10 years after June 18

It’s worth pointing out that today it’s a decade ago that the international protests dubbed J18 against the G8 meeting in Cologne took place in many cities around the world.
I was in London at the time for the protest there, organised by Reclaim The Streets, which was a pivotal point in the development of a possible revolutionary movement in the UK. What seemed to be a peak and the start of something new would soon decline and be suppressed. [Read more →]

VENERDI’ 12 GIUGNO @ 21.00
DATACIDE CONFERENCE 01 : cultura elettronica e controcultura

DUKA: introduzione
CHRISTOPH FRINGELI: hedonsm and revolution
HANS CHRISTIAN PSAAR: kindertotenlieder for rave culture

SABATO 13 GIUGNO @ 21.00
DATACIDE CONFERENCE 02 : cultura elettronica e controcultura

DUKA: introduzione
NEIL TRANSPONTINE: a loop da loop era: towards an (anti)history of “rave”
ALEXIS WOLTON: tortugan towerblocks: pirate signals in the 90s

All datacide talks will be held in English with simultaneous translation in Italian.

This datacide event is part of Electrode 09 at Forte Prenestino in Rome. For the full lineup including parties please visit the website of Forte Prenestino and the website of Electrode 09.

Ten years ago NATO forces attacked and bombed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and occupied the autonomous province of Kosovo. The reason for this was on the surface the claim, that the Federal Republic, its army and police units aided by Serb paramilitaries, were conducting a policy of “ethnic cleansing” against the Albanian minority. The intervention was supposed to prevent a “genocide” from happening, it was thus a “humanitarian intervention”, so the official version went. [Read more →]

The feature length film “Saila” by Julia Ostertag situates in the industrial ruins of East Berlin a visceral enactment of post apocalyptic terror. The remnants, both broken people and destroyed environments, after the near end of the world are never given a reason for continued life, nor is it ever specified what catastrophes coalesced to become everyday life for the film’s protagonists. “Saila” can be viewed as an experimental project that attempts to critique film as a visual medium and standardized genre by doing away with traditional narrative strategies such as linear character development and causal storytelling. [Read more →]

DATE: APRIL 1st, 2009
TIME: 9:43 PM

MESSAGE: WE ARE A GROUP OF WORKERS AND SOLDIERS ASSEMBLED AT TWO FACTORIES OF THE PYONGYANG GENERAL DOMESTIC FOWL CORPORATION STOP OUR COMMON CAUSE IS THE IMMINENT LAUNCH OF A TAEPEDONG MISSILE BY THE DPRK MILITARY JUNTA IN ORDER TO JUSTIFY INTERNAL REPRESSION WITHIN THE COUNTRY AND ‘VOLUNTARY SPEED-UPS’ ENFORCED IN INDUSTRIAL FACTORIES STOP WE HAVE SOME COPIES OF CAPITAL BY KARL MARX HERE AND BASICALLY WE ARE LIVING WORSE THAN BARBARIC 19TH CENTURY ENGLAND STOP NOT COOL WE ARE NO LONGER CONVINCED STOP

NOW WE ARE BEING REQUESTED TO MOBILIZE FOR AN INTER-IMPERIALIST BLOODBATH BETWEEN THE DPRK MILITARY JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES STOP WE WILL NOT TAKE PART STOP WE HAVE SEEN THROUGH THE THUGGISH LIES OF OUR OWN GOVERNMENT AND WE ARE TIRED OF CHANTING FOR FOOD RATIONS STOP NO MORE BEGGING STOP WHAT OTHER COUNTRIES REFER TO AS CULTS WE NOW RECOGNIZE AS OUR OWN SOCIETY STOP ALTHOUGH WE HAVE LIMITED ACCESS TO HISTORIES OF OTHER COUNTRIES WE RECOGNIZE OUR STRUGGLE NOT ONLY IN THE GLOBAL DISCONTENT OF WAGED WORKERS AND MILITARY DEFECTION BUT MORE DIRECTLY IN THE STRUGGLE OF REASON THAT ARISES IN DISAGREEMENT AND THE CLASH OF IDEAS STOP ALTHOUGH THEY CONTAIN BOTH THE TENDENCY TOWARDS REASON AND FUNDAMENTALIST BARBARISM THE BOURGEOIS DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES AT LEAST PRESERVE THE POTENTIAL FOR REVOLUTION BECAUSE THEY PROMISE THEIR CITIZENS HAPPINESS BUT DO NOT DELIVER STOP

THIS TENSION TENDS NOT TO EMERGE IN A SOCIETY BASED ON TOTALITARIANISM WHERE WORK IS THE CENTRAL RITUAL AND THE NOISE OF THE MACHINE IS ENOUGH TO DROWN EVERYTHING ELSE OUT STOP INSTEAD WE PUSH THE TENSION TO THE BREAKING POINT STOP WE MODEL OUR STRUGGLE UPON THE AMERICAN HERO JANET RENO WHO SO RESOLUTELY FOUGHT AGAINST A SIMILAR APOCALYPTIC FUNDAMENTALISM IN WACO TEXAS STOP WE WILL NOT COMMIT MASS SUICIDE FOR THE WORK REGIME STOP MS RENO WE WILL MAKE YOU PROUD OF US WE ARE IN CONTROL OF THE TANKS STOP SOCIALISM IS THE AGGREGATE REDUCTION OF WORKING TIME AND THE FREEING UP OF LEISURE TIME OR IT IS NOTHING STOP WE 600 ASSEMBLED MACHINE OPERATORS SOLDIERS AND HOUSEWIVES ANNOUNCE OUR DEFECTION FROM THE CULT SOCIETY STOP INSTEAD OF WAR ON ANOTHER NATION WE DECLARE WAR ON THE CULT PRINCIPLE AND THE SOCIETY IT PROTECTS STOP WE AWAIT WORD FROM JAPANESE AND AMERICAN WORKERS WHOSE STRUGGLES ARE NO DOUBT SIMILAR TO OUR OWN STOP ALSO SEND CHEEZBURGERS AND INTERNETS PLZ STOP