The goal of anarchistnews.org is to provide a non-sectarian source for news about and of concern to anarchists.

Lessons From the Egyptian Insurrection: Communization, Strategy, and Solidarity

Thu, 01/31/2013 - 01:44 -- Anonymous (not verified)

From Build the Party

In the past week, Egypt has seen the rapid spread of insurrectional violence, beginning January 25thwith the 2-year anniversary of Mubarak’s fall, intensifying with the death sentences handed down to 21 Al-Masry ultras from Port Said and the subsequent declaration of a state of emergency on January 27thin provinces along the Suez Canal. Alexandria, Port Said, Suez, Ismaili, and Cairo have seen extensive clashes and the defiance of all curfews, with Port Said effectively seceding and military leaders warning of a state collapse. Within this fold, an explicitly revolutionary force has announced itself, calling itself Black Blocairo, Black Block Egypt, or simply the Black Bloc, pointing beyond the use of the black mask and violence as a tacticand towards a more organized and explicitly insurrectional positionin North Africa; learning from the years of revolt and refusing to let go, they are pushing things forward when others would choose to give up.

While security forces have lost control of the streets in some cities, their absence does not beget a revolution, and in parallel the state proper may not be in control, but this does not mean that government –as opposed to thegovernment— does not function. A revolution has to abolish everything, as much through insurrection as through communization.

Communist Measures

How do we make it live?This is the most powerful question posed by an insurrection and certainly its most unthought. Many of us today lack experience while many more of us are just concerned with the immediate, thinking like pawns rather than like strategists. We need to ask ourselves nowwhat kind of communist measures will be necessary to make an insurrection into a revolution; that the 2008 Greek riots and Hurricane Sandy are equally instructive should come as no surprise.

One need only imagine the potential territory of a living, breathing revolution. Barricades, occupied buildings, & overturned police cars; the expropriation of grain stores, supermarkets, and land; the seizure of the means of communication and the destruction of those of our enemies; the erection of health clinics and an autonomous power supply; the mobilization of thousands for a million tasks (like Gavroche in Les Misérables!); the question of weapons but irreducible to military operations. The Egyptian insurrection underway gives us a vision of this, which we must hold on to but also help make real everywhere.

So for all those who aim to influence the course of future events, to act decisively in history, there is the making of communism now and also apprehending the city and its flows. Thus, foresight and the strategic knowledge of where to go, knowing where the food storage facilities are in the city and what the key supply lines are. Knowing the answer to the questions of expropriation: do we want to use it, take it over, or burn it down? Does it deepen the insurrection, build our force, and increase our abilities?

Government is to be undone at the level of daily life, and only communist measures can do that. But the point is not to answer the question of needs from the perspective of inputs and outputs but rather to weave these together into a fierce insurgent territory; the question of foodis inseparable from elaborating our relationship to worlds. Many of us know how to move within the flames, but the question is also how to connect and sustain these things.The people of Bougainville grappled with this in their rebellion, communizing arms, traditional knowledge, and homemade tech, successfully repelling the efforts of militaries and multinationals for decades.

 

Solidarity Means a Lot More Than Attack

The Egyptian insurrection resonates with us, begging the question: what does it mean to be organized globally? Lending solidarity and support to the party of insurrection in Egypt is critical, whether organizing an #AnonOp to hinder military and police communications in Egypt, disrupting and paralyzing commodity flows over land & sea, or finding a way to provide critical supplies. A revolution simply cannot survive alone, especially while a thousand others forces are conspiring to smother it like the leftist parties who want to worm their way into power, the Islamists who hope to gain influence through the militarization of struggle as in Syria, or the generals on standby to massacre everyone.

It is only when we are organized, and organized at a global scale, that we can muster the force necessary to break our enemies and break government as a whole. Thus there is the building of the party everywhere, building the practice of communism at dense local and regional levels in coordination and across all borders. There's the putting in common of the machines, spaces, and funds; the circulation of bodies, experiences, and dreams; the spread of blockades, riots, and occupations; the planting of seeds and the burning of buildings; the war to be fought and the spirit that animates it; the building of an insurrectional process from the ground up.

Above all comrades, don't afraid, go ahead.

 

dontafraid

Category: 

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

MAOIST SHIT

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

How is this Moaist at all?
Any anarchist that still thinks communism equals Authoritarian, hasn't learned much in the past decade.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

If you mean anarchism, say anarchism. If you want to leave the door open for all sorts of bullshit, say communism. If you want to leave the door even fucking wider open, say "party."

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

"anarchy" doesn't mean anything. maybe we can all write letters about our best experience with "anarchy" that involves standing at the top of a hill or riding our bikes. communism is a thing. when you show up in a different city and you see anti-police propaganda, those people who made that are part of the party. people who take long dumps at work are also probably part of the party.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

If you think anarchy--the absence of coercive hierarchy, or the struggle against it--doesn't mean anything, then get the fuck off this site. That's what makes anti-police propaganda meaningful, that it's part of a larger struggle against hierarchy and domination and alienation. We make anti-police propaganda here, and no one's having your language about "party."

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

don't tell me what site to get off of. lack of hierarchy alone isn't going to give me the guns and bread i want. language can suck it. my gang talks in grunts.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

obvious he talks in grunts - he didn't answer any of the critiques

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

This does not mean create a formal organization. It means to be organized and attentive to being able to act together ever more decisively, to strengthen bonds between those who carry flames and life within them. Can we really burn the leviathan without our torches held to the sky together?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

How does using the language of "party" not mean create a formal organization? It has always meant that. If you don't mean that by it, you're still opening the door for Leninists (/etc.) to coopt everything you accomplish. "We have a party too, only a real one!" Ugh.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

""have a good time," 1922, from party (n.). Earlier as "to take the side of" (1630s). Related: Partied; partying."

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

The etymological origin of the word party has more to do with defining and taking a position in conflict than it does ever with being a part (a section, division, party of) an organization.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

All the political uses for this word within living memory have been execrable. That seems more important than the 1630s.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

yes build the party is stupid language. but people hate the word movement as well.
i enjoy 325 collective and have for many years. there are many things in this word that suck arse but 325 is not one of them. solidarity yo

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

It's even worst than you think! There like Call, lifestylist, insurrectionists, leninoid, anarchy communists from your deepest nightmares of disorganization and organization.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

This “Party” shit has got to go. It came to the US via hipsters imitating a certain French group. France is in Western Europe, so they never got to learn what Eastern Europeans know all too well about the Party aspect of the history of the communist project—hence there’s still a little embarrassing nostalgia about “the party” there, whereas this is lacking just about everywhere else on earth. This is a matter of France being behind the rest of the world, not ahead of it. It’s embarrassing that folks in the US would imitate the French lingo around this when they don’t even have a local history that would make this use of the term“party” an attempt to challenge and reappropriate an old common reference point, rather than merely a citation of an obscure overseas text.

Let me put this in other terms: you’re sporting last year’s hat.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

You're a fucking idiot. If we get the word "hipster" in the first line, for any reason, it's a fairy good indication of the level of person we're dealing with. Hillbilly hot topic was never "in". I'll always be a decade ahead of you. Sad fact. EAT IT.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

I'm sorry, no answer to the critique itself? What does that tell us about your position? This is not just a fashion competition.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Oh no non no it *is* a style competition. 'spiritual style' is how I gauge things myself...You lose.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

an army of one.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Fine. Reminiscent of 'culture of one' - pretty good book, check it out sometime.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

the only way you can always be a "decade ahead" is if you believe the myth of progress should also apply to @ theory. so try again

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

it is a bit teleological, innit? ------------------------------>

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Really, try to understand that a term can be used differently. You know kind of like how anarchism and anarchy are described by the media, and the impotent form it currently takes doesn't stop people from identifying with it, and seeing power within it as a concept. The party means nothing about being organized - and because formal organization and parties inhibit this, as did the CPI in Italy in the 1970s, communism of the sort that finds affinity with the party of insurrection means also being opposed to this concept of the party, of power, etc.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Who else in history has used this word, "Party," in the way you're using it? Through the whole 20th century, "the party" meant the CP. Come on.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

this idea of the "party" didn't come via US hipsters imitating tiqqun, it came from tiqqun.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

hey man, if the only way you're capable of keeping up with contemporary insurrectionist theory is by paying attention to hipsters, that's your problem

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Its an 'imaginary party' yo: the one that haunts the state. the reason the state is always in a state of emergency- because something has to be hunted down, an Imaginary party, an Invisible Committee.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

and how hard did it prove to hunt down that "invisible" committee? If the imaginary party popularizes the language of "party" among those who wish to fight back, then disappear into a lengthy court case nightmare, what's to prevent other less savory parties from capitalizing on their work promoting the importance of Party?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

if your reading off tiqqun is that they emphasize "The Importance of the Party" i would suggest you read their stuff over again. It repeatedly emphasizes oppurtunistic informal arrangements

Submitted by Vague Writing (not verified) on

wow

so many different interpretations of Tiqqun and The Coming Insurrection...why is that ?

It has nothing to do with vague writing....absolutely nothing.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

The imaginary party has little to do with the state of exception, which is the founding act of sovereign power, not a response. It is what grounds the power of the state and all power relations. The imaginary party would in theory help us inaugurate the "real" state of exception - that is the diffuse grounding of power outside of the state.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

How can the Egyptian court system prove "membership" to this tactic?

What, will they ban black clothes as a potential "uniform."

Time to retire the tactic?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

creating subjectivity for repression etc etc foucault etc etc

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

"Time to retire the tactic?"

been hearing that since 99. No is your answer.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

I dunno, how did American, Canadian, British, Greek, French, Italian and Spanish courts do it?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

They make stupid laws about wearing masks that can only be enforced at demos that are already too weak to mean anything whatsoever.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Yeah, I know about mask laws.

But, I was asking about proof of "membership" to a tactic that isn't a group and has no membership nor a uniform.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Communization is garbage - what's wrong with anarchy you fuckin' wankers?

SIGNED - pro2rat

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Nothing wrong with a bit of small-c commie tendencies ...
NOW EAT YOUR DUMPSTERED VEGAN SLOP COMRADE

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

You are what's wrong with anarchy.

SINGED - bro3rat

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

You sure? Sure it's not ... snarky armchair nihilists who never do anything?

Submitted by party chairman (not verified) on

The language used to describe the attack some may have decided is "hipster," but that doesn't change the ideas behind the words. maybe i explain this in a less intellectualized way

All these rad people are floating around pissed, we should get all together and throw rocks. pissed. so that moar will come to be pissed. all our rock throwing is so damned tiring, so we are going to have to eat something. some may have jobs, some may not, maybe we should just loot a gas station? Maybe we should just occupy this Taco Bell? along the way to the Taco Bell other heads waiting for the bus decide to bail on work and just take over the TB with us. gang gets bigger. we seize the MOP and stop the cars in the streets cuz we are about that prole stroll. kill the law. teenagers love this shit. lets take over a high school. lets learn about witches instead of math. or whatever. maybe we don't even need that MOP anymore so we just scrap the parts and trade cash4gold. reptillians want to harvest the gold. end civ. winning. all glory to the mob.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Well that does sound pretty sweet but don't think we didn't notice your chair Mr. chairman. Fuck you and your chair. I'll still seize the taco bell with you and the teenagers but then we're going to spend days on consensus workshops while the pigs polish their weapons out in the parking lot.

Submitted by party chairman (not verified) on

down with consensus workshops, down with direct action trainings, down with the activists. find your own chair, this one is mine, i took it from behind the table with the semiotext. all glory to the tweens.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

I think this blog was absolutely correct when it stated in an earlier post that they don't care about ideas or politics. There's not much analysis or clarification, just a confused celebration of confusion: mumbling about "freaks," re-hashing of slogans drawn from Tiqqun (The Party! Communism! But in an ironic hipster way, you understand), some Heidegger, right-wing survivalism, an eagerness to see radical French theory verified in an American populist movement like Occupy Wall Street. The black bloc and anarchists they don't like in the US, but in Egypt they're somehow a "position" and not a "tactic" - which means what, exactly?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

As has been my experience, insurrectionary nihilism is mostly about total disenchantment with reformism. In practice if not in theory.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

The fact that this article is talking about the emergence of the Black Bloc in Egypt and along with it the emergence of many people in Egypt now calling themselves anarchists and the word anarchist isn't mentioned once in this article is very intentional and telling in itself as to the putrid politics of the authors. Not to mention the 2008 Greek insurrection, are you serious? Are you really gonna rep that shit and try to erase the anarchism? Being an anarchist there means something, it's not some wish-washy shit you can replace with the word "communism" for fun.

Furthermore, you mention the struggle in Papua New Guinea which I'm not claiming is anarchist, but who has done literally any solidarity with them from perspectives in our spectrum? Anarchists (http://www.eco-action.org/ssp/), that's who, definitely not a single person calling themself a communist.

If you want to talk about anarchy and communism I'm not going to stop you, but it's very clear that there is devious intention to erase anarchism from things that are anarchist and label them communist instead. You could look at this like stealing credit for work others have done. It's been done before historically, with the very same words actually.

I really still find it ironic that various so-called insurrectos were so inspired to abandon anarchy because they read a book that basically advocates as it's main practical program going off and living in a commune and learning skills for self-sufficiency. Basically reproducing the least revolutionary parts of the 1960's in the America. Thanks, but I'll leave your French "insurrectionism" and take the godfather in Italy any day.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

cool story!

Add new comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
V
N
@
1
u
E
@
Enter the code without spaces.
Subscribe to Comments for "Lessons From the Egyptian Insurrection: Communization, Strategy, and Solidarity"