“On May 15, around 500 people assembled in Atlanta City Hall.”
“Clearly, most of those assembled were not interested in talking to the City Council, per se, but were more interested in castigating them directly, or disrupting the peace of the City Hall in general.”
Millions of people show up to vote. Ignoring your omissions to be able to call speaking to politicians the “biggest protest”, the amount of people speaking to challenge politicians on policy, law, issue, is not indicative of the amount of people who want a departure from this civilization in a desire for, and action of, anarchy. This is nothing but reorganizing and channeling energy and ideas back into the hands of the state. How “revolutionary” are words pushed towards these despots of democracy such as “We voted for you”, “You represent us”, and other vomit inducing phrases that harken of a dreamy alternative democracy or policy in their minds?
“Furthermore, it is clear that while some anarchists have been in a state of disarray, “critique”, and wait-and-see, many others have been pushing ahead full steam.”
“Had [X happened], it is quite likely [then Y]. This would have contributed to a deepening of the political crisis facing the administration. Ahead of the next Week of Action starting June 24, anything that contributes to this crisis should be pursued.”
Is this “ahead” speaking to politicians? I don’t think you should call yourself anarchists when you have dialogue with the state and approach politicians as potential benevolent providers of your goal of stopping cop city, instead of as capitalist colonial state enemies in a life and pursuit of anarchy. You are leftists who will dull our blades and re-write histories of struggle in order to propose vanguardist visions.
The concept of a “political crisis” is trapped under the framework of governmental legitimacy and victory/defeat, and I find it laughable that you consider yourself an anarchist and not only recognize this framework, but further legitimize it by working within it. How anarchist is a framework that pushes for a “political crisis” that is only facing politicians in their campaigns? You might as well be voting and signing petitions.
If you look on scenes.noblogs.org for just the past month I would say that people have been busy acting and sharpening their imagination and dialogue.
“Most of the speeches that were delivered were filled with pure vitriol and contempt for the pro-police councilpeople. Almost all of the speakers demanded the defunding of Cop City and of the APD in general. The imaginary of this kind of abolitionist generally seems to advocate for the “reallocation” of public funds to “social services” such as libraries, schools, housing, etc.
Rather than sit back in their heavenly purity, revolutionaries should continue to advance coherent, approachable, and realistic perspectives within the movement.”
The “imaginary” of this kind of abolitionist is disgusting to me. I am not an aligned with the legislative “defunding” of police and the reorganization of a society inside of the civilization of this genocidal colonial prison society. That “imaginary” was a narrative pushed by politicians and their peddlers to quell unrest during the uprising of 2020, and it is disgusting to hear it again. That will never be appealing. It will not be enough for people under the boot of the genocide of colonialism, the murders perpetrated in the name of capitalism, the coalescence of an untold number of montrosities under civlization, for those that have been murdered in the name of policing and white supremacy, for people murdered in the name of borders, and I refuse to allow this type of narrative and logic to be considered anarchist or unchallenged when you are one logical leap away from proposing revolutionary voting.
Rather than sit back in some dreamy concessions, demands, plan, or movement, anarchists should continue to attack wildly.
If the Council [does A then we should B] The consequences for a decision like this will continue to justify all manners of wild reaction and sabotage against the project and its supporters, just as the 17 hours of civic opposition in 2021 have done in the eyes of many movement sympathizers around the world.
The 17 hours of public opposition in 2021 happened after and as machines were already in flames, the atlanta police foundation had a window smashed, a ceo’s house was visited, trees were spiked, there was a solidarity attack on an office building, and people pushing electoral victories were arrested and ignored by our enemies.
Let’s not contribute to the de-escalation of the conflict by sitting back and waiting for the perfect moment. Let’s not convince people to shrug off repression with “radical” perspectives that naturalize their own debasement and oppression (“yeah obviously this wasn’t going to work,” “why did you even think City Council would stop anything” etc.)
Let’s bring the situation to a boil. Let’s set the stage for the next offensive.
Let’s not contribute to the de-escalation of the conflict with “revolutionary” perspectives that naturalize debasement and oppression (“yeah, a political victory is what we want” “begging politicians is very anarchist of us” etc.)
In the meantime, attacks on the interconnected networks of domination is something people can do at this moment to directly confront this prison world that needs cop city.
Submitted anonymously over email