This letter was read during the PGAe winter meeting in linz, austria, february 2005.
We, (a group of people from the French-speaking area, involved in the "Sans Titre" Network), decided to propose ourselves as convenors for the next PGAe conference.
Sans-titre is a network of groups and individuals involved in autonomy/alternatives building (both in squatted urban areas or rurals farms and projects...), anticapitalist and anti-authoritarian struggles. We have sans-titre meetings every two months since the intercontinental caravan in 99. During these meetings, we spend 4/5 days together in a different place each time both to make friends, develop action or autonomy building projects, have in-depth theoritical discussions and funny games, exchange about our lives and communities and publish a bi-monthly bulletin. Sans-titre meetings gather from 10 to 50 people depending on issues, places, times and individuals. It has no memberships or reprenstatives but hallmarks (you'll find a translation of these hallmarks a the end of this text). Through Sans-titre, some people have been linked with the PGA network and close to its hallmarks since its beginning. Through Sans-titre some people have been involved with various projects such as global days of action, an anticapitalist caravan, the no border camp in Strasbourg, the permanent caravan, intersquat support initiatives and various kind of more locally orientated actions, projects and friendships.
Here are some of the concerns that "we" (this group of people but not all the Sans-titre) want to raise if we become the convenor of the next PGAe conference.
A- To continue with the dynamic in the Eastern Europe (included Balkan) started with the Belgrade conference
If some people or groups in Eastern European countries propose to take the convenorship, then we think it is a priority to have the next conference there and we are ready to help in such a case. Nevertheless, since the internal conflicts and troubles we have seen during the Belgrade conference and its preparation, we want to have a possibility to analyse and question the local situation without having everything we could say being rejected (both by ourselves and other people) as "western-centered" imperialism. We're aware that we partly reflect a "western-centered radical ghetto" approach but we also want to understand and interact with local contexts and groups in order to contribute to the resolution of these types of problems common to all groups (hierarchical structure, "politician" behavior, lack of resources, etc.) and that go beyond local specific contexts. Even if there are no candidates from the Eastern Europe and the Balkans if our proposal is accepted, it is still crucial to continue working specifically with organisations there on the development of this dynamic and we will try to develop contacts and collaboration during the conference preparation.
B- To clarify the distinction between this potential convenor and "Sans Titre"
We're just a group of people from various parts of the European french-speaking area and involved with various collectives linked with the sans-titre network. We have a kind of feeling (and hope) that we are motivated enough and in sufficient numbers to be the next convenors. We know each other, have some common practices and some experience of working with each other. If our convenorship proposal is accepted we will form a specific group with its own name for the organization of the conference and will work both independently and in interaction with the network "Sans Titre".
This clearly means that some people involved with the sans-titre network don't want to feel/be involved with this conference and that this conference will be a specific autonomous project of some people linked with sans-titre. We don't want to force people to feel responsible for a project decided by others.
We also want to remind ourselves and others that PGA and "Sans Titre" share the same anti-authoritarian hallmarks, among which there is a principle that "these networks represent no one and that no one represents these networks". Additionaly and without necessarily looking for evil everywhere, we want to raise our concern about the way some individuals or groups of people sometimes use the name of networks such as PGA to enforce their power/career through politician behaviours that don't have much to do with grassroots politics.
C- To promote the following ideas/forms of organising
Here are a few ideas (and not at any point an exhaustive list) of some of the things we want to focus on or to worry about. Part of these reasons/motivations came from the process of experimentations and discussions, which took place within "Sans titre" around our involvment with PGA and the organisation of big action camps/meetings such as the no border camp in Strasbourg. We're aware that these few focuses that we present here are partly already present within in the PGA process (and were also some focuses of the last PGA conference for example). We just want to emphasize that we are particularly motivated to develop debates and practices going into the following directions. It's also for us only the beginning in debating what we would like to fill this next conference with. These orientations don't exclude to improve and do as well as the other usual stuffs such as action coordination, workshops on political and practical issues, work on PGA process, blahblah....
- we want to consider the organisational dimension of the meetings and of the daily life logistic during the conference, as important political issues and part of the contents. These can't be taken as superficial questions of "logistic", which would have to be organised as efficiently as possible in order to let activists discuss "content".
- we want to focus on some horizontal and collective conceptualisation and organization of collective tasks needed during the conference (from facilitation and formalisation of the meetings to conflict resolutions, translation or cooking), to emphasize autonomous building and participative structures (through self-construction of facilities when possible, self-organisation of meals...), to have various skill-shares and to avoid specialisation of tasks when it reinforces power structures or when it is related to the necessary daily lives tasks such as cleaning or cooking.
- we want to take care of how the buildings that would be necessary for the conference to happen could also stay on a longer term and be useful to local people and projects. We want to develop connections with the local situation around the conference: meeting with local people to understand their issues and contexts, contribute to local projects and struggles, etc.
- we want to develop direct democracy structures and experimentations during the conference and into the network and to find ways to subvertize power relations and informal hierarchies.
- we're thinking of some ways of decentralising the conference, but the possibility to make it workable and interesting is still very much into debate.
- we would like to have some political and strategical debates about present tendencies in the network to flirt with Social Forums and, more generally, with institutionnal party/lobby politics type of organisations.
D- Additional information: "Sans-titre" network hallmarks
- - Sans Titre is a network composed of individuals and local groups, which transfers information, shares projects and actions on a local, regional and worldwide basis.
- - We are in favour of self-government and try to regain control over our lives, means and places of existence. We do our best to put our ideas into practice and feel rather fulfilled with both our ways of life and our political struggles, which are resolutely united: planting and collecting vegetables; reading newspapers, making one; learning how to make jam; making love; laughing between friends; supporting struggles and developing solidarity close to us as well as far from us; type down the summary of a sans-titre meeting which lasted for ages; opposing commercial trade?
- - We are facing a set of domination and discrimination systems. States andcapitalism are nowadays indissociably linked and working hand and glove. Both, for instance, are deeply rooted in patriarchy and male domination. We reject them at large and try to understand them by tearing their mechanisms apart and spotting their participants.
- - Within western societies, both historically and at present, sciences and research are profit-driven. Irrational faith in progress and scientist ideology, which are driving industrial societies, lead us all to jeopardize our lives, our organism and our means of existence through hazardous experimentation. They make us more and more dependent on industry and consumption goods. As needs induced by our consumption society become more complex and diverse, industrial societies prove to be less and less compatible with local alternatives based on a respect for humanity and environment. This derives from the basic fact that these societies imply total control over our own tools and resources.
- - Lobbying, representation, as well as any form of association with the State or its institutions turn out to lead to a dead-end. They can only strengthen the latters and neutralize any real desires for change. We are in favour of active desertion and autonomization, disobedience and effective action. We intend by these means to inform as well as to induce economical and political confrontational situations. We are liable to choose direct means of pressure or opposition towards ruling powers.
- - Sans-titre admits no hierachy. We make decisions collectively through debates, trying to bring them to consensus. A decision can only be individual and implies only individual responsibility. Local groups and individuals keep their autonomy. Sans-titre does not represent anybody and no one might represent Sans-Titre.
- - Sans Titre is fighting. Sans Titre is thinking and proposing. Sans Titre does not take itself seriously. Sans Titre is autonomous. Sans Titre creates its own media. Sans Titre does not exist, and everything's fine till now. Oï.