This protest Movement We Must Leave…
"Every day our lives are regulated by capital, every day our dreams and desires are subordinated to government, everyday we obey an agenda that is never our own. Even when we have had enough, even when we shout and scream until we are hoarse, all we are able to do is follow the agenda of capital and government. Our most rebellious moments are moments of regulation and subordination."
Our work is dictated by capital, our leisure is dictated by capital, our environment is dictated by capital, our diets are dictated by capital and so are our rebellions. The ‘anti-capitalist’ movement, so far, has struggled to go beyond militant lobbying - they have a meeting and we turn up at it. Whether we are throwing rocks, sitting on the road or writing letters, the idea of government is so entrenched and pervasive that we seem unable to go beyond different tactics for asking or demanding that they change.
They will make changes in response to our pressures, they’ll meet on line instead of physically, they’ll tamper with policy, maybe one day they’ll abolish the WTO. But none of this is anti-capitalist.
Anti-capitalism implies the creation of radical revolutionary alternatives. Capitalism, as we all know, is a system that extracts surplus value from labour, that sponsors needs and destroys the environment in its perpetual quest for growth. Anti-capitalism implies the end of the profit system. This can not come about through lobbying.
There’s nothing wrong with protesting their meetings and we fully support the actions in Gothenburg, Salzburg, Genoa, Bonn, Peterborough town hall etc. It has been a very useful tactic and there are good reasons to continue it (recently expressed in ‘Anarchy a journal of Desire Armed’, for example). However, the great strength of the Direct Action Movement has been its ambition, its determination to take on impossible odds, to dare to dream, to demand the impossible. If we start concentrating on doing what we can, rather than what we can’t, if we stagnate or cease to be inventive, if our actions become habitual and predictable, if we are not constantly moving forward, provoking, challenging, then we risk becoming as grey and tired as the authoritarian left.
If not you then who? If not Barcelona then where?
Barcelona J24/25 has gone from a reactive protest in an especially exciting venue to a chance for an enormous, positive, international demonstration of our ability and intent to change the world. In the most symbolic spot on the globe, remembering 1909, 1936, 1976, we will finally have something positive to say. Our voices will be diverse, incoherent and confused, but they will be heard. Not by governments or corporation, this time our voices will be heard by millions of people whose everyday experiences teach them that the present system is inadequate but who need inspired by the possibility of a viable alternative. At times there is a lack of belief in our movement; if we leave Barcelona empowered and confident, we will feel closer to revolution and we will be closer to revolution.
"It may seem absurd to talk about revolution: but all the alternatives assume the continuation of the present system, which is even more absurd"
"At over 100 years old, activist Hazel Wolf has lived through a Russian Revolution, a Chinese revolution and the fall of the Berlin wall. "The thing about al of them is, nobody knew they were going to happen" she says. A revolution, by its nature, hardly seems possible before it takes place, but it may seem obvious and even inevitable in hindsight. But one thing is sure, revolutionary epochs are periods where tyrannical institutions lose their legitimacy. They are eras of convergence, when apparently separate processes collect to form a socially explosive crisis. They are moments when hope is ignited, the hope that everything can be transformed, and transformed quickly. They are times when history speeds up".
info@j25.org
comments, enquiries, info, pointers before week of j25 (and after!)
web@j25.org
info and support during j25 plus website
"the activists in Barcelona rock"
call for increased mobilisation
Llamamiento para incrementar la movilización en Barcelona este mes de junio.
Un appel pour une mobilisation accru à Barcelone en juin
Aufruf zur Mobilisierung fuer Barcelona