I have been thinking and saying for a while now that we as anarchists need to break all and any ties with Occupy and Anonymous and for the following reasons:

– Mostly comprised of a middle-class constituency and this can be seen in their ideology and so on.

– Occupy and Anonymous cut across class! Ultimately we want to see the end of the class system but this does not mean that we need to climb into bed with middle and upper-class activists. At least in rhetoric, constituency and history anarchism is a working-class set of ideas and social relationships. Cutting across class lines will not help us create a classless world, it will only serve to cloud our judgement as to who the enemy is which in turn blurs class lines (My position on middle-class activists: https://heavyshite.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/middle-class-activists/). This serves to perpetuate the class system and so we can not dismantle it.

– “Radical liberal” [sic]. Occupy and Anonymous are not revolutionary, they are for the most part reformist and if there is such a thing, radically liberal. Anarchism is a revolutionary tradition.

– Occupy and Anonymous are a distraction and they have no real idea as to who the actual enemy is.

– Most participants in both movements lack the economic and social background to have a real and cohesive idea of just what it is like to be at the bottom of the social pile.

– Too many wrong ‘uns in Occupy and Anonymous. Whilst there are some good and sincere people in both Anonymous and Occupy who have done some pretty good things (Like Anonymous shutting down child abuse sites, taking on the KKK, hacking the EDL and releasing far-right member’s details etc.) there are plenty of bad apples, too many and too close for comfort. This ranges from Occupy having tolerated rapists at Occupy camps, looking down on the homeless, hugging fascists and the police to perpetuating closet and outright anti-Jewish oppressive bullshit (Both Occupy and Anonymous) and having right-wing militias at Occupy camps.

– Some people put too much energy into Anonymous and Occupy which will lead the revolution nowhere (At least on its own).

– The symbology of Anonymous (The Guy Fawkes mask) co-opts and commercialises protest movements outside of the Anonymous and Occupy scene (And indeed their own).

– All social justice movements and scenes at one time or another have unwillingly been lumped into the same category as either Anonymous, Occupy or both. This is both annoying and unfair (Especially for those of us who don’t wish to be associated with either).

So, take the good and sincere people from both scenes if need be and fuck off the rest. If not that, fuck off the lot of them!