Street Fighting Men – Rolling Stones Riot in Vancouver (1972)

Great new article on the ‘72 Vancouver Rolling Stones Riot at the Past Tense blog:

http://pasttensevancouver.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/street-fighting-men/

Inspector Bud Errington on stage with the Rolling Stones at the Forum, 19 July 1966. Photo: Vancouver Police Museum

Rioters outside the Pacific Coliseum during the Rolling Stones concert, Vancouver Sun, 5 June 1972

“… the time is right for violent revolution, cause where I live the game to play is compromise solution.” – Rolling Stones

Premier Gets Shut Down (2002)

Premier Gets Shut Down – Vancouver, Canada

Friday, June 14th, 2002

Gordon Campbell was set to speak at the opening of “Carr, O’Keefe, Kahlo: Places of Their Own” at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Friday, but didn’t show his face.

A crowd of about 400 people gathered there around 6pmto demonstrate againt Campbell’s Liberal government, to disrupt his speech, and to bring attention to the rise of corporate fascism in BC and the world. His choice of venue, an opening of feminist and revolutionary women artists, was an obvious insult to everyone living under his policies. Campbell has recently cut all funding to women’s centres; another attack in a long line of cuts to social programmes in BC. These cuts are killing people and are strengthening a state that is controled by the profit margins of multi-national corporations.

Police had erected a fence on the south side of the art gallery, where Campbell was to make his public speech outside. Police also had barricades at the west side entrance where a few people stood in front of the doorway, confronting and informing the guests as they entered the building. As guests arrived they had to walk through two rows of armed police guards lining the pathway to the door. As more guests arrived police showed a more aggressive pressence and shoved, grabbed, and threatened to arrest people standing around in the entranceway. Police cleared a path for guests using bikes, ironically, making it more difficult and confusing for people to enter the showing. One of the groups who had called for the demonstration, the Anti-Poverty Committee, made speeches off to the sidelines, while several people blocked the street with banners, puppets, and street theatre. Also, artists and artist groups such as the Gorilla Girls (who had also called for the demo) and the Andy Wharhol gang handed out anti-liberal literature. Many protestors decided to enter the showing and disrupt Campbell from inside.

When the time came for Campbell to make his speech the crowd moved to the south side of the building, approached the fence and began to shout and denounce Campbell. The Anti-Poverty Committee made a few speeches while the crowd continued screaming and chanting anti-Liberal and anti-capitalist sentiments. “Campbell’s Cuts Are Class War” and “Off With His Head” were popular.

People banged fists on the fence and then started to shake it. Some tried to dismantle it. The crowd grew more agitated and the police got more aggressive. One officer showed the crowd his pepper-spray, while others attempted to strike the fence shakers’ hands. Four officers entered the crowd from behind the fence and tried to arrest a person. The crowd started to spit on the police and jeer at them, eventually forcing them to leave the area drenched and humiliated. The person the police attempted to arrest got away.

A woman dressed as Frida Kahlo took the podium but her speech was too quiet to be heard by the crowd behind the fence. A member of the Anti-Poverty Committee then took the podium and started shouting to the audience and the crowd, and was tackled and arrested by police who dragged him away by the handcuffs. A second man, a bystander, was arrested inside the art gallery. Both men were held overnight and released the next day.

As the police arrested the A.P.C. member at the podium the crowd became angrier and began to kick at the fence, jump on it, and tried to tear it down. Police continued to strike at people as they attempted to pull the fence out from underneath and continued to spit on officers. At this point police fired pepper spray, hitting three people directly in the face and others indirectly. Those who were pepper-sprayed were taken to a medical station while those still at the fence screamed in outrage at the police. The crowd was stunned by the pepper-spray, but as they recuperated they realized that Campbell was not going to show up, thus did not continue attacking the fence. Pepper sprayed people returned to the fence to demonstrate their defiance and contempt of the police and the police state. One was heard ” this art is under the gun because facism is on the rise”. and “Khalo, O’Keefe and Carr were revolutionary women, fuck you pigs” Shortly after this the demonstrators dispersed, leaving with a sense of victory, and a group headed to the police station to demand the release of those arrested. Supporters camped outside of the police station and court house most of Friday night and Saturday until both people were released.

In our analysis, the militants who attacked the fence in open rebellion, and regardless of official activists plans and speeches, were the ones who contributed the most to the disruption of the event, the cancelling of Campbell’s speech, and to strengthening the social movement of the exploited in BC as a whole. The fence was a physical barrier between classes, rich and poor, that needed to be torn down. The rich cannot be allowed to mingle and sip wine while the poor are starved and beaten.

The fence was attacked by a diverse group of people, including, men and women young and old, parents, euro-canadians, native people — all people who are deeply, and adversly, affected by the cuts Campbell’s government is making, here and now, and also by the policies of capitalist globalization. We are tired of this false democracy. When the police try to move us back by telling us we are endangering Campbell, or that we’re only going to get hurt (by the police attacking us) we know that what the Liberals are doing here, and what capitalists are doing around the world hurts more. Pepper spray is agony for half an hour, state terrorism and murder last forever.

against capital and the state,

Insurrectionary Anarchists of the Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver and Victoria)

Anti-Poverty Committee Denounces Anarchists and Street Youth on May Day (2002)

Anti-Poverty Committee Denounces Anarchists and Street Youth on May Day

by the Anarchist Mallrat Brigade

First statement -

May 1st, 2002

For Immediate Release From: Anti-Poverty Committee Re: May Day Demonstration

“On Wednesday May 1st, the Anti-Poverty Committee held a ‘May Day’ action against the training wage. The demonstration started at Victory Square in Vancouver. Organizers from different groups spoke about the need fight the training wage and the importance of May Day as a celebration of international solidarity. ‘On International Labour Day 2002, we stand with all workers and oppressed people of the world and declare our continued commitment to heighten our resistance against imperialist globalization,’ said Carlo Sayo of the Philippino-Canadian Youth Alliance. The protesters then marched to the McDonald’s restaurant on Granville, where they blocked the entranceways of the restaurant for about an hour, shutting down business. Many people from the Anti-Poverty Committee and other labour/community groups spoke out against the training wage, the history of McDonald’s union-busting, and the racist treaty referendum.

After the visit to McDonald’s, the demonstration marched towards the art gallery. In an action that was not planned or approved by the Anti-Poverty Committee, a group of individuals marched into the Pacific Centre Mall, chanting ‘6 bucks sucks, 8 is not enough.’ The police arrested one man, who was dragged away spitting blood. Some of the demonstrators marched to the police station to show support for the arrested demonstrator. The police attacked this group at Main and Hastings, a traditional site for police brutality, and arrested three more people. At the time of this press release, all four people are still in custody. The Anti-Poverty Committee demands their immediate and unconditional release.”

Second statement -

A Statement From the Anti-Poverty Committee Regarding May 1st

“We, the Anti-Poverty Committee, are writing this letter to denounce the actions commited inside the Pacific Centre Mall by individuals at our May 1st demonstration.

Neither the derailing of our march as our demonstration was finishing, nor the subsequent vandalism carried out inside the Pacific Centre Mall, were carried out in solidarity with us or the workers inside the Centre. We were not informed that any such action was planned. The actions taken put workers at risk of being physically harmed, as was seen when one person was trying to break an enormous plate glass window with a piece of wood while people stood on both sides of it.

There was nothing political about what a small group of people did in the Pacific Centre. It was immature, adventuristic, and harmful to the interests of working class people. We are a mass based organization of poor and working people fighting for the interests of the oppressed, and the actions taken in Pacific Centre Mall unambiguously worked against these interests.

We, the Anti-Poverty Committee, are engaged in a very serious battle against this bourgeois government. The fight between capitalist oppressors and oppressed people is warfare. In a serious, dedicated political movement, we cannot afford to have people running around and engaging in destructive, clown-like behavior devoid of political consciousness. This is not the Dukes of Hazard, this is not a John Wayne movie: this is a life-or-death class struggle where every move counts, where every mistake counts. Those who engaged in this action have seriously damaged the Vancouver movement against poverty and against the BC Liberals, and we will not tolerate sloppy activities that hurt this movement. Workers in the mall, young people at the demonstration, immigrants at the demonstration who cannot risk arrest due to racist immigration policies, and many other important elements of the Vancouver working class have been alienated from participating in a militant movement against BC Liberals, and the masked-up people who rampaged through the mall are clearly responsible for this.

As we have shown at previous demonstrations, and on May 1st before this irresponsible derailment took place, the Anti-Poverty Committee is a group dedicated to fighting back against the provincial government through economic disruption. We have had a number of successful actions that were disruptive and powerful. However, we have never engaged in actions that put other workers at risk against their will, nor will we in the future. We work in solidarity with workers, indigenous people, women, people of colour, and poor people. Any group of people who does not work in solidarity with oppressed people, who puts them at risk against their will, has no place in this movement whatsoever.

In future events, we will be much more vigilant towards people who show up to our demonstrations and sabotage what we are trying to build. The interests of those fighting back against the BC Liberals must never be subordinated to the narcissistic desires of an undisciplined handful of individuals seeking an adrenaline rush.”

The real story -

The Anti-Poverty Committee is a new group of activists who have held several demonstrations in Vancouver and who plan to do welfare advocacy. They call for economic disruption to stop the current Liberal government. At the request of other groups, and to kick off their campaign against the new 6-dollar training wage, they decided to hold a demonstration on May Day in Vancouver. As with all APC demos they had a police liason and media spokesperson, as well as several “marshalls” to direct the crowd. APC had also supplied demonstrators with large placards on 2X4 pieces of wood.

Demonstrators in Victoria had been arrested and pepper-sprayed only days before. Last year on May Day in Vancouver, a group of people were arrested and pepper-sprayed for wheat-pasting posters about a transit strike.

At the beginning of the demonstration in Vancouver on May Day 2002 a small group of anarchists and militant street youth from both Victoria and Vancouver gathered. Many of them wore masks, some held banners, and one waved a black flag as the contingent marched along with the other demonstrators to the McDonalds. Most of the group attended the event because it was May Day and not because it was APC’s. They chanted “Class War Now!”, “Make the rich pay!”, and “Fuck six bucks, eight is not enough!”, injecting an obviously radical spririt to the demonstration. The group was not organized and had not made any plans.

Once the demonstration arrived at McDonalds, APC marshalls directed the crowd to block the doors of the building, which they did. The general assumption was that an occupation would take place and that the business would be shut down. Many people had anticipated a violent reaction from the police. Several people from the crowd spoke through a megaphone, including members of APC who shouted their standard “Fight Back!” rhetoric. Only one of three doors were blocked. It should be noted that the majority of people blocking the doors were the anarchists, street youth, and supporters since APC was busy adressing the crowd with speeches. Members of APC asked several masked-up anarchists to speak, but they refused. Customers inside the McDonalds continued to eat. After about half-an-hour APC called the demonstration to an end and urged people to march to the Art Gallery and disperse.

At this point many people from the crowd had already dispersed, but the group of masked anarchists, street youth, and their supporters spontaneously decided to march through the Pacific Centre Mall directly across the street. Some members of the group engaged in minor vandalism against corporate property inside the mall. Within a minute of entering the mall one of the masked demonstrators was hit in the face by a large man wearing a track suit who was angry about the march. The demonstrators decided to avoid further confrontation with this man. APC claims that one of the group in the mall tried to break a plate-glass window that people were standing on each side of with a piece of wood, putting workers risk. In fact the window was part of a display for an upscale clothing store, and so the only “people” put in danger were manequins. The fact that APC cannot distinguish between real live people and manequins begs the question of how they hope to advocate for those living in poverty. Clearly, APC has lied in a public statement.

The person who had been hit in the face was arrested in the mall and dragged away spitting blood. Some of the group then marched to the police station to show solidarity and 3 more were arrested there after a bottle was thrown.

It is strange that the first statement APC published was only sent to the anarchist websites “Ainfos” and “Infoshop” and that later public statements on Vancouver Indymedia would denounce the same people that the first statement demanded the release of.

APC says that it works in solidarity with indigenous people, wimmin, people of color, workers, and poor people, but the people that entered the mall represented all of these groups. APC says that the actions of those who entered the mall worked against the interests of working class people, but the group who entered the mall were working class people, including street youth. This also begs the question of how attacks on corporate property could hurt the interests of the working class. What does “economic disruption” mean to them?

Does inviting the media and having a liason with the police not endanger working class people who attend their demonstrations?

Inspector Bob Meanley of the Vancouver Police Department was quoted in the Vancouver Sun, May 3rd, 2002, as saying “This was a rampaging gang of criminals, hooligans and thugs, nothing else. On most occasions protesters are very cooperative. But we were clearly led astray, led to believe this was a lawful protest. In this case we were lied to.” The Vancouver Sun reported that Meanley and the police would be going over tapes made by mall security and television cameras to identify violent protesters. Again we ask, doesn’t inviting the media to a demonstration endanger people?

In the May 3rd issue of The Province it was reported that APC claimed that a splinter group had ignored its request to disband the rally. Inspector Meanley told The Province that “Everything seemed to be in order” and that he had discussed the plans for a peaceful protest with the APC organizers.

APC organizer Mike Krebs was quoted in The Province as saying “APC supports actions that are militant, not actions which put workers at risk …so we do not support anything that puts workers at risk.” Krebs was reported to agree with police inspector Meanley that the group in the mall were “criminals, hooligans and thugs.” and distanced himself from protesters who came armed with potential weapons. “If they had bags of rock and paint, that kind of speaks for itself.”

The question must be asked of what APC means by “militant” and how any militant actions could be free of risk. Why does Krebs and APC denounce protesters who came with potential weapons when they had supplied the large 2X4 placards? Why does APC denounce the actions of poor and working class people who take APC’s “Fight Back” and “Class War” rhetoric literally?

We ask how many more people have to starve to death or suffer police brutality before we are given permission to “Fight Back”?

May Day has existed for more than 100 years, as a traditional workers holiday, and day of anarchist action. It belongs to no person or group, least of all APC.

No oppressed person should have to beg for survival or the right to resist this system, and they will not! When APC says it will use “vigilance” in the future against these kinds of protesters what exactly do they mean?

- Vancouver Anarchist Mallrat Brigade

“These were the actions of working class people tired of being trampled on by both the money-grubbing capitalists of the Right, and the back-stabbing hypocrites of the Left.”

- Class War Federation (U.K.)

====================================================

A critique of the APC statements regarding May 1st

Mayday is an international workers holiday with a history going back more than 100 years, it doesn’t belong to APC. Are members of the Anti-Poverty Committee unaware that since its inception May Day has been internationally known as a traditional day for anarchist and communist action? May Day cannot be symbolic; nobody can control angry workers! When you say ‘Fight back’ and ‘This is class war!’ – do you mean it? Nobody can hijack May Day.

You denounce ‘the vandalism carried out in the Pacific Centre Mall’ in two different statements. The first was presented to members of APOV at the APC general meeting and named the Anti-Poverty Coalition of Victoria as the group responsible. The second statement was essentially the same with APOV’s name removed, and released publicly on Indymedia Vancouver and infoshop. Before this a message sent only to the A-infos website demanded the release of the prisoners and that a crowd marched to the jail in solidarity. First of all, APOV was unable to attend the demo, therefore made no plans and so didn’t lie about having plans.It was a spontaneous decision by the crowd of workers, indigenous peoples, women, people of colour and poor people to enter the mall, so no one marshaled any body through the doors of the mall. The act of going through the mall had nothing to do with APC since they were telling people to go to the Art gallery. And the crowd split and some people did leave. Using APOV as a scapegoat is exactly the tactics of the cops and media. When fighting this ‘life-or-death class struggle’ and chanting ‘The people united will never be defeated’ and then avoiding discussion and therefore creating divisions, APC is hurting the movement. How can ‘a serious, dedicated, political movement’ ignore the impact of such divide and conquer tactics? What are you trying to build, and with who? Does APC prioritize Corporate property over the lives of poor people? You say you fight the provincial government through economic disruption. On May 1st where did economic disruption occur – at McDonald’s for 30 minutes, where people inside continued to consume, or ‘rampaging’ through the mall demonstrating our rage using your ‘dangerous weapons’ ( 2×4’s with wooden signs saying ‘Fight Back’) against numerous multinationals, not just one McFuck’s.

You masturbate your ‘political conciousness’, yet appear to have no awareness of Vancouver history. It was a violent fight to get what CampHell is trying to take away. Are you waiting for a minister’s roundtable to kiss ass or do you want to fight back? This is ‘warfare’. Your authoritarian complex is hurting the movement, who do you think you are to be so self-righteous to think you can control a group of poor people. You can’t control people and advocate for them at the same time. Be specific who you want to work with. We are working class, poor, indigenous, women, and people of colour who will fight by any means necessary. If somebody throws a rock at a cop at a downtown eastside demo, will they be denounced? What do you expect to happen when rallying radical speeches inspire an angry crowd? We need words AND ACTION!!!!

How can you be so arrogant, racist and sexist as to call people immature, adventuristic, undisciplined and devoid of political conciousness? Did you read what you wrote? Sometimes it’s better to wait until the ‘adrenaline rush’ is over before making public statements.

The more masks at a demo the better. There could be enough masks provided for everyone. It not only represents international and local solidarity, but can help prevent individuals being targeted by the pigs.

As far as risks go – do you really think this world is safe? The state kills people everyday. The least we can do is fight first and not wait to be vicitims. It’s really patronizing to tell poor people to be peaceful and calm. Capitalism is killing us – there’s no time for compromise, negotiations or hesitations. You seem to have the fervor for cowardly acts of threatening ‘vigilance’ towards people who show up at YOUR demonstrations (narcissism?) and ‘sabotage’ (express ourselves) what you are trying to build, but you back down from having a militant stand against the state? APC claims to be committed for the long haul. What exactly are your long-term goals – a political party? Explain yourself! Since when has collaboration with the cops been beneficial to building a movement? Do you trust the media to tell the truth when they are in the back pocket of the pig force? Why don’t you just hand people over to the cops at the beginning of YOUR demo instead of using the ‘working class’ cop/media’s precious time sorting through video surveillance? I guess it saves APC’s labour to have the state create more propaganda for you.

We urge you to state your position regarding diversity of tactics, so that there is no ambiguity. If you advocate peaceful non-violent civil disobedience rather than direct action SAY IT !

The Clown Brigade

Class War Rages On in British Columbia (2002)

Furia y guerra de clases en la Columbia Británica

====================================================

Class War Rages On in British Columbia

On Wednesday, August 7th, 2002, the Anti-Poverty Committee (A.P.C.) of Vancouver held a rally, march, and action for “Welfare on Demand” and against the current economic restructuring of neo-”Liberal” government of B.C; an escalation in the war on the poor that has translated to cuts to welfare rates, and a new 3-week-waiting period for new welfare applicants. This is taking place at the same time as massive government and corporate lay-offs, and in the wake of a new 6-dollar “training wage” (2 dollars less than the minimum wage in B.C.).

The excluded class (the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, welfare recipients etc.), the most oppressed sector of society, is facing the most serious and painful consequences of these increasing attacks. In response, there has been an unsurge in self-organization, militant direct actions against the State, and the developement of “base structures” – anti-poverty organizations that struggle to provide the excluded with basic needs through direct intervention, and ultimately, to dismantle this government through campaigns of economic disruption.

The Anti-Poverty Committee’s rally began at the Burrard Street Skytrain station at 1 p.m. with a few speakers, media interviews, and the handing out of legal rights cards with phone contacts in case of arrests. A speaker announced the A.P.C.’s demands, and the crowd of about a hundred people made a short march through the financial district to the regional executive welfare office. Once reaching the office the crowd attempted to push through a line of police to gain entry to the building. A banner was dropped from a balcony by two people who had gained entry prior to the march. Several people managed to gain access to the inside of the building through side-doors and attempted to push open the front entrance doors from inside. This meant that the police had people pushing on the doors from both sides at once. At one point a door was forced open and a scuffle broke out as the crowd continued to try to force their way into the office. One cop used his bike to push the crowd back, but the demonstrators held their ground. Many people put up stickers that called for an end to the 3-week-wait all over the outside of the building . Through negotiating two A.P.C. members were granted a meeting with the office. The crowd rallied outside until they returned, and then dispersed.

A large and diverse group of organizations endorsed the A.P.C.’s demands and their march, including the Hospital Employees Union of B.C., the B.C. Government Employees Union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees B.C., the “Prepare the General Strike Committee”, as well as many community groups. While this is a welcome and positive developement, there was a visible lack of rank-and-file union workers at the demonstration, in contrast to the presence they have shown at previous rallies in opposition to the B.C. Liberal government. Several factors may have contributed to this, including the mid-day timing of the demonstration as well as it’s focus on welfare rights, rather than broad opposition to the Liberals policies as a whole. Although grassroots networking efforts by radical and community groups is important, the initiative should fall to the rank-and-file union workers, to show solidarity with the most oppressed sectors of the province. The illusions held by many regarding the trade unions must be broken, and an autonomous movement of rank-and-file workers that fights in true solidarity with the excluded must be developed.

Later on Wednesday night hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered at the beach near downtown Vancouver for a fireworks display that ended with the crowd blocking off major streets downtown, the intervention of police who arrested several members of the crowd, an attempt by the crowd to charge the police line in response, and attacks on vehicles and store-front windows. There are conflicting reports of police using pepper-spray to disperse the people who confronted them. This incident points to the always-present potential for class conflict at all large gatherings of people, particularly ones with an overwhelming and agitational police force. For insurrectionaries, this incident should illuminate other-than-traditional avenues for our own intervention and agitation.

From an insurrectionary viewpoint, the increasing willingness of anti-Liberal demonstrators in B.C. to directly confront the Capitalist State, and its enforcers; the police, is a positive development that should be expanded upon.

From our observation, this increasing militancy has become possible not only because of the deepening of class contradictions under the Liberal governement, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, but also because of the conscious efforts of radicals and militants to move away from symbolic protest and towards intentional conflict and direct action.

The context of the current class war in British Columbia includes -

- An attempt by B.C. Government Employeees Union (B.C.G.E.U.) members to charge into a hotel on January 23rd, 2002, where Premier Gordon Campbell was set to speak.

- Illegal wildcat strikes in late January by the B.C. Teachers Federation (B.C.T.F.) and the B.C.G.E.U.

- A tent-city occupation by street youth and students on the front lawn of the provincial legislature building in Victoria in February which ended with it’s dismantling by riot police

- The fire-bombing of Premier Gordon Campbell’s office on the night of February 21st.

- A B.C Federation of Labour rally at the legislature in Victoria by more than 20,000 people, at which a group of about 10 anarchists intervened by attacking a security barrier and throwing rocks at the legislature building.

- An anti-poverty Snake March in Victoria on March 25th that went through a mall and several corporate stores, leaving splatters from paint-bombs and graffitti behind.

- An anti-poverty march to one of Premier Gordon Campbell’s homes in Vancouver on April 1st.

- An all-womyn anti-poverty brigade’s occupation of a “Member of the Legislative Assembly” office in Victoria on April 25th that was broken up by riot police who pepper-sprayed several demonstrators.

- A May Day demonstration in Vancouver against the 6-dollar training wage that included a half-hour blockade of a McDonalds restaurant (one of the businesses using the training wage, and a major contributor to the Liberal’s election campaign.). After the end of the demonstration a masked group charged through a downtown mall and carried out small acts of vandalism and sabotage.

- A July 14th demonstration at the opening of a gallery show at the Vancouver Art Gallery at which the Premier was scheduled to speak at, but failed to show his face in public – because of “security concerns” caused by hundreds of angry demonstrators who attempted to dismantle a security fence, spat on police officers, and were then pepper-sprayed.

In conclusion, direct action is the only hope for the excluded, the only means available for survival and dignity. Our strategies for moving this struggle forward must focus on three areas -

- Conscious attacks on the institutions of oppression

- Propaganda

- Continuing efforts to organize affinity groups and base structures with explicitly revolutionary goals.

…Until the final victory…

Insurrectionary Anarchists of the Coast Salish Territories (British Columbia, Canada)

Anarchist Action In Vancouver (2002)

Anarchist Action In Vancouver

an insurrectionary anarchist analysis

Catalyzed by the growing popular resistance to the Liberal government in British Columbia, and in particular the Woodwards Squat, anarchist affinity groups have been organizing and intervening in the struggle in Vancouver in a visible and direct way.

On November 4, 2002, an affinity group of 8 anarchists dressed in black bloc made a presence felt at a demonstration against the B.C Restaurant and Food Association. The demonstration had been called by the Anti-Poverty Committee of Vancouver (APC) to expose the association of business groups that played a large part in the implementation of the $6 dollar and hour training wage. The anarchists waved black flags, chanted and pushed for demonstrators to take up more space on the road, to block both directions of traffic. Police made a pathetic attempt to curb the anarchists, with one motorcycle cop approaching the group and other cops announcing over and over again on a load speaker that the anarchists and other demonstrators should “move back for their own safety”. Once the cops realized that their petty intimidation was useless they gave up their attempts. Soon after the anarchists were approached by a different breed of pig; an irate APC member approached the group aggressively and demanded that they move away from the second lane. A shouting match ensued and a physical scuffle was barely avoided. The APC member repeated “This is an APC demo. I am telling you what to do.” Like the official cops, this self-appointed “leader” quickly realized that the group would not be intimidated or pushed around.

Mounted police then formed a line next to and then in behind the black bloc. Many within the group predicted that the police were preparing to charge the crowd. A stand-off resulted, and the anarchists shouted for the police to go home. The horse police eventually left, and as the demonstration dispersed the anarchist group chanted “Kill the rich, arm the poor, this is fucking class war!” adding a militant spirit to a symbolic display of “dissent”.

On Saturday, November 9, an autonomist group formed and attended two demonstrations in Vancouver. About 9 people with black flags and a banner that read “Time for revolution. Against Capital. Against the State.” Made their way to a protest called by the Bus Riders Union to call for a “People’s Agenda” for city hall, timed to coincide with upcoming city elections. 3 masked members of the group were detained briefly by police before the beginning of the demonstration but were released once others from the crowd confronted the cops. The affinity group then quickly moved on to a demonstration downtown against growing police repression. Residents of the Downtown Eastside, who live in the poorest neighbourhood in Canada, responded positively to the masked group, and yells of “Fuck the police!” were met with cheers. Agitators from the affinity group spoke out against police violence and in favour of militant community response. A young child from the group shouted through the megaphone “Pigs are assholes!” A member of the Marijuana Party warned the crowd of “agent provocateurs”, cops who mask up and break windows to justify police violence, and an argument and shouting match erupted. The group dispersed shortly after.

On November 17, an anti-capitalist contingent took part in a large march against the war on Iraq. Red flags, black flags, and a Palestinian flag flew side by side, as the group initiated militant chants like “George Bush, we hate you, and your fucking army too!” and “Stop! Stop the USA. Class war is the only way!”. The Anarchist Action Group – Vancouver distributed pamphlets against war, as well as capitalist “peace”.

On Sunday, December 1, an anarchist social night took place in Vancouver, and many new radicals met each other and made contacts for future organizing.

The anarchist movement in Vancouver appears to be growing and becoming more cohesive, opening up new possibilities for rebellion and revolt.

- Insurgent-S

Creativity and Insurrection (2006)

Creativity and Insurrection

By Sam G. / July 3, 2006 / Coast Salish Territories – Vancouver, Canada

As insurrectionary anarchists, we consider the struggle to demolish this world to be contingent most of all on creativity. To retaliate against daily humiliation is to create new social relations and transform the conditions under which we live. Creativity is an expression of freedom, in its infinite outlets and potential. Our limitless creative capacity makes possible the willful ending of the world as we know it.

Social revolution is one of the potential ends this world might come to, although it could not possibly be the final resolution of all social conflict. The revolution is a creative process that is international in scope, since the institutions of exploitation and social control extend to all corners of the globe. The conscious struggle to end this world is a revolutionary struggle, even in its smallest, initial phase. Wherever it takes place, revolutionary struggle affects the entire planet.

Many exploited or excluded people who do not yet consciously seek to destroy this world, are nonetheless involved in limited struggles and rebellions that can contribute to the destructive process of the revolution. As insurrectionary anarchists, we can and do intervene in these situations with our own project and in solidarity with those who rebel against the conditions and relations imposed upon them. This intervention can be described as a creative process of combining various subversive practices.

Rebellion occurs on many scales, from individual or collective acts of sabotage and insubordination to riots and insurrections. We insurrectionary anarchists are also rebels, but our rebellion is directed towards the total destruction of all political and economic institutions, all the structures through which the dominant class controls and exploits everyone else. Our revolt is part of a project we create for ourselves and that we carry through to its end, or our own, as in the case of death. We see our lives as a project to be created, and putting this project into practice requires an analysis of the local and global conditions of the class war, social struggles that are underway, and the projects designed and implemented by the exploiters. It requires communication between anarchist companions, the deepening of mutual understanding that if referred to as ‘affinity’. It involves the development of an infinite variety of specific projects that antagonize the authorities and expand our freedom.

Informal organization is the unification of the creative powers of individuals and groups. It is a concept and practice of organization founded on incessant innovation and adaptation to circumstances, as is required by a project of attack upon the power structure of global society. It is an expression of the desire for an expansive freedom that surges against all institutional limitations everywhere.

Thoughts about a protest and some bottles in Vancouver (2007)

Thoughts about a protest and some bottles in Vancouver

Anonymous
Coast Salish Territory, Vancouver, Canada
April 28, 2007

On Wednesday, April 25, 2007, the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), the ruling political party of Vancouver, held a meeting. The Anti-Poverty Committee (APC) responded with a protest titled “NPA Your Time is UP!”

The APC had made a call-out for others to join them at their planned demonstration. In their call out, APC presented several demands made upon the NPA. These demands called for the NPA to invest money in low-income housing in accordance with its own Homeless Action Plan and to cancel the 2010 Olympics and the Civil City project. Civil City is a plan to crack down on visible signs of poverty such as panhandling.

In their call out, the APC said, “We the people are defending ourselves and fighting back!” However, the APC were quick to distance themselves from a person said to have taken bottles filled with paint and urine to the protest.

After the demonstration was dispersed by police officers using bicycles and horses, the Vancouver Police Department announced to the corporate media that an officer had seen a man drop a bag in a garbage can before joining the protest. Inside, were bottles filled with paint and urine, which police displayed to the media. The cops say these were intended for use against the police. They say the APC attacked officers at the protest by trying to push through the police line.

The Province newspaper quoted APC organizer David Cunningham as saying, “There were no such bottles, and if there are such bottles, those belong to the police, not to the Anti-Poverty Committee.”

Cunningham is also quoted as stating, “If anybody brought those, it was the police who brought them and are trying to stage a disinformation campaign to undermine the work of the Anti-Poverty Committee.”

On a Global BC television news broadcast of April 26, 2007, APC organizer Thomas Malenfant said, “No member of the Anti-Poverty Committee had any of that contraband at all. We can’t control who comes to our demos, but that was no one within the APC.”

If Cunningham has been quoted correctly, we must ask how he could be sure the bottles belong to the police, especially since the police say they also found a wallet with identification in the bag and are looking for the person it belongs to?

Contraband is defined as an item that cannot be possessed legally. However, bottles filled with paint or urine don’t fit this definition. What then is the purpose of Malenfant calling them such?

APC seems to be responding to police attempts to criminalize them and spread disinformation about them with disinformation of their own. This goes beyond a simple disassociation from the bottles and the individual who brought them, endangering and isolating anyone who would bring these items to a demonstration or action. Malenfant’s statement assists in criminalizing the possession of such bottles. Cunningham has stated publicly that the person who brought the bag is a cop. If the person wasn’t a cop, Cunningham has, without reasonable cause, slandered and isolated an individual who the police say they are pursuing.

However, these kinds of statements were not made by APC after the February 12, 2007, protest and action against the Olympic Countdown Clock Ceremony at which police say eggs filled with paint were thrown. The difference there was that indigenous warriors who weren’t members of APC were arrested and the police were unprepared. Police repression of demonstrations has increased since then.

The use of paint-bombs at street actions in Vancouver was not without precedent even before the clock protest. The Indigenous Resistance Organizing Committee said one was used against a cop at an Anti-Canada Day demonstration last year. Anonymous reports claimed several were thrown at the Main Street police station during street actions in 2005 and 2006 on the March 15 International Day Against Police Brutality.

After this year’s street action on March 15, three people were arrested and charged. Police referred to those who took part in the action as “criminals”, even though none have yet been convicted of any crime related to it. This is part of an overall increase in criminalization and repression that is not limited to targeting APC.

In 2002, APC publicly denounced a group of people who vandalized the inside of Pacific Centre Mall after breaking-away from an APC-organized May Day demonstration. Police arrested and charged four people after the mall incident. APC has never retracted their denouncement.

APC’s recent statements and its 2002 denouncement assist the cops and the media’s efforts to isolate and demonize simple acts of rebellion such as the throwing of paint-bombs against government or capitalist targets. They also detract from anti-capitalist and anti-colonial resistance in Vancouver and around the world.

APC cannot be allowed to wage a war for credibility within the corporate media at the expense of the resistance movement that exists outside its organization, and which it cannot control.

An Anarchist Concept of Value (2003)

An Anarchist Concept of Value

Insurrectionary Anarchists of the Coast Salish Territories
Vancouver, Canada
July 1, 2003

The insurrectionary anarchist struggle puts forward certain positive values. The freedom of the individual and the equality of the oppressed class could be described as the most basic of these, along with solidarity and mutual aid, which form the connecting link between individual freedom and class equality and make revolutionary struggle possible. Anarchists also value self-organization, creativity, joy and autonomous action, but none of these positive elements can be artificially isolated from the completely negative orientation anarchists have towards the class of exploiters and their system of domination. The interrelation of elements should be obvious, as should be the positive contribution to our struggle that the various assaults on the property of the exploiters and their guards have in terms of opening up social space in which we can act more freely.

We are not scientists of revolution incapable of seeing the subjective value of struggles that do not necessarily lead to victory for our entire class. We do not accept that there is a guaranteed formula, a political program that can carry us through the struggle from beginning to end without error, without adapting to changing circumstances.

Anarchists are simply individuals who desire freedom and equality and are consequently propelled to fight alongside the exploited masses, as accomplices rather than guides.

We are in favour of immediate, destructive attacks on the structures of the capitalist State, because we see these as indispensable elements of an insurrectionary social movement. It is very easy for an individual or group to initiate actions against the many visible institutions of the class enemy. The simpler the means used the more the potential exists for the practice of sabotage to spread across a social territory, as every small act becomes a point of reference that can be put to use by anyone.

Anarchists place value in the will to rebel against oppression and the autonomous initiative of individuals who are not content to sit and wait for the revolution to come like a gift from the sky. We do not agree with those who say that sabotage is useless or detracts from our struggle. We are not priests of the Protestant work ethic who maintain that everything must be “productive”, that capitalism is part of a progressive historical evolution.

No, it is necessary to begin to destroy all the means of exploitation controlled by the enemy, and the decision to move in this direction cannot come from anyone but ourselves. We can find comrades with who we share a personal affinity in relation to revolutionary action, and we can even contribute to larger informal organizations used to coordinate the efforts of various autonomous groups, but ultimately, the will to resist must come from within each one of us.

As insurrectionary anarchists, we can’t agree with those who think that it is possible to oppose capitalism with productive projects alone, that we can merely replace our enemies institutions with our own, all without attracting the attention of their police forces, the forces of political repression.

Our idea of anarchist communism contains within it many beautiful and positive values, but we want to fight for them, and not limit ourselves to simply advocating our views. In autonomous struggle opposed to the capitalist State we see not only a positive value, but also a material necessity.

Insurrectionary Anarchists of the Coast Salish Territories
Vancouver, Canada
July 1, 2003

Revolutionary Initiative (2003)

Revolutionary Initiative

The Exploited Individual

“We must take into account not only the objective causes of oppression, but must also examine the subjective factors which play an important role in the persistence of exploitation and are hindering the process of workers’ autonomy.”
- Jean Weir, Worker’s Autonomy

The will to resist exploitation and social exclusion is an often overlooked factor within the revolutionary movement, but without this subjective element revolutionary change can not take place. Oppression can nurture apathy and resignation as easily as it can provoke hatred and anger. The exploitation of the capitalist system creates the context and justification for mass rebellion, but the determination to resist must come from within each individual. The spirit of revolt, the indispensable revolutionary initiative of individuals must be the groundwork of a project that aims at overthrowing the dominant class and destroying the infrastructure of their economy. The struggle for real individual freedom must also necessarily become a struggle for equality of conditions and access to social life for the entire exploited class.

The Insurrectionary Process

“When a revolutionary situation arises in a country, before the spirit of revolt is sufficiently awakened in the masses to express itself in violent demonstrations in the streets or by rebellions and uprisings, it is through action that minorities succeed in awakening that feeling of independence and that spirit of audacity without which no revolution can come to a head.”
- Peter Kropotkin , The Spirit of Revolt With the individual as a catalyst, an insurrectionary process can begin to take shape, first in small affinity groups, and then in base structures; mass organizations founded on principles of self-management, direct action and permanent conflict with the class enemy. The forum for individual and collective action is the class war itself, the contradiction between exploiter and exploited that can only be resolved by the violent elimination of those in power. Organization is a tool to be used in coordinating specific tasks, a tool to be fashioned, adapted and dismantled as necessary. It should not be an end in itself. Only the struggle should be permanent. Revolutionary initiative has a variety of means at its disposal, from counter-information work and expropriation to attacks on capitalist institutions. Class warfare may develop over time in the form of escalating individual, intermediate and mass insurrectionary struggles, but all efforts should aim at achieving concrete results and gains, and symbolic methods should be dismissed as useless.

The Institutions of Oppression

“Naturally one must begin with the insurrectionary act which sweeps away the material obstacles, the armed forces of government which are opposed to any social transformation.”
- Errico Malatesta, The Insurrection

Capitalism is not merely an abstract concept or system of social relationships. It depends on its institutions of repression, its courts, police stations, and prisons. These structures will not destroy themselves. They will not crumble under the weight of an inevitable historical process. They must be physically assaulted. The subjective aspects of material resistance also come into play, as individuals realize their capacity to actively attack and destroy capitalist targets. By intervening directly in the social clash, individuals and groups gain experience that can be attained in no other way. When engaged in collective action, the bonds of solidarity are strengthened between comrades. The combative spirit gathers momentum.

The Class Enemy

“Let every dirty, lousy tramp arm himself with a revolver or knife and lay in wait on the steps of the palaces of the rich and stab or shoot the owners as they come out. Let us kill them without mercy, and let it be a war of extermination and without pity. Let us devastate the avenues where the wealthy live.”
- Lucy Parsons

Behind every institution of oppression is the class enemy. Determined to maintain their position at all costs, intoxicated by power and willing to use the most brutal forces of repression at their disposal, the exploiters wage class war relentlessly. Revolutionary organizations must act against this reality by refusing negotiation or compromise with the class enemy. The only effective strategy in revolutionary warfare is the strategy of annihilation. The application of violence to this concrete necessity of the movement itself should not cause discomfort for even a moment. The lives of the exploiters and their servants are not worth a cent.

Autonomy and Centralization

“If revolutionaries organize like those whose rule they seek to overthrow, they are defeated before the battle is engaged.”
- Andy Anderson, Hungary ‘56

Autonomy is the prerequisite of social freedom. Only the absolute autonomy of individuals and groups, the freedom to associate or disassociate with others at will, can allow the natural tendency towards solidarity and mutual aid to take root. The principle of self-determination must grow from the free individual out towards the community, and further outwards to distinct cultural groups and geographic regions. Autonomy provides the basis for meaningful interrelations between groups and territories on the basis of communism; the equality of access to the means of existence and social life. Revolution is a project that develops decentralized organizational structures on the one hand while it attacks the centralized formations of the class enemy on the other. Revolutionaries must take the initiative to constantly fight against any tendency towards centralization if they are to defend freedom. From this perspective, revolutionary initiative becomes a project based on combining the struggle for individual liberation with the social struggle to overthrow the capitalist system and the class enemy.

Insurgent-S
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Coast Salish Territories
April 30, 2003

Social Struggle, Social War (2003)

Social Struggle, Social War

Insurrectionary Anarchists of the Coast Salish Territories
Vancouver, Canada
October 16, 2003

The struggle that insurrectionary anarchists engage in is social, rather than political or economic. Insurrectionary anarchists attack institutions of the political State and the capitalist economy as part of a project to completely demolish all forms of exploitation and control. We attempt to make a total and up-to-date critique of society, and this means that we reject limited viewpoints that privilege one form of oppression over another or one sector of the excluded class over another.

The ranks of today’s excluded are immigrants, the indigenous, the employed and unemployed, and there is no reason why any one of these sectors should be considered the advanced guard of the struggle.

The capitalist economy depends not only on production, but also distribution and consumption of commodities. So the old Marxist analysis that says only the workers in the manufacturing sector can be revolutionary does not make sense. Agricultural workers, indigenous peasants and the unemployed can attack capitalism at the point of distribution by blocking roads, and at the point of consumption through theft and looting. Sabotage is a flexible tool that can be put to use by any excluded or exploited individual. For those employed in the capitalist marketplace there are various techniques of self-organized direct action possible at the individual, group and mass levels. Absenteeism, destruction of machinery, theft and information tampering occur regularly in all workplaces.

Politics is alien to the exploited. There is mass abstention from the electoral process. Unionization is declining, and extra-union activity on the part of union members is growing through the use of sabotage and flying squad self-organization – with varying degrees of real autonomy.

A purely economic view of the class struggle is useless. Capitalism does not just control the world of work, but also the home and the entire social territory in which the exploited live. The enemy class uses to its advantage systems of oppression such as patriarchy and racism that predate capitalism and industry, and which divide the excluded amongst themselves.

There are many social problems inherent to the class struggle that the action of anarchists can be useful in confronting. The moral value system passed down by the exploiters to the exploited. The democratic ideals of tolerance and dialogue. The religious tendency of the workers and unemployed to look for a guide to bring them vengeance. The bigotry and irrationality that cause the exploited to battle each other, leaving the class enemy unscathed. These are the subjective elements of class society that can’t be ignored by those who really want to destroy this rotten system.

Refusing the role of the vanguard, the elitist group that is supposed to educate and guide the masses, anarchists above all act for themselves, in their own interests, not claiming to represent their entire class. But for the anarchist struggle to become revolutionary it must become social, expanding through solidarity in action. Our relationship with the mass must be informal and direct. We must recognize the mass as individuals, avoiding the danger of falling into generic perspectives and ideology.

To limit ourselves to spreading counter-information and declaring our convictions to the masses would not make sense, and would be just another form of elitism. We must always re-evaluate our analysis and attempt to advance through discussion and the gathering of information, but we must also act.

Our organizational forms should be fluid and adaptable, capable of destructuring when necessary, based on simple principles that can be used by anyone; self-organization, direct action and permanent struggle. We must reject the political party and activist organizational model of the power centre that is supposed to manage and control everything. We should proceed to action immediately, not waiting for orders or signals from anywhere.

We should fight in intermediate struggles alongside the excluded, for housing, food, shelter, wages, against police repression, against social control. But always trying to push these struggle further, helping them expand into the unknown of insurrection.

In the social war for freedom the participation of anarchists can be of great importance.