Liberating Wednesday

So far people have tried to liberate countries, but the results aren't very convincing. So why not try to liberate a day of the week? There are days in all countries, regardless of the political systems, of ideology, religion. The "boundaries" of a day are much more natural than those of a country. You need no passport to enter or leave it.

What we call work-week is the expression of the rhythm of a Planetary Work Machine, that holds us all in its grips. It's a destructive machine, damaging our health, nature, our social life. Only if we're capable of dismantling this Machine (call it Capitalism, Socialism, industrialism, progress, modernism) and of creating a new life-style, we shall escape the deadly rhythm of work.

Why not start in the middle? Why not attack Wednesday and split the week in two halves, that'll be easier to cope with. We need Sundays to simply recover from work and Saturdays for shopping, housework and repairs. We'll take Wednesdays off to prepare our way out of the Machine. The new must grow in midst of the old, so that the end of the Machine won't be ours. It has made us dependent on its supermarkets, cars, state institutions, centralized systems of all kinds. We are isolated from each other, separated from natural resources, too specialized to make our own living. We need time to get together, to make connections with farmers, to acquire know-how.

How can we begin? Right next Wednesday! It's the ideal day to take a sick-leave, to think, to read a book, to meditate. The center of the week could also become the spiritual center of our selves. We must be "centered" to begin something new. The Machine always pushes us to the edges, away from here and now, out of ourselves. Wednesday is the back-to-yourself-day. Its symbol is the old planetary sign of Mercury or Hermes:

It unites female and male aspects (the symbol for ankh = life and the horns), it's symmetrical, points to the heavens and is rooted in the earth. The sun-disc in the middle stands for the wholeness of the world, for unity, solidarity and joy of life. Mercury is a hermaphrodite god, the god of wisdom, exchange, communion, travel, of good and bad. You could also see christian (cross), islamic (crescent) and buddhist (circle) elements in this symbol.

On Wednesdays friends get together, every house is an open house, conflicts are talked about, neighborhood problems are discussed. The Machine can only be dismantled if new, noneconomic social forms emerge. People with the same ideas about life must get together, develop common visions and practical plans. It is not necessarily so, that your actual neighbors are the people you would try to live a new life with. The accidents of the real estate market are not the best basis for new communities. So you eventually gather from across the city or a whole region.

On Wednesdays you can also do practical work. Communal gardens, neighborhood lounges, workshops, soft energy systems, house repairs, communal baths, restaurants, swimming-pools, require work. You can also call it "learning", social activity, creating independent communities, being together or just fun. Ultimately only relatively large (500 people) communities, that are semi-autarcic on food, energy and health-care can safely get us off the hooks of the Machine. To create such communities (bolos) we need some time now, we need some training, a strong cultural identity.

Wednesday will be our think-day, social day, cultural day, ecological day, community-day, bolo-day, land-day (each bolo needs about 250 acres some place outside the city), planet-day, exchange-day (barter-markets), health-day (work some, but not too much), squatting-day, anti-car-day, anti-work-day etc. On Wednesdays everything that is now repressed, forgotten, divided, being neglected will find time and space.

The Planetary Wednesday Liberation Movement can exist in many forms and on many levels. You can start it individually by just use it for yourself, for some thinking and scheming. You might want to make your Wednesday-badge (featuring the Wednesday-symbol) and try to attract other Wednesdayers. Or you put a Wednesdaysticker on your mailbox which means that on that day your house is open. Wednesdays can be used for issues you're already involved with (neighborhood-initiatives, AIDS, homeless, ecological, gay, feminist movements). Wednesday-dinner-parties could become the cores of future bolos. Unions can use the idea to push for a 32-hour-work week. Ecologists could proclaim it a car-free day (against pollution) and ask for resources to install energy-saving devices (not only for the rich). Politicians could launch propositions or parliamentary actions to get resources for Wednesday-activities (including those in the Third World). There is a Wednesday for everybody. It can be as political or private as you wish.

Attacking Wednesday means attacking the Machine and this in turn means to weaken and cripple it internationally. Be it harmless or militant, it's the only strategy to liberate this planet from starvation, military repression, economic blackmail (think of the IMF) and the ongoing destruction of nature. It can only be done on a planetary level and it must begin in your life. If you consider that the Machine is killing people every minute, you can understand how urgent your action is and that it should start next Wednesday.

Wednesday can only be a first step. When Wednesday falls, we'll have the strength to attack Tuesdays and Thursdays and to get rid of Friday as well. The only day left for external, socialized work will eventually be Monday. Industrial production will be reduced to 15% of the current level. Our cities will consist of self-sufficient communities that exchange goods among themselves without money, cars will almost have disappeared, villages and neighborhoods in the (former) Third World will be able again to feed themselves, states will have decayed to autonomous regions of 5-10 million inhabitants, hospitality will be possible on a worldwide level and therefore free traveling for everybody everywhere. The Machine will have died and the planet will be truly ours. There will still be conflicts, of course, but without catastrophic dimensions as today. We will still be looking for our "center", but not at other people's expense.

The Planetary Wednesday Liberation Movement can be started by you or by groups you know. This will be its organization. Don't wait for a centralized organization to emerge. If you need materials to propagate the idea, produce them yourself. Hopefully circles will close and Wednesdayers will meet. Just watch out.

P.M. 26th April 1989