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WHY WE MUST PUT AN END TO THE "VIOLENT vs NON-VIOLENT" HYPOCRISY NOW!

hum@n | 14.07.2004 06:04 | Analysis | Repression | Social Struggles

written by some comrades after the Mayday in Dublin

The resistance movement against the globalisation of capital is faced with an artificial dilemma - this was seen particularly during the Genoa protests- whose only purpose was to cause infighting.

Some say that "a wise ruler knows that his/her best weapon is to Divide and Rule"... that's true, except that this person is not wise, but just one of a few cunning parasites walking this earth, whose lifeblood is exploitation...

This cunning attempt to "divide and rule" has caused some problems, especially in times of confusion and misinformation as in Genoa, but in most cases the "violent vs non-violent" distinction has been identified as just another plan of the authorities to cause infighting and splits as a first step... so when the split is made, and solidarity is broken, the second stage of this hypocritical division is to allow the authorities (police, mainstream media, courts etc) to attack - by use of physical force, propaganda, prosecution, eviction etc, so as to isolate and contain any form of direct or indirect resistance. So, in most parts of the continental Europe, this cunning attempt to divide the movement is played out again and again by the media. Fortunately, in most cases, it does not affect the people who resist.

In Britain the situation is quite different... This is not the time to give examples and to start blaming each other about things of the past. But, in the very near future, the G8 summit will take place here, so we should be extremely careful in believing and reproducing what they want us to... If we want our movement to survive, and to affect genuine change, we must listen to, and understand each other more than we have done so in the past.

So, in order to build solidarity – to create a stronger movement, this is a first attempt for mutual understanding. That's why we must make a number of things clear:

If someone chooses to use a non-confrontational method of resistance for instance a sit-down protest, but another chooses to destroy property*** or to defend himself by actively resisting, that's not in any way controversial. These are simply different tactics used in different circumstances. The problem in our movement begins when tactic becomes an ideology and sectarian divisions appear.

*** When people speak about property destruction, we should explain, that by property we are NOT talking about personal possessions – for instance a family car, or for that matter local fish&chips or a bakery, but what exists to protect and serve the power of the few and to impose slavery and exploitation over the masses - banks, multinational institutions, police stations, embassies etc. These are a part of an authoritarian mechanism which serves the state and the capital... on the other hand a phonebox or bus shelter, while belonging (according to the laws at least) to the state, cannot be used in anyway against the people.

So let's move to the main point... If we accept that:

...defending yourself and people around you from a baton charge by mindless pigs,
...actively (instead of applauding them) releasing arrested people,
...destroying the very means that the bosses use to enslave the masses,
...pushing through police lines which protect a few rich bastards who make plans on how to become richer,
...attacking a "red zone" which is there to prevent freedom of movement,

is an act of violence, then what should we call:

...our day-to-day exploitation in producing goods, a process by which we are forced to hand them over to the property owners (ie the bosses)?
...the never ending murders of our brothers and sisters who die while working for the bosses (what they like to call working "accidents")?
...the fact that in order to feed ourselves and our children, we cannot afford to buy what we produced with our own hands?
...the suicidal destruction of the environment which is carried out by the very same few bosses who care only about power and authority?
...the fact that a bunch of parasites have several houses and cars when a large section of the British population are homeless?
...the fact that the same bastards steal millions from the people by way of taxes in order to set up sophisticated surveillance systems to control the whole population?
...the fact that a few jerks are travelling in circles around the earth when millions of people are dying from curable diseases?
...the never ending wars for power which cause genocide, mass killings, and destroy whole cultures?

This is violence! It is hypocritical to speak of violent protesters when people collectively decide to defend themselves or to confront with dignity a fully armed and ruthless mechanism, which in this case is called the police.

In Palestine and in other areas of the world, the state is using a similar tactic, but it uses slightly different terms... it calls terrorists the 14 year old kids who consciously confront Israeli tanks! it calls terrorist the people who fight back for their lives when their houses are demolished by bulldozers and their neighbours are killed by Apache helicopters.

The "violence - non-violence" issue is an artificial division used only to create a division in our movement! Let's stop reproducing the state propaganda! The monopoly of violence belongs to the state not to the people who resist! Our strongest weapons against state terrorism are:

SOLIDARITY! DIGNITY! RESISTANCE!

In this authoritarian and inhuman system one human life costs less than a broken window…
THEY SPEAK OF PROFITS, WHEN WE SPEAK OF HUMAN LIVES!

hum@n

Comments

Display the following 14 comments

  1. Who are you? — Paul Edwards
  2. Who is Paul Edwards? — James Thorne
  3. The strategic value of non-violence — Jz
  4. An interesting article on the Gothenburg riots — random
  5. minor point — anarchoteapot
  6. CHE — by any means nessisary
  7. che hey? — libertarian
  8. GP/GM — Greenie
  9. GP — dee locke
  10. What i think.. — Solidarity to the comrades from Dublin.
  11. I believe — (A)
  12. Each to his own — Krop
  13. The rabbi, the airliner, and my m.p. — b.t. fish
  14. (!) — pink blocer