Franny
Well-known member
Please don’t let this title deceive you- I seek not to speak solely to the Anarchist community but to the Anarchist in every one of us. Regardless of particular political ideologies or any other imaginable label it’s our human nature to seek parity and freedom on both a personal and social level. I do aim to be politely hostile. As I write this I care not if I offend, though I wish to be abundantly clear in my position- The individuals self-associating with the Anarchist community I have met over the years are glorious people. In their company I have experienced unprecedented joy, freedom, and potential, along with an eerie sense of stagnation and complacency. Though saying we’ve accomplished nothing is hyperbole, our actions have taken a shameful turn towards largely internal concerns and semantics. We must cease these inane discussions over hierarchy and privilege and injustice, broaden our scope, and put these ideals into action. We’ve been resting on our laurels, and there’s never been a worse time to be so complacent.
Case Study: Crimethinc Convergence 2009
For the vast majority of you that didn’t attend the 2009 Crimethinc Convergence in Pittsburgh (or haven’t even heard of it for that matter), let me enlighten you to the insignificance of such an event. The Crimethinc Convergence is a yearly gathering of autonomous minded individuals to share skills, information, and companionship. Typically drawing a couple hundred people, it is usually held in remote wooded locations. The 2009 Convergence was the first held in an urban environment, an experiment culminating in success or failure depending on whom you ask.
The premise of holding the convergence in the city of Pittsburgh was twofold. Some believed it would be more accessible to people of color and other disenfranchised communities, and some believed that the visibility and proximity to society would be advantageous. I decline comment on this trivial matter of success, but must bring up one clear result of hosting the convergence in an urban locale- The very spirit of the convergence centered around the issue of gentrification, a racially charged issue of economics that is plaguing Pittsburgh as well as almost every other city in the United States of America, and thanks to American imperialism, the world as a whole. This incessant discussion of gentrification accomplished little. Those most engaged in analyzing our impact on the community sacrificed the time needed to interact with the residents of the neighborhood we were temporarily occupying, thus negating whatever good intentioned assumptions they made concerning our welcome or lack thereof.
What is significant about the 2009 Crimethinc Convergence is the reaction of its attendees to what a wise participant described as “a pleasant sun shower. Most of these people have never experienced even a sun shower, let alone a shit storm. It’s good they got a taste of it.” This incident, or “sun shower” occurred late one night near the end of the cabaret. A final call for performers was made just before six individuals stormed into the space known as “the ballroom”, loudly reading ancient message board rants about the abuse of white privilege and ordering all white people to vacate the space. Many thought at first this was performance art, part of the cabaret, but quickly realized it wasn’t as the individuals who came to be known as “the disrupters” began throwing people’s belongings down the stairs and out the second story windows. They became more antagonistic, ordering the people of color to stay in the convergence space and the white people to “get out of Pittsburgh and go back to Europe.”
It must be noted that these “disrupters” were not residents of Pittsburgh but of Philadelphia. They were not the landlord, not law enforcement, and they had no right to sour an otherwise cheerful night with what added up to a truckload of racist bullshit. They were also mostly harmless, but managed to scare the two hundred or so convergence attendees to such a degree that they literally ran in submission.
There are as many opinions on this incident as there are witnesses, so I now pursue a simple accumulation of facts in this account. Fact: The disrupters did successfully utilize direct action. They sought to disband the Crimethinc Convergence and for the most part triumphed. Only about twenty individuals remained in the convergence space following the disruption. One must ask, apparent triumph or not, was this action ethical? Though many disagree- Fact: No. Racism doesn’t do an ethical handstand when people of color utilize it against those with less pigmentation in their skin. This action was unnecessary, and even served to further disenfranchise those persons of color it claimed to defend.
During and after the disruption people of color were asked to choose sides at an instant’s notice. The words and actions of the disrupters pigeonholed people of color as supporters of the event even though many of them were strongly in opposition. It reflected badly on the organization APOC (Anarchist/Autonomous/Anti-Authoritarian People of Color) as the disrupters claimed support from the organization without consent. Their choice to target the Crimethinc Convergence was a misguided one. Though they claimed the convergence was exacerbating gentrification in Pittsburgh because many of the attendees “had white faces oozing colonialism”, a glorified Anarchist squat, temporary at that, did little to increase the area’s commercial value. If anything, it lowered it. Yes, they succeeded in forcing the “privileged whites” (many of whom fell into highly exploited and disenfranchised groups themselves) out onto the street in the middle of the night, and didn’t seem to give a second thought to what was obviously faulty logic.
For those not properly acquainted, gentrification boils down to the interests of the few taking precedence over the interests of the many, usually as an influx of affluence into the uglier parts of town, displacing impoverished residents. Gentrification on a considerable scale is a devastating occurrence, and there’s little difference between the actions of the disrupters and the alleged actions they were fighting against. This glaring hypocrisy was somehow overlooked in the aftermath as hours were spent “processing” the incident as a group. The discussion focused on the convergence attendees’ perceived wrongdoings, disintegrating quickly into a two-day display of white guilt and revisionist history that never left the four walls of the ballroom.
Case in Point
Though the events at the 2009 Crimethinc Convergence served to rattle a couple hundred young activists, it was in the big scheme of things “a pleasant sun shower”. It was nothing compared to a national protest, a riot, or the class war that will eventually ensue if we continue stratifying our society to its limit. With the way this particular fragment of the Anarchist community handled a minor altercation in mind, I worry about what will happen if we do encounter a “shit storm” in the future. What was the perfect opportunity to stand up for our right to peacefully inhabit the city of Pittsburgh for the duration of the convergence disintegrated into an embarrassing display of guilt and apathy. Only six people displaced almost two hundred others. It was not only our right but our duty to defend ourselves by non-violently removing these disrupters, and as a community we failed miserably. This is a wake up call. It is nobody’s place to cower in the face of hostility and discrimination. We sacrificed our most basic ideals in favor of warring amongst ourselves.
Our disdain for and fascination with the Capitalist system that restrains us has brainwashed us and begun to bind us even tighter. It has reduced what should be an active and energetic movement into a dropout culture ruled by labels, -isms, guilt, and misleading propaganda. How ironic that the Anarchist community has fallen into such a trap! Our catchy jargon, “radically correct” language if you will, has become our own special brand of marketing, appealing to a target audience of malleable insecure youth. Our never ending and ever changing catalog of identities and ideologies has begun to mirror the models of want creation that so successfully supported Capitalism’s twisted creed in its infancy. We’ve begun to market a subculture through slang, propaganda, and the weight of our tarnished pasts; for this we should be ashamed.
In our quest to stifle hierarchy, make obsolete the atrocities of racism, sexism, ageism, and other systems of inequality, we’ve only succeeded in widening the divide. We must stop squabbling amongst ourselves over labels and perceived ignorance. Such discourse only serves to create hierarchical relationships within the microcosm of our communities. We must look beyond the security blanket of fellow activists and embrace ALL peoples if we wish to live free from hierarchy. If we in fact wish for all members of humanity and all Earth’s species to live equally we must start acting like it! If we can’t even achieve such balance within the Anarchist community, how can we begin to right society as a whole? Reorganizing our own stratified community is a logical baby-step in the right direction.
Let’s abandon our “Anarcho-Dash” surnames and rejoin the human race. Let’s regain our autonomous nature, purge our attachment to the individualist Anarchist prototype and begin thinking on a global level. Let us respect each other. Let us approach things positively. Let us stop being negative. We need not be anti-oppression, but pro-liberation. We need to reverse our ineffective opposition to that which threatens us and strive to be unified, free, accepting and confident. We need to free ourselves from guilt, sociologically imposed divisions of color, creed, and class, and the burden of history. History can’t repeat itself if we consciously strive to rewrite it to a new social standard of peace and equality.
Breaking out of the comfortable direct-action mold we’ve forged for ourselves will be empowering. It’s past time to look beyond dumpster diving, meetings that amount to Anarchist summer camps, the glorification of punk rock, fashion, and our glamorized drop-out traveling culture. We must abandon our exclusive attitudes, distancing labels and self-serving propaganda. By no means am I suggesting anyone stop printing their ‘zine, making music, wandering aimlessly or whatever else brings about happiness. I’m insisting that we be realistic. Our actions are not “radical” or “revolutionary” but ineffective, stale, and outright juvenile. Taking action can and should be pleasurable, but we need to understand the line between recreation and revolution.
Perhaps the most important and difficult trial we face is coming to terms with the challenge of our own human nature. There is no Utopia. We will always possess an innate desire to dominate and/or submit. We will always experience periods of greed, guilt, doubt, dishonesty, and failure. A successful social structure is not unlike a body trying to maintain homeostasis. The condition is constantly under and over shooting the ideal, but coming close enough to maintain balance. As the body recognizes its physiological fluctuations we must recognize our mental and emotional ones and balance them accordingly. We cannot be afraid of the parts of our nature we find distasteful any more than we can deify ourselves for the facets of our nature that are admirable.
It’s time for all of us, myself included, to get off our asses and live what we believe in. Share the beauty of your beliefs with people you never thought you could or would or should. Get out there and teach by example. Strengthen our communities with acceptance, knowledge, compassion, and good old-fashioned positive direct action. If the world is going to change, it won’t be for of a room full of Anarchists arguing about racial privilege or gender identification. It will be for people of all kinds coming together for a common goal- Freedom.
Case Study: Crimethinc Convergence 2009
For the vast majority of you that didn’t attend the 2009 Crimethinc Convergence in Pittsburgh (or haven’t even heard of it for that matter), let me enlighten you to the insignificance of such an event. The Crimethinc Convergence is a yearly gathering of autonomous minded individuals to share skills, information, and companionship. Typically drawing a couple hundred people, it is usually held in remote wooded locations. The 2009 Convergence was the first held in an urban environment, an experiment culminating in success or failure depending on whom you ask.
The premise of holding the convergence in the city of Pittsburgh was twofold. Some believed it would be more accessible to people of color and other disenfranchised communities, and some believed that the visibility and proximity to society would be advantageous. I decline comment on this trivial matter of success, but must bring up one clear result of hosting the convergence in an urban locale- The very spirit of the convergence centered around the issue of gentrification, a racially charged issue of economics that is plaguing Pittsburgh as well as almost every other city in the United States of America, and thanks to American imperialism, the world as a whole. This incessant discussion of gentrification accomplished little. Those most engaged in analyzing our impact on the community sacrificed the time needed to interact with the residents of the neighborhood we were temporarily occupying, thus negating whatever good intentioned assumptions they made concerning our welcome or lack thereof.
What is significant about the 2009 Crimethinc Convergence is the reaction of its attendees to what a wise participant described as “a pleasant sun shower. Most of these people have never experienced even a sun shower, let alone a shit storm. It’s good they got a taste of it.” This incident, or “sun shower” occurred late one night near the end of the cabaret. A final call for performers was made just before six individuals stormed into the space known as “the ballroom”, loudly reading ancient message board rants about the abuse of white privilege and ordering all white people to vacate the space. Many thought at first this was performance art, part of the cabaret, but quickly realized it wasn’t as the individuals who came to be known as “the disrupters” began throwing people’s belongings down the stairs and out the second story windows. They became more antagonistic, ordering the people of color to stay in the convergence space and the white people to “get out of Pittsburgh and go back to Europe.”
It must be noted that these “disrupters” were not residents of Pittsburgh but of Philadelphia. They were not the landlord, not law enforcement, and they had no right to sour an otherwise cheerful night with what added up to a truckload of racist bullshit. They were also mostly harmless, but managed to scare the two hundred or so convergence attendees to such a degree that they literally ran in submission.
There are as many opinions on this incident as there are witnesses, so I now pursue a simple accumulation of facts in this account. Fact: The disrupters did successfully utilize direct action. They sought to disband the Crimethinc Convergence and for the most part triumphed. Only about twenty individuals remained in the convergence space following the disruption. One must ask, apparent triumph or not, was this action ethical? Though many disagree- Fact: No. Racism doesn’t do an ethical handstand when people of color utilize it against those with less pigmentation in their skin. This action was unnecessary, and even served to further disenfranchise those persons of color it claimed to defend.
During and after the disruption people of color were asked to choose sides at an instant’s notice. The words and actions of the disrupters pigeonholed people of color as supporters of the event even though many of them were strongly in opposition. It reflected badly on the organization APOC (Anarchist/Autonomous/Anti-Authoritarian People of Color) as the disrupters claimed support from the organization without consent. Their choice to target the Crimethinc Convergence was a misguided one. Though they claimed the convergence was exacerbating gentrification in Pittsburgh because many of the attendees “had white faces oozing colonialism”, a glorified Anarchist squat, temporary at that, did little to increase the area’s commercial value. If anything, it lowered it. Yes, they succeeded in forcing the “privileged whites” (many of whom fell into highly exploited and disenfranchised groups themselves) out onto the street in the middle of the night, and didn’t seem to give a second thought to what was obviously faulty logic.
For those not properly acquainted, gentrification boils down to the interests of the few taking precedence over the interests of the many, usually as an influx of affluence into the uglier parts of town, displacing impoverished residents. Gentrification on a considerable scale is a devastating occurrence, and there’s little difference between the actions of the disrupters and the alleged actions they were fighting against. This glaring hypocrisy was somehow overlooked in the aftermath as hours were spent “processing” the incident as a group. The discussion focused on the convergence attendees’ perceived wrongdoings, disintegrating quickly into a two-day display of white guilt and revisionist history that never left the four walls of the ballroom.
Case in Point
Though the events at the 2009 Crimethinc Convergence served to rattle a couple hundred young activists, it was in the big scheme of things “a pleasant sun shower”. It was nothing compared to a national protest, a riot, or the class war that will eventually ensue if we continue stratifying our society to its limit. With the way this particular fragment of the Anarchist community handled a minor altercation in mind, I worry about what will happen if we do encounter a “shit storm” in the future. What was the perfect opportunity to stand up for our right to peacefully inhabit the city of Pittsburgh for the duration of the convergence disintegrated into an embarrassing display of guilt and apathy. Only six people displaced almost two hundred others. It was not only our right but our duty to defend ourselves by non-violently removing these disrupters, and as a community we failed miserably. This is a wake up call. It is nobody’s place to cower in the face of hostility and discrimination. We sacrificed our most basic ideals in favor of warring amongst ourselves.
Our disdain for and fascination with the Capitalist system that restrains us has brainwashed us and begun to bind us even tighter. It has reduced what should be an active and energetic movement into a dropout culture ruled by labels, -isms, guilt, and misleading propaganda. How ironic that the Anarchist community has fallen into such a trap! Our catchy jargon, “radically correct” language if you will, has become our own special brand of marketing, appealing to a target audience of malleable insecure youth. Our never ending and ever changing catalog of identities and ideologies has begun to mirror the models of want creation that so successfully supported Capitalism’s twisted creed in its infancy. We’ve begun to market a subculture through slang, propaganda, and the weight of our tarnished pasts; for this we should be ashamed.
In our quest to stifle hierarchy, make obsolete the atrocities of racism, sexism, ageism, and other systems of inequality, we’ve only succeeded in widening the divide. We must stop squabbling amongst ourselves over labels and perceived ignorance. Such discourse only serves to create hierarchical relationships within the microcosm of our communities. We must look beyond the security blanket of fellow activists and embrace ALL peoples if we wish to live free from hierarchy. If we in fact wish for all members of humanity and all Earth’s species to live equally we must start acting like it! If we can’t even achieve such balance within the Anarchist community, how can we begin to right society as a whole? Reorganizing our own stratified community is a logical baby-step in the right direction.
Let’s abandon our “Anarcho-Dash” surnames and rejoin the human race. Let’s regain our autonomous nature, purge our attachment to the individualist Anarchist prototype and begin thinking on a global level. Let us respect each other. Let us approach things positively. Let us stop being negative. We need not be anti-oppression, but pro-liberation. We need to reverse our ineffective opposition to that which threatens us and strive to be unified, free, accepting and confident. We need to free ourselves from guilt, sociologically imposed divisions of color, creed, and class, and the burden of history. History can’t repeat itself if we consciously strive to rewrite it to a new social standard of peace and equality.
Breaking out of the comfortable direct-action mold we’ve forged for ourselves will be empowering. It’s past time to look beyond dumpster diving, meetings that amount to Anarchist summer camps, the glorification of punk rock, fashion, and our glamorized drop-out traveling culture. We must abandon our exclusive attitudes, distancing labels and self-serving propaganda. By no means am I suggesting anyone stop printing their ‘zine, making music, wandering aimlessly or whatever else brings about happiness. I’m insisting that we be realistic. Our actions are not “radical” or “revolutionary” but ineffective, stale, and outright juvenile. Taking action can and should be pleasurable, but we need to understand the line between recreation and revolution.
Perhaps the most important and difficult trial we face is coming to terms with the challenge of our own human nature. There is no Utopia. We will always possess an innate desire to dominate and/or submit. We will always experience periods of greed, guilt, doubt, dishonesty, and failure. A successful social structure is not unlike a body trying to maintain homeostasis. The condition is constantly under and over shooting the ideal, but coming close enough to maintain balance. As the body recognizes its physiological fluctuations we must recognize our mental and emotional ones and balance them accordingly. We cannot be afraid of the parts of our nature we find distasteful any more than we can deify ourselves for the facets of our nature that are admirable.
It’s time for all of us, myself included, to get off our asses and live what we believe in. Share the beauty of your beliefs with people you never thought you could or would or should. Get out there and teach by example. Strengthen our communities with acceptance, knowledge, compassion, and good old-fashioned positive direct action. If the world is going to change, it won’t be for of a room full of Anarchists arguing about racial privilege or gender identification. It will be for people of all kinds coming together for a common goal- Freedom.
