“AND WHAT ABOUT TOMORROW?”
Anarchist Resistance and the “Blockbusterization” of Reality…

For pdf version designed to be handed out at movie showings go to:
http://shiftshapers.gnn.tv/blogs/29511/_And_What_About_Tomorrow_An_Anarc...

In 1999 the WTO protests in Seattle sent a message to the world, loud and clear: The people of this planet were sick and tired of being stomped on, sick and tired of exploitation in the name of global capitalism and that people were ready to fight back. The years that followed Seattle saw a worldwide movement of resistance aimed against capitalism that included some very tangible victories. Anti-capitalism had for the first time in decades been brought to the forefront of American consciousness as a legitimate counter argument, and now, almost a decade later, the impact of the anti-globalization movement can be seen in the failures of groups like the FTAA, WTO, IMF and World Bank and in the strengths of countries like Argentina and Brazil who have stood up and fought those organizations’ neoliberal policies.
The real story of Seattle is a story about people taking matters into their own hands. The reason it was such a successful and inspiring event was because protesters employed the anarchist principal of direct action: creating the change they wanted to see themselves. Unlike other mobilizations where protesters had marched en mass in attempts to influence the decision makers of their time, protesters in Seattle made the decision for themselves. By blockading the city of Seattle and physically preventing the WTO summit from happening, they were able to say directly to those decision makers: “Not in our town. Not in our country. Not on our planet.”
What’s dangerous about a sensational movie like Battle in Seattle is that you might get the impression that this was some isolated event, that it was a spontaneous outburst, or a passing phenomenon that happened in the past, but is no longer relevant. That couldn’t be further from the truth. When Martin Henderson’s character says “we shut this city down today,” a member of the black bloc retorts “and what about tomorrow?!” That’s exactly the question the anarchist movement has been focusing on for the past 9 years. In spite of government repression the PATRIOT act and its repercussions, we are still fighting to show that another world is possible. Just a few weeks ago we swarmed St. Paul, MN, the city that hosted the Republican National Convention, and blockaded many of the major intersections, confronting the Republicans head-on with conflict. Though the mainstream media largely ignored this event, the policy makers responsible for signing away our planet, and for the brutal oppression of poor people across the globe could not ignore our anger after coming face to face with resistance.
The media, or course, never even attempts to accurately represent anarchists, and unfortunately this movie isn’t an exception. The Battle in Seattle website repeatedly belittles anarchists as a “small fringe group” who “managed to steal the show” while focusing only on anarchist participation in the black bloc. Actually, anarchists were involved in all different aspects of the WTO protests including lockdowns, making puppets and cooking for Food Not Bombs. The Direct Action Network, (the group who shaped the protests), was founded and operated based on the anarchist principals of horizontal and non-hierarchical organizing. The media’s attempts to pigeon hole anarchists as “violent” thugs was simply an effort to discredit the strength of anarchist organizing and the successes of direct action.
Today, reports of “violent anarchists” still dominate protest coverage. It makes sense. The corporate media has no interest in promoting the fact that all over the country anarchists are stepping outside of the capitalist economy and creating infrastructure for the time to come when we no longer need it. Everywhere anarchists are starting to build community organizations and filling our needs directly with community gardens, self managed trade unions, free clinics, bicycle co-ops, alternative education, radical libraries, free food distribution, etc. etc. etc. We’re planning future confrontations with the powers that be and along the way we are living our lives strongly and boldly.
The Battle in Seattle website will direct you to a handful of large bureaucratic non profits as the options for getting involved with activism today. We’d like to offer another option:
JOIN THE ANARCHISTS!
We’re taking on the contradictions of this capitalist culture in the streets and in our communities. If Seattle taught us anything, it was that we can make change ourselves. We don’t need bureaucracies or big top down organizations telling us how to do it…
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A QUICK NOTE ON THE BLACK BLOC
Like it or not, shattered windows in Seattle’s shopping district sent a distinct message to the world: People were physically fighting back against capitalism. The actions came out of a critique of capitalism’s tendency to value private property over human needs. In the words of one participant “when we smash a window, we aim to destroy the thin veneer of legitimacy that surrounds private property rights.” The media’s description of the black bloc as “violent” only advanced their argument. In spite of the fact that no living creatures were hurt, the media spun property destruction as the justification for extreme police violence against living breathing protesters. The black bloc contended that property destruction wasn’t violence at all, but a strike against the inanimate property of those same corporations who were benefiting from the exploitative policies of the WTO. Naomi Jaffe once said, “doing nothing in a period of repressive violence is itself a form of violence.” When you think about how the corporate manipulation of third world economies results in violence, capitalist wars for oil and civilian casualties are violence, and the callousness of the U.S. government towards the destitute in our own country is violence, all the fuss over a few broken windows seems pretty petty… The reality is that the black bloc was one of the many tactics that created the successful shut down of Seattle in 1999 and changed history.
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This handout is too small for an academic essay. For more detailed reading from similar perspectives check the following sources:
www.realbattleinseattle.org
www.indymedia.org
www.infoshop.org
www.crimethinc.com
For a defense of globalization check the mainstream capitalist media.