fissures

"The capitalist world-system today is not a single, undifferentiated, all-encompassing whole, but a fractured one, in which forces of order and incorporation (for example, those of globalisation, unification and 'Westernization': thus containment of 'information') are always undercut (though not necessarily subverted) by forces of chaos and fragmentation (such as localization, diversification and 'indigenization': thus proliferation of 'information'). In this world-system, there are still dominant forces, but there is never a guarantee in advance that their attempts to impose order will be successful." (Ang, 1994: 208-9)

If there's no guarantee that domination will succeed, then tactics of resistance are meaningful, since while there is no guarantee in advance that resistance will be successful either, it becomes a question of degree, of challenge, of exceeding the bounds of order.

"Proliferation of information" is vital here. If we accept the post-structuralist contention of the importance of language and meaning-making in power relations, then language is a key theatre of contest. Chants, posters, banners, petitions, flyers and graffiti are the more spontaneous examples of these sites of resistance. Alternative newspapers and pamphlets have long been a tool of resistance movements, supplying protesters and workers with information that was being withheld or misrepresented by hegemonic forces⁷. However, more recently, the Internet has provided a space for alternative media to publish in a participatory format, establishing not merely an alternative content, but also an alternative approach to process of information and determination of who is permitted to speak. For example, the motto of indymedia is "Everyone is a journalist. Everyone is a witness."

These are classic examples of how the weak can overcome the strategies of the strong by using tactics. A tactic, according to De Certeau,

"must vigilantly make use of the cracks that particular conjunctions open in the surveillance of the proprietary powers. It poaches in them. It creates surprises in them. It can be where it is least expected. It is a guileful ruse. In short, a tactic is an art of the weak." (De Certeau, 1984: 37)

Graffiti, pamphlets and on-line articles conduct raids on the meanings of capitalist construction. They take leaked documents and link them with critiques that cast them in new ways. They flow into discussion groups and political actions. They celebrate diversity of opinion. They take to the streets in joyful refusal, "the local mechanisms of bands, margins, minorities, which continue to affirm the rights of segmentary societies in opposition to the organs of State power." (Deleuze and Guattari, 1980: 360)

Parody and culture hacking are particularly effective: they operate on a double level, first of all with their overt message, and then a second time by undermining meaning, by speaking in the spaces between, disturbing the idea that communication-as-transmission functions flawlessly.

This idea of flows, of leaks, this metaphor of water is no accident: in the face of the stratified structures of the State apparatus, (Deleuze & Guattari, 1980: 364), a fluid form of resistance can get in through the cracks.