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Since November of 2007, a gang of trannies, queers and miscreants had made
clear their intentions; they were going to fuck up the conventions. From as
early as discussions at NCOR in march, the criticism was made that
organizing around the conventions was somewhat irrelevant to queer anarchist
struggle.

True. Struggles for queers have largely, rightfully so, been rooted in the
desires and needs of queer bodies. From Stonewall, to the white night riots,
to STAR, to the battles with AIDS; the struggles of radical trannies and
queers have always involved matters of empowerment and immediate survival.
In that context, it is understandable why many queers would not be quick to
put a year of work into the RNC or DNC. After all, our bodies would still be
in prison and we'd still be killed on the street without regard for the
events of four days in St. Paul and Denver.

We get that. But we don't live in 1969. Queers aren't engaged in
four-day-long street-battles with police anymore. We haven't burnt cop cars
or attacked capitols lately. We aren't occupying federal buildings, and
public sex in enormous squatted buildings is sadly a matter of envious
nostalgia for our generation. Rather, we have the banal regurgitation of
heterosexuality and patriarchy in the form of campaigns for marriage and
military service.

Understandably, we needed a reason to get excited. We needed a chance to
position ourselves as a force. We needed to feel strong. Above all else, we
needed to find one another as individuals who wanted this world's head on a
platter - we needed folks to dance with atop the rubble.

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The author of this tragically incomplete analysis cannot attest to anything
that happened in Denver, but really hopes someone else will.

While fun, and a worthwhile experience, what happened with the Bash Back!
blockade in the streets of St. Paul was neither outstanding, nor as wild as
it could have been.

A lot of shit was put in the roads; shit in the roads got broke, one persyn
was arrested, another got fucked up by a horse. The blockade created a
situation the kept busses from entering the excel on Kellogg for about 40
minutes. Later, folks got into a few scuffles with the Westboro Baptist
Church. Oh, and a terrified and bewildered corporate journalist got a great
story about a 'funnel cloud' of tire slashing, cop terrorizing,
genderfuckers.

From the perspective of this participant, more could have happened. The
conflict could have been escalated, and the ante could have been upped. I
can say, though, that standing down a charging line of horse cops, linked
arm-in-arm with friends and lovers in their sexiest attire has left me with
a certain taste for conflict - a taste not easily satisfied.

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Over a year in advance of the conventions, it was articulated that the most
important reason to organize against them lied in their potential as
catalysts to create lasting networks and to escalate social conflict in this
country.

For this reason, the conventions were an enormous success for Bash Back! and
for radical queers.

Bash Back! as a network, was born entirely out of anti-convention
organizing. This organizing made possible the outrageously successful
Radical Queer Convergence in April, and the formation of a slew of new queer
anarchist groups throughout the country. There are now Bash Back! groups in
at least six cities or areas (Chicago, Denver, Memphis, Michigan, Milwaukee
and Upstate New York), as well as crews of radical trannies and queers in
several other towns.

To be clear, the relationships and networks we've built are here to stay.
We've fucked one another, we've slept on each others' floors, we've sat for
hours in lovely parks applying glitter to our costumes. That doesn't go away
after four days. The only place we're going is forward.

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The work we've done to create a network of queer and trans anarchists has
been amazing. Now the next few months and year will truly tell how well
we've done. We have a lot of momentum and a lot of passion. With that, we
have an opportunity to invigorate and embolden queer organizing in this
country.

We don't intend to let that opportunity pass.

We know what we've want, and in the flurries of kicking horses and streams
of pepper-spray, we've found other who want it just as bad. We have only one
direction: the queerest of insurrections.

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For more information about Bash Back! including video of the Blockades and scuffles with God Hates Fags check out www.bashbacknews.wordpress.com