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On December 7th, 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested six people they claim were behind sabotage actions committed on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). One of those people, Daniel McGowan, is being held without bail because of alleged evidence from a wired informant who was an associate of his. This informant recorded a conversation with McGowan at a convention this year. (1)
Effective Organizational Models
In general, the ELF and ALF have been pretty successful in avoiding arrest for the approximately 1,200 actions over the last 15 years that have earned them the rating as the "nation's top domestic terror threat" by the FBI.(2) Their model works on small, independent cells, with no known connections to the movement's publicity organs or other aboveground animal rights or environmental groups. Though a strategy of sabotage alone cannot succeed in reaching the ELF/ALF's goals, their organizational strategy is one that we can utilize.
In 2005, MIM passed a resolution announcing a reorganization into a cell-based structure. This structure replaces the central Party made up of local branches with many independent cells, linked only by political line. This builds on our strengths while minimizing our weaknesses at this stage of the struggle where we have little mass support here in the imperialist countries. We can see an example of the benefits in effect with this case of infiltration of alleged ELF members.
The informer responsible for snitching on Daniel McGowan can only do so much damage because of how ELF and similar organizations organize themselves, and at most they will gather information on a handful of activists. The enemy is going to have some successes too, but we can limit those with tighter policies.
According to the www.earthliberationfront.com, "There is no ELF structure; 'it' is non-hierarchical and there is no centralized organization or leadership." Unlike the ELF and most anarchists, we do not take on our organizational structure as a matter of principle, but rather as a means of getting things done in accordance with the concrete conditions of a given time and place.
Right now, we do not see MIM winning elections for national office the way Lenin's party did and we have a great need to separate from politics focussed on individual identities. The cutting edge bourgeois Liberalism of today is post-modernist identity politics. Negating individual leadership of the party as opposed to line leadership at this time is a great blow we can deliver to identity politics. Even more importantly, not publicizing leaders except after imprisonment teaches by example how everyone should regard their own security. If we had guerrilla base areas under our control, the MIM 2005 Congress resolution for cells would be wrong. What we have instead is the ability to influence public opinion and build independent organizations without having just one large structure.
It is the centralized ideological leadership of the vanguard that provides the point for the arrow that is the revolutionary masses. The international proletariat cannot play around with idealistic views on how to organize. Too many times already we've already learned the lesson that building socialism without the vanguard party, as pioneered by V.I. Lenin, has failed miserably from the lack of a consolidated proletarian leadership. But we also know that having only one centralized party structure only becomes vital when beginning to vie for state power. We are not at that stage in the imperialist countries today.
At our stage of struggle we are still learning what democratic-centralism is, because we do not have protracted armed struggles in the majority-exploiter countries to teach us quickly on the need for centralism and because the enemy infiltrates to wreck our unity. A perception and analysis of power leading to a proletarian consciousness of the need for centralism does not arise in a way that we can copy Lenin directly for our conditions. This is a by-product of our task creating public opinion in mainly petty-bourgeois imperialist countries that we cannot avoid--a weakness in our circles and ranks concerning what power is, how to struggle for it and why centralism is helpful. All too easily we slide into Liberal intellectualism with its implicit belief that open talk is the panacea for all problems. Until we can go over to coordinated mass armed struggle that will be true.
lesson #1: Don't talk to pigs
lesson #2: Anyone could be a pig
Reports on nyc.indymedia.org indicate that the FBI is utilizing electronic communications to gather intelligence, and articles from indymedia are being used in court to help deny Daniel McGowan bail. Already, anyone can google McGowan's name and discover aliases that he has organized under. In many ways the battle against electronic surveillance can seem insurmountable when you can't go to a public political event without being videotaped anymore. But we can engage in better practices and we can discourage Liberalism regarding security among those who claim to be our allies. The indymedia model has been a great success for people's media in many ways. Unfortunately, it has served as a clearing house for pigs for gathering information, especially photos of activists. The simple act of blurring faces in photos of protestors, as we do, makes the pigs jobs that much harder.
A second lesson that can be learned from this electronic intelligence gathering is the need to keep information on a need to know basis. Some discussion around this case online has led anarchists to conclude that we need to establish closer ties within our communities to enforce tighter security. On the one hand we agree that we must promote tighter security within our organizing groups. But there is a problem when people talk in terms of "communities" and not highly dedicated revolutionary cells. The mixing of activism and socializing opens up great holes in our security. We should not allow anyone with the right look and talk (rather than the correct line and proven work) to get too close. If we keep our politics separate, it is much less likely that information will slip out.
Many members of the Weather Underground survived for years in the white youth counter-culture coops and communes while being hunted by the FBI. The FBI has targeted a number of gathering points for the earth and animal liberation movements across the country, including the recent infiltration of anarchist circles in Eugene. In oppressed nation communities the state surveillance is less erratic and even more challenging.
For communists in the imperialist countries, Mao's idea of swimming in a sea of fish hardly applies when we are surrounded by the class enemy. Therefore different tactics are necessary, and tighter security is in order.
The bottom line lesson is don't say shit. Information about political work should be disseminated on a need-to-know basis only. Our ability to understand this concept in the imperialist countries is limited by a lack of experience with power struggle--the paradox of the proletariat with no armed struggle. That is our weakness, but by working in small cells where we all understand what is going on in an in-our-faces kind of way, we can limit the advantage of the enemy.
It is easy to proclaim democratic centralism but applying it is harder. With small cells, centralism develops more easily where political conditions are backward, especially in cells confronting the state. At some point, the cells may develop far enough along that there is a broad awareness derived from political struggle why large organizations with tight discipline are an advantage to the proletariat.
Notes:
(1)Barnard, Jeff. Undercover informant used in ecoterrorism investigation.
December 12, 2005. AP.
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20051212202205686
(2)Egan, Timothy. 6 Arrested Years After Ecoterrorist Acts. December 9,
2005. NY Times.
Note:
http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/currentaffairs/region/netherlands/041210canl