The shadow of the urgent holds emancipatory potentials hostage (or: whoever is Prime Minister tonight, you’ll still be exploited)

Another day, another unfolding drama. News-tickers with frantic updates; a government on the brink of collapse, a country tiptoeing at the exit gates of the eurozone. People glued before their TV sets, waiting for the next episode of “Crisis: The TV Series” to come on. The spectacle of the urgent has had miraculous results: the hundreds of thousands who had taken to the streets days ago have retreated into the realm of the private, once again.

In the past two days, a “minor” news item only just made it into the mainstream news flow. In the past two days, two of Athens’ most central underground stations, in closest proximity to parliament (Syntagma and Evangelismos) were abruptly shut down by police, despite the fact no official demonstration was planned, yesterday at least — merely as some “precautionary” measure. Power still lives in fear of a popular reaction; but we quickly need to overcome ours, to move away from the headlights of the urgent, to go back into taking lives into our own hands. The question of who is in charge of the Parliamentary circus is irrelevant – all power to the popular assemblies!

http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/