Chapter 1: Subjective Figures of the Crisis ... - Negri in English

Opening: Take Up the Baton
This is not a manifesto. Manifestos provide a glimpse of a world
to come and also call into being the subject, who although now
only a specter must materialize to become the agent of change.
Manifestos work like the ancient prophets, who by the power of
their vision create their own people. Today's social movements
have reversed the order, making manifestos and prophets
obsolete. Agents of change have already descended into the
streets and occupied city squares, not only threatening and
toppling rulers but also conjuring visions of a new world. More
important, perhaps, the multitudes, through their logics and
practices, their slogans and desires, have declared a new set of
principles and truths. How can their declaration become the
basis for constituting a new and sustainable society How can
those principles and truths guide us in reinventing how we relate
to each other and our world In their rebellion, the multitudes
must discover the passage from declaration to constitution.
Early in 2011, in the depths of social and economic crises
characterized by radical inequality', common sense seemed to
dictate that we trust the decisions and guidance of the ruling
powers, lest even greater disasters befall us. The financial and
governmental rulers may be tyrants, and they may have been
primarily responsible for creating the crises, but we had no
choice. During the course of 2011, however, a series of social
struggles shattered that common sense and began to construct a
new one. Occupy Wall Street was the most visible but was only
one moment in a cycle of struggles that shifted the terrain of
political debate and opened new possibilities for political action
over the course of the year.
Two thousand eleven began early. On 17 December 2010 in
Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, twenty-six-year-old street vendor
Mohamed Bouazizi, who was reported to have earned a computer
science degree, set himself on fire. By the end of the month,
mass revolts had spread to Tunis with the demand, "Ben Ali