Slave Master Revolts

Bandh

Revolutionary Communist critique of the Black Tea Society Call for the DNC





I really, really hope there are more groups or larger coalitions organizing for the DNC this summer along side the Black Tea Society. The group is a definite positive contribution and speaks to an important section of people in the movement but doesn’t really put forward a vision that can mobilize what's really needed to maximize resistance at the DNC.

This is really apparent in the initial call made for people to come to Boston for the DNC.

The main flaw that is really problematic is the wrong analysis of the American Revolution. I can see how this outlook would be drawn by a more mainstream grouping or people that holds more illusions to the real nature of the U.S, but this was surprising coming from an anti authoritarian/ anti- capitalist (AA/AC) collective.

“Over two hundred years ago, the people of Boston sparked a war. A war of resistance against tyranny.”

Yes the American Revolution had resistance tones to it and it was a revolution, but in no way is at an event to be upheld like in the call. The American Revolution was led by the elite of the colonies against a colonial power. This was not a just revolt spearheaded by an oppressed colonial people fighting for self determination; it was military war between two sectors of elites contesting for the power to exploit and reap the profits of the U.S. It was a revolution during the time period of when several other Bourgeois Revolutions were taking place and making a transition from Feudalism to Capitalism ( this transition was completed in the U.S by the end of the Civil War). This was the nature of the Revolution from beginning to end. There is nothing to uphold about this revolution other than it moved the U.S one step further out of Feudalism and made it more possible to create a proletariat class/ a working class ( i.e. the enemy are creates it’s own gravediggers).

So this was the fundamental nature of the U.S Revolution and who it was led by. Now in the case of the Loyal 9 and some other groups that might not have been part of this elite, the situation is still not one to uphold and you can see various reasons not to. For one a case like the Loyal 9 they were shopkeepers and “ small- business” proprietors. Now I don’t know the Black Tea Society’s class analysis on allies and enemies, but most Anarchist literature doesn’t really see the middle class as the potential ally, I‘ve even read a book from a AA/AC perspective that says that the Middle Class is the enemy and creating a basis with them is class collaboration. Although that wouldn’t be a MLM critique of the actions by the Loyal Nine or the Sons of Liberty, meaning the heart of it wouldn’t be a critique of their class status. The critique is what guided their actions and what class were they representing. The “direct actions” of the Sons of Liberty had a rebellious nature and was an action that people can draw positive inspiration from, but it really wasn’t the most radical expression that could’ve been manifested at the time. It was shop owners that wanted the taxes lowered from them to have more profit and whatever positive attributes there was of the actions was dissolved and re-directed by ruling elite at the time (Washington, Jefferson, ect.)





That’s the main problem with this call; is this romantic nostalgia and incorrect interpretation of history in this country.

“We intend to finish the American Revolution. We intend to carry this torch.”

This torch does not illuminate far and if anything, burnt the dreams of any type of radical character to the revolution. Even if you were to argue you are going to finish the aspects that have some positive attributes to it, you’re finishing something with a weak, flimsy base that would end up not fundamentally changing anything; and inevitably reverting back to square one or something worse.

As far as a flyer saying, “Come finish the American Revolution” its kind of hokey in itself. I mean, any person reading this flyer is not going to really take it seriously, downplaying whatever viable points are made in the call.

Another drawback of the line represented in the call is this thing about defense and/ self defense. Mainly this is encapsulated in “We are organizing. We will resist. This is not about politics. This is about community defense”. Well yes it is political. The fact that people made the decision to say “ it’s not political” is a political decision, it derives from a certain political ideology or philosophy. Especially if it’s organized, if it was a spontaneous act there would be room to argue it isn’t political, but as it says in the call

“ We are organizing”. So it is politics, it’s just unfortunately politics that really don’t get at the heart of things and organize people on the basis to unleash there full potential.

The fact people want to just negate politics is unfortunate, the decision to try and discard politics is not building things on the right terms and you can’t even get rid of politics if you wanted to or not in this situation.

The community defense part, I think correlates to the rest of the call, in that it panders in a lowest common denominator outlook. The entire call solely focuses on how the DNC affects the people of Boston and not even how it relates to people in Boston, but how it affects Boston in a direct, day-to-day way. It calls out the inconveniences and the police state clampdown that directly affects the people of Boston and that’s it. This actually stems from either a lack of an internationalist view or a lack of faith or both. This call narrowly focuses on issues surrounding Boston and nothing really outside of this, why? do the organizers not think people can not grasp world issues, can not grasp something that does not effect there day to day struggle? You can’t organize people on issues that don’t exist in front of their faces?

You can and must. Unfortunately there are no signs of this methodology at all in this call. Instead of bringing to people the fact of what the Democratic Party is, how this Party is behind exploiting people across the third world and uses military force to continue exploiting the masses, how the people of Boston have more in common with the Iraqi people than any person participating in that convention, how this party is unreformable and will continue to make the masses lives a living hell and that it’s not going to change by participating in THEIR elections but by actively taking up resistance in the streets, that this convention represents a celebration of a bunch of spineless vampires toasting glasses to a new agenda of war and repression and the people should not settle for their crumbs and part time compromises.

Instead people are mobilized around the police shutting down streets. It lacks any exposure on the system or what this convention is about other then it’s going to affect their daily life in a repressive way. It’s not wrong to include some of the oppressive measures the state uses that directly effects people like police brutality, attacks against women, or cutting welfare, ect. ect. But as a conscious force you need to bring the world to the people, things that develop a real revolutionary people. Of course people are going to have an understanding of world politics many times more than people organizing, but there is still a gap, there is still a division between conscious forces organizing and people who are not consciously resisting. That’s an objective truth. There is a gap and to deny it, is to deny both reality and the people of the means to liberate themselves.

One thing that is mentioned briefly that doesn’t really encompass the call, but is included in it is “ Under their corporate banner they will close down our streets”. This is true and not true. The main reason why this is of significance is the trend among many folks in the anti-globalization movement that corporations superseded the state. That corporations are the bodies running things and the state is subordinate to it. Actually no, this isn’t the case and it’s important to get this across to people because it arms them with a better understanding of the state. In the end the state is the essential means of imperialism and the state is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Corporations exist with the backing of the state, mainly the military backing of the state. The military might of Imperialist countries is what allows corporations to continue exploitation in oppressed nations. Corporations however do exert influence, especially after the fall of the other imperialist superpower the USSR. However, we still live in an era of Imperialism and Proletariat Revolution. The WTO, IMF and so forth are instruments of imperialist states, imperialist states are not instruments of the WTO, IMF

Link to B.A.S DNC article



http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/10/19/1129646