However much we may hesitate before Negri’s Marxism – his almost exclusive attention to Marxist theorisations of the Paris Commune, his use of the singular concept of the “working class” to capture the agencies of the event, and his ascription of a “communal ontology” to contemporary capitalism -, the interview that we share below remains valuable. And we share his Spinozist metaphor of the Paris Commune as the substance from which all of the lines of the “Left” flow.
It is the beginning of April and the mental impact of the lockdown has become even more surreal as the seasons change. The acts of resistance over the past few weeks have been both beautiful and terrifying. Meanwhile, the government continues to restrict our freedoms while opening Greece to tourists and business—in spite of infection rates averaging between 3000 and 4000 cases of COVID-19 a day, putting Greece third to last in the EU in terms of managing the crisis. In the following report, we describe the conclusion of the hunger strike of Dimitris Koufontinas, the clashes of March 9, and more.
This report is brought to you by Radio Fragmata. You can read our previous reports from Greece starting here. A full list of resources on struggles in Greece is included at the end.
Jusqu’à nos temps, la poésie fit une route fausse; s’élevant jusqu’au ciel ou rampant jusqu’à terre, elle a méconnu les principes de son existence, et a été, non sans raison, constamment bafouée par les honnêtes gens. Elle n’a pas été modeste … qualité la plus belle qui doive exister dans un être imparfait! Moi, je veux montrer mes qualités; mais, je ne suis pas assez hypocrite pour cacher mes vices! Le rire, le mal, l’orgueil, la folie, paraîtront, tour à tour, entre la sensibilité et l’amour de la justice, et serviront d’exemple à la stupéfaction humaine; chacun s’y reconnaîtra, non pas tel qu’il devrait être, mais tel qu’il est. Et, peut-être que ce simple idéal, conçu par mon imagination, surpassera, cependant, tout ce que la poésie a trouvé jusqu’ici de plus grandiose et de plus sacré.
Lautréamont/Isidore Ducasse, Les Chants de Maldoror(Chant Quatrième)
Nous nous opposons, nous continuons à nous opposer à ce que Lautréamont entre dans l’histoire, à ce qu’on lui assigne une place entre Une Tel et Un Tel.
Louis Aragon, André Breton, Paul Eluard, Lautréamont envers et contre tout
María Galindo shared this text with the media collective Lavaca (13/02/2021) and the magazine MU (both attached to the Universidad de Lavaca, argentina) , a text without prophetic ambitions, but which rather tries to think about the post-pandemic from a position of uncertainty. The result is a dictionary on the lexicon with which governments of the left and right discipline societies; a reflection on how to think politically and ideologically about vaccinations around the world, the colonial-patriarchal-extractivist order that turns neoliberalism into fascism, and how to interpret the speed of changes in the light of rebellion and creativity.
In an extraordinary cinematographic labour, Raphaël Meyssan adapted the three volumes of his eponymous graphic novel, for which he had collected hundreds of engravings in newspapers and books of the time. From this patient quest for archives – eight years of research – and the testimonial of Victorine Brocher, the graphic artist and director makes a unique film. We share the film below, which to our knowledge is not available in English.
In an essay penned shortly before his death, David Graeber argued that post-pandemic, we can’t slip back into a reality where the way our society is organized — to serve every whim of a small handful of rich people while debasing and degrading the vast majority of us — is seen as sensible or reasonable.
Before he tragically died at the untimely age of fifty-one in September 2020, the anarchist, anthropologist, and organizer David Graeber wrote this essay on what life and politics could look like after the COVID-19 pandemic. Jacobin is proud to publish Graeber’s essay for the first time.
Courage yet, my brother or my sister! Keep on—Liberty is to be subserv’d whatever occurs; That is nothing that is quell’d by one or two failures, or any number of failures, Or by the indifference or ingratitude of the people, or by any unfaithfulness, Or the show of the tushes of power, soldiers, cannon, penal statutes.
What we believe in waits latent forever through all the continents, Invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and composed, knows no discouragement, Waiting patiently, waiting its time.
(Not songs of loyalty alone are these, But songs of insurrection also, For I am the sworn poet of every dauntless rebel the world over, And he going with me leaves peace and routine behind him, And stakes his life to be lost at any moment.)
The battle rages with many a loud alarm and frequent advance and retreat, The infidel triumphs, or supposes he triumphs, The prison, scaffold, garrote, handcuffs, iron necklace and lead-balls do their work, The named and unnamed heroes pass to other spheres, The great speakers and writers are exiled, they lie sick in distant lands, The cause is asleep, the strongest throats are choked with their own blood, The young men droop their eyelashes toward the ground when they meet; But for all this Liberty has not gone out of the place, nor the infidel enter’d into full possession. When liberty goes out of a place it is not the first to go, nor the second or third to go, It waits for all the rest to go, it is the last.
When there are no more memories of heroes and martyrs, And when all life and all the souls of men and women are discharged from any part of the earth, Then only shall liberty or the idea of liberty be discharged from that part of the earth, And the infidel come into full possession.
Then courage European revolter, revoltress! For till all ceases neither must you cease.
I do not know what you are for, (I do not know what I am for myself, nor what any thing is for,) But I will search carefully for it even in being foil’d, In defeat, poverty, misconception, imprisonment—for they too are great.
Did we think victory great? So it is—but now it seems to me, when it cannot be help’d, that defeat is great, And that death and dismay are great.
The revolution itself will raise those for whom the revolution must be made.
From William Morris …
Why We Celebrate the Commune of Paris
(Source: “Why We Celebrate the Commune of Paris Commonweal, Vol 3, No. 62, 19 March 1887, p. 89-90; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.)
The ‘moons and the days’ have brought us round again to the anniversary of the greatest tragedy of modern times, the Commune of Paris of 1871, and with it the recurring duty for all Socialists of celebrating it both enthusiastically and intelligently. By this time the blatant slanders with which the temporarily unsuccessful cause was assailed when the event was yet fresh in men’s minds have sunk into the dull gulf of lies, hypocritical concealments, and false deductions, which is called bourgeois history, or have become a dim but deeply rooted superstition in the minds of those who have information enough to have heard of the Commune, and ignorance enough to accept the bourgeois legend of it as history.
We are no less than the Paris commune workers: they resisted for 70 days and we are still going on for a year and a half.
Omar Aziz, 2012
The “Arab Spring” as revolution risks falling into oblivion, reduced to State centred and geo-political interpretations of civil and proxy wars. If the latter cannot be ignored – and even these must be read on a global scale (See: “The Syrian Revolution: reflections on a decade of struggle”, Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Roarmag) -, they cannot serve to cover over the revolutions that so many gave themselves over to.
Perhaps nowhere is this more important than in the case of syria. We post below are collection of articles, already familiar to some, dedicated to the syrian revolution and the work of the anarchist, Omar Aziz.
Over the past few weeks, the streets of Athens have been filled with thousands of people, despite the country being in lockdown since the beginning of November. There are protests every day, in many neighborhoods and cities across the country. Tensions are running high due to the introduction of a new law establishing university police, the hunger strike of political prisoner Dimitris Koufountina and the increasing violence and impunity of police forces. The rifts in Greek society are deepening, and now part of the country is rising up in revolt.
The Paris Commune: Antonio Negri
An interview with Antonio Negri by Niccolò Cuppini, as part of the Planetary Commune project. (The interview is also available in spanish and french).
However much we may hesitate before Negri’s Marxism – his almost exclusive attention to Marxist theorisations of the Paris Commune, his use of the singular concept of the “working class” to capture the agencies of the event, and his ascription of a “communal ontology” to contemporary capitalism -, the interview that we share below remains valuable. And we share his Spinozist metaphor of the Paris Commune as the substance from which all of the lines of the “Left” flow.
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