I struggled with active addiction for forty years. Step One says, “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives had become unmanageable.” Drug overdose is the leading cause of death in the United States, with 64,000 deaths last year alone. President Donald Trump said in the State of the Union Address this week that 700 Americans die every day from drug overdose.

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30.08.2013 / 10.09.2013 Al-mat-ay

Staying at the Backpackers hostel, a few of our friends and family came out with some fresh supplies and to enjoy some good times in the old capital of Kazakhstan.

During our stay we met a few cyclists doing various continental rides, a couple doing a tandem ride around the world, loads of people taking part in the Mongolia Charity Rally, and a lot of nice people in general (sorry about names, it has been a rather long time!).

Importantly, we set about preparing what equipment to send home and how minimalist to be. We sent home some of the larger electronics and much of the ineffective winter clothing, and gave away what little we had left which we deemed unnecessary, reducing our equipment to the point where the carts became solely for food, water, our tent and bedding, reducing weight both on them and on our backs.

Preparing to leave for walking again with the mountains in sight, it wasn’t the best feeling in the world.

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Thursday, June 28, 2007

Fort Worthology Update

Couple of interesting notes from Kevin:

  • Ricki Derek's Scat Jazz Lounge appears to have had a change of location. Originally supposed to open in the basement of the Burk Burnett Building, will now be opening in the basement of the Woolworth Building (left) next door. This will put the jazz lounge under the Joseph A. Bank store and the Milan Gallery.

  • Confirmed: The Knights of Pythias Hall is saved and will be redeveloped.
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Clinical rotations

How to get the most out of clinical rotations during your third year

Looking back on my third year, these are the words of wisdom I want to share with students preparing or starting their clinical rotations.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published through ACOEP’s The Fast Track and has been edited for The DO. It has been reposted here with permission.

Before I started my fourth year of medical school, while I was preparing for the Level 2 exam and audition rotations, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what I learned from my third-year clinical rotations. As a student who wants to pursue emergency medicine, I liked that my core clerkships gave me greater insights into what happens before and after that ED visit.

Third-year students are in a unique position. Most of us probably started our first clinical rotation as confused, awkward students who felt more in the way than anything else. After spending two years knowing exactly what needed to be done to pass classes and crush boards, we were suddenly thrust into a world where there was no Pathoma and those long uWorld vignettes were now hourlong patient interviews, with differential diagnoses much narrower than A through N answer choices.

But once you get a little more comfortable in your new role, things aren’t so bad. You have got the basic anatomy and physiology down, and now you get to apply it to real patients.

As your preceptors start to give you more responsibility with charting and orders, you can learn to develop treatment plans for your patients with the safety net of having a physician behind you to catch your mistakes before you make them. You get to explore different specialties and hopefully begin to figure out where your best fit may be.

And if you already know what specialty you want to pursue, third year is the perfect opportunity to gain exposure to areas of medicine you may not see again once you begin residency. So what’s the best way to take advantage of this year?

Keep an open mind.

It can be tempting to want to blow off a rotation just because you think you will never end up in that specialty. Ultimately, you never know what you might end up loving, or hating, if you do not give every clerkship a fair shot. At the most, it will only be eight weeks of your life. Dedicate yourself to it, and you may end up surprising yourself.

Listen to every heart, and look in everyone’s ears.

Pathology will be easier to spot when you know what normal is supposed to look and sound like. After a month of screaming children in pediatrics, looking at the ears of a calm adult should be a piece of cake. Practice your physical exam skills as best as you can while your preceptors still don’t expect you to know very much. That way once they do start to expect more, you know what you are doing.

Take the time to get the full story.

Your third year is the time where you get to spend an hour with a patient trying to learn how to elicit a good history. Use this time to get to know the full story.

Remember why you chose medicine.

I asked each of my preceptors for one piece of advice, and I think part of me was hoping for some tangible piece of medicine that I could write in my notebook and never forget during a patient visit. Instead, everyone seemed to tell me variations of the same ideas: Never forget why you pursued medicine in the first place. If you find something you love, chase it. Never let the job keep you from remembering why you care about people. Remember, while it may be just another day of work for you, many of your patients will be people who are enduring a really rough day.

More articles about clinical/audition rotations

9 ways to succeed in your clinical rotations

The ABCs of clinical rotations: Always be curious

Audition rotations: 7 tips for success

1 comment

  1. When I attended KCUMB a few decades ago, we had classes third year. Usually 30-35 hours a week in class.
    We covered all the specialty areas including cancer. These classes increased the foundation knowledge of our classes. There was no hit or miss in the third year with rotations.
    With medicine becoming ever more complex, we need to go back to third year classes and give more uniform and extensive knowledge.
    Presently, after second year there is no uniformity of education because each student will see different sets of patients under different doctors; with that there is a lot of room to miss many less common diseases or variants.
    Everything after basic education is clinical so you will have the chance to do fourth year clinicals, internship, and residency, and maybe fellowship years to add to the academic basic education.

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Home / Reading / Things worth reading: 25th November 2009

Things worth reading: 25th November 2009

Things we're reading today include …

Today's must read:

After Lloyd Blankfein let slip that Goldman Sachs were performing "God's work", the revised Lord's Prayer has just been released:

Our chairman, who art at Goldman,
Blankfein be thy name.
The rally's

God's work be done.
We have no fear of correction.
Give us this
day our daily gains,

and bankrupt our nearest competitors,
just as you
taught Lehman and Bear a lesson.

And bring us not under indictment,
thine is the Treasury,

the House and the Senate,
forever and ever,

Bank Bailouts

US economy recovering less quickly than forecastThe Independent
Federal Reserve forecasts better growth next yearThe Times
King hints at a gentle end to printing money early next yearThe Independent
Chinese banks seek capital after lending bingeThe Times
Central bank outsourcing hits right noteFinancial Times
We've paid the price to avoid chaos and we must learn from our mistakesThe Telegraph

The Finanser is sponsored by VocaLink and Cisco:
For details of sponsorship email us.

About Chris M Skinner

Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, the Finanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal’s Financial News. To learn more click here...

Check Also

Things worth reading: 19th February 2018

Things we’re reading today include … UK banks facing further big hits for US fines, …


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FODMAP Friendly Foods

This section consists of a FODMAP friendly food list that can be saved onto your computer or phone (right click/equivalent) and a list of articles that go into more detail about certain foods/products.

Please note that while I make every effort for this list to be correct, Monash University is continuously testing new foods. It would be impossible for me to list every food tested here, so I highly advise anyone on this diet long term to download either the Monash University Low FODMAP app or Baliza’s Food Intolerance app with the wheat addition for fructans.

FODMAP Friendly Food List

Read more about FODMAPs and the following

General Notes on foods and IBS

  • FODMAPs are water soluble, so foods high in FODMAPs (such as garlic and onion) should not be put in water-based meals and then picked out before serving, as the FODMAPs will leach into the dish. Instead, saute the garlic and onion in the oil of your choice until fragrant and then remove them before adding any other ingredients; this will allow you to infuse their flavours without adding the FODMAPs into your food.
  • Alcohol and caffeine are non-FODMAP gut irritants, so servings should be regulated regardless of FODMAP content.
  • Fruits, even the low FODMAP varieties, should be limited to approximately 80 g per meal to prevent overloading of
    the glucose co-transport system.
  • Remember – low FODMAP does not mean gluten free, and vice versa.

For more information, see the resources page.


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recipe: raw carrot date bites

Raw vegan carrot + date bites, easy to make, easy to eat! Click through for recipe.

Raw vegan carrot + date bites, easy to make, easy to eat! Click through for recipe.

Anyone else really start suffering when the weather changes?? Fall has slowly been trickling in over here in Philadelphia, and I can just feel my body trying to fight off a cold. I’ve been loading up on whole foods and golden milk, but would love to hear from y’all in the comments below with any other immune-booster suggestions!

Speaking of whole foods, I recently discovered Thunderbird Real Food Bars and let me just tell you: I’m obsessed. The food bars are made from simple ingredients, with no crazy additives so you can feel good about consuming. (This isn’t a sponsored post, I’m just that much of a fan.)

In the spirit of saving money, I decided to recreate one of my fave snacks from their Fruit & Nut line. They taste almost like fig newtons and carrot cake had babies.  I ate everything I made almost immediately, so I’ll certainly be experimenting with this more! Hope you enjoy!

Raw Carrot Date Bites

Raw vegan carrot + date bites, easy to make, easy to eat! Click through for recipe.(post may contain affiliate links, please see disclosure)

equal parts:
chocolate chips

pink salt

*I used dried figs and dates. I’m not sure how this recipe will end up with fresh.

Raw vegan carrot + date bites, easy to make, easy to eat! Click through for recipe.DIRECTIONS:

  1. I have a magic bullet, so I blended each ingredient separately, then combined and pulsed them together. I find that doing so made it pretty easy to eyeball measure everything into equal amounts. If you have a food processor you can likely combine everything from the start!
  2. Take the mixture and roll into balls. (Good luck trying not to eat every one you create.)
  3. Pop into the fridge to chill, then eat!

Depending how much you make (because everything is equal parts, you can basically adjust en masse) , you can also line a baking sheet and press out the mixture into bars!

Delicious raw vegan bites that are easy to make and even easier to eat.Click To Tweet

Raw vegan carrot + date bites, easy to make, easy to eat! Click through for recipe.

Do think you’ll give this recipe a try?
Let me know below what you’d change!

  1. Blushy Darling October 4, 2017 / 1:58 pm

    So yummy! OMG I love everything in it I bet they taste delicious!

  2. Annette Dattilo October 4, 2017 / 4:39 pm

    Love the simple and natural ingredients. Sounds like the perfect boost of energy all wrapped up in a ball. Thank you for sharing.

  3. nlampert October 4, 2017 / 5:59 pm

    I’m always looking for simple and healthy snack ideas so I’m definitely going to try making these! I love all the ingredients on the list so I can imagine how yummy these are.

  4. christinekeysyt October 4, 2017 / 10:41 pm

    Yummy, and yes, I totally get sick every time we switch seasons!

  5. Jolene October 5, 2017 / 9:22 am

    This actually looks delicious. I’m not a vegan but i would try it.

  6. Jordan October 5, 2017 / 4:01 pm

    Yum! Looks like a great way to work some veggies into snack time. I also like that there’s no refined sugar, other than a little chocolate (because who I am kidding, I could never give up chocolate).

  7. Mila | Hangry Woman October 6, 2017 / 9:22 am

    I’m constantly looking for something good to do with Dates. This is a great idea. I bet the sweetness in the dates and the crunchiness of the carrots pair really well!

  8. Jereann | Celiac Mama October 6, 2017 / 6:50 pm

    Adding carrots to raw bites is such a unique idea! Love the ingredients in your recipe.

  9. Cathy Nugent October 6, 2017 / 8:37 pm

    These are so yummy looking! I can’t wait to try this recipe. 🙂 I’ll let you know how it turns out!

  10. Savvy Southern Chic October 25, 2017 / 9:24 am

    I’ve got to try these! I make similar snacks with dates but I bet the addition of figs is amazing!

Leave a Reply


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Miss World

Ugochi Ihezue of Nigeria wins Miss World 2017 Top Model Award

Ugochi Ihezue of Nigeria wins the Top Model contest of Miss World 2017; Thailand, China and Croatia were Top 4 along with Nigeria. 21 years old model who stands 188 cm tall (tallest contestant in Miss World 2017) and works as a professional model now gets direct entry in Top 40 as prize for winning this round. She joins Miss Dominican Republic who won Sports event recently.

Ugochi Ihezue of Nigeria wins Miss World 2017 Top Model Award

Top Model is one of the prime contests of the pageant. It was instated in 2004 and is often considered a strong indicator for final results. Mostly the girl who wins the blue crown places in Top Model round. In fact 4 of the winners of Top Model title later won Miss World – China PR in 2007, Russia in 2008, Philippines in 2013 and Spain in 2015. Last year’s Top Model winner, Jing Kong of China was Top 11 in Miss World finals. Will Ugochi Ihezue benefit from the Top Model win? She is really striking and definitely a contender for Miss World title. Nigeria is the only country to have produced a black African beauty who won Miss World – the amazing Agbani Darego. Perhaps they can strengthen their record with Ugochi this year!

Credits: Miss World

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February 14 12:23 PM

Whoops, Jeffery Lentz did it again!

Presswood says Ken Lawler, the president of E & L Development, had reported the theft of copper from some the company’s new home construction sites in the 5500 block of Northwood South in Blanchard as well as other new home sites that his company is building on in the 3800 block of Lakeside.
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Accuracy • Independence • Integrity

February 23, 2018   |   Ithaca, NY

Traffic redirected after two-car collision on Danby Road

A two-car accident today on Danby Road near the main entrance to Ithaca College left one car totaled and the other with minimal damage, Jacob Opala, state trooper for the Ithaca Barracks, said. Traffic is being directed to the left lane of the southbound side of the road until the road is cleared.

Recovery service vehicles were on the scene to tow both vehicles and one of the vehicles was occupied by a student from the college. No injuries were reported, Opala said.

One of the two vehicles involved in the two-car accident near the college’s entrance. MICHELLE BOULÉ/THE ITHACAN

Junior Luke Wise, who was walking from Dillingham Center to his car across Danby Road, said he witnessed the accident. He said at about 5:35 p.m., a car driving on Danby Road collided with the other vehicle as it turned out of the college.

Wise identified the driver of the vehicle on Danby as an older man.

“The guy seemed out of it,” he said. “He might have been in shock from the accident.”

Opala said police are still conducting an investigation of the crash and assessing damage done to both vehicles.

Check back later for more updates


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Accuracy • Independence • Integrity

February 23, 2018   |   Ithaca, NY

Wegmans marks 25 years in Ithaca

The Wegmans grocery store in Ithaca, which is home to about 600 workers, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Wegmans, which has 79 stores nationally, was voted the fourth best company to work for in 2012 by Fortune Magazine. According to an article from the Atlantic, executives from the supermarket chain attribute their success to not being a company that is publicly traded. Owners refuse to open more than three stores a year so they can remain the best without growing too fast.

Fran Secondo, Service Area Manager, said Wegmans in Ithaca celebrated its anniversary on March 16 by serving cake to customers who came to shop.

Employees like Executive Chef Mike Washburn, who has worked at Wegmans for 10 years, said his job is rewarding, and he is always searching for ways of improving what he does.

“I’ve learned to be open to a lot of different ideas,” Washburn said. “This is a very compelling community in the sense that we have some very knowledgeable, passionate people about food and everything that relates to that in terms of sustainability and all the factors that support those types of initiatives.”

Junior Alex Cartini, who is currently studying for the semester in Los Angeles, has been a Wegmans employee for five years. When he lives on campus, he says he shops at Wegmans at least once a week. Cartini said he likes to take friends who don’t have a Wegmans in their hometowns for grocery shopping in the Ithaca Wegmans.

“It helped me appreciate it, because it really is an awesome grocery store, because everything is all in one store, and everything is high quality, and it’s a great place to shop,” Cartini said.

Store Manager Gary Woloszyn, who has worked for Wegmans for 20 years, said the store first opened in February 1988. Woloszyn said it was different because it was opened as a prototype store and had all the new “bells and whistles” that the company was talking about implementing in its other stores.

Woloszyn said Wegmans is a generational store because the company consistently reassesses its goals, department layout, business trends and what is important to the community. He said there is now a stronger focus on perishable food over grocery food because of this reassessment.

In 1997, the store was rebuilt in its current location as a result of a redesign, Woloszyn said. He said Wegmans also hired executive chefs from major hotel chains to staff the prepared foods area.

“We were looking at what was happening in the country, time constraints on families, and we really worked hard to give people choices on how to do a dinner or their lunch by having meals prepared in different stages, having raw ingredients, having ready to cook items and having ready to prepare items,” Woloszyn said.

Secondo said Ithaca has provided Wegmans with a platform for interaction with its customers.

“It’s a great partnership we have in Ithaca,” Secondo said. “We like to make a difference in the community, and we love that we partner with everyone in the community. It’s great that the customers are so loyal and that we can help out throughout the community.”

In addition to connecting with the community, Woloszyn said, Wegmans is able to adapt to changing national interests.

“They are very flexible in being able to adjust to trends in the country,” he said. “In fact, they lead with the trends.”

Woloszyn said he remembers a particular instance where changing with the trends benefited Wegmans, when they brought organic and vegetarian cuisine at Wegmans to the East Coast. Woloszyn said organic and vegetarian foods were once “cultish” on the East Coast, when it used to be “a part of the mix” on the West Coast. The president of Wegmans, Colleen Wegman, recognized this problem and worked to find suppliers on the East Coast that could fix the lack of organic and vegetarian food, Woloszyn said.

“They worked really hard from grassroot efforts to really identify growers and farmers that would move toward organics. It really expanded the vegetarian program,” Woloszyn said.

Wegmans has also worked to find additional suppliers for produce that can only be harvested at specific times of the year, Woloszyn said. Having producers from California, Florida and South Africa ensures that customers can buy produce outside the harvest seasons.

Washburn said Wegmans is a valuable place to work and shop. He said it has helped him grow as a professional.

“It goes beyond making food or providing groceries for folks but to meet the need of our customers,” Washburn said. “I think that is how we will continue to move into the future.”


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Use Digital Image Processing to Teach

The new HIP Series shows teachers how to employ digital image processing to explore all of the science subjects plus math and technology.

HIP for Educators, a package of its own, actually stands on its own merits as a way for teachers to acquire a unique set of skills.

The CD comprises 12 interactive tutorials on basic image-processing techniques so teachers can try it themselves. There's also a First Time User session plus a video showing real classroom use and interviews with HIP-using teachers and students.

University of Arizona developed HIP with funds from Annenberg/ CPB Math and Science Project; and its available from their non-profit Center for Image Processing in Education.

Key to the package is the National Institutes of Health image processing software (NIH Image) and the use of images taken from real research.

Extensive help is included throughout. Onscreen Image Notes are linked to over 100 images, along with a description of how each was made. A User Notes utility lets teachers keep similar records and notes.

The Hands-on Image Processing student module offers specific lessons in HIP Biology, HIP Earth and Space Science, and HIP Math. Center for Image Processing in Education, Tucson, AZ, (800) 322-9884,

This article originally appeared in the 12/01/1996 issue of THE Journal.

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Copiers / Duplicators

The Priport VT2250 digital duplicator lets you print from a book or bound document by placing it directly on the glass. This eliminates the step of making a single copy of a page then using that page as the original for digital duplication.

"The VT2250's unique direct book copying feature is much appreciated by teachers and other educators, who now have a simple, one-step solution for their duplication needs," says John Reiling, Ricoh's Priport marketing manager.

The VT2250 prints at a lower cost than virtually any copier or laser printer alternative. On runs of 150 or more, the cost per page drops to one-third of a cent, approximately one-fifth the cost of a photocopied page. With its rapid duplicating speeds, adjustable from 60 to 120 prints per minute, the unit fits well in high-volume production environments.

A state-of-the-art thermal head ensures remarkably clear image quality from a variety of materials. Optional features include an Automatic Document Feed that accepts all kinds of paper, including light and heavy paper stocks and irregularly edged originals. A snap-in color replacement drum can print in red, blue, green, brown, yellow, purple, navy blue, maroon, teal and orange.

With an optional interface, the VT2250 connects to IBM-compatible or Macintosh computers, enabling printouts to be made from word processing, publishing or spreadsheet programs. Ricoh Corp., West Caldwell, NJ, (201) 882-2000,

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From Duplo comes the DP-43 Series of digital duplicators, designed to turn novices into seasoned publishers. Advanced features include a three-roller feeding system, three different print modes (text, photo and text/photo) and air-assisted sheet separation.

Both the DP-43S (Standard) and DP-43E (Editing) models sport a pre-inking system that inks the cylinder prior to the first print and at pre-determined intervals when the duplicator is not in use. Also standard are a flat platen for book copying, a patented master disposal system, automatic background recognition, a 50-300 percent zoom and security lockout.

The DP-43E adds a touch-screen editing system that lets documents be modified with a simple pen stroke or totally customized by changing the orientation, content and arrangement of text, graphics and photographs. A SCSI computer interface sells separately. Duplo U.S.A. Corp., Santa Ana, CA, (714) 752-8222.

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All six models in Panasonic's Medallion Series of copiers were given a "Recommended" rating after a rigorous three-month testing period by the independent Buyers Laboratory (BLI). Panasonic launched the Medallion Series last fall based on extensive input from customers regarding price, performance, functionality and reliability.

Here's a sampling of what BLI noted in its testing: The FP-7750 (50 copies per minute) "is easily one of the most attractively priced units in this speed range, costing as much as $5,000 less (on a retail basis) than some comparable units." The FP-7742 (42 CPM) offered "very high overall efficiency rates and above average reliability."

According to BLI, the FP-7722 (22 CPM) "distinguished itself during testing by setting new standards in its class for duplex efficiency." Testers made 90,000 impressions with the FP-7722 and required no service calls. All six copiers "proved to be highly reliable and strong overall performers," said Anthony F. Polifrone, BLI's president.

A highlight of the Medallion series is Quantum Technology, a patented process through which the copier adjusts itself after evaluating variables such as white balance and gray scale. When copying from a newspaper clipping, for example, the unit eliminates unwanted lines or images that "bleed through" the opposite page. Quantum Technology even allows the copier to adapt itself to different environments by measuring the temperature, humidity and other factors. Panasonic Office Products Co., Secaucus, NJ, (800) 742-8086,

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Mita has loaded "big" features previously found only on its high-end models into its low-volume copiers to provide educators with time and cost saving advantages. The Mita DC-1860, for example, operates at 18 copies per minute and can automatically duplex, collate, staple and auto feed documents at the touch of a button.

The copier promises a warm-up time of 45 seconds or less, with the first copy produced in 5.5 seconds. Advanced modes allow for professional looking reports to be generated in house. If desired, reduce or zoom originals from 50% to 200% in 1% increments.

Mita engineers have designed the DC-1860 with a short, straight paper path, improved drum cleaning and efficient toner recycling. Up to 7,000 copies are possible from one toner cartridge and up to 80,000 copies can be made before replacing the developer and drum. Recommended volume is up to 25,000 copies per month.

For more demanding applications, the DC-8095 and DC-6595 copiers operate at 80 and 65 CPM respectively. Mita recently introduced PC Software and Connectivity solutions so that users can deliver documents from the computer to either of these copiers via a Local Area Network. Mita Copystar America, Fairfield, NJ, (800) ABC-MITA,

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The Xerox DocuColor 5799 copier/printer ships with C-TRACS (Customer Tone Reproduction Auto Calibration System), advanced software for recalibrating the machine to optimum levels. The copier operates at nine full-color or 36 monochrome images per minute.

"C-TRACS gives users the ability to perform a quick and simple copier/printer 'tune up' just before starting a big job, much as a musician would tune an instrument right before a concert," said Mark R. Hill, vice president of Xerox Digital Solutions Business Unit.

Other advantages found in the DocuColor 5799 are a new Image Processing System board and HIEST (Highlight Image Enhancement Screen Technology). Automatic color sensing instantly recognizes if a document is black-only and processes it at a faster speed. The 5799 best suits environments with a monthly output of between 7,000 and 30,000 pages.

The system connects to the Splash PCI, EFI XJ, EFI XJ+ and ColorAge DocuPress Pro families of digital controllers. Under the Xerox Total Satisfaction Guarantee, the firm will replace the unit at no cost if the user is not satisfied for any reason. Xerox Corp., Office Document Products Group, Rochester, NY, (716) 427-4366,

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RISO unveiled three new products at the Print 97 trade show this fall: the GR3770 Risograph, a 600 x 600 dpi digital duplicator; the NC Numbering System; and the TM5000 Sorter. When combined with the SC7000 Series System Controller, these products form a turnkey solution for printing and desktop publishing.

The GR3770 incorporates a new thermal head, improved high-density masters and blacker ink, resulting in better print resolution and screening. The unit prints at speeds up to 120 pages per minute on a variety of paper stocks from 14 to 110 lbs. Some standard features are Job Memory and Programming, Two-Up Printing and Book Center Erase.

Specifically designed for the GR Series of Risographs, the NC Numbering System lets you sequentially number invoices, tickets, tags, pads, envelopes and more. The rotary-type cylinder prints up to seven digits in red or black ink. Customers select the numbering option -- ascending, descending, skipping, etc. -- that best meets their needs.

The TM5000 sorting module offers online jogging, sorting and a choice of auto-stapling capabilities from a dedicated 5,000-capacity staple cartridge. The sorter contains 50 bins and permits multiple module connection in increments of 50. An LCD control panel, error and status control monitor, and automatic paper alignment simplify operation.

With the SC7000 installed, the Risograph prints genuine Adobe PostScript Level II, PCL5 and PCL5e files from stand-alone or networked computers. A 300MB hard disk stores commonly used fonts and outlines. RISO, Inc., Danvers, MA, (508) 777-7377,

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Danka Office Imaging now distributes the Kodak ImageSource M50cp copier-printer, which scans, copies and prints at up to 50 pages a minute. The machine's intended monthly volume is 25,000 to 100,000 pages.

Schools may replace low-volume laser printers or copiers with one or more digital devices such as the M50cp. "Expenses for equipment, service and consumables are reduced while reliability and image quality improve," stated Sam Errigo, Danka's product marketing manager.

Because documents are managed and stored electronically, the copier-printer prints, collates, outputs and staples a complete set at a time. Incoming files are processed while current jobs print. Danka Office Imaging, Rochester, NY, (716) 784-0000.

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This article originally appeared in the 12/01/1997 issue of THE Journal.

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Jack Up Your Communication Wiring System

The new Mini-Jack TX-5e from Panduit is specifically designed to comply with increased Category 5e performance requirements. Using GIGA-TX technology, which minimizes the length of conductor untwists, the jack optimizes performance and reduces installation expense. Forward motion termination places no localized stress on critical internal components for maximum reliability.

It features conductor retention slots for improved termination. Users can terminate the jack with standard channel lock pliers or a handy termination tool. The jack is a part of a complete line of communication wiring systems available through Panduit. Panduit, Tinley Park, IL, (888) 506-5400, www.panduit.com.

This article originally appeared in the 01/01/2000 issue of THE Journal.

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Webroot Software Inc.

Webroot Software Inc.'s Child-Safe 3.0 (previously known as Win Guardian) is an affordable child monitoring tool designed to help parents keep their children safe from Internet predators by monitoring computer activity. The software can be configured to run hidden or display a warning to the user informing them that they are being monitored.

ChildSafe 3.0 features block-on-demand functionality that enables parents to watch what sites their children are visiting in cyberspace, what they are doing there and to block access to specific sites deemed inappropriate, offensive or even dangerous. Parents can also import third-party lists of sites they wish to block. In addition, ChildSafe logs files of Internet and computer activity, including screen captures. These files can be e-mailed to parents at predetermined intervals, allowing parents to supervise their children's Internet usage even while they are away from home. Webroot also offers a free Parent's On-line Safety Guide, created in association with child psychologist and author Dr. Paula Bender. The guide lays out a three-step plan for addressing online safety with children. Webroot Software Inc., Boulder, CO, (303) 442-3813, www.webroot.com.

This article originally appeared in the 11/01/2001 issue of THE Journal.

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Knowledge Adventure to Operate Under 'Sunburst'

Knowledge Adventure School Division and Sunburst Technology have announced that they will now operate as one entity under the Sunburst Technology name. The education software publishers are part of Vivendi Universal Publishing. Sunburst Technology is a division of Houghton Mifflin Co. based in Boston, Mass.

Sunburst plans to expand its current grade- and subject-based product series, and launch several new series publishing under both the Knowledge Adventure and Sunburst brand names. Together, the two companies offer more than 250 individual software titles, 20 software series and more than 250 video titles. The company expects to release more than 80 new Sunburst and Knowledge Adventure school products this year, including Learner Profile 3.0, four new JumpStart Learning System titles for children in preschool through second grade, and Respect: It Starts With You. Sunburst Technology, Pleasantville, NY, (914) 747-3310,

This article originally appeared in the 04/01/2002 issue of THE Journal.

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Start Something Launches Part 2 of Online Program

Start Something, a free youth program developed by Target stores and the Tiger Woods Foundation, has expanded with the creation of "Start Something Part 2," a new program for children 8 to 17. This new program allows children to reflect on what they learned in the original program by creating a personal portfolio of their interests and dreams. It was created as a response to teachers and group leaders looking for a way to continue their students' positive momentum from Part 1 of the program.

After completing the 10 sessions that make up Part 1, students can complete Part 2 - eight new sessions designed to help students explore their connections to the world and create a portfolio of work they can share. The new Part 2 sessions include Creating a Portfolio, P'etry Slam, Family Ties, Global Achievers, Local Her'es, Earth Issues, Imagine the Future and My Portfolio. Students and educators can join the program by visiting

This article originally appeared in the 06/01/2003 issue of THE Journal.

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Networking & Wireless

Baltimore County Schools Upgrades Network To Support Mobile Learning

Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) has implemented a new wireless network districtwide to support its mobile learning objectives.

The school district is working to create an all-digital environment for its 110,000 students and 18,000 faculty and staff at 174 schools. The district's previous wireless network wasn't available in all classrooms, and some of the district's buildings, which date back to the 1930s, created networking challenges.

After evaluating options from several vendors, Baltimore County selected Aerohive's controllerless networking solution. The district has implemented more than 10,000 Aerohive access points to provide coverage across all 174 schools, more than 20 administrative buildings, 19 local public libraries and two data centers. The implementation consists of a variety of different types of Aerohive access points, including the AP121, AP170, AP330, AP350, AP370 and AP230. The district is also using Aerohive's HiveManager Virtual Appliance to manage the entire network from a single centralized location.

The district has created separate wireless networks for increased security. Teachers and staff have exclusive access to a network for databases and records, and a guest network enables visitors access the Internet while on campus. Students and staff can also access the network from local public libraries through a virtual private network (VPN) connection.

Since implementing the new wireless network, the district has an average of 45,000 users connected to the network on a daily basis and expects that number to rise to 100,000 users per day by next year. In addition to instructional technology, the district is also using the new wireless network to support systems such as building automation, HVAC and lighting in areas such as auditoriums.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at

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Missouri Tosses Smarter Balanced

The Missouri Legislature has banned the Smarter Balanced standardized tests, leaving Missouri education officials with nine months to come up with alternative standardized tests to avoid breaking federal law, according to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has signed into law an appropriations bill that eliminates $4.2 million for the state Department of Education to pay for the Smarter Balanced tests next year and provides the department with $7 million to develop new tests. Federal law requires states to conduct standardized tests, so education administrators will have to scramble to come up with an alternative in time for next spring.

The Smarter Balanced tests were developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, which provided Missouri and 17 other states with standardized tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Smarter Balanced was one of two organizations selected to create Common Core-aligned tests, the other being the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Collectively, the two organizations received $330 million in grants from the United States Department of Education to develop the assessments.

The Common Core State Standards and its corresponding assessments have been a source of controversy. According to a survey of 5,700 teachers conducted by the Missouri State Teachers Association in May 2015, 52 percent of respondents said preparing students for the Smarter Balanced tests this spring took up more classroom time than previous tests. And according to information from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Smarter Balanced failed to meet its contractual obligations to the state because it didn't provide teachers with interim tests to monitor student learning throughout the year. However, Peter Herschend, president of the Missouri Board of Education, has called the new law "an absolute frontal attack on the perception of Common Core," which was designed to increase academic rigour and better prepare students for college and careers.

According to the Post-Dispatch, the Missouri Department of Education is considering soliciting bids from testing companies for alternative assessments to use next spring. Meanwhile, state education officials are planning to develop their own replacement test for the 2016-17 school year, although the Department of Education is not obligated to adopt that test.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at

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