APOC ~versus~ CrimethInc

12 Responses to APOC ~versus~ CrimethInc

1. Paul Justo says:

   August 2, 2009 at 3:21 pm

   The Anarchist People of Colo(u)r are Smacking White Boys –

   http://community.livejournal.com/debunkingwhite/829419.html

   I like this quote –

   Crimethinc.’s romanticization of traveling and reclaiming space as the new colonial adventure novel, paving the way for gentrification by making hunger (dumpsterdiving), homelessness (traveller kids), and unemployment into games to be explored by bored, rich, white suburban kids.

   “bored, rich, white suburban kids”…damn, that’s the whole of the Anarchist English speaking world in a nutshell.
2. @ndy says:

   August 2, 2009 at 3:57 pm

   …with dreadlocks.
3. Jesse says:

   August 2, 2009 at 8:45 pm

   Fuck they are mental, you shouldn’t even have this embarrassing shit on your blog. I’m trying my hardest to pretend that it never happened…
4. dj says:

   August 2, 2009 at 9:04 pm

   Can someone please supply me with my dreadlocks and trust account immediately, I seem not to have received them.

   kthnxbai
5. @ndy says:

   August 2, 2009 at 9:12 pm

   Jesse,

   Maybe yr right. I find it kinda funny, especially as it appears that the eight individuals what attempted the eviction were (almost) all out-of-towners.

   Srsly but, I think it brings to the surface a whole range of issues which are worth exploring. In any event, the 2009 Northeast APOC Conference (August 6–9) should be a humdinger!

   dj,

   My secretary is fucking HOPELESS (and almost as bad as the maid or the butler). I’ll book a flight for the suitcase with all the papers now — it will be taxied to your door (I thought Paul Justo could do with a few $1000 on top of his usual weekly wage) whereupon you can sign and be admitted to The Club.

   NB. Please be ready for Paul to take you to yr new house IMMEDIATELY upon his arrival. He is a communist, and impatient.
6. Gabs says:

   August 2, 2009 at 9:25 pm

   I’m not a bourgeois white kid, but i still don’t get it.

   Why would APOC stage an action like this? It was just a conference… are we missing some important detail?
7. @ndy says:

   August 2, 2009 at 9:40 pm

   G’day Gabs,

   Two points.

   One, ‘Smack a White Boy Round Two: CrimethInc. Eviction’ was not conducted by ‘APOC’ as such, but rather a small segment thereof (most from outside Pittsburgh). The relationship of this group to ‘APOC’ is a matter of debate and discussion (as is the status of APOC itself).

   Two, the reasons for the action are discussed at greater length in the text I link to, but of most relevance: “Our goals were to stop CrimethInc, their gentrifying force, and to end the convergence right then and there for all that they had done.”

   So, on my reading: the CrimethInc convergence was bad and oughta be stopped ‘cos it contributed/was gonna contribute to the gentrification of the neighbourhood in which it was held; CrimethInc as a whole is condemned for being oppressive of POC (“CrimethInc has been/is the breeding ground for white anarchists. They encourage the culture of dropping out of society, which makes the assumption that the reader/attendee has that privilege and therefore their words speak only to those that have it…”).
8. @ndy says:

   August 2, 2009 at 11:27 pm

   Oh yeah.

   It’s of interest that Pittsburgh is also the site of the next G20 summit.

   …the context looks a little different now that the G20 is slated for Pittsburgh. We can expect more pressure from our enemies, so some of our original plans may be more difficult to carry out. At the same time, we are still committed to organizing a convergence dedicated as much to building and questioning as to conflict with the state. This convergence will provide a wide range of points of departure—from a free health care clinic that will function for the course of the event to direct action trainings that will remain useful long after the G20 meetings, and everything else you can imagine as well.

   The G20 does not make Pittsburgh any more or less an epicenter of capitalism than it already was. Even before Obama picked it as a shining model of economic recovery, Pittsburgh suffered from gentrification, structurally imposed white supremacy, and all the other scourges of a hierarchical society. These forces must be fought constantly and on a wide range of levels, not simply at global trade summits—though summits, too, offer a chance to fight, and this might be a historic opportunity.

   All who are interested in the G20 protests should think critically about what they want out of them and begin talking about how to make those dreams come true. Pittsburgh is about to host a local meeting to discuss the infrastructure and format for the protests; we urge other interested communities to hold their own consultas, so by the time we see each other in July we will be able to compare notes.

   Anarchists—whether or not you are invested in the G20 mobilization, we beseech you to bring your talents and projects to Pittsburgh this July. It has never been more important for us to find one another, to make something happen, to demonstrate all the different ways we can resist this world and create another. Help us write the next chapter in the struggle for our lives.

   Further: the CrimethInc shindig was held in the Bloomfield/Garfield/Friendship area of Pittsburgh.

   Bloomfield is apparently referred to as “Pittsburgh’s Little Italy”. See: Izzy’s World: Life on Bloomfield’s Lorigan Street, Pittsburgh Gazette, May 31, 2006: “Quieter, tamer and mixed, the street remains close and friendly…”

   According to the Pittsburgh Department of City Planning (on the basis of the 2000 Census), Garfield’s racial composition is as follows:

   One race
   5310 97.4%

   Two or more races
   140 2.6%

   Those of one race:

   White 594 10.9%
   Black/African American 4537 83.2%
   Amer. Indian/Alaska Nat. 25 0.5%
   Asian 120 2.2%
   Hawaiian/Pacific Isl. 0 0.0%
   Other 34 0.6%

   Hispanic or Latino (of any race):
   Mexican 11 0.2%
   Puerto Rican 17 0.3%
   Cuban 0 0.0%
   Other 19 0.3%
   Non-Hispanic 5403 99.1%

   PDF (p.40).

   On Friendship: The Moving Guide to Friendship, Kelli McElhinny, November 1, 2006:

   Pittsburgh’s East End neighborhood of Friendship emerged as one of the nation’s first upper-middle class suburbs in the early 20th century, thanks to a convenient location at the end of the streetcar line that let the era’s industrial managers easily scoot downtown to get to work.

   Now, a full century later, Friendship has come full circle after a period of neglect. Once again, it is attracting young professionals and their families, along with students, artists and a range of other residents drawn by an extensive assortment of affordable real estate. The beautiful, historic Victorian and Colonial Revival homes that are the hallmark of the neighborhood’s housing stock offer a great deal of space at a relatively low cost…
9. Chloe says:

   August 3, 2009 at 7:31 am

   Will APOC expand its attacks to actual developers and real estate companies? Kind of hard to see how this eviction will do anything to prevent gentrification…
10. @ndy says:

    August 3, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    G’day Chloe,

    Dunno — hopefully. Of course, it’s really up to ‘APOC’ (in its various forms) to decide what it does (next); joining in the efforts of others to resist evictions is certainly possible.

    Anyways…

    ‘Smack A White Boy’ in Pittsburgh was preceded by ‘Smack A White Boy’ in Washington in March; the target in Washington was ANSWER.

    In both cases, the reasoning for the action is/was a little hazy, but according to participants’ accounts, CrimethInc and ANSWER were targeted for being part of Teh White Left. Further, the ideological hegemony of Teh White Left needs to be challenged, if not destroyed, by APOC and POC generally. This is because Teh White Left is, on the whole, Bad. The crimes of Teh White Left are the crimes of Whites in general — which includes bad behaviour, racist ignorance, white privilege, cultural appropriation (and so on) — but there are additional crimes peculiar to Teh White Left, including its anarchist tendencies. Or to put it another way:

    The white race continues to be a parasitic force through cultural appropriation [and] colonization (they call it gentrification these days). They brought and continue genocide. Disease, slavery, starvation, capitalism, patriarchy, Christianity. Each and every white person benefits from white supremacy and the oppression of people of color. [U]ltimately they will serve their own good. White anarchists tokenize/fetishize indigenous and other people of color. We are objectified and become something to be managed and be organized by whites, or educated by the white man. We are sexualized by the white queer anarchist movement. From [sic] the eco, feminist, unionist, student, communist, punk anarchists; in the end they show their white supremacy.

    Such actions and such rhetoric reminds me of the feminist backlash against Teh Male Left in the 1960s and ’70s, especially Robin ‘Hilary For President’ Morgan’s ‘Goodbye to all that’ (altho’ Morgan was/is a much better writer).

    Goodbye to those simple-minded optimistic dreams of socialist equality all our good socialist brothers want us to believe. How merely liberal a politics that is! How much further we will have to go to create those profound changes that would give birth to a genderless society. Profound, Sister. Beyond what is male or female. Beyond standards we all adhere to now without daring to examine them as male-created, male-dominated, male-fucked-up, and in male self-interest. Beyond all known standards, especially those easily articulated revolutionary ones we all rhetorically invoke. Beyond—to a species with a new name, that would not dare define itself as Man.

    … We are rising, powerful in our unclean bodies; bright glowing mad in our inferior brains; wild hair flying, wild eyes staring, wild voices keening; undaunted by blood we who hemorrhage every twenty-eight days; laughing at our own beauty we who have lost our sense of humor; mourning for all each precious one of us might have been in this one living time-place had she not been born a woman; stuffing fingers into our mouths to stop the screams of fear and hate and pity for men we have loved and love still; tears in our eyes and bitterness in our mouths for children we couldn’t have, or couldn’t not have, or didn’t want, or didn’t want yet, or wanted and had in this place and this time of horror. We are rising with a fury older and potentially greater than any force in history, and this time we will be free or no one will survive. Power to all the people or to none. All the way down, this time.
11. vents says:

    August 7, 2009 at 2:25 am

    me and APOC are coming for you next andy, you jatz cracker motherfucka!!
12. @ndy says:

    August 7, 2009 at 2:49 am

    …you are scared vents.

    …scared.

    … I am rising, powerful in my unwashed jeans; bright glowing mad in my inferior brane; wild hair flying, wild eyes staring, wild voice keening; undaunted by blood I who hemorrhage onto teh intertubes every day; laughing at my own beauty I who have lost none of my sense of humor; mourning for all each precious part of me might have been in this one living time-place had I not been born a slackbastard; stuffing vegan mushroom pies from La Panella into my mouth to stop the screams of fear and hate and pity for Lacan-quotin’, dope-smokin’ hip-hop celebrities we have loved and love still; tears in our eyes and bitterness in our mouths for Adelaide-based hip and/or hop artists I couldn’t hear, or couldn’t not hear, or didn’t want to hear, or didn’t want to hear yet, or wanted and did hear in this place and this time of horror known as Melbourne. I am rising with a fury older and potentially greater than any force in history, and this time I will be free or no one will survive. Power to all the people (unlikely) or to one (hopefully): me.

    All the way with system of a down, this time.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.