lessons from Exarchia

Reading the center for strategic anarchy's and the CWC's analysis of the Greek riots hammered home a few key concepts that are basically immediate concerns for any non-hierarchical //// type movement looking for a any kind of meaningful separation from the imperialist state . Not three months ago, Exarchia, which i hadn't known of before, arose in informal discussion at a meeting, one of the participants being from Greece, the other having family from Greece. Our friend from Greece was astounded at the level of repression tolerated here and the basic lack of community organization comparatively. Perhaps it would be better said of the obvious lack of base community organization. By that I mean that we don't have many places where we can take the streets and keep them. Obviously anyone or group can choose to do so at anytime, but the missing ingredient being a local community at large that essentially backs a more radical approach to action, a community that understands exactly what we are doing and supports it. While there are groups, they remain very insulated as a direct result of repression, they exist but it's not obvious. If it were, and perhaps there are places that do lend to that aura, different cities, although there are several that come to mind, I'm hesitant to name them for lack of first hand experience. We do have TAZ type demonstrations or actions, i.e. burning man, or different demos, and they play an important part essentially being an easy handle by which the general public can acknowledge the existence of an alternative via the mass media. Earlier today I was reading about how the feds set up camp in eugene to work on dismantling the ELF and other anarchist actions emanating from there in the early 00s. This was an article on the green scare tactics and was capped by some common sense security culture type advice very similar to the practical points of the CWC interview with some of its Greek participants.
Key observations are: we need to increase our presence. The action in Greece was ostensibly a reaction to the death of Alexandros Grigoropoulos being a 15 year old anarchist, mobilizing both communities. Riots in France in 05 were widely termed both youth and immigrant, and immigrants had a notable presence early on in the action in Greece. They have plenty to be pissed about. In our own country, there are probably thousands of youth from high schools to colleges to drop outs, with lots of righteous angst, now seeing the curtains crash down around them all over the place revealing a living hell 180 degrees in contradiction to the moral pompous bullshit we can't seem to get away from in the ubiquitous mass media, total saturation of baldfaced lies all the time. How does a community foster their involvement, expression and development of a sophisticated praxis based worldview which in itself is a moment of TAZ and the incubation of dual power?
This has been true for a long time. Those of us old enough to have a greater set of means at our disposal from either our compromised work involved lifestyles(like myself) or the more experienced, ideologically pure sorts of individuals who have found their way outside, need to coordinate and open this front in the battle of ideas.
The key is us developing and maintaining hole space. Holes in capitalism are the places where its successor will be developed. It is a place where the rules of our capitalist society at large are suspended. It is a gradual dual power development strategy and in my opinion one of the most viable methods for social change. Holes will be spaces that are 24/7 free spaces, accessible preferably anytime it is needed, open to the public, gathering places, learning places, safe spaces. This is where the base community forms. The key is to extend the sentiment into the surrounding areas. To develop a walkable community radiating away from the convergence space. Guerrilla gardening, squatting abandoned buildings and other radical activities should coincide with like minded people owning or renting whenever possible, just being near there. It starts with the common space, the music, poetry, reading circles, Food not bombs servings & food pantry, really, really free markets, critical mass bike rides, & bike shares, tool shares, skill shares, potlucks, community gardens, infoshops, hostels and other stuff tbd. These are the basic building blocks of dual power. The next step or concurrent steps is / could be developing a worker owned business to help support the space, developing affordable coops, cohousing of green design buildings. You can do these more advanced development phases at anytime when you have a solid working group of people, but in order to truly try to surpass the boundaries of capitalism, you need a community and whatever resources those people have....
......so what if something like this already exists in my community, a show space, community center etc etc?
If there is already a space with a similar disposition, then great contribute to making it stronger especially if you don't agree with different points or people involved in running the space. My impression is that most of the time, people are put off by a lack of parallel process, i.e. not practicing what you preach within your own organization. If this is an insurmountable obstacle, then it may be time to factionalize and if possible federate or enter into as mutualist a relationship as is possible and or preferable. Dissent in the process makes people es experience with direct democracy more reality based and less theoretical.
A community needs many of these spaces. Developing a new space that is dedicated to this purpose may help to lead other spaces in this direction, by influencing the people most likely to frequent these spaces. Finding a niche of purposes not already served can help to boost the vibrance of the community. Shared promotion also give the appearence of a growing and coherent social scene apart from shopping malls or school functions which could add cache to it's value as an attraction.
What Greece and Exarchia have that we do not, is base communities with critical mass. The more we as like minded people interact and offer mutual aid in everyday life, the greater the community proper will become, the more it will be capable of agency, the more we can develop an alternative to the economy and state. like culture its going to be in the downtime, the things that sink into mundane existence will be where balance will emerge from the old order. Don't spend that time in counter productive regret...............