Mords la main qui te nourris

[Traduction par BreakDown Editions]

‘Je ne me sentirais pas capable de m’appeler une survivante avant que chaque client n’ai été tué.
Je n’aurais aucune pitié et ne ressentirais aucune culpabilité, mais si t’as vraiment besoin de te raconter une histoire, tu peux le voir de cette manière: tuer des clients n’est que légitime défense, on se bat pour nos vies.’

‘je ne suis pas née femme, je ne suis pas née lesbienne, je ne suis pas née pute, j’ai été exilée dans une femme, dans une lesbienne, et dans une pute. Et de mon exil j’ai embrassé la criminalité, et depuis mon exil je réduirais à néant le monde qui m’a nommé, genré, violé, a tué mes ami.e.s.’

PDF ICI: mords

Callout for Submissions ‘Identity is Crisis’

We find ourselves stuck inside a suffocating false dichotomy in the realm of (anti) politics as it relates to concerns around the topic of identity. On the one hand, we find that the desire to destroy civilization/society in its totality and to attack in the here and now, is occupied, claimed and recuperated by those only concerned in destroying the existent as long as such an existent does not include themselves. The denials of materialism and materialist reality ever present in the current insurrectionist and nihilist milieus, and the accompanying machismo, racism, rape culture and outright refusal to consider any identity based concerns. The branding of all identity based concerns and the accompanying trajectories as always and only liberal demands for recognition in the face of domination and the associated scathing critiques of all forms of organizing which draw any power from or relation to identity categories as ultimately worthless. On the other hand, the generalized rejection of insurrectional tactics, analysis, and praxis by many trans-feminist, queer, and identity based trajectories has lead to a transition from the simple desire to self actualize/articulate trans-feminism/queerness and its necessary demands ending in constructionist logics which hyper valorize, celebrate, and execptionalise the very identities in which our experience of oppression(s) is rooted. We experience a great degree of disappointment in this impasse- what we are searching is an (anti) politics, which both embraces and reckons with the every day realities and lived experiences of those who experience identity based oppression, whilst also squarely aiming our hostility at the totality of the world which creates them; we wish to present a critique which both acknowledges the very real consequences of identity in the here and now, and attempts to undo the entirety of its constructions. We agree, identity is entirely social constructed, it is the product of thousands of years of domestication, brutality, violence, domination, and one central building block of civilization; where we stray from the traditional insurrectional perspective is in rejecting the naivety of believing that by simply refusing to recognize identity or identity based concerns as important is enough to de-nature them as powerfully violent. Further we hold firm to the belief that fighting anti sexist/racist/colonial struggles is in fact a central field in war against ‘the existent’. The fact that identities are social constructs doesn’t mean they don’t need to be recognized and then destroyed- one cannot hope to destroy an enemy which one refuses to except even exists. When one declares war on society, one accepts the existence of society; our war on identity is inseparable from our war on society, from the war on civilization; but this takes understanding, recognition, and sometimes organization based around those very identities.’

We are hoping to bring together a series of texts, whose focus lies in the realm of identity abolition, but whose praxis is rooted in materialist understandings of and engagements with identity. We are searching for new and existing pieces which challenge readers to engage with the every day lived experiences of those who contend with identity based oppression(s), whilst also aiming hostility squarely at the identities themselves and the worlds which they create. Submissions can come in the form of texts, poems, artworks or any other medium you see fit and are not limited to a specific word count. Submissions should be in by the end of February 2020- and sent to downandoutdistro(at)riseup(dot)net; if selected, texts will be included in their entirety and not edited by us, though we reserve the right not to include any texts we feel do not fit the line of engagement we wish to highlight. The collection will include an editorial from D&O addressing our own understanding and critique of identity  as well as engagements with what we see as the failings in both insurrectional and identity based trajectories to deal with the topic. Other texts so far proposed  for the journal cover topics including migration, sex work, experience of racialised identities, and nihilist feminism.

Text can be Submitted in English, French, or Greek, though texts not in English will be translated by us and the Journal will only be available in English.

SEND US YOUR TEXTS 🙂

‘A Disgrace Reserved for Prostitutes: Complicity & the Beloved Community’

A new zine in the ‘Bootlegs’ Collection, taken from the Lies Journal and written by Pluma Sumaq; this text offers deep reflections on prostitution and the sex industry and there intersections with race, class and gender identity; whilst attempting to bring forward critical engagements and critiques around Prostitution/Sex Work and the Sex Industry- and attempting to counter narratives brought from Liberal and White Feminist trajectories.

Quotes from the Text:

“Personally, I could never bring myself to buy into the rhetoric of empowerment through normalization that the mostly white middle-class sex worker rights movement was selling. To create a language around and an image of a “Sex Worker” that is normalized and free of stigma did not seem very revolutionary to me. To me it said, “accept us because we are just like you.” Well, what if we’re not like you? What then will you do to us? The campaign to push forward the picture of the fully autonomous and sovereign woman in prostitution contributes to the polarization of ‘The Prostitute’ into two cartoon figures —one of total empowerment and one of total degradation.”

“We have been taught to believe in a world that is good and bad, up and down, righteous and evil, and this serves us. It validates us when we are called to separate our vulnerability, and therefore our intimacy, from our work. It informs our logic that there is never any choice or agency in poverty, in being oppressed, in prostitution. We are manipulated into ignoring broken systems and are instead coerced into seeing broken people who will only choose survival if they are desperate enough, as if survival were some extreme option. But no one can say “prostitution has nothing to do with me.” It exists precisely because of the economic and misogynistic system we participate in every day.”

PDF HERE: Disgrace