“On the one hand, cooperation doesn’t seem to make us free. On the other hand, living without cooperation doesn’t make us free, either. How can we stay free in cooperation? What is free cooperation?”
— On Rules and Monsters, Chapter 3: Taking off the mask
I just stumbled upon the video ‘On Rules and Monsters: An Introduction to Free Cooperation’, by Christoph Spehr and Jörg Windszus. It’s a great addition to ‘On Blood and Wings – A Study on the Dark Side of Cooperation’, which I saw some months ago (thanks to Brain Holmes). The video was made for the ‘Networks, Art & Collaboration‘ Conference, held at SUNY in Buffalo, 2004 and features the voice-over of Stephanie Rothenberg and Tony Conrad (yes, that one).
Christoph Spehr is a political theorist and organiser who gained some attention with his theories on “free cooperation”, which he introduced in 2000 in his essay ‘Gleicher als andere’ (More Equal than Others – awarded with the Rosa-Luxemburg-prize). The concept of free cooperation is an attempt to base emancipation, political theory and left politics (once more) on free negotiations and equal negotiating power. Spehr doesn’t believe in simple “non-hierarchical” or “free” structures – there are always rules, responsibilities, structures of decisionmaking and so on… the question is, which ones. He insists on the option of refusal and the right of withdrawal from cooperation, as well as negotiation and renegotiation with corporate or state monsters, and explores how ideas of independence, equality, and freedom can be useful for alternative networks of learning (in or outside the institutions). To explore these issues, Spehr refers to Science-Fiction, drawing on the language of this genre which, by changing and shifting the face of reality as we know it, highlights the underlying structures of this reality. In his view this language is a powerful vehicel to talk about possibilities, desires, emancipation and social change because it’s “very open for dialogue, for collective arguments, and relatively non-restrictive in its access”.
In his book, ‘The Aliens are Amongst Us!‘ (1999) – a classic in politcal underground literature – Spehr makes a distinction between three social categories: aliens, maquis and civilians. Here the alien is “a metaphor for the experience of a ruling other that is able to shape its form and uses the power of looking just like normal human beings to extend its domination; it’s a metaphor for a very sophisticated cruelty and domination, and for governance in the democratic era”. While typical aliens would be intermediates such as cultural enterpreneurs, social democratic welfare state officials, NGOs or (ruling) green party members that all live of movements, events, ideas and expressions of others, the ‘maquis’ (a term used by the French resistance to describe zones not occupied by the Nazis) are the antagonists of the aliens, those who experiment with post-economic models of ‘free cooperation’, which, as suggested by Geert Lovink, are really the ‘multitudes’. Spehr’s videos draw on these theories and use fragments of sience-fiction films (in On Rules and Monsters) or (in the case of On Blood and Wings) vampire movies, combined with a new background voice, to talk – not without a sense of humour – about the struggle between the multitude and capitalism, unveiling the crucial mechanisms of capitalism (“to make more and more blood out of blood”), and showing how it is being opposed by spontaneous, voluntary, egalitarian human agencies – the specters of free cooperation. As stated in an introductory text: “Why the hell does every monster want to go to Tokyo and stamp on it? Why do we feel sorry if the monster gets shot at the end? Why does it always return?”
Check out some interviews Geert Lovink did with Spehr: here (2003) and here (2006). A DVD of On Rules and Monsters is published as part of The Art of Free Cooperation, which also includes texts by Christoph Spehr, Brian Holmes, Geert Lovink, Howard Rheingold, and Trebor Scholz.
intro
Chapter 1: Every monster wants to go to Tokyo
Chapter 2: The very thing that makes you rich (will make you poor)
Chapter 3: Taking off the mask
Chapter 4
Outro
Grab the rules, play it hard. Basic rules for free cooperation
WOMAN (off): So on the one hand, cooperation doesn’t seem to make us free. On the other hand, living without cooperation doesn’t make us free, either. How can we stay free in cooperation? What is free cooperation? To learn about free cooperation, we first must understand the three basic principles of forced cooperation.
The first principle of forced cooperation is: KEEP OFF THE BASIC RULES!
(The Time Machine) The big gate is slammed shut. George tries desperately to open it again.
MAN (off): Forced cooperation is not tyranny — or, more precisely: it is not something that looks like tyranny at first sight. But the basic rules will not give way to anybody. They are not negotiated between the members of the cooperation — be it the workers of a factory, the employees at an office, the women and children in the patriarchal family, the people affected by the decisions of a given institution. The basic rules are kept behind iron gates. People and positions may be changed; some distribution of value may be negotiated; smaller rules may be changed and altered or even accepted to be refused. But the core of the cooperation, its basic rules, are not to be tackled by the real members of the cooperation.
WOMAN (off): The second principle of forced cooperation is: NEVER STOP THE ENGINE!
(The Trollenberg Terror) The group is sitting in the gondola of the cable lift and is taken up the mountain. They see the >cloud< floating into the valley, closing in the houses. The >cloud< enters the downward station and freezes the cables. The gondola stops, goes on, stops again.
MAN (off): Forced cooperation doesn't turn people into robots -- or, more precisely: it doesn't turn people into something that looks like robots at first sight. You may talk. You may quarrel while working. You may make proposals or even hand small protest notes. Some forced cooperations even allow you to vote or take part in participatory systems or in so-called >speech situations< where you may argue that some rules are irrational and that you could work better without them. But never, never must you use material power to push your interests. Do not freeze the cables. Do not stop the gondola. Do not go on strike, do not withdraw your workforce while talking. This is doomed and criminalized as monstrous behavior. If you try, you will get bombed for it.
WOMAN (off): The third principle of forced cooperation is: SERVE OR PAY!
(The Day the Earth Stood Still)
KLAATU: I came here to give you these facts. It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet. But if you threaten to extend your violence, this earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We'll be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you.
MAN (off): Not every forced cooperation uses the whip -- or, more precisely: not every forced cooperation uses a whip that looks like a whip at first sight. In many forced cooperations, we are not forced openly to do what we are told. Only that it doesn't really make sense to deny. Because if we don't cooperate, if the cooperation splits, or gets spoiled, we are the ones to pay. If we disagree with our boss and split, he still keeps the enterprise, while we leave with empty hands. It's serve or pay: that makes choices so simple in forced cooperation.
WOMAN (off): Having understood how forced cooperation works, we can now articulate the three basic principles of free cooperation. The first principle of free cooperation is: GRAB THE RULES!
(Attack of the Crab Monsters) A man is walking down the dunes to the beach. Out of nowhere, a huge crab appears and grabs him. He cries.
MAN (off): In a free cooperation, all rules can be changed. Every member is free to challenge any rule, and the members of the cooperation decide about their rules. There are no >holy rules< that are barred behind iron gates and cannot be changed by the members of the cooperation.
WOMAN (off): The second principle of free cooperation is: PLAY IT HARD!
(The Time Machine) While George is fighting a Morlock and gets attacked by more Morlocks, one of the Eloi is considering his hand, deep in thought. Suddenly he makes a fist and knocks down the Morlock.
MAN (off): In a free cooperation, all members have the same power to influence the rules. This power is not given by any formal structures of decision-making: talking or voting is not enough. Real power comes from the freedom and ability to withdraw one's cooperative activity, to hold back, to quit, to give limits and conditions to one's cooperative activity. To say or to signal: >No, if not.<
(World Without End) The commander comes in from the negotiations. He is angry.
OFFICER How was it?
COMMANDER They won't cooperate!
WOMAN (off): The third principle of free cooperation is: STAY ONLY WHERE YOU CAN LEAVE, AND WHERE YOUR LEAVING IS MEANINGFUL.
(The Time Machine) George notices the Eloi for the first time. Suddenly there are cries: Weena is drowning in the river.
GEORGE: Why are you sitting by?
As nobody moves, George leaps into the water and pulls her out.
GEORGE: You're all right?
Without a word, Geena gets up and leaves him.
MAN (off): In a free cooperation, the >price< of the cooperation being split up, coming to an end, somebody going away, the cooperation becoming looser or being not fully working, is similar (and bearable) for all members of the cooperation. Only under this condition, withdrawing one's cooperative activity is not blackmailing the others. Only under this condition, all members of the cooperation have the same bargaining power. That means: each member can actually leave the cooperation, without paying too high a price; and the leaving of each member will have an actual effect on the others, will be experienced by them as some price they are paying, so that this negative prospect may trigger new negotiations. Because you do not only wish to be allowed to do this or that; you also want to make others do this or that, or do this or that not. For this, you need equal bargaining power. Without bargaining power, they will just let you drown.
(The Time Machine) Weena and George are sitting on the stairs.
GEORGE: I did it to save your life. That doesn't seem to mean much to you or anybody else around here.
WEENA: It doesn't.
GEORGE: Do you realize there were about 20 of your friends watching you drown, not one of them so much as lifting a finger to save you? Ain't that a curious attitude? Very curious world. Aren't you the least bit interested in who I am? Where I'm from?
WEENA: Should I? Getting bargaining power usually means getting organized, too. Without the solidarity of others, you cannot level bargaining powers in many cases. In a free cooperation, there has to be a constant re-arrangement of rules, individual appropriation and solidarities to keep bargaining power equal between the members of the cooperation. Making bargaining power equal -- through changing rules, individual appropriation, solidarity -- is the core business of any emancipatory politics, and the basic definition of what is left politics. It is also the core definition of being someone, of being amongst others who really recognize you.
(The Time Machine) George comes from the rotten books and addresses the sitting Eloi.
GEORGE: You! All of you! I'm going back to my own time. I won't bother to tell anybody about the useless struggle, the hopeless future. But at least I can die among men! You ... ah! He runs out.
WOMAN (off): Doing free cooperation means no less than taking off the mask, and demanding the others to bear that. Because most cooperations look okay as long as you are wearing the mask that was designed for you; as long as you fit into what others think is appropriate for you; as long as you do what others want you to do. But you only see what a cooperation is worth when there is conflict, when you demand change, when you take off the mask.
(Queen of Outer Space) A spacewoman with a mask on her face and an earthman are sitting on a couch.
SPACEWOMAN: You'll have to suffer the consequences for your planned attack.
EARTHMAN: There is no plan of attack!
She goes to a monitor and turns it on.
SPACEWOMAN: Let me show you what happens to those who oppose. Look, Captain! The disintegrator.
EARTHMAN: This is what destroyed the space station!
SPACEWOMAN: And it will destroy the Earth, too.
EARTHMAN: The people! The lives of those countless billions! I admit that men on earth have been ... quarrelsome and foolish in the past. But we're no harm to your work! I swear! (He takes her at her shoulders.)
I understand you better than you do yourself. You're denying man's love, for that hatred and for that monstrous power you have.
SPACEWOMAN: Monstrous?
EARTHMAN: You're not only a queen, you're a woman, too. And a woman needs a man's love. Let me see your face! (He takes off her mask.)
I'm sorry. I didn't understand!
SPACEWOMAN: Radiation burns. Men did that to me. Men with their wars. You told me that women need love. Now that you know, would you give me that love?
She offers him a kiss. He turns away.
EARTHMAN: I -- I didn't realize.
SPACEWOMAN: You didn't realize! - Guards!
The (female) guards enter and take the earthman with them.