THREAD: Some thoughts on "Unity"
There is almost no word as effective at cooling down the streets than "Unity"
"Unity" means we can't call out left-activists for their ineffective strategies and collaboration with the state and police. "Unity" means that us anarchists are told
There is almost no word as effective at cooling down the streets than "Unity"
"Unity" means we can't call out left-activists for their ineffective strategies and collaboration with the state and police. "Unity" means that us anarchists are told
that we can't air our critiques, try our tactics, and open the space up to unpredictability, unless we hurt "The movement"
It's a common tactic of left-activist types to get caught on the back foot by people leveling critiques at them and then try appealing for unity.
It's a common tactic of left-activist types to get caught on the back foot by people leveling critiques at them and then try appealing for unity.
The truth is, there is no "unity" to be had with the leftist managerial class in the first place. Anarchists are not part of the same movement as them, though we may find ourselves on the streets together once in a while. What kind of unity can really be had with these people?
Anarchists want to abolish the police and all forms of domination - these people want to pay lip service to defunding them, while leaving the state apparatus completely intact. We want to abolish capitalism - left/activist types usually work to build "community support" which
often includes some type of local business coalition. Taking that even further, we want to abolish work itself - Leftists and statists want to continue the task of converting all living things into as efficient a labor force as possible - reducing life down to nothing but value.
There is no unity to be had with those who will replace this miserable existence with another. Appealing for unity is just a way that these types deflect criticism and try to get you to water down your own politics. Any compromise made with them is a step in the wrong direction.
And that is not to say that this word "unity" is totally valueless. If you're in the streets or the courts together or there are some right wing fascists in town, it probably makes sense to not openly engage eachother in that moment, and I'm sure there are some other common sense
situations as well, but the point is is that those are basically the only times you can really put that word out there and it means anything at all.
To go further, this also applies to anarchists themselves. There are real differences between us and we shouldn't try
To go further, this also applies to anarchists themselves. There are real differences between us and we shouldn't try
to just smooth that over. Those differences have to mean something and, in a sense, there is nothing wrong with there being a range of ideas out there. We just need to take care that we are not engaging in monolithic thinking in the way that we relate to eachother.
As we said in a prior thread, trying to broker some type of agreement with the left-activsts in town is a failing endeavor which will only leave you more burnt out and disillusioned in the long run. To put it simply, we should be trying our own strategies and seeing what happens.
The crowds that have taken the street for the #M29 rebellion, some of the noise demos, etc proves that there are a lot of people here in Eugene that have moved beyond liberal discourse and are ready to get it cracking. The task is to find each other.
#Eugene #Eugeneprotests
#Eugene #Eugeneprotests
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