Ontological Anarchism – PART 3 of 3

THE ARMAMENT MECHANISM INHERENT IN A VALUE

8.1 Dominant culture confidently talks about values, we see interviewed politicians talk of them soon after they formalised the orders for soldiers to prepare for war. Representatives of distinguished organisations meet people of influence, power and wealth – they talk of civilisation and of the “humanist” charitable endeavour. They talk of human values, but whose values are these really? The OA contention is that these values are an “armament mechanism of a plan” where the much lauded bastions of progress and development are actually “behind the facade” of manipulative processes of power and resource accumulation that leave in its wake communities without the basics to life and devastated ecologies. All of this confirming, at root, a deep and extreme blindness to the ongoing oblivion of much of humanity toward Being.

8.2 It is exactly this blind path to oblivion that many ecological activists and revolutionary environmentalists are committed to avoiding. With one of the most important messages of OA being: the essence of technology can only continue as long as its destructiveness is concealed. Here lies a minefield of dispute as many will stand and argue that at heart technology is not destructive and that the existence of medicines, architecture, productive tools, machinery and so on testify to this fact. The OA response is to reply that it is both the beneficial and the destructive that is inherent to technology, and it is this fact that is so averted from by common global civilisation and its mediated discourse.

8.3 It is important that we wake up to this reality now in this time of peril when supposed technologically neutral tools and weapons rack such ruin on the ecologies of the world and could very well wipe-out much of life on this planet. It is one of the greatest human stupidities that people can disregard this warning and continue to believe the way that things are, are as they should be, or could not be any different. OA is obviously not the lone bearer of this warning, but the importance of OA’s message is in it pointing out the truth about the inextricable bond between all life. THIS is what is life-saving in itself. Action will only be truly revolutionary if it engages in a solidarity that crosses all artificial boundaries of race, gender, sexuality, species and more (perhaps solidarity with nature and Being itself, if we even need to say we can be in solidarity with that which is our most essential self then perhaps this is an indicator of the degree of our plight). This means a liberation of humans from the confines of “enframing” (from within conceptual traps) and liberation of animals and ecologies from human enforced and technological domination. Becker actually goes further and says that anything less and we will see an inevitable lapse back into false and oppressive hierarchy of “humans” over “nature”, “humans” over “animals”, “man” over “woman”, “white” over “non-white” and so on, with the full utilisation of technology and disciplinary control to both carry out; whilst simultaneously hide what is going on.

RE-CONNECTING TO BEING

8.4 OA describes the possibility of suspending the will, so as to attain a lucid sense of the free play of Being – where all life emerges and is sustained. The “how” of re-connection necessitates no effort or force. Indeed do not DO anything and the productive work ethic can be undermined. For now even forget about the whole thing, FORGET ABOUT OA! The next time an opportunity arises that seems to reaffirm life’s connection – go for it! Revitalisation is natural and spontaneous. Only confusion makes us see things adversely.

9.1 There is already a minority peoples on this planet whether philosophers, shamans, buddhists, revolutionary environmentalists, daoists, sufis, nondualists, etc, that seem to recognise that a human being, like any entity, is – is present. Yet anyone can open up to Being, can respond to Being. It is often in our search for meaning that actually we overlook the essence of humanity, which is that: EXPERIENCE itself is of value, or is the very value giving force in itself without which there would be no value. This is the experience of the presence of the awareness of Being. That this isn’t the fundamental basis of all education everywhere is to deprive all children and students with the very foundation of understanding. Particularly since so much can AND IS going wrong because of a lack of understanding of this most simple and immediate truth.

Symbolically cultures have reconnected with their recognition of Being for millennia. This was done whenever they cleared a space (creating a psychological, sensory as well as spiritual opening) for ceremony; or when they met in awe-inspiring forest glades; or acknowledged in song or some other artistic expression the “old ones” in the wilderness or elements; or when they retreated into caves and isolated places to explore inner-space. All of these were attempts to reconnect with that which is ultimately inexpressible – Being – but that which is within the realm of everyone’s experience. Always.

9.2 Within the open space of serenity, in the wilderness or openness in meditation, we can become aware of the vast space within which entities emerge into presence. When willed manipulation is suspended then other entities can be recognised. There is an egoistic will that demands humanity is the pinnacle of evolution, that says we are in the very likeness of God! If we set these delusions aside then we might be able to recognise the enduring process of evolution within which all entities emerge and develop.

Ontological Anarchism – PART 2 of 3

THE DEMANDS OF “CHALLENGING FORTH” AND “STANDING RESERVE”

5.1 What OA points out to us is that dominator cultures are in a state of constant provocation of all the other cultures and of the entire ecological world (to the extent we can well question do any partnership cultures still exist in the human realm? And indeed how much time does life bigger than the size of a cockroach have on this planet?). This includes a mind-set that demands a yield of more resources through more and more efficient processes at an insatiable rate. So much so that many wouldn’t bat an eye lid on hearing the statement that “after-all the world is just out there, sitting, waiting for us to use it”. Some might sardonically add, “to use… and abuse!”

That appropriate and less invasive technical means, those not rooted in assault and extraction, are available is a criminally ignored social truth. A truth that the established powers should be made accountable for. However, the important question is whether societies, the world over, that do not use such less invasive means are ACTUALLY capable of doing so when cultural conditions and the general mentality is underlain by a dominator and invasive techno-cultural way of life? What does it take to end the global silencing of the alternatives? For people to see the global “eco-cide” of plants, animals and discriminated peoples and cultures? To get that much needed sense of urgency? Today the integration of modern techniques with corporate capitalism has resulted in systematic violence against all nature. It is exactly here that single-issue environmental organisations fail to understand the systematic and urgent nature of the ecocidal assault on life through corporate techniques. An urgency that to many has necessitated not only action but revolt.

5.2 Thus we can see that the revolutionary direct action and subversion of the likes of the ELF, Zapatistas, Green Anarchists and Anti-Civilisationists, all of which can be seen as a form of earthly self-defence. The fight isn’t for personal gain, but for the very life of everyone and everything.

5.3 The challenge of OA is unique in that it questions the assumption that everything in the world can only be seen and judged by its usefulness to society. Or more truthfully usefulness to the rich. The point being, why is everything just an object to be manipulated by humanity? Don’t all entities have their own unique course in life, each according to its own nature? Isn’t it a social sickness to see a puppy or a chimp as a piece of experimental equipment to be mutilated in a lab so that someone can use perfume; or stuffing mice and rabbits with wires or chemicals for other military or industrial forms of research?

5.4 No less than the last twelve thousand years have seen the steady, and for a long time calculated, increase in the silencing of the dominated: whether destroyed plants, screaming pigs, beaten families under the patriarchal fist, crucified ethnicities, or displaced communities made irrelevant and unimportant to their own young as they chase the neon nipple of the corporate-capital spectacle. Through the “enframement” of life, humanity is going through what Heidegger termed the “forgetting of being”.

Becker makes an interesting analysis of Heidegger, and points to his statements about the historically “important thinkers” whether in dominator or partnership cultures (or any range between) and their use of “fundamental words” that help shape a cultural epoch, which then orientate societies in their relationship with Being. Often with an impact that has left a huge historical legacy up until today.

Ontological Anarchism – PART 1 of 3

THE PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS OF REVOLUTIONARY ENVIRONMENTALISM – AND THE CHALLENGE OF BEING TO CONCEPTUAL MODES OF ANALYSIS

This is my take on a key and important radical theory, Ontological Anarchism (refered to as OA from here on). Taken and developed from notes I made in preparation for two debates I facilitated at: the intentional community FlyDende By, Copenhagen (Jan 2010), and the anti-airport protest zone Le ZAD, near Nantes (Jan 2011). Much of the following draws heavily from Michael Becker’s piece “Ontological Anarchism” found in the anthology by AK Press “Igniting a Revolution”.

“That’s the minds duty and job: to do, and be occupied, and fill itself up; that’s what it’s been designed and constructed to do, you certainly didn’t design and construct it that way, I wouldn’t think? The fact that it exists to do that must mean something. What it means is that’s how things are! That’s a really good place to start, with how things are. How Mary Lou is. Anything that you think about, what is, must be a concept. That isn’t necessarily a negative. Concepts are the building blocks we use to function. Let’s not get rid of all the concepts or we’re gonna be slabs of human tofu! We’ll keep the concepts, it’s just realising perhaps that the concepts are tools, rather than truths. That’s where we often get hung up in the belief that what we believe about something, what we “know” about something, is actually the truth, or not. So when I said that what you heard was an opening I didn’t mean it to mean that you now have a new concept to replace the old one, but rather that a space has been opened where the concept is removed, as the truth, that creates a space. Of course the mind rushes back in to re-fill the space with a new concept! But that doesn’t necessarily have to happen. That it is sometimes possible that that space is like a crack in the wall, and the crack is what lets the light through.”

~ Wayne Liquorman, “See in who you are” Audio. (Advaita Fellowship.)

WHAT IT IS

1.1 So OA what is it? As an ontology it is nothing less than an essential theory or understanding of the nature of “Reality”. As a philosophy it draws on a number of academic and more traditional disciplines and teachings. Archaeologically it recognises that humanity has existed in Partnership Cultures (Riane Eisler or this), foraging societies since the dawn of humanity some 3 million years ago. One of the key things that OA points out is the increasing manifestation of the domineering impulse in human behaviour, an impulse that is not hard-wired into the biological nature of our species. Historically, like the Anarcho-Primitivists (Primitivism or Species Traitor magazine) and archaeologists (here or feminist archaeology or writers like Daniel Quinn or  Derrick Jensen) that are critical of agrarian civilisation, OA points to the changes that occurred at least 12-15 thousand years ago when agricultural practices began to be adopted on the earth. OA identifies this as a time of tangible intensification in social forms of human domestication and manipulation of its surroundings.

1.2 Central to OA is the creative process inherent in all life, that unification of all entities in a constantly changing field of ecologies. [*What is it we truly need to face in this process. What “Hunter of the Dark” awaits our discovery? If that unification includes facing those aspects we deem dark and repulsive, like something from an H.P. Lovecraft story.] Understanding the interrelatedness of life processes – and recognising their violation and rupture by global corporate capitalism – inspires revolutionary environmentalist action and provides the basis for reshaping society in a manner appropriate to the current global ecological crisis (of mass species extinction and ecological devastation).

1.3 As for the Anarchism in the OA, let me first express its subversive intent with a bold statement: EVERYTHING GLOBAL TECHNOCULTURE TEACHES IS A LIE. This is presented, here in this piece, in its ontological context. Part of the motivation behind my presentation of OA is to contribute to that aim of widening the cracks in the daily spectacle. Both openness to the independent reality of “others” and the insistence that this openness can emerge in a variety of ways, provides the basis for what is termed OA. The literal meaning of “an-arche”, states Becker, “is absence of a ruling principle” – thus OA is ready and open to the experience of Being, or life, for it lacks any dominating principle on it. Allowing a natural unfurling of an anarchic perspective that sees the inherent functioning of life in its most intimate and external manifestations, whether mental, social or ecological.

1.4 A question I asked people to consider in the debate at Le ZAD was: is the process of knowing and deciding on effective action exclusive to “my” own subjectivity? In other words do “I” alone decide how to think and act? I suggest a subtle consideration of the ramifications of any seemingly obvious conclusions we might come up with when answering this question.

THE CYBERNETICS OF SAVAGERY

2.1 Today so many technological, cybernetic, and industrial features of society are used to deny all other than human subjective goals. Priority is given to the human will and ego alone: its desires, satisfactions, its reflexive, self awareness – its conquests! (Becker) Only these things are now meaningful and of worth, and as these ways seem to permeate the very heights of established society it can perhaps be said that humanity has embraced the height of nihilism!

2.2 There are many inherently nihilistic attributes of contemporary culture and as it develops and unfolds to the dictates of the capitalist world economy it is easy to come to the conclusion that in totality this global drive constitutes a most predatory and destructive, if not psychotically systematic assault on the ecologies and the very means of life’s provision here on our shared and blighted earth. Through subversion, direct action, sabotage and revolt, revolutionary environmentalists bring technological nihilism into awareness by directly confronting the destruction of life on earth.

IT ISN’T ABSTRACT

2.3 It may be a simple statement but there are an infinite number of ways that entities can experience Being. Though it is the very act of experiencing that I would like to focus on here, because Being isn’t a noun, it isn’t static, and most importantly it is not a concept. The constant flow and change of Being lends itself more to the verb; as a vibrant and creative process of which all entities are a part (Becker).

2.4 The action of revolutionary environmentalists is underlined by a philosophy and way of life that is directed toward intimate identification and non-interference with the natural world and demands a different approach to the use of technology and science.

2.5 Whilst rejecting the notion that there is a final and definitive account of “ultimate reality” (a veiled alternative to the “supremacy of man”), OA is ready and open to the experience of Being. Yet what is Being? For humans it is the core of life in all its expression, whether poetry; movement, travel, expression; protest and direct action; contemplation and philosophy; ceremony and invocation; art, well of course art, creation, writing, painting; and love, that which is so strong, yet oft not even seen when in others; song and story-telling; building, designing, programming and all of that; playing, oh yes, having fun, laughing, of course laughing – all of this is in essence: Being. That through contemplation and reflection can be seen, and experienced, as a creative, dynamic and an interconnected whole. Though OA looks further than humans to animals, plants and all forms of life. It is this Being that can be found to hold as much wealth in the human as well as without, for its expression is everywhere full of joy, peace, happiness or the mundane as in the everyday aspect, or misery, horror and brutality.

3.1 Dominator societies (presently expressed most predominantly in the form of industrial capitalism) have perverted our sense of Being and perception of freedom. To put it directly OA challenges the infantilism of a consumerism that has been coupled with a productive and destructive mode of living that parades freedom as the will to do whatever is desired or wanted without limit. The “I”/”me” has reached such incredible heights, indeed the “I” is now predominantly seen as being separate from and having more worth than anything else. Is this not the mostly unchallenged root of contemporary analysis and critical theory? To be clear OA doesn’t deny the existence of the will and its ability to express itself in its irreducibly unique way. What OA does is point out the immaturity of the view that the will can facilitate anything that comes within the scope of the ego’s reckoning. Nor, which I add for sake of completeness, does OA deny the believers affirmational dogma that anything is possible. The expression OA points to is creation itself. That Being is that very immediate present-awareness, which is experienced through consciousness, and expressed through the mind-body organism as life.

3.2 Freedom is thus redefined as the very essential movement of that expression through every entity that defines their own irreducible nature. The expression of the entity is exactly what they are, whereas the projections of the will are oft little more than imaginings and the flights of fantasy of the active (and oft over-active) mind. The sort of thing that buddhists and other nondualists often point out to others begrudging recognition. Perhaps there are moments of clarity when we recognise those attachments we have to the seemingly endless, and ensnaring, cyclical patterns of the intellect. These patterns of thought that can, in themselves, not only be the cause of a mental confinement but also of real suffering in our lives. For suffering need not be just physical or emotional pain, indeed the daily suffering people experience, inflicted by their own minds can be much over-looked by societies today. These are the monotonous, and beguiling encouragements of our thoughts that at times manifest in the most surprising and violent of ways. Suffering can thus manifest in a vast array of ways the least of which, as a result of the processes of self-judgement and inner turmoil, can arise as mild forms of irritation or abhorrent mental forms. It is this intellect that many spiritual philosophies of the mind present as an obscuration of our natural state, or our nature of mind, a veil that once dropped automatically allows for that which is always naturally there to be immediately apparent. For OA in its redefinition of freedom focuses on the process of creation and Being, claiming that it is just such expression that is the entities most essential nature, their most essential aspect.

3.3 This expression is one that comes from within, free of the delusion of separation and superiority, this is free expression. Egotistical constricted and isolated viewpoints motivated by greed, fear and delusion are the roots of the “me” impulse that places us above all other. Here the question turns from me and my desires and opens up, turns our attention, in an intuitive way toward the inherent expression of Being coming out from within all entities. This is the experience of their irreducible nature, of their Being as infinite and without boundaries.

3.4 Thus freedom and Being can here be seen to be the same – existence is the “freeing” or emerging of entities into presence. Yet what does this mean? That is what this piece explores.

A VISIT TO DALE FARM

Last weekend I visited Dale Farm the largest  traveller site in the UK, that is under threat of eviction by Basildon District Council. This was a prearranged visit organised by Dale Farm Solidarity, an activist group coordinating the activist response to the eviction. It was a busy London weekend when at Liverpool St Station I was told there were no trains heading eastbound that day. So to get to Wickford Station (where I was being picked up) I had to catch a train from Stratford. Delayed I wondered if I’d miss my pick up.

As it turned out I didn’t miss the train and G_ and L_ were on the platform at Wickford to greet me, other than myself one other had picked up on the call out to come to today’s preparation meeting at Dale Farm. We were all driven to the site (Cray’s Hill, Essex) by a Dale Farm supporter the site is actually a former scrap yard.  Not a lot of people seem to know that of the thousand residents at Dale Farm the council is presently targeting half of them — whilst the other half stay put. It was to this portion of the much wider Dale Farm settlement that we were driven. The families here live in one section of Dale Farm and it is this land, which the families all own, that is to be “restored” to “Green-Belt” land – because the council has refused them planning permission (90% of Traveller planning applications are initially rejected compared to 20% overall).

We were taken to a communal shelter and whilst drinking our tea were told about the hypocrisy of the situation in which the same council can threaten eviction here whilst be releasing many more “Green-belt” acres for the construction of high class residences elsewhere in the district. So the Travellers are being threatened to be kicked off the land they own and live on whilst other construction companies etc are allowed to build for profit and then have others live on what is also “Green-belt” land in the district. It is obvious this is plain racist targeting, ethnic based cleansing, because of the nature of the Traveller way of life.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

There is a Dale Farm Travellers website and so far over 3,000 people have registered their support for the community against the eviction. A 28-day eviction notice is expected in the New Year, it is then that they will try to bulldoze what is effectively a small village. But once the eviction notice is given the resistance will pick up as preparation to halt any eviction is started.

Basildon District Council has set aside 2 million pounds for the eviction, and together with Essex Police has asked the central government for 10 million more. There have been two requests from UN bodies to halt the Dale Farm clearance. It is uncertain if or when the money will arrive, and whether this will affect the timing of the eviction notice. Nonetheless plans are afoot to set up a camp to resist eviction once the notice comes, it will be called Camp Constant. The name comes in opposition to the name of the bailiff company Constant & Co., notorious for the thousands of Traveller families which it has evicted from their land all over Britain in the past ten years. Plus they are being investigated for  breaches of Health and Safety and human rights law at previous evictions.

There is a call out for people to pledge their help by saying they will spend a night at Camp Constant at Dale Farm when the eviction notice comes. By getting people together Dale Farm Solidarity is confident eviction can be resisted.

I enjoyed my visit, and feel like I’ve experienced some of the spirit of the community. I hope the eviction notice never comes, but I know that if it does any attempt to move people from this land will be resisted.

http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/

• If you can pledge to come and spend a night at Camp Constant after the 28 day notice is served or would like more information please email dale.farm@btinternet.com
• Next Dale Farm Meeting (including preparations for Camp Constant) — taking place at Dale Farm on the Saturday 4^TH December. For more information (plus how to get there) email dale.farm@btinternet.com
• Next London meeting
  Sunday 5 December 2pm, Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street
  London E1 7QX. (Near Aldgate East Tube.) For more information email dale.farm@btinternet.com
• Join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=170414852985935

Travelog by pictures

Thought I’d get my finger out and document my travels over the past 10 months — through pictures! (Thanks Jo for giving me some of yer pics!) Here we have some pics from the ferry leaving the UK, with Jo. Then there’s stuff in Calais. Before getting to Bruge and the Lappersfort tree camp… now alas destroyed (see previous blog). Then pictures from a forest in Sweden – camping out in conditions sometimes as bad as -23!!! I make no apologies for the personal and arbitrary nature of these pictures…

COP 15 – Copenhagen Dec 09 — The Green Capitalist “apolitical” Global Carbon Consensus and Our Commons — PART 3 of 3

CAN ECOLOGICAL GENOCIDE BE REFORMED?

To take a general look at some of the direct action struggles of the world today, the time of writing being eight months after COP15 and just after the Cochabamba conference in Bolivia (a convergence of social movements taking part in the World Peoples Conference on Climate change, called be the president of Bolivia Evo Morales in a very timely response to the failure of COP15), taking a look what I find are: a rally in Moscow against the building of a highway through a “protected” forest; in Kenya crowds protest pay rises for legislators; in Khazakstan there was a mass prison strike against state brutality and by subway workers for not being paid; Indigenous peoples in Brazil protest building of mega dam; calls to end dog gasing in the Philippines; sanitary workers protest in Niger; Afghan villagers protest Nato raid; and Mexican protests against anti-drug “operations”. There is no common thread to these struggles – or is there? Isn’t the common theme human domination over fellows and all life that surrounds us?

There is a contingency, even security consideration (particularly if you are fighting to protect land) in political struggle that has made it a tactical necessity to target one large institution at a time. Often campaigns are presented as “apolitical” and liberal-media friendly as the mode is to get one “single-issue” through at a time, and each on their own merit. This can particularly be seen amongst environmental activists whose strategy is often that of “urgent efficiency” a strategy well and truly based on the analysis of the doomed. As many activists passionately run head first into the next reformist action they don’t see how they have lost their “efficiency” no matter how “tactically important” their target may be (e.g. a bank that finances pollution or a mining company that relentlessly rapes our home our earth). If fundamental socio-political change isn’t the principal aim, because it doesn’t seem media-friendly or because it seems unrealistic, then the reason for efficiency, urgency, cancels out the effectiveness of this cautious strategy. For if the analysis of the doomed were correct then both the anti-capitalists fail because they are too utopian and the “urgently efficient” reformists fail as global green capitalist eco-genocide far out paces their reformist measures 10 000 to one (like a match-stick placed in the way of a swinging axe).

Surely when so much is at stake, when such complete change was necessary yesterday it must be asked how can it be “realistic” to take a one cautious reformist step at a time attitude? Consciousness raising at the level of informing the populace about such and such an agro-industries activities or the climate effects of aviation (etc) isn’t enough for lasting fundamental change. Not at the pace it is going. Not any time soon. For such change needs social, cultural and personal psychological transformation if it is to be realised. How else can it be truly affective and truly lasting? We need to go to the root of the problem and when necessary the antagonism toward “business as usual” needs to be taken up a notch that doesn’t shy away from total confrontation with the capitalist violent and exploitative way of life. Single-target activism can so easily be just “doing my bit”, or “getting in the way,” rather than an acknowledgement of our own participation, as humans, in the threat and destruction of a vast portion of life on this planet. I’m not talking about being guilty and the throwing ourselves into the fray, I’m talking about conscious awareness, that which comes before and after all aspects of ordinary daily life. Something that is easier than breathing, but somehow eludes attention. I’ll go into this more later.

As for the “strategically efficient” thing to do:  If all the alternative groups and individuals quite clearly presented and developed an anti-capitalist critique the strength and clarity of the movement would multiply in no time at all. The spread of real challenging ideas and ways of life that don’t get confused in some sort of message about a business or institution. A message that clearly goes to the heart of the social problems of humanity. Fear of being misunderstood has thus become a huge obstacle to unity, as activists water-down their messages this is only to the benefit of the green capitalist middle ground.

WHAT BRINGS AN EPOCH DOWN TO IT’S KNEES?

Initially, say like a reflex, it might be said that it was the sheer scale of working and middle class  undermining and impoverishment by the financial wholesale rape of regional economies that brought about the financial bankruptcies that in turn have brought neoliberalism to it’s knees as we see today. Parasites have to keep themselves in check if they suck too much blood and get noticed or if they kill the hosts, they’re in trouble! Today there are no lack of fingers pointing at the financial institutions, clearly neoliberalism is in trouble.

In the last century fordist-keynsianism was brought down by neoliberalism when the latter reversed the post-WWII times of unionisation, state regulation and welfare. Capitalism co-opted ‘deviant’ desires, discourses and practices promising individuals the ability to realise them by bringing an end to old conservative ways. (Turbulence Collective article.) Meanwhile as I’ve mentioned above this fordist-keynsian to neoliberal epoch change saw the global north consolidating its economic hegemony over the global south through the rein of the IMF and the World Bank. The debt crisis meant that restoring a countries “balance of payments” became a political strategy for western capital to manage individual southern states and to undermine the working classes the world over. The point being that this major debt crisis was not a major danger for capital. “It became a means whereby it gained greater control over national economies and greater ability to push through a restructuring of the international labour market.” (Midnight Oil Collective book.) Might the financial crisis of neoliberalism today NOT be a major danger for capitalism either, just another opportunity to adjust and kick-start a new round of green market accumulation?

After the rescheduling of debt repayments in the 80′s, despite falling interest rates the IMF was in a strong position to control many national economies. Western capital formed a solid block behind the IMF, blacklisting any country that didn’t agree to austerity plans from all commercial banking. Whilst some states were able to challenge the IMF for their own national interests (e.g. the moratorium’s of debt repayments in Mexico ’83 and South Africa ’85) which resulted in changes to terms of repayment. In general the austerity regimes ended practically all forms of state socialism in the global south by the 90′s, something that had otherwise been prevalent after the anti-colonial revolts since the 40′s. (Midnight Oil Collective book.) So we have it — neoliberalism replaced fordist-keynsianism — and with the collapse of the Soviet Union and with China implementing market forces socialism was also out maneuvered. Capitalism had free-rein over practically the whole world, though it might be argued it partied a little too hard and is now having to compensate.

So we had epoch change before, yet whilst class based established power revolved (the meaning of revolution afterall), capital restructured and strengthened as it widened its sphere of dominance. To come back to the now, we can ask has our present time of epoch transition seen any change to this basic dynamic of power changing hands whilst capitalism remains? The legitimacy of neoliberalism has come under question with its hypocritical attempts to impose ‘democracy’ through war and resource crises. Yet whilst the financial crisis may have delegitimised neoliberalism for many, by extension capitalism too, where are the indicators that capitalism itself, is teetering on the edge… is about to collapse? Isn’t it the case that even if the global markets were to collapse over the next few months and the world was even to degenerate into full-scale war people could just as easily live under, or have imposed on them, a capitalist system? So… is the identification of a capitalist crisis an extension identification from the neoliberal crisis and is just taking it too far?

What it is important to recognise here is that the crisis of the world today would just as easily have been created by socialist (or other extractive and land/life exploitative) societies if capitalism didn’t exist. The social relation of dominating and using people/animals/plants/life pre-dates capitalism. Nor has industry always developed strictly within the parameters of capitalism either, e.g. China and the former Soviet Bloc. This is important because the alternative/left with some supporting the Bolivian government during the Cochabamba conference, are supporting a state that is embedded in an extractive/exploitative system (mines, dams, pumping oil, soy-monoculture). To take Bolivia as a model, or flag-ship, for the world would just as likely strangle us our earth, Pachamamma. (Though unfortunately there is the complication in the form of a dynamic that insists “support Evo Morales and gang or the right-wing, a powerful force in itself, will get in power.” What to do huh? What to do indeed.)

IT ISN’T JUST CAPITALISM!

Where does this argument that looks at the roots of domination (as being beyond capitalism) take us? For me, and others, within the realms of green anarchy and anarcho-primitivism — and (back for some) to the writings of Derrick Jensen, Chellis Glendinning, Kevin “Species Traitor” Tucker, Michael Becker, Nochella and Best, Ward Churchill, John Zerzan, Daniel Quinn and others.

The menacing psyche that grips humanity, the dis-ease, is bigger than
capitalism. At times people talk about systems (social relations) like
they’re passing round tradable cards, as if everyone in the world could
change haircuts or socks and suddenly everything would fall into place
– and “bingo now THIS system works!” Where is the analysis of capability,
aptitude, preparedness and awareness of the populace itself? Aren’t
these tradable systems just like words? Aren’t people modeling
socio-economic and political understanding on the basis of our actual
means of communication? The means, the words, can never be the things
themselves. Doesn’t this say so much about human psychology? So much
about our capabilities (“our syntactical imagination is endless!”) and
our limits (“oh fuck, can’t think, I must be tired… whoops there goes
another glacier”).

We’re dreamers in the world of thoughts and words, and we’re so locked
into this that we can’t see that reality is bigger than thought and the
word. Here the message of liberatory philosophy, or oh… oh… nondual
spirituality can prove to be a useful tool or guide. Here we could use
the help of the pointers of advaitists: Gangaji, “Sailor” Bob Adamson,
John Wheeler, Florian Tathagatha, Isaac Shapiro, Jeff Foster, Tony “Open Secret” Parsons, Francis Lucille, Rupert Spira; and  buddhists: Chögyal Namkhai Norbu,  James Low, Keith Dowman; and sufis: Pir Zia Inayat Khan, Sheik Nazim; and taoist (none to list at present).

“As the crisis deepens and the revolutionary possibilities of our time
open up,” write the Midnight Notes Collective. Whilst the Turbulence
Collective writes about the immediacy of this epoch, the lack of
teleology, a time in which meaning is created in the here-and-now. These
statements resonate with nondual philosophy, and in so much as they are
evident now, they are always evident. In fact they have always been.
Awareness of this changes as perspectives in the populace adapt  through
these nebulous/swaying times. Still again the conclusion shouldn’t be
mistaken or confused with the means by which it is reached. The fact
that revolutionary potential is spontaneously present today doesn’t
necessitate the conditions of our time as being central to the existence
of this potential. Revolutionary potential always existed.

THE BROTHELS OF POLITICS

However setting ontological philosophy aside the conventional revolutionary potential in times of crisis cannot be denied. A system whose very existence comes under doubt is vulnerable to a whole a host of forces, the ones we have been trained to recognize are socialism, liberalism and nationalism. Into this crowd anarchism and fascism tries to be heard, whilst the center stage is dominated by a disharmonious chorus of fake “green” voices. Though of course on closer inspection we see under those beautiful green masks the same old ugly faces from the left-center-right, “what-ever-you-want-love,” political parties/brothels.

Yet does epoch change mean we are about to witness some form of cyclic return with green capitalist back to fordist-keynesian principles, in which the corporate attack on the working class (e.g. neutralising unionisation) is about to reverse? No this doesn’t seem to be happening. Governance also doesn’t look like it’s loosening up (in terms of social control and attacks on liberty – though deregulation for banks and corporations is another matter), nor is there any return to a welfare outlook. In fact much of the world is experiencing large scale unemployment and constriction on welfare.

Meanwhile government outsourcing into the market/private sector continues with rare benefit to the general populace. Companies have for some years now been getting involved in the prison, juvenile and refugee detention center systems. And political parties aren’t coming forward proposing legislation to regulate corporations or to curb company dominance over increasing spheres of social and natural life. The power shift from state to corporation isn’t being reversed. We can see the bail out of banks and well-connected industries (at huge cost to the government, whilst increasing deficit spending) in an attempt to inflate the bubble of cheap credit – with the hope that someone will borrow the available money. Yet there is no source of mass demand, no consumer of last resort, no new large-scale investment opportunities. There only seems to be a road to ruin and collapse. (Turbulence Collective article) Nevertheless the alternative/movement is experiencing a jolt with this seeming undermining of a common enemy, neoliberalism. As the enemy is seen to disintegrate the shared horizon/vision (“one no, many yeses”) loses its punch – some even question the previous assumption of how or why we are together, or who ‘we’ are! Is it possible that a reconvention under the Climate Justice banner, whilst keeping an eye on how capitalism perseveres, might clarify this confusion amongst the dispersed alternative groups and movements of today?

COP15 was a huge distraction a smokescreen as the wealthy nations struggle over the global commonwealth. It was also an attempt (an upheaval as it turned out) to re-legitimise the capitalist system (of accumulation) and representative democracy. To show us that the usual suspects in the suits can, “it’s ok we know you’re worried, we all are,” that they will… sort… it… out! How long will it take for people to stop returning to these people — hoping for salvation? Does part of the answer lie in the fact that not everyone bares witness to the present neoliberal crisis? They don’t see the cracks in the system or more importantly don’t see the opportunity for common improvement?

COP 15 – Copenhagen Dec 09 — The Green Capitalist “apolitical” Global Carbon Consensus and Our Commons — PART 2 of 3

THE NON-IDEOLOGICAL MASK OF NEOLIBERALISM

Part of the masquerade of neoliberalism has been to present itself as non-ideological, to show itself as the ‘reasonable’ application of the ‘science’ of utility. Though of course this isn’t true. “The market does not tend toward equilibrium, the maximisation of self-interest can override instincts of self-preservation and lead to sub-optimal outcomes, and in times of crisis any trickle down is reverted into the upstream splurge of bailouts.” (Turbulence  Collective.) Nor can the equation between neoliberalism and the market bare out ignoring the forces of global coercion that enforce this ‘reasonable’ order. Low intensity warfare has been the enforcer behind more than just the interests of the US. The IMF and World Bank have taken advantage of warfares cudgel to stuff regulations and agreements down the throats of otherwise less than enthusiastic nation state “clients”. Some of the targets: Libya, Chad, Angola, Somalia, Mozambique, Namibia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Lebanon, Philippines, Iran, Panama (all resulting in deaths in the millions). (Midnight Notes Collective and their seminal study “Midnight Oil – Work, Energy, War, 1973-1992″. They have not long brought out a new article about what is and isn’t crisis.)

Neoliberalism has had its problems in the past, like the steep interest rate rise of ’79 – ’81, yet capital regrouped with the contracted shrink of US, European and Japanese market/production. Wages were cut, and unions weakened as unemployment increased. The high interest rates created a loss of export markets and the decline of primary commodity prices – with debt increasing to drastic proportions (e.g. central and southern america). Being unable to pay back loans to western banks southern nations were easy prey for the IMF, with their sleazy sale of new loans to pay back old ones. So was ushered the global reign of the IMF austerity programs that devalued currencies, twisted the arms of governments to cutback on spending and to pull back on the public sector. All the time promoting exports at the perilous cost of losing any real chance of regional self-sustainability. Meanwhile all forms of regulation on foreign (i.e. western) capital were being relaxed, for easy take-over. The sickening pace of northern implementation of southern regulation was such that between ’82 – ’86 some 66 southern countries “agreed” to IMF-sponsored austerity programs. (“The Poverty of Nations” E. Altvater et al, eds 1991, Zed Press)

So why am I arguing that such an adaptation of the middle ground (in this case neoliberalism) presents a challenge to the alternative/movement? In the decentered, complex power and productive relations of the current global “system” — some of which I’m trying to (re-)present through this perspective on the adaptation of the middle ground — the crises of climate change, inequality and injustice find poor champions amongst the banner wavers of environmental and social justice activists. During COP15 there was a radical call out by the few that pointed out the opportunity in our time for the emergence of a climate justice movement that could step up from a reformists mentality so as to realise a move toward a real liberation of the commons. Some say this is happening, I’m not so certain, though there is potential.

ANARCHO MISFITS HERALD THE END OF AN AGE!

So what is it that the radical theorists of today are talking about when it comes to these changing times? How can these anarchic misfits be heralding the end of the age of neoliberalism? Isn’t it obvious that the theft continues? How can they say ‘the deal’ has ended, that no ideology remains, that there is no consolidated power bloc (in terms of no real global ‘leadership’, no political legitimacy — not enough for a certain electoral victory at any rate), nor any cultural stability, and isn’t it obvious no economic control either — yet can this all be true? What does it signify?

Well if you don’t see it then perhaps you are standing too close to the window to see the glass, things happen but nothing seems to be changing. Then we bang our nose on the window with that unfamiliar pain, and we might be shacken enough to notice that yes something has changed. Perhaps changed enough to say we can shrug off uncertainty about the meaning of this new millenium and take in what has been revealed in these times.

There is a long list now of things critiqued or bemoaned by the movement: 9/11 has been bounded around to death, whilst the linguistic logic of “war on terror” makes people yawn and switch off — but what of the obscured perspective just about seen through the cracks of the Obama spectacle? The list goes on: Iraq and Afghanistan have become heavy shackles for the US military, yet would Obama really NOT support an invasion of Iran? Yet is this an old way of looking at things or a new way? Then anti-capitalists say: look at the institutions of the world today in these days of neoliberal freefall to oblivion, are they guided by any coherent framework? Is there anything progressive about their stake for social control, their attempt to take part in cultural engineering? Then there is the common recognition that political parties fight each other but without any real programmes, just soundbites in attack or reaction to each other. All of this is signified by the distinct smell of desperation in the air, a fake arrogance that belies the weakness of the middle ground. Or might that not be weakness but actually the instability of transition, the unsettling and therefore short but necessary vulnerability during a shift?

A QUESTION OF UNDERSTANDING “THE ENEMY”

Perhaps times are changing, perhaps globalised humanity is entering a new age (whatever that might mean to whoever wishes to make it this or that specific reference point). Even if there has been a media opening toward the voices of the discontented (“everyone agrees: they have gone too far this time!”) the ideological rotten core of neoliberalism has been exposed. Perhaps the epoch just clear out-cheated itself, a moment of pause during the global break-in, rape and robbery has led to that nanosecond of jault, perhaps that look at the reflection in the mirror and — shock! Shock at the sight of all the blood, piss, money and toxic sludge dripping from their hands (or perhaps dripping down from their lips). The jault becomes a stumble, a fall, and a crash — a necessary stop.

A stop only long enough for the quickest entrepreneurs to see that the profit now lies in climate mitigation, renewable fuels and technology, disinformation, decentered corporate organisation, genetic mutation, security and surveillance, nanotechnology, and endless (“no budget is enough”) research and development. Whilst ditching 5 year modelling as outmoded or at least to be revised every quarter, rendering it less of a plan with each revision. Then it is seen that yes actually business cannot continue as usual. Yet not in the way an environmentalist might lead you to believe (“When will they realise they won’t be able to make a profit out of a dead planet?”). No, times are vertiginous because of the sheer pace at which all of this (crash?) is happening. Things cannot continue as they did because times have changed.

So let me repeat a title already used enough to be familiar, the successor to neoliberalism, the new epoch of our times, the creature picking herself up from the jault is: Green Capitalism TM. (A seemingly “apolitical” green capitalism.) With the document Global Carbon Consensus under one arm and Global Governance and Security under the other. She wears shades, a free-trade suit stitched in Guatemala, and sports gleaming white teeth, but her breath is noxious, her skin cancerous and her blood disease ridden. Moaning about climate change but dutifully recycling, profiting off efficient technology, appropriating land for renewables, and continuing to live well but this time on organics, fair trade and stuff from co-operatives. She is amongst us, perhaps if we were to be really, terribly and painfully honest she is actually one of us; or if we just stopped fucking around and told the truth that she ### is ##### … … (there is no input source coming into this awareness)

COP 15 – Copenhagen Dec 09 — The Green Capitalist “apolitical” Global Carbon Consensus and Our Commons — PART 1 of 3

THE UN SUMMIT ON CLIMATE CHANGE

We arrived in Copenhagen (dec ’09), Jo and I (with some beautiful people from Eco Dharma) for what was billed to be a turning-point in global environmental history. The fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP 15) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol — basically a UN Summit on Climate Change. Here governments of the world together with the great and the good of global civil society were going to set aside nationalistic differences and rivalries to “save the planet.” Drink a lot of coffee, burn the midnight oil in constructive lengthy discussions and thereby make ground-breaking agreements that would save the world from the impending climate catastrophe.

We were there amongst thousands (whether politician, member of the “civil society” or activist) because first and foremost our global environmental situation is dire.

[Climate Facts:  Current Evidence of Climate Change from the UNFCCC (and Future Effects); IPCC Assessment Reports; Simple BBC guide to Climate Change; Europa Climate Broadcasters Network Presentation; World Meteorological Organization Factsheets; NASA Scientist's Warning.]

The COP process has monopolised the climate debate worldwide and for more than 13 years has produced little more than an excuse for media waffle. However due to the immense importance of what is at stake (life on this planet) many activists see civil disobedience as necessity. Even at the cost of state repression/harassment as was seen by the unjust pre-emptive arrests (meaning nothing was done) of approximately 2000 people during the summit. (Police admit failure; and Denmark Indymedia article on arrests.)

Globalised governance presents us with the same model everywhere, that of capitalism based on infinite growth. Something obviously impossible on a finite earth. Yet still this economic model persists even as untold billions of humans, animals and life across this planet suffer and are murdered for profit. Even so this global biocrisis doesn’t place all of us “in the same boat” as many politicians would have us believe. The long history of class, exploitation, racism and exclusion continues to mean that the global poor, ethnically harassed and excluded and particularly the global south has disproportionately suffered the most. This is the reason why just climate reparations from north to south should be fundamental to the UN delegates agenda.

Global pollution and Peak Oil (or that might be Peak Everything!) are leading us toward a global mass extinction level event. This is clear.

[PEAK OIL AND RESOURCES FACTS & MORE: Post Carbon Institute Peak Oil Primer; BBC on Peak Oil; Peak Oil News and Message Boards; US Govt sponsored Peak Oil report; Richard Heinberg's Museletter; Transition to a sustainable future Network; Understanding Peak Oil.]

Even weeks before the “all important” summit started reports came out saying that definite agreements were unlikely to be made in Copenhagen. Then as the days of the summit went by the mighty delegates at the UN again and again refused to agree on any commitments. With constant shifts on agreements, frameworks and parameters (e.g. the percentage of CO2 cuts being signed up to) the process itself became a smokescreen for inaction. All playing into the hands of the corporate lobby so that profits can flow unhindered in a state of business-as-usual. (Climate Chronicle on these totally predictable “disappointments”.)

The basic compromise of COP 15 was to settle for limiting global warming to an average of 3 degrees. Whilst the rich countries tried to ditch the Kyoto Protocol so as to get in something lighter that would allow them to dilute their historic responsibilities for climate crisis. Meanwhile the lobby for the just consideration of women’s, children’s and indigenous people’s rights within all the deals were completely ignored, or at best only given lip-service. (Indigenous Environmental Network website.)

Poland Sept – Dec 2009

I spent 2 and a half months in Poland, during this time my beloved grandfather died. I’m not going to write about that here. What I am going to write about is some highlights of my time, and things I think might be of interest to y’all.

Institute of Global Responsibility (IGO)

During my time in Warszawa (Warsaw) I made a short documentary-campaign video piece for this NGO that focuses on development policy issues, development education and cooperation with partners in the South. Part of what IGO does is conduct research, do advocacy work, raise public awareness, training and bring out publications. The video was made for the public awareness raising bit. Filming at an event focusing purely on Africa, I recorded short statements by members of Warszawa’s public asking a particular Polish minister where the money promised as aid to Africa had gone? Why wasn’t the Polish government paying up?

I spent a bit of time with some of the crew at IGO, one of whom is my own cousin, and I got to say they are a nice bunch. They seem to be doing some good work like in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Including work on getting members of the public both in the African countries and Poland to engage more with development accountability issues. Always trying to maintain an approach toward mutual respect  and fair exchange. (Yep a lovely bunch.)

Grapes of Wrath

My contact with Warszawa’s activist scene often had something to do with the infoshop “Grapes of Wrath” (Targowa St. 22; Warsaw – 300 meters from the Eastern Railway Station on Kijowska St) a typical anarchist spot with some warm activists that make it what it is. One of the first demos I went to was a solidarity action for tenents under threat of gentrification across Warszawa. Grapes of Wrath holds open-nights twice a week giving tenents advice on their rights, a great thing to do, and as volunteers too.

Two more actions (though both were pretty small) I went to from which activists associated with Grapes of Wrath were involved were: a banner drop against the proposed missiles the US wanted to put in Poland; and a worker support leaflet hand-out outside Warszawa’s soon to be built stadium (some workers face real precarity to the extent of not even being payed).

Lappersfort, Tree Camp – Belgium September 2009

The day before we leave Calais the cavalry arrive from Lappersfort. It´s so great, the solidarity between groups across these false borders can be so meaningful. In response to a call out for resources by Calais No Borders four fellas from Lappersfort drove over in a van-pirate-mobile to deliver four bikes to us! That was such a boost, it was so great to be able to go on a patrol on bikes (see my last post about No Borders work in Calais).

The next day we say our goodbyes and head for Lappersfort taking Noway one of the Lappersfort guys back with us. Lappersfort is a tree protest site in Bruges, Belgium, on an illegal forest. “… a forest without papers, coloured in grey on the city map- marked as if it was dead land without any life.” With trees older than the Belgian nation itself (a quintessential european country: soil upon which wars could be fought, quite flat you see) plans were once afoot, in 2002, to cut it down for a new road, some new industry and a place for coaches. After an initial campaign an action-tree camp was set up and this battle was eventually one.

In September 2008 another part of the forest was re-occupied because of proposals by Suez/Fabricom to kill the trees and build some warehouses. This is while 30% of the industrial land in Bruges remains empty, and 65 of its industrial buildings remain unused. (Ahh, Suez, old enemies from the campaigns I took part in to stop them building a dioxin pumping incinerator in Cornwall. Fortunatley that campaign succeeded, hahaa!)

This is the site Jo and I visit and soon after arrival we are given a tree house to sleep in and soon taught how to climb up into it! This is actually the first tree protest camp I have participated in and I loved being taught how to go up the tree. The ‘Pette Flet’ is a great tree house about 25m up the tree. The word “thrill” is pretty bourgeois but being up in the branched embrace of a tree is a true thrill. Serenity has often accompanied me whilst climbing up and down a tree.

Unfortunately due to increased messages of my Polish grandfathers increasing ill-health I had to leave Lappersfort after 3 days. This is where Jo and I also solemnly parted ways (after I gave her a Mexhika treatment) for she was going to head south-west to Spain, whilst I headed east to Poland. Whilst walking the forest pathes of Lappersfort I told myself that I would like to return to this camp. This never happened and now as of a few days is impossible, because sadly, but also in anger I know the camp has been violently evicted (3 March 2010) and the trees have been killed… and they have been chopped down…

As I write this I am silenced  by this death and destruction… I see the brutality of the evicting authorities as they press a knee into a locked-on protestors vulnerable limb… I see the “great and the good” standing around a map with grey-black lines cutting through what is meant to be very real earth… I see the pull back tug as the chainsaws are started, the nanosecond in which metal clips at bark and then grinds into the very heart of a living individual… In silence this is seen in my minds-eye, just as silent as this plastic world can be where life is smothered, and where compulsion begins.