Pula Group, 2009

Occupied London /Red Plan: The Image of the City in the Age of Late Capitalism

http://occupiedlondon.org/redplan

Red plan is a plan for the city that is in an alarming (red) state. As a first step in the creation of such a plan, we needed to locate its red or critical spots. In order to do that, we created a "crisis map" of Pula: an image of the city in the age of late capitalism.

The neoliberal transition diminished the influence of public institutions and, consequently, created the basis for a continuing crisis that is most visible in cities. The effects of this crisis appear in many separate events that point out the inefficacy of today's city planning. These events are becoming more intense, frequent and more visible in the everyday life of the city. The city is disintegrating along the lines of infinite particular interests, torn apart by unrest and discontent. No one can predict where the next protest against some spatial intervention will take place -- the revolt is out of control. However, these revolts do not simply cause damage to the city; they are examples of how to act in this city. Since that system is based on conflict as the main mode of communication, we can speak of an emerging understanding of the city as a restless field of conflicts.

The citizens of the contemporary city cannot influence the redistribution of the surplus value produced in it. The accumulation of surplus in some parts of the city creates even more poverty in other parts. The neoliberal city destroys communal values and public institutions and directly damages the wider city system that depends on public investments. The never-ending transition from socialist to neoliberal economy did not result only in the creation of a free market and private entrepreneurship, it also brought about an escalation of corruption in the public sector. Corruption, an illegal deviation of the public system, takes place when the public interest is marginalized and private profit becomes the system’s primary goal. Corruption is unavoidable in periods of transition, when old rules are no more valid and new ones have not yet been firmly implemented. It is then that corruption triumphs, as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri argue in Multitude.