Solidarité: Journal of the Radical Left

Solidarite:

Journal of the Radical Left

Solidarit: Journal of the Radical Left soljrl.com

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

2014

Table of Contents

1 Le combat est avenir": The 2012 Qubec Student Strike as a Plebeian Experience

47 Behind the common ideology that fuels

Jacobin: Response to Jacobins Adbusted

62 G o o g l e - s p o n s o r e d Gentrification

and the Latter Day Californian Ideologues: Notes for Anti-Capitalists in the Digital Era

Solidarit:Journal of the Radical Left

Le combat est avenir": The 2012 Qubec Student Strike as a Plebeian Experience

Hugo Bonin !

From February to September 2012 the Province of Qubec saw its eighth general student strike in fifty years. While the strike was clearly the longest and the largest to paralyze Qubec's postsecondary education system, this conflict was also unique in the way it managed to transform itself into a wider social struggle. Various movements and actors worldwide have argued that the "Printemps rable" 1represented a unique challenge to austerity and the market-oriented shifts of public services characteristic of neoliberalism (Luckas; Hallward).

From the general assemblies held by students to the Qubec general elections in September, this seven-month period can be seen as an interruption, as a "gap" in the

!1

"Maple Spring", the expression used to 1describe the event of the 2012 spring. It is a play on words in French in reference to the 2011-2012 popular uprisings in the Arab world, the "Printemps Arabe".

Issue. No. 3 | NovemberMay 2014

status quo of liberal democracy and an opening of possibilities. Many of these possibilities were never realized and were even shattered within months. But for hundred of thousand of people for the many or the plebs it felt like something was happening: something that may well be described as a plebeian experience.

This notion of "plebeian experience", understood as the transformation of phon (noise) into logos (speech, reason), as the transition from infrapolitical to political, and as the manifestation of the desire to free one's self from political domination (Breaugh, Lexprience plbienne, 11-12), may be a fruitful starting point in order to try to make sense of what happened. In part because understanding those seven months is actually more complex than it seems at first.

This paper argues that the notion of plebeian experience helps us to make sense of the historical sources of the strike and the movement. It also emphasizes the importance of politics as conflict and dissensus (Rancire, Ten Theses on Politics 32), a key notion in order to grasp contemporary social movements (Mathieu, 24). Furthermore, using this category to explore a contemporary event will provide us with some considerations on the temporality and spatiality of the "plebeian

!2


experience" as well as its general relevance.

Our first step will be to try to capture the essence of the notion of the plebeian experience, understood here as the displacement of the subject from animal laborans to zoon politikon, that is, the interruption on the political scene of those excluded, of those conceived as without logos, and their desire to be heard, to become political beings. Afterwards, we will then attempt to frame the events of the Printemps rable. In order to do so, we will rely on newspapers articles and some of the secondary literature already published on the subject (Bonenfant and al. ; Collectif de dbrayage) as well as general studies of the Qubec student movement (Lacoursire, Le movement tudiant au Qubec). Finally, once these theoretical and historical frameworks are established, we will turn to the crux of the question: trying to make sense of the Qubec student strike as a plebeian experience. Drawing from Breaugh's work, we will attempt to find the similarities but also the dissonances between his historical examples and the Maple Spring. Through this exercise, we hope not only to discuss the relevance of the notion of plebeian experience in the context of 21st century politics but also explore some of the lessons of the 2012 Qubec student

!3


strike, both in terms of short term impact as well as long term legacies and "traces" in popular memories. !

1. Plebeian Experiences !Starting from the "plebs" is a risky

enterprise. Whereas subjects such as "the people" or "the proletariat" have a long history of political theorizing, the plebs is rarely mentioned. In the case of the 2012 strike, the category of "proletariat" may be too narrow in order to capture both the role of students a transitioning status and that of protesters from various social classes during the events of the Printemps rable. Furthermore, overly simplistic understandings of social movements as resulting solely from class struggle and economic conflict tends to be reductionist but also to objectify "class" as a fixed identity and not as a social relation, as the result and the issue of the struggle and not its foundation (Mathieu 27-28; Thompson, The Making of the English Working-Class 11)

On the other hand, "the people" is a rather looming idea, that one might consider too broad to be useful. For example, Kervgan distinguishes a triple meaning to "people": a fraction of the community, generally excluded (the plebs, the proletariat), a unified status, referring

!4


to the sovereignty of the people and finally a political unity already constituted (the State, the nation) (541). In light of this semantic confusion, we prefer the choice of "the plebs", opposed to the more common categories of people and proletariat.

Outside of common sociological and historical references to the plebs as the lower and middling orders of the Roman Republic, Breaugh, drawing from a range of philosophers from Machiavelli to Rancire, proposes a conception of the plebs not as a category of social stratification but as the subject of an experience that consists of the passage from a infra-political status to that of a fu l ly developed pol i t ica l subjec t (Lexprience plbienne 11). Or, as Rancire argues, the specificity of the plebs is its transition from a phonic (phon) animal, an animal capable only of noise indicating pleasure or pain, to a logical (logos) animal, an animal capable of reason and speech (Disagreement 22). The plebs is therefore more an experience cons tan t ly repea t ing i t se l f , even throughout modernity, than a definite sociological category (Leroux).

This reference to the plebs is the outcome of a philosophical and political reading of the first secession of the plebs from Rome and their retreat on the

!5


Aventine Hill in 494 BCE. At the time, the Roman Republic was torn by political tensions, predominately about the fact that plebs could be enslaved and imprisoned for failure to reimburse debts while at the same forming the core of the roman legions, the principal strength of the r e p u b l i c ( B r e a u g h , L e x p r i e n c e plbienne 33). After a series of conflicts between the patricians represented by the Senate and the plebs represented by the dictator Marius Valerius around those issues, the latter retreated to the Aventine in order to establish a camp "without any leader" as the roman historian Livy writes (117). This desertion of the city by the plebs caused a widespread panic among the patricians since essential tasks such as harvesting and defending the city are left unattended.

In order to convince the plebs to come back to the city, the Senate sent a delegate, Menenius Agrippa. A gifted orator, he persuaded the plebs to reintegrate the roman political order through the telling of the fable of the parts and the stomach. This tale illustrates the division of the social between the parts (the plebs) and the stomach (the patricians), each essential to the harmonious living of the body (Rome). Allegedly convinced by this speech, the plebs agreed to reintegrate the city but not without changes. Indeed, if there is no

!6


immediate substantial reforms, the plebs did obtain the creation of two offices of the tribunes, giving a voice and power to the plebs in the Roman Republic (Livy 118).

However, the main point of this "inaugural scene" of the plebs is not the reforms obtained but the fact that in order to reintegrate the plebs into the political order, Agrippa recognized the capacity of plebs to reason, to understand logos. Furthermore, he recognized the political capacity of the plebs. In fact, the whole secession on the Aventine suggests that "the entire issue at stakes involves finding out whether there exists a common stage where plebeians and patricians can debate anything" (Rancire, Disagreement 23). As Breaugh states, the first secession of the plebs marks their "symbolic inscription in the city by acting like if they had proper names " (Lexprience plbienne 160). 2And this inscription "required a novel perceptual universe, one where contrary to all perceptible evidence those who worked for a living [the plebs] had affairs in common with free men [the patricians] and a voice to designate and argue these common affairs (Rancire, Introducing Disagreement 5).

!7

Unless specified otherwise, all translations 2from French to English are ours.


Now that our understanding of the plebs and its secession is clearer, the question of the "experience" should be clarified too. Breaugh defines the term "experience", following the work of G. Bataille, as "a disposition that refuses the limits of the possible-present of the dominant order and whose goal is to bring about a collective existence other than that which holds sway in a specific political community" (Lexprience plbienne 12). At the heart of this conception therefore lies a subversion of the dominant political order and a desire to actually end political domination.

From the "inaugural scene" of the Avent ine, Breaugh out l ines three characteristics of the plebeian experience that he uses in order to trace back this discontinuous his tory of freedom throughout western political history: the communalist tradition, the political agoraphilia tendencies and the temporality of the gap (Lexprience plbienne 20-22).

In this first instance, the communalist tradition refers to the self-emancipation of the many. The plebs is not manipulated by actors trying to increase their own power but rather, acts out its own desire of liberty (Breaugh, Lexprience plbienne 20). This refers to a long tradition, from the Aventine secession to the Russian soviets,

!8


of the direct action of those without logos, the oppressed or the dominated. This type of political action is realized from the bottom up and outside of the existing political institutions (Breaugh, Que faire du dsordre? 168). Following the work of the historian O. Anweiler on soviet councils, Breaugh distinguishes three criteria to identify a communalist moment: "1. its connection with a particular dependent or oppressed social stratum; 2. radical democracy as its form; 3. a revolutionary origin" (Anweiller, in Breaugh, Lexprience plbienne 20).

In the case of the second criteria, the ideas of "political agoraphobia" and "political agoraphilia" (Dupuis-Dri, Qui a peur du peuple?) refer to the rejection and the support of democratic practices by different political actors. The first one, political agoraphobia, reveals a fear of the people and especially contempt for the political capacities of the many, conceived as irrational, subject to demagogues and violent. More precisely, agoraphobia reveals the fear of the people, understood as the popular classes, the lower orders, gathered together to discuss public and political matters (Dupuis-Dri. Qui a peur du peuple? 51). The second one, political agoraphilia, refers to a suspicion of governing elites, considered as irrational, demagogic, divisive as well as tyrannical

!9


(Dupuis-Dri, Dmocratie 36). But it also means, on the contrary of political agoraphobics, a strong sympathy for the people gathered, for the people as a whole debating and taking part in politics, in others words, making the agora the center of political life (Dupuis-Dri, Qui a peur du peuple? 52).

Finally, for Breaugh, the temporality of the gap refers to the fact that a plebeian experience is inherently limited in time; it is "an irruptive event that temporarily f r a c t u r e s t h e o r d e r o f domination" (Breaugh, Lexprience plbienne 23) but it is always a rupture and can never become the ordinary course of life. After a certain period, the end of the rupture necessarily involves an apparent return to the established order. However it is not a return to the status quo, as the unequal order of city has been slightly altered, with consequences on both short and long term. In other words, the plebeian experience is a gap which leaves "traces", because, as B. Porchnev puts it, "a movement never disappears without leaving traces: it continues to live for many years in the minds of the masses [ s i c ] a n d g u i d e s t h e i r f u t u r e behaviour" (Porchnev, in Breaugh, Lexprience plbienne 22).

To these three characteristics of the plebeian experience, it is also imperative

!10


to add a temporal dimension to the process. Indeed, Breaugh distinguishes three moments of the experience: the separation of the plebs, its organization and finally its reintegration (Que faire du dsordre? 7). The first moment is one of rupture, of irruption/interruption in which the plebs refuse domination and denounce the injustice of their situation. The second one is the organization of a "camp without leader", the autonomous creation of a political form recognizing the equality of all. Although the forms that this "camp", this political organization, can take are various, their common characteristic is an "acephalous mode" of organization (Breaugh, Que faire du dsordre? 7). This, however, does not mean that all plebeian experiences are without leaders. Indeed, the question of leaders is rather problematic as it reflects the desire of the plebs to reproduce attitudes of servitude instead of continuing the project of emancipation (Breaugh, Lexprience plbienne 168-171). Lastly, the third moment of the plebeian experience is the reintegration of the plebs into the dominant political order. As mentioned, the temporality of this experience is that of the gap and not of the bridge, which means the distinct plebeian order cannot last and is necessarily reintegrated into city. Again, this does not mean a return to the status

!11


quo as the dominant order is transformed (Breaugh, Que faire du dsordre? 169). !

2. The Student Movement in Qubec: Background !

From the beginning of the 1960s, the Qubec student movement developed an affinity with agoraphilia practices and a rejection of the principle of representation through an emphasis of direct democracy and delegation. Culminating in the 1968 student strike, these changes lead several Cgeps and university students' unions to 3put greater power in the hand of the students gathered in general assemblies and to limit the role of executive councils to a coordinating one (Gagnon 40). The 1968 strike can be therefore be seen as the "inaugural scene" of a democratic and militant student movement, with activists and students constantly referring to this experience (Lacoursire, Histoire 19). We will come back to the specific articulation of democratic practices within the Printemps rable, but it is important to underline the fact that the practices that

!12

The Collges d'enseignement gnral et 3professionnel (Colleges of general and professional education - Cgeps) are free post-secondary institutions dispensing both pre-university and technical programs.


came to the forefront of the scene in 2012 were not new. In fact, the 2012 student strike should be seen according to Lacoursire, as the return for the student movement "to a more progressive, combative and even democratic attitude [in opposition] to the conservative positions of the 1980s" (Le retour un movement tudiant 71-72).

As mentioned earlier, this agoraphilic attitude principally takes the form of a emphasis on the direct power of the students in general assemblies but also of the creation of ad hoc committees in charge of logist ics , mobil izat ion, coordination, etc. as well of political questions, such as Women's committees, in charge of integrating a feminist analysis within the student struggle (Desroches 13; Jacquet, Martel and Visorzky 41).

These different tendencies can also be seen at a Qubec-wide level with the provincial students' unions. On one hand, the Coalition Large de lASS (CLASSE) a left-wing coalition of students union recognizes the value of direct democracy and delegation throughout its discourses and structures, although the articulation of a mass organization at its height the CLASSE represented 100,000 students and of radical democracy is rather complex (Delvaux and Sanschagrin 23-24). On the other hand, the Fdration tudiante

!13


collgiale du Qubec (FECQ) and the Fdration tudiante universitaire du Qubec (FEUQ) generally "grant greater 4decision-making power to the elected executives and accord relatively less importance to local general assemblies", although political shifts were seen in 2012 (Robert 29).

After this historical detour, three points can be emphasized. First, at least since the 1960s, the Qubec student movement has been characterized by a set of democratic practises within students unions and a desire to extend these to the whole structure of the university. Second, although we talk about "the student movement" and "students' unions" as a whole, these categories actually include very diverse situations and different contexts: democratic practices might be strong in one student union and rather weak in another institution. These differences are also reflected at the provincial level within the different student organizations. Third, the students' unions and movement does not exist in a vacuum. In the case of the Qubec student strike, the mobilizations, political ideas and tendencies as well as practises and

!14

Respectively, the College students' federation 4of Qubec, created in 1990, and the University students' federation of Qubec, created in 1989.


discourses were strongly influenced by past movements and stories as well as contemporary events such as the Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street (Kruzynski, Sarrasin, and Jeppsen), themselves shaped by plebeian politics (Breaugh, Que faire du dsordre?). !

3. "Ensemble, bloquons la hausse ": 5Beginnings !

On March 30th 2010, Liberal Finance Minister Bachand proposed the 2010-2011 Qubec Budget, characterised by a shift toward a regressive funding based on tariffs of public services as opposed to the progressive funding that characterised the "Qubec model", truly a "Cultural Revolution" according to its author (Bachand 18). This reference on the government's part to the idea of an important shift, which moves beyond the legacies of the 1960s and 1970s, echoes a similar claim from most neoliberal governments. We could take, for example, that of former French President, and political ally of Premier Charest, N. Sarkozy's (2007-2012) desire to "liquidate the legacy of May 68" (Le Nouvel Observateur).

!15

"Together, let's stop the hike", CLASSE's 5slogan for 2012.


Furthermore, according to Rancire, these projects reveal their intention to "destroy politics as dis-identification, as rup tu re o f t he sys t em o f soc i a l identification" (Moments politiques 211) and consecrate the end of politics and its rebirth as the management of different economic interests, as an administration of affairs (Introducing Disagreement 8). But what this conception of politics evacuates with tremendous consequences in terms of conceptions of political participation is the fact that "for parties to opt for discussion rather than fight, they must first exist as parties who then have to choose between two ways of obtaining their share" (Rancire, Disagreement 102). In other words, such consensus is necessarily between elites, between the ""virtuous" gentlemen whose wealth is precisely the sign of their "virtue" n e c e s s a r y t o e x e r c i s e p o l i t i c a l power" (Breaugh, Dmocratie ou oligarchie? 122). As numerous actors would declare during the strike, those who are not part of the elite and "virtuous gentlemen" have little say in the political discussion. Indeed, some even argued that the magnitude of the contestation was outrageous and that until the next elections, when political expression would be encouraged, order should be re-

!16


established (Audet, Bertrand, Bouchard and al.).

The response to Bachand's "Cultural Revolution" from different segments of Qubec society was generally negative. The following day, April 1st 2010, a crowd of 10,000 people took the streets in oppos i t ion to use r f ees and the privatization of the public services (Gervais). For the student movement, this day was particularly important as the government made clear its intention to raise tuition fees (Ministre des Finances, Pour rester matres de nos choix 10). The exact amount of the hike, an increase of $325 per year from September 2012 to June 2017, for a total of $1,625 (a 75% increase), was announced one year later, on March 18th 2011 (Ministre des Finances, Tourns vers lavenir 10).

From April 2010 to February 2012, the focus of the student movement on the tuition hike was clear, with the campaigns' of all major student organizations addressing this issue. This period was one of intense mobilization on the part of s t u d e n t a c t i v i s t s , w i t h s e v e r a l demonstrations, occupations, general assemblies and conferences about the tuition hike being held across the province (Bonenfant and al., 2-3). In November 2011, the traditionally militant Arts faculty students union (AFA) of the Universit

!17


du Qubec Montral (UQAM) was to first to adopt a strike mandate. Four months later, the students of the Collge de Valleyfield were the first Cgep to adopt a resolution in favour of the strike on February 7th. On February 13th 2012, after two years of preparation, the student strike began (Bonenfant and al., 12). !

This beginning is actually an interesting point to analyze more closely the question of student democratic practices. In the context of the Qubec student movement, a general assembly (GA) is a meeting open to all members of a given students' union. As mentioned earlier, this type of assembly has been present since the early 1960s (Gagnon, 37). In most of the students' unions in Qubec, the GA is the ultimate decision making body: this means that the assembly can make any decision, including how it functions, as long as the process follows a certain set of agreed upon rules. The decision then binds the union as an organization especially the executive to carry out the decision. In theory, the executive committee exists only to execute a decision: its role is not to interpret the decision or change it.

U n d e r n o r m a l c i r c u m s t a n c e s , assemblies are held once a month or so with a relatively low turnout typically

!18


from 1 to 5% of membership in attendance. In the context of a large mobilization such as the 2012 strike participation can increase drastically. For example, during the 2012 movement, the average attendance rate gravitated around 40% and in some cases rose as high as 60% . However, as Manin observed about 6the central democratic body of Athenian democracy, the Ekklsia: "the Assembly was identified with the people not because all citizens attended, but because all of them could attend"(30-31, his emphasis).

In principle, GAs grant all participants of a given students' union an equal say on its collective decisions as well as providing the opportunity to bring one's own concerns to the highest decision making body. Students take part directly in discussion and deliberation without any intermediary. In certain more progressive student unions, mechanisms such as gender balance in speaking turns and preference given to first time speakers have been put in place to encourage minority voices and discourage dominant

!19

These numbers are based on personal 6calculations with data collected by CLASSE's "Comit maintien et largissement de la grve" (Mobilization committee) during the 2012 strike.


voices from monopolizing time and space (Desroches, 14).

Throughout the s tr ike general assemblies were the space where students made all major political decisions on the strike, on government offers, etc. This indicates that in the context of the Qubec student movement, a GA is the place where students can take back the control of their own affairs, thus creating direct democracy as a mode of political action, similar to the "Socits sectionnaires" of the sans-culottes of the French Revolution analyzed by Breaugh (Lexprience plbienne 190). Furthermore, some of the processes adopted by student unions directly echo the struggles of the sans-culottes outlined by Breaugh in regards to political centralization and specialization: the emphasis of autonomy for local unions, the stress on self-education as well as an important task rotation shows that both had similar concerns (199-211).

This democratic organization and the agoraphilia practices of students' unions were also echoed at the provincial level, notably by the CLASSE. The decisions made at the coalition level were the positions adopted by member associations in their own general assemblies. Explicitly e m p h a s i z i n g d e l e g a t i o n o v e r representation, the CLASSE delegates from each association bring their

!20


respective mandates to the congress. This way of operating accentuates the distinction between a delegate and a representative (Dupuis-Dri, Dmocratie 228). While representatives would make decisions on behalf of the members of their union and members would not have a direct say in it, delegates to CLASSE were to vote accordingly to the mandates adopted in their general assemblies, thus respecting the principles of delegation and accountability of direct democracy (Lvesque-Nicol, 34) and refusing the idea of elections and political representation as a justification for the independence of representatives from their constituents, one of the pillars of representative regimes according to Manin (6). !

4. "La grve est tudiante, la lutte est populaire 7!

On March 22nd, with more than 300,000 students on strike, a crowd estimated at more than 250,000 took the streets of Montral (Bonenfant and al., 53). This day represented a shift in the 2012 Qubec student strike for two reasons. First of all because it marked the point where the movement started to drift from

!21

"It's a students' strike but it's a people's 7struggle", a 2012 slogan.


the sole question of the tuition hikes to encompass larger social and political questions. This can be seen formally in the minutes of the CLASSE Congresses but also in numerous gatherings and public interventions by different political actors (NBonenfant and al. 99-101, 123-125). The issue was no longer only about a $1,625 fee increase but, according to the CLASSE's Congress on March 27th-28th, about a larger democratic and combative struggle on the provincial scale ("Minutes" 10). This will to radicalize and extend the strike is also visible on the tactical front with a series of economically disruptive actions blockages and occupations of Liberal Members of the National Assembly (MNA) offices, of Ministries, of banks and ports organized at first by the CLASSE and then taken up by various autonomous groups (Col lec t i f de dbrayage 88).

The days following March 22nd also marked a change in the attitude of the Charest government. While prior to this day the government' strategy was to downplay the strength of the movement and to stubbornly refuse even to acknowledge the existence of a problem (Bonenfant and al. 14, 30, 47) at the end of March, the government recognizes the fact that something is happening. However, contrary to the hopes of the students'

!22


unions, instead of opening negotiations, the government denied the legitimacy of the movement. In a way, while recognizing the right to freedom of speech of the students opposing the hike and their ability to speak, the government refused to acknowledge their political capacities (Rancire, Disagreement 22). It is crucial to see the intricacy of this double shift: the March 22nd demonstration was conceived by some as the peak of the strike, as the moment where any bona fide government would accept to enter into a dialogue. By their double negation and attack of the movement, the government allowed important parts of the students to radicalize their discourse and actions (Collectif de dbrayage 88).

The weeks following therefore saw a proliferation of different types of actions. As mentioned, number of occupations and blockades happened, but we saw also more diverse and even playful forms of protests. Indeed, slowly, a certain culture of defiance and laughter emerged (Collectif de dbrayage 90), echoing the practice of

!23


carnivals - or even charivaris , more rooted 8in the Americas (Johnson 371; Thompson, Customs in Common 469). This use of mockery and laughter as a political tool strongly mirrors the tactics used by the plebs during the Romans carnival of 1580 analyzed by Breaugh (L'exprience plbienne 49-59). By refusing to follow the decorum, the formal rules and standing of political activities, by making fun of those in power, both the Romans plebs and the Qubec students experienced a "carnival [which] as a transgression of domination constitutes a experience of liberty" (Breaugh, 50). In other words, both, for a short period of time, refused the pretention to government of the elites and their "monopole of the description of situations", their self-attributed capacity to determine was is political and what is not (Rancire, Moment politiques 214) and insisted on naming and posing a problem "that is not one".

!24

The charivari (or shivaree) is a tradition to 8create a ruckus, sometimes with pots and pans, in order to enforce certain community rules, often in a fun or ironic way (Johnson, 1990, 381). When it was believed that a household would overstep on a community tradition, people would intrude in their house, taunt them and curse them in order to enforce social norms.


This tendency to mockery and taunt as political tools is historically grounded into ancient practices such as carnivals and char ivar i s bu t a l so evokes more contemporary modes of political action. The alter-globalization movement of the 1990s and 2000s saw several types of parades, manifestives, clowns armies, etc. throughout the years, all at the same time light-hearted and deeply political (Dupuis-D r i , N o u v e l l e s d u f r o n t altermondialiste). In a way, similarly to the London Corresponding Society that was influenced by the context of the French Revolution (Breaugh, L'exprience plbienne 239), the reappearance of those tactics of laughter within the student strike illustrates the numerous and important exchanges between the student and the a n t i - g l o b a l i z a t i o n m o v e m e n t s (Lacoursire, Histoire 167-168).

These references to carnivals and charivaris illustrate also the importance of the symbolic battle on the political scene. While protesters often engaged in actions d i s r u p t i v e o f t h e c i r c u l a t i o n o f commodities and persons, they also realized the need to fight the government of the field of rituals and symbols, since, as Ketzer writes, "rituals have their own power and are themselves an important field of political struggle (104). In a sense, through their defiance, the Qubec

!25


protesters were similar to the plebs, "which can reverse the hierarchy symbolically at a carnival because any hierarchy slightly sophisticated not only express itself through violence and coercion, but also through symbols, performances, rituals and protocols" (Dupuis-Dri,Nouvelles 230).

At the end of March, as the strike turned further into a social crisis, the governmental tactic became more and more evident: after refusing to recognize the problem, they then refused to properly identify it. During the seven months of the strike, not one Minister or Liberal MNA used the term "strike" to refer to the movement: refusing the idea that students could go on strike, the governmental rhetoric was centered on the fact that strikers were "individual students choosing to boycott classes" (La Presse Canadienne, Grves tudiantes). From this moment on, the government strategy was to turn a political question into a legal one. From the students' attempt overturn of the original "wrong" of politics where the police logic excluded them (Rancire, Disagreement 42) the issue became subjected to the logic of the "right", the " T r o j a n h o r s e o f n e o -liberalism" (Bonenfant and al., 189).

Around mid-April, while at the same time opening the door to negotiations, the governmental discourse tried to isolate the

!26


CLASSE from the table (Bonenfant and al. 48, 68, 70, 91). This strategy was made clear around mid-April when Education Minister Beauchamp invited only the FEUQ to negotiate (Doyon and Blair-Cirino) while at the same Premier Charest affirmed that in order to be at the table, the CLASSE had to dissociate itself from violent acts committed by students and autonomous groups (Breton and Bilodeau).

However, even if at f i rs t the federations refused to negotiation without the CLASSE, when Education Minister Beauchamp required student organizations to "condemn violence" they did quickly complied. In opposition, the CLASSE answered that it did not have a mandate from its members and refused to do so. Eventually, through its inner workings, the April 22nd Congress adopted a resolution reaffirming the importance and legitimacy of civil disobedience and condemning both deliberate physical violence and systemic violence (CLASSE, Minutes 7).

By emphasizing the importance of its own democratic processes and the lack of power of its "leadership", the CLASSE was able to avoid the traps posed by the presence of a "leader" within an emancipatory movement. Indeed, Breaugh notes that the presence of a leader inside a political movement aiming to end domination is both paradoxical and

!27


potent ia l ly harmful (L'exprience plbienne 82). It reveals what La Botie called "the desire of servitude" of the plebs, which stands in opposition to its "desire for liberty" (45). By putting the general assemblies in charge of important decisions and putting great importance on delegation, the student movement was able to have spoke-persons and not leaders, thus finding a way to express itself within the public sphere.

During the following month, from the end of April to May 18th, a marked increase of the violence in the conflict, mostly between the protesters and the police, became clearly visible. Following the positioning of the CLASSE congress on the quest ion of violence, the government finally agreed to open the negotiations with all student organizations at the table on April 23rd. Those were short lived as they were quickly ended with the expulsion of the CLASSE on the following day, prompting students to take the streets every night at the same time (the "manifs de soir") (Bonenfant and al. 148-152).

At the beginning of May, the situation was therefore critical. Across Qubec and especially in Montreal, the strike was more and more hurting the economy as the labour market awaited new graduates. If as soon as the end of March,

!28


business associations were anxious about the effect of the strike, especially in the tourism industry, the situation became serious at the beginning of May (Teisceira-Lessard). By blocking the flux of capital through the strike and blockages while being at the same time extremely mobile and threatening the labour capacity of the working class (Collectif de dbrayage 71), protesters struck at the heart of both capital and the State. The States response was equal to the challenge. !

5. In the Heart of the Printemps rable !

The answer of the government to what appeared to him as a political dead-end came in the form of Bill 78. The "Act to enable students to receive instruction from the postsecondary institutions they attend" (L.Q., 2012, c. 12), marks another important break in this history of the Qubec student strike. It marks the transformation of the "student strike into a people's struggle" and the opening of, what the Collectif de dbrayage called the "plebeian cacophony" (183).

The provisions of Bill 78 were threefold: first, a suspension of the semester for the campuses on strike until mid-August; second, fines for individuals and unions blocking classes or protesting

!29


on campuses; and finally, restrictions concerning the right to protest with the obligation to communicate the route of any protest to police forces for any protest with more than 50 participants (L.Q., 2012, c. 12). The justification behind these measures is the individual right of students to attend their classes as well as the necessity to, according to Premier Charest, "re-establish order" in the province (2012).

This quote is revealing of the real intent behind Bill 78 and the fundamental concern of the state with order as a guarantee of capitalist flows in this case. And it is also an important shift in the attitude of the governing elites. While Qubec is often presented as a successful example of a pacified society - "peaceful and quiet" according to historian Letourneau (2010) - strongly regulated by the micro powers relations of the disciplinary apparatus, by what Foucault c o n c e p t u a l i z e d a s t h e s t a t e ' s "individualizing and totalizing form[s] of power" (213). Indeed, Qubec's "tactics of avoidance of conflict are at the forefront of subtlety, managing to present control as benevolence" (Collectif de dbrayage, 32). In other words, Quebecers perceive their s t a t e a s a "gove rnmen t " , whose "governance does not rest on a political will but instead on a economical management theoretically independent

!30


from any moral judgement" (Collectif de dbrayage, 29), echoing once again Rancire's idea of the transformation of politics into consensual management.

The response from the protesters of the Printemps rable to Bill 78 shows us the capacity of the movement to defy and subvert the law in creative and crucial ways, in a rare instance of political affirmation against a law. The special law was the target of several critics from student organisation as well as from other groups, from union federations to Amnesty International and the Qubec Bar as well the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Ligue des droits and al., 29). However, outside of the response from "civil society" organizations or students unions, the most interesting response to Bill 78 came from the many, from the plebs: in the face of repression, most understood that strength was in numbers and tens of thousands set up to defy the law (Bonenfant and al., 215).

This can be seen in the important p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n t h e C L A S S E ' s demonstration on May 22nd, celebrating the 100th day of the strike and willingly defying the law by not following the planned itinerary (Bourgault-Cot). But the most visible and interesting act of defiance towards Bill 78 was the "casseroles" (pots & pans) movement. Starting in Montral

!31


but quickly spreading across the province (Bonenfant and al. 223), the casseroles demonstrations would start every night at 8pm when neighbours would gather in the streets to bang on their pots and pans, an idea inspired by the cacerolazo of South America (Bonenfant and al. 223) but again, referring to the charivari tradition of North America or more largely to the defiance of the carnival (Collectif de dbrayage 186). Without any formal l e a d e r s h i p o r p l a n n e d i t i n e r a r y, neighbourhoods would meet up with other neighbourhood protests, forming large demonstration in clear defiance of the law (Leblanc 39).

The irruption of the casseroles movement marks the beginning of the plebeian cacophony in Qubec. This cacophony is marked first of all by sarcasm and sneer: the most popular of the casseroles' slogan, "la loi spciale, on s'en clisse" being only one example . This 9attitude is indicative of a strong contempt for the government and the law, seen as a mere partisan tool. It also marks the radicalization of the movement to point of

!32

The slogan could be translated as "we don't 9give a fuck about the special law". Another popular slogan was "on est plus que cinquante" ("we are more than fifty"), chanted as children's rhyme.


secession: at this moment, the thinking became that if "the government does not recognizes the strike, [then] the strike does not recognize the government" (Collectif de dbrayage 172).

I t s i s t h e s e a u t o n o m o u s demonstrations that also gave birth to the Assembles populaires autonomes de quartier (APAQ - Autonomous and popular neighbourhood assemblies), new spaces of dsicussion where inhabitants drew links between the student strike, the special law and broader themes such as austerity as well as local problems (Labrecque-Synnott 6-7). According to Lamoureux, the APAQ rested on a threefold principle: proximity, involvement and action, putted into practice through the support for the student strike and several other local activities (29). Less formal than students' general assemblies the APAQ were in a way trying to articulate a "democracy in action" (Collectif de dbrayage, 2013, 204).

As the Collectif de dbrayage writes, the continuity of the casseroles and the APAQ is evident for participants as in both, "the joy of participating comes from the experience of a certain way of being together that shatters the mediation of social categories as the confluence is o p e r a t e d t h r o u g h g e s t u r e s a n d words" (203). This shattering of social

!33


categories echoes what is at the heart of the plebeian experience, the dis-identification with any specific identity student, workers, etc. outside of the one resulting from the situation (Breaugh, Que faire du dsordre? 171). The fact that the term "les carrs rouges" (the red squares ) seemed to be the only collective 10identity claimed by participants in the casseroles and APAQ illustrates this will to avoid any assertion of identity and to stress the plurality of the movement.

Here, Rancire's analysis of May '68 can be helpful as he points out that dreams, utopias and political projects are created through action and not the reverse. What is important in moments such as the casseroles or May '68 is not the specific goals from which the movements might have started, such as the opposition to a tuition hike or the transformation of the "old university". According to Rancire, such concrete objectives are marginal to

!34

The small felt red square (from the French 10"carrment dans le rouge", squarely in the red), pinned to a piece of cloth, was first used during the 2005 strike but its appropriation during the 2012 movement was massive. Starting as a symbol of opposition to the tuition hike, it quickly came to symbolize support for the strike, opposition to Bill 78 and support for civil disobedience (Bonenfant and al., 2013, 10).


the subjective dynamic created, which "opens a time and space where the c o n f i g u r a t i o n o f p o s s i b l e i s t ransformed" (Moments poli t iques 236-237). !

6. On the Battleground !In a sense, the crowds that took the

streets with their pots and pans and those who gathered in the assemblies were truly the plebs at the core of the plebeian experience. Refusing any identification, the plebs in Qubecs streets reveals its political capacities and its refusal of being excluded from politics through Bill 78. In other words, the movement becomes plebeian because "subjects indifferent until now gain a political charge" (Collectif de dbrayage 193) and those subjects are transformed through their political action.

Although in the making throughout the strike, the transformation of protesters into political zoon, into subjects of a political activity without any mediation, is only possible in the context of the casseroles movement. We will come back to the question of the articulation of the temporality of the plebeian experience but the important point here is that the casseroles represent the moment when the strike goes beyond itself. In other words, the red squares had to go beyond the issue

!35


of tuition fees to become a movement questioning politics itself. From the passing of Bill 78 until the end of casseroles, it became clear that the movement was not opposing a certain policy but was about the political condition of the many; about, as the Collectif de dbrayage writes it, "an inventing of the community" (195) estranged to the established order.

The casseroles and the APAQ should therefore be seen as the concrete form of plebeian organization in the case of the 2012 strike. At this moment, "the plebs thereby acquired the full human dignity that comes with active involvement in the life of the community" (Breaugh, L'exprience plbienne 265). The clear emphasis from the movement that politics should be a common affair, a never-ending task of the many, illustrates this plebeian aspect. It is also precisely what makes it unacceptable for the established order, threatened by the infinite irruption of the plebs on the political scene. And in a sense we can see that the "the plebeian dissensus revealed the wrong inflicted by the police order, and structures were then established that opened the way to self-emancipation" (Breaugh 265) because "the apparition of the plebs poses a diffrent on the sense of politics itself: its action activates a system of meaning

!36


heterogeneous to the parliamentary rule of law" (Collectif de dbrayage 196).

It is worth noting that the plebeian experience is not only problematic for the ruling elites. Indeed, the transformation of the movement into a plebeian one quickly became a challenge for the traditional institutions of emancipatory struggles in Qubec. During the strike these institutions unions, political parties, community organization, etc. mainly framed the social issues in term of defender and o p p o n e n t s o f t h e " c o m m o n good" (Collectif de dbrayage 56). This type of discourse poses the "people" as the source of legitimacy and the supporter of elites or specific individuals, which are the ones "destined to take back the reins of the dissolving society" (Collectif de dbrayage 198). The CLASSE manifesto, issued during the summer, incorporates these ideas, notably through the sentence we are the people (Share our future 2) and its defence of the "common good" through direct democracy and direct action but with few references to long-term strategies. This use of the referent "people" is problematic from the CLASSE, notably because of the confusion of the term noted earlier. But it is also because, precisely due to the aforementioned confusion, the identification of the red squares as "the people" allows conservative critics to

!37


attack the movement, notably on the basis of the recourse to populism (Bock-Cot; Thriault 20).

Furthermore, although an analysis of conservative outrage concerning the strike falls outside the scope of this article, it is worth noting that one of the main criticism levelled against the CLASSE as exemplified in the recent Argument journal is its emphasis of the conflict between the people and the elite, between the many and the few. For example, Thriault argues that the CLASSE is a typical manifestation of "counter-democracy" (Rosanvallon) which "is a radical variant of the democracy [which] exacerbates its conflicting dimension instead of its d e l i b e r a t i v e o r r e p r e s e n t a t i v e dimension" (16). Similarly, a few pages later, Laberge claims that "democracy implies the art of compromise, "the giving-giving"" (55) and that the movement was asking for the impossible, thus threatening liberal democracy itself.

In his book, Hatred of Democracy, Rancire analyzed a certain type of discourse more and more present in our contemporary societies that blamed democracy as the source of several social problems. Basically, this type of rhetoric argues that liberal "democracies [] are threatened by democracy, which mean the unchecked activity of democrats, of

!38


nobodies trying to take care of the community's affairs" (Les dmocraties contre la dmocratie 67), an idea that is strongly echoed in the readings of the Printemps rable presented in Argument. For theses authors the Maple Spring was a manifestation of an institutional anomie in Qubec society (Thriault, 20), of a breakdown of social norms in regards to institutions. In other words, the events of the spring, as a manifestation of the many and of disorder on the political scene, are understood by these authors as threatening the established order and specifically liberal democracy (Breaugh, Dmocratie ou oligarchie? 178). !

8. " nous de choisir ": The 11Backlash !

As with all plebeian experiences, the gap opened by 2012 student strike eventually came to an end. On August 1st 2012, the Charest government dissolved the National Assembly and called a general election for September 4th (Shields). The elections marked the end of the movement. Although the CLASSE demonstration on August 22nd gathered more than 10 000 people (Le Devoir), by the end of August,

!39

"It's up to us to choose", the Parti qubecois' 11slogan for the 2012 general election.


most university students had stopped the strike (Bonenfant and al. 302-303). By the beginning of September, the strike was officially over.

On September 4th, the governing Liberals were defeated and the Parti qubcois won a minority government. By the end of the month, the new government lead by Premier Marois abolished important parts of Bill 78 and froze tuition fees (La Presse Canadienne, Droits de scolarit). But, as those debating in general assemblies in August had suspected, this election would not necessarily resolve all issues, including the d e b a t e o n t h e a c c e s s i b i l i t y t o postsecondary education.

Indeed, after a series of meetings between officials, students and unions the "Summit on postsecondary education" - emphasizing the importance of establishing a consensus and avoiding the "chaos" of the previous year (Radio-Canada) , the Marois government announced its intention to raise tuition fees by 3%, every year (La Presse Canadienne, Les droits de scolarit universitaires augmenteront). At the end of the consultation process in February 2013, Premier Marois even insisted on the importance of "not [] reliv[ing] the d i v i s i o n s t h a t w e h a d t o l a s t year" (Gouvernement du Qubec), echoing

!40


Rancire's claim that "at the core of c o n s e n s u s i s t h e d r e a m o f a n administration of affairs in which all forms of symbolising the common, and thus all conflicts over that symbolisation, have b e e n l i q u i d a t e d a s i d e o l o g i c a l spectres" (Introducing Disagreement 8). !

8. Conclusion !Was the Qubec student strike a

plebeian experience? From this analysis, it seems that the key moment constituted by the special law and the response to it by the casseroles, the heart of the Printemps rable, can and should be analysed as an example of a plebeian experience.

The first characteristic of the plebeian experience, the communalist tradition, can clearly be seen by the fact that throughout the movement leaders and spokespersons never had a firm grip on the students and activists. The Qubec student strike was not led from above, by an handful of union executives, but clearly made by the thousands of students who took part in the discussion and the protests "from below". As we mentioned earlier, the movement never took a "revolutionary" path, although it was always playing in the margins of legality and illegality. The casseroles and the APAQ but also the direct actions that took place throughout

!41


the strike were also clearly in line with the communalist tradition as their way of func t ioning was based on d i rec t democracy and the mobilization of students, protesters and supporters.

We can also note that the 2012 movement brought back a political d i scourse a r t i cu la ted a round the i m p o r t a n c e o f c o n f l i c t a n d o f fundamentally divergent conceptions of societies. Even if political commentators, MNA and other insisted on the "peaceful" character of Qubec's society and the rejection of violence as well as the "necessity" and "consensus" around the issue of tuition hikes (Collectif de dbrayage 115), CLASSE and other organizations did not hesitate to put antagonistic practices and discourses at forefront of the struggle. By contesting the "consensual order" of late capitalism, the Printemps rable was, in Rancire's words, not a conflict about which solution to apply to a specific problem but "a dispute over what is visible as an element of a situation, over which visible elements belong to what is common, over the capacity of subjects to designate this common and argue for it" (Introducing Disagreement 6).

The agoraphilia tendencies of the movement, the second characteristic of the plebeian experience, are also clear in the

!42


democratic practices of students' unions we have previously analyzed. Outside of the formal general assemblies, the recognition of the value of deliberation and discussion through the APAQ as well as the emphasis of the political capacities of the many stand in contrast with the condemnation of assemblies and the prominence of elections in the government rhetoric about democracy.

These first two characteristics are highly visible in the beginning of the plebeian experience, from the whispers of contestations in February to the complete separation from the established order in May. Therefore it seems that in temporal terms the separation and the self-organization of the plebs of the first Roman secession are not defined in clear moment in the Qubec scenario. The months of February to May show a double process of emancipation through collective practices and a gradual estrangement of protesters and rulers. In order words, through its self-organization, the plebs increased i ts separation from the patricians, up to a point where government and strikers refused to recognize each other's and were clearly on two different stages.

The debates surrounding CLASSE's position on the question of violence illustrate this double movement: by

!43


imposing a process based on direct de l ibera t ion and de lega t ion to a government urging students' representative to speak for the represented, the general assemblies both increased the distance between both parties and helped students to strengthen their anti-authoritarian and self-managing spaces. In other words, if we take Abensour's opposition of democracy and the State as an opposition of emancipation and domination, we can say that a democratic emancipatory experience unites the two temporalities of separation and autonomy or the two subjectivities of demos and plebs.

The third characteristic of the plebeian experience, the temporality of the gap, goes hand in hand with its third moment, the reintegration. The strike created a gap, a breach, a "flure" (Collectif de dbrayage, 13) in life's and capital's flows and capital in Qubec. The end of strike and the elections eventually closed this gap. The seven months of the strike, and especially the moment of the casseroles, unmistakeably broke the order of domination.

But this reflection on the temporality of the plebeian experience also raises some question about its spatiality. Most of the cases studied by Breaugh are located at the scale of the City: either as a City-state such as the ear ly Roman Republ ic or

!44


Renaissance Florence or as a capital city such as London or Paris. In this aspect, the p l e b e i a n e x p e r i e n c e b e a r s s o m e resemblance with the idea of the Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ), developed by Bey which argues that in "an era in which the State is omnipresent and all-powerful and yet simultaneously riddled with cracks and vacancies" (88), temporary occupation of areas free of domination in relative peace is possible. Although the scale is rather different Bey having in mind more "enclaves" than whole cities the principle of a temporary space/subjectivity freed from domination is similar.

This question of spatiality is crucial within the contemporary political context marked according to Breaugh by "the totalitarian domination" (Lefort) and the "disciplinary apparatus" (Foucault). Indeed, although the Qubec student strike and various other social movements such as Occupy Wall Street and the Tahrir Square occupation (Breaugh, Que faire du dsordre?) demonstrates the possibility of plebeian experiences on a scale similar to what Breaugh analysed, paying more attention to small and more localized situations might be fruitful.

On the other hand, an examination of experiences on a larger scale might allow us to spark interesting thoughts on the

!45


temporal dimension of the plebeian experience. For example, an analysis of what anthropologist James C. Scott named "Zomia", referring to a Southeast Asia region that is "the largest remaining region of the world whose peoples have not yet been fully incorporated into nation-states"(ix), would necessitate taking into account d i ffe ren t sca les o f bo th temporality and spatiality. And if "there can be no further doubt that we are all naturally free" (La Botie 50), then we might want to inverse our conceptions and conceive domination as a breach in the liberty of mankind. Therefore, although it is clear that the 2012 Qubec plebeian experience in itself is over, its memory is essential for the continuation of the struggle. In this sense, "le combat est avenir ".12

!46

A play on word from the strike meaning both 12"the struggle is coming"/"the struggle is future".

Solidarit:Journal of the Radical Left!Behind the common ideology that fuels Jacobin: Response to Jacobins Adbusted

R.M. Rogers !Situationism - A meaningless term There is no such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine for interpreting existing conditions. The notion of situationism is obviously devised by antisituationists. !

Internationale Situattioniste 1

Continuing on with a fine ideological tradition of critically-guided timidity, Jacobin recently published an article wr i t t en by Ramon Glazov t i t l ed Adbusted, a p iece tasked wi th admonishing the folly to the assumed situationism of Adbusters. While Adbusters is well beyond the pale of salvation, a reality few beyond the drum circles of occupations past would dispute, Jacobin is not quite sure how to answer the question of how it became so.

Jean Pierre Voyer commented in A Study of the Nature and Causes of the Peoples Misery quite accurately that

47


The enemy has become pro-Situationist. Situationism is the most modern form of reformism. This is the only sentiment of any salience that may be expressed t o w a r d s t h e n o t i o n o f A d b u s t e r situationism, given the magazines widely hailed integration with the society of the spectacle- a concept simultaneously grasped and lost by Glazov. 1

Situationism, or, the representation of the SI as reformism (cultural radicalism) is the ultimate intent of the pro-situationist mentality. Enemies of power are no longer destroyed with all the ideological vigor once seen in the show trials of Moscow or the Red Guard campaigns of the Chinese countryside, they are simply embraced in all the right circles. The SI, the pinnacle of avant-garde exclusivity, was thus the Austerlitz of the spectacle. With the invention of Adbusters, and its inverse found in the pseudo-opposition of the academic left, came the final blow of conglomeration for the classical avant-

!48

Readers of the article in critique will recall that 1Glazov did a fine enough job of recalling the banal marketing tactics of Adbusters in selling various revolutionary themed goods (shoes, flags, etc). Though hardly better than the commodity of ready-made revolt hawked by the well-respected social democrat, the point remains that Adbusters is visibly well enough detached from any serious critique of the spectacle.


garde. Gazov and his blissfully ignorant band of intrepid ideologists are merely poorly informed middle men peddling a development of which theyve no knowledge of worthy of comment. Having taken the pro-situationist faade as the proper deal, theyve only added (uncalled for) fuel to the already fluid fire of representation.

Positive association with the rule of the commodity is enough to level most any revolut ionary force , as has been established by the actions of the neo-Leninist, the nouveau Maoist of a Parisian 1968, and lastly, the pro-situationist adbuster. When the Leninist begins making a small business out of paper sales, when the washed up Maoist becomes a regular political commentator espousing the ghost of the Sorbonne on national television programs, it can only be said that the allure of power has won yet another victory of pre-determination. This is a victory easily identifiable on the most basic of levels, even the editorials of Jacobin have caught on to the show, but it is rarely appreciated for the totality of its depths. Jacobin cannot comprehend what has been done with the mythology of the SI- it can only gawk at the amusingly impotent specter of the pro-situ. The act is a welcomed distraction, if nothing else.

!49


The SI, perhaps one of the most self-reflexive band of megalomaniacs hitherto known to the world of avant-gardism, were at the very least aware of this trend, thus capable of detesting it. While Lenin and Mao relished in the thought that they were important to the world, the SI had, nor wanted, no disciples. Their fame was one to be hidden in taverns, not one to be paraded about the talk shows of MSNBC or the shanty towns of occupy. The situationist project was one without ideas and without its own theory; it was one which maintained only the very simple aim of integration with the realization and s u p p r e s s i o n o f t h e p r o l e t a r i a n revolutionary project.

A reality that has only heightened the joy indulged by the spectacular in having claimed its legacy, the fall of the SI to such a level of ideological fodder is simply all the more celebrated.

Now the modern social democrat may not simply be anti-Leninist and anti-Maoist, but he may be a patron of the newly fashionable anti-situationism as well. Designed purely for this mock demolition, this latest reiteration in the

!50


concept of situationism never stood a chance. 2

The orientation of situationism as an entity both detached from the theory of the SI and as an enemy of revolt is perhaps an irrelevant comment to make in reference to the ideological standing of Glazov, however. The actual texts prepared by the supposed forefathers of Adbuster ideology are not of consequence to the aims of Jacobin- if anything at all, it could accurately be stated that Jacobin has s i m p l y c h o s e n t h i s r e c u p e r a t i v e degeneration of the SI in order to best avoid contending with the internal contradictions besieging its own state of consciousness. By avoiding the hard questions of where the university stands in relation to the indoctrination of the spectator mentality of submissions/consumption, by sidestepping the transcendence of life by the omnipotent commodity, by circumnavigating the painful truth of our common misery, Jacobin engages in the sort of self-

!51

The point raised by this denunciation is not that of 2a refutation of anti-situationism as a negation of the construction of representation, but rather one aimed at the supersession of anti-situationism as fraud in appearance. An anti-situationism against the spectacle of an anti-situationism incapable of separating the SI from its unwanted fans is what is called for.


confirmation which the delusion of its everyday l ife is dependent upon. Presumptuously considering itself the champion of a theory which it has only understood in imagination, its editors can rest assured that yet another serious subject has been conquered by the magazine of polemic.

But we are not contending with a mere misreading of radical theory. A misreading again implies initial desire to have read said theory. The reality of this affair is far less interesting, and far more predictably individualized.

Jacobin needs Adbusters, just as Adbusters needs Jacobin. If not purely for a continuance of plausible deniability in a world which demands the denial of necessity, this relationship must exist. Jacobin is a publication for committed, devoted, and passionate socialists, all of which make up an identity much sought after in a world otherwise devoid of personality. The contributor to such a fine publication can be recognized in the social mediations of the spectacle as above others, as a considerably placed cog in the machinations of its cultural hierarchy. This identity is an artificial entity, though it is only as artificial as the commodity society upon which it is built. A critique may be found in this state of existence, but it will not be found in the ranks which we are

!52


currently contending with. This type of new left manipulator, lover of "political strategy", self-management and periods of transition, dreams of nothing less than "giving all men the means to invent their future. (Voyer, ibid).

The same could be said of the manufactured identity of the pro-situ punk sold by Adbusters, though in something of a hierarchy of anti-hierarchical credential, but the end result remains a comparable progression in the reproduction of separation. Identities of the political are made, remade, destroyed, defined, redefined, all while everyone considers themselves to, have lived in the process.

--- Pre-teen wanderings in search of the

political self aside, Gazov does nominally attempt to content with the lukewarm contents of Adbusters political program with his own, something which may or may not be deserving of the following comments. In the sake of a journalistic parity long since muted

It should go without comment to any semi-competent reader of Debord and the SI that neither intended to critique the mere image presented by the reign of the spectacle, or, the advertising of mass media, but rather the class powers behind these phenomena. It is true that these

!53


comments may be poorly digested by said students, but a basic command of reading comprehension will allow anyone to read in The Society of the Spectacle that the spectacle, taken in the limited sense of mass media which is its most glaring superficial manifestation, seems to invade society as a mere piece of equipment, equipment in no way neutral but suited to its total self-movement.

Adbusters misses this critique, but Jacobin follows in its critique by way of the transitive property, presuming the representation of the SIs critique of the spectacle to amount to original critique in and of itself. In a society which knows only the deception of secondary sources, this is not an uncommon trend Advertising simply exists as an irrelevant entity of power to Jacobin, with Glazov simply writing off a critique of the mediation of class power, or, advertising, as an exaggerated in regard to both its role in the perpetuation and negation of class power today. After all, there are wage increases to fight for and commodities to win for the Jacobian mind- victories which will not be had should they be questioned by their loyal partisans. Advertising must either be irrelevant or entirely overstated in the mind of the practically-minded social reformer, theoretical examinations having

!54


long since fallen out of popular academic favor.

It has been proven to us by Jacobin, or, our modern revolutionist, that there is little fault to be had in the distribution of the commodity itself- Marx was quite off base with his comments on the isolating nuances of commodity production- there is only an issue in distribution. Capitalism failed- the allotment of its wealth is not equal. The legitimacy or need for this image of wealth is not of importance here, for production may still yet be streamlined and improved to facilitate a more modern death via boredom. If only we had a party of the united left, to think of all the ready-made wonders we may achieve! !

Jacobins ideological absolutism aside, the fact remains that a subversive critique of a totality of the commodity 0requires a critique of all that appears, advertising inc luded. The phys ica l ent i ty of advertising is not abounding in the metaphysical subtleties of modern alienation, perhaps, but it transmutes this force into realization yet. Given its role in transmission, advertising could not display a more perfected image of alienation. Every false desire and expectation of life within the social realm of the spectacle can be glimpsed, and inverted, through this fleeting image of the modern economy.

!55


Advertising, even if only serving as the course through which the exertion of the commodity now finds its totalizing pull, remains the most tangible means by which the destruction of life may yet be examined, critiqued, and eventually, destroyed. Advertising is but a faade of the extent to the power of the economy today, but it is still yet all that appears. It is the only language presented to the spectator today, thus, the speech of revolt will necessarily be branded with a certain tendency of negation with this reality in mind. In the modern riot, it is a well established fact that the first expression of contemporary alienation from the proletarian comes in the form of the pure destruction of commodities. The worker does not join a party for socialist unity, he does not sell the daily worker on the street, and he does not subscribe to Jacobin or Adbusters- he simply burns the nearest image of his enslavement. No amount of slick recuperation and high-end graphic design from the front of Adbusters will alter this reality, as will no amount of mourning from Jacobin on the death of the g o o d a n d p r o p e r w o r k i n g c l a s s reformation. !

!!56


Advertising, to culture jammers, is virtually the same kind of universal scapegoat psychiatry became for Scientologists: an insidious, corrupting Demiurge responsible for all evils.

Opposed to a critique of revolution by

image, Jacobin simply opts in for the easy blow against the easily target of the left. As the American Air Force chose to bomb Hanoi over Moscow in the cold war, so too has the logic of Jacobin led its glimmering fleet of B52s to one of the most suitably inept attempts at pro-situationist activity known to the left. Comparative judgment has a tendency to reduce the appearance of idiocy, as it goes.

Incapable of mounting a serious

critique against one aligned against all that which appears, Jacobin simply opts in for the accumulation of fast prestige. Adbusters is a well known target, and one idiotic enough to be critiqued plausibly from nearly any angle, thus making it prime hunting ground for any aspiring man of letters . As is generally the case with 3

!57

This same comment could be levied against this 3critique- Jacobin is of itself a laughing stock of most with semi-serious pretentions in the milieu of the ultra-left. At the very least, this critique can be viewed as solid in its composition, relying on no socially-dreamed oppositions for its specificity.


any properly prepared piece of spectacular rhetoric, however, the target of your disdain should never serve as your target, which is to say, the Situationists cannot be held accountable for their victories and sins. Their critiques, oppositions, desires, resistances, paving stones, and beaches must serve purely as the backdrop for the occasional piece of misinformation, and little more. Instead of this target, one infinitely more nuanced, a proxy was called for, one more palatable to the grad school left. State in brief, that fine proxy was discovered in adbusters.

!

It would simply be too easy for Jacobin to be recognized outright as a business of academic esotericism, as another lesson in semi-lucrative niche building, as much would ruin the widely held conceptions upon which its project is based. No, when reading any ideology of the left, the standard operating procedure must be one of ossification. Jacobin stands for left unity, for a serious coalition of progressives, for democratic socialism- never for capitalism as explicitly recognized in the widely accepted vernacular of the political known to the spectacle. The left of capital is still the left, and the left is an important alternative, as

!58


we all have been told to know. We see in the busting of adbusters yet another amateur hour conception of opposition and well-heeled polemic, in which our esteemed crusader of all that which is good, Glazov, affixes pure psychosis to the notion of opposition in and around the field of advertising. While adbusters remain a pathetic image of the SI, devoid of a critique of what lay beyond the image of mediation, the point stands that the two are one in the same when taken in this all too common view of the empirical academia prevalent in the language of revolt.

Glazov was quite mistaken in accosting adbusters for never having been on the side of the left, they always were, if not for reasons beyond h is own comprehension. If there was one statement to be found to bear the primacy of ideological sin within this piece, it would indeed be that which proclaimed a separation to be found between the left proper and the presumed cultural deviancy of adbusters.

Both Jacobin and Adbusters are parodies of ideologies long since exhausted in their amusement, putting on yet one in a long string of poorly cast high-school productions of West Side Story. Though their show has witnessed the disinterested viewership of 20 or so

!59


parents in the audience, its quite a bore to the rest of us. !

It can often seem like culture jammers have the same concerns as anarchists and socialists: saving the e n v i ro n m e n t , f i g h t i n g c a p i t a l i s t exploitation, building a popular movement. But if they hate some of the things leftists also hate, its for the wrong reasons and worse, their solutions are quack ones Adbusters was never on our side.

While differences in appearance no

doubt exist between the misappropriated vulgarities of poorly rehashed situationist tactics and the slick, modernist, appeal of the slightly alternative leftist journal (separate target markets, demographics, etc), the production of alienation remains the same. Be it the preparation of a post-provos happening of dubious value, or 4the penning of another manifesto on the unified left from the secure heights of academia, an acceptance of the rule of the spectacular remains at the core of this radical activity. An amusing point of reference to this point is the comment which Glazov makes towards the electoral

!60

Artistic gatherings of Dutch pro-situ hippies later 4brought into the fold of Amsterdams urban culture, known for running mock political campaigns on the city level and various other petty scandals.


sights found in the Adbusters of late, one which notes the dubious allies of Adbusters on the widely accepted fringe of the international right wing. Demolishing Adbusters for their overt and explicit solidarity with the physical wing of political capital, Glazov could not possibly be more oblivious of the definitions of power which he supports in doing so. These men are not progressives, like us, just look at their voting record! So goes the extent of Jacobian critical theory, comments on the validity of political democracy in the age of spectacle aside.

Alluring as the feud may be to some in the business, the lot of it is quite worthless to the non-buyer. !

!61

Solidarit:Journal of the Radical Left!G o o g l e - s p o n s o r e d Gentrification and the Latter Day Californian Ideologues: Notes for Anti-Capitalists in the Digital Era

Scott D. Folsom !

An all-too-familar lack of reflection infects the New York Times coverage of the hi r ing conspiracy a l legat ions surrounding Apple Inc. and Google Inc. (hereafter, Apple or Google); the author, and by extension the paper, seems to think it impossible that one could occupy the position of well-paid villains who are driving up the price of real estate and victims of a conspiracy to prevent their mobility between the two companies contemporaneously. Of course, 1it is a fools errand to expect any sort of critical understanding from the pages of any well-established news publication, but this sort of mental gymnastics simply underscores just how willing the forces of capitals propaganda arm are to smooth

!62

Streitfeld, David. Engineers Allege 1Hiring Collusion in Silicon Valley. New York Times 1 March 2014: A1. Print.


over the complexities of the narratives surrounding the precarious but privileged position of Silicon Valleys engineer class their techno-bourgeoisie.

To gain a greater understanding of the role of the techno-bourgeoisie, we must position this singular event in a context the continuous colonization by the technological and digital industries of greater amounts of material resources. The process by which companies such as Google Inc. reproduce themselves, and the circumstances of that reproduction, are best understood by recapitulating the theoretical contributions made by Barbrook and Camerons 1995 essay The Californian Ideology through an explicitly anti-capitalist lens. Purging the latent liberalism of their contribution, and re-reading it in the context of the figures and phenomena of 21st century digital capitalism, produces a theoretical framework for reading the Silicon Valley of 2014, rather than that of 1995. !

An Account of Happenings, or, Googles Rap Sheet !

The primary schismatic loci between the professed and actual phenomena surrounding Googles actions are the corporations relationship with the proletarian figures dispossessed by its

!63


decisions, and with the state. Googles troubled relationships with the people of San Franciscos Mission District, and their cozy relationship with the United States property law apparatus, exemplify this division between corporate messaging and existence. Examining how Google comports itself as a mass agent in relation to the oppressed and the state creates a suitable antithesis to the hegemonic understanding of the social and civic responsibilities of its engineers.

Guynn (2014) describes the Mission District - the geographical site of Googles colonial ambitions as ground zero for growing tensions over tech-driven gentrification, and as a neighborhood heretofore largely populated by the proletariat and specifically by a large Latino/a population . The article notes 2trends discussed in other publications, such as increased home prices and eviction rates, in order to free up space for engineers.

The process of Googles colonization of the Mission has been discussed as early as the autumn of 2013, as Google began to appropriate public transit resources to facilitate their use of private luxury

!64

Guynn, Jessica. Google plans move into 2San Franciscos Mission District. Los Angeles Times 18 February 2014. Web.


shuttles a decision that has inspired the districts strategy of humorous agitation (such as the mimicry of Google imagery in protest graffiti) . Rebecca Solnit, in an 3interview with BusinessWeek, offers a starting point for our analysis:

[The buses] represent our era of privatization that rather than making a better system for everyone, theyll just continue to argue for paying no taxes. Mostly, its that they really do represent what expensive bottled water does in a town with polluted municipal water, or private s c h o o l s i n a c i t y w i t h underfunded public schools: Theyre gated communities on wheels. 4

These buses are more than a symbolic nuisance. Their use of public resources and

!65

Walker, Tim. The Dawn of the Start-up 3Douchebag. The Independent . 28 September 2013. Web. Accessed via Newspaper Source Plus. Wieners, Brad; interview with Solnit, 4

Rebecca. Are The Techno Riche Really Ruining San Francisco? Yes, Says Rebecca Solnit. BusinessWeek.com 1 January 2014. Web, Accessed via Business Source Complete.


spaces constitutes an obstacle to those who depend on public transportation. They are the physical manifestation of the succubus mentality of techno-libertarianism, the parasitic relationship between Silicon Valley and the commons, and the governing ideology of the techno-bourgeoisie.

However, as Google began settling Mission, they found that their colony was already populated. However, the presence of legal workarounds such as the Ellis Act gave the colonists from the Google mothership a tool to displace the proletarian occupants of their future dwellings, resulting in the eviction of working class tenants, elderly residents, and even people suffering from AIDS to clear room for those that Mission resident Tim Redmond describes as already stinking rich. Granted, only public 5outcry motivated one member of the techno riche to reconsider his blog post in which he decried crazy homeless people as an obstacle to his enjoyment of the Mission District; perhaps there is not as much affection for Silicon Valleys latest

!66 Wieners, ibid; Walker, ibid.5


o u t p o s t a s t h e t r e n d s i n d i c a t e . 6Nevertheless, the median monthly rent on a one-bedroom flat in the Mission is now $2,850, an index of the rapidly increasing cost of living . Thus, even in cases where 7tenants cannot be Ellis Acted out of their homes, the forces of market capitalism may do the trick without state collusion. This, combined with the bus situation, facilitates the colonization of the Mission District, exacerbating the problems surrounding capitalist distribution of the goods necessary for survival by allowing those who can afford to pay more to inflate the cost of living to a point where existing residents are unable to stay

There is an ideological divide that undergirds these material circumstances, something that Solnit begins to apprehend when she speculates about the lack of political awareness on the part of Googles colonizing hordes: !

But if you work 60 hours a week, you dont have a lot of time for civic engagement [] The people who work there

!67

Walker, ibid. The blogger in question is 6Peter Sinh, the title of the now absent post was Ten Things I Hate About You: San Francisco Edition. Walker, ibid.7


have lots of money, but no time [] Its like the bus comes to take the miners to the pit every day, and they do work these horrendous hours. Part of why theyre always sweetening the pill with all the gyms and saunas and gourmet food and ping-pong tables is that youre essentially living there. Thats your life. 8!

While the connection to the long tradition of coal mining is specious at best (somehow, miners found time to be the front line in the resistance against Thatchers campaign of privatization, a feat that it seems next to impossible to imagine any Silicon Valley engineer emulating, even on a superficial level ) the 9point remains that, while the cause and effect are present, Solnit has them somewhat confused. It is not, necessarily, an incidental result of the working schedules of Silicon Valley workers, but of the technology industrys ideological

!68

Wieners, ibid.8 For a discussion of the most commonly 9

discussed of the British miners strikes the 1984-5 action, see Milne, Seumas. The Enemy Within The Secret War Against the Miners. London: Verso, 1994. Print.


makeup, that these workers, and the c i rcumstances of work, are both engineered to make political awareness and activism as inconvenient as possible. Workers who do not think about their material and political circumstances are workers who produce whether they produce automobiles or killer apps.

These material and ideological phenomena create a context in which blindly arguing, as Streitfeld does, that tech workers are victims of oppressive labor abuses, is a half-aware exercise, one

Documents

Solidarité: Journal of the Radical Left