Autonomies

To share, in translation, a critical essay of “micro” revolutionary politics, by Frédéric Lordon …

Lordon may be accused of simply reenacting the old marxist-social democratic criticism of anarchism: that the latter’s anti-statism ignores the inevitable role of state power, both as a force to be reckoned with and as an instrument of political change.

But his argument is more complex than this. For Lordon, there is a problem of scale in the ideal of radically changing capitalist society ignoring the dimensions of power intrinsic to the contemporary, global division of labour and neglecting the necessity of institutionalising those changes. (There are echoes of David Harvey‘s criticism of anarchism here). In other words, a simple hollowing out of capitalist social relations by flight to create a “network” of communes, until capital collapses upon itself, is illusory. And such a network would remain both fragmentary and fragile if it failed to constitute itself into a political body.

The division of labour and the relations of power which it sustains and which is reflected in them exist at a “macro” level, and these cannot be simply undone by “micro” resistances and rebellions. The States born of and promoting of this division and these relations will see to that. When the “micro” radical politics finally appear threatening, they will be crushed.

The latter also fail to address the “macro” scale of oppression and exploitation which permeate the whole of our many “micro” realities; capitalism is a total system of social relations of power and its end can only be imagined at the level of mass insurrection. However much “micro” actions may be conducive to fomenting dissidence, they are finally insufficient to bring the system to an end. And even if they could, what arises in its place must have some relatively solid political form, which is only possible with sovereignty and law.

However incisive one takes Lordon’s argument to be, there is a sort of prophetic arrogance that haunts it, along with a blindness to the dangers (repeatedly confirmed) of sovereignty. (See, for example, the work of Giorgio Agamben).

Our suggestion is that the “macro” and “micro” scales are not so easily identifiable or separable, that what constitutes the “macro” are a multiplicity of “micro” gestures and actions of social reproduction, and that the disruption of the former by “micro” rebellions is always unpredictable.

The ZAD of Notre-dame-des-landes was physically crushed manu militari, but was it thereby defeated? Can one know beforehand that defeat is unavoidable? And what does defeat or success mean when speaking of insurrections and revolutions?

The dismantling of capital would be of global consequence, but it is by no means obvious that it must be the work of a singular, global movement or organisation. (This by no means excludes internationalism). And before the multiplying and permanent crises of capital, there is no reason to assume that capitalist State or para-State institutions will always have the means to intervene effectively at the “micro” level.

As for creating a political body, Lordon leaves open the actual form that this might or should take in a non-capitalist future. Our belief though is that his talk of sovereignty, of the need for some kind of “borders”, law, authority, will in all likelihood generate the conditions for new forms of hierarchical authority, new kinds of oppressive inclusion and violent exclusion; the very things that a robust anti-capitalist movement must contest.

For the debate …

And the ZAD will save the world … ; To marry realism and utopia

Frédéric Lordon (Le Monde Diplomatique – October 2019)

To put an end to the capitalist order, some propose to generalise individual and local defections, along the lines of self-managed communities or areas to defend [zones à défendre -ZAD]. Such a remedy threatens those who take it up of remaining minorities and isolated. However, a multitude of individual disengagements could also diffuse the desire for a mass overthrow – by employing other means …