The P2P Prince?: The form and the program of the transnational REvolutionary subjectivity

Below text is an excpert from unpublished and unedited 2012 article Another World, Now! Coming of the Transnational REvolutions and the P2P Prince.

The  modern  prince,  the  myth-prince,  cannot  be  a  real  person,  a  concrete individual. It can only be an organism, a complex element of society in which a collective will, which has  already been recognised and has to some  extent asserted itself in action, begins to take concrete form. (A. Gramsci)

 

Italian political activist and theorist Antonio Gramsci’s core concepts like hegemony, organic crisis, historic bloc, war of position and war of manoeuvre are central to our understanding of today’s complex global capitalist system as well as the catastrophic changes that are currently taking place in it. Referring to the original concept developed by Gramsci, global political economy theorist Stephen Gill describes the 2008 global financial turmoil as the manifestation of an organic crisis at the global level. [1] We can also read the outcomes of the global organic crisis following another neo-Gramscian theorist Robert Cox as a mixture of three scenarios he describes.[2] First one is a global (military) Keynesian recovery being pushed by the West. Regional wars moving from the periphery to the centre involving massive destruction of lives, cities and the nature, as we witness it happening since the 9/11. The second scenario is the rise of global fascism in tandem with the regional wars. This has also been happening, especially increasingly in the centre, since 2007; highlighting the race to the bottom caused by the strengthening of totalitarian forms of capitalism at the main contenders like China, Russia and India. Finally and the last scenario is accompanying transnational revolutions, like the uprisings in the northern Africa, Americas and Europe also happening.[3]

What brought humanity to this point is not a secret and also made clear by many thinkers, intellectuals, and activists. The above mentioned article by Gill is only one of the public records. It is very clear however where we have to drive history as the humanity, the third option: Transnational revolutions. Again, following Gramsci and Gill, we can think of the realisation of the transnational revolutions in relation to the ‘Prince’. For his time Gramsci thought of it as the collective subjectivity which will give the moral leadership to a wider counter-hegemonic historic bloc, and shape the form and content of the communist revolution in a national context. And it was the communist part of the working class. Gill referred to the anti- and alter-globalisation movement.

Advertisement

GNUnion (Global Networked Labour Union) One Big Meshwork of Workers, Hackers, Farmers, Artists, Makers and Opressed Peoples of the World

Global Networked Labour Union, GNUnion – One Big Mesh Network, is the released 1.0 Beta version of new generation, free to join, borderless worker self-organisation, a work in progress. Its main ispiration is the history, struggle and experiences of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) on the one hand, and free-libre, and open source software GNU/Linux, on the other.

GNUnion is also inspired by comrades standing against global capitalism in women, Lgbt,  immigrant, environmental and social justice movements, Zapatistas, anti & alter golobalisation movements, social forums, free knowledge- information and culture movements; as part of organisations like WikilLeaks, Caos Computer Club, MayFirst People Link, or of recent wave of digital and real world uprisings Anonymous, 15M, Occupy, Gezi and others.

Reclaiming our commons, ‘free trade’ and trade union strategy under neo-liberalism

Thursday 17 October 2013, 3.00 – 6.30 p.m. European Parliament Brussels room 1G2

Welcome by Gabi Zimmer MEP (GUE/NGL President) and Horst Schmitthenner (FSE)

3.30 – 5.00 p.m.

The struggle to bring our commons under democratic control: Recommunalisation in Europe

– Presentation of a study on recommunalisation in Europe by David Hall, PSIRU
– Presentation of concrete experiences from:
– Gerlinde Schermer, the “Watertable”, Berlin, Germany
– Jean-Claude Oliva, Coordination Eau Ile-de-France
– Frank Boye, Garbage collectors Branch, 3F Kastrup, Copenhagen, Denmark

– Thomas Händel (MEP, GUE/NGL) will introduce the state of work in the European Parliament with the EU Concessions Directive

5.00 – 6.30 p.m.

Who will really benefit from ‘free trade’ across the Atlantic?
– Consequences of an EU/USA trade and investment agreement (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – TTIP)

– Introduction by Helmut Scholz (MEP, GUE/NGL) with special focus on the consequences for trade unions and workers (social dumping).
– Analysis by Bruno Ciccaglione, S2B Network.
– A view from Celeste Drake, Trade & Globalization Policy Specialist, AFL-CIO.

Friday 18 October 2013, 9.00 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.
Report on the Alter Summit in Athens on 7-8 June 2013 and follow up

Felipe van Keirsbilck, General Secretary, CNE, Belgium

Report on actual trade union disputes

Tim Lubecki, NGG Legoland, Germany

Trade union struggle under neo-liberalism
– How to organize and mobilise workers to fight back against the on-going onslaught on workers and trade unions

Report from Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers’ Union in the UK by General Secretary Bob Crow on their strategies and perspectives.
Basque experiences by Adolfo Muñoz, General Secretary of ELA.
Croatian experiences by Mario Iveković, President of the New Union (Novi sindikat)

Blockupy 2013: Fight capitalism and the austerity regime. Fuck the police.

10. Juni 2013 written by the …umsGanze! media group

Thousands of protesters from all over Germany and many European countries joined this year’s two-day Blockupy protest in Frankfurt (May 31st/June 1st). But the main demonstration was crushed by hours-long kettling and police violence – resulting in a wave of solidarity with the protest. Here’s a quick report for our comrades abroad, written by the media group of theumsGanze! alliance. A thorough political assessment will follow.

What’s Blockupy?

The concept of “Blockupy” emerged in 2011/12 as a mix of grassroots mobilization, traditional networking and the idea of a metropolitan strike or mass blockade. From the start, its perspective has been transnational, trying to counter nationalist tendencies in the European crisis regime, and to connect protests in different countries. Blockupy is organized by a broad alliance of reformist and anti-capitalist groups, networks, some unions and small parties. It went public in May 2012 with three days of action in Frankfurt, the seat of the ECB. Authorities responded with large scale repression against any kind of rally or gathering, and shut down the entire city centre with road blocks and thousands of riot police. Their aim was to discourage and criminalize protesters, so Frankfurt and the ECB wouldn’t become a “protest Mecca”. After massive breaches of civil rights, 1500 arrests and a successful occupation of the main city square “Römer”, about 25.000 turned out for Germany’s largest anti-austerity demonstration to date.

Madrid Joins in and Calls for a European week of mobilization (11-17 March 2013): EUROPE FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT FOR THE MARKETPLACE

MANIFESTO – EUROPE FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT FOR THE MARKETPLACE

in Spanish

We stand in defence of a Europe that sets fundamental rights above the interests of the marketplace. We stand for a new model created by citizens through a process of direct democracy, placing the emphasis on people’s real interests. Replacing competitiveness with cooperation, individualism with mutual support, oppression and paternalism with equality, putting the stress on people’s sovereignty. A People’s Europe opposed to the mechanisms of selfishness and economic savagery.

We struggle for liberty against the tyranny of false democracies, against an economic system which only fosters social inequality and injustice. Despite statements to the contrary, the European Union is not a social project. Its main objective is to increase the competitiveness of its larger banks and companies on the world market, and thereby enhance profits. Maximising capitalist profit is valued way above any social or ecological values. For this reason there are currently 15000 lobbyists in Brussels, top banking executives move freely between important government posts and high profile financial bodies like the IMF or the ECB. And likewise prime ministers and ministers wind themselves top jobs on the board of directors of large banks and multinationals.

European and national policy are designed by the Council of Europe and the Troika, made up of non-democratic institutions (European Commission, European Central Bank and the IMF). Treaties and pacts are signed by the different heads of state without any popular referendum. Treaties like Maastricht and Lisbon, the Euro pact, the fiscal pact or ESM…are agreements directly responsible for the Labour Reform, cuts in public services, privatisation of  public companies and services, increased tax burden of the working and middle classes, bailout of banks with public funds, priority in payment of national debt over social expenditure, the loss of state sovereignty in favour of the Troika.

We do not want a Europe that oppresses people and exploits environmental resources for the benefit of the few; that controls people through distortion of the truth in the media, and via police repression; and through free trade treaties, so called cooperation aid and military intervention, boosters dictatorships, apartheid, and occupied territories, clearing the way for multinationals to exploit local populations and their natural resources. We do not want a Europe legitimized by governments who clearly ignore the people, the very basis of democracy.

What is the Alter Summit?

The Alter Summit process has been started in Firenze on 10th november 2012 in Florence along with :

 24 European personalities
 11 networks of researchers
 76 national or European organizations
 x Political figures

They all call organizations and movements to start working together in order to restore democracy in Europe.

The political responses to the crisis put forward by the European Commission, the ECOFIN Council and the ECB are deepening the crisis and threatening democracy.

Read the Call here, sign it and circulate it widely !