Toronto Anarchist Gathering: Saturday, April 4th

Hope it goes well. I was at the San Francisco Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair this weekend, where writer Andrej Grabacic said to general agreement "as someone who has been an anarchist in the Balkans since I was 12, I think I can safely say the anarchist movement in the United States is a mess." He also called for a return to some good old-fashioned community organizing, sine "we are suffocated by theory" and by white middle-class guilt that excuses inaction. If anyone goes to this Toronto gathering, hope they'll share some highlights!

Ze, I'm so not cool enough to be an anarchist. 

But I might pop by the gathering on April 4th.

Heh, neither am I, really, I don't have nearly enough pirate-style black to wear. 

Well, for one, I'm currently sporting beige trousers and a grey Toronto FC training jacket, so don't let fashion stop you from identifying as an anarchist.

As for the state of the anarchist movement in North America, people might want to check out the below discussion at the gathering;

The Role of the Anarchist Organization
12:15pm - 1:15pm

Organized anarchism is currently experiencing significant growth with
new organizations and projects emerging across the continent. In other
parts of the world strong anarchist organizations have been built and
are playing a significant role within popular struggles. Yet some
anarchists in Ontario remain skeptical of the idea of a formal
political anarchist organization. Unfortunately, debate on this issue
has rarely gone beyond dogma and caricactures (not very anarchist of
us!) This presentation will discuss the role of the anarchist
organization and argue for its advantages hoping to spark a fruitful
debate. A significant amount of time will be left for discussion.

Presenter: Alex is a member of Common Cause, an Ontario-based
anarchist organization with branches in Ottawa, Hamilton and Toronto.
He is also active in workers’ struggles in the university sector and a
member of both the Industrial Workers of the World and the Canadian
Union of Public Employees. commoncauseontario@gmail.com,
http://www.linchpin.ca [6]

Does anyone have a good link that has kind of like an "anarchism for dummies" intro in it, from an anarchist source, which is written in plain language as opposed to academese?  I have an idea what anarchism is all about, but I also have the feeling that I probably have a lot of misconceptions as well, and I don't really consider Wikipedia to be a great source when it comes to social movements.

I have done a bit of googling, and I'm getting a lot of "history of anarchism" and general definitions of the word, but I'm not really finding much about anarchism as promoted by activists now.  So I'll probably check out this shindig on the weekend too.  :)

i don't know the academese on this at all, but i do know from being with anarchists that there is an amazing process for meetings.  there are also lots of discussions about tactics!  (chuckle) ...(laughs out loud)...

and when these discussions are held jointly with other social movement people, it becomes Really interesting !  but always productive.  so productive in fact that the emerging consensus was able to reveal that it was in fact the police at the Montebello 'Security and Prosperity Partnership' meeting a while back were in fact doing the violence, dressed up as anarchists.  we've seen this before, at a Prague summit a while back,  and i even think it was happening at the FTAA in Quebec City, though these issues had been worked out well before that, and things were kind of...cloudy there...

anyway,  always a good bunch to hang out with. 

sorry, i meant to say the joint discussions with diverse social movements hadn't been done sufficiently before the FTAA.  but you likely knew that.

"anyway,  always a good bunch to hang out with. "

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Don't think Maude Barlow would agree with you there, thanks. And I would not disagree with her. Gives a bad name to people who are there on principle, not just to throw rocks... 

re: #8,

well let's just say that people can be free to choose when and where they hang out, given negotiated parametres.

and it's those negotiated parameters that i'm talking about in points above.  others know all about this.  and that's why the process that happened before Montebello was so very important.  it was precisely because parameters were negotiated ahead of time, and because all participants, including and especially the anarchists were so disciplined, that together the diverse participants in that event were able to identify that those who were actually 'throwing the rocks' were in fact undercover police.  Real anarchists pointed out that a masked bandit causing trouble had been doing so all day, and when that individual was confronted by a union leader, and 'taken down' by police, their police boots identified them as undercover.   The SQ were forced to admit the issue.

How many times in the past has the role of provocateurs been clouded?

Of course there can be situations where there are idiots just out to get drunk and 'throw rocks'.   What's interesting is that at the FTAA protests in Quebec City, these people were not arrested !  I saw it myself.  No, those throwing stuff were intentionally let off the hook by the thousands of riot police there, while bystanders on the sidewalk were arrested. 

Why? So that media could report sweeping arrests were made, while allowing the very few people throwing rocks to continue (whoever they were) so that there could be continued justification for the 5,000 US-made tear gas cannisters to be unleashed on the city, with all of their toxic contents, for Quebec City residents to consume.

Thankfully, these residents also came out in numbers to protest, and to rinse the eyes of tear-gas blinded protesters.   The wind also helped, blew the stuff back into the hotel complex where the leaders were meeting...what goes around comes around...

That' hardly a fair description of all anarchists, George. One, fighting back against people who are tear gassing you is not automatically wrong. Two, don't judge an entire movement by a few people. Three, it's a real shame when social movement folks marginalize one another. Four, there is a really big non-violent stream within anarchism. 

And back in the 1960s it was always a few (dozen)...some of whom are not police and not motivated by ego and the pursuit of notoriety and a disregard for those who are sensitive to public perception - what a protest is all about.  No, I don't think Maude and the others were wrong in condemning such behaviour - were not being unfair.

Of course, they could have all started out with good intentions on arrival - to paraphrase Mae West :"beginning as Snow White but then sorta drifting".

Good thread.

George's comments strike me as funny because the biggest rabble-rouser throwing things at the cops at the protests I attended in my youth was a retired teacher and staunch NDPer, no anarchist; you'd have liked him George.

What were his other "attributes", D, besides his anarchistic tendencies  which were strong enough to even keep him from joining up?

Sorry, joining up?

And the point was that throwing things at the cops isn't an "anarchistic tendency"; sometimes its just good old-fashioned politically-expressive fun

You said he was "no anarchist". He had not "joined up" because of those strong anarchist tendencies that kept him from even joining an anarchist....

Ah well, what the hell, I never could do comedy. (But I thought it was a howler....uh ....LOL

Actually, just to add another detail I remembered, he was also an active Council of Canadians member and participated in protests against the Summit of the Americas under that banner. The Council helped a number of young people from my rural Nova Scotian community to attend those demonstrations. I think Maude approved.

George: :D  Well, someone had to make the joke, right?  I was waiting for someone to make the joke about how it was possible to organize an anarchist event...

If Maude approved of him "throwing things" he had to be throwing brickbats.

How about teddy bears?

Cuddly is not the anarchist style.

Although, if they find favour among hockey fans....

Oh c'mon -- a cannon firing teddy bears? What's cuddlier than that? 

Who organizes anarchist gatherings?

You're out of line, George.

It was the police agentes provocateurs that had the rocks and tried to coach the anarchists to throw them (which they did not).

Obviously you fell for the scam! Sucker!

Should we malign anarchists because the police do?

Well, lots of people. Since anarchism isn't about the "me first" individualism of caricature, rather it's about building autonomous community. In my opinion. ;)

You mean the round, dark canister with the smoking fuse carried by a sinister figure under a flowing cape is  history?

Gosh, guess I'll have to change my view of anarchism in the age of sink or swim together.  All together.

But when the police sat in on our gatherings of wooly-minded Marxists - looking, no doubt, for those Leninists concerned with action - we all thought that anarchists were just shit disturbers out for fun.  At a rally on Parliament Hill protesting Lyndon Johnson's appearance there during the Vietnam War, the anarchists were concerned with spectacle. And they could not all have been out-of-uniform police, saga.

I always thought that social protest should aim at gathering public opinion behind it . That's why Maude Barlow and the NDP leadership felt let down by those who plotted "autonomous community".

Always thought that John Donne had it right with his "No man is an island".

But there we go - the brickbat can have different meaning, and appeal, to different people.

I was referring to Maude Barlow and the anti-SPP protest in Ottawa.

One thing I've noticed about anarchists: They tend to be far younger than this old hippie. Could account for their youthful 'zest', which is not to be sneezed at.

The authoritative but tome-sized "Anarchist FAQ" can be browsed at: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1931/ [31]

Part of the problem with defining anarchism is that there's such a wide range of political thought and tendencies associated with the term, some of which have strong contradictions with one another.

Everything from the Anarcho-Syndicalist [32]workers unions, to individualist egoists like Max Steiner, to dumpster diving punk rock kids, to back to the land hippies, have claimed "anarchism" as their political label.

BTW, if anyone is interested in reading / discussing anarchism with people on a pro-organizational, class-struggle, anarchist-communist message board I recommend http://anarchistblackcat.org/ [33]

a: are you implying that those people who choose to throw rocks are not there by principle? (ergo, they have no principles?)

b: in Quebec city's FTAA summit, the alternative summit was not located right at the fence. Diversity of tactics states that there should be a space where all different forms of political activism can exist in the same location (this case, city)

c: who made Maude Barlow the supreme leader of  all the protesters in Quebec City?

and Mick, c'mon now, don't you know i wear my black gear, balakava and gas mask 24/7...even when i'm sleeping to make sure i always look the part ...slacker!  : )

Hey folks, can I suggest that we move this discussion about violence at protests to the currently running thread on that topic, and leave this one to discuss anarchy and this pleasant-sounding event in this one?

What did those nice anarchists ever do to us, anyhow?  :)

Any news on this meeting yet?