e-Newsletter 2
CONTENTS
1) Turbulence 04 out now!
2) Help distribute Turbulence
3) Turbulence website relaunch
4) ‘Move into the Light? Postscript to a turbulent 2007’ Republished by PM Press
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1) TURBULENCE 04 OUT NOW!
Turbulence: Ideas for movement No. 4: ‘Who can save us from the future?’
Today, the very act of thinking about the future has become a problem. What both capitalism and ‘really existing socialism’ had in common was the belief in a future where infinite happiness would spring from the infinite expansion of production: sacrifices made in the present could always be justified in terms of a brighter future. And now? The socialist future has been dead since the fall of the Berlin wall. After that we seemed to live in a world where only the capitalist future existed (even when it was under attack). But now this future, too, is having its obituaries composed, and impending doom is the talk of the town. The ‘crisis of the future’ – that is, of our capacity to think about the future – is born out of these twin deaths: today it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.
With this in mind we’ve assembled a collection of articles that, in different ways, speak to us about futures. As much as we didn’t want people’s ten-point programmes when, in June 2007 we asked ‘What would it mean to win?’, our interest here has nothing to do with futurology. There are no grand predictions. No imminent victory, because comfort-zone wishful thinking is the last thing anyone needs now; but no apocalyptic doom either. Neither are there any forward-view mirrors where capitalism recuperates everything and always gets the last laugh. We must have the modesty to recognise that the future is unknown, not because today is the end of everything or the beginning of everything else, but because today is where we are. What we do, what is done to us, and what we do with what is done to us, are what decide the way the dice will go. This requires the patient and attentive work of identifying openings, directions, tendencies, potentials, possibilities – all of which are things that amount to nothing if not acted upon – and of finding out new ways in which to think about the future.
CONTENTS
Introduction: Present Tense, Future Conditional by Turbulence
Today I See the Future by Turbulence
1968 and Doors to New Worlds by John Holloway
Starvation Politics: From Ancient Egypt to the Present by George Caffentzis
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by The Free Association
Global Capitalism: Futures and Options by Christian Frings
The Measure of a Monster: Capital, Class, Competition and Finance by David Harvie
Et tu Bertinotti? by Sandro Mezzadra, with an Introduction by Keir Milburn and Ben Trott
There is No Room for Futurology; History Will Decide by Felix Guattari, with an Introduction by Rodrigo Nunes and Ben Trott [read as a PDF here (recommended)]
This is Not My First Apocalypse by Fabian Frenzel and Octavia Raitt
The Movement is Dead, Long Live the Movement! by Tadzio Mueller
Network Politics for the 21st Century by Harry Halpin and Kay Summer
Inside art work by Octavia Raitt. Cover design, Kristyna Baczynski
Copies can be ordered from www.turbulence.org.uk
In Germany, copies will be available via Red Stuff www.antifa-versand.de
And in North America, copies will be available via PM Press www.pmpress.org
All articles are also available, for free, via our website.
Please get in touch with us at editors@turbulence.org.uk if you are able to help out with distribution, or would like to translate any of the articles published in this issue. Some translations are already available online. See: www.turbulence.org.uk/translations
Donations to cover costs incurred in production and distribution are welcome! They can be made via our PayPal account, here: http://turbulence.org.uk/donate/ or get in touch with us at editors@turbulence.org.uk
2) HELP DISTRIBUTE TURBULECE
Turbulence operates on an extremely tight budget. We rely on whatever help we can get to distribute the paper. If you can distribute a bundle amongst friends, are organising an info stall at an event, or are involved with a bookshop, social centre or any other space where copies of the magazine could be laid out, please get in touch! Where possible, we’d appreciate it if you could cover the costs of postage. Beyond that, though, all the copies you want are available for free!
Also, we’ve updated our MySpace site a fair bit since the last newsletter. If you have a profile, add us as a friend! www.myspace.com/turbulence_ideas4movement
3) TURBULENCE WEBSITE RELAUNCH
The Turbulence website has now been revamped and relaunched! We hope you like it!
Turb_01, _03, and now _04 are freely available to download as PDFs or read online as plain text. Numerous translations of articles from Turb_01 are available, as well as the whole of ‘Move into the Light?’ Translations of articles from _04 will be posted online as soon as they’re available (a couple are up there already!)
The new website also contains a ‘News’ feature, to keep informed about new Turbulence-related projects. Donations can also be made via the site’s PayPal button.
4) ‘MOVE INTO THE LIGHT? POSTSCRIPT TO A TURBULENT 2007’ REPUBLISHED BY PM PRESS
‘Move into the Light? Postscript to a turbulent 2007’, originally published by Turbulence in December 2007 has been republished as a beautiful little booklet by PM Press (www.pmpress.org)
Copies can be ordered from: https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=40
(July 28, 2008)
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Who we are
Turbulence is a journal/newspaper that we hope will become an ongoing space in which to think through, debate and articulate the political, social, economic and cultural theories of our movements, as well as the networks of diverse practices and alternatives that surround them. Read more here
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Turbulence on Myspace
