Today's Topics:
1. federacao anarquista gaucha CAB: ARGENTINA | It's time to
occupy the streets: position FAR - September 2019 (ca) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #297 - Femicide:
Domestic violence, the new government smuggling (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. [Russia-Ukraine] Anarchist prisoner Alexander Kolchenko is
free! By ANA [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. [Greece] Mitsotakis tries to save skin by evacuating two
okupations next to Exarchia By ANA (pt)[machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Britain, surrey anarchist communist group: Libertarian
Communism is the ACG's annual dayschool. (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. (A)N(A)RKISt(A)N: Interview with an anarchist collective in
Hong Kong [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
In a photo of Argentina today, the increase in poverty and destitution, mass layoffs as
well as suspensions, the increasing job insecurity, the inability to access basic services
of a large part of the population, the huge increase in cost could not be missing of life
and the overwhelming loss of purchasing power of active and passive workers. The social
damage caused by Macri is still incalculable. ---- But neither could the open repression,
which appears more and more frequently, as a response of the national government and
provincial governments to the measures of fighting in the street, be lacking in that
photo. The teachers and state of Chubut, in their heroic claim to collect their salaries
owed by cutting routes in the crudest of Patagonia winter, stand out for having been
brutally repressed by a skate that acted in collusion with the repressive forces of the
State. More recently, in the strike of Luz y Fuerza, in the City of Córdoba, against the
attempt to privatize the EPEC (Electric Power Company of Córdoba), the workers were
repressed and some of them arrested, among which was Héctor Tosco , son of the historical
reference classist Agustín Tosco. Also the piqueteros sectors that,
All this situation occurs in a context where, after PASO, both the national government and
the most voted candidate, Alberto Fernández of the Frente de Todos, agree that the most
important thing is to maintain governance and avoid social overflow at any cost. The
arguments, more than the concrete situation of the people, are the markets and
international organizations that ask for signs of stability and continuity. No doubt these
signals are being given from both sectors with the calls for demobilization and
resignation, typical of the dynamics of representative democracy. Meanwhile, the union
bureaucracy (from Daer to Yasky) is not far behind, postponing any measure of struggle,
not to mention the call for a general strike, which is being claimed from various sectors,
but it seems that it will not come.
In the specific case of the Fernández-Fernández formula, we can already see clear signs of
a neoliberal agenda, in continuity with the current government, and the projects that are
drawn from the imperialisms at the regional level. This is evidenced by some of the
figures that will integrate his future government, such as Guillermo Nielsen or the
request for an economic plan after December 10 to a liberal of pure strain like Melconian.
Along the same lines, the Vaca Muerta model continues to be sustained as an economic
recovery bet, with the environmental and social consequences that it entails, and the
disguised labor reform trial against oil workers. We must also add the recent Fernández
conference -flanked by collaborators such as Daer, Massa and Manzur - calling for a social
pact to stop any class overflow. What reminds us of the Kirchnerist decade, where many
popular organizations were institutionalized, demobilizing large sections of the
population. Noting the possibility of setting up a scenario, next year, where large
sectors postpone their own interests in pursuit of "faith" in bourgeois institutions, on
our part it will arise as our main task to sustain direct action as a method of struggle
for our class to defend the conquests won, in perspective of building popular power.
Today, despite the reluctance of the struggle of the union leaders, significant
expressions of resistance such as the ATE National Unemployment of September 10 and the
necessary response of the unions, especially teachers, were observed after the repression
in the Chubut province (which still sustains the strike distrusting the promises of
payment that do not materialize). In addition to the above, it was more than evident how
the sanction of the Food Emergency Law, which had the support of the Church and certain
political parties (more concerned with social pacification than with popular claims), was
achieved as a result of mobilizations and massive encampments, which left in evidence the
dimension of the social organizations that nucleate the sectors excluded by this system.
We must especially mention, in terms of the defensive reaction of those below, the village
that broke out in Chubut in repudiation of the death of two fellow teachers María Cristina
Aguilar and Jorgelina Ruiz Díaz when they returned from a day of struggle. The resistance
created in that province marks a path for those below, where the confrontation is direct
and the dominant power shows its face, and where the popular struggle does not give the
arm to twist, strengthening the articulation below from the solidarity of class, and where
unions and organizations put class interests ahead by expressing them with direct popular
action.
We affirm in this context the importance of building organization and fighting from our
own organizations, with the axis set in our class needs, without delaying the interests of
the parties, candidates, bureaucracies, or even the same electoral calendar. The conquests
of the oppressed were always the result of their own strength, and at this moment we can
only put our interests first, with class independence as a flag. It is necessary to join
forces with the daily organization of the people, contributing to the class struggle,
overflowing and transcending demobilizing proposals, which care for the institutions of
the bourgeoisie, while those below and we suffer from hunger and austerity. Given this
scenario we recognize some questions arise: Should we stop the impoverishing adjustment of
the Macrista emptying, while preparing the suitcases to leave? Of course! Should we go to
the times of politicking and the electoral game? Never!
It is time to occupy the streets!!
General Stop Now! We don't arrive to October!!
Top those who fight!
https://federacaoanarquistagaucha.wordpress.com/2019/09/20/far-es-momento-de-ocupar-las-calles/
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Message: 2
On July 7th, Marlène Schiappa, Secretary of State for Equality between Women and Men and
the fight against discrimination, announced the holding of a Grenelle against domestic
violence. The moment to take stock of the actions of the government in the defense of
women. ---- Domestic violence remains largely unpunished in France. In early July,
hundreds of people rallied against the murders of women - femicides - in Perpignan, Paris,
Saint-Denis. On July 11, the women of Saint-Denis went to the police station to demand
justice and truth. ---- A week earlier, Leïla, a 20-year-old woman, was found dead, beaten
to death by her husband. The day before she died, she had gone to the police station to
complain. The police refused to file a complaint, forcing him to file a handrail, the
uselessness of which is common knowledge. The participants in the rally in Saint-Denis
denounce the complicity of the state services in this crime.
A few days earlier, under the pressure of multiple feminist mobilizations, Secretary of
State Marlene Schiappa had announced the organization of an exceptional summit, in
September, on the issue of domestic violence. The effects of ads barely conceal a drop in
budgets allocated to the protection of women, while every year, one in ten women
experience domestic violence.
Since the announcement of the Grenelle: precariousness and violence
The government has since reduced subsidies for family planning, one of the main
associations fighting violence against women. This decrease can be as high as 30% in some
departments such as the Rhône, where the State subsidy for 2019, paid by the Regional
Directorate for Women's Rights and Equality (DRDFE) of the Auvergne region prefecture.
Rhône-Alpes, will be amputated 43 438 euros this year.
The effective break-up of the drought-driven unemployment insurance pushes many women out
of the field of compensation. Women are the most affected by precariousness: they
represent 52.1% of the poor population. Already 80% of the working poor are women. Women
are forced to work part-time (1.2 million women work part-time as compared to 472,000 men,
or three times less), and are paid less than men (34.4% less at equal qualifications).
This aggravated precariousness will expose them even more to conjugal violence, that they
will not be able to flee for want of money.
The government has also confirmed the content of the pension reform. It will destroy
pension funds, moving them from a solidarity system to a system modeled on private
insurance, with the result that the level of women's pensions is generally lowered. Today
women receive a 42% lower retirement than men. Reducing women's pensions can only further
weaken them, placing them in a situation of financial dependence on their partner and
making them more vulnerable to violence.
Shelters for women, including women victims of macho violence, continue to be closed. This
is the case of the Women's Palace in Paris, where residents have been struggling since
2016 to improve their housing conditions, maintain the number of places and relocate
long-term and secure. Joined in June by the movement of yellow vests, their struggle
intensified and became popular.
At present, there are no official statistics for femicides anywhere in the country. The
count, as in the case of the victims of police violence, is only carried out by carrying
out a meticulous statement of the articles of press.
Femicide, a systemic crime
Femicide is the killing of one or more women or girls because of their gender. Feminicide
comes from patriarchy, a political and economic system that organizes the exploitation of
women by men. Feminicide is the most violent expression of the structural domination of
men over women. In the law of many Latin American countries, femicide is an aggravating
circumstance of homicide, or a recognized specific crime. The term is coined in the
twentieth century following the assassination in the Dominican Republic of three opponents
- now known as the Mariposas - to the bloodthirsty dictator Trujillo. If the term is
relatively recent, the killing of women as such is a reality as old as patriarchy.
The UN distinguishes eleven cases of feminicide. These include murders of domestic
violence, misogynist torture and massacres, assassinations in the name of " honor ",
killings of women and girls on the basis of their sexual orientation, murders after
charges of witchcraft...
Patriarchy produces the sexist culture that contributes to the perpetuation of machismo
violence. The set of prejudices attributing " innate " qualities or defects to each
gender, or sexism, makes it possible to value violent behavior in young boys (associated
with manhood) and passive and submissive behaviors among young girls. The social
validation of this violence implies for boys and men a state of naturalized natural
domination of men over women. This reproduction of gender stereotypes has engendered, for
years, a deafening silence on the murders of women by men, a silence that is just
beginning to break.
Machismo crimes are often treated as trivial and trivialized. There are no longer any
media reports of passionate crimes, romantic tragedies, or romantic murders that
camouflage assassinations of women. Some media bear a heavy responsibility in this regard.
The responsibilities of the state are overwhelming
According to World Bank data, in 2016 sexist violence (rape and domestic violence) on a
global scale represents a 15- to 44-year-old woman's risk greater than cancer, road
accidents, war and malaria combined.
In France since the beginning of the year, feminicides multiply without concrete and
effective reaction of the public authorities. Since the beginning of the year, a woman
falls under the blows of her spouse every other day, which is worse than last year. The
majority of women who were murdered this year filed a complaint. Since Macron has been in
power, more than 520 women have been killed by their spouses.
The State intends to remedy this by a budget of 70 million euros against violence against
women, the derisory sum of one euro per capita. The entire state budget for women's rights
is 0.06% of its total budget, while that of the French army amounts to almost 15% of state
expenditure.
Police indifference, derisory budgets of state institutions, dwindling resources allocated
to associations ... It seems that in terms of feminism and the fight against patriarchy,
the state is not the solution but a part of the problem.
Louise (UCL Saint-Denis) & Lucie (Amiens)
The counter-grenelle of women's yellow vests
" We want actions, means and budget, not blah. "
Following the announcement of the Grenelle against domestic violence by Marlène Schiappa,
women's yellow vests call for two days of action, September 3 and 8, 2019. This call, on
the initiative of the yellow vests group of Saint-Denis, carries claims on the fight
against male violence against women and feminicide, as well as on police violence. " We
condemn Ms. Schiappa's silence on the death of Zineb Redouane, killed by the police, as
well as the many war wounds suffered by women in yellow jackets and casualties, in Paris,
in the suburbs, and throughout the country. for 11 months ! » .
They also call for the urgent requisition of empty housing for isolated women and their
children, as well as the maintenance of emergency housing reserved exclusively for women
victims of violence. Vests yellow, their claims remain rooted in social issues and
denounce including the new calculation of the disabled adult allowance (AAH) which will
take into account the income of the spouse, condemning women with disabilities to remain
financially dependent on their spouse, and also require the abolition of VAT for essential
goods, the establishment of local social services, working conditions, salaries that allow
to live with dignity, the immediate implementation of the PMA for all (delayed since
January 2019 ) ...
" Feminists, those who fight for their rights, and who struggle in their flesh, it's us,
not Schiappa . " Women yellow vests of Saint-Denis say it: they are present on the
roundabouts and blockages since the beginning of the movement. They want to be able to
access their rights and get more. At the forefront of the struggles, they will not let the
Macron government roll out their bodies, their rights and their social movements.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Feminicide-Violences-conjugales-le-nouvel-enfumage-gouvernemental
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Message: 3
On September 7, 2019, a political prisoner exchange took place between Russia and Ukraine,
allowing prisoners to be released after spending months and years of their lives in
concrete cells and barracks due to geopolitical garbage disposal. politicians, who,
according to a long state tradition, regard human lives as a bargaining chip. ---- Among
those released was our comrade, anarchist Alexander Kolchenko, who spoke out against the
Russian state during the annexation of Crimea and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
it. ---- We sincerely congratulate the comrade who faced all the difficulties of the
repressive apparatus and remained unshakable, preserving ideas, principles and beliefs.
For liberation! ---- Source: https://a2day.net/aleksandr-kolchenko-na-svobode/
Translation> Brulego
Related Content:
https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2018/07/05/russia-repressoes-
find-a-organizacao-narodnaya-samooborona/
anarchist news agency-ana
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Message: 4
The new Greek Prime Minister is trying to save his skin after nearly a month of
stagnation, hampered by strong local and international mobilization. ---- ATTENTION:
EVACUATION OF TWO OKUPATIONS NEXT TO EXARCHIA ---- "Jasmine Refugee Okupa" was evacuated
by police on 22 Acharnon Street in Athens, about 100 meters west of Exarchia, in an
abandoned school building. Another okupa next door on Sourmeli Street was also evacuated.
---- The operation began before dawn: a total of 230 refugees were detained, including 70
children. These okupas mainly housed families to offer them an alternative to shameful
camps created by the state and the European Union, and managed with the collaboration of
various NGOs under odious conditions: overcrowding, deplorable food, catastrophic hygiene,
exposure to temperature fluctuations, humiliation ...
As in the previous evictions, they found no drugs, despite drug squad searches. This time,
police were instructed to prevent photographs of families and children being taken.
On August 26, during the evacuation of 4 Okupas in Exarchia, including 2 refugees, the
photos were deeply impactful, showing children dragged by police or broken furniture
during the attack to terrorize families.
These Okupas on Acharnon and Sourmeli Streets are close to Exarchia, but situated on the
west side of the rebel quarter, which has been resisting since the beginning of July the
will of the new government to annihilate it.
The Greek prime minister announced with great pomp and circumstance before and during his
election that he would "clean up Exarchia in the first month." But after two and a half
months, in the face of local resistance combined with strong international support,
Kyriakos Mitsotakis managed to evacuate 4 of 23 Okupas inside Exarchia (late August) and
only 2 of 26 near the neighborhood (this morning, 19th). / 09). In other words, 6 okupas
evacuated from a total of 49. Only 10%, although the time announced at first is a long
time since then: it is a resounding failure for the right-wing government in front of the
increasingly well-known libertarian quarter of Athens. in Europe and in the world for its
resistance, its graffiti and its concentration of initiatives of self-management and
solidarity.
This morning, the government stopped attacking the rebel neighborhood where it completely
stopped evictions for exactly 24 days. In addition, it evacuated only 2 occupations
instead of 4 as last time. The new government is trying to get rid of the skin, while the
situation is stalled in the rebel neighborhood, but still 30% occupied by police.
Why? Because since August 26, mobilization has increased considerably, both in Greece and
elsewhere in Europe and beyond. More and more people went to the street. By August 31, the
neighborhood was packed with people and the large crowd broke through all police lines to
make a full route through Exarchia. On September 14, 7000 anarchists and revolutionaries
demonstrated in the center of the city lobbying the parliament that preferred to keep its
MAT (riot troop) at bay. Last night, a lot of people were on the street, even, this time
it was an antifera demonstration in memory of Pavlos Fyssas: 8000 antifascists gathered,
also in solidarity with the okupas threatened by power.
In addition, there are more than 60 Greek embassies and consulates worldwide marked by
solidarity actions with Exarchia and the okupas. These actions, sometimes accompanied by
destruction or stickers, were also organized in support of the anarchist group Rouvikonas,
particularly attacked by the police and threatened with a fanciful classification as a
"terrorist organization", while there was never any person murdered. Photos and messages
arrive daily from around the world.
No, nothing is better for Mitsotakis. Time goes by and its grandiloquent challenge breaks
the wall of solidarity without borders.
Exarchia is still standing and for each eviction, a new okupa will see the day, sooner or
later.
Yannis Youlountas
Source:
http://blogyy.net/2019/09/19/mitsotakis-tente-de-sauver-la-face-em-evacuant-deux-squats-a-cote-dexarcheia/
Translation> Sol de Abril
Related Contents:
https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2019/09/19/grecia-pavlos-vive-marcha-antifascista-em-atenas-reune-milhares-de-personas/
https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2019/09/14/grecia-no-pasaran-reuniu-milhares-de-manifestantes-no-centro-de-atenas/
anarchist news agency-ana
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Message: 5
This year the dayschool takes place on October 5th from 12:30 pm - 6:00 pm on 5th October
at the May Day Rooms at 88 Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 1DH.
The discussions will be on:
organising women workers; climate change.
For more info contact London ACG - londonacg@gmail.com
Eveyone is welcome to come along and listen to the presentations and the contribute to the
discussions.
Libertarian Communism at the MayDay Rooms
https://surreyanarchistcommunistgroup.blogspot.com/2019/09/libertarian-communism-2019.html
------------------------------
Message: 6
We conducted this interview with an anarchist collective that has been active in the
struggle over the last fifteen weeks. Between ingesting vast amounts of tear gas, they met
to ruminate over these questions. The answers are the result of many sleepless nights
spent in introspection and recollection, each member of the collective helping the others
to fill in the lacunae in their overworked memories. ---- At what points has the movement
plateaued? What has made it escalate, spread, survive? ---- The "plateau" was probably
reached on August 5, on the day of the first proposed "general strike." Though not
properly a general strike in the technical sense, it effectively shut down much of the
city for an entire day. In many ways, it was a momentous event, both in its magnitude and
because it was the first time that a strike was called for political (rather than simply
economic) reasons by working people operating outside a union.
At the same time, despite the fact that police stations were surrounded-and, in certain
cases, subjected to continued attacks, torched, or even destroyed-the events of that day
accomplished little in the way of tangible results, with the state remaining silent.
Nobody could have anticipated that the day would have turned out as gloriously as it did,
as popular revenge on the police took the most unforgettable forms across the city, but
that was very much the point at which people began to feel as though they had done
everything they could to compel the government to respond, and the euphoria of that
evening began to develop into exasperation.
Anger at police has been one of the chief factors that has propelled the movement since then.
Many of you must be aware of the unfettered brutality of the Hong Kong police, a brutality
that they have been given greater and greater license to indulge in with each passing day.
This is the same police force that went to painstaking lengths to stake a claim to being
"Asia's finest" after the riots of the late 1960s and decades of corruption. Certainly, it
has been traumatic for many to lose the illusion that Hong Kong is a liberal metropolis in
which producers and consumers can go about their lives unmolested, enjoying the unhindered
traffic of opinions and commodities. But young graduates from the police academy have to
come to terms with their own trauma, as well, having lost hope of obtaining a temperate
and uneventful career with regular promotions and bonuses, without any of the risks of
precarity that characterize the occupations available to others who have limited education.
We have no pity for the police, but it is clear that they are motivated by pure and
uninhibited wrath. This wrath is what they share in common with those that they
brutalize-the difference, of course, being that they are legally authorized and encouraged
to enact it. One shudders to think what sort of perverse, Full Metal Jacket-style
motivational talks they are given by their superiors before they are deployed in protests,
what sort of disgusting discussions they have in their cadet Whatsapp groups, what other
means they use to keep themselves foaming at the mouth, straining at the leash to crack a
protester's head open. While no one in our collective knows for certain what actually
happens in police stations when you are captured now, there are widespread reports of
torture, sexual abuse, even rumors of the gang rape of female protesters.
On the other side of the lines, one gets the feeling that any escalation in tactics that
has taken place since August 5 has been a reaction to heightening police violence or to
the ways that private companies facilitate this violence-such as the company that runs the
MTR, which has made a massive fortune building private malls and apartments adjacent to
their subway stations, or the New Town Mall, the shopping center that inexplicably allowed
squads of riot police to storm it and bloody the floors of one of the city's oldest
consumer citadels. The struggle often resembles a blood feud between protesters and the
police.
The police attack in Prince Edward MTR station.
Last week, the police laid siege to Prince Edward MTR station. They rushed into a subway
car, began indiscriminately beating anyone who looked like a protester, and left the
victims in a bloody heap on the station floor, prohibiting them from receiving medical
aid. They transformed the station into a sealed internment camp for hours, disappearing
three people who are rumored to have been beaten to death. As the stakes continue to rise
in the conflict, this spiral of retribution is likely to continue. With so many people
fixated on live feeds, aghast at what is transpiring before their eyes daily-journalists
losing their eyes, bystanders being apprehended for questioning police authority-this
fixation on the police is difficult to break, though certain threads on LIHKG have been
started to plead with those in the struggle to look at the larger picture rather than
concentrating all their efforts on acts of popular vengeance against the police. Such acts
are clearly encouraged by the police themselves, who need a sensational retroactive alibi
for their activity-to such an extent that they have been caught disguising themselves in
the frontlines in order to throw Molotov cocktails.
Loath as we are to admit it, this struggle thrives on police violence. We should address
and reflect upon this.
For example, on August 11, a medic behind the frontlines lost an eye after she was hit by
a rubber bullet. This was hardly accidental "collateral damage"-the police have been
aiming at peoples' heads for a while now. The next day, a huge mobilization took place at
the airport, with a meme demanding that the police return an eye going viral, supplying a
powerful emotional impetus to the events of that afternoon. That evening, protesters made
a citizen's arrest, apprehending two people suspected of being agents of the Chinese
communist party and skirmishing with elite airport police squads.
As long as the struggle continues to feed on popular indignation aroused by police
transgressions, pleading for a higher tribunal to bring the police to justice-be that the
United States, the Western world, or the United Nations-its momentum will be contingent on
police provocation and it will remain arrested at the precise point that social struggles
in Hong Kong have yet to overcome: the righteous indignation of the citizen.
What will happen when the reservoir of civic outrage about this or that injustice is
exhausted? Is it necessary for those in the struggle to always situate themselves on the
higher moral ground, legitimizing their illegal activity as a reaction to the excesses of
the state? How can they take the initiative, take the offensive? This doesn't necessarily
mean striking first in a physical sense, but "becoming-active" in the sense Nietzsche
spoke of, dispensing with the "slave morality" of dependence upon-and fascination with-the
enemy.
The scandal of police violence has polarized the city to such an extent that entire
neighborhoods have come out in support of the black-clad, gas-masked protesters amassed
outside police stations in various districts. The most famous of these events took place
in Wong Tai Sin and Kwai Chung, where hundreds of people came downstairs in shorts and
flip-flops to harangue the police, making one officer so unnerved that he pulled a loaded
rifle on unarmed uncles and aunties. Police violence has also served as a nucleus to
organize various neighborhood endeavors around. For example, in an effort to combat
misinformation spread by mainstream media outlets, people have held neighborhood
screenings in public squares so people can see the footage what really happened; likewise,
the space adjacent to the information counter of New Town Mall in Sha Tin has been
transformed into a counter-information bureau, staffed by protesters who are always
available to chat with curious passersby. Meanwhile, the "Lennon Walls" that have emerged
in every district, typically around public housing estates, have become convivial sites as
well as places of deadly confrontation and murderous rage; as banal as their content often
is, it has been necessary to defend the walls of post-it notes against late-night
arsonists and knife-wielding thugs. These neighborhood initiatives are momentous and
important. They may indicate a path out of the impasses of the present, possibly
stretching into a nebulous future held in common.
This brings us to our final point regarding the question about what makes the movement
survive. One thing that surprises friends who come to visit Hong Kong from elsewhere is
the unity and unanimity of the movement, which has seen insurgents of all manner of
ideological persuasions and backgrounds working together on concrete actions rather than
squabbling over ideological niceties. Adherence to this unanimity has been almost
religious, a mantra that has been repeated ad nauseam on message boards every time a
dispute arises that could jeopardize it. The significance of this solidarity in
everybody's eyes, this consensus that keeps the mass together against the continued
efforts of the state to exploit tactical disagreements within the struggle, is summarized
in a hilariously over-the-top statement: "I won't excommunicate anybody from the struggle
even if they decide to detonate a nuclear bomb." The gulf between pacifists and
Molotov-throwing insurgents still runs deep, but these are not roles that are set in
stone. While the ranks of those at the front continue to be decimated by mass arrests,
some who were spectators a few weeks ago are moving to fill these gaps. Message boards and
Telegram channels offer circuits of communication for both sides to exchange reflections
and feedback after each episode of struggle. This is marvelous in many ways; it is
undoubtedly a formidable achievement that it has persisted for so long and will
conceivably persist for a long time yet.
At the same time, the enforcement of this unanimity obscures systemic problems in the
movement and forbids people to evaluate them, something that we will shed further light on
later in this interview. It goes without question that it is necessary to sustain popular
morale in a mass movement, that we must constantly attend to the affective climate of the
struggle, that people should encourage one another in times of tumult and despair. But
when this affirmative ambience masks an aversion to difference, divergence, and
disputation, for fear of alienating people and diminishing the turnouts to the
demonstrations, positivity begins to be indistinguishable from paranoia-and the
singularity of each person present is effectively nullified, everyone being reduced to a
body standing alongside other bodies en masse.
Graffiti reading "You have forced us to revolt, an eye for an eye, we will never be
divided, kiss your scrotum," referencing an unforgettable meme that has circulated over
the last month and a half, originating from a message board post in which a user
hilariously miswrote the character for "kick" when suggesting that we kick officers in the
balls at close range, writing "kiss" instead. The words "kick" and "kiss" are almost the
same, with only the strokes on the left side of the character being different. From a set
of photos by kjbb, ttbb, hybb of tclc.
This atmosphere makes it very difficult to conduct a critique, especially of highly
questionable phenomena such as the waving of American or colonial flags. Throughout the
struggle, the principle of liberal tolerance has been weaponized in an unprecedented
way-brothers and sisters, you have your opinions and I have mine, we all respect each
other's right to hold contrary opinions, so long as they don't threaten to create
antagonism among us. The fact that this has worked up until now is no proof that it is
healthy for the future of social struggle in Hong Kong. This sort of culture pretends to
marginalize no one while effectively marginalizing everyone, excluding everyone from
engaging with questions that could be painful, disquieting, or unsettling, that require us
to probe the depths and confront the conditions that constitute us as subjects. To do so,
we would have to go beyond the trauma of immediate events and confront a trauma of much
vaster scope-the "order" that we participate in reproducing on a continuous basis.
After all, it is this "order" that renders certain people effectively invisible. For
example, few have stopped to consider the plight of foreign domestic workers over the last
few months. Ordinarily, every Sunday, these women congregate en masse in the public
squares of major districts including Central, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok, and Yuen Long, all
of which have been swept by clashes in the recent conflicts. Not having access to the
real-time maps that are created for partisans, they are often not forewarned when these
areas are being gassed. Consequently, they are forced to move somewhere else on their only
day off.
3
This would be an unfortunate but acceptable consequence of the struggle, if only
protesters made some kind of effort to acknowledge this and communicate their sympathies
to them.
Ordinarily, the situation of domestic workers goes without notice, despite the fact that
so many families in the city employ them; hardly anyone affirms the brave, sustained
protests they organize via their independent unions against the arrangements between their
own governments, the employment agencies, and the labor department in this city. Their
active support for and perceptive understanding of local social struggles goes unremarked.
At the same time, participants in the movement against the extradition law go out of their
way to solicit the sympathy of upstanding citizens of "the free world," taking the time to
explain the plight of Hong Kong to tourists arriving at the airport.
This is currently a major blind spot in the struggle. Having been left unexamined, it
recently culminated in a grotesque and inexcusable campaign against domestic migrant
workers hanging out in the public places where clashes have taken place. Over a period of
weeks, LIHKG threads appeared asking why migrant workers were allowed to congregate and
have picnics on the street while protesters were arrested and tortured for participating
in "illegal assemblies." Their tongue-and-cheek tone did not conceal the repulsive
implications of their content. Why the double standard, these posters asked-shouldn't we
force these nonchalant, karaoke-singing aunties, enjoying themselves while protesters
feared for their skins, to understand what kind of city they were living in? Why were we
being denied the license to protest when they could have parties on the street without
ever having to submit a request to some government bureau?
All this nonsense came to a head a few days ago, when some complete idiots started pasting
stickers on public thoroughfares and bridges stating that all foreign domestic workers are
not welcome to hang out in public places without a license. These disgusting stickers
represent the tragically stunted extent to which protesters have attempted to communicate
with the sizable population of migrant workers whose plight nobody has taken the time to
contemplate and ponder-before, during, and likely after this struggle. Admittedly, those
who made and posted the stickers should not be considered representative of the movement
at large, but at the same time, they have not been openly denounced in pubic.
The "order" that characterizes daily life in this society also reproduces the noxious
sexist culture that has repeatedly reared its ugly head within the movement. Protesters
have unearthed the Instagram profiles of policewomen and called them whores that they
would like to violate; demonstrators taunt policemen by suggesting that their wives are
out banging other men while they're gassing people late at night; hot-blooded
chest-beating male protesters prevent women from standing in the frontlines, or pledge on
message boards to "defend their women" from being captured and raped by police forces.
When news of sexual abuse and possible rapes in the police stations first spread and women
on LIHKG put forward the idea of organizing women's marches, men began to panic, worrying
that maybe the women had it in their heads to march on their own without the protection of
men. This led to the ludicrous spectacle of men swearing that even if they weren't
permitted to march alongside their sisters, that they would stand behind the march in full
gear prepared to defend them to the end. That was their idea of militancy.
We don't mention all this stuff to further the proliferation of "cancel culture," which
all too often results in sanctimonious disengagement, moral soapboxing, and the
perpetuation of social stratification, none of which do anything to alter the social
relationships that we are all entangled in. Rather, we want to acknowledge the mess we're
in and the fact that this mess is far more complicated than the simplistic narrative of an
oppressed, victimized people pushed to the wall by a ruthless "communist" killing machine.
As long as examining these problems is treated as peripheral or demoralizing on the
grounds that the most pressing exigency is to vanquish the Great Beast China, we will see
little progress towards accomplishing the purported aim of this struggle, "liberating Hong
Kong."
Graffiti sprayed outside a large public toilet in central Hong Kong: "Capitalism is shit!
The Chinese Communist Party is capitalist," with an anarchist symbol. From a set of photos
by kjbb, ttbb, hybb of tclc.
When we communicated in June, you described an inchoate new social momentum, a sort of
headless nationalist populism arising from the failures of past pacifist, democratic, and
parliamentarian movements. Have new leaders, new narratives, new internal structures of
control emerged yet? Have new frameworks or horizons opened up for what people could fight
for or imagine beyond national sovereignty?
No, things haven't changed in a dramatic way since the last time we spoke. The general
understanding is that those who take part in the movement have to speak in a unanimous,
collective, and consensual voice, as opposed to a multiplicity of different, possibly
dissensual ones.
In Telegram groups and message boards, one encounters the occasional voice calling for
Hong Kong's independence; while one cannot escape the sense that this desire is tacitly
held by a good many participants in the struggle, they are often shouted down, for fear
that the movement will lose sight of its immediate agenda (the five demands) and out of a
general wariness of the dangers attendant to articulating this desire-as establishment
politicians have repeatedly asserted that this struggle is not really "about" the five
demands but is actually a "color revolution" organized by foreign powers and separatists,
and the Chinese press have repeatedly reiterated this narrative. In addition, there is the
fact that for many who continue to cross the border for work or other personal reasons,
the independence of Hong Kong would not be a welcome development. There are a lot of
people who simply want to see the "one country, two systems" stipulation that was outlined
in the Basic Law observed and enforced.
For the benefit of foreign friends who are unfamiliar with the political and cultural
climate here, we have to emphasize that-at least in our estimation-rumors about the
impending demise of liberalism as a political culture are unfounded, at least as far as
Hong Kong is concerned. We would go so far as to suggest that the logic of liberalism,
understood as a form of intuitive "common sense," may be stronger here than anywhere else
in the world. Much of this has to do with the context that we elaborated upon in our
previous interview, with the fact that this city was built by refugees from communist
China. The following anecdote illuminates the ways in which this condition is not simply
endemic to Hong Kong, but is shared with kin on the mainland as well.
At a panel on the subject of art and politics that took place a few years ago, one of us
participated in a discussion with a dear friend from a certain punk rock capital in China,
where resistance against gentrification and the construction of "ecological theme parks"
is ongoing. Talking late into the night afterwards, over drinks and blunts, that friend
began to expound upon the difficulties of speaking about anarchy in China. As Mao made so
eloquently clear in his red notebooks and essays, the Communist Party is the anarchic
force, the "constituent power" that transcends and enforces the arche as it sees fit,
instituting a perpetual state of emergency for the sake of the revolution; consequently,
quotidian life in China is "anarchic" on a mundane level. That is to say-when comrades in
the West speak of "use" (in the sense in which Agamben employs the term in The Use Of
Bodies) in reference to occupying plazas, throwing parties on the streets, and so on, this
term loses its meaning in China when such "use" of roads and public thoroughfares in
various parts of the country is an everyday occurrence, there being no established
protocols that distinguish the proper use of "public space" from an exceptional use.
Chinese police have the license to operate entirely outside their professional remit,
behaving in ways that would be unfathomable anywhere else. For example, until recently,
our friends in the aforementioned district of China ran a common space that held cultural
events open to the villagers that live around the area. This space was open to all comers,
its doors being unlocked at all times; drifters and vagrants would stumble in, often
staying for days or weeks. This also meant that plainclothes policemen would come to the
space when they were "off duty," offering gifts of American cigarettes, alcohol, and car
rides into town, buddying up to the inhabitants of the space while making it clear that
the police were very much aware of the fact that the participants were opposed to
gentrification in the area. "We're friends-you wouldn't mess around and ruin our
friendship, would you?" The same policemen were doing this with villagers in the area,
inviting themselves to tea at villagers' houses and lavishing them with gifts while gently
reminding them that visiting the space up the hill was very much discouraged, that they
could become persona non grata if they mingled with the folks living there. A horrific
situation, to be sure. In such conditions, in which everybody is compelled to live in a
permanent state of exception, enmeshed in elaborate networks of formal and informal
surveillance, our friend told us that to many people, liberalism-the rule of law, a rule
that would enforce private property, proper boundaries that they imagine would safeguard
the individual from state powers-appeared to be the most radical thing that there was.
When friends ask us why "anti-capitalist" discourse and rhetoric seem so outlandish to
people in Hong Kong, we must answer that this is very much a matter of context and
circumstance. For Hong Kongers, capitalism represents enterprise, initiative, and
self-reliance, which they juxtapose with the corrupt nepotism of the party and the big
Hong Kong tycoons and politicos who ingratiate themselves into the company of this cartel.
Beyond "capitalism," however, we find the sacredness of the law, which remains the
transcendent horizon beyond which social struggle has yet to cross. Yes, everybody across
the world continues to bear witness to the feats of heroism that black shirts take part in
every day-reducing the façades and machines of subway stations to rubble, devastating
police stations, and the like-but there is still a latent belief that this is all done on
behalf of preserving the rule of law and the institutions that specific personnel have
betrayed.
Seen in this light, all these acts of illegality can be apprehended as a means of
reminding the authorities that the "mandate of heaven" has been withdrawn from them. While
it might seem "mythological" to utilize an archaic conceit to describe current events, as
if we were speaking about a "collective millenarian Chinese unconscious" that has
persisted from the ancient dynasties up to the present, it remains apposite, because
everything leads us to believe that we continue to live in mythical times. How else can we
explain the continual appeals to the courtiers of the "international community," utilizing
the international mass media as a tribunal through which we hope to gain an audience with
the emperor-i.e., the United States? There remains the faith that at a higher court of
appeal, the criminality of the rogue states that govern us can be brought to justice and
punished, in the name of elemental, natural rights that have been violated in the full
light of day. Somewhere, we believe, even if only in the hearts of decent, right-thinking
people everywhere, there is a sense of solidarity with this primordial and transcendent
law, and justice will be done, justice will descend from the skies.
It's all depressingly Kantian, actually. The failings of the local police do nothing to
discredit the Idea of the Police, who will arrive on some messianic day.
So the question the movement has posed itself seems to be this: what would it take for us
to put together a case that would compel the Police to action? How do we convince the
magistrates that this crisis has to be at the head of their list of priorities? Here we
are, gathering and archiving evidence with our very bodies, amassing recriminations and
grievances from all quarters in our inquest into a failed state, soliciting influencers
everywhere to speak on our behalf, in the hope that all this blood will be redeemed by
prosecution and legitimate retribution. When civil disobedience escalates into property
damage, street fights, airport occupations, and general strikes only to meet with state
indifference, then the popular imagination begins to conceive of ways to precipitate the
ultimate catastrophe, the arrival of the People's Liberation Army into Hong Kong, an event
that many anticipate would be the catalyst for international intervention. Surely the
Police wouldn't ignore us then?
This is the apocalyptic disaster theory that is beginning to circulate on LIHKG and
elsewhere, the embrace of "common collapse," a "let's all burn together" fantasy in which
protesters imagine the city being swallowed up in the abyss, awaiting international
sanctions on a Communist Party gone amok. In this hypothetical scenario, as a consequence
of the unrest in Hong Kong spreading into the mainland like some sort of variant of the
Arab Spring, China-reeling from the pressure of tightening international trade
embargoes-balkanizes and fractures into a multiplicity of territories, each formally and
juridically independent (such as Fujian, Wuhan, Xinjiang) alongside a democratic Hong
Kong, which might form a state with Guangzhou.
Graffiti at the back of an MTR station entrance: "party railway." The word "party," as in
Communist Party, rhymes with "Hong Kong" in Cantonese, and the MTR is popularly referred
to as the "Hong Kong railway." Also seen is a graffito reading "I love the burning
together strategy." What makes this latter tag hilarious is the fact that the original
writer mis-wrote the character for "burn." His tag was subsequently corrected by somebody
else, and the original writer appended an apology at the bottom of the corrected
character. From a set of photos by kjbb, ttbb, hybb of tclc.
While the consequences of such a development are left unexplored-for example, the fact
that these "autonomous" territories would be lorded over by party apparatchiks all the
same-this speculative perspective is welcome on one level. If nothing else, it represents
an effort to come to terms with a future that could be completely different from the one
that we have been habitually accustomed to in times of affluence-a future in which our
internet could be shut off, in which we would have to work collectively to secure food,
water and electricity, such questions being imperative as the world continues to fall to
pieces and ecological disaster looms ominously on the horizon.
For others, the imagined catastrophe is seen as a means by which to restore Hong Kong's
rightful place among the foremost cities of the world, something that is indicated in the
most popular slogan of the struggle: "Restore Hong Kong to glory, revolution of our
times." The "glory" referenced in the slogan is a fantasy of prelapsarian purity-the Hong
Kong of hard work, the individual initiative of the honest, entrepreneurial common man,
whose life is unsullied by the machinations of big politics.
While it's fine to hypothesize about a situation of common ruin, why can't we also think
about how to create the material basis for everyone to thrive and flourish together? And
what could this "together" mean, who does it encompass, when everyone we customarily
exclude from the picture-ethnic minorities and their second-generation offspring, domestic
migrant workers, new migrants from China, and mainlanders who await the right of abode-is
implicated in the future of the city? Why do we believe that these questions should be
deferred until a government is elected to address them, when there are so many instances
of autonomy in this struggle that could serve as premises upon which to develop these
conversations right now?
This sign presumably references the quote attributed to Paul Revere, "The British are
coming," at the opening of the American Revolution. It is supremely ironic that people in
Hong Kong, itself a former British colony, would appeal to the successors of the British
Empire for aid-fleeing from one oppressive empire into the arms of another.
Almost three months into the unrest, what are the goals and strategies-avowed or
implicit-of different currents within the movement?
As we mentioned above, the tacit intention of the struggle at this point in time is to
find the means to escalate the situation until that the "global community" is compelled to
intervene. Maintaining mass mobilizations and creating affecting viral spectacles that can
be disseminated on international networks-such as the "human chains" of protesters holding
hands on sidewalks and, more recently, outside secondary schools during the student
strikes-keeps the struggle at the forefront of public attention. More immediately,
continued insubordination in the subway, in busy commercial areas, and at sites such as
the airport-including protesters finding novel ways to shut down traffic going towards the
airport without violating the letter of the law-is thought to have discernible effects on
the economy, tourist traffic, foreign investment, and the like. Meanwhile,
counter-surveillance measures have become customary practices, including felling the
RFID-equipped "smart lamp posts" installed in several neighborhoods and spraying or
dismantling CCTV cameras before big demonstrations.
All this points to an intuitive understanding of a reality that the blog Dialectical
Delinquents has outlined very well over a number of years (and we thank them for their
continued painstaking efforts to sketch the rapidly emerging contours of this reality):
Hong Kong is poised at the forefront of a struggle against the Sinification of the world.
That is, it appears to us that, with neoliberalism dying a drawn-out, protracted death
under the weight of mass revolts that all advocate secession from neoliberal global
arrangements, the Chinese variant of the authoritarian surveillance state, complete with a
panoply of carceral camps and quasi-legal institutions, is the only means by which the
world as we know it can be held together by coercive force. We are not the only ones who
perceive this; not so long ago, Dialectical Delinquents featured an interview with a
Huawei executive that is illuminating in its frankness.
4
As we described in our previous interview, Xinjiang is at the back of everyone's minds,
and the horror of Xinjiang, coupled with the rapid introduction of surveillance
apparatuses across the city, gives the struggle a pronounced apocalyptic flavor: it is
reiterated time and again that if we do not win, we will find ourselves in internment
camps. We are in general agreement with this, but it is imperative that we recognize that
we are waging the same "hand to hand fight"[Agamben, What Is An Apparatus?]against these
apparatuses as countless other insurgents across the world-that China is not the great
Satan that "the free world" can deliver us from, the Antichrist that we have to slay at
all costs, but a shadow from the future, a shadow looming over a disintegrating planet.
It goes without saying that China serves as a welcome distraction for Western audiences as
well, offering Western governments the opportunity to decry Chinese excesses in order to
parade their commitment to "human rights" while killing and jailing their own populations.
Let's talk about the tensions and contradictions internal to the movement. Outside Hong
Kong, we have heard a lot about protesters displaying the British flag, singing the
Star-Spangled Banner, sharing Pepe the frog memes, and employing other symbols of Western
nationalism. How visible has this been on the ground inside the movement? Has there been
pushback?
We are sure that many of you will have seen images of the action that took place a week
ago in which people congregated in full black bloc regalia outside the American embassy,
waving American flags, singing the American national anthem, and exhorting the White House
to pass an act on Hong Kong as promptly as possible. This led us to make the tragicomic
observation that Hong Kong might be the only place in the world where the black bloc
carries American flags.
5
Dangerous idiocy.
Many "flag-bearers" are dismissive of the critiques directed their way; this characterizes
those who support the continued appeals to the White House in general. When a comrade from
the US came to visit us recently, he approached the flag-bearers and made no secret of his
contempt for his own government. "Fuck The USA!" was his pithy opening remark, before he
elaborated upon the murders perpetrated daily by the American state machine. This exchange
was captured by a student press and circulated on Facebook for a few hours, engendering
discussion and debate. Many of the comments were revealing: they dismissed our American
comrade as the "American variant of left plastic"[an insulting term for old-fashioned
leftists explained in our previous interview]and accused him of being an ignoramus. "Do
you really think we are American patriots? We are just being practical, enlisting the help
of somebody who can really help us!" They insisted that singing the American anthem,
waving the American flag, and publicly declaring how much they admire the American way of
life are just calculated appeals to the powerful sentimentality of actual American
patriots. (Some such patriots have made the trip to Hong Kong, such as fascist organizer
Joey Gibson, who had a blast taking selfies with unsuspecting protesters only too glad to
applaud a hot-blooded flag-waving American who appeared friendly to the cause.)
The flag-bearers claim that those who criticize the flag-waving are naïve: they don't know
that the message that they are sending is a double-coded one. On the anniversary of
September 11, some called for a city-wide cessation of protest activity in commemoration
of those who lost their lives on 9/11-yet another shrewd move aimed at winning American
sympathy. As clever as these play-actors think they are with their cunning grasp of
realpolitik, the joke is on them-and, ultimately, on us if we fail to shatter this ongoing
fascination with the sham tug-of-war between the "great powers" of the world.
Many friends from the West have asked us repeatedly whether this sentiment is shared by a
vast proportion of the struggle, or whether this fixation with the West is a fringe
phenomenon. Let's put it this way: at the present moment, anything that bears any relation
to China is fair game for defacement and desecration-the government insignia is destroyed,
flags are torn off of poles and thrown in the water, the premises of banks and even
insurance companies that bear the name "China" are covered in tags, the shutters of "China
Life Insurance" recently having been tagged with "I Don't Want A Chinazi Life." If a
storefront bearing visible American iconography were attacked in the same way (say, by
us), we fear that we would likely be stopped.
We should also add that of late it is not simply American flags that are seen at protests,
but the flags of other "friendly" members of the G20 as well-Canada, Germany, France,
Japan, the UK, and the like-with the flag of the Ukraine also making an unfortunate
appearance last week, presumably because screenings of "Winter On Fire" have been taking
place in public squares and the public has little knowledge of what that documentary
conveniently omits.
Meanwhile, there have been continued campaigns urging the United Kingdom to assume
responsibility for the foundlings it left behind by issuing BNO (British National
Overseas) passports to Hong Kong citizens once more. Though this passport does not grant
its holder the right of abode in the UK, nor guarantee consular protection, for some it
seems to embody the hope of escape from a city that many are beginning to regard as a
death trap. "I'd rather be a second- or third-class citizen in a Western country than be
thrown in a thought correction camp," someone commented weeks ago on a message board thread.
Seen in this light, the waving of Western flags seems less like a deft act of strategic
cunning and more like a desperate and pious plea for an almighty deliverer. This is a
deadly mixture of fear and naïveté-the two feeding off and compounding each other-that we
are making efforts to combat. Our American friends recently gave us a marvelous slogan
that we hope to spread everywhere: "Chinazi & Amerikkka: Two Countries, One System."
Which institutions and mythologies have lost legitimacy in the public eye in the course of
the unrest? Which have retained or gained legitimacy? Can you describe the success or
failure of efforts to critique these institutions and mythologies, or at least to open up
dialogue about them?
As we described in the previous interview, for many years, it was believed that there were
two paths in social struggle: pacifist, civic, and genteel protests accessible to
housewives, the elderly, and others who could not hazard the risk of arrest, and
bellicose, confrontational participation in the frontlines, employing various kind of
direct action. These two paths persist, but what is unprecedented in the current situation
is that both are illegal: the government rejects applications for protests and every
assembly is de facto prohibited, however innocuous it may be. Simply being physically
present at or near the scene of an illegal assembly already constitutes grounds for arrest
and detention. When you are sitting on the subway train or the bus home, you never know
whether riot squads will storm the vehicle and proceed to beat the life out of everyone on
board, whether vigilantes have tipped you off to the cops or are following you home,
whether the triads will be out in force where you live late at night. Partisanship renders
you into a body that can be maimed, tortured and-it appears-killed by those whose acts are
authorized in the name of "order." As the guardians of order make clear, we are
"cockroaches," pests to be exterminated and disposed of so that business can proceed as usual.
In addition, professing sympathy for the struggle could very well leave you unemployed if
you work for a company that has longstanding ties with the Chinese market. Consider the
high-profile case of Cathay Pacific, the upper management of which demanded a list of
members of a union that had participated in the movement or helped to leak flight
information of the police; this company is carrying out a thoroughgoing purge of partisans
among their staff, directed by careerist snitches among the crew.
Teachers at school who tutored you in algebra just a few months ago could aid in your
arrest; principals and heads of departments stand idly by as riot squads seize you and
your friends outside your school building. This is the reality that protesters are
becoming rapidly habituated to. As a consequence, networks of mutual assistance have
rapidly formed to address the situation, offering employment, shelter, transport, and
meals to those in need.
In short: the future, as a horizon of foreseeable advancement, an itinerary of fulfillable
and forestalled plans and projections, has collapsed, and we are left consulting, moment
by moment, the live maps drawn in real time by volunteer cartographers, telling us which
stations to avoid, which roads to take a detour around, which neighborhoods are presently
being gassed. Daily life itself becomes a series of tactical maneuvers, everyone having to
exercise caution about what they say at lunch in cafés and canteens lest they are
overheard and reported, experimenting with different ways to ride the subways for free
without being too obvious about it, inventing codes to use on instant messaging or social
media that evade quick decryption. It is quite extraordinary that so many are willing to
forego the craven comforts and conveniences of the metropolis, the enjoyment of anonymity
as they go about their business. It is necessary to find and maintain clandestinity in
other ways.
It is impossible to deny that through it all, a sense of invention and adventure saturates
the minutiae of our waking lives.
Grafitti urging people to dodge subway fares in Sheung Wan. From a set of photos by kjbb,
ttbb, hybb of tclc.
What would it take for the unrest to spread to mainland China-if not in this movement, in
some future sequel to it? Or do the premises of the movement itself render that impossible?
For one, it would require us to confront the sobering fact that Hong Kong is beholden to
China for much of our food and water. This alone should make it evident that any
successful revolt here must necessarily involve active support from comrades in the
regions that surround Hong Kong. This practical imperative would more readily find an
audience here than abstract arguments, as Hong Kongers notoriously exhibit little patience
for discussions about ideology.
Here we should note that this point is a contentious one; several in our collective
suggest that this dependence is a point of intense resentment for many in Hong Kong,
particularly as it is a consequence of nefarious political arrangements that have seen the
gradual decimation of much of Hong Kong's agricultural land in the northeast territories,
which was cleared to make way for private residential compounds that are often subject to
foreign (and mainland) speculation, as well as the grotesque water import deal that we
have with Guangdong. That is-this dependence merely reinforces the ardor for independence
and sovereignty rather than attenuates it.
Another necessary step would be to let go of the fantasy that Hong Kong is exceptional,
the way people imagine the city as a world-class liberal entrepôt populated with
free-minded, liberty-loving cosmopolitans, in contrast to the bootlicking, crass, and
brainwashed peasants up north. Trite as it may sound, we have to empty "Hong Kong
identity" of any positive content-all of its pretensions of civilization, urbanity, and
enlightenment-in order to make way for the consummate negativity of proletarian revolt,
which can cut decisively through the divisive brouhaha generated by governments on both
sides of the border. It has to be said that whenever there has been an upheaval or report
of a "mass incident" in China during this struggle, people have paid close attention.
Many have also explored inventive avenues for "smuggling" information to mainlanders, even
going so far as to edit porn videos on Chinese adult sites, substituting footage of police
brutality in Hong Kong for the money shots. This reminds us of our favorite ancient
Chinese rebellions, in which contraband information circulated through parchment hidden in
buns and pastries.
As we mentioned above, there are those who volubly advocate "independence" and "autonomy"
for each region in China, the balkanization of the country following the collapse of the
Communist party (the latter being the priority, the former being regarded as simply a
favorable consequence). Yet for others a more plausible eventuality, considering how folks
over the border are often imagined as lost sheep watched over by an almighty shepherd, is
the hope that Hong Kong's sovereignty will be backed up by the threat of international
military force, its border policed so that our destiny is decoupled from that of the Chinese.
Dismantling this ideological matrix and undermining the bases of Hong Kong cultural
identity in favor of dangerous cross-border work is deeply unpleasant and unpopular work.
Truth be told, few of us know how to go about doing it on a significant scale, especially
since all the information channels on the Mainland are subject to comprehensive controls.
Our friends on the mainland have made extensive efforts to disseminate information
regarding this struggle on message boards and social media, but this information is often
swiftly removed and their accounts are quickly banned.
You can imagine how daunting this task is, the difficulty being magnified by its
urgency-especially now that crowds are beginning to form choruses to sing a newly-penned
"Hong Kong national anthem" in public spaces.
Funny graffiti that juxtaposes old-school eloquence with vulgarity: "In this day and age,
morality has been cast to the dogs, the people have been compelled to revolt, fuck your
mother." This last phrase is the most commonly used swear word in Cantonese. From a set of
photos by kjbb, ttbb, hybb of tclc.
Give us a rundown on the tactical and technical innovations that have occurred over the
past months and what they have enabled participants to do that was previously impossible.
Imagine that you are addressing people who will be in a similar situation to yours at some
point in the future.
Years from now, we will continue to look back and marvel at all the incredible things that
emerged in response to the concrete problems that insurgents have faced over the course of
the past three months.
In response to teenagers having no homes to return to because they were practically
"disowned" by their parents for attending demonstrations and remaining on the streets when
states of emergency were declared, people created a network of open apartments to which
young partisans could retreat and stay temporarily. In response to minibuses, buses, and
subway trains no longer being safe for escaping protesters, carpool networks were formed
via Telegram to "pick kids up from school." We encountered elderly drivers who didn't even
know how to operate Telegram, but who drove repeatedly around the "hot spots" reported by
the radio news, watching for running protesters who needed a quick ride out of danger.
In response to young people not having any work or enough money to buy food at the front
lines, working people prepared supplies of supermarket and restaurant coupons and handed
these out to people in gear before large-scale confrontations. This remarkable fact is
often used by conservatives to suggest that foreign powers are behind this "color
revolution," because... where did all the money for these coupons come from? There has to
be somebody bankrolling this! They cannot fathom that any worker would be willing to reach
into his own pockets in order to help a person that he does not know.
In response to the suffering, trauma, and sleeplessness induced by long-term exposure to
tear gas and police violence, whether experienced first-hand or via graphic live feeds,
support networks appeared offering counsel and care. In response to kids not having enough
time to do their homework because they are out on the streets all night, Telegram channels
appeared offering free tutoring services. In response to students "not being able to have
an education" because they were on strike, people organized seminars on all manner of
political subjects at schools that were sympathetic to the cause and also in public spaces.
Meanwhile, people have started chat rooms on Telegram to discuss subjects that protesters
may be curious about; we are in the process of starting one ourselves. The subject matter
might be technical (how to take a subway ticket machine apart, how to pass through a
turnstile without paying), it might be historical (we recently saw one about the French
Revolution), it might be spiritual, or about self-defense and martial arts.
All of these efforts are breathtaking in their breadth and efficiency. Affinity groups
form to make Molotovs and test them out in forests. Others develop friendships and trust
playing war games in the woods, setting up simulations of crossfire with the police.
Impromptu martial arts dojos are held in parks and rooftops. Say what you want about
people in this city, they are extraordinary at solving practical problems with minimal fuss.
This struggle has played a pedagogical role for everyone who has participated in it. It is
a phenomenological pedagogy in which the city that we inhabit has acquired an entirely new
significance through the process of the struggle-every aspect of every city has taken on a
deep tactical significance. You have to know which areas are frequented by triads; every
bend in the road and cul-de-sac could make a difference in whether you come out of a
demonstration in one piece. Over the last few months, we have found ourselves in
neighborhoods that are foreign to us, but even the neighborhoods we have grown up in all
our lives become strange to us when we are fleeing from rushing riot squads or perusing
message board threads full of stories shared by those who, thanks to their employment or
background, are intimately acquainted with aspects of the city that we could never access
on our own. Couple this with the extraordinary real-time maps drawn by teams to indicate
zones of danger and avenues of escape and you begin to grasp how the last three months
have been an accelerated psychogeographic and cartographic tour of our city, the value of
which is inestimable both for this struggle and those to come.
Of course, at the end of the day, it isn't simply about those on the streets; there are
many, even in our own collective, who prefer for various reasons not to be where street
fights take place. The monumental contributions of those who draw maps and supply
real-time information off-site, tirelessly verifying the accuracy of the data that
continually streams in from a multiplicity of channels, have been instrumental in ensuring
the safety of partisans and the elimination of false news (certain accounts on message
boards continuously spread false information on a regular basis, the purpose of which
remains unknown). It's also meaningful that people take the time, after exhausting street
combat, to collectively debate the finer points of tactics on Telegram channels and
message boards, openly and in a comradely spirit. This is what makes it possible to
accomplish each projected initiative-be it shutting down a subway line, a highway to the
airport, or the airport itself-even if, as in the case of the subway line, early attempts
are tentative and unsuccessful. The will to accomplish objectives must be coupled with the
collective determination to create the informational infrastructure to make it happen.
What can people outside Hong Kong do to support arrestees and prisoners in this
movement-specifically anti-authoritarian ones? Are there other things you would like to
see people elsewhere in the world do to support you?
In the coming days, we will disclose information about a global solidarity action that we
are coordinating with some friends overseas. Watch this space!
Also, it would be extremely helpful if you would publish your own literature about the
state of affairs that we are all facing, at this historical moment, in regard to China and
the continuing development of surveillance technologies around the world. We cannot allow
the narrative of this struggle to revolve simply around self-righteous denunciations of
the Communist Party. The party is absolutely worthy of our contempt, but we must not
imagine that the evil of this world is concentrated in China, we cannot allow this
farcical facsimile of the Cold War with its laughable division between the upstanding
citizens of the "free world" and the sentinels of 1984 to divert us from the demands of
our time and the project of hastening the ruin of everything that continues to separate us
from the life that awaits us.
Spread the spirit of proletarian mockery. Let us laugh in every language we know!
For a struggle against nationalism, capitalism, and the state in all their forms.
Notes
A sponge grenade is like a rubber bullet, except about twenty times larger and tipped with
styrofoam sponge instead of rubber. ?
Triads are gang members involved in the racketeering organizations that have a long
history in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Their genealogy stretches all the way back to the
secret societies that opposed the Qing Dynasty during the imperial period, a case study in
how revolutionary organizations are recuperated. ?
By Hong Kong law, employers are only required to give their helpers one day off a week and
many find ways to contravene this law. ?
You can consult the interview here, along with many more examples of China's extensive
networks of control that the curator has collected over years of painstaking research. ?
Editor's note: Sadly, this is not true. In Germany, the origin point of black bloc
tactics, "anti-Deutsch" left radicals have long been famous for marching with American
flags, often in black bloc formations. The stupidity of seeking salvation from one empire
in the arms of another knows no borders-and militancy alone is no proof against it. ?
https://www.facebook.com/ANARKISTAN/posts/1092782770916065
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