Create a temporary autonomous zone
vote to organize!
Host massive “dinner in white” picnics and music festivals in places that make it impossible for the corporations most responsible for global emissions to conduct their business. Occupy abandoned buildings for use as art galleries and feminist political organizing clubhouses, and use the spaces to stage the destruction of neo-nazi organizing capabilities. Create free schools held on the steps of Ivy League universities, which expose the racist and classist crimes of the institutions, and distribute forged certificates. Start an actual speakeasy (not one that is advertised), and recruit for restorative justice in the community as alternatives to brutal policing programs there. Claim urban islands in rivers as sovereign pirate colonies with the intent to distribute financial leaks. Throw mobile parties which conceal covert intentions for the participants to expose powerful abusers.
The concept of a temporary autonomous zone has always existed in human civilization. As soon as the hunter-gatherer lifestyle was abandoned in favor of community living, fearful types have sought to hoard wealth and power by which to lord over others, and the masses have responded by regaining control over their autonomy.
When a group of people repurposes a public physical or psychological space for free and unexpected uses that run counter to the intentions of authoritarian control, they are creating a temporary autonomous zone. In their best utilization, these are created explicitly for purposes of political liberation in experiences that feel like transcendental parties but which celebrate human cooperation.
Plan carefully and quietly with friends and fellow organizers, developing alternative plans for different scenarios. Identify the collective wants and desires of the most vulnerable people in your temporary autonomous zone and prioritize them. Select a starting place and set a goal. Expect to be disrupted by the authorities at every turn, and plan contingencies for each stage in your project by creating a giant graph with each distinct possibility branching off in different brackets. Ensure that your plans prioritize safety and security for all, and that your goals benefit the community (often with food, dance, music, theater, art, or liberated, free money).
Draft a constitution to prioritize the needs of yourself and your community, and to outline and keep track of your goals. In this constitution, protect the people against would-be leaders seeking to make a name for themselves, and procedures to arbitrate and mediate conflicts and to remove any abusers from the group.
Do not publish the details of any plans on the surface web. Use an encryption service to distribute self-destructing attachments to a limited number of organizers. Keep your temporary autonomous zone nimble, able to leave and resurface in unpredictable locations at a moment's notice so that police are unable to stop you from celebrational self-determination. Temporary autonomous zones should make all the participants' hopes and dreams for a better future feel possible. They should make anything feel possible, because participants will feel like their communities belong to them.
