Je Vous Dis, Merde! 10: The Professional Anarchists are Coming, The Professional Anarchists are Coming
This is a true story.
Some of the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
But you have to guess which ones.
First, here is the first part of yesterday’s front page New York Times article on Wednesday’s protests at the University of California at Berkeley about the scheduled talk that evening by the alt-right Breitbart News editor, Milo Fuckingidiotopoulos, and contemporary anarchism in the USA:
Anarchists Respond to Trump’s Inauguration, by Any Means Necessary
By FARAH STOCKMAN FEB. 2, 2017
The videotaped sucker punch that staggered the white nationalist Richard Spencer on Inauguration Day quickly inspired mockery on social media. But it echoed loudly in an escalating confrontation between extreme ends of the political spectrum.
With far-right groups edging into the mainstream with the rise of President Trump, self-described anti-fascists and anarchists are vowing to confront them at every turn, and by any means necessary — including violence.
In Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday night, masked protesters set fires, smashed windows and stormed buildings on the campus of the University of California to shut down a speech by Milo Fuckingidiotopoulos, an inflammatory Breitbart News editor and a right-wing provocateur already barred from Twitter. Five people were injured, administrators canceled the event, and the university police locked down the campus for hours.
That followed a bloody melee in Seattle on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, when black-clad demonstrators — their faces concealed to minimize the risk of arrest — tried to prevent a speech by Mr. Fuckingidiotopoulos at the University of Washington, and a 34-year-old anti-fascist was shot and seriously wounded by a supporter of Mr. Fuckingidiotopoulos.
The outbreaks of destruction and violence since Mr. Trump’s inauguration have earned contempt from Republicans — including Trump supporters who say it is exactly why they voted for his promises of law and order — and condemnation from Democrats like Berkeley’s mayor, Jesse Arreguín. He called Wednesday’s display “contrary to progressive values” and said it “provided the ultranationalist far right exactly the images they want” to try to discredit peaceful protesters of Mr. Trump’s policies.
But anarchists and anti-fascists, who often make up a small but disproportionately attention-getting portion of protesters, defend the mayhem they create as a necessary response to an emergency.
“Yes, what the black bloc did last night was destructive to property,” Eric Laursen, a writer in Massachusetts who has helped publicize anarchist protests, said, using another name for the black-clad demonstrators. “But do you just let someone like Milo go wherever he wants and spread his hate? That kind of argument can devolve into ‘just sit on your hands and wait for it to pass.’ And it doesn’t.”
Anarchists also say their recent efforts have been wildly successful, both by focusing attention on their most urgent argument — that Mr. Trump poses a fascist threat — and by enticing others to join their movement.
“The number of people who have been showing up to meetings, the number of meetings, and the number of already-evolving plans for future actions is through the roof,” Legba Carrefour, who helped organize the so-called Disrupt J20 protests on Inauguration Day in Washington, said in an interview.
“Gained 1,000 followers in the last week,” trumpeted @NYCAntifa, an anti-fascist Twitter account in New York, on Jan. 24. “Pretty crazy for us as we’ve been active for many years with minimal attention. SMASH FASCISM!”
The movement even claims to be finding adherents far afield of major population centers. A participant in CrimethInc, a decades-old anarchist network, pointed to rising attendance at its meetings and activity cropping up in new places like Omaha.
“The Left ignores us. The Right demonizes us,” the anarchist website It’s Going Down boasted on Twitter. “Everyday we grow stronger.”
Little known to practitioners of mainstream American politics, militant anti-fascists make up a secretive culture closely associated with anarchists. Both reject social hierarchies as undemocratic and eschew the political parties as hopelessly corrupt, according to interviews with a dozen anarchists around the country. While some anarchists espouse nonviolence, others view property damage and even physical attacks on the far right as important tactics.
While extreme right-wing groups have been enthusiastic supporters of Mr. Trump, anti-fascists express deep disdain for the Democratic Party. And it is mutual, by and large: They amount to the left’s unwanted revolutionary stepchild, disowned for their tactics and ideology by all but the most radical politicians.
***
Second, here is President Donald Trump’s Tweet about the Berkeley protests:
Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump
Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
- Retweets 38,893
- Likes 151,825
3:48 AM — 3 Feb 2017
***
Note particularly Trump’s phrase “professional anarchists.”
Third, here is my first Tweet about Trump’s Berkeley protest Tweet:
Mr Nemo Retweeted Donald J. Trump
Today’s MINDFUCK.
1He’s a neo-fascist & uses Breitbart/Milo/neo-nazis to incite fury.
2He demonizes #TheResistance.
4:50 AM — 3 Feb 2017
***
Fourth, here is my second Tweet about Trump’s Tweet:
ANARCHISM
1States are immoral b/c they COERCE free people
2People freely associate for MUTUAL AID
5:59 AM — 3 Feb 2017
***
Fifth, here is my third Tweet about Trump’s Tweet:
Mr Nemo Retweeted Donald J. Trump
1Pros are obedient thinkers.
2Anarchists aren’t obedient.
3So anarchists can’t be pros.
DT=FUCKWIT. #TheResistance
9:17 AM — 3 Feb 2017
***
Sixth, later that day, I saw saw this article from the Baltimore City Paper linked from Twitter:
Man in ‘grave condition’ after he was shot in Red Emma’s
Baltimore City Paper
February 3, 2017, 2:06 pm
By Brandon Weigel and Edward Ericson Jr.
A man is in grave condition after he was shot inside the radical bookstore and coffee shop Red Emma’s at about 11:20 a.m. this morning, police said.
According to Lt. Jarron Jackson, the man was sitting in the cafe when he was called to the door by someone he knew, who shot the man in the “upper body.”
The man is being treated for his injuries, Jackson said. He declined to give any description of the man because of the relationship police believe he has with the shooter. Police could only describe the gunman as a male in dark clothing, possibly wearing a mask.
Witnesses who were in the cafe at the time of the shooting described a horrifying scene.
Artist Graham Coreil-Allen said the shooter walked right behind the victim into the cafe and shot him in the head with a “little pistol.”
“It happened right after he came through the doors,” said Cassandra Miller (who, full disclosure, has contributed to City Paper in the past).
Everyone screamed and took cover as the gunman stood over the man’s body for a moment before leaving, Coreil-Allen said. Miller said there was only one shot.
People waiting at a nearby bus stop ran in to check on the victim. Both people City Paper spoke with told of how a woman came over to help the main by applying pressure to the wound. The man appeared to be breathing, though Coreil-Allen said the man was spewing up blood and bile. Neither got a good look at the shooter.
Police arrived minutes later, followed by paramedics. Workers and witnesses remained on site to give statements to detectives.
On its Facebook page, Red Emma’s announced the cafe would be closed for the remainder of the day, and that tonight’s event, “Young, Angry, and Black with Valencia Clay and Guests,” has been moved to 2640 Space.
The collective also posted the following statement: “Thanks to everyone for the love & support. Our workers are physically safe, but we’re anxiously awaiting more news about our community member who remains in critical condition. Though today’s shooting is a reflection of the extreme moment in which we live, we want to assure everyone that this was a case of interpersonal violence, not a politically-motivated attack. We will remain closed for the rest of today so our workers & community can process, but we plan to reopen tomorrow.”
Red Emma’s has always strived to be a community gathering space, offering talks and book readings on urban life, race, gender, war, economics, and a host of other topics. The space also makes a point to be inclusive, doing things such as labeling the bathrooms as gender-neutral and providing a pay-it-forward food system that allows people in need to get food or coffee at no charge. It’s also a favorite spot for activists, something that was noted by Baltimore Police Sgt. Bobby Cherry Jr., who tweeted to The Sun’s Justin Fenton that the shooting was likely “captured on cell phones by the many patrons there who regularly capture w/cell footage.”
He has since deleted it. The BPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the tweet.
Both Miller and Coreil-Allen noted the inclusivity of Red Emma’s as one of the qualities they love about it.
“Red Emma’s is this safe space for so many people from all walks of life, and to have that violated is a tragedy,” said Coreil-Allen. “I hope it will continue to serve as a safe space for all of us.”
***
Seventh, at the very moment the tragic shooting in Baltimore was unfolding, I was also tweeting this —
EMMA GOLDMAN on ANARCHISM: what it REALLY stands for.
Go here for the whole essay: http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/goldman/aando/anarchism.html …
OK.
One important point is that all anarchists hold (1) that the State is immoral because it uses violence to compel free people to obey its laws, even if those laws are morally wrong, and also (2) that people should freely associate with one another for their mutual aid and personal self-realization.
Another important point is that whereas some anarchists are violent and “bomb-throwing,” like the Black Bloc, some are NOT: some explicitly and passionately defend a non-violent social anarchism, like Emma Goldman.
A third important point is that there are no such things as “professional anarchists”: the very idea is idiotic, a contradiction in terms, and the term is intended solely to frighten people and demonize all anarchists.
Presumably, it’s supposed to cause us pre-consciously to associate the term “professional anarchists” with the term “professional killers” without any regard to the actual meanings of the terms, or their logical coherence, a classic MINDFUCK ploy of demagogues.
Now at first, everyone all over the internet — other than Milo Fuckingidiotopoulos and other alt-right, Breitbart-style neo-fascists, that is— was extremely tense at the thought that the shooting at Red Emma’s Bookstore and Coffee Shop was politically-motivated.
Then when it turned out that it was only “interpersonal violence,” everyone breathed an audible huge online sigh of relief.
And for a brief moment, I did too.
But then I thought, WtF! Mr Nemo: really?
Upon critical reflection, since I’m (1) a non-violent Emma Goldman-style anarchist, (2) a serious critic of Trump, AND (3) a gun-abolitionist,
I think that it’s ALL tragically fucked-up, NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT IT.
And above all, to Trump and his MINDFUCK-logic nonsense about “professional anarchists,”
Je vous dis, merde!
***
“Je vous dis, merde!” (literally, “I say to you: shit!” or more loosely, “You’re so full of shit!”) is a morally and politically defiant slogan invented and first published by an early 20th-century Catalan anarchist who used the nom de guerre “Miguel Almereyda.” Almereyda, who was murdered in a French prison in 1917, was also the father of the famous French film director Jean Vigo, who immortalized the same slogan in his breakthrough 1933 film, Zéro de conduite, aka Zero for Conduct.
Here is the seven-part platform of The Wake The Fuck Up! Party , aka The WTFU Party —
1. Universal Respect for Human Dignity (URHD):
· Human dignity is the absolute non-denumerable moral value of every member of humanity, and everyone ought to try wholeheartedly to treat everyone else in a way that is sufficient to meet the demands of respect for human dignity, especially including (i) alleviating or ending human oppression, and (ii) actively engaging in mutual aid and mutual kindness.
2. Universal Basic Income (UBI):
· Anyone 21 years of age or over and living permanently in the USA, who has a personal yearly income of $50,000.00 USD or less, and who is capable of requesting their UBI, would receive $25,000.00 USD per year, with no strings attached.
3. A 15-Hour Workweek for Understaffed Non-Bullshit Jobs (FHW-for-UNBJs):
· Anyone 18 years of age or older who is living permanently in the USA, who has completed a high school education, and is mentally and physically capable of doing a job, would be offered an eco-job, paying a yearly wage of $25,000.00 USD, for fifteen hours of work (three 5-hour days) per week.
Thus anyone 21 years of age or older with a high-school degree and who is also mentally and physically capable of working, would have a guaranteed yearly income of at least $50,000.00 USD if they chose to do an eco-job.
The rationale behind the three-year gap between (i) being offered an eco-job at 18 and (ii) beginning to receive their UBI at 21, is that every young adult who has finished high school will have the option of pursuing three years of part-time or full-time free higher education without credentialing, i.e., for its own sake, after high school, before making longer-term decisions about what I call job-work and life-work.
***
Here are a few more details about UBI and eco-jobs.
(i) The UBI is to be paid by a monthly stipend check.
(ii) Eco-job income is not taxed.
(iii) For all individual yearly incomes of $50,000.00 USD or under, no tax will be levied; hence for someone receiving their UBI and also doing an eco-job, no income tax will be levied.
(iv) For all individual non-eco-job incomes, for every $1.00 USD earned above the standard UBI of $25,000.00 USD, the monthly UBI stipend is reduced by 50 cents, until the recipient’s UBI is reduced to zero; hence for those individuals with yearly non-eco-job incomes equal to or under $50,000.00 USD, the maximum UBI + non-eco-job income sum is always $50,000.00 USD.
(v) For all individual yearly incomes over $50,000.00 USD, for every $10,000.00 USD earned, that surplus income is taxed at the rate of 1%, with the highest surplus income tax rate being 50%; hence the maximum surplus 50% tax rate starts at individual yearly incomes of $550,000.00 USD, and applies to all higher surplus incomes.
***
4. Universal Free Higher Education Without Credentialing (HEWC):
· Everyone would be offered, beyond their high-school education, a free, three-year minimum, optional (but also open-ended beyond those three years, as a further option), part-time or full-time universal public education program in the so-called “liberal arts,” and also in some of the so-called “STEM” fields, including the humanities, the fine arts, the social sciences, mathematics, and the natural sciences.
· For many or even most people, their HEWC would fall between (i) the end of their high school education at age 18 and the corresponding availability of eco-jobs, and (ii) the beginning of their UBI at age 21.
· But HEWC would be open to anyone with a high school degree, no matter how old they are, provided they are mentally and physically capable of doing the program.
5. Universal Free Healthcare (UFH):
· Every human person living permanently in the USA will receive free lifelong healthcare.
6. 2-Phase Universal Open Borders (2P-UOB):
· Phase 1: Starting in 2021, there will be universal open borders with Canada and Mexico, and everyone who moves across those borders and then claims residence in the USA, will receive temporary or permanent residence in the USA and also full membership in the system of UBI, FHW-for-UNBJs/eco-jobs, and UFH in the USA, with the precise number of new temporary or permanent residents to depend on the current availability of (i) adequate funding for UBI, eco-jobs, and UFH , and (ii) adequate living accommodation, in the USA, provided that all new residents also fully respect the human dignity of everyone else in the USA and elsewhere in the world.
· Phase 2: Also starting in 2021, the USA, Canada, and Mexico will collectively form a Global Refugee Consortium (GRC), with three-way open borders to any political refugee, economic refugee, or asylum seeker from anywhere in the world (aka “global refugees”), who will receive temporary or permanent residence in the USA, Canada, or Mexico, and also full membership in the system of UBI, FHW-for-UNBJs/eco-jobs, and UFH in the three GRC countries, with the precise number of new temporary or permanent residents, and the precise distribution of new residents among the three members of the GRC, to depend on the current availability of (i) funding for UBI, eco-jobs, and UFH , and (ii) adequate living accommodation, in the three GRC countries, provided that all new residents also fully respect the human dignity of everyone else in the GRC and elsewhere in the world.
7. Universal No-Guns (UNG):
· No one in the USA, including police, internal security forces of all kinds, armies, and intelligence forces of all kinds, has the moral right to possess or use guns of any kind, for any purpose whatsoever, because the primary function of guns is coercion, and coercion is immoral.
· UNG would be implemented by repealing the Second Amendment to the US Constitution in 2021 and then universally banning the possession or use of guns thereafter.
I’m also assuming that Universal Public Education (UPE) — universal free access for all human persons of any age to good public education up to the end of high school — already exists in most countries, and needs no further justification.
Where UPE does not already exist, it would automatically become a necessary part of the seven-part WTFU Party package, thereby making it a eight-part package.
Mr Nemo, Nowhere, NA, 4 February 2017
The WTFU Party is a sub-project of the online mega-project Philosophy Without Borders, which is home-based on Patreon here.
