'A16 Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc' Statement

'A16 Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc' Statement

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I. 'A16 Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc' Statement (updated, April 11, 2000)

II. Czech Solidarity for A16 Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc (statement of solidarity from Solidarita)

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A16 REVOLUTIONARY ANTI-CAPITALIST BLOC STATEMENT (updated, April 11, 2000)

We are all active organizers and participants of the upcoming protests surrounding the IMF and World Bank on April 9 -17. For us, these institutions are beyond reform. In addition to simply being "undemocratic" in themselves, they play a key role within a global capitalist system that must be abolished outright. That is why we are working with all our energy to bring the most effective resistance possible against them to the streets of Washington, DC.

We are calling for an organized bloc of all stripes of anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist revolutionaries at the upcoming demonstrations against the IMF/World Bank. We feel that it is important to present critique of these transnational financial institutions that is anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-colonialist in perspective, and accompanied by a revolutionary vision which advocates a radical transformation of society that is based on mutual aid, direct democracy and free association.

We feel that the power of each group to organize autonomously based on their own ideas shows the strength of our movement. We would like to emphasize this, which is why we want to open our call to all those who share our struggle for the same revolutionary anti-capitalist goals: the abolition of capitalism, the state, and all forms of hierarchy and oppression. We invite all autonomists, anarchists, anti-state libertarian Marxists, wobblies, syndicalists, council communists, etc. to march along with us. We wish to support the larger anti-globalization movement by organizing autonomously within our own contingent. We do not intend to be divisive in any way but want to develop our actions and present our ideas. We would also like to address our concerns and criticisms that we have around the movement against globalization.

The World Bank, IMF, and WTO need to be seen within a larger framework of global capitalism. While we struggle to change the most destructive policies of these institutions we realize that they are inherently exploitive and imperialist towards workers and communities. That is why we need to connect our day to day organizing with the larger struggle against capitalism. Talk of 'fair trade,' 'pruning' and 'fixing', such as in Seattle, simply ignores the history of working class struggle against capitalism and class society, and defeats any revolutionary goals or consciousness. Instead of a message of reforming these institutions, which would not solve the fundamental problems, we want a message of abolishing these institutions and creating revolutionary alternatives. Instead of a call for 'fair trade' or 'reform' of the global economy, we call for the international working class and oppressed communities to organize for revolutionary change of the global economy.

The strength of the working class lies not only in its own community but most importantly in global solidarity with all workers and oppressed peoples around the globe. The movement against globalization is a fight in every country for dignity and justice and we are strongest in that fight working side by side. We feel that calls for national protectionism and national sovereignty pit the working class of each nation against each other. We feel especially that the stance taken by some of organized labor, and many left-reformists, is not a stance of international solidarity and that it is not the most effective stance for advancing the cause of the international working class. We believe in internationalism and the globalization of our struggle against all of capitalism, regardless of political borders, and we work towards a genuine international unity which will one day lay the basis for a global social revolution.

We believe that the most effective protest is each group autonomously taking action and using the tactics that they feel works best for their situation. We do not advocate one particular tactic but believe that the greatest diversity of tactics is the most effective use of tactics. We are critical of ideologically motivated arguments that oppose this. This is why we do not believe that it is organizationally principled for any one group to set the guidelines for the protests or claim ownership of the movement.

We also realize that if our protests and actions are effective in shutting down the meetings of the IMF/World Bank the police may use repression and violence against demonstrators. We do not necessarily advocate violence or encourage the destruction of property, but simply that the movement recognize the very real possibility for confrontation and be open to a diversity of tactics as a means of legitimate defense. We would like to recognize the larger globalization movement for addressing some of our concerns around tactics and the role of 'peacekeepers.'

This is a call for more active participation of anarchist and other like-minded revolutionaries within the anti-globalization movement to present our vision of an effective revolutionary anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian alternative. Help bring our vision of a free, classless and democratic society to the forefront. At A16 we envision an active and creative contingent of revolutionaries marching under black, red & black, and green & black flags, anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian banners, and a hail of revolutionary drumbeats. We are mobilizing marching bands, radical cheerleaders, and planning a whole assortment of highly organized and creative actions! To all of our comrades who support this call, we encourage you to get in touch, endorse it, and take to the streets with your anti-capitalist imaginations and desires!

Organize, Educate, Create Resistance!

Do not let the blows against this capitalist system cease! From the streets of Seattle, to Washington, DC, may our resistance be as transnational as capital!

¡SOLIDARITY AND REVOLUTION!

Signed,

Nosotros Group (Baltimore, MD), Group Anarchiste Emile-Henry (Quebec), Active Transformation (Detroit-East Lansing, MI), Global Action (Eugene, OR), Monongahela Anarchist Group (Morgantown, WV), We Dare Be Free (Boston, MA), Sabate Anarchist Group (Boston, MA), Lancaster Anarchist Black Cross (Lancaster, PA), Flint Jones - Northeast Regional Delegate of the Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA-IWA), Prole Revolt (Morgantown, WV), Mid-Atlantic Infoshop (Washington, DC), Arsenal (Chicago, IL), Anarchist Action Collective (Eugene, OR), Antioch Anarchist Group (Yellow Springs, OH), Autonomous Zone (Chicago, IL), DC Earth First! (Washington, DC), Chicago Anti-Racist Action (Chicago, IL), New Brunswick Food Not Bombs (New Brunswick, NJ), Brian MacKenzie Center (Washington, DC), Collective Action Notes (Baltimore, MD), Bad Days Will End (Somerville, MA), Red & Black Notes (Toronto), Northeastern Federation of Anarchist Communists / Fédération des Communistes Libertaires du Nord-est (Northeastern United States / Eastern Canada), Kent Anarchist Black Cross (Kent, OH), Organisation of Revolutionary Anarchists - Solidarita (Brno, Czech Republic), Movement Against The Monarchy (London, England)

For general information about the protest see http://www.A16.org For information about anarchist activities at A16, see http://www.infoshop.org/octo/a16_a.html

'A16 Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc' point of mobilization:

Sunday, April 16th, 2000 Washington, DC 6am @ Rock Creek Park 26th street between M st. and Penn. Ave.

For more information, contact:

Nosotros Group PO Box 65341 Baltimore, MD 21209 email: DURRUTI36@aol.com

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Czech Solidarity for A16 Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc

Dear comrades!

Revolutionary Anarchist greetings from the Czech Republic to all of the participants in the A16 Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc. We are a small revolutionary anarchist (platformist) group of workers, the unemployed and students from the Czech Republic, called Solidarita. We are one of the left and environmentalist Czech organisations which are calling for an international mass mobilisation against IMF/WB conference in Prague for this year's September 26th.

The Czech Republic is one of the IMF/WB´s successes. In 1990 the first post-stalinist government accepted a US dollar 3.9 billion loan and promised to implement a SAP and make our country a part of global capitalism. Now there is 10% unemployment. 60.000 workers do not receive wages for their labour or receive them irregularly and only small parts of them. 63% of them get lower wages than is the average. Real incomes of working class families have dropped by 13%. A value of basic social benefits lowered by 44% and their ratio to GDP fell by 60%. This and similar IMF/WB successes benefit local and foreign capitalists, not workers and the poor of the Third and the First world and for their environment they mean a total disaster. The capitalist globalisation is just a continuation of neo-colonialism, where imperialist states and their trans-national corporations suck an enormous wealth out of the Third world (including post-stalinist Eastern and Central Europe) and force their own workers to compete with workers of developing countries - ie. anti-social neo-liberal policy, which is used over here on the periphery, is implemented also in metropolitan countries. In EU unemployment is rising up to 10%. There are 50 millions of people living in poverty and 5 million of the homeless in EU. There are 30 millions of people in USA suffering malnutrition. And in the same time the 200 richest people of the Earth have bigger properties than combined incomes of 41% of the world´s population.

This situation can not be changed by anything less than a global and internationalist revolutionary movement of workers and the poor, which will eliminate the capitalist system itself, because it is this system, what is responsible for social and environmental disasters of today. Nevertheless, it is worthy of organising protest to shut down IMF/WB and to cancel the Third world debt. For it is only through mass direct actions and practicing direct federalist democracy and autogestion of class struggles that such a revolutionary movement can be created. And an international mobilisation against flagships of the capitalist globalisation - IMF/WB - can be besides day-to-day class struggles on social and environmental fields can be an important means of growth of global proletariat´s global self-organisation and self-consciousness. And it is primarily in a struggle, where an Anarchist alternative of a global stateless federation of libertarian socialist regions can assert itself.

That is why we - the revolutionary anarchist workers, unemployed and students from a small Central European country - express our solidarity with A16 RACB and with the US working class people struggling to shut down IMF/WB meeting in Washington, DC. There will be a solidarity demo on April 17th in Prague. We are with you in your struggles, be with us on September 26th! Together we can build a global self-organised revolutionary movement that will change the world!

Organisation of Revolutionary Anarchists - Solidarita

March 25th, Brno, Czech Republic.

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