Re: <nettime> Foundations for "Anthropocene Socialist" Movement

[Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com>]

On 06.01.19 01:03, Florian Cramer wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 5, 2019 at 7:57 PM Brian Holmes
> <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com <mailto:bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>> What we need, first of all, is a vision so carefully articulated that
>> it can become a strategy and a calculable plan.
>> Exactly that is now emergent. The point is to make it actual. That
>> means, to make it into the really existing state.
> 
> Your wording is interesting, because it connects "emergence" with the
> "state". Since the classical concept of emergence evolved around
> self-organization, it was decentralist. The state is a (more or less)
> centralist concept. The way you put it, it sounds as if you didn't have
> one particular state in mind, but a global concept of statehood that can
> enact global policies.

I think the two relate in interesting ways. What is emergent now is the
vision, and that does have to be decentralized, multiple,
locally-specific and spoken in many different languages. Only when this
vision is broad enough, flexible enough to resonate with different lived
realities, only then it can form the basis of a democratic politics.
Otherwise, it's Chinese style (or Thiel-envisioned) imposition from above.

But, vision is not enough (that's the take-away point from the occupy
movement outside of Spain), it must coalesce into a actual politics, so
it needs the state as centralized, or rather, collective actor. And
there is movement in this direction, around the idea of a green new deal.

So, in the new congress in the US, here is an attempt to "set up House
committee tasked with crafting, over the course of a year, a
comprehensive plan to move the U.S. away from fossil fuels by 2030."

https://theintercept.com/2018/12/05/green-new-deal-proposal-impacts/

At the moment, this is only a plan to set up a committee do develop a
plan, but it's certainly quite radical in terms of its ambition to
combine de-carbonization with a jobs program.


06.01.19 11:12, AllanInfo wrote:

> What I mean is this: where or in what way does the AS movement intersect
> with all the various/diverse forms of political insurgencies
> currently erupting in different countries? How does this relate to
> Brexit for example? Does the "Anthropocene Socialist” Movement intersect
> with DieM25 another example… Or Volt? Beyond a host of good ideas, what
> exactly is the political framework for the AS movement? Sorry to raise
> these rather practical questions but people here in Budapest are in the
> streets challenging the programme of an oppressive extreme right-wing
> government and I’ve been trying to figure out how this discussion
> relates to this ongoing struggle.

I think the case of the "gilets jaunes" is the clearest here. The
protest erupted over Macron's raising of the tax on gasoline, Diesel in
particular. The motive behind this was not entirely bad, but raising the
prices for pollution, without offering a viable alternative is just
deeply unsocial, because the rich will not feel the difference while the
suburban middle classes will see experience this as just another way in
which they get screwed by a deeply biased system. This is why simply
doing an "ecological tax reform", the classic demand of the Green
Parties of the 1990s, is no longer enough.

What is quite amazing with the "gilets jaunes", as far as I can see, and
this really speaks to the maturity of French politics, is that the deep
disaffection with the current politics it expresses, has not been
captured (yet?) by the far right. This really means there is a lot of
social energy up for grabs, available for an idea of brighter future,
that can offer both a short term answer to pressing needs, but also a
longer term vision of how live will be different, and better!, in 20
years time. At the moment, this is simply not there yet, but the green
new deal, perhaps even the commons, offers the beginning of a framework.

In terms of Diem25, Varoufakis, in a recent talk at the Oxford Union,
has pointed to the various development banks, that exists on the
international, but also the EU and national level, as existing vehicle
through which to organize such a large-scale investment program. He also
stressed that four major issues that need to be solved at the same time
by a comprehensive political action: climate change, unemployment,
public debt and migration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWB6lY2GBjQ

It's quite clear how they relate, but taking on climate change and debt
at the same time (and they need to be addressed at the same time) means
confronting not only not only the fossil-industrial complex, but also
the core segments of the financial industry. Quite a task.




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