Toil follows toil, and brings but toil!
-- Sophocles, Ajax
Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.
-- Albert Schweitzer
The documents assembled here are part of an international effort to reactivate critical theory from the bloodless torpor under which it has fallen since retreating into the cloistered armchairs of the academy. This retreat itself was the result of a world-wide counter-revolutionary offensive which has, since the late 1980s, driven the struggle for a new life which had for the previous 20 years threatened to topple the old world in continually widening, deepening series of social crises. The world we live in today was built by the forces of order on the ruins of these struggles. It is maintained by the repression of their history, against which every instance of progress presented to spectators stupefied by the relentless campaign of 'shock and awe' attains it significance. The paltry gains we are ordered to revere are all the result of failure. The poverty of these victories are the measure of the defeat whose burden we continue to bear. The desires we are permitted are the indolent offspring of a revolutionary movement which once threatened to do away with all permits and sanctions.
The documents reprinted below form part of an attempt to reemphasise precisely this revolutionary aspect of critical theory, which everywhere remains mired in the fog of half-arsed opposition to a few of the most glaring defects of the established order. Nevertheless, the existence of masses of individuals engaged in critical discussion and practical opposition to the old world is a basic pre-condition without which no critical theory, however radical, can hope to make a difference; it is this refreshing state of affairs which has begun to make its presence felt. Inspired by the invigorating winds of insurgent desire, these contributions are aimed at taking the discussion straight to the heart of the matter.
Document 1:
Siddiq Khan (2013)
Document 2:
Faridabad Majdoor
Samachar (2003)
Document 3:
