A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING EUROPE - A Criticism of the current political situation StopG8 held a “Carnival Against Capitalism” in the West End of London on 11th of June, demonstrating against murderous banks, corporations, “dens of the rich” and other hiding places of power in the run up to the G8 Summit. The carnival went ahead despite extreme pre-emptive violence from the Metropolitan and City Police, which caused a number of protesters to be injured. The police surrounded the StopG8 Social Centre on Beak Street, W1, from 10am, and then broke in through the front doors and from the roof later in the morning. At the demonstrations starting at 12 noon in Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, police snatch squads violently arrested and assaulted more demonstrators. People present in the Beak Street building report that the police used tasers, chemical sprays, and dogs, and hit unarmed people with shields and fists as they held their hands in the air or covered their heads. Police were later to arrest people for having a marker pen, and for having face coverings, when they have theirs covered en masse (photographic evidence) and they routinely cover their numbers up. WHAT DO THESE EVENTS TELL US? They tell us all the corporate media spin the same message, that the left, all of it, Labour and the trade unions do not raise an eyebrow at the clampdown on the ATTEMPT to protest. All of them, colluding in the creation of an anti-democratic protest free status quo of inanity and lies. The level of complicity is shocking from those who pretend to hold democracy and protest dear, but actually, do not take part in the creation of new politics for our time and they are content to recycle the failures of yesterday. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and it is interesting that the police were quick to say they arrested somebody under the mental health act for ‘attempting to jump’, when this author saw a man trying to get away from the police and the police punching a man on the ground. This follows in a long line of police exaggerations, arresting people for ‘attempted murder’ who finally get prosecuted for breach of the peace, and so on, but the headline has already been made and the labelling of protesters successfully achieved. Certainly the unions, labour and the left, exhibit behaviours and practices that should be labelled repetitive. Are the anarchists ‘doing the same thing over and over’? Maybe some do, but this event was a new creation, and lots of effort has gone into its political coherency, which was impressive, but what is more significant is the left, that mighty fighter of world capitalism totally ignored it. Recycling failed ‘No2EU’ electoral fronts is definitely a repetitive road to nowhere. They continue the same going nowhere doing nothing formulas, and even the new ‘Left Unity’ works under old left illusions without serious efforts to engage the new social forces that any grouping will need to be at least aware of. There is a complete failure to take responsibility for the situation we are all in, personally and organisationally, and engage in the creation of something new with daring do, none of the activists and certainly officials in the Labour party know what it means to take political and personal risks, and do not see demonstrations as more than a stroll. Our ancestors would face palm, and turn in their graves, at the shocking lack of awareness, and attempts to do anything serious. Arguably, this is nothing new, however in the situation of the moment, this becomes more than a laughable irritation and saps the combative potential of working class organisations, activists, individuals, their families and communities directly at risk and in crisis – people are living in caves now in 21st century UK! In addition, there is little if any attempt to reach out to those in our class, seduced by a perceived ‘Muslim threat’, representing crass abdication and strategic impotence. The crying out loud need for a new social movement with open and inclusive practice is as urgent, if not more so, than it ever has been, and the left really must abandon its masturbatory & conservative practices because they are hindering the development of a new working class movement. The June 22nd Peoples assembly is loaded with the same people who spoke at events 40 years ago, recycling the same stale pseudo radicalism, but totally unwilling to develop a new politics and practice in the present time. THE SPECTRE OF ANARCHISM Anarchists used democratic & effective decision making, intelligence and guts in the run up to and including the recent demonstrations, as they always do. They are able, unevenly, but mostly, to honestly reflect on the positives and negatives of the day – it is with these people that hope of effective organising centrally lies. This isn’t to denigrate any other efforts not described so far, including individuals from an array of organisations and communities, but we all desperately need to become more effective. We have to create the new politics in practice today, DIY, a new politics of protest and resistance, that can build the working class culture of protest that needs to be built again, and to create real communities of resistance. There is likely to be problems along the way because nothing is ever straightforward but it is a road that must be travelled, there is a need to abandon previous group loyalties and see what happens because the old ways are the defeated ways. Part of this is making the old Solidarity principles real; “Meaningful action, for revolutionaries, is whatever increases the confidence, the autonomy, the initiative, the participation, the solidarity, the equalitarian tendencies and the self -activity of the masses and whatever assists in their demystification. Sterile and harmful action is whatever reinforces the passivity of the masses, their apathy, their cynicism, their differentiation through hierarchy, their alienation, their reliance on others to do things for them and the degree to which they can therefore be manipulated by others – even by those allegedly acting on their behalf.” To the frontline comrades, there’s no time to piss about.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:08:10 +0000
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