Capitalist Sorcery: Breaking the Spell [First English Edition] 9780230237629

Citation preview

Capitalist Sorcery Breaking the Spell Philippe Pignarre

Paris, France

and

Isabelle Stengers Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Translated and edited by Andrew Goffey

-W “%“"" /~q‘.` fr." $]“"**\ 'JL _f .’?"":\ " IQ ,~ ;-’°°*w.' ‘cs 55 gwusff' - 5 43 E,'»3 .Li6f"°~*-7; a !~ *_/‘ ‘­

., -. if .2 \._*w4{9 5; 'q,_,,»r' \./ ¢w».;m man?

I _r l'

I AN ?fu\’/WN,z {E mv; f iz ,._\,'\,,,-al;

© Editions LA DECOUVERTE, Paris, France, 2005, 2007

Translation and Introduction © Andrew Goffey 2011

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N BTS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. English translation first published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin's Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN 978-0-230-23762-9 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10987654321

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

20191817161514131211 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

Contents

Acknowledgements vii Introduction: On the Witch’s Broomstick viii Andrew Goffey

Part I What Happened?

1 Inheriting from Seattle 3

2 What Are We Dealing With? 10

3 Daring to be Pragmatic 16

5 Minions 31

4 Infernal Alternatives 23 Part II Learning to Protect Oneself

6 Do You Believe in Sorcery? 39

7 Leaving Safe Ground 46

8 Marx Again 51 9 To Believe in Progress no Longer? 56

10 Learning Fright 62 Part III How to Get a Hold?

11 Thanks to Seattle? 71

12 The Trajectory of an Apprenticeship 78

13 Fostering New Connections 84

14 Sorry, but We have to 89

15 Reactivating History 95

16 A Cry 105 1 7 Interstices 1 10

Part IV Needing People to Think

18 Ecosophy 19 Political Creation116 122 V

vi Contents

Z0 Empowerment 21 Reclaim Above all, not to Conclude Notes

Index

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank those people who read and criticised the manuscript, especially Didier Gille, Didier Demorcy, Alexandra Minvielle, Daniel de Beer, but also Groupe Culture et Paix, which shot down a first attempt in flames and thus forced us to reflect better on the position that We were intervening from. Thanks also to everyone who participated in a day of critical reading as part of the activities of GECo (Groupe d’études constructivistes) at the Université de Bruxelles and more specifically to Didier Debaise, Jonathan Philippe, Nathalie Trussart and Benedikte Zitouni, who introduced the different parts of the book. During the Writing of this book, we met militants from Attac, the CGT, the CFDT, from Sud, from Act Up and from the organisers of the inter­

mittents and the précaires, all of whom encouraged us in our effort. Thanks to them.

V11

Introduction: Un the Witch’s Broomstick Andrew Gojfey Capitalist Sorcery: Breaking the Spell was written by Philippe Pignarre and

Isabelle Stengers in 2004, five years after the enormous protests that shook Seattle at the end of November 1999. Since the events of 1999 there have been a series of more or less visible, more or less violently repressed anti-capitalist protests across the world. And since Pignarre and

Stengers wrote their book, the collapse of the global financial markets and the increasingly high media profile of climate change have given

added piquancy to any reflections about the problem of ’inheriting from Seattle’. Pignarre, a writer, publisher and activist with nearly two decades’ experi­ ence worl