On Wednesday, November 4 Fort Lewis College hosted the international touring panel for anarchism and political discussion, in the Student Union Ballroom. The event included a table from the sociology department centered around issues of police brutality, along with the dirty hands collective. Several representatives spoke from various countries about the specific struggles and uprisings within their locality in the context of the “To Change Everything” movement.
The panelists went by their first names and consisted of a man named Z from Brazil, along with Sasha from the Czech Republic and Ramona from Slovenian.
Ramona said the anarchists from Slovenian are skeptical of democracy, specifically direct democracy. She said direct democracy in particular does not allow for the radicalism the state sometimes requires.
Anarchists, Ramona said, want a radically equitable society, so fundamental radicalism must be allowed to happen.
Sasha spoke on behalf of the police oppression and militarization he saw in the Czech Republic. Specifically, he said the white supremacists and anti-immigrant groups that hide their prejudices under the cover of nationalism, which is similar to the Ku Klux Klan's self identification as nationalists.
These nationalist groups oppose the police oppression and militarization, and this cannot give them reason to absorb other groups into the hate they represent, he said. As an alternative, these groups should oppose militarization even louder than the anti-immigrant groups.
Global capitalism and global militarization is what anarchism and anarchist groups like this one aim to prevent, Sasha said. From the examples he pulled from his own country, he concluded that internal solidarity prevents fascism, but did not indicate an encouragement or discouragement of internal solidarity.
Toward the end of the panel, a student asked what the outcome would be of groups like this not referring to themselves as anarchists, particularly in regard to the stigma surrounding the word.
In response, Sasha said if it were not to embrace their adoption of the concept of anarchism, the state would place a less preferable definition on the word.
Ultimately, they want to be in control of the implications associated with the word, he said.
“It is much better to be hated for what we are than to be liked for what we are not”, Sasha said.