Organising anarchy spatial strategy prefiguration and the politics of everyday life Ince, Anthony James Elliot The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author For additional information about this publication click this link. https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/jspui/handle/123456789/496 Information about this research object was correct at the time of download; we occasionally make corrections to records, please therefore check the published record when citing. For more information contact [email protected] ORGANISING ANARCHY SPATIAL STRATEGY , PREFIGURATION , AND THE POLITICS OF EVERYDAY LIFE ANTHONY JAMES ELLIOT INCE THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY QUEEN MARY , UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 2010 0 ABSTRACT This research is an analysis of efforts to develop a politics of everyday life through embedding anarchist and left-libertarian ideas and practices into community and workplace organisation. It investigates everyday life as a key terrain of political engagement, interrogating the everyday spatial strategies of two emerging forms of radical politics. The community dimension of the research focuses on two London-based social centre collectives, understood as community-based, anarchist-run political spaces. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an international trade union that organises along radical left-libertarian principles, comprises the workplace element. The empirical research was conducted primarily through an activist-ethnographic methodology. Based in a politically-engaged framework, the research opens up debates surrounding the role of place-based class politics in a globalised world, and how such efforts can contribute to our understanding of social relations, place, networks, and political mobilisation and transformation. The research thus contributes to and provides new perspectives on understanding and enacting everyday spatial strategies. Utilising Marxist and anarchist thought, the research develops a distinctive theoretical framework that draws inspiration from both perspectives. Through an emphasis on how groups seek to implement particular radical principles, the research also explores the complex interactions between theory and practice in radical politics. I argue that it is in everyday spaces and practices where we find the most powerful sources for political transformation. Grassroots politics are most 2 effective when enacted through everyday place-based relations. Prefigurative spatial strategies enacted by the groups studied not only strive to create relations fit for a post-capitalist society, but also seek to mobilise and articulate their politics in ways that are tailored to the specific context of struggle. Thus, groups such as social centres and the IWW can tell us a lot about how utopian ideas can be directly relevant to immediate everyday material needs and experiences. 3 O.I CONTENTS 0. ABSTRACT 2 O.I. CONTENTS 4 O.II. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 8 O.III. LIST OF FIGURES 10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I. ANARCHY , GEOGRAPHY , STRATEGY 11 LOCATING THE POLITICAL 12 ANARCHIST /IC GEOGRAPHIES OF EVERYDAY LIFE , SPATIAL STRATEGY , AND 20 PREFIGURATION Everyday political spaces and practices 21 Radical spatial strategies 24 Prefiguring future worlds in the present 27 RENEWED POLITICAL FORMS / RENEWED GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT 30 II. LOCATING ANARCHISM : EVERYDAY SPATIAL STRATEGIES AND PRESENT 32 FUTURES BRINGING ANARCHISM BACK HOME 32 ANARCHISM : GEOGRAPHY ’S SECRET LOVE AFFAIR 35 (Re-)emergent anarchisms 35 Entwined pasts and presents of anarchism and geography 38 A rebirth of anarchist geography? 42 REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE : THE POLITICS AND SPACES OF EVERYDAY LIFE 46 Theorising the everyday: Lefebvre, the Situationists and beyond 47 Everyday life, social relations and self-management 53 4 SPATIAL STRATEGY AND THE PLACE OF CONTENTIOUS POLITICS 63 Placing politics 64 Movement organisation and networking 70 Bordering, territory and globalisation 73 The means and ends of prefiguration 84 PREFIGURATIVE POLITICS : TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE POLITICAL (AND 77 GEOGRAPHICAL ?) IMAGINATION The means and ends of prefiguration 78 Autonomy: A framework for prefiguration in practice 84 POLITICS , EVERYDAY ORGANISATION AND SOCIAL RELATIONS 93 III. RESEARCHING RADICAL POLITICS , RADICALISING POLITICAL RESEARCH ? 96 WHY THE IWW? WHY SOCIAL CENTRES ? WHY NOW ? LIBERTARIAN POLITICS 97 TOWARDS A ‘P OST -ANTICAPITALIST ’ ERA The IWW: building “a new world in the shell of the old” 97 Social centres: carving out radical urban space 102 OUTLINING THE METHODS 106 THE POWER AND POLITICS OF RESEARCH : OUTLINING A SOLIDARITY 112 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY THE PRACTICE OF MILITANT RESEARCH : ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL 128 CHALLENGES FOR RADICAL AND RIGOROUS RESEARCH 137 IV. THE IWW: CLASS POLITICS AT WORK 140 THE FALL AND RISE OF AN “A NARCHIST HISTORICAL CLUB ” 143 Towards a (re)new(ed) unionism 143 Education, Organisation, Emancipation 150 ONE CARD OR TWO ? TAILORING STRATEGY TO CONTEXT 156 5 SPATIAL STRATEGIES OF NETWORKED UNIONISM 163 Building a broad-based syndicalism 164 Union organising and networked relations 168 Everyday geographies of workplace organising 182 PREFIGURING WORKPLACE RELATIONS THROUGH AUTONOMY 176 Carving autonomous spatialities within and against work 176 Between confrontation and co-operation 181 Border crossings and autogestive identities 185 EVERYDAY GEOGRAPHIES OF WORKPLACE ORGANISATION 188 Building and sustaining everyday relations 188 Reworking everyday conflicts 196 IWW GEOGRAPHIES : PLACING NETWORKED STRATEGIES 201 V. SOCIAL CENTRES : OCCUPYING EVERYDAY SPACE 206 SOCIAL CENTRES TODAY 208 Convergent and divergent histories 213 The places and practices of two social centres 216 EVERYDAY SPACES OF SOCIAL CENTRE ACTIVISM 219 Placing local political histories in the present 220 Everyday life-spaces 230 Agency, networks and change 233 Everyday identities and materialities 239 BUILDING RADICAL STRATEGIES IN COMMUNITY SPACE 243 Place-based strategies of bordering and networking 244 Securing spaces / democratising spaces 249 PREFIGURING ANARCHIST /IC URBAN COMMUNITY 258 Spaces of conflict and co-operation in prefigurative politics 258 Social centre ‘work’ and prefigurative practice 263 Urban scavenging and the emotions of gift economies 267 SOCIAL CENTRES AND RADICAL POLITICS IN PLACE 272 VI. IN IT TO WIN IT ? EXPLORING AND CONTRASTING EVERYDAY 277 ANARCHIST /IC ORGANISATION 6 EVERYDAY AUTONOMOUS GEOGRAPHIES 279 Between dropping out and selling out: autonomy as an everyday practice 279 Relations and space: towards an autonomous politics of everyday life 291 ANARCHIST /IC SPATIAL STRATEGY: PLACING MULTIPLE SPATIALITIES 296 ‘Re-territorialising’ politics in place 296 Everyday scales of autonomous movement-building 304 Loose networks or formal structures? Both, please! 310 PREFIGURING FUTURE WORLDS 314 The (Im)possibility of prefiguration 315 Prefigurative relations 321 Habituating radical politics, in spite of it all 329 BUILDING EVERYDAY SPACES OF ANARCHY 333 VII. EVERYDAY ANARCHIES : GEOGRAPHIES OF PREFIGURATIVE POLITICS 337 TOWARDS A (R E)NEW (ED ) ANARCHISM 337 EVERYDAY AUTONOMOUS SPATIALITIES 342 SPATIAL STRATEGY : BETWEEN NETWORKS , PLACES AND SCALES 345 PREFIGURATION : CREATING UNKNOWN FUTURES IN THE PRESENT 351 PREFIGURATIVE SPATIAL STRATEGIES AND EVERYDAY REVOLUTIONS IN THE 357 BELLY OF THE BEAST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VIII. APPENDICES 359 Appendix 1: Building management for public events/benefits at the social centre 359 Appendix 2: Further Information on Fieldwork 363 IX. REFERENCES 366 7 0.II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many people for supporting me during the writing of this thesis. David Pinder and Jane Wills have been incredibly patient and diligent in their supervision of my PhD. Without them and their incredible skills, expertise and intellect, this thesis would be a pathetic shadow of what you are reading (although any errors, of course, are entirely my own). The supportive research atmosphere among students and staff at Queen Mary has also been a profound source of inspiration, discussion and knowledge. My partner, Helen Bryant, has always been an immovable pillar of strength, support and patience throughout my studies, and has shown me the importance of love, companionship and care in all their myriad forms. My parents and sisters are perfect examples of a supportive family, along with my grandparents who helped shape them, and me, into what we are today. Friends around the UK and beyond have shown the value of fun and silliness in difficult times. Particular people who have contributed to the finished piece, or supported my political, academic or personal development during the PhD, deserve special mention: Jill Fenton, Nate Holdren, Clive Barnett, Maria LeMaster, David Boehnke, Ronnie Williams, Nathan Clough, Marie Mason, Jamie Heckert, Naomi Solleveld, Jon May, Stevphen Shukaitis, Stephanie Basile, John Rahilly, Sandy Hale, Jim Crutchfield, Akile Ahmet, Gavin Brown, Greer, Alex Prichard, and Adam Lincoln. Many of you probably do not know it, but your thoughts, ideas, discussions, or support, have in their own ways helped shape the research into what it is. 8 Many thanks to the two examiners of this thesis are also due. Murray Low and Paul Chatterton have posed positive and insightful criticisms, and have pushed me to develop the ideas contained within the thesis to