Emancipation is a matter of critique and construction, of which resistance represents the first step and transformation, in the sense of structural change, the second. Resistance and emancipation are interdependent, with the proviso that not every form of resistance opens the way to emancipation and some block it. What sets emancipation as a concept apart from resistance is the proactive, transformative element. Foucault's understandings of power breaks with traditional political theory in showing that ‘power's function is not merely prohibitive and repressive but productive, positive, educative’ (Cocks, 1989: 51). Similarly, emancipation is not simply about saying no, reacting, refusing, resisting, but also and primarily about social creativity, introducing new values and aims, new forms of cooperation and action.

A fighting underground is a veritable state in miniature.