through europe

Londres, 9 décembre.

Les étudiants ont manifesté massivement, en un nombre tel qu’on le voyait pas depuis des années. Oui, c’est vrai, mais ce n’est pas cela la nouvelle. La foule a encerclé la voiture de Charles et Camilla en la frappant à coup de pieds. Cela est vrai aussi, mais ce n’est pas la nouvelle. Les étudiants ont commencé à répondre à la violence policière avec la violence. Ils ont attaqué le siège du Ministère du Trésor et l’ont saccagé et transformé en chiottes. Tout cela est vrai, mais ce n’est toujours pas la nouvelle.

Days, in London, always pass fast. This city embodies the very essence of late capitalism. Its illness. Working over-time, running along underground platforms, eating late at night, pills, kebabs, sleeping drunk on buses, waking up at the last stop or already late for work.
There couldn’t possibly be a better city for activism.

November 24, 2010. A date to remember. A few months after the Greek riots, a few weeks after the French wave of general strikes, Britain, Italy and Portugal synchronized their unrest against the new measures of austerity enforced by their respective governments. While British students descended in mass on the streets, their Italian equivalents attacked the palace of the Senate, before moving to occupy the Coliseum. At the same time, in Portugal, the unions called for a general strike that managed to paralyze the entire country, with peaks of 80% adhesion among the workers of several industries.

24 November 2010, London

Dear Sir,

I happened to see you today around Whitehall. You didn’t seem to see me. I was right in front of you, maybe a couple of feet away. I was blowing my breath on your yellow uniform. I tried to talk to you. But I guess you weren’t there. Talking to a uniform is a silly thing to do, when there is no one inside it.