Autonomy creating spaces for freedom “How many peoples in the worlds that make up the world can say question was asked of a utopian community in England, as we do, that they are doing what they want to? We think and it is just as relevant today as it was then: “How do you there are many, that the worlds of the world are filled with get to a place where people live in harmony, and manage crazy and foolish people each planting their trees for each of without money – by railway or rainbow?” By dreaming or their tomorrows, and that the day will come when this doing? There are many answers and plenty of examples, mountainside of the universe that some people call Planet some of which arise in this chapter, some of which are Earth will be filled with trees of all colours, and there will be woven through the book, and some of which you have so many birds and comforts... Yes, it is likely no one will seen, thought of, imagined or fantasized about. remember the first ones, because all the yesterdays which vex We call these experiments in autonomy, though others us today will be no more than an old page in the old book of might prefer freedom, liberation, or self-organization. The the old history.” – Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, Our Word appeal of autonomy spans the entire political spectrum. is Our Weapon, Seven Stories Press, 2001 Originally coming from the Greek and meaning ‘self’ plus ‘law’, it is at the core of the liberal democratic theory of Autonomy is our means and our end. It is both the act of justice and values such as freedom of speech and planting our ‘tree of tomorrow’, and that tomorrow of movement. Understood radically, however, it has been the many different hues: rich, diverse, complex and colourful. terrain upon which revolutionary social movements have Autonomy is freedom and connectedness, necessarily encountered each other throughout Europe; ‘autonomy at collective and powerfully intuitive, an irrepressible desire the base’, from the grassroots, is the core organizational that stalls every attempt to crush the will to freedom. As principle of the influential social movement known as the politics of escape attempts from capitalism in the Autonomia in Italy. Globally it has been a refrain of North and the experience of liberated realities in the countless uprisings, struggles, rebellions, and resistance South, it is a global theme. The movements against movements from the Zapatistas in Chiapas to the Organisasi capitalism have once again brought it to the fore, vibrant, Papua Merdeka (the Free Papua Movement) in West Papua, a alive and urgently needed. colony of Indonesia. From the Cauca people of Colombia to In the middle of the nineteenth century, a simple the communities of Kerala in southwestern India and on to 107 the asamblistas and piqueteros of the Argentinean uprisings, of participation – in other words, we are free as people worldwide are developing political and social forms consumers, where one dollar equals one vote. rooted in differing concepts of autonomy. By this same logic, the World Trade Organization, the What is the appeal of autonomy today? We seem to International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank have reached the point where trust in representative become advocates of ‘freedom’. Freedom, that is, from democracy has run out. The consistent betrayal by those ‘unnecessary regulation’ and ‘barriers to trade’ (such as who promise everything and deliver nothing has led many environmental standards, trade union rights, corporate of us into apathy and cynicism. More profoundly some taxation, bans on child labour) – the freedom of money to have begun to question the idea that our involvement in flow around the globe at will. In such a ‘free’ world, food, decision-making should be limited to a simple vote every water, shelter, education, and healthcare are all trackable few years. Participation, deliberation, consensus, and commodities. Insisting on them as basic rights rather direct democracy are emerging from the margins and, in than something to be bought, however, is a barrier to many instances, are being reaffirmed as the centre of trade. But those basic rights provide the security that is at gravity for communities the world over. the root of a positive understanding of freedom as a freedom to do or to be. Autonomy appropriated For in order to be truly free – to create, co-operate, “The public be damned! I work for my stockholders.” produce, dream, and to realize one’s own autonomy – William H. Vanderbilt, 1879 through the respect and recognition of the autonomy of others – requires the freedom to be in the world and to “Break the rules. Stand apart. Keep your head. Go with have a network of care and support. The corruption of your heart.” – TV commercial for Vanderbilt perfume, 1994 autonomy by ‘free’ marketers is at the heart of the capitalist project – to capture the idea of freedom and sell Our desire to influence the decisions that affect our it back to us. From ‘self’ plus ‘law’, they have fashioned everyday lives, however, has a powerful enemy disguised the idea that individuals are actually a ‘law unto to seduce and lull into sleep that very desire. The culture themselves’. The market is presented as the logical of capitalism portrays autonomy as a key mechanism of development of our self-interest as well as the mechanism the ‘free’ market. For us to be free, the mythology goes, for its fulfilment. we must exercise our autonomy as consumers in the We refute this notion of autonomy. It is not the tree of Autonomy marketplace, where our bank balance determines our level tomorrow that our movements are planting today. Our 108 understanding of autonomy includes community owned remain within these boundaries, we are perfectly ‘free’ to Autonomy and run healthcare, education, and social support; direct go about life according to the paths offered to us by democracy in zones liberated by the people who live in governments and corporations. In short, we are free to them – not as enclaves or places to withdraw to – but as choose anything, as long as it doesn’t defy the logic of outward looking and connected communities of affinity, capitalism. When we defy that logic, we soon discover the engaged in mutual co-operation, collective learning, and true limits of our ‘freedom’. unmediated interaction. This is the reason for our The relationship between those with power and those impassioned defence of the mechanisms and support under their command lies at the foundation of capitalism. structures that have been fought for and won, the hard Our capacity to create and to produce is separated from toil of movements who have struggled for hundreds of that which is produced – the ‘product’, so instead of years – indigenous, revolutionary, and democratic. deciding together the best ways we can meet our own needs, while respecting the needs of others and the Autonomy and capitalism planet, our energies are appropriated to produce for the Autonomy is always in process. But autonomy is often profit of others. Consequently, we are alienated from the mistaken for individual independence which most of us very fruits of our work and work itself becomes something understand as growing up, leaving home, finding work, tedious, imposed, and suffered, rather than something earning money, making our own decisions: where to live, imagined, anticipated, and creatively experienced. The what to eat, what to wear, buy, and so on. But even where creation of value and its concentration in things, or these decisions can be made (and in most of the world this products, is then confirmed through their exchange in a fiction of independence is impossible), these choices are, market. This value invested in things means they quickly in reality, entirely dependent upon the actions of others. come to own us, rather than us owning them. That is, dependent upon the labour, transport, Of course, most of us are not slaves. We can refuse, distribution, and exchange involved in the production of walk away, desert, quit, but where should we go and what the food, clothes, house and so forth from which we gain should we do? This is the question and the challenge at our experience of ‘independence’. Our lives are the core of our consideration of autonomy. Refusal is only manufactured for us, instead of being the outcome of our a real weapon if it is collective, with the combined choices and desires. Not only are we produced by this creativity and strength that implies. Autonomy can never system, we in turn reproduce it by acting within its be about simple individualism, as we have been established parameters and boundaries and as long as we encouraged to believe. Autonomy is not about ‘consumer 109 choice’, whether wearing brands or boycotting them, “WE'VE BEEN LIVING AUTONOMY, BUT WE'VE choosing to drive an SUV or a biodiesel bus. No amount of ‘ethical consumerism’, self-help, no amount of therapy, no ONLY JUST DISCOVERED THERE'S A retreat inside ourselves will allow us to make the jump. WORD FOR IT. WE COULDN'T FIND Autonomy is necessarily collective. ANYTHING OUT THERE THAT ANSWERED You are not alone OUR NEED FOR CHANGE SO WE CREATE Of course, this is a simple way of describing a very THIS AS WE GO ALONG. THERE'S LOTS OF complicated set of processes and the world is far too complex for easy explanations to hold up for very long. CONTRADICTIONS IN IT. IT'S NOT A The means of producing, the nature of production, and THEORY BUT A PRACTICE IN what we might think of as products are all changing and DEVELOPMENT.” have all changed.