captainfop

barcelona was a city born, or rather reborn, in violence

victor serge writes that much of its growth, migration of labourers, was based on war

a city in revolt and a war elsewhere

in barcelona i am writing about the glasgow rent strike

(the working class movement for housing that won all of its immediate demands and laid the foundation for the welfare state)

a city in revolt against the violence of landlordism

in the pressure cooker of the war effort the armaments destined for the trenches become the thing a working class movement can rest its power on

the birth of a city in violence; the rebirth of a city, the birth of a militancy, in violence

it was we the workers who built these palaces and these cities (Durruti)

but it was also these hands who built the bombs that destroyed other ones

to leverage the being of an indispensable cog in the machinery of death to live a life worth living

to turn one cycle of violence against another

and the violence of eviction; the violence of being sent-to war, to enact violence; the violence of making homeless the women left behind when the men were sent to enact violence against other men

the sick trap of this

and to say the landlord is like the hun at home, the sickness of that

to use the will to enact violence against a foreigner to gain support for one's mission to use the need to enact violence against a foreigner to win something against those who would enact violence against you

to aid in the circulation of violence in service of a social peace

to aid in the circulation of violence (by which i mean the circulation of capital) as the only means of escape from the violence of everyday life (by which i mean the circulation of capital)

to let the violence spin outward with centrifugal force and leave oneself at its centre; not at its blooded edges; also not escaping

or maybe i should say, to block the circulation of violence; only and until the violence against oneself desists

and to say, we won one hundred and two years after the glasgow rent strike a building that was erected as part of the social peace it had won burns down, killing hundreds of the same poor - still-poor - it was supposed to protect and nurture

because the landlord is a machine for violence; even and maybe especially when it is also a state

we, the workers, can build others to take their place (Durruti)

the violence of this neglect is not an outcome of the working class movement for housing, but of the circulation of violence it could not help but reproduce

one hundred and two years after the glasgow rent strike armaments are being manufactured and men are being sent-to enact violence against a foreigner

the same, still-poor men, a different foreigner (but aren't they all the same), the same still-poor evicted at home

a different, same-sick trap

we are not in the least afraid of ruins (Durruti)

in a seminar two years ago on the glasgow rent strike a student asked what the score was, if it had been a football score; the tutor replied without hesitation, seven-nil, a knockout win for the working class

one could be forgiven for thinking that barcelona and glasgow have been strongholds of working class militancy