NOTE: We’ve been getting a lot of visits to this post, from a lot of different sources with various opinions. I just want to be clear, this post is based off of the Kurt Nimmo/Infowars reports regarding admitted and discovered federal infiltration of some anarchist groups. Nimmo is the one who calls this an “Infoshop” event.

We posted an update right after Infoshop said it was just someone on their news network, and not Infoshop itself. We don’t hate Infoshop, and we don’t hate classical anarchists (“socialist anarchists”). This post is simply a warning that people calling for the initiation of violence may be statist plants, or simply misguided.

It is my opinion that anarchists — of whatever variety — should not antagonize the tea partiers; who are already angry at the state, and some may be ready to reject it. My view is that anyone who heeds this call to action should attempt to reach out the tea partiers, and not to simply counter them for the sake of countering them.

That’s all we mean to communicate in this post. Kurt Nimmo and the sources/videos linked in this post may have other views; but they are posted here to illustrate proof of statist infiltration in the recent past. We believe in cooperation with anyone who wishes to get out from under the state system; so long as they don’t advocate initiating violence; or engaging in racism.

PS: If you do decide you want to interface with the tea partiers to try to win them over; the talking-points discussed here are perfect material for doing so.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now we’re getting hits from people looking for “crashtheteaparty.org” which appears to recently have been set up. Whoever is behind it is not anarchist — or at least doesn’t claim to be. If these are the same folks who put out the original call; it reenforces our initial statement that they are, in fact, fake anarchists. From the site:

WHO WE ARE: A nationwide network of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are all sick and tired of that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes, and morons; who constitute the fake grass-roots movement which calls itself “The Tea Party.”

They use traditionally anarchist colors for the site, so their introduction may be some kind of “inclusion-seeking” message, but whatever. This post, this blog, and myself do not support what the Tea Party is doing; but we do not think militant protest against them is productive in the slightest. Crashtheteaparty.org apparently doesn’t, either, but I’m still of the opinion that it’s a waste of time and effort to protest the Tea Party at all. If you go, reach out to them persuasively. Otherwise, why go? It will just egg them on. — Ben

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When you hear the term “anarchist” in the context of a political protest that cedes the premise that the state should exist, it’s a pretty safe bet to assume it is a Fed run group being used to provoke violence and give anarchy a bad name. An article on Infoshop is calling for “anarchists” to crash the Tea Parties for not supporting big government. (UPDATE: Infoshop disclaims this action)

On April 15th thousands of right-wingers will attend rallies in cities and towns across the United States,” writes the admin of Infoshop News. “The organizers of this nationwide day of protest call it a tea party. This tea party movement that emerged only a year ago is a coalition of conservatives, anti-Semites, fascists, libertarians, racists, constitutionalists, militia men, gun freaks, homophobes, Ron Paul supporters, Alex Jones conspiracy types and American flag wavers.

Isn’t being against big government — in fact, the state in general — a core tenet of anarchist philosophy?

Cops exposed as anarchist protesters at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, in yet another example of authorities attempting to provoke chaos at global summits in order to justify a brutal police crackdown.

As Kurt Nimmo from Infowars points out:

These people are not anarchists at all, they are statists, teenage socialist punks who like to call themselves “workers” but a good portion of whom have probably never worked a day in their life. They make for perfect puppets through which the establishment can manipulate to demonize its real political adversaries.

Apparently the bizarro world of corporate media dominated political propaganda has infected the “anarchists” (at least the Infoshop variety) who now sound like Democrats. Once upon a time, anarchism was a political philosophy that stood in opposition to government.

The term anarchism derives from the Greek anarchos, meaning “without rulers.” But apparently the Infoshop strain of anarchist has deviated from the original definition — they now appear to be indistinguishable from state-loving “progressives” who also consider Libertarian Tea Party activists “anti-Semites, fascists, libertarians, racists, constitutionalists, militia men, gun freaks, homophobes, Ron Paul supporters, Alex Jones conspiracy types and American flag wavers.”

Note the pairing of “fascists” and “libertarians” in the above. Libertarians are the polar opposite of fascists. “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state,” said the grand daddy of fascism, Benito Mussolini. Does this sound like Libertarianism?

Anarchists were at the front in the battle against fascism in Spain. Italian anarchists played a key role in the anti-fascist organization Arditi del Popolo that went up against Mussolini’s Blackshirts. But that was then and this is now. Now so-called anarchists specialize in making anti-war demonstrations look like a re-run of the Days of Rage in 1969. Anarchists think they are fighting the state by smashing windows at McDonalds and providing the corporate media with scary images of black-clad youths trashing bank lobbies.

Below are some video clips showing the use of anarchists in order to disrupt political protests against government.

Via Prison Planet

Following the SPP protests in Canada three years ago, Quebec provincial authorities were forced to admit that three rock-wielding black mask-wearing “anarchists” were in fact police infiltrators used to gather information on protesters.

Video shows two of the provocateurs pick up rocks and try to incite violence before they are outed as cops by legitimate demonstrators. The two thugs then tried to slip behind police lines before their fellow officers were forced to stage their arrest. Again, the fact that they were cops in disguise was later admitted by authorities. Watch the video.

Alex Jones’ film Police State 2: The Takeover exposed how the black bloc anarchists were completely infiltrated and provocateured by the authorities during the violent 1999 WTO protests in Seattle.

The authorities declared a state of emergency, imposed curfews and resorted to nothing short of police state tactics in response to a small minority of hostile black bloc hooligans. Police allowed the black bloc to run riot in downtown Seattle while they concentrated on preventing the movement of peaceful protestors. The film presents clear evidence that the black bloc anarchist group was actually controlled by the state and used to demonize peaceful protesters. Watch the video below.

At the WTO protests in Genoa 2001 a protestor was killed after being shot in the head and run over twice by a police vehicle. The Italian Carabiniere also later beat on peaceful protestors as they slept, and even tortured some, at the Diaz School. It later emerged that the police fabricated evidence against the protesters, claiming they were anarchist rioters, to justify their actions. Some Carabiniere officials have since come forward to say they knew of infiltration of the so called black bloc anarchists, and that fellow officers acted as agent provocateurs.

At the Free Trade Area of Americas protests in Miami in late November 2003, more provocateuring was evident. The United Steelworkers of America calling for a congressional investigation, stated that the police intentionally caused violence and arrested and charged hundreds of peaceful protestors. The USWA suggested that billions of dollars supposedly slated for Iraq reconstruction funds are actually being used to subsidize “homeland repression” in America.

The leadership of the black bloc has been completely usurped by the authorities and anyone who still professes to be a member of the group is either supremely naive or completely stupid. To dress up like terrorists, all in black with ski masks and bandanas (like the police) immediately sends out a negative message to the watching public and demonizes legitimate protesters.

The fact that many tea party members have seemingly taken the bait makes a potential flashpoint all the more likely. As Raw Story reports, some tea partiers have implied that they will resort to violence if the anarchists get in their way.

“Be aware anarchists, you WILL be HUGELY outnumbered,” writes “Rick Mercer” at Fox Nation. “You won’t have the numbers you like to help yourself feel anonymous. And some of us DO legally carry concealed weapons to protect our rights. MAKE MY DAY, PUNK!”

Of course, only complete idiots or federal provocateurs could think that engaging in violence would further their cause – this is exactly what the establishment wants. They want to see fights between “anarchists” and tea partiers so that the police can have the excuse to crack the heads of both groups and the footage can later be replayed over and over on the news and cited to characterize any dissent as violent and unruly. This provides the much cherished “agitprop” the system will exploit to demonize its political enemies.

Actions like those being planned by Infoshop these people only further the negative stereotype associated with the idea of anarchism. By rejecting the non-aggression principle (AKA: zero-aggression principle, NAP, ZAP), upon which the entire idea of self-governance rests; groups like Infoshop the ones planning this protest and other phony “anarchists” do a great disservice to their supposed cause, and promote chaos and division amongst people who are working for the cause of true liberty.

Further, it leads to a reenforcement of the idea in many minarchist tea partier’s heads that anarchy is something to be feared and avoided; pushing them further into the meme that the state is simply “misguided” and not, in fact, immoral and unnecessary in the functioning of a free society.

UPDATE: (by Ben)

From the Infoshop page where this call to action originally appeared:

The following call to action and editorial opinion has obviously generate a bunch of controversy, both among anarchists and within the tea party movement. Infoshop News would like to make it clear that we did not write or author this call to action. It was authored by somebody anonymous and unknown to us. Infoshop News is an independent news service that publishes news and opinion from a variety of viewpoints. We are very open to publishing different opinions and rely heavily on user-submitted stories. The viewpoints published by Infoshop News don’t necessarily reflect those of our editorial collective or even most anarchists, anti-authoritarians and libertarians. In fact, many anarchists think this call is rather liberal in tone, but it should be noted that anarchists have a variety of opinions about this call and about the Tea Party movement in general. [emphasis mine -ed.]

I’m glad Infoshop posted this disclaimer, though I’m not sure at what point they did so. Another update: After emailing Infoshop about this, I have found out that the disclaimer was added April 2 (2010), after our original post was written.

As the disclaimer and this post both indicate, not all people claiming to be “anarchists” really are such, and in fact may be the opposite.

No matter what, it pays to be wary of statist plants, misguided “activists” — and anyone who calls for a rejection, however “temporary,” of the non-aggression principle. No matter what the question, initiating violence is never the answer.

Update: We do not outright reject all black bloc action as a tactic; nor do we believe that violence as defense against oppression is summarily unjustified. For a discussion on the non-agression principle in relation to revolution and protecting the rights of the oppressed, check out “Klafta and left libertarian reconciliation: Determining the justice of violence.”