An interesting article about the "invention" of Saint Precario
from Marcello Tarì and Ilaria Vanni (On the Life and Deeds of San Precario, Patron Saint of Precarious Workers and Lives) is published in: fibreculture, issue 5 - multitudes, creative organisation and the precarious condition of new media labour.
Abstract:
2004 has marked the beginning of the spreading "cult" of San Precario, Patron Saint of precarious, casual, sessional, temporary, flexible and fractional workers. The Saint appears in public spaces in occasion of rallies, marches, interventions and demonstrations, and its popularity has lead to development of a precise and colorful iconography, hagiography and rituals. This popularity conversely is also the sign of the gravity of the issue of precarity in Italy and Europe .
San Precario epitomises current Italian activist practices. These practices, although specifically Italian, intersect with similar realities in Europe and are based on mythopoetic narratives and actions and mediatic embodiments. This paper analysis a variety of texts produced around San Precario, from posters, saint cards, product cards, videos, "official" narratives, personal accounts, relating them to the political debate surrounding precarity.
By the way, there will be also a reference on the Handbook of Guerrilla Communication and its definition on cultural grammar:
"The handbook Comunicazione Guerriglia defines cultural grammar as the system of rules and regulations that structure social interactions and relationships (Autonome a.f.r.i.k.a gruppe et al., 2001: 26). Far from being neutral, cultural grammar is the expression of specific power relations, and its rules play a role in the production and reproduction of the power relations themselves. Cultural grammar pervades the whole of society, and in this sense it cannot be separated from political practices. On the contrary, it is recognised that political practices are also articulated through cultural forms. Intervening in the cultural grammar of a specific place, time or situation can therefore lead to a change that is not only culturally but also politically subversive. In order to subvert a dominant cultural grammar it is in the first place necessary to understand it and to deconstruct it (Autonome a.f.r.i.k.a gruppe et al., 2001: 27-30)."
cit. italian version of the handbook: Autonome a.f.r.i.k.a gruppe; Blisset, Luther; Brünzel, Sonja. Comunicazione Guerriglia tattiche di agitazione gioiosa e resistenza ludica all'oppressione (Roma: Derive Approdi, 2001).
Manifesto Bio/Pop del Precariato Metroradicale, 2004
Noi siamo la generazione post-socialista, la generazione del dopo guerra fredda, della fine delle burocrazie verticali e del controllo sull'informazione. Siamo un movimento globale e neuropeo, che porta avanti la rivoluzione democratica scaturita dal Sessantotto mondiale e lotta contro la distopia neoliberista oggi al culmine. Siamo ecoattivisti e mediattivisti, siamo i libertari della Rete e i metroradicali dello spazio urbano, siamo le mutazioni transgender del femminismo globale, siamo gli hacker del terribile reale. Siamo gli agitatori del precariato e gli insorti del cognitariato. Siamo anarcosindacalisti e postsocialisti. Siamo tutti migranti alla ricerca di una vita migliore. E non ci iconosciamo in voi, stratificazioni tetre e tetragone di ceti politici sconfitti già nel XX secolo. Non ci riconosciamo nella sinistra italyana.
kg2u - am Mittwoch, 19. Oktober 2005, 11:30 - Rubrik: Subversive Affirmation
