[lbo-talk] Credit Where Credit is Due

Chuck0 chuck at mutualaid.org
Wed Jan 26 13:39:46 PST 2005


John Lacny wrote:


> Completely untrue. There are relatively high numbers of anarchists among the
> white youth who specialize in protest activities, but there is a difference
> between mobilizing and organizing. The best militant/radical youth
> organizing is done by youth of color organizations like Standing Together to
> Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM) in the Bay Area, an organization
> that is now defunct but that left behind promising institutions like Third
> Eye. See also predominantly white student groups like USAS. More important
> than all of these, of course, are the mass organizations of youth where
> radicals are present, including MECHA among Chicano students or the
> multiracial United States Student Association.

I'm really amused when Lacny and other leftists of his ilk start spouting off about stuff they know nothing about. It's even more amusing when they drape their ignorant arguments around anti-anarchist attacks.

Much of the youth organizing being done around the U.S. is being one by anarchists, frequently by young anarchists themselves. In the Bay Area, anarchists are involved in organizing young people in several coalitions. I saw two of my anarchist comrades from the Bay Area in NYC when they were marching with a youth POC contingent during the RNC protests. Young anarchists in the Bay Area are organizing with anarchist groups and more general activist coalitions. I know more than a few APOCs (Anarchist People of Color) who are students in the Bay Area as well as organizers.

Around the U.S. there are several efforts by anarchists to organize young people. Infoshop.org has several current projects. I know that young anarchists are organizers with a variety of unions, anarchist groups, and protest organizations. We've been building our networks on the high school and college level. This may not be as visible as a named ISO front group, but it does exist. If I remember correctly, the student antiwar network that the ISO was trying to run had a least one split initiated by young anarchists who woke up to what the ISO was doing.

Younger anarchists are involved with a wide variety of anarchist organizations (i.e. NEFAC and the IWW), movements (APOC and Crimethinc) and networks.

Lastly, I want to remind people that young anarchists don't always wear their politics on their sleeves. Don't assume that young anarchists always wear black, because most of them look and dress like normal young people

Chuck



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