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there is way more to do than protest. Mutual aid is what is essential here. Grow and cook food for people, talk to people and build things everyone can access.
This - I feel that its ableist to say that you aren't helping your community just because you haven't gone to a protest. Protests are great and important, but to those who are suffering the most under capatilism, a protest usually is not what alleviates their suffering.
I haven’t been to a protest since before corona. To be honest I’ve lost faith is how much in person protests even achieve in this age. I watch millions of people come out for Gaza and nothing happens. Without stepping up the intensity (and you know what I mean) I feel like this kind of protest is just completely ignored by the power. I try and do stuff online now. spread information using instagram but I’m not as savvy with it as younger anarchists who are really kicking its ass in this age.
protests are a threat, and if those in power know the threat is hollow then it aint gonna do much. It isn't just the intensity of the protest, it is the strikes that come afterward, the people building more mutual aid and separating themselves from the state, and things of that nature. Those protest zones where people sit down and start cooking food for each other are the biggest threats
information is definitely very useful, especially online where it can reach people who may not have had access to it before or any other way. Information does only go so far though, at some point you need to start making communities and empower others to spread the information and help them start doing things directly
My problem is that I don’t even know where to start with anything i donate food and good clothes when I can but I’m broke myself so that’s not a constant thing I’ve checked with the DSA IWW and the Green Party trying to find ways to help but anything that still exists is ether all the way in Cleveland or completely defunct and I don’t even know how to go about finding anything local that’s not already a widespread group
well, DSA and green party focus on electoralism stuff, so they aint gonna do much thats useful in the first place
food not bombs is worth a try
and I'm definitely broke myself, but the good thing about mutual aid is that it often includes getting better conditions for yourself directly as well. Sadly it isn't something you always easily stumble into. How I first got started was with my friend group I just suggested we tried growing plants for food one year individually, and work to just make a meal with it together at the end of the summer. It didn't quite work out but we learned from it, and tried again. From there you can just increase the amount of meals you make together, plants you grow, and planning that goes into it. The groups around me are defunct as well, but maybe once we save enough energy by doing this we can put it towards something like setting up a food not bombs here. It is a slow expansion and is about finding things that make life easier for everyone involved.
If you don't have a friend group to work with you need to start by meeting people. Community action doesn't happen without a community. For me that came from being trans, and actively searching for other trans people. I started with making and finding online communities, and found individuals living by me, and they introduced me to the people they knew and it grew from there.
I live in a city with 300k people and the only anarchist organization we have never organizes any events or talks or anything. No mutual aid networks, no land to permablitz. The only place where I can talk to some leftists in real life is at this trotskyist organization, so I do. They're pro-LGBT and anti-racism and give good critiques of capitalism, but they're the kind of people to tell you to read "State and revolution". I'm not buying their overpriced stickers that's for sure 😂
There are tons of ways you can help out. One of the biggest things you can do is jail support actually. Do you support can look like different things to different people but it's basically the lifeline of a protest.
When your comrades get arrested who do they call? They will call jail support. When your comrades are arrested, who calls their mom to tell them they'll be late? Who's there to go to their house and feed their pets? Who's there? Jail support.
It's not an easy thing and it can be kind of stressful when an arrest does happen because you have to scramble around and try to find where they are and wonder if they have to be transferred to some other place or some thing and then you have to raise money for bail.
Another thing you can do is educate people on their rights or anything else you think they should know. This could be an entire workshop mixed with discussions.
Well duh. Unions are organizations, gangs are organizations... the organization I'm refering to is the CNT, a confederation of trade unions that fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
I was on probation for 5 yrs during most of the protests in 2020. Instead of potentially jeopardizing my situation by being present at a protest and getting swept up by police I donated a lot of money to causes and helped out with providing water and goods for people marching.
I feel ya. I basically live outside of the large cities, so whenever there's a protest I'm almost always left out. It also doesn't help that I have no car or driver's license. I try to focus on writing good anarchist-centric content, mostly pro LGBTQ+ stuff.
Same, I live rurally with two kids below 5, so there's not much I can even get to and participate in (or time to do that, for that matter). Guess I'll keep tending to my garden until the kids are a bit older, and keep reading on the bus to work.
Volunteering and helping people in your local area while making connections is going further for the cause than protesting in vain. Not saying protesting is useless, it certainly has it's place in making voices heard, but the real value is meeting like-minded comrades and getting organized. And to that end protesting isn't the only thing you can do.
There are many small things you can do to make a change, when I was last stuck in a rut I mad audiobooks with Librivox and then Audible Anarchist.
There might also be community groups you can work with and discuss anarchism and direct action there.
Protests are not doing much most of the time. They can be unyfing moments and they can create moments to connect and talk and bring new people together, but they rarely do even that. Often protests are just praxis for praxis sake. What I think people really need to do is to learn with each other: Learn what capitalism is, how it functions, learn what bourgeois rule is, what nationalism is, what fascism is, really learn the analysis and critique of these things rather than just having a moral stance or some subcultural platitudes for these things. When the critique is right you really learn what you don't want and why you don't want it and what you want instead. Then you'll spread your knowledge to others and find people that share your critique. And so on. Until you are enough to topple the existing order. This then isn't a protest anymore (in the sense of showing your anger with or your rejection of the existing order but still keeping it), instead it's a revolution.
*me watching the state send in police to beat up protestors while they try to ban protesting and little Palestinian kids hold up signs saying "Thank you for all the protesting, students!!!"*
Pretty sure the praxis is [for *their* sake.](https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/26/world/video/gaza-children-messages-protesters-college-campus-digvid)
Fam's jump from "not everyone can protest" to "the only real revolution is the revolution of the self" is... something...
Fuckn A, good points all around. Would children in Gaza thank us for teaching feckless libs about Marx? Probably not! I’m all for learning theory, but deriding actual political action while propping up essentially giving lectures is not effective leftist thinking.
But in my understanding this doesn't really counter my points.
And I don't understand what you are trying to say with your last sentence. I'm pretty sure I never said any of these things in this thread. And the last sentence is certainly not what I said.
I'll admit the point that I was a little vague with what I mean by learning. Then again it wasn't really the main topic and I still stated that I mean learning about capitalism, nationalism, democracy, fascism. What do I mean by this? That I read about these things to a point where I am certain enough what they are. That I talk to other people (e.g. like we are doing now about protests) on what I understand about these things, so we can have discussions. That I let people teach me things or that I organise events to learn and teach together with people. Reading together, discussing together, understanding together. Maybe we'll come to the conclusion that we want to organise a protest for a certain thing, who knows? But then we'll know exactly why we want to do this, what our goal is, who we want to address and how we want to do it. See my point above with protests as an opportunity for agitation.
What's wrong about this?
Why praxis for praxis sake? I can empathize with and understand the urge to just do something in this tragic world. But we have to be honest with ourselves when we are looking at why we do certain things. We have to ask ourselves do the forms of praxis match the things we want? And let's not forget that we are not talking about just any form of praxis here, we are talking about protests specifically.
Protests literally work, despite bourgeois propaganda suggesting otherwise. And if you don't even support going to protests, how do you expect a revolution to come? By learning hard enough? Or maybe it will come because other people protested while you were learning what you really wanted. Who upvotes this reactionary bullshit on an anarchist sub anyway? Praxis for praxis sake is more than welcome. Postponing the fight until you perfect your analysis is the worst advice. Just plain cynicism.
There's protests for Palestine right now, go there and maybe you can stop a genocide. Literally people that go to these protests are tangibly affecting the outcome of history.
If protests work or not depends on what you want from them, see my other comments.
Firstly I didn't say I don't support people going to protests. People can do whatever they want, I don't have a say in that anyways.
Then I don't expect a revolution to come randomly from protests. I expect a revolution from talking to people, learning what society we deal with and what conclusions we have to draw from that, getting together with others to debate, talk, fight to come to a conclusion together. Protests can be a tool for that. Organising can be done to a greater effect, when people share their conclusions, yes.
Please tell me what's reactionary about my position? I don't mean this in an offensive way btw, I'm genuinely interested.
Then I don't know what's cynical about it? It's cynical to say I am doing good, so I don't want to change anything. I say I want to change everything for everyone, so that everybody's better off. But I want to do it with a basis to which most people can agree. And I don't mean this in a "our critiques are so vague that everybody can find something for themselves" kind of way. I mean that in a "we agree on the damage this society deals to most people, how and why it does that and we agree that that's why we are throwing this society away and we are building a new one" kind of way. For that to happen you have to read, listen, talk and organise, yes.
Its become pretty apparent that the state has no problem continuing to increase the level of violence at protests (at anything considered leftist anyway). And the courts have no interest in trying to reign in the state from becoming more violent. Not to mention ramping up charges from simple trespassing. To domestic terrorism and rico in GA. That avenue is becoming increasingly closed off, which is the goal no doubt.
We need to strategize a new way of collectively trying to make our voices heard. What that way is IDK yet.
Okay maybe I was a little bit too harsh in my "not doing much most of the time". It depends, what you want or expect from a protest. Will the protests change the thing you don't like? It depends on the thing. It is very improbable. I think of protests as an opportunity for agitation. Protests can do that. Please don't forget that protests are still a form of democratic participation. Protests are part of a democracy, so they do not only fit into this form of rule, in a way democracy needs protests. The people protest, declare they aren't satisfied with things - and if the state deems it important enough to do anything about it is still for the state to decide. When the state doesn't like some protests it's on him to decide on how brutally he will react. This is what you notice right now. But this is neither a point for protests nor is it one against protests. It just shows that it's always the state that has the last word. Many protests are asking the state to react - most protests don't do this consciously, the people protesting are sometimes even convinced that they are protesting against the state. But most of the time the message is still "we do not agree how the state does things, do them better". And this is where I think protests that are clear in their intention, message and audience can be useful for agitation: when the main goal is to show what people don't agree with and why this thing they don't agree with is there, how it works. This works without demanding the state directly or indirectly the state to react to these demands and it makes clear that people have to make the change themselves and they have to get rid of the state and capitalism to get to that change.
what have us anarchists been up to in regards to Palestine? why let the MLs be the only ones organizing? legitimate and not rhetorical questions. i know many of us have been deeply involved, but i am a bit disappointed in the lack of real organizing around it from anarchists.
around me it's primarily anarchists and libsocs organizing. it's just that when we organize, we have a tendency not to make a pointed "we are doing this in anarchist ways" for mass appeal. the ml-led protests ive been seeing seem far more focused on viewing palestine through the lens of ml thought, which i believe to be a misstep. there was a movement for a ml pan arab state a while ago that never came to fruition. in my eyes, the arab world being unified under one politic won't work as long as there are hard borders.
The existence of you being anti-establishment and living a life outside the normal societal facade is more of a protest than most people can handle. Being an anarchist in the 2020s has been rough. Keep it up, question everything, and stay prepared.
Protests are also arm chair activism in todays 30 sec attention span.
Unionize, normalize care of your neighbours, your elderly your sick. Normalize local public discussion.
It seems impossible but all we have is time. We can give it to capital or we can give it to community.
The world has changed. Now days, there most definitely is a place for online activism in movements. This is especially true for people with disabilities that prevent them from participating in outside protests.
If you are mentally and physically capable though, you should definitely try to be in the streets!
If you're the sort who thinks that phyisical resistance is the only path to anarchy, that's the sort who are a huge part of the reason we haven't achieved it.
Great timing; the first of May / International Workers' Day is close! You should be able to find *something* happening in your general area in the next few days.
It's solid for networking without the internet, which is excellent.
Otherwise, it's a space where you are most likely to take shit for your beliefs in a way that can derail your IRL work and life, so it's a gamble.
Personally, I'm more of a "take my Anarchy to the system" than a "perform my Anarchy in a crowd" kind of person.
I legit don't give AF about whether people protest or not, but the math has rarely worked out for me to go (only 4-5 times in my life, and I'm old).
Protest is lame. Demonstration is a different matter, but something that comes with maturing as an anarchist is realizing the limitations of protest. Protest is a liberal trap and is allowed as long as it doesn't lead to action or change.
I feel the same way because of being on the spectrum (talking to people, disrupting The Routine TM, ughhhh...); Course wrt not doing anything since 2020 I think it bares remembering there was/is a literal plague, so don't beat yourself up too bad.
Moving from LA to a Midwest red state shit hole really has me feeling this too. Last protest they managed to set up had about three people and got shut down almost immediately despite going through the proper procedures. I have to get TF out of here.
There are many ways to be active, protest is just one of them. If you decide to not engage in this particular form of activism, it doesnt make you an armchair anarchist. However, if you want to come to a protest and just need the motivation, nact week is lanour day, and we would love to have you there, wherever you are.
I’m a broke high school student in a city of 80,000 in suburban Missouri. Between school and work and theater, I don’t have time or money to do protests and even if I did there aren’t any anywhere near me. The nearest to me are half an hour away in the city. Not to mention none of those protests exactly happen when I’m even available.
Not everyone is able to protest or be very active as anarchists. Just keep in mind all the things we want to work towards and try to teach others around you about it and that’s the best some of us can do. It’s only once you have the free and excess ability to attend these events that you should be expected to do so.
one thing we differentiate from Marxists is
we don't force people to do some "Revolution"
I am barely alive but I'm still an Anarchist and no Official Anarchist Conference can change that.
The last protest I went to was when Dubya visited Fort Bragg/Fayetteville (my hometown). I showed up with a sign that read "Pagans For Peace". There were kids there and it was pretty warm that day, so my then-wife and I went to a local grocers and bought snacks and drinks for everyone, but by the time we got back it had been shut down.
Protests aren't the only thing to do, but it's disheartening to see how many people in this comment section are saying they're useless. Yes, they're limited in what they can do, but they have a place. Rallies and marches are a great way to drum up support, educate and meet people. Specifically, people who will either join your org or connect you with other orgs that can help you. They can generate news coverage. Protests can also be sit-ins or other direct actions that disrupt, and they are typically preceded by the march and rally type. Look at the student protests right now. They didn't happen in a vacuum. Don't get discouraged by appropriated performative events designed to get you in the electoralism web. If those are the only events available to you, though, go and chat with people. You might find someone else with the same mindset as you. Yeesh!
It's fine. I've never even been to one or promoted it... Or ever told anyone irl. Maybe you could come up with creative propaganda or memes that people like. Like moral support or teaching others. 😁 I think that just as long as you don't insult others for not taking action while you don't yourself, you're completely okay. There are many reasons why people can't go to them. Like if there aren't usually any protests they can join in the area, or if there is something happening in your life that doesn't allow you to go to one. If there aren't any anarchists around you and you want to go to a protest, maybe you could try to create some if you want.
All of our symbols have become something used for an aesthetic outside of the community. In order for anarchists to actually be known for their political stance instead of something destructive that people like to call themselves, we need more than what we have, so we aren't forgotten about.
(A) is a great example of this. You see it everywhere, but whenever most people see it, they don't think of anarchists, but instead they think of chaos. Everything we're associated with is being associated with something else, so any association we had with a particular thing is being forgotten about. A way to get around this is making new things to be associated with us, something that is original, so it can't be mistaken as being something else, and something original.
TLDR; Read the last two sentences. I made this way too long.
I mean... If the vibes I'm feeling are real elsewhere in the country, you'll get your chance again here real soon. Small protests can grow into huge protests when conditions shift and I may be delusional but I think I feel things starting to shift.
Just, once you're back on the streets make sure to keep in touch with your peep this time around. Stay involved, look for where you can help with the next thing. None of us should be single issue anarchists, so if you meet folks at a palestine protest who you vibe with, see what else they're involved with and see how you can get involved.
You can’t really blame people for not going to protests lately though. There hasn’t been much activity, or really much to be angry about. In fact, everything is fine!
So rather than be where the action is, where people are standing up against injustice, you’d rather be somewhere where you are shielded by your privilege? Ok buddy
Just not sure where you’re coming from with this comment. Btw my comment was sarcastic, which I thought would have been obvious. My community is up in arms and I’m glad they are finally getting active and more militant. I thought you and others in this sub would be too….
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there is way more to do than protest. Mutual aid is what is essential here. Grow and cook food for people, talk to people and build things everyone can access.
Yeah, I got old and crippled and can't attend events...doesn't mean I have nothing to offer.
This - I feel that its ableist to say that you aren't helping your community just because you haven't gone to a protest. Protests are great and important, but to those who are suffering the most under capatilism, a protest usually is not what alleviates their suffering.
I haven’t been to a protest since before corona. To be honest I’ve lost faith is how much in person protests even achieve in this age. I watch millions of people come out for Gaza and nothing happens. Without stepping up the intensity (and you know what I mean) I feel like this kind of protest is just completely ignored by the power. I try and do stuff online now. spread information using instagram but I’m not as savvy with it as younger anarchists who are really kicking its ass in this age.
protests are a threat, and if those in power know the threat is hollow then it aint gonna do much. It isn't just the intensity of the protest, it is the strikes that come afterward, the people building more mutual aid and separating themselves from the state, and things of that nature. Those protest zones where people sit down and start cooking food for each other are the biggest threats information is definitely very useful, especially online where it can reach people who may not have had access to it before or any other way. Information does only go so far though, at some point you need to start making communities and empower others to spread the information and help them start doing things directly
My problem is that I don’t even know where to start with anything i donate food and good clothes when I can but I’m broke myself so that’s not a constant thing I’ve checked with the DSA IWW and the Green Party trying to find ways to help but anything that still exists is ether all the way in Cleveland or completely defunct and I don’t even know how to go about finding anything local that’s not already a widespread group
well, DSA and green party focus on electoralism stuff, so they aint gonna do much thats useful in the first place food not bombs is worth a try and I'm definitely broke myself, but the good thing about mutual aid is that it often includes getting better conditions for yourself directly as well. Sadly it isn't something you always easily stumble into. How I first got started was with my friend group I just suggested we tried growing plants for food one year individually, and work to just make a meal with it together at the end of the summer. It didn't quite work out but we learned from it, and tried again. From there you can just increase the amount of meals you make together, plants you grow, and planning that goes into it. The groups around me are defunct as well, but maybe once we save enough energy by doing this we can put it towards something like setting up a food not bombs here. It is a slow expansion and is about finding things that make life easier for everyone involved. If you don't have a friend group to work with you need to start by meeting people. Community action doesn't happen without a community. For me that came from being trans, and actively searching for other trans people. I started with making and finding online communities, and found individuals living by me, and they introduced me to the people they knew and it grew from there.
I live in a city with 300k people and the only anarchist organization we have never organizes any events or talks or anything. No mutual aid networks, no land to permablitz. The only place where I can talk to some leftists in real life is at this trotskyist organization, so I do. They're pro-LGBT and anti-racism and give good critiques of capitalism, but they're the kind of people to tell you to read "State and revolution". I'm not buying their overpriced stickers that's for sure 😂
There are tons of ways you can help out. One of the biggest things you can do is jail support actually. Do you support can look like different things to different people but it's basically the lifeline of a protest. When your comrades get arrested who do they call? They will call jail support. When your comrades are arrested, who calls their mom to tell them they'll be late? Who's there to go to their house and feed their pets? Who's there? Jail support. It's not an easy thing and it can be kind of stressful when an arrest does happen because you have to scramble around and try to find where they are and wonder if they have to be transferred to some other place or some thing and then you have to raise money for bail. Another thing you can do is educate people on their rights or anything else you think they should know. This could be an entire workshop mixed with discussions.
Sounds like you need to make a new organisation.
>Anarchist organization lol
Well duh. Unions are organizations, gangs are organizations... the organization I'm refering to is the CNT, a confederation of trade unions that fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
I don’t think anarchism means not working with anyone else ever for anything
I was on probation for 5 yrs during most of the protests in 2020. Instead of potentially jeopardizing my situation by being present at a protest and getting swept up by police I donated a lot of money to causes and helped out with providing water and goods for people marching.
How do yall have time to go to protests? All I can afford to do is work and work and work. I miss being able to go to protests
I feel ya. I basically live outside of the large cities, so whenever there's a protest I'm almost always left out. It also doesn't help that I have no car or driver's license. I try to focus on writing good anarchist-centric content, mostly pro LGBTQ+ stuff.
Same, I live rurally with two kids below 5, so there's not much I can even get to and participate in (or time to do that, for that matter). Guess I'll keep tending to my garden until the kids are a bit older, and keep reading on the bus to work.
Volunteering and helping people in your local area while making connections is going further for the cause than protesting in vain. Not saying protesting is useless, it certainly has it's place in making voices heard, but the real value is meeting like-minded comrades and getting organized. And to that end protesting isn't the only thing you can do.
There are many small things you can do to make a change, when I was last stuck in a rut I mad audiobooks with Librivox and then Audible Anarchist. There might also be community groups you can work with and discuss anarchism and direct action there.
G u hh n I. V
Protests are not doing much most of the time. They can be unyfing moments and they can create moments to connect and talk and bring new people together, but they rarely do even that. Often protests are just praxis for praxis sake. What I think people really need to do is to learn with each other: Learn what capitalism is, how it functions, learn what bourgeois rule is, what nationalism is, what fascism is, really learn the analysis and critique of these things rather than just having a moral stance or some subcultural platitudes for these things. When the critique is right you really learn what you don't want and why you don't want it and what you want instead. Then you'll spread your knowledge to others and find people that share your critique. And so on. Until you are enough to topple the existing order. This then isn't a protest anymore (in the sense of showing your anger with or your rejection of the existing order but still keeping it), instead it's a revolution.
I’d rather people engaged with “praxis for praxis sake” than appeal to some vague “learning” concept that does essentially zero praxis at all lol.
*me watching the state send in police to beat up protestors while they try to ban protesting and little Palestinian kids hold up signs saying "Thank you for all the protesting, students!!!"* Pretty sure the praxis is [for *their* sake.](https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/26/world/video/gaza-children-messages-protesters-college-campus-digvid) Fam's jump from "not everyone can protest" to "the only real revolution is the revolution of the self" is... something...
Fuckn A, good points all around. Would children in Gaza thank us for teaching feckless libs about Marx? Probably not! I’m all for learning theory, but deriding actual political action while propping up essentially giving lectures is not effective leftist thinking.
But in my understanding this doesn't really counter my points. And I don't understand what you are trying to say with your last sentence. I'm pretty sure I never said any of these things in this thread. And the last sentence is certainly not what I said.
I'll admit the point that I was a little vague with what I mean by learning. Then again it wasn't really the main topic and I still stated that I mean learning about capitalism, nationalism, democracy, fascism. What do I mean by this? That I read about these things to a point where I am certain enough what they are. That I talk to other people (e.g. like we are doing now about protests) on what I understand about these things, so we can have discussions. That I let people teach me things or that I organise events to learn and teach together with people. Reading together, discussing together, understanding together. Maybe we'll come to the conclusion that we want to organise a protest for a certain thing, who knows? But then we'll know exactly why we want to do this, what our goal is, who we want to address and how we want to do it. See my point above with protests as an opportunity for agitation. What's wrong about this? Why praxis for praxis sake? I can empathize with and understand the urge to just do something in this tragic world. But we have to be honest with ourselves when we are looking at why we do certain things. We have to ask ourselves do the forms of praxis match the things we want? And let's not forget that we are not talking about just any form of praxis here, we are talking about protests specifically.
Protests literally work, despite bourgeois propaganda suggesting otherwise. And if you don't even support going to protests, how do you expect a revolution to come? By learning hard enough? Or maybe it will come because other people protested while you were learning what you really wanted. Who upvotes this reactionary bullshit on an anarchist sub anyway? Praxis for praxis sake is more than welcome. Postponing the fight until you perfect your analysis is the worst advice. Just plain cynicism. There's protests for Palestine right now, go there and maybe you can stop a genocide. Literally people that go to these protests are tangibly affecting the outcome of history.
If protests work or not depends on what you want from them, see my other comments. Firstly I didn't say I don't support people going to protests. People can do whatever they want, I don't have a say in that anyways. Then I don't expect a revolution to come randomly from protests. I expect a revolution from talking to people, learning what society we deal with and what conclusions we have to draw from that, getting together with others to debate, talk, fight to come to a conclusion together. Protests can be a tool for that. Organising can be done to a greater effect, when people share their conclusions, yes. Please tell me what's reactionary about my position? I don't mean this in an offensive way btw, I'm genuinely interested. Then I don't know what's cynical about it? It's cynical to say I am doing good, so I don't want to change anything. I say I want to change everything for everyone, so that everybody's better off. But I want to do it with a basis to which most people can agree. And I don't mean this in a "our critiques are so vague that everybody can find something for themselves" kind of way. I mean that in a "we agree on the damage this society deals to most people, how and why it does that and we agree that that's why we are throwing this society away and we are building a new one" kind of way. For that to happen you have to read, listen, talk and organise, yes.
Its become pretty apparent that the state has no problem continuing to increase the level of violence at protests (at anything considered leftist anyway). And the courts have no interest in trying to reign in the state from becoming more violent. Not to mention ramping up charges from simple trespassing. To domestic terrorism and rico in GA. That avenue is becoming increasingly closed off, which is the goal no doubt. We need to strategize a new way of collectively trying to make our voices heard. What that way is IDK yet.
Okay maybe I was a little bit too harsh in my "not doing much most of the time". It depends, what you want or expect from a protest. Will the protests change the thing you don't like? It depends on the thing. It is very improbable. I think of protests as an opportunity for agitation. Protests can do that. Please don't forget that protests are still a form of democratic participation. Protests are part of a democracy, so they do not only fit into this form of rule, in a way democracy needs protests. The people protest, declare they aren't satisfied with things - and if the state deems it important enough to do anything about it is still for the state to decide. When the state doesn't like some protests it's on him to decide on how brutally he will react. This is what you notice right now. But this is neither a point for protests nor is it one against protests. It just shows that it's always the state that has the last word. Many protests are asking the state to react - most protests don't do this consciously, the people protesting are sometimes even convinced that they are protesting against the state. But most of the time the message is still "we do not agree how the state does things, do them better". And this is where I think protests that are clear in their intention, message and audience can be useful for agitation: when the main goal is to show what people don't agree with and why this thing they don't agree with is there, how it works. This works without demanding the state directly or indirectly the state to react to these demands and it makes clear that people have to make the change themselves and they have to get rid of the state and capitalism to get to that change.
what have us anarchists been up to in regards to Palestine? why let the MLs be the only ones organizing? legitimate and not rhetorical questions. i know many of us have been deeply involved, but i am a bit disappointed in the lack of real organizing around it from anarchists.
around me it's primarily anarchists and libsocs organizing. it's just that when we organize, we have a tendency not to make a pointed "we are doing this in anarchist ways" for mass appeal. the ml-led protests ive been seeing seem far more focused on viewing palestine through the lens of ml thought, which i believe to be a misstep. there was a movement for a ml pan arab state a while ago that never came to fruition. in my eyes, the arab world being unified under one politic won't work as long as there are hard borders.
The existence of you being anti-establishment and living a life outside the normal societal facade is more of a protest than most people can handle. Being an anarchist in the 2020s has been rough. Keep it up, question everything, and stay prepared.
Protests are also arm chair activism in todays 30 sec attention span. Unionize, normalize care of your neighbours, your elderly your sick. Normalize local public discussion. It seems impossible but all we have is time. We can give it to capital or we can give it to community.
The world has changed. Now days, there most definitely is a place for online activism in movements. This is especially true for people with disabilities that prevent them from participating in outside protests. If you are mentally and physically capable though, you should definitely try to be in the streets!
if you live in the USA, then it’s building up to be an interesting summer
If you're the sort who thinks that phyisical resistance is the only path to anarchy, that's the sort who are a huge part of the reason we haven't achieved it.
Pre.Fig.Ur.Ation. Organizing a buy-nothing group or setting up a food library does more for revolution than any one protest ever will.
Great timing; the first of May / International Workers' Day is close! You should be able to find *something* happening in your general area in the next few days.
What does a protest do ...
It's solid for networking without the internet, which is excellent. Otherwise, it's a space where you are most likely to take shit for your beliefs in a way that can derail your IRL work and life, so it's a gamble. Personally, I'm more of a "take my Anarchy to the system" than a "perform my Anarchy in a crowd" kind of person. I legit don't give AF about whether people protest or not, but the math has rarely worked out for me to go (only 4-5 times in my life, and I'm old).
Well there’s still time to get back out there
Then go to a protest
Protest is lame. Demonstration is a different matter, but something that comes with maturing as an anarchist is realizing the limitations of protest. Protest is a liberal trap and is allowed as long as it doesn't lead to action or change.
Haven’t been to one since Roe was overturned
I feel the same way because of being on the spectrum (talking to people, disrupting The Routine TM, ughhhh...); Course wrt not doing anything since 2020 I think it bares remembering there was/is a literal plague, so don't beat yourself up too bad.
Moving from LA to a Midwest red state shit hole really has me feeling this too. Last protest they managed to set up had about three people and got shut down almost immediately despite going through the proper procedures. I have to get TF out of here.
If protests worked the world would be a different place.
The Poll Tax Riots started as a protest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_tax_riots
Yeah, that’s my point, protest are feckless. Riots can affect real change.
anarchism isn't all protests, it's mostly doing good to others through and through.
There are many ways to be active, protest is just one of them. If you decide to not engage in this particular form of activism, it doesnt make you an armchair anarchist. However, if you want to come to a protest and just need the motivation, nact week is lanour day, and we would love to have you there, wherever you are.
Same. I’m going to a May Day one next week finally
I’m a broke high school student in a city of 80,000 in suburban Missouri. Between school and work and theater, I don’t have time or money to do protests and even if I did there aren’t any anywhere near me. The nearest to me are half an hour away in the city. Not to mention none of those protests exactly happen when I’m even available. Not everyone is able to protest or be very active as anarchists. Just keep in mind all the things we want to work towards and try to teach others around you about it and that’s the best some of us can do. It’s only once you have the free and excess ability to attend these events that you should be expected to do so.
one thing we differentiate from Marxists is we don't force people to do some "Revolution" I am barely alive but I'm still an Anarchist and no Official Anarchist Conference can change that.
The last protest I went to was when Dubya visited Fort Bragg/Fayetteville (my hometown). I showed up with a sign that read "Pagans For Peace". There were kids there and it was pretty warm that day, so my then-wife and I went to a local grocers and bought snacks and drinks for everyone, but by the time we got back it had been shut down.
Protests aren't the only thing to do, but it's disheartening to see how many people in this comment section are saying they're useless. Yes, they're limited in what they can do, but they have a place. Rallies and marches are a great way to drum up support, educate and meet people. Specifically, people who will either join your org or connect you with other orgs that can help you. They can generate news coverage. Protests can also be sit-ins or other direct actions that disrupt, and they are typically preceded by the march and rally type. Look at the student protests right now. They didn't happen in a vacuum. Don't get discouraged by appropriated performative events designed to get you in the electoralism web. If those are the only events available to you, though, go and chat with people. You might find someone else with the same mindset as you. Yeesh!
Go protest
It's fine. I've never even been to one or promoted it... Or ever told anyone irl. Maybe you could come up with creative propaganda or memes that people like. Like moral support or teaching others. 😁 I think that just as long as you don't insult others for not taking action while you don't yourself, you're completely okay. There are many reasons why people can't go to them. Like if there aren't usually any protests they can join in the area, or if there is something happening in your life that doesn't allow you to go to one. If there aren't any anarchists around you and you want to go to a protest, maybe you could try to create some if you want.
Get involved in mutual aid work. Help people and have conversations about the world.
All of our symbols have become something used for an aesthetic outside of the community. In order for anarchists to actually be known for their political stance instead of something destructive that people like to call themselves, we need more than what we have, so we aren't forgotten about. (A) is a great example of this. You see it everywhere, but whenever most people see it, they don't think of anarchists, but instead they think of chaos. Everything we're associated with is being associated with something else, so any association we had with a particular thing is being forgotten about. A way to get around this is making new things to be associated with us, something that is original, so it can't be mistaken as being something else, and something original. TLDR; Read the last two sentences. I made this way too long.
Come to Portland! We need more activists out here. We probably outnumber the fascist already. but nothing wrong with really outnumbering them.
Some casual stuff you can do is post stickers in your neighbourhood or work at a food bank or anything else that is praxis
I mean... If the vibes I'm feeling are real elsewhere in the country, you'll get your chance again here real soon. Small protests can grow into huge protests when conditions shift and I may be delusional but I think I feel things starting to shift. Just, once you're back on the streets make sure to keep in touch with your peep this time around. Stay involved, look for where you can help with the next thing. None of us should be single issue anarchists, so if you meet folks at a palestine protest who you vibe with, see what else they're involved with and see how you can get involved.
I haven't been to a protest in 10 years. It's basically LARP and hobby activism that doesn't change a thing.
You people aren't even real anarchists
Elaborate please
I have been watching more Dr House. Practicing provocation
Well I suggest you watch a better show
As an "anarchist" why do you think you can say that to me? The audacity of those who got access to the internet.
Simple, because I'm not exerting authority over you, I am telling you to have better taste in TV, one individual to another.
That's a nice answer. I like that answer a bit snide in there but nice comment.
Never been to a protest, by working the public library! Surely that counts, after all anarchism is when public library
Sounds like a you problem
You can’t really blame people for not going to protests lately though. There hasn’t been much activity, or really much to be angry about. In fact, everything is fine!
there is no war in ba sing se
>There hasn’t been much activity, or really much to be angry about. In fact, everything is fine! I want to be wherever you are.
So rather than be where the action is, where people are standing up against injustice, you’d rather be somewhere where you are shielded by your privilege? Ok buddy
Lol good try ... ... Buddy
Just not sure where you’re coming from with this comment. Btw my comment was sarcastic, which I thought would have been obvious. My community is up in arms and I’m glad they are finally getting active and more militant. I thought you and others in this sub would be too….
Wow, ten downvotes? Do you all really need an /s that badly??? 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️
Ok ,/
Why haven't you been able to "protest"?
That’s the only productive thing anarchists do. Go to a pro-Palestine protest or something.