cross-currents in culture number 15 • summer 2002 • free page 2 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002

Variant volume 2 Number 15, Summer 2002 ISSN 0954-8815 Variant is a magazine of cross-currents in cul- ture: critical thinking, imaginative ideas, inde- contents pendent media and artistic interventions. Variant is a Society based organisation and Letters 3 functions with the assistance of subscriptions and advertising. We welcome contributions in the form of news, reviews, articles, interviews, polemical A Lovely Curiousity, Raymond Roussel 5 pieces and artists’ pages. Guidelines for writ- William Clark ers are available on request. Opinions expressed in Variant are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the Asian Alternative Space 10 editors or Variant. All material is copyright (unless stated otherwise) the authors or Andrew Lam Variant. Editorial & Advertising Address: 1a Shamrock Street, Glasgow G4 9JZ Gareth Williams 13 Editors: William Clark & Leigh French Ed Baxter Advertising & Distribution: Paula Larkin Design: Kevin Hobbs Cover: Felix Vallotton's 1896 portraits of Dodgy Analogy 14 Remy de Gourmont, Paul Adam, Jean Moreas, John Barker Leon Bloy, Andre Gide, Laurent Tailhade, Pierre Quillard, Rachilde, Alfred Vallette, Felix Feneon, Camille Mauclair, Jules Laforgue, Arthur Rimbaud, Robert de Bloody Hell 17 Montesquiou, Stuart Merrill, Pierre Louys, An American Nurse Jehan Rictus, Jean Lorrain, The Comte de Lautremont, Paul Verlaine, Stephane Mallarme, Tales of the Great Unwashed 18 Maurice Barres, Emile Verhaeren. Ian Brotherhood t/f +44 (0)141 333 9522 email [email protected] Printers: Scottish County Press Muslims and the West after September 11 20 Subscriptions Individuals can receive a three Pervez Hoodbhoy issue (one year) subscription to Variant for: UK £5.00, EC £7.00, Elsewhere £10.00 Institutions: UK & EC £10.00, Elsewhere £15.00 Desire & a kind of Playfulness 22 Discussion Artists Initiatives in Moscow 24 Gillian McIver Collective Cultural Action 26 Critical Art Ensemble Zine & Comic reviews 28 Mark Pawson The march 30 The story of the historic Scottish hunger march Harry McShane

Variant issues 1–14 are also available free on our website: http://www.variant.org.uk variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 3 Letters ...or how the SAC spends your taxes

Dear Sir and Madam, and impartially, with reference to one criterion only: solicitors don’t explain. To use this and terms We act for the Scottish Arts Council. artistic merit. [emphasis added] such as ‘reckless’ and ‘extreme language’ of criti- cism is to reveal a paranoid and secretive organi- Our client has sought our legal advice in relation to In the meantime, please let us have your assurance that no re-occurrence of these recent defamations and sation unwilling to embrace any form of public correspondence which has passed between your accountability. Michael Russell MSP told us: company and our client following the decision of the offensive e-mails will take place. appeals panel of the Scottish Arts Council not to uphold This letter is written entirely without prejudice to and “I have now written to the SAC just saying that I am your company's appeal against refusal of an application under reservation of our client's whole rights and pleas concerned by the lack of funding, the way the decision for a grant from the Scottish Arts Council. in law and may not be founded upon in any was reached and by the "arrogant and irresponsible" use of public money on threatening legal action, still On our client's behalf, we write to inform you that proceedings. less bringing it forward.” many of the remarks contained in your e-mail of 14 Faithfully To our knowledge he received no reply. January 2002 which was circulated to a third party are Burness We are still disgusted and expressed this to defamatory both of the Scottish Arts Council and of its Gavin Wallace (SAC Literature) because we could officer, Sue Pirnie. not believe that he agreed with the SAC’s ‘report’ On behalf of the Scottish Arts Council, we reserve all William ‘Reckless & Extreme’ Clark on Variant 13 (which contained the work of James legal rights available to it to take legal action against responds: Kelman, Peter Kravitz and Harold Pinter and was your company arising out of this defamation. We also Yeah mine too...Anyone who has applied to the universally praised) that: on behalf of the Council request that you desist from SAC knows that this letter twice makes the false “The consensus of feedback on the quality of Variant making further such defamatory remarks to third assertion that the SAC make judgements on the has been that it has been [sic]... that it has declined... parties. sole basis of ‘artistic merit’. Even the director of The content is often very biased or inaccurate... we The Scottish Arts Council has a duty to draw the the SAC knows that’s a lie, and this raises quite cannot agree that you meet your stated objectives as a attention of Sue Pirnie to your e-mail. She may well serious questions. What utter incompetent gave broadly accessible magazine; the language, editorial seek legal advice for herself in relation to the remarks these false assurances to the SAC’s solicitors? stance and quality mitigate against this” which you have made about her. Why was a presumably respectable law firm led This report, little more than condemnation, was We would point out that our client has a public duty to into putting this into writing and then encouraged written by one person, Sue Pirnie before issue 13 make decisions concerning the allocation of limited to threaten Variant with legal action while we had been distributed or anyone could have actual- financial resources for the promotion of the arts in were trying to use the SAC’s insane appeals proc- ly read it. When we asked about this we got this Scotland. The Scottish Arts Council, through its ess. What does this say for the SAC’s regard for gibberish back: their own and their Solicitor’s professional repu- committees, seeks to exercise this function at all times “...the comments in it; whether on content, tation? in a fair and objective manner and its policy is that all communication or any other points, ‘summarise When this lie is first made it is said to be the applications be considered with reference to one feedback from, and received by, SAC’. It would therefore basis of SAC’s fairness and objectivity in relation criterion only: artistic merit.[emphasis added] be inaccurate of you to attribute the points to any to ALL applications. This is an astonishing The Council has also put in place an appeals system for specific issue or timeframe.” attempt to deceive everyone. One possibility is applicants whose initial application has been The report is a poisonous piece of writing by that the solicitors just assumed that’s what an unsuccessful. Again the Scottish Arts Council seeks someone without the ability to make an informed Arts Council does—but it is exactly because they ensure that these appeals be conducted in a fair and assessment, to uphold Sue Pirnie’s judgement of have dispensed with this criterion that the SAC’s objective manner. Such is our client's concern to James Kelman’s work is madness. role has become intrinsically hypocritical and maintain this that the procedures which are employed Wallace didn’t actually turn up to the meeting counter-productive. are kept under constant review. which refused to fund us, but Pirnie did and was When the lie is repeated it is as the basis of practically the only person there. We have letters Although your e-mail of 14 January contains the SAC’s ability to give credible assurances: so it from Wallace saying we were the ‘precedent’ for defamatory remarks both of the Scottish Arts Council is clear proof that those running the SAC give this fund and that we would be funded, but then and of Sue Pirnie, it occurs to our client that the overall false assurances; and we have this courtesy of were told we were nothing to do with it and we tone of the e-mail and the reckless and extreme their solicitors, who will no doubt be writing to weren’t funded because of ‘the competition’, language used in it reflect badly on your own them asking why they were misled. which turned out to be non-existent. The minutes organisation, undermining its professionalism and There are several other basic factual inaccura- of the meeting inform us that they found the mag- damaging its reputation. Our clients wonder whether cies in this letter. For example, the SAC did not azine ‘unintelligible’, yet they also deliberately the board of your company is aware of the contents of allow us to actually have an appeal: they had a ignored the outside opinion they sought because your e-mail and approves of them. We have also been secret meeting and decided not to allow this. We it was impartially in favour of us. informed that an e-mail was received by one of our then informed them that as a result(according to For the SAC we will be ‘self-sufficient’ if we do client's officers from you Mr Clark on 29 January which their procedure) we would contact the Scottish not receive their funding, but when they withdrew started with the phrase "I won't go into the utter Parliamentary Ombudsman. We did, but we can- it they informed other bodies that we were ‘finan- loathing and disgust that I feel in writing to you nor not really represent our case because the SAC cially unviable’: that was two issues ago. People dwell on certain failings, lies etc". Our client cannot see refuse to provide us with minutes of a meeting who the SAC consulted have told us that their how you can consider it to be in the best interests of which they (on orders from above) refused to let decisions are ‘political,’ but SAC lack the honesty your company to use such offensive language. It is us record. The appeals procedure is presently to admit this. totally unacceptable to the Scottish Arts Council for you being expensively recomplicated by another team As far as magazines go the SAC is failing wild- to write to one of its officers in these terms. We would of lawyers...one Scottish MSP described it as ly. Magazines have even had to hand back grants also point out that this may well be legally actionable. “worse than the police’s”. because they cannot conform to the ludicrous cri- If you persist, our client may have to consider blocking teria imposed upon the money. They also fund e-mails from you. Despite their threats we did continue to send emails and they have taken no action. These magazines which don’t exist. You have the assurance of our client that despite any emails did not defame anyone but actually quoted Issue 13 (which attracted comment from the adverse impression created by the tone and language members of the SAC’s Visual Arts Committee and Cabinet Office) exposed the think tankDemos as of your e-mails and the defamatory and offensive were sent to several hundred people: we desire the government’s hired stooges in concocting arts remarks contained in them, all future applications for openness, they do not. That was their whole prob- policy. They conceded that we had ‘trashed’ their grants which your organisation may make to the lem: that we’d made this public. work. It’s hard to see all this as anything else Scottish Arts Council will always be considered fairly How could one defame the SAC anyway, the than an attempt to bully and punish us for this. page 4 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002

Letters (Continued)

inappropriately dominated by issues of ‘personali- accountant. The most the papers could say of his Leigh ‘defamatory’ French replies ty’. In Scotland the Arts Council is failing to sup- re-appointment (after the SAC’s most expensive While the Scottish Arts Council may refute it and port or encourage genuine critical debate. Where recruitment drive ever) was he’s a ‘keen amateur threaten those who publicly speak out with legal there is a lack of diversity and mass of representa- photographer.’ Others noticed that the forced action, it’s common knowledge amongst arts tion, stereotypes circulate as surrogates for genu- removal and subsequent replacement of the previ- organisations (born of experience) that SAC Arts ine, informed exchanges. There’s an issue of ous Director, Tessa Jackson, conveniently cleared Officers have disproportionate and undue influ- cultural diversity and of language here, of the the way for new Labour appointed Chairman, ence on its Committees. assumptions of a managerial class laden with neg- James Boyle to go unchallenged as SAC’s Cultural At the level of project funding, Officers control ative imagery of ‘Others’. pontiff. much more than just communication between art- (Variant has systematically had projected onto The debates surrounding Tessa Jackson’s sack- ists who apply and a committee which allegedly it a derogatory, animalistic stereotype—we are ing are shrouded in mystery as lawyers were makes funding decisions. Changes to the decision said to be reckless, deficient, deviant, unprofes- brought in to silence any meaningful public reve- making structure, with the removal of all but a sional, extreme, out of control, unintelligible...) lations. As such the situation remains unresolved. few emblematic artists, have concentrated this It’s baneful that Arts Officers can go unchal- So how accountable or representative can the imbalance—what was a chronic situation has been lenged in simply defining Culture in terms of SAC be when the arguments and power struggles made all the worse. It’s totally unacceptable that their own image, their own tastes, and those who that actually matter within decision making are these tiny, little committees at a remove from the do not match this description are lesser. Clearly, not known—when they are actually hidden from majority of artists and the diversity of contempo- on a basic level, broader and informed SAC repre- public scrutiny? rary practice are let to hold sway. Funding sentation is essential to counter this deficiency schemes supposedly established to provide some- which permits abuses of power to occur, whether thing altogether different, to be run by different knowingly or not. people to address other concerns, have ended up Fundamental to these ‘obstacles’ has been a perpetuating entrenched departmental deficien- structural shift from ethereal “qualitative” assess- cies, internal bias and conceit. ments, to a supposedly disinterested and techno- The concentration of a few individuals in posi- cratic evaluation of how well applications conform tions of regional and national influence across to Cultural Strategy priorities—themselves ill Scotland, coupled with the centralisation of priori- defined and open to individual interpretation, ties for the arts, also means that decisions are ulti- enforcement and abuse. In essence, bureaucrats mately carried through which can negatively and managers have supplanted what were once influence other departments, funding bodies, and artistic positions within the arts. This is an insidi- funding decisions. ous shift to a ‘management’ of the arts along una- bashed political tram lines. Another common view is that SAC funding deci- The new Director of the SAC was previously sions and their relations to other organisations are the Head of Finance—for all purposes, an variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 5 A lovely Curiosity Raymond Roussel (1877–1933) William Clark

"A formidable poetic apparatus" and Alain Robbe-Grillet saw the 'fascinating way has defined its geometry." essay' as one of the signs of a growing interest in Dandyism is also seen as a conscious and elab- Marcel Proust Roussel, albeit not widely spread beyond certain orate rejection of bourgeois life, accentuating dif- "Raymond Roussel belongs to the most important circles. Roussel’s life and work are so unusual ference in a society that was moving toward French literature of the beginning of the century" that for a long time some people believed him to uniformization. 4 In some respects the Dandy had Alain Robbe-Grillet be a fictional character.2 to conjure up a world of artistic credibility, integ- "Genius in its pure state" A new biography ‘Raymond Roussel’ by rity and high standards from which to react and Francois Caradec and translated by Ian Monk has upon which to perform. Knowing he would be for- Jean Cocteau recently been published by Atlas Press—who in a gotten Roussel planned his own mythology, part "Creator of authentic myths series of Anthologies have enthusiastically pre- of which was to posthumously reveal a great Michel Leiris served Roussel. This comes fairly soon after Mark secret behind his books. "A great poet" Ford’s ‘Raymond Roussel and the Republic of Dreams’, (Cornell University Press) embalmed Marcel Duchamp him a bit earlier, and there is some difference of "The President of the Republic of Dreams" opinion and emphasis in the two works. Like the declining star Louis Aragon His objective of complete artificiality caused This was Roussel's unique compositional tech- "The greatest mesmerist of modern times" Roussel to state he drew none of his creations nique which generated a structure for the plots from real life. Caradec just wonders ‘who he was and images of his writing, in much the same way André Breton trying to kid’ and similarly does not take Roussel’s that meter and rhyme control the arrangement of “The plays are among the strangest and most final work, Comment j’ai écrit certains de mes livres, words in a sonnet. This synethstesia between enchanting in modern literature” on face value—few serious commentators do. music and poetry and prose developed gradually. Colin Raff’s review of Ford’s book states Roussel John Ashbery “The quotidian is notable by its absence from his work: “derived none of his striking creations from expe- "My fame will outshine that of Victor Hugo or this is not a literature with much appeal for anyone in rience, wrote unimpeded by introspection or sen- Napoleon" search of a social conscience. But if one is magnetised timent, unhampered by moral reflection or facile Raymond Roussel by works of the imagination derived almost solely from realism.” For Raff there is nothing ‘transcenden- linguistics, Roussel represents some kind of summation. Victor who? Go into any book shop and they’ll tal’ in Roussel: “The author’s creative procedures How I Wrote Certain of My Books, the posthumously probably not have anything on or by Raymond are the final revelation."3 published testament in which Roussel delineates Roussel. In 1957 the young Michel Foucault The generalisation inherent in that is chal- many—but by no means all—of his writing techniques, noticed some faded yellow books in José Corti’s lenged by Caradec who I think is closer to events. is, as they say, essential reading. As a vade mecum it famous Parisian book store and tentatively asked One might as well say that the artists creative doesn't necessarily make the books easier to penetrate, the grand old man “who was Raymond Roussel?” intentions were the ‘final revelation’. The writing but it does provide some clue as to what lies beneath Wearied by Foucault’s ignorance, Corti looked at can only be regarded as an experiment in this them (though no matter how knowledgeable these him with a “generous sort of pity” and feeling a direction. sense of loss sighed: “But after all, Roussel...” clues make us, as readers, feel, no amount of shouting What Corti told him and what he found in the "Open Sesame!" at the threshold of the books entices pages he raced through mesmerised Foucault into “I call them famous because they them to reveal all their secrets). The most obvious paying for an expensive copy of ‘La Vue’ and (in examples...can be found early in his career, before he two months) he wrote the darkly romantic ‘Death are appreciated by me and some of learnt to cover his tracks...One finds this mixture of the and the Labyrinth’ on Roussel’s world. 1 my friends” Baudelaire "simple as ABC with the quintessential" (to quote When it was translated into English an anony- Roussel is on the sharp point of a whole anti- Michel Leris’ memorable definition) as either childish or mous reviewer in The Times Literary Supplement tradition in French writing which influenced mod- brilliantly inventive. A Rousselian finds both attitudes 5 remarked that the book 'seems addressed to an ern art and modernism at a very fundamental acceptable.” The process is one of unforeseen creation due audience of cognoscenti, which must be exceed- level. Socially he was not part of the leftist avant- to phonic combinations and is based more on ingly small in France and can hardly number garde tradition which grew out of the suppression puns than rhymes: more than two or three here.' However, Foucault’s of the Paris Commune in 1871, when the French book was noticed by the new novelists in France, state turned on its internal opposition in a "I chose two similar words. For example billiards and besieged city. Fabulously wealthy, Roussel is pilliards (looter). Then I added to it words similar but more associated with the Aristocratic and the taken in two different directions, and I obtained two ‘Dandy’. almost identical sentences thus. The two found For Baudelaire in "The Painter of Modern sentences, it was a question of writing a tale which can Life" (1859) the dandy was an integral aspect to start with the first and finish by the second. Amplifying the character of the modern artist: the process then, I sought new words reporting itself to the word billiards, always to take them in a different "Contrary to what a lot of thoughtless people seem to direction than that which was presented first of all, and believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in that provided me each time a creation moreover. The clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, process evolved/moved and I was led to take an these things are not more than the symbol of the unspecified sentence, of which I drew from the images aristocratic superiority of his mind....It is, above all the by dislocating it, a little as if it had been a question of burning desire to create a personal form of originality, extracting some from the drawings of rebus." 6 within the external limits of social conventions... In lavishly published volumes Roussel’s tech- dandyism in certain respects comes close to spirituality nique develops strongly from La Vue (1903), and to stoicism, but a dandy can never be a vulgar Impressions d’Afrique (1909) and then Locus Solus man... Dandyism appears especially in those periods of (1914), here summed up by John Ashbery: 7 transition when democracy has not yet become all- powerful, and when aristocracy is only partially “A prominent scientist and inventor, Martial Canterel, weakened and discredited... Dandyism is the last flicker has invited a group of colleagues to visit the park of his of heroism in decadent ages... Dandyism is a setting country estate, Locus Solus (“Solitary Place”). As the sun; like the declining star, it is magnificent, without group tours the estate, Canterel shows them inventions heat and full of melancholy." of ever-increasing complexity and strangeness. Again, exposition is invariably followed by explanation, the Which is a perfect description of Roussel: the cold hysteria of the former giving way to the language is also mirrored by Foucault: innumerable ramifications of the latter. After an aerial "Things, words, vision and death, the sun and pile driver which is constructing a mosaic of teeth and a language make a unique form…Roussel in some huge glass diamond filled with water in which float a dancing girl, a hairless cat, and the preserved head of page 6 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002

Robert de Montesquiou

Danton, we come to the central and longest passage: a obsession which makes us realise what an irresistible description of eight curious tableaux vivants taking compulsion, and authentic and deep-seated instinct, led place inside an enormous glass cage. We learn that the Roussel to choose these singular methods, and not any actors are actually dead people whom Canterel has others, for writing these works.” 14 revived with “resurrectine,” a fluid of his invention One of the most remarkable peculiarities of which if injected into a fresh corpse causes it Locus Solus and Impressions d’Afrique is that nearly continually to act out the most important incident of all the scenes are described twice. First, we wit- its life.” ness them as if they were a ceremony or a theatri- Caradec’s biography (revised in 97 from that cal event; and then they are explained to us, by published in 72 because of the new finds of their history being recounted. This is particularly Roussel’s papers) establishes that in real life, the case in Impressions; the author went to the Roussel on several occasions visited the astrono- trouble, after publication, of inserting a slip of mer and scientist Camille Flammarion and wit- green paper on which he suggested that “those nessed his peculiar experiments and observations readers not initiated in the art of Raymond of the outer planets, then still in the process of Roussel are advised to begin this book at p. 212 discovery. It would seem that Roussel’s admira- and go on to p. 455, and then turn back to p. 1 and tion for the Jules Verne-like scientist Flammarion, read to p. 211.” 15 was combined in the character, ‘Martial Canterel’ ‘young girl’) to pun into ‘pile driver’ and ‘dragon- with Roussel’s own aspirations to be a scientist fly’ and then grow into the ridiculous flying and explorer. Flammarion even proposed him machine mentioned earlier. But demoiselle was Speak, my darling (like a scene from a Jules Verne novel) to the also the name of an early balloon-assisted aero- Although complex, Roussel’s methodology is one French Astronomical Society. Bringing out the plane owned by the aviator Santos-Dumont. for writing; not for reading, which is performed in person more than the process, Caradec tempts us These were the days when humans learned to fly the normal way: to read Roussel as a blending of Jules Verne’s, and as obsessed with science as Roussel was, he “Lucius Egroizard, who was driven insane by the sight Flammarion’s and Pierre Loti’s influence.8 couldn’t help noticing such an event. John of drunken brigands trampling his infant daughter to Ford too, had access to many of Roussel’s man- Ashberry suggests that just as the mechanical death: Not only does Egroizard compulsively sculpt uscripts, including his early unfinished epic task of finding a rhyme sometimes inspires a poet lightweight gold figurines that repeat the brigands’ poems: to write a great line, Roussel’s “rimes de faits” lethal jig in mid-air, but the very hairs on his nearly bald (rhymes for events) helped him to utilise his head periodically detach themselves to mimic the “In these he found literally thousands of pages of unconscious mind. obsessive description and endless digressions from the dance. Egroizard experiments with an array of strange As Roussel developed as a writer his procedure objects, until he constructs a Goldbergian contraption main plots. Ford calls this prolixity "compulsive," and grew to an incredibly complex method: that’s not overstating it: Act II of the 7000-line La Seine that produces a sound identical to his daughter’s voice contains nearly 400 named characters, all spewing “We find here, transposed onto the level of poetry, the "It’s you, my Gillette. They haven’t killed you. You’re banal small talk. Ford’s book demonstrates that Roussel technique of the stories with multiple interlocking here next to me Speak, my darling." And between developed his techniques as an attempt to somehow episodes (tiroirs) so frequent in Roussel’s work, but here these broken phrases, the fragment of the word, which control his manic verbosity.” 9 the episodes appear in the sentences themselves, and he constantly reproduced, returned again and again, There’s none of that in Caradec’s book, which not in the story, as though Roussel had decided to use like a response. Speaking in hushed tones, Canterel led presents a much more studious and controlled these parentheses to speed the disintegration of us quietly away, so as to allow this salutary crisis to run Roussel. Opinions also seem to differ in Ford’s language, in a way comparable to that in which its course in peace.” 16 assertion that: Mallarmé used blanks to produce those ‘prismatic Roussel loved children’s shows and the popular subdivisions of the idea” 12 theatre, disdaining the ‘theatre of ideas.’ One “...none of this could persuade the bourgeois multitude American critic dismisses Roussel as composing (whose tastes he shared, and whose adulation he simply “fractured...fairy tales energised with a coveted) of Roussel’s gloire. Only the contemporary Nouvelles Impressions d’Afrique Jules Verne-inspired reinterpretation of the physi- avant-garde—the surrealists, whose work he professed His master work is perhaps Nouvelles Impressions cal universe”—yeah that old thing. The fact that not to understand—were enthusiastic...” 10 d’Afrique 13 which comprises of four long Cantos, a book may resemble children’s stories does not Nothing interesting ever persuades the each containing a single sentence which starts out necessarily imply it was childishly written: as Bourgeois multitude, but he confuses us here with as a simple poetic statement or description. Gulliver’s Travels, Huckleberry Finn, Alice in that ‘only’ and the suggestion that Roussel had Roussel uses a series of parentheses which run to Wonderland and most of Borges would suggest. bourgeiois taste. Caradec (and Andrew Thompson a maximum of five brackets-within-brackets, occa- Roussel was greatly interested in children’s games in the Atlas Anthology) establish that Roussel was sionally a footnote refers to a further poem con- and puzzles (as was Lewis Carroll).17 appreciated by a range of critics and several other taining its own ‘onion-like’ sets of brackets. Michel Leris says, “Roussel here discovered influential writers and reviewers of his day: some Everything is written in rhyming ‘Alexandrines’ one of the most ancient and widely used patterns of the earliest were Edmond Rostand (author of (French heroic verse of six feet), which is extraor- of the human mind: the formation of myths start- Cyrano de Bergerac), Andre Gide and his fellow dinary given the self-imposed constraints of ing from words. That is (as though he had decided Dandy, Robert de Montesquiou who said of Roussel’s procedure. to illustrate Max Müller’s theory that myths were Impressions d’Afrique in 1921: The presence of parentheses within parenthe- born out of a sort of ‘disease of language’), trans- “The second half of the work explains everything, not ses produces multiple trains of thought. Not all position of what was at first a simple fact of lan- merely with satisfying logic, better than the parenthetical rings sit neatly guage into a dramatic action.” Else where he that, with a mathematical precision. The within one another. Canto II, for suggest that these childish devices led Roussel author says somewhere of one of his example, dips in and out of the back to a common source of mythology or collec- characters, “the sum of his orations fourth parenthesis at irregular inter- tive unconscious.” presented a great unity.” This judgement vals, but the poem gradually focuses But it was with Roussel’s plays that the ideas of could be applied to his narratives. The into a impressive simplicity, like Impressions of Africa and Locus Solus came to life maddest incoherencies of the preceding music. Roussel himself was a musi- and caused chaos in French theatre. Yes—the chapters are explained with a geometric cian and the structuring of these bourgeois multitude was outraged. exactitude and with such an equilibrium images and ideas resemble musical of corroborating evidence that it almost form more than conventional poetic becomes monotonous. It seems they form. ‘There is no one who has not must represent the hoc erat in votis of this If you can’t face actually reading caressed some ambitious dream.’ particular genre. It ends up giving these it, Juan-Esteban Fassio, of the combinations, which are above all else College de Pataphysique, has invent- Raymond Roussel eccentric and bizarre, a bourgeois appearance.” 11 ed a machine to do it: a kind of card index on a How did Roussel become so obscure? I hear no Roussel wrote more to vainly immortalise him- revolving drum with a handle. As one critic notes one ask. Literary and artistic success are often self than to please the ‘Bourgeois multitude’: Roussel managed to enable himself to read his based on mass marketing masquerading as artis- wealth freed him from that nightmare. Caradec own books as if he hadn’t written them. In 1950 tic achievement; media attention dictates ‘literary constantly questions the pure abstraction others Michel Butor stated that: establishment.’ But Roussel paid for loads of it. Literary history has a political economy which we claim for Roussel. With Locus Solus Roussel’s “It is not the juxtaposition of words which explains the are taught to believe (and not participate) in... or ‘evolved procedure’ (as Robert de Montesquiou wealth of repetitions and of reproductive apparatus could it just be that reading the work is like wan- termed it) develops the word demoiselle (meaning encountered in these texts. On the contrary, it is this variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 7

dering on a complex system of invisible trampo- new Ubu Roi or Calagari (sets were variously lines? described as Dada, Cubist and Expressionist The Second World War erased just about every- which slightly illustrates how close these ‘styles’ thing in Paris and the post-war literary climate are and how Roussel could encompass them). was dominated by Sartre and existentialism. But When revues of Impressions d’ Afrique appeared in the late 50s saw the emergence of the Nouveau the popular press Roussel felt that he had passed Roman (Alain Robbe-Grillet, et al.) and the ‘quite unnoticed’. This is not unsurprising Oulipo (Ouvoir de Litterature Potentielle— because as a young man he dreamed of supreme Workshop of Potential Literature founded in Paris glory: in 1960 and including writers such as Georges “...What I wrote was surrounded by radiance, I closed Perec and Italo Calvino) a group of ‘Rousselian’ the curtains, for I was afraid that the slightest gap enthusiasts who extended his "generative might allow the luminous beams that were radiating device," where the reader is obscurely aware of from my pen to escape outside, I wanted to tear the some other ordering principle beneath the sur- screen away suddenly and illuminate the world. If I left face, as similar elements keep recurring in unpre- these papers lying about, they would have sent rays of dictable patterns. Both Caradec and Ian Monk light as far as China and a bewildered crowd would are members of the Oulipo. As the Atlas website have burst into the house...” 19 puts it: Roussel’s extravagances are no worse than “Our aim as publishers has been to delineate a Hollywood producer’s love letters to themselves in coherent "anti-tradition" whose roots reach back to multi-million dollar crap. The Surrealists (yet to Romanticism, an oppositional literary and artistic enter their political phase) did not fail to notice manifestation which, in its various guises, has that he was a walking advertisement for the redis- maintained an obstinate presence within an inimical tribution of wealth, and sponged off him, as did host: the literary establishment...We see no necessity to practically everyone in the art world he came into acknowledge any idea of "progress" in this tradition, contact with. He had to pay the actors extra although naturally enough, it manifests itself in new money to go on stage giving them pearls and rare forms at different times and in different places... gifts and simply more cash. Likewise, we do not subscribe to the notion of the end Somehow the ambition of a rich man is disin- Francis Bacon’s of modernism, of the concept of an avant-garde, of genuous compared to that of the bourgeoisie thea- portrait of "experimental" writing, call it what you will. The writing ‘A conspiracy of knavery’ The focus on the method and the structure has tre owners, newspaper critics or actors: because Micheal Leris we are committed to publishing is modern, despite its engendered a move away from viewing Roussel in he can purchase their support. Roussel’s theatri- being from the last hundred and fifty years...” Roussel entrusted his literary fate to a small relation to his times. His very involvement with cal ambitions clearly delineated that any aspect gang of Parisian Surrealists—as can be seen from the disreputable world of theatre displaced his of the tightly controlled artistic society could be Caradec’s examination of his will—which he mis- own position in the upper class and he seems bought: and that notions of artistic integrity were regarded as his dedicated coterie. It is because of (almost by chance) to express its social values illusory. That probably made people uneasy too. a few genuine admirers such as Michel Leris that parodically. One of the characters in Impressions From this distance Roussel comes out of it all his work has survived. It is a pity Apollinaire— d’ Afrique devises a parody of the stock exchange looking like a hybrid of an artist and patron and a who coined the term ‘surréalisme’ for his own and we can choose to see Roussel as the drop-out paragon of charm, wit and elan, unconsciously play Les Mamelles de Tirésias, to designate an Dandy son of a stockbroker, mocking the stock exposing an art world blind to its venal aspects analogical way of representing reality beyond real- market as the absurd basis of the stability of our and confined within the boundaries of simplistic ism—did not write about him. But along with society. Perhaps, but people simply felt that he rules. was having them on, that his work was an elabo- Marcel Duchamp he delightedly attended “The actors were selected with a view to attracting the rate practical joke, that they were somehow being Roussel’s plays and both were heavily influenced. public. Roussel was open handed and paid them what swindled: Put on at Roussel’s own vast expense, they they wanted. When observing how hard it would be to enjoyed some vogue largely because of the vocif- “Apollinaire knew he was collaborating in an elaborate make one of the lines work, which, despite its dullness, erous reactions by the audience. Here, according and sly mystification called modern art. Manet’s public Roussel was particularly keen on keeping, Pierre to Foucault the Surrealists tried to ‘orchestrate provocations and Toulouse-Lautrec’s cabaret posters Frondaie exclaimed in desperation ; “ To make that work the character of Roussel’ with contrived demon- had introduced the principle that the studio joke can we’d need Sarah Bernhardt!” Roussel replied: “Do you strations. Andre Breton, Aragon, Picabia, Robert carry all before it. What begins as parody and protest think she would accept? How much would she want?” Desnos and Micheal Leris (all on complementary ends up as the dominant style [...] it is possible to claim 21 tickets and probably out of their heads) went to that the art of the early twentieth century in France is Yet he seems to have been devastated by the the premieres and provoked the stunned audi- based on an elaborate hoax—a dare, a conspiracy of reviews. Pierre Frondaie (who had been hired to ence. This ended with the police being called to knavery on the part of many artists—and to make the adapt Locus Solus) had slipped in cutting jibes at assist with something like a rugby scrum between claim without dismissing that art as worthless. After the reviewers sitting there on the first night. Still the actors the audience and (as the ball) the Jarry and Apollinaire and Duchamp, we have had to devastated ten years later Roussel wrote that Surrealists. The events are genuinely hysterical; it deal with several generations of gifted impostors. They afterwards there followed a ‘river of fountain is a strange thought that we could have had a were also dedicated to art.” 20 pens’ from the critics. Nevertheless, he had an sound and film recording of the events: nothing almost clockwork confidence, an indefatigable remains...(?) ability to persevere, oblivious to the insanity of Antonin Artaud observed that the issue is to his plays: “rediscover the secret of an objective poetry “Thinking that the public’s incomprehension perhaps based on the humour that theatre renounced, that derived from the fact that I had until then presented it abandoned to Vaudeville, before cinema got only adaptations of novels, I decided to write hold of it.” Someone said that Roussel put an something specifically for the stage.” audience through a worse theatre of cruelty than Even after the stockmarket collapse the third Artaud dreamed of. 18 It was cripplingly obvious play was put on with slightly more modest the actors were in it for the money, but this made resources, here we see Roussel ‘composing his the theatre come to life and life all the more the- audience’ as if it were part of the casting. atrical. After a sober description of the cast Although it has something of the Ernie Wise Caradec describes the first night ofImpressions d’ about it, one expects him to sound like one of Afrique with “All hell broke loose”. Descriptions Michael Palin’s characters: surely a film will one of it would have to range from the Carry On films day be made of Roussel’s life. One has been crossed with Terry Gilliam’s animations...and that made of the Petomane—with Leonard Rossiter— was just the stalls...but we should strip away these and surely Roussel had just as much to say, albeit influences and imagine it watched by an audience by a different procedure. barely acquainted with Chaplin...it was like noth- Writers have left he music of the plays largely Left: Roussel’s ing else. untouched and it is still in the early stages of criti- motorised A few critics worried that the plays were the cal comprehension. Yet no one can deny that caravan page 8 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002

Michel Foucault

Roussel was proficient musically, having studied “Daily contact with reality which to him seemed strewn “Whatever is understandable in his language speaks to at the Paris Conservatoire. When things got com- with pitfalls obliged Roussel to take a number of us from a threshold where access is inseparable from pletely out of hand with the plays he, on occasion, precautions. During a certain period of his life when he what constitutes its barrier...” would dive down to the piano and rattle off a suffered anguish whenever he happened to be in a Roussel wanted to achieve an aesthetic control crowd pleaser. At one performance they per- tunnel, and was anxious to know at all times where he of imaginative standards and to create the tools formed the whole thing to one guy in the audi- was, he avoided travelling at night; the idea that the act for an operation dictated by their shape, to ence and then gave him his money back. of eating is harmful to one’s “serenity” also led him, achieve the transformation of his being through during one period, to fast for days on end, after which writing. As Foucault puts it: he would break his fast by going to Rumpelmeyer’s and “The identity of words—the simple , fundamental fact “Was it not from India that devouring a vast quantity of cakes (corresponding to his of language, that there are fewer terms of designation Raymond Roussel sent an electric taste for childish foods: marshmallows, milk, bread than there are things to designate—is itself a two- pudding, racahout); certain places to which he was sided experience: it reveals words as the unexpected heater to a friend who has asked attached by particularly happy childhood memories meeting place of the most distant figures of reality. (It for something rare as a souvenir?” were taboo for him: Aix-les-Bains, Luchon, Saint- is distance abolished; at the point of contact, Moritz...; also, afraid of being injured or causing injury in differences are brought together in a unique form: dual, Roger Vitrac (1928) conversations, he used to say that in order to avoid all Roussel’s extravagant squandering of his fabu- ambiguous, Minotaur-like.)” dangerous talk with people, he preceded by asking Foucault wrote his book (which gives an enig- lous wealth (mostly on his writing) and his curious them questions.” 22 matic insight into his later works) while working mental state are the subject of numerous anec- on the history of madness. But Roussel’s ‘mad- dotes of self-indulgence and pretence. Practically ness’ was not the initial concern: he was intrigued no one bought the books. The first edition of ‘Language is a form of human by an escape from the existentialist school and Locus Solus was not sold out until 22 years later. phenomenology coming from the left and the To make them look like best-sellers he produced reason, which has its internal logic ‘End of History’ ideology (then all pervasive in several impressions at a time, printing 'tenth of which man knows nothing.’ France thanks to the CIA). Foucault was attract- impression' on the covers of brand-new publica- ed by Roussel’s literary perverseness. tions. Roussel was the child of an overbearing Claude Levi-Strauss Roussel’s finalHow I Wrote certain of My Books For Michel Butor (writing in 1950) all of mother: according to Ford after the death of his (and the second part of Impressions d’Afrique and Roussel’s writing, like Proust’s, is a search for lost brother “Madame Roussel insisted that her sur- the explanatory narratives of Locus Solus) are cen- time, but this recovery of childhood is in no sense viving son should undergo a medical examination tral to Foucault because they are Roussel’s a retrogressive movement; rather it is “a return every day.” On their last foreign holiday they attempt to mythologises his life and work: into the future, for the event rediscovered changes went to Ceylon and Madame Roussel brought Foucault is also fascinated by Roussel’s suicide, its level and meaning.” Cocteau (who met along a coffin, so as not to inconvenience the which he glamorises. (what else to do?) Roussel in what would now be termed a rehab other travellers in case she passed away. clinic) called him ‘the Proust of dreams,’ in this Supposedly Roussel, through a detective agency, “In a way Roussel’s attitude is the reverse of Kafka’s, but sense Proust—thought of as the ‘final elaboration commissioned a commercial artist named Henri as difficult to interpret. Kafka had entrusted his of 20th century fiction’ in taking the novel to Zo to provide 59 illustrations for one of his last manuscripts to Max Brod to be destroyed after his extremes—is rivalled, yet Foucault offers this dis- works. Roussel supplied Zo with simple verbal death—to Max Brod, who had said he would never claimer: descriptions for each image and, without ever destroy them. Around his death Roussel organised a meeting the artist, accepted the results that simple explanatory essay which is made suspect by the “His was an extremely interesting experiment; it wasn’t emerged. Roussel also travelled around Europe text, his other books, and even the circumstances of his only a linguistic experiment, but an experiment with in a giant plushly furnished motorised caravan: death.” the nature of language, and it’s more than the forty years ahead of Ken Kesey and the Merry Roussel, in a tragic state of barbiturate experimentation of someone obsessed. He truly Pranksters. He displayed this in front of the Pope dependency, with all his money gone, surrounded created, or, in any case, broke through, embodies, and and Mussolini who were suitably impressed and it by empty pill bottles was found on a mattress at created a form of beauty, a lovely curiosity, which is in appeared in the equivalent of Hello magazine. the threshold of his pretend mistress’ adjoining fact a literary work. But I wouldn’t say that Roussel is But, and its a huge psychological but: bedroom. This for Foucault becomes a metaphor, comparable to Proust.” 23 a rebus-like suicide note: variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 9

“But the strangest document is certainly the por- notes trait of Loti in the uniform of the Academie franc- 1. Foucault, Death and the Labyrinth Athlone Press caise which was found among Roussel’s papers: on 1987 p172. the photo, somebody has inked in two large ears, 2. C. O'Farrell Foucault: Historian or Philosopher? before crossing out the face...the intention could Macmillan London 1989. be either mocking or malevolent, but we do not know who disfigured the photo, or why Raymond 3. http://www.nypress.com/14/19/books/books.cfm Roussel kept it.” p183. 4. Préciosite and Dandyism: Ages of Beauty by Iole 16. Ford’s translation. Apicella. Moliere wrote the play Les Précieuses based on (and ridiculing) an earlier French form 17. Doug Nufer http://www.litline.org/ABR/Issues/ of dandyism termed ‘Préciosite’. Volume22/Issue6/abr226.html 5. Trevor Winkfield, Reading Raymond Roussel. 18. Andre Breton Anthology of Black Humour. Roussel’s writing doesn’t quite concur with 6. Roussel Comment j’ai écrit certains de mes livres. Breton’s ideas of ‘pure psychic automatonism’, 7. Introduction to Foucault’s ‘Death and the which permitted no revision. Neither does it Labyrinth.’ directly concur with his later obsession with the 8. Pierre Loti (pyer lôte´) is the pseudonym of Julien occult. Breton seems surprised by Roussel’s even- Viaud, 1850-1923, French novelist and navy officer. tual revelation of what lay beneath his work, writ- He achieved popularity with his impressionistic ing in 1933: “...during his lifetime few people had romances of adventure in exotic lands. Roussel’s clearly sensed that he owed his prodigious gift of nickname was Ramuntcho possibly from the 1897 invention to a technique he had himself discov- Loti story of French Basque peasant life. Both on ered, that he was making use, as it were, of a crib p183 and p271 Caradec repeats minor details of for the imagination, like a crib for memory.” Loti’s wife. On Flammarion Caradec enigmatical- On the inspiration of occult writing techniques on ly states that: “There are also, perhaps, traces of the early symbolists, such as texts with keys and the astronomer’s scientific mysticism and parapsy- hidden meanings, ciphers and encryption see chic research still to be discovered in Roussel’s http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/poseur3.html writings, despite his materialistic scepticism.” 19. Roussel Comment j’ai écrit certains de mes livres. (p225). 20. Apollinaire on Art ed. Leroy C. Breunig, from the 9. Quoted from Raff. forward by Roger Shattuck. There was a recent 10. ibid presentation in the Boijmans Van Beuningen 11. Robert de Montesquiou (Raymond Roussel Life, Museum of Roussel’s writing and artwork influ- Death and work, Atlas). Caradec maintains that enced by him. Apollinaire, Duchamp and Picabia Willy worked out his procedure in 1925. were impressed by the stage adaptation of Reviewers also say that Ford’s book gave the Impressions d'Afrique which was partly responsible impression that Roussel viewed his Nouvelles for Duchamp's ready-mades and directly inspired his enigmatic masterpiece The Large Glass (begun Impressions d’Afrique not as an innovation in struc- Scenes from Impressions d'Afrique ture, but as the ingenious equivalent of a "cross- around about 1913). Picabia later incorporated word puzzle," Caradec has an indignant sideswipe his impressions of Roussel's plays into a collection at this saying that crossword puzzles weren’t of poems entitled Fille née sans Mère, copiously known in France at the time. illustrated with schematic drawings of machines. Roussel's meticulous style with its abundance of 12. Atlas Anthology, Ashbury quoting Leris. puns and double meanings also influenced 13. Another connection does exist between the two Salvador Dali’s well-known landscape-cum-self- titles, namely: impression a fric, that is to say "a portrait named after Impressions d'Afrique. One publication at the author's own expense" and so: can find slight similarities to Roussel in some of "a new publication at the author's own expense." the more obscure written works (exploring the nature of language) by Duchamp, particularly 14. Atlas Anthology. ‘The’ (1915) (p639 The Complete Works of Marcel 15. Locus Solus is available in French at http://wwwus- Duchamp, Arturo Swartz). ers.imaginet.fr/~werkh/roussel/ 21. Caradec. There are some similarities with Flann O’Brien’s 22. Michel Leris 1954, Caradec follows that quote a novels, Michel Leiris, writing in 1954 states that little bit too closely. there is no Rousselian work in which the end and the beginning do not join each other. At times we 23. Michel Foucault, Death and the Labyrinth, from seem transported to the world of De Selby. After the interview by Charles Ruas. pages setting out Roussel’s fervent admiration and worship of Pierre Loti, Caradec states: page 10 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 Asian alternative space – World alternative city Andrew Lam

ticular problems. Alternative spaces like Bamboo Introduction Curtain Studio (Taipei), MOST (Hong Kong) delib- Left: Baena The essay aims at mapping out the field for artist erately work with different communities. Bamboo run spaces and their relevance to the construction Whashang Art District (Taipei) and Cattle Depot Curtain of Asia and Asian identities. Art Village (Hong Kong) are the fruitful outcomes Bottom Left: at of long-term political negotiations. Loop, Insa Art the Victoria Harbor Space (Seoul), Zuni Cattle College, 1aspace, Para/ between Hong Asia’s New Order Site Artspace (Hong Kong), Sly Art or Shin Leh Alternative or independent art spaces are gener- Kong Island Yuan, Front, ITPark (Taipei), Dog Pig Art Cafe and Kowloon ally considered as the third tier within the institu- (Kaoshung), DDM Warehouse (Shanghai), LOFT tional hierarchy, yet tend to question the Right: para/site (Beijing) and Surrounded by Water (Manila) are Bottom Right: conventional order and assume a more provoca- spaces devoted to young and emerging artists. Hong Kong tive position. 'Festival of Vision: Berlin—Hong Both Cemeti Art House (Yogyakarta) and Old University big Kong (2000)', is one event that exemplifies how an Ladies House (Macau) dedicate themselves to arrow alternative organisation such as Zuni woman artists. Amongst these spaces, their Icosahedrons (Hong Kong) could engage in a dia- responses are contingent to cultural conditions of logue of cross-cultural politics. During 2001, the city that take precedence over art traditions The unresolved tensions between local heritage 'alternative art spaces' became a key topic for the and community history. They are here for now! 2 international symposia organized by Bamboo and communities further intensify cultural and Curtain Studio (Taipei), 1aspace, Para/Site Art social differences. On the other hand, Asian cities Space (Hong Kong), and the touring performances share common problems. Economically, the Asian The New Asia financial crisis dating back to 1997 was widely felt in Asia curated by Museum of Site (Hong Kong). Cultural commentators and critics are now taking in the region. The recent 9/11 tragedies further Official patronage systems or local govern- the 'Asian ensembles' into a new conceptual exacerbate the situation. The modernization and ments subsidies of all the above activities (with ground. The philosophy behind the new 'Asian' renovations of the city bring about cultural devel- the so-called arms-length policy) has further com- aesthetics is neither a Venetian nor a Rococo opment, and subsequently a new space that accel- plicated the current power relationship between Revival. Instead of dressing itself up as a nostal- erates acculturations and synchronizations. As artists, governments, and non-governmental gic kitsch, it is deeply seated in the city's dynami- 1 colonialism draws to a close, Asian cities are now organizations. cism. (Hong The Sai Yeung Choi Street South confronting an unprecedented identity crisis. Kong), (Seoul), Art-Gu, Dongdaemun-Gu Dong Mun However, the development of Asian cities and (Shenzhen), (Macau), Lan Kwei Fong Sin Tian Di satellite towns are multi-faceted. The Internet Symbiosis (Shanghai), (Beijing), (the San Li Tun Si Mun Ding surfers are able to visit virtually the cultural facil- At the Gwangju Biennale 2002, the parasitical area near West Gate, Taipei), Boat Quay, Robertson ities from around the world, undermining the real relationships between the alternative spaces and (Singapore), the open area Quay, Clarke Quay visit of museums and libraries, turning them as the museum system are satirical. Such simulacra around s (Kuala Lumpur) are Petronas Twin Tower sites for 'amusement'. A new art system in Asia is of cultural politics reflect the complexity and new settlements for: shopping arcades, D-I-Y emerging. Like a conglomerate into greater irony in post-modernism, in particular the con- shops, cyber cafes, karaoke-bar cum discos, ethnic power and networking, dynamic art villages, dis- cerns with the reality, fabrication, and creativity restaurants, teahouses and other places which tricts and open cultural spaces, art and design in the process of historical archiving. have liberated the cities' physical barriers, unfold- shops, alternative galleries, city green houses, In theory and practice, an art system is consti- ing options for all generations. The aesthetics of temporal warehouses, renovated industrial plants, tuted by a conglomerate of alternative spaces, stu- futuristic cities hinge on openness, fluidity, densi- multi-purpose workshops, teahouses, art cafes, 24 dios, libraries, art villages, art colleges, museums ty, diversity, dialogue, noise, Do-it-yourself, etc. hours bookshops, leisure inns, TV art channels, on- and galleries, etc.. Pathological diagnosis of civic The ‘creative industry’, as an integral yet subordi- line cyber war spaces, renting-out museums, elec- and urban issues, as driven by alternative spaces nate part of tourism, will be crucial for a sustaina- tronic publications, artists' colonies on in the case of Old Ladies House (Macau), Fringe ble development of the urban environment. This homepages, are now on the move. These phenom- Club, Zuni, MOST, 1aspace (Hong Kong), topic will be pertinent for discussions in the fore- enons demonstrate the power to re-define the Whashang Art District (Taipei), helps sharpen our seeable future. generic city. The distinctions between center and vision and justifies necessary courses of action. The concept of a novel city’s Alternative spaces marginal, software and hardware, permanence We can picture this as 'stitching a button on a are the impetus for transforming cultural produc- and ephemerality, work and leisure are all begin- cloth, but not making a new skirt'. It is impossi- tions. The mobility and diversity of alternative ning to break down. The synchronization of Asian ble for one part either to completely displace or spaces would likely displace the current establish- cities thus opens up new spaces and dimensions replace the others in the art system. ments. As a consequence of de-colonization, Asian for everything. 3 cities are met with unprecedented challenges History does not seem to repeat itself under under globalization. Operating as vanguards for globalization, yet it narrates an incessant story in They are here for now alternative discourses, Asia's alternative spaces a local context. The model of appropriation With a visionary perspective, alternative spaces are still a local and community–based entity. It always operates in line with modernization. The bring information, enjoyment and delights to the would be interesting to differentiate the concep- next beta version of 'World Alternative Cities' in city. They justify the production of visual art tual visions and practices of alternative spaces Asia are 24 hour action-cities in 'non-stop' real projects from around the world. There is now an and to compare them to various civic museums time. urgency for alternative spaces to reflect on their and galleries. The boomerang effect of Asia's The overall characteristic of a new Asia is its existences and political agencies relative of their alternative spaces would expose the speculation pluralism and eclecticism. The creative power of local community. For example, 'Be Part of Our for an alternative model in Asia. Based on the alternative spaces is made adaptive to the market- Vision', says Plastique Kinetic Worms (Singapore). novel city and developmental concept, it is the ing strategy of enterprises. In turn, the official art When such positive attitude becomes alive, alter- cultural differences that presuppose Asia's alter- establishment is obliged to form new alliances native spaces are here for now. Being part of a native nature. community fabric, Alternative spaces gear to par- with artists and alternative spaces. The top-down approach will be scrutinized, thereby transform- ing the overall planning, programming, and budg- Cultural difference and the Asian eting of cultural policy. By delegating power to globe the community, creative spaces and strategies will In the face of homogenous 'one world culture', become a conduit for abandoned values and new two issues confront Asia's cities. On one hand, orders to bridge. A new plateau of humanity is in these cities are neither analogous nor identical. the making. variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 11

course on 'disappearance' is undoubtedly a force, the alternative spaces in Asia will boom The “local” affects the “global” common experience celebrated among alternative with social recognition. A good example is the 'Think Globally, Act Locally' is a worldwide strate- spaces in Asia. The Workshop (Hong Kong), Quart well-received video project Port co-organized by gy that can be applied everywhere on all levels. Society (Hong Kong), SOCA (Taipei), Long Tail BizArt in a park of Shanghai during 2001. There is sample evidence that Asians, by acting Elephant (Guangzhou), Surrounded by Water (SBW; Alternative spaces in Asia are working with new locally, might affect the Eurocentric 'global'. Manila), Art Village (Singapore), Studio Shokudo, sets of codes, ethics, and working models that will Hollywood as an icon for world culture has co- Sagacho Exhibit Space, P3 art + environment expose the problems and issues of the system. opted the 'alternative look' of Hong Kong cinema (Tokyo), came to a closure with the erasure of They will set examples to show how public institu- 4 in its eclecticism. The acclaimed Tokyo and many forgotten histories. However, Asia is rich in tions should become more receptive to the com- Hong Kong International Film Festivals are inter- its potential for the re-appearances of 'past' and munity. They can also identify issues pertaining national attractions. After the reception of popu- 'new' histories. 5 to locality and open up spaces for contemplations. lar Japanese culture over the past twenty years, In marked contrast to Rem Koolhaas' description recent Korean TV drama brings new hype to of Asia's 'Generic City', 'Alternative spaces' in Taipei, Hong Kong, and possibly the world. When How independent are independent Asia have thus far shifted the basis for identifying it comes to enhancing informational capabilities, art spaces? cultural differences. The campaign for govern- Korea is claimed to be at the forefront, having mental recognition and support by grass-roots aggressively pursued development and rapid tech- This is a key question. Can they still be a critical supplement for the establishment of a city? How organisations in Whashang Art Village, Singapore nological advancement. According to a recent Art Village and Oil Street Art Village have demon- article from The New York can they be instrumental in the development of art and culture? How can they strated a visionary leadership for a different Times, the penetration of approach towards to cultural institutions.6 Korea's Internet services now question our amnesia towards stands at the highest level in the modernity outside of the muse- world and has become an essen- um and gallery system? An Geurilla war amongst alternative tial part of contemporary cul- assessment of the mission state- ture. In 2001, China was ment of Asia's alternative spac- spaces recognized as the number one es may give us an answer in the Some alternative spaces in Asia are merely exten- nation that has achieved the reconfiguration of a new cultur- sions for government to fund activities for inter- greatest economic leap forward. al landscape and the conceptual national recognition. While some alternative In a recent policy address by the mapping of a new utopia. spaces are ornamental—just decorating the pub Chief Executive of Hong Kong One rarely finds a social with some installations or video works—one Special Administrative Region, space outside of the commercial would not expect any provocative work from these the goal of Hong Kong is to gallery and museum, as in the galleries. attain the identity of 'Asia's case of BASH (Beijing), where Some alternative spaces are well designed and World City'. While on the other artists can find the guiding ten- furnished with good ceilings, white walls and shore of South China Sea, exec- ets for actions and sharing. wooden paving. Even for an expert, it is hard to utive Yuan from the Taipei Alternative spaces provides differentiate them from commercial galleries Cultural Council pursues his hope to the asceticism of the without paying attention to the differences in city as the 'Asian Media Center' establishment, an opposition to their programming. If alternative spaces were at the time when there are very the mal-administration, adverse commercially viable, what differences would it few alternative spaces devoted specifically to new conditions of exhibition venues and insufficient make when comparing to commercial spaces? media arts as in the case of LOFT (Beijing) or resources and facilies that they usually face. For years, there has been a split of views in Videotage, Video Power (Hong Kong). With little The new tactics for subverting the art system Taipei over the issue of Whashang Art District. exception, Singapore's Ministry of Information might be reflected on the art making. To one of The organising of two similar international sym- and the Arts proclaims itself as 'A Hub City of these non-profit alternative spaces such as Sly Art posia in the same month is evident of an acute The World', sidelining the issues of censorship or Shin Leh Yuan (Taipei), the sophistication in competition between 1aspace (Cattle Depot Artist towards artist-run spaces like Substation, PKW, or the production of artworks is not a primary con- Village) and Para/Site Art Space. The future of Singapore Art Museum. No matter whether these cern. Their anti-object attitude as originated from Asia depends on the way different cities and their empty labels for Asian cities are valid or not, if oriental philosophy is apparent in the strategies infrastructure compete. Asian alternative spaces form a united front, the of display and the daily operations of the venue. art world order might be turned over in one night! The limitations imposed on Asia's alternative Stemming from the 80's to the 90's, artists in spaces not only reveal the negative sides of mod- New City Typology alternative spaces have been seeking their own ernism and globalization, but the oppressed exist- Villages surrounding the city ence of alternative spaces also validates a identities through rediscovering their heritage Government facilitated art villages, e.g. Taipei Art pluralism that the open city should demonstrate. and community. They realize the importance of Village (Taipei), International Art Village Life under the economic boom is supposed to be belonging by regaining interests in an abandoned (Nantou) or Sanmien Artist Village (Guangzhou) stable, cheerful, harmonious and substantial. place. are the most generic places that one can imagine. However, alternative spaces portray a city as a As the system and infrastructure takes shape On the contrary, artist-run villages such as Artist negative spectacle that is subversive and futile. together with adequate institutional and private Village (Taidong), Tam-awan (Baguio), Whashang The complete contemporary urban city is now support in place, alternative spaces in Hong Kong, Art District, Tongzhou Artists Community defined by its alternative otherness and rival com- Taipei, Seoul, and Singapore would consolidate (Beijing), Singapore Art Village (Singapore), Kobe petitiveness. For examples, the exhibition their influences. Art Village Centre (Kobe) as well as the former projects at Whashang Art District, curated by Oil Street Art Village (now Cattle Depot Artist Huang Hai Ming, hosted at the same time as The Village), have generated a lot of energies in their Taipei International Biennale 2000, and the part- Modernism: a failure to respective communities, generating controversial nership at East Link, DDM Warehouse, BizArt commitment and post-modern discussions among the artists. The incentive for (Shanghai) with The 2000 Shanghai Biennale their gathering is not only to attain a stable studio Asian aesthetics demonstrated the dynamic and parallel functions space for long-term development, but also to com- In contrast to small alternative art spaces, the of alternative spaces. developed Asian system is a mere 'Big White pete for more exhibition opportunities and sup- Elephant' that perpetuates Modernism into the port. In comparison with the official art villages, corners of Asia. A Modernism, committed to City transformation they could gradually become institutionalised and 7 resolve social and technological problems, fails to As seen in the larger context of both regional and be a part of the city's cultural hub. meet the mass expectation and places efficiency global perspectives, the structure of an art system over social and other values. Can alternative changes relative to the changing ideology of its Café bar cum showroom surroundings. When the time comes, the idea of spaces still play a productive role in a post-mod- Integration with commercial incentive is a surviv- alternative spaces would be consolidated and real- ern age? al strategy for all generations of alternative spac- ized. No longer a minority or an underground The exteriority of Asia's alternative spaces is es in Asia. Current galleries such as Song Ha too often reflective of the changes of the city: Gallery in Art Town (Pusan), Club 64, HOK7 (Hong exotic pluralism and hybridity, in order to accom- Kong), big sky mind (Manila), Café Pulilan modate its alternativeness in an establishment. (Bulacan), Cup of Art Café Gallery (Bacolod), Blind The theme of 'Pause' would undoubtedly play an Tiger Bar (Quezon) are primal examples for surviv- active role in continuing the role of the Gwangju al nowadays. The presence of bar and restaurant Biennale to ‘legitimate the underground' into a is a sign for entertainment culture. LOFT, Top larger system. The situation resembles P.S.1.'s Floor Gallery, Courtyard Gallery in China also take affiliation with MoMA in New York City. up commercial strategies to support their contin- ued display of political art. The next generation of alternative space could be those cyber café-bar Reappearing City cum galleries, i.e. Risiris Internet Pub (Quezon), Asian cities are evolving to become a diverse and which also helps to generate more of the city's complex cultural field at the expense of local her- new opportunities. itage and cultural identity. Ackbar Abbas's dis- page 12 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002

missions as a counterforce to the establishment. Left: Hong Abandoned warehouse for city Thus, some of the alternative spaces would Kong Water regeneration become a newcomer of establishment or the Third Market at 1aspace Modernisation and industrialisation has turned Force? Alternative art spaces, in my view, can architecture into a commodity for consumption. retain integrity by maintaining a smaller scale of This process inevitably displaces the original func- operation and closer ties to a local community. tion of a building. Many abandoned warehouses, They should be visionary, with a clear idea of failing to comply with the city's aspirations and what to do and what not to do. standards, have become a site for artists to con- duct experimental projects. In Taiwan, renewed urban spaces, i.e. Whashang Art District and the Footnotes: Rail Storehouse Reused Scheme. The spaces 1. In early 2002, The Japan Foundation Asia Center taken by artists to re-model as new sites, such as great role in promoting contemporary art and published a small booklet Alternative: Contemporary Art Spaces In Asia, which sheds Chiayi Rail Warehouse (Chaiyi) and Taichung 20 international exchanges. After The 2000 Shanghai Biennale, many alternative spaces some light on selected independent art spaces and Warehouse (Taichung), are used for exhibitions museums in Asia. and workshops. Also in Mainland China, places closed. BizArt, with a sound administrative back like BASH, CAAW (Beijing), DDM Warehouse and up, remains as the most active and popular in 2. See also Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez, Alternative Spaces: We're Here for Now in Transit Vol. 1, 10-12. Eastlink (Shanghai) are old warehouses being Southern China. It seems that the strategy to col- pp. 22-25. scrutinized in terms of its politics and artistic laborate with embassy-affiliated institutions can activities. Regardless of their conservative opera- protect the space from censorship and financial 3. See Art Papers Mar/Apr 2001 Sp. Issue on tions and strategies, they, nevertheless, re-present deficit. The Chang Mai Art Museum (Chang Mai) Conceptual Art. the forgotten history and narration behind mod- is itself a disguised alternative space, though it 4. The 49th Venice Biennale saw the erection of a ernisation. adopts the name of ‘Museum’. It showcases stu- larger-than-scale replica of the famous California dents' experimental work from time to time. landmark, Maurizio Cattelan's Hollywood in Strictly speaking, Galeri Petronas inside The Palermo, Sicily, an official project outside Venice, Extensionss of artist studios Petronas Twin Towers (Kuala Lumpur) and witnessing the play and displacement of global influence. For photo, please refer toArt Forum, Whenever an artist emerges, there will be an Dimension Endowment Of Art (Taipei) are not September 2001, p.168. alternative space. Artists usually use their studio alternative spaces. However, their devotion to spaces for experimentation. They open their stu- education, research, publication and display of 5. Please refer to Hong Kong and the Culture of dios and hold public exhibitions to elicit inputs experimental art make them an alternative Disappearance. An Interview with Ackbar Abbas by Geert Lovink in Kassel, Documenta X, July 19th, and insights. The past or current Third Space Arts among other conventional alternative venues.8 1997 and Ackbar Abbas, Hong Kong, Culture and Laboratory, Lupon Art+Design+Lifestyle (Quezon), Politics of Disappearance, University of Minnesote Kwok Studio, Happening Group Studio in Shanghai Press, Minnesote, 1997. Street Artspace, Desmond Kum Studio, James Wong Space networking 6. According to artist Koh Nguang How, the Singapore Studio, Para/Site Artspace, Workshop (Hong Kong), With the rise of alternative spaces in Asia, a new cultural geography is in formation. Asian cities Art Village is still active without National Art SOCA, and the Bamboo Curtain Studio (Taipei) are Council's support of a permanent location. well known examples for exhibition and work- are now being redefined by alternative spaces shops. Besides, there are artists like Carlos with new propositions. The new inter-regional net- 7. Steven Pettifor, Northern Thailand's Artistic Home, Asian Art News, 2001 September-October, pp.62- Celdrans and Er Dong-keung that employ their working is a worldwide strategy and is not excep- 65. homes for public projects. tional to these alternative art spaces. The Asian counterparts are no longer working alone on the 8. For more information, please refer to Xiaopin Lin's periphery of the cultural arena. In recent years, Bejing: Yin Xiuzhen's The Ruined City, in Third Embassy-affliated cultural centers there is a trend to build up a network for mutual Text, 1999 Autumn, pp.45-54. support and recognition in the hope of reshaping and disguised spaces the global order. On one hand, the institutionali- There are some embassy-affiliated cultural cent- sation and commercialisation of Asia's alternative ers such as The Goethe Institute, which play a spaces could finally defeat some of their original variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 13 Gareth Williams Ed Baxter

Gareth Williams, who has died of cancer aged 48, silence. This Heat attracted an audience of took a Degree in Indian Religions and Music at was a founder member of This Heat, a rock trio fervent admirers and enthusiastic critics, for the School of Oriental and African Studies. whose significance and musicality the historically whom Williams became "the musician's non- In 1985 Williams with Mary Currie made minded listener would favourably compare to musician." "Flaming Tunes," a collection of raw yet plaintive Cream or the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but This Heat took to using tape recordings in songs, domestically recorded and released more whose recalcitrant experimentalism led them far concert, with Williams becoming adept at playing or less surreptitiously in a hand-coloured cassette away from mainstream success. cassette machine as a solo instrument. For them package. While This Heat was angrily engaged Williams was born in Cardiff in 1953. After tape was a legitimate element in its own right, a with social issues, "Flaming Tunes" found taking his A-levels, he took up a job as a Drugs creative rather than recreative musical source Williams in a calmer, introspective mood, singing Rehabilitation Counsellor in Newfoundland. By which allowed them to bring into the mix sounds suggestively autobiographical fragments: "My the mid 1970s he was working in retail as the from another time and place. It provided This body moves forward. This restless mind runs deputy manager of the Cranbourn Street, Heat with an other-worldliness which arose back like a banner that flaps in the wind." Westminster branch of HMV, a post he held with directly from their own lives and previous playing In the 1990s he played with Hayward in the a madcap degree of irresponsibility. Once, to win experiences and which lent the band a singular short-lived avant-rock project, Mind The Gap, and a television set offered as an A&M sales vibe of vertiginous alienation. They played at was one of many players featured in Hayward's promotion, he purchased for the shop hundreds extremely loud volume, usually in pitch darkness. monthly "Accidents & Emergencies" of copies of Rick Wakeman's "The Six Wives of From the start, and with a kind of light-headed improvisation series at the Albany Empire in Henry VIII". On receipt of the tv, he returned the arrogance born of the unexpected discovery of Deptford. He was also active as a promoter as well records as faulty, having himself scratched and something new, This Heat deliberately set as working occasionally as a DJ and pursuing his made unsaleable the entire shipment. Williams themselves apart from other groups, an attitude own musical projects, recording obsessively at was a fanatical listener and record collector and that prefigured the punk explosion that followed home, notably with Maritn Harrison (one of This as such attracted the attention of guitarist Charles and partially engulfed them a few months later— Heat's pool of engineers) and singer Viv Bullen and drummer Charles Hayward. Hayward and which they in turn influenced as pub rock Corringham. The advent of compact discs had led was rehearsing with Bill MacCormick, bass player simplicity gave way to post-punk experimentation. to a renewed interest in This Heat and the with Matching Mole, the pair having been They issued a spoof manifesto: "This Heat was albums were re-released, along with the archival persuaded by an unexpected Top 30 hit to reform made out of the collective desire of its members "Made Available: John Peel Sessions" and Quiet Sun, a band they had formed at school with not to be in any other groups." They set up their "Repeat". Williams was diagnosed with cancer in Phil Manzanera, then guitarist of Roxy Music. own rehearsal and recording studio in Brixton, September 2001. Early in December 2001 the Bullen handled the guitar parts and Williams was Cold Storage. Here they recorded their first three members of This Heat got together once brought in to add a missing spark of vitality to the album, "This Heat"(1979), taking over two years more and tentatively rehearsed with a view to a group, but his lack of musical training was to assemble it. The maxi-single "Health and live performance or new recording. Before any anathema to Quiet Sun's formal brand of Efficiency," perhaps their finest single work, was resolution to their diverse musical or progressive rock. For Bullen and Hayward, released in 1980, a deliriously upbeat song "about temperamental differences could be reached however, Williams was a revelation, a maniacal the sunshine" which allowed Williams to display Williams died, on Christmas Eve. He is survived performer whose intuitive approach was urgent his now considerable skill as a musical bricoleur. by his partner, Nick Goodall. and deeply liberating. There had been non- This was followed by "Deceit" in 1981, an LP musicians working in rock before, notably Brian which put its finger on that fearful era's g-spot, [Gareth John Williams, musician, born April 23 Eno in Roxy Music, but Williams was perhaps the decrying the nuclear arms race and media 1953; died December 24 2001] first to take centre stage rather than being merely disinformation in a sequence of exquisitely adding colour to familiar forms. The trio set executed but agonised songs. If it voiced a bitter about reinventing rock in a manner reliant on anger at the world in general, "Deceit" perhaps accident and deliberately devoid of technique. also articulated the tensions within the band. This Heat played its first concert on February By the time it was released, Williams had quit 13 1976, mere days after it had formed. (As a sign the group. Having once declared that This Heat of their confidence from the outset, they included was the music the three of them made together, "Rainforest," recorded at this gig, on their debut Bullen and Hayward nevertheless carried on, now LP). In the early days noisy instrumental joined by bass player Trefor Goronwy and improvisations dominated; but This Heat were keyboardist Ian Hill. The band's final concert also adept at songs and gradually achieved a took place in London on May 18 1982. By then balance between the abstract and the formal. In Williams was in Kerala, south India, where he concert, trance-like ambient soundscapes would studied kathakali dance-drama. He converted to typically fade into riotous, even danceable, Hinduism, mainly to gain easier access to temples. anthems before giving way to a heady shower of On his return to London, Williams co-authored the glorious noise or leery episodes of half-stoned first edition of "The Rough Guide to India" and page 14 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 Dodgy Analogy John Barker

Cornelius Castoriades was a tough-minded activist from a humanist or social scientist." example at the World Economic and intellectual who, under pseudonyms like Chalieu The affair then, as a critical citizenry, is not our Forum of 2002. Or yet another and Pierre Cardan, wrote for the group Socialisme ou business, especially when one sees how much of management guru book this year Barbarisme which—in the 50s and 60s—theorised an ego 'n budget turf war it is between from Seth Godin in which he argues and gave encouragement to revolutionary notions of comfortable academics, despite Social Text's that what biology has learned by workers' self-management, organisation from below. attempt to garner our sympathy thus: "There is studying the struggle for survival (See Interview in Variant 15 Volume 1). Like many nothing we regret more than watching the left eat 'can inform us as we think about the others he withdrew from active politics in the the left, surely one of the sorriest spectacles of struggle for products for market changed circumstances, the defeat post-1974, but did the twentieth century." Its supporters make valid share; firms for talent; countries for not in any way 'sell out', even as a respected points about the undermining of objective peer tax base; or start-ups for venture academic on the ‘socio-philosophical circuit’. reviews in scientific journals under pressure from capital'. The firm for political influence and In the late eighties what has variously been called corporate research financing and that in general public money might be closer to the mark! This Chaos, Complexity and Emergence theory had come science does not take place in a historical or follows on directly from the Social Darwinist, to be a big player in 'social' as well as natural cultural vacuum, which is in part shown up by the Herbert Spencer who coined the 'survival of the sciences. Initially it looks sympathetic, with its back and forth of misleading analogy. However fittest' phrase. He was worried by the domestic emphasis on organisation from the bottom up, but the journal's leading defender, Stanley Fish, British underclass, and in modern neo-liberal Castoriades had the bullshit-detector of tough- himself falls back on a dodgy analogy well-used fashion (or Manchester liberalism as it was then minded people and wrote in Done and to be Done by social reality philosophers, i.e. that baseball is called), opposed state intervention even in the (1989) "The hive or herd are not societies", this when socially constructed and is also real. All very well, matter of sewage. Using Darwin he could the hive was such an important analogy for but if it were decided tomorrow that baseball was rationalise the extermination of that underclass if, Complexity theory. As its populariser (and Wired pointless it would cease to be a social construct, for example, cholera could be kept to the ghettos. magazine editor) Kevin Kelly puts it: "The marvel of but what of the physical world? What is historically perverse, and remains so, is 'hive mind' is that no one is in control, and yet an The claim of Fish and Social Text is that the other prop of capitalist economic invisible hand governs, a hand that emerges from presumably that examining the social constructs ideology, that is neo-classical economics which very dumb members." Castoriades' wariness of such involved in science is in itself a democratic emerges soon after Darwin, uses a completely stuff, he having been a populariser of notions of self- project; that it puts questions in to beyond- different analogical framework from natural management, was clearly a threat to its ideologues. question natural science. For such a project sciences. As Stephen Toulmin has pointed out, Thus at a conference of the Complexity Group at the however, clear popularising of what scientific late 19th century economists sought to become LSE in June 1997, he was singled out to be work is being done, plus investigations of what the Newtons of the human sciences and patronised by one Gunther Truebner: "At a global scientific developments are being followed and elaborated their neo-classical equilibria in level, the unpredictable dynamics of autopoiesis what not followed, and who is financing and supposed imitation of his Principa Mathematica. argues against the unrealistic view of those like patenting such work, is much more to the point. Extraordinary how they got away with it when the Castoriades who believe that it is possible to move 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and the world society in a desired direction via deliberative mathematics of Poincare (these both before global democratic process." Quantum Physics) clearly implied how limited the Castoriades' wariness comes from a mistrust of Newtonian model was. An anti-temporal model the use of natural science analogies in the world of which can stomach neither just Marx, nor Adam human relations, analogies which seem always to Smith. have the same result and perhaps, who knows, the Spencer was not interested in colonies or same aim, that of making ahistorical assumptions colonisation but an inhumane and truly repulsive about human society. In the language of racism which was present in the Darwinian view structuralism and post-structuralism, the signifier is of the world attracted others. It has been used by not respected for what it is and so can be used in an racists ever since, and is also dependent on two- ideological and often far-fetched manner to say way analogy. 18th and 19th century scientific something about the signified, or rather to shape the exploration was driven largely by economic and signified. Exactly the moment to be wary. colonial ambitions with a fundamentalist edge to I want to argue that analogies in either direction it, that is for European men to show their own between the human world and that of natural superiority to themselves, and thus justify their Darwinian theory entitlement to the rest of the world. Prim, uptight sciences are a useless hindrance when used from a The analogies taken from science and used in the humanist progressive viewpoint; to be fought against people like Darwin who, when first encountering most racist and inegalitarian manner are clearly naked Fuegians on the Beagle voyage wrote: "I when used to justify inequality and realpolitik; those taken from the Darwinian theory of evolu- mocked when used as disappointment displacement could not have believed how wide was the tion. That it is his version that should set the tone difference between savage and civilised man. It is by 'libertarian' theorists; and the ahistoricism in all and change the world, that and its timing, is also three brought out into the open. greater than between a wild and domesticated evidence of the theory as in part a 'social con- animal." struct', one suited to the dominant culture of a The analogy between men and animals, types recently industrialised and colonising Britain. It of men, gave credence to rationalisations of a The Sokal affair doesn't need Social Text or its theorists to tell us. On the face of it, this theme, of dodgy analogies, genocidal process of plunder. It is said that Alfred Sinyavsky may have a spiritual axe to grind but is Wallace who had also hit on the idea of natural is similar to the Sokal affair, in which the New not far off when saying that: York physicist in tandem with Jean Bricmont selection, 'was convinced that the wonderfully wrote a spoof article with the wonderful title "the theory of evolution has a hint of parody about it intricate ecosystems of the tropics were not made Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a and arouses the suspicion that it originated under the for man alone and that he loved their native Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum influence of the factory, which inspired the basic inhabitants whom he found more graceful, ethical Gravity, which was accepted and published by the analogies and suggested the idea of progress as a and democratic than Europeans. It was not prestigious cultural studies journal Social Text. In world-wide conveyor-belt." (A Voice from the Chorus). however his version of evolution we have come to fact it is this aspect of the business, the misuse of Neither Darwin nor the geologist Lyell can fail know, it is Darwin's who, in 1859 in a letter to analogy, which has disappeared in the furious to have been influenced by the Industrial Lyell, thought that the process of natural selection argument that has simmered on. Sokal sounds Revolution in which small, imperceptible changes might also occur between the human races, "the like someone who is very pleased with himself, had made a revolution, and created markets in less intellectual races being exterminated." It is and the editors of Social Text like parody patri- which a failure of flexibility, a failure to adapt said that he was horrified by first hand cians of the left. No humble pie from them: when were punished by market forces. experience of racist genocides in Argentina and discovering that what they had published was a Analogy then is used both ways, in undeclared Tasmania but it obviously was not enough to deter hoax they responded instead: "From the first , we fashion in some scientific theorising, and then him from going public with the thought of the considered Sokal's article to be a little hokey… back again into the social world. Neo-liberalism/ letter in The Descent of Man (1871): "At some His adventures in PostmodernLand were not real- old lassez faire has never ceased to use Darwinian future period not very distant as measured in ly our cup of tea…Sokal's article would have been analogy: survival of the fittest as smugly centuries, the civilised races of man will almost regarded as somewhat outdated if it had come articulated by US Treasury Secretary O'Neill for certainly exterminate, and replace throughout the variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 15 world, the savage races." With such a lead it was end in nothingness is a painful stultification of are arranged in a particular way." If that is the hardly difficult for monstrous theorists like our belief in the values of life." Ilya Prigorgine case, as she asks, what does solid mean if nothing Robert Knox to rationalise the genocides that on the other hand suggests that the irreversibility is solid? were to happen on an even greater scale in Africa, implied by the 2nd Law strengthened 'the idea of In the matter of free will, it was true that a and to do it without reference to the civilising an historical development of nature', the very previous scientific determinism said it was an mission of Christianity. idea that had attracted Marx and Engels to the illusion, but to make of quantum physics and And so it goes on, 'Social Darwinism, only Darwinian theory of evolution. especially Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, nowadays it's worse, with the Spencerian and The 2nd Law which states that in all transfers that cause and effect are out of the window and racist strands tied together. In the face of all the of energy, energy is lost, and disorganisation the electron 'free to choose', and then from this evidence provided by many geneticist like the increases to the point of entropy has been used make it a safeguard of human freedom from scrupulous and tolerant Reith lecturer Dr Steve analogically in the service of many ideas beyond science is not sustainable... "Either way," she says Jones to the contrary, people like Charles Murray its scope. I do not believe it should be used at all of pre-and post-Quantum Physics, "this use of and his Bell Curve still now have not just in relation to human social relations whether physical science to countenance a theory of credence but an impact on social policy with 'progressive' or otherwise. It is this law which interaction of humans is unwarranted." When theories which invariably claim inherited undermines the Newtonian equilibria by asserting cause and effect are out of the game in the social differences in intelligence on racial grounds the irreversibility of some processes, and thus the world we are on very dangerous ground as we can where the so-called underclass is also racially 'arrow of time', but this 'historical' natural law is see for example in the US attitude to Kyoto. defined. still just that, a natural law. Given this history, it is not altogether Its impact has been on welfare policies in a surprising that it is this physics which Sokal used period when capital has decided it can no longer in his analogical spoofs: asserting for example afford to be decent and more specifically been that Lacan's psychoanalytic speculations have both a pre- and post-event rationalisation of the been confirmed by recent work in quantum field truly awesome number of Afro-Americans in theory; that Quantum Physics is consonant with prison, and the even greater number otherwise 'postmodernist epistemology'; and then making a restrained by the US legal system. more inclusive pastiche on the same lines held together with words like nonlinearity, flux and interconnectedness, with Deleuze one of his targets. These are the buzzwords of the computer age theories of Chaos, Complexity and Emergence in which the non-localised phenomenon of QP has also been prominent, and which yet again cannot resist analogies with the world of 'human interactions'.

The Selfish Dawkins Other theorising with analogical overtones have also been given a new lease of life by the compu- ter age. Here I am thinking especially of Richard Dawkins, his selfish gene and his memes. Dawkins is an inveterate maker of analogies between natural sciences and the social-political Marx and the Darwinian world. In the 1989 edition of The Selfish Gene he In the light of all this, it is sobering that Marx starts to apologise but cannot help still defending would have liked to dedicate Capital to Darwin, the analogy of 'the working people of Britain' as and that it was only Darwin's bourgeois fear of individuals not understanding the need to being associated with such a disreputable person restrain their greed for the good of the whole which prevented it. One can see the attraction for Quantum Physics group. If it was wrong it was because '"actually it's best not to burden scientific work with politi- Marx; Darwin as the demystifier, the revolution- Some forty to fifty years later Quantum Physics cal asides at all." Why? Because they become ary with a template of progress, a scientific tem- knocks away the props of equilibria some more. It dated, a comment which then allows him to turn plate, whereas in fact it meant that time was, and remains, exciting stuff, but it too pro- this apology into an attack on J.B.S. Haldane. necessarily involving change could be restricted to duced its analogisers which are taken apart in a There is also a kind of heroic masochism in his the bio-geological sphere. Ironies abound here wonderful book of the 1930's, L. Susan Stebbings' insistence on the primacy of the gene and its because like Sinyavsky a hundred years later, Philosophy and the Physicists. She too is excited, replication, with the species (including humans Marx wrote privately of how Darwinism was and as a democrat committed to a well informed and therefore himself) having the role merely of Manchester liberalism writ large. History in effect and critically intelligent public: sympathetic to its carrier. Replication of code being at the centre was allowed in the biological long term, but even popularised accounts of Quantum Physics she is of this model, the computer age provides an then it derived from the existing conditions of sharp on analogies which far from clarifying, con- analogy-become real, since it is also inherent to its capitalism. fuse or are misleading. technology. Thus he now writes of the possibility, Looked at now, the desire of Marx to create a This often took the form of anthropomorphism that in his writing slides into likelihood, of the scientific socialism, has become a terrible burden, (and still does, 'nature does this, and nature does self-evolution of software code. With a one which made the rigidities, distortions, that') and at other times is used to justify a form generalisation breathtaking in its pomposity he stupidities and crimes of Marxism-Leninism seem of philosophical idealism. "It is odd," she says, writes, "Life is just bytes and bytes and bytes of like continuity from Marx himself. Looked at "to find the view that 'all is mysterious' is to be digital information," just as for Zimmer it was now, it is a shame how notions of historical laws regarded as a sign of hope. The rejection of the electrically charged particles. At the same time like falling rate of profit, have obscured the 'billiard-ball view' of matter (i.e. Newtonian-based he takes the same model into the social world complex description of the tendency of the rate of false analogies of the atom with astronomy) does with the notion of memes, 'media viruses', or as profit to fall and its countervailing tendencies, not warrant the leap to any form of Idealism." Dawkins puts it, "non-genetic replicators which one which illuminates much of what is happening Aware of this she notes that Lenin too was flourish only in the environment provided by now in the 21st century as does the analysis of worried about the new physics on precisely this complex communicating brains." "The apparatus equalization of rate of profit. I suspect that in the score but is somewhat sceptical as to his of inter-individual communication and imitation" case of Marx the need for it to be scientific understanding it, and his ideological methodology. is then analogous to the gene's concern with its socialism is partly because at the time it was de Another of those ironies that is bound to arise replication. But the gene and meme must also rigeur if one was to be taken seriously but also to when leftists tangle with natural sciences as a have a phenotypic effect that allows it to survive bolster the spirits with the thought that one day a source of ideology, is that Anton Pannekoek in his into the next generation. On the face of it, this humanist communism would have to come about. "Lenin and Philosophy" argued that Lenin seems to depend on the discredited Lamarckian The increased emphasis on scientific socialism himself is philosophically an idealist. notion that acquired characteristics can be passed is normally blamed on Engels and his Dialectics of Stebbings is especially stringent on two points: on to others or genetically to the next generation, Nature but it is not justified, it was a joint project. an intellectual slither that allows the concepts of a theory which caused havoc to Soviet farmers He has though been accused by hard-line Quantum Physics to be applied to the everyday following Lysenko, and has come up again ecologist Robin Jenkins of deliberately repressing world; and the way analogy dressed as argument recently in the Motorola-financed research of the significance of the 2nd Law of was being used to assert 'free-will'. Both of these Sadie Plant which purports to show that Western Thermodynamics because he well understood that have re-appeared to lurk in the dodgy analogies of teenagers sending text messages have developed this clearly implied limits to the economic growth computer age theorising wherein almost anything more flexible thumbs, and that this is, or rather that would render capitalist property relations that is non-Newtonian, that is 'mysterious', must will be, evolutionary. untenable, and limits to the general idea of be good. On the first point she quotes Ernst Allowing Dawkins his meme for the moment, progress. Zimmer: "A table, a piece of paper, no longer he tells us that whether it is an idea or a tune, it Certainly the Christian intellectual Dean Inge possesses that solid reality which they appear to must to be popular. "If it is a political or religious welcomed entropy on precisely this score, but at possess; they are both of them porous and consist idea, it may assist its own survival if one of its the same time felt "that the sum of things should of very small electrically charged particles which page 16 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002

phenotypic effects is to make its bodies violently by 57 varieties of self-interest in the first world. Writing of Roger Brook's use of small robots he intolerant of new and unfamiliar ideas…If the Since they believe that moving "world society in a says "With no centrally imposed model, no one society is already dominated by Marxist or Nazi desired direction via deliberative democratic has the job of reconciling disputed notions; they memes, any new meme's replicatory success will process" to be a naïve illusion, they do not simply aren't reconciled. Instead various signals be influenced by its compatibility with this welcome this reminder. It is also not accidental generate various behaviours. The behaviours are existing background." In which case, we could that Castoriades should be in their line of fire, he sorted out (suppressed, delayed, activated) in the well do without memes altogether since they as a theorist of workers self-management, web hierarchy of subsumed control." Then in a would have to be both conformist and intolerant decentralisation of authority and organisation brazen piece of reader flattery and final candour to successfully replicate. Fortunately we are from below, for on the face of it complexity theory he says, "Astute observers have noticed that doing without them, these analogies-made-real. It seems to be on the same side so to speak, holding Brooks’ prescription is an exact description of a also implies, the meme as idea, a passivity on the out the same promise. It is not the case. market economy." Brooks? The market economy part of receptors. It is this characteristic which it is also where Kelly's hive analogies take us. It has in common with some of the ways in which could equally well be von Hayek and his capitalist Chaos/Complexity/Emergence theory has been Out of Control utopia of wholly rational consumers and their used. "The marvel of the 'hive mind' as Kelly put It is perhaps unfair to pick on Kevin Kelly and his preferences; their simple but rational decisions it, "emerges from very dumb members." book Out of Control, given that he is a magpie of making an economy that runs itself. across the board natural sciences examples used Kelly of course has to ascribe it to someone in Chaos/Complexity/Emergence theory, but in the else, Roger Brooks, because at the same time he Spooky butterflies end he is important because he can't help but has a self-image as the rebel, the heroic pioneer. If Darwinian theory has the whiff of the factory give the game away. He rushes the reader This romanticisation seems to be common to the about it, Complexity theory has not just the whiff, through a series of analogies using as his connec- users of dodgy analogy. It informs the tone of but has been enabled by the number-crunching tor the phrase, 'very much as in', from hive, to Richard Dawkins and those other serial capacity of computers and their networking facili- whirlpool, to the brain, and to a colony of ants. In analogisers, Deleuze and Guattari, the first of ty. In one important respect it has also followed the chapter 'Machines with Attitude', we get a whom was outed for dodgy analogising by Sokal, the phenomenon of Quantum Physics that Susan tour de force of flim-flam, jumped from quote to but who would seem to be the complete antithesis Stebbing did not touch on, that is the concept of idea and back again. He begins with a quote from to neo-liberal ideology given that they are 68ers non-locality, what Einstein called "spooky action the philosopher Daniel Dennett, "The idea that who would certainly have been sympathetic to at a distance", whereby atomic particles, widely the brain has a centre is just wrong. Not only Castoriades' ideas in the days of Socialisme ou separated, are somehow in instantaneous contact that, it is radically wrong." At this point one is Barbarie. In their understandable reaction with each other. Again, it is to be remembered already wondering where this is going, given that against the disaster of Marxism-Leninism, the that this is a world of sub-atomic particles, but Dennett is also a fanatical supporter of Richard non-hierarchical becomes an end in itself. In their one can see how the 'butterfly effect' of Dawkins and ferocious attacker of holistic biolo- understandable desire to celebrate this quality in Complexity theory, must have been inspired by it gists like Richard Lewontein. His being used by the World Wide Web, they have recourse to the even if it is not so radical in its implications. Kelly is an early signal that despite the apparent rhizome, an analogy taken from plant roots, and Inspired by it and the holistic 'spaceship earth' complete difference in outlook there may be this analogy takes the place of argument. They notion which flourished briefly after the first something similar going on between the 'deter- can't stop there either but must then make an landings on the moon, until it reverted to the neo- minist' Dawkins and Complexity theory, that is an analogy out of nomads and create a self-image of liberal version of globalization. underlying notion of human passivity. the techno-nomad who, ironically is just another With the butterfly effect there is still a strong From Dennett he moves to saying that the variety of elitist vanguard, the outsider variety element of cause and effect, even if it is the case collapse of the USSR is solely ascribable to the who, though not a capitalist, is one of the world's that a small cause may have instability of any centrally relatively privileged. a big effect far away. To be controlled complexity; to an clear here, I have no approving reference to 'the intention of dissing theories bureaucracy of the brain'; to the and phenomenon lumped notion that "there is no 'I', for a together as New Age, like the person, for a beehive, a ideas of Rupert Sheldrake, corporation'; to the the energy emissions of unacknowledged analogy from rocks, or those telepathic Quantum Physics that it is likely experiences we have that intelligence is a probabilistic probably all experienced; nor or statistical phenomenon. of a holistic view of the Suitably softened up from this world or ourselves. What scatter gun, we are then hit by does need to be looked at Roger Brook's notion (one he is warily though is the vague developing technologically) that assumption that anything "You can build a mind from many which claims to be non- little parts, each mindless in Newtonian or non-reductionist, de-centralised, or itself." This is just one version of the essence of holistic is good in itself. Not all management Complexity/Emergence theory, that is 'the gurus are Darwinian, management guru Richard generation of higher-level behaviour or structures Pascale has urged a "holistic" approach to within systems made up of relatively simple management and Tom Peters, management components'. And it is attractive with its promise evangelist entitled one of his recent best-sellers, of the non-hierarchic, and one can see that the "Thriving on Chaos". wonderful internet and its World Wide Web is a In the case of the 'butterfly effect' it's as well realised paradigm. But if it goes further, and the to remind its theorists that BIG causes in one part web itself is the analogical basis for a whole view of the world have even bigger effects in other of the world, it becomes a rationale for the parts and that these are located in fixed positions, privileged of the world, when there is no one for with the underdeveloped world invariably the the rest of the world to negotiate with for passive receptor of mostly negative effects caused something better for themselves. variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 17

ABloody report from Ramallah fromHell an American nurse & humanitarian aid worker

Tuesday April 2 Israelis are targeting churches, have shot and Thurs. April 4 Bloody hell. Just got out of Ramallah yesterday, killed a priest and also shot a nun—and the situa- I don't even know where to start anymore—except managed to catch a ride to the checkpoint with tion is the same for the hospital there, no one to say that the situation is even worse. There are the Associated Press in their bullet-proof vehicle, allowed in or out. They continue to surround hundreds of calls to the ambulances at Ramallah then walked across with a few bullet-proof vested/ Arafat's compound, cutting off water, food, elec- every day, pleading for help for the critically sick helmeted journalists, me in my scrubs do not tricity, and any contact. They shot Palestinians try- and injured—but they still are not allowed to do know how to describe what is happening in ing to surrender, in their underwear. They anything or transport anyone. I spoke with a Ramallah, but I will try. I must I am here (Gaza, continue to conduct house to house searches and Finnish researcher who was allowed out of Bethlehem, Ramallah, then Lebanon) for 6 executions, they are casting a wide net and arrest- Ramallah yesterday who says that there are medi- weeks, working as a volunteer for the PCRF ing many, many people—I saw trucks filled with cal persons detained, along with hundreds of (Palestine Children's Relief Fund-a non-profit, blindfolded Palestinians pass by the hospital. Palestinians. She said that there are hundreds of non-political, humanitarian relief organization). There were major bombings done early this morn- injured in the bombed areas of Ramallah that are Teaching NRP/NICU stuff, bringing donated sup- ing, many people must be hurt or dead. I can't unable to get help. As for Bethlehem, I spoke with plies, and consulting for potential future relief think of anything else to say right now—the situa- press who had been able to get part way in yester- efforts. I had been in Ramallah since the 23rd tion is unimaginable. I have no words for this day before being chased out by soldiers, reporting March. On 28th, the situation appeared to get except to plea; “please help stop this”. Americans that "every door has been blow open, riddled with worse, with 150 tanks surrounding Ramallah and need to know what is happening, they need to pay bullets", dead bodies behind the doors, a missile closures put into effects I had been staying at attention. They need to be aware that their news in a child's bedroom, "water pipes everywhere are the hospital since Thursday—it was safer and I is very biased; they need to search for the truth, totally destroyed". "This is the most horrible van- was useful there; not really teaching much any- and the causes of symptoms such as suicide bomb- dalism imaginable—clearly just for punishment" more but instead working ER, OR, NICU, or wher- ers. They need to re-evaluate their definition of of the Palestinian people. The Israeli soldiers ever needed an extra nurse. The staff that could terrorism and who the terrorists are, to include abide by no rule—shooting anyone now. They have make it in was working back to back shifts, walk- politics that would oppress another people so expanded the militarized zones, and are not allow- ing past tanks to get to and from work or sleeping hard and for so long. All need to take responsi- ing journalists, or anyone in. They do not want at the hospital. Everybody not anaemic donated bility for our own government's actions and inac- anyone seeing what they are doing—this is the blood. All supplies are running low, sometimes tions. Please, at least, pray for all the people most frightening. Peaceful demonstrations at the there was not enough food. The ambulances are here—esp. in Ramallah and Bethlehem... am very check points are targeted with tear gas, interna- prevented from transporting the wounded, or any tired. I'll try to email more later. tional convoys of supplies are not allowed in. The other patients or staff—they were stopped and situation at the hospitals remains critical—their arrested, and the ambulances were then used by Wed. April 3 supplies, medicines, and oxygen are running out. the Israelis in house to house searches and execu- Here's an update: spoke with the director of the The Ramallah hospital was able to get three oxy- tions. The patients that were able to make it to Ramallah hospital—they are running out of medi- gen cylinders two days ago, but convoys of medi- the hospital in time were gun shot wounds—most- cines, supplies, and oxygen. There are still many cal supplies and food were not allowed in at all ly to abd. and chest, or head. I saw many corpses casualties and dead in the streets that they are yesterday. There is not enough food, either at the with close range wounds/ execution style. The unable to get to. They are worried about diseases hospital or for the rest of Ramallah. There is still morgue is over-full. The Israelis are lying about that come with having a morgue full again, and no water or electricity—I can not imagine how the what is happening—i.e. they did enter Ramallah garbage in the streets piled high, and unable to medical staff is coping, the nurses in the neonatal hospital on Sunday, I was there. The press is cen- get to or bury the dead. They were able to bury unit must be taking turns ventilating the babies sured [sic]—unable to report what is occurring as 29 bodies yesterday in a mass grave, during a lift by hand with whatever oxygen they have left. they are also prevented/detained, threatened, of the curfew for a few hours—but soldiers still How long can the rest of the world watch this, injured, or escorted out. I am hearing that the shot at people in the streets even during this time, doing nothing? news in the States is very pro-Israeli as usual. killing a 10 yr old boy. There is no electricity, no PLEASE AT LEAST LET THE FOOD, WATER How is this allowed? There are many major food and now no water at the hospital. A female AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES IN! human rights issues here. doctor was killed in Jenin. In Bethlehem yester- I feel helpless to do anything. I wish now that I The Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement day, they targeted churches—shot and killed a between People 64 Star Street, P.O. Box 24 would have stayed in Ramallah. I am a nurse, and priest, and injured six nuns. They are now shoot- a human being. It was very hard to leave, but the ing at priests that have come to the check point to http://www.rapprochement.org hospital staff advised me to go, to get out when I try to get in to Bethlehem. The hospital and ambu- The centre is a non-profit making NGO, started in could. They were very afraid about what might lances there are also unable to get to the injured. 1988 during the first Intifada. PCR runs commu- happen (and now is happening). I am safe in The press just arrived back to the hotel, telling nity service programs, youth empowerment and Jerusalem now, but feel useless-unable to do any- me that the convoy of supplies trying to get into training programs. PCR is also very much thing except write emails. And today the situation Ramallah will not be let in. involved in the non-violent resistance against the there is so much worse—the press just told me Some of the babies in the NICU will die with- Israeli Occupation to Palestine. that now snipers are firing at anyone leaving the out oxygen—of all the indisputable innocents. Ramallah hospital. In Bethlehem today the page 18 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 Ian Brotherhood Tales of the Great Unwashed Frank was happy. He’d always been happy, but was content to sit in the trolley-seat, chubby predisposed many of them to find fault from day he couldn’t remember ever feeling as happy as he fingers tightly gripping the thin steel bar. Francie one. He had even gone to the trouble of was now. had to delve into her purse for a pound-coin for constructing, after appropriate approval from He shifted back into fourth and overtook the the other trolley. Kelly refused to be lowered into head office, a small area of contemplation in the log-bearing artic. He didn’t often overtake, even the seat—at five she was a big girl and wanted corner nearest the windows, just by the water- on this dual carriageway, but hated sitting behind freedom to browse and wander, just like her mum. dispenser. He had encouraged those feeling stress these larger vehicles. The sets of double-wheels The floodlights scanning the pyramidal glass to seek a quiet moment there during designated were a worry. You never knew where these trucks mall signalled a wave of drizzle, but Frank saw it breaks, but he’d yet to see any of his fifty charges had been uplifting or delivering, perhaps on open and beckoned Francie hurry to the covered taking advantage of the four-foot square Japanese- building sites. Da knew of a friend of a friend—a pavement leading to the hypermart. The first cold style stone arrangement. The white stone chips truck had picked up a half-brick lodged between heavy drops of the shower did hit them, but with had come from the garden centre, and the the rear wheels. The friend of the friend had the walk from the car no more than fifty yards it grapefruit-sized granite stone was one he had been keeping a safe stopping distance from the was little more than a refreshing surprise, and taken from Glencoe as a souvenir of a long week- lorry. The lorry increased speed, so did the friend Frank shook his head, feigning shock to Jamie’s end with Francie in their courting days. The of the friend, still maintaining a safe distance. smiling face, and Jamie responded as he did these arrangement was a miniature version of Frank’s The increased speed gave force enough to the days, shaking and aping whatever noise Dad favourite place in his own garden, a patch which lodged stone, and when it was released from the made. he kept scrupulously clear of leaves dropping wheels it followed a trajectory which brought it My cup is full. Frank remembered the words from the overhanging cherry tree, and across the safe distance, through the windscreen from God only knows where. It meant you permanently sprinkled with cat repellent so that and into the head of the friend of the friend’s couldn’t want more. I’ve as much as I can handle. the carefully raked chuckies would not be nine year old son in the passenger seat. It couldn’t get any better because there’s no more disturbed or soiled. Perhaps his people would Frank felt himself smile as his new two-litre capacity for happiness, there’s no space for appreciate the smaller model if they had the estate surged past the log-bearing truck. Another additional pleasures. My cup is full, yours can be chance to see the original. Last week, early as little problem sorted. too. It had always seemed to induce a sort of always for his shift start, he had entered the office And that’s where the new estate and the new paralysis in the trainees. to discover a large plastic turd carefully placed house and the new life had come from. Sorting Trainees. Apprentices. Proteges. And wasn’t alongside the gleaming granite. He had disposed out one problem after another, no matter how Frank once himself one of them? Hadn’t he taken of it before the trainees started, but thought small. Directing attention to every possible on those roles, played them to their natural, better of raising the subject at the morning pep- source of anguish or upset and dealing with it as inevitable conclusion, then moved on? The others talk. and when it arose. The early days were distant had only to do likewise, to follow that same The crack of the jar was dulled as the pasta now, and only ever recollected to bolster the process. Simple. sauce burst a huge red exclamation mark beneath happiness he had found with Francie. The The massive stone obelisk at the entrance to the trolley. Jamie had palmed it off the shelf and children had been unexpected, but only ever the store was mounted on a brick-built plinth. was already reaching for its neighbour. Frank added joy to their lives. Jamie had only just Frank almost hit the thing, had to stop the faulty grabbed his son’s hand away and tried to settle turned two, was safely strapped into his seat, and trolley, reverse it a yard or so before renegotiating the shifting container, but the clumsiness of his beside him, her head resting on her brother’s his approach to the revolving doors. He stopped rescue effort dominoed another off. It landed in shoulder, the older Kelly was already nodding off. beside the monument, waiting until Francie had the thick crimson green-specked puddle of chunky He tightened his right palm about the got herself, her trolley and Kelly into the segment tomato and pepper pieces, but did not break. cushioned steering wheel and gently dropped his of moving door. The erection was new, but looked Jamie, mouth open, leaned back, staring up at the left fingers onto Francie’s thigh. Her fingers impressively worn, the slogan ‘We Care’ huge banks of fluorescent striplights suspended covered his and gently pressed them against the apparently worn by centuries of weather. Jamie twenty feet overhead, and kicked his legs warm denim. He didn’t have to look at her to reached out towards the object, curious. Frank outward, one welly boot connecting with Frank’s know that she was smiling. Even this, just a knuckle-tapped it. The dull reverberation groin. Frank closed his eyes, suppressed the cry simple weekly shopping trip, was a treat. throughout the structure amused his son. Frank into a whimper. When he opened his eyes there He veered onto the exit just as the carriageway struck the fibreglass skin again with open palm. was a woman with pail and cleaning cart and a lamp-masts flickered red. A glance at the digital The deep boom made Jamie shriek delightedly, DANGER-WET FLOOR sign already planted clock—almost seven o’clock. The clocks would be but a vacant segment of the door was emerging afront the trolley. shifted forward on Sunday, Summer would be uncontested, so Frank gripped the bar of the I’m sorry hen, I’ll pay for it, Frank said, but the official. There would be ever-lengthening trolley and shifted himself and his son into the woman smiled and shook her head and told him evenings in the garden, tinkering with sweet-pea slowly moving space which would take them he wouldn’t believe how much stuff she had to netting and twisting custom-length plastic-coated inside the store. clear up of an evening, it wasn’t worth worrying wire about strategically placed canes; wiping Frank’s trolley was almost full after half an hour, about. He insisted, but she asked him to move the down the brilliant white plastic furniture in but a lot of the space was taken up by the huge trolley and seemed not to want to deal with him advance of a neighbourly visit ; exotically varied box of nappies. Two bumper discount packs of further. salad greens tossed and sprinkled with ready- best quality disposables in the lurid green toy box The sweat on his neck was cold. The shirt made dressing in the conversation-piece carved which came as a free gift. He scanned a triple- would be dirty. It had been a long day, but a fresh mahogany bowl Francie had picked up at the pack of cheese and pineapple family-size pizzas one tomorrow. Friday, it would be his lime BHS. boot-sale; jokes and beer and laughter in open-air, and dropped them atop the toy box. Using the The tie would be the one Jamie got him for his with kids safely asleep upstairs as they drew scanner reminded him of being in the menswear birthday. Francie took care of his wardrobe. cardigans and sweat-shirts against the freshening department so long ago, his very first job, Never a problem. coastal breeze. And conversation. Relaxed, labelling shirts and socks. So many jobs, so many No sign of Francie in the Bakery aisle. She assured exchange between people who had at last places, so many people, all still there in his head, might be getting the yoghurts. Kelly moved found their place in the world. Francie wouldn’t names and events of twenty years ago. across the end of the aisle. Francie must have say much. She never did. But Frank would speak Unforgettable. sent her back to look for them. Frank pushed the for both of them, of their happiness, their But tomorrow, the better life would continue to trolley faster, had to jerk it straight. He got to the gratitude, their sense of completeness. throw up more surprises, more challenges, more end, but Kelly had gone back down the Italian The short-stay car-park was full. Not a names and events to add to the stock. And this aisle. He reversed three steps to the bakery, problem. The long-stay was slightly further from new intake of trainees were proving every bit as hoping to catch her doubling back. Sure enough, the mall, but convenient trolley-parks meant that challenging as any group he’d had in the two there she was, but again she walked through the the kids could be transported to the centre years since becoming section manager. It wasn’t distant juncture without glancing his way. Not a without exertion. Kelly protested at being woken as if they confronted him directly, but it seemed problem. They would meet up eventually. so suddenly after having found sleep, but Jamie that the bad press being given to call centres had He made sure the trolley was sufficiently variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 19

distant from the neatly racked bags of morning wouldn’t be the first time someone had cracked. edge of the unit. They must be here somewhere. rolls before removing his overcoat. He was Leaning his torso over the deep chest freezer, Perhaps above. He looked up. At eye level were sweating all over. It was always the same in here. the cold air combed his scalp as he selected a long flat trays of stewing steak. Further along. Maybe the air conditioning, or the glaring lights. twenty-four pack of Spaceburgers. Jamie voiced Francie’s hand on his arm, she was saying It never happened in the work right enough. recognition, and Frank let him briefly brush the something. He turned, saw her mouth moving, Always in here. Uncomfortable. Discomfort. Not frosted box before tossing it into the trolley. but his smile didn’t seem to reassure her. a problem. Move to a cooler place. Anyway, he Jamie whined dislike of the unexpected He reached out and picked up a packet, cool still had to get the meat. dampness on his fingers, so Frank took the small plastic, soft inside, but he didn’t know what it was. Francie didn’t ever get the meat. She was hand in his and wiped off the moisture finger by He wondered if it was what he had been looking veggie, always had been. But Frank liked his finger. for, if it was needed or wanted. He fingered the meat, so did the kids. Burgers, but only the best. Then Kelly was beside him, trying to climb into computer-printed label. The small dotted letters Quarterpounders for Frank, Spaceburgers for the trolley. Frank lifted her up, kissed her on the formed words, but even after reading them he still Jamie, pork dinosaurs for Kelly. And maybe a nose and cuddled her. She laughed and pulled at didn’t know what it was. hough. Still cold enough to justify a pot of soup, his ears, but her weight was making such play Kelly had jumped up and grabbed him from and Francie would prepare a full pot of pure veg ever more difficult, and he had to lower her as behind. She must want a piggy back. He laughed while Frank’s ham slow-boiled separately on Francie neared, her trolley now full. and groaned and gripped the unit tighter, and Saturday afternoon. Sunday dinner, Francie’s Are you alright love ? came the question, and Francie’s head was also leaning into the chiller, soup, with customised meat version for the men. A Frank was smiling, nodding, and Francie’s hand trying to see his face. Jamie was laughing. Frank joint to follow as well maybe ? was at his forehead, her face contorted with worry. raised his hands to remove Kelly’s, but found only A joint. That lad would have been given his She looked suddenly old, like her mother. his own shirt, soaked and cold. He turned around, written warning at end of shift this evening. He’d Frank left the trolley beside Francie’s and leaned against the cabinet as he slid down. Kelly been moved onto twilight on Frank’s moved across to the chilled fresh meat. Huge was way over by Jamie, and both children were recommendation. If he couldn’t go out partying plastic wrapped gammon joints. Joints. The watching him as he reached the floor. at night then he wouldn’t be turning up half- houghs were usually here. They must have Faces framed by distant girders, gently swaying pissed and reeking for the morning start. Twice changed the displays. striplights. Eyes closed, Francie’s face on his, he’d been caught away from his station Kelly had started to cry, Francie was quietly cherry blossom petals drifted their way towards unauthorised, and both times he’d been found in warning her. the Glencoe stone. Somewhere behind them, the toilet with a strong smell of cannabis about Houghs ? Frank leaned over the chiller, stared Jamie and Kelly laughed goodbye. the place. No conclusive evidence, and even a down into the chest. A Reduced section, a burst body search by Security had revealed nothing packet of drumsticks, one had toppled into a more incriminating than a packet of very large corner and was already partially frozen against cigarette papers. But he was certainly at it, and the wall along with flecks of what looked like would know tonight that his coat was on a shoogly parsley and a bright orange fragment of paper, peg. Frank would see him tomorrow at shift- perhaps from a waffles box. A sellotaped bag of change. Probably best to say nothing, but an idea oven chips was only twenty pence. to have Security on their toes just in case. It Frank moved left, keeping both hands on the page 20 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 Muslims and the West after September 11 Pervez Hoodbhoy

Pervez Hoodbhoy is professor of nuclear and high- The second assertion is even further off the energy physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, mark: even if Islam had in some metaphorical Islamabad. This article is based on a speech deliv- sense been hijacked, that event did not occur on ered at the Center for Inquiry International confer- September 11, 2001. It happened around the 13th ence in Atlanta, Georgia, 2001. century. Indeed, Islam has yet to recover from the America has exacted blood revenge for the trauma of those times. Twin Towers. A million Afghans have fled US bombs into the cold wastelands and face starva- tion. B-52s have blown the Taliban to bits and A dismal present changed Mullah Omar's roar of defiance into a Where do Muslims stand today? Note that I do not pitiful squeak for surrender. Usama bin Laden is ask about Islam; Islam is an abstraction. Moulana on the run (he may be dead by the time this arti- Abdus Sattar Edhi and Mullah Omar are both fol- cle reaches the reader). But even as the cham- lowers of Islam, but the former is overdue for a pagne pops in the White House, America remains Nobel Peace Prize while the other is a medieval, fearful—for good reason. Subsequent to ignorant, cruel fiend. Edward Said, among others, September 11th we have all begun to live in a dif- has insistently pointed out that Islam carries very ferent, more dangerous world. Now is the time to different meanings to different people. It is as ask why. Like clinical pathologists, we need to sci- heterogeneous as those who believe and practice entifically examine the sickness of human behav- it. There is no "true Islam." Therefore it only iour that impelled terrorists to fly airliners filled makes sense to speak of people who claim that with passengers into skyscrapers. We also need to Injured innocence faith. understand why millions celebrated as others "Why do they hate us?" asked George W. Bush. Today Muslims number one billion, spread over died. In the absence of such an understanding This rhetorical question betrays the pathetic igno- 48 Muslim countries. None of these nations has there remains only the medieval therapy of exor- rance of most Americans about the world around yet evolved a stable democratic political system. cism: for the strong to literally beat the devil out them. Moreover, its claim to injured innocence In fact, all Muslim countries are dominated by of the weak. Indeed, the Grand Exorcist, disdain- cannot withstand even the most cursory examina- self-serving corrupt elites who cynically advance ful of international law and the growing nervous- tion of US history. For almost forty years, this their personal interests and steal resources from ness of even its close allies, prepares a new hit list "naiveté and self-righteousness" has been chal- their people. No Muslim country has a viable edu- of other Muslim countries in need of therapy: lenged most determinedly by Noam Chomsky. As cational system or a university of international Iraq, Somalia, and Libya. We shall kill at will, is early as 1967, he pointed that the idea that "our" stature. the message. motives are pure and "our" actions benign is Reason too has been waylaid. To take some This will not work. Terrorism does not have a "nothing new in American intellectual history— examples from my own experience: You will sel- military solution. Soon—I fear perhaps very or, for that matter, in the general history of impe- dom encounter a Muslim name as you flip soon—there will be still stronger, more dramatic rialist apologia." through scientific journals, and if you do, chances proof. In the modern age, technological possibili- Muslim leaders have mirrored America's claim are that this person lives in the West. There are a ties to wreak enormous destruction are limitless. and have asked the same question of the West. few exceptions: Abdus Salam, together with Anger, when intense enough, makes small state- They have had little to say about September 11 Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Glashow, won the less groups and even individuals extremely dan- that makes sense to people outside their commu- Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979 for the unification gerous. nities. Although they speak endlessly on rules of of the weak and electromagnetic forces. I got to Anger is ubiquitous in the Islamic world today. personal hygiene and "halal" or "haram," they know Salam reasonably well—we even wrote a Allow me to share a small personal experience. cannot even tell us whether or not the suicide book preface together. He was a remarkable man, On September 12th, 2001, I had a seminar sched- bombers violated Islamic laws. According to Dr. terribly in love with his country and his religion. uled at the department of physics in my universi- Taha Jabir Alalwani, chair of the Virginia-based And yet he died deeply unhappy, scorned by his ty in Islamabad, part of a weekly seminar for (and largely Saudi-funded) Fiqh Council, "this country and excommunicated from Islam by an physics students on topics outside of physics. kind of question needs a lot of research and we act of the Pakistani parliament in 1974. Today the Though traumatized by events, I could not cancel don't have that in our budget." Ahmadi sect, to which Salam belonged, is consid- the seminar because sixty people had already Fearful of backlash, most leaders of Muslim ered heretical and harshly persecuted. (My next- arrived, so I said, "We will have our seminar today communities in the US, Canada, and Europe have door neighbour, also an Ahmadi, was shot in the on a new subject: on yesterday's terrorist responded in predictable ways to the Twin Towers neck and heart and died in my car as I drove him attacks." The response was negative. Some stu- atrocity. They have proclaimed first, that Islam is a to the hospital. His only fault was to have been dents mindlessly rejoiced in the attacks. One said, religion of peace; and second, that Islam was born in the wrong sect.) "You can't call this terrorism." Another said, "Are hijacked by fanatics on the September 11. They Though genuine scientific achievement is rare you only worried because it is Americans who are wrong on both counts. in the contemporary Muslim world, pseudo-sci- have died?" It took two hours of sustained, First, Islam—like Christianity, Judaism, ence is in generous supply. A former chairman of impassioned, argumentation for me to convince Hinduism, or any other religion—is not about my department has calculated the speed of my students that the brutal killing of ordinary peace. Nor is it about war. Every religion is about Heaven: it is receding from the earth at one centi- people who had nothing to do with the policies of absolute belief in its own superiority and its metre per second less than the speed of light. His the United States was an atrocity. I suppose that divine right to impose itself upon others. In medi- ingenious method relies upon a verse in the millions of Muslim students the world over felt as eval times, both the Crusades and the Jihads were Qur'an which says that worship on the night on mine did, but heard no counter-arguments. soaked in blood. Today, Christian fundamentalists which the Qur'an was revealed is worth a thou- If the world is to be spared what future histori- attack abortion clinics in the US and kill doctors; sand nights of ordinary worship. He states that ans may call the "Century of Terror," we must Muslim fundamentalists wage their sectarian wars this amounts to a time-dilation factor of one thou- chart a perilous course between the Scylla of against each other; Jewish settlers holding the sand, which he plugs into a formula belonging to American imperial arrogance and the Charybdis Old Testament in one hand and Uzis in the other Einstein's theory of special relativity. of Islamic religious fanaticism. Through these burn olive orchards and drive Palestinians off A more public example: one of two Pakistani waters we must steer by a distant star towards a their ancestral land; Hindus in India demolish nuclear engineers recently arrested on suspicion careful, reasoned, democratic, humanistic, and ancient mosques and burn down churches; Sri of passing nuclear secrets to the Taliban had earli- secular future. Else, shipwreck is certain. Lankan Buddhists slaughter Tamil separatists. er proposed to solve Pakistan's energy problems by harnessing the power of genies. The Qur'an variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 21

says that God created man from clay, and angels But Brzezinski's "stirred up Moslems" wanted and genies from fire; so this highly placed engi- to change the world; and in this they were des- neer proposed to capture the genies and extract tined to succeed. With this we conclude our histo- their energy. (The reader may wish to read the ry primer for the 700 years until September 11, rather acrimonious public correspondence 2001. between Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and myself in 1988 on this subject, reproduced in my book Islam and Science—Religious Orthodoxy Facing the future And The Battle For Rationality, published in What should thoughtful people infer from this 1991). whole narrative? I think the inferences are sever- Prophet) in favour of the Qur'an. Others seized on al—and different for different protagonists. the modern idea of the nation-state. It is crucial to For Muslims, it is time to stop wallowing in A brilliant past that vanished note that not a single 20th century Muslim nation- self-pity: Muslims are not helpless victims of con- Today's sorry situation contrasts starkly with the alist leader was a fundamentalist. Turkey's Kemal spiracies hatched by an all-powerful, malicious Islam of yesteryear. Between the 9th and the 13th Ataturk, Algeria's Ahmed Ben Bella, Indonesia's West. The fact is that the decline of Islamic great- centuries - the Golden Age of Islam - the only peo- Sukarno, Pakistan's Muhammad Ali Jinnah, ness took place long before the age of mercantile ple doing decent science, philosophy, or medicine Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Iran's imperialism. The causes were essentially internal. were Muslims. For five straight centuries they Mohammed Mosaddeq all sought to organise their Therefore Muslims must introspect, and ask what alone kept the light of learning ablaze. Muslims societies on the basis of secular values. went wrong. not only preserved ancient learning, they also However, like other anti-colonial nationalist Muslims must recognise that their societies are made substantial innovations and extensions. The currents across the Third World, Muslim and Arab far larger, more diverse and complex than the loss of this tradition has proved tragic for Muslim nationalism included the desire to control and use small homogenous tribal culture that existed in peoples. national resources for domestic benefit. Conflict Arabia 1400 years ago. It is therefore time to Science flourished in the Golden Age of Islam with Western greed was inevitable. Imperial inter- renounce the idea that Islam can survive and because there was within Islam a strong rational- ests in Britain and later the United States feared prosper only in an Islamic state run according to ist tradition, carried on by a group of Muslim independent nationalism. Anyone willing to col- Islamic sharia law. Muslims need a secular and thinkers known as the Mutazilites. This tradition laborate was preferred, even ultraconservative democratic state that respects religious freedom stressed human free will, strongly opposing the Islamic regimes like that of Saudi Arabia. In time, and human dignity, founded on the principle that predestinarians who taught that everything was as Cold War pressures rose, nationalism became power belongs to the people. This means confront- foreordained and that humans have no option but intolerable. In 1953, Mosaddeq of Iran was over- ing and rejecting the claim by orthodox Islamic to surrender everything to Allah. While the thrown in a CIA coup and replaced by Reza Shah scholars that in an Islamic state sovereignty does Mutazilites held political power, Pahlavi. Britain targeted Nasser. Indonesia's not belong to the people but, instead, to the vice- knowledge grew. Sukarno was replaced by Suharto after a bloody regents of Allah (Khilafat-al-Arz) or Islamic jurists But in the twelfth century coup that left a million dead. (Vilayat-e-Faqih). Muslim orthodoxy reawakened, Pressed from without, corrupt and incompetent Muslims must not look towards the likes of bin spearheaded by the cleric Imam from within, secular governments proved unable Laden; such people have no real answer and can Al-Ghazali. Al-Ghazali champi- to defend national interests or to deliver social offer no real positive alternative. To glorify their oned revelation over reason, justice. As they failed they left a vacuum which terrorism is a hideous mistake—the unremitting predestination over free will. He Islamic religious movements grew to fill. After the slaughter of Shias, Christians, and Ahmadis in refuted the possibility of relat- fall of the Shah, Iran underwent a bloody revolu- their places of worship in Pakistan, and of other ing cause to effect, teaching tion under Ayatollah Khomeini. General minorities in other Muslim countries, is proof that that man cannot know or pre- Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq ruled Pakistan for eleven all terrorism is not about the revolt of the dispos- dict what will happen; God hideous years and strove to Islamize both state sessed. alone can. He damned mathe- and society. In Sudan, an Islamic state arose The United States too must confront bitter matics as against Islam, an under Jaafar al-Nimeiry; amputation of hands and truths. It is a fact that the messages of George W. intoxicant of the mind that limbs became common. Decades ago the Bush and his ally Tony Blair fall flat while those of weakened faith. Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was Usama bin Laden, whether he lives or dies, reso- Islam choked in the vicelike the most powerful Palestinian organization, and nate strongly across the Muslim world. Bin grip of orthodoxy. No longer, as largely secular; after its defeat in 1982 in Beirut, Laden's religious extremism turns off many during the reign of the dynamic it was largely eclipsed by Hamas, a fundamental- Muslims, but they find his political message easy caliph Al-Mamum and the great ist Muslim movement. to relate to—stop the dispossession of the Haroon Al- Rashid, would Muslim, Christian, and The lack of scruple and the pursuit of power by Palestinians, stop propping up corrupt and des- Jewish scholars gather and work together in the the United States combined fatally with this tide potic regimes across the world just because they royal courts. It was the end of tolerance, intellect, in the Muslim world in 1979 when the Soviet serve US interests. and science in the Muslim world. The last great Union invaded Afghanistan. With Pakistan's Zia- Americans will also have to accept that the Muslim thinker, Abd- al Rahman ibn Khaldun, ul-Haq as America's foremost ally, the CIA openly United States is past the peak of its imperial belonged to the 14th century. recruited Islamic holy warriors from Egypt, Saudi power; the 1950's and 60's are gone for good. U.S. Arabia, Sudan, and Algeria. Radical Islam went triumphalism and disdain for international law is into overdrive as its superpower ally and mentor creating enemies everywhere, not just among Islam under Imperialism funnelled support to the mujahideen, whom Muslims. Therefore they must become less arro- Meanwhile, the rest of the world moved on. The Ronald Reagan feted on the lawn of White House, gant and more like other peoples of this world. Renaissance brought an explosion of scientific lavishly praising them as "brave freedom fighters While the U.S. will remain a superpower for some inquiry in the West. This owed much to Arab trans- challenging the Evil Empire." time to come, inevitably it will become less and lations and other Muslim contributions, but that After the Soviet Union collapsed, the United less "super." There are compelling economic and fact would matter little. Mercantile capitalism States walked away from an Afghanistan in sham- military reasons for this. For example, China's and technological progress drove Western coun- bles, its own mission accomplished. The Taliban economy is growing at seven percent per year tries rapidly to colonize the Muslim world from emerged; Usama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda while the U.S. economy is in recession. India, too, Indonesia to Morocco. Always brutal, at times gen- made Afghanistan their base. Other groups of is coming up very rapidly. In military terms, supe- ocidal, it made clear, at least to a part of the holy warriors learned from the Afghan example riority in the air or in space is no longer enough Muslim elites, that they were paying a heavy price and took up arms in their own countries. to ensure security; in how many countries can for not possessing the analytical tools of modern At least until September 11th, US policy-mak- U.S. citizens safely walk the streets today? science and the social and political values of mod- ers were unrepentant. A few years ago Zbigniew Our collective survival lies in recognising that ern culture - their colonizers' real source of power. Brzezinski, Carter's U.S. national security adviser, religion is not the solution; neither is nationalism. Despite widespread resistance from the ortho- was asked by the Paris weekly Nouvel Both are divisive, embedding within us false dox, the logic of modernity found 19th century Observateur whether in retrospect, given that notions of superiority and arrogant pride that are Muslim adherents. Modernizers such as "Islamic fundamentalism represents a world men- difficult to erase. We have but one choice: the Mohammed Abduh and Rashid Rida of Egypt, ace today," US policy might have been mistaken. path of secular humanism, based upon the princi- Sayyed Ahmad Khan of India, and Jamaluddin Brzezinski retorted: "What is most important to ples of logic and reason. This alone offers the Afghani (who belonged everywhere) wished to the history of the world? The Taliban or the col- hope of providing everybody on this globe with adapt Islam to the times, to interpret the Qur'an lapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- in ways consistent with modern science, and to Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and ness. discard the Hadith (the traditions, or ways of the the end of the cold war?" page 22 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 Desire, and a kind of playfulness An edited transcription of an 'exchange-situation' at the Copenhagen Free University, 18th March 2002

Josephine Berry: We are sitting in a top floor flat ple staying here and working here with us and ity back onto the institution the in Copenhagen, we're surrounded by kids' toys, presenting and sharing their knowledge. students came from, that institu- cutlery, crockery, very homely things, yet this is a HS: As a self-institution, the walls of the CFU are tion was in part responsible for university, a free university. How did this come porous, it's a domestic space as well. So if the uni- the shock. about? versity is seen as an investigation into knowledge JJ: We are trying to set up insti- Henriette Heise: Initially our desire was to create and everyday life (Asger Jorn describes culture as tutions which aren't just playing small institutions where we could work with pres- learning by experience) there's an experiential along with the rational under- entations of art and whatever. After coming back aspect here isn't there? People are staying, visit- standing of the public sphere as from London and living here again, we thought ing... they're coming to a different form of institu- a neutral and common ground. this is where our primary practice is materialising. tion where the experience of learning and The idea raised about the coun- We had this spare room close to the stairwell with discussing is as valuable as the subject-matter of cil communists was a discussion its own door and, more than a year ago, we came what is discussed. That would be an experience coming out of the extra-parlia- up with the Copenhagen Free University (CFU). of the social relations that are being established mentarian ways of organising. Here we can work with people and we can learn. here in that there are no seminars as such, there's As a point of departure it might JB: If you compare it to the Info Centre you did nothing organised along the lines of an academy. have been a shock to the visit- in London—which was another space inside a So there's not only this leakage between being in ing students but I think it was domestic space, a public/private space—has it the university and outside the university, but from very much due to their expectations, because they called into being something quite different? that, because experience doesn't stop, an experi- believed they were going to an art project in ential knowledge becomes possible. We maybe Copenhagen and they came here and it was quite Jakob Jakobsen: There were many discussions have to play this against the normal education chaotic. But I hope we were able to put the about the social relations created around an art establishment and see that the experiences that strands together in a good way. I learnt some- project like the Info Centre. By changing the can be appreciated here and worked with or thing from the discussion and that's important as emphasis from an 'information centre' to a 'uni- taken away, the imaginative expectations of what well. It's a more situation-based way to gain expe- versity' it was more an investigation of what actu- people are going to experience here, are different rience—instead of just representing knowledge, ally went on in and around those social relations from the normalising academy where it's perhaps representing art, it's important to take part. created in these institutions. At the CFU there is our very experiences that are jettisoned. So the HH: Usually people feel quite comfortable about more emphasis on the exchange between people, wall there is impervious, you have to almost leave with the Info Centre the information may have being here maybe because it is a home where peo- your desires with your coat in the cloakroom. In ple live—people felt freer compared to official been more specific and non-negotiable than this that sense the self-institution of the CFU is also sort of social situation. spaces like auditoriums and galleries. The discus- an experiment in a situation: because a situation, sions went on in an informal way and people were JB: So it's a shift from the dissemination of infor- in the terms of the Situationist International, is able to stay with their everyday language when mation to the social relations that produce knowl- supposed to enable us to bring all facets of experi- speaking. I don't see the informality as a prob- edge? ence into the situation; there's no hierarchy of lem; I see it as a power. valid experiences. Howard Slater: If knowledge is created through JJ: People enter through the display room that's a the social relations then the proprietorship of that JB: Also, the idea would be to create or allow new kind of buffer zone between the public space and knowledge alters. Knowledge becomes more a desires to emerge? the private space of our flat. But those borders matter of the general intellect or a communal HS: Or make certain desires that are low in the aren't heavily demarcated and people end up in construction through social relations, rather than hierarchy come to an equal footing. We've been our living room and the discussions go on and we specific individuals imparting a pre-formed knowl- talking about Charles Fourier recently and it's the make tea and stuff. I think those encounters, with edge. same sort of thing; you cultivate the manias, culti- strangers or not, have been the most intensive— JJ: What we have been discussing is the relation- vate the passions because that, in many ways, is the situations we've gained most from. On the ship between knowledge and life. Instead of just what makes experience valid! other hand we are keen not to make the universi- seeing knowledge as some abstracted generalised JB: I don't see that as a contradiction, but a bit of ty into just a talking shop. We are keen on pre- entity or objectified thing, knowledge is, of a problem with the CFU in that it's easier to senting ideas, research material and art works—to course, related to the context and to the social share passions between friends, having jokes that establish a situation that is introducing other relations in and around it. We are trying to make lead to serious things and serious things that turn knowledges into the equation so the discussions this university now, here where we live, in our flat, into jokes, the kind of freedom that goes with do not just become a therapeutic exchange. and we are trying to discuss and experiment with friendship and passionate attachment. I was HH: We don't like having structures that necessar- the relationship between knowledge and life. thinking about the conversation we had with the ily have to be followed. So, if people don't want to JB: Do you see the CFU as a prototype—if you students that came from the Art Academy in say anything, if they don't want to have discus- can abandon the idea that a prototype can be per- Malmo, and how shocked most of them looked, sions, it's fine. You can come here and look at the fectly reproduced—more as a catalyst than a they were probably caught between expectation stuff we have. space that can fulfil a lot of those objectives in on the one hand and shyness on the other, and HS: It's not a matter of taking power as such as and of itself? were, I suppose, 'disorientated'. How do desires becoming acclimatised to being able to create a and the kind of playfulness that is so central to I'm also wondering about the usability of the sense of power amongst ourselves. That it's some- what we're talking about—and to the university space for visitors and what they encounter? How thing like knowledge, like university, like institu- and to knowledge and to experiment and to art— can people have a lasting engagement in the free tion, that needs to be questioned. It can be used. get communicated or released with people com- university, because it's your home? How do peo- ing as complete strangers? The self-institution thing is about recreating a ple come into this space and what do you think public sphere or it raises the question ‘has there their experiences are with it, how does knowledge HS: The shock might have been the simplicity. To ever been a public sphere?’ There's a power in get negotiated within that? play Josie's comments about passion and inclusiv- that because there's automatically a conflict or HH: Just by saying this is the CFU in our flat in opposition. All these things get opened-up simply the Northern part of Copenhagen people already by having a Free University, and that's the power start to visualise and imagine what it could be. to question which is denied people in the educa- This initial step must make some people ask tion system because you can't question if your themselves what is going on here? experience is left behind at the doorway. From what point can you then question? From what We have visitors coming around where we present point can you feel a sense of power if your experi- whatever is going on at the time, and that creates ence is severed from the knowledge that's going this situation where visitors give back knowledge to be imparted to you? The conventional institu- of their own. Then we have a very engaged aspect tion is very disempowering. of the CFU where friends and people come and live here in the room that we have made for what- JJ: Making the university was based on the fact ever we can call something like exhibitions—peo- that the economy is nowadays very often variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 23

described as a knowledge economy, the ultimate experience of the begin to enter into a sort of situation of the 'gener- and we can see knowledge becom- free university would be for the al intellect' where you come 'through' individuality ing an order of capitalist produc- people who come here to go to a sensation of all these links... different people tion. This knowledge that is being home and do it themselves. coming to things at different times, different paces, spoken about is productive knowl- But Henriette does not agree: with different vocabularies. And it reveals desire edge within that system. We people should liberate them- as collective and knowledge as collectively gener- thought "ok—if we're living in a selves. ated passion. knowledge economy we would like HH: I'm fine with self-institu- Perhaps self-institutions can give form to desire so to open a university which could tionalisation all over the field, it's not so much a matter of imposing desires on valorise other kinds of knowledge but I have problems with trying others as encouraging what Deleuze & Guattari that wouldn't fit into that system, to set up a model for others. call 'collective assemblages of enunciation' and knowledges that are excluded from being inspired by the wealth of the passions of oth- that system." The knowledge HS: In the ABZ of The Copenhagen Free University it ers. 'New desires' can be 'desires that are new to going into knowledge economies me' and their forms, the differences between self- has to be an alienated knowledge; says: "It is our hope that you, instead of dreaming of the institutional initiatives, resist the idea of 'models'. lone detached from a life outside The thing about self-institution is that singulari- capital. So that was our question: Copenhagen Free University or London Anti-University or Free ties, the nuances of desire, aren't repressed, but was it possible to valorise other are used as a material. kinds of knowledge? We're still University of New York or the negotiating these kinds of discus- Spontaneous University, go JJ: Instead of being anti-institutional we're saying sion, because it's not clear what where you live and establish "we are building an institution", in this way we kind of knowledge the knowledge your university drawing upon aren't maintaining the romantic notion of an out- economy is actually chasing after. the knowledges in your own side of institutions. The DIY strategy of setting up So, we are trying to discuss knowl- networks." Do you think that's 'grand' institutions, like a university, according to edge in that landscape. You can too much of a command that your own passions, are productive, and we try to see how other universities and edu- implies a model? engage in this in both a serious and a playful way. cational institutions are trying to HH: Yes, a bit. That's the great thing about the CFU: being able live up to the demands of the HS: Picking up on what Jakob to generate a field of discussion. That is the uni- knowledge economy and producing said about giving form to pas- versity: these kinds of situations and these invest- the right kinds of knowledge-work- sions. That's where the aesthet- ments. er ready to enter this kind of econ- ics comes in because there's Instead of just understanding it as a closed-circuit, omy. And I find the set of passions always a struggle with articula- it is open-ended, open for other passions being on offer in that economy quite lim- tion for many people. Maybe invested in it—people who would like to invest in ited. So, it's a playful or polemical artists and writers are amongst the discussions are a part of it. This mushrooming statement to say "ok, we will make the privileged in that they can is in itself another set of social relations, instead of a university and we would like to work to get access to a means just trying to sit on your own knowledge and pro- valorise knowledge like other uni- of expression or articulation. mote it in the most... versities do." Establishing this An initiative like this gives institution is to enter a struggle HS: ... corporate way. space to many forms of articu- about knowledge and life. lation and practice because the That almost answers the question about self-insti- HS: That points to why I brought aesthetic element, redefined, tutional sustainability. What's the most sustaina- up the historical example of the could help us approach our ble thing we know? Perversions and passions? If workers councils. If knowledge is own desires rather than having perversion is compulsion then it's almost the same used as a component of 'labour- the desires or passions made thing to say perversion and sustainability. On the power' then really we've got a par- for us. This is really what issue of sustainability, there's a means of expres- allel problem to the Marxist occurs in capitalist society, that sion dimension that Giorgio Agamben has written problem of how to define 'free the desires and passions—obvi- about: what spurs us to communicate is what is labour' or 'living labour' in terms ously advertising and branding 'unsayable'. We're all struggling with language of knowledge. The Soviet, Workers are a key example—are manu- here, now, trying to express ourselves and that's a Council form could have been an experiment in factured for you. It becomes a kind of vicious loop form of sustainability. Ok, it can degenerate into a redefining work outside of the capitalist economy: in the sense that if you're not partaking in those talking shop, but in this instance this has been “what is it necessary to produce, what is 'living passions that are circulated for profit, or can be structured, we've decided to do it at this time, this labour', how can labour be socially useful...?” these harnessed for profit, then somehow you're abnor- day. And that struggle with the means of expres- sorts of questions rather than having labour dictat- mal and the whole issue of anti-psychiatric institu- sion, again linking back to aesthetics as a way of ed-to by capitalistic needs. Similarly there's this tions comes again into play, overlapping with getting access to a means of expression, is to give interesting parallel, that, in a knowledge economy, educative initiatives, because we've got this barrier form to the passions and also to find new areas with labour-power more explicitly informed by to desire in that giving forms to passion is seen as that are 'unsayable'. The 'unsayable' or the knowledge, a Free University becomes almost a perversion, not normal. Where the aesthetics unknown—what you don't know or what you revolutionary organisation. That might be to open comes in is in that boost it gives to an articulation haven't experienced—if that's always ahead of you a "ski-slope between passion and logic" as Jorn of passion and desire. it means you're always struggling, always trying to said, but I'm quite interested in this, because it get somewhere. It might not be forward it might JB: How do we find this means to collectively iden- seems then there's another means to rhetoricise be back. You might be struggling to get back, to a tify desires without imposing them or without laps- around a Free University, that such institutions can memory, to bring a memory of an experience into ing into a kind of solipsism of narcissistic desire be modes of revolutionary organisation. There articulation. That's a kind of sustainability. The alone? doesn't have to be four people around a table, it struggle with the means of expression helps a could be twenty, thirty or they could open-up to HS: That is the misnomer of desire under capitalist project become sustainable. replace the party political form. It's perhaps use- society, because desire is stratified with bourgeois JJ: That's the central struggle as far as I see it: the ful to use these analogies between an industrial individuality. Its individualistic form is rife, say, in struggle with language. The struggle to produce a working class form of organisation and the prole- terms of going into a little room and putting your space where you can express yourself. That's really tarianisation of knowledge workers in a knowledge 'X' on the ballot paper and also in the coinage that a struggle. To come back to life in the knowledge economy. Perhaps a good thing would be very says "I promise to pay the bearer...” It's always an economy, there are no means for those kinds of local free university initiatives to side-step consti- individualistic relation that is encouraged when passionate expressions, those kind of perversions. tuted institutions and yet, in the same movement, really desire is in the social structures. You have to invent them again. reinvigorate the constituting dynamic of institu- In a way, capitalist society does create mass tions. desires. Maybe it's a way to detourne this creation Copenhagen Free University JJ: I believe in 'mass', in lots of self-institutions. I of mass desires because if we all watch the adverts subscribe to the idea of the 'multitude'. Those we all 'plug-in' and that desire is being created as The Copenhagen Free University is open by kinds of institutions can generate a power by being a collective desire, an individualised collective appointment. Phone +45 3537 0447 desire, the desire for being 'English' or 'Danish', many, and I think if you see similar institutions to Henriette Heise and Jakob Jakobsen these are collectively manufactured desires. the one you're occupied with around you, it is pos- Læssøesgade 3, 4., DK - 2200 København N sible for you to push the work you are doing a little The issue of the aesthetic aspect as sort of being +45 35370447 - [email protected] further, because then there's a language that is downgraded into an access to the means of produc- being developed and produced, and a language tion is a presupposition of an access to your own Info Pool - http://www.infopool.org.uk/ which can give form to the passions that you're desires. For me you explore desires with a materi- struggling to find form for. It's not offered to you. al, with a means of expression that you've got to You have to develop these kinds of languages. So, struggle with. And then I think from that you page 24 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 Artist Initiatives in Moscow Gillian McIver

Moscow is the only city in Russia right now that every kind of contemporary art, as well as sup- has enough money to support a thriving commer- porting a renowned contemporary poetry society. cial art scene. This is not to say that art does not The Centre presents a full programme of exhibi- exist elsewhere, but in most cases there is just not tions and events throughout the season, and is the money circulating to support the familiar sys- particularly interested in presenting performative tem of public and private galleries and artist-run work. centres feeding off each other to create a world- Under the Soviet system, modern art was the competitive art scene. preserve of a huge network of institutions, the Aside from the main private venues such as the National Centres for Contemporary Art (NCCA's), Gallery Marat Guelman, the Regina Gallery and the which ran everything. During Perestroika and XL Gallery, the lifeblood of the arts in Moscow after, the system began to fall apart, and now, runs through the network of non-profit and artist- although there is a comprehensive network of run initiatives that developed during the 1990s. often very fine branches of the NCCA's, the fund- These organisations are at the forefront in creat- ing just is not in place to support them. In the ing and promoting innovative work and support- early 90's the Soros Centres for Contemporary Art ing original, cutting-edge artists. (SCCAs) and Soros funding programmes were set The non-profitTV Gallery promotes time-based/ up by the financier George Soros. These SCCAs video art and produces cultural programming took up the slack from the state, and allowed about art for television. TV Gallery maintains an "unofficial" art to flourish, financing up to 50% of energetic programme of exhibitions, media pro- the actual realised art projects in Russia. In 2000, duction, single-channel and installation video, and however, the SCCA’s were closed; artists are still vigorously promotes international exchanges. TV reeling from the fallout of this decision. Gallery's director Nina Zaretskaya says: Consequently, the network of small artist-run spaces run on a shoestring and supported by occa- "Our original mission was to connect the world of sional grants, donations and gifts, is more crucial contemporary art and the artists with mass-media and than ever to the development of contemporary new technologies, a task no one had actually done in art. The Dom Kultury venue hosts concerts of jazz Russia before. In the late 80s we began making TV and contemporary music, and runs a bar, which programs about exhibitions and actions of allows it to give a home to a small but important contemporary art. At the same time there appeared an artist-run gallery upstairs. In recent years, Spider idea to open a non-profit centre—and so we used the and Mouse Gallery and Escape Gallery have same name: TV Gallery. Our goal is to develop new become very important institutions in Moscow. technologies in art, first of all to initiate, organize and Both have extremely high reputations in the promote video art. " While funding for projects comes from various Moscow art world, and are increasingly becoming grants and international institutes, TV Gallery's known internationally. Spider and Mouse, found- running expenses are also supported by the pri- ed by Marina Perchikhina and Igor Ioganson, has vate means of the founders, as is the Zverev Centre a strong identity as a video gallery, but also for Modern Art. The Zverev Centre is a unique presents mixed media projects: the curators sup- place: a former greenhouse that has been convert- port what is innovative, seeking fresh perspectives ed into a gallery in traditional rustic Russian from across the country. The gallery is also active architectural style, with a large garden used for in international presentations and collaborations; performances and installations. The gallery com- Perchikhina in particular works extensively in prises both the Zverev Museum and an artist-run Armenia, and the gallery has partnerships with contemporary art space for exhibitions, happen- artist-run centres in Stockholm. ings and performance. Escape Gallery for years existed as a series of According to the Zverev Centre's founder temporary galleries in different domestic apart- Alexey Sosna,"we consider avant-garde art to be a ments. As an artist-run enterprise, it exists for the special branch of academic art." The Zverev artists to experiment, present and promote their Museum is an academic institution which pre- work. It is well-known among the community of serves, studies, authenticates and promotes the artists, critics and dealers, less so in the popular paintings of Anatoly Zverev (1931-1986), the culture guides. Currently it has found a home in a "Russian Van Gogh." The artist-run space is tiny flat in a huge apartment block at Nagornaya, curated and staffed by volunteers who programme directly to the south of the city centre. For artists, participation in exhibitions at any of the artist-run centres affords the opportunity to expose themselves in a supportive yet critical- ly-demanding environment. The eventual hoped- for result, aside from sales or commissions, is to be asked to participate in a large, funded public art event, perhaps sponsored by Sony or Siemens, perhaps even abroad. The main centre in Moscow for major public exhibition was always the Central House of Artists, which shares a building with the stunning collec- tion of the Tretyakov National Art Museum's 20th century collection at Krymsky Val. Now most of it is given over to retail galleries of varying quality, and very conservative, boring exhibitions. However, in April the place comes to life with the annual "Art Moscow" art fair, which highlights some of the directions of contemporary art in Russia. variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 25

In yet another direction, MediaArtLab is also an Zverev Center for Modern Art artist-run centre, but it now exists in virtual space. Novoryazanskaia 29/2 It formed as a division of the SCCA to bring Moscow 107066 together practitioners in art, culture and media Metro: Baumannskaia including new technology. Never solely concerned 095 265 6166 with art, it evolved, through its hosting of Internet- art projects, conferences and international multi- Gallery Guelman 7/7, building 5 Malaya Polianka Street disciplinary projects, into one of the strongest Moscow 109180 media-cultural organisations in Europe. When the Metro Oktyabryskaia Sad or Polianka Moscow SCCA closed, MediaArtLab was left with- Tel./fax (7- 095) 238-8492 out a venue, and chose, at least for the present, to e-mail: [email protected] go virtual, concentrating on building and maintain- http://www.guelman.ru/ ing networks of practitioners to facilitate projects conferences and critical dialogues. In 2001 they Regina Gallery hosted MediaForum, part of the Moscow 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, International Film Festival, showing alternative Moscow video and new media. MediaArtLab is deeply con- (between Tverskaya and Teatralnaya Metro sta- cerned with issues surrounding new technology's tions) impact upon general cultural processes, with issues Leningradsky Prospect, 58 (in the yard) of centralisation/decentralisation of culture in Metro: Aeroport Russia, and in cross-dissemination of Russian and "foreign" ideas and cultural concepts. Escape art space Nagornaya Street 23, korp.2 The artist-run centres especially provide oppor- Moscow 113186 tunities for artists from the provinces, offering tel. 095 127 0919 them the opportunity to have their work seen and e-mail:[email protected] assessed. Though the art scene may be small and http://www.escapeprogram.ru unfashionable, it takes art seriously. A vernissage for example, is less an opportunity to see and be Spider and Mouse gallery seen than it is to argue and debate the finer points Leningradsky Prospect, 58 (in the yard) (the experience can be terrifying for the Western Metro: Aeroport artist!). Telephone: +07 095 287 13 60 One of the main differences between the life of e-mail: [email protected] the artist in Moscow and in the Western capitals, is that it is just not at all fashionable to be an artist Trash Art http://www.da-da-net.ru/TrashArt/bins.asp in Russia. It is fashionable to be a businessman, a pop star, a sports hero—but not an artist. No-one goes to art school for fun or to be cool. No-one pur- sues art unless they really feel a desperate, burn- ing drive to be an artist—and often not even then. Although there is rarely any money in art any- where, this is even more the case in Russia. There are few rewards except integrity, passion and belief in the timeless value of making art.

Contacts: Dom Kultury Arts Centre Orchinnikovsky Pereulok, 24/4 11318 Moscow Metro: novokuznetskaia

Central House of Artists/New Tretyakov Krymsky Val Metro: Oktyabryskaia Sad

Art Media Centre "TV Gallery" 6, Bolshaya Yakimanka Str., 109180 Moscow Metro: Oktyabryskaia Sad Tel.: (+7 095) 238 0269 Fax: (+7 095) 238 9666 http://www.tvgallery.ru page 26 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 Collective Cultural Action The Critical Art Ensemble

The totalizing belief that social and aesthetic that feel under-represented and powerless to com- value are encoded in the being of gifted individu- pete with majoritarian views and methods. (Too als (rather than emerging from a process of often, these minorities reflect the same minoritar- becoming shared by group members) is cultivated ian structure found in culture as a whole). Under early in cultural education. If one wants to such conditions, group splintering (or annihila- become an "artist," there is a bounty of educa- tion) is bound to occur. The worst-case scenario is tional opportunities—everything from matchbook the formation of a power base that tightens the correspondence schools to elite art academies. bureaucratic rigor in order to purge the group of Yet there is no place where one can prepare for a malcontents, and to stifle difference. collective practice. At best, there are the rare Such problems can also occur at a smaller examples where teams (usually partnerships of group level (15 to 50 members). While these two) can apply as one for admission into institu- smaller groups have an easier time avoiding the tions of higher learning. But once in the school, alienation that comes from a complex division of from administration to curriculum, students are labour and impersonal representation, there still forced to accept the ideological imperative that can be problems, such as the perception that not artistic practice is an individual practice. everyone has an equal voice in group decisions, or The mechanisms to ensure that this occurs are that an individual is becoming the signature voice Opportunity is also expanded by breadth of too many to list here, but consider the spatial of the group. Another standard problem is that knowledge. The more one knows, the more issues model of the art school: classrooms are designed the level of intimacy necessary to sustain passion- one can address. In a time when content has to accommodate aggregates of specialists. Studios ately driven group activity rarely emerges in a resurfaced as an object of artistic value, a broad are designed to accommodate a single artist, or midsize group. The probability is high that some- interdisciplinary knowledge base is a must. And like the classroom, aggregates of students working one, for idiosyncratic reasons, is not going to be finally, opportunity can be expanded through the individually. Rarely can a classroom be found able to work with someone else on a long-term ability to address a wide variety of cultural spac- that has a space designed for face-to-face group basis. These divisions cannot be organised or es. The more cultural spaces that a person is com- interaction. Nor are spaces provided where artists rationalised away. Much as the large democratic fortable working in, the more opportunity s/he of various media can come together to work on collective is good for short-term, limited issue has. If designed with these strategies in mind, project ideas. Then there is the presentation of political and cultural action, the midsize group collectives can configure themselves to address faculty (primary role models) as individual practi- seems to function best for short-term, specific any issue or space, and they can use all types of tioners. The institution rewards individual effort issue cultural or political projects. media. The result is a practice that defies special- at the faculty level in a way similar to how stu- For sustained cultural or political practice free isation and pigeonholing. dents are rewarded for individual efforts through of bureaucracy or other types of separating fac- Thirdly, the velocity of ‘cultural economy’ is a grades. Woe to the faculty members who go to tors, we recommend a cellular structure. Thus far factor. The market can consume a product faster the tenure review board with only collective the artists' cell that typifies contemporary collec- than ever before. Just in terms of quantity, collec- efforts to show for themselves. Obviously, these tive activity has formed in a manner similar to tive action offers a tremendous advantage. By reward systems have their effect on the cultural band society. Solidarity is based on similarity in working in a group, members are able to resist the socialisation process. terms of skills and political/aesthetic perceptions. Warhol syndrome of factory production with On the public front, the situation is no better. Most of the now classic cellular collectives of the underpaid labourers. Through collective action, If artists want grants for reasons other than being 70s and 80s, such as Ant Farm, General Idea, product and process integrity can be maintained, a non-profit presenter/producer, they better be Group Material, Testing the Limits (before it while at the same time keeping abreast of market working as individuals. Generally speaking, col- splintered), and Gran Fury used such a method demand. lective practice has no place in the grant system. with admirable results. Certainly these collec- These considerations may sound cynical, and to Collectives reside in that liminal zone—they are tives' models for group activity are being emulat- a degree they are, but they appear as a reality neither an individual, nor an institution, and there ed by a new generation. which must be negotiated if one is to survive as a are no other categories. Seemingly there is no While size and similarity through political/aes- cultural producer. On the other hand, there is place to turn. Collectives are not wanted in the thetic perspective can replicate itself in the group, something significant about collective action that public sphere, in the education system, nor in the members need not share a similarity based on is rewarding beyond what can be understood cultural market (in the limited sense of the term), skill. Each member's set of skills can be unique through the utilitarian filters of economic surviv- so why be so much in favour of collective cultural to the cell. Consequently, in terms of production, al. action? solidarity is not based on similarity, but on differ- Part of the answer once again has to do with ence. The parts are interrelated and interdepend- market demands. Market imperatives are double- ent. Technical expertise is given no chance to edged swords. First, the market wants Size Matters: collide and conflict, and hence social friction is individuals with lots of skills for maxi- Cellular Collective Construction greatly reduced. mum exploitation. An artist must be One problem that seems to plague collective Solidarity through difference also affects the able to produce in a given medium, organisation is the group reaching ‘critical mass’: structure of power in the group. Formerly, collec- write well enough for publication, be the point where the group breaks up, and little or tive structure tended to be based on the idea that verbally articulate, have a reasonable nothing can be left of the organisation. The rea- all members were equals at all times. Groups had amount of knowledge of numerous sons for this vary depending on the function and a fear of hierarchy, because it was considered a disciplines, be a capable public speak- intention of the group. Our experience has been categorical evil that led to domination. This er, a career administrator and possess that with larger artists'/activists' groups, once notion was coupled with a belief in extreme the proper diplomatic skills to navi- membership rises into the hundreds, a number of democracy as the best method of avoiding hierar- gate through a variety of cultural sub- conflicts and contradictions emerge that cause chy. populations. Certainly some rare friction. For one thing, tasks become diversified. While CAE does not follow the democratic individuals do have all of these skills, Not everyone can participate fully in each task, so model, the collective does recognise its merits; but many can only meet these stand- committees are formed to focus on specific tasks. however, we follow Foucault's principle that hier- ards by working collectively. The group thus moves from a direct process to a archical power can be productive (and not neces- Second is the need for opportunity. representational process. This step toward sarily lead to domination), and hence use a Given the number of trained artists bureaucracy conjures feelings of separation and floating hierarchy to produce projects. After con- adding to what—within the few platforms for dis- mistrust that can be deadly to group action, and sensus is reached on how a project should be pro- tribution—is already an excessive population of that are symptomatic of the failure of overly duced, the member with the greatest expertise in cultural producers, the opportunity for a public rationalised democracy. To complicate matters the area has authority over the final product. voice has rapidly decreased. By specialising in a further, different individuals enter the group with While all members have a voice in the production particular medium, one cuts the opportunities differing levels of access to resources. Those with process, the project leader makes the final deci- even further. The greater one's breadth of produc- the greatest resources tend to have a larger say in sions. This keeps endless discussion over who has tion skills, the more opportunity there is. group activities. Consequently, minorities form the better idea or design to a minimum, and variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 27

hence the group can produce at a faster rate. members; the coalition as a whole won't tolerate Projects tend to vary, so the authority floats system abuse (such as spamming, or self-aggran- among the membership. dising use of the list); and there is a self-destruct At the same time, we would not recommend fail-safe—members would jump ship at the first this process for any social constellation other than sign of ownership and/or permanent hierarchy. the cell (3 to 8 eight people). Members must be Perhaps the real indicator of the congeniality able to interact in a direct face-to-face manner, so shared by Nettime members is its cultural econo- everyone is sure that they have been heard as a my: it functions as an information gift economy. person (and not as an anonymous or marginalised Articles and information are distributed free of voice). Second, the members must trust one charge to members by those who have accumulat- another; that is, sustained collective action ed large information assets. Nettimers often see work against the possibility of power through requires social intimacy and a belief that the significant works on the intersections of art, poli- diversity by maintaining closed social systems. other members have each individual member's tics, and technology long before these works This is not to say that there are no longer relative- interests at heart. A recognition and understand- appear in the publications based on money econo- ly closed social sub-systems within society. There ing of the non-rational components of collective my. For real space projects, this same sense of are, but they differ from community in that they action is crucial—without it, the practice cannot voluntarism pervades all activities. What is differ- are products of rationalised social construction sustain itself. ent here from other cultural economies is that gift and completely lack social solidarity. In order to The collective has to consider what is pleasura- economy is only demanding on those who have bring people together from different sub-systems ble for its members. Not all people work at the too much. No one is expected to volunteer until who share a similar concern, hybrid groups have same rate. The idea that everyone should do an they suffer or burn out. The volunteers emerge to be intentionally formed. These groups are equal amount of work is to measure a member's from among those who have excessive time, made up of people who are focusing their atten- value by quantity instead of quality. As long as labour power, funding, space, or some combina- tion on one or two characteristics that they share the process is pleasurable and satisfying for every- tion thereof, and need to burn it off to return to in common, and who put potentially conflicting one, in CAE's opinion, each member should work equilibrium. Consequently, activity waxes and differences aside. This kind of alliance, created at the rate at which they are comfortable. Rigid wanes depending on the situations and motiva- for purposes of large-scale cultural production equality in this case can be perverse and destruc- tions of the members. and/or for the visible consolidation of economic tive and should be avoided. To reinforce the Problems certainly occur. However, Nettime is and political power, is known as a coalition. pleasure of the group, convivial relationships still the most congenial large-scale collective envi- CAE has supported a number of coalitions in beyond the production process are necessary. The ronment in which CAE has ever worked. The rea- the past, including various ACT UP chapters and primary reason for this need is because the mem- son is that this loose coalition began with the PONY (Prostitutes of New York), and has organ- bers will intensify bonds of trust and intimacy romantic principle of accepting non-rational char- ised temporary localised ones as well. One of the that will later be positively reflected in the pro- acteristics. It believed that a large collective problems we had with such alliances was in nego- duction process. Intimacy produces its own pecu- could exist based on principles of trust, altruism, tiating service to the coalition while maintaining liar friction, but the group has a better chance of and pleasure; rather than on the Hobbesian its collective practice. Coalitions often consume surviving the arguments and conflicts that arise, assumption of the war of all against all, or an over- as much energy as a person is willing to put into as long as in the final analysis each member trusts valuation of the organisational principles of them; hence membership burnout is quite com- and can depend on fellow members. Collective accountability and categorical equality. Nettime mon. After a few years of this variety of activism, action requires total commitment to other mem- functions using just one fail-safe system—self- members were ready to retreat back into less visi- bers, and this is a frightening thought for many destruction—it skips all the alienating bureaucra- ble cellular practice. CAE began looking for a individuals. Certainly, collective practice is not cy necessary for managing endless accountability model of coalition different from the single issue for everyone. procedures. If Nettime self-destructs, all mem- model. bers will walk away whole, and will look for new One potential answer has come by way of our opportunities for collective action. An alliance affiliation with Nettime, a loosely knit coalition of Coalitions, Not Communities with the temporary is one of Nettime's greatest activists, artists, theorists, techies, collectives, and While cellular collective structure is very useful in strengths. solving problems of production, long-term person- organisations from Europe and North America al co-operation, and security (for those involved in that have come together for reasons of general- underground activities), like all social constella- ised support for radical cultural and political Final Thought tions, it has its limits. It does not solve many of causes*. It has approximately 700 members, and Although they are in a sec- the problems associated with distribution, nor can has existed for about six years. Nettime functions ondary position in terms of cul- it fulfil the functions of localised cultural and as an information, distribution, and recruitment tural organisational possibilities, political organisations. Consequently, there has resource for its members. The core of its exist- cells and coalitions still present always been a drive toward finding a social princi- ence is virtual: member contact is maintained a viable alternative to individu- ple that would allow like-minded people or cells through an online list, various newsgroups, and an al cultural practices. Collective to organise into larger groups. archive. In addition, the coalition holds occasion- action solves some of the prob- Currently, the dominant principle is ‘communi- al conferences (the first two, Metaforum I and II, lems of navigating market-driv- ty.’ Without doubt the liberal equivalent of the were held in Budapest in 1995 and 1996; Beauty en cultural economy by allowing conservative notion of ‘family values’—neither and the East was held in Ljubljana in 1997), pro- the individual to escape the exists in contemporary culture, and both are duces and contributes to cultural projects (such as skewed power relationships grounded in political fantasy. For example, the Hybrid Workspace at Documenta X), acts as a between the individual and the "gay community" is a term often used to refer to resource for various political actions, and produc- institution. More significantly, all people who are gay within a given territory. es books from its archive (such as README: however, collective action also Even in a localised context, gay men and women ASCII Culture and the Revenge of Knowledge). helps alleviate the intensity of populate all social strata, so it is very hard to From CAE's perspective, one of the elements alienation born of an overly believe that this aggregate functions as a commu- that makes Nettime a more pleasurable experi- rationalised culture by recreat- nity within such a complex society. To complicate ence is that unlike most coalitions, it is anarchistic ing some of the positive points of friendship net- matters further, social variables such as race, eth- rather than democratic. Nettime has no voting works within a productive environment. For this nicity, gender, education, profession, and other procedures, committee work, coalition officers, reason artists' research into alternative forms of points of difference are not likely to be lesser nor any of the markers of governance through rep- social organisation is just as important as the tra- points of identification than the characteristic of resentation. Hierarchy emerges in accordance ditional research into materials, processes, and being gay. A single shared social characteristic with who is willing to do the work. Those who are products. can in no way constitute a community in any soci- willing to run the list have the most say over its construction. At the same time, the general policy ological sense. Talking about a gay community is *The description of the Nettime coalition given in for coalition maintenance is "tools not rules." as silly as talking about a ‘straight community.’ this essay is solely from CAE's perspective. It was Those building the virtual architecture govern by The word ‘community’ is only meaningful in this not collectively written nor approved by the providing space for discussions that are not of case as a euphemism for ‘minority.’ The closest Nettime membership. social constellation to a community that does general interest to the entire list. They also direct exist are friendship networks, but those too fall the flow of information traffic. Whatever mem- short of being communities in any sociological bers want to do—there is a place to do it. For Critical Art Ensemble (C.A.E.) is a collective of sense. events in real space, the primary rule of "those six artists of different specializations committed Who really wants community in the first place, who do the work have the biggest say" still to the production of a new genre art that explores as it contradicts the politics of difference. applies. Indeed, there is considerable room for the intersections among critical theory, art and Solidarity based on similarity through shared eth- exploitation in such a system, yet this does not technology. nicity, and interconnected familial networks sup- occur with much frequency because members http://critical-art.net/ ported by a shared sense of place and history, have sufficient trust in and allegiance to other page 28 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 Zine & Comics review Mark Pawson

Apologies for the absence of this money we owe you until we owe you a bit more’! File next to a couple of other copies of this issue column in the last issue, I was A decidedly non-glamorous look at the entertain- which you’ll be lending to friends. busy doing some wallpapering ment industry/music business. Is Jack Grahl an A couple of year ago I used to flick throughWhile and went to Japan in search of artist or accountant? File next to your overdraft you were sleeping and put it swiftly back in Tower strange print creations, there’s a statements and bounced cheques. Records magazine racks when I came to the pages bumper crop of reading material Mascara was Peter Kohler’s dinky little handmade of spray painted subway trains. Recent issues are in this issue, hopefully it was publication that I imagine he carried all the cop- much improved, it’s put together by a bunch of worth the wait…. ies round in his pocket for a couple of weeks twenty-nothing, never-grow-up guys from Writing a book about all the pre- before he could bear to part with them. His latest Maryland, who have mucho fun picking feuds vious books you’ve written, book came as a surprise, Open is a thick 100 page with the Spam Museum, interviewing hookers designed and published sounds slab of a book, which I’ve been working my way (most issues) and interviewing whichever member like an ultimate conceit but through deliberately slowly, savouring each page of the Wu Tang Clan comes to hand (most issues). Leonard Koren’s 13 Books (notes of his multiple unlikely comic strips, First Ladies Basic interview technique—ask the most stoopid on the design, construction & vs. the Ghost of Papa Doc Duvalier, Vicious questions you can get away with. There’s a great marketing of my last…) is a sat- Shrimp Man, Old Mad Witch, Mortal Man, 5-finger-discount shoplifting fashion feature, isfying, successful book in it’s Screaming Ball and the Floating Skull, The cacophony society style pranks and Jello reminisc- own right and manages to avoid Gnome and the Antidepressants and The ing about Joey (Biafra/Ramone). There’s still a the depths of self-indulgence. Koren’s earlier Laughing Fruits. File next to Al Ackerman’s ‘Let few vandalised trains in there but thankfully out- books published over the last 25 years were about Me Eat Massive Pieces of Clay’ weighed by more interesting post-graf/billboard baths & bathing and Japanese HAW! Horrible, horrible cartoons by Ivan modification work from the likes of Twist, Reas, fashion, business and aesthetics, Brunetti. A collection of morally reprehensible, Espo, Margaret Kilgallen and Shawn Wolfe plus each book in turn is examined heads down, no nonsense, mindless yucko-depravo some notable recent cover artwork from Mitch anecdotally in terms of: subject cartoons by Ivan Brunetti. Is this scathing social O’Connell and John ”Garbage Pail Kids” Pound. matter, inspiration, organising critique, or is he just a complete Sick Fuck? I File where your mum won’t find it. principle, greatest difficulty, dunno and after reading it several times I’m “I love the smell of vandalism early in the morn- degree of success and enduring ashamed to even get half the references in there, ing” declares UK graffiti artist Banksy. Banging lesson, the scheme is completed its the kind of book you would hope they had dif- your head against a brick wall is a collection of with Gary Panter’s hand drawn ficulty finding a printer to accept! There’s not a recent work which he’s generously stencilled on illustrations of the original single cartoon in here I could get away with walls across London—doing his own bit for the books, showing the cover and describing, well perhaps the one with cute kids abolition of gallery admission fees. These no frills details from each book, (apart hustling heroin to a recently landed space alien, black & white spraypainted works are deceptively from one book cover which was or maybe the one of grandpa and grandma in the simple, juxtaposing familiar images; schoolgirls enforced on Koren by a publish- computer showroom ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah... Skip the hugging bombs, surveillance cameras peeping out er, and which he refuses to mumbo-jumbo son... Just show us how to get por- of dustbins and Mona Lisa with a rocket launcher. include in his own book!) 13 nography on this fuckin’ thing.’ But the one with Banksy’s virtuoso piece is a ‘designated graffiti Books should be of interest to an earnest looking couple at the dinner table with area’ stencil for use on pristine white walls, illus- anyone involved in making the woman wondering out loud ‘Is sperm Vegan?’ trated with photos of graffiti encrusted walls a books, whether or not they are familiar with is clearly going too far, and we’ve not even started few days after being ‘officially designated’. Koren’s previous books. As a bookmaker, seller, on sex, death, drugs and mutilation in imaginative Banging your head against a brick wall is splat- collector and reviewer, admit- combinations. HAW! is probably not available in tered with useful how-to hints, Banksy’s paranoid tedly I’m predisposed to this your local comic shop. File in the Toilet or next to method rants and his it’s-only-art-if-you-can-get- type of book, I might even your collection of those naughty eros comics. arrested-for-doing-it mantra. There’s no vandalised revive ‘Mark’s Little Book about SUGAR BOOGER, Kevin Scalzo, is a beautiful trains in here and no Krylon spraypaint fetishisa- Mark’s Books’ which I started in tion either—‘Cheap British paint is fine’. Word on 1989 and never quite got round pocket sized candy-coloured comic featuring Sugar Booger, a big happy bear, who likes nothing the street is that the police have collected an to finishing. File next to Wabi- impressive portfolio of Banksy’s work and would Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets better than playing with kids in the park, unfortu- nately all the children he meets have been indoc- very much like to see him put somewhere there’s & Philosophers, 283 Useful lots of walls and no spraypaint, so it looks like Ideas from Japan and Success trinated not to talk to strangers and freak out when he tries to make friends with them. Sugar Banksy may be taking an early voluntary retire- Stories—How eleven of Japan’s ment. most interesting businesses Booger wins them over by swallowing an enor- came to be, all by Leonard mous sack full of candy and using his unique tal- PUNK PLANET #46 is a great find, this issue is an Koren. ent to produce copious amounts of sweet snot! Art & Design special issue covering a broad spec- SUGAR BOOGER—a versatile plaything that kids trum of artists whose work is informed and It’s a book full of dots. Dot...age can play with, make models out of, bounce around inspired by their interpretations of the punk/do-it- by Yasushi Cho. is a delectable on and even eat! Beautiful and bonkers. File next yourself ethos. PUNK PLANET #46 features a full colour handsewn book of to Archer Prewitt’s Sof’Boy. range of artists from the internationally known: dots, not just any dots, but those Jamie Hernandez of Love & Rockets comics, the lines of full stops...... found on the contents I’ve reviewed World War 3 Illustrated before so they wouldn’t normally get another mention, but recently resurfaced Gee Vaucher who did all the pages of books...... in telephone directories CRASS Artwork and Shepard Fairey of GIANT/ and on order forms...... lines World War 3 Illustrated #32, their response to 11/9/2001/NYC is an extremely powerful and mov- Andre the Giant notoriety to smaller local initia- of dots to impose order on empty tives & projects; SF’s Pond Gallery, Chicago Barrio space and inform the eye where to ing issue. Reviewing it seems superfluous, so here’s the editor’s introduction in full: Murals and the Mobilivre Bookmobile taking in look next. Is there a proper name along the way a host of indy cartoonists and for these incidental dots known “We published the first issue of World War 3 Illustrated unclassifiable individuals such as Elliot Earls— only to typographers and dot-spot- in 1980. It contained images of New York City in ruins. typographer/musician. I’m not sure if having four ters? Dot...age displays a purity of Nuclear war seemed imminent. As conditions got different ‘limited edition’ covers is very PUNK, conception which is reminiscent of worse under Reagan, war became a metaphor for our but then I never felt the need to buy Generation early Concrete Poetry. File inside daily lives. Today in 2002 we are experiencing real war X’s King Rocker 7” in all four different colours of Found Poems, Bern Porter, on our doorstep here in Manhattan. We see war and vinyl either, so what do I know? Something Else Press 1972. the city with new eyes. This 32nd issue of World War 3 Unsurprisingly I found some great books in Japan, Illustrated contains the diverse reactions of New York No payment will be made until bal- perfect eye candy for image junkies, never mind artists, writers and cartoonists to the disaster. This issue ance equals $50.00, a small artists the language barrier! Travel about KAOHAME: grows out of our personal experience. From seeing, book by Jack Grahl is a collection 88 best shots by Ijichi Hiroyuki, is a photographic hearing, smelling and living with this insane event. We of record company royalty state- collection of painted wooden figures with holes are not trying to prove a point. We are asking questions. ments which inform the recipient; for faces—for you to stand behind and have your Trying to make sense out of the incomprehensible. ‘We’re not going to pay you the photo taken. The Japanese are photo-crazy, snap- Looking for our Humanity in the rubble.” variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 29

ping each other wherever they go and these Useless Japanese Inventions. Kaohame sited in tourist locations and vacation Ultraman is the enormously popular rubbersuited spots provide yet another photo Japanese superhero who has been battling goofy opportunity. Hiroyuki has trav- space monsters for the last 30 years. In Daddy is elled across Japan photograph- Ultraman, a beautiful children’s book by Tatsuya ing Kaohame which come in a Miyanishi we see the domestic side of his life, at variety of shapes; historical/folk- home with his son and wife, ultramam. When lore characters, fish, movie stars, Ultraman comes home after a hard day fighting statues, and monster sized ice- evil monsters in a devastated city and sees the cream cones! Each Kaohame is wreckage of his son’s toy-strewn room he looses given a star rating and accompa- his composure and shouts at his son. Later on he nied with a small hand-drawn apologises by making paper masks of his many map of its location (essential to adversaries for his son to play with. Its all drawn find anything in Japan) together in a loose Keith Haring-esque style, with painstak- with train information and ingly handmade colour mis-separations. I hope the admission charges. It would idea of Daddy is Ultraman-type books doesn’t have been a nice touch to have catch on over here, can you imagine the horrors of included a few shots of the ‘Daddy is a Tellytubby’—unless Ivan Brunetti Kaohame actually being used by wrote and drew it? File in your kids room, or for sightseers and tourists. when you decide to learn Japanese. DAGASHI is 120 pages crammed full with colour Japanese books are unsurprisingly near-impossi- photos of cheap sweets, chocolates and candy cost- ble to get hold of outside of Japan, next time ing ¥20-30 (12-18p) and cheap you’re in Tokyo (?) check out PROGETTO, ON pocket money toys (¥50-100 / SUNDAYS, NADIFF, GALLERY 360 and Village 30-60p)! There’s a multitude of Vanguard. strange sweeties in eye-catching packages, ramshackle old lady Closer to home is London’s new Bookartbookshop sweet shops, traditional specialising in artists books and small press publi- Japanese sweet makers, sweet cations. Bookartbookshop only opened in crispy tonkatsu pork fillets, February 2002 and has already built up an impres- candy chopsticks, lucky lottery sive stock, successfully filling a gap in London’s sweets, rice snacks galore, street bookshops and providing a much needed special- fair foods, snack noodles pack- ist venue for artists books and small press publi- aged as cigarettes and things cations. They deserve your support, and did I you can only guess at. Imagine mention that they sell my books? the research for this book, it 13 Books, Leonard Koren, $17.95. leonardkoren. would be like giving a couple of com pesky seven year olds £100 and Dot...age, by Yasushi Cho, ¥780, [email protected]. saying now off you go and buy ne.jp www5.ocn.ne.jp/~laughter as many different sweets and toys as you can, don’t spend no payment will be made until balance equals more than 50p on any item and don’t come back $50.00 Jack Grahl, 21 Hampton Rd, Forest Gate, till you’ve spent all the money! Watch out for London E7 OPD Pick’n’Mix Challenge on some dodgy digital chan- Open, Peter Kohler, [email protected] nel soon… I don’t even want to HAW! Horrible, horrible cartoons by Ivan know why this book was put Brunetti. $8.95 Fantagraphics together or what the text says, I’m just happy to know it exists. SUGAR BOOGER, Kevin Scalzo, $3.95. www. File next to Sugar Booger and a kevinscalzo.com box of cheap sweets and penny World War 3 Illustrated, $3.50+p&p, World War 3, chews big enough to make you POBox 20777, Tompkins Square Sta., NY, NY sick if you ate them all at once. 10009 USA In The Mambonsai 2 Paradise while you were sleeping $4.98 www.whileyouw- Yamamoto combines Bonsai, tra- eresleeping.com ditional Japanese ornamental shrubs with plastic railway Banging your head against a brick wall, Banksy, model figures into a series of £4 ,www.akuk. www.banksy.co.uk precisely arranged tableaux. PUNK PLANET, $9.00 inc p+p. www.punkplanet. Look closely amongst the shrub- com bery and moss in The Travel about KAOHAME: 88 best shots. Ijichi Mambonsai 2 and you’ll notice Hiroyuki the little people, they’re not pix- ies or elves, but grumpy old DAGASHI, Shinchosha ¥1600 men, reluctant hikers, skinny-dippers and skiving The MAMBONSAI 2, Paradise Yamamoto, ¥1700, workmen. Yamamoto creates beauty spots crawl- www.mambonsai.com ing with photographers and a forest which is a DADDY IS ULTRAMAN,(and 6 more books in the popular site for committing sui- series) Tatsuya Miyanishi ¥1170 cide. The book is supplemented with beautiful diagrams, a size PROGETTO, 5-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya, Tokyo chart comparing Mambonsai www.progetto.co.jp with the Tokyo tower and Mt ON SUNDAYS, 3-7-6 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. Everest and there’s even a www.watarium.co.jp Mambonsai theme song. NADIFF, in Aoyama. www.nadiff com Thankfully The Mambonsai 2 is bilingual, with good translations, GALLERY 360 in Omotesando although later on in the book Village Vanguard in Shimo-Kitazawa Yamamoto warns us “In case you know little about Japanese Bookartbookshop, 17 Pitfield St, London N1 6HB, culture, please consult a profes- Wed-Sat 1-7pm, 020 7608 sional before trying to decipher 1333 www.bookartbookshop.com this high-level, intellectual and sophisticated chart.” A truly unique and loopy, book. File next to Kenji Kawakami’s 101 page 30 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 The March The story of the historic Scottish hunger march Harry McShane Introduction On Friday, 9th June 1938, along the main roads Originally published in 1933 by the National leading to Edinburgh, columns of men were Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM) this story marching; men with bands, banners, slogans, eve- relates events seventy years ago. Massive numbers of ryone equipped with knapsack and blanket, their people were out of work in those days, with the field cookers on ahead: an army in miniature, an attendant poverty and misery. unemployed army, the Hunger Marchers. Readers of Three Days That Shook Edinburgh will In the ranks were men of all political opin- themselves feel angry that so little has been done by ions—Labour men, Communists, ILP; there were the labour movement to organise and fight back Trade Unionists and non-Unionists; there were against the ravages of unemployment in the present even sections of women marchers—all marching situation. The daily growing number of unemployed four abreast, shoulder to shoulder, keeping step, are not involved in organising contemporary protest surging along rhythmically. marches to any great degree, and compared to the Here was the United Front of the workers, one of the first fronts of the drive for Unity now being efforts, the imagination and the organisation of the The Hunger March of June 1933, was a coping made in all parts of Britain. NUWM in the thirties they are puny affairs. stone to a whole series of mass activities which In a situation where more than ten people are had swept Scotland. In Glasgow, in Renfrewshire, chasing every vacancy; where more than a million Youth in Fifeshire, Lanarkshire, Dumbartonshire, even workers have been unemployed for more than a year; An outstanding feature of the March was the pre- in far north Aberdeen and Fraserburgh, the mass when the majority of school leavers can't find a job, dominant part played in it by the young workers. movement of the unemployed had developed. and in many cases are not entitled to any benefits; At least 50 per cent of the Marchers could be clas- Despite sneers, insults, batonings, jailings, the agi- and finally, when most men and women over fifty sified as young workers. Their discipline, courage tation had developed, thousands of meetings held, can be taken off the unemployment register to reduce and determination were of the very highest order incessant delegations and deputising, huge popu- the total, and they realise that they may never work and showed how the Youth can assist to a tremen- lar petitions containing the demands of the unem- again - has the time not come when we must raise dous degree the fight of the Unemployed. ployed organised, mass demonstrations held. the fundemental question of the very existence of the This March, with its strong Youth representa- Clashes with the police were frequent (in capitalist system? tion, is a living refutation of the pessimists who Glasgow, due to plain clothes policemen provoca- Long before labour leaders became respectable, assert that the young workers are not interested tion, a fierce fight took place on Glasgow Green they discussed and organised on street comers and, as in the struggle. It drives home the necessity of the and fourteen policemen were injured). A tremen- this pamphlet shows, fought for decent living condi- most careful and extensive preparations being dous petition, containing the signatures of over tions in the midst of mass unemployment. The pio- made so that in every area and locality the young 112,000 people was organised, a concession of 1s neers of the working class unions did have a dream workers will be drawn into the general mass activ- 6d per child literally torn out of the Glasgow PAC1 - it was called Socialism. In a world where what is ity. It reinforces a thousand times the urgent by mass pressure— only to have the National on offer is only booms and slumps with the occasion- necessity of building strong Youth sections of the Government2 step in, in order to prevent a work- al war thrown in, there must be a better way. Unemployed Movement. ers' victory in Glasgow. In 1983, when he was ninety years old, Harry In Fife, in Dumbartonshire, even in Ayrshire, McShane was interviewed by the magazine Socialist the workers forced concessions. Review, and had this to say: Why They Marched County Hunger Marches in Fife, Ayrshire, The marchers were going to Edinburgh, endeav- "Last night on television Michael Foot was talking about Lanarkshire, were organised. They were very suc- ouring to secure an interview with Sir G Collins, unemployment, that it would be with us for a long time cessful. More and more workers were being Secretary of State for Scotland. They proposed to to come. For the first time he was admitting that brought into the struggle; hope was being given to lay before him the steadily worsening conditions unemployment is a permanent feature under capitalism. the faint-hearted and the lukewarm. The struggle of the unemployed masses of Scotland, to demand He had no solution to offer, and he said "we can't raise against the means Test, the Dole Cuts, the increased relief for semi-starving men, women people's hopes". We have to make propaganda and say Anomalies Act was intensifying. The stage was set and children, and to put certain carefully thought clearly there can be no solution to the problem of for an all-Scottish Hunger March to raise the fight out proposals for work schemes which would help unemployment under capitalism. We have to argue that to a still greater height. The famous Hunger to give employment to tens of thousands of the alongside the fight to improve the conditions of the March in June was the result. unemployed army; to demand the ending of the unemployed we must fight all the time to change the Not an isolated event, not a stunt, but the logi- embargo on Russian goods which was preventing system. That is the only solution..." cal development, the coping stone, of the mass employment for 60,000 Engineering workers local activities throughout the winter and spring. Les Foster (including many in Scotland) because of stoppage The preparations for the March were more of Soviet orders. They marched for work, for thorough and wide-spread than anything hitherto. bread, and for maintenance of all unemployed. Not simply to organise contingents of marchers, The marching unemployed were the delegates, but to organise a mass working-class support for the representatives of their four hundred thou- the March contingents, to bring factory workers, sand unemployed comrades at home. Every trade, Trade Union branches, Co-operatives, Trades every industry, was present. The workers of Councils into the March, to get active support in Scotland stood behind the Marchers, stood behind popularising the Demands. their demands for work and maintenance, stood Hunger Marchers' Councils were organised in behind their Hunger 'Trek to Edinburgh. the areas composed of delegates from as many Our Demands working-class organisations as possible; hundreds of March Recruiting Meetings were held; Trade (1) Abolition of the Means Test. Union Branches circularised, and in some cases (2) That children of unemployed be granted 1s 6d visited; public correspondence initiated with Sir per week extra, and that adult unemployed and adult Godfrey Collins and with Town Councils and dependants be granted 3s per week extra. These Trades Councils on the main routes to Edinburgh; increases to apply to all unemployed whether in receipt resolutions passed from a very large number of of statutory or transitional payments or in receipt of Trade Union branches and from meetings, Public Assistance. demanding that Collins be present; Town Councils (3) That rents be reduced 25 per cent. and Councillors deputised; a regular series of (4) That the Social Service Schemes and all propagandist and agitational activities which had voluntary labour connected with the same be a tremendous result in focusing attention on the repudiated. In addition, the lifting of the Embargo on March and in breaking down the former isolation the Soviet Union and conclusion of a new Trade of the unemployed from the employed and trade Agreement. union workers. variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 31

All this time the recruiting for the March con- as to whether Mr Citrine4 or the TUC endorsed or tingents was going on, the Field Kitchens were did not endorse the March. prepared, money and foodstuffs collected—a sig- No! The workers realised instinctively that this nificant feature, indicating the progress made in was their own people who were marching, their breaking down isolation, was the very fine own class, kith and kin; it was "their side", and response from Trade Union branches and anybody who opposed it was on the other side. Co-operatives in sending donations and passing determined. Not a single contingent had accom- The class character of the March broke resolutions demanding that Collins come to modation guaranteed, not a single contingent through all the flimsy arguments of the Labour Edinburgh. The Recruiting Form, as follows, ena- entertained the slightest doubt that it would be and Trade Union leaders and showed, as in a light- bled the best type of Marchers to be recruited, secured. They knew that the pressure of the mass- ening flash, where they stood—on the other side and prevented our enemies saying that anyone es was something that no Town Council nor of the barricade. was mislead. bureaucratic Provost could long stand against. In this pamphlet there is not one-tenth of the In Glasgow there was a tremendous send-off; space required to tell of one-half of the episodes of this memorable March, of the heroism and SCOTTISH HUNGER MARCH thousands of people gathered at George Square; and as the March started—headed by Comrades determination that kept men plugging on with Declaration Form McGovern; Heenan of the ILP; Aitken Ferguson, feet torn, blistered, bloody, even when their com- May, 1933. Communist Party; Henderson, Glasgow Organiser rades and leaders wanted them to take a bus into I of the NUWM; and Harry McShane, Scottish Corstorphine; of comrade Heenan, whose feet were in a terrible condition and who wrenched his Name ...... Organiser of the NUWM and the March—there was a great send-off. All the road out to ankle six miles from Corstorphine, but who obsti- Address ...... Bishopbriggs a huge demonstration accompanied nately refused even to consider giving up, and the Marchers, then lined the roadside, and kept tramping doggedly on. How can one tell of promise that while on the March 1 will observe strict cheered the March contingent as it set off on its the humour, the healthy, salty humour, that discipline, as I realise that unless discipline is observed first lap (Kilsyth). refused even to consider downheartedness even the greatest dangers will arise for the marchers. when tramping along at the end of a twenty-mile march through two hours of pelting rain? How can I also undertake to stay in Edinburgh until the main one write of the discipline, the comradeship, the body of marchers leave. I have been informed that The first barrier surmounted In this town the Provost and the Labour Town glowing loyalty of the marchers, that would have there are no guarantees about returning on any Council had refused any assistance whatever. "No inspired a dead man! particular day. I come on the march with that use the Marchers coming here"; Notting could be understanding, and will observe the agreement. done"; "Nobody wanted them"; etc. But what a I understand the significance of this march and fully reception at Kilsyth! The entire town, almost Into Edinburgh support the demands to the Government. without exception, turned out to greet the At 4pm, Sunday, 11th June, all the contingents Signed...... Marchers. the Town Council meeting scheduled reached the Central Meeting Place at for that night was hastily abandoned, and the Corstorphine. What a sight it was as each contin- NOTE— No one can be allowed on the march who has Councillors and Provost disappeared. Quarters gent marched in; what a cheer they got from the not filled in this form. were found for the men in the Salvation Army rest! headquarters; a gigantic meeting was held in the An especial welcome was given to the women The concentration against the Park by comrades McGovern, Heenan, McShane, marchers, whose spirit and determination were Ferguson; a unanimous vote of support for the marvellous. march Marchers was given. The staff work at Corstorphine was splendid. Never at any time has there been such concentra- The townspeople were ours—no doubt, hesita- Everything worked on ball bearings. The tion against any March as against this. Capitalist tion or dubiety about where they stood in relation Marchers' own Field Kitchens were in full blast, Town councils, Labour leaders, Trades Union to the March. They, like the overwhelming mass of and in an incredibly short time the whole army bureaucrats, with the Press, Police and Sir the workers everywhere the March touched, solid- was fed. Godfrey Collins joining in, all united in an unholy ly supported the Hunger Marchers. The whistle goes —Pheep-eep; the contingents alliance denouncing the March, refusing any This story of Kilsyth is the experience of every form up; then, headed by their bands, off they go assistance, trying to intimidate the workers with contingent—barriers erected by the enemies, into Edinburgh—one thousand strong—in military their refusal to grant either recognition, food or crumbling before the surge of working-class mass formation and discipline. accommodation. All along the routes, at the sug- pressure aroused by the very appearance of the The Edinburgh workers sent out a strong con- gested stopping places—Kilsyth, Bo'ness, Airdrie, Marchers. tingent to meet us and march in with us. The etc.—there was an obstinate refusal to grant All along the route, in every town and village, streets were lined all the way into Edinburgh with accommodation for the Marchers, a concentrated in almost every cottage the workers came out to sympathetic workers, tremendous enthusiasm pre- campaign of opposition and vilification on the welcome the marching unemployed. Coppers, vailing. part of the capitalists, the Labour and Trade which could ill be spared, clinked into the boxes; The result was that, seeing what was happen- Union leaders. women with tears in their eyes, wishing the men ing, the Authorities decided on a cautious policy. The situation was sharpening, the sides were "good luck" and dropping their contributions into We knew beforehand that we could be allowed becoming clearer defined. On the one hand the the collecting tins. peacefully to enter Edinburgh. Before the Unemployed Workers united with the Trade No hair-splitting arguments among the masses, Glasgow contingent left, letters were sent to Sir Union branches and Co-operative Guilds and fac- no asking themselves whether the Right Godfrey Collins, the Ministry of Labour, the tory workers organising the March; on the other Honourable Ceo. Lansbury MP3 Department of Health and the Education the capitalist Press and Police, plus the capitalist had given the March his pontifical blessing or not, no question Department, asking them to hear a deputation on councillors and Labour and Trade Union leaders Monday 12th June. Three telegrams were received mobilising and uniting to prevent and destroy the on the road—one from each Department—offer- March. ing to meet a deputation on Monday at 11am at the Ministry of Labour Office, 44 Drumsheugh The March Begins Gardens. We had no reply from Sir Godfrey Word came through on 6th June that Aberdeen Collins. These telegrams were the first recognition and Dundee contingents had set out to link up of the March; it was a break through. with Fife in Kirkcaldy. The March was on! The Ayrshire contingent linked up with Lanarkshire The marchers in Edinburgh and marched via Shotts and East Calder. The marchers had now arrived at their destina- Renfrewshire and Dumbartonshire came to tion, despite opposition and rumours to the effect Glasgow and set out via Coatbridge, Airdrie, that the March would be called off we marched to Bathgate, and Broxburn; with them marched a the Mound, where the formation was still main- women's section. tained. About 20,000 people had assembled here. The Glasgow men set out via Kilsyth and So dense was the crowd that many could not hear Falkirk, where they were joined by Stirlingshire, the speeches which were delivered. Councillor on to Bo'ness and Corstorphine. Paton gave a speech of welcome, which was By Friday afternoon all the contingents were replied to by McGovern, Heenan, Ferguson and under way. Along the four main highroads to McShane. The Marchers then went to the ILP Hall Edinburgh trumped steadily the Hunger at Bonnington Road, where a meal was provided Marchers, bands playing, flags flying, cheery and by the Edinburgh Reception Committee. page 32 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002

The first concession by the Authorities in the kitchens and received tea, a sausage roll and two Edinburgh was when the police agreed to lift the slices of bread, and again settled down in their places ban on collections in the streets, after the to consume their meal. Every corner of the square was Marchers had declared their intention of collect- utilised, and quite a number of men sat themselves ing from everyone who was prepared to assist the down on the steps at the west door of St. Giles March. Cathedral, while a score or so others, including a While feeding was going on, a deputation number of women, sat down on the step around the approached the police on the question of accom- Buccleuch Monument. After a while, some sought modation. They came back with a report to the shade in the far corner near the Signet Library. Some, effect that we could have Waverley Market. The more active, busied themselves in helping with the deputation had raised the question of blankets or further distribution of tea, whilst from parts of the boards being put on the stone floor. This request encampment came snatches of songs. Large numbers was refused, and the deputation turned down the of the public viewed the scene, although they were not offer of the Waverley Market. encouraged by the police to loiter. In the bright The struggle had now begun! The Marchers sunshine the Marchers were a colourful gathering, with were lined up and marched off. In reply to enquir- red flavours very much to the fore, while the owners lay ies as to where they were going, it was stated that down in ranks, and the appearance of a military they were going to the police station. The sugges- removal of anomalies in the scales of relief paid bivouac was enhanced when the 'flying squad' of tion was then made that we should sleep on Leith in various localities. A protest was made against cyclists arrived and 'stacked' machines."—Edinburgh Links. We said we would sleep where we could be the interference of the Ministry of Health last Press seen. December when Glasgow Public Assistance After waiting here some time, it was decided When the Marchers reached the Post Office, Committee recommended an increase for children that we go to the Meadows where the men could instead of going to the Police Station, they turned of unemployed during Christmas and New Year have a rest and hear a report of the deputation. along Princess Street, picked a place past the weeks. Mound, took off their kits and sat down! Within a In regard to education, the deputation asked few minutes news came along that McGovern and They march through Holyrood for more schools and a supply of better boots and The Marchers' road to the Edinburgh Meadows McShane were wanted by two men in a car. Word books for the children of the unemployed. lay down that historic thoroughfare, the Royal was sent back, "We are too tired, let them come They raised the question of the treatment of Mile, leading to the historic Royal Palace of here". They came along and told us they had the Hamilton "squatters" and stated that they Holyrood.5 secured the Oddfellows Hall, which we decided to should be properly housed by this time. Down go the swinging columns, down right to accept. They also protested against the embargo on the gates of Holyrood. "Turn to the right", says a When, however, the hall was filled up, there Soviet Russia, which is aggravating the unemploy- police official. The March leaders turn a deaf ear. was still a considerable number without accom- ment problem in this country. "Straight On!" "Straight on" it is, right through modation. In order to find accommodation the The deputation was told that their representa- the Palace grounds itself. The pompous official in Assistant Chief Constable and Aitken Ferguson tions were noted and would be sent to the proper charge at the Palace almost took an apoplectic fit! went to the Melbourne Hall which is owned by quarter. This was described by the deputation as His eyes literally bulged out with mingled aston- the Scottish Socialist Party. The Assistant Chief very unsatisfactory. After further discussion, the ishment and horror. Constable appealed for the hall on the grounds of deputation rejoined the Marchers outside. In go the columns, a mile of flaming, flaunting humanity, and offered to pay for it, but was met scarlet banners, headed by the Maryhill Band with a point blank refusal. The Marchers that playing Connolly's Rebel Song as if their lungs were left ultimately slept in the police muster In Parliament Square would burst. What a sight!! rooms. It was two o'clock in the morning before all In the meantime, while we were engaged in these The proletariat, the indomitable proletariat in the Marchers were sheltered. activities, the cooks (in accordance with a pre- arranged plan) had removed the cooking utensils their ragged clothes, have stepped into the most to Parliament Square. Just before two o'clock a sacred precincts in all Scotland! The marchers go to the Scottish large lorry arrived on the scene, laden with camp The walls and grounds of the Royal Palace of kitchens, dixies and canteens, large supplies of Holyrood—that innermost sanctuary of all the Office Royal parasites in Scotland's history—echo the On Monday after breakfast (which we had at pies and other foods and trestles and boards. tramp of the first legions of the masses. The walls Bonnington Road) we marched to Drumsheugh The three camp-kitchens were soon belching and ground of Holyrood that heard the music of Gardens where our deputation was to be heard. forth large clouds of smoke. Gallons and gallons Rizzio, and Mary Queen of Scots, hear the song of The Marchers sat outside while the deputation of tea were made, while boxes containing a large that murdered Irish leader, "The Rebel Song", was being heard. The deputation was inside the amount of food were unloaded. Some six or eight and then the thunderous battle cry of the world's building for two hours. It was composed of women assisted the Marchers' own cooks in pre- workers, 'The Internationale". Comrades McGovern, Ross of Lanarkshire, paring and serving the food. Never has Holyrood heard or witnessed any- McPherson of Fife, Harley of Greenock, Kelly of The unusual sight in this historical Square thing like this. No wonder the capitallsts are the NUR, and McShane. The deputation protested attracted large crowds of passers-by, and they shocked to the marrow! Is this a herald of the at the absence of Sir Godfrey Collins; and after seemed inclined to linger to watch the proceed- approaching storm which will shatter their domi- much discussion, persuaded the officials to tele- ings; but a large body of police arrived on the nation for ever? Murdered Connolly lives again; phone through to Collins in London. He persisted scene and kept them in motion. his spirit, his song, his memory inspires these in his refusal to meet the Marchers. The deputa- Hunger Marchers as they swing through the tion expressed its willingness to wait in grounds and then pass through the other gate. Edinburgh until he came. In the absence of On to the Meadows, where the men rested, Collins, the deputation proceeded to put the A striking scene heard a report of the deputation and a statement Marchers' demands before the permanent offi- "A remarkable scene was presented when the Marchers on the tasks now to be undertaken by Comrades cials present. encamped in the square in orderly lines. Within a few minutes, with packs off, they lined up in long queues at McShane, McGovern and Ferguson. It is significant that although the Marchers The deputation were able to smash the Press boycott on all other The deputation demanded the abolition of the activities relating to the March, not a single capi- Anomalies Act and the Means Test. They stressed talist Daily mentioned the March through the fact that women should not be compelled to Holyrood. Only the Daily Worker reported this go into domestic service, and that there should be event. Both during the preparations for the an end to voluntary labour under the Social March, then during the converging of the Service Schemes which, they said, was getting Marchers on Corstorphine, and finally over the people to do work for nothing and the thin end of historic three days and the return, the Daily the wedge for the introduction of compulsory Worker featured the March. We believe, however, labour in return for Unemployment Benefit. They the Holyrood Palace incident itself is sufficient asked for extensive work schemes such as the con- commentary on the value of the workers' own struction of the Forth Road bridge and a new Press. arterial road through Glasgow to be put in hand: all work to be paid at trade-union rates of wages and conditions. So far as the Department of Princes Street That night another desperate attempt was made Health was concerned, the deputation asked for to disorganise and disperse the March. an extension of benefits under the National Accommodation was again refused; no hall, noth- Health Insurance scheme, and pressed for the variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 33

ing could be found; if the Marchers cared, the morning after sleeping on the street: Meadows were available to them. “Mr John McGovern and Mr McShane were among the But it didn't demoralise these Marchers. After first to rise from their open-air ‘bunks’, and by eight an indignant, gigantic Protest Meeting at the o‘clock most of the men were recovering some of their Mound, another deputation returned from meet- spiritedness which they have displayed, and were ing the Authorities. "Only the streets are left to sitting against the railings, laughing and jesting, while us", they reported. A roar from the Marchers and supplies of food were rushed from the field-Kitchens at the workers of Edinburgh—"All right, we’ll sleep Simon Square and tea was being served steaming hot in the street; but by God, we'll pick the streets to from large and well-filled dixie cans. A number were sleep in!" too much overcome by fatigue to bother about food. Form up! Off to—where? Direct to Princes Street directly below the flood-lit Edinburgh Castle, directly opposite the plutocratic ‘The greatest street! Conservative and Liberal Clubs and the palatial hotels! The whistle goes, "Packs off! Make your- Look at it now!’ selves comfortable, boys; here's your bed for the Mr Harry Mc Shane and Mr Aitken Ferguson, another night!" member of the Council in charge of the marchers, in Never in all its history has Edinburgh wit- conversation with an Evening News representative in nessed anything like what followed. Right along Princess Street this morning, said they regarded the the South pavement in the most aristocratic street proudly showed to his leaders. action of the authorities in not giving them in Britain lay the Hunger Marchers—blankets and accommodation last night as a trumpery evasion, and It is impossible for passers-by to walk along the area of newspapers spread out for mattresses! The they thought it was clear that the authorities were footpath occupied by the marchers. Walking along on wealthy dress-suited plutocracy as they came from making efforts to drive them out of the city. They were the carriageway one heard snatches of conversation: their clubs and banquets, goggled, absolutely gog- determined that they would not be driven out in that gled! Here are excerpts from the Edinburgh Press, 'Slept well?' way, and even if they had to ‘grow into the ground’ they which showed their amazement: 'How did ye enjoy yer feather bed?' would not continue to make their sleeping quarters in Princes Street. The previous night, the police had 'Did ye feel a draught coming in during the night?' obtained them accommodation within ten minutes. Press reports Now the authorities were prepared to allow nearly "At a fairly late hour there was no sign of them A woman drummer 1,000 men and women to remain exposed to the dispersing, but it was a surprise to the large number of They were a good-natured crowd, laughing and joking. elements of a night in the open without regard to citizens remaining on Princes Street to see them spread An early morning urn of steaming tea was brought to health. out along the south pavement, set down their them, and they proceeded to entertain themselves— ‘Here is the greatest street in Europe,’ added Mr equipment, and prepare to stay there. and passers-by—until their breakfast arrived. They Ferguson; ‘just look at it now!’ The spectacle was amazing. Behind the huddled sang, flutes were played, while a women put on the big Mr McShane said he had taken part in five Hunger marchers was the Castle, brilliantly floodlit, while on drum and started banging it while another clashed Marches altogether, and in not one city had he had the north pavement strong forces of police patrolled cymbals; there was an attempt at dancing, and a youth such an experience as to have been compelled to and kept the crowds of bewildered theatre-goers and showed how a drum-major's staff should be swung. remain in the streets all night. Right at the western end of the camp, Mr McGovern others on the move. Motorists stopped to survey the Mr Ferguson cynically recalled that a week or two ago MP, one of the leaders, lay 'abed' cleaning his shoes, extraordinary scene before they were moved on, and Mr McGovern had been invited to attend the General when an Evening Dispatch representative made a tour practically all traffic—quite considerable for a time— Assembly in Edinburgh as the guest of Mr John Buchan. of the marchers this morning. By his side, Mr McShane, had to use the north side of the street to avoid the Mr McGovern had now visited Edinburgh, and was another of the leaders, lay stretched out."—Edinburgh equipment of the marchers. given the hospitality of Princess Street along with the Dispatch This surprising manoeuvre suffered no interference marchers, instead of Holyrood Palace. from the police. The marchers were orderly, though several high-spirited sections were occasionally noisy. The marchers’ strength Were they demoralised? Did the Authorities' plan ‘Here We Are And Here We Stay’ succeed of intimidating and frightening the Marchers Walking until dawn ‘In view of this new situation’, added Mr Mc Shane, ‘Mr by forcing them to sleep out on the pavements? No! "With banners stacked against the railings of the McGovern had been contemplating remaining in gardens and the last tunes played on the flute bands, It was the Authorities who were demoralised and Edinburgh instead of attending the House of Commons some of the marchers equipped with proper sleeping panicky. The Marchers—men and women—inspired by for the unemployment debate tomorrow. The bags turned in for the night, with shoes, etc., set on the their cause, feeling and knowing they had the support Marchers’ Council had been considering the matter, and kerb. Others paraded up and down amongst the of the working masses everywhere, were more were of the opinion that Mr McGovern should go to sleeping forms, but after a couple of hours nearly determined, more united, more militant than ever. Their London to bring attention to the plight of the marchers everyone was either asleep or dozing. spirit of self-imposed discipline had been tested and from a national platform. emerged with flying colours. The first hour or so was passed in proper camp-fire 'So far', said Mr McShane, 'here we are and here we stay manner with, occasionally, songs and choruses, whilst So determined were the men that they beat the police until another decision is reached. We can breakfast, remarks such as 'Let's put out the lights and go to objections to having their meals in Princes Street and dinner or tea here, and the men require a rest. They can sleep', greeted the extinguishing of the Castle had their breakfast and dinner there. Princes Street— have that rest in Princes Street. We have decided to give floodlighting system. It was indeed the 'Lights Out', which had been turned into a dormitory by the actions them a long lie in "bed" this morning' —Edinburgh however, and the camp became quiet, patrolled at the of the Authorities—was now turned into an open-air Evening News distance of the width of the street by the police"— dining place by the Marchers themselves! Edinburgh Dispatch By this time the Press, that tried to ignore the March, The Town Clerk wants a guarantee "Historic Princes Street has known many unusual sights, was pestering us for interviews. The following from the It was clear that the March had stirred but that presented this morning when the marchers' Edinburgh Evening News of 13th June is an example, Edinburgh to its very depths. Nothing like it had camp, extending for over two hundred yards, from and explains to some extent the situation on the ever occurred to disturb the repose of Scotland's midway between Hanover and Frederick Streets to Capital. The job was now to mobilise Scotland to midway between Castle Street, was unique. organise the sympathy and support which existed It had to be seen to be believed. Men and women were to carry on a fight in every county, town and vil- rising from their hard couches while citizens were lage for the development of schemes of work and passing to their work by motor car, tram and on foot. relief scales. Men shaved with their mirrors supported on the A deputation on behalf of the Marchers, con- railings of West Princes Street Gardens, which were sisting of the Rev. Mr Marwick and Capt. JR 6 kept closed, and others washed and dried themselves White , interviewed the Authorities on the ques- at a fountain in the middle of the marchers' tion of accommodation for the Marchers, but with- encampment. Policemen in twos and threes marched out success. up and down. Then it was decided that the March should approach the PAC on this and other questions. A One man slept in a bathing suit, with a newspaper as a very heated discussion ensued between the mattress and a single blanket as cover. Another rose Marchers' deputation and the PAC officer in this morning and wrote a song, 'For Liberty', which he Edinburgh, Mr Douglas, a most impudent and page 34 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002

self-satisfied individual, who informed the depu- Our lessons tation that the PAC was open day and night for The March has shown the tremendous militancy applications. and feeling for Unity which exists all over On the return of the deputation, they were Scotland. It has demonstrated deafly before the informed that the Assistant Chief Constable and eyes of all, that while the masses of the workers the Town Clerk Depute had proposals to make to are steadily coming together, the leadership and the March leadership. These proposals were: the policy of the Labour Party and Trade Unions They left the building evidently dissatisfied with the in the main supports Capitalism. (1) That the Authorities were prepared to pay the result of their mission. Their demands were for food Balance (over £80) towards the cost of Transport and accommodation for the men, or, alternatively, for of the Marchers returning to their homes; free transport for the marchers to their homes. (2) That this would only be done provided that a Thanks to the citizens guarantee was given that no more Marches to Mr Aitken Ferguson, on behalf of the Marchers' Council, Edinburgh would take place. stated that he would like to convey his appreciation of They were told promptly and straightly that there the response which the citizens of Edinburgh had given would be no such guarantee given. to the appeal of the marchers, and he mentioned that notes plans were being considered for a much bigger march 1. Public Assistance Committee—PAC's were to Edinburgh in the near future. appointed by local authorities to administer The PAC bluff called the granting of relief for the unemployed. Immediately they left, the marchers formed up Chalked on the causeway in Simon Square, in bold and set off to the PAC Office. The March was call- letters, was the message: 'Edinburgh Workers Solidarity 2. 1931, unable to deal with the economic crisis — ing the bluff of Mr Douglas and the PAC. Six hun- Wins Scottish Hunger Marchers a Bed' obviously an Ramsey MacDonald, the then Labour Prime dred Marchers, supported by Edinburgh workers, appreciation of the local efforts made for the comfort Minister, dissolved the Labour Government and formed a coalition government with the lined up in order to make the individual applica- of the marchers last night"—Edinburgh Evening News It should be mentioned, however, that when Tories and Liberals—the National Government. tion for accommodation which Mr Douglas had negotiations broke down, the deputation gave the boasted of being ready to receive—and the result? 3. Leader of the Labour Party. Authorities an hour to provide a meal, failing Complete and total collapse of the Edinburgh 4. TUC General Secretary. which -in view of the fact that the Public PAC. Assistance Committee had refused to accept 5. Being a Glaswegian McShane can be forgiven for A tremendous outburst of anger from the applications for relief—we would take other steps confusing Queens Park with The Meadows. Queens Marchers at the refusal of the PAC to do anything Park is the name of the park beside Holyrood to secure a meal. 'This had the effect of having preceded a huge mass demonstration of Palace, while The Meadows are on Edinburgh's the Authorities telling us to spend the £30 we had Edinburgh workers who came to join the Southside. earmarked for the buses. When we said —What Marchers. Back to Princes Street, and then at about the buses, then? we were told confidentially 6. Capt JR White was an Irish Protestant, republican 11pm, a terrific demonstration through the City. and socialist. He organised the Irish Citizen Army that the buses would be all right. Later a meeting Edinburgh was out to a man—roused, militant. defend strikers from attack in the 1913 Dublin of Marchers was held at which a report was given. The courage and determination of the Marchers lockout. This body later formed the nucleus of An effigy of Sir Godfery Collins was burnt. A fur- had lit a flame of struggle among the masses of Connolly's Citizen Army. White fought with the ther meal was provided, while a deputation went the Edinburgh workers. Irish Republican Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, to the Ministry of Labour to raise the question of Never was there such a turnout and such became increasingly dismayed by the manipula- paying benefit to the Marchers for days they were tion of the International Brigades by the enthusiasm. The Marchers and workers were one, on the march. No progress was made here. About Communists and resigned his command and fused in a common struggle against the capitalist 5.30 the buses arrived for the Marchers, without worked for the anarcho-syndicalist CNT. governors. any guarantee being given and without any pay- It was a staggering blow to the authorities—a ment being made by the Marchers. The working victory thenceforth was assured. Halls were class had broken through! A smashing victory had speedily secured by the workers and the Marchers been obtained! At the last meeting of the were housed that night. Marchers in Edinburgh, when the final report was given, telegrams of support came from all quar- The final day ters—Notts and Derby, Teeside, London, Glasgow. The next day was the question of driving home A telegram from Calton announcing reinforce- the advantages gained. The following report from ments ready to leave drew a storm of cheers. the Edinburgh Evening News of 14th June Where was the guarantee of no future Hunger explains fairly well the situation on the March? Dropped like a hot brick in the face of the Wednesday morning. Marchers' refusal and the solidarity of the work- ers! "Mr McGovern MP and Mr McShane proceeded to the City Chambers in the forenoon for the purpose of making representations with regard to the position of The marchers come home the marchers in the city. And the welcome given to the returning There was being held at the time a meeting of the Lord Marchers! In Glasgow, for example, the streets Provost's Committee of the Town Council, which had were black with people waiting for the buses; been specially called to consider the situation. The meetings lasting until well after midnight were meeting was private, and at the close the Press held in the presence of tremendous, cheering representatives were informed that no statement crowds. The very mention of Unity and the United would be made regarding the proceedings. Front invariably drew tumultuous cheers. Mr McGovern and Mr McShane were not received by Edinburgh capitalists hope they have seen the the Committee, but after the meeting, consultations last of the Hunger Marchers. Their hopes are in took place between them and Mr Mackinnon, the vain and doomed to disappointment. Depute Chief Constable. page 35 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002