Portland Anarchists Want to Fix Your Street's Potholes

Keeping Portland weird.

Yeah I saw that on Facebook, kind of funny.

I appreciate the direct action element of it: just doing it yourself. However I wonder if, rather than basically try to plug the holes in the "good" bits of the state ourselves, it's more radical to fight for those agencies to perform their duties properly. Like Wanksy, for example:

http://www.boredpanda.com/wanksy-penis-pothole-graffiti-manchester-england/

I guess it's good to do either/both

not sure about this, but heard online it happened in a pretty yuppie area too fwiw. but you know how such rumors on the internet go.

I just find this so ridiculous that I suspect I'm being trolled.

Piss poor clueless anarcho bollocks that is. Just wait till another shit load of council workers get laid off because some DIY reformists decide to do someone else's job for nowt. Pillocks. I'm with wanksy.

Aren't you all taking this line of reasoning to far. There's always a potential worker whose job you're doing. Helping refugees, squatting and basically all practical solidarity has it's paid equivalent.

Yeah cooked has a point. I've done plenty of volunteering which is basically me doing my own paid job for free after work, eg I've done volunteer English teaching within unions and volunteer maths teaching in a homeless hostel. Within my own workplace there was a big argument about the issue which ended in people getting blocked from volunteering because of fears about job losses.

One issue is that the government cut services and then say they hope that the services will be done by volunteers, but they cut them anyway, whether there are volunteers available or not.

Double post.

Aye, Cooked makes a fair point and it's worth asking at what point does being a bit civic minded and volunteering to do socially useful work start to undermine workers doing the same job. I suppose teaching English to refugees who are not eligible for free English classes threatens no one because no one is paid to do that. Many types of socially useful or charitable work would not be otherwise done by the state because the state doesn't give a fuck or by private businesses because there's no money in it. However, the local state in Portland (like most local states in urban areas) would directly employ or contract-in workers to do road works. Such actions by well-intentioned but misguided anarchists could undermine those workers' jobs. In this instance, it appears to have prompted management to initiate a speed up in competition with these volunteers!

Wanksy works better of course because no local state is ever likely to employ people to go round painting penises around pot holes.

Couldn't you apply the same reasoning to migrants/refugees, increasing the supply of workers and depressing the wages of certain jobs? Isn't this the same kind of scapegoating in a way?

Maybe the Portland anarchists were inspired by that one Wingnut Dishwashers Union song,

And the anarchists have started
Filling potholes, collecting garbage
To prove we don't need governments to do these things

Serge Forward

no local state is ever likely to employ people to go round painting penises around pot holes.

Until communism, of course

Couldn't you apply the same reasoning to migrants/refugees, increasing the supply of workers and depressing the wages of certain jobs? Isn't this the same kind of scapegoating in a way?

No. You're just being silly now. And talking of silly... let me be the first to volunteer for pot hole penis painting duty in advance of full communism.

squatting has a paid equivalent?

Whether this directly undermines jobs or not is only part of the issue I have with it (I think it probably does, but it's not as obviously bad as Brighton neighbourhood clean ups while bin workers were on strike).

If you look at teaching English, the Apollo House homeless shelter squat, the Greek refugee squat that recently got evicted, something like Food Not Bombs then while they might be taking the slack for state services that either could be there or previously were, they also require direct contact with the people using those services. Similar to the way direct action casework groups (SeaSol, Brighton Hospitality) might occasionally get drawn into actual casework - i.e. if someone needs to draft a letter first, and the letter works) which might have in isolation been provided by a mainstream union or the Citizens Advice Bureau. All of those things there's some sense of regular contact with communities you might not otherwise run into.

If you fix a pothole, unless someone comes out to chat to you, or you really are doing it all masked up as people walk past, then unless they've seen your facebook group will they even know it's you who did it? So even on its own terms I'm not sure where it fits in.

I, for one, think all public services should be done by unqualified, unpaid, anonymous masked up individuals for ideological reasons.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-37485461

Serge Forward

Couldn't you apply the same reasoning to migrants/refugees, increasing the supply of workers and depressing the wages of certain jobs? Isn't this the same kind of scapegoating in a way?

No. You're just being silly now.

Such actions by well-intentioned but misguided anarchists could undermine those workers' jobs.

Could you explain the difference? I wouldn't blame migrants/refugees for depressed wages, or taking low-skilled jobs. Why should we blame a group of anarchists for wanting to improve their communities?

Migrants have little or no choice and as disadvantaged workers, they will take what they can get. Incidentally, whether you blame migrants or not for depressed wages is neither here nor there as wages are actually depressed by the bosses. This group of anarchists, on the other hand, are not doing this work out of necessity but for positive political reasons... but though positive, it directly impacts on other workers' jobs in the locality (speed ups in this instance). That really doesn't sit right with me. That aside, I'm not a big fan of substitutionist actions like this - where a small group of militants do their anarcho superhero act while the rest of the class passively look on.

Let's say you work in a library, this is a bit over-egged but I think it shows the potential differences:

1. A migrant worker gets employed by the library, but at a lower rate than you. You can potentially talk to them and try to help them organise against your shared employer etc. (For example LSE cleaners are on strike this week).

2. An anarchist starts coming into your library and putting all the books on the shelves uninvited, then make a facebook page about how the books are in piles all over the floor but they're going to fix it instead of 'the state'.

The Portland Pothole Uprising of 2017. :)

POTholes.

Serge Forward

This group of anarchists, on the other hand, are not doing this work out of necessity but for positive political reasons... but though positive, it directly impacts on other workers' jobs in the locality (speed ups in this instance). That really doesn't sit right with me. That aside, I'm not a big fan of substitutionist actions like this - where a small group of militants do their anarcho superhero act while the rest of the class passively look on.

Don't potholes pose a danger to vehicles/cyclists and increase the risk of accidents? Is it really fair to say they're just posturing politically as opposed to doing necessary work (assuming they're filling the holes properly)? Surely it's not their intention to compete against or negatively affect the actual workers whose job it is to repair roads. It just seems like if anyone's to blame, it's the government for not wanting to spend taxpayer money on roads (or not having the available funds), and not the people of the communities taking matters into their own hands.

zugzwang

Don't potholes pose a danger to vehicles/cyclists and increase the risk of accidents? Is it really fair to say they're just posturing politically as opposed to doing necessary work (assuming they're filling the holes properly)? Surely it's not their intention to compete against or negatively affect the actual workers whose job it is to repair roads. It just seems like if anyone's to blame, it's the government for not wanting to spend taxpayer money on roads (or not having the available funds), and not the people of the communities taking matters into their own hands.

This is pretty much my reaction to that type of activism. Sure, there are issues with it, but an ethics of doing shit because it needs to be done, is not at all a bad one. It becomes weird when we start condemning actions because it is not wage labour. I mean, don't we want people to start taking control of their own lives, including when it comes to be fixing infrastructure?

Sure, I get the critiques from other posters, but it just seem a bit counter-productive to just shit on this stuff just because "some wage worker is supposed to do it". If those potholes have been around for 4-5 years and is not getting done because the city doesn't really care, then surely it is better that it gets done than nothing? Should we condemn Occupy Sandy for doing the job of FEMA and Redcross workers?

Surely it's not their intention to compete against or negatively affect the actual workers whose job it is to repair roads.

I'm not sure it's intentions that matter here - the path to hell and all that.

Rather, I think it's a reflection of an anarchism quite distanced from the class struggle. It's insane to think that we can replace the state in any meaningful way without massive appropriations. Stunts like this, on the other hand, if undertaken on any serious scale, only serve to undermine the jobs of most likely unionized, fairly well-paid public sector workers.

I mean, this is the Tories' Big Society in action. Until we're in a position to actually overthrow the state, much better to force the state itself undertake as much paid, socially beneficial work as possible.

Sure, I get the critiques from other posters, but it just seem a bit counter-productive to just shit on this stuff just because "some wage worker is supposed to do it". If those potholes have been around for 4-5 years and is not getting done because the city doesn't really care, then surely it is better that it gets done than nothing? Should we condemn Occupy Sandy for doing the job of FEMA and Redcross workers?

I get the point you're making here K, as well. However, I'm not aware of these anarchists doing much to force the city to deal with these problems. To me, getting into these communities and actually trying to build links with people to pressure city bosses seems like a far better approach.

As to Sandy, fuck right the state should have stepped in - I'm just not sure that's particularly analogous. In the context of an massive emergency situation, yeah, people are going to step up just to survive - and fucking good on them for doing that, showing how solidarity can shine through in the most fucked circumstances.

But part of that should be pressuring the state to put funds and resources into emergency services so shit like Katrina or Sandy doesn't happen in the future. Do you think filling our own potholes is going to make the city more likely to undertake road repairs in the future?

Chilli

I get the point you're making here K, as well. However, I'm not aware of these anarchists doing much to force the city to deal with these problems. To me, getting into these communities and actually trying to build links with people to pressure city bosses seems like a far better approach.

Why not do both? The one doesn't exclude the other, although I agree that just fixing potholes without building any links with the local community doesn't do much. But again, why only pressure city bosses? Why not force them to do something? Sure, I completely get the Big Society argument you make in #25... I guess the point is that we keep doing the same shit over and over, and maybe, just maybe, we should not be too quick to condemn.

In addition, I am also thinking about how organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas got extremely popular in Egypt and Palestine. By extending social welfare to people that the state didn't give a shit about and, yes, in some cases fixing infrastructure, building community centers and so on.

As to Sandy, fuck right the state should have stepped in - I'm just not sure that's particularly analogous. In the context of an massive emergency situation, yeah, people are going to step up just to survive - and fucking good on them for doing that, showing how solidarity can shine through in the most fucked circumstances.

But part of that should be pressuring the state to put funds and resources into emergency services so shit like Katrina or Sandy doesn't happen in the future.

Of course they should have, but they didn't (and even when they stepped in, they never went to the worst hit areas and set up shop in relative affluent places). But that they didn't was a blessing in disguise; people got exposed to actual anarchist/mutual aid practice rather than being bored to death by one of us droning on or reading some text.

I guess this discussion can become a bit catch-22.

FWIW, I guess where I come from is that in the last few years I've just seen too much ritualistic action and it seems like whatever it is we're doing just isn't working. I just want to be able to do something that actually works and win some fights rather than picking ones we will loose (because we just apply the same ointment to fucking anything and everything). Just a few years back, I'd be as quick to judge these types of actions we're discussing here, but I am less inclined to do so now because i frankly feel that collectively we're stuck in a rut. To make a fancier autonomist-inspired argument: we're so utterly decomposed as a class and it seems like the process of recomposing hasn't even started yet.

But we will continue to lose more than we win because the level of class consciousness and class resistance is possibly at an all time low. It's not about what this or that anarchist group does but what the class does and it's this that needs to change. Stunts like filling in pot holes changes nothing - admirable though it might be, as long as it's not proto-scabbing.

I think that a bit of a problem here is that the Tories basically have attempted to usurp collective, working class self organisation, in terms of the fact that many working class people volunteer to help people and improve their communities, and use this to slash public services.

However this doesn't mean that there is any problem with people self organising this type of thing. In fact it was only due to mutual help type organisations which led to the state taking on various additional social functions in the first place. So there is nothing wrong with doing things on a volunteer basis - quite the opposite in fact

Difficult area in practice but need to distinguish self-organisation from the alternative state in waiting as with Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, IRA, etc and perhaps others who view their organisations as providing a service to the people?

I'm new to this stuff, so go easy on me here, but this seems like an unambigously good thing. If the point is to show we don't need the state for this, I think from a layman's perspective doing it yourself looks less hypocritical than pressuring the local government to do it.

I guess it's a balancing act, I think this kind of action is needed to be the "good cop" to "bad cop" of protests, riots, and antifascist actions - because as much as I personally agree with those, if all people see and hear of anarchists is how they wreck things and get into fist fights, they will be put off

I think some of the conversation around this is a good example of why I am not an anarchist.

I have no problem with the boogeyman state, a.k.a. the most likely unionized, disproportionately people of color city road workers fixing roads. I have no problem with the city being pressured to hire more unionized, disproportionately people of color city workers to do more road fixing that may not be getting done.

I don't think there's really anything admirable or cool about unpaid, unqualified, anonymous masked up individuals doing it, just because they're not the "state". I don't get the DIY appeal at all and it seems to be fully inline with the vision of Thatcher and people like Rand Paul.

Juan Conatz

I have no problem with the boogeyman state, a.k.a. the most likely unionized, disproportionately people of color city road workers fixing roads. I have no problem with the city being pressured to hire more unionized, disproportionately people of color city workers to do more road fixing that may not be getting done.

It's not being done, though. The revenue is not there or is being wasted in other areas. Why should we wait for these authoritarian and hierarchical government institutions to decide when potholes need to be filled? Aren't the people themselves perfectly capable of deciding that potholes are dangerous and need to be fixed, and then taking action to do so? I still can't wrap my head around why we should blame any group of people for taking matters into their own hands, even if the consequence of that is that some workers are negatively affected. It's not the fault of the people doing the work that wasn't being done; it's the system where people must sell their labor in order to survive (either to the state or private enterprises). To me that's just the same scapegoating used against migrants/refugees for economic problems instead of the capitalist institutions actually responsible for those problems (as pointed out by Serge).

Juan Conatz

I don't think there's really anything admirable or cool about unpaid, unqualified, anonymous masked up individuals doing it, just because they're not the "state".

What makes you say their goal is to look cool rather than do necessary work that's not being done?

But it's not "just being done". This isn't like when I go out to smoke a cigarette and see some litter on the sidewalk so I pick it up. The Portland thing is being done, photographed, uploaded, given a political name and shared. At this point it becomes something very different than someone just doing something, it becomes a project spreading a message. I object to this message and haven't seen any evidence provided that there has been demands made on city services.

A few months ago, a group Puerto Rican and Mexican mothers went and bothered the city about putting traffic lights on my corner. The corner is high traffic and close to a school. Their harassment of the alderman, plus getting on Univision resulted in lights being put in the next week. I suppose it would have been more romantic for the moms to mask up and install the lights on their own but personally, I prefer my city services to be done by unionized, qualified fellow workers.

Serge

But we will continue to lose more than we win because the level of class consciousness and class resistance is possibly at an all time low. It's not about what this or that anarchist group does but what the class does and it's this that needs to change. Stunts like filling in pot holes changes nothing - admirable though it might be, as long as it's not proto-scabbing.

As I wrote:

To make a fancier autonomist-inspired argument: we're so utterly decomposed as a class and it seems like the process of recomposing hasn't even started yet.

So basically, we are fucked and starting from scratch. And we will lose a lot, but that doesn't mean we should just pick fights that we know will lose. In that cases, it is better to start with something to gain confidence, establish trust between people and so on than just doing whatever we have been doing so far and getting demoralized in the process. I am fed up with that.

As long as pot-hole filling is just a stunt and is just supposed to go up some groupsicle's instagram of Facebook page, it is as worthless as freeganing. Aight on its own, but has feck all to do with politics. But if pot-hole filling happens because a local community has come together and wants it to get done, that is a whole another ball game. A community that comes together like that may have all kinds of capacities and know-how (who knows some of them might even be city workers whose job it is to fill in holes). I am pretty sure that they will figure out a way to get it fixed whether it be the DIY approach or making demands on the state. But I think it is silly to condemn pot-hole filling in and of its own as if there is some weird division of labour anarchists have to stick to.

I mean, let's face it guys. What we've been doing is not working. We shouldn't be that quick to condemn, even though in this case of ideologically motivated public service where it's done for that reason plus a few likes is clearly a dead end.

But it's not "just being done". This isn't like when I go out to smoke a cigarette and see some litter on the sidewalk so I pick it up. The Portland thing is being done, photographed, uploaded, given a political name and shared. At this point it becomes something very different than someone just doing something, it becomes a project spreading a message. I object to this message and haven't seen any evidence provided that there has been demands made on city services.

Would you have been against it if the community had decided collectively to go the DIY round?

I think people who live in a neighborhood getting together, collectively deciding to harass/pressure the city to provide the services that they are supposed to and do primarily because of past organizing is preferable to masked up anarchos just deciding to do so on their own to display some sort of strap-on-your-boots American self-suffiency.

I would also object if the "volunteers" were not knowledgeable in what they were volunteering for. I certainly wouldn't want them handling traffic lights if they weren't qualified. I know nothing about repairing roads, but by the looks of the article, it seems the Portland anarchists had some idea of what they were doing.

A small circle of friends created Portland Anarchist Road Care in February as a response to deteriorating road conditions, which they believe make driving and cycling less safe (as well as a financial burden to owners of damaged vehicles). Whereas the planet’s other pothole vigilantes rely on mostly passive approaches to draw attention to holes—painting male genitalia around them in the U.K., making them tweet the government when run over in Panama—Portland’s avengers take direct action, using a temporary but well-established mending technique called cold patching.

I suppose it would have been more romantic for the moms to mask up and install the lights on their own but personally, I prefer my city services to be done by unionized, qualified fellow workers.

If it were qualified workers volunteering for these sort of things, would you object then just because it adversely affects the jobs of some other workers? It's not that I'm against demanding anything from the city or government; it's just that I think the Portland anarchists are to be taken seriously and not dismissed, ridiculed and blamed. I would be glad, for instance, if they repaired a road I cycle or drive on.

zugzwang

I still can't wrap my head around why we should blame any group of people for taking matters into their own hands, even if the consequence of that is that some workers are negatively affected.

How 'bout if those workers are negatively affected out of a job? That's called scabbing.

Reminds me of the "thousand of points of light." Anyone else remember that mantra of austerity?

Hieronymous

zugzwang

I still can't wrap my head around why we should blame any group of people for taking matters into their own hands, even if the consequence of that is that some workers are negatively affected.

How 'bout if those workers are negatively affected out of a job? That's called scabbing.

Reminds me of the "thousand of points of light." Anyone else remember that mantra of austerity?

Yes, but they're not working for anyone during a strike or dispute to undermine those efforts; they're volunteering to do work that wasn't getting done. Is the goal not to destroy governmental institutions, as well as remuneration for work, and replace them with more democratic organizations and work based around mutual aid and meeting people's needs?

Zugwang:
I still can't wrap my head around why we should blame any group of people for taking matters into their own hands, even if the consequence of that is that some workers are negatively affected.

Hieronymous:
How 'bout if those workers are negatively affected out of a job? That's called scabbing.

Hieronymous is right. Any work we do that negatively affects other workers is scabbing. This works on a local and a local-to-global level. This makes any work in developing technology ultimately scabbing (whether it leads to joblessness or intensification of labor), or any work in education, for example, since education is necessarily exclusionary and negatively affects proto-workers (students). That is, it ultimately denies some sections of the community jobs and creates the possibilities for others to have them. The list goes on and on. Thus, everyone is a scab. It goes on: If we apply for a job and get it are we negatively affecting another worker out of a job? Just what kind of flag are we waving here when we argue for or against the Portland pot hole filler anarchists?

I think the Portland anarchists filling pot holes are hilarious, not good or bad, just amusing and charming, and inconsequential (or are they…??). However, by enlarging the discussion in this way, Hieronymous takes us somewhere far more interesting.

Despite being sarcastic Tom is correct really but that's capitalism. We're all reproducing it, so the contradictions are built in.

All the calls for pressuring the state being the best option... That's a pretty well travelled path. And there are more effective ways of pressuring the state than any immediate llbcom alternative. "Libcom a better way of influencing the state"

We're seeing the state failing to provide across the west. Propping it up and insisting on all the proper channels and institutions is surely not the way to go.

Sure this might be a media stunt more than anything but that's the issue not that theyre stealing jobs.

That Thatcher, Cameron Paul or the fascists are doing it is not a good argument against. I see way to much of that reasoning around.

But Cooked when you say

We're seeing the State failing to provide across the west.

What does that mean? Did it once provide? Was it once good for the mass of the people? Should anarchists model their notions of a future society on a previous state system? The 'high point' (?) of the Welfare State in Britain, for example?

Also, I wasn't being sarcastic, honest, guv. Though Hieronymous probably didn't intend his comment to be extrapolated in such a way, of course. But he did open up the discussion with his comment, even though Edging Sideways (Serge Forward's true name in a time of class decomposition) had already kind of gone there with his confusing view that while the actions of the pot hole fillers were "positive" and "admirable" they were also the strategy of a class enemy. :)

Edging Sideways

Nicely done :D

zylas

I'm new to this stuff, so go easy on me here, but this seems like an unambigously good thing. If the point is to show we don't need the state for this, I think from a layman's perspective doing it yourself looks less hypocritical than pressuring the local government to do it.

I guess it's a balancing act, I think this kind of action is needed to be the "good cop" to "bad cop" of protests, riots, and antifascist actions - because as much as I personally agree with those, if all people see and hear of anarchists is how they wreck things and get into fist fights, they will be put off

Zylas, I'd just say that I'm not sure they dichotomy you've set up here is correct - although I do think it reflects a certain activist mentality that pervades the anarchist movement.

It's the idea that we, as anarchists, either do DIY shit or we go out and protest. When, in fact, our role should be to be active in wider struggles, pushing anarchist aims and methods, or to be organizing campaigns - which no doubt will have protests, demonstrations, and DIY as part of them, but should, at best, be a reflection of the larger activities that go into effective organizing.

So, I know you said you are new to this. I might recommend Give Up Activism. It very much pushes back against the idea that our activity is something to be understood (or consumed or experienced passively) by the non-activist layman, as you put it.

None of that is meant as a criticism, btw, I hope it doesn't come across that way.

The reason the potholes in Oregon aren’t being fixed is the same as anywhere in the US. Public infrastructure is dying because the state isn’t investing and that’s because of the economic base in anytown USA hasn’t been growing for almost a decade now. I don’t think the reason is that capitalist want to extort the highest surplus from road workers – the problem is precisely that they don’t. Low investment because of low rates of profit, plus tax cuts to the rich create a situation where it’s very possible the state just doesn’t have the budget for it (not sure if this applies specifically to Portland). So, it’s really capitalism not volunteers taking away workers’ jobs.

Direct action to demand more public investment is unlikely to work when the conditions are extremely unfavourable to it. Communism is supposed to be about abolishing the present state of things, not reaffirming them in workers' favour – that’s a losing strategy. If volunteering builds dual power in the community, that could be used to go beyond the existing forms of working class politics, I’d say it’s worth it.

Wanksy works too but that depends on the situation. If the potholes are there because of negligence, then yeah, any kind of demands with media profile will probably help. But there are more significant underlying problems behind infrastructural decline. The left can’t deal with this because our strategies are from a time of industrial expansion.

Is this actually happening?:

In this instance, it appears to have prompted management to initiate a speed up in competition with these volunteers!

I'd assume road workers are working harder now because its spring time and in cold countries construction industry is seasonal?

As far as I can tell, this was announced a few days before the first PARC pot-hole-filling, but I could be wrong:
"The bureau will send out 12 to 15 crews to fill the potholes, far more than the usual two or three crews that usually do the job."
http://www.pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/346637-226538-city-crews-warm-up-shovels-for-pothole-patch-a-thon

Hieronymous:
How 'bout if those workers are negatively affected out of a job? That's called scabbing.

Sorry, but that's just wrong. Scabbing means doing the work of striking workers. If these potholes had been filled while road workers were on strike, then yes that would have been scabbing. But doing it themselves is just volunteering. Hell, haven't you done free teaching of English for migrant workers? Now that doesn't make you a scab, taking the job of potentially employed English teachers does it?

excellent post #47 from sharkfinn.
zugzwang

A small circle of friends created Portland Anarchist Road Care in February as a response to deteriorating road conditions, which they believe make driving and cycling less safe (as well as a financial burden to owners of damaged vehicles). Whereas the planet’s other pothole vigilantes rely on mostly passive approaches to draw attention to holes—painting male genitalia around them in the U.K., making them tweet the government when run over in Panama—Portland’s avengers take direct action, using a temporary but well-established mending technique called cold patching.

this is what i was waiting to read. assuming that most of those whose cars and bikes would be damaged by the potholes were FWs who depend on their transportation, i applaud the class-conscious motivation of the potholerers. i remember the anger i felt towards leftoids in 1999 when they were chuffed that the riots in Seatlle included smashing up people's cars. your car. in most of the states, is how you feed you and yours.

dunno about "avengers" tho'. a bit dramatic.

Tom Henry

But Cooked when you say

We're seeing the State failing to provide across the west.

What does that mean? Did it once provide? Was it once good for the mass of the people? Should anarchists model their notions of a future society on a previous state system? The 'high point' (?) of the Welfare State in Britain, for example?

You're trying to hard it's plain that you're only using me as text mass for your nefarious ends! Sharkfinns post covers it really. People used to rely on the state for things they no longer can and it looks like the decline will continue.

Chilli Sauce

It's the idea that we, as anarchists, either do DIY shit or we go out and protest. When, in fact, our role should be to be active in wider struggles, pushing anarchist aims and methods, or to be organizing campaigns - which no doubt will have protests, demonstrations, and DIY as part of them, but should, at best, be a reflection of the larger activities that go into effective organizing.

So, I know you said you are new to this. I might recommend Give Up Activism. It very much pushes back against the idea that our activity is something to be understood (or consumed or experienced passively) by the non-activist layman, as you put it.

None of that is meant as a criticism, btw, I hope it doesn't come across that way.

I see, I read the piece and it did kind of cool my temper. Though if we should spread the awareness of our goals and reasoning, won't conducting such feel-good actions make a more fertile ground for those ideas?

I can bring up myself as an example. In Warsaw, Poland, there's a "reprivatisation scandal" - a bunch of landowners, using shady methods and bribes, is getting tenement houses they claim their family owned before WW II. Nowadays people live there, usually very poor, and they're being evicted, sometimes sued for huge amounts of money for "trespassing". But anarchists defended them, physically fighting off bailiffs. This was pretty much a symbolic action, they couldn't do that forever. But it made me think, I was always told and taught, in school as well, that anarchists are just bunch of thugs and bomb throwers; this threw a wrench into that. Then I learned about Food not Bombs, which further pushed me to learn about anarchism. I recently became involved in FNB, and I know this won't bring down capitalism or anything, but at least few dozens of homeless people will have a nice meal.

Steven.

Hieronymous:
How 'bout if those workers are negatively affected out of a job? That's called scabbing.

Sorry, but that's just wrong. Scabbing means doing the work of striking workers. If these potholes had been filled while road workers were on strike, then yes that would have been scabbing. But doing it themselves is just volunteering.

Maybe it's different in various English speaking regions, but in the U.S. "scabbing" means to deny another worker of their means of subsistence. Here what Jack London said in his 1905 War of the Classes:

Jack London

The laborer who gives more time or strength or skill for the same wage than another, or equal time or strength or skill for a less wage, is a scab.

This would apply as well for doing for free what is ordinarily waged work. Made more problematic is performing the tasks normally done by public sector workers of color (as Juan correctly points out).

A scab is either a someone who crosses a picket line to undermine a strike by working, or a hard coating on the skin formed during the wound healing reconstruction process.

The working class is the proletariat in so far as they lack the means of their subsistence, and have to sell their labour power to get it in exchange. A scab cannot meaningfully deny a worker their subsistence as they never had it in the first place.

Jack London

The laborer who gives more time or strength or skill for the same wage than another, or equal time or strength or skill for a less wage, is a scab.

This definition would include (mostly black) prison convicts leased to mines and factories in Jack London's time, as well as modern prison labourers in the US.

It's objectively the case that prison labour is used to undermine pay and conditions compared to 'free' labour but I don't think calling it scab labour is useful. Part of the defeats in the US was white workers organising against black workers rather than with them - by treating them only as potential strike breakers rather than as comrades. Chicago race riots started due to this iirc.

I do remember from an old IWW pamphlet (maybe the one on the four hour day?) saying that people who take overtime are "scabbing on the unemployed". That said, I think even in America the definition is generally used in a pretty straightforward way: crossing picket lines in order to do the work of striking workers.

Mike Harman

Jack London

The laborer who gives more time or strength or skill four the same wage than another, or equal time or strength or skill for a less wage, is a scab.

This definition would include (mostly black) prison convicts leased to mines and factories in Jack London's time, as well as modern prison labourers in the US.

It's objectively the case that prison labour is used to undermine pay and conditions compared to 'free' labour but I don't think calling it scab labour is useful. Part of the defeats in the US was white workers organising against black workers rather than with them - by treating them only as potential strike breakers rather than as comrades. Chicago race riots started due to this iirc.

Well, Jack London was a big bastard racist so I suppose it kind of fits. Anyway, to call these anarchos scabs is definitely over-egging the pudding. Well meaning but misguided and playing into the hands of the bosses, sure.... but scabs? That's just bloody daft.

zugzwang

It's not being done, though. The revenue is not there or is being wasted in other areas. Why should we wait for these authoritarian and hierarchical government institutions to decide when potholes need to be filled? Aren't the people themselves perfectly capable of deciding that potholes are dangerous and need to be fixed, and then taking action to do so?

One reason why road repairs are not getting done is that it's been an extremely wet winter. From California all through the Pacific Northwest roads have washed out and bridges collapsed. It's raining today in Portland, there is a flood warning right now, and it rained most days last week -- and it's supposed to rain everyday for the next week. You can't fix potholes when it's raining. So far, Portland Anarchist Road Care has patched 3, and according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation they have 997 to go to clear the backlog. At this pace, taking the rain into consideration, the Anarchists will have it done by 2020.

I suspect that this is just a silly publicity stunt. Perhaps like Trump's tweets, it's a distraction from all the arrests during the anti-Trump protests (and I hope it helps, but doubt it). And I don't think it's scabbing since the Portland Anarchist Road Care's level of productivity isn't putting any public sector workers out of a job. Real repairs are done by repaving using heavy duty asphalt paving machines and cold patching is like putting a Band-Aid on a scratch.

And the Portland Bureau of Transportation does have the resources, having passed a ballot measure in 2016 for a motor vehicle fuel tax worth an estimated $64 million (which I suspect the Anarchist pothole filling is attempting to draw attention to). Anyway, most road repairs are financed either locally, with general obligation bonds, or though taxation nationally, like the 18.3-cents-per-gallon federal excise tax on gasoline and gasohol and the 24.3-cents-per-gallon tax on diesel fuel. So there's no shortage of money.

And for a mainstream definition of a scab (and to repeat, I don't think that it applies to Portland Anarchist Road Care):

(1) : a worker who refuses to join a labor union

(2) : a union member who refuses to strike or returns to work before a strike has ended

(3) : a worker who accepts employment or replaces a union worker during a strike

(4) : one who works for less than union wages or on nonunion terms

But the best definitions of class traitors like scabs can be found in laborlore books like Archie Green's Wobblies, Pile Butts, and Other Heroes: Laborlore Explorations, where he defines scabs, finks, rats and scissorbills.

I'm sure I remember the time when Serge Sideways and I used to complain about people working because they were scabbing on our general strike... us being unemployed at the time.

Hieronymous

Maybe it's different in various English speaking regions, but in the U.S. "scabbing" means to deny another worker of their means of subsistence. Here what Jack London said in his 1905 War of the Classes:

Jack London wrote:The laborer who gives more time or strength or skill for the same wage than another, or equal time or strength or skill for a less wage, is a scab.

Well, I'm not so sure that Jack London meant what your implying in relation to this thread but if "scabbing" can be defined simply as denying another worker a means of subsistence by an act of volunteerism could it not be said that those non-professional organizers who seek employment at a workplace with the primary intent of organizing the workers there are potentially denying paid union staffers their means of subsistence?

This list below posted by you is a much more accurate definition of what a "scab" really is:

Hieronymous

(1) : a worker who refuses to join a labor union

(2) : a union member who refuses to strike or returns to work before a strike has ended

(3) : a worker who accepts employment or replaces a union worker during a strike

(4) : one who works for less than union wages or on nonunion terms
.

Although the list above consists of the most accurate definition posted here by far I should perhaps point out that I've know of workers who simply stayed at home during strike actions and were never ostracized by their striking co-workers for doing so. This kinda causes me think that perhaps the most commonly accepted definition of a "scab"in the US today for purposes of labor is as sharkfinn points out simply that of a worker who crosses a picket-line to recommence work in violation of a strike action.

Now, what was this thread originally all about? :)

Tom Henry

I'm sure I remember the time when Serge Sideways and I used to complain about people working because they were scabbing on our general strike... us being unemployed at the time.

Serge Sideways and Arse Sideways... the dodgy duo :D

Hieronymous

... At this pace, taking the rain into consideration, the Anarchists will have it done by 2020.

By no means are the Portland anarchists/pothole fillers ready-made replacements (not at this stage at least...) for the government or professionals who do road work on a much larger scale and with all the appropriate equipment, etc. I never said that, and I'm sorry if I seemed to imply that.

Hieronymous

... So there's no shortage of money.

From what little research I've done, I'd be skeptical of the claim that road repairs are underway, or that it is simply not a problem. The very fact people feel the need to draw penises around potholes, in England, and take action themselves in Oregon as well as other states is evidence that potholes and other road damages/blemishes are not getting repaired. I'm by no means an expert on infrastructure, but among the issues I've read about is that the fuel tax is not collecting the required revenue because cars are more fuel-efficient these days, in addition to people using other means of transportation to get around, and money is going into building new roads rather than maintaining the existing ones. But yeah, you seem to know more about it, but I still have my doubts that it is simply not a problem.

If anything, the Portland anarchists are contributing, and that I think should be taken seriously (commended even) and not dismissed or ridiculed. (I'll concede that their posing for photos is a bit silly.) Just glancing through their Facebook, they appear to be getting some positive feedback, and like I said, I'd have no problem with them repairing a road I cycle or drive along and that wasn't getting fixed. The people taking action/volunteering should not be used as the whipping boy for the problems inflicted on other workers. (At least I still don't see why they should be blamed.) It's management who decide to lay workers off or cut their pay, increase productivity/pace of work, etc. Could we not do things ourselves and organize against our bosses at the same time?

Also consider it this way; the Portland anarchists are (presumably) more involved in what they're doing; they're not motivated just by a paycheck. They're motivated by the work itself and seeing results (the positive feedback too), so they're less likely to cut corners or "mark potholes as fixed" when they're actually not as happens in some states. I imagine there is no top-down structure within their pothole repair organization, and that they decide things democratically rather than receive orders from above. (And I don't mean "no orders" like not doing things correctly.) There is comparably less exploitation going on than in the actual road repair business. This is what we want, no? (The only thing I'm curious of is what they do when they're not volunteering - perhaps they're road workers? That would be interesting.)

I think the use of scab to describe someone with worse conditions is divisive and unhelpful.
My employer started hiring people on one-year probation contracts on reduced salaries, that doesn't make the new employees scabs, it means the employer is exploiting them and it required solidarity from existing workers, which didn't appear incidentally.

In terms of repairing stuff then if it's fixing an actual problem faced by people and it's clear to the people using it why it's been done then I'm not against this. Isn't the US facing a massive problem with crumbling infrastructure? There were a few articles a while back about the number of bridges that states can't afford to maintain and there seems to be no plan aside form 'hope that they don't fall down'.
Near my house there's a stretch of road where the tarmac has worn down to cobbles, could be lethal for a cyclist. If someone fixed that then they'd potentially be doing something very useful.

In my capacity of semi-professional killjoy, aren't you lot over analyzing this a bit? i don't know what the thought process behind this was but maybe it's just a bit of a publicity stunt? A lot of people associate anarchism with dudebros in V for Vendetta masks, smashing up Starbucks with iphones or such like, so maybe they're just trying to demonstrate mutual aid by doing something useful - not that it's that useful, an article I read they said they've filled in 5 or 6 holes, which out of 1000s is not going to be putting anyone out of a job. Not only that, the way they're fixing them, it's only going to be a temporary job and they're going to be needing redoing later in the year. I wouldn't worry about municipal workers being laid off because of a few anarchists with bags of asphalt.

Jef's right about North America having a massive infrastructure problem, pot holes are the first sign of Spring around here. No amount of gonzo road patching is going to solve that.

Leaving aside my previous comment it seems to me that widespread volunteering whether self-organised or not demonstrates that we humans are often motivated by a variety of factors that do not require that we be paid for what we do..... but so long as capitalism persists most of we humans are also either directly or indirectly dependent on getting a wage or state benefit of some kind in order to survive and volunteering is not a substitute for that. Material resources are largely monopolised by the capitalist class and it's state and volunteers are in no position to supply such resources on anything like the same scale. So nothing wrong in principle with volunteer 'work' (as long as it's not strike breaking) but we cannot allow this to be seen as, or become, an alternative to organised collective class struggle to defend our day to day interests and to reclaim the worlds material resources for the common good. Volunteering outside of such class struggle is not in itself a means of 'building dual power in the community' to borrow that terminology for now.