{"article":{"id":103847,"heading":"Reportback from Boston no-DNC consulta","author":"Bl(A)ck Tea Society","created":"2004-02-26 23:12:04","modified":"2013-11-11 00:28:52","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 07:28:52","article":"

reportback\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAn Austin activist provides a reportback to the DNC resistance\r\nconsulta, held in Boston Feb 13-16.<\/span>
\r\nblackteasociety.org
\r\n
\r\nThe Democratic National Convention Resistance Consulta, called by an\r\nanti-authoritarian coalition known as the Bl(A)ck Tea Society, was held\r\nin Boston on the weekend of February 13-16. Participants traveled from\r\nall over the country, either with or on behalf of larger affinity\r\ngroups. Written proposals came in from as far away as Washington state.\r\nThe purpose of the consulta was to collectively discuss and educate one\r\nanother about the upcoming actions surrounding the Democratic National\r\nConvention, to be held in Boston on July 26-29. Participants came to\r\nhear what was already being planned, both by the Bl(A)ck Tea Society\r\nand the State, as well as to offer discussion and proposals about\r\npossible action scenarios.
\r\n
\r\nThe majority of the consulta was held in a rather large rectangular\r\nroom, on the second floor of a radical community church near Copley\r\nSquare. (A painting on the third floor featured the Virgin Mary in a\r\nbalaclava.) The walls of the meeting room were draped with Anarchy\r\nflags of every color: black\/red (anarcho-syndicalism), black\/purple\r\n(anarcha-feminist), black\/pink (anarcho-queer) and black\/green\r\n(eco-anarchist). This broad inclusiveness of anti-authoritarian\r\nperspectives, staunchly defended by the facilitators against pressure\r\nfrom multiple directions, allowed the Bl(A)ck Tea Society to open a\r\nspace where struggle was placed before platformist quibbling-where\r\ntheory was supplanted by a solid commitment to cooperation and action.
\r\n
\r\nThrough the morning session of the consulta, somewhere between 60-70\r\nparticipants were presented with an innovative model of facilitation\r\nthat was nothing short of inspired. Members of the BTS spoke with all\r\nof us about the questions they had dealt with in the weeks leading up\r\nto the consulta. The big one, they told us, concerned whether our\r\ncommunity had reached a level of maturity where mass decentralized\r\naction was now possible. Their conclusion, based on long discussion,\r\nwas that we, as an anarchist movement, were ready to take the next step.
\r\n
\r\nThe decentralized mass action still fresh on a lot of our minds was the\r\n“People’s Strike” in Washington, D.C. the fall of 2002. While a certain\r\nnumber of affinity groups there had pulled off daring direct actions\r\n(the burning barricade still vividly recalled by a number of us) the\r\nlarge percentage of those that converged on the city were arrested on\r\nthe first day. Each was corralled together after participating in the\r\nfew centralized actions that had been planned: the pagan cluster, the\r\nsnake march, critical mass, etc. From this experience, the problem\r\nappeared of how to best encourage larger numbers of people to organize\r\nand carry out autonomous direct actions.
\r\n
\r\nThe BTS facilitators decided that the problem was one of support and\r\ncoordination. At the People’s Strike, groups traveling from far out of\r\ntown did not have access to the sorts of information they might need to\r\nplan an action. This was true both in terms of tactical logistics, as\r\nwell as the particular weave of local issues and threads of history\r\nthat overlay any city. The consulta opened, then, with a detailed\r\npresentation of Boston’s geography and the ways in which certain\r\nlocations intersected with systems of class and race privilege. About\r\nCharlston, Dorchester, and Roxbury, we learned about the construction\r\nof INS detention centers, the lack of reliable public transportation,\r\nand the presence of Bioterrorism research laboratories. The BTS made it\r\nclear that it would provide any sort of historical or\r\ncommunity-specific information that might be needed in the planning of\r\nany direct action.
\r\n
\r\n“People coming to Boston must have a plan,” one of the BTS facilitators\r\ninsisted. Affinity groups were encouraged to cluster if they wished to\r\ncoordinate larger, more above-ground actions. At the same time, all\r\ngroups were welcomed to approach the BTS about any logistical support\r\nneeded for more clandestine actions-as long as details were kept\r\nprivate. (For purposes of greater electronic security, all participants\r\nwere encouraged to procure encrypted accounts from Hushmail.com.) The\r\nrole of the Bl(A)ck Tea Society, as they described it, was not to plan\r\nactions but to provide a framework for action, a certain amount of\r\ninfrastructure, and their full support before, during, and after each\r\naffinity group’s action.
\r\n
\r\nIncluded in the Bl(A)ck Tea Society’s coalition is the National Lawyers\r\nGuild (which has already pledged a minimum of 50 legal observers), BALM\r\n(Boston-Area Liberation Medics), and the Anarchist Black Cross, which\r\nteaches street defense and provides material, moral and monetary jail\r\nsupport for those arrested. The message delivered to all of us by the\r\nBTS was that our backs were covered at every step of the way; and they\r\nwould bend theirs over backwards to ensure that whatever we wanted to\r\ndo would be carried off in the clearest, safest, and most effective\r\nmanner possible.
\r\n
\r\nThe education provided by members of the BTS and allies about local\r\nissues was considerable. We were given a detailed analysis of the labor\r\nsituation in Boston, which may or may not calculate heavily in the\r\nequation of this summer’s actions. 32 of the 32 city unions do not\r\ncurrently have contracts in Boston, and this includes the Police and\r\nFirefighter unions. While it is expected that Mayor Menino (D) will\r\nnegotiate at least some of the contracts prior to the convention, the\r\nones that remain without contracts are likely to march. In the case of\r\nthe Police union, the city police are threatening to strike and\r\nconsider any outside security officials, including Federal and State,\r\nscabs. The general consensus was that we should in no way fool\r\nourselves into believing that a Police union is our ally. Nonetheless\r\nthe situation might provide certain opportunities for action.
\r\n
\r\nOther pressing social issues were discussed, including the severe lack\r\nof affordable housing or living wages throughout Boston, high taxes,\r\ngentrification, and the unaccountable growth of corporate power. BTS\r\norganizers encouraged anyone planning an action to conduct research\r\nabout the area beforehand, either independently or with their support.\r\nThe chances are high that allies may be found in even the most\r\nunexpected places.
\r\n
\r\nWeeks before the consulta, Tom Ridge declared the Democratic National\r\nConvention a “high-level national security event.” While the Boston\r\ncity council has expressed that it wants nothing to do with the\r\nso-called “Miami model,” there will be at least one thing in common\r\nbetween the two approaches. It is what has become the most visceral,\r\nmaterial expression of all that we oppose: the FENCE. In this case,\r\nhowever, we might see it in its most honest form: a solid, opaque,\r\nblack wall fully enclosing several blocks around the Fleet Center where\r\nthe convention will be held.
\r\n
\r\nAnyone (the police in particular) looking for a repeat of Miami is\r\nlikely to be disappointed. The BTS has made it clear that, for all the\r\nsupport they intend to offer out-of-towners, they will be planning no\r\ncentralized march against the fence. Attempts to dismantle it were by\r\nno means discouraged, but the implication was that any attempt-small or\r\nlarge-would be more likely to succeed if planned and executed in\r\nsecret. For this and other such actions, the Bl(A)ck Tea Society\r\nreiterated their commitment to provide as much information and\r\ncoordination as possible before the event.
\r\n
\r\nAt the same time, the Bl(A)ck Tea Society expressed a strong desire,\r\nshared by most of the consulta participants, that the initiators of any\r\naction join and extend local struggles. This would be in contrast to\r\nprevious “fence” actions, whose participants risked isolating\r\nthemselves from local communities by seizing upon only the most\r\nvisible, and also most temporary, symbols of exclusion in the city.
\r\n
\r\nThroughout the discussion on Saturday, which continued for over eight\r\nhours with only a few short breaks (as well as an unexpected false\r\n“fire alarm” that forced us to evacuate the building) what impressed me\r\nthe most was the considerable focus and-dare I say\r\nit?-“professionalism” of all those that attended. Many attendees took\r\nextensive notes and forced themselves to jot down to every comment,\r\neven when they seemed ready to topple over from exhaustion. Everyone\r\nwas fully engaged in the conversations taking place. The dialogue was\r\nspirited, cooperative and impressively efficient. There was a general\r\nsense that our discussions were of actual import; that all we said and\r\nhow carefully we listened would have a real, material impact on future\r\nevents.
\r\n
\r\nI was reminded of the shift described by militants in Paris, France\r\n1968; where they “broke out of the psychology of defeat, the outlook of\r\nthe loser” (endemic of Western Leftists, even then) and began to\r\nunderstand themselves as subjects of their own history. There were no\r\nspectators present at the consulta, and no spectacle either: only\r\nparticipation. Should this level of direct personal involvement\r\ncontinue, expressed collectively in our rejection of electoral politics\r\nand its thin veils of “democracy,” the participants of the Republican\r\nNational Convention protests will have much to live up to: once they\r\nsee the barricades burning in the streets of Boston.
\r\n
\r\nhttp:\/\/blackteasociety.org
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n<\/span>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"nodnc04@hush.com","link":"http:\/\/blackteasociety.org","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"An Austin activist provides a reportback to the DNC resistance consulta, held in Boston Feb 13-16.\r\nhttp:\/\/blackteasociety.org","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/02\/103847.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}