Submission
Comrades, on Thursday February 29th there was a vigil for a fallen comrade named Aaron Bushnell. A person whom much like the lot of us has been highly affected by late stage capitalism and unlike many of us have seen the devastation is creates first hand. We cannot imagine the pain one person’s soul must have carried and for how long before he took direct action. They say that self immolation is the most extreme form of protest and a most devastating plea and that might very well be the case as it most certainly was for this young person.
Comrades, it is with a heavy heart that that we even have to say that we feel this plea will be met with inaction and with martyr sentiments. While our comrades are giving us all clear messages about what they want to see happen, their desires fall on deaf ears. Even as this person like others before him have given a most extreme example of direct action, so called anarchists, communists, socialists and activists alike continue to fall short of direct action. In fact, the policing of peace seems to increase with each new found wave of protest.
These peace police will always have you scared of the unknown and will drown out any suspected forms of escalation with a simple or convoluted speech of “Think of the vulnerable.” These individual people, these fucking orgs will tell us not to engage with our enemies, to not “stoop to their level” so to speak. But last time we checked, our anger, and the way we and others choose to express it is NOT up to them. They would have you march in a fucking circle, yelling at buildings, begging and voting for politicians who don’t fucking care about us or the vulnerable rather than stand beside to be on the attack. They bolster stupid fucking statistics and “analysis” on when the material conditions will be in favour and somehow that day never fucking comes. Because it fucking won’t.
Dear comrades, we need not keep waiting. That was the message behind this desperate act. Our comrade Aaron has seen that the Israeli government will never stop until their genocide is complete. A while back, our comrade Tort had also seen that that the police would never stop until they devastated a forest, an natural ecosystem, and a whole population of people just play their fucked up games and become more deadly and oppressive than they already are. In a diary found, Tort had called for bigger action and most if not all response was peaceful in nature. We would say that we can’t fucking believe it, but when we look at the bullshit that is these orgs and institutions, we unfortunately do.
The link that we and others here in so called philly to Aaron and Tort is in our political viewpoint as anarchists. Both of these brave souls identified with anarchist tendencies and showed our shared interest in self determination in various ways. A facebook post from Arron which had also called the inaction, was ended with the picture of a circle A. That may mean nothing to some of you out here; but it means something to us. It tells us that very much like us; Aaron desired action. And we stand beside him in his call for that action.
And so dear comrades, we would just hope that you do not turn our comrade into a martyr or as a justification for peace when the message is simple: These states, all states, are institutions of death and violence. It should not have been Aaron that was burning, but that very building behind him. It should not have been Tort dying at the hands of the state but the state dying at the hands of all of us. We’re not begging politicians for fucking crumbs but we are begging you to stop being peaceful and start doing what we know needs to be done. It is time to meet their violence with violence. How can see babies dying everyday and not be attacking? To the peace police we have this to say: Think of our vulnerable, huh? Right now the “vulnerable” are doing more than you fucking are in response to genocide.
Fuck the peace police, fuck yelling at buildings and begging politicians, let’s take our anger and rage and put it out there in these streets. Comrade Aaron, may we never forget what you did or your name. May we not see you as a martyr but as a brave human being capable of extraordinary courage and the most direct type of action. – Anonymous
