2025-09-09_fragmentary resistance

what do i mean when i say that our resistance should be fragmentary? doesn’t that run counter to the goal of a “united front”? no, maybe. but more significantly, opposition to unity is not the aim of m(y) stating that our resistances should be fragmentary. the core concern is the efficacy, security, longevity and intersectionality of our movements and communities. connections with anarchism abound in this point. a fragmentary movement is also one without entrenched hierarchies and concentrations of power in the hands of few. concentrations that might be effective for specific aims and moments, but that also always lead to (at the very least the risk of) co-optation, institutionalization and the formation of elite classes within our movements whose interests necessarily conflict with the masses. adding to this detrimental downside are the aspects of security and longevity: if you have one or just a few people with most of the knowledge and power in a community of resistance, if and when something happens to them (incarceration, burn-out, assassination, depression, co-optation, etc. / all of the above), the community and movement is much more heavily impacted and weakened than if knowledge, responsibility and power was more spread out among its members. and finally, connecting to the first point: since we are all fragments, no one person or small group can/will ever be able to act in the best interests of a community and especially those most marginalized within our communities. this is not something that can/will ever be rectified perfectly, but it is definitely (unnecessarily) exacerbated by non-fragmentary forms of organization.

to conclude i’ll propose a clarification/distinction between fragmentary and fragmented/scattered: fragmentary resistance is concerned with efficacy, security, longevity and intersectionality and works towards these goals by encouraging non-hierarchical, horizontal and solidary forms of community and movement organizing. fragmented/scattered resistance is what would be more commonly understood under fragmentary or fragmented: disorganized, poorly connected and not (yet) able to become a serious, effective opposition to systems of oppression.