> It was a great group, a mix of older veterans (most from the West Coast)
> and younger activists bringing lots of great new energy to the movement.
> An extremely white crowd, notably. One of the few local black faces in
> the crowd noted that holding training meetings during the day excluded
> local working folks like herself. Saw ChuckO announcing the Black Block.
That local black face was Natalie, who introduced herself to me later. She tells me that she lurks on my DC anarchy list.
I ran into Patrick from this list last night.
This whole thing reminds me of an anarchist gathering, multiplied by a large number. It's pretty chaotic, but it seems to work. I do association meetings, so I have a yardstick to compare this to. For a bunch of people with little experience doing large meetings, they are doing an excellent job.
Yes, I represented the "Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc" at last night's meeting. We've re-written our statement so that is more positive and supportive of the A16 mobilization. It also details why we think people should have the right to define their own tactics within these coalitions. It's also much harsher towards union bosses like Sweeney and Hoffa, while supporting the rank and file of the business unions.
I can send out the statement in a separate email.
The cool thing about this "Seattle East" coming to town was illustrated for me this morning when I ran into some guerilla gardeners on the Metro. They were headed for Anacostia where they will spend the morning, if not most of the day, helping in a community garden.
Helping put on a big event like this means that some of us get to stay up into the wee hours of the morning and then go to work the next day. Thank god I have Thursday and Friday off.
I've also been helping out with the Independent Media Center (dc.indymedia.org) which has been set up in a gallery in the Shaw neighborhood (within spitting distance of that billion dollar pit that will be the future convention center). I attended the IMC meeting on Monday night, which was attended by 50 people. That's Monday night, so this is the tip of the iceberg. The IMC has perhaps a dozen computers, dedicated to a range of media tasks. It also has a crack staff of computer programmers and web designers. They are well organized and serious about their goals.
The revolution will be televised.
This whole thing is really exciting. If you think you are missing out on something important and wonderful, you are correct. Sometimes I have to mentally step back so that I can appreciate what's going on.
It's fucking awesome.
<< 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