I Blame the Hierarchy

May 2, 2007 at 6:51 pm | In Blogroll, navel, not assholes, the forg | 10 Comments

Right now, a lot of people are writing/thinking/sharing ideas about living ‘off the grid’, in ways that not only reject dominant corporate/consumer models but also serve to disrupt them. I’ve been reticent to call myself a socialist or any kind of radical, mainly because I have observed, time and time again, how groups invested in a ‘radical’ label are prone to debating questions of rhetoric rather than planning constructive action. (BlackAmazon brings it on that topic here.)

The posts I’ll link to here, though, address social change on an individual, mass and group level in a way that suggests action can be the goal and the process. Right now I’m in the midst of plans for a Big Move, which brings to mind all the opportunities and potential disasters that big changes can bring. How can I use relocation as a chance to move my life more in line with my beliefs? How can I turn my own ‘radical’ self into my daily self? Very importantly, what resources can I find to move beyond what I can do and start working for an ‘us’? You know, the question all progressives ask about being a part of real change: Where to begin?

Sometimes the blogosphere seems like an echo chamber in a good way. A week ago, BFP posted the latest installment of her Radical Women of Color Series, featuring an essay by Paula X. Rojas, an activist and organizer. ‘Are the Cops in Our Heads and Hearts?’ is not a short read, but worth the time –it’s been a long while since I’ve read something about social justice and political change that recommended real alternatives to the avenues I frequent and, yes, take for granted as necessary.

…[I]n some recent Latin American experiences we see horizontal structures for very large groups, groups much larger than any current movements in the United States. Generally these movements hold asambleas populares (popular assemblies) to determine political agendas through consensus. They are used by the Zapatistas, the MTD in Argentina, and many others engaged in struggles for autonomia. Grounded in an underlying principle of direct collective power, these practices are used to avoid power cementing in certain people placed in representative roles. People gather locally, in their community or neighborhood, on a street corner or somewhere else public and easily accessible to discuss and reflect on issues that need to be decided. What seems like a facilitator’s nightmare–a large, sometimes very large group of people without a set agenda–becomes a space to practice how we want to live collectively. They may then select rotating representatives who will meet in another popular assembly to share what is going on throughout the movement. These non-permanent representatives take these ideas back to their original popular assembly, where people then report to fellow community members and gather feedback. Popular assemblies are very inclusive–even children can participate if they are interested. Sometimes, the decision-making can be slow: this process went on for a year in order to lay the groundwork of the Chiapas uprising of January 1, 1994. During the Zapatista negotiations with the Mexican government, they took a pause of several months to consult with their thousands of members before moving forward. However, similar horizontal non-centralized processes have also been used to make almost spontaneous decisions that led to the shut down of entire countries. These processes were used to make very quick decisions to shut down Argentina in 2001 and to force out the President of Bolivia in October, 2003. In other words, horizontal decision-making can be done on a mass scale (11).

These models demonstrate that every day life is political and that everyone can participate politically. Political work is not outside your struggle for subsistence or in an organization’s office or center, but in your life. For example, some of the MTDs [Unemployed Workers Movements] in Argentina set up collective kitchens, whether in joint community spaces or in the homes of MTD members. Also popular in Bolivia, this kind of shared “domestic” space became one of MTD’s most important organizing fronts.

[For citations and full text please see BFP's post.]

My blogosphere, the one that keeps me writing here, is a place of community, of serious debate and a demonstration of the intersectionality that informs the level of commitment necessary to make a different kind of social movement — grassroots in the sense that it is developed locally, not implemented in some non-profit (well-intentioned) version of trickle-down benefits; grassroots in the sense that it is large; grassroots in the sense that action is always more important than rhetoric. Sure, it sounds idealistic, but Rojas’ article is full of examples of how this kind of movement works. I’ll lay bare my naivete here: I didn’t think that was possible. But now I see evidence of it everywhere, in the up-and-running group blog AfroSpear, for example, where the free slave writes:

If we are going to really change our fortunes, we are going to have to divest ourselves of, at minimum, the excesses of capitalist culture. Analyze it and figure out how it enslaves us. How many cars do we need? Should we drive, if so, how much? Can we carpool? Public transp? These are not jive questions; we’re talking about defunding this imperialist society. We pay, with our tax dollars, this government to target us, imprison us, shoot us – globally. We help prop up an imperialist government. It must be stopped. And our becoming independent from and taking our money out of it, helps us separate ourselves from it and weakens it at the same time.

Should we eat meat, knowing that the use of resources in the mass production of it affects the ozone layer, is furthering global warming. We have to see how we are made complicit in a planetary disaster. We’re gonna have to pull our chips off of the table that they control and place our bets elsewhere. Put our chips in the AfroSpear and create an explicit, alternative, liberatory black culture.

Obviously I’m not trying to appropriate plans for a liberatory black culture, so let’s not miss the point: the free slave, like Rojas, like so many people on my blogroll, is asking reasonable, tangible questions to which there are realizable answers. The next step is action, and it’s happening, as Sylvia documented so meticulously yesterday. We don’t have to appoint a leader or come up with a name, we can start now. New blogger Lrapps is documenting her small steps to big change, and I think that’s important. We start by comparing notes; by taking the tentative steps outside the norms, and then maybe all hell breaks loose. Can you imagine that? Today, anyway, I can.

[I hope in the near future to post interviews with some folks who are making community action a reality -- who are challenging and changing the system. Not all of them are working completely outside of it, but they are making changes now, on the local level; they have a lot to teach and share, so I'd like to share that with you. (If you are or know someone like this who would like to be interviewed, please email me at ppoussin AT gmail DOT com.)]

10 Comments »

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  1. You wrote: How can I use relocation as a chance to move my life more in line with my beliefs? How can I turn my own ‘radical’ self into my daily self? Very importantly, what resources can I find to move beyond what I can do and start working for an ‘us’? You know, the question all progressives ask about being a part of real change: Where to begin?

    Theses questions reach into my own heart too and I thank you for raising them. These days, with my long commutes to work and a job that does not promote my spiritual, intellectual and emotional self, I feel the need to get my life more in line with my beliefs too. Then comes the: How? What next? And, a deep sigh of feeling overwhelmed. I guess all we can do is be aware and make whatever motions we can to start living the way we want to. We only get one shot at all this that we call life, so we might as well take the time we’re given to live in a way that settles well with our own soul not what other people think we should settle well with. It can be hard to stay true to that, though, outside influences are intense at times. For me, it’s just the commitment. I have to notice when I get off track, like in a meditation, accept it for being a part of the process and then refocus on the mission, on the breath. I know I can’t do everything I want to make the world a better place, but everyday I can try to push myself (and maybe even others) to do a little more. I also hope one day, I can recognize my own efforts as just as valuable as I recognize those of others.

    That was a rant, I hope it was semi-coherent. I’m glad this conversation is beginning, the more I talk about it the more eloquent I can hopefully become. Thanks for the writing, for the thoughts, for the push to keep thinking and talking.

    Comment by Leslie — May 3, 2007 #

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  2. I’m new to this, I guess I should use my blogging name instead of the one above, if for some reason it matters. So, Hi, I’m LRapps (that sounds ridiculous, I hope it made you laugh).

    Comment by LRapps — May 3, 2007 #

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  3. Thanks for tackling this.

    Yeah, I’m not a great candidate for living “off the grid,” just being honest with myself. not at the present time anyway. in general…

    well put it this way: i think there’s a delicate balance between retreating to genuinely build something better,

    and retreating as a way of self-purification.

    i dunno. i wish i had something more coherent or profound or even detailed to say about that at the moment.

    what i know is:

    well.

    i am familiar with at least a couple intentional communities that i really respect. (the one i know better is a gay male one so not one i’d be able to join even if i wanted to).

    so i do believe it can work, even in the U.S.

    i’ve also seen and heard of intentional communities/communes that fell apart rather spectacularly, or worse.

    i…yeah. i dunno.

    i guess even online you know i feel like i’ve been participating in a form of community-building, which to me is by far the most fundamental part of the whole endeavor;

    but in any sort of practical terms, (you know, if the infrastructure crumbles–food, electricity, shelter, yadda) if the shit hits the fan…well you know, i feel pretty damn useless in terms of knowing what the hell to do.

    that’s something i’d like to address, and preferably before/instead it becomes out of dire -need-.

    otoh, i am aware that there’s a lot of shame around that, you know, and i tend to automatically balk at anything that feels like hairshirt wearing for the sake of it,

    if that makes sense.

    sharing, now, sharing is a good thing.

    i think maybe you know the U.S. myth of “self-sufficiency” and “independence” (which may be more of a mainstream white thing, i dunno; although even my immigrant Jewish ancestors lived very differently and that trickled down very pronouncedly even unto how my mom grew up, if not how she lives now) is a part of this. i’m still struggling to articulate how i think that plays out, though.

    Comment by belledame222 — May 3, 2007 #

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  4. I think the closer we get to what you describe here, the more we make decisions and become self-sufficient, the easier institutional change will become. Great post.

    Comment by Sylvia — May 3, 2007 #

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  5. Ditto what LRapps/Leslie said. I struggle with this all the time. How do I in my own way change the system? Improve the world? These questions become especially burdensome when I’m rewarded in so many ways to maintain the system because I’m white and professional/middle-class. There is also the fear of further alienating myself by appropriation of oppression and inadvertent patronization. Also, systemic change and environmental improvement are goals that are often pitted against each other, rather than concerted.

    I’m looking forward to the series and to hear voices that can offer me options and generate ideas.

    Comment by Aireanne — May 3, 2007 #

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  6. Thanks, everyone, for your comments, which definitely echo my own thoughts about this.

    BD, I hear what you’re saying about ‘hairshirts’ (is there a band with that name yet?). salty femme just posted a good example of the pitfalls of that. Hopefully, what comes across is that I’m not interested in championing a cause FOR anyone else. I want to feel connected to a community effort for change. Even nonprofits and the people who fund them are clueing in to the fact that the people these organizations serve need to be an integral part of the planning process (although often in ways that prove to be mostly lipservice, unfortunately).

    The mainstream/non-profit conception of ’self-sufficiency’, as opposed to what that term means in other contexts, is definitely a huge piece of this. If you write about it BD, please let me know!

    Lrapps, Aireanne: I want to both look more at this sense of paralysis and talk about steps to remedy it — and I hope you’ll both be a part of the conversation!

    Comment by petitpoussin — May 3, 2007 #

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  7. It’s going to take me a long time to get where I’d like to be, living according to my real political values. The reason is simple: I don’t have that much power over my working day, so the place where I make a real difference is in my private life, and having political integrity often involves a sacrifice of pleasure.

    It’s a pleasure to eat meat. It’s a pleasure to consume; I’m not buying Manolo Blahniks, but I do like to buy pop records and gadgets. It’s a pleasure to travel around, by car and plane, keeping up with friends and seeing the world. But all of these things keep me bound to a financial bottom-line, and some of them are directly harmful to the environment, etc.

    That is why I still respect the radical approach to language, and the unsuspected pleasures of ascesis. Some people are going to be working within language their whole lives, while others organize shelters or food co-ops. Likewise, if we don’t start to embrace a certain kind of willing self-denial, we’re going to find ourselves compensating by making questionable claims. For example, that milk is always unhealthy for everyone, or that “hedonism” is “empty.”

    The kind of rhetorical maneuvers I’d like to see diminish are competitive attempts to be more radical. I’d also like to see certain kinds of “reality activism” complemented by direct access to oppressed persons.

    I did think Super Size Me was terrific, though, and effective.

    Petitpoussin, cheers for starting this conversation. I love the call for non-hierarchical networks of politically committed folks. Your optimism — about treating the move as an opportunity to build a politically aware life from the bottom up — is very infectious.

    Comment by Joseph Kugelmass — May 3, 2007 #

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  8. Great post!

    On one level I find changing my lifestyle appealing, because on certain days I do feel “polluted” by the system. On another level, though, I’m not quite sure how lifestyle changes are supposed to engender the structural changes that really will change the world.

    Consumer capitalism has a way of co-opting individual desires for change (the hybrid cars being manufactured by non-unionised workers, for example) and diverting them into concern about the make-up of finite material goods.

    On the other hand, a “first things first” approach tends to leave some people behind.

    I feel that different changes need to go hand-in-hand or else they’ll end up getting caught on each other. One type of liberation will exist on the back of someone else’s subjugation.

    But you gotta start somewhere…

    Comment by Fire Fly — May 3, 2007 #

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  9. [...] leads us finally to petitpoussin, who puts the question with her typical, startling directness: Right now I’m in the midst of plans for a Big Move, [...]

    Pingback by Why I'm Not A Radical « The Kugelmass Episodes — May 4, 2007 #

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  10. [...] My nice white lady friend petitpoussin is bringing the power with her latest entries.  One and two. Filed under: personal reflection, The Blogosphere [...]

    Pingback by All right y'all. « The Anti-Essentialist Conundrum — May 4, 2007 #

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