What can we learn from the Autonomous Zones?

[Strigix]

Recently, CHAZ was disbanded by force, after security forces opened fire on a white car, killing one man and injuring another.

Over the last month, CHAZ and several other 'Autonomous Zones' have been created, grown, shrunk, and dissolved. Some of them have lasted longer than others. Some are still ongoing. But with the forced dissolving of CHAZ, the autonomous zone with the most visibility is now gone- and, I believe, now is the time to think about how they functioned.

What did they do right?
What did they do wrong?
What could be done better?

 

[FreeWhisky]

Hello everyone:

With the recent breakup of CHOP in Seattle after their security forces killed one teenager and seriously wounded another I thought it would be appropriate to create a thread discussing lessons to be learned from this and other occupation protests.

Some that personally stick in mind are when AIM (the American Indian Movement) occupied Alcatraz in 1971
Of course also the occupy wall street movement in 2011-2012 (my personal radicalizing moment)
The Standing Rock Protests in 2014
the aforementioned CHOP in Seattle elsewhere
The ongoing protests against a telescope on a sacred mountain in Hawaii
The L'eau Est La Vie protests in Louisiana
And many others. Occupations and squats have a long history in leftists movements. Please feel free to share your thoughts about any of the above or any others I have not mentioned.

 

[Strigix]

Merged the threads; great minds think alike, but it'll be more straightforwards if we don't have duplicates :v

 

[Hakazin]

Speaking as someone who's been talking with people involved in the initial organization of the CHAZ, the main lesson I can see is the importance of not letting liberals co-opt and defang protests. Obviously there's the fact that the CHAZ turned from an active occupation into a glorified block party as more radical organizers burnt out from the pressure, but I'd argue that the shooting that led to the police crackdown was also a side-effect.

The more militant organizing of the initial protests meant that the CHAZ's security developed a siege mentality, one that was at some level warranted due to the several far-right attacks on the protest. After the liberals took control of things, those security groups remained in-place, but without anybody that had an active interest in keeping the militancy in check. A bunch of amateurs with guns trying to provide security and operating off a siege mentality does not a safe environment make, and so we ended up with two black teenagers dead and a casus belli for the police to move in.

 

[Nyvis]

I think it's also a case of escalating way beyond what you're ready to sustain.

And not factoring in the liberals in the movement in the first place. Your role isn't to impose law on them. If they show up to protests, they're going to radicalize as they clash with the cops. But it means you shouldn't set ambitions you can't realize with them around.

In the end, everyone is going to talk about CHAZ, not about all the smaller camps who were less ambitious but managed what they did better.

 

[Strigix]

I think it's inevitable that Liberals will be there. But I don't think it's inevitable that we have to cede the protests to them, or cede our organizations to them.

I'm not sure what the optimal course of action is, there, but there will need to be an organization in order to exclude liberals from it, and I'm not sure what form that should take at this point.

Will think more on this and share ideas later, I think.

 

[Strigix]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1279433861945077760

This thread was shared with me by @Hakazin earlier, and it seems like it's worth consideration.

The flaws highlighted here were that the territory making up CHAZ was controlled by police barricades, that the democracy within CHAZ was limited and flawed (by description, the 'democratic' rule of those who shouted the loudest), and that the coordination suffered because a lack of organized structure.

This implies a few potential solutions- protest organizations must be organized and have a structure, they must be democratic, and they should hesitate to attempt control of territory (to not operate 'behind enemy lines', as it were).

The particular way to accomplish those solutions? I'm not sure. It's honestly hard to say, one way or another. But I think that they can be accomplished.

 

[Nyvis]

The flaws highlighted here were that the territory making up CHAZ was controlled by police barricades, that the democracy within CHAZ was limited and flawed (by description, the 'democratic' rule of those who shouted the loudest), and that the coordination suffered because a lack of organized structure.

Important to remember that it wasn't so at first, that only happened due to a push by the police some times after it began.