Report Back From NCOR (National Conference on Organized Resistance)

Dozens of Rochester and Western NY activists attended the NCOR Conference. The following report back is an attempt to build on the discussions and organizing efforts that took place last weekend in DC.

On January 24th and 25th, close to one thousand activists, students, workers and youth attended this years National Conference on Organized Resistance (NCOR) at American University in Washington, DC. Dozens from Rochester and Western NY participated. The conference has met for seven consecutive years, and serves as a space for coordinating a dialogue between activist groups, and sparking in-depth discussion of the strategies and tactics of our various social justice movements.

This report back by Rochester Indymedia will hopefully serve as a discussion springboard for those who attended as well as those who weren’t able go and are interested in the work to build an organized resistance to Corporate Globalization and Militarism.

The Conference was set up with scheduled and “Guerilla” workshops presented by panelists involved in various sorts of resistance work. The content and form of the workshops varied widely, ranging from organizing brainstorming sessions, to films and lectures about resistance work, to do-it-yourself trainings. The conference had a tilt toward anarchist and anti-authoritarian theory and practice, but there were groups involved with traditional Communist, Green and Democratic party politics as well. On Friday and Saturday night, there were social events and concerts that allowed important networking to take place.

The Rochester participants made an effort to spread out and attend different workshops so that we could update each other on the various work being done. I’ll give a short synopsis of some of the workshops I attended, and hopefully others can contribute.

Argentina Autonomista Project.
This workshop was presented by members of a delegation from WoGAN (Worcester Global Action Network) who had spent time in Argentina observing and helping to produce a short documentary on the Autonomista movement in Argentina. The presenters gave some background and then showed a 25 minute documentary. The documentary gave an excellent explanation of how the collapse of Argentina’s economy due to Neo-Liberal policies, coupled with a high degree of consciousness of the Argentinean workers (employed and unemployed) created the conditions for a decentralized network of over 200 assemblies and worker controlled businesses. Interviews with some of the Autonomista organizers, interspersed with recent independent reporting gives a viewer a real sense of hope, but also a realistic sense of the desperate measures the state, in its decaying form, will take. The discussion after the film was more a comment session than a focused dialogue. Participants discussed efforts in other South and Central American countries to build on Argentina’s example. Mention was made of an effort to build a hemispheric anti-capitalist alliance among groups engaged in this work. Members from the Spartacus League intervened by dismissing the Autonomista movement as not confronting the entire Capitalist apparatus at once. Others reiterated the importance of self-organization and immediate solutions to the varying problems caused by Capitalism.

Workshop on Elections: “I’m anti-authoritarian and I don’t vote, or should I”
This Panel was sort of frustrating to me. But I think the question of voting is a frustrating topic. The panelists each gave a short take on the issues facing us in this election. They all seemed to arrive at a very lukewarm position on voting, not taking a strong position for or against. Both the Panelists and the audience began to share some innovative ideas about how to address the elections, but there wasn’t really sufficient time to delve into tactical questions. If there was any one theme that came up, it was that voting or not voting is a small part of political being, and that important work needs to be done to build political culture whether one chooses to vote or not. Some other themes that came up that were significant:
-one can not dismiss the importance of the history of voter drives in minority communities and why this was such a threat to power;
- the creation of a “League of Pissed off voters”, “No one for President campaign”.

Lessons from the 60s Panel:
This was well put together, featuring Elaine Brown, former Chairman (sic) of the Black Panther Party, Kathy Wilkerson former member of the Weather Underground, and Heather Booth from SNCC. Elaine Brown’s presentation stands out as one of the most inspiring events of the weekend. There are a lot of lessons in the Black Panther’s history and in a short time Elaine was able to shed light on many of these. Kathy Wilkerson’s reflections on her work in the Weather Underground seemed to under-rate the work that the group did. But her analysis of the conditions that gave rise to the revolutionary fervor was useful. Overall the Panel was helpful in helping the rather young crowd get a sense of continuity with past struggles.

Corporate Psychiatry:
The panelists on this workshop were able to really articulate how the field of psychiatry is used for social control, yet did so without judging or condemning those who are need of services. The most moving and motivating account came from Alex, a 17 year old activist, who had been sent to a private reformatory for to treat “Oppositional Defiance Disorder”. The extreme methods that the reformatory used makes one really see how the continuum of prison, psycho-pharmacutical complex and educational systems seek to crush the insurrectionary spirit. The format was very open and it turned out to be a three hour discussion with full participation.

There were a number of break out session to address the creation of regional networks in order coordinate our work. While everyone saw the need for this, it proved difficult to fit in the amount of organizing time necessary to pull it off. At least important contacts were made and informal sharing took place that will lead to other opportunities for organizing on a regional and national scale. The Hartford Anti-Authoritarian Conference at the end of February, and the “Life after Capitalism Conference” in NYC the weekend of August 20th were two events that were endorsed by the networking breakout sessions.