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

decisions of the encampments are formed through a complex
construction and negotiation of knowledges and will, which takes
time. No single leader or central committee decides. The often
slow and complex decision-making procedures, supported by
widespread knowiedge and expertise, also mark a significant
element of the anthropological (or ontological) difference of the
new constituent movements. The Spanish indignados and the
occupiers of Wall Street offer powerful examples of this
complexity, in the way they combine in discourse and action the
critique of the current forms of political life (representation,
electoral methods, and so forth), the protest against social
inequality, and the attack on financial domination.
Finally, the alternative temporality of these constituent
processes fosters both the creation and spread of knowiedges as
well as the education of political affects. Tahrir Square,
Rothschild Boulevard, the occupied Wisconsin statehouse, and
Syntagma Square are all, obviously, characterized by intense
affects. Affects are expressed at those sites, but more important,
they are produced and trained. For professional politicians, and
indeed for anyone who has not spent time in the encampments,
it is difficult if not impossible to understand how much these
constituent experiences are animated and permeated by flows of
affects and indeed great joy. Physical proximity, of course,
facilitates the common education of the affects, but also essential
are the intense experiences of cooperation, the creation of
mutual security in a situation of extreme vulnerability, and the
collective deliberation and decision-making processes. The
encampments are a great factor}' for the production of social and
democratic affects.
Counterpowers. Constituent work is slow and
thorough-going—it proceeds on its own clock. But there are some
pressing issues that won't wait. What good is a beautiful
constituent process when people are suffering now What if, by
the time we create a perfect democratic society, the earth is
already degraded beyond repair
The constituent process must be accompanied by a series of
counterpow T ers that take immediate action in areas of social and
environmental need and danger. This double relation of
constitutional action is something like the relationship