A stickering campaign during the recent Yarra harvest festival weekend is the motivation for this article. The stickering was mainly conducted throughout the blocks of corporate high rises in the Southbank area of Melbourne. Southbank is home to such corporate buildings as HWT, Eureka Tower and of course Australand Holdings which is the corporate entity centred in the following story.
National-Anarchists aim to make an impact and leave a message with our stickers. The stickers themselves are intriguing and appealing; they catch the eye and leave a person wondering about the ideas that come with such a sticker. Needless to say, stickering in a maze of corporate buildings is putting out a message of anti-capitalism in the very heart of global capitalist turf. Not to mention that National-Anarchist stickers are much more exciting and thought provoking than tonnes of concrete and boring corporate art.
As a National-Anarchist placed a sticker in the zone deemed “property of Australand Holdings,” a young bloke in a blue shirt came over to inform us of how out of bounds we were. We didn’t quite understand what he was trying to say; surely he wasn’t equating our stickers to crass vandalism? Sure enough, we had taken a step too far…
John Worker: “You can’t put your shit there, this is ours…”
National-Anarchist: “What do you mean yours? Who owns it?”
John Worker: “We do, I mean, Australand… I mean… I own it” *pointing to the company logo on his shirt*
National-Anarchist: “Do you really think you own any of this stuff? Do you really think you’re represented by Australand?”
John Worker didn’t want to keep talking, he was slightly confused and had to finish his work, he’d hate to keep his boss waiting. However, the activists had been left dumbfounded – never before had they seen a worker of any description identify with and defend a corporate entity, let alone the company they worked for!
National-Anarchists thoroughly oppose the entire concept of a corporation. A corporation is a legal entity designed to protect individuals in their business dealings. National-Anarchists do not oppose buying, selling or bartering but we do demand that every individual be held accountable for their actions. If you are selling Microsoft products, you should not be able to hide behind the name and collective assets of Microsoft Corporation. Corporations are a major enemy in our fight against the establishment – corporations of all descriptions are guilty of exploitation, environmental destruction, consumerism and globalisation.
It is fascinating to see an individual pledge loyalty to an entity as artificial and damaging as a corporation. Though, it happens and in our modern, consumerist world it is increasingly common. What is this “corporate culture” and how do we combat it?
A person is first drawn to a corporation by the needs that are met by such an entity. Obviously, salaries are paid which puts food on the table and meets the essential and material desires of a person. A corporation offers incentive or the potential to grow as a person – learning new skills, becoming a respected employee, getting a promotion and “climbing the ladder” are all a part of the corporate culture. A corporation does serve as a sort of family and tribe for its employees; your workmates may support you in tough times, your boss supplies your needs and motivates you and wearing the logo of your corporation is like flying the flag of your tribe.
A National-Anarchist can understand why people would want to be a part of a corporation. It is not about being selfish or consciously supporting a negative and destructive entity. It is about belonging, meeting your needs and prospering in our consumerist world. It is now the norm to spend long hours in the office, earn a salary and buy the newest products. It is now the norm that independence from work, being close to family and non-materialistic aspirations must come second to the corporate job.
This is of course not the case with all corporate employees, though it is a trend growing in developed countries – Japan is a scary example.
In Japan, to spend your entire life with the same company is expected. It is not uncommon that Japanese “salary man” will put more hours in to work than he would his family and even spend a small fortune on gifts for his superiors. Such loyalty to a corporation has even been compared to the loyalty of Samurai to their Lord in the Japanese feudal era. Salary men are even known to have tattoos of their companies’ logo on their bodies.
Can we foresee a world where each human is assigned a corporation where they will spend their entire lives? Will the “Fight Club” prophecy come true when the corporations name everything new in the world? It may be a logical conclusion to capitalism and globalisation but National-Anarchists work to stem the tide of corporate influence and expansion.
The corporation may serve as a tribe for the materialistic employee of the 21st Century but it is an unnatural entity that should not be coveted as an idol. The real “tribe” as given by nature to mankind is the family and the extended family and is built by ancestry, tradition, values and religion. This natural culture has been stifled and ignored ever since the first pluralism in Persia and Rome, becoming more evident and increasingly decadent ever since the Industrial Revolution. The only way to prevent humanity from descending in to a future of robotic materialism is by reviving the organic society as embodied by the natural concept of tribe.
Fighting the corporate culture begins with meeting the needs of an individual and their family. Encourage self-sufficiency and promote independence rather than reliance on an employer. Build on the community by encouraging the community to meet the needs of its members; education, employment and recreation should be readily available within the community. Promote the independence of the community and negate reliance on all outside influence; especially the State. Individuals wants to feel close to other members of their community and belong to their community; any “community” where the members are vastly different in culture is not really a community at all.
Homo Corporatus is a creation of our modern society, it is one destined to fail as all unnatural concepts inevitably do. We can decide if we will pursue a natural lifestyle as is the goal of National-Anarchists or if we will continue to progress down a path of crass materialism and excess that will only serve to destroy our environment and lead to the destruction of life as we know it.
National-Anarchism is a natural, social alternative to global capitalism and the corporate culture. If you wish to meet and network with National-Anarchists, contact us at our contact page.
April 16, 2009
Categories: National-Anarchists, Yarra News . Tags: Australia, Capitalism, Community, Globalisation, Liberalism, National-Anarchism, Orwellian, Victoria, Yarra . Author: National Anarchist . Comments: 3 Comments
National Anarchists AUS/NZ 
