G8: Mass Struggle and Revolution.
After considering what to write for the last 24 hours I have come to the realization that the best thing that I can do is to write a statement - a correct one - after having returned to Sweden and met the bizarre reactions that I have received on letting them know where I had spent the better part of a week. Even the Swedish syndicalist paper, Arbetaren has written an incredible piece. Or rather; an Attac-member has somehow managed to write a bizarre article in it. Probably due to all the decent reporters at Arbetaren were arrested. I cannot seem to access the article online through arbetaren.se, so go out and buy the paper instead if you can. As for hat burgeoise media has written, it cannot even be shrugged off as reification: 20 000 reported in the demonstration that even the police counted 80 000 in is simply a lie. A bald-faced lie by the liberal press. I wish I was surprised.
Repression and Riots
There has been much talk of rioters, particularly "black bloc" rioters. Various rumours circulate, but the truth is simply that the police sent 80 officers into the 3000 strong autonome bloc. They were beaten back easily, and that was used as a way to justify heavier repression later in the week. Once the media had gotten their "violent riot" story (funny how I seemed to have missed the massed battle that media reported, even though I was present for hours after the demo ended) the narrative was set. The demonstrators were violent and monstrous.
The police had moved down a side street straight in front of the immobile studio cameras of NBC and CNN that were on a "conveniently" placed ship just across the field in the harbor, the cops attacked, pulled back, pretended to be shaken by a few rocks and bottles thrown at them. It was staged. All of it. There was sporadic violence, but it was all set off by the police.
Police State
Praxis is above all an understanding of acquired experience. The everyday knowledge built on experience. Half empiricism, half ideological matrix. A possible gate out of the postmodern hell due to it's practical-critical nature. With the police going by with 30 cars every ten seconds, with officers harassing you, with them beating your friends, with them lying, with them standing on your leg, grinning, as they have handcuffed you, you come to realize a few things. Above all, you understand what revolution must mean. Not peace, not temperance, but a violent overthrowal of the state. Not because we want it, but because we will be forced to. Perhaps someone should indeed tell the G8 and the burgeoise that it must be, shall be, the bullet or the ballot. The bullet or the ballot.
Also, you come to understand the situation of Palestine, of Iraq and of the working classes of New York and Paris. When you are constantly hounded, harassed and attacked something happens to you. Living but for a few days in a city occupied by a violent, extremist organization opens up perspectives that cannot be anything but deafening and alarming in what they tell you about the world. About how much must be overthrown, destroyed. About the depth of corruption in the burgeoise state.
Reform and Revolution
One happy surprise was the focus on class struggle and antifascism at the G8 meeting. Many Communist Parties, sects, organizations, Internationales and so on were in place and in general a widespread militancy formed, particularly around the blockades that were staggeringly succesful considering the violent repression.
Some groups, however, were pathetic in their actions. Attac, for example, said that they would turn in anyone who even tried to fight back against the police. The usual nonsense about romanticising violence and wanting to riot was heard, mixed up with the lies of the press. Attac and other such organizations may not realize it, but they lose every time they try to separate themselves from the "violent" demonstrators. Even if we do not like other peoples ideology, we are all in the same boat. Except for the class traitors of Attac, apparantely, who act like a sad shadow of the treason of the second Internationale. How was it Marx put it again? "Hegel once said that history repeats itself. He forgot to add: the first time as a tragedy, the second as a comedy".
There are no "good" and "evil" demonstrators. Except, perhaps, people who are willing to hand over their comrades to the enemy to be beaten and jailed, and to have the press hound and deterr others from joining radical groups while favouring their own, harmless little pseudoreformist pets.
Blockades, Victory and Bloody Lies.
The blockades and demonstrations were huge successes. The sort of solidarity, the sort of action that was palpable in the camps and in the movement was unsurpassed as far as I have experienced. Understanding that we must think more tactically, and that we must do what is necessary to block these meetings and to rally masses against them must be ingrained in every left wing organizations. Victory is won through struggle.
However, that Merkel is championed for her leadership and diplomacy is ridiculous. The G8 meeting showed once more how absurd and short-sighted capitalism is, practically nothing will be done for the environment that is so deteriorating at a breakneck pace.
Solidarity
Solidarity does not mean that we must be nice to dogs and children. It means the bond won and built between individuals whose interests are the same. There are many people jailed, many who have been violently beaten. If you can do something for them now, please do so. In the future, we will announce solidarity manifestations and actions in southern Sweden, and certainly not only there.
Conclusion
Hegel, to return to that old German, said that the slave would always kill the master because the master would eventually let down his guard. All the slave needed was one chance. That is how the mass protests and the summits are like. One day something catastrophic - for them - will happen. Heiligendamm was a victory, we achieved our objectives. One day... it will be worse. We will win. We will overthrow the ruling class and all the old rubbish. It is inevitable. One day, the mistakes will be worse than usual. Then there will be no more G8.
Repression and Riots
There has been much talk of rioters, particularly "black bloc" rioters. Various rumours circulate, but the truth is simply that the police sent 80 officers into the 3000 strong autonome bloc. They were beaten back easily, and that was used as a way to justify heavier repression later in the week. Once the media had gotten their "violent riot" story (funny how I seemed to have missed the massed battle that media reported, even though I was present for hours after the demo ended) the narrative was set. The demonstrators were violent and monstrous.
The police had moved down a side street straight in front of the immobile studio cameras of NBC and CNN that were on a "conveniently" placed ship just across the field in the harbor, the cops attacked, pulled back, pretended to be shaken by a few rocks and bottles thrown at them. It was staged. All of it. There was sporadic violence, but it was all set off by the police.
Police State
Praxis is above all an understanding of acquired experience. The everyday knowledge built on experience. Half empiricism, half ideological matrix. A possible gate out of the postmodern hell due to it's practical-critical nature. With the police going by with 30 cars every ten seconds, with officers harassing you, with them beating your friends, with them lying, with them standing on your leg, grinning, as they have handcuffed you, you come to realize a few things. Above all, you understand what revolution must mean. Not peace, not temperance, but a violent overthrowal of the state. Not because we want it, but because we will be forced to. Perhaps someone should indeed tell the G8 and the burgeoise that it must be, shall be, the bullet or the ballot. The bullet or the ballot.
Also, you come to understand the situation of Palestine, of Iraq and of the working classes of New York and Paris. When you are constantly hounded, harassed and attacked something happens to you. Living but for a few days in a city occupied by a violent, extremist organization opens up perspectives that cannot be anything but deafening and alarming in what they tell you about the world. About how much must be overthrown, destroyed. About the depth of corruption in the burgeoise state.
Reform and Revolution
One happy surprise was the focus on class struggle and antifascism at the G8 meeting. Many Communist Parties, sects, organizations, Internationales and so on were in place and in general a widespread militancy formed, particularly around the blockades that were staggeringly succesful considering the violent repression.
Some groups, however, were pathetic in their actions. Attac, for example, said that they would turn in anyone who even tried to fight back against the police. The usual nonsense about romanticising violence and wanting to riot was heard, mixed up with the lies of the press. Attac and other such organizations may not realize it, but they lose every time they try to separate themselves from the "violent" demonstrators. Even if we do not like other peoples ideology, we are all in the same boat. Except for the class traitors of Attac, apparantely, who act like a sad shadow of the treason of the second Internationale. How was it Marx put it again? "Hegel once said that history repeats itself. He forgot to add: the first time as a tragedy, the second as a comedy".
There are no "good" and "evil" demonstrators. Except, perhaps, people who are willing to hand over their comrades to the enemy to be beaten and jailed, and to have the press hound and deterr others from joining radical groups while favouring their own, harmless little pseudoreformist pets.
Blockades, Victory and Bloody Lies.
The blockades and demonstrations were huge successes. The sort of solidarity, the sort of action that was palpable in the camps and in the movement was unsurpassed as far as I have experienced. Understanding that we must think more tactically, and that we must do what is necessary to block these meetings and to rally masses against them must be ingrained in every left wing organizations. Victory is won through struggle.
However, that Merkel is championed for her leadership and diplomacy is ridiculous. The G8 meeting showed once more how absurd and short-sighted capitalism is, practically nothing will be done for the environment that is so deteriorating at a breakneck pace.
Solidarity
Solidarity does not mean that we must be nice to dogs and children. It means the bond won and built between individuals whose interests are the same. There are many people jailed, many who have been violently beaten. If you can do something for them now, please do so. In the future, we will announce solidarity manifestations and actions in southern Sweden, and certainly not only there.
Conclusion
Hegel, to return to that old German, said that the slave would always kill the master because the master would eventually let down his guard. All the slave needed was one chance. That is how the mass protests and the summits are like. One day something catastrophic - for them - will happen. Heiligendamm was a victory, we achieved our objectives. One day... it will be worse. We will win. We will overthrow the ruling class and all the old rubbish. It is inevitable. One day, the mistakes will be worse than usual. Then there will be no more G8.
Labels: G8, mass struggle, reformism, revolution
posted by Björn at 5:33 PM
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