The Commune Form

Praise

“Tracing a genealogy of the commune form from 1871, via Henri Lefebvre, to contemporary agrarian struggles of defence, Kristin Ross teases out a conceptual lexicon for ecological spaces ‘beyond capitalism and beyond state bureaucracy’. An essential book.”
—Steve Edwards, author of Martha Rosler

“Far from being a remnant surviving in the entrails of modernity, the paysan takes center stage in Ross’s remarkable book as the guide to our post-capitalist futures. Her commentary on recent conflicts between land-based movements and state power is as profound as her appreciation of the modern communards who are reinventing how we should live on the earth.”
—Andrew Ross, author of Stone Men: The Palestinians Who Built Israel

“Continuing a discourse on the commons begun with Communal Luxury and developed in the introduction to The Zad and NoTAV, Kristin Ross’ The Commune Form is a most insightful account of the making of a revolutionary process staring form the transformation of everyday life. It is an account that connects past and present, shows the power of the struggle for the defense of the and land and its capacity to mobilize diverse social subjects and create new social relations. The Commune Form is also an excursus through the theorization about the construction of communal life from Marx and Kropotkin to Mies and (especially) Lefebvre. Beautifully written, at a time when we often despair of the future, it is powerful, soul-moving affirmation that another world free from the alienation of life in capitalism is not only possible but in the making.”
—Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch

“In this valuable and stimulating essay, Ross turns her attention to the long history of the Paris Commune, seeking its legacy in the making of contemporary struggles over land in the face of state and corporate infrastructure projects. Taking the practices of communal living as her starting point, she argues that ’we make our community by defending it’, and shows how territorial defence can provide a model for building solidarities and developing the alternative ways of living, being and doing that will be central to a post-productionist world.”
—Graeme Hayes, author of Breaking Laws: Violence and Civil Disobedience in Protest