Urban Struggle and Crisis

By connecting the theme of urban struggle in-and-against the crisis,
Midnight Notes editors and friends will discuss the strategic areas
in which the economic crisis is impacting forms of life in the city
as well as the struggles that exist in relation to it.

What is at stake in this conversation is the possibility of a massive
restructuring and re-spatialization of our social relations in the
metropolis; however, there are many potential outcomes that will be
determined by the composition of our movements. Thus we ask: How
are the effects of this crisis (and its many retaliations)
experienced and organized across the many divisions and hierarchies
within the working class? What might these new realities mean for
struggles in key urban problematics such as: spatial de-
concentration, transportation, communication, housing, food, work,
health, services, the relationship of the city to its "outside";
immigration, and the intensification of separation.

We frame these questions in relation to other important questions at
the heart of our "strategies of resistance": What is the relationship
between long-term organization, spontaneous forms of resistance and
self-activity cropping up in many US urban contexts? What are the
new qualities of struggle emerging in this period and what potential
is there (though in some cases not immediately available) to shape a
new terrain of struggle? At the level of both capitalist planning
and our collective organizing, is what is happening in our contexts
consistent with what is happening in cities outside Europe, US, and
Japan?

Through discussion, we will be developing strategic insights into how
we may approach the crisis politically and also begin to evaluate the
composition of effective resistances.

NOTE
This presentation and discussion is part of a second panel on Sunday
convened by Midnight Notes and Team Colors called "Urban Self-
Reproducing Movements and Everyday life."