The U.S. is increasingly divided into two economic zones: one "high-pressure", the other "low-pressure." What the fuck does that mean? Basically, globalization has meant the end of the U.S. manufacturing economy and the rise of a service-based international finance economy that has radically reshaped the landscape of the entire world, including the former manufacturing areas in the U.S. Former manufacturing cities and towns now comprise a huge swath of rapidly declining real estate called the "Rust Belt", a vast, non-contiguous part of the country that has been forcibly unhinged from its blue collar economic mooring and consequently has entered a phase of steady decline (e.g. Detroit loses 10,000 people a year.)
What, then, are "high-pressure" zones?" They are the parts of the country that have become nodes in the global economy, mostly large cities like New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, etc., places that host a rapidly growing population of young service workers ("service work" by our definition ranges from working at a coffeeshop to stockbrokering, since these workers create value by performing a service rather than creating a new product; also note that in both cases workers deal with products of a globalized economy.) These cities have seen exploding real estate values, the emergence of Gilded Age-style consumer economies, and rapid population booms.
The wonks here at the Center believe that this trend is going to continue for a long time to come, and we feel it is crucial that anarchists take advantage of the opportunities presented by both zones if we are to be relevant in the future. Low pressure zones offer cheap and abundant space, which can be used for squatting, urban farming, infrastructure projects, etc. There's always a space crunch with anarchist projects since they're usually underfunded, so locating space intensive projects in a low pressure zone can make a lot of sense (witness Microcosm's recent move from Portland to Bloomington, to save on building costs.) High pressure zones, as critical nodes in the global economy, present abundant opportunities to, ahem, challenge capitalism where it is most active. To be effective, this requires a lot of guts, imagination, and risk, but we feel it is too late for finesse tactics (note: we don't agree with everything in this zine, especially the misguided CrimethInc. bashing, but it contains a lot of excellent material nonetheless.)
There's an interesting element to the whole high-pressure/low-pressure situation: displacement. Think about it literally. What happens when a high-pressure zone comes up against a low-pressure zone? Well, whatever is occupying the high-pressure zone (gas particles in the case of air, people in the case of demographics) gets sucked into the low-pressure zone. This helps explain a phenomenon that can be confusing when trying to determine whether a particular area is high-pressure or low-pressure.
Portland is a good example. The industrial economy in Portland has declined a great deal, but the city is actually gentrifying. How is this happening? Well, lots of young, middle class people are leaving high-pressure cities due to rising prices and low quality of life (traffic, overcrowding, pollution, etc.) and moving to low-pressure areas that offer lower prices, higher quality of life, and lots of hip young people. Some cities are experiencing both phenomena at the same time, like Pittsburgh, where the population is in seemingly perpetual decline due to the collapse of the U.S. steel industry, but hip young people are increasingly moving there for the low home prices, among other things. Now, this phenomenon is taking on a whole new dimension as older, upper-middle class people are moving from high-pressure cities to low-pressure rural areas, which is made possible by the decentralized nature of many service jobs in the global economy (jobs that can be done via e-mail or fax, for instance.)
This isn't just nerdy trivia. Anarchists must familiarize themselves with these changes in order to create effective strategies for confronting the new global economic order. Whether that means taking on gentrification, moving a project, starting a new one, or planning for the years to come, having an understanding of the forces that are shaping the U.S. landscape is critical to our future success.
5 comments:
Coming from someone who lives in the midwest (close enough to bloomington), the potentials for escaping the confines of the economy are much easier in these "low pressure" zones as you've described it. Travelers that stay at our house have their minds blown when we tell them how much we paid for our pretty sizeable house. The only problem with that plus is the negative of the cultural void that tends to inhabit these areas...which doesn't necessarily draw more of our ilk in. If we had the numbers in the midwest, we could have a noticeable impact in this area, i'm really confident in that, unfortunately everyone wants to move to all the hip areas (myself guilty once) like portland and the such. The midwest landscape and culture has a lot to offer as far as strategy, networking, and solidarty goes...but it doesn't stand much of a chance as long as "anarchy" is still about somewhat transient youth just trying to find exciting lives in edgy culture, relationship hopping, and apartment habitation. We need some strong roots...where we can afford them...THEN we can get to getting crazy with our lives. my two cents
I agree with the first part of your comment. The second part is another debate for another post.
I recently visited Pittsburgh, and I stayed in a large house that cost $6000 to purchase. It housed 4-5 people and easily had room for more. I was blown away.
The cultural currency you say those places lack, which I agree they do, is precisely what leads to their gentrification, subsequently raising the low costs that attract people in the first place. This leads to an important question: how do anarchists become a force against gentrification, rather than a contributor to it, as we now are (for the most part)? What is our strategy? I can't suggest that tons of anarchists move to low pressure zones without answering this question.
gentrification is such a difficult catch 22, and i'm not sure where i stand on it yet, especially since moving into a poor white working class neighborhood. my perspectives have been shaped tremendously by this environment.
and yes, this is also a whole nother post/conversation. but to summarize, the problem i'm finding is how to live respectably in order to create a safe environment between individuals, but how to be a nuisance so as to drive away predatory investors, gentrifiers, etc. the trouble is being a nuisance to the right people, without being a nuisance to your neighbors....to simplify the issue anyways.
What is the name of the zine referenced in this post? I think Zinelibrary changed their format, so the link no longer takes you to a particular zine. Thanks.
The zine is called "Against The Corpse Machine", but honestly I haven't looked at it since I wrote this post, so I have no idea how I'd feel about it now.
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