Calling All LA Anarchists: Invitation to Participate in Insurgent Summer

What is this summer's most radical online project? *Insurgent Summer* is an online book reading and cooperative blog discussion of Fredy Perlman’s 1976 book *Letters of Insurgents*. This is a 800+ page book of fictional letters between two Eastern European workers, Yarostan Vochek and Sophia Nachalo, separated by twenty-five years and two continents. As they reconnect through an exchange of letters, we learn about the battles they have fought – physical, political, emotional, and moral – and eventually the ones they have left to fight.

Your reading of *Letters* will begin on *June 11, 2010*, with the first of the ten exchanges between Yarostan and Sophia. Each week, three "Guides" (DeAnna, Artnoose, and Andrej) will post discussion pieces, reflections and analysis, preparing the terrain for an engaging discussion to which everyone is invited! We will conclude on August 20, in honor of Fredy Perlman's birthday!

Though copies of the book are limited, we are happy announce that we have both audio and full-text downloads of *Letters of Insurgents* available. Insurgent Summer is an opportunity to read one of the most important books of anarchist fiction and morality of all time. Please visit *http://insurgentsummer.org/* for more information, and let us know that you're going to participate!

Also please post on websites, twitter feeds, send to friends, etc.!

Calling All LA Anarchists: August 2010 - We Are Everywhere (Dispatch from the CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective)

By now, anarchists and anti-authoritarians across the country have probably given up waiting for an announcement of the annual CrimethInc. Convergence. The truth is that as experienced organizers grow more weary of repeating themselves, and the emerging energetic anarchist communities are all tending to be less and less interested in organizing, few places seem to be appropriate candidates for this summer’s convergence. Moreover, by early spring it was already too late in the game for a community to come forward and offer to host the event, and interest simply had not surfaced.


In possibly the first great anarchist mistake of the decade, the CrimethInc. Experimental Committee was founded in late January. Their first assignment? To preserve and integrate the best elements of the convergence into a new model, adjust them to strengthen longstanding weaknesses, all the while upping the ante in a way that serves the anarchist community as a whole. At first, we thought their solution was a bad idea, so we commissioned a report and quickly changed our minds.

You’re being invited to participate in CrimethInc.’s next big experiment: a decentralized convergence.
 

THE OBJECTIVES

To create and maintain points of entry everywhere. To demonstrate our ability to work together despite internal differences and external obstacles. To invigorate anarchist infrastructure rather than lean on it. To orchestrate a show of force in solidarity with anti-authoritarians all over the world. To inspire curious newcomers without exhausting our vigor. To illuminate the map like a starchart of constellations. To remind ourselves – everyone – that we are everywhere.

 

THE CHALLENGE

Can anarchists mobilize to achieve these objectives with a tight deadline? In an effort to test and strengthen our potential, we’re inviting anarchists of all stripes and contexts to participate in a widespread and decentralized demonstration of outreach and infrastructure. To get involved, all that is required is that you facilitate or organize one or more events that will occur simultaneously across North America throughout the month of August.

THE PLAN

During August, we make anarchist principles and activity visible and accessible at a scale never before attempted. Consider it an international month of action; the activities can be of any caliber and temperament, and can appear anywhere: in the news, in the library, in the bedroom, in the supermarket, at the Really Really Free Market, on the streets, and so on. Use this as an opportunity to explore and experiment: if you aren’t typically involved in local mutual aid projects, give it a go; if you’ve never gone on a tour before, plan one with your friends; if you write zines, write banners; if you author theory, stage a reading; if you occupy classrooms, teach one for free. Whatever you do, wherever you go, wave the black flag for everyone to see –including, and perhaps especially for, our friends and comrades – and let the world see that we are everywhere.

THE SKELETON

To supplement the individual events we’re inviting people who’d like to teach workshops, perform skits and puppet shows, and share music and videos, to organize tours with their friends. The troupe could be just one person – you – or as many friends and companions as you can pack into a vehicle: whatever is doable and exciting. You could schedule events in a few towns in your region over a weekend, or cross the continent in a month. Your theme could be acute, spreading awareness about specific campaigns against mountain-top removal, evictions, state repression, the tar sands of Canada, the oil spill, oppression, or for mutual aid projects, solidarity with struggles happening here or elsewhere, or obscure theory. Or it could be more broad – raising awareness about anarchism itself.

Decentralized tours could the most appropriate and safe way for the anarchist community to achieve the objectives of the nationwide convergence. Accessible points of entry can emerge in all of the places that anarchists already are. Inspirational experiences can be had with new people. The diversity of anarchist perspectives and positions can be celebrated and affirmed in a way that allows them to work together, allowing us all to hold our commonalities close and activate our solidarity.
 
We’re pleased to announce that several tours have already signed up as endorsers: The Conspiracy Tour [USA], The Emergency Tour [USA-Midwest], and Testament & Illogick [Canada]. If you already plan on touring with a project during August, you can plug into the strategy with almost no additional effort. If you haven’t planned anything during August, please consider organizing a tour in solidarity with all those who will be organizing events in their hometowns. This goes most especially for everyone who has participated in CrimethInc Convergences in past years, and is able and willing. To help offset the price of fuel, you might consider distributing free literature for donations, and selling books and screenprinted items – if you’re partial, the Literature Distro Kit is one of the cheapest places to start.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be maintaining a list of tour dates both organized within our challenging timeframe and scheduled for the month of August. To add your project to the itinerary, please email experimental.committee@gmail.com as soon as possible, and we can publish your public events as they unfold.

THE NERVE

Drawing from the lessons of Steal Something From Work Day, our work should effectively utilize modern modes of communication and reclaim their functions when necessary.

Twitter – We can use Twitter to announce your events and simultaneously contribute to the volume of the phenomenon. If you use twitter, tag your tweets with #AnarchistsEverywhere to let people locate it in a search of the entire campaign. If we remember that these tweets are public and can function as promotional work, we can contribute to the campaign 140 characters at a time.

YouTube & Vimeo – We can upload short vignettes that promote the campaign and will be relevant for years to come. Our current recommendation is the proliferation of short 45 second clips ending in the slogan “WE ARE EVERYWHERE”. To avoid the alienation that can sometimes be felt when watching high-quality video production, it is encouraged that these clips be shot with cell phones to remind everyone that they can make their own. To contribute your video to the campaign, simply tag it with “AnarchistsEverywhere”.

Social Networking – Share this blog entry, and when more web projects and videos emerge share those too. Announce local events to everyone that you communicate with through that medium. While you’re at it, be mindful of the networks you imply on facebook.

Of course, it is also important that we create signposts in the real world too. Design posters, t-shirts, stencils, stickers, and other folk-art projects and spread them everywhere. See this appendix for helpful slogans.

THE HEART

Of course, each tour will make this campaign exponentially larger, but this August won’t be about tours. More important is what is going on in each place they pass through; if you are part of an active community – even if that community is just you –you can make your town another mark on our constellation map, which is a substantial contribution. In the context of this campaign, doing locally what tours cannot is considerably more effective than an elaborate schedule of tours. You are a part of the everywhere.
 
Ultimately, this campaign is about doing what we do every day. In working together as a decentralized concert of actions and activities we can collectively establish visibility for our local efforts and global struggles. For inspiration, check out Recipes for Disaster if you haven’t already, or you could plan a workshop, block party, public discussion group – even a bike ride. Put quite simply: if you’ve got a black flag and the will to fly it, this August the world will be watching.
 
Whatever you do, your contribution will be a part of an experiment to determine our collective power-to and solidarity-with – no amount of participation is too small, and everyone’s efforts will be counted.

THE DETAILS

Please read the arguments for decentralizing the CrimethInc. Convergence and the implications of a successful August 2010. Whether or not your project is a tour complete with a list of dates and venues, or a single event open to the public, it is still valuable and worthwhile to promote as a part of this campaign. Please email details to experimental.committee@gmail.com for help promoting your event.

APPENDIX of SLOGANS {not just a big joke}

In reclaiming and reworking modern marketing and advertisement strategies, we can re-appropriate the elements of our social conditions. Opportunities to do so will be self-evident: wherever capitalist imagery and sentiment competes for our attention. To do so effectively we would benefit from maintaining relative consistency throughout this campaign. This campaign is already built on a concept that both demands participation and refuses to be homogenized by those with particularly concentrated resources; the message is that we are everywhere and therefore the aesthetic will naturally benefit from the wide spectrum of positions from which these messages can emerge. Additionally, we cannot successfully demonstrate our prevalence without communicating things that describe our politics and the widespread nature of our resistance. That these things are true does not mean we cannot create a consistent and circular front of visibility – this can happen by taking advantage of the strategies outlined above in the nerve section and by making prolific use of, and following the various style guides accompanying, the following slogans:

1. { for use wherever possible, and most appropriate }
2. { for use in pre-august promotional material }
3. { anytime you need a clever supplement }

These are appropriate for Anarchists without Adjectives and will work well in combination with any of the others. The use of any other slogans should be supplemented with these for best use of consistency:

1. WE ARE EVERYWHERE
2. WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS AUGUST?
3. GET ALL OVER THE PLACE
4. { The Circle A }

These Insurrectionist slogans are sure to be attractively confusing:

1. DOING BEING EVERYWHERE
2. PARTY THIS AUGUST
3. MAKE TOTAL ALL OVER THE PLACE

The Anarchist People of Color who aren’t surprised that you assumed they weren’t involved in planning this campaign suggested:

1. NO ONE IS ILLEGAL – WE ARE EVERYWHERE
2. THE BLOCK IS HOT, AUGUST WILL BE HOTTER
3. STOLEN LAND IS ALL OVER THE PLACE

Efficient use of these slogans are sure to aid the Anarcho-Syndicalist platform:

1. AN INJURY SOMEPLACE IS AN INJURY EVERYWHERE
2. TAKE IT OVER THIS AUGUST
3. ONE BIG EVERYWHERE

If we would stop for a minute and listen for a change, the Anarcha-Feminist might recommend:

1. OUR PLACE IS ALL OVER THE PLACE
2. TAKE BACK THE NIGHT THIS AUGUST
3. MOTHERS WORK EVERYWHERE

Anarchist Queers can pack these with their strap-ons and glitter-bombs:

1. WE WANT YOU
2. ANARCHISM IS IN THIS AUGUST
3. BASH BACK EVERYWHERE

And lastly, if someone could tell the Anti-Civ folks about these slogans, that’d be great!

1. AGAINST CAPTIVITY EVERYWHERE
2. BREAK THROUGH THIS AUGUST
3. GROW BACK ALL OVER THE PLACE

A Post Sentencing Statement From Dave Solidarity

A Post-Sentencing Statement From Dave Solidarity

     On June 1, I was sentenced to a 1 month stay in a Federal Prison, starting June 22nd, after being convicted of a 'violation of the terms of my supervised release.' To give a little bit of background, in 2006, I was convicted of 'damaging United States property' after setting fire to an Army recruiting center in the Bronx, and served 6 months in a federal prison, followed by 3 years of 'supervised release.' Last year, a few months before this term of supervised release was set to expire, I was arrested outside of the second occupation of the New School, and charged with assaulting an officer, rioting, resisting arrest and maybe a couple other things.

     While ultimately all of the State charges were dropped, my 'supervision' status allowed the federal government to pick up the slack and ultimately take me to trial on the same charges, only with a lower standard of proof ('a preponderance of evidence' as opposed to 'beyond a reasonable doubt') and with rules allowing hearsay, in this case, from the pigs called in to testify. The prosecution recommended a sentence of 9 months, plus 2 years of supervised release and some other stuff that I'll go into later, but ultimately I got the 1 month in, plus 1 additional year of supervised release, plus 200 hours of community service.

     Okay, so that's the bare bones boring stuff. Now I get to take this opportunity, as someone who already is one of the usual suspects, and unquestionably under surveillance, to say some wild shit that others trying to preserve their relative freedom would be unable to.

     Let's go point by point.

1. I am a crazy motherfucker.

     When I was first sentenced for setting fire to that Army recruiting center, part of the judge's sentence was that for the entire three years I was on supervised release, I attend weekly therapy sessions, so that "I could understand why I did what I did". At the time, I remember thinking 'it's pretty fucking obvious why..." but didn't go much deeper than that. After I got back to NYC, my PO sent me to my assigned therapist and the goal of state-mandated therapy became more clear.

     After a month of these 'sessions', I realized that not only was this therapist reporting everything I said to my PO, but my PO was telling the therapist what areas to 'probe deeper into.' Most of this involved him trying to get to the bottom of why I really had problems with authority. 'Because I'm an anarchist?- But what about your relationship with your Dad..?' So that had to end. When I got a little bit of money together to switch to a therapist of my choosing, who refused to tell my PO anything about what happened other than the fact that I showed up, the probation department took me to court, a battle that I eventually won.

     In that case, my lawyer argued that my political beliefs were being looked at as a pathology, and that the probation department was using therapy as political re-education camp. Now I am in exactly the same position-Once again, I've been sentenced to weekly therapy. At the sentencing hearing, the prosecution stressed the need for this therapy, because "I had exhibited an extreme problem with authority, particularly police officers." While at first I got angry about their characterization of me, I realized that they're right.

     The past 10 years of my life have been dedicated to fighting authority in general, whether they be the pigs, politicians or bosses. They all have to go. So, if that makes me crazy, fuck it. When I hear about cops getting attacked in Seattle, I get all jittery and excited. When I read about French workers taking their bosses hostage, I wanted to catch the next plane over. The best part: I'm not the only one who's crazy like this. Most people are 'crazy', and every day, more and more people are starting to do something about it.

2. We need to step up our game.

     One of the benefits of being an anarchist 'usual suspect' in NYC, is that it allows me a rare glimpse into the mind of the government, and I've found that there's not much going on in there. Every time something gets blown up around these parts, (you know, annually, when one of those cute little packages gets delivered from everyone's favorite cyclist) the Feds show up at my house (I'm never there) or follow me around everywhere, or call me into my PO's office, because they know I have to show up there. And every time they start asking questions, it becomes abundantly clear that they are unable to understand how anarchists operate. They keep trying to find leaders, or try to make dubious connections between above ground groups and actions that occur. Their obvious frustration is what leads to the kind of prosecution that put Eric McDavid away, which will hopefully be overturned on appeal.

     But what we need to recognize is that this shows our strength! When we stop squabbling with each other for long enough to extend our struggle, it turns out that fighting without leaders and without hierarchy actually works. Given that we're still in a period of 'crisis', this is the time we need to be hitting the hardest.

     Now, some people have been leading the way(see Mayday 2k10). Much of the negative response towards those actions falls into the 'it's only going to bring greater repression' category. Of course it is, but what the hell did you expect when you decided you were an 'anarchist'?

     This is the point where I get to pull out my 'former/pending political prisoner' card, and say people are going to catch some heat, but guess what-there's over 2 million fucking people in prison. My whole neighborhood is under police occupation. I'm going to prison for a violation-level charge of 'resisting arrest'. Shit is bad, and anyone who fights back is going to potentially subject to consequences. We have to understand this, and take calculated risks, but when they take some of our people, we hit back harder.


3. Hitting Back.

     I mean this literally. Solidarity means attack, remember? There have to be real, tangible consequences for the state or capital attacking us. However, the only way this can be sustainable is if we get out of the anarchist ghetto. This means putting our energies towards helping out with other peoples struggles, and building real relationships in the places that we live. Is your neighbor getting evicted? Well, guess what, landlords have addresses. The police are running up on your block to grab somebody? You and your neighbors have to let them know there's gonna be consequences.

     The point, however, isn't just to fight for the sake of fighting. We're trying to create some kind of liberated spaces, right? This means actually creating spaces, and then militantly defending them.
Look at how Portland is doing it-they're getting a little wild in their battle against the cops. NYC needs to catch up...

4. ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK.

     The only way we're going to be able to maintain any of our efforts at creating liberated spaces is if we go on the offensive. If by day we're running community centers, doing alternative education, fixing bikes, or growing our own food, by night we're attacking the police stations, the business owners, the real estate agencies. There is no conflict between these two ends, because guess what, Capital with the assistance of the State is going to come down hard these projects sooner or later, and if we've been on the offensive this whole time, we'll be much better prepared to fight back. We'll be building alliances and through those connections finding people with whom to go on the attack. And when the shit hits the fan? We won't be 'those crazy anarchists'; people will know who the fuck we are.

     From where I stand, what you get out of building things up in your neighborhood or town is necessary to be a complete person, whether it's helping out with childcare or whatever. The same is true of striking back against the forces that make our lives miserable in a million different ways, both large and small. The point is to make these two goals complement each other.

5. Don't get all worked up about a cracker being locked up.

     So, I gotta end this by pointing out the obvious-as a white man from a relatively "privileged" background, I'm getting a slap on the wrist. But there's over a hundred prisoners in the US from less privileged backgrounds who have been sitting in prison for literally decades. Many of these folks were part of liberation struggles in the 60s and 70s who took part in actions that make anything we've ever done look tame in comparison. Millions of dollars taken to fund revolutionary activities? Check. Assassinating cops in response to the police murdering Black people? Check. Busting comrades out of prison? Check.

     So, take a second to check out listing of prisoners done by the Anarchist Black Cross Federation, at abcf.net. Start up a correspondence with one of these folks, throw a benefit for them, figure out a way to get them the fuck out of prison. Also, check out the work done by local ABCs, especially those in Denver, NYC and Toronto at denverabc.wordpress.com and nycabc.wordpress.com or 4strugglemag.org(Toronto).

     So, in closing, I'd like to address a few words directly at the federal employees who will be reading this, particularly those in the Probation Department and our friends in the NYC Joint Terrorism Task Force (especially those fat motherfuckers that keep showing up at my court dates):

     First and foremost, fuuuuuuuuucccckkkkk you. It doesn't matter how many times you try and get my ass up in that court, or how many times you lock me up, or how many times you show up at my house (I will never be there). I'm never gonna stop. But guess what, much as you wish this were the case, I'm not a lone wingnut. There's thousands of us, all over the place, and this shit's just gonna keep growing, and we'll keep fighting.

     Finally, remember when you brought up in court that part of the communique I wrote when I was like 18, about how I was trying not only to bring down the United States, but to abolish the idea of the state itself? Yeah, I'm still on that shit.

Can't Stop Won't Stop,

Dave Solidarity

As soon as Dave's address in jail is available, it will be put out widely.

LA Anarchists Wanted to Participate in an Anarchist Survey

Survey here


Dear friends/comrades/compañer@s,
This is a project by some friends who are interested in some of the ideas and backgrounds of modern day anarchists. We thought we would turn this into a global survey so that other people can possibly use it as a reference for studies or debates. As far as we know, such a survey has never been conducted and a lot of our ideas of anarchists are only based on assumptions. Many of us have done informal surveys on Facebook; this, however, can be a much more useful one, if we want.

As anarchists ourselves, we take your concerns of privacy very seriously. We have not asked for your name, address or anything else that can be used by the authorities and furthermore have not included any questions on illegal tactics. If you are nevertheless concerned about certain questions, just don't answer them ;-)

Having spent many years within the anarchist milieu, we also know that certain questions will be hard to answer for some of you. Who wants to admit that they / their parents are rich, for instance? We urge you, however, to fill out this survey as honestly as possible. We won't point fingers at you because we simply won't be able to: it's anonymous!

Please also invite all your anarchist friends and comrades to take this survey. The more people take it, the more useful the results will be.

The survey will take most people 10-20 minutes to complete. We will publish the results on public fora so that you will be able to use the data yourself or spread it.

Thanks a lot!

PS: We know that this survey will be biased towards English-speaking people with internet access. We also know that we can't guarantee that people will fill it out honestly or that only anarchists will fill it out. Finally, we recognize that like any such project, our survey is necessarily incomplete and, to some degree, reflects our own biases and assumptions. Nevertheless, we hope you will engage it with the spirit of camaraderie with which it was created :-)


http://anarchistsurvey.com

Police Raid NY Anarchist Film-Fest Collective

For Immediate Release

April 14, 2010

for more info contact announce (at) nyanarchistfilmfest.org

Yesterday, April 13 in Brooklyn NY, the NYPD entered without a warrant 13 Thames Art Space, a Bushwick based art and performance space where members of the Independent Anarchist Media (I AM) Collective have been organizing the Fourth Annual NYC Anarchist Film Festival in honor of Brad Will (http://www.nyanarchistfilmfest.org)

Two plainclothes detectives entered first, followed quickly by a Lieutenant and vans full of blue shirt officers. After corralling everyone present in the back room, they searched the space and detained and
arrested two members of the collective.

The I AM collective was preparing for the NYC Anarchist Film Festival, a showcase of resistance movements and insurrectionary events from around the world presented from an anarchist and anti-authoritarian perspective.

The I AM collective issued the following statement following the raid:

"regardless of these attacks, the film festival will happen as planned on Friday April 16, 2010 at Judson Memorial Church. The voice of decentralized creative communities will not be silenced by police
repression. They cannot stop us with illegal raids and targeted harassment, because we are everywhere."

VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeJAo4f803k

Call for Solidarity for Imprisoned Anarchist Giannis Dimitrakis

by Assembly for Solidarity (Athens, Greece) keimeno.giannhs@gmail.com

In light of the appeal on April 28th 2010, we call out for actions of solidarity everywhere.

It's been more than four years since the morning of January 16th 2006, when the anarchist Giannis Dimitrakis was arrested, heavily wounded by police fire, after a robbery at a branch of the National Bank in the center of Athens.

From the very first moment a storm of constructed information broke out, systematically supplied by the police and readily carried out by the mass media. The police constructed "the gang of thieves in black," so that other comrades could be named as members, to which was attributed a string of robberies but also a close association to armed revolutionary groups, and then it was proclaimed that the whole of the anarchist- anti-authoritarian movement is closely connected to organized crime !! Gianni's arrest, the slander and the manhunt unleashed against his three supposed accomplices (which were later on declared wanted for astronomic rewards) - four comrades known for their many years of political activity - on the one hand aims for their legal annihilation and on the other, promotes a holistic plan of stripping of meaning and criminalization of anarchists, anti-authoritarians and class struggle.

Because of his political identity, the state moved with rage against him from the first moment. Parallel to the crescendo of misinformation and impression creating by the media, the district attorney tried to interrogate him in the emergency room while he was bedridden and under pharmaceutical influence. The categories against him were based on the "anti-terror" law and enriched with six unsolved robberies, attempted manslaughter and money laundering. He was probably the first man in custody to be held at Malandrino maximum security prison, which is intended to hold convicts only, while attacks by prison guards, vindictive transfers and disciplinary sentences, the exhausting sentence of the first trial (an unheard of for a robbery sentence of 35 years) and the provocative deprivation of basic rights for the preparation of his defense at the court of appeals supplement the oppressive aggressiveness against him.

In these extreme conditions, the comrade defended from the beginning his choice to expropriate a bank, without statements of remorse and with clarity as towards his motives and intentions. He gave meaning to his act as a moment in his critique and action against the system of wage slavery and exploitation, against the antisocial role of the banks and as a part of the polymorphic social struggle.

Furthermore, in the wretched reality of the prisons, he stood dynamically and with dignity from the beginning. He participated in all of the prisoner's struggles happening the past years in Greece. Advancing to hunger strikes and abstinence from the prison meals - despite the permanent health problems given him by the cop's bullets - showing his solidarity for his fellow prisoners and fighting for the terms of his survival and existence in the difficult position of imprisonment. Along with other imprisoned anti-authoritarians he was an interactive channel of communication with the grandiose prisoner's movements in the fall of 2008.

All these reasons - and because Giannis Dimitrakis and the other three wanted anarchists are some of us, comrades and co fighters in the diversity of the struggles for freedom - fired off a mass of actions of solidarity and political defense for them in many cities in Greece. From the posters, texts and brochures to the flyers, banners and slogans on walls and from the attack actions against banks, other economic targets or government vehicles to the massive presence of people at the public events in the amphitheaters, the march in the center of Athens and the demonstrations outside of the prisons of Malandrino, Koridallos, Neapolis and Alikarnasso, the anarchists and anti-authoritarians made clear the way in which they respond to their comrades being held hostage by the state.

The appeal will be on April 28th, where the decision against our comrade will be finalized. Four years after his arrest, four years after the start of this particularly repressive undertaking, one year and some months after the December revolt, the state's constant and manic attempt to oppress, marginalize and criminalize the people of the struggle is becoming all the more clear. Our key weapon against this policy is active solidarity with all means possible.

The appeal of Giannis Dimitrakis is very important, as much for the legal outcome of his case, as for if we will allow the state's manipulations and experiments against us to flourish.

In light of the appeal on April 28th 2010, we call out for actions of solidarity everywhere. Collectives and comrades are organizing marches and actions for Tuesday April 27th, throughout Greece. However it would be significant if you also could organize actions for that day (or some day near to it) in your cities and your countries, for example demonstrations outside of Greek embassies or consulates. Many such actions would send a specific message of solidarity and would be important to us.

With comradely greetings,

Assembly for Solidarity
(Athens)

Anarchy in Sierra Madre? Rebels with a Cause – Free Speech (Republished from the Sierra Madre Weekly)

Cruz, Francesca, Kristen and Humas were just four of the small group of Anarchists who helped organize the picnic Saturday afternoon.

Photo by Terry Miller

Anarchy in Sierra Madre!

By Terry Miller

No, we’re not speaking of the highly volatile council candidate “forums” that have nearly bored residents to sleep with long winded statements many of which were transcribed from blog transmissions – that in itself is worthy of an equally long winded newspaper op-ed piece. Not all candidates are qually boring, some are simply outragous – but I digress. Back to the future…

As thousands of people began to descend on Sierra Madre this past weekend to pay homage to an old Wistaria Vine on Hermosa, a handful of young people gathered in Memorial park for what they consider a great deal more important – awareness of history and the power of the people.

With May Day approaching fast, these people who call themselves Anarchists use the holiday as a remembrance. The group recalls when the State put anarchism itself on trial. In 1886 the line was drawn and the US radicals lost their innocence.

These young individuals from all over the state of California believe Mayday is a celebration of anarchism, the history of defiance and feel that the Labor Day holiday was used as a distraction to deter citizens from the radical history of labor.

Several individuals were condemned and hanged for being anarchists in the nineteenth century: George Engle, Louis Lingg and Adolph Fisher ( according to the New York Times 11/11/1886) wrote an open letter to then Governor Oglesby refusing “any commutation of sentence short of liberty and declaring unabated faith in the principles of Anarchy.”

Cruz, Francesca, Kristen and Humas were just four of the small group that handed out literature and held informal discussions and workshops on Saturday afternoon. Cruz thanked the Sierra Madre Weekly for accurately covering the event and its goals when another paper The Pasadena Weekly, in fact, “made a mockery” of the group’s hopes and aspirations in a recent edition.

Concerned that the police were watching this small, harmless group…it was pointed out that the Police Dept. is right next to the park so the constant appearance of police vehicles was probably due to this simple fact and not surveillance.

Anarchists make revolutions, not war: This is a proclamation on one of the handouts we received on Saturday in Memorial Park from the group that held poetry readings, music reminiscent of the 1960’s.
Ben Franklin said: ” A scoundrel’s worst fear is a society without money: for in such a society he would only get the respect he deserves.” This quote is often used in anarchist literature as anarchists use democracy – but they don’t let democracy use them.

For more information on this particular group contact their facebook page: Windchime House.
“Windchime is a collective group that hosts, supports, and creates radical events for the sake of spreading anarchism and destroying all systems of oppression.”
The group plans on meeting once a month.

http://sierramadreweekly.com

Democracy and Insurrection in Greece and the World (Republished from LA Indymedia)

by Rockero

Tuesday, March 9, 2010
CLAREMONT, California - Southern California got a taste of Greek-style anarchism and insurrection in a series of talks given by Peter Gelderloos, author of How Nonviolence Protects the State, and Greek comrades from the Void Network Tasos Sagris and Sissy Doutsiou. With Audio.

Audio: http://la.indymedia.org/uploads/2010/03/gelderloos09mar2010-001.mp3

While centering on the recent uprisings around issues of police brutality in Greece, the talk was structured more as a dialogue or a question-and-answer session than a traditional lecture.

Peter began. "We're gonna be talking about the social insurrection in Greece, which really came to world attention after the killing on December 6, 2008 of a fifteen-year-old in Exarchia, which is sort of the counterculture and really rebellious neighborhood in Athens, in the center of Athens, that's very much associated with the anarchists. And after that there were three weeks of major rioting. After that it disappeared largely from world attention, but these social struggles are still continuing, and a lot more stronger than before December, so in a lot of ways they've won, and what we want to do is talk about where that came from, why it was possible, and then what's been happening with that, what directions it went."

He cautioned against romanticizing revolutionary images, such as the ones being projected on a wall beside the speakers, and made reference to other struggles in the UK and Barcelona, each of which occurs in a distinct cultural and political milieu.

"In this way, we don't wanna just give information bout what's going on in Greece, because that's very interesting, but ultimately, it's useless. We want to really encourage critical thinking about insurrections which will hopefully be useful to you all here for spreading rebellions here."

He then asked people to shout out questions, the first of which was a request for some historical context to the rebellion vis-à-vis its relation to the rise of anarchism and the struggle against fascism.

Tasos began his answer with an overview of the Greek movement. "There is not existing such a thing like a 'movement' in Greece because all the groups and the affinity groups and the small collectives, they are taking care of the movement, and they are the ones that are producing the analysis and the ideas and the initiatives of the movement."

He then went briefly into the two periods of the Greek anarchist movement, explaining that in both 1936 and 1967, dictatorships were imposed on Greece to contain revolutionary movements. "So, when happened the big uprising in the Polytechnic University in 1974, that was one of the main reasons that the dictatorship fall down, there participated 50, maybe 50, 60 anarchists, that they had very much influence to the general assemblies, that most of the general assemblies, they people that participated in this struggle, we have to recognize that there was leftists, autonomous leftists, libertarian Marxists, people that they had mainly Marxist, and Maoist, and Leninist influences. But the spirit of empowerment that the anarchists they gave to the struggle that took place for three, four days for the fall of the dictatorship, there was like 10,000, 15,000 people that they gathered there and that participate in these riots, it was very influential, and there it was the first time that appeared these big banners that were saying 'Down with Authority,' 'General Social Insurrection,' that was the first time that appeared the anarchist slogans and anarchist banners, inside these riots.

"Another strategy they had, it was that they appeared after '74, there appeared anarchist and autonomous groups inside the universities. These groups, they were small in the beginning, and they had little influence, but through the strong efforts, and also through the commitment and also the creativity and also the spreading of ideas, and the big publications, many free publications, that they were distributing inside the university, and also through the empowerment to the general student movement, to the students. Like the feeling that we can fight and we can win!"

This movement occupied all the universities for three months, a feat repeated in 1979, 1980, and 1985. In 1990, a large movement occupied the universities to halt their privatization, and was supported by a movement of high school students, who occupied their schools in solidarity.

"Black flags in front of the universities and of the high schools, all the universities and the high schools of the country closed for three months."

The movement not only halted the EU-imposed move toward private ownership of education, but also succeeded in establishing in the popular consciousness the idea that "the University will forever be for free, the food in the university will be for free, and the University restaurants will give food to all the poor people and all the poor immigrants and whoever is in great need that needs to have some food that day, the university restaurant has the obligation also to give free food."

The food reform was part of an effort to teach to both the political and the academic powers the "social obligation of the University." The movement itself was part of a general assault on conservatism, and had a lasting effect in that regard.

A question was asked about how communities organized themselves, and the Greek guests explained the functioning of social centers, which, among other projects, offer many free classes. Peter explained that the anarchists tend to organize in small, decentralized affinity groups. These groups have their own analyses, work on their own projects, and create their own propaganda, he explained, and share that analysis in general assemblies.

A student asked about interactions between different groups and movements. Sissy explained, "In Greece there is no monothematic campaigns. There is no separate agendas. There is no separate groups, for example, only for the immigrants, even if the immigrants by themselves have their own groups. There are many groups that each group has its own aspect and its own analysis and its own solution to the problem. All of these groups, they take care of ecology, about the student movement, about the economy, about everything."

Tasos elaborated by giving an example. "Appeared, for example, one movement influenced by the antifa groups of Germany, they called themselves also "antifa," antifascist. They have some small influence and they work very good fighting the nazis on the streets. But when they started to mobilize for demonstration, then all the anarchists made the big assembly, for a long time. 'What do we believe about the movement of antifa?' That period, the conclusion that the insurrectionary Greeks, they made, was that 'We are not antifascist. We are anarchists, and because we are anarchists, we fight against fascism. But we don't identify ourselves as separate identity of 'antifa.' Or of 'antisexist.' Or 'anti-state.' All these are parts of the anarchist struggle."

When a movement is forming, outreach is done to the entire society, not just to the affected communities. The Greeks depend less on the internet than on paper and personal outreach. This gives the movement a body, which comes back, "first through the counterinformation, then through the demonstration, and then through the riot. All of them are body. If you miss some of these parts, then you miss all. If you have just counterinformation and you don't have demonstration, then you don't exist in the public space. If you have just demonstration and you don't have riots, then you don't have political power. Nobody believes you. It's the insurrectionary body."

Part of the reason for doing so much outreach is to "spread our vision to our unknown friends, and these unknown friends are all the other people. And the unknown friends are the ones that are all the other people that they are secretly waiting for our open invitation to them, because all our events shall be open to the public," explained Sissy.

She went on to provide some more observations about the student movement, when Peter interjected, pointing to the student struggle in Barcelona. "In the years prior to this, most anarchists had the attitude that, 'The student struggle is reformist, we're not really gonna participate.' And they didn't really give it much attention. Which is an interesting perspective to think that any struggle in and of itself is reformist. I think that really shows a lack of imagination. Goals and methods can be reformist, but to pass up not only an entire struggle, but an entire section of the population, as reformist, didn't work out too well for them."

Anarchist presence within Europe's student movements was not a given, then, and neither is any particular culture more hospitable to militancy than any other, he explained, citing the ejection of anarchist defenders of a Barcelona University occupation from a demonstration led by reformist parties early in the movement.

"A lot of people in the US might be inclined to think, 'Oh, that's very easy what they do in Greece because they have a culture there of antiauthoritarianism, they have a culture of supporting violence against the police.' Spain, and Barcelona in particular, also had political cultures of fighting back. But then, within the student scene, for several years, the anarchists--they didn't pay attention to that culture, they didn't work to renew these traditions, and all that time, the political parties, the reformist political parties, were promoting reformist values, as were school administrations, and the government itself, and the economic restructuring, and all of that. So you see a very distinct cultural change here in just a decade or less of a population that is militant and that fights back, to a population that is pacifist. And the same thing could be said in the US, that generally we have a political culture of pacifism here, and who knows? In a decade, that could be gone."

The willingness of the student anarchists to enact their politics despite the lack of popularity thereof has actually won them more allies. "By showing that they are completely different from all of the politicians among the student body, are actually gaining more and more influence. Because, in the day-to-day, the politicians and people pursuing reformist tactics are gonna have all of these advantages because the system's stacked against us, but every person who actually feels this unfairness and how wrong it is to privatize the University, every person who feels this as a form of authoritarianism, and as a form of exploitation, at least on some level will identify with the people who don't act like politicians, or the people who fight back, with the people who do whatever it takes to win their freedom."

A question was posed regarding the influence of pacifism in Greece. "We don't have pacifism in Greece!" proclaimed Tasos.

The Greek perspective on violence is different. Sissy explained, "Violence is when the banks robs our everyday life through student loans, through any kind of loans. We should have this clear in our mind, what is violence or not. Violence comes from the state, and not from the people that are fighting against the injustice."

There is also an understanding that the question of violence is not one of morality, but of strategy. "We don't do it because we believe in violence. When is the moment to show the highest power? The movement knows, not the moral code. It's moralism. We are not a religion."

Another questioner asked about anarchist perspectives on movements to defend public goods that essentially fall under the auspices of the state, such as education and protections for workers, particularly in light of the corporate media's characterization of the Greek credit default as the result of a generous social safety net.

"The governors, they stole the money, you know?" responded Tasos. "And also they stole our lives. We fight to take back our lives. And also, it's a lie to believe that the public services or the free public health makes the economy worse, because what is the economy? How do we count? What we count is how much happy we are. And we are not happy at all. We are angry, you know. Even though we have free public health and free public education. Imagine how much it is, the American society?! Really, really! I mean, inside. Even if they don't understand or if they don;t believe that they need free public health for everybody. They cannot understand the concept, you know? But, we hope that slowly, slowly, they will understand. We will enforce free public health for everybody. We will enforce free public education for everybody. Nobody can prove to the society the because we have free health, the economy's no good." He continued: "What is the economy? They count their own money. We don't care about the numbers we don't care about the crisis. We are not in crisis. Anyways, Greece is in social crisis the last 30 years. Now they say it about the Euro. We don't care! We don't read the economical newspapers, you know? We don't want to understand the way that they think, in a way. We understand the way they think, but we have our own mentality. You understand? We built our own way of looking the social life."

He concluded, "the anarchists, they want much more bigger crisis than the crisis that capitalism produce right now. But this will be a crisis full of consciousness, and full of social benefit, like full of the love of social life. That the people will care each other. This will be very beneficial for all society, and this is our vision. How the anarchist movement gonna benefit the society? The society will not feel us as terrorists, or as enemies, or as problematic people, because we are not these things. We are the people that are gonna shield the society with all our possible powers. This is the vision for the economical crisis."

audio: MP3 at 11.9 mebibytes

A few more questions/answers

Claremont University / California // We Are An Image From The Future U.S.A. Tour (Republished from Void Network)

The new anarchist / autonomist / insurrectionary youth and student movement that is taking place now in the universities of California and many other places in amerikkka is maybe the most important movement in our days in USA. Young people from many different economic, social and cultural backgrounds are coming together in their schools to fight against capitalism. In a period of economic crisis the students understand that there is not future for them, there is not any hope, the anxiety, the boredom and the wage slavery is the real face of the American Dream. The fight against the cademic elite, the corporations that control education and the every day life misery is a fight of all of us, a fight that brings together all of us.

For many hours we were speaking in the occupied room of the autonomous anarchist student group of Clearmont University. You can find some of their ideas, struggles, visions and mobilazation here:


http://afterthefallcommuniques.info/


http://occupyca.wordpress.com/


Following the links in the sites and blogs of this movement will offer you a clear idea about a very complicated movement that is starting to get stronger and stronger all over the world, the movement of the people with no hope, the youth of our times....inteligent, ecstatic, angry and wild, uncontroled young people. The people that will conquar this world soon....


http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com/

The Downtown LA Anarchist Cafe (Was A Bust!)

(Editors' Note: "Reader Beware - You're in for a Scare!" Though hesitant about posting this, we have yet to receive other reports on the event. In hopes of sparking debate and another side to the story, we post it. For the record, none of us attended the event and intend no hard feelings to anyone.)

Where is the horse and the rider?
Where is the horn that was blowing?
It has passed like rain on the mountain,
Like wind in the meadow.
The days have gone in the west,
Behind the hills,
Into shadow...
How did it come to this?

-Theoden of the Rohirim

To be honest, I didn't want to write this. I was hoping someone else would step up and tell it like it is. But I don't think that's gonna happen. I even thought about blocking the event out of my head - maybe we'd all forget about it, forget it ever happened. But I can't do that, I have to get this off my chest - set the record straight.

Here we go:

This past Sunday, February 28th 2010, there was an Anarchist Cafe hosted at the Smell in Downtown LA. The event was scheduled to be $5 admission, from 1 to 8 PM with workshops, activites, vendors, poetry, and music. I believe the event was organized primarily by one person, Anarcho Paparazzi.

I arrived early during the first scheduled activity - the Hatha Yoga Class. Without a mat and uninterested in Yoga, I wandered about checking out all the vendors. PM Press was there, Revolutionary Autonomous Communities, Mass Media Distro, Arte de la Tierra, Action for Animals, Scorpion Collective, Ediciones Bizarras, Vegancitas and the vegan catering service Vegan Goodies were all present. As I browsed the vendors, I noticed some were tabling in almost complete darkness. The majority of the vendors, though having access to light, were only dimly lit.

Unable to find anything to do and without an area to congregate because of the unusual small spacing of the Smell, I wandered around until I ran into some friends. We caught up and traded stories, strategies and news about the war in progress as time flew by without any announcements of activities or workshops starting or ending. Due to the awkward arrangement of the venue and no communal interactive discussions or activities, most people tended to stick to their own friends or acquaintances.

To be frank, the event continued on in this manner until about 5 PM, when I decided to leave.

After the Hatha Yoga Class there was ANOTHER Yoga Class, this time a Prenatal Kundalini one. I did not attend, I wasn't interested. Then after that there was an hour long Vegan Nutrition Class followed by a speaker on Vegan Bodybuilding and Exercise. I didn't attend either, because I wasn't interested in either. I came to the event to find other LA anarchists, see old friends, and discuss topics pertaining to anarchism (which is broad and can relate to many issues), not pertaining necessarily to health or dietary choices. Then there was an Anarchist Dating Game (did not attend) and then a study group and meeting, leading to perhaps the only slightly interesting discussion of the event, led by Anarcha-LA on planning an action around the March 20th 7th year anniversary of the War in Iraq. While I was still present in the area as this was going on, I was already on my way out saying goodbye to friends and getting ready to take off.

After I left the Guerrilla Queenz played, then there was a round of poetry, then Subsistencia played, another round of poetry, then In Lak Ech, another round of poetry, Aztlan Underground, and then one last round of poems.

*********

Okay....I tried to keep that as objective as possible without throwing in any overt personal biases but that was HELLA hard and I know they still crept in. I also completely acknowledge this isn't a good report given that I didn't attend ANY of the scheduled workshops and activities. Trust me, it would be way more descriptive if I did.

Anyway, shit, where to start?

I want my $5 back. The Anarchist Cafe's I used to go to at Windchime House were fucking dope and FREE, even though, yeah I'll admit it -  they ended up a little subcultural because of the attendees but shit man at least they were NON-vegan POTLUCKS and had FREE FOOD. Everything here was for sale the moment you walked in and paid your $5 billz.

The only thing enjoyable about this event was catching up with old friends, hanging out with them during and after the event and...that's about it. Fuck, only ONE 30 minute discussion on anarchist feminism and I don't think that even happened. I think they ended up just having the meeting to plan the March 20th action.

I really hope the PM Press guy made some dough that night during the show because it DID NOT look good when I walked by during the day. The fool came all the way out from Oakland to table. At least he got a spot near the light, some other vendors weren't so lucky. Homies looking all sad in the dark, no one touching their shirts or books for sale. That shit was depressing.

Also, what's with all the vegan and yoga workshops? And the anarchist dating game? Seriously, I almost wasn't going to go when I found out about that but I was sadly optimistic. Reminds me of what someone said I think about anarchist events in the Pacific Northwest(?) "VEGAN BIKE BIKE VEGAN VEGAN". How subcultural can we get? How 'bout we have some discussions about why there's NO anarchist movement in the Los Angeles Area and why friends stop being friends because they aren't VEGAN like he or she is? I'm glad this site exists cause people need to get their shit called out on. FUCK. At least there's the bookfairs, that shit's dope and at least folks from Windchime House are still putting on monthly anarchist events where they live. I guess that's "some" movement. I haven't been to their new events yet, but I'mma check out the Sierra Madre Anarchist Picnic on March 13th. Fuck the SF Bookfair. (Also proud of the UC Irvine kids throwing down last week. Dopeee)

Anyway, I'm getting way off track. The Downtown LA Anarchist Cafe = anarchist (as in vegan, trendy, hipster) identity for SALE. Epic Fail.

Please post this LA Anarchist Weekly,

Anonymous

Pasadena Area Anarchists Condemn the Pasadena Weekly & Commend the Sierra Madre Weekly

In the days leading up to the recent Sierra Madre Anarchist Picnic (February 13th, 2010), Pasadena area anarchists were both frustrated and surprised to see a variety of newspaper-published announcements of the event. Of particular interest were the published announcements included in the Pasadena Weekly (Feb. 11 2010, Vol. 30, No. 6 issue) and the Sierra Madre Weekly (Thursday Feb. 11 - 17, Vol. XV, No. VII issue) shown below:

(Pasadena Weekly, Pg. 29,  front page of the Arts Section under the "Get Your Own" Column)

(Pasadena Weekly, Pg. 33, under the Calendar listing section for Saturday)

(Sierra Madre Weekly, Pg. 3, top-left of the right-hand page)

According to organizers of the Anarchist Picnic who informed me of the issue, they had originally e-mailed every local newspaper outlet to publish their event as a normal event listing complete with the event details and description. "About a week or two before the event we decided to promote this locally as much as possible. Not only did we try and put up a lot of fliers but we also contacted the local press", said Isabella, one of the main organizers. They received no response except from the Pasadena Weekly who asked for pictures of similar events so they could run a spotlight of the event, in addition to the calendar listing. "We were really happy when we found out about that. Skeptical, of course, but pretty ecstatic."

They submit a couple pictures from the recent Los Angeles Anarchist Bookfair and waited for the next issue of the Pasadena Weekly to come out. When it did, the misrepresentation of anarchism and the rewording of the event description infuriated them. "It wasn't too surprising, but come on...A calendar listing!? That pissed us off! We looked at every other spotlight on that same page and every event listing in the calendar section, and yeah, you could tell they had fun with some of the descriptions but they didn't mess with the message. They basically played us as fools."

In response, Isabella called up the Pasadena Weekly and tried to find out who was responsible for the editing. "I wanted to find out who exactly was responsible for what happened and they wouldn't really tell me. I got into a heated discussion, chewed them out a bit, but in the end they wouldn't really tell me. I find out who the editors in charge of those sections were and I talked to some of them but all they would basically say was 'we don't know how this happened. write us a letter and we'll print it.'"

And that's exactly what they did. As a response they contacted anarchists in Pasadena to write a letter on behalf of Pasadena Anarchists, explaining to them the whole situation and the organizers themselves decided to write one of gratitude to the Sierra Madre Weekly.

"As soon as we dealt with the Pasadena Weekly issue, we found a copy of the Sierra Madre Weekly a few days before the Picnic. We were really excited to see that the paper, one in our town, decided to print the event as a very short article without touching the message."

The letters have yet to be printed as they have just been sent out. Updates will be provided as they come.

Below is a transcript of both letters:

" An Open Letter to the Pasadena Weekly & Its Readership

This letter is directed particularly to Carl Kozlowski & any other staff responsible for the obnoxiously ignorant & rude editing & comments added to the Anarchist Picnic event listing for the February 11th, 2010, Volume 30, Number 6 issue of the Pasadena Weekly.

For those unaware, this event was submitted to be published in the Calendar section by anarchists organizing the event. It was published on page 33, albeit edited to include a snarky comment. Furthermore, the anarchists were e-mailed to submit pictures so the event could be
spotlighted in the Arts section under the "Get Your Own" column on page 29. The pictures were provided yet when the spotlight was published, the description of the event was mangled & barfed on.

In all seriousness, who does that? Who takes a CALENDAR EVENT listing & twists the message of the event, defecating on the description? Why, if they had done a simple Google search of Anarchism, they might have discovered that anarchism is merely a set of ideas for the complete social, political, economic & spiritual emancipation of humanity - NOT "disorder & chaos". Perhaps then, they might have withheld their grossly barbaric comments. But maybe we're being too optimistic.

Regardless, prior to this dilemma we respected the Pasadena Weekly & were gravely disappointed when we discovered the debacle.

Carl, we want you & your colleagues to have fun with the paper, but please don't embarrass yourselves. Maybe you should take a tip from the Sierra Madre Weekly. They proudly posted the event without meddling the message, taking a bold stand to publish such "dangerous" "chaotic" ideas of freedom.

Unapologetic,
Pasadena Anarchists"

"An Open Letter to the Sierra Madre Weekly and its Readership

We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude for the Sierra Madre Weekly publishing the Sierra Madre Anarchist Picnic in the Thursday, February 11th - 17th 2010, Vol XV, No VII issue.

We have to admit, we were unsure whether you would take such a bold move publishing an event that stands for such subversive ideas of freedom, liberty and autonomy. We submit the same event to be published in the Pasadena Weekly and though it was included twice in a copy (February 11th 2010, Vol 30, No 6), they made a complete mockery of the event.

Nevertheless, we were surprised and ecstatic to see the event published and hope you will publish other Sierra Madre anarchist events in the future.

Many thanks,
Sierra Madre Anarchists"

Anarcha-LA Meeting This Sunday (February 21st)

Please come out for the next Anarcha LA meeting on Sunday, February 21st at 1pm. It will be held at the Eco-Village in the back yard: 117 Bimini Place, Los Angeles CA 90004.

Here's a link for directions: http://www.laecovillage.org/Directions.html

From 1-2pm we will conduct a study group and from 2-3pm we are planning the Anarcha contingent at the upcoming anti-war march on March 20th. Please come out and participate for the full two-hours of the meeting.

in love and rage,

Anarcha Los Angeles

www.anarchala.org

anarcha.losangeles@gmail.com

The Sierra Madre Anarchist Picnic (From an Organizer's Perspective)

(Editors' Note: We've received a few criticisms of the content of the articles posted on this blog as well as of the quality of the articles. We'd like to remind our dear readers that, yes, this is a blog for anarchist propaganda and will contain heavy biases toward anarchism and anarchist principles. We'd also like to suggest that if they believe the quality of the articles should be of a higher caliber, then by all means, up the bar and submit an article or nag a friend with a talent for writing to submit something. Thanks for reading!)

On Saturday February 13th 2010, some friends and I organized an Anarchist Picnic at Memorial Park in Sierra Madre. We scheduled the event to be from Noon to 5 PM and organized it as a potluck with a few workshops/discussions and acoustic performances.

We organized the event for a number of reasons. First, we wanted to initiate monthly anarchist events in the town where the majority of us, the organizers, live. Second, we wanted to see how many local anarchists we could bring out and discover. Third, we wanted to start building an anarchist movement in the area. And fourth, we wanted to find people that we could develop tight affinities with so we could pursue bigger and greater projects and activities. It was for all these reasons that we decided to choose the medium of an Anarchist Picnic and promote it as an event to bring together local and not-so-local anarchists and the anarcho-curious.

We (the organizers) showed up a little before noon and secured a spot in the park. We set up a table for food and a table for literature and brought some large comfortable bed sheets to lay on. We put out anarchist literature and attached a sign reading "Welcome to the Anarchist Picnic" to one of the tables . After we set up, it wasn't until 12:30 - 12:45 that a few people showed up and by the time the first workshop started, there were about seven people total.

Around 1 PM Sean, an organizer of the event, facilitated the first workshop and discussion titled "So You Think You're NOT An Anarchist?". He had designed the workshop particularly as an introduction to anarchism and for the anarcho-curious. He started the workshop by asking the attendants what their impression of anarchism was and what some of the popular stereotypes of anarchism were. One person said "When I think of anarchism I think of disorder and chaos". Another said, "To me anarchism is living a healthy sane life and seizing complete freedom while taking up full responsibility and accountability,". Participants remarked that the stereotypes and images portrayed in the media were of bomb-throwers and terrorists and Sean talked about how these images are created to make anarchism a taboo and breed ignorance.

Sean then asked participants if they identified as an anarchist and why or why not. (At this point in the discussion the number of people at the event doubled to more than a dozen.) A majority of folks identified as an anarchist saying similar statements of how, in essence, they believe in the cause of anarchism and want to see it through to fruition. However, there were a couple people who didn't. One person said, "I believe in anarchism but I won't be an anarchist until I live in a world without money or government". Another said they didn't because their impression of anarchism was of "disorder and violence". And another person declined to identify as an anarchist but affirmed that they had "anarchist tendencies".

The facilitator then asked people what they felt most bothered and coerced by in society. One person replied that they hated how, in a capitalist society, the majority of things we actually enjoy doing have no value. Someone else talked about how they felt oppressed growing up in a family embedded with capitalist values and how oppression starts at home where you learn to (mis)communicate and relate to people and the world around you. Another person commented on how they disliked the fact that boxes of food go to waste for not meeting food appearance standards like having a scratch or mark and that we have to pay for necessities like food.

After a round of answers, Sean then asked what people would like to see in their ideal society. During this question the conversation expanded onto other somewhat related topics but one participant at the beginning said they'd like to see a world where education is de-institutionalized and we learn by doing or seeing what other people are doing. Someone else said they would like to start living in their ideal society by living with close friends that are like-minded and share ideals of anarchism and from there move forward. Another talked about looking at traditional societies in the past and learning from their ways of organizing society so we can make a difference now. From here the conversation spread and went somewhat off topic with people talking about traditional societies and different examples of the ways they lived and organized. Eventually the conversation was reigned in when someone reminded everyone that many traditional societies had some form of tribal council and that a majority of them were run by males. Sean took this opportunity to conclude the conversation, announcing a 15 minute break before Bella gave her workshop/class on Female Fertility for Men & Women. At this point in time there were about twenty people engaged in the event, taking literature, sharing food, and mingling.

After the break, Bella brought out a drawing board with a sample fertility chart drawn enlarged on the board. Bella, also an organizer of the event, began her class on Female Fertility using the zine "Fertility Awareness for Non-Invasive Birth Control". Unfortunately, as she began between five to ten people left, a majority of them female, though a few people simultaneously arrived. Despite this change up, Bella went forward teaching everyone how to use a female fertility chart. She taught everything from the symbols, to what each column and table represented as well as how to check your cervical fluid, take your temperature, and check the position of your cervix. She also taught how to see where your pre-ovulatory, fertile, and post-ovulatory phase are, when your most likely to get pregnant and the four rules to guide you in your quest to get or not get pregnant.

Admittedly, the majority of people attending her class were males and while half seemed interested, the other half were fighting to stay attentive. However, the females that were present were very attentive and asked questions to clarify certain topics and learn more on the subject. As she wrapped up she let everyone know she had a box full of the "Fertility Awareness" zines for free and that the zine explained more deeply and thoroughly everything she discussed. After a couple more clarifying questions, another 15 minute break was announced and there was an exchange of some more people leaving and others coming in. At this point there were about twenty people present.

After the break, Bella and I facilitated a workshop/discussion titled "Towards a Fresh Revolution". The idea behind the workshop was to engage all the participants and brainstorm about different projects happening now in Los Angeles and that we wanted to see happen in relation to making another world possible. While doing so we would analyze the obstacles that were stopping us from making these things possible in a way to provide some type of concrete solutions so we could move forward with a "fresh" perspective. In the past we had facilitated this discussion at an Anarchist Cafe at Windchime House and the outcome was amazing.

I started by being open about the intentions and goals of the workshop and first asked the question, "What projects are happening now in LA that people feel are contributing towards making another world possible?". Food Not Bombs, Catholic Worker, Anarchy Archives, Copwatch LA, and the Hyde Park 1/2 were a couple projects and activities mentioned. In all about a dozen different projects were named. Then Bella asked "What are projects or activities you would like to see in your ideal world?". From here the discussion got a little tense as people named all sorts of different things, some of which through my own misunderstanding I felt uncomfortable putting up on the board because I didn't feel they represented my ideal world or some of the participants'. Some of the projects/activities mentioned were apprenticeships, community gardens, de-institutionalized health care, no cars, animal liberation, free public transportation, and no wifi.

After numerous activities/projects were mentioned, the next question we asked was "What are obstacles to making those projects and activities a reality?". Some of the obstacles mentioned were social stigmas, patriarchy, law enforcement, 40 hour work weeks, Obama and the spectacle of democracy, money or lack of, capitalism, institutionalized education and rent. After we came up with a whole display board full of obstacles, Bella analyzed all three of the question and answer sequences by focusing on the lack of communication between anarchists, anti-authoritarians and radicals in LA, as well as our own personal internal dynamics that have stopped us from making our wildest dreams a reality. She talked about the unspoken dress code policy, the ageism and generational gaps, and the tendencies to communicate only with those you have strong affinities with. She stressed that there's nothing wrong with having a bias towards people who agree with you but that we need to learn how to work and communicate with those who don't agree with us 100 percent and to view them as allies. After she finished speaking, a discussion was sparked where participants shared their own experiences in the anarchist movement not just in LA but all over California.

After the discussion died down, we ended the workshop with another 15 minute break followed by musical performances. There were now about twenty to twenty-five people present. The first musician to play was Jim Ramirez. He played classical guitar and had an experimental folk indie style to his music. He played four songs of resistance and revolution, the first about his struggle to find his own unique identity and culture aside from the Western American one sold to us and the last one about a fallen friend who died young but believed in revolution.

The next performer was MSelasco. He also played classical guitar but had a Spanish/Latin American folk style to his music. Almost every song he played and sang was in Spanish and related to anarchism or freedom. Some of the songs were Argentine anarchist folk songs or poems he turned into songs. For a couple of his last songs a friend of his (lover?) joined him in playing second guitar and singing, particularly for the classic songs "Bandera Negra" and "Bella Ciao".

The last performer was Dustin or The Galen Gun. He played a steel resonator guitar and his music style was of a folk blues variety. He played numerous songs, some folk and some his own all in a laid back blues style. Once he finished the event was over and folks mingled for about thirty minutes, exchanging contact information, their opinions of the event and their excitement for the next Anarchist Picnic. As people took off we packed our things and called it a day.

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Overall I think the event was a great start towards accomplishing the goals we set out for ourselves. I'm actually surprised there was no police interference not only because the park is in downtown Sierra Madre and RIGHT next to City Hall and the Police Department, but because Sierra Madre Police has a reputation for having almost nothing to do and instigating incidents. I'm also pleasantly surprised about the amount of local anarchists and anarcho-curious who showed up. I'm also really happy about distributing nearly one hundred pieces of anarchist literature.

To me, Sean's workshop had the most interesting dialogue going on between participants and was well suited to engage people in talking about basic anarchist topics. Bella's class was great and well-presented but I don't think it was much appreciated. I wish there would've been more females present for her class but perhaps, in hindsight, she should've saved the class for a later Anarchist Picnic. I'm glad though that people took about twenty copies of the zine she based her class off.

Regarding the "Towards a Fresh Revolution" discussion, initially I was pretty disappointed about the outcome. Compared to the way the discussion went in the past, it was pretty dull, slow, and awkward. When we facilitated the discussion at Windchime it was very fucking explosive with a whole room of people actually transforming like a vortex and talking seriously about squatting, occupying, and amazing anarchist projects. Upon further reflection, I forgot a crucial but small question to throw in and misworded the second question, while in turn relaying Bella to ask that miscommunicated question. By miswording the question, I set up a "versus" situation and tension between people's ideal worlds whereas the question should've focused on intermediate steps, projects, and activities people would like to take towards making that other world possible. Instead of a "versus" situation it would've set up an "and" situation where activities could work together. Perhaps too, like Bella's class, we should've saved this discussion for a later Anarchist Picnic when people would've known each other better and felt more comfortable to scheme about activities.

Other than that, it was pretty amazing. For putting a lot of time and energy into promoting it all over Sierra Madre, online, and in local newspapers it was well worth the effort.

On an ending note, there was some drama between us and the Pasadena Weekly and we will be having a friend write a full expose on what went down so be on the look out for that.

Till next month's Anarchist Picnic,
cruz