Rustbelt Resistance: On Theory and Practice of Horizontal Organizing Where the State and Market Wither

The dramatic implosion of heavy manufacturing in the Rustbelt is, at
this point, mostly discussed in the past tense. After 100 years of
dominating work, home, and civic life, Capital fled the unionized
plants in the Global North, leaving hundreds of thousands out of work,
massive plants and mills empty, and industrial cities and towns
throughout the region eviscerated. Even Business Week reporter John
Hoerr could write of the Monongahela Valley in 1988 "Such widespread
carnage may be unparalleled in US industrial history, especially
within such a short period of time. An entire industrial civilization
lies in ruins here."

However, the context for activists and organizers, especially those
who came up through the Global Justice movement and the
anti-authoritarian tradition living and working amid these ruins is
neither nostalgia nor defense: the Steel Mills are mostly gone, the
mines abandoned, the Auto Plants dying, and we don't want them back.
Rather, the context in which we organize and resist is one of cities
half empty, governments that are failing and unable to provide
municipal services, and in several places, seeking to disband as
distinct entities; a context in which many have given up hope of a
market-based comeback; a context in which, despite the half-empty
cities, economic wealth and racial privilege still seek to displace
those without money or those without white skin; a context where
Universities and "Non-profits" endowed by the ghosts of capitalist
long gone are the major employers and dominate institutions; a context
in which the only hope of the dying powers is the marriage of state
and market forces in 'mega' redevelopments, from casinos to stadiums
to privatized superhighways.

From within this context, amid these ruins, we seek to organize the
alternative.