23rd September 2014
Algortihms of Capitalism is the new book curated by Matteo Pasquinelli. This link would direct the reader to the Italian version of this very exciting volume which brings together the Accelerationist Manifesto, some reactions to it, and some important reflections relevant to what Toni Negri calls ‘the #Acclerationisty politics’ that can be drawn from the manifesto. Most of the articles have been already online in English as well. Here I collected some of those:#Accelerate: Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics by Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek
Reflections on the Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics by Toni Negri
Matteo Pasquinelli: “To Anticipate and Accelerate: Italian Operaismo and Reading Marx’s Notion of Organic Composition of Capital”, Rethinking Marxism journal, vol. 26, n. 2, 2014.
another intriguining peiece from Pasquinelli: “The Power of Abstraction and Its Antagonism. On Some Problems Common to Contemporary Neuroscience and the Theory of Cognitive Capitalism”, Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism, Part 2. Berlin: Archive Books, 2014.
Red stack attack! Algorithms, capital and the automation of the common by Tiziana Terranova:
On this blog [http://syntheticedifice.wordpress.com/] it also possible to follow other reactions and relevant discussion around the Accele-rationalism. Below is for instance a friendly but undermining critique by McKenzie Wark, taken from there:
#Celerity: A Critique of the Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics
To be honest #Accelerationist manifesto also sounds to me, at first several readings, like a call for Kautskian and/or Plekhanovian politics 2.0. It suggests that to breakdown the global networked cognitive savage capitalism we must lead it into a future trap by Accelerating it until it is broken!
Although this sounds like an excitingly good-crazy idea, I have to step on the brake…. It has always been hard for me to accept the idea that suggest that in order to or if you want to negate and transcend something bad, first you need to let it be worsen and worsen, faster and faster, violent and violent… then bam! Even though political imagery says ‘push it harder towards the cliff’, scary question remains: ‘what if… it still survives then!’ It is great and energizing to hear about the anger and hope being formulated in such intelligent way; crying that the time is up and we need get away with this maniacal system as soon as possible. However, I find myself sympatyizing with Wark’s strong and friendly criticism, suggesting that ‘ok, lets get rid of it, but not accelerating it.. by hacking it, now!” I believe that Wark is right. There exists another ways to hack the capitalist mode of production instead of making it happen faster.
Agreeing with many others who think global working class is currently making it self through ongoing and intensifying struggles, I would formulate a good hack, as a bottom up class project, surely one part of wider free libre and open source code, of which algorithms are currently being written:
“The seed form of the self-organisation of the global working classes needs to be simultaneously well grounded, transnational, and global. It needs also be open, free/gratis and accessible for all the working people; so that they can freely enter and leave it. As modularly integrated organized networks it should be aiming at and capable of linking industrial, digital and inforamtional liek hacker-, academic-, art- workers, sex-. domoestic-, immigrant- … all fragments of the working classes, as well as social-environmental-cultural-informational-sexual justice activists. Adoptable principles and protocols, in form of the ‘code’, which can be pre-determined, as the coding process itself, has to be well documented, open and accessible to local, workplace, neighbourhood, issue based, activist or other forms of political collectives. It should be operating similar to Anonymous, 15M, Occupy, Gezi and other decentralized forms, yet based on more advanced and structured working protocols, closer to FLOSS projects, grassroots and worker’s owned cooperatives. It should not include membership, service, representation sort of logics that at the end leads to the reproduction of disempowerment for involving nodes, creating clientalism. Such form should not be organized by professional intellectuals and activists from outside in, and from top down towards the working people. With an opposite perspective, it should be an open design process led by volunteer participation, based on self-governing and representation principles.
It should be able to put forward creative, assertive and effective direct non-violent mass action, which makes fun of and ridicule the target by allowing the formation of collective intelligence. An active peer-to-peer self-learninig protocols and praxis should be at the core cultural production and re-creation beyond straitjacket put on the working ‘class’. Instead of having teachers who must show the right and enlightened road to the candidate working class members, who needs to get a self-consciousness, a global and networked labour union should be providing working people with the access to the tools, resources and key networks that would make self- empowerment easily possible. By linking spaces where continuous open exchanges take place and carry the energy from one space to other. Utilizing How to(s), Do it Yourself and Do it With Others guides, in online and real world context, by FLOSS communication tools as well as mass-action tactics it would replace top down (issue-anger-action) organizing model, which would allow self-articulation, respectful and collaborative working praxis by harmonized through peer-to-peer digital communication where possible and desirable, as well as face to face and secure meetings, cultural and recreational events cultural events. It should be collaborating with other organizations, creative and productive projects that undermines capitalist mode of production and develop the algorithms and codes of alternative modes, as operating systems that could replace capitalism. Such global network needs to grow by linking existing radical networks groups of activists, hackers, organizers, makers, DIY groups, squatters, eco-willages, diggers, immigrants, asylum seekers, solidarity networks, and so on. In a way all nodes could associate with the globally networked ties, while keeping their autonomy. Instead of #Accelerating capitalism, a better motto we should be spreading might be:
“All empower one, one empower
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