I attended a meeting on Venezuela this afternoon. The speakers, from Toronto, had visited Venezuela as part of an Australian tour with the paper Green Left Weekly. They spoke about local communal developments: community kitchens, local councils, children's creches. These things could, and probably need to, appear here in Vancouver, especially in the Downtown Eastside.I like hearing about developments at the local level, and at the interpersonal level (like education and work relations). A lot of activism takes a high-up perspective- which is important in anti-war work. But what does socialism mean at work, school, or in day-to-day life? I'm pretty favourable to anarchist answers to these local and interpersonal questions. Seeing conflict resolution in collectives, like Spartacus Books, in action is impressive.
I believe in higher-up organization, or coordination, of the local too. That organization can involve a form of sharing like a (idealised) version of science, rather than people being told what to do. There's a lot of creative things going on in people's heads just waiting for space to come out.
3 comments:
ew, you used the word creche.
VANDU is an awesome example of a poverty collective. More so than Spartacus, they take on issues that have directly impacted them. Unfortunately, unlike Spartacus, they are beset by their own lack of sleep, money and drugs, which usually results in a less-than-ideal conflict resolution process. If they had all of these things though, they would have little reason to unite.
It's a serious problem. Discussion is already difficult and health probably helps.
I read that the sex-worker cooperative is starting up too. Any news on that?
Oh yeah that's been in the works for a while. It started a couple years ago but then fizzled. I haven't heard anything since but I'll ask about it.
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