The Yellow Jacket Movement: France 2018

2011-Present, Authority, Blockade/Barricade, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Institutions, Privatization, Students, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Workplace, Urban Spaces, Women, Workers

Nothing in the French government anticipated what happened on November 17, 2018. Truck drivers, nurses, store owners, retirees, and farmers were among the hundreds of thousands of common people who put on their bright yellow high-visibility jackets and ventured out into the streets. Roundabouts were blocked. They marched along the Champs-Élysées carrying hand-painted signs that read, “We can’t live like this anymore,” in a dozen different ways. The movement was incredibly unique because it lacked a leader and unity as it began as shared anger on social media. This then spread to a petition against a carbon fuel tax launched by a small cosmetics company owner, Priscilla Ludovsky, which then exploded into French streets when people realized they were not alone. The movement’s chaos was rooted in its lack of a leader, part of its genius that allowed people from the far left and far right to march side by side. The shared experience of the rising cost of living with stagnat wages inoted rural workers with suburban business owners in the fight against the contemotuous government. The jacket worn by protestors also became symbolic; every driver in France is legally required to keep one in their car (they cost practically nothing), and when worn in protest it turned an entire nation of ordinary people into a very visible unified force that could not be dismissed.

What triggered the movement was President Emmanuel Macron’s fuel tax increase, a carbon levy framed as environmental policy but inevitably another cost pushed onto people who could least afford it: those in rural areas without access to public transport. The irony was that the president had abolished France’s wealth tax on the right, now taxing the diesel tank of the single mother driving 45 minutes to her minimum wage job. The demands that emerged went well beyond fuel. The people urged for the reinstatement of the solidarity wealth tax Macron had scrapped, a higher minimum wage, proportional representation in parliament, and a new democratic mechanism called the référendum d’initiative citoyenne, a citizens’ initiative that would give ordinary people direct legislative power.

These protest sites were met with armed riot police with flash-ball launchers and string-ball grenades. During the duration of the protests, around 27,000 people were injured, including around 2,000 police officers. 12,000 civilians were arrested, with close to 400 imprisoned. The protests did lead to Macron cancelling the fuel tax increases that triggered the movement, then launching a national consultation process, which dispersed billions in wage concessions, forcing him to acknowledge the gap between the French governing body and ordinary workers. The movement’s cultural and political legacy forced the question of economic inequality, asking for whom the system is actually built. Priscilla Ludovsky, the woman credited for launching the original petition, went from small business owner to training for political office, leading many Yellow Vesit representative to run in municipal elections. For the duration of a year-long movement, protesters showed in high-visibility vests to say: we see the system clearly now, and we refuse to accept it. A jacket that costs ten euros, worn by millions, that made a government cancel its policies and a president spend years trying to explain himself.

AI Takeover: Economic Disruption in 2026

2011-Present, Date, Disruptive Spaces, Infrastructure/Data, Subjectives of Refusal, The Workplace, Workers

In Ecosystm’s “Key Tech Trends & Disruptions in 2026,” the AI experimentation period is officially over, and the disruption is arriving not just in one way but in multiple ways: agentic AI systems are no longer just providing answers but running entire business processes independently; Small Language Models are now outperforming their bloated general-purpose competitors in industries such as healthcare and finance; an astonishing 95% of Gen AI pilots have failed to deliver real revenue and are now requiring a brutal ROI reckoning for organizations still stuck in proof-of-concept land; synthetic data is quietly becoming a strategic necessity for organizations whose real-world data is too scarce, sensitive, or biased to be useful; and AI sovereignty, or keeping data, compute, and infrastructure within national borders, is no longer just a compliance exercise but a legitimate source of competitive advantage. The takeaway is clear: the organizations restructuring around these disruptions right now are going to define their industries; everyone else is just running out of runway.

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Affective Organizing: Collectivizing Informal Sex Workers in an Intimate Union

1990-2010, Authority, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Home, The Workplace, Urban Spaces, Women, Workers

This academic study of the Argentine sex workers’ union examines their movement and its power despite the seeming impossibility of organizing. The authors, Kate Hardy and Katie Cruz, argue that the secret was effective organizing: building solidarity through emotion, intimacy, care, and connection rather than through traditional union structures that lack these mechanisms. AMMAR, founded in 1995, disrupted practically every assumption about who could organize, how labor movements worked, and redefined what constitutes a “worker”. A majority of these workers were street-based sex workers who faced intense social stigma and were often criminalized. This new model of organizing was focused on radical acts of care as opposed to the dominant unionization based on shared employers. The union walked through city streets providing condoms and food to other women on the streets, as well as threw parties, gave thoughtful gifts, and most importantly, showed up for one another consistently. They dreamt of transforming street environments to one fostering solidarity, inclusivity, and respect. This disruption was not only structural but psychological, as women who had internalized incredibly deep shame and isolation were transformed into political subjects who identified openly and collectively as workers, with 84.9% of surveyed members adopting the identity of “sex worker” over “prostitute,” deliberately rejecting victim politics in favor of labor identity. AMMAR’s advocacy contributed directly to the abolition of the legal codes that allowed police to arrest sex workers without trial (edictos policiales) in Buenos Aires in 1998. The union also secured access to healthcare, even though the public healthcare system was under extreme stress and strain due to economic crises during this time. The unionizing of AMMAR showed proof of the ability to organize and gain collective power across Latin America, even within stigmatized and legally unprotected worker communities. The emphasis here on the human connection of care was the driving force of these movements as opposed to the margins of resistance.

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¡Si me permiten hablar! (Let me speak!) 1977

1946-1989, Authority, Blockade/Barricade, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Infrastructure/Data, Institutions, Patriarchy, Privatization, Strike, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The 'Natural World', The Home, The Workplace, Women, Workers

“At the beginning, we had the mentality they’d taught us, that women are made for the home, to take care of the children and to cook, and that they aren’t capable of assimilating other things, of a social, union or political nature, for example. But necessity made us organize.”
Domitila Barrios De Chungara

Domitila Barrios De Chungara was a Bolivian woman born and raised in the Catavi mining community, Siglo XX, which she eventually returned to later in life. Her trajectory illuminates the exploitation of the mining industry and its workforce. After losing her father due to political persecution, and her mother when she was 9 years old, she was responsible for raising her four sisters into adulthood. She eventually married a miner returning to her home community, which enabled her to emerge as a prominent organizer within Siglo XX. She mobilized women into an active political force against the struggles of Bolivian tin workers. Her testimony, Si me permiten hablar, serves as a very rare first-hand account of life in the mines from a female, working-class perspective. The conditions she described were incredibly severe and exploitative, resulting in harm not just to miners, but to their wives and children as well. Mining contributed to about 60% of the Bolivian national income, with the second largest contributor being the exploitative oil industry. Public mining corporations employed 35,000 people in state mines, and an equal number were employed privately. The conditions were extremely dangerous, as marked by explosions, accidents, and constant physical and mental degradation. Workers in communities like Siglo XX lived in company-owned housing, which required widows of deceased miners to relocate within 90 days of passing. They lacked clean running water, basic infrastructure was outdated and deteriorating, and they shared unclean bathroom facilities. It was these conditions that Domitila Barrios de Chungara helped found the Housewives Committee of Siglo XX in 1961, organizing women to launch strikes, block roads, and confront soldiers and higher-ups. In 1977, they launched a hunger strike that grew from four women to hundreds of supporters across the nation, which placed pressure on the dictatorship to return previously exiled union leaders. De Chungara’s organizing demonstrated women’s ability to serve as political actors, showcasing the ability to form resistance withing working class women to fight the conditions of poverty perpetuated by the government and corporations. Her testimony emphasized the need to challenge, disrupt, and dismantle inequitable systems that continue to harm civilians as consequences of capitalist accumulation.

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“Ain’t I A Woman” (1851)

1840-1945, Black, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, White Supremacy, Women

Sojourner Truth was a prominent American abolitionist, speaking out primarily for African-American civil rights, women’s rights, and alcohol temperance. In this speech given at the Akron, Ohio, Women’s Convention in 1851, Truth was a pioneer in demonstrating the dual burden Black women faced. Seeing as this demographic was facing both deep-rooted racism and sexism, she, in this speech, attempts to describe the potential for disruption that these women had. It was also very important to Truth to legitimize the rights of Black women. She describes how, at this dawn of women’s rights activism, White women were given more legitimacy in the eyes of men, but Truth is disrupting preconceived conventions by asking, “And ain’t I a woman?” While in this era of abolitionism, we primarily focus on the civil rights of the enslaved, we regularly forget that in this period, early calls for the equal rights of women were beginning to emerge. Truth, makes sure that we don’t forget the demographic that was affected by both of these movements, Black women.

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Retreat of the State in the English-Speaking Caribbean: Impacts on Women & Their Responses

1990-2010, 2011-Present, Consciousness Raising, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Institutions, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Home, The Workplace, Uncategorized, Urban Spaces, Women

“While macroeconomic policies and strategies are put forward as– and are assumed to be– gender-neutral, they often conceal a hidden gender bias with a resultant negative effect on women.”
Tang Nain, 1992

As described by Nain, Caribbean policy formation has placed women at a significant disadvantage compared to their male counterparts. UNICEF studies supported this and recognized that among impoverished communities, women and children were impacted much more disproportionately than men. The Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era called for an understanding of women’s reproductive capacity as well as their gender-specific responsibility of housework and childcare, factors not understood in typical mainstream market understandings. These women also argued that cutbacks in the healthcare sector disproportionately impact female populations due to reproductive care cutbacks. Furthermore, as women are a crucial function in the industry, they were harmed financially by these cutbacks as their hours and wages declined, and many were laid off. This was particularly prominent in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, especially in times of crisis when attempting to settle national debt. In Jamaica and Guyana, rising taxes and fees created significant barriers to women securing education and employment, as education systems were underfunded, also curbing the supply of female teachers, as they made up the majority of educational professionals. In Guyana, the state’s failure to provide potable water placed responsibility on women, as they had to seek out safe water from springs due to their household responsibilities. These policy implications had incredibly uneven consequences on women, sparking unification movements and protests against their implementation. In 1991, at the West Indian Commission, the women’s movement produced a paper calling on the Caribbean governments to quantify women’s work. At the Women’s Economic Conference of 1992, the main issues of structural adjustment were addressed. These women lobbied and protests asserting that the state to prioritize health and education for the entirety of its people. They brought attention to the fact that repaying foreign debt was a more pressing cause than addressing the basic needs of Caribbean women. They argued that consultation with citizens must occur prior to addressing international debt. Joan French, presenter at the Regional Economic Conference, described that the state’s primary responsibility was to ensure the educational, health, recreation, social, and reproductive needs of the population are met wholly. They argued for recognition of the unpaid and overworked labor reserve within women’s households and public spheres, emphasizing focus on humanity, especially during times of crisis. Structural adjustment policies across the Caribbean, particularly in Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, disproportionately disrupted women’s lives by cutting healthcare, education, and public services while increasing taxes and debt repayment pressures, intensifying their unpaid domestic burdens and economic insecurity. This inequity sparked organized resistance, as women mobilized to demand recognition of their unpaid labor and to challenge governments’ prioritization of foreign debt over social welfare.

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The Liberator’s Salutation (1831)

1700-1830s, Black, Consciousness Raising, Date, Strike, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption

The Liberator served as one of the most disruptive calls for abolition that existed in the Civil War era. In circulation from January 1831 to December 1865, this newspaper was primarily published by William Lloyd Garrison, and in this “Salutation” that was issued in the first print, we can see the primary purpose for the paper, and the radical, disruptive measures it was looking to make in order to abolish slavery. Using incredibly provocative language, Garrison, with this “Salutation,” was successful in his continuous call(s) to action. Newspapers, such as the Liberator, were extremely effective forms of disruption in the way(s) that they were able to spread awareness and validation for the ever increasing abolishtionist movement.

My name is “LIBERATOR!” I propose
To hurl my shafts at freedom’s deadliest foes!
My task is hard—for I am charged to save
Man from his brother!—to redeem the slave!

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Our Countrymen in Chains (1841)

1840-1945, Black, Colonized, Consciousness Raising, Date, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption

With the use of publications such as the Mirror of Liberty, authors such as John G. Whittier were able to advance their radical abolitionist agenda. In this poem, titled Our Countrymen in Chains, Whittier used abrasive language and vivid verbal imagery to attempt to describe the plight of the enslaved man. Often coupled with this work is the “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” image (as it is here) and is truly an example of disruptive moral propaganda. While many works such as this were designed to incite direct violent action against the supporters of the slave industry, Whittier decides to make the ever-difficult appeal of emotion to stir disruptive tendencies. His call to “scatter the living coals of truth” throughout the heart of the nation offers the clearest insight into his disruptive agenda.

And shall we scoff at Europe’s kings, when Freedom’s fire is dim with us, and round our country’s altar clings the damning shade of Slavery’s curse?

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David Walker’s “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World” (1829)

1700-1830s, Black, Defining the Enemy, Subjectives of Refusal, Uncategorized, White Supremacy

David Walker was born a free man in North Carolina on September 28, 1976. He later moved to Boston, where he began writing for the nation’s first African American newspaper. In 1829, while working with this newspaper, he published this Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. This appeal was a collection of essays that focused on appealing to the nation’s civic duty, what he believed was an inherent sense of Christianity, and finally, a sense of early black nationalism. While this pamphlet has a unique take on disruption for its use of Christian morals as a call to action, it was effective in its coupling with calls for radical abolitionism and critiques of the founding tenets and members of our nation, such as Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence.

The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority.

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Are Women the Problem or Solution to Global Change and Insecurity?

Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Institutions, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, The Workplace, Urban Spaces, Women

In this chapter, some of the major issues relating to gender and social policy in an international perspective are outlined, and an analytical framework is suggested that might help to forge policies. Ruth Pearson addresses the implications of war or conflict on women, focusing on women’s role as the “reproducer”. Pearson addresses the dual meaning of this terminology: both the biological process and the process of domestic labor. She describes how women’s sexuality is often constrained during times of global insecurity, as the conditions that they enjoy or allow sexual activity are limited because of patriarchal gender relations. Additionally womens bodies become a means of control during times of conflict and often are taken advantage of through assault or rape as ameans to further strategic or political ends. This is representative of patriarchal means of control and military action used in Uganda in the 1980’s, in East Bengal in 1968, and countless other times. Rape and other sexual humiliation and torture have become commonplace in many countries around the world presenting the debate about the morality of bearing children as a product of rape. Often religion plays a crucial role in these decisions and women are pressured to carry the child to term and care for it in a safe loving and nurturing manner but social policies and more recent campaigns have been enacted to protest women’s bodily autonomy and support individual decisions regarding reproductive health and care. This chapter as a whole addresses the need for social and economic policy to not use women as the source or instrument to pursue certain priorities or agendas and promote the analysis of gender relations, intersectionality and legitimate policy objectives.

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The Wages for Housework Movement: A Radical Disruption of Economics, Labor, and Feminism

1946-1989, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, History, History/Theory, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Home, The Workplace, Theory, Women, Workers

In the 1970’s, the Italian campaign, Wages for Housework, emerged as an incredibly disruptive intervention to feminist politics as well as economic theory. Martina Gabrielli analyzes how the movement went above and beyond demanding financial compensation for domestic labor, as the movement challenged capitalism’s definitions of value, work, and productivity. The movement questioned mainstream understandings of “work” and sought answers as to why domestic labor and housework were unpaid, exemplifying society’s inability to see value in predominantly female roles of reproductive work. Before the rise of the movement, domestic labor was treated as a private responsibility, undeserving of being recognized as economic activity, as it was often viewed as a labor of love and expression of femininity outside the realm of wages and markets. Within numerous feminist movements, the common solution to female oppression was smooth integration into paid work and equal access to employment opportunities, but neglected social reproduction: the unpaid work of cleaning, childcare, cooking, and emotional support that enabled (often husbands, or male) wage labor. The movement argued that capitalism succeeds due to its equal dependence on unpaid reproductive labor and factory production. The debate sparked conversation about exploitation, which had previously never been thought of occurring inside the home, as it was traditionally seen as apolitical. The peak activity and influence were during 1972 and 73 were Dallas Costa released E Sovversione Sociale, a document that delves into the disproportionate burden of domestic labor on women, and argued that even women with jobs outside the home shoulder the bulk of household responsibilities. The main framework within the women’s capitalist division of labor reinforces the notion that women’s extended familial duties encompassing emotional and caregiving responsibilities are deemed not worthy of being paid, akin to wage labor. This position diverges from the dominant promotion of female integration into the workforce, as it focuses on predating the introduction of wages for reproductive jobs. The Lotta Feminista’s activism rejects the capitalist system, which has centered the monetization of predominantly male productive labor and prompted the centering of women’s reproductive labor in the paid workforce.

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Resistance After Galeano’s Murder in the Zapatista Movement

2011-Present, Authority, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, History, History/Theory, Subjectives of Refusal, Subjects Redefined, Uncategorized, Urban Spaces, Workers

Raheel Hayats essay looks at an important time for the Zapatista movement. This was after the murder of José Luis Solís López, also known as Galeano in 2014. He was a teacher, with the Zapatistas. State-backed paramilitary forces killed him in Chiapas. They did this as part of a campaign to stop the Zapatistas and other indigenous people from being independent, with the goal to make it easier for companies to take the resources from the area without any problems. The Zapatista movement is still fighting against this. The attack on the school and health clinic showed how the Mexican government uses violence and controls what people see in the media to hurt communities that are trying to be independent. They also get some peasant groups to work with them. The Zapatistas did not fight back with violence, instead they wanted justice to be done in their way. They did not want to use violence like the government. The essay describes how when Subcomandante Marcos appeared to die after Galeano was murdered it was not a sign that the movement was weak, it was proof that the movement was strong. Subcomandante Marcos was a person who helped tell people outside of the movement what was going on. He was also getting in the way of people seeing the real heart of the movement, which is made up of a lot of different indigenous people working together. The movement is really about these people, not just, about Subcomandante Marcos. By stepping aside and elevating indigenous leadership, the Zapatistas demonstrated that their power lies not in charismatic figures but in deeply rooted, bottom-up institutions of governance, education, and care, showing that they are stronger than ever as a collective challenge to capitalism, state violence, and neoliberal exploitation. This moment was deeply disruptive because it overturned the state’s expectation that repression, assassination, and the removal of a visible leader would fracture the movement, instead revealing a form of resistance that thrives precisely by refusing hierarchy, spectacle, and violent retaliation.

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Capitalism Shakes the World

2011-Present, Authority, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, History, History/Theory, Infrastructure/Data, Institutions, Privatization, Subjectives of Refusal, The 'Natural World', The Home, The Workplace, Theory, Urban Spaces, Workers

In the last five hundred years, virtually all traditional patterns of life and livelihood have been disrupted and reconstructed. The world and world’s peoples have been shaken up and remade.
Samuel Bowles

Capitalism’s prioritization of profit and accumulation through competition over stability and social well-being undermines security, harms the natural environment, divides familial networks, and destabilizes income. Long working hours and the ever-changing job market strain relationships within families, making parents increasingly more reliant on outsourcing childcare. Constant technological advances reshape the job market, shifting economic risk from corporations onto individuals. Reliance on fossil fuels for production takes a significant toll on the environment. All these drawbacks of the never-ending technological revolution exemplify the inability to sustain a capitalist system and the dissatisfaction of all individuals within this society. Capitalism is disruptive not only during economic failures but also because its normal functioning succeeds, though destabilizing families, ecosystems, and lives while wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few.

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The Jungle- Upton Sinclair (1906)

1840-1945, Authority, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Students, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Bourgeoisie, The Workplace, Workers

“The hands of these men would be criss-crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them or to trace them. They would have no nails,—they had worn them off pulling hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a fan. There were men who worked in the cooking rooms, in the midst of steam and sickening odors, by artificial light; in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour.”
Upton Sinclair

As seen in the above quote, the conditions of work during the Industrial Revolution were not only gruesome and unclean but also exploitative and inhumane. The book reveals how working-class life under unchecked capitalism is already disrupted; the real disruption or disobedience is not the strikes, protests, or publications but the violence hidden beneath the appearance of normal economic systems. The Jungle demonstrates how capitalism disrupts the most basic aspects of life: eating, housing, family, love, and, importantly, safety. The book describes how the system is designed to constantly undercut working-class people, making survival the only mindset. It is revealed how industrial society manufactures precarity, turning every day of these workers’ lives into a living hell. Jurgis and his family arrive believing in the promise of steady work and upward mobility, but that promise collapses through a series of everyday shocks—wage cuts, layoffs, injuries, death from preventable disease, and fraudulent contracts. Child labor, sexual exploitation, and the erosion of humanity and dignity disrupt the boundaries between safety and danger, as well as childhood and adulthood. Children are forced to trade playing, exploring, and learning for dangerous, meticulous work to assist their families. The disruption lies within the realization that millions of people live and work in catastrophic conditions while others live comfortably, calling it order or survival of the fittest. The normal functioning of a capitalist system is inherently disruptive, restricting access to basic needs through the constant need to work even during times of physical or mental barriers/harm.

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bell hooks’ “Ending Female Sexual Oppression” (1984)

1946-1989, Date, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Uncategorized, Women

This chapter rejects both traditional sexual repression and uncritical models of sexual “liberation.” This idea disrupts the assumption that sexuality should conform to male-centered standards of dominance, availability, and compulsory heterosexuality. This shift in ideology threatens social stability because it questions long-standing beliefs that women’s bodies exist for male access, that sexual activity is a social obligation, and that heterosexuality is the natural/superior norm. hooks shows that confronting sexual oppression also exposes divisions within feminism itself, particularly when rigid ideas about “politically correct” sexuality alienate large numbers of women. Ultimately, the movement’s power lies in its insistence on redefining sexuality as a site of choice, autonomy, and mutual respect, rather than coercion—an approach that challenges cultural, institutional, and interpersonal systems built on sexual control and inequality.

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bell hook’s “Feminist Movement to End Violence” (1984)

1946-1989, Black, Date, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, White Supremacy, Women

This chapter in bell hooks’ book “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center” challenges deeply normalized beliefs about power, authority, and violence in everyday life. Instead of merely condemning individual acts of male violence against women, she describes a movement that disrupts social norms by exposing how violence is embedded in hierarchical systems such as patriarchy, capitalism, white supremacy, and the family itself. This perspective unsettles societal norms because it forces both men and women to confront their own participation in and acceptance of coercive power, including the ways violence is justified as discipline, love, protection, or authority. By questioning long-standing assumptions that domination is natural and necessary, this movement threatens institutions that rely on control and obedience. hooks argues that this disruption is necessary, because ending violence requires transforming cultural values and social relationships at their core, not merely managing or punishing violent behavior after it occurs.

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Sidi M. Omar on the Preservation of Colonialism

2011-Present, Authority, Black, Colonized, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, History/Theory, Imperialism, Indigenous, Latino, Subjectives of Refusal, The Workplace, Uncategorized, Urban Spaces, White Supremacy

Postcolonial theory challenges the proposition of colonialism as a closed chapter of history. It insists that political systems, economic dependencies, and even a structure of knowledge production persist in continuing colonial power structures. Sidi M. Omar’s work exposes how colonial domination carries on currently, a lot more than most people may think or know. Omar’s scholarship deals with Western Sahara, one of the world’s longest-standing unresolved colonial situations. While often framed as a territorial “dispute,” Omar disrupts this framing by naming what that is: an ongoing process of colonial occupation. From a postcolonial perspective, this re-naming is important. It reveals how colonial powers keep control, not just through force, but through language, law, and selective recognition on the world stage. Often, categories of Developed vs Undeveloped, First vs Third World, and Global North vs South are used to describe economic status groupings of nations based on GDP, another example of frequent renaming with the intent to be politically correct, but always falling short. The constant renaming of developmental statuses becomes redundant and meaningless as there are no terms that can fully encapsulate the lived reality of an entire place–much less a whole country. This goes for the use of GDP as well, as it can never be an all-encompassing measure of development, as it fails to account for many other factors that contribute to growth, development, productivity, the economy, and more.

A central contribution of Omar’s work is his critique of those international institutions that claim neutrality while reinforcing colonial hierarchies. Omar describes how legal frameworks that were to protect self-determination themselves become tools that delay it. Omar further disrupts dominant modes of knowledge, reminding us to be aware of whose voices get louder-and whose are muted-is never an accident. By placing the Sahrawi voices at the center, Omar resists an Eurocentric narrative of colonized peoples rendered passive or helpless. Instead, he foregrounds resistance, political agency, and historical continuity. In this way, it is not simply a postcolonial work of Sidi M. Omar; it’s actively disruptive. His perspective insists that thinkers revisit their own ideas on questions of sovereignty, legality, and justice in a world where colonialism has not ended, merely evolved. He challenges the common notion that “colonization is in the past’ while providing current examples of imperialist policies and ideologies that prevent development by promoting interdependence and maintaining power hierarchies that benefit wealthy nations and belittle the poor.

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The Global Consequences of American Consumption & Fast Fashion

2011-Present, Authority, Colonized, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Imperialism, Subjectives of Refusal, The 'Natural World', The Workplace, Uncategorized, Urban Spaces, Workers

“Around the world, the equivalent of one dump truck filled with clothing is sent to a landfill or incinerator every second.”
Eric Liedtke

Clothing companies produce twice as much clothing today than they did in 2000, and the average American consumer now purchases four times as many clothing items as they did in that same time period. It’s estimated that Americans don’t wear about 50% of the clothing they own, and 65% of the clothing they purchase ends up getting disposed of within 12 months. Because of this, clothing is often exported to Global South Countries, disguised as assistance, sending clothing to countries in need when in reality it causes substantially more harm. The United States sends over 15 million articles of clothing to Ghana a week, ending up in massive secondhand markets like Kantamanto Market in Accra, creating a significant waste crisis as up to half the imported garments are unsellable, clogging landfills, polluting beaches, and overwhelming local waste systems with textile waste, much of it fast fashion that quickly becomes trash. This extreme quantity of unwanted clothing is a disruptive force that restructures everyday life in places like Accra, while the cause (fast fashion companies and exporting companies like the U.S.) creates an environmental catastrophe by forcing this immense burden upon lower-income nations on the other side of the world. Local textile producers and tailors are pushed out of business as secondhand fast fashion floods the market at prices they cannot compete with, eroding domestic industries, productivity, and livelihoods. At the same time, the sheer volume of unsellable garments turns consumption in the Global North into environmental destruction in the Global South, shifting the burden of waste management onto communities with the least infrastructure to absorb it. What appears as excess convenience for American consumers thus becomes economic displacement, ecological degradation, and public health risk elsewhere—revealing overconsumption as a global system of harm rather than an individual choice. The documentary “Buy Now!”, as well as various other environmental sources, exposes the harm of overconsumption, and its parallels to imperialist and colonizing methods specifically in America.

https://www.documentaryarea.com/video/Buy+Now!+The+Shopping+Conspiracy

Alison Murray’s “Debt-Bondage and Trafficking: Don’t Believe the Hype” (1998)

1990-2010, Date, Defining the Enemy, Imperialism, Subjectives of Refusal, Women, Workers

Murray describes how sex workers challenged dominant feminist, governmental, and media narratives about trafficking and exploitation. The anti-trafficking campaigns of the 1990s shifted public discourse by framing prostitution almost exclusively through sensationalized stories of slavery, coercion, and victimhood, but this assertion was countered by sex workers’ own political organizing, especially at the 1995 Beijing UN Conference. By asserting their agency, contesting inflated statistics, and demanding recognition of sex work as labor, sex workers unsettled abolitionist feminism and exposed how moral panic, racism, and restrictive immigration laws intensified exploitation rather than alleviating it. This conflict fractured feminist alliances, weakened the credibility of abolitionist campaigns, and forced international institutions to confront the limits of universal claims about women’s oppression, reshaping debates on migration, labor, and women’s rights in a globalized economy.

“Blanket statements about prostitution and the exploitation of women are propaganda from a

political agenda which seeks to control the way people think and behave.”

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Hazel V. Carby’s “On the Threshold of Woman’s Era” (1985)

1946-1989, Black, Date, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, White Supremacy, Women

Carby writes about how Black feminist thought emerged in direct opposition to the racial, sexual, and imperial systems that structured American society. She discusses how lynching functioned not only as racial terror against Black men but also as a means of regulating Black women’s sexuality and silencing their political agency, reinforcing white supremacy and patriarchal power. Black women’s activism disrupted this order by challenging dominant narratives that portrayed white women as the sole victims of sexual violence while erasing the experiences of Black women. By organizing against lynching, imperialism, and racist representations of sexuality, Black women exposed the limits of mainstream feminism and destabilized its universal claims about womanhood. This resistance forced a redefinition of feminist politics, showing how struggles against racism reshaped existing ideas of gender, power, and social order.

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Real Democracy Now!

2011-Present, Authority, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Occupation, Students, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Workplace, Urban Spaces, Workers

“The constant and necessary distinction between the rules and the ruled, however, prevents us from calling representative democracy a ‘real democracy’. A real democracy, according to Hardt and Negri can only exist when there is no distinction between rulers and ruled.”
Thomas Decreus

This document is a 2011 political theory essay by Thomas Decreus analyzing the Occupy and Indignados movements as experiments in direct, horizontal democracy and critiquing their rejection of traditional political representation. These movements were incredibly disruptive as they challenged the foundations of democracy and the functions of political representation and preservation of economic inequality. Occupy rejected representative politics- they didn’t lobby leaders or propose reform, they argued for the creation of the unbridgeable divide between rulers and the ruled. They occupied public spaces, assemblies, and disrupted urban life while simultaneously experimenting with alternative forms of democracy based more directly on public participation and collective decision making and deliberation. Occupy exposed the limits of a representative democracy and demonstrated that these protests themselves could function as a form of democratic practice rather than merely a demand for reform.

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David Graeber on Occupy Movement

2011-Present, Authority, Date, Defining the Enemy, Occupation, Privatization, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, Workers

David Graeber was an American anthropologist, author, and activist who often critiqued capitalism, promoting his anarchist politics. He was actively involved in the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and popularized the “We are the 99%” slogan, as well as wrote many influential books that challenged conventional economic ideas. In this interview, he describes how his family lacked books of critique, prompting his anthropological interests and becoming fascinated with anarchy and public movements. Graeber, in this 2014 interview, describes how Occupy is not gone, and projects continue around the United States and the world. He viewed the movements as genuine democracy– an anarchist movement that exposed the corruption within social, political, and economic spheres of U.S. life. He describes the necessity to challenge financial power and argues that the success was not immediate change but the creation of space allowing for creative expression, imagination, and rebuilding. These movements challenged the legitimacy of a corrupt system, which Graeber describes as continuously challenged, even years after the more “formal” or notable Occupy movements.

Aihwa Ong’s “State Versus Islam: Malay Families, Women’s Bodies and the Body Politic in Malaysia” (1987)

1946-1989, Date, Subjectives of Refusal, Women

Ong describes the emerging disruption from the growing tension between Islamic revivalism and the Malaysian state’s modernization project in this essay. This disruption is the most clear in daily family life and in the regulation of women’s bodies, where new moral expectations challenge the previously flexible Malay social practices. As Islamic movements seek to impose stricter codes of dress, sexuality, and gender behavior, women become symbolic sites through which broader concerns around national identity, modernity, and religious authority are negotiated. The resulting disruption does not produce social collapse, but a reorganization of power, as both the state and Islamic institutions extend their control over intimate aspects of life. Ong frames this social disruption as a contested process that reshapes norms, identities, and governance in Malaysia, revealing how gender becomes central to managing social change.

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Syntagma Square Assemblies

2011-Present, Authority, Blockade/Barricade, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Institutions, Occupation, Privatization, Strike, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Workplace, Uncategorized, Urban Spaces, Workers

In May 2011, the movement of popular assemblies erupted as a disruption to society. Begun through a Facebook call to express indignation, this movement morphed quickly into a mass occupation. This assembly delegitimized the political class, forced general strikes, and disrupted the flow of everyday life in the heart of Athens. Parliamentary access, business, education, baking, and tourism were repeatedly interrupted, affecting the daily lives of people in Greece. The assemblies demanded direct democracy and exposed the divisions between peaceful protesters, anti-authoritarians,and nationalists, increasing tension within the movement, but also increasing difficulty for the state to involve itself. Tens or hundreds of thousands of people formed blockades and attempted to prevent Military Professionals from entering parliament. Protesters rioted, created barricades, improvised medical aid, and played music during tear gas exposure. This movement demonstrated how powerful the combination of unity, perseverance, and protest is, even when disordered and disorganized. This assembly created a political crisis that terrified elites and prompted the reconfiguration of social norms of who can speak and act in the public sphere. Syntagma’s occupations disrupted institutional routine, fractured political legitimacy, and dispersed power to the people through the promises brought through solidarity, popularity, and movement.

https://libcom.org/article/preliminary-notes-towards-account-movement-popular-assemblies-tptg

Angela Davis’ “Racism, Birth Control and Reproductive Rights” (1981)

1946-1989, Black, Date, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, White Supremacy, Women

Angela Davis explains in her essay how the history of reproductive control over Black women reveals the limitations of liberal and feminist frameworks. Davis presents birth control as a subject entangled with racism, eugenics, and population control, particularly in relation to poor and Black communities. She shows how institutions that claimed to advance women’s freedom, such as public health systems, welfare policies, and mainstream feminist movements, simultaneously relied on the regulation of Black women’s reproduction while denying them reproductive autonomy. Black women emerge as a disruptive figure within these systems, as their lived experiences challenge the assumption that reproductive rights are universally emancipatory. By centering practices of coerced sterilization and racially targeted population control, Davis disrupts dominant narratives of progress and individual choice, exposing the contradictions and exclusions that structure prevailing social and political conceptions of reproductive freedom.

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Hong Kong 'umbrella movement' marks first anniversary and vows to fight on | Hong Kong | The Guardian

Hong Kong 2014 Umbrella Movement

2011-Present, Authority, Blockade/Barricade, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Institutions, Occupation, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, Urban Spaces, Workers

“The conflicts between the protesters and the established rulers during the crisis allowed news media to adopt a variety of frames congruent with their political and
social values.”
Y. Roselyn Du

In 2014 in Hong Kong, the Umbrella movement began after Beijing ruled against universal suffrage, prompting tens of thousands of activists to occupy main roads in the city for weeks on end. Protesters built barricades, set up tents, and shut down necessary districts, which disrupted traffic, businesses, and daily life, as well as created huge transportation delays. Police responded with arrests and clearance operations, which increased tension in the city as opposed to restoring order. The yellow umbrellas were used to shield themselves from pepper spray and tear gas, which was politically symbolic as it challenged China’s authority and exposed the deeply rooted divisions within Hong Kong’s society. This also produced polarized media narratives worldwide, with state-controlled media portraying the protests as chaos, while Western outlets framed the protests as promoting democracy. This document is a journal article describing the divide in media coverage from different regions and how this framing creates different interpretations of the occupation.

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Audre Lorde’s “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” (1979)

1946-1989, Black, Date, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Queer, Subjectives of Refusal, White Supremacy, Women

Audre Lorde challenges dominant White feminist frameworks by insisting that race, class, and sexuality are essential intersectional perspectives for disrupting enduring patriarchal structures. The American feminist agenda has historically dismissed the voices of marginalized women, and these exclusions erase any possibility of genuine collective struggle. Lorde critiques the contradiction of analyzing a racist patriarchy through the very tools produced by that same racist patriarchy, highlighting how such approaches only reinforce existing power relations. To counter this, she calls for the active participation and leadership of lesbian women and Third World women, whose experiences and perspectives offer the foundations necessary for building a form of feminism that is truly transformative.
“I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives there. See whose face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices.”

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Fadwa El Guindi’s “Veiling Resistance” (1999)

1990-2010, Colonized, Date, Subjectives of Refusal, Women

El Guindi argues that contemporary veiling is not simply a result of patriarchal structures, but a conscious rejection of Western ideologies and colonial legacies. Historically, veiling has signified honor, status, and social identity, resisting Western narratives that depict the practice as strictly oppressive. Western thinkers have distorted Islamic understandings of gender, often portraying Islamic societies as culturally inferior. For many women, veiling becomes a way to negotiate privacy and create an identity that is religious, cultural, and modern. Muslim women activists who have advocated for women’s rights from within Islamic frameworks further challenge the Western assumption that Islam is inherently antifeminist and undermine universalizing Western feminist conceptions of “women’s rights.” This essay disrupts existing Western perceptions of Islamic culture and gender norms.

Veiling-Resistance Download

Ania Loomba’s “Dead Women Tell No Tales”

1990-2010, Colonized, Date, Defining the Enemy, Imperialism, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Women

Loomba’s essay traces how the sati-widow has been represented from the colonial period through postcolonial debates. Sati is a historical Hindu practice in which a widow is burned alive on her deceased husband’s funeral pyre, either voluntarily or by coercion. Loomba explains how the very societal systems that have attempted to define her—colonial, patriarchal, nationalist, and feminist—are disrupted by the sati-widow figure. Each of these systems relied on the widow as a symbolic figure, but simultaneously erased her subjectivity. This erasure forces a rethinking of these prevailing narratives, proving the instability of the social, cultural, and epistemic frameworks that sought to confine her.

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Surrounding the Spanish Parliament: Occupy Congress & The M15 Movements

2011-Present, Authority, Blockade/Barricade, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Institutions, Occupation, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Workplace, Uncategorized, Urban Spaces, Workers

The Occupy movements in Spain escalated quickly due to the deep economic crisis the country faced. protestors physically surrounded the national parliament, confronting the government about the widening gap between the general population of Spanish citizens and the elected officials in Congress. This occupation was incredibly disruptive as it halted the normal flow of political life and forced politicians to acknowledge and visibly see the public withdrawing their trust and faith. Over 1,400 police officers quickly became involved, and the scene escalated with dozens of arrests, rubber bullets, and baton charges, intensifying the situation drastically. Protestors in this occupation were charged with treason and crimes against the nation, even though they were surrounding rather than occupying the government offices. Protesters were organized by M15, which was incredibly efficient and effective at organizing creative protests and demonstrations within banks and parliament. In this video, Maria Carrion reports live from Madrid on the increased anger of Spaniards as they’re driven to hunger and poverty due to the bank repossessing their homes, while the tenants still have to pay the debt, while homeless. These protestors disrupted the political order of the nation and exposed the crisis and tension between the public and the austerity-driven state.

Occupation of St. Paul’s Cathedral (London)

2011-Present, Blockade/Barricade, Disruptive Spaces, Institutions, Occupation, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, Urban Spaces, Workers

“Mr. Cottam said that incidents of urination and defecation on the land outside the cathedral had continued. This was harmful to the life of the cathedral. Employees were now often engaged in cleaning up after these incidents, which, said Mr. Cottam, are “detrimental to the operation of the cathedral as a place of worship…” Graffiti was still appearing on the cathedral. Disruption to services was also continuing.”
Mr. Justice Lindblom

The Occupy encampment at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was immensely disruptive. The camps and people involved transformed this religious & public gathering place into grounds for protest, disrupting the daily lives of those attending worship, tourists, employees, and pedestrians. The camp created significant issues with noise, sanitation, and safety. Many problems arose from urination and defecation on and around the cathedral, as well as many noise complaints from persistent noise–disrupting religious services and daily operations. The conditions here damaged the calm historic setting of the cathedral and discouraged visitors and religious people from entering, causing a notable drop in attendance and revenue for St. Paul’s.

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The Zapatista Women’s Revolutionary Law (1994)

1990-2010, Date, Defining the Enemy, Indigenous, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Women

The Zapatista Women’s Revolutionary Law establishes women’s rights within the context of the Zapatista armed indigenous uprising. It guarantees women the right to participate in the revolutionary struggle, access work with equal pay, exercise reproductive autonomy, participate in community decision-making, and receive equal social rights. The law frames women’s liberation as inseparable from broader social and indigenous resistance, linking gender equality directly to the fight against oppression.

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Manifesto of Female Revolt (Rivolta Femminile) (1970)

1946-1989, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Women

The Manifesto of Rivolta Femminile disrupted societal norms in Italy by openly rejecting the foundations of the country’s patriarchal social order during a time when rigid gender roles remained largely unquestioned. It describes marriage, motherhood, and women’s unpaid domestic labor as instruments used to suppress women. The manifesto challenges not only the domestic sphere but also the moral authority of the Church and the political agenda of the male-dominated Left, including Marxist ideals, and it calls for the dismantling of established political movements that had previously expected feminist demands to be absorbed into broader class-based struggles.

“Liberation for woman does not mean accepting the life man leads, because it is unlivable; on the contrary, it means expressing her own sense of existence.”

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Darkness Before Dawn: Occupy Movements of Bahrain

1990-2010, Authority, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Occupation, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, Uncategorized, Urban Spaces, Workers

“Every minute of the day, I think about what I need to be doing next to sustain the battle to gain freedom, not just for my husband but for myself and for others. None of us are free. We have been living off the whim of an autocrat who decided our fate with a stroke of the pen.”
– Dr. Ala’a Shehabi

The uprisings in Bahrain were demonstrations that challenged the internal power of the nation as well as its external relations. People gathered in masses at the Pearl Roundabout, with many series of anti-government protests led mainly by the Shia and some Sunni Bahraini opposition. The Pearl Roundabout was initially a symbol of modernization as well as the formation of the GCC, Gulf Cooperation Council; however became more commonly associated with the 2011 democracy protests and was demolished soon after as an attempt to quell the movement as well as its significance. Similar to global Occupy movements, thousands of people occupied this space, showcasing collective resistance and disrupting daily life. The movement threatened the GCC’s commitment to preserving Bahrain’s rule by ordering Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to deploy troops over the border. In the end, this uprising not only disrupted the authoritarian rule of Bahrain but also the idea that the Arab Spring would not impact nations with substantial oil wealth in the Gulf.

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Flaming Fury: Tunisian Occupy Movements

1990-2010, Alternative Spaces, Authority, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Subjectives of Refusal, The Workplace, Uncategorized, Urban Spaces, Workers

“Within days of Bouazizi setting himself on fire, Tunisians began filling the streets of their cities with largely peaceful protests… this display of mass nonviolent action to effect rapid change would have been stunning anywhere, but was especially remarkable in a region that had grown notorious for its seeming inability to change peacefully, if at all.”
Jeffrey D. Sachs

Mohammad Bouazizi, setting himself on fire in Tunisia during the series of Occupy movements, was immensely disruptive. This act emphasized the need for drastic change, as this man was willing to sacrifice his life and body to disrupt the cycle that many had become complacent with. This action symbolized how deeply disenfranchised people were under Tunisia’s authoritarian rule, and that the people would no longer stand for this. His igniting exposed the brutality of the economic and political system that had become incredibly exclusive, often leaving behind the lower classes. The youth were angry- they were consistently repressed under their government, and desperately wanted new rules, yet their internet connections and communication with others about their widespread dissatisfaction yielded few results. Following Bouazizi’s decision to set himself on fire, protests ignited around police abuse, corruption, and high unemployment rates across the nation. Ultimately, this resulted in President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fleeing the country less than a month later, opening space for new political leaders and freedoms and the establishment of a more open civil society through a newly constructed constitution. This act also sparked the Arab Spring- uprisings in Syria, Bahrain, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen, demonstrating that this single act of disruption-when other methods are unheard, can transform political and economic landscapes, opening the conversation globally.

From Cairo to Wall Street :Tunisia Download

First International Conference of Socialist Women (1907) and Second International Conference of Socialist Women (1910)

1840-1945, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, The Bourgeoisie, Women, Workers

The First (1907) and Second (1910) International Conferences of Socialist Women manifestos directly challenged the political, economic, and gender structures that existed during these times. Instead of seeking incremental reforms or aligning with the ideals of mainstream middle-class feminism, they redefine women’s liberation as inseparable from a working-class revolution. They reject “bourgeois” feminist agendas that ignored the material realities of laboring women. They demanded universal suffrage as a tool of class struggle, declared capitalism to be the root of women’s exploitation, and insisted that women enter unions, strikes, and political organizations. These manifestos disrupted both traditional gender norms and the preexisting economic order. Their creation of international coordination further unsettles national boundaries and portrays women as a global political force. Through asserting that true emancipation requires fundamental restructuring of society, not mere reform, these documents articulate a bold and disruptive display of feminist politics that threatened the stability of existing power systems.

Feminist-manifestos Download

Hawon Jung’s Flowers of Fire (2023)

2011-Present, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Women

Hawon Jung draws attention to the personal testimonies and protests that have unfolded in South Korea as a result of persistent gender-based violence. She shows how women’s collective voices have shattered long-standing norms of silence and obedience deeply rooted in the country’s entrenched patriarchy. This activism has challenged not only individuals but also the institutions that have historically protected male authority. The women who participate in this resistance disrupt generational continuity, redefining womanhood in ways that no longer revolve solely around family life and men.

“Wake up! Your Miss Saigon was dead and gone a long time ago. She’s not here anymore.”

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Occupy Egypt: From Cairo to Wall Street

2011-Present, Authority, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Institutions, Occupation, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Workplace, Uncategorized, Urban Spaces, Workers

“The balance tipped. Going down to protest became acceptable Before then, people like members of my family would have said, ‘No way, how could you protest? It is not something people like us do.’ Then it became normal to protest. It became something we could do.”
Jawad Nabulsi

Jawad Nabulsi tells his personal experience of the Occupy movements in Egypt, taking place in Tahrir Square. Nabulsi’s narrative is particularly impactful as he was from a fairly wealthy family, and he recounts times where he was privileged enough to not follow certain procedures, like taking his driver’s license test, because his family had connections everywhere. He frames himself as well as his brother as people who did not need to partake in the movement, but were capable of doing so to benefit others. The tactics of “occupation” challenged the normal flow of everyday life and infrastructure, through taking over public space like Tahrir Square, a major public square in the heart of downtown Cairo, Egypt. The occupation undermined the regimes claim to order and complacency, especially when large numbers of people camped in central Cairo. The tactics of occupation allowed a wide cross-section of society from students, workers, unemployed graduates, young women—to participate, not just in short demonstrations but in extended presence. This broadened social disruption. The disruption can also be seen through Nabilsis personal story as he took part in the occupations regardless of the fact that his family was very well off, showcasing a reframing of whos involved, demonstrating the strong desire for change, even from those benefitting from this system. The tactics of occupation in Cairo were highly disruptive: they rewrote the rules of protest, challenged the state’s control of space, mobilised and organized large groups of society, and created a model for global protest movements.

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Resistance Through No Sex: The 4B Movement in South Korea

2011-Present, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Uncategorized, Women

Women in South Korea have continuously been treated as inferior under a deeply ingrained patriarchal system. In 2016, after a young woman was murdered in a misogynistic hate crime, the country reacted with outrage over the poor handling of her case. Misogynistic crimes like this, combined with systemic gender inequality and intense societal pressures, helped spark a collective rejection of men and patriarchal norms. Although often described as a “sex strike,” that is not the sole purpose of the 4B movement. Women in South Korea also place greater emphasis on engaging with and supporting one another rather than conforming to traditional relationships with men.

”The 4B thing is a very Korean, feministic lifestyle, and it is irreversible. We cannot be taken back again!”

Life Without Men: The 4B Movement

2011-Present, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Uncategorized, Women

After a history of oppression, rigid gender roles, pervasive misogyny, and gendered violence, many South Korean women have collectively decided to reject traditional patriarchal structures. These women follow the principles of the “4Bs”: bihon (no marriage), bichulsan (no childbirth), biyeonae (no dating men), and bisekseu (no sex with men). Through these rejections, they are not only resisting gender discrimination but also destabilizing societal expectations—with no clear desire to return to traditional roles, even in the aftermath of mass protests. This social disruption has begun to expand westward, reaching beyond Korea’s borders.

Valerie Solanas’s S.C.U.M. Manifesto (1967)

1946-1989, Date, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Women

The S.C.U.M. Manifesto is an account of Valerie Solanas’s radical feminist views. She argues that men are incomplete women who spend their lives attempting to become female. Through this pursuit, men have corrupted the world by forming harmful systems that give them a false sense of purpose. To relieve society of this corruption, women must recognize the damage caused by men and tear apart the systems that are ruining the nation. Ultimately, Solanas advocates the eradication of men.

“To be male is to be deficient, emotionally limited; maleness is a deficiency disease and males are emotional cripples.”

SCUM-Manifesto Download

SCUM Manifesto (1967)

1946-1989, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Patriarchy, Self Institution, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Workplace, Women, Workers

“So he… proceeds to define everyone in terms of his or her function or use, assigning himself, of course the most important functions-doctor, president, scientist- therefore providing himself with an identity, if not individuality, and tries to convince himself and women that the female function is to bear and raise children and to relax, comfort and boost the ego of the male”
Valerie Solanas

Valerie Solanas publishes the SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto in 1967, with the intent to describe the flaws of men and the society they’ve established. Men are described as egocentric, sexually driven animals who are incapable of mental interaction and are far inferior to women in all aspects. The manifesto uses sexual and vulgar language to describe men’s (lack of) purpose and how unfit and incompetent they are in filling all duties and roles in society. It is described that men created a society that functions through a work-money system, made to give men a sense of individuality, (doctor, president or scientist), to give them some sort of false value or identity to boost their ego. As the thesis of the SCUM Manifesto is to rebuild society without men, Solanas describes men as only being useful to reproduce, but with the existence of sperm banks, the existence of men is no longer necessary.

SCUM MANIFESTO (1967)

1946-1989, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Patriarchy, Self Institution, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Workplace, Uncategorized, Women

“SCUM is against the entire system, the very idea of law and government. SCUM is out to destroy the system, not attain certain rights within it.”
Valerie Solanas

Valerie Solanas, an American radical feminist, published The SCUM Manifesto in 1967, advocating for the dismantling of patriarchal structures established by men and the creation of a female-led society. Solanas critiques male dominance and systemic gender inequality, arguing that these societal flaws stem from male control. The manifesto calls upon “thrill-seeking females to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation, and destroy the male sex,” framing men as the root of societal instability and inefficiency, justifying the radical restructuring of society in favor of women, by women.

SCUM-MANIFESTO Download

BUT WE HAVE TO, SO WE DO IT REAL SLOW – Noche (2016)

2011-Present, Authority, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Privatization, Sabotage/Ecotage, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Bourgeoisie, The Workplace, Workers

This collection of texts primarily features an essay titled “BUT WE HAVE TO, SO WE DO IT REAL SLOW” by Noche, which explores the concept of anti-work within the context of Mexican and Mexican-American identity in the United States. The author challenges the prevailing pro-work sentiment, even within radical circles, arguing that elements of labor refusal and resistance are already present in Mexican-American culture, often in subtle or playful forms. The essay contrasts the traditional labor movement’s focus on better working conditions with a call for the abolition of work itself, linking this idea to historical anti-work movements and the critique of capitalism. Noche suggests that everyday acts of slacking, stealing, and working slowly can be seen as forms of resistance, and ultimately advocates for a world free from the constraints of wage labor, the state, and capitalist structures.

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Revolution: Program or Communization? – Agitations (n.d.)

Authority, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Privatization, Self Institution, Subjectives of Refusal, Subjects Redefined, Tactics of Disruption, The Bourgeoisie, The Workplace, Workers

This translated text explores the concept of “communization” as a revolutionary strategy, contrasting it with what it labels “programmatism,” the earlier 20th-century approach focused on the proletariat seizing state power. The source argues that programmatism, which aimed to manage the means of production, ultimately failed because it did not challenge the core of capitalist exploitation: the law of value and commodity production. Instead, communization proposes the immediate abolition of capitalist categories like value, wage labor, and social divisions through the self-negation of the proletariat. The authors suggest that the failure of past revolutionary attempts and the restructuring of capitalism in the 1970s necessitate this new approach, one that emphasizes practical, non-commodified actions over predetermined programs or theories.

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Mothering Against Motherhood: doula work, xenohospitality and the idea of the comrade – Sophie Lewis (2022)

2011-Present, Authority, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Imperialism, Patriarchy, Self Institution, Subjectives of Refusal, Subjects Redefined, Tactics of Disruption, The Home, White Supremacy, Women

This essay, titled “Mothering Against Motherhood: doula work, xenohospitality and the idea of the momrade” by Sophie Lewis, explores the concept of “mothering against motherhood” and “family abolition.” She argues for a communist horizon where care work is collectivized and relationships are based on chosen solidarity rather than biological ties, challenging the capitalist and patriarchal norms embedded in the traditional family.

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Be Gay Do Crime – Mary Nardini Gang (2019)

2011-Present, Authority, Blockade/Barricade, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Infrastructure/Data, Institutions, Occupation, Queer, Sabotage/Ecotage, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The 'Natural World', The Bourgeoisie, The Home, The Workplace, Urban Spaces, White Supremacy

This excerpt, from the introduction of a book titled “Be Gay Do Crime” by Mary Nardini Gang, reflects on ten years of queer, anarchist, criminal, and mystical resistance. It details the origins of their movement in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood, inspired by insurrections elsewhere and a commitment to a “criminal queer association.” The text emphasizes living a life outside societal norms, viewing normalcy as an enemy, and engaging in direct actions ranging from looting and blockades to caring for comrades and practicing various forms of magic and healing.

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16 Things You Can Do to Be Ungovernable – Indigenous Action Media (2020)

2011-Present, Authority, Date, Defining the Enemy, Indigenous, Self Institution, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption

This excerpt, published shortly after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, presents a perspective rejecting both major political parties, arguing that neither offers genuine liberation from colonial oppression. Instead of relying on electoral politics, the text proposes a path towards being “ungovernable” through direct action and building alternative community structures. It outlines sixteen specific actions individuals and groups can take, such as forming affinity groups, developing practical skills, practicing mutual aid and defense, and challenging oppressive systems like capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. Ultimately, the document advocates for building autonomous organizing and resisting colonial authority on stolen land.

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Rethinking the Apocalypse: An Indigenous Anti-Futurist Manifesto (n.d.)

Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Imperialism, Indigenous, Infrastructure/Data, Sabotage/Ecotage, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, The Bourgeoisie

The source presents a powerful critique of the colonial and capitalist systems, arguing they represent an ongoing, destructive “apocalypse” built on violence, exploitation, and the suppression of Indigenous ways of being. It contrasts this linear, destructive trajectory with an Indigenous perspective of time and existence that is cyclical and rooted in ancestral knowledge and connection to the Earth. The text rejects the notion of seeking solutions within the existing colonial framework, instead calling for a return to ceremony, collective dreaming, and disruptive action as forms of resistance and liberation. Ultimately, it posits that the survival and flourishing of Indigenous worlds are contingent upon the dismantling of the colonial “dead world.”

rethinking-the-apocalypse-read Download

You Cannot Profit off Our People’s Blood and Think Students Will Not Come for Your Money – Hammer & Hope (2024)

2011-Present, Authority, Date, Defining the Enemy, Disruptive Spaces, Imperialism, Institutions, Occupation, Students, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption

This source presents conversations with five college student groups actively organizing for Palestine solidarity at various universities in the United States. The students discuss their strategies and tactics for raising awareness and demanding institutional change, including protests, sit-ins, teach-ins, and divestment campaigns. They focus on disrupting the flow of capital tied to what they perceive as Israeli occupation.

YOU-CANNOT-PROFIT-OFF-OUR-PEOPLES-BLOOD-AND-THINK-STUDENTS-WILL-NOT-COME-FOR-YOUR-MONEY Download