2007-05-28
Superfluous and Superheroes of the World: Unite and Take Over!
From 6-8 June, together with thousands of others, as part of the Block G8
campaign, we will cut the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm off from its
infrastructure. The other world – the one we say is possible – will, once
again, be revealed as already here.
The successful blockade of the World Trade Organisation in Seattle 1999 was an
important moment of rupture. Famously, the common amongst environmentalists and
trade unionists, nuns and queers, anarchists and communists was constituted
through an act – a blockade – of practical delegitimation. The world was
changed on those teargas-filled streets. Or rather, our perception of our own
ability to influence the direction of the world was what underwent the greatest
transformation.
The events of Seattle found their continuation in a series of counter-summit
mobilisations (in Washington DC, Prague, Genoa, Cancun, Gleneagles, Hong
Kong…), as well as revealing a previously hidden past; namely, the numerous
revolts and rebellions against neoliberalism, primarily in the global South:
from the so-called ‘IMF riots’ which swept from country to country during the
1980s, the Zapatista uprising in 1994, and the struggles against employment
reforms in South Korea from 1996-7. More than history’s return, Seattle showed
that it had never gone away!
Movement of Movements
With this breaking of the surface of public consciousness, the singular nature
of the global ‘movement of movements’ became immediately apparent. Unlike so
many of the ‘new social movements’ of the 1970s and 80s, the new movement was a
rejection (rather than defence) of identity. It is composed of an irreducible
multiplicity of actors. It has constantly sought – sometimes more successfully
than others – to address two overlapping problematics. Firstly, how can it move
beyond a condition in which its constituent parts simply exist indifferently
alongside one another? And secondly, how can it simultaneously ensure that no
single actor is able to assume the hegemonic role played by the party-form in
previous eras of struggle?
Over the eight years since Seattle, the movement has transformed. Its
composition, forms of political practice, and language have shifted; its
relation to that which is not itself (which has always been something hard to
define) in constant flux. Sometimes acting antagonistically; sometimes finding
resonance. The declaration of war on the body of the movement in Genoa – and
the onset of an open ended global war a few months later – have perhaps
presented the movement its biggest challenges yet. Meanwhile, neoliberalism’s
own crisis – manifested variously by the series of electoral victories in Latin
America and beyond, won on an anti-neoliberal ticket; the rejection of the EU
constitution; and the faltering of talks in almost every round of negotiations
of the WTO, the FTAA, and the CAFTA since Seattle – have placed new demands on
the movement. How does something which was born anti-neoliberal (rather than
anti-capitalist per se) overcome its own internal contradictions and reject the
increasingly vocal calls – from Jeffry Sachs, from Bono, from others – for a
‘capitalism with a human face’? How do we respond to such efforts to transform
the movement for a globalisation from below into a lobby for change from above?
What are the possibilities for productive interaction, today, between movements
and parties and other institutions: In Latin America? In Europe? And elsewhere?
And importantly, how does a movement so celebratory of its diversity and with
such porous borders rule out influence and involvement from the political
right? These are questions as yet without definitive answers, and about which
we eagerly await discussion with you in Heiligendamm.
Glocal Struggles Within and Against Neoliberalism
The complex webs of social relations which compose the capitalist mode of
(re)production today ensure that all conflicts – as local as they may at first
seem – are in fact immediately global. For resistance movements, the G8 (like
the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank…) function as symbolic nodes in the network of
global governance and command. Yet the mobilisation around the G8 Summit is not
purely symbolic. It serves the function of bringing together, intensifying and
creating resonance amongst the more everyday struggles against and within
globalised capitalism.
Since at least 2001, with the first EuroMayDay parade in Milan, a shift of focus
has slowly been taking place within some areas of the global movement of
movements; away from the symbols of global rule, and in search of commonality
amongst the various singular subjectivities of the neoliberal era. Many have
found this commonality in the notion of ‘precariousness’; the social tendency
towards an increasing insecurity which – in vastly different ways – is
beginning to effect us all. The parades have been a conscious effort to bring
together these various subjectivities (and like the summit mobilisations of
Seattle, Genoa and beyond) to uncover commonality despite and beyond difference
through experimentation with new forms of political practice.
Simultaneously, more territorially rooted struggles around the issues of access
to social wealth and processes of inclusion/exclusion have also erupted. In
France, first in the banlieue, and then around the CPE (First Employment Law).
In Germany, around the introduction of the Harz IV welfare reforms and the
restructuring of higher education. And in Oaxaca, Mexico, what began as a
teachers’ strike to highlight their economic plight generalised, over the
summer of 2006, into a broad based, explicitly anti-capitalist struggle.
The potential of the mobilisation around this year’s G8 Summit in Heiligendamm
lies in its ability to connect these and other struggles, making them visible
on the global stage and allowing the space for them to interact and interplay
with one another. Not ‘Unity in Diversity’; but an open-ended search for
commonality in the process of us all becoming something different, together.
Block G8!
To realise their full potential, the mass blockades of this year’s G8 Summit
need to move beyond the discourse of (il)legitimacy and start making
connections to our everyday struggles against precariousness (in all its
various forms) and for the good life. We reject the G8 and the form of global
governance of which it makes up only one part. And we are constantly looking
for ways out of the capital relation for which they stand as a symbol. Yet
where we ultimately want to go, and how we want to get there, is far more
ambiguous.
The fact that there are no immediately clear solutions to the problem of to how
to constitute another possible world must not stop us from experimenting.
Tentatively, we propose a number of concrete demands which we feel, if won –
and these are demands which must be fought for – would move us in the right
direction. They point a way out of capitalist social relations, whilst clearly
distinguishing ourselves from the right that tries to become a part of the
movement whilst promoting racist and nationalist ideology. The demands are for:
A universal basic income, de-linked from productivity!
Global freedom of movement and the right to remain!
Equal rights for everyone!
Through adopting the carnivalesqe form of the (Euro)MayDay parades, through
taking up the struggles of the Superfluous (see box), through supporting the
striking Telekom workers, and through making visible the precarious
‘superheroes’ who have fought against neoliberalism over the last few years
(see box), we hope – together with you – to be able to articulate these demands
through the body of the movement: in the international demonstration on June 2,
in the day of action on migration, through discussion and debate, and in the
mass disobedient blockades of the streets around Heiligendamm on June 6.
FelS – Berlin
The following is a list of places and events in which we will be present and
participating. We hope to see you there!
June 1: Opening of the camps! FelS will be in the Interventionist Left barrio of
the camp in Rostock (Fischereihafen, Am Grenzschlachthof 1, Rostock).
www.camping-07.de
June 2: International Demonstration. Join the Interventionist Left’s ‘Make
Capitalism History’ bloc – where there will also be a MayDay ‘bloc within a
bloc’. Rostock Central Station, 12:00. www.heiligendamm2007.de
June 3: International Networking Meetings. Convergence Centre,
Knut-Rasmussen-Straße 8, Rostock.
June 4: Day of Action on Migration. Decentralised actions in the morning. Demo
‘For Global Freedom of Movement and Equal Rights for Everyone’. Satower
Strasse, Rostock. 13:00. http://g8-migration.net.tf/
June 6-8: Block G8! Mass blockades of the G8 Summit, with precarious
superheroes, the Superfluous and others! Block G8 Info Line: 49 (0)381
1282702. www.block-g8.org
Box #1
The Superfluous
The Superfluous (Überflüssigen) are those who, within globalised neoliberal
capitalism, have to fight for survival. Their lives consist of unemployment,
poverty, hunger and war. In the industrialised countries, they are those
excluded from social wealth. They are the object of the class struggle from
above. Superfluous, in capitalism, are the unemployed whose rights are being
ever-further restricted – in Germany and beyond. They are refugees, asylum
applicants and single mothers forced into low-paid jobs. But the Superfluous
don’t allow themselves to be dispensed with as easily as some may hope… All
over the world, those deemed superfluous by capital have adorned white to
symbolise their invisibility and reduction to a faceless commodity. For the
same reason, in Germany, the Superfluous wear white masks: A face for the
faceless. In reality, though, the masks reveal far more than they conceal:
commonality. It is through the constitution of this commonality that the
Superfluous are able to go about collective re-appropriation: of life’s
essentials, life’s luxuries, life itself. Capitalism is superfluous!
www.ueberfluessig.tk
Box #2
Precarious Superheroes
The reproduction of neoliberal social relations demands superheroism. Ever more
mobility, flexibility, multitask-ability. Superhero subjectivities ready for
super-exploitation. Yet everywhere, the figure of the superhero is becoming a
symbol of resistance. From Superbarrio, who for over a decade has fought for
Mexico City’s poor; over the Unbeatables (like SpiderMom and SuperFlex) of the
Milanese Euromayday; to the superheroes of Hamburg, who redistributed luxuries
they appropriated from a delicatessen. More and more people are discovering
that with their extra-ordinary powers, they can make another world possible.
berlin.euromayday.org // hamburg.euromayday.org // euromayday.org
Box #3
FelS (For a Leftwing Current) is a Berlin-based group which, since the
early-1990s, has attempted to intervene in and influence the direction of
various social and political struggles in Germany and beyond. The group seeks
to articulate a radical-left politics, and to develop new forms of political
practice, within the context of broad coalitions and social networks. FelS was
involved with the 2006 and 2007 Mayday Parades in Berlin, and is mobilising to
Heiligendamm against the G8 Summit. The group produces the quarterly magazine
arranca! and belongs to the Interventionist Left.
www.fels-berlin.de // fels@nadir.org // www.g8-2007.de
Box #4
Useful Contacts:
Rostock Camp Info Line: 49 (0) 1577 230 2168 // Reddelich Camp Info Line: 49
(0) 1577 463 0055 // Mobile Info Point (5 and 6 June only): 49 (0) 175 892 78
68 // Medics: 49 (0)178 654 1308 // Legal Team (EA): 49 (0) 38204 768111
(www.ermittlungsausschuss.antifa.net)
