Working Class in England

The Condition of the Working Class in England
robotic lecture-performance
Live Internet Broadcast

by Igor Štromajer (artistic collaborator: Vlado G. Repnik)

Friday, 12 September 2008 at 8 PM
Open Graphic Art Studio – Museum of the City Skopje
3rd Upgrade!International meeting / exhibition details

“Working Men! To you I dedicate a work, a faithful picture of your condition, of your sufferings and struggles, of your hopes and prospects. I wanted to see you in your own homes, to observe you in your everyday life, to chat with you on your condition and grievances, to witness your struggles against the social and political power of your oppressors. Having, at the same time, ample opportunity to watch the middle-classes, your opponents, I soon came to the conclusion that you are perfectly right in expecting no support whatever from them. Their interest is diametrically opposed to yours. Their doings give them the lie. Have they ever paid any serious attention to your grievances? Not they indeed, those are things they do not like to speak of — they have left it to a foreigner to inform the civilised world of the degrading situation you have to live in. Go on then, as you have done hitherto. Much remains to be undergone; be firm, be undaunted — your success is certain, and no step you will have to take in your onward march will be lost to our common cause, the cause of Humanity!”

Marxists Internet Archive / Intima Virtual Base, September 2008

# still images from live internet broadcast e-performance

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The Condition of the Working Class in England
(Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England)
by Friedrich Engels

# front cover of original pamphlet

Written: September 1844 to March 1845
Published in Leipzig in 1845
The English edition (authorised by Engels) was published in 1887 in New York and in London in 1891
Source: Panther Edition, 1969, from text provided by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Moscow
Transcribed by Tim Delaney in 1998

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3rd Upgrade!International meeting
11 – 14 September 2008, Skopje, Macedonia

The meeting theme “Chain Reaction” illustrates the network itself, the way it works and functions, correlates and interacts. The Upgrade! International started as a creative spark that gradually grew into an international group of nodes influencing each other continually through permanent communication. The meeting gathers Upgrade! nodes into one core event in Macedonia and will hopefully cause a positive chain reaction. Upgrade! network gathers annually or bi-annually, each time in a different city for a festival by artists who participated in the Upgrade! meetings around the world.

The artistic program comprises 6 parts: Exhibition, Public interventions, Live a/v performances, Performances, Screening program, Lectures, Workshops

Friedrich Engels