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<\/p>\n…for juan and liz…<\/p>\n
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one<\/strong><\/p>\n Ah-ah-ah, ha-ha, ho-ho!<\/p>\n Fly into the streets! All who are still fresh and young and not dehumanized — to the streets! The pot-bellied mortar of laughter stands in a square drunk with joy. Laughter and Love, copulating with Melancholy and Hate, pressed together in the mighty, convulsive passion of bestial lust. Long live the psychology of contrasts! Intoxicated, burning spirits have raised the flaming banner of intellectual revolution. Death to the creatures of routine, the philistines, the sufferers from gout! Smash with a deafening noise the cup of vengeful storms! Tear down the churches and their allies the museums! Blast to smithereens the fragile idols of Civilization! Hey, you decadent architects of the sarcophagi of thought, you watchmen of the universal cemetery of books — stand aside! We have come to remove you! The old must be buried, the dusty archives burned by the Vulcan’s torch of creative genius. Past the flaky ashes of world-wide destruction, past the charred canvases of bulky paintings, past the burned, fat, pot-bellied volumes of classics we march, we Anarcho-Futurists! Above the vast expanse of devastation covering our land the banner of anarchy will be proudly unfurled. Writing has no value! There is no market for literature! There are no prisons, no limits for subjective creativity! Everything is permitted! Everything is unrestricted! ~ ‘Shturmovoi, opustoshaiushchii manifest anarkho-futuristive’, K Svetu<\/em> (Kharkov), March 14, 1919, p.1, in The Anarchists in the Russian Revolution<\/em>, Paul Avrich (editor), Thames and Hudson, 1973, pp.52–53 [extract]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n two<\/strong><\/p>\n The accused have never denied the charge of misappropriating the funds of the Strasbourg Student Union. Indeed, they openly admit to having made the union pay some 5000 francs for the printing of 10,000 pamphlets, not to mention the cost of other literature inspired by the \u201cSituationist International.\u201d These publications express aims and ideas which, to put it mildly, have nothing to do with the purposes of a student union. One need only read what the accused have written for it to be obvious that these five students, scarcely more than adolescents, lacking any experience of real life, their minds confused by ill-digested philosophical, social, political and economic theories and bored by the drab monotony of their everyday life, have the pathetic arrogance to make sweeping denunciations of their fellow students, their professors, God, religion, the clergy, and the governments and political and social systems of the entire world. Rejecting all morality and legal restraint, these cynics do not shrink from advocating theft, the destruction of scholarship, the abolition of work, total subversion and a permanent worldwide proletarian revolution with \u201cunrestrained pleasure\u201d as its only goal. ~ Judge Llabador, Strasbourg District Court, December 13, 1966<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n three<\/strong><\/p>\n I was one of the organisers of the G20 demo from the Stop the War Coalition and I am also in Socialist Alternative.<\/p>\n The anarchist crazies involved in the ultra-violence were in no serious sense part of the demo. Just like their black bloc mates in Europe they simply exploited the demo for their own purposes.<\/p>\n Right throughout the lead-up to the demo they made clear their hostility to and contempt for other protestors. On the day they did all they could to disrupt the demonstration and were hostile, abusive, threatening and ultra-sectarian towards people on the demo.<\/p>\n Australia, fortunately, has not previously been blighted by the sort of black bloc anarchist activities which have had such a disastrous impact on demonstrations in Europe. These people are simply provocateurs that open up protests to police repression. In Europe their ranks have been riddled by police agents and fascists.<\/p>\n What gave them a certain critical mass at the G20<\/a> was the presence of considerable numbers of anarchists from overseas. One of our members from New Zealand said he recognised at least 40 NZ anarchists. He knew at least 20 of them by name. There were also a considerable number of black bloc anarchists from Europe. We know of people from Sweden, Germany and England. These people are like football hooligans who travel the world looking for violence.<\/p>\n On top of that there were also a considerable number of anarchists from interstate.<\/p>\n Because of the behaviour of these provocateurs the media and the law and order brigade are having a field day.<\/p>\n The left should offer no comfort<\/a> to these crazies. We should do whatever we can to isolate them. They are wreckers. If they grow in Australia it will simply make it harder to build future protests and movements. ~ Mick Armstrong, Leftwrites, November 19, 2006<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A Trotskyist groupuscule which formed in 1995 as a split from the International Social Organisation (ISO), Socialist Alternative (SAlt) is almost certainly the largest group on the student left. On the subject of anarchism, it provides a fairly orthodox Trotskyist appraisal, albeit one given a slightly demented twist by the likes of its chief ideologue Mick Armstrong. (This is most in evidence in Mick’s response to the events at G20, but is also evident in his article ‘Is there anything radical about anarchism?’<\/a>, which appeared in the June 2007 edition of SAlt’s monthly.) Thus ‘anarchism’ is understood on roughly the same terms as ‘Marxism’. In this schematic, ‘Marxism’ is the body of theory based on the productions of the mind<\/a> of nineteenth century bourgeois philosopher Karl Marx (along with other notables — Engels, Lenin<\/a>, Trotsky<\/a> et al<\/em>); while ‘Anarchism’ may be understood similarly as having issued forth from other nineteenth century figures (Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin in particular: one or the other, depending on the source, being bestowed with the title “the father of anarchism”).<\/p>\n And so on and so forth.<\/p>\n G20<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ve already replied<\/a> to Mick’s diatribe on anarchism — in essence, he argues that it’s a form of ‘bourgeois individualism’ — so I won’t do so again here. I will note, however, that SAlt did issue a statement<\/a> on G20 two days after Armstrong’s initial outburst, on November 21, which constituted a less crazed attack on the actions of ‘the anarchists’ at G20, but which otherwise served as a recapitulation of Mick’s basic argument. (Note that the now seemingly defunct Melbourne Stop the War Coalition issued a near-identical statement.) It concluded:<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the left who want to reach out to masses of people need to:<\/p>\n 1. Politically oppose anyone coming to protest rallies wearing masks or other forms of disguise. We need openness and accountability<\/a> in the movement. Such dress creates a sinister atmosphere, breeds distrust, and makes police infiltration<\/a> more likely.<\/p>\n 2. Make it clear that there is a sharp dividing line<\/a> between those involved in the violent provocations at G20<\/a> and the genuine left<\/a> who want to relate to masses of people in order to change the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n 3. Make no concessions to the idea that this is just a form of \u201cdiversity\u201d, just another difference of opinion. These tactics are completely counterproductive and the left will pay the price if we make concessions to them.<\/p>\n These questions are urgently in need of discussion as we are about to begin organising for the APEC forum next September in Sydney which Bush is expected to attend. If we are to maximise our ability to mobilise significant numbers, we have to take this clear stand and prepare to organise on the basis of genuine mass protest with no role<\/a> for the kind of violent provocation we saw at G20.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I think comment on the above is superfluous.<\/p>\n Curiously, in the interim, the statement has been removed from the SAlt site, and its most recent, and only, statement regarding G20, dated March 8, 2008, condemns<\/a> the “outrageous” sentencing meted out to Akin Sari<\/a>, one of the anarchist crazies<\/a> involved in the ultra-violence who was in no serious sense part of the demo and who simply exploited it for his own purposes (and a foreigner to boot).<\/p>\n “However that is not the main issue now”, as they say.<\/p>\n Instead, two things.<\/p>\n First, Shazam!<\/em> ‘New facts explode an anarchist myth’<\/a> (Daniel Lopez and Corey Oakley, March 2006).<\/p>\n Secondly, SAlt claims possession of ‘Ideas to challenge capitalism’. That is, it’s organising a series of conferences<\/a> in August on ‘Socialism’<\/a>: in Melbourne on Saturday, August 16; in Brisbane on Sunday, August 17; in Sydney on Saturday, August 23; and in Perth on Sunday, August 24.<\/p>\n As a general rule of thumb, when groups such as SAlt address the subject of anarchism, it’s to warn off their members from expressing too close an interest. As such, it’s interesting to note that as a part of conference proceedings in Melbourne and Sydney<\/a> — but not Brisbane or Perth — SAlt is organising a presentation on ‘Anarchism Put to the Test: the Spanish Revolution of 1936’ (I wonder if it passed?).<\/p>\n Now, call me crazy, ultra-violent, silly, exploitative, hostile, contemptuous, abusive, threatening, ultra-sectarian, a provocateur, possibly a foreigner, a hooligan, and a wrecker best isolated from those who genuinely seek radical social change, but I would suggest that a better, more accurate account of the role of the anarchists in the Spanish Revolution will be found in the documentary film Vivir La Utopia<\/em> — recently screened as part of the La Mirada Spanish Film Festival, but also, happily, available for viewing on YouTube. Here’s Part One:<\/p>\n