About Lenin's Tomb posted by lenin

Some info about using the Tomb in a few discrete categories.

Contributors: This site is run by 'lenin', and has several other undead contributors including 'bat020', 'Meaders', Mark Elf, China and 'Bionoc'. Most but not all contributors are revolutionary socialists. Some have their own blogs, and their posts appear in the 'Lenosphere' column in the side-bar. We accept contributions from the Left, particularly on protests, strikes and other forms of struggle. We don't accept contributions about psoriasis cures, herbal viagra and cheap insurance, so don't even think about it.

Content: Like most blogs, the content is erratic, syncopated by the intrusions of daily life, random interests, monomania, narcissism and booze. But because there's at least a partial effort to provide information for activists, there's a few 'dossiers' in the sidebar, basically previous posts which distilled information about important matters. Use the search box at the top of the sidebar to locate information on anything you don't see - there are usually plenty of links to check up material and sources.

Comments: The comments boxes are lightly moderated by about four or five people. I forget how many. I'm quite promiscuous with this kind of thing. Aside from one or two regular trolls, comments are generally not edited or deleted. In most cases, racist, sexist or homophobic comments are deleted. If you find your IP address is banned, either you are a troll or you happen to share an IP address with a troll. Or there's been a horrible mistake and you can e-mail me using the 'mailto' link at the top of the sidebar. If you notice your comment is being moderated, it is because moderation has been turned on temporarily to deal with a troll: individual commenters are not targeted for moderation. People might sometimes say mean things to you, but if you e-mail me I will apply a soothing unguent to your hurting regions.

Accolades, resentments and moments I'm absurdly proud of: We've won the Willesden Herald's Golden Willy award twice. We've been nominated for the Guardian's Backbencher award for some reason, and that paper has excerpted the blog twice that I know of. We had a nomination for a Koufax award which didn't seem to come to anything, and something else run by a German television station. We've had a couple of scoops and things. The Tomb exposed Innovative Emergency Management's chicanery over Hurricane Katrina (this was picked up by Private Eye, with credit); revealed Scotland on Sunday's fabrications about the G8 summit, (this was picked up by Private Eye, without credit); co-published documents from former diplomat Craig Murray that the government were trying to suppress using the Official Secrets Act; published information that the government was suppressing in the press with the use of a D-Notice; was first to despatch a smear on Galloway; and a bunch of other stuff.

Stuff about 'lenin': I'm from Northern Ireland, twenty eight years old, and can resist anything except temptation, flattery or money. That said, at least I don't have those stupid adverts on the site or one of this shitty little Paypal symbols as if I'm entitled to pester you for money simply because you occasionally devote yourself to gobbling up my globules of prose. Here's some turn-ons.

Favourite novelists, poets, playwrights etc: Oscar Wilde; Ken Kesey; Christopher Fowler; Will Self; David Hare; Tony Kushner; John Guare; Stephen Adly Guirgis; Edward Bond; Dario Fo; Stephen Poliakoff; Stephen Fry; Gore Vidal; Philip Roth; Joe Orton; Bret Easton Ellis; EM Forster; Joseph Heller; Salman Rushdie; F Scott Fitzgerald; Dorothy Parker; Irvine Welsh; Andre Gide; Jane Austen; Graham Greene.

Favourite comedians: Bill Hicks; Woody Allen; Chris Morris; Chris Rock; Eddie Murphy; Lenny Bruce; Mort Sahl; Barry Humphries; Jack Dee; Rob Newman; David Cross; Mark Steel; Mark Thomas.

Favourite political/social/philosphical/literary/historical theorists: Slavoj Zizek; Ellen Meiksins Wood; Robert Brenner; Benno Teschke; Franco Moretti; Alain Badiou; Ernesto Laclau; Anthony Giddens (circa 1980s); Alex Callinicos; Terry Eagleton; David Harvey; Foucault; Perry Anderson; Samir Amin; Jaqueline Rose; bell hooks; Gramsci; Gregory Elliot; Alistair MacIntyre; Martti Koskenniemi; Edward Said; Partha Chatterjee; Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak; Peter Gowan; Noam Chomsky; Aime Cesaire.

Favourite historians: Eric Hobsbawm; Christopher Hill; Robin Blackburn; Fernand Braudel; James Holstun; Hanna Batatu; Neil Davidson; Ian Kershaw; Moshe Lewin; Ilan Pappe; Avi Shlaim; David Hirst; George Rude; Dilip Hiro; Howard Zinn; Nora Carlin; EP Thompson; Norman Finkelstein; Charles Tripp; Manning Marable.

Marvel at my autodidactic propensities. Gasp at my impeccable taste.