Organising against capitalism in the 21st century
Opening address to the "anarchist odyssey" conference in Christchurch,
October 2001
Capitalism is under challenge for the first time in decades. From PNG
[Papua New Guinea] to Prague, Seattle to South Africa there is a growing
movement against the instruments of capitalist globalisation - the World
Economic Forum, and the Bretton Woods Institutions (the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank which Leigh Cookson will talk about soon).
anarchism is order capitalism is chaos
Capitalism is the system of private ownership of the big things in life
(or the means of production as they're more often called). It's taken
us to a point where 3 people are wealthier than the poorest 48 countries.
Call us crazy but we think a system where half the world's population
annual income is equal to the wealth of world's 225 richest people is
unjust and will continue to sow bitterness, hatred war and terrorism.
While mainstream media talk of 'anarchy' erupting whenever warlords who
are not 'our' warlords go on a chaotic rampage we repeat again and again
anarchy is not chaos. Anarchy is order, capitalism is chaos.
Anarchism is not about 'doing your own thing', it's not solely concerned
with individuality although the creeping ideology of me-ism is gaining
ground in our consumer culture. Anarchism is a movement, it is a praxis
- which means theory into action. Anarchism is a strand of socialism with
a history of over 150 years.
the struggle against forgetting
A lot of people say "why bother with history, who cares what a bunch
of dead white males with long beards did". While it's true that history,
even radical history has been very eurocentric and male oriented we need
to know our history - not His-story but Our-story. Not of the kings and
queens but of the People. This knowledge is nourishing and sustaining.
You are not alone. Things are not as bad as they may seem. Things that
seem impossible are achievable. You are not the spaceman on the poster
for this conference - alone, isolated, on another planet. You are part
of a movement.
Milan Kundera said "the struggle of people against power is the struggle
of memory against forgetting". Or as King Kapisi says "Fix Amnesia".
We are asked to forget that the CIA put $6 billion dollars into training
Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan. We are asked to forget that it
was the Labour Party that privatised Air New Zealand in the first place.
We are asked to forget the colonialism that has built the wealth of Western
nations. We are asked to forget that the only terrorism this country has
seen was done by the French State against Greenpeace. And we are asked
to forget the people's struggles that have given us the hard won breathing
space and relative freedoms we enjoy today. And mostly we obey by forgetting.
Our first step in organising against capitalism in the 21st century is
to reclaim the knowledge that past generations possessed and understand
it ourselves. We should gain courage in the fact that people have struggled
and won piece by piece.
- 600 years ago we were owned by lords
- 200 years ago the working class could not vote
- just over 100 years ago women could not vote
- in Australia just 30 years ago Aboriginal people could not vote
- though economic apartheid still exists South Africa threw off racial
apartheid only 10 years ago
- 5 years ago East Timorese independence was considered a 'lost cause'
and the Suharto regime in Indonesia seemed immovable
- 4 years ago the IMF and World Bank could meet in safety without turning
the host city into a police state
I tell you this not to glorify the vote as the pinnacle of achievement
but to realise that the thirst for freedom is unstoppable and it will
always continue despite oppression. You may think I'm being a bit dramatic
talking of oppression while in safe and relatively affluent Aotearoa but
notice that the ozone hole is the most dangerous its ever been, we stand
on the brink of a possible world war, and as 1951 shows us democratic
freedoms are paper thin in times of crisis.
1951 for those too young to know was when it was made illegal, right here
in Aotearoa, to talk in public in support of the wharfies union, or to
give food to a wharfie or their family or even to discuss the law that
made all these things illegal. The wharfies crime was to refuse to work
more than 40 hours a week.
That's why we need to learn and understand our history, our context. When
we understand our context we can start to clarify our vision for the future,
which is desperately needed work. Anarchists like Bookchin and Michael
Albert are doing this with Social Ecology and Participatory Economics.
But vision cannot be built without context.
join the greens? nope...
And to put things in context the anti-capitalist globalisation movement
did not begin in Seattle and terrorism didn't start on September 11 2001.
I want to talk about three September 11's that put anarchist politics
into a context. People often say, OK there's problems with the system,
why not correct them by creating or joining a political party. Many young
people disillusioned with the system are joining the Greens. And yet even
the Greens themselves will admit that while they are not part of the government
they can make as many good sounding noises they want but the minute they
are in the government it will be a different story as many disappointed
Alliance supporters have found out.
I suggest looking at the German Greens who started out fairly radical.
Joschka Fischer was an anarchist 20 years ago and is now the Vice Chancellor
and foreign minister of Germany. The German Greens have gone from espousing
non-violence as a main principle to cheerleading the US bombing of Afghanistan.
The US, Joschka Fischer explains, is the only country with a big enough
stick to enforce peace in Europe. This is not just a matter of the German
Greens lacking moral fortitude - it's a systematic problem that faces
all parties.
The NZ Labour Party started out calling for public ownership of the means
of production and ended up overseeing the fastest and most wide ranging
privatisation in the world (as Murray Horton will no doubt explain in
tomorrow's workshop on who owns New Zealand). Labour are pushing for capitalist
globalisation by stealth through free trade agreements like the Hong Kong
Free Trade Agreement as Bill Rosenberg will explain in one of this afternoons
workshops.
september 11 the first
But what if a party managed to stay true to its radical roots? That's
where the first September 11 comes in. September 11 1973. Has anyone read
any books by Isabelle Allende? Her uncle was Salvador Allende. In Chile
Salvador Allende's National Alliance was a Marxist Party that had a programme
of redistribution of power and resources to the poor. They were the first
democratically elected Marxist Party in the world. But corporations didn't
like that - in fact ITT put up $1 million to help overthrow Salvador Allende.
The CIA didn't like it either. Henry Kissenger and President Nixon told
the CIA it would be necessary to "make the Chilean economy scream".
Kissenger said "I don't see why we need to stand around and watch
a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people".
And so, on September 11 1973 in a CIA backed military coup the Salvador
Allende government was toppled, the parliament bombed, thousands rounded
up and taken to football stadiums and shot and General Pinochet came to
power preaching the free market policies of his advisor US economist Milton
Friedman, hero of Thatcher, Reagan and NZ Labour Party Rogernomics.
Two years later the Whitlam govt. in Australia was toppled by less dramatic
but still devious means. These days the power of global capital is so
great they probably won't have to use such naked aggression to get rid
of people that threaten their power.
But the lesson of September 11 1973 is clear - if a government could truly
change things they would be removed - by force if necessary - so we see
the real struggle is not to gain power but redistribute it, decentralise
it, democratise it.
september 11 the second
Which
leads to the second September 11, S11 2000 where over 10,000 protesters
successfully blockaded the Crown Casino in Melbourne where the 1000 richest
corporations were meeting under the banner of the World Economic Forum.
Despite brutal attacks by the police the blockade stayed solid and non-violent
which was a key to its success.
There were two main organising blocks at S11 - the S11 Alliance and S11
AWOL (AWOL standing for Autonomous Web of Liberation). The S11 Alliance
took it upon themselves to be THE organisers of the blockade and organised
marshalls with the view that decisions during the 3 days would be made
by majority vote at mass meetings. The two largest marxist groups in Australia
- the DSP [Democratic Socialist Party, pro-Cuba Leninists] and the ISO
[International Socialist Organisation, Trotskyists] were vying for control
of many of the positions within S11 Alliance.
S11 AWOL participants, on the other hand, argued for protesters organising
themselves in a self managed blockade through affinity groups facilitated
by a spokescouncil to which each affinity group would send a delegate.
The S11 AWOL groups organised most of the medical and legal teams. Their
organisational methods reflected not only anarchist praxis, and the so-called
'Seattle' approach but of how the peace and environment movement in Australia
has evolved its direct action strategies over the last 20 years.
Tensions between centralised vs decentralised organising were minimised
on September 11 because of the success of the blockade but grew that evening
when on at least one picket marshalls were telling people to disband because
other pickets were leaving. It was clear though, through the affinity
networks, that this was not true. So a feeling grew that marshalls were
not to be trusted and later when a marshall warned of an impending attack
by riot police they were ignored and the picket unfortunately sustained
the highest number of injuries of any picket over the period.
Some argue that anarchists insistence on the right to autonomous action
destroys unity and ignores collective
action. But let's look at the reality of this - the anarchists merely
acknowledge the fact that while our unity is a strength, people will not
do what someone tells them to do if they don't see a good reason to do
it.
Both the DSP and the ISO wanted unity and democratic centralism but they
both wanted their democratic centralism, to the point where on the victory
march around Melbourne whey were continually fighting over the route of
the rally and attempting to lead protesters in different directions. We
all recognise the need for a strong movement against the corporate capitalist
beast and recognise our need to work with others who do not share in all
our visions for the future and our organisational methods. But this is
why the movement is decentralised, diverse and flexible - organising in
ways that are in harmony with anarchist principles. And that's why we
are anarchists and not Trotskyists.
september 11 the third
Which leads to the third September 11, this years terrorist attacks on
the US where 5000 ordinary working people lost their lives. In the wake
of that event seemingly everything has changed. So which way forward?
The very real gains of the anti-capitalist globalisation movement are
now in danger of being lost along with our civil liberties. Lets not also
lose our nerve. Self censorship is an ugly thing to see. We need to do
a few things:
- We've got to see the context to this war - 500 years of colonialism
- We must condemn terrorism in all its forms - you can't blow up a social
relationship and no amount of bombing will stop terrorism or end exploitation.
- Link global justice with global peace - there will be no peace while
injustice grows and the capitalist vision of free market madness will
only increase hunger and exploitation. The demands of Dropping All Third
World Debt and Abolishing the IMF and World Bank should be incorporated
into any peace and justice movement.
There is a plenary session tomorrow morning to further discuss planning
for actions against the WTO and the war.
Finally we need to build the new world in the shell of the old. In building
this movement the internet has been crucial and in itself is a great metaphor.
Created by the US military for nuclear warfare it now is the very decentralised
and non-hierarchical network that we are using to help connect the so
called first and third world struggles.
While mainstream media have either covered this movement inaccurately
or not at all an international decentralised non-hierarchical media network
called IndyMedia has both covered and participated in the movement and
spread to over 60 centres around the world. What better way to challenge
the media than to become the media. In tomorrow's workshop on community
media you'll hear how this network spans the globe using open source free
software developed collaboratively and decentrally by anarchists.
- Grant F
