absoluto

They will sell their cheap thrills as beautiful emotions. For them, the end of everything will not come as the bang it was for Janis, but like the whimper it was for Elvis.

Four years of silence and death later, the joy of living is back on the streets.

En même temps que le monde du spectacle étend son règne, il s’approche du point culminant de son offensive, en soulevant partout de nouvelles résistances. Celles-ci sont infiniment moins connues, puisque précisément le but du spectacle régnant est le reflet universel et hypnotique de la soumission. Mais elles existent et grandissent.

[Internationale situationniste. Numéro 7 — Avril 1962]

Anyone with a minimum interest in the streets will notice an increasing trend among European youth to confront the police at the slightest excuse. Stockholm, Athens (three days ago!), Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Budapest, to mention just those I remember from the last couple of months are showing that the days of peace and quiet in Europe are nearing the end despite the barrage of propaganda trying to link any demonstrations of unrest to some kind of Muslim conspiracy to take over the world  — and despite the vast and undiscriminate powers given to the police these last years.

It’s this Nikolas "Big Mouth" Sarkozy is referring to when he says he wants to put an end to the "May 68" spirit. He should be careful about what he wishes (and also about what he says in public, but this may be wishing too much). Whether he will be elected remains to be seen (and the streets don’t care), but whoever is elected will certainly have to face a much more diffuse, violent and impregnable May 68, perhaps with just the anger, without the spirit.

One of the best things about living in São Paulo is that you are less than 300 dollars away from a weekend in a five-star hotel in Buenos Aires.

Just in case you were thinking of coming here every day.

NO SOMOS NADA, QUEREMOS SERLO TODO 2 de septiembre de 2006 - 08h47 - Por 201.**.123.***

Tras dos meses de victorias espléndidas, durante los cuales fueron capaces de mantener alejados de la capital a los representantes del poder corrupto y enfrentar a los porros del capital sin ceder a la violencia, los pueblos de Oaxaca deben llevar su movimiento hasta sus consecuencias lógicas, y transformar a la APPO en una verdadera asamblea popular, sin jefetes y sin delegación de poderes y representación, que son el camino más seguro para la derrota. La asamblea popular debe ser responsable por sus propias acciones. Frente a la vacancia creada por la huída del gobernador Ruiz y sus esbirros, la asamblea debe anudar esfuerzos para ampliar y reforzar su propia democracia, transformarse en un órgano soberano de poder y extender su control a cada vez más aspectos de la vida social que se propone transformar. Debe estar atenta para no reproducir los mecanismos jerárquicos que son el principio de la corrupción, debe denunciar a los que intentan apropiarse de su nombre y de sus victorias para ser aceptados como interlocutores válidos del poder corrupto. No debe permitir que nadie hable en su nombre sin un mandato específico y limitado, para evitar que los oportunistas la utilicen para hacer avanzar sus carreras políticas. La asamblea de los pueblos de Oaxaca debe ser la voz de los pueblos de Oaxaca. Sólo así podrá alcanzar sus objetivos y hacer historia con conciencia, por sus propios medios. Viva la lucha de los pueblos de Oaxaca por democracia y justicia! Viva la asamblea popular soberana! No delegación, no representación!

Tomás is puzzled. He is again conscious of a new idea, and is not sure whither it would lead him.

For at least the third time since the new century began, after Kabylie in Algeria and Buenos Aires in Argentina, a major city in one of the countries that surround the strongholds of the merchandise world is in the grips of a violent social convulsion that led its citizens to take their affairs into their own hands. The Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca is the de facto ruling body of the ancient and noble city of Oaxaca, Mexico. In each of these separate "incidents", the struggle against the powers of lie and deception has taken on the same form, that of a radically democratical assembly that tends to extend its power to all aspects of the social life around it. Each of the two preceding ones was defeated from the inside, by their own bureaucratic remnants, and by the isolation and utter silence under which they operate, but each also took a step further in the direction of full democracy.

This seems to be the mark of the new century.

The Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca has gone farther than any of its "ancestors" in taking control of its operational territory, but seems plagued by a too-lenient attitude towards the opportunistic "leaders" who insist on speaking in the name of the whole assembly and take upon themselves the "task" of negotiating with the powers that be. Its future will ultimately depend on its willingness and its ability to deal with these usurpers as they deserve  — as the enemy.