:: Communities of/in Resistance ::

ìWe must believe that it is the darkest before the dawn of a beautiful new world. We will see it when we believe it.î ñ Saul Alinsky

Between circulating moments of rupture, through circuits and cycles of struggle, are the processes through which communities are formed in resistance. By confronting and overcoming forms of exploitation and oppression new affective bonds and solidarity grow, turning collections of people who occupy the same physical space or time into arrangements united in understandings of their position and ways in which it can be overcome. Whether building and reclaiming new forms of commons through the planting of food or demanding that housing is a right that should be available to one and all, the creation of command demands and their victories creates new forms of common experience and connection that are generated through and by resistance.

The tactics and politics of direct action are important in these experiences, basing themselves upon struggles that do not make demands upon the state. Solutions for common problems are found without taking recourse to demanding that the state intercedes; action is taken based upon the notion that the authority of the state is illegitimate and that one undermines by acting based upon this understanding. Direct action becomes a strategy and tactic that is not just about the goals of the actions and struggles and goals in question but also the process through which these occur. It is not just about putting our bodies on the line to oppose the working of any number of questionable financial institutions or state structures (as important as these might be), but also about finding solutions to the problems we face through common struggle and creativity.

The formation of communities of/in resistance is about being open to reality that opportunities for forming communities often comes from tactics and places where we might not usually expect them or look for them. The weaving of new social bonds can happen while crafting resistance in front of a chain link fence or in the warmth of a shared meal, it can be grown on the grounds of a community garden or ever a coffee shared during a boycott. Far from excluding people who are not able to participate direct action is not as much about the particular tactics that are used, but rather that the strategies that are employed based upon the common social wealth found within our communities. This wealth does not need the state to exist, it simply does. Moving between the providing of resources that people need to survive and the campaigns to secure them, collectively reclaiming the materials of life is both a form of political action and shared joy.