Anarchy Action Camp update

Some of the scheduled workshops include
-self-defense
-an herb walk
-computer security
-and more.

For those not inclined to camp out, there's something else to do that night. Come to Bound Together books and learn how Brazil's Landless Workers Movement, the MST. successfully seizes land from the rich, build homes and schools there and farm it organically.

At a million and a half members, the MST is the single largest, egalitarian, horizontally organized, grassroots activist organization in the world. It's also the most successful. They have turned the art of squatting into a science, and practice it successfully on a scale that we here in the Bay Area have never dared to attempt.

The MST is a lumpen organization. It's members are poor beyond what most Americans can even imagine. Illiteracy and semi-literacy are the norm. Yet by all the standards by which we measure ourselves, they are better organized than we we are. We could all stand to learn from these people. They don't just sit around and talk theory. They act. For the most part, they succeed. They don't just act, they teach others how to act successfully, too.

But if you insist on camping out that night anyhow, not to worry. Another video showing and discussion will surely be held in the future. But you'll have to wait.

I am really impressed by recent developments in Ecuador and Argentina as well as Brazil.
I have encountered many people who say "we need to stop talking". Can you list the top 5 or top 10 accomplishments of Direct Action in the Bay Area during the past 24 months? I have been thinking about this, and the category of direct action that occurs at big protests (which doesn't always meet my purist definition of direct action, although the most common colloquial definition of direct action is of civil disobedience type actions taken by an edgy group at political rallies). I would say Seattle WTO, San Francisco March 20, 2003, and the docks protests worked, but why are there diminishing returns lately?

Acting out at protests is not direct action. it's symbolic action. If it's purpose is to influence the government, it's not anarchism. It's militant liberalism.

Direct action actually influence events on the ground in everyday life. Squatting, feeding people, gathering intelligence, skill sharing and community journalism. So is beating the crap out of Nazis. So is picking up trash. So is pirate broadcasting. So is providing EMT services at demos. The demos themselves are not direct action. Organizing a study group is direct action. The study group itself is not. We need direct action, but we must not make a fetish of it. We need to do other things, too.

The top ten direct actions currently going on in the Bay Area these days all revolve around maintaining the social infrastructure, and providing the logistical support, that makes the Bay Area activist community happen. The would be things like FNB dinners, maintaining LPFM, keeping places like Bound Together and Long Haul open, maintaining Indymedia, creating subversive art, and doing R&D on our Secret Weapon. Oh, wait. Now I remember. I'm not supposed to talk about the Secret Weapon here where you-know-who is listening. Sorry. I'll try to do better next time.

That's just a rumor we started to distract the powers that be from our Real Plan.

But isn't it nice to live in a part of the world where anarchists have so many different events to choose from on a Friday night?

We have updated the schedule to include workshop times.

Check it out.

http://anarchymag.org/events

"Anarchist" forgot to mention the Muni fare strike, planned for September 1st until management revokes the fare hikes ($1.25 to $1.50), service cuts (many lines getting scaled back), and lay-offs (somewhere between 100 and 200 lay-offs).

The fare strike definitely merits recognition in "Anarchist's" pantheon of righteous stuff.

--I wish Aragorn's project success.

(1.) That wasn't a list of righteous stuff. That was a list a direct actions currently going on. The fare strike is a righteous idea, but it's not going on. It's still in the planning stages. As a guy who has spent decades planning fare, rate and rent strikes, only to see them evaporate, I must reserve judgement till after the fact. I hope it works. I'm trying to make it work. But it's still in the future.

(2.) While rates striking is an anarchist tactic. it is not an exclusively anarchist tactic. If it were, it would be doomed to fail. There aren't enough anarchists to make it work. To work, it has to involve a broad spectrum of San Franciscans. Response so far is encouraging. A lot of different people like the idea. But like i said, we need to wait and see what happens. We also need back up plans.

One possible back up plan has already been tested.

See:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/08/1761425_comment.php#1762364

> I would say Seattle WTO, San Francisco March 20, 2003, and the docks protests worked

What do you mean by "worked"? Did Seattle stop the WTO? Did March 20 stop the invasion? And what exactly did getting routed at the docks accomplish?

Be specific.