Article de Peter Linebaugh, "Putting the Spine Back in the Commonwealth", publié dans Counter Punch le 13 octobre 2009 et dans Sin Permiso le 18 octobre 2009

In the prologue to Henry V (staged in 1599) Shakespeare described the Globe theatre (built in 1599). It is where the muse of fire ascended, this is the cockpit holding the vast fields, this is the wooden O crammed with war, the place of imaginary puissance. The ‘English nation’ as an ideological patriotic construct, yes, was constructed in this O, and then again when Henry V was put up in World War Two on the silver screen. Again, it was ‘the nation’.

A couple Fridays ago though it was A New World: A Life of Thomas Paine that was performed at the Globe, Trevor Griffith’s magnificent play. We walked across the Thames afterwards, across the Millennium Bridge, the footbridge that sways, to Mansion House and the Circle Line. St Paul's Cathedral was lit up, the Globe behind us was still illuminated, the clouds parted to reveal a full moon, and light glittered on the river. No, the scene was not that to evoke the nation. Between the banks of the Thames we could point out, amid the bank buildings of the City, where the demos of 1999, 2001 took place (‘Take Over the City’) against privatization of England and the planet. Again, the buildings were the background to the demo last spring against the G-20. Already, the commons was a call.

Lire la suite du texte en anglais dans Counter Punch ou en espagnol dans Sin Permiso