The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination

VIDEO EDITOR URGENTLY NEEDED FOR UTOPIAN ROAD MOVIE

2010-01-04T15:26:00.000Z

VIDEO EDITOR NEEDED FOR UTOPIAN ROAD MOVIE

THE LABORATORY OF INSURRECTIONARY IMAGINATION ( www.labofii.net) is looking for an experienced editor to finish the film part of it's Paths Through Utopias project (www.utopias.eu).

The Lab of ii:

Infamous for fermenting mass prayers to consumption in shopping malls, touring the UK recruiting a rebel clown army, running courses in postcapitalist culture, throwing snowballs at bankers, launching a rebel raft regatta to shut down a coal fired power station and falling in love with utopias, The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (Lab of ii) is not an institution or a group, not a network or an NGO, but an affinity of friends who recognise the beauty of collective disobedience and the role of culture in radical social change. We treat insurrection as an art and art as a means of preparing for the coming insurrection. (www.labofii.net). The Lab is presently based in London, UK.

The project:

Paths Through Utopias took us on a 7 month journey (2007-8) across Europe in search of ways of living despite capitalism, visiting numerous alternative communities ranging from a permaculture settlement to an occupied factory, a free love commune to Climate Camp. From this journey we are publishing a book/film, a book which comes packaged with a film within it. The book/film will initially be published in France by La Decouverte (http://www.editionsladecouverte.fr/) in autumn 2010 and later in the UK. It will also be toured in 2011.

Whilst the book is a piece of travel writing about the experience the film is a documentary fiction in the form of a post crash road movie, shot in the places visited but set in the future. The book and the film are seen as a dialogue between present and future, fact and imagination.

The film is especially influenced by William Morris' 19th Century novel a vision of a post-capitalist decentralised ecological Utopia, News from Nowhere. This classic of Utopian literature is a sumptuous journey which propels us into an imagined future; a future which, thanks to the richness of its description, feels as actual and possible as the present. In this spirit, the film takes the form of a "fake" documentary exploring a fictional era following a global ecological-economic collapse. It describes a post capitalist/oil age Europe, and proposes the existence of a decentralised autonomous society that has slowly evolved out of the ruins of a systemic crash.

Shot in the actual places and communities visited with characters living there, playing themselves, the film shows these places as projects that have survived a collapse, thanks to their self sufficiency and autonomy from market systems, and portrays these contemporary "Utopias" as "normal" rather than "alternative" ways of living. We have are not follow traditional documentary genres; our references can be found in the more experimental work of Agnès Varda (The Gleaners), Patrick Keiler (Robinson in Space), Andrew Kotting (Gallivant) Chris Marker (L'Ambassade) or Robert Kramer (Route One).

The Job:

A years worth of work - logging, transcribing, translating and writing has already taken place on the film. Unfortunately our editor fell seriously ill and is now unable to continue working on the project. We are looking for someone who can pick up where we left off but who is also able to add their creativity into the project and take it to completion in July 2010.

Ideally you are someone who has good experience editing feature length film/video, and have worked in both genres of documentary and fiction. You are open to experimental forms of film, collective working methods and share our anti-capitalist politics.

Experienced in Final Cut Pro is required. If you can speak Spanish and/or French this is an added bonus as parts of the film are in these languages.

The Lab is based in Bethnal Green London you can work from there or at a location of your choosing. The deadline is very tight and so we are looking for someone who can begin in February (ish) and work to the deadline of July. We can offer a modest fee of £2000.

You will be mostly working with artistsactivist John Jordan but will also occasionally with activistresearcher Isa Fremeuax and composer/sound artist Isa Suarez (http://www.isasuarez.com/).

How to apply:

Please email us a cover letter stating why you are interested, what experience you have and when you can begin work on the project. Enclose a CV with the letter and links to past work/ show reels etc. ( if you wish to send a DVD send it to JJ, 110 Teesdale St, London E2 6PU.) Please include one reference from a recent relevant job.

Email your application to john@labofii.net by Sunday 17^th January 5pm deadline for application. There will be an informal meeting with appropriate applicants and we will be able to inform you of our decision by Monday 25^th of January.

Finally here are a few stills from the film to give you a taste:

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http://labofii.net

""Politics is not solely, or even primarily, about reasoned thinking and rational choices; it's an affair of fantasy and desire. People are rarely moved to action, support, or even consent by realistic proposals; they are motivated by dreams of what could be."

VIDEO EDITOR URGENTLY NEEDED FOR UTOPIAN ROAD MOVIE

2010-01-04T15:16:00.000Z

THE LABORATORY OF INSURRECTIONARY IMAGINATION ( www.labofii.net) is looking for an experienced editor to finish the film part of it's Paths Through Utopias project (www.utopias.eu).

The Lab of ii:

The project:

The Job:

Experienced in Final Cut Pro is required. If you can speak Spanish and/or French this is an added bonus as parts of the film are in these languages.

You will be mostly working with artistsactivist John Jordan but will also occasionally with activistresearcher Isa Fremeuax and composer/sound artist Isa Suarez (http://www.isasuarez.com/).

How to apply:

Email your application to john@labofii.net by Monday 18^th January 5pm deadline for application. There will be an informal meeting with appropriate applicants and we will be able to inform you of our decision by Monday 25^th of January.

Insurrectionary imagination needed

2009-11-18T14:10:00.000Z

The Bike Bloc installation is up and running in the Arnolfini gallery..We need your drawings and ideas, your insurrectionary imagination of what a bike bloc would look like and how it could contribute to the Reclaim Power action taking over the UN COP15 conference for a peoples summit. If your in Bristol pin them on the wall - if not send them to us at john@labofii.net and we will put them up ready for next weeks workshops... for more information see:

www.funbetweenyourlegs.info

and

http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/events/details/537

'Copenhagen: Seattle Grows Up' from The Nation

2009-11-12T20:47:00.001Z

Naomi Klein on copenhagen, CJA, carbon markets, bike blocs and 10 years after seattle ....

Copenhagen: Seattle Grows Up

by Naomi Klein

The other day I received a pre-publication copy of The

Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle, by David Solnit

and Rebecca Solnit. It's set to come out ten years after a historic

coalition of activists shut down the World Trade Organization summit in

Seattle, the spark that ignited a global anticorporate movement.

The book is a fascinating account of what really happened in

Seattle, but when I spoke to David Solnit, the direct-action guru who

helped engineer the shutdown, I found him less interested in reminiscing

about 1999 than in talking about the upcoming United Nations climate

change summit in Copenhagen and the "climate justice" actions he is

helping to organize across the United States on November 30. "This is

definitely a Seattle-type moment," Solnit told me. "People are ready to

throw down."

There is certainly a Seattle quality to the Copenhagen mobilization:

the huge range of

groups that will be there; the diverse tactics that will be on

display; and the developing-country governments ready to bring activist

demands into the summit. But Copenhagen is not merely a Seattle do-over.

It feels, instead, as though the progressive tectonic plates are

shifting, creating a movement that builds on the strengths of an earlier

era but also learns from its mistakes.

The big criticism of the movement the media insisted on calling

"antiglobalization" was always that it had a laundry list of grievances

and few concrete alternatives. The movement converging on Copenhagen, in

contrast, is about a single issue--climate change--but it weaves a

coherent narrative about its cause, and its cures, that incorporates

virtually every issue on the planet. In this narrative, our climate is

changing not simply because of particular polluting practices but

because of the underlying logic of capitalism, which values short-term

profit and perpetual growth above all else. Our governments would have

us believe that the same logic can now be harnessed to solve the climate

crisis--by creating a tradable commodity called "carbon" and by

transforming forests and farmland into "sinks" that will supposedly

offset our runaway emissions.

Climate-justice activists in Copenhagen will argue that, far from

solving the climate crisis, carbon-trading represents an unprecedented

privatization of the atmosphere, and that offsets and sinks threaten to

become a resource grab of colonial proportions. Not only will these

"market-based solutions" fail to solve the climate crisis, but this

failure will dramatically deepen poverty and inequality, because the

poorest and most vulnerable people are the primary victims of climate

change--as well as the primary guinea pigs for these emissions-trading

schemes.

But activists in Copenhagen won't simply say no to all this. They

will aggressively advance solutions that simultaneously reduce emissions

and narrow inequality. Unlike at previous summits, where alternatives

seemed like an afterthought, in Copenhagen the alternatives will take

center stage. For instance, the direct-action coalition Climate Justice Action

has called on activists to storm the conference center on December 16. Many will do this as part of the "bike bloc," riding together

on an as yet unrevealed "irresistible new machine of resistance" made up

of hundreds of old bicycles. The goal of the action is not to shut down

the summit, Seattle-style, but to open it up, transforming it into "a

space to talk about our agenda, an agenda from below, an agenda

of climate justice, of real solutions against their false ones.... This

day will be ours."

Some of the solutions on offer from the activist camp are the same

ones the global justice movement has been championing for years: local,

sustainable agriculture; smaller, decentralized power projects; respect

for indigenous land rights; leaving fossil fuels in the ground;

loosening protections on green technology; and paying for these

transformations by taxing financial transactions and canceling foreign

debts. Some solutions are new, like the mounting demand that rich

countries pay

"climate debt" reparations to the poor. These are tall orders, but

we have all just seen the kind of resources our governments can marshal

when it comes to saving the elites. As one pre-Copenhagen slogan puts

it: "If the climate were a bank, it would have been saved"--not

abandoned to the brutality of the market.

In addition to the coherent narrative and the focus on alternatives,

there are plenty of other changes too: a more thoughtful approach to

direct action, one that recognizes the urgency to do more than just talk

but is determined not to play into the tired scripts of

cops-versus-protesters. "Our action is one of civil disobedience," say

the organizers of the December 16 action. "We will overcome any physical

barriers that stand in our way--but we will not respond with violence if

the police [try] to escalate the situation." (That said, there is no way

the two-week summit will not include a few running battles between cops

and kids in black; this is Europe, after all.)

A decade ago, in an op-ed in the New York Times published

after Seattle was shut down, I wrote that a new movement advocating a

radically different form of globalization "just had its coming-out

party." What will be the significance of Copenhagen? I put that question

to John Jordan, whose prediction of what eventually happened in Seattle

I quoted in my book No Logo. He replied: "If Seattle was the

movement of movements' coming-out party, then maybe Copenhagen will be a

celebration of our coming of age."

He cautions, however, that growing up doesn't mean playing it safe,

eschewing civil disobedience in favor of staid meetings. "I hope we have

grown up to become much more disobedient," Jordan said, "because life on

this world of ours may well be terminated because of too many acts of

obedience."

Call for proposals for “…Louder than Bombs”: Art, Action & Activism

2009-11-06T13:49:00.000Z

CALL FOR ARTISTS

"…Louder than Bombs": Art, Action & Activism

STANLEY PICKER GALLERY & LIVE ART DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

Over the course of seven weeks in February/March 2010, the Stanley Picker Gallery at Kingston University, will hand over its entire exhibition space to host a series of week-long residencies entitled "…Louder than Bombs": Art, Action & Activism.

Co-curated with Live Art Development Agency, London, "…Louder than Bombs": Art, Action & Activism will focus on challenging social/political/global issues addressed through seven invited artist/activist's individual working practices and the Gallery audience's direct participation and responding involvement through an integrated programme of public workshops and live events.

Its title borrowed from a compilation album by 80's anti-establishment beaus The Smiths (in turn borrowed from Elizabeth Smart's extended prose poem By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept), "…Louder than Bombs" invites seven artists, artist-activists, or artist-groups for a series of weekly occupancies to deliver work that expresses their creative response around a chosen issue. The issues addressed by the programme of activities will include a range of political, ecological, social and personal causes, as to be defined by the seven participating individuals and groups. The programme will provide each participating artist/group with the space, resources and supportive environment for their work to be developed over an intensive five-day period. During their week-long residency each participant will be required to deliver at least one participatory workshop and a public event/s. The entire programme will recorded through photographic documentation and a concluding interview with each participant, that will aim to reflect critically upon their direct involvement in the overall programme.

In addition to the above, one of the seven invited projects will be developed to engage directly with a local primary school, in order to pilot the introduction of performative practice into the classroom.

"…Louder than Bombs" Art, Action & Activism has been developed as an extended element of an ongoing collaborative research project entitled The Art of Intervention: The Intersections of Public and Private Memory between Kingston University, London and Kyoto Seika University, Japan.

To propose your participation in the "…Louder than Bombs" Art, Action & Activism programme please provide the following information:

A statement (maximum 1,000 words) outlining your chosen issue and describing how you would envisage developing and delivering your proposed workshop activity and public event, including an initial indication of the resources, equipment and materials you may require for your activity. You may want to suggest targeting your activities at particular audience sectors or age groups. Only if appropriate to your practice, please state in what ways your activity would also be suitable for a pilot project aimed at primary school pupils.

A CV including up to 5 web-references to view online examples and/or documentation of your practice to date.

Please email your proposals to picker@kingston.ac.uk by Midday on Friday 4th December.

Selected applicants will be notified by Friday 18th December with a view to commencing preparations for their period of residency in January 2010.

All participating individuals/groups will receive a fixed-fee and expenses for their involvement in the overall programme. Additional funds will be made available for the associated schools programme.

http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/projects/louder_than_bombs.html

PUT THE FUN BETWEEN YOUR LEGS: Become the Bike Bloc

2009-11-03T12:15:00.000Z

THE BIKE BLOCK FINDS THE PERFECT PLACE !

2009-10-14T17:33:00.000+01:00

Dear friends who have been working to find us space in Copenhagen, there is great news, we have somewhere and it is so much nicer than the grey church of contemporary art !! Between the 5th-19th of December we will be based in an abandoned petrol station taken over by a great crew of artist, Free International Tankstelle (http://www.f-i-t.org/) it's at Farumgade 4-6, Nørrebro, Kopenhagen. What is extraordinary, is that they already have 100 bikes for us to use! Which is a good start (although we will probably need more and there are people from cultura 21 who have offered to help with this already which is great.)

So, we will reclaim the autonomy of art within the old ruins of last century's empire of fossil fuels..a perfect place to build and launch a bike bloc. As for the Nikolaj centre for contemporary art, we should just remember Martin Luther Kings poignant words "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." Thank you for being friends who walk the talk. Thanks for all the help and contacts you have been sending and lets keep in touch and prepare to put the fun between our legs..

See you in Bristol or/and copenhagen ?

www.funbetweenyourlegs.info

Call out - The London Free University

2009-10-13T17:53:00.000+01:00

The London Free University

We believe there can be no right to annex thought and learning, to erect concrete buildings in which to lock up knowledge.

Their universities create obedience, uniformity of thought and docility. Beyond their gates is our intellectual freedom - within them are the resources we need. Until these gates are opened for all we shall remain alienated from each other and from our futures. We want to question access to knowledge, the uniformity of success and production, and to experiment with alternatives and the redistribution of knowledge. We invite you to cross these borders and see where we can go with the freedoms we create for ourselves.

We're starting by doing, by learning how to hack, pirate and redistribute knowledge whilst building alternatives. Join us in this exciting new project and come to a planning meeting at LARC, 21st October, 6pm.

If education is not a commodity then can it be stolen?

thelondonfreeuniversity@gmail.com

What's your top 10 ten favourite disobedient achievements/struggles?

2009-10-13T15:43:00.000+01:00

"Everything we take for granted: the weekend, gay rights, contraception, women wearing trousers, the right to strike, to form a union, the abolition of slavery… everything was won by disobedience, fought for by people who refused and resisted, claimed back from those in power. Their disobedience was a gift to our future"

To help promote Put The Fun Between Your Legs: THE BIKE BLOC(1) - the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination/Climate Camps mobilisation for the Copenhagen UN Climate Talks(2) in December - we are producing a massive banner that will list some of the achievements that have been won and struggles that still need to be won through disobedience.

So that we can create an exciting and inspiring list we'd like to know what your favourite achievements/struggles are?

What do you feel are the most important victories and what are the most important battles that still need to be won through disobedience?

They don't have to be limited to the UK, they could be well known, or really obscure.

If you could take a few minutes to think about the past and the future and send me a list of your favourite 10, or less, we'll pick the most inspiring ones and include them in our massive banner. - send them to james@labofii.net

The banner will be hung for a week and a half from Artsadmin (on the edge of the City of London). Outside the Arnolfini, Bistol (during the lab of ii's residency during the C-Words events((3))) then taken to Copenhagen for the COP 15 mobilisations.

Think outside the box, or better still, rip up the box, recycle it and start again.

1 - http://www.funbetweenyourlegs.info/

2 - http://www.climate-justice-action.org/mobilization/reclaim-power-pushing-for-climate-justice/

3 - http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/details/416

TRUN ON AN INSURRECTION

2009-10-13T10:14:00.000+01:00

We've decided that it would be far more in the participatory spirit of
TURN*ON if we post our curatorial statements in a wiki, publicly
editable.
Click the link to read both of them and feel free to add, edit, or
contribute as you see fit!

How to TURN*ON an Insurrection? and What is TURN*ON?

http://bang.calit2.net/wiki/Towards_a_curatorial_statement
How to TURN*ON an Insurrection?

Our main drive in selecting the work/play to be included in this
edition of
artivistic has been a deep desire to TURN*ON everyone, ourselves, the
participants, the audience, the city, the world(s). We are mostly
interested
in _unleashing energy_ that might be used for creating new worlds. We
are
less interested in critique that closes off avenues of thinking and more
interested in connections which destroy limits. As Jack Waters and Peter
Cramer state, their event is an "OVERLOAD of sensory mayhem in their
collaborative performance" aimed at "the release of unknown realms and
indulgences." We are less interested in a pure democratic space of
dialog
than in a situated, embodied, sweaty exchange where the participants
at the
table are all equally implicated and stimulated. We can't waste the
opportunity provided by economic collapse. Faced with a crumbling
neoliberal
system, we want to make out with possibility and find new spaces of
creation
in-between realities.

TURN*ON has been driven by a desire to engage, to create engagements
and to
expand participation beyond acceptable proportions. The projects
selected by
the Artivistic collective were selected primarily on how well they might
spur action and create unexpected explosions. Beyond asking for
artwork, we
have called for and tried to organize events which include multiple
dimensions of activity and multiple registers of engagement,
resonating on
political, aesthetic and erotic dimensions at once.

Throughout the oganizing and promotion of the event, we have striven to
emphasize that artivistic is an _event_, not a festival, not a
conference.
We have attempted to decentralize the decision making and organizing
of this
event as much as possible through infraCrews which volunteers may
join to
deal with different aspects of the working of the event, and have
tried to
make our financial work transparent with our p2p funding efforts. Our
hope
is to foster new configurations of exchange outside of the traditional
formats of panels and exhibitions, in order to release new
trajectories by
breaking with old habits.

More than anything, the event has been inspired by the artists and
communities who are participating in Artivistic. Our hope, as
organizers, is
that the intense energies present in the movements around gender and
sexuality may be modulated, brought together and amplified through our
event. Both the political struggles and the personal passions over these
issues are so strong. We have tried to create a roving, expansive
network of
activities, online and offline, which we hope will reach beyond the
confines
of the dates of the event. It could be thought of as a war machine, but
perhaps we've had enough war and we want something more like a love
machine,
that breaks down by binding and reconfigures relationality along new
configurations. Or perhaps we've had enough of machines and want a love
organism with many arms, an erotic squid. In Pornopticon's mole
tunnels, we
can see the kind of rhizomatic burrows we strive for. One can also
think of
the comfortable den of an animal as a warm safe space, and we realize
that
people need to feel supported and safe before they can open up to be
turned
on, and we are stiving towards that as well.

The kind of politics you will find at Artivistic is perhaps a less
traditional one of social movements, mass gatherings and lobbying
publics
and politicians. It is more a politics of daily life, a biopolitics that
starts with where our bodies are now and what our bodies want. Again,
it is
a politics concerned less with the static defense of oppositional
positions
than with creating and opening possibilities, connections, spaces.
Our hope
is that we might find a magical configuration of energies, perhaps
with the
help of the H3X3N computer witchcraft club, that will unleash an
overflow of
fluid genders and sexualities into the city, turning on an insurrection,
joining with bodies in rebellion throughout the intergalactic.

The world to come is so sexy and the month to come is so sexy. Thank
you for
inspiring us already. We are so excited to get started. See you in
October.

--
micha cárdenas / azdel slade

Artist/Researcher, Experimental Game Lab, http://experimentalgamelab.net
Calit2 Researcher, http://bang.calit2.net

blog: http://transreal.org

2009-10-07T10:35:00.001+01:00

Dear friends

In July this year, The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, a UK based art activists'' collective (www.labofii.net) was commissioned by the Copenhagen Centre for Contemporary Art ( www.kunsthallennikolaj.dk/en/ ) to make a new piece of work for Rethink, (www.rethinkclimate.org ) an exhibition of "political" art during the December UN climate change summit. Last week the gallery pulled out claiming it could no longer continue to support the project for "practical reasons". In fact they were frightened that the project involved non-violent civil disobedience and that this might be disapproved of by their funders. We feel that the December's mobilisations in Copenhagen are a landmark in history, where trying to "play safe" is not a luxury we can afford. This was a political pulling out not a practical issue. We are writing to ask for your support so that despite the obstacles of cowardice the project can still go ahead.

The project Putting the fun between your legs: The Bike Bloc, is a collaboration between The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination and the UK Climate Camp (www.climatecamp.org.uk). The idea is to design and build a new tool of creative resistance for the RECLAIM POWER mobilisations taking place in Copenhagen on the 16th of December 16th, a day of civil disobedience supported by over 200 organisations many from the global south.( www.climate-justice-action.org ). Made from hundreds of recycled bikes, The Bike Bloc will merge device of mass transportation and pedal powered resistance machine, postcapitalist bike gang and art bike carnival.

Bike hackers, artists, welders, climate campers and engineers will be working together to design and build The Bike Bloc across two cities: Bristol (Arnolfini Gallery 15th – 30th Nov, – as part of C-words exhibition - www.arnolfini.org.uk and somewhere in Copenhagen (4th- 18th Dec.) The trouble is we no longer have a space or support resources in Copenhagen, which with only 8 weeks to go puts us under immense pressure.

If you have any idea of places, organisations, or, of collectives that would be interested in hosting this project, and are prepared to walk the talk, or would like to be involved please contact us as soon as possible.

Yours

John Jordan and Isa Fremeaux

GALLERY PULLS OUT OF LATEST LAB OF II PROJECT

2009-10-07T09:10:00.004+01:00

GALLERY PULLS OUT OF LATEST LAB OF II PROJECT

In July this year, The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, was commissioned by the Copenhagen Centre for Contemporary Art (www.kunsthallennikolaj.dk/en/ ) to make a new piece of work for Rethink, (www.rethinkclimate.org/en ) an exhibition of "political" art during the December UN climate change summit. On wednesday last week the gallery pulled out claiming it could no longer continue to support the project for "practical reasons". In fact they were frightened that the project involved non-violent civil disobedience and that this might be disapproved of by their funders. On thursday we wrote them an email about taking sides ( see emails below), on thursday we sent them brian Holmes Essay "Liars poker" which begins "Basically, what I have to say here is simple: when people talk about politics in an artistic frame, they\'re lying." (http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000943.php), on friday greenpeace activists climbed the tower of the gallery ( the tallest church in copenhagen) and dropped a banner telling obama that it was the right city but the wrong time to visit the special danish police force was called.. The contemporary art centre got it's taste of resistance after all !!

Below is some of the correspondence... we are now desperately looking for space in copenhagen and will be writing an open letter to curators about the issue of taking sides...

Dear John.

I will phone you later, but want to send you an e-mail first to be sure to explain you my opinion more exactly than I might be able to do on the phone.

As I was working on the draught of the contract last night, it got increasingly clear to me how absurd and impossible the situation would be for both of us. A contract that could really reassure Nikolaj would make it very difficult to work with for you. You would have to find ways to evade the contract, and I would feel very uncomfortable about that. You might easily be put in a difficult situation between Nikolaj and the collective group you are working with. That means that it could be difficult for you to control the communication that comes out from the group and that could mean that the contract would be senseless. It's not the way I like to work with artists, and I don't feel convinced of the good result of a process based on on a contract we know in advance will not be kept. You will be extremely disturbed by the contract, and we will have a role, we don't believe in.

That's why I think we must cancel our collaboration on this project. I'm very sorry to have "wasted" your time on this negotiation process. I wanted very much to include your in the exhibition and I hoped to find a solution, but as I said above last evening it became obvious to me that it was without sense. I don't think your project should be limited and cut in every way to fit into a contract, It was like cutting a big colourful bird to fit into a small grey cave.

I suppose that you have lost time in relation to planning your work in another context in Copenhagen. I'm sure you have a good network here, but if you need any help to find new solutions, I should be happy to help you. I don't know exactly, if I can, but I have some suggestions.

I really hope you understand my considerations, maybe you have the same. I also hope we could collaborate in the future, for example on the Utopia project.

I phone you this afternoon at 4 p.m. so we can talk a bit and not just do the communication with the more impersonal e-mail.

Very best wishes

Elisabeth

dear elisabeth..

I was not surprised to read your email this morning, it filled me with a certain sadness and relief at the same time. Yesterday evening we went for a walk on the marshes of the Thames estuary, the sun burst orange through the colossal grey clouds, the river flowed seaward, mud brown as always. Hundreds of electricity pylons walked across the flat landscape, black wires feeding London with its lifeblood. On one horizon the flares from oil refineries burn incessantly, on the other a power stations steams and roars as the mountains of coal are shovelled into it's furnaces. Here we are on the edges the city, a place of burning, and here we are on the edge of history, at the start of a century which may not have a future.

Walking on the edge of sea and land, city and country, Isa and I talked about the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination's complicated position on the edge of art and activism, between subculture and mainstream. We have always loved edges. It is on the edge that creativity comes alive. The point where a forest meets meadowland, or the sea slaps against the shore are the most dynamic parts of an ecosystem. It's in those slithers of space that a multitude of different species coexist and the engine of evolution moves fastest. Nearly everything we take for granted in society began as an experiment on the margins. From the idea of universal suffrage to the implementation of the weekend, from the science of climate change to the abolition of slavery, from workers rights to organic agriculture, yesterdays marginal and impossible eventually becomes today's normal. It is this reason that we try to have one foot in the imagination of the art world and the other in the courage and commitment of the political world for we believe that when artists and activists share worlds magic can happen.

But edges are like tightropes, one has to walk carefully and make sure one is always in balance. A lean too much one way will lead to disaster. It felt like despite your great enthusiasm and commitment and your wonderful creative solutions we were leaning to far towards the needs of the art world and that the autonomy of the political would be constrained. In the end as you say so beautifully the colourful bird would be cut to fit a grey cage. We would, as critic Suzy Gablik wrote in her beautiful book "The reanchantment of Art", be stuck within the prisons of the art world. But beautiful birds dislike cages and prisons, they like to perch on the edges, jump and fly....

I don't think we should ignore the fact that this is a form of aesthetic censorship, that in the end the world of art is compromising our autonomy and creativity. Art is a free space as long as it doesn't push the laws of the real world, as long as its set in the safety of the purely conceptual imagined gesture. I think it would be sad for us to leave this debate somehow private and in the shadows, for i think it is key to the whole concept of your show. Standing on the edges of kakotopia we need to redefine the role of art in social change, we need to question the role of institutions and museums, the needs for courage and stepping out of line, the fact that there is no neutrality we are all taking sides. And im wondering if there is a way ( that would not take too much time, as now our work is well and truly cut out with finding a space) that we could make this debate public ?? In 1909 the artistic avent garde was launched with the violent misogonist futurist manifesto, it was the same year that Ford built his first car factory and the era of burning began. I cant but help thinking that 100 years later we need to rethink art and politics in such a radical way that we might not recognise either the art or the politics anymore, i can't help thinking that the future is finished...

I look forward to speaking later....

yours

John Holloway coming to London

2009-10-04T13:07:00.002+01:00

Two great oppurtunities for London based folk to see John Holloway, author of the fantastic "Change the world without taking power" and long time observer/participant in the Zapatista movements..

Capitalism's Present Crisis - How Will It End? Calendar

URL: http://www.anarchistbookfair.org/

ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR/MUTE MAGAZINE DISCUSSION, 4-6pm, Saturday 24th October, London

Capitalism's Present Crisis - How Will It End?

The capitalist system is facing years of crisis and social instability. This raises two questions:

1) what caused the crisis? Was it 'greedy bankers', the natural tendencies of the capitalist system, or the resistance of the working class?

2) how will the crisis end? Will it be with more state regulation, more cuts in living standards or with working class revolution?

The Anarchist Bookfair and Mute magazine have invited three speakers to debate these issues:

Paul Mason, a presenter on BBC's Newsnight, and author of Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed

John Holloway, author of Change The World Without Taking Power and Crack Capitalism (forthcoming). NB See below for further John Holloway event.

William Dixon, Mute magazine contributor.

The discussion will take place at the Skeel Lecture Theatre, Anarchist Bookfair, Queen Mary & Westfield college, Mile End Road, London E1, Mile End tube.

For further information on the Anarchist Bookfair, including a roster of many other talks, go to:

http://www.anarchistbookfair.org

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

A DISCUSSION WITH JOHN HOLLOWAY, 7-9pm, Monday 26th October, London

CRACK CAPITALISM

At the height of the anti-capitalist movement, John Holloway's book Change The World without Taking Power provoked an international debate*. Eight years later, after the failure of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with the failure of the capitalist economy, anti-capitalism is back on the agenda.

John Holloway will introduce his forthcoming book, Crack Capitalism, followed by a discussion on how we can change the world without repeating the tragedies of twentieth century socialism.

Come and join the debate.

*To read the debate around the book Change The World Without Taking Power, go to:

http://www.herramienta.com.ar/debate-sobre-cambiar-el-mundo/presentacion-e-indice-de-articulos

Venue: The Octagon Room*, Queen's Building, Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End Road, London E1, Mile End Tube

The event will be followed by a social at the Half Moon pub, 213-233 Mile End Road, London E1

Supported by Mute Magazine and the Queen Mary & Westfield School of Business and Management

*NB There is a small chance that the room in which the event is held may be altered. Check Metamute.org for up to date information closer to the date.

Fences 2.0

2009-10-02T13:32:00.001+01:00

YES MEN HONCHO SPRUNG FROM CLINK

2009-09-24T09:07:00.001+01:00

YES MEN HONCHO SPRUNG FROM CLINK

"Balls Across America" direct-action campaign launched

NYPD abuse of authority big factor in arrest

Contact: The Yes Men <mailto:event@theyesmen.org>

Andy Bichlbaum, co-founder of activist group the Yes Men, emerged after 26 hours

in New York City's central lockup with all charges against him dismissed.[1]

"The judge just laughed," said Bichlbaum. "The police had a less well-developed

sense of humor - and, it turned out, much less regard for the law. But all in all,

I'm ecstatic that they arrested me."

At 10am Tuesday, Bichlbaum was arrested and charged with trespassing, after he and

21 "Survivaballs" [2] gathered on New York City's East River and announced they

were to going to "take the UN by storm" from the water, since all the land

approaches were sealed. Once at the UN, they would supposedly use the Survivaballs

to blockade the negotiations and refuse to let world leaders leave the room until

they'd agreed on sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, as Secretary-General

Ban Ki-Moon has demanded.[3]

The event was a "scenic and mediagenic way to call attention to what our leaders

need to do in the run-up to Copenhagen," said Bichlbaum. [4] It was also the

official inauguration of the Yes Men's "Balls Across America" series of civil

disobedience actions, inspired by the call for direct action on climate change by

website http://BeyondTalk.net.

Minutes after the balls began wading into the water, law enforcement swooped in on

the protesters by land, sea, and air. In order not to harm their attackers, the

balls admitted defeat and waddled out of the water and off the beach. Seven

participants were given tickets for trespassing, and one - ringleader Bichlbaum -

was whisked away to "the Tombs," New York's central processing facility at 100

Centre Street, due to an unpaid ticket for bicycle riding through Washington

Square Park.

Bichlbaum's arrest led to hilarious prime-time coverage on CNN.[5]

"Sleeping on concrete was a challenge, but I met a lot of interesting people, and

my arrest meant major prime-time news coverage we wouldn't have otherwise had,"

said Bichlbaum. "That's the whole point of civil disobedience. Thanks to my

momentary discomfort, our symbol of the stupidity of not taking action on climate

change was seen by tens of millions of people. It all worked out great, and I

remain grateful to the NYPD for having accidentally made our event successful

beyond our wildest dreams."

Despite Bichlbaum's gratitude, one thing stuck out for his attorney, Wylie

Stecklow: in filing his report, the arresting officer had lied through his teeth.

"The officer said he'd seen Bichlbaum jump over the fence, which was obviously

impossible, since the police arrived after the Survivaballs had all entered the

beach," said Stecklow, who defended Bichlbaum at his arraignment yesterday

morning. "And the officer said there were prominent signs posted to the effect

that entering was forbidden - also untrue." [6]

"Perhaps the NYPD thought that if an officer did not swear that he saw Andy climb

a fence, AND that there were signs providing notice that this area was off-limits,

a judge might have dismissed the case," said Stecklow.

According to Stecklow, officers swearing to facts they couldn't possibly know is

an all-too-common occurrence. "Often, during mass arrests, we see a Supervising

Officer assigning junior officers to write up the paperwork. But these junior

officers end up becoming the 'arresting officer,' requiring them to swear to facts

that are not within their knowledge. This leads to constitutional violations and

wrongful arrests, and undermines the confidence that citizens should have in the

criminal justice system," said Stecklow.

The NYPD has, in recent years, been found guilty of making numerous

unconstitutional arrests in cases of political protest, and then falsifying their

statements to fit the arrests. There have in particular been several well-known

cases involving the tackling and arrest of bicyclists, with false excuses then

written into police reports. [7]

"My case doesn't matter in itself," said Bichlbaum. In fact, I'm really happy it

turned out as it did. But I hope we can help expose the systemic and nefarious

culture of lying within the NYPD, that has had the effect of criminalizing protest

in New York City."

"The police have to be told very clearly that they can't lie and expect to get

away with it," Bichlbaum added. "The stakes are far too high."

"We need to strengthen oversight of the police by those who empower them in the

first place - you and I, the citizens of New York City," said Stecklow. "Right

now, at a bare minimum, that means giving teeth to the formerly well-intentioned,

now powerless body of the Civilian Complaint Review Board."

"Unfortunately, even when we have video proving police statements to be false, no

one seems interested in investigating," added Stecklow. "That's got to change."

After reading the arresting officer's complaint against him, Bichlbaum decided to

file a complaint with the CCRB in order to hold this officer accountable for his

false statements."It's not much, but at least this guy will have to explain his

story under oath. And then next time, maybe he'll think twice before filing a

false statement to make the crime stick."

The Yes Men hope their next actions won't depend on police misconduct to make them

a success. "With 'Balls Across America,' our goal is to get arrested fair and

square, all across this fair land of ours," said Yes Men co-founder Mike Bonanno.

"It's a great way to get attention for a crucial issue."

[1] Bichlbaum actually received an Adjournment with Contemplation of Dismissal,

which normally results in full dismissal in New York State

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjourned_in_Contemplation_of_Dismissal).

[2] The Survivaball (http://survivaball.com) made its first appearance in 2006,

when "Halliburton representatives" attended a conference on catastrophic climate

change and demonstrated the functionality of the large inflatable suits which keep

corporate managers safe from global warming

(http://theyesmen.org/hijinks/survivaball). That hoax, and many more like it, are

documented in the new award-winning documentary film, The Yes Men Fix the World

(http://www.theyesmenfixtheworld.com), which opens theatrically in New York

October 7, before opening nationally October 23.

[3] http://nypost-se.com/news/un-chief-world-heading-for-climate-abyss/

[4] http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/23/headlines#14

http://nypost-se.com/news/us_news/congress-cops-out-on-climate/

http://nypost-se.com/news/us_news/crap-and-trade/

[5] http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2009/09/23/moos.survivaball.cnn

[6] http://theyesmen.org/crimcomplaint715.pdf

[7] http://blip.tv/file/771625, http://glassbeadcollective.blip.tv/file/784711/

"WE'RE SCREWED": TABLOID HEIST BLANKETS NEW YORK WITH TRUTH ON CLIMATE CHANGE

2009-09-21T14:29:00.000+01:00

"WE'RE SCREWED": MEDIA HEIST BLANKETS CITY WITH "SPECIAL EDITION" NEW
YORK POST
Tabloid Tells Truth About Climate Change and How It Will Affect City,
World

Fake New York Post: http://www.nypost-se.com/
Video News Release: http://www.nypost-se.com/video
City report on climate change: http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/2009/NPCC_CRI.pdf
Wake-up call: http://www.tcktcktck.org/wakeup

Early this morning, nearly a million New Yorkers were stunned by the
appearance of a "special edition" New York Post blaring headlines that
their city could face deadly heat waves, extreme flooding, and other
lethal effects of global warming within the next few decades. The most
alarming thing about it: the news came from an official City report.

Distributed by over 2000 volunteers throughout New York City, the
paper has been created by The Yes Men and a coalition of activists as
a wake-up call to action on climate change. It appears one day before
a UN summit where Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will push 100 world
leaders to make serious commitments to reduce carbon emissions in the
lead-up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December. Ban has said
that the world has "less than 10 years to halt (the) global rise in
greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences
for people and the planet," adding that Copenhagen is a "once-in-a-
generation opportunity."

Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100%
true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and
climate change experts.

"This could be, and should be, a real New York Post," said Andy
Bichlbaum of the Yes Men. "Climate change is the biggest threat
civilization has ever faced, and it should be in the headlines of
every paper, every day until we solve the problem."

The fake Post's cover story ("We're Screwed") reports the frightening
conclusions of a blue-ribbon panel of scientists commissioned by the
mayor's office to determine the potential effects of climate change on
the City. That report was
released in February of this year, but received very little press at
the time. Other lead articles describe the Pentagon's alarmed response
to global warming ("Clear & Present Disaster"), the U.S. government's
sadly minuscule response to
the crisis ("Congress Cops Out on Climate"), China's alternative
energy program ("ChinaÕs Green Leap Forward Overtakes U.S."), and how
if the US doesn't quickly pass a strong climate bill, the crucial
Copenhagen climate talks this December could be a "Flopenhagen."

The paper includes original investigative reporting as well. One
article ("Carbon counter counts New Yorkers as fools") reveals that
Deutsche Bank - which erected a seven-story "carbon counter" in
central Manhattan - not only invests heavily incoal-mining companies
worldwide, but has recently entered the business of coal trading itself.

The paper has the world's gloomiest weather page, covering the next 70
years rather than just 7 days. The "Around the World" section
describes the disproportionate effects of climate change on poorer
parts of the world, including
extreme droughts, floods, famines, water shortages, mass migrations
and conflicts. Developing countries will bear the brunt of climate
change effects even though they have done very little to cause the
problem.

But the paper isn't all doom and gloom. An article called "New York
Fights Back" notes that the carbon emissions of Big Apple residents
are only one third the national average, and that the city is building
1800 miles of bike paths, planting one million trees, and replacing
its fleet of police cars with hybrids. There's also a page of black-
humor cartoons (in one, Charlie Brown finds Snoopy drowned), a gossip
section that takes no prisoners, and a number of truly cheerful ads -
for sex ("Awesome. No carbon emissions."), tote bags, bicycles, and
tap water ("Literally comes right out of your faucet!").

Another ad promotes civil disobedience, encouraging readers to visit http://BeyondTalk.net
and pledge to risk arrest in a planned global action November 30,
just before the conference in Copenhagen.

"We need strong action on climate change," said David Solnit of
Mobilization for Climate Justice West, one of the partners in
BeyondTalk.net. "But history shows that leaders act only when people
take to the streets to demand it. That's whatneeds to happen now."

This paper is one of 2500 initiatives taking place in more than 130
countries as a response to the "Global Wake-up Call" on climate
change. For more information, visit www.tcktcktck.org/wakeup

Precarious United for Climate Action in Copenhagen (COP15)

2009-09-19T06:52:00.000+01:00

PRECARIOUS UNITED for CLIMATE ACTION (PUCA)
www.euromayday.org

Fighting for Social and Climate Justice. Because Climate Change Makes
All Precarious.

The economic crisis has heavily hit the precariat -- the sum of those
working non-standard, temporary, part-time contracts in services and
industry -- worse than any other social class. Millions of precarious
youth, women, immigrants are being made redundant by the Great
Recession. Unemployment has skyrocketed from the US to the EU, from
Iceland to Japan. Those responsible for the crisis -- big banks,
investment funds, free-market economists and policy-makers --
whitewash and greenwash without shame as if nothing happened and go on
with business as usual. Governments are giving trillions to the
bankers and peanuts to the permatemps. Riots and protests are
spreading as a result, also targeting a new wave of racism and
xenophobia, but the pressure against political and economic power
hasn't yet been enough, although an Autumn of Rage lies in store and
this could change the equation.

Yet on the horizon of this historic capitalist crisis, an even larger
crisis looms: global heating and climate change due to fossil-burning
capital accumulation. Humankind is in danger, and by mid-century
millions and millions could be wiped out from Earth if overdeveloped
economies don't cut emissions, i.e. if we don't bring into line the
major carbon emitters (oil, coal, energy conglomerates, manufacturing
corporations and their logistics, the aviation industry, fast food and
agribusiness, luxury tourism etc.). Copenhagen in December is an
excellent opportunity to do so. On Dec 7-18, the UN Climate Summit --
COP15 -- will take place in the Danish capital, a city with strong
radical traditions and a current history of rebellious agitation. All
the state and economic élites from all the countries of the world will
convene at Bella Center in Copenhagen to seek a successor to the Kyoto
Treaty, including those powers like the US, China, India who hadn't
signed it.

The solution to the precarious question is not going to be found in
the return to the old speculative, overindebted, overdeveloped,
ecocidal, supremely unequal consumer economy of yore, the very same
that has been responsible for the lion's share of greenhouse emissions
deposited in the atmosphere over the last three decades, but in the
fight for a new economic and welfare system built around the social
and environmental needs of the precarious strata of society, ensuring
that each human being on Earth is entitled to the same share of carbon
emissions. To achieve this, we demand fiscal distribution via capital,
corporate and carbon taxation to pay for: basic income for all adults
and finance a reduction in worktime such as the 4-day week, universal
free access to online knowledge, publicly assisted p2p social
production and sharing, free public health and higher education for
all, subsidized green housing and green jobs for all unemployed
wishing to work, socialized banking funding renewable energy and
sustainable living community projects, urban and labor rights of self-
organization and self-unionization, the end of discrimination and
persecution of immigrants and asylum-seekers, right to solidarity
strike and statutory minimum wage of €10/$10/¥1500 per hour, and any
measure geared to giving back power and the possibility of making
power to the people. Redistribution of wealth and power toward the
precarious, growth of immaterial knowledge, cultural enrichment of
society and massive expansion of leisure are fundamental social
conditions for the horizontal, open-source design of a resilient
postcapitalist society, freeing the time to pursue ecohacktive and
permacultural activities, giving the time back to precarized and
frightened people to think collectively about their own future, also
cutting the need for quick consumption and instant satisfaction among
precarious service and knowledge workers in the currently time-starved
global society.

A strongly relational and solidaristic economy would fulfill many of
the needs today obviated by individualized market consumption. We
reject carbon trading (the cap&trade approach) as a non-solution to
the problem of emission cuts, as proved by the complete failure of the
EU emissions trading system. We expect adequate climate reparations
from the old industrial powers of the North to the underdeveloped
economies of the South. We hope the multigendered and multiethnic
precariat can be the social driver for local economies of cooperation,
exchange and mutual aid, food and energy production, just as the
immaterial precariat has been at the core of the climate camp
movement, to which we have participated enthusiastically.

The power of markets and corporations over our lives is backed by
petromilitarism. Fossil capitalism destroys environments as it
precarizes peoples. We must fight it in Copenhagen, all together, to
unmask Barroso's (let's hope the Irish manage to finally sack him) and
Obama's carbon trading and government bailouts for the rich. They'd
better spend that money in social transfers, green jobs and renewable
energy, because the Recession doesn't do discounts and the Earth
doesn't do bailouts: act for social change to avert climate disaster!

Climate Justice Action (CJA, www.climate-justice-action.org, follow
@actforclimate), the global movement network that for a year has been
organizing the December 12-16 protests, is calling all movements to
direct action in Copenhagen in the days from Dec12 (demonstration from
Parliament) to Dec16 (mass action at Bella Center).

On December 12, the precarious organizing the postcapitalist mayday of
precarious and migrants in many cities of Europe and Japan (and
Canada: no border, no precarity! www.euromayday.org) call onto all
friends and accomplices across europe+world to join forces behind the
"Precarious United for Climate Action" banner, joining the
anticapitalist block (http://nevertrustacop.org/Main/SecondCall) at
the big demonstration that will gather every single environmental
organization and activist group on the planet voicing the need for
climate justice and the responsibility of global capitalism for
environmental disaster, marching from Parliament to Summit.

And on December 16, we ask all noprecarity activists to join the
pink'n'black PUCA block to push for climate justice at the RECLAIM
POWER! mass action painstakingly organized by the CJA Movement Network
around the Bella Center on that Wednesday. We will produce
postcapitalist subverts, crisis fortundising, ecohacking, climate
slogans, posters, wotnot, and exhort you to do the same. On Dec 13,
14, 15 look out for actions on production, borders, banks,
agriculture, north-south equity.

Movment Call for Mass Action on December 16:
www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/copenhagen-2009
Climate Action Calendar and Guide Toward Copenhagen:
http://www.climate-justice-action.org/news/2009/09/13/climate-action-calendar-and-guide-toward-copenhagen/
Twitter: @actforclimate
CJA site: www.climate-justice-action.org

FIGHT FOR SOCIAL EQUALITY: PUSH FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE!

Imperceptible Strategies, Unidentified Autonomous Organizations : A Drifting Seminar

2009-09-16T17:44:00.001+01:00

Imperceptible Strategies, Unidentified Autonomous Organizations
:: A Drifting Seminar :: London, October 23 ::

Anarchist and autonomous politics are often associated, in a kneejerk
way, with a celebration of chaos and disorder: a rejection of all
forms of organization. The reduction of radical politics to a cheap
joke ('anarchist organization, what's that?') comes to substitute for
an actual understanding of autonomous organizational practices. Far
from rejecting organization all together, the history of autonomous
politics contains a wealth of different modes of organizing, from the
formation of temporary autonomous zones to affinity group models,
maroon communities to networks and collectives.

These are forms of organizing that not always acknowledged as being
organizations because they do not conform to what it is assumed
organizations necessarily are: durable, static, and hierarchical. This
understanding of organization obscures and makes difficult an actual
engagement with the merits and weaknesses of different forms of
organizing. But what would be found if rather than working from a
fixed and unchanging concept of organization, one that excludes
temporary forms of organization from consideration, it was attempted
to tease out the organizational dynamics from all the temporary
alliances and alliances that appear and disappear?

Might it be possible that we are already enmeshed in a world of
unidentified autonomous organizations, a milieu of potential
liberation that has remained imperceptible because of a narrow
understanding of what organizations are? And might it not be that this
imperceptibly, rather than being a condition to be addressed as a
problem, could rather be part of building of what Robin D.G. Kelley
calls an infrapolitical sphere: a space for politics coming out of
people's everyday experiences that do not express themselves as
radical political organization at all.

The aim of this encounter is to explore the connections between
anarchism, autonomism, and the revolutions of everyday life, drawing
out conceptual tools useful to developing and deepening the politics
of these infrapolitical spaces and organization. How can we strategize
and build from the connections and movements of the undercommons,
working from everyday encounters to compose new forms of social
movement? How can we connect and work between spontaneous forms of
resistance without forcing them into some larger form that ossifies
them?

This event will not be based around formal presentations, but rather
will rather take the form of a drifting seminar. Participants will be
asked to read several pieces of text that will form the basis of
discussion and exploration.

Registration for the event will be approximately 10 quid. There will
be some limited travel funding available. If you wish to be considered
forthis funding indicate this when you register.

For registration and information contact: stevphen@autonomedia.org /
http://www.minorcompositions.info.

Sponsored by the Anarchist Studies Network
(www.anarchist-studies-network.org.uk) & Minor Compositions
(www.minorcompositions.info).

NEXT MONDAY: Huge NYC shenanigans - PARTICIPANTS NEEDED!

2009-09-14T19:59:00.000+01:00

From The Yes Men...

If you live in New York, please visit http://newyorkbigevent.com/ to
sign up for some GIANT, extremely FUN, potentially WORLD-FIXING
shenanigans on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21. (Even if you don't, you can sign
up to participate in our "digital fun squad" by clicking the option on
your profile. And if you know any New Yorkers or big Facebook
hobbyists, please forward this email to them!)

Everyone who shows up Monday morning will get a FREE GIFT you can
SHOCK your friends with for years. Even just a few minutes Monday
morning will help. Sign up
now! http://newyorkbigevent.com/

We can't tell you much about what we'll be doing, as the element of
surprise here is crucial. But we can tell you that it'll be huge and
absurdly fun, and when a hundred world honchos meet the next morning
to discuss climate change at the UN, you may have helped set the tone
for progress.

Then, that evening (Monday, Sept. 21), we'll unwind from the action by
dressing up in our very best, er, suits and heading to the global mega-
premiere of climate blockbuster The Age of Stupid (http://www.ageofstupid.net/
). Like us, they've got no advertising budget, but if enough people
see this film, fixing the world could be a bit easier. (LA Times:
"Think An Inconvenient Truth, but with a personality"; News of the
World: "You won't see a more important film this year.") The premiere
will be linked by satellite to 444 cinemas across America and 300 more
worldwide, with special guests Kofi Annan, Radiohead's Thom Yorke
(singing live), Gillian Anderson, Heather Graham, Moby, James Hansen,
Mary Robinson, and the film's star Pete Postlethwaite. As for us, if
you make it to your local theatre that day, you'll see us live on the
satellite feed. Visit the film's website to buy tickets now!

Our own film (http://theyesmenfixtheworld.com/) will be in US theaters
starting OCTOBER 7! It'll be at New York's Film Forum Theater for two
weeks (Oct. 7-20), and then spread out to 23 cities and counting.
Visit our screenings page
(http://theyesmenfixtheworld.com/screenings.htm) to see if your town
is listed.
Check back often for updates!

See you soon!
The Yes Men and a whole lot of friends

p.s. The Sept. 21 events (http://newyorkbigevent.com/ and Age of
Stupid premiere) are part of Climate Action Week in New York. A good
way to warm up is to join an "international photo opportunity"
coordinated by Oxfam on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 20 in Central Park:
the Human Countdown. To register, send your name, email and phone to mailto:jdantas@oxfamamerica.org

Open letter to the Istanbul Biennial

2009-09-08T12:30:00.001+01:00

Conceptual Framework of Direnal-Istanbul Resistance Days: What Keeps
Us Not-Alive?

An open letter to the curators, artists, participants of the 11th
International Istanbul Biennial and to all artists and art-lovers.

"We have to stop pretending that the popularity of politically engaged
art within the museums, and markets over the last few years has
anything to do with really changing the world. We have to stop
pretending that taking risks in the space of art, pushing boundaries
of form, and disobeying the conventions of culture, making art about
politics makes any difference. We have to stop pretending that art is
a free space, autonomous from webs of capital and power.
It'™s time for the artist to become invisible. To dissolve back into
life."[1]

We have read the conceptual framework of the 11th International
Istanbul Biennial with great interest and a grin on our faces. We have
long understood that the Istanbul Biennial aims at being one of the
most politically engaged transnational art events. And what a
coincidence! This year the Biennial is quoting comrade Brecht,
dropping notions such as neolibreal hegemony, and riding high against
global capitalism. We kindly appreciate the stance but we recognize
that art should have never existed as a separate category from life.
Therefore we are writing you to stop collaborating with arm dealers
such as the KoÃ§ Holding which white wash themselves in warm waters of
the global art scene and invite you to the life, the life of resistance.

The curators wonder whether Brecht's question '˜What Keeps Mankind
Alive'™ is equally urgent today for us living under the neoliberal
hegemony. We add the question: '˜What Keeps Mankind Not-Alive?'™.
We acknowledge the urgency in these times when we do not have the
right to work, we do not get free healthcare and education, our right
to our cities our squares and streets are taken by corporations, our
land, our seeds and water are stolen, we are driven into precarity and
a life without security, when we are killed crossing their borders and
left alone to live an uncertain future with their potential crises.
But we fight. And we resist in the streets not in corporate spaces
reserved for tolerated institutional critique so as to help them clear
their conscience. We fought when they wanted to kick us out of our
neighborhoods, from our houses in Sulukule, GÃ¼lensu and Ayazma, we
also fought against those who would smear the land with cyanide to
search for gold in Bergama and the Kaz Mountains, those who aggrieved
hazelnut producers in Giresun and cotton producers in Cukurova, those
who blackened the lives of jeans sandblasting workers with the
silicosis disease, making them work for 12 hours a day in unhealthy
conditions in workshops, those who turned the docks into a death camp
at Tuzla by not providing the workers safe working conditions, those
who endanger the lives of the people in the region in Sinop and Akkuyu
by wishing to construct nuclear power plants, and those who caused
workers in Desa and Yorsan to be fired for registering with trade
unions. And our fight and hope keep us alive.

The curators also point out that the one of the crucial questions of
this Biennial is 'œhow to 'set pleasure free,' how to regain
revolutionary role of enjoyment. We set pleasure free in the
streets, in our streets. We were in Prague, Hong Kong, Athens,
Seattle, Heilegendamm, Genoa, Chiapas and Oaxaca, Washington, Gaza and
Istanbulâ¦. Revolutionary role of enjoyment is out there and we
cherish it everywhere because we need to survive and we know that we
are changing the world with our words, with our acts, with our
laughter. And our life itself is the source of all sorts of pleasure.

And we are in Ä°stanbul and preparing ourselves to welcome 13.000
delegates of the IMF and the World Bank as we do wherever they go. We
declared that we are not hospitable. We will take it to the streets in
the carnival of resistance (1-8 October) and shut their meetings down
down.

Join the resistance and the insurgence of imagination! Evacuate
corporate spaces, liberate your works. Letâ™s prepare works and
visuals (poster, sticker, stencil etc.) for the streets of the
resistance days. Letâ™s produce together, not within the white cube,
but in the streets and squares during the resistance week!
Creativity belongs to each and every of us and canâ™t be sponsored.

Long live global insurrection!

Resistanbul Commissariat of Culture

http://resistanbul.wordpress.com/
http://direnistanbul.wordpress.com/

Resistanbul-Resistance Days Coordination Against IMF and World Bank
will work in September for the preparation and mobilization of
Resistance Days activities and actions. The exact date of the Visuals
Workshop can be followed from the website. For your participation,
suggestions, and more revolutionary information:
direnal@gmail.com

[1] John Jordan, "œDeserting the Culture Bunker", Journal of
Aesthetics and Protest, no 3 www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/
new3/jordan.html

Reclaim Power: Pushing for Climate Justice! Copenhagen, 16 December

2009-08-19T10:35:00.000+01:00

Reclaim Power!

Pushing for Climate Justice – a Call to Action

From the 7th to 18th of December 2009, the largest 'climate summit'
ever to be held will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. This summit
has been billed as our 'last, best hope' to do something about climate
change. But the UN talks will not solve the climate crisis. We are no
closer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions than we were when
negotiations began fifteen years ago: emissions continue to rise at
ever faster rates, while carbon trading allows climate criminals to
pollute and profit. It is time to say enough! No more business as
usual, no more false solutions!

Reclaiming power from below

On the 16th of December, at the start of the high-level 'ministerial'
phase of the two-week summit, we, the movements for global justice,
will take over the conference for one day and transform it into a
People's Summit for Climate Justice. Using only the force of our
bodies to achieve our goal, our Reclaim Power! march will push into
the conference area and enter the building, disrupt the sessions and
use the space to talk about our agenda, an agenda from below, an
agenda of climate justice, of real solutions against their false ones.
Our action is one of civil disobedience: we will overcome any physical
barriers that stand in our way – but we will not respond with violence
if the police try to escalate the situation.

Change the system, not the climate!

Our goal is not to shut down the entire summit. But this day will be
ours, it will be the day we speak for ourselves and set the agenda:
climate justice now! We cannot trust the market with our future, nor
put our faith in unsafe, unproven and unsustainable technologies. We
know that on a finite planet, it is impossible to have infinite growth
– 'green' or otherwise. Instead of trying to fix a destructive system,
we are advancing alternatives that provide real and just solutions to
the climate crisis: leaving fossil fuels in the ground; reasserting
peoples' and community control over resources; relocalising food
production; reducing overconsumption, particularly in the North;
recognising the ecological and climate debt owed to the peoples of the
South and making reparations; and respecting indigenous and forest
peoples' rights.

Global movements for climate justice

Ten years ago at the protests against the WTO in Seattle, a global
movement emerged to proclaim that another world was possible. Today,
this world is not just possible – it is necessary. In Copenhagen, we
will come together from many different backgrounds and movements,
experiences and struggles. We are indigenous peoples and farmers,
workers and environmentalists, feminists and anticapitalists. Now, our
diverse struggles for social and ecological justice are finding common
ground in the struggle for climate justice, and in our desire to
reclaim power over our own future.

Get involved – join our climate justice action!

- Join the Reclaim Power! action in Copenhagen – and spread the
word! We want to generate a sense of excitement, we want our action
will resonate around the world, and the way to do that is through
countless individuals, groups and movements declaring their intention
to take part in our actions.

- Organise events where you live. Get in touch if you want to
invite someone to report on the Reclaim Power! action and the issues
at the heart of our protest

Reclaim Power! Pushing for Climate Justice is organised by Climate
Justice Action. For more information, regular updates on our meetings
and actions, and for news about the global struggles for climate
justice, go tohttp://www.climate-justice-action.org/

Robert Jasper Grootveld dies

2009-07-08T11:42:00.001+01:00

Only just saw this...

OBITUARIES
The Independent
Wednesday, 20 May 2009

Robert Jasper Grootveld: Artist and activist who helped found the
Dutch Provos in the 1960s

No single person can be said to have created the worldwide cultural
phenomenon we call "the Sixties". But the Dutch anti-smoking
"magician" and voodoo showman Robert Jasper Grootveld has a better
claim than most. In the early Sixties, his surreal, dadaist
"happenings" in Amsterdam electrified the city's bored youth and
led to the creation of the playful Provo movement (short for
"provocation"). With the charismatic, flamboyantly transvestite
Grootveld as a spokesman, Provo was a catalyst for cultural
revolution. The group provided free bicycles, subverted a royal
wedding and humiliated the stiff-necked Dutch establishment and
Amsterdam police force so effectively that both groups – and the
country - underwent a near-total personality change. Provo lasted
only from 1965 to 1967 but the spirit of what Grootveld dubbed
"International Magic Centre Amsterdam" broke old Holland, inspired
hippies in San Francisco and musicians and artists in London and
paved the way, among other things, for the summer of love, Dutch
total football and the green movement.

In 1960 the Netherlands had been a sleepy, isolated, puritan
country, guilt-ridden and sombre. A decade later, it was a dynamic
and liberal society. Early associate Jan Vrijman called Grootveld
the "announcer of the international spirit of revolution".

Yet the former ice-cream salesman, window cleaner and shipyard
worker who left school at 15 had no agenda and was apolitical.
Grootveld's only desire, he said, was for personal publicity. He
first attracted attention in 1955, floating through Amsterdam on a
tiny raft like some ship-wrecked sailor, mocking diners in fancy
restaurants. In 1961 he defaced cigarette advertisements with the
letter K (for cancer), was arrested, and a new career beckoned.
Soon he was drawing crowds to the Spui square and spreading
mysterious graffiti, including the slogan "Klaas is Coming!"
(inspired by his belief that Sinterklaas – Father Christmas – was
the messiah).

Grootveld's war against boredom and the consumer society switched
to his anti-smoking "K-Temple", an old garage near the Leidseplein
where he performed shamanistic anti-smoking rituals while a crowd
chanted "Bram bram! ugga ugga!". Regulars included a writer called
Johnny the Selfkicker, who talked himself into a trance and threw
himself from high places, and a "half doctor" (a failed medical
student) who tried to achieve a state of higher consciousness by
drilling a hole in his forehead. When Grootveld tired of this, he
set fire to the temple and danced on the roof as it burned.

Writers and artists adored Grootveld for his wild invention and for
doing things they never dared. But apart from a two-year love
affair with the writer Gerard Reve, Grootveld, son of a west
Amsterdam carpenter, was wary of intellectuals. His experience of
hunger and poverty during the Nazi occupation also set him apart
from younger, ideologically driven Provo leaders like the
anarchists Rob Stolk and Roel van Duyn. While they sought violent
confrontation with the police, Grootveld, whose grandfather had
been a policeman, steered the group instead towards a far more
original and influential strategy of playful, witty, non-violence.

In 1967, Grootveld moved to the margins of the counter-culture
where he gave away marijuana but railed against hard drugs. Over
the next 40 years he became forgotten, spending much of his time in
Amsterdam's former docklands, creating floating gardens out of
chunks of polystyrene. Seeing no contradiction with his anti-
tobacco activism, he also smoked heavily and became alcoholic.
Increasingly severe mood swings, caused, he said, by bipolar
disorder, led to him falling out with most of his old friends.

He never really recovered after his wife Thea, an assistant TV
producer, left him in 2000 (she died in 2005). But friendship with
a young writer, Eric Duivenvoorden, brought one last moment in the
limelight. Ten days before his death from lung disease, Grootveld
attended the launch of Duivenvoorden's biography of him, Magiër van
een nieuwe tijd ("Magician of a New Time") and spent the evening
beaming, smoking – and shouting at anyone who dared sit beside him
on a throne left vacant for Sinterklaas.

David Winner

Robert Jasper Grootveld, artist and activist: born Amsterdam 19
July 1932; married 1972 Thea Keizer (marriage dissolved 2000; one
daughter); died Amsterdam 26 February 2009.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/robert-jasper-
grootveld-artist-and-activist-who-helped-found-the-dutch-provos-in-
the-1960s-1687682.html

Invite to join a Capitalists Anonymous meeting in the City of London; 17, 18, 19 of June 1-2pm

2009-06-15T08:02:00.000+01:00

Capitalists Anonymous - a call for participation

Are you in the early stages of a post-capitalist hangover? Or do you intend to ride that globalised juggernaut until it hits the wall? Whatever your views, we want to hear from you. Capitalists Anonymous provides a supportive environment in which to share your stories of greed, excess consumption, shopping addiction and explore your fears or excitement about what's next? Let's replace want with need.

Where: A city location (TBC)

When: 17, 18, 19 June 2009-05-29

Time: 1-2pm

If you would like to attend please contact us at: info@capitalistsanonymous.org

For further information please visit our website: www.capitalistsanonymous.org

Rev Bloomin Billy!

2009-05-27T10:11:00.001+01:00

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

The Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping have arrived on our shores!

To celebrate this fact, we're hosting a special one off gig at Hijacker HQ this Sunday. Expect gospel mania, choirs of chaos and more.

Entrance is STRICTLY BY PRE-REGISTRATION

click here to sign up.

http://lifeaftershopping.eventbrite.com/

-----

Also, with such a merry band of troublemakers in our midst we could hardly let them go without causing a little chaos, so we've hooked up with Rhythms Of Resistance and are organising a special action before the concert with Billy and his Choir.

The Death Of The East End Funeral Procession!

Meet Midday (sharp)
Starbucks Spitalfields Market.
Sunday 31st May

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&q=starbucks+spitalfields&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=51.519519,-0.07625&spn=0,359.990247&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.518946,-0.078536&panoid=wkMe5k3b5UhanedUgjT0Iw&cbp=12,232.34,,0,9.75

We will be holding a funeral procession from the Starbucks in Spitalfields market, marking the spread of the nippleless mermaid into the historic East End.

An area of diversity, clashing cultures and independence, the East End of London has long been a haunt of artists, vagabonds, misfits, anarchists and rippers! However with the spread of global capitalism, and the homogenised pseudo-counter culture that it markets, companies such as Starbucks now feel comfortable hawking their unethical wares on our doorsteps, traditional cafes are replaced with watered down impressions of some terrible episode of Friends.

The Reverend Billy, The Church Of Life After Shopping, The Space Hijackers and Rhythms Of Resistance ask you to join us in a funeral procession through brick lane ending in a sermon and street party. Wear your black Sunday best, bring home made cakes, thermos flasks of tea, bunting and coffins. Bring dancing shoes and rhyming slang. Let us rise up to the invasion of the bland, let us show these unfair traders that their business is not welcome!

Space Hijackers

over and out...

C.R.A.S.H - A Postcapitalist A - Z - Program online

2009-05-14T13:19:00.000+01:00

C.R.A.S.H - A Postcapitalist A - Z
The latest experiment from The Laboratory of Insurrectionary
Imagination in now online - check out the program here

http://www.artsadmin.co.uk/projects/project.php?id=265

See you in June!