A nagyfelbontású verzióhoz kattints a képre.

Click on image for hires version.

Scans from the anarchu initiative, first batch, high resolution images in zip.

Cover page of the Autonomia newspaper issues by the Autonomia Group, maybe the first anarchist group in the transition times. Only this one issue came out. The slogan on the top says “Be realist — Demand the Impossible!”. The topics are “The treason of Walesa, Women, Punk, Anarchia, Syndicalism, Do we need a social consensus?”

The back cover of the same newspaper. On the top is asks “Have you lived today?” (in the formal inflection). The montage in the bottom contains cut-outs from the manifesto of the group, which I will publish in a next entry.

The table of contents of the same newspaper. Below the table of contents there are numerous notes, including “The articles are not protected by copyright, you steal what you want.” The middle paragraph is most the interesting. It says this:

The spirit of the Autonómia Group is represented by many organisations, groups and individuals abroad. After the student and workers movement of 1986 numerous autonomous, anarchist, feminist, human rights and ecological organisation was founded with which we struggle together against any rule, repression, exploitation and helplessness. In our next issue we present these organisations and publish their addresses.

As I wrote above, it seems that there was no next issue. The table of contents follows:

• Who are we and what do we want?
• Our public sphere
• Let’s lie a national consensus
• Anarchism: the conscience of freedom
• Anarchia
• The philosophy of Anarchism
• Transition into the neostalinist capitalism
• Fascist communists
• “Feminism liberates men as well”
• Summerhill, the school of free education
• Anarchosyndicalism
• The unmasked mission of Walesa
• Whose working class?
• Anarcho-punk
• FROM OUR MAILBOX
• LETTERS TO THE READERS
• CALL!

Who are we and what do we want? — This is a kind of manifesto from the Autonómia Group. I will publish an English manifest from the group in the next entry.

The second page of the above.

The CALL for people to start organising their own self-government, and do not let the new parties and unions make decisions above their heads. Workers’ councils in the factories, independent interest groups of citizens, and territorrially based local councils are proposed. The final line says “Social self-governance instead of the rule of the state and capital!”

Cover page of Világ political weekly. This was a more or less official newspaper. The big image shows an action of Autonómia Group with the caption “Wallshaking”. The activists gathered with drawings of a wall and barbed wire. First they stood in a line representing the Berlin wall and then started to tear it down symbolically. There is a photo report inside (see below).

Inner page of Világ, which shows it is really official.

Other inner page of the same newspaper.

Photo report of the action. Commentary:

On august 13 Europe remembered a tragic anniversary. The anniversary of its division into two sides. 28 years ago the Yalta decision has been finished. Diligent hands of the worker raised a wall between the East and the West. For decades.

And now the pieces of cardboard walls fell at the same time in the streets of Warsaw and Vienna, Gdansk and London, Paris and Rome, Amsterdam and Budapest.

A game with the impossible? We should be happy that we can already play...

al

The second page of the same photo report, “Game with the impossible?”. This newspaper was published in 1989, august 17. Wikipedia says that “After allowing for loopholes throughout the summer, Hungary effectively disabled its physical border defenses with Austria on 19 August 1989 and, in September, more than 13,000 East German tourists escaped through Hungary to Austria.[68] This set up a chain of events.” So the newspaper was published a few days before it all started. Wikipedia adds that “The date on which the Wall fell is considered to have been 9 November 1989 but the Wall in its entirety was not torn down immediately.”

DIY compiled photo-report of the Ex-Lex days, official document burning day. Ex-Lex means “between the law” and refers to the situation when there is no government. Ex-Lex days were organised by Autonomia when the old government already dissolved itself but the new one have not begin to reign yet.

Poster about the campaign against the national census organised by the Autonómia Group.

English language photo report of anti-nuke action.

Anarcho-Info seemed to have been a fax (?) newsletter sent out by Hungarian anarchists. Unfortunately I don’t know the exact date of this one. It is more or less readable, but not enought to OCR. If somebody types it in, I will put it here.

Second page of the same document, worst condition.

“Who needs the army? Or: violence is a state monopoly” says this call issued for the Day of the Armed Forces by the Budapest Anarchist Group, perhaps the most well known from the handful of groups which were born from the ashes of the Autonómia Group.

Anarchist Social Experiment: Founding Declaration

The founding document of the GEO initiative. The goal is to create an anarchist village at the borders of Austria, Slovenia and Hungary, a future international anarchist city. The participants pledge to move to the chosen place within 5 years of signing. I may be able to get the original English translation of this, so no more details now.

Second page of the same document. I have blurred the signatures. People gave their names and addresses, and sometimes their phone numbers.

“Hungarian Anti-Nazi poster”. Köszi! means Thanks! No date.

Thanks for Bartók Gyula for lending me the source materials!

Poster by Autonomia Group, Hungary, Budapest. Invitation to “Communes: exchange of experiences and debate” at Eötvös Club.

I doing some research on the history of contemporary anarchism in Hungary, from the era of the system change until now. When I started to do anarchist organising I had the feeling that we are lacking any context and our group has to reinvent and rebuild everything from scratch. I still stand by that, but as the years passed I realised that there has been a lot of more or less similar initiatives before us and there are people that can share their experiences and lessons learned from the earlier groups. I hope to aggregate what data is available so that when new people come into the scene they can already have some sense of historical consciousness. On the other hand the work of course should be useful and interesting for historians as well. :)

The apropo for the research is the upcoming book Anarchism in the World by Yayın Kolektifi (Publishing Collective, afaik). The idea is to compile a non-Western-centric history of anarchism. I was asked to contribute about recent developments. There will be subjects like:

• Anarchist Movement in Japan
• Anarchists in Chinese Revolution
• Indian Anarchism
• Anarchism in Turkey
• Anarchists in Eastern Europe(Hungary, Romania, East Germany, Yugoslavia,Bulgaria)
• Anarchists in Africa
• Mexican revolution and anarchists

Poster by Autonomia Group, Hungary, Budapest. Invitation to “Communes: exchange of experiences and debate” at Eötvös Club.

I doing some research on the history of contemporary anarchism in Hungary, from the era of the system change until now. When I started to do anarchist organising I had the feeling that we are lacking any context and our group has to reinvent and rebuild everything from scratch. I still stand by that, but as the years passed I realised that there has been a lot of more or less similar initiatives before us and there are people that can share their experiences and lessons learned from the earlier groups. I hope to aggregate what data is available so that when new people come into the scene they can already have some sense of historical consciousness. On the other hand the work of course should be useful and interesting for historians as well. :)

The apropo for the research is the upcoming book Anarchism in the World by Yayın Kolektifi (Publishing Collective, afaik). The idea is to compile a non-Western-centric history of anarchism. I was asked to contribute about recent developments. There will be subjects like:

• Anarchist Movement in Japan
• Anarchists in Chinese Revolution
• Indian Anarchism
• Anarchism in Turkey
• Anarchists in Eastern Europe(Hungary, Romania, East Germany, Yugoslavia,Bulgaria)
• Anarchists in Africa
• Mexican revolution and anarchists

I explain below how to set up RSS import in Wordpress. However, this is not the same as crossposting from RSS. The concept of crossposting means that you can choose from a list of posts on another website which ones you want to republish on your own website, and that list is kept up to date. Therefore, I propose to fork the Improved RSS importer plugin and make the following modifications in order to enable RSS crossposting:

RSS crossposting plugin for Wordpress (specification)

1. Fork the Improved RSS Importer plugin
2. Add option to fetch the feed from URL (currently it only has file upload option)
3. Add option to make unpublished posts from the RSS feed (currently it makes published posts)
4. Only import posts that are newer than last update
5. Add option to refresh feeds regularly (or trigger this from a cron job)

I think this should not be much work for somebody who is familiar with Wordpress and it would enable a lot of people to network their blogs better, therefore reaching greater impact.

Note: if you look at the source code of the Improved RSS Importer plugin you will see that there is a comment that basically says “TODO: add URL fetching option here”. :)

RSS Import in Wordpress

There are three plugins for cross-publishing for Wordpress.

1. RSS import plugin: it is a widget that displays a list of all articles in the feed. So it is not exactly cross-publishing because you cannot choose which article you want to republish.

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rss-import/

2. RSS importer plugin:

• Imports articles from a feed as posts
• This is cross-publishing because you can decide which one to publish and which not.
• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rss-importer/

3. Improved RSS importer plugin:

• Works like the RSS importer but can import more types of feeds. So it looks like this is the best.
• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/improved-rss-importer/

1. Upload and active the Improved RSS Importer module.

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/improved-rss-importer/

2. Navigate to the Word-press Tools menu and select 'Improved RSS Importer'

• There you can upload an RSS file and the plugin will import all the posts in the RSS file into your blog as published posts

Use this recipe for showing articles from another Ana website on your own website. This is called cross-publishing.

1. Install Drupal 6

• Follow: http://drupal.org/documentation/install

2. Download and install these modules:

• cck http://drupal.org/project/cck
• views http://drupal.org/project/views
• chaostools http://drupal.org/project/ctools

3. Setup feedapi module

• After that install feedapi module
• http://drupal.org/project/feedapi
• Enable it and all its contents.
• Configure feedapi on site configuration → feedapi
• http://example.com/admin/build/modules/list
• In html tags write additional tags (for images: img)
• "Allowed HTML tags:" add <img>
• http://example.com/admin/settings/feedapi
• Module feedapi creates its content type called "feed". Content type that module feedapi create need to be edited and give him node tipe as your feed items
• http://example.com/admin/content/node-type/feed

4. Create a new node for the ana (aggregated) feed

• Create rss feed → content →create content → feed
• Call feed its name and in feed url insert feed url, check refresh option and save
• http://example.com/ana/node/add/feed

5. Set the default option for the feed content type to unpublished

• Go to Edit Content Type → Edit Feed → Workflow settings → uncheck "published"
• http://example.com/admin/content/node-type/feed

6. Download and enable module "use bulk operation"

• Download from here:
• http://drupal.org/project/views_bulk_operations
• Enable here:
• http://example.com/admin/build/modules/list

7. Configure the Views Bulk Operation

• Edit view → admin_content → in filters change to show only unpublished nodes
• Change the address of the Page belonging to this View to http://example.com/ana

Ingredients:

• 400 gr fresh cherries (ideally: sour cherries)
• 4 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 50 gr butter
• 130 g flour
• 250 ml milk
• 20 g vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 220 ℃
2. Mix in a bowl (preferrably in this order): eggs, sugar, half the flour, milk, half the flour
3. Put the butter in the pan for 2-3 minutes until it dissolves
4. Put the cherries in the pan for 4-5 minutes and stir a bit to coate with butter
5. Sprinkle the cherries with the vanilla extract
6. Wait 4-5 minutes until the vanilla extract caramellises
7. Pour the dough in the pan (cherries should rise to the surface)
8. Wait 20-25 minutes
9. Remove when brown
10. Eat it warm

Clafoutis is a dessert from the French Limousin region, traditionally made from the first cherries of the season. Cherries are unpitted to add their special flavour to the dish. It looks very nice or a bit scary, depending on your taste. The sides can puff up and the middle should go brown. Bon appetite!

Gallery

The treasure chest in the HCH lab

Hackney Crack House is preparing for the Temporary Autonomous Art with an installation against the Digital Economy Bill. Like the French government already did, the UK government just introduced measures based on the "Three Strikes" idea: after two warning messages they could cut your Internet connection if you pursue sharing files with your peers. The issue is explained here in a bit more detail.

The PiratePond lets you feel like a real pirate while you are pirating music. The government pictures users sitting at their home computers as pirates, but our motto is "It is not piracy if there is no parrot involved." So you can fulfill the fantasies of your government by embarking on a quest for the treasure chest, crossing the dangerous waters of the Pond, and burning the booty on a disc or thumb drive.

HCH is paying homage to the PirateBay, the most militant of torrent trackers that carries the flag of free peer-to-peer information flow. PiratePond is not the vast sea of the Internet, merely a little pond with its localised information flow. It highlights the absurdity of the legislation by carrying its metaphors to their logical conclusion.

The installation is comprised of a physical environment incorporating a paddling pool with water, pirate artifacts and treasure island styling; a treasure chest with a builtin computer and sound system; and a software environment with a kiosk setup. You can use it to copy music on and off the PiratePond computer, learn about the laws against piracy while you are burning a disc and have fun in a pirate theme park. The software is based on a configuration of the Awesome window manager with ncmpcpp as the music player sitting on the top of the Music Player Daemon.

Come and experience the PiratePond at the TAA from Wednesday to Saturday (June 2-5), location TBA, call 070 929 837 95 on the day.

Working on the software setup

Itt lakom:

Hacker nem is lakhat jobb helyen, mint a Hackney nevű kerületben. Ez a ház 1799-ben épült, csak a templomrom öregebb az utca végi parkban. A három jobbfölső ablak mögött van a szobám:

A szélsők még mindig be vannak deszkázva (majd valami kötélen lógva kell leoperálni az OSB-ket ha melegebbre fordul az idő). Csak egy résen süt be a nap reggel, így:

Ez egy nagytotál a túlsó sarokból: erre a két hangszóróra szépen rá lehet tenni a laptopomat ha a földön ülök, vagy a lábamat ha a széken. A sok szőnyeg még a télen a szigetelés miatt volt fontos. Mindenféle trágárság volt a falakra írva, úgyhogy le lett festve. Nem én találtam ki, hogy minden pirosas legyen, csak így alakult:

A kandalló egyenlőre csak éjjeliszekrénynek jó. Az összes berendezés közül egyedül az ágytakaróért fizettem. Ja meg a trendi fűtőtestért:

Még mindig nem vittem ki a festékeket. Ez az ajtó olyan ferdén áll, mint egy rajzfilmben. Viszont szép régi darab:

Nagyon szeretem ezt a csiptetős lámpát:

Kalapgyűjteményem:

A Finnegans Wake olvasás a kódfejtés egy válfaja:

Snidling, bazsilikom, petrezselyem. Ezt egy kertészetből loptam. Amíg Budapesten voltam addig a lakótársak nevelték:

Bor és router az ablakban:

Egy bulin betévedt egy helyi művész, aki helyspecifikus installációkban utazik, és kijelentette, hogy van egy szőnyege, ami passzol, úgyhogy mindjárt hazamegy érte. Biztos címe is van már az ötletének:

A dolgozószoba. Két régi hangfalból meg székekből ütöttem össze a könyvespolcot. Az asztal egy ajtó ami két gázpalackon áll:

A könyvespolc kétharmados nézete. Meg jól látszik a két kedvenc lámpám. Hát ennyi:

Majdnem mind Joycológia:

Ez az illesztés:

Karosszék helyett van ez a babzsák:

"Magánélet". Én csináltam! :)

A kutya nem akarta hordani, amikor kijött a kórházból, de a kalapgyűjteményembe illet:

Apart from literature for my thesis papers, I started reading some interesting political books these months, and slowly but surely finishing them. Planning to write some proper reviews when done, now some initial impressions:

Dealing with Distractions: Confronting Green Capitalism in Copenhagen and Beyond

I was really impressed by the design and layout of the new issue of the Turbulence mag, but the content was a bit of a disappointment. Between the strikingly beautiful and monotone pictures of braking horizons I began to see the point of those people who speak about how reformist Climate Camp

On the other hand, Dealing with Distractions was exactly the opposite: while it has little analysis of actual world affairs, especially compared to the other one, it has a fine selection of articles that offer a very clear stand against the new world order of Green Capitalism. There are historical and sociological essays, manifestoes and thesises, all on the very points that are often missed out by simple critics. It provides a platform for reflection and action and defines the new playing field. I am working with others to translate some of the articles into Hungarian and hopefully disseminate and discuss them.

The main argument as far as I gauged for now is that if the green movement merely pushed its arguments through the industry and the state, it will probably mean a stronger state and an industry that is still exploiting people. Biopolitical control based on a more sophisticated and micro-level surveillance and control machine will be necessary to comply with all the miriad propositions that are demanded by the the green platform. Basically it is the red and black argument that mixes with the green one: caring about the planet shouldn't mean forgetting about the people.

I think there was a moment before Copenhagen when people started to play with the idea that the far-green movement would really have an impact without bringing the whole anticapitalist movement with it, and followed that thread of thought to its ultimate conclusion. Even if COP15 turned out to be the empty shell everybody knew it was, these arguments are still orientating in a world where McDonalds in London advertises its local field chickens, which shows that there really is a consumer power and a change of mass mentality which can influence the evil players. That one about the chickens is intriguing: (1) it counters McDo's picture of the ultimate evil urban food source, (2) it caters for the animal rights movement which is one of the strongest in the UK, (3) it has its green (sustainable) undertones, a nod for the other powerful UK movement, (4) and of course it is a nationalist move as well to have English burgers from English chickens.

End Notes 1

The typography of this volume comes close to a Bauhaus elegance and clarity, which combines pleasure and utility of handling. It may be my own snobbish attitude, but I found the careful understated preparation of the outlook a good reflection of the careful argumentations of the text. That is where I really came to appreciate old-school anarchocommunist groups: they have a real continuity of consciousness, unlike most anarchist initiatives. Instead of citing random examples and experiments, they can reflect on whole historical processes of resistance and come up with conclusions that are organically unfolding from past experiences to address present questions of strategy, tactics and theory. It is a real pleasure to see how such a semiunderground tradition can function: to find that small groups still read the writings of similar groups through the decades and maintain a conversation, follow an argument, etc. That kind of historical consciousness is something that I really miss from most of present anarchist efforts.

Moreover, the publication is a good example of the debate between marxist groups that can remain productive and doesn't end up with the parties hating each other more than their enemy. It is the blueprint of an exchange between two groups, Troploin and Theorie Communiste with several authors and throughout some years. The topic is how the concept workers' self management, which was advanced by anarchocommunists and syndicalists and arrived to a new rennaisance in the 70s workerist movement eventually lost its validity. As far as I understand this change happened in the wider context of the crossfade between workerist and autonomist movements. However, as I mentioned above, the authors draw on a wide range of interconnected historical processes, incorporating the experiences of bureacratic capitalism or "existing socialism" in the Soviet block as well as Tito's take on socialism in Yugoslavia, etc.

The debate is as much about method as about conclusions. The arguments I liked the most have a strict pro-proletarian and historical approach. Maybe they are even too idealist, but as many people know, there is a special place in my heart for Hegel. Anyway, the idea is that workers' self-management is not a bad idea per se, because there an idea is only good or bad in a precise historical context. Workers' self-management was a real potential and a progressive horizon in some given historical scenarios, and it became obsolete exactly because the actual struggle went beyond it. (Sadly/obviously that is not the same as realising the concept itself.) The admirable advantage of that argument is that it doesn't create a neutral present from which we judge the struggles of old times, arriving to the conclusion that nobody was as radical as we are, albeit in our ideas only. On the contrary: it enables a relation to past struggles where we can both appreciate our ancestors and not think them stupid or counterrevolutionary, a relation that inspires us to continue the struggle from where they left off.

So what is the problem with workers' self-management? That the self-management of production by the working class is just that: the self-management of the same exploitation. Since a real communist struggles for the abolishing of the working class, not merely its hegemony, the situation when for a moment workers control their own life should not be the situation in which they use their fresh freedom to return to the assembly line. But more on that when I finished the book and I can lay out the whole story in a manner described above.

Autonomia: Post-Political Politics

One of the three key English language sources on the "long '68" in Italy, when autonomist movement emerged from the workerist current. The other two are Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics edited by Hardt and Virno, and the excellent history-of-ideas reconstruction by Steve Wright, Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomi. While the latter provides much context and the former gives an impression of the powerful ideas that came out of those historical moments, these texts are really framed as documents in the most direct sense of the word. Radical Thought opens with Hardt's excellent introduction which established the relevance of the texts to the political situation in which the reader was published, and the Wright book is really a retrospective scholarly study of the era. This book begins with excerpts from Sylvére Lotringer's diary of his visit to Italy in 1979. It is a fascinating read, another candidate for translation into Hungarian. It reads like a new wave spy novel, in the style of the early Godard, about the topics of the director's middle maoist period. By now I've covered most of the texts, but it's still too fresh to put into words.

Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropogy

This book will inspire generations of researchers because of the following reasons:

1. It is written in a very accessible language and it is short.
2. It is openly, and specifically anarchist.
3. It is "pregnant with possibilities" in the sense that it contains many research ideas that invite further elaboration, so that it is easy to base future work on it.

On the other hand, it is also inspiring for laymen and would-be anthropologists, since it argues nicely why antrhopology as a field of research is important for anarchists. It has most of the data about actually existing societies that are egalitarian and no states. If you think that's irrelevant, read on.

Unlike the other ones, I actually finished this one! It is a rather rare volume in the sense that it is openly written from a committed anarchist platform yet it also addresses an academic question and an academic (as well as general) audience. It is basically a pamphlet about anthropology and anarchism, as it says, in fragments. These fragments have some structure -- I will presently write up a table of contents because in fact these fragments come together quite nicely:

• Why there are so few anarchists in the academy?
• Graves, Brown, Mauss, Sorel
• The anarchist anthropology that almost already does exist
• Blowing up walls
• Tenets of a non-existing science
• (Anarchy)
• Anthropology (in which the author reluctantly bites the hand that feeds him)

The first chapter examines the contrast between Marxist and anarchist discourse and the former's unparalleled success in the academia. The analysis sets out from the superficial linguistic difference apparent in these discourses that communist theory is based around authors (Maoism, Leninism, Althusserian sociology, etc.), while anarchist discourse is based on practices (Syndicalism, Mutualism, Primitivism, etc.). So while leftist thinking focuses on authoritative father figures, anarchist thinking is tied to concrete movements. It is an interesting notion especially because while communism was a very real force on the historical stage of the last centuries, anarchism had only smaller roles. On the other hand, Graeber refers to Barbara Epstein who argues that by now both social movements and theorists replaced their Marxist inspiration with an anarchist one, even though anarchism is as much (or even more) an undercurrent of these processes as communism has been of the past ones. At this point I would add a notion about the diversity of anarchist thought that further underlines the first linguistic argument and ties it together with the second influence-based argument. Unlike the Marxist/communist discourse, anarchism managed to blend with a great number of other currents, which is shown even in its taxonomy. We speak about anarcho-communism, anarcho-feminism, eco-anarchism, anarcho-primitivism, anarcho-surrealism and ontological anarchism, etc. It seems that anarchism has had an affinity with almost all of the leftist ideas of the past two centuries.

Going deeper into the examination of the nature of these discourses (other than their linguistic taxonomy or their historical influence), the author arrives to a double conclusion:

1. Marxism has tended to be a theoretical and analytical discourse about revolutionary strategy.
2. Anarchism has tended to be an ethical discourse about revolutionary practice.

That echoes my frustration that especially nowadays in the anarchist/activist scene there is such a poverty of strategic ideas, which is all the more sad since there already seem to be a rough consensus about tactics and ultimate goals. What is missing is a kind of narrative that would define how these tactics can be applied effectively in order to achieve those goals. The goals are more or less defined in the last but one chapter of this book, amongst other places, and the tactics are very known to anybody familiar with the European underground: black block, food not bombs, clown army, squatting, blockade and occupation, independent media, etc. The alterglobalisation movement had at least summit hopping as a middle term strategy and the destruction of G8, IMF and World Bank as middle term goals, and these were more or less achieved by now. That's why the movement is experiencing a low tide, because the existing networks that are organised around some important topics don't have a unifying strategy and some concrete demands around which they could build an effective, coordinated struggle. In the long term, however, contemporary anarchist inspired activity needs a widely recognised theory of transition, a strategy for achieving hegemony. But as Graeber writes, there is no necessary reason why anarchists should be against theory, it is not just the main thrust of the discourse, so there is hope.

The second chapter is a kind of historical recapitulation that moves from the general area of academic discourse into the specific territory of anthropology proper, examining the anarchist tendencies in classical anthropology (Mauss et al). The third one deals with more contemporary developments in which Graeber situates his own work. The names which are mentioned are Clastres, whose antietatist anthropological arguments are still the most powerful antiauthoritarian investigations in the field, Hakim Bey whose work on pirates and other subcultures is closely coupled with the analyses of contemporary urban resistance, and the middle period of Antonio Negri whose (not anthropological) books on constituent power undermine the sovereignity-centred statist discourse by proposing an alternative starting point.

Here, in the middle of the small volume, are the most original ideas of Graeber, based on his field work in Madagascar. If for a moment we are really looking at the narrow scientific value of the book, it can be argued that the chapters before are the introduction and the chapters following are the afterword for the idea set out here. As far as I could make out, this is an argument about imaginary counterpower. Setting out from Clastres, Graeber argues that the more egalitarian a given society is, the more haunted it is by repressive and violent myths that mirror the conflicts inherent in keeping cohesion in a horizontal powerstructure. "Every society is in war with itself" is one nice notion, and since these societies are rather peaceful, their conflicts are shifted to the plain of discourse.

The "read on" part mentioned earlier comes next, under the heading "Blowing up walls". It is an quasi-original supporting argument for the previous one about imaginary counterpower in nonstate egalitarian societies. When anthropologist present the data about these experiences one frequent counterargument is that these societies cannot be compared to our postindustrial society because they are more limited and less complex and sophisticated. In one world, our civilisation is superior. Of course it is easy to answer that this is a racist notion, but Graeber lays out the evidence, the literature and the ideas to make that easy argument in a convincing manner. There are many good reasons why other societies are as complex, historically situated and generally developed as our own. However, the arguments that would explain the global hegemony exercised by Western empires are a bit slim.

After that moment the book becomes a bit sketchy, with three chapters on various topics that contain lists with a bit of elaboration for each item. Firstly, there is an excellent and inspiring list of topics that anarchists anthropologists should develop. Since it is so productive, let me recount them here:

Tenets of a non-existing science

1. A theory of the state
2. A theory of political entities that are not states
3. Yet another theory of capitalism
4. Power/ignorance, power/stupidity
5. An ecology of volutary associations
6. A theory of political happiness
7. Hierarchy
8. Suffering and pleasure: on the privatisation of desire
9. One or several theories of alienation

Secondly, there is a kind of appendix (without a title) about the idea of Anarchy. Since the list represents a rough consensus of contemporary activist anarchists I would not dwell on it for long. You can ask your local anarchist and she will tell you similar things. Of course, that is not the weakness but the strenghts of the chapter.

Thirdly and also lastly, there is an autotherapic chapter on anthropologic discourse and research practices per se. Recounting the difficulties inherent in anthropology and field work is important since these are the reasons most anthropologists would prefer to say meaningless or overspecific things instead of supplying the general conclusions about mankind and the possibilities of societies that they could. For example, anthropology has its colonial origins when it was used to "getting to know the enemy". Then, there is the burgouise romanticism that ruled the second phase of anthropological history, when practitioners projected the otherness of their own culture on the "savages", so in describing different societies they often just explored their own subconscious. Both negative currents are still present in contemporary society and scientific discourse, and Graeber shows how. The former example is how every single act is reduced to a market act, like going out is described as nothing but consumption. The latter example is how the vocabulary of poststructuralism replaced the authentic native terms anthropologists were using to describe noncapitalist societies. Finally, there is a rather convincing closing presentation about the perception of Zapatista autonomy, how it aspires to work out another kind of social logic and how it is in defiance of that ambition has been perceived as an "indigineous" movement that is only accepted to assert ideas about "indigineous people", never about our shared reality.

Get the book by any means necessary and don't fear to read it because it is both very short and very accessible. As I wrote it is a cocktail of manifestoes that could possibly start a current of its own. Let me conclude with a quote: "In many ways, anthropology seems to be a discipline terrified of its own potential."

Lassan lett egy életem Londonban. Októberig egy "etikus" cégnél dolgozom, annyit keresek, amennyi pénzt még nem láttam, és egy foglaltházban lakom ahol egy politikai kezdeményezésen dolgozom. Hát ez két külön világ, úgyhogy külön is fogok róla írni. Elöljáróban csak annyit, hogy néha felkelek reggel, a földön alszom, öltönyt veszek vagy élre vasalt nadrágot és inget, aztán kipassszírozom magam a Mad Max stílusú szögesdrótos vaskapun, ami egy biciklizárral van rögzítve. Az irodaház a felhőkarcolós pénzügyi negyedben van, a bevádorlós negyedtől, ahol lakom, 5 perc gyalog -- emiatt nem is érdemes biciklire pattannom. A hátizsákomban alapvetően két dolog lapul: a félmilliós laptopom és a kukázott szendvicsek. Előbbit egyszer ellopták, mert a szabadbolt bejárata mellett hagytam a hátizsákomat, úgyhogy vettem egy másik ugyanolyat. Utóbbiakat néha egy másik szögedrótos kapun átmászva halászom ki a kukából, máskor meg pontban délután ötkor gyűjtöm be egy barátságos szendvicsboltból.

Az iroda egy igazi szocreál toronyház, még egy allegorikus öntöttvas szobor is van az oldalán. "Development house" -- a fejlődés háza. Van recepció, belépőkártya, konyha, zuhanyzó, légkondi, szük folyosók meg minden, ami egy rendes, számomra eddig csak a horrorfilmekből ismert irodaházhoz kell. Napi 8 órát dolgozok a "gyárban" -- a Drupal nevű tartalomkezelő rendszerrel, PHP nyelven építem a London School of Economics diákszakszervezetének honlapját. Elég sok energiát fektettem abba, hogy honlapkészítő karrierem során elkerküljem ezt a fajta munkát, de mint a mellékelt ábra mutatja, nem nagyon sikerült. Tulajdonképpen ez a legnagyobb szabad szoftveres tartalomkezelő rendszer, és úgy tűnik Londonban elég kevesen ismerik -- legalábbis az állásajánlatra csak 16 ember jelentkezett, és legtöbbjüknek nem volt ilyen irányú tapasztalata. Nagyjából mindegy, hogy mikor megyek be, lényeg hogy 8 órát le kell húznom az irodában, akár fürdést, ebédszünetet, parkban cigizést is beleértve. Túlórára néha szükség lehet, de nem fizetik, ahogyan táppénzt sem kapok. A munkatársak alapvetően szimpatikus emberek, de eddig unalmas alakoknak ismertem meg őket. Mindenesetre nem érzem nagyon, hogy kilógok a sorból. Például a rendszergazdánk eljött múlt szerdán a műhelyfoglalkozásra, amit a szabadboltban tartottam a vezeték nélküli hálózatok feltöréséről. Akkor egy "hatalmi struktúrák, te hülye!" pólóban volt. Amikor hétfőn ápolatlanul és szakadt fekete anarchista egyenruhában támolyogtam be a munkahelyemre, elégedetted állapítottam meg, hogy láthatóan azóta ő sem fésülködött, és ugyanabban a pólóban van, mint amikor utoljára láttam, viszont vigyorogva közölte, hogy aznap reggel feltörte élete első vezeték nélküli hálózatát. Az irodában saját asztalom van, és saját számítógépen is lehetne, ha nem ragaszkodnék a laptopomhoz, viszont az elsőhöz járt egy dokkolóegység amibe be van dugva az összes szükséges periféria, úgyhogy csak leülök és bedugom ezt a kütyüt a gépembe. Rendes angol módon a tea, tej és teasütemény leírható az adóból, tehát mindig megfelelő mennyiségben áll rendelkezésre. A sarkon van egy katedrális, amit egy "hearth", vagyis kandallógyártó cég bérel, és három emeleten lehet benne megtekinteni a különböző antik stílusú tűzhelyeket, valamint egy kis park, ahol lehet vadszilvát meg feketeszedret szedni. Néha azért elmegyek néhány utcányira, ahol ebédidőben kajapiac van, és igazi olaszok árulják az igazi olasz gnoccit, és a helyi temetőben fogyasztom el a dobozos kaját, ahol William Blake és Daniel Defoe sírja is van. A projekttel egyébként nagyjából minden rendben, annak ellenére, hogy nem voltam nagy ismerője azoknak a technológiáknak, amikkel most dolgozom. A szeptember közepi határidőt valószínű nem miattam, hanem a grafikai cég lassúsága és a megbízó inkompetenciája miatt fogjuk elbukni. A cégnél egyébként kollektív döntéshozatal van, én is bármikor ellentmondhatok a főnökömnek, és órabérben dolgozunk, tehát többet keresek mint bárki más, mert én a többiekkel ellentétben heti 5 napot és 8 órát húzok le az irodában. Csak a takarítónőnek van jobb órabére, aki heti néhány órát dolgozik.

Ha nem kelek fel időben -- márpedig általában nem kelek fel időben, mert háromig számítógépezek vagy partizok -- akkor csak 7-8 körül szabadulok. Ilyenkor zár a szabadbolt, ami csütörtöktől vasárnapig dél és du nyolc között van nyitva. Stratégiai helyen vagyunk egy stratégiai épületben. A pénzügyi negyed, a művésznegyed és a délázsiai bevándorlók negyede közötti határvonalon idaális helyet foglalunk el: a fiatal és trendi középosztálybeliek számára divatos alternatív hely vagyunk, ahová elhozhatják a megunt holmijaikat, és a kocsmában elmesélhetik a barátaiknak, hogy ezt-meg-azt a rucit egy ingyenes boltból szerezték, tényleg. Közben a lecsúszott szegények azért betévednek hozzánk, és valóban értékelik az ingyen kaját meg az ingyen ruhákat és más cuccokat. A földszint egy igazi bolt, kirakatokkal és nagy térrel, ahová mindenféle szedett-vedett polcokat építettünk. Kb. 30-40 "vásárló" jön egy nap, akik nagyrészt visznek magukkal valamit, és 2-3 ember aki hoz egy-egy zsák ruhát vagy doboz kacatot. Kaptunk már videókamerát, laptopot, bicikliket és más értékes dolgokat is. A szabadboltot aktivisták működtetik, nagyrészt munkanélküliek, hivatásos forradalmárok, vagy olyanok, akik csak néhány napot dolgoznak egy héten, és egyébként kukázásból és házfoglalásból tartják fönt magukat. A házfoglalás Angliában (szemben Skóciával és a többi tartománnyal) legális: egy rendőr, aki illegálisan betör egy foglaltházba, akár 6 hónap börtönt is kaphat. Van egy ősi papír, ami összefoglalja a vonatkozó törvényeket, és minden foglaltház ajtójára ki van szegezve. A szabadbolt már megkapta a papírokat, ami alapján jövő pénteken bíróság elé állunk. Magyarországgal ellentétben azonban ezúttal nem arról lesz szó, hogy börtönbe kell-e mennünk, vagy bírságot fizetni, pusztán azt kell tisztáznia a bíróságnak, hogy kié az épület tulajdoni joga. Persze nem a miénk, de a Házfoglalók Tanácsadó Irodájának jogászai több rendellenességet is találtak a számunkra eljuttatott dokumentumokban -- például nem látjuk kétséget kizáróan bizonyítottnak a Corporation of London tulajdoni jogát. Utóbbi egyébként London leggazdagabb helyi önkormányzata, ami még a középkorból maradt meg. A City, másnéven "Egy mérföld", a pénügyi/felhőkarcoló negyed, az egykori óváros, amit annak idején a céhek tanácsa irányított. Ma ez az egyetlen önkormányzat, ahol nem a helyi lakosok képviselői ülnek, hanem az egy mérföldön elterülő irodaházak tulajdonosai, olyan cégek, mint a Reuters vagy a Lloyds bankhálózat. Hát ha szerencsénk van, akkor ezek ellen egy-két hónapon keresztül tudjuk tartani a frontot: egy hónapig tartott, amíg rájöttek, hogy elfoglaltuk az ingatlanjukat, és ha győzünk az első körben, akkor még egy hónapig eltarthat, amíg kilakoltatnak minket. Holnap lesz a megbeszélés arról, hogy a kilakoltatás után melyik környékbeli épületet foglaljuk el.

Ez egyébként egy kétemeletes ház, aminek a lapos tetejére tegnap éjjel húztam fel telefonkábelen négy széket, úgyhogy most ott lehet sörözni és figyelni mi történik a Kereskedelmi út és a péngyügyi negyed határán. A második emeleten nincs semmi csak egy WC, amiből most éppen szivárog a víz a konyhába -- szerencsére van néhány tapasztaltabb vízvezetkékszerelő házfoglaló a csapatban, remélem holnap a megbeszélés után kiderítik, hogy mi a gáz. Az egész ház háromszögletű, így az én szobám is, amit most egy kedves barátommal osztok meg. Van villany és egy vékony nádszőnyeg amin alszom, és kilátás az utcára ahol este kurvák állnak a sarkon. A sok irodai munkától fáj a hátam, ezért jobb a földön aludnom, mint matracon, amiből akár 10 emberre is elegendőt gyűjtöttünk össze a házban. A ruháimat kézzel mosom, kivéve az ingeket és nadrágokat, amiket a sarki tisztítóban tisztíttatok 5000 forintért. Az első londoni napom végén találtam ide, az állásinterjú után. A házat a Szabadiskola kollektíva nyitotta meg, akik egy egész hétvégényi előadássorozatot szerveztek a házfoglalásról. Aztán felmerült a kérdés, hogy mi legyen az épülettel -- javasoltam, hogy szabadbolt legyen belőle, mert kifejezetten ezzel foglalkozó hely még nem volt a környéken, csak kisebb szabadboltok a különböző foglaltházakban. Legnagyobb meglepetésemre ezt a javaslatot elfogadta a gyűlés, és eldöntöttük, hogy azon a héten 24 órában elfoglalva tartjuk az épületet. Ez azért fontos, mert csak addig vannak házfoglaló jogaink, amíg házon belül vagyunk. Ezért elkezdtem itt aludni (előtte egy másik kedves barátomnál aludtam egy szintén foglalt 5 db 3 emeletes épületből álló blokkban), és lassan kiderült, hogy csak nekem nincs másik állandó szálllása. Így a végén én lettem az egyetlen állandó lakó.

Most egy másik foglaltházban vagyok, ahol egy másik barátom lakik. Ide csak ritkán jövök, különböző okokból -- hogy megnézzem a barátom új szobáját, hogy elvigyek egy rakás sushit, kenyeret meg zöldséget amit egy boltból kaptak, hogy segítsek titkosítani egy merevlemezt vagy beállítani az Internetet, stb. Ez egy hagyományos angol sorház, aranyos kerttel és nagy ablakkal a nappaliban, úgy hogy mindent látni az utcáról. Épp most tettek fel egy maguk festette kalózzászlót a falra, és egy antik asztalon gépelek, amit valószínűleg az utcán találtak. Már este 4 óra, sok almasört ("cider") ittam, elég fáradt vagyok. A nagy webfejlesztő/anarchista életben nagyon kevés időm van arra, hogy valóban magam legyek. Legalábbis a személyiségem egy részét ritkán van időm megélni. Ugyanakkor az életem utóbbi 6 évét arra tettem fel, hogy egy olyan helyen tudjak élni, ahol egyszerre közösségi élet és alulról szerveződő politikai munka folyik, ami független az államtól és a mindenféle hatalmi szervektől elválaszthatatlan korrupciótól, és ez most kétségtelenül sikerült. Úgy érzem, hogy a gyerekkori kalózos-kalózrádiós meg kiberpunk vágyaim tulajdonképpen valóra váltak.

We are back!

The IMC network regained control of the DNS entry for indymedia.org

Websites and services are expected to be slowly coming back to the net as the routing data propagates. The cause of the shortage seems to have been that Dubster, the registrar of the domain decided to suspend it because they didn’t receive an answer for an email for two weeks. This is really funny, actually, a very stupid reason. Discussion began about the evaluation of the incident and the possible ways to avoid such things for the future.

ps: if you are wondering about the picture it is a semacode version of "Hello world!" cropped into a field.

If you are reading this page, then you probably know that Indymedia is down due to the primary nameservers being changed from NS2.RISEUP.NET and NS.LACKOF.ORG to NS1.BADWHOISSHUTDOWN.COM and NS2.BADWHOISSHUTDOWN.COM. People are presently investigating this change, however it is probably related to an ICANN whois data "inaccuracy" report (which, unfortunately, is a known tool that trolls have successfully used in the past to get sites they don't like taken down).

This page will be updated when more information becomes available. (Last update 2009-08-07 14:52 PM GMT)

How do I get indymedia.org back?

This section hopes to provide informative instructions on how to recover the indymedia.org zone while this mess gets sorted out.

Recovering indymedia.org using BIND

If you run your own nameserver like BIND, then it is very easy. Just add the following to your nnamed.conf:

zone "indymedia.org" {
type forward;
forwarders {
// ns2.riseup.net, ns.lackof.org
204.13.164.8; 204.13.164.202;
};
};

Save the config file and restart BIND. Provided that you are resolving your DNS through this BIND instance, indymedia.org should now be available to you. You may need to flush your DNS cache if your operating system has one. For example, on Windows, this can be done by doing ipconfig /flushdns in a Command Prompt.

Recovering indymedia.org using Unbound

If you run your own Unbound resolver, then it is very easy. Just add the following to your /etc/unbound/unbound.conf:

forward-zone:
name: "indymedia.org"
# ns2.riseup.net
forward-addr: 204.13.164.8
# ns.lackof.org
forward-addr: 204.13.164.202

Save the config file and restart Unbound. Provided that you are resolving your DNS through this Unbound instance, indymedia.org should now be available to you. You may need to flush your DNS cache if your operating system has one. For example, on Windows, this can be done by doing ipconfig /flushdns in a Command Prompt.

Home users

It has been reported that OpenDNS is working at present. This is probably because the DNS cache has not yet expired. To enable your computer for OpenDNS, go to the OpenDNS website, which has useful instructions for setting up your computer to use their nameservers.

You can also add the IPs for nameservers to your DNS server list, which are 204.13.164.8, and 204.13.164.202. This should work on most platforms without causing problems. (note: In Windows, to add more than 2 nameservers, the options to do so are under your Network Adapter's "TCP/IP advanced settings.")

lists.indymedia.org is dead, so where are we talking about this?

On the imc-tech-emerg list. We are also discussing the issue on IRC in #tech.

Home users behind firewall

There is a file with known domain name and IP address pairs. People who are blocked by firewall which can not access other dns server than internal one can use it pasting it at the end of /etc/hosts file on Unixen like Linux, etc. The windows user can paste it at end of c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and reboot.

How do I access irc.indymedia.org?

The easiest is to use this alternative address: irc.indy.punk.eu.org

/server 209.51.169.94 6667 for non-SSL, and /server 209.51.169.94 +6697 for SSL. Most clients support SSL in the format previously mentioned and SSL is recommended when connecting to the IRC server.

The webchat interface is available, but you will need to accept the SSL certificate.

What can I do to help?

Refer people to this page if they ask why Indymedia is down.

Whatever you do, please avoid doing anything involving Dotster. Right now doing anything that could be construed as harmful or illegal towards Dotster is probably counter-productive, as amongst other reasons, there may be legal efforts involved to recover the domain name from them, so as a result we really don't particularly want to be doing anything that would jeopardize the situation. People are already reportedly in communication with Dotster about this problem.

There is an error on this page and/or I have a proposed change to make to this page.

Mention the change on #tech on the IRC server and I will try to update it as soon as I notice it. Prefixing your message with "nenolod:" will get my attention more quickly.

mv /home/mxs Budapest London

Public announcement: Maxigas disappeared to London from Budapest, watch the news for appearances!

To cut a long story short: i arrived on 2009 June 19., Friday 2AM. A week later i had a squat to stay in, a social centre with a freeshop to organise, and most surprisingly a job that pays. It was an incredibly intense week that went smoothly nontheless, since most people around me were so layed back and easy going that the roller coaster ride felt like a river cruise. Things only get thick now that i look back on the flotsam i left in Budapest. :)

That was the lead for the impatient but i am sure there are some of you out there that want the full story, so it goes like this: & welcomed me heartily and took me to a walk on Brick Lane where we found some "Off License" shop. It means that they sell alcohol into the night, similar to what we call "24h" shop in Budapest -- with the obvious differences that they are less common, more expensive, and open less hours. Anyway, for me the most significant of all those nuances is that they sell cider, my drink of choice, and one which is sadly missing from the shelves of shops in Hungary. It was him that later showed my the canals of London with their narrowboats. Oftentimes London feels like a small town compared to the massive citiness of Budapest -- while foxes are extinct in Hungary as far as i know, on the London canal bank we saw one with our own eyes, and & said they are far from uncommon in the UK capital.

& lives in Ocean Estate, a squatted council block. Imagine 5 blocks, each at least 3 stories high with 8 flats per storey, filled with 200 or so squatters. It's a massive operation, but don't phantasize about a black army like it would be in Germany. Although squatting is still a somehow underground and recognisable subculture, squatters are a really diverse branch at Ocean Estate (and most other places), ranging from poor Asian immigrant families through the usual suspect alternative artist types to upper middle class kids who want to save up on rent in the summer. I haven't met anybody on our floor who had a strong political consciousness.

&'s flat had a guest room, and that's where i lived in the first days, gradually moving over to Noncommercial House. The atmosphere was very welcoming, especially ¬ who is a real hippy squatter with an unresistable smile. There is a kind of balcony/corridor going along the length of the house, with the doors on one side and the vista on the other -- the only social space, which is nontheless pretty effective, at least on our floor there are always neightbours hanging out, and they are always open to a chat. Many people work, many people not, some are going away all the time, and some are stuck in London for various reasons. They are open and social, but if you look at the big picture, there is a lack of gravity in the building: passivity seems to creep through the walls behind your back while you are having a conversation with somebody. Investigate later.

As i said i arrived 2AM, and i had an interview at 11AM on GreenNet. Actually the apropo for my visit was to see & and to check out this interview. I learned from & later that an interview is like an exam, they give you exercises and you get scores. It was much more laid back here, but I was still surprised when they asked me to do a n00b task of parsing a form in PHP. I had 30 minutes and nothing that I left on the server was actually doing anything, so it's plain to see that i failed miserably. In fact i spent most of my time getting root privileges on the machine and installing Emacs and setting up the code highlighing. After that part, it was questions about Drupal and mostly project management, where i could use my experience and extend my imagination. Oh yes, and they sent my a sample project description for that before, so i could prepare, which i did, more or less. Finally, they asked about my activist background, so i could do my rap about being an anarchist militant in Budapest. I left with the feeling that if they want to hire me i want to work there, and if they don't want to hire me i never wanted to work there.

We went around Soho (can you check Wikipedia about those or i should do the manual linking again?) with & after the interview, check out the fashionable bars. I had some time to clear out my mind, and drank something and smoke something, although not in adequate quantities. The worst was that i discovered the lameness of London: it is prohibited to smoke inside, so a bar is not a really useful establishment any more for the only thing most people do in Budapest: drink, smoke and talk at the same time. By the way, later i also realised that the classic English bars, albeit architecturally interesting social spaces, are in fact filled with rude, boring sports fans watching TV and blabbering amidst botched acoustics. i guess that's one good reason to have squats and squat parties, where laws don't apply so you can smoke until you and others choke. By the byway, i was at a Brazilian night in a club in Brick Lane the other night, and to my surprise it turned out that not smoking in a club makes for an even more disgusting smell than the usual smoke-n-sweat mixture -- solely the sweat remains which makes you feel like in the shambles.

In the evening i was to meet þ at the Rampart, the only stable place during the years in the fluid London underground scene for us. It was a terrible moment to arrive on site, seeing that half of Rampart Street -- the "living quarters" -- has been demolished, in such a way that the facade was still standing but going around the block i could see the somewhat familiar furniture sticking out of the bare floors, most of the back part of the building reduced to piles of bricks. Like the death of a hero after an apocalypse. The doors were closed with no sign of the squatting workshop we came for, but finally { came around to the rescue, informing us that the thing happens a few streets to the North in Commercial Street. "Look for the building with a big black flag on the roof." That's what we did, and around 11pm we found the place where i finally felt at home: a ruined building is like a supermarket -- basically the same all over the world. And the questions that self-organised activists discuss in dim lighting are not that diverse either. However, the people here were markedly less subcultural anarcho types then in other places i've visited.

The next days i mostly spent going to these workshops organised by London Free School and discovering some of the othe autonomous spaces of London: the Sunday breakfasts in the volunteer-run Pogo vegan cafe that are somethings of an establishment by now; 56a which is a combination of a food coop, the best infoshop in London and a bike repair workshop with a genuine connection to the local people; the ancient Freedom bookshop with its old-school anarchist air; the Advisory Service for Squatters with its sinister underground bureucracy, etc. i owe IMC Hungary a scene report about this anyway, so i write about it later (and in Hungarian hehe). Generally, i spent the weekend in "political business trip" mode, going around gathering info on the scene and trying to find the interesting people, places, etc.

On Monday i got the call from ä that GreenNet wants to hire me for the mission. It was one of those moments when i feel that my life is not a boat on the sea like Horace's but a Pursuit Special with wheels squeeking as i make that U-turn with precision on the rough ground. Definitely staying, then, in Sinister City. Later when we signed the contract ä said i'll have some time to enjoy the "English summer", and since then my understanding of what an oximoron is that only deepened. But i didn't come because of the lovely weather. i came since it is the only Metropolis where i speak the language and generally have a grasp of the local culture. if i love it -- that i will decide in December i guess.

i was definitely on the edge of burning out as an activist, having fought for 6 years for a social center and trying to establish the basic infrastructure for revolutionary organisation in Budapest. On the other hand i saw very interesting things coming out of London and i had phantasies about sinking confortably into an established scene without having to participate in everything and worry about all the problems. i thought a metropolis would also give the necessary inspiration of moving on from my university years towards even more interesting things, be they Phd, professional work, dropping out or being a lighthousekeeper in Bretagne. those month i felt very old in Budapest, repeatedly having the feeling that i am wasting my time. i sought another playing field, a field of operation full of surprises but within my field of experience. In retrospect, i found what i was looking for:

On Tuesday there was a meeting about the future of the house, and to my (second) surprise my tentative proposal of a freeshop got through. We spent the next week doing the "24/7 occupation" thing which means that ideally at least one person is always on the premises in case the owners or their lot comes over to check out. While walking on the street with a crowbar can get you arrested for "going equipped", squatting itself is legal in England (not in Scotland and other UK parts), so the building was thought to last for some time, not like our 24 and 36 hour squats in Budapest -- where walking the street heavy tools is not a problem. Because of the occupation i began sleeping over and spend less time at Ocean Estate, and during the next weeks i gradually moved here which came to be called Noncommercial House (i'm not sure about the hyphen though). At the end of the week i felt part of the whole thing, and the job offer seemed serious enough as well. i reported back to my closest associates that after one week in London i found a suitable political project to continue my militant activities, a wellpaying job to feel safe as an immigrant, friends to trust and a squat to stay.

I am very picky about names of projects i do, so here's my take on my hacklab concept naming:

Transformers as a name for a would-be hacklab project is cool since...

• Technical and political: a transformer is a common part in building electric circuits. It works with "mutual induction" which sounds like self-organisation for me. It is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors —- the transformer's coils or "windings". So it also has a networking sense. Finally, it says something about transformation: that is, technological development and social change.
• Cyborg connotations: it a copyrighted Hasbro marketing term and product line whatever and anybody hearing the idea makes the first guess that some big American corporation will sue the shit out of you if you use it. This looks like a major obstacle indeed, although once mounted it would be a real triumph. On the other hand, I really like this series (the old-school stuff is better of course). Becoming cyborg is a very pressing issue at the moment, and these robots reflect that a lot. Furthermore, gender-changing and species-changing is also coming to the fore with queer politics on the rise, check out lotu5's very exciting posts on nettime. Finally, the first animated series I saw as a child ran with the slogan "Robots in Disguise". I cannot imagine a better slogan for a hacker group!
• Language-neutral: our languages are so colonised that imperialist terms like these are very commonly understood. It's a major issue if you start a project to choose a name that has clear alternatives at least in English and Hungarian but better still choose a name that is the same in both languages.
• Defines a namespace: imagine you get 20 workstations and look for proper names for them or start a project and look for a code name. In the Transformers universe there is a myriad names with related associations -- like a language that can express anything without colliding with your everyday use, where all words are proper names.

For the Alternative Culture and Urban Space conference, but also for our foreign visitors, here is this map of Tűzoltó utca which has an interesting although not too apparent history of self-organisation. This is still a draft and once there is a version I am totally satisfied with it could go Hungarian since maybe not too many people know all of these. Also, the people who know more should add their bits! Certainly I missed out on some key spaces like an old gallery which operated before my time, and the future riots that will hopefully bring justice to the local population. :)

The Fire Tour explores the alternative history of Tűzoltó Street and Tűzraktér through visits to specific sites and discussions with key people who are/were involved in the various initiatives. Alternative culture in this particular sense is understood as the critical evaluation of the present conditions followed by practical engagement to improve the situation, ranging from armed struggle through social work in the local community to staging international exhibitions. For a reason not understood properly, Tűzoltó ("Fireman") Street has been the location of multiple such critical projects in the past and present, even though they failed to leave an impression on the face of the street itself. Thus, what we explore during the Tour may not be evident for the casual observer.

In case you are wandering the graphics was created with Inkscape, a free vector graphics application, and the sources are available in the cool W3C SVG format: foo bar

maxigas

Ez már elég rég megvolt, egyszer szórtuk a Kesztűgyárban egy Zöfi teregetésen de aztán nem lett belőle sorozatgyártás. Most felrakom ide és remélem hamarosan kint lesz mindenhol a városban. :)

Nyomtatható változat itt van PDF-ben: színe | fonákja

Today i was sleeping until noon and left the flat with a big immigrant style bag full of clothes for the freeshop. There are many leftover things in the flat and we put them in the freeshop so other people can take them if they need. We organised an event for the 90th anniversary of the Hungarian Soviet Republic at the infoshop, not because it was perfect but because it was a really interesting historic experience. At the end we didn't project any movie but the 3+ hour discussion was quite satisfying and I learnt a lot. Finally, i visited our friends and got home with the bag full of free vegetables that they collected from the market today. Every Saturday somebody from our informal federation is going to the market and ask for leftover vegetables. It combines with trips to a bakery on Tuesday and Friday to get free bread into a steady supply of free food. The system is grassroots, unofficial, informal, involves around a dozen people and each person has to work around 8 hours a month to participate. If you are interested, drop me a line with the subject "no wage labour". .)

Tada! First Morze Infoshop flyers in English and Hungarian, focusing on the newspaper/journal distro part. We need to get more local materials. Also we need to make sure we have a steady line of supply from these gr34t mags. From next week, however, we open (Thu 6-9pm) with a whole fresh collection of periodicals and a bunch of new booklets are also coming in!

For printing and distribution, A4 PDF with 4 flyas: front and back.

(Click on the images to get a bigger version.)

Tada! Mikecz Dániel itt járt. Az első Morze Infoshop szórólapok magyarul és angolul, leginkább az újság és folyóirat terjesztésről. Több helyi anyagra van szükségünk! Másrészt figyelni kell, hogy rendszeresen megkapjuk ezeket a jó anyagokat. Mindenesetre jövő héttől új periodikakínálattal nyitunk (csütörtök este 6-9), és egy adag új füzet is érkezik!

Nyomtatható A4-es PDF 4 db szórólappal terjesztésre: színe és fonákja.

(Bökj a képekre és kapsz egy nagyobb verziót.)

After days my friend found the way to setup Thunderbird to send and receive mail from Riseup, one of the Radical Technology Collectives that work to keep activist communication channels secure. They provide IMAP for downloading your mails, and downloading your mails is the preferred method indeed, even more so if you want to use PGP for encrypting emails as well. Tutorials on their pages were for an old Thunderbird version that didn't look like what we had in the latest Ubuntu. The winning combination:

• Edit > Preferences > Privacy > Security > Verification > Do not use OCSP
• Account Settings > your@riseup.net > Server Settings > Incoming options: IMAP, mail.riseup.net, port 143, TLS, do not use secure authentication
• Account Settings > Outgoing Server > SMTP, mail.riseup.net, port 465, SSL

And the PGP worked (of course with the Enigmail plugin installed) with setting "Use pgp-agent" off:

• OpenPGP > Preferences > Advanced > Do not use gpg-agent.

Ps: At some point i will detail how we configured a PUSCII (another Radical Technology Collective) email address for Emacs and Mew on another friends' computer.

Csütörtökön az infoshopban tartunk matrica/stencil/poszter bevezető workshopot, este 6-9-ig, utána az utcán spontán folytatódik.

Olyan kérdésekre kaphatsz választ, mint:

• milyen matrica papírok vannak, hol lehet kapni őket olcsón és mire jók?
• nyomdában illetve fénymásoldában hogy, hol és mennyiért lehet nyomtatni?
• hogy kell posztert ragasztani?
• fotóból hogy lesz stencilhez felhasználható kép?
• hogy kell stencilt vágni?

Nem egymást követő előadások lesznek hanem szabad közös munka ami közben egymástól tanulunk!

Stratobe: Stratified Blog Engine

The software behind the main metatron.sh areas have the following design goals:

1. For people and projects: Metablog engine where tags and usernames are not separated. If i want to post something on my personal blog i tag it "maxigas" and if i want to post on a project page i tag it "projectname" and that's it. Tags are aggregated on tag.metatron.sh pages. (Implementation level: all this but it's only metatron.sh/tag not tag.metatron.sh.)
2. Privacy-aware: Tags have read and write authentication. I can make sure that only me can write "maxigas" tagged posts but i can also make sure that only my intimate friends can read my "personal" posts. Many bloggers are writing about their private life online because they want to share only with their friends, but it's not always easy to manage this from a technical point of view. On social networking sites you restrict your data flow to your friends only, but the invididuals who are my "criminal friends" don't necessary overlap with my "intimate friends": maybe i want to share my personal moments with a certain group of people but my hacks with another group. But how clumsy it is to tell your friends: "here's my blog, and here is your password for it". Since it's clumsy i'd prefer a blog engine that authenticates based on Jabber or where authentications can be bookmarked. The disadvantages are that on the one hand not everybody uses Jabber and on the other hand bookmarking doesn't seem very secure. (Implementation level: 'null)
3. Filesystem based: Administered is possible with or without a browser, online or offline. The whole data structure could be managed through SCP or GIT, so it's possible to work directly on the server through SSH, locally on the road after downloading the latest version. Web interfaces are user friendly but they also thrust back application usability 20 years into the past. Even with AJAX interfaces they are slow, clumsy and have poor keyboard support. They should be provided for beginner users and those who like them but for specialists there should be specialised tools. It's all a question of design goals: to be userfriendly or to be efficient. I am willing to learn if i can be efficient, but that shouldn't mean i exclude others, at least not from the managent of a blog engine. :j (Implementation level: it's already efficient but not userfriendly.)
4. Pet project: It's a Do-It-Yourself effort in autonomy -- producing your own tools for your own purposes. It's written in a programming language from the 70s MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, therefore a true hacker tool. This dialect of LISP called Scheme does live coding, web apps, classic executables with GUIs, scripts and whatever you want, but it's not widely used in any of these areas. Therefore it's a challange and a learning experience to work with it. Let's see if it's Functional Programming methods are highly efficient or not. (More about this in the Scheme blog).

Meeting Astrid Proll at a discussion organised by the Goethe Institute was not too inspiring -- in fact her speech was essentially what I learned from the Weather Underground film. She also seemed to have censored herself a lot, which is understandable for sure. So only a few scattered notes: one point she stressed and which was really new for me is that the superior fame of the RAF amongst similar organisations operating at the time was due to their well-chosen friends and enemies, namely a fanatic RAF researcher and the Axel Springer the journalist and media magnate who conducted a true news war against them at the time.

One typical misunderstanding was when Proll said that they had no idea what they were fighting for (no programme) but they were motivated by rage against exploitation, imperialism, etc. and their prime objective was to mobilise the masses around these issues. The liberal listeners and media and as far as I understand even herself understood this as a very good reason to dismiss the whole story as some youngsters running wild without self-reflection. However, my interpretation is completely the opposite. RAF was a marxist-leninist organisation with an anarchist spin, and such a strategy comletely falls in to the line pursued in this tradition. The communist critique starts from the analysis of the material conditions of everyday life and it is purely negative: it is an attack on the system and a call for mass action. If they would have had a programme of a plan for the future they would have been a vanguardist bolshevik style of organisation that I really despise because they want to impose their will on the people. The plan for the future should be decided by the people through spontaneous mass action and self-organisation and the world of communism cannot be possibly conceived by anybody living under capitalism!

We didn't ask any question but some comrades went on record in the news reports prophesising a general havoc for the coming years incited by the same problems RAF fought their war, thanking for the example. True indeed, as another questioner asked: "Were the methods of the RAF more cruel than those of the capitalist system we still live in?"

Beszélgetés a Morze Infoshopban
Tűzraktér, Hegedű utca 3., 1. emelet, folyosó vége
2009 február 4. 18:30

Alexis Grigoropoulos meggyilkolása múltév decemberében a diktatúra ideje óta a legnagyobb felkelés-hullámhoz vezetett Görögországban. Az állami erőszak és elnyomás ügynökei megöltek egy 15 éves fiút, amire a görög fiatalság kiterjedt zavargásokkal válaszolt, a nemzetközi szintéren pedig egykettőre kialakult egy szolidaritási mozgalom. A megmozdulások nem csak a konkrét gyilkosság ellen szóltak, hanem a kapitalizmus, a pénzügyi válság és a jobboldali kormányok számtalan barbársága ellen is.

Szeretnénk egy nyilvános vitát és információs estet rendezni a görög zavargásokról és az elkövetkezendő európai lázadásokról, illetve a görög radikális baloldali mozgalom helyzetéről és történetéről. Beszélnünk kell a görög fiatalság válaszáról a pénzügyi válság újkapitalista tényére, az erőszakosan terjedő munkerőpiaci és mindennapi bizonytalanságra, és a hasonló tényezőkre amelyek lázadáshoz vezethetnek.

Olyan kérdéseket szeretnénk megtárgyalni, amiket ez a mozgalom felvetett, mint pl.:

• "Mit jelent győzni a posztfordista nyugati kapitalista metropoliszokban?"
• "Milyen népi követeléseket állított a mozgalom a középpontjába?"
• "Hogyan működhetnek a horizontális szerveződési stratégiák a jelen körülmények között?"
• "Hogyan maradhatnak relevánsak a gyakorlati autonómia, a globális kapitalizmus helyi alternatívái, az önszerveződés?"
• "Az önszerveződés és a hálózatosodás milyen új formái segítségével lehet koordinálni a nemzetközi ellenállást a kapitalizmus ellen?"
• és IGEN!, hogyan lehetnek "újabb Seattle", "újabb görög zavargások", "új átmenetileg független területek", "új alulról szerveződő mozgalomak és győzelmek"?

Ez csak néhány kérdés a sok közül ami felmerült bennünk és még más dolgokról is szeretnénk beszélni. Jó lenne, ha áthidalhatnánk a különbséget az előadók és a fogyasztók között. Szóval készülj fel, hozd el a saját kérdéseidet és véleményedet a beszélgetésre...

Morze Infoshop

morze-infoshop@riseup.net

Info event at Morze Infoshop
Tűzraktér, Hegedű utca 3., 1. emelet, folyosó vége
2009, February 4., 18:30

The murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos last December initiated one of the more massive uprisings in Greece, from the era of dictatorship until now. The murder of the 15-year-old boy by the agents of violence and oppression from the state ignited a general insurrection of the greek youth, as well as an international solidarity movement. The solidarity movement was directed not only towards the actual incident of the murder, but also caused a number of actions and criticism against the innumerable capitalistic barbarities, financial crisis and the right wing government.

We call for a public info night including discussion about the Greek insurrection and the upcoming revolts in Europe as well as presenting/discussing the history of the Greek radical movements. According also with the current situation into the Greek youth during the ''new capitalist fact'' of the financial crisis , violent precarization and other related issues to that popular uprising.

We would like also to initiate a discussion about some questions and problems that this movement tried to make visible!

• "What does it means in the age of post fordist capitalist western or western ''inspired'' metropolis to win?"
• "Which popular demands are again in the surface of the movement?"
• "How horisontality can function successfully in the anticapitalist movements of the modern world?"
• "How can practical autonomy and local alternatives to global capitalism and self organization remain relevant?"
• "Which new forms of organization and networking are necessary to coordinate successfully the international resistance against capitalism in our daily lives?"
• and YES! for establishing again "new Seattles", "new greek revolts", "new temporary autonomous zones", "new grassroot movements and victories?"

These are only some questions related to the Greek insurrection but we hope to discuss more. Our aim is to avoid the gap between presenters and consumers. You are definitely welcome to add your questions and statements to this debate...

• 2008-01-29 18:00
• Sirály, Király utca 50.
• Titkosított levelezés
• Anoním Internetezés
• Hozd el a számítógéped!

Vigyázz a seggedre a kibertérben és alázd meg a társadalmi kontroll mindenttudó isteneit! A műhely során elsajátíthatod az Internetes lopakodás alapjait, mint a PGP használata titkosított levelezéshez és az anoním szörfölés Tor-al. Az említett technológiák hatékonyabb alkalmazása érdekében azt is megtanuljuk, hogy hogyan szerezzünk kalóz email címet és hogyan futtassunk böngészőt pendrive-ról.

• 2009-01-29 18:00
• Sirály, Király utca 50.
• Encrypted emailing
• Anonymous browsing
• Bring your computer!

Watch your back in cyberspace and defy the omniscient gods of control society! The workshop covers the very basics of online stealth like email encryption with Pretty Good Privacy and anonymous browsing with Tor. In order to take more advantage of these technologies we will learn how to get a pirate email address and how to run an Internet browser from a pendrive. No special prior knowledge required.

Why is it necessary to operate an infoshop?

An infoshop is a free place of self-organisation, information exchange and public debate. There are many similar institutions like public libraries, pubs, universities, art galleries and the like. However, almost all of them have been set up by an official and hierarchical organisation which seeks to advance its economic and/or political interests through framing the discourse in a particular way. The infoshop should be different for three reasons. Firstly, the interests that call into existence and maintain it are nonhierarchical and self-organised. Secondly, there is an open structure with weekly meetings where anybody can join in, so the power relations are not based on representation. Thirdly, it is a very lightweight infrastructure which leaves little place for abuse even if it happens. On the other hand, the infoshop is not a place for a public discourse based on pure rationality, unbiased by power relations. Maybe it would be nice, but it's impossible. Objectivity is just a functional part of the liberal ideology: every communication is shaped by the power structure in which it happens. There is no "free speech" as such, nor naked truth. A place where anybody can say anything they want -- that would be an empty discourse without mutual understanding and practical consequences. What an infoshop can offer is an inclusive environment where the discourse is based on the interest of the people without power. The development of such discourse is one necessary condition for revolutionary social change that introduced nonhierarchical power relations and self-organisation into everyday life on a massive scale.

An infoshop is a place where...

• You can hang out in a noncommercial environment, meet like-minded people, educate yourself and others.
• You can find the latest newspapers, periodicals, calls and announcements, leaflets, etc.
• Punks and professors can find rare academic books, hardcore fanzines, and do research against the system.
• People who come to Budapest for the first time can get in touch with the antiauthoritarian political underground.
• All horizontalist grassroots groups can hold open or closed meetings, debates, workshops, working sessions.
• You can browse the archive of materials (from flyers through thesis papers to books) on:

• Anarchism
• Class struggles
• Gender
• Antiglobalisation
• Climate change
• Animal liberation