Organizing Solidarity Initiatives: A Socio-spatial Conceptualization of Resistance

Abstract

This paper offers a spatial conceptualization of resistance by focusing on the practices through which solidarity initiatives constitute new resistance socio-spatialities. We discuss two solidarity initiatives in Greece, WCNA and Vio.Me SI, and explore how they institute distinctive local and translocal organizational practices that make the production of new forms of resistance possible. In particular, we adopt a productive and transformative view of resistance and first, identify three local practices of organizing solidarity initiatives namely, the organization of general assembly meetings, the constitution of resistance laboratories and the (re)articulation of sociospatial relations in local sites. Then, we turn to flows, movements, and translocal resistance formations and examine the role of solidarity mobilizations, the material and symbolic co-production of resources and members' mobility in the production of resistance. We conclude that new resistance socio-spatialities become constitutive of a broader reconfiguration of political agencies, a creative process that challenges existing relations and invites alternative ways of working and organizing.

Resistance Redux

“…The different forms for which insurrection is manifest coincide with socio-political and historical power relations, ranging from mass strikes and different forms of political and social activism that respond to the Fordist model of production, through to the decentralized, flexible, 'Uberized' economy and associated creative forms of public and organized resistance, epitomized in new terms like "the multitude," "horizontalism," "radical democracy," "occupation," "hacktivism," "bossnapping," "sickouts" and the so-called "post-work movement" (Hardt & Negri, 2004;Juris, 2008;Parsons, 2013;Sitrin, 2017;Weeks, 2011). Looking at these "new" forms of insurrection invites us to interrogate and broaden the meaning of "the political" to include tactics, forms of organizing, discourses and strategies that might not only challenge the status quo and the existing distributions of power, but also try to envision and enact new subjectivities, meanings and alternative modes of socioeconomic, political, cultural, and political organizing (Daskalaki & Kokkinidis, 2017;Hardt & Negri, 2004;Juris & Khasnabish, 2013). However, such efforts can be interpreted as too large, broad, or vague which, while helpful in creating a unifying frame -such as the famous claim to speak for the 99% in the case of Occupy, or the "Que se vayan todos" in the 2001-2002 Argentinian street protests, or the "Democracia Real Ya" for the Indignados in Spain -are seen as potentially limiting their political traction by not signalling a clear ideological consensus or an identifiable target (Calhoun, 2013), not being realistic, or not offering a clear alternative (Castells, 2012;Gitlin, 2012).…”

“…Two papers in this special issue are explicitly, though not exclusively, concerned with insurrection. Daskalaki & Kokkinidis (2017) examine the socio-spatial resistance practices of two contemporary solidarity initiatives in Greece. The collective resistance in these two cases involves both local spaces, such as resistance workshops or assemblies, and translocal spaces, such as the "Caravan for Struggle and Solidarity" that travelled around the country communicating the solidarity initiative's cause and aim.…”

Prefiguring alternatives through the articulation of post- and anti-capitalistic politics: An introduction to three additional papers and a reflection

“…He points to the necessity to chart alternative livelihoods and work at establishing linkages and synergies between them, while at once reconstructing a radical critique. On this point, Daskalaki and Kokkinidis (2017) state that: the potential of SIs [solidarity initiatives] to resist capitalist socio-spatial arrangements (such as hierarchical organizational structures, neoliberal urbanism, privatization of public services and land) is critically based on their capacity to (dis)connect from/to other activist spaces and co-produce translocal organizing practices. (p. 1316) Reflecting on the modalities of political activism in spatial, relational and processual terms, Featherstone (2011) proposes to use the notion of articulation to infuse into assemblages a more 'directly political edge that they generally lack' (p. 141).…”

From Black Pain to Rhodes Must Fall: A Rejectionist Perspective

“…Such dominant strategies-formulated and supported by imperialist logic and thoughts-also attempt to control and suppress the collective consciousness of marginalized groups. While CMS well explains how Westernized dominant structures prevent marginalized groups from becoming rebellious (e.g., Varman and Al-Amoudi 2016;Munir et al 2018) or, even if they do become rebellious, adopt reactionary strategies and protests (e.g., Daskalaki and Kokkinidis 2017;Pal 2016), it is naïve to believe that marginalized groups never exercise their (self) consciousness (by knowing their vulnerabilities) in thoughtful ways.…”