Thanks for our greek comrades for Solidarity;
http://kokkinizoni.blogspot.gr/2014/09/e.html ----Comrades, ---- The Arab uprisings and
Occupy Wall Street and the rest of global uprisings since 2011 have opened more doors for
us to communicate and realize more than ever how our struggles against the state and
dominant power structures are interconnected and the same. Our fight against the beast is
one; we are informed and inspired by your past and current struggles, as well as we know
that you are informed and inspired by our struggles, yet we still have a long way to go to
understand one another and scale up our common fight. ---- Our collective is a small group
of radicals, deep ecologists, anarchists, and feminists, and we have not done much
compared with the great sacrifices of many of our comrades elsewhere. Yet we know we Also
Speak the Mind of many of our Comrades in the Arab World from Morocco to Syria, Who
Encountered the Same dilemmas while communicating with Their Western counterparts.
That We know there are A Lot of good Actions Carried out, and honest efforts in all
directions, and lives being put on the line, but we also realize that the radical
non-authoritarian scene in the West, and especially in North America, is dominated by the
strict boundaries of a single "politically correct" ideology. It's fine if the ideological
and tactical parameters you chose work for you, but it does not work for everyone, and it
definitely does not work for us. So IT's unfortunate That During many exchanges with North
American anarchists (and to A less Extent European anarchists), some of our Comrades were
Always trying to Impose Their politically Correct Ideology on US.
It's Also unfortunate That many of our Comrades in the West Have digested the patronizing
tone of their imperial governments, and use it unconsciously with their comrades from the
third world. TOO many times, we found our Comrades dictating with Whom Should we Ally
ourselves with, or How Should we Deal with our own like Causes Political Islam, the Syrian
Revolution, Anti-Government Tactics, and radical Feminist and Environmental Organizations.
We appreciate the feedback and the exchange, and we think it's desired and needed, but we
feel that there are a lot of subtle expectations that we should become another version of
you. And we do not want to. Being on the other end of the equation, the one that has been
getting drone missiles, uranium depleted shells, and imperialism for decades, we can
honestly tell you that whatever you tried, it did not work well for us, and it seems it
did not work for you as Well.
Living Under authoritarian regimes for decades, A Lot of US are radical
Anti-authoritarians by Instinct? students and factory workers and artists and fathers and
mothers and young and old. Almost all of us had to personally experience and survive state
repression in the past couple of years, yet most of us do not identify as anarchists,
especially that anarchism is still for many of us a closed white euro-centric ideology
with a post-modernist Core.
Communicate The more we we Discover That A Lot of words dear to our Hearts are Confined in
Narrow definitions, and Subject to Endless Wars semantic Among you. And we're not
interested in semantics or winning the war over words, we're interested in dismantling the
real physical conditions of oppression and injustice, and we want to experiment beyond the
boundaries of classical politics and classical "isms" that dominated both Western and
Eastern radical Scenes for decades.
When we learn of your Struggles there are A Lot of Things That INSPIRE US, and there are A
Lot of Things That we do not Want to replicate. Even while observing from another
continent, it's clear for us that the radical movement in North America (and to a lesser
extent in Europe) is highly sectarian, divided, distracted by identity politics and
in-fighting, and in a state of constant horizontal hostility with Itself and Other
Movements.
Recurrent We See A Process That Constantly breaks up your Leaders, Isolate your Movements,
Leaving you with pseudo-limbed Leaders and collectives, Then we Read you complaining about
the Absence of Vision and direction in the Movement. We see hostility toward all forms of
organization, a nearly religious reverence for structurelessness and a dogmatic belief in
one form of decision making (consensus). See we Rampant identity Politics and Great
Energies squandered over Theoretical arguments That No one gives A Damn about, and we do
not Understand Honestly IT as the smokes from the burned Body of the World obscures our
Sight.
We See A Lot of misogyny, Drug abuse, violent, abusive, and horrible Behaviors, Going
unchallenged and unattended in many of your spaces.
We See an aversion Against Strategy, Leading Communities to radical Smash the Same window
year after year without Long-term Tactics. We see a lot of energy spent fighting
non-essential elements in the system like Fast Food chains and sports shoes corporations
leaving aside the three basic structures that keep the system alive, and we mean the
structures that ensure the flow of money, information, and energy to those in power. If
you're lacking ideas, there's A Drone Testing facility somewhere in the desert of Arizona
IF you Want to Pay Them A visit.
All That is not to dismiss your efforts or undermine your work, but to Just CAUTION
Against the Tendency Among we See our Western counterparts of flattening radical movements
under one politically correct ideology, greatly diminishing the vitality of the radical
movement. The plurality of opinions, approaches and tactics is needed and desired, and no
matter which label we use, or which tactic we prefer, as the world burns, those of us who
dream of a livable planet and a just humanity are together in the same Fight, Against the
Same Enemy.
Love & Rage
Radical Beirut's Team
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