What do a performance artist, an anarchist anthropologist and a magazine editor have to say about private equity, the sub-prime crisis and the new challenges for the working class and everyone that allies with it? Quite a lot, apparently. And the first thing, which they all seemed to agree on, is that you don’t need to be an expert in order to be investigating capitalism’s new crisis – and you shouldn’t rely on experts in order to understand it either.
One of the London Anarchist Bookfair’s closing events this Mute Magazine talk stimulated an interesting discussion: Most of the speakers and audience agreed on that capitalism’s newest crisis isn’t that new, as capitalism is ridden with crises – and yet, after this latest one, things can’t be the same again. The question then becomes: How do we participate in this new wave of struggles without falling into the old trap of forming a Leninist-style “what is to be done” manual that no-one will be interested in following?
Kisten Forkert, David Graeber and Nils Larsen followed by Q&A.
[1 hour 13 minutes recording]
Kirsten Forkert (Private Equity Sucks campaign)
David Graeber (Planetary Alternatives Network)
Nils Larsen (Endnotes)
The talk was organised by Mute Magazine talk at the 2008 London Anarchist Bookfair – www.metamute.org