In the past week there has been an upsurge in resistance to the olympics in east London. A new collective calling itself WE ARE BAD has emerged to spearhead an intensive campaign against the games and it's corporate sponsors.
We Are Bad
WEAREBAD.NET
The past week has seen an upsurge in resistance to the olympicas in East London. The WE ARE BAD collective has made it’s first incursion into the Olympic zone .The blue perimeter fence has been lacerated with a howl of denial.
The group share a hatred for middle class moralising and refuse to feel individual guilt for everything from the nations ailing health to the ruin of the planet. In a statement a spokesperson said;
"Whose lifestyle has become subject to attack under this new puritanical regime? Whose spending, splurging and binging is under scrutiny? Yuppies in Surrey use up the most energy heating huge homes, driving four by fours, buying new consumer goods and taking city breaks but it is the working class whose drinking habits, holidays and lifestyles are being legislated against. ASBO’s, responsible drinking campaigns, sanitized football terraces and smoking bans are all an outright attack on working class culture. Since when has middle class people laughing at the poor and using derogatory terms like chav been acceptable? The new puritans despise the working class and try to impose feelings of guilt as a way of bringing us into line. Ever get the feeling we’ve been here before?
London has always been known for its rowdiness, rioting and boozing. Bataille talks about an economy not of conservation but of waste and expenditure. These are the counter narratives of the city, the Rabelaisian splurging, drug taking, blowing a weeks wages in one night. All historical attempts to eradicate it have failed.
In the 1860s thousands of the poor were evicted from slums perceived as dangerous, their poverty made them likelier to rebel and riot. The destruction of the ‘rookeries’ did not erase the poor but dispersed them, thousands of little rookeries cropped up all over in unexpected places. The attempt to repress leads to uncanny rupturing, the accursed share, nothing divided neatly but always a remainder, something that can’t be rubbed out. "
The group referred to notorious aggro zine Savage Messiah before disappearing with a bag of wallpaper paste.
“Licentiousness and debauchery, sex as ritual and visceral thrill, feel it played out here, the Saturday night bacchinelean revels, unruliness and binge drinking, all those ancient rites so detested by our leaders, legislated against in anti social behaviour orders. But the paths are well worn, these ancient tracks are ours, the impulse is etched deep, atavistic. These New Labour gestures are flimsy, superficial, they slide off the register like the jokes you get in Christmas crackers, read out once to the bafflement and grim bemusement of an assortment of guests and cleared away and cast out when the meal is over.” Savage Messiah zine issue 4.
To join in the fun go to
WEAREBAD.NET
The past week has seen an upsurge in resistance to the olympicas in East London. The WE ARE BAD collective has made it’s first incursion into the Olympic zone .The blue perimeter fence has been lacerated with a howl of denial.
The group share a hatred for middle class moralising and refuse to feel individual guilt for everything from the nations ailing health to the ruin of the planet. In a statement a spokesperson said;
"Whose lifestyle has become subject to attack under this new puritanical regime? Whose spending, splurging and binging is under scrutiny? Yuppies in Surrey use up the most energy heating huge homes, driving four by fours, buying new consumer goods and taking city breaks but it is the working class whose drinking habits, holidays and lifestyles are being legislated against. ASBO’s, responsible drinking campaigns, sanitized football terraces and smoking bans are all an outright attack on working class culture. Since when has middle class people laughing at the poor and using derogatory terms like chav been acceptable? The new puritans despise the working class and try to impose feelings of guilt as a way of bringing us into line. Ever get the feeling we’ve been here before?
London has always been known for its rowdiness, rioting and boozing. Bataille talks about an economy not of conservation but of waste and expenditure. These are the counter narratives of the city, the Rabelaisian splurging, drug taking, blowing a weeks wages in one night. All historical attempts to eradicate it have failed.
In the 1860s thousands of the poor were evicted from slums perceived as dangerous, their poverty made them likelier to rebel and riot. The destruction of the ‘rookeries’ did not erase the poor but dispersed them, thousands of little rookeries cropped up all over in unexpected places. The attempt to repress leads to uncanny rupturing, the accursed share, nothing divided neatly but always a remainder, something that can’t be rubbed out. "
The group referred to notorious aggro zine Savage Messiah before disappearing with a bag of wallpaper paste.
“Licentiousness and debauchery, sex as ritual and visceral thrill, feel it played out here, the Saturday night bacchinelean revels, unruliness and binge drinking, all those ancient rites so detested by our leaders, legislated against in anti social behaviour orders. But the paths are well worn, these ancient tracks are ours, the impulse is etched deep, atavistic. These New Labour gestures are flimsy, superficial, they slide off the register like the jokes you get in Christmas crackers, read out once to the bafflement and grim bemusement of an assortment of guests and cleared away and cast out when the meal is over.” Savage Messiah zine issue 4.
To join in the fun go to
WEAREBAD.NET
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Re: "chav culture"
28.01.2008 23:07
Er, in fact "chav culture" isn't necessarly a working class thing, you can get middle class people who are just as loud, boorish, and annoy the shite out of people by playing their stupid R'n'B on the backs of buses (and in the case of my exprience on Thursday night, making plenty of chav jokes, the words pot, kettle, and black came to mind).
But still, I agree that "chav cluture" shouldn't be used to make sweeping judgements that consider the whole of working class Britian to act like the cast of "Shameless".
lumpen-prole
Where can I get some??!
29.01.2008 12:41
My home life is unsatisfying...
full of longing...
disagree
29.01.2008 12:52
For example, social critics from the working classes were often accused by toffs of being drunk when they held meetings demanding an end to the privileges of the wealthy
Hildy
Olympics in Death Centre
29.01.2008 20:33
Ad Hock
question
01.02.2008 16:45
i personally feel that all this talk about "class" is becoming more and more outdated in our society. Simply to talk about class distinctions is bound to have the knock-on effect of artificially reinforcing these distinctions.
uniformed majority