Category: Autonomy
‘Das Netz’ the Unabomber, LSD and the Internet
After the fall of Fascist Germany, the creation of another totalitarian regime should have been made impossible. The goal was to have a democratic, world society, made up of free, equal and emancipated human beings. Global computer networks, mirrors of reality, which would be accessible to all, would make this dream possible. The euphoria for new, emerging technologies fuelled their hopes. With Cybernetics, System theory and Constructivism being their bibles, they thought of the human brain as an information processing system, which hence could be connected to similar electronic systems.
In personal interviews, this film tells their story, which is also the tale of the birth of the Internet.
It also tells the story of the traitor. The man from within their midst, who decided to turn his back on their utopia; who left the machine and tried to bring it down.
Abstraction and loss of meaning
“Thought and dynamite, thought to lift up the weak,
dynamite to bring down the powerful.”
(Paul Schicchi)
The meagreness of the times does not happen by accident. For those with a world to demolish, abstraction and insignificance are increasingly becoming spectres. On the one hand, it is clear how an extremely technological system makes alienation abstract: real and virtual tend to mix, and feeling is devoured by it. What to do when despondency emerges in all its inconsistency in living? When one perceives the stasis but does not want to see the substance? This weightless alienation is strongly linked to the loss of meaning of every word. With whom to argue if everything has become unintelligible? If the juxtaposition has blurred the opposition? If one can say this and do its perfect opposite? If one considers life separate from survival because so much of this separation makes it comfortable to submerge in the safety of need, rather than to venture into the dark wilderness of desired and elusive freedom?
Then reinventing oneself might become an endeavor all to be explored. The struggle against oppression is but a tiny part of the insurrectional incumbency to take what is unheard of: life. We are always too young to wait, our existences are too short, and there have never been so many heads of tyrants to outrage and their kingdoms to destroy. To become expendable commodities in false consciousnesses is the opinion good for all seasons and to soothe tempers: realism. But my ideas, my body, my actions are not yesterday’s, will not be the same in tomorrow, and belong to no one but myself, for I think and feel. What has already been minted on currency, what has already been identified on commodities, what has already been programmed in infrastructure, what has already been shouted from captivity, what has already been drawn in art and what has already been written on so many smeared sheets of paper, hidden behind the imperatives of daily living, there is only the bondage that places us in a completely totalitarian constraint: lingering in the future.
The rulers of time and censors of space want to impose their own measure on all and everyone. Only our boundless pretensions can become the indispensable device to overturn all the abjectness of this world. Something can always happen, beyond generalized insignificance and alienating abstraction.
Without making an appointment with anyone, clutching the unpredictable by the hand, enjoying endlessly to embody what is furthest from technology: the thrilling beauty of revenge.
(Dardi, n. 8)
Source: Inferno Urbano
In Defence of Associative Specificity – Part III: “The marxian church against anarchist “sectarianism”” by Gustavo Rodriguez
Concerning (Inherently) Anarchist “Sectarianism” Part I
Consulting the dictionary: concepts and definitions of “sectarianism” Part II
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Part III: “The marxian church against anarchist “sectarianism””.
Anti-sectarian grammar achieved preeminence amidst the entanglements of the First International between 1864 and 1872. While during its first years the conceptual discrepancies between Proudhonians, Blanquists, Lassalleans and Marxists had been resolved without major tantrums within the International Workingmen’s Association (IWA), in 1868 tensions increased with the incorporation of Bakunin and a large group of like-minded people. The anarchists went so far as to demolish all the economistic onanism of Saint Charlie and his acolytes, placing in their sights the “gravest evil”. That is to say, the State (in particular) and all authority (in general). Thus, they erected their strongest theoretical specificity on the assumption that property or, generically, the relationship with the means of production, was not the only and excluding factor of “class” domination, but that the very instances of domination – and the State in particular – were also mechanisms that generated social groups that could be considered privileged.
On top of all that, the anarchists defended the full autonomy of the different sections of the IWA against the statutory centralism of the General Council tooth and nail. This position provoked the definitive rupture with the Marxists during the celebration of the V Congress of the Association in 1872. The theoretical-practical positions were irreconcilable and markedly antagonistic. For Saint Charlie, the International had to be the centralizing and guiding organ of the “movement”; while for the Russian anarchist and his comrades, it had to be a planetary conspiracy lacking a directing organ, centred on the concrete individual and his freedom; capable of eradicating all authority from the face of the earth, even that which was instituted in the name of the proletariat. By placing individual freedom and voluntary and autonomous association “before the historical development of society”, they received the eternal condemnation of the marxian Church and were accused of being “sectarians”; becoming the target of the wrath of Saint Charlie and his fervent sacristans. Continue reading “In Defence of Associative Specificity – Part III: “The marxian church against anarchist “sectarianism”” by Gustavo Rodriguez”
In Defense of Associative Specificity by Gustavo Rodríguez EN/ES
ES: APOLOGÍA A LA ESPECIFICIDAD ASOCIATIVA
“The International was founded in order to replace the Socialist or semi-Socialist sects by a real organisation of the working class for struggle. The original Statutes and the Inaugural Address show this at the first glance. On the other hand the Internationalists could not have maintained themselves if the course of history had not already smashed up the sectarian system. The development of the system of Socialist sects and that of the real workers’ movement always stand in inverse ratio to each other. So long as the sects are (historically) justified, the working class is not yet ripe for an independent historic movement. As soon as it has attained this maturity al sects are essentially reactionary. […] And the history of the International was a continual struggle on the part of the General Council against the sects […] At the end of 1868 the Russian, Bakunin, entered the International with the aim of forming inside it a second International called the “Alliance of Social-Democracy,” with himself as leader. He – a man devoid of theoretical knowledge – put forward the pretension that this separate body was to represent the scientific propaganda of the International, which was to be made the special function of this second International within the International. His programme was a superficially scraped together hash of Right and Left […] atheism as a dogma to be dictated to the members, etc., and as the main dogma (Proudhonist), abstention from the political movement. This infant’s spelling-book found favour (and still has a certain hold) in Italy and Spain, where the real conditions of the workers’ movement are as yet little developed, and among a few vain, ambitious and empty doctrinaires in French Switzerland and Belgium. Resolutions I (2) and (3) and IX now give the New York committee legal weapons with which to put an end to all sectarian formations and amateur groups and if necessary to expel them.”
K. Marx, Letter to Friedrich Bolte, November 23, 1871. [1]
Since the defeat of Spanish anarcho-syndicalism, reiteration is a frequent ocurrence in the Babellian context in which the life of the so-called “anarchist movement” painfully takes place.[2] As if it were “Groundhog Day” [3], we are condemned to repeat the same experience indefinitely. Time and again, the ideological displacements and the conceptualizations of others gain presence in our camp. Thus – again – the notions of “sect”, “sectarianism” and “sectarian” emerge in the debate. We don’t have the slightest chance of escaping from this vicious cycle. Like Phil Connors (Bill Murray) in the famous comedy, every day the same song is hammered into us (at six in the morning!), forced to repeat ourselves in an infinite cycle from which not even suicide saves us.
Perhaps, for those who come from the so-called “left” – who have happily already evolved into “libertarian” positions – and today share the same barricade side by side, these imprecations have always been there, close at hand. Ready to be wielded at the slightest provocation. So they assume that such curse words are part of our lexicon or that they are part of a kind of universal vocabulary that we have to use out of obligation.
For those of us who have been in the fight for some years, the feeling of déjà vécu caused by the remastering of this farcical operetta is inevitable. Indeed, it’s not the first time that we have to face these epithets and, definitely, it will not be the last. They are repeated as a mantra invoking the “crushing march of history” (Saint Charlie of Trier, dixit). The sad observation is that this liturgy even occurs in the ins and outs of the praxis —live and active today— of the Informal Anarchic Tendency (TIA). A tendency that has no place for uniforming practices, nor for repetition; that is to say, the attempts at fronts, nor the attempts at “tactical unity” and “collective responsibility.” Continue reading “In Defense of Associative Specificity by Gustavo Rodríguez EN/ES”
Italy – I could but I don’t want to
via: roundrobin.info
Translated by act for freedom now!
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I could but I don’t want to
I could convince myself that all nuclear power plants are reliable. But I don’t want to. I still keep Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl, Fukushima in mind… As the earth becomes contaminated for ever, the usual characters in power tell us that there is nothing else to be done.
I could consider wars as something necessary to defeat enemies that seem invincible. But I don’t want to. All the deaths caused by conflicts between the States have only strengthened their domination on individuals through genocides, massacres and famines.
I could brood over freedom of choice. But I don’t want to. In the world of progress for the rich and regression for the poor, what is called freedom of choice would be more appropriately called freedom to consume as much as possible it seems to me. Continue reading “Italy – I could but I don’t want to”
Burning Churches, Taking Down Statues
Source: Antimídia
In different parts of the colonized territories, there’s been tearing down, demolishing or destruction of statues of slavers, rapists, colonizers and genociders. Why let go of these symbols? What do they represent? And what values keeps them standing?
[The video has English subtitles.]
France: Nyctalopes
If there is one open secret that has been going around in the world of children for decades, it is undoubtedly that which the fox confided to the Little Prince: «It is only in the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye». Would it be mere coincidence that the heart that pronounced this phrase in the middle of the last century, while not wearing the military livery, slipped easily into the journalist’s rags, for example to denounce the «republican crimes» of Spain of 1936-37 in the major nationalist newspapers? Or that as a fervent admirer of a Marshal reconciling the Frrrrench people under his rule after the debacle was rewarded with a nomination to the provisional committee of the Rassemblement pour la Révolution nationale [National Popular Rally, collaborationist under the Vichy regime] (1941)? As some pointed out later on another occasion, the most important thing in matters of official trifles is not so much to be able to refuse them as to not deserve them. On 31st October [2020], therefore, his pathetic heirs of Master 2 Security and Defence of the University of Assas were not wrong in adopting the name of Saint-Exupéry for their sixteenth promotion, recognizing in him the alliance between «literary genius and military spirit: honour, respect, courage and love of country.». Apparently, it seems the essential can sometimes leap to the eyes all the same! But let’s move on.
At this unquestionably particular time, what could an organ that despises the spirit of the barracks as much as State terrorism discern on the other hand? At first glance, between a deadly pandemic justifying authoritarian measures of all kinds, strengthening of the technological prostheses from work to school right to all relationships, the environment becoming increasingly devastated and artificial under the incessant blows of industry, or the absence of utopian horizons – that «unrealized but not unrealizable dream» as was defined by someone famous «athoricidal projectile thrown upon the pavement of the civilized» — it is true that times seem more favourable to the clouds of domination than to the social tempest. And that there would almost be enough to lose the memory of the time before, as if covid-19 had swept it all away.
Forgotten the brief start of an insurrection in Greece a little more than ten years ago, which had at the same time marked a possible in the heart of old Europe and shown the limits of lack of revolutionary perspectives that go beyond a simple riotous extension? Forgotten the possibilities opened up three years later by the various of uprisings on the other side of the Mediterranean, drowned in the blood of civil wars, crushed under the military boot or suffocated by religious and democratic sirens? Forgotten the uprising in Chile of barely a year ago, so powerful in its acts combining expropriations and massive destructions in the face of the military, but retreating at the last moment so as not to cross the threshold of the irreparable unknown, in a territory still traumatized by a ferocious past? Forgotten these recent North-American riots against the police, for once capable of overcoming the old divisions by starting to question one of the pillars of domination, without however succeeding in undermining all the others, if not through the enraged action of few minorities? Forgotten even the famous movement of the yellow vests, undoubtedly deeply linked to the demand for a better State, while being able, in the very name of its reformist postulate to regain a spontaneous taste for riot in the face of the one in place, or that of sabotage against various power structures through self-organization in diffuse small groups? Nonetheless a promising example of identification of the enemy’s structures, which did not content itself with toll booths, tax centres or radars but had, for example, also pushed exploration to the relay antennas, to the homes of elected officials or the electrical systems of industrial and commercial areas. Continue reading “France: Nyctalopes”
Berlin: Defend Køpi-Wagenplatz/Køpi-Wagenplatz verteidigen
In the last years we have witnessed the State and Capitalist tyrants relentlessly try and wipe out and destroy the last few self-organised places and autonomous structures in Berlin.
Attacking with ceaseless eviction of our spaces, dehumanising police tactics and constant repression.
The City of Berlin with its corrupt politicians have chosen to side with the criminals who are selling out the city. Andreas Geisel, Interior minister of Berlin, has supported every eviction with an army of robocops brutally forcing people out of their homes and collective spaces.
On 10th of June the verdict was given to evict Køpi-Wagenplatz. We will defend it with all we have.
We call for every friend, every supporter, everyone who doesnt want to see another unique place destroyed to join us in Berlin to fight the eviction of the Wagenplatz and defend our homes. We will try with as many people possible to stand in the way of the eviction, using barricades, blockades, de-centralized actions and every way imagineable. Let’s take our anger to the streets and let our diversity also be shown in our resistance.
We dont know yet the date of the eviction but think it will be soon. We also expect the police to put a red zone around kopi some days before the eviction, in an attempt to silence our solidarity and isolate us. We call for support from the moment the eviction date is announced, kopi and other autonomus projects in berlin will open thier doors for spaces to meet, discuss, exchange ideas, prepare and plan. Sleeping places and food will be organised for people coming to support. Get in touch with us – we welcome any form of solidarity. Spread the word in your cities and on your streets. Let us come together and show that despite the endless eviction threats and attacks or our way of life, we are still here, and our anger only fuels our strength.
They cannot destroy our ideas and they will not break us. Continue reading “Berlin: Defend Køpi-Wagenplatz/Køpi-Wagenplatz verteidigen”
Against The Tide – Gustavo Rodríguez
-The dilemmas of the contemporary «anarchist movement» versus the instituting character of the «social movements.»1.
«Vulgarly it is held that the «great mass» could not remain without religion; the communists extend that claim.»
Max Stirner, My Enjoyment of Myself, in The Only One and His Property.
«To see what we have in front of our noses requires a constant struggle.»
George Orwell, In front of your nose.
Contrary to what all the verbal diarrhea of post-modern neo-Leninism claims about the so-called «social movements», the novelty of these movements does not lie in the replacement of trade unions and traditional political parties, but in the motivational structure of the subjects involved; That is, in the convergence of perceptions around multiple factors (economic-socio-cultural) that nourish the collective longing for the welfare state and the labor society and, through processes of social mobilization, constitute a new institutional force that serves as a platform for the different fascisms -whether black, brown, red or whatever color they are given in order to persuade the «masses»- and paves the way for populist leaders.
Meanwhile, the social scientists (neo-Marxians and/or proto-populists) juggle a thousand and one times to semantically accommodate «institutionalization», giving the concept a one hundred and eighty degree turn so that it is grammatically instrumental for them; that is, hiding the intentions of co-optation of the struggles and forced integration to the «new» domination.
In this way, they reconceptualize «institutionalization» and define it as a «mediation» (between the so-called civil society and the regime) that redesigns the forms of participation, the mechanisms of representation and the devices of legitimization, enhancing the «transforming» character of social mobilization in total «recreation of the movementist tradition»2 . In the words of the merolico mayor Boaventura de Souza Santos: showing the emancipatory horizons that they recreate as agents of social change, by participating in the construction of hegemonic ideas that drive the politicization of reality3 .
Despite this evidence, the critique of the instituting maneuver of «social movements» has been mute in our tents. The shameless silences in the face of these instituting vessels -which suffocate individual breathing in the forced gasps of the movementist ritual-, have contributed to the theoretical-practical confusion that today plagues our circles, facilitating the imposition of alien programs and the adoption of the logic of the enemy (diametrically opposed to our desires for total emancipation). Instead of drawing a crucial dividing line, which establishes the definitive separation of the instituting struggles and punctuates the consistent action of contemporary anarchic grammar, an ambiguous discourse, loaded with vague expositions and excess of positivity, has been encouraged. Continue reading “Against The Tide – Gustavo Rodríguez”