So, for anybody who’s been following, my friend Aron received a response from that tool who kicked him out of the Times Up bike welding workshop in NYC the other day. To refresh your memory, he got kicked out of an activist meeting merely because somebody in the group was “getting a vibe” that Aron was an undercover cop, hell-bent on trying to infiltrate their group of non-violent completely legal bicyclists.

Right, so this guy who kicked him out wrote back apologizing, but basically defending what he did ultimately. It’s pretty whack actually. One of the most irritating things he said (Aron showed me the letter) was that he was looking for better ways to identify and deal with undercover agents. He said fellow activists had turned him on to this page out of Canada: “Informants, Infiltrators & Provocateurs“. This article is absolutely infuriating. It completely supports all the bullshit that this guy pulled. The fact that this is the sort of thinking which activists are using right now is really sad and, in my opinion, means that we’re already beaten.

One of the most irritating passages from this article:

Anyone who asks a lot of questions about direct actions isn’t necessarily an infiltrator, but they ARE someone you should be careful with. At the very least, they need to be informed about security issues. New activists should understand that direct action tactics can be risky (though some risks are worth taking!) and that asking a lot of questions endangers people. If the person persists in asking questions, there is a problem and appropriate measures must be taken. Activists who can’t understand the need for security should be kept away situations in which they might incriminate others.

This is a major part of why Aron was kicked out of the meeting. Because he was asking questions, and that made other group members uncomfortable and suspicious. Bear in mind, of course, that he was asking questions at a welding workshop. This wasn’t at a meeting where they were planning illegal activity. The most fucked up part of this whole thing, obviously, is that “asking questions” becomes a sign of danger. A signal that somebody might not be playing the game. Sound familiar? Yeah, that’s because nobody on the government side wants you to ask questions either. You’re supposed to just shut up, kneel down, and open your mouth. Oh wait, maybe that’s a little harsh. Actually, no, it’s not; people who are supposedly opposing the security/police state should NOT be adopting its tactics. I understand the need to protect activists and to maintain the element of surprise in direct actions. But, the thing that is supposed to separate “Us” from “Them” is supposed to be that we refuse to be taken over by fear and secrecy. Those words are supposed to have no power over us.

This doesn’t mean that no one else should ever be allowed into these groups. On the contrary, if our movement is to continue to grow, new people should be welcome and recruited; we just need to keep security in mind and exercise caution at all times.

Of course, elsewhere in the article, they suggest that people who are too quiet and uninvolved in meetings may also be informants. So basically you can’t win. You have to suspect everyone… Fuck that! If that’s what your mind has become, then you’ve already lost. I guarantee it.

It reminds me of this thing in the Exegesis to Philip K Dick’s, VALIS:

42. To fight the Empire is to be infected by its derangement. This is a paradox; whoever defeats a segment of the Empire becomes the Empire; it proliferates like a virus, imposing its form on its enemies. Thereby it becomes its enemies.

It seems like this whole snafu is perfect evidence of that very phenomenon. And it’s undoubtedly a microcosm of a much larger problem… If this is occuring in one small group, in one minor instance, this must be happening across the country and world, multiplied thousands and thousands of times. And I’m not exactly sure what to do about it. But I suspect the solution is wrapped up in keeping your heart and your mind open and accessible to all. Shutting down, closing people out isn’t going to spread any kind of significant change in the world. Maybe by opening yourself to intimate and authentic human interactions you set yourself up to get hurt, but that’s just the risk you take being alive at all.