!publish!

content/research/crazyrhythms.md

@@ -4,24 +4,32 @@ has_factors = ["americandepartment.md", "MTMinItaly.md", "Noxiousness.md", "dopp
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-
-# The story from which we started: Lebole 1964
-
-In 1964, the all female workforce of the apparel manufacturer Lebole (Arezzo) were among the first one in Italy to experience the transformation of their way of working according to the teachings of the MTM (Motion Time Measurement) Method imported from the US.  In the span of less than a decade, these women, many of them accomplished tailors before entering the factory, went from a semi-artisanal organization of labour, to a progressively more fragmented and repetitive segmentation of tasks.  With the introduction of the MTM method, their movements, measured and minutiously analysed , became fully "choreographed", the execution of each motion meticulously scripted - in short, they were ordered to behave like ROBOTS. 
-
-The impact of this new way of working for the psycho-somatic health of the Leboline (this was the nickname of the workers) was enourmous. Many experienced faintings, nervous breakdowns and other symptoms of exhaustion, which the factory doctors would try to cure with cycles of "vitamin" injections. One of these women also chose to take her own life. 
-
-But the confrontation with new kinds of technical violence also led the Leboline to become an incredibly active force in the political struggles of the 1960s and 1970s in Italy. They not only fought with and within workers' unions and communist party for better working conditions as part of national mobilizations, but also engaged in battles for social reproduction (pushing for municipal kindergartens, for instance) and for a radical transforming of the psychic and physical healthcare of workers. 
-
-At the beginning of the 1960s, political organizing was forbidden during working hours, while breaks from work were short and few. So the Leboline invented a number of ways to communicate and coordinate: important messages were passed on in a relay during bathroom visits, a practice named "Radio Gabinetto" (Radio Toilet).  The lyrics of traditional and popular hit songs of the time were re-written to convey news and political messages. These songs would then be sung at work and during demonstrations. 
-
-By developing in their own form of musical production, Lebole's workers intervened into the maddening rhythms that marked their experience in the factory, to compose other, more poetic, playful, counter-hegemonic rhythms and political horizons, as well as to compose themselves as an iconic posse within the political struggles that marked the Italian "long 1968". 
-
-Finding their own voice and fighting for keeping it was more than a metaphor for the Leboline: with bitter irony, amongst their many health-related struggles, one was against the indiscriminate use of formaldehyde, a compound used augment the firmness of clothes, but which has a harmfull impact on the troath and vocal chords. 
-
-
 # About Maddening Rhythms: Healthcare struggles at the intersection of technology, environment and refusal of work
 
+## The story from which we started: About Lebole, c. 1964
+
+In 1964, the all-female workforce of the apparel manufacturer Lebole in Arezzo, Tuscany, were among the first ones in Italy to experience the transformation of their workflow according to the teachings of the MTM (Motion Time Measurement) Method imported from the USA.  In the span of less than a decade, these women, many of whom were accomplished tailors before entering the factory, went from a semi-artisanal organization of labour, to a progressively more fragmented and repetitive segmentation of tasks, to a fully scripted repetitive performance with maddening rhythms.  With the introduction of the MTM method, their movements were measured and minutiously analysed by a team of experts, who then "choreographed" the execution of each motion in a new, time-saving manner. In short, the workers were expected to behave like ROBOTS. 
+
+The impact of the new MTM Method on the health conditions of the Leboline (this was the nickname of the workers) was enourmous. Many experienced faintings, nervous breakdowns and other symptoms of exhaustion, conditions which the factory doctors tried to cure with cycles of "vitamin" injections. One of these women also chose to take her own life, many were forced to take frequest sick leaves. 
+
+The confrontation with the technical violence of the MTM Method also led the Leboline to become an incredibly active force in the political struggles of the 1960s and 1970s in Italy. They not only rejected the new technical violence of the method, insisting on slower rhythms and more frequent breaks, they also fought with (and within) workers' unions and communist party for the recognition of their specific labour as women, engaging in battles for municipal kindergartens, for instance. 
+
+At the beginning of the 1960s, as political organizing was forbidden during working hours, the Leboline begun their political organizing as they could, invented a number of cunning ways to coordinate amongst themselves, in via endless word of mouth outside the factory gates, on the bus to work, and during the very few moments of rest. Crucially, important messages were communicated in a relay during bathroom visits, a practice named "Radio Gabinetto" (Radio Toilet). They also revamped the use of the contrafacta technique, modifying the lyrics of traditional but also popular hit songs of the time  to convey their political messages while singing at work and at the rallies. 
+
+By developing in their own form of musical production, Lebole's workers intervened into the maddening rhythms that marked their experience in the factory, to compose other, more poetic, playful, counter-hegemonic rhythms and political horizons, as well as to "compose" themselves as an iconic posse within the political struggles that marked the Italian "long 1968". 
+
+Finding their own voice and fighting for keeping it was more than a metaphor for the Leboline: with bitter irony, amongst the many health-related struggles these women carried on, one was against the indiscriminate use of formaldehyde, a compound used to augment the firmness of clothes, but which has a harmfull impact on the troath and vocal chords. 
+
+
+# About the Fondo Luigi Firrao 
+
+We first encountered the story of the Lebole workers and the impact that the MTM Method had on their lives and health conditions during our research residency at the archive of Fondazione ISEC in Sesto San Giovanni, near Milan. 
+
+We encountered this story as "told" by Luigi Firrao, who followed it meticulously for a number of years. Firrao had a number of interviews with Leboline, asking them to address the complexity of their struggles as well as preserving the powerful lyrics they invented for their political choruses. He wrote several newspaper articles denouncing the hidden violence of the new management techniques which were silently creeping in Italian factories since the early 1960s. He also left us an exceptional collection of newspaper cut-outs, articles, and reportages on the theme of MTM and its impact on the life of the workers. 
+
+
+# About the Maddening Rhythms Zine
+
 In our research, which we present here in form of a growing zine and a related library of resources(some of which, from the Luigi Firrao archive at ISEC Foundation, we are making available here for the first time in digital form), we retrace Lebole's story