To: /ICN/DISCUSSION From: contraflow@OMEGA.comlink.de (contraflow London) Subject: REVOLT - letter to cf Date: We 14.02.96, 19:40 Size: 5879 Bytes File: revolt, 13.02.96, 21:21:20 Software: CrossPoint v3.11 (unregistered) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Revolutionary change ? You wrote about Revolutionary change in your resignation speech (why we must smash contraflow) countless times. Do you think you can achieve this revolutionary change by writing about and taking part in campaigns to reform society? Its no wonder that you feel depressed about your life. Revolution will not come from anything that Contra Flow has in its nov/dec edition. Revolution has always been violent and bloody and if we want to make revolution we have to be willing and prepared for that. Every left wing hierarchical shit wank parties organ, talks about revolution in romantic terms. They want cannon fodder like us to get killed and maimed and arrested and tortured, while they sit in their ivory towers directing everything, before stepping in at the last minute, leading us into their glorious revolution. I think anarchism is different its about us taking direct action ourselves for ourselves, but we must realise what is involved and not fool ourselves into thinking that defence of the few crumbs on the table (state benefit, health care, public transport etc.) which the rulers want to take back from us is revolution its not. Its simply self defence, its important but it is not revolution. If we want revolution we must be prepared to fight for it, you'd think that would go without saying but it doesn't. If a fight ever takes place its invariably on the rulers terms, demonstrations, pickets etc. When will we learn that we need to attack the state on our terms, using direct action in an intelligent well thought out way and when its least expected. Direct action is often taken as part of a campaign to gain publicity, but who controls the media? Its a pointless waste of time and energy. If we get nicked taking direct action, its not 'cool and macho' as many see it parading their arrests like medals on an old soldier. Its a personal failure, its a waste of time and its another victory for the state. Your headline in contra Flow nov/dec edition just about sums it up, 'Hands off our giros or we'll nick your biros'. A joke, but at whose expense, the irony of it is, that the loss of a few biros, is about as much effect as Contra Flow has on the state. We should take the initiative, organise ourselves into autonomous cells and make our propaganda by deed. Just imagine what a hundred anarchists organised in autonomous groups of no more than five people could do in this country. Everyone knows that this country is shit, our standard of living is getting worse and worse, the rulers are laughing at us 'sipping their tea marias'. Lets wipe that smile off their faces, lets put a rocket up their arses, that's a better cure for depression, anxiety and alienation than ten years of pseudo therapeutic discussion groups. You make a very good point no one ever learns from the mistakes of the past, the same old shit is churned up time after time. The problem is not the way things are done in the 'scene' but the real problem is the 'scene' itself. Underlying everything is an unwritten rule that we must try to create some kind of anarchy now in our 'scene' and then somehow this will translate into an anarchist society. This is the key to it all, it just does not work, every generation tries to create anarchy in a ghetto. I am sick of it all. I don't believe that it is possible to create any new relationships or communities apart from society, we are just not able to escape from the day to day oppression of life that the state inflicts on us. So why cut yourself off? I don't even believe that anything we create now will be at all relevant when we achieve even our basic demands of, 'an end to money and the class system'. There will be new dynamics and pressures on us, we can think and talk about it, but trying to create it is irrelevant. This is not a theory i've just come up with, if you don't believe me look for yourself, talk to others who have tried and become disillusioned and alienated from it all. Demonstrations are irrelevant to revolution they just allow the cops to photograph us and heard us around all day. It may kick off but more of us suffer than they do, its all on their terms. We need to concentrate on the out and out destruction of the state as a matter of urgency. We need to organise ourselves into small groups that cannot be infiltrated by the state security apparatus and take on the state on our terms. Direct action and sabotage are the only way forward. It is not our place to organise 'the people', when the shit happens people always organise themselves, we always do (poll tax, miners strike), but we are no where near that stage yet. So why don't we just organise ourselves. There's enough political rhetoric and anarchist theories already written to fill up wembley stadium, so what is the point of just changing the words around, to say the same thing that Bakunin, Kropotkin and Groucho marx said a hundred years ago. O.k so contraFlow prints news rather than just theories, but its not exactly inspiring is it. Its as depressing as the south london press but with a smaller typeface. I suggest that you look around you, and you will find a hand full of people very close to you who want very similar things to yourself. Don't talk or write about revolution in flowery terms just fucking do it. If you want to be a writer be a writer, but if you want revolution, don't let the state control and dictate your behaviour, create the situation yourself and take direct action, otherwise we will have the same old shit being repeated in another hundred years time. A. N. Other cynic.