Carlos Motta: The Good Life

In time for the 2008 United States Presidential election, Art in General presents The Good Life, an online archive and search engine of video interviews about the public perception of democracy, governance, leadership and U.S foreign policy throughout Latin America.

Recorded by artist Carlos Motta on the streets of 12 cities in Latin America, The Good Life is an examination of processes of democratization as they relate to the regional history of U.S. interventionist policies. The Good Life presents a wide spectrum of responses and opinions, which vary according to local situations and specific forms of government in each country.

This timely online archive provides a way for the public to watch and search through the interviews in a variety of ways, such as by the question asked, the city, or the respondents’ gender, age group, occupation, and/or particular themes as expressed by the interviewees.

The Good Life’s interviews were recorded in Bogotá, Colombia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Caracas, Venezuela; Guatemala City, Guatemala; La Paz, Bolivia; Managua, Nicaragua; Mexico City, Mexico; Panamá City, Panama; Santiago, Chile; San Salvador, El Salvador; São Paolo, Brazil; and Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Chto Delat Weekly Reader No. 3

Another selection of articles from our virtual magazine rack. This week’s topics include: more (much more) leftist analysis of the world financial crisis; censorship of news of the crisis in the mainstream Russian media; Russia’s demographic crisis and its prospects for superpower resurgence; out-of-control US/UK imperialism; an eyewitness account of the crackdown against the Side by Side LGBT festival in Petersburg; prospects for unity on the European left; and Sarah Palin, American “Poujadist.”

Vlad Tupikin: Who Does the OMON Serve?

Who Does the OMON Serve? (On the Events at 81, Vavilov Street, Moscow)

As Indymedia correspondent anatrrra reports, on the evening of October 8 a meeting of residents was to take place in the courtyard at 81, Vavilov Street. The meeting had barely begun when fifty to sixty OMON soldiers showed up. They dispersed the assembled residents, beating them up and arresting twenty people in the process. All the detainees were taken to the Lomonosovsky police precinct of the South-West Administrative District. (See this and this.)

On the informational billboard depicted here, the house that is slated to be infill-constructed on Vavilov Street looks dignified. What isn’t dignified are the actions of the illegal developers and the authorities who back the interests of capital. (Here is a complete photo reportage from October 5.)

Who Does the OMON Serve?

The first answer that comes to the mind—“The state!”—doesn’t quite fit.

That is, of course, as a whole they serve the state. But after what happened on the evening of October 8, 2008, we can confidently flesh out this answer: they serve capitalists, the fat cats who show a flagrant disregard for both the law and the interests of their fellow citizens.

The Confiscation of Chto Delat Newspaper: Update and Thank You

Hello, Everyone!

In the hustle and bustle of September and early October, I was unable to inform you what happened to the new issues of our newspaper.

As you know, our issue on perestroika was confiscated during a police search at the printing plant. The prosecutor’s office ordered an expert inquest as to whether it violated the law on extremism, which has recently been applied to many publications and even bloggers in Russia.

I have to confess that this has caused us to undertake a serious rethinking of the situation insofar as the regular publication of our newspaper is a fundamental part of our collective work. It seemed like a catastrophe that this work could be interrupted at any moment at the whim of the extremists amongst the authorities. However, we have to accept the reality we’re given and adopt corresponding methods of struggle.