This leaflet was published in March of 2010 by Planodio Steki Dromou Planodio Steki Dromou (Πλανόδιο Στέκι Δρόμου) in Lefkosia.

For political action and social solidarity

We create relationships through Facebook, we play games with a joystick, we pass endless afternoons in classrooms, and at night we sink tired in the couch to watch television. We go to school and afternoon classes for a future position in university. We go to university for a good future job that will guarantee us a good wage. We work for so many years to afford the “perfect” house and the “perfect” car, and then we work for the same amount of years to afford a second house in the country and get away from the “perfect” house we previously bought!

Let’s just think for a moment of the consequences of this modern way of life. Endless hours in the traffic, time divided into work and consuming (malls, cafés, clubs, football), the restriction of the “institution” of the neighborhood and the continuous destruction of the environment.

What does really separate us from loneliness and alienation? Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money?

–> Let’s fight the devitalization of our time with our imagination and creativeness. Let’s transport the idea of gaming from the video consoles to the streets and fields. Let’s bring sports from the television channels to our neighborhoods.

–> Streets are not only for shopping malls and politicians’ huge advertisements. Let’s all walk down in the Streets, in the Neighborhoods, in the Parks and the Squares to build our lives as we want them to be. We should introduce ideas like solidarity and open assemblies in every neighborhood with the aim of taking decisions in our hands. Let’s stop waiting from the “responsible politicians” to decide for us.

–> We should be enjoying the joys of knowledge, not of “instructions” and “training”. Knowledge and learning must not be trapped into dead certificates and diplomas, but it should rather be a continuous process of creativeness. We should aim for mutual teaching and learning, outside the limits of competition and exams.

–> We want to feel the joy of impulsiveness and human communication. Such a communication will not take into account “lifestyle” models and taboos. We want to come close to nature again. We want to have daily contact with her rather than watching “virtual trees” from our computers. Let’s leave our cars for a while, and try riding our bicycles again. Let’s stand on our own feet.

–> Street art is a continuous, collectivized, interactive process. The artist should not be hierarchically separated from the public. We are against the idolization of the artist and the spiritual sterilization of commercial art. We shall set up our own concerts, our own street theatres and street galleries. All these will be done only with our efforts, away from sponsors and huge profits.

Let’s set our talents free. Let’s emancipate the artist we hide inside us.

Planodio Steki Dromou

http://steki-dromou.blogspot.com