Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 11:46:58 +0200 From: Peter van Heusden <pvh-AT-egenetics.com> Subject: Re: AUT: War and Terror in the age of Global Empire On Thu, Sep 20, 2001 at 04:24:25PM +0000, Neil (practical history) wrote: > shamass wrote: > > >no impact? pardon the gratuitous pun, but if you think that the attack on > >the WTC is just your garden variety attack on an institution of capital > >with no appreciable affect on social relations (as if anything is played > >out at such alevel of abstraction), then perhaps you should think again. > > Obviously the consequences of the attack will have a tremendous impact on > people worldwide, especially in Afghanistan and the Middle East. All I meant > was that on September 10th I got up, went to work for a wage, worried about > having enough money. On September 12th, despite the destruction of the > biggest global symbol of capitalism, I did the same, with the addition of > new worries like my children having nightmares about war. This is what I > mean by 'capitalist social relations' - not an abstraction but the lived > experience of daily life under capitalism. While I agree with your general point, I think commie00's points about class recomposition / decomposition are VERY important right now. Thanks, commie00, you gave my brain the kick in the right direction it really needed right now. :) Anyway... I think the point I'd like to make is that while we live lives mired at every turn in capitalist social relations, those are *not* the only social relations we engage in. Leaving aside the reformists / NGOs for a second, it seems to me that a big part of the 'anti-globalisation' movement was concerned with exploring different social relations. This came through in a number of ways: Firstly the impetus that Zapatista uprising gave to the movement, which was significant not because the Zaps are a 'third world' movement against 'imperialism', but rather they put forward a compelling linkage between the everyday self-creation of new social relations (both in terms of the 'autonomous municipalities' and in terms of putting dreams, rainbows, desire back in the political centre stage) and the fight against the global imposition of the capitalist social relation. Secondly, in various ways, the conditions of life in the 'capitalist core' (decline of the 'mass worker', expansion of credit and resultant expansion of the 'wage' problematic beyond the workplace, etc) have meant that the 'anti-globalisation' movement necessarily talks a language of lifestyle, the conditions of life, social relations, rather than simply one of social inclusion, wages, needs, rights, etc. Not all of it, of course, but from what I can see, at least some of it. And now I see a lot of things happening: as commie00, the sacrifices of war are demanded, in terms of layoffs and no doubt wage freezes, benefit cuts, etc. Also, this is happening at a time of massive working class indebtedness - credit card debt, etc. now combines with the 'sacrifices of war' to enforce a harsher form of 'money as command'. The news is now about 100% about 'the war'. Forget the racism conference, forget Kyoto, forget Mumia Abu-Jamal, forget anti-globalisation - it's now war, and which side you're on. And now the language is all about government's - even much 'leftist' language falls into the talk of pro- / anti-US. I think it is vitally necessary at this point to try and sustain the anti-statist language that flourished as part of the 'anti-globalisation' / anti-neoliberalism movement. That's the thing that's changed, for me: I feel that the political space I was operating in is threatened by the fact that 'the war' is taking up much more of people's 'brainshare', the political centre of gravity is shifting, in a very threatening fashion. An idea I had was rocking up at a US embassy and doing a 'Food Not Bombs' style action (as always, the concern is resources, resources!). Many other ideas are possible, slotting in and developing the 'self-activity' that commie00 says is visible in their end of the woods. I think many people worldwide (myself included) feel that the 'texture' of everyday life is about to change. We need to not leave this change uncontested. Peter -- Peter van Heusden <pvh-AT-egenetics.com> NOTE: I do not speak for my employer, Electric Genetics "Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower." - Karl Marx, 1844 k*256^2+2083 OpenPGP: 1024D/0517502B : DE5B 6EAA 28AC 57F7 58EF 9295 6A26 6A92 0517 502B --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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