On this tenth anniversary of the emergence of the Zapatistas from the Lacandon jungle, we call for the formation of a continental anti-authoritarian anti-capitalist network for North America. Our movements for liberation and freedom have met many challenges and our resistance continues to grow. It is now time to organize ourselves better through a de-centralized continental network of anti-capitalists.

Draft Proposal for a Continental Anti-Authoritarian Anti-Capitalist Network

North America – January 1, 2004

On this tenth anniversary of the emergence of the Zapatistas from the Lacandon jungle, we call for the formation of a continental anti-authoritarian anti-capitalist network for North America. Our movements for liberation and freedom have met many challenges and our resistance continues to grow. It is now time to organize ourselves better through a de-centralized continental network of anti-capitalists.

We are everywhere, and yet we remain alienated from each other. Confined to the margins of our communities, we live our daily lives without evidence of daily resistance. We know that we are everywhere. In the margins of cyberspace, we constantly communicate. On the city's walls, we scrawl our slogans. At the barricades, we lock eyes, knowing exactly why we are there: social revolution. We want a world free from capitalism and institutional hierarchy.

We see that the class war being waged against the working class and the poor is growing ever more intense. The U.S. Empire is literally destroying the planet. The Empire has made it clear that they will use endless amounts of capital to finance war regardless of the costs to working people. Not only are these wars for Empire being waged with the lives of the working class, but the Empire is conducting blatant assaults on the working class via cuts in the social safety net, tax cuts, downsizing, outsourcing, and the corporate defrauding of workers' retirement, health care, and other benefits. The recent events in Miami showed us that the regime will pursue economic empire and neocolonialism by assaulting not just the working class and people of color in other countries, but very much also here in the U.S. using military might and violence to do so. The U.S. Empire speaks hollow words about terrorism, yet fails to act against white supremacy in our police departments, the continued use of the racist death penalty, the criminalization of drugs, institutional racism in distribution of wealth, terrorism against the homeless and people without papers, and violence against women and lesbian-gay-bi-transgendered folks. The U.S. Empire continues to build its police state complete with PATRIOT Acts, the militarization of the police in major cities, COINTELPRO programs against dissenters, constant surveillance, Orange Alert fear-mongering--all leading to greater public awareness of the true nature of the State and growing discontent with it.

We have no choice but to fight back, and by putting forward an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist analysis and making our resistance visible, more and more people will join the struggle.

Seattle, in 1999, marked the popular appearance of our movement. Yet, our struggle precedes Seattle and extends far beyond the United States. We oppose capitalist globalization while celebrating the globalization of resistance to capitalism. We belong to a protest movement. We choke on tear gas, curl from striking batons, dodge rubber bullets. When they march, we dance. When the ruling class announces the date and location of its next toast to capitalist domination, we converge to tear down their cowardly fences.

Since 1999, we in North America have consistently mobilized against capitalist summits, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement, and the World Economic Forum. Our strategy has been to confront the administrators of global capitalism wherever they meet. For a while, this strategy appeared to be yielding positive results. Even if we were not altering the progress of global capitalism, we were certainly inspiring great interest in our movement- interest which was reflected in the attention we received and still receive from corporate media and law enforcement. The strategy of protesting summits also sustained the momentum of our movement. The impact of momentum arguably culminated in July 2001 with the widescale rioting in Genova and the death of Carlo Guliani. The following September, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were scheduled to meet in Washington, DC. An unprecedented buzz, many will remember, surrounded these protests.

Then, September 11th, 2001.

While the fundamental organization of our society- based upon capitalism and hierarchy - has proceeded uninterrupted since September 11th, the levels of violence and suffering which result from this organization (mess) have only become more extreme, both domestically and worldwide. Yet, our movement has mostly failed to adapt to the changes in our world since September 11th. In January, 2002, we boldly confronted the World Economic Forum in midtown Manhattan, just months after the attacks, just miles from Ground Zero. We were greeted by a formidable police-state which even used an ancient statute to forbid our wearing of masks. In January 2002, on the cold streets of Manhattan, we should have realized that our strategy needed to adjust itself to the post-911 climate.

Fast forward. Two years later, we meet in the streets of Miami. We recall the spirit of Seattle and Quebec City and Cancun. At the front lines, our understanding of the world crystallizes in a familiar spectacle: a sensationalist media hungry for a riot, an overbearing show of force by authorities, union members unwilling to embrace confrontation, liberals encouraging peace and calm, and angry young white kids dressed in black. After everybody returns home, we write and read furious critiques of the protests. We even find ourselves shocked by the extremity of police brutality. We convince ourselves that we won a small battle, that we are winning, that we will win.

We may be winning.

If we are indeed winning, we must consider the blunders of the ruling class- some might prefer to call it the 'crisis of global capitalism' - as a significant reason. Before September 11th, we often had to convince others that something was not entirely correct within America, that we lived in a decadent, violent society. Now, few Americans would disagree with this assertion. The system is rotten; now, we witness the process of rotting. It's in the headlines: interminable warfare, the layoffs, the corporate scandal, the erosion of civil liberties, the failure of the press, the corruption.

The most pressing challenge, then, for our movement, is how we should proceed in these volatile times. The strategy of summit-hopping, alone, cannot sustain a true movement for social revolution. If we must rely upon the ruling class to set the dates and locations of our manifestation, then we will remain an inherently reactive movement. If we rely upon moderate protest organizations to set the dates and obtain the permits to the protests that we attend, then we will remain marginalized as 'a fringe element' conducting 'break-away marches'.

Until now, anarchists and anti-authoritarian anti-capitalists in North America have lived as alienated fragments, relying upon mass mobilizations to make our greater existence evident to ourselves. Until now, reaching beyond the ghettos of our radicalism has proven extremely difficult. In the streets, we hide our faces. In cyberspace, we hide our names. How might we, as anti-authoritarian anti-capitalists and anarchists, establish trust and solidarity--with organized labor, for example--when our collective identity is plagued by the popular portrayal of corporate media and the anonymity that we require of ourselves?

It is in the belief that we can best extend and escalate our resistance if we maintain constant communication, coordination, and support throughout North America, that a continental network is hereby proposed, with the ultimate goal of creating social revolution in North America promoted by the following means:

- organizing protests and actions on our own terms

- agitating, utilizing various forms of media and distribution, street-level propaganda

- building relationships with local communities and groups

- supporting comrades in need of legal/fundraising

- sharing skills, such as medical training, self-defense, communication (i.e. low power radio), and technology

- intervening in ongoing struggles, such as strikes and labor unrest

The organizing principles for such a network would presumably mirror those used by People's Global Action. These organizing principles can be read at the following URL:

http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/cocha/principles.htm

Some of you may ask the question: who is behind this call? We are several anti-capitalists who have collaborated to write this call. The next steps are now up to you and your friends. The creation of this network—if it happens—will be up to the people who read this call, agree to it’s spirit and direction, and organize with other anti-capitalists to make its vision a reality.

The proposal of a continental network surfaces now because echoes within the movement and critiques of the movement, indicate that we live in urgent times which are ripe for revolutionary thought and social change within North America, and that we are not doing enough to promote revolutionary thought and social change. The proposal of a continental network assumes that individuals and groups, from coast to coast, are willing to participate in the creation, formation, and sustenance of a continental network.

We are everywhere.

Now let's prove it.

Please copy and distribute widely for suggestions, objections, and discussion.

If you can translate this call into additional languages for us, please contact us at deat...@ziplip.com.

This document is being discussed at the following web page:

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/01/01/0303286

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NOTES ON THE PROPOSED NETWORK

Meetings to Set Up Network

This network can only work if we meet face-to-face. We propose that a series of regional meetings happen in early 2004 that would set the groundwork for the first continental meeting in late 2004. For example, regional meetings could be called for Western Canada, Southern Mexico, Northern Mexico, American Southwest, the Great Plains, and so on. It’s up to those of you who agree to this call to arrange these meetings—there is no current coordinating committee to organize these meetings for you.

Many Currents in the Anti-Capitalist Struggle

This continental network is not being organized to be THE organizer of anti-capitalism in North America. It must be recognized that there are going to be groups and individuals who desire to continue their work without participating in a continental network. The real threat of government repression also stipulates that a continental network not be the only voice in the growing clamor against international capitalism. Just as we fight against the capitalist monoculture on our farms, so must we be wary of any continental organization that puts too many eggs in one anti-capitalist basket.

The Many Faces of Our Struggle

It is all too easy for those of us who are in anti-capitalists in the United States to think that our activism and dissent is the center of the universe. As dissenters in the heart of American Empire, it is our duty to model another world that is possible by fighting the hegemony of American political dissent on other anti-capitalist struggles around the continent. This network will conduct its business in the many languages of the continent as much as possible. We will prioritize the everyday struggles of people of color around the continent and remind ourselves that North America includes Mexico and the areas of North America that look more like the Global South than our rich, comfortable U.S. suburbs.

Organizational

We propose that this network closely follow the excellent model used by People’s Global Action that prioritizes communication and facilitation over organization building. Like PGA this network will serve as “an instrument for co-ordination, not an organization.