Howard Zinn At The International Anti-Authoritarian Festival, Athens 20090527
By Kostas Beveratos, translation to english by Despoina Papageorgiou

When Howard Zinn talks about disobedience, he profoundly does not refer to naughty children. Disobedience is not the personal convenience or a comfortable situation that subverts the notion collectiveness. On the contrary, it is an arduous and continuous effort which aims at embedding and broadening values of collectiveness.

Thus, for example, disobedience is not parking my motorcycle on the sidewalk since I find it convenient. On the contrary, disobedience is when I create the conditions under which such an act of dominance will be subject of discourse and will be subverted.

Disobedience, according to Zinn, is the state of human consciousness in which the latter says: nothing in society lies beyond human judgment, either at the level of the collective or at the personal level. No societal structure, institution, practice or common perception constitutes a fixed and eternal value.

Disobedience is hard to practice. Periphrasis, exhausting dialogue, are the tools for constantly defining and asserting collective space.
It is easy to use violence, although this lies in contradiction to the process of developing collectiveness. As Zinn said: «People use violence when they are too lazy to organise».

We are trained to obey. We are trained to believe that this is the only way to live, that this is democracy, that our ego can be defined only through consumerism and individualism. And so we are trained to accept all kinds of mechanisms of imposing authority.

On the other hand, disobedience can be taught. Disobedience springs out of the knowledge that the need for justice lies above any laws and practices. Justice is a constantly evolving notion, which defines institutions and commonly accepted notions, which, on their turn, are also in constant evolution. This is what we should teach the next generations.

The Commune of Paris and the communities of the Spanish Anarchists stand in History, as those 24 seconds of the first flight of the Wright brothers. There is still a long effort ahead until the trans-antlantic flight.

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