“To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.”
– Mikhail Bakunin
Two weeks today, I will leave my beloved Hackney community of bonobos and crusties, of the bizarre blend of rainbow tribe hippies and blackheart anarchists, and fly back to Malaysia. For the stretch of the summer I have worked alongside a motley crew of miscreants, punks and community organisers, a medley of different notes that somehow found a strange, succinct harmony together.
The coming criminalisation of squatting threatens all of them with jail sentences, persecution, doors-busted open at dawn and dragged into the street. I almost cried the other day, watching a friend of mine make an impromptu puppet show out of the tools he’d been using to fix the plumbing. A Sudanese fugee, out of his country for over a decade, just a sweet and kind-hearted man who needs a place to live. He’s not a criminal. No-one should be criminalised for needing shelter.
The similarities between the Bonobo Crew and the Reboot The Roots house in Malaysia are many – the need for food, clothes and shelter; experience of collectivism and communal living; a rich mixture of different backgrounds and attitudes; an awareness of the bleakness of the alternatives. Living and surviving together, through mutual aid and support, without anyone benefiting financially or through coercion. Each according to his needs, abilities and desires.
As with any community, the flux and flow of energies is fascinating to watch develop. Over the months here we have seen various ‘hubs’ emerge, coordinate a complex network of peoples for a period, and then gradually hand over to others. It is a pattern I recognise from working with RtR members in previous years, where someone develops a form of ‘community consciousness‘; not leadership so much as support and coordination, becoming a hub to which the other community members become spokes.
In the increasing struggle of Empire vs Earth Community, this kind of horizontalist organisation and cooperation will become vital. In the past I have seen the emergence of domineering individuals into a group who operate along the old Empire paradyme – cooercion, control, manipulation. Even with the best intentions, this model will only serve to foster revolt, as the human beings natural state is one of total equality.
As they say in Permaculture Punks of Mexico – ‘We have no leaders here, only coordinators.’
With my own involvement in such communities, I have always started from the rather archaic epigram ‘I want to work myself out of a job’. When I am redundant within a community in terms of usefulness, I would either have to find a new role, or depart to other communities.
With RtR previously this has manifest most prominently in the development of jokers within the group. Initially, for our forum theatre performances, i would perform the role of joker, but great emphasis was placed on assigning this role to a resident member as soon as they felt ready. Now, when I return, the role is often shared between a number of people, and it is unnecessary and even an impediment for me to play that role.
Similarly, by passing on the ethos of theatre of the oppressed we seem to have created a useful framework to operate within – one that emphasises humanisation, equality and participation. I am intrigued to see how the RtR group has evolved since I left them 5 months ago. I have been in reasonably regular contact but of course, until I am actually there, I will not really know.
Original post is here.
