Harsh Formulations
"After his 1926 arrest, Gramsci spent more than ten years in prison, where his health was finally broken, and was released only when his death seemed imminent. Throughout his imprisonment there were strict limitations on what he was able to read. The political impact of Stalinism on many of his comrades--inside and outside the prison walls--imposed additional limitations and confusion. ... The fact that everything he wrote was reviewed by fascist censors forced him to use code names and obscure formulations. The problem of Stalinism introduces additional obscurities: sometimes Gramsci seems to be adapting and giving the benefit of many doubts to official Communist policy of the late 1920s and early '30s, and at other times, he appears to be sharply critical--using harsh formulations that appear to be equally applicable to fascism and Stalinism."
- Paul Le Blanc
Without body heat to keep it warm, in such cold weather—estimated to be –13 degrees F, based on readings from the closest weather stations—a person’s watch stops ticking about an hour after their death
Imminent threat.
Strategy of Tension exists to offer clarity via deliberate confusion. The imminent threats are myriad and contradictory.
We face two potential paths. One, based on global cooperation, leads us to a more just and sustainable world. The other leads us to mounting calamities from both climate change and nationalist conflict. The vast majority of the U.S. foreign policy establishment is organized around that second path. One of the tasks of Strategy of Tension is to build the power necessary to force them to come to their senses and replace those who refuse to do so.
"The group felt that art was for the benefit of society and that it was important to integrate it as much as possible into daily life. This desire to disrupt the exalted status of the work of art and bring it into the 'real' world was part of an effort not to change the world through art, but to impact individuals, building power and developing a world beyond ideology."
The work disseminated therein has absolutely no obligation to explain itself and simultaneously is forged through an urgency for absolute social change. The understanding of how these contradictions will achieve a coherent synthesis is as of yet unknown; that understanding is the alchemy of our work.
Ancient Rome superimposed on California 1974.
“Events are the real dialectics of history. They transcend all arguments, all personal judgments, all vague and irresponsible wishes."
Strategy of Tension
The Years of Lead
Man-Made Laws
Zero Obligation
Evicted from a Dream
Hostile Architecture
Strategy of Tension
Have you ever been so angry you couldn't believe it?
"Look out below!"
