To the manifold comrades in Greece, not only the political ones

When, in December 2008, all those weird events happened in Greece, you really saved the winter for many of us. We weren’t in any condition to act on our own at that time, since in our timeline we are still residing in the stage of the ‚Big Palaver‘, separated from any practical and external purposes. Nevertheless, in our circles it is very popular to abolish the state, wage labor, discipline, authority, the dominating system of sex, the spectacle of commodities, real and virtual. For that reason it was very encouraging to us to see all these events of December happening. Since December 2008 there was a noticeable increase in the numbers of and opportunities for talks, meetings, thoughts about uprisings and related matters. Our ideas, until now mainly confined to the realm of words, will turn out to be more practical. The Greek events were one of several influences that led to a stronger commitment to and higher concentration on the task of finding a voice, a common language, a way of life, and a way of acting adequate to our aims and desires as well as to the times – all for the sake of – we are not sure what name to give to it – the complete reorganizing of everything on this planet, the establishment of something like a ‚paradise on earth‘, to choose a historical phrase.

It’s a pleasure to see the Erinyes coming back to life, to experience that there is more going on than spontaneous uprisings in the style of the ‚banlieue kids‘ a few years ago in France. In a time when there is plenty of reason for depression, you did the right thing. your situation is difficult. It was difficult before December 2008. It is difficult today. We know that – as well as we know that our situation isn’t very cheering either. yet there are new ideas about society roaming around, far more radical than everything in the past. They are not very clear. They are not very common. But they are there.

A few words on the „we“: The few people writing these lines are not only speaking for themselves. We are aware that many people we know think along similar lines, but there is – fortunately – no „we“ in the sense of one political group or party. Everybody is arguing about and debating the whole range of topics that have to be argued about and that have to be debated. Many of us you could call ‚Marxists‘. Or you could call them ‚Marxian Communists‘. But now there is also a strong influence from anarchism. Too many of us used to be or still are at the university. Some of us are trying to make a living by the jobs they can get without starting a career, others are making a career or are living on the dole. Some of us make movies, write books or articles, give talks, tune in, drop out. And some of us have disappeared. A kind of still very fragile real-life laboratory establishes itself: New ways of getting associated are being tested, based on drinking, smoking, pot, talking, having sex (although still a bit protestantic) etc. The number of people we speak of here is still rather small, perhaps one hundred, perhaps two hundred, and probably lots of others we don’t know. The mixture in many senses is diffuse. The relationships between those people vary very strongly: love and hate, ignorance and anger, incomprehension and compatibility, friendship and enmity. Thus, this association is very informal, representing nothing and nobody, not even itself. It is very much only existing as a potential. That’s the „we“ we’re speaking of.

The Greek events have been one reason, and not the least, for some of us to recognize this „we“ more distinctly, to have no qualms about speaking of this „we“ – at least as a potential. So our mood is not too bad for the moment. There seem to be more out there who don’t settle for just getting along as isolated Robinson Crusoes. The chances are good that there will be more of such informal circles of friendly people with minds capable of a negative approach to this society, with clearer perceptions – of themselves and of the world – and acting on a higher level of contact and coordination. It’s the old mole at work: Everything seems quiet, and then.... Enough for now, enough with dreaming. We send you the trailer we did on occasion of the German edition of „We are an image from the future“ as a way of saying „Thank you“. We hope you’ll like it – as much as we did like the book and the events that caused it. Keep a stiff upper lip. We try to do our best.