BUKO30: [em]power # networks

REFRACTORY PRACTICE BETWEEN SHALLOW WATER AND DEEP SEA

The Baltic Sea has an average depth of 45 meters, in the Mecklenburg seaside resort Heiligendamm at the end of the pier you reach the ground already after 6 meters. For some splashing this might be enough. Diving is also possible. But the literally “sinking of the Group of Eight” seems to be difficult. But which sea would be deep enough for it?

In June 2007 the representatives of the G8 will have their obligatory summer performance. Without actual legitimation this meeting is first of all a symbol for a complex coherence of political, economic, and social power relations: a knot in a net of power relations in which people are entangled. This entanglement is not only understood as a passive one – on the contrary, it encloses the active participation.
Staying with this image, political resistance can be identified as self-critical conscious theory and practice which tries to find alternative ways to tie knots. The subversive and at the same time progressive potential lies in the stretching of the meshes, the untying of tight knots and the manufacturing of new connections and self-determined networks. The motto of BUKO30 concentrates its close reference to the G8 summit and the protests against it: [em]power#networks!

THE CONDITIONS, IN WHICH WE LIVE

Between the countries of the “global North and South” as well as within the societies there are huge inequalities – they are produced and maintained by the same capitalist mode of action. Colonial relations of exploitation existing since centuries are threatening substantially big parts of the world’s population. Apart from continuities you can observe new developments, too; the capitalist penetration of all areas of life has reached a new quality.

Our challenge is to identify common grounds without blurring or playing down the differences. How could theories of imperialism help for an analysis of these conditions. What is new after the end of the bloc confrontation? And in which relation are the new wars as well as the struggles for survival “in the South” to the daily struggles for social security and a good life “in the North”? How can we continue present debates on the so called “precariat” in an internationalist perspective?

Emancipatory politics can only work as critical practice, if it is targeted clearly against the dominating constructed lines of origin, gender, colour of skin, and class, and if it is trying to subvert these. It must be open for the practical problems of those people who should be moved – namely not only, if the “fair” trade coffee bought in the superstore known for its bad working conditions leaves a mouldy aftertaste. This openness requires at the same time a self-critical reflection of refractory practices. In this regard there is still a lack of common targets and trend-setting ideas.

THE RESISTANCE, THAT WE WANT

Under these conditions the political agitation against the G8 shouldn’t be only symbolic. Because especially for the “summit attackers” it is crucial to ask about the difference and the transition from simple protest to consistent political and social practice of resistance. The answers are be found in the area of conflict between spontaneity and continuity, individual motivation and collective action.

How can you, for example, prevent the protest during the PR-event of the “G8 summit” from only boosting the staging of power? How can you even put the demand for emancipatory politics with analytical profundity into effect in this context? At which points do you face the danger of abridging the contents or of frustrating instead of satisfying activity?

The campaigning politics against the G8 corresponds to a general insecurity of life, the always shorter termed wage labour relations and misty perspectives. Precarious life situations and the resulting pressure to self-economisation are accelerating the frustrated retreat into the alternative niche or even the emergency exit. Thus defences, like the struggle for the preservation of the alternative housing project, quickly become the only political maxim. Consequentially continuous political work is ever less to observe.

“Sink G8” is no magic bullet against the collective powerlessness. But a striking protest could unfold dynamics which inspire processes of collective self-empowerment in everyday life. The potential to radicalise political approaches and to exchange positions on different refractory practices is certainly given in the face of an unprecedented breadth of spectra. Precondition: The “festival” will be translated into long-term political work developing, promoting and intensifying an emancipatory and internationalist perspective. A beginning for a new “globalised” solidarity acknowledging the different life realities and still assailing the same mechanisms in the power#networks.

THE CONGRESS, THAT WE CREATE

Two months before the summit row the BUKO30 intends to tie together perspectives and practices. The congress wants to open a space to combine topics, everyday life’s and structural questions of the different movements, to mediate between local and global resistance, between local social processes and international(ist) politics – and between the different realities. And also with regard to 30 years of internationalist history which has been shaped also by the network of BUKO.

Among other things we want to explore possibilities of refusal and creative potentials of individual and collective appropriations. Affiliated are questions of direct communication and concrete organisation. Additionally, topics which have mostly been left out during this year’s big mobilisations (e.g. feminism and Anti-Semitism) should be included. Anti-capitalist, anti-racist, feminist, radical-ecological, anti-national, anti-fascist, and anti-speciesist positions are welcome to interact in critical solidarity without playing themselves off against each other. So far, the BUKO has the philosophy of an open platform.

But this also means to realise participatory forms of discussion and of exchanging experiences, to break with the poles of “academic” and “practical” knowledge and to commonly rethink political fields which have been possibly conceptualised too tight ranging. Knots of contents are being prepared under the working titles “energy”, “migration”, “militarism”, “economisation and privatisation” as well as “gender-power-politics”, “resistance and organisation”, and “undesired compatibilities”. Using the striking motto [em]power#networks we are opening the floor for discussion and are looking forward to lively participation at the BUKO 30 from 6th to 9th April in Leipzig.

Preparation Group of BUKO30

A short note concerning the text: The preparation group of the BUKO30 is a heterogeneous bunch of people coming from different political fields, scenes, groups and cities. This text is a mid-term result of long debates and as work in progress it will be continuously discussed like many other things. At the BUKO in extended circle…