november 2002 make-world paper#2
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content make world paper#2 what is to be done
2 A Virtual World is Possible: From Tactical Media to A Documentary Series Digital Multitudes (Geert Lovink/Florian Schneider) Eikon-Sued Productions 2002
3 Touching an Elephant (McKenzie Wark) At the 2001 G8 summit in Genova, discontent with globalization-as-usual once again burst into the 4 Wu-ming: 54 Re:inter:view (Snafu) open as activists alerted the general public to a mul- tiplicity of new types of political, economic, social, 5 Porto Alegre - Todays Bandung? (Michael Hardt) and cultural conflict.
6 Wandering between two worlds. (selection of The documentary series „What’s to be done?“ ex- posts from generation-online list after Porto Alegre, plores a new dynamic of democratic involvement Genova, Strasbourg 2002) and political intervention, searches for contempo- rary forms of solidarity and self-organization, and 9 The European Social Forum: Sovereign and Mul- features innovative examples of linking the local and titude (Jamie King) the global from across the world.
10 Fences of Enclosure, Windows of Possibility Each documentary returns to the question of per- (Naomi Klein) spective, strategy, and the organizational logic of the movement. Four thinkers - Michael Hardt, Toni Negri, 11 Brief history of the noborder network (Hagen Saskia Sassen, and Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi – reflect on Kopp/Florian Schneider) the question at the heart of the series: “What is to The World Social Forum, organized twice in Porto Within this 'tradition' the Make World paper#2 also be Done?” 13 The march on the left (Franco Barchiesi) Alegre 2001 and 2002, not only prompted a flurry works with the concept of collaborative text filtering. of autonomous self-organization, crossborder orga- The amount of key texts and strategic debates on A WORLD TO INVENT 14 Is it a Yes Man Satire? Yes, it is Yes Men, but it's nization, and creative media interventions. It also the Internet is overwhelming. There are so many in- Documentary by Florian Schneider not a satire (A virtual interview) initiated an intense process of analysis and reflec- teresting lists and weblogs. It is a potlatch of con- tion on the tricky question of a 'global' dynamic of tent. This abundance of material could drive one Germany 2002, 40 minutes Four leading thinkers reflect on the (so-called) anti- 15 Anti-Capitalism with a smiley face (Erik Empson) self-organization. mad. Yet, it also makes selecting and editing much easier. There is less of a feel of censorship and ex- globalization movement. 16 Yomango: Sabotaging capital while having fun Across continents and movement traditions, a few clusion. All the texts, in their full length, including re- key terms continue to re-emerge as focal points for sponses, are available online. ALL IN WHITE - TUTE BIANCHE 17 Virtuosity and Revolution. The Political Theory of reflection - above all the status of sovereignty and Documentary by Adonella Marena Exodus (Paolo Virno) the limitations of a sovereign logic of organization, The context of this issue is the summer and fall of Italy 2002, 30 minutes as well as the frustration with the various traditions 2002, defined by the growing threat of an US-led Two influential Tute Bianche-activists analyze possi- 20 Social entropy and recombination (Franco Bifo of leftist representationalism. Activists have long Iraq invasion. The texts for this issue were selected bilities for political intervention in Italy today. Berardi) ceased to simply march on the corporate and insti- alongside some significant events of the last few tutional bad guys of globalisation-as-usual. They months such as the noborder camp in Strasbourg, DEPORTATION CLASS 20 The Dark Side of the Multitude (Arianna Bove/ have also begun to articulate alternative logics of or- where between 2000 and 3000 activists met for dis- Erik Empson) ganization and mercilessly sort through the archive cussions, actions and media interventions. But it Documentary by Kirsten Esch of political pieties, challenging the dominance of an may also seen as a direct or indirect output from the Germany 2002, 30 minutes 21 What is to be Thought? What is to be Done? older leftist expertocracy at every juncture. work on the films and the online-platform "What's to A network of human-rights activists organizes an (Alain Badiou, Natasha Michel, Sylvian Lazarus) be done?" http://wastun.org or the dark markets anti-deportation campaign against a major airline. The words of Franco Barchiesi of Indymedia South conference http://darkmarkets.t0.or.at in the be- 22 Homo Politicus Pim Fortuyn: A case study (Her- Africa might well serve as a summary of this shared ginning of october in Vienna. Last but not least the THE UNORGANIZEABLES sentiment: "it was time for the new social move- make-world paper#2 will be accompagnied by live- man Asselberghs/ Dieter Lesage) Documentary by Florian Schneider ments to express the qualitatively new "biopolitical" streaming and mobile screening events during the Germany 2002, 35 minutes nature of their struggle in terms of refusal not only European Social Forum in Florence. 23 A Visit to the Sarai New Media Initiative Delhi Three examples of creative workplace struggle in (Geert Lovink) of the identity and mystique of "national liberation", California, where a new wave of migrant activism is but also of the leadership practices of a left that has revitalizing union culture. 25 Dark Fiber (Franco Bifo Berardi) historically tended to reproduce subordination and discursive expropriation of the movements' grass- website HTTP://WASTUN.ORG 27 noborder Camp 02 (Various contributors) roots subjectivity." Online-Film Project 28 The Dark side of Camping - A Critical Perspective In this issue we have brought together many different http://paper.make-world.org [to be continued] (Susanne Lang/ Florian Schneider) perspectives on the increasingly pressing questions First version of an online platform, which aims to of the 'movement' - its theory, its politics, its media continue the current debate on activism and democ- 29 Border: Waking Across, as opposed to Flying and modes of organisation. The texts reproduced racy in different media formats and to interconnect Above (Shuddhabrate Sengupts) here add vibrancy, background and analysis to these distribution the various theoretical and practical approaches ongoing debates, and irrespective of the diversity re- across borders: from text and images, to links and 30 Are we in a war? Do we have an enemy? (Slavoj flect that none of these issues can be treated in sep- background material, as well as the presentation of aration. all four films, complemented with out-takes and up- Zizek) Paper#2 will be distributed for free at: dates. 31 The clash in the western mind (Antonio Negri) The first edition of this free newspaper appeared in European Social Forum October 2001, as a part of the Munich 'Make World' 6-10 november, 2002 32 The Transformation of Security (Michael Renner) festival and exhibition that brought together activ- Florence,IT ists, new media artists and theorists. The first paper http://www.fse-esf.org/ dealt with responses to 911, migration, immaterial order a tape labour, free software and featured a number of art Futuresonic projects. people 6-10 november, 2002 The free paper format already has a certain tradi- Manchester, UK tion. Within our context it started with the nettime Tape orders of the WHAT’S TO BE DONE films should ZKP4 paper, produced for the nettime meeting in http://www.futuresonic.com/ This paper has been compiled and edited by: Arian- be sent by electronic mail to [email protected] or by Ljubljana, May 1997. Another one appeared in na Bove, Erik Empson, Susanne Lang, Geert Lovink, snail mail to: EIKON-Sued GmbH, Birkerstr. 22, Zagreb, August 1999. In the global edition of 'Bas- World-Information.org Florian Schneider, Soenke Zehle. Thanks to: Franzis- 80636 München/Germany. The tape with all four tard' a group of editors brought together critical texts 15 november-15 december, 2002 ka Frielinghaus, Suzanne Helden, Paul Keller, Shud- films costs 20 Euros. related to the Kosov@ conflict. Amsterdam, NL dhabrata Sengupta, Joanne Richardson, Pit Schultz http://www.world-information.org/ and all the contributors. make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
A Virtual World is The 90s and tactical media activism direct confrontation. Alternatively, symbolic sites based on efforts to circumvent the brutal regime The term ‘tactical media’ arose in the aftermath are chosen such as border regions (East-West of the market and on different ways of dealing of the fall of the Berlin Wall as a renaissance of Europe, USA-Mexico) or refugee detention cen- with the scarcity of material resources. We’re not Possible: media activism, blending old school political tres (Frankfurt airport, the centralized Eurocop simply seeking proper equality on a digital level. work and artists’ engagement with new technolo- database in Strasbourg, the Woomera detention We’re in the midst of a process that constitutes From Tactical gies. The early nineties saw a growing awareness centre in the Australian desert). Rather than just the totality of a revolutionary being, as global as of gender issues, exponential growth of media in- objecting to it, the global entitlement of the it is digital. We have to develop ways of reading dustries and the increasing availability of cheap movement adds to the ruling mode of globalisa- the raw data of the movements and struggles and Media to do-it-yourself equipment creating a new sense of tion a new layer of globalisation from below. ways to make their experimental knowledge legi- self-awareness amongst activists, programmers, Confusion and resignation ble; to encode and decode the algorithms of its Digital Multitudes theorists, curators and artists. Media were no after 9-11 singularity, nonconformity and non-confoundabil- longer seen as merely tools for the Struggle, but ity; to invent, refresh and update the narratives experienced as virtual environments whose pa- At first glance, the future of the movement is a and images of a truly global connectivity; to open Geert Lovink /Florian Schneider rameters were permanently ‘under construction’. confusing and irritating one. Old-leftist grand vis- the source code of all the circulating knowledge This was the golden age of tactical media, open tas, explaining US imperialism and its aggressive and install a virtual world. Bringing these efforts to issues of aesthetics and experimentation with unilateralist foreign policy, provided by Chomsky, down to the level of production challenges new alternative forms of story telling. However, these Pilger and other baby boomers are consumed forms of subjectivity, which almost necessarily liberating techno practices did not immediately with interest but no longer give the bigger picture. leads to the conclusion that everyone is an ex- We start with the current strategy debates of the so-called “anti- translate into visible social movements. Rather, In a polycentric world conspiracy theories can pert. The superflux of human resources and the they symbolized the celebration of media free- only provide temporary comfort for the confused. brilliance of everyday experience get dramatically No moralist condemnation of capitalism is nec- globalisation movement”, the biggest emerging political force for dom, in itself a great political goal. The media lost in the 'academification' of radical left theory. used – from video, CD-ROM, cassettes, zines and essary as facts and events speak for themselves. Rather the new ethical-aesthetic paradigm lives flyers to music styles such as rap and techno - People are driven to the street by the situation, on in the pragmatic consciousness of affective la- decades. In Part II we will look into strategies of critical new media varied widely, as did the content. A commonly not by an analysis (neither ours nor the one from bour, in the nerdish attitude of a digital working shared feeling was that politically motivated ac- Hardt & Negri). The few remaining leftists can no class, in the omnipresence of migrant struggles tivities, be they art or research or advocacy work, longer provide the movement with an ideology, as as well as many other border-crossing experienc- culture in the post-speculative phase after dotcommania. Four were no longer part of a politically correct ghetto it works perfectly without one. “We don’t need es, in deep notions of friendship within net- and could intervene in ‘pop culture’ without nec- your revolution.” Even the social movements of worked environments as well as the ‘real’ world. phases of the global movement are becoming visible, all of which essarily having to compromise with the ‘system.’ the 70s and 80s, locked up in their NGO struc- With everything up for negotiation, new coalitions tures, have a hard time keeping up. New social II. could be formed. The current movements world- formations are taking possession of the streets Let’s now look at strategies for Internet art & ac- have distinct political, artistic and aesthetic qualities. wide cannot be understood outside of the diverse and media spaces, without feeling the need of tivism. Critical new media culture faces a tough and often very personal for digital freedom of ex- representation by some higher authority, not even climate of budget cuts in the cultural sector and pression. the heterogenous committees gathering in Porto a growing hostility and indifference towards new Alegre. So far this movement has been bound in media. But hasn’t power shifted to cyberspace, 99-01: The period of big clearly defined time/space coordinates. It still mobilizations as Critical Art Ensemble once claimed? Not so if takes months to mobilize multitudes and orga- we look at the countless street marches around By the end of the nineties the post-modern ‘time nize the logistics, from buses and planes, camp- the world. The Seattle movement against corpo- without movements’ had come to pass. The orga- ing grounds and hostels, to independent media rate globalisation appears to have gained mo- nized discontent against neo-liberalism, global centres. This movement is anything but sponta- mentum – both on the street and online. But can warming policies, labour exploitation and numer- neous (and does not even claim to be so). The we really speak of a synergy between street pro- ous other issues converged. Equipped with net- people that travel hundreds or thousands of tests and online ‘hacktivism’? No. But what they works and arguments, backed up by decades of miles to attend protest rallies are driven by real have in common is their (temporal) conceptual research, a hybrid movement - wrongly labelled concerns, not by some romantic notion of social- stage. Both real and virtual protests risk getting by mainstream media as ‘anti-globalisation’ - ism. The worn-out question: “reform or revolu- stuck at the level of a global ‘demo design,’ no gained momentum. One of the particular features tion?” sounds more like blackmail to provoke the longer grounded in actual topics and local situa- of this movement lies in its apparent inability and politically correct answer. The contradiction be- tions. This means the movement never gets out of unwillingness to answer the question that is typi- tween selfishness and altruism is also a false beta. At first glance, reconciling the virtual and cal of any kind of movement on the rise or any one. State-sponsored corporate globalisation af- the real seems to be an attractive rhetorical act. generation on the move: what’s to be done? fects everyone. International bodies such as the Radical pragmatists have often emphasized the There was and there is no answer, no alternative WTO, the Kyoto Agreement on global warming, or embodiment of online networks in real-life soci- – either strategic or tactical – to the existing world the privatisation of the energy sector are no long- ety, dispensing with the real/virtual contradic- order, to the dominant mode of globalisation. er abstract news items, dealt with by bureaucrats tion. Net activism, like the Internet itself, is al- And maybe this is the most important and liber- and (NGO) lobbyists. This political insight has ways hybrid, a blend of old and new, haunted by ating conclusion: there is no way back to the been the major quantum leap of recent times. Is geography, gender, race and other political fac- twentieth century, the protective nation state and this then the Last International? No. There is no tors. There is no pure disembodied zone of global the gruesome tragedies of the ‘left.’ It has been way back to the nation state, to traditional con- communication, as the 90s cyber-mythology good to remember - but equally good to throw off cepts of liberation, the logic of transgression and claimed. Equations such as street plus cyber- - the past. The question ‘what’s to be done’ transcendence, exclusion and inclusion. Strug- space, art meets science, and ‘techno-culture’ should not be read as an attempt to re-introduce gles are no longer projected onto a distant Other are all interesting interdisciplinary approaches some form of Leninist principles. The issues of that begs for our moral support and money. We but are proving to have little effect beyond the strategy, organization and democracy belong to have finally arrived in the post-solidarity age. As symbolic level of dialogue and discourse. The all times. We neither want to bring back old poli- a consequence, national liberation movements fact is that established disciplines are in a defen- cies through the backdoor, nor do we think that have been replaced by a by a new analysis of sive mode. this urgent question can be dismissed by invoking power, which is simultaneously incredibly ab- crimes committed under the banner of Lenin, stract, symbolic and virtual, whilst terribly con- The ‘new’ movements and media are not yet ma- however justified such arguments are. When crete, detailed and intimate. ture enough to question and challenge the pow- Slavoj Zizek looks in the mirror he may see Father Present challenge: liquidate the re- ers that be. In a conservative climate, the claim Lenin, but that’s not the case for everyone. It is gressive third period of marginal to ‘embody the future’ becomes a weak and emp- possible to wake up from the nightmare of the moral protest ty gesture. On the other hand, the call of many past history of communism and (still) pose the artists and activists to return to “real life” does question: what’s to be done? Can a ‘multitude’ of Luckily September 11 has had no immediate im- not provide us with a solution to how alternative interests and backgrounds ask that question, or pact on the movement. The choice between Bush new media models can be raised to the level of is the only agenda that defined by the summit and Bin Laden was irrelevant. Both agendas were mass (pop) culture. Yes, street demonstrations calendar of world leaders and the business elite? rejected as devastating fundamentalisms. The all raise solidarity levels and lift us up from the daily Nevertheless, the movement has been growing too obvious question: “whose terror is worse?” solitude of one-way media interfaces. Despite rapidly. At first sight it appears to use a pretty was carefully avoided as it leads away from the September 11 and its right-wing political fallout, boring and very traditional medium: the mass- pressing emergencies of everyday life: the strug- social movements worldwide are gaining impor- mobilization of tens of thousands in the streets of gle for a living wage, decent public transport, tance and visibility. We should, however, ask the Seattle, hundreds of thousands in the streets of health care, water, etc. As both social democracy question "what comes after the demo version" of Genoa. And yet, tactical media networks played and really existing socialism depended heavily on both new media and the movements? This isn’t an important role in it’s coming into being. From the nation state a return to the 20thcentury the heady 60s. The negative, pure and modernist now on pluriformity of issues and identities was a sounds as disastrous as all the catastrophes it level of the “conceptual” has hit the hard wall of given reality. Difference is here to stay and no produced. The concept of a digital multitude is demo design as Peter Lunenfeld described it in longer needs to legitimize itself against higher au- fundamentally different and based entirely on his book ‘Snap to Grid’. The question becomes: thorities such as the Party, the Union or the Me- openness. Over the last few years the creative how to jump beyond the prototype? What comes dia. Compared to previous decades this is its big- struggles of the multitudes have produced out- after the siege of yet another summit of CEOs and gest gain. The ‘multitudes’ are not a dream or puts on many different layers: the dialectics of their politicians? How long can a movement grow some theoretical construct but a reality. If there open sources, open borders, open knowledge. and stay 'virtual'? Or in IT terms, what comes af- is a strategy, it is not contradiction but comple- Yet the deep penetration of the concepts of open- ter demo design, after the countless PowerPoint mentary existence. Despite theoretical delibera- ness and freedom into the principle of struggle is presentations, broadband trials and Flash ani- tions, there is no contradiction between the by no means a compromise to the cynical and mations? Will Linux ever break out of the geek street and cyberspace. The one fuels the other. greedy neo-liberal class. Progressive movements ghetto? The feel-good factor of the open, ever Protests against the WTO, neo-liberal EU policies, have always dealt with a radical democratisation growing crowd (Elias Canetti) will wear out; demo and party conventions are all staged in front of of the rules of access, decision-making and the fatigue will set in. We could ask: does your Utopia the gathered world press. Indymedia crops up as sharing of gained capacities. Usually it started version have a use-by date? Rather than making a parasite of the mainstream media. Instead of from an illegal or illegitimate common ground. up yet another concept it is time to ask the ques- having to beg for attention, protests take place Within the bounds of the analogue world it led to tion of how software, interfaces and alternative under the eyes of the world media during sum- all sorts of cooperatives and self-organized enter- standards can be installed in society. Ideas may mits of politicians and business leaders, seeking prises, whose specific notions of justice were take the shape of a virus, but society can hit back make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
with even more successful immunization pro- longer initiates. One can be happy if it responds tive) new media works in galleries, biennales and grams: appropriation, repression and neglect. We to contemporary conflicts at all and the new me- shows like Documenta XI. A critical reassessment face a scalability crisis. Most movements and in- dia arts sector is no exception. New media arts of the role of arts and culture within today’s net- itiatives find themselves in a trap. The strategy of must be reconciled with its condition as a special work society seems necessary. Let’s go beyond becoming “minor” (Guattari) is no longer a posi- effect of the hard and software developed years the ‘tactical’ intentions of the players involved. tive choice but the default option. Designing a ago. Critical new media practices have been slow The artist-engineer, tinkering on alternative hu- successful cultural virus and getting millions of to respond to both the rise and fall of dotcomma- man-machine interfaces, social software or digi- hits on your weblog will not bring you beyond the nia. In the speculative heydays of new media cul- tal aesthetics has effectively been operating in a level of a short-lived ‘spectacle’. Culture jammers ture (the early-mid 90s, before the rise of the self-imposed vacuum. Science and business are no longer outlaws but should be seen as ex- World Wide Web), theorists and artists jumped have successfully ignored the creative communi- perts in guerrilla communicationToday’s move- eagerly on not yet existing and inaccessible tech- ty. Worse still, artists have been actively sidelined ments are in danger of getting stuck in self-satis- nologies such as virtual reality. Cyberspace gen- in the name of ‘usability’, pushed by a backlash fying protest mode. erated a rich collection of mythologies; issues of movement against web design led by the IT-guru embodiment and identity were fiercely debated. Jakob Nielsen. The revolt against usability is With access to the political process effectively about to happen. Lawrence Lessig argues that In- blocked, further mediation seems the only avail- Only five years later, while Internet stocks were ternet innovation is in danger. The younger gener- able option. However, gaining more and more going through the roof, little was left of the initial ation is turning its back on new media arts ques- “brand value” in terms of global awareness may excitement in intellectual and artistic circles. Ex- tions and if involved at all, operate as anti- turn out to be like overvalued stocks: it might pay perimental techno culture missed out on the fun- corporate activists. After the dotcom crash the In- off, it might turn out to be worthless. The pride of ny money. Recently there has been a steady stag- ternet has rapidly lost its imaginative attraction. “We have always told you so” is boosting the mo- nation of new media cultures, both in terms of File swapping and cell phones can only tempo- rale of minority multitudes, but at the same time concepts and funding. With millions of new users rarily fill up the vacuum; the once so glamorous it delegates legitimate fights to the level of offi- flocking onto the Net, the arts can no longer keep gadgets are becoming part of everyday life. This cial “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions” (of- up and withdraw into their own little world of fes- long-term tendency, now accelerating, seriously ten parliamentary or Congressional), after the tivals, mailing lists and workshops. Whereas new undermines future claims of new media. damage is done. Instead of arguing for “reconcil- media arts institutions, begging for goodwill, still iation” between the real and virtual we call here portray artists as working at the forefront of tech- Another issue concerns generations. With video for a rigorous synthesis of social movements nological developments, the reality is a different and expensive interactive installations being the technology. Instead of taking the “the future is one. Multi-disciplinary goodwill is at an all time domain of the ‘68 baby boomers, the generation now” position derived from cyber-punk, a lot low. At best, the artist’s new media products are of ‘89 has embraced the free Internet. But the could be gained from a radical re-assessment of ‘demo design’ as described by Lunenfeld. Often Net turned out to be a trap for them. Whereas as- the techno revolutions of the last 10-15 years. it does not even reach that level. New media arts, sets, positions and power remain in the hands of For instance, if artists and activists can learn any- as defined by its few institutions rarely reach au- the ageing baby boomers, the gamble on the rise thing from the rise and subsequent fall of dot- diences outside of its own electronic arts subcul- of new media did not pay off. After venture capital com, it might be the importance of marketing. ture. has melted away, there is still no sustainable rev- The eyeballs of the dotcom attention economy enue system in place for the Internet. The slow proved worthless. This is a terrain is of truly taboo The heroic fight for the establishment of a self- working educational bureaucracies have not yet knowledge. Dot-coms invested their entire ven- referential ‘new media arts system’ through a grasped the new media malaise. Universities are ture capital in (old media) advertisement. Their frantic differentiation of works, concepts and tra- still in the process of establishing new media de- belief that media-generated attention would au- ditions, might be called a dead-end street. The partments. But that will come to a halt at some tomatically draw users in and turn them into cus- acceptance of new media by leading museums point. The fifty-something tenured chairs and tomers was unfounded. The same could be said and collectors will simply not happen. Why wait a vice-chancellors must feel good about their per- of activist sites. Information “forms” us. But new few decades anyway? Why exhibit net art in white sistent sabotage. What’s so new about new me- consciousness results less and less in measur- cubes? The majority of the new media organiza- dia anyway? Technology was hype after all, pro- able action. tions such as ZKM, the Ars Electronica Centre, moted by the criminals of Enron and WorldCom. ISEA, ICC or ACMI are hopeless in their techno in- It is sufficient for students to do a bit of email and Activists are only starting to understand the im- nocence, being neither critical nor radically uto- web surfing, safeguarded within a filtered, con- pact of this paradigm. What if information merely pian in their approach. Hence, the new media trolled intranet. In the face of this rising techno- circles around in its own parallel world? What’s to arts sector, despite its steady growth, is getting cynicism we urgently need to analyse the ideolo- be done if the street demonstration becomes increasingly isolated, incapable of addressing gy of the greedy 90s and its techno-libertarian- part of the Spectacle? The increasing tensions the issues of today’s globalised world, dominated ism. If we don’t disassociate new media quickly and polarizations described here force us to by (the war against) terror. Let’s face it, technol- from the previous decade, the isolation of the question the limits of new media discourse. In ogy is no longer ‘new,’ the markets are down and new media sector will sooner or later result in its the age of realtime global events Ezra Pound’s out and no one wants know about it anymore. Its death. Let’s transform the new media buzz into definition of art as the antenna of the human little wonder the contemporary (visual) arts world something more interesting altogether - before race shows its passive, responsive nature. Art no is continuing its decade-old boycott of (interac- others do it for us.
He was wrong about a lot of things, but and the same time a legal and a technical dis- desperate. This bifurcation affects both the agri- Touching Marx did enjoin us to ask what he called "the tinction. Information emerges as a separate cultural and the manufacturing economies. The property question", and insisted that it was where realm, a world apart as Lovink has perceptively patents on seed stocks are of a piece with the the critical spirit begins and ends. And what if we argued for some time. But he has not stopped to copyrights on designer logos. Both are a means an elephant ask the "property question" of the jumble of inquire is to how or why, and without first asking by which a new class power asserts its place in symptoms with which Lovink & Schneider con- how or why we cannot get far with the big ques- the world, based not on the ownership of land or Reply by McKenzie Wark front us? The network of power starts to reveal it- tion,: what is to be done. So let's look closely at of physical maunfacturing plant, but in the con- self more clearly. Did the new movements arise the way the development of a *vectoral* technol- cepts and designs on which the world will be set out of thin air? Or did they arise out of a new ogy has made possible a relative separation from to labour. stage in the development of the commodity econ- its materiality. Which is not to say that informa- omy? At both the level of the tools it had at its tion is immaterial. Rather, it has an *abstract* In the overdeveloped world, one discovers symp- Lovink and Schneider ask the right question in 'A Virtual World disposal, and the range of issues it confronted, relation to the material. It no longer matters to its toms of the same emerging totality. Workers in the new movement confronts a new class power. integrity as information whether it is embodied in manufacturing struggle to hang on to jobs in an Only rarely is this class power named and identi- this cd-rom or that flashcard or that stack of pa- economy that they alone are no longer the only is Possible'. What is to be done? Unfortunately, they have not fied at an abstract level. The symptoms of its per. ones equipped to do. So called 'state monopoly (mis)rule have been charted by brave advocates capital' is a mere husk of its former self. The done it. Yes, there is a need for a political position outside of and actvists. But we are all merely blind folks A virtual continent emerging class interest has a very different rela- touching different parts of an elephant and trying A virtual world is indeed possible, precisely be- tion to the state. Meanwhile, there are the various to describe the totality from the detail we sense cause of this coming into existence of abstract in- phenomena of the 'new economy'. While the bub- the dialectic of the street and cyberspace. Yes, there is a need before us, in our fragment of everyday life. formation. But what is information? The product ble may have burst, there is a risk in too low an of a labor of encoding and decoding. Just as the evaluation of the significance of the media and for a new position for new media outside of the dialectic of the So let's ask the property question of all the frag- commodity economy made manual labor ab- communication revolution as an over reaction to ments of resistance that appear to us in everyday stract in the machine age, so too it has made in- the excessive optimism of the 90s. Just as rail- life. Start in the underdeveloped world. How is it tellectual labor abstract in the information age. ways and the telegraph created a boom and bust, media market and the art market. And yes, the place to look is possible that the productive engines of commod- But the virtual world finds itself constrained by a but also created an enduring geography of eco- ity society find themselves shipped, by and large, form of property alien to it. No longer confine to nomic and strategic power, so too has the latest, in deconstructing the techno-libertarian ideologies of the 90s. out of the overdeveloped world and into the un- a particular materiality, information really does digital, phase in the development of the vector. der- dveloped world? What new power makes it yearn to be free. But it is not free, it is everywhere One should not right off the military dimension to possible to consign the manufacturing level of in chains. It is forced into the constraint of a very the new class power quite as readily as Lovink But what is required at this juncture is a tool with which to prise production to places deprived of technical and new creation -- intellectual property. On the ruins and Schneider do, either. On the one hand it is knowledge infrastructure? A new division of la- of the commons that copyright and patent were the old oil-power politics. But there is a new di- it open to discover how it worked. bour makes it possible to cut the mere making of once supposed to guarrantee arises an absolute mension, a new confidence in the ability to use things off from all of their other properties. The privatisation of information as property. And so, the new vectoral military technologies as a cheap research, design and marketing will remain, on with a whole new -- virtual -- continent to claim and efficient way of achieving global redistirbu- the whole, in the over- developed world, and will as its own, class power finds a new basis, and re- tions of power. The same abstraction of informa- be protected by a new and increasingly global re- makes that other world, the everyday world, in its tion from materiality that happens in technology gime of property, intellectual property. As for the image. The abstraction of information from mate- and is sanctioned by intellectual property law is rest, whole continents can compete for dubious riality as a legal and technical possibility be- happening in military technology. The military honour of mere manufacturing. comes the shape of the world. A world in which wing of the new class interest wants a 'new' new the mere embodiment of a concept in a commod- world order to ratify its exercise. What makes this separation possible is at one ity can be consigned to bidding wars between the This is not your grandparents ruling class we are make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
confronting here. It is a new entity, or a new entity of the underdeveloped world to new regimes of prising open the privatisation of information. in formation. Perhaps it is a new fraction of cap- slavery, to the slow motion implosion of maunfac- ital. Perhaps it is a new kind of ruling class alto- turing economy in the overdeveloped world, to "Information merely circles in a parallel world of gether. Remember, there have been two, not one the deployment of ever faster, ever sleeker vec- its own", as Lovink and Schneider say, precisely but two, phases to rule in the commodity econmy tors along which ever more abstract flows of infor- because of the abstraction it undergoes when it era. It has already passed through an agricultural mation shuttle, making the world over in the ab- becomes vectoral. The counter-vectoral recon- and a manufacturing phase. In each case it de- stract image of the commodity. nects information to the multiplicity by freeing it veloped out of the a distictive step in the abstrac- from the straightjacket of private property. In- tion of property law. First came the privatisation And what is to be done? One does not confront deed, there can be no talk of 'multitude' until this of land, and out of it a landlord class. Then came the new abstract totality with rhetorics of multi- aspect of its existence is properly understood. the privatisation of productive resources, a more plicity alone. Rather, one looks for the abstrac- Multitudes do not exist independently of their mobile, labile kind of property, and a new ruling tion at work in the world that is capable of pro- means of communication. The freeing of that class -- the capitalist class proper. And perhaps, ducing such a multiplicity of everyday means of communication from the abstraction of with the emergence of the new global regime of experiences of frustration, boredom and suffer- the commodity form is the necessary step to- intellectual property, we witness the emergence ing. One asks the property question, and in ask- wards realising the counter-abstraction that is la- of a new ruling class, what I would call the vec- ing it is lef toward a practice that constitutes the tent in the formal concept of the multitude. A vir- toralist class. answer. This is where so-called new media art has tual world -- virtual in the true sense -- is indeed proven to be both so useful at times, but so will- possible. It is what is to be done. As each ruling class is based on a more abstract ing to cooperate in its own cooptation. When art- form of property, and a more flexible kind of vec- ists explore not just the technology, but its prop- MCKENZIE WARK tor, than its predecessor, its mode of ruling also erty dimension as well, then they create work that see also: A hacker manifesto becomes more abstract, more intangible. Its has the capacity to point beyond the privatisation http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/ ideologues would love to persuade us that the of information that forms the basis of the power warktext.html ruling class no longer even exists. And yet its of the vectoral class. The new media art that mat- handiwork are everywhere, in the subordination ters is counter-vectoral. It offers itself as a tool for
Wu-ming: 54 54 is about the dialectical relationship be- are at the window, they watch the coming of tele- plunderphonics, free software... There is a gener- tween those two empires (which were going to be- vision and all mod cons. They don't realize that al uprising, gallons of cold sweat are running come one, as Negri & Hardt would put it) and a they are being watched already by those devices. down the bosses's spines. The institutions of in- Re:inter:view manifold mankind that dreams of moving beyond tellectual property are crumbling down to pieces, the modern age and Fordist discipline on the In a recent interview, you state that “pop-culture people are fucking them over. This is a wonderful by Snafu workplace. 1950's Italy is still a rural nation, with is a pre-requisite for communism”. Cary Grant grassroots process, and it's closer to Socialism a very few industrial areas, mostly under recon- and David Bowie - the protagonist of Havana than China ever was. struction. To escape everyday life and work is uto- Glam, a novel by Wu Ming 5 - would be “bottom- pian, especially if there isn't any working. up icons, shaped by the desires of the multi- I was referring more to the aura (in Benjamin’s tudes”. Nevertheless, Bowie and Grant entered terms) which surrounds pop icons. The star sys- 1954, a decade of Post-War. The Korean conflict has just shaken Pierre Capponi may be an ace of *filuzzi* danc- the star system through an accurate (industrial) tem create icons who are able to reflect people ing and draw crowds in all dancehalls of Bologna; process of selection and filtering. Living in novels desires, to produce identification, new “life- he may even conquer Angela, the young wife of like 54 or Havana Glam, and coming in touch styles” and new subcultures. In this sense, Luth- the world, the French are withdrawing from Indochina, McCarthy's comrade Odoacre Montroni (a mythical leader of with a sweating and stinking humanity, those er Blissett - considered as a decentralized, bot- the local federation of the Italian Communist Par- saints release part of their immortality. Does tom-up myth - will never have the same aura of witches hunt is almost over, the KGB is founded in Moscow. New ty); and yet he cannot elope with her, for he is communism pass through a sort of "fame shar- Bowie or Grant. Is it a question of a lack of dis- just a bartender in a working class hang-out, he ing" ? Or do we need to fabricate new, decentral- tance or what? How can we create popular sto- hardly manages to make ends meet. Steve "Con- ized, P2P, icons? ries, that people can use to reinvent their own lifestyles and desires for freedom are wriggling under the Cold War crete" Zollo is a professional murderer from NYC Uhm... Aren't we supposed to talk about genre lives? Role games and do-it-yourself subcultures and the right arm of Lucky Luciano; back on the fiction? :-) Yes, we did state that XXth century are the only answer, or a collective of writers like blanket. This is the essence of "54", the novel authored by the Bo- Hudson Bay he used to make "concrete boots" Western popular culture (which is now turning yours can suggest something different? for the enemies of Luciano. Zollo's bird-cage is into something completely different, and way We can only speak for ourselves: we *do* play a neither Bologna nor poverty: his cage is named more complex too boot) was often closer to so- role game (what else is collective fiction writing at logna-based Wu Ming collective ("No name") which was recently Naples, where women are buxom but they all look cialism than XXth century Eastern "socialist" re- the end of the day?), and a DIY subculture pros- like "peasants dressed up on feastdays", where gimes ever were. We even added than Andy War- pers around us. We try to manipulate literary business (international smack smuggling) is ex- hol's serial icona of Mao Zedong has been more genres in order to create *popular* fiction. We published in Italy (Einaudi, Turin, 666 pages, 15 euros). cellent but alleys are stinking and noisy and ev- important to revolution than those Mao Zedong use the term "popular" in its original sense, like erything sticks to you like flypaper. What they've official portraits waved by maoists at demonstra- in Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, got is not enough to get another life. The other life tions. This has to do with our manifold back- French...), where it means "belonging to the peo- is just movie-fueled dreams and unfulfilled wish- ground: Antonio Gramsci's notion of "cultural he- ple" or "made by the people". Think of those folk es, like that of being like Cary Grant. Cary Grant, gemony", autonomist Marxism (Toni Negri and the ballads who seem to have no author, they are the perfect leading man, the ace of style who likes) and the fact that some of us are ex-Mods, credited as either "popular" or "traditional". Here came from nowhere. If you cannot be Cary Grant, ex-Skinheads and ex-Punks. You know, autono- we are: we want to get rid of such myths as Au- at least you can look like him, even if you work in mist Marxism emphasized the creative and revo- thorship, Genius, Inspiration etc. As far as the a butcher's shop, or meet him by chance and try lutionary power of workers on their own, apart "aura" is concerned, we side with Benjamin rath- to tell your friends, but nobody believes you. You from state and party. Next to typical left pessi- er than with Adorno, who was an utter bore and can also try to sell the lot of heroin you've stolen mism, autonomists can even seem dreamily opti- even wrote racist comments on jazz musicians. from the Boss of the Bosses, in order to change mistic, seeing struggle and victory where others _The fact that cultural artifacts lost their auratic your life and leave for a far country. see apathy and defeat. Where most people (i.e. aristocratic and elitist) power was essentially (across the political spectrum) see capital as positive, it allowed multitudes of people to get Besides the longing for escape there is a dark de- acting and labor as reacting, autonomists see more involved in the re-manipulation of culture. sign, the long arm of History. The MI6 (British in- capital as the reactive side of the relation. Of Benjamin called for the democratization of cul- telligence) try to get Cary Grant involved in a mo- course, by "labor" we mean living labor in the so- ture, in a way he foresaw DIY culture and P2P cul- tion picture on Marshall Tito, a project that may cial factory, i.e. all creative power and social co- ture. Everybody ought to read "The Work of Art in help Yugoslavia to get farther from Moscow. The operation, which is necessary to capital but is not the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", it is still new-born KGB led by general Serov try to sabo- completely tameable. very fresh and absolutely brilliant, and it's a good tage the mission. In the meanwhile, television antidote for nihilist/post-situationist intoxication. comes to Italy and RAI (state-owned tv network) Life keeps emerging from underneath. We still begins to broadcast. Families and gangs grapple think that a new and fair mode of production can As for Q, in 54 micro-stories cross continuosly with each other in order to turn on an American only be established through the re-appropriation the frame of “official” history. Thus, this frame is TV set, a glorious McGuffin Electric Deluxe which of the existing networks of social cooperation. never accidental nor rigid. The novel gives the is always off but whose screen reflects the come- Socialism must be based upon the collective na- reader the chance to read the cold-war game not dy acts staged in front of it. It does not work be- ture of capitalist production. This is why, unlike only as a binary match, but also as a challenge cause there is nothing inside it, nothing but a lot such people as the Situationists (who are ob- within the challenge, with many options which of stolen heroin. "54" is a sharp, clean-cut look sessed with "recuperation" and the "spectacle"), are left open and undetermined. What if Tito on a year of living dangerously. It is a spy story set we always lay the stress upon the creative side of would have decided to make a movie with Cary in the Mediterranean area (from Marseille to Na- the relation between capital and the class. We lay Grant? And what if Dijlas would have influenced ples, from Genoa to Croatia), whose plot unfolds the stress upon the power of the multitudes. The Tito politics? If hystory is so rich of strata and on the razor's edge of greater history, like hap- making of pop culture (we don't draw a clear dis- possibilities, there are some threads you use to pened in "Q" - the best-selling novel by Luther tinction between the "underground" and the weave all the strata toghether… Can you explain Blissett, which Wu Ming started from as a project "mainstream" here) was a collective process dur- what they are and how you select them? - or in Pynchon-inspired post-modern fiction. ing which the borders of ever-changing open We guess our method allows the stories to tell However, "54" is also another persevering book communities were constantly re-traced, subcul- themselves and reproduce themselves by parthe- on Resistance, both historical and individual. Re- tures constantly re-shaped themselves around nogenesis (self-fertilization). Of course there is a sistance is not only the collective defense of in- myths. We'd better understand what "pre-requi- starting point, we believe that history is neither alienable ideals, but also a progressive myth sites of communism" were at work in that pro- straightforward nor cyclical, it is “catastrophical”, which points at the desire to live with dignity. In cess, instead of believing that millions of people “fractal”: conflicts produce bifurcation (branch- this novel, America and Europe live side by side. were being brainwashed. Nowadays, many things ing off) and discontinuites all the time. History as America is the new frontier, the country that in- are changing for better as far as reappropriation, a science hardly manages to deal with such dis- herited the tasks of the French Revolution, to free nay, “de-propriation” of culture is concerned. continuities, it appears that all rational investiga- the mankind and make them happy (it is even Copyright infringement, CD-burning, DVD-ripping, tion ends up producing even more disquieting written in the Constitution). Italy and the Italians P2P exchanges, MP3-sharing, OCR-scanning, shadow-cones. Such gloomy areas are intersec- make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
tions between history and mythology. The only A glorious Tv, the McGuffin, travels throughout Commies are back!"), producing a vast amount way to explore them is by playing games with his- the novel, “ a mute witness of any sort of violenc- of symbolic violence which can only be compared tory. You see, we don't write the usual kind of es and squalors”. Everybody wants to see the to 1950's McCarthysm in the US. Last year this "ucronic" speculative fiction, like P.K. Dick's “The first Tv programs but nobody knows how to turn symbolic violence helped the Berlusconi gang to Man In The High Castle” (except “Havana Glam”, the Tv on. But they do not realize that they are al- take over government. Now they are trying to which is a sci-fi divertissement about 1970's ready on the screen, in the shape of pale reflect- push the country back to the 1950's by erasing glam rock). We prefer to investigate the “possibil- ed shadows. How can we compare this '50s all changes and reforms the social movements ity” of a bifurcation in history, the moment when quest for dreaming with contemporary banal re- (workers, students, feminists, gay rights and free history “might have gone” in a different direction. ality-fictions such as "Big Brother"? What is the speech activists etc.) have achieved since 1968. We are not interested in depicting the bifurcation function of television today and who take cares Italy is looping the loop. After S11, the whole itself, or its consequences. We usually think of an of our dreams and nightmares? West seems to be doing more or less the same. historical period which seems fascinating to us, In Italy the 1950's were the dawn of the TV era, However, we think that history is neither straight- then we spend months watching microfilms, people wanted to dream because the situation forward nor cyclical, there is no way the powers- reading sources, doing research, writing down all was very tough, there was violence everywhere. that-be are able to grasp its complexity and plan kinds of stuff, then the brainstorm comes and it The 1990's (we started to work on 54 in 1999) everything. Like in our novel, present-day Italy lasts several weeks. We have hallucinations, sort were the laboratory of the network-propelled "Big mirrors herself in 1950's Italy, and yet she isn't of. Historical research is like peyote to us. After Brother"-fuelled semio-fascism that turned a 40- the same country anymore. Berlusconi and his we recover from all the shocks and flashes, we year long quest for dreaming inside out, reflecting buddies are going to be unseated, nay, “unsad- start to write. all nightmares ("Criminals are everywhere!", dled”. Their regime shall come tumbling down "What do all of these fucking Moroccans and Al- sooner than anybody expects, and the whole The mirror is one of the core themes of the novel. banians want from us?") and rotten beliefs ("the world is likely to take lessons from this.
Ratherthan opposing the World tively displaced the terrain on which such differ- sovereign pole. And within traditional, centralized Porto Alegre - Social Forum in Porto Alegre to the World Eco- ences and conflicts could be confronted. organizations, the top tends toward sovereignty nomic Forum in New York, it is more revealing to Anti-capitalism and national and the base away. It is no surprise, perhaps, that Todays Bandung? imagine it as the distant offspring of the historic sovereignty those in positions of power would be most inter- Bandung Conference that took place in Indonesia ested in state sovereignty and those excluded in 1955. Both were conceived as attempts to The Porto Alegre Forum was in this sense perhaps least. This may help to explain, how the national Michael Hardt counter the dominant world order: colonialism too happy, too celebratory and not conflictual sovereignty, anti-globalization position could and the oppressive Cold War binary in the case of enough. The most important political difference dominate the representations of the Forum even Bandung, and the rule of capitalist globalization cutting across the entire Forum concerned the though the majority of the participants tend rath- The World Social Forum at Porto Alegre has become symbolic of in that of Porto Alegre. The Bandung Conference, role of national sovereignty. There are two primary er toward the perspective of a non-national alter- which brought together leaders primarily from positions in the response to today's dominant native globalization. the forces beginning to shape a front of common resistance to the Asia and Africa, revealed in a dramatic way the forces of globalization: either one can work to re- racial dimension of the colonial and Cold War inforce the sovereignty of nation-states as a de- As a concrete illustration of this political and world order, which Richard Wright famously de- fensive barrier against the control of foreign and ideological difference, one can imagine the re- pattern of imperial globalization. Yet its character and composi- scribed as being divided by the 'colour curtain'. global capital, or one can strive towards a non- sponses to the current economic crisis in Argen- national alternative to the present form of global- Porto Alegre, in contrast, was a predominantly tina that logically follow from each of these posi- tion remain little understood. Michael Hardt analyses the debates white event. There were relatively few participants ization that is equally global. The first poses tions. Indeed that crisis loomed over the entire from Asia and Africa, and the racial differences of neoliberalism as the primary analytical category, Forum, like a threatening premonition of a chain the Americas were dramatically underrepresent- viewing the enemy as unrestricted global capital- of economic disasters to come. The first position within it, and their political potential. ed. This points toward a continuing task facing ist activity with weak state controls; the second is would point to the fact that the Argentinian deba- those gathered at Porto Alegre: to globalize fur- more clearly posed against capital itself, whether cle was caused by the forces of global capital ther the movements, both within each society state-regulated or not. The first might rightly be and the policies of the IMF, along with the other and across the world. Whereas Bandung was called an anti-globalization position, in so far as supranational institutions that undermine nation- conducted by a small group of national political national sovereignties, even if linked by interna- al sovereignty. The logical oppositional response leaders and representatives, Porto Alegre was tional solidarity, serve to limit and regulate the should thus be to reinforce the national sover- populated by a swarming multitude and a net- forces of capitalist globalization. National libera- eignty of Argentina (and other nation-states) work of movements. This multitude of protago- tion thus remains for this position the ultimate against these destabilizing external forces. The nists is the great novelty of the World Social Fo- goal, as it was for the old anticolonial and anti- second position would identify the same causes rum, and central to the hope it offers for the imperialist struggles. The second, in contrast, op- of the crisis, but insist that a national solution is future. poses any national solutions and seeks instead a neither possible nor desirable. The alternative to democratic globalization. the rule of global capital and its institutions will From Seattle to Genoa The first position occupied the most visible and only be found at an equally global level, by a glo- The first and dominant impression of the Forum dominant spaces of the Porto Alegre Forum; it bal democratic movement. The practical experi- was its overflowing enormity; not so much the was represented in the large plenary sessions, ments in democracy taking place today at neigh- number of people there-the organizers say repeated by the official spokespeople, and re- bourhood and city levels in Argentina, for 80,000 participated-but rather the number of ported in the press. The non-sovereign, alterna- example, pose a necessary continuity between events, encounters and happenings. The Forum tive globalization position, in contrast, was mi- the democratization of Argentina and the democ- was unknowable, chaotic, dispersive. And that noritarian at the Forum-not in quantitative terms ratization of the global system. Of course, neither overabundance created an exhilaration in every- but in terms of representation; in fact, the major- of these perspectives provides an adequate reci- one, at being lost in a sea of people from so ity of the participants in the Forum may well have pe for an immediate solution to the crisis that many parts of the world who are working similarly occupied this minoritarian position. First, the var- would circumvent IMF prescriptions. They rather against the present form of capitalist globaliza- ious movements that have conducted the pro- present different political strategies for action to- tion. This open encounter was the most important tests from Seattle to Genoa are generally orient- day that seek, in the course of time, to develop element of Porto Alegre. Even though the Forum ed towards non-national solutions. Indeed, the real alternatives to the current form of global was limited in some important respects-socially centralized structure of state sovereignty itself rule. and geographically, to name two-it was nonethe- runs counter to the horizontal network-form that less an opportunity to globalize further the cycle the movements have developed. Second, the Ar- Parties vs networks of struggles that have stretched from Seattle to gentinian movements that have sprung up in re- In a previous period we could have staged an old- Genoa, which have been conducted by a network sponse to the present financial crisis, organized style ideological confrontation between the two of movements thus far confined, by and large, to in neighbourhood and city-wide delegate assem- positions. The first could accuse the second of the North Atlantic. Recognizing the commonality blies, are similarly antagonistic to proposals of playing into the hands of neoliberalism, under- of their projects with those in other parts of the national sovereignty. Their slogans call for getting mining state sovereignty and paving the way for world is the first step toward expanding the net- rid, not just of one politician, but all of them- que further globalization: politics can only be effec- work of movements, or linking one network to an- se vayan todos: the entire political class. And fi- tively conducted on the national terrain and with- other. This recognition, indeed, is primarily re- nally, at the base of the various parties and orga- in the nation-state. And the second could reply sponsible for the happy, celebratory atmosphere nizations present at the Forum the sentiment is that national regimes and other forms of sover- of the Forum. much more hostile to proposals of national sov- eignty, corrupt and oppressive as they are, are ereignty than at the top. This may be particularly merely obstacles to the global democracy that we The encounter should, however, reveal and ad- true of ATTAC, a hybrid organization whose head, seek. But this kind of confrontation could not dress not only the common projects and desires, especially in France, mingles with traditional pol- take place at Porto Alegre-in part because of the but also the differences of those involved-differ- iticians, whereas its feet are firmly grounded in dispersive nature of the event, which tended to ences of material conditions and political orien- the movements. displace conflicts, and in part because the sover- tation. The various movements across the globe eignty position so successfully occupied the cen- cannot simply connect to each other as they are, The division between the sovereignty, anti-global- tral representations that no contest was possible. but must rather be transformed by the encounter ization position and the non-sovereign, alterna- through a kind of mutual adequation. What kind tive globalization position is therefore not best But the more important reason for a lack of con- of transformations are necessary for the Euro- understood in geographical terms. It does not frontation may have had to do with the organiza- American globalization movements and the Latin map the divisions between North and South or tional forms that correspond to the two positions. American movements, not to become the same, First World and Third. The conflict corresponds The traditional parties and centralized organiza- or even to unite, but to link together in an ex- rather to two different forms of political organiza- tions have spokespeople who represent them and panding common network? In fact, the very same tion. The traditional parties and centralized cam- conduct their battles, but no one speaks for a dispersive, overflowing quality of the Forum that paigns generally occupy the national sovereignty network. How do you argue with a network? One created the euphoria of commonality also effec- pole, whereas the new movements organized in of the basic characteristics of the network form is horizontal networks tend to cluster at the non- make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
that no two nodes face each other in contradic- place contradictions and operate instead a kind work movements no longer works that way. The tion; rather, they are always triangulated by a of alchemy, or rather a sea change, the flow of the leaders can certainly craft resolutions affirming third, and then a fourth, and then by an indefinite movements transforming the traditional fixed po- national sovereignty around a conference table, number of others in the web. This is one of the sitions; networks imposing their force through a but they can never grasp the democratic power of characteristics of the Seattle events that we have kind of irresistible undertow. the movements. Eventually they too will be swept had the most trouble understanding: groups up in the multitude, which is capable of trans- which we thought in objective contradiction to Like the Forum itself, the multitude in the move- forming all fixed and centralized elements into so one another-environmentalists and trade unions, ments is always overflowing, excessive and un- many more nodes in its indefinitely expansive church groups and anarchists-were suddenly knowable. It is certainly important then, on the network. able to work together, in the context of the net- one hand, to recognize the differences that divide work of the multitude. The movements function the activists and politicians gathered at Porto MICHAEL HARDT something like a public sphere, in that they can Alegre. It would be a mistake, on the other hand, allow full expression of differences within the to try to read the division according to the tradi- common context of open exchange. But that does tional model of ideological conflict between op- not mean that networks are passive. They dis- posing sides. Political struggle in the age of net-
Wandering persed multitude of revolutionary movements on media, is just as prevalent amongst activists Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 10:42:55 - the other. I'm being unclear. What I mean is, as I whenever there is a large grouping of people, 0700 (PDT) see it there are 3 basic options - nation state, which has resulted in some kind of confrontation between two From: Thomas Seay
recent western war-mongering in the Afghanistan imacy. The left fall into these traps continuously: Networked or not identity politics can't get any- and the Middle-East. Here the left fell back on all flattered by the morsels of recognition that the where beyond self assertion at the expense of its usual traditional modes of procedure, flag establishment confers, always disassociating some other, but its worst side effect is that it pre- waving, petitions, vying for public credibility - ex- themselves from their potential base by repro- empts political debate, or pretends to be having actly those types of response which the counter- ducing all the trappings of the proper and re- one. It is almost habermasian in its reliance on summits of 2000, and 2001 had been able to spectable democratic process: a process which procedure, the means that is the end in itself. Be- leave behind on the strength of its own dynamic. the masses to their credit have absolutely no cause in asserting its being it expresses all its And here the soft-left absolutely exposed itself - time for. The powers that be don't appear to have fear of becoming. Networks are great but no end despite its brief flirtation with more confronta- any problem with critiques of their policys that in themselves. And I agree with Erik on this tional politics, it retreated into its shell of miser- pass through the mechanisms that they have strongly: identities are defined prior to these able mealy mouthed liberal politics, committing themselves put in place, predominantly because 'meetings' and it is only through state repression the heinous crime of re-legitimising the authority the dynamic behind any particular action is to re- that they are temporarily suspended as such. In of the nation-state by collating a sack of shit affirm those structures of mediation. Far more confrontations some other monstrous side of hu- (priests, do-gooders, maverick MPs, school destabilising to the establishment would be if manity comes about, the socialising force of the teachers, Christians, student leaders soon to be their particular policies failing to provoke a reac- labour of resistance, before each returns to their government bureaucrats, in short all the crap our tion. If rather than getting all hot and bothered respective groups to frame a post factum media- generation have been trying to avoid) to go knock each time the state attempted to put itself back tised and parochial stand on violence. I do be- on the door of power and ask them to be nice. into the driving seat, all the Monbiots, Tariq Ali's, lieve though, that behind the banners, most peo- What marks this out above all else, is this notion Klein's, Said's, and who have you, just shut the ple were there in search of that monster. But the of being respectable, that not going to war was a fuck up for once, then the establishment would police had decided it was best not to resurrect it viable political option for the state. In short this actually fail to achieve its desired affect (unless and Erik makes a crucial point when he says that was not counter-establishment, but a different of course one believes the actual object of for- the spontaneous side of this movement is much section of the establishment, quite possibly eign policy is to kill as many Iraqis or Afghanis as more mature than its reflexive one. equivalent to the concept of 'people' that Virno possible, rather than trying to reassert an ac- and others have counterpoised to the 'multitude'. countability between the public and policy). We EMPIRE, STRUGGLE AND COMMUNICATION It is not just that more spontaneous confronta- would then be following the lead of people on tions did not occur in many cases they were ac- mass who are simply refusing to participate in the Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 14:17:49 -0700 (PDT) tively suppressed, by these minorities claiming game itself. From: Thomas Seay
struggles, just like we do it with mp3-files or in pleted, implying a future intercapitalist struggle as a bloc, but this is in tension with its own needs the field of software development? It may not for economic expansion. That it plays a dominant sound as romantic as before. And truly it doesn't From: geert lovink
zomatic' new social movements (which have now bal warming and the Kyoto agreement, the de- still the dominant one? What we have is a situa- become institutionalized, tamed NGOs). The lib- bate over the 'status aparte' for the USA related tion of extreme complexity. It is not a pure state erating concepts of Mille Plateaux and Empire are to the International Court of Justice or that tiny of Empire. Yes, we have the United States govt, liberating a certain generation of something. case in Bosnia which I referred to. These could all which wants to attack Iraq, and France who is '1989' is not just a date. It is a major shift in be case studies to reassess Empire, update it, if against that for its own reasons. But, in the main, world politics, it marks the true rise of Empire, in you wish. they are agreed on the need for free trade and for a globalized world 'without alternatives' (at least, the need to build a strong mobile army to kick that's how it is presented to us). It also marks a Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 21:42:46 -0800 (PST) ass any where in the world, regardless of national final liberation of the dark ages of communist From: Thomas Seay
There are [...] two primary posi- should properly be involved in resistance against What is now being articulated in the weeks run- The European tions in the response to today's dominantforces neo-liberalism is one yet to be answered by many ning up to the ESF is that this process of alliance- of globalization: either one can work to reinforce interested in limiting the patent depredations of building, underway in Italy since the the Genoa the sovereignty of nation-states as a defensive capitalism. The occupation of the most visible Social Forum and the 2001 G8 summit and re- Social Forum: barrier against the control of foreign and global and dominant spaces of the Porto Alegre Forum cently derided by the journal DeriveApprodi in its capital, or one can strive towards a non-national by sovereigntist perspectives, and the accompa- 'Open letter to the European movements', must Sovereign and alternative to the present form of globalization nying disenfranchisement of the non-sovereign- not be allowed to bring the project of articulating that is equally global.“ [1] (Michael Hardt.) tist, horizontally organised political formations non-state modes of resistance and alternatives that make up the bedrock of today's anti-capital to capitalism to a standstill. Many feel that the Multitude 'Rarely has the corruption of political and admin- movement, quite simply prevented this question uncomfortable alliance between the highly heter- istrative life been so deeply corrosive; rarely has from being properly framed, let alone answered, ogeneous elements organising the ESF, each with Jamie King there been such a crisis of representation; rarely at the Forum. their very different histories and political cul- has disillusionment with democracy been so rad- tures, will once again distort the discussions that ical. When people talk about a "crisis of politics", The commitment to multilateral, diverse organi- urgently need to take place in Florence. It is in From the 6th to the 10th of November 2002, the European Social they are effectively saying that the democratic sation expressed in Porto Alegre's Call of the So- this context that calls a for a new plan for Flo- State no longer functions - and that in fact it has cial Movements [5], is important in this respect. rence have found voice, one which more closely Forum (ESF) will take place in Florence, Italy. This meeting of ac- become irreversibly corrupt in all its principles Proposals at Porto Alegre that 2002's European follows the principles laid out in Porto Alegre's and organs; the division of powers; the principles Social Forum organise itself as an 'open meeting 'Call of the Social Movements.' People's Global of guarantee; the single individual powers; the space for in-depth reflection, democratic debate Action, unwilling to turn its back completely on tivists, NGOs and political groups follows the second World Social rules of representation; the unitarian dynamic of of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange the ESF, which, after all, will be a moment of powers; and the functions of legality, efficiency of experiences and planning of effective action strong visibility in Europe, has been discussing at Forum (WSF) [3] which took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil during and administrative legitimacy. There has been among entities and movements of civil society' its recent European meetings producing a paral- talk of an "end of history," and if such a thing ex- [6] might be seen as answering, however weakly, lel space characterised by 'decentralized, hori- ists we might certainy identify it in the end of the the charges of statist/sovereigntist bias in the or- zontal, assembly-based, and anti-authoritarian' February last year and was attended by between 50,000 and constitutional dialectic tto which liberalism and ganisation of the WSF. Yet hopes that a proper di- principles - the same principles through which the mature capitalist State have tied us.' [2] (An- alogue between the two positions could take PGA itself is supposed to be constituted - 'a 70,000 people. tonio Negri.) place within the ESF have been disappointed, as space that would maintain its autonomy with re- the terms of the ESF's organisation have once spect to the 'official' space of the ESF, but at the Discussions at Porto Alegre centred largely again presented themselves as problematic to same time remain connected, allowing for [...] in- around organisation against destructive corpo- many groups on precisely the same grounds as tervention.' The idea is that this space would rate practice, 'Third World' debt, and the general that of the WSF. have 'one leg outside and another inside' the ESF, problem of global neo-liberal economic policy. Dissapointed Hopes and that its participation in the ESF would take But many regarded the way in which discussions place through interventions in the context of the- were framed as suffering from a preponderance The ESF's organisation has been formulated matic proposals in the official program, the incor- of party-political and state-centric interests largely by a co-operation between the Disobedi- poration of new issues, and discussion of the ESF amongst the WSF's organisers, particularly the PT enti (or 'Civil Disobedience', formerly known as itself as a political and organizational model. (Workers' Party of Brazil, who used the WSF as a the Tute Bianche / White Overalls), spearheaded stage for their upcoming elections), ATTAC (with by Antonio Negri, led by Luca Casarini and based A very recent meeting in Barcelona by a diverse its close links to French politicians, notably Jean- in North East Italy, and the Rifondazione Commu- collection of groups, squats, social centers, Pierre Chevènement, who advocate strengthening nista (RC), a national far-left group which splin- movements, and networks interested in the PGA national sovereignty as a solution to the prob- tered from the previously encumbent center-left plan concluded that the ambitions of this 'auton- lems of contemporary globalization), Le Monde party Democratici della Sinistra (DS), and which omous space' might not in fact be realised as Diplomatique, and the Association of Brazilian sits in Italian Parliament with roughly 6% of the conceived during this year's PGA meetings in Businessmen for the Citizens. A wide range of national vote. Some regard this alliance between Strasbourg and Leiden.[7] But it seems likely WSF panels were composed of European politi- the statist-leftist RC, who have made it their open that the need to reflect upon and work through cians, legislators and NGO representatives, in- aim to 'contaminate, and be contaminated by' the processes of political production, to experi- cluding Ministers from France, Belgium and Por- the anti-capital movement, and the 'Zapatist' ment with forms of expression and communica- tugal who had only recently voted to support the Disobedienti to be rather an unholy one, espe- tion in the movement, will still be the foundation attacks on Afghanistan and the present 'War on cially since it has effectively bought the Blairite of some kind of concrete, alterior activity at the Terror'. DS a direct role in the ESF's organisation. Forum. Ur@action Hub, the name under which The Forum's location in Florence, locally ruled by A Socialdemocratic Paradise? this activity is now taking place, explains its the DS party, is not insignificant in this respect. project as 'the creation of a place of crossover This decoration of the Social Forum by the Cen- The resources the DS are able to offer in Florence cooperation where common projects can develop ter-Left politicians smacked to some of an oppor- - a conference center, accomodation, satellite [...] bartering practices and ideas, sharing tran- tunist polishing of progressive credentials (three uplinks, and so on and so forth - are obviously at- snational horizontal networks, affirming new so- of the official French delegates, for example, tractive to the Disobedienti / RC. Obversely, by cial and communication rights, reclaiming public were running for Presidency at the time), and was cooperating with the Disobedienti and providing spaces on the net and the city [and] agitating for vehemently protested by members of anti-capi- access to its own tax-funded, party-political in- new conflicts across constituent Europe.' [8] The talist groups like MRG Catalunya-International, frastructure and that of the DS, the Leninist RC is content areas proposed for the Ur@action Hub inspired by the People's Global Action (PGA) [4], able to promote itself as being 'side by side' with will probably be less constitutive of the meetings as well as 600 attendees of the alternative Jorna- active 'non-statist' anti-capital groups. And as at here than the 'infrastructural', representational, das Anarquistas - 'Anarchist Journeys' - who oc- Porto Alegre, the organising Disobedienti/ Dem- processual and organisational issues that are be- cupied a three-storey house in order to empha- ocratici della Sinistra / Rifondazione Communis- coming critical to the movement as a whole. One sise that, as one IMC (Independent Media ta nexus has undoubtedly been able to allocate of the reasons for movement's effective political Centre) poster put it, 'Porto Alegre isn't the social time, at the ESF, to groups that fit within the more invisibility at the WSF is that traditional 'central- democratic paradise that the PT makes it out to traditional statist framework, with NGOs such as ized' organizations have spokespeople who repre- be.' By way of confirmation of this position, later ATTAC once again looming large. Indeed, the ESF sent them and can be recognized; networks do IMC posts reported that local police, under the is beginning to look like a straightforward pro- not. The movement must solve the question of command of the PT and dressed in full riot gear, gression from Porto Alegre, a replay of the flock- how to 'represent the unrepresentable' to prevent quickly surrounded the house, nearly running ing of extra-parliamentary groups to a local arm future WSFs from occuring. The questions of over one squatter in their attempts to clear it. of a statist power, this time in the shape of the knowledge sharing, community decision making, Democratici della Sinistra rather than the Work- possible infrastructures for many-to-many and Undoubtedly the question of whether the State ers' Party of Brazil. peer-to-peer communications, and the status of make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
free circulation of information against privacy peared at PGA meetings agreeing spiritedly with http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br [4] See and security, are critical in this respect, since it the problems of the ESF's organisation - the or- http://www.agp.org> for a description of the PGA seems likely that the movement will have to pose ganisation they are actively part of - and the need and its hallmarks. [5] Available at, for example multitudinous political involution against spec- for an alternative forum. Such political manoeu- http://www.mediasol.org/xarti- tacular representality in order to depotentiate at- vrings. which seem to have done much to being cle.php3?id_article=1 448 [6] From the ESF tempts by sovereigntists to close down avenues the Forum into such clammy proximity with a cen- website: http://www.fse-esf.org [7] See, for ex- for such representation that are anyway inimical ter left party positioning for re-election, further ample, the PGA discussion document at http:// to its form. evidence the relevance of the discussions and in- lists.myspinach.org/archives/pga-pacifika/2 Political manoeuvrings vestigations into disclosure and information- 002-August/000063.html> [8] See http:// sharing at the UR@Action Hub. Indeed, those dis- www.fse-esf.org/article.php3?id_article=171 > Rather fishy in all of this is the intent of the Dis- cussions are necessary at every level, both to This document is only available in Italian at the obedienti, whose position in the sovereigntist/ fight the emergence of the crypto-hierarchies that time of writing. [9] This has taken place through non-sovereigntist divide has become increasingly are troubling the movement at a variety of levels, the standing of Italian Social Forums (which duplicitous over the last months. On the one and to begin to find ways of creating a public de- equal, practically, Disobedienti, RC, progressive hand, the group is patently working with the stat- cision-making structure that can truly enact the leftist Catholics and occupied social centers) in ist RC, perhaps thinking to achieve popular 'legit- distributed will of the multitude that Negri once which the Rifondazione Communista and the Dis- imacy' after the accusations of troublemaking spoke of so optimistically. Each and every person obedienti are actively co-operating: recognition levelled at it post-Genoa. Such a strategy, appar- still interested in such a process should bring by the parliamentarian RC may be an attempt to ently unlikely for a group whose resident autodi- themselves and their ideas to the Ur@ction Hub gain leverage there - crucially for the Disobedien- dact Toni Negri has, along with other members of space during European Social Forum. [10] ti, who have not been doing terribly well in such the Autonomia, consistently derided State power Notes: elections to date. [10] In order to become part of (see the quote above), makes sense in the con- [1] Michael Hardt, 'Porto Alegre: Today's Band- the formation of this alternative discursive space, text of the Disobedienti's own recent entry into ung?' in Alt.media,republished on A-infos http:/ see the Ur@action Hub plan at http://www.inven- local state politics.[9] At the ESF, the Disobedi- /www.ainfos.ca/02/jul/ainfos00560.html> [2] tati.org/mailman/listinfo/hub>. Check http:// enti have seized the chance to appear as ranking Antonio Negri, 'Constituent Republic', in Paolo www.inventati.org/hub/calendar/> for the cur- organisers, the 'movement' representatives Virno and Michael Hardt, Eds., _Radical Thought rent 'programme'. alongside the Trots and Leninist-leftists. But si- in Italy, A Potential Politics_ (Minn., University of multaneously, their representatives have ap- Minnesota, 1996), pp. 213-222, p. 214. [3] See JAMIE KING
Fences of Despite media reports nam- the past year has provoked the largest protests patented and fenced off, as well as traditional ing me as one of the "leaders" or "spokespeople" yet on the streets of Rome, London, Barcelona aboriginal remedies, plants, water and even hu- for the global protests, the truth was that I had and Buenos Aires. It has also inspired many ac- man stem cells. With copyright now the U.S.'s sin- Enclosure, never been involved in politics and didn't much tivists, who had previously registered only sym- gle largest export (more than manufactured like crowds. But this was no time to be shy. Tens bolic dissent outside of summits, to take con- goods or arms), international trade law must be Windows of and then hundreds of thousands of people were crete actions to de-escalate the violence. But as understood not only as taking down selective joining new demonstrations each month, many of the movement entered this challenging new barriers to trade but more accurately as a pro- them people like me who had never really be- stage, I realized I had been witness to something cess that systematically puts up new barriers- Possibility lieved in the possibility of political change until extraordinary: the precise and thrilling moment around knowledge, technology and newly priva- now. It seemed as if the failures of the reigning when the rabble of the real world crashed the ex- tized resources. These Trade Related Intellectual Naomi Klein economic model had suddenly become impossi- perts-only club where our collective fate is deter- Property Rights are what prevent farmers from re- ble to ignore. In the name of meeting the de- mined. planting their Monsanto patented seeds and mands of multinational investors, governments make it illegal for poor countries to manufacture the world over were failing to meet the needs of A few months ago, I noticed a couple of recurring cheaper generic drugs to get to their needy pop- the people who elected them. themes and images. The first was the fence. ulations. This is not a follow up to No Logo, the book about the rise of anti- Some of these fences are hard to see, but they Globalization as lived reality exist all the same. A virtual fence goes up around Globalization is now on trial because mass priva- Underpinning it all was the betrayal of the funda- schools in Zambia when an education "user fee" tization and deregulation have bred armies of corporate activism that I wrote between 1995 and 1999. That was mental need for democracies that are responsive is introduced on the advice of the World Bank, locked-out people. These fences of social exclu- and participatory, not bought and paid for by En- putting classes out of the reach of millions of sion can discard an entire industry, and they can ron or the International Monetary Fund. The crisis a thesis-driven research project; Fences and Windows is a record people. A fence goes up around the family farm also write off an entire country, as has happened respected no national boundaries. A booming in Canada when government policies turn small- to Argentina. In the case of Africa, essentially an global economy focused on the quest for short- scale agriculture into a luxury item, unaffordable entire continent can find itself exiled to the global of dispatches from the front lines of a battle that exploded right term profits was proving itself incapable of re- in a landscape of tumbling commodity prices and shadow world, off the map and off the news, ap- sponding to increasingly urgent ecological and factory farms. There is a real if invisible fence that pearing only during wartime when its citizens are human crises. It's difficult to say why the protest goes up around clean water in Soweto when pric- looked on with suspicion as potential militia around the time that No Logo was published. The book was at the movement exploded when it did, since most of es skyrocket owing to privatization, and residents members, would-be terrorists or anti-American these social and environmental problems have are forced to turn to contaminated sources. And fanatics. But remarkably few of globalization's printer’s when the largely subterranean movements it chronicled been chronic for decades, but part of the credit, there is a fence that goes up around the very idea fenced-out people turn to violence. Most simply surely, has to go to globalization itself. Thanks to of democracy when Argentina is told it won 't get move: from countryside to city, from country to a surge in cross-border information swapping, an International Monetary Fund loan unless it fur- country. And that's when they come face to face entered into mainstream consciousness in the industrialized world, such problems were being recognized as the lo- ther reduces social spending, privatizes more re- with distinctly unvirtual fences, the ones made of cal effects of a particular global ideology, one en- sources and eliminates supports to local indus- chain link and razor wire, reinforced with concrete mostly as a result of the November 1999 World Trade Organization forced by national politicians but conceived of tries, all in the midst of an economic crisis and guarded with machine guns. centrally by a handful of corporate interests and deepened by those very policies. These fences, of international institutions, including the World course, are as old as colonialism. All these fences are connected: the real ones, protests in Seattle. Overnight, I found myself tossed into the mid- Trade Organization, the International Monetary Necessary Fences under attack made of steel and razor wire, are needed to en- Fund and the World Bank. force the virtual ones, the ones that put resourc- dle of an international debate over the most pressing question of The irony of the media-imposed label "anti-glo- Fences have always been a part of capitalism, es and wealth out of the hands of so many. It sim- balization" is that we in this movement have been the only way to protect property from would-be ply isn't possible to lock away this much of our turning globalization into a lived reality. Global- bandits, but the double standards propping up collective wealth without an accompanying strat- our time: what values will govern the global age? ization is not restricted to a narrow series of trade these fences have, of late, become increasingly egy to control popular unrest and mobility. Secu- and tourism transactions. It is, instead, an intri- blatant. Expropriation of corporate holdings may rity firms do their biggest business in the cities cate process of thousands of people tying their be the greatest sin any socialist government can where the gap between rich and poor is greatest. destinies together simply by sharing ideas and commit in the eyes of the international financial It now seems that these gated compounds pro- telling stories about how abstract economic the- markets (just ask Venezuela's Hugo Chavez or Cu- tecting the haves from the have-nots are micro- ories affect their daily lives. This movement ba's Fidel Castro). But the asset protection guar- cosms of what is fast becoming a global security doesn't have leaders in the traditional sense-just anteed to companies under free trade deals did state-not a global village intent on lowering walls people determined to learn, and to pass it on. not extend to the Argentine citizens who deposit- and barriers, as we were promised, but a network Like so many others, I have been globalized by ed their life savings in Citibank, Scotiabank and of fortresses connected by highly militarized this movement: I have received a crash course on HSBC accounts and now find that most of their trade corridors. what the market obsession has meant to landless money has simply disappeared. Meanwhile, Most of us in the West rarely see the fences and farmers in Brazil, to teachers in Argentina, to fast- some very necessary fences are under attack: in the artillery. The gated factories and refugee de- food workers in Italy, to coffee growers in Mexico, the rush to privatization, the barriers that once tention centres remain tucked away in remote to shantytown dwellers in South Africa, to existed between many public and private spaces- places, less able to pose a direct challenge to the telemarketers in France, to migrant tomato pick- keeping advertisements out of schools, for in- seductive rhetoric of the borderless world. But ers in Florida, to union organizers in the Philip- stance, profit-making interests out of health care, over the past few years, some fences have intrud- pines, to homeless kids in Toronto, the city where or news outlets from acting purely as promotional ed into full view. It is now taken for granted that I live. vehicles for their owners' other holdings-have if world leaders want to get together to discuss a nearly all been levelled. Every protected public new trade deal, they will need to build a modern- A few months into George W. Bush's "war on ter- space has been cracked open, only to be re-en- day fortress to protect themselves from public rorism", a realization set in that something had closed by the market. rage, complete with armoured tanks, tear gas, ended. Some politicians (particularly those who water cannons and attack dogs. have had their policies closely scrutinized by pro- The fences that protect the public interest seem But what are reported as menacing confronta- testors) rushed to declare that what had ended to be fast disappearing, while the ones that re- tions are often joyous events, as much experi- was the movement itself: the concerns it raised strict our liberties keep multiplying. The invading ments in alternative ways of organizing societies about globalization's failures are frivolous, they of the public by the private has reached into cat- as criticisms of existing models. The first time I claimed, even fodder for "the enemy." In fact, the egories such as health and education, of course, participated in one of these counter-summits, I escalation of military force and repression over but also ideas, genes, seeds, now purchased, remember having the distinct feeling that some make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
sort of political portal was opening up-a gateway, challenged with toy water pistols and buzzing he- this, it's not clear what will emerge from these lib- a window, "a crack in history," to use Subcoman- licopters mocked with swarms of paper airplanes. erated spaces, or if what emerges will be hardy dante Marcos's beautiful phrase - a sense of pos- These activists are quite serious in their desire to enough to withstand the mounting attacks from sibility, a blast of fresh air, oxygen rushing to the disrupt the current economic order, but their tac- the police and military, as the line between ter- brain. These protests-which are actually week- tics reflect a dogged refusal to engage in classic rorist and activist is deliberately blurred. The long marathons of intense education on global power struggles: their goal is not to take power for question of what comes next preoccupies me, as politics, late-night strategy sessions in six-way si- themselves but to challenge power centralization it does everyone else who has been part of build- multaneous translation, festivals of music and on principle. ing this international movement. This book simply street theatre-are like stepping into a parallel offers a view into the early life of the movement universe. Other kinds of windows are opening as well, quiet that exploded in Seattle and has evolved through Even the heavy-handed security measures have conspiracies to reclaim privatized spaces and as- the events of September 11 and its aftermath: a been co-opted by activists into part of the mes- sets for public use. And once reclaimed, these record of the first chapter in a very old and recur- sage: the fences that surround the summits be- spaces are also being remade. In neighbourhood ring story, the one about people pushing up come metaphors for an economic model that ex- assemblies, at city councils, in independent me- against the barriers that try to contain them, iles billions to poverty and exclusion. dia centres, in community-run forests and farms, opening up windows, breathing deeply, tasting Confrontations are staged at the fence-but not a new culture of vibrant direct democracy is freedom. only the ones involving sticks and bricks: tear-gas emerging, one that is fuelled and strengthened canisters have been flicked back with hockey by direct participation, not dampened and dis- NAOMI KLEIN sticks, water cannons have been irreverently couraged by passive spectatorship. As I write http://nologo.org
The expressed aim was to publicly call trade unions fortified after the December strikes websites and mailing-lists in a dimension and at A brief history of for the accommodation of illegal migrants and of 95, the emerging movement of the unem- a speed which would have otherwise only been help with their entry into the country and their on- ployed, intellectuals and a radicalising young possible with an immense organizational appara- ward journeys, to call for work procurement and support scene were alternately reliable partners tus. The Internet not only promised new and effi- the noborder the organization of health care or facilitation for in the multi-layered discussions. cient publication strategies, but also opened a the school attendance of their children. realm of communication which revealed immense network At the time a reasonable assessment of the situ- possibilities for a decentralized campaign with- Much more than provocation, it was about the ation and ones own strength seemed to disallow out material resources or its own apparatus of or- propagation, preparation and realization of prac- even the dream of similar developments in Ger- ganisation. Shortly before the commercial boom Hagen Kopp/Florian Schneider tical and political support for people without reg- many. Like in the USA, in Germany there were rel- in the Net, for the first time and on many different ular papers as it had in fact already existed, but atively well developed support structures for ille- levels, the opportunity arose for a common every- mostly secretly, for years. Public opinion in Ger- gal refugees (inspired by the striking crisis of the day practice that went beyond the mostly very many seemed almost to forbid speaking of refu- freedom struggles in the third world and the on- narrowly defined limits of the local actions: Inter- gees and migrants in a terms other than swin- set of the migration movement towards the net facilitated all at once an exchange of experi- It wasn't exactly the right place nor really the right time to launch dlers, cut-rate workers or criminals. Thus in the north), and these structures continued to exist ence as uncomplicated as it was discrete; nu- 90s in Germany, hardly 6 months went by without drawing on the tradition and remnant motivation merous forms of direct and indirect collaboration a political campaign which publicly called for a series of offences serious restrictions in the laws: employment and of the militant movements of the 80's. Since the in projects which were no longer spatially or tem- occupational bans, reduction in maintenance middle of the 80s, starting with the asylum seek- porally limited, as well as continual, self-defined costs, procedural and constitutional changes, ers' campaign of the revolutionary cells, the the- communication without the need for one always against the law, yet when the call "No one is illegal" went out ex- not to mention the insidious rearmament of the oretical and practical implication of a new soli- having to be in the same place at the same time. East German border in the battle against illegal darity movement had already been thought out in actly five years ago at documentaX, the usual reservations counted immigration and the so-called gangs of people many fragments, and tried to be forestalled forc- Soon it was no longer questionable that with the smugglers. "No one is illegal" chose a fundamen- ibly. Many of the young autonomous leftists, ex- Internet experience a European-wide communi- tally different perspective: the discussion was not periencing and watching this wave of racist at- cation network could be founded on a broad little. In the Orangerie which had been temporarily arranged as a of illegal immigrants and their supposed motiva- tacks that was staged in the wake of German ground. Up until then, it had only been possible tion, but of people who were systematically de- reunification, considered for themselves options to maintain international contacts through great media laboratory, at the end of the visitors' course of the well- nied civil rights and above all the right to have of political resistance and the postulates of anti- personal willingness and effort, extensive travel rights at all. Numbers and statistics weren't rant- racist and anti- fascist counterculture. And yet, at and letter correspondence; or alternatively the ed about, instead what was called for was what the latest from the middle of the 90's, these bat- contact just happened through pure coincidence. known Kassler art exhibition, a dozen political and media activists is normally a matter of course, but has mean- tle fronts threatened to be buried under bio- Systematic networking was seen as a privilege while been declared a criminal offence: aiding graphical fragments, growing specialisation, mostly of non-governmental organisations, which from all Germany's bigger cities met up at the end of June 1997 in and abetting illegal entry and residence. clandestine isolated work and political lethargy. were as well equipped as much as they lacked The decimated energies had exhausted them- ambition and for whom it was principally a ques- The offence of not possessing regular documents selves in a fatal fixation on the state apparatus tion of the legitimation and perpetuation of their order to publish an appeal. does not turn the migrants into compliant crea- and its procedural methods. own hierarchies. tures, unable to protest against the rapidly ex- panded apparatus of state repression and late In this situation "No one is illegal" made the sug- It all began with a meeting in Amsterdam, at the capitalist relations of exploitation, so that in the gestion of a "legalisation from below" which was margins of a big demonstration against the EU end all they would have left would be begging for decisively influenced by the events in Paris. The summit in 1997 to which just about forty activists mercy. From the unspectacular attempts of self- idea was to take the strategies and tactics from from anti-racist groups, some immigrant self-or- organisation in the communities and lodgings, the struggles of the sans papiers and to trans- ganisations and refugee support initiatives from through the everyday resistance at the work- pose them more or less intact into the local con- middle and northern Europe gathered. The prior- place or in deportation detention, up to sponta- text in this country and to generate from the par- ities and objectives of the political work in each neous protest actions, there were no lack of con- ticularities of the German situation as many new country were gravely different, but what the crete approaches,. However no political frame- approaches for action as possible. The concept, groups had in common was the demand for prac- work of reference existed either nor were there at first hesitantly articulated, worked surprisingly tical, political intervention at the base i.e. grass- efficient structures in place that could actually well: often with not much more than a common roots politics. The new network with the title "ad- question the political asylum discourse of clem- slogan the most different of approaches associ- mission free" was, as they stated, not concerned ency rights. ated with one another without entering into the to adopt a common political program or even to otherwise usual competition. The actions represent a movement, but to systematically cre- In Paris a few months previously, hundreds of un- spanned from individual struggles for residence ate the preconditions for a Europe-wide collabo- documented immigrants - the so-called sans pa- rights to supra-regional anti-deportation cam- ration, whose purpose was in the first place to piers - had occupied two churches, one shortly paigns; from supporting the political self-organi- enrich the every-day activities in each and every after the other, and thereby initiated one of the sation of refugees to the practical criticism of the country. most important movements of the closing 20th border regimes. century. Led by charismatic speakers the sans Yet, although a regular exchange of information papiers dared to step out of the shadows: out of Even though most of the forms of action rarely was arranged amongst the participants of the insecure disenfranchised work conditions as well left the framework of the familiar ones, at least first network-meeting, the initial zest soon died as out of the dubious protection of the village for a brief time the tremendous potential of a away. The practical intentions were too abstract, structures in the foyers, into the light of a public movement seemed to shine through in which dif- the criteria for the admission of new groups into that in the middle of the summer holiday season ferent starting points, different approaches and the network and mailing lists were too rigorous evidently had no other discussion topic. contrasting positions were no longer its short- and the communication amongst the participant coming, but rather the basis of a new form of po- groups, who had already known each other for The sans papiers movement ignited like a straw litical organisation. Although actions like the "mi- years through successful cross-border co-opera- fire and the experiences from the battles in grating-church asylum" from Cologne, where up tion outside the Net, was too hermetic. The actu- France quickly spread all over Europe. The to 600 illegal migrants fought for over a year for al potential of the alliance at first remained hid- strength and the astonishing self-confidence of papers, were by no means as spectacular as the den behind a formalism, which in spite of growing the sans papiers expressed itself in their insis- occupation of the churches in Paris, they confidence, still revealed little understanding of tence on strict autonomy: those who didn't even achieved considerable partial success which in the necessities and possibilities of European- exist in the eyes of the state, who weren't repre- the meantime has led to the legalisation of al- wide co-operation. Opportunities such as the sented by any party or association, and who most all of the participant refugees and, with all journey of the 'Tute bianche' to Valona passed by could not claim any common identity for them- the difficulties, prove that standing up for ones without a European dimension of resistance leav- selves took fate into their own hands and decided rights is more beneficial than sitting still. ing the realm of pure rhetoric and without gaining themselves what further steps were to be taken. any practicality. However, this was about to The exploding self-confidence of the sans papiers Without the usage of new media and network change: in 1999 the network was renamed was coupled with a massive preparedness to dis- technologies, a campaign like "No one is illegal" "Noborder" and relaunched with the European- cuss problems and an enormous willingness to could not have been realized. Immediately after wide protest action to mark the occasion of the co-operate with other social movements: the its adoption the call had been disseminated by EU's special summit "justice and the interior" in make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
Tampere. This latter being expressly dedicated to ing the most different of experiences, contacts, stract text-component in a world-alienated ivory the aim of standardizing the asylum and migra- knowledge, resources and creative abilities, in or- tower, but are lived day to day in an impressive tion politics in the European context. In the prep- der to struggle from a position which at first sight manner, when people for whatever reasons, aration some Noborder groups had managed to doesn't seem to stand a chance in the battle traverse the borders that an arbitrary imperial connect with promising contacts in France and, against the overpowering concerns and above all command forbids them to cross. above all, in Italy. On this basis a common Euro- in order to cope with the consequent pressure. pean day-of-action was arranged, which took the Neither false labelling, where in the context of the occasion of the EU- migration summit in the Finn- The collaboration on the second project on which ruling world order a so called "Globalisation" is ish Tampere to protest decentrally, but co-ordi- the Noborder network set to work was similarly proclaimed, nor sentimental nostalgia over the nated, against a new chapter in the politics of promising. When in July 1998 a few hundred ac- disappearance of the national welfare state, will separation: "the gradual establishment of an tivists put up their tents for a ten day stay only a even approach the current political challenges. area of freedom, security and of justice"; was the few metres away from the border river the Neiße, On the contrary, by sticking to trusted interpreta- bloomy formulation of the Amsterdam treaty, that the example came to set a precedent and in the tional patterns and traditional recipes, which in has been effective since 1st May 1999. In reality following years the Summer camps along the out- some of the globalisation criticism after Seattle this meant: more exclusion, more control, more er borders of the European union had multiplied. was predominant, one will inevitably fail system- deportation. But it wasn't about campfire romanticism and in- atically to recognize the actual potential of both stead of a 'back to nature' theme the motto was: the new migration movements as well as transna- On the 15 and 16 October in France, Belgium, It- "Hacking the borderline!" Characteristic of the tional networking. Reduced to purely humanitari- aly, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzer- border camps was a multiple strategy consisting an aspects or senselessly short-circuited with the land, Germany and of course Finland, numerous of the exchange of experience and political de- long obsolete idea of national independence, the actions, small and large, spontaneous and spec- bate, classical political education in remote ar- migration question barely survives but in the im- tacular were initiated. The direct exchange of in- eas and direct actions with the aim of disrupting poverished form of a sub- or sideline contradic- formation and the co-ordination of the actions in the smooth running of the border regime. tion, as a lower ranking after-effect of the excess- the days of the EU summit was the task of a tem- es of world-wide capitalism. It's not a porary media laboratory in Kiasma, Helsinki's Following the first two camps on the German-Pol- coincidence that this ignorance often goes hand museum for contemporary art. Similar to the be- ish border, offshoots sprung up along the Polish- in hand with the Biedermeier-like attitude to new ginnings of "No one is illegal" at documentaX, the Ukrainian, Polish-Byelo Russian and Slovenian- communication technologies, which in misjudg- terrain of contemporary art seemed to be a suit- Croatian borders, which quickly led to an inde- ing their potential sees them at best as a neces- able operation basis for an internationally consti- pendent network of Noborder activists in Eastern sary evil. It is thus no wonder that instead of de- tuted team of media activists. Through the medi- Europe. The primary discussion theme here was livering a matrix for a globalisation from below um of mailing lists and websites they tried to the consequences of borders being advanced in which is more than just a rhetorical form, the document, network and enhance the different ac- the course of the European Union's expansion agendas of the numerous congresses, counter- tions in front of the conference centre in Tampere into the East and particular attention was thereby conferences and counter-demonstrations of the and everywhere in Europe. What today strikes one focused on the role of the International Organisa- anti-globalisation movement include explicitly as being a matter of course, was in its own time tion of Migration (IOM) which contrary to the hu- neither migration nor new media. The big Thurs- still a small sensation: the successful co-ordina- manitarian aims of the UNHCR had crystallised day demonstration in Geneva made clear that tion and synchronisation of the reports and ma- into a transnational agency for the worldwide ex- tackling globalisation could not happen without terials from the various countries laid the ground pansion of repressive migration management. the express acknowledgement of the world-wide for a new start of the Noborder network, which migration movement. How can this, however, be- from here on aimed to put much more emphasis But soon too there were Noborder camps on the come more than a symbolic gesture? on actions that referred to one another on the Eu- straits of Gibraltar, the beach of Tijuana on the ropean level. US-Mexican border, and in Woomera in the mid- A large part of the group of the Noborder-network dle of the Australian desert. Although the situa- used the media festival "Make world" in Munich Already one year earlier, shortly after the death of tions were totally different, each setting up differ- in 2001 in order to debate about the current sit- the asylum seeker Semira Adamou in Belgium, ent priorities, all the actions placed themselves uation of international networking. Only a few protest actions had arisen in many countries in the loose context of the Noborder camps which weeks after the events in Geneva and a few days which had become known beyond the respective were visibly expanding. A provisional climax was after the attacks on 11th September, artists, national borders. When in the following months in reached in Summer 2001 around the G-8- sum- trade-unionists, media and political activists Austria, Switzerland and Germany so-called "de- mit in Geneva when five camps took place on the from all over Europe and many parts of the world portees" also met violent deaths in the course of European borders, not only networked with Live- met up. Basically it was about bringing together their deportation, the Noborder activists initiated Streams in the Internet, but also with a large- the different experiences from two key themes of joint European-wide actions: "Deportation-alli- scale media project, which later acquired partic- the nineties: on the one hand; digital media, new ance" was the provocative title of a campaign ular fame: the folks' theatre caravan was the at- networking technology and the resulting labour that targeted the airlines who offered their servic- tempt to get border camps and the so-called crisis and on the other hand the issue of freedom es as willing henchmen to the European deporta- anti-globalisation movement to relate more of movement, the current struggle of an interna- tion machinery. The campaign concentrated on closely to one another and in doing so not to trust tional and multi-ethnically constituted working the calculated pollution of the airline's image so much in ideological preferences but more in class and the insidious paradigm change in the with few, but well considered, virtual attacks. Air- practical exchange and contemporary means of ruling migration policy. The results of the confer- lines whose prestige was inseparable from the medial communication. ence were as varied as the composition of the myth of global mobility and therefore created im- participants: from the Munich Volksbad declara- ages of figures such as the borderless roaming The manifold experiences of summer 2001 tion to the first public presentation of the plans businessman-nomad were systematically con- peaked for the Noborder activists in the fourth for a common European- wide Noborder-camp in fronted by the activists with the shocking reality German border camp, which was organised only Strasbourg, from the presentation of the data- of violent deportation. one week after the protests surrounding the G-8 base project "Everyone is an expert" up to a meeting in Geneva in the shadow of the interna- spontaneously arranged tour of speeches held by The cynical practices of a deportation business tional Rhein-Main-airport at Frankfurt. By merely two organisers from the US- american Trade which literally goes on over dead bodies were ex- announcing forthcoming protest actions, the ac- Union and migrant workers movement, visiting posed with communication guerrilla methods tivists managed to lead the police to cordon off several German cities. and activism in the Net. Fake brochures in the the airport with several task-force squadrons for usual trade jargon publicizing preferential treat- almost a whole week. This blockade which led at These latter two approaches also set the basis for ment in a special deportation-class, hidden the- times to chaotic conditions in the middle of the the attempt to basically redefine the previous atre and performances, endless deceptively au- holiday season, not only had metaphorical mean- politics of refugee support: more than ever it was thentic-looking advertising material, ing; in the end with the role-exchange the sup- necessary to stop seeing migrants as victims and interventions at shareholders' meetings and posed guardians of the law were landed with an simple objects of state repression or political press-conferences on company performance and enormous problem of co-ordination which left functionalism; objects of charity acts or demo- a large scale online-demonstrations in which over them with no alternative but to demonise the ac- graphic statistics - but rather as political subjects ten thousand Net activists paralysed the online tivists, going so far as to call them rioters. But in- with a variety of motivations, experiences and flight-reservation server for almost two hours had stead of a black bloc, that is justifying the police abilities, attributes which are generally demol- duly been putting pressure on the German blockade by wanting to smash the whole airport, ished at the moment the border is crossed in or- Lufthansa Plc since Spring 1999. But other air- the noborder camp was triumphing with a classi- der to create the preconditions for exploitation in lines were also being punished: from "Brutish air- cal concert, pink-silver cheerleading and excel- an informal working market. ways" to KLM, from "Siberia" to the Rumanian lent negotiating skills. On this basis many differ- TAROM, who threw in the towel after the first pro- ent forms of actions could result in a productive Within this background, reports from the current test action and cancelled their business with the togetherness that didn't even have to be planned struggles of the garment workers in the sweat- deportation charters. and discussed in detail in the first place, as long shops of downtown Los Angeles as well as the as the common intention existed to extend the janitors from the "justice for janitors" campaign With the deportation-alliance campaign, it be- scope for action instead of narrowing it. seem to have a played a similar key role as the came possible not only to cleverly avoid direct sans papiers did in Paris five years ago. Once unpromising confrontation with the national gov- "Borders are there to be crossed". The first sen- again the challenge was to translate the practical ernments and to prevent sudden deportations tence from the call to the German border camp experience of multi-ethnic organisation at the not only on an individual level and literally in the 1999 probably clarified best what the actions in workplace to the conditions in this country. In last moment, but in fact to considerably impede no-man's-land at the other end of the nation June 2002 the temporary network "everyone is deportation proceedings on a large scale. In a re- state were all about: the demand for unrestricted an expert", that was founded by some activists freshing manner it also became clear how expe- freedom of movement as a basic right for all the from the border camps and "No one is illegal", riences and successful methods could be trans- people of this world, the mobilisation of all pos- started the next attempt to gauge the potential ferred to different countries and contexts. sible available forms of resistance against the for concrete co-operation with trade unionists Networking took place on a new level: actions degrading, inhuman border regime, the develop- and the initiators of a new legalisation campaign and activities were developed, planned, and exe- ment of a global communication, marked by the based around the project "Kanak attack". But in cuted across national borders. Encouraged by free and lively exchange of ideas, experiences spite of the promising contact and exciting new the great resonance the campaign met with, suc- and abilities in their respective uniqueness. This insights made - for example during the construc- cess was achieved more and more often in shar- demand and the resulting debates are no ab- tion workers strike in early summer this year in make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
which many, especially illegal workers participat- same extent as they do half or non-public The Noborder camp in Strasbourg in July 2002 ed - it remains to be seen how serious the inten- spheres - the most prominent of these being the was not only the attempt to criticize the border tions are within the German trade union appara- workplace. and migration regimes of the countries part of the tus to truly represent the interests of Schengen convention with a common European- undocumented workers and those employed un- The postmodern control society, in which the wide action, but also with the political focus on der precarious conditions. most internalised border is becomes a reality, the Schengen information system (SIS) to thema- tends to individualise power and to anchor itself tise the restriction on freedom of movement and In any case, the database project "expert- in the process of subjectivation instead of the information. Personal Information of undocu- base.net" that was publicized in a first test ver- previous methods that involved getting rid of less mented migrants has been collected for years in sion at the make-world-conference is a provoca- pleasant subjects by means of inclusion and ex- huge data banks in order to bring the very people tive attempt to counteract the realities of an clusion. 'Border' today is everywhere where peo- who are robbed of all possible rights under the unofficial working market through a virtual job- ple who out of need or desire spend an uncertain seriously expanded jurisdiction of state control. mediating machine, one that doesn't ask for pa- time in another country are turned into illegal im- Despite of or perhaps because of the numerous pers and where everyone interested can present migrants; where people who do not have the priv- visitors, the Noborder-camps may be managed in themselves anonymously with their abilities and ilege of a regular wage are not ashamed and are a very rudimentary fashion to communicate this skills as they define them. But there is more: over therefore criminalized; where neighbours are new dimension of migration control at a Europe- and above the actual employment mediation, the turned into informers in the voluntary service of an level and to try to turn it into actions. During forum offers an excellent possibility to determine the border patrol; when to stand by others and the ten days in Strasbourg the two to three thou- the new composition of the migrant working grant support is no longer the most normal thing sand participants from over twenty countries in class, above all in the lower wage levels of the in the world, but has been turned into a serious Europe were predominantly concerned with new 'affective labour'. As a virtual, militant inves- crime. themselves and their own differences without tigation certain information could be acquired managing from the start to shift the focus; i.e. to according to various focal points on the subjec- The new borders are virtual not only because at abandon the levelling out of these differences tivity of the hired house keepers, nurses, janitors practically any time one lives with the anticipa- and to use them rather as a starting point for a and programmers who are currently hired on a tion of an inspection, but because the physical new political capacity to act which goes beyond large scale and come primarily from Eastern Eu- realm is short-circuited with databases and data- borders and innumerable differences, or on the rope. currents from which the corresponding access contrary even thrives on these. rights are drawn. In almost all areas of digitalised The prevailing migration discourse has long since life information is checked, which in real time is The experiences from Strasbourg were at first shifted from the whole-sale hermetic isolation of degenerated and regenerated into innumerable sight for many quite shocking: a striking inability the national labour market to an as efficient as data. It's a question of indicators for habits, pref- to communicate, inwardly or outwardly as well as possible filtering out of the exact and only tem- erences, and convictions which are as easily eval- an incapacity to make democratically legitimate porarily needed work force. This paradigm uated as arbitrarily interpreted. User profiles give decisions. These abilities are all the more neces- change fundamentally changes the special role information about one thing above all: who or sary in such situations where communication is and function of the borders: as in many other ar- what is useful right now and who or what isn't. taking place in different languages, thought in eas, networking technologies are replacing the countless contexts and acted with in the most previously common, truly banal methods of visa It has long since been essentially about much different of backgrounds. However the Noborder endorsement and face checks. Borders are no more than a bare proof of identity. Borders are in- camp could quickly prove itself as an extraordi- longer material lines of fortification clearly iden- verted and privatised, not only because it is less nary case which only too clearly illustrates how a tifiable by barbed wire or highly developed sur- and less the state, but more enterprises and pri- political and practical fixation on the apparatus veillance instruments. The border regime, often vate persons who monitor personnel, passengers, of state repression can only mislead. And how still played down with the well meant metaphor " couples and passers-by. What once was a purely overdue a movement of movements is which con- Fortress Europe", is becoming omnipresent. Un- private matter is now exposed to the merciless sists of more than the sum of individual gestures. der the pressure of increasing mobility and in eye of a general public and what was previously A modern concept of militancy must above all be view of the autonomy of massive immigration, the publicly accessible is suddenly restrictive without creative and produce new forms of resistance drawing up of borders is becoming virtual and its any further ado. The creeping inversion of public that proceed from the flexibilisation and deregu- repressive character is hardly generalisable any and private spheres, territory and hyperspace has lation of the conditions of the production of sub- more: it could happen here as well as there, for progressed to the extent to which communica- jectivity and that operate by experimenting and this reason or another, and with a series of differ- tion, instead of private property, has become the intervening at just this level. In the end nothing ent consequences. Borders fold and shift inwards determining production factor and people no and no one can tell what people might make of or outwards, they are advanced into safe third longer own anything but their information value. themselves if one would only let them. states and expanded into the hinterland. Con- Traditional basic rights such as freedom of move- trols have long since stopped being limited to na- ment are becoming more and more linked with http://noborder.org tion states but cover the inner cities' traffic junc- the question of informational self-determination. tions and supra-regional traffic routes to the
There was a glimpse, a sudden and success and political failure lies the biggest I have already mentioned the trite rhetoric in the The march volatile moment in today's march when I thought problem emphasised by the march. Numbers in leaders' speeches. True, that rhetoric has not pre- we were close to our objective of "marching on demos like this can mean two rather different vented them to denounce the "Mbeki regime" the left". We were already in Sandton, and the things. They can indicate a mass, made of dis- and the "ANC government", themes that, howev- on the left Convention Centre was in sight. At a certain point tinct individual or group identities whose unity is er, for long have not been taboos at the grass- I saw the Leaders of the movement quickly jump artificially produced through the mediation of a roots. However, the forms in which that denunci- Franco Barchiesi off the truck from where they had until then di- specialised leadership that is the repository of a ation was made sounded terribly empty, and were rected the operations and disciplined the demon- general ideological discourse as the lowest com- usually played on Power's discursive field, in stration. They ran on top of the march and at the mon denominator. Or it can indicate a multitude, terms of Power's own contradictions ("remember same time Anna Weekes made me notice that where the distinctiveness of autonomous singu- why we have voted you", "go back to the Freedom there was a frantic run in the same direction by a larities is engaged in trying to identify a common- Charter", and so on). In no ways those interven- We at Indymedia South Africa had announced in a previous com- group of young comrades. Shouts of "down with ality of themes and aims from below, without this tions were able to grasp the quite radical interro- the marshals" were heard. Anna and I had the leading to a higher form of political synthesis that gation and critique of power that comes from the same thought: "Fuck! They want to break the obliterates singularities themselves. The political movements' own daily practices. These practices ment that today's march on the WSSD would have been also a cops' line". outcome of today's demo goes towards the first are based on forms of community self-manage- Ritualism and conventionality of the two directions outlined here. And it is a ment, construction of grassroots discourse, di- "march on the left". With that expression we meant that it was time very problematic outcome inasmuch it reiterates rect action in ways that are so rich, plural and di- It was just a moment, then order and discipline the self-construction and self-representation of versified to be totally at odds with the were restored, but when the march was conclud- the current movement's leadership as a separate hierarchical organisational practices of the tradi- for the new social movements to express the qualitatively new "bio- ed by the Leaders' final speeches many of us re- political apparatus located in the control of or- tional Left from which the Leaders come. And, in tained the ominous thought that the Leaders' ganisational dynamics. This separation of the ap- fact, it is not by chance that the APF represents political" nature of their struggle in terms of refusal not only of the main concern at that point was that some could paratus was particularly evident when the ANC de facto only a minority of urban social move- have funny ideas about breaking the "Red Zone". tried its incredible provocation of sending Essop ments in South Africa today, mainly around That can explain why many of their speeches rep- Pahad (one of the most sinister faces of the Mbe- Jo'burg (in spite of their boasting fictitious "affil- identity and mystique of "national liberation", but also of the lead- licated the very emptiness, rhetorical ritualism ki regime, the former Stalinist chief eliminator of iations" in Durban and Cape Town). and mechanical repetitiveness that we have so any form of dissent to the ANC during "the strug- What is completely missed at the leadership level ership practices of a left that has historically tended to reproduce often denounced as one of the most insidious gle") on the stage. I doubt that there was no one is that the critique of Power that the new social disempowering devices that the Left has always who wanted to jump on the stage at that time to movements in South Africa represent is radically used vis a vis its own grassroots. The best defini- kick that asshole down. Whatever the peoples' different from what the post-colonial state form subordination and discursive expropriation of the movements' tion of the demonstration based on its conclu- feelings might have been, however, it was Virginia has experienced so far, where such a critique has sion was provided by an American comrade: "do- Setshedi's kind invitation to "comrade Pahad" to usually been expressed as a rejection of the 'in- grassroots subjectivity mesticated". The ritualism and conventionality of step down that prevented more dramatic out- ter-class' or 'non-class' content of national liber- the Leaders' speeches (together with the banality comes. And down he stepped, maintaining the ation. What is going on here and now is rather a of the slogans suggested from the bloody truck) affable and deriding smile that he has kept on his constituent process of grassroots subjectivities is what has ultimately produced the political out- face for the whole duration of the appearance. that question the very validity of unifying identi- come of the demonstrations in terms that can un- Power always recognises itself, and it was pre- ties (be they called "class", "party", "union") as equivocally be defined as an appalling failure. cisely the self-recognition of Power on the two the form of expression of common desires. This is And this time not even media coverage rescues sides of the barricade, and the liturgical media- simply because these forms of representation us. Of course the political failure contrasted with tion thereof, that made such a humiliation of the and delegation, quite effective when the stake of the success of the march in terms of numerical movement possible. conflict is State Power, simply no longer work turnout, which was indeed quite significant. But New social movements when the stake becomes immediate reappropria- precisely in this contradiction between numerical tion of life, which is as radical and subversive as make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
the constraints imposed by the market and the capitalist liberation, the void becomes a space problems were dealt with also in the form of a di- commodity form are tight and is, especially, un- where any sort of exclusivist, sectarian, reaction- rect contestation of the Leaders of the Left (the available to mediate, to be channelled, repre- ary closed identities flourish. An urgent problem silencing of Sangoco, the dreadful Trotskyite mar- sented, predictable. from this point of view is, for example, the prolif- shals sent with their butts on the ground). It was No matter of theorising eration of Islamic fundamentalists at our march- especially for this reason that many of use have es, an issue that was already contentious last thought of the Durban demo as a "constituent This is not just a matter of theorising. The current year in Durban and became quite visible today as moment" for the movements' subjectivity. Today separation of the Leadership and its ghostly ideo- well. While the entrenchment of such reactionary we have made a step back from that moment, logical discourse from the multifarious processes crap is a problem from the point of view of defin- maybe the problem is with big marches, which of subjectivity construction in today's movements ing a multitude's commonality, it is not a problem cannot replace a necessary daily work of, as we in South Africa creates a void in the definition of for a leadership for which 3.000 islamists, inde- have written on our IMC T-shirts, "DISOBEDI- the movements' discourse. And unless that is pendently from the contents they bring, are still ENCE, DEFECTION, BETRAYAL". filled by interventions aimed at defining a com- valuable to swell numbers and add to the higher monality of themes around a prospect of anti- glory of the Leaders. Last year in Durban these
Is it a Yes Men Andy, is the Yes Men a Satire? believe what is presented with the voice of au- child. Many, many people, regardless of educa- In their past impersonations of the WTO, The Yes thority. And that one huge voice of authority is tion, are easy prey for the ideas of the corporate Men chose to make satire in the tradition of very clearly the WTO. Others, for example, are cor- decision-makers. Present them with a decision, Satire? Yes, it is Johnathan Swift`s "A Modest Proposal". They porations. So that these supranational corporate they will accept it! This is why it is important for pushed free-trade agendas to their logical con- bodies, which are less and less responsible to citizens to decide what sorts of corporate deci- Yes Men, but it’s clusion, arguing for abolishing the siesta, selling anyone--to national democracies, for example-- sions are and are not acceptable. It is never pos- votes to the highest bidder, and even allowing are really not checked, are really not watched sible to count on the highly educated to filter the managers to administer electric shocks to sweat- with anything near the proper amount of atten- okay from the rotten. It is not possible to expect not a satire shop workers from afar by using a futuristic tele- tion. That's bad! that Ph.D.s will always be on the lookout for the presence technology embedded in a three foot fascist and murderous. Fortunately, it is possible A virtual interview long golden phallus. (for details on this see A Question about your lecture and performance to establish laws that regulate the behavior of www.theyesmen.org ) at the "Fibres and Textiles for the Future" seminar corporations and the like. That way, it is not nec- arranged at the Tampere University of Technology essary to rely on the alertness of Ph.D.s to yell The problem with that approach: there was no re- (Finnland). In your lecture you ended up wearing when scary things get said or, in the event, done. action. Nobody in the audience was outraged. a golden leotard with a three-foot phallus, ex- Audiences didnt think there was anything wrong plaining the purpose of the "Management Lei- What did the WTO say to that incident? with the horrible ideas presented by the WTO, sure Suit" was to allow managers, no matter They have told at least two reporters (from Trans- even though they were nearly the moral equiva- where they were, to control their remote work- fert, and from New York Times) that they "de- lent of Swift's "Modest Proposal". The audience forces in the developing world. Why did you do plore" us. "Deplore"! Well, we deplore them! respected the presenters so much, that they sim- it? Those dumb-asses! Also, in Transfert, they sug- ply went along with them. So, having failed at Basically, it's because the WTO is a really big deal gested we should wear masks of Mike Moore's satire this time the Yes Men decided to take the that has a lot to say about what happens and face and run around yelling angry epithets about high road and simply be honest. When they were what doesn't. And you take a look at the things him. That would be funny, they said. They are re- accidentally invited to speak as the WTO at an ac- they say in the press and on their website and it's ally stupid! Of course, we are also very stupid. counting conference in Australia, they took the so ludicrous, so infantile. They say things like Mike and I, we can laugh for hours about these opportunity to do what they really wanted to do- "Letting big companies do whatever the fuck they things that we do, just like the WTO laughs when and thus on Tuesday this week, in front of an au- want anywhere in the world will lead to cleaner air people wear Mike Moore's face. HAHAHAHAHA- dience of accountants and dignitaries that even because the companies will have really big prof- HAHA! We are really dumb that way. But we think included the Australian Counsul-General of Can- its and therefore so will the countries they are in journalists like our funniness better, and that's ada, they announced the end of the WTO, and its and then those countries will spend that extra why they write articles about us. And they also get replacement with the Trade Regulation Organiza- money on buying equipment that's better for air some serious points in, that they come up with tion. And sincerity worked. The sincere lecture got quality." This is really the gist of what Mike Moore within their own heads. a sincere response. All the participants agreed has said. Given this sort of idiotic idea, it's really that in light of the way that gap between rich and funny to see how much respect this organization Who are you targeting with this kind of action? poor has been growing in the world, somthing gets from truly smart people. And we wonder: just The guys you do the presentation for? Or some- had to be changed. The post-presentation lun- how totally repulsive could it be and still get re- body else? cheon turned into a think-tank for what the new spect and allegiance from those really smart peo- NOT the guys we’re doing the presentation for-- Trade Regulation Organization can offer, and how ple? Could it, say, proclaim something like "Vot- and here you have touched on a very important it can be put in the service of helping people. ing should be privatized--companies should be key. Our aims: 1. The first aim was to show how able to purchase votes for president"? Could it easy it is to transmit and have accepted extreme- Why are you targeting the WTO in your most re- say "Today's remote labor system is a lot like sla- ly dangerous, even fascistic ideas, if one has the cent action? very, but even better"? Could it say "Gandhi was name of the WTO. 2. The perceptive will notice WTO is nice symbol of all that is happening cor- really misguided"? Would people clap? The an- that these ideas are in fact only logical exten- porations-vs.-democracy-wise. swer has always been a resounding YES -- and sions of the WTO's own immediate ideas--and il- that's why we are The Yes Men. We say YES too! lustrating that is our second aim. In fact both How has the WTO responded to your site and What was the reaction from delegates? aims go together: we want to show that we have your episodes? Have they issued any press state- After the lecture, Mike and I wandered around the a situation now in which there is this incredibly ments? enclave and spoke with people in various envi- powerful and sometimes violent blok--the WTO, Yes, they have. They told Alexandre Piquard of the ronments--at lunch, at dinner, in the lobby, etc. the corporations it serves, etc.; we can call it the French magazine called Transfert that they were Always people understood what the lecture had "money blok" or something--and the only critical very nice (the WTO). "Nous sommes gentils" is been about. Always people said it was not offen- eye on this blok is that of what has come to be how they put it. That's all I know. To another jour- sive. Under other circumstances they would have called the "anti-globalization" movement. No one nalist (Barnaby Feder of the New York Times) they found it offensive, but because it was the WTO besides this movement seems to be paying any said they "deplored" it (the Bichlbauer situation- saying these things, they were ready to goos- attention whatsoever, nor has any moral com- -not his toxic pieing and death but the whole sit- estep. And they were so friendly! Apple wine and punctions about what goes on. We have found uation) but believed in free speech, more or less. pretzels! Hearty handshakes! Sometimes, great this to be dramatically the case among lawyers So I think here we have contradictory statements, earnestness and desire to continue relations into (http://theyesmen.org/wto/), industrial Ph.D.s sort of. After all, deploring is not your typical nice the future between our camp and yours. Do you (http://theyesmen.org/finland/), and also an sort of emotion to convey. I mean, if I see you on have a card? Here is mine. Let us read one an- unknown audience that watches business TV (ht- the street and say "I deplore you" and then see other's position papers! I like you! tp://theyesmen.org/tv.html). The responsibility you at local bar and say "I am so nice," are you for paying attention is therefore squarely on the going to believe me? But then, the WTO isn't re- What was the reaction in the hall? shoulder of the "anti-globalization" types--some- ally just some guy walking around on the street.... They gave us more than polite applause. They thing they already know, of course, but we just gave us robust applause. And the president of the aim to illustrate it nice and clearly. Do you have any more hoaxes in the works? conference mentioned the talk at least three We haven't done any hoaxes! If you mean repre- times in public—once right after, once during the senting the WTO more honestly than they repre- day, and once during his dinner announcement, sent themselves, yes, we do--we have been invit- right before the traditional Finnish folk music ed to a conference somewhere in Oceania. In the part. Each time, he said how grateful they all were spring. We look forward to it very much. for this very nice presentation by this WTO repre- sentative. (In Salzburg they were listening too, What are you expecting from your action? though apparently not quite as well. Perhaps they Dramatic illustration of things. As dramatic as a were less smart? Or perhaps the performance three-foot penis! was less clear? I have learned to enunciate. SLA- But, I mean, you maybe want to prove that peo- VE-RY. GAN-DHI. E-LEC-TRO-CU-TION.) What does ple can easily believe everything they heard if it's this say about corporate man's likelihood to ex- presented as serious, isn't it? Or you want to dis- amine and temper the power of the mouthpiece rupt the official speach of WTO by doing fake pre- of the (not entirely hypothetical) extremely driven sentation? organization, whether it be his own or another's? Well, it is already entirely well-known that people Ready to goosestep. Fully in sync with the bottom believe what is presented with the voice of au- line of the commanding operation. And not just thority. It is just not so widely understood that the corporate man: the corporate woman, the ac- *people in positions of responsibility and power* ademic man, the political woman, the alcoholic make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
Over the last few years groups across No Logo was potentially a powerful intervention. at work. The cultural effects of market society lie Anti-Capitalism the spectrum of the traditional and radical left But the play between the rhetoric of the multi-na- in our incapacity to be creative outside of work. have all made particular concessions towards tional corporation and its inhuman reality is never Entertainment has become a specialised indus- aligning with a broad ‘anti-capitalist’ movement. really convincing. In places No Logo chastises an try and from computer games to motion pictures with a smiley face With all manner and diversity of groups jockeying earlier political generation for maligning reality in our cultural reproduction lies in received enter- to lead the carnival procession, what was needed the face of the image, yet the major import of tainment; lacking the time and skills, as individ- Erik Empson was a politics of moderation or a moderate poli- Klein’s argument is to do exactly the same. Ap- uals we are constrained to consume what others tics. What more suited to a symbolic politics than parently obsessed with the writing on the wall, produce. The enormity of time that people are a politics of the symbol? Enter Klein. 80s activism did not notice that the ‘wall had forced to spend under the social power of a mas- been sold’. However, Klein’s own empirical bricks ter de-limits their capacity for developmental cre- Klein builds an image of capitalism driven by and mortar have no foundations except the juxta- ative activity outside of it. Moreover, with the It does not seem to have been activists who made No Logo ‘part of marketing, corporate identities and brand imag- position between a commercial muppet show specification and diversification of types of work ery in the West that sits on a bedrock of exploita- and extreme labour practices necessary to the demanded by capital, the responsibility for devel- tion in the South and the Third World. She dili- capitalist system. In this admixture of indigna- oping the capacity to work is transferred away a movement ’. Rather it seems largely the media itself that pro- gently pursues the most familiar large tion, intrigue and outrage Klein fails to posit ex- from the capitalist. Out of need we are forced to corporations around the globe highlighting their actly how such pernicious extremes have devel- occupy the culture of our work, to enhance our pelled Klein and her particular take on activism to fame. The rea- excesses and abuses of power. Carefully covering oped and the basis wherein companies productivity, and we often feel obliged to into a wide range of commercial practice companies themselves present their own activity not as cre- making our ‘free’ social activity orientate around brokering promotional contracts with schools and ating products but as the creation of an experi- work. On the level of politics No Logo degenerates sons for this are relatively clear. With the growth of diverse and of- universities, the proliferation of temporary or low ence through a brand. from a potentially powerful critique of the specta- paid contracts wrapped up in the language of cle, the actualised phenomenology of the mar- ten contradictory forms of ‘anti-capitalism’, society at large choice, the horrors of sweat-shop labour Klein Although No Logo tries to balance its attack on ket, into a rehashed appeal for a mode of liber- produces a picture of the modern world throttled the commercial world with the reality of produc- alism. Economically speaking this is the voice of by unaccountable and profiteering capitalists. tion, what tends to be missing is any connection the owner of a boutique crying business as usual needed to reduce these either to something recognisable (it’s However, alongside these developments, a story between the ideologies of consumer society and in the aftermath of the blitz. is given of resistance: that of young people see- the social needs that are generated by the cultur- 1968 all over again), or to something ideologically containable: ing through the media-marketed hype and cre- al reproduction of the worker. We are continuous- Implicit here is a culturally elitist disdain against atively shaming, naming, prosecuting and organ- ly offered sound-bite rebukes to corporate ideol- mass production and homogenisation, wherefore ising against the power of commercial society. No ogy, yet the generality of conditions that have the socio-political struggle of the middle class criminals, thugs and rioters. Logo is not just a list of facts: it is peppered with given rise to these ideational social forms are and the desire to restate a sphere of production statements from companies and activists alike, never explored. A case in point is a section that and consumption outside the realm of capital, in presenting an image of a world in hot contesta- deals with the encroachment of private interests the name of quality whether ethical or material. tion, as if the political was being reborn and re- into education. Though usefully detailing how in Behind the general victim mentality of Klein’s vi- cast as the fight between staid economic inter- the U.S. soft drink brands and computer manu- sion lies disdain for the masses, those hood- ests and an idealistic youth. facturers have exchanged money for publicity winked into identifying quality with what is pre- with public bodies, Klein saturates the text with dominant, most immediate and socially Yet behind the high-rise rhetoric of Klein’s politi- her own outrage to the extent that the reasons manufactured as cool. No Logo is fuel for the bur- cal landscape there is the sinister shantytown of behind these events receive little remark. Indeed geoning fires of cultural separation along class real politics. Fuelling No Logo’s and its reader- not once does she attempt to explain exactly why lines and of disdain for the ethically irresponsible ship’s indignation against unethical consumption such processes should be condemned. Rather and marginalized who seemingly sustain a mar- is either the implicit idea that hoodwinked con- she assumes that it will be self evident to her ket for secular idols. sumers in the West are responsible for the work- readership why genuine public life ought to be Political imperative ing conditions of producers in the third world or a preserved. For what reason? The resistance moral duty to ameliorate them. In the discourse against ‘brand-extension’ into education turns What emerges as the political imperative in No of anti-capitalism this means that the genuine- out to be entirely symbolic: ‘these quasi-sacred Logo is not to subvert the power behind the satu- ness of anti-corporate activism lies in the extent spaces remind us that unbranded space is pos- ration of corporate ideology into our social of our rejection of the perks of Western consumer sible’. This might convince her coffee-shop com- space, but to campaign against it being rubbed society. If we expose the criminal production rades, but it will make few inroads into shaping in our face. For all its symbolic power, the mass- practices of major high-street retailers, the power the politics of inner-city kids for whom Coke day es’ struggle against the corporation is reinvented of the manufactured image of those companies is a welcome break from being taught social obe- as a demand upon the corporation to be ethically will be subverted. Almost overnight the onerous dience. accountable. Forgotten here are precisely the school-ground behaviour of judging people by premises of the brand and logo: that companies what they wear has been instantiated as a form Brands are not the power, yet Klein colludes with are already ethical. Realising commodities on the of politics itself. the market rhetoric to the extent that she pre- market now implies that the commodities satisfy sents them as such. Most capital is anonymous social needs for inclusion, standards and quality To wear certain trainers, a well-established crite- and apart from high-street stores, much corpo- that are generated out of the subsumption of the rion of social inclusion for youth across the globe, rate marketing is not directed at consumers at political and the public by private power. In Nor- has been re-posed as a sign of complicity with all, but at other capitalists. This goes on in a eena Hertz’s recent book, the Silent Takeover, the heady world of exploitation. Counterpoised to world where corporate power and its legitimacy these same processes are understood in a posi- Ali G like carriers of commodity sign values, as the very motor behind social interchange has tive light, and this demonstrates the extent to Klein’s young anti-capitalists emerge as virtuous already been established and entrenched. which Klein’s premises by no means necessarily ascetics happy to divest themselves of the garb Brands do not colonise space, the social power serve a radical agenda. of capitalist logic. Klein’s choice of the logo as a of capital has already made this space its own. key to unlock the secret working of the social sys- Rather the brand fills out already colonised spac- With a similar emphasis of corporate abuse of tem makes political conclusions such as these es, and herein certain companies in competition power and the excessive gravity of the inequality unavoidable. However the personable story of No for the same market use resources to produce a it engenders, Hertz endeavours to utilise the Logo sets up preliminary lines of defence against social meaning to attach to their wares. In a Mar- same type of personable journalism as her Cana- these accusations. Klein too was once inebriated cusian vein Klein is sensitive to the fact that this dian counterpart. Indeed if Klein’s brief was to with cocktails of corporate signifiers, before she process involves the incorporation of any manner marginalize activism to a liberal agenda, Hertz’s saw the light. No Logo bares all, from the sewing of existent cultural discourses and their repro- remit was clearly something like: ‘write a Klein- of labels on to jeans to the yearning for fast food, duction as the exclusive property of a particular esque book, young, punchy, but try to change the with a spirit of confession that would make a commodity. Hence the impression that capital ending if in doing so you can make out anti-cap- Catholic blush. Now saved from perdition, Klein’s speaks for and can satisfy our social desires cou- italism to be good for capitalists, you can write story re-enters the sinful world of her youth with pled with the explosion of a market for people your own cheque.’ Indeed if Klein’s demand was a rigorous attention to banal detail that outflanks skilled in fabrication and mystification. Most of to build an ethical universe in response to brand- Easton Ellis’s American Psycho and has Douglas this stinks, but it could never be the basis for a ed corporations, Hertz, with characteristic na- Coupland checking his notes. As an artistic whole politics. Capital itself is not tied to any particular ivety, confesses her belief that capital is often No Logo is endangered by the banality of its sub- identity; if one particular manifestation is dis- best placed to offer social justice. Similarly, the ject matter. Everywhere the language of the credited it will simply move to a different domain, encroachment upon the public is seen as a pro- mass-marketing machines is taken at face value, this is given by its character as a social power. cess that could be reversed. Essentially The Si- and the bizarre justifications of commodities The celebration of symbolic campaigns against lent Takeover tries to explain that the co-option of within market society are read as if they ex- individual capitalists shows that Klein has bought the public by capitalists has led to un-democratic pressed its inner workings. The nauseating satu- the fetishism of the commodity wholesale. There resistances to capitalism. Hertz wants to reinvent ration of sign values and the televised spectacle is however no reason why we should. As the an anti-capitalist rationale for the state that can of commercial society are reproduced here in full. grandfather of the critique of capital scribbled in gain political legitimacy by kowtowing to consum- No sooner are we treated to prosaic quotes from his notebooks so many years ago, the ‘worker erist demands that provide moral and ethical jus- the likes of the chairman of United Biscuits than cares as much about the crappy shit he has to tification for political regulation. This is not just we are raised up by the plight of workers sweating make as does the capitalist himself who employs about making capitalism accountable; it is more for a dime. Set against the tyranny of the logo, him, and who also couldn’t give a damn for the explicitly a means of making capital more profit- grass roots protests are re-posed as rising up junk’. able. Whom Hertz sees as her audience becomes very clear when she recommends to business against its logic. No one else has sifted through Phenomenology of the market the garbage can of the self-serving rhetoric of the that a set of ethical principles would enhance make-believe corporate world with more zeal Still we inhabit a world where the colonisation of their credibility and sales potential. than Ms Klein. But no one else has performed capital seems complete. It is a fair project that such a disservice to those who oppose the power perceives here that the total subsumption of the The working refrain of The Silent Takeover is the of the corporation by constantly depreciating social by capital implies a reconfiguration of the crisis of representation and the lack of faith citi- their political activity to serve as counterpoint to sites of political resistance. However, truths re- zens have in the democratic process. Hence a journalistic device. main at the level of production that is not sub- ‘shop don’t vote’ has become the hallmark of so- verted by this logic. This is the truth of the neces- cieties infected by the paradox wherein political sity of work and the predominance of time spent statements are made through the boycotting of make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
politics. But the most obvious problem with this tarianised many, this aged political referent ness against the dominant logic. Yet Negri shows book is its working motif: its basic thesis that serves as both the conceptual and real counter- how this positing of capital as a transcendent somehow the ‘takeover’ went un-noticed. Rather part to Empire. The contemporary demands that power with all its pseudo-religious symbols can the current state of politics, especially in Britain, capital make of labour lie in the intensification be and is daily subverted by multitudes that do is exactly characterised by the re-management of and extension of the value form of labour through not see the political as separate to the social. A the balance of government and business in the further simultaneous homogenisation and differ- politics based on high-street consumption could face of the displacement of the traditional left. entiation of the concrete activity of work. Within never effectively challenge capitalism, so long as The defeat of labour was not silent, but silenced. Hardt and Negri’s analysis this logic assumes a the presupposition of market society remains the Indeed we are still reeling from the gradual de- new turn of fate. Crucial here is the use of the unchallenged economic and social alienation struction of opposition to privatisation of public Marxian notion of the general intellect, as is the that is the mainstay of the social production of services. The battles fought out by a dying labour changing reality of working practices. The socio- commodities. movement are not represented in this book, and biological and cultural networks of social produc- the symbolic activisms that have taken their tion lose their distinctive separation from the Self-elected or media-sponsored representatives place are not at all understood in the context of field of work. ‘Affective labour’ inaugurates the will continue to present the reclamation of public such a defeat. That her own political agenda of complete immersion of productive logic into ar- space as the goal of anti-capitalist politics. Rath- consumer activism is the result of such a process eas traditionally understood as areas of con- er for us, the issue is the reclamation of our alien- rather than the basis for a new one is not even sumption and dissemination of the surplus. Fun- ated social power. To this end the politics of bio- considered by Hertz and we are left wondering damental to this process is that ‘cooperation is power, the bottom-up realisation of the potential what is on the cards for the future, when the au- completely immanent to the labouring activity it- of people to reap the fruits of their own activity, thor of such a palpably ignorant and obsequious- self ’. Hardt and Negri see post-fordist production effectively challenges both the social power of ly opportunist intervention is described as a as forcing society to the stage where immaterial capital as well as the ethical discourse that seeks leading new thinker of our generation. labour creates the ‘potential for a spontaneous to limit our desires. Crucially Empire locates the and elementary communism’. Yet not only does potential for politics not in the world of banal Graduates from Hertz and Klein’s shopping mall labour become closer in form to its systemic so- manufactured identities and the defacement of St Trinian’s would do well to upgrade their diplo- cial character; the complete subsumption of la- the spectacle but in the realm of our massive cre- ma at where post-structuralism and Italian Marx- bour by capital subverts the time of value produc- ative productive energies. Anti-capitalism need ism meet. Empire, written over a period of ten tion to the extent that even when outside of the not degenerate into pathetic demands for a face- years, is immediately relevant to the world that regime of work, value is still produced. This is the lift to a system that is itself always pointing to a Klein and Hertz have construed. The differences world of the bio-political. It is easy to see how so- future beyond it. The invective found in Empire lie in the depth of the analysis. Whereas Klein cialist feminist claims concerning the productivity that potential for change lies in the here and now skates upon the surface of brand identity, Negri’s of domestic labour find a place within this en- is in places being taken seriously by elements materialism leads him to present his analysis compassing and integrative picture. within the anti-capitalist movement. It is a strong through the dimensions of the object of study it- foundation block for a maturing movement. Em- self. What makes Negri’s attempt to restate a his- It is difficult to judge the truthfulness of this new pire ends by opposing the misery of power with torically sensitive realism so fascinating is that regime of labour. It is tempting to fall back on ‘the irrepressible lightness and joy of being a this procedure is performed without recourse to a Klein and the image of the dark satanic mills to communist’. Rebellion is cast as a project of love. dialectic of negativity. If Klein mirrored her sub- sustain a notion that fundamental to capital is Herein lies a real potential to redefine a meaning- ject matter haphazardly by only dipping into its the imposition of one particular form of social ful distinction between us and them. Yet reading pre-conditions, Hardt and Negri have successful- control and raw exploitation. For sure this will Klein and Hertz shows that the lines are not yet in ly provided an ontological view of the new world long remain a reality of global capitalism. But if the least fully drawn. This project is one to be re- order that reproduces the hierarchy of its consti- we formulate our critique of capital at its ex- alised; until then we had better keep the cham- tution. Empire excels in its clarity of exposition tremes we run the risk of failing in our critique of pagne on ice. and a treatment of its content hallmarked by con- the type of everyday life that capital engenders sistency and commitment. For this reason, in re- within its heartlands. None of these three books Naomi Klein, No Logo, London: Flamingo, 2001 spect to an emerging politics, Empire is a tool for offer much evidence to suggest that the power of (pb. £8.99). Noreena Hertz, The Silent Takeover: and a lesson in practice. private appropriation has waned. Indeed all the Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy, evidence points to the contrary. But they offer re- London: Random House, 2001 (pb. £12.99). From positing the reconstitution of the political markably different responses. The fact that capi- Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire, Cam- on the level of the trans-national, Empire moves talists are in a position to steer, dominate and bridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, on to delineate how traditional conventions of control what passes for social life shows the en- 2000 (pb. £12.99). contractarian political philosophy must give way trenchment of its social power, but we can see to the perception that the political is thus consti- here its vulnerability too. The absolute poverty of Note: This review was written for the journal tuted, not in spite of, yet as a direct result of the the conventional apparatus of representative de- 'Studies in Social and Political Thought' (Issue 5: activities and the productive, creative, desiring mocracies means that any recourse to their au- September 2001. For the full text, visit: http:// energy of the multitude. Constitutive power at the thority mocks genuine attempts to enact politics www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/SPT/journal/past/ level of the multitude disturbs conventional con- from below. issue5.html cepts of state sovereignty, the ontological weight of the multitude’s desires placing the whole edi- Capital as a transcendent power fice of globalised polity in a responsive rather That young people are captured by the spectacu- than proactive position. Despite the in-determi- lar images of societies that know themselves nacy of the category of the multitude, the prole- through consumption suggests their powerless-
Yomango: Obviously, the great ques- not dissimilar to your own. On the whole, it is best tion remains "what's to be done?" and the an- to play it safe and go straight for the big corpo- YOMANGO is a social disobedience initiative ad- swers can only be as multiple and diverse as the rate fuckers. Some people will suggest that shop- dresed to articulating politically a form of every- Sabotaging capital faces of this global capital. This one here is a pro- lifters are a selfish breed, since 'we all pay for it day enjoyable sabotage against capitalism such posal for the concept of a kind of civil disobedi- in the end' through inflated prices to cover losses as the massive shoplifting currently going on whilst having fun ence which, as capital itself, is inserted into ev- and so forth. against big corporations and their shopping eryday life and which, unlike capital definitively, malls. We will focus on exploring technical, legal has to be joyous and enjoyable by everybody. We Thou shalt not steal and logistical aspects of this process. call it SCCPP “sabotaje contra el capital pasán- However, comrades, this and closely analogous doselo pipa”. An SCCPP has to be something you arguments are used to justify lowering wages, http://www.yomango.org So far and so long in the anti-globalization movement it should be are willing to do, something you can do as often breaking unions, lowering corporate taxation and http://www.sccpp.org as possible and something you'll enjoy doing. It's taxation on the rich and corporate sector we may got to be a sabotage against capital having fun. as well sell ourselves into bonded slavery now, or clear that the whole thing with this global capital is finding it and join the Liberal Party. No, the injunction against Within capitalism, most of us are either (1) alien- stealing from capitalism is itself a capitalist ide- opposing it everywhere and under every form, all along and all over ated from our labour and hence dependent on ology and should be spurned as such. Although the ruling classes for commodities as basic as we have been taught that 'thou shalt not steal', food and clothing, (2) excluded from the division an order historically backed by threats of divine our lives: since it's everywhere in your life, so that, whatever you do, of labour, in which case we are likewise depen- retribution, this should not for one minute stop us dent on the State, or (3) performing unpaid and/ from taking the redistribution of wealth into our own hands. Believe me, no-one is likely to do it it becomes fatter and slimmer, reaches farther and stronger. or unrecognised labour and hence dependent on patriarchal relations for food, clothing, etcetera. for us. In any case, our access to resources is severely Shoplifting from big corporations, either as orga- limited by contemporary relations of domination. nized collective actions, as the ones unemployed One partial solution to this problem may be to people have often performed, or as equally orga- steal. Sadly, however, many people living precar- nized but performed by smaller groups: families, iously on low incomes tend to either: (1) avoid couples or individually, might be an edible way of shoplifting for anachronistic moral and/or ethical showing the contradictions of capitalism, a highly reasons; or (2) remain ignorant of the better enjoyable way of counteracting the global order methods and techniques of shoplifting, thus fail- of sleeping cities and shopping malls. Organized, ing to maximise their lifting potential. From the sustainable shoplifting from big corporations will onset, the golden rule of theft should be enoun- not only attack their price policy and/or their ciated: never steal from somebody who could profits margins, it will force them to a further mil- conceivably be a comrade. Be careful, too, about itarization of their space and space, but above all taking stuff from small 'corner store' type shops - it will make you discover a set of new political - you could be ripping off someone in a situation pleasures, including the possibility of generous make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
According to a long tra- Marx only the first appears to fit fully with the def- have unceasingly had to play from the moment Virtuosity and dition of thought, the realm of political action can inition of "productive labor" (defined as work that they were called upon to give proof of virtuosity? be defined fairly precisely by two boundaries. The procures surplus value). Virtuosos, who limit The answer is something like this: the sui generis first relates to labor, to its taciturn and instru- themselves to playing a "musical score" and "score" of present-day labor is Intellect qua pub- Revolution mental character, to that automatism that makes leave no lasting traces, on the one hand "are of lic Intellect, general intellect, global social knowl- of it a repetitive and predictable process. The microscopic significance when compared with edge, shared linguistic ability. Production de- The Political second relates to pure thought, to the solitary the mass of capitalist production" and on the mands virtuosity and thus introjects many traits and non-appearing quality of its activity. Political other are to be considered as "wage-labour that that are peculiar to political action, precisely and action is unlike labor in that its sphere of inter- is not at the same time productive labour." Al- solely because Intellect has become the principal Theory of Exodus vention is social relations, not natural materials. though it is easy to understand Marx's observa- productive force, premise, and epicenter of every It modifies the context within which it is in- tions on the quantitative irrelevance of virtuosos, poiesis. Paolo Virno scribed, rather than creates new objects to fill it. one experiences some perplexity at his observa- Marx conceives general intellect as "a scientific Unlike intellectual reflection, action is public, tion that they are "non-productive." For Marx, the capacity" objectified within the system of ma- geared to exteriorization, to contingency, to the absence of a finished work that lives on beyond chines, as fixed capital. He reduces the external hustle and bustle of the multitude. the activity of performance puts modern intellec- or public quality of intellect to the technological tual virtuosity on a par with actions undertaken in application of natural sciences to the process of Nothing appears so enigmatic today as the question of what it But the customary frontiers separating Intellect, the provision of a personal service: services that production. The crucial step consists rather in Work, and Action (theory, poiesis, and praxis) are seen as being non-productive, because in or- highlighting to the full the way in which general have given way, and everywhere we see the signs der to obtain them one spends income, not cap- intellect comes to present itself finally as a direct means to act. This issue seems both enigmatic and out of reach-- of incursions and crossovers. I will propose first ital. The "performing artist" is thus consigned to attribute of living labor, as a repertoire of a dif- that Work has absorbed the distinctive traits of the limbo of service work. fuse intelligentsia, as a "score" that creates a up in the heavens, one might say. If nobody asks me what political political action and second that this annexation common bond among the members of a multi- has been made possible by the intermeshing be- The activities in which "the product is not separa- tude. In post-Fordist production, a decisive role is tween modern forms of production and an Intel- ble from the act of producing" have a mercurial played by conceptual constellations and action is, I seem to know; but if I have to explain it to somebody lect that has become public, that has erupted and ambiguous status that is not always and not schemes of thinking that cannot ever be recuper- into the world of appearances. Finally, what has completely grasped by the critique of political ated within fixed capital, given that they are ac- who asks, this presumed knowledge evaporates into incoherence. provoked the eclipse of Action has been precisely economy. Well before becoming swallowed up tually inseparable from the interaction of a plu- the symbiosis of Work with "general intellect," or within capitalist production, virtuosity was what rality of living subjects. What is in question here "general social knowledge," which, according to qualified Action, as distinct from (and in fact op- is not the scientific erudition of the particular And yet what notion is more familiar in people's everyday speech Marx, stamps its form on "the process of social posed to) Work. The pianist and the dancer stand worker. What comes to the fore - to achieve the life itself. precariously balanced on a watershed that di- status of a public resource - is the faculty of lan- than action? Why has the obvious become clothed in mystery? vides two antithetical destinies: on the one hand, guage, the ability to learn, the ability to abstract I will then advance two hypotheses. The first is they may become examples of "wage-labour that and correlate, and access to self-reflection. that the public and worldly character of the nous is not at the same time productive labour"; on the Why is it so puzzling? - or the material potentiality (potenza) of general other, they have a quality that is suggestive of po- By general intellect we have to understand, liter- intellect - has to be our starting point for a redef- litical action. Each of the potential developments ally, intellect in general. Intellect-in-general is the inition of political praxis and its salient problems: inherent in the figure of the performing artist - faculty that makes possible all composition (not power, government, democracy, violence, and so poiesis or praxis, Work or Action - seems to ex- to mention all experience). Virtuosic performance on, a coalition between Intellect and Action is clude its opposite. From a certain point onward, consists in making Intellect resonate precisely as counterposed to the coalition between Intellect however, the alternative changes into a complici- attitude. Its only "score" is, as such, the condi- and Work. Second, whereas the symbiosis of ty: the virtuoso works (in fact she or he is a worker tion of possibility of all "scores." This virtuosity is knowledge and production produces an extreme, par excellence) precisely because of the fact that nothing unusual, nor does it require some special anomalous, but nonetheless flourishing legitima- her or his activity is closely reminiscent of politi- talent. One need only think of the process where- tion for a pact of obedience to the State, the in- cal praxis. by someone who speaks draws on the inexhaust- termeshing between general intellect and politi- ible potential of language (the opposite of a de- cal Action enables us to glimpse the possibility of Within post-Fordist organization of production, fined "work") to create an utterance that is a non-State public sphere. activity-without-a-finished-work moves from be- entirely of the moment and unrepeatable. Intel- ing a special and problematic case to becoming lect becomes public when it joins together with Activity without Work the prototype of waged labor in general. When la- Work, but once it is conjoined with Work, its char- The dividing line between Work and Action, which bor carries out tasks of overseeing and coordina- acteristic publicness is inhibited and distorted. was always hazy, has now disappeared altogeth- tion, its function consists no longer in the carry- Ever anew called upon to act as a force of pro- er. In the opinion of Hannah Arendt, this hybrid- ing out of a single particular objective, but in the duction, it is ever anew suppressed as public ization is due to the fact that modern political modulating (as well as the varying and intensify- sphere, as possible root of political Action, as praxis has internalized the model of Work and ing) of social cooperation, in other words, that different constitutional principle. come to look increasingly like a process of mak- ensemble of relations and systemic connections General intellect is the foundation of a kind of so- ing (with a "product" that is, by turns, history, the that as of now are "the great foundation-stone of cial cooperation that is broader than the social State, the party, and so forth). This diagnosis production and of wealth." This modulation takes cooperation based specifically on labor - broader must be inverted and set on its feet. The impor- place through linguistic services that, far from and, at the same time, entirely heterogeneous. tant thing is not that political action may be con- giving rise to a final product, exhaust themselves Whereas the interconnections of the process of ceived as a form of producing, but that the pro- in the communicative interaction that their own production are based on a technical and hierar- ducing has embraced within itself many of the "performance" brings about. chical division of functions, the acting-in-concert prerogatives of action. implied by general intellect takes as its starting Post-Fordist activity presupposes and, at the point a common participation in the "life of the In the post-Fordist era, we have Work taking on same time, unceasingly re-creates the "public mind," a prior sharing of communicative and cog- many of the attributes of Action: unforeseeability, realm" (the space of cooperation, precisely) that nitive attitudes. Rather than eliminating the coer- the ability to begin something new, linguistic Arendt describes as the indispensable prerequi- cions of capitalist production, the excess cooper- "performances," and an ability to range among site of both the dancer and the politician. The ation of Intellect figures as capital's most alternative possibilities. In relation to a Work that "presence of others" is both the instrument and eminent resource. Its heterogeneity has neither is loaded with "action-ist" characteristics, the the object of labor; therefore, the processes of voice nor visibility. Rather, because it becomes a transition to Action comes to be seen as some- production always require a certain degree of vir- technical prerequisite of Work, the acting-in-con- how falling short, or as a superfluous duplication. tuosity, they involve what are really political ac- cert outside of labor that it engenders in its turn In its structuring according to a rudimentary logic tions. Mass intellectuality (a rather clumsy term becomes subjected to the kinds of criteria and hi- of means and ends, politics offers a communica- that I use to indicate a quality of the whole of erarchies that characterize the factory regime. tive network and a cognitive content that are post-Fordist labor power) is called upon to exer- weaker and poorer than those to be found within cise the art of the possible, to deal with the un- The principal consequences of this paradoxical the present-day process of production. Action foreseen, to profit from opportunities. Now that situation are twofold. The first relates to the form appears as less complex than Work, or as too the slogan of labor that produces surplus value and nature of political power. The peculiar public- similar to it, and either way it appears as not very has become, sarcastically, "politics first," politics ness of Intellect, deprived of any expression of its desirable. in the narrow sense of the term becomes discred- own by that labor that nonetheless claims it as a ited or paralyzed. productive force, manifests itself indirectly within Marx distinguishes two principal kinds of intellec- the realm of the State through the hypertrophic tual labor. On the one hand, there is the immate- What other meaning can we give to the capitalist growth of administrative apparatuses. Adminis- rial activity that has as its result "commodities slogan of "total quality" if not the attempt to set tration has come to replace the political, parlia- which exist separately from the producer..., e.g. to work all those aspects that traditionally it has mentary system at the heart of the State, but it books, paintings and all products of art as dis- shut out of work - the ability to communicate and has done this precisely because it represents an tinct from the artistic achievement of the practis- the taste for Action? And how is it possible to en- authoritarian concretion of general intellect, the ing artist." On the other hand, he defines those compass within the productive process the entire point of fusion between knowledge and com- activities in which "the product is not separable experience of the single individual, except by mand, the reverse image of excess cooperation. from the act of producing" - in other words, activ- committing her or him to a sequence of variations For decades there have been indications of a ities that find their fulfilment in themselves, with- on a theme, performances, improvisations? Such growing and determining weight of the bureau- out being objectivized in a finished work existing a sequence, in a parody of self-realization, repre- cracy within the "body politic," the predominance outside and beyond them. The second kind of in- sents the true acme of subjugation. There is none of decree over law. Now, however, we no longer tellectual labor may be exemplified by "perform- so poor as the one who sees her or his own ability have the familiar process of rationalization of the ing artists" but also includes more generally var- to relate to the "presence of others," or her or his State, but rather a Statization of Intellect. If Hob- ious kinds of people whose work involves a own possession of language, reduced to waged bes and the other great theoreticians of "political virtuosic performance - a wide cross section of labor. unity" saw the principle of legitimation of abso- human society, ranging from Glenn Gould to the Public Intellect, the Virtuosos' lute power in the transfer of the natural right of impeccable butler of the classic English novel. Score each single individual to the person of the sover- eign, nowadays we might speak of a transfer of Of the two categories of intellectual labor, for What is the "score" that post-Fordist workers make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
Intellect, or rather of its immediate and irreduc- but also challenges the very foundation of their Liberal thinking, then, tamed the unrest provoked ible publicness, to State administration. validity. by the "many" through the dichotomy between public and private: the Multitude is "private" both The second consequence relates to the effective In the same way as we saw with "natural law," the in the literal sense of the term, being deprived of nature of the post-Fordist regime. Because the "law of general intellect" also has a paradoxical both face and voice, and in the juridical sense of public realm opened by Intellect is every time structure: whereas on the one hand it seems to being extraneous to the sphere of common af- anew reduced to labor cooperation, to a tight-knit provide the basis of the State Administration's fairs. In its turn, democratic-socialist theory pro- web of hierarchical relations, the interdictive powers of command, demanding the respect of duced the dichotomy "collective/individual": on function that comes with "presence of others" in any decision that it may happen to take, on the the one hand, the collectivity of "producers" (the all concrete operations of production takes the other hand, it appears as a real law only because ultimate incarnation of the People) comes to be form of personal dependency: virtuosic activity (and after) Administration already exercises an identified with the State, be it with Reagan or with comes across as universal servile labor. When absolute command. Honecker;on the other, the Multitude is confined "the product is not separable from the act of pro- Radical Disobedience breaks this circle within to the corral of "individual" experience - in other ducing," this act calls into question the self of the which public Intellect figures simultaneously as words, condemned to impotence. producer and, above all, the relationship be- both premise and consequence of the State. It tween that self and the self of the one who has highlights and develops positively the aspects of We can say that this destiny of marginality has ordered it or to whom it is directed. The setting- general intellect that are at odds with the contin- now come to an end. The Multitude, rather than to-work of what is common of Intellect and Lan- ued existence of waged labor and sets in motion constituting a "natural" ante-fact, presents itself guage, although on the one hand renders ficti- the practical potentiality of Intellect against the as a historical result, a mature arrival point of the tious the impersonal technical division of labor, decision-making faculty of Administration. transformations that have taken place within the on the other hand, given that this commonality is Delinked from the production of surplus value, In- productive process and the forms of life. The not translated into a "public sphere" (that is, into tellect becomes the matrix of a non-State Repub- "Many" are erupting onto the scene, and they a political community), leads to a stubborn per- lic. stand there as absolute protagonists while the sonalization of subjugation. The breeding ground of Disobedience consists of crisis of the society of Work is being played out. Exodus the social conflicts that manifest themselves not Post-Fordist social cooperation, in eliminating only and not so much as protest, but most partic- the frontier between production time and person- The key to political action (or rather the only pos- ularly as defection, not as "voice" but as "exit" al time, not to mention the distinction between sibility of extracting it from its present state of pa- (Albert 0. Hirschman). Nothing is less passive professional qualities and political aptitudes, ralysis) consists in developing the publicness of than flight. The "exit" modifies the conditions creates a new species, which makes the old di- Intellect outside of Work, and in opposition to it. within which the conflict takes place, rather than chotomies of "public/private" and "collective/in- On the one hand, general intellect can only affirm presupposes it as an irremovable horizon; it dividual" sound farcical. Neither "producers" nor itself as an autonomous public sphere, thus changes the context within which a problem aris- "citizens," the modern virtuosi attain at last the avoiding the "transfer" of its own potential into es, rather than deals with the problem by choos- rank of Multitude. the absolute power of Administration, if it cuts ing one or another of the alternative solutions al- What we have here is a lasting and continuing re- the linkage that binds it to the production of com- ready on offer. The "exit" can be seen as a free- ality, not some noisy intermezzo. Our new Multi- modities and wage labor. On the other hand, the thinking inventiveness that changes the rules of tude is not a whirlpool of atoms that "still" lacks subversion of capitalist relations of production the game and disorients the enemy. unity, but a form of political existence that takes henceforth develops only with the institution of a as its starting point a One that is radically heter- non-State public sphere, a political community Defection stands at the opposite pole to the des- ogeneous to the State: public Intellect. The Many that has as its hinge general intellect. The salient perate notion of "You have nothing to lose but do not make alliances, nor do they transfer rights characteristics of the post-Fordist experience your chains." It is postulated, rather, on the basis to the sovereign, because they already have a postulate as a conflictual response nothing less of a latent wealth, on an abundance of possibili- shared "score"; they never converge into a "gen- than a radically new form of democracy. ties-in short, on the principle of the tertium datur. eral will" because they already share a "general I use the term Exodus here to define mass defec- But how are we to define, in the post-Fordist era, intellect." The Multitude obstructs and disman- tion from the State, the alliance between general the virtual abundance that favors the escape op- tles the mechanisms of political representation. intellect and political Action, and a movement to- tion at the expense of the resistance option? It expresses itself as an ensemble of "acting mi- ward the public sphere of Intellect. The term is What I am talking about here is an abundance of norities," none of which, however, aspires to not at all conceived as some defensive existential knowledges, communication, and acting-in-con- transform itself into a majority. It develops a pow- strategy, quite the contrary: Exodus is a full- cert implied by the publicness of general intel- er that refuses to become government. Now, it is fledged model of action, capable of confronting lect. The act of collective imagination that we call the case that each of the "many" turns out to be the challenges of modern politics. Today, a realm "defection" gives an independent, affirmative, inseparable from the "presence of others," incon- of common affairs has to be defined from high-profile expression to this abundance, thus ceivable outside of the linguistic cooperation or scratch. Any such definition must draw out the stopping its being transferred into the power of the "acting-in-concert" that this presence im- opportunities for liberation that are to be found State administration. plies. Cooperation, however, unlike the individual in taking command of this novel interweaving labor time or the individual right of citizenry, is among Work, Action, and Intellect, which up until Radical Disobedience involves, therefore, a com- not a "substance" that is extrapolatable and now we have only suffered. plex ensemble of positive actions. It is not a re- commutable. It can, of course, be subjected, but Exodus is the foundation of a Republic. The very sentful omission, but a committed undertaking. it cannot be represented or, for that matter, del- idea of "republic," however, requires a taking The sovereign command is not carried out, be- egated. leave of State judicature: if Republic, then no cause, above all, we are too busy figuring out how longer State. The political action of the Exodus to pose differently the question that it would in- The States of the developed West are today char- consists in an engaged withdrawal. terdict. acterized by a political non-representability of the The Virtue of Intemperance We have to bear in mind the distinction between post-Fordist workforce. In fact, they gain strength "intemperance" and "incontinence." Inconti- from it, drawing from it a paradoxical legitimation "Civil disobedience" is today the sine qua non of nence is a vulgar unruliness, disregard for laws, a for their authoritarian restructuring. The tangible political action - but only if it is conceived differ- giving way to immediate appetite. Intemperance and irreversible crisis of representation offers an ently and freed from the terms of the liberal tra- is something very different - it is the opposition opportunity for them to eliminate any remaining dition within which it is generally encapsulated. of an intellectual understanding to given ethical semblance of "public sphere"; to extend enor- Radical Disobedience must bring into question and political standards. In Intemperance the Ex- mously, as observed above, the prerogatives of the State's very faculty of command. According odus has its cardinal virtue. The pre-existing ob- Adminstration at the expense of the politico-par- to Hobbes, with the institution of the body politic ligation of obedience to the State is not disre- liamentary process; and thus to make an every- we put an obligation on ourselves to obey even garded for reasons of incontinence, but in the day reality of the state of emergency. Institutional before we know what that obedience is going to name of the systematic interconnection between reforms are set in motion to prepare the requisite entail - one will find no specific law that says ex- Intellect and political Action. In the intemperate rules and procedures for governing a Multitude plicitly that one is not to rebel. If the uncondition- recourse to Intellect-in-general there is finally upon whom it is no longer possible to superim- al acceptance of command were not already pre- outlined a possibility of a non-servile virtuosity. pose the tranquilizing physiognomy of the "Peo- supposed, the actual provisions of the law would ple." As interpreted by the post-Keynesian State, have no validity. Hobbes maintains that the orig- Multitude, General Intellect, Re- public the structural weakening of representative de- inal bond of obedience derives from natural law, mocracy comes to be seen as a tendency toward from a common interest in self-preservation and The decisive political counterposition is what op- a restriction of democracy tout court. Opposition security. He hastens to add, however, that this poses the Multitude to the People. The concept of to this course of events, if conducted in the name natural law, or the Superlaw that requires obedi- "people" in Hobbes (but also in a large part of of values of representation, is pathetic and point- ence to all the commands of the sovereign, be- the democratic-socialist tradition) is tightly cor- less - as useful as preaching chastity to spar- comes effectively a law only when one emerges related to the existence of the State and is in fact rows. Democracy today has to be framed in terms from the state of nature, in other words, when the a reverberation of it. The progressivist notion of of the construction and experimentation of forms State is already instituted. What we have here is "popular sovereignty" has as its bitter counter- of non-representative and extra-parliamentary a paradox: the obligation to obedience is both point an identification of the people with the sov- democracy. All the rest is vacant chitchat. cause and effect of the existence of the State; it ereign, or, if you prefer, the popularity of the king. is maintained by that of which it is also the foun- The multitude, on the other hand, shuns political The democracy of the Multitude takes seriously dation; it simultaneously precedes and follows unity, is recalcitrant to obedience, never achieves the diagnosis that Carl Schmitt proposed, some- the formation of the "supreme power." Political the status of juridical personage, and is thus un- what bitterly, in the last years of his life: "The era Action takes as its target the preliminary and able to make promises, to make pacts, or to ac- of the State is now coming to an end... .The State content-less obedience that provides the only quire and transfer rights. It is anti-State, but, pre- as a model of political unity, the State as title- basis for the subsequent development of the cisely for this reason, it is also antipopular: the holder of the most extraordinary of all monopo- baleful dialectic of acquiescence and "transgres- citizens, when they rebel against the State, are lies, in other words, the monopoly of political de- sion." In contravening a particular decree on the "the Multitude against the People." For the sev- cision-making, is about to be dethroned." And dismantling of the health service, or on the ban- enteenth-century apologists for sovereign power, the democracy of the Multitude would make one ning of immigration, one goes right back to the "multitude" was a purely negative defining con- important addition: the monopoly of decision hidden presupposition of every imperative pre- cept: a regurgitation of the state of nature within making can only really be taken away from the scription and saps the force of that prescription. civil society, a continuing but somewhat un- State if it ceases once and for all to be a monop- Radical Disobedience not only violates the laws, formed leftover, a metaphor of possible crisis. oly. The public sphere of Intellect, or the Republic make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
of the "many," excludes not only the continued necessary for carving out free zones and neutral of the Multitude, and these miracles do not cease existence, but also the reconstitution in any form environments. when the sovereign forbids them. of a unitary "political body." The republican con- It is neither "relative" in the sense of the ius pub- The miraculous exception is not an ineffable spiracy, to give lasting duration to the antimonop- licum Europaeum that at one time moderated the "event," with no roots, and entirely impondera- oly impulse, is embodied in those democratic contests between sovereign States, nor is it "ab- ble. Because it is contained within the magnetic bodies that, being non-representative, prevent, solute" in the manner of civil wars; if anything, field defined by the mutually changing interrela- precisely, any re-proposition of "political unity" - the enmity of the Multitude may be defined as tions of Action, Work, and Intellect, the Miracle is leagues, councils, and Soviets. We are not deal- unlimitedly reactive. The new geometry and the rather something that is awaited but unexpected. ing with ephemeral appearances whose insur- new gradation of hostility, far from counseling As happens in every oxymoron, the two terms are gence leaves undisturbed the rights of sovereign- against the use of arms, demands a precise and in mutual tension, but inseparable. If what was in ty. The organs of non-representative democracy punctilious redefinition of the role to be fulfilled question was only the salvation offered by an give political expression to the "acting-in-con- by violence in political Action. Because the Exo- "unexpected," or only a long-term "waiting," then cert" that, having as its network general intellect, dus is a committed withdrawal, the recourse to we could be dealing, respectively, with the most already always enjoys a publicness that is com- force is no longer gauged in terms of the con- insignificant notion of causality or the most banal pletely different from what is concentrated in the quest of State power, but in relation to the safe- calculation of the relationship between means person of the sovereign. guarding of the forms of life and communitarian and ends. Rather, it is an exception that is espe- relations experienced en route. What deserve to cially surprising to the one who was awaiting it. It The Soviets of the Multitude interfere conflictually be defended at all costs are the works of "friend- is an anomaly so potent that it completely disori- with the State's administrative apparatuses, with ship." Violence is not geared to visions of some ents our conceptual compass, which, however, a view to eating away at its prerogatives and ab- hypothetical tomorrow, but functions to ensure had precisely signaled the place of its insur- sorbing its functions. They translate into republi- respect and a continued existence for things that gence. Finally, it is precisely the explicit reference can praxis, into a care for common affairs, those were mapped out yesterday. It does not innovate, to an unexpected waiting, or the exhibition of a same basic resources--knowledge, communica- but acts to prolong things that are already there: necessary incompleteness, that constitutes the tion, a relationship with the "presence of others" the autonomous expressions of the "acting-in- point of honor of every political theory that dis- - that are the order of the day in post-Fordist pro- concert" that arise out of general intellect, organ- dains the benevolence of the sovereign. duction. They emancipate virtuosic cooperation isms of non-representative democracy, forms of from its present connection with waged labor, mutual protection and assistance (welfare, in Translated by Ed Emory. Source: Radical Thought showing with positive actions how the one goes short) that have emerged outside of and against in Italy. Ed. Paolo Virno and Michael Hardt. Min- beyond the other. the realm of State Administration. In other words, neapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1996. To representation and delegation, the Soviets what we have here is a violence that is conserva- counterpose an operative style that is far more tional. complex, centered on Example and political re- producibility. What is exemplary is a practical ini- We might choose to label the extreme conflicts of tiative that, exhibiting in a particular instance the the post-Fordist metropolis with a premodern po- possible alliance between general intellect and litical category: the ius resistentiae - the Right to Republic, has the authoritativeness of the proto- Resistance. The Right of Resistance authorizes type, but not the normativity of command. the use of violence each time that an artisanal Whether it is a question of the distribution of corporation, or the community as a whole, or wealth or the organization of schools, the func- even individual citizens, see certain of their pos- tioning of the media or the workings of the inner itive prerogatives altered by the central power, city, the Soviets elaborate actions that are para- prerogatives that have been acquired de facto or digmatic and capable of blossoming into new that have developed by tradition. The salient combinations of knowledge, ethical propensities, point is therefore that it involves the preservation technologies, and desires. The Example is not the of a transformation that has already happened, a empirical application of a universal concept, but sanctioning of an already existing and common- it has the singularity and the qualitative com- place way of being. Given that it is a close rela- pleteness that, normally, when we speak of the tion of radical Disobedience and of the virtue of "life of the mind," we attribute to an idea. The Ex- Intemperance, the ius resistentiae has the feel of ample may be politically reproduced, but never a very up-to-date concept in terms of "legality" transposed into an omnivorous "general pro- and "illegality." The founding of the Republic es- gram." chews the prospect of civil war, but postulates an The Right to Resistance unlimited Right of Resistance. The atrophy of political Action has had as its cor- Waiting for the Unexpected ollary the conviction that there is no longer an The decline of political Action arises from the "enemy," but only incoherent interlocutors, qualitative changes that have taken place both in caught up in a web of equivocation, and not yet the sphere of Work and in the sphere of Intellect, arrived at clarification. The theory of the Exodus given that a strict intimacy has been established restores all the fullness of the concept of "enmi- between them. One has to conclude that post- ty," while at the same time highlighting the par- Fordist production has absorbed within itself the ticular traits that it assumes once "the epoch of typical modalities of Action and, precisely by so the State comes to an end." The question is, how doing, has decreed its eclipse. Naturally, this is the friend-enemy relationship expressed for the metamorphosis has nothing liberatory about it: post-Fordist Multitude, which, while on the one within the realm of waged labor, the virtuosic re- hand tending to dismantle the supreme power, lationship with the "presence of others" trans- on the other is not at all inclined to become State lates into personal dependence; the "activity- in its turn? without-finished-work," which nonetheless is In the first place, we should recognize a change strongly reminiscent from close up of political in the geometry of hostility. The "enemy" no long- praxis, is reduced to an extremely modern servi- er appears as a parallel reflection or mirror im- tude. age, matching point by point the trenches and fortifications that are occupied by the "friends"; I proposed that political Action finds its redemp- rather, it appears as a segment that intersects tion at the point where it creates a coalition with several times with a sinusoidal line of flight - and public Intellect (in other words, at the point where this is principally for the reason that the "friends" this Intellect is unchained from waged labor and, are evacuating predictable positions, giving rise rather, builds its critique with the tact of a corro- to a sequence of constructive defections. The sive acid). Action consists, in the final analysis, very fact that hostility becomes asymmetrical in the articulation of general intellect as a non- makes it necessary to give a certain autonomy to State public sphere, as the realm of common af- the notion of "friendship." The characteristic of fairs, as Republic. The Exodus, in the course of the "friend" is not merely that of sharing the which the new alliance between Intellect and Ac- same "enemy"; it is defined by the relations of tion is forged, has a number of fixed stars in its solidarity that are established in the course of own heaven: radical Disobedience, Intemper- flight - by the necessity of working together to in- ance, Multitude, Soviet, Example, Right of Resis- vent opportunities, and by the fact of their com- tance. These categories allude to a political the- mon participation in the Republic. ory of the future, outlining a solution that is radically anti-Hobbesian. Second, one has to be careful in defining today the degree or gradation of hostility. The model of Political Action, in Arendt's opinion, is a new be- "absolute" enmity is thus seen to be deficient - ginning that interrupts and contradicts automatic not so much because it is extremist or bloody, processes that have become consolidated into but, paradoxically, because it is not radical fact. Action has, thus, something of the miracle, enough. The republican Multitude actually aims given that it shares the miracle's quality of being to destroy what is the much-desired prize of the surprising and unexpected. The point is not to victor in this model. On the one hand, the battle deny the importance of the state of exception in for "the most extraordinary of all monopolies" is the name of a critique of sovereignty, but rather premised on either total victory or total defeat; to understand what form it might assume once on the other, the more radical scenario (which is political Action passes into the hands of the anti-monopolistic) alternates between negotia- Many. Insurrections, desertions, invention of new tion and total rejection, between an intransigence organisms of democracy, applications of the prin- that excludes all mediation and the compromises ciple of the tertium datur: herein lie the Miracles make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
Social entropy and Lenin related to the figure of the in- Leninist notion of party and of the Gramscian no- to ethical epistemic models that interweave that tellectual the problem of what to do, in the polit- tion of intellectual has been accomplished. If we specific level of knowledge. The programmer ical direction of the collective action. The intellec- want to define today a what is to be done for our must be a programmer, the doctor must be a doc- recombination tuals are not a social class, they do not have times, we must concentrate our attention on the tor, the bio-engineer must be a bio-engineer, and specific social interests to sustain. They are gen- relation between the cognitive function of socially the architect must be an architect, whilst in the Franco Bifo Berardi erally the expression of parasitical income, they complex labour and movements that organise Leninist view each one had to be a professional can make "purely intellectual" choices, making forms of productive and communicative autono- revolutionary, and this meant to bring revolution- themselves out to be the means of revolutionary my. ary consciousness to the worker from the outside. consciousness. In this sense they are what is But the programmer, the engineer, the doctor and most similar to the pure becoming of the spirit, in The book of Hardt and Negri (consciously) lacks the architect must in the first place reorient ate The resurgent question of the intellectuals hides the contemporary the Hegelian development of self-consciousness. a theory of action, and this is not one of its limits. their own knowledge action., modifying the func- On the other hand, the workers whilst being the The notion of 'multitude' does not have, (IMHO) tion and structure of their own specific field of bearers of a homogenous social interest, can not an active and organising power, even less so a knowledge and their own specific field of produc- problem of "what is to be done?", the problem of the auto-organi- pass from the purely economic state (the Hege- 'subjectifying' function. The notion of the multi- tive action. It seems to me that we have put to- lian in itself) to the politically conscious state tude describes a dissolutionary tendency, the en- gether a great quantity of useful elements for the sation of cognitive labour. Space has re-emerged for the question (the for itself of self consciousness) only through tropy that is diffused in every social system, and elaboration of a "manifesto of knowledge workers the political form of the party which embodies which rends impossible ('asintotico', infinite, in- (which should not be called that)", but the hesi- and hands down the philosophical heritage (the terminable) the labour of power, but also the la- tation that frustrates us regards the method it- of the intellectuals, in the discussion of the Italian left. But the proletariat as heirs of classical German philoso- bour of political organisation. We need to indi- self. phy) viduate a recombinative function, and this we question is badly posed, and the word itself (intellectual) elabo- find in the cognitive function that traverses all of We don't want a manifesto "declared", because In Gramsci the reflection on the intellectuals is social production. Intellectual work does not exist this reminds us too much of Leninist voluntarism, more articulated, and it comes closer to a mate- anymore as a social function separate from total a declaration that appeals to something external rates extremely badly the contemporary socio-mental geography. rialist formulation of the organic character of the social labour, but becomes transversal function, to what is said. We want, on the contrary, a man- relation between the intellectual and working creation of techno-linguistic interfaces to which ifesto that is like software, or like a genetic code. class. However, the party is conceived in the en- is given the fluidity of a social process, and there- A declaration that is paradigm, that is contagious tire communist tradition as the as collective intel- fore recombinative power (where to recombine and at the same time a recombinative enuncia- lectual. The intellectual of the modern tradition does not mean to subvert, to overthrow, to au- tive chain. Have we exaggerated our expecta- (who has not yet been put to work by the digital thenticate and reveal, but it signifies much more tions, requirements and intentions? Perhaps yes, web) can only have access to the collective di- concretely to assemble elements of knowledge but its worth it because, the intentions are not mension through the party. The break produced according to a different design from that of profit just intentions, in themselves, but dispositions to by Italian Operaismo (which I prefer to call com- and capital. being. position, for the emphasis that is given to the question of class composition) is founded on an The answer to the present what is to be done is FRANCO BERARDI abandonment of the Leninist notion of the party political in a very particular sense. In fact it does as collective intellectual, and of the notion itself not exist in the creation of a party, of an organi- URL: http://www.rekombinant.org/arti- of intellectuals that gets substituted with that of sation external to the social capable of leading it cle.php?sid=1577 the general intellect (Marxian but neither Engel- or governing it. The answer consists in giving Translated by Erik Empson and Arianna Bo sian nor Leninist). It does not seems to me that shape to the specific knowledge practice accord- a satisfactory reflection on the overcoming of the ing to autonomous epistemic models, according
The Dark Side of Hence in addressing our needs er, open operative spaces and to find ways to by- erative only in a context of legality and liberal and desires the reaction is: we need more de- pass or displace authority by shifting the locus of rights). One of the unrecognised potentials of the mocracy, more rights, more freedoms, more jurid- political identity away from pre-existing mecha- Internet lies in the anonymity of the user, the op- the Multitude ical/ legalistic defences against the corporate nisms of mediation, whether the voting booth, the portunity it provides for people whom for whatev- face of this Subject who sticks his nose into an party, the state, Trade Unions. In this respect it er reason have been excluded from the old form Arianna Bove/Erik Empson otherwise uncomplicated terrain of liberal free- does not distinguish between left and right. The of public life. It allows for those who do not have doms. mobility of this subjectivity takes from them with- a name to speak for themselves. out buying their project and can withdraw from In this view of capital as Leviathan resistance is the game at any point. Control society needs to be subverted rather than limitation, the preservation of the public or its re- limited, and this is not a matter of public dissent The New Left politics that emerged out of the 90s impasse reap- constitution. Although in this framework and It is because of rather than in spite of social co- but rather of making subversion at once public (in within the existing institutions of the public some operation that the locus of political power in the the sense of shared) and invisible, of dispersing powerful struggles of re-appropriation do take sovereign state undergoes subversion. In this through multiple points of attack. Control society peared with the mentatlity of seeing capital itself as the subject of place, these spaces are no longer the real basis context the model of identity politics is exposed is not stopped by a re-assertion of the private, of power; they allow for only a symbolic resis- as wholly inadequate as a response to the power data protection acts, and civil rights activism. history. In this mindset we can only react to capital to the alien tance. Clearly this is what has become of the of individuation, because it coexists with without Ours is not merely a libertarian agenda nor is it street (but the same goes for parliament or the undermining- the need of capital to channel un- an attempt at preserving a constructed category mediatic figurehead of a state). The general dis- predictability. In this sense the multitude also of individual freedom, but it is the very opposi- power of capital and construe the political defensively; organisa- satisfaction with this situation pushes for a re- sanctions the end of the model of representation tion to individuation through forms of socialised territorialisation of the 'public' from the real to and the autonomy of the political which commu- disobedience, networked and spread as a form of tion amounts to havens and enclaves of resistance against this to- the virtual. nication and new technologies have rendered ob- constitution of new social realities of cooperation solete. The multitude differs from the people in as well as exodus. In this political mindset ©apital is responded to so far as the latter is a unity. In the latter case, talisation. This is a fundamentally negative conception of politics by a normative shift towards alternative values: mechanisms of legitimacy formation and social Rather than the visible networks of accountable altruism, austerity, responsibility, duty, morality management could take place within this form of individuals speaking in the name of others, we &c. In this process the Left concedes to neo-lib- identification of the people with a nation, a state, are interested in invisible networks, those that that takes place through the adoption of the existing paradigms of eralism its monopoly on the representation of de- a class, a religious hierarchy, or a particular fu- cannot be represented due to the content of their sire and the real mode of its satisfaction: it tries sion of those elements. This refers to the man- association. Drugs, theft, absenteeism, are just a Power. to attack power and desire as in themselves agement of unpredictability in that the state is few examples of what are increasingly wide- things to be ashamed of and that require some forced to exercise its authority as control over spread responses to the criminalisation of any kind of exorcism through therapeutic regulation. agents that are pre-determined and constituted aspect of life that refuses obedience. Expressed In its anti-consumptionist and self- regulative prior to and outside of the very process of politi- in their own terms, none of these instances of of- guises it manifests itself both as a denial of and cal engagement itself, hence its emphasis on the ten quite individuated actions seems to carry a restraint upon the productive power of social idea of negotiation of identities and the corre- much weight and their non-representability com- subjectivity. The multitude is both theoretically sponding need for arbiters and moderators of this plicates their articulation as common forms of and practically a response to these spurious mei- process. The continual crisis of the sovereign action. otic divertive tactics. state then, its unaccountability and its craving for legitimacy through mechanisms of justification, And yet in this new political climate our power Against this logic of limitation emerges a form of in short the crisis of Potestas at the level of its be- stares us in the face. We all know very much from subjectivity that neither grounds itself on an al- lief in its own project, forces it within the control our own experience that fear, panic, depression ternative future nor judges itself by abstract and paradigm to turn the object of subjugation into and paranoia, can be challenged and turned external standards of what is possible, but takes the subject of that same process: it forces the po- around. Confidence is infectious and cooperation itself as its own ground of realisation and in doing litical onto the whole terrain of life itself which is and association with other actors increases ones so challenges and transforms obstacles that seek inherently discontinuous and unstable. Once power. Because subjectivity is inherently social - to contain and limit it. Rather than construing its self- regulation (always encouraged by more or multiple becomings of instances of immanent projects in terms of the 'political' (or indeed as a less immediate threats of a more exacting and connections in life - introspection and self- re- 'project') i.e. through pre-determined avenues of physical force) becomes the major mode of con- flection are the very opposite of this process, engagement, it challenges this separation be- trol and social management, the site of struggle they rarely have any constitutive effect. Where the cause it occupies and operates on the terrain of reappears on the very ground of productive con- one relates to itself as one, it is really none, and life (i.e. neither simply subjectivity or simply sub- stituent power: a power that does not mediate it- thus in control society, sovereignty (of the individ- jectification but the everyday struggle in-between self through the political. ual) is absolutely subverted. Hence the network them that the poles do not adequately capture). appears where there is a consciousness of that It subverts the fixity of the liberal subject, the in- In control society, subversion is rarely public (be- power. This is a movement with no leaders be- dividual of classical political economy, the citizen cause the public is citizens with names, a sup- cause everyone has become a leader of sorts, of representative democracy. We are interested in posedly open and accountable space for visible, more or less effective at certain times of being forms of networks that function to increase pow- autonomous and recognisable subjects, but op- able to give expression to the common, one make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
formed by activity and example. grammatic exclusion and formal engineering of ahead and beyond its grasp. It is to the dark side sentiment that organise to placate the vocal mi- of the multitude we must turn when reflecting on In this sense, and many other cases, the multi- norities at the great expense of those whose de- what can be done, because it is there that forms tude is ahead of the left. Why? Because it knows sires show no inclination towards formalised po- of subversion are expressed not merely as a re- power but keeps it secret, hidden, it does not al- litical representation. What representation does fusal, but also as a constitution, that is to say ac- low its power to be expressed in the form of an is force a wedge between subjects and those act- tive generation of new forms of life and collectiv- institution, whereas for the Left the institution; ing to exploit them. It shifts the terrain onto ne- ities. There is nothing inevitable about this the accountable, representative and media sen- gotiation, agreement and consensus. The constit- process. But when we fashion political strategies sitive body is the only conceivable form of power. uent power of the real minority - those thieves from outside or above this power we do so at our Because of this models of organisation are un- and bullies - tries to repudiate or recuperate the peril. critically borrowed from existing pseudo demo- 'many' in order to give legitimacy to the structures cratic structures (institutional and behavioural) of meioses, mediation and control. Power (au- ARIANNA BOVE/ERIK EMPSON and democracy continues to be seen as a tech- thority) craves these mediations and very often nical and procedural issue of decision- making we give it to them on a plate. And yet the skill of Note: This is the text of a presentation at the dark and consensus formation. This often invokes the the multitude in withdrawing from these con- markets conference, October 3 and4, 2002 in Vi- ideas of inclusion, community building, and citi- structions intensifies and accelerates this pro- enna. zenship, whereas the practical manufacture of cess where all politics becomes a farcical at- consent is in reality the opposite; modes of pro- tempt at capturing a power that is one step
Will it still be said, then, ("earthquake, principle, ever since May 1968, that the PCF has and delicious liberties are good at home (save for What is to be "shame", etc) that this is a numbing event? Un- vanished. We've got to buckle down to the practi- the 'sans papiers' workers, naturally), but that foreseen, yes. But not outlandish. Le Pen has cal reinvention of the worker figure. elsewhere the militarist galley is the rule? Against been a major elections professional for twenty all of that, let's proclaim these principles: com- Thought? years. And the fact is he did not get many more 2. In France, there are hundreds of thousands of plete independence with respect to American votes than usual. Those ravaged by astonish- people of foreign origins--working and living here- ventures. Dissolution of NATO. Attentive sympathy What is to be ment, by fears and tears, ought to consider this: -most of whom are working-class. Under Mitter- to the current political process in Chiapas. A land parliamentarism is a way of conceiving politics in and, Mauroy, Fabius, Rocard (PM: 1988-1991), and a State for the Palestinians. which 25% of all people can vote for Le Pen, just Beregovoy, Balladur (PM: 1993-1995), Chirac, Done? as they can for anyone else. Le Pen is certainly Juppe, Jospin, with the agreement of the entire There's no mystery. Without respecting these ba- uniform to the others on any number of points, 'plural left', the question of having the State reg- sic principles, without major political battles or- Alain Badiou, Natasha Michel, and not visibly eccentric. Le Pen is an important ularize workers has been made into a question of ganized in complete independence according to man in French parliamentarism, this is the truth. 'security' and the police. They've been referred to these principles, political life gets sinister and The only news is that he's made it into the runoff as 'stowaways'. Detention camps have been cre- the downfall continues. Abjection is never far Sylvain Lazarus vote of a presidential election. It's about why this ated. The right of asylum has been wiped out. Re- away. It's only a little more probable today. And has happened, and this alone, that the causes grouping of family-members has been severely its ties to the electoral system and parliamenta- What happened above all was Jospin's electoral defeat and have to be examined. First of all, the parties. The limited. The 'Chevenement law' was passed. In rism are increasingly evident. We believe that no RPR (Rassemblement pour la republique), the PS exchange for having a simple piece of paper al- principle of real democratic politics can be con- (Parti socialiste), the 'gauche plurielle' ('plural lowing you to come and go freely, it demands of- sistently implemented by any party or parliamen- Chirac's very weak performance. That's the point to leave off from, left' coalition government, consisting of Greens, ficial 'proof', which can't be given obviously, of tary group. These democratic principles regulate Socialists and Communists). Chirac and Jospin. ten years (ten years!) of continual presence on our own action, in complete independence. This because Le Pen's score is only its consequence. Should they be absolved? Should we forget? French territory! Following which you complain is politics without parties. It's what we call poli- Should we be rallying behind their panache as if about the Front National's success? Let's start by cies made from the people, and not from posi- it were suddenly whitewashed by the success of not imposing its policies, then! To all of this, prin- tions of power. Giving strength to such politics in the old Vichyite, the old racist, the old anti- ciples must be opposed which, for five years, the troubled times now opening up--that Chirac Semite, Le Pen? As for us, faced with the down- have been those of the Assembly of 'sans pa- and Jospin have opened-- is certainly the only fall of minds, the suffocating effects of fears, piers' worker collectives (those can't live or work durable and efficient means for committing one- communalism and cowardice, we know that in legally in France) residing in the foyers, and of the self against the worst. Sobbing, 'I'm ashamed', politics there's only firm resolve on the princi- Organisation politique*: Whomever lives and 'Le Pen, you're done for,' and the republican qua- ples... works here belongs here. Worker foyers are fine. ver are completely useless. Giving a life, a life of But: unconditional regularization of all 'sans pa- thought, of action, of organization, to politics of What do we call a 'political principle'? To hold to piers' workers. an entirely different kind is the great affair. a few maxims, until the end and without letting up, on points considered fundamental about the 3. What made Juppe fall in 1997? Who brought Possible? No problem. Immediately. situation people are being subjected to. We hold Jospin to power? It was the major December that these maxims have to be made into the rule 1995 strike and workers' movement; with the lat- Translated for CounterPunch by Norman Ma- of organized thought and action. That battle be ter: the energetic action of 'sans papiers' workers darasz. waged with respect to what they defend, in the at the Saint Bernard Church sit-in, combined with sense of a collective process determined to intellectuals intervening (alas, all too briefly) change the situation. After all it must be said that against the Pasqua laws. Yet the movements' we see no sign whatsoever of any kind of firm re- opening out to parliament is still fallacious. solve on principles amongst any of the members Jospin has no principles. He did not regularize of the 'plural left', let alone the RPR. the 'sans papiers'. Nor did he bear in mind the vague and powerful watchword--"together"-- that What we've seen over the past 35 years is the ab- had thrown millions of people onto the streets in sence of principles, which has set the stage for 1995. Did he protect the public sector? Did he the downfall of minds. Le Pen is only harvesting, reform the schooling system? Did he give the city within the official framework of elections and par- back to the mass of those who try to live there by liamentarism, what has invariably been sown by re-industrializing and re-urbanizing the so-called successive governments. 'suburbs'? Not in the least. All he did was pass a law on the 35-hour work week, very useful indeed A few specific examples. for the leisure time of white-collar employees, but 1. Under Mitterand, Mauroy (Prime Minister: a law that subjects workers to the "flexible" good- 1981-1984) and Fabius (PM: 1984-1986), with will of bosses, disorganizes their lives and, by the complicity of the PCF (Communist Party), any and large, lowers their real salary. And he struck political reference to the word 'ouvrier' (worker) up the 'security' serenade, as did all the official has been doggedly destroyed. The word 'immi- candidates. To that, we've got to oppose the fol- grant' has been used explicitly to take its place. lowing principles: the city's for everyone. One Le Pen's been said to 'address the right prob- child = one student. Readable and stable work lems'. Any working-class utterance, any consider- hours. One must be able to earn a salary with ation of factories, has been rejected. The 'mod- dignity. ern' bourgeoisie's opinion has been the alpha and omega of all political discourses put togeth- 4. Every successive government since Mitterand er. Beregovoy (PM: 1992-1993) did more to lib- has invariably supported the Americans in their eralize the financial system than did any of his increasingly violent, imperial and cruel ventures. rightwing predecessors. Jospin has privatized The war against Iraq, the war against Serbia, the more companies than Juppe (PM: 1995-1997). war against Afghanistan... We ask: what about All have torn the public sector asunder. All have the basic principle of national independence and 'modernized' relentlessly. None have cared the international justice? We're thrilled to see such least for people's lives, even less for what they fiercely devoted defenders of liberties abounding could be thinking about it all. It's foolish to be against the old Vichyite. But we'd like them to ex- whining about the return of the 'populist' stick. tend their concern to just a slightly vaster horizon. When did you care, dear downcast rulers, about It isn't coherent to raise the standard of a revolt people and their backbone: the worker? To this of souls against Le Pen while the same soul sees bourgeois indifference, to the cult of finances nothing wrong in approving someone like Bush camouflaged as 'modernization', let's oppose (as reactionary, on all fronts, as the Front Nation- this principle: no modern progressive politics al) and his war, or Sharon (as brutal in his colo- without a redrawn and rewritten reference to the nial wars as was parachutist Le Pen in his own, in figure of the worker. It's for having liquidated this Algeria). Are we to understand that deliberate make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
Homo Politicus Thousands of fathers, his hometown of Mons, he can count on over- lasting appreciation in the long run. After all, For- mothers, children, youths and pensioners erected whelming loyalty among voters. tuyn was not merely a politician of daring tastes, makeshift roadside memorials out of farewell he was also a neoconservative of distinct prefer- Pim Fortuyn: A notes, bouquets and cuddly toys, providing the That Fortuyn’s bid for this highest of representa- ences – and pleasure, desire, and diversity just sort of TV material that had already proved its im- tive functions should have been applauded by happen to be distinguishing features of the free pact several years ago – the main difference now, the gay community mainly serves to illustrate the market hailed by neoconservatives. In the eyes of Case study of course, being the deceased in question. For- ghastly limitations of an apolitical sexual politics. many an uneasy and concerned voter, the un- tuyn was not the innocent child bride who had Since the 1990s, it appears that for many gay abashed homosexual may well look like a tower Herman Asselberghs publicly blossomed into an independent yet vul- people today, the ultimate social acceptance of of strength. Someone who dares to make an au- nerable woman. He was not the people’s princess one’s own homosexual identity is mostly a matter tonomous decision about his or her sexual iden- who had single-handedly and at great personal of buying into the consumer market’s appropriate tity – especially one so clearly unconventional – Dieter Lesage expense guided the long-isolated British royal niche. For this eager commercial market, gayness and manages to stay in control over the private family into the modern world. Ever since his ap- means being able to shop like any other affluent sphere that is the body surely must stand out like pearance on the Dutch political scene, Fortuyn citizen. Brand awareness is more highly favored a rock in a society that is subject to such rapid had been a staunch and rowdy iconoclast, a new than political awareness. To invest in Dolce & and radical change it practically seems adrift. kind of politician who made paradox his trade- Gabbana, Dior’s Higher, Kylie’s newest and Brad Moreover, sexual tolerance and the acceptance The only thing missing was Elton John. Aside from that, Pim For- mark: an elitist populist, a libertine puritan, a Pitt’s latest is to support the good cause: that is, of new forms of sexuality are hallmarks of moder- modern traditionalist. the introduction of hip queerness into everyday nity. The social visibility of homosexuals (as in the life. For what could be more normal than to con- emergence of lively gay areas in the cities of tuyn’s departure had all the ingredients of a modest remake of Unlike Princess Di, Fortuyn had already under- sume? It seems that a clever gay person who Shanghai, Tokyo and Paris, for example), in par- gone his transformation by the time the mass me- knows how to enrich boring politics with the he- ticular, is perceived as a measure of the more dia focused their attention on him. It was as if donism of this entertainment culture can auto- pleasant aspects of globalization. Princess Di’s funeral. It turned into a massive public display of the though his shift from the extreme left to the new matically count on gay voters – Fortuyn’s crass right over the past few decades had never taken statements regarding ethnic minorities notwith- Fortuyn never failed to exploit the modernity of place, as if he had never advocated anything oth- standing. Or perhaps he even struck a certain his sexual status. He never tired of stressing the Dutch nation’s disenchantment and grief. A huge gathering of the er than the self-professed common sense which chord with that same gay audience there: after contrast between the wonderfully permissive he came to embody during those few first – and all, who harasses the boys in the street and Netherlands and those "backward" nations where national family turned the city of Rotterdam – the assassinated last – months of his political career. This public steals their brand-new Nokia cell phones? (homo-) sexuality remains taboo. He loved to figure, who having dominated the local elections provoke conservative Muslims, because each on March 15, 2002, now seemed bound towards Explicit Politics time they responded with some diatribe about politician’s home ground – upside down. a national victory on May 15, seemed made for During the elections, Fortuyn was doubtless suc- unnatural behavior and Western decadence, his the spotlight. Today the making of a political per- cessful among politically unaware (or disinterest- supposed progressiveness only gained. This is an sonality must be taken quite literally: there can ed?) gays. The real miracle is how, in a country old racist technique, a tired cliché which gay cou- be no political stars without extensive media where scandals concerning pedophilia usually ples in affordable (and hence ethnically mixed) training and expert hair stylists. But Fortuyn, by cause a public outcry, a considerable number of metropolitan areas are certainly all too familiar contrast, was a natural (and bald to boot, to the heterosexual citizens – morally outraged hetero- with. When someone pees in their mailbox or regret of many a hairdresser but much to his own sexual citizens, even – voted for this self-con- scratches their car, their longtime Moroccan benefit, effectively defusing any tricky questions fessed pederast. In interviews Fortuyn never neighbor will point the finger at some newly ar- that could have possibly endangered his ambi- made a secret of his love for young boys nor his rived Congolese refugee. The former victims of tions for premiership from the start). His eloquent fondness for rimming. It must be said that most stigmatization are adept at stigmatization them- one-liners seemed to be the actual product of his Dutch journalists wouldn’t dream of asking an selves. Victims are great at victimizing. Fortuyn own wit, not prompted by overpaid spin doctors. obviously heterosexual politician about his or her was no exception to this sad rule, openly blaming This was partly due, no doubt, to his years of ex- sexual habits, but Fortuyn visibly enjoyed such immigrants for rising crime rates and seeking to perience addressing crowded auditoriums in var- confessions. He understood like no other media revoke the Schengen Treaty at once, close the na- ious university departments and his past work as celebrity that giving explicit details on his sexual tional borders, and introduce racial quotas for all a newspaper columnist. Yet his sharp tongue and activities would allow him to make his far bolder, towns, neighborhoods, and schools. Ironically, flamboyant camera appearances were an unmis- blatantly racist and nonsexually intolerant state- his simplistic proposal that the Netherlands put takable part of his nature, or "proclivity," as it ments unhindered. Fortuyn was the first politician itself in order first before concerning itself with was once known. Fortuyn was the extroverted to voluntarily depart from the asexual sexual pol- the outside world seemed like a secular variant of kind of homosexual. He may not have been ordi- itics that still dominates the media. For no matter the Taliban regime’s attitude in Afghanistan. With nary, but he was perfectly normal. how big a part of the media and the public do- his possibly even more insane resolution to ban main sex may be, every public figure who actually "At Your Service" computers from all Dutch schools, he displayed a gets associated with it risks humiliation and de- great affinity with those ultraorthodox Jews in Is- How else to interpret this campaign slogan of For- monization. If politicians have learned one thing rael who warn against the Internet because it tuyn’s than as a naughty double entendre, a mis- >from the Monica Lewinsky affair, it is that in would leave the door to the outside world wide chievous allusion to the sexual activities our po- their particular field of work, sex appeal had bet- open. litican admitted he readily succumbed to in the ter not lead to real sex. darkrooms of many a gay club? "At your service" If Fortuyn would have nothing to do with restric- means being at someone’s disposal, being avail- Some gay media celebrities excel at desexualiz- tions on sexual conventions, he was fervently ea- able. To those in the know, it was a clear sign that ing their own sexual identities. These openly gay ger to narrow the Dutch national identity. Gays this newcomer to the political arena had learned pop stars, game show hosts and soap actors of- could do whatever they please, but foreigners the rules of taking and being taken in quite a dif- ten seem to lead private lives devoid of sex. They must adapt to Dutch customs. "It’s about time we ferent sphere than the public one. His accompa- are proudly normal, just like any straight celeb. In strike back, in a very restrained yet effective and nying military salute could be taken as a symbol other words, no promiscuity, no limp handshakes, forceful manner, and plainly point out the joint of determination, but it also suggested – at least no nervous tittering, no boas or tutus. To each his responsibility that the Turkish, Moroccan, Suri- as performed by him – a parody of the rituals of or her own style, but it is often these esteemed namese and Antillian communities have in con- the ceremonious "purple" Dutch ruling coalition gay folks who frown upon the participation of taining the misbehavior of some of their num- and of politics in general. Both before and after flamboyant leathermen and drag queens in the bers. We need to build a people and a nation in Fortuyn’s death, more than one commentator annual Gay Pride parades. These moralists seem order to survive, so they must either adapt and pointed out that his rudimentary political pro- to have redeemed their social stigmatization by become true Dutchmen, or they must go back to gram functioned mainly as a classic bombshell means of a thorough makeover, and as if that where they came from." This is how the populist that shook up the status quo. The same can be were not enough to ensure their full media coop- from Rotterdam summed up his alien assimilia- said of his image, that of the impeccable but cos- tation, they now advocate a general purge among tion program. The first Dutch politician who man- mopolitan outsider, the extravagant gay man who their peers. Fortuyn never subscribed to this call aged to put nationalism at the top of the public poked fun at the stuck-up straight establishment. for decency. He knew that in these times of full agenda got all worked up when "with each Turkish Queer though he was, his ideas were square. His media exposure sexual scandals threaten the life soccer victory, my hometown suddenly turns into tough stance and simplistic solutions ensured of every politician, especially if they are gay. So Little Istanbul, as if we’re under temporary foreign that his mainly heterosexual constituents gladly he embraced such scandals from the start, to occupation." Chances are that a large number of forgave him his homosexual coquetry. His straight prevent other opportunists >from doing it first. He his conservative heterosexual followers felt exact- followers tended to overlook the fact that "their wasn’t going to get caught with his pants down, ly the same way about Rotterdam’s annual Gay Pim" was gay. They didn’t care: he gave voice to as George Michael did: his sexual identity would Pride parade – until an assimilated gay man in a what they felt. not be a sexless one. After all, he was the guy tailor-made suit managed to convey to them in who "puts his money where his mouth is" – the plain terms that "in our part of the world, which That an openly gay politician should be so suc- first politician to take kissing ass in a purely liter- is that of modernity," the odd homosexual fa- cessful among the gay community, on the other al sense. vored the normalization of our complex existence. hand, is hardly surprising. As long as equal op- Modern Traditionalism portunity for lesbigays goes unrealized, there re- The Pigmentation of Nationalism mains a need for positive role models in the pub- How to reconcile political dignity with an explicit After falling out with the "Leefbaar Nederland" lic sphere. For many, to have the first openly gay sex life, let alone an explicitly gay sex life? How ("Livable Netherlands") party of which he had premier in a modern democracy would be effec- to combine social respectability with anonymous, been the leader, Pim Fortuyn suddenly had to as- tive proof of true social tolerance. Because in our fleeting darkroom sex? Fortuyn’s premature semble his own group of candidates to form his Belgian federal organization a "prime minister" is death leaves such modern questions regarding "Pim Fortuyn List" for the upcoming general elec- different than the Dutch "premier," such toler- contemporary politics unanswered. His indecen- tions. Joao Varela, a handsome 27-year-old com- ance has already been demonstrated in our case cies no doubt contributed to his amazingly swift munications manager for a cosmetics company by the success of socialist Elio di Rupo, who rise as an agent provocateur. The long-term ef- who is of Cape Verdean origin, came in second. served as prime minister for the Walloon Region. fects of his unusual image still remain to be seen. Varela is what you might call the "white boy" in The staunch leader of the French-speaking So- Other candidates with similar sexual preferences the Pim Fortuyn saga. Not so much because the cialist Party, Di Rupo is a kind of leftist-populist – will no doubt step forward, for perhaps those sex- genealogy of many Cape Verdeans is character- but equally dandyish, ultrapopular and gay – Bel- ual activities which may at first seem aberrant to ized by frequent intermingling between black gian counterpart of Fortuyn, and as the mayor of the average heterosexual voter may well lead to slaves and white colonists, but because in the make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
Fortuyn saga Varela played the part of the "alien white-male-chauvinist-pig business as usual. to become… isolated. This should be enough to achiever": as a successful businessman, he was Well, what else did you expect? Those who voted give Europeans pause. After all, how recently was almost like a real Dutchman. Moreover, as the for the Pim Fortuyn List were the last to worry it that we were driven to tears by images of peo- story goes, he voluntarily offered his services to about all of this, having understood from the be- ple smashing up the Berlin Wall? Not so long ago, the esteemed Mr. Fortuyn at the very same time ginning that Pim was just playing it smart – that any West German who helped an East German when Fortuyn was being "stigmatized" as a racist: an immigrant and a woman could (only) serve the over the Wall was a hero. Today, a German help- Varela was the perfect political butler. By joining cause. ing an illegal Russian into the country must be ei- Fortuyn’s list, Joao Varela wanted to help fight the ther an anarchist leftist or a human trafficker: a bias against Fortuyn as a racist – something we Criminalizing Immigration criminal one way or the other. It’s the same in might call the strategy of the pigmentation of na- Elsewhere in Europe, too, we see how nationalist many Western countries, where you can no longer tionalism. Talk about profitable partnership! parties welcome immigrants who wish to join marry a foreigner without a thorough investiga- them, not because they have strayed from their tion into the "validity" of your marriage. National- Even Pim Fortuyn’s alleged killer unwittingly con- original political programs, but as a strategy ity and the right to stay in a Western country are tributed to the politician’s destigmatization as a aimed at the radicalization of those programs in- "fringe benefits" of a mixed marriage, and not to racist. An hour after the assassination in a park- stead. After all, having immigrants on board pro- be divided equally after the marriage ends. For ing lot in Hilversum’s "Mediapark" – bastion of tects them from accusations of racism, just as fe- the alien partner, however, these benefits are fun- the Dutch mass media – the local police spokes- male members serve to protect them from damental and inalienable rights. Hence the deep woman offered some "good" news. The murder accusations of sexism. Once it has been "proved" distrust shown by governments who seek to bring suspect had been apprehended, and what’s that they are not racist, the nationalists are free immigration to a halt at all costs. At the same more, he was a white Dutchman, a fact that was to pursue the radicalization of their nationalism. time, this ought to be an inspiring thought for us: greatly emphasized. Sighs of relief were heard ev- Fortuyn was by no means being original when he maybe marriage, that supreme symbol of sexual erywhere, not least from immigrant organizations. said that immigrants already in the country were traditionalism, should be recuperated as an act It was the same sort of relief as that which met free to stay but no newcomers should be allowed. of political progressiveness. We can have another the announcement that the Israeli Prime Minister In fact this has become the new doxa, or position, world – let’s all marry non-Europeans! And need- Yitzhak Rabin had been killed by a radical Jew, of so-called liberal democracy in the West. The less to say, so that gays, too, may join in this act not a Palestinian. For a moment, people were only possible argument concerns how far the of progressive politics, we firmly support the right afraid Fortuyn had been killed by an immigrant – door must be shut: somewhat, mostly, or com- to same-sex marriage. pletely. Every European country has repressive perhaps a hint that they were well aware of For- A Funerary Migration tuyn’s racist remarks after all, or perhaps itself immigration policies; Fortuyn simply wanted to the result of some primitive racist reflex: It must add a little more repression. Even he never fully It may seem odd that the self-proclaimed keeper have been a foreigner. Either way, Fortuyn’s rac- closed the door, even if to us Belgians his state- of Dutch values and traditions chose not to be ism had not led to his murder. If Fortuyn had ments on its desired degree of openness seemed buried on Dutch soil. Fortuyn had arranged long been killed by a Dutchman instead of an immi- to have more to do with the latest Dutch Belgian ago for his funerary migration to an Italian village, grant, the general understatement went, then joke than with any clear political statement: only and had already ordered his grave to be built perhaps his so-called racism hadn’t been so bad refugees from the neighboring countries of Den- there. According to this Dutchman, Italy was the after all. Hence, in every interview they gave after mark, Germany and the UK were to be allowed only place he had ever known happiness. But his murder, Fortuyn’s family always made sure to (not >from Belgium, it should be noted). In short, how could he have chosen to try his luck abroad? emphasize that Pim had been a symbol for all Fortuyn’s discourse was not heterodox but (allow Especially when it is obvious that his corpse will Dutch people, black and white. us our own little joke) homodox: that is to say, in never be able to adjust to the peace and quiet of keeping with the doxa. Fortuyn loved the same his final resting place. The villagers fear that their But the raw political reality soon turned out dif- principles as the ruling Dutch statesmen, only he usually quiet town will become a tumultuous ferently. After Fortuyn’s murder, the inevitable loved them to the bitter end. place of pilgrimage for right-wing extremists and questions about his political heritage arose. Who Dutch nationalists. Should Italy allow this Dutch would take his place as party chair? And, even Stefan Heym once asked about East German funerary refugee within its territory at all? more poignant, who would replace him as the Communism, "What kind of system is it whose At the same time, it is probably no coincidence would-be new premier? Some in the Dutch media only validity rests on the forceful inclusion of its that the nationalist can only find true happiness suggested with a certain malicious glee that Joao own people?" The same question must now be as a tourist. The socioeconomic realities of one’s Varela, the second candidate, could become the reversed with regard to capitalism: "What kind of homeland never conform to the fictions which the first black European premier. The irony was clear system is it whose only validity rests on the force- nationalist entertains and seeks to impose on it. to all, but the suggestion itself was presented in ful exclusion of other people?" The Berlin Wall Yet it is when they are on holiday that nationalists a deadly serious fashion. After Pim Fortuyn’s as- may have fallen, but the demand to make all of can experience a country as they prefer to imag- sassination, it was all hands on deck for the Europe a mirror image of East Berlin is stronger ine it. Nationalists rarely deny foreign nations Dutch political establishment, and the main- than ever. And it’s not just about image and met- their own identities: on the contrary, to each stream media, having been infinitely complicit in aphor: walls and barbed wire fences have already country its own identity. Since tourism is nothing the political turmoil caused by Fortuyn, were now been erected around the African Spanish en- but an identity industry, it is the nationalist’s de- more than willing to offer their subtle contribution claves of Ceuta and Melilla, a wall between Eu- light. All year long, nationalists live in a reality to containing that very same turmoil. The dry sug- rope and Africa that is already longer than the that has little to do with the ossified national gestion that a black premier might now come to Berlin Wall ever was. In other words, the Wall nev- identity they dream of. Only on holiday does this power was no doubt meant as a subtle threat: er came down; it has simply been moved. In light identity do exactly what they want it to: it express- Now that Fortuyn is dead, you’d better not vote for of how recently it came down, and how strong the es itself through monuments and architecture, his party, lest there be contrary effects. A black demand for a newer, much longer replacement is, national costumes, traditional processions, an- premier, imagine! Needless to say, Fortuyn’s own one might say the Berlin Wall was a disgrace cient and unspoiled landscapes, rituals and cus- party never seriously considered appointing Vare- mostly in the eyes of the nationalists: it was sim- toms. Only on holiday do nationalists regain the la as its new chairman. As for the first woman on ply in the wrong place. It should have been built idea of a nation which they are hard-pressed to their list, who was briefly considered to be a se- at the Polish border instead. And now that Poland find back home. rious candidate to succeed Fortuyn, she was is about to join the European Union, effectively soon found to be too hysterical; the night of the rendering this option redundant, at least we HERMAN ASSELBERGHS & DIETER LESAGE elections, she suddenly blew her fuses and dis- should build a wall between Poland and Russia. Translated from the Flemish © 2002 by Sakhra – appeared from view. The alien achiever at number And so the first panic-stricken reports are starting l’Assal two, the clever blonde at number four: they to reach us >from the Russian enclave of Kalinin- proved their worth, but things soon returned to grad on the Baltic Sea: they fear they are about
Iwill not attempt to sum up all the projects that lished Sarai Reader is proof of the strong ties to Let's look into some of the projects. Ravikant, a A Visit to the Sarai Sarai is initiating and facilitating but will briefly book culture. At the same time the Sarai server is former historian, is responsible for the language go through a few of the activities and feature a host to a range of electronic mailinglists, from the and popular culture program. Hindi is perhaps subjective melange of projects and people that I South-Asia IT list 'Bytes for All' to a discussion fo- one the largest language in the world but the illit- New Media Initia- became familiar with during my stay. Delhi, as hot rum on community radio in India. eracy is also one of the highest.[iii] However, the and polluted as ever, is undergoing a major trans- best books on the Hindi public domain all are tive Delhi formation. The construction of the subway is well At Sarai there is a weekly public screening pro- written in English. Experts on Hindi film only pub- underway. The first line will be opened late this gram, using easy to obtain VHS and DVD copies lish in English. Ravikant' s research looks at the year. Due to the tense situation in Gujarat and of feature films and documentaries, not 16 or 35 implications-and possibilities-of new media for Geert Lovink Kashmir, Delhi feels under a siege. Surveillance mm. On the program this week an Iranian film Hindi popular culture. He is the editor of the 'Hin- and control have been stepped up; there are po- (Kandahar by Mohsen Makhmalbaf). The day I ar- di Media Reader,' a Sarai publication due to lice roadblocks here and there. Politically the rived Michael Saup of ZKM gave a workshop, come out in November, arguably the first new me- week was marked by the elections in Jammu and which was supported by the Goethe Institute, dia publication in Hindi with commissioned arti- Kashmir, which resulted in a defeat for the ruling which itself could not host such technological cles on free software, satellite channels and tac- A year and a half after the new media centre Sarai opened, I re- National Conference. This party is a partner in the events. Also there were two Australians doing a tical media. The reader also contains specific Hindu nationalist BJP led National Democratic Al- residency. In the midst of it all, staff meetings, essays about the Indian context. As a first book turned to Delhi, curious to meet new staff and see how projects liance coalition, the current Indian government. heaps of them. And yes, there were the occasion- on these issues, the reader celebrates new me- Positioning itself 'off the radar,' so far Sarai did al electricity cuts. Because of road construction dia. Ravikant: "The Hindi world has been ob- not have to deal with state interference. The im- the ISDN connection to the Net had been down sessed with print culture, which rose in the late have evolved. The centre is a buzzing hub, full of energy. During the pression one gets of Sarai is that of a dynamic for a while but this improved later on in the nineteenth century. Related is the love for litera- cultural centre where new media are centre stage week.[ii] One of the Sarai founders, Ravi ture. But in our age they're more ways of looking six days of my stay I only got a glimpse of what is going on. but not the sole denominator. Instead, what Sarai Sundaram, said bandwidth could have been bet- at the world. Film and television now constitute drives is a passion for cosmopolitan intellectual ter but that the government was holding up con- language." In the Hindi context it is important to debate on contemporary city culture. The central nectivity because of the post-911 security clear- discuss the anxiety between 'high' literature and concern of Sarai is the connection between urban ance of cable landings. popular media. The Hindi media reader discusses culture, media and daily life. The annually pub- the relation between the book and the computer. make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
Sarai wants to play a mediator role and lift the That there be creativity, along with a critical atti- turned to Sarai. knowledge of one sphere and transfer it into an- tude." Unlike most projects in this area the focus other. Ravikant knows only of a few Indian media is not primarily on (Micro)software training. It In an email exchange, a few week later, Shveta theorists; post-Marxist scholars and writers who takes courage to step outside of the development writes: "What Cybermohalla creates is a context have been struggling against the dominant trend logic that IT is solely about bringing prosperity for researchers, media practitioners, web design- that treats audio-visual media as suspect. New etc. Cybermohalla is first of all about digital story ers, programmers-from different contexts, with media are usually seen as part of the package telling. The participants go out, into the small our specificities, pursuits, subjectivities-to inter- called globalisation. lanes, and bring back what they have heard and act, to collaboratively, dialogically create and seen. Technical training is only one aspect. The transform our own, and one another's' practices Over the last few years considerable progress has ability to tell stories is as important. Prabhat: through an awareness of and a critical engage- been made concerning the introduction of Hindi "Within a month the children understood that ment with one another, to participate in the pro- as a computer user language, both on the level of they were not doing a normal computer course." cess-as Jeebesh puts it-not as unequals. It is a software interfaces and on the Net. But still a lot A community media memory was in the making. dialogic reflection among peers. The processes of work needs to be done. Like Japanese, Hindi are not determined by their ultimate purposes. has its own set of characters. Both programs and Shveta tells me more about the way Cybermohal- Skills, forms and materials are not introduced the keyboard need to be adjusted. Ravikant: "At la works. "We use a variety of media forms, from into the labs with a fixed, predetermined purpose the moment there are three levels at which work wall magazines to html pages, animation, stick- or instrumentality. We're not working with or with- is being done. There is the font solution, in which ers and diaries (texts, audio recordings, photo- in a curriculum, or 'evolving' one. Otherwise you have to install fonts within the application graphs). The participants write about the basti, where would the room exist for experimentation, you use. Then there are the dynamic fonts. Third- about the neighbourhood, they make excursions or a playfulness with forms, an interrogation of ly, there is the Hindi Unicode (the extended stan- into Delhi (short walks, for instance), as well as these?" dard of ASCII), which will be the long-term solu- to other cities. Excursions are often in small tion. However, you can't use it yet for the Linux- groups. The texts - narratives, reflections, de- Let's switch to Sarai and the arts. Sarai is by no based Star Office. Compared to open source pro- scriptions - written individually, are shared within means a national centre. From the beginning it grams, Windows has a much better support for the group. It is through this loop of writing, read- has been embedded in regional and international Hindi Unicode. The BBC Hindi site has started us- ings and sharing, and very significantly, the con- networks. The exchange program between Sarai ing Unicode. You can download fonts from there, versations these engender, through the words and the Amsterdam-based Waag Society for Old which are for free. But keyboards have not yet and ideas that they move through, that Azra, and New Media is one example.[vii] The Raqs been adapted." For those interested, there is a Nilofer, Shamsher, Suraj, Babli, Shahana, Me- Media Collective (Jeebesh, Monica and Shud- yahoo group that deals with Hindi and comput- hrunisa, Yashoda and others discover and evolve dha), founding members of Sarai who have been ing. Lately, Linux groups in India have woken up the various concepts we engage with." The con- working together for a good ten years, have been and start to deal with the language issue. Ravi- versations, Shveta explains, are critical to the showing their work abroad for a long time. Re- kant: "I just came back from a conference in Ban- process of 'concept making' at Cybermohalla. cently, Raqs had an installation work at the Doc- galore that dealt with all the issues of standard- Ruchika, another researcher at Cybermohalla, umenta 11 art exhibition in Kassel, Germany.[viii] ization-mainly visited by Linux users.[iv] brings, through readings and discussions, into A year before the opening of the show one of the Whatever input devices we use, we should give the labs her own narratives about the city, narra- 'platforms' (D11 curator Okwui Enwezor's term people choices. In India old school typists turned tives she is currently working on through her in- for public debate), had taken place in Delhi.[ix] DTP operators do most of the work. Their needs teractions with 'scavengers,' people who live on Raqs' installation, 'Coordinates of Everyday Life,' should also be taken into account. Many are bi- streets, 'street children,' the 'invisible margins' in consists of two parts. The video section, using a lingual workers. But there are also those who only the city. few projectors in a dark room, engages with Delhi speak Hindi. For them we should also offer the urban culture. Shuddha: "Many hours of shooting phonetic choice at the QWERTY keyboard level." Besides Shveta, there is Joy, who is a web design- were done over a period of one and a half years. Cybermohalla er the Sarai media lab, provides support and It is 90 minutes of video material if you want to shares skills in text editing, image manipulation. see everything. We engaged with the city in a sys- Despite rampant nationalism, the Hindi part of Also part of the team is Ashish, who oversees the tematic way, each week identifying an element of the Internet is much more tolerant than one technical skill sharing for the use of low-end con- city life. We would then go to that particular spot would expect. Ravikant: "We learned to live with sumer technology (camera, dictaphone, sound and shoot. There is for instance footage of us in the tension of hate sites. There are limits to what equipment, microphones). Ravikant, involved in the fog, standing on a bridge at one camera an- you can do against them. There is such an obses- Cybermohalla because of the Hindi language as- gle for one and a half hours. We learned a lot sion in India with the protection of the 'purity' of pect, agrees that the project has a 'post-educa- from that discipline. In filmmaking you are always culture. We therefore have to find ways to talk tional' emphasis. "The mainstream understand- under the pressure to move your camera and about other topics. There is always the danger ing is that there is a direct link between yourself. This shift is related to our move into the that the Hindi language agenda gets hi-jacked by technology and development. And between edu- arts. It is a move away from the 'universal clock' the guardians of cultural purity but that should cation and employment. We could say that at Cy- of television. At the same time it is a more serious not stop us from getting involved. I am hopeful. bermohalla these kids gain critical skills. But we engagement with documentary filmmaking. Be- The Hindu right wing forces are losing one elec- should pretend that we provide existential com- fore, the 'clock' of television was running in our tion after another. The ruling class is in fact not fort to the people associated with us." Shveta: heads. Now, there is no search for any spectacu- following the nationalist economic agenda." "It's not just the mainstream understanding of a lar, decisive moment. We did not look for the sig- link between technology and development, or be- nificant shot. In that sense creating a work for an Cybermohalla is perhaps one of the Sarai's most tween education and employment, but also the arts context allowed us to re-engage with the doc- impressive projects. In May 2001 a media lab notion, a class-based bias of looking at certain umentary sensibility." was established in a slum called 'LNJP,' a 'basti', peoples as culture deficits, waiting for a delivery next to a hospital in central Delhi. The settlement system of ideas, words, concepts and skills, that Coordinates of Everyday Life is living under the permanent threat of eviction. invariably gets articulated under the garb of the The work also looks at law, the legal regime that Bulldozers could come at any time and force the language of 'lack' and 'empowerment'. Sadly, this governs space, the textual component of the inhabitants to resettle on the outskirts of the nine masks the significance of 'cultural creativity', or work. Shuddha: "Certainly the presence of rules million people metropolis. The project is based in that of users and producers contributing to and and regulations in urban space has increased a small room nicknamed Compughar, has three guiding (technical) innovation." dramatically. The first piece that you see in the in- computers (two of them Linux), mainly used by a stallation is the law on land rights, dating back to group of young people most of whom are young By Lanes the 19th century. It defines what is property in Muslim women. Shveta, who trained as a social One year into the project the produced material land. What matters here is not so much the cod- worker before coming to Sarai to work on the Cy- was brought together in a beautifully designed, ification as such but its precise articulation in to- bermohalla project, has taken me to Compughar bi-lingual book. On July 11 2002 the 'By Lanes' days context through regimes of surveillance and and translates from Hindi to English the many publication was presented at Sarai.[v] All the urban relocation." The paranoia about security is stories the youngsters have to tell. The co-coordi- children, parents and others came to Sarai. The significant in Delhi. For the installation Raqs also nator Azra Tabassum, a lively 20 years old, shows place had never been that packed. The Com- produced stickers. They contain simple messages us around. Compughar is a self-regulated space. pughar group read their stories. The response of such as 'look under your seat', 'do not touch Azra looks into the everyday functioning of the the basti community was mixed. Ravikant: "There abandoned objects' or 'missing persons report lab. Monday to Saturday everyone meets from 10 was some opposition, but now there is openness immediately'. to 4. There is lots of laughter-and expertise. The about what the women are doing. For the first The second part of 'Coordinates of Everyday Life' Cybermohalla project is now well under way. The time there are reports coming in from the basti at Documenta 11 was a piece of open source frequent visitors, most of them school dropouts, citizens themselves. Before reports were usually software, presented on PC monitors. Opus (Open have quickly learned to master word processing written by outsiders." The Compughar group Platform for Unlimited Signification) is a web- (in Hindi), drawing and animation programs made an animation about the fierce debate with- based database structure for shared content.[x] (Gimp), games, the digital camera and a scan- in the basti community. Why would the outside Opus is an attempt to create a digital commons ner. There is even a phone and email access via world be interested about the everyday life of the in culture, based on the principle of sharing of a modem but the connection is not always that slum, some asked. The style of the diary-type en- work, while at the same time, retaining the possi- stable. At length we discuss the use of Hindi trances in By Lanes about daily life in the settle- bility (if and when desired) of maintaining traces fonts, compare chemical processed pictures with ment is reflexive, poetic, and at times nostalgic. of individual authorship and identity. I asked digital ones, and go through of the countless The online stories in Cybermohalla's 'Ibarat' Shuddha to what extend the conceptual nature of computer animations the children have made of newsletter, for instance about a train journey to the Opus database was related to the precise na- their computer drawings. Mumbai, are more fragmented and narrative.[vi] ture of the Delhi everyday life imagery. Shuddha: "Both are about inhabiting space in a different Cybermohalla is not just one out of many Digital In the afternoon we visited the second Cybermo- way. One is about being restrained by legal re- Divide projects. Together with Ankur, the Society halla media lab in the Dakshinpuri resettlement gimes in offline space, the other reflects on the for Alternatives in Education, Sarai has devel- district. The lab had opened only two months possibility of sharing space in a much more free- oped a unique methodology. Ankur's philosophy ago. Pinki is the co-coordinator. The growing floating, dispersed fashion. We started to be in- is to give young people what they are deprived of group of participants was still in the process of terested in work that enables work. Opus means in schools. Prabhat, who works for Ankur, writes: finding out about the possibilities of the software. work. It's a work about work. It's not an object "What is needed is that we be excited by innova- Both exhausted of the encounters and the long that can be contemplated. Rather, Opus is a play- tion, but not get swept away by blind faith in it. journey through town by car, Shveta and I re- ground. I look at Opus as a building or architec- make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
ture, a blueprint. It is like a building waiting to be went to schools to give presentations. Tripta: "Af- Cultural change inhabited. It takes some talking to communicate ter a while I realized that the group did not man- The cultural change we speak about here will not to an art audience what the implications of Opus age to penetrate into the schools and break come overnight and might have to be accelerated are." Those familiar with free software immedi- through the barriers of preconceived ideas. Mi- by conflicts and dialogues. Hackers vs. artist ately understand the basic ideas behind Opus. crosoft is the software that authorities use." In a types is a conflict that also exists within Sarai, But they would ask: 'why label it art'? Shuddha: response to this impasse, the Delhi group decid- like in so many new media arts organizations. "Certainly. Software questions the boundaries of ed to put up a website and post research out- There are tensions with the first generation of art. The most interesting response came from a comes of each of its members. The main issue is: young programmers and the artists/intellectuals. group in Brazil called Recombo who were doing how can Microsoft's hegemony be broken in more Tripta, trapped between the two, explains: "In something similar with music. They take the idea than technical ways? The aim of Tripta's research both 'camps' there is this arrogance: what I know of the remix culture literally and built an online is to get more people interested in the cultural you won't be able to understand. Then the con- architecture for people to make collaborative mu- aspects of free software related issues. Without versations cease to happen. Techies should be sic. In this way peer-to-peer distribution is ex- research such work cannot happen, she says. involved on all levels. Programming should not be tended with peer-to-peer creation. Others are in- seen as a commissioned job. Techies have to be terested in the source code. Now we are Tripta: "For me open source and free software is fully aware what the ideas behind a certain translating the Opus ideas into physical space. It not an isolated body of knowledge. It should be project is. The problem is: techies at Sarai do not is a work commissioned by the Walker Art Center, placed in a specific context. In my research I am see why technology should be used within arts in collaboration with Atelier Bow Wow, a group of not only looking at the rival factions between the and culture. They do not see the point of net art Japanese architects. The show opens in February free software purists and the open source prag- and prefer to do 'more substantial' stuff. It is im- 2003. We are trying to figure out what kind of an- matists. I am mainly looking at the Indian con- portant that these issues are addressed in this alogue manifestations Opus can have in a gallery text. I am also interested in the media represen- space, because if they are not discussed in Sarai, space." tation. I asked Tripta what the specific situation of then where would they? Businessmen wouldn't Linux in India is. "Programmers here are not into even bother to look into such issues." For Tripta In August 2002 a delegation from Sarai flew to the development of Linux itself. They are more in- the conflict is all about sensitivities and the Sao Paolo to install a work of Raqs Media Collec- volved in the service industry. Linux is new here backgrounds people come from. She stresses the tive at the new media arts exhibition EmoÁ„o and only few people have expertise in this field. importance of going to schools. "We are building Art.ficial.[xi] The installation called location (n) So Indian programmer do not change the source a web portal for students to put their open con- has eight clocks and eight monitors. Shuddha ex- code (despite the philosophy). They even develop tent on. That could be a beginning. The continu- plains: "The crucial idea is one of time zone. The code and then release it as proprietary software, ing use of Microsoft products has led to a closed clocks represent different cities such as Sao Pa- parallel to their free software activities. This does sensibility towards software. In that sense, the olo, New York, Lisbon and Delhi. Instead of hours not only lead to a personality split between the use of open source software in daily life would in- the face of the clock has emotions such as epiph- daytime and the evening. Also, the overall devel- deed make a difference. But that's only a long- any at 12 o'clock, anxiety, nostalgia. The fun of opment of open source stagnates. There is cer- term solution. For artists and critics it doesn't re- the work is that visitors can compare the different tainly the image that Indian programmers are not ally matter what software they use. What counts states of being in each city. The whole room is designers. They are not good at conceptualizing is the openness towards the ideas and the will- filled with the sound of a heartbeat, layered on to software. Instead you tell them to do a certain ingness to start the dialogue with programmers." which are the sounds of global electronic trans- thing and they will program it. This is might be a actions, modems, fax machines, and phones. On caricature but there is some truth in it. There is a When I leave Sarai, the staff is examining 120 the monitors you see a face slowly moving from sense that Indian techies cannot penetrate other applications that have arrived for the second left to right. It's a mysterious image because it disciplines. In order for this to change a differ- round of the seed grants program for students looks like as if the face disappears on one and ence sensibility towards technology needs to be and young researchers. Sarai is committed to then reappears on another monitor. The face developed. For most of us technology is still this generating public knowledge and creativity seems to be travelling between the time zones. overwhelming thing. The distance between us and through research. The Independent Research Fel- We are playing with the Kulishov effect in early technology needs to be broken down." lowship Program is one of Sarai's most success- cinema where expressions and objects each pro- ful initiatives. In particular Bangalore initiatives duce different emotional effects. In our case it Then there has to be a viable business model; a have benefited. Sarai does not just support Del- was about the expression of the same emotions universal problem with significant local conse- hi-based individuals and initiatives. Themes are in different time zones. Globally speaking we al- quences. Tripta: "Free software cannot be isolat- as diverse as habitation, sexuality, labour, so- ways had the same emotions. It's just that there ed from the social reality in India. I don't want to cial/digital interfaces, urban violence, street life, is no singularity. Everyone feels the same but at see our efforts as a hobby. That wouldn't bring us technologies of urban control, health and the city, different point of time." very far. Maybe within programmers' circles it migration, transportation, etc. Operating within might be a heroic thing to do to sit through the limited space it was clear from the start that Sa- Open source and free software night and hack the code but in the larger picture rai would not be able to expand dramatically in My round along the Sarai projects ends with an it reduces its own importance." Another global terms of staff and offices. Around 20-30 micro interesting exchange on free software and open trouble topic is the total absence of women. Trip- grants will be awarded. Also, preparations are un- source and the Indian context. Tripta is responsi- ta: "Recently I visited one of the colleges. There derway for three conferences: a meeting in De- ble for the free software public outreach project were lots of women around in the computer sci- cember about intellectual property rights, a of Sarai.[xii] Before stumbling into the Linux ence department. Later I realized that all these groundbreaking conference about the city in Jan- scene she studied ancient Indian history. In ret- women, after their graduation in computer sci- uary 2003 and one about 'crisis media,' early rospect, Tripta explains, she already encountered ence will either study psychology, do an MBA, March.[xiv] Dazed and encouraged about Sarai's open source issues during her study, as she could history or whatever. But none of them will pursue activities, debates and contradictions, I leave not access the artifacts and primary sources. Six programming. They said that men were better at Delhi. months ago she became a member of the Delhi it. There is the widespread idea that women can- Linux User Group.[xiii] At the first meeting she not think logically. The issue is not that women GEERT LOVINK was appointed general secretary. In the begin- are not using computers. What we should do is (Edited by Linda Wallace) ning her curiosity was born out of activism. The break down the barrier between users and pro- group brought out its own distribution CD and grammers." A cultural turn seems inevitable.
This book is the first complete investigation of tion to the ideological crisis of the new economy formation and financial exchanges was so spread Dark Fiber global netculture, an analysis of the evolution that supported the mass capitalism of the 90s. as to allow a capillary and mass participation to and involution of the web during the first decade Similar to Carlo Formenti's 'Mercanti del futuro', the flux of financial investments. The web became of its mass expansion. But Lovink goes beyond a Einaudi, this book helps us analyze the actual in- the principal support of mass capitalism and sus- Franco Bifo Berardi sociological, economic and anthropological sur- terlacement of web and economy, and to get a tained its long expansive phase in the last de- vey. Many of the essays in the book outline the glimpse of what is to come. The 1987 Wall Street cade of the century. Millions of Americans and theoretical positions of various agents in the cy- crash interrupted the booming cycle that had Europeans started to invest their money, buying ber-cultural scene: Wired's libertarian ideology, characterized the first affirmation of Reagan's and selling shares from their own homes. The its economistic and neoliberal involution, and the monetarist and neoliberal policies. During the whole financial system became tightly intercon- For many years, Geert Lovink has carried out his work as net-critic radical pessimism of European philosophers. storm that upset the markets for several weeks, nected. Today that long expansive phase has en- Outside of such confrontation, Geert's position is (nothing in comparison to the one to come be- tered into a crisis, and we see that, contrary to wandering across the territories where the net meets the economy, that of a radical and pragmatic Northern-Europe- tween 2000 and 2002), analysts offered an in- 1987, in fact the main danger for the global sys- an intellectual close to autonomist and cyber- teresting explanation: part of the international fi- tem is the pervasive character of its connections. politics, social action and art. Years of fast writing on mailing lists, punk movements, who has animated the cyber- nancial system was being modernized and Self-organization of producers cultural scene for a decade with his connected to the internet. Long before the inter- polymorphous activity as writer and moderator of net entered everyday life, some sectors of inter- The Web, this fantastic multiplier of popular par- analysis, polemics, replies and reports have been collected and connective environments such as nettime.org, national finance had started to make their infor- ticipation to the market, risks becoming the mul- and as organiser of international meetings. mation systems interdependent in real time. tiplier of its crisis, and the point of flight from the mediatic-financial system of control. But there is elaborated in a way that maintains the rap-style of e-mail debates: This book has been published almost simulta- However, since not all of the international finan- another side to the process. Due to mass partic- ipation in the cycle of financial investment in the neously in the United States and in Italy, it will cial system was interconnected - so the experts short sentences, ironic slogans, cuts and returns, allusions, cita- soon come out in a Spanish and a Japanese edi- claimed - the gaps and the incompatibility of the 90s, a vast process of self-organization of cogni- tion. Its publication is exceptionally timely, coin- systems of communication disturbed the fluidity tive producers got underway. Cognitive workers ciding with an unprecedented storm in the global of exchanges and prevented a fast and coordinat- invested their expertise, their knowledge and tions...but what emerges from this mosaic is a coherent overall economic system. In the middle of the storm, in ed intervention of American banks. In order to their creativity, and found in the stock market the the eye of the cyclon sits the system of webs that avoid a reoccurrence of these delays in coordina- means to create enterprises. For several years, view on the first decade of digital society. multiplied the energies of mass capitalism in the tion, the informatization of finance and the per- the entrepreneurial form became the point where 90s, and that today finds itself on the threshold vasiveness of systems of telecommunication financial capital and highly productive cognitive of a radical redefinition of perspectives. The eco- needed to be perfected. This is what happened in labor met. The libertarian and liberal ideology nomic crisis can only be fully explained in rela- the following years. In the 90's the circuit of in- that dominated the (American) cyberculture of make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
the 90s idealized the market by presenting it as Neoliberalism produced its own negation, and tellectual figures of the 90s), Lovink proposes the a pure, almost mathematical environment. In this those who were its most enthusiastic supporters figure of the net-critic, undogmatic and curious environment, as natural as the struggle for the become its marginalized victims. The main focus about what happens while resistant to any form survival of the fittest that makes evolution possi- of this book is the Internet. What has it been, of ideological and especially economic hegemo- ble, labor would find the necessary means to val- what has it become and especially what will it ny. But more is at stake than a cultural fashion orize itself and become enterprise. be? A discussion, starting in the mid-90's, that is counterposed to another. At stake is the opened gaps within cyberculture and divided the defection from the political scene that character- Once left to its own dynamic, the reticular eco- theoretical and creative paths of its various ised the XXth century, and the creation of a totally nomic system was destined to optimise econom- agents. As soon as the internet became more dif- different scenario. The XXth century was dominat- ic gains for everyone, owners and workers, also fuse and revealed cultural, technical and com- ed by the figure of the 'superstructural' intellec- because the distinction between owners and mon synergies, the advertisers and traders ar- tual, to use an Engels, Leninist and Gramscian workers would become increasingly impercepti- rived with their entourage of profit fanatics. formulation. For the revolutionary communist ble when one enters the virtual productive circuit. Naturally, they only had one question: can the In- movement, the intellectual was the pre-industrial This model, theorised by authors such as Kevin ternet become a money-making machine? The figure, whose function was determined on the ba- Kelly and transformed by the Wired magazine in 'experts' (who then amounted to a multicolored sis of a choice of organic affiliation with a social a sort of digital-liberal, scornful and triumphalist bunch of artists, hackers and techno-social ex- class. Weltanschauung, went bankrupt in the first cou- perimentators) replied in Sibylline ways. The Cal- ple of years of the new millennium, together with ifornian digerati of Wired replied that the Internet The Leninist party is the professional formation of the new economy and a large part of the army of was destined to multiply the power of capitalism, intellectuals who chose to serve the proletarian self-employed cognitive entrepreneurs who had to open vast immaterial markets, and to upset cause. Antonio Gramsci introduced decisive ele- inhabited the dotcom world. It went bankrupt be- the laws of the economy, which predict crisis and ments of innovation to the Leninist conception, cause the model of a perfectly free market is a delays and decreasing incomes and falls of prof- because he introduced the theme of cultural he- practical and theoretical lie. What neoliberalism it. Nobody really refuted these people. Net-artists gemony, of the specificity of a work of ideology to supported in the long run was not the free mar- and media activists had other things to do, and develop in the process of seizing political power. ket, but monopoly. While the market was idea- their criticisms and reservations came across as But Gramsci remained fundamentally attached to lised as a free space where knowledges, exper- the lament of the losers, who are incapable of en- an idea of the intellectual as an unproductive fig- tise and creativity meet, reality showed that the tering the big club. Digerati, cyberpunk digital vi- ure, to an idea of culture as pure consensus with big groups of command operate in a way that far sionaries, and net artists let the bubble grow. The ideological values. The industrialisation of culture from being libertarian introduces technological money that entered into web circuits was useful that developed during the 1900s modified these automatisms, imposing itself with the power of to develop any kind of technological, communi- figures, and critical thought realised this when it the media or money, and finally shamelessly rob- cative and cultural experimentation. migrated from Frankfurt to Hollywood. Benjamin bing the mass of share holders and cognitive la- and Marcuse, Adorno and Horkheimer, Brecht bour. The free market lie has been exposed by the Funky business and Krakauer registered this passage. But it is Bush administration. Its policy is one of explicit Someone called it the funky business. Creative not until the digital web redefined the whole pro- favouritism for monopolies (starting with the labor found a way to scrounge money from a cess of production that intellectual labor as- scandalous absolution of Bill Gates' authority in whole host of fat, obese and small capitalists. sumed the configuration that Marx had, in the exchange for a political alliance based on large The truth is that nobody (or very few) said that Grundrisse, defined with the expression of 'Gen- electoral donations). It is a protectionist policy the Internet was not a money-making machine. It eral Intellect'. Pierre Levy calls it collective intel- that imposes the opening of markets to weak has never been and it cannot be. Careful: this ligence, Derrick De Kerkhove points out that it ac- states while allowing the United States to impose does not mean that the web has nothing to do tually is a connective intelligence. The infinitely 40% import taxes on steel. With Bush's victory, with the economy. On the contrary, it has become fragmented mosaic of cognitive labour becomes the libertarian and liberal ideology has been de- an indispensable infrastructure for the produc- a fluid process within a universal telematic net- feated and reduced to a hypocritical repetition of tion and the realization of capital, but this does work, and thus the shape of labour and capital banalities devoid of content. not mean that its specific culture can be reduced are redefined. Capital becomes the generalized to the economy. The Internet has opened a new semiotic flux that runs through the veins of the Dotcomania chapter in the processes of production. The de- global economy, while labour becomes the con- Geert Lovink does not dwell on American liberal materialization of the commodity, the principle of stant activation of the intelligence of countless ideology, the defeated enemy. Instead, he invites cooperation, and the unbreakable continuity be- semiotic agents linked to one another. Retrieving us to understand what happened at the level of tween production and consumption have made the concept of 'general intellect' in the 90s, Ital- production in the years of dotcom-mania. We the traditional criteria of definition of the value of ian compositionist thought (Paolo Virno, Chris- have no reason to cheer over the dotcom crash, commodities redundant. Whoever enters the web tian Marazzi, Carlo Formenti) has introduced the he says. The ideology that characterised dotcom does not see him- or herself as a client, but as a concept of mass intellectuality, and emphasized mania was a fanatical representation of obligato- collaborator, hence, he/she does not want to the interaction between labor and language. ry optimism and economistic fideism. But the pay. AOL, Microsoft and all the other sharks can We needed to go through the dotcom purgatory, real process that developed in these years con- do what they like, but they won't be able to through the illusion of a fusion beween labour tains elements of social as well as technological change this fact that is not just a rather anar- and capitalist enterprise, and then through the innovation: elements that we should recuperate choid cultural trait, but the core of the digital la- hell of recession and endless war, in order to see and re-actualise. In the second half of the 90s a bour relation. We should not think that the Inter- the problem emerge in clear terms. On the one real class struggle occurred within the productive net is an extravagant island where the principle of hand, the useless and obsessive system of finan- circuit of high technologies. The becoming of the valorisation that dominates the rest of human re- cial accumulation and a privatization of public web has been characterised by this struggle. The lations enters a crisis. On the contrary, the web knowledge, the heritage of the old industrial outcome of the struggle, at present, is unclear. has created a conceptual opening that is des- economy. On the other hand, productive labor in- Surely the ideology of a free and natural market tined to grow larger. creasingly inscribed in the cognitive functions of turned out to be a blunder. The idea that the mar- society: cognitive labor that starts to see itself as ket functions as a pure environment of equal con- The principle of freedom is not a marginal excep- a cognitariat, building autonomous institutions of frontation for ideas, projects, the productive tion, it can become the universal principle of ac- knowledge, of creation, of care, of invention and quality and the utility of services has been wiped cess to material and immaterial goods. With the of education that are autonomous from capital. out by the sour truth of a war monopolies have dotcom crash, cognitive labor has separated it- waged against the multitude of self-employed self from capital. Digital artisans, who during the Agosto 2002 Bologna cognitive workers and against the slightly pathet- 90s felt like entrepreneurs of their own labour, http://www.rekombinant.org/arti- ic mass of microtraders. will slowly realize that they have been deceived, cle.php?sid=1815 expropriated, and this will create the conditions The struggle for survival was not won by the best for a new consciousness of cognitive workers. The Translated by Arianna Bove/Erik Empson and most successful, but by the one who drew his latter will realise that despite having all the pro- gun out. The gun of violence, robbery, systematic ductive power, they have been expropriated of its theft, of the violation of any legal and ethical fruits by a minority of ignorant speculators who norm. The Bush-Gates alliance sanctioned the are only good at handling the legal and financial liquidation of the market, and at that point the aspects of the productive process. The unproduc- phase of the internal struggle of the virtual class tive section of the virtual class, the lawyers and ended. One part of the virtual class entered the the accountants, appropriate the cognitive sur- techno-military complex, another part, the large plus value of physicists and engineers, of chem- majority, was expelled from the enterprise and ists, writers and media operators. But they can pushed to the margins of explicit proletarianiza- detach themselves from the juridical and finan- tion. On the cultural plane, the conditions for the cial castle of semiocapitalism, and build a direct formation of a social consciousness of the cogni- relation with society, with the users: then maybe tariat are emerging, and this could be the most the process of autonomous self-organisation of important phenomenon of the years to come, the cognitive labor will begin. only key to offer solutions to the disaster. Dot- coms were the training laboratory for a produc- This process is already underway, as the experi- tive model, and for a market. In the end the mar- ences of media activism and the creation of net- ket was conquered and suffocated by works of solidarity from migrant labour show. monopolies, and the army of self employed en- Starting from these experiences, we need to re- trepreneurs and venture microcapitalists was think the 19c question of the intellectual. In robbed and dissolved. Geert Lovink's book the question reemerges. His portrait of the virtual intellectual, in the first sec- Thus a new phase began: the groups that became tion of the book, is both a synthetic autobiogra- predominant in the cycle of the net-economy phy and a description of the different intellectual forge an alliance with the dominant group of the attitudes that characterized the formation of the old-economy (the Bush clan, representative of connective sphere. Between the 'organic' intel- the oil and military industry), and this phase sig- lectual of corporations, and the radical and nos- nals a blocking of the project of globalisation. talgically humanistic pessimist (the dominant in- make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
this time, he expressed a desire to vist France, to was the fact that they like him, (and perhaps like cal mass of the freedom of thought in our times. facilitate the people of France on the occasion of Gutenberg before him) were equally aware of the The fact that the database was at the heart of an anniversary of the revolution of 1789. He was fact that the control over information is one of the power, makes it impossible to think of a techno- however, asked to procure a visa by the French keys to the hold that power has over people, and logical articulation of info politics as being al- authorities. Much incensed by this, "uncivilised" that their protest was as much against border ways radical. It is as central to power as it is to demand, he wrote an eloquent and furious letter, controls in physical space as it was against bor- those who oppose power. To either romanticize in which he implied that the visa, was a violation ders in virtual space. This again made me think new technologies of information and communi- of the principles of liberty (of movement), of that it is meaningless to single out the internet as cation as being the standard bearers of the com- equality (amongst peoples) and the possibility of 'New Media'. In its own time, the Printing Press ing revolution, or to paint them in the dystopic co- fraternity (because it effectively prevented people was as much 'new' or 'tactical' media as the in- lours of state and political control is to forget the from fraternizing). I am not sure about this, but ternet and computers are today. And just as the fact that it is what we 'do' with information that my hunch is that this is probably the first record- explosion of 'illicit', subversive, dissident, anti makes it political, this way or that. The computer ed protest against visas and border controls in clerical or even ribald literature that accompa- can be the appliance of the border guard, and it the world. By a strange (or not so strange) twist nied the proliferation of printing presses in the can be the instrument of the border crosser, a lot of history. The demonstration that passed the ti- late eighteenth century prior to and during the depends on who uses, which software to which ny, barely noticable bas relief figure of Ram Mo- revolution of 1789, creating a critical mass of end, how, and why. han Roy in Strasbourg, was echoing his anger, al- free thinking, so too, the tactical media initiatives most two centuries later. What was remarkable of our times could be contributing to a new criti-
The dark side of But camping can also become a torture, ably the worst of the missed opportunities of the Last summer at Frankfurt airport the sovereign only bearable with a high degree of sarcasm and No Borders camp, something that was perhaps noborder activists had been able to leave the humour. Nine o’clock in the morning – first barrio already visible in the preparations for it. Without dirty work for the police forces. They did not need Camping meeting. Points of the agenda are illegal beer even paying lip- service to the diversity and the to block the airport themselves but allowed it sales, homemade jam and the use of fresh green- dissimilitude of the participants, the whole polit- happen - the alleged guardians of law and order Susanne Lang/Florian Schneider ery for campfires. The same discussion enriched ical potential of the heterogeneous mixture of did that for them. This is not just a metaphorical with no less substantial issues like common bar- people was sacrificed on the altar of a hypocriti- meaning; the action left the practical problem of ricade construction and useless empties collec- cal mass consensus. It was bound to turn out this mediating the airport blockade to the authorities. tion is to take place in the inter-barrio two hours way: with such a lack of commonly shared con- Their only way out was to demonise the activists later – at the earliest! tent, that veered between up-to date anti-Semit- as being even more terrible rogues than imagined Camping can be so nice. Crawling out of dewy plastic in the early ism debates and compulsive sexism discussions, before. But instead of a black bloc that justified When the results of the supposedly radical-dem- from special eating habits to preferences in tech- the police blockade by wanting to smash the ocratic decision-making process have been ven- niques of street- militancy, such a consensus was whole airport, the noborder camp was triumphant morning, with a pinch of sleep still in your eyes, braving the unbear- tilated within bigger or smaller group connec- only possible through the depiction or evocation with a classical concert, pink-silver cheerleading tions, the sun has already reached its afternoon of an external antagonistic and repressive ma- and excellent negotiating skills. On this basis ably hot sun, yet invigorated and ready to take on the day with as zenith. It’s high time for the actions: a rabble of chine. Whereas a Europe wide camp with its many different forms of actions could result in a some hundred, possibly even like-minded peo- broad make-up would have been the perfect productive togetherness that didn’t even have to ple, heads for the inner-city of Strasbourg with chance to move beyond the adopted rituals of be planned and discussed in detail, as long as much indifference as possible to the ongoing struggle with nature. disequilibrium in mind. That means careless, in- limitation on movement and indecision disguised the common intention existed to extend the discriminate and random demolition of every- as basic democracy, and diffuse that into many scope for action instead of narrowing it. There are Surely everybody knows that the secret of success is to fight the thing that might be seen as the emblems of this different and relating potentials, the tragedy of several reasons why the opposite principle was symbolic European capital’s political meaning- Strasbourg lay in the overwhelming incapacity to dominant in Strasbourg. But there is no excuse lessness: flags, monuments, anything - not to for- communicate. If the keyword “multitude” is un- for such political naivety in the face of the dra- laws of petty bourgeois civilisation with minimal equipment and get that most hated spawn of surveillance and derstood to mean more than just the sum of all matic turn-around on the first night of the camp control society; the video cameras, that with 70s attendees, the actual challenge seems to lie in that was so sneakily conducted. Whilst most of charm adorn the facades of many of the public relating the different movements to each other as the people were still busy with the constitution of therefore gain a flexibility that is capable of suspending the other- buildings in the city. Nobody is able or willing to effectively and reasonably as possible. The inten- infrastructure and putting up their tents, one say why, but the drive for pointless demolition tion of the noborder camps has always been that committee took it upon itself to decide to aban- wise ruling power relations for a clearly defined amount of time. lasts just as long as the police allow it. In the this struggle does not remain academic, but will don all mediation of the aims and background of middle of the week, when the lascivious vigilan- lead to actions and ad-hoc-interventions that, al- the noborder camp. Cooperation with media was tes had given up on their pretence at reserve the though prepared by a few people are performed totally dismissed due to ideological motives and fun was over. Even so the affects remained. When by and borne out by as many as possible. this was not just to apply to the mainstream me- other venturous activists set off for some shy dia but was also intended to make any kind of street theatre actions or some perky percussion On a European level such intentions demand public relation work impossible. Negotiations concert they were quickly captured by the CRS constant development of new organisational with representatives of the police or the munici- riot police and confronted with two humble alter- models adaptable to constantly changing situa- pality met with disapproval just as much as visits natives: being sent back to the camp or to prison. tions. The issue is no longer to express a common to the camp by journalists, no matter whether way of struggle, nor a unified picture or one-di- they were from Indymedia or the local press. The abyss that came to light during the ten days mensional solidarity, neither an ostentatious uni- of the first Europe wide No Border Camp from the ty nor a secretly unifying sub-culture, but the pro- Clearly, the manner in which the whole event is 19 to 28 of July in Strasbourg is cause for reflec- found understanding and the absolute will, to perceived from the outside will necessarily shift if tion. After the experiences from more than a doz- recognize the internal differences and create flex- the simple attempt to mediate ones own posi- en successful noborder-camps on all kinds of na- ible groups, where different approaches connect tions will be dismissed as opportunistic. : calls tion state borders, how could such a political with each other reasonably and for mutual bene- for freedom of movement might easily be inter- travesty, such a strategic and tactical disgrace, fit. It’s about political communication in the best preted as calls for freedom to muck about and occur? How is it possible that approximately sense: networking understood as situational ne- act the fool. Who is protesting on the streets and 2,000 to 3,000 activists from over twenty differ- gotiations that are based on the possibility of why, which actions have been chosen and for ent countries were willing to turn themselves in to changing ones own standpoint as well as the what reason? The history, background, aims and those smirking police operation controllers, and standpoint of the other. Rather than being based ideas of the camp were concealed. Therefore the allow themselves to be processed into a zero-tol- on some spurious qualifications of good versus press relied on the statements of the police and erance soup, so delicious and tasty for the main- evil, this approach instead seeks out the basics the mayor. Residents and passer-bys have been stream media, that it no doubt made mouths wa- of a reasonable and practical temporal together- left alone to interpret the unintentional Dada of ter as far away as the metropolitan Ministry of the ness. slogans like “freedom is illegal”. Whoever thinks Interior? In one sense surely the noborder-camp that the non-participants should not get a chance in Strasbourg was an indisputable success. As is It is not particularly important whether the miser- to comprehend the protests and to form their own usual for such events there were tons of interest- able failure was due to the hegemonic striving of opinion about them, is not just acting negligently ing meetings, valuable exchanges and some ex- some of the smaller or bigger groups, who are ex- and irresponsibly, but are steeped in vanity: pre- citing debates. But there was more: this experi- perienced in manipulating ad-hoc meetings and tending to be militant and thus degenerating into ence of ten days in tents revealed a pathological manage to lever a horrible position into place shallow expressionism where the only goal is to immobility that would not have been visible, if the from the outside, or due to the mania of an in- express one’s difference, one’s pretence at a rad- process would have been overall more felicitous, creasingly grotesque political correctness that is ical sensibility and one’s crude and awkward and followed the usual course of the informal get- at best capable of creating multilateral non-ag- search for identities. ting to know people, the usual excitement of net- gression pacts in issues like anti-Semitism, sex- working spiced up with smart activism and the ism or racism. Overall the situation revealed how But the foolishness of the media ban counts dou- euphoric backslapping in the end. far the introverted and self-referential politics of ble: because one of the most impressive accom- philistines and holiday-revolutionaries inhibited a plishments of the noborder-camp was its amaz- After the positive experiences with other camps constructive debate. A detailed debriefing of the ing communicational structure of involving a on different external European frontiers during actions of the noborder camp would come up radio station and tentstudio, internet cafes and the summer 2001, many were hoping that the with frustrating results. From the first to the last mobile workstations, workshops and lectures, event in Strasbourg would be part of the jump to- day the roles were set and the winners were clear. video projections and diverse live-streams. But wards a common European praxis. A praxis that The ridiculous blockade of the bridge was unwar- this unique effort of media activists from different could take on the unified European regime of ranted, and thus our trump card in the necessary countries was derided as a maverick one, spite- frontiers - not just in respect to content - but also case of defending the camp was spoiled. More- fully called “silicon valley”, rather than seen as to give proof of the common self confidence that over the intended demonstration turned out to be an integrated part of the camp that could actually evolved through all of the different approaches a failure, forced to be a hide and seek game. have been useful in daily camp life for internal as and that enabled it to aim at no less a target than From the beginning on one thing seemed to be well as external communication. In general it was the Schengen Information System (SIS), one of pretty evident: the only surprises in the whole af- amazing how popular a neo-romantic motivated the most important instruments of European mi- fair would come from our adversaries. anti-capitalism had become: the dislike of every gration policies. Giving up on this goal was prob- means of payment as the reincarnation of the make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
evil, up to the sign language specially developed artificial or technical supported mediation, due And the less actual communication there was, for plenary sessions (so that the debaters won’t to the fear of it being a hindrance on some amor- the greater the longing for the unifying force of re- interrupt each other but show hand signals like phous idea of natural self-development. More pression, to be the victim of that omnipresent brokers). Prevalent in those ten days in Stras- important than making new contacts - getting to conspiracy called globalisation and to stand on bourg was a hermetic culture of immediacy that know and understand one another - was to trans- the right side of oppression. was neglecting and dismissive of every form of late every word into three to seven languages.
A few weeks ago, I found myself looking down Contracts and commissions made the Indian re- imprisoned or shot or be homeless again , we Borders: from the window of an airplane on a string of public's ever busy defense minister busier than must understand that in the end, they stand to be lights on the face of the earth. From the sky, this ever. It was more or less the same for the same punished for being who they are in either place - line of light looked incredibly pretty, as it for the defense secretary of the Islamic Republic where they are fleeing from, as well as where they Walking Across, stretched interminably into the distance. As if of Pakistan Pakistan test fired missiles, India test are fleeing to. We cannot lose sight of the fact marking a landing strip in the middle of nowhere. fired rhetoric. The killers in Gujarat stayed where that often, in reality , "No one is legal" . as opposed to A place where alien spacecraft from outer space they were, in power. The killings in Kashmir, by could land, like a set in a film made to resemble the military and the militants, continued. Karachi But isn't it all because of terrorism, because we "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". As the air- continued to witness sectarian violence. And the all need to be protected from the sleeping sui- Flying Above craft hovered momentarily above these lights, the border tightened. The million men stayed where cide bomber in our midst, who might just wake pilot's measured voice, instructed the passen- they were. Life carried on, as usual. and decide to act according to the manual? If the Shuddhabrata Sengupta gers not to use any photographic equipment or terrorist didn't exist, he would have to be invent- video cameras to record any images. The plane Mark on the ground ed. Terrorists-in-training are invariably, states- was entering the airspace of the republic which For me, coming home in July after a months ab- men-in-waiting, and if they win their big or little claims me as its citizen. Making unauthorized im- sence, this is what the border means - "Welcome state or sanctuary they become moderate lead- ages of the border was forbidden by law. The bor- back to your punishments. Welcome home to the ers who queue up to fight the good fight against This text was written in July, at the height of the tension on the bor- der was visible, but it could not be rendered vis- permanent absence of peace that is the long wait terrorism, maintaining the order necessary for the ible. Was it a ghost, an apparition, a spectral for war. Fill in your disembarkation cards and de- gears of industry and trade (and relief and reha- aura emanating from the clinical death of the na- clare yourself and your possessions. Let the X bilitation) to run smoothly in their own backyard. der between India and Pakistan. Following elections in Pakistan, tion state? Although the night made everything Rays rule your bags and your body, and the foul Remember the recent history of that peaceful breath of the immigration officer be your first in- other than the lights invisible, I knew that not far country called Afghanistan? and in the Indian administered part of Kashmir, the two countries from that string of fairy lights, which is in reality, halation as you make your way home." The border Sometimes things do turn out the other way. Re- a well lit system of razor wire and electric fences, is the mark on the ground which tells you that sponsible, moderate leaders and allies of the with periodic watchtowers, ranged across vast wherever you are on earth, hell begins close to free world against Islamic fundamentalism, or left have agreed to de-escalate and troops on both sides are now on distances, spanning deserts, fertile agricultural home. And you are never far from a border. It wing subversion (like Saddam Hussain,or Manuel land, and very high mountains, were ranged - doesn't matter in which city, continent or country Noriega) become, due to the accidental turns in their way back to "peace time" positions. Relations between the tanks, ballistic missiles, landmines, radar, sur- you are in, the border seeks you out in the end. history, international shipping and petroleum veillance equipment, armoured trucks, long Not even in a landlocked city like the one in which pipelines, the dictators of rogue or terrorist range artillery weapons, perhaps a few small tac- I live, hundreds of kilometers away from the fron- states, or drug barons. Yesterday's eager arms two governments however, continue to be tense. tical ,or "battlefield", (subkiloton range) nuclear tier, is the border a distant reality. Barricades, traders call for today's sanctions to make them weapons and more than a million men - the larg- sandbags and policemen with machine guns suc- fall. The way things are progressing, what is Iraq est military mobilization since the end of the sec- cessfully transpose the battlefield into my neigh- today, may well be India tomorrow, and Pakistan ond world war. bourhood. The routine "checks" of people, the could be Panama. Behind them, at a tangent, on the seas, in the flushing and combing operations to "cleanse" the If "enemies", and "foreign hands", and "the for- hinterland. and on either side, were paramilitary city of illegal aliens (indigent Bangladeshi rag eigners who pollute our culture and take away our formations, squadrons of fighter and bomber air- pickers) are the measures taken to make citizens jobs" were not around, the state, and capitalism craft, battleships, reserve troops and long range feel safe and protected, as they cope with power would be in serious trouble. The real nature of missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. Wait- cuts, dry drinking water taps, a crippled transport beast, the crisis that capitalism is in, would sink ing, to ignite, within hours, if need be. These mil- system, recession, the rising cost of living, and deep into all our conscious, acting minds, and we lion men, the forward divisions of two armies, the news of pogroms in other cities. "Our borders might even start doing something to get rid of it, had been at the borders of the Republic of India are secure, We are secure", this is what you are across the world. The figure of the enemy, of "the and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, for almost meant to think when the mornings newspaper in- other", the intruder, that makes borders neces- half a year, as the leadership of both countries, forms you in small print, at the back of the inside, sary, is an entity given shape, reality and sub- exemplary allies in the global war against terror- "city' pages, on lightening raids in the night in stance by those who rule in a bid to ensure that ism, played war games with each other. (And slum settlements to "weed out", "illegal aliens". the people who are ruled always blame "others" what a leadership ! A coalition dominated by a Sometimes, these "weeds" turn out to be indi- for the mess of the world. far right Hindu party in India, with its hands re- gent Bangladeshi rag pickers. Sometimes they cently bloodied in the recent Gujarat carnage, are Afghan refugees. Sometimes they are carried The border is the border disparate for distractions which would take the in trucks, or covered trains to the Pakistani-Indi- And there are enough trigger happy prophets focus away from Gujarat, and yet another military an border, or the Indian-Bangladeshi border, "re- waiting to trade in on victimhood and suffering to dictatorship in Pakistan that promised to deliver leased" , told to run, and left to negotiate the bul- fly yet another flag for holy war or national liber- its people from the oppression of its erstwhile rul- lets of the border guards on either side, Most end ation. And so, just to cite an instance, the Kash- ers by holding staged and televised referendums up as shabby trophies to be won in a friendly miri militant , the Pakistani patriot and the Indian to prove its cosmetic legitimacy). sharp shooting contest. (The only friendly thing nationalist continue to be each other's raison Both were buffeted by mounting discontent at the rival forces know to do ?) Few make it across d'être, unable to live or die in peace, dancing the home, the Indian rulers were plagued by election to anywhere at all. Meanwhile the signs on the bizarre troika that promises freedom and dignity defeats, news of corruption in arms deals, re- walls of my city admonish the populace that "In to each Indian, Pakistani and Kashmiri person, pression and abysmal governance, and the Paki- the fight against terrorism, all citizens are sol- but delivering nothing but bombs , bullets and stani junta, well proven masters of sectarian strife diers", or "If you want to live, you must learn how (more) borders instead. For Kashmiri, Indian, Pa- and abysmal governance had to prove that they to die", or simply "Be Vigilant, Who is the strang- kistani, read Kurd, Turk, Iraqi, or Palestinian, Is- could actually "do" something with the power er next to you". raeli, Jordanian. The results remain, more or less, that they had usurped yet again. The rulers con- State at war the same, regardless of identity or geography. The stantly learnt from each other, especially the art border is the border, no matter where it stands. of abysmal governance. In pursuing their danger- But what is true of my city, is true (give or take a This is true even in a city called Ahmedabad, in a ous tournament of brinkmanship, the rulers in few degrees of insanity) in every city. Because ev- province called Gujarat, in a country called India, both countries were mounting the pitch of a spiral erywhere, the state is at war with those it rules. It where a street between neighbourhoods of com- of provocation in turns, to see who would attack just does not want to admit to this fact. I have munities called Hindu and Muslim has been first, who would lose control on the "line of con- watched the CRS (Special Armed Police) strut its called the "border" for a long time. This was true trol", sending the entire south asian region, and stuff in the Paris metro with german shepherds in Beirut, Belfast and in Sarajevo. Borders are possibly the world, into the most dangerous crisis and Uzis, and I know that I am at the border layers as well as lines. Every border checkpoint, that it had ever encountered. It was reassuring to again. I have looked into the steely eyes of the each passport control in every airport, harbour come back to a part of the world that had not re- NYPD officer as he asks me very politely if I could and border crossing in the world is a reminder ally changed since I left home. War had not bro- hand him any ID that I might be carrying on me, that we are all prisoners in this vast labyrinth of ken out, it had just continued to threaten to break as I make to enter a public building - and I know hell, which is what the totality of nation states is out, as it had done, and as we had gotten used that I am at the border again. The border courses and always has been on the face of the earth. The to it's doing, for months now. The situation, (as through me when I spot a familiar car and a spe- rituals of the border - the identification of people they said in the news, all through the years that I cial branch policeman in plain clothes having tea by the papers and numbers they carry, the was growing up) was tense, but under control: in a neighbourhood tea shop. The border sneaks screening of the more guilty from the less guilty, Envoys had come and gone, hotlines had buzzed, into my computer and reads my e mail, and whis- (no one is innocent, those of us who pass the George and Tony and Vlad and Li had spoken, pers to me in the hum in my phone. The Border is border controls with stamps on our papers are and the "world community" had heaved a sigh of a war movie turned into a nightmare in a burning only being told that there is as yet insufficient relief as Pervez and Atal continued to sulk but not cinema. proof to detain and punish us, and this need not to fight. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, France, None of us, any where in the world, belongs in the be the case the next time that we pass these Germany, China, Poland and the United States right place, because nowhere does the world be- gates) the scrutiny of our belongings and per- clinched, or reassured that they indeed intended long to us. We are all bereft of the dignity that is sons, the entries made into the record books of to honour - the contracts totaling billions of dol- proper to human beings because we are all pris- our lives, and the impressions our passage lars that they had agreed upon, to sell weapons oners of war. While it may make strategic sense makes on expanding databases and surveillance systems and military equipment and spares to for us to say, "No one is illegal" for the purpose cameras, - each one of these little details are the one or the other or both of the would be warring of a specific campaign to protect the rights of incremental trials and tribulations of our expand- parties, in order to enhance security and improve people who would otherwise be deported, from ing hell. The border is the line that encompasses confidence building mechanisms in the region. one country back to another where they might be it all, the border is the system of concentric cir- make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
cles that generates its infinite layers, spanning though the clinical death of the nation state as a borders, anywhere, to be wiped away by the tres- the distance from the frontier to your epidermis. form of human social organization occurred a passes of the multitudes for whom the lines are while ago, and even though rigour-mortis has al- only so much wasted electricity, and scrap metal, A line in the sand was drawn in blood in 1947, in ready set well in. The state is un-dead, like vam- and piled up energy doing nothing but making the part of the world where I live, marking the pires are. This line in the sand has seen three full the world a place that belongs to no one at all. birth of two nation states, and later, the birth of blown wars, and a fourth half blown war, may yet The only way to walk across the border is to cross a third one, and now it may or may not see the be waiting for a fifth one, and continues to wit- over into to a world in which borders are mean- birth of yet another one. I am claimed as the cit- nesses a constant skirmish, and the deaths and ingless and redundant. And many have begun izen of one of the original pair. No matter how displacements of many hundreds of thousands of walking, and others are learning how to walk, this many or how few the states that are born, that people. I want this line in the sand they call the good walk. line in the sand refuses to stop bleeding. Even border, and all lines in the sand that they call
Are we in a war? The distinction between criminals and one should simply do it. Only in this way, in the mentalist' ethico-religious fanaticism - and since non-criminals has no relation to that between very prohibition against elevating what we have this entity has no positive legal status, the new 'lawful' citizens and the people referred to in done into a universal principle, do we retain a configuration entails the end of international law Do we have France as the 'Sans Papiers'. Perhaps the catego- sense of guilt, an awareness of the inadmissibil- which, at least from the onset of modernity, reg- ry of homo sacer, brought back into use by Gior- ity of what we have done. ulated relations between states. an enemy? gio Agamben in Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power Admitting torture as a topic of debate changes and Bare Life (1998), is more useful here. It des- the entire field, while outright advocacy remains When the Enemy serves as the 'quilting point' ignated, in ancient Roman law, someone who merely idiosyncratic. The idea that, once we let (the Lacanian point de capiton) of our ideological Slavoj Zizek could be killed with impunity and whose death the genie out of the bottle, torture can be kept space, it is in order to unify the multitude of our had, for the same reason, no sacrificial value. To- within 'reasonable' bounds, is the worst liberal il- actual political opponents. Capitonnage is the day, as a term denoting exclusion, it can be seen lusion, if only because the 'ticking clock' example operation by means of which we identify/con- to apply not only to terrorists, but also to those is deceptive: in the vast majority of cases torture struct a sole agency that 'pulls the strings' behind who are on the receiving end of humanitarian aid is done for quite different reasons (to punish an a multitude of opponents. In today's 'war on ter- When Donald Rumsfeld designated the imprisoned Taliban fighters (Rwandans, Bosnians, Afghans), as well as to the enemy or to break him down psychologically, to ror', the figure of the terrorist Enemy is also a Sans Papiers in France and the inhabitants of the terrorise a population etc). Any consistent ethical condensation of two opposed figures, the reac- 'unlawful combatants' (as opposed to 'regular' prisoners of war), favelas in Brazil or the African American ghettoes stance has to reject such pragmatic-utilitarian tionary 'fundamentalist' and the Leftist resistant. in the US. reasoning. Here's a simple thought experiment: The ominous feature underlying all these phe- Concentration camps and humanitarian refugee imagine an Arab newspaper arguing the case for nomena is the metaphoric universalisation of the he did not simply mean that their criminal terrorist activity placed camps are, paradoxically, the two faces, 'inhu- torturing American prisoners; think of the explo- signifier 'terror'. 'Terror' is thus elevated to be- man' and 'human', of one sociological matrix. sion of comments about fundamentalist barbar- come the hidden point of equivalence between them outside the law: when an American citizen commits a crime, The logic of homo sacer is clearly discernible in ism and disrespect for human rights that would all social evils. How, then, are we to break out of the way the Western media report from the occu- cause. this predicament? pied West Bank: when the Israeli Army, in what Is- even one as serious as murder, he remains a 'lawful criminal'. rael itself describes as a 'war' operation, attacks State of emergency An epochal event took place in Israel in January the Palestinian police and sets about systemati- But is today's rhetoric not that of a global emer- and February: hundreds of reservists refused to cally destroying the Palestinian infrastructure, gency in the fight against terrorism, legitimising serve in the Occupied Territories. These refus- Palestinian resistance is cited as proof that we more and more suspensions of legal and other eniks are not simply 'pacifists': in their public are dealing with terrorists. This paradox is in- rights? America is, after all, as President Bush proclamations, they are at pains to emphasise scribed into the very notion of a 'war on terror' - said immediately after 11 September, in a state that they have done their duty in fighting for Israel a strange war in which the enemy is criminalised of war. The problem is that America is, precisely, in the wars against the Arab states, in which if he defends himself and returns fire with fire. not in a state of war, at least not in the conven- some of them were highly decorated. What they The al-Qaida terrorists are not enemy soldiers, tional sense of the term (for the large majority, claim is that they cannot accept to fight 'in order nor are they simple criminals. What is emerging daily life goes on, and war remains the exclusive to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an en- in the guise of the Terrorist on whom war is de- business of state agencies). With the distinction tire people'. Their claims are documented by de- clared is the unlawful combatant, the political between a state of war and a state of peace thus tailed descriptions of atrocities committed by the Enemy excluded from the political arena. effectively blurred, we are entering a time in Israel Defence Forces, from the killing of children We no longer have wars in the old sense of a con- which a state of peace can at the same time be to the destruction of Palestinian property. flict between sovereign states in which certain a state of emergency. Palestinians, and even Israeli Arabs (officially full rules apply. Two types of conflict remain: strug- Such paradoxes provide the key to the way in citizens of Israel), are discriminated against in gles between groups of homo sacer - 'ethnic-reli- which the liberal-totalitarian emergency of the the allocation of water, in the ownership of land gious conflicts' which violate the rules of univer- 'war on terror' relates to the authentic revolution- and countless other aspects of daily life. More sal human rights, do not count as wars proper, ary state of emergency. When a state institution important is the systematic micro-politics of psy- and call for a 'humanitarian pacifist' intervention proclaims a state of emergency, it does so by def- chological humiliation: Palestinians are treated, on the part of the Western powers - and direct at- inition as part of a desperate strategy to avoid essentially, as evil children who have to be tacks on the US or other representatives of the the true emergency and return to the 'normal brought back to an honest life by stern discipline new global order, in which case we merely have course of things'. It is a feature of all reactionary and punishment. Arafat, holed up and isolated in 'unlawful combatants' resisting the forces of uni- proclamations of a 'state of emergency' that they three rooms in his Ramallah compound, was re- versal order. We no longer have an opposition be- were directed against popular unrest ('confu- quested to stop the terror as if he had full power tween war and humanitarian aid: the same inter- sion') and presented as a resolve to restore nor- over all Palestinians. There is a pragmatic para- vention can function at both levels malcy. In Argentina, in Brazil, in Greece, in Chile, dox in the Israeli treatment of the Palestinian Au- simultaneously. Perhaps the ultimate image of in Turkey, the military proclaimed a state of emer- thority (attacking it militarily, while at the same the 'local population' as homo sacer is that of the gency to curb the 'chaos' of overall politicisation. time requiring it to crack down on the terrorists in American war plane flying above Afghanistan: Reactionary proclamations of a state of emergen- its own midst) by which the explicit message (the one can never be sure whether it will be dropping cy are in actuality a desperate defence against injunction to stop the terror) is subverted by the bombs or food parcels. the real state of emergency. very mode of delivery of that message. Would it Lesson to be learned not be more honest to say that what is untenable Homo sacer about the Palestinian situation is that the PA is This concept of homo sacer allows us to under- There is a lesson to be learned here from Carl being asked by the Israelis to 'resist us, so that stand the numerous calls to rethink the basic el- Schmitt. The division friend/enemy is never just a we can crush you'? What if the true aim of the ements of contemporary notions of human digni- recognition of factual difference. The enemy is by present Israeli intrusion into Palestinian territory ty and freedom that have been put out since 11 definition always (up to a point) invisible: it can- is not to prevent future terrorist attacks, but ef- September. Exemplary here is Jonathan Alter's not be directly recognised because it looks like fectively to rule out any peaceful solution for the Newsweek article 'Time to Think about Torture' (5 one of us, which is why the big problem and task foreseeable future? November 2001), with the ominous subheading: of the political struggle is to provide/construct a The point is not the cruel and arbitrary treatment 'It's a new world, and survival may well require recognisable image of the enemy which will make of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories but old techniques that seemed out of the question.' it into an appropriate target of hatred and strug- that they are reduced to the status of homo sac- Even the 'liberal' argument cited by Alan Der- gle. After the collapse of the Communist states er, objects of disciplinary measures and/or even showitz is suspect: 'I'm not in favour of torture, which provided the figure of the Cold War Enemy, humanitarian help, but not full citizens. And what but if you're going to have it, it should damn well the Western imagination entered a decade of the refuseniks have achieved is a reconceptuali- have court approval.' When, taking this line a confusion and inefficiency, looking for suitable sation of the Palestinian from homo sacer to step further, Dershowitz suggests that torture in schematisations of the Enemy, sliding from nar- 'neighbour': they treat Palestinians not as 'equal the 'ticking clock' situation is not directed at the co-cartel bosses to the succession of warlords of full citizens', but as neighbours in the strict prisoner's rights as an accused person (the infor- so-called 'rogue states' (Saddam, Noriega, Aidid, Judeo-Christian sense. And there resides the dif- mation obtained will not be used in the trial Milosevic) without stabilising itself in one central ficult ethical test for contemporary Israelis: 'Love against him, and the torture itself would not for- image; only with 11 September did this imagina- thy neighbour' means 'Love the Palestinian,' or it mally count as punishment), the underlying tion regain its power by constructing the image of means nothing at all. This refusal, significantly premise is even more disturbing, implying as it bin Laden, the Islamic fundamentalist, and al- downplayed by the major media, is an authentic does that one should be allowed to torture peo- Qaida, his 'invisible' network. Our pluralistic and ethical act. It is here that there effectively are no ple not as part of a deserved punishment, but tolerant liberal democracies continue to rely on longer Jews or Palestinians, full members of the simply because they know something. Why not go the binary logic Friend/Enemy and add a reflex- polity and homines sacri. An awareness of mo- further still and legalise the torture of prisoners of ive twist to it. This 'renormalisation' has involved ments like this is the best antidote to the anti- war who may have information, which could save the figure of the Enemy undergoing a fundamen- semitic temptation often clearly detectable the lives of hundreds of our soldiers? It is abso- tal change: it is no longer the Evil Empire, i.e. an- among critics of Israeli politics. lutely crucial that one does not elevate this des- other territorial entity, but an illegal, secret, al- From: London Review of Books 24.10 (23 May perate choice into a universal principle: given the most virtual worldwide network in which 2002). URL: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n10/ unavoidable and brutal urgency of the moment, lawlessness (criminality) coincides with 'funda- zize2410.htm make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
Empire came out in the US at tary affairs sustains, it does not contain strong The clash in the the beginning of 2000 and in Italy two years lat- elements of technologial innovation: it requires There is little to be expected from institutional er. In between the two towers collapsed. One military investments of a traditional kind, despite politics and the weak alternating between right would have expected the Italian edition to have the fact that the structure of the army has and left of western democracies. But what about western mind an additional chapter on S11 like many other po- changed in the opposite, imperial sense. It is a that you and Hardt called counter-empire, the litical books that came out this year. You didn’t full regression at the military level too: it isn’t sur- multitude? Since S11 the movement of move- Antonio Negri add one, is it because the event was not epochal prising that vast sectors of the military apparatus ments has stopped, especially in the U.S. what or because it did not constitute a surprise for are contrary to the intervention in Iraq. cards does it hold in its hands? your thesis? Two: exodus and resistance. And it must play The event was very relevant but it confirmed one What about the social level? What chance does both. Exodus i.e. abstaining from the game, re- of the fundamental theses of the book i.e. the the umpteenth call to arms have in obtaining the fusal, demonstrating that it is on a different side Empire’s commercial success indicates how the interpretative pro- end of American insularity and the difference be- consensus it needs? with respect to the current game, all this is the tween telluric and maritime nations. The fact that It seems to me that Bush would go to war with a radical behaviour that the whole events around New York could be bombed like London, Berlin weak consensus that will not be strengthened by S11 deserve. But at the same time, faced with re- posal of the book resonates with the reality of the present. The pro- and Tokyo confirmed that the process of forma- a call to patriotism. A social crisis is emerging in turns to barbarism, it is necessary to pose resis- tion of the new global order was fully deployed. the U.S. and the government pretends not to see tance on a terrain of possible encounter with re- posal has become, thorugh agreement or disagreement, a compul- The fact that Al Queda had attacked the symbols it. Bush’s administration took power the moment formists. The movement can only be constructed of American economic power was a sign of the when the neo-liberal wave had taken all there on exodus, but it must also exercise resistance. ‘civil war’ for imperial leadership. What is abso- was to take. Then the crisis of the market shares This is because power does not let you practice sory point of reference in the debate on the global world. S11 lutely new with respect to the book’s structure is arrived and in a society of salaries like the Amer- exodus in peace; it continuously attacks. Hence the fact that the American reaction is configuring ican one where the redistribution of wealth largely either exodus becomes militant and combative or intercepts it, is interrogated by it and interrogates it: especially the itself as a regressive backlash contrary to the im- takes place through the financial market, a crisis it loses. You must exercise force even when you’d perial tendency. It is an imperialist backlash with- of the financial market touches on the low in- rather not, especially when you would rather not: in and against Empire that is linked to old struc- comes and becomes a crisis of the entire com- the adversary imposes it. The problem is to un- relationship between the form of Imperial sovereignty outlined in tures of power, old methods of command, and a munity. Of course in such a situation of potential derstand how, how to play the creative surplus of monocratic and substantialist conception of sov- social crisis, there emerges the political weak- the multitude in real relations of force. The prob- the book and the actual American policy. The latter seems to be ereignty that represents a counter tendency with ness of the American system i.e. a system reliant lem is to understand which topology of resistance respect to the molecular and relational charac- upon the media and the control of public opinion; needs to be designed and which practices – even ters of the imperial bio-power that we had analy- and there are no counter-tendencies with respect singular - to put into practice. How to fight characterised as a traditional imperialist state that aims to rede- sed. The gravity of the situation today lies in this to the governmental trend in the media. against the war, which alliances to build with the contradiciton. imperial reformist aristocracies…all this needs to sign the geo-political borders of the planet by mobilising national I wouldn’t be so sure about that. The media op- be thought about. How do you explain it? erate at the linguistic-symbolic level and at that S11 occurred the moment when the conserva- level the shifts can be less predictable and faster There is more if I may. The multitude is made up identities more than as global decentred and deteritoiralised Em- tives were gaining ground in the U.S. through the then at the political one. of men and women. The freedom gained by wom- program of safeguarding national interests that I don’t know. I can’t see significant shifts between en in the last decades of the C20th already put were penalised by the political economic and so- the semiotic and the social. The system of Amer- into practice exodus from the logic of power. In pire that administers hybrid identities and flexible hierachies with cial process of construction of empire. The group ican media is too closed and self-referential. feminised societies such as ours [not Italy pre- that went to power with Bush is exquisitely reac- sumably – ed] these are relevant to the predic- no recourse to ethnic, national traditions and values. tionary, linked to a populist rather than ultra-lib- Can anything happen at the electoral level? In tion of how the game will turn out. A great differ- eralist ideology and to the maintainence of cer- November there will be elections for Congress in ence with respect to the thirties is the possibility tain mega structures of American power such as the U.S. It is not secondary whether Bush wins or of the lack of feminine consensus to the seduc- control of energy and the development of the in- loses. tion of power and the strategies of war. Even dustrial military complex. These people have re- Obviously everyone hopes that the Democrats though the backlash is felt at this level too: as mained sidelined to the third industrial revolution win, however weak and minimal the alternative there are backlashes of imperialism on empire, and do not want to take it further, they are hostile that they would be capable of is. But my impres- there are also patriarchal regurgitations at the to it since the new economy has gone into crisis, sion is that at the electoral level the essential has end of patriarchy in the east and the west and and they have no hypothesis of alternative in already occurred, and this consists in an impor- these are clearly painful regurgitations. In this mind other than a return to reliance on tradition. tant modification of the very electoral. There are situation it is a question wagering - personally for important sectors of American society who have instance I feel like betting that the patriarchal The contradiction you mention is not a negligi- moved to the right, firstly the Jewish component, backlash is not a winner on womens freedom. ble. It makes the process of costruction of em- with the consequent deplacement of the demo- I see patriarchal regurgitations very well, Bush’s pire much more accidental than you had de- cratic political class that was traditionally linked position is patriarchal, Bin Laden’s too and may- scribed it… to it. Bush took over an alliance between this Jew- be even Arafats…but you must be able to concre- It is a serious contradiction: it reminds us of the ish right and the Christian extreme right, as well tise and configure politically the feminine exodus reaction of nationalisms to the changes of scen- as the Hispanic community. I do not think these too. I know very well that the multitude, men and ery in the 30s. Anything could happen; the ten- ethnic electoral borders are rigid per se but so women, is full of potential, but the situation is sion betweeen the growth of the world market and long as the politics of Israel keeps rigidfying them very dramatic and it would not be the first time these regressive pulsations of the American ad- there is little to do. that a process full of potential gets blocked and ministration pushes the situation to an extreme distorted. limit. What caused this shift to the right of the Jewish component? Is it a defensive appeal to identity? Like many others you focus on Europe in your …With the war as physiological instrument of in- It is because the diaspora has lost. The figure of project. I’ll make to you the same objection I tervention and self-legitimation, Empire had said diaspora, that meant the difference of always be- made to others. European history is not militant this too…. ing other and that’s why we liked it, has been de- in favour of an advantage of Europe over the U.S. Yes. The war becomes a preventive police opera- feated. And this weighs enormously on the Mid- in facing the political and social challenges of tion – careful, this does not mean that it is softer dle East question, which today really presents the global world. As we read in Empire it is the than traditional war: for the first time since the itself as a C19th residue in the global world. We American constitution based on open frontiers containment the U.S. entertained the idea of us- wrote this in Empire: the end of the socialist rev- and the inclusion of differences to have the up- ing the atomic bomb. International organisations olution entails processes of re-feudalisation, per hand over the European one made of rigid are pushed aside without the least decorum, on more or less similar to what happened after the frontiers and national identies. the Kyoto protocol as much as the international reformation. Another backlash: the question is to From an historical point of view you are right, but criminal tribunal, as well as the war on Iraq. understand whether it will be stabilised. today Europe is the space given to us for any po- litical project. This is because it is a space inhab- Will Bush’s administration manage to take for- I summarise: S11 revealed so to speak the ac- ited by social forces – strata of productive intel- ward this project? If the imperialist backlash is in complished globalistation and the process of im- lectual labour – that are interested in new social such a contradiction with the imperial trend, so perial constitution in the making. The political organisation. If built from below, mobilising the anachronistic, can one hope that it will meet with and military American response is reactionary, it multitudes, a united Europe can be a terrain on obstacles and resistances? takes that process backwards and appeals to which to exercise a subversive function of the glo- It is difficult to evaluate this: apart from every- forms and methods that are nationalist and im- bal order. Last but not least. Empire is not an thing there is an element of bluffing in Bush’s be- perialist i.e. anti-imperial, or at least it tries to do anti-American book even though it does not un- haviour that is the perfect correlative to Bin Lad- so even though we do not know if it will succeed. der estimate the weight of the U.S. in imperial en’s bluff. At the level of international politics, It seems to me that the progressive antibodies, strategies. We cannot hide though that today, there are signs of a radical refusal of the Ameri- the forces that can push towards empire you also due to the stupidity of the reactionary strat- can position, both in Europe and – despite the identify in the markets and multi-national corpo- egy of Bush, on the left anti-americanism grows adherence to the anti-terrorist coalition – in Rus- rations rather than politics, at least institutional even amongst the anti-globalisation movement sia and China; but there are no leading groups politics… itself. This seems to me a confused, wrong and capable of expressing it and pushing it forward. I find it also in other contradictions that are even dangerous position, to you? The real obstacle to Bush comes more from the opened up. The militarisation of power for in- I completely agree as it is obvious from what I markets: markets don’t want a war. stance: if the war becomes a constant element of have clearly said so far, I am extremely critical of political legitimation, generals become the true the American government and any sensical per- Are you convinced of this? Wouldn’t the war help governers, as we can allready see in Bush’s ad- son could not be otherwise. But to think that to relaunch the economy? ministration which is full of generals, and since Bush’s government is America does not make any No. The American economy would only be re- the armies evolve towards mercenaries, the pro- sense. Despite all that is happening, American launched by the second world war, not by a po- cess of corruption of imperial strategies can run society is still a completely open machine. There- lice operation against Iraq, which would only very fast. Crisis and corruption are powerful ele- fore even if Bush’s project is monocratic and im- have negative effects on savings in the U.S. and ments in the erosion of power. They open up to perialist it is wrong to regard the United States as bring confusion to the Islamic markets. Moreover, strategies of opposition and exodus such as the such as monocratic and imperialist. But there is contrary to what the early 90s revolution in mili- refusal to pay taxes to finance war expenses. more: the anti-american position coincides with a make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world make world world
position of reevalutation and defense of the na- Porto Alegre. However this would really be a tion state as the anti-imperialist trench – this is a wrong posture since it would prevent an under- Antonio Negri interviewed by Ida Dominijanni temptation not extraneous to some sections of standing of how the world is made, who has got Translated by Arianna Bove/Erik Empson the movement of movements, as we have seen in the command and who can subvert it.
But now that the cold war has faded society, establishment of an authoritarian regime mendous. In part, this means downward pressure The away, a very different struggle for survival is that will crack down hard on any sign of opposi- on wages, and a trend toward a low-common-de- emerging. It is becoming clear that humanity is tion in an attempt to "hold the country together," nominator world with regard to working condi- facing a triple security crisis: societies every- or a splintering of society. tions, social welfare, and environmental regula- Transformation where have to contend with the effects of environ- The outbreak of civil wars and the collapse of en- tions. Increasingly, these pressures affect even mental decline, the repercussions of social ineq- tire societies is now routinely being ascribed to the better-off communities and the well-trained of Security uities and stress, and the dangers arising out of the resurfacing of "ancient ethnic hatreds" revolv- workers. an unchecked arms proliferation that is a direct ing around seemingly irreconcilable religious and Although global integration also holds promise, legacy of the cold war period. We are at a historic cultural differences, and so forecloses any ratio- there is an enormous gap between the rapid ex- Michael Renner juncture in our understanding of security. The nal analysis of the roots and origins of contem- tension of boundary-crossing activities and ef- cold war represented the most extreme expres- porary conflicts. Of course, ethnic tensions do forts to create effective, democratic structures to sion of "national security" - states' desire to pro- play some role. Some 40 percent of all countries deal with the consequences of vastly increased tect their borders and territories from foreign in- have populations from five or more different "na- interdependence and to shape the globalization vasions, which led over the centuries to the tions," roughly half of the world's countries have process so that it benefits human populations For 50 years, sustained by the cold war, "security" has been de- creation of ever-larger standing armies and the experienced some kind of interethnic strife in re- across the planet more broadly. While national development of ever more sophisticated weap- cent years. Yet a multi-cultural society need not sovereignty is becoming more circumscribed, glo- fined primarily in military terms. While the East-West ideological ons. Concerns about "human security" are now involve conflict. Where ethnic tensions do exist, bal governance structures remain weak. magnified by the unprecedented scale of environ- they did not arise in a vacuum. One of the con- The phenomena of globalization and fragmenta- mental degradation, by the presence of immense tinuing legacies of colonial and imperial rule is tion and the nature of the social, economic, and and military standoff divided much of the planet into two hostile poverty in the midst of extraordinary wealth, and that boundaries are often arbitrary. As a result, environmental pressures worldwide call for a fun- by the fact that social, economic, and environ- people of the same culture, language, or ethnicity damentally different understanding of the mean- camps, many issues of the day were subordinated to one overriding mental challenges are no longer limited to partic- often found themselves separated by internation- ing of security - Who is to be secure, and by what ular communities and nations. al borders and grouped with people of other means? - and hence for a new set of priorities. backgrounds and origins, irrespective of whether goal: striving for global supremacy. Backed by doomsday nuclear The cold war can be seen as a relatively brief in- they had previously coexisted peacefully, been at Conditioned by a worldview that largely equates terlude, a curious historical diversion that dis- odds, or had no significant contact at all. To security with military strength, traditional ana- arsenals, the cold war adversaries were locked in mortal competi- tracted our energies from the most basic threats steady their rule, colonial administrations typi- lysts tend to regard emerging issues simply as to human society. Unfortunately, a lasting impact cally favored one local group, often a minority, new "threats" to be deterred. By subsuming of that period is the unparalleled and largely un- over others - generating a fatal resentment. these new issues under the old thinking of na- tion. controlled worldwide availability of arms of all tional military security, efforts to address them in calibers. The cold war's rigid bipolarity has fallen Following independence, civic life in many of effect become militarised: weapons proliferation by the wayside, making room for a more multipo- these states continued to be split along ethnic is countered by developing new weapons for pre- lar world in which countries do not automatically lines, with one group ruling at the direct expense emptive raids on foreign arms facilities instead of rally behind a leader, in which constellations of of the other. Given severe economic underdevel- by promoting disarmament; refugees are seen as power and interest seem more transient, and in opment and undemocratic, often repressive pat- menacing hordes to be intercepted on the high which diverging interests or rivalries are resurfac- terns of governance, the competition for power seas instead of as people forced from their ing even among old allies. But the cold war struc- and resources among contending groups became homes by poverty; environmental degradation is ture has not been replaced by any coherent set of intense. In light of the vulnerable status of minor- seen as simply another item in which national in- multilateral policies, arrangements, and institu- ities in multiethnic states, it is no surprise that terests are to be protected against those of other tions. And it is difficult to marshal the political separatist sentiments abound. We need to look nations instead of acknowledging the common support and resources necessary to respond to beyond the easy excuse of "ancient hatreds" and challenge; and the proliferation of drugs is tack- "non-traditional" challenges. "tribal bloodletting" to detect the underlying led through the military eradicating cocaine stress factors that help cause the fighting: dis- crops instead of through efforts to provide alter- Transformation of conflict putes are often sharpened or even triggered by native livelihoods for desperate peasants. The world has always been more complex than it glaring social and economic inequities - explo- But many sources of conflict are simply not ame- seemed through the one-dimensional lens of sive conditions that are exacerbated by the grow- nable to any military "solution." Poverty, unequal cold war priorities. Yearning for the predictability ing pressures of population growth, resource de- distribution of land, and the degradation of eco- they had grown accustomed to over the past half- pletion, and environmental degradation. systems are among the most real and pressing is- century, however, many policymakers and pundits sues undermining people's security. Soldiers, perceive the world to be suddenly more disorder- Disparities in wealth and power are growing both tanks, or warplanes are at best irrelevant in this ly, even chaotic. The world already experienced a within countries and among them, as the rich are context, and more likely an obstacle. The military transformation of conflict during the cold war: a gaining at the direct expense of the poor and the absorbs substantial resources that could help re- shift from war between sovereign states to fight- middle classes. Environmental degradation and duce the potential for violent conflict if invested ing within societies, so that armed conflict con- resource depletion are triggering or aggravating in health, housing, education, poverty eradica- forms less and less to the preoccupations with internal and international conflict, and are likely tion, and environmental sustainability. fending off foreign invasions that are the con- to become even more important in future years as The twentieth century has seen the pursuit of "na- cerns of traditional national security doctrines. climate change exacerbates the situation. To- tional security" elevated to near theological lev- Far from the traditional image of war - national gether these conditions turn rapidly growing num- els; modern military technology has dramatically armies clashing on a well-defined battlefield - vi- bers of people into migrants or refugees, and the increased the destructive power of weaponry, the olent conflict today increasingly involves protago- magnitude and speed of these population move- range and speed of delivery vehicles, and the so- nists within rather than between countries. The ments in turn makes them a factor in generating phistication of targeting technologies. Yet arms "battlefield" can be anywhere, and the distinction conflict. Accompanied by weak political systems ostensibly designed to enhance security increas- between combatants and non-combatants is that are increasingly seen as illegitimate and in- ingly imperil humanity's survival. An understand- blurred. capable of attending to people's needs, these ing of security consonant with the realities of to- pressures can lead to the wholesale fragmenta- day's world requires a shift from conflict-laden to As many countries may be bordering on war as tion of societies. As people turn to ethnic, reli- cooperative approaches, from national to global are actually engaged in it. Highly inequitable so- gious, or other group-based organizations for as- security. Instead of defense of the status quo, hu- cial and economic conditions remain in place sistance, protection, and identity, relations with man security calls for change and adaptation; in- that trigger cycles of uprisings by the disadvan- other groups often deteriorate. stead of a fine-tuning of arms and recalibration taged and oppression by the ruling elites: gener- of military strategies, it calls for demilitarization, alized lawlessness and banditry - whether by ma- The social, economic, and environmental trends conversion of war-making institutions, and new rauding ex-soldiers (in several African nations), that are key to human security are increasingly priorities for sustainable development. drug cartels (in Colombia), or various forms of or- being shaped not only by the fragmentation im- ganized crime (in Russia) as well as a growing plied in the rise of "tribalism," but also by global- privatization of security and violence - in the form ization. Trade, investment, travel, and communi- of legions of private security guards, the prolifer- cations tie countries and communities more ation of small arms among the general popula- closely together. Although the nation-state is far tion, and the spread of vigilante and "self-de- from being eclipsed, countries and national gov- fense" groups. ernments have less and less ability to shape their Failed states own destinies. The meaning of borders, commu- nity, and sovereignty is in flux, and that in turn The post-cold war era is increasingly witnessing a makes national (as opposed to global) security a phenomenon of what some have called "failed more tenuous concept. states" - the implosion of countries like Rwanda, Somalia, Yugoslavia, and others. But they are Erosion of the welfare state only the most explicit examples of the pressures Economic globalization is now principally a cor- and vulnerabilities of the current era - victims of porate-driven process, going hand in hand with an array of underlying forces that many other privatization, deregulation, and the erosion of the countries are subjected to but have managed, for social welfare state. Given the relative ease of re- the time being at least, to cope with more suc- locating factories and shifting investment re- cessfully. The outcome in the case of these unset- sources across the planet, the pressure on com- tled nation-states is by no means preordained: it munities and countries to remain competitive may be prolonged drift, a gradual revitalization of and offer an inviting investment climate is tre-