Subject: RE: AUT: RE: civil society
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2002 03:09:28 +1100


Peter:

: i think i can feel it (or is it just wishful thinking) yet many of the
: recent visible struggles in australia seem to have been fairly well
: controlled by the unions. eg patricks lockout, NSW workers comp stuff,
: anti-building industry royal commission demos. don't know about
: the recent
: qantas strikes.

But that's what I mean: mediation is now the simulation of such - it results
in no discernible gains other than the continuance of the simulation of
mediation and - because this is the principal condition the state or capital
place on anyone claiming to capable of mediation - self-policing and
repression.  The post-Oslo Accords situation seems to me a good example of
that, as does the Patricks lockout in another sense.

: on the unmediated side of the ledger we have S11 and the
: border/detention centre struggles.

Still...  despite the best efforts of the trots (as in the anti-war
campaigns that Ben mentioned) to reduce it into a campaign to recruit from
amongst 'disaffected' ALPers and non-existent liberals.

: does this indicate that mediation is not
: possible or just that new forms of mediation haven't had time to
: emerge yet?

If new forms do emerge, they'll have to be worthy of the name: ie., they'll
have to deliver something other than repression, no matter how miniscule or
partial or insulting.  But I don't think you don't arrive at that situation
by calling for mediation.

: for example the right wing of the 'anti-globalisation' movement
: seem to be
: trying to set themselves up as some sort of global social
: democracy. pretty
: unsucessfully so far because they have a very small constituency and have
: proven incapable of controlling the rioters.

Yeah, but then they can always demand that sections of the left take up the
cudgels against the recalcitrants as a condition of the former being
embraced by 'civil society'.

And thanks for the aufheben thing etc.

Angela
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