Cycles & Circuits of Struggle

Anti-corporate activism in the information age

Cycles of Struggle (autonomous Marxism) • workers’ struggles provide the dynamic of

capitalist development• capital resists the process of class composition

of labour– it seeks to decompose movements of class

composition

• decomposition of workforce is followed by its recomposition

• Capital depends upon the wage relation: capital needs labour – hence a cycle of composition/decomposition

Circuits of Capital • Circuits are areas of social organization

necessary to accumulation• The scope of capital’s social organization has

been expanded since Marx’s day by cybernetic, monopoly capital

• Circuits include not just production and circulation of capital, but also extension of market relations into the social factory (the home, education, health), & the environment (environmental degradation, pollution, depletion of natural resources)

The Four Circuits of Capital • Production

– labour power & means of production are combined to produce commodities

• Circulation– commodities are bought & sold

• Reproduction of labour– the preparation & repair of labour– e.g. household, hospitals, schools, welfare office,

universities; i.e., the “social factory”

• Reproduction of nature– mobilization of raw materials for production

Circuits of Struggle• circuits are also areas of struggle against

capital’s control of the social terrain• extending the scope of control has been made

possible by ICTs • the “post-Fordist proletariat” is characterized

by:– involvement in computerized, informational

production– immersion in communicative networks– diffusion of worksites, throughout society, and

globally

General Forms of Opposition

• Refusal– any attempt to sabotage, stop, or slow

technological domination

• Re-appropriation– labour’s reclaiming, or re-functioning of

technology, using it for subversive rather than managerial & accumulative functions

Struggle in Circuit of Production

• LA rebellion of 1992– incited by Rodney King beating by LAPD– not a race riot– a multicultural anti-poverty insurgency– affected community was devastated by

automation & global relocation– “Rioters” were those under- and

unemployed by automation & global relocation

Role of Media & ICTs in LA Rebellion • Computer networks & microwatt radio

circulate news, analysis, manifestos• Walkie-talkie coordination of looting• Rap & hip-hop music celebrate spirit of

rebellion• Corporate media coverage gives global voice

to rebellion• Supportive demonstrations break out in

Atlanta, Cleveland, Newark, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, & in Europe

ICTs in Struggle in the Circuit of Production • Tracking & targeting capital’s flows &

movements• Organization of counter-actions• Mobilization of membership• Identifying corporate holdings, linkages, &

interests• Communications among activists dispersed

across the globe• Use of video to circulate records of resistance

activities

Struggle in Circuit of Circulation

• Circulation needs a consuming subject

• ICTs, media control are essential to capital’s marketing & branding strategies

• Autonomy of informational & media workers create problems for capital

Autonomous Media

• Autonomy of media workers– Cybernetic capitalism creates echelons of

intellectual and techno-scientific media workers– Some have interests in creativity, integrity,

freedom of expression, & social justice

• Autonomy of media audiences– the disobedient “audience commodity”– zapping, surfing, recording, piracy, bootlegging,

descrambling, hacking

More Autonomous Media• Pirate radio stations, critical publishers,

presses, newspapers, zines• Independent film, activist video• Inexpensive, low-power, illegal FM microwatt

broadcasting (e.g. by ghetto communities, squatters, & the homeless)

• Internet-based community activism• Internet & web activism to connect & make

visible to each other a multiplicity of social movements

Culture Jamming• the practice of parodying advertisements in

order to alter & subvert their messages• motivated by free speech concerns, public

space concerns• recognizes the enclosure of public space,

especially cultural space, by branding & advertising

• opposes one-way flow of information in an increasingly privatized environment

Spectrum of Culture Jammers

• Merry Pranksters– Emphasis on parody, pleasure, play

• Adbusters– Emphasis on criticism of corporate power

• Media collectives– Decentralized; anarchist leanings

• Hacktivists– Illegal raids on corporate web sites

• Mainstream groups– Teamsters– Antitobacco lobby

Politics of Culture Jamming

• Politics or pranksterism?

• Does culture jamming work? Does it matter?

• Do culture jammers play the corporate game?

• Has culture jamming been co-opted by corporations?

Politics, once more . . .

• Is culture jamming merely harmless satire?

• Does it exist in isolation from genuine political movements and ideologies?

• Is it part of a wider political activism at work on many different fronts?

Economic Globalization Breeds Global Protest • A “wave of techno-savvy investigative

activists” (Klein, p. 327)• Nike, Disney, Wal-Mart become icons of

corporate brutality• Year of the sweatshop (1995-96)• Year of the brand attack (1995 - )

– Starbuck’s, Monsanto, McDonalds, Royal Dutch/Shell (execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa)

– Corporations connected with repressive governments (e.g. Burma)

Branding & Protest: A Connection?• Klein: the cultural invasiveness of

branding breeds protest• When we inhabit branded worlds, we

feel complicit in corporate brutalities & injustices

• Our connection to corporations is “emotionally intense but shallow enough to turn on a dime” (p. 335)

• “. . . the seeds of discontent are part of [the] very DNA [of branding].” (p. 340)