tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/anarchism-19953/articles
Anarchism – The Conversation
2023-12-01T13:41:00Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214820
2023-12-01T13:41:00Z
2023-12-01T13:41:00Z
A First Amendment battle looms in Georgia, where the state is framing opposition to a police training complex as a criminal conspiracy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560536/original/file-20231120-23-322rcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C5216%2C3469&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bulldozed land at the planned site of a controversial police training facility, with Atlanta in the distance.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/section-of-bulldozed-land-is-seen-at-the-planned-site-of-a-news-photo/1246850758">Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When does lawful protest become criminal activity? That question is at issue in Atlanta, where 57 people have been <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/dozens-indicted-on-georgia-racketeering-charges-related-to-stop-cop-city-movement-appear-in-court">indicted and arraigned on racketeering charges</a> for actions related to their protest against a planned police and firefighter training center that critics call “Cop City.” </p>
<p>Racketeering charges typically are reserved for people accused of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/21/1200898062/rico-case-against-cop-city-protesters-in-atlanta-stirs-concerns-about-free-speec">conspiring toward a criminal goal</a>, such as members of organized crime networks or financiers engaged in insider trading. Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr is attempting to build an argument that seeking to stop construction of the police training facility – through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/05/cop-city-protesters-racketeering-charges-georgia">actions that include</a> organizing protests, occupying the construction site and vandalizing police cars and construction equipment – constitutes a “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/21/1200898062/rico-case-against-cop-city-protesters-in-atlanta-stirs-concerns-about-free-speec">corrupt agreement” or shared criminal goal</a>. </p>
<p>The indictment’s justification is rooted in <a href="https://immigrationhistory.org/item/1903-anti-anarchist-legislation/">long-standing anti-anarchist sentiments within the U.S. government</a>. However, some civil rights organizations <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/rico-and-domestic-terrorism-charges-against-cop-city-activists-send-a-chilling-message">call this combination of charges unprecedented</a>. </p>
<p>As scholars who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pWgCJMMAAAAJ&hl=en">environmental change</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Pellow-2">social justice</a>, we believe the charges seek to suppress typical acts of civil disobedience. They also target grassroots community organizing models and ideas rooted in the practice of mutual aid – people <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11909218/in-2020-mutual-aid-was-in-the-spotlight-how-are-organizers-holding-up-in-2022">organizing collective networks</a> in order to meet each other’s basic needs.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3MekiLV51Rs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The RICO indictment against ‘Cop City’ protesters describes the accused protesters as ‘militant anarchists.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ‘Stop Cop City’ movement</h2>
<p>“Cop City,” officially known as the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, was <a href="https://atlanta.capitalbnews.org/cop-city-timeline/">first proposed in 2017</a>. The facility is expected to <a href="https://www.atlantaga.gov/Home/Components/News/News/14700/672">cost US$90 million</a> and is located on 85 acres of public land in the Weelaunee Forest, once home to the Indigenous Muscogee Creek peoples. The site is owned by the city of Atlanta but sits on <a href="https://decaturish.com/2022/09/cop-city-explained-a-look-at-the-ongoing-controversy-surrounding-police-training-center/">unincorporated land in DeKalb County</a>, just outside the city.</p>
<p>The opposition campaign has garnered support from activists and environmentalists who are concerned about <a href="https://theconversation.com/militarization-has-fostered-a-policing-culture-that-sets-up-protesters-as-the-enemy-139727">militarization of police forces</a> and potential threats to <a href="https://stopcop.city">the Black community</a>, as well as to <a href="https://defendtheatlantaforest.org">climate resilience</a> in Atlanta. </p>
<p>Members of <a href="https://defendtheatlantaforest.org/">Defend the Atlanta Forest</a>, a decentralized movement of grassroots groups and individuals, argue that the threatened forest provides essential ecological services – filtering rainwater, preventing flooding, providing habitat for wildlife and cooling the city in a time of climate change. </p>
<p>Activists have led protest marches, written letters to elected officials and <a href="https://www.copcityvote.com/updates">organized a referendum</a> for the public to decide the future of the property. Some have camped out in the Welaunee Forest – a method that radical environmental defense groups like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Earth-First">Earth First!</a> have used to <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/total-liberation">delay or prevent logging</a>. In one instance, activists reportedly <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/atlanta-protests-cop-city-georgia-state-of-emergency-forest-defenders/">set construction equipment on fire</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CyeS2xhvy_r/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\u0026igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Authorities have responded with force. </p>
<p>In January 2023, police <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/13/1163272958/cop-city-protester-autopsy-manuel-paez-teran">fatally shot activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán</a>, who had been camping on the Cop City site for months. Authorities assert that Terán had shot and wounded a state trooper, while Terán’s family contends that they were <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/no-charges-troopers-killing-cop-city-activist-manuel-paez-teran-georgia/">protesting peacefully</a>. </p>
<p>An independent autopsy concluded that Teran <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/04/20/atlanta-cop-city-protester-autopsy/">was shot 57 times</a> while <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/11/1162843992/cop-city-atlanta-activist-autopsy">sitting with hands raised</a>. A prosecutor opted <a href="https://apnews.com/article/cop-city-atlanta-activist-shot-no-charges-421f6fe392a9202523ea154b2ddabb7d">not to file charges</a> against state troopers involved in the shootout, calling their use of deadly force “objectively reasonable.” </p>
<p>Attorney General Carr <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/us/cop-city-atlanta-indictment.html">indicted 61 activists</a> on Sept. 5, 2023, under <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2021/title-16/chapter-14/">Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act</a>, which is a <a href="https://www.ajc.com/politics/what-to-know-about-georgias-rico-law/3Y2PBKLHWFDMLKYFEURTHLBVZY/">broader version</a> of the <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/rico-racketeer-influenced-and-corrupt-organizations-act-statute">1970 federal RICO law</a>. Three defendants have been charged with money laundering for <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/breaking-more-than-60-training-center-activists-named-in-rico-indictment/DQ6B6GHTAJAJRH4SLGIIBAMXR4/">transferring money to protesters</a> occupying the forest around the construction site, and five are charged with <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/breaking-more-than-60-training-center-activists-named-in-rico-indictment/DQ6B6GHTAJAJRH4SLGIIBAMXR4/">domestic terrorism and arson</a>. Some of the accused face up to 20 years in prison.</p>
<p>Clashes between protesters and police have continued. Protesters organized a march for Nov. 13 and were met by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/16/atlanta-police-cop-city-protest-grenades-snipers-terrorism">heavily armed police officers in riot gear</a>. When activists attempted to push past the officers, the police used <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/police-protesters-atlanta-clash-cop-city-rcna124956">tear gas and flash-bang grenades</a>. </p>
<h2>How does RICO apply?</h2>
<p>Georgia’s <a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/GAOAG/2023/09/05/file_attachments/2604508/23SC189192%20-%20CRIMINAL%20INDICTMENT.pdf">109-page indictment</a> of “Cop City” protesters paints a broad – and, in our view, troubling – picture of the actions and beliefs that allegedly contributed to what it describes as a corrupt agreement.</p>
<p>The indictment cites the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">2020 killing of George Floyd</a> by Minneapolis Police as the event that sparked the “conspiracy.” It refers to the Atlanta-based movement as the Defend the Atlanta Forest “Enterprise” and <a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/GAOAG/2023/09/05/file_attachments/2604508/23SC189192%20-%20CRIMINAL%20INDICTMENT.pdf">describes participants</a> as engaging with “anarchist” ideas and practices such as “collectivism, mutualism/mutual aid, and social solidarity.”</p>
<p>Protesters use these practices, the indictment asserts, to advance their goal of stopping construction of the training center. As evidence, it <a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/GAOAG/2023/09/05/file_attachments/2604508/23SC189192%20-%20CRIMINAL%20INDICTMENT.pdf">cites examples</a>, including posting calls to action on online blogs, reimbursement for printed documents and transferring money to activists for materials such as camping gear, food, communications equipment and, in two instances, ammunition. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560542/original/file-20231120-22-tq91hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a business suit speaking at a microphone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560542/original/file-20231120-22-tq91hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560542/original/file-20231120-22-tq91hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560542/original/file-20231120-22-tq91hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560542/original/file-20231120-22-tq91hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560542/original/file-20231120-22-tq91hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560542/original/file-20231120-22-tq91hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560542/original/file-20231120-22-tq91hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr has filed a sweeping RICO indictment against dozens of activists protesting the planned police training site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Election2022Georgia-AttorneyGeneral/09a8169fb9aa43f8b2c5bbd6d424a13e/photo">AP Photo/John Amis, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Threatening First Amendment rights</h2>
<p>As we see it, these activists are being criminalized for their political beliefs and for engaging in activities protected by the First Amendment, such as exercising free speech. Throughout the indictment, the Georgia attorney general uses the term “anarchist,” we believe, as a synonym for “criminal.” </p>
<p>Such language echoes the Immigration Act of 1903, also known as the <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/total-liberation">Anarchist Exclusion Act</a>. This law targeted anarchists for exclusion from the U.S. solely based on their political beliefs. Section 2 of the law states that “anarchists, or persons who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United States or of all governments or all forms of law, shall be <a href="https://immigrationhistory.org/item/1903-anti-anarchist-legislation/">excluded from admission into the United States</a>.” </p>
<p>This wording reflects a widespread view of anarchy as a state of violent disorder. In fact, however, many anarchist thinkers actually proposed to organize society on the basis of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/anarchism">voluntary cooperation</a>, without political institutions or hierarchical government. </p>
<p>Another, broader view of anarchy is that it is an ideology and practice of <a href="https://www.akpress.org/featured-products/black-dawn.html">organizing communities and society</a> in ways that confront any and all forms of oppression, including <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/total-liberation">oppression by government</a>. </p>
<p>Why would such a philosophy be deemed threatening? Consider recent U.S. history.</p>
<h2>The Black Panthers</h2>
<p>In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the federal government sought to repress and criminalize the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-shootout-between-black-panthers-and-law-enforcement-50-years-ago-matters-today-153632">Black Panther Party for Self Defense</a> as part of a covert and illegal <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/COINTELPRO">counterintelligence program, known as COINTELPRO</a>. </p>
<p>The Black Panther Party created extensive <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/body-and-soul">community survival and mutual aid programs</a> for Black communities at a time of ongoing government neglect. Offerings included free access to medical and dental clinics, ambulance service and buses to visit friends and relatives in prison. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tCGA4TLaq8g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Black Panther Party organized dozens of social programs to directly meet local needs in underserved areas like New York’s South Bronx.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Black Panthers’ <a href="https://www.history.com/news/free-school-breakfast-black-panther-party">free breakfast for children program</a> fed thousands of children across the country. In Chicago, local police destroyed food the night before the program was set to begin operations. A memo by an FBI special agent called the program an attempt to “create an image of civility” and “assume community control,” thus <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00045600802683767">threatening the centralized authority</a> of the U.S. government. </p>
<p>Federal agencies relied mainly on covert tactics to surveil, infiltrate and discredit the Black Panther Party. Like the Cop City protesters, the Black Panthers also engaged in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-shootout-between-black-panthers-and-law-enforcement-50-years-ago-matters-today-153632">direct confrontations with police</a>.</p>
<p>However, we see the current use of RICO charges to address political activism and protest activities as a new tactic. </p>
<h2>Future implications</h2>
<p>In our research, we have explored how mutual aid groups establish networks of care and survival in the face of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2022.0104">climate change</a>. We expect mutual aid to become even more important for Black and Indigenous people of color as environmental disasters <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12986">become more frequent</a>.</p>
<p>From our perspective, efforts to stop Cop City demonstrate the interconnection between two critical issues: overpolicing of communities of color and climate change. We see Georgia’s RICO indictment as an attempt to repress social movement activity, using the state’s tools of legal interpretation and enforcement. </p>
<p>Criminalizing collectivism, mutual aid and social solidarity is particularly concerning for historically marginalized populations, who often rely on these tactics for survival. </p>
<p>Seeking to use the state’s political processes, organizers recently collected over 116,000 signatures supporting a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-10-04/-cop-city-referendum-aims-to-repeal-planned-atlanta-police-training-center">ballot referendum</a> that, if approved, would cancel the lease of the city-owned site for the training center.</p>
<p>However, Atlanta officials have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/atlanta-cop-city-referendum-signatures-4b617a220807b6701c9f46745e4762c4">refused to verify those signatures</a> as they await a federal court ruling on whether the organizers missed a key deadline. Meanwhile, Atlanta is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-10-04/-cop-city-referendum-aims-to-repeal-planned-atlanta-police-training-center?sref=Hjm5biAW">already clearing land</a> for construction at the training site.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This isn’t the first time that US authorities have criminalized civil disobedience or framed grassroots organizing as a conspiracy.
Rachel McKane, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Brandeis University
David Pellow, Department Chair and Professor of Environmental Studies and Director, Global Environmental Justice Project, University of California, Santa Barbara
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/170328
2022-01-26T12:12:53Z
2022-01-26T12:12:53Z
How anarchist architecture could help us build back better after COVID
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442310/original/file-20220124-27-rtbpr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C0%2C3805%2C2155&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spaces built collaboratively, close to nature. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/tall-pine-trees-near-town-1019050774">Shutterstock/kasyanovart</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Architecture and anarchy may not seem like the most obvious pairing. But since anarchism emerged as a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/anarchism/Anarchism-as-a-movement-1870-1940">distinct kind of politics</a> in the second half of the 19th-century, it has inspired countless alternative communities. </p>
<p><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/christiania-copenhagen-denmark/index.html">Christiania in Copenhagen</a>, <a href="https://allthatsinteresting.com/slab-city">Slab City in the California desert</a>, <a href="https://zadforever.blog/about/">La ZAD in the French countryside</a>, and <a href="https://en.squat.net/tag/grow-heathrow/">Grow Heathrow in London</a> all feature self-organised forms of building. On the one hand, this includes remodelling existing structures, usually abandoned buildings. On the other, it can mean building entirely new spaces to accommodate individual liberty and radical change in social organisation. </p>
<p>At its heart, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anarchism/">anarchism</a> is a politics of thought and action. And it reflects the original meaning of the ancient Greek word <em>anarkhi</em> meaning “the absence of government”. All forms of anarchism are founded on self-organisation or government from below. Often stemming from a place of radical scepticism of unaccountable authorities, anarchism favours bottom-up self-organisation over hierarchy. It is not about disorder, but rather a different order – based on the principles of autonomy, voluntary association, self-organisation, mutual aid and direct democracy.</p>
<p>For example, in Christiania, an intentional community and commune of about 850 to 1,000 residents, which was established in 1971, residents first squatted abandoned military buildings and converted them into communal homes. In time, others built their own houses in an extraordinary diversity of styles and materials that survive to this day. Even temporary anarchist projects, such as the 1980s protest camps at <a href="http://www.greenhamwpc.org.uk">Greenham Common in Berkshire</a>, and the more recent <a href="https://www.ragpickinghistory.co.uk/post/extinction-rebellion">Extinction Rebellion occupations in London</a>, require the construction of makeshift shelters and basic infrastructure.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="New age art." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442314/original/file-20220124-25-1uyh9dz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Salvation Mountain at Slab City, California.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/salvation-mountain-colorful-artificial-north-calipatria-82139752">Shutterstock/Kevin Key</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Seeds that can grow</h2>
<p>In my <a href="https://www.paulholberton.com/product-page/architecture-and-anarchism-building-without-authority">new book</a>, <a href="https://www.antepavilion.org/publication/p/architecture-anarchism">Architecture and Anarchism: Building Without Authority</a>, I look at how anarchist building projects are often targeted by the authorities because they’re deemed illegal. And how as a result of this, there is a knock-on effect that casts people who self-build as somehow “exceptional” – driven by desires that are simply alien to the rest of us. </p>
<p>But that, I think, misses the point of anarchist politics that underlie such projects. And it also fails to recognise that these principles are grounded in values that are shared much more widely. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People standing in self-built space" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442321/original/file-20220124-21-1pdw5k5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Community Space at Grow Heathrow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/transitionheathrow/photos/1317851378401566/">Facebook/transitionsheathrow</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, the late British anarchist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/22/colin-ward-obituary">Colin Ward</a> always argued the values behind anarchism in action were rooted in things we all do. He was particularly interested in how people seem to have an innate desire to share time and space without expecting any financial remuneration. As part of his work, he often embraced everyday subjects such as community allotments, children’s playgrounds, holiday camps, and housing cooperatives. </p>
<p>He had a strong and optimistic belief in anarchism as an always-present but often latent force in social life that simply needed nurturing to grow. Ward argued for a way of building that was <a href="https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/10618/1/Fulltext.pdf">focused on</a> changing the role of citizens from recipients to participants “so that they too have an active part to play” in the building of towns and cities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="House and water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442308/original/file-20220124-27-15y7bmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Self-built house in Christiania, Copenhagen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/freetown-christiania-selfproclaimed-autonomous-neighbourhood-intentional-1310712218">Mykola Komarovskyy/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some recent architectural practices - for example, <a href="https://assemblestudio.co.uk/about">Assemble in the UK</a>, <a href="https://www.spatialagency.net/database/santiago.cirugeda">Recetas Urbanas in Spain</a>, and <a href="https://raumlabor.net">Raumlaborberlin in Germany</a> - have actually developed ways of working that are almost entirely focused on such a model of participation. Indeed, in September 2019, Raumlaborberlin built a “<a href="https://afculmk.org/Utopia-Station">Utopia Station</a>” in Milton Keynes, in the UK. This was a structure that combined steel scaffolding, metal staircases, striped awnings and salvaged windows to create a three-storey space. </p>
<p>Inside, visitors were asked to provide their own suggestions for future urban development, which were then made into models and exhibited. Such a playful - and joyful - approach to citizen participation stands in stark contrast to the often dour and depressing ways we’re generally asked to comment on buildings being planned.</p>
<h2>Community spaces</h2>
<p>Last year, the UK government published its <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-asked-7-000-people-how-the-uk-should-build-back-better-heres-what-they-told-us-164664">post-COVID-19 recovery</a> plan to “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/build-back-better-our-plan-for-growth">build back better</a>”. With its emphasis on <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-after-covid-most-people-dont-want-a-return-to-normal-they-want-a-fairer-more-sustainable-future-173290">securing economic growth</a>, the report completely fails to address the catastrophic environmental consequences of such an approach. </p>
<p>A different approach would involve radical reshaping of the values that hold up our politics. Here, anarchism has much to contribute. Its core values of mutual aid, self-organisation and voluntary association offer a much more holistic notion of what constitutes progress. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Community garden." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442323/original/file-20220124-27-1jsr4pp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Community gathering and growing spaces.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/colorful-bench-community-garden-536665321">Shutterstock/Karin Bredenberg</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On a personal level, I have found urban allotments to be places where the contours of such an everyday revolution can be felt. These are areas of land set aside by local authorities for residents to grow food in exchange for a nominal annual rent. </p>
<p>Although I’ve never met anyone on my own allotment who identifies as an anarchist, the “seeds” are nevertheless there to see. Allotments are, in essence, common spaces within cities. Sites deliberately kept off the market and filled with more-or-less provisional structures, such as readymade or self-built sheds or greenhouses. </p>
<p>Although you’re not allowed to build a dwelling on an allotment (at least in the UK), it’s not difficult to transfer the underlying principles to other sites in cities. As I look out of my bedroom window to the allotments just beyond my home, I often wonder why it’s not possible to set aside land for other kinds of communal activities? Even for housing? </p>
<p>It’s in places like allotments that the otherwise radical nature of alternative possibilities is seen. Therein lies the hope of building an <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-after-covid-most-people-dont-want-a-return-to-normal-they-want-a-fairer-more-sustainable-future-173290">emancipatory, inclusive, ecological and egalitarian future</a>. This is building back better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Dobraszczyk received funding from the arts charity Antepavilion.</span></em></p>
What we can learn from squatters, climate protestors and desert hippies.
Paul Dobraszczyk, Lecturer in Architecture, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173456
2022-01-06T12:44:11Z
2022-01-06T12:44:11Z
The Sagrada Familia: how Gaudí’s masterpiece became a myth and a divisive political tool
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439680/original/file-20220106-27-cwqd9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The new tower stands completed, to the left, with its summit star in place.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sagrada-familia-basilica-barcelona-antoni-gaudi-2101137517">Petr Tran | Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí’s Catalan masterpiece, recently celebrated the completion of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/29/huge-star-atop-sagrada-familia-rekindles-residents-complaints">Mare de Déu tower</a> by hoisting a giant, 12-pointed star of metal and textured glass to its summit. After 140 years of construction on the church, this is the first of its six main towers to be finished and its outsized decoration now lights up the Barcelona nightscape. </p>
<p>Not everyone is pleased though. The installation has been met with criticism about the ongoing building works and the adverse impact of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-the-dizzying-spectacle-of-gaudis-basilica-de-la-sagrada-familia-159532">tourism</a> it generates on the local area.</p>
<p>The Sagrada Familia has been a magnet for controversy since well before Gaudí was commissioned to build it in 1883. <a href="https://eprints.ncl.ac.uk/262978">As my research shows</a>, the Sagrada Familia has become both a <a href="https://diumenge.ara.cat/diumenge/preservant-gaudi-del-mite_1_1617290.html">myth</a> and a tool co-opted by different political movements and ideological campaigns. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437316/original/file-20211213-21-1c5eeem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437316/original/file-20211213-21-1c5eeem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437316/original/file-20211213-21-1c5eeem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437316/original/file-20211213-21-1c5eeem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437316/original/file-20211213-21-1c5eeem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437316/original/file-20211213-21-1c5eeem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437316/original/file-20211213-21-1c5eeem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When Homer Simpson visits the Sagrada Familia in a 2013 episode of The Simpsons, the façades depicted are not those built by Gaudí, but the ones that better fit within the architect’s myth.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Conservative roots</h2>
<p>The Sagrada Familia was originally conceived in 1881 by philanthropist and bookseller Josep Maria Bocabella as an expiatory temple – a place of atonement – devoted to the cult of the Holy Family (the child Jesus, his mother, the Virgin Mary and his father, St Joseph). In buying entry tickets, visitors, still today, effectively atone for their sins. </p>
<p>The decline of the Spanish empire in the 19th century had given rise to powerful ideological and political debates across Spain. The late 1870s saw the emergence of left-wing and anarchist movements, against which Bocabella aimed to make a stand with a new basilica. </p>
<p>To that end, in 1882, he bought a plot of land just outside the Eixample district of the city. He created a foundation to manage the works and appointed the architect Francisco de Paula Villar y Lozano. They envisaged an edifice in the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323628098_Como_nacio_el_Templo_de_la_Sagrada_Familia">Gothic revival style</a>. </p>
<p>Lozano, however, only got as far the building’s foundations and the crypt before public disagreements about its construction system and finances led the foundation to ask Gaudí to take over.</p>
<p>Gaudí attuned his designs to both Bocabella’s ideals and the rightwing political and ideological movements sweeping through Catalonia at the time. He referenced the local Montserrat mountain range – which lies inland from Barcelona – in his radical new designs for the building’s sculptural mass and its elevation. </p>
<p>He also proposed that the church be built as a succession of single façades, each replete with a carefully curated, baroque medley of sculptures. In this way, even while under construction, the basilica would instruct visitors in the Catholic values associated with the Holy Family.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437315/original/file-20211213-19-1fdrxwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437315/original/file-20211213-19-1fdrxwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437315/original/file-20211213-19-1fdrxwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437315/original/file-20211213-19-1fdrxwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437315/original/file-20211213-19-1fdrxwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437315/original/file-20211213-19-1fdrxwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437315/original/file-20211213-19-1fdrxwg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sagrada Familia under construction in 1920.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A myth is born</h2>
<p>Until this moment the Lliga Catalanista, the main rightwing, nationalist party in Catalonia, had seen Gaudí as an <a href="https://library.ccny.cuny.edu/c.php?g=950858&p=6907396">outsider</a>. Its leaders had labelled his architecture disgusting. But as he became ever more popular and his work more powerful, the Sagrada Familia appeared as a useful means for spreading their message.</p>
<p>The Lliga started presenting Gaudí as “the genius of Catalonia”, claiming that his basilica was a classical temple that belonged to all Catalans. It urged the public to contribute financially to its construction, belabouring the fact that in doing so, they would be buying forgiveness. </p>
<p>When Gaudí passed away in 1926, Barcelona was at the centre of the anarchist and left-wing movements in Europe. In 1936, at the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, the construction site was vandalised by anarchist groups. Gaudí’s studio was burned down and all the drawings and models it contained were <a href="https://www.editorialtenov.com/en/books/antoni-gaudi-ornament-fire-and-ashes-juan-jose-lahuerta/">destroyed</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437339/original/file-20211213-25-15pknzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437339/original/file-20211213-25-15pknzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437339/original/file-20211213-25-15pknzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437339/original/file-20211213-25-15pknzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437339/original/file-20211213-25-15pknzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437339/original/file-20211213-25-15pknzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437339/original/file-20211213-25-15pknzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gaudí’s plan for the basilica was first published in the January 20, 1906 edition of <em>La Veu de Catalunya</em>, a newspaper with close links to the <em>Lliga</em>.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The post-war period saw construction resume and the myth of Gaudí take shape. In the absence of the plans and archival materials lost in the fire, architects and historians began to interpret Gaudí’s ideas to suit their own agendas. In 1964, an international group of architects and intellectuals called for work on the basilica to be halted. Most of them deplored the quality of these post-Gaudí additions. </p>
<h2>Tourist destination</h2>
<p>Tourism has placed ever greater strains on the site, with neighbourhood associations also bemoaning the lack of planning permits and payment of building permit fees. Inscribing the basilica into the surrounding urban context remains a primary challenge. </p>
<p>For the temple’s main façade and its staircase to be built, a series of housing blocks is set to be demolished, as defined in the unique leasehold terms under which they were built during the second half of the 20th century. At the time the completion of the temple seemed too far in the future. Now, with an end date set – just before the pandemic outbreak – for 2026, it’s a very real problem.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437326/original/file-20211213-27-508t7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437326/original/file-20211213-27-508t7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437326/original/file-20211213-27-508t7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437326/original/file-20211213-27-508t7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437326/original/file-20211213-27-508t7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437326/original/file-20211213-27-508t7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437326/original/file-20211213-27-508t7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With this 2002 collage showing the Sagrada Familia as Barcelona’s high speed train station, architect and landscaper Beth Galí aimed to spark debate about the building site.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Until COVID brought the industry to a halt, ever-increasing visitor numbers ensured a vast and steady stream of income to keep construction underway. In 2019 alone, <a href="https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20210529/7490507/sagrada-familia-reabre-sabado-visitantes-fines-semana.html">4.5 million people</a> came to the site.</p>
<p>The pandemic has of course been a major impediment. Visitors dropped to only 810,000 in 2020 and work on the church has been put on hold until 2024. However, if the church’s history is anything to go by, the Sagrada Familia will endure. It has become a myth equalled only by that of its creator, Gaudí. And like any myth, it is impervious to historical fact.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josep-Maria Garcia Fuentes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Barcelona’s fabled basilica recently celebrated the completion of its first tower with a giant star. But as at every stage in its history, not everyone is pleased.
Josep-Maria Garcia Fuentes, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/163618
2021-07-21T12:11:43Z
2021-07-21T12:11:43Z
Why a 19th-century Russian anarchist is relevant to the mask and vaccine debate
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411967/original/file-20210719-21-ckdu1u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C696%2C511&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beards? Yes. Masks? Perhaps not.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%B8%D0%BB_%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87_%D0%91%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BD#/media/File:Basel_1869.png">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Americans who refused to don masks or get vaccinated during the pandemic don’t have an easy task constructing a valid philosophical defense of their behavior. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108755993">go-to philosophical</a> <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1257/john-locke">authorities typically cited</a> to defend individual liberty in the U.S. – John Locke and John Stuart Mill – do not provide compelling reasons for ignoring public health messages.</p>
<p>Locke’s <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-political/">doctrine of natural law</a> states that people are <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-political/">endowed with natural rights</a> to “life, liberty, and estate,” premised on duties to God of self-preservation, and any behavior that risks survival constitutes a <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-moral/">violation of that natural law</a>. As such, there is no justification to refuse a safe and effective vaccine during a deadly pandemic.</p>
<p>Similarly, Mill’s “<a href="https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-the-harm-principle/">harm principle</a>” – which broadly states that people are allowed to do whatever they want provided they do not directly harm others – doesn’t help those opposed to vaccines and masks. Their actions might <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/10/biden-covid-vaccine-anti-vaxxers-us.html">prolong the pandemic</a>, allowing the virus an opportunity to mutate and <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/two-thirds-epidemiologists-warn-mutations-could-render-current-covid-vaccines">potentially render vaccines ineffective</a> – behavior that puts everyone at risk.</p>
<p>There is, however, another ethical framework that people refusing to be vaccinated or wear masks might turn to, although it comes from an unlikely source: the 19th-century Russian anarcho-communist <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/bio/">Mikhail Bakunin</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps most famous for his <a href="https://doi.org/10.3917/amx.041.0112">lengthy and bitter tiff with German philosopher Karl Marx</a>, Bakunin’s philosophy of anarcho-communism consisted of the abolition of government, private property and indeed all means of coercion. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Portrait of Mikhail Bakunin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412002/original/file-20210719-19-u2lfpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412002/original/file-20210719-19-u2lfpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412002/original/file-20210719-19-u2lfpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412002/original/file-20210719-19-u2lfpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412002/original/file-20210719-19-u2lfpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412002/original/file-20210719-19-u2lfpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412002/original/file-20210719-19-u2lfpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Revolutionary anarchist Mikhail Bakunin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-mikhail-alexandrovich-bakunin-ca-1860-private-news-photo/600027341?adppopup=true">Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=i2z87R8AAAAJ&hl=en">professor of political theory</a>, I believe Bakunin has been overlooked in the current debate about masks and vaccines. Some of his views are consistent with at least the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/19/892855760/bioethicist-on-libertarian-views-toward-face-mask-laws">libertarian-based criticisms</a> of mask and vaccine requirements. Indeed, despite meaningful differences, many libertarians in the U.S. share with Bakunin the belief that <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/libertarianism/">freedom is the most important value</a> and governments are by nature coercive. They may distrust Bakunin’s insistence on linking freedom and rationality and certainly would reject his embrace of communism, but libertarians would likely nevertheless admire his skepticism of authority.</p>
<h2>Science as a threat to freedom</h2>
<p>Bakunin might not be an obvious source of support for many in the anti-mask and anti-vaccine camp. His classic 1871 text, “<a href="http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bakunin/godandstate/godandstate_ch1.html#pref">God and State</a>,” begins in a manner sure to offend certain elements of the religious right, who make up a sizable number of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/03/23/10-facts-about-americans-and-coronavirus-vaccines/ft_21-03-18_vaccinefacts/">those refusing to follow public health advise on vaccines</a>.</p>
<p>Bakunin attacks Christianity as <a href="http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bakunin/godandstate/godandstate_ch1.html">the enemy of rationality and freedom</a>. If humans wish to be free, he argues, they should learn the physical laws of the universe and social laws of society to inform their decision-making. If guided by genuine knowledge, Bakunin says, people can make smart decisions and become rational agents in charge of making choices for themselves.</p>
<p>But science, too, can be a <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1873/statism-anarchy.htm">great threat to freedom</a>, Bakunin suggests – and it is here that many of those opposed to mask and vaccine mandates may warm to his argument.</p>
<p>Beyond the fact that there are limits to scientific knowledge, Bakunin believed that there is always the possibility that <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1873/statism-anarchy.htm#s1">scientists themselves will be invested with coercive authority</a>.</p>
<p>If rationality and knowledge are requisite for freedom, Bakunin argued, then those with knowledge are in a position to force people to do, or not do, certain things.</p>
<p>As such, Bakunin worried that scientists, emboldened by their importance in society, will “<a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/godstate/ch02.htm">arrogantly claim the right to govern life</a>.” </p>
<p>“We must respect the scientists for their merits and achievements, but in order to prevent them from corrupting their own high moral and intellectual standards, they should be granted no special privileges and no rights other than those possessed by everyone – for example, the liberty to express their convictions, thought and knowledge. Neither they nor any other special group should be given power over others. He who is given power will inevitably become an oppressor and exploiter of society,” <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/1873/statism-anarchy.htm#s1">he wrote</a> in 1873.</p>
<h2>Skeptical consumers of knowledge</h2>
<p>Bakunin’s solution to the risk of coercion by scientists was to lessen their authority without diminishing the value of scientific knowledge. To do so, he makes each individual responsible for learning and acting on whatever knowledge they have. The idea is for people to consult scientists for knowledge with the understanding that no one scientist has all the answers and that the accumulated knowledge of all scientists likewise is limited and cannot give perfect answers.</p>
<p>To apply Bakunin’s theory of freedom to pandemic America, no one should be required to get a vaccine. Rather, the population should be encouraged to investigate the efficacy and safety of the vaccines.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Anti-vaccine rally protester holds a sign saying 'Stop Forced Vaccine' above an American flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412183/original/file-20210720-23-1ivoh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412183/original/file-20210720-23-1ivoh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412183/original/file-20210720-23-1ivoh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412183/original/file-20210720-23-1ivoh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412183/original/file-20210720-23-1ivoh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412183/original/file-20210720-23-1ivoh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412183/original/file-20210720-23-1ivoh5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters cast vaccines as an attack on their freedom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/anti-vaccine-rally-protesters-hold-signs-outside-of-houston-news-photo/1233673090?adppopup=true">Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For its part, the scientific community needs to vigilantly scrutinize itself and present knowledge in an honest fashion, eagerly volunteering to the public what it knows and does not know.</p>
<p>Bakunin would be highly critical of both naïve optimists and doom-and-gloom pessimists in the scientific community. People need the unvarnished truth presented in simple and clear terms. If the answer is “we scientists don’t know,” then so be it.</p>
<h2>Ask questions … but be reasonable</h2>
<p>Bakunin’s theory of freedom asks much of the population. It requires individuals to know something of the nature of scientific knowledge, ask sensible questions and then make a rational analysis of the available evidence. It requires scientists to check their egos and desire for quick celebrity and soberly present their knowledge in accessible and honest terms.</p>
<p>And granted, Bakunin did not account for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/19/facebook-twitter-covid-misinformation-conundrum/">disinformation campaigns</a> of the sort found on the internet that undermine access to reliable scientific data. He did, however, have faith in people to sort through information and make rational decisions. This ability, according to Bakunin, is a precondition for freedom.</p>
<p>Vaccine skeptics, thus, might find comfort in Bakunin. If they ask good questions and do not find satisfactory answers, then his philosophy suggests they should absolutely refuse a vaccine. The same goes for masking: If the scientific community cannot effectively communicate why masks are still needed, then people should not be expected to wear them, Bakunin might argue.</p>
<p>At the same time, those opposing masks and vaccines need to sincerely follow the science and allow themselves to be convinced by data, Bakunin’s philosophy suggests. Refusing to wear a mask based on an uneducated hunch or because of a belief that the “government wants to control me” constitutes folly, not freedom. In short, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers, to claim their freedom, need to be reasonable.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163618/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Locke McLendon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
John Locke and John Stuart Mill don’t provide much in the way of justification for ignoring public health advice in a pandemic. Mikhail Bakunin, however…
Michael Locke McLendon, Professor of Political Science, California State University, Los Angeles
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/140673
2020-06-15T15:51:23Z
2020-06-15T15:51:23Z
Revolutionary ideals of the Paris Commune live on in Black Lives Matter autonomous zone in Seattle
<p>A new autonomous zone set up in Seattle by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement bears some striking similarities with the Paris Commune of 1871. Despite its brutal ending, the seminal event in the French capital 150 years ago <a href="http://abahlali.org/files/Harvey_Rebel_cities.pdf">set the agenda</a> for progressive urban politics and broader social justice movements ever since. But while what is happening in Seattle shares some of the political visions of the commune, it faces an altogether different and more sophisticated threat – of being co-opted by creative capitalists.</p>
<p>The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle – or Chaz as it has come to be known – was set up on June 8 in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. It came about as a result of BLM <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/11/chaz-seattle-autonomous-zone-police-protest">protesters moving in</a> after the Seattle police abandoned the precinct due to clashes with protesters. </p>
<p>Since then, the protesters have barricaded the perimeter and set up a “<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/chaz-a-no-cop-co-op-heres-what-seattles-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone-looks-like/ar-BB15oddG">no cop co-op</a>” offering free water, hand sanitiser, face masks, food and other supplies. There are teach-ins, street art installations and other activities often associated with anarchist urban protest camps.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1271317000313167872"}"></div></p>
<h2>Centres of protest</h2>
<p>Cities have been the focus of protests movements for centuries, because as urban sociologist <a href="http://www.saskiasassen.com/PDFs/publications/does-the-city-have-speech.pdf">Saskia Sassen</a> has argued, the city has always been a place where the powerless can make history. As such, the creation of Chaz has the potential to cement the movement firmly within the pantheon of urban revolutionary histories. And given the <a href="https://medium.com/@seattleblmanon3/the-demands-of-the-collective-black-voices-at-free-capitol-hill-to-the-government-of-seattle-ddaee51d3e47">list of demands</a> that it has produced, which includes abolishing the police, retrials, amnesties for convicted protesters and rent control, there is a deeply radical politics at its heart. </p>
<p>So there are some obvious comparisons to make between Chaz and the Paris Commune. In Paris, the proletariat were reacting to their long economic oppression by the French elite. In response to an advancing French army looking to disarm them, they barricaded themselves in the capital. </p>
<p>The 2015 book <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/05/kristin-ross-communal-luxury-paris-commune/">Communal Luxury</a> by the French culture and literature expert Kristin Ross paints a vivid picture of the Paris Commune as an important revolutionary moment. But more than simply accounting for the commune’s failure, she argued that its vision of a radically different world was more important than ever after the 2007-09 financial crash. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341818/original/file-20200615-65925-1pf4vp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341818/original/file-20200615-65925-1pf4vp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341818/original/file-20200615-65925-1pf4vp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341818/original/file-20200615-65925-1pf4vp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341818/original/file-20200615-65925-1pf4vp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341818/original/file-20200615-65925-1pf4vp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341818/original/file-20200615-65925-1pf4vp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Communards with the Vendôme Column in 1871.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colonne_vendome.jpg">André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the three months that the commune existed, communards tore down imperialist statues such as the Vendôme column, changed the education system so that it <a href="https://www.counterfire.org/articles/history/21095-the-paris-commune-when-workers-ran-a-city">empowered the working class</a> and <a href="https://transversal.at/transversal/0805/dalotel/en">abolished the police</a>. Debt was cancelled and rent suspended. There were street festivals and migrants, refugees and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/019165999190137N">women</a> were empowered. The commune, Ross argues so eloquently in her book, is more than a historical event; it is live resource that can also help us build a better world today. </p>
<h2>Danger of co-option</h2>
<p>Chaz creates a space for these radical politics to gestate, as a real-life urban laboratory of revolutionary thought. </p>
<p>But while there are certainly some similarities with the progressive ideals of the commune, there are some dangers too. The French capitalist state quickly and violently <a href="https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-john-merriman-20141207-story.html">massacred</a> the commune’s inhabitants. While the Trump administration could potentially react with violence in Seattle, there is also the danger that the co-optive power of urban “creative” capitalism could soften – and eventually blunt – Chaz’s progressive ideals. </p>
<p>Similar autonomous zones have existed around the world for decades such as <a href="https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01167.x#references-section">Christiania</a> in Copenhagen, Denmark and <a href="https://failedarchitecture.com/the-cities-of-vilnius-past-ideologies-new-consumerism/">Užupis</a> in Vilnius, Lithuania. But these and many others have become a kind of pastiche of their anarchist and anti-capitalist ideals. There may still be fundamental principles of solidarity, collective ownership and anti-capitalism within these places. However, they have become cocooned in a veneer of branding, advertising and commercialised and gentrifying versions of the “creative city”. This restricts and severely dilutes the dissipation of their ideologies.</p>
<p>With Chaz too, the lure of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/may/07/protest-chic-fashion-industry">protest chic</a>” may be too much to resist – it is after all in Seattle, one of the US’s <a href="https://www.citylab.com/life/2012/05/what-critics-get-wrong-about-creative-cities/2119/">most heralded creative cities</a>. For Chaz to resist this, it must resolutely be a space of the oppressed and the black voices of the movement. In essence, white people can help set it up and maintain it, but they must remain silent inside it and let the oppressed use the space to strategise and mobilise.</p>
<p>The Paris Commune didn’t end too well, and the <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1272266206691672064?s=20">murmurings from President Donald Trump</a> are that the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone may not last too long either. But that the commune is still taught and talked about today is testament to its lasting positive effect within urban politics. It may have been brutally quashed, but its anti-capitalist spirit set an example for nearly 150 years of subsequent urban struggles all over the world. </p>
<p>Cities have always been where the voiceless find their voice and articulate their demands most vociferously. For those who are deeply involved in the BLM movement (which should be all of us), let us hope that is still true.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140673/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oli Mould does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, set up by Black Lives Matter protesters, has some strong similarities with the 1871 Paris Commune.
Oli Mould, Lecturer in Human Geography, Royal Holloway University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134494
2020-03-27T15:14:14Z
2020-03-27T15:14:14Z
This anarchist thinker helps explain why we feel so driven to help each other through the coronavirus crisis
<p>Empty supermarket shelves and panicked government briefings have become the defining images of the coronavirus crisis. But the community response, however, may well be a more enduring feature. The virus and the enforcement of social isolation have sparked uncertainty and anxiety. But a range of local volunteer-run mutual aid networks have also emerged. </p>
<p>Many of the people involved in these groups know that the term “mutual aid” was made famous by the 19th-century anarchist <a href="https://www.rsb.org.uk/biologist-features/158-biologist/features/2154-who-was-peter-kropothkin">Peter Kropotkin</a>. He used it to attack Social Darwinists who described nature as a competitive fight between self-interested individuals. <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/first-use-of-the-phrase-survival-of-the-fittest#">“Survival of the fittest”</a> became their catch phrase and was used to describe antagonistic relationships between people, races and states. This way of thinking normalised aggression as a <a href="https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/edu/essay.html?id=61">natural response to scarcity</a>.</p>
<p>In the present context, the implication is that scrapping for the last bottle of hand sanitiser or roll of toilet paper is a programmed, inevitable response. If only the strongest survive, then others should be seen as rivals or even enemies and we are right to take all necessary measures to preserve ourselves against them.</p>
<p>Although Kropotkin accepted that competition was a factor determining biological fitness, his argument was that cooperation – or mutual aid – was as significant.</p>
<p>As an ethical idea, mutual aid describes the efforts people make to help others without seeking reward. It thrives in local, voluntary organisation. <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27322/27322-h/27322-h.htm">The Lifeboat Association</a>, initiated in the UK by William Hillary to support the foundation of a national institution to save victims of shipwrecks, was an example of the ethical self-organising that Kropotkin had in mind. </p>
<p>Hillary appealed to the king in 1825 to <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27322/27322-h/27322-h.htm">support his project</a>, explaining that his aim was to aid “people and vessels of every nation, whether in peace or in war”. His cause was at once “individual, national, and universal”. He imagined that the establishment of a British association would inspire the foundation of sister organisations across the world.</p>
<p>Kropotkin liked the Lifeboat Association because it relied on “cooperation … enthusiasm … local knowledge”. It rescued anyone in need and because it depended on local action, it could be replicated easily elsewhere. It was a template for global networking to build solidarity.</p>
<h2>Working together in a time of crisis</h2>
<p>This is the spirit we see in the support networks emerging as people confront the coronavirus pandemic. Neighbours helping neighbours. Those who are able to leave their homes are collecting prescriptions and essential supplies for the vulnerable. Groups networking across towns and cities are pooling resources so that no one is left without. </p>
<p>Community support has always been a core aspect of human social life. Research looking at the way people go about their <a href="http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/anarchist-economic-practices-%E2%80%98capitalist%E2%80%99-society-some-implications-organisation-and">different everyday tasks</a> shows that far more time than we might imagine is spent on unpaid community support. Mutual aid and cooperation – such as neighbours looking after each other’s children or helping each other fix their cars – run through society. It is a mistake to think that the prospect of profit motivates our behaviour.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323226/original/file-20200326-133040-dic18w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323226/original/file-20200326-133040-dic18w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323226/original/file-20200326-133040-dic18w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323226/original/file-20200326-133040-dic18w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323226/original/file-20200326-133040-dic18w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323226/original/file-20200326-133040-dic18w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323226/original/file-20200326-133040-dic18w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A statue of Peter Kropotkin in the Kropotkin House Museum, Dmitrov, Russia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ruth Kenna</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mutual aid is often seen in times of crisis or horrible catastrophe – for example, in the aftermath of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/nyregion/where-fema-fell-short-occupy-sandy-was-there.html">Hurricane Sandy</a> in the US and <a href="https://aflondon.wordpress.com/2017/06/27/the-grenfell-tower-inferno-and-anarchism/">the Grenfell fire</a> in London. Its emergence now bears out Kropotkin’s observations about the capacity for everyday solidarity. The question he would ask is: how can we expand these practices to rethink our social organisation?</p>
<p>Kropotkin described the Lifeboat Association as “perfectly spontaneous”. This did not mean that he thought it was unplanned. It meant that it was not forced by law. Trust and practice were essential to Kropotkin’s vision of the world remade through cooperation and respect for local self-determination. </p>
<p>With resources stretched to their limits, governments all over the world are <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-51979390">relying on mutual aid networks</a> to help those most at risk by shopping for those in isolation or sending virtual messages of support to prevent demoralisation.</p>
<p>Perhaps, then, we can start to think about how to preserve community-based organisation in the post-coronavirus world. </p>
<p>There is a significant difference between the politics of mutual aid and <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-francaise-d-administration-publique-2017-3-page-507.htm#">neo-liberal projects</a> intended to privatise government services. Kropotkin did not want to see responsibility for government services devolved to big corporations or cash strapped volunteers. His aim was to attack existing power structures. Mutual aid thrives in conditions of equality and it is a necessary part of an anarchist drive towards <a href="http://library.nothingness.org/articles/anar/en/display/334">decentralised federation</a>. </p>
<p>If business-as-usual austerity returns after the crisis, the fertile ground of mutual aid may well dry up. The maintenance and extension of basic income, in contrast, may help preserve and promote grassroots social change in the longer term.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Kinna has previously received funding from the British Academy for research on Kropotkin. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Swann receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust to support his research. He is a volunteer with a mutual aid network in Leicester. </span></em></p>
‘Mutual aid’ groups are springing up all over. It’s a concept first described by Peter Kropotkin in the 19th century.
Ruth Kinna, Professor of Political Theory, Loughborough University
Thomas Swann, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Loughborough University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/114594
2019-07-11T20:19:09Z
2019-07-11T20:19:09Z
Friday essay: the Australians who pioneered self-sufficiency, generations before Nimbin
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283178/original/file-20190709-51268-eadqpa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Whitlanders in the 1940s. Established in 1941 near the base of Victoria's Mount Buffalo, this Catholic community celebrated the 'dignity of manual labour' and was led by a charismatic athlete and former judge's associate, Ray Triado.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Pisani</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The term “self-sufficiency” commonly evokes images of communes, yurts and 1970s hippies, most likely living off the land in northern New South Wales. More recently, it has been linked to an explosion of interest in solar powered “off-grid” living, tiny houses, ethical food networks and complementary health practices, along with a hipster-driven return to the artisanal and hand-made. </p>
<p>But these are just a small part of a much larger story. Australians have, in fact, dreamt of going back-to-the-land since the latter part of the 19th century. Those who embraced an ethic of self-sufficiency included anarchists, suffragists seeking opportunities for unemployed women, Catholic agrarians wanting to nurture both the soul and the soil, and a grassroots collection of organic farmers trying to bring attention to “Mother Earth”. </p>
<p>Each of these pioneers looked beyond “unhealthy” cities to the land as a source of salvation, seeking answers and alternatives to some of the problems of industrial modernity, and sharing in a vision of “the good life”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283189/original/file-20190709-51278-14zxv02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A century before today’s ‘off-grid’, tiny house fans, Australians sought solace by going back to the land.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dirty, corrupt cities</h2>
<p>The story begins in the late 19th century when urban reformers across North America, England, Europe and Australia started to identify a decline in societal values and standards, sparked by economic insecurity and rapid social change. With growing anxiety around “dirty and corrupt” cities, a transported image of the English “rural idyll” became a ready source of inspiration. </p>
<p>In Australia, this idea was equally shaped by the romance of bush ballads, alongside the popular landscape art movement. But rather than simply gaze at the landscape or go bush-walking on weekends, a number of urban Utopians wanted to get back to nature, hoping to reimagine and reconstruct society.</p>
<p>David Andrade was one of them. Born to Jewish merchants in Collingwood in 1859, he grew up with an acute sensitivity to the inequalities he saw around him. After co-founding the first Anarchist Club in Australia and spending years publishing and speaking across Melbourne, Andrade came up with a bold vision he called “Social Pioneering”. It envisaged opening up “agricultural, pastoral and industrial pursuits” for people with no access to land, bringing them closer to nature and basic subsistence living to avoid the dangerous economic fluctuations of the market.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283177/original/file-20190709-51262-n9i9d3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Andrade pictured in the 1890s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.marxists.org/glossary/people/a/n.htm</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1893, during a worsening economic depression, Andrade established “Liberty Hall” in central Melbourne. This radical venture housed a progressive “bookery”, the earliest vegetarian restaurant and hosted numerous lectures on topics like socialism, mesmerism, vaccination, free thought and spiritualism. </p>
<p>Andrade laid out plans for a co-operative community called “Freedom” on Lake Boga along the Murray River as an “enlightened salve for poor city wage-slaves”. </p>
<p>However, with little support for such a wild venture, in 1894, he and his wife Emily instead moved to the newly opened settlement of Sassafras in the nearby Dandenong Ranges with their three children, and a fourth on the way. Under a government scheme known as Village or Closer Settlement, which opened up large tracts of arable but often difficult land to the urban unemployed, the Andrades were among thousands who looked to small-scale farming on small rural “homesteads”. </p>
<p>Sadly their dream of agricultural independence and collective Utopia remained elusive. In 1897, devastating fires burnt out the settlement. David was committed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarra_Bend_Asylum">Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum</a> soon after with his “reason having been broken down”. Emily and the children were forced to move back to the city and much of the radicalism of Andrade’s pioneering ventures soon faded. </p>
<p>Still, many others continued to battle capricious natural elements, poor soils, and the harsh realities of making a living from the land, buoyed by the potential of subsistence agriculture and the autonomy of working for oneself.</p>
<h2>Womanly but not weak</h2>
<p>While it was acceptable for both urban and rural women to garden domestically, it was hard for women to make a living from their gardens in the cities. Away from city dwellers’ conventions and expectations, they had more luck.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279704/original/file-20190617-158917-1fj4tbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Horticulture for Ladies. The Australasian, 18 Feb, 1899.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Australasian</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In December 1892, suffragist Mary Sanger Evans began promoting silk growing, or sericulture, as an ideal vocation for “womanly agriculture” pursuits as the Depression set in. Defying the view that “real men do real farming”, sericulture was promoted as a feminine practice. Soon after, Evans formalised her ideas into the Women’s Cooperative Silk Growing and Industrial Association. It had a charter to</p>
<blockquote>
<p>open up new fields of productive industry for workless women of all classes, from the refined gentlewoman, thrown perhaps suddenly to depend on her own exertions, to the factory girl or motherless waif – industries healthful and elevating, and, if properly carried out, highly profitable – all of them too, productive from the soil direct.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With the support of prominent women such as the wife of NSW Governor Robert Duff, the organisation purchased a 44-acre farm lease at Wyee, north of Sydney. They called it “Wirawidar”, the Indigenous name for “woman’s ground”. Continuing to farm until 1901 during drought and difficult economic conditions, their efforts inspired urban women to look away from the cities towards the power of the soil.</p>
<p>With the support of her brother Justice Henry Higgins, suffrage activist Ina Higgins also realised that women could gain “autonomy and freedom” from a rural smallholding. After years agitating for a course to be made available for women at the Burnley Horticulture College, Ina became one of its first graduates in 1900. She then became Australia’s <a href="https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/La-Trobe-Journal-99-Sandra-Pullman.pdf">first professional female landscape gardener</a>. </p>
<p>With the support of fellow suffrage and peace activists Vida Goldstein, Adela Pankhurst and Cecilia Ann John, Ina set up a farm in Mordialloc on the fringe of metropolitan Melbourne in 1913. Members of the Women’s Rural Industries Cooperative worked variously in an orchard, a nursery, raising poultry and horses, bee-keeping, and growing flowers and vegetables. Like Wirawidar, it was established for single or divorced women to provide for themselves, their children, and earn an income.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279703/original/file-20190617-158967-1qdzybd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ina Higgins in the garden at ‘Killenna’, 1919.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Palmer Papers, National Library of Australia, PIC Album 885/7 #PIC/P778/562</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Paying no attention to class or dress dictums, they scandalised the public with their “rational dress” of a “brown knickerbocker suit.” While Higgins gave instruction on horticulture, the press reported that one co-op member, Cecelia John, was “as good as a man” since she could “drive a car, paint a house, erect poultry sheds, and [is] planning on turning a corner of the big barn into a bathroom at the least expense.” </p>
<p>With only six permanent workers, the farm managed to survive and succeed until the end of the war, but failed due to lack of capital and shortages of water. Higgins later continued educating young women in horticulture at Dookie Agricultural College, and paved the way for future “women of the soil” such as renowned landscaper <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walling-edna-margaret-11946">Edna Walling</a>.</p>
<h2>The gospel of simplicity</h2>
<p>During the 1930s a “lure of the pastoral” found popular resurgence through a nation-wide Country Life Movement. It united public and political sentiment, reaffirming the moral and political superiority of rural areas and small towns. </p>
<p>Within this push, aspiring political activist Bob Santamaria helped launch the National Catholic Rural Movement in 1938. He advocated for a form of “cottage Catholicism” within a new social order that was neither capitalist nor communist, but would bring the “countryside back to Christ”. The movement believed that in order to find the “true” source of one’s religious being, one had to embrace “honest, wholesome toil”.</p>
<p>Out of these ideas emerged the agricultural community of Whitlands. Established in 1941 near the base of Victoria’s Mount Buffalo, it celebrated the “dignity of manual labour” within a strong monastic tradition. By the end of the war, its valiant and charismatic leader Ray Triado had attracted dozens of young urban Catholics – men, women and their families – away from their comfortable city lives.</p>
<p>An acclaimed track athlete, and later an associate to a High Court Judge, at 30, Triado traded this world for a life of hunting, building and farming. A troubadour and storyteller, his community was built around simple daily rituals, of song, prayer and work. Numbering a few dozen in its later years, a variety of people were drawn to create a “world of the village around and permeated by God’s presence.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283176/original/file-20190709-51262-czbe3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1093&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ray Triado in the 1940s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graeme Butler</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whitlands quickly became notorious amongst Melbourne’s high society for its radical departure from comfortable, conventional Catholicism, and its rejection of the materialistic culture of modern Australia. Some, such as regular visitor and journalist Niall Brennan supported the program and reported in the Catholic press of male “monks” in overalls, working shirts and shorts who “chanted Matins, Lauds and Prime, milked cows, cut wood and lit fires”. </p>
<p>Single women were also drawn to the farm as they saw a vital opportunity to escape the monotony of urban domesticity. Though the women maintained separate living quarters, such a scandalous situation led to calls from within Catholic institutions to dissolve the community.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283179/original/file-20190709-51288-1oo0ehq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The chapel at the old Whitlands site, which survives today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1950, a dozen dedicated Whitlands members made a “pilgrimage” of over 250km from the farm to Melbourne to petition Archbishop Mannix against its closure. They succeeded in keeping the farm open – but the early idealism was soon lost. Many members moved on, while a few families settled nearby.</p>
<h2>Soil and Civilisation</h2>
<p>Long before the rise of the modern environment movement, farmer <a href="http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/mitchell-sibyl-elyne-18137">Elyne Mitchell </a>(author of The Silver Brumby) published Soil and Civilisation in 1946. This book was an early attempt to explain to Australians the importance of the connection between human and ecosystem health. In addressing problems facing industrial agriculture and society at large, she wrote that, divorced from his roots, (i.e the earth) “man loses his psychic stability.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283193/original/file-20190709-51312-k72tw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Soil was at the heart of many later self sufficiency movements.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her sentiment echoed a growing movement of farmers across southern Australia that had united from the mid-1940s through the Living Soil Association in Tasmania, Australian Organic Farming and Gardening Society of NSW and the Victorian Compost Society.</p>
<p>Drawing on the work of British organic pioneers such as Lord Albert Howard, they argued that all organic wastes, such as plant matter and animal manure, must be returned to the soil to decay and replenish soil humus. They also felt that nature’s “law of return” could be used as a model to alleviate some of the problems faced by ever growing, all consuming cities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283184/original/file-20190709-51258-ci7ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Editions of the Organic Farming Digest from the late 1940s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Challenging the dominant vision of agricultural progress, particularly the use of artificial fertilisers and chemical pesticides, the organic growers looked to the model of the small, family farm for salvation. Though not strictly a call “back-to-the-land” since many were already farming, or working their suburban gardens, these campaigns encouraged ordinary people and producers to consider the origins of their food, and contemplate the wider outcomes of its production. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283180/original/file-20190709-51278-dzsmmu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Banner for Victorian Compost News, March 1950.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Michael J. Roads was one of these early proponents. He had moved from England to Tasmania in 1963 with his family. After years farming cattle, Roads saw how problems of greed, the rapid commercialisation of life, and a spiral of harmful farming practices were affecting both individuals and society as a whole. </p>
<p>In 1970 he published <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Roads#Publications">A Guide to Organic Living in Australia</a>. It reflected on a growing movement “back to the earth” seeking solace in the bush and the simplicity of self-provision. In it, he shared his own story of spiritual transformation that had occurred when he began to revere the power of nature. </p>
<p>Spreading his message that nature, the soil and human happiness are inextricably linked, Roads continues to publish, travel the world, and teach others the insights he learned as a small farmer on a secluded mountain in Tasmania.</p>
<p>Roads was joined soon after by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren who transformed this philosophy into the practice of <a href="https://holmgren.com.au/about-permaculture/">Permaculture</a>. In turn, it helped motivate the counter-cultural movement as growing food organically for self-sufficiency became a critical way to rebel and achieve social change. </p>
<p>The 1973 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarius_Festival">Nimbin Aquarius Festival</a> established self-sufficiency as central to its political and social doctrine. From this point on, personal self-sufficiency was seen as a means of survival, but also of achieving broader political, social and environmental reform. It continues to stand for a way of reducing consumption, getting back to basics, engaging with DIY projects, using renewable energies, and fostering community networks today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Goldlust does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Long before 70s hippies and hipster artisans, Australians were seeking solace by going back to the land. They ranged from anarchists to suffragists to Catholic agrarians.
Rachel Goldlust, Phd candidate in environmental history, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/98488
2018-06-20T15:04:18Z
2018-06-20T15:04:18Z
‘When the revolution becomes the State it becomes my enemy again’: an interview with James C. Scott
<p>How to resist the State when you feel powerless? How to make your voice heard when you have none? Is anarchism a vain utopia as it is often described by its opponents?</p>
<p>These are only a few of the questions one could ask political scientist, anthropologist and anarchist thinker James C. Scott. During an exclusive interview with professors Benjamin Ferron and Claire Oger and their students (UPEC, UFR LLSH, Master 2 “Communication politique et publique en France et en Europe”), Professor Scott discusses what so-called “powerless” actors can do and which strategies they use. From hill tribes of the South-East Asia to medieval French peasants or enslaved African-Americans in the Great Dismal Swamp, James C. Scott paints a vast and diverse history of resistance to authoritarian tendencies. Edited excerpts for The Conversation France.</p>
<h2>Anarchism and organisation</h2>
<p><strong>Q</strong>: You wrote in a 2012 book called <em>Two Cheers for Anarchism</em>, (<a href="http://www.luxediteur.com/catalogue/petit-eloge-de-lanarchisme/"><em>Petit éloge de l’anarchisme</em></a>) that your conversion to anarchism is the result of an intellectual evolution linked with your disappointment toward the possibility of revolutionary change. You also define anarchism as a praxis: a defence of politics, conflict debate and a principle of uncertainty and perpetual learning.</p>
<p>The book produced a lot of comments, <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/anarchish-james-c-scotts-two-cheers-for-anarchism">both positive and negative</a>. How do you combine your analysis of long-term and discreet resistance of subaltern groups, which often turn to be a sum of multiple individual acts, with the collective and often short-term dimension of political action?</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223580/original/file-20180618-85845-5blwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223580/original/file-20180618-85845-5blwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223580/original/file-20180618-85845-5blwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223580/original/file-20180618-85845-5blwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223580/original/file-20180618-85845-5blwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223580/original/file-20180618-85845-5blwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223580/original/file-20180618-85845-5blwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">James Scott: ‘Anarchism as a praxis: a defence of politics, conflict debate and a principle of uncertainty and perpetual learning’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>James Scott</strong>: It seems to me that almost every successful revolution movement is an assemblage of people with many different objectives. People during the French Revolution had different agendas – and of course they didn’t know they were making the French revolution. We often miss the unconsciousness behind such events. It is only later that the “winner” retrospectively creates a narrative which makes the movement very centralised and organised much more than what it actually was.</p>
<p>People are hard to control because their motives are plural. In <a href="http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Zomia-la-ou-l-Etat-n-est-pas.html">many places in South East Asia</a>, people are difficult to administer because they would need to be captured one by one. There were no leaders you can bargain with. Another good example is the <a href="https://libcom.org/history/1903-1981-anarchism-in-poland">anarchist Polish movement</a>. There was no centralisation. It was hard to mobilise at first but after a while people were committed. And it came from their own volition.</p>
<p>That is both the advantage and the disadvantage of anarchist globalised form of revolution. People are harder to get together but once they are, it is even harder to put them back into the bag.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223557/original/file-20180618-85840-gc6ssh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223557/original/file-20180618-85840-gc6ssh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223557/original/file-20180618-85840-gc6ssh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223557/original/file-20180618-85840-gc6ssh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223557/original/file-20180618-85840-gc6ssh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223557/original/file-20180618-85840-gc6ssh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223557/original/file-20180618-85840-gc6ssh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Anonymous movement is a globalised form of anarchist protests where there are no leaders to bargain with or try to control.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qxqVTMWrBtA/UI_0YC7quLI/AAAAAAAACeE/zIxcVAfajpU/s1600/anonymous1.jpg">jinezpravy.blogspot</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<blockquote>
<p>“If development means anything it should mean something for peasants, if it doesn’t then the hell with development”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Q</strong>: Your work relates to various contemporary contexts, including movements of resistance contesting the State authority as well as capitalist economy and the standardisation of cultures. We think of Occupy Wall Street, <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-frances-nuitdebout-protests-the-start-of-a-new-political-movement-57706">Nuit Debout</a> or the ZAD movements in France who are drawing people internationally too. Are we seeing new ways of contesting State authority from within?</p>
<p><strong>J.S.:</strong> Well, I do not consider myself a pundit. But the best I can do though is to think carefully about previous social movements. I am an American <em>soixantehuitard</em> formed by the Vietnam war. <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300021905/moral-economy-peasant">After my work in Malaysia</a> I decided to devote my life to understanding peasantry. It is the largest class in the world and the most important one, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300182910/against-grain">historically</a>. So, if development means anything, it should mean something for peasants and if it doesn’t, then the hell with development. That is why I tried to understand the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1nq836">wars of liberation and the peasantry</a>.</p>
<p>What I learned is that centralised revolutionary movements have almost always resulted in a State that was more oppressive then the ones they aimed to replace. In other words, when the revolution becomes the State, it becomes my enemy again. That is why it matters greatly which methods are used in order to achieve power.</p>
<p>Methods are the template for organisation, hierarchy, democracy and so on. If we discuss social movements such as Chiapas, my first question would be: How are they organised? How are they developing their technics? How accountable are the elites to the others?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223633/original/file-20180618-85834-u8y87o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223633/original/file-20180618-85834-u8y87o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223633/original/file-20180618-85834-u8y87o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223633/original/file-20180618-85834-u8y87o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223633/original/file-20180618-85834-u8y87o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223633/original/file-20180618-85834-u8y87o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223633/original/file-20180618-85834-u8y87o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Message at the entrance of a Zapatista Community in Chiapas, Mexico: ‘Here, the people govern and the government obeys.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.taringa.net/posts/noticias/17451461/Pasan-los-anos-y-los-zapatistas-siguen-presentes.html">Taringa.net</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I am the enemy of hierarchical movements of opposition because I think they replicate State structures in their own organisation.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> You bring attention in an 2012 interview (<a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-francaise-d-etudes-americaines-2012-1-page-112.htm">“Infrapolitics and Mobilisation”</a>) to the differences between dominant groups and subaltern groups. But don’t you think your definition is a bit too radical? What about for instance unions who are defending dominated groups but are also working within the system? How would you define them then?</p>
<p><strong>J.S.:</strong> I tried to give this binary definition between dominated and dominant people, but you are right that it is much more complicated than that, as I expose it in my earlier work, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300036411/weapons-weak"><em>Weapons of the Weak</em></a>. There are actually hidden transcripts in each layer of a group and in every situation.</p>
<p>Hidden transcripts can be things we don’t say openly. Take politeness. We conduct our day saying nice things to people. It is a kind of social lubricant that allows our relations to flourish with others but it could often misrepresent our opinions. Only gradually, in trust and confidence, will we disclose who we really.</p>
<h2>The hidden ways of resistance</h2>
<p><strong>Q</strong>: In that case, what is the thin line between infrapolitics and politics? You mention the example of the Spanish Civil War and the display of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w8h377.10?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">clerics’ bodies against the orders of the authoritarian regime and the Church</a>. As we understood it, this act seemed a more political act then an infra-political one.</p>
<p><strong>J.S.:</strong> Indeed. I used the exhumation of clerics’ bodies in Spain in 1936 to show that it was a very loud, symbolic act. It was a public act, actually the opposite of infrapolitics. No money changed hands, no one was killed, no property was redistributed. Yet, it was a pure symbolic act of resistance saying “We are not afraid of the Catholic Church, we are not afraid of the dead bodies of the cardinal and the saints and throwing them in front of the steps of the church”. It was an act of desecration, meant to scandalise the bourgeois, Catholics and the church fathers and so on.</p>
<p>On the contrary, infrapolitics are politics that never declare itself publicly which is why it is successful. Let’s look at the military. There is a difference between desertion and mutiny. Desertion is just the act to leave. Mutiny is open opposition to power, direct confrontation. Desertion is below the level to any public claim. That’s infrapolitics.</p>
<p>In that order, I argue that for most people dealing with authoritarianism, where taking public actions become dangerous or even fatal, infrapolitics are politics.</p>
<p>The peasant resistant movements of 18th century France, <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/ahess_0395-2649_1974_num_29_1_293451">as exposed by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie</a> and which I discussed in <a href="https://books.google.fr/books?hl=fr&lr=&id=0GJnasTiZlwC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=Decoding+Subaltern+Politics:+Ideology,+Disguise,+and+Resistance+in+Agrarian&ots=H4iy3jBfVq&sig=9hSzRVNu_qx7JjgmFrrIDl4E1tQ">_Decoding Subaltern Politics: Ideology, Disguise and Resistance in Agrarian Politics</a>, give us a good example.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223560/original/file-20180618-85863-1r3cs25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223560/original/file-20180618-85863-1r3cs25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223560/original/file-20180618-85863-1r3cs25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223560/original/file-20180618-85863-1r3cs25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223560/original/file-20180618-85863-1r3cs25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223560/original/file-20180618-85863-1r3cs25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223560/original/file-20180618-85863-1r3cs25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Abbaye d'Ardenne, France. ‘Dime’ granary, May 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ardenne-grange.jpg?uselang=fr">Laurent Hosansky Goéland/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>French peasants resisted the tax not by publicly using force or demonstration – although that happened too – but by using various and numerous small strategies to avoid paying the “dime” (tenth) tax, such as hiding goods, faking numbers, etc., over centuries.</p>
<p>It eventually succeeded. I saw the same thing happened in Malaysia in the 1970s. In the hill village where I stayed, people gathered in informal groups to discuss the new taxation that the Malays tried to impose. They would not pay such taxes, so they gave a particular type of rice, which was not great and was only used for that purpose. So much so that it became a kind of a joke: if someone was invited to a home and not being treated well one would say “He was given tax rice!”</p>
<p><strong>Q</strong>: Should we give political meaning to illegal practices? Are these infrapolitics? For instance, street peddlers disregarding State norms?</p>
<p><strong>J.S.:</strong> Well, if you are even a quarter of an anarchist you would stop with the word <em>illegal</em>. You would rather question it: How has this become illegal? What does it tell us about the law and how was it created? The sophist believed that the last thing one should do is take the definition of legality as face value, as an absolute truth without questioning it. Think about apartheid or segregation laws, or anti-Jewish laws…</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223561/original/file-20180618-85825-1tm1m9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223561/original/file-20180618-85825-1tm1m9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223561/original/file-20180618-85825-1tm1m9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223561/original/file-20180618-85825-1tm1m9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223561/original/file-20180618-85825-1tm1m9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223561/original/file-20180618-85825-1tm1m9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223561/original/file-20180618-85825-1tm1m9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">F*ck the red hand, cross the street. Or so says this stencil, anyway.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/9277224959/">Eric Fischer/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It can take other more trivial shapes too. In 1991, I spent a year in Eastern Germany, working on a farm to improve my German. I lived in a tiny little village and the nearest city was Brandenburg, where I would go only once a week, by train.</p>
<p>At 9.30 pm I would be waiting for the train by a sign post. At night, there was absolutely no traffic and you could see the empty road for miles. Yet the Germans would wait for seven minutes – the time it took for the sign to go green – before crossing. If I crossed before, they would scold me.</p>
<p>So I invented the <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/2012/12/anarchist-calisthenics/">Scott Law of Anarchist Calisthenics</a>, a special street work out. One day in your life you might break a big law, so you should work on it, exercising throughout your life and breaking small laws every three to four days so as to prepare.</p>
<p>Jokes aside, one should not easily break laws, not all are trivial, but law that solidify and concentrate structures of power and property, and control are in many sense illegitimate, and those should be broken.</p>
<h2>New media and hidden transcript</h2>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> Various actors rely on new media – such as social media – and forms of communication to appeal to a public larger than those directly concerned by the protests. According to American scholar Anne Cronin in her book <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319726366"><em>Public Relations Capitalism</em></a> (2018), we are witnessing the emergence of commercial democracy in which public relations, promotional culture and the media play a new, central role.</p>
<p>“Giving voice to the voiceless” becomes one of the leader’s promotional slogans, an element of their legitimising cosmogony. Even protest movements tend to invest in forms of <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/marketing-rebellion-insurgents-media-and-international-activism?format=HB&isbn=9780521845700">“marketing of rebellion”</a>. Do you consider that this process should bring us to reconsider the distinction between public and hidden transcript, to redefine the logics of what you call in <em>Weapons of the Weak</em> “the politics of reputation”?</p>
<p><strong>J.S.:</strong> What social media do is accelerating the speed, volume of circulation and rumours and gossip. Those are only successful to the degree they answer to our fears and desires, standards, darkest nightmares and expectations. Such rumours need to answer desires that appeal to the population. But the real question is, are those standards corrupted by social media themselves over the long term?</p>
<p>For example, someone who wants to be a leader needs to adapt his discourse to meet those standards. Look at <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/index-sermon-topics">Martin Luther King’s sermons</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Fs8vSsJg-A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Martin Luther King Jr., ‘Loving your enemies’ speech, 1957, Alabama.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>You can observe a certain pattern in his ethics, discourse, themes used, but, over the course of seven to nine years, those changed slightly. Themes that did not have a resonance among his audience were dropped out of his sermons to give space to those that would meet his audience’s expectations.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Having the perfect pitch for the music, having a resonance with the audience, this is how the voiceless work.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a way, we could say that on the long run, the people that went to Martin Luther’s King’s church wrote his sermons for him.</p>
<p>Having the perfect pitch for the music, having a resonance with the audience: this is, according to me, how the voiceless work, and how charisma truly works.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CxYcDzar-IM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An interview with James C. Scott, Benjamin Ferron (UPEC) and Clea Chakraverty (The Conversation)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And having an audience that shapes the message from above as much as people from above shape the values below.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> You chose historical examples to illustrate your arguments, but what about more contemporary examples? For instance, what about the dark web, can we consider it as an infrapolitical medium?</p>
<p><strong>J.S.:</strong> Is it infrapolitics? No. But it is interesting and we should think about it. In the dark web no one has to take responsibility, the messenger is anonymous, as in many infrapolitics contexts but also as in poison-pen messengers’ tactics.</p>
<p>Here the question arises: to what extent are these act collective acts on the behalf of a powerless group? Or are they simply acts of unhappy and angry individuals? Such acts are only interesting to me when they form a social action on the behalf of a substantial group of one kind or another.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-dark-web-46070">Explainer: what is the dark web?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> Recently a young French woman has been criticised for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/28/union-leader-maryam-pougetoux-france-hijab">wearing an Islamic headscarf while being a student union leader</a>. How do you interpret these reactions and more generally, do you think wearing an islamic headscarf could be considered as “infrapolitics”?</p>
<p><strong>J.S.:</strong> As a social scientist I am not interested by the fact that she is wearing a headscarf. But I would be interested to know if it’s a public demonstration of her piety or if it is rather about what she considers to be the rights of Muslim woman to wear a scarf. That is why we need to focus on the social understanding of an individual act.</p>
<p>In this particular case, we should analyse how this it is understood by the community; both the Muslim community as an act of protest or by non-Muslims as an act of provocation. But this is sheer public politics, not infrapolitics: it is for us to figure out how this is understood by various publics as a political act. In this regard, when someone wears a scarf for whatever reasons, if the world says it is a protest, it becomes a protest.</p>
<h2>Beyond the state</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223587/original/file-20180618-85830-1h88yy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223587/original/file-20180618-85830-1h88yy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223587/original/file-20180618-85830-1h88yy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223587/original/file-20180618-85830-1h88yy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223587/original/file-20180618-85830-1h88yy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223587/original/file-20180618-85830-1h88yy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223587/original/file-20180618-85830-1h88yy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View on the Yamne river, Arunachal Pradesh, North-East India, a region that Scott defines as part of the Zomia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://cleaswords.wordpress.com/category/recherches-ethnographiques/#jp-carousel-110">Clea Chakraverty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Q</strong>: You have been writing about the region, Asia and South East Asia for a while and now you are shifting your work toward Burma. Can you tell us more about it?</p>
<p><strong>J.S.:</strong> I am now working on the Irrawady River. Rivers tell us what <em>Homo sapiens</em> and States do to natural phenomena in the world. Engineering and damming show how humans work, violate Nature’s traffic or migrating birds and how humans shape lands too.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20121003-burmas-river-of-spirits">Irrawady River is the super highway of the Burmese culture</a>. You can go up and down for kilometres and still find the same culture. But if you go 20 miles into the hills, it is a complete different culture.</p>
<p>Cultures are cemented by water, as Fernand Braudel showed with <a href="https://editions.flammarion.com/Catalogue/champs-histoire/la-mediterranee">his work on the Mediterranean</a>. Waters vehicle integration, it shape knowledge of one another. In 1800 before the steamship, it was faster to go from London to South Africa than by stagecoach from London to Edinburg, so people travelled by sea.</p>
<p>Maps deceive us and that’s why water joints are crucial. Ancient states are always built close to rivers, coasts or floodplains which allows agriculture (terrace farming for instance) and independence from other systems.</p>
<p><strong>Q</strong>: Speaking of water, how would you look at groups trying to escape the contemporary State system, such as pirates, something you discuss in <a href="https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/lessai-et-la-revue-du-jour-14-15/zomia-ou-lart-de-ne-pas-etre-gouverne-revue-socio"><em>Zomia</em></a>, the book you wrote about hill people escaping State throughout the Southeast Asia and Himalayas?</p>
<p><strong>J.S.:</strong> If I had another life I would work on the wet Zomia! Swamps, marshlands and mangrove coasts are places where people flee and hide all the time.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223565/original/file-20180618-85845-198bm7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223565/original/file-20180618-85845-198bm7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223565/original/file-20180618-85845-198bm7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223565/original/file-20180618-85845-198bm7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223565/original/file-20180618-85845-198bm7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223565/original/file-20180618-85845-198bm7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223565/original/file-20180618-85845-198bm7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223565/original/file-20180618-85845-198bm7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Painting by David Edward Cronin depicting escaped African-American slaves who created settlements in the Great Dismal Swamp in pre–Civil War Virginia (1888).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Dismal_Swamp_maroons#/media/File:Great_Dismal_Swamp-Fugitive_Slaves.jpg">David Edward Cronin/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Let’s look at the <a href="http://upf.com/book.asp?id=SAYER001%20?">Great Dismal Swamp maroons</a> at the border of West Carolina and north Virginia in the United States. At the beginning of the civil war they were 7,000 escaped slaves living in the swamps. Many were born there without ever having seen a white man. Some could not get to Canada so they went to the swamp as no one could find them there. Swamps had a lot to offer: hunting and gathering as well as corn culture.</p>
<p>In Malaysian waters we see similar patterns. The <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/seafaring-orang-laut-strive-to-stay-afloat">Orang Laut</a>, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_gGswM-p8">sea gypsies</a> have been running away from the State thanks to their boats. From time to time they worked as navy mercenaries or “corsairs”, selling their services to the Malay sultans but they were free from the Nation State. They also travelled and lived in a way that was near to impossible to track.</p>
<p>Oceans – like the hills – are open spaces that make it difficult for States to conscript population, tax them or limit their freedom.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223579/original/file-20180618-85834-1i6ri4p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223579/original/file-20180618-85834-1i6ri4p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223579/original/file-20180618-85834-1i6ri4p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223579/original/file-20180618-85834-1i6ri4p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223579/original/file-20180618-85834-1i6ri4p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223579/original/file-20180618-85834-1i6ri4p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223579/original/file-20180618-85834-1i6ri4p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Students and faculty from the Master’s degree “Political and public communication in France and Europe” invited Professor Scott on May 22. His speech echoed the June 21-22 conference <a href="https://sansvoix.sciencesconf.org/">“Giving Voice to the Voiceless? Actors, strategies and discourses”</a> organised by the Centre for the Study of Speeches, Images, Texts, Writings, Communication (Céditec), Faculté des Lettres, Langues et Sciences humaines. Clea Chakraverty contributed to the interview.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
In an exclusive interview, Professor James Scott discusses anarchism and State resistance by so-called “powerless” actors. Excerpts for The Conversation France.
Benjamin Ferron, Maître de conférences en sciences de l'information et de la communication, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (UPEC)
Claire Oger, Professeure en sciences de l’information et de la communication, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (UPEC)
James C. Scott, Anthropologist, Sterling Prof Political Science; Acting Dir Agrarian Studies, Yale University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/90775
2018-02-22T09:37:35Z
2018-02-22T09:37:35Z
What might an anarchist language look like? I created one, inspired by Ursula le Guin
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207288/original/file-20180221-132674-1f0yj3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/silhouettes-two-lovers-people-277403636">DaGaAl/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The many articles written in memory of <a href="https://theconversation.com/ursula-k-le-guins-strong-female-voice-challenged-the-norms-of-a-male-dominated-genre-90636">Ursula le Guin</a>, who left this world on her final voyage last month, are testament to the great power of her storytelling. Le Guin’s tales give us insights into different ways of being human, from the deceptively mundane (the Orsinian Tales) through the remote but plausible (the Hainish Cycle of science fiction novels), and into the enchantingly fantastic (the Earthsea stories). Her stories help us to understand others and ourselves. They demonstrate the great power that language has in creating imagined worlds.</p>
<p>This is perhaps most obvious in her 1974 award-winning novel, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/mar/29/hugo-award-ursula-le-guin">The Dispossessed</a>. The book has been in press since 1974, and has been translated into at least 30 languages. The novel tells the story of a scientist, Shevek, and his battle against the bureaucracies of two planets to ensure his invention will benefit all humans. The invention is an instantaneous communication device which overcomes the limitation of light speed communication; but the device is just an artefact of the narrative. The real story is about people, their cultures, and how they build these – through language.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206934/original/file-20180219-75990-138zkbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206934/original/file-20180219-75990-138zkbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206934/original/file-20180219-75990-138zkbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206934/original/file-20180219-75990-138zkbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206934/original/file-20180219-75990-138zkbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206934/original/file-20180219-75990-138zkbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1165&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206934/original/file-20180219-75990-138zkbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1165&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/206934/original/file-20180219-75990-138zkbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1165&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
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<p>The Dispossessed is set on two human worlds: the planet Urras, which resembles 1970s Earth; and Anarres, the moon of Urras, home to a unified anarchist collective. Anarres was settled from Urras by people seeking a better, fairer life, and the resulting collective has been largely isolated from Urran cultures for about 150 years. </p>
<p>Anarres is a planet without property, laws or money; but it does have an advisory bureaucracy and some shared conventions, one of which is the language Pravic. This language was devised by the first settlers, to make the everyday casual ownership which pervades human languages almost impossible to articulate.</p>
<p>Anarres is, of course, a utopia; so it slotted well into <a href="https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/utopia-2016">Utopia 2016</a>, an exhibition at Somerset House for the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s <a href="http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126618.html">Utopia</a>. The event showcased a series of utopian visions presented by a range of artists. Two of these artists, Onkar Kular and Noam Toran, proposed that the utopia of Anarres could be presented as a teaching space which they called <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/Cultural/Cultural-Institute/Utopia2016/Commissions/Night-School.aspx">Night School on Anarres</a>. The teaching space was designed to showcase the planet and its culture, offering the people of Earth a window into a working anarchistic society.</p>
<p>But the night school was also intended to offer realistic lessons in Pravic, so the project needed a realistic language to teach. This was not going to be easy. Le Guin had described some key features of the language in her book but, apart from a few names, she provided no close detail of how the language worked.</p>
<p>This is where I came in. I teach a module on the BA English Language and Linguistics course at King’s College London in which the students design and describe their own constructed language, or “conlang”. The module is an opportunity for students to show their knowledge of how language works (or could work) in the abstract, but it also gives them a chance to be creative in their reasoning.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/173030104" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Kular and Toran asked me to generate a version of <a href="http://martinedwardes.webplus.net/pravic/">Pravic</a> for the project. It had to be as close as possible to the language described in the book; it had to be easy enough to teach the basics in one hour; and it had to feel like a real human language.</p>
<p>The final design incorporated almost everything le Guin stipulated about Pravic in the book. The designed language makes it difficult to assert ownership: possessive pronouns (“my”, “your”, “their”, etc.) are out, but simple words like “have” and “give” must also be excised. </p>
<p>Expression of self also has to be restricted: people would not “do” things (this creates ownership of the action), things “are done” by people. Consequently, the whole language is expressed in the passive voice. </p>
<p>Another device to reduce selfhood was taken from Malay: the pronouns “I” and “you” were replaced by noun phrases expressing roles, with default roles being “a speaker” and “the listener(s)”. A version of this was used by the <a href="http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Faceless_Men">Faceless Men</a> in <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/game-of-thrones-6730">Game of Thrones</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207251/original/file-20180221-132663-qwdvz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207251/original/file-20180221-132663-qwdvz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207251/original/file-20180221-132663-qwdvz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207251/original/file-20180221-132663-qwdvz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207251/original/file-20180221-132663-qwdvz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207251/original/file-20180221-132663-qwdvz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207251/original/file-20180221-132663-qwdvz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teaching Pravlish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Onkar Kular</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the end, though, an anglicised version of Pravic, Pravlish, was used for the lessons. After being shown a video travelogue and introduced to some simple Pravic conventions (no pronouns, no ownership, the actor in an action is given last, and “People don’t do things, things happen to people”), the students were asked to translate some difficult sentences into Pravlish – for instance, Julius Caesar’s “I came, I saw, I conquered” and Louis XIV’s “It is legal because I wish it”. The solutions offered were ingenious and entertaining.</p>
<p>In The Dispossessed, Ursula le Guin gave us an honest look at how anarchism might work in a real world with real human beings. I like to think that the Night School project did the same for a new audience. Linguistically, the project showed that language is not just a coding tool we use to give and get meaning; rather, it has an active role in producing these meanings. And so the conventions we build into our language affect what meanings are possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Edwardes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ursula le Guin gave us an anarchist society on another world; we brought it back to Earth.
Martin Edwardes, Visiting Lecturer, Language and Linguistics, King's College London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/82416
2017-08-31T00:07:06Z
2017-08-31T00:07:06Z
Massachusetts executed two Italian immigrants 90 years ago: Why the global fallout still matters
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183834/original/file-20170829-6715-o9z06n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C599%2C329&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bartolomeo Vanzetti (left), handcuffed to Nicola Sacco, 1923.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Boston Public Library</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ninety years ago, on Aug. 23, 1927, two Italian immigrants were executed.</p>
<p>The deaths of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the Charlestown Prison in Massachusetts marked the end of a raucous seven-year legal and political battle that captivated people across the United States and the world.</p>
<p>According to many who lived through it, no other event since the outbreak of the Civil War had so starkly divided American opinion. Writer <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/868362521">Edmund Wilson believed</a> that it “revealed the whole anatomy of American life, with all its classes, professions, and points of view, and raised every fundamental question of our political and social system.” And arguably, no other event until the Vietnam War evoked as much anti-American sentiment on the global stage.</p>
<p>I wrote <a href="http://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300177855/sacco-vanzetti-affair">a book</a> about how and why the case of Sacco and Vanzetti evolved from an obscure local criminal trial to a national and international scandal. I refer to it in the book as the transition from a “case” to an “affair.” </p>
<p>What can it tell us about our politics today?</p>
<h2>The most famous prisoners in the world</h2>
<p>At first, Sacco and Vanzetti were two anonymous immigrants on trial for an act of banditry. Sacco was a skilled shoe factory worker and family man with two small children. Vanzetti was a fish monger. But local authorities charged them of being part of a stickup gang that on April 15, 1920 shot and killed a factory paymaster and his guard in Braintree, Massachusetts, stealing approximately US$15,700. One reporter sent to cover their trial wrote to his editor, using a derogatory term for Italians, that there was “no story…just a couple of wops in a jam.” </p>
<p>But fairly soon, it emerged that the two men were not anyone’s idea of typical bandits. Rather, they were active in Italian anarchist circles who believed that capitalism and states were oppressive and should be overthrown by revolution – and, if necessary, a violent one. At the time, most Americans lived in horror of anarchists and other “reds,” as left-wing radicals of all sorts were known, and anti-immigration sentiment (especially against Italians) was at its peak. Not surprisingly, their trial took on a decidedly political character.</p>
<p>The evidence against them was mostly circumstantial, relying heavily on what the authorities called “consciousness of guilt.” The prosecution made their political radicalism an issue, as if that helped prove them guilty of robbery and murder. And, given that opening, the defendants were not shy about expressing their radical ideas in court, which did not help them with the jury. Many people who came to Sacco and Vanzetti’s defense argued that they were innocent men being railroaded not for anything they did, but for who they were and what they believed in.</p>
<p>Sacco and Vanzetti forcefully protested their innocence from the moment they were arrested until the minute they were electrocuted. They gradually convinced large numbers of people. As their case dragged on, they gained the advocacy and support of public figures, legal experts, intellectuals, political leaders and ordinary people. Their supporters included law professor Felix Frankfurter, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, car magnate Henry Ford, British author H.G. Wells and even Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.</p>
<p>The judge in their case, Webster Thayer, was openly biased against them. Among other things, he had originally lobbied to be assigned the case to make sure that Sacco and Vanzetti “got what they deserved.” During the trial, Thayer braggingly asked a member of his social club if he had seen “what I did to those anarchistic bastards the other day?” </p>
<p>After Thayer sentenced them to death in April 1927 – but not before the pair made stirring speeches in the courtroom proclaiming their innocence – the case created a genuine diplomatic crisis for the United States. Heads of state in Europe and elsewhere appealed to U.S. President Calvin Coolidge and Massachusetts Gov. Alvan Fuller to try to prevent the executions – in vain. Governments in Argentina, France, Britain, Brazil and elsewhere were forced to deal with <a href="http://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/570205?imagelist=1">angry demonstrations</a>, major riots and attacks on American travelers, companies and embassies. </p>
<p>Why did Sacco and Vanzetti become, as the <a href="http://www.ocnus.net/artman2/publish/Research_11/In-Dedham-Jail-A-Visit-With-Sacco-and-Vanzetti-June-22-1927.shtml">New Republic</a> magazine put it, “the two most famous prisoners in the world”? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184040/original/file-20170830-24267-1ms4vfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184040/original/file-20170830-24267-1ms4vfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184040/original/file-20170830-24267-1ms4vfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184040/original/file-20170830-24267-1ms4vfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184040/original/file-20170830-24267-1ms4vfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184040/original/file-20170830-24267-1ms4vfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184040/original/file-20170830-24267-1ms4vfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators in London protest the conviction of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, 1921.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Save_Sacco_and_Vanzetti.jpg">Public domain</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was partly because of the global and geopolitical context. In the wake of World War I, the United States became a global power for the first time. At the same time, Western European nations suffered crisis and decline, and became indebted to American banks and <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301356/the-deluge-by-adam-tooze/9780143127970/">reliant on American power</a>. In that decade, the United States also <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674030749">closed its doors</a> to immigrants who most desperately needed to migrate, especially those from poverty-stricken areas like Southern and Eastern Europe, as well as Mexico.</p>
<p>There have been many debates over the years over whether Sacco and Vanzetti were indeed guilty of the crime for which they were punished. Numerous authors have forcefully argued both sides. But this debate, which is impossible to resolve decades after the fact, misses the point of why Sacco and Vanzetti attained, after their deaths, totemic status. </p>
<p>As I describe in my book, Sacco and Vanzetti came to be seen as symbols of an America that had turned its back on foreigners, abandoned its principles of justice, and failed to pay heed to what Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, called “a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.” Their trial was so flawed, the politicization of their case so egregious, the executions so horrifying, that it was a travesty of justice irrespective of guilt or innocence.</p>
<h2>From Sacco-Vanzetti to the Trump era</h2>
<p>Ninety years after the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti, the affair presents us with many connections to the present. For many people in 1927 and after, the two men were victims of a deep-seated fear of immigrants. For others, they were criminals and terrorists who benefited from a worldwide campaign led by people who despised America and its institutions.</p>
<p>Today, the United States is engaged in a bitter struggle between these same two views, with the xenophobic forces currently in political power, especially in the White House. </p>
<p>But it is important to keep in mind that today’s America would be socially, culturally and demographically unrecognizable to Americans in 1927. The United States is a much more multicultural and diverse society nowadays than it was when Sacco and Vanzetti were alive. And it will become even more so. </p>
<p>At the same time, recent events have made life in America frightening for immigrants and minorities. The factors in American society that brought about the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti never completely went away. In the current, toxic political environment, those who care about equality and justice must remain vigilant.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82416/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Moshik Temkin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
At a time when anti-immigrant sentiment was widespread, the Sacco and Vanzetti trial starkly divided American opinion and stirred up a violent backlash around the world.
Moshik Temkin, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/78362
2017-05-25T14:46:36Z
2017-05-25T14:46:36Z
Terrorism in Britain: a brief history
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/manchester-attack-a-sophisticated-operation-that-increases-pressure-on-security-services-78206">The attack on Manchester</a> Arena is the deadliest on British soil since the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33253598">July 7 bombings</a> of 2005, in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people in central London. </p>
<p>It is also the latest event in a long history of terrorism in Britain. And it is a history that transcends the narrow political and religious dimensions often associated with it today.</p>
<p>It is almost impossible to pinpoint the very first act of terrorism carried out within British territory. The most famous incident in early modern history is probably the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/11209784/9-things-you-never-knew-about-Guy-Fawkes.html">gunpowder plot of 1605</a> when Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the House of Lords. And although he is the best remembered (on November 5), Fawkes did not act alone. He was part of a larger network of 13 conspirators who sought to destroy parliament and trigger a popular uprising.</p>
<p>In the second half of the 19th century, European anarchism introduced the idea of “<a href="http://example.com/">propaganda by deed</a>” as a tactic of anti-government resistance. This consisted of the assassination of government officials and bomb attacks in public places such as cafes and theatres. </p>
<p>Although anarchist attacks were actually more common in continental Europe, England was an important hub for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/25/radical-history-britain-edward-vallance">anarchist thought</a>. The less restrictive laws of the United Kingdom made it a haven for radicals fleeing political repression in their own countries. </p>
<p>In the same period, the heavy death toll of the Great Famine in Ireland from 1846 to 1852 prompted calls for Irish home rule and resulted in the formation of networks of radical revolutionaries, <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/modern-europe/british-and-irish-history/fenian-movement">the Fenians</a>. </p>
<p>Although the largest Fenian campaigns were waged in Canada and in Ireland itself, attacks within England included the bombing of Clerkenwell Prison in London in 1867, in which 12 people were killed and more than 100 injured. The result was a severe backlash by British authorities and the public, which undermined the <a href="http://www.ippr.org/juncture/commemorating-the-rising-history-democracy-and-violence-in-ireland">political reforms</a> that would have made future attacks less likely.</p>
<p>In 1909, the Indian revolutionary <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/madan-lal-dhingra">Madan Lal Dhingra</a> assassinated a British official on the steps of the Imperial Institute in London. This followed a number of assassinations and bombings in India, as militant networks of anti-colonial radicals attempted to destabilise British imperial rule by initiating a “reign of terror”. </p>
<p>Dhingra was apprehended and executed, but his brazen attack in the middle of London provoked panic within metropolitan Britain. It also resulted in increasingly intrusive surveillance of Indian students in London. This in turn fuelled the fire of Indian nationalism, most famously manifested in Gandhi’s non-violent independence movement.</p>
<h2>A nation scarred</h2>
<p>More recently, the IRA conducted a sustained insurgency against the British government from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. The bulk of the violence took place within the political and religious tensions of Northern Ireland. Belfast looked like a war zone, with hundreds of lethal attacks carried out by both the IRA and pro-British groups. The IRA also carried out acts of terror in England, including a truck bombing in <a href="http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-ira-bomb-20-years-11425324">Manchester in June 1996</a> that injured 220 people and caused some £700m of damage.</p>
<p>Terrorism, by definition, seeks to spread terror. It might be tempting to consider the early 21st century as a period of unparalleled and incomprehensible acts of senseless violence. But it is not. Sadly these kinds of acts are not new. </p>
<p>This does not mean we should resign ourselves to living in perpetual dread as we await the next attack, whether it’s in Britain, France, Russia, Australia, Egypt or America. Nor that we should exacerbate the situation by lashing out against those who may make easy targets for retaliatory anger. But as we try to process the grief and rage that are natural reactions to the attack in Manchester, reflecting on the lessons of the past may be the surest route towards building a more peaceful future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78362/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph McQuade receives funding from the Gates Cambridge Trust. </span></em></p>
The deliberate spread of fear and violence goes back hundreds of years.
Joseph McQuade, PhD Candidate and Gates Scholar, University of Cambridge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/68452
2016-11-10T09:32:49Z
2016-11-10T09:32:49Z
Anarchy in the USA: five years on, the legacy of Occupy Wall Street and what it can teach us in the Age of Trump
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145053/original/image-20161108-16707-1hc7by8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Police officers try to clear people participating in the Occupy Wall Street protest, New York City, 2011.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.epa.eu/politics-photos/citizens-initiative-photos/occupy-wall-street-march-in-new-york-photos-50077586">EPA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was a turning point in the story of a new kind of democracy – and how the state tried to snuff it out. In a coordinated show of force, state and federal authorities evicted <a href="http://occupywallst.org">Occupy Wall Street</a> (OWS) and a number of similar camps across the US. It was November 15, 2011 – and five years on, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jun/17/where-occupy-protesters-now-social-media">legacy of Occupy</a> has some important lessons for us. </p>
<p>Occupy’s “<a href="http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/page/231">we are the 99%</a>” meme successfully placed debates about class inequality at the centre of political debate. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/17/occupy-wall-street-protesters-bernie-sanders">enthusiasm generated by Bernie Sanders</a> in the US presidential primaries this year can be explained by this renewed political consciousness and the confidence of <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2016/02/bernies-success-is-less-surprising-once-you-remember-occupy-wall-street/">young Americans in particular</a>. Hillary Clinton’s failure to win over this constituency partly explains her failure to defeat Donald Trump. </p>
<p>In the inevitable soul-searching to come, we need to think carefully about the nature of our political institutions and constitutions – and how they can serve all, not just the few, the powerful. In this respect, Occupy offers us a positive alternative to the status quo – a way of building bridges between diverse groups and empowering all. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011112872835904508.html">anarchists of Occupy</a> created another way to <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199585007.001.0001/acprof-9780199585007-chapter-3">constitutionalise</a> – that is how to constitute ourselves as a political community – involving the people in all elements of decision making and identifying and combating domination in all its forms. This may strike you as ridiculous, but our research suggests that constitutionalising in this way is routine in anarchist groups such as Occupy, and has much to teach us all, especially in the new Age of Trump. </p>
<h2>A new anarchism</h2>
<p>Occupy put anarchism back on the political map. The anarchists of Occupy taught us that organisations can be structured differently and showed us that political movements don’t have to crystallise around political parties, businesses or even NGOs. Indeed, self-organisation stands as an important example of how anarchist ideas of <a href="https://theconversation.com/whither-anarchy-freedom-as-non-domination-60776">non-domination</a> and participatory democracy can also be <a href="https://theconversation.com/icelands-crowd-sourced-constitution-hope-for-disillusioned-voters-everywhere-67803">constitutionalised</a>. It is possible to identify five broad aspects of constitutionalising in Occupy. </p>
<p><strong>Declarations and preambles:</strong> The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City was one of the first things to emerge from OWS. Much like the Preamble to the US Constitution, it invokes “<a href="http://occupywallstreet.net/policy/declaration-occupation-new-york-city">one people, united</a>” to bring the camp into existence. Occupy’s Declaration expressed commonly shared values, “constituting” the occupation as a group, the 99%, which included all those dominated by the unaccountable 1%. </p>
<p><strong>Decision making:</strong> Occupy camps subsequently constituted themselves through participatory decision-making procedures. A General Assembly (GA) became the central decision-making body of each Occupy camp and decisions were made by consensus, by all. This is tricky because it gives everyone a veto or block, but it is designed to ensure that no one can be arbitrarily ignored or overruled. It can be, and was, modified to allow voting and to avoid one or a few individuals blocking a popular decision. Such modified consensus still demanded a high threshold – a 90% majority. </p>
<p>Occupy’s decision-making practices were as constitutive as the decisions Occupiers made, if not more so. The popular slogan, often repeated, was: “This is what democracy looks like!”</p>
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<p><strong>Institutions:</strong> Understood as rules, norms and decision-making procedures, institutions are truly plural. Likewise, the Occupy camps had numerous relatively embedded institutions. <a href="http://www.nycga.net/resources/general-assembly-guide/">General Assemblies</a> were explicitly declared sovereign. Decisions affecting everyone were taken here, giving everyone a chance to have their say in the rules that shaped their involvement in the camp.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/news/occupy-wall-street-debuts-the-new-spokes-council-6666585">Spokes Council</a> was also established to work alongside each General Assembly. The name “Spokes Council” is significant: the design is like a bicycle wheel. Delegates come together from groups at the periphery to meet at the centre. This was introduced to bring together delegates from working groups (kitchen, cleaning, media outreach, welfare and so on) as well as caucuses (for those marginalised along racial or gendered lines, for example). </p>
<p>The Spokes Council served as a constitutional check and balance on the General Assemblies, importantly limiting the scope of decision making to logistical issues by delegates of active groups and restricting the powers of tourists and visitors to the camps who attended the General Assemblies. </p>
<p><strong>Rules and procedures:</strong> Camp rules and processes were complex, sometimes explicit, sometimes not. Because camps were constituted by people committed to horizontalism and against hierarchy, rules were shaped by distinctive ethics, revised and supplemented to address failures of norms and to be inclusive, transparent and accountable. The corruption and injustices of representative systems – the lack of transparency in parliamentary processes, corporate greed and bankers’ bonuses, for example – were at the forefront of everyone’s minds. </p>
<p>When, in the course of the occupations, it became clear that types of domination remained, camps introduced new rules. Safer spaces policies were introduced to counter dominating patriarchal attitudes and actions. Camps also used “tranquillity” teams to resolve conflicts through reconciliation and de-escalation, using the camps’ rules and procedures.</p>
<p><strong>Addressing power imbalances:</strong> Constitutions, which follow the model established after the American and French revolutions, routinely seek to balance powers within societies, notably between the people and the government, and between the capital and labour. This means that power imbalances have to be identified first. Occupy camps constitutionalised in the same way and entered into a processes of self-critical reflection to address concealed or invisible forms of domination.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://occupyoakland.org">Occupy Oakland</a>, for example, participants recognised that the language of occupation itself raised fundamental questions about ownership, property and sovereignty: who were the occupiers? In the North American context, “Occupy” itself begged questions about white settlement, colonisation and systemic racism. Occupiers checked their own privilege and responded by calling for the decolonisation of camps.</p>
<h2>Non-domination as a constitutional principle</h2>
<p>These five aspects of constitutionalising, typical to both anarchist and non-anarchist practices, exist in dynamic relation with one another. In other words, if one element of the constitutionalising process is fixed, it will inevitably clash with the others. Likewise changes in one area affect another. The amount of state force it takes modern society to fix them all is staggering: the coordinated eviction of the Occupy Wall Street camps and the criminalisation of dissent, the incarceration of millions for minor misdemeanours, and so on. The unique feature of anarchist constitutionalising, and what we find in Occupy, is the degree to which they were participatory and voluntary, rather than imposed from above.</p>
<p>What we also learn from Occupy is how non-domination, a constitutional principle central to contemporary political theory and anarchist practice, can operate outside the currently established systems of government. In Occupy, constitutionalising accomplishes what mainstream political and constitutional theory expects, but goes further. </p>
<p>Occupiers saw no virtue in relying on the existing institutions to provide for non-domination. If non-domination is our pole star, Occupy Wall Street shows us that radical alternatives to the status quo exist, work, and can broaden our horizons in the Age of Trump.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Kinna receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council for a project seeking to understand the specificity of anarchist consttitutionalising. <a href="http://www.anarchyrules.info">www.anarchyrules.info</a></span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Prichard receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council for a project seeking to understand the specificity of anarchist consttitutionalising. <a href="http://www.anarchyrules.info">www.anarchyrules.info</a></span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Swann receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council for a project seeking to understand the specificity of anarchist consttitutionalising. <a href="http://www.anarchyrules.info">www.anarchyrules.info</a></span></em></p>
In this new political era, how a popular movement offers a route to a new form of governance
Ruth Kinna, Professor of Political Theory, Loughborough University
Alex Prichard, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Exeter
Thomas Swann, Research associate, Loughborough University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/67879
2016-10-28T15:34:53Z
2016-10-28T15:34:53Z
Iceland’s Pirate Party: what is it – and how did it become so popular?
<p>Iceland’s Pirate Party started life as a minor political movement inspired by its Swedish and German counterparts. Now it is a credible force. From marginal political interests, it has grown to produce positions on the most important issues of the day and cooperate with like-minded prominent movements across Europe, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/podemos-13452">Podemos</a> in Spain and the Italian <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-brexit-keep-a-close-watch-on-italy-and-its-five-star-movement-61589">Five Star Movement</a>. </p>
<p>So what explains its popularity? How has it hit the big time while similar parties have remained on the fringes of national politics? Is Iceland a special case or are we looking at the future of European democracy? </p>
<p>The Icelandic Pirate Party is particularly popular among voters <a href="http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2016/10/19/iceland_s_pirates_a_generational_thing/">under 40</a> and has been polling consistently well since 2015. It reached a peak in April 2016 with 43% of voting intentions.</p>
<p>The timing is significant. People in Iceland are clear that they want change after eight years of political and socio-economic turmoil.</p>
<h2>Life after the crash</h2>
<p>Iceland faced a deep financial and economic crisis in October 2008. This triggered a peaceful revolution – Icelanders took to the streets and elected the <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2012/07/10/iceland-eu-accession/">first left-wing government</a> in the country’s history. New protest and reformist movements emerged, with the now defunct Citizen’s Movement entering parliament.</p>
<p>The left-wing government, consisting of the (then prominent) Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green movement failed to meet expectations. It was <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/04/30/iceland-election-eu/">voted out in the 2013 parliamentary elections</a> when a traditional conservative coalition government (consisting of the Progressive Party and the Independence Party) was elected. At the same time, the one-year old Pirate Party entered parliament with three seats.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143673/original/image-20161028-15807-6prps3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143673/original/image-20161028-15807-6prps3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143673/original/image-20161028-15807-6prps3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143673/original/image-20161028-15807-6prps3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143673/original/image-20161028-15807-6prps3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143673/original/image-20161028-15807-6prps3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143673/original/image-20161028-15807-6prps3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Pirates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thespeakernews/23939830784">Day Donaldson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this government took a series of extremely unpopular decisions. It discontinued accession talks with the European Union without calling for a referendum and halted the process of <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/thorvaldur-gylfason/democracy-on-ice-post-mortem-of-icelandic-constitution">constitutional reform</a>.</p>
<p>The final straw came when the Progressive Party’s prime minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, was caught up in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-pirates-on-the-horizon-icelands-government-may-not-survive-the-panama-papers-57236">Panama Papers</a> scandal. This led to a week-long protest in which tens of thousands of Icelanders called for his resignation. </p>
<p>During their three years in parliament the Pirate Party has gained influence and diversified its political agenda. It started off focusing on constitutional and direct democracy, which are two core themes of pirate politics as an ideology.</p>
<p>As the public lost faith in the policies of the right-wing government between 2013 and 2015, the three Pirate MPs gained considerably more influence in parliament. They were soon able to establish themselves as a viable, alternative political force.</p>
<p>Now, the party has policies on reviving the constitutional reforms – centering on moves to introduce a <a href="https://theconversation.com/icelands-crowd-sourced-constitution-hope-for-disillusioned-voters-everywhere-67803">crowd-sourced constitution</a> and improve direct democracy – tackling socio-economic inequality and improving healthcare. A referendum on re-activating accession talks with the European Union is also on the table, though the party does not have an official position on whether Iceland should join the EU.</p>
<p>Overall, the Pirates are committed to horizontalism and want to switch the balance of power from the executive to the legislative, bringing citizens back to the centre of Icelandic politics.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"716751158937686018"}"></div></p>
<p>It has been ten years since IT entrepreneur Rick Falkvinge founded the first Pirate Party in Sweden. Now there are equivalents in 62 countries. The Icelandic version was not the first movement of its kind to gain seats in a prominent election. The Swedish Pirate Party gained two seats in the 2009 European elections, while the German Pirate Party is represented in three State parliaments (North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein) and gained one seat in the European Parliament in 2014.</p>
<p>But the changing Icelandic political landscape has proved particularly fertile for this kind of operation. In fact, the Pirate Party’s current popularity is mostly the result of the financial and economic crash of 2008. Despite this distressing wake-up call, the well-established political parties failed to deliver any change. They were unable or unwilling to implement the expected socio-economic reforms or regain the trust of the electorate following numerous scandals and broken promises. As a result, a significant proportion of voters looked at alternatives.</p>
<p>That said, one of the main strengths of the Icelandic Pirate Party is its ability to mobilise and its organisational agility. This is obviously facilitated by the fact that Iceland is a relatively small state, where citizens have always played an important role in political arena – certainly compared to other Western democracies.</p>
<p>The Icelandic Pirate Party is already making history. Few could have predicted how big the movement would become. It would be foolhardy to expect all Pirate movements to enjoy the same success as in Iceland, but theyh could learn from its experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67879/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Leruth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The shock of the financial crash has opened the path for grassroots politics.
Benjamin Leruth, Research Associate in Politics and Social Policy, University of Kent
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/65838
2016-10-20T11:20:31Z
2016-10-20T11:20:31Z
Why anarchy (on screen) is so fashionable right now
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142002/original/image-20161017-12443-1ea0m7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nocturama, BFI</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The anarchist movement – in both its past and contemporary incarnations – is back to the cultural fore, and to such an extent that it echoes the surge in anarchist-themed entertainment before 1914.</p>
<p>The BBC has just aired a highly popular new <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07ltxsr">adaptation</a> of Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel The Secret Agent. Then there’s Elie Wajeman’s 2015 film <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/14/cannes-2015-film-the-anarchists-review-tahar-rahim">The Anarchists</a>. And Bertrand Bonello’s controversial <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/09/nocturama-review-bertrand-bonello-paris-terrorism-toronto-film-festival-tiff">Nocturama</a>, just screened at the 2016 London Film Festival. These three works of fiction probe the societal reasons for terrorism and criminality, holding up a mirror to contemporary anxieties. </p>
<p>Given the news events dominating our age, it is hardly surprising that anarchy is so appealing, so fashionable. And a closer look at each of these three examples will demonstrate why.</p>
<h2>The Secret Agent</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07ltxsr">The Secret Agent</a>, Conrad fictionalised a real explosion in Greenwich, London, in 1894. French anarchist Martial Bourdin died in the accidental detonation of a bomb which he was carrying to an unknown destination, possibly Russia.</p>
<p>There are many fascinating parallels between then and now in Conrad’s novel, and these are beautifully brought out by the adaptation. The overarching narrative is one of Russian spies and international police forces at loggerheads. The Greenwich explosion, Conrad imagines, was plotted by the Russian Embassy in an attempt to get Britain to renege on its much-vaunted tolerance of foreign political refugees.</p>
<p>These included hundreds of foreign anarchists at a time when the movement was undergoing a phase of terrorist radicalisation. The fiction reflects back on an era when immigration and asylum were acute public concerns, in conjunction with political extremism. Britain occupied a uniquely liberal position at the time, as the one country among international powers steadfastly upholding a near-absolute right of asylum for foreign revolutionaries – at least until the <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/aliens-act">1905 Aliens Act</a> was passed. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jPu5luHLPgY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But The Secret Agent’s appeal today does not stem from nostalgia towards this liberal openness. Anarchists are depicted as pathetic and ineffective, despite the international “<a href="https://mises.org/library/anarchism-and-terrorism-1890s">black scare</a>” triggered by the wave of anarchist-inspired terror of the 1870s-1920s. </p>
<p>Instead, it offers an insightful and historically accurate depiction of Britain’s extensive use of political surveillance and insistent secrecy on this point. As such, the reasons for its popularity today seem clear. The political emphasis in both the novel and the series is on the diplomatic intrigue of engineering terror – a provocative suggestion that terrorism originates in high politics rather than revolutionary plots, and remains unfathomable to the public eye.</p>
<h2>The Anarchists</h2>
<p>The Anarchists, a film that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/14/cannes-2015-film-the-anarchists-review-tahar-rahim">took Cannes by storm</a> last year, takes a kinder view of anarchists. They are portrayed as romantic revolutionaries rather than threats.</p>
<p>The film is located in 1899 Paris (another anarchist hub at the time), a decade after The Secret Agent but in the same golden age of pre-1914 anarchist activism. It is another tale of police infiltration with disastrous consequences, albeit of the sentimental kind. Young police agent Jean infiltrates a group of illegalist anarchists – proponents of illegal acts as a form of political propaganda – whom he inevitably grows close to, before duty forces him to betray them. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rDLP_rmvovs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>While the recreation of 19th century anarchism is occasionally a little formulaic, the evocation of anarchism as a timeless youthful romantic rebellion is quite convincing, underlined by the use of contemporary music. Wajeman’s anarchists preach personal emancipation and rebellion against capitalist oppression and thankless labour, as well as the bourgeoisie and its moral codes.</p>
<p>This twofold portrayal of anarchism – as a revolt against the brutality of capitalism and a romantic aspiration – was strikingly echoed in 2016 by the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/08/nuit-debout-protesters-occupy-french-cities-in-a-revolutionary-call-for-change"><em>Nuit Debout</em></a>” movement and also resonates with the revival of far-left social movements internationally. In this instance, it may be argued that historical fiction voiced a profound yet incipient dissatisfaction among France’s youth, showing how revolutionary action may act as an outlet for this energy. </p>
<h2>Nocturama</h2>
<p>The same can be said of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/09/nocturama-review-bertrand-bonello-paris-terrorism-toronto-film-festival-tiff">Nocturama</a>, a film with a far darker diagnosis and prognosis. The film centres on a multi-site attack in Paris by a group of youngsters, who then go into hiding for the night in a luxurious department store. (Whether they should be called anarchists is quite problematic, as the protagonists’ motives remain opaque throughout, to both spectators and themselves.)</p>
<p>Their highly symbolical targets – which include the Home Office, a statue of Jeanne d’Arc and the boss of HSBC – hint at anti-establishment, left-leaning terrorism, but the characters only offer smatterings of explanation for the attacks, saying that they should also have destroyed Facebook and France’s employer federation. One character is seen wearing an Anonymous-style mask. The film levels its harshest critique at consumerism, as the characters wander and wallow all night amid the tantalising but meaningless fashion, food, toys and tech of the <em>Samaritaine</em> store. </p>
<p>While The Secret Agent and The Anarchists are period pieces, Nocturama is disturbingly of the moment. It conveys a true sense of impending disaster, backed by its prescient character – written in 2010, it was filmed in 2015, between the January <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/charlie-hebdo-attack-14299">Charlie Hebdo killings</a> and the November <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/paris-attacks-2015-22621">mass attacks</a>. It captures a profound feeling of unease among France’s youth and Western democracies at large, with one character ominously claim that “it had to happen”. Nocturama is naturally the most disturbing, because it is so aesthetically seductive and presents us with a society doomed to self-destruction without the retrospective distance afforded by historical drama. </p>
<p>In different ways, all three fictions show how anarchism and terrorism remain bywords for civilisational malaise, signs of a very fin de siècle feeling that we are standing on the brink of disaster. They continue a long tradition of fictionalising anarchism to refract a state of profound anxiety over international politics, terrorism, migration, left-wing activism and their root causes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Constance Bantman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Anarchists old and new are populating film and TV a lot at the moment – reflecting the profound anxiety of the times.
Constance Bantman, Lecturer in French, University of Surrey
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/60778
2016-08-05T21:53:54Z
2016-08-05T21:53:54Z
Whither anarchy: the fantasy of natural law
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125846/original/image-20160609-3477-13syepb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do outdated fantasies of anarchism simply play into the agendas of the rich and privileged? Nuit debout in Paris, 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/boklm/26322384582/">Nicolas Vigier/flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> series, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> with the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century. This article is the last of four perspectives on the political relevance of anarchy and the prospects for liberty in the world today.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>What is the relevance of anarchism today? Should we see a reinvigoration of anarchist tropes and themes or movements – such as <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/the-triumph-of-occupy-wall-street/395408/">Occupy</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/postcard-from-spain-where-now-for-the-quiet-revolution-43779">Spanish Indignados</a> and most recently <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-frances-nuitdebout-protests-the-start-of-a-new-political-movement-57706">Nuit debout in France</a> – as a sign that anarchism is about to enjoy a resurgence?</p>
<p>Notwithstanding the slow but undeniable decline of political ideologies and sources of inspiration for political action, my feeling is that anarchism has fallen into a certain redundancy when confronted with the issues that animate activists today.</p>
<p>The anarchist focus on the state as the locus for its critique of how power and domination operate has a vaguely antique air to it. It’s an analysis that belongs to the early modern era and particularly to the period of high colonialism that inspired the classic works of anarchism in the early and mid-19th century.</p>
<p>What we see in this period is state power being used to eviscerate indigenous ownership over land. This happened both as an internal process of what Marx called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_accumulation_of_capital">primitive accumulation</a>” and as an external process of forced conquest and enslavement of subject peoples. </p>
<p>From this point of view, the anarchists’ argument that the key antagonism lies between a statist metropolitan core and various forms of collective communal existences beyond or outside of the state is compelling. Resistance to the state was thus a logical strategy for those who wish to preserve and consecrate forms of social life beyond or outside the state.</p>
<p>For anarchists such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-Joseph-Proudhon">Proudhon</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-Alekseyevich-Kropotkin">Kropotkin</a>, society worked best when it ran in accordance with “natural law”, which they, by contrast with the likes of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Hobbes">Hobbes</a>, regarded as essentially benign and sociable. </p>
<p>It was the state that disrupted the possibility of social peace and harmony, not “us”. The state was an imposition, an artifice whose origins are rooted in the protection and promotion of inequality and enslavement.</p>
<p>In the mid-19th century, it was perhaps still plausible to cling to the idea of the reinvigoration of “society” as potentially having a distinct life apart from the institutions and processes of the state. </p>
<h2>Battlelines have shifted</h2>
<p>Let’s fast-forward to today’s “anarchistic” movements. What provided the spark for Nuit debout? In origin it was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Khomri_law">Loi de travail</a>. And what is that about? A threat to undermine hard-won gains by generations of trade unionists who have sought to use state power to protect workers’ rights from the encroachments of the market and neoliberals.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125850/original/image-20160609-3497-mrsv2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125850/original/image-20160609-3497-mrsv2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125850/original/image-20160609-3497-mrsv2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125850/original/image-20160609-3497-mrsv2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125850/original/image-20160609-3497-mrsv2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125850/original/image-20160609-3497-mrsv2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125850/original/image-20160609-3497-mrsv2j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is the problem ‘too much state’ or not enough?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Georges P/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This movement and the protests going on in France as I write are inspired not by the prospect of the state encroaching on society and “natural law”, but by the threat of the state withdrawing from the economic sphere, leaving workers exposed to the law of the market. The problem is not “too much state”, but not enough – or not enough to protect those who stand to lose from the winding back of state protection in the name of economic competitiveness.</p>
<p>The antagonisms that give rise to political mobilisation today have quite a different character to those of 19th century. Once this antagonism was between the state and society. Now the key conflict is between the state and the market. </p>
<p>“Rolling back the state” is a phrase we rightly associate with an aggressive assault on decades of collective agreements, understandings, practices and institutions. Together, these have provided the basis for commodious living under market or capitalist conditions. This includes state-provided health services, education, welfare payments, social housing and the like.</p>
<p>Rolling back the state is no longer suggestive of restoring or preserving the rights of indigenous, tribal or other kinds of “natural” association. There remains a kind of doctrinaire anarchist who is deeply hostile to seeing these facets of collective life as anything other than a sop to capitalism. They are wary of creating “happy slaves” far removed from the image of the fully autonomous individual they believe would be the result of removing the state.</p>
<p>The Occupy protesters, the Indignados, Nuit debout and all the rest know better than that. The absence of a program, ideology or manifesto from these political phenomena can be read as a nod in the direction of an “anarchistic” practice, as can the deliberative assemblies, the <a href="http://berkeleyjournal.org/2014/10/can-prefigurative-politics-replace-political-strategy/">“pre-figurative”</a> gestures of soup kitchens etc.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125848/original/image-20160609-3475-bcwv59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125848/original/image-20160609-3475-bcwv59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125848/original/image-20160609-3475-bcwv59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125848/original/image-20160609-3475-bcwv59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125848/original/image-20160609-3475-bcwv59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125848/original/image-20160609-3475-bcwv59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125848/original/image-20160609-3475-bcwv59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forget about soup kitchens, what about anarchist community television?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nicolas Vigier/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the absence of demands is better read as a desire to maintain an inclusive “anger” about the direction in which our world and our politics is heading – away from social democratic, state-centric collective life towards a warts-and-all “natural existence” where the dominant ethos is “survival of the fittest”. </p>
<p>It’s a world that <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/max-stirner/">Stirner</a> and individualistic anarchists might be comfortable in – but not collectivists or anyone concerned about the least well-off.</p>
<h2>State or society is a false choice</h2>
<p>My hunch is that it is Donald Trump, Wall Street and Big Finance that will gain from “anarchy”, not the poor, the marginal and those whose plight animated the emergence of an anarchist theory and practice in the first place. </p>
<p>Anarchism lost its “natural” constituency in the more or less violent process of the unfolding of modernity, whether of the state capitalist, communist or free market varieties. </p>
<p>What we are left with is not a choice between “state” and “society”, but between a state that serves the needs and interests of its citizens and a state that prioritises the needs and interests of <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21543178">the 1%</a>.</p>
<p>Many anarchists know this, which is why some of them are standing for election in places like Spain, Iceland and Italy – and winning. They understand that the contemporary task is not the abolition of the state, as per the classical anarchist formula, but its transformation into a vehicle that better expresses the needs and wishes of ordinary citizens. </p>
<p>It is not to rid us of political authority in the name of “natural law”, but to create the conditions for a more authentic and more involving form of democracy that protects many of the “wins” from decades of struggles by trade unionists, social movements and progressive political parties.</p>
<p>Today’s anarchists should give up the fantasy of “abolishing the state”. That simply plays into the agenda of the rich and privileged. Instead, they should join in the movement to make the state more democratic, more accountable and better able to reflect the views, needs and interests of all of its citizens.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read the other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/whither-anarchy">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Tormey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Today’s anarchists should give up the fantasy of ‘abolishing the state’. That simply plays into the agenda of the rich and privileged.
Simon Tormey, Professor of Political Theory and Head of the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/60777
2016-08-05T21:53:40Z
2016-08-05T21:53:40Z
Whither anarchy: ownness as a form of freedom
<p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> series, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> with the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century. This article is the third of four perspectives on the political relevance of anarchy and the prospects for liberty in the world today.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Freedom, that most familiar of concepts in political theory, strikes us today as ever-more ambiguous and opaque. </p>
<p>While freedom has long been the ideological emblem of the liberal capitalist West, it seems increasingly difficult to identify with any real clarity or certainty. Its meaning has been contorted by the rationality of neoliberalism, which offers us only a very narrow notion of freedom through the market while, as <a href="https://medanth.wikispaces.com/Governmentality">Foucault would put it</a>, governing us through our own liberty.</p>
<p>The supposedly free individual is required to conform to certain norms and codes of behaviour, which coincide with the dictates of the market. Thus the individual, in the name of freedom, is pushed back upon himself and becomes solely responsible for his own economic destiny. This inculcates within him an eternal sense of guilt when he fails to live up to prescribed standards of success or “resilience”.</p>
<p>Furthermore, freedom has become absolutely hinged to the ideology of security that is now omnipresent in liberal societies. </p>
<p>We might add to this a consideration of the innumerable daily instances where, in liberal states (I now use this term advisedly), freedom is constrained and curtailed – by, for instance, over-zealous lawmakers, judiciaries, police and other state institutions and private corporations – not to mention the lack of economic “liberty” experienced by the majority of the dispossessed around the world. </p>
<p>We are tempted to say that the concept of freedom finds itself in a dead-end. When we talk about freedom today, we literally don’t know what we’re talking about.</p>
<h2>Stirner on freedom from within</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125843/original/image-20160609-3475-1l0ytzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125843/original/image-20160609-3475-1l0ytzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125843/original/image-20160609-3475-1l0ytzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125843/original/image-20160609-3475-1l0ytzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125843/original/image-20160609-3475-1l0ytzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=997&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125843/original/image-20160609-3475-1l0ytzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=997&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125843/original/image-20160609-3475-1l0ytzb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=997&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Max Stirner in 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Félix Valloton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the mid-19th century, the little-known German Young Hegelian philosopher <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/max-stirner/">Max Stirner</a> was already arguing that the discourse of freedom was exhausted. </p>
<p>The problem with the standard notions of freedom was that they were dependent on certain external conditions and institutions, like the liberal state, or on the fulfilment of some promise of revolutionary emancipation. They thus reduced freedom to a kind of spectral ideal that always concealed new forms of domination.</p>
<p>If freedom is associated with a certain regime of law or type of community, or is aligned with a higher rational and moral ideal, this in effect alienates the individual’s freedom. </p>
<p>If freedom is associated with a form of state, then one allows the state to determine the limits of freedom.</p>
<p>If freedom is seen as an ideal to be achieved within a higher rational and moral community, then one either pursues an impossible dream, or allows freedom to be determined by a revolutionary vanguard seeking to impose its own vision on society.</p>
<p>In other words, according to Stirner, if external conditions and standards are seen to prescribe and determine the extent of freedom, one ends up disempowering individuals and robbing them of their own capacities for freedom. Such were the limits of freedom that Stirner proposed an alternative notion of ownness, by which he intended a more radical understanding of self-ownership.</p>
<p>What is ownness? Unlike the mystification of freedom, the pursuit of which has become a hollow game (the same could be said about democracy), ownness is a much more tangible experience. I understand it as ontological freedom: the freedom one always already has. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125835/original/image-20160609-3509-188hb8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125835/original/image-20160609-3509-188hb8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125835/original/image-20160609-3509-188hb8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125835/original/image-20160609-3509-188hb8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125835/original/image-20160609-3509-188hb8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125835/original/image-20160609-3509-188hb8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125835/original/image-20160609-3509-188hb8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Radical self-ownership is a form of freedom we already have.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eric Huybrechts/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What does this mean? First, it is a singular form of freedom, which is left to individuals to create for themselves, rather than conforming to any universalised or institutionally defined ideal. </p>
<p>Nor is it a question of emancipation, as this simply risks another form of domination – we have seen this in many revolutions aimed at “freeing” a subjugated people. Rather, it is up to the individuals themselves, affirming themselves and their own indifference to all forms of power.</p>
<p>While this might sound like a form of wishful thinking – this was Marx and Engels’ claim against Stirner – it alerts us to what <a href="http://etiennedelaboetie.net/">La Boétie</a> saw as the <a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/saul-newman-voluntary-servitude-reconsidered-radical-politics-and-the-problem-of-self-dominatio">voluntary servitude</a> and wilful obedience that underpinned all forms of domination. The flipside of this was a wilful disobedience and a reclamation of one’s own power.</p>
<p>Perhaps we can say that ownness is the experience of self-affirmation and empowerment that ontologically precedes all acts of liberation. Let’s take <a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/max-stirner-the-ego-and-his-own">Stirner’s example of the slave</a>. While the slave has little or no freedom in his chains, he nevertheless has ownness, a sense of self-possession. It is the one thing his master cannot take from him:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>That I then become free from him and his whip is only the consequence of my antecedent egoism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this situation, freedom, whether liberal or republican, whether understood as non-interference or non-domination, simply cannot account for the slave’s sense of autonomy, his understanding of himself as his own property and not anyone else’s.</p>
<h2>Lessons for today</h2>
<p>What lessons does this have for us today? In recent years we have witnessed an unprecedented breakdown and crisis of legitimacy in our representative political institutions. </p>
<p>In the hands of our political elites, all these high-minded ideals of liberty, rights and democracy no longer signify anything; they have come to be associated with the worst hypocrisies and abuses.</p>
<p>At the same time, we have learnt – rightly – to be wary of revolutionary promises of liberation and alternative forms of social order as an antidote to the current situation. The question of freedom today is located in this gap between crumbling institutions and the eclipse of utopian horizons.</p>
<p>In response to this deadlock we have seen new forms of political experimentation, in which people seek to define their own lives and their relations with others in ways that are autonomous from dominant modes of political and economic organisation. </p>
<p>Institutions are not destroyed – for what would this lead to but simply a new kind of institutionalisation? Rather they are profaned; used without identifying with or investing in them. </p>
<p>We start to think and act as though power no longer existed. This is not the freedom of the neoliberal subject, sacrificing himself to the God of the Market, but the self-determination of owners invested in themselves and, through themselves, in others.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/whither-anarchy">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saul Newman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Between institutional collapse and false promises of utopia, people seek to define their own lives and their relations with others by thinking and acting as though power no longer existed.
Saul Newman, Professor of Political Theory, Goldsmiths, University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/59979
2016-08-05T05:30:55Z
2016-08-05T05:30:55Z
Whither anarchy: perspectives on anarchism and liberty
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129333/original/image-20160705-19110-1jh0g40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anarchism's opposition to arbitrary power is often militant, but liberty is no simple thing.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://thetransmetropolitanreview.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/the-transmetropolitan-review-4/">Transmetropolitan Review</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> series, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> with the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century. The essay is the first of four perspectives on the political relevance of anarchism and the prospects for liberty in the world today.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The following reflections on the subject of anarchism give a voice to the spirit of anarchy. By this I don’t mean what’s conventionally understood by the term: disturbance, disagreement and violent confusion triggered by the lack (<em>an</em>) of a ruler (<em>arkhos</em>). Rather, the perspectives published in this collection of essays brim with interest in the spirit of anarchism and its radical defence of unrestrained liberty, whose reality I first encountered on my hometown streets, with a wham and a whump.</p>
<p>At the high point of public opposition to the Vietnam War, during a rush-hour sit-down by several thousand fellow students, riot police were summoned to clear the traffic snarl we’d caused at the main CBD intersection of our city. The picture below captures something of the swelling mayhem, as helmeted constables, wielding batons, came in on horseback. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130789/original/image-20160717-2153-7bfpr1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130789/original/image-20160717-2153-7bfpr1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130789/original/image-20160717-2153-7bfpr1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130789/original/image-20160717-2153-7bfpr1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130789/original/image-20160717-2153-7bfpr1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130789/original/image-20160717-2153-7bfpr1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130789/original/image-20160717-2153-7bfpr1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130789/original/image-20160717-2153-7bfpr1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anti-Vietnam War demonstration, Adelaide (June 1971).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Keane</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To my astonishment, in the midst of tumult and turmoil, the anarchists in our ranks cool-headedly whipped out bags of marbles from deep inside their pockets. Unused to rollerskating, the horses grew unsteady; frightened, they began to rear up and draw back from the crowd. The anarchist tactics were simple, militant and effective. </p>
<p>I was impressed, and that’s perhaps why I soon graduated to The Anarchist Cookbook, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/19/anarchist-cookbook-author-william-powell-out-of-print">written by William Powell</a>. First published in 1971, and oozing so much liberty that governments around the world quickly banned it, the handbook included tips for manufacturing everything from telephone phreaking devices to home-made hash brownies.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129159/original/image-20160704-19094-gr2a2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129159/original/image-20160704-19094-gr2a2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129159/original/image-20160704-19094-gr2a2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129159/original/image-20160704-19094-gr2a2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129159/original/image-20160704-19094-gr2a2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129159/original/image-20160704-19094-gr2a2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129159/original/image-20160704-19094-gr2a2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129159/original/image-20160704-19094-gr2a2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Un Chien Andalou</em>, an early favourite.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/47357563@N06/8249357618">Jennifer Mei/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My taste for black, and for surrealist films, soon followed. <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_Chien_Andalou">Un Chien Andalou</a></em> was an early favourite: a 1928 short film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí whose “dream logic” had no plot in any conventional sense. </p>
<p>Then came some serious reading: George Orwell’s <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/13594#.V3sv7JN95Bw">Homage to Catalonia</a> and Noam Chomsky’s <a href="http://thenewpress.com/books/american-power-new-mandarins">American Power and the New Mandarins</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Quite generally, what grounds are there for supposing that those whose claim to power is based on knowledge and technique will be more benign in their exercise of power than those whose claim is based on wealth or aristocratic origin?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I paid attention to studies of the first self-organising affluent societies by the radical anthropologists Marshall Sahlins and Pierre Clastres. Later, I sat at the feet of the priestly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/09/guardianobituaries.highereducation">Ivan Illich</a>; listened to flamboyant lectures by <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcuse/">Herbert Marcuse</a> on feminism and repressive tolerance; and attended seminars on anarchism and ecology by <a href="http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bookchin/bio1.html">Murray Bookchin</a>. </p>
<p>I met the author of <a href="https://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/greer-germaine/female-eunuch.htm">The Female Eunuch</a> and several times, in clubs so small they felt like Turkish baths, heard The Clash rail against petty injustice, plutocrats, poverty and racism. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sYbHRQ_sYGI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">What’s My Name? A cry against the dole and sentence-happy magistrates (London, July 1978).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I found myself influenced by <a href="http://routledgesoc.com/category/profile-tags/powerknowledge">Michel Foucault’s writings on power/knowledge</a> and <a href="http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Obituary/debord.html">Guy Debord’s</a> theory of mediated resistance; and I listened intently to lectures by <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/castoria/">Cornelius Castoriadis</a> in defence of the idea of the autonomous individual lucid in her desires, clear-headed about reality, and capable of responsibly holding herself accountable for what she does in the world.</p>
<h2>On Liberty</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130778/original/image-20160716-2141-19ixlib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130778/original/image-20160716-2141-19ixlib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130778/original/image-20160716-2141-19ixlib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130778/original/image-20160716-2141-19ixlib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130778/original/image-20160716-2141-19ixlib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130778/original/image-20160716-2141-19ixlib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130778/original/image-20160716-2141-19ixlib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130778/original/image-20160716-2141-19ixlib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">C.B. Macpherson (1911-1987).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ocufa.on.ca</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was my doctoral supervisor, <a href="http://understandingsociety.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/possessive-individualism.html">C.B. Macpherson</a>, who taught me to combine the subject of liberty with the principle of equality, and to do so by way of serious reflection on the past, present and future of democracy. Thanks to the quiet doyen of democratic theory, I became a part-time anarchist. </p>
<p>I still today sympathise with the anarchist disgust for heteronomy and its passion for liberty, with what Saul Newman, in the third of these articles, <a href="http://theconversation.com/whither-anarchy-ownness-as-a-form-of-freedom-60777">calls freedom as ownness</a>, or “the experience of self-affirmation and empowerment which ontologically precedes all acts of liberation”. </p>
<p>The formula probably underestimates what Freud taught us: that all individuals are shaped involuntarily by yearnings, unintelligible fragments, fabrications and omissions rooted in childhood. </p>
<p>Yet the great strength of the anarchist emphasis on “self-affirmation and empowerment” is the agenda it continues to set: to recognise the strangeness of our involuntary love of power, to strive to overcome our voluntary servitude, to rid ourselves of the urge “to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us” (<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=WvvQfxvGfpYC&pg=PR13&dq=Anti-Oedipus+Preface+Michel+Foucault&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4uaaLvdvNAhWEtpQKHdW_AfQQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=Anti-Oedipus%20Preface%20Michel%20Foucault&f=false">Foucault</a>).</p>
<p>The stress placed by anarchism on these themes, and on the principle that arbitrary power relations are contingent, and hence alterable, still rings true. In recent times, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0038x9t">anarchist sensibility</a> has again come alive in many different global settings, from Greenpeace “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/11/how-to-change-the-world-greenpeace-power-mindbomb">mind bombs</a>”, the M-15 movement in Spain, Taiwans’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_Student_Movement">Sunflower uprising</a> to the punk band <a href="http://thebaffler.com/blog/punk-rock-and-protest-asim">G.L.O.S.S.</a> (“Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit”). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130777/original/image-20160716-2122-n8vl51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130777/original/image-20160716-2122-n8vl51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130777/original/image-20160716-2122-n8vl51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130777/original/image-20160716-2122-n8vl51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130777/original/image-20160716-2122-n8vl51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130777/original/image-20160716-2122-n8vl51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130777/original/image-20160716-2122-n8vl51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130777/original/image-20160716-2122-n8vl51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">M-15 public demonstration against austerity in the Plaza de la Corredera, Córdoba, Spain, June 9, 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72957193@N00/5852321762">Javi/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the cause of liberty, all this is well and good. Except that anarchism has no special monopoly on these concerns. In practice, conceptually and politically speaking, democracy handles things better, or so I came to think.</p>
<h2>Institutions</h2>
<p>The following essays by <a href="http://theconversation.com/whither-anarchy-freedom-as-non-domination-60776">Alex Prichard and Ruth Kinna</a> and <a href="http://theconversation.com/whither-anarchy-ownness-as-a-form-of-freedom-60777">Saul Newman</a> emphasise that the anarchist ideal of freedom rejects states, private property in market form, and the “hollow game” of democracy. Such institutions are deemed antithetical to freedom as non-domination. </p>
<p>Written constitutions, watchdog bodies, periodic elections, parliamentary representation, trial by jury, public service broadcasting, education, health and welfare protections: while all these (and other) institutions are motivated by the principle of equality, the anarchists in this series are inclined to dismiss them as mere instruments of disempowerment, as violators of the lives of individuals blessed ontologically with their own “ownness” (<a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/max-stirner/#2">Max Stirner’s <em>Eigenheit</em></a>).</p>
<p>In his contribution to this dossier, <a href="http://theconversation.com/whither-anarchy-the-fantasy-of-natural-law-60778">Simon Tormey</a> notes how this conviction unwittingly aligns anarchists with the “freedom of choice” and “possessive individualism” (Macpherson) ideology of contemporary neo-liberalism; he rightly emphasises the political foolishness of jettisoning institutions that can function as levers of resistance to injustice and subordination. </p>
<p>My encounters with anarchists taught me something else: in group settings, anarchists demand informality (“structurelessness” as <a href="http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm">Jo Freeman called it</a>), yet the lack of institutional rules makes everyone vulnerable to manipulation and takeovers by cunning, well-organised factions.</p>
<p>Strategic objections to anarchist ideas of freedom as “non-domination” are compelling; but, arguably, they don’t burrow deeply enough into why anarchism has no love of institutions. Philosophically speaking, anarchism was born of a 19th-century age blind to the embodied linguistic horizons within which individuation takes place from the moment we are born. </p>
<p>Karl Marx had no developed theory of language, yet he spotted (in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundrisse"><em>Grundrisse</em></a>) that individuals “come into connection with one another only in determined ways”. </p>
<p>Rephrased, we could say, within any culture, that individuals resemble spiders entangled in laced webs of language that structure their time-space identities. What we think, who we are, how we represent ourselves to others and act on the world: all of this, and more, is framed by the linguistic horizons (Wittgenstein called them the language “scaffolding” (<em><a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=bisiGaxtIlcC&pg=PT246&dq=%22part+of+the+framework+%5BGerust%5D%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWgeCP2tvNAhVLEpQKHZExDVkQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=Ger%C3%BCst&f=false">Gerüst</a></em>) of our everyday lives.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130780/original/image-20160716-2153-vul26o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130780/original/image-20160716-2153-vul26o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130780/original/image-20160716-2153-vul26o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130780/original/image-20160716-2153-vul26o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130780/original/image-20160716-2153-vul26o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130780/original/image-20160716-2153-vul26o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130780/original/image-20160716-2153-vul26o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130780/original/image-20160716-2153-vul26o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The totally ‘free’ individual is a misleading fiction and impossible utopia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonasb/364609049/">Jonas Bengtsson/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It follows that notions of liberty vary according to the language games people play with others. Since individuals are chronically bound through language to the lives of others, the whole image of “free” individuals as “un-dominated by any other” is both a misleading fiction and impossible utopia. How “individuals” define and practise their “liberty” is shaped by their linguistic engagement with others.</p>
<p>And as these entanglements are infused with power relations, individuation is very much a political matter, a process defined by structured tensions and struggles over who gets what, when and how, and whether they should do so.</p>
<h2>Complex liberty</h2>
<p>The point is that institutions matter. Anarchists excel at criticising factual power, but their proposed counterfactual alternatives are typically weak.
The “cult of the natural, the spontaneous, the individual” (<a href="http://www.ditext.com/woodcock/1.html">George Woodcock</a>) runs deep in their thinking. </p>
<p>Yes, in certain circumstances the “passion for destruction” (<a href="https://www.sfu.ca/history/publications/2006-leier.html">Bakunin</a>) can be creative. But loose talk of “unions of egoists” (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_egoists">Stirner</a>), “social communion” (<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=wQ2PBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA294&lpg=PA294&dq=Proudhon+%22social+communion%22&source=bl&ots=3Zt-Oo6lvl&sig=lXdQVGxhPSFcvC4xt7gyfQPrHyg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiCgKyTwNvNAhWJKpQKHdLOAXIQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=Proudhon%20%22social%20communion%22&f=false">Proudhon</a>) and “camp rules” and “constitutionalism” (Ruth Kinna and Alex Prichard’s iteration) falls wide of the mark.</p>
<p>Loose talk of liberty neglects the fundamental point that the empowerment of individuals, their exercise of freedom understood as “non-domination”, requires their protection from bossing and bullying by others. That is the meaning of the old maxim that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. </p>
<p>More than a few ugly crimes have been committed in its name, which is why beautiful liberty requires restraint in order to be exercised well. Liberty is no simple thing. It is a political matter bound up with institutionalised struggles for equality among individuals, groups, networks and organisations.</p>
<p>The type of institutions matters. That’s the whole point of democracy: its power-monitoring, power-sharing institutions are designed to conjoin liberty with equality, in complex ways, in defence of citizens and their chosen representatives, in opposition to the disabling effects of arbitrary power.</p>
<p>Armed with the grammar of complex liberty tempered by complex equality, democrats warn of the dark side of anarchism, the dogmatic ism-conviction that in matters of liberty, language and institutions are trumped by the preference for simplicity over complexity.</p>
<p>There’s another sense in which the old anarchist ideology of the autonomous individual is today questionable: its neglect of the non-human. We’ve <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthropocene-raises-risks-of-earth-without-democracy-and-without-us-38911">entered an age</a> of eco-destruction and eco-renewal marked by rising public awareness that we human beings ineluctably live as animals in complex biomes not of our choosing. The contributions below are silent about this trend. </p>
<p>Why? The part-time anarchist in me suspects that it’s because their particular anarchist vision of freedom as “ownness” and non-domination is anthropocentric. Their liberty is the all-too-human licence freely to <em>dominate nature</em>.</p>
<p>If that’s so, then the old subject of anarchy and liberty is confronted by new <em>democratic</em> questions: is it possible to include the non-human in definitions of freedom as the unchecked propensity of humans to act on their worlds? </p>
<p>How might the “ownness” enjoyed by free individuals be brought back to Earth? Can these free individuals hereon be regarded as humble “actants” (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93network_theory">Bruno Latour</a>)? Are people capable of living their lives in dignity, unhindered by arbitrary power, as equals, entangled in complex biomes they know are so much part of themselves that they must be their vigilant stewards?</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/whither-anarchy">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Keane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Liberty is a political matter bound up with institutionalised struggles for equality among individuals, groups, networks and organisations. This is where the cult of the free individual falls down.
John Keane, Professor of Politics, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/60776
2016-08-05T05:30:51Z
2016-08-05T05:30:51Z
Whither anarchy: freedom as non-domination
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125826/original/image-20160609-3506-1ywe8h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anarchists once took constitutionalism very seriously and might well do so again to develop radical decision-making practices. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjd/2502535352">Kim Davis/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> series, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> with the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century. This article is the second of four perspectives on the political relevance of anarchism and the prospects for liberty in the world today.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Which institutions are best suited to realising freedom? This is a question recently asked by the republican political theorist <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/%7Eppettit/">Philip Pettit</a>. </p>
<p>Anarchists, by contrast to republicans, argue that the modern nation-state and the institution of private property are antithetical to freedom. According to anarchists, these are historic injustices that are structurally dominating. If you value freedom as non-domination, you must reject both as inimical to realising this freedom.</p>
<p>But what is freedom as non-domination? In a nutshell, by a line of thinking most vocally articulated by Pettit, I’m free to the degree that I am not arbitrarily dominated by any other. I am not free if someone can arbitrarily interfere in the execution of my choices.</p>
<p>If I consent to a system of rules or procedures, anyone that then invokes these rules against me cannot be said to be curtailing my freedom from domination. My scope for action might be constrained, but since I have consented to the rules that now curtail my freedom, I am not subject to arbitrary domination.</p>
<p>Imagine, for instance, that I have a drinking problem and I’ve asked my best friend to keep me away from the bar. If she sees me heading in that direction and prevents me from getting anywhere near the alcohol, she dominates, but not arbitrarily, so my status as a free person is not affected. </p>
<p>Republican theory diverges from liberal theory because the latter treats any interference in my actions as a constraint on my freedom – especially if I paid good money for the drink, making it my property.</p>
<p>Neither republicans nor liberals suggest that private property and the state might themselves be detrimental to freedom, quite the opposite. By liberal accounts, private property is the bedrock of individual rights. In contemporary republican theory, property ownership is legitimate as long as it is non-dominating. </p>
<p>Republicans further argue that a state that tracks your interests and encourages deliberative contestation and active political participation will do best by your freedom.</p>
<h2>The special status of property and the state</h2>
<p>But why should we assume that property or the state is central to securing freedom as non-domination? The answer seems to be force of habit. For republicans like Pettit, the state is like the laws of physics while private property is akin to gravity. In ideal republican theory, these two institutions are just background conditions we simply have to deal with, neither dominating nor undominating, just there.</p>
<p>While anarchists don’t disagree that property and the state exist, they seek to defend a conception of freedom as non-domination that factors in their dominating, slavish and enslaving effects. Anarchism emerged in the 19th century, when republicanism, particularly in the US, was perfectly consistent with slavery and needed the state to enforce that state of affairs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125828/original/image-20160609-3475-hqnq0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125828/original/image-20160609-3475-hqnq0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125828/original/image-20160609-3475-hqnq0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125828/original/image-20160609-3475-hqnq0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125828/original/image-20160609-3475-hqnq0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125828/original/image-20160609-3475-hqnq0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125828/original/image-20160609-3475-hqnq0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anarchists denounce the institutions of dominance under industrial capitalism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Quinn Dombrowski/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The abolition of slavery and the emergence of industrial capitalism were predicated on the extension of the principle of private property to the propertyless, not only slaves, who were encouraged to see themselves as self-possessors who could sell their labour on the open market at the market rate. </p>
<p>Likewise, in Europe millions of emancipated serfs were lured into land settlements that left them permanently indebted to landlords and state functionaries. They were barely able to meet taxes and rents and frequently faced starvation.</p>
<p>The anarchists uniformly denounced this process as the transformation of slavery, rather than its abolition. They deployed synonyms like “wage slavery” to describe the new state of affairs. Later, they extended their conception of domination by analysing sex slavery and marriage slavery.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.spunk.org/texts/writers/proudhon/sp001863.html">Proudhon’s</a> twin dictums “property is theft” and “slavery is murder” should be understood in this context. As he noted, neither would have been possible but for the republican state enforcing and upholding the capitalist property regime. </p>
<p>The state became dependent on taxes, while property owners were dependent on the state to keep recalcitrant populations at bay. And, by the mid-20th century, workers were dependent on the state for welfare and social security because of the poverty-level wages paid by capitalists.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/karl-polanyi-explainer-great-transformation-bernie-sanders">Karl Polanyi</a> noted, there was nothing natural about this process. The unfurling of the “free market”, the liberal euphemism for this process, had to be enforced and continues to be across the world. </p>
<p>Republicans might encourage us to think of the state and property like the laws of physics or gravity because this helps them argue that their conception of freedom as non-domination is not moralised – that is, their conception of freedom as non-domination does not depend on a prior ethical commitment to anything else. </p>
<p>But as soon as you strip away the physics, it appears that republican freedom is in fact deeply moralised – the state and private property remain central to the possibility of republican freedom in an a priori way. Republican accounts of freedom demand we ignore a prior ethical commitment to two institutions that should themselves be rejected.</p>
<p>Anarchists argue that private property and the state precipitate structures of domination that position people in hierarchical relations of domination, which are often if not always exacerbated by distinctions of race, gender and sexuality. These are what Uri Gordon calls the multiple <a href="http://news.infoshop.org/opinion/anarchism-and-multiculturalism">“regimes of domination”</a> that structure our lives.</p>
<h2>Looking to constitutionalism as a radical tool</h2>
<p>Anarchists are anarchists to the extent that they actively combat these forces. How should they do this?</p>
<p>Typically, the answer is through a specific form of communal empowerment (“power with” rather than “power over”). This would produce structural power egalitarianism, a situation in which no one can arbitrarily dominate another. </p>
<p>But is this realistic or desirable? Would a reciprocal powers politics not simply result in the very social conflicts that anarchists see structuring society already, as Pettit has argued?</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128442/original/image-20160628-7851-e226ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128442/original/image-20160628-7851-e226ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128442/original/image-20160628-7851-e226ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128442/original/image-20160628-7851-e226ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128442/original/image-20160628-7851-e226ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128442/original/image-20160628-7851-e226ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128442/original/image-20160628-7851-e226ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128442/original/image-20160628-7851-e226ib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even anarchists need rules to guide group decision-making – such as these ones at Occupy Vancouver.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallybuck/6381994175/in/photolist-aHrq5g-asTREh-bkWFhF-ayMM4U-ayK6Tc-aHXowk-avJLrY-awjZ3F-asRfxv-awfUQE">Sally T. Buck/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And what about radical democracy? Perhaps anarchists could replace engagement with the state with radical practices of decision-making? The problem is that anarchists haven’t even defined the requisite constituencies or how they should relate to one another. What if my mass constituency’s democratic voice conflicts with yours?</p>
<p>There is one implement in the republican tool box that anarchists once took very seriously and which might be resurrected: <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/constitutionalism/">constitutionalism</a>. Without a state to fall back on or private property to lean on, anarchists like Proudhon devised radically anti-hierarchical and impressively imaginative constitutional forms. </p>
<p>Even today, when constitutionalism is almost uniformly associated with bureaucracy and domination, anarchists continue to devise constitutional systems. By looking at anarchist practices like the Occupy movement’s <a href="http://www.occupyboston.org/general-assembly/reaching-consensus/">camp rules</a> and declarations (We are the 99%!), we can revive anarchist constitutionalism and show how freedom as non-domination may be revised and deployed as an anti-capitalist, anti-statist emancipatory principle. You can <a href="http://www.anarchyrules.info">see more about this here</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/whither-anarchy">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60776/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Prichard receives funding from the ESRC, under the 'Transforming Social Science' scheme, for a project entitled 'Constitutionalising Anarchy'. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Kinna receives funding from the ESRC, under the 'Transforming Social Science' scheme, for a project entitled 'Constitutionalising Anarchy'.</span></em></p>
If anarchists reject private property and the state, they need to devise alternative, radical practices of power-sharing. Republican constitutionalism offers one way to think about this.
Alex Prichard, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Exeter
Ruth Kinna, Professor of Political Theory, Loughborough University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/50705
2015-11-15T10:40:07Z
2015-11-15T10:40:07Z
Paris attacks: France has long been a target of extreme terror factions
<p>The horror and scale of what has happened in <a href="https://theconversation.com/paris-terror-attacks-france-now-faces-fight-against-fear-and-exclusion-50703">Paris</a> this weekend is utterly unprecedented. But like other global cities, the French capital is no stranger to terror attacks. </p>
<p>France’s history of terrorist violence extends back to the late 19th century, when <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8263858.stm">anarchists</a> committed bombings in the capital and even <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Sadi-Carnot">assassinated</a> a president. The 20th century saw attacks perpetrated in the name of <a href="http://cqfd-journal.org/1973-un-ete-raciste">right wing</a>, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/3119083/Terrorist-group-Action-Directe-founder-does-not-regret-murders.html">left wing</a>, <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2014/06/25/01016-20140625ARTFIG00415-corse-le-flnc-pres-de-40-ans-de-violences.php">nationalist</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/25/movies/police-suspect-arson-in-fire-at-paris-theater.html">fundamentalist religious</a> causes. </p>
<p>This history should remind us that both France and democracies in general have long been the target of extreme factions who use violence to pursue their aims. And in recent French history, that violence – whether perpetrated by anarchists, communists, fascists, or religious fanatics – has been inherently unpredictable. </p>
<p>The challenge for the Republic and all democratic regimes is how best to deal with the threat of terrorism while <a href="https://theconversation.com/paris-terror-attacks-france-now-faces-fight-against-fear-and-exclusion-50703">remaining true to the values that terrorists wish to destroy</a>. </p>
<p>While terror networks such as al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) may seem to have an exceptionally long reach, terrorism has historically been an international phenomenon. French anarchists, inspired by <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10576108008435483">Russian counterparts</a>, <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D00E5DF1531E033A25756C2A9609C94659ED7CF">assassinated president Sadi Carnot</a> in June 1894. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101909/original/image-20151114-10417-6l0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101909/original/image-20151114-10417-6l0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101909/original/image-20151114-10417-6l0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101909/original/image-20151114-10417-6l0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101909/original/image-20151114-10417-6l0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=991&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101909/original/image-20151114-10417-6l0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=991&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101909/original/image-20151114-10417-6l0bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=991&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Cagoule terrorised France in the late 1930s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALa_Cagoule_(Cabrol).jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1937, police uncovered a plot to overthrow the democratic regime formulated by the extreme right-wing group <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bMUqBwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA156&ots=zpoiwCPsOZ&dq=cagoule%20group%20terrorism&pg=PA156#v=onepage&q&f=false">Cagoule</a>, which had received financial and material support from Mussolini’s regime in Italy. The Cagoule murdered specific antifascist opponents on the orders of Italy, as well as suspected deserters, informers and policemen.</p>
<p>Nor have international factors solely relied on home-grown terrorists. In 1934, Croatian nationalists assassinated <a href="http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/live-footage-of-king-alexanders-assassination-1934/">King Alexander of Yugoslavia</a> in Marseille; in <a href="http://www.jta.org/1978/05/22/archive/passengers-onel-al-flight-credit-israeli-security-guards-for-thwarting-terrorist-attack-on-plane-pas">October 1978</a>, Palestinians fired on a plane from Paris bound for Israel. In the 1990s, the Algerian <a href="http://www.cfr.org/algeria/armed-islamic-group-algeria-islamists/p9154">Groupe Islamique Armée</a> mounted several attacks on the French mainland as the former French colony descended into civil chaos. </p>
<h2>Long reach</h2>
<p>During the 1950s and 1960s, the Algerian <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/martin-evans/french-resistance-and-algerian-war">Front de la Libération Nationale</a> (FLN) attacked French targets in North Africa and on the French mainland in the name of self-determination for Algeria. In response, the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/23/newsid_4340000/4340769.stm">Organisation de l’Armée Secrète</a> – founded by European settlers in the colony – bombed Algerian settlements and <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/citroen-helps-de-gaulle-survive-assassination-attempt">attempted to assassinate then president, Charles de Gaulle</a>, on August 22 1962 to halt the move towards independence. </p>
<p>During the so-called <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FjihMYumUkkC&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=%22Decade+of+Regicide%22+france+-millington&source=bl&ots=3RghGGPay_&sig=8M1ZJtCEBWhHnNtNJ3j1DoJoaRs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAmoVChMI37na15qQyQIVRz0UCh1hdwcG#v=onepage&q=%22Decade%20of%20Regicide%22%20france%20-millington&f=false">Decade of Regicide</a> at the end of the 19th century, anarchists assassinated more monarchs and heads of state than at any other time in history. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101910/original/image-20151114-10427-10kby5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101910/original/image-20151114-10427-10kby5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101910/original/image-20151114-10427-10kby5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101910/original/image-20151114-10427-10kby5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101910/original/image-20151114-10427-10kby5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101910/original/image-20151114-10427-10kby5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101910/original/image-20151114-10427-10kby5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emile Henry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A%C3%89mile_Henry_mugshot.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But others were not so selective. In February 1894, anarchist <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8263858.stm">Emile Henry</a> tossed a bomb into the crowded Café Terminus in Paris and fled. And while the FLN targeted police and army officers in its attempt to undermine the colonial state, it also planted bombs in cafes and bars to kill civilians.</p>
<p>In the wake of the assassination of the US president, William McKinley in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt described anarchist terrorists as “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qSG1Xtnd0OEC&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=%22criminals+against+the+human+race%22+roosevelt+anarchism&source=bl&ots=zgttmtveIU&sig=oplFTefbEobE211IV8ccBDi-NaI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAGoVChMIraPbx5iQyQIVBMAUCh1JFQxV#v=onepage&q=%22criminals%20against%20the%20human%20race%22%20roosevelt%20anarchism&f=false">criminals against the human race</a>”. At a League of Nations conference in 1937, terrorism was likewise portrayed as a threat to mankind itself – and it was France that proposed the <a href="http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11579/">Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Terrorism</a>, which was adopted by 24 countries but which never entered into force. </p>
<h2>Peace, bread and liberty</h2>
<p>The current threat from radical jihadist terrorism is dramatic, with political leaders around the world describing it as a threat to the fundamental values of civilisation. And the French Republic is itself premised on those values.</p>
<p>Following the November 13 attacks, the US president, Barack Obama, <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/obama-paris-attacks-speech-full-text-read-presidents-statement-outrageous-france-2184302">made common cause</a> with France by saying that: “Paris itself represents the timeless values of human progress” – not a far cry from the campaign to defend the Republic from fascism in the mid-1930s, which proclaimed itself as in a fight to secure “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fiLIJm9ZvxoC&pg=PR6&lpg=PR6&dq=%22peace,+bread+and+liberty%22&source=bl&ots=iL6cO1uS1g&sig=I8YoNkRgZt0q2fVD9Sn6CelCdHo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAWoVChMIt8PGsJmQyQIVyGsUCh05ogs3#v=onepage&q=%22peace%2C%20bread%20and%20liberty%22&f=false">peace, bread and liberty</a>”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Millington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Terrorists have attacked leaders and civilians in France many times before, and for a dizzying array of reasons.
Chris Millington, Lecturer in Twentieth-century history, Swansea University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/50373
2015-11-10T11:27:57Z
2015-11-10T11:27:57Z
What is anarchism all about?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101416/original/image-20151110-21220-1jxen5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smile if you want to smash the state.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotografar/5849348360/in/photolist-9UTrtN-f75RJu-aDzf4r-5C43VN-4PXYWg-5RsBha-4MzeNW-r66f3s-aDxJi6-4JKM3p-kWwrNT-kTrWdz-kWx2AR-kWycEC-4FZQqV-byTMNP-kWwoxe-5NaRCr-pEjA8k-cqLzso-kWxtjK-4rk9E4-axUihA-kWwxDa-kWwu6D-adCr3J-AHLTGN-efYPu8-b76TgH-arTeea-4rk3D7-arNoHZ-hjqDnq-esTLZe-esXboC-esTZ5M-esX2Lm-esTN4v-esX6MN-esTXqZ-esTVxV-esX3PW-4rhx6X-amErxX-pEDcpB-2nJYL7-hivKZF-dgnx9y-aDxJbD-hnsYnu">Osvaldo Gado/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whenever public protests ignite into violent behaviour, the mainstream media are often quick to refer to “anarchy” and to “anarchists”. Those who are referred to as anarchists are protesters who burn tyres or engage in battles with the police. In this narrative, anarchists are lawless hooligans and anarchy is about chaos and pointless violence.</p>
<p>The latest example is the <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/million-mask-march-48-people-bailed-after-violence-erupts-during-anticapitalist-demo-a3109241.html">Million Mask March</a> in London on November 5. This event was indeed organised by a number of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-34744710">anarchist groups</a> – and there were limited outbreaks of violence – but the equation of chaos and violence with anarchism is about as productive as the equation of circles with squares. It is a crude and bizarre misrepresentation. </p>
<p>What is anarchism anyway? It is a radical and revolutionary political philosophy and political economy. While there are many definitions and many anarchisms, most would agree to the definition formulated by <a href="http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-communism-and-anarchy">Peter Kropotkin</a>. This definition is in an article which Kropotkin was invited to write for the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/apr/10/encyclopedia-britannica-11th-edition">11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica</a>. </p>
<p>According to Kropotkin, <a href="http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/britanniaanarchy.html">anarchism</a>: “is a name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government – harmony in such a society being obtained, not by the submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilised being.” </p>
<h2>Free society of free individuals</h2>
<p>Let’s unpack this a bit. The etymology of the term traces back to the Greek word <a href="http://messagenetcommresearch.com/myths/ppt/Anarkhia_1.html">“anarkhia”</a>, which means “without rulers” or “without authority”. It stands for the absence of domination, hierarchy and power over others. </p>
<p>Anarchism is a process whereby authority and domination is being replaced with non-hierarchical, horizontal structures, with voluntary associations between human beings. It is a form of social organisation with a set of key principles, such as self-organisation, voluntary association, freedom, autonomy, solidarity, direct democracy, egalitarianism and mutual aid. </p>
<p>Based on these principles and values, anarchism rejects both a capitalist economy and a nation state that is governed by means of a representative democracy. It is a utopian project that aspires to combine the best parts of liberalism with the best parts of communism. </p>
<p>At its heart is a mix of the liberal emphasis on individual freedom and the communist emphasis on an equal society. I particularly like the definition of <a href="http://www.akpress.org/anarchism-and-its-aspirations.html">Cindy Milstein</a> about anarchism being a “free society of free individuals”. </p>
<h2>Long history</h2>
<p>The political philosophy of anarchisms emerged in the mid-19th century – as part of the thought of <a href="http://www.britannica.com/event/Enlightenment-European-history">Enlightenment</a>. Key anarchist thinkers include Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Peter Kropotkin, Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldman, and Max Stirner. <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-Joseph-Proudhon">Proudhon</a> is credited as the first self-proclaimed anarchist and is often seen as the founder of classic anarchist thinking. In particular, he developed the concept of spontaneous order in society, where organisations can emerge without central or top-down coordination. </p>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/godwin/">Godwin</a> developed his anarchist theory half a century earlier – without ever using the term. His writings are a profound critique of the state and its structural violence, arguing that the state and its government has a bad influence on society in that it produces unwanted dependency. He has also pointed out that law and legislation is created by the rich and powerful. Sound familiar?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101417/original/image-20151110-5460-rvewsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101417/original/image-20151110-5460-rvewsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101417/original/image-20151110-5460-rvewsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101417/original/image-20151110-5460-rvewsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101417/original/image-20151110-5460-rvewsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101417/original/image-20151110-5460-rvewsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101417/original/image-20151110-5460-rvewsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coming sometime, maybe?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/soundman1024/5813948758/in/photolist-9RL1pQ-spuWX-roP2Mo-6RCReu-4BpfkL-7Ye8V4-bA47RB-5KHnzx-iwzFS6-8uyypT-ymdzc-9yyPkc-ydHyV-spwGc-8XTTDF-94dP6i-7Vo9nc-5YfjBP-jbroq-9teHU2-67s9mw-8M2ood-r7jUgu-qrULwd-roP2Lb-43Q4VL-8mSPWc-qrULwJ-r7sbN4-9GQzVe-s8EiFy-bupwoG-cfuDgS-rUD43N-6EPHvf-4fuRcz-93bmp1-cAeXLy-oQcZMY-fbuBKR-bL4Jr-rgodF-5jgyUS-36APbt-bHjk94-8mVYFN-ovt7XW-4udngo-a4R9xF-9yYW5H">Jeff Meyer/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, it is also important to emphasise that most anarchist principles, convictions and moral positions are not at all an invention of modern anarchist theory – they are as old as human civilisation. And due to the rather different political philosophies of <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberalism/">liberalism</a> and <a href="http://www.britannica.com/topic/communism">communism</a>, anarchist theory – like most political ideologies – is not a consistent and homogeneous concept. It evolves as different people articulate its core ideologies in different ways.</p>
<p>We can at least distinguish between two rather different schools: social anarchism and libertarian anarchism (or free market anarchism). While social anarchism puts emphasis on society and often supports a political economy that socialises the means of production, libertarian anarchism is mostly concerned with ensuring the maximum amount of liberty for the individual. Here, the will of the individual is considered to be more important even than a harmonious and egalitarian society.</p>
<h2>Anarchism and activism</h2>
<p>Over the past two decades or so, anarchist practice has enjoyed a significant revival. This is particularly visible in new social movements that have been influenced by anarchist forms of organisation with horizontal structures and non-representative decision-making processes. </p>
<p>Anarchist forms of resistance have also largely informed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alter-globalization">alter-globalisation movement</a> – which believes in the benefits of global thinking but rejects economic globalisation. The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/dec/05/wto.globalisation">1999 battle of Seattle</a> was perhaps the first moment of a reinvigorated anarchism. It has been followed my many other movements and forms of resistance such as <a href="http://rts.gn.apc.org">Reclaim the Streets</a>, <a href="http://euromayday.org/about.php">EuroMayDay</a>, various environmental movements, and more recently the Occupy movement and the hacktivist group <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p036vwc2">Anonymous</a>. And they are having quite an impact. One could easily argue that anarchist forms of resistance are now outperforming the more socialist and hierarchical forms of resistance. </p>
<p>Oscar Wilde, a libertarian anarchist, is widely associated with the following <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Oscar_Wilde">bon mot</a>: “The problem with socialism is that it takes up too many evenings.”</p>
<h2>An anarchist world?</h2>
<p>But questions must be raised about the feasibility of anarchist practice. While anarchist organisation clearly can work on a local level, on the level of small communities and on a rural regional level (see the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-25550654">Zapatista movement</a> or large parts of Kurdish rural regions) the jury is still out on whether anarchist social organisation can be embedded in large urban areas, or on a national or global level. </p>
<p>How can forms of direct democracy, such as the general assembly of the Occupy movement, be built and maintained in settings with large populations? At first glance, this seems rather unlikely. Then again, digital technologies might open up new possibilities for large-scale forms of anarchist organisation. Certainly, anarchism is on the rise.</p>
<p><em>For a non-academic, fictional approach to an understanding of anarchism I would warmly recommend <a href="http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-the-dispossessed">The Dispossessed</a>, a 1970s sci-fi novel by feminist writer Ursula Le Guin.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50373/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andreas Wittel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There’s far more to anarchy than protests and men in masks.
Andreas Wittel, Senior Lecturer in Social Theory, Nottingham Trent University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/48293
2015-09-28T17:43:00Z
2015-09-28T17:43:00Z
Cereal Killer Cafe attack: who’s wrong and who’s right in the great gentrification battle?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96504/original/image-20150928-30976-2m2b0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yukino/17334884051/">Rosapolis/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There have been a growing number of anti-gentrification protests in and around London lately. They’ve also been getting louder, angrier, and in the case of the recent <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/27/shoreditch-cereal-cafe-targeted-by-anti-gentrification-protesters">#fuckparade riots</a>, more violent. </p>
<p>Hundreds of protesters targeted the Cereal Killer Cafe in the trendy East London neighbourhood of Shoreditch. The cafe had previously <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/cereal-cafe-opens-in-london-but-can-it-survive">attracted media attention</a> (good and bad) for selling bowls of cereal for £3 or more. Aiming to incite a “class war”, the protesters threw paint at the cafe, scrawled “scum” on its windows and intimidated those inside. </p>
<p>Twitter sprang into action, with people denouncing the protesters as “morons”, “middle-class” and “faux rebel idiots”. Others, perhaps more sympathetic to the cause, have maintained that picking on small-business owners when there are chain stores nearby was ill-judged. </p>
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<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/27/hipster-cereal-killer-cafe-gentrification-east-end">Some commentators</a> continued to lament the protesters’ lack of action against bankers, property developers and the Mayor of London, for their role in the process of gentrification. The problem is, of course, that all of these responses fail to grasp the full complexity of the issue.</p>
<h2>Urban immorality</h2>
<p>Whether we decide on a definition or not, the gentrification of London is happening because of a complex, layered suite of intersecting measures. People are being <a href="http://tacity.co.uk/2015/04/04/reflections-on-the-aylesbury-occupation/">evicted from their homes</a> because powerful real estate companies see land in terms of profit margins. The vital support networks that these evictees rely on for help are <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/mar/11/legal-aid-cuts-shelter-offices">having to cut their services</a>, at a time when demand is increasing. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, politicians are <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/25/hackney-mayor-attacks-boris-johnson-intervention-bishopsgate-goodsyard">working around planning laws</a>, rental costs have spiralled <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/09/25/london-underground-rent-map-shows-most-expensive-places-live-capitals-transport-network_n_8194378.html">beyond the reach of the majority of Londoners</a> and <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1558471/england-sleepwalking-into-homelessness-crisis">homelessness is at record levels</a>. Worst of all, <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/more-80-suicide-cases-directly-5634404">lives are being lost</a> as disability, housing and welfare benefits are reduced in the name of austerity. </p>
<p>Call it “gentrification”, “gentrificleansing”, or “<a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/arts-feature/9565362/the-moral-case-for-gentrification/">market-readjustment</a>”: whatever it is, it’s <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/oli-mould/%E2%80%98love-where-you-live%E2%80%99-and-other-lies-of-gentrification">immoral</a>, and people’s lives are being torn apart because of it.</p>
<h2>“Shoreditchification”</h2>
<p>Rightly or wrongly, Shoreditch has become the poster-child of this process – “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10561607/Why-this-Shoreditchification-of-London-must-stop.html">Shoreditchification</a>” is the latest crass term to be bandied around. Shoreditch has a vibrant cultural, social and multi-racial history and has always been seen as an “edgy” place. With towering street art murals, grungy bars and clubs, and the boom of nearby Tech City, the area has become synonymous with bohemia. </p>
<p>Of course, these factors don’t automatically lead to a rampant influx of financial capital. But throw the global popularity of the “<a href="http://tacity.co.uk/book/">creative city</a>” policy into the mix, and suddenly the area becomes the pinnacle of dynamic and flexible (but also precarious and culturally superficial) urbanism.</p>
<p>So Shoreditch has long been the media’s go-to place when discussing, parodying, satirising or critiquing contemporary urban processes. And <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/13/cereal-killer-breakfast-east-london-channel-4-row">earlier criticism</a> for serving dishes that local residents wouldn’t be able to afford had a role in casting the Cereal Killer Cafe as the consumerised embodiment of London’s gentrification process. </p>
<p>It represents the perfect gentrifying storm – a potent cocktail of hipster culture, <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/cereal-cafe-opens-in-london-but-can-it-survive">vacuous elite consumption</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/13/cereal-killer-breakfast-east-london-channel-4-row">shameless self-promotion</a> and neoliberal entrepreneurialism. Lashing out at the owners and customers of this establishment scratches an itch caused by the myriad other forces that fuel gentrification. But as many <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/28/hipsters-property-developers-gentrification-cereal-killer-cafe">other commentators have noted</a>, it doesn’t really cut to the heart of the problem.</p>
<h2>I predict a riot</h2>
<p>In our society, we’re told that consumption is the only way we can <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jun/21/overconsumption-environment-relationships-annie-leonard">measure our self-worth</a>. As a result, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/shopping-around-for-salvation-the-new-religion-is-consumerism-and-massive-malls-are-its-cathedrals-1501792.html">specific sites of material consumption</a> become the beacons of how our society constructs itself. We are relentlessly told to consume conspicuously, so when we’re angry, we lash out at those who promote these practices.</p>
<p>Indeed, the post-mortem of the 2011 London riots (the <a href="http://davidharvey.org/2011/08/feral-capitalism-hits-the-streets/">intellectual ones</a>, not the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pms-speech-on-the-fightback-after-the-riots">reactionary spin from “official” government mouthpieces</a>) argued that the rioters were aping the “profit-at-all-costs” attitude of the bankers and entrepreneurs who triggered the financial crisis in the first place. </p>
<p>Fast-forward four years: the tangible outcome of the financial crisis has been a swelling of bankers’ coffers (via <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/sep/17/lloyds-banking-group-from-bailout-to-selloff">bailouts</a> and <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/royal-mail-privatisation-george-osborne-5821927">privatisation</a> deals) and the continued shrinking of security for those who already lived precarious lives. </p>
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<p>When we consider these factors, it’s hardly surprising that the “class war” rhetoric is gaining more support. The Fuck Parade was part of the <a href="http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/">Class War organisation</a>, and while the accusation that many of the protesters were in fact “middle class” may hold some truth, in some ways this observation seems irrelevant. Given crippling <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/kylie-walsh/broke-all-about-life-in-debt">student debt</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jul/22/pwc-report-generation-rent-to-grow-over-next-decade">rental costs</a> that even those on “average salaries” can’t afford and the <a href="http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2015/05/hyper-gentrification-takes-a-grip-around-the-town-how-brixton-buzz-reported-on-the-april-build-up-towards-reclaim-brixton/">hyper-gentrification</a> of previously affordable urban areas, even middle-class people have a right to be angry at an urban capitalism that is pricing them (and their children) out of the city.</p>
<p>Faced with the <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2014/04/gentrification-london">acceleration of the gentrification process</a> and despite the explosion of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/24/the-gentrification-of-brixton-unites-an-eclectic-group-of-protesters">anti-gentrification campaigns</a>, the protesters’ feeling of helplessness is understandable, and the desire to respond angrily inevitable. But there’s more than one way of countering the political and economic powers responsible. You can strike out tactically, or even violently, in an effort to cause maximum damage and gain maximum exposure. But there are also those who work tirelessly within the “official” systems they are looking to oppose, and negotiate <a href="https://theconversation.com/southbank-skaters-victory-shows-grassroots-culture-still-worth-fighting-for-31926">compromises and truces</a>.</p>
<p>For a campaign to be successful, a workable medium between the two needs to be found. But this will not be an easy task, and it will be fraught with violent instances like the Fuck Parade.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oli Mould does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Gentrification is an immoral process - here’s why violent protest has a role to play in the fight against it.
Oli Mould, Lecturer in Human Geography, Royal Holloway University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/46324
2015-09-01T20:11:23Z
2015-09-01T20:11:23Z
Hacking the body: the scientific counter-culture of the DIYbio movement
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93478/original/image-20150901-25763-1x4gj70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=197%2C161%2C3706%2C2443&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A biohack event called Rock’n Roll BioTech, held at Aalto University in Helsinki, brings people together to learn about the fundamentals of molecular life-sciences outside of conventional circles.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GaudiLabs</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Science and biology are slowly, but smoothly, being co-opted by a DIY approach that’s looking an awful lot like the start of the tech start-up boom. </p>
<p>It makes some sense that this makeshift biological movement is taking lessons from the same trajectory that <a href="http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/homesteading/hacker-history/index.html">computer hacking</a> and small tech companies took. Once <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/molecular-biology">molecular biology</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/genetics">genetics</a> came to grips with the fact that DNA and genes are essentially just another programming language, it was almost inevitable that someone would try to hack it, whether for the benefit of the majority or, more likely, just for fun.</p>
<p>“DIYbio” is an emerging area, riding on the coattails of tech start-up interest and the rising “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maker_culture">Maker</a>” movement. This is where people provide a space for scientists and non-scientists to come into a lab and basically do what they want.</p>
<p>There are not many of these labs yet, as they tend to raise red flags in the eyes of authorities which are concerned about bio-warfare or drug manufacturing. And, until recently, it was rare to have a lab running outside of the highly regulated realm of business or academia.</p>
<p>But these labs, if they are involving “wet science”, tend to work in close accordance with the law. They go through the proper avenues of approval, and no one can work in the spaces without adequate training. </p>
<p>But once you have completed this training, you can go in and do whatever it is you want. It’s reminiscent of the way that science used to be done many decades ago. Back then, a researcher didn’t require approval or funding for an idea, they just did it, often in unorthodox of spaces. So DIYbio is the biological equivalent of the <a href="http://mashable.com/2013/10/29/steve-jobs-apple-garage-landmark/">garage in which Apple</a> was supposedly born. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93476/original/image-20150901-25726-1yhcpie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some of the DIY lab equipment produced by GaudiLabs, a part of the hackteria.org open source biology art network.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GaudiLabs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Democratising science</h2>
<p>It’s exciting to watch just how much DIYbio has taken from tech culture. Tech start-ups, indie game development and the Silicon Valley “underdog” culture were all born from the computer hacking days of yore. Currently, DIYbio is still in its controversial and small stage of its growth, but we are already seeing the next part: science start-ups. </p>
<p><a href="http://synthorx.com/">Synthorx</a> is one of the first companies to take on that title. It’s trying to extend the language of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/dna">DNA</a> beyond the current four chemical bases we have now. </p>
<p>There is also an tremendous increase in companies that are selling DIY science kits you can buy online. Larger companies are also dabbling in this, such as <a href="http://www.ancestry.com/">Ancestry.com</a> which sells cheap and easy to use DNA kits.</p>
<p><a href="http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/cnmdk/">Dr Denisa Kera</a>, Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, is heavily involved in the “political” side of the DIYbio movement. </p>
<p>“There is no single technology or institution, which would prevent misuse,” Denisa said on the similarities between hacking biology and hacking tech.</p>
<p>“DIYbio for me is not some teenage rebellion of a few bored graduates from Ivy League Universities, it is maybe our only chance to open and democratise science.”</p>
<h2>Counter culture</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/93477/original/image-20150901-25774-1xco01k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This DIY Mobile Gen Lab is a functional prototype of a genetic lab built into a.
suitcase. It was built by Urs Gaudenz of GaudiLabs during the MobileLab Hackaton in 2013 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GaudiLabs</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although DIYbio often produces pure curiosity-driven research, this isn’t always the case, such as with the group <a href="http://www.makery.info/en/2015/06/30/gynepunk-les-sorcieres-cyborg-de-la-gynecologie-diy/">GynePunk</a>. </p>
<p>It has created a cheap and easy to use kit for people to run tests on their own bodily fluids. With a DIY centrifuge, incubator and microscope, it brings the control of gynaecological assessment into the hands of the patient. For those who don’t have health care access, or who are faced with discrimination, or just want to do it themselves, this is an amazing achievement. </p>
<p>With all this work on DIYbio by rogue researchers or citizen scientists, the face of clinical science is changing. With a couple of thousand dollars, I could conceivably open up my own lab with services to benefit those without the access. </p>
<p>With the cheapest of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/3d-printing">3D printers</a>, I could make my own gynaecological tools using designs such as the <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:865593">3D printed speculum</a> uploaded to open source sites by GynePunk. </p>
<p>Groups like GynePunk regularly upload how-tos for making microscopes, incubators and other commercially expensive tools, by using stripped parts from old computers or DVD players. All anyone needs to accomplish this is a basic understanding of biology and the training on how to safely handle biological fluids and specimens.</p>
<p>Of course, there is the financial concern, but that is where the benefit of the start-up culture comes in. These labs are often run on a cheap membership fee. You pay a fee, come in and use the lab for whatever weird experiment you want to try, and I could successfully stay open to also develop more applicable services.</p>
<p>Essentially, hacking medicine and biology is not only a fun way to do your own science, but is also something of a middle-finger to mainstream scientific culture, which has long been in the control of academia, bureaucratic research institutes and government funding. </p>
<p>But these two motivations work hand-in-hand, says Dr Kera, adding that the largest benefit of DIYbio is that the more people there are who know how to spot a problem and react using science, the better it is for society as a whole.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leigh Nicholson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There’s a new counter-culture movement that is seeking to bypass the bureaucracy of science and hack biology for the benefit of the masses.
Leigh Nicholson, PhD candidate in cellular and reproductive biology., University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.