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• Sunday, August 31, 2008 07:09 AM

  Glenn, Are RNC Welcoming Committee members really anarchists?

  This group call themselves anarchists. Are they truly dangerous anarchists? This is what they said in February of 2007 in their first call to action.

  Every four years, in two very lucky cities, big money gets thrown around while look-alikes from opposite ends of a closed circle step up to their podiums and spout nonsense. RNC. DNC. Whatever. The point is that once the conventions are over, once November is come and gone, once the inauguration is only an unpleasant memory, people across this stolen land find themselves in pretty much the same place as before: a bad one.

  And we’d like to offer up a movement- some real, tangible change. Unfortunately, the reality is that we’re rundown at best, hopeless at worst, and though we see liberation shining off in the distance, we don’t know how to get there.

  That sounds like something I can read every day on UT. They list 40 fellow anarchist groups. This is what their site says about their strategy:

  How we get there (the strategy):

  1. Start Strong – Throw all of our energy into the first day. We’ll kick this off right and stretch the militarized police state out so far that it can no longer contain and suppress our voices and desires.

  2. Transportation Troubles – This includes blockades downtown (at key intersections), on bridges (10 bridges over the Mississippi River in the metro area), and other sporadic and strategic targets (busses, hotel and airport shuttles etc).

  3. Respect, defend, and be prepared for autonomous self-sustaining alternatives – Lasting projects and spaces will be born out of our actions and will need to be protected. We also won’t knowingly bring the hammer down on existing long-term community projects. It doesn’t matter if we win the RNC battle, if the war for our lives is lost.

  4. Be inclusive of local communities and respect alliances – We are all on the same side of the barricades and are trying to build lasting bonds for future mutual aid. We may not agree with each other on all of our tactics, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t venues for us to work together and build on the trust and community that already exists.

  That doesn’t sound like dangerous people to me. I realize that the Transportation Troubles they are proposing could result in criminal actions. If they are willing to risk arrest and conviction for the terrible crime of causing delay and inconvenience, does that make them dangerous and subject to preventative arrests just like the Busheviks used the disgusting excuse of employing overwhelming force because we needed a preventative war.

  I also realize that many of the people they detained in handcuffs, including journalists, were not part of the RNCWC. To me using the word anarchist doesn’t mean they are actually anarchists. It sounds to me that they are disgusted with both major political parties and the authoritarians that run our governments and enforcement agencies, just as so many of us are. Are all of us anarchists?

  —Retired Military Patriot Read Retired Military Patriot's other letters
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