Anti-Politics - The Kilcoole Collective
Something I and others had intended for MDLB was to develop an activist side to it. It became quite apparent that this was a bad idea, however. The roots in the new collective, many would claim, are political. I don't believe so, more they are anti-political.
The collective will be a decentralized organisation, meaning, it wont have a top-down hierarchy but it will be linear in nature. Authority can only be established on personal levels, where one may recognize another's experience etc. Everyone within it shall be equal and people without must be viewed as equal also. Even 'they' and pigs! I believe that if we build a world on these principals it would be better for all and we may eventually become less offensive to the planet and other species.
A main reason for developing the new collective was because I wanted to establish a debate club. It was going to be on its own but as MDLB fell apart it was tied in with this new idea, something that if I didn't at least write out I would have gone mad!
The debate club is just like a fight club except people only verbally attack each other. I wanted people to come to express their feelings about things and to expect others to disregard their opinions and feelings and attack each others views. Of course the attacks would be civil and the club would function as a forum. One would announce a statement and the next will disagree etc.
I believe disagreements ought to be thrashed out because one cannot expect themselves or others to express their view on a matter in one, initial sentence. A forum in which these views may be thrashed out can only result in a greater understanding and a deeper respect for one another's views and opinions.
Once a general understanding of everyone's views has been established amongst the participants of the collective it could go on to become more active. The collective could partake in creative activities such as stencil raids and ad buster style attacks on public space that has been exploited by advertisers.
Other creative activities may be embarked upon such as RTS (possibly a revamp of such concepts like squatting a whole street?), Critical Mass, and other, more vigilant and diverse forms of protest. This is, after all, our world. We were born into it. Think of it this way: do you see yourself as being born a free human being or as being born a unit to be programmed and then installed in a machine that is set in motion by those who seek profit and power?
The way I see it is that, with this ridiculous concept of private property in place, allowing only the rich to prosper, those that are not born into wealth are only to be brought into a world owned completely by the rich, and then programmed for labour etc. This thought makes me sick and anxious, and slightly frightened, because I feel that this is a reality for many, many people. I agree that I have many opportunities to follow conditions 'they' have set and to 'succeed' in life but apart from the fact that my definition of success is a world or two apart from 'theirs', I am well aware that these opportunities are not open for the majority of this planet. This is why I believe we must fight to replace the economic structure of our society with a more humane and open structure, or not a structure at all, just a huge ball of rock that just happens to have life growing on it.
Our conviction must inspire our vigilance. We must be brave enough to stand up for what we believe is right by everyone and strong enough to protect those who need it. What the globalised resistance to neo-liberalism capital has done, essentially, is declared war! Yes, this is a war whether we like it or not and if you disagree with this then you might as well give up and be a full on consumer. You are either with us our against us! That's a joke, by the way, parodying Bush's declaration to the world regarding the war against terrorism. However, I see that war as a war on humanity so I figure that such a collective would oppose it, and be proud to do so! What other choice do we have? Consumer choice? Well fuck that!
We must grab the global anti-capitalist movement with our collective hands, become active members in helping the world to become active agents in their own lives. Once we have established ourselves as a firm collective we must seek out new groups and allies. If we are a network of like minded individuals we must create larger networks of like minded groups. Through publishing, the internet and gatherings we can create a more unified global opposition to the Empire of the United States of America.
-- Ed Whitfield, December 2003
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