“Only those whose freedom is taken away have yet managed a collective response to the restrictions imposed by the state for the coronavirus.”

Burning Equipment and Reflections Against Those Who Make Use of It

Posted: May 29th, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: Reportbacks | Comments Off on Burning Equipment and Reflections Against Those Who Make Use of It

[This text from Indymedia Nantes deals with two attacks near Saint-Étienne, a small city near Lyon. The first targeted BTP Eurovia  and the second the Delmonico quarry. Links with pictures and mainstream press articles below.

[Although I don’t agree that workers are as responsible for the harm their work causes as the bosses and owners, or that all work is as disgusting as being a prison guard, this text still feels like a worthwhile contribution to a conversation about the limitations of a class-struggle centric analysis. Because this text is right on that if those with access to the means of production won’t destroy them, the rest of us are going to have to.]

We still remember skimming the assemblies, the furious streets, the blockades, the occupied squares. We remember diving into the posters, the leaflets, and the journals [1]. We were open in our words and encounters, avid and impatient to have it out with this world we were born into and that makes us die a little more each day. Raised on the morality of class, we approached the workers.Were they not our allies by definition? We dreamed of Haymarket, while most others dreamed of their buying power and a good retirement. We wanted to burn it down, they wanted to work better. We were too restless at work to not become disillusioned through contact with the exploited. This text is a distant echo of the nocturnal arson of May 14 and 16, 2019. These were attacks against work, of course, but also against all those who contribute to perpetuating it. Read the rest of this entry »