Imagining a World Beyond Borders | CC Dispatch #20

Welcome to Dispatch #20! We’re back, and we’ve missed you! There has been SO much happening around the world that it can be difficult to wrap our head around it all. This week we want to discuss a hot topic in the world - borders, and how they have evolved into tools of power and domination. As well - stories on how to resist authoritarian dictators, how to kindle radical hope, and more!

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How Chile Voted Out a Dictator

Revealing History

This week, we’d like to share this great short article by Scot Nakagawa over at Anti-Authoritarian Playbook (another newsletter you should definitely check out!) Below is an abbreviated version of his article.

Augusto Pinchet was the leader of Chile from 1973 - 1990, leading one of the most brutal military dictatorships in Latin America at the time (and there were a lot). During his reign, he persecuted lefists, socialists, and any political dissent violently with forced disappearances and torture, if not outright execution.

However in 1988, Augusto Pinochet allowed the Chilean people to participate in a referendum, and 98% of Chilean citizens came out to vote and ultimately rejected his rule. The "NO" campaign, waged by those who opposed Pinochet, has become a primer on how to effectively drive up voter participation among opponents of a violently repressive state. Here's how various movements contributed to creating the conditions to vote out their authoritarian leader:

A Courageous and Resilient Labor Movement - Unions like the Copper Worker’s Confederation organized consistent “Days of National Protest” which helped break a climate of fear.

Women's Organizations - Women created organizations that crossed political divides, like Women For Life who brought together communists and Christian democrats, and came up with innovative new ways to protest.

Human Rights Documentation - Human rights organizations meticulously documented disappearances and torture, creating an evidentiary record that undermined regime legitimacy.

Student Movement Regeneration - University students rebuilt movement infrastructure despite infiltration and repression.

Pobladores (Urban Poor) Organizing - Community organizations in poor urban areas maintained mutual aid networks that served both survival needs and created organizing spaces.

Strategic Coalition Building - The 1983-1986 period saw the formation of various coalitions, culminating in the Concertación de Partidos por el No - the coalition that would defeat Pinochet in the plebiscite.

Here's how various movements contributed to creating the conditions to vote out their authoritarian leader:

By creating, growing, and collaborating in their efforts, they developed the organizational infrastructure for voter registration and education that was necessary for ending Pinochet's regime.

Hope is a necessary component when creating systemic change, but it’s often difficult to feel hopeful. Radical Hope, as described by philosopher Jonathan Lear in his book of the same name, is a unique form of hope that emerges during times of profound adversity and cultural upheaval, often during times of deep trauma or great change. It involves envisioning and holding faith in a future that is distinctly different from the present, and constantly working toward it even without a clear path forward. It is not wistful thinking or naive optimism - rather, radical hope is rooted in a knowledge of the revolutionary past, an awareness of our collective power in the present, and an uncompromising vision of the future.

According to this study, there are 4 pathways to radical hope:

1. Understanding history of oppression and resistance
2. Embracing ancestral pride by honoring the struggles of those who came before
3. Envisioning possibilities
4. Creating meaning and purpose through personal commitment to change work

Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about borders - what it takes to create them, enforce them, and cross them.

• Wars are currently raging across Earth over a border’s rightful place - between Israel & Palestine, India & Pakistan, Ukraine & Russia, Guyana & Suriname, Morocco & Sahrawi, and more.
• In the USA, President Trump just gave the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) department a whopping $45 Billion budget to enforce draconian anti-immigration policies. That’s only for one department and it’s more than almost all other national military budgets.
• European countries patrol the Mediterranean Sea with Israeli drones to ensure no refugees from Africa or the Middle East make it to their shores, despite many fleeing conditions created by European intervention in the first place.
• Millions migrate everyday in search of better opportunities than what they can find at home, often risking their life to cross borders.

It’s difficult to imagine a world not dominated by walls, whether they’re physical (US-Mexico border, Palestine-Israel border), societal (systemic racism, access to money and citizenship), or digital (China’s Great Firewall, social media algorithms that confine us into echo chambers). But why is it this way? And does it have to stay this way? The way that we think of borders today, as firm boundaries that are violently enforced, is a relatively new thing, and we would argue it doesn’t serve humanity’s best interests. While “strong borders” are often argued as a necessity for our security, we think they limit humanity’s potential as a global community.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

– Martin Luther King, Jr"

Artists Confronting Inequalities: Banksy

Banksy is the anonymous street artist who has become famous around the world for his provocative graffiti and installations all around the globe. Coming from the underground street art scene in Bristol, UK, his work often calls out the contradictions of modern society, the horrors of war, excessive consumerism, and the consequences of the climate crisis.

Naturally, many of his pieces have called attention to the migrant crisis in Europe and the unethical ways that European leaders have dealt with the flow of refugees. In 2015, he created an entire twisted theme park called Dismaland (dismal + Disneyland) in collaboration with 57 other artists to bring attention to social inequity and the Syrian refugee crisis. In 2020, to bring attention to the trend of European leaders deliberately ignoring distress calls from non-Europeans, Banksy purchased (and painted) a former French Navy vessel and, with the help of a team of activists, rescued 219 refugees from the Mediterranean sea and brought them safely to Italy. Banksy’s works are powerful reminders of the contradictions that surround us, presented in ways that command attention and second-thought, and demonstrates the power of art, activism, and collective power has in our politics.

Resources & Tools

Please share these links with anyone that might find them helpful:

• ⛑ How to Start a Community Defense Center | A guide originally written by LATU to help you mobilize your neighborhood to better protect each other against harm through a community center pop-up and community patrols.
• 📓 The Protest Playbook | A practical and tactical guide to help you understand how to win real change, not just headlines, because we don't have time for marches that lead to nowhere.
• 🚨 High-Impact Crisis Support Roles | Not everyone needs to be on the front-lines. Whether it be for a protest, disaster, occupation, raid, or other emergency that calls for community to be all hands on deck, here's how you can help. Below we've shared a non-comprehensive list of effective in-person and remote support roles with instructions on how to get started.
• 📱 Tella | Use this app to hide and encrypt your photos and videos on your phone so they cannot be found in your gallery. Great for activists, journalists, human rights defenders, or anyone who documents injustice.

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