File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2000/anarchy-list.0008, message 133


Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 09:59:14 -0400
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: Anarchists vow to hold peaceful gathering in LA


This is a good example of what anarchists can accomplish when we have
our shit together. It's really encouraging to see that the West Coast
anarchists put together this press conference, which sets the table to
make the cops look bad if they raid the conference.

-Chuck0

===============
Anarchists vow to hold peaceful gathering in LA
By Lynda Gorov, Globe Staff, 8/9/2000

LOS ANGELES - Two in T-shirts, two in ties, one in a sleeveless blouse,
the anarchists prepared to call the session to order yesterday.

First, though, they had to lay down the law: cell phones off, no
questions out of turn, stick to the subject. Oh, and don't forget the
sign-in sheet.

As one of the speakers, a teenager using the pseudonym Panda, explained
before politely stepping to the side, ''If people are afraid of anarchy,
it's only because they don't understand it.''

But their news conference, complete with a podium and plenty of TV
cameras, provided no better understanding of what the group would do
during the Democratic National Convention next week. Instead, the
speakers, on summer break from college, swore only that their own
gathering, the North American Anarchist Conference, which starts Friday,
would be peaceful.

For three days, hundreds, maybe even a thousand, anarchists from across
America and Canada are to meet in Los Angeles. The topics to be
discussed - education, poverty, human rights - would sound mundane were
it not for some catchy titles such as ''Mutant Becomings'' and ''Racist
Mascots.'' Also on the calendar: ''Pacifism as a Pathology.''

The agenda has city  leaders and police concerned, since more than a few
of the anarchist attendees are expected to stick around for the big
convention. After all,  one anarchist group took credit for much of the
property damage caused last year in downtown Seattle by young people 
protesting World Trade Organization meetings.  And the Web site of at
least one anarchist organization is encouraging its brethren to arrive
ready to rumble.

But the August Collective, as the dozen or so hosts of the upcoming
conference call themselves, insisted they would have none of that, at
least not inside the as-yet unidentified location where they will
convene. These anarchists, well-mannered and well-spoken, said they have
even gone so far as to ask attendees to refrain from discussing specific
strategies to be used during the Democratic National Convention.

''Our conference is legal and legitimate, and any police repression will
be purely because of our political beliefs,'' said Anne Kelly, a physics
student.

Later, she added, ''No one has anything to fear from us.''

But by ''us,'' the five members of the August Collective who spoke at
the news conference at Patriotic Hall appeared to mean only their
conference. After stressing that local police and politicians have
misrepresented the movement's beliefs and practices, 21-year-old Jeff
Hendricks backpedaled a bit. ''It's not our position to tell other
anarchists what to do,'' said Hendricks, who is studying to be a
teacher.

Said Brendan Crill, 27, who is working toward his PhD in physics: ''I've
been so busy with our conference, I haven't even thought about what I'll
do during the DNC. But it is a big opportunity, with the spotlight on
LA.''

To keep anarchists out of that spotlight, Crill and the others said, Los
Angeles police and federal law enforcement officials have been
monitoring their activities and harassing them at times. Still, they
said, they intend to spread their message.

In a statement, the group defined anarchy as a ''minimization of
hierarchy and authority over our lives'' and a ''maximization of
personal freedom.'' But there is no official dogma in the growing
anarchist community. Some anarchists, for example, do not consider
property damage to be a form of violence.

''Anarchy is a very rich political theory. People don't just do these
things without thinking about them,'' Kelly explained to the crowd,
which was largely unfamiliar with the movement until masked young people
hit Seattle's streets.

Members of the August Collective, however, would not say what they
thought of the potential for trouble during the Democratic National
Convention. But they don't want to be made scapegoats for anarchists or
other protesters, either. That's why they went door to door to talk with
business owners in the area where they will gather.

Kelly said the group promised no protests during the anarchist
conference.

<< Chuck0 >>

This was the year *everything* changed.
      -- Commander Ivanova, 2261

Mid-Atlantic Infoshop    -> http://www.infoshop.org/
Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/
Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/

Homepage -> http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/

"A society is a healthy society only to the degree 
that it exhibits anarchistic traits." 
        - Jens Bjørneboe

   

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