<nettime> mailradek no. 20 (on hitch-hiking)

["Oleg Kireev" <kireev@glasnet.ru>]

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text no. 82 1.09.1999 Pros and cons of hitch hiking. 
                                                                                                                   RogerWaters
                                                                                    Everythingis flying hither and thither, my boy. 

Kurt Wonnegut

You don't have to pay when you go hiking; if they ask you to pay, you just
shut the door (from the outside). That is why they are the part of the
society, where sincerity and confidence exist, when a stranger's smile is
not necessarily a merchant's smile or bought politeness of city service.
There's no surprise that hitch hiking only exists outside the sity, and
you have to walk a few miles along the road.  In hitch hiking there is no
authority, there is only confidence: the driver who picks you up for
absolutely nothing is beforehand sure that you are in no way bound by
contracts or obligations, and he is free to pick you up or not, and you
are as well free to stay on the road and choose the car you like. The
driver and the hiker hardly ever exchange addresses, for it's an
instantaneous and free connection, and there's no use for meeting outside
it anymore. 

Those who pass by are excluded from these relations. Many drivers, whose
car is filled up or those who leave the road make apologetic gestures to
the hiker, they're feeling sorry about their exclusiveness. Truck drivers
pick up more seldomly. When driving about Russia, they often have the
hiker tell them stories to prevent from falling asleep. When you cross the
border together (the hiker must do that in a car, there's no way to do it
on foot), you share the sweet taste of illegality, for instance, when the
driver himself is smuggling (and you can meet 90 per cent of those at
Belorussian-Polish border). The European frontier guard is looking at you
suspiciousy or scornfully when you aren't as respectable as that one in a
fashioned car next to you, but we are to be proud of our misery. Neither
the frontier guard nor the man in an expensive car can feel the joy of
hitch hiking. It's not you who were thrown away from the respectable
society, but they who never were inside the Culture. It's not shameful
either to hike or to beg at German streets, or to steal, or to refuse to
pay, just the opposite, it's a matter of pride, it's the thing that grants
us our uniqueness. In our everyday life we must also reject any kinds of
commodity-money relations, and not to lend, but to give, and if you give
something to the man of "your kind", he will give it back hundredfold. 

Hitch hiking is a communism on the road fulfilled. It was created by the
men of the sixties. But the regrettable end of the sixties' revolution
(common accusations of the bought generation) cannot discredit their
achievements. We must win back and restore all their achievements,
including hitch hiking, drugs, sexual revolution, aggressive social
disobedience, and to treat them better than the people of the sixties used
to.  Grigory-the-Jumper

INFO: There was a terrorist action at the Manezh commercial centre, which
caused some injuries to people present. A note of revolutionary content
signed by Dmitri Pimenov and The Union of revolutionary writers, was found
at the site. Since that moment the official media are full of messages
about this hero of the day, though barely anyone suspects Pimenov of being
responsible for the explosion, and his actions are expected to be mere
self-advertisement. Even if thus, the social activities of the radical
politics has now caused even more attention, and that's fine, isn't that? 
Pimenov has recently called from Warsaw, then from Prague. His apartment
had been searched and his computer was confiscated, and he "fled". A case
alike this one took place the other day - Vladimir Slivyak, director of
the Antinuclear campaign was arrested on the 6 of September when leaving
his own house, and after examining his ID documents and questioning him
about Slivyak's work, ecological organizations and his ecological
activities in general, 1st police lieutenant of Section 6 of Moscow
Criminal Investigation Office Kosterov A.S. announced that he is "leading
the case of the terrorists", including the investigation of Manezh square
explosion. Right during the arrest Kosterov was threatening the director
with "discovering" a packet of marijuana in his bag if he fails to
cooperate with the court.  The MCIO officers appeared to be looking for
Jacov V. Kotchkarev, who, as they had found out after eavesdropping his
telephone talks, is about to appear soon. (Kotchkarev was a defending
witness during the Krasnodar case). At the same time the FSB officers
called Alexei Kozlov (Voronezh) and said that "if Kotchkarev isn't found
in the nearest time, he can think himself arrested".  Another thing about
the Krasnodar case: A. Shunko, who come from Moscow to support Larisa in
the court, was arrested at the end of august. He's still kept in the
investigation cell, and he's charged with producing drugs. 

The sixth signal issues of the legendary anarchic magazine "Grass and
freedom>, its former publishers - the married couple of Larisa Shiptsova
and Ilya Romanov - are in jail now. The magazine was charged with
<anticonstitutional proclamations>. <Grass and freedom> used to be the
best and the most non-compromising magazine amongst many radical culture
publications. Unlike many traditional fanzines, it's printed in offset
(not on a xerox or a resograph), its texts appears to be of high quality
and the illustrations are exceptionally good. Everything begins with
Nechaev's <A revolutionary's catechism>.  After it the <Krasnodar case>
materials follow, and also the <Against all parties> campaign, <The NSO
theses> and various other materials,

An "Anti-nuclear campaign" ecological camp was taking place from august 17
to 27 at Novovoronezhskaya nuclear power plant. The main demand was
concerned about prohibition of use of MOX-fuel for feeding into atomic
reactors and was addressed to the authorities of Voronezhski region, the
chairman of which is also the president of the Union of atomic and nuclear
plants of Russia. MOX-fuel is a most dangerous component of defunct
nuclear warheads, the whole world is looking for safe ways of disposing
it, and here they are trying to use it as fuel for nuclear power plants. 
The camp activities included gathering signatures, street picketing, and
ended in a not very successful action in front of the regional
administration building. 

A protest camp took place at Czech-Polish-German border, at German side,
as a part of the "Kein mensch ist illegal"  campaign. More that 500 people
were participating, there were live shows of rock bands, theatrical
groups, films, a local pirate radio station was broadcasting. The
proclaimed purpose of the campaign was to change the social attitude
towards illegal refugees from South and East, against whom the state
exercises an extremely repressive policy. It has been the largest
initiative of the German leftist, antifascist, anarchist and intellectual
groups in the last few years, but its effectiveness is doubted. Rioting
punks, who throw paint and tomatoes at chauvinist burgers, hardly seem
able to shake their hate towards refugees; we certainly support their
actions, but we must look for more effective ways. 



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