SOLIDARITY WITH ATLANTICA ARRESTEES:

There were 21 people arrested at the recent action against 'Atlantica' last June 15th. There has been a considerable debate on the Maritimes Indymedia site about the tactic of "refusing identity" to the police, though there has been no debate on the wisdom of engaging the police in theatrical battles. The Halifax Coalition Against Poverty has undertaken the defense of the 21 arrested people and they are calling for financial donations. Money may be sent to :

Halifax Coalition Against Poverty

ACC (Anti-Capitalist Coalition)

2420 Agricola St.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

B3K 4C2

Molly has to call a time out here. Once more she has to emphasize the "real meaning: of "direct action", the favoured tactic of anarchists. It does NOT mean the most militant action possible with NO chance of success. Those who think that way are Maoists hiding under the camoflauge of anarchism. What "direct action" means is the self directed action of communities to solve their problems "directly" without the intervention of "sympathetic" politicians. Organizing a co-op is direct action. With all the limitations involved with subculturism, 'Food Not Bombs' is direct action. A work to rule strike is direct action insofar as it is aimed at weakening managerial rule. Squatting is direct action. Self reduction movements in public transit are direct action. Setting up an Infoshop is direct action.Travelling across many miles to try and beat police who are much better than you are just to show off is not direct action. It would become such only if there was a reasonable expectation of actually disrupting the event you protest. There hasn't been such an expectation for almost ten years. Whether it is 50 people as in the case of Atlantica or 2,000 people in Europe at the G8 this is a forelorn hope. It hasn't happened ever since Seattle and it will never again. Quite frankly the police are smarter than their opponents and they are not hamstrung by ideological nonsense. They do what is effective. Thus they win- every time.

Molly is not opposed to contributing to the defense of the people arrested during the Atlantica protest. All that she says is that anarchists should look towards their "strengths" as they have become something of a "hegemonic idea" amongst the left today rather than clinging to an outmoded way of acting that only exposes weakness (50 people,50 people,50 people..drawn from half a continent...dummy up your head). Most larger cities in North America have far more anarchists and sympathizers(ie much more than 50) who could be drawn into much more constructive projects.

Yes, Molly knows that abandoning the romance of pretending that you are a match for well trained and well disciplined police substracts from the "appeal" of anarchism. Yet this romance is obviously built on a lie, and its supporters can only uphold it by increasingly shrill appeals to a diminishing number of people willing to be cannon fodder (50 people,50 people,50 people). Does the appeal of modern anarchism depend upon such a lie ? If it does it does not deserve to exist. Molly can only hope that at least a large proportion of modern anarchists in North America can see the difference between the fads and the underlying ideas. If they do they will abandon useless tactics and make their contributions to the constructive side of anarchism. Beyond this the "street fighting" tactic means that you have abandoned the "moral high ground", something that is critically important if you see your actions as "political" rather than "existential" as in proving yourself or influencing only a tiny little segment of the population thag you perform in front of. Yeah, I've read the bullshit supposedly justifying much more serious actions than street riots,and as an outsider to the cult my only regret is that I can't sink myself into the cultish mind enough to condemn it in its own language.

HUNDREDS PROTEST AGAINST ALTANTICA:

According to the organizers of the recent protest in Halifax up to 400 people took part in protests against the institution of the Atlantica free trade zone. This differs from the mass medias estimate of a tiny 200 people. Molly is agnostic about the numbers. Being as this is Halifax any numbers are important. As usual the mass media concentrated upon so-called riots initiated by the travelling "anarchist circus". As usual this followed the theatric play acting of anarchists with black masks throwing innocuous things at the police followed by massive retaliation on the part of the police, from tear gas to tasers. Estimates of those who were willing to engage in this play act converge at about 50 people. The demonstrations in Halifax included far more people who didn't want to be part of this theatre. One report from the Maritimes Indy media puts the number of marchers on June 15th as between 300 and 500. The little fracas with the cops resulted in 21 people being arrested and more than 70 charges being laid including such oldies and goodies as "unlawful assembly" (was the riot act read or not?), assaulting police, mischief and various "weapon-related offenses" (watch out for those deadly paintballs. According to protester Pierre Blais, part of the larger non-violent component of the march, much of the violence was provoked by police using stun guns on certain members of the breakaway march early in the game.

Nineteen of those arrested were released yesterday. Two others had been released earlier. The court process was delayed after some of the accused refused to identify themselves. Many of those arrested were from outside Nova Scotia and two were from the USA. The accused were remanded to court dates in early September, ordered to not associate with each other or to take part in further protests.

There's an interesting report on the protests from a participant over at the Autonomy and Solidarity site with a bit more of a report on the demo that the usual cops versus the BB comedy. There are numerous other reports on the Maritimes Indymedia site about such matters as the critical mass bike ride that was part of the actions against Atlantica and the Halifax Coalition Against Poverty demonstration. There's another interesting article over at the Maritimes Indymedia site titled 'Concept to Fall Under Its Own Weight' about why Atlantica may not be successful because, all protests aside, it is flawed in other ways.

For those interested in photos of the events like those Molly has reproduced above go to one of the following:

1) http://www.hfxnews.com/index.cfm?main=gallery&cid=574

2) http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianlarter/tags/atlantica

3) http://flickr.com/photos/admacisaac/tags/atlantica

Then there is the looming question. Are protests such as those held around the meeting of Altanitica of any great value ? The whole Black Bloc versus the police comedy has become nothing more than an endless series of sitcom reruns over the years. The whole concept of "direct action" has been lost in the shuffle, and now it means nothing more than militant posturing. There have been other casualties as well. These little set piece battles long since ditched any creativity or sense of humour and with it the ability to expand beyond a tiny set of those willing to lose street fights for no good reason. The rest of the protest indeed had both creativity and humour, but it was-and other examples will continue to be- overshadowed by the great "sensation of the day" of "anarchists losing game number 257 once more to the police team". About time to reevaluate. Actually long past time.

ATLANTICA WATCH:

Molly would like to direct her readers to a website devoted to the blocking of 'Atlantica', the proposed business friendly "free trade zone" encompassing the New England states and Atlantic Canada. Why should you oppose this project ? What can you do ? The answers are are here at Atlantica Watch. Molly would also like to take this opportunity to expand on her reply to a previous critic who asked her "what do you propose for Atlantic development ?". Molly essentially replied "nothing". Now Molly would like to expand this to "less than nothing".

Both the left and the right in our society are under the delusion that "doing something" is always the best course of action. In medicine, veterinary or human, this may actually be the worst way to proceed. The saving grace of so-called "alternative medicine" is that it is usually an effort expending and expensive way of doing exactly that -nothing. Homeopathic medicine is the ultimate. You can't do any harm with distilled water unless you are under the primitive illusion that dropping it into ears will make an ear infection "better" rather than the common sense observation that it makes it worse. Molly has had hundreds of occasions where she has advised animal owners to do exactly nothing because any attempt to fix a "problem" will result in a far worse problem. The term in medicine is called iatrogenic disease.

The problem is that both left wing and right wing ideologues have not the slightest clue that their efforts to "correct a problem" can either make the original problem worse or substitute a much more grievous problem for the original. thus, Molly proposed in her reply to the original critic that perhaps it is a good idea to not throw good money after bad by giving out more corporate subsidies. But molly is an anarchist, a mutualist by a more exact definition.

So therefore I'd like to propose doing less than the nothing that I originally said. Don't just refuse further taxpayer money to the latest pigs at the trough. Roll back the subsidies that are presently given to business not just in the Atlantic provinces but everywhere else. This is merely a "first step" in a necessary reform of how we agree to be robbed so that the rich may profit. It is hardly the full program of a mutualist way of reform, but it is a necessary first step. Many of the state programs involve "transfers" of money from one group to another. A gradual mutualist alternative would attack the transfers to the rich first while avoiding attacking transfers to less wealthy citizens. At the same time it would try and build upon cooperative alternatives to such "social justice" functions of the state. But such alternatives are the matter of yet another post.

For now all that I can say is that I advocate not just "nothing" in terms of government give-aways to business ala Atlantica. I advocate "less than nothing" in that I think previous market distorting free money should cease to flow.

More later,

Molly

RESIST ATLANTICA:

Atlantica is the 'pet name' of the Atlantic Northeast Economic Region (AINER), cross border trade concept spanning the Maritimes, Newfoundland, southern Quebec and the New England states. Its originator is a right wing think tank called the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, representing much of big business in the Atlantic region. The plan is to develop a transportation conduit to channel Asian goods to the USA now that there are many massive container ships too large to pass through the Panama Canal. The port of Halifax is planned as the drop point for these ships, and the goods will then be transshipped via "truck trains", resulting in more greenhouse gases, highway fatalities as well as superhighway construction through communities, wilderness and farmland.

Another purpose of Atlantica is to increase export of unprocessed resources from Canada to the USA. The offshore oil of the Altantic provinces is particularly attractive. The development of this free trade zone will hamper local provinces in such matters as minimum wage laws, environmental legislation, unionization, public ownership and social program spending.

Beginning with a Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, June 13th, and proceeding through three more days of events the people of Halifax and whoever else may want to come and participate in this resistance will show their opposition to Atlantica and propose alternatives to business centred development. From workshops to demonstrations to Critical Mass bike rides it's all there and more.

To learn more or to find out how you can participate go to http://resist.stopatlantica.org

A MEDLEY OF ANARCHO-NEWS:

PART ONE:

The anarchists, busy little beavers that they are, continue to produce news and events in rapid fire. Here are some of the latest:

In Montreal, according to an article in a-Infos, the Workers' Solidarity Network(WSN), is planning an "effective and disruptive picket line" on the occasion of the Bell shareholders' meeting on Wed., June 6th, at the Mount Royal Centre. This will be a protest against the layoffs, pension reductions, and reduction of hours imposed by Bell Canada Enterprises and its affiliates such as Aliant and Connexion. The company actually sees the elimination of pension benefits coming about by 2016. The WSN organized a previous protest on May 18th.

Also in Montreal there will be an 'Anti-Imperialist Consulta' on June 3rd at the UQAM, Room R-R110, to coordinate actions over the summer of 2007. For more information see the Block the Empire Site at http://blocktheempire.blogspot.com (French version at http://bloquezlempire.resist.ca ). Events already planned include a mobilization against 'Atlantica' (a project to create a free trade zone in the northeast of North America. This will take place in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from June 14th to June 16th. On June 22nd there will be a day of action in Quebec City to protest the deployment of 2,000 soldiers from the Royal 22nd regiment of Valcartier to Afghanistan. For more information on this action go to http://coalition-valcartier-2007.resist.ca . There are also plans for a day of solidarity on June 29th across Canada to show support for native land claims and sovereignty. Finally, on August 21st and 22nd there will be a demonstration in Montebello, Quebec against the meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership and the state visits of George Bush, Stephan Harper and Felipe Calderon to Quebec.

More anarcho-news later.

Molly