And if you thought fashion-talk might offer some light relief from the horrors of the death railway, think again. Tansy Hoskins’ recently released book Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashiondelves into the grimy underbelly of the beauty-obsessed industry: exposing the class division, gender stereotyping and wasteful consumption plaguing the world of fashion. If you own a closet and keep garments in it, it behooves you to take note of this insightful indictment of the distorting priorities of capitalism.
exploitation
How to Overthrow the Illuminati
I almost wish that we could take this one at face value, and learn in earnest how to combat the shadowy organization that is (obviously!) slowly infiltrating the upper echelons of government, business and media in order to implement a new world order through a complex system of signs and symbols. Sadly, that’s not the case. Despite what you might have heard about the nefarious Illuminati connections of Jay-Z, Beyonce, Obama, and Kim Kardashian, The Base is not here to help us take the mofos down. Instead, the leftist community organization believes that “Illuminati theory helps oppressed people to explain our experiences in the hood.” So they’ve put together a pamphlet redirecting attention to ways in which citizens can tackle the very real issues of oppression and exploitation. Come along, and channel your abundant conspiracy theory energy into thinking about social change.