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comment by fgnbd
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, January 06 2004 @ 05:11 PM CST
what\'s the deal with the letter bombs to the EU? The corporate media has said they came from Anarchists in Italy, the communique was a bit wonky. Is it actually anarchists or is their a chance it was from the state?
comment by Insurrectionary Anarchists
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, January 06 2004 @ 05:53 PM CST
Wow, the FdCA seems a bit conservative, even as far as Platformist Anarcho-Communists.

\"But above all, we become a disturbance and annoyance to the State and to authority of all types when anarchists place themselves firmly within the realm of mass struggles and refuse the adventurism and vanguardism of individual clashes with the State and armed terrorist struggle. When anarchism legitimizes itself as a self-managed social and political component of mass struggles, in visible, public mass organizations and with faces uncovered, when it presents itself as an authentic interpretation of the autonomous drives of social self-organization, that is the time when anarchists become cumbersome and dispensible.\"

This attempts to create a false division between the mass of the exploited and anarchists. Exploited individuals participate in clas struggle at various levels, at the individual level through absenteeism, theft and sabotage, and at the mass level through mass direct action and insurrection. Anarchists also participate in struggles at all levels. There is nothing \"vanguardist\" about stuggling to liberate yourself from conditions of exploitation. In fact, direct action is just the opposite of vanguardism. On the other hand, the way that official anarchist federation act is quite often vanguardist, in that they limit themselves to a guiding, educational relationship with the masses, refusing direct participation through direct action and armed struggle. They, just like the state, cannot comprehend that direct action and armed struggle can be expressed in an anarchist form, without permanent clandestine organizations.

The FdCa dismisal of the use of masks at demonstrations is another aspect of their conservative, elitist perspect. I suppose that, along with denouncing anarchists for wearing masks, so that they may attack elements of the capitalist state and protect themselves from police surveillance and repression (not to mention tear gas), they would also denounce prisoners, indigenous rebels, and all the other exploited people who choose to cover their faces for many essential purposes.


comment by Mick
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, January 06 2004 @ 06:56 PM CST
Well, that\'s a highly creative interperation of the statement.

What the FdCA is arguing is for open participation, as anarchists, in mass movements of our class.

I agree with the FdCA that underground armed grouplets that try and subsitute themselves for mass workers movements are inherently elitist and counter to building a mass revolutionary anarchist movement.
comment by Reverend Chuck0
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 07 2004 @ 10:53 AM CST
\"Building a mass revolutionary anarchist movement\" is not just elitist, but it is vanguardist and leftist. Perhaps you should stop using the leftist word \"mass\" and stick to using the phrase \"insurrectionary anarchist movement.\"

I agree with some of the points made by insurrectionary anarchist. Often professional radicals lag behind the spontaneous radicalism that grows among working people. Instead of trying to control it like the leftists do, we should be encouraging it and helping it spread.
comment by Mick
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 07 2004 @ 11:35 AM CST
How can you have a true insurection without massive participation and support from the working class?

You can\'t.

Which is why so-called insurectionary anarchism is elitist and ineffective as it concentrates on clandestine actions by small grouplets. It is, to borrow a marxist term, subsitutionist. That means that the underground armed group is subsituting itself for the self-organization and militancy of a mass working class revolutionary movement.

As anarhcist-communists we of course would like to see that mass revolutionary movement proclaim for anarchist-communism. That won\'t happen if anarchists isolate ourselves from the very mass working class movements that exist today.

I also very much doubt that the FdCA militants are \"professional radicals\". I sure know I\'m not and have to rotate between 50-60 hour work weeks and scraping by on the dole.

It\'s not a question of controling militancy, but a strategic choice in where we think militancy has the best effect towards moving us towards an anarchist revolution.

Letter bombs will only serve to isolate anarchist millitants from the labour and social movements.

Are you endorsing the use of letter bombs? I hope not.
comment by
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 07 2004 @ 03:55 PM CST
Last I checked, \"mass\" meant alot of people.
comment by sasha k
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 07 2004 @ 09:33 PM CST
I think IA brings up some very important and often misunderstood points: \"This attempts to create a false division between the mass of the exploited and anarchists. Exploited individuals participate in clas struggle at various levels, at the individual level through absenteeism, theft and sabotage, and at the mass level through mass direct action and insurrection. Anarchists also participate in struggles at all levels. There is nothing \"vanguardist\" about stuggling to liberate yourself from conditions of exploitation. In fact, direct action is just the opposite of vanguardism. On the other hand, the way that official anarchist federation act is quite often vanguardist, in that they limit themselves to a guiding, educational relationship with the masses, refusing direct participation through direct action and armed struggle.\"

Contra Mick, no one is suggesting that an insurrection could happen without large scale participation. The point is is that such participation does not have to organized as a singular mass, but can take many forms working together informally. Attempts to synthesize struggle into an organization often has the effect of limiting participation and activity. We could turn Micks point around in this way: how could a large scale insurrection happen without first many small actions happening and building up momentum? Insurrectionaries need to pay attention to how things spread, and usually they don\'t spread through an organization. So it is a bit false to suggest a choice between spontaneous informally organized actions and large scale insurrection.
best,
sasha
comment by wolfi
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 08 2004 @ 02:13 PM CST
When the Italian state made attacks in the 1970\'s in what was known as the \"strategy of tension\" what distinguished their attacks from those of the various revolutionary armed groups, was that they were indiscriminate attacks in public places. These mail-bombs do not fit that. The poisoning of bottled water that happened not so long ago in Italy - after some anarchists published flyers about the privatization of water - and that at first the state and the media tried to blame on anarchists (but later took it back, because it wasn\'t the way anarchists did things and even the state had to admit as much) - this was indiscriminate and in a public place, thus in the old style of the so-called \"strategy of tension\". I think it is important to recognize these distinctions so that a real critical assessment of various actions can be made rather than immediately thinking \"that must have been the state\".