Work with the Solidarity Collective is a slow process where every step forward is met with new challenges. The attempt by authorities to derail the organization using the courts is just the latest iteration. But progress is being made. As a precaution some members of the collective who are more familiar with the world of legalese decide to take steps pre-emptively to outmaneuver the courts by putting in place an array of third party shell companies that hold your monies and make purchases on behalf of the collective. It feels a bit greasy to be using the same tools used by corporations to hide revenues and avoid taxation, but they brought this battle to you. If the system provides loopholes that allow corrupt millionaires to hide their money, then why not use those same loopholes to fight against the corruption of the system? With the crisis somewhat resolved for now, you can breathe a little easier while you carry on with your plans to establish a housing co-op with other members of the collective, despite the threats from the courts.
You have made the first step down the long road towards a non-capitalist society. A more equitable society, where collectives own the means of production that create the goods that they consume, and people manage their own resources to meet the needs of their community. An economy that uses such collectives as its basic economic unit is called the anarcho-syndicalist model. In this alternative economic model, collectives (or co-ops) form the base economic unit. Co-ops have several advantages over their privately owned counterparts. For starts, when a business owner pays their employees for their labour, the owner is making more money from their labour productivity than the amount that the worker is paid. This is exemplified in textile factories, where workers earn a few dollars a day to make products that are sold for more money than the workers earn in a week. This is the mechanism that allows for the centralization of wealth that leads to the income inequality that is so prevalent in our society. This does not happen in a syndicalist economy where businesses are collectively owned by the workers and profits are shared. Secondly, a co-operative is designed to provide a particular service and to cover its costs, whereas private companies need to make a profit or go out of business. This is what fuels the economic growth imperative; when our economy does not grow, the markets crash. There is no way to make capitalism sustainable when there is an intrinsic need for expansion built into the framework of the economy. Co-ops on the other hand can prioritise ethical management and sustainability without the pressure to turn a profit. Syndicalism differs from Marxism in that collectives of worker cooperatives, like farms and factories, negotiate freely with consumer cop-ops, like hospitals and grocery stores, in something similar to a “free market” environment to determine the labour and resources required to meet everyone’s needs. Individuals are no longer alienated from their work because they have decision making power through their co-op and can be involved in system design. This creates a more equitable and democratic economy that still allows for innovation and self-directed choices that are unavailable in a state run authoritarian economy such as communism or fascism.
Your housing co-op is a consumer co-op and you buy your food and building materials from worker co-ops created by the solidarity collective. But for the moment, none of that matters so much as how are you going to celebrate this achievement? Packing the house with friends and family is a great way to make a place yours, so you organize a house show starting with a homegrown feast. You start preparing food in the morning, beginning with a hearty stock. By suppertime the entire dining room table and every countertop in the kitchen is so filled with food that everyone gathered sits eating with their plate on their lap. You’re surrounded by the strongest most beautiful, courageous people you’ve ever known, it fills your heart with joy to see the community thriving and doing so well after overcoming such adversity. It occurs to you that it’s one thing to fight in opposition to injustice, but it’s quite another to fight for that which you love. As you sit down to break bread with your community, you announce a toast to the revolution. Everyone raises their glasses and drinks in solidarity. As the sun begins to set, the band begins to play and you dance barefoot in the warm summer night. As Emma Goodman once said: “If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution.”
It’s not long, however, before your politics put you at odds with the authorities yet again, and you are faced with another moral dilemma.
Aside from naming the activities of the Solidarity Collective as criminal, the government has been cracking down on other groups too. Charities and advocacy groups have been coming under fire for being too political forcing some to change their mandate or risk losing their tax exempt status. There has also been a major shift in government rhetoric to attempt to characterize environmentalists and social justice activists as a threat to national security. New laws give the police and spy agencies sweeping abilities to target organizations for causing economic disruption, making unions and protesters subject to anti-terror legislation.
People have become so accustomed to the criminalisation of poverty and the gradual militarisation of society that when a homeless or marginalized person is assaulted by the police it has become so common place that it can no longer be called news. A crippling atmosphere of paranoia and apathy settles in, stifling critical thought, and the movement falters like a lame animal.
Despite your many successes, the all-round situation seems to be getting worse. Every day seems to bring more bad news about the state of the environment, and everywhere you look people are under attack from a global capitalist system that values quarterly returns over life. In this kind of situation depression and ‘burnout’ are common among activists who get caught up on the negative side of the system that we’re fighting against. In order to remain effective opponents to the system, activists must also learn to look out for each other, support one another, and heed the call when a friend or ally is calling out for assistance.
That is why, when a friend shows you a poster for an upcoming event in solidarity with indigenous land defenders, you decide that it’s important to go and show your support. Going to events like this also helps you stay inspired by making connections with people who hold out hope for a better future and who continue to struggle despite the odds.
The event is called “Voices from the North” and features a presentation from members of a remote community whose land has come under attack by the resource industry.
“BRING THE SYSTEM TO ITS KNEES!” the poster reads. “We call on all who oppose the destruction of the earth for profit, to unite with us to protect the land and waters.”
At the event you hear the testimonies of rural people whose lives are directly affected by the industrial resource extraction that feeds city life. People whose history, culture, land, self-governance, dignity and indeed their very health and well-being are secondary to the needs for the rest of society. You learn about communities without clean drinking water or grocery stores, whose traditional food and water sources have been destroyed by routine logging and fouled by oil and gas extraction. You hear about the continuing efforts to force indigenous people from their land so that it can be exploited for profit, and the systemic racism shown by a government that continues to violate the rights of indigenous people as though they were not citizens on their own land.
It’s disturbing to recognize the role that you play in this as a settler living on occupied territories. Just the fact of living on this land implies the forced relocation of its original inhabitants. In fact, although you’ve lived here for your entire life, you’re shocked to realize the you’ve never before heard the real name for this place spoken aloud by the people who’ve called it home for centuries.
Despite all of this, the presenters are here to create dialogue and exchange ideas, offering an opportunity for settlers to show support for an embattled indigenous community. A group of courageous land defenders have created a blockade to stop a conglomerate of multinational oil companies from fracking on their territory, and they are asking for assistance. It is an appeal for help, and an open-handed gesture of friendship across cultural boundaries. You listen intently as the presenter speaks:
“Brothers and sisters, there has never been a greater challenge than the one we face today. Life as we know it is in peril. We have met the enemy and it is ourselves. We have reached the point where we can no longer ignore the consequences of rampant capitalist expansion in which, to some extent, we are all participants. Each day we step closer to a global catastrophe that threatens to put the entire ecosystem in jeopardy. It is time for us to take a stand. Our struggle to protect our traditional territories is not simply a struggle for recognition of indigenous sovereignty, it is a struggle against an idea that threatens us all, the idea that the earth can be owned. From this idea springs the concept of capital, of us versus them, of haves and have not. The repercussions reach to every sector of society, whether it is workers’ rights, anti-war, or environmentalism. Our cause is one: the abolition of capitalism. And so we ask of everyone: If the gas companies are successful in bringing forth a court order to have our barricade removed and the police move against us, we call on our allies to commit to an act of civil disobedience that together will shut down the commercial infrastructure of the country. We will fight to the end to resist any police aggression in our territory, but we cannot win this fight alone. We call on all who are willing, to bring the system to its knees. Block highways, railways, bridges, occupy government offices, and let it be known to all who would exploit the earth for profit: expect resistance.”
It doesn’t take long before you’re brainstorming ways to help. But considering how you can already feel the heat of the authorities breathing down your neck, you’re not sure if you can.