forwarded from the pof-200 list ... -----Original Message----- From: Ben Seattle Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2005 8:53 PM To: 'pof-200' Subject: [pof-200] summary of anti-imperialist and anarchist meetings
posted at: http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2005/08/247508.shtml summary of anti-imperialist and anarchist meetings author: Ben Seattle Aug 14, 2005 20:38 Two public political meetings that took place this weekend lend insight into the state of the movement against the war and against capitalism: (1) Planning meeting for an anti-imperialist feeder march (2) Anarchist Open Forum For those who could not find the time to attend -- here is what happened: A tale of two meetings ------------------------------------------------------------ Planning meeting for an anti-imperialist feeder march ------------------------------------------------------------ The meeting took place Saturday afternoon at the Capitol Hill library. Present were activists from 4 different political trends: (a) Frank and several supporters of the Communist Voice Organization, which describes itself as marxist-leninist, (b) Edward, a maoist, (c) myself, a proletarist and (d) an activist I will call X who leaned more toward anarchism and direct action tactics. Frank and Edward organized the meeting by posting a joint statement to Indymedia. Together they also chaired the meeting. The activist X could only stay a short while and was in favor of tactics that allowed activists to march on the streets in a spontaneous manner, without permits. The rest of us had mixed opinions of the significance and practicality of this tactic but were more focused on developing an anti-imperialist pole of attraction in the antiwar movement in order to oppose the undermining influence of the Democratic Party and the reformist and liberal dominated antiwar coalitions. We agreed on a march on Capitol Hill that would then join up with the reformist ANSWER rally on Sept 24 at noon at Westlake Square. We also agreed to create a poster to announce this independent action and which would also have (approximately) the following slogans: main slogan: * U.S. Imperialism Out of Iraq! secondary slogan: * No to a war for oil, military bases and world domination! additional slogans: * Oppose the attempts of the Democratic Party * to hijack the antiwar movement! * For mass action independent * of the bourgeoisie and its allies! * The Iraqi people have the right to resist! * Support the revolutionary-democratic struggles * of the Iraqi workers and poor! The most significant difference of opinion concerned how we would sign the poster. Most of the CVO supporters were in favor of signing the poster as a temporary committee that existed for the purpose of organizing the anti-imperialist feeder march. As a strong advocate of political transparency, I insisted that we sign the poster in a way that would give activists a better idea of who and what we are -- in other words something similar to the following: * This call to action was created by: * * Frank and other members of the * Seattle Communist Study Group * working with: * * Edward * * Ben Seattle At this time it is unclear if this will be acceptable to the CVO supporters -- who tend to view my insistence on political transparency as "self-promotion". I believe that an important political principle is at the core of this disagreement and will sum up my view of this here: ------------------------------------------------------------ Political transparency will be the basis for a genuinely revolutionary mass organization ------------------------------------------------------------ The struggle to create an anti-imperialist pole of attraction in the antiwar movement requires not only that activists promote anti-imperialist views -- but that they find ways to communicate and cooperate with one another in an ongoing and productive way. One problem that comes up, in a consistent pattern, is that many political trends attempt to impose overly rigid control over this process of cooperation in the name of "efficiency" or "discipline". The end result, in many or most instances, is the creation of an organization in which the minority has no effective rights. In particular, the left today has few organizations in which members will regularly and publically criticize what they see as the mistakes of the organizations' leadership. This unwritten rule (ie: keep disagreements private) supposedly helps the organization. But the truth is that this makes it more difficult for the political struggle (which is inevitable in any mass organization) to take place in a conscious way -- because much of the struggle is hidden from activists. This makes it more difficult for activists to understand the struggles within the organization and to intervene in this struggle or render an informed opinion. And this, in turn, makes it more difficult, or impossible, for the organization to earn the respect, attention and trust of activists. My experience, based on having been around the block, is that if I go to a public meeting -- I sum it up on Indymedia and in the pof-200 email list (ie: the email list of the media weapon community). This principled stand means that I am not allowed to attend NION meetings (ie: they banned me from their "public" meetings because I summed up what happened at one of their meetings, for other activists, in a post on Indymedia). This is not all: If I work to hand out or distribute a leaflet or poster -- I sign it -- together with any of the other activists who endorse it and who may similarly wish to make public their endorsement or support of the politics. And if the next leaflet or poster does not include my signature -- then activists will see that also. In this way my voice, my work and my politics are not hidden. The alternative to this principle -- is that we create a temporary organization which has no purpose other than to obscure the politics, political agendas (and inevitable political struggles) of the activists who are working together. I don't work in obscurity. I oppose obscurity. Obscurity is used to hide the real contradictions in the movement that determine what takes place. Obscurity keeps activists in the dark. Obscurity helps the bourgeoisie. I insist that politics and political struggle be in the open. This is what will do the most to speed up the process by which activists understand the real contradictions of our movement. This is what will speed up the day when all serious and militant activists have a common revolutionary organization, with minority rights, which they can call their own. ------------------------------------------------------------ Anarchist Open Forum ------------------------------------------------------------ This meeting took place Sunday afternoon at the Cascade People's Center (about a block from REI). There were probably about two dozen people there. I may, possibly, have been the only activist there who did not consider himself to be an anarchist. However everyone there appeared to welcome my participation. The meeting was organized so that local anarchists could get to know one another better. Many local anarchists talked of feeling isolated from one another. This meeting was the result of widespread recognition that the isolation must be overcome. it is likely that similar meetings will be organized (and announced on Indymedia) every two weeks as long as this format proves popular. There was also some brief discussion by the activists there of how to defend their effort from being taken over, co-opted or hijacked by the trends in the left which tend to suck dry anything which has the least amount of life, energy or independence. The main tactics that everyone felt comfortable with -- was to keep things very informal: activists will meet every two weeks to talk -- but not to vote on what the whole will do. If people there want to work together on projects -- they will be free to do so and such common efforts will be easier to organize since like-minded activists will be meeting together on a regular basis. As an activist who is something of an outsider to anarchist politics I have mixed feelings about the organizational form (or lack of form) which is being used. On the one hand, I understand why this has proven necessary and I recognize that cooperation will be made possible by the development of a community of people who meet regularly and talk together and have a similar political outlook. We need communities of activists who can do more than slander one another as part of a cut-throat competition for the warm, living bodies of the less experienced activists who are new on the scene. On the other hand, I was also struck by the very low level of political discussion that took place and the ineffectiveness of many of the proposed ideas of doing something. Everyone understood that the basic values of our current society were false and shallow and undermined sincere relations between people, But, at the same time, many participants did not have a very well developed conception of how imperialist rule is maintained and the forms of struggle which will be effective in opposing it. Of course it is not just the anarchist section of our movement that is in crisis right now and is largely ineffective. I would assert that _all_ sections of our movement suffer from a severe crisis of theory and a crisis of organization. I hope that the format of informal meetings every two weeks proves popular and may lead to a better connected community of activists. If it does I will attempt to attend every once in a while. It is painful to observe the weaknesses of this section of our movement but it is also inspiring to see its strengths. Sincerely, your reporter, Ben Seattle http://struggle.net/ben Isolated from one another we are easily defeated. 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