In c.s.o.a. ex-snia viscosa Rome, Italy, we organized the first platform 'Grado Zero' in early September '00 as a rallying point for interest-groups, artists, activists and intellectuals, to meet and exchange ideas on the issue of globalization (integrated world capitalism). It was prompted by the IMF/WB summit in Prague later that same month. Involved where, amongst others,PGA network ass.YaBasta, various union frame-workers, members of the more traditional leftist parties, the editorial staff of 'Carta' from 'Il Manifesto' and other press, different autonomous occupied social center's throughout Italy, the 'Living Theater', a wide variety of intellectuals (discussing subversively) and engaged artists: performers, musicians, installation artists i.e. Various public events where staged during a five days working project (1700 people attended these events), articles where printed, interviews and discussions where transmitted by (local) radio Ondarossa, publications where placed on the internet, the 'Grado Zero' website was visited frequently. The participants that forged links during 'Grado Zero', like Candida (video-activists) and oo_y_o (performing/activism), continued and intensified their collaboration in Prague, where they gave each other support, undertook collective projects and provided each other with a proliferation of contacts.

Some of the participants of the platform continued their efforts to make connections, not only in Italy or Czech, but again in Holland, with the Rising Tide campaign for global action against Climate Change. As we perceive it, the issue of Climate Change is closely related to that of integrated world capitalism. This campaign culminated in a two week multi-festive action. It took place in the Hague, during COP 6, the UN conference of the parties. The platform 'Grado Zero' contributed with creative and festive forces to the drive with which a local action-squat was both occupied and defended. Contacts where made with all members of the coalition, including internet & free-media activists ASCII, and video-activists Organic chaos and Vrije Keizer.

After the failure of the UN to come to any agreement during COP 6, the attention now shifts toward COP 6 1/2, in Bonn '01.

Orientation

Ecological disasters, famine, unemployment, material bondage, racism and xenophobia, hunt, like so many other threats this new millenium. Our societies remain stupefied, powerless before the challenges that confront it. We contribute to the pollution of air and water, to destruction of forests, to disturbances of climates, to the disappearance of a multitude of living species, to the impoverishment of the genetic capital of the biosphere, to the destruction of landscapes, to the suffocation of cities, and the progressive abandonment of cultural values and moral references in the areas of human solidarity.

The social production, now under control of a capitalist and technocratic "elite", leads to a systematic over-valorization of industries, to an under-estimation of essential use-values (saving the environment, hunger in the world), to the flattening out and repression of desires in their singularities, that is, the loss of the meaning of life. The last limit, between depletion and "progress", not only remains but has become absolute - the death of the planet. This limit cannot be internalized by integrated world capitalism. It can, however, be crossed.

Resistance has become increasingly problematic, as capitalism dispenses with the need for its subjects to accept ideological or moral justifications of its (or their) existence. When it does produce precepts, one is heard with overwhelming regularity: the idea that a body can (only) serve society by serving itself. "Self-interest" is the basic capitalist expression of the Common good. Capitalism is the ethic of greed.

Integrated world capitalism does not aim at a systematic and generalized repression of workers, women, youth, minorities. The means of production on which it rests indeed call for a flexibility in relationships of production and in social relations, and a minimum capacity to adapt to new forms of Sensibility and new types of human relationships which are "mutating" here and there (i.e. exploitation by of the "discoveries" of the marginal, relative tolerance with regard to the zones of laissez-faire). Under these circumstances, a semi-tolerated, semi-encouraged, and co-opted protest could well be an intrinsic part of the system.

There are forms of protest though, that prove to be far more dangerous, to the extend that they threaten the essential relationships on which the system is based (the respect for work, for hierarchy, for State-power, for the religion of consumption). It is impossible to trace a clear and definite boundary between the recuperabol marginals and other types of "mutants" on the way to rupture and unexpected "revolution". The frontiers actually remain blurred and unstable. The real question is whether the different marginalities finally will remain on the outskirts of society, or whether they will put societies good-common sense radically into question.

Capital, in the West as in the East, is nothing more than the capital of power, that is, a mode of sanitization, of homogenization and of transmission of various forms of power (power over goods, power over territories, power over work, over subordinates, the "inferiors", power over relatives etc.). Only the appearance of new ways of relating to the world and to society will alter the "fixation" to Capital and it's various crystallization's of power. The reversal of capitalism invokes not only the struggle against material bondage, exploitation and visible forms of repression. But also, from the outset a becoming-other, a collective "mutating" through the creation of many alternative set-ups.

If there is a way out of the "ethic of greed", it is right where we are: in the final constraint. The absolute limit of capitalism must be shifted back from planetary death to becoming-other. The "mutating" we are now allowed must be pushed back beyond the pale of self-interest. The last bastion of good-common sense must come down. We have to become so other as to no longer act in our perceived "private" interests. The equilibrium of the environment must be reestablished, so that cultures may go on living and learn to live more intensively. Depletion must end. We must embrace our collectivity.

Aims

To become more than "a demand acceptable to the system" by questioning the essential relationships on which integrated world capitalism is based.

To make connections between different struggles, different examinations into the relationships within society, and lift each out of their limited sphere and show that these struggles are profoundly inter-related.

To remain multi-centered. Different components are in no way required to agree on everything, or to speak the same stereotypical language. Contradictions, even irreducible antagonisms, are allowed to co-exist. Contradiction does not paralyze action, but proves that a singular position is put into question.

To produce our own axes of reference and establish underground connections amongst ourselves, unlocatable on the dominant coordinates.

Then, without imposing hierarchy or segregation, to take charge of an administrative larger economic issue such as Climate Change, and discuss ideas and strategies to implement during COP 6 1/2, in Bonn 2001. And later, after the completion of the campaign "Grad Null", to represent the coalition for Climate Justice, Rising Tide, during the PGA meeting (peoples global action) in Milan, c.s.o.a. Leoncavallo, 3/4 March 01.

Tools

It is difficult to bring individuals out of themselves, to disengage them from their immediate pre-occupations in order to reflect the present and future of the world. They lack collective incitements to do so. Most methods of communication have dissolved in favor of an individualism and a solitude that are often synonymous with anxiety and neurosis. Still, the current quotation (media = passivity) will perhaps disappear more quickly than one would think. It all depends on the capacity of groups of people to take hold of means of communication* (performance art, theater, publications etc.), new technologies* (audio, video, internet etc.), and apply them, to ends that would lead to a real reactivation of collective sensibility and intelligence.