Organising anarchy spatial strategy prefiguration and the politics of everyday life

419 Pages·2010·2.6 MB·English

O A
RGANISING NARCHY

S S ,
PATIAL TRATEGY
P , P
REFIGURATION AND THE OLITICS
E L
OF VERYDAY IFE

ANTHONY JAMES ELLIOT INCE

THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY
QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

2010
0
A
BSTRACT

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
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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.

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O.I
C
ONTENTS
0. ABSTRACT 2
O.I. CONTENTS 4
O.II. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 8
O.III. LIST OF FIGURES 10

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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
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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 ‘POST-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 “ANARCHIST HISTORICAL CLUB” 143
Towards a (re)new(ed) unionism 143
Education, Organisation, Emancipation 150
ONE CARD OR TWO? TAILORING STRATEGY TO CONTEXT 156

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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

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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 (RE)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
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0.II
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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.

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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 new levels.

I am sure, however, that I have not managed to include everyone who has
contributed in some way. You know who you are. Your names are here
somewhere: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.

Finally, the groups with which I have organised or worked alongside over
the years deserve incredible amounts of praise; more than words can truly
express. This is especially true of the IWW and the social centre collectives
in which I have participated, but also others with whom I have had contact
including, but not limited to, Freedom Press, London Coalition Against
Poverty, London Red & Black Co-ordination, Queen Mary Autonomous
Group, the Advisory Service for Squatters, Haringey Solidarity Group and
Antifa. Not only have their contributions to the ways we can create a new
world inspired me to struggle through this thesis, but also they are
organisations comprised of wonderful people. Groups such as these, and
the people who dedicate their spare time to running them, are glimmers of
light and hope in this world that we are forced to fight our way through every
day just to survive. I have not a shadow of a doubt that one day they – we –
will win.

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0.III
L F
IST OF IGURES

P145 Fig. I: Cartoon, IWW Agricultural Workers Organisation, 1910s.

P145 Fig. II: Poster detail, 1920s

P146 Fig. III Poster detail, 1940s

P147 Fig. IV: Book Cover, 2006

P149 Fig. V: The IWW logo: remaining the same since the union’s
foundation in 1905

P154 Fig. VI: Industrial and Geographical IWW Organisation

P155 Fig. VII: Early IWW Organisation

P210 Fig. VIII: Social Centre Distribution in London, 2006-2008

P224 Fig. IX: Hackney Social Centre Weekly Activities

P225 Fig. X: Vortex Social Centre Weekly Activities

P240 Figs. XI and XII: Images of the Vortex Interior

P241 Figs. XIII and XIV: Images of the Hackney Social Centre Interior

P289 Fig. XV: IWW poster detail, early 1920s

P317 Fig. XVI: IWW Industrial Wheel, c. 1930

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