When the Anarchist Movement conference ended back in June 2009 most people thought the event a worthwhile experience, and on balance thought it should happen again soon. The feeling was definitely positive and five or six embryonic groups came out of the final session.
Oh, how memories fade. Once the conference was over the knives came out! There was criticism on internet discussion lists over the topics picked – even though in the pre-publicity and on the day it was stated these were just suggestions. Any group could pick all, some or none of the topics suggested. Then there were moans the organisers had either somehow let in a load of un-anarchists, or that they hadn’t been strict enough about stating who the event was for. Hmmm. Just to re-cap, the publicity did say: “This is a conference by and for anarchists. And by anarchists, we mean those opposed to the state, all forms of nationalism, capitalism, sexual/race/gender oppression and all forms of exploitation and domination.” And yes, we did forget to employ the anarcho police to check everybody’s credentials. But let’s move on.
Why was the conference called. For me at least, the conference was meant to be a small part of trying to bring together our disjointed movement – and the ‘intervention’ alone shows we are not ‘one’ movement. The national organisations have their conferences; Earth First! have their gatherings; there is Climate Camp; some local areas have regional events, as do single issue campaigns and groups active in identity politics. But, where is the space where these, and all the rest of us can come together, sit down and discuss the issues which affect us all and can look at how we move forward as one (many parted) movement.
Okay, there’s the Anarchist Bookfair in London and as an event I love it (I would, I help organise it!). But this ain’t, and can never, fulfil the remit for a national anarchist conference. The format is just to different to try and combine the two.
If we intend to be a threat as a movement or ideology we need somewhere we can all come together; discuss how we relate to each other; workout what we really agree and disagree on; and start discussing a movement wide strategy for the coming months, years – and, yes – decades. Discussion boards and the like can’t do this. So, until somebody comes up with something better, I suggest all we have is the (possibly) yearly Anarchist Movement Conference. No, it is not perfect. The first time we may not have got it quite right. But, without it, or something similar, how do we move forward outside of the remits of our national organisation, local areas, single issue or identity politics groups? Maybe we don’t want to? Maybe we actually like just moaning about each other? Maybe we like being that big fish in a very small pond? But, assuming we actually want to put our politics into world wide practice, how do we move forward together?
I feel one way is the yearly Anarchist Movement conference (or whatever we want to call it). So, should we have a 2010 conference? I say yes.
In 2009 it was very London dominated, and I guess was always going to be. This needs to change. The venue needs to move around the country. The organising group needs more input from people outside the capital. Organising meetings need looking at. But, this will only happen if others take up this call.
I feel the format worked. Breaking into small groups means less confident participants were more comfortable about speaking. The idea of having pre set topics worked both in June and at a similar event in Bradford in 1998. Hopefully, for future conference more contributions would come in about subjects for discussion and maybe we could produce discussion documents in advance to get participants thinking. Like the London bookfair I suggest the conference would grow over the years, both in importance and size.
Although two day of intense discussions, I feel the conference was not long enough – most groups only scratched the surface of discussions. Should future events be over a bank holiday weekend with people registering on the Friday night with the conference lasting Saturday, Sunday and Monday. With more time, the final session could be more productive as well.
All this can all be argued over. The question is, is there a will to do it and a belief that it’s needed? This is something the wider movement will need to decide.
As a first step towards this, there’s a meeting at this year’s London Anarchist Bookfair. We will look at the 2009 conference and the desire to do it again in 2010. Come and have your say, face-to-face, on Saturday 24th October from 2pm to 4pm, room EB1.
Finally, somebody recently told me they didn’t come to the conference as they thought it was about setting up another national organisation. We have four, five, six, or more national organisations already. We have numerous local groups. We have abundant single issue campaigns we are involved in. For me, as I have said already, the Anarchist Movement conferences should be a vehicle to bring all these together, to see how we can work together, understand each other (outside of cyberspace) and have a co-ordinated strategy for seriously looking at bringing about an anarchist society. If we are not serious about our beliefs, why the fuck are we involved!
Tony Wood
