CRITIQUE

CASH!
7 Public discussions held between April 10 and May 29, 2025 @ After Hours, Paris
Each week : 1 host + 3 speakers + 15 participants on site + Discord livestreaming + ARE.NA resources sharing
co-curated w/ After Hours in solidarity with Cultures en Lutte social movement

invited hosts : Laetitia Muong, Meryam Benbachir, Kim Doan Quoc, YouPron, Line Ajan, Caroline Honorien

Cash is a loaded word, one we often associate with the violence of scarcity and capitalist extraction. But what if we can find ways to understand 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘩 as a vector of collective rather than individual power, towards alternative economies that are not built upon exploitation and competition? Organized in solidarity with Cultures en lutte, 𝘊𝘈𝘚𝘏! is a series of encounters designed to identify, leverage and multiply our collective resources—energy, time, attention, desire, knowledge, tools, and other forms of currency—to combat the privatization of culture and the rise of fascism.

post-sessions ARE.NA resources 


-- FULL PROGRAM --

#1: APR 10 - QTPOC ENERGY IS CASH!
For people of color, queer, and trans people — overexposed to violence when they mobilize — isolation, fatigue, and risks are constant realities that weaken collective dynamics. How can we preserve energy, this essential but often neglected resource, and keep it flowing?

Moderator: Laeti Muong (ASIAN CORE)
w/ Anna Balsamo (XY Media)
Camélia Moghaddam (Safecore)
Soumaya Phéline (Justice pour Sourour et toustes)
Salomé Gadafi for Cultures en lutte


#2: APR 17 - COLLECTIVE REFUSAL IS CASH!
The art system offers us insufficient remuneration in exchange for the promise of social or cultural capital, and we accept these “opportunities” due to a perceived lack of alternatives. How can we create collective safety nets so we can say no to institutional violence? How can we transform refusal—from a withdrawal or loss—into an active, strategic, and vital gesture? 

Moderator: Meryam Benbachir
w/ Amine Bejaoui (Uncivilized collective)
Chris Cyrille
Fanny Souade Sow
Camille Bardin for Cultures en Lutte


#3: APR 24 - $€X WORKERS 🤝 ART WORKERS 4 CASH!

Sex workers have long been targeted, criminalized, and invisibilized by the state, fighting against systematic erasure and the denial of labor rights through unions and auto-organizing. What can art workers learn from sex workers’ histories of organizing, wins and losses — and how can the transmission of knowledge between our fights cultivate closer intersectional alliances, tighter community bonds, greater mutual resources?

w/ Nour Beetch (SNAP !, BXL PFF)
Kata Loba (Bal des putes)
Ophélie Joh (Djombo Godess)
Ruin Klarity (Cypher Methodology)
Thierry Schaffauser (STRASS)
Valentin Bigel for Cultures en lutte


#4: MAY 1 - TRUST MULTIPLIES CASH!

How can we move from parallel struggles to an arpentage of struggles — building memory and strategy through mutual trust? Bringing together intersectional organizers from Collectif Vietnam Dioxine, Samidoun, Sud Éducation 93, BDS, Collectif jeunes du parc de Belleville, and Cultures en lutte, we explore material ways to build lasting trust across mobilizations, enabling us to increase our demands and multiply our power.

Moderator: Kim Doan Quoc (Collectif Vietnam Dioxine, DOC !)
w/ Adel Ayad (Samidoun)
Kevin Kimbidima (BDS, Collectif Vietnam Dioxine, NPA)
Manel Ben Boubaker (SUD Éducation 93)
Maxime Séchaud Do Dang for Cultures en lutte


#5: MAY 8 - SPREAD CASH!

Small, tactical actions have the capacity for disproportionate power. Boycotts, flyers, stickers, memes, and tags are capable of generating viral political momentum, infiltrating narratives while redistributing risk. What dissident micro-actions can we leverage to scale collective force, what strategies can expand their reach?

Moderator : YouPron
w/ Deep and cheap media
Gorge Bataille
Maic Baxane
Valentin Bigel for Cultures en lutte (Radio Galoche)


#6: MAY 15 - TRANSLATE TRANSMIT CASH!

What role can translation play against the instrumentalization of language by dominant institutions and media, who leverage it to justify racist, Islamophobic, anti-Palestinian, sexist, and transphobic violence? While translation is not exempt from power relations and symbolic violence, it can become a tool for struggle and political dissent, particularly in the face of censorship and legal pressure. More than a simple means of communication, it allows us to reclaim co-opted terms and reconstruct our own spaces where we decide on the legibility and illegibility of our identities and struggles.

moderator : Line Ajan
w:Kira Simon-Kennedy (爻 yáo collaborative)
Mihena Alsharif
Redha Benseddik (Artists Against Apartheid)
Thémis Belkhadra (Decolonial Film Festival)


#7: MAY 29 - CASH! ONLINE! (online-only)

From the embedding of power in code to the monetization of digital labor, racial capitalism continues to operate through—and be amplified by—the Internet. Yet while digital platforms are designed to commodify our identities, they also open up possibilities for manipulating value: reversing free labor, redefining relationships, and generating alternative modes of exchange. Avatars, glitches, skins and scams: what are the tools, tactics or performances we can reappropriate to scramble the rules of extraction? Can we resist systems designed to surveil and control by rerouting, camouflaging, or scamming the system back?

moderator : Caroline Honorien 
w/  shawné michaelain holloway
zai aliyu (school for poetic computation)