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J18 has managed to attract an amazing network of activists to work together,
but I feel that a we need to clarify what we are trying to challenge.
It is not enough to simply say we are opposing just capitalism or globalisation,
the groups who have been working on J18 in the UK and many elsewhere are
opposed to nationalism, war, centralisation, government, bureaucracy,
sexism and a lot more. For a large part J18 identify with anarchism or
radical ecology. For future proposals we need to debate more on how we
strike a good balance between clarifying our radical politics and having
a proposal that is simple, straight forward and inspiring for people outside
our small political ghetto. We need to work on strengthening our radical
diversity without falling into the trap of using vague liberal friendly
language. In our efforts to build a huge anti-capitalist network we have
attracted a lot of groups and it sounds impressive but unfortunately too
many of them are liberal or are open to authoritarian or conservative
elements. This is partly because of phrases like ‘ the longer the list,
the better the action ! ‘ used in some early leaflets would have turned
me of the entire event, if I didn't know the good reputation of the groups
putting it forward. I guess you're never happy with a leaflet or proposal
unless you've written it yourself.
- Decentralising, strengthen and expand our network/s ?
By the time we are ready to start thinking about opposition to the start
of next years G8 summit, I don't know if I will be interested in repeating
the strategy of targeting the financial centres. Perhaps to encourage
greater local organising we should break from having a lot of the organising
happening in London, instead taking actions where we live all on the same
day. Thirty actions against different parts of the structure across the
country and replicated across the world, linking local concerns to the
global system, might have more impact then focussing on the financial
centres. Perhaps it is not as empower as having thousands and thousands
in the streets in one place, but in terms of building our local networks
it may be a better strategy.
- Keeping up the momentum built by j18 ?
Focussing all our other actions or energies towards one big day seems
to have caused many people to get burnt out. Personally it will be a long
time before I can focus on helping organise an international campaign.
I think I will tend to focus on smaller actions. J18 I think has neglected
local manifestations of capitalism which effect us everyday in favour
of the financial targets. While it is true that uniting against the big
corporations and the symbols of the capitalist system is a good way to
bring people together to show what we are fighting against, it is another
to challenge capitalism and the state where we live and work. Easier said
than done I know, but by doing isolated actions we loose sight of the
bigger picture and often paint ourselves into single issue corners. Brighton
has a monthly gathering of anti-authoritarian groups monthly under the
name of the ‘ Rebel Alliance. ‘ Another suggestion made was that similar
groups organising all over the country would be a good idea. Perhaps working
towards a couple of nationally co-ordinated actions, some smaller international
actions and a big international action once a year (or more !)
- When should tasks be made accountable to other parts of the
network ? When should groups be left to their own and not be accountable
to others in their network ?
Obviously this is not for me to dictate but it is an issue we should
be constantly questioned. In the past I have had experience of groups
where raising consensus is a painful process where it has takes so long
to make a decision that things take forever to gets done. My experience
however with various meetings and responsibilities in J18 groups has been
that sometimes there is not enough consultation between different groups.
There can be a slight ‘ tyranny of structurelessness ‘, due partly to
deadlines and because the demands we make of ourselves are really huge.
Sometime information is being held in too few hands because of perceived
security ( and sometime legitimate ) concerns, but sometimes I have felt
it is just an unacknowledged clique or desire for control, intentional
or otherwise. When information is held in a few hands it is easier for
infiltrators to fuck us up than if no one really had control of it. Having
never been involved in something so big its hard to criticise when so
many people have been working so hard, but it is worse not to act on it
when it does happen.
In the run up to a couple of big actions, and to a smaller extent J18,
we have dedicated discussion time at meetings to banner slogans, posters
other agit-prop etc only for the people who have been producing them not
to receive that information, or to ignore it and do their own thing, sometimes
with good results and sometimes bad, either way they end up deciding the
message, that represents others. On one hand I wonder if I've any right
to criticise when I am not there to produce the banner, flier, or other
propaganda, from the original ideas to the finished article, particularly
when there are many people dedicating more of their time to the actions
than myself. However when propaganda is widely circulation and designed
to represent or inform about the actions of a group, they should reflect
the thoughts of the ‘ members ‘ of the group. Sometimes I have felt that
individuals doing the work hide behind the words ‘autonomously organised'
when they are just pushing their own angle, intentionally or not in effect
creating a hegemony on information and an ideological hierarchy. This
always needs to be challenged, by bringing in new people and not overusing
perceived security risks to close out people so that cliques are broken
before they develop. This is not a not an original idea, unfortunately
it is not put into practice enough, due to oversight or because some people
have specialised skills which make them a valuable member of certain groups
all the time. We need more skills training and outreach.
- Grassroots radical diversity
J18 as I understand it is an attempt to create a network of diverse grassroots
radical groups to fight capitalism ( and the rest ), unfortunately we
have attracted some liberals. I think we have attracted liberals internationally
because we put out the message stressing a coming together of a diversity
of struggles without making it clear enough what we mean, ( or perhaps
being liberals they are just stupid ! ) These liberals if they continue
to become part of a hopefully growing post –j18 network, will actually
rob it of its radicalism and diversity; and fall apart because of all
the liberal hacks. The point I am trying to make is we need to be a bit
clearer to keep J18 and whatever groups we try and build after, radical
and diverse. Centralised decision making structures and reform platform
acts to oppose diversity. As well as being autonomously organised internationally,
groups should be decentralised locally also. It seems that some groups
abroad do not organise like this, I said earlier that I haven't had been
enough consultation with people in different groups to have formed a definite
answer, although the names of many of the groups and occasional comments
of individuals in them give me some idea. Centralisation whether within
Non-Government-Organisation (NGO) reform environment groups, in the form
of union leaders, liberal or totalitarian states or within a fringe political
party etc always enforces uniformity or ‘mono-culture'. What is passed
of as diversity by liberals pale in comparison to the radical diversity
of grassroots autonomous ‘ communities of resistance. ‘ I am fine with
J18 groups like Chikoko ( the grassroots indigenous resistance to Oil
in Nigeria Delta ), groups like the Industrial Workers of the World, Earth-first!,
Reclaim the streets from what I know of them as they encourage diversity
and have a flexible vision of a world in which individuals have as much
control of decision that effect them as is possible.
The End
signed: anonymous and paranoid
The following text is made up of extracts of the article “Friday June 18th
1999: Confronting Capital And Smashing The State” Do or Die
#8. (c/o 6 Tilbury Place, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 2GY) The author would
like to point out that this represents just one voice, of an RTS'er in
London
The June 18th (J18) international day of action in financial and banking
districts across the world, was probably the largest and most diverse
day of action against global capital in recent history.1
Hundreds of actions took place ranging from a "Carnival of the Oppressed"
in Nigeria, with 10,000 Ogoni, Ijaw and other tribes closing down Port
Harcourt , to a spoof trade fair in Montevideo, Uruguay - from Barcelona
where a piece of squatted land was turned into an urban oasis overnight
, complete with vegetables, medicinal herbs and a lake to the City of
London where a "Carnival against Capitalism" attended by thousands, radically
transformed Europe's largest financial centre, and included attempts to
occupy and electronically hack into the Futures Exchange - from an anti
nuclear demonstration in Gujerat, Pakistan by trade Unionists , to actions
against child labour in Senegal - from Street Parties across the United
States to domestic and garment workers demonstrating against the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) in Dhaka, Bangladesh ... all "in recognition that
the global capitalist system is based on the exploitation of people and
the planet for the profit of a few and is at the very root of our social
and ecological troubles."
But where did this extraordinary show of international solidarity spring
from ? And how and why are such diverse groups building global networks
of struggle to counter the globalisation2
of misery under capitalism ? As the economy has become increasingly transnational,
so too has the resistance to its devastating social and ecological consequences.
But until recently this world-wide resistance to the effects of globalisation
has been little-recognised. June the 18th didn't come from nowhere. There
is a fascinating history and process which led up to the day. This is
a story that needs telling. (For the full story see the Do or Die article
mentioned above - ed)
The useful contradictions of globalisation
International solidarity and global protest is nothing new, from the European
revolutions of 1848, the upheavals of 1917-18 following the Russian Revolution
or the lighting flashes nearly everywhere in 1968, struggle has been able
to communicate globally. But what is perhaps unique to our times is the
speed and ease with which we can communicate between struggles and the
fact that globalisation has meant that many people living in very different
cultures across the world now share a common enemy. An enemy that is increasingly
becoming less subtle and more excessive - "capitalism with its gloves
off " - and therefore easier to see, understand and ultimately dismantle.3
Common enemy
The irony is that before the onslaught of globalisation , "the system" was
sometimes hard to recognise in its diverse manifestations and policies.
Abstract critical theory was confronting an abstract multifaceted system.
But the reduction of diversity in the corporate landscape and the concentration
of power within international Institutions such as the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) , the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the financial markets
has clarified things and offered a focal point for protest and opposition.
It is a lot easier to oppose concentrated uniform power than diverse and
flexible forms.4 As power heads further
and further in this direction, those opposing it seem to becoming more
and more diverse and fluid. Hence much harder to diffuse and undermine.
As the elite, their transnational corporations and their puppets the IMF
and WTO, impose "free market" policies on every country on the planet,
they are unwittingly creating a situation where diverse movements are
able to recognise each others struggles as related and are beginning to
work together on an unprecedented scale.
The global "race to the bottom" in which workers , communities and whole
countries are forced to compete by lowering wages, working conditions,
environmental protections, and social spending, to facilitate maximum
profit for corporations, is stimulating resistance all over the world.
People everywhere are realising that this resistance is pointless if they
are resisting in isolation. For example - say your community manages,
after years of tireless campaigning, to shut down your local toxic waste
dump , what does the Transnational Company that owns the dump do ? They
simply move it to wherever their costs are less and the resistance weaker
- probably somewhere in the Third World or Eastern Europe. Under this
system, communities have a stark choice; either compete fiercely with
each other or, co-operate in resisting the destruction of your lives,
land and livelihoods by rampaging capital.
Diversity v Uniformity
To accelerate profit and create economies of scale global capital imposes monoculture
on the world. Making everywhere look and feel like everywhere else. The
same restaurants, the same hotels, the same supermarkets filled with the
same musak. Sumner Redstone the multibillionaire owner of MTV summed up
this denial of diversity when he said: "Just as teenagers are the same
all over the world, children are the same all over the world" - on his
business trips he obviously forgets to stop of and visit the slums of
Delhi or the impoverished rural villages of Africa - In New York, London
and Berlin, kids may have succumbed to his spell of sameness, as they
sit prisoners of their own homes, their dull eyes glued to the screen.
But the majority of the worlds children would rather have clean water
than Jamiroquai. Herbert Read in "The Philosophy of Anarchism" wrote,
"Progress is measured by the degree of differentiation within a society".
The president of the Nabisco Corporation would obviously disagree, he
is "looking forward to the day when Arabs and Americans, Latins and Scandinavians
will be munching Ritz crackers as enthusiastically as they already drink
Coke or brush their teeth with Colgate."5
Progress in the present system is measured by economic growth, which inevitably
means monoculture. Just because more money is changing hands doesn't mean
that life is getting any better, it is quite the opposite for the majority
of the world. But by embracing diversity, social movements are proposing
powerful challenges to capitals addiction to uniformity. Capital's loudest
message in the 90's was that there is no alternative to the status quo,
and that humanity had reached its highest level. The end of history had
arrived. In the 1920's and 50's this same message was proclaimed by the
elites - and the decades that followed, the radical upheavals of the 30s
and the 60's - showed them that as soon as the end of history is declared
it is time for radical changes.
Space for Utopias
Capital was only able to become truly global after the fall of the Berlin wall
and the break up of the Eastern Block. The fall of communism not only
opened up the space for capital to be unrestrained, but also gave a new
lease of life to radical movements . For more than 70 years, Soviet Socialism
was seen as the main model of revolutionary society, and of course it
was a total social and ecological disaster; but its shadow lingered over
most radical movements. Those who wished to discredit any forms of revolutionary
thinking simply pointed to the Soviet model to prove the inevitable failures
of any utopian project.
Now that the Soviet Union has ceased to exist, it has become a lot easier
for those of us working in radical movements to conceive of different
societies without having to refer to a failed model. Ideas of utopia can
return un-hindered. The space has been cleared and the power of radical
imagination is back at the centre of revolutionary struggle. Not only
has the imagination been freed, it has also become more diverse and fluid
than it was able to be under the shadow of the strict monolithic ideology
of soviet socialism. There is no longer any need for universal rules,
there is not just one way, one utopia to apply globally, because that
is exactly what the "free marketers" are trying to do. The radical social
movements that are increasingly coming together don't want to seize power
but to dissolve it. They are not vanguards but catalysts in the revolutionary
process. They are dreaming up many autonomous alternative forms of social
organisation. They are celebrating variety and rejoicing in autonomy.
The Ecology of Struggle
Murray Bookchin, in Post Scarcity Anarchism wrote that "in
almost every period since the Renaissance the development of revolutionary
thought has been heavily influenced by a branch of science."6
He gives the examples of mathematics and mechanics for the Enlightenment
and Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology for the 19th Century. Ecology
has influenced many movements today and that is perhaps why their model
of organisation and co-ordination resembles an ecological model, why it
works like an ecosystem. Highly interconnected - it thrives on diversity,
works best when imbedded in its own locality and context and develops
most creatively at the edges, the overlap points, the in-between spaces.
Those spaces where different cultures meet, such as the coming together
of the American Earth First! and Logging Unions or London Tube Workers
and Reclaim the Streets. The societies that they dream of creating will
also be like ecosystems, diversified, balanced and harmonious.
The ecological crisis changes the way many of these movements think and
act. KirkPatrick Sale illustrates the scale of the biological meltdown-
"More goods and services have been consumed by the generation alive between
1950 and 1990, measured in constant dollars and on a global scale, than
by all the generations in all of human history before."7
The level of ecological destruction is mind blowing and the present generation
of activists feel an incredible urgency about the future. The know mere
reform is useless, because it is clear that the whole basis of the present
system is profoundly anti ecological, and there is no longer any use waiting
for the right historical conditions for revolution, time is rapidly running
out. Radically creative and subversive change must happen now, because
there is no time left for anything else. During the May '68 insurrection
in Paris, a message was scrawled on the walls of the Theatre de L'Odeon
"Dare to go where none has gone before you. Dare to think what none has
ever thought. " Despite capital's rapacious ability to enclose and recuperate
everything, the space has now been opened up and we can pay attention
to that message.
Transnational Resistance
On New years day 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
came into effect, two thousand indigenous peoples from several groups
came out from the mountains and forests of the Chiapas, the most Southern
state of Mexico. Masked, armed and calling themselves Zapatistas, their
battle cry was "Ya Basta" "Enough is Enough". An extraordinary popular
uprising, which was to change the landscape of global resistance forever,
had begun. Five towns were occupied and 12 days of fighting followed.
This was not an isolated local act of rebellion, through the Zapatistas
imaginative use of the internet which could not be censored by the Mexican
state, people all over the world soon heard of the uprising. These masked
rebels, from poverty stricken communities, were not only demanding that
their own land and lives be given back, neither were they just asking
for international support and solidarity; but they were talking about
neoliberalism, about the "death sentence" that NAFTA and other Free trade
agreements would impose on indigenous people. They were demanding the
dissolution of power and the development of "civil society" and they were
encouraging others all over the world to take on the fight against the
enclosure of our lives by capital . Public sympathy in Mexico and abroad
was overwhelming, on the day of the cease-fire, celebratory demonstrations
took place in numerous countries, and in Mexico City 100,000 marched together
, Shouting "First World HaHAHA". Phenomenal poetic communiqués came out
of Chiapas ,and were rapidly circulated around the internet. There was
a new sense of possibility, the Zapatistas and their supporters were weaving
an electronic fabric of struggle to carry revolution around the world.
Now resistance really could be as transnational as capital.
Peoples' Global Action
In 1996, the Zapatistas , with trepidation as they thought no-one might come,
put out a call for a gathering, called an "encuentro" ( encounter) , of
international activists and intellectuals to meet in Chiapas and discuss
common tactics, problems and solutions. 6000 people attended, and spent
days talking and sharing their stories of struggle against the " common
enemy": capitalism. This was followed a year later by a gathering in Spain,
where the idea of a more concrete global campaign, named Peoples Global
Action (PGA), was hatched by a group made up of ten of the largest and
most innovative social movements, including the Movimento Sem Terra, the
Brazilian Landless Peasants Movement and the Karnataka State Farmers Union
, radical Indian Farmers (KRRS) .
Four "hallmarks" were proposed by this group (who became the PGA convenors
committee, a role which would rotate every year) in an attempt to get
people to rally around shared principles. These were:
"A very clear rejection of the institutions that multinationals and speculators
have built to take power away from people like the WTO, and other trade
liberalisation agreements (like APEC, the EU NAFTA, etc.)"
"A confrontational attitude, since we do not think that lobbying can
have a major impact in such a biased and undemocratic organisations in
which transnational capital is the only real policy- maker".
"A call for non-violent civil disobedience and the construction of local
alternatives by local people, as answers to the actions of governments
and corporations."
"An organisational philosophy based on decentralisation and autonomy."
In February 1998, Peoples Global Action was born, for the first time ever
the worlds grassroots movements were beginning to talk and share experiences
without the mediation of Non Governmental Organisations (NGO's), and the
first gathering of the PGA was held in Geneva - home of the much hated
WTO. More than 300 delegates from 71 countries came to Geneva to share
their anger over corporate rule. From the Uwa peoples, to Canadian Postal
Workers, to Reclaim the Streets, to anti-nuclear campaigners, to French
farmers, to Maori and Ogoni activist, to Korean Trade Unionists, to the
Indigenous Women's Network of North America, to Ukrainian environmentalists,
all were there to form, "a global instrument for communication and co-ordination
for all those fighting against the destruction of humanity and the planet
by the global market, while building up local alternatives and people
power."
One of the participants spoke of this inspiring event : "It is difficult
to describe the warmth and the depth of the encounters we had here. The
global enemy is relatively well known, but the global resistance that
it meets rarely passes through the filter of the media. And here we met
the people who had shut down whole cities in Canada with general strikes,
risked their lives to seize lands in Latin America, destroyed the seat
of Cargill in India or Novartis's transgenic maize in France. The discussions,
the concrete planning for action, the stories of struggle, the personalities,
the enthusiastic hospitality of the Genevan squatters, the impassioned
accents of the women and men facing the police outside the WTO building,
all sealed an alliance between us. Scattered around the world again, we
will not forget. We remain together. This is our common struggle."
One of the concrete aims of this gathering was to co-ordinate actions
against two events of global importance that were coming up in May of
that year, the G8 meeting (an annual event) of the leaders of the eight
most industrialised nations , which was to take place in Birmingham and
the second ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation which was
being held a day later in Geneva.
For 4 consecutive days in May 1998, acts of resistance echoed around
the planet. In Hyderabad India, 200,000 peasant farmers called for the
death of the WTO, in Brasilia landless peasants and unemployed workers
joined forces and 50,000 of them took to the streets, over 30 Reclaim
the Streets parties took place in many countries, ranging from Finland,
to Sydney, San Francisco to Toronto, Lyon to Berlin. In Prague, the biggest
single mobilisation, since the Velvet Revolution in '89, brought thousands
into the streets for a mobile street party which ended the with several
Mc Donalds being "redesigned" and running battles with the police. Meanwhile
in the UK 5,000 people were paralysing central Birmingham as the G8 leaders
fled the city to a local manor, to continue their meeting in a more tranquil
location . The following day the streets of Geneva exploded. The G8 plus
many more world leaders had congregated there for the WTO ministerial,
and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the General Agreement on Trade
and Tariffs (GAAT) the forerunner of the WTO. Over 15,000 people from
all over Europe and many from other continents demonstrated against the
tyranny of the WTO, banks had their windows smashed, the WTO Director
General's Mercedes was turned over and three days of the heaviest rioting
ever seen in Geneva followed. The dust settled, the world leaders stuck
in their glass bunker, beside lake Geneva, made a statement saying that
they wanted the WTO to become "more transparent"! As if that was going
to make the blind bit of difference.
June the 18th: keep on building
It was clear that things were really moving, and we had to keep the momentum
going and build on the success of the May actions. But how ? Then came
an idea, why not go for the jugular this time. Why not aim at the heart
of the beast, the pulsating core of the global economy , the financial
and banking districts, the engine room of all ecological and social devastation.
This time we could make it bigger, better and even more diverse.(...)
the desire to do something in this small square mile of land right, on
our doorsteps, Europe's leading Financial centre, and one of capitals
oldest and most powerful sites, proved too strong. Having a tendency to
believe in the reality of our desires, we couldn't let this one go.
Then during a hot summers day in June 1998 a conversation occurred between
a Reclaim the Streets (RTS) activist and someone from London Greenpeace,
(LGP - the anarchist collective not linked to Greenpeace International)
who had been involved in the Stop the City demonstrations during the 80's.
It turned out that they had been thinking similar thoughts about having
a City event this year , to bring all the single issue campaigns together
around the common enemy of capital, and a date had already been set for
a public meeting. LGP felt that the time was right to take on such an
audacious target. The Stop the City's in the 80's had come out of the
momentum of the peace movement. In the last few year the ecological direct
action movement had been getting stronger, there seemed to be an upsurge
in workplace action - the Jubilee line wildcat strikes, and the Tameside
care workers being two examples , Street Parties had sprouted up across
the country with thousands taking direct action and there was a sense
that there was enough momentum to take on such an ambitious and cheeky
action.
The idea was taken back to RTS's weekly public meeting and to LGPs .
In mid August the first of many public meetings about June the 18th was
held in a community centre in central London. As well as RTS and LGP,
several groups were present, ranging from Mexico Support Group, London
Animal Action, to McLibel, to Class War. A date was decided, June the
18th, which coincided with this years G8 summit and was a Friday - therefore
a work day in the City.
(....)
Learning Together
There has been a tendency in the UK direct action movement to concentrate on
action at the expense of more conscious thinking and ideological clarity.
The positive side of this, is that it has enabled wildly imaginative actions
and strategies to take place. It has also helped avoid the ideological
factionalisation and bickering of much traditional politics. The downside
of this however, is that if we want to build "organised popular movements
which think things through, which debate, which act, which experiment,
which try alternatives, which develop seeds of the future in the present
society" then we have to get a lot better at thinking, talking and educating
ourselves and others . June the 18th once again acted as a focusing agent,
it brought together diverse activist some from different single issue
campaigns, and got them to think about one question, the question of capital.
Few activists seriously understand economics and even fewer understand
the complexities of the arcane currency, futures and options markets that
lie at the heart of the worlds economy. There are very few places which
will tell you about such things in clear and simple language. It is in
the interest of the elites to make these things inaccessible, "difficult"
to understand for the average citizen. In many ways it resembles the hold
on power that has gone on for millennia within religious societies. The
high priesthood would often hold arcane ceremonies in temples hidden from
the populace; and for over a thousand years mass was held in Latin, which
excluded the majority of the population from understanding it. Now in
their towering glass temples of Mammon, the elite, the bankers, traders
and financiers are still waking up at dawn and engaging in secret rituals.
Aloof and isolated from the devastating effects of their magic, they sit
safely in front of their screens playing with numbers and abstract mathematical
equations, knowing that most people will never make a connection between
these arcane games and the misery of their everyday life.
As "a first step towards unlocking the City's mystique" and to help educate
ourselves on the issues of contemporary capital and financial markets,
Corporate Watch and Reclaim the Streets produced a clear and concise 32
page illustrated booklet entitled; Squaring Up to The Square Mile - A
rough Guide to the City of London. 4000 copies of this excellent activist
tool were distributed to groups preparing for J18, to alternative book
shops and conferences. A version was also put up on the Web. Tucked inside
the booklet was a full colour map of potential targets in the City ; banks,
exchanges, corporate HQ's, Investment houses etc., to help activist plane
their autonomous actions. A wonderful way of showing that theory without
action is useless..
(...)
Meanwhile NATO is bombing Serbia back to the stone age, in order that
Western Capital can enclose this last enclave of the Eastern Block. We
asked ourselves - who is going to rebuild the bridges, oil refineries,
roads, schools, hospitals and power stations and who is going to replace
the millions of pounds worth of weapons used every day ? Could it possibly
be Western oil companies, engineering, construction and arms companies.
Many of us felt compelled to do something, to take action, but the timing
was dreadful, and we were are all overworked with June 18 preparations,
there was no way we could organise anything else. Would the war still
be going on, on June 18th ? The issues were so clearly identical, but
how could we successfully integrate it into the action?
(....)
A year on, from that hot summers day conversation, everything is set
to go. Hundreds of groups in 43 countries have said they are going to
do something on the day and the City of London Police estimate 10,000
people will turn up for the actions in the Square Mile. But despite all
the endless meetings, careful preparations and military precision planning
we know that only one thing will enable the day to succeed: spontaneity.
The active spontaneous actions of the participants. Spontaneity is one
more vital tool of resistance to join fluidity and diversity; it is the
freedom to play beyond want and external compulsion, its the play of life
itself, the very opposite of work, orders and hierarchy.
Revolutionary epochs are periods of convergence, apparently separate
processes collect to form a socially explosive crisis -(...). A critical
mass is building - every year, every month, every day it gets bigger and
stronger - reports of strikes, of direct actions , of protest and occupations
from across the world flow along the same lines of communication that
carry the trillions of pounds involved in the reckless unsustainable money
game of transnational capital. Soon there is going to be an explosion,
an explosion which will be so different from any other revolutionary upsurge
that those in power won't even realise it is about to transform their
world for ever. There is much work to be done, but the hope and possibility
expressed during June the 18th brought us one step close to this wondrous
moment.
Judy
footnotes
- See the June 18th web site for a complete list of actions
www.j18.org
- Globalisation has become a buzz word and can
be a confusing term. I prefer the term Neoliberalism, used in Europe and
Latin America, but will use the more common English term. My understanding
of Globalisation is best summed up in this section of Reclaim the Streets
Agitprop: "Capital has always been global. From the slave trade of earlier
centuries to the imperial colonisation of lands and cultures across the
world, its boundless drive for expansion - for short term financial gain
- has recognised no limits. Backed up by state power, capitalist accumulation
has created widespread social and ecological devastation where ever it
extended. But now, capitalism is attempting a new strategy to reassert
and intensify its dominance over us. Its name is economic globalisation,
and it consists of the dismantling of national limitations to trade and
to the free movement of capital. It enables companies, driven by the demands
of the rapacious gambling of money markets, to ransack the entire globe
in search for ever higher profits, lowering wages and environmental standards
in their wake. Globalisation is arguably the most fundamental redesign
of the planet's political and economic arrangements since the Industrial
Revolution." Global Street Party agitprop - May 16th 1998.
- Ironically this was one of the central weaknesses
of the Soviet-Style state. Uniformity undermines diversity and the capacity
to diffuse opposition.
- The engines of capital, the financial markets,
may be "anarchic", flexible, and fluid - but they are still governed by
one unbreakable law - profit.
- Quoted in Trilaterism, edited by Holly Sklar,
1980 - quoted in The Case Against the Global Economy, and for a turn toward
the local. Ed. Mander and Goldsmith , Sierra Club Books, San Francisco,
1996.
- Murray Bookchin, Post Scarcity Anarchism-
Black Rose Books, Montreal, 1971.
- Kirkpatrick Sale - Rebels Against the
Future - Lessons for the computer age. Quartet Books. 1996
- See the excellent writings of US academic Harry Cleaver about the
Zapatistas and computer linked social movements - available on the web at
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/hmchtmlpapers.html
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General info: Reclaim the Streets: 0171 281 4621; rts@gn.apc.org
LONDON MEETING EVERY TUESDAY 7pm - Cock Tavern pub, Phoenix Road, Euston.
(Euston Tube)
###################################
June 18th 1999: for further info visit: www.j18.org
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Reclaim the Streets: PO BOX 9656, London N4 4JY.
NOTE NEW WEBSITE ADDRESS! - http://www.gn.apc.org/rts/
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last updated: December 29, 2004
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