through europe - occupy

Perché gli artisti? MACAO è la risposta

Franco Berardi Bifo — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:45:42 +0000

“perché i poeti nel tempo della povertà?” chiede Holderlin nel suo poema “Pane e vino”.

E commentando questo verso, Heidegger dice: “Forse siamo nel momento in cui il mondo va verso la sua mezzanotte”.

In nome del vuoto

Il 5 maggio un gruppo di artisti, architetti, insegnanti e studenti e lavoratori precari della scuola e della comunicazione hanno occupato un edificio chiamato Torre Galfa e l’hanno rinominato Macao. L’edificio è un grattacielo di trentacinque piani, abbandonato da quindici anni.

Dieci giorni dopo l’occupazione, mentre il corpo gigantesco del precariato cognitivo milanese cominciava a stiracchiare le sue membra e a sintonizzarsi con la torre, sono entrati in azione gli esecutori del piano di sterminio finanziario. Il proprietario, noto alle cronache giudiziarie come corrotto e corruttore, ha deciso che quel posto è suo e deve rimanere com’è: vuoto. Tutto deve essere vuoto nella città, perché il capitalismo finanziario ha bisogno di distruggere ogni segno di vita. Le risorse materiali e intellettuali vengono progressivamente inghiottite, annullate, perché i predatori possano espandere la loro insensata ricchezza.

Per la prima volta, occupando la Torre, il movimento è uscito dalla sfera dell’underground e si è proiettato verso l’alto. Non è un movimento di talpe, ma di sperimentatori. Le talpe ora debbono venire fuori, debbono occupare ogni spazio, e contenderlo all’organizzazione di morte che si chiama Banca Centrale Europea.

The Republic of the 99%

Amador Fernandez-Savater — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:25:15 +0000

"More wood, this is war!" The train in the Marx Brothers’ film is the most accurate picture of present-day capitalism. Running away, fleeing forward, dismantling itself to further fuel the machine: destroying rights, guarantees, life, wealth, resources, care, bonds, the entire building of modern social civilization. The mad rush of capitalism threatens to bring everything down with it. There is neither an overall plan nor a long-term prospect: just take all the wood necessary to keep the machine running. Capitalism has gone completely punk: "no future".

Deep down, something is broken. We act as if nothing has happened, but we know it. The general feeling is that "everything has become possible": for the EU to expel Spain from the euro, a bank run, a ‘corralito’ or an insurrection. Just anything. But we cling to the more remote possibility: that things just stay the same, that we return to "normal." Capitalism is improvising, but so are the movements that oppose it. No compass is of any use now, the maps that we have are falling from our hands and we have no idea where we are heading. The only thing that we can do – or so it seems – is to follow the events of the day: the King’s speech yesterday, Repsol’s troubles today, and tomorrow we'll see. Time is out of joint.

A Reading List for #Occupy - Part I

Paolo Mossetti — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:38:05 +0000

Edited by Paolo Mossetti

Cover by Kaf & Cyop. Image courtesy of the artist

While the Occupy Wall Street "People's Library" was being brutally dismantled by the police, last November, I asked some officers why they were seizing those books and throwing them into trash cans.

Only one of them replied by saying, simply, "I don't know."
Then I decided to ask some of my favourite writers, activists, and academics to help me compile a list of books that would recreate, though only virtually, the OWS library.

…And if they didn’t pay, they bloody ought to! Lessons from the Battle of Rome

Paolo Mossetti — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:30:55 +0000

A disturbing trend has taken place in the aftermath of October 15th in Rome, shaped by mainstream media and multiplied by the social networks. For the first time in Italian history almost an entire country participated in the repression of violent dissent, in the segregation of spaces of alterity, using the same tools that were supposed to denounce the weakness of the turbo-capitalist system. Millions of young adults played the game of the Good Cop, at the expense of three or more decades of civil conquests. Class traitors, fucking police everywhere you turned, even and especially online, worse than in real life. What a depressing bore.

Poème de l’occupation infinie

Francesca Martinez Tagliavia — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:42:22 +0000

occupons les fraises sauvages

occupons les langages

occupons le sel

occupons les discours

occupons de manière chaotique et organisée un mur

occupons une discothèque