 posted a previous article over at the Carnival of Anarchy as to what he thinks should be done at this stage of the development of the anarchist movement. Check it out. The following post lays out the reasoning behind the proposals that he made in that post. What follows is a critique of the present day movement in his country, but I am certain that most of what he says applies to North America as well. Not that "activism" was or is all bad, but it is certainly a stage that anarchism has to outgrow is we want to build even further on the foundations already laid.
These phrases and others like them are all too common amongst our anarchist communities across Aotearoa (and no doubt the rest of the world). But in themselves, they betray a fatal mistake in our goals, in how we see our role in moving towards a revolutionary situation.
An anarchist revolution will not come if we simply seek to convert more people to anarchism. Rather, more people adopting anarchist theory will be a by-product of successful anarchist organising and solidarity. There are a few issues we need to examine in order to best understand the role of anarchists in capitalist society.
Who will make a revolution?
Genuine revolution will not be created by a specialist group of “professional revolutionaries”. While many anarchists have a sound critique of groups such as Greenpeace, SAFE or Amnesty International in that they posit themselves as the experts on activism, who the majority of people can pay to do political work, anarchists frequently fail to see that much of what they are doing is exactly the same, except they’re silly enough to do it for free! A large chunk of activism done by anarchists in Aotearoa in the last few years has been of this bent – we call the marches, we show up (perhaps with a few others, but rarely from outside of the wider activist circles), we hand out leaflets to bemused onlookers (who either ignore us or laugh at us, but certainly wouldn’t join in), then we go home. Ongoing organising be damned, we’re making a stand!
Almost all anarchist activity in Aotearoa falls into two broad categories – activism (covering protests, single-issue groups etc) and propaganda (infoshops and publishing). It is activism that I will deal with here.
Activism deals primarily with issues far removed from the everyday lives of most people in Aotearoa – NZ troop involvement in overseas invasions, coal mines on the West Coast, a meeting of rich countries on the other side of the planet. In focusing on this type of issue, we ensure that we remain invisible to the vast majority of the working class, and out of touch with the very forces that can create the revolutionary situation we so desire.
In activism, we separate ourselves from the majority of the populace – protesting, marching, direct action etc are activities undertaken by “activists”, a specialist cadre of experts on social change.
Our activities are primarily oriented to other radicals, both in Aotearoa and overseas. We go to protests with each other, then head to a computer and post reports and photos on Indymedia, so our activist friends around the country can see what we did. If the demo was especially interesting, we might even all go together to a flat so we can see ourselves on the evening news! We are an insular collection of people, and even when we have the appearance of interacting with the public (for instance, on a march), we still ensure that we are separate from them, the “normals”. We don’t engage in conversation, just hand them a flier then move on, and after a while retreat back to the other radicals, safe behind a line of banners.
The anarchist community in Aotearoa is thoroughly mired in subcultural politics. The punk and hippy subcultures between them supply the bulk of self-identified anarchists, with most of the remainder coming through the “alternative” liberal (ie – Green Party, fair trade, organics etc) community. That’s not to say that none of those people are working class, but rather that they are getting involved because of their subcultural identity.
If we are seeking to expand the consciousness and militancy of the working class, we need to stop focusing on battles which for most people appear to have little relevance, and are totally unwinnable for us few anarchists in Aotearoa anyway. We need to move away from the WTO and towards the workplace, away from the coal-mine and towards the community, away from the spectacular summit demo and towards the struggles of everyday life.
We need to stand in solidarity with workplace struggles that are taking place – standing on the picket lines and engaging with the workers taking part. We also need to be agitating with our workmates in our own work places. There are always grievances, it is our task to do all we can to promote collective action to fight for better wages and conditions, of course without any illusions that this will ever be enough in and of itself.
Hey, it's memory lane over at the Carnival of Anarchy. The latest carnival entails the participants posting what they thought was their best blog of 2007. Ah, the year that was. On the top of the pile the last time that Molly looked was 'A Proposal for an Aotearoa Anarchist Communist Federation' by Asher of the Anarchia blog down New Zealand way. More on this later. Why not drop over, sign up and show off your own personal best.
Here is the NEFAC (North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists) report on their recent anti-militarist demonstration in Québec City. Seems like a success.
About 300 anti-militarists took the streets Friday, March 28 in Quebec city. In a rare showing of unity, the main anti-capitalists groups of the city marched together, along with delegations from other cities, such as Montreal and Sherbrooke. The marchers commemorated the 90th anniversary of the riots against conscription and took the occasion to again express their opposition to the war in Afghanistan.
"Quebec city is not only a garrison town, it also has a proud anti-militarist past" said Mathieu, of the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC). It’s not on the agenda of the insipid 400th anniversary of the city, but 90 years ago, the city inhabitants rose against conscription. Five days of rioting occurred downtown, which ended in a bloodbath when the army opened fire on a crowd of civilians, leaving 4 dead and 35 injured. "It’s this popular history that we want to take out of oblivion" added the anarchist militant.
Today, Canada is still involved in an imperialist war. It is remarkable that, despite a propaganda campaign by the military, the popular opposition to the war remains, poll after poll. Unfortunately, this opposition to the war has found little space to express itself. "Many people in Quebec city are opposed to the use of their taxes in this war, Let's stop it!" Said Antoine, of Gauche socialiste. "They make war in our name, without asking us our opinion. The opposition to the war must be able to express itself, which is why we participated in the demonstration Friday "
The event began at 5PM with a rally in Saint-Roch, in front of the Gabrielle-Roy Library. After a few speeches and slogans, the anti-militarists took the streets to go to the district of Saint-Sauveur, at the corner of Saint-Vallier and St. Joseph, where there’s a memorial to the dead of 1918. The march ended at the Parc Durocher and was followed by an anti-militarist conference organized by Alternatives at the AgitéE.
The demonstration was an initiative of the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC). It was organized jointly by the Collectif anarchiste La Nuit, the Collectif Piranhas and Gauche socialiste. The following groups formally endorsed it and mobilized: Québec Solidaire Capitale-Nationale, Regroupement autonome des jeunes, PCR-Québec, Personne n’est illégal-Montréal, Bloquez l’empire-Montréal, l’Association des Étudiantes et des Étudiants en Histoire, Convergence l’Autre 400e and PCQ-Québec. This large anti-capitalist diversity probably make this event one of the largest open mobilisation of the political far-left in the city since the Summit of the Americas.
Here we are again with Molly's irregular feature, 'The Best of the Blogs', where she goes down the blogs on her links section, choosing those that have particularly interesting recent content. Today we do the letter combination "an".
A. Over at the Anarchia blog Asher muses on the existential condition of loneliness in 'On Being Alone'.
B. The Anarchist Philosophy Blog is more didactic, and the author explores his thoughts as to what anarchism is and isn't in his 'Anarchism Essay'. Special emphasis on the fact that the philosophy is not merely "negative"
C. The Anglican Resistance blog is closing down. The author, an Anglican priest, will be moving most of his efforts to his parish blog, the Blog of the Good Shepherd. He also recommends a couple of other blogs where his work occasionally appears, The Episcopal Cafe and The Covenant Journal.
D. Meanwhile out on the west coast the Anarcho-Cycl