After much discussion, Whitechapel Anarchist Group are ending the WAG project. This is not because we, as individuals, no longer believe that anarchists and anarchism can play a role in building a better world. It’s because we believe that, after two and a half years, the existing WAG structure and focus is not living up to its full potential in the face of the cataclysmic upheaval in the political culture of this country.
Since the founding of WAG in October 2008 we’ve had a good run. We initially gained notoriety in the build up to the G20 protests in 2009, ‘infiltrated’ by the Daily Mail while unloading thousands of provocative ‘Storm the Banks’ posters.
WAG’s activity oscillated between sporadic forays into anarchist community organising and involvement in mass actions taking place across London. This inability to commit to either/or was something we have struggled with throughout our history. There were times when WAG was a militant local anarchist group, taking part in mass squatting actions, supporting local strikes, clandestine action, local demos, anti-fascism, organising the Spitalfields Fair, screening films, hosting benefits, local radical history walks and promoting our ideas with a free paper. But as one of the only Anarchist groups in London stepping out and really saying something, WAG was essentially a first point of contact for anyone in London who wanted to meet likeminded people. This was an exhausting and exhilarating model – a load of up-for-it people from all over London moving from one crazy event to another – all the time being surprised by the magnitude and militancy of each action and the controversy our involvement caused.
Then came the trashing of Tory Party HQ at Millbank and the beginning of a mass movement against austerity in the UK. WAG members were in the media defending the actions of the students on the day, getting involved in occupations, legal support, counter-surveillance, direct action, union organising and town hall actions. As individuals, we had never been busier. But WAG, as a group, was surprisingly inactive. One thing became clear to us throughout this process: WAG was a means of co-ordinating the efforts and ideas of it’s members to the fullest extent in an increasingly political environment – but one that remained, nonetheless, a political vacuum. However, it was failing to do the same in this new, highly politicised London.
Austerity Britain, post-banking crisis (with another possibly on the way) has seen the capitalist system stumble – we see a weak coalition government pushing cuts and poverty on to all of us. In response to this a new movement is rising – student occupations, unemployed youth rioting, whole communities laying siege to town halls. This is what we should be a part of and we need an Anarchist organisation that can be part of it.
This has led us to embark on a series of much-needed reflections about what form an anarchist group should take and what function it should serve in today’s volatile climate. At a time when so many people are dramatically re-assessing the way they relate to the world around them, why should we be any different? We are revolutionaries, not conservatives. We refuse to become another dinosaur of the left, unable to break with the habits of a lifetime.
So, rather than become everything we hate, we decided to be true to ourselves as revolutionaries and roll with the spirit of rebellion that we find ourselves so inspired by. This means the destruction of what we have become accustomed to – and held back by – and the creation of something new, ambitious and essentially, uncertain.
We want to reorganise as anarchists. Out of the ashes of WAG we are calling for a new organisation to be formed.
We want this to be a London wide class struggle anarchist group with the spirit of WAG that works across the whole capital and has strongholds in borough groups.
We want you to be a part of this…
We want to topple this government
We want to bring the revolution home.
Sound the ALARM!
—————————————————————————————————-
PRELIMINARY AGENDA
SUNDAY 15TH MAY 1:30PM (2PM Start) CALTHORPE ARMS 252 Gray’s Inn Road, Kings Cross, WC1X 8JR
PART ONE: Introductions
(1) Introduction: Why the meeting has been called and the hopes to come out of it.
(2) Proposed initial structure ALARM! (All London Anarchist Revolutionary Movement)
- (a) How ALARM! breaks up as both a London wide organisation and local borough hubs.
- (b) Roles of Secretary and Treasury for ALARM!
- (c) Roles of Borough contacts.
- (d) Assets: Red&Black Club Social, Black Rose Martial Arts Club, Discussion Group, Communication Group.
BREAK (15 minutes)
PART TWO: Foundings
Everyone who returns is now taking part in the official founding of the ALARM! group.
(3) Nominate and elect roles of Secretary and Treasury
(4) Nominate and elect Borough contacts.
(5) Agree on ALARM! Meeting dates – it has been suggested weekly.
(6) Creating a political Manifesto.
(7) Communications:
- (a) Website / Blog.
- (b) Email list / Forums.
- (c) Online – facebook, twitter etc.
- (d) Printed – paper, posters, stickers.
PART THREE: What’s next?
(8) Strategy forward.
(9) Announcement of upcoming events / dates.
Whitechapel Anarchist Group 
An exciting new development… Wishing you all the best from down here in Thurrock and looking forward to working with ALARM! in what will be challenging but exciting times.
A brave decision made by the WAG group, well done, move with the times and change what doesn’t work. Looking forward to ALARM!
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When I saw the headline I almost peed my pants, however upon further reading I am over the moon! This is Jay who sent you the email the other week (hushmail.com) and I would like to take a minute out of my hectic, Student day to say I will be there to witness this, and give my full support, even if I do live on the South Coast.
Much love, WAG, or should I say, ALARM ❤
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you made me scared, then you made me very happy!
What does this mean? A united anarchist movement throughout london?
realities catching up with you lot in Whitechapel?
Well it’s our movement’s strength that we can form and dissolve into the shadows only to mutate, grow and reform elsewhere…..no other political movement can do this, cos anarchism refreshes the parts other political movements cannot reach! Thanks for an excellent blog, apart from everything else. Your piece about the EDL being a Church and King Mob was without doubt the best thing I’ve read on the subject. Cosmo.
You make anarchism, this version, sound like a fungal growth or parasitic infestation. Maybe you should stick to doin’ an out of tune mediocre billy bragg bit, seems to make you happy.
Anarchism is a parasitic infection? Not as much of a parasitic infection as my out of tune mediocre Billy Bragg bit. If you catch yourself humming any of it, I’m sure you can get something from the chemists.
Just the version you describe, moron. There are a host of Anarchist movements seeking practical and functional ways forward to a exploitation-less future. Without reliance on failed bankrupt marxist theory, these individuals offer real hope for people. These people, not confused socialist fuckwitz, cockroaches exposed to light like in their scurrying away from their history of stagnation, mass murder, economic failure, these Anarchists offer real alternatives. Socialist cunts dressing themselves up in Anarchist black can go fuck themselves. Calling themselves libertarian communists will fool only the severely fucking deluded, they still smell of mass graves.
Swifty, you sound delightful! Where do I sign?????? MWAH!!!
You must’ve missed the memo about Nestor Makhno and the Black army in the Ukraine, and the CNT in Spain. If the interactions of those two movements with the Bolshevik (and indeed fascist) elements are anything to go by it’s pretty clear that Anarchism is quite distinct from statist socialists etc.
hey swifty, have you got some lifestyle anarcho-commune I could check out, all this class struggle/marxist shit’s getting too heavy, need to get my head together – hit me up at uselesshipydipshit@nowheresville.com brother.
Onwards and forwards – best wishes!
Will have to let the couple of original “alarm” folks I know around here that the name lives on now, in a different form…
And any of you who are able to attend the Justice for Smiley Culture march on Saturday, shout an extra-loud “justice for smiley” for me, I can’t make it down this time.
this is brilliant, gunna be at the meeting
http://libcom.org/blog/wag-going-london-wide-14042011
Congratulations and celebrations!
Too much discussion on the agenda about roles like Secretary and Treasurer, new structures should mean new roles fit for purpose rather than sounding like the Rotary Club.
Cameron – your dead are buried, ours are reborn. You clean out the ashes, WE light the fire. If you’re queuing up to dance on socialism’s grave, then THIS funeral’s for the wrong corpse…
Are you drunk? been listening to old soviet marching tunes? Everyone give this romantique fucktard a chorus of the “international.” Like all those great socialist/communist heroes, how many would you murder or imprison to achieve your utopia? Every socialist country, including Cuba, has had to abandon their statist socialist economic policies because they fail, country after country, failure. Still careerist theoretician academics, as well resentful, in need of therapy, on benefits, ageing failed revolutionaries, and too young to know they’re fucking idiots, too ignorant to know what the “Great Leap Forward” was or what it cost, look to marxism and socialism to solve humanities problems. Now they dress themselves up as Anarchists, claim they believe in “liberty”, all the while clinging to essentially the same doctrines, dogmas and utopianist theories that filled so many mass graves.
Being that fucking stupid, I guess it makes sense they can’t distinguish between individuals, or recognize the latest manifestation of hard fascism as expressed in islam, or perceive imperialist ambitions as exhibited in islam’s doctrinal texts, or see the blatantly obvious colonialist efforts of so many muslim organizations. Then again, they’re fucking idiots, so not much should be expected.
Cam doesn’t bother with the fucking morons that inhabit this site, says, “too dim to light the lowest watt bulb and have been thoroughly co-opted by closeted marxists scum to bother with.” I obviously disagree. Disagree with the “to bother with”, I think your stupidities and self-delusions should be tossed in your faces, the exploitation of your pathetic self-loathing guilt complexes by non-native Britons like rasta who screams racism every time a white person farts in the general direction of a person of colour, or excuses crimes committed against little white girls by men of a pakistani origin, cause as whites they deserved it. The fucking morons who buy guilt trips about the crimes and atrocities of the British empire laid out by muslims, who neglect to mention the beneficial achievements, destruction of the open slave trade, expansions in knowledge, medicine and education attributable to Britain’s influence, the spread of democratic ideals, which thus far have proven superior in terms of individual liberty than any dictatorship. Guilttrip attempting douchebags like that “dan” cunt who slither off when confronted with the horrific history of genocide and ethnic cleansing of another player of the imperial game, islam. Where the British gave up their empire consigning it to history, the largest ethnic cleansing in history, that of Hindus by bangladeshi muslim filth continues today. But assholes like “dan” can count on the self-loathing and ignorance of the self-described, but questionable, anarchists of Whitechapel and elsewhere to gobble it up, greedily and uncritically.
So socialist romanique, as you don’t seem particularly romantic, as Cameron says he doesn’t frequent the WAG site, I doubt he will see your reference. But I will pass on your hello, I’m sure you will have given him a laugh, God knows you’ve given me a giggle. Perfect illustration of the kind of dim, decrepit fucktard that embraces utopian socialism.
for fuck sake can you get a life. everyone else is celebrating acheivement and you’re here writing paragraphs that nobody gives a shit about.
anyway-
there is a lot of work ahead, but its nothing but positive news here! 🙂
you seemed to have a point before you descended into a pointless rant. you offer a fuck load of criticism but nothing, at all constructive….awkward
Why are you talking about the colonialism of Islam? Last time I checked the West is still very much sovereign. However if you believe western colonialism (i.e. colonialism perpetrated by the west) is dead I’d suggest you look deeper, it’s still very much alive albeit in a much subtler guise.
My, my, my, Swifty! So much hate, so much venom! You need some solid anti-depressants mate. Why don’t you go talk to your mates, the EDL? They might fix you up, and provide your mad rantings a much-needed political channel…
It is good to see an unconventional and broad grouping of anarchists coming together and linking up. I know this is early days already, but have you thought of national linking up?
In Manchester the size and energy of the people involved in the beauty of struggle and resistance is reaching a mass not seen before (and we’ve always had a large and vibrant scene, so you can imagine how exciting this is!). We are embyonically begining to link together our groups, whilst forming new ones and fitting ourselves to the task in hand. It would be great, once a little further into this process to link up with a national grouping. Thoughts? Maybe an agenda point?
Exciting development, it’s brave to see a group recognising it needs to dramatically change and (unlike climate camp) it seems wise to propose the future at the same time as ending the present.
good luck!
R
CAN WE PLEASE ALL IGNORE SWIFTY? hes doing my nut in.
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Hi,
Have mixed feelings about this. I totally agree it was best to fold WAG and look for new more vibrant forms of organisation and struggle, but not sure that rebranding as a bigger better anarchist organisation is the way forward. I know lots of people around the country are having similar discussions, and are in no rush just to ‘rebrand’ and do the same thing again. Surely a more thoughful discussion would be best first, as looking at the agenda it already seems pretty closed and decided.
As Durruti was fond of saying, “Epic win!”
to that muppet d’ jour , homemoapathy92
Somebody’s reading them, it’s just most of you fuckwits never subject your own beliefs to a good through bit of self-criticism. I imagine having those beliefs challenged and not being able to refute or even contest the crit is a bit disconcerting. I know many of you have bought the palestinian propaganda that they suffer under a genocide committed by Israelis, even though most populations that have experienced holocaust also experience a dramatic decrease in population. Examples as follows european Jews 1938 to 1945 approx. 6 million less, Ukrainians in the 1920’s to 30’s lost up to another 6 mil thanks to those soviet commie bastards, China’s communist utopians in a deft application of marx’s ramblings murdered about 60 mil, k-k-kkhmer rouge, little cambodian commie pricks 1.5 million less cambodians, muslim historians are almost orgasmic in their descriptions of how they did allah good by slaughtering 60 to 120 million Hindus and Buddhists, turks on Armenians equals 1.5 million less Armenians, see a fucking theme, genocide means less people. Tutis and hutus ’bout million less Tutsis, but perhaps miraculously the palestinians, a “people” that didn’t exist before 1948, before that they were just good old southern syrians have seen their population climb from around a mil to almost 5 million, all the while suffering a holocaust at the hands of nazi Jews. I put that in one paragraph so you won’t get confused by multiple paras. Hopefully the few multisyllabic words I couldn’t help using don’t upset you further. See if any of you fucking morons can figure out the purpose of that.
The Crunch, western colonialism still exists. Yeah, so does Chinese in Tibet, and apparently what there doing in Africa seems to be a bit of neo-colonialism. Neo-colonialism is usually what that subtler form of colonialism is called. What can we learn from the colonial experiences of those colonized? It sucks as to be colonized, it’s what Native north Americans say, it’s what the Irish say, the Scots say. It is generally agreed, you do not want to be colonized. Now if I am opposed to colonization of other peoples, why would I not be opposed to the attempted colonization of the peoples I come from by among the worst colonizers in history. Ask the Copts, if you have a fucking clue who they are?
Both of you should heed “A”‘s request and ignore my posts, he/she’s a bit delicate and needs a rest, Things are getting tough in the olde Towerhamlets, living in a constant denial of reality and the facts that surround takes enormous effort. Must be taxing, poor thing. Aside from pretending that it isn’t bangladeshi descended muslims assaulting Gay people, and generally making it uncomfortable for non-muslims in Whitechapel, whatever it is spends enormous amounts of energy convincing itself that the World owes it a Living. Very taxing, indeed.
right
yeah firstly its *homeoapathy , secondly, if pointing out that you are theonly obsessively negative person on here makes me a muppet, then okay..
nobody is opposed to constructive criticism,however, this is not what you are offering. all you are offering are paragraphs of hate filled ranting flavoured with ‘communism’ every 2lines for a bit of effect. obviously no ideology is perfect, hence the formation of ALARM, to try and deal with the changes in our time. the post is not calling for the formation of some soviet inspired guerrilla warfare campaign, it is just discussing proposals for a new project.
from your statistics we can conclude.. ‘bad shit has happened’.unfortunately regrettable things will happen, that is the nature of reality. and maybe next timeyou would like to include the millions who die everyday under the western imposed system which results in death by poverty, starvationetc, alongside western influenced warfare. or maybe you are just interested in ‘death by commie pricks’.
in regard to your nice bit about neo colonalism,i still fail to see the point of this paragraph. and if you are trying to suggest that the anarchist plot is to colonialise the british people, theni feel sorry for you, if this is not the case then prehaps you would like to expand further.
lastly,prehaps if you had voiced your concerns in a civilised manner then others may actually take you seriously and not just laugh you off.
Have you ever read Marx? Just curious, because you go on about him a lot and yet you don’t seem to have any idea of what he actually said. As for you rattling out the lists of the casualties of authoritarian regimes, I’d like you to remember where you are posting (brotip: it’s by no means a group that acts as apologists for authoritarianism and is in fact entirely opposed to authoritarianism), if you’re aware of the context of your ravings I’d like to ask you how any of it is relevant to the discussion about a London based Anarchist group? On that topic you seem to have completely ignored my point about how anarchistic societies have interacted with authoritarian regimes (be they left or right).
The Chinese have never colonised others in the past, they’re only putting into practise what the west has taught them.
“Now if I am opposed to colonization of other peoples, why would I not be opposed to the attempted colonization of the peoples I come from by among the worst colonizers in history. Ask the Copts, if you have a fucking clue who they are?”
You do realise that Egypt was colonised before the Arabs came in right? As well as that you talk about the UK being colonised, I’d like to remind you that it has been colonised before yet doesn’t your claim of colonisation imply some sort of control? Last time I checked the UK government has not been seized by Islamists, the country is not under shariah law, there is no Islamic hegemony, if it’s colonisation it’s a pretty piss poor job of it isn’t it? You’re definitely right about them being the worst colonisers in history, if this is indeed an attempt at colonising the UK they clearly couldn’t colonise an ant farm!
Good luck in your new venture.
Brave move and hope it works out well.
From a (socialist) fellow traveller.
Will be watching with interest.
OK, I think Swifty should have his posts deleted from now on.
He is consistently disruptive and clogs up the arteries of the internet with his inane – and entirely predictable – ramblings
This is not censorship, because he has had his say a million times over. And it is always the same. fucking. shit.
For those who may want to stick up for Swifty, or have a tendency to mourn his contributions, I can tell you exactly how his next ten million posts will go:
1) Muslims are BAAAD
2) You lot are Marxists, not Anarchists
3) You all hate gay people, but i don’t. Honest. No, really.
4) Rasta, you really are a [insert insult]
5) Generic psuedo-conspiracy theory nonsense of any stripe.
Peppered with a liberal amount of low-grade insults and misrepresentations.
GOODBYE SWIFTY!
You might be interested in hosting one or three of these. We’ll do however many required for free, at our own expense.
http://is.gd/uQ6YKk
Inspired by @suey2y (Sue Marsh), @BrokenofBritain and @VirtualResistan, a new workshop aimed squarely at those at the sharp end of the modern political and media debate about the welfare state, and the attempts to divide us into ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor.
Provided materials include government statistics, press releases, media reports and responses from disability activists. Participants will be armed with the statistical tools to respond to these attacks, with a final plenary discussion on how activists can work to change perceptions of benefit claimants and those living with disabilities, and fight for their right to be treated with dignity.
See link for more details.
Whats all this racist shit about muslims and, uh, marxists (huh?) in the comments?
Swifty, can you fuck off please you dumbshit EDL fascist.
Just picked up a copy of your ‘final bulletin’ from OffMarket, great idea, just we need. Reading on the way home I grinning like the old Cheshire cat, see you all at the Calthorpe Arms then.
FACEBOOK?
TWITTER?
ARE YOU SERIOUS?
do u really need to post something on a damn social media to let *london* knowing it?
I’d rather let it know via newspapers or just damn physical (i don’t mean violence right now) things u do??
i’m definitely in, but reading this made my cock drown.
Duh no
islam is a belief system not a race you what was the word you used dumbshit, if you are going to participate get a clue. As you can’t tell the difference between those, it makes sense you are to fucking stupid to recognize fascists or marxists.
A love and kisses
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nice one comrades!!! cu tomorrow