about the project

Let me introduce myself. I’m originally from the US but have been living abroad for the last 8 years, mostly in Madrid. There I have been very deeply involved in social movement networks, largely through an action-research group called Precarias a la Deriva which we started in 2002. For the last couple of years we have been talking about starting a resource-and-selforganizing center, which we finally inaugurated just a few weeks ago. Okay, thats background.

Now: I’ve been reading a lot about the emerging movement in the US, workers centers and other organizations, and am very impressed and very curious. To the extent that the European social and labor environment is becoming more and more like the American one in so many ways, it seems that we have a lot to learn from organizational strategies and experiences in the US. Moreover, I’m way overdue for a re-encounter with the US, its political realities, etc. which at this point I understand so little about.

So this is a 5 month travelling project, trying to meet and interview and spend some time with grassroots projects working on resource sharing and self defense (in labor, housing, migration, health…) around the country. The projected itinerary is New England in August, Philadelphia and area in September, Georgia/NC in October, Louisiana/Texas in November, California in December, but I suspect that that will all change as I go. The whole thing is very open and flexible, and I would love for others to join and participate.

It is also, of course, a personal odyssey, full of the strangeness of return.