feminist review 87.mattoni & doerr.images within precarity movement.2007

7/29/2019 Feminist Review 87.Mattoni & Doerr.images Within Precarity Movement.2007

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Images within the Precarity Movement in ItalyAuthor(s): Alice Mattoni and Nicole DoerrSource: Feminist Review, No. 87, Italian Feminisms (2007), pp. 130-135Published by: Palgrave Macmillan JournalsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30140807 .

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87 images within theprecarity movement inItalyAlice Mattoni nd Nicole DoerrabstractThe recentcycle of social struggles gainst precarityn Italyhas been characterizedby an extensive use of images representing recariousworkers.This contributionexplores this in the case of the EuroMaydayParade (EMP) protestcampaign. Thesubversion of existing popular culture traditionswas the main objective of theactivists' newly reated icons such as San Precario,Serpica Naro and other visualtools. The visual work n gender nthe EMP eemed to fill a gap betweentheoreticalwork nthe feminization faffective nd immaterial abourand the less predominantpresence of gender.Visual icons seem to have been at least as successful as textmessages in publicizing he precarity iscourse and theirproduction eserves furtherattention.

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introductionThe recentcycle of social struggles gainst precarityn Italyhas beencharacterizedy an extensive se of imagesand visualtools representingprecarious orkers.1heEuroMaydayarade EMP)protestampaign,elated oprecarity,as beenparticularlymportantn thisrespect. he first MPwasorganizedn2001by hree roups:ex) Deposito ulk, socialcentre;heCUB,a radicaltradeunion; nd theChainworkersrew, group f self-organizedprecariousworkers.2n 2001 at least 5,000protestorsoinedtheparade. Insubsequent earsboththe number f participantsnd organizersncreasedexponentially.ndeed, y2004 heEMP adgrowno become Europeanetworkofactiviststrugglinggainstprecarity.Oneofthe mostnterestingspectsof the EMP asbeen tsattempto createnovel ollectiveocialsubject ble to represent at both he textual nd thevisual level- the composite ealm of precariousworkers hoexperienceddifferentivingndworkingonditions.nthisvein, heparade tselfwas thecommon lacewhere ew erms nd visual cons boutprecarityere nventedand then irculatedo a wider ublic udience.ncollectivealls for ction, hemain problem iagnosedby the activistsorganizinghe EMP was 'socialprecarity', concept hatwasnot trictlyinkedo thephenomenonfshort-term ontracts. oing eyondhe workers'dentity,he main laimswerefor'new ocial rights',uchas incomeecurityndfreedom f movement. tthevisual evel, ctivistswithinheEMP nd other rotestventsworkedn thecreation f a radical mageryf precarious orkers. rom hevery eginning,activists ithinhe EMP onsideredosters, ostcardsnd other isual reationsas central o the constructionnd diffusionf the parade. In the EMP nparticular,ctivists elongingo theChainworkersrew nvented series ofvisual cons ndsymbolsfprotest,imed t enrichinghe mageryfprecariousworkers.he ronic ature f the visual cons s produced y ayeringhem ntoexistingultural odes and repertoiresuch as superheroesr Catholic aints.Subversionfexistingopular ulture raditions as themain bjective f thenewlyreatedcons. an Precario asone suchvisual con fprotestnventedn2004 hat irculated idely.anPrecario as nventedo be theprotectoraintofall precarious orkers.is mage ppeared or hefirst imeduring directactionorganizedna Milaneseupermarketn 29 February004,a date thatlacked saint ntheofficial alendar f the talianCatholichurch.mallholypicturesfSanPrecario,omposednthestyle ftraditionalrayerards,weredistributeduring irect ctionswithinupermarketsnd other onsumptionplaces. Inthe aesthetic tyle f traditionaleligious rocessionsorCatholicsaints, ctivists rought San Precario tatue intothe procession hereheannounced prayer eclaringhatSan Precario adperformedmiracle thecostofproducts ad been reducedmmediatelyor ll clientsFigure ).3

AliceMattonind Nicole oerr feminist review 87 2007 131

1 For more on thissee Mattoni andDoerr (2007).

2 The (ex) DepositoBulk was a socialcentre active in Mi-lan from 1997 to2006. The CUB is aradical trade unionestablished in 1992due to the efforts ofa large group ofworkers who did notrecognize themselvesin traditional tradeunions. The acronymmeans Confedera-zione Unitaria diBase. Finally, theChainworkers Crew,which is also basedin Milan, was estab-lished in 1999. For amore detailed his-tory of the Chain-workers Crew and itsapproach to politicalstruggles againstprecarity, seeChainCrew (2001).

3 Fora reconstruction



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EVIlFigure San Precario. Designed by Chainworkers.orgCrew and inspired by the work of theCanadian artist Chris Woods. This work is licensed under a Creative Common License.

Interestingly,hile t the textual evelof the EMP, he spoken nd writtenlanguagestablishedew erms orhighlightingommonalitiesmong recariousworkers,heparade'svisual cons fprotests ositivelynderlinediversitynddifferencess an asset of the collectivetruggle.or he EMPn2004 nd2005,the Molleindustriaollectivenvented virtualpace for precarious orkers'parade.Molleindustria,collectivehathad been nvolvedn hedevelopmentfa numberfpolitical ideogames,sedthese kills t the artistic nd aestheticlevelto insert he EuroMayday et-parade'withinhe official MPwebsite.4Underlyinghese nitiatives as the mportancettached ocreatingovel indsof visualrepresentationf precarious orkers,onceptualizingorkerss amultitude f individuals ather han a mass.Accordingly,oth n 2004 and2005, housands f netprotestorsoined hevirtualarade, roducinglogansnmore hanfive anguages. heseproduced compositeisualrepresentationfprecarious orkers, ith ach and every rotestorble to create his or hervirtual lterego, the so-called avatar,in theirpreferredtyle,dressandlanguages fexpression.Interestingly,enderwas muchmore oregroundednthe visual conographyfprotestnthe EMPparades han n the textual epresentations.oreover,hevisual conographyeemed o fill gap between,n the one hand, mportant

132 feminist review 87 2007 imageswithinheprecarityovementn taly

of direct actionsinvolvingtheSan Precarioicon and a detailedanalysis of this icon,see also Tari andVanni (2005).

4 See http://www.euromayday.org/netparade/,accessed at1.3.2007.



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theoreticalwork n the feminizationf affectivend immaterial ork nrelationoprecarityeveloped ithinheEMP etworksee e.g. HardtndNegri,2000;Foti, 005),and on theotherhand, hecomparativelyess predominantpresenceof genderas a theoretical rameworknderpinningMP's textdocumentsnd calls for action.Duringhe EMP n 2005,flyersn postcardformathatparodiedndplayedwith enderoles fprotestersere istributed.One f hemhowed oungmen ressingndrag,walkingand nhandwith oungwomen. nthese mages, hecolour ink ecame symbolic arkerfradical,queerand anarchistmovements.nthe sameyear, series of sticker ardsrepresentingineteensuperheroesf precarity'amed he ImbattibiliEngl.Unbeatables] ere reated y heChainworkersrewnd then istributeduringtheparade ogether ith herelated tickerlbum.5everal emaleuperheroes,like SpiderMom,DottoressaGrandiOpereand Wonder ra, criticizedhefeminizationfprecarityna satiricalway ndpointedo thestrugglesf sexworkersndundocumentedigrants.notheruperhero,ender omade,t thevisual evel ransgressedommon eterosexualepresentationshroughis/herambiguousransgendererformance.6hese layfuluperheroesndother isualand creativeoolswere riticalnpublicizinghe EMP notherountries.7hus ttheperformativeevel, enderttainedhigh isibility,hile t thetextual evelof collective eclarations,ender ontinued o be less central o the socialmovement.TheChainworkersrewnventederpicaNaro, fictional,oung,p-and-coming,Anglo-Japaneseashion esigner.Her name is an anagram f San Precario.SerpicaNarowas createdto establish linkbetween he generalprecaritydiscourse f abour nd thefashionndustrynMilan. erpicaNarowasthefocusof a fashion how which ook place duringhe Milan FashionWeek.Manyprecariousorkersndactivists ho reated he erpicaNaro isuals ndfashioniconswerewomenwhowere lso involvedn theEMP.8t is worth otinghat,thoughtwas not central o the collective ctionof theSerpicaNarofashionshow, hesocialcategoryfmigrant omenwaspresentnbothvisualdesignand texts.The catwalks f theSerpicaNarofashion howwereused bytheinvolvedrecarious orkersnthe fashionndustryndactivistso speakabouttheparticularonditionfwomenufferingromrecarity.In the artistic onceptualizationf the show, ctivists ecided to radicallycritiquekey issues relatedto precariousife and work onditions,whichespecially,hough ot xclusively,ffectwomen.he how resented series fspecial lothes,worn ywomenmodels, esignedo ironicallyerformarticularforms f short-termontracts,uch as deferredayments,n-call obs, andpart-timeontracts.pecific ressesweredesignedo criticize roblemshatmaybe experiencedywomenwithinheirworkplacesnd becomeparticularlydifficulto managewhen he contract s short erm.These nclude exualharassment, high evel of stress,gender-based iscriminationnd the

Alice Mattoni nd Nicole Doerr feminist review 87 2007 133

5 Activists trans-lated the nameImbattibili intoUnbeatable(s). Formore about theImbattibili stickercards, see Vanni(forthcoming).6 See http://www.chainworkers.org/imbattibili;accessed at:1.2.2007.7 For more on this,see Mattoni (2007).

8 For more aboutthe creation of theSerpica Naro fashionshow, the Imbattibiliand San Precario,see Mattoni (2007).



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possibilityfpregnancy.neofthedresseswasdesignedo protestherecentrestrictionmposed y immigrationawwhose onsequence, ccordingo theactivists,maybe to forcemigrantomenntomarriage ith n Italianman nordero gaintheir esidence ermit.Thecreation ndeventual iffusionf visual cons fprotest yvarious roupswithin he precaritymovementn Italyshowstheirpotential s a tool ofexpressionhat s differentrom ext. cons uch s SerpicaNaro, an Precarioandthe mbattibiliresent radical ritiquefprecariousonditionsnpartbyusing, ltering,nd subvertingraditional,re-existingultural epertoiresficonographyf superheroesnd Catholicsaints. As opposed to textualdeclarationsr calls foraction,visual cons of protest eemed to highlightdiversitys a positive alueandproblematizeender.nparticular,heSerpicaNaro ction nvolvedreviouslyotpoliticallyngaged recarious orkersnthefashionnd communicationectors,many f whom re women.n this ontext,the SerpicaNaroaction is remarkableorhaving chieved linkbetweenprecarious orkersnd the intellectual roductionf a visual discourse nprecarity.oconclude, isual cons eem o have been t leastas successfulstextmessagesnpublicizingheprecarityiscoursentheEMP o a wider ublic.Their roductioneserves urtheresearch.author biographiesAliceMattonis a PhD andidate t theEuropean niversitynstitutenFlorence.Her issertationsonthecreationf heprecarityiscoursend activists'mediapracticesncontemporarytaly.Nicole oerrs a PhD andidate t theEuropean niversitynstitutenFlorence.Her dissertations on discursivedemocracyn the public sphere,onmultilingualism,ulturalmix ndgenderntheEuropeanocialForumrocess,and onsocialforumsnGermany,taly, nd theUK.Nicoles part fthePlotkifemzine, feminist agazine orCentral nd Eastern urope.referencesChainCrew2001)Chainworkers.avorareelle attedralielconsumo,oma: eriveApprodi.Foti, . (2005)MAYDAYAyDAy:uro lexworkers,ime oget move n!' inRepublicart.netPrecarity4) 2005.Hardt, .andNegri,. 2000)Empire,ambridge:arvardniversityress.Mattoni,. (2007) SerpicaNaro nd the others. he ocial media xperiencenthe talianprecariousorkerstruggles',aper reparedor he nternationalssociationfMedia ndCommunicationsesearch.aris, 3-25/07/2007.Mattoni,. andDoerr, . (2007) Visualcons fprotestntransnationalublic paces: heEuroMaydayompaign',aperpreparedor he Internationalisual ociologyssociationconference,ew ork,0-12/08/2007.

134 feminist review 87 2007 images ithinhe recarityovementn taly



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Tari,M. andVanni, . (2005) 'On the life and deeds of San Precario, atron aint ofprecariousworkers nd lives' in Fibreculture - 2005, Precarious abour,Australia:FibreculturePublications.Vanni, . (forthcoming)How o do things ithwords nd images:Gli mbattibili'nStocchetti, .andSumalia-Sappanen,. forthcoming)ditors,mages ndCommunities,elsinki: niversityofHelsinki ress.doi:10.1057/palgrave.fr.400356

Alice Mattoni nd Nicole Doerr feminist review 87 2007 135


feminist review 87.mattoni & doerr.images within precarity movement.2007

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