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Add an EventSep. 24: Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Convergence at Anti-War March. 11am,16th & Mission.
oppose the state of perpetual war and the system behind it!
Anarchist Action - San Francisco / www.anarchistaction.org
The fires of war rage in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and across the globe. The United States empire continues to murder hundreds of thousands of people the world over, establishing regimes and destroying peoples to satisfy a never-ending lust for wealth, resources, and global power. The Empire now has its sights set on Iran.
Inside the heart of the empire, the rich are slashing workers’ real wages, benefits, pensions, and social services. Here in San Francisco they are reaping the benefits of burdening the working class by raising fares and cutting services on MUNI public transportation. They too are ripping communities apart through greedy redevelopment schemes and gentrification. Down on the border, racist, white nationalists, the Minutemen and their politician allies are mobilizing forces using the social atmosphere of xenophobia that was whipped up by 9/11 and the Iraq war to justify their vigilante actions and racist legislation.
On Sep. 24, A.N.S.W.E.R., UFPJ, and others are calling for mass protests against the war, which will remain largely routine and symbolic. Coincidently Sep. 24 is when the major capitalist financial institutions, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, are meeting in Washington, D.C. to make plans for further corporate and imperial control.
Anarchist Action is calling for a revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Convergence Against the War that same day - take the streets to resist the war and the system behind it! As long as there is capitalism - and the state to support it - this perpetual state of war, racism, sexism, and xenophobia will continue.
Anarchists are involved in building a mass revolutionary movement and are using direct action to resist capitalism, war, the state, and all forms of social oppression (such as racism, patriarchy, heterosexism, etc.). The mainstream anti-war movement has been stuck in routine, boring, and reformist models that have not provided a serious threat to the war and, more importantly, the system behind it. Symbolic marches and petitioning legislators have not proven effective in stopping the war. Unlike the established Left, we do not seek to control or lead protesters or the movement. Instead, we seek to provide a directly democratic space where people can use a diversity of tactics in autonomous resistance and be actively engaged in the fight for freedom, liberation, and social revolution.
Converge on 16th and Mission Plaza in SF, 11am, September 24 to oppose the state of perpetual war and the system behind it!
Anyway, I do note that the ANSWER march announced the start of their event at 11am at Dolores Park, while AA is starting at 11am at 16th and Mission. This can be good for deviating from the postmarch 'breakaway' pattern, and also dissociating from answer. However, you know that ANSWER events start with 60-90minutes of speeches, and it will also be a fairly large group, where half of them show up via BART at 16th and Mission station. The police also announced after the incident where the officer somehow cut his head at 22nd and Mission that they would be preemptively stopping unpermitted marches. So what will the dynamic of the mass arrest be with all the normal liberals popping up out of BART in the midst of violence or encirclement? The curiosity draws me, but I might stand at a distance. I mean, you could see that big 500-700? person arrest on March 20, 2003 when you just knew that the densely packed black bloc that set off at noon (after morning was spent with older pacifists chaining themselves to Bechtel) would not get very far, and predictably, they got about a block before being beaten. The police have big fume filled bus barns that can process over 1000. Yet, they still wouldn't want to create a scene when you know that there are plenty of powerful regular folks around, and also, 16th and Mission is a famous containment zone like 6th street where they allow vice behavior to occur.
But while the cops are busy with the symbolic action would be a great time to do *real* direct action somewhere else.
Breaking some laws at a symbolic action whose purpose is to influence the government is not direct action. It's not even anarchism. It's militant liberalism. Anarchists do not seek to influence government. Anarchist seek to destroy it. Destroying symbols doesn't count.
Disagree,
First the symbols go, then the systems. Leave it to the young folk, old timer.
Yes, when the black clad people were occupied here, the dorky critical mass cyclists swung by a few blocks away, and one of them took the air out of the tires of their vehicles with a valve loosener screwdriver.
This is simply untrue. First of all, the system did not change. The guys in charge changed. BFD. England did not "go boom." England was totally unscathed. Nothing changed at all in England, not even the guys in charge. The loss of revenue was quickly recouped by restructuring the colonial relationship into the now familiar pattern of neo-colonialism, in which local people run the government and mother country businesses continue to extract profit.
Secondly, it should be noted that the Tea Party was anomalous. The primary form of "protest" took the form of economic boycotts and physical attacks on the government's agents, i.e. they were tarred and feathered, ridden out of town on a rail, and had boiling tea poured down their throats, etc. These physical attacks escalated until an armed mob confronted, assaulted and routed, with much loss of life, a column of regulars who were out to grab guns. These are hardly symbolic actions. If you have any doubts, pour a pot of boiling tea down your own throat and report back how symbolic it felt.
Resistance eventually flared into full scale, more or less conventional, war which, after foreign intervention on the side of the rebels, resulted in one bunch of rich slave owners being able to collect taxes that had previously been collected by a different bunch of rich slave owners. BFD.
The system did not change, let alone "go." Life went on pretty much the same for a very long time. Large parts of it have never changed, not to this day. This society is still a plutocracy. Many of the very same families still hold power. That new families have joined them in no way makes it less of a plutocracy.
And which side are you and your co-bigot-asshole-hypocrites on, anyway? Why, you're sidling right up to the counterdemonstrators now, the John Birchers and America Firsters. In other words the 'Good Germans.' Yes, now you're 'Good Germans' too.
See, tia, you and your co-bigot-asshole friends don't really object to fascism at all, as long as it treats Jews and Israel favorably. The rest of the world can fry in hell, just so long as Israel thrives.
Wow, you z-peeps are "progressive" all right. Real cutting edge moral crusaders.
Why is your whole mind warped around Israel this way, tia? Do you really have it so bad here in the US, the richest country in history? Do you actually imagine you're "down-trodden?" You know, if you could let go of this bigot craze you were born into, you might notice you don't really have a whole lot to bitch about. But you can't let go of it, can you?
Strike a blow for freedom by breaking a small business owner's store window! Damage someone's car! Chant goofy slogans. Bonus if they rhyme! Throw something at the police, and if they bop you with a club then extra bonus, police brutality!
Of course if someone broke the window in your house (and yes, you all live somewhere don't you?) that wouldn't be cool at all.
Can't wait for the Utopia that starts the day after!
First of all, the expected time of attendance should be about two hours max rather than from 11am to 3pm+ where you have to devote your day to it. People should come together and display numbers during one key period.
Secondly, there are many ways in which these could be more *participatory*. Right now they have a rally-march-rally order, where the 'march' part of it is supposed to be where the audience gets to atually do something. Then they spend the rest of the time listening to speakers. Some of those speakers are great, but I also listen to them on KPFA. The flaw is that all these people who showed some initiative of showing up aren't facilitated in meeting each other and developing further plans. In fact, even though I can carry on a conversation, I can't think of that many people I've met at these things other than through friends, and there are only a few tables, typically selling Revolution Books or something like that, and a few people pushing flyers for their event. Often I will circle the crowd for quite a while through thousands of people before I find people I recognize, and the only way to make connections is to say 'hey, nice sign". Instead, either before or after the march, it would be fairly easy to set up some area of the grass where short skill sharing, interest groups, or people developing political projects with a small amount of commitment could be facilitated, and people could meet similar minded people and do something further.
look at the gory Afghanistan photos section of nowthatsfuckedup.com
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