We’re embarrassed about our last post.
To clarify, we’re not particularly embarrassed by the statement that, in the new context, “people are going to have to be slightly more creative if they want to break windows and get away with it.” This emphatically isn’t a revelation of our position on what constitutes good revolutionary strategy; if it is anything besides a statement of fact, it is a pretty unsubtle jab at any line of thought that considers breaking windows the be-all and end-all of what anarchists can do to be fierce and confrontational in their conflict with the state. Perhaps an unnecessary jab, but if that’s the case, it’s probably not significantly more unnecessary than any other part of this thoroughly unnecessary and unfortunate text.
We’re embarrassed, first, by the poor quality of writing—and on this subject, there’s really not much to say beyond acknowledging the sorry fact of the matter.
After that, it’s the fact that this post doesn’t critically engage with the difficult questions of how people in the struggle should actually support comrades as the state, its courts, and its police are currently making a targeting them as individuals in a specific effort to break their spirits and isolate them from the broader movement of which they are—that is, must be—a part. Such questions certainly have very little to do with which streets a crowd of people took or whether some of them were wearing certain types of clothing.
There is nothing wrong with an account that focuses on the specifics of how a crowd moved or acted, of course. Such details could impart strategic insight, or even just interest people—although in this case, they don’t. As such, this report fails to uphold either of the two objectives of this infosite: first, to report news of interest to anarchists outside of Montréal, and second, to provide useful strategic insight to anarchists fighting on the social terrain of this city. Although the first aim was accomplished in a technical sense, the objectionable and needlessly ugly nature of the text rendered this accomplishment meaningless, especially in light of the much better report that came out a short while later. As for the second aim, it would be speaking very poorly of Montréal’s anarchists to say that there was a single thing in the report that could be considered insightful or novel.
We are sorry, and we hope that this apology is accepted by everyone with whom we share the project of destroying/undermining capitalism, the Canadian state, and all systems of domination. That said, we don hold it against anyone who isn’t quick to forgive us. This infosite will continue to operate; it will periodically feature content that, we hope, contributes positively to anarchist struggles in Montréal and the perception of those struggle in other places—and it is precisely by doing so that we intend to prove our worth. As for the previous post, it will be left up, because taking it down would simply be an erasure of our fuck-up.
Once again, for a better assessment of the demonstration on October 26, 2012, in Montréal, click here.