It's time for a new grassroots, direct action, decentralized movement in cities all over North America. It's time for AANCO.
The Anti-Authoritarian Network of Community Organizers is a united front of all anarchist and libertarian socialist groups who think we must build a broader, more militant, more ethnically diverse movement which deals with the revolution of everyday life. Community organizing is seen as the way forward for us to win power in our local communities, rather than through grandiose national projects.
AANCO will be a worker/student/youth alliance: an organization of organizers to fight the crippling effects of the capitalist system. Economic exploitation, unemployment, homelessness, poverty, police brutality and racism are ills of a system in decline. We want to build a movement of thousands and ultimately millions of people to resist this corrupt system and fight for a better life, which can only come with a new society.
So where do we start? We think we should begin now in a realistic way in our own communities to break out of the anarchist and left-wing ghettos, interact with the people in those communities and establish a social revolutionary movement which cannot be ignored and cannot be resisted, a movement which can become a real force in people's lives. Let us make it happen!
Come to the founding conference of AANCO, to be held Friday, Nov. 17, 1995, and Saturday, Nov. 18, 1995, at the Georgia Hills Center in Atlanta, Georgia (USA). Conference registration is $10 (payable to AANCO) and can be sent to the Georgia Anti-Authoritarian Group, Box 144, Hiram, Georgia 30141, USA. For more information, contact Kris of the Georgia Anti-Authoritarian Group at (770) 443-9186 (electronic mail: krisfr@aol.com) or Frank of the Black Fist Collective at (713) 681-6923 (electronic mail: frank@hic.net).
Friday, Nov. 17, 1995. 5:30-9:30 p.m.
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5:30-6: Registration (for local registrants) Introductory remarks by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, former Black Panther, Student National Coordinating Committee member and political prisoner 7:30-8:30: "Community Organizing for Social Change" 9:00: adjournment
Saturday, Nov. 18, 1995. 9:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
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9:30-?: Registration continues
10:00-12:00: Goals Setting for AANCO (including discussion, debate and
decision on basic organizing principles and unity of the network)
12:00-1:00: Lunch
1:00-5:00: Workshops
- Developing Activists Into Organizers
- Creative Organizing Tactics
- Developing Community Communications via newspaper, radio and video
- Creating sustainable community action in the face of institutional racism
and police brutality 5:20-7:30: Discussion of Resistance '96 at the
Olympics 7:30-8:30: Closing remarks and adjournment