[mf2012] networked insurgents and communications guerilla

[anthony iles]

On the problems of guerrillism

Guerrilism is strongly associated with national liberation movements. Who wouldn't support insurgent movements against colonial power, the problem is that after a struggle for national liberation is successful it needs a second movement to liberate it from nationalism and the post-colonial tyrants who rule in its name. This movement rarely ever comes  (see Algeria, Cape Verde and countless other examples).

The grin without a cat  - the guerilla is a specialist, they are the one who is going to make the difference, the cell-like structure and need for clandestinity necessitates a certain separation from the broader population and if it exists, from the broader social movement in whose name it acts. This follows the basic tenets of Leninism, revolution is to be brought about by revolutionaries, people are to be trusted with suspicion and disciplined if necessary, no room for disagreements, no room for revolts within the revolution. (some examples such as the Sandanistas ostensibly remained close to the social mileus they recruited from, that is until their later transformation into a parliamentary party)

As Rachel points out, guerilla insurgents are an easy subject for the state or para-state to mirror and clone, this was particularly true of the Brigate Rosse's situation (Renato Curcio, whom Josie quoted was a founder of the Brigate Rosse, yet may later have distanced himself from some of their tactics) - state and para-state actors deployed tactics of bombs, terrorism, kidnapping etc. in a strategy of tension to contain and defeat (and it did this 'successfully') what was then in Italy an enormously powerful social movement invested in workplace, domestic, educational and cultural struggles. This specialism corresponds to a military power - as such it is fertile ground for infiltration of state and para-state actors - whether good intentions are diverted from their path, or bad tendencies are exacerbated the result is the same - repression of the population. 

The 'war against the state' becomes 'war with the state' until it becomes the 'war of the state' against its population. In this context it's no surprise the originator for guerilla tactics in the west was the OAS - a right wing paramilitary movement composed of ex-soldiers in defense of France's colonial occupation of Algeria. Nor that the mirror works in the other direction too, Brigate Rosse militants ended up bullying other aspects of the workers movement (knee-cappings) assasinating unionists and conducting their own 'revolutionary trials' (e.g. they held a trial for Antonio Negri in prison). These special exemplars of revolutionary Marxist-Leninism arguably had very little to do with the broader social movements they had secceded from and guerilla tactics remained overwhelmingly the tactics of the far right : 'According to statistics from the Italian ministry of interior, 67.55% of violence (”affrays, guerrilla actions and destruction of
 property”) committed in Italy between 1969 and 1980 were attributable to the far right, 26.5% to the far left, and 5.95% to others. from: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/62/211.html

And this is very worrying given the long and sustained criticism of Marxist-Leninism within the left from anarchists and striking workers silenced by Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution right up to the present day, today insurrectionary anarchism (e.g. The Invisible
Committee and many others) continue state it that social change is a matter of urgency, that they can't wait, and so it must be carried out by militants through extreme measures. This shadows the position of the Red Army Faction in Germany: that ordinary people weren't sufficiently politically conscious so the RAF would provoke state repression to a level where people would wake up. A position correlate with the elitism with which the ruling class rules. A position which approves exemplary specialists and suffocates everything else. The guerilla insurgent is thoroughly absorbed into the state, it is the model on which it prepares it's cities and its security systems (see IBM post).

At this point, it's worth coming to a present example: Our friend Trenton, publisher, a publisher and true 'communications guerilla' throws himself in front of the Oxford Cambridge boat race to protest elitism. http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/08042012/58/london-2012-boat-race-intruder-calls-olympic-havoc.html?page=4&order=desc#co
This is all very well and funnny - a media/communications stunt which would not appear to have much to do with guerillism except  that it is guerilla strategy that he invokes: "Along with the brutality the police and military are prepared to use against organised peaceful protestors, it seems it might be time to employ ‘little war’/‘guerrilla tactics’." And in this case contrary to his tactics being non-violent and more or less legal, it is an appropriate
association, Trenton acts without and outside any social movement, he does not even refer to one. It's simply an act of individual heroism. All very fine, but not something many would want to follow (especially now it looks like he's to be made into an example of judicial repression), nor an act that has much or could have social rapport with or meaning for most people. He makes comparison with Emily Davison, a suffragette, but whatever the merits of suicidal self-sacrifice, Trenton is not acting in the context of an international movement with many vectors, facets of action and tactics. 

MF and the grin without a cat

The problems of taking on the insurgent or guerilla tag is the problem of the grin without the cat - where is the social movement of which the MF insurgents would be the vanguard? And why would it want to adopt the problematic relation of the professional
militant to the poor sufferers she acts in the name of? A literal adoption just repeats bad history at a time when conditions, if they ever were, are definitely not ripe for armed struggle, especially in London in 2012. An entirely symbolic adoption seems closer
to a prada meinhof-style guerilla-marketing exercise and further develops the logic of autonomisation, which is the motor of the guerilla's logic of specialisation, separation and (hierarchical) network structure, to spectacular ends.

The above is maybe more a knee jerk reaction to the use of the terms guerilla or insurgent and not an attack on Moving Forest's general trajectory. Rather it is my hope that critique encourages some movement in less predictable directions. Rachel's proposed reading group is an excellent one. The invocation of magic speaks to the unpredictible, non-instrumental, not yet possible social relations which both guerilla and state forms would act to police. Turning away from the double bind of vanguardist revolution or liberal law-abiding reform there are a host of less self-defeating positions, actions, tactics and debates which could, and I hope will, be explored in the movement of the moving forest

Anthony

--- On Mon, 9/4/12, rachelbaker at irational.org <rachelbaker at irational.org> wrote:

From: rachelbaker at irational.org <rachelbaker at irational.org>
Subject: Re: [mf2012] networked insurgents and communications guerilla
To: "movingforestl2012london" <list at movingforest.net>
Date: Monday, 9 April, 2012, 20:55

“And you all know security, Is mortals' chiefest enemy”.
Hecate, Macbeth

So the problem with the MF narrative of a 'networked insurgency' is of
course that it is predicated on, and therefore anticipates, the kind of
smart-city network technology that IBM and the Olympic machinists would
want foisted upon us in their over-securitised cybernetic nightmare. The
school of thought that says revert, infect, hack or parasite the
technology is one i have sympathy with - create conditions for The Glitch
- but mostly as a theatrical proposition.

1. If we created a non-rational Moving Forest map that was layered with
geo-fictions, obscuring the surveillance friendly panoptical tendencies of
all electronical mapping devices, then that might be more interesting.
Camouflage. Anyone interested to design such a map?

2. Also, the 'insurgent' suggests a binary oppositional narrative of good
vs evil -  however, MF recognises that our wost enemies are usually
ourselves as Macbeth proves. MF is an associative artwork of dissonant
dissensus, insurgents can be at odds with each other as they move towards
the Castle. As long as there is movement.

3. Also, networks don't always have to be predicated on the electronic.
To uncover/read city infrastructure we can use material that is close to
us and everyday, to make relationships and associations through simple
actions, for example London's reading groups and walking groups such as
the Wetherspoons Underground SykoGeosofy Club which meets on occasion to
follow the various routes of London's many underground rivers. Over the
years river infrastructure has been built on, replaced in parts by the
London Underground. In turn a further layer of infrastructural formatting
is laid congruently with the railtrack in the copper cabling used for high
speed telecommunications. Copper was one of the 7 metals that alchemists
used (gold, silver, mercury, copper, lead, iron & tin). Before its highly
conductive properties were discovered in electromagnetism it was used to
craft mirrors and was associated with love and attraction. The spikes in
copper trading prices have resulted in a spate of copper theft around
London including the Barbara Hepworth sculpture 'Two Forms (Divided
Circle)'

4. So base metal can be transformed into 'gold'. These small associations
of associative drifts are what will shape the Moving Forest in July and
beyond. To this end I propose 'Hecate's Prophecies' Reading Group and
invite all the witches on the list to attend. The intention is to explore
the idea of the self-fulfilling prophecy, a key Macbethian theme and also
the core principle of cybernetic systems. The reading list is currently:-
- The witches soliloquies in Macbeth
- Caliban and The Witch by Silvia Federici
- Witch Cult in Western Europe by Margaret Murray
- On Seduction by Baudrillard
- A General Theory of Magic by Marcel Mauss
- Zeroes + Ones : Digital Women and the New Technoculture by Sadie Plant

Any more suggestions welcome, and any satellite groups encouraged.
The first meeting is being prepared for Friday 13th April at the Autonomy
Club at Freedom bookshop, Angel Alley, Whitechapel.
\

rachel


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