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We have issues with "Lifestylism"

Discussion in 'Anarchism and radical activism' started by Tommo, Mar 5, 2011.

  1. Tommo

    Tommo New Member New Member


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    Mar 5, 2011
     
    Hi

    I'm a part of an anarchist group in Queensland Australia. We're having extraordinary success. A few years ago, my mate and I, both of us punks, tried starting a group with other punks but it didn't last long. I got demoralised and stayed out of politics for awhile, but my mate learnt the lessons and kept going. He's started a group that could actually achieve something.

    We have a couple of dozen people involved now, after only one year. Remarkably, there's only 2 punks- the rest are students (2 doing their pHDs), a lawyer, a homelessness worker, a mental health worker, environmental officer, some tradies, et cetera and such. We've roughly aligned ourselves with anarcho-communism, of the Makhnovite tradition, but we're refusing to follow any paint-by-the-numbers pattern of organisation, preferring instead to let things evolve naturally. Things are going well, we've already established ourselves in the local movement and once we hammer out the details, I can see this group becoming something of a force in the international arena. We already have firm links in New Zealand and the Philippines. We're already talking about expanding into other cities in Australia and are hoping to establish a regional SE-Asian/Australasian federation of sorts in the future.

    A problem has developed though- some people are expressing concern about "lifestylists" and the effect "these people" could have on the group. I reckon it comes out of reading too much Bookchin. They reckon that there's some sort of conspiracy that's been hatched by squatter punks to hijack this organisation and turn it into Crimethinc or some shit... it's all nonsense, but I'm worried that this could turn ugly. These guys have never been to convergences, or to squats or even punk gigs, and thus have no real understanding of the situation and simply equate mohawks/dreadlocks with some sort of drug-addled dropout culture. They're important to the group, but if their demands to exclude so-called "lifestylists" are met, I'll have to leave. They don't realise thata lot of this Crimethinc stuff serves simply to empower people.

    I don't know how to approach the situation. I've only ever worked with punks before, and it's difficuly to adjust to people who have no interest in the crust as fuck existence or whatever. I want to be diplomatic, but it's getting stupid.

    Anyone got ideas as to how to approach the situation?
     

  2. punkmar77

    punkmar77 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member


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    Well I can see both sides, maybe you should follow what FNB has traditionally done and that is unite the different schools of thought under one umbrella...
     
  3. we're_all_dead_anyway

    we're_all_dead_anyway Active Member Forum Member


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    Oct 16, 2009
     
    best advice...stop reading bookchin. That guy is poisonous.
     
  4. Polden

    Polden Member Forum Member


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    Feb 25, 2010
     
    I'm in Tasmania and am interested in this, is there anyway I can get involved?
     
  5. Caps

    Caps Experienced Member Experienced member Forum Member


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    Nov 3, 2010
     
    As long as the group has aims and everyone agrees to forward those aims, it shouldn't really matter. While I can understand someone's general concern or dubiousness about 'lifestylists', I think turning this into a discriminatory prejudice is pretty much counter-revolutionary.

    Yeah, and allow Bookchin, often excessively intellectual with some questionable political attitudes/practices himself.
     
  6. KAAOS-82

    KAAOS-82 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    Jul 13, 2010
     
    Bookchin ended up renouncing anarchism anyway.
     
  7. KAAOS-82

    KAAOS-82 Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    I enjoy his books on social ecology though, very ahead of their time.
     
  8. butcher

    butcher Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    Sep 8, 2009
     
    If you have an organisational constitution and/or points of unity, or some form of commonly agreed upon text/s, and if new members wish to get involved and agree to the points of unity/constitution/etc then it hardly matters whether said new members are hippies/crusties/crimethincers (though such an explicitly anarcho-communist organisational framework will probs discourage them anyway)/lifestylists/etc as they are bound to work within this mutually agreed upon basis (if they don't, let them go elsewhere).

    There's everything wrong with excluding ppl on appearance, but nothing with excluding them due to politics, if the dreaded 'lifestylists' do exist and rock up and crap on about how if yr not a vegan hitchhiking dumpster diver then yr not an anarchist, then you probably should tell them to fuck off if your group is more anarcho-communist/mahknovist. This decision should be based on divergent political tendencies, not by stipulating a quota for how many witch hunt patches one has sewn on their jeans...

    Finally, there is nothing wrong with being overly formal in terms of organising, writing down what makes one a member (or not), etc. This is a bit of a shit, but fairly necessary. Further, as you state your personal willingness to work with (for the lack of a better term) pro-crimethincers, I'd kinda guess that what the group's shared politics actually are is still somewhat contested. In the absence of working out, as a group, what you all can agree on as an organisational basis; then coming to a unified, meaningful and coherent policy towards 'lifestylists' would seem to me to be jumping the gun.
     
  9. butcher

    butcher Experienced Member Uploader Experienced member Forum Member


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    oh, and the idea of forming an Australian anarchist federation has been attempted before...

    It has previously failed horribly unfortunately.
    I know Loophole in Melbourne has copies of the minutes from the last attempt, they're probably up somewhere on the internets too. If you're serious about trying to form a federation, I'd strongly advise you to hunt them down (learn from our fuck ups!!). Although I'd be more concerned with building a good solid local anarchist presence if i was you...

    Good Luck!
     
  10. Tommo

    Tommo New Member New Member


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    Mar 5, 2011
     
    Sorry for not getting back earlier, my internet access is limited. Some good feedback from this, thanks for responding, it's encouraging... I have to be at work in a few hours (it's 2AM, so it's not a good time to respond seriously). If you want a fedeartion, buthcer, you'll find allies in Brisbane.

    Our group was previously called Ipswich/Brisbane Community Action Trajectory, but we have shortened it to Community Action. Our website is ibcat.tk

    Get back to you soon.
     
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