North Carolina Unconventional Action Weighs in on DNC

We wish for anarchists and anti-authoritarians organizing against the DNC to
maintain autonomous organizing structures, so we can initiate and coordinate our
own actions rather than simply reacting to others’ decisions. We should use our
power in a way that complements and supports others in their struggles, but
retain our own infrastructure and decision making. In previous mass actions,
when anarchist and anti-authoritarian efforts have been subsumed into vertically
structured organizing, it has neither benefited us nor, in our opinion, the
effectiveness of the mass actions in general. ---- A Letter from Unconventional
Action Central NC to Participants in the January 2008 Consulta in Denver

Dear friends in and visitors to Denver:

Thank you for gathering to lay the groundwork for a response to the upcoming
Democratic National Convention. We share your investment in this and appreciate
your efforts. We discussed at length whether to send one of us to join you, and
finally concluded that it would be more efficient to focus our energy on this
side of the country this month; we trust that you are at least as competent and
informed as we are.

In place of a spokesperson, we send this letter, which we request that you
circulate and read at the consulta. We also encourage others around the country
who are invested in responding to the DNC but cannot attend this consulta to
send letters of their own, so the decisions that come out of the consulta can
take into account a wide range of the perspectives and desires of those who will
participate this coming August.

These are the points we consensed upon as important to us:

*We wish for anarchists and anti-authoritarians organizing against the DNC to
maintain autonomous organizing structures, so we can initiate and coordinate our
own actions rather than simply reacting to others’ decisions. We should use our
power in a way that complements and supports others in their struggles, but
retain our own infrastructure and decision making. In previous mass actions,
when anarchist and anti-authoritarian efforts have been subsumed into vertically
structured organizing, it has neither benefited us nor, in our opinion, the
effectiveness of the mass actions in general.

*We are concerned that, on a national level, the organizing against the
Republican National Convention seems to be further along than the organizing
against the DNC. If this continues, we fear that many more anti-authoritarians
will attend the RNC than the DNC, as occurred in 2004. This would be a
tremendous missed opportunity, on a number of levels. First, it would give the
impression that anti-authoritarians are simply the radical fringe of the liberal
establishment, opposing Republicans but leaving Democrats unchallenged. This
essentially lets the Democrats off the hook for their complicity in the
occupation of Iraq, the assault on civil liberties, and the exploitation and
ecological devastation inflicted by industrial capitalism; now that the
Democrats seem poised to take the reins of the executive branch, it is more
important than ever to show that we offer a concrete opposition to party
politics, not just Republican excesses. This should be easier than usual this
election, as the Democrats obtained a majority in Congress on the promise that
they would deal with the Iraq quagmire, a promise they have failed to keep.

*In view of this, we hope that this consulta will produce a concrete strategy
proposal that can be endorsed by groups nationwide. Busy radicals are already
making plans for this summer, deciding what to prioritize according to what
seems most promising.

*We would like to see a strategy that provides for the desires and participation
of anarchists and anti-authoritarians nationwide as well as Denver locals. The
system supported by the Democrats affects the lives of millions across the US
and the world; the DNC is not just a local Denver issue, but a national and
international one. We hope for a strategy that is satisfactory for Denver
locals, but that incorporates local initiatives into national initiatives rather
than vice versa. If such a strategy won’t come out of the current organizing,
please make this clear, so others nationwide can create one.

*As many have emphasized, we believe it is critical that our primary focus be on
the first day of the convention itself—Monday, August 25—because this day will
set the tone for the entire convention and the protests against it. Likewise, we
think it is important that as many actions as possible occur simultaneously
rather than one after the other. When actions occur one at a time, as in the
past two RNC protests, they can be isolated and more easily repressed; when they
coincide, as they did at the Seattle WTO protests, the police are stretched
thin, and less able to interfere.

*We would like to see a strategy that makes space for arrestable as well as
legal activity, for all those who desire conflict with state and capital. This
is bound to be controversial; no doubt at every step there will be people who
believe there is a reason to rule out direct action and decentralized activity.
Not providing for these, on the other hand, creates the possibility that they
will occur anyway in ways that are less effective and less safe for others.

*We have heard some people talking about targeting the delegates themselves, a
strategy that was tested at the 2004 RNC. We strongly recommend against making
harassing individual delegates the main goal of any counter-DNC strategy. We
feel this gives the impression that the conflict is a private grudge match
between protesters and delegates; on the contrary, we desire a public
confrontation with the institutions of capitalism, in which people collectively
join in impeding its functioning. The SHAC model, on which this idea of
targeting delegates seems to be based, has pushed Huntingdon Life Sciences—one
corporation—to the brink of bankruptcy because all that is needed in that case
is for the targeted individuals to take their business elsewhere. We doubt a
similar campaign against the Democratic Party—or the electoral system—would
produce similar results.

*We would prefer a strategy that brings people together into the same physical
space rather than dispersing them over a broad area without a common focus. This
is important to us both for the sake of momentum and morale and also in view of
the topography of downtown Denver.

*Speaking specifically, we would prefer a DNC strategy that incorporates some
variant of the earlier proposals involving multiple coinciding marches and
blockading. Whatever strategy arises, we hope it will reflect the interests and
capabilities of all who are invested in opposing the DNC.

This year’s DNC protests can be magnificently awesome, but only if we get
moving. See you at Colfax and Broadway!

Again, thank you for the work you are doing. See you in Denver.

Unconventional Action Central NC

unconventionalaction.org

Read about the consulta in Denver, January 18-21:
http://www.unconventionalaction.org/news/2007/12/29/confronting-the-dnc-...

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