RNC ‘08 Announcement

I’m a kind of cheerleader for these guys, and the announcement has finally come. Soviet Onion has put out the word. Pay attention, listen closely and seriously consider it.

. . . .

Hello everyone, my name is Soviet Onion. I’m a big proponent of Agorism, left-libertarianism and market anarchism, and a partisan to liberty in general. I’m also a concerned one. Radical libertarianism, as a social movement, still barely exists. Our present state of affairs seems to be one of isolation and atomization, even at the local level. Whatever activism does take place mostly piggybacks on whatever political reformism the Libertarian Party or assorted “small government conservatives” are involved in (seen by partyarchs as the alternative to “doing nothing”). We’ve seen this recently with the Ron Paul phenomenon.

You’ll have to excuse this young anarchist, but this all seems terribly inappropriate. For a libertarians, and libertarian anarchists especially, political success is less of matter of directing the state toward certain favored ends and more a matter of blocking it from wreaking more evil. Directly and immediately. The point is not to scribble libertarian amendments into the Constitution but to make un-libertarian laws unenforceable, to make civil society ungovernable. With that in mind, and to kick start some much needed organization, I propose that we converge on the coming Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The anarchist “Welcoming Commitee” has been organizing a series of actions for over two years. Their primary of objective is to halt the convention before it begins by blockading the major streets and bridges around the Xcel Energy Center, sealing it off before the delegates arrive. A detailed account of this strategy, and the reasons for selecting it, can be found here. Those concerned about the residents’ welfare should note that the Feds are shutting down the city anyway, so a blockade won’t cost merchants and residents any business or block any movement that hasn’t already been taken from them by the Republicans. The only people we’d be impeding are the delegates.

Summit hopping has it’s secondary benefits, as the social anarchists have noted over the years. One of which is that it allows activists from distant locations to meet and devolop a geographic sense of eachother. As a currently dispersed and highly atomized tendency, there’s nothing we need more. The Twin Cities will make an ideal focal point for that, do our part beside other members of the RNC Welcoming Commitee in disrupting the political class, to distribute and disseminate agorist ideas at the convergence spaces, and as an opportunity for members of our currently far-flung milieu to meet and communicate face-face. Even if the proposed blockade fails, going there together would be a boon to ourselves.

Eight months ago, this call was placed on the LeftLibertarian2 listserve by William Gillis, exhorting us to join the opposition:

. . . .

“Hey folks, my name’s Will and I’m a big fan of Agorism, the Libertarian Left and Market Anarchism in general. I’m also founding member of the RNC Welcoming Committee (a broad, non-sectarian coalition of anarchists and anti-authoritarians in the Twin Cities working to give the Republican Party a Minnesota-nice welcome to our state).

For over a year now we’ve been working to facilitate a diversity of tactics by Anarchists in responding to and overshadowing the Republican National Convention being held next year in St. Paul. The convention is a big propaganda show and it’s important that anarchist voices are distinctly represented in the opposition. On the one hand whatever we do it’s a sure thing that anarchists from around the country will flock to the Twin Cities with the intent of pulling militant and dramatic direct action. On the other hand we have to live here and it’s not enough simply to disrupt the political class, we have to sustain long-term projects towards autonomy and self reliance in or communities. In part that means counter-economic organizing to create an infrastructure for the anarchist response, but it also means respecting every perspective and not trying to impose one set of solutions. We’re a diverse bunch of primitivists, insurrectionaries, individualists, class-war reds, cyberpunks and generally uncategorizable anti-authoritarians. (You can read our broad points of unity here http://www.nornc.org/who-we-arepoints-of unity/ and be sure to check out the definition of capitalism.)

A recently formed national network called Unconventional Action has called for a specific strategy of Direct Action to block off the Convention on the fist day and ideally prevent any delegates from arriving. But regardless of whether we succeed in denying the Republicans access to our city (a city whose government has rolled over and coughed up millions of tax dollars and public property for this charade) it’s important that we eclipse the convention. The plan is to have plenty of events simultaneously and beyond direct resistance demonstrate to the world by example how a better world is possible. In doing both we’ll crash their little staged show!

Even if it’s Ron Paul at the podium instead of Giuliani, it’s vital that the political class is not afforded a moment or an iota of legitimacy.

Beyond direct action (whether it be conventionally “non-violent” & passive or involving the aggressive rejection of oligarchical property’s legitimacy) it’s important to use this opportunity to build our movement, both within and without. The Welcoming Committee has been doing serious work and the 08 RNC is gearing up to be a major event in activist history. That we Anarchists are the ones best prepared and most visible of everyone organizing for the RNC (while the various liberal and socialist groups are still floundering) speaks volumes.

While I can’t presume to personally speak for the Welcoming Committee, a Libertarian Left presence at the counter-convention would be fondly appreciated. Any support you’d like to individually or collectively (A3! ) contribute would be absolutely wonderful. Whether it’s just a statement, participation in the actions (agorist affinity groups?!), a separate project, setting up a symposium during the festivities, propping up a book cart in front of a convergence space, or lending some mutual aid and helping us build the infrastructure needed to feed, shelter (etc) the thousands upon thousands of anarchists descending on our fair cities. (Black Markets can also be Gift Economies… hint, hint)

When I was in Seattle in ‘99 there was one loud guy shouting above the din of the crowd that the WTO was impeding Free Trade and globally raising cost-of-entry to the market, and that was it’s crime! That one crazy guy had something of an effect upon me. Imagine how great it would be if there was an entire bloc of them!

This is our Call To Action: http://www.rncwelcomingcommittee.org/2007/09/30/crash-the-convention-2008-call-to-action/

Please take a look at it and consider participating however you feel comfortable. I guarantee you’ll have a friend in the committee.”

-William Gillis
http://williamgillis.blogspot.com/

. . . .
Transport and housing lists will available on the Welcoming Committe website, but won’t be fully fleshed out about until a month beforehand… sorry, that’s the best they can do. The good news is that for anyone under 25 and vaguely student-ish, Macalester SDS can provide literally unlimited space (bring a sleeping bag and maybe a tent, whatever you need to be comfortable). Registration is ongoing at http://minnesotasds.org/.

Those who are interested are invited to head over to this thread on the newly formed LeftLibertarian forums, where we’ll discuss the tactics, group organization and ideal placement within the greater range of activities. Even if you’re unable to come, you’re still welcome to drop by and help us plan.

Give it some thought. If you know anyone else who might be interested, please pass the message along to them. I’ll also be posting this message on some of the more public market anarchist venues.

I look forward to hearing from you all.

Laissez-faire,
Soviet Onion

Game Over?

Mugabe – Game, Set, Match.

So much for the hopes of democratic reform.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai postponed a return to Zimbabwe at the weekend.

He was due to start his campaign to defeat Robert Mugabe in a presidential election run-off on 27 June.

“We know there are 18 snipers, and the military intelligence directorate is in charge of this,” MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti told reporters in Nairobi.

The US ambassador to Zimbabwe has warned that post-election violence makes a fair second round run-off vote impossible.

Opposition and human rights groups have said hundreds of opposition supporters have been beaten up and at least 30 killed since the first round on 29 March.

Read the rest here.

But it gets worse yet.  Thanks to Nationalistic tendencies, those who rightly want to get the hell out of Zimbabwe (Remember the whole ‘No Borders!’ Anarchist thing?) have ran straight into more violence.

Over the weekend, correspondents say central Johannesburg resembled a war-zone, as armed police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse mobs of South Africans looking for foreigners and looting foreign-owned shops.

In pictures: Johannesburg violence

“If we go back into the streets, they’re going to kill us there,” one Zimbabwean man in a police station told the BBC.

The front page of several South African newspapers on Monday shows a horrific image of a man being burnt to death.

The police say they have made more than 200 arrests for crimes including rape.

‘State of emergency’

A church where about 1,000 Zimbabweans have been taking refuge was attacked.

Bishop Paul Veryn of the Central Methodist Church which was attacked told SABC radio: “We consider that the situation is getting so serious that the police can no longer control it.”

He called for a state of emergency to be declared to halt the violence.

Read the rest here.

Politics in the News

Ah politics. Whether its ballots, bullets or bullshit it’s really a most ludicrous phenomenon. Worldwide, people are quick to turn on their fellow Human being on the say-so of a charismatic political leader. Great crimes are regularly committed because of the sanctity of their position. Greater crimes are committed by these very leaders whose day to day business is to force you and I into poverty, submission, servitude and sometimes death. Let us then look around the world and see what is becomming of our planet at the hands of such foul Human beings who would have us at each others throats in order to feed, clothe and maintain their power.

First up, that amazing country, Zimbabwe, the place where basic food stuffs are worth millions of dollars thanks to idiot dictators and their complete ignorance of economics. Now, in the recent past I’ve commented that the election process won’t achieve anything and I’m going to continue to stand by that statement. Even though Mr Tsvangirai, whom kinda has me wondering what with the way he’s decided to relocate to the nearest country the moment his dictatorial counterpart decided to get violent with his supporters, initially claimed he would not run in a second election, has now decided he will. Funny how politicians can’t pass up a chance at being top dog. Assuming Tsvangirai even manages to find himself in Mugabe’s throne, I’m sceptical as to whether he will have the clout to even begin improving the country’s prospects.

While we’re on the subject of the ballot, the military junta in Burma has called a referendum. Surprised? It’s transparent, authoritarian genius really. A natural disaster on the scale of that which has recently occurred in Burma makes for the best time for an election – you don’t need to spend your time violently oppressing a bunch of people who are mostly dead or distracted by the total loss of everything they own. All it means is that you can better oppress the rest who weren’t hit. Politics is going to be the last things on the victim’s minds. As per usual, the UN is angered and Ban Ki-moon is planning on writing a strongly worded letter of some description.

In yet more ballot news, Kenyan tribesmen are fighting massive battles with bows and arrows over a electoral dispute. Maybe these people were better off without governments and electoral voting processes. I could be wrong, but at least then they wouldn’t have tried to kill each other with machetes or shoot each other with arrows fashioned from iron nails because they can’t control their rival tribesman via government.

While we’re on the subject of warfare, let’s pay attention to the Vietnam of the new generation, Iraq. Iraq’s Prime Minister, if politicians are anything to be believed, has apparently been saying that al-Qaeda is an isolated, spent force in Iraq and that he is confident it can be driven out of the country completely. Apparently the US military is launching yet another offensive on another last strong-hold of al-Qaeda. No doubt it will be another success in a rather unsuccessful war. But the US administration seems to prefer to focus on the ’success’ part and ignore the ‘un’ prefix. Fortunately it’s bleedingly obvious that Iraq isn’t tied up in such a neat little package. It never has and never will be.

In other news, yet more violent liberation movements loose supporters due to their coercive mannerisms. Unfortunately those supporters turn to the government while another countries ruling mafia refuse’s to let it’s turf be ruled by a local ruling crime gang.

But wait, there’s more! Environmentalists chanting anti-Economic development rhetoric in support of the bollocks man-made global warming theory have had their successful attempts to utilise government to force their subjects to go green met with unintended economic consequences. And yes I deliberately avoided comma’s in that sentence, just to make it difficult for you. World food prices are increasing greatly and the world’s poor who, if I may pour salt in a wound, couldn’t already afford basic food stuffs definitely can’t afford them now. I mean, of course they didn’t know that using the glorified gabble of governmental coercion to reshape the market and diverting food to fuel will decrease the supply of food. Not to mention incapable of grasping the fact that so many countries depend on the US and Europe for food aid (another result of the twisted idea of welfare) and the vague possibility that maybe they won’t be getting the same amount of food if it’s now being converted to fuel. See what happens when you provide a means for people to mess with people (the market).
On a more local note, and I apologise for those that aren’t inhabiting the South Australian city of Adelaide where I reside, recent legislation has recently come into effect that erodes basic civil liberties and instead allows government agencies to snoop and arrest at will. “What for?” you ask curiously, well I’ll tell you. The state government has taken it upon itself to crusade against the evil Bikie threat, using anti-terrorism legislation as its mould for the bill to fight organised crime. According to this legislation, an individual can be imprisoned for whom you know or associate with, as being in the presence of a person with a criminal record more than 6 times a year now constitutes a crime, even if the defendant has not committed any crime. The bill does not take into account family or work acquaintances – an individual could be gaoled for being in the same room as an uncle with a prior criminal conviction during family birthday celebrations. Any organisation can now be deemed a criminal organisation, judged on the actions of a minority – which has become and overarching theme in Australian politics recently. A sporting club could potentially be classed as a criminal organisation on the basis that a member or members have a prior criminal history, even if that history ended long ago. One MP has commented that the Bill doesn’t go far enough, another has stated that the South Australian Parliament has finally given the police the tools they need to defeat organised crime. These people have granted police excessive powers that will be abused. It’s only a matter of time. These comments not only cement my distrust of politicians and their authoritarian mindset, but actually makes me afraid that Adelaide – a city traditionally founded without the use of convict labour with the intention of focussing on civil liberties – may actually be feel the spread of authoritarianism. Who’d have thought the ass end of the ass end of the world may experience the same pretences that lead to institutions like the Stasi and events like the Communist witch hunts.

For now, that is all dear reader. Your eyes must be bleeding and I’m tired. Goodnight.