by Javier Ruiz
Les menaces de violence avant le FSE Les menaces de violence ont commenc avec la publication dappels pour une attaque physique sur Ken Livingstone sur un des site faisant partie de Au-dela du FSE vnements alternatifs. Ce site Beyond ESF a appel pour :
ATTAQUEZ KEN LE ROUGE , JETEZ UNE FLECHETTE SUR KEN LE ROUGE , ATTAQUEZ LES STANDS DE SWP , FORMEZ UN GROUPE DE 12 PERSONNES ET JETEZ DE LA MERDE A KEN QUAND IL SADRESSE A LASSEMBLEE, 200 PERSONNES PARMI NOUS DOIVENT ATTAQUER LA CONFERENCE OFFICIELLE DU FORUM ET POUSSER KEN DE SON STAND QUAND IL SADRESSE A LASSEMBLEE (la presse : http://esf.gn.apc.org/downloads/9ddec3f280478d6f93933eaff10149d5/Press_accreditation_for), ACCUEILLEZ KEN AVEC DES COUPS .
This website is used as the main evidence of a co-ordinated premeditated violent attack on the ESF.
This is quite funny and ridiculous, but it involves my name (How? you'll see) so I have to explain.
The OurMayDay site is what is called a wiki page, this means it can be edited as a normal text file by non-experts, thus allowing for better interactivity.
In the wiki sites you can trace who modified a page, so if you do that on that page you find that the aforementioned lines were written by someone using a computer with a unique ID:
Revision 4 . . October 4, 2004 9:55 pm by 81.2.81.104
If you trace the ownership of the ID (whois) you get:
inetnum: 81.2.81.104 - 81.2.81.104
netname: LARC
country: GB
person: Javier Ruiz
address: LARC
address: 62 Fieldgate St
address: LONDON, London
address: E1 1ES
phone: +44 20 8678 5122
e-mail: rts@gn.apc.org
nic-hdl: UKAA102193-RIPE
mnt-by: AA
changed: zaphod@aaisp.net.uk 20040104
changed: zaphod@aaisp.net.uk 20040205
source: RIPE
This means that I am the technical contact person for that computer, located in our resource centre in London.
There are several groups who used the centre on those days, among them those who wrote the "threats". They are a group who call themselves West Essex Zapatistas. They are a couple of Situationist-inspired pranksters connected to Stewart Home and the Neoist political art circles. Their other activities include "book burning festivals".
This couple has had many clashes with the Wombles in the past, as everyone in London's radical scene well knows. They have consistently opposed any engagement with the ESF, even the autonomous spaces. It is deeply ironic that they have managed to fool the SWP, Socialist Action and everyone else who signed that letter into believing their piss-take prank.
In any case, you have to be either very stupid or very obsessed not to realise that lines such as...
"THE 10 COMMANDMENT OF RESISTANCE A PIOUS MONK MUST TAKE IN ORDER TO GAIN ENLIGHTENMENT AGAINST THE ESF."
... are quite obviously a joke. Unless that is, if the people who wrote the "Statement on London ESF" knew it was a joke, but tried to fool the trade unionists who signed it, and everyone else in Europe. You could probably even say "Stupid Liar" if someone lies but does it in such a stupid way that it won't go anywhere, but this is just speculation.
If people want to continue reading cultural-terrorism from the same art group, I would recommend their take on Peoples Global Action: Beyond PGA
In a normal world I would hope this clarification would stop the distribution and further translation of that letter, maybe even an apology?. However, in our post-ironic world populated by the likes of George Bush and Alex Callinicos peddling their terrorist fantasies, that may be hoping too much.