Anarchists sabotage railway signalling in Bristol

[Random]

I just can't get my head around how a genuine anarchist group would do an action that put working class people at risk of harm.

Plenty of leftist groups, like the Weather Underground, did things that put working class people at risk. I agree that anarchists should reject the idea that "the ends justify the means" but unfortunately there's a certain similarity between Leninist leftism and individualist anarchism when it comes to seeing the general population as "sheeple" who need to be worken up.

 

[Gingerman]

I think their action has hit the buffers now.

Could be the end of the line for them

 

[Athos]

Could be the end of the line for them

Or maybe they'll go underground - a sleeper cell.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Not in the UK. They're clearly copying a southern European style, though

I was questioning your statement "I don't think anyone's heard of the groups before".

 

[Random]

Youngsters like this usually run out of steam after reaching a certain station in life.

 

[Random]

I was questioning your statement "I don't think anyone's heard of the groups before".

I could be wrong, like I said, it's what I think. Have you heard of an "informal anarchist federation" group in the UK before this?

edit: the "groupS" was a typo, just meant to say group

 

[bignose1]

Are you suggesting that a sleeper cell went off the rails?

One track mind

 

[DaveCinzano]

Have you heard of an "informal anarchist federation" group in the UK before this?

In the circumstances, and given what will inevitably be happening in Bristol and probably elsewhere in coming days, weeks and months (cf butchersapron's posts), that's not really the sort of question anyone would want to answer with any great candour, is it?

 

[Random]

In the circumstances, and given what will inevitably be happening in Bristol and probably elsewhere in coming days, weeks and months (cf butchersapron's posts), that's not really the sort of question anyone would want to answer with any great candour, is it?

Then it's a bit bloody stupid of you to start hinting that you've heard of them, then, isn't it? I thought you were pulling me up since it was actually general knowledge. I've got no idea what's going on in Bristol and elsewhere, but I think I'm right in saying that an openly insurrectionalist direct action anarchist group is a new development.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Then it's a bit bloody stupid of you to start hinting that you've heard of them, then, isn't it? I thought you were pulling me up since it was actually general knowledge. I've got no idea what's going on in Bristol and elsewhere, but I think I'm right in saying that an openly insurrectionalist direct action anarchist group is a new development.

I was suggesting that now - right now, in the immediate aftermath of what is likely to be an enduring shitstorm - might not be the best time to be looking for, asking for, or expecting to get, full and frank answers to the same sorts of questions that the chaps following quickstep after the Enforcers are looking to find. I certainly wasn't pretending to any inside knowledge.

 

[Random]

I think you're just chasing your own tail up the wrong tree now, so I'll leave it.

 

[chilango]

I don't think it is. Really.

What might be new, are the precise individuals involved in this particular group, and their choice of referencing the FiA or whatever as opposed to the ALF/ELF/New Angry Brigades blah blah blah.

The FIA label, seems to be just that. A flag of convenience that anyone can wave to lend their actions added gravitas thru' association.

Isolated "affinity groups" (bleurgh) pulling off stupid acts of vandalism and acting like they're Baader-Meinhof ain't new. At all.

 

[chilango]

I wouldn't worry yourselves too much about the cops chasing around after answers.

I'd be surprised if they couldn't figure out to within a relatively small number of people who might have done this. It's just gonna be a bit shit for those that might have, but didn't.

Of course, as mentioned above that doesn't mean it won't be used as an excuse to lean on anarchos who would obviously have no truck with this kind of thing, but plus ca change, eh?

 

[Random]

I stand corrected if there's been people aping the AB before - although they weren't insurrectionsists. But I'd say that ALF/ELF stuff comes from a quasi-anarchist scene, rather than having anarchism as its main purpose.

 

[JHE]

The FIA label, seems to be just that. A flag of convenience that anyone can wave to lend their actions added gravitas thru' association.

FAI, I think - and I expect the name was chosen at least partly in order to have the same initials as the rather different, much more famous and once-great Iberian Anarchist Federation.

 

[butchersapron]

The FAI is still existent. And is hated by individualist anarchists. So - wrong.

 

[chilango]

FAI, I think - and I expect the name was chosen at least partly in order to have the same initials as the rather different, much more famous and once-great Iberian Anarchist Federation.

Nah.

Picked originally by the Italian originators of this fad to piss off the official Italian Anarchist Federation.

 

[chilango]

I stand corrected if there's been people aping the AB before - although they weren't insurrectionsists. But I'd say that ALF/ELF stuff comes from a quasi-anarchist scene, rather than having anarchism as its main purpose.

I think quasi-anarchist would be a fair way of describing this lot too.

 

[Random]

I think quasi-anarchist would be a fair way of describing this lot too.

I'm a bit of a wooly liberal on this, and tend to think people are more solidly anarchist if they call themselves an anarchist federation

 

[butchersapron]

I think quasi-anarchist would be a fair way of describing this lot too.

Selff-lovers, look at what a great hero i am evolian aristocracy anti-w/c stuff. They hate the w/c.

 

[chilango]

Selff-lovers, look at what a great hero i am evolian aristocracy anti-w/c stuff. They hate the w/c.

Yup, if/when they think in terms of class. Which I suspect is pretty rarely.

 

[butchersapron]

The herd is their preferred term.

 

[Random]

I'm relieved that the more I hear about this kind of group, the more they naturally separate themselves from social class-struggle anarchism.

 

[chilango]

Are they still reading the likes of Bonano and that Wolfi bloke or have things moved on?

(asking cos I really can't be arsed trawling through the dross of communiqués out there to find out their current gurus)

 

[Random]

His name is Bananaman!

 

[chilango]

Heh.

You read him?

 

[butchersapron]

I done 4 hard years with the cunt. Knew no songs at all.

 

[Random]

Heh.

You read him?

Yes, but I'm not into voluntarism. Still have a vague sympathy for his point that anarchist groups shouldn't become political "organisations of synthesis" that try to interpret the whole world and give a definitive answer on it. Or he might have said something totally different. it was a long time ago.

 

[chilango]

Aye.

Haven't read his stuff for years, but remember being very underwhelmed by it.

 

[Random]

Probably only really makes sense if you know all about the internal debates of Italian anarchism in the second half of the 20th Century. Sad to see that even a mass anarchist movement can have the mad problems associated with the US hardcore punk "anarchist" scene.