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by LA Anarchist Convergence
Friday, Aug. 04, 2000 at 7:42 PM
Anarchist gather at DNC armed to the teeth... with H20!
Ultimate Pacifism.
"Anarchist Watergun Army. It'd be a mock-army of anarchists equipped with super-soakers threatening politicians with water. It'd be a simple, pacifist way of protesting whatever, but even better is it's satirical value on our culture's obsession with violence. Real guns are the ultimate symbol of control: throughout history authorities have siezed and maintained their power through the threat of force. The anarchist, desiring simply to end control rather than gain it for him(her)self, must therefore be against weapons. But waterguns are a completely legitimate tool."-Chia
All activists and anarchists are invited to bring along waterguns to the DNC!
USE ONLY WATER IN THE TOYS OTHERWISE WE ALL MAY SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!
Using waterguns is also an easy way to cool off in the HOT August in LA. Activists are expected to DRINK from they're waterguns to ensure its only water (and to make sure everyone is properly hydrated in the 100+ LA temperatures).
WATERFIGHT COPS AND ANARCHISTS. Act out the cops shooting the anarchists with water!!! Great fun! Stay cool! Pacifism! Blah blah...
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by stopday
I'd highly recommend not bring them even if they are a bright neon color. Like N30 in Seattle and London for J18 there is a good chance that undercover agents will be taking pictures of protesters. Making the toys look like the real thing shouldn't be too difficult, which would be a nightmare scenario in a politically rigged trial. If you thinking I'm taking things too far check out the book "Timber Wars" by Judi Bari. A similar incident happened with her when a "friend" got her to dress up like Rambo as a joke pertaining to the media calling her a "terrorist". The joke pictures were later found and used against her in court.
stopday.com/direct.html
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by J.S.
The police are just looking for an opportunity to open fire. Anarchists in army fatigues and (even one) carrying black water pistols would be all it takes to open fire. This is LA folks, not San Francisco. Use your brains!
Peace.
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by Dan Scanlan
dscanlan@oro.net Nevada City CA
A few years back, the LAPD shot to death a guy standing on a corner clicking his TV remote control at passing cars. Probably because they couldn't understand it. People who are willing to take up arms and put themselves in harm's way for the corporations have even a less understanding of what this movement is all about.
There is nothing more important than reaching out to those who don't understand us. Threatening them with look-alike toy weapons is an invitation for everyone to be on their worst behavior.
These corporados want a Kent State in Los Angeles. The writer who drew attention to how the FBI made headlines with Judi Bari's innocent photo, made a very good point. At the Headwaters a few years back, Governor Pete Wilson himself arrived nearby at a planned protest. Police agencies from tens of counties were nearby. Organizers made a wise decision to cancel the rally. Wilson was deprived of his Kent State in the Redwoods and the cops were left standing around looking helpless.
I'm beginning to wonder if the protests against the Democratic convention should take place in our own home towns, thousands of them. The Internet will bring the protests together in cyberspace and the net effect in the world of broadcast would be the same, if not greater.
www.oro.net/~dscanlan
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by ANonymous
The police like to claim any liquid they can find or used on them or someone else, is some sort of poison or acid, or urine. This will only make that easy misinformation easier to create and spread. They could also say shit like they are BB guns or real guns, depending on the look of the squirt guns.
You also don't know if some 16 year old idiots not realizing the consequences of their actions, hear about this, come out with their pistols to be ANARCHIST (not realizing it as a political theory, but thinking it means a rebellion in which you "destroy shit" and hurt the "pigs"), and actually SDO fill it with harmful liquid...thinking it will somehow help or who knows what.
That's not to say most (in fact, maybe only a handful if any) of those who take the time, effort, and risk to attend protests are idiot 16 year olds who don't quite "get it" yet...but I think that is something that has to be kept in mind.
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by warcry
warcry@chickmail.com
There's a lot of bad ass 16 year olds who are a lot smarter than the adults around them. Kids learn quick how fucked up shit is in the world. But your point is well taken. It's always important to set a good example. The watergun idea would defenitley backfire. They're going to go apeshit as it is, like they're doing in Philly right now. And there's almost total media blackout on the protests. About the comment made that people who take up arms to defend against corporations have "no idea what this movement is about" I have this to say, and I'm saying it carefully, because this is totally being monitered. People have taken up arms to defend what they love in revolutions prior. We of course won't because we'll get slaughterd, plus most of us don't want to be like the U.S government and kill. It's just important to remember who has the monopoly on violence at all times - and that is the state. They and the corporations are the ones doing the damage. That's the threat to progress and humanity. Not us. And the media is totally failing to share that with the world.As long as we're confronting unaccountable power, we should really direct some rage at the media, because they're the main reason we're so fucked. The governement's violent depravity is expected, but the media, they have a potentially transformational role; instead they play along with corporate puppet political hacks and cheerlead the fascist system right along. We'll be fucked forever unless we seize our communications medium. The main one. The main switch... oh how it's gaurded. Imagine a democratic media... it would be one small step for mankind... one GIANT LEAP for the REVOLUTUION...
Just a strategy suggestion...
Warcry
See you at the Anarchist conference. I'm sure the Feds will try to fuck with it somehow, maybe even round us up... even though we have freedom of assembly and speech. They wipe their ass with the Constiution regularly, like in Philly right now, so we should really not be totally invisible. Maybe we can get Warren Beatty to come. Hey if Arriana Huffinton can woo him over... but really, we should get some sort of visibility, as a saftey..
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by harry potter
smartbomb@chickmail.com 416-678-2749 fdsfaggdffgd
anyone who thinks that weapons and violence do not play a role in revolutionary social struggle are either blind to reality, ignorant of history, objectively counterrevolutionary, or complacent, and should start by reading:
***Ward Churchill, _Pacifism As Pathology_ (Arbeiter Ring Press, Winnipeg, 1998).
Leon Trotsky, _The Russian Revolution_
(as trotsky clearly demonstrates, the insurrection in st. p had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of the authoritarian regime. for more contemporary work on the russian rev check out david mandel's 2 volumes on the working class.)
(for a modern case study) Geoffrey York, _People of the Pines: The warriors and the legacy of Oka_
Frantz Fanon, _The Wretched of the Earth_. The introduction by Jean-Paul Sartre is very good.
George Jackson, _Blood in My Eye_
There has never been a non-violent revolution and there never will be. the question is when to use force, not if we should use force.
oh yah-up above someone said that anarchists by definistion have to disavowal guns....ok-were the spanish anarchists not anarchists? was it there fault they lost? did using force against fascism corrupt them? should they have instead tried to form "a positive ring of nrg" (the stupidest peacenik line i heard in dc) around franco in an attempt to show him the superiority morality of their cause? fuck this dumb american liberalism that passes as radical or even anarchist thought/action. i think 90% of american activists are nothing other than left liberals. in no other country in the world is there even debate on the idea that we will have to force at some point in time. only in the US is there this dumb discussion, and for this discussion to even come up points to your liberalism.
principled pacifism is ignorant, racist, elitist, suicidal, and objectively counterrevolutionary.
www.wsws.org
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by Joseph Edward Eisenschmidt
josephedwardeisenschmidt@yahoo.com
Since people will be arrested for making puppets, being gay, talking about anything not approved by police, why try to just get along, fit in. Retreating protesters will be jailed and stripped and have pepper spray poured in thier eyes and pants. My grandfather was gassed in seattle exiting his health clinic where he is treated for cancer. Remember, the ohio four were killed while on the way to class, and the next day every major campus in america was occupied by state forces. If you can think it - do it. When innocent protesters and people just walking down the street are jailed and the non state approved media are taken away it will be too late to implement stronger plans.
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by name
the waterguns POSSIBLY wouldn't be a disaster as long as they are bright pink or orange or green super-soakers. those really can't be mistaken as real guns. but they could still use the 'acid' or 'dangerous liquid' line, so be super careful in thinking this out....
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by Gregor
> principled pacifism is ignorant, racist, elitist,
> suicidal, and objectively counterrevolutionary.
Dipshit.
The most well-armed anarchist collective will end up as blob of goo on the floor of a cell in County if they start waving "anarchist bombs" at the LAPD. Dumb.
Not to mention ignorant (you sure aren't describing a valid strategy for LA), racist (which neigborods will the cops crack down on?), suicidal (self-explanatory), and counterrevolutionary (though that assertion must, of course, remain subjective).
I'm afraid American anarchists may be seeing that there are means of social control that are much more effective than mere truncheon waving thugs (though we've got plenty of those)
And I think it's really a bad idea to point almost anything at the hordes of freaked out cops who have a license to crack skulls. Even a squirt might get you returned fire and nonlethal or not, rubber bullets hurt, no?
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