File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_1999/anarchy-list.9912, message 385


Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 09:59:56 -0500
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: Re: Geov Parrish on anarchists


Well, my opinion is that this is one of Geov's poorer pieces. I
generally like his stuff, but he's just dead wrong on this one, like
Michael Albert.

Chuck0

KaZpar wrote:
> 
> i agree with many of this persons perspectivies on the events in seattle -
> and ideas
> 
> how ever i find this to be "not a true anarchists" point of view ......
> as i believe there is no ideal anarchist , no rules - mould or form whatso
> ever..
> 
> i find it too nit picky - shouldnt we be fighting a common enemy and
> helping ourselfs along
> 
> not dividing our selfs
> 
> "these people are not true anarcists..."    hmmmm
> At 06:57 PM 12/8/99 -0800, you wrote:
> >>From this week's Seattle Weekly:
> >
> >http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/9949/features-parrish.shtml
> >
> >- joshua h
> >
> >Anarchists, go home!
> >
> >BY GEOV PARRISH
> >
> >Hey, Eugene punks, stay away from my revolution.
> >
> >I KNOW THE FOLKS who transformed a remarkable, peaceful show of power
> >against the WTO into a media-characterized "riot." At least some of the
> >vandals and looters who took advantage of the cover of the most
> >significant mass direct action in Seattle history were from the group of
> >Eugene anarchists I went down and interviewed last summer. Their
> >spokesperson, anarchist author and theoretician John Zerzan, and I have
> >kept in touch since then; we were to meet during the WTO. We didn't. If
> >we had, I would have spit in his face. Consider this the written
> >equivalent, and I hope he reads it.
> >
> >An agreement was in place between the loosely knit group of West Coast
> >anarchists that "organized" for the WTO and the Direct Action Network to
> >respect the nonviolence code downtown during the day of November 30. I
> >don't consider property destruction violent in and of itself--I consider
> >property violent, actually--but that's beside the point. November 30th's
> >shutdown of the WTO was designed as a protest that a broad cross section
> >of our society could support--and that meant no property destruction.
> >
> >Obviously, our Eugene friends intentionally disrespected their agreement
> >to abide by the protest's nonviolence code. That makes them liars, and
> >it makes their word for any future political alliance less than
> >meaningless. All sides calculated, correctly, that even the breaking of
> >a few windows would overpower months' worth of organizing work and the
> >concerted efforts of thousands of people in the media, and public, eye.
> >
> >The anarchists' enemy here was not the state, nor corporate America.
> >Those windows cost a few bucks; the expenses will be picked up by
> >insurance companies. The real damage was done to the integrity of an
> >action that was successful enough to shut down the most powerful
> >organization on earth. That reality was lost in the overreaction to
> >property damage. However unfairly, and to whatever degree it exposes an
> >ugly truth--to most people, it doesn't--America cares more about
> >property than it does about democracy in action. The Eugene anarchists'
> >actions were a calculated attack not on the corporate state, but on the
> >resistance to it.
> >
> >For 25 years, I have considered myself an anarchist. I believe in the
> >power of self-government because it speaks to the best in people,
> >because it is the only practical path to a nonexploitative world, and
> >because mutual aid kicks ass. The direct action that shut down the WTO
> >was the genuine anarchism in action last Tuesday. The glass-breaking and
> >graffiti was, however unwittingly, abetting the state.
> >
> >In the face of this attack, there were some heroes. One story I heard
> >was of Peace Action's Fred Miller, who, along with his daughter, held up
> >a banner to protect the windows of NikeTown against the predations of
> >the anarchists' hammers. Fred wasn't protecting NikeTown--or more
> 
> >accurately, their insurance company--he was protecting the integrity of
> >thousands of dissidents' hard work. Despite the efforts of Fred and the
> >overwhelming majority of protesters who deplored the vandalism, a few
> >thugs carried the day. In the future, in our trainings and preparations
> >for such actions, we will unfortunately have to learn to do more of
> >that. We will have to learn to protect ourselves and our actions from
> >being hijacked by small gangs of cowards who won't take risks and can't
> >organize their own revolution, and so find themselves--much like the
> >sectarian left they despise--using other peoples' work for their
> >purposes.
> >
> >It's bad enough having to confront the awesome power of the police
> >state. That was brought down in nearly full ugly force for the rest of
> >the week not because of the vandalism, which largely hadn't happened
> >when the first tear gas flew at 6th and Union at 10:05am, but because
> >thousands were nonviolently effective. But the public approved of police
> >tactics--pepper-spraying people on the ground, shooting fleeing
> >protesters in the back with rubber bullets, and denying constitutional
> >rights to freedoms of speech and assembly--thanks to our "anarchist"
> >enemies. That was the true violence of the week, not the shattered
> >glass.
> >
> >Let's be clear. These aren't anarchists, and they are certainly not
> >interested in building their movement. True anarchists--as with the
> >Seattle General Strike of 1919--work through mutual aid, not through
> >taking their most likely compatriots, some of whom also self-identify as
> >anarchists, and kicking them in the teeth. That's the state's job, and
> >the Eugene clique helped out admirably. A few minutes of  glass-breaking
> >was far more effective than months of police infiltration would have
> >been--sad, but true. Now, the question is: How do we deal with it in the
> >future?
> >
> >Possibly the most significant mass action I'll ever see was a lot less
> >effective in its global message than it could have been thanks to a few
> >dozen people. The revolution we are trying to create didn't and doesn't
> >need these parasites. It's not the property destruction we resent--it's
> >the deliberate sabotage of our work. To John Zerzan, Brenton Gicker, all
> >you other little punks in the Eugene clique, and their cohorts, fuck
> >you. Fuck everything you stand for. And stay the fuck away from our
> >revolution.
> >
> >
> >
> 
> >
> >
> 
> >
> >
> 
> >
> >
> >
> 
> >Email this story to a
> >
> 
> >friend! >>
> >
> >
> 
> >Send a Letter to the
> 
> >
> 
> >Editor about this
> >
> 
> >story.
> >

-- 
Chuck0

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