{ texts for nothing }

I’ve already shared my thoughts on the rioting and protests in Greece. If you want to know what the participants think, you should read CrimethInc’s interview with an anonymous Greek anarchist, which focuses on how the actions were organized and who was involved in them. Here are just a few points from the interview:

• Actions have been undertaken mostly by affinity groups, While these groups are often affiliated with larger  federations (which makes it easier for different groups to communicate and coordinate), they’ve been acting under their own initiative rather than taking orders — making them flexible, responsive to the situation “on the ground,” and difficult to suppress.
• There have also been daily General Assemblies in occupied spaces. These assemblies build on a 30-year history of collective discussion and decision-making, not to mention a lot of recent work around creating neighborhood assemblies.
• The majority of the participants in the rioting have been anarchists (the interview subject claims there are 20,000 of them in Greece). But there are also plenty of high school and university students, who have been radicalized — and influenced by anarchist ideas — through years of struggle against the privatization of education, and who are following a tradition of successful student revolt in Greece. They’re taking action because they’re angry with the police, fed up with a failed political system and the exhaustion of mainstream political ideas, disenchanted with a culture that talks down to them and excludes them, and excited by the empowerment of taking to the streets and taking control of their own lives.
• Greek anarchists have worked hard to reach out to the broader community — for example, by organizing neighborhood assemblies and participating in struggles that already mean something to non-anarchists, rather than symbolic, ineffectual protests. They’ve also learned to cooperate with one other despite their differences, and to overcome the “subcultural identity politics” that too often dominates North American anarchism.

In its response to the CrimethInc interview, the Center for Strategic Anarchy (which has done a great job covering the news from Greece day-by-day) is talking about what the Greek riots can teach anarchists in the US. It’s aimed at anarchists, of course, but still worth reading for anyone interested in creating anti-authoritarian social change in North America.

Note to the cafes in which I occasionally work: You can stop with the Christmas music now. I assure you, that reggae version of “White Christmas” will not be missed.

Earlier this month, an American living in Slovakia renounced his US citizenship and became a stateless person.

“I was disgusted to be associated through citizenship with the most dangerous gang of criminals in the world, the United States government. Renouncing my citizenship is a means of achieving a political divorce with that vile institution,” [Mike] Gogulski said. “American politicians extol their state in terms of liberty, human rights, free markets and the rule of law. Examination of the country’s history and present actions reveals nothing but lies and hypocrisy. The genocide of Native Americans, slavery, nuclear slaughter at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, support for brutal dictators, the torture of innocents at places like Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the massive robberies for the benefit of big business in the name of ‘rescuing’ the economy, the world’s biggest prison population, the growth of a domestic police state and the brutal wars of oppression underway in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia paint a rather different picture. America, via its government agents, is truly exceptional – exceptionally evil,” he stated.

Gogulski says that when he receives the Certificate of Loss of Nationality he will apply to the Slovak Interior Ministry for a Travel Document – similar to a passport – under the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, which Slovakia signed in 2000. He says that he has no plans to leave Bratislava until then, and that he recognizes that his life without citizenship will be more difficult, especially with respect to travel. But, “if the Schengen Zone is to be my cage,” Gogulski states, “I think it’s large enough for me. There’s enough to explore within Europe to last a lifetime.”

Now that’s commitment to your principles! If you’re curious, Gogulski has extensively documented both his rationale and the process itself on his blog.

Interestingly, it’s not actually possible for a Canadian to do something like this. You can renounce Canadian citizenship only if you are or will become the citizen of another nation. No statelessness for us.

When Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot, the uproar in Greece started instantaneously, and it has been going strong for over two weeks. As CrimethInc. points out, that has only been possible because Greek anarchists were already organized:

Thanks to a network of social centers, a deep-seated sense that neighborhoods such as the one in which Alexandros was killed are liberated zones off-limits to police, and a tradition of resistance extending back through generations, Greek anarchists feel entitled to their rage and capable of acting upon it. In recent years, a series of struggles against the prison system, the mistreatment of immigrants, and the privatization of schools have given innumerable young people experience in militant action. As soon as the text messages circulated announcing the police killing, Greek anarchists knew exactly how to respond, because they had done so time and again before.

The general public in Greece is already sympathetic to resistance movements, owing to the heritage of struggle against the US-supported dictatorship. In this regard, Greece is similar to Chile, another nation noted for the intensity of its street conflicts and class warfare. With the murder of Alexandros, anarchists finally had a narrative that was compelling to a great number of people. In another political context, liberals or other opportunists might have been able to exploit this tragedy to their own ends, but the Greek anarchists forestalled this possibility by immediately seizing the initiative and framing the terms of the conflict.

It’s not that everyone on the streets is an anarchist. Rather, anarchists had the social infrastructure in place to channel widespread discontent with the  social and economic system into action on the streets. They’ve spearheaded a massive popular mobilization against state violence, economic injustice, and coercive social relations.

That’s an impressive accomplishment, and one that the Greek anarchists can rightly be proud of. But in a sense, it’s also the easy part. The really difficult work involves transforming the current mobilization into lasting social change. Eventually, things will die down — and when that happens, if everything goes back to the way it was before, then I don’t think the anarchists will have achieved their goals. We’ve seen some really exciting things happen (a general strike, occupations, broad popular engagement), and I suspect there’s more stuff like that going on, only we’re not hearing about it in North America because our media can’t look past the violence and confrontation. Hopefully the people in the streets will be able to preserve and build on their successes. Hopefully, they’ll be able to keep on building a new and better society in the weakening shell of the old.

Marc Lee peers into the future and sees Steven Harper’s Economic Advisory Council calling for tax cuts:

OK, there has been no such call. Yet. But mark my words, this panel will call for tax cuts as the federal government’s fiscal stimulus, and the government will deliver.

The Economic Advisory Council is not exactly a representative group. No labour representation, no Aboriginal reps, no one from the social or non-profit sector whatsoever. Thus, the groups most likely to be affected by the recession have no voice on this panel.

Here’s a list of the council members. With two exceptions, they’re all big business bigwigs — and the exceptions are Gordon Campbell’s former Finance Minister and an ex-head of the CD Howe Institute. Marc Lee points out that four of them are multi-billionaires. I mean, Jim freaking Pattison is a member.

People like them created the current economic crisis. People like them aren’t going to be hurt by it. So why is the government that “represents” us listening to people like them, instead of people like us — people who are going to be hurt by the recession?

Whose interests are being represented here?