“The direct action of the masses can only be eminently destructive... The proletariat took up the slogan: it was necessary to control traffic to stop arms and munitions.”
Antonio Gramsci, L’Ordine Nuovo, 10 July 1920
“Our destruction is as rigorous as it is specific: a consequence of our hatred for this world as a whole.”
The Destructionist International, A Manifesto for Destructionist Film
On 8th March 2024, Palestine Action made its entry into the art world with its daring and ground-breaking piece Slash-Action, in which an Actionist (no relation to the Vienna Actionists) sprayed and slashed a painting of Lord Arthur Balfour, the British politician infamous for (amongst other colonial exploits) his ‘declaration’ as Foreign Secretary, where, as we state, he:
promised to build “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, where the majority of the Indigenous population were not Jewish. He gave away the Palestinians’ homeland — a land that wasn’t his to give away.
Critics gushed over the performance art piece, with reviews describing our work as “like Franko B, but paint” and “like activism, but more direct.” Some even urged us to take our work into applied settings such as prisons, telling us, “Go to Jail.” Now, Britain’s cultural establishment awaits our next exhibition with bated breath.
We are, of course, joking. Our action this day was not a piece of performance art, but a work of direct action protesting the century-long British complicity in the genocide of Palestinians by the Zionist entity. Whilst the red paint symbolises the spilt blood of the Palestinian people, there was no artistic intent as such. And indeed, many will likely be upset at this action, decrying it as a thoughtless and brutish act against art, destroying a work which future generations will never get to see (future generations of rich Cambridge scholars, but nevertheless…). If it is anything, they will cry, it is a tragedy, not only a crime, but a crime against art. They weep at such a ‘terrible’ loss.
Leaving aside the fact that most people have not seen this painting, were not intending to see it, and were probably never going to see it, perhaps those decrying our action are simply angry at the idea of a cultural “treasure” (loosely speaking) being destroyed. But if we have committed a crime against art, we are only petty art “criminals” (loosely speaking). What of all the other crimes against culture going on in the world today? Did any of these people raise their voices when the Zionist entity murdered Refaat Alareer by means of airstrike? Have they committed, in Refaat’s words, to letting his death be a tale? Or did they speak out earlier, when Hiba Abu Nada, or Heba Zagout, poet and painter respectively, were assassinated the same way? Or when Israel destroyed schools and universities? These people must care about this, right? These complaints would never be in bad faith. No, surely not.
And whatever they might think of cultural genocide in Gaza (maybe they haven’t noticed?), they must surely care about the crimes against art at home. Why, just a couple of days ago, Birmingham arts organisations awoke to find that all of their funding was gone. Where has it gone? Who could have stolen it? Oh, it’s all too much! Artists killed, funding slashed. We must catch these thieves and murderers - where are they, who are they? Oh, that’s right. It’s you. You, the powerful. You, the butchers. You, the ones starving artists and strangling future poets in their cribs, you dare to lecture us about protecting culture? Spare us your crocodile tears. You do not care about your own culture at home, let alone the deliberate attempt to wipe out a people and their way of life. You do not want culture to survive, you want a culture you can control. A culture that extols your virtues, and that, when you are dead and your murdering is finally done, will portray you as a gentle and dignified scholar.
When culture exists only to assuage the pride of the powerful and secure their legacy, when the work of Palestinian children can be taken down on request by Zionist lawyers, when poets do not live to see another day and neither do their children, what is art? What power does it actually have when over 30,000 people have been killed with impunity by a settler state? Not even the power of a custard pie dropped on someones head. In this context, art does not mean anything. It is useless.
And so, Palestine Action have taken up the only cultural expression worth having anymore - destruction. To refuse complicity and to prevent the war machine from functioning in any way we can. To shut the hydra down, to cut off its heads one by one. That is expression that cannot be ignored. The destruction of an old world, and in the clear space it leaves, the horizon for a new one. We are the only true iconoclasts in British culture, because we do not accept the imperialist culture forced upon us. In the revision of history, in the media coverage of the genocide, in the portraits of dead lords. All of it deserves to be destroyed.
So watch your treasures closely. Because we refuse your culture. No sonnets but shouts of “SHAME!” at you from across the street. No stinging critique, but the sting of the Wasp’s Nest. No lionising the powerful, but rather the roar of the Lion’s Den. And when you are dead, no portraits await you, only us performing Piss Aktion on your grave.
No culture without life. No culture without freedom. No culture without Palestine.
Fuck you, Balfour.
—Ravachol Mutt