Reading the Italian centre-left newspaper La Repubblica in the pub a few days back (pretenzioso, io?) to try to preserve my Italian from terminal rust, I came across a lovely little snippet buried in the Cronaca (stories) section, which related how an advertising agency in Rome had launched a campaign which promised “a unique opportunity to get your business known”. How? By organising false incidents of ‘proletarian expropriation’ against your company, which would then get into the press. Price? €5000 upwards.
‘Proletarian expropriation’ is a tactic used by some radical Italian groups, and is nicely described by an entry on a legal weblog called Transatlantic Assembly:
What is proletarian expropriation? It is a form of civil disobedience intended to represent a form of protest against a disproportional raise of prices and despite stagnating or lowering personal income. It aims at emphasizing the necessity of a Welfare State or more broadly social solidarity and justice. People who practice proletarian expropriation seize commercial goods, and then declare such goods either “expropriated fully” or demand an automatic discount. In their thinking, this practice ensures that they, not the “market.” that determines the “just” price of goods. [1]
In June 2004 a bunch of ‘disobbedienti’ in Rome and Naples went on a ‘proletarian shopping’ spree [2], and although many were arrested for their pains their action was widely reported nationally and abroad. As, of course, were the names of the businesses which were expropriated. Hence the cheeky campaign of the Roman advertising agency, which sadly wasn’t named in the article. Which just goes to show how even the most radical protest can be ‘recuperated’ [3] by capitalism. It made me laugh, anyway, in a kind of sad, head-shaking way.
Refs:
[1] http://transatlanticassembly.blogspot.com/2005/01/reemergence-of-proletarian.html
[2] See “Espropri proletari, 66 indagati a Roma e Napoli“, Corriere della Sera, 12/6/04
[3] ‘Recuperate’ was the term used by Situationists to describe how capitalism and the Spectacle neutralised, absorbed, and regurgitated subversion and rebellion in an unthreatening way. The record industry is a classic example of this – look what happened to Punk. Hell, they even play the Sex Pistols on Radio 2 these days.
Article text
Ispirandosi agli “espropri proletari”, un’agenzia pubblicitaria romana ha lanciato su Internet una campagna che promette «un’opportunità unica di far conoscere la tua azienda sul territorio nazionale». Cioè: organizzare un finto esproprio proletario per far comparire il marchio sui giornali. Prezzo: dai 5 mila euro in su. (“Finti espropri per pubblicità“, La Repubblica, 20/1/05, p23)
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The Supermarket as a location for the Coming Struggle. (reprinted from Luther Blissett Food and Drink). | Afoniya's Blog said
[…] the 1970s were followed by an era of ‘recuperation’ with businesses trying to organise false incidents of proletarian expropriation to get themselves business into the press. Of course, there has since been the case of the […]