DOES NOT EQUAL

That which does not have equivalence imposed upon it and is thus not exchangeable, yet remains common, referring to the general being of all things.

[doesnotequal]

February Minneapolis Autonomy Index A new calendar of events, gathering various autonomous initiatives in the Minneapolis area. 

[doesnotequal]

Economy is constituted and develops through the annihilation of every non-economic form of life, since for its regular operation economy needs a reduced, well-formed type of human, self-seeking and thus predictable individuals who can be counted on and are accountable for their actions. Reliability and accountability are the twin necessities for functional economy.

Jacques Fradin, ‘Economy, Ecumenes, Communism: Economy as the Devastation of Ecumenes, Communism as the Exit From Economy’

[doesnotequal]

It is true that at first sight the two operations — opposing a government and looking for the ways to function in common despite differences — do not seem to be the same. And yet, similar questions arise: first, in both cases, one must avoid the retreat into individualist and cynical comfort that justifies renouncements or that brings to an end any possibility of collective elaboration. Then, there is the problem of hegemony, and the ways of escaping it. On the one hand, the well-ensconced hegemony of economic relations and other manifestations of structural power, against which there is hardly any option except open battle. On the other, the never-really-absent temptation of a false solution to the problem of the one and the multiple, which pushes a developing strength to expel that which it cannot assimilate.

Mauvaise Troupe Collective, ‘The zad and NoTav’

[doesnotequal]

Let's not give free reign to our jailers, strike the tiger's heart every day, in every way, according to our differences, against the sadness and the solitude of cells of confinement, 24 hours of air. This is an invitation to speak and to think, an invitation to be always present in the situations in the town, the neighborhoods, the schools, the barracks, the factories, the roads, let's exhaust the enemy, let's wear out the giant monster by beating it all over its body. Let's not talk about desires anymore, let's desire: we are desiring machines, machines of war.

Radio Alice, Collective A/Traverso

[doesnotequal]

[doesnotequal]

[doesnotequal]

"Economy is not just a system we must exit if we are to cease being needy opportunists. It is what we must escape simply in order to live, in order to be present in the world. Each thing, each being, each place is immeasurable in as much as it is there. One can measure a thing as much as one likes, from every angle and in all its dimensions, its concrete existence is eternally beyond all measure. Each being is irreducibly singular if only from the fact of being here now."

The Invisible Committee, Now

[doesnotequal]

Everything’s coming together while everything’s falling apart: The ZAD A short film on the ZAD, an autonomous occupied territory in rural France.

[doesnotequal]

It's not a question of fighting for communism. What matters is the communism that is lived in the fight itself.

The Invisible Committee, Now

[doesnotequal]

Civil war not only brings collective elements into play, but it constitutes them. Far from being the process through which one comes down again from the republic to individuality, from the sovereign to the state of nature, from the collective order to the war of all against all, civil war is the process through and by which a certain number of collectivities that had not seen the light of day constitute themselves.

Michel Foucault

[doesnotequal]

Civil war, is the matrix of all the power struggles, of all the power strategies and, consequently, the matrix of all the struggles over and against power.

Michel Foucault

[doesnotequal]

Reading group on The Invisible Committee’s new book ‘Now’ taking place at Boneshaker Books in Minneapolis, December 6th, 13th and 20th at 6pm.

From the Semiotext(e) description:

“Now is the phantom chapter to the Invisible Committee's previous book, To Our Friends: a new critique from the anonymous collective that establishes their opposition to the world of capital and its law of labor, addresses current anti-terrorist rhetoric and the ferocious repression that comes with it, and clarifies the end of social democracy and the growing rumors of the need for a coming “civil war.” Now emerges at a time when the Invisible Committee’s contestation has found echoes throughout the West, with a collapse of trust in the police, an inept weariness on the part of the political system, a growing urgency for opposition, a return of the theme of the Commune, a vanishing distinction between radicals and citizens, and a widespread refusal on the part of the citizen to be governed. As farcical political elections continue to unfold worldwide like a line of tumbling dominoes, and governments increasingly struggle to reclaim a legitimacy that has already slipped out of their grasp, Now clarifies the Invisible Committee’s attitude toward all such elections and their outcome: one of utter indifference. Now proposes a “destituent process” that charts out a different path to be taken, a path of outright refusal that simply ignores elections altogether. It is a path that calls for taking over the world and not taking power, for exploring new forms of life and not a new constitution, and for desertion and silence as alternatives to proclamations and crashes. It is also a call for an unprecedented communism—a communism stronger than nation and country.“

[doesnotequal]

[doesnotequal]

[doesnotequal]

The individual doesn't count; man disappears into the world...

César Aira, ‘Ema, the Captive’

[doesnotequal]

Socrates was the last Shaman and the first philosopher...

Henri Joly

[doesnotequal]

The apocalypse is a huge event. But reality is not like that. In my film, the end of the world is very silent, very weak. So the end of the world comes as I see it coming in real life—slowly and quietly. Death is always the most terrible scene, and when you watch someone dying— an animal or a human—it's always terrible, and the most terrible thing is that it looks like nothing happened.

Bela Tarr (talking about his film The Turin Horse) quoted by Eduardo Viveiros De Castro and Debora Danowski in The Ends of the World