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Home , Carnival Against Capital

Carnival resistance is the secret of joy

“The goal of the revolutionary artist is to make sidewalks, a cacophony of colour and exhilaration. irresistible.” – Toni Cade Bambara Sleeplessness didn’t matter anymore. We passed a tripod blockade, a man dangling from its apex, a line of cars “We will make revolution irresistible,” assured a bit of immobilized impatiently, not yet understanding how Network propaganda in the final days of futile they were that day. Those were the last cars I saw November 1999. Writing those words late at night, I was for 12 hours. hunched on the floor of the near-empty warehouse in As we entered downtown something shifted. It was downtown Seattle with a friend and a laptop, with only 30 partially the fresh air blowing off the Puget Sound, minutes before going to print, and eight hours before we unpolluted by the choking exhaust that was the normal opened the convergence centre – a networking hub and scent of the city. We controlled the streets, all of them, training facility for activists – to the world. After having and in every direction we looked were more and more of gone for months with too much to do and too little sleep, I us, and thousands still arriving. There were stilt walkers grumbled about how utterly resistible this particular dressed as butterflies, a giant inflatable whale blockading aspect of ‘revolution’ seemed, before getting on my bike an intersection, a hip hop crew rhyming through a mobile and weaving my way home – to yet another meeting. sound system, a stage being built to double as a road Organizing a Festival of Resistance didn’t feel particularly blockade where performances would take place all day festive that night. long, giant puppets, butoh dancers, acrobats. The sounds But the nights flew past and the day, 30 November were incredible – the sound of drums resounding off 1999, a date fixed in our heads for months and now skyscrapers, the sound of chanting and singing, the sound engraved into the history books, dawned. Bleary-eyed, my of laughter – no honking, no engines roaring. gathered at 7.00 am. Running late, we I looked up at the high-rise hotels where the world’s hurried to catch up with the main march as it headed trade representatives were just waking up, preparing to go down the hill into downtown Seattle. The perspective to work, turning on the TV or looking out the window and from above was incredible – all we could see was people – perhaps beginning to realize that they weren’t going to our people – spilling out of the streets and onto the make it to work that day, that they were trapped in their

173 Carnival 174 and , resistingat the sametimeas proposing, party the experienceof thecarnival–halfway between and itchangedus for life. Butadeeperimprintwas leftby first timewehad directlyexperiencedthestate’s power, us.Formanyrepression unleashedupon ofus,itwas the millennium round,butalsoatwithstanding thebrutal bringing toahaltthetradenegotiations oftheWTO’s We give themselves,”andwegave wecould. ourselvesthebest really afestival givenfor thepeoplebutone unfolding wrotethatcarnival“isnot astheyhad.Goethe intheday’seventswas crucialtothings participation f generations aroundtheworld.” usedtoevokeinspirationbythosenew advocates, one-word rallyingcry, usedtoinvoke horrorbyfree trade a journalist GeovParrishwouldwrite,“‘Seattle’became were goingtoshutdowntheWTO.Later, left-wing tousthatday, belonged do it,thathistory thatwereally moment thatweallrealizedreallyweregoingto money. Justthentherainletup.Ithinkitwas inthat was triumphing overmaking suit, andmakinghistory dominant colourofthecitywas nolongerashadeofdark ones, theoneswithnoplaceinouridealsociety. The delegates recognizedthatfor once,theyweretheexcluded commerce, trade,andprofit,wereoursnow;perhapsthe streets, normallythedomainofcarsandcapital, hotels. Perhapstheyhadalreadyfiguredoutthatthecity elt like we were personally responsible, likeour elt likewewerepersonallyresponsible,

Almost all of us that were in Seattle on November 30 Almost allofusthatwereinSeattleonNovember came away intriumph,notonlyhaving succeededat Revel T and injectpleasureintopolitics. rhythm andmusictoreclaimspace,transform thestreets, carnival andrevolution,creativityconflict,using against capital’broughttogetherthevolatilemixtureof destroying atthesametimeascreating.Our‘carnival others’ roles. This inversion exposes the power structures others’ roles. Thisinversion thepower exposes women weareach others’clothingandperform each the kingand kingwaits onthepauper, where menand order,inverting thesocial wherethevillagefool dresses as expression, thecarnival. f horizontality, anddirectaction?Theseprinciplescanbe principles ofdiversity, creativity, , themovements’ not useaform thatembody of rebellion ralliesanddullspeechesbyleaders? Instead,why verbose the thestagedactsofcivildisobedience, escorts, and police AtoB,thepermits –theritualmarchesfrompoint w enjoyable,effectivemake rebellion andirresistible?Who forpreoccupation themovementofmovements.Howdowe acentral Reinventing tacticsofresistance has become ound at the heart ofanancient form ofcultural ound attheheart urning theworldupsidedown ants thetediumoftraditionaldemonstrationsand r Throughout history carnival has been atimefor carnival hasbeen Throughout history to delight(in)[torevel inone’s freedom] or inpublic;tobenoisilyfestive; ebellare, see (rev’l) vi.from MFr. reveler, torevel, lit.,torebel; L. REBEL . 1 . todance,drink,sing,etc.ataparty 2 . totakeintensepleasure; Carnival “EROTICISM IS EXCITING, LIFE WOULD BE A celebrate our indestructible lust for life, a lust that capitalism tries so hard to destroy with its monotonous DRAB ROUTINE WITHOUT AT LEAST THAT merry go round of work and consumerism. In its immediacy, SPARK. THAT’S THE POINT. WHY HAS ALL carnival refuses the constant mediation and representations THE JOY AND EXCITEMENT BEEN of capitalism. It opens up an alternative social space of freedom where people can begin to really live again. CONCENTRATED, DRIVEN INTO THAT ONE This also means turning what we consider to be NARROW, DIFFICULT-TO-FIND ALLEY OF political on its head. Mention the word politics and many HUMAN EXPERIENCE, AND ALL THE REST people will imagine a world filled with words, and debate, a sterile, pleasureless world of talking heads. LAID TO WASTE? THERE’S PLENTY TO GO The pleasures of the body have been banished from the AROUND WITHIN THE SPECTRUM OF OUR public sphere of politics and the excitement of the erotic pushed into the narrow private confines of the LIVES.“– Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex: The Case sexual realm. But carnival brings the body back to , For Feminist Revolution HarperCollins, 1970 public space, not the perfect smooth bodies that promote consumption on billboards and magazines, not the and illuminates the processes of maintaining hierarchies manipulated plastic bodies of MTV and party political – seen from a new angle, the foundations of authority are broadcasts, but the body of warm flesh, of blood and shaken up and flipped around. The unpredictability of guts, organs and orifices. carnival with its total subservience to spontaneity, where During carnival the body sticks its tongue out as far as any individual can shape her environment and transform it can, it laughs uncontrollably, sweats and farts as it herself into another being for an hour or a day, ruptures dances in the heat of other bodies. It’s a body that refuses what we perceive to be reality. It creates a new world by the static images of itself developed by capital, frozen in subverting all stereotypes, daring imaginations to expand immortal youthfulness, aloof from natural cycles of eating their limits, turning the present world upside down, if and shitting, being born and decomposing. In carnival the only for a moment. body is always changing, constantly becoming, eternally It is in the capricious moments of history when we can unfinished. Inseparable from nature and fused to other best see that carnival and revolution have identical goals: to bodies around it, the body remembers that it is not a turn the world upside down with joyous abandon and to detached, atomized being, as it allows its erotic impulse to 175 Carnival 176 cameras turningtofollow movements. Amodern-day corner,espresso machines onevery thehumofCCTV lunches,thehissof the clinkofwine glassesoverpower mobile phones,the clickofhighheelsonthesidewalks, resounding withthesoundsofprofit. Theringingof district knownastheCityofLondon, isnormallyaplace The world’slargestfinancialcentre, asquaremile stand upstraight?” it isnow, wouldn’twehave toturn itovertoget And, Galeanoasks:“Iftheworldisupside-downway consumesthemajorityofresources. global population more youhave, themoreyouget,andahandfulof public servantsdon’tserve,freetradeisamonopoly, the is paidfor, carsareinstreetswherepeopleshouldbe, wonderland,‘free’speech In thisgrotesque looking-glass ‘liberated’. inordertobe the rich,andpeoplearebombed pay thepoor children work,‘development’impoverishes, where itsfeet Inthisupside-downworld, shouldbe.” buttononitsbackside,andhead its right,belly ofarms,anupside-downworldwith itslefton idolatry practices thesuperstitiousworshipofmachinesand Eduardo Galeano,a“desolate,de-souledworldthat luxuriating initsfreedom andinverting theeveryday. pleasures anddesires,canbefound everywhere, foldevery offlesh.Duringcarnivalthebody, withits andcranny,swirl acrossthestreets,fillingeverynook tobody,jump from body soundtosound,maskmask, Everything was topsy-turvy inLondonon18June1999. was topsy-turvy Everything We

live inaworldalreadyturnedonitshead,writes International Financial FuturesExchange (LIFFE). financialhubs,the –oneofthemost important location splitting intofour different groups, allheadedfor asecret by wearing carnival masks,whoevadedthepolice the fortress’ walls. by10,000people TheCitywas occupied oftheoverarchingsambarhythm, resoundingoff the beat of water fromwhoosh letloose afirehydrant,andallto shattered windows,thehissofsteaming milkbythe pavement, theclinkingwineglassesby cascadeof pounding high heelswerereplacedbythesounds ofboots ringing, butfor different avery Theclicking purpose. New York, andParis. with aforeign exchangeturnoverequaltothatof Tokyo, the world.Itisatributetoacquisitionofwealth, City isoneofthemostheavily surveilledsquaremilesin fo “THE r tress, with police checkpoints at every entrance,the atevery checkpoints tress, withpolice Y LONGER SOCIALIST IS, – SubcomandanteMarcos MARCHING TOWARDS IT et thisFridaywas different. Mobilephoneswerestill

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One of London’s 75 buried rivers was freed and water Participate, don’t spectate Carnival spurted 30 feet into the air, cooling off the dancing crowd, “Carnival does not know footlights, in the sense that it does not flooding the street, and flowing into the basement of acknowledge any distinction between actors and spectators. LIFFE. Around the corner, another entrance to the Footlights would destroy a carnival, as the absence of Exchange was being bricked up as if it were an abandoned footlights would destroy a theatrical performance. Carnival is building, obsolete in the post-capitalist world the carnival not a spectacle seen by the people; they live in it, and everyone hoped to help bring about. participates because its very idea embraces all the people.” Carnival’s mockery, chaos and transgression have – Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and his World, Indiana always threatened the sobriety and seriousness of the University Press, 1984 state, which is why it was often banned or heavily controlled. What carnivals remain in most parts of the Passivity disappears when carnival comes to town, with world have themselves become spectacles – specialist its unyielding demand for participation. It is the time for performances watched by spectators – with police lines celebrating the joy of collectivity, the exhilaration of and barriers placed between the parade and audience. creating something that snowballs into something much Thus the vortexed, whirling, uncontrollable state of bigger, and more amazing than previously imagined creative chaos is shoe-horned into neat straight lines and possible. It is a moment when we can break free from the rectangles. A visit to many contemporary carnivals alienation that capitalism enforces in so many ways. We sanctioned by the state (such as Carnaval in Rio de find ourselves separated from each other and from our Janeiro, or the Notting Hill Carnival in London) where environment as we move from place to place in the consumption and corporate sponsorship have taken over isolation of private car or the silence and averted eyes of from the creativity and spontaneity is enough to public transport. illustrate how carnival under capitalism has lost its We face it at work, forced into competition with our vitality. But carnival has been with us since time colleagues, under constant threat of being ‘downsized’, immemorial and it has always refused to die. ‘laid off’, ‘made redundant’. We suffer from it even when Reappearing in different guises across the ages it returns we try and relax, watching television or movies, which again and again. Freed from the clutches of promote lifestyles we can’t afford, and which require that entertainment, the anticapitalist movements have we sit silently, passive recipients of someone else’s visions. thrown it back into the streets, where it is liberated from Consequently, we leave important questions about politics, commerce for everyone to enjoy once again. economics and foreign policy up to experts, having been 177 Carnival 178 playfulness worksasacharm, protecting resistance reality.restructuring what ourculturestatestobe This ofchanging ourgoalsand,thereforethe possibility life, ofeveryday givesus and spinsoutside thedrudgery into carnivals,thelimitlessplay – whichasitfreewheels together, briefly, albeit inthespaceopened upbycarnival. students ortradeunionorganizers, yettheyallcome long-termactivistsorcuriousneighbours, they maybe or writinggraffiti,breakingwindows orplayingdrums; readingpoetry dancingorblockading, maybe Participants community andcaringdeeplyaboutthefate ofthewhole. collective ownership,ofresponsibility, ofa part ofbeing to me,andIthecarnival–generatesafeeling of thing whilefeeling ofagreaterwhole. part only anentanglementofmany playerswhodotheirown involved. Therearenoleaders,spectators,sidelines, canbe audience butatgroundlevel,whereeveryone unfoldingspontaneously life, the not raised above whichtakesplaceonthestageof – ademocracy develops making, sothatadynamicanddirectdemocracy flexibility, face-to-face contactandcollectivedecision- fr something unique andessential,successdependson isone–thateachpersonpossesses insists thateveryone understand. complicatedfortold thatthesemattersaretoo usto eeing thatinusall.Itdemandsinteractionand It is the spontaneous eruptionofjoythatdrawspeople It isthespontaneous to–thatthecarnival belongs That senseofbelonging orrather,But carnivaldeniestheexistenceofexperts, swing. Suddenly undercover police officers breakthrough swing. Suddenly undercover police T City’sCarnival AgainstCapital,duringtheFree Québec “Carnival laughteristheofallpeople. Second,itis “Carnival T interviewees.” events intheinterviewbroughtasmiletoface ofthe involvedin being inprotestevents.Simplyrecountingthe experienced adeepsenseofhappinessandeveneuphoria John Drury, [incollectiveaction] “Participants most commonailmentsoflatecapitalism.According toDr which mayhelpreducestress,pain,anddepression,the p University ofSussexfound in thatpeoplewhoparticipate time. seriously andhave agood Itdemandsthatyoutakeyourselfless your struggles. distancing yourselffrom yourbeliefs, yourdreams,and enforcing allowfor it,itdoesn’t abstraction,for barricade inthatitpreventsseparationratherthan ofa against hierarchyandmediation;it’stheopposite rade Areaofthe Americas summitinApril2001, is infull errorists intutus olitical demonstrationsexperiencepsychological benefits of carnival.” of carnival.” and denies,itburiesandrevives. Suchisthelaughter It asserts it isgay, triumphant,andatthesame timemocking,deriding. aspect, initsgayrelativity. Third, thislaughterisambivalent: the carnival’s Theentire worldisseen initsdroll participants. including universal inscope;itisdirected atallandeveryone, In fact, recentresearchbypsychologists atthe – Mikhail Bakh tin “CAPITALISM IS BORING!” like the villains of your worst nightmares, the result is Carnival – Graffiti on a bank, Carnival Against Capital, Québec, April 2001 inevitably hesitation and confusion – no police department wants a reputation for beating a battalion of the crowd. Brandishing telescopic batons, they pounce on ballerinas or arresting a sleigh full of Santas. their target, bundle him into an unmarked van and drive When politics leaves the space of boredom and away at speed. The man they have arrested is an organizer bureaucracy, when resistance becomes joyful and not a with the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, one of the key sacrifice, then the process of changing the world becomes groups organizing the carnival. When he appears in court, dangerously infectious, so it should have been no surprise he is charged with possession of a dangerous weapon, and that a year after Seattle, the FBI added Carnival Against denied bail. Capital to its list of ‘most wanted’ terrorist groups. This The weapon in question is a 25 by 10 foot catapult. It may seem absurd now, in the midst of the seemingly was smuggled into the most heavily fortified city in endless ‘war on terror’ that carnival could be considered Canadian history by a group calling themselves the such a dire threat. Even more absurd – not only is Medieval Bloc, who wear pots on their heads and carry ‘Carnival Against Capital’ nothing to do with terrorism, the lids as shields. During the action they wheeled the it’s not an organization at all. It has no cells, no leaders, wooden catapult up to the fence that surrounded the no ten-point programs. It is a tactic, nothing more. It is summit and fired dozens of teddy bears over it. A the embodiment of the spirit of contemporary resistance dangerous act indeed and yet, one the kidnapped to global capitalism. It is: a pink fairy; a pie in the face; a organizer had nothing to do with. But the police just don’t man in a devil suit holding hands with a nun; a fire get it. Not understanding the tactics or the means of this breather; a driving samba rhythm. movement, they assume that as an organizer, he must It’s impossible not to laugh out loud as you look at the have had something to do with the catapult. They are Carnivals against Capital that have taken place across confounded when teddy bears turn up in droves at the North America and Europe, and try to root out the jail, many of them locked up in birdcages, with notes ‘terrorists’ in their midst. Does the FBI honestly believe demanding the release of the innocent organizer. that the women posed a terrorist threat Such actions defy interpretation, and are intensely during the International Monetary Fund meetings in problematic for police to control because of their inherent ? They were dressed in outrageous pink dresses, ambiguity. When people dressed as ballerinas, clowns, wild bouffant wigs, and nine-foot-high fan tails, and nurses, or Santa Clauses confront police who are dressed danced towards lines of confused Czech police waving 179 Carnival 180 Zapatistas emergedfrom the jungleanddeclared war the following week.InMexicoCity, afterthe shortly government, unable tohandletheridicule,was replaced the Karnatakastate government,laughing.The f forstruggles subsistenceandsurvival. InIndia,50,000 long term benefiting appearances acrosstheNorth, the globalSouth,inadditiontotheir widespread determination, butbylaughter. f b infeartheir protestingpopulations, ofrepression, on power, their legitimacy, ismaintainedbykeepingus, onpower.monopoly Perhapstheyrealizethattheirhold their that ourirresistibleresistanceisindeederoding suffering from acrisisoflegitimacy, theyare realizing market economy? armed withwater pistols,threatenedthehegemony ofthe for lineswithinnertubes through police shieldsand round themselvesfor protectionandattempttopush Bianche each other?HasthecomedyarmyofItalian whoconfusedthecopsbyattacking mallets, andbigshoes, inPhiladelphia,withtheirunicycles,Bloc squeaky Anarchist Clown brought toitskneesbytheRevolutionary dusters. Was thereachancethatcapitalismwouldbe magic wands anddustingofftheriotshields withfeather ear isdispelledmosteffectively, notbyangeror armers from alloverthestatespentanentiredayoutside eing labelled ‘terrorists’.Andperhapstheyknowthat eing labelled Meanwhile, subversion,ridicule, andjoyeruptallover Perhaps, asglobalinstitutionsofcapitalcontinue movement, who wrap door matsandcardboard movement, whowrapdoor Tute “Every oneofthese[historical] hasbeenmarked by “Every Festive Precedents having morefunthanthey are.” Seattle, “Evenifwearegettingourasseskicked,we’re wild successwas overheardduringtheWTOshutdownin w asa abandonment ofthestatusquo,asnetworkingtool, as festive release,aswild celebration,ascathartic ofrepression. at thepossibility market toforeign investment, andthumbingtheirnoses ofpoverty,the roots rejectingtheopeningof theMexican solidarity withtheZapatistas,theywerealsoidentifying world, Ha!Ha!”Notonlyweretheyexpressingopen shouting“First marched insolidaritywiththerebels, andforagainst neoliberalism humanity, 100,000people “PUPPETS ay tocreateanewworld.Oneofthekeyreasonsfor its Post-Scarcity the faceofasatyr on shimmeringwater.” libidinal forces, like grinsirascibly through thepages ofhistory process,the revolutionary withitsexplosion ofdeepseated lifeintoafestival.Thissurreal dimensionof everyday turned individuation,byjoyousnessandsolidaritythat extraordinary action, Carnival worksallovertheworld,aspolitical CHILDREN, aeigatvssa voet,A6IFmeeting,Washington, 2000 labeling activistsas‘violent’,A16IMF – Nigerianactivist,OrontoDouglas,commentingonmediareports

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Carnivals of resistance didn’t begin with this movement. immediate and constant transformation of everyday life, Carnival Many of the great moments of revolutionary history were through celebrating creativity, and constructing ‘situations’ carnivalesque – revelatory and sensuous explosions which disrupted the status quo, jolting people out of outside of the accepted pattern of politics. From the customary habits and thoughts. The students’ rebellious clubhouses of the of 1871, to capoeira – carnival quickly spread to the factories, where it became martial arts disguised as dancing to keep it secret from one of the greatest general strikes in history. While workers Brazilian slave owners, from the seven mile long nationwide were occupying the factories, students occupied Suffragette parades that brought early twentieth century the Sorbonne University and held enormous council London to a standstill, to the colourful be-ins of 1960s meetings, taking decisions collectively, and calling for the Berkeley – if you look hard enough, you can find carnival dissolution of power. between the cracks of many of history’s unpredictable The fall of across central Europe in 1989, moments of rebellion. often described as something that occurred out of the In nineteenth century south Wales, farmers facing blue, was in fact preceded by years of planning and extraordinary hardship banded together to protest against playfulness. Much of it was influenced by groups using proliferating and expensive tollgates. Men and women carnivalesque tactics. One such group from Wroclaw, dressed in bonnets and petticoats, called themselves Poland, was called the Orange Alternative. On Carnival Rebecca, after a Biblical prophecy that the seed of day in 1988, a crowd of about 5,000 was enticed by a flyer, Rebekah would “possess the gate of those which hate reading, “Dress for a party. This time the police won’t them,” (Genesis 24,60), and performed street theatre in touch us. We’ll say a magic word and either they’ll front of the despised gates before destroying them. The disappear or they’ll join the carnival.” A makeshift Rebecca Rioters, as they became known, operated for five orchestra with a giant drum kept time while a Red Riding years, inspiring others to refuse to pay the tolls. Hood danced with a wolf, a group of Smurfs cavorted Parisian students lit the spark of rebellion with a madly, and people chanted, “Police party with us!” and spontaneous uprising in May, 1968. They decorated Paris “Hocus pocus!” in an effort to disappear the police. with graffiti deeply influenced by the Situationists – an According to the newspaper of the main opposition group, international network of radical intellectuals and artists, Solidarity, “This was a scene to make any surrealist’s head whose poetic slogans included: “I take my desires for reality spin.” Other fusions of culture and politics proliferated because I believe in the reality of my desires,” “Be realistic: across central Europe, setting the stage for transition, and Demand the impossible.” The Situationists called for the acclimating a fearful population to taking to the streets 181 Carnival 182 makes it impossibletowait for the future,unless wewant here, rightnow. blueprint thatwewait for, right thatbegins butaprocess the ideathatrevolutionisaready-made permanent andcomplete,carnivalremindsustorefuse immortal moving andchanging,initshostility toeverything ‘after therevolution’.Initscelebration ofallthatis pleasure, alongwithracialandgender equality, until whichpostpone previous repressiveandasceticstruggles we desirenow, itimplorestothosewhofollow thepathof Carnival teachesusnottowait, but toliveoutthefuture influence theway actionistakeninthefuture. political great lessonsthatwehave learntfrom history, anditwill movements willnotrepeatthismistake.Thisisoneofthe f But allowustomakeoneprediction.Thetimeofwaiting that wearelivingintimesjustasunpredictable. ontheplanet? andeverything everywhere seen capitalismtouch,subsume,andsubjugate whichhas agenda attheendoftwentiethcentury have backonthe predictedthatanticapitalismwouldbe theinternet?Whocould Berlin wall, theendofapartheid, have predictedtheRussianRevolution,fall ofthe was oneofutterunpredictability–fewcentury could can youpredicthistory. ofthetwentieth Thehistory and expressingitshopesdesiresinpublic. or therighthistoricalmomentfor revolutionisover, and Judging from the early years of this century itseems Judging from theearlyyearsofthiscentury Y In fact, theurgencyof currentecologicalcrisis ou can’tpredicttheoutcomeofacarnivalandneither “TO where we aremerecogsin amarketmechanism, radical world dictatedby therationalismofeconomics,a world inspiring ourpassionate collectiveimagination.In a perceptions and behaviours, givingus confidence,and and carnivalpreparesusfor by changingour thisprocess, forthat resistanceisaprocess creatingsomethingnew, to repeattheexhilaratingexperience againandagain. T one hastastedamomentthatis ruled onlybyfreedom. aspectoflife. isneverthesameafter every Theeveryday unlike any other, whichshapesandgivesnewmeaningsto return tonormalthenextday. Itisamomentofintensity off ofsteam,asafety valvefor society, enablinglife to or days,butitstastelingerson.Itisnotsimplyaletting- utopia –adefinednotasno-placebutthis-place. ignitingourimagination,beliefin of whatispossible, ask for it.We are doingitrightnow.” Itgivesusaglimpse –thisiswhat wearefor“LOOK andwearenotgoingto simply saying,“NO–weareagainstthis”,Carnivalyells, Insteadof inanuninhabitabledesert. to celebratevictory asting such fruit is dangerous, because itleavesasting suchfruit isdangerous,because acraving E INSURRECTION.” FROM FESTIVITY The Indianmovementagainstthe NarmadaDamsays carnivalmayonlylastafewThe revolutionary hours

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GENERAL The Revolutionof AUTHENTIC imagination becomes one of the rare human faculties that attempts to isolate, influence, and infiltrate groups in a Carnival can rupture capital’s curse of ‘realism’. ‘Realism’ can great effort to break these movements, our spontaneity, never be the foundation for envisioning a new society, unpredictability, and irresistibility are blossoming, because it determines limits before these limits are scattering seeds of inspiration across cultures and themselves known. Hindering free creative action and the continents. We learn to work together, we become better possibility of searching for what is new, in the name of at being human, and we are able to live prefiguratively, in ‘realism’ denies the fact that change is cumulative, not the most radical of all carnivals – a world which will not sequential; that the present is always conditioned on the wait for the future, a world which embraces diversity, a future. They may well call those of us who have the world which contains many worlds. courage to be ‘unrealistic’ – romantics, dreamers, extremists. But as Herbert Read wrote: “What has been Notes from Nowhere worthwhile in human history – the great achievements of physics and astronomy, of geographical discovery and of human healing, of philosophy and of art – has been the work of extremists – of those who believed in the absurd, dared the impossible.” So if the FBI wants to infiltrate this movement – a movement of pink fairies in solidarity with Indian farmers, of taxi drivers and graffiti artists issuing the same demands, of indigenous Ogoni identifying the same targets as pie-throwing utopians – it may have to do so wearing tutus. And when it identifies ‘Carnival Against Capital’ as a terrorist group, it exposes its greatest fear, and perhaps its greatest weakness. Unable to think fluidly, boxed in by hierarchical structures, frozen by the straight-jacket of ‘realism’, it is incapable of comprehending the decentralized dynamism of carnival, where anyone can have leadership momentarily before dissolving into the sea of the crowd again. And as it 183