WEBVTT 00:00:09.780 --> 00:00:15.720 Modern industrial civilization is an astonishing testament to the power and capacity of organization. 00:00:19.420 --> 00:00:24.460 The world that we inhabit today is the product of countless generations of planning, innovation 00:00:24.460 --> 00:00:29.130 and collective human activity, harnessed and channelled towards the ceaseless pursuit of 00:00:29.130 --> 00:00:30.960 productivity and growth. 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:38.600 Every day, the global economy structures and coordinates the labour of billions of people. 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:44.010 A dizzying array of commodities are engineered, manufactured, transported to regional distribution 00:00:44.010 --> 00:00:49.200 centres and shipped out to retail outlets and people’s doorsteps all around the world. 00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:54.000 International supply chains cut across borders and continents, connecting garment workers 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.280 in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam to Wal-Mart shoppers in Scottsdale, Arizona. 00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:06.280 Within this interconnected system, each metropolis forms a teeming hub of activity made up of dozens of 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:11.080 neighborhoods. These distinct regions are linked together by an intricately designed maze of 00:01:11.080 --> 00:01:13.280 transportation and telecommunication 00:01:13.290 --> 00:01:18.080 infrastructure, as well as the electrical, water and sewage grids that help ensure the 00:01:18.080 --> 00:01:21.240 sanitation and daily survival of millions of people. 00:01:21.860 --> 00:01:26.130 And yet despite all the meticulous planning and the vast quantities of human skill and 00:01:26.130 --> 00:01:32.280 toil marshalled towards its execution, more than a billion people live in squalid, overcrowded 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:38.660 slums, favelas and makeshift refugee camps – many of which lack basic access to electricity 00:01:38.670 --> 00:01:45.040 or running water. This growing population draws little benefit from the way society is organized. 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:50.380 And this is by design as their impoverishment and desperation is integral to the machine's 00:01:50.380 --> 00:01:56.640 smooth functioning.To the architects of progress, they are the grease that keeps the gears moving. 00:02:00.220 --> 00:02:04.990 The same could be said, to varying degrees, for the entirety of the global working class, 00:02:04.990 --> 00:02:10.250 particularly migrant labourers and all those working in the informal, low-wage sectors 00:02:10.250 --> 00:02:17.060 of the so-called “gig economy”. Because this world is not organized around the principle 00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:21.840 of satisfying people’s needs, but around the endless accumulation of capital. 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:28.890 This organizational imperative is firmly rooted in ruling-class institutions and in the ideologies 00:02:28.890 --> 00:02:35.829 and structural violence that underpin them. This dynamic means that sweeping social transformations 00:02:35.829 --> 00:02:41.249 are contingent on political crises that can shake and ultimately uproot the entire social 00:02:41.249 --> 00:02:48.139 order. Yet even when this sort of revolutionary change may seem far off, it’s always possible 00:02:48.139 --> 00:02:55.079 to change our conditions for the better. This is where autonomous, grass-roots organizing comes in. 00:02:55.079 --> 00:02:59.329 Over the next thirty minutes, we’ll take a closer look at what this sort of organizing 00:02:59.329 --> 00:03:04.180 looks like for anarchists. Along the way, we’ll talk to a number of individuals as 00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:08.879 they share their own experiences of bringing people together, coming up with strategies, 00:03:08.900 --> 00:03:13.100 hitting the streets... and making a whole lot of trouble. 00:03:41.100 --> 00:03:46.780 When we're talking about organzing, we're essentially talking about weaponizing human 00:03:46.780 --> 00:03:50.980 relatonships. The relationships that you and I and people in our broader community that are 00:03:50.980 --> 00:03:54.779 affected by things, that live together, that work together, that go to school together.. 00:03:54.779 --> 00:03:59.209 Weaponizing those relationships, and then using those relationships to go out and do 00:03:59.209 --> 00:04:04.779 something and figuring out how people can physically put themselves together as material force. 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:09.420 With that in mind, it's important to understand 00:04:09.420 --> 00:04:15.960 that this takes time, it takes a lot of trust, a lot of love, a lot of passion. It takes 00:04:15.960 --> 00:04:21.680 time for folks to kind of come together and to start pinpointing what are the issues, 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:25.200 what are the struggles here within my neighborhood, within my community? 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.340 Organizing is, it's a process of building 00:04:38.340 --> 00:04:43.340 up your collective strength and your collective power 00:04:45.840 --> 00:04:47.840 The first step of organizing is to sort of 00:04:47.840 --> 00:04:54.180 break through that social barrier and isolation that divides us and often this can be as simple 00:04:54.190 --> 00:04:58.390 as getting a bunch of people into a room together and starting to talk about the things that 00:04:58.390 --> 00:05:03.890 we have in common, the problems that we share, and from there through the course of talking 00:05:03.890 --> 00:05:08.200 about these things we start to come to the realization that by working together we're 00:05:08.200 --> 00:05:15.330 in a better position to change things. Organizing is a process that should be transformative. 00:05:16.840 --> 00:05:22.100 During the process of organizing new bonds of solidarity are formed through 00:05:22.100 --> 00:05:23.560 the course of struggle. 00:05:25.840 --> 00:05:29.840 I think the first thing is to find a group of people, 00:05:29.840 --> 00:05:32.400 a community, 00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:35.360 or people in your area 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:39.180 that have a conflict in common. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:43.860 And based on that conflict, 00:05:44.680 --> 00:05:49.000 to agree to organize among these people to achieve an objective. 00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:58.420 Organizing is more of an approach to engaging in struggle 00:05:58.420 --> 00:06:04.500 People talk about organizing and being an organizer more related to building relationships with 00:06:05.100 --> 00:06:11.340 people and focusing on specific groups of people, it could be tenants or students or workers. 00:06:11.340 --> 00:06:14.340 But in this case the central focus is more on building those relationships 00:06:15.460 --> 00:06:21.700 Rather than just on one singular issue and often working to like build power with those people 00:06:23.780 --> 00:06:30.400 "After every anarchist attack, a wordy communique - Anarchist graffiti - A Greek anarchist group has attacked 00:06:30.400 --> 00:06:33.240 - an anarchist group - anarchist community - these are anarchists!" 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:40.100 I think there are a variety of different characteristics that differentiate anarchist organizing from other 00:06:40.100 --> 00:06:45.830 types of organizing. I think some of them entail the scope of the type of organizing 00:06:45.830 --> 00:06:51.620 anarchists engage in. I think by default of being an increadibly diverse politics that has 00:06:51.620 --> 00:06:59.340 a critique of domination and systems of power that is so total, means that anarchists focus 00:06:59.340 --> 00:07:05.340 on a very broad range of different issues and organize amongst many different people. 00:07:07.440 --> 00:07:13.420 What distinguishes anarchist organizing primarily is the goals of that organizing. So, it's 00:07:13.420 --> 00:07:20.420 the type of world that anarchists are trying to bring about. Anarchists oppose states and 00:07:20.420 --> 00:07:28.960 capitalism and all forms of illegitimate authority. So, the process of anarchist organizing is 00:07:28.960 --> 00:07:35.310 one that builds opposition to the insitutions, groups and individuals that reproduce these 00:07:35.310 --> 00:07:37.920 forms of hierarchy in society. 00:07:39.060 --> 00:07:41.440 Anarchists engage in a really wide spectrum 00:07:41.440 --> 00:07:47.790 of different types of activities. From things that are illegal to things that are very legal, 00:07:47.790 --> 00:07:52.160 things that are very like non-violent to sometimes things that could potentially be violent. 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:56.920 Constructive, destructive, that sort of thing. I think, part of what makes anarchism unique 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:02.180 is there's no assumption that legality equals morality. 00:08:04.580 --> 00:08:07.280 Any party based organization 00:08:07.280 --> 00:08:10.700 from the most left-leaning to the furthest right-wing 00:08:10.700 --> 00:08:17.300 utilizes a hierarchical structure in its form of organizing. 00:08:18.340 --> 00:08:23.500 They also form part of the political circus, 00:08:23.540 --> 00:08:25.940 the spectacle. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:33.160 There's just a lot of people that are fed up with politics as usual. They're fed up 00:08:33.169 --> 00:08:38.669 with the economic system that really just is ringing them out to dry. They're fed up 00:08:38.669 --> 00:08:40.580 with elections. 00:08:41.820 --> 00:08:46.900 In the face of capitalist catastrophe, in the face of the capitalist devastation, 00:08:46.900 --> 00:08:48.840 it is necessary to have this energy. 00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:51.680 There are those of us who can't 00:08:51.680 --> 00:08:58.900 - there are many people who can't stay calm and continue life 00:08:58.900 --> 00:09:00.460 in this "normality" 00:09:00.460 --> 00:09:08.480 when it is evident that they are exterminating our future. 00:09:21.199 --> 00:09:27.290 In popular discourse, the word anarchy is commonly used to describe the absence of organization. 00:09:27.290 --> 00:09:33.640 It’s the spectre of chaos that fills the vacuum formed by a sudden breakdown of order. 00:09:33.640 --> 00:09:38.300 A violent free-for-all, where the strong take advantage of the absence of rules to prey 00:09:38.300 --> 00:09:44.340 upon the weak. This vision of anarchy has long been a useful projection for the ruling 00:09:44.350 --> 00:09:49.399 classes, and every paranoid authoritarian unwilling to distinguish between order and 00:09:49.399 --> 00:09:55.920 submission. But it’s a far cry from what anarchists actually believe in, and the world 00:09:55.920 --> 00:09:58.100 that we’re fighting for. 00:09:59.260 --> 00:10:04.800 The reality is that anarchists take many different approaches and hold a multiplicity of views 00:10:04.809 --> 00:10:10.759 when it comes to the role of organization and its relationship to struggle. This lack 00:10:10.759 --> 00:10:16.200 of orthodoxy has historically set anarchism apart from other revolutionary traditions, 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:21.199 such as Marxist-Leninism, whose multiple competing schools of thought generally agree on the 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:26.880 need for a centrally-organized party... just disagree about who should lead it. 00:10:27.420 --> 00:10:33.380 For more than 150 years, anarchists have experimented with a wide range of different organizational 00:10:33.389 --> 00:10:39.019 forms – from syndicalist trade unions with over a million dues-paying members, to informal 00:10:39.019 --> 00:10:44.850 networks of small affinity groups; from federations, committees and assemblies, to tightly knit 00:10:44.850 --> 00:10:49.560 cells and loosely-structured associations of autonomous individuals. This process of 00:10:49.560 --> 00:10:52.860 experimentation continues to this day. 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:14.860 One of the beautiful things about Anarchism is that there's not one set blueprint. It's 00:11:14.860 --> 00:11:19.160 a tension and it's striving towards freedom. 00:11:21.760 --> 00:11:24.280 Anarchists hold a lot of different views on 00:11:24.280 --> 00:11:29.519 organization and the role that organizations play in struggle. I think this relates to 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:34.910 different positions people hold and things around thinking things happen more spontaneously 00:11:34.910 --> 00:11:39.720 to folks who want a higher level of coordination. 00:11:41.300 --> 00:11:44.140 The main split within anarchism over this 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:51.640 question is between individualist anarchists or egoists and collectivists. Individualist 00:11:51.649 --> 00:11:59.269 anarchists oppose most forms of organization, their focus is on building up the autonomy 00:11:59.280 --> 00:12:04.020 of the individual. and they basically see organizations as a hinderance on individual 00:12:04.040 --> 00:12:12.100 autonomy. And then collectivists basically believe in organizing collectively and organizations 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:14.340 are often a big component of that. 00:12:16.180 --> 00:12:18.340 This also goes hand in hand with different 00:12:18.340 --> 00:12:24.040 opinions on the basis of how people are organizing and interacting with each other with some 00:12:24.040 --> 00:12:31.329 anarchists being in favor of more formal organizing and organizations that sort of have a clear 00:12:31.329 --> 00:12:36.920 and defined membership usually specific sort of bylaws or different things that like govern 00:12:36.920 --> 00:12:45.339 them. Other anarchists can be quite critical of organizations and prefer more informal 00:12:45.339 --> 00:12:50.350 organizing methods sometimes this can entail still having organizations or groups but having 00:12:50.350 --> 00:12:56.780 them form for only one specific purpose or one specific type of activity then having 00:12:56.780 --> 00:12:58.200 them dissolve. 00:12:58.640 --> 00:13:01.160 There are obviously pluses and minuses with 00:13:01.170 --> 00:13:06.269 both formal, so for instance federations or labor unions and informal things like affinity 00:13:06.269 --> 00:13:11.800 groups and cells and stuff like that. But I think that there are also really key questions 00:13:11.800 --> 00:13:16.730 for anarchists in the 21st century, how we interact with the public and how people come 00:13:16.730 --> 00:13:22.040 into anarchism beyond this supposed dynamic of formal vs informal. 00:13:23.420 --> 00:13:25.000 There are different positions. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:27.420 So from more anti-social tendencies, 00:13:27.420 --> 00:13:29.080 more insurrectionary, 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:33.520 there isn't really much of a call or direct invitation 00:13:33.520 --> 00:13:37.820 for people to join up or to start believing in anarchist ideas. 00:13:37.820 --> 00:13:39.460 More than being convinced, 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:43.660 those groups have participants because of their own ideas and feelings. 00:13:45.880 --> 00:13:50.420 But there are comrades whose political work is more social, 00:13:50.420 --> 00:13:53.220 more based in people-power, who believe in organizing from below 00:13:53.220 --> 00:13:54.780 and neighborhood organizing. 00:13:55.540 --> 00:14:00.920 During the insurrectionary period in the United States from like 2008 and 2009 on, a lot of 00:14:00.920 --> 00:14:06.790 us kind of glommed on to this idea that quality is better than quantity, which I would fundamentally 00:14:06.790 --> 00:14:12.329 agree with, but at the same time, we need to find a way to actually meet people where 00:14:12.329 --> 00:14:17.050 they're at, engage them and bring them into our projects and our movements so we actually 00:14:17.050 --> 00:14:23.139 can grow. You know in the past couple decades, people were coming into anarchism through 00:14:23.139 --> 00:14:27.559 things like punk rock or other subcultures or from different movements such as like animal 00:14:27.559 --> 00:14:32.320 rights and things like that. And in the post anti-globalization era, anarchists have also 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:36.009 - at least in the United States, have really depended on kind of new cycles of struggle 00:14:36.009 --> 00:14:40.100 to bring people in. So there's the anti-war movement, you get a new generation of anarchists, 00:14:40.100 --> 00:14:44.769 there's "Occupy" there's the Ferguson rebellion, you get a new generation coming in. We can't 00:14:44.769 --> 00:14:50.480 always depend on something popping off and then benefiting from that wave of new people. 00:14:51.400 --> 00:14:55.160 I think here in Chile, we've had a chance to experience 00:14:55.160 --> 00:14:59.280 a broad range of anarchist and anti-authoritarian practices and tactics. 00:14:59.280 --> 00:15:02.820 Between territorial assemblies, between affinity groups, 00:15:02.820 --> 00:15:06.180 between liberated spaces and squats, 00:15:06.180 --> 00:15:09.440 between labor unions, between independant workers, 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:14.540 among professionals and among people who live on the streets. 00:15:15.920 --> 00:15:22.000 Anarchism happens in subtle ways all the time. And we may not think of it that way because 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:26.100 like it's not the concept that we're used to thinking, but it's still anarchism. When 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:32.880 people think of anarchism they have this Eurocentric idea of what it is, the word itself, it hasn't 00:15:32.880 --> 00:15:37.460 been around for that long but if you go by the textbook definition of what anarchism 00:15:37.460 --> 00:15:42.580 is, indigenous people have been practicing anarchism and mutual aid for fuckin thousands 00:15:42.580 --> 00:15:44.240 of years. 00:15:47.100 --> 00:15:54.760 In these territories we are fortunate that many, many of us have Mapuche ancestry. 00:15:54.760 --> 00:15:56.860 We also have that duality, 00:15:56.860 --> 00:16:00.840 or that ability to position ourselves politically like this. 00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:02.620 From the point of view of anarchists 00:16:02.620 --> 00:16:05.580 - but at the same time not forgetting that we have our own history. 00:16:05.580 --> 00:16:07.660 That we have our own individuality. 00:16:07.660 --> 00:16:09.140 That we are from this territory. 00:16:09.520 --> 00:16:11.920 That we come from a colonized territory. 00:16:12.500 --> 00:16:16.257 That our history and our practices and our visions of anarchism 00:16:16.260 --> 00:16:19.400 aren't going to be 100% the same as the anarchist comrades 00:16:19.400 --> 00:16:23.800 from Palestine, Rojava, or Europe, 00:16:24.340 --> 00:16:27.280 or from other parts of Latin America. 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:33.160 You know when people are faced with really horrible things in their everyday life, whether 00:16:33.170 --> 00:16:37.739 it's eviction, watching people be deported, stuff that's happening on their job, a pipeline 00:16:37.739 --> 00:16:42.360 going through their land... We really want to have people know that there's a community 00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:46.939 of people in revolt that they can turn to, that they can then organize with to fight 00:16:46.939 --> 00:16:51.449 back and to really hurt their enemies to the point at least where they're not able to do 00:16:51.449 --> 00:16:53.140 what they're trying to do. 00:17:00.520 --> 00:17:07.080 A good organizer has many tools in their toolbox. The trick is to know which tool to use when, 00:17:07.080 --> 00:17:13.260 and to replace them when they stop working. This applies just as much to anarchists as 00:17:13.260 --> 00:17:19.440 it does any other type of organizer. The main difference is what we’re trying to build. 00:17:20.060 --> 00:17:25.740 Anarchism is based on the principle of self-organization. This is directly connected to the type of 00:17:25.740 --> 00:17:30.500 world that anarchists seek to create. A world in which people can come 00:17:30.500 --> 00:17:37.100 to collective decisions and take action autonomously, without waiting for orders or permission from above. 00:17:37.100 --> 00:17:43.280 Anarchist organizing begins with the fostering of self-directed struggle. It involves agitating 00:17:43.280 --> 00:17:48.380 and encouraging people to to take action directly to solve their problems. Without appealing to those 00:17:48.380 --> 00:17:51.780 higher up the social ladder. From this starting 00:17:51.780 --> 00:17:56.840 point, there are many different paths that you can take. Wherever you decide to go, the 00:17:56.840 --> 00:17:59.460 most important step is your first. 00:18:04.780 --> 00:18:10.200 Strategy and tactics are intimately connected, yet separate things. 00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:16.030 You start off with a specific goal or a vision. Something that you want to accomplish, or 00:18:16.030 --> 00:18:21.540 achieve, or want to challenge. And then your strategy is your plan of how you want to achieve 00:18:21.540 --> 00:18:27.900 that goal. And then the tactics would be all the specific actions, activities and approaches 00:18:27.900 --> 00:18:31.210 that would sort of come together to help you in meeting that goal. 00:18:31.460 --> 00:18:36.360 The strategy that you choose will determine the type of activity that you engage in. When 00:18:36.360 --> 00:18:41.910 your tactics are successful, or if they repeatedly fail, go back and make adjustments to your 00:18:41.910 --> 00:18:45.830 strategy. Once you’ve made those adjustments to your strategy, you will then try to come 00:18:45.830 --> 00:18:47.600 up with different tactics. 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:52.230 These things have to reinforce each other, and we have to also constantly be evaluating 00:18:52.230 --> 00:18:53.560 back and forth. 00:18:53.720 --> 00:18:58.980 You have to just do it. You gotta do it. You gotta kind of be there on the front lines, 00:18:58.980 --> 00:19:00.960 putting in that work. 00:19:00.900 --> 00:19:05.140 On the one hand, we visualize, theorize, develop our politics, 00:19:05.140 --> 00:19:07.640 basically thinking on what it is we want - what we're seeking. 00:19:08.100 --> 00:19:10.500 On the other hand, we start taking action 00:19:10.500 --> 00:19:14.120 and we see how specifically we can make those ideas real. 00:19:19.080 --> 00:19:23.500 We're all individuals. But everyone has their role. 00:19:24.020 --> 00:19:26.240 In Chile we're lucky, 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:28.080 somewhat ironically, 00:19:28.080 --> 00:19:30.340 that we have a history full of conflict. 00:19:30.340 --> 00:19:33.000 A history of political persecution 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:34.400 and of riots. 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:37.351 So conflicts and objectives have always been present. 00:19:37.360 --> 00:19:40.940 The strategies and tactics that have been used in general 00:19:40.940 --> 00:19:42.660 have been pretty broad. 00:19:43.340 --> 00:19:47.219 The tactics that are winning these days can be inspired by other struggles. 00:19:47.220 --> 00:19:53.160 For example the tactics inspired by the conflict in Hong Kong. 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:55.000 The idea of using lasers 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:58.780 and of using water jugs to put out tear gas cannisters. 00:19:58.780 --> 00:20:03.660 These are internationally used resistance and street fighting practices. 00:20:03.660 --> 00:20:06.080 Then there's blocking the street. 00:20:06.080 --> 00:20:08.820 There are barricades - different kinds too. 00:20:08.820 --> 00:20:11.560 There's barricades of fire, or barricades of stones. 00:20:11.560 --> 00:20:17.200 There are comrades who rescue and help those who are injured. 00:20:32.580 --> 00:20:38.370 The world that we live in, how we engage with things, even how we come to think about things 00:20:38.370 --> 00:20:45.060 is going to necessarily be influenced by the material conditions that we exist in. 00:20:47.560 --> 00:20:54.340 The kind of classic Marxist quote: “People change history, but not in the conditions of their 00:20:54.340 --> 00:21:00.790 own choosing.” That it is these conditions, these material realities, that impact not 00:21:00.790 --> 00:21:07.130 only people’s lives, but also their consciousness. And that you can’t just think your way outside 00:21:07.130 --> 00:21:11.260 of those things–or that there is no outside of it. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:17.740 Capitalism is constantly changing the face of work, of social life, of the way people 00:21:17.740 --> 00:21:21.900 are alienated from each other. So we need to be constantly kind of reevaluating, y’know... 00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:26.820 ‘what is life like?’ And what are the possibilities for revolt against the kind 00:21:26.820 --> 00:21:29.500 of lives that we’re forced to lead? 00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:37.780 How can we really get to the nitty gritty of, like, alright... what’s going on here? 00:21:37.780 --> 00:21:39.410 How are we gonna fix it? 00:21:39.410 --> 00:21:45.240 People change the world around them through their actions. And so we can have an effect 00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:51.450 on our material conditions, and we can change them—through struggle. The flip-side to 00:21:51.450 --> 00:21:58.440 that is that the state can change conditions in order to remove the fuel for struggles. 00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:05.960 I think it’s important to understand how power is organized, and the specifics of how 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:07.740 it operates. 00:22:09.180 --> 00:22:13.290 The kind of world that we want doesn’t exist yet. It can only be built on the ashes of 00:22:13.290 --> 00:22:19.830 this one. But at the same time, we’re trying to create new ways of relating to each other. 00:22:19.830 --> 00:22:24.090 New ways of solving problems, new ways of engaging in action, new ways of carrying out 00:22:24.090 --> 00:22:31.440 things like work that look towards the possibilities of new forms of life that don’t exist yet. 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:37.940 If you want a future society that is free form hierarchy and domination, if you want 00:22:37.940 --> 00:22:43.790 a future society where people have autonomy and are treated equally, how you’re engaging 00:22:43.790 --> 00:22:47.320 today has to reflect these values. 00:22:48.940 --> 00:22:54.120 Sometimes we kinda have to take these chances and these risks, and try these alternative 00:22:54.140 --> 00:22:55.600 ways of doing things. 00:22:55.740 --> 00:23:01.940 Follow conflicts around the world that can also serve as inspiration. 00:23:01.940 --> 00:23:05.740 So that we can have new experiences. New ways of attacking. 00:23:05.740 --> 00:23:09.980 New forms of resistance within the territories in conflict. 00:23:12.220 --> 00:23:21.020 To the extent possible, revolutionary movements should be creating a counter-society and removing 00:23:21.020 --> 00:23:24.360 themselves from state and capitalist institutions as much as possible. 00:23:25.840 --> 00:23:32.400 Basically what we can do is orient our efforts towards building competing centres of legitimacy 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:38.360 that are communal. That exist in opposition to the state, to the police and to capital. 00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:43.780 We wanna prefigure the world that we wanna see and the relationships that we’re building. 00:23:43.790 --> 00:23:47.720 Both in terms either of, y’know, building some sort of dual power or autonomous power 00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:52.020 from the ground-up to meet our everyday needs, but also in terms of the struggles that we’re 00:23:52.020 --> 00:23:56.000 engaging in. You know, those relationships should prefigure a different kind of mode 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:00.970 of life. And also, y’know, bring people into new ways of engaging with each other, 00:24:00.970 --> 00:24:07.160 new ways of talking, new ways of solving problems. Insurrection and dual power of course need 00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:11.350 each other. As the saying goes, ‘the force of insurrection is social, not military.’ 00:24:11.350 --> 00:24:15.350 And to create a social force requires, y’know, real infrastructure and space that we can 00:24:15.350 --> 00:24:19.200 call our own. And the ability to use that space in order to fight back. 00:24:28.230 --> 00:24:34.380 On December 1st, 2019, a 55 year old resident of Hubei province walked into a hospital in 00:24:34.380 --> 00:24:39.760 Wuhan with an apparent case of pneumonia. This was the first documented instance of 00:24:39.760 --> 00:24:45.730 COVID-19, a novel strain of Corona Virus that has since swept across the globe and turned 00:24:45.730 --> 00:24:48.640 daily life upside-down for billions of people. 00:24:51.120 --> 00:24:53.200 At the time these words are being written, 00:24:53.210 --> 00:24:57.830 we appear to be at the precipice of a mass social and economic breakdown on a scale not 00:24:57.830 --> 00:25:04.910 seen in the past century. If nothing else, this pandemic has exposed the myth of capitalism’s 00:25:04.910 --> 00:25:11.530 infallibility and laid its weaknesses bare. It has also demonstrated the need to be able 00:25:11.530 --> 00:25:17.560 to quickly adapt our strategies and tactics to confront rapidly changing realities. Slowly 00:25:17.560 --> 00:25:24.830 at first, and then all of a sudden, our mobility and ability to associate have been curtailed, 00:25:24.830 --> 00:25:30.360 and time-honoured tactics such as rallies, marches, door-knocking and even handing out 00:25:30.360 --> 00:25:32.420 flyers have been taken away. 00:25:33.860 --> 00:25:39.370 But as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. In times of social and political 00:25:39.370 --> 00:25:44.760 upheaval, hold fast to your principles. Rid yourself of dogmatism. Keep your eyes on the 00:25:44.760 --> 00:25:49.660 prize. And brace yourself to meet whatever challenges come your way. 00:25:53.780 --> 00:25:59.340 Anarchism is a beautiful, amazing thing and has done a lot of great things historically. 00:25:59.340 --> 00:26:06.600 Also, it's often something that fails. And, I think failure is okay, and there is often 00:26:06.600 --> 00:26:11.140 a lot of value in things that I’ve come to take away even in times there has been 00:26:11.140 --> 00:26:16.580 big failures or struggles. Saying you’re anarchist, and you’re getting involved in 00:26:16.580 --> 00:26:21.830 anarchist organizing and struggle, whatever that looks like, you are declaring yourself 00:26:21.830 --> 00:26:27.700 to be very openly against many of the things that currently exist, like the state, the 00:26:27.700 --> 00:26:33.130 police and capitalism. And, you should just realize from the beginning that that sometimes 00:26:33.130 --> 00:26:35.100 has consequences. 00:26:38.520 --> 00:26:44.320 Take yourself seriously. Once you declare yourself an enemy of the state, the state 00:26:44.320 --> 00:26:48.740 will take that very seriously as a threat. Jail sucks and once you have a criminal record 00:26:48.740 --> 00:26:53.680 it makes things more difficult for you in the future, so you should take adequate steps 00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:57.390 to try to protect yourself and avoid unnecessary arrests. 00:26:58.380 --> 00:27:01.960 What are the major things going around that you could actually impact with people that 00:27:01.970 --> 00:27:05.710 you're close to, that you have a relationship with. And whether that’s at your workplace 00:27:05.710 --> 00:27:08.780 or that’s at your school, whether that’s in the neighbourhood, you know something going 00:27:08.780 --> 00:27:12.980 with the police, something going on with massive amounts of gentrification, whether there’s 00:27:12.980 --> 00:27:17.300 a resource extraction project happening on the land base that you’re on. From that 00:27:17.300 --> 00:27:22.130 understanding that analysis, then going about how would you begin to organize and bring 00:27:22.130 --> 00:27:26.930 people together and begin to act and begin to engage in such a way that begins to push 00:27:26.930 --> 00:27:32.310 back that, you know, puts your own interest forward and starts to attack those of the 00:27:32.380 --> 00:27:33.980 dominant class. 00:27:35.540 --> 00:27:39.360 The Police 00:27:39.360 --> 00:27:42.760 The Judges 00:27:42.760 --> 00:27:46.180 The State 00:27:46.180 --> 00:27:50.260 The President 00:27:50.260 --> 00:27:57.560 The oppressive state is the rapist 00:27:57.560 --> 00:28:01.020 The rapist is you 00:28:05.340 --> 00:28:11.200 Certain groups want to assert their power and ownership over you, and over your body, 00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:17.680 what you have to say. This is not about ownership, this is not about who owns the revolution, 00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:21.500 or who owns the struggle, like were all in this shit together. And if somebody is not 00:28:21.520 --> 00:28:25.060 willing to struggle it out, like let’s say you’re calling them out on patriarchy or 00:28:25.060 --> 00:28:29.840 whatever the fuck it is, if they’re not willing to struggle it out with you than that 00:28:30.840 --> 00:28:35.500 shows that obviously that individual or that entity or whatever… like, they don’t give 00:28:35.500 --> 00:28:42.340 a fuck. If people are truly invested in the struggle than when shit comes about you’re 00:28:42.340 --> 00:28:47.460 going to be able to struggle it out. Even if it takes time, even if you have to stop 00:28:47.520 --> 00:28:51.380 organizing for a bit until you work shit out. 00:28:53.840 --> 00:29:01.000 I would invite fellow anarchist comrades 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:04.460 to realize that we have the potential to organize ourselves, 00:29:04.460 --> 00:29:09.420 to hold positions and politics that are intersectional 00:29:09.420 --> 00:29:13.360 with people who may not necessarily be anarchists. 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:18.120 To those who embrace anti-speciesist ideas. 00:29:18.120 --> 00:29:20.560 To those who embrace anti-patriarchal ideas. 00:29:20.560 --> 00:29:22.620 To those who embrace ideas and spirituality. 00:29:22.620 --> 00:29:29.080 To those who rescue some of the ancestry lost to these centuries of colonization 00:29:29.080 --> 00:29:36.100 that European, western, white hetero-patriarchy has imposed on us 00:29:36.100 --> 00:29:37.220 - has snatched. 00:29:37.740 --> 00:29:41.460 You’re saying you’re against all these things, and you’re going to be fighting 00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:45.880 against all these things. Obviously, sometimes, there’s pushback, and there’s difficulties 00:29:45.880 --> 00:29:48.720 and stuff in your life that you’re going to have to push through. 00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:53.180 After you do an action, you know, take some time with your comrades and sit down and reflect 00:29:53.190 --> 00:29:57.190 critically on what you did well, and what you could have done better. And then, try 00:29:57.190 --> 00:30:01.730 to incorporate the lessons you’ve learned through your own experiences into your future 00:30:01.730 --> 00:30:02.730 organizing. 00:30:02.730 --> 00:30:07.640 And we really got to think about, like, “okay, when we do this, how do we actually win? 00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:16.140 Like, we wanna actually be able to do damage against people that are hurting us, we wanna be able 00:30:16.140 --> 00:30:21.320 hit back in such a way that expands our influence, our confidence, you know, the spaces that 00:30:21.320 --> 00:30:26.460 we hold. We need to actually find ways of intersecting with people that are interested 00:30:26.460 --> 00:30:30.710 and then bringing them on board, involve them in struggle, and have them be forced to pick 00:30:30.710 --> 00:30:36.400 a side that literally supports illegal, anti-capitalist modes of action, and gets people thinking 00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:40.740 about the possibilities of what they could do if there was a movement behind them to 00:30:40.740 --> 00:30:43.600 better their own lives and conditions. 00:30:53.640 --> 00:31:00.010 We live in a time when despair comes easily. A steady flow of bad news keeps us constantly 00:31:00.010 --> 00:31:06.330 on edge. Massive fires ravage Australia for months on end. Police departments outfit their 00:31:06.330 --> 00:31:13.250 body cameras with AI-driven facial recognition software. A family in Idlib freezes to death 00:31:13.250 --> 00:31:19.620 after their makeshift refugee camp is bombed. Emergency ordinances outlaw all public gatherings 00:31:19.620 --> 00:31:26.140 of three or more people. Confronted with all this, there’s no shortage of reasons why 00:31:26.140 --> 00:31:32.020 any rational person might feel viscerally discouraged and utterly depressed. And that 00:31:32.020 --> 00:31:37.309 is especially true for revolutionaries who consistently find our hopeful idealism swallowed 00:31:37.309 --> 00:31:40.690 up by feelings of bitter resignation and defeat. 00:31:40.690 --> 00:31:46.460 But when this despair comes, it is important to remember that we are not alone. That there 00:31:46.460 --> 00:31:51.290 are many other people who share our sense of grief, anxiety... and most importantly, 00:31:51.290 --> 00:31:57.210 outrage. That we are part of a long and proud lineage of struggle. And that victories are 00:31:57.210 --> 00:32:02.850 still possible. Armed with this knowledge, and conscious of our own capabilities, opportunities 00:32:02.850 --> 00:32:08.920 and limitations, we can turn our attention back to the task at hand, which is, as always, 00:32:08.920 --> 00:32:12.850 to build our collective power, and increase our shared capacity to resist. 00:32:13.460 --> 00:32:17.100 So at this point, we’d like to remind you that Trouble is intended to be to be used 00:32:17.100 --> 00:32:22.090 as a resource to promote discussion and collective organizing. Are you interested in stepping 00:32:22.090 --> 00:32:26.510 up your organizing game? Looking to launch a new initiative, but not quite sure where 00:32:26.510 --> 00:32:31.840 to begin? Consider connecting with some comrades, organizing an online viewing party of this 00:32:31.840 --> 00:32:34.560 film, and discussing where to get started. 00:32:35.420 --> 00:32:39.620 Interested in running regular screenings of Trouble at your campus, infoshop, community 00:32:39.660 --> 00:32:45.220 centre, or even just at home with friends? Well don’t! We appreciate the support, but 00:32:45.220 --> 00:32:50.140 that’s probably not a great idea right now. Instead, why not set up a discussion group 00:32:50.140 --> 00:32:54.480 with some friends, each watch the episode on your own screens at home, and then go through 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:59.540 the online screening kit on our website for links to additional resources, and some questions 00:32:59.540 --> 00:33:01.560 to help frame your conversation. 00:33:02.900 --> 00:33:08.260 Also just a reminder that here at subMedia, we depend entirely on donations from our viewers 00:33:08.260 --> 00:33:12.740 to keep things going... so if you’re able to pitch in to help support us, please do 00:33:12.740 --> 00:33:19.141 so at sub.media/donate. If you can’t afford to support us financially, no worries! You 00:33:19.141 --> 00:33:25.560 can stream and/or download all our content for free off our website: sub.media/trouble. 00:33:26.920 --> 00:33:32.220 This episode would not have been possible without the generous support of Josh, Murph, 00:33:32.220 --> 00:33:36.730 Sam, Tal, La Conxa, and the good folks at IGD. 00:33:36.730 --> 00:33:40.680 Lastly, we’re sad to announce that this will be the last episode of Trouble for the 00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:45.610 foreseeable future. It’s been an awesome run, but the subMedia crew has decided that 00:33:45.610 --> 00:33:50.120 it’s time to move onto new projects. And to make that possible, we’ve decided to 00:33:50.120 --> 00:33:55.960 pull the plug on Trouble. Given that we can’t meet up in person for the foreseeable future, 00:33:55.960 --> 00:34:01.290 it seems like the perfect time to make this change. We want to assure all you Troublemakers 00:34:01.290 --> 00:34:05.900 out there that we have some exciting new plans in the works that we think you’re going 00:34:05.900 --> 00:34:10.950 to love... so stay tuned! And to everyone who has organized screenings, sent us ideas 00:34:10.950 --> 00:34:15.639 for show topics, constructive criticism or positive feedback about the show... thank 00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:20.740 you from the bottom of our hearts! Your support has been truly humbling, and we hope that 00:34:20.740 --> 00:34:24.920 the 24 episodes that we’ve cranked out will continue to serve as useful organizing tools 00:34:24.920 --> 00:34:26.210 for years to come. 00:34:26.210 --> 00:34:29.300 Now get out there…. and make some trouble!