Life under Capitalism

Why MySpace matters to teens

IT is not magic pixie dust, Life under Capitalism
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Via a comment on a Atrios post on yet anothee example of Zero Tolerance stupidity, comes this interesting 2006 danah boyd article on why (American) teenagers flock en masse to MySpace:

Teens have increasingly less access to public space. Classic 1950s hang out locations like the roller rink and burger joint are disappearing while malls and 7/11s are banning teens unaccompanied by parents. Hanging out around the neighborhood or in the woods has been deemed unsafe for fear of predators, drug dealers and abductors. Teens who go home after school while their parents are still working are expected to stay home and teens are mostly allowed to only gather at friends’ homes when their parents are present.

Additionally, structured activities in controlled spaces are on the rise. After school activities, sports, and jobs are typical across all socio-economic classes and many teens are in controlled spaces from dawn till dusk. They are running ragged without any time to simply chill amongst friends.

By going virtual, digital technologies allow youth to (re)create private and public youth space while physically in controlled spaces. IM serves as a private space while MySpace provide a public component. Online, youth can build the environments that support youth socialization.

Of course, digital publics are fundamentally different than physical ones. First, they introduce a much broader group of peers. While radio and mass media did this decades ago, MySpace allows youth to interact with this broader peer group rather than simply being fed information about them from the media. This is highly beneficial for marginalized youth, but its effect on mainstream youth is unknown.

The bigger challenge is that, online, youth publics mix with adult publics. While youth are influenced by the media’s version of 20somethings, they rarely have an opportunity to engage with them directly. Just as teens are hanging out on MySpace, scenesters, porn divas and creature of the night are using MySpace to gather and socialize in the way that 20somethings do. They see the space as theirs and are not imagining that their acts are consumed by teens; they are certainly not targeted at youth. Of course, there _are_ adults who want to approach teens and MySpace allows them to access youth communities without being visible, much to the chagrin of parents. Likewise, there are teens who seek the attentions of adults, for both positive and problematic reasons.

The workers united

Life under Capitalism, TV
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Don’t make for a good reality tv show, so let’s pit them against each other in a show called Someone’s gotta go!, as explained on 24 Oranges:

[…] Endemol’s Paul Römer explains that the programme will follow a mid-sized company that has been hit hard by the economic crisis. People will have to be fired there.

“We start by showing everybody’s salaries. After that we show which employees are valuable to the company. And who’s shirking their responsibilities. Who deserves a raise? Who deserves lower wages? And ultimately the employees must answer the question: who must be fired?”

Yes, another great Endemol export product, from the people that gave the world Big Brother. Guess which American broadcaster already ordered this show? That’s right, Fox….

In some way you have to admire whoever thought up this monstrosity, as it brilliantly portrays modern day capitalism: get peons to fight each other for the dubious right to keep their job a little longer and make a lot of money doing this….

Worker occupation: essential self defence

Life under Capitalism, Socialism, Unions
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The Socialist Worker reports on the worker occupations of the Visteon car parts factories:

Visteon workers occupying the Belfast factory

Around 80 workers occupied the building on Wednesday morning and remained there throughout the day. They are staying overnight. More workers, locked out by the company, stayed outside the site to show their support.

Workers were told that they would not be paid for last week’s work at the meeting on Tuesday. Many have no savings and no idea of how they are going to make ends meet over the next few weeks.

“They’ve treated us like dogs,” Richard Bruce, who had worked at the site for 17 years, told Socialist Worker. “We’re not even going to get paid for our last week’s work or for our work on Monday and Tuesday. But the workers in Ireland occupied – so we thought, now it’s our turn to do something.”

Many of the workers felt that the attack was preplanned – even though they had no notice of it themselves. Several said that vans from factories supplied by Visteon had taken away their tools from the site last Friday.

One worker, Terry, said, “Even the vending machines were emptied yesterday morning. Everyone knew we were going to be sacked.

“There are parts piled up inside our factory. They’ve made sure that the car plants can still be supplied – everything’s been prepared for this.”

In a crisis like this factory occupations are essential for worker self defence. It’s the only weapon left to workers whose labour is no longer valuable to their bosses anymore, to take physical control of plant space, and as important, the valuable tools, reserves and machinery they contain. It’s a desperate, short term measure, but one that can work and on which more permanent solutions can be build, as we saw in Argentine in the early noughties.

Still Sure It Can’t Happen To You – Or Your Kids?

Capitalism, Civil liberties, Climate change, creative direct action, Life under Capitalism, Manufacturing consent, New Labour, Parenting, Policing, Uh? WTF?, UK politics, War on Terror
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policestateuk

Anyone actively political in a way that’s embarassing or inconvenient to the Labour government is now, officially, a terrorist.

Happening in my home town now: some students in a shared house smoked dope, had some replica weapons, started getting interested in anticapitalism and antiracism/fascism, and engaged in a little light graffiti. They got raided for the dope and they’re now all in prison under the Terrorist Act.

Why are nonviolent potential student protestors and a 16 year-old schoolboy, who’ve yet (other than the graffiti artist) to even protest, let alone commit a known offence, being held as terrorists?

Apparently Devon and Cornwall police found “literature relating to political ideology” in the house. Oh, and knives.

If this is terrorism, we’re all fucked. I certainly would be if having “literature relating to political ideology” is what the police now characterise as terrorism.

Do I have to tell my children, quick, burn your copies of Naomi Klein and Malcolm X for fear of a knock by the plod? Were I in the UK and not on dialysis I would undoubtedly have been on my way to the G20 today to protest by any means necessary. It certainly could’ve been me or many people I know (none of whom are terrorists by any stretch of the imagination) arrested, our homes raided and lives deliberately ruined by politically motivated police, if that’s what makes you a terrorist.

These are trumped-up arrests on trumped-up evidence meant to politically intimidate legitimate protestors who do not agree with the government and to permanently label them (and anyone they know or associate with) as terrorists. It doesn’t matter that the students will probably be quietly released with no charges after the G20. Just the fact you’ve been arrested under the Act is enough to label you forever. You’re in the database now.

“Computers have also been seized for examination.” say Plymouth police. Yes, multiple computers with multiple users, not to mention multiple mobile phones, in 2 shared student houses. Since when have students been guilty of what their housemates read online or text to their mates?

But how very handy for the police to be able to hoover up who knows how many innocent yet politically inconvenient email or facebook friends or bloggers or LJ readers for Jacqui Smith’s handy little database of dissidents (if her husband hasn’t left the USB stick at Spearmint Rhino already).

I don’t know as yet whether any activists I know personally have been swept into the Terrorist Act’s net as a result of this blatant act of deliberate political intimidation – because the arrestees have yet to be charged, let alone named – but that’s hardly the point.

This is happening now, today, to mere schoolboys and student activists, and no-one who speaks out against the current form of government is safe from unjustified, politically motivated intimidation and imprisonment.