While certainly much power is exercised in the street, what of that
that confronts us before we even leave our homes ? We don't need to
cross the private/public divide to come up against all sorts of
compelling powers. From the household pecking order to the mass
broadcast information that we are exposed to, our entire home lives
are a rich interplay of different sources of power. Nothing gets me
more angry than the letter from my landlady dropping through the
letter box, the phone call enquiring after rent - she, quite
literally, knows where I live. Who else does ? They might not know
who I actually am, but they do know where it is that I am that (or
"do" that).
I would question which streets we want to reclaim and to what
purpose. What are we calling "the streets" here anyway ? All seems a
bit abstract to me - certainly the powers of "global capital" are "out
there somewhere" but the question really ought to be where. In the
streets ? It isn't that I don't think the streets should be
reclaimed if we really want them but just that it seems to me that we
ought first to attempt to reclaim our homes and our lives - and then
let's reclaim the world ! While some of you reclaim the streets on
the 30th I shall be reclaiming my life by sealing up my letterbox and
cutting my phone line. They might take my space, but they'll never
take my dignity !
Graham Gardner makes some good points regarding who the reclaim the
streets movement actually are and who they either a) represent or b)
claim to represent. It seems to me that they represent the reclaim
the streets movement. Let's hope they do this well. And, brothers
and sisters, while you're at reclaiming those streets, could you get
me one ? (I'll have one in the leafy suburbs methinks).
dan
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Dan Knox
Research Postgraduate
Department of Geography
University of Durham
South Road
Durham
DH1 3LE
UK
0191 384 6213
[log in to unmask]
http://www.dur.ac.uk/~dgg3dlk/
Tell me what you gonna do,
When the ending of time comes near,
Whatever you do,
Its gotta be funky !
Flava Flav, Public Enemy
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