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- MISDEMEANOR COMPLAINT (7-81) CC3fC1-225
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILIJNOIS
The People of the State or Illinois
Plaintiff v. 38 ANARCHISTS
Defendant
D GOLD (STATE of IL) complainant, now appears before
(Complainants Name Printed or Typed)
The Circuit Court or Cook County and states that
38 ANARCHJS has on or about
(defendant) (address)
2 May 86 at 800 N MICHIGAN
(date) (place of offense)
Committed the offence of MOB ACTION in that he
without authority of law acted together with others and used violence
in such manner as to disturb the public peace, to wit: by running in and
out of traffic, disregarding all traffic laws and endangering the well
being of pedestrians.
in violation or Chapter 38 Section 25-1(a)(1)
ILLINOIS REVISED STATUTES
STATE OF ILLINOIS I COUNTY OF COOK
D. Gold
(Complainant’s Signature)
113 W CHICAGO 744 8230
(Complainant’s address) (Telephone No.)
D. Gold (D. GOLD)
(Complainant’s Name Printed or Typed)
Being first duly sworn, on oath, deposes and says that he has read the foregoing complaint by him suscrived and that the same is true.
D. Gold
(Complainant’s Signature)
Subscribed and sworn before me 2 MAY 86
I have examined the above complaint and the person presenting the same and have heard evidence thereon, and am satisfied that
there is probable cause for filing same. Leave is given to file said complaint.
Summons issued, or warrant issued, or bail set at Judge Judge’s No.
MORGAN M. FINLEY, CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY
Haymarket Remembered
Thanks to all who contributed time, creativity, skills, & bucks$
Seattle A’s Haymarket Remembered Project
P.O.Box 10122
Olympia, W.A. 98502
c. 1987 No permission for anything needed
Copy Freely
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
or "Will I get credit for this?".... 1
PLANNING
or "Who cares about SHIMO anyway?" … 7
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
or "I had never been to
Chicago either"… 22
MAY DAY
or "The RCP goes back to the masses" … 27
WORKSHOPS
or "Oh shit, that was a hot one! " . . . 39
@ DEMO
or "Smash the state and have a nice day" ... 52
JAIL AND BAIL
or "Nobody fucks with ~ flag"... 83
BANQUET
or "To beef or not to beef" … 103
CEMETERY
or "Mass atonement ceremony" … 115
BAIL FUND OONTROVERSY
or "Money, as it always does,
created hard feelings” … 125
FINAL IMPRESSJONS
or "Easy for me to say since I
didn't help organize any of it" … 129
INTRODUCTION
The idea for this book was as spontaneous as most of the
Haymarket Anarchist gathering itself. The difficult part has
been the more tedious aspect of organizing it and getting
ourselves motivated after periods of inactivity concerning the
compilation of the materials. It has been a year since the
Haymarket gathering in Chicago and our goal was to have the
book ready for the second gathering to be held in Minneapolis
in 1987. Deadlines are such motivators even for anarchists.
Our final decision to drastically cut many of the
contributions due to the amm.mt of material we received may not
meet with much approval, but we hope the book will stand on its
own. We think it does. We tried to include something from
everyone, but again that was not always accomplished due to
many repetitious accounts. We also decided to include sections
which required that we put bits and pieces of accounts in
different areas of the book. 'Ibis was done to give a sense of
continuity to the work in terms of chronology. At the same
time, we . tried to include various accounts and experiences in
their entirety in order to maintain the personal experiences
that people had in a more individualistic way. We hope that
this method helps to construct an historical picture that is
built from many points of view rather than one person's vision
of an historical event. Anarchy has had enough of the singular
historian's biases.
We had over 70 contributors to this book and about half that
many contributing various sums of money to the project. OJr
decision to only include first names or pseudonyms was not
intended to slight anyone; it was meant to maintain a flavor of
anarchism that does not glorify heroes, leaders or
personalities. It is the same with the people who contributed
money to the project. $100 was as important as those who sent
only their best wishes to the project and the deletion of names
merely reflects that belief.
We present this book in the spirit of the convention:
anarchy in action. The historical importance of this little
compilation remains to be seen. The events of Haymarket '86,
however, are important for all of us to consider if we are to
build a viable revolutionary movement here in the U.S.
1
HAYMARKET 1886
On May 1, 1886, workers from all trades and factories
throughout the U.S. went on a general strike in support of the
eight-hour work day. In Chicago, a stronghold of immigrant
labor and anarchists, 80,000 workers marched in an "eight-hour
day" demonstration. The Central Labor Union (a revolutionary
union federation organized by anarchists which had quickly
become Chicago's largest and most active union center) and the
anarchist International Working People's Association organized
these strikes and demonstrations, which not only called for
shorter hours, but also called on workers to organize and
overtake their industry and society.
Before the strike action began, the management at ~rmick
Machine Co. (then International Harvester, now Navistar) locked
out 1,500 workers over a wage dispute. On May 3rd, when
pickets attempted to prevent blackleg labor entering the plant,
the Chicago police opened fire on the workers, killing at least
two and wounding many others.
A protest was called for the following day at Haymarket
Square. Speeches condemning police violence and capitalist
oppression were given by three leading anarchists: Albert R.
Parsons, August Spies, and Samuel Fielden. As Fielden, the
last speaker, was concluding his address, about 200 police
attacked the crowd. An unknown person hurled a dynamite bomb
at the advancing police lines, killing one policeman and
wounding many others. Police went wild and immediately shot
scores of people, killing at least four demonstrators and even
six policemen.
This was used as a pretext to launch the first major "red
scare" in American history. The capitalist press across the
country whipped up the flames of hysteria, with the New York
Times prescribing Gatling guns and gallows to prevent the
spread of Anarchist thought. Chicago police launched a general
roundup of radicals and unionists, raiding hooies, meeting
places, and newspaper offices. Hundreds were arrested and
interrogated under virtual martial law, with anarchist
newspapers suppressed (and their editors jailed), mail
intercepted, and union meetings and public gatherings banned.
On May 5th, 300 of Chicago's "leading citizens" put up over
$100,000 to hire witnesses and subsidize the repression. On
June 21st, eight anarchists prominent in the Central Labor
Union were put on trial, even though most weren't even present
at the Haymarket demonstration. All eight were ultimately
convicted by a hand-picked jury. Of the eight, Albert R.
Parsons, August Spies, Aldolph Fischer, and George Engel were
hanged on Black Friday, November 11th. Louis Lingg committed
suicide the day before in his jail cell. Oscar Neebe, Michel
Schwab, and Samuel Fielden spent six years in prison before
being pardoned. All eight were later shown to have had nothing
to do with the bombing.
On July 14, 1889," on the hundredth anniversary of Bastille
2
Day, an American delegate attending the International Labor
Conference in Paris proposed that May 1st be officially adopted
as a workers' holiday. This motion was unanimously approved
and since then, May Day has served as a date for International
working class solidarity.
One hundred years after Haymarket, millions are still
working and living in dire poverty, unemployed, prevented from
organizing and defending their rights and interests by
government (regardless of their professed ideologies) and
bosses.
Obviously, we can see that it is still time for A change!
And time to confirm those last words of Spies: "There will be
a time when our silence from the grave will be more powerful
than those voices you strangle today!" LONG LIVE ANARCHY!
HAYMARKET CENTENNIAL
ANARCHY IN CHICAGO
About 12 of us from Detroit made the trek to Chicago this
May Day to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Haymarket
riot and subsequent state murder by execution of five
anarchists.
Hosted by the Chicago Anarchist Group, the gathering was
attended by 300 to 400 people--about 2/3 male, mostly white,
mostly young, with hardly any oldsters and only a few people
over 40. Participants came from all over the U.S. and Canada,
with a small number of visitors from outside North America.
The gathering consisted of workshops, theater, music, art
shows, participation in a May Day march, an anarchist march of
our own, a banquet and a memorial gathering at the gravesite of
the Haymarket martyrs.
We were able to participate in only a few of the workshops
held, but we found much of the discussion stimulating, if at
times disjointed. Workshop topics included ecology; a weirdly
formulated "tech vs. anti-tech" (which none of us were able to
attend as this workshop was held on the same day); Spain 1936
.(which unfortunately, but perhaps inevitably, turned into a
discussion on Central America); building the anarchist movement
(which according to one participant degenerated into the age-old
hot air sessions about computer networks, a national
federation and a national press) ; personal politics and
anarchy; what is anarchy?; and anarchy and social
revolution/why revolutions fail.
Of course, there were many informal discussions as well, but
despite meeting new friends and old, those of us from the Fifth
Estate missed talking with many people from around the country,
including FE sustainers and others with whom we would have
liked to make contact. It was an exciting time, in spite of
the craziness and chaos, and we wish we could have spent more
time at it.
3
On Thursday, May 1, anarchists and other conferees
participated in the traditionally ma.rxi.st Pilsen march (an old
German workers' district, now a Latino barrio), spontaneously
leaving the march at one point and coming close soon afterwards
to a major confrontation with Chicago's cops. During the
standoff, the marchers finally had to disperse, but managed,
after some negotiation, to free two people 'Who had been
arrested.
"EVERYTHING AND NOTHING"
On Friday, conference participants had our own march, a tour
with no permits to such monuments to Authority as the jail,
city hall, the stock exchange ('Where toy money was thrown at
businessmen, and brokers watching us from the windows above
were urged to jump by the crowd) , IBM, the South African
Consulate, the struck Chicago Tribune, and a fancy shopping
district 'Where the proverbial shit hit the fan, and 38 people
were arrested for disorderly conduct, "mob action against the
state," and one person for desecrating a U.S. flag (now a
felony).
At an intersection near the stock exchange 'Where we
momentarily blocked traffic, a well-dressed older woman was
overheard asking a cop, ''What organization is this?" He
replied, "They're not any organization, they're anarchists."
And to her question, "What do they want?" he replied with
astonishing perspicacity, "Everything--and nothing."
The scene at IBM was exhilarating--one of the wildest scenes
I can remember in many years of demonstrations. Amid war
'Whoops, screams and chants of "IBM out of South Africa, South
America," etc. until every contingent got covered, people
blockaded the building and closed it, and many proceeded to
pound on the plate glass windows and the metal coverings on the
pillars, creating a great din. (I saw one anarchist @ drawn on
the window 'While the geeks in suits gaped incredulously from
the other side.) Money and a flag were burned, 'Which almost
caused a brawl with the cops, but they still did not attack,
'Which we found amazing at the time. Remember, this is the
force that massacred workers a hundred years ago, that
massacred workers during the Republic Steel strike in 1937, and
perhaps many of the same cops 'Who attacked peace demonstrators
in 1968, and 'Who slaughtered the Black Panthers in their beds
in 1969, and 'Who brutalize people every day in Chicago's poorer
neighborhoods.
The cops had been following us all along in large numbers,
hissing that the march was a "cattle drive" and that at the end
they would all have their own Haymarket commemoration, each
"take his own anarchist to lunch," as someone later reported
being told. The mob was meandering, and for those of us not
from Chicago, we felt a little powerless to control events. By
IBM, things were threatening to go beyond the point of no
return, so some of us decided to make our own way to the cop
monument to Haymarket, 'Where the march was supposed to end.
(1lrls is the base of the statue built in 1889, funded by
4
Chicago capitalists after a public "popular subscription fund"
promoted by the Chicago Tribune raised only $150 in ten months.
1bis statue has had an interesting history of its own,
inchrli.ng bombings and vandalism. In 1927, on the 41st
anniversary of the Haymarket meeting, a streetcar driver drove
his car full speed and jumped the track, knocking the statue
off its base. In 1968, the statue was defaced with black
paint, and in 1969 and 1970 it was blown up. In February 1972,
the statue was removed from the base and moved to Police
Headquarters, before finally going to the Police Academy, in an
area not accessible to the public. On May Day 1912, anarchists
and Wobblies tried to place a paper mache statue of anarchist
Haymarket martyr Louis Lingg on the base, but the cops turned
out in force to prevent it.)
We finally found the statue base aft.er taking a few wrong
turns, rut no one else showed, though there were plenty of
anarchist @' s spray painted nearby. The statue inscription
read, "From the City of Chicago in honor of her heroes who
defended her against the riot." A friend etched out "heroes"
as best he could and wrote "murderers" in its place.
DANCING IN THE NUDE
We learned lat.er that after IBM, a similar scene had ensued
at the South African Consulate and the Chicago Tribune (where
marchers fraternized with striking workers) , and approaching a
bourgeois shopping area, some people had begun running in and
out of stores and a window was broken in a hotel. There the
cops began arresting people who had started to disperse,
grabbing those who looked nonconformist or who carried flags,
who ran too slow or ran too fast, or who tried to investigate
the arrests of others.
That night, there was a lengthy discussion about the
demonstration while a small group worked frenetically to get
people out of jail. There was much heated discussion on
responsibility, how to do demonstrations, decision-making,
tactics, and the arrest, which was all very interesting rut
inconclusive.
On Saturday night after a day of workshops and prisoner
support, there was a banquet, conversation and dancing. (Some
folks danced in various states of undress, which prompted an
old-timer to remark that he was surprised that so much fun
could be had with so little liquor, but, frankly, "In 1936 we
were dancing in the nude.") By this time everyone had gotten
out of jail, and the air was festive. We had made our points
here and there, and everyone felt enthusiastic about rubbing
shoulders with other strange people like ourselves.
On Sunday, we went to Waldheim Cemetery where the Haymarket
victims are buried (along with Voltairine de Cleyre and
others). There was a brief scuffle with liberals and
stalinists over a black flag hung on the monument, rut in the
end it stayed. People drank champagne and took snapshots of
each other, finally gathering at the grave in a linking of rums
to shout some spirited hurrahs for anarchy. I may be a
5
sentimental fool, but I loved it. And we made our point--the
Haymarket victims were not liberals, labor reformists, or
historians. They were unrelenting rebels who had the courage
and the vision to demand the impossible in an impossible
society. '!hat is why they were hanged--as the state's attorney
declared, it was anarchy that was on trial--and that is why the
last words of George Engel and Louis Lingg were "Long Live
Anarchy."
In spite of any criticisms, it was exciting to be there with
so many people who, even if their interpretations varied
widely, were drawn to an event based on those last defiant
words. Let no one be mistaken: anarchy cannot be stamped out.
Anarchy lives.
---Dogbane Campion
At first, when we heard about the anarchist gathering, we
didn't want to go because we figured it'd be full of a lot of
horrible leftist men and hardly any women at all. Then we met
a few nice people (some of whom were men) from the anarchist
scene in New York City. We talked it over and decided to give
it a go. If nothing else, we could spend the whole weekend
getting drunk and watching TV (and that we did, me buckos).
Originally, we were going with the intention of putting to rest
the "BONE CONTROVERSY" scheduled to take place in the
cemetery. We planned to cash in on the liberal guilt by
letting them know that, for the right price, the bones of the
Haymarket Martyrs could belong to anyone, even them. We,
planned at the same time, to sell indulgences to the Stalinists
and social democrats. Unfortunately, the ' Reverend Ann-Marie
ran into a snag when her housemates transubstantiated. the holy
bone relics into a soup which they, carnivores all, assured her
was delicious. With our usual presence of mind, we decided to
fuck the whole thing and write some suitably threatening
leaflets a few hours before the event, which we did under the
nom de guerre of the Conversational Sectional Pit Group, formed
suddenly and conversationally with our friend Dave.
We didn't get much out of any of the workshops we attended,
but we did get a lot out of just talking to people, getting to
meet our pen-pals, etc. Final verdict: we did meet horrible
leftist men, we did meet very nice ones, great girls too, but
not enough of them, etc. What the fuck, let's all do it again
next year.
---T.H.R.U.S.H.
(Terrifying Hags Ruthlessly Uprooting Self Hatred)
6
PLANNING
Planning got underway with a May Day 1984 planning meeting
called by Impossible Books (and endorsed by several groups
around the country), held at Chicago's Autonomy Center, and
drawing maybe 2 dozen anarchists from throughout the midwest.
It was a disjointed meeting that suffered badly from its lack
of organization--a problem that was to continue, albeit not in
quite so extreme a fashion--and structure. Chicago anarchists
wanted a mass anarchist manifestation--where demonstrations
would show that the movement was still alive, and where, there
would be many opportunities for folks to get together and
talk/socialize. Fifth Estate argued for an orgiastic
celebration of life--I was never quite sure what they meant,
but it seemed to revolve around guerrilla street theater. Some
people argued for an anarchist conference. A few of us Wobs
were present, and we argued for a series of events including
demonstrations, cultural events, etc. and a Revolutionary Labor
Conference drawing in unions and workers' groups from around
the world that stand in the tradition of Haymarket to discuss
ways of rekindling a mass revolutionary labor movement
including fighting for the four hour day.
Eventually, the meeting wound down without any real
consensus, except that people generally supported the concept
of doing something in Chicago to mark the Haymarket centennial,
and that Impossible Books was to coordinate discussions. It
was also clear that most people found the labor conference, the
idea of shorter hours, and the working class in general quite
boring, but that we Wobs were going to try to pursue it
independently.
Fifth Estate published an account of the meeting (others may
have, too, I don't really know), but no real discussions or
plans were made in the following months and Impossible Books
pretty much stopped responding to Haymarket mail while it went
through a slow process of losing members and the Autonomy
Center. (The IWW, meanwhile, went about the process of
contacting AIT/IWA sections and others about the Labor
Conference. Most of us who worked on organizing the Labor
Conference also participated in building anarchist events for
Haymarket. )
In early 1985, plans got underway again with a handful of
Chicago anarchists beginning to meet and sending out letters to
anarchist groups they were close to and/or had endorsed the May
'84 meeting. A Shimo supporter attended a couple of these
7
meetings, arguing that instead of organizing specifically
anarchist events, the scope of Haymarket should be broader
including groups such as NBAU. The Chicago group was clear
from the start, however, that we wanted to organize an
anarchist commemoration (though others would be welcome to
attend). At the same time I, and a few others, were attending
meetings of the so-called Haymarket Centennial Committee in an
attempt to persuade them to tell the truth about Haymarket (and
failing that, to find out what they were up to). The HCC, with
the support of Chicago's Mayor, sky pilots, social democrats
and liberals, CP hacks and similar scum, was committed to
presenting the Haymarket Martyrs as liberal reformers and to
treating the New Deal and the workers' states (I was never able
to find out where these could be found) as pert of their
heritage. Conflict with this group continued throughout the
Haymarket events. I prepared an open letter to the Committee
which received wide circulation. We picketed and leafleted
various of their events. HCC goons attacked us physically on
one occasion, and we challenged them to a debate on the eve of
the Haymarket commemoration which they originally accepted, but
then backed down on.
The HCC's lies and slanders against the Haymarket Martyrs
and the anarchist movement were clear from early on.
Unfortunately, a handful of self-proclaimed anarchists and
"anti-authoritarians" chose to work with this group, lending
credibility (to the uninformed) to their efforts. Utah
Phillips, Carlos Cortez and Franklin and Penelope Rosemont
deserve to be singled out in this regard. The HCC--with its
official character and its massive resources--proved adept at
securing media coverage in the weeks leading up to the
Haymarket centennial, though they were never able to mobilize
the kind of support they had hoped for and were forced to drop
many of their planned events.
By Spring, Chicago anarchists had received a number of
endorsements for a November planning conference and for
Haymarket '86, al though many of the larger and more active
groups and publications had not yet responded. (The latter was
to prove a continuing problem, while Fifth Estate, Emancipation
DEMONSTRATE
MAY DAY MARCH, MAY 1st
ASSEMBLE 13th & Union, 5: 15 pm
8
and several smaller and regional publications helped spread the
word, Open Road and Bayou La Rose gave only brief mentions at
the last minute, and Strike never gave any information about
anarchist Haymarket plans at all.) We then prepared a mass
mailing to North American anarchist groups known to us or
listed in Blacklist (which is sadly dated), and. to selected
other groups around the world inviting people to a November
planning conference, and asking for ideas for commemorating
Haymarket.
The November '85 planning conference pulled in people from a
number of groups, and came to fairly quick agreement to do a
Conference, some demos, and some cultural activities.
Unfortunately, it proved impossible to move on to the specifics
of many of these--especially how the Conference workshops were
to be structured. This was partly due to lack of time and.
preparation, partly due to the fact that people kept arriving
for hours after the meeting started (including many who had
been in town the night before) forcing us to cover the same
ground over again, and largely due to a misguided belief in
spontaneity. The November conference did adopt a clear policy
of non-collaboration with non-anarchist groups, excluding Shimo
from participating in the planning conference on this basis.
(By this time, Shimo was putting forward plans for cultural
terrorism in the streets of Chicago, reminiscent of.. the--
disastrous Days of Rage; soon afterwards their paper was to
seek to confuse the Haymarket '86 Anarchist Gathering with
Shimo's plans.) People went home knowing something was going
to happen, though somewhat fuzzy on the details.
In the weeks preceding and. following the November
conference, conflicts arose within the Chicago group. These
essentially revolved around the structure of the Chicago group:
a few people (myself included) felt that the amorphous, ill-defined
way the organizing committee worked made democratic
process and accountability impossible. Decisions would be
made, but no provisions to implement them. A handful of people
picked up the slack, and others felt frozen out there was no
way for new people to plug into the work, because so much of it
was done by 2 or 3 people a few minutes here, a few minutes
there. The problem came to a head over the question of mail.
One person had a key to the mailbox, and would bring copies of
those letters he found important to meetings or would mention
what had come in over the phone. The majority of the
organizing committee never saw most of the correspondence and.
had no real idea of the type of response (or volume) we were
getting. A few people found our proposals for tighter
organization and structure bureaucratic and stifling, and the
rest didn't want to deal with the issue. As a result, we never
really did come to grips with it.
This was reflected in mailings that went out late and.
without being looked over by the group, chaotic workshops (we
never really did decide how the workshops were to be set up:
were they discussion groups or presentations followed by
9
HAYMARKET 86
PRESENT5
ANARCHY IN ACTION MAYDAY (THURSDAY THE 1st)
THRU SATURDAY< MAY #RD 9:30 AM-6:00PM DAILY
WORK-SHOPS ON
LABOR, FEMINISM, FREE EXPRESSION, ETC.
@ 3204 N. WILTON & 615 W. WELLINGTON
FREE ADMISSION-DONATE IF YOU WILL. LABOR DONATED
10
discussion?; who would coordinate/facilitate?) , failure to
prepare sufficient leaflets for the demonstrations, and
inadequate preparations for the demos (we needed more
bullhorns, a method for dealing with provocateurs, and
understood system for making decisions and communicating while
the demos were underway) .
Haymarket planning was also rendered extremely difficult by
disorganization throughout North America. Until days before
the events, we had no way of knowing whether we would have 100
people or 500. This made it extremely difficult to book halls,
arrange crash space, as did the absence of money. Ultimately
sufficient funds did come in to cover all anticipated expenses.
But these funds did not come in until the very last moment,
when it was already too late to put down deposits on the most
desirable halls, etc. (and we didn't have enough free cash
among us to front more than several hundred dollars) .
The banquet problem was reflective, also, of this
disorganization. Because of inadequate information and funds,
we couldn't book a hall until the last minute (when most were
booked). The only vegetarian caterer we could find in the city
was already booked, though we did manage to find a caterer who
could handle veggie lasagna. The people who agreed to handle
the vegan food didn't get around to it, and didn't tell the
rest of us (though there was sane vegan food in the fridge that
had been prepared during the day and apparently forgotten).
In short, things only came off as well they did because a
handful of people--many from out-of-town---worked- themselves to
the bone in the few days immediately preceding and during the
gathering. With proper organization, I believe this burden
could have been more equitably distributed and many of the
problems avoided.
---Jon
The Shimo controversy was as much a conflict with them as it
was among ourselves. That is to say, there didn't seem to be a
problem with the decision itself, but the process of making a
decision was as problematic as anything. It was a lesson in
group decision making (and group identity?).
---Anonymous
Friends of Anarchy,
The following pages represent a brief summary of the
November 29-30 Haymarket Conference, in the hopes of giving
those who were not able to attend a good idea of Mla.t actually
happened.
After a quick tour of Haymarket Square and Waldheim
Cemetery, a party on Friday night, we got down to business
11
Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. During the course of the day,
there were about 40-50 people present. Things started off with
introductions by comrades from Toronto, Boston, Hartford, New
York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Harrisburg, Minneapolis,
Kalamazoo, Santa Cruz, Ann Arbor, Willimantic, Champaign, and
Chicago. One comrade was turned back at the Canadian border,
but he did make it at another crossing.
The first hours dealt mainly with a discussion of the
general philosophy of the May 1-4, 1986 events. Fairly
quickly, it became apparent that the general feeling in the
group was that May was to be an anarchist-planned gathering.
People saw this as a time to celebrate and explore our
historical anarchist roots, as well as the present and future
of anarchy.
Two proposals were then submitted for discussion. The
Atlanta collective brought a resolution stating that although
the attendance at the gathering should be left open to all, the
planning and organization would be done by anarchists . It
expressed their concern that committed Marxist-Leninists,
Maoists, Trots, Stalinists, and other authoritarian
organizations not be allowed to take control of the events.
This resolution specifically named the Revolutionary Communist
Party (RCP) I and the discussion centered on peoples J negative
experiences with this organization and what appears to be one
of their national "secular" front groups, No Business As Usual
(NBAU). There was unanimous agreement that all planning and
organization be restricted specifically to anarchists, while
attendance be left open to all.
Talk then turned to the Shimo Underground, whom many felt to
be RCP collaborators. People said that this organization and
its chairperson had stated both in print and in conversations
that they did not consider themselves anarchists, and that they
had given their unqualified support and endorsement to both the
RCP and NBAU. A resolution, brought by a San Francisco comrade
and expressing the opinions of comrades from San Francisco, San
Diego, and Seattle, was then adopted. It was similar to the
previous resolution
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