Do It Yourself(D.I.Y) and sharing skills
Do It Yourself(D.I.Y) and sharing skills
D.I.Y. is the way to take the situation in our own hands away from passive consuming and letting others decide and do things for us. Its meaning and application is so wide that it varies from simple constructions to the idea of the active self organization of our everyday lives.
There are many examples in the world where people are trying to make by themselves, little but important changes in the environment they live in. Do it yourself music productions and concerts take place in a noncommercial way, collectives are constructing small wind generators in order to achieve autonomy in energy and not pollute nature, people create open-source computer programs in the basis of sharing knowledge without profit, others cultivate land and use composting in order to take control of their food and be independent from companies and markets, others are taking care of their own health by using healing herbs… and still there are many more examples of people’s efforts to expand our autonomy from capitalism and the state in our everyday life.
Do it yourself or better do it ourselves, has political value only when it is connected to the perspective of radical social change. It is radical in the way that people try to be creative and start building today the world we fight to be created tomorrow. It is an effort to take knowledge and know-how back from the monopoly of state and capital, a way to believe in our ability to construct. In addition to that, the idea of not listening to specialists or someone over us, brings us to the essence of grassroots procedures. It gives ground for people to see in action and live what self-organizing is and not just have theories and abstract ideas about it.
Sharing skills and generally knowledge, like sharing everything, is a pleasurable experience. It puts all the values of the autonomous movement like solidarity, respect for others, equality, collective work, non competitiveness and non authority relations into action. The simple and natural process of learning from each other, while smashing the barrier between teachers and students is a good example of radical, libertarian education. The practice of sharing skills and coeducation questions oppressive methods of education created intentionally by the state and capital and can open the way for understanding and practicing libertarian education.
The grassroots movement holds in itself a unique dynamic of creativity and inspiration for the simple reason that it is based in the free initiative and free cooperation of human beings. Unlike the barbaric state, capitalism and boring fossil parties(!) that prevent this dynamic from being unleashed, self organization and D.I.Y. can produce results in our everyday life and strengthen the movement. A movement that wants to be creative and search for other ways in today and now, can produce amazing examples that can be very inspiring. If we put together grassroots anti-capitalist resistance with creativity in our everyday lives, the mixture can be very inspiring and explosive.