Nonviolent "bearing witness" types of action have the merit of fostering composure and undermining "bonds of hatred," but their fear of offending anybody often prevents them from taking the offensive. Blitzes represent a more aggressive (though usually still relatively nonviolent) challenge to institutions and representatives of the ruling order. Countercultural revels can be a lot of fun, but they tend to contain a large element of self-satisfaction, complacently "celebrating" this or that social identity. Blitzes have a similarly playful and prankish spirit, but the participants remain focused on their grievances, without illusions about the conditions in which they find themselves. Their sudden convergence on a particular location is reminiscent of "flash mobs" (and may have been partially inspired by them); but once flash mobs have arrived at their destination their activity is generally pretty innocuous, whereas blitzes are specifically designed to attack their targets. Mass demonstrations have a greater force of numbers, but they lack the flexibility that enables blitzes to move rapidly and to disperse and regroup as appropriate. This was the main reason for the development of "black bloc" tactics in recent years. But black blocs are often caught up in silly fantasies of street fighting or urban guerrilla warfare. Blitzers strive to evade the system's strengths and exploit its weaknesses, challenging it on the level of feelings and ideas as well as physical force. While black bloc actions tend to be impulsive, grimly self-important and purely destructive, blitzes contain a larger element of calculation, creativity and humor. Guerrilla theater has the merit of abandoning the traditional stage and taking its message out into the world, but a certain spectacle-spectator separation remains: the radical lesson is still being presented to an audience. Blitzers exemplify their "lesson" by their concrete disruption of the institution they are critiquing, thereby presenting a more direct challenge to the passivity of whatever "audience" may be on the scene. Some of their actions verge on the surrealistic. One of the most popular was to invade a business or government office and simply move all the furniture out onto the sidewalk. Ostensibly this was a sort of symbolic "eviction" intended to recall the real evictions that are constantly taking place. But the bizarre "rearrangement" was probably more astonishing (as well as less risky legally) than if they had simply trashed everything, and it undoubtedly had a more radically disorienting effect than the projects of conceptual artists who get official permission to make some temporary modification of the urban landscape. At their best, some of the blitzes are almost reminiscent of the situationist-style disruptions carried out in the period leading up to May 1968. So far none of the blitzes have been as lucid or articulate as the situationist scandals, but on the other hand they have been more numerous and more physically aggressive (due to the larger numbers of people involved).
Needless to say, these categorizations are rather loose. In each case they cover a wide range of actions, some being more effective than others, some overlapping with other types. Some nonviolent currents have taken the offensive, for example; some flash mobs have had a critical edge; and some black blocs actions have been similar to blitzes (in fact blitzes are probably to some extent simply a natural evolution of black blocs as experience teaches the latter to become more conscious and focused). These comparisons are simply a rough preliminary attempt to put blitzes in perspective, to clarify what they are or could be.
While most of the French blitzes aimed at blocking or closing down "business as usual," a few took an opposite tack and opened things up -- opening subway station gates and letting everyone ride for free, invading toll-road booths and letting cars pass free, or letting people into a museum or a concert for free. This type of action (is there a name for it?) cannot be too highly recommended. It verges on, and might inspire, that even more exemplary tactic, the "social strike" or "giveaway strike," in which workers carry on their usual jobs but in ways that break free of the commodity economy -- store clerks undercharging customers, workers giving away goods they have produced or refusing to charge for some service. One problem with merely negative strikes or blockages is that they often inconvenience the general public more than the rulers. If striking mass transit workers shut down the transit system, there may be public support at first but after a few days it will start wearing thin. But if those workers continue to carry out their jobs while letting everyone ride for free, the public will love it no matter how long it goes on. This kind of action brings a smile to just about everyone (except the bosses) and hints at how a liberated society might work. And it is hard to stop, especially if it spreads. It is virtually impossible to remove or replace masses of workers occupying key sectors of the economy.
The uprising in France has nevertheless shown how much the system can be shaken even by those who have little economic or political leverage. If the participants did not succeed in provoking a general strike, they still did far more than anyone, themselves included, would have imagined. And what counts in such struggles is not only the immediate result, but the rich lessons of the experience itself.
It was one of those rare moments when qualitative change really becomes possible; when everything is up in the air and the usual presumptions no longer apply; when people are shaken out of their habitual, spectacle-induced stupor and get a glimpse of real life, life as it could be if we weren't stuck in such an absurd social system. One breakthrough leads to another, and another, and yet another. While it's happening, the participants can hardly believe what they used to put up with in "the old days." Once it's over and they sink back into the "normal" state of mind, they can hardly believe what they dared to do during that magical interlude.
It doesn't last very long -- a few hours, a few days, a few weeks at most. Threatened with destruction, the ruling order brings all its forces into play, not only its obvious forces of physical repression, but also its vast arsenal of more subtle methods for confusing the issues, for diverting and dividing and coopting the opposition. Under such pressure, a revolt cannot stand still. Its only hope is to keep spreading and innovating. The only way to defend it is to extend it.
But even if the present movement goes no further than it has, it has already achieved two victories. The first is its success in forcing the government to back down. The second, far greater one is the experience of the movement itself. Its very existence is a refutation of the snide "conventional wisdom" that has prevailed for so long: "Revolution is obsolete. There is no alternative to the reigning system. There is nothing we can do except humbly beg for a few reforms. Don't be too radical or you'll alienate the general public." The uprising in France has shattered those myths. In the space of a few weeks a whole generation has been politicized. The participants will never again be quite the same, and their creativity and their audacity will be an inspiration to people around the world for years to come.
BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS
22 May 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflections on the anti-CPE uprising in France (February-April 2006). No copyright. See also Graffiti from the Anti-CPE Uprising and Documents from the Anti-CPE Uprising (en français: Documents du soulèvement anti-CPE en France).
Other texts of related interest at this website:
"We Don't Want Full Employment, We Want Full Lives!" (French jobless revolt of 1998)
Beginning of an Era (Situationist International article on the May 1968 revolt)
May 1968 Documents
May 1968 Graffiti
The Joy of Revolution: Chapter 3 (on tactics during radical situations)
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
