Survival Gathering: Toronto, July 1-4, 1988 – Jean Weir

From ‘Insurrection: Anarchist Magazine‘, Issue Five, Autumn 1988, London, UK

July 1–4 a ‘Survival Gathering’ was held in Toronto, Canada. About 800 comrades participated over the four days, most of them from Canada and the United States. Despite the efforts of the Toronto comrades, sending out numerous leaflets and literature urging groups to send at least one person, assuring them hospitality when they arrived, very few comrades from Britain or the rest of Europe were present.

Many of the comrades who were there had covered just as great, if not greater, distances in order to participate in what turned out to be an intensive and productive three days. Perhaps the absence of people from this side of the Atlantic was more due to a psychological distance than a real one. Perhaps, for some at least, it was a political one.

In our opinion it is important for comrades to make the effort to meet and confront each other, and to know situations other than those on our own doorsteps. Internationalism is a fundamental part of anarchism, without which there can be no real perspective of social revolution in one specific reality.

Certainly, the comrades who hosted the Gathering had worked for months to make it possible for this to happen in Toronto. All comrades who arrived had somewhere to sleep. All had good food to eat for the whole duration of the Gathering, regardless of whether they could contribute to the cost or not. This Gargantuan undertaking by the organisers had a considerable effect on the conditions of the meeting itself. It was possible to dedicate the whole time to discussion and all the other exchanges of such a unique occasion to meet comrades from so many different realities. It was also a chance to meet in person many comrades whom one had known only through correspondence until then.

The self-sufficiency of the Gathering also meant that media attempts to scare the good people of Toronto with horror stories before the event remained a ridiculous farce. Nor were faint hearts subjected to scenes of long-haired anarchists and punks crowding the city’s cafes in the fruitless attempt to find vegetable patties in the place of hamburgers.

This brings to mind another anarchist ‘gathering’ which took place a few years ago in Venice, and which, through the photograph album that was produced following it, was apparently a source of inspiration to some of the Toronto comrades. That was a different situation indeed. In fact, in Venice there were two gatherings: the official one that was organised by the comrades of Rivista A in Milan, with its conference hall and worthy speakers with their briefcases and hotel room keys (and their passive audience members who were in a more or less similar position). Then there was the unofficial meeting, which consisted of the many punks and other young comrades who had come from all over Europe. Many had hitchhiked to get there and did not have the money to frequent cafes and bars to benefit from their toilet facilities. Some ended up peeing in the canals of Venice, to the consternation of the local people, council, and press. Young comrades roaming the streets after ‘curfew’ were threatened by the organisers. The following day there was almost a rebellion amongst comrades.

Organisation

Compared to this situation where two distinct and separate entities passed each other by (when they were not in conflict) in Venice, the Toronto Gathering maintained a homogenity throughout the whole four days. There was obviously contrast within that homogenity, but never a situation where one part of the comrades was excluded from what the other was doing. This can be explained by the presence of two factors: one, that the ‘official’ North American (and European) movement had abstained from participation; two, the structure of the Gathering itself. This was such that comrades coming from outside found themselves in a condition to participate in not only the discussions of their choice, but also in the management of the Gathering itself: defence, bookstalls, decisions concerning the media (it was unanimously decided to keep them out), food distribution, etc.

Instead of conference tables and microphones there was an informal structure of workshops which enabled comrades, even in such a great number, to find a dimension in which they could participate directly. There were 63 workshops in two days, and ample space in which to hold them. The comrades had the use of a university building and a community centre for the weekend. They had also printed 1,500 pamphlets, laying out the whole programme of workshops, orientation in the city, evening gigs, etc. Workshop subjects ranged from technology to feminism to the middle east, to national liberation, to the anarchist movement in Greece and much more. It is impossible, for reasons of space, to go into any of these here.

Discussions were often disjointed due to the numbers of people participating in them, sometimes speaking in rotation rather than discursively. In any case, few could have been under the illusion that something specific could come from the workshops themselves. They were more a filtering process that made it possible to get to know the comrades in whom one recognised most affinity. It was then possible to meet and talk in smaller groups. This, in my opinion, is what the Gathering succeeded in doing: created an informal structure within which it was possible to gain an understanding of some of the positions and ideas of those present. From there onwards it was up to us.

A Few Words on the Movement

It would be presumptuous to think one could give an account of the anarchist movement in North America after such a short stay. A few considerations can be made, however. Beyond the various publications that we are all familiar with, there is a feeling of a young movement that is still in embryo. It is a movement that is basically informal, apart from some syndicalist or industrially-oriented groups. This movement breathes a desire for freedom, despises the social reality of the American Dream. It feels close to the native people of the North American continent, and some comrades are involved in the struggles of the latter against cultural and physical annihilation.

Other comrades project a strong sense of guilt towards the people of the continents from which the western world extracts its trashy wealth. Many address themselves towards the ecological question, sometimes through ‘alternative’ projects in isolated attempts to redress the ecological holocaust of the multinationals. Many are isolated by vast distances which it is hard for we Europeans even to imagine. The predominant form of organisation is that of groups that could loosely be called affinity groups. But one element seemed to be lacking: a revolutionary projectuality, an analysis and methodology leading towards a clear class perspective in the struggle against capitalism as a whole. This is understandable from a country where capital is unevenly distributed between extremes of advanced levels of post-industrialism and backward areas. There seemed to be a lack of projectuality and political awareness, perhaps due to the tendency of the movement to look for an alternative life-style approach to the refusal of capital.

One proposal did come forth, however, like a brick. It was the third day of the Gathering, which had now moved away from the university and community centre to a leafy park. Comrades were assembled to discuss future meetings and to exchange contact addresses. Out of the blue, a two or three page long document was produced proposing that a highly structured national organisation be formed. The document contained detailed indications as to how meetings should be held, decisions be made, members be expelled, etc, similar to the kind of papers that circulate among the anarchist communist comrades. It was not a proposal for struggle, but rather, it seemed, an attempt to capture a captive audience. Strangely archaic and out of context in such a situation that had had been prepared and had functioned informally (one might say almost to perfection). No one was disposed to being shackled in this way and after some time a group of comrades proposed to publish the document for debate within the movement.

Certainly one left feeling a sense of a great potential in a part of the North American movement, a potential that lacks some of the instruments necessary for it to come to the fore concretely in the struggle. And the same movement is looking towards Europe for some of its indications.

To sum up, the Survival Gathering was an intensely worthwhile experience that, in our case at least, will lead to a far closer contact with the comrades and struggle in North America. In future events of the kind (one is being planned for San Francisco next year), it would be useful and productive to have more analysis, perhaps comrades could write something brief on the subjects that interest them. This will only be possible if the ‘post-gathering’ period addresses itself towards the reality of the struggle. Events such as conferences and the Gathering in question are important instruments in the movement, but that is all they are.

Jean Weir

[ Note: Issue Five of ‘Insurrection’ also listed Canada/USA distribution on its inside cover via Toronto distributers.
– M.Gouldhawke ]