Zapatista C

The Beginnings of Buffalo Class Action

Two things I could never be accused of:

1) Having the language to describe what I feel.
2) Having the patience to wait for better timing.

One injured on second day of Argentine soccer violence


BUENOS AIRES, March 16 (Xinhua) -- At least one person was wounded on
Sunday during a brawl immediately ahead of Argentine soccer giant Boca
Juniors's match with local league rival Huracan, local media reported, a
day after a soccer fan was killed, sparking riots.

Clashes between rival fans began in the land surrounding Boca's La
Bonbonera (Chocolate Box) Stadium, where soccer-based hooligans known as
Barras Bravas (Fight Clubs) meet.

Boca's soccer team traveled to the Argentinos Juniors ground in
Argentine capital Buenos Aires to play Huracan for the Closing-Tournament
sixth-round match. The hooligans used guns and knifes during their fight.

The malicious wounding incident came as Argentine police offered a
32,000-dollar reward for information to solve a soccer-related murder
that took place Saturday. Emanuel Alvarez, 21 and a fan of Velez
Sarsfield, was shot dead on his way to a Velez-San Lorenzo match.

Riots following the news of Alvarez's killing caused the cancellation
of the Saturday match. In June last year, one fan died and 14 were
injured in clashes between fans of clubs Nueva Chicago and Tigre.

On Sunday, soccer matches across the nation held a one-minute silence
to mark Alvarez's death, the 223rd death that has occurred since
Argentine began keeping records on soccer-linked deaths in 1939.

As mentioned before, the initial meet up of the Buffalo Anarchist Discussion Series brought out about 50 people. The first week of actual discussion had a little more than 20 people. I was really surprised by the smaller turnout the second week. Although I see a few reasons for it: 1) Spring break, lots of college folks are out of town 2) A number of "chaos anarchy club" folks likely didn't return after the first week where it was clear that was not the targeted audience 3) A handful of other folks likely didnt show up for either not reading the texts or totally disagreeing with the texts (although I was hoping disagreement would encourage people to come and talk about it).

The discussion was definitely more introductory than I expected. It was clear a number of people in the room hadn't actually done the reading. It began in a very awkward way, as I think people needed to get used to the idea of it actually being a participatory space. Even once we got rolling, a number of people didn't speak at all, although we did expect that. On the positive side, there weren't any primi/capitalist/party socialist detractors there. So we were able to have a relatively introductory discussion without having to pander to this "anarchism can mean fuckin anything, man" attitude.

I'm looking forward to the next week. But I do hope that some people that left come back and that those that stick around really do the reading. Also this monday:

Thursday was the first day of the anarchist discussion series that we've organized in Buffalo. It went incredibly well. Nearly 50 people attended. This meant that the room was packed and that we almost ran out of the readers that we put together. I gave a general introduction to the history of anarchist organization in Buffalo (which is REAL easy to do quickly) and the reason for why we were having this discussion series. Matt talked about the ground rules we had set for the discussion, which surprisingly didn't get any harsh response. I was expecting at least one person to be like "Rules!?! This is teh Anarchy!" But that didn't happen, and people generally agreed that these rules would be good to having a productive space.

We then showed the movie "Un poquito de tanta verdad" (A Little Bit of So Much Truth) about the popular uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico in 2006. I really hope that the movie helped to set the tone for the discussion -- one of seriousness, actual popular organizing, and concrete action rather than of absurd theorizing, belittling of people's struggles, or vanguardist style disregard for people's capacity. Which to me are essentials of anarchism that the anarchist scene in the US often forgets.

The turnout was scattered. Folks from UB, Buff State, and ECC. There were some non-students in the room. There were a handful of non-20 somethings in the room. I wouldn't call it racially diverse, but it was better than I was expecting. There were punks there, but they were definitely not the majority. So, all in all I'm excited and hope that it continues to go well and that people seriously participate.

Then off to the National Conference on Organized Resistance, which in some ways embodied the type of anarchyist scene that I mention above and in some ways didn't. So I was not surprised when punk and anarchism/activism were totally conflated in the first night. I was not surprised when the majority of participants were punks with nearly no actual analysis or understanding of what anarchism is and how it relates to social movements. I was however surprised when some of the discussions were incredibly well organized, from a wide variety of perspectives, and still well attended. In the end, it seems to me a space that has been institutionalized within the US punk scene and is a space specifically for speaking to punks about political/strategic action. I wish there were spaces like this for other sub-cultures, but that shouldn't lead to me attacking this space for existing as such. It can just be really difficult when white punks force themselves onto and AS the stage of anarchism in the US, and this space definitely didn't do anything to question that, and actually reinforces it. In the end though, it was better organizing and more diverse than I had expected, so I was pleasantly surprised. Although, this is probably because I went in with such incredibly low expectations that it would have been hard to walk away with any other sense.

We've developed a reader to go along with each week of this discussion series. If you're interested in a copy of the pdf, let me know.

Well, ya know, I haven't posted in ages. Other than a fake post by my new housemate Hannah. Well, I guess not all that new, it's been more than a month now. She is pretty awesome people that is working with me on the anarchist discussion series we are putting on.

Oh, thats super awesome big news! It starts one week from today actually. The first week we will be handing out the reading packs (that were JUST finished and are looking AWESOME!) and watching a movie. The screening is of "Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad", and excellent movie about the 2006 uprisings in Oaxaca, Mexico. Then begins a 6 week discussion series meant to expand and deepen people's understanding of what anarchism is, and how anarchist organization can positively impact social movements. (flyer below).

I now spend nearly 40 hours a week at Campus Dining -- god does that suck! I also thought that working this many hours would mean I had spare money lying around...thats untrue, I'm more broke than ever before. What the fuck!?

But, it's all good because I am in the process (or, honestly, about to start the process) of applying for the national USAS job -- domestic coordinator. That will be much better money, that makes me not worry so much about money now. Even if I don't get that job, I don't expect I would have much difficulty getting a job with a union. But, I realize that I would be applying in the election season and probably have to campaign for the democrats which is not exactly my thing.

At the same time, this all hinges on me graduating of course. Which means that I should be working on this 60 page paper about my time in Argentina... of course that hasn't happened either. Or even really started.

Then I really want to start another discussion series about building popular movements for student org's at UB. We'll see about that possibility. Then I want to work on this documentary about UBSAS. We'll see about that.

I think maybe I don't have enough time in the day. I wonder if there is a way to apply for funding (aka. a paycheck) to make this documentary about ubsas..............

I've decided to go green! Goodbye red anarchism.

I found out today that Bob Black (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_B…) lives in Buffalo. I really want to toilet paper his house or leave bags of burning shit in front of his door.

Im back in Argentina. In Mendoza at the moment, waiting for a bus back to Buenos Aires. I'll be there for about a week and then back to the states. That scares the shit out of me.

I already see myself getting angry with the state of things back in the US. I imagine Im going to explode when I get back....