A-Infos (en) Britain, Anarchist Federation Organise #67 - The `vast machine' or anarchist communism? + INTERVIEW WITH Belarusian anarchist

"Air travel was dangerous so she took a train to Paris and got on the daily charter 
bus to England. When the bus reached the English Channel everyone got out and 
wandered around the enormous ferryboat. Maya watched British tourists buy duty-free 
liquor, pump coins into slot machines, and stare at a comedy on the television 
screen. Life was normal- almost boring- when you were a citizen. They didn't seem to 
care or realise that they were monitored by the Vast Machine.
There were four million closed-circuit television cameras in Britain, about one 
camera for every fifteen people. Thorn once told her that an average person working 
in London would be photographed by three hundred different surveillance cameras 
during the day. When the cameras first appeared, the government put up posters 
telling everyone that there were `SECURE BENEATH WATCHFUL EYES'. Under the shield of 
the new anti-terrorism laws, every industrial country was following the British example.

Maya wondered if citizens made a deliberate attempt to ignore the intrusion. Most of 
them truly believed that the cameras protected them from criminals and terrorists. 
They assumed that they were still anonymous when they walked down the street. Only a 
few people understood the power of the new facial-scanning programs. The moment your 
face was photographed by a surveillance camera, it could be transformed into a 
consistent size, contrast and brightness that could be matched against a driver's 
license or passport photograph.

The scanner programs identified individual faces, but the government could also use 
the cameras to detect unusual behaviour. These so-called Shadow programmes were 
already being used in London, Las Vegas and Chicago. The computer analyzed one-second 
images taken by the cameras and alerted the police if someone left a package in front 
of a public building or parked a car on the shoulder of a highway. Shadow noticed 
anyone who strolled through the city instead of trudging to work. The French had a 
name for these curious people- flaneurs- but as far as the Vast Machine was 
concerned, any pedestrian who lingered on street corners or paused at construction 
sites was instantly suspicious. Within a few seconds, images of these people would be 
highlighted in color and sent to the police." (Taken from The Traveller by John 
Twelve Hawks, Bantam Press, July 2005)

The above passage about a fictitious future society, taken from a `bestseller', does 
not seem that far off from today's Britain. Recent articles in Organise! and in our 
pamphlet on ID cards have already highlighted the kinds of technology that are 
available and being implemented to various degrees. The arguments for this increased 
surveillance are the same- it is necessary to protect the public from terrorism. Many 
people have accepted this dangerous logic. Anarchists have always argued against the 
argument that we need to give up our freedom in order to be `safe'. For example, 
Malatesta provides an eloquent denunciation back in the late 19th century in his book 
`At the Caf‚: Conversations with Anarchists'.

Gino (a worker): Is it true that you anarchists want to remove the police force? I am 
not their friend, and you know it. But I'm also not the friend of murderers and 
thieves and I would like my goods and my life to be guarded as well.

Giorgio (Malatesta): And who guards you from the guardians? Do you think that the 
best way to provide for one's security is by offering up one's neck to a gang of 
people who, with the excuse of defending us, oppress us and practice extortion, and 
do a thousand times more damage than the thieves and murderers?

Events since September 11th and the advent of the `war on terrorism' in earnest, have 
given us many reasons to see the truth in Malatesta's words. Just think how `secure' 
the Brazilian worker felt when he was shot by the police seeking to `protect' the 
public. Yet, for the most part we continue living our lives oblivious to this 
repressive surveillance, increased police powers and the vast quantities of 
information that exist about us in various data banks. On the surface, it doesn't 
seem to impinge on our lives. Even those active in anarchist and other social 
movements that challenge the current power structures, are not usually conscious of 
the likely surveillance that is going on. Our phones are most likely tapped, 
undercover officers will have been used to identify `who's' who' and our activities 
will be monitored. It is only in certain circumstances, recently in the build-up to 
G8 protests, that individuals have overtly felt the weight of surveillance and police 
control of activity. Nevertheless, the protests have largely gone ahead in some form. 
In Scotland last year, despite certain individuals being targeted by the `FIT team', 
the heavy police presence around the `eco-camp' in Stirling, and some actions 
seemingly known to the police in advance, meetings, demonstrations and other actions 
went ahead, sometimes taking the police by surprise. Instead, the focus of the State 
is largely on Islamic activists. Anarchists have not shown too much concern about 
this, seeing Islam as an enemy of anarchism. However, we maybe should rethink our 
silence. Anarchists could easily become the next target. The State may choose not to 
see the difference between an Islamic `training camp' and one set up by Earth First.

In Russia this year, anarchists were the target. In Russia and many other countries 
of the former Soviet Union, anarchists are struggling to organise under heavy 
surveillance and police repression. Those activists who attempted to go to St. 
Petersburg, as they had gone to other venues for other protests, had a very different 
experience. The protests were banned outright and hundreds of known activists were 
arrested in advance. People were stopped at the border and bureaucratic and financial 
impediments made practical organisation almost impossible. Yet, despite these 
difficulties, anarchist movements exist and are continuing to grow and develop.

There is no doubt that the tendency throughout the world is for those in power to 
increase their control over every aspect of our lives. Capitalism is a system that is 
unpredictable and impossible to control. Marx's economic predictions have proved to 
be only too true: that capitalism is inherently prone to lurch from crisis to crisis. 
As a result, those in power desperately struggle to control what they can, in order 
to ensure the stability and survival of the system that is the basis of their 
dominance. They cannot control capital itself: financial movements around the world, 
rising and falling prices of commodities, fluctuating demand for products. Therefore, 
they aim to control the people- as workers and consumers. Every aspect of society is 
geared to ensuring that people consume and work, according to routines and schedules. 
They need our lives to be predictable and our minds to be busy with seeking 
individual `happiness' that is brought about through `success', money, and 
entertainment. Any thoughts of the `bigger' questions on the meaning of life are 
safely controlled and managed, for example, through organised religion.

However, all through history, many people, to varying degrees, have proved impossible 
to control and manage in this way. In today's world, anarchists are some of these 
people, refusing the legitimacy of the State and the need for authority, rejecting 
the work ethic, the drive for money and status and the diversion of consumerism, and 
ignoring the existence of borders. In the `Traveller' the heroes and heroines 
resemble anarchists. They have chosen to live `off the grid'. This is the only way 
they can survive as free human beings and resist the `Vast Machine'. The novel is 
based on the struggle of these exceptional individuals, cut-off from the rest of 
society, against the Machine. Many anarchists also attempt to have as little to do 
with society as possible- not engaged in official `work', living in squats or camps 
and travelling to different countries to help with struggles. As the State becomes 
even more intrusive and repressive, some individuals are forced into `disappearing', 
living under assumed identities, leaving their homes and countries. Therefore, having 
alternative networks and ways of living that are independent of the State and 
capitalism are crucial to both our resistance and survival. However, we want to do 
more than resist; we want to transform. These alternative networks, structures and 
cultures will form the basis of the creation of a new society.

But this is not enough. As the characters in `The Traveller' discovered, they needed 
other people, ordinary people who were still part of the system, in order to mount 
any effective resistance. The same goes for anarchists. Creating alternative, off-the 
grid, micro-societies may be important for survival, for making life more bearable 
for some individuals, and/or for creating new ways of doing things, but the goal is 
to transform all of society. A few individuals heroically fighting back will not 
accomplish this. Therefore, we have to have a strategy that also involves resistance 
and transformation in the `heart of the Machine', where the vast majority of people 
are. History has shown that although individual action is important, it is only when 
people in great number say `no' or `we want this', that change takes place. The 
campaign against the Poll Tax was an example of this. Individuals may have found ways 
of avoiding the Poll Tax but this did not bring an end to it. But when masses of 
people refused to pay, the government caved in. The same could happen with ID cards. 
It is not enough for anarchists and a few others to find ways of avoiding its 
imposition, we need to build a mass movement against ID cards where thousands and 
thousands of people are refusing to have anything to do with them. The protests 
against the G8 in Petersburg could not have been repressed if the small anarchist and 
alternative movements in Russia and Europe had been joined by thousands of ordinary 
Russians.

We can not only turn back the tide of repression and surveillance, but create an 
alternative society. The descent into a Big Brother future is not inevitable. But our 
success depends on a two-prong strategy: the creation of autonomous networks and 
structures within in which we can live more freely and experiment with new ways of 
living, and the building up of a mass movement that will cause the `Vast Machine' to 
disintegrate in the face of its force and vitality.

The following interview with a comrade from Belarus, now living in England, though of 
interest in its own right, illustrates many of the points made in this article. They 
show the constraints on political activity that make it very difficult to organise. 
Though in Britain anarchists do not experience such repression, we must not become 
complacent; the British State is moving in the direction of increased surveillance 
and repression of opposition movements. As mentioned above, Islamic groups are 
feeling the brunt of surveillance and repression. The point to be taken from this 
interview is that despite the repression, they not only manage to fight back, but 
stress the importance of having a public presence and are aware of the need to win 
over others to anarchism.

INTERVIEW WITH Belarusian anarchist

(living in Britain since the crack-down over election protests)

1. How easy is it for you to organise meetings? Can you book rooms to have meetings 
and advertise them?

It is possible to organize meetings via closed communication channels (mostly mailing 
lists and personal contacts). Booking rooms is more difficult: from time to time, 
activists gather in each other's apartments, but regular meetings in a same location 
would draw attention of state enforcers: warranted and unwarranted searches, 
confiscation of equipment, in some cases even planting incriminating evidence such as 
drugs. Advertising meetings in public is quite dangerous. The last safe publicly 
advertised gathering happened last Autumn, during the Belarusian Social Forum and the 
"No Culture without Subculture" festival. Since then, the state uses all legitimate 
means to stop publicly announced meetings from happening. The most widespread 
practice is to use fire department inspection as an excuse for closing down the site.

2. Can you be openly anarchist or against the government? Can you publish material 
that is critical?

No. The new criminal code introduced last year criminalizes a whole range of 
activities - see the survey document on the web at http://belarus.indymedia.org/1713

3. Can you organise public protests?

Yes and no. We can organize public protests, but any protest that isn't sanctioned by 
the state is illegal, and state officials only sanction actions that are innocent and 
located at far ends of the city. Nevertheless, non-sanctioned protests are organized 
- exemplified by the protests that took place in March and April in Minsk.

4. What controls exist on people who may be questioning the system? How intrusive are 
the police or any other authority?

With the latest criminal law changes, the state has all the tools necessary to 
threaten and punish people without breaking its own laws. Even without it, police 
routinely fake detention protocols, writing things like "public disorder" and 
"attacking police officers" when no such thing took place. For example, one activist 
was arrested again immediately after being released from prison; two undercover 
officers came up to him and fell to the ground, as if he attacked them.

State authority is being propagandized in all state institutions, starting with 
kindergartens. Concerts of musicians known to be critical of the state are not 
allowed. Carrying non-state flags is illegal. During the protests in March-April, it 
was usual for police to subject people on the streets to searches and to confiscate 
innocent things such as warm clothes and food. The activist scene is also widely 
penetrated by police and KGB provocateurs, instilling the atmosphere of fear and 
distrust.

5. What about neo-Nazi groups? Do they threaten what people try and do?

They exist around Belarus, but luckily, the situation is not as bad as in Russia. In 
many towns and cities, there are strong anti-fascist movements that keep neo-Nazis in 
check. Still, Nazis benefit from the silent support of the state. For example, just 
before I left Minsk, a Nazi concert was announced and held in a concert hall of a 
military base couple of blocks from my house.

6. How do people feel repression in everyday life?

In a lot of different, mostly subtle ways:

    * - the abundance of police and military on the streets, sometimes carrying 
Kalashnikovs
    * - State red-and-green flags (nicknamed "sunset over swamp") in all appropriate 
and inappropriate places, often accompanied by portraits of Lukashenko
    * - Endless stream of Stalin-era propaganda on TV and in state newspapers (and 
there's only one non-state newspaper left, and they only sell it under-the-counter or 
in some European embassies)
    * - Praising of state and Lukashenko in kindergartens (this one really pissed me 
off), not to mention schools and universities
    * - the general atmosphere of fear, as people who believe propaganda think 
Belarus is surrounded by enemies and internal traitors, and those who don't think 
that they'll get in trouble if they speak up
    * - No job safety at all, as people get fired at will (speaking Belarusian can 
be enough), and as new taxes and legislations bring down whole sectors of local economy

7. What do you do or can you do to resist and fight back against all of this?

First of all, we spread information: news outlets with anarchist viewpoint, 
propaganda of self-organization, informational support of grass-roots initiatives, 
and critique of the establishment (both the state and the opposition parties). The 
recent creation of Indy Media (IMC) in Belarus has certainly increased the amount of 
activity in this area.

Somewhat related is the (sub)cultural activity, such as organization of expositions, 
concerts, satirical movies ("Navinki" group has grown to be very good at the latter), 
etc.

Now and then, anarchists start or get involved with other independent initiatives. 
For example, we managed to form a strong anarchist core within the Minsk Linux User 
Group, our example of self-organization has led many MLUG activists to form better 
opinion of anarchism, someof them have become anarchists themselves. The Critical 
Mass movement in Minsk was started by anarchists from Belarusian Anarchist Federation 
group. The IMC Belarus was initiated by anarchists and to this day remains strongly 
pro-anarchist.

Then there's also anti-fascist movement across the Belarus, which is far more 
successful than its counterpart in Russia. It is quite well-organized, although you 
can't also discount the fact that fascists in Belarus are not as dangerous as in 
Russia: they have less criminal background, there are many disorganized bonehead 
groups with no direct backing from state or church, and there is strong anti-fascist 
sentiment in the general public, caused both by World War II memories and the 
traditional Belarusian mentality of tolerance.

One area that begs for further exploration is the labour movement, which was 
thoroughly destroyed in the late 90-s. Belarusian workers are disorganized 
("official" trade unions obviously serve entirely different purposes), and there's 
also a divide between workers and intellectuals, with most anarchists being 
intellectuals and having huge difficulty (if they are at all trying) finding contact 
with workers. Even worse, there is another divide: between the city and the village. 
This divide is illustrated by the make up of the Spring 2006 demonstrations: 99% of 
the participants were young intellectuals, mostly students of humanitarian and IT 
colleges and universities. No attempts have yet been made to get working class people 
involved.
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