English

Semio-capital and the problem of solidarity

Written by Franco Berardi Bifo, 12.12.2012
This text is based on a panel talk (together with Nina Power) by Bifo during the event ‘We Have Our Own Concept of Time and Motion’, organised by Auto Italia in collaboration with Federico Campagna, Huw Lemmey, Michael Oswell and Charlie Woolley in August 2011.
 
I beg your pardon for the frantic way of my exposition, but the problem is that the object of my reflections is frantic. We are doing so many things without really understanding what is the framework of our actions. I do not pretend to clarify this framework or our understanding of it; I don’t even pretend to come to some conclusions in this short time. But I will try to say something about the coming problem; the coming collapse; the coming insurrection.
 

Thoughts on Zizek’s Metastases of Enjoyment, in particular: Does the Subject Have a Cause?

Written by Nathan Witt, 05.12.2012
Note: heavily pixelated latitude and longitude. Google Earth “inhibited” on the West Bank of the dried up Jordan River, probably suppressed to conceal the illegitimate activity that Israel is undertaking. Up until lately street names have been absent and the massively inferior pixel quality in the Occupied Territories is palpable. You can see the disparity to the neighbours- even from a high altitude- the evergreen, the suburban, the maximum security, the loaned up the hilt, the after-the-event-archaeology-as-tourism; many sites of which rested in the rubble before the Nakbah and some of which ended up in the rubble as a result of the Nakbah. A shifting sea of rubble. Looking at Palestine in Google is an insult to the eyes, as this is a piece of franchised software that has been politicized way before the idea. Again, you can clearly see the disparity in the colour of the land between Israel and Palestine, the thirsty, insatiable occupier who is draining the Jordan and Golan Heights, as well as other basins, which it has done from day one. You can see the pathetic impotence of UN Boundaries, International Boundaries, Oslo Accords, Armistice Boundaries and anti-social historic walls of archaeological importance- but not the massive long concrete walls that encircle most of the country like a grey carbon seeping reptile- as David Icke would put it.
 

King Yunan and the Sage Duban

Written by Rebecca Lamarre, 28.11.2012
The Tale of the Wazir and the Sage Duban
 
Once upon a time, a King called Yunan reigned over a city in Persia. He was a powerful and wealthy ruler, who had armies and guards and allies of all nations of men; but his body was afflicted with a leprosy which philosophers and men of science failed to heal. He drank potions and he swallowed powders, but naught did him good and no physician was able to procure him a cure.
At last there came to his city a mighty healer of men, the sage Duban. This man was a reader of books, Greek, Persian, Roman, Arabian, and Syrian; he was skilled in astronomy and the wisdom of the ancients; conversant with the virtues of every plant, grass and herb, as well as philosophy and the whole range of medical science.
Now this physician had heard of the King's malady and all the bodily sufferings with which Allah had smitten him and how all the doctors and wise men had failed to heal him. Upon this he sat up through the night in deep thought and, when the dawn broke he donned his handsomest dress and betook himself to King Yunan, kissing the ground before him. He called down blessings on the King, saying:

The Worst Thing Since Sliced Bread

Written by Robert Prouse, 15.11.2012
Up until the 20th Century bread had long been the staple food of the British Poor in both the city and the country: From the middle-ages black, brown and white bread were ever present through plenty and want and little was to change for centuries, especially for the better. Even as late as the 1890's bread was the only solid food in over 80% of the meals for the majority of children in Bethnal Green.
 
As the primary food of the people, the “staff of life”, bread has proved to be a hugely important not just as cause, but as buffer, to social unrest and revolution: In 1789 French women marched on Versailles driven by the price of bread; in 2011 millions took to the streets across North Africa and the Middle-East under the slogan 'bread, freedom and dignity; yet in 1848 English bread prices and its political structure were stabilised by cheap wheat as a wave of revolutions swept through Europe; and today...
 

Hiding From the Gods: on emancipation and the Public

Written by Federico Campagna, 07.11.2012
Strength through unity, unity through faith
Norsefire
 
Action within unity!
British Union of Fascists, 1932-1940
 
 
The Reflux
 
Ten years after 1968, Italy was probably the only Western European country in which the wave of rebellion and dangerous dreaming of the 60s hadn’t yet exhausted its energy. The desire for autonomy, communism and communization seemed to be deeply rooted both in the hearts of the factory workers and in those of the students. While the institutional apparatus of the P.C.I. appeared determined to entrench itself within the parliamentary framework and the rhetoric of gradual and progressive social change, myriad other groups were still opting for the uncompromising strategy of full communism ‘here and now’. Countless collective experiences, free radios, workers’ associations and even armed groups were, at that time, still blossoming in almost every Italian city.
 
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