The rebels of FC St. Pauli in the commodified world of football

Através de uma pesquisa bibliográfica, esta dissertação propõe um diálogo entre os autores Jean-Marie Brohm e John Holloway sobre a possibilidade de se reconhecer potencialidades críticas ao capitalismo no contexto do futebol. Para isso, utilizou-se a experiência dos torcedores rebeldes do FC St. Pauli como um plano de fundo, buscando compreendê-la a partir das contribuições críticas dos autores. Essa experiência histórica presente na comunidade torcedora do FC St. Pauli surge nos anos de 1980 e busca manter seus princípios anticapitalistas, antifascistas e anti-sistêmicos vivos até a atualidade através de projetos, campanhas e protestos, mesmo atravessada por contradições e desafios. Assim, é um âmbito relevante no mundo do futebol para ser analisado sob diferentes lentes do pensamento marxista. Nesse sentido, enquanto John Holloway trabalha com categorias de Karl Marx como totalidade e forma social, dando ênfase a um aspecto de luta dinâmica contra o processo
de cohering à lógica do sistema capitalista, Jean-Marie Brohm, um sociólogo do esporte, trabalha com a noção de “ópio do povo”, ao refletir criticamente sobre a função despolitizadora dos esportes modernos como espetáculos de massa, como é o caso do futebol. Ao longo desta obra fica evidente que apesar de ambos serem influenciados pelo pensamento de Karl Marx, suas produções teóricas possuem diferenças fundamentais, culminando em diferentes interpretações possíveis sobre a experiência particular dos torcedores rebeldes do FC St. Pauli no interior da totalidade capitalista.

Palavras-chave: Formas sociais. Capitalismo. John Holloway. Crack. Futebol. Jean-Marie Brohm. Ópio. FC St. Pauli. Rebel.

Through a bibliographical research, this thesis proposes a dialogue between the authors Jean-Marie Brohm and John Holloway on the possibility of recognizing critical potentialities against capitalism in the context of football. For this, the experience of the rebel fans of FC St. Pauli was used as a background, seeking to understand it from the critical contributions of the authors. This historical  experience present in the FC St. Pauli fan community emerged in the 1980s and seeks to keep its anti-capitalist, anti-fascist and anti-systemic principles alive until today through projects, campaigns and protests, at the same time that is crossed by contradictions and challenges. Thus, it is a relevant sphere in the world of football to be analyzed under different lenses of Marxist thought. In this sense, while John Holloway works with Karl Marx’s categories such as totality and social form, emphasizing an aspect of dynamic struggle against the process of cohering to the logic of the capitalist system, Jean-Marie Brohm, a sociologist of sport, works with the notion of “opium of the people”, by critically reflecting on the depoliticizing function of modern sports as mass spectacles, such as football. Throughout this thesis, it became evident that although both are influenced by the thought of Karl Marx, their theoretical productions have fundamental differences, culminating in different possible interpretations of the particular experience of FC St. Pauli’s rebel fans within the capitalist totality.

Keywords: Social forms. Capitalism. John Holloway. Crack. Football. Jean-Marie Brohm. Opium. FC St. Pauli. Rebel.

INTRODUCTION, 1

1 SOCIAL FORMS OF CAPITALISM AND THE CRACKS FOR JOHN HOLLOWAY, 3
1.1 SITUATING THE CHAPTER, 3
1.2 WHAT ARE SOCIAL FORMS?, 4
1.2.1 Around the commodity-form, 6
1.3 JOHN HOLLOWAY AND THE FORMS, 11
1.4 IN-AGAINST-AND-BEYOND, THE CRACKS, 17

2 MODERN SPORTS AND JEAN-MARIE BROHM’S CRITICISM OF FOOTBALL, 24
2.1 SITUATING THE CHAPTER, 24
2.2 THE HISTORICAL EMERGENCE OF MODERN SPORTS, 25
2.3 THE COMMODIFIED WORLD OF FOOTBALL, 28
2.4 JEAN-MARIE BROHM’S CRITICAL CONTRIBUTION, 33
2.4.1 Sports Institution as an Ideological State Apparatus, 33
2.4.2 Football-Opium, 37
2.4.2.1 The double totalization of football, 37
2.4.2.2 An emotional plague, 39
2.4.2.3 Football as an “opium of the people”, 40

3 THE REBEL FANS OF FC ST. PAULI, 44
3.1 SITUATING THE CHAPTER, 44
3.2 THE HISTORICAL EMERGENCE OF THE REBELLIOUSNESS, 44
3.3 THE REBELLIOUSNESS IN RECENT TIMES, 49
3.3.1 The rebels’ political praxis in the district, 51
3.3.2 The rebels’ struggle against commodification, 52

4 THE REBELS OF FC ST. PAULI IN THE COMMODIFIED WORLD OF FOOTBALL: A DIALOGUE BETWEEN JEAN-MARIE BROHM AND JOHN HOLLOWAY, 59
4.1 SITUATING THE CHAPTER, 59
4.2 REBELS x THE COMMODIFIED WORLD OF FOOTBALL, 59
4.3 A DIALOGUE BETWEEN JEAN-MARIE BROHM AND JOHN HOLLOWAY, 62

CONCLUSION, 75
REFERENCES, 79