The crisis of capitalism has been a crisis of its opposition. We stand in the rubble of the post-Left. The implosion, a few glimmers such as Syriza's embattled triumph aside, has brought no victors but the predators.
How did the Left fuck this up so badly?
We have not lacked for revolt: from the Arab world, through Brazil and Turkey, all the way to Lower Manhattan Occupy.
But into what channel do these rivulets run?
Where are the rough beasts whose birth we await?
Why has the enemy – still – not ceased to be victorious?
Salvage is a new publication in which we hope to pose these questions, if not – yet – to answer them. It will be by and for all those who despise the rule of capital, inequality and oppression - but who cannot stomach any more the bad faith in which the opponents of that system have come to live and breathe.
We abjure the typical and grotesque left chimera of sentimentalism, moralism and bullshit. We despise the bad dialectic of defensiveness and self-aggrandisement.
We do not despair, but we are despair-curious.
Across literary form and theoretical loyalty, obsessed with politics, economics, art and the (post)(anti)human, Salvage declares for austere revolutionary pessimism.
Salvage-Marxism embraces the Socialist rococo, the feel-good where we can and the feel-bad where we must, the utopian and the unflinching. Salvage will bring together the work of those who share a heartbroken, furious love of the world, and our rigorous principle: Hope is precious; it must be rationed.
Salvage is not the foundation of a future Left. It may be a time-capsule for one.
Salvage is not a pole of attraction - although we hope to repel the right people.
Salvage is not a tool of agitation, however devoutly we hope for the situation to become agitated.
We appeal to those who share our hatreds: support us. Give us money. We commit to striving for a habitable Left, one that deserves to survive. We will use this to make the first issue of Salvage: Amid this Stony Rubbish.
In which:
Jamie Allinson accelerates.
Rosie Warren objectifies women.
China Miéville waxes Dystopian.
Richard Seymour dissects Farrageism.
Magpie Corvid whores Marxism.
Pablo Mukherjee submerges Modi.
Joana Ramiro reports from Greece.
Alberto Toscano translates the forgotten genius of Salvage-Marxism.
Trish Kahle reaches Ferguson.
Kunle Wizeman is interviewed about the Nigerian political scene.
Neil Davidson uncovers the Neoliberal gravediggers of capital.
Morgane Merteuil builds the industrial struggle.
Benjamin Kunkel defends the money-form.
Gareth Brown and Nicholas Beuret walk with the dead.
Mark Bould roasts Milton Friedman.
Mary Robertson rehouses Engels.
Daniel Hartley communizes the Anthropocene.
With the poetry of:
Caitlin Doherty
Kunle Wizeman
With the artwork of:
Season Butler
Karen Mirza
Laura Oldfield Ford
With future projects by:
Jordan/a Rosenberg, Robert Knox, Charlotte Bence, Andrea Gibbons, Louis Bayman and many more.
We are imprisoned by the value form. Publishing a magazine is expensive, and we will not stand in the tradition of unpaid labour - except our own as an editorial collective. Our contributors are paid, unless they have waived payment, and our designer and publicity workers likewise. Should Salvage ever make a profit, the money will be reinvested in the magazine
So we are asking you for money to help us begin this project.
Of the £10,000:
£5000 will go on our first print run
£800 will pay our writers and artists
£3000 will pay our designer, Rupa, our accountant, Diana, and our videographer, Becky.
£1000 will pay the wages for a part-time admin assistant, John, at London living wage
£200 will pay for tote bags and merchandise
Anything we raise above £10,000 will help to pay for our launch and future events, and allow us to subsidise the next print run so that we can sell Salvage at the lowest price possible.
If we don’t raise enough to cover these costs, we simply won’t be able to go to print.
We will in that case seek alternative funding and continue to try to make this happen.
We will give you things for your donations.
£10 gets you
the first issue of Salvage & named thanks on our website
£15 gets you
the first issue of Salvage & named thanks on our website
& a tote bag
£20 gets you
the first issue of Salvage & named thanks on the website
& your issue signed & personalised by the founders
£25 gets you
the first issue of Salvage & named thanks on the website
& your issue signed & personalised by the founders
& a tote bag
£35 gets you
the first issue of Salvage & named thanks on the website
& your issue signed & personalised by the founders
& a tote bag
£60 gets you
the first issue of Salvage & named thanks on the website
& your issue signed & personalised by the founders
& a tote bag
& a Salvage keyring
& named thanks on the inside
& a one year subscription to Salvage (four issues)
£150 gets you
(x 50)
the first issue of Salvage & named thanks on the website
& your issue signed & personalised by the founders
& a tote bag
& named thanks on the inside
& lifetime subscription to Salvage
or
(x 3)
the first issue of Salvage & named thanks on the website
& your issue signed & personalised by the founders
& a tote bag
& named thanks on the inside
& a one year subscription to Salvage (four issues)
& one of three dirty stories written by Magpie Corvid written for and about YOU
£300 gets you (x 3)
the first issue of Salvage & named thanks on the website
& your issue signed & personalised by the founders
& a tote bag
& named thanks on the inside
& a one year subscription to Salvage (four issues)
& one advance copy of Three Moments of an Explosion, China Miéville’s forthcoming short-story collection (publishing in July 2015)
£1000 gets you (x 1)
the first issue of Salvage & named thanks on the website
& your issue signed & personalised by the founders
& a tote bag
& named thanks on the inside
& a one year subscription to Salvage (four issues)
& a one-of-a-kind copy of the Subterranean Press limited edition of Perdido Street Station personally ‘Salvaged’ by China Miéville
