An Austin activist provides a reportback to the DNC resistance consulta, held in Boston Feb 13-16.
blackteasociety.org

The Democratic National Convention Resistance Consulta, called by an anti-authoritarian coalition known as the Bl(A)ck Tea Society, was held in Boston on the weekend of February 13-16. Participants traveled from all over the country, either with or on behalf of larger affinity groups. Written proposals came in from as far away as Washington state. The purpose of the consulta was to collectively discuss and educate one another about the upcoming actions surrounding the Democratic National Convention, to be held in Boston on July 26-29. Participants came to hear what was already being planned, both by the Bl(A)ck Tea Society and the State, as well as to offer discussion and proposals about possible action scenarios.

The majority of the consulta was held in a rather large rectangular room, on the second floor of a radical community church near Copley Square. (A painting on the third floor featured the Virgin Mary in a balaclava.) The walls of the meeting room were draped with Anarchy flags of every color: black/red (anarcho-syndicalism), black/purple (anarcha-feminist), black/pink (anarcho-queer) and black/green (eco-anarchist). This broad inclusiveness of anti-authoritarian perspectives, staunchly defended by the facilitators against pressure from multiple directions, allowed the Bl(A)ck Tea Society to open a space where struggle was placed before platformist quibbling-where theory was supplanted by a solid commitment to cooperation and action.

Through the morning session of the consulta, somewhere between 60-70 participants were presented with an innovative model of facilitation that was nothing short of inspired. Members of the BTS spoke with all of us about the questions they had dealt with in the weeks leading up to the consulta. The big one, they told us, concerned whether our community had reached a level of maturity where mass decentralized action was now possible. Their conclusion, based on long discussion, was that we, as an anarchist movement, were ready to take the next step.

The decentralized mass action still fresh on a lot of our minds was the “People’s Strike