Re: Empire-discussions (was Re: [rox] Invitation / Einladung 2. Oekonux-Konferenz)
- From: alan lokmail.net
- Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 16:11:23 -0400
Hi Stefan,
First off, english speakers interested in this subject should have a look at our archive
http://slash.autonomedia.org/search.pl?query=negri
and
http://slash.autonomedia.org/search.pl?query=italy
where there are a considerable number of papers, interviews and backgrounders on Negri, Empire, Autonomia, Operaismo etc. Some of these were produced elsewhere and submitted, some were translated 'originally' by a member of the autonomedia collective in collaboration with Thomas Seay.
Secondly Jamie King has recently written an intersting essay that ties parts of the debate around copyright enclosure and the italian immaterial labour/general intellect debate together:
Towards an Army of Ideas - Oppositional Intellect and the Bad Frontier
http://slash.autonomedia.org/article.pl?sid=02/09/16/1644231&mode=nested
Empire indeed has little to say on the matter of free software, p2p as a mode of production telematic antagonism. With the exception of the chapter on postmodern production, which is very broad. The interesting stuff, which forms the concealed background to this part of empire is the work of Paolo Virno, Maurizio Lazzarato and to some extent Bifo (Franco Berardi). This body of writing has a distinctly productivist touch, even though its object is to identify the social realtions which lie behind.
For what it's worth, I would draw attention to the following quote from the interview "Ruptures Within Empire, The Power of Exodus" at
http://slash.autonomedia.org/article.pl?sid=02/01/30/2044216&mode=nested
"Now when we speak of "desertion", we are not invoking a negative slogan! It was negative when "desertion" expressed itself simply in terms of strikes: when it was capital, and it alone, which could put at the disposal of all the means of production, then the strike could only be passive. Today, if we desert, if we rebel against the relations of power or the nexus of capital, or the nexus of knowledge or the nexus of language, if we do so, we do so in a powerful way, producing at the very moment that we refuse. With this production -- not only of subjectivity but immaterial goods as well -- desertion becomes an important keystone of struggle. One must lookkk deep within the hacker world for a model of this type. It involves models or networks that kick in at the very moment of "defection", which is to say at the very moment that we reject or we elude the capitalist organization of production and the capitalist production of power."
As this is already a lot of material I'm going to leave further comment until tomorrow. What I will say is that the inability of political radicals (whatever that means nowadays) to confront the problems and possibilites of technology is the source for endless personal frustration. As an indication of an approach which deals with this area better I loeave you all one last link:
"Hacklabs - A Space of Construction and Deconstruction, Interview with Blicero."
http://slash.autonomedia.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/23/1218226&mode=nested
cheers,
a.
Hi Alan,
the workshop was initiated by a Berlin group called "Ways out of
capitalism", which I am part of. We had a really interesting presentation
and workshop this weekend. We learned a lot about italian "autonomia"
movement of the 60/70ies, accompanied and theoretically driven by Toni
Negri (one of the Empire's authors). The theory of "operaism" (correct
translation?) is an important source of the Empire book. A second part
was given by Benni Bärmann, who asked the question, why free software
does not occur in the Empire-book, although it is a really important
example of a multitude's movement, which is aware of its constitutive
power. Sorry, I cannot express it in english very well, I only read the
(ugly) german translation of Empire-book. Does this say anthing to you?
Do you have similar discussions?
Ciao,
Stefan
Links of Benni's presentation - german only:-(
http://www.opentheory.org/fs_empire/text.phtml
http://www.opentheory.org/fs_emp_emp/text.phtml
I cc this mail the [ox-en]
On Sunday 22 September 2002 21:03, alan lokmail.net wrote:
Hi all,
Uli Weiss's workshop relating to Free softwre and Empire caught my eye.
Is there any chance a german speaker, or someone familar with the
discussions that have already taken place, could write a short summary
on where this has gone so far?
This is a subject that is certainly of interest to Jamie and I, and it
would be nice to arrive in Berlin on the same page, rather tha having
to reinvent the wheel and exchange knowing looks!
cheers,
a.
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