May Day "violence is our enemy"

Ian Murray seamus2001 at home.com
Tue May 1 07:46:25 PDT 2001


Chris Burford wrote:

> There are times in the development of a movement when left-opportunism is

> more dangerous than right opportunism. But some self-proclaimed marxists

> disdain to analyse the balance of forces on principle. As Lenin pointed

> out, that has nothing to do with Marxism.

I'd like to see some examples of this "left-opportunism." I gather that

Burford is referring to anarchist elements such as the black bloc, who

simply operate on the principle of self-organization. If Burford bothers

to do any research on the black bloc, such as talking to non-anarchist

radicals who participated at A16 or Quebec City, he'll discover that

most folks had a positive view of our work and our mutual aid towards

fellow protesters. ================= There was left opportunism in Seattle as well as a lot of competitive egoism [our own refracted form of capitalist behavior]. Naming names accomplishes nothing, the egomaniacs know who they are. I'm sure the same occurred in DC and Prague and Melbourne and Quebec. This is an immense gender issue as well, the problem, as usual, being white males who have all the answers.

> On the practical issue that Monbiot raises, I suggest the single most

> effective tactic for the progressive majority is to denounce demonstrators

> who are masked as in a conspiracy against the movement and as potential

> provocateurs.

Wow! Doing the work of the cops already. Anarchists have been very

open-minded about working with Marxists in the anti-globalization

movement, but it seems that the old back-stabbing tactics of old are

being brought out. ================ Well we need to look out for provocateurs a lot more now, since the capitalists and their proxies have their hair up. Escalate the power of our arguments, the PD and violence will [if they haven't already] hit the point of diminishing returns real quick and in inverse proportion to how our arguments lose explanatory power with the imagination and hopes of potential allies.

If Burford is going to denounce demonstraters who are masked, I suggest

that he start with the Zapatistas. Masking up at a demo offers several

advantages, the most important one being leaderless anonymity. On

Sunday, at the World Bank demo here in DC, I spent a few minutes

harassing an undercover Fed who was videotaping us. You would think that

an intelligent guy like Burford would look back at COINTELPRO and the

Palmer Raids and figure out that we need new ways to protect folks from

being put easily into the files of the State. ============== Dude they have a file on you already. A mask accomplishes nothing. don't tell me anarchists are afraid of the state; that's clearly an obstacle of your desire to deconstruct it. No doubt masks help the Zapatistas in their situation, but neither Ghandi, MLK or Sacco and Vanzetti wore masks.

This is an incredibly sectarian statement that goes beyond anything I've

seen lately. Conspriacy against the movement? You wouldn't have a

movement if it wasn't for the hard organizing work of those who Burford

condemns. ==================

Reflexivity alert!!

The charge of "provocateur" is a serious one. At least, it's an

ideological blinder which prevents an ideologue from understanding why

some resort to property destruction and violence as tactics. At worst,

language like this promotes paranoia and suspicion in the movement. It's

not a constructive way to discuss these issues;--it is divisive. ==============

See diminshing returns above....iterate on the reflexivity alert too.

> But theoretically the battle between marxism and anarchism must be taken up

> in ideological argument, not least first with those left opportunists who

> proclaim themselves, often very loudly, as marxists, but are anarchists,

> certainly in terms of global politics.

I don't know what this is about, but I certainly see many Marxists as

allies, especially the anti-authoritarian variety. The rest I judge by

their actions.

<< Chuck0 >>

============== Reflexivity alert again! Left authoritarianism has always been a problem, how to get over it is an enormous challenge. We should be up to it this time around one hopes.

Ian



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