ANARCHIST EVALUATIONS DISCUSS TENSIONS WITH RHEINMETALL ENTWAFFNEN ORGANISERS AND AUTHORITARIAN LEFT GROUPS ~ Cristina Sykes ~ Evaluations of last summer’s anti-militarist camp in Germany have highlighted the difficulties imposed by centralised organising and the militarist rhetoric among authoritarian left groups. The Berlin-based “A-Barrio” evaluation tells how the anarchist self-organised space struggled with the camp’s hierarchically-coordinated structure and lack of clear responsibility-sharing, while the monthly Graswurzelrevolution criticised the deeply militaristic and authoritarian tendencies of “red” groups in the camp. The Rheinmetall Entwaffnen protest camp took place last August in Cologne as a week-long gathering of workshops, discussions and protest against Germany’s largest arms manufacturer, and the country’s wider remilitarisation drive. It went ahead despite repeated attempts by city authorities to ban both the campsite and a planned demonstration, as organisers pressed on, drawing hundreds from across Germany and beyond. The week culminated in a large demonstration on 30 August, when police deployed around 1,600 officers, used water cannons and pepper spray, kettled participants for hours and arrested several hundred people. The ‘A-Barrio’ evaluation argues that for the camp organisers, “coordination and organisation meant centralising the decision-making in the common assembly, delegation, and a selective unified appearance”, while for the anarchists “autonomy and self-organization meant acting from one’s own initiative and responsibility, creating open procedures, organising through horizontal decision-making processes, having space for improvisation, and refusing to be told how the struggle should be or look like”. The writers note that “much of the camp’s infrastructure depended on autonomous initiatives; the kitchen, sani, awareness team, coffee stand. These groups were self-organized and somewhat politically close to us, although we did not actively engage in common procedures together. We can say that self-organization was critical in creating mutual aid in moments of crisis, such as the hour-long police kettle that saw many groups and individuals organise themselves in solidarity with the kettled comrades. Their role shows that autonomy was only a problem when it appeared in forms that challenged existing structures or expectations”. Tensions with the camp’s central organisers became most visible around questions of political autonomy and protest tactics. One flashpoint concerned the appearance of party-political actors, including a planned talk by a parliamentarian from Die Linke, which prompted A-Barrio participants to hang a banner declaring the party “not welcome” — a move that led to pressure to remove it under the camp’s ‘code of conduct‘. On the final demonstration, A-Barrio marched as part of an autonomous block that refused several imposed conditions, such as blanket bans on face coverings and protective equipment. The evaluation describes how this block, alongside the so-called ‘Revolutionary Barrio’ of Marxist groups, was effectively isolated, kettled and targeted by police, while the rest of the march continued. The authors argue that this was not accidental, but flowed from a protest structure that prioritised control and recognisable leadership over pluralism and collective self-defence.  The assessment by Graswurzelrevolution focuses on the overtly militarist politics of authoritarian left groups at the anti-militarist camp. “From the ‘Revolutionary Barrio‘ came repeated pronouncements in favor of a people’s war and the East German People’s Army… A young man wearing a Stalin T-shirt was asked if he was aware of whom he was promoting... according to his indoctrination, the Gulags were just imperialist propaganda... Hammer and sickle flags left no doubt: authoritarian communism is a revenant; only the Communist Party can set us free“. Such displays, the authors argue, were expressions of a political culture that normalises hierarchy, discipline and violence and marginalises feminist, anti-militarist and anti-authoritarian perspectives. The A-Barrio initiative will meet this week in Berlin “to discuss openly whether or not to have a presence at the next Rheinmetall Entwaffnen Camp and also the option of our own anarchist-autonomous-antimilitarist camp, inside or outside Germany”. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine-assisted edit. Photo: Graswurzelrevolution The post Germany: “Frustration” with centralism, Tankies at anti-militarist camp appeared first on Freedom News.