What is the proper use of violence in our struggle for emancipation?

There is one very important question that comes to my mind while reading all the posts regarding the Gothenburg battles.

What is the proper way to use violence in our struggle for emancipation?

I think it must be organized. There must be an agenda, a program of sorts.
We must define our objectives in a concise manner and be able to eloquently communicate it. This will achieve two things. One, it will probably help us to effect a more direct & damaging toll on our enemies, and two, it will us explain our tactics & objectives to a broader base of people, thus building the movement and thwarting the corporate media spin & reactionaries who post all the fucking garbage I have been reading.

There are two really distinct contradictions in doing this. One is infiltrators can fuck up our plans prior, and two, we must organize and be disciplined.

When I was in the streets of Seattle in Nov.'99, I got really pissed off about the fourth time I was gassed. I wanted to throw bricks, hell if I'd a gun I probably would have used it. BUT I KNEW THERE WAS NO PROGRAM FOR REBUILDING SOCIETY YET!

It was only this understanding that stopped me from escalating the violence at that time. Even if the masses of good & dedicated people around me had been willing to fight at that moment, without organization, we wouldn't have effected any real sustainable change. True we would have felt powerful & liberated for a day or two, but then we would have lost the ground we had gained because the "State" has more resources at the moment.

I then began to see that more direct action was needed in a covert manner. We need to exact tolls on the economy & its infrastructure in a way that hurts the system & raises consciousness. This is a call to all those who see the need to tear down the system to take a two pronged approach from here on out.
1) Be clandestine in your property destruction (don't do it only in front of the cops during demos, do it other times in secret as well).
2) Write out your analysis of why you have hit specific targets & engage in waging consciousness struggle in a real way, poster, leaflet, go to strikes, and do what you probably already do.

Since N30 (International Solidarity Day Against Corporate Globalization) this year I have been engaging in debates over the use of violence with just about everybody I know. The usual pacifist and ultra violent litanies ensue, but unfortunately, not enough real substantive dialogue has happened.

We as a movement are beginning to begin this in a broader way because of the events on Friday. As I felt in Seattle Nov. 99, I too feel that Friday was a new & important turning point for our movement.

I have known that a massacre would happen in a western country during an anti-corporate globalization event & that would spur the next round of debate on the nature of movement building.

But that just it! MOVEMENT BUILDING!
We are not yet at the stage of revolution, but we are learning tactics & developing analysis for it. We have not however created a new program for it, or for the society we want to create.

This is fucking difficult. Hell I am an anarchist at heart, but I do see the need for forging a manifesto of sorts, perhaps one that is a little more open than priors so that we may be able to be individuals under its umbrella. But this time around it must deal with our emotional psyches, for if not, we won't succeed in rooting out the divisions within ourselves that perpetuate our fucked up interpersonal dynamics. And in the final analysis, it is those dynamics that must be resolved if we are to achieve lasting peace & harmony.

Ok. Back to violence.

Violence is committed on the poor around the world daily through direct violence, starvation, lack of medical care, exploitation & the perpetration of ignorance. We see enough violence daily on TV to numb us into a stupor so that when the "State" does something particularly heinous, we are so numb we just have no reaction at all.

When we act in terms of property damage, we are called violent thugs, hooligans, etc.
This is a sick manifestation of PROPERTARIAN VALUES! People getting hurt is horrible, property that is owned & controlled by those in power isn't! It is inanimate stuff which is being used to hold us down.

Starbucks & Mcdonalds aren't really serious targets either, just convenient ones. There are better… Try for instance, a weapon manufacturing plant, oil refineries, military bases, etc. You get my drift.

Alright, enough.

Keep up the struggle!

--Marlin