The following is a day-by-day synopsis of the events at B-Fest, organized by the Greek anti-establishment newspaper,
Mike Epitropoulos,
Inspired by the events that took place on the streets of Athens after the murder of a 15 year-old student by Greek police last December, the anti-establishment newspaper, Babylonia, organized a five-day conference/festival from the 27th – 31st of May, 2008. The event, called "B-Fest," was a collection of both international and Greek voices speaking out against the abuses of the market, the state, and other unjust forms of authority. ZNet took part in this event, which took place at the
B-Fest was much more than speeches, however. It was a gathering of young people, and of people questioning authority from the micro- to the macro- levels in very "horizontal" ways. The structure of B-Fest included a wide variety of bands, cinematic presentations, workshops, food and drink that afforded participants the opportunity to interact and exchange ideas on interpersonal levels that academic conferences could – and would – never afford. B-Fest was a cultural cornucopia of free-thinkers and free expression – a rarity in our times.
On the first night of B-Fest, participants heard anarchist and I.W.W. member, Andrej Grubacic, of the
In his contrasting of militancy and activism, Grubacic characterized much civil disobedience as, "mostly ceremonial," whereas a horizontal Direct Action movement in praxis "aims to create sustainable, real decisions." To truly change society, a revolutionary strategy through Direct Action is what Grubacic calls for. The goal, he says, is not a political party, but a horizontal network of self-organized institutions, that emerge from the bottom-up, from existing strengths.
In his conclusion, Grubacic said that we may, indeed, be witnessing the decline of capitalism, but stressed that we should not fear the ruins of capitalism. Rather, we must be, "constructively impatient" in our actions, aiming to forge a new society.
In the evening’s keynote address, a packed house of young students, dissidents, anarchists, reporters and others gathered to hear historian, Howard Zinn, speak on, "The Value of Political Disobedience." In a succinct and familiar manner, Zinn challenged the crowd by arguing that if they think that ‘democracy’ is a legal system that comes out of a system of representative democracy – they’re wrong! He went on to us the
Turning mainstream ways of thinking on their head, Zinn made clear that, for the authorities in society, the problem is civil disobedience, while the main problem for the people is civil obedience; emphasizing that, "obedience is more at fault for the biggest historical tragedies!"
After drawing historic parallels between the US and ancient Athens (which he characterized as an, "uncomfortable thought!"), in terms of institutions of representative government, Zinn gave concrete examples of the problem of equating ‘democracy’ with legal systems, including the over four million US slaves that were legal, and the democratically-sentenced-to-death, Socrates, whose crime was speaking his mind in an "open society!" Zinn spoke of the 40+ million uninsured, homeless, and hungry Americans in a
"The Law" legitimized slavery. It legitimized labor and civil rights abuses. It is a reflection of power relations in society, and Zinn presented this in clear and simple terms. He also made clear that the major social injustices in
Zinn’s call for strategies that include civil disobedience toward the ends of ‘democracy’ and ‘justice’ are grounded in this historic reality. He made clear that:
- We cannot depend on established institutions of representative democracy for a new president to bring about a "just society, or
- In taking direct action, we need to understand that ‘weak’ people can affect change against corporations and governments, etc.
The reason, he stressed, is that the people with power in government are there only so long as people are obedient. Zinn said, "…when workers strike or when consumers boycott, the most powerful corporations are weak, and when soldiers refuse to fight, powerful countries fall." This captured Zinn’s classic mantra of the power of the people, the power of civil disobedience. He closed by stressing that, "this power is in the millions of small actions in their totality," and that, "engaging in the struggle in and of itself is a victory – making life meaningful."
In the opening session of the second night, social psychologist, Anna Lydaki, of Panteion University of Athens, spoke on the issue of minorities, focusing her discussion on the burning issue in
Lydaki laid a foundation for discussion by presenting the basic concepts of ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group.’ From this, it was easy to develop the process of labeling and stigmatizing, "the other," and the power of negative labels.
Lydaki’s powerful provocations of the audience were in pointing to hypocrisy in the actions and history of the Greeks. Most sensitive was her pointing out that Greek refugees of
An passionate discussion on Greek racism and the rise of the far-Right ensued, with many voices searching for meaning in this multi-dimensional phenomenon in
In Thursday’s keynote address, Michael Albert laid the foundation for his Parecon talk with a presentation entitled, "Capitalism" Crisis and Social Inequality." Albert opened this scathing critique of capitalism by asking, "Why are we in a ‘crisis’ now?" noting that for years millions die of starvation, are homeless and unemployed, these were never considered ‘crises.’ It is only when profit rates are threatened and exposed that we are all in a state of panic and ‘crisis!’
Working from the classic concepts of power, alienation, and greed, Albert presented many contemporary examples of the workings of modern
This line of critique took us to Margaret Thatcher’s famous mantra about capitalism, "There Is No Alternative (TINA)!" Michael Albert developed the magnitude and power of TINA by the powerful classes through simple, down-to-earth examples. "Deep down, everybody knows that everything is broken," The argument is that TINA is so effective that, as people become more aware or conscious, they don’t want to hear about it. The idea is that challenging anything is a waste of time.
Because of this, Albert argues that our task is to focus on what we want and how we should we go about getting it. He rhetorically asked,
"Why does a movement about changing the world ignore
how to change the world? … If you think you can change
the world, it is incumbent on you to speak in ways that most
or all people understand."
This reasoned, across-the-board critique left many in the audience reflective and fired up; a lively Q&A ensued and went into the early hours of Friday morning.
Friday’s B-Fest discussions took on a ‘green’ theme, beginning with the afternoon workshops on urban space, energy, and ecofarming. Organic, homeodynamic and traditional farmers came together to discuss global trends in agribusiness, EU and Greek agricultural policy, and how to practically challenge many, current troubling trends in these arenas. Great emphasis was given t to bottom-up agricultural policy and action, as was the case with farmers involved with seed ownership, the Terra Madre and Slow Food movements. At the conclusion of the afternoon workshops, participants enjoyed a variety of organic foods and wines.
The evening’s first formal presentation was "PARticipatory SOCiety – Urban Space & Freedom," by ZNet’s, Chris Spannos. This talk linked the themes of urban crisis and social control with urban and rural space relations and proposals for sustainable alternatives. Chris’s entire talk is available on ZNet at https://znetwork.org/znet/viewArticle/21529.
Vandana Shiva was slated to present the keynote talk of the night, but due to illness, she was unable to attend. I did my best as one who is familiar with her work, and who uses her materials in my courses on political ecology and development, to fill in for her. The title of the talk was, "Society & Nature."
I proceeded to summarize Vandana Shiva’s latest and classic arguments on the links between society and nature and their real-world consequences in the context of ‘globalization.’ In particular, I focused on her book, Earth Democracy, in which she emphasizes human-scale, bottom-up approaches to challenging mainstream versions of ‘globalization,’ with what she calls Living Democracy, Living Cultures, and Living Economies – all based on anthropocentric principles. I also took care to present the basics of her emphasis on the ecofeminist movement. The talk can be found online: https://znetwork.org/znet/viewArticle/21786
The main theme in the Q&A this night centered on a debate over non-violence and violent confrontation.
Saturday, May 30th‘s full evening started out with yet another full house which gathered to hear Greek labor activists, the Italian academic, Franco Berardi, a.k.a. "Bifo," and British anarchist, Martin Lux.
The introductory roundtable of the Greek labor activists discussed working conditions and labor policy in
In
The Greek Left has largely proposed state solutions to these problems, from the mainstream union, GSEE, to the Communist Party’s PAME, and the state’s policy proposals. In effect, the labor activists argued, that this "divided labor" and "statist Left" is a major problem. Further, they argued that the "working class" is increasingly divided and unorganized because of: 1) the inability to organize actions and programs, and 2) the notion of, "There Is No Alternative (TINA)" is taking hold. For these reasons, many frustrated workers begin buying into the arguments of big business and mainstream parties.
British anarchist, Martin Lux, next took the stage and gave a fiery overview of contemporary
Lux characterized the British working class as, "disillusioned," stressing that much of the street violence, anger, and fear is not a ‘political revolution,’ nor is it ‘for jobs.’ He further characterized the Left there as, "…bankrupt, useless, pathetic, and miniscule." The vacuum, he argues, has fueled gang warfare, violence, and nihilism. The absence of a legitimate Left, he says, has pitted extreme Right-wing groups against extremely violent middle-class youth, anarchists, and religious fundamentalists.
In his most provocative prediction, Lux foresees an unexpected, extremely violent social upheaval in
With a sharp contrast in style, Italian academic, Franco Berardi – a.k.a. "Bifo" – followed Martin Lux in discussing the current economic crisis and alternative frameworks and modes of resistance. Bifo quoted US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, who said of the current global economic crisis, "what’s happening now is far beyond our understanding." Bifo said that he believed Geithner, and that it was probably true. Bifo, however, argued that what we are experiencing is not an economic crisis, but rather the final stages of the collapse of capitalism.
He developed the idea that this will not be a ‘temporary’ condition because it isn’t only economic in nature. He spoke of concomitant ecological and psychic crises around the world.
Bifo joined with those who critiqued outdated Leftist critiques that fundamentally pit labor against capital, and the process of exploitation. He argued that it is precisely the contingent nature of labor in contemporary capitalism – what he called, "…the black, dark hole of social life today …" – that no longer obliges capital to buy labor value. Instead, contingent labor allows capital to buy fractions of labor time. That is, time without people, rights, desires or needs.
To illustrate the contrast, Bifo gave the classic 20th century example, wherein labor would organize and go on strike to fight for better wages and working conditions. Today, he says, "labor doesn’t exist." Instead, people are a, "constellation of time." Big business runs on the precept, he said, of, "…if you don’t give me your (labor) time, I’ll call another cell phone, and see you later!" So, rather than the old system of consensus creating and sustaining power, now power is based on despair!
Given this framework, Bifo says that we cannot count on a ‘labor-led revolution,’ because labor is no longer human, or even based on humans. Because of this, he took issue with Martin Lux’s anarchist approach, and asked, "…what’s the use of [his] violent conflict? …to what end?" Bifo did agree with predictions of increasing fascist, far-Right aggression and other social protests across
"This isn’t the overthrowing of the system, but we are obliged to create ‘non-temporary autonomous zones.’ It was precisely these spaces and modes of social organizing that were the center of discussion in the Q&A session that followed.
Next, the audience filled the amphitheater to watch a special, video-taped presentation from Noam Chomsky to the participants of B-Fest. This was a highlight for many in the crowd and discussions ensued in the cafes and hallways.
ZNet’s Michael Albert closed out the evening with his second keynote presentation on Parecon, picking up where he left off from his earlier address. The packed room listened intently as Albert developed two central values of Parecon – Diversity and Solidarity – to begin the presentation. Michael Albert’s Parecon presentation to B-Fest can be viewed in its entirety at www.tvxs.gr/v14407 .
Andrej Grubacic took the stage to open the last night of B-Fest on Sunday, May 31st, with his presentation of, "The Anarchist Movement in the Balkans: Yesterday and Today." In this fact-filled talk, Grubacic argued that today’s
Politically, Grubacic explained that Balkanization occurs from above and from below. Balkanization ‘from Above’ aims at eliminating regional memory of the anti-authoritarian struggles in the region’s history, while ‘from Below’ it is the idea that it is possible to peacefully coexist in some form of federation. In his own view, Grubacic sees ‘Balkanization’ as a model of alternative, decentralized modes of autonomous living. This, he says, is at the core of, "political Balkanophobia," by elites.
The ensuing Q&A session was a lively exchange of theory, history and praxis among anarchists of various stripes, anti-authoritarian and libertarian socialist activists.
Michael Albert presented, "Against Political Parties," to close out B-Fest. Using the December riots in
Albert likened the problem of electoral strategy with the excitement of protesting and rioting in the streets for a few days or weeks, and then getting tired and going home. This was fundamentally a critique of strategy, which he brought home by saying, "If you’re not busy being born, then you’re busy dying!"
What is important, according to Albert, is keeping aims and process clear, so that people or the movement don’t evolve into any form of elitism or ‘Leninist/corporate capitalist’ hierarchies. The characteristic of a good political program is one which, at each stage, increases your support and increases the people’s participation. And, because ‘societies’ aren’t a single phenomenon, Albert insists that conscious efforts to include social movements with representation and participation from people from across society – women, minorities, youth, etc. – is centrally important. In developing this stance, he explicitly challenges orthodox Marxist tendencies to over-emphasize class. The question becomes, "how can we have autonomy and solidarity?" he said.
Albert argues that subsuming everyone under one, single banner doesn’t work, and rather demoralizes people from across the spectrum. Thus, a vision of Participatory Society that integrates all of these issues could build solidarity and unity. Fundamental to this project, too, is how we treat each other. Says Albert, "sectarian, hostile behavior inside our social movements is a worse problem than police!"
Hand-in-hand with these group efforts is the importance of our individual attempts to make our political ideas part of our identities. This is the fuel of believing we can win – "daring to struggle and daring to win," said Albert. It includes getting frustrated and tired, but persevering, he said.
In the end, those that attended and participated in the B-Fest activities were enriched by the diversity of ideas, people, and spirit that were present.
"The December riots were not the answer,
They were the question."
— spray-painted on the wall @ B-Fest
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