Update: Anarchist Discussion Series
As mentioned before, the initial meet up of the Buffalo Anarchist Discussion Series brought out about 50 people. The first week of actual discussion had a little more than 20 people. I was really surprised by the smaller turnout the second week. Although I see a few reasons for it: 1) Spring break, lots of college folks are out of town 2) A number of "chaos anarchy club" folks likely didn't return after the first week where it was clear that was not the targeted audience 3) A handful of other folks likely didnt show up for either not reading the texts or totally disagreeing with the texts (although I was hoping disagreement would encourage people to come and talk about it).
The discussion was definitely more introductory than I expected. It was clear a number of people in the room hadn't actually done the reading. It began in a very awkward way, as I think people needed to get used to the idea of it actually being a participatory space. Even once we got rolling, a number of people didn't speak at all, although we did expect that. On the positive side, there weren't any primi/capitalist/party socialist detractors there. So we were able to have a relatively introductory discussion without having to pander to this "anarchism can mean fuckin anything, man" attitude.
I'm looking forward to the next week. But I do hope that some people that left come back and that those that stick around really do the reading. Also this monday:
The discussion was definitely more introductory than I expected. It was clear a number of people in the room hadn't actually done the reading. It began in a very awkward way, as I think people needed to get used to the idea of it actually being a participatory space. Even once we got rolling, a number of people didn't speak at all, although we did expect that. On the positive side, there weren't any primi/capitalist/party socialist detractors there. So we were able to have a relatively introductory discussion without having to pander to this "anarchism can mean fuckin anything, man" attitude.
I'm looking forward to the next week. But I do hope that some people that left come back and that those that stick around really do the reading. Also this monday: