# Collective Conditions reader + playlist

<multi>[en]An evolving companion to Collective Conditions[fr]Un compagnon évolutif pour Conditions Collectives[nl]Een veranderlijke metgezel vooor Gezamenlijke Omstandigheden</multi>

* Download compiled PDF: <http://constantvzw.org/collectiveconditions/reader.pdf>
* On-line version: <https://constantvzw.org/wefts/ccreader.en.html>
* Please send your activations or remarks to: femke@constantvzw.org
* To order the photocopy edition, send an email to: donatella@constantvzw.org (5 euros excl. delivery)

## Introduction

This reader is an evolving companion to [Collective Conditions](https://constantvzw.org/site/-Collective-Conditions,220-.html), a worksession held in November 2019 in Brussels. Together with a group of 25 international participants we explored the generative potential of socio-technical protocols such as codes of conduct, complaint procedures, bug reports and copyleft licenses. Collective Conditions was activated by the work of trans*feminist collectives on ally-ship, non-violent communication, score-making, anti-colonial and intersectional activism, but also by ways of doing developed within Free Culture and Free, Libre and Open Source software. Out of commitment to the tools and methods that these collectives propose to intervene in cultures of harassment, we wanted to take serious the role that self-invented protocols might play in the (different) imagination of "complex collectivities". What protocols would for example work for non-normative human constellations, or collectives where participants with radically different needs, backgrounds and agencies come together? What different needs do “complex collectives” have when they are the result of structural forces such as laws, racism, technology, wars, austerity, queerphobia and ecological conditions? How to avoid self-invented protocols in turn becoming excluding and ostracising law-like ways of doing? How to imagine ally-ship as a non-equalizing form of togetherness? 

Whether you prefer to read, watch or listen, this collection of resources contains different lines of thinking for further research into non-divisive ways of doing "complex collectivity". The materials are explicitly experimental, non-stable and non-exhaustive. We invite anyone to activate the reader and parts of it in whichever way — adding, deleting, changing, translating, whispering or other ways of activation we could not yet imagine but look forward to hear about. We especially want to acknowledge the blank spots present in this version of the reader as one possible direction of activation. An area of study we for example find important for approaching "complex collectivity" but struggled to find material on, are reflections on the connection between disability studies and the pull towards extractive platforms because of their higher degree of some kinds of accessibility.

The reader was updated in October 2020 by Loren Britton, Peter Hermans and Constant. We added various audio-visual materials and some textual ones; for the printed reader we auto-translated all articles into English and extended the French, Dutch and Spanish articles for the on-line version. This on-line version also contains an updated collection of sample documents.

## Allies / Accomplices /

* Amita Kharakhedkar (2020),  On Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism | Godrej India Culture Lab
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwkAh3pWBgc "On Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism | Godrej India Culture Lab")

* ContraPoints (2019),  Gender Critical
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pTPuoGjQsI "ContraPoints (2019), Gender Critical")

* Paul Gilroy (2009), Postcolonial Critique and the End of the West Keynote
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvJnt0E9PME "Postcolonial Critique and the End of the West Keynote")

* Revolutionary Solidarity (2015),  A critical reader for accomplices -  Accomplices Not Allies
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gdQEROwKg4 "A critical reader for accomplices - Accomplices Not Allies")

* Queer Nation Manifesto - ACT UP (1990),  "Why Queer" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAu0WohzIaU
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAu0WohzIaU "Queer Nation Manifesto - ACT UP")

* Sara Ahmed (2016), **An affinity of Hammers** [section]
* The Wretched of the earth (2019), [**An open letter to Extinction Rebellion**](https://www.redpepper.org.uk/an-open-letter-to-extinction-rebellion/)
    [ES] The Wretched of the earStas Schmiedt, Lea Roth, and Mariame Kaba (2019), Transforming Harm: Experiments in Accountabilityth (2019), [**Una carta abierta a Extinction Rebellion**](https://www.redpepper.org.uk/an-open-letter-to-extinction-rebellion/)
* Sunaura Taylor (2016), **Beasts of Burden** [section]
    [FR] Sunaura Taylor (2017), **L'entraide inter-espèces au delà du validisme**. In: Braves Bêtes [section]
* Paul Gilroy (2004), **The negative dialectics of convivial culture**. In: Postcolonial melancholia [section]
* Miriyam Aouragh (2018), **The limitations of White Privilege: Shortcuts in the anti-racism struggle** [auto-translation, section]
    [NL] Miriyam Aouragh (2018), [**De beperkingen van Wit Privilege: Shortcuts in de antiracisme strijd**](https://socialisme.nu/de-beperkingen-van-wit-privilege-shortcuts-in-de-antiracisme-strijd/) [section]
* Indigenous Action Media (2019?), [**Accomplices not allies - abolishing the ally industrial complex**](http://www.indigenousaction.org/accomplices-not-allies-abolishing-the-ally-industrial-complex/)
* ACT UP (1990), [**Queer Nation Manifesto**](http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/queernation.html)

## Assemblages / Intersections /

* Jennifer Nash (2018), Feminist Theory Workshop Keynote Address
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy-akUNqvg8 "Jennifer Nash 2018 Feminist Theory Workshop Keynote Address")

* Eliza Chandler, Kelly Fritsch, Aimi Hamraie, Alyson Patsavas, Joshua St. Pierre (2019),  [**Unexpected Movements: A Symposium for Automatisme Ambulatoire**](https://vimeo.com/351231480)

* Olave Nduwanje (2019), [**Do not read this body | Corpoliteracy, Haus der Kulturen der Welt**](https://soundcloud.com/hkw/do-not-read-this-body-eng)

* Jennifer C. Nash (2019), [**Intersectionality: An Intellectual History. In: Black Feminism Reimagined after intersectionality**](https://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-1-4780-0059-4_601.pdf) [section] 
* Aimi Hamraie, Kelly Fritsch (2011) [**Crip Technoscience Manifesto**](https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/29607/24771) [section]
* Jasbir Puar (2011) [**‘I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess’ Intersectionality, Assemblage, and Affective Politics**](https://eipcp.net/transversal/0811/puar/en.html) [section]
* Loren Britton, Helen Pritchard (2020), **CS Field Manual**
* Eléonore Lépinard (2014) **Impossible Intersectionality**? French Feminists and the Struggle for Inclusion

## Ecologies / Politics /

* Jane Bennett (2011) [**Powers of the Hoard: Notes on Material Agency**](https://www.ici-berlin.org/events/jane-bennett/)

* Stas Schmiedt, Lea Roth, and Mariame Kaba (2019), Transforming Harm: Experiments in Accountability
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0X6MdSDC4w "Transforming Harm: Experiments in Accountability")

* Manthia Diawara (2015), On "Poetics of Relation"
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtJZ8KiAErw "On "Poetics of Relation"")

* Kyle Powys Whyte (2018), Indigenous Peoples and Climate Justice 
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YPvsOCUhI8 "Indigenous Peoples and Climate Justice ")

* Martha Nussbaum (2008), [**The social contract**](https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/martha-nussbaum---part-1---the-social-contract/3174420#transcript)
* Mariame Kabe (2019), [**Everything Worthwile Is Done With Other People**](https://adimagazine.com/articles/mariame-kaba-everything-worthwhile-is-done-with-other-people/) [section] 
* Tumult (2013), **Archipelago: Affinity, informal organisation and insurgency projects** [auto-translation, section]
    [FR] Tumult (2013), [**Archipel: Affinité, organisation informelle et projets insurrectionnels**](https://lelaboratoireanarchiste.noblogs.org/files/2016/07/Archipel.pdf) [section]
* Edouard Glissant (1997), **Dictate, Decree**. In: Poetics of relation [section]
* Chedia Leroij (2018), **For a pragmatic political ecology** [auto-translation]
    [FR] Chedia Leroij (2018), [**Pour une écologie politique pragmatique**](http://www.iteco.be/revue-antipodes/intelligence-collective/article/pour-une-ecologie-politique-pragmatiste#nb12)
* Alexis Shotwell (2016) **Against purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times** [conclusion]
* Ana Teixeira Pinto (2019) **Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years? Some Notes on Futurism, Futurity, and Truancy** [section]

## Structures / Support /

* bell hooks & Bettina Love (2017), "Education Liberates"
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY2C_ATNFEM "“Education Liberates”")

* Jo Freeman aka Joreen (1970), The Tyranny of Structurelessness
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ttKaxy3OgE "The Tyranny of Structurelessness")

* Tunde Adefioye (2018), A Critical Ten Point Plan to Creating Professional Sectors that Reflect Society
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLoDI9oy3Tw "A Critical Ten Point Plan to Creating Professional Sectors that Reflect Society")

* Sara Ahmed (2018), Complaint as Diversity Work
[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ_1kFwkfVE "Complaint as Diversity Work")

* Jo Freeman (1970), [**The Tyranny of Structurelessness**](http://www.struggle.ws/pdfs/tyranny.pdf)
    [FR] Jo Freeman (1970), [**La tyrannie de l’absence de structure**](https://infokiosques.net/spip.php?article2)
* Tunde Adefioye (2018), [**A Critical Ten Point Plan to Creating Professional Sectors that Reflect Society**](https://www.ietm.org/en/themes/ietm-porto-plenary-meeting-2018-keynote-speech-by-tunde-adefioye)
    [NL] Tunde Adefioye (2018), [**Tienstappenplan voor de kunstensector**](https://www.rektoverso.be/auteurs/tunde-adefioye)
* Simon Yuill (2007), [**All problems of notation will be solved by the masses**]( http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/all-problems-notation-will-be-solved-masses) [section]
    [FR] Simon Yuill (2007), **Tous les problèmes de notation seront résolus par les masses** (version abrégée) [section]
Github Open Source Guides, [**Your Code of Conduct: Facilitate healthy and constructive community behavior by adopting and enforcing a code of conduct.**](https://opensource.guide/code-of-conduct/)
    [FR] [**Votre Code de Conduite: Faciliter un comportement communautaire sain et constructif en adoptant et en appliquant un code de conduite.**](https://opensource.guide/fr/code-of-conduct/)
    [NL] [**Uw gedragscode: Faciliteer gezond en constructief gedrag in de gemeenschap door een gedragscode aan te nemen en af te dwingen.**](https://opensource.guide/nl/code-of-conduct/)
* Maggie Zhou, Alex Clemmer & Lindsey Kuper (2014), [**A Code of Conduct Is Not Enough**](https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/a-code-of-conduct-is-not-enough)
* Benjamin Mako Hill (2009), [**Updating the Ubuntu Code of Conduct**](https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/updating-the-ubuntu-code-of-conduct)
* Mikko Rauhola (2007) [**Censorship, IRC and the Ubuntu Code of Conduct v1.0**](http://mjr.iki.fi/ubuntu/coc_censorship.html)
* ZAD (2018), **Dynamics** [auto-translation, section]
    [FR] ZAD (2018), [**Dynamiques**](https://zad.nadir.org/IMG/pdf/dynamiques.pdf) [section]
* Sara Ahmed (2017), [**Refusal, resignation and complaint**](https://feministkilljoys.com/2018/06/28/refusal-resignation-and-complaint/)
* Marie Bardet (2017), [**Making a front with our backs**](https://wp.nyu.edu/esferas/making-a-front-with-our-backs-marie-bardet-translator-ellen-heaghney/)
    [ES] Marie Bardet (2017), [**Hacer frente con nuestras espaldas**](http://lobosuelto.com/hacer-frente-con-nuestras-espaldas-marie-bardet/)


## Sample documents
* [The Consumers Dilemma License](http://piracy.americanassembly.org/the-consumers-dilemma/)
* [Climate Strike Software License](https://climatestrike.software/)
* Asians4Blacklives, [We are not an organization but we are organized.](https://a4bl.wordpress.com/who-we-are/)
* [Mommen manifesto](http://ateliersmommen.collectifs.net/fr/salon/manifeste)
* [PAF basics](http://www.pa-f.net/basics)
* [OSP collaboration agreement](http://osp.kitchen/tools/collaboration-agreement/tree/master/collaboration-agreement.pdf)
* [Constant orientations for collaboration](http://media.constantvzw.org/wefts/123/)
* Bidston Observatory [Values & Accountability](http://www.bidstonobservatory.org/?accountability)
* erg.be [R.E.I.N.E.](http://wiki.erg.be/mw/images/c/cd/Erg_lereine_version270318.pdf)
* [London Hackspace Code of Conduct](https://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/Code_of_Conduct)
* [Linux Kernel Documentation Code of Conflict](https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.10/process/code-of-conflict.html)
* [Manifesto of the Post Natyam Collective](https://www.postnatyam.net/about/manifesto-2-3-2015/)
* Zach Blas (2016), [TransCoder Software License](http://www.zachblas.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/TC-license-excerpt.jpg)
* Le Reset, hackerspace queer + féministe: [charte](https://lereset.org/charte.html)
* [The (Cooperative) Non-Violent Public License](https://thufie.lain.haus/NPL.html​)
* [The Anti-Capitalist Software License](https://anticapitalist.software/)
* [Manifesto of cares](http://etherdump.constantvzw.org/p/collectiveconditions.manifestoofcares.diff.html)
* [Collective Conditions for re-use 1.0 (CC4r)](https://gitlab.constantvzw.org/unbound/cc4r/)