PGA Strategy
author: go with the flop - 01.09.2002 20:35
here is a summary of sunday noon discussion about new forms of resistance. The main themes discussed were the future of mass mobilization like counter summits, the link between local and global actions, and daily life resistance
Three main topics were discussed in the meeting : mass mobilizations like summits, daily life resistance and how to connect local struggles to global action. We think we should go on with mass mobilization, although the aim of it can t be stopping or blocking the summit in itself anymore, because police has organized itself to prevent this to happen. The aim of this type of gathering is thus to show publicly protest and meet different activists. As police has now well integrated the rules of the games we ve been plyaing in previous counter summits, and as we re beginning to be a police repression laboratory sometimes, we definitely should find new strategies on how to act and react at these summits. Decentralized actions can be a way to have more freedom to move into the city, but the impact of the big mobilization might be lost. Decentralized actions can also be targeted to involve different groups of people like children, families, etc. Mass mobilizations like counter summits should involve a maximum of local people, in the preparation and the participation of the demonstrations.
We think mass mobilization isn’t a sufficient way to resist to capitalism. We d like to emphasize on daily life resistance, because capitalism is total and we have integrated a capitalist attitude in everyday life. More over, we have more control on the way our message is communicated in daily life resistance because we talk directly to the people. This kind of resistance can break the mediatic and mainstream consensus in favor of the actual system. It s a way to interact directly with local people and to show that an alternative to capitalist economy is possible and does work. The field of possibilities of actions related to daily life resistance is really big and should be more explored. It includes actions led as individual or in a group that can overcome the frustration of living in the actual system. It can be seen as an emancipatory laboratory in situations we face every day (supermaket actions : take a lot of things and do not pay, taking the train without paying, making a mess in a court). It s important not to be offensive to the people working in the supermarket or in the train because we want to talk with them and explain them our attitude. They are not our ennemy. Another type of action is confronting people directly in their (and ours) consumerist or capitalist attitude (for example, actions in a shopping mall, inviting people not to buy anything for Xmas, Buy Nothing Day,...). This should be done in a joyful way. Acting in an un-normal way awakes people interest and can be the beginning of a discussion with them. Finally, we d like to go on tyring to elaborate conctrete alternatives to capitalism in term of production and consommation, and invite local people to enjoy with us a non capitalist way of living.
The discussion on how to connect local and global actions turned a lot around the local social forums. It came out that it was important to stimulate solidarity between local struggles, so that people involved in these realize they are fighting against capitalism. It s also important to connect with these local struggles to inform them about our ideas and our forms of action, from an anticapitalist perpective. It came out that the cooperation with reformist groups in local social forums was positive, as long as the autonomy in the action and in the discourse is guaranteed. A good example of a positive work for local struggle is the transnationals observatories, to get information that can be available for population when there is a conflict.
As a conclusion, we think we should go on with the initiatives like local social forum if our identity/specificity is guaranteed, we think mass mobilization needs to go on even if we should change tactical strategies and we d like to emphasize and explore in a deeper way daily life resistance, connection between the different everyday life initiatives and its connection with global dynamic.
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