So that's all you have to do? An instructive little tale

From Les Fleurs Arctiques
July 22, 2023
Original .pdf in French here: https://lesfleursarctiques.noblogs.org/files/2023/07/texteBAB.pdf

An instructive little tale of a collective's trip to the Balkans

At the Balkan anarchist book fair held from July 6 to 9, we were some of the Les Fleurs Arctiques library to respond to the invitation of one of the participating collectives. We had to organize a discussion about the movement against pension reform, Ste-Soline and the riots that occurred after the murder of young Nahel Merzouk killed in Nanterre by a policeman for refusing to comply. It was scheduled for Sunday evening at 6 p.m. The discussion was to be accompanied by a brochure prepared for the occasion by the library, a compilation of various texts published during these 6 months of social movement, intended to give a small overview internationally of the struggles that took place in France(1) . The aim was to share points of view, practices, analyses, reviews with comrades and companions from other countries. The discussion was planned to be an exchange with those who were open to the debate and in particular with other French comrades who could have made their contribution. Since, as we wrote in the intro of this brochure, we did not pretend to be exhaustive and even less to give lessons on how to intervene from a haughty and contemptuous position which we do not want neither here nor in the struggles.

A few hours before the event, we are contacted by two organizers of the book fair: they want to inform us that a few people have gone to see them to tell them that they disagree with the fact that we have a speaking space at the book fair. . We are trying to get more information, without success. We try to understand what these people are asking: that we cancel? That we discuss together before the discussion? That we organize another speaking space after the discussion to debate / argue? We will understand later that there was an attempt to incite the BAB to cancel the discussion, that the organizers read the texts and that they refused to cancel, validating that these texts do not pose a problem(2).

It is true that during the festival we saw three faces of the Paris region that we knew and that we meet regularly and who even organized themselves with us from time to time. They had the nerve to greet us but not the courage to come and state their “disagreement”. The organizers leave and we stay there, not really knowing what to do. We learn from two people who don't know us that people have been wandering around the BAB for a few hours to peddle rumors about "a problematic French group": we are racist and transphobic. These same two people tell us that they asked for explanations and proofs from one of the people who spread the rumours; this one yelled at them for only answer, shocked and horrified to be asked for a simple explanation in the face of such serious accusations. We hear people talking to each other about us, we see people (that we have never seen) spreading rumors discreetly, from small group to small group, and in a few hours everyone is looking at each other like a dog. Good memories of schoolyards arise, the bullies have done a good job: impossible to discuss with anyone. In the distance, we see a discussion between certain organizers of the BAB and the Ile-de-France residents who are struggling to accuse us: this is when we understand from their reactions that, despite the pressure, the BAB continues to want to maintain the discussion and that this decision goes badly with the saboteurs. We see these people from afar raising people's heads and, frustrated at the failure of their scheme, they move on to threats, yelling and blackmail. The impression of watching our own trial from afar, without being able to say anything.

The time for discussion arrives, we enter the room. In doing so, we pass in front of a banner written in Slovenian, the meaning of which we will soon learn. We find ourselves in front of an assembly of people, some of whom look at us with mocking eyes and whisper among themselves. A person from Romania speaks, reads the following text: “The people in front of you belong to Les Fleurs Arctiques library in Paris. They are racist, islamophobic, homophobic, TERF, transphobic, they have already knowingly (sic) attacked trans people because they were trans, they say that racism in France does not exist and that it does not there have never been racist laws”. flabbergasted, we listen to them paint such an incredible portrait of us (we are… we have done…) that we can only answer at first “WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!? ". Then we protest that these accusations are outright lies. Then the person, in front of his microphone, asks everyone present in the room to leave the place “in solidarity with the oppressed” (thus with the people we are supposed to oppress!). Applause, the people who had come into the room only to leave it are jubilant: they have done their good deed of the day, or of the decade! They shout slogans (“Trans lives matter”), overturn chairs, stripped of their torsos apparently taking themselves for Femen disrupting a discussion of fundamentalist Catholics or other reactionaries who say that trans people do not exist, they put up "Stop transphobia" signs, music and yell at the 40 remaining people who do not understand the situation that if they stay in the room, it is because they support rapists, racists, and people who assault trans people. We have thus witnessed the followership of people whom others have "convinced" (or for the most part rather terrorized as some we will learn later), on the basis of allegations without proof, to carry out a pseudo-subversive action… that is to say to put oneself at the service of the frustrations of Parisian micro-tyrants accustomed to using these serious questions to settle personal accounts. But what are these people fighting for except for their political careers?

We are stunned, we want to cry with rage, the situation is so incomprehensible. One of us gets up when she recognizes one of the people who have come from Paris to spread their shit: the former leader of the DCPB (orga defunct following similar maneuvers), whom we know well since we know I've already found many times to organize with her, someone we meet in a demonstration, in AG, who says hello to us and goes to ask for services at one of us. She evacuates the discussion, proud of her circus and of having put in her pocket, through her lies and the instrumentalization of real and serious oppressions, dozens of soldiers to do the dirty work in her place, while she remained well back, hidden away like a politico. The people who organized this crap will never speak publicly to confront or discuss differences of opinion. People soiled by these lies will never be given the opportunity to respond to these lies, nor to all those who wanted to know more and inform themselves to form an opinion for themselves.

Other people present who organized this happening also have known faces. We had already had disagreements with them in Paris but they had never gone so far in their instrumentalization of transphobia and racism to wash their dirty laundry in public. To believe that you have to go to Ljubljana to realize how racist and transphobic its neighbors are! One wonders why did they wait to learn that the weekend discussion on the movement in France was presented by Les Fleurs Arctiques to warn everyone of the supposed presence, only in their heads, of racists and transphobes at the BAB? It therefore poses no problem for them to leave, the rest of the time, supposed fafs discuss quietly for three days with whoever wants it in an anarchist book festival and participate in public discussions? Let's be serious for two minutes: someone who is aware of the presence of such "aggressors" in such a place reacts immediately! Otherwise it's just a matter of not supporting that people that we identify as rivals organize a discussion, and it becomes low-level politics, far from the concerns displayed for their company.

But the height of all this disgust, we realize when we learn the meaning of the words inscribed on the banner placed above the door of the room: words relating to the transphobic murder of Noa Milivojev in Belgrade. This banner had been made the day before for a solidarity demonstration in the streets of Ljubljana, but these smart guys decided to hang it up for us before we entered the room. They don't just instrumentalize important issues and make very serious baseless accusations, they go so far as to use the murder of a trans person to solve their little problems in the Parisian milieu. We go from pettiness to indecency among people for whom internationalism obviously consists in putting everything at the service of their inquisitorial navel, including a transphobic crime!

We maintain the discussion and despite all this mess cleverly orchestrated to prevent it, several dozen people participate and we manage to have discussions on the subject (the movement, the riots, Ste Soline) take place. Two unknown people come back again to put the pressure but are released immediately by those who had remained and had decided not to let themselves be intimidated by these bad prosecutors.

It is only after the discussion is over that several people we do not know come to see us to testify to the terror blackmail they have suffered: screams, threats, refusal to explain and feeling guilty for asking , etc., following a real rage to learn that the organizers who read our texts to form an opinion consider that there is no problem and refuse to obey their injunctions. Others write to us or call us the following days to report the same process of accusatory injunctions felt to be so violent that refusing or even questioning is impossible.

In Paris, some are definitely not ashamed of anything. Long live politics and its shenanigans! Long live the instrumentalization of transphobia and racism! Long live the export of its little worries of political competition!

Continuing the discussion was an opportunity to come back to a few banalities:

None of the people present at the discussion or at Les Fleurs Arctiques Library have spoken or acted against trans, queer people, nothing has ever been said or done that could suggest the contrary, what a horror! Using criticisms formulated by anarchists and revolutionaries in relation to intersectionality and certain limits of identity politics, to make them pass for what they are not and to force their discussion to be canceled is called being authoritarian . No text has ever called into question the struggles and movements for the liberation and emancipation of trans and queer people, quite the contrary. We happen to be a place that has a particular interest in struggles that start from the margins and in the refusal of norms, whatever they are, that we have organized many reading groups around these questions, that we have intervened one or the other in this direction in public discussions which seem to us, whether from an anarchist or anti-authoritarian communist point of view, forget the importance of these questions, and that if we think that postmodernity must be criticized, it is from this point of view, and not from the point of view of reaction! We have translated and republished texts of internal criticism of the English and American anar-queer movement, precisely because it is from this point of view that they criticize a liberal tendency to consider that identity itself is enough to to struggle. To consider that that makes us transphobic is really to refuse to discuss one's own conception of the question, to set it up as dogma, and demanding to be validated as the only way of thinking and acting (without even developing a point of view since the only field of action seems to be militant circles, and the only point of view the denunciation of others). So this is the fight against transphobia for these people?

With regard to the accusation of "racism", the same process is at work. The people who organize Les Fleurs Arctiques library participated, within the anar and anti-authoritarian communist currents, in criticizing the then recent reappropriation in France of the term "race", imported into texts that were moreover sexist, racist and anti-Semites like The Whites, Jews and Us by Houria Bouteldja, as well as to this new and uninhibited porosity with academic and sociological categories of thought such as intersectionality, instead of categories developed concretely in struggles. It is a question of criticizing grids of analyses, visions of the world, and the perspectives which go with them (the war of the races theorized in this book for example). It is in no way a question of considering that racism does not exist or is not a central issue, quite the contrary! Many of us have taken part in the struggles of undocumented migrants, or against the detention centers and it is from this point of view that they have criticisms or proposals to make, as shown in the brochure The ship of the dead burned (3) that we broadcast and which was developed on the occasion of the trial of one of us in the context of the repression of the struggles against the detention centers. These critical points of view of the appropriation of the term race are developed in the book entitled La race comme si vous y s'y, written collectively in 2016 in response to the pamphlet by Houria Bouteldja mentioned above and which was distributed at the time. in so-called French subversive circles, but which fortunately today most regret having approached. More in depth, the question is indeed to criticize two fundamental problems posed by the subversive reappropriation of the notion of race: the first in the long term is that the separation put forward by the followers of the concept of social race between the latter and biological race is porous, and that throughout history the concept of biological race has always served to erect social races, in order to always find more atrocious ways to dominate and exploit. The second in the shortest term is that this theory validates, endorses and renews the fragmentations in which many leftists today settle comfortably to justify their own impotence, or their contempt, vis-à-vis the revolts which they define as "those of others". Relying on the differences that society erects as such in order to be able to continue to enjoy them quietly, this is what we must put an end to, and this is, among other things, what the notion of social race helps to make people accept. It is in this sense that we are distributing at Les Fleurs Arctiques a translation by us of the very relevant Another Word for White Ally is Coward (4) text written by anarchists about the Ferguson riots in which they participated. This brochure is part of the fight against society and racism on which it is based AND criticizes the limits of the ideologies of the "allies" and their functioning. Like everything we translate and distribute, today many texts on this subject are coming out, many are beginning to perceive the limit of identity categories, to note their anti-emancipatory scope, as evidenced by many of the brochures which adorned the tables of the BAB but which were not for all that overthrown by the small clique in question. There would be a billion things to say about these criticisms, about their limits, about revolutionary perspectives and about emancipation, about the fight against racism and more generally against the different forms of exploitation and domination. We do not think, unlike those who have accused and denounced us, that we have a monopoly on these issues.

All the texts are readable on our site(5), but none of these texts were cited during the BAB by our accusers, no sentence, no precise fact. Among the thousands of lines of texts that we have written, translated or disseminated, a single sentence, read in an extremely malevolent way and taken from its context, serves as an example to them (when they condescend to give one!). This is a sentence taken from an article published in the agitation newspaper Mauvais Sang, written by certain people who also participate in the collective of Les Fleurs Arctiques (who find themselves caught in a "crime of association"). This sentence is maliciously summed up as “they compare trans people to dolphins” when the very content of the text is deeply queer. For the curious little ones who are interested, here is the entire passage of the article entitled “The breakers are breakers! And the breakers are breakers! Thieves of thieves and thieves of thieves!”(6): “Put on a hood, dress in black, tag, tear, shout, break, burn: it is not becoming like everyone else, becoming invisible, equal in all points to other hooded people (even if it is externally to show solidarity in the face of the legal and police apparatus) but it is also to organize, to come together to act together and to put the test, by our flesh, of a transversal organization – and that does not matter whether I am a woman, a rat, a weirdo, a man, a dolphin, trans, queer, whether I am from elsewhere, whether I am from here or there, whether I have been socialized as a docile animal or as a wild brute, whether my parents were policemen, unemployed, judges, bourgeois, aristocrats or proles! Tearing yourself away from capital, tearing yourself away from the state, tearing yourself away from all forms of violence should be everyone's business!"

In this text which advocates the fact that the riot or the breaking in demonstration are collective moments which go beyond our identities and our “irreducible singularities”, the moment of the enumeration “woman, rat, bizarre” etc. is a poetic moment that talks about the future of our identities in this process of blurring what we are assigned to the rest of the time. No comparison of trans people to dolphins, no mockery of trans people, unless you cut out a very small part of the sentence to make it say the opposite of what it is about! Liars! The "whatever" is neither a mockery of gender change or transition processes, it expresses that in a collective moment like that of the break-in demo, our different identities are exceeded to create something else, common, of the unknown. If we push the reasoning a little further, the text is a reference to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, who in their book Mille Plateaux have a chapter entitled "become animal, become invisible, become imperceptible" in which they talk about the bursting of all fixed identity into minority-becomings. We must see in this text both poetry, a philosophical reference, but also a form of the first degree: am I not becoming a bit of a wolf when I am chased by the cops and that I drag in a gang, a spider when I climb walls, a rat when I hide behind a trash can, etc? This will interest whoever it will interest, everyone is free to think that it is not interesting to think about abolishing identity assignments and making the revolution, but in this case read something else, write a text, no need to incriminate that one for the sole purpose of buying you a conscience. We develop this precision for those who, less rotten with intellectual dishonesty and greed for power, will ask questions. NEVER, NOBODY, in Paris or in Ljubljana, could quote, seriously argue for more than a second to explain why our positions were problematic or oppressive for anyone. To this day, we are still waiting. argue seriously for more than a second to explain why our positions were problematic or oppressive for anyone. To this day, we are still waiting. argue seriously for more than a second to explain why our positions were problematic or oppressive for anyone. To this day, we are still waiting.

As for transphobic, sexual, or Islamophobic attacks by members of Les Fleurs Arctiques or relatives of members, this does not refer to anything that none of us could do or allow to be done. All of this is false. Needless to insist on the fact that it is particularly disgusting to capitalize on this when one is unable to provide any basis for these truly infamous accusations. We always stand in solidarity with those who fight against their condition, whatever it may be: the list of reasons for making a revolution grows every day.

To those who wanted to believe these calumnies, without taking the time to read, discuss, exchange, to those who organized and directed this masquerade and this ridiculous and authoritarian happening (to be insulted by 40 people who 'we don't know of being racist TERFS, it's all the same very special), and who have instrumentalized oppressions: your maneuvers are useless, except to trivialize the relations of domination, to prevent the practices and the thought revolutionary.

To all those who will read this text: let there be no misunderstanding. We will never be sympathizers of reactionary theories of the right, of the left, any more than we will be sympathizers of the power games of politics, and of those who hammer their ideology excluding those who dare to express an opinion which diverges from theirs.

Since when does publicly humiliating 3 people emancipates anyone?

Since when does fighting against racism and transphobia that ravages the world became fighting against the collective of Les Fleurs Arctiques, une bibliothèque pour la révolution?

Notice to the micro-tyrants of the small Parisian milieu: you are becoming sad and ridiculous. Stop your shenanigans, get out of your house for something other than denouncing your neighbors abroad in good French, join the struggles.

Fuck transphobia
and transphobes
Fuck homophobia
and homophobes
Fuck racism and racists

and triple fuck those
who exploit them!

For the unknown, the diversity, the movement, the difference, the strange and the foreign,
for the freedom of all and all
for the revolution

July 21, 2023
Les Fleurs Arctiques Collective

[machine translated]

Notes:
1 – This brochure can be found here: https://lesfleursarctiques.noblogs.org/?p=2713
2 – The organizers of the book fair have since published a press release which can be read here (http://bab2023.espivblogs.net/final-statement-of-the-balkan-anarchist-bo...) and which shows how much they are involved in the fight against racism, transphobia, sexism and homophobia.
3 – To read here: https://lesfleursarctiques.noblogs.org/?p=338
4 – To read here: https://lesfleursarctiques.noblogs.org/?p=2203
5 – lesfleursArctiques.noblogs.org/
6 - To read on the Mauvais Sang blog here: https://mauvaissang.noblogs.org/post/2022/06/12/les-casseuses-sont-des-c...

There are 8 Comments

this is in no way surprising. this culture of bullshit accusations, petty squabbling, and infighting is exactly what so-called "anarchists" champion these days. this is the logical conclusion of the logic of contemporary anarchism. read Appel and learn something

Yes, the Tiqqunistas are at it again!

a very thoughtful and well-considered response to what sounds like a miserable situation. i don't know if this is a reasonable expectation but i do hope this particular culture of bullying will pass away at some point. of course there will still be anarchists who don't like each other, but it would be good to leave behind these sorts of denunciations....

Article says:

For the curious little ones who are interested, here is the entire passage of the article entitled “The breakers are breakers! And the breakers are breakers! Thieves of thieves and thieves of thieves!”(6): “Put on a hood, dress in black, tag, tear, shout, break, burn: it is not becoming like everyone else, becoming invisible, equal in all points to other hooded people (even if it is externally to show solidarity in the face of the legal and police apparatus) but it is also to organize, to come together to act together and to put the test, by our flesh, of a transversal organization – and that does not matter whether I am a woman, a rat, a weirdo, a man, a dolphin, trans, queer, whether I am from elsewhere, whether I am from here or there, whether I have been socialized as a docile animal or as a wild brute, whether my parents were policemen, unemployed, judges, bourgeois, aristocrats or proles! Tearing yourself away from capital, tearing yourself away from the state, tearing yourself away from all forms of violence should be everyone's business!"

Is this the "identity disappears in the riot" stance so many people like? Anyway, someone post more of what this group actually published so we can make informed decisions.

anyone who won't answer a simple question like "but what exactly did they say or do?"

only moreso if they're leaning on you, trying to push and becoming angry

never trust those people...

oh! the next move in the game of liberal-shithead rhetoric is "people don't owe you an explanation [insert identity]"

yeah they fukin do or else they can fuck right off back to whatever margin they're weaponizing

Inb4 you realize they're just a bunch of immature fools being dominated by their herd mentality... Sad. People like this should go back to team sports.

I look at the events held at this social center and there's no single evidence they're racist and transphobes. Actually very antifascistic and antimilitarist events.

The fact of an accuser just starting to yell out loud the moment evidence or arguments are asked form them is pretty revealing of their bullshit. The character of an accusation or the gender/ethnic group of the accuser doesn't stand as supporting evidence to their claims.

IT IS THE SEETHING RESSENTIMENT OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH INCEASES MY SUICIDAL KAMIKAZE TENDENCIES!

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