Everything is possible, even self-managing assemblies in the middle of street intersections, villages and neighborhoods.
Raoul Vaneigem
We share two reflections on the gilets jaunes by Raoul Vaneigem. The first is an interview with Vaneigem, translated into english and published by NOT BORED (the interview was conducted by Le Nouveau Magazine littéraire and published on Dec. 21st, 2018.) The second is a short essay, in translation, published with la voie du jaguar (08/12/2018).
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Eduardo Colombo is the third of our anarchists whom we have grouped under the title of writers of “May 68”, which includes Jaime Semprun, Miguel Amorós and Amedeo Bertolo. The reference to “May 68” is a political metaphor in this instance, for aside from Semprun, the other three writers were in their respective countries of origin at the time (Amorós was in spain, Bertolo in italy, and Colombo in argentina), but all four writers would be profoundly marked by the events of May and would endeavour to rethink anarchism in the wake of those events.
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Published with the Crimethinc. Collective, we share a call from Brazil to resist the new Bolsonaro regime (in english and portuguese).
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Radical political movements and thought have always been nourished by rebellions and insurrections that were rarely or never foreseen, largely outside of any movement’s control, and whose fate was decided in struggle with both opposing protagonists and institutions of power.
That so much of this seems to have been forgotten in the often sweeping dismissals of the “gilets jaunes” by “Leftist” politicians, labour union leaders, “radical” intellectuals, ideologically engaged activists, and the like, testifies yet again to the fact that nothing is more incomprehensible and frightful to “established orders”, whatever their political colour, than rebellion (not to speak of revolution).
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… libertarian socialism is the way…or as I prefer to say, libertarian solidarism, that’s where we can find the essence of a better world, the essence of a society formed from the grass roots up, through the people’s discussion, the protagonism of the people. That is the most beautiful poem of all…Now, we have to be practical but one can think that finally, after so many problems, humanity’s going to start to think and … the only way is by the people being the protagonists within an enormous mutuality…
Osvaldo Bayer
Essayist, journalist, screenplay writer, historian, anarchist militant, Osvaldo Bayer would live and participate directly in some of the most dramatic political events of his country’s history, argentina, of the last almost hundred years. Osvaldo Bayer died last December 24th, at the age of 91. We celebrate his life and creativity.
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Ah, reason, solemnity, mastering of emotions, this really dismal thing called reflection, all these privileges and splendours man has: what a price had to be paid for them! how
much blood and horror lies at the basis of all ‘good things’! . . .
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the genealogy of morality
We close our selection of writings by Miguel Amorós, with a reflection on critical theory, preceded by a critical introduction to Amorós own views.
This post is part of our ongoing series dedicated to the “May 68 writers” Miguel Amorós, Jaime Semprun, Eduardo Colombo, and Amedeo Bertolo.
How foolish it would be to suppose that one only needs to point out the origin and this misty shroud of delusion in order to destroy the world that counts for real, so-called “reality.” We can destroy only as creators. – But let us not forget this either: it is enough to create new names and estimations and probabilities in order to create in the long run new “things.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science
Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unfathomable and eternal source of all life. The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too!
Mikhail Bakunin, The Reaction in Germany (From the Notebooks of a Frenchman)
We return to our series dedicated to the “May 68 writers” Miguel Amorós, Jaime Semprun, Eduardo Colombo, and Amedeo Bertolo, with an essay by Amorós entitled “The Golden Mediocrity”. We preface the essay with a critical reflection on Amorós contention that revolution calls for a revolutionary subject, something in his view absent from recent social movements centred on a reactionary middle class.
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust
A celebration of the Left Hand Rotation’s documentary film, “Fascínio”.
Tourism is the highest form of alienation in our time. The modern traveler is divorced from all relations to place and time, except those of consumption. And what is consumed (land and cityscapes, monuments, museums and so on, all identified as obligatory points of passage by tour guides and by the likes and dislikes of other tourists) is itself abstracted from any living history and the ways of life that created it. The tourist is a rootless consumer of branded places, mediated through industries of commodified destinations, destinations produced by the very movement of tourists.
From the gilet jaunes of Commercy: A call to generalise the assemblies
Among the polyphony of the gilets jaunes, we shared a first communique from the Commercy. Today, we share a second statement, in translation, from the Commercy assembly that retains all of its political importance, pointing as it does potentially to a path beyond perpetuating the status quo with minor reforms. It is an invitation to discuss and debate, between all of the local assemblies of the movement, what kind of world they (we) wish to live in.
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