Day 1: Laying the Foundations, Looking for Focus and Listening to the Fugees

Because of planning this hardcore week of intense activity I thought I’d get off to a really bad start by getting shit faced the night before. Good work. I woke up at about 10am, sat up in bed trying to work out who I was, turned this laptop on and wheeled out the usual habitual routine of checking the 4 email accounts that I access and facebook. I received an email off Baby J informing those of us who work at Baby T School PRU that we have global youth work training on Friday. As an experienced freelance Global Youth Worker I’m sold on how important it is as a methodology that aims to empower young people to become positive and proactive critical global citizens so I chucked out an email encouraging everyone to attend. After posting some footage of the EDL kicking off in Leicester on facebook, having a shower and drinking a pint of water I sat down to sort out the M.A.D solidarity flyer. The aim is to have 500 copies of a double sided A4 flyer, which promotes this Fridays City-Zen, A Global Education Derby workshop on June 29th, the general strike on June 30th, a spending cuts workshop I’m facilitating on July 3rd, the Love Music Hate Racism event opposing the EDL on July 9th, For The People City-Zine fundraiser on July 13th, MIWK the midweek comedy events as well as a section explaining Sound Bites, Yaffle Cafe and M.A.D. In theory this should’ve taken about an hour tops but 3 hours later I was still pissing about trying to get Photoshop to save it as a .jpg, which it wouldn’t for a reason that no doubt everyone but me knows about. On top of this, Ferrid, the lovely bloke who manages the Place of Welcome community centre wasn’t answering his phone which meant I had to reluctantly move the Spending Cuts workshop to The Bless. Anyway, 5 pints of water later, a cheeky wank, a bit of washing up and fiddling about with a file transfer website x2 huge .pdf files were winging their way over to Foot Printers Workers Co-operative in Leeds and I was happy to learn that they should be arriving on Wednesday, which is great as I want to be able to hand them out at the Do We Need Leaders discussion on Thursday.

I was aiming to leave the house at midday to sort loads of shopping out, drop it back it home, do some stuff and then blast out some lengths at the pool before it shut at 7.40pm. As it was now 4pm I had a mission on my hands as I’d also arranged to meet a friend for coffee at 5pm. I grabbed my keys, jumped on my BMX and hammered it to Samways to buy a bike lock. Anyone who knows me will know that whether I have a bike lock or not within a month someone else will be riding my bike. That’s just how it works. Think I’ve had something like 15 bikes stolen in the last 10 years. Crazy. I said peace to Samways Dan, jumped back on my BMX and headed to the Co-Op bank where I impatiently waited in line before withdrawing £360 which is my months wages. I cruised to the Eagle Centre market, purchased some Valarian tea bags, 500grams of Natural Choice fruit, nut and seed mix before making my way to the Social Change Library where I explained to Jenny that I was in a rush, put up a City-Zen poster and returned some books that I’d been using for my recent spate of essays. There are some incredible books about Anarchism, the Zapatistas, the Situationist International, liberatory education and much more in there. If you’ve never been you’re missing out on a real gem. Downstairs is Sound Bites the ethical wholefood workers cooperative where I spent £15 on a Clementine, bunch of bananas, garlic, lentils, pasta, mushrooms, plums, baked beans, spinach and some other bits and bobs before chucking a City-Zen poster on their notice board.

4.55 and I arrive at QUAD with minutes to spare. I saw a few friends who I hadn’t seen for a while and it was nice to talk frankly and openly about the personal struggles that we face, the bad habits we’re trying to change and the improvements that we are trying to make. It’s refreshing to get away from the depressing small talk that tends to characterise the majority of brief encounters that occur. 6pm rolled round and I unlocked my BMX and cycled the 10 minutes it takes for me to get home. I quickly unpacked the shopping, chucked it in the fridge, put the £100 that I owe my housemate Dave in a plastic container along with a piece of A5 lined paper that proposed we use it as a collective list of who bought what communal goods and how much they cost. The three of us are pretty active people that are always on the move so crossing paths aside we rarely get the opportunity to discuss house issues or work out what’s what so this just allows us to communicate, if we want to. I chuck a towel and some swimming shorts into my bag, grab my keys, a few quid in coins and some notes so that I could sort some more food out on the way back.

Everytime I go swimming I combine doing lengths with stretching exercises, meditation and some mental exercises that were inspired by a book called Mind-Chi. The 1st length I try to focus on nothing. The 2nd and 3rd I think about the key values that I’m trying to live by. The 4th and 5th I reflect on the last 24 hours and the positive decisions that I made. The 6th and 7th I reflect on the last 24 hours and what I could’ve done differently. The 8th I focus on my present physical and emotional state. The 9th I focus on my present actions and thoughts. The 10th I focus on my ideal physical and emotional state. The 11th I focus on my ideal actions and thoughts. The 12th and 13th I focus on the ideal next 24 hours. The 14th and 15th I focus on everything in my life that I grateful for and the 16th and 17th I focus on my compassion for people that don’t have the things that I feel grateful for. For the following 8 lengths I repeat the process yet reducing each aspect to one length. Every 3 lengths I’ll stop and do stretching exercises whilst trying to clear my mind. This is hands down one of the most valuable and grounding parts of my day. 7.30pm and whilst getting changed I receive a text from my good friend Sophie who invites me to join her and a group of our friends who were going to 9 ladies to celebrate Solstice. As tempting as it sounded I don’t regret turning down the offer and instead implementing the plans I’d already made. I popped by the Co-Operative super market on the way home and spent £15 on pesto, raspberries, blueberries, brocolli, Fair Trade Orange Juice, jam, tomatoes and peppers. If I can’t get what I need from Sound Bites or the Market then the co-op is the only other place that I’m hesitantly willing to shop. It brags about its ethical credentials but ultimately it’s a profit making corporation not to mention a fucking bank. Oxymoron anyone? Out of a big bunch of CUNTS it’s a lower-case cunt that brands itself in a certain way and markets itself to a particular demographic. Fair Trade is an improvement but we shouldn’t lose sight that all capitalist social relationships entail exploitation and theft and with this in mind I feel that the bar of our aspirations should be raised. Yes, I am a hypocrite and yes I’m okay with this. I do what I can when I want to and sometimes just do what the fuck I like, which I appreciate some may think isn’t the right attitude but that’s also allowed. As I was zooming down the road on the way home I jumped up a kirb at pace, heard my back wheel make a noise and then I wobbled all over the shop before coming to a halt with a popped back tyre. Karma for giving money to cunts no doubt.

I started steaming the brocolli, chopped up and started frying 4 cloves of garlic, a red onion, a normal onion, a handful of musrooms and some red, yellow and green peppers. I chucked a bag of pasta on the boil and chucked any veg scraps in the compost. When the time was right I drained the pasta, added the brocolli, the contents of the frying pan and emptied the tomato pesto into the mix. I chucked two handfuls of the natural choice fruit, seed and nut mix as well as some mixed herbs and a pinch of salt. I dug out The Score by the Fugees to listen to whilst cooking and had forgotten how much I absolutely loved that album. I use to listen to it every single day in my Walkman on my paper round as a 16 year old. It was the album that got me into Hip Hop. Listening to it today I was still impressed with how powerful and creative the lyricism is and how dope the beats are. It’s full of bangers and even the commercial tunes that everyone knows are quality. The beat to Fu-Ge-La gets me moving every time. Absolutely love it. As I was finishing eating my dinner Dave arrived home so I hooked him up with a plate too and started to make a smoothie whilst he was talking to me about his day. 4 apples, 2 Bananas, raspberries, blueberries, half a litre of orange juice and a large handful of spinach. That’s the shit right there. Word to popeyes mother. Dave and I spent an hour chatting about various things including the Do We Need Leaders discussion happening on Thursday evening which we’re both really excited about. Can you create a liberated, free, equal and directly democratic society by using means, methods, values, ethics and practises that reflect the old world that you are trying to move away from? Is social change something we work towards or something we simply choose from moment to moment with the choices we make in the here and now? What do you think?

I explained to Dave I had stuff to do, came up stairs and very quickly typed out the minutes from last Wednesdays City-Zen meeting before going downstairs, putting on a shit horror film on in the background and spent a couple of hours making stickers about the general strike that’s happening on June 30th. I find making stickers really relaxing and enjoyable, always a pleasure and never a chore. The film was alright in the end although it heavily ripped off the twist from Usual Suspects. Though to be fair, if you’re going to rip off a twist it might as well be that one. I then put myself to bed at 1.30am and started writing this blog entry. It’s now 3.19. I’ll try to make tomorrow a day worth writing about whilst also cultivating my ability to communicate succintly.

Resistance & Creativity

Tao Jonez

7 Days in a Life Seeking Subversion and Solidarity

This week is a very exciting week. There is a meeting called by the SWP called Autonomism: Do We Need Leaders which I’ve been asked by Sue Arguile (SWP) to attend and participate in and we’re also organising a City-Zen event on Friday evening which is shaping up to be a proper fresh, diverse, fun, informative and entertaining fundraiser. The main thing on my mind popping off this week however is that myself and Johnny Swinhoe have decided to step out of our comfort zones a little bit and do some street performance and promotion at 5pm on Friday, leading up to the City-Zen event. Very exciting times!

As I handed in my last essay for my MA in last Friday and this week is already shaping up to be quite an empowering and challenging week I thought I’d experiment a little bit and take the opportunity to go flat out and have the most positive, proactive, provocative and progressive week I can muster. A myriad of motivations drive this decision but personal growth and social change are broadly the main two. I have also decided to document each day in my blog which in itself adds an interesting dimension as it involves committing to write daily. The fact that my daily activities are being chucked out there for public consumption shall serve to strengthen my focus, motivation and commitment to the goals I set myself at the start of the week and therefore help me in cultivating the discipline and focus that I often lack in relation to certain aspects of my life, such as cutting down on drinking alcohol, watching shit horror films and wanking. Although wanking is apparently extremely good for you so in that department I shall strive to keep building upon my previous successes.

The To-Do list...

I always plan my week on a Sunday and break down my goals into 3 broad categories, which are comprised of various projects or roles that I tend to perform. This weeks to do list looks like this:

Health, Well-Being, Domestic, Financial, Others Buy ethical food/drink
Make smoothies
Eat raw veg
Eat nuts and seeds
Drink Water
Swim x 75 lengths
Meditate daily /
Tidy daily /
Organise daily /
Give £100 to Dave
Create communal To-Do list for house
Buy Valarian root
Recycle daily /
Budget & keep receipts /
Check To Do list daily /
Cook for friends /
Compost /
Buy Bike Lock
£100 off R - Kelly
See Dad & Brothers
Go to all-dayers

Mapping Alternative Derby, City-Zen, Global Youth Work, UK Uncut, Social Change Library
Send solidarity pamphlet to footprinters
Promote M.A.D at events
Go to Do We Need Leaders meeting
Poster & Flyer for City-Zen /
Buy face paint, spray paint, swimming cap and trousers for Fri
Facebook promotion
Discuss spending cuts with youth group
Set up events page for street promotion and invite friends
Take books back to the Social Change Library
Contact all City-Zen participants
Perform on City-Zen Open Floor
Make announcements
Street promotion and performance with Johnny
Global Education Derby training

Tao Jonez, I.D.Entity, City-Zine, For The People By The People
Update blog daily /
Write x 16 bars for M Dot tune
Send Lyrics to City-Zine
Pick Megaphone up
Research Spending cuts
Pick camcorder up from Jam Jam
Make Stickers /
Make Stencils
Don’t incriminate self on blog (:-)>
Invite City-Zine articles
Film interviews with people
Film Street promotion
Invite City-Zine interviews
Write opening announcement for street performance

So, that’s the plan, how this pans out in action is anybodys guess...

With reference to the Zapatista struggle in what ways and with what successes have they presented workable alternatives to capitalism?

A tale with a twist...

Once upon a time there was a man named Rafael Guillen. Rafael was born into a middle-class Mexican family and lived a very active life in the city. He was passionate about the arts and political activism and was a keen reader of Marx and Foucault. Rafael had a family and was also a lecturer at the Autonomous Metropolitan University of Mexico. Then one day in the early 1980s Rafael made a decision that would change his life forever. He left his family, left his well paid job in the University, left the city and made the long trip to Chiapas where he joined other mestizo and indigenous militants in the jungle. On the 17th November 1983 the (EZLN) Zapatista National Liberation Army was founded. Shortly after Rafael passed away and Marcos was born as they explain:

“Marcos Montes de la Selva ('Marcos of the mountains of the jungle') ... was born in the guerilla camp called Agua Fria in the Lacandon jungle, Chiapas, in the early morning one day in August 1984... The man with the voice says that he was reborn the first of January 1994 ... He of the voice confesses that, before being born, being able to possess everything in order to have nothing, he decided to have nothing in order to have everything” (EZLN, 1995)

A decade later in the early hours of January 1st 1994 Carlos Selinas, the Mexican president was celebrating both New Years eve and the implementation of the (NAFTA) North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico, which signalled Mexicos entry into the 'First World'. Described as a 'death sentence' that would uproot an estimated 15 million farmers NAFTA was discretely passed without consultation nor regard for the devastating consequences it's implementation entailed (Chiapaslink: 2000:26). Another page in the dominant story of Neo-liberal Global Capitalism as it's dogmatic and destructive one size fits all approach to economics maximises profits at all costs. Then came the twist. Without warning 'a group of 3'000 Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Tojolabal, Zoque, Chol and Ma'am indigenous guerillas, lightly armed and masked with black ski-masks or red scarves, attacked and occupied several municipalities and townships in the south-eastern Mexican state of Chiapas' ( Mentinis,2006:xi) as they declared war on the Mexican government who they accused of waging an undeclared genocidal war against the people of Mexico (El Kilombo Intergalactic, 2007:3). The Zapatista Army for National Liberation had gate crashed the stage of history.

The aim of this essay is to explore the ways and with what successes the Zapatistas presented workable alternatives to capitalism. In order to do this the Zapatistas conception of what they term the 4th World War, the first truly total global war of “The Empire of Money” against humanity shall be explained before touching upon some of the main principles of their philosophy of Zapatismo which hints at how the Zapatistas aim to resist capitalism and instead create successful alternatives. What then follows is an exploration of how the Zapatistas managed to create autonomous alternatives in the jungle. The concept of indigenous autonomy is clarified before mentioning the autonomous health, education and economic projects followed by a detailed exploration of the Good Government Councils, their organisation and decision-making processes. Following this is an examination of how the Zapatistas managed to cultivate solidarity globally via their impressive use of discourse combined with their practise of encounter and 'asking we walk'. Finally the limitations of the Zapatista uprising is considered before concluding with a consideration of the ways and with what successes they have presented workable alternatives to capitalism.

The 4th World War, Zapatismo and a struggle for humanity against neoliberalism

The Zapatistas have an intimate understanding of the 'destructive effects of capitalist development on their communities, culture and environment. This destruction has only been intensified by the onset of neoliberal economic reforms since the early 1980s which triggered the uprising' (Chiapaslink, 2000:26) As neoliberalism indiscriminately kills millions by war, starvation and disease globally the Zapatistas have conceptualised neoliberal corporate globalisation as the Fourth World War (They consider the Cold War to be the 3rd World War, which was an ideological war between capitalism and communism). They explain that this is the first truly total war as it is a war on all fronts between the “Empire of Money” and humanity. 'The main objectives of this war are: first, the capture of territory and labour for the expansion and construction of new markets; second, the extortion of profit; and third, the globalisation of exploitation' (El Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:4). That the Zapatistas perceive themselves immersed within a World War explains how they choose to communicate their struggle as a part of a global struggle for humanity and against neoliberalism which in many respects has been key to their successes in engaging and securing the solidarity and support of the global community. Despite the various goals and demands that have been attributed to the EZLN, Subcommandante Marcos, the elected Spokesperson of the Zapatistas makes it clear that their aim is to “change the world” (El Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:3), to create a world where many worlds fit, a world which guarantees dignity and self-determination, a world where capitalism is replaced by autonomy, freedom, democracy and justice. In a 2006 interview Marcos asks:

“Why are we going to settle with saying, well, okay, good enough that the capitalists just don't destroy nature completely. We're going to make laws so they can't contaminate rivers, destroy the beaches, the air, and all of this. But, why do we have to settle for there being capitalists at all? That is the next question. We could demand that they give us good salaries, or that prices not be so high, or that they don't manufacture such trash. But why does there have to be someone that does this? Why don't we do it ourselves? (El Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:42)

Liberating Revolution from the Inside-Out

Zapatismo as a theory stands in stark contrast to the bulk of traditional revolutionary theories and ideologies of the past. Zapatismo couldn't care less about revolutionary vanguards building movements that aim to take state power, giving blueprints or even pretending to know the answers regarding what should be done. Instead the liberatory essence and strength of Zapatismo is found in those opposites. The Zapatistas aim to prefigure the world they want to create in the here and now with the available resources at hand. Means used are more than just ends in the making they are one and the same thing. As a struggle for self-determination and democracy Zapatismo is inherently a struggle against power and therefore the 'methods adopted cannot be those of the powerful' (Holloway & Paleaz, 1998:5). Party politics is replaced by “Command Obeying”, answers are substituted with “Asking we walk” as dialogue and learning become central to the cultivation of a revolution that is committed to the dignity of every self-emancipating individual involved.

Articulating dignities whilst asking we walk

From their isolated communities hidden in the jungle struggling with limited resources and abject poverty the success of the Zapatista revolution depends upon the extent to which they can engage support and solidarity from others outside their communities. They must consider how to most effectively articulate their struggle in ways that would resonate with and include others. As John Holloway states 'the revolt of dignity derives its strength from the uniting of dignities. This is where the concept of dignity as an inclusive category of struggle finds most relevance as it is a concept that transcends and includes all identities. The Zapatistas weren't aiming to gain empathy for their struggle as indigenous mexicans but instead aiming to articulate their dignity as human beings that are just like you and everyone else regardless of identity. The EZLN made it very clear from the start of their rebellion that 'theirs is a revolutionary strategy which emphasises civil society, which demands that politics be stripped from the state and the political parties and reborn in the community as a whole' (Chiapaslink, 2000:29) To cultivate a world where many worlds fit from the bottom up without taking power the Zapatistas have committed to an ethic of reaching out to and encountering others. 'We advance by asking not by telling: by suggesting, arguing, proposing, inviting, looking for links with other struggles which are the same struggle, looking for responses, listening for echoes' (Holloway, 1998:179) Preguntando caminamos or 'asking we walk' embodies the revolutionary importance of asking questions to others, listening to others and learning from others. A testament to the above can be found in the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle where Marcos writes:

“We want to tell all of those who are resisting and fighting all over the world in their own way and in their own countries that you are not alone, that we, the Zapatistas, though we are very small, support you and we are going to see how we can help you in your struggles and how to speak to you in order to learn from you, because what we have learned, in fact, is to learn' (Cited in El Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:79)

Zapatismo is the theory but what does this mean in practise. How have the Zapatistas managed to create successful alternatives to capitalism inside the Lacandon jungle whilst also maintaining the crucial support needed from the outside. What does autonomy look like? How did they articulate their dignities in a way that resonated with the rest of the world? How did they approach the cultivation of a world where many worlds fit through encountering others and asking questions? What problems exist? What are the limitations and what can be learnt from what the New York Times described as the first ever post-modern revolution?

Prefiguring autonomy in the jungle

Autonomy translates from Greek as 'self-legislation' and is a belief system that values freedom from external authority (TRAPESE, 2007). Indigenous autonomy is understood as respect for the internal practices and decision-making of indigenous peoples. Central to it's practise 'is a communities ability to handle it's own problems and to sustain itself on available resources' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007:54). Due to the constant betrayals of the Mexican government a 'central distinguishing characteristic of autonomy for the Zapatistas has become complete independence from government resources' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007:55). Assistance is received from various international solidarity organisations though the project of autonomy is ultimately driven by the capacity of the women and the men who live there to care for one another. In this sense autonomy can be viewed as the cultivation and reconstruction of the links between people 'that the system has destroyed every day for centuries. At the same time, it is based on the idea that unless changes take place “between ourselves”, they simply do not exist (Zibechi, 2004: 398). So it is then the 'nurturing of social relationships and interpersonal bonds that provide the networks in which the movements anti-capitalist frame is based' and 'allow for the creation of alternatives to capitalist and state dependent development' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007) Hollon & Lopez refer to this as autonomous capacity building:

“Autonomous capacity building (where autonomy is both a means and object of the process) is a weapon for combating the intricately intertwined hegemony of neoliberalism and coercion of the nation-state. What we refer to as autonomous capacity building, means those systems, places, and practises that build independence from this hegemony. It is an alternative to development that resists and attempts to dismantle the co-opting influence of global capital over community futures, and desires much more than a world where every corner of the earth is turned into a site for productive investment.” (Hollon & Lopez, 2007:52)

Resistance to capitalisms inherent neo-colonialist logic which aims to maximise profit by encroaching into every corner of the globe to commodify and privatise resources whilst crushing cultures and destroying the environment is central to autonomous capacity building. The Zapatistas see their struggle as an explicitly long-term project and with no end to the rebellion in sight they are continuously preparing their people for future leadership and are actively cultivating a politics that values the role of every generation in the rebellion' (ibid:50) As they say “we walk, we do not run, because we are going far”. The indigenous socialisation process and traditional cargo system causes Zapatistas to assume an extremely high level of responsibility for their communities and revolutionary action and militancy is normalised. Militancy becomes a 'non-negotiable political ethical dimension in how they prepare for the future given both the immensity of injustice and scarcity or resources' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007:54) The indigenous collective practise of cargo offers a social economy based in a political movement where individual roles are given to reflect 'their capacity, their potential, and the necessary operations of the community as a whole' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007:50) It is vital that autonomous communities operate interdependently with each other, cooperating whilst developing an understanding of each others struggle and working together to create lasting cultures of resistance. This means nurturing the distinctiveness of their 'struggles, where communities learn from each other so that they are better able to guide themselves, and where we build from the unique dynamics from our own contexts so that they can transform them' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007:60). In order for the Zapatistas to independently assume responsibility for their social reproduction, autonomous capacity building has focussed on the creation of autonomous healthcare, education and co-operative economic projects which we shall now touch upon before focussing on how the Zapatistas create decision-making processes that avoid the concentration of power and maximise self-determination.

Alternative health, education and economic projects

The health system is a 'network of community micro-clinics, and one full-sized clinic equipped with ambulances and the capacity to perform basic surgeries' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007) The clinics 'integrate western medicine with traditional healing and focus both on learning new medical technologies and recovering the knowledge, use, and supply of herb and plant-based medicines' (El Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:15) Organisation such as “Doctors Without Borders” and “Doctors of the World” have provided volunteer medics to help capacitate the health promoters in each community (Global Exchange, 2002:31) The autonomous health system has been a crucial tool when faced with the low intensity war being waged by the Mexican government on Zapatista communities. The Zapatista education system that was born in 2004 was 'a response to the general question posed by Zapatismo: what does our community need and how can we provide that for ourselves' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007: 55). As a result primary and secondary schools now 'provide sites for children and youth to gain academic skills, to study the history of their peoples struggle and to learn about the continued threats to their communities' (ibid, 2007:55) Cooperative economic projects include collective warehouses for coffee and other crops, transportation collectives, women's cooperatives, traditional weaving and Radio Insurgente, the Zapatista radio service that disseminates information about the resistance. For the Zapatistas 'economic progress is only meaningful if it makes the community stronger by stabilizing the lives of the residents and improves the capacity to resist neoliberalism's co-opting influence' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007:51) These are the three main areas of autonomous capacity building which the Zapatistas have managed to create largely with the resources available to them and with limited assistance from outside organisations. As the Zapatistas revolution is a movement against power and instead for democracy and self-determination how do they create decision-making processes that avoid the concentration of power and instead maximise the self-determination of each individual?

The Good Government & “Command Obeying”

Seen as a radicalism of the way in which Mayan speaking communities have organised themselves for thousands of years the Zapatistas have 'developed an elaborate system in which communal assemblies, operating on consensus are knitted together by councils with recallable delegates' (Graeber cited in Conant, 2010:273) The Zapatistas organise themselves into local assemblies which are collective-decision making bodies that not only function to make consensus-decision making a reality 'but also to ensure the circulation and socialisation of information that will make an informed decision possible' (El Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:14) These local community assemblies are grouped regionally to make up Zapatista Municipalities which correspond to the 'autonomous self-governing bodies called “Good Government Councils”, one in each of the five zones of the Zapatista territory (Ibid: 14) The Good Government Councils are comprised of community members from each municipality who are delegated by and accountable to the assemblies. The amount of time that they fulfil their role on the Council may range from a few weeks to a few months 'with every position subject to immediate revocation by the assemblies if a delegate does not follow the community mandate' (ibid:14). “Command Obeying” encapsulates the Zapatistas concept of democracy. Here we see power maintained in the communities as a whole with decisions being made from the bottom up and all delegates being accountable to the communities they serve. This is how the Zapatistas overcome the problem of power which ultimately serves to empower everyone within the community:

“This system of assemblies and governing councils demonstrates that the only way to avoid the division of society into the oppressive dichotomy of rulers and ruled is to invent structures where all rule; everyone at some point governs, just as everyone after governing, returns to the cornfield or to the kitchen to continue the daily work of the community” (ibid:14)

A notable aspect of the Good Government Councils is its justice system which 'reflects a culturally sensitive method of maintaining justice where there is no specific written law, where those with positions of influence do not receive a salary, and where the highest authority is the community' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007:53). The main focus is on mediation and restorative justice which has proven so successful that 'non-Zapatista communities often bring their cases to the Councils rather than to municipal or state courts' (El Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:15). The justice system, alongside the Good Government Councils and the autonomous healthcare, education and economic projects that enable the Zapatistas to socially reproduce themselves autonomously from within the isolation of the jungle are undeniably impressive alternatives to the exploitative, anti-democratic and oppressive institutions promoted by the state and capitalism yet it would be naïve and unhelpful to idealise these experiments which inherently come with their own list of problems which shall be explored later.

Sustaining autonomy in the face of state repression

In order to sustain these autonomous alternatives to capitalism the Zapatistas had to understand how to successfully resist the repression from the Mexican state. Initially the Mexican government sent 15'000 troops to crush the rebels whilst simultaneously putting it's propaganda machine into full swing which attempted to downplay and isolate the rebellion (Chiapaslink, 2000:31). By 2000 the number of troops had risen to 70'000 which is a third of the national army (ibid:32) Residents have been regularly harassed, raped and murdered, houses searched, belongings stolen, water supplies contaminated and crops destroyed by the governments ongoing low-intensity warfare that it continues to wage to this day (ibid:33) This repression 'has to be understood in the wider context of the threat posed to global capitalism by Zapatismo' (ibid: 38) As the Chase Manhattan Emerging Markets Group internal report stated in 1995, a month before the military offensive:

“While Chiapas, in our opinion, does not pose a fundamental threat to Mexican political stability, it is perceived so by many in the investment community. The government will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate effective control of the national territory and of security policy” (Cited in Chiapaslink, 2000:38)

The only way in which the Zapatistas could resist the power of the Mexican State and the capitalist interests it inherently represents is by building a national and global counter-hegemony that could challenge the system and prevent the Zapatistas from facing annihilation. They needed to articulate their dignities in a way that resonated with the hearts and minds of the global community asking them to not just watch over the Zapatistas but in addition to join them in cultivating a revolution for humanity and against no-liberalism and collectively creating a world where many worlds fit. The extent to which this is achieved determines the extent to which the autonomous alternatives being created in the jungle and the very survival of the community can be sustained.

Articulating dignities with poetics of resistance

On January 1st 1994 Subcommandante Marcos was stood in the main square of San Cristobal making declarations to the cameras and communicating to other units through a radio. Amidst the surprise and confusion a frustrated tour guide 'raised his voice to say that he had to take some tourists to see the ruins of Palenque. Marcos lost his patience but not his sense of humour. “The road to Palenque is closed,” he said. “We have taken Ocosingo. We apologise for any inconvenience but this is a revolution.” (cited in Mentinis: 2006:8) This moment neatly conveys Marcos' understanding of the importance of discourse and not just finding channels through which it can be disseminated but also the tone and style of its content. In a former life he began his thesis with this quote from Michel Foucault:

“Discourse is not simply that which translates struggles or system of domination, but that which and by means of which struggle occurs.” (Foucault cited in Conant, 2010:236)

Through written communiques, electronic mail, jokes, fables, masks, dolls, songs, storys, radio broadcasts, films, poems, murals, posters, and more, 'the Zapatistas were able to break out of the state's attempted isolation and reach others with their ideas and their programme for economic and political revolution' (Cleaver, 1998: 80) If the medium is the message then there is no doubt that an inclusive and plural world of creativity, joy, love and laughter is what is being proposed. Indeed the genius of their strategy is the inclusive language employed in communicating the cause of creating a world where many worlds fit, a cause that values justice, freedom, democracy and dignity, a cause that is fighting for humanity and against no-liberalism (Conant, 2010:15) As Mentinis explains their discourse 'consists of heterogenous elements, ranging from liberal premises to anarchist ideals, or better is a kind of synthesis of discourses that, traditionally, have been considered to be incompatible, unbridgeable and opposing.' (Mentinis, 2006:137) and in this sense has cast a wide net that has managed to catch the imagination and secure the support of many political groups and activists on the left and beyond. A popular illustration of this strategy can be found in Marcos' response to a reporter who enquired into his identity:

“Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Tsidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10 P.M., a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.” (cited in Klein, 2005:211)

In his 2010 book Jeff Conant refers to the sum of the values and the visions that resound in the voice of Zapatismo as the poetics of resistance. He suggests that the Zapatistas are masters of both the creation of spectacles and branding and that through the myriad of mediums utilised they have 'filled what might be described as a psycho-emotional need for stories of resistance in the international left' (Conant, 2010:40). Unlike the spectacles created by consumer capitalism that serve to alienate and separate, 'the Zapatista web of propaganda creates and manipulates spectacle to re-establish connection – to reject the alienation of individuals from both history and society, and to reunite each to each and all to all' (Conant, 2010:42) Similarly with their use of branding the aim has been 'not to increase revenue but rather to encourage other forms of exchange: solidarity, reciprocity, material aid, human rights accompaniment, and so on' which since 1994 it has been received in significant quantities. It is this 'careful image management, along with a clear and consistent message, that prevented the Zapatistas suffering the same fate as the multitudes slaughtered in neighbouring Guatemala in the 1980s' (Conant, 2010:41) To reach out and resonate is one part of a wider strategy that aims to create a world in which many worlds fit. The monologue however must develop into a dialogue and the spectacle must turn into an open ended situation that welcomes all participants. This is where the Zapatista ethic of encounter and principle of 'asking we walk' find their revolutionary significance.

By asking we walk towards a world where many worlds fit

The first important encounter was the National Democratic Convention of August 1994 which brought more than 6'000 activists into the heart of the jungle. (Holloway, 1998:178) This was followed up in April 1996 with the first Continental Encounter, and the First Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neo-Liberalism, also known as the Intergalactic, in July of the same year. The response to the Intergalactic was quite phenomenal with over 3'000 grass roots activists from over 40 countries gathering in Chiapas to engage in a collective process of posing questions and seeking answers. Questions such as 'How does the power we have rebelled against affect you?' and 'What is the common ground between us?' (Chiapaslink, 2000:30) This was followed up with yet another Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neo-Liberalism the following year in Barcelona which 'have been the two most central events of a process of building international networks and alliances among various political groups' (Mentinis, 2006:138) and are widely acknowledged as being 'crucial to the formation of the alterglobalisation movement and the subsequent events that were to take place in Seattle, Prague and Genoa' (El Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:13) The ethic of encounter can never be exhausted as the more people come together and share with each other the stronger they become and the stronger the movement becomes. Which is ultimately the aim of the encounter. The Other Campaign of 2005 is a significant example that will help to illustrate this and the liberatory essence of 'asking we walk'.

All of us are 'Other'...

With the release of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle another series of encounters were announced: The Other Campaign. The Other Campaign involved an EZLN commission visiting every state of the Mexican Republic in order to practise the politics of listening. The Other Campaign did not aim to impact upon the presidential elections nor pressure the government to meet any demands. Instead the Other Campaign was about creating a space for people to come together and solve the problems that politicians and governments were inherently incapable of solving. When asked about those that wanted The Other Campaign to aim to influence the presidential elections happening the same year as The Other Campaign Marcos replied: “They want to change presidents, to switch governments. We don't want the government. We want another country, another world' (El Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:42) The Other Campaign in this sense aimed to create a non-state public sphere in which people could connect and find common ground through the sharing of stories and ideas for change. According to Marcos it 'wasn't about constructing a world rebellion. That already exists. It's about constructing the space where this rebellion encounters itself, shows itself , begins to know itself' (Marcos cited in Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:40) It aimed to 'build the foundation necessary to reconstitute an anti-capitalist Left from Below – an anti capitalist Left that directly speaks for the multitudes who traditionally have been ignored, neglected and oppressed' (Navarro, 2006:47). This is conveyed clearly in the Sixth Declaration where it reads:

“We are going to go to listen to, and talk directly with, without intermediaries or mediation, the simple and humble of the Mexican people, and, according to what we hear and learn, we are going to go about building, along with those people who, like us, are humble and simple, a national program of struggle, but a program which will be clearly of the left, or anti-capitalist, or anti-neoliberal, or for justice, democracy and liberty for the Mexican people.”

From rural communities to down town plazas and inner city slums, the tour engaged with a diverse array of individuals from diverse political projects and varying forms of associations. From Marxists to Anarchists, Feminists to Environmentalists, Collectives, Unions, NGOs, Artists, Students,and more (Navarro, 2006:29) Marcos would 'encourage people to join and participate in the Other Campaign, but the backbone of the tour consisted in the hours-long meetings where Marcos and the ragtag crew of organisational representatives and independent media correspondents who followed him – sat listening to tales of repression and exclusion, of resistance and autonomous government projects' (Gibler cited in Conant, 2010:305) By identifying capitalism as the root cause of many of the problems faced – racism, environmental degradation, human rights abuse, patriarchy, poverty, etc – the Other Campaign provided a common anti-capitalist framework for many movements that have historically found themselves diverging into distinct issue areas (Conant, 2010:306) Not only did the Other Campaign generate a network between these rebellions it also strengthened them all by bringing their individual experiences and insights together so that they could learn from each other. The public reappearance of the EZLN was covered widely by the corporate media not just in Mexico but internationally which provided all groups involved with a public visibility, and a horizon of struggle that none possessed individually. (Navarro, 2006:31) The Zapatistas understand that in order for them to challenge the Hegemony of the state and neo-liberalism they need to develop their own capacity and the capacity of others to become subjects of change that can challenge the system. The Other Campaign 'is a powerful lesson in how a movement cannot put the question of what needs to be done ahead of the level of politicisation needed to do it' (Hollon & Lopez, 2007:62) The art and power of encounter, asking questions and finding common ground have been crucial tools utilised by the Zapatistas as they strived to build a counter-hegemony to the neoliberal order that could effectively challenge the system and in turn ensure their continued survival and the sustainability of the autonomous alternatives they have created in Chiapas.

With their limited numbers and resources the extent to which the Zapatistas have managed to create a new world in the jungle whilst also reaching out to inspire and engage other worlds to form a global anti-capitalist movement for humanity and against no-liberalism is quite phenomenal Through their ability and commitment to cultivating autonomous alternatives, articulating their dignities in a way that resonates and by asking in order to walk with others we find the Zapatistas strengths. Paradoxically it also where we find some key weaknesses that shall now be considered.

Autonomy or self-determination?

As explained earlier the idea of indigenous autonomy entails respect for the internal practises and decision-making of indigenous peoples. But what if these internal practises are oppressive? Autonomy isn't synonymous with democratic and the libertarian rhetoric of autonomy can serve to 'camouflage anti-democratic and reactionary practises, substituting the state apparatus with oppressive traditions and local elites. In the case of the Zapatistas, tradition, community customs and authoritarian militarised structures very often assume a dominant role in Zapatista communities' (Mentinis, 2006:144) The tradition of cargo seems antithetical to self-determination as instead it is others that determine your role rather than individuals voluntarily deciding their own and there is 'neither equality in decision making, nor are women satisfied with their position within the communities' (ibid, 2006:143) Though the Zapatistas don't receive any government funding they have been partially dependent upon other sources in order to sustain their communities which come with their own influences and strings attached. To exemplify the above we can consider an autonomous school project which was constructed by a US based NGO called Escuela para Chiapas (Schools for Chiapas) whose existence depended 'almost exclusively on aid from the United States' (ibid, 2006:146) The building itself reproduces dominant relations of power and perpetuates 'established hierarchies between the various strata of the school' (ibid, 2006:146) A three indigenous person committee were responsible for taking all decisions concerning the school with the young people that attend having absolutely no voice. 'The anti-democratic character of the school takes the form of an authoritarian and oppressive structure with punishment lurking everywhere' (ibid, 2006:149). Inspiring and effective models of democratic liberatory critical education projects can be found all over the world throughout human history. From Francisco Ferrer to Paulo Friere to Ivan Illich and all those that came before, in-between and after them, there is no shortage of theory and practise regarding alternative education. Instead of students setting the agenda, deciding the curriculum or having access to the rich wealth of critical social theory that exist 'Marcos emerges as the principal ideologue of the Zapatista youth, and the ideologisation process becomes inevitable' (ibid, 2006:148). This brings us on to the next subject of our critique, the man behind the mask whose rhetoric managed to capture the hearts, minds and imagination of oppressed people all over the world: Subcommandante Marcos.

Many Yeses or One?

That this story began how it did is indicative of the problem. If the aim of the EZLN is to create a world where there is One No and Many Yeses, a world where many worlds fit and everyone is heard then why is it that one voice has been elevated to a position of such prominence over others. No doubt Marcos has a way with words and this ability to resonate with others has been a key strategy in the Zapatistas relative success, however, it is his voice that has dominated the discourse to the exclusion of others. This has led to somewhat of a personality cult as Marcos has gained something that smells similar to celebrity status which is surely antithetical to the anti-power, anti-leaders ethos of the EZLN. This has generated 'controversy, disillusion, and, in a movement that prizes transparency and horizontalism, more than occasional disdain. In fact, by late 2008, Marcos' protagonismo (a Spanish word widely used by Mexican activists to refer to those who take up too much space, dominating the discourse and alienating the rest) had offended so many people within the movement that returning to the heart of darkness in colonial literature, he continued to invite casual comparisons to Joseph Conrads Colonel Kurtz (Conant, 2010:241) In the same way that the Zapatistas used a diverse plurality of mediums to connect with the public it seems strange that they didn't use a wide variety of voices thus clearly communicating that there's is a movement against leadership and a movement where everyone's voice matters, this may have engaged, empowered and secured the support of even wider sectors of civil society.

Humanity against Neo-liberalism?

A related point to consider would be this strategy of attempting to build a broad counter-hegemony through encounter and the ethic of 'asking we walk'. The task of uniting broad sections of society that at times have contradictory and opposing theories, values and methods is no small one and although the Zapatistas made significant progress in doing so unbreachable chasms between different groups still exist. This isn't a criticism of the Zapatistas ethic of encounter nor the importance of asking questions to others and listening. On the contrary these processes seem key to radical social change. It is instead an awareness that these processes take time, skill, energy and persistence. They also need to be happening amongst all peoples globally in the spirit of collective learning, popular education, skill sharing and developing together, constantly.
Resist & Create?

These limitations have proven extremely costly as Zapatista numbers are shrinking and the administration of Felipe Calderon has taken a hard-line 're-establishing military bases throughout Chiapas; paramilitary threats – incursions, confrontations, beatings, killings, are on the rise like at no time since the mid-1990s' (Conant, 2020:334). Also between 2006 and 2009 an estimated 10'000 deaths occurred in Mexicos drug war which means that the Zapatistas fail to compete for the attention they have so often depended upon (ibid:336). The challenge of maintaining resistance in the face of hunger and misery is no doubt taking its toll and at no point since the uprising have the Zapatistas been in more need of the solidarity and support of the global community as, of course, applies to countless oppressed peoples all over the world.

Conclusions: Just the beginning...

Lessons are to be learnt from the limitations of the Zapatistas revolutionary uprising. To prefigure a liberated world in the here and now by embodying the values, principles, ethics and practises of that world is of crucial importance. Revolution itself should be understood as a constant never-ending process of mutual liberation. A building from the inside-out, starting with self and those closest whilst understanding that humanity is an interdependent whole. In order to liberate self I must engage in the liberation of others as no one is free until everyone's free. Despite their limitations the Zapatistas made significant process down this road and have left an astonishing legacy. They understood the powerful interplay of theory, discourse and practise offering Zapatismo, their poetics of resistance and concrete alternatives that have served to educate, inspire and empower the people of Chiapas, Mexico and all over the world. The 'movement of movements', the recent wave of global anticapitalist struggle that has emerged over the last two decades, from Seattle, Genoa and Washington to Buenos Aires, Durban and beyond all acknowledge the Zapatista uprising as being the key hallmark event of that cycle of struggle. As Mentinis (2006) notes how the Zapatista insurrection 'inspired and pushed further ongoing struggles; assisted, fomented the formation of new ones, and initiated a process of rethinking radical politics inciting, once more the revolutionary imaginary' (Mentinis, 2006:137) which he claims to be their greatest victory of all. A victory which 'expands beyond the territorial boundaries of the movement... beyond all its limitations, and touches the very core of the global deployment of the project of autonomy: insurrection' (ibid: 179) The Zapatistas managed to rewrite revolutionary theory and practise and have injected revolutionary discourse with a new vocabulary as 'Zapatismo as a theoretical approach and “a way of doing politics” is everywhere' (Conant, 2010:334) The movement 'dramatically modified revolutionary iconography by forcing us to look at reality from ourselves and our desires. It obliged us to think our own thoughts' (Cecena, 2004) Ultimately despite their limited numbers and resources the Zapatistas proved to everyone through their own conviction and commitment that another world is possible yet the only world worth creating is one where everyone freely participates in its creation, a world of dignity, a world for humanity, a world for freedom, justice and democracy. To achieve this we must never stop thinking for ourselves, asking questions and listening for the answers. What questions do you think we should be asking? What do you think are the answers?...







Bibliography
Cecena, A (2004) “The Subversion of Historical Knowledge of the Struggle: Zapatistas in the 21st Century” Antipode, Vol 36, No 3

Chiapas Link (2000) The Zapatistas: A Rough Guide; Calverts Press : London

Conant, J (2010) A Poetics of Resistance: The Revolutionary Public Relations of the Zapatista Insurgency; AK Press : Canada

El Kilimbo Intergalactico. (2007) Beyond Resistance: Everything, An Interview With Subcommandante Marcos; Paperboat Press : Durham

Fox, Jonathan, Lynn Stephen, and Gaspar Rivera. 1999. “Indigenous Rights and Self-Determination in Mexico.” Cultural Survival Quarterly 23 (1).

Hollon, R & Lopez, K “Autonomous Capacity Building: zapatista Bases of Support, Radical Commercial Corridors, and the Battle for the Horizon in the Urban U.S.” 2007 Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture, and Action, Vol 1, No 1 (2007)

Holloway & Palaez (2005) Zapatistas: Reinventing Revolution in Mexico; Pluto : London

Klein, N. (2005) Fences & Windows; Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate; Harper Perrenial : London

Mentinis, M (2006) Zapatistas: The Chiapas Revolt and What it Means for Radical Politics; Pluto : London

Navarro, L (2006) The Breaking Wave: The Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign

Notes From Nowhere (2003) We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anti-Capitalism; Verso : London

Tormey, S. (2004) Anti-Capitalism, A beginners guide; Oneworld: Oxford

Trapese (2007) Do It Yourself: A Handbook For Changing our World; Pluto : London

Zibechi, R 2004 ”The impact of Zapatismo in Latin America” Antipode, Vol 36, No 3 (2004)

Challenging young people, the big society, the EDL and bedroom smells

Easy all, I hope you're all feeling well, positive and proactive. Life for myself of late has closer resembled pissing about on the dodgems than the ups and downs of a roller coaster. I've been cruising along at a steady pace dealing with the agendas of others coming at me from all angles whilst simultaneously swinging my own demands about the place. Everyone's smiling though, no one's getting hurt. Well, no one that I can see although screams from afar sit back in the mix of the laughter and idle chatter.

As my last blog post hints at things were pretty shit a few weeks back so I sat down with a pen and a pad and made a plan of action that began with the basics: Eat healthy, sleep more, drink less alcohol and more water, swim daily, cycle daily, meditate, spend time with nature, listen to the river, mix up the day with various activities, tidy up, stay organised, cultivate an autonomous anti-capitalist revolution in the here and now from the bottom up starting from the inside-out, blah, blah, etc. So, yeah, feel much better now.

Amidst the steady stream of essay writing there's been some exciting shit happening. I applied for a job with the Challenge Network who run summer residentials with 16 year olds over the summer. I applied for team mentor, they asked me to attend the assessment for senior mentor, I apply for senior mentor and they ask me to be an Assistant Team Leader, which has been a real confidence boost and recognition for my dedication and experience working with young people. The Challenge is a 3 week residential. Week 1 young people face lots of personal challenges in the form of outdoor activities, Week 2 is about working as a team, building up trust, communication, responsibility, understanding and empathy and Week 3 is back in their own communities where the Senior Mentors help them to design and deliver a community campaign or project that aims to improve their community. I think it is a really positive project but in no way does it amount to any kind of substitute for the children and young peoples services that have just been destroyed by the Con-Dem government. If anything this project could be perceived as being a way of encouraging young people to volunteer in their communities and therefore fill the gap being left by the public spending cuts and thus fulfilling Camerons Big Society vision. For me as a youth worker I have a responsibility to cultivate the young peoples critical thinking and raise awareness about activism/volunteering as being something far more effective than picking up litter, helping out people cross the road or washing up at the local community centre. We need to radicalise our young people through questions, we need to help them think critically about the world around them by helping them to think for themselves and make decisions for themselves. We need to be examples of how to do this.

Apart from working with the young people at Baby T School, helping them get through their OCNs in personal confidence and self-awareness, asking questions, challenging perspectives, expressing ourselves creatively about our lives and the world around us I have been mainly glued to my desk trying to write a 6000 word essay about the Zapatistas and the ways in which they managed to create successful alternatives to capitalism. It's a fascinating movement and what has to be one of the most significant revolutionary campaign strategies that I have ever come across. Once the essay is finished I shall be publishing it alonside the 4000 word essay I wrote about John Holloways concept of doing-against-labour and the 3000 word essay I wrote about anarchism being the key to sustainability and human well being in 500 copies of a Zine that will be launched at a Zapatista Solidarity event towards the end of the year.

In addition to the above there are some exciting events coming up that myself and others have been planning that I would love to invite everyone to attend and enjoy. Coming up on Friday June 24th there is another City-Zen @ The Ukrainian Centre from 7pm, with hot vegan food, a Question Time style discussion with Andy Dilks, Amit Zala, Ben Halford and some others to be confirmed, we shall be showing short films, having an open floor, Park Bench are headlining, James Hately shall be doing some comedy, the Bearded man and Mikey Cottle shall be hosting it and Johny Swinhoe shall be DJing, should be ace. A special treat leading up to it is that myself, the Bearded Man and others shall be doing a street performance in Derby city centre to promote the event. More details to follow. The following Sunday June 26th there shall be a popular education workshop about the Con-Dem governments vicious spending cuts, taking place @ The Place of Welcome, Queen Street Derby. A week later there shall be another open space technology workshop and on July 9th there shall be a LOVE MUSIC HATE RACISM event on the Market Square to oppose the EDL who are currently mobilising to come to Derby that day. Finally, on wednesday July 13th there shall be a very special For The People By The People City-Zine 14 launch and fundraiser  @ Quad which again, I shall be performing some spoken word at alongside Barnaby J Thompson and the Bearded Man. Then on July 24th I head off to Birmingham for the Challenge. Exciting times.

Anyway, my bedroom is a shit hole and smells funny so I guess I'd better.... erm... go for a walk.

Resist and Create

Tao Jonez

A week in my life fucking Thatcher and depression via Fromm and a to-do list.

I've been feeling really shit recently. I've felt overwhelmed by the world around me and the life that I'm currently choosing to live. I feel desperately disappointed by the collective suicide that our species would appear to be committing, furiously outraged by the amount of injustice and suffering that neoliberal corporate capitalism insists on waging on humanity and more particularly appalled and surprisingly shocked by the underhanded draconian and exploitative activities that are being performed by the ConDem government that we are currently being subjected to. The recent distraction of the royal wedding that allowed hundreds of activists to be pre-emptively arrested whilst the bulk of the population were wiping their private parts on the union jack before cumming hard to the fabricated death of someone who potentially had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 is political pantomime at its purest. It's an utter piss take and people are dying on mass as a result.
 I feel sad about society, angry about apathy, outraged by the injustice and pissed off with the personal pressures that I'm also facing. A lot has happened in my life over the last year, a lot of stuff that people who know me know about and a lot of stuff I don't talk about. Broadly speaking, without spilling too many beans, I've been tussling with a significant job loss, an unexpected house move, the loss of the love of my life, massive financial pressures, young peoples problems that I find hard to leave at the office and lots and lots and lots and lots of deadlines for the myriad of projects that I spread myself thinly across. As a result I can't sleep, I feel like the nameless character in Fight Club in more ways than one. I cant sleep, can't stop thinking, can't turn off and so I drink. I drink and eventually I sleep. I don't think I've gone for more than a single day in 2011 without having a drink which is a hard shame to share. There's so much more to this story but there always is. The details of the half empty glass have been spared as has the view from the other side of the room.
A wise man once dropped a bar about how being well adjusted to a sick society is no measure of good health, or something along those lines. Eric Fromm the renowned humanitarian critical social psychologist echoed similar sentiments throughout his career, especially in books such as To Have or To Be and The Sane Society as he explained how consumerism specifically and capitalism more generally cause people to be unhappy. Oliver James more recently in books such as Affluenza and Britain on the Coach as well as numerous other critical psychologists have built upon Fromms foundations illustrating how the highest levels of mental distress exist within the so-called 'advanced' capitalist societies. It makes sense. We live in a world where we're encouraged to buy as much shit as possible, whether it's in our best interests or not, so that a handful of corporations can make unimaginable amounts of profit. We're encouraged to feel shit about ourselves by advertisements so that we buy into the solutions they're promoting. They encourage us to compare ourselves with each other and constantly remind us of the 'things' we don't have. It's not just adverts, it's magazines, soap operas, Hollywood films, politicians, celebrities and the list goes on.
We find ourselves living in a society where some care much more about things than they do people. A world that cares more about fashion than slavery, more about status than the environment, more about fame than friendship. In the last 30 years it's been noticed how in Britain suicide, addiction, gambling, bolemia, anorexia and depression rates have soared. In the last 30 years Britain, thanks to Thatcher significantly and as a result her neo-liberal successors, Blair, Brown, Cameron and Clegg, has become increasingly unequal as a society and his seen the values of material possessions, appearance, fame, status and greed become most prominent. Everything we know as a species about human happiness and well-being run counter to the ideals, values and behaviours promoted by consumerism, neo-liberal corporate capitalism and those trying to make money out of our misery. 
According to the critical psychologists such as Fromm, Maslow and anarchist critical psychologist  Dennis Fox anarchism is the answer. We benefit from feeling a sense of connection and community combined with a sense of freedom and individual autonomy, we find happiness in creativity and learning as well as being able to do things we find meaningful whilst contributing to our wider society. I personally find this inspiring and exciting as it suggest that in order to find happiness we have to change society for the better, we have to change the world for others in order to find happiness for ourselves. This is the aim. If only everyone had the insight, inclination, energy and ambition to apply themselves towards such ends. If only they knew that it's not the ends that matter but instead the means which reflect them. If only I had a fucking clue what I was doing on this absurd spinning rock in the middle of the desert then maybe I wouldn't have to chat theoretically about what other people choose to do and  could instead focus my energies on something more immediate.
With that in mind. I have decided to make a plan. As always I began with the first question, the only question. The question of questions. What are the most important questions? How can I achieve my goals? How can I be happy? What are my priorities? 

My goals are...

Complete presentation about the 2000 Bolivian Water Wars
Complete 6000 word essay about Zapatistas
Pay overdue tuition fees
Organise the Acchord Festival with Owain Wilson
Help young people facilitate the Money, Power, Respect Global Youth Action Project
Complete young peoples OCNS for Baby T School
Ruths Birthday
Help my house mates out
Help to set up workers cooperative and promote next Open Space Technology workshop

To be happy...

Reflect and meditate
Spend time with nature
Write lyrics
Tidy up daily
Get organised daily
Eat Healthy
Exercise
Sleep Well
Support and spend time with friends

I then decided to plan my to do list for the week which, in my note book looks like this:

Masters degree, Baby T School, Workers Cooperative,  Acchord Festival
Global Education Derby report
Arrange cover for Global Youth Work conference
Film young people for OCNs
Do Baby Js reports
Arrange Co-op meeting
Meet Joe & Ruth
Meet Owain and Jamie
Remind Acchord participants about meetings
Apply for extension
Complete presentation
Attend Acchord meetings
Phone Acchord participants

Money, Power, Respect project, I.D.ENTITY, Tao Jonez, City-Zine, City-Zen
Type up notes for project
Facebook young people
Ask Jam Jam for beats
Ask Rich for beats
Burn Snaps beats to CD for Grant
Ruths present
Prepare to re-record verse
Update blog and reflect
E-mail Nappy Rash about Zine advert
Facebook City-Zen heads about Dr Matt Djing
Contact Zena from Derby Telegraph
E-mail Dan Dappa
Encourage team work and pull away as equal
Attend City-Zen meeting

Health, Well-Being, Finances, House, Friends 
Replace Daves wine
Buy food & cook/eat x 3 daily
1 organic beer a night
Put bins out on Wednesday
Collect bag off Briggsy
Pay uni £200
Ruths present
Swim x 3 whilst meditating
Meditate by the river
Tidy daily
Organise daily
Talk to friends and see Blood on boat.

I imagine some may wonder why on earth am I sharing this? There are many reasons. I feel in desperate need of change and felt that by making my life public I shall be able to tap into and access a deeper level of commitment and motivation. By exposing myself I am opening myself up to feedback, thoughts, criticisms and the opinions of others which shall hopefully lead to some form of constructive dialogue and mutual aid. Maybe someone can relate to this, maybe someone can benefit from me sharing this, maybe someone can pull me to one side and say 'Mate, we need to talk'. Either way, why not? I'm fed up of small talk, I'm fed up of knowing people for years but knowing nothing, I'm fed up saying 'yeah mate, not too bad thanks' when deep down I'm screaming something else. As mentioned earlier I have left out many details, thoughts, feelings and varying perspectives. In the dark of the relatively minor problems I've been facing there have been numerous rays of light and there have been countless moments where it's so bright I've been blinded by the kindness and good fortune. It is this light which shall form the content of my next blog entry alongside a reflection on how this week has been. So, what do you think are the most important questions that you should be asking about your life? What are the answers? A wise person once said that everything we need is within us. What do you think?

doing-against-labour and the politics of listening...

What follows is an essay that was written for the Spaces of Radical Thought module on the MA in Activism and Social Change course that I am currently studying.


Using Holloways concept of doing-against-labour evaluate using specific examples how it can help understand struggles against contemporary capitalism.

Since the publication of Change The World Without Taking Power in 2002 John Holloway has emerged as one of the foremost leading critical thinkers and social movement theorists of the 21st Century. In his 2010 book Crack Capitalism he develops his analysis further displaying a lucid understanding of contemporary capitalism and struggles against it that aim to change the world without taking control of state power. Using specific examples this essay aims to illustrate Holloways concept of doing-against-labour and how it can help us understand struggles against contemporary capitalism. Holloways historical and contemporary understanding of abstract labour is considered before moving on to his defining characteristics of doing-against-labour. With reference to the Zapatistas we explore how to cultivate and connect the cracks that our doings make against capitalism so that a world where many worlds fit can be created. Hoping to illustrate by example through this authors own doing-against-labour this essay shall be printed by Footprinters Workers Co-operative in 500 copies of a Zine that shall be launched at a Zapatista Solidarity event taking place at The Clockworks social centre in Derby. The thought of this author exploring such important ideas in order for a single person in the neoliberal University of Leeds to assess so that a Masters degree can be obtained seems almost contradictory to the cause of the central concept. The poetry found in praxis however pushes against pure theory and empowers us to unpick the world of abstract labour from the bottom and to the left.

The two-fold nature of labour...

Holloways concept of Doing-Against-Labour is central to understanding contemporary struggles against capitalism. This central concept of doing-against-labour is one that in its essence originates from Marx:

The 'two-fold' nature of labour' (as he called it) was central to Marx's critique of capitalism. At the beginning of the second section of the first chapter of Volume 1 of Capital, he states quite clearly: 'This point [The two-fold nature of the labour contained in the commodities] is the pivot on which a clear comprehension of Political Economy turns'. (Marx, 1867/1965:41, 1867/1990:132) in (Holloway, 2010: 87)

Holloway informs us that the concept was so crucial and central to Marx's theory of political economy that after the first volume was published he wrote to Engels expressing that 'The best points in my book are: 1) the two-fold character of labour, according to whether it is expressed as use value or exchange value' (ibid). Despite the clear importance that Marx placed on  the 'two-fold' nature of  labour the mountains of literature that take Capital as their point of departure and the Marxist tradition in particular have bizarrely overlooked this key statement.

The two forms of activity that Marx refers to are abstract labour and in contrast conscious-life-activity. Abstract labour has an exchange value as it produces commodities that can be sold on the market for a price that is determined by the market whereas conscious-life-activity has a use value, as in, it is performed because of it's inherent value regardless of the market. Abstract labour is the work demanded from us by capitalism when we sell our labour for a wage in order to access the means of survival and conscious-life-activity is doing what we want to do because we freely choose to do so. Abstract labour is a relationship we enter into that not only produces capital but also produces our Master, as well as the Masters of others, whereas conscious-life-activity is our drive towards self-determination.

The difference between the two and this point in general is central as it places all of us and the choices we make at the centre of revolutionary theory. We choose to either strengthen capital via our labour or we weaken it via our doing. Whereas Marx uses abstract, alienated or estranged labour to indicate the labour we sell on the market Holloway tends to use the word labour and whereas Marx uses the term conscious-life-activity Holloway uses the term 'doing'. In Holloways words:

'labour, creates capital, the basis of the society that is destroying us. Another form of doing, what we call simply 'doing', pushes against the creation of capital and towards the creation of a different society. (ibid: 85) 

Key metaphors used by Holloway to help elucidate his concept of doing-against-labour is the misfit and the crack which he places at the centre and as his starting point. The misfit does not exist at the margins but is instead the protagonist in all of our lives. We start from here 'because it is this failure or refusal to fit in to an oppressive society that is the basis for hoping that we can change it' (ibid, 85). As the demands of capital force us to do things we do not want to do and not only this but order us to do them as efficiently as possible in order to maximise profits it is only natural that we crack. We misfit, we cant keep up, we need a break, we cling on to our dignity until we can take no more and then we crack. 'A crack is a perfectly ordinary creation of a space or moment in which we assert a different type of doing' (ibid:84) As ordinary rebellious humans being forced to perform roles designed for obedient robots we naturally misfit and as a result we create cracks. It is within these cracks that our doings towards self-determination occur and new worlds are born.

Abstract Labour: The web we choose to wake up and weave for our selves...

To fully appreciate the various aspects of Holloways concept of doing-against-labour and how it can help us understand struggles against contemporary capitalism it would be useful to consider how he understands the abstract labour that our doing is done against. He notes how unnatural labour and 'the abstract sociality of labour' is before reminding us that it is 'the result of a historical process, involving the monetisation of social relations and the spread of the market that at times took place without open conflict, but that was at its core a bloody and even genocidal process' (ibid:101). As people were separated from their means of survival via the process of land enclosures they are forced to depend directly or indirectly on the market for their survival with nothing to sell but their labour. The right to fish, hunt and gather wood is abolished as the poor law, workhouses and abstract labour is created. To stress abstract labours unnatural character he shares the following quote from Krisis:

“The imposition to waste the most of one's lifetime under abstract systemic orders was not always as internalised as today. Rather, it took several centuries of brute force and violence on a large scale to literally torture people into the unconditional service of the labour idol' (Krisis-Gruppe, 1994/2004: 21, s.9)

As important as it is to understand the historical process that has led to our dependence upon abstract labour and the extent to which our social relations have been forcefully commodified over time by capitalist production Holloway is quick to bring us back to the protagonists that breathe hope into his central concept. 'Capitalism exists today not because we created it two hundred years ago or a hundred years ago, but because we created it today (Holloway, 2010: 230). It's us that choose to serve, produce and consume through capitalism and by doing so we do not only lay down the bricks of our own cell but collectively we build the prison. When considering the amount of abstract human labour supplying all of our demands from day-to-day and how our activities relate to each other via the exchange of goods and services we can begin to perceive the global web in which we find ourselves stuck that each of us collectively weaves. Holloway explains Marxs concept of abstract labour and the social synthesis or cohesion that enslaves us as follows:

“We create the society that holds us entrapped. In capitalism, we do so because the way in which our activities are bound together, through exchange, imposes certain ways of behaving upon us that neither we nor anyone else controls. The way in which our activities are bound together gives us an illusion of freedom, but in fact our activities weave a web (what we have called a 'social cohesion' or a 'social synthesis') that is controlled by nobody, ruled by the necessity to produce things as efficiently as possible, in the socially necessary labour time. That is what Marx speaks of when he speaks of abstract labour' (ibid:96)

The Nokia sirens the start to a new day as Colgate & Lynx give him the edge over his male competitors. Calvin Klein, Levis & Armani help him communicate his successful status and expensive taste in a way that makes the treacherous working conditions and less than subsistence wages endured by Indonesian sweatshop labourers seem a small price to pay. Intensively farmed animal cruelty with a nice hot cup of unfairly traded Nescafe help to kick-start his day. With regard to Breakfast what did Martin Luther King have to say? Google it. The background buzz of the TV sets the bar ever higher as Beckham bends truths about wet shaves and style. Advertisements designed by psychologists subtly seduce our desires with their lies about liberty and the best way to buy it. If he's not at home, in the office or driving then you'll find him in ASDA. He parks  by the petrol pumps, fills her up and takes his card to the till oblivious to the causes of resource wars and the million Iraqis killed. “Do you take plastic?” he asks without a thought for how it's made and pays with money he hasn't earn t yet spending more than he gets paid. He arrives on time at the office, removes his jacket and takes a seat, is offered a coffee “with milk and two please” as he begrudgingly shuffles  sheets. He enters data resentfully hating his job, his boss and the life that he leads but like the millions of people he's affected that day he finds hope in the doing he dreams. As his superior patrols the cubicles silently screaming 'SELL MORE! He thinks of the 10 hours, 6 days and 40 years left to be endured. Once the bosses backs turned he scribbles down screams that dream of another way, lyrics of dignity and doing that he can no longer betray. He cracks. He bursts into a fit of joyous laughter, takes his armani tie off, walks out and never looks back. His replacement starts soon as his appointment with the job centre looms. No one noticed, tap, tap, tap. The ever increasing consumption of finite resources thus profit maximisation remains the bottom line as humanities egg timer turns for the final time. Tick. BOOM!

The extract from the protagonists diary aims to illustrate how difficult it is to destroy the web we're pressured to weave by neoliberalism as we are enslaved by others, enslave others and enslave ourselves. The pressure to make ever more profit in the socially necessary labour time is constantly  increased until we can subordinate our doing to abstract labour no more. Holloway describes capital as 'the constant turning of the screw, a constant intensification of the subordination of doing to abstract labour' (Holloway, 2010:250) by which he refers to capitalisms aim to accelerate profit maximisation continuously by any means necessary.

Contemporary Capitalism: Increasingly screwed...

This has become glaringly evident over the last 30 years with the rise of neoliberal global free trade and all it entails, the deregulation of the corporation, the commodification of the commons, the hollowing out of the  state and the concentration of power into a small handful of multinational corporations and international financial institutions such as the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank. The emergence of contemporary struggles against capitalism have been as a result of this tightening of the screw. From the Zapatistas declaring war on the Mexican state in 1994 in response to the NAFTA agreement that threatened to steal their land and endanger their continued survival to Coca Cola ordering the murder of Colombian trade unionists, the privatisation of Bolivian water supplies, Structural Adjustment Programmes in underdeveloped countries that condemn millions to poverty, starvation and death, an economy based on infinite growth on a planet with finite resources that is destroying ecosystems and therefore the foundations on which all life depends, governments bailing out bankers with tax payers money, the recent spate of austerity measures that are dismantling welfare states in advanced countries and making the poorest pay for a crisis that the rich created. As ordinary rebellious people we misfit and naturally we create cracks, which as Holloway observes is our 'revolutionary hope, the potential breakthrough of another world, another doing, another way of relating' (ibid:251). As misfits:

'We raise our heads and say 'yes it is true, we do not fit. And do you know something? We do not want to fit. We do not want to fit in to this world of destruction. And do you know something else? Your crisis is your incapacity to contain our power-to-do, your crisis is the breakthrough of our creative-productive force. Our misfitting is our overflowing, the overflowing of our creativity, our magnificent being-able-to. So get thee gone to the dustbin of history, capital, and let us get on with making the world anew' (ibid: 251)

The global social synthesis based on our abstract labour is being undone by our doings. As misfits our drive towards self-determination from within capitalism struggles against capitals drive to maximise profit and our unique different doings eventually spill out of the cracks we create and beyond capitalism allowing us to catch rare and wonderful glimpses of a new world of our making. It is Holloways concept of 'doing-against-labour' that helps us understand struggles against contemporary capitalism as we aim to collectively unpick the social synthesis of abstract labour, from the bottom and to the left.

Doing-against-labour: Creating new worlds now...

Rather than seeing the revolutionary struggle as labour-against-capital Holloways central concept of doing-against-labour reminds us that 'the creation of labour and the creation of capital are the same process, and the struggle against capital is the struggle against that which produces it, the struggle against labour' (ibid:104). Demanding the Right to Work is demanding the right to be exploited by Capitalism. The struggle of doing therefore is 'the struggle of the working class against it's own existence as working class' (ibid, 156) a struggle to dismantle the cage not just increase it's size, a fight to own the whole bakery not just beg for a bigger slice:

“We make capitalism by creating and re-creating the social relations of capitalism: we must stop doing so, we must do something else, live different social relations. Revolution is simply that: to stop making capitalism and do something else instead. The struggle is  not a struggle for survival (that is the genuine struggle of abstract labour) but a struggle to live” (ibid, 236)

To resist capitalism and instead do something we choose is to create a crack in the rigidity of the status quo. We subvert spaces with new ways of relating to each other that resist perpetuating the norm of things as they are and instead chip away at the boundaries of what is and isn't 'the done thing'. We don't do the done thing, we do something else, something we choose something that breaks through the frozen ocean of global capitalism allowing us to access the source and root of what it means to live. Even if it's just a sip, a taste, a glimpse of possible other worlds found in the cracks we create with our doing before they are recuperated, removed, destroyed, co opted, frozen over by the cold world we seek to thaw and shatter, we do them anyway. We do them because we want to be free and our doings are expressions of our self-determination, they are ends in themselves as well as means to a new world that we create in the here and now. What I want to do may well be different to what you want to do and what we want to do may well be different to what they want to do and we are all united by the fact that we want to do what we want and that by doing what we want we are all chipping away at the world of abstract labour.

We tell our boss to 'fuck off and show some respect' before trading the 50 hour week shitty job for 16 hours doing something we love. We swap rising fuel prices and a rapidly changing climate for more exercise and fulfilment in the form of a cycle. We give our TV away and organise benefit gigs. We smile at our neighbours and play with their kids. We pull food out of skips and we grow veg where we can. We recycle old clothes and rock poetry slams. We buy Zapatista coffee and ethical bathroom bits and bobs from friends in a workers co-operative who play hard at their jobs. We make stencils and stickers so we can subvert corporate signs as we question their answers so we can reclaim our minds. We make collective decisions and by asking we walk, we resist with our rhythms and by doing we talk. We cling tightly with both hands on what it means to live. Replacing money and labour with cooperation and gift. From within our doing pushes against. We tear down their fences and climb over their gates. We swarm through and spill over and start singing new songs. Create the new in the shell of the old with our doings-against-and-beyond. Maybe? What do you do?

This unpicking of the social synthesis of abstract labour by doing from below would not however be the creation of a 'new totality but a shifting constellation or confederation of particularities. Not a communism but a communising' (ibid:210), a coming and going of freely associating individuals co-operating to 'construct through the cracks a different socialisation, a socialisation, more loosely woven than the social synthesis of capitalism and based on the full recognition of the particularities of our individual and collective activities and of their thrust towards self-determination' (ibid, 248). From the particular we prefigure the world we want with our diverse different doings as we refuse to create capitalism and instead build something new.

Our individual outward thrusts of doing towards self-determination 'is not complete self-determination because there are so many things that we do not control, so many ways in which our doing depends on the doing of others in a way that we do not determine' (ibid: 203) As we refuse capitalism and attempt to create autonomous spaces that allow our diverse doings towards self-determination to flourish we send cracks reaching out across the frozen ocean of global capitalism. The more cracks that reach out and meet up to cooperate, penetrating the ice and thus allowing the fluid movement of  existence to emerge the weaker the icy social synthesis of abstract labour becomes. The more and more that we cooperate with others to create alternatives beyond capitalism the greater our capacity to fulfil our social self-determination becomes.

Cracking Capitalism: Leading by listening without answers...

How can we connect the cracks so that we can finally shatter global capitalism once and for all? No one knows and it is in this principle that potentially exists our greatest hope. Holloway knows he doesn't know and that to pretend he did would be antithetical to the revolutionary project. He knows that not knowing is 'both a principle of knowledge and a principle of organisation that aims at the participation of all in the process of organising our individual and collective doing' (ibid:256). To know would be to prescribe, to dictate, to impose and to lead. To know would be to preach, to be the expert, the politician, and the vanguard. To know is to create a hierarchical politics of monologue where some voices are heard and others silenced. In order for the cracks to connect we must realise that we do not know.

“The revolutionary process is a collective coming-to-eruption of stifled volcanoes. The language and thought of revolution cannot be a prose which sees volcanoes as mountains: it is necessarily a poetry which understands mountains as volcanoes, an imagination which reaches out towards unseen passions, unseen capacities, unseen knowledge's and powers-to-do, unseen dignities. This is a dialogical politics rather than the monological talking-politics of the traditional revolutionary movement” (ibid: 225)

To not know is to listen, to question, to learn and empower. To not know is to love, to respect, to bare witness to the reality of others unique understandings, experiences and perspectives and by doing so allowing them to find out who they are and thus flourishing beyond as we collectively facilitate the continuous process of our becoming.

Zapatismo and the connecting of the cracks...

  “Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Tsidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10 P.M., a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.” (Subcommandante Marcos quoted in Klein, 2005:211)

Nowhere has this poetic politics of listening been exemplified more profoundly than by the Zapatistas who have managed to effectively reach out to 'others' in a way which has touched and inspired millions globally. Claiming that “We are you” whilst declaring their intention to build a world in which many worlds fit, a world where there is One No and Many Yeses whilst humbly presenting Zapatismo as their means, a politics where 'by asking we walk' they then embarked upon doing just that. From the First National Democratic Convention in 1994, the First Intercontinental Encounter in April of 1996, the First Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism, also known as the “Intergalactic,” in July of 1996, 'all attended by thousands of people flooding into Zapatista territory to meet not only Zapatistas, but each other. Any surface investigation of these encounters will show that they were absolutely crucial to the formation of the alter globalisation movement and the subsequent events that were to take place in Seattle, Prague, and Genoa' (El Kilombo Intergalactico, 2007:12) Commenting on the 'Other' Campaign of 2006 where Zapatista representatives visited every state of the Mexican Republic to  listen to the people they met Subcommandante Marcos explains that the basic proposition of a dialogue:

“is to recognise the existence of the other, to respect them, to say, s/he is other, and I am going to relate to the other, discarding beforehand, not even thinking that s/he has to be like me, or that I will make him/her my way. Like we always say 'The thing is he wants to do it his way'.” (Subcommandante Marcos interview, 2006:33)

To perceive our unique diversity as the thing which unites us and our desire to be who we are without having to fit in, our common struggle, the Zapatistas have managed to resonate with and connect seemingly unrelated struggles all over the world. The aim 'isn't about constructing a world rebellion. That already exists. It's about constructing the space where this rebellion encounters itself, shows itself, begins to know itself' (ibid: 40). Holloway points to this stating that 'the issue is not to bring revolutionary consciousness to the masses, but to develop the sensitivity to recognise the revolts that exist everywhere, and to find ways of touching them, resonating with them, drawing them out, ways of participating in the thawing and confluence of that which is frozen (Holloway, 2010: 258) To join up the cracks of our different doings we must encounter others as equals that are inherently different, listen to each other, share with each other, create with each other, look to touch, inspire,  encourage, create and take action with each other in a way that creates a network of autonomous cracks that are so vibrant that the social cohesion of abstract labour shatters once and for all, revealing all that is beyond, always moving, changing, fluid and free.

Off to the printers...

The defining characteristics of Holloways concept of doing-against-labour resonate with many contemporary struggles against capitalism, from the Reclaim the Streets anti-road protests of the mid-90s, the anti-WTO protest on November 30th 1999, to the Argentinian Factory Occupations as a result of the 2001 economic collapse, the annual Climate Camps from 2006, the occupation of Fortnum & Masons in response to public spending cuts and of course, all around us in our daily lives where people are doing-against-labour. What Holloways concept describes is an open prefigurative politics that pushes outwards from the particular towards self-determination and collective autonomy via consensus-decision making and a respect for diversity that exists within, struggles against and aims to go beyond capital and the totality of abstract labour that is killing us. The Zapatistas encapsulate Holloways theory and have undoubtedly informed and influenced the content of his  thought as it pushes from within-against-and-beyond capital. For those still looking for answers:

“There is no single correct answer to the desperate (and time-honoured) question of what is to be done. Perhaps the best answer that can be given is: 'Think for yourself and yourselves, use your imagination, follow your inclinations and do whatever you consider necessary or enjoyable, always with the motto of against-and-beyond capital' (ibid)


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