Re: <nettime> The Revolutionary Role of a Transnational Counterparty

[Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>]

I agree with Snafu's contribution to this thread - the idea of a 
debtors' party interests me more in the sense of the old revolutionary 
CPs, as vanguard parties and not voting blocks. There will in particular 
be a role for a vanguard party in encouraging people not to pay their 
unpayable debts in the upcoming year or two, especially students and 
student loans. OWS is a lot more like workers-council democracy than it 
is like a traditional party -- except that so far it's a middle-class 
council.

There is some real potential for social transformation in these 
formations, even in the US and probably more so in Europe (since the 
indignado movement is still bigger than OWS, you should really check 
that out, Dmytri). But to that extent, what Fran Ilich says is the key:

> and do the spanish people even know that they're economy is so
> dependent in the colonial parasiting of -for instance- latin america?
> there's a whole level of irreality on this 'first world' protests,
> that are definitely very important on the symbolic level, but if they
> don't start looking really into the complexity of economical global
> relations than what they experience on their local and national
> reality.

The way to do this in the States (dunno about Spain or Greece) is just 
to bring more working class people into the movements, because then 
immediately the color and border lines are crossed. This is happening 
right now in Oakland with the General Strike, and if it works it will be 
a huge turning point.

> maybe instead of focusing so much on the economic scam that has
> been so obvious to the underdeveloped and third world countries
> for centurys, it might be a good opportunity to create updated
> institutions or forms of organizations to balance power over the
> networks, in order to create exchanges that are more fair to all
> parties involved. and who knows, maybe this way europe and north
> america will continue to feel cheated -if not more cheated than how
> they feel now in this crisis.

We are cheated by the horrible form that capitalist expropriation has 
given to our societies - the incredible degrees of inequality, the 
predator mentality, the continual forms of entrapment visited on the 
people who have the least. All that depends in the US on the 
exploitation of immigrant labor and on all sorts of outsourcing and 
extraction abroad, including financial extraction through stock deals 
and loans and credit schemes of all sorts. Like Fran I get nervous when 
I see people in OWS who just want a bigger piece of the same disgusting 
pie. However the straightest, most business-looking guy in Occupy 
Chicago carries a sign about how the US has the highest levels of 
inequality of the developed countries, which means he's not just 
thinking about his own interests. So let's encourage people to think 
about changing social relations throughout the world, and not just 
reassembling the classsic international pyramid with the US and European 
middle classses clinging desperately to the shoestrings of the 1%!

best to all, Brian


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