The enemy has been engaged and through that engagement a politics is being defined and executed. For unknown reasons two targets have been elevated to such a status as to merit effort being exerted in the creation of this text…
First, are the stencil posters that the recuperative forces of capital have been putting up around Melbourne. In order to bring a crowd larger than the sum of the organisers of this representation of resistance StopG20 has decided on linking their event with anti-war in Iraq sentiment. Based on success being conceived as equating with the quantifiable conversion of human beings to their own image of resistance and in some instances renouncement of other elements of the spectacle. The actual text of the stencil posters reads “stop the war/stop g20” so the idea that what is being referred to is the Iraq war is an assumption, but a safe one, as reference to other wars does not seem to fit, for instance they could have decided to be honest with themselves and announce their intent to prevent any ‘class’ war – but that seems unlikely. The stopG20 group has decided that they will gain the most people for conversion to their image of resistance through attaching themselves to an image with greater prominence within the spectacle. But in itself the call for “stop the war” is telling, such claims always come to and from the idea of the “continuation of war by other means” – that is the imposition of capital through a mechanism, imagined as different, that holds a monopoly on the use of violence. These stencils are an aspect of the “continuation of war by other means continues”, they are images that replace lived experience so as to ensure the continuation and furtherance of the imposition of the social relations of capital. This is why it is crucial that they are destroyed.
The second target worth mentioning is the Trades Hall council building. This image of resistance has for too long been the left edge of the imposers of capital, ensuring that any attempted escape is contained within a norm of the necessity of work. Now in its old age, this building and those that control it move more and more closely to the approximation of the image of that which they oppose themselves to – it would appear that the irrelevancy of democracy is being realised at the level of the spectacle. That may be reason enough for the defilement of this building but what makes such action absolutely necessary is the reverence of the institution and by extension (by its absurd participants) the physical building itself. The church that is Trades Hall must be defiled and ridiculed until it is reduced to a representation of its actuality – a barren hole.
As any real content of resistance is bled out of these counter summits they increasingly become indistinguishable from outdoor markets or shopping malls. Here is an extract from an email from ’somebodies’ encouraging a ‘really really free market’ as an act of resistance, during the G20.
“Basically, somebodies create a space in a public setting, put out the word, and people bring stuff and/or take stuff. Whilst it could just be seen as a swap meet, the Really, Really Free Market movement has its roots in a really different way of seeing social and economic relations.”
…
“The Really, Really Free Market movement aims to counteract capitalism in a non-reactionary way. It holds as a major goal, to build a community based on sharing resources, caring for one another and improving
the collective lives of all.”
By ‘non-reactionary’ I suspect this person refers to the idea that people shouldn’t say things like ‘everything is fucked lets destroy it’ – instead people should propose alternatives. One thing I have never heard explained from these people is just why all their ‘non-reactionary’ activities are expansions of capital – always creation of commodities to hold onto as ‘an answer, or a multitude of answers’. Why is it so hard to conceive of escape from capital being a world without the commodity – why is there this clinginess to commodities from people that find this work-capital-commodity society so inhumane.
…
And then the statement – ‘the really, really free market movement has its roots in a really different way seeing social and economic relations’ was it a bewildering joke or some attempt to mystify people into thinking that the organisers of this spectacle were ‘outside or capital’ and like Gabriel had informed humanity of the escape from their alienation – a swap meet.
Along with this project this summit, as with others, has attracted ‘affinity groups’ whose primary purpose seems to be gaining access to an elusive niche market - the anit-capitalist - so as to be able to carry out their ‘anti-capitalist activities’. One such group is a t-shirt cooperative that have gone one step further then the people of the LIP factory* in the self-management of their own oppression - they have decided to set up their own factory and industry. They have decided that the best action to support an anti-capitalism movement is to set up a t-shirt co-operative, make really really radical t-shirts with really really radical slogans. And of course what makes this co-operative so radically radical is that they use concensus decision making to enforce their own oppression – that’s so much more radical-er than anything ever! This group plans to use the G20 summit as the perfect opportunity to attract business from their niche market…
In light of this we must ask – what do we do about these really really capo-scumbags? Our first thought would, logically, be to round up some people to rob them blind (in an effort to ‘improve the collective lives of us all’), unfortunately this is only likely to leave those in the new factories with renewed motivation to sacrifice in the pursuit of production. A second thought might be to just forget it and leave them to suffer in their silly efforts – just as one would leave any sales person struggling to construct a market (this is of course the likely outcome – but only as a result of laziness – not commited thought). The third option would be to ridicule them in an effort to lift the mystification that prevents them seeing the reality of their flagellation. Perhaps simple things like covering the area in which they are selling/spruiking, or whatever, with stencils proclaiming such things as ‘YOU ARE THE CAPITALISTS’.
*The LIP factory is a factory that went backrupt and was taken over by its workers in order to avoid unemployment. They self-managed the factory and their own oppression in order to produce watches. Down the track they hired casuals to help out – they wern’t included in the ‘self-management’. This t-shirt project seems to be the same except that they are setting up the jobs in the first place.
