Demonstrations?

[bugmenot]

I was just wondering... if there was to be a protest/rally what have you... and there were expected to be a large number of anarchists there, with red/black flags and the works. Would it be appropriate for, say, myself (being a communist) to show up with a karl marx shirt and a large communist flag? Anarchists seem to be really nice here, and get along with everyone, but would this be appropriate on the streets? Or would it turn into an argument? What I've seen so far, communists and anarchists generally see eye to eye on what the main problem is, capitalism (and it's gradual evolution into fascism). Anyway, just wondering. =\

[rouchambeau]

What do you mean by communist flag?

[Janus]

I think he means the hammer and sickle.

I don't think there would be much trouble. It would be pretty stupid to start an arguement at a march; that wouldn't cast a very good image. Now, if you wore a Lenin or Stalin shirt then some of them may question you but other than that, the communist movement needs as many supporters as it can get for a march or protest.

[RevolutionaryMarxist]

around my place those never happen, so not a prob here, sadly :(

[Ann-Arkia]

I don't think there will be a problem. As an anarchist, to my experience, when authoritarian communist had problem in a demo, it's always personal/ideological problem- like people talking shit in your back, or try to discredit an organisation because they fear to see their membership got 'stolen'...

It depends what 'kind' (I don't like that word, but I don't know a better one in english) of anarchist you got in your town... If there are 'social' anarchist and you are sincere in working FOR your class (not the class working for you...) there will be no problem. But in the other hand, If there is 'post-leftist', insurrectionist, primitivist, don't loose your time... you better go with the unions. :lol:
they are more progressive :blush:
(sorry, I don't want to be sectarian, but try to organize something with people that say that organization alienate themselves is impossible... They are more like individualist-anarchist...)

I don't know where you from, I don't know your reality, but in quebec, most anarchist seek to work with people from different points of view.there's many of them that work in community-organization that had a wide range of ideologies...From anarchists to liberals, to maoists and reformist/nationalist social-democrats. So I'm pretty sure there will be no problem to see a comrade among themselves. Go talk with them, you'll see.


:star:

[Wanted Man]

Originally posted by Ann-[email protected] 14 2006, 10:47 PM
It depends what 'kind' (I don't like that word, but I don't know a better one in english) of anarchist you got in your town... If there are 'social' anarchist and you are sincere in working FOR your class (not the class working for you...) there will be no problem. But in the other hand, If there is 'post-leftist', insurrectionist, primitivist, don't loose your time... you better go with the unions. :lol:
they are more progressive :blush:
(sorry, I don't want to be sectarian, but try to organize something with people that say that organization alienate themselves is impossible... They are more like individualist-anarchist...)
QFT. It really does depend on who you're dealing with. Two examples of my own come to mind. A positive one was when there was this small demo in the city close to my hometown, and no comrades from my party were present(it was a weekday in April, IIRC, so most if not all were at work, except for this one comrade who wasn't even aware of the demo, but came by on incident and joined! :lol: ). I didn't have any material, so I just walked along with the anarchists provoking the cops for a bit(because one took interest in me, besides, I'll be damned before I go and hang out with screeching Cliffite college students...). I had no problems whatsoever.

A bad example is one where I wasn't present myself, but I heard about it later: a comrade was passing out flyers or something, and some big anarchist thug walks towards him, grabs the whole pile of them out of his hands, and throws them in a mud, and then gives him a "what'cha gunna do 'bout it, huh?" look. Those are the pricks.

Anyway, I would personally avoid being in such a situation whenever possible. Join a party that appeals to you and is active in your area, get organised, divide tasks(who takes care of banners, flags, who sells papers or hands out flyers, etc.), then go there and march as a unified bloc. It's just more fun and social that way, and much more satisfying when you're together doing something you've been working on organising for a while!

[food-chain1]

The concept that seems to be lacking here is that of "Fellow Traveler" Try This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellow_traveller) I agree with the above by Matthijs, you can find jerks anywhere professing anything.

[Wanted Man]

Indeed. And unlike in anti-communist propaganda, a "fellow traveller" is not a bad thing to be at all to people who know their shit. Hell, I only became a member of the movement I'm in after having been around them for like 6 months, and even then I wasn't even half as ideologically strong as I am today, and there is still seemingly infinite room for improvement.

In my experience, an active and trusted fellow traveller can still receive or write for papers(provided the writing is good!), observe certain meetings, attend schooling events and the like, they just aren't paying, card-carrying members who take part in the decisionmaking process. So just hang around with a group that appeals to you(or several different ones, if you're not sure which to choose), and only make the jump to the responsibility that membership brings when you're ready for it.

[bombeverything]

Originally posted by [email protected] 12 2006, 01:23 AM
It would be pretty stupid to start an arguement at a march; that wouldn't cast a very good image.

You would think so wouldn't you. Sorry, just speaking from experience. But no, I do not see why that would be a problem at all. Do whatever you like, bring whatever you like. And as long as you can discuss things with people with different views in a rational way I don't see a real problem. Anyway I really doubt an anarchist would try to start an argument with you, we are not really big on trying to force people to agree with us :).

[Delta]

I certainly wouldn't have a problem with it. There are so few socially and politically aware people (especially here in the US), so I enjoy standing in solidarity with all of them.

[bombeverything]

Originally posted by [email protected] 14 2006, 11:20 PM
A bad example is one where I wasn't present myself, but I heard about it later: a comrade was passing out flyers or something, and some big anarchist thug walks towards him, grabs the whole pile of them out of his hands, and throws them in a mud, and then gives him a "what'cha gunna do 'bout it, huh?" look. Those are the pricks.


That is pretty stupid. I wouldn't consider people like that anarchists. Most of us are happy to work with socialist groups.

[The Grinch]

I can't see any problems. The Turkish Communists always used to turn up to Mayday with a big banner with Stalin on it, and I never heard of them getting any hassle.

The only time I ever have told someone to fuck off is when a particular group turned up to an anti fascist mobilisation to tell us that anti fascist mobialisations were pointless. I'll admit that I don't feel an awful lot of guilt on that one.