Em Endersstocker
Eyes blink and she’s gone. Passing between this world and its parallel, Em brings back to us a hope for utopia yet to be. Very little is known about her past. What we do know is that in her own dimensional reality, no human subject rules another.
Tracing our journey with Em back to its genesis, NO BORDERS Collective (known as the Marine Biology Crew at the time) was taking one of our usual inspirational strolls. The boombox, balanced on the shoulder of one collective member, contributed the tones of Tupac to a rather intense discussion of neuroplasticity in dolphins. We were halfway into our walk when all fell silent; for that brief moment the only thing in the universe was the strange chartreuse light that came to envelope us—everything else seemed worlds away: the concrete underfoot, the Tupac beat, the touch of the breeze—all gone.
And as the glow receded, our world returned: the feel of our bodies on concrete, the nineties sounds streaming from the boombox, the wind. But not all was as it had been before. Our party was joined by an unknown woman, who appeared as surprised by this turn of events as we all were. After the shock wore off, she embraced us all as one would long lost friends. The woman, Em Endersstocker, told us of her home—much like ours in so many ways, but also so very different. She described its anarchic nature—filled with an intentional, collective effort to prevent all domination (in its multiple and varied forms).
We were so moved by her stories that we re-aligned our own relations, becoming NO BORDERS Collective—a band of dreaming, experimenting, mischief-making anarchists. Em joined us in forging this bit of revolutionary, consensual prefiguration: starting a mobile infoshop, holding Really Really Free Markets, bringing forth radical discussion of film.
Since the day of our first (very surreal) meeting with Em Endersstocker we have seen her come and go many times, always in that flash of chartreuse light. Between her dimension and our own she passes. We’ve encountered her in a mangrove forest in Bangladesh, at the rodeo, atop a statue of the Marx Brothers, and so many other places. Where and when we will see her next we cannot know. But we are always filled with anticipation for that next rendezvous.
Human Rights as a concept of universal freedoms and securities to which every homo sapiens is entitled, regardless of biological, economic, or political prerequisites, stands at odds with the core characteristics of the capitalist system. Perhaps the most exemplary illustration can be witnessed in the treatment of healthcare systems. The contrasts between the capitalist model as seen in the United States and the humanist model viewed through the diligently anti-capitalist Chiapas are stark; If Chiapas is a living, entangled, and inclusive representation of the possibilities for health, then the US system is its morbid, segregated, and discriminatory counterpart. The commodification of healthcare creates death, not the “right to life, liberty and security of person” proposed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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anarchism, anti-capitalist, Chiapas, EZLN, Geneva Convention, health, healthcare, human rights, International Humanitarian Law, scarcity, united nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Zapatistas
The past century has been coined by scholars as “the century of genocide.” An estimated 50–60 million people have been killed in conflicts that can be classified as genocides. Many have observed that the development of the nation-state and the industrialization of killing has led to increased violence. However, few have examined the violent roots and effects of the processes that claim to prevent domination and promote peace. The United Nations, neglecting to address and act to resolve its own place in modern, rationalized violence, demonstrates its ignorance of power relations through the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. By authoritatively defining and ranking violence, the UN Convention, itself a product of 20th century bureaucratization, perpetuates and permits violence and reinforces the state-sovereignty that frequently effectuates crimes of genocide.
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anarchism, bureacracy, Darfur, genocide, Holocaust, human rights, nation-states, rational-legal authority, society, united nations, violence
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