[Originally published:Friday, December 26 2003 Note: Additions added in "[]" to clarify or to edit.]

A Proposal for Arawak City Anti-Authoritarians: Working towards Winning

By High Priest Wombat, KSC

In the few months of the Arawak City Brain Trust’s existence, it has shown that it will have a lasting affect on the Columbus Radical movement.

Arawak [City Brain Trust] has brought together anarchists and anti-authoritarians that have never met each other, and other’s that have rejoined in active struggle under a single union of local anti-authoritarians. Though I am not fully informed on our membership’s origins, we can point to members that have been or are actively in Columbus Anti-Racist Action (Columbus ARA), a collective of anti-racists that are reknown for their challenges to fascism and for their leadership of the radical community in the locality and throughout the region. Columbus Anti-Authoritarian Media (CAAM) a small collective that made an attempt at merging media with militant radicalism that formed before the development of RAIN (Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Network) and fell apart in what can be said to be an attempt at developing what Arawak now has. Liberatory Projects, a RAAN collaborative that developed the CircleA CD-ROM, with its mix of anarchist and various texts from the Collective Knowledge Project (RAAN) with the ability to play it as a music CD in your radio.[Also included were the Citizens for Justice in Palenstine.] Others, including members of a bike collective, have gotten involved but I still know little about, being that this union is that new (that and I never asked).

We are developing direction rather quickly, with collectives forming from this union, including Food not Bombs. Also Arawak City has begun work on new projects, with a magazine listed on the menu of options. This points to a productive desire that must be utilized for us to continue our learning, our growth and our experience. That is why I am proposing the development of an office space to be used as a way to focus our attentions on the projects we desire to work on.

An office is just a space that gathers dust if not used properly, and I only propose this with the intent to see it used frequently for the purposes that Arawak sees fit to give it. We must understand why we would like to see certain features within this office. A phone with a collective number is good not just for a point of contact, but it is good because it can become an effective organizing tool. Creating phone lists to spread the word of protests, meetings, rallies and other gatherings can increase the potential for a larger turnout. Using the phone to network with other groups increases our ability to take a leading role in the city and organize effectively. Sometimes the phone is just a good way to educate the public, such as attempting to engage in discussions on workplace rights, environmental problems, health problems, problems related to identity, etc. Other technologies, such as faxes and computers, enhance the abilities that a phone offers, as well as other features. Using the fax to spread propaganda throughout the region and to send documents to other interested parties can be very useful. Using the computer to find and/or create various forms of propaganda, create and participate in email lists and generally gather and spread information throughout the web can also have its benefits. Accessories to these items, like printers, help us produce documents first-hand and with little hassle it may take in finding access to a printer. Other technologies, like copiers and silk screen presses, help us produce documents and T-shirts so they can be available to many, and thus help us spread a radical message that isn’t as probable without it.

Some things aren’t necessarily things of technology, but definitely help make an office a single trip rather than a trip to various locations to meet certain collective needs. Things like office tables, meeting tables and chairs help focus our meetings and create working places so that projects can be done comfortably with little hassle. Adding a library and filing cabinets to the office helps maintain research and keeps a steady documented history of Arawak, and can help with maintaining any costs that Arawak may take in.

The form this office takes can be many, its suggestions can take either in whole, or in part, and added to any formula that fits the utility of our union. The space this office takes will obviously affect the outcome of what this office can do. Putting it in a person’s home is perhaps the least expensive, but it requires a dedicated and patient volunteer that doesn’t mind Arawak members running in and out of their home. A dedicated volunteer also shouldn’t mind keeping an open door (figuratively), or can be easily reached for a good portion of the day so that Arawak members can schedule times to use the office that doesn’t overly conflict with individual schedules.

It is sometimes hard to find such people, and I wouldn’t be disappointed if this first option towards space is turned down, the other options require monetary dedication though. It can take the form of a typical office space, but that can grow expensive, and if it isn’t combined with some sort of moneymaking scheme, it might be out of reach of our collective to grasp. Another option is developing this office inside an infoshop. Infoshops can easily be used for office purposes, but they can also be open for the general public to use. The library would be open to the community, the computers may have to be more numerous so that unoccupied computers can be found relatively quickly so that a project isn’t slowed down. Infoshops can be self-supporting with the help of an administrative collective that can turn the space into a meeting room, a concert hall, a social party, a free café with poetry, speakers, music, open mike, and other features. Infoshops can also help distribute any propaganda that Arawak may develop and not just in our own infoshop. By having an infoshop, we can use its existence to network with other infoshops and it is possible to receive and spread a great amount of useful propaganda as well as other things.

Now I should discuss time. Using free time in this office space is essential to keeping it useful, and thus giving it a reason to exist. By not dedicating time, it wastes collective resources and other individuals’ times and spaces to make sure the office remains. It can cause many to lose hope if we burn out quickly as well. The time needed for an office to be effective could be about the same amount of time that an average worker ideally works, 40 hours a week, as a suggestion. The 40 hours is obviously not held by a single individual, but rather by the whole collective. This number is based on the canvassing and community-organizing jobs I’ve held in the past, as well as the repeated failure of many anti-authoritarian groups to push their agenda forward due to lack of initiative and a lack of dedicated time into the group. Groups like ACORN and Ohio Citizen Action, both based on spreading propaganda and gaining community support, succeed because they put time into their projects. Certainly their resources help, and their decision-making methods are unwieldy, but if you take out the begging for money bit, they win through real communication, which requires time. But this is where our problem lies, these professional groups exist because the money they raise, and thus are not necessarily limited by other time consuming things, such as a job with an unfeeling corporation employs them. Other limitations, such as schooling, family life, maintaining a social life, cuts a great deal of our time out that a professional organization doesn’t necessarily do. However, on the flip side, I think we could be spending more time together on our projects outside of our weekly meetings, and that time is best spent actively working on our projects, rather than running around trying to hunt down everything that is needed to pull a project off. If statists can work their entire staff 40+ a week, shouldn’t we be able to put in 40 hours as a collective outside of our meetings?

To conclude, I think that the Arawak City Brain Trust is going in the right direction, and this proposal should only be seen as a suggestive guide on how we can better implement what we desire to do. Being effective is the only way we are going to achieve liberation from our exploiters, and an office is a good step in an expansive stairway dominated by difficulties.