<nettime> zkp6 (was: who would like to translate german -> english?)

[jesse hirsh <jesse@tao.ca>]

On Wed, 28 Apr 1999, fokky wrote:

> >The nettime moderators are now discussing a possible publication which
> >will summarize the reports, discussions and analyses of spring 1999. It

thank you! it is much needed in the localities where i and i are
organizing against this war. the propaganda is intense, and we need some
international collaborative text filtering in paper format to be given out
at varous events and movement building phenomena. we will have to
understand spring 99 during the next years of war.

> 1. What do you want to achieve? What is necessary at this moment? More and
> more opinions, texts, talks fixed onto soon-to-be-obsolete paper? New
> promotion of nettime? The further institutionalization of intellectual
> detachment and lameness? I find it rather disheartening to see that all
> those weeks of discussion on nettime - dozens of people voicing opinions,
> forwarding stuff, etcetera, have produced so little actual working
> initiatives out of the community itself that changed things.

this is perhaps where the whole internet mythology and online fallacy
distort our pereption of our won communities. here in north america the
movement against the war is growing at a phenomenal rate, largely on the
ground, localized, and quite honestly, all sides (nato, serbia, neither,
and even kosovars) have people on the ground.

the 'information' that has arrived in my inbox from the nettime list has
been by far the best and most lively compared to many top notch north
american and european (alternative) news lists. i totally support seeing
labour come together and edit the material into a print based collection,
that some of here in canada could either obtain, or better yet, have our
own small print run, and then get them out to the movements on the ground
organizing against the war in canada and parts of the u$.

today the globe and mail (news of record in canada) reported that the
canadian government, as of yesterday, has officially sent in ground
troops, and is planning to send in more. the liberal canucks in power are
sending in their officer corps, to get a good grab on the nato and un
executive and middle management jobs that will arise with a several year
occupation. canada as the colony that produces sycophants for the mpire,
and yet is too naiive to be subtle about it, and brag continously in their
own media.

meanwhile in the same edition of the paper, on the 'toronto' page, there
was an article about the 'cost' of policing the daily serbian nationalist
demos in toronto which had risen to $1.5million dollars so far, and was
increasing by at least $35,000 each night. the police are also claiming
that because the numbers of police needed for the serbian demos was so
high, no downtown divisions could have cops on the streets at night, and
all the petty criminals knew this, and have been on a nightly rampage. all
of this after the second night of the nato bombing when the u$ consulate
here in toronto was fired bombed (repeatedly) by protestors in the serbian
nationalist demo. from that night on the cops have been in military
formation establishing a strong perimeter around the daily demos. the
spectacle has drawn out how the war is about containment as much as it is
about illegal and disruptive flows of all forms.

the local anti-war group, which is very large, attracting all sorts, is
still dominated by the serbian and international socialist caucuses. no
other group has had the time, ability or desire to challenge their
strength and numbers in the meetings. a zkp6 would certainly help to
displace this balance of power.


> And I'm not
> referring to the situation in the Balkans even, but to the (local) kind of
> attitudes and statements you see and hear when you step outside your front
> door, or read the paper or political discussions on usenet, for example.
> The hard work is done elsewhere. How influential are we? And how much would
> such a publication really contribute in becoming more influential apart
> from - again - preaching to the converted? Just a few thoughts, let's not
> tap ourselves on the shoulders too much... read on for the more positive
> stuff though.

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