[Lavalibrary] what are autonomous communities study group

[onion]

Hi everyone, this is an announcement for something that Lou and I have 
been talking about for some time. Some of my own motivation is that LAVA 
adopted the label autonomous some time ago, but we've never really 
talked about what that means. It especially comes up when people walk in 
off the street and ask what it means (sometimes end up leaving more 
confused) Anyhow, I was hoping to be able to pull in people LAVA wide 
who are interested in pursuing this and mulling over some of these ideas 
together. I think it could also be cool to come to some sort of 
collective understanding of what it means for us and how we connect 
outwards....

anyhow see some of you tonight..

-onion
*
What Are Autonomous Communities ?*

Join some folks from the LAVA library for a formative meeting of a new 
reading/discussion/organizing group on autonomous communities! Come on 
April 15th to LAVA for food and socializing while we see what form this 
group will take!

*SUNDAY April 15
3pm at LAVA * 4134 Lancaster Ave.*

*Autonomy? Autonomous?*

Just to describe what we mean when we say autonomous: Were not talking 
about individualism or nationalist secession movements. Some of the 
basics of autonomy in the sense we want to pursue are:

*autonomy from capital*

Looking at some ways we can recreate forms of organizing and ways of 
being outside of the logic of capitalism.

*autonomy from entrenched political institutions*

Organizing from the roots outside of hegemonic structures like the 
state, political parties or big unions

*exploring and valuing difference*

Moving beyond traditional notions of unity like class and nations to see 
how an anti-capitalist project can grow from a grassroots made up of a 
multitude of different kinds of people from across the spectrum with 
different kinds of relationships to each other and to capital. This 
means talking about sexuality, race, gender, cultures and 
countercultures and finding a strength in these differences.

We’re not proposing something out of the blue. We’ve seen movements that 
have both self identified as autonomous movements and are actively 
seeking out autonomous forms of struggle. From the Mexican Zapatistas to 
Argentinian worker controlled factories, the Black Autonomy Network of 
Communtiy Organizers, European squatted social centers, Brazilian land 
occupations, Peoples Global Action and the recent Oaxacan popular 
assemblies. These are autonomous movements. Also autonomy has explored 
some rich theoretical space: Toni Negri, Subcommandante Marcos, PM, 
George Katsiaficas, Silvia Federici, Harry Cleaver, John Holloway etc. 
have all put important new perspectives on the table on how we choose to 
go about approaching our lives of resistance and struggle against capital.

*some introductory reading on autonomy on the net can be found at: *

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Marxism

http://www.narconews.com/Issue34/article1092.html

http://slash.autonomedia.org/

http://agp.org

for more info: onion at defenestrator.org