Contributed to type A by: Anonymoose

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Workshops and discussions centered around topics that varied from women's health, to sex toys, to hand-to-hand combat, to insurrectionary direct action at the 2006 Great Lakes Anarchist Gathering held in Bowling Green, Ohio over the weekend of August 19th and 20th. Perhaps the most substantive thing to come from this radical convergence however, was a reinvigorating sense of unity among regional anarchists.
People came from places like Columbus, Cleveland, Kalamazoo, Michigan and Bloomington, Indiana, and one participant even hitchhiked from Cincinatti to participate in the first gathering for Great Lakes area anarchists in roughly a decade. Participants were welcomed and housed by the local organizers, including members from such groups as the type A collective, BG Anti-Racist Action, and Toledo's October Fifteenth Anarchist Collective. Discussion and workshop topics varied along a wide range of subjects, but generally focused on improving the effectiveness of, and strengthening the regional community.
The weekend's activities began Friday night, when several groups arrived from out of town to meet up with locals and find a place to crash. Locals and out of towners spent about two hours congregating at the Grounds for Thought coffe shop/bookstore, relaxing and getting to know each other before taking to the downtown streets for a late night game of Capture the Flag. By around 2am people began heading off to their sleeping accomodations, which took the form of beds, couches, porches, and hardwood floors, to rest up for the next days activities.

As Saturday morning rolled around, local organizers worked hurriedly, carrying armfulls of boxes through residential and downtown streets like a line of ants taking food back to the queen, to make last minute preparations for the event that almost wasn't.
Only three days before the gathering was to take place at the United Christian Fellowship community center, the president of the UCF board, over the objections of the rest of the board, cancelled the event, expressing vague, rambling concerns about possible violence, and threatening to have any anarchists found on the property arrested. The UCF and local anarchists had, over the years, formed a strong, if unlikely relationship, with the top floor of the building being used as an Infoshop/radical library, and the whole building frequently hosting events such as Earth First! presentations and Anti-Racist Action benefit concerts. The last minute objection from the UCF president was unexpected and bizarre, and led to her forced resignation, but left the 2006 GLAG organizers working frantically to find a new venue. They were luckily able to secure several rooms in the BGSU Student Union building, which provided ample space, but also created a sterile, hospital-like environment for the event.
People from around the region continued to pour in as the first day of the gathering kicked off. Anarchists and the curious took the first hour of the day to introduce themselves and talk about their interests annd influences. Participants included people of various ages, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds, all with unique ideas about how to improve the lives of people and the planet.
At noon the first of the schedules activities, an open forum discussion on improving communications and networking ability among the regional anarchist community, took place. Talk centered around security concerns, increasing face-to-face interaction, and improving electronic communications resources, and yielded the creation of a new website. Late arrival from an Indiana Earth First! group delayed the start of the next scheduled presentation and created an impromptu lunch break, sending a flood of anarchists into the tiny vegan restaurant down the street.
As the afternoon progressed, the activities schedule continued on, staying mostly on time. THe Earth First! I-69 Roadblock crew arrived and gave an informative presentation on the proposed I-69/NAFTA Superhighway project scheduled to begin construction in 2008, and provided advice and literature to help people join in the fight against the road which would destroy thousands of acres of wetlands and forests throughout Indiana, and wipe out at least one endangered bat species.
A workshop from Toledo art collective The Flatcap Conspiracy, followed. Members of the group displayed an impressive knowledge of the history and production of zines and self-publishing, and showed off some finished products, mostly related to anarchism or zombies.
Males were then evicted from the main room so that a women's sexual and reproductive health workshop could take place. Issues such as natural and alternative contraception and menstrual devices and techniques were discussed among the women, while the men mainly gathered in the literature room and played with a rubber ball.

The final two scheduled events of the day were a workshop put on by Dr. Jeanine Pfahlert, on homemade sex toys, primarily buttplugs, and a presentation on autonomous marxism and its relationship to anarchism put on by University of Toledo professor Manuel Yang, in which he suggested that Marx, in his later years, had begun to gravitate toward a primitivist ideology.
During this last presentation a reporter from the Cleveland Scene came into the room to take notes for a story on the event and the regional anarchist movement. The reporter's presence caused some tension, and at times minor hostilities. He did, to his credit, honor the requests of those who wished not to be photographed, and showed some genuine interest when doing a group interview with some of the event organizers.
As the first day's scheduled activities ended, people returned to their temporary homes to relax, eat a dinner provided by Toledo Food Not Bombs, and watch some films, including the 1999 Seattle WTO documentary Breaking the Spell, and a video of Toledo's 2005 October 15th Uprising. The group moved festively through the streets as they left the BGSU campus, with at least one person removing their clothes and jumping into a public water fountain.
Many, including the Cleveland Scene reporter, returned to the university campus later that night to attend a concert featuring two local anarchist punk bands. The nighttime walk across campus served as a chance for some to release all the energy they'd stored up by sitting inside most of the day, and several let their feral side show, stripping off their shirts and giving chase to a rabbit, which they apparently planned on making into a late night snack. The show, which was held in a Women's Center conference room, was loud, full of raw energy, and included an amazing and bizarre cover of the B-52's Rock Lobster. Campus police, one of whom was stationed outside the building and forced to listen, at one point tried to stop the show, but were unsuccessful due to the fact that a permit had been granted for use of the room.

The second and final day of the gathering got off to a late start, as participants recovered from a late night of live music, outdoor games, and crashing frat parties.
An eye opening critique of the public education system and institutionalized schooling as a whole kicked off Sunday's workshop schedule. Mikey Toledo, author of the soon to be released Human Material, discussed the various factors that have coalesced to create the life draining, mind numbing state of the modern educational system.
A discussion of leftist tactics and organizations was next on the agenda, and gave people a chance to share their experiences and views on the historic connection, and the growing divide between leftist groups and post-left anarchist.
There was a short break for lunch as an area group opposed to factory farming prepared their presentation. The issue of factory farming and industrial agriculture, a topic of particular interest to people in the Great Lakes region, was discussed, along with information on what can be done to effectively oppose it. With time running late, the next presentation started almost immediately. The Zionist-Palestinian conflict was the next topic of discussion. The knowledgeable presenter spoke for more than an hour on the brutal and bloody history of the state of Israel and its connection to British Imperialism and United States foreign policy.
The hand-to-hand combat workshop, which had originally been slated for the previous day, provided an unique, pragmatic approach to self defense and martial arts training. Stating that it's virtually impossible to glean or retain any significant technical know-how from a single lesson, the professional full-contact fighter opted to focus mainly on basic principles of hand-to-hand fighting and providing guidelined to help people engage in further study.
A short presentation on improvised screen printing techniques preceded the final scheduled activity of the weekend, an open forum discussion of street tactics, direct action, and insurrectionary anarchism. The group, which had by now shrunk to about half of its peak size, shared opinions about what they viewed as effective tactics, based on lessons learned through their various experiences, as well as exchanging thoughts about where they saw the movent going on local and regional levels. Talk often turned to examples from other parts of the world, mainly of course, Greece. One participant humorously recounted an exchange he'd had with an Italian anarchist in New York City, in which the Italian described the unwillingness of American protesters to raid an unguarded police equipment truck as "the most depressing moment of my entire fucking life!"

The night and the gathering ended with a walk to a local park, during which, those remaining discussed edible plants and survival skills, and some took one final chance to go feral and chase down another rabbit. At least one burning American flag could be seen hanging into the street as darkness set in. Farewells and promises of closer connection were exchanged as new found friends parted ways, taking with them sincere feelings of real community and, perhaps, a greater appreciation of what we're really fighting for.