Ant

Ant wrote

Just to be clear, you've just in one fell swoop basically looked down on anarchists, treating them like unruly children in need of education, and literally threatened them with "decisive action" (usually in the case of you disgusting people is death or gulag), but my response to your horrible engagment, which points to the marxist's failure to understand that means produce ends and therefore that the personal is political, is the one that is abusive?

fackoff stankie

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Ant wrote (edited )

If the anarchists who are not yet educated are standing in the way of the revolution, then they unfortunately need to be dealt with decisively.

didn't take long

"left unity means anarchists must get in line"

and you sincerely ask why we think your politics are garbage

nobody thinks anarcho-capitalists exist around here, you just know so little about anarchism and leftism that you think that's what pop was saying

at what stage does your completely unfounded confidence and your ideological blinkering get undermined by people repeatedly pointing out that you don't know what you're talking about

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Ant OP wrote

By deferring their social revolution until after getting power they never really have to do socialism and can look just like liberals, campaigning, advocating, making policy.

insofar as they aren't doing that, insofar as their ethic is direct action, they're anarchic anyway

like autonomous marxists who are just red anarchists who are afraid of calling a spade a spade

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Ant OP wrote

Nicola Gai, an anarchist and the author of this text, is currently in prison for kneecapping a nuclear executive.

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Ant OP wrote (edited )

Abstract

Radical geographers have been preoccupied with Marxism for four decades, largely ignoring an earlier anarchist tradition that thrived a century before radical geography was claimed as Marxist in the 1970s. When anarchism is considered, it is misused as a synonym for violence or derided as a utopian project. Yet it is incorrect to assume anarchism as a project, which instead reflects Marxian thought. Anarchism is more appropriately considered a protean process that perpetually unfolds through the insurrectionary geographies of the everyday and the prefigurative politics of direct action, mutual aid, and voluntary association. Unlike Marxism’s stages of history and revolutionary imperative, which imply an end state, anarchism appreciates the dynamism of the social world. In staking a renewed anarchist claim for radical geography, I attend to the divisions between Marxism and anarchism as two alternative socialisms, wherein the former positions equality alongside an ongoing flirtation with authoritarianism, while the latter maximizes egalitarianism and individual liberty by considering them as mutually reinforcing. Radical geographers would do well to reengage anarchism as there is a vitality to this philosophy that is missing from Marxian analyses that continue to rehash ideas—such as vanguardism and a proletarian dictatorship—that are long past their expiration date.

Anarchists' tendency to frame themselves in ways that are comprehensible to reds has been a fucking disaster for us

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Ant OP wrote

• If chasing fascists, consider getting rental cars. In any case, make sure vehicles are road-ready and minimally identifiable.
• Encourage the separation of time and space for actions (where it’s being pushed for); if peace police have their own event far away, you won’t have to deal with them. This does not mean alienating or excluding unknown folks who aren’t peace police (hella random and ‘unprepared’ folks threw down super hard in Lansing).
• Make sure forms of ‘in situ’ communication within/between affinity groups are understood by all. Make sure affinity groups talk beforehand about staying together during the action.
• Leave an action in the same car you came in. Last minute changes increase the chances that someone gets left behind.
• Make sure people know which ‘situation names’ each of your people will be using for the action ahead of time.
• Prepare for the challenges of making decisions quickly and efficiently in high stress situations. For example, practice making quick decisions in a group beforehand. Start with an imagined scenario; impose two irreconcilable options, each having its own merits; then practice resolving the tension quickly, with everyone committing to the chosen option with total focus (don’t dwell on the path not taken).
• Cultivate your “creative awareness” together. For example, get together and explicitly vocalize three or four scenarios that are plausible within the situation right at the beginning (upon arrival, or beforehand if possible). Don’t let these discussions wander or become speculative, and don’t rely on hearsay or ‘Cops in X town act like Y normally’ clichés. Stay focused entirely on what you can see, what the situation presents you with.
• Don’t allow yourself to be spooked into leaving necessary supplies behind out of fear. You got them for a reason; find a way to bring them. It’s almost always possible. Use your imagination.
• Pack your stuff up the morning of the action so you are ready to leave quickly or even leave town immediately after an action. At the same time, also make a fallback plan for people to stay up to 48 hours to deal with jail support. This may mean staying somewhere ‘low profile’ after the action.
• Wake up and prepare quickly; no dawdling the morning of the action.
• Stay joyful, but try to exercise a measure of seriousness and discipline too: go to sleep on time, eat full meals, hydrate, keep your things tidy and together.
• Don’t bring illegal drugs to an action, or carry them in cars you’re using. Never bring sketchy shit in a car without telling the driver beforehand.
• Fear is the mind killer. Paranoia can prevent you from acting or being properly prepared. Exercise precaution, of course, but it is important to follow through with plans and not allow paranoia and fear to stop you from doing what you came to do.
• Make sure you have clear lines of communication open with other crews. Establish in advance whether other crews will be able to come to your aid or change their plans at the last minute.
• If you are organizing in public, be aware of who you can vouch for, and make sure those who you can’t vouch for are explicitly (and gracefully) informed that you will need to disappear sometimes, so it’s not weird in the moment.
• Think through who you are going to the action with: are they someone you trust in high stress environments? If not, find a way for them to engage that is appropriately low stress. There’s all kinds of low stress activities of support (media, sound system, transportation, listening to police scanners, food prep, spreading counter-information, etc.).
• Choose specific and unique affinity group names/calls. Having a name will help you stay together in a crowd, but if it is too vague or general (“my group”), strangers might respond to the same name.
• Compliment and encourage strangers when you see them doing brave or inspiring things.
• Don’t dismiss the tactical use of soft blockades. NVDA tactics may not work against fascists but might be effective when dealing with police.
• Don’t worry about FOMO or get fixated on particular events; sometimes cool and important shit pops off in other places.
• Not having cell phones (or only bringing burners) in a large group makes communication difficult but can be a very beneficial group experience — allowing people to relate to each other in different ways.
• Proper black bloc attire should include multiple layers. This is easily accomplished by the layering of windbreakers and rain/jogging pants, all of which should be 2x oversized to obscure body-shape. Ideally, you want one or two distinctive ‘bloc’ layers (black or dark grey/blue), and one or two de-bloc layers: one that allows you to remain in the situation while masked, yet not associated with the ‘bloc’ you were in a moment ago, and another to blend into a citizen crowd entirely when leaving (i.e. normie clothes, including a change of shoes + sunglasses). Pack an empty lightweight tote that you don’t use in the situation, to carry your stuff out with you after you de-bloc. Bring multiple masks to hand out to others and switch between. REI carries the tube-like ones, which offer the best face coverage, come in many colors, and allow you to cover your hair too (not enough people do this!). Trading jackets and backpacks on the ground with your friends is a fun and effective technique to preserve anonymity. Be cognizant of when police commanders are pointing at certain individuals in the crowd, and make sure you notify them that it’s time to change their clothes.
• Don’t necessarily give credence to rumors. Don’t perpetuate rumors or feed into paranoia. If someone says “a reporter told us the Fed’s or DHS are here,” it’s fine to listen to this information, but don’t weight it more heavily than your own assessment on the ground. Take it with a grain of salt.
• If there are horses, there will be horseshit. Bring multiple pairs of disposable latex gloves. Try to dispose of these without leaving them for the cops (DNA databases are thing).
• Practice group activities in advance, e.g. de-arresting games, group brawling or de-blocking.
• Play catch together. Throwing accurately is not a skill most people possess innately.
• Don’t love violence: it is a means that is sometimes necessary, but not who we are or how we ultimately want to relate to the world.
• Don’t fixate on the police. They can distract us from other objectives. They are an obstacle, not an ‘absolute enemy’.
• Have a political read of the situation. Understand in advance the constraints on the actions of the police and which actors will be present the day of. Ask yourself: what would a victory look like? How could we win not only today, but going forward? Could this or that day of action also find ways to contribute to a lasting increase of power for local crews on the ground?
• Make a graceful exit. If possible, try to march everyone out of harm’s way all together, ensuring a safe exit. People may argue against this in the moment, but it’s better to leave with “winner’s remorse” (‘we could’ve done more’) than in handcuffs.

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