A No Borders Manifesto

This text first appeared on the No Borders UK website in 2012. We have no relation with this organization, or any other for that matter. Still, we see a value in circulating this statement, as we find much to agree with here. For instance, given how widespread a certain moralistic approach to migrant solidarity is these days…the importance of the authors’ statement that “we are drawn to this struggle for our own reasons, and out of our own passions and histories” cannot be overemphasized. Equally relevant is their refusal of victimhood frameworks, of rights discourse, of media fetishism, and of ‘stunt activism’, in favor of a strategic emphasis on growing force relations between co-conspirators.

“Resistance and struggle are not separate from the rest of life – these networks and communities are the same ones in which we live, learn, play, work, invent and build alternative social and political structures. As a movement’s strength grows, and as crises expose weaknesses in its enemies, these networks become the infrastructure for open rebellion. So the 19th century underground railroad was the basis for slave revolts during the US civil war. The underground railroad of the 1940s broke out into partisan uprisings. What new forms might struggle take in the 21st century? We don’t know, but let’s find out.“