A-Infos (en) Another report of the anarchist conference in St-Imier 8 to 12. august 2012. [machine translation]

140 years ago organized in the small Swiss watchmaker town of St-Imier the first anarchist 
International. Internationals and the black social center as it's called formed an 
international working group and invited this year, to an international conference in the 
same city. ---- Four of counterpoise members attended the anarchist conference in 
St-Imier. ---- The interest was great. It is difficult to estimate how many people came, 
but it was probably at least two thousand who took the trip to the small mountain town for 
several days of meetings, workshops, exhibitions, seminars, conventions, concerts, 
literary market, city tours, and more. Activists came from all continents except Oceania, 
which of course meant that it was a golden opportunity to learn from peers in other 
situations. From counterpoise were four members who attended.

Organizationally, it is possible that the courageous local activists felt quite 
overwhelmed, and could have benefited from delegating tasks to volunteer visitors. 
Translations, times, and information was alternating organized. It should be mentioned 
that most of it was gradually improved and especially the infrastructure around food 
worked flawless! Quite a feat when to arrange food for over a thousand people! There was 
even a dedicated tent for visitors with allergies. In addition, it was positive that the 
visitors had initiative enough to even organize things they wanted to see at the 
conference. Among other things, there were some activists who organized the so-called 
"safe spaces" with antisexistisk literature which also can apply if one felt one was harassed.

The topics were many and varied. The conference was based on that one was a class struggle 
anarchist focused mass movement. In other words, that it was anti-capitalist and working 
within social movements, not committing terrorism and dådspropaganda. We think the 
counterpoise of course is positive. Within this framework it was still rich with themes: 
Ecological crisis, energy, war, student riots, anti-fascism, globalization, and more. Kim 
from counterpoise gave a lecture on sexism and antisexisme, and another on direct 
democratic organizational practices. In addition to meetings and workshops were also 
concerts in the evening, and a large anarchist book market with radical literature in many 
languages.

For us in the counterpoise was especially rewarding to meet comrades from Anarkismo 
network as counterpoise is connected. We had several meetings dedicated to connect the 
network closer together and attach faces to names we might have only talked digitally. 
It's hard to put a limit on how important and rewarding it was to link these personal 
contacts and how much one can learn to exchange experiences across borders. In addition, 
the conference gave a sense of being part of a growing movement in a context where both 
reformist and revolutionary state socialism is in a permanent crisis, where libertarian 
socialism has a historical opportunity.

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Africa!

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