The speech of the Limits are us initiative, which was delivered on
Strelecky Island during the Anarchist May Day ---- It is a sign of irony
that on Labor Day it is necessary to remember that it is labor in
capitalism that is destroying our world. Just as labor movements had to
fight for the eight-hour working day, we are at a stage in the class
struggle where we have to fight for non-growth and the right to be idle,
not just for the moral side of the matter, but for nothing less than the
survival of humanity.
The public climate debate has shifted over several decades: in the 1960s
oil companies kept global warming from fossil fuels a secret, today we
read on Shell's website how it invests in renewable energy (what we
don't know is that last year it invested millions of dollars in mining
new oil and gas). Green capitalism not only does not solve social
problems (people will simply remain exploited), but above all we see
that the concept of endless growth does not go hand in hand with true
sustainability. It is as if benevolent and generous "billionaire
communists" give large and even sincere handouts to the poor, while
their business causes poverty and misery to exist. Even capitalism with
a human and would-be green face kills and we don't forget.
Environmental destruction is not a matter of the future - it is
happening right now, and it is primarily the countries of the Global
South that are feeling it the most at this very moment. At the same
time, we are also beginning to feel it on our own skin - the recent
April 30s and the subsequent frosts destroying the vegetation that
bloomed too soon are just one of the many symptoms of the environmental
collapse caused by the growth dogma of industrial capitalism. Thus, the
idea of economic growth does not kill directly: apart from state
totalitarians such as Russia or China, there is not a single capitalist
leader who would order who to lock up in the gulag. The rich don't sit
around a table and think about who they're going to execute today.
Therein lies the greatest danger of liberalism: who exactly is
responsible for the environmental collapse, and how will it be known?
The richest 1% cause most of the emissions just by their lifestyle, but
all of us involuntarily participate in the creation of GDP with our
work, including the caring and useful professions that are central to
its creation. Many of us have no choice: under capitalism, idleness is a
matter of class privilege, not a fundamental right. In short, we are
forced to contribute to the destruction of the world, we are slaves to
economic growth.
It is put into our heads that work itself is a valuable and respectable
matter. That's why entrepreneurs are celebrated so much: after all, they
certainly "worked hard" and we too can do business and do "something
useful". Anyone who does not work is, after all, a parasite of society,
in short, a bad and despicable person whom we can leave lying in a ditch
with a calm heart. Maybe we take a little pity and give him a pittance
when he promises to so-called integrate into society - in other words,
to produce GDP.
In Limity, we have been promoting energy democratization in a
non-hierarchical way for a long time. We know that only community-based
energy management, where structures for consensus (and structures for
laziness) are in place, can ensure that the logic of oppression is
demolished and thus create a just world where everyone's needs and
voices are heard. As Freire writes in his famous publication Pedagogy of
the Oppressed: people must share their oppression and life experience
with others in order to make a successful revolution. Thus, collective
energy management should not be just "some kind of cooperative", but
assumes the whole variety of community life and non-hierarchical
organization. It is not enough to subsidize people's solar panels, nor
is it enough to nationalize energy companies, although these are good
steps. As long as people are economically unfree-having to sell their
time in this world, their energy, and their bodies in exchange for
survival without the right to do nothing-they will never have the
capacity to create complex communities. It will never be a truly just
green transition because we will all just work ourselves to death. On
the other hand, until people have a space to share their lives and
instead are educated in the current school system that socializes
children into a subordinate position, then no one will know how to
actually create and support such communities and how to be lazy at all.
It's a vicious cycle.
These are all questions for a longer debate, this is not meant to be a
lecture. These problems are not clarified in Limits, and that's okay.
Revolutionary struggle must be full of experimentation, trying different
things, and playing. Even revolution is supposed to be fun and idle!
There are countless ways to show resistance, just don't be afraid of
imagination and give free rein to creative thinking. Singing a song at
the headquarters of EPH Kretínské about paying taxes or organizing a
weekly climate camp full of lectures, resting on the roof of the Coke
Plant, taking a nap in the pre-trial detention cell... All this is only
the tip of the entire iceberg of resistance that we can experience
together. Let's break down environmental oppression and have fun and
hang out!
Environmental activism is a necessity for human survival, but why not
have fun and take a nap? Let's create resistance, solidarity and fun,
not capital for the richest!
-------------------------------------------------- --
A1M: Speech Deconstruction
Transcript of the speech that was given during the Anarchist May Day on
Strelecky Island
First of all, I would like to thank everyone very much for being here.
Either to the organizers, who make this event possible at all, or to the
people who came here just to see, listen to speeches, protest or chat
with like-minded cooperatives. Thank you for caring that you don't care.
But why are we here? Why am I here as a member of the Deconstruction
collective? I don't care about the Palestinian population subject to
genocide, the Ukrainian men and women whose hard struggle protecting
Europe from Russian aggression is slowly being forgotten, or the
millions of people who don't have a roof over their heads...
Thousands, millions of people are facing enormous problems, but that
does not remove the problems and inequalities that we face every day. Is
it possible to come to terms with the fact that while we can't afford
rent in an ordinary housing estate, the rich are getting richer and richer?
Is it possible to accept that I, a queer person, can be rejected for a
job just because of my identity? I do not think. According to the
survey, roughly a fifth of queer citizens of the Czech Republic face
discrimination in the workplace. But what about trans* people going
through transition who can't get jobs, especially in smaller districts,
because people in society still take us for the big scarecrow they warn
their children and colleagues about?
Although it may seem that we are safe and that everything is relatively
cool with work, we must not slack off. Let's unite and fight together
for equality at work, for fair wages and for tolerance. Connect with
your comradery and co-op from work and fight for your rights! For the
rights of their queer co-workers, for women who still receive
percentage-wise lower salaries than men in the same positions, or for
the rights of people with disabilities, for whom most positions are not
even accessible.
But the capitalist empire can't be brought down in a day, and it
certainly won't be brought down if we don't stand up to the queerphobes,
misogynists, ableists, and grumpy bosses who want us to work more than
we're paid for. So let's come together, in solidarity, to help each
other take small but significant steps towards our liberation. Ask your
boss for a higher salary tomorrow, argue with the queerphobe who
prevents you or your colleagues from being yourself, and in a week come
show all the exploiters that they have no power over you!
And finally, to raise the collective spirit, I would like to read you a
poem by the important Czech proletarian poet Jirí Wolker. Its title is
"Photography".
At Topic in the display case
between books and paintings
hanging photos.
The book is made of paper, although the most beautiful life dreams in it,
the picture is of the canvas when life best displays,
but every this photo
he lives a terribly real life:
Hunger in Russia! Hunger in Russia!
A province of graveyards built of ice and winter,
piles of dead children with bloated bellies,
mouth twisted, hands clenched in pincers,
those who starved to death, - those who will die again,
and saddest of all that call man-eaters,
who, after all, are only a cross between the ice,
just a desperate cross, living mounds,
who buried their brothers in the coffins of their stomachs.
These are not shop window photos,
by the hands of thousands, thousands
it stretched all the way across Europe to here
to a crowded Prague street,
that under the fingers of misery and sorrow
the bloody mouth of capital stood out doubly.
Comrades who wheel the closet that
you go to work
comrades who in their hearts
you starve your brothers to death
etch those images of misery and ruin
in the porcelain plates of restaurants and bars,
for champagne corks, for dinner tickets
paste the photos!
That everyone who feasts here today and drinks,
on every plate, on every glass
he had to come across corpses screaming:
People Eater! People Eater!
Thanks.
https://www.afed.cz/text/8171/a1m-proslov-limitu
https://www.afed.cz/text/8170/a1m-proslov-dekonstrukce
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Strelecky Island during the Anarchist May Day ---- It is a sign of irony
that on Labor Day it is necessary to remember that it is labor in
capitalism that is destroying our world. Just as labor movements had to
fight for the eight-hour working day, we are at a stage in the class
struggle where we have to fight for non-growth and the right to be idle,
not just for the moral side of the matter, but for nothing less than the
survival of humanity.
The public climate debate has shifted over several decades: in the 1960s
oil companies kept global warming from fossil fuels a secret, today we
read on Shell's website how it invests in renewable energy (what we
don't know is that last year it invested millions of dollars in mining
new oil and gas). Green capitalism not only does not solve social
problems (people will simply remain exploited), but above all we see
that the concept of endless growth does not go hand in hand with true
sustainability. It is as if benevolent and generous "billionaire
communists" give large and even sincere handouts to the poor, while
their business causes poverty and misery to exist. Even capitalism with
a human and would-be green face kills and we don't forget.
Environmental destruction is not a matter of the future - it is
happening right now, and it is primarily the countries of the Global
South that are feeling it the most at this very moment. At the same
time, we are also beginning to feel it on our own skin - the recent
April 30s and the subsequent frosts destroying the vegetation that
bloomed too soon are just one of the many symptoms of the environmental
collapse caused by the growth dogma of industrial capitalism. Thus, the
idea of economic growth does not kill directly: apart from state
totalitarians such as Russia or China, there is not a single capitalist
leader who would order who to lock up in the gulag. The rich don't sit
around a table and think about who they're going to execute today.
Therein lies the greatest danger of liberalism: who exactly is
responsible for the environmental collapse, and how will it be known?
The richest 1% cause most of the emissions just by their lifestyle, but
all of us involuntarily participate in the creation of GDP with our
work, including the caring and useful professions that are central to
its creation. Many of us have no choice: under capitalism, idleness is a
matter of class privilege, not a fundamental right. In short, we are
forced to contribute to the destruction of the world, we are slaves to
economic growth.
It is put into our heads that work itself is a valuable and respectable
matter. That's why entrepreneurs are celebrated so much: after all, they
certainly "worked hard" and we too can do business and do "something
useful". Anyone who does not work is, after all, a parasite of society,
in short, a bad and despicable person whom we can leave lying in a ditch
with a calm heart. Maybe we take a little pity and give him a pittance
when he promises to so-called integrate into society - in other words,
to produce GDP.
In Limity, we have been promoting energy democratization in a
non-hierarchical way for a long time. We know that only community-based
energy management, where structures for consensus (and structures for
laziness) are in place, can ensure that the logic of oppression is
demolished and thus create a just world where everyone's needs and
voices are heard. As Freire writes in his famous publication Pedagogy of
the Oppressed: people must share their oppression and life experience
with others in order to make a successful revolution. Thus, collective
energy management should not be just "some kind of cooperative", but
assumes the whole variety of community life and non-hierarchical
organization. It is not enough to subsidize people's solar panels, nor
is it enough to nationalize energy companies, although these are good
steps. As long as people are economically unfree-having to sell their
time in this world, their energy, and their bodies in exchange for
survival without the right to do nothing-they will never have the
capacity to create complex communities. It will never be a truly just
green transition because we will all just work ourselves to death. On
the other hand, until people have a space to share their lives and
instead are educated in the current school system that socializes
children into a subordinate position, then no one will know how to
actually create and support such communities and how to be lazy at all.
It's a vicious cycle.
These are all questions for a longer debate, this is not meant to be a
lecture. These problems are not clarified in Limits, and that's okay.
Revolutionary struggle must be full of experimentation, trying different
things, and playing. Even revolution is supposed to be fun and idle!
There are countless ways to show resistance, just don't be afraid of
imagination and give free rein to creative thinking. Singing a song at
the headquarters of EPH Kretínské about paying taxes or organizing a
weekly climate camp full of lectures, resting on the roof of the Coke
Plant, taking a nap in the pre-trial detention cell... All this is only
the tip of the entire iceberg of resistance that we can experience
together. Let's break down environmental oppression and have fun and
hang out!
Environmental activism is a necessity for human survival, but why not
have fun and take a nap? Let's create resistance, solidarity and fun,
not capital for the richest!
-------------------------------------------------- --
A1M: Speech Deconstruction
Transcript of the speech that was given during the Anarchist May Day on
Strelecky Island
First of all, I would like to thank everyone very much for being here.
Either to the organizers, who make this event possible at all, or to the
people who came here just to see, listen to speeches, protest or chat
with like-minded cooperatives. Thank you for caring that you don't care.
But why are we here? Why am I here as a member of the Deconstruction
collective? I don't care about the Palestinian population subject to
genocide, the Ukrainian men and women whose hard struggle protecting
Europe from Russian aggression is slowly being forgotten, or the
millions of people who don't have a roof over their heads...
Thousands, millions of people are facing enormous problems, but that
does not remove the problems and inequalities that we face every day. Is
it possible to come to terms with the fact that while we can't afford
rent in an ordinary housing estate, the rich are getting richer and richer?
Is it possible to accept that I, a queer person, can be rejected for a
job just because of my identity? I do not think. According to the
survey, roughly a fifth of queer citizens of the Czech Republic face
discrimination in the workplace. But what about trans* people going
through transition who can't get jobs, especially in smaller districts,
because people in society still take us for the big scarecrow they warn
their children and colleagues about?
Although it may seem that we are safe and that everything is relatively
cool with work, we must not slack off. Let's unite and fight together
for equality at work, for fair wages and for tolerance. Connect with
your comradery and co-op from work and fight for your rights! For the
rights of their queer co-workers, for women who still receive
percentage-wise lower salaries than men in the same positions, or for
the rights of people with disabilities, for whom most positions are not
even accessible.
But the capitalist empire can't be brought down in a day, and it
certainly won't be brought down if we don't stand up to the queerphobes,
misogynists, ableists, and grumpy bosses who want us to work more than
we're paid for. So let's come together, in solidarity, to help each
other take small but significant steps towards our liberation. Ask your
boss for a higher salary tomorrow, argue with the queerphobe who
prevents you or your colleagues from being yourself, and in a week come
show all the exploiters that they have no power over you!
And finally, to raise the collective spirit, I would like to read you a
poem by the important Czech proletarian poet Jirí Wolker. Its title is
"Photography".
At Topic in the display case
between books and paintings
hanging photos.
The book is made of paper, although the most beautiful life dreams in it,
the picture is of the canvas when life best displays,
but every this photo
he lives a terribly real life:
Hunger in Russia! Hunger in Russia!
A province of graveyards built of ice and winter,
piles of dead children with bloated bellies,
mouth twisted, hands clenched in pincers,
those who starved to death, - those who will die again,
and saddest of all that call man-eaters,
who, after all, are only a cross between the ice,
just a desperate cross, living mounds,
who buried their brothers in the coffins of their stomachs.
These are not shop window photos,
by the hands of thousands, thousands
it stretched all the way across Europe to here
to a crowded Prague street,
that under the fingers of misery and sorrow
the bloody mouth of capital stood out doubly.
Comrades who wheel the closet that
you go to work
comrades who in their hearts
you starve your brothers to death
etch those images of misery and ruin
in the porcelain plates of restaurants and bars,
for champagne corks, for dinner tickets
paste the photos!
That everyone who feasts here today and drinks,
on every plate, on every glass
he had to come across corpses screaming:
People Eater! People Eater!
Thanks.
https://www.afed.cz/text/8171/a1m-proslov-limitu
https://www.afed.cz/text/8170/a1m-proslov-dekonstrukce
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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