COME NOVEMBER WE DEMAND A FUTURE

NO MORE REGIMES!




This is the second poster produced by the Federation of Revolutionary Anarchist Collectives of the Great Lakes Region (FRAC). We are anarchist revolutionaries who struggle to put militant grassroots action at the heart of social movements in our region and across North America.

This poster has been issued to correspond with the upcoming presidential election and specifically the RNC to be held at the end of August in NYC. It examines the agenda of the Bush administration and attempts to highlight the interests of this regime and its effects on us and our communities – locally and across the globe. We also hope to highlight the ways that the system we live under enables those on top (politicians, bosses and cops) to take power away from the people, and some suggestions for a different, more fundamental way of organizing society rather than putting our trust in regimes like those of Bush and his counterparts up on Capital Hill within the walls of power and privilege - far away from where we live and struggle.

FROM THEN TO NOW - WAR ON THE WORLD

The elections of 2000 saw 8 years of Clinton and his administration end. Gore, Clinton’s anointed successor, was denied the office of Commander-In-Chief and instead the administration of George W. Bush was installed. The administration of Bush heralded in a new campaign for capitalist domination – here at home and across the globe. With the disappearance of the USSR 10 years earlier, the Western US capitalist class could now move virtually unhindered. However, factions within the ruling class thought Clinton had hesitated at taking advantage of the new possibilities for capitalism to expand and conquer global markets. With Bush now at the helm there would be no hesitation. He would push forward and seek to take control of the Earth, its peoples and its resources – there would be no pause in this quest. We’ve seen the Bush administration let loose an agenda on the world that has pushed onward with little regard for risk or cost.

From the start the Bush regime has pursued a course that has fanned massive fires of anger and protest across the world. Under the direction of Bush the United States government launched an attack against Iraq – supposedly in response to Saddam Hussein’s role in aiding the Al Qaeda movement in its attacks on US capitalist and military targets, as well as possessing weapons of mass destruction. Saddam, a brutal dictator responsible for mass murder and torture of Iraqis and Kurds, has however been determined to have had no connection to Al Qaeda. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. The argument for the war has officially been debunked. The information that was supposed to be the basis for the war has been chalked up to bad intelligence and faults of the CIA, but there are deeper dimensions at play. Iraq is now seen by Bush and the Neo-Conservatives as the strategic front for a broader war and invasion of the Middle East. Culturally, politically, economically – Bush and his people want to capture this region and bring it under the domination of western capitalism.

In the meantime the war continues to devastate the lives of thousands of Iraqi and American people. In Iraq people are having their families, children, towns and infrastructure destroyed. Thousands of civilians have been killed by U.S forces. Here in the States, despite the “Handover”, families continue to lose their daughters, sons, sisters and brothers to graves and VA hospitals.

The war stands as the main polarizing act in our world. For Bush and the government it is the main issue at hand. It must be a priority for us as well. Its course will impact us on every level. But the global damage done by Bush extends beyond just the war for Iraq. Adding to this injustice is a list of other destructive acts such as the Bush Administrations pursuit of widely unpopular trade agreements like the Free Trade Area of the Americas. There is also the case of Bush Administration advising the US pull out of the Kyoto Agreement (itself a mild band aid accord designed to slow down the environmental devastation caused by governments and corporations), and has instituted what is known as the global gag rule that has had the effect of shutting down funding for women’s health clinics around the world and is leading to the deaths of untold numbers of women.

FROM THE WAR FRONT TO THE HOME FRONT – WAR ON OUR COMMUNITIES

It’s not just internationally that Bush and Co. are waging their agenda. Domestically there has been an unleashing of repression that is responsible for attacking the labor movement - informing bosses how to get around overtime-pay laws and supporting the employers during Strikes and slowdowns. A major example was when locked-out west-coast Longshore workers staged protests against the War in Iraq. In Oakland, California Longshore workers and their supporters were shot with rubber bullets by police and arrested for their actions.

Under Bush’s lead there has also been an intensification of the war against women by not only removing information about women’s health from government websites but also by signing the late-term abortion ban. This legislation further denies women control of their bodies and the access to safe and legal abortions. Women in states like Ohio must travel for hours for basic counseling and abortion services, yet funding for sex education and pregnancy prevention is diminished in our schools. Government in any incarnation has sought to control women, but Bush has ushered in a wave on attacks that are reversing decades of struggle.

More repression here at home has been the Bush Administrations coming down hard on immigrants through measures such as the mandatory registration of immigrants from Middle Eastern and Muslim Countries, the indefinite detainment immigrants (example: Ashraf Al-Jaliani of Kent, OH), and the deporting of hundreds of immigrants (example: Amina Silmi of Cleveland, OH). 9/11 was used as an excuse by Bush to begin instituting police state-like measures such as the PATRIOT Act, which many communities have found to be so repressive that it has forced them to declare themselves “PATRIOT Act-free cities.”

Meanwhile, the Bush administration works toward making the PATRIOT Act permanent and trying to enact an even more repressive bill dubbed PATRIOT Act 2.

ANYBODY BUT BUSH?

Given how much anger has been brought about towards the Bush regime, many people have begun to look for alternatives. Many are turning to John Kerry. They are taking the stance of “Anybody but Bush” while ignoring the facts that John Kerry not only wants to increase the occupation of Iraq in both size and length of time, but has also supported the PATRIOT Act, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the same policies of Bush towards Palestine and immigrants, and even said that he is not opposed to nominating anti-choice judges. Many people see the flaws with Kerry, the two-party system, and the influence of the rich on the system and elections so they turn to supporting smaller independent groups like the Greens or Reform Party. We say that the problem isn’t who is in charge of the system. The problem is the entire system of capitalist representative democracy.

DISPELLING THE MYTH

This November 2nd they say we have choices. They say we can change things. But come November 2 our only real choice will be to continue to organize in our communities, our schools, in our places of work and on our streets for real power. We must organize for what our supposed “choices” will not allow us - a future, a future with no more regimes! Left, Right or center.

Under both parties - Republican and Democrat - our communities have been racked with increasing unemployment, cuts in schools and increasing health care costs. Representative “democracy” forces us to choose a set of rulers to control our communities and our lives. The myth that is perpetuated is that these politicians represent your views in the decision-making process. In reality you are voting for someone based on what they say they believe on one or two issues. Then you are supposed to cross your fingers and hope that they actually do what they say they will do on those few issues that you are somewhat in agreement with. As for the rest of the issues that you are in disagreement with their views, you are out of luck. This is because it is impossible for one person to genuinely and fully represent the views of someone else, let alone a whole community.

LOOKING AT THE WHOLE PICTURE

The control of our lives isn’t just stolen from us on a political level. It’s taken from us in every area of our lives. We have no power when the police are beating and killing our neighbors. We have no say in the prison-industrial complex when it’s locking up our family. We have no control over our workplaces which are run like mini-dictatorships with the boss on top and us on the bottom. To top it off, these are only symptoms of even bigger problems. Under the current system there is nothing we can do to put an end to patriarchy, white supremacy, or capitalism. These are problems that cannot be solved by electing someone new into office.

BUT WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

If we want to work towards having more control over our lives, we must do more than casting ballots. There are other, more direct ways to protest the unjust things politicians are doing on local, state, and national levels. We cannot remain silent while our government wages war. We cannot step back and ignore attacks on the poor, people of color, immigrants, and women. We have to make our voices heard, but reacting is not enough.

Our goal is to create a new society in which decisions are made by the people who are affected, and where society as a whole has power and responsibilities. Projects and public services would be organized from the bottom up instead of the top down. This would include guaranteed housing for everyone, adequate health care, and workplaces where decisions are made through workplace organizations comprised of those who are actually doing the work themselves, not management and company bureaucracy. All of these things would be accomplished by groups of people with common interests who are working towards specific ends. These groups would be linked up with others within their region to reach their ends. This is nothing short of a true grassroots movement of people acting for themselves and their communities.

This might seem like a long way off, but we can start now by building alternatives to the institutions that the government is built on - institutions that perpetuate white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism. By working with our friends, neighbors, and coworkers on the problems that we face, we can begin to initiate responses to problems on personal and then community levels. In doing so, we can build community networks of resistance, and then use those networks to forcibly oust the structures of hierarchy that are in place now.

It is these struggles that make possible a society organized around cooperation and need. Instead of one based on domination, exploitation, and profit, we can create a society that is based on the interests of humanity and the uplifting of all. It is this future that we choose to organize and fight for!




Federation of Revolutionary Anarchist Collectives-Great Lakes Region