Re: Re: Will Anarchists work with Non-Anarchists?

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

My original query under this heading got lost in the debate over the
specifics
of the Seattle action. And it was not just a matter of abstract
willingness. The
Black Bloc indicated clearly in their communique that (a) they felt only
contempt
for the non-violent marchers and (b) that they felt themselves free to
ignore,
even obligated to ignore, decisions of the majority of demonstrators in
future
actions. So the question was, how many Pen-l subscribers would be
willing
to engage in an illegal but non-violent act of disobedience if they
thought or
knew that a small minority among the demonstrators would, on their own,
act like provcateurs and unilaterally change the nature of the
demonstration?.
(The same question can arise from the other end: a majority of a large
demonstration
can be prepared for confrontation of various degrees and have a minority
committed
for philosophical reasons to non-violence interfere.)

To begin with, my response at a distance was the same as Doug's up close
--
approval of the window smashing. But the more I read both about *and* by

the Eugene anarchists the more they remind me of the Weathermen of the
late '60s -- and the chief feature of the Weathermen was their utter
contempt
for everyone who did not agree with them in every detail. Of course the
Weathermen called themselves communists (maoists in fact), and the
Eugenians
are anti-marxist, but fundamentally there is no difference between them,
and
they do have an essence: movement breaking. With types like Mark Rudd
and JJ and Jeff Jones around (or their progeny of the '90s) the FBI can
save its money and not bother to hire provocateurs.

(I had a four hour midnight debate with Jeff Jones back in September of
'69
while his fucking sidekick sat nearby fingering a bicycle chain -- with
it being
quite unclear whether the chain was for cops or for people who disagreed

with Jeff. He was a better debater than me and the result was the
virtual
dissolution of the ISU SDS chapter. Had the weathermen not broken up
the student movement the events at the time of the murder of Fred
Hampton
in December and Kent State in May might have been rather more
interesting.)

Carrol