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Title: A Call to Arms Author: APS Date: May 3, 2020 Language: en Topics: post-situationism, manifesto, Bandilang Itim, Philippines Source: Retrieved on 2020-05-03 from https://bandilangitim.noblogs.org/post/2020/05/03/a-call-to-arms/#more-454
We are a circle of friends who have come to a realization that the world
as it is has not only failed us but is also actively antagonistic
towards Art as a form of individual expression and oppressive towards
the Soul as the sum total of human experiences. We have come to a
consensus that this toxic state of affairs is not the product of an
individual, nor even a group of individuals, but a byproduct of how our
society is organized. There are three main things which we consider to
be the cause:
With their monopoly on violence by means of the military and the police,
our so called “representatives” and politicians are able to prop up
their own agendas and maintain the power structures that benefit them.
By this same method, they are able to take parts of the natural world
and claim it as the property of the State, and interfere in the personal
and public lives of the people it claims as its own. What was once the
right of the community to decide for itself what is best for themselves,
is now forced upon them by “elected officials” chosen from the existing
ruling elite. Those that do not conform to the State are branded outlaws
and are often violently oppressed, leading to unnecessary bloodshed. Not
to mention the power struggles that States love to take part in,
especially in partnership with —
Private property, protected from “theft” by the violence of the State,
keeps the means of production of society’s needs in the hands of a
handful of people, who benefit from the labor of the many. The products
of this labor is then sold for a greater price than it cost to produce
it. This means that in order to gain profits, it needs to pay the
workers less than the value they created. And because the success of
businesses of any scale is determined by profits, it must continue
extracting, producing and distributing their products or services to
their markets regardless of the actual need for them. This leads to the
continued pillaging of nature that causes the horrors of climate change
that we have only just begun to see the effects of. Another consequence
of this quest for the most profit is the elevation of competition from
being a consequence of conflict to a virtue. They misinterpret Darwin in
that this will always lead to better products and ways of producing
them, as if profit is related to quality at all. Competition as virtue,
as well as the workers not owning the means to earn a living, results in
a very visceral feeling of alienation from others, one’s work and their
own potential as a person.
Put simply, the Spectacle is the sum total of all social relation
mediated by images. All that was once lived directly, is now consumed by
spectators, keeping the downtrodden and oppressed complacent while under
the thumb of the capitalist and the watchful eye of the State. It comes
with pre-packaged identities that serve to only further legitimize the
existence of the ruling class and divide the people along racial,
gender, and religious lines, as well as according to the media they
consume. This results in the masses competing against each other as
opposed to uniting under a single cause to overthrow the existing order.
The Spectacle deals in images, both real and metaphorical. We recognize
Patriarchy, for example, as a system of images that people are reduced
down to and are forced to conform to. Deviance from the roles and images
the Spectacle has given a person will be isolated further, and in many
cases, come to personal harm. This is only one out of many, all of which
must be dealt with if we are to truly build a society built on freedom,
equity and solidarity.
Against these systemic tyrannies we, at a personal level, do our best
confront their manifestations and educate the people around us. At a
larger scale, we push efforts towards raising awareness towards social,
economic and ecological issues and link them with the corrupt systems
that cause them, delegitimizing these systems and power structures in
the eyes of the people. At the same time, we also seek to organize those
who realize they share our views and/or goals into communities and
support structures that provide an alternative to the coercive
institutions put forth by the State and Capital. Our end goal is to form
a social movement large enough, with enough resources and bargaining
power to overthrow the existing order. That is, to abolish the State,
abolish private property and finally live life under our own terms. If
overthrowing the status quo involves the force of arms, then so be it.
“Gradual Reform is the only way changes in the real world could ever
happen!” and other responses in that vein have all been lobbed at our
position before. We maintain that reform cannot possibly benefit the
vast majority of people as it gives the ruling powers enough time to
adapt, and that line of thinking even assumes there is something wrong
with the system, or that it doesn’t work as intended. There is nothing
broken about the system. It works as intended. It works to siphon power
from the masses into the hands of the very few. You can’t fix what isn’t
broken. Even the best the system can offer cannot stem the rising tide
of ecological destruction and the sense of loneliness it causes. We must
destroy the system of oppression that the ones in power have built, or
die a horrible death in misery.
In its place, we will build society from the ground up, based on the
values of Freedom, Equity and Solidarity.
determined for themselves, and having the resources to act upon them,
free from the restrictions imposed by class, state, race, gender
identity and others.
terms, contribute according to their skills and talents, as well as the
option to expand on these as necessary; “To each according to their
need, from each according to their ability.”
past them with each other’s help. A unity based on mutual needs and
goals.
Too long has the specter of race, nationality and creed kept us from
seeing each other as fellow human beings. Too much blood has been bled
for these things which hold no meaning in the wider world we live in
apart from the labels they assign to us. The fact that people put so
much stock into these ideas and identities is evidence that they
struggle with finding a sense of belonging, utterly lost in their
everyday lives. This state of affairs might not have started as an
intentional plot, but its potential to manipulate those looking for
meaning in their lives was not lost upon the powers that be. The system
works as intended. And we must destroy it.
As mentioned above, much work needs to be done building alternatives to
the existing order even if it hasn’t been overthrown. Creative
collectives, worker-owned enterprises, Food Not Bombs and many others
all working together to bring about the change we wish to see in the
world. The work will only become greater after the collapse of the
system, with everything from housing and energy, to even defense,
becoming a collective endeavor of free individuals. A horizontal
confederation of thousands of geographic communities, supported by a
chamber of industry composed of a league of worker-owned and operated
cooperatives.
Each community or municipality would be governed by a public assembly
composed of its inhabitants, which then plan out things the community
needs, from food and housing, all the way up to things like continuing
education and the distribution of entertainment media. Worker-owned
factories and workshops in the locale will take care of the demands of
their own community where it can and distribute the surplus to nearby
municipalities, while the products and resources that the community or
its collectively-owned institutions need would then be requested from
others in the confederation. The public assembly of each municipality
will appoint or elect executives who will oversee each major project
that the community may have in mind. It is vital that these
representatives are accountable to the local community and is easily
recallable by the same community that elevated them in cases where they
deviate from the mandates that are given to them.
A municipality can, for example, appoint a head agriculturist who is
tasked with maximizing the produce of their collective farms and ensures
that it is achieved with regenerative farming practices. If for example
this head agriculturist is caught using deep-cutting plows that destroy
the natural ecology of the soil, or pesticides that harm local
pollen-bearing insects, then the municipality’s public assembly can
easily remove them and install another. The same goes for any other
industry, public service, and most importantly, in selecting
representatives for the Confederate Assembly.
It is unavoidable that there will be products and services that some
municipalities will not be able to provide for itself, and some modes of
operation that is just better with a centralized production and
distribution model. In cases like these, as well as in
multi-municipality-spanning projects like roads, the management,
procurement and expertise needed is discussed and decided upon within
the Confederate Assembly. The Confederate Assembly is one composed of
representatives of all the municipalities and the Chamber of Industry.
Each representative of each municipality’s public assembly are given
mandates and demands that they are to bring to the Confederate Assembly
to have them met. The logistics and production needs are distributed to
the representatives of the relevant members of the Chamber of Industry,
who then pass them on to their originating Unions and Co-ops.
For example, Northbay Boulevard South, a municipality of some magnitude,
mainly relies on its fishing and fish-processing industries, but with
little in the way of manufacturing of the furniture it needs to furnish
the new school it built, adds this to the mandates it gives its
Confederate Assembly representative. At the Assembly, it is found that
there is a surplus of school chairs at Bagong Barrio, a town known for
furniture and carpentry. If both municipalities agree to exchange or
even just give away the chairs, then arrangements are made to send the
furniture to Northbay Boulevard South. If such a surplus didn’t exist,
or if the costs of delivery outweigh the demand for them, then the
demand would instead be distributed as production orders to the
woodworking factories under the Chamber of Commerce in addition to
fulfilling local demand.
We can continue talking about the specifics of how this sort of economy
would work, but we feel as if this needs to be given its own volume to
give it its due attention.
Sometimes it takes loss, disappointment and pain to be woken up to the
truth, especially when it involves lies that we tell ourselves. The
writer tasked with producing this manifesto certainly needed it before
he came to that realization. It is with this knowledge of how the world
works, and our vision for the days ahead that we take this stand against
oppressive hierarchies in all its forms. It is with seeing how beautiful
Life, and its reflection, Art, can be that we choose to fight against
those that would seek to turn it into mere feedstock to fuel the
ambition of a few rich perverts.
We do not expect this writing to convince anyone away from what they
already believe. Although, in saying that, if anyone’s mind has been
changed, even one, then this work would have been worth it. What we
expect it to do though, is to muster the support of those who already
share the views and goals we have elaborated in these pages. If you feel
as if your life has no meaning, if everyday at work is another day in
hell, if you feel as if everyone else is just looking out for
themselves, leaving you alone in the dust, then join us. If you feel as
if there is no hope left in the world that is slowly being killed by the
greed of a handful of psychopaths, join us. If you feel impotent and
powerless against an uncaring, faceless, but all-powerful authority,
then join us.
The road we will tread together won’t be easy, neither will it be a
quick journey. But you will not be alone. We’ll topple the temple of
money together a build a new world in the rubble.
And hey, if ecological Doomsday hits before we win, we can throw one
last party knowing that we’ve done all that we can and then some. It’ll
be one hell of a party, and you’re invited.