According to the New York Daily News:
Fifty of the country’s leading anarchists are expected to be in the city for the Republican National Convention, and a handful of them are hard-core extremists with histories of violent and disruptive tactics, according to police intelligence sources.
Police said each of the 50 have up to 50 followers who are willing to be arrested during disturbances at the convention. This group, police say, is expected to engage for the most part in civil disobedience, including sit-ins in front of delegates’ buses. They also may stage more direct-action tactics, such as vandalizing McDonald’s and Starbucks.
Now if I were an anarchist and looking to disrupt the Republican Convention, I’d be hanging out at Le Cirque, not McDonald’s or Starbucks. [They'd probably find the Kerrys there too! -ed. No doubt. But, hey, these are anarchists. They don't have any use for Republicans or Democrats. I'm doing them a favor. Right.] But apropos of black flags and revolution, I have been asked if I attended the Chicago Convention. Short answer: no. But I did come to know some of the better known participants, like Abbie Hoffman. He even came to visit me while “underground” on the Universal lot back in 1979 because he was pissed I’d parodied him in the film version of The Big Fix. Actually he had another, probably more important, clandestine mission on the lot that day — flogging screen rights to his Steal This Book. Hey, this is America. Everything’s for sale. One of the anarchists in New York next week will probably be making a book deal. [You'll be carrying your D70. Maybe you can do the cover snap.-ed. Maybe.]
Ummm… can I axe da stoopid question here? How do we get one, let alone fifty leading anarchists?
And how can each one have up to fifty “followers”? Doesn’t that violate the very principles of anarchism? I could see having fifty “prominent” or “well-known” individuals, each with up to fifty “buddies” or “colleagues” or whatever who hang around with them in a perfectly voluntary and equal fashion, making decisions by consensus. But if they really have “leaders” and “followers”, they’re a bunch of pseudo-anarchist frauds. Either that, or too stupid to know the first thing about their own supposed philosophy.
These folks are inevitably going to be associated with John Kerry, and the worse things they manage to do, the worse it’s going to be for him. Stay safe, Roger!
They’ll need to watch out for jihadists in their midst. Nothing like a suicide bomber to tar their cause . . .
Why don’t they form a 527 instead? I’m sure they could get backers to fund an ad or two. Of course that would go against their philosophy too. It’s hard being an anarchist!
I’ve come to the conclusion that 527′s are great for America! I don’t want CFR changed to eliminate them at all!
The reason is that all that soft-money CFR was worried about and the shadow financing is now out in the open! Pretty much, anyway.
It’s all concentrated in 527′s which makes it more open obvious. And political speech is not shut down!
I’ve heard some frightening rumors today re Bush and McCain trying to figure out how to stop the 527 ads and that Kerry has pulled one.
If this is true, I’m FURIOUS at Bush! I’ll still vote for him, but man, don’t stifle free speech.
When Bush originally said all these 527′s weren’t good for the system, I just thought, well okay. Bush is pointing out that it’s not just 527′s against Kerry, it’s all of them, to counter the Dem hypocrisy.
Darn it, I don’t like this.
Did I miss something?
Is this true??
Lets not forget this VVAW guy Scott Camil, who was known as “Scott the Assassin” and wanted to murder US Senator’s to try and stop the war. He works for the Kerry campaign in Florida and Kerry has not only not disavowed him but embraced him. There are many questions about when Kerry quit that organization as well.
Was this in FrontPage Mag???
If we didn’t have a deluded Supreme Court and an almost perfectly divided congress, we might end up with some free speech left.
Instead, we get this mess we have today, where the candidates and the press have free speech and nobody else does.
If were in congress, I would introduce a bill to outlaw editorials about the election. After all, there is no difference between an editorial and a partisan advertisement except who gets to talk.
Such a bill would put the press in enough of a frenzy that maybe they would come out on the side of free speech. Notice that nobody stood up for free speech before – congress, president (who made a gamble that failed), press who were pushing against free speech thus giving them a monopoly, and the Supreme Court, who must be located too close to a source of brain rotting fumes.
The only form of campaign finance reform I could support would be zero restrictions on speech but a requirement that sponsored speech (including editorials) require immediate registration in a public, internet database of who paid what for what.
Well, Syl, not so much.
I think on principal Bush is blowing it here, but as politics it’s beautiful strategy.
a) By law he can’t display influence over the Swifties. (If Kerry has “pulled the plug” on a 527-sponsored ad, he could be in violation of the same law.) Therefore, it’s win-win for Bush; he gets moral high ground asking the Swifties to stop, the Swifties say no, and Kerry still gets to be the deer in the spotlight.
b) Bush highlights the huge discrepancy in the balance of funding within the set of 527 organizations, making Bush look like a victim of smear tactics.
c) Light is further shed on the incestuous relationships between the 527s, the National Committees, and direct and indirect operatives of the Campaigns themselves. (Since the 527s are so heavily weighted to the Dems, you would expect more damage to that side; media bias of course counters that to an extent. However, should the media sense JFK 1.8b is going down, watch them go Full Dukakis on his a**.)
Don’t get me wrong; I think campaign finance laws that regulate speech are an insult to the Constitution. Everyone who supported McCain-Feingold should be ashamed (especially the two sponsors). Having your heart in the right place doesn’t mean you can stick your head wherever you want, and now a lot of people are having to deal with an unattractive view.
Prediction: after this election, McCain-Feingold gets “amended” into utter irrelevancy. (It won’t be appealed because people like the idea of regulated campaign finances. But the statute itself becomes an endorsement of Mom and Apple Pie.)
But Team Bush is playing the hand dealt extremely well right now. Don’t expect them to stop.
Roger,
Is Le Cirque the place for leading anarchists now that Leonard Bernstein’s apartment is unavailable?
Where does one go in New York nowadays to make out checks to the Revolution?
Actually, I would expect any large-scale serious anarchist disruptions to work in favor of Bush analogous to the rioting at the Democratic Convention in ’68 helping Nixon.
So while I wouldn’t want to actually hope for criminal acts, it will be amusing to see the anarchists actually bring about their worst nightmare with their own stupidity.
leading anarchists
I’m more trailing vanguard, myself.
Don’t know if Hoffman was anarchist but you can always ask The Quiet Yippie. You know what they say about the quiet ones.
How would one distinguish between a leading activist and rear-guard sort of guy?
Would this be a leader’s kind of bio?
John “Molotov Cocktail” Jakes. Age 58. Leading anarchist. Arrested 27 times for civil disobedience. Fomented revolutions in four banana republics (one successfully). Four-time member, FBI’s most-wanted list. Convicted of firebombing a Starbucks in Seattle. Knows Tom Hayden personally. Played mumbledypeg with Eldridge Cleaver in 8th grade. Carries a picture of William Kunstler in his wallet. Dated Patty Hearst before the heist.
Kerry didn’t pull a 527 ad, he pulled one of his campaign’s ads — the one where McCain is berating Bush at some debate or another.
Bush knows full well that his asking for an injuction against 527 ads to be pulled will be denied.
The Swifties have already told both sides to buzz off when it comes to their actions, so Bush can say he already tried. However, the move forces Kerry to start speaking out against every liberal 527 ad aired.
I wonder if the radicals are led by older people? They were in the ’60s – note, for example, that Abbie Hoffman was a decade older than the boomers.
The few anarchists I’ve seen in the Phoenix demos were pretty pathetic, but I doubt if they included any of the top 50 (the concept still boggles the mind).
In the middle of this mob will be the Protest Warriors. You can distinguish them by large black and white signs with a lot of printing on them. They are a national counter-demonstration organization ( protestwarrior.com ) with some clever ideas. They should be interesting.
The last presidential debate is here in town. I’m going to either play the world’s oldest protest warrior, or just film them.
On topic… anarchists protesting at the Libertarian Convention is what’s needed.
Roberts,
I believe the protestors are thinking of the Dem Convention in `68, but from their view disruption is a negative for Bush. In other words, disruption at the Dem Convention in `68 helped the Dem candidate to lose, therefore disruption at the Republican Convention in `04 = Bush defeat.
I’m not saying that I agree with this, but I think for many of them that’s the historical perspective they’re taking.
When I first glanced at the headline and first line of the story, I swear I thought it said “50 leading archivists” and I was thinking “Wow, they must really want to keep good records at the RNC”
As a side note, Roger, you’ll probably want to skip out of the convention-sponsored entertainment in New York.
Peter G.–
Thanks to crowd control technology like sonic cannons and sticky foam, these guys are more likely to just have a miserable time than getting a chance to be martyred by a cop’s billy club. I’m sure if they insist, though, the cops will oblige them.
These “anti-globalization” types showed up in force in Chicago several years ago. They had lots of whistles and drums, but they were outnumbered by Chicago police in riot gear by about 3-to-1.
It was actually kind of pathetic. Sort of like going to watch a Frank Sinatra concert in his last few years when he couldn’t hit the notes anymore.
“Fifty leading anarchists.” Hmmm. It sounds like they are referring to one of those Forbes Magazine annual lists.
Or maybe they meant “Fifty leading antichrists?” That would be fascinating. (Calling Robert Anton Wilson!)
Is the reanyone out there who can explain to me why “anarchy” as a political idea makes any sense at all?
Being a (poor) scholar of Greek, I know that etymologically it means “no rule(r),” but how can this make any sense as a politics?
The pure privation of a government or governing idea or force would inevitably (humans being the creatures we are) lead to a tyranny (something like that from which we are trying to liberate Iraq), or a completely chaotic neighborhood by neighborhood rule by armed gangs (what is developing among the “Palestinians”).
I just don’t see how anyone who thought for even a few seconds could seriously consider “anarchy.”
Let alone consider himself a “leading anarchist.” The idea is risible.
Jamie Irons
*Why don’t they form a 527 instead? I’m sure they could get backers to fund an ad or two. Of course that would go against their philosophy too. It’s hard being an anarchist!
*
You mean to tell me you don’t think that out of the 50 leading anarchists (I’m still shaking my head at that one), none of them are sponsored by Soros for Amerika ?
Soros would write checks to groups led by Adolph Hitler and Joe Stalin if it was would get Bush out of office. The dude is dangerously unbalanced imho.
Well, you may be correct, Peter, but I suspect that even your suggestion is a far deeper “thought” than this crew has had in a long time. And if they believe what you describe, it only confirms their ignorance of both history and the American electorate.
50 leading archivists
Aren’t those, like, black-belt librarians? Man, Ashcroft really pissed off the wrong crowd this time! And some guy who firebombed a Starbucks!?! In Seattle?!? You gotta be crazy to risk getting pimp-slapped by the latte slurpers. This could get real ugly, real quick.
Mike, if you ever link me to a site full of democratic drivel like that again, I wll have to hurt you. =)
Seriously though, using that website as a source for your platform will more than likely galvanize people who might be sympathetic to your cause or oppose that guy’s take on homosexuality. Democrats telling me how evil the GOP is, even when the GOP is being stupid or intolerant, is not going to get through my BS filter and so the message will be lost.
I won’t expound further, as we’ve had a gay rights/gay marriage thread going already this week.
…anarchists protesting at the Libertarian Convention is what’s needed.
The fifty leading Rothbardians? Geeeeeee…
How do 50 anarchists each get 50 followers?
They form a circle.
–==–
There is a big difference between William Calley and John Kerry. William Calley is a proven war criminal. For John Kerry we only have his word as an officer and a gentleman.
What is the War Hero Afraid of?
Form 180. Release ALL the records.
The Ads: Video links
Tod Gitlin was on Talk of the Nation this afternoon talking about protests–He seems to have gotten a lot mellower as he has aged, but he was quite emphatic that the protests of the 1968 Democratic Convention was probably what put Nixon in the White House. As an interesting side note, a “protest leader” from Rutgers was interviewed using all kinds of Chomskian language (and who also thought the McGovern was the Dem nominee)–Gitlin dismissed as “masurbatory and ignorant.” Its hell when radicals age.
“masturbatory” PVIMF
Mike, if you ever link me to a site full of democratic drivel like that again, I wll have to hurt you. =)
Yeah, I should have warned people…but in this particular case they are spot-on….even a broken clock is right twice a day and all…
Now, what was this about the archivists protesting at the librarian party’s national convention?
Is there any possibility that this could be a trap?
If Kerry were smart, he could call a big press conference and denounce the protestors. This might be the “sister Souljah” moment he has been waiting for. It woudl come at the perfect time, too. The notion that Kerry is a far-left extremist is just beginning to creep into the national psyche thanks to the Swift Boat ads. If he were to come out against civil disorder, this would reassure a lot of middle class voters.
I don’t know what that would do the more radical members of Kerry’s base, though. Their hearts are undoubtedly with the protestors (“if only I were 30 years younger…”) and they might not take kindly to seeing them harshly condemned. Then again, I have to believe that Kerry has them pretty well wrapped up; Nader probably won’t do nearly so well this time.
The Bush campaign should be prepared for Kerry to take the high road and denounce the protestors.
If Kerry were smart, he could call a big press conference and denounce the protestors. This might be the “sister Souljah” moment he has been waiting for.
That would call for a level of tactical and strategic thought that seems quite far beyond the Kerry campaign’s grasp at this point.
The key phrase is “If Kerry were smart….”
I am sure the idiots will turn out in force to demonstarte at the convention. Probably saved up their vacation time for this but the sad truth is after watching Arabs demonstrate for the last three years these guys just don’t have what it takes anymore. And of course we got to see the Euro trash turn out in force looking like anti American football fans with their orange hair and well it just kinda took the thrill out of it for me. They will have to rise to new heights in the showing their ass department to really compete.
As for the 527′s, if the media would actually do their job we would not need them. But at the same time it is turning into another growth industry with media specialists and all that crap and once again regular folks with regular problems are forgotten.
Is there anyone out there who can explain to me why “anarchy” as a political idea makes any sense at all?
Yes, Uncle Dennis will reveal all.
Since the collapse of Communism and Socialism in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe, much of the Hard Left has spent considerable time and energy attempting to disguise the failure of their ideology via language. Nearly all former Communist and Socialist activists refer to themselves as ‘anarchists’ these days. A substantial number of them attempt to refute that communism failed in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe by claiming the those states and their economies were not really ‘communist’, but were actually practicing ‘state capitalism’. In a similar vein, the Hard Left no longer refers to centralized state planning of an economy as ‘centrally planned’, ‘state planned’ or ‘socialist’, they call it ‘participatory economics’ (Gosplan by any other name).
Simply remember that Noam Chomsky has been claiming that he is an ‘anarchist’ or ‘anarcho-sydicalist’ for years…but it doesn’t matter what he claims, when you actually read him it is quite clear that he is essentially a cross between a Leninist and a Stalinist (as opposed to a Marxist or an Anarchist). None of the ‘anarchists’ descending on New York City are actually ‘anarchists’, it is simply a label they use to disguise the essential truth of their politics from the masses. If you start checking out sites like ZMag and The Socialist Worker, and then start digging into their ideological writings, you’ll see what I mean.
Ambinsinistral
“Kerry didn’t pull a 527 ad, he pulled one of his campaign’s ads — the one where McCain is berating Bush at some debate or another.”
True. I wasn’t sure so was vague
I heard McCain complained to Kerry that he didn’t want him in an ad that was anti-Bush.
Mike Silverman
I thought it said “50 leading archivists”
LOL
But, heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if “50 leading librarians” protested. Militant librarians and archivists screaming ‘File the Truth!’, ‘Card Catalogs for Kerry!’
Oops. Knucklhead beat me to it!
Joe Schmoe
“If Kerry were smart, he could call a big press conference and denounce the protestors.”
If Kerry were smart he would not have depended on 4 months in Vietnam as his entire list of bona fides for the presidency.
Thanks, Uncle Dennis!
Now I get it.
Jamie Irons
If Kerry were smart he would not have depended on 4 months in Vietnam as his entire list of bona fides for the presidency.
Just for fun, I decided to do a timeline of Kerrys life. “X” marks the time he talks about:
_________________________________________________
__________________________X______________________
_________________________________________________
____________________________________
DtP,
“then start digging into their ideological writings”
Not even in a Level 4 Hazmat suit with an external Hepa filtered air supply. I’d rather spend six months pumping septic tanks. Hell, I’d rather spend six months in a septic tank.
Jamie–Uncle Dennis has given you the more recent history of anarchism–I believe it started out in the late 19th century as a “moral” idea: the natural state of humankind (notice the PC version of men?) is freedom–Freedom is such a value that anything that infringes upon freedom is immoral–all governments infringe on human freedom in some way, shape or form. Thus, ALL governments are immoral and need to be overthrown–
To some extent libertarians are rooted in anarachism but understand the inherent dilemma of no government–The real problem with anarchists is they can never get organized!
Let the commie jerkoff’s run riot. It would be a beautiful sight to see the NYPD beat the crap out of them. Who knows, perhaps a klop on the head by a cop’s baton might knock some sense into the schmuck’s head.
Rick Ballard:
Why, when we were kids, we used to dream of spending six months in a septic tank! Why, our dad would come home from work, beat us with a club, mum ‘d feed us a bowl of cold gravel, then we’d crawl off to the septic tank, which had been filled with poison…”
//Monty Python routine (rendered very approximately…)
Jamie Irons
Jamie,
So you were in one of the the lucky families that we had to dig the septic tanks for, huh? I remember having to run home barefoot through the glass recycling plant with my crippled sister on my back in order to get a septic tank dug before dark. Then dad would take us all out to the settling tanks at the waste water plant where we’d wade in the muck trying to feel for coins with our feet. Lord, it was good to see the sun come up so that I could start carrying sis and pushing little Tommy’s wheelchair back up the hill toward school. Of course, those days came to end when I turned seven and dad sold me to the mill.
What cubanbob said. The only way it would be better is if they let ordinary citizens help out – it’d be just like playing whack-a-mole.
And, no – I don’t want to club people who are assembling freely to express their view, no matter the fact that they really have no view and their only point is on their head. But those losers who think that molotov cocktails are a form of free speech – bring it on!
Rick
LOL!
With a life history like that, you qualify, victimizationally (neologism alert!) speaking, to hold forth at the next Democratic National Convention!
Jamie Irons
Rick:
I forgot to add:
Lucky, lucky bastard!
Jamie Irons
Rick-
While I understand your sentiments, and largely agree with them, I must admit that I spend quite a bit of time at websites such as ZMag and The Socialist Worker. Just as I spend time reading Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and the like. Just as I spend significant amounts of time at lurking at the sites of Marshall, KOS, Yglesias, Drum and the like.
One must know one’s enemy.
Also-
RogerA is correct. Anarchism as both a philosophy and a political movement were born in 19th Century Russia. You can find a superb (and concise) discussion of it in Paul Berman’s Terror and Liberalism.
On the communist/anarchist stuff.
If I understand correctly, Marx operated on the notion that capital was finite. He believed that eventually Capitalist economies would reach that finite limit. when that happened, the ruling class would continue to amass wealth by taking it from the workers. The impoverishing of the workers would trigger the revolution.
For that reason communist revolutions would occur in the most advanced Capitalist countries, like the U.S. and England, rather then largely rural economies like Russia and China. I seem to recall that always being somewhat of a puzzle to Marxists. Hence, within their belief system, calling the Soviets eratz communists isn’t as dishonest as it might sound.
I think modern communism has morphed from Marx’s original model. They’ve replaced the nation with the planet. They still keep the notion of capital being finite, but now consider that the limit has been reached –hence their fascination with environmentalism. The ruling class has been replaced by the rich west, and the exploited workers have become the third world masses.
Crazy as you or I may find that notion, keep that in mind when you listen to their rhetoric and watch their actions. To us aligning with militant Islamic fanatics seems like suicide, but to the far left they are the ones that are going to trigger the eventual communist revolution Marx predicts. They’ll ride the bull (no pun intended) because they think their worker’s paradise is fated to emerge from the other side.
It goes a long way to explain why the left has turned its back on Isreal as well as the US. I expect the rising economies of Asia to feel their wrath too.
Dennis,
You will have noted the liason between the SWP and the Muslim Association of Britain,an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,an altogether unholy union. The SWP was pushing the state capitalist line even before the collapse of the USSR,in fact I remember one cove dressed like a victorian labourer trying to lecture on this very subject to a dwindling group of middle class reactionaries who coincidentally ended up in the same pub.
Rick Ballard,
Sheer Luxury,after the tea break it was back on our heads.
Ambisinistral,
They’ll ride the bull (no pun intended) because they think their worker’s paradise is fated to emerge from the other side
The trouble is there isn’t a worker amongst them,they are hardly “horny handed sons of toil”
Wasn’t McKinley assasinated by an anarchist?
The late 19th century was the time when many of these ‘isms’ really began to become a part of the political world. Very violent. The flip side of now dead laissez faire economics. The problem is the capitalist world has moved on but some of these folks are stuck in a time warp.
Rick Ballard, Jaime ó Why these kids today… I was digging and repairing septic tanks back in the days when we didn’t have any of this PC fooforaw and just called ‘em cesspools…
And New York ó What are the construction workers doing this time? Hey, Roger! Remember the construction worker riots?
Rick, Jamie, richard….
Luuuuuuxury!
We were too poor to eat or drink, so we couldn’t even use a septic tank if we had one. When we’d complain to mum about a paper plate and salt for dinner again, she’d put Da onto us and he’d thrash us with his old socks because the taxmen had already taken his belt, and he couldn’t buy another after paying his 2Pd6s4p for the right to work at the mill another day…
First time I heard that routine was on a freeway in LA after a twelve hour day of surveying in South Central…three sunblasted, exhausted, 200lb+ guys crammed into a Toyota fleetside pickup grateful we’d escaped with our lives one more time. We almost drove into a bridge abutment.
Wasn’t McKinley assasinated by an anarchist?
I can’t seem to call it up on my computer, but HistoryHouse.com’s highly informative, albeit irreverent, article on Leon Czolgosz (McKinley’s killer) stated that Czolgosz was far more of a nutjob than an anarchist theorist. Although it’s a given that one would have to be mentally ill to remain an anarchist after graduating from college.
I’ll always treasure P.J. O’Rourke’s old comment on how anyone who participated in dorm room discussions about the appeal of anarchy, should try spending a week in 1980s Beirut to see their “ideals” in action.
I’m rooting for the cops and the construction workers next week, for sure.