Natwest Bank Damage in Hucknall Road, Nttm

Published: March 17, 2011 11:55 by The Miffed Brigade

Hey guys! Thanks for smashing the only cash machine within a ten minute walk!

Some comradely criticism, capitalism is not just a series of spaces and services and buildings and products that can be smashed and blown up and attacked. It is a social relationship that results from the production of commodities via selling of our labour. this creates very real social

I worry where you go from here as well. Carrying on with these small scale petty acts of vandalism will have ever decreasing returns in regard to their propaganda i suspect. So quietly giving up, or an escalation and all that entails?

There's actions are a sign of weakness, a useless lashing out of justified rage but ultimately a sign of the atomisation of individuals in a society that needs us to be isolated consumers of services and commodities, unable to challenge our own role as alienated producers of this society. the key is to make people recognise their shared mutual class interests, not to smash shit up for the sake of it.

stay safe.

http://libcom.org/library/you-cant-blow-up-social-relationship

Published: March 18, 2011 15:52 by Bystander

"capitalism is not just a series of spaces and services and buildings and products that can be smashed and blown up and attacked. It is a social relationship that results from the production of commodities via selling of our labour"

From the communique of Sharpening our Teeth:
"[Natwest] are merely one aspect of the system entrapping everything it comes into contact with. And this action was just one small gesture against all its claims."

In short, I don't think the two are necessarily disagreeing here.

I think that it can be argued that visible destruction of symbols of capitalism does something to change the psychology of those who witness it. The banks, potent symbol of capitalism, become somewhat more vulnerable and destructible in people's minds. This makes the "social relationship" of capital a little weaker, in my opinion.

"I worry where you go from here as well. Carrying on with these small scale petty acts of vandalism will have ever decreasing returns in regard to their propaganda i suspect. So quietly giving up, or an escalation and all that entails?"

Spoken like a true agent of the state ;)

"There's actions are a sign of weakness, a useless lashing out of justified rage"

I suppose you could say that. You could also say that given the supposed omnipotence of corporate security these actions show the cracks in the facade. They actually demonstrate the enemy's weakness.

"the key is to make people recognise their shared mutual class interests, not to smash shit up for the sake of it."

To be fair, I recognise my class interests most when I see other members of my class smashing up the oppressor's shit! Not when the self-appointed representatives of my class are standing around in Market Square with placards.

So Miffed Brigade - what concrete actions do you support?