A recent text, “a humble conversation on why you shouldn’t name your group” has reprised an older conversation among anarchists set off by a “letter to the anarchist galaxy.” Both outline the strategic risks and detriments posed by the decision to claim attacks as named formations. Contributing to this conversation, and in partial response to those demanding reportbacks from the Bash Back! Convergence, it makes sense to take a moment to name one proposal which was *not* put forward last week: the return of Bash Back! as a named organization. A number of pieces in Queer Ultraviolence lay out the limits hit by BB! in that form, and are worth revisiting for those curious. Those limits can only be harder in the current cybernetic-identitarian hell.
500 queer anarchists meeting (again and for the first time) without tragedy and only minor dramas will likely prove to be an historic moment, and one we’ll look back on fondly (after a few bruises and bruised egos heal). The vital things from here will be the relationships formed and nourished by this encounter, not whatever organizational forms we scheme up to vampirize our collective energy. Projects will emerge, initiatives will be taken, monstrous new tendencies will develop. We need all of that. But we don’t necessarily need the name. The baggage keeps us mired in the spectacle of politics.
People can wish Bash Back stayed dead all they want: it’s not going to die so easily. This thing happened before, under this slogan, in the 70s too. People will keep bashing back and will do so under a variety of banners, or none at all. The adherence to a name only limits our imaginations. The recent RICO case against forest defenders demonstrates how dangerous the state considers anarchist methods of organizing, as well as the beautiful idea itself. We stay dangerous by continually experimenting with ways to evade the traps they set for us. We need a smart and ruthless queer militancy, not mere simulacra of that militancy.
Bash Back! clearly showed itself to be a potent call to gather, and will surely continue to, but we strike best masked and silent.
Submitted by anon4anon