{"id":7,"date":"2018-08-08T19:02:21","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T23:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/?page_id=7"},"modified":"2019-03-11T13:26:06","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T17:26:06","slug":"2-13","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/2-13\/","title":{"rendered":"2\/13 | The Invisible Committee &#8211; October 3, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pu2VxkGvn3o\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Judith Revel,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dep-philo.parisnanterre.fr\/les-enseignants\/revel-judith-548268.kjsp\">Universit\u00e9 Paris Nanterre<\/a>,\u00a0Jackie Wang, <a href=\"https:\/\/warrencenter.fas.harvard.edu\/event\/wang\">Harvard University<\/a>,\u00a0and McKenzie\u00a0Wark, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newschool.edu\/lang\/faculty\/Ken-Wark\/\">The New School<\/a>\u00a0in conversation with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/french.columbia.edu\/content\/emmanuelle-m-saada\">Emmanuelle Saada<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/laic.columbia.edu\/author\/1965197982\/\">Jes\u00fas Velasco<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cgt.columbia.edu\/about\/people\/committee-faculty\/bernard-e-harcourt\/\">Bernard E. Harcourt<\/a><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Read and discuss<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Invisible Committee&#8217;s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/mitpress.mit.edu\/books\/now\">Now<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Semiotexte, 2017.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/2-13\/2-13-2\/#main\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3940\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3940\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/09\/2.13-300x111.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"457\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/09\/2.13-300x111.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/09\/2.13.png 534w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Invisible Committee published its first anonymous manifesto, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/paycreate.com\/thecominginsurrection\/\">The Coming Insurrection<\/a>, <\/em>in 2007.\u00a0The Committee\u2014an anonymous, loosely formed group of anarchist activists in France, often associated with the earlier publication of the short-lived <em><a href=\"https:\/\/bloom0101.org\/?cat=5&amp;subcat=6\">Tiqqun<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>philosophical journal (1999-2001)\u2014proposed a radical agenda there, calling for a return to communes and strategies of isolated secession and tactical insurrections. The Committee warned that French society was about to blow up and that it was time for direct action. Viewing the world through the prism of civil war\u2014a perspective that traces to thinkers like Foucault in the early 1970s\u2014the Committee set forth a radical vision:&#8221;Abolish general assemblies. Liberate territory from police occupation. Take up arms. Do everything possible to make their use unnecessary. Depose authorities at a local level.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbolish general assemblies\u201d: the Committee signaled, in no uncertain terms, that it was writing against the recent tradition of peaceful occupations and general assemblies, and advocated a far more confrontational posture.\u00a0The Invisible Committee published a second book in 2014 under the title <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theanarchistlibrary.org\/library\/the-invisible-committe-to-our-friends\">To Our Friends<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>(McKenzie Wark, who will join us at Praxis 2\/13 wrote about that book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicseminar.org\/2015\/06\/no-futurism\/\">here at Public Seminar<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Just last year, the Invisible Committee published its third book, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theanarchistlibrary.org\/library\/the-invisible-committe-now\">Now<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2017), another urgent call to action. \u201cAll the reasons for making a revolution are there,\u201d they begin. \u201cAll the reasons are there together, but it\u2019s not reasons that make revolutions, it\u2019s bodies. And the bodies are in front of screens.\u201d <em>Ouch!<\/em> A devastating way to start, as we all sit in front of our screens reading this blog post &#8230; or<a href=\"https:\/\/theanarchistlibrary.org\/library\/the-invisible-committe-now\"> their book on-line<\/a>!\u00a0What they propose, though, is a radical project to change just that. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about addressing bodies and not just the head,\u201d they write, 158 pages later.<\/p>\n<p>The Committee leans in favorably with regard to riots, sounding a Fanonian theme of self-transformation. The Committee takes aim at Nuit Debout, again challenging the model of peaceful general assemblies and the open discussion forum\u2014which, they argue, ends up becoming nothing more than a \u201cbureaucracy of the microphone.\u201d\u00a0Instead, they advocate fragmentation of politics, destitution of power and institutions and the economy, in order to give way to a form of living in common.<\/p>\n<p>Destituent insurrections: rather than the \u201cconstituent itch\u201d of Occupy Wall Street and Nuit Debout, the destituent power that undoes institutions\u2014drawing on the historical illustrations of May \u201968 and other insurrectionary communes. That is a powerful and provocative strategy that we will critically explore and discuss in the second session, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/2-13\/\">live here on Wednesday, October 3, 2018<\/a>, of Praxis 13\/13.<\/p>\n<p>Please join us live or in webcast to read, explore, and critically discuss the Invisible Committee\u2019s latest tract in order to jumpstart the discussion <a href=\"https:\/\/harcourt.praxis.law.columbia.edu\">we need <em>now <\/em><\/a>of \u201cWhat is to be done?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to Praxis 2\/13!<\/p>\n<p>[Read full post<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/bernard-e-harcourt-introduction-to-invisible-committees-now\/\"> here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a9 Bernard E. Harcourt]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/2-13\/fullsizeoutput_2149\/#main\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4009\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4009\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/10\/fullsizeoutput_2149.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"475\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/10\/fullsizeoutput_2149.jpeg 3558w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/10\/fullsizeoutput_2149-300x188.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/10\/fullsizeoutput_2149-768x482.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/files\/2018\/10\/fullsizeoutput_2149-1024x643.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judith Revel,\u00a0Universit\u00e9 Paris Nanterre,\u00a0Jackie Wang, Harvard University,\u00a0and McKenzie\u00a0Wark, The New School\u00a0in conversation with\u00a0Emmanuelle Saada,\u00a0Jes\u00fas Velasco, and\u00a0Bernard E. Harcourt Read and discuss The Invisible Committee&#8217;s Now,\u00a0Semiotexte, 2017. The Invisible Committee published its first anonymous manifesto, The Coming Insurrection, in 2007.\u00a0The Committee\u2014an&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/2-13\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1603,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1603"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}