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Quebec a turning point?

townie | 24.04.2001 13:59

Quebec as a possible platform for a virtual fascist state?

We must have really crossed the line this time. Their good little oh-so subservient population seems to be fighting back and they are hating it.

With the FBI attacking indymedia centres across america, on the basis of a non-exsistant presidential threat, democracy is being crushed underfoot by the forces of capitalism and money. We've already seen the papers and the police collaborating on some tremendous works of fiction over mayday, and a huge coverup over foot and mouth and there would appear to be no stopping them now.

There are now a large number of internet groups suggesting perfectly legal action, but action that nonetheless causes loss of business and *money* to the capitalist state. They can't handle having their walls rattled and now they are fighting back, more illegally than ever.

The met are already drafting in marksmen and the army (apparently), and it can only be a matter of time before they start to kill people at these protests. I don't think there are any tactics that this capitalist state won't stoop to in order to stamp out our wide and varied movement, and the increasing americanisation of the police in this country will set a dangerous precedent. If this isn't stopped, and soon, we will be the ones shot in the neck with plastic bullets (ala quebec), it will be our government, our police, beating people up for saying the wrong thing.

Quebec has set a very scary tone for the rest of this year, and it seems anything can be justified with the help of the media. We are rapidly losing the right to a difference of opinion...

The state is your enemy, and the state wants you to shut up. Make your voice heard, and make it loud, before it is too late.

townie
- e-mail: cant_cope@hotmail.com

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

Absolutely

24.04.2001 23:10

You're correct, the level of repression on a global scale is getting worse. But Quebec proves that no matter how violent the authorities are, we can always win if we get enough people on the streets, and no doubt the G8 protests in Genoa will be just as successful.

However here in the UK we've got a real problem. The cops have perfeced a tactic of running scare stories in the mainstream media so that only 1000 or so mostly hard core anarchists turn up, then they beat the shit out of us and the press says we deserved it.

We have to turn to other tactics. Just organising an action once a year, smashing a few things and getting beaten up and thrown in jail is not going to change the world. Instead we've got to build a movement of anarcho-syndicalist unions and community organisations capable of destroying capitalism.

I also think that we need to see a rise in clandestine acts of property destruction, like the ELF is doing in the USA. So called "terrorist" acts are a necessary component of an effective resistance movement at this stage of neoliberalist capitalism, and certainly justified as long as no living beings are harmed. This is not an incitement to do anything, just my thoughts on where we're headed.

I think we ahould organise a conference ASAP after Mayday to discuss the future of resistance, because we sure as hell won't be able to organise another mass demonstration next year.

Lemming
mail e-mail: lemming@grandtheftcyber.com


Strikes Against Globalisation

24.04.2001 23:52

Quebec is the turning point away from protests.
The state wants to ban protesting. We can ban the state, by striking out against it. The sooner the anti-globalisation movement adopts the old class struggle slogans of strikes against the corporations and blockades of their functions the better.
In Hitlers Germany workers used to throw spanners in the works of machines and cripple them for hours.
Telephone wires were cut to disconnect communications.
So were electricity pylons and bridges to block movements of soldiers.
Resistance is lliberating, not futile.

Striker
mail e-mail: meberry68@hotmail.com


Picking targets

25.04.2001 00:41

The goebells in the media and the hard core hardliners of the repression machine must be identified and destroyed.We are all living behind enemy lines,now.
The soft drill of assasination politics can only work when the target is "a clear and present danger"and there is a consensus for their removal.
One more effort if we want to be free.
I nominate jack straw(my 2p worth)

proffr@fuckmicrosoft.com


Destroy and create

25.04.2001 04:06

Yeah, we need a definite class analysis of the situation, identify the people and institutions that are the driving force behind the system and attack them. Just kicking in McDonalds however is not going to change the world unless it is backed by a mass working class movement, otherwise resistance will indeed be futile and we will never achieve revolution.

Education is also a must, not just for non-activists but for activists too. I've been involved in the anarchist "scene" for about 2 years but my understanding of how the capitalist system actually works and what our best chances of destroying it are have only really developed recently. In fact I'm still learning, and I probably won't ever reach a point where I can claim to have all the answers.

The meeting to relaunch the London IWW branch sounds like a positive step forward. It's on May 16 so it'll also be a good opportunity to discuss how anarcho-syndicalist unions will fit in with the wider anti-capitalist movement after Mayday. See their web site (below) for more details.

Lemming
mail e-mail: lemming@grandtheftcyber.com
- Homepage: http://www.iww.org.uk


Further reading

25.04.2001 04:25

Here's a few recent essays which assess the current anti-capitalist movement and sketch a picture of the kind of revolution I think is possible. You can read all the Kropotkin and Marx you like but it's kind of difficult to apply it to the contemporary world, so I advise people to read these. If anyone else would like to reccommend stuff, feel free.

Cindy Milstein - Reclaim The Cities
Text: www.social-ecology.org/learn/library/milstein/reclaim.html
Audio: www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=2695

Jarod James - Getting Free
Text:  http://omega.cc.umb.edu/~salzman/Strategy/GettingFree
Audio: www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=2702

Errol Schwiezer - Listen, Radical!
Text: www.infoshop.org/rants/listen_radical.html

Lemming
mail e-mail: lemming@grandtheftcyber.com