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Cycles & Circuits of Struggle Anti-corporate activism in the information age.
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Transcript of Cycles & Circuits of Struggle Anti-corporate activism in the information age.
Cycles & Circuits of Struggle
Anti-corporate activism in the information age
Cycles of Struggle (autonomous Marxism) • workers’ struggles provide the dynamic of
capitalist development• capital resists the process of class composition
of labour– it seeks to decompose movements of class
composition
• decomposition of workforce is followed by its recomposition
• Capital depends upon the wage relation: capital needs labour – hence a cycle of composition/decomposition
Circuits of Capital • Circuits are areas of social organization
necessary to accumulation• The scope of capital’s social organization has
been expanded since Marx’s day by cybernetic, monopoly capital
• Circuits include not just production and circulation of capital, but also extension of market relations into the social factory (the home, education, health), & the environment (environmental degradation, pollution, depletion of natural resources)
The Four Circuits of Capital • Production
– labour power & means of production are combined to produce commodities
• Circulation– commodities are bought & sold
• Reproduction of labour– the preparation & repair of labour– e.g. household, hospitals, schools, welfare office,
universities; i.e., the “social factory”
• Reproduction of nature– mobilization of raw materials for production
Circuits of Struggle• circuits are also areas of struggle against
capital’s control of the social terrain• extending the scope of control has been made
possible by ICTs • the “post-Fordist proletariat” is characterized
by:– involvement in computerized, informational
production– immersion in communicative networks– diffusion of worksites, throughout society, and
globally
General Forms of Opposition
• Refusal– any attempt to sabotage, stop, or slow
technological domination
• Re-appropriation– labour’s reclaiming, or re-functioning of
technology, using it for subversive rather than managerial & accumulative functions
Struggle in Circuit of Production
• LA rebellion of 1992– incited by Rodney King beating by LAPD– not a race riot– a multicultural anti-poverty insurgency– affected community was devastated by
automation & global relocation– “Rioters” were those under- and
unemployed by automation & global relocation
Role of Media & ICTs in LA Rebellion • Computer networks & microwatt radio
circulate news, analysis, manifestos• Walkie-talkie coordination of looting• Rap & hip-hop music celebrate spirit of
rebellion• Corporate media coverage gives global voice
to rebellion• Supportive demonstrations break out in
Atlanta, Cleveland, Newark, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, & in Europe
ICTs in Struggle in the Circuit of Production • Tracking & targeting capital’s flows &
movements• Organization of counter-actions• Mobilization of membership• Identifying corporate holdings, linkages, &
interests• Communications among activists dispersed
across the globe• Use of video to circulate records of resistance
activities
Struggle in Circuit of Circulation
• Circulation needs a consuming subject
• ICTs, media control are essential to capital’s marketing & branding strategies
• Autonomy of informational & media workers create problems for capital
Autonomous Media
• Autonomy of media workers– Cybernetic capitalism creates echelons of
intellectual and techno-scientific media workers– Some have interests in creativity, integrity,
freedom of expression, & social justice
• Autonomy of media audiences– the disobedient “audience commodity”– zapping, surfing, recording, piracy, bootlegging,
descrambling, hacking
More Autonomous Media• Pirate radio stations, critical publishers,
presses, newspapers, zines• Independent film, activist video• Inexpensive, low-power, illegal FM microwatt
broadcasting (e.g. by ghetto communities, squatters, & the homeless)
• Internet-based community activism• Internet & web activism to connect & make
visible to each other a multiplicity of social movements
Culture Jamming• the practice of parodying advertisements in
order to alter & subvert their messages• motivated by free speech concerns, public
space concerns• recognizes the enclosure of public space,
especially cultural space, by branding & advertising
• opposes one-way flow of information in an increasingly privatized environment
Spectrum of Culture Jammers
• Merry Pranksters– Emphasis on parody, pleasure, play
• Adbusters– Emphasis on criticism of corporate power
• Media collectives– Decentralized; anarchist leanings
• Hacktivists– Illegal raids on corporate web sites
• Mainstream groups– Teamsters– Antitobacco lobby
Politics of Culture Jamming
• Politics or pranksterism?
• Does culture jamming work? Does it matter?
• Do culture jammers play the corporate game?
• Has culture jamming been co-opted by corporations?
Politics, once more . . .
• Is culture jamming merely harmless satire?
• Does it exist in isolation from genuine political movements and ideologies?
• Is it part of a wider political activism at work on many different fronts?
Economic Globalization Breeds Global Protest • A “wave of techno-savvy investigative
activists” (Klein, p. 327)• Nike, Disney, Wal-Mart become icons of
corporate brutality• Year of the sweatshop (1995-96)• Year of the brand attack (1995 - )
– Starbuck’s, Monsanto, McDonalds, Royal Dutch/Shell (execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa)
– Corporations connected with repressive governments (e.g. Burma)
Branding & Protest: A Connection?• Klein: the cultural invasiveness of
branding breeds protest• When we inhabit branded worlds, we
feel complicit in corporate brutalities & injustices
• Our connection to corporations is “emotionally intense but shallow enough to turn on a dime” (p. 335)
• “. . . the seeds of discontent are part of [the] very DNA [of branding].” (p. 340)