Biggest Bollocks I've Ever Heard

[Pogue]

Apparently, its a good idea of 'RAANistas' in a 'crew' to vandalise Leninist bookshops because Leninists are 'enemies' to, erm, RAANs form of 'communism'.

Could you get more pathetic, childish, egoistic or lifestylist? Is this repsentative of the group as a whole? If so, I'd just put this down as a group for fucked up suburban spolit rebel kids who want to 'rage against the system'.


Anyone have any positive dealing with them?

[which doctor]

I don't believe they vandalized a Leninist bookstore, but a Maoist one affiliated with the RCP.

One of the important things to remember about RAAN is that pretty much anyone can commit an act and affiliate it with RAAN. It is (was?) a very decentralized network with a variety of tendencies. Yes, some members of RAAN condone the attack on the Maoist book on the basis that Maoists are statists who ultimately are working against a true proletarian revolution. There also exist RAAN "members" who do not condone the incident.

I don't even know if RAAN even exists anymore, they were never that influential in the first place. The RAAN "members" who used to be on this site no longer post and the original RAAN website is down and I can't find a new one. I don't even remember hearing about them in 2008.

[revolution inaction]

I'd agree with them that leninism is an enemy of communism, but vandalizing their book shops is not an effective method of dealing with it. Its basically an attempt to censor the ideas of people you disagree with rather than presenting your own ideas to people.

I think Maoists are leninsts?

[nuisance]

I'd like to know why H-L-V-S finds these actions 'lifestylist'. Are groups like antifa lifestylist to you as such actions may have been used against their opponents? The point is that these actions could be perpetrated by any style of activist, it's not a lifestylist tactic by any means. That said, I don't really disagree with opposition to class enemies, after all, just look at how various anti-statists have been treat by varying forms of statist socialism.

[Bilan]

I think some of the ideas of RAAN were good - such as the synthesis of Marxism and Anarchism.
But alot of stuff they did didn't serve much purpose and was basically just petty vandalism - like this.

But I did like the glueing up of the Parking meters. Not revolutionary, but cheeky, and kind of funny. And free parking!

[StalinFanboy]

I honestly think people need to read what RAAN is about. There is a HUUUUGE misconception about what we "stand" for.

In fact, later this week I'll start typing up some of the essays from Emotional Poverty, which is written by Nachie. I think they are a pretty good explanation of what RAAN is.


Also, HLVS, can you please provide your reasoning as to why you think RAAN is lifestylist, or just "a group for fucked up suburban spolit rebel kids who want to 'rage against the system'."

[Pogue]

The fact that all of your activities are focused on some rebel image, masquerading under the image of being revolutionaries or anarchists despite the fact you've made no attempts to reach out to the working class or genuinely change the system.

[Bilan]

RAAN does remind me a little of the Weather Underground. :p
Good ideas, bad practice.

[nuisance]

The fact that all of your activities are focused on some rebel image, masquerading under the image of being revolutionaries or anarchists despite the fact you've made no attempts to reach out to the working class or genuinely change the system.
Mate, read what Bring it on! has been up to in the anarchist forums 'what have you been up to?' thread. There's some very good community based work done there, it seems. Try not to generalise such sporadic organisations like RAAN.

[jaffe]

are there any articles written about or by raan? I remember reading them somewhere



I honestly think people need to read what RAAN is about

[StalinFanboy]

The fact that all of your activities are focused on some rebel image, masquerading under the image of being revolutionaries or anarchists despite the fact you've made no attempts to reach out to the working class or genuinely change the system.
Lolwut. You have a really bad habit of making assumptions based on...nothing. Everyone in my crew is working class, and we do a shitload of community based actions.

[StalinFanboy]

are there any articles written about or by raan? I remember reading them somewhere


The principles of RAAN can be found here: http://poisonedcandy.com/RAAN/principles.html

Like I said in a previous post, I'll be typing up some of the articles from Emotional Poverty that explain RAAN and the culture within it.

[redguard2009]

Anarchism's decentralized nature, organizationally and ideologically, seems to serve a very useful purpose. This isn't the first and certainly won't be the last I've seen of their members talking about "oh that wasn't us, that was someone else."

Atleast we Leninists don't try to pretend it was other Leninists at Kronstadt. :D

[revolution inaction]

Anarchism's decentralized nature, organizationally and ideologically, seems to serve a very useful purpose. This isn't the first and certainly won't be the last I've seen of their members talking about "oh that wasn't us, that was someone else."

Atleast we Leninists don't try to pretend it was other Leninists at Kronstadt. :D

so your comparing an attack on a book shop (however stupid) with Kronstadt?

[Bilan]

Anarchism's decentralized nature, organizationally and ideologically, seems to serve a very useful purpose. This isn't the first and certainly won't be the last I've seen of their members talking about "oh that wasn't us, that was someone else."

Atleast we Leninists don't try to pretend it was other Leninists at Kronstadt. :D

No.

[StalinFanboy]

Anarchism's decentralized nature, organizationally and ideologically, seems to serve a very useful purpose. This isn't the first and certainly won't be the last I've seen of their members talking about "oh that wasn't us, that was someone else."

Atleast we Leninists don't try to pretend it was other Leninists at Kronstadt. :D


wait... what?

[redguard2009]

so your comparing an attack on a book shop (however stupid) with Kronstadt?

Yep, that's obviously the most logical explanation.

[StalinFanboy]

The principles of RAAN can be found here: http://poisonedcandy.com/RAAN/principles.html

Like I said in a previous post, I'll be typing up some of the articles from Emotional Poverty that explain RAAN and the culture within it.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/culture-red-anarchist-t99893/index.html?p=1337988#post1337988

[Mather]

The fact that all of your activities are focused on some rebel image, masquerading under the image of being revolutionaries or anarchists despite the fact you've made no attempts to reach out to the working class or genuinely change the system.

The same can be said for all revolutionary leftist organisations/parties.

In North America especially, leninist parties (trotskyists, stalinists, maoists) and anarchist groups all have a big problem with reaching out to the working class, building support and challenging the rule of capital.

We (anarchists, marxists and leninists alike) could all do with being more self critical and looking at why were are such a marginalised force and so weak compared to the class enemy.

But this habit of one small party or group having a go at another small party or group for failing to "reach out to the working class or genuinely change the system", whilst the accusing party is just as marginalised and as impotent, serve no real purpose at all.