CHICAGO, IL — A spectre haunts the Americas, a spectre composed of millions of artivists who have united to rescue communities from the attacks of the corporative dictatorship that destroys us with its death doctrine. Neo-liberalism (call it neo-fascism) has been imposed by the mafias who unlawfully hold power by means of the brute force of their armies and police corps, by means of their corruption and secrecy, and backed up by the U.S. military and trade agreements like NAFTA.
The artivists resist this doctrine of engineered wars to sell weapons publicized by genocides; of design wars to colonize lands and turn them into golf courses for the rich; of bombings to steal oil and natural resources, drown children, and destroy the sea, the rivers, the subterranean water, the water we drink, we bathe in, we are healed with. We must resist the terrorism-implanting wars that frighten people into docility, when corporations and banks want to uproot their rights to home and livelihood, to healthy food, to drinking water, to free education, to labor with justice, i.e., with rules, to live in peace, to retire with dignity. The Live Community Culture movement (LCC) is a response to this in Latin America, and it is now beginning in the U.S.
Already organizations and individual cultural workers throughout Chicago are engaged in the effort. LCC is about recovering collective memory, remembering who we are and how we have survived in spite of efforts of a corporate dictatorship to suppress us. Even in the Midwest thousands of years ago, before banks or states existed, central places arose where peoples could converge, share and exchange cultures. In this fashion our peoples circulated, met, rested, and created music, dance, poetry, theatre, art, joy and collective wisdom.
Today that spirit lives on in countless disparate groups and grassroots organizations. What unites each of these groups is the descent into the hell of poverty that corporatism enforces. As an antidote to this, Live Community Culture proposes an encounter of the communities with themselves. Bringing the communities together transcends isolation and builds on our commonality, because we are not isolated beings but community beings.
Live Community Culture began in Latin America and has held two Intercontinental Congresses. It has begun in Chicago and is connecting some of the local groups of artists and artivists. Artistic expression that comes from the people reflects the joys and struggles of the people in their battle for survival. LCC brings cultural workers together in a way to bring the people together.
The art of the revolution is growing. It is bringing a certain consciousness to the people, a social consciousness, an understanding of what our society is and the relationship between people and classes. This is the responsibility of any serious human being, especially those of us who are the cultural workers today.
The first Day of Action for LCC in Chicago is June 11th in Rogers Park. For inquiries and to get involved, check out livecommunityculturerp.com/
