A.G. Schwarz - Signals of Disorder - Sowing Anarchy in the Metropolis

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A. G. Scwarz

Signals of Disorder: SowingAnarcy in the Metropolis

1st August, 2010


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In an article in the recent book, WeAre an Image from the Future: theGreekRevolt ofDecember 2008, I briefly made a point that a friend convinced me needsto be elaborated. e idea is that of signals of disorder, and their importance inspreading rebellion.

Asfaras Greeceis concerned, the argument isthatbycarrying outaacksprimarily smashings and molotov aacks against banks and police stations, whichconstitute the most obvious symbols of capitalist exploitation and State violencefor Greek society insurrectionary anarchists created signals of disorder thatacted as subversive seeds. Even though most people did not agree with theseaacks at thetime, they lodgedintheirconsciousness,and ata momentofsocialrupture, people adopted these forms as their own tools, to express their rage whenall the traditionally valid forms of political activity were inadequate.

An interesting feature of these signals is that they will be met with fear anddisapproval by the same people who may later participate in creating them. isis no surprise. Inthe news polls ofdemocracy, the majorityalways cast their vote

against the mob. In the day to day of normality, people have to betray themselvesto survive. eyhavetofollowthosetheydisbelieve,and supportwhat theycannot abide. From the safety of their couch they cheer for Bonny and Clyde, andon the roadside they say ank you, officer to the policeman who writes thema speeding ticket. is well managed schizophrenia is the rational response tolife under capitalism. e fact that our means of survival make living impossiblenecessitates a permanent cognitive dissonance.

us, the sensible behavior is not toreason withthe masses, to sharethefactsthatwilldisprovethefoundations ofcapitalism, factstheyalreadyhave at theirfingertips, and it is not to act appropriately, to put on a smiley face, and expectour popularity to increase incrementally. e sensible thing to do is to aackAuthority whenever we can.

Aacking is not distinct from communicating the reasons for our aacks, orbuilding the means to survive, because we survive in order to aack, and weaackin order tolive,and we communicate because communicating aackstheisolation, and isolation makes living impossible.

Whydo signals ofdisorderconstitute aacks on capitalism andthe State?Aer all, the police are basically the punching bag, the shock absorbers, for theState,and one of thelimitations of theinsurrectioninGreece wasthatanarchistsfocused too much on police, rather than on the State in all its manifestations. Andwhat about smashing insured bank windows? Creating a signal of disorder couldeveninvolve mere spraypainting,orhanging outon streetcorners. Isnt thisjustthe ritualization of aimless and impotent rebellion, as the naysayers are so quick

to say?Turns out, the devil is in the details.


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In a way, the idea of signals of disorder is an inversion of the Broken Windowseory of policing. Wilson and Kellings article, Broken Windows, first advancedthe policing theory of the same name in 1982, but it wasnt until Kelling was hiredby the NYCTransitAuthority later inthe decadethat thisflagship ofminute social

control was launched. When Rudolph Giuliani was elected mayor of New York in1993, Broken Windows policing took on city-wide dimensions, and it soon spreadtotherestof the country. By the early 00s,Broken Windows was being adaptedfor the social democracies of Europe.

Among the technocrats, Broken Windows is controversial, because it easilyblurs causation with correlation: justbecause broken windows and othersignalsof disorder oen accompany higher crime rates does not mean they are the causeof crime. Occasionally, youll hear a whimper that without proper sensitivitytraining, Broken Windows policing encourages harrassment of minorities.

All this misses the point: the State is not interested in reducing crime, theStateisinterestedinincreasing socialcontrol,and Broken Windows policingis a

critical expansion of its arsenal. Giulianis reign of zero tolerance didnt just goaer fare-dodgers,graffitiwriters,andthe squeegee men. Underhis stewardship,the NYPD becamethefirsteverpolice department inthe historyof the worldtolog more arreststhanreported crimes.Entire neighborhoods became depopulatedof certain demographics as young black men were shipped to the prisons upstate.A policingthat targetsthe peydetails ofeveryday life, thatcriminalizes ourminorstrategiesto cope withtheimpossibilities of life undercapitalism, is partand parcel of an expansion of police power as a whole.

Why does the city government in San Francisco want to criminalize siing orlying in the streets? Why did the city government in Barcelona ban playing musicin the streets without a license? Why did the government of the UK prohibit adetailed list of anti-social behaviors?

Because the goal of the State is total social control. Because the trajectory ofcapitalismistowardsthetotalcommercialization ofpublic space.Every time weidentify another invasion of State and capitalism into the minutiae of daily life,every time we confront that invasion, we are potentially fighting for revolution.As Authority increasinglymanages us at the nanolevel, the can ofspraypaint,the rock, the molotov, deserve the same significance as the AK-47.

Spreading signals of disorder accomplishes a number of things. It increasesour tactical strength, as we hone a practice of vandalism, property destruction,public occupation, and rowdiness.

It interrupts the narrative of social peace, and creates the indisputable fact ofpeople opposed to the present system and fighting against it. It means the reason

for this fight, the anarchist critiques, have to be taken more seriously because theyalready exist in the streets. In this way, the aacks create the struggle as a fact in


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a way that would otherwise only be possible in times of greater social upheavaland movement. To havethis effect, the signals ofdisorderneedto explicitlylink themselves to a recognizable social practice, one that would otherwise beignored or chopped up into disconnected eccentricities of lifestyle. People in the

neighborhood must know that the graffiti and broken windows are the doingof the anarchistsorsome othergroupthat has a public existence, becausesignals of disorder that can be isolated as phenomena of urban white noise canbe legitimately and popularly policed with techniques reserved for inanimateobjects and aesthetic aberrations; they would rub us off the streets with the samechemical rigor as they clean graffiti off the walls.

Signals of disorder are contagious. ey aract people who also want to be ableto touch and alter their world rather than just passing through it. ey are easytoreplicate and at times,generallybeyond ourcontrolorprediction, theyspreadfar beyond our circles. ey allow us, and anyone else, to reassert ourselves inpublic space, to reverse commercialization, to make neighborhoods that belong

to us, to create the ground on which society will be reborn.In a neighborhood where the walls are covered with anarchist posters, beautifulradical graffiti stands alongside all the usual tags, advertisements never stay up forlong, the windows of luxury cars, banks, and gentrifying apartments or restaurantsare never safe, and people hang out drinking and talking on the street cornersandinthe parks,our ideas willbe seriouslydiscussed outside ourown narrowcircles, and the state would need a major counterinsurgency operation to havejust the hope of uprooting us.

Whenever we can break their lile laws with impunity, we show that the Stateis weak. When advertising is defaced and public space is liberated, we show thatcapitalism is not absolute.

But at the same time, we cannot make the mistake of exaggerating the impor-tance of the aack, of signals of disorder. At times it may be necessary to be agang, but if we are ever only a gang, if at any point only our antisocial side isvisible, we are vulnerable to total repression. ere is a lot of rage circulating,without an adequate outlet, which we resonate with through our aacks. Butthereis equallya lotof lovethat is even morelackingin possibilitiesfor trueexpression. People desire the community and solidarity that capitalism deprivesthem of, and our way out of this laberinth of isolation is to go looking for theothers and meet them where theyre at. To encounter people, in our search foraccomplices.

Except in the magical space of the riot, we cannot safely find spontaneousaccomplices for the aack. But in the stultifying oppression of everyday, we

can find accomplices to share in the lile gestures of defiance, the small tastesof the commune we are building a random conversation, a flyer someone is


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actually interested to read, the passing around of a stolen meal, collaboration in acommunity garden, the giving of gis.

e anarchists must simultaneously be those who are blamed for acts of star-tling indecency, of inappropriate extremism in all the right causes (they burned

four police cars at our peaceful march!) and those who are around town cook-ing and sharing free communal meals, holding street parties, projecting piratedmovies on the sides of buildings, running libraries and bicycle repair shops, andappearing at protests (oh look, its those lovely anarchists again!).

We will be safest from the right hand of repression and the le hand of recu-peration when everyone is thoroughly confused as to whether we are frighteningor loveable.


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A.G. SchwarzSignals of Disorder: Sowing Anarchy in the Metropolis

1st August,2010

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A.G. Schwarz - Signals of Disorder - Sowing Anarchy in the Metropolis