Sean Swain on the Anarchy Bridge!

Dear Occupy Cleveland Spokesperson

            (If you Really are a Spokesperson),

            I saw a segment on Fox 8 News out of Cleveland where, in a statement, you denounced the action of five Anarchists who allegedly intended to blow up a bridge. You denounced political violence, saying that it provokes the government to “take away our rights.”

            Before I address your denunciation of political violence, I would like to correct an error in your statement. Governments do not take away rights. They cannot take them away because governments cannot bestow rights in the first place. Rights are rights. They are ours. Governments can recognize the right or not recognize the right, whatever the case may be, but you possess the right in any regard. If a government does not recognize your rights, then you have a duty to yourself and to your rights (and everyone else subjected to tyranny) to compel the government to recognize your rights.

            If you do not, then the government has not “taken” your rights; you have relinquished your rights, and you have done so passively.

            Which now gets me to your denunciation of political violence. The fact is, political violence is the only way to compel a government. Police and soldiers carry guns. This is the threat of violence. And as anyone knows, the threat of violence is violence itself. So, the relationship between subject and government is marked—no, it is principally defined –by violence, the threat of violence from government to subject.

            People who denounce political violence are usually under the delusion that if subjects are not blowing up bridges or engaging in violence, then the relationship between subjects and government is a peaceful relationship. It is not and it can never be. Agents of the government carry guns, (the better to shoot you with).

            The government, if permitted to monopolize violence, will encroach upon us and will use excuses to “take away” our rights, as you put it. What is actually happening is, the government is persuading us to relinquish right to our own detriment, and we do it because (1) the government is not afraid of us, and (2) we are afraid of the government.

            If you really want to stand up for your rights, then you must employ means that will make the government afraid of you. If the government is not afraid, it will continue to encroach; and if you are continually afraid, you will continually relinquish rights, until the tyranny is entrenched and you are completely powerless.

            It is in this context we must view the alleged intentions of five Anarchists. If they did what they were accused of doing, they deserve the support of everyone who cares about freedom. Will the government attempt to encroach upon us as a result? Certainly. And it will do so successfully unless we demonstrate an unwillingness to permit government to encroach upon us. Considering this, it can be easily argued that what we need are more Anarchists and more explosives, not less.

            “Anarchy wears two faces, both creator and destroyer. Thus destroyers topple empires; make a canvas of clean rubble where creators can then build a better world,” as V in V for Vendetta put it.

            The reason the government will soon trample you is that you are a passive coward whose place is under the fascist boot of the government you worship as the source of your rights. It is not because five Anarchists with courage and vision attempted to employ legitimate and effective means to confront the fascist police state and liberate you from it.

            Freedom or Death

            Sean Swain

            Political Prisoner

            Prison Reg. 243-205

            MANCI P.O. Box 788

            Mansfield, Unceded Indian Territory, 44901

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