The Free Society Collective will be presenting at the National Conference on Organized Resistance, February 2006

Members of the Free Society Collective will be presenting at the National Confernece on Organized Resistance, on the weekend of February 3-5, 2006, at American University in Washington D.C.

The presentations include: Sustaining Revolutionary Politics in Nonrevolutionary Times; Anarchist History in the Present: “Maggots and Men” Film Pre-view Screening and Discussion; The New Anarchism; and, What's the Meaning of Protest, Anyway?.

The Meaning Behind the Message of the RNC Protests -Robert Augman

For those of us who participated in the protests against the Republican National Convention (RNC) this summer, reading the newspaper articles, watching the TV reports, or speaking with their audience was a schizophrenic experience. It seemed that what we took part in, and what was conveyed, were two entirely different things. Continue reading "The Meaning Behind the Message of the RNC Protests -Robert Augman"

Our Dreams Will Never Fit In Their Ballot Boxes

Recovering the Power of the Global Grass Roots in the Antiwar Movement -By Cindy Milstein

The global day of antiwar protests on February 15 was remarkable for several reasons.

First and foremost, of course, was the fact that some 12 million people came out in over 600 cities spanning every continent to express their outrage at a potential preemptive strike on Iraq. So enormous and unprecedented were these demonstrations that even the New York Times was forced to admit, no doubt grudgingly, of “a new power in the streets.”

Disentangling the Antiwar Movement from the American Flag -Free Society Collective

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"Patriotism in its simplest, clearest, and most indubitable meaning is nothing but an instrument for the attainment of the government's ambitious and mercenary aims, and a renunciation of human dignity, common sense, and conscience by the governed, and a slavish submission to those who hold power. That is what is really preached wherever patriotism is championed. Patriotism is slavery."
    Leo Tolstoy

"Peace is the continuation of war by other means."
     Hannah Arendt

Since September 11, 2001, many antiwar activists in the United States have wrapped their dissent in the American flag. In an increasingly constrictive political climate, they are anxious to find ways to appear more legitimate. For some, carrying the flag celebrates the Bill of Rights, particularly the rights to free speech and public assembly. For others, it recalls foundational events for this country such as the Boston Tea Party and American Revolution that symbolize the struggle against the tyranny of colonial rule. People of conscience raise the stars and stripes to assert that "peace is patriotic," and that they are the real Americans. The U.S. government, by contrast, claims to be waging war in order to uphold America's core values, or as Bush puts it, precisely because "we are a peace-loving nation."

Fighting to Win: Sufficient Strategies for Moving Forward
-Rob Augman, Fall 2002

This article was originally presented at the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference in the summer of 2002, in Plainfield, VT. It was published in Onward newspaper in Volume 3, Issue 2 (Fall 2002).

In our long-term struggles for a free society, our present organizing must reflect our long-term vision. Not only must it reflect such vision, it must also be our vehicle for moving us closer to such vision. As anarchists, our goal of a self-governed society, where we can directly organize social life from the bottom-up according to ethical criteria, must be at the heart of our efforts. But in the current context where all forms of social struggle are co-opted or defeated by the state and capitalism, we face the difficult task of building a movement that takes us toward our long-term vision. Many people around the world are struggling to fight off exploitation and oppression. But the project of “building the new society in the shell of the old” must be a major part of our efforts if we are to truly transcend hierarchical society. This task is a challenging one for organizers across the globe.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) has been getting a lot of attention from the anarchist movement as of late. And rightly so, because OCAP, a 14 year-old direct action organization, has used a popular and confrontational approach in fighting extremities of capitalist exploitation. And they have been largely successful!

Another World Is Possible . . . But What Kind, and Shaped By Whom? -By Cindy Milstein

During the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting and related demonstrations in New York from Jan. 31 to Feb. 4, the Village Voice put its finger to the shifting political winds. That week's cover headline read, “Passing the Torch: Anarchists Pick Up Where Progressives Left Off,” and the corresponding image depicted a middle-aged white male running in a business suit while handing off a Molotov cocktail to the young white male in “anarchistic” attire sprinting along behind him. While this front page could be critiqued for its damaging stereotypethat all anarchists are youthful, violent Caucasian guys— the article inside sympathetically acknowledged that “the anarchist fringe is fast becoming the movement's center.” Anarchists are indeed outstripping progressives because they offer a form of contestation and transformation that speaks to the times — a form in explicit opposition to the world's powerful elites, but one that also acts as a thorn in the side of many social justice activists.

Something Did Start in Quebec City:North America's Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Movement -By Cindy Milstein

When thirty-four heads of state gathered behind a chain-link barrier in Quebec City this past April to smile for the television cameras during the Summit of the Americas, it was the tear gassing outside that garnered all the media attention. Those on both sides of the fence jockeyed to put a spin on the meaning of the massive chemical haze that chocked the old city for over two days. The "insiders" claimed that as duly elected leaders of so-called free countries, they were attempting to democratically bring "freedom through free trade," and as such, those on the streets were merely troublemakers without a cause or constituency that needed to be dealt with accordingly. The "outsiders" asserted that those hiding behind the fence were the real source of violence—the tear gas exemplifying what nation-states are willing to do to protect capitalism and the dominant elites—and thus, a certain level of militancy was necessary to tear down the "wall of shame" that many saw as separating the powerful from the powerless.

Going Public -By Cindy Milstein

If antiauthoritarians have helped catalyze a new New Left in the United States, and I believe they have, they now have a responsibility: to provide direction.

This sits uncomfortably with anarchists—and not entirely without justification. Movements aimed at liberating humanity have often ended up forcing people to be “free.” But advancing reconstructive notions isn't inherently authoritarian, nor does it have to be coercive. Indeed without visions and strategies, movements have historically left themselves open to co-optation or, worse, been the exclusive project of an enlightened few.

What's in a Name -By Cindy Milstein

The amorphous movement that has appeared on the scene of late—in North America, after Seattle, and around the world several years prior—exhibits an astonishing diversity of tactics, goals, and political beliefs. At the same time, this resurgence of radical politics is united in an equally varied critique of one phenomenon: globalization. Whether understood economically, politically, ideologically, or culturally; as a form of communication or set of new technologies; as an overlapping configuration of these or other factors, globalization provides the umbrella under which hundreds of often life-and-death matters can huddle as one connected whole.

Reclaim the Cities: From Protest to Popular Power -By Cindy Milstein

"Direct action gets the goods," proclaimed the Industrial Workers of the World nearly a century ago. And in the short time since Seattle, this has certainly proven to be the case. Indeed, "the goods" reaped by the new direct action movement here in North America have included creating doubt as to the scope and nature of globalization, shedding light on the nearly unknown workings of international trade and finance bodies, and making anarchism and anticapitalism almost household words. As if that weren't enough, we find ourselves on the streets of twenty-first-century metropolises demonstrating our power to resist in a way that models the good society we envision: a truly democratic one.