From: "Lowe Laclau" <lowelaclau-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: AUT: RE: The "Multitude" and Rights
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 10:07:02 -0400



Angela, 

You raise interesting points. Its hard to be certain what strategies are the "best" for 'restoration and innovation' (as you put it) though. How does one evaluate such things? The differences I see between Bologna and H&N aren't that great, in my opinion. And at a certain level it is a matter of (ethico)aesthetics (to use Guattarian language). There is a certain point where such differences in "strategy", the question of 'whats to be done' SHOULD differ. Time will of course judge what is effective and not. Bologna and Negri are working within two different professions and of course they're gonna see things quite differently, perhaps by necessity. Yet I think at base they are in agreement ontologically. I've not read enough of Bologna's more recent work to be certain of that though. 

As for the critique of representation. In Insurgencies Negri takes the critique of representation quite far and in my opinion should be looked at as the source for many things elided in later discussions on representation in his work. But also when he discusses measure, and demeasure, he is also always talking about representation, but more specifically from the perspective of the transition from Fordism. Negri never dismisses measure as though it didn't exist or as though demeasure where a meaningful term outside of the existence of measure. He's more concerned however with introducing, opening up lines of thought, than reifying those that are already dominating us. 

And as for Empire, is there not more than one thing going on here though? I found H&N to be quite emphatic that the idea of Empire was NOT something to be settled into, which is why they continue on its critique. As well, returning to Derrida, is not his critique of him precisely that HE rests within the deterritorialization of Empire and does not go beyond that. I reread his critique over the weekend and found I understood much more what exactly it is that Negri took issue with. And interestingly I think one could say that its this same issue. Derrida deconstructs and to some extent reconstructs, but its all within the novelties of Empire, it does not critique this new reappropriation. 

But one can't forget through all of this that the passage TO the beyond of capitalism requires in a sense that one move through it. Why the discussion of exclusion? Because precisely people are excluded! Because as in the Russian case study the world is full of "backwards" populations and developments. Absolute democracy shouldn't couldn't just happen in the North, or on the centeres of the North. And also, how does one force capital's (its relations) progression beyond itself? It doesn't do it all on its own. They've always happened because of crises. Roadblocks that it couldn't get around, demands that just had to be met or else all turns to shit. Maybe I'm not completely grasping why the discussion of "exclusion" bothers you. 

And perhaps we should explore further this idea of a global state? If one superposes the idea of the nation-state over the entire globe I think one has made a drastic error in logic. Integral to the idea of the nation-state is its capture vis-a-vis isomorphic but heterogeneous rivals. Its also crucial to understand privat capital and monetary flows --their command over labor-- and how this relates to State division. A global state would not make sense from this perspective. While I'm not saying that H&N's vision of Empire is anywhere in line with a vision of a "global state" in any sense (speaking from what I remember of Empire), perhaps it is also necessary to address this idea, insofar as it is this type of phantom haunting many people concerning our global future. I personally do not think that even their concept of Empire can be read as synonymous with any understanding of State in any preceding or traditional senses. 

Lowe




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