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Turbulence e-Newsletter No. 2

Turbulence | 30.07.2008 17:01 | Climate Camp 2008 | Analysis | Climate Chaos | Globalisation | World

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e-NEWSLETTER 2

CONTENTS

1) TURBULENCE 04 OUT NOW!
2) HELP DISTRIBUTE TURBULENCE
3) TURBULENCE WEBSITE RELAUNCH
4) ‘MOVE INTO THE LIGHT? POSTSCRIPT TO A TURBULENT 2007’ REPUBLISHED BY PM
PRESS


1) TURBULENCE 04 OUT NOW!

Turbulence: Ideas for movement No. 4: ‘Who can save us from the future?’

Today, the very act of thinking about the future has become a problem. What
both capitalism and 'really existing socialism’ had in common was the belief
in a future where infinite happiness would spring from the infinite expansion
of production: sacrifices made in the present could always be justified in
terms of a brighter future. And now? The socialist future has been dead since
the fall of the Berlin wall. After that we seemed to live in a world where only
the capitalist future existed (even when it was under attack). But now this
future, too, is having its obituaries composed, and impending doom is the talk
of the town. The 'crisis of the future' – that is, of our capacity to think
about the future – is born out of these twin deaths: today it is easier to
imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

With this in mind we've assembled a collection of articles that, in different
ways, speak to us about futures. As much as we didn’t want people’s
ten-point programmes when, in June 2007 we asked ‘What would it mean to
win?’, our interest here has nothing to do with futurology. There are no
grand predictions. No imminent victory, because comfort-zone wishful thinking
is the last thing anyone needs now; but no apocalyptic doom either. Neither are
there any forward-view mirrors where capitalism recuperates everything and
always gets the last laugh. We must have the modesty to recognise that the
future is unknown, not because today is the end of everything or the beginning
of everything else, but because today is where we are. What we do, what is done
to us, and what we do with what is done to us, are what decide the way the dice
will go. This requires the patient and attentive work of identifying openings,
directions, tendencies, potentials, possibilities – all of which are things
that amount to nothing if not acted upon – and of finding out new ways in
which to think about the future.

CONTENTS

1) ‘Introduction: Present Tense, Future Conditional’ by Turbulence

2) ‘1968 and Paths to New Worlds’ by John Holloway

3) ‘The Politics of Starvation: From Ancient Egypt to the Present’ by
George Caffentzis

4) ‘6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Antagonism, Neoliberalism and
Movements’ by The Free Association

5) ‘Global Capitalism: Futures and Options’ by Christian Frings

6) ‘The Measure of a Monster: Capital, Class, Competition and Finance’
by David Harvie

7) ‘The Abolition of the Parliamentary Left in Italy’ by Sandro
Mezzadra, with an Introduction by Keir Milburn and Ben Trott

8) ‘There is No Room for Futurology; History Will Decide’ by Felix
Guattari, with an Introduction by Rodrigo Nunes and Ben Trott

9) ‘This is Not My First Apocalypse’ by Fabian Frenzel and Octavia
Raitt

10) ‘The Movement is Dead, Long Live the Movement!’ by Tadzio Mueller

11) ‘Network Politics for the 21st Century’ by Harry Halpin and Kay
Summer

Art work by Octavia Raitt. Cover design, Kristyna Baczynski.

Copies can be ordered from www.turbulence.org.uk

In Germany, copies will be available via Red Stuff (www.antifa-versand.de)

And in North America, copies will be available via PM Press (www.pmpress.org)

All articles are also available, for free, via our website.

Please get in touch with us at  editors@turbulence.org.uk if you are able to
help out with distribution, or would like to translate any of the articles
published in this issue. Some translations are already available online. See:
www.turbulence.org.uk/translations
Donations to cover costs incurred in production and distribution are welcome!
They can be made via our PayPal account, here:  http://turbulence.org.uk/donate/
or get in touch with us at  editors@turbulence.org.uk


2) HELP DISTRIBUTE TURBULECE

Turbulence operates on an extremely tight budget. We rely on whatever help we
can get to distribute the paper. If you can distribute a bundle amongst
friends, are organising an info stall at an event, or are involved with a
bookshop, social centre or any other space where copies of the magazine could
be laid out, please get in touch! Where possible, we’d appreciate it if you
could cover the costs of postage. Beyond that, though, all the copies you want
are available for free!

Also, we’ve updated our MySpace site a fair bit since the last newsletter. If
you have a profile, add us as a friend!
www.myspace.com/turbulence_ideas4movement

3) TURBULENCE WEBSITE RELAUNCH

The Turbulence website has now been revamped and relaunched! We hope you like
it!

Turb_01, _03, and now _04 are freely available to download as PDFs or read
online as plain text. Numerous translations of articles from Turb_01 are
available, as well as the whole of ‘Move into the Light?’ Translations of
articles from _04 will be posted online as soon as they’re available (a
couple are up there already!)

The new website also contains a ‘News’ feature, to keep informed about new
Turbulence-related projects. Donations can also be made via the site’s PayPal
button.

www.turbulence.org.uk

4) ‘MOVE INTO THE LIGHT? POSTSCRIPT TO A TURBULENT 2007’ REPUBLISHED BY PM
PRESS

‘Move into the Light? Postscript to a turbulent 2007’, originally published
by Turbulence in December 2007 has been republished as a beautiful little
booklet by PM Press (www.pmpress.org)

Copies can be ordered from:
 https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=40


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Turbulence
- e-mail: editors@turbulence.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.turbulence.org.uk