Vandals Deface CHP Station

pucking figs.

...Year in, year out, your scene never seems to add up to anything more than:

1. Sporadic acts of vandalism, as shown here,

2. Short-lived events like the Jan 1st march in the Mission, which never last long, never have any follow up, only take place once every six months or so, and in any case is pretty much always the same stuff that all other protesters in the Bay Area do, and,

3. Stuff that is only visible and/or intelligible to the people in your social set/people you hang out with.

Do you really see this going anywhere? If so, where? If so, how?

While I share your critique of anarchism being a scene, (just as is almost every other small political sub group that has no base within ordinary people) its one thing to complain on the internet, why don't you offer any solutions?

1. Sporadic acts of vandalism, as shown here,

By claiming the vandalism is sporadic, are you suggesting that there should more vandalism (like a large poster campaign over mass transit issues or gentrification)? Or perhaps, have the vandalism make sense to a wider section of the population (like following the CHP murdering two people in Oakland)?

2. Short-lived events like the Jan 1st march in the Mission, which never last long, never have any follow up, only take place once every six months or so, and in any case is pretty much always the same stuff that all other protesters in the Bay Area do, and,

The march could have been better, but where were you? What did you do? Did you come out and hand out flyers, participate in the march, try and make it better? Sure there needs to be follow up, but how was that march not in the timeline of other anti-gentrification actions that also happened, such as the bus blockades? We need actions that pull people in above all. What ideas do you have for such things?

3. Stuff that is only visible and/or intelligible to the people in your social set/people you hang out with.

How is "FUCK THE POLICE" "BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS" not understandable to people right after the CHP killed two peopl

"...The march could have been better, but where were you? What did you do? Did you come out and hand out flyers, participate in the march, try and make it better?"

Where was I? As of the summer of last year I've already been landlord-move-in-evicted out of San Francisco, and out of the Bay Area as well. I can't run back to the Bay to singlehandedly do everything; I've run out of frequent flyer miles on my Superman cape.

If credible, ongoing, real-world subversive action is contingent on the presence or absence of a single individual then we are in a truly hopeless situation. Actions like the ones you refer to, those anti-gentrification posters for example, are actions that can be easily reproduced and probably surpassed in their impact simply by having more than one person involved. And if the people in question have the endurance, energy and nerve that are the hallmarks of authentic conviction then they will be able to put those previous efforts to shame.

This is the same old argument again and again. It's obvious I don't think that any set actions are dependent on one person, but if you're going to continuously snipe from the sidelines about what people are actually doing, you'll have more of an impact if you offer ideas on what they should be doing instead.

MYEP made sense and had an impact in it's time because it spoke to real tangible frustrations of everyday people and talked about collective actions that people could do in groups or as individuals (like trashing yuppie cars or businesses). The same logic holds truth for the march we are discussing and the google bus blockades.

The interesting thing is that out of these cycles of struggles and actions, the elites are attempting to pander to working class anger and action by 'reforms' of google bus stops and changing their dialog around housing. Radicals as always, need to be able to maneuver within these situations - which we often have a hard time doing.

Being that you're not in the bay area anymore, one thing that you could do - and something that you do well since you're actually a pretty sharp guy and know a lot about history, is that you could write and talk about the very real pitfalls of reformist and electoral action. If you actually possessed social skills and had any friends left you could even get some people out hear in the bay to design some new posters for you. Hell, if you did a speaking engagement next week, probably hundreds would come out to see you. But as always, social war often requires social skills.

The anarchist scene is just that, a scene. But many of our problems we inherited from the militants before us: many of whom made the same mistakes and continue to. Hopefully we can learn from you, and as you said, put your previous efforts to shame. It would be easier if we could do so with you helping us along the way, offering guidance and insight. I fear that will not be the case, however.

A pity.

"... If you actually possessed social skills and had any friends left you could even get some people out hear in the bay to design some new posters for you. Hell, if you did a speaking engagement next week, probably hundreds would come out to see you. But as always, social war often requires social skills..."

Communist subversion in and against capitalist America is not my private property. It's also not an undergraduate popularity contest. Why is this shit unilaterally up to me? Why do efforts of this stripe cease to take place when I'm not the one who personally initiates them, does all the writing, does all the legwork, burns all the calories, and takes the burden of any risks involved -- the only real risk usually being the risk of looking foolish for attempting to try something new.

Examine any of the docs here, in particular the anti-gentrification and mass action around mass transit docs:

http://www.infoshop.org/myep/love_index.html

take them as a point of departure, and get going. Nobody is holding you back. And again, if you've got more than three people together who are something more than empty talkers and have an authentic capacity for sustained commitment you should be able to exceed what's examined in these docs.

In case I haven't made it clear I don't like cops, either. My problem isn't with what some person or persons unknown did to the cop-shop, but that it is not sufficient -- and not sufficient seems to be all that ever happens in the SF Bay Area.