Who Are the Anarchists?: Why Resistance Is Coming from Below

Posted on by

*
*
The grassroots resistance that has rocked the US since Trump’s election isn’t the work of paid or professional protesters. Resistance to Trump has come from ordinary people taking action on their own terms without waiting for leadership.

The Free

It's Going Downvia   IT’S GOING DOWN  … Anarchist Movement untitled

America is in the throes of crisis. Polling as the least popular starting President in history, Donald Trump has taken the reins and intends to force his agenda on the world by brute force. Alongside him, outright white supremacists are coming out of the woodwork, convinced that their time has arrived.

Who are the Anarchists? from subMedia.tv on Vimeo.

 Millions who once counted on the Democratic Party are losing faith in the entire political system. Can anything be done to halt the rise of tyranny?

View original post 744 more words

29 thoughts on “Who Are the Anarchists?: Why Resistance Is Coming from Below”

  2. I really don’t get it, Dr. Bramhall. First, there is nothing changed for whole world. US government policy is the provocative as before Obama times. As if whole world is the enemy of US, the 3/5 of US army is working outside of the US soil. And this was more legitimated with Obama doctrine and even before Obama left from presidency one or two days ago, he send new 4000 soldier to Iraq.

    Also, if Obama had stayed, could some things change for example Standing Rock, pipe line? I don’t think so. It would have been the same, but with more soft words of Obama government would have kept going on same policy by cheating public.

    In one point I can understand why anarchists get involved in front of the protests. They are anarchists and the revolt always is the thing which should be defining them.

    But in this situation, what they expect?

    The thing that they revolt is the Trump administration? So, does it mean they were good with Obama and Democrats administration? So does it mean they were good with while Obama gave order to kill children in Yemen with drone attacks or another corner of the planet? They were the Muslim children, and to attract of the people of US, also remembering Muslim or any race rights, was it neccesary to wait Trump administration for protest? These all are my questions to the protestors.

    For me, Dr. Bramhall, I don’t belive in any movement except worker movements on this planet. Laborer movements are always the actions which the people who know what they want in real.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • It’s complicated, migrariuim. My analysis is that prior to Obama’s 2008 election, there was a thriving left in the US that basically comprised 3 strands: an antiglobalization movement that started with the Battle of Seattle in 1999 and virtually killed the WTO (which is why the elite devised the TPP to replace it), an antiwar movement opposed to Bush’s resource wars in the Middle East and a sustainability movement dedicated to weaning society off of fossil fuels.

      Obama’s first election campaign virtually killed off the antiglobalization and antiwar movements – suckering their younger activists specialty to invest all their political energy into this hopey-changey president who was going to solve everything for them. One of the more important strategies of this campaign was to capture tens of thousands of email addresses, which enabled CIA-funded left gatekeeping foundations like Move On, Avaaz and journalist spokespeople such as Chris Hedges to deliver a constant diet of distracting messages to these young activists via social media. As a result, many – especially those with historic links to the Democratic Party were totally unwilling to protest against Obama – for fear of being construed as racist in protesting the first Black president.

      It took about five years to rebuild the antiglobalization movement, which came out in force over TPP, forcing continual delays (it was supposed to be passed in 2012) until it’s ratification was pushed into election year – when no one running for election was willing to support it. Over the last two years, there has also been a growing anti-fossil fuel movement which succeeded in stopping the Keystone Pipeline and which inspired the strong support for the Standing Rock protest. You probably didn’t read about these movements and protests in the mainstream media, but they were very real. It simply isn’t true that no one was marching in the streets prior to Trump’s election. The main difference now is that they have the support of a lot of Democrats (and probably the CIA), which means they’re getting mainstream media attention.

      I feel I have to mention the Occupy Wall Street movement here, another abortive attempt to rebuild the left. In my view OWS was quickly infiltrated by leftgatekeeping foundations which quickly forced women-led, minority members and diversity of tactics adherents to splinter off owing to their failure to be given a democratic voice in OWS governance. To the best of my knowledge, only the anarchists in the diversity of tactics OWS continued to be a viable movement and they have been instrumental in organizing the recent prison strikes. Contrary to popular belief, anarchists do a hell of a lot more than break windows – most of their work involves direct service and organizing with disenfranchised groups – feeding homeless people, books to prisoners etc.

      I think the important question is whether there is any serious movement building going on in the midst of all these street protests. I know there is in Seattle, as I’m acquainted with activists there. I have no idea what’s happening anywhere else.

      As a woman, I have to disagree with your statement that only worker movements can bring about political change. Across the planet women do most of the work and most of it is unpaid as they are not engaged in formal employment. Worker based organizing also leaves out a substantial number of minority activists – over 50% among African American youth for example. With globalization and automation, the pool of employed people is shrinking rapidly – as more and more jobs are outsourced to third world countries or replaced by robots or converted to self-employed contracts.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

  3. I am with migarium on this. None of this makes any sense because just like migarium said this was ongoing since before Trump took office. The Obama Administration bombed and invaded several Middle Eastern countries and no one took to the streets in mass opposition, but now all of a sudden, all hell has broken loose. What gives? Obama was no lesser of an evil than Trump is and the so-called ‘white supremacists’ that everyone claims has just stepped to the forefront were operating this entire time; they did not just materialize thanks to Trump. These protests don’t past the smell test, not to me, not at all.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • Thanks for commenting, Shelby. The narrative the mainstream media lays down for us never makes any sense because it always omits significant context. I have tried to provide some of this context in my answer to migrarium – it’s just my own personal analysis of course. I agree with the author of the original post that most of the anarchists breaking windows are probably not paid to engage in these activities. However I agree with you that CIA-funded left gatekeeping foundations are heavily promoting anti-Trump protests on social media. The Daily Kos, a documented CIA-sponsored website, is just one example. And the so-called “peaceful” protest activities they’re promoting always provide cover for anti-corporate anarchist window-breaking and fire setting – in this case a desired activity (by them) as it promotes a lot of chaos. I think the CIA (with good reason) sees Trump as a genuine threat to its continued existence.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

  4. Dear Amerika, anyone can place an ad for someone to riot for a fee; we are all harlots of Babylon; the state of governance is but the peoples’ states of mind;

    However, to really comprehend Amerika’s problem is that its very foundations are built upon freemasonry; the same descendants of the kings, merchants and papacy still control and own you; a federal system is a system of peonage; you are vassals of papal Rome; so are we here in Afrika;

    And, their is an ancient blood feud between these 3 groups of occultists; they are now unleashing the crazies; Trump is a Templar freemason; they worship strange ancient gods; they do human sacrifice; remember, war is human sacrifice;

    They are following the “end-times” script written for them down to the last T; Rev. 9:16 “And the number of the armie of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them”; 200 million soldiers? Yes, dear people; of every country against it’s people;

    Trump is the hierophant that is here to drive everyone into a frenzy, especially Islam; that’s why the cabal want a US embassy in Jerusalem; be they democrat or republican, it is the same old two headed phoenix; two wings of the same turkey, only now one is wearing a toupe;

    To truly be a Christian is to love the Muslims; declare peace with them; and, let each self-identifying community govern themselves without outside interference;

    Now, we, the people can turn the tide; IF, we have the sense to hold a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE campaign; void politics, declare people sovereignty and state autonomy; investigate and hold Truth & Reconciliation Commissions into banking and the BAR; restore community courts and banks; municipal governance;

    Even great minds like judge Anna do not get that the very foundations of USA are corrupt and we must start with a clean slate; therefore, do we not see USA stopping this madness, but escalation; the time of tribulations is here; let those who have ears and eyes, hear and see; best we rely on our instincts and start prepping; in peace

    Like

    Reply ↓

  5. Yes Stuartbramhall, ‘Anarchist Movement’ tends to come up in more troubled days. In my opinion though, the true Anarchists are those that say that they are part of no movement at all. They also protest in these times, but their main work is under the radar of the Media, even in more peaceful times – where they just live and act in their communities day by day in a much more constructive and horizontally organized way, creating alternatives to the established system.
    And in my opinion, this can be a very effective way of fighting against the system – you just have to communicate it well to everyone else.

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • My feelings exactly, umundze. There needs to be far more attention to the good work anarchists do – books to prisoners, campaigns against solitary confinement, feeding the homeless, free clinics, etc – and far less on the window breaking and fire setting. Thanks for commenting.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

    • THE TRUE ANARCHISTS ARE THOSE THAT ARE THE ELECTED OFFICIALS AND LEADERS OF THE WORLD; COLLECTING AND STEALING PEOPLE’S FUNDS THROUGH TAXES, ETC…, AND USING THESE FUNDS FOR THEIR OWN USE. THEY DO WANT US TO KILL EACH OTHER. THEY CREATE THIS UNEMPLOYMENT, AND PAY PEOPLE TO RIOT, TO CAUSE CHAOS, THEN WILL KILL EACH OTHER, WHICH ACCOMPLISHES THEIR MISSION. WE ARE ABOUT AMONG OTHER THINGS TO HAVE A RIOTING PAYROLL. THEY ARE ACTUALLY PAYING US TO KILL EACH OTHER AND DESTROY OUR ENVIRONMENTS. LITTLE DO THEY KNOW, IT IS COMING FOR THEM NEXT.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  7. Thank you Dr. Bramhall for explaining in detail the anti-globalization movements that occurred between the years of before the election of Obama and the years of 2012, and the areas where they found the opposite answer, also the cause effect relationship of suppression of them.

    I did not know these details, so learning them will create a new perspective on me. Within the causal process you mentioned, it is important to see how the global elites and the capitalist state mechanisms create new ways and actually to see how social delicate points are transformed into an opposing natural repressive mechanism by extending of the elites’ planned and programmed framework. As you have mentioned, “for fear of being construed as racist in protesting the first Black president.”

    These are the things that come to mind when it comes to anarchism and anarchists: Anarchism is not a mind exercise, it is a revolutionary philosophy and ideology. In the meantime, I must say, I respect them as being a communist, even if I do not overlap in the context of the idea. And if it is difficult to implement and live the ideology of anarchism, then one has no right to say that “I am an anarchist.” In short, anarchism is the manifestation of an ideology that is supposed to be beyond the left / right ideas. The first thing that comes to mind is that beyond the US’ left / right concepts and the groups (whether it’s a political party or a non-partisan group) that focus around them,

    so while the anarchism has to be the refuser of the sociological and individual insights that these groups put forward and nurture, why this process so rucked during the Obama era?

    The sub-reasons you mentioned are certainly important in the last decades. However, the emergence of a glowing star movement at this moment can not be explained for these reasons alone. So, a few lines above, what I have said above shows that while the perceiving of the ideology of anarchism needs to be out of the left / right ideas, as if they seem like to proceed to attack only when a conservative president comes into power; and this sets bounds to the anarchism ideology into the narrow scope. That’s what made me thought at a remote location from the US on this planet.

    And I do not underestimate their movement. I only write the contradictions in my mind, critically. In fact what you said, is the main point: “the important question is whether there is any serious movement building going on in the midst of all these street protests.”

    Besides, I never read mainstream media, Dr. Bramhall. I read three Turkish, two Russian newspapers, and the blogs I follow like yours. Already I don’t have too much time to read of mainstream media nonsense. Even I’ve created a slogan by myself about it, and I say it all time, “Don’t buy, don’t read, don’t feed mainstream media!” It is cool isn’t it? 🙂

    When I talked about the workers’ movements, I wrote it without separating it as woman-man. I guess it’s misunderstood. Workers’ movements in the nearly 200 years of its historical development, have came to harm as a structural frailty, obviously due to globalization. But that does not mean that the workers’ movements are now unthinkable for the robust and constructive actions of today’s world and new hopes of human life.

    On the contrary, there is no more valuable concept than labor on this planet for me. If these movements are accessible to a globe power that can spread waves all over the world, they are valuable. And if we look closely, whenever a serious worker movement is occured, the elites of the world enter into a new battlefield to break down the situation. The intensity of the workers’ movements before the first and second world wars are the examples for this. Of course, it is not possible to discuss these movements scientifically by putting out a single piece of data. But if the only movement that the elites are still afraid of and refrain from, is the workers’ movement, then there is still hope.:)

    Like

    Reply ↓

  8. With all your intellectualizing….Trump is still your President. He is the most powerful person on planet earth. You are all obsessed by his stunning victory and its only been 2 weeks. Trump moves mountains while you all debate the futile. Get on board. Get rid of your biases and feminazi fails https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sJScg78Rlc&index=3&list=PLytTJqkSQqtozQffMxSaYEySkAGlT_unH – another nefarious divide and conquer false flag misinformation by those educated but no common sense but their own agendas driving their lives. Must be hard living like that. There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil – to one who is striking at the root. All I needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten. Treat yourselves kindly. Cheers. https://amaezed.wordpress.com/

    Like

    Reply ↓

    • LISTEN UP, TRUMP IS NOT MOVING MOUNTAINS, THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN IS OUR INFINITE AND ETERNAL CREATOR YAHVEH. I AM NOT IN NO WAY, SHAPE, NOR FORM COMING ON ABOARD WITH ANYONE. THE ONLY WAY I AM GOING TO COME ABOARD IS, AT THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST. TRUMP IS A PART OF THE DAMNED EVIL AND CORRUPTION HIMSELF. I AM OF NO LABELS, I AM A SOUL PREPARING TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF YAHVEH, AT THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST. NO I AM NO GETTING ABOARD WITH ANY POLITICIAN, NOR ANY WORLD LEADERS, I DO NOT LIKE ANY OF THEM. THEY HAVE ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING, BUT CONTRIBUTING MORE SIN, EVIL, AND CORRUPTION AMONG THEMSELVES AND THE WORLD.

      Like

      Reply ↓

  9. I think there are a lot of concerns, amaezed, that only about 1/4 of American adults voted for Trump and slightly more than that voted for Clinton. That leaves about 75% of the population who didn’t vote for Trump. Because he’s entered office with the lowest approval rating in history (41-45%), there is understandably a lot of angst that most of his appointees are billionaires and multimillionaires who don’t really give a fuck about the interests of working people.

    Like

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.