Bringing the financial crisis home:

I've been having a great time and have a lot to share. here's a piece of what i've been thinking and learning about. It’s interesting, the connection between huge, overwhelming political realities and our own lives. How do we define our role in a larger system outside of ourselves, that we still have the power and agency to impact?

At home, I know I can live a dangerous lifestyle of running myself into ruts, where I live off of to-do list and if I get a, b, and c done, I will be able to achieve something and see that impact at some point of its implementation. This linear mentality of working towards something greater helps set out goals and a vision to follow but is dangerous in that it distorts the importance of building a movement from its fundamental base points- like in forming relationships and alternative social structures that no longer feed off of capitalist dependency. Our life options shouldn’t be reduced to buying organic vegetables, or doing any set of individual actions, as alone being enough to make the sort of change that needs to happen. The kind of change that is needed is more fundamental and requires that we build alternative communities against hegemonic systems that don’t work for the majority of the people.

Take the financial crisis. The crisis is a symptom of a political context of smaller, yet significant, crises that exist throughout time. And now that the leading country of the global capitalist system claims crisis, the rest of the world will feel it even more. But it is not the beginning of anything new. Hundreds of millions of people will be forced into poverty because of financial decisions made at the top, in this case about housing loans, but in any case, could be applied to any political decisions made from the top.

This has led me to become really interested in exactly what makes people interact, or dependent on the global financial system. In Mexico, for example, there are many indigenous communities that are becomingly integrated into the global economic system, but not because they want to be. Many are forced- literally- off of their land, where their people have lived for hundreds or thousands of years, and go from living subsistence lifestyles, without the need for buying and selling everything they own, to a situation where people are forced to work for nothing, or can’t find work, beg on the streets of cities, or migrate to major urban centers, up northward to the United States. This is not a process that is done with the consent of the people, and thus economic forces are a major point of indigenous resistance. When it comes down to being able to keep your land, a matter of nothing less than survival, social movements and organizing become more about organic demands for survival of land- tierra, ejido, patria--- not a matter of optional social action. Otherwise, their lands will be sold to large corporations that will use the land to build on, such as an airport in the case of the Atenco struggle in the state of Mexico- a really inspiring story of a community that fought and won against an effort by the Mexican government to sell their land to build an airport on it.

Organizing and resistance are thus integrated into identity and historical memory. It’s really amazing to see this in action and to learn first hand from people who do not separate political projects from any aspect of their lives. It’s a bread and butter issue built on the historicity of hundreds of years of struggle against imposition. These ways of building organizations is really inspiring and makes me realize how short-sided things can be in the US, where we often lack historical context and community basis to visualize a comprehensive political system and the raw ways that power structures play out.

I know thats a lot of thinking.... know that I am also having a lot of fun here and enjoying some relaxation, such as at the beach this past weekend. We went to a little spot called Boca del Cielo- it was beautiful, sunny and a good place to unwind. We have vacation next week. I'm headed to Michoacan and the surrounding areas with some friends before we go to Tlaxcala and Mexico City for a month. really excited. I'll check in before long. Miss you all (unless people I don't know are reading this too!)