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Pink & silver goes Jena and other places A new summer of resistance is coming - be it in Strassbourg, Jena or elsewhere in the world, again this year there are going to be camps at many different places - camps against heterosexism, racism, capitalism, antisemitism, sexism -, in short: against the ruling madness! We, some pink & silver-activists from last year's no-border-camp in Frankfurt are calling upon all pink & silver-activists to join in and above all: to start your camp-tour in Jena, on the 5th antiracist border camp lasting from the 12th till the 19th of July! Before telling you what brings us to Jena, we want to explain what "pink & silver" is all about. Pink & Silver is social process... Whoever asks what pink & silver is gets many answers. For some pink & silver is a shimmering invention of the so-called anti-globalization-movement, brought into being sometime between Seattle and Prague. Others find a deeper reason; according to them pink & silver has numerous, above all dynamic relations - be it situationist happening, fun-guerilla or queer-spectacle. This shows, that pink & silver is many-voiced and has no rigid identity-boundaries. Even better! Pink & silver is experiment, is rich and lavish and continously reinvents itself, depending on the respective occasion, situation and aim. Pink & silver crosses the usual subdivisions and looks for cuts and links, not only what forms of activism are concerned. Pink & silver accepts differences and diversity, even more: it sees them as starting point! Whenever it matches well, pink & silver sets up crossovers and aims at dynamism, flood and shifting - but without becoming narrow-minded and complacent. Pink & silver likes both: solo-scenes as well as (strategic) cooperation in a larger context. Pink & silver is neither a doctrine of salvation nor an identity-garden and it is not a brand name. Pink & silver is social process, is only what we make of it. Pink & silver is tactical frivolity Pink & silver is daring and spectacular: be it cheerleading, dancing or by building pyramids, pink & silver looks for the stage, is extrovert, is glitter and sparkle. Pink & silver is rhythmic and loud, in short, is glamorous pomp! And still: Pink & silver is more, pink & silver is cunning and confrontative. Show, luxury and spectacle, all this is strategy, is tactical frivolity. Pink & silver speaks in many tongues, shocks, attracts, flatters. With these tactics it achieves not only to enter forbidden geographical space, (be it red zones, department stores or airports), but also to cross the public perception. To take places (if necessary in a confrontative way).is only one side of the coin. The flip-side is the attempt to snatch people away from their slumber of normality, to grab them and confront them with other ways of viewing the world. Therefore leaflets, slogans and banners are a part of pink & silver as well as garish costumes, samba-drums and means of confrontation. If pink & silver is to remain successful in the future, its tactics and style have to vary and to be developed further. Because otherwise pink & silver threatens to become a mere xerox of its own style, boring and predictable! Pink & silver is communication No matter what pink & silver events are usually like, they are only really cool when all participants are equally integrated in their planning and implementation. This calls for permanent and anti-hierarchic communication. Or put concretely: 1. Pink & silver-actions are based on scripts, i.e. they are planned in detail beforehand, including alternative and emergency plans. Only by doing this everybody is informed about what's going on (not least in tactical regard!), and what's more, only this can guarantee, that everyone is exclusively doing what they feel prepared to do. It is one of the fundamental principles of the pink & silver -ABC to take limits, doubts and fears serious - however without hereby wanting to inhibit those who feel in a non-macho way (!) belligerent and daring. 2. For the most part the internal pink & silver-communication takes place in small groups which decide on delegates who then (with close feedback from their respective groups) make the definite decisions. This makes communication faster and besides it is anti-hierarchic. 3. In order to facilitate the processes of communication pink & silver uses certain elements of the international sign-language. Pink & silver is queer No matter whether pink & silver is used in anti-racist, anti-capitalist or other struggles, pink & silver is more, pink & silver is gender trouble! Because in order to translate the concept of "tactical frivolity" into action pink & silver activists have so far mainly relied on costumes which are usually at home in the pink-plush glitter world of the queer-spectacle. Doing this it has always been clear, that mere dress-spectacle is not enough, that is not really questioning heterosexism, gender-binarity and patriarchy. If cross-dressing wants to be political, it asks for something bigger: Only when gender, body and desire (including patriarchal relations of power) are deconstructed and attacked as social constructs of power (that is when cross-dressing only plays the role of making political criticism perceptible on a personal level) pink & silver is gender trouble, or even more, pink & silver is queer. Because to be queer is more than the criticism of patriarchal circumstances. Rather to be queer means to radically question everything that the every-day-knowledge passes of as normal or natural: genders, capital, ethnicity/race, nations, Germany etc. Pink & silver goes 5th antiracist bordercamp The 5th antiracist bordercamp will camp in Jena, and it will be a challenge. That"s already for sure. Because for the first time politically organized refugees (especially from the refugee organization The Voice) are a central part of the camp-preparation-group. This does not only entail that the social situation of refugees will be more examined than in the years before.. No, also the question, why the antiracist bordercamp-community is white-german dominated in such a way will come up (or indeed has come up already). Because this fact is no coincidence, it is (as it was pointedly put in one discussion-paper) an expression of the we-you-effects of racist mechanisms of in- and exclusion: The fact that refugees, migrants and white Germans are exposed to very different conditions of existence systematically reduces the sum of possible points of intersection. This goes for the centre of German society as well as for its fringes, including the radical left! To cooperate on a more equal level therefore aims to break the divisions produced by society and hereby (at least in the long run) to create the precondition for trans-identitarian alliances.It goes without saying that such an objective is just what the queer idea of pink & silver feels like, because pink & silver aims at dynamism, flood and shifting, that is at crossovers - whenever and whereever they fit! Therefore it was very unedifying that there was a split in the preparation-group for the bordercamp concerning the question of the cooperation of refugess, migrants and white Germans - from which another camp emerged: the "Land-ahoy"-days in Hamburg. And still: the reasons for the split may be very problematic - at least from our point of view. But politically all camps favoured by us are necessary and therefore hip: 5th anti-racist border camp in Jena 12th till 19th of July (www.nadir.org/camp02); international no-border camp in Strassbourg: 19th till 28th of July (www.noborder.org); summercamp in Cottbus (having come out of the crossover-converence): (www. Summercamp.suat.net); Land-ahoy-days in Hamburg: 16th till 23rd of august (www.landinsicht.nadir.org). What's left to say is the pleasant message that quite a lot pink & silver-networks and street-carneval-combos (expercially from England and the Netherlands) have announced their coming for Strassbourg. That is hip, chic and transnational - a chance, which we should not spoil! (Therefore we want to mention that Trojan TV has produced a pink & silver mobilization video for Strassbourg. Please contact: trojan-tv@gmx.de)
`26.06.2002`

home : Aufruf|Call : Themen|Topics : Artikel|Articles : Material : Programm|Programme : Links

Pink & silver goes Jena and other places

A new summer of resistance is coming - be it in Strassbourg, Jena or elsewhere in the world, again this year there are going to be camps at many different places - camps against heterosexism, racism, capitalism, antisemitism, sexism -, in short: against the ruling madness! We, some pink & silver-activists from last year's no-border-camp in Frankfurt are calling upon all pink & silver-activists to join in and above all: to start your camp-tour in Jena, on the 5th antiracist border camp lasting from the 12th till the 19th of July! Before telling you what brings us to Jena, we want to explain what "pink & silver" is all about.

Pink & Silver is social process...

Whoever asks what pink & silver is gets many answers. For some pink & silver is a shimmering invention of the so-called anti-globalization-movement, brought into being sometime between Seattle and Prague. Others find a deeper reason; according to them pink & silver has numerous, above all dynamic relations - be it situationist happening, fun-guerilla or queer-spectacle. This shows, that pink & silver is many-voiced and has no rigid identity-boundaries. Even better! Pink & silver is experiment, is rich and lavish and continously reinvents itself, depending on the respective occasion, situation and aim. Pink & silver crosses the usual subdivisions and looks for cuts and links, not only what forms of activism are concerned. Pink & silver accepts differences and diversity, even more: it sees them as starting point! Whenever it matches well, pink & silver sets up crossovers and aims at dynamism, flood and shifting - but without becoming narrow-minded and complacent. Pink & silver likes both: solo-scenes as well as (strategic) cooperation in a larger context. Pink & silver is neither a doctrine of salvation nor an identity-garden and it is not a brand name. Pink & silver is social process, is only what we make of it.

Pink & silver is tactical frivolity

Pink & silver is daring and spectacular: be it cheerleading, dancing or by building pyramids, pink & silver looks for the stage, is extrovert, is glitter and sparkle. Pink & silver is rhythmic and loud, in short, is glamorous pomp! And still: Pink & silver is more, pink & silver is cunning and confrontative. Show, luxury and spectacle, all this is strategy, is tactical frivolity. Pink & silver speaks in many tongues, shocks, attracts, flatters. With these tactics it achieves not only to enter forbidden geographical space, (be it red zones, department stores or airports), but also to cross the public perception. To take places (if necessary in a confrontative way).is only one side of the coin. The flip-side is the attempt to snatch people away from their slumber of normality, to grab them and confront them with other ways of viewing the world. Therefore leaflets, slogans and banners are a part of pink & silver as well as garish costumes, samba-drums and means of confrontation. If pink & silver is to remain successful in the future, its tactics and style have to vary and to be developed further. Because otherwise pink & silver threatens to become a mere xerox of its own style, boring and predictable!

Pink & silver is communication

No matter what pink & silver events are usually like, they are only really cool when all participants are equally integrated in their planning and implementation. This calls for permanent and anti-hierarchic communication. Or put concretely: 1. Pink & silver-actions are based on scripts, i.e. they are planned in detail beforehand, including alternative and emergency plans. Only by doing this everybody is informed about what's going on (not least in tactical regard!), and what's more, only this can guarantee, that everyone is exclusively doing what they feel prepared to do. It is one of the fundamental principles of the pink & silver -ABC to take limits, doubts and fears serious - however without hereby wanting to inhibit those who feel in a non-macho way (!) belligerent and daring. 2. For the most part the internal pink & silver-communication takes place in small groups which decide on delegates who then (with close feedback from their respective groups) make the definite decisions. This makes communication faster and besides it is anti-hierarchic. 3. In order to facilitate the processes of communication pink & silver uses certain elements of the international sign-language.

Pink & silver is queer

No matter whether pink & silver is used in anti-racist, anti-capitalist or other struggles, pink & silver is more, pink & silver is gender trouble! Because in order to translate the concept of "tactical frivolity" into action pink & silver activists have so far mainly relied on costumes which are usually at home in the pink-plush glitter world of the queer-spectacle. Doing this it has always been clear, that mere dress-spectacle is not enough, that is not really questioning heterosexism, gender-binarity and patriarchy. If cross-dressing wants to be political, it asks for something bigger: Only when gender, body and desire (including patriarchal relations of power) are deconstructed and attacked as social constructs of power (that is when cross-dressing only plays the role of making political criticism perceptible on a personal level) pink & silver is gender trouble, or even more, pink & silver is queer. Because to be queer is more than the criticism of patriarchal circumstances. Rather to be queer means to radically question everything that the every-day-knowledge passes of as normal or natural: genders, capital, ethnicity/race, nations, Germany etc.

Pink & silver goes 5th antiracist bordercamp

The 5th antiracist bordercamp will camp in Jena, and it will be a challenge. That"s already for sure. Because for the first time politically organized refugees (especially from the refugee organization The Voice) are a central part of the camp-preparation-group. This does not only entail that the social situation of refugees will be more examined than in the years before.. No, also the question, why the antiracist bordercamp-community is white-german dominated in such a way will come up (or indeed has come up already). Because this fact is no coincidence, it is (as it was pointedly put in one discussion-paper) an expression of the we-you-effects of racist mechanisms of in- and exclusion: The fact that refugees, migrants and white Germans are exposed to very different conditions of existence systematically reduces the sum of possible points of intersection. This goes for the centre of German society as well as for its fringes, including the radical left! To cooperate on a more equal level therefore aims to break the divisions produced by society and hereby (at least in the long run) to create the precondition for trans-identitarian alliances.It goes without saying that such an objective is just what the queer idea of pink & silver feels like, because pink & silver aims at dynamism, flood and shifting, that is at crossovers - whenever and whereever they fit! Therefore it was very unedifying that there was a split in the preparation-group for the bordercamp concerning the question of the cooperation of refugess, migrants and white Germans - from which another camp emerged: the "Land-ahoy"-days in Hamburg. And still: the reasons for the split may be very problematic - at least from our point of view. But politically all camps favoured by us are necessary and therefore hip: 5th anti-racist border camp in Jena 12th till 19th of July (www.nadir.org/camp02); international no-border camp in Strassbourg: 19th till 28th of July (www.noborder.org); summercamp in Cottbus (having come out of the crossover-converence): (www. Summercamp.suat.net); Land-ahoy-days in Hamburg: 16th till 23rd of august (www.landinsicht.nadir.org).

What's left to say is the pleasant message that quite a lot pink & silver-networks and street-carneval-combos (expercially from England and the Netherlands) have announced their coming for Strassbourg. That is hip, chic and transnational - a chance, which we should not spoil! (Therefore we want to mention that Trojan TV has produced a pink & silver mobilization video for Strassbourg. Please contact: trojan-tv@gmx.de)

26.06.2002