• S11 and the Left
• What is the Anarchist Black Cross?
• The Anarchist Radio Alliance
• Revolution in Action: Growing up Anarchist
• A History of the Makhnovist Movement
• Is God a Celestial Fascist?!
• Squatting as Autonomous Organising
• Anarchy and Ecology
• Globalisation: An Anarchist Perspective
• Land Identity
• Facilitation
• What is FNB? Food Production and Autonomy
• Psyops: Libertarian Approaches to Free Your Mind
• Anarchy, Vision and Censorship
• A History of Anarchism in Greece
• Health, Lifestyle and Anarchism
• Writing an Anarchist Zine
• Anarcho-Health: Beyond Globalised Health Systems or How a World Without Hospitals Can Keep People Healthier
• Recycling, Jobs and the Environment
• Complete Emancipation, or Virtual Global Prison?
• Why Greens Should Be Anarchist and Anarchism Green
• Women and Prisons
• Ningala Ningala - Hungry for Land: Aboriginal Embassy in Spain
• Anarcha-Feminism (Open forum)
• The First International
• Towards an Anarchist Federation
• If I Cant Fist, Then Its Not My Revolution: Queer Sex from Bakunin to Emma Goldman to Today
• Green Anarchy and the US Anarchist Movement
• Infoshops (Open forum)
• No Gods, No Masters & Anarchism: The Ideological Function of Language
• Grassroots Organising in Community Health: How to Take On the Bureaucrats and Win
• "The first thing we do" (Anarchy and Law)
• Individualism through Collectivity
• Grassroots Strategic Planning
• Punk and Anarchy (Open forum)
• Dont Hate the Media, Be the Media!
• Anarcho-syndicalism. What the Hell is that?!

LENIN ON TRIAL

Condemned by History, Who Dares Defend Him?

Presented by 'NO GODS, NO MASTERS', the Melbourne Anarchist and Autonomist Conference.

The CHARGES:

* Counter-revolution * Tyranny * Treason * Terror *

V.I. Lenin: Revolutionary Genius or Social Frankenstein?

The collapse of the Soviet Union has read the verdict of history on Lenin's megalomaniac adventurism, but the Red Left has yet to learn the lessons. Old slogans reappear in new catchphrases, and old tactics are repainted as the urgent and necessary goals of the moment. Anarchists are putting Lenin on trial, and challenge the Red Left to defend him. Four charges will be heard:

1. That Lenin was a *counter-revolutionary*, who attacked the revolutionary movement to build his own power.

   Prosecutor: Leigh Kendall
   Offences: The suppression and massacre of the Kronstadt garrison.

2. That Lenin was a *terrorist*, who enslaved the people with all the instruments of military and civil repression.

   Prosecutor: Rob Dolchek
   Offences: The supression of the Maknovschyna, and the wars against autonomous revolutionary collectives throughout Russia.

3. That Lenin was a *tyrant*, who enslaved the people under state capitalism, deceitfully proclaiming it to be the dawn of Marx's utopia.

   Prosecutor: Owen Gager
   Offences: Lenin's butchery of Marxist theory of the state and socialist economy.

4. That Lenin was a *traitor*, who continually undermined his own party and betrayed his own revolutionary colleagues.

   Prosecutor: Leigh Riley
   Offences: Lenin's subversion of Party democracy, manipulation of the Party program, and selective and opportunistic betrayal of his rivals and of dissidents generally.

PROCEDURE:

Each charge will be heard in turn, with a prosecution and a defence each speaking for 12 minutes. All speakers will then be allowed a short response. Questions and contributions will be taken from the floor. The assembly will vote on Lenin's guilt.

We invite the Red Left to nominate speakers for the defence.

Feedback

One of the outstanding patterns is a focus on Melbourne and Sydney! I think it is time we started thinking about conferences outside Sydney and Melbourne occasionally to boost interest in anarchist ideas outside the two cities. How about Adelaide next year..?

From  takver  
Date  Wednesday, May 30, 2001 2:30 pm 
To  april_anarchy@yahoogroups.com 
Subject  [april_anarchy] Re: JT: importance and role of Conferences 

The NGNM conference, for the most part, was a talk fest. There were 
quite a few people there new to anarchism who went to learn more about 
the ideas and practices. So, the conference provided an educative 
function.

For those already involved it provided a chance to informally network 
with comrades that we sometimes don't meet face to face for months or 
years. 

My primary participation was through the Anarres Book stall. We sold a 
lot of introductory texts on anarchism as well as a broad spectrum of 
material from our range. I attended one workshop - the one on 
Infoshops. This workshop primarily discussed the history of anarchist 
bookshops/infoshops in Australia over the last 26 years. (Actually I 
mentioned David Andrades Newsagency, which stocked socialist and 
anarchist tracts, in Brunswick in the 1880s). I have been involved in 
info shops for most of the last 26 years. Even so, I learnt some more 
about what happened in various collectives over this period. It would 
have been good to try and pull together some direction or summation for 
the workshop, but this just didn't happen in the time available. My own 
reason for concentrating  effort in infoshops, is that the libertarian 
movement in Australia needs to do a lot of educative outreach work, and 
making available the ideas through book/info shops is a first step in 
making libertarian ideas and practices easily available. We have come 
leaps and bounds since my initial involvement in 1974.

I also visited the childcare room several times in regards to an infant 
in my care. I thought Fiona did a great job organising the room and 
facilities, and it was good to hear that quite a few people (esp. the 
young men) dropped in and helped out. I went to the N11 one day 
conference last year (to analyse S11 and provide future directions) and 
no childcare was provided, nor any option when registering to provide 
childcare.  So, I think our inclusiveness is bounds ahead of the 
traditional left! The way we organise is as important as the goals we 
seek.

I would have loved to have gone to a final plenary where brief 
summations of all the workshops could have been given, plus some formal 
feedback from conference participants to the organisers and future 
organisers about what worked and what didn't. I can appreciate the 
Lenin on Trial was an event reaching out to the Red Left, but the 
strategy for bringing people to the event didn't really work (Although 
it may have caused some internal debate between younger cadres and 
their party bosses). It was an interesting, bold and creative 
experiment, but I think a final plenary would have been more useful. 

I don't know if anybody prepared written papers or notes for workshops. 
Perhaps, if they are not too private, they can be either posted here or 
loaded to a website and a URL sent to this list? I'd at least like to 
hear brief summations of other workshops on this list.

What I feel came out of the conference is a respect for a diversity of 
anarchist strategies, and a sense of solidarity. Yes, I'm sure there 
were arguments, but in the main people listened and debated and 
discussed.

I think the role of future conferences could be:
* educative to both newcomers and old hands
* informal networking between organised collectives/ anarchist 
organisations.
* develop personal and social change strategies with an emphasis on 
practical examples
* build a sense of community - e.g. where children can be raised in a 
libertarian culture - what Fiona spoke about in a former post.

I am sure there are other functions future conferences could provide.