Chris Hedges Welcoming Committee in Providence

Chris Hedges Welcoming Committee in Providence
by Red Zarathustra

Wednesday April 11th, Chris Hedges gave a lecture at Brown University.
 The topics included civil liberties, state repression, and the
so-called “liberal class” and its demise.  In light of the recent
article describing black bloc tactics as the “cancer” of the Occupy
movement, a number of Providence anarchists attended the talk.
Throughout his talk these comrades stood up and one by one adorned
black attire and bandanas.  Hedges noted, “it seems we have some Black
Bloc Anarchists [sic] here, either that or some people are very cold.”

The point of this action was not to intimidate Hedges or the largely
old, white liberal audience, but to show them just how wrong their
analysis of black bloc is.  That there are, in fact, faces behind the
masks – normal proletarians – who are willing to engage in discussion
on tactics.  The questions and answers section reflected this, even
though the hosts of the event attempted to deny the anarchists the
right to speak.

Hedges made it quite obvious what his opinion on discussion and
challenging his own ideas are.  Simply put, he openly told of his
frustration of going to general assemblies only to encounter chants of
“diversity of tactics” rather than tactical discussion.  It was
apparently because of this that he felt there was absolutely no
discussion needed then.  He himself merely needed to chant
“non-violence” and the matter was settled.  No discussion, no desire
for discussion.

His arrogant handling of critique was perhaps a side-note to his
prescribed vaccine to the pathologized black bloc.  He purported that
we must acknowledge the police are the 99%, that we must not taunt or
harass the police, nor must we be bold and take actions that could
potentially cause repression.  This struck me wrong two-fold.  First,
it misunderstands solidarity.  It implies that solidarity has
terms, that it is only given when actions meets a check-list and there is no room for autonomy.  What this does, leading into my second point, is
disenfranchises significant portions of the 99% – namely people of
color.  It enforces what the late Joel Olson called the White
Democracy.  Put succinctly by Olson, “When people of color have to
enter a movement on white people’s terms rather than their own, that
is not the 99%.  That’s white democracy.”*

At Brown University, Hedges gave an apocalyptic view of the past and
present conditions of resistance to capitalism.  Given this and his
inability to have a constructive discussion with the very people he
wishes to call a “cancer” (some of whom have been the backbone of
resistance in the past 20 years!) it becomes more and more obvious
that he stands in the camp of the bourgeoisie.  Hedges and others like
him are the same people who would put his enemies against the wall if
he somehow inherited state power.  Though he denies being a dogmatic
pacifist he also believes that the black bloc is morally wrong, that
physical resistance to american imperialism should only occur when it
is a minute before midnight and it is seemingly too late.  If the
movement was made up solely of people like Chris Hedges we’d be dead
and gone by now.

We hope Chirs Hedges enjoyed his stay in Providence and his welcoming committee at the lecture.

*Whiteness and the 99% by Joel Olson.