May Day 2008: Revolutionary Discipline & The Politics of Fun

author : Christa Kilduff

by Christa Kilduff

In the aftermath of May Day 2008 in Olympia there has been a great deal of dialogue about the efficacy, appropriateness and objectives of the “rock throwers”. It appears as if two antagonistic forces have come to a head in Olympia: Revolutionary Discipline and The Politics of Fun. We now have a great opportunity as a community to discuss the importance of maintaining a diversity of tactics, while remaining aware of their effective application.

I define Revolutionary Discipline as the ability to simultaneously work towards your immediate goals while maintaining behavior that is anti-oppressive and community minded. I separate this from the Communist Party definition and redefine it for Anarchists struggles. The Communist Party definition indicates there being a professional accountability committee; I am suggested something much more static and localized. In regards to Anarchists the discipline lies within the individual, but accountability remains within the realm of the immediate community.

The Politics of Fun is the belief that fun is revolutionary, conversely the revolution will be fun and that the fun justifies the means. This leads to individuals using fun as if it were an applicable tactic for Direct Action, or justifying their actions with “fun”. This isn’t to say that our organizing tactics should be boring and devoid of enjoyment. On the contrary they should be fun and inclusive to everyone who shares in our struggle against capitalism and oppression.

On May Day 2008 a small group decided their desires for fun and notoriety eclipsed the safety and autonomy of the larger group. Although no press release has been officially published, I can imagine the motivation behind breaking the windows of those particular banks. Bank of America and U.S. Bank are two of the largest contributors of funding to Mountain Top Mining Removal (MTR). MTR is most common in Appalachia (home of the author) and continues to destroy the ecological community and in turn our own. For the past several years there have been, and continue to be, intense organizing campaigns to stop this practice (http://www.ilovemountains.org/ ). The guilt of these companies is not in question, but the breaking of the windows of two banks at a non-MTR event appears frivolous at best.

A friend once asked me, “What was the last truly effective thing you did? Something that truly bettered the life of an oppressed or marginalized person?” At the time my only response was of being chased through a subway in a black bloc by police. I felt as if the spectacle of resistance I had forcibly inserted into the lives of commuters should be enough. I felt as if those smashed windows of a military recruiters office would surely end the war, but five years later I’m not so sure. If breaking windows changed anything, wouldn’t they just use Plexiglas?

We have an opportunity to start defining our community based on theoretical and tactical unity. Olympia’s May Day 2008 and the controversy surrounding it, should serve as a lesson learned in our struggle to create self-governing autonomous communities. Olympia offers great promise, with many generations of Anarchists and community organizations to act as a framework for experimentation and implementation. If we cannot learn to create effective strategies and determine appropriate tactical responses we will not succeed, we will remain in the shadows. As Anarchists it is time that we begin offering solutions, and not just asking unanswerable questions written in broken glass.

To read the extended version of this article and others please visit www.hellaestella.blogspot.com.