Saturday, August 31, 2013
it's finally time to step away from the social circle that developed out of the occupy ottawa action
i’m disengaging substantially. that’s not to say that i’m going to be completely disinterested in organizing in windsor, but i didn’t come down here to organize the labour movement or to meet friends or anything like that. i came down here because the rent is cheap and that would give me space to create without having to concern myself with markets and because, in the medium run, it seems like this may be an area where large scale squatting may have some potential in helping to build a post-work society. i've been vocal about these things and am being consistent. so, this is where my focus is turning. i’m not a labour activist, don’t want to be and often don’t even agree with labour-oriented political positions. i mean, i’m certainly going to be looking around for tazs around here, but i think i’m at least a decade too early. and if anybody needs anything, i’m still interested in helping so don’t hesitate to ask.
believe it or not, i’ve actually been biting my tongue on a lot of issues. there’s a short list of things i want to address before i float off into the aether, but i don’t want to be too overwhelming so i’m going to do it one at a time over the course of about a week. i’m going to eventually be writing some more in-depth literature that explores these topics in more depth. i’m not going to remove myself from spaces or delete people or behave in the same destructive, angry way that some others have, or even stop reading altogether, but i would expect future correspondence from me on activist issues to be minimal for the medium future.
i just don’t think that the occupy movement or the things that have come from it actually are or ever really were things that could be classified as belonging to an anarchist movement. it’s really only tentatively identified as even being on the left at all. most of the politics i see promoted here are either not really ideological or are actually on the far right (like support for ethnic and religious nationalism). what is bothering me is when i see these things intertwine, as that is when things get scary. i’m going to kill your individuality for a minute…
the unfortunate truth is that history has demonstrated, repeatedly, that populist movements always end up on the far right. it is the nature of populism. go across the world, at any point in history, and this is what you will always see. no exceptions. isn’t that the crux of our approach, though? we reject vanguard politics as self-defeating, and denounce the state as inherently oppressive. we understand that we must use force to dismantle hierarchy, and yet do not want to recreate more in it’s wake, and so align ourselves horizontally. so, what is my critique?
these movements may claim that they’re anarchist, but i think that a more careful examination of the way they’re structured presents a stronger marxist leaning and the inevitable result is going to be all the predictable problems that come with marxist approaches to communism. in the end, the groups always have leaders, they’re always agitating and they always see themselves as the enlightened few. there’s always a break between the inside and the outside. i’ve been attacked and tried to be put back in line more than once for naively treating horizontality as a base assumption. it’s never really, actually present. i think a lot of you are legitimately really good at working horizontally, but a lot of you aren’t really even interested in it and a good chunk of you are actually pretending that you’re interested in working horizontally for undefined other reasons. i think a few of you are even interested in parliamentary politics. :(. now, i’m being hypocritical. i see that. but it’s a little scary to watch play out. to the authoritarians and opportunists: you know who you are, and i see right through you.
so, i think that’s the critique. an anarchist collective shouldn’t actively agitate. it shouldn’t even be a collective, really. there’s no such thing as horizontal organizing. people can come together spontaneously and work together on a horizontal basis, but they can’t be organized to work horizontally. that’s inherently vertical. no, it’s not a fair trade-off, the end doesn’t justify the means and i can no longer compromise on the point.
so, i claim that revolution must be spontaneous, that it cannot be organized and that attempts to organize can only result in further oppression. ok. this is an old argument. i’ve said it before. i’m not going to say anything that hasn’t already been said, and nobody is going to respond in ways that haven’t already been presented. we’re not going to magically solve this centuries old debate now through some incredibly shared epiphany. however, that places me on the outside of this group. i don’t feel it isolates me from everybody in it, but i do feel it isn’t the right place for me, or at least isn’t the right place for me as more than an adjunct. think of it like this: i refuse to join the iww because i don’t really feel i’m in agreement with the organization. unions are inherently reformist, sure, but it’s actually more basic than that. i’m more aligned with environmental issues, and i’m opposed to the concept of wage labour. yet, i’m willing to help if the opportunity comes up – and have and will again. i guess i’m retreating to a similar position with this group.
i should blame myself a little. i suppose i made the false assumption that the view that spontaneity is necessary was widespread here, that i could take identifications at face value and that the marxist activist façade was sort of just that. or maybe i’m not being entirely honest. maybe i realized that from the start. maybe that’s why i didn’t camp. maybe it’s more like i needed a little bit of social stimulation and was willing to put this old, tired argument aside until the fifth beer. regardless, the combination of refocusing my life with my insistence on spontaneity rather than organization forms the core reason for my decision to disengage from active participation in this sort of resistance. there’s an old story about somebody named sisyphus….
again: if people need help with something that i can do here in windsor, even if it’s as simple as a request for a couch, then do ask. it’s less about burning bridges and more about refocusing. *this* is simply about providing a sort of report on my observations over the last few years before i pivot. take from it what you may…
to minimize space, i’ll post it all in one thread. i’m going to talk a little about tactics tomorrow.
believe it or not, i’ve actually been biting my tongue on a lot of issues. there’s a short list of things i want to address before i float off into the aether, but i don’t want to be too overwhelming so i’m going to do it one at a time over the course of about a week. i’m going to eventually be writing some more in-depth literature that explores these topics in more depth. i’m not going to remove myself from spaces or delete people or behave in the same destructive, angry way that some others have, or even stop reading altogether, but i would expect future correspondence from me on activist issues to be minimal for the medium future.
i just don’t think that the occupy movement or the things that have come from it actually are or ever really were things that could be classified as belonging to an anarchist movement. it’s really only tentatively identified as even being on the left at all. most of the politics i see promoted here are either not really ideological or are actually on the far right (like support for ethnic and religious nationalism). what is bothering me is when i see these things intertwine, as that is when things get scary. i’m going to kill your individuality for a minute…
the unfortunate truth is that history has demonstrated, repeatedly, that populist movements always end up on the far right. it is the nature of populism. go across the world, at any point in history, and this is what you will always see. no exceptions. isn’t that the crux of our approach, though? we reject vanguard politics as self-defeating, and denounce the state as inherently oppressive. we understand that we must use force to dismantle hierarchy, and yet do not want to recreate more in it’s wake, and so align ourselves horizontally. so, what is my critique?
these movements may claim that they’re anarchist, but i think that a more careful examination of the way they’re structured presents a stronger marxist leaning and the inevitable result is going to be all the predictable problems that come with marxist approaches to communism. in the end, the groups always have leaders, they’re always agitating and they always see themselves as the enlightened few. there’s always a break between the inside and the outside. i’ve been attacked and tried to be put back in line more than once for naively treating horizontality as a base assumption. it’s never really, actually present. i think a lot of you are legitimately really good at working horizontally, but a lot of you aren’t really even interested in it and a good chunk of you are actually pretending that you’re interested in working horizontally for undefined other reasons. i think a few of you are even interested in parliamentary politics. :(. now, i’m being hypocritical. i see that. but it’s a little scary to watch play out. to the authoritarians and opportunists: you know who you are, and i see right through you.
so, i think that’s the critique. an anarchist collective shouldn’t actively agitate. it shouldn’t even be a collective, really. there’s no such thing as horizontal organizing. people can come together spontaneously and work together on a horizontal basis, but they can’t be organized to work horizontally. that’s inherently vertical. no, it’s not a fair trade-off, the end doesn’t justify the means and i can no longer compromise on the point.
so, i claim that revolution must be spontaneous, that it cannot be organized and that attempts to organize can only result in further oppression. ok. this is an old argument. i’ve said it before. i’m not going to say anything that hasn’t already been said, and nobody is going to respond in ways that haven’t already been presented. we’re not going to magically solve this centuries old debate now through some incredibly shared epiphany. however, that places me on the outside of this group. i don’t feel it isolates me from everybody in it, but i do feel it isn’t the right place for me, or at least isn’t the right place for me as more than an adjunct. think of it like this: i refuse to join the iww because i don’t really feel i’m in agreement with the organization. unions are inherently reformist, sure, but it’s actually more basic than that. i’m more aligned with environmental issues, and i’m opposed to the concept of wage labour. yet, i’m willing to help if the opportunity comes up – and have and will again. i guess i’m retreating to a similar position with this group.
i should blame myself a little. i suppose i made the false assumption that the view that spontaneity is necessary was widespread here, that i could take identifications at face value and that the marxist activist façade was sort of just that. or maybe i’m not being entirely honest. maybe i realized that from the start. maybe that’s why i didn’t camp. maybe it’s more like i needed a little bit of social stimulation and was willing to put this old, tired argument aside until the fifth beer. regardless, the combination of refocusing my life with my insistence on spontaneity rather than organization forms the core reason for my decision to disengage from active participation in this sort of resistance. there’s an old story about somebody named sisyphus….
again: if people need help with something that i can do here in windsor, even if it’s as simple as a request for a couch, then do ask. it’s less about burning bridges and more about refocusing. *this* is simply about providing a sort of report on my observations over the last few years before i pivot. take from it what you may…
to minimize space, i’ll post it all in one thread. i’m going to talk a little about tactics tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)