anarchists in Seattle paying for small business that was damaged

[Ele'ill]

on may day (windows were broken)


http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/content/may-day-anarchists-will-compensate-small-businesses-whose-windows-were-smashed

May Day Anarchists Will Compensate Small Businesses Whose Windows Were Smashed


Fri, 05/03/2013 - 11:36am
From: mainstream media (http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smash-the-state-just-not-bill-s)
On May Day, as police broke up a downtown demonstration and pushed activists (including anarchists) up Capitol Hill, some windows were broken at local bar Bill's Off Broadway, local bar/distillery Sun Liquor, and a Walgreens drug store.
This prompted some immediate debate about who broke them and why. I heard activist types saying variations on: I'd gladly smash a Bank of America window, but I'd never—and I don't know anyone who would ever—want to break the window of a neighborhood bar or pizzeria. What the hell happened there? There were theories: agents provocateur? That sounds nutty at first, but there were some sloppily disguised undercover types in the crowd. (And it turns out that fellow in the photo on the left, who I'd speculated about on May Day, was in fact briefly undercover—last night, someone sent me photos and descriptions of him working as a police officer. I recognized the guy by his shoes.)
Or was it random folks who just got excited at the prospect of smashing anything? Or some demonstrators who forgot the "targeted" part of "targeted property damage"?
Regardless, the next day some group who wanted to be credited as "the Anarchists of the Puget Sound" sent me an email saying:
We support everything that happened last night but feel that it is our responsibility to support our neighborhood small businesses as well... We would like to throw a benefit for Bill's Off Broadway and other small businesses to help them with the cost of replacing their windows. This does not include Walgreens, for obvious reasons.
Both Bill's and Sun Liquor soon responded to that gesture. From Sun Liquor:
If anything was immediately apparent last night it was that we have an amazingly supportive and loving community on Capitol Hill. So many people reached out to us in person and via social media to express their outrage as well as their love that we can't help but feel strengthened by the incident. Having you reach out to us only emphasizes that feeling... We have a temporary repair in place and our insurance will handle the rest. If any funds are raised we would ask that they be redirected to an organization or organizations whose work represents what May Day is really about.
So the "Anarchists of the Puget Sound" set up an Indiegogo campaign (http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smash-the-state-just-not-bill-s) to raise money to offset the bars' costs, with extra proceeds going to "organizations supporting fair labor."
Then Bill's Off Broadway talked to activists and allegedly said they aren't that concerned about the window, but want people to come support the staff. So this is happening on May 8:
Come show solidarity with the staff of Bill's Off Broadway impacted by the May Day Anti Capitalist March.
Mr. Bill is not interested in money for the window. He is more concerned about the staff working that evening, the dishwasher, waitstaff, and bartender. He said the best thing we can do is come in, order pizza, drink some beer, and show solidarity.
Mr. Bill said: "The window was only a physical thing."
Our argument is with the corporations and government not small businesses or workers.
Come, order some food, order some drinks, tip well, and have fun! This is a party and celebration!
The "Anarchists of the Puget Sound" added, in a press release, that no matter who broke the windows, for whatever reason, "our battle is directed, not towards local businesses, but towards the symbols and harbingers of both government and corporate excess."
If you want to give those neighborhood businesses a hand, you can donate here or go eat and drink at Bill's next Wednesday—and expect undercover police


I think most businesses would love to become corporations and chains that wallow in excess. I think they treat their workers just as shitty if not shittier in order to possibly make that a reality.


With that said I find all of this obnoxious and don't really care about it.

[Slavoj Zizek's Balls]

Expect undercover police
Just when you thought it was safe to go outside...

Still, nice to see that the community want to help out. There are some places in the UK that could do with that.

[Tim Cornelis]

Wait, voluntarily? I imagined, based on the title, it was by court order. Even when you disagree with the tactfulness of smashing windows of small businesses (of which I am one), I don't think workers should hand over money to capitalists.

[bricolage]

this is real embarrassing.

"He said the best thing we can do is come in, order pizza, drink some beer, and show solidarity."

indeed, that's exactly the kind of solidarity they want want from us.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Yeah, the whole thing about "organizations supporting fair labor" and being simply opposed to symbols of "government and corporate excess" makes them just sound like overly-enthusiastic liberals, not anarchists. With that being said I don't think that smashing up random small businesses does a lot of good. Non-anarchists don't really understand the motives behind it, and the explanations from anarchists seem to always be directed inward against criticism from within the left-wing milieu. If any kind of substantive change is possible, I feel it will only be after leftists bring some substantive segment of the general population on board with their political project...it doesn't even have to be the majority of the population or even close to it, but it definitely needs to be an amount of people far more numerically significant than what exists today, IMO

[human strike]

Compensating businesses for property damage? Isn't that what insurance companies are for?

There was a lot of shit propagated by the media (and even large sections of the left) during the August 2011 riots in the UK about rioters attacking their own communities. What this meant was people damaging and stealing the property of small businesses (only about 10-15% of the businesses targeted were independent though you wouldn't have thought so the way it was spoken about). What I would like to know is in what way do small businesses create rather than destroy community? Riots have always brought communities together - this was starkly obvious with the August riots with the massive drop in gang-related violence. Kids who had been trying to kill each other just a few days before were standing side-by-side against the cops - was fucking beautiful. In Bristol in fact the summer of 2011 was really hot for gang murders, but after August they just stopped and have been very low since (note there were very few people from Bristol convicted after the riots so it's not because of gang members being rounded up and put in jail like elsewhere).

Anyway, point is trying your hardest not to give money to capitalists should be a fundamental principle of communism. As should MAKE TOTAL DESTROY.

[Art Vandelay]

These sound like the lamest anarchists ever.

[Quail]

I don't agree with targeting small businesses, but at the same time I also don't agree with compensating the businesses if they do unfortunately get hit. Ordering pizza is not "showing solidarity" with the workers! If they wanted to make up for the workers' lost wages then wouldn't it have made more sense to reach out to the workers themselves as opposed to the bosses?

[pax et aequalitas]

I don't really know what to make of this. On the one hand it seems rather odd to be compensating business like this, it doesn't seem right to me. On the other hand I do feel like this generates a bit of positive attention. I can imagine that a lot of people who read about this will think something like "Hey, they are kinda nice guys" which might perhaps be better than the usually image of scary radicals who just want to destroy stuff (because as mentioned before non-anarchists/leftists don't really understand the motives behind such actions).

All in all I can't say I really agree with it, but I do understand where they're coming from.

[human strike]

I've always thought that people don't have to agree with an action for it to still have a positive impact on them. Is the point to sell anarchism to the masses ("hey, we like beer and pizza too!") or agitate for communism?

[ed miliband]

Compensating businesses for property damage? Isn't that what insurance companies are for?

There was a lot of shit propagated by the media (and even large sections of the left) during the August 2011 riots in the UK about rioters attacking their own communities. What this meant was people damaging and stealing the property of small businesses (only about 10-15% of the businesses targeted were independent though you wouldn't have thought so the way it was spoken about). What I would like to know is in what way do small businesses create rather than destroy community? Riots have always brought communities together - this was starkly obvious with the August riots with the massive drop in gang-related violence. Kids who had been trying to kill each other just a few days before were standing side-by-side against the cops - was fucking beautiful. In Bristol in fact the summer of 2011 was really hot for gang murders, but after August they just stopped and have been very low since (note there were very few people from Bristol convicted after the riots so it's not because of gang members being rounded up and put in jail like elsewhere).

the "small businesses" that got smashed up during the riots fucking loved it! lots of rumours flying about at the time involving small business owners - publicly crying about their plight - raking in insurance money for stock they would have never sold in the first place.

[Brutus]

Petit bourgeois is a slur used against anarchists.
It would he true in this case

[Ele'ill]

I'm curious who these 'anarchists' are that are organizing it. I don't consider them anarchists. Maybe left overs from the occupy liberal camp that like scenes.

[Rafiq]

Wonderful, a new all time low on behalf of more "anarchist" friends.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[Ele'ill]

Wonderful, a new all time low on behalf of more "anarchist" friends.

if they're really your friends can you *ask them not to do this

[Crixus]

Compensating businesses for property damage? Isn't that what insurance companies are for?


The owner said insurance took care of it and he doesnt want money for the windows. He wants them to raise money and donate it to a cause that represents the values of labor day (which would be to pay his employee's more). I think it was a local bar or something? It's all a non issue to me other than the fact I'd rather see anarchists or whoever do their thing with larger capitalist enterprises, if they must do that sort of thing. The 'come in and buy things' stuff is funny. It's like a giant commercial for his business. It would be funny if he made a TV commercial with anarchists smashing his windows and he was like..."come on down, smash some things, buy stuff, we sell black bandanas, hoodies, spray paint and facial tattoos! We also have a great selection of punk, post punk and grindcore music to buy." Happyhour 24/7! It could be the 'anarchist bar'. He could make millions in Seattle. Get the run of the mill graffiti interior paint job with band stickers plastered all over the wall. Maybe JP Morgan can invest and make it a chain? I digress.

[Zealot]

I really don't see a problem. Some dumbass broke the windows of a small business and that's not exactly good publicity - especially at a time when it's well-known that small businesses have been hit hard by the crisis. Moreover, the workers were apparently shaken up by the experience and at the moment no one is going to see Anarchists as anything more than a bunch of pissed-off leftists being a nuisance to workers and smashing the windows of small bars. At least someone is making an effort to challenge that stereotype.

[Ele'ill]

I really don't see a problem. Some dumbass broke the windows of a small business and that's not exactly good publicity - especially at a time when it's well-known that small businesses have been hit hard by the crisis.

Right but why are we caring about small businesses and their PR campaign


Moreover, the workers were apparently shaken up by the experienceactually I haven't seen any direct quotes or interviews of the workers themselves if you can provide those I would be interested in seeing it (even if there is a quote in the actual article I linked but am too lazy to scroll down to look for I can't remember if there is or not)


and at the moment no one is going to see Anarchists as anything more than a bunch of pissed-off leftists being a nuisance to workers and smashing the windows of small bars. At least someone is making an effort to challenge that stereotype.Right but this could be said about direct actions against banks, all kinds of direct actions actually, protests even, pickets, strikes, etc.. 'it's just a nuisance to people who do want to work' 'it disrupts traffic', 'it scared some people' and if that mentality is catered to we cater to mass society and the way things are now and honestly the people you don't hear about are the ones applauding and cheering and watching the shit get attacked, honking their horns at the pickets with raised fists out the window, people bringing and handing out water and stuff at lock downs, you never hear about that. Not interested in catering to the media to try to make them happy to 'win support' it will never ever happen. The movements that 'win support' and build their numbers have no teeth at all and they cater to the most insecure de-escalating tendencies possible. Direct action gets shunned by the media, the politicians and the cops, the bosses, rich folks, because it is a direct threat to capital. They lose control. We don't need the approval of our enemies to revolt against what afflicts us, day to day.

[The Douche]

Anarchists in Seattle aren't paying for shit. Those people might be calling themselves anarchists, but their actions obviously show otherwise.

Fuck small business.

[Deity]

Anarchists in Seattle aren't paying for shit. Those people might be calling themselves anarchists, but their actions obviously show otherwise.

Fuck small business.

Fuck all businesses

[The Douche]

Fuck all businesses

http://images.wikia.com/uncyclopedia/images/1/13/Thats_the_joke.jpg

[Ele'ill]

http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/content/regarding-anarchists-puget-sound


Regarding "the Anarchists of the Puget Sound"

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 5:55pm

Log in (http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/user/login?destination=comment/reply/2678%23comment-form) or register (http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/user/register?destination=comment/reply/2678%23comment-form) to post comments
417 reads

This is not addressed to the greater, more vague milieu of anarchists that reside in the Puget Sound. This is addressed to those who signed the email to Stranger "journalist" Brendan Kiley about the damage done to Bill's Off Broadway and Sun Liquors on this year's May Day in Seattle. For background, please read the article entitled "May Day Anarchists Will Compensate Small Businesses Whose Windows Were Smashed" under the "From The Mainstream" section on this website.
Obviously, these "Anarchists" have missed the mark. For it to be part of the anarchist project to "support our neighborhood small businesses" is a complete farce. This idea assumes that small and local businesses are somehow exempt from the coercive and manipulative forces of capital for simply not being a larger, corporate business. Bill's Off Broadway exists financially off of the buying and selling of physical goods and manual labor that has never belonged to them.
The argument for smashing corporate businesses instead of local, small businesses has been made before. It has often been turned into an argument based on morals, the "good" anarchist vs. the "bad" anarchist. On May Day 2010 in Asheville, North Carolina, eleven people were arrested for an assortment of alleged crimes, up to $20,000 in property damage. Each of them were held on $65,000 bail and some were held in jail for nearly five days. People from the greater radical community of Asheville critiqued the arrestees for allegedly attacking small businesses, even though there was no evidence against the accused (also known as the Asheville 11). Some even went so far as to publicly denounce and refuse solidarity in all forms to the Asheville 11 based on the police accusations that they had personally targeted and attacked small businesses on May Day. This is problematic for many reasons. The quote below is from a reflection on the Asheville 11 case and the social tensions that arose out of it, and it is worth considering given it's relevance to the current issue at hand.
"Even if the businesses that were attacked were small or local, to be an anarchist means to be against all businesses, not just Wal-Mart or Urban Outfitters. Small businesses are a method of keeping the lower classes serving the interests of those with power. (This is basic capitalist logic: if you want someone to be on your side, give them an investment in the future.)"
Source: How Did They Work: A Reflection on the Asheville 11 and May Day 2010
https://anarchistnews.org/content/how-did-they-work-reflection-avl-11-an... (https://anarchistnews.org/content/how-did-they-work-reflection-avl-11-and-may-day-2010)
And to quote Seattle's own SEASOL on the topic of small businesses:
"The problem with all of these popular ideas surrounding small businesses is that they completely fall apart if you spend any time with the workers whose hard work actually allows them to succeed… The problem with small businesses is the same as the problem with big businesses: the incredible power the owner has to exploit his workers. If an owner loses a worker, then the worker can generally be readily replaced from the growing mass of desperate and unemployed people out there. But if a worker loses his job, then his livelihood, his very means of survival, and (in America) even his family’s health are in jeopardy."
http://howwefight.com/2012/08/13/seasol-and-the-sanctity-of-small-buisne... (http://howwefight.com/2012/08/13/seasol-and-the-sanctity-of-small-buisnesses/)
Of noteworthy mention is Bill's Off Broadway's owner Don Steven's intention to open another sports bar and a pizza joint on Capitol Hill. Stevens will maintain his first bar's location as part of a 7-story mixed-use apartment building. Not to mention the ongoing rise of gentrification in a neighborhood that has long lost a lot of it's aspects that are unappealing to the project of capital, this sort of development is certainly a step in the continuation of pushing out the already excluded.
SOURCE:
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/05/humbled-by-may-day-support-bil... (http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/05/humbled-by-may-day-support-bills-also-has-big-news-about-its-future-on-capitol-hill/)
However, what lies beneath the quagmire of attempting to destroy the argument of "good smashy" vs. "bad smashy", is something much more problematic. In what seems to be a public relations attempt by "the Anarchists of the Puget Sound" to appeal to the hipsters and drunkards of Capitol Hill by trying to raise money for Bill's Off Broadway for their single, broken window, these "Anarchists" seemed to have forgotten that there are two people sitting in King County Jail (at the time that this was written) charged with an assortment of felonies and held on cumulatively more than $80,000 bail. On top of this, the Seattle Pigs are reporting at least 15 others arrested for various crimes on May Day, and claim that they are "working feverishly" on identifying more suspects. It is believed that one of the arrestee's from this year's May Day melee got a broken foot from the pigs and received absolutely no medical attention for at least their first night's stay at King County. These anarchist comrades (they may or may not self-identify as anarchist, but comrades in the struggle against the state and its henchmen nonetheless) are either in jail and/or looking at criminal charges leveled against them from the state.
Putting energy into raising money for the preservation of windows of a business that was attacked on May Day is clearly prioritizing property over life.
This all goes without mentioning that the owner of Bill's Off Broadway clearly DOES NOT GIVE A FUCK about the broken window of his business.
As quoted in the SLOG, "Mr. Bill is not interested in money for the window…Mr. Bill said 'The window was only a physical thing.'"
Mr. Bill goes on to say about the event at his business: "Come, order some food, order some drinks, tip well, and have fun! This is a party and celebration!"
It is obvious that this public apology made on the behalf of "the Anarchists of the Puget Sound" is being taken advantage of by Bill's Off Broadway to invite all of the teary-eyed liberals on Capitol Hill to spend more money than they normally would have at his establishment. Anyone who has ever worked in food-service knows that the prospect of a busier-than-usual night to supposedly "benefit the workers" is ass-backwards. What it actually means is more assholes who feel entitled to the food and service that they just paid the boss for, and more manual-labor and time required from the workers than usual. The money made from these nights never compensates the hours of personal-life lost.
Needless to say, it is not within any anarchist repertoire of practice or critique to value property, especially that of capital and business. Ideas of anarchy are firmly rooted in a critique against the preservation of property. It should go without saying that there is no reason for any self-identified anarchist or anti-state-antagonist to give support to Bill's Off Broadway or Sun Liquours, especially not for their damaged property and even less so for this pathetic public relations campaign.
Given that "the Anarchists of the Puget Sound" seem to think it of high importance to profess their alliance to small business without a single nod to the comrades arrested and severely beaten by Seattle's Blue-Suited-Bastards, one could assume that these "Anarchists" hold the value of property higher than the value of freedom.
There is a popular saying that goes something along the lines of "When faced with repression, the polite response is to attack!" The state would like to believe that they have things under control, but those who were there this last week know that something happened this May Day that cannot be contained. This could prove to be a ripe situation for further antagonism against capital in all of its forms (big and small) and an extension of solidarity to the repressed. Banner drops, flyering, wheat pasting posters, throwing benefits for assorted legal fees, demonstrations, and clandestine attack are just some concrete examples of how this could be expressed. It is the intention of the authors that this critique serve as a reminder of the solidarity (in all of its bounding forms) needed by those feeling the weight of repression.
"Revolutionary solidarity is the secret that destroys all walls, expressing love and rage at the same time as one’s own insurrection in the struggle against Capital and the State."
-Daniela Carmignani, "Revolutionary Solidarity"
-some anarchists

[Fionnagáin]

Anarchists in Seattle aren't paying for shit. Those people might be calling themselves anarchists, but their actions obviously show otherwise.

Fuck small business.

Fuck all businesses

[that's the joke]
I dunno, I think I hate small businesses more than big businesses. MegaCorp and Jimmy McShopkeeper are both exploitative bastards, but only one of them genuinely expects my sympathies while he does it.

[Ocean Seal]

Yeah, the whole thing about "organizations supporting fair labor" and being simply opposed to symbols of "government and corporate excess" makes them just sound like overly-enthusiastic liberals, not anarchists. With that being said I don't think that smashing up random small businesses does a lot of good. Non-anarchists don't really understand the motives behind it, and the explanations from anarchists seem to always be directed inward against criticism from within the left-wing milieu. If any kind of substantive change is possible, I feel it will only be after leftists bring some substantive segment of the general population on board with their political project...it doesn't even have to be the majority of the population or even close to it, but it definitely needs to be an amount of people far more numerically significant than what exists today, IMO
Anyone who uses the words "fair" and "labor" together is not an anti-capitalist.

[Ele'ill]

holy shit I am about to create an account on PSA, someone stop me

someone tell me it doesn't matter it's a bad idea there's no use

help

[bcbm]

anarchism is dead, bring on the nihilists

[Devrim]

I dunno, I think I hate small businesses more than big businesses. MegaCorp and Jimmy McShopkeeper are both exploitative bastards, but only one of them genuinely expects my sympathies while he does it.

I hate the petite bourgeoisie too. I think that one of the things about it is that you don't meet the big bourgeoisie where as you do run into small shopkeepers and small business people.

Devrim

[The Douche]

I hate the petite bourgeoisie too. I think that one of the things about it is that you don't meet the big bourgeoisie where as you do run into small shopkeepers and small business people.

Devrim

Or you work for them, 50 hours a week with no benefits cause they doesn't make enough profit to buy an insurance plan for their employees.

[Ele'ill]

kind of interesting discussion now on the PSA site under the article, I *think* one of the people organizing the charity event replied or someone pretending to be but I think it's probably legit, then the end of the conversation ends in a fit of in-fighting drama

[Rafiq]

The petite bourgeoisie are inristically a reactionary class. It was their conscious alliance with the bourgeousie that sustained Fascism.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[melvin]

sadly, a lot of anarchists are also populists, which obviously is related to the idealization of small businesses.