Disbanding the Self: Why Resistance Demands Community

“For one of the most vital ways we sustain ourselves is by building communities of resistance, places where we know we are not alone.”

—Bell Hooks, Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, (1999)

If it is one thing that has kept Western neoliberal governments in power, it is a divided society built on individualism. Crediting failures and success both to the individual creates division and competition - a capitalist dream.  But when we realise the welfare state no longer prioritises our welfare, and instead late-stage capitalism forces us to further integrate into these broken systems, how do we resist? By resisting individualism and instead building community we have the chance to move from a state of survival to a thriving collective society.

Neoliberalism gives the illusion of autonomy as free markets and less government intervention promises individual agency. Ironically, we see the opposite as barriers to entry and protections for marginilised groups and class structures are disregarded and instead we witness more inequality and loneliness. By putting the responsibility on the individual, failures are felt more deeply as there is no community to take the blow. Instead we live in a state of reduced ‘solidarity and social security’ which continues to keep power centralised and keep systems unequal. Our resistance then is in embracing collectivism and community based movement building.

There have been studies suggesting the collective isn’t just important but is essential to our survival, take Émile Durkheim’s ‘Collective Effervescence’ which says that humans need to come together in assemblies just to face daily life - emotions are more powerful as a collective and this energy can achieve far greater impact than an isolated individual. This harmony is even felt in small daily interactions such as a serendipitous conversation with a stranger. Whether you realise it or not, in all corners of society, we seek out community. My Pakistani grandma, much like many other South Asian women, gathered her close community of women to form a ‘committee’ a collective pot of money providing financial autonomy and freedom for women built on trust and shared values. We have seen the larger collectives or grassroots groups creating political movements in racial justice or even your local book club or run club - as humans it is our nature to work as a collective and not alone.

In the last two years the position of world leaders and governments has become clear, and it is easy to feel like efforts to exercise our civic rights are falling on deaf ears as society loses hope in their elected leaders. But the power if a large collective and the influence of a community has also been apparent . We can see how impactful a collective with a shared purpose can be to a government power as our rights to protest in the UK are being increasingly encroached on as the increasing size of the collective resistance for Palestine has been seen as a threat.

During the pandemic, mutual aid groups began as an emergency service for many in the UK, but now five years on, these groups continue to serve communities in a way the government has let them down. But rather than pushing unequal power dynamics, ‘mutual aid groups operate on principles of solidarity rather than charity’. It’s not just the emergency responses that have been impactful, but the movement to ‘forging connections between communities, educating people about their rights, and empowering those affected to become advocates themselves’ (Lauren Bennet, 2025). Through the resilience of the collective, the individual is given more agency - the antithesis to neoliberalism.

The loudest resistance isn’t always the most successful, it is trust, joy, diversity and shared purpose which builds strong movements. How can we find these spaces? They don’t have to be large scale international networks and can start at home. Even within minority communities there are divisions which only further sustains structural barriers and inequality between groups. A listening ear and a conversation with someone new can do more in finding commonality than you think. Even access to ‘third spaces’ are rooted in systemic barriers and directly impact our physical and mental health. So it is more important than ever to create these spaces ourselves to build movements of resistance for our future generations. After all, the saying goes: it takes a village to raise a child.

By Aneesa Mahmood