BOOKS Covid Recs #8 or #86 whatever
Enjoy yr var Mr. Akehurst
Hello friends,
Apols for the delay but I did mean to do the saturday pivot and have been entrenched in ongoing house clearance hell since sunday so my normal week routines are all fucked. Anyway here we are;
To start w video, this on The Guardian on the United Voices of the World with a focus on their fight to bring outsourced cleaning staff at St. Mary’s in-house is a 20 minute ray of light in the midst of a completely dogshit country/world. Big up the person on twitter who said it’s probably the best thing the guardian have ever done lol which could be right. Another good vid from a questionable source; Syndikat bar in Berlin was finally evicted last week after 33 years so watched this short vice (sorry) doc on their campaign against eviction which is bleak w/ hindsight. The Somerset House site has Erica Scourti’s Body Scan film up atm too which is good on AI image identification & the body & sits well with that Real Life essay I shared last time or the time before or the time before that.
Texts; I enjoyed this brief interview between Lausan collective in Hong Kong & activists in Lebanon on the parallels and divergences in their respective struggles. This is pre-explosion so the part where they’re discussing disappearence is even more tragically poignant. Also of course this op-ed from big daddy Abdullah in jacobin.
I know I’ve shared before but the latest Horrid Covid ‘Unlearnings’ issue is also v v good - the best online zine format I’ve seen constantly utilised in a beautiful diy way to share stuff in a trying time! what could be better!
I also listened to the 2-hour 1st part of the Media Roots Radio podcast on the origins of Qanon which is very good & very clear but also completely insane.
I really recommend this review by Danny Hayward of the new AngryWorkers book Class Power on Zero Hours which I finally got round to reading - it’s fucking great do not wait 2 months like I did.
& finally to round off this mixed bag this v fun & sweet 80s animation The 11 Cats (or Eleven Hungry Cats) is great & ties together the unindended thread that runs through all these recs in some way - that solidarity is key.
See u next time,
P x
