TOTW: Manifestos

manifesto gun

When a white supremacist mass shooter, rich politician-turned-tech-executive, and anonymous anarchists all release public declarations to the media in the same week, perhaps there’s reason to pause and reflect on the form. Whether you call them manifestos, communiqués or marketing campaigns, there’s a patterned reliance on rhetoric to complement provocative deeds.

These concerted attempts at controlling a narrative offer in plain text what would otherwise be left to speculation. Motivation, justification, and responsibility can be written directly into symbolic acts considered heroic by some and terroristic by others. Put generously, communication of this type could be viewed as an attempt to eliminate misinterpretation and highlight intent—put critically, it could be called advertising.

A key similarity of this dynamic is that it invites participation, it aims to inspire. What’s the role of the audience in this storytelling? When comparing the disparate goals of these actions, how does the difference in material compare to the similarities of the form? What does this say of anarchists’ means to an end?

“I am writing a manifesto and I don’t want anything,
I say however certain things and I am on principle against
manifestos, as I am also against principles...I am writing
this manifesto to show that you can do contrary actions together,
in one single fresh breath; I am against action; for continual
contradiction, for affirmation also, I am neither for nor
against and I don’t explain because I hate common sense.”

— Tristan Tzara, “Dada Manifesto,” 1918

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There's been a long back and forth between anarchists throughout the ages, but more particularly and more recently between correspondents of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, about methodology. Whether to carry actions anonymously without communiques or claiming actions with pseudonyms or acronyms of groups and with lengthy communiques, or with own name and personal statements, and everything in between.

Some of these reflections are found in this pamphlet. Here's the PDF.

Most or some of the texts from the pamphlet can be found on theanarchistlibrary and otherCCF exchanges, as well as here.

There are also writings by Alfredo Cospito on the matter, both on Anews:
https://anarchistnews.org/content/alfredo-cospitos-contribution-guerilla...
https://anarchistnews.org/content/%E2%80%9Cproposal-new-anarchist-manife...

and on theanarchistlibrary.

Also this text by Francisco Solar https://anarchistnews.org/content/considerations-anarchic-combat

I dunno, , I've lost interest with manifestos recently, they seem like old pop songs of the 40's to me, sorta strange and obsolete to the present mode of expression, though hah, Wayne Price brings some 20th Century vehemence echoing back, makes Trump seem mildly more humane oddly enough, hmm, . .
-The Anarch Guitar Guild

i'd say there's differences between manifestos and communiques. without going into definitions or etymology and just going by what i immediately associate each with, i associate manifestos with artsy poses and bold gestures that think themselves novel, and typically make bombastic claims about hereon-out and set rules or points. while there's some overlap sometimes, as some do get grandiose and bombastic, communiques can also be really short matter-of-fact statements accompanying an action, even one sentence short, like "we set a cop car on fire because fuck cops"

i think i got forever tired of manifestos by the 3rd one i ever read, and they always make my eyes roll when i read them, even when they're not that bad, the format reeks of pretentiousness. is very modernist, very starting from blank slate vibes

on the other hand, anarchist communiques almost always put a smile on my face, mainly because of the action they're making me aware of, its impact, its significance, and not so much the rhetoric. if a communique is not issued, in many cases the news does not travel, or is attributed to an accident or another actor, or some implausible conspiracy theory is concocted. those that explain how they did it, specially when it seems simple and when it turns out they were never caught, are particularly inviting to replicate

also, i will forever associate manifestos with authoritarians due to marianetti's futurist manifesto, marx & engels' communist manifesto, nechayev's revolutionary catechism and other foundational statements proposing some form of regimen or fixed methodology

i'm not sure what's to be pondered upon bringing up these disparate goals, pieces of writing and somewhat similarity in form. is the idea to draw a kind of horseshoe political compass where the extreme ends meet? is the idea to critique politics in general, equally condemning the acts of terrorism as well as the tacky tack on pieces of writing?

i can only say that the amount of literal and proverbial blood and ink shed by the ruling political order is many orders of magnitude larger. that is not to say that if the former are versions of this same thing, that they are then off the hook, but that when these things happen, no one points at them as the larger culprit. what is a white supremacist school shooting vs all the drone strikes in the middle east, agent orange in vietnam, nuclear bombs in japan, interventions all across the globe throughout history by the USA, which of course is a nation state born out of such white supremacy? what is a school shooter's manifesto compared to all the history books and school curriculum, even now with the "don't say gay" and bans on "critical race theory"? what is a far-rightist's youtube channel vs Fox News or all of the mass media, youtube's and twitter's algorithms?

and the actions anarchists are claiming are very different. racists nutjobs on shooting spree are on the news every other week it seems, or at least every month in USA. the communiques from anarchists are mostly coming from europe (namely greece, italy, germany, france, spain, ukraine, belarus, russia), south america (namely chile, bolivia), and canada, and the actions they're claiming are sabotage and vandalism. arsons of cars, antennas and smashing of atm's and storefronts as well as graffiti. the actions are different and the motives are different. the writing styles differ as well, at least judging by the latest far right ones that have come to light.

it also seems anarchists are far more prolific in their writing. a lot of these far right attacks have no accompanying communiques, at most they retrieve chat logs from 4chan or discord, or they livestream it (talk about differences and variety in form). anarchists who carry out actions usually have better opsec, and a lot seem to issue out lengthy statements and communiques for any little action (banner drop, banner hold with hands, scratching out a fash sticker, a graffiti, writing with chalk on a sidewalk) or no action at all

what is a racist school shooter and his manifesto vs all the racist killer cops and all the copaganda tv dramas and movies

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