(en) WSM.ie, Delegation returns from International Anarchist Gathering at St Imier

August saw a gathering of a couple of thousand anarchists from all over the globe in St
Imier, Switzerland. This small town was the site of the founding of the Anarchist
International in 1872, the gathering was organised to commemorate this event and involved
dozens of political, organisational & cultural events. As part of this gathering
Anarkismo, the international network that the WSM is the Irish section of, held both a
European conference and a global gathering. ---- For this 140th anniversary the organizers
had arranged to hire all the large spaces in the town as well as using the Espace Noir
social center. The Funicular was hired to run participants to and from the campsite above
the town. And every bar, restaurant and patch of shade became the location of dozens of
spontaneous exchanges between the hundreds or even thousands who had come to St Imier.

It is very hard to know how many were present as the 8 formal venues were spread
throughout the town and there were hotel's, a squat and sport facilitates being used in
addition to the three campsites. The organizers expected between 1 and 3 thousand, some
media reports said that more than that arrived. They spent 50000 euro on travel costs of
anarchists from the global south so there was a significant number of anarchists from
Africa and South America there as well as a few from Asia.

The anarchist movement is not a single unified body, rather there are a number of
different formal and informal tendencies based around politics, organisational methods and
sub-culture. The overall gathering at St Imier was designed to include all these
tendencies but many of them used the fact that so many were traveling to have their own
internal meetings during the five days. In the case of the WSM we are part of the
Anarkismo network which brings together about 30 organisations in Africa, Europe, North &
South America and Oceania. Just over half of these organisations had members at St Imier
allowing the holding of both the annual conference of delegates from the European
Anarkismo co-ordination and for a less formal but still very business like global
Anarkismo meeting.

In addition members of Anarkismo groups gave presentations both in the Anarkismo tent and
at many of the other venues. The WSM's Paul Bowman contributed as part of the panel on the
roundtable on the Crisis and the PIIGS. The closing meeting of St Imier saw the OSL
present a statement to the 600+ who crammed into the hall, it also heard a statement from
the IFA and about 15 contributions from the floor. Right at the start of this session the
organizers made space for various groups that wanted to make critical remarks about
various aspects of the conference organising to deliver prepared statements. These varied
from serious contributions on gender imbalance on some of the panels and constantly in
interventions from the floor to a defense of some vegans who tried to shut down the BBQ at
one of the social centers because they disapproved of people eating meat.

Hosting the conference cost a substantial amount (we think in the region of 160,000 euro)
so much of the costs were recovered through charging into some of the many music events
and through selling beer. This meant in the evening the town took on something of the
spirit of a major music festival, including the singing of revolutionary songs on the
streets and in particular on the late night cable railway running up to the campsites.
Given the large numbers this also brought some of the problems of a large music festival
including a least one serious instance of drunken violent behaviour.

Despite such problems the organizers of the St Imier Gathering are to be congratulated for
organizing such a complex event for so many people on a minimal budget. Certainly if there
had been more money and more people putting work into the event some aspects could have
been better organised. But really those of us who travelled to St Imier and failed to
involve ourselves in advance in the work that needed to be done are more responsible for
shortcomings than those who put thousands of hours into the organising of the event.

From the perspective of the WSM delegation the various Anarkismo meetings held during the
week were a valuable chance to meet comrades whom we might never have met and to
reinvigorate our involvement in the Anarkismo network. The network itself is continuing to
expand from its very modest beginnings in 2005 in terms of the number of organisations
involved, the geographic spread of these organisations and most importantly increased
co-operation between them. When each organisation gave a presentation of its work on the
morning of the global meeting it was striking just how much of a common political and
organisational approach we have despite operating in some very different contexts. It was
also clear that the South American organisations in particular have seen significant
growth in numbers and influence in the last couple of years.

The wider St Imier gathering will not have any major formal outcomes and was never
constructed with that intention. But it did bring together a broad section of the
anarchist movement and the organizers are to be congratulated in particular for the effort
they made to bring anarchists from Africa, South & Central America and Asia. Participation
should have been broader but the organizers efforts were sabotaged by the refusal of the
Swiss government to issue's visas to many who were to attend.

At least two follow on events were organised from formal and informal meetings at St Imier
including a conference for Italian anarchists to be held 20 October in Milan and an women
only Anarcha-Feminist conference to be held next year. There were also rumors of a
conference to be held in North Africa in the Spring of 2013, but no formal announcement we
are yet aware of.

During the closing session a Macedonian anarchist spoke very briefly from the floor
summing up the conference with "Anarchists - the flame in your eyes brings warmth to my
heart."

Links to more about the St Imier gathering

Statement to final sessions from OSL that is submitted to other Anarkismo organisations to
also sign (French)
http://www.rebellion-osl.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=138%3Adeclaration-danarkismo-a-la-ria&lang=fr

Statement from IFA congress
http://www.afed.org.uk/blog/state/313-public-statement-from-ifa-congress-saint-imier-2012-9-12th-august-to-other-exploited-and-oppressed-people-of-the-world.html

Euronews report on the Gathering (video)
http://www.euronews.com/2012/08/09/anarchists-meet-in-swiss-mountain-town/

Boston Globe - In Swiss city, global anarchists reject gov't debt
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/2012/08/08/swiss-city-global-anarchists-reject-gov-debt/OwThLTCA4XyWO3YlcsXsNO/story.html
Regional press videos of the St. Imier events Video 1-
http://www.rtn.ch/rtn/Actualites/Regionale/20120813-L-anarchisme-tranquille-a-St-Imier.html
Video 2
http://www.rts.ch/video/info/journal-19h30/4193648-saint-imier-be-accueille-les-rencontres-internationales-de-l-anarchisme-durant-cinq-jours.html

Scanned newpaper article (in French):
http://www.afed.org.uk/pdfs/st_imier_anarchist_event_local_press_13_August_2012.pdf
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Bron :  a-infos-en@ainfos.ca