| It has always seemed that there's been a conflict | | | | make it a social issue. The tactic of bambing |
| between reformers and revolutionaries. The former | | | | Starbucks, for example, might only have a monetary |
| relatively being described as those who want to | | | | damage on a corporation that uses foreign slave |
| patch up and repair the parts of the current system | | | | labor for coffee beans, maybe $20,000 or $30,000. |
| that cause so much misery. The latter relatively being | | | | From the stand point of the urban guerilla, that is the |
| described as those who want to completely overturn | | | | point of the activity. But, this bombing puts corporate |
| the social system in favor of a different system, one | | | | practices of Starbucks in to the spotlight of society. |
| much more applicable to the wants and desires of | | | | People will be forced to look at it and deal with it as |
| human society. The chief aim of both has been thus: | | | | an issue. A single bombing might very well have a |
| to change the current order of society insomuch that | | | | greater spread of ideas and beliefs than a ten |
| the lives of people (and animals, perhaps) are | | | | thousand printed and distributed pamphlets. |
| considerably improved. Both the reformer and the | | | | Essentially, these urban guerillas would be satisfying |
| revolutionary are motivated by the same cause; they | | | | the philosophy of Martin Luther King: by making an |
| are plants to the same fertilizer. Their aim is to | | | | issue of the matter, people must recognize it and |
| improve the lot of mankind -- to change those faults | | | | deal with it. King accomplished his goal by marching in |
| which have become inherent parts of life.One of the | | | | the streets, being ripped to shreds by attack dogs of |
| most common assaults made against the reformer | | | | the police, beating beaten by cops in riot gear.So, the |
| by the revolutionary is this: by reforming the system, | | | | first purpose of urban guerillas is economic damage. |
| by making small changes, my patching up small parts | | | | For preventing the corporate entity from gaining |
| of the system, we are doing nothing but making the | | | | profits, that means the entire social structure breaks |
| system more livable, making the people more | | | | down. That means that no money will be funnelled to |
| tolerant of the status quo. For example, during the | | | | Vietnamese sweatshops so that children work 12 |
| French Revolution, the efforts of all reformers (if | | | | hours a day. That means no bribes are going to be |
| there were any) were completely ineffective. Nothing | | | | made to the shifty governments of third world |
| was patched up. Nothing was changed. The | | | | countrties. In an international Capitalist society where |
| commonplace misery of the greater 95% of the | | | | money is power, by inflicting economic damage on |
| population, caused by the social relationships, was | | | | these creatures of doomsday, we are eliminating |
| enough to motivate the mass of people to revolt | | | | their power, their strength. That is to say, we are |
| and overthrow their government. It was their misery, | | | | hindering their ability to exploit the citizens and |
| their pain, the suffering they had endured, that made | | | | workers of all countries. And, beyond that, to act as |
| them in to revolutionaries. Reformers, the | | | | a current and standing threat to the corporations, to |
| revolutionary intellectual argues, prevent that misery | | | | stand as the defender of internationally understood |
| from existing, and thus, they prevent revolutionary | | | | rights of the people. Corporate entities will be much |
| tendencies from taking place. For example, reformers | | | | more hesitant to engage in activities that bring with |
| in the United States have created a Minimum Wage | | | | them a constant barrage of bombings, property |
| law, have sustained fair working conditions in | | | | defacement, etc., etc..The second purpose, and |
| manufacturing plants, have created unemployment | | | | perhaps the often unintended purpose, of |
| payments, have erected numerous public works | | | | revolutionary activity is to bring the issue to the |
| programs -- all things that have alleviated the miseries | | | | spotlight, to make society look at these guerillas and |
| of the working class in the United States. If none of | | | | understand their reasons. Sure, the great deal of |
| these things had been put in to place, if none of | | | | conservative, right-wingers will argue that these men |
| these reforms were given acceptance by the | | | | are deviants of the social order, an unintended |
| government, then the working class would be pretty | | | | consequence, probably spawned by mental illness and |
| pissed off -- they would become revolutionaries from | | | | the inability to adaptate to society's wants. The |
| the 16 to 20 hour working days, the repression of | | | | same was said of Martin Luther King, of the |
| the will of the workers, the massive amounts of | | | | Communists and the Socialists and the Anarchists, of |
| poverty and unemployment, etc., etc.. If the | | | | all people who wanted to improve society and make |
| conditions in the United States were worsened, then | | | | the lives of all much easier. In fact, sometimes this |
| working proletariat would be so moved as to revolt | | | | second purpose is the primary purpose. There are |
| against the class system, and they would create a | | | | many Animal Liberation Front/A.L.F. cells (known as |
| genuinely Libertarian Communist social order.At least, | | | | "terrorist organizations" to the government) which |
| that is the argument presented by those people | | | | break in to testing laboratories with video cameras. |
| wearing the title "Revolutionary." I think an example | | | | Many of them obtain video tapes from the testing |
| or two is sufficient to prove them wrong. Consider | | | | facility. These tapes are then mailed to the major |
| again, the French Revolution. The misery and poverty | | | | news media outlets, and they are often played on |
| of the working class instigated them to overthrowing | | | | national television; the public then is made aware of |
| the ruling class. However, what was the result? Did | | | | the cruelty that is inherent in animal testing and |
| they erect this genuniely Libertarian, | | | | experimentation. Lewis Heine, the photographer of |
| Anarcho-Communist-Syndicalist social order? Did they | | | | the early 1900's, was capable of sneaking in to many |
| create a society free of censorship, free of | | | | factories and manufacturing plants, disguised as an |
| repression, free of sexism, free of racism, free of | | | | official of the census bureau; upon gaining access, he |
| exploitive social relationships? No, they did not. What | | | | would photograph the children laboring in machines, |
| was enacted was the Jacobin philosophy, that of a | | | | many of them physically deformed by the |
| Federated Republican government. That is to say, | | | | environment that they were working in. It was these |
| what they created upon the eve of revolution, was | | | | photos that greatly aided the elimination of child labor |
| a system of government that the reformers had | | | | from the United States and all European countries. |
| been aiming to create. If we took away the | | | | (I'm quite curious as to why the government hasn't |
| hard-earned rights that labor has earned in the United | | | | ever labelled this man as a terrorist, despite the fact |
| States (minimum wage, overtime pay, etc.), if we | | | | that his tactics are nearly identical to those of the |
| took all of those away, and a revolution were to | | | | A.L.F..) It was through the use of these tactics that |
| take place because fo that, I think it's pretty obvious | | | | the goals of these revolutionaries were accomplished, |
| what kind of government the revolutionaries would | | | | by forcing the public to acknowledge the issue.So, |
| set up. They would create a government that wasn't | | | | then, in conclusion, what is the greatest way to |
| much different than the previous one, the primary | | | | advance the political ideology that you hold dear? |
| differences being a fair minimum wage law, overtime | | | | What way is most effective in advancing Animal |
| pay, non-hazardous work conditions, etc., etc..I think | | | | Liberation, in destroying the Corporate State, in |
| the essential message here is that revolution alone | | | | establishing an Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation? Is it |
| does convince people of the arguments of | | | | reform, that is to say, the peaceful and lawful |
| Anarchism, Socialism, Communism, etc., etc.. That is | | | | changing of opinions, through pamphleteering, |
| to say, the arguments of those who want to | | | | distribution of propaganda, etc., etc.? Or, is it |
| radically reorganize society so that human misery and | | | | revolution, that is to say, breaking the law as a |
| want nearly disappear completely. That does not | | | | means and method to accomplishing your goal? In |
| mean that revolution itself is a completely useless | | | | the past, both tactics have managed to gain ground, |
| tool, without any relation to the class struggles that | | | | to accomplish their goals. Harriet Tubman, Frederick |
| take place everyday in modern society. In fact, what | | | | Douglass, Martin Luther King, John Brown, every |
| use is revolutionary activity? Does it have any | | | | person who served in the revolutionary forces to |
| valuable, useful aspects to it? I suppose I am of the | | | | accomplish and sustain the civil rights of all people -- |
| opinion, "No Peace Without Justice." I cannot see | | | | the term terrorist that is applied to A.L.F. and |
| justice, in a people laying down, to make it easier for | | | | Anarcho-Syndicalist cells equally applies to these |
| their oppressors to steal their labor and destroy their | | | | people. In some of the cases, their tactics were |
| culture. Not only is such an idea devoid of justice, but | | | | succesful in making the enemy weaker, so that the |
| it is equally devoid of sense and common reasoning. | | | | deathblow would be much more succinct and easy. |
| Let's take some examples... The French Resistance to | | | | The reformers, of which we can count Henry |
| the Nazi invasion of France; did these underground | | | | Stephens Salt, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Green |
| revolutionaries ("terrorists") help to better serve their | | | | Ingersoll, among so many countless other names, |
| purpose? Were they wrong for secretly building | | | | were successful in some efforts and unsuccessful in |
| bombs to be used in destroying fortifications of the | | | | others. To which road should we take? It is clear |
| Third Reich? I don't think of any person would | | | | that I have taken the road of the reformer, to |
| disagree to this argument, excepting maybe | | | | convince the minds of men and women of alternative |
| Gandhi.Consider a more modern argument. Consider | | | | theories of social order, that a collective effort can |
| American and European revolutionaries today, "urban | | | | be willed into existence, to change our living |
| guerillas," etc., etc.. It was an Anarchist who shot | | | | conditions. Whether a person decides to take the |
| President McKinley on his inauguration day, because | | | | road I have, or the road of the revolutionary, I do |
| of McKinley's invasion Cuba and other islands in the | | | | not think anything should be held against a person for |
| area. It was the Anarchist Alexander Berkman who | | | | their decision, unless it is clear that their actions |
| assasinated Frick, a Capitalist whose idea of | | | | simply inhibit the achieving of our goals. Life,Punkerslut |
| "humaneness" was working in dangerous conditions | | | | (or Andy Carloff) has been writing essays and poetry |
| for low and unfair pay. But then again, the way | | | | on social issues which have caught his attention for |
| governments and corporations respond to such | | | | several years. His website provides a complete list of |
| industrial sabotage and warfare, is usually with a | | | | all of these writings. His life experience includes |
| repression of civil liberties. It does not make the | | | | homelessness, squating in New Orleans and LA, |
| enemy more sympathetic to the cause of these | | | | dropping out of high school, getting expelled from |
| radicals. At least, not necessarily. There is a good | | | | college for "subversive activities," and a myriad of |
| chance that the activities of bombing McDonald's and | | | | other revolutionary actions. |
| burning down Starbucks will catch the public eye, and | | | | |