The Coming Intersection: Initial Critical Engagement Between the Tea Party and Anarchist Movements

When I wrote the other day of 'the coming intersection' between the tea party and anarchist movements – relaying the call for counter-actions by anarchist groups at the upcoming tax day tea party protests –, I obviously did not know what form that confrontation would take, nor that it would come so quickly. We have a better idea today. A number of tea partisan bloggers have now picked up on this story, apparently via Infowars or the Jawa Report. Left Coast Rebel is "kicking himself," having first seen the story here days ago. Gateway Pundit indulges in typically absurd duopolist hysteria, with the headline: "Anarchists Plan War on April 15th Tea Parties." Red State is calling the potential anarchist counter-actions a "lefty freakout." Another Black Conservative advises readers: "These animals are looking for trouble, don’t give it to them." Memeorandum, as always, provides an indispensable overview of the discussion.

Tea party activists and supporters have now flooded the comments threads attached to the initial call to action at Infoshop News, though they do not seem to have yet discovered those at Anarchist News and Indymedia. The resulting "discussion" at Infoshop is a fascinating object lesson in the politics of mutual mis-recognition. I would relay a few choice quotes, but the page is now failing to load, likely due to unusually high levels of traffic.

The great irony here is that anarchist groups had probably not actually planned or organized many, if any, actions or counter-protests surrounding the tax day tea party events, which we can conclude from the fact that this particular call to action appeared just two weeks before the tax day tea parties. However, now that tea party activists have flooded Infoshop's servers, that may be likely to change. By the way, if you are interested in learning about or following the activities of anarchist groups in your city or state, but don't know where to begin to find the relevant info, one place to start might be the Independent Media Center's global umbrella site, simply scroll down and navigate to the appropriate link in the left sidebar.