Simone calls for abandoning prefigurative politics and embracing the messy work of building social infrastructure that makes collective action possible.
This is a very different way to use the term than how it is used in Europe and in the theory I read. For me prefigurative politics are raves (in the European sense), TAZ, worldbuilding workshops, etc etc.
A tool library, even if only small, is prefiguration for example.
For me, if it’s done to make feel better the people setting it up, it is prefigurative. If it’s done to solve real problems for real people who don’t read theory, it’s not prefigurative. You’re already doing the thing, so there’s nothing to prefigurate. If you believe that by doing it, a thousand other tool libraries will bloom, that’s prefigurative again, because that’s assuming that the current state of things is due to a lack of imagination and liberating subjective experiences, which didn’t bring much so far. We have had at least 30-40 years of this, and most spaces and people who participated in such activities are still as powerless as they were in the past.
You you have an example of such theory? To me that smells like something Marxists would falsely claim to discredit the idea.
The slogan “building the new in the shell of the old” goes directly back to the syndicalists of the IWW, who originally used it to describe concrete action in the workplace to establish horizontal decision making structures etc. so that such worker owned cooperatives could prefigurate envisioned changes in larger society.
Prefiguration is also often used in contrast to revolutionary action. I.e. instead of waiting for or trying to instigate a revolution (which is unlikely to happen or at least not where and when you expect it), proponents of prefiguration argue that concrete actions in the here and now are more vital.
You you have an example of such theory? To me that smells like something Marxists would falsely claim to discredit the idea.
I don’t read theory about prefigurative politics so no. I don’t read much Marxist theory either and for sure not on praxis, which doesn’t seem to be doing much better than prefigurative politics.
Nonetheless, I encounter a lot of people using the word in their papers, events, artworks or similar stuff and that’s where I see the term used, rather than on theory.
The slogan “building the new in the shell of the old” goes directly back to the syndicalists of the IWW, who originally used it to describe concrete action in the workplace to establish horizontal decision making structures etc. so that such worker owned cooperatives could prefigurate envisioned changes in larger society.
Yeah, and in a way it didn’t work. The cooperative movement never had the muscles to establish itself as a new paradigm. I say that as somebody working in cooperatives and doing consultancy for cooperatives. Cooperatives are bubbles of peace in a storm, but they won’t stop the storm. They are not different than a TAZ in this sense, with the difference that the cooperative movement is a lot more aware of material conditions and the fact that by itself it will never be able to become the hegemonic form of production.
This is a very different way to use the term than how it is used in Europe and in the theory I read. For me prefigurative politics are raves (in the European sense), TAZ, worldbuilding workshops, etc etc.
For me, if it’s done to make feel better the people setting it up, it is prefigurative. If it’s done to solve real problems for real people who don’t read theory, it’s not prefigurative. You’re already doing the thing, so there’s nothing to prefigurate. If you believe that by doing it, a thousand other tool libraries will bloom, that’s prefigurative again, because that’s assuming that the current state of things is due to a lack of imagination and liberating subjective experiences, which didn’t bring much so far. We have had at least 30-40 years of this, and most spaces and people who participated in such activities are still as powerless as they were in the past.
You you have an example of such theory? To me that smells like something Marxists would falsely claim to discredit the idea.
The slogan “building the new in the shell of the old” goes directly back to the syndicalists of the IWW, who originally used it to describe concrete action in the workplace to establish horizontal decision making structures etc. so that such worker owned cooperatives could prefigurate envisioned changes in larger society.
Prefiguration is also often used in contrast to revolutionary action. I.e. instead of waiting for or trying to instigate a revolution (which is unlikely to happen or at least not where and when you expect it), proponents of prefiguration argue that concrete actions in the here and now are more vital.
I don’t read theory about prefigurative politics so no. I don’t read much Marxist theory either and for sure not on praxis, which doesn’t seem to be doing much better than prefigurative politics.
Nonetheless, I encounter a lot of people using the word in their papers, events, artworks or similar stuff and that’s where I see the term used, rather than on theory.
Yeah, and in a way it didn’t work. The cooperative movement never had the muscles to establish itself as a new paradigm. I say that as somebody working in cooperatives and doing consultancy for cooperatives. Cooperatives are bubbles of peace in a storm, but they won’t stop the storm. They are not different than a TAZ in this sense, with the difference that the cooperative movement is a lot more aware of material conditions and the fact that by itself it will never be able to become the hegemonic form of production.
You could say the same about all leftist activity of the last 100 years or so. I don’t find such absolute thinking to be very helpful 🤷