Réponse à l'article de Renversé
The people involved in the organisation of the RIA agreed to recall the core values of this event: criticism of the state, anti-authoritarianism, anti-capitalism, feminism, struggle against discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people, anti-racism, anti-militarism, criticism of colonisation, struggle against ableism and classism, against the oppression of animals and the destruction of the living.
We know that the Telegram feed "Offtopic (Not Anarchy 2023)" is trolled by people who make statements that contradict these values. We do not represent these statements and are not responsible for them. This chat is not moderated. We use it to redirect irrelevant requests from our Telegram feed called "Anarchy 2023", which in turn is used to inform people about the event. "Offtopic (Not Anarchy 2023)" is an outlet that allows us to keep "Anarchy 2023" open to everyone. If you would like to take over the moderation of "Offtopic (Not Anarchy 2023)", please feel free to contact us.
Regarding the workshops offered during the RIA on Openki, these have so far been programmed without being sufficiently filtered. We have noticed that some workshops do not correspond to the values mentioned above and contain discriminatory or other elements that are detrimental to these values.
We have decided to form a new working group to sift through the descriptions and references of the hundreds of workshops on offer, as far as we can. Some workshops will therefore be cancelled in the coming days.
Regarding the use of Openki, there is no consensus within the organisation. We have very different positions on this kind of digital tool. Openki will remain open until the end of the event. Some of us may continue to monitor the new proposals until the RIA starts. And within the limits of their capacities, which are getting smaller and smaller. So it may be that workshops are cancelled at the last minute without justification if they contain discriminatory elements or if we consider them harmful. And it may be that we miss out on harmful workshops.
We welcome observations to help us with this monumental work. You can send any results of your research to the workshops group address: workshops@anarchy2023.org.
Or you can post the results directly by clicking on the "Report Problem" button on Openki. We won't have time to respond, but we'll do our best to read it all.
The text recently published on Renverse.co seems to be the fruit of a colossal effort and brings useful elements to better understand the origins and intentions of some of the workshops on offer, so it is a valuable - if late - help.
It would have been constructive if you had informed us of this research by contacting us or posting comments on Openki - as other people had done in response to a workshop proposal from the Pièces et Mains d'Oeuvre collective. Thanks to the information from these comments, we asked the collective not to come.
Moreover, despite the intentions expressed in the introduction, this text is written in the form of an indictment that does not seek the truth regarding the incriminating elements and aims to discredit the RIA organisation. Things are alleged that are not true and connections are mentioned that do not exist.
Among other things, Gian Piero de Bellis is not a member of the organisation this year and many of us do not want him to organise workshops.
As for Chris Zumbrunn, he is part of the organisation. But he is not the only one using the login with his name. He has posted a denial on https://st-imier.org/stories/748.
As for the statement of the person called Pieceofplastic, the reality from our point of view is different. We have considered this person and invited them to several meetings. They came to a radio group meeting where they were asked to present all their needs. Yet they disappeared saying that they could not work under these conditions, without explaining what these conditions were and what we should have done differently.
If the editors of the Renverse.co article had contacted the organisation, we could have corrected or refuted the findings of their investigation. We could also have given them the opportunity to support us and to avoid the mishaps we committed due to lack of time and volunteers, among other things.
The people involved in organising the RIA confess that there is currently no strong consensus within the international anarchist movement on some very important issues. These include anti-speciesism, covid, technology, non-violence, use of alternative currencies and spirituality.
We do not believe that these issues are exclusively moral issues. And we do not believe that it is currently useful to divide people into "good" and "bad" anarchists according to their stand on these issues. Nor do we believe that it is constructive at this time to pass off a strict position on each of these issues as the only one that flows directly and obviously from the values stated above. We believe that this amounts to puritanism at the present time. And thus does not lead to these values becoming more alive and changing the way anarchists analyse and understand the political and social developments coming our way.
We believe that it is essential to discuss these issues today among people who call themselves anarchists in order to move the movement forward towards a more synthetic view of the prevailing forms of oppression and to fight the propaganda of the system that affects us all to different degrees.
During the meeting, a big building called "ZAF" will be open all the time, where everyone can organise activities spontaneously. We are counting on individual responsibility and collective intelligence to regulate these activities. In addition to the co-participants, the care team and the mediation group are always available on request.
We remind you that this is an anti-authoritarian meeting that takes place in an authoritarian world full of oppression. The people involved in the organisation are responsible in advance. They are responsible for defending the above-mentioned values, taking into account the real conditions, making the necessary decisions in the fairest way possible, listening to criticism, questioning their privileges and doing their best within the means available to them. They should also respect their own needs. They are not responsible for the state of the world. And once the event starts, we all share responsibility for how it goes.
We encourage people who are well versed in certain issues to share their knowledge locally. If they disagree with certain positions, they should speak up, disagree, debate and share their ideas to further collective reflection. We hope that many people who call themselves anarchists will leave the RIA enriched with new perspectives.
As our call for the event states, "In a world that seems to be getting better at neutralising radical protest - between oppression, appropriation and control - it seems necessary for us to meet physically as anarchists. To collectively reflect on the issues we care about, especially the political and social developments of recent years, and to continue to deepen the critique that emancipates us."
The people involved in organising the RIA aim to ensure that these issues can be addressed in the best possible conditions and that conflicts serve as tools for transformation, broadening horizons and developing the spirit of synthesis.
For example, by offering a workshop on Covid that bluntly critiques the state, ableism, racism, the pharmaceutical industry, technology, scientism and male dominance. We feel, this is real resistance in the form of action against the reality of domination.
This is our goal. And not just a symbolic goal - as opposed to the attitude of avoiding discussions about these issues, draping oneself in morality, just keeping to oneself and laughing/puking when one hears things one disagrees with.
Our aim is political.
The RIA Care Team would like to take this opportunity to point out that contrary to what has been written, we answer emails and strive to find solutions that take into account the needs of all people. So do not hesitate to write to us if we can help you!
The care team consists of a handful of people who are mostly socialised as women and work in care. Some of them have health problems. So they are people who already do a lot of free care work in their everyday lives.
These people do an enormous amount of voluntary work for the care team and carry a growing psychological burden day after day. We do not accept that they are approached by insulting their intentions or their work. And we can understand that they stop responding when they are insulted or approached aggressively.
We invite you all to reflect on how the burden of care work is distributed in today's society and collectives.
We invite you all to think about responsibility. We make the distinction between the responsibility that collectives have towards individuals - according to the needs of each individual - and the responsibility that each individual has to participate in "their" collectives in a way that takes into account the needs of the other members.
It is an immense amount of work to make this event as inclusive as possible. The Care Team is always looking for people with care skills and experience from similar events, as well as people who are willing to train in them. If this applies to you, please don't hesitate to contact us. We need your help.
We hope that many people who come to this event are already convinced that care work is a collective problem and that it is necessary to care for each other by fighting against the prejudices of ableism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and racism that have been instilled in us.
Our health policy takes into consideration all weaknesses, especially vulnerability to infections, of which Covid is of course one.
Do not come to the event if you show signs of a communicable infection.
Be attentive during the event.
Please pay attention to your own needs and notice the needs of others and let's try to prioritise all these needs as fairly as possible. We are all the care team!
And please, join us, sign up as a volunteer! Without volunteers, these RIA cannot achieve their goals. A self-organised event depends to a large extent on the participants.
The charter written by the care team and the health concept can be found on the website, at: https://anarchy2023.org/fr/info/careteam.
See you in a few days!