Anarchist Conference 2009

With the economic crisis hitting people hard, there's no need any longer to explain to people that capitalism is a crazy and destructive way to run the economy - people are talking about it all over the country. Against this backdrop, 300 people met for the Anarchist Conference '09 at Queen Mary, University of London during the weekend. People shared their ideas about fighting repossessions and evictions, ecological issues (and their co-optation), militant squatting for housing, workplace and school occupations, and hundreds of other tactics for self-organized trouble-making during a time of crisis. 

There was a major intervention by a group of anarcha-feminists during the conference plenary, featuring a video (on youtube) projection calling out the sexists in the movement for the hypocrisy and stupidity of their political attitudes.

Conference: Read more | Callout | Interview with organisers | Conference Website | Short Report | Anarcha-feminists take action

Issues:  Two days of discussion | Does your mum know you're an anarchist? | A Critique of Anarcho-sexism | Why Indymedia Sucks

Self-organized resistance - it's in the palm of your hand

Despite the huge damage that the crisis is doing to people, there were inspiring stories of people organizing themselves, fighting back and winning on a host of issues. The conference came up with organizing strategies and a series of themes related to the anarchist movement, resistance, class, and how to realize anarchist ideas in practice.  Key areas of discussion were the anarchist role in the recent Visteon factory occupation, and the changing terrain of workers struggle as capitalism reorganizes itself during the crisis.   There was a strong sense that class-struggle anarchists of all stripes need to cooperate more closely to get things done.