Nihilist Communism for Use by Others in Various Critical Events, for Which We Claim No Intellectual Property Rights

the most extreme gestures in the parade of gestures that are Monsieur Dupont political demonstrations); we see one of our tasks as to inhibit those who would lead the revolution, especially those who are closest to us and claim not to want to lead; other tasks we have set ourselves are the creation of tools, tactics and perspectives Nihilist Communism for use by others in various critical events, for which we claim no intellectual property rights. 3. Our concept of the revolution involves the working class en- gaging in a struggle that goes no further than maintaining its own interest. We advocate the struggle of self-interest because it cannot fail, we think if it is followed through to its end it will in itself bring capital down because this struggle is situated within production and the ownership of production is the basis of capitalist existence; if this direct struggle is not side-tracked by political mediations it will discover everything Monsieur Dupont has attempted to articulate over months and years in five min- utes and many times over in many places of the world. The proletariat is organised by capital, in every place, its situation is always, everywhere, the same; in direct struggle it will always un- cover the same truths, therefore any further organisation would be superfluous and potentially exploitative. 4. Our mechanical schemes are not nineteenth century as some have argued, they are much older than that. We think the revolution will be in two stages, the first will involve the destruction of the capitalist system by the working class as it seizes production (which it might do without even formulating a desire to do so. Many factories will be occupied because many other factories are occupied — we oppose to the ‘consciousness’ model, the virus model, to ‘intent’ we oppose infection — finally, objectively, always mechanistic even if in every instance there are many mo- tivations and beliefs in play), the second stage of revolution will involve the participation of all humanity in its becoming human. 2003 56 by establishing themselves as equals to men in the workplace, blacks do not harm capitalism because they establish themselves as equals to whites; equal opportunity legislation is a source of great pride in capital’s civilisation of itself, the ongoing victory of women and of blacks in this area is proclaimed by capital as its own victory, its own self-civilising progress towards a free, happy, equal society. Political demands may be satisfied under capitalist terms and used as a ground for further exploitation, this is the function of politics, and radical politics in particular. The truth of the workers struggle against capital is not political, it is the truth of capitalism itself: the capitalist economy depends upon the exploitation of workers to reproduce itself and its conditions, therefore the workers alone, because of their centrality to the pro- ductive process, have the capacity to stop production, only they can reach past the roaring engines and press the off switch. It may seem that they would never desire to do this, and it is true they may never want to stop ‘capitalism’, they may never even conceptualise to themselves what capitalism is, but desire and consciousness do not come into it; the workers are forced into struggle by the very conditions in which they work, it is in their interest to go against capital because although capital is dependent on them, it is also hostile to them, that is, it is driven to cut their wages in real terms (either by redundancies, relocations, or increased productivity deals). To survive, workers have to improve or simply maintain their interest within production, so they are forced into conflict with capital, which has the opposite intention. This blind pursuit of interest, if followed to its limit, is enough to bring capital to a crisis. A recap of our perspective 1. We do not think there is any role for class ‘consciousness’, that is the leadership of the working class by politically motivated groups in the revolution. 2. We think pro-revolutionaries do have a role but it is not generally the role they award to themselves (for example, waving flags, masking their faces, travelling to international cities, exhibiting 2 55 revengist against the boss or society, whatever. As the working class takes power there will be any number of ideas appearing in their Contents heads and these will be echoes of the capitalist form, many of these ideas will be seriously discussed and will seem to have the utmost Preamble . 7 urgency but as soon as occupation of the factories is fully secured This is the definition of class hatred . 7 then a new material base will begin to configure and at that point Introduction . 8 new ideas, the ideas appropriate to collective ownership and collective dictatorship over events will begin to form. What matters Nihilist communism: some basic elaborations . 11 is the event itself, the seizure of production, and not the idea that This is the fable of the thirsty crow . 11 motivates it, because the act itself, if it is on sufficient scale, will Introducing Monsieur Dupont . 12 collapse capital and from that moment other forces take hold. We start, as we end, in simplicity . 13 Basic statement . 17 On consciousness . 18 The revolutionary subject A qualification . 21 “Working class consciousness”? . 25 We ‘recognise’ the industrial proletariat as the revolutionary sub- Further thoughts and explanations . 34 ject not because we are romantically attached to its way of life, we Summary and counter-interpretation . 36 do not think in terms of “salt of the earth’, or even that, in some The dictatorship of the proletariat . 37 dark way, the workers’‘know’ how society really works. We are not Groups . 37 interested in setting ‘our gladiator” against the pet subjectivities of Is Lenin on sale again? . 38 other theorists, we have simply reached our conclusions because we Identity politics . 46 can see no other; for us, everything ‘political’ is contained, politics Militants and otherness . 47 as a practice is itself a technique for relating the social back to the Political priorities and consciousness . 48 economic without antagonism. On economic determinism and autonomism . 50 The questions we have asked have been hard for us:‘How are The revolutionary subject . 54 women, organised as women, going to stop capital?’ ‘How are blacks, A recap of our perspective . 55 organised as blacks, going to stop capital?’ ‘How are women organ- No way out . 57 ised as workers going to stop capital?’ ‘How are blacks organised Appendices . 59 as workers going to stop capital?’ Many theorists have tried to ex- The Optimism of Revolutionaries . 59 pand the definition of the working class to include political elements Language and consciousness . 65 within it, thus the struggle of women by themselves for their position Recent Interventions . 77 in the workplace is viewed positively because they are struggling May Days, Palestine and the material base . 77 ‘consciously’, that is, politically, for a defined political end. We, con- Jour de Fete avec Monsieur Dupont . 77 trarily, see in this politicisation of struggle precisely the route by The Ticklish Matter . 89 which it will be utilised to improve productivity, because political The ticklish matter . 91 consciousness is precisely the factor that tricks workers into for- Reply to “The Real Movement” (Red and Black Notes, getting where their real power lies. Women do not harm capitalism Toronto, 2002) . 101 54 3 To get over the wall we first have to get to the wall . 108 new form of racism which works much more effectively within the Some Notes Concerning Future Proletarian Insurgency . 114 distributive, state-funded, sphere). The Dynamics of “Protest” Seen in the Recent It is not the role of pro-revolutionaries to take up a political posi- Petrol Blockades in Britain . 114 tion on prejudice, it is not for us to improve life conditions within Only we can prevent mythology . 119 the capitalist form and obscure with side issues the tyranny of the Do you want to be, or don’t you want to be . soft, commodity which goes unchallenged in the competition of identity like me . .? . 127 markets for funding. However, as individuals, of course it is our Part One . 127 ethical responsibility as human beings to oppose bigotry whenever Part Two . 130 we encounter it, but we must not confuse our personal ethics with Part Three . 136 revolutionary ‘movements’. Dear Freedom? . 140 Another communist has said that, “the socialist revolution has to More on anti-imperialism . 146 be a conscious act which could be described as the people involved as We’re all Claire Short now . 150 having ‘socialist consciousness’”. We certainly agree that the work- Something on political ‘activism’ . 153 ing class are conscious, that is, awake for 16 out of 24 hours a day, 1 . 154 we agree that the people involved in the revolution are likely not to 2 . 154 be asleep. But to be conscious and to have ‘socialist consciousness’ 3 . 155 is not the same thing.To be conscious means to have your senses 4 . 156 fully engaged with your brain and your mind filled with any old 6 . 158 nonsense, socialist consciousness implies the implementation of a 7 . 159 shared set of principles, we think there are practical problems with Glossary . 161 this implementation, we think there are problems because we look at the history of revolution and we see a history of failure, if con- Cruelty or The Inclusion of the Distributive Sphere . 181 sciousness were enough then the revolution would have happened Feint . 181 a century ago when many millions were ‘socialists’, at the moment, Thrust .

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