기린의 폭력적인 말

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이번주 토요일 아니라 다음 주 토요일에 해야 하겠다. 내가 원래 이번 주말에 할 것이라고 말해서 죄송한다. 보고서 3개를 써야 되니 힘들다.

그럼 6월 첫번째 토요일에 용산참사 현장에서 하자. 그 전에 이 행사를 다시 신고할 것이다.

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미안한데

노무현이 사람처럼 죽어버렸어

괜찮아, 애도할 일이 없어

모든 내 동지가 아닌 대통령이라는 권위들을 없애

그랬으면 너무 좋겠어

계단을 올라가서 국회를 해체

우리의 모든 동네, 근처, 촌, 마을들을

공동체적으로

급진의 민주주의적으로

자치적이면서 평등적으로

살아갔으면 어때?

권위자들은 문화적 중심에 거주하는데

여기 저기 여기 저기 거기에서 없애

우리가 새롭게 만드는 문화에서

계속 변화해가는

새로운 무화, 사회적 배열구조를 만드는

운동을 끝없이 살아갔으면 좋겠어.

노무현 안녕.

난 상관 없어. 지도자는 필요없어.

우리가 스스로 할 수 있어.

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이제 학교를 더 열심히 다녀야 되기 때문에 아무것도 못하겠다.

책들을 보기, 특별한 정보를 외우기, 학문적인 이론적인 바다에서 수영하며 열심히 익사해야겠지.

너무 조용한 도서관에서 진짜 시끄럽게 외칠래. 부모님이 공부하라는 명령을 따라가냐고 적당한 삶의 진로는 어떻게 되는지를 일반적으로 설명해준 주류문화의 관습, 광고, 생활양식에 왜 빠졌냐고. 교수님이 강의를 하시면서 아주 시끄러운 웃음을 끝없이 터뜨릴래. 정상화된 사회에서 평화스럽게 걸어가는 주체와 객체들에게 잔인한 폭력적인 말을 기껍게 할래. 퇴근시에 폭력적으로 운전해가는 복잡한 버스 안에서 폭탄과 같이 토핼래.

강의, 강의, 가위, 팀풀, 팀풀, 팀풀풀이, 독서, 독서, 독성. 발표준비해야 된다는 발호한 개념에게 즉흥발표을 제안할래. 학문적 담론을 되풀이하는 것보다 서로 함부로 대화하자고.

도서관에 들어가서 열심히 죽는다.

What a whining crybaby!   

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Friends and comrades,

In Yongsan, Seoul, South Korea, we have an emergency. January 20th, 2009, 1,500 police including the Korean SWAT team made a surprise attack on comrades who were trying to resist forced eviction and the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) “redevelopment” (or gentrification) program. This so-called “redevelopment” program has continued since the 1960s as an effort to transfer capital, shelter and wealth into the hands of large corporations like Samsung, Posco and Hyundai. Many people can’t afford to pay rent in these apartment complexes and buildings that these huge corporations are establishing with the support of the SMG.

After a large group of comrades who were occupying a building in Yongsan, Seoul, were surprise attacked on January 20th, 6 people were killed in a fire.

The SMG is trying to prosecute members of the National Evictee Alliance who were taking part in the occupation. These comrades are still having a sit-in struggle at the same building in Yongsan. A few months ago, the Candle Light Media Center was established in a building behind the sit-in struggle site. The media center is where many activists gather to work on media projects together.

The prosecutor’s investigation team (who were investigating the “Yongsan Disaster” in which 5 people died on Jan 20) consisted of 100 of the most elite investigators who wrote a 10,000-page investigation document. This investigation team interviewed passer-bys, the police authorities, the firefighters, the SWAT team chain-of-command, and investigated the site of the disaster. The prosecutors now have access to this 10,000-page investigation report and they are claiming that 20 members of the National Evictee Alliance are responsible for the deaths and that no police (or government) have responsibility. The court ordered the prosecutors to release the 10,000-page investigation report to the defending attorneys, but the prosecutors refused to release 3,000 pages of the document.

So far, the prosecutors have released 500 pages of the 3,000 hidden pages of the investigation report. These 500 pages have shown that the National Evictee Alliance comrades never attacked anyone, but used molotov cocktails in self-defense when police and thugs hired by construction corporations attacked. The 500 pages also show that rank-and-order police (including SWAT team) were not informed that the building contained paint thinner while the high-ranking authorities were aware of this fact when they made the decision to attack the occupied building.

The defense attorneys are suspicious that the remaining 2,500 pages provide evidence that the police and SWAT team attack was reckless and resulted in the deaths of 6 people. The trial is currently pending because the defense team is trying to take the case to the supreme court.

We need these 2,500 pages that the prosecutors are trying to hide from the defense team. We also need our right to shelter protected and not subjected to the brutal market economy.

Comrades!

Your comrades in Yongsan, Seoul need your help!

Please do something to help because this state apparatus needs people from around the world to shout at it!

I bet you can’t have a solidarity demonstration at your local Korean Embassy! Or can you?

I bet you can’t send an e-mail to the prosecutors and demand that they release the remaining 2,500 pages of the investigation report! I bet you’re way too lazy! Or maybe not?

Here’s the e-mail address of the prosecutors: proskorea@spo.go.kr
Here’s the prosecutors’ phone number: 82-2-3480-2337
Here’s the prosecutors’ fax number: 82-2-3480-2405

Please!

Signed,
Yongsan Coalition http://mbout.jinbo.net
contact: mbout@jinbo.net

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At the Women’s Film Festival, I watched a film about the “missile-dick chicks,” an anarchist street theater activist group in New York city. The missile-dick chicks are a small group of friends who make “missile-dicks” out of paper mache (or something like that), strap them on, dress up in costumes and perform acts of street theater, making funny and satirical exhibitions of patriotism, nationalism, militarism and right-wing politics. During the filming, Bush was “president” so the missile-dick chicks imitated Texas accents and thereby pretended they were from Texas during street theater performances.

During the time of filming, the missile-dick chicks decided to travel the US and perform street theater in more conservative regions of the country. The film was about their travels and experiences during the project.

Now that Barack Obama has been elected “president,” the missile-dick chicks said they will not discontinue their street theater activities, but need to create and proceed with something new. As anarchists, they are not satisfied with party politics or elections, no matter what the result is. I wonder how the missile-dick chicks plan to continue satirical street theater performances in the future, especially considering how they mocked the cultural identity of Bush from Texas. How will they do identity mockeries or will they do identity mockeries with Obama? This leads to another question: what does cultural identity have to do with authoritarian politics? Wherever we find a nation-state, we find authoritarian politics, whether or not political and economic power is centralized in the hands of private or state powers (“state” is only supposed to be public, but state power is indeed private power...although it is generally accepted that nation-states are expected to serve “public” interests and needs while “private” powers are expected to serve only themselves). There are probably many “white” Texans who practice anti-authoritarian or anarchist politics and culture. I’m critical of the attempt to satirize regional identity alongside the authoritarian right-wing politics of Bush. It reminds me of how left-wing people in Korea are currently making mockeries of the authoritarian right-wing “president” Lee Myung Bak by satirizing his identity as a “mouse” in the Chinese horoscope. I’m also a mouse, so how am I supposed to receive this satire? Wouldn’t it possibly lead me in the direction of becoming offended or maybe even identifying myself with a commonality between the fascist myung bak and me? Using these identity mockeries can be a danger to solidarity, outreach and mutual aid politics that are fundamental to any movement carrying just a hint of anti-authoritarian or anarchist culture and organizing practices. Anarchists need to reach out, make connections and network with a diverse array of various groups in any of the continually multiplying movements that we engage in. Anarchists and anti-authoritarians can’t afford to exclude or include (an exclusion hidden within a specified inclusion?) particular identities. Not that anarchists just “can’t afford” to alienate people from a movement along the lines of identity, but that such exclusive practices are contrary to anti-authoritarian or anarchist approaches to politics, lifestyle, culture and relationships. If we are to work towards developing equitable, compatible social relationships that aren’t ridden with social privileges and power inequalities, then nobody should ever be excluded and that means nobody should ever feel inclined to exclude themselves for some particular reason. This doesn’t mean that we should compromise with everything, but that cultural diversity should be accepted and regional or linguistic differences should not be used as a standard for exclusion whatsoever. Networks and movements like Indymedia or Food Not Bombs have branched out all around the world with many autonomous nodes in many countries and cities comprising an international network, and that’s probably because neither Indymedia or Food Not Bombs preached identity politics. I could write about this issue for a long time but I don’t want to overdo it, so I’ll go on to the next subject.

Street theater, arts and “playful activism” have become relatively popular, but I wonder how effective such tactics are in restructuring power relations and making real changes in our everyday lives. Arts and aesthetics of resistance, activism of play, subversive entertainment, etc. have historically had the tendency to assimilate to the point of becoming dominated by the very oppressions and inequities they seek to resist. For example, hip hop and punk rock are considered to be great examples of anarchist culture, but both of these subcultures have become commercialized music/fashion genres within the market capitalist record/culture industry. How can “playful” subversion sustain it’s creativity and genuine resistance without becoming normalized and swallowed up into authoritarian social systems?

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