<nettime> your friends are my friends: they are nos amis

[Alex Foti <alex.foti@gmail.com>]

   people this is an inchoate set of sentences provoked by the reading of
   Ã  nos amis - which is the best piece of revolutionary theory since
   empire by h&n (btw tarnac despises toni - in fact they seem to have
   precious few amis - anarchists are ringards, anonymous are naive,
   autonomist marxists unlike themselves are enemies).
   it's a trip, it's a rush, it's the revolutionary text that alone is
   able to convey meaning to athens tahrir gezi oakland. today a nos amis
   knowingly or unknowingly inspires the black-clad neet youth to riot in
   Frankfurt (blockupy, the morning) and Milano (mayday 2015), and the
   resto of the EU.
   In fucking old europe, one of the liveliest and freshest revolutionary
   texts has been produced. not all is lost. financial, neoliberal,
   rentier capitalism has not won the day. the oligarchy is not safe. so
   the book by coupat and his comrades must be read and discussed widely.
   because it deals with a historical present of opportunity (political
   instability and disaffection everywhere) and a recent past of partial
   defeats: the insurrection came, but not the revolution.
   the book's most persuasive points are: a revolution is needed and we
   need to organize destituent power in a certain way - we need to prepare
   for the ecological crisis - the left is dead: its remnants with their
   empty rhetoric actually prevent the mass activation of sectors of the
   population and stymieing its rebelliousness and undermining attempts to
   overthrow the state.
   the least persuasive: the city and everything urban sucks, real
   democracy is for fools, freedom is the negation of what it says, the
   west is evil, we are the Party and we're invisible - crude marxist
   theory is never far (the over-repetition of certain 70s terms has
   zeliged me into use the word bourgeois back again, for instance) - a
   certain excommunicating style typical of situationism permeates all the
   writing - the Party wants you to be happy, but how? - man, what's up
   with all that agamben?
   i'd love to hear your views on this fundamental work of political
   thought.
   best ciaos to maydayers all over the world (i kept track of milano,
   istanbul, wuppertal, chicago, glasgow, tokyo, melbourne, oakland - tell
   me other protest highlights on international workers' day in 2015 on my
   email, if you care to share)
   luv n rev
   lx

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