By Christos Karystinos
“The first thing, the base of anarchism what is it?… It is to challenge the authority, an external or an internal one… It is something without a start(αρχή) because everything is flowing, there is no stop, no start.”
Renos Apostolidis, Greek Philosopher/Writer
Sometimes when I come across astonishing landscapes, I fell in love with these vibrant landscapes. This untouched beauty of the land reminds me of the myths of the creation of the earth, a tale told differently by every tribe across the world. When I read these tales, what fascinates me most is the description of chaotic times where no rules existed and all material danced around until they form valleys and mountains, rivers and forests, so that they allow animals and bugs be born and life thrive. There was something about this moments of no structure, no rules, a pure flow of energy, an order without order, a secret and the truth at the same time, that attracted me a lot and many times in my life I am looking for these moments and hope that I could be there. Or maybe I am that, I consist of that chaos.
On a trip, I met A., a Romanian anarchist woman with a common interest on Theater of the Oppressed through an anti-authoritarian implementation. Discussions came on fire and enthusiasm grew inside us, enthusiasm to explore more about ToO. It was like two souls coming from so different backgrounds but found that stimulus in their background that led them to the same road, that Theater of the Oppressed is an amazing tool towards an anarchist utopia. It was not until then that I realized my two passions and dreams how connected they were.
One could easily connect these two concepts, as wherever there is oppression, there is reaction. The reaction of the oppressed around the world often is just to overthrow their oppression. However, some go beyond that and say after that what? How do we solve the problem of oppression by its root? How do we destroy the system that creates oppression? How do we go beyond the bipolar of oppressed and oppressors? And, first of all, can (!) we go over that? Do not get me wrong, I do not have the answers in these questions, do not expect that in this article, all I am gonna do is address them.
Theater of the oppressed, collectives and communities
One action, or ideology, that answers in these questions is building now, into the present oppressive capitalistic society, the future we imagine taking into consideration its ethical and political contradictions that this includes. Besides, acting as an anarchist you do not show the road towards “salvation”, you create a road and accept the mistakes you do. You are not a leader, you are a member of an ongoing growing conscious revolting mass of people. Building, or trying to , build your utopias now is very broad, but somehow, in most cases, it goes through forming collectives and following generally the path of collectiveness. Collectiveness was and will be a characteristic of the struggle of the oppressed against the individualism and individuals of the elite, the oppressors.
A collective is, firstly, a group of people but also the nucleus of life, a living organism that can reproduce itself, transmit and collect information, have multiple functions etc. A collective is a start in the transformation, is the dot where you start draw the picture of reality. Here is where my first connection and question comes between anarchy and theater of the oppressed. How do you practice theater of the oppressed? Which tools do you use and how these tools affect the way you practice theater of the oppressed? Theater of the oppressed is a tool, and as a tool, like a knife, can be used in very different ways. I do not have to bring particular examples but it is widely known that ToO has been used from revolutionary farmers to managers in companies in order to solve issues with their employees. ToO is political but can be used by the oppressors’ side too.
Many times in history, ideas and tools have been ripped apart from their roots and used against the oppressed. My ideas when reading Augusto’s Boal book on theater of the oppressed was that this kind of theater is a weapon and this weapon is aiming towards the oppressors, the bosses, the capitalists, the businessmen, the fascists, the state. We have to understand that using Theater of the Oppressed with oppressors or non-oppressed people, or in “impolitical” way or turning this weapon against the oppressed. It feels like all the effort and the knowledge put in by oppressed people in Brazil, Argentina and everywhere around the world to take back the means of producing new and pure theater is given back to the elite.
So Theater of the oppressed should be a weapon of refugees, should be a weapon of factory workers, of trade unions, of people believing in transition to another economic model and oppose the current one by building it now, of working collectives, of activists, of feminists, of anti-fascists and anti-racists, of homeless and poor, of small farmers and oppressed women. Society should stop considering some of these groups as only victims. Practitioners of TO should try to work together with them, as equal, not as an elite among the oppressed. Again, what I am saying here is not has already been achieved at its full potential in Greece, but I am suggesting a destination.
Taking into consideration that ToO should be done by the oppressed for the oppressed against the oppressors, another important aspect of ToO is solidarity. Every time I am co-relating ToO with solidarity I remember the first time I saw the tree of ToO and solidarity being in the root of it, oh what a striking and delightful that fact was! The oppressed I mentioned above may be categorised (poor, homeless etc) by the state and intellectuals but in the end their connection, their common oppression creates a network between them. As in western world, we have missed our ancestral instinctive networks, the communities, mostly in rural areas, now, the new modern era, has replaced them with networks of individuals (or in a better case groups) which interact with each other and are acting with solidarity with each other. So what ToO should help with is networking through solidarity the oppressed.
Alienation was the word that Sanjoy Ganguly , when I visited Jana Sanskriti, was so strongly kept repeating. That is what we are suffering from as westerners and the rest of the world,through globalisation. If that is the case, the way to resist that is networking through solidarity bonds and with the hope that one day we can create communities in which there is no oppression. Theater of the Oppressed is not a commodity, is not a good to be sold, is experience and knowledge to be shared among oppressed. This is the way the method itself will grow stronger, the way it will be enriched with new techniques and knowledge from the roots. We should not fool ourselves that ToO is gonna grow through scientific research from universities, this is only the way to prove to the elite that ToO is actually working, that it is empowering people.
The case of Greece and how ToO is being spread is an anti-example. Activist use of ToO started from a collective/ theater group whose members considered their participation as a struggle against oppression. During the years that the Activist group acted around Greece playing their own oppression stories through forum plays, other activists, as members of the audience, were moved by the tool of ToO and were interested in taking up this method as part of their political struggle, in other words became spectactivists (a term used by Jana Sanskriti). These people have been active in many different struggles, such as anti-racism, protests etc but ToO seemed to be a language through they could express their oppressions and make them social, make them public through forum plays. In the same way the first group freely shared ToO with other activists that created a group, now the new groups are sharing their knowledge with new forming groups of activists that want to use ToO. The freedom of movement of ideology and practices created an avalanche, an ever-spreading network of oppressed people who use and share ToO.
The important factor in this process is, what also has been one of the main concerns in this process, is that the sharing does not create a hierarchy. Knowledge tends to create hierarchies in systems depended on it (i.e. universities). It is hard living in a world built in a hierarchical way in all its appearances to detect and extinguish hierarchical relations created. However, putting non-hierarchy as a term in the exchange of ToO, creates respect and solidarity bonds and builds a network instead of a pyramid. This: Firstly, we acknowledging the fact that knowledge creates hierarchy and find ways to deal with it with various strategies. Secondly, the least money is used in this process, the better for healthy connections between groups and people.
The first one is a very hot topic on the annual meeting of greek ToO activist teams in summer. The creation of new theater of the oppressed teams have to face two difficulties at the same time if they are to follow the example of the previous ones. The first one is to be trained in the method of ToO and forum theater and generally start acting, as most of the people that join these teams have not acted before. This is dealt with continuing rehearsals and trainings until people obtain a basic knowledge of ToO and from that point, each team’s exploration of ToO starts and create their own way of doing TO. The second one, is a “policy” that in one way restricts our actions and on other hand frees us from trouble and power problems. The non-use of money frees us from bureaucracy and formalities and restricts us in technical issues. These principles are being followed until now although they are not written somewhere and are subject to change in the future, if the groups decide so.
