Part of why Cooperation Jackson was able to get going was Mississippi was bypassed by traditional capitalism. Preston is economically depressed. Rojavan revolution grew in the vacuum of conflict. Puerto Rico is reorganising as a community after natural disaster.
There is ‘the shock doctrine’ and ‘disaster capitalism’. We should have ‘the cooperation doctrine’, ‘disaster anarchism’. Or, more poetically, as per Rebecca Solnit, paradises made in hell.
A good friend of mine was very active in helping in the Calais Jungle. That place was squalid and harsh, people left in the darkest conditions by the modern world order, but she said there somehow in these conditions there was some of the strongest community ties and kindest people, working together, something that she has struggled to see again in a city like London.
Disaster should never romanticised for a second, but it is interesting to see what can occur when the existing order is swept aside and something new has chance to grow.
‘The end of history’ is bullshit, we’re currently stuck in a local minima, but nothing about this is essential or predetermined or necessary. This is the peak of nothing.
‘It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism’ is also bullshit. It’s easy to imagine something better.
There might not be a global revolution but there be pockets of revolution.
A common thread between the existing examples of autonomous spaces is yeah they grew following a collapse, but also they grew based on knowledge built pre-collapse. Rojava was Ocalan was Bookchin. Jackson was Malcolm X, Mondragon.
Documenting and sharing knowledge is vital. Networks are vital. Samizdat in hell.