The places we live, the relationships we engage in, the customs and complex interactions we are induced to perform and reproduce, the physical as well as metaphysical spaces that (re)production occupy – how does power play itself out in multiple territories? Can antagonistic counter-power be in itself a way of transforming our environment? From safer spaces to cops off campus to the struggle against gentrification how can we make our environment amenable to political action? What can we learn from where struggles take root?

This inquiry we will attempt to use our diverse collective knowledge, experiences, stories and ideas to construct a genealogy to map our a history. Each inquiry is orientated around a “lens”. A lens, like what we would imagine a lens to be, is a perspective we can look through that enables us to see the world with a particular emphasis, from a different angle so to expose the parts of the world we may miss and passby.

We want to better understand the present, why are things the way they are, what events and moments have occurred that have had significant effects on the course of struggle – an intersectional class struggle – that illustrate deeper understandings of the shifts and needs of a capital accumulation, how these events relate or not to each other, if they define a break with the past, suggesting that what is now is different to what was before – how does this then effect what we do?

We envisage this to be autodidactic, self-educational sessions to produce collaborative and collective narratives and understandings of the political terrain we are operating upon.

Some things that might be touched upon: What can we see happening now that is an image of the future? Ours and “theirs”? What are the limits exist to forming a movement that attempts to face the totality of capitalism? What does it mean for the way we have currently struggled, to struggle more effectively? What demands can be raised to articulate these new struggles?

Each inquiry will have a facilitator and invited contributors to help lead off the discussions. We want your ideas and participation to do the rest.

Some suggested reading:

Strategic Embellishment and Civil War: More Notes on the New Urban Question (Andy Merrifield)

CopsOffCampus

Reclaiming life in the precarious city (Alex Vasudevan)

#riotcleanup or #riotwhitewash?

white-washing the water-cannon? (Anna Feigenbaum)

Nas & Angela Davis discuss the prison industrial complex

Prisonabolition.org What is the prison industrial complex

Right to the City Alliance Mission & History

The truth about gentrification: regeneration or con trick? (Aditya Chakrabortty & Sophie Robinson-Tillett )