Anarchist involvement in anti-war marches.

wrooooooooooooooooong.

So wrong. Matey, there was a decent anarchist block (seriously you couldn't miss it), AF did a stall in traf square and sold loads of lit, and dished out all the Resistance they had brought along. Along with that there were flyers from libcom and another independent anarchos.

Class War gave their paper away cos there's a new one coming out soon, and fair play. They weren't on the block and they didn't do a stall.

Anyway i agree with your other points there should be a much more coordinated intervention with these things if we are going along. And there will be. And there often are.

The AB had 4 banners and at least 10 huge rnb flags; its not bad.

It takes a lot of work, and a lot of organising to get a decent bloc together.

We put loads of work into this bloc:

...and it was pretty good, but it was at a time when there was the will to go on demos which I don't think there is now, but saying that I think if the US carries on using military action to meet it's foreign policy objectives I think more people will come out onto the streets again.

I think, there needs to be a definately more organised presence on these demos, and it might help if the anarchist blocs are more approachable, and more open, not so focused on masks, and looking like you belong in a scene from the battle of seattle.

I saw the (A) bloc but, its better if we get into regional blocs and dish stuff out and talk to people.

i reckon it was just bad luck mate - i've spent many an hour unsuccessfully looking for people in big demos.

i don't think anyone was saying that thewre was a massive presence, rather, there was some sort of organised presence which was a reasonable size considering the fact that we're anarchists and it was a wooly wiberal anti-war march.

I'll reiterate, at the risk of being called a liar. We (AF) dished out over 1,000 Resistance and we put up a table in Trafalgar Square and sold a fair bit of literature
We were going to put table up at start of demo but it was pissing down for a while so we concentrated on distribution of Resistance.
As to the bloc there were (at least) 3 large banners plus about 15 red and black flags, plus some chanting of anarchist slogans from time to time

Sure it’s dodge, but so is Britain’s role in Iraq and Afghanistan in particular. As you’re (probably) living in Britain, maybe focussing on the British State and its military in anti-war work would be more useful. It makes sense to concentrate on things that you’ve got some chance of changing and presumably you’ve got more chance of influencing the British state than the American one?

There’s always up and downs, but in terms of anti-war campaigns, with the ongoing aggression by the British military, it definitely makes sense to keep involved at a consistent level.

If anarchists don’t participate in these things, they’re always going to be pretty dominated by liberals. And, assuming that you think that trying to reduce and bring an end to British imperialism is a good thing, while at the same time seeing that anarchists in Britain aren’t strong enough to launch a large viable alternative anti-war campaign, what choice to you have but to participate in these marches?

It’s a good opportunity for anarchists to be seen as a live political current. Gives people a chance to have a little chat, buy some propaganda etc. There's a reasonable chance that people who go along to those demos will at least scan the free stuff handed out. These marches don’t prevent any other tactics being employed, so I can’t see any major downside. They can be a bit boring if you’ve been around the left for awhile, but it’s part of the job.

Good to hear that a 1000 copies of Resistance were distributed. Stalls in the rain are more trouble than they're worth. How big was the march altogether?

I've stayed out of this, because I wasn't at the march, but you're starting to sound more than a little out of order. For fucks sake, it was a big demo (about 40,000, wasn't it?), sometimes you're not going to be able to find the 100 odd anarchists that show up to these things.

Was there a pre-arranged meet up location for the block?

Tccch!!!

is there a bigger one of these for me collection?

ta mate

I don't see how these marches are leading in any direction that will bring an end to British imperialism. The only thing that could do that is large scale industrial action, so I think trying to build on workplace militancy/organisation and class consciousness in ways that are of practical relevance are far more useful than these types of march.

Not to criticise anyone who went if they thought it was a good publicity opportunity or whatever but I don't agree with the idea that going on these things is self-evidently necessary. Frankly I couldn't be bothered, I can think of loads more useful political activities I could be doing.

What good would the people taking the streets in a demo do once the offensive has started? One of the reasons for my burnout with activities like this is the fact that it seems rather pointless: I was in on the demos from day one of the Israeli-Lebanese offensive in the summer, but it didn't seem to do anything: people still killed and and got killed, and it did not build up any kind of activist momentum that lasted after the war. We got a few people pissed off, that's for sure, but it went nowhere. I don't know how it is in the UK, but it seems to me that around here, these demos are nothing more than social gatherings for activists, with the occasional police encounter or political opponent shouting match.

If you want to disseminate information for the consumption of non-activitsts, a quiet weekly vigil in a major thoroughfare, with signs and pamphlets seems to be much more useful than a loud demo. That's worked for GLBT activists in Jerusalem.

Hi

If anarchists dominated these things, they’d be dominated by liberals.

Couple of points here. Firstly, demonstrations don’t reduce British imperialism (indeed, the idea that the quantity of imperialism has some meaning is laughable). Secondly, Imperialism is a political red herring worthy of the anarchists and their allies in the Islamist, Arab Nationalist and Left Wing camps.

I salute the comrades who turned up, handed out their papers and left those wet little victims to march around like the slaves they are. The BNP's refusal to stage or take part in marches and demonstrations is a powerful ingredient of their popularity. A disassociation with the margins.

Love

LR

Hi

Hmmm. Spot the pattern. Class War, as usual, Show The Way. Its a wavy way, but a way nonetheless. I tell you, CW are the natural successor to Solidarity. You know it makes sense. Actually, maybe Solidarity weren't that good apart from, like, Pallis and Anderson, or whatever.

Question: Where’s the best place to have a presence, on a demo or in the pub?

Love

LR

Wow you're sounding like a right nob. As a bunch of people had said you could've contacted someone before hand, hell you could have arranged a meet up point here. Then of course you could have unleashed your incredible powers to make a group of 40 people visible to all the world in a crowd of 40,000.

Not that it would make a difference to anything anyway, but hey.

what? the BNP have rallies and demo's all the time. Just not in the shouty confrontational way lefties do, and they don't base their activity around it.