[spectre] La precarité toujours? - On the French protests, new social subjects and insecurity as living condition

[Eric Kluitenberg]

dear spectrites,

Not art or immediately media culture, but the debate on precarity has  
not left the media culture circles untouched. As part of the  
euroMayday campaign De Balie in Amsterdam organises an evening abot  
the French protests, their social segregation and the relationship  
with the larger debate on precarity, in close collaboration with  
flexmens.org and greenpepper magazine. The debate can be followed  
live via our regular webcast, and please feel welcome to join the  
chat channel that is always available during the live-stream.

regards,
eric

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A N  N  O  U  N  C  E  M  E  N  T


La precarité toujours?

On the French protests, new social subjects and insecurity as living  
condition
http://www.debalie.nl/artikel.jsp?podiumid=salon&articleid=51572


Monday, May 1, 2006 - 20.00 hrs - admission free
De Balie
Amsterdam

Live-stream @: http://www.debalie.nl/live


Massive demonstrations, blocked railway lines, occupied universities:  
the French youth succeeded with it’s energetic protests against the  
CPE to launch the issue of precarity into the mass media. Only months  
ago, youth in the /banlieues/ made their situation public, with  
action methods that were no less confronting. In the Netherland the  
term precarity is unknown. Precarity, or “precarité” in French,  
refers to unstable and insecure work and living conditions that have  
become more and more dominant in our “flexible” society.

Meanwhile, social movements from around the continent have made the  
topic subject of their daily political practice. On the 1^st of May,  
Mayday, twenty European cities will be the site of Euromayday parades  
and protests of temp/net/flex workers and migrants against precarity,  
for flexicurity and citizenship. They allude to the rise of new  
social subjects, Brain- and Chainworkers, and the /precariat/ as a  
new, fragmented proletariat. In the Netherlands, flexibility has been  
the reality for years: contract are generally temporary, rarely  
permanent and never for life – and no trade union that is still  
opposed to that. Work and income have become more insecure, while  
everyone still has fixed basic expenses, that aren’t flexible at all.  
With the new privatised care system and a rise in rents coming up, it  
looks like precarity threatens to become the norm for more and more  
people in the Netherlands as well.

Is the unrest in France representative for the situation in the  
Netherlands and the rest of Europe, or is it a local reality? Is  
precarity an issue, and if so, what are the consequences for our  
thinking about work, life and politics? Do the trade unions still  
have any role to play? And can’t flexibilised labour relations offer  
the possibility of a more autonomous lifestyle?

On the 1st of May, Labour Day, de Balie will host a discussion on  
these questions and more. With spoken columns, film, debate and  
reports of the Euromayday parades.

SPEAKERS:

Anne Querrien (French sociologist and urbanist, editor of Multitudes)
Rutger Groot Wassink (Historian)
Eddy Stam (Organiser with FNV bondgenoten)

FILM:

Organising the Unorganizable (32 min, VS 2004)

Entrance | free
Start | 20.00 hours
Language | English - Dutch

The program can be followed via live-stream at:
http://www.debalie.nl/live


LINKS / RESOURCES:

- Anna Querien @ Multitudes:
   http://multitudes.samizdat.net/auteur.php3?id_auteur=40

- Mute Precarious Reader:
   http://www.metamute.org/en/node/416

- Node.London Reader:
   http://publication.nodel.org/Publication

- Jean Baudriallard – The Phyres of Autumn (New Left Review):
   http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR27101.shtml

- wikipedia on precarity:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precarity

- euroMayday campaign:
   http://euromayday.org


ORGANISED in collaboration with Flexmens.org & Greenpepper Magazine

   http://www.flexmens.org

   http://www.greenpeppermagazine.org


debalie
Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10
1017 RR Amsterdam
http://www.debalie.nl