Unconditional Faction Urges Against Organizing Protests for the Party Conventions in 2008

Unconditional Faction is a tenuous coalition of inveterate liberals, authoritarian communists, sanctimonious pacifists, and diehards from lesser-known ideological ghettos such as primitivism and autonomist Marxism. While we can barely stand to be in the same room together, we are brought together by our shared opposition to any discussion of protests at the upcoming Democratic and Republican National Conventions.


Unconditional Faction Decries Unconventional Action Strategy Proposal and Urges Against Organizing for the Democratic and Republican National Conventions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Unconditional Faction is a tenuous coalition of inveterate liberals, authoritarian communists, sanctimonious pacifists, and diehards from lesser-known ideological ghettos such as primitivism and autonomist Marxism. While we can barely stand to be in the same room together, we are brought together by our shared opposition to any discussion of protests at the upcoming Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

Our sworn enemies, a loose network calling themselves Unconventional Action, have already called for strategic planning towards actions at these events*. As of this writing, at least one statewide strategy consulta has already taken place, and if this madness isn’t stopped soon, protesters will be much better prepared for the 2008 party conventions than they were in 2004.

As we see it, protesting at the party conventions plays into the hands of the powers that be by creating an “Us/Them” dichotomy in the public eye. Our worst fear is that these protests will succeed in attracting attention and bringing together different groups like the anti-G8 demonstrations did earlier this month in Germany. Here follows a laundry list of our critiques and concerns:

Protesting at the Democratic National Convention is Bad—We Want Them to Win!

If we criticize the Democrats for being almost exactly like the Republicans, who knows, a Republican president might get elected—and then where would we be? On the other hand, if we behave ourselves and keep quiet, the Democrats will appreciate our restraint and will reward us by calling off the war in Iraq, repealing all the legislation that has been passed targeting dissent, and stepping up their efforts to overthrow capitalism and establish a non-hierarchical society based on self-determination and gift economics.

Protesting at the Republican National Convention is Bad—We Want Them to Win!

The more explicitly authoritarian the party that is elected to office, the more people will revolt. Look what happened after Bush got elected, and then reelected—social war in the United States is now at an all-time high.

Protesting at the Conventions is Alienating

Being against things—even bad things, like war and global warming—gives the impression that you are negative and small-minded. It’s better that we concentrate on promoting ourselves as people who are for things, such as “democracy” and “America.” If protests have to take place at all, they should make as little reference as possible to the Democratic and Republican Parties, the Iraq war, capitalism, or hierarchy. Democrats, Republicans, warmongers, capitalists, and authoritarians are all potential allies; we must not risk alienating them.

Protesting at the Conventions is Privileged

Not everyone can drive halfway across the country and risk arrest—so anyone who does must be selfishly indulging their privilege! And what the fuck—there are real oppressed people in places like China who don’t even get to vote! Who are we to complain about anything? If anything, we should be fighting for their right to have it as good as we do!

Protesting at the Conventions is Violent

Let’s face it, any protests at these conventions are bound to be violent. Not only is defending yourself from police attacks violent, interfering with business and profits is also violent—just ask any judge familiar with the Animal Enterprise Act, which protects peace-loving slaughterhouse owners from violent extremists who want to violate their rights. Nowadays, even holding a regulation-size sign at a permitted event inside a protest pen promotes violence, as a police officer might construe this as an invitation to test out his crowd control skills. As the fighters of the Warsaw ghetto resistance would tell you, the only way to put a stop to violence is to turn the other cheek. We live in increasingly turbulent times, when police forces are militarizing themselves and the federal government is targeting even law-abiding activists; it is especially important today that we knuckle under and refuse to contribute to the cycle of violence. No matter what the military does overseas, no matter how many people the police kill here at home, at least we’ll know our own hands are clean. That’s all God cares about, right?

Protesting at the Conventions is Too Risky for the Inexperienced

You know the cops are going to shoot anyone who gets out of line at these protests, just like they did at the last party conventions and the Presidential Inauguration, right? Better just stay home and wait for them to come get you there.

Protesting at the Conventions is Too Risky for “Serious” Activists

Nowadays, with cameras and police agents everywhere, it’s too dangerous to act in groups. It’s much safer to engage in clandestine activity with a couple trusted friends—just look at the Earth Liberation Front! Besides, there’s no need to organize participatory actions that could involve a wide range of people—the anarchist movement is already too big as it is, and receives far too much publicity.

Protesting at the Conventions is Unfair to Locals

It’s already unfair for the unfortunate citizens of Denver and St. Paul to be subjected to inconveniences by the conventions, as well as all the other deleterious effects of capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy—they shouldn’t have to deal with the inconvenience of protests as well. If a single local complains, regardless of his class standing or economic interests, then we should call everything off. Perhaps bona fide locals should be allowed to protest if there’s no way to talk them out of it, but no one should join them from out of town—how could we be sure the outsiders would be adequately submissive to locals’ wishes? And that brings us to…

Protesting at the Conventions Requires Good Social Skills

…which we consider an infringement on our autonomy and our right not to get along with anyone. It takes a lot of diplomacy and patience to pull off large-scale mass mobilizations—and fuck that shit! The fewer allies you have, the more radical you must be. Speaking of poor social skills, let’s move on to our next objection, contributed by a precarious alliance of insurrectionists and anarcho-primitivists:

Protesting at the Conventions is Reformist

Even shutting the conventions down entirely would just be a symbolic action. If a protest can’t overthrow capitalism, hierarchy, civilization, and everything else in one fell blow—in short, if it can’t immediately convey us all forthwith to an Amazonian rainforest—only closet liberals would waste time participating in it.

Protesting at the Conventions Promotes Organization on a National Scale

…which some of us, as Anti-Organizationalists, oppose on principle. The smaller and more subculturally isolated our networks are, the better; having to cooperate with or even acknowledge people different from ourselves is oppressive, in our opinion. In a worst case, the networks formed in preparation for the protests would remain long after the conventions, sucking further time and energy away from our internal drama and raising expectations that anarchists will take a leading role in further historic events.

Protesting at the Conventions Will Draw Attention to Anarchist Ideas and Projects

The drawbacks of this should be obvious to all. Even the anarchists among us can agree that this concern is sufficient reason to oppose any organizing towards the convention protests—for who can guarantee that the attention will be drawn to the right anarchists? Better we languish in complete obscurity for another three generations than have to hear about The Anarchists From Eugene every night on the evening news, like we did after the WTO protests in Seattle! More importantly, successful protests at the conventions could contribute new momentum to the anarchist movement worldwide. This will impose unwanted burdens on those of us who are trying to get on with being anarchists in private, without struggling against the prevailing order. If these protests do usher in a new era of anarchist visibility and activity, we’re determined to sit it out on the sidelines. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about that, because…

Protesting at the Conventions Will Just Fail Anyway

…or at least it will if it’s up to us! We plan to drag our feet the whole way. Probably we’ll end up coming, but we’ll only decide to at the last minute, and will arrive without any idea what we’re doing. That way we can be sure that whatever we contribute will be poorly thought out, disorganized, and demoralizing—which will give us material for several more years of objecting to nationwide mobilizations!

OK, I’m Convinced—What Can I Do to Help?

Joining Unconditional Faction is easy! You don’t have to agree with any of our arguments, or even hear of us in the first place; all you have to do is do nothing—that’s all it will take to thwart these protests, so long as we all join in. If you want to take an even more inactive role in stomping out this menace, here are some tips:

First of all, avoid at all costs attending the “pRe-NC” meeting in Minneapolis at the beginning of this coming September, a year in advance of the Republican National Convention. At this meeting, organizers from around the country will discuss and agree on a general strategy for the protests. Email pReNC@riseup.net and tell them what they’re doing is bad, bad, bad!

Whatever you do, don’t organize your own Unconventional Action group, or call for a consulta in your own state to draft strategy proposals for the protests. That kind of autonomous activity tends to decentralize power and encourages a wide range of people to invest themselves in a project. Also, stay far away from the resources available at www.nornc.org and recreate68.org.

Finally, email unconventional_action@mountainrebel.net and demand that they cease activity this instant. They will offer to mail you a packet of free materials relating to the convention protests; refuse this offer, and be sure not to make materials of your own either. Remember—the future hangs in the balance.


*See the following infoshop stories for further evidence:
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070412200208469&query=unconventional%2Baction
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2007carolinas-consulta&query=unconventional%2Baction