The WOMBLES have lost their way
anti-capitalist, activist | 03.11.2004 23:00 | Analysis
The WOMBLES have lost their way. Instead of protecting other activists like they did four years ago, they are attacking them. They have become everything they rejected in 2000, hierarchical and authoritarian. They have cut themselves off from the main anti-war and anti-capitalist movement. Read on to see why.
The WOMBLES have lost their way.
In early 2000, when the WOMBLES first broke into the wider public consciousness, the group was young, and full of energy and humour. They were portrayed as samurai-sword wielding terrorists by papers like the Daily Mail, yet it was clear even from the Daily Mail's coverage that this was untrue. Like Italian activists Tute Bianca, the WOMBLES wore white overalls and padded up to protect other demonstrators from police violence. Their courage was respected even by activists who didn’t agree totally with their approach or politics.
But how things have changed over four years. Rather than work with other activists, the WOMBLES have purposely cut themselves off from the mass of the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement. They’ve shed their overalls and padding and their sense of humour has gone too. And instead of protecting them from police violence, the WOMBLES have started attacking other activists themselves.
The recent events at the ESF were a graphic demonstration on an international stage of how much things have changed. A masked group stormed into a meeting and broke it up. This was an incredibly naïve move politically. To have a gang in hoods break up an anti-fascist meeting and assault black and Jewish people was a gift for people like Lee Jasper. He used his national profile to paint the WOMBLES as a bunch of racists.
The reasons for storming the meeting were confused. A stated aim was to prevent Ken Livingstone from speaking - but he wasn't even at the meeting! And to try and portray Livingstone as pro-war was ridiculous. He has condemned the Iraq war, he refused to meet George Bush when he visited the UK and organised another event for anti-war activists instead.
The WOMBLES also claimed that they broke up the meeting to protest at being excluded from the London ESF. However, they had announced months before that they were boycotting the event, and in fact set up their own event to run in competition. The ESF didn't exclude the WOMBLES - they excluded themselves.
The WOMBLES even claimed to be upholding the principles of the WSF even though on their website they reject the WSF as reformist and capitalist.
They invaded the meeting like it was the annual conference of BP or Shell, and treated other activists with contempt – as if we were all fat cat shareholders, enemies. Even the Babels group are distancing themselves from the invasion, and write on Indymedia that the reading of the Babels statement and the storming of the meeting was 'a coincidence.'
The WOMBLES accuse others of being authoritarian and hierarchical, yet they acted in the most authoritarian way in breaking up the meeting and imposed their views in a hierarchical way on other activists in the room. They claim that others hijacked the ESF, when in fact it was they who did the hijacking.
The WOMBLES seem to be incapable of working with anyone who doesn't wholeheartedly share their views. They claim to agree things by consensus, yet this only seems to be if you agree with them in the first place.
I expect I will be denounced as ‘SWP’ or a ‘trot’ simply for stating my view. However, the people who make up the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement hold all sorts of views. The way to change views held by fellow activists is by reasoned argument, not by violence.
In early 2000, when the WOMBLES first broke into the wider public consciousness, the group was young, and full of energy and humour. They were portrayed as samurai-sword wielding terrorists by papers like the Daily Mail, yet it was clear even from the Daily Mail's coverage that this was untrue. Like Italian activists Tute Bianca, the WOMBLES wore white overalls and padded up to protect other demonstrators from police violence. Their courage was respected even by activists who didn’t agree totally with their approach or politics.
But how things have changed over four years. Rather than work with other activists, the WOMBLES have purposely cut themselves off from the mass of the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement. They’ve shed their overalls and padding and their sense of humour has gone too. And instead of protecting them from police violence, the WOMBLES have started attacking other activists themselves.
The recent events at the ESF were a graphic demonstration on an international stage of how much things have changed. A masked group stormed into a meeting and broke it up. This was an incredibly naïve move politically. To have a gang in hoods break up an anti-fascist meeting and assault black and Jewish people was a gift for people like Lee Jasper. He used his national profile to paint the WOMBLES as a bunch of racists.
The reasons for storming the meeting were confused. A stated aim was to prevent Ken Livingstone from speaking - but he wasn't even at the meeting! And to try and portray Livingstone as pro-war was ridiculous. He has condemned the Iraq war, he refused to meet George Bush when he visited the UK and organised another event for anti-war activists instead.
The WOMBLES also claimed that they broke up the meeting to protest at being excluded from the London ESF. However, they had announced months before that they were boycotting the event, and in fact set up their own event to run in competition. The ESF didn't exclude the WOMBLES - they excluded themselves.
The WOMBLES even claimed to be upholding the principles of the WSF even though on their website they reject the WSF as reformist and capitalist.
They invaded the meeting like it was the annual conference of BP or Shell, and treated other activists with contempt – as if we were all fat cat shareholders, enemies. Even the Babels group are distancing themselves from the invasion, and write on Indymedia that the reading of the Babels statement and the storming of the meeting was 'a coincidence.'
The WOMBLES accuse others of being authoritarian and hierarchical, yet they acted in the most authoritarian way in breaking up the meeting and imposed their views in a hierarchical way on other activists in the room. They claim that others hijacked the ESF, when in fact it was they who did the hijacking.
The WOMBLES seem to be incapable of working with anyone who doesn't wholeheartedly share their views. They claim to agree things by consensus, yet this only seems to be if you agree with them in the first place.
I expect I will be denounced as ‘SWP’ or a ‘trot’ simply for stating my view. However, the people who make up the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement hold all sorts of views. The way to change views held by fellow activists is by reasoned argument, not by violence.
anti-capitalist, activist
Comments
Hide the following 14 comments
They Have Been Found
04.11.2004 00:06
Here's another Wombles story which is closer to the truth.
An kindly old lady found the Wombles a-wandering during a violent storm on Wimbledon Common - they appeared to have lost their way.
However, they recounted how Metropolitan Police's Forward Intelligence (sic) Unit had been following them all day. With cunning, the Wombles led them into a trap: a decent into a large hole they had dug for such an occasion.
She took an instant shine to the Jolly figures, and led them to her home for tea and cakes. They are now back happily on their way, having made a new friend in the kindly old lady.
Link to the last time this article was posted and some comments.
Uncle Bulgaria
This is More Smear
04.11.2004 00:19
I think you are Senior 'Trot', and not just a foot soldier. Tell me comrade are the Wombles that much of a threat you have to posr such sh 1 T. The 'Trots' must be in complete desperado panic modeo - the Wombles must be on the serious up charge.
WOMBLES say to SWPers and other Trotters: pick up your own litter, and mess, at ESF's and don't hire slave labour to fking doit.
..
This is so obvious......
04.11.2004 01:50
Social centres? No borders? Mayday actions? Practical solidarity for struggles abroad rather than lipservice? The list of recent and impressive creativity by the WOMBLES is longer than all the original ideas the SWP have come up with in the last 20 years. Save your party line for the paper sale and leave the rest of us to get on with it.
Guido
Some Autonomists are losing it
04.11.2004 02:36
So anyone who disagrees with you is now a "trot"
Some of you are sounding more like Macarthy than Bakunin.
"Kill the Witch!"
Sonic
get a life
04.11.2004 02:49
Might i suggest you take up a hobby or something.
ned ludd
Oh for goodness sake Guido
04.11.2004 03:19
A simple google search shows that it was not just the SWP who alleged that.
Still why let the facts get in the way of a good little anti-SWP rant.
Sonic
Cooment on genoa and black bloc
04.11.2004 03:24
By Stefano Agnoletto
Dear friends
Now, I was in Genoa, I've seen it. Don't believe the news you've seen in the press and on TV. It was something insane, a massacre. It is still difficult to tell you what happened between Friday and Saturday. To do so, I'll use what I've seen together with my dear friends who were present in Genoa with me. I ask you to have the patience to read this message, it really is the chronicle of a nightmare which probably will not reach the mainstream media.
I arrive to Genoa on Thursday, after an immigrant's rights demonstration of about 50,000 people. There are arrival camps, many, thousands of peaceful people, a marvellous atmosphere (remember the Boy Scouts?), we discussed, sang and just stayed together. Clergy, activists, volunteers and just normal people, on Friday we begin the issue areas in a Blocaded city.
The various groups partcipating will converge in different points of the city to have a carnivalesque "siege" against the "red area" [The place, in Genoa, where the G8 was held and demonstrations were not permitted] with street theatre, dancing and slogans.
At this pont, from the beach-front members of the now infamous "Black Bloc" [supposedly Extremist groups blamed for most of the destruction in the city] arrive. Some are seen chatting with police, others just come out of police crowds. Most of them speak German. They start to break everything. Police and Carabinieri [the Italian military police] just stand there. The Black Bloc tries to join in with a group of COBAS workers [COBAS is the new Italian Trade union unaffiliated with party politics]. They beat up one of their leaders, the group manages to stay clear of them with some difficulty.
Then the Black Bloc heads for the first issue area, belonging to the Italian Social Centers [Centri Sociali. Difficult to translate exactly, call them community organizations]. They arrive armed to the teeth. The police goes after them, and demonstratos find themselves attacked first by the Black Bloc and then by the police, which starts to charge violently against all demonstrators.
The Black Bloc leaves suddently and appears on the square were the Lilliput network is based (fair trade, Catholic campaign groups, etc.). Its members try to peacefully make them leave. The police follows and charges against everyone on the square. Truncheons and teargas are used indiscriminately. People raise their hands, shout "Peace".
The Black Bloc leaves the square and starts to vandalize the city systematically. 300-400 of the Black Bloc roam Genoa, and whoever guides them seems to know the city very well. Their path crosses every issue area, where the campaigns of our movement are located. It's incredible. They move with military discipline, infiltrate everywhere, some leaders shout orders which are promptly followed by the whole group. And, shortly afterwards, police and Carabinieri make their appearance.
Meanwhile, in the issue area where ARCI, ATTAC ecc. ("mainstream" Italian 3rd-world campaigning organizations) are located everything is fine.
During the early afternoon we decide to leave the boundary with the red zone were we were demonstrating. People start moving towards Dante square. Suddendly, police launches tear-gas from behind our march, causing panic everywhere. Hospitals fill with wounded demonstrators, but many do not go to hospital since police seems to arrest everyone who turns up there.
It's evening, people are downbeat,many are angry. Suddently, no trace of the Black Bloc. At the old city, where the camp of the Genoa social forum is, there's about 10,000 of us. The news of the dead demonstrator reaches us. We are scared, tales of extreme police brutality are told by many people. Young men, nuns start crying. Many people are hurt. One old man is crying with a bandage on his head. He is a retired metal worker.
There is Don Gallo, of the San Benedetto (catholic) community group. There is the leader of the mothers of Plaza De Mayo, in Argentina, those women who for years have been looking for their disappeared children: She says she is shaken at what she has seen, it's uncomfortably close to Argentina during the dictatorship. She did not think something similar would happen here.
My brother Vittorio [spokesman for the Genoa Social Forum], Luca Cesarini [leader of the Social Centers] and Bertinotti, the only politician with the courage to come here [the leader of the Italian Refounded Communist Party, sort of the equivalent of Nader in Italian politics] try to calm everyone: They tell us not to come out in small groups, not to accept violent provocations. We decide our answer will be the enormous demonstration the next day, there'll be many of us, peacefully responding to any provocation, whether from the Black Bloc or the police.
Senator Malabarba tells us he was at the police station. He saw strange people who dressed like the demonstrators, they spoke German and other foreign languages. Most of them come out of the station after exchanging a few words with the police.
Suddently, there is a fire at a bank close to the old city. For 40 minutes, helicopters circle us, but no firefighters or police arrive. At night, one of the camps were we are sleeping, the Carlini, is surrounded by police: They go in and search, doing what you want. People cry. They ask that brutality stop. Police enters, but does not find anything in the camp.
Saturday, the demonstration starts, a thousand colors. People from all over the world, farmers, ONGs,workers, people from Kurdistan... all singing, dancing, waving all sorts of flags.
On Kennedy square there is no violence, in fact there is no one there. Suddently the Black Bloc appears. Police, with no warning or reason given, divides the demonstration in 2 parts. A real battle begins.
Charges everywhere, people being beaten with truncheons. It seems cops have gone crazy. Metal workers, the youth wing of Rifondazione [the Italian left wing party] are charged. Groups of demonstrators flee and are followed by police. Whoever is isolated is pursued and beaten. Many people are telling of being beaten only for being recognized as demonstrators.
Even the Italian correspondent of the Sunday Times is beaten [in today's issue of the paper he tells of his adventure]. In a part of the march which so far was quiet, by the sea, suddenly teargas is fired from the roofs. Panic ensues as people cannot breathe.
The Black Bloc? They appear and disappear, no one stops them. They attack a youth from Rifondazione, wreck his flag, beat him. They throw stones at the spokesman of the Genoa Social Forum. They wreck stores, set fire to buildings. Many are armed to the teeth. How on earth they managed to come to Genoa, with soldiers controlling every car?
At the head of the march, things are still quiet. The Genoa Social Forum invites everyone to leave calmly, and stay together. We are being led to Marassi, where there are buses with everyone who arrived this morning. We stopped there, and could not go further: On Kennedy square, there is a war. There are many of us just sitting there. Suddendly, teargas is used, panic everywhere. We try to get back to the camp of the Genoa social forum. Police trucks pass us by, and policemen in them shout: "we'll kill you all".
The second part of the demonstration never arrives to the square. They are charged by police. Many flee to the small streets, towards the hills, where a real man-hunt starts.
Saturday night, the demonstration has ended hours ago, the police enters into the press-center of the Genoa Social Forum. They beat up everyone they encounter, with shocking brutality. All they seem to be after are documents (paper, video, pictures, etc.) which tell of what happened in the previous two days. Many of these documents --computers, disks are simply destroyed. The lawyer who coordinates the forum's legal team is arrested. Among the destroyed material, there are the documents this legal team put together as part of the defense of those arrested. Now, even the motives for their arrest are not known. During this "search", with no legal mandate, members of parliament, journalists, lawyers and even doctors are not let in the building. None of us have ever seen the famous weapons shown at the press conference yesterday. Police departs, leaving us with only those wounded and arrested.
No one knows what happened to the Black Bloc.
To sum it up, two nightmare days. Both the Black Bloc and the police knew what they were doing when they committed this violence. All along, from Friday, they insulted and verbally abused us as they did what they did, someone seems to have brainwashed them. And today, we look at the TV and read papers. My god, it seems like a dictatorship. Did everyone miss what we all saw? When I think that many will read this and say "you violent protesters just talk bullshit", I go mad. Please, don't let anyone fool you, find the courage to question your faith in our wonderful police and democratically accountable institutions.
What happened in Genoa beggars belief. Some inauguration for the new government. Just to give you a flavor of the spin control effort, do you know what the first version of the official investigation into the death, before the videos appeared, was? Killed by a stone launched by the demonstrators. If you think that many of the documents put together by witnesses have been destroyed during the "search"... the only version left to the public is that, "uncontestable", of the police.
Please, forward, print, talk about this document. To everyone, friends, relatives, collegues. The truth has to come out. I beg you, don't look the other way.
Thank you
Stefano Agnoletto
PS: My brother Vittorio [the spokesperson of the Genoa Social Forum] is destroyed. He told me: It's crazy, it seems we are in Latin America during the '70s. Maybe even he did not realize fully with whom are we dealing here.
The truth has to come out
Sonic
To Mr Sonic three things
04.11.2004 08:20
The Black Block is something beautiful
Do your pooing with the trotters not here.
..
The Sonic has lost his girlfriend
04.11.2004 09:46
Ray
steveM
04.11.2004 10:01
There is a good article on ZNet today about this:
Steve Montgomery
doo doo doo looking out my back door........
04.11.2004 10:32
People are asked to believe that the WOMBLES got up in front of 1000's of people and committed racist attacks and closed down an anti-fascism meeting.
You have to be pretty bloody desperate to believe that.
Are there 200 WOMBLES?
WELL?????
ftp
Another ZNET Article
04.11.2004 14:31
Anyone will sign something condemning violence ... otherwise they get accused of condoning it - every pathetic trick in the rotten old lefts book.
However, a much more interesting and acurate articleis publihed on znet:
..
"Sonic" - "anti-capitalist, activist" - are one in the same.
04.11.2004 14:43
That's wacko. He should be completely ignored, because all he is looking for is acknowledgement.
no need
Pathetic!
04.11.2004 15:29
Do lies change magically into truth, when they get copied onto Znet?
John