[LAF] Imperceptible Strategies, Unidentified Autonomous Organizations London October 23

[Stevphen Shukaitis]

Imperceptible Strategies, Unidentified Autonomous Organizations
:: A Drifting Seminar :: London, October 23rd, 2009 ::

Anarchist and autonomous politics are often associated, in a kneejerk  
way, with a celebration of chaos and disorder: a rejection of all  
forms of organization. The reduction of radical politics to a cheap  
joke (‘anarchist organization, what’s that?’) comes to substitute for  
an actual understanding of autonomous organizational practices. Far  
from rejecting organization all together, the history of autonomous  
politics contains a wealth of different modes of organizing, from the  
formation of temporary autonomous zones to affinity group models,  
maroon communities to networks and collectives.

These are forms of organizing that not always acknowledged as being  
organizations because they do not conform to what it is assumed  
organizations necessarily are: durable, static, and hierarchical. This  
understanding of organization obscures and makes difficult an actual  
engagement with the merits and weaknesses of different forms of  
organizing. But what would be found if rather than working from a  
fixed and unchanging concept of organization, one that excludes  
temporary forms of organization from consideration, it was attempted  
to tease out the organizational dynamics from all the temporary  
alliances and alliances that appear and disappear?

Might it be possible that we are already enmeshed in a world of  
unidentified autonomous organizations, a milieu of potential  
liberation that has remained imperceptible because of a narrow  
understanding of what organizations are? And might it not be that this  
imperceptibly, rather than being a condition to be addressed as a  
problem, could rather be part of building of what Robin D.G. Kelley  
calls an infrapolitical sphere: a space for politics coming out of  
people’s everyday experiences that do not express themselves as  
radical political organization at all.

The aim of this encounter is to explore the connections between  
anarchism, autonomism, and the revolutions of everyday life, drawing  
out conceptual tools useful to developing and deepening the politics  
of these infrapolitical spaces and organization. How can we strategize  
and build from the connections and movements of the undercommons,  
working from everyday encounters to compose new forms of social  
movement? How can we connect and work between spontaneous forms of  
resistance without forcing them into some larger form that ossifies  
them?

This event will not be based around formal presentations, but rather  
will rather take the form of a drifting seminar. Participants will be  
asked to read several pieces of text that will form the basis of  
discussion and exploration.

Registration for the event will be approximately 10 quid. There will  
be some limited travel funding available. If you wish to be considered  
for this funding indicate this when you register.

For registration and information contact: stevphen [NO SPAM]  
autonomedia [DOT] org / Sponsored by the Anarchist Studies Network  &  
Minor Compositions

Sponsored by the Anarchist Studies Network (www.anarchist-studies-network.org.uk 
) & Minor Compositions (www.minorcompositions.info).


--
Stevphen Shukaitis
http://stevphen.mahost.org
www.minorcompositions.info
www.ConstituentImagination.net
www.autonomedia.org
http://info.interactivist.net

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