Having fun while translating chapter 7 on resistance and prefiguration of "Digital Solidarity" by @malteengeler and me (see the English review by @gedankenstuecke here: https://tzovar.as/digital-solidarity-blankertz-engeler/)
This table lists the actions that we describe and document in the chapter (i.e. they are real, not hypothetical). Full references will be in the translation :)
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New forms of resistance are added continuously. A couple of days ago, people in Brussels turned against commercial e-scooters and e-bikes. The examples in the table - set fire to 'AI'-controlled cars and attack robots in public spaces - are from the US, but I think there is also increasing discomfort with the omnipresence of commercial digital infrastructures in public spaces in many European countries.
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@alineblankertz
Is this resistance against digital surveillance tech though (which I would see as left-wing)? This feels more like an attack on progressive urbanism, which is a right-wing phenomenon which values e.g. private car ownership over anything despite the congestion, health impacts, etc. E.g. In the UK, the only ANPR cameras that seem to get attacked are the ones which enforce low-emission zones in cities :(
@srtcd424 I have seen other pictures e.g. showing that the city administration's fleet of rental bikes was untouched just next to a pile of damaged commercial e-bikes. I interpret that as a conscious choice, and I do not think that commercial e-scooters and e-bikes are the future of urban shared mobility, but an obstacle.
But yes, apparently also a bus stop was damaged. I guess these situations are chaotic and people with different political leanings can join.
@alineblankertz
Ah, interesting. The situation is perhaps muddier in the UK then, as there is so little publicly owned infrastructure - anything vaguely progressive like e-bike fleets or car sharing right now will almost certainly be a commercial thing. A useful lesson perhaps that two apparently similar images from different countries can represent a profoundly different political action!
@srtcd424 Fully agree!
And it is still muddy, I do not want to deny that. Also for organising against data centres, very different political leanings get involved...my personal view is that it is good to push the progressive narratives as much as possible, and try to distance oneself from stuff that is easily appropriated by the right.
@alineblankertz Do you really think that this is an intelligent form of "resistance" or even legitimate protest? Burning e-scooters?
@modiano
It is not on me to draw the lines between legitimate and illegitimate protest. I personally believe we need a much broader variety of much bolder resistance than what we have now to confront techno-political developments. And I think many can empathise with people who think that few options remain, so we need to make the most of those available.
@alineblankertz Apparently, you wrote a book on resistance. What do you mean by "It is not on me to draw the lines between legitimate and illegitimate protest"? You must have an opinion about it, right?
@modiano I have not written a book about about resistance, we have written a book in which one chapter is dedicated to documenting and systematising practices of resistance and prefiguration (more here: https://dietzberlin.de/produkt/digitale-solidaritaet/).
The point of that chapter and that post is not to proclaim my personal opinion, but mostly to document the breadth of forms of resistance used.
@alineblankertz wird es euer Buch auch digital geben oder soll das bewusst offline bleiben?
@DanielSchwering Leider bietet der @karldietzverlag (noch) keine E-Books an. Bei der englischen Übersetzung müssen wir noch gucken, wie wirs machen (inwiefern es die offline geben wird). Generell haben wir kein Problem damit, Inhalte online zu stellen :)
@alineblankertz @gedankenstuecke @malteengeler Wenn man sich diese Liste an "resistance practices" so anguckt, alter Schwede... "Disclose credit data of CDU politicians" 🤡
@modiano
Jo, großartige Arbeit, z.B. hier: https://www.golem.de/news/luecke-in-bonify-app-hackerin-veroeffentlicht-schufa-mieterauskunft-von-jens-spahn-2307-176088.html