Goals of CA Anarchist/Anti-Authoritarian Gathering

Goals of Occupied Territory:
1.) To create a ‘Temporary Autonomous Community’, where anarchists and anti-authoritarians can collectively build a non-hierarchal world together, and sustain it.

While many of us have experience with working within collectives, and maybe even with networks and federations, many of us have never had to exist within a large small scale community of like minded people. While many of us have had to face the trail by fire of anarchy in action during black blocs and demonstrations; what about the everyday organization of simple tasks? If we truly are interested in created a new way of living life, here is a change to live it out with fellow sisters and brothers in a non-hierarchal environment.

Occupied Territory will work to create, sustain, and build a small autonomous community during the conference. We will work to organize and freely associate ourselves into different working groups to complete tasks, and work on different projects within the campsite.

2.) To bring attention and spotlight to working and active anarchist/anti-authoritarian collectives in California, and highlight their struggles for other activists.

With many of us only seeing each other whenever ANSEWER decides to have the next big march, we end up feeling totally disconnected from other collectives and organizations. Displaced from either geography, or from separate tendencies, many California anarchists and anti-authoritarians feel alienated and alone from the rest of the movement. By spotlighting various collectives, from a wide range of causes and tendencies, we can showcase the wide range of communities and causes that our movement in California is working on at this moment. This spotlight will give hopefully give new people inspiration on different projects they could be working, give other groups chances at networking, and also show seasoned activists some new ideas.

3.) To create dialog and networking that would allow for creating greater power within the anti-authoritarian community.

With the gathering focusing on brining together different tendencies, spotlighting collectives, and also working together, we hope this gathering will create dialog that will lead to new formations of groupings. Whether this takes a more organizational or anti-organizational route, we will not dictate or predict, but we hope to bring up discussion and talk about stepping forward with our movement.

The gathering will include “fireside chats”, that will help us tackle these issues of moving forward, (and a variety of other topics). These talks will be directed by no group or individual, with the direction moving with whatever way the group wants it to go. Hopefully with this free open discussion, and with also the presentations of established federations, networks, and collectives, we can more forward towards something better than we have at this point.


OCCUPIED TERRITORY MANIFESTO: An occupied territory is a tract of land dominated by a foreign state or settlers of another land. Palestine is an occupied territory. Palestinians are being forced off land which they have been living on for many years. Land areas have been taken and controlled by the Israeli Army, the lands then are occupied by new settlers. In Iraq American armed forces are enforcing chaos and fear amongst the inhabitants and occupying territory in Iraq, with plans of exploiting Iraqi workers and resources. Occupied territory is the grass beneath our feet, stolen by European religious zealots coming to cleanse the land for the Christ-god and establish a new Christian state with the doctrine of manifest destiny. Since the inception of the United States, the inhabitants of the great Turtle Island numbered around 15 million, through force and manipulation by 1890 fewer that number was estimated to be 250,000 indigenous peoples remained alive. In California alone from 1800-1890 the number of indigenous people decreased from 300,000 to fewer than 20,000. As a part of the struggle to understand the binds of oppression and restrictions that surround us its vital to recognize how we got here, to this place that separates by class, race, gender, sex, etc. Only knowing the history of this land can we honor those who came before and plan how to participate in our emancipation from this greedy capitalistic systems. Occupied Territory is a private* gathering of like-minded individuals who dream of freedom from the alienation of capitalism and force of the state. For a moment we can gather to organize theories of community and autonomy into a active and effective revolutionary movement involving the various of trends of anarchism that exist today. To have an effective revolutionary movement we must prove we can live as a community to benefit each other. Without a model to compare to, all we have are dusty relics of the past to look back to with longing eyes. Occupied territory is based upon the principal of temporary autonomous community. A T.A.C is a temporary community of non-hierarchical autonomy based on free associative mutual aid to ensure that a community, solely comprised of individuals, can work with each other without coercion, to sustain a community for days, weeks, or months. Occupied territory is just more than a conference but an experiment in autonomous existence. To achieve permanent autonomy, we, us like minded* individuals must create a network of those opposed to capital and hierarchy in one of the most influential and expansive areas in the world. To build a cohesive autonomous community in the shell of the old, we will need to make sure that our activism relates with the majority of people, and addresses issues that exist within our own communities. We will bring spotlight to working anti-authoritarian collectives, giving those alienated by geography inspiration and ideas into working within their own communities. We will also engage in open dialog with each other, to talk and work out how we can greater organize ourselves to unchain ourselves from cohesion and all of it’s forms. This gathering will take place June 18-20th in the mountains to east of Fresno. Soon a website will be up to bring up to date the workshops, initial convergence spot, things to bring and other morsels of information. To get informed of developments first, subscribe to the gathering’s list serve at: occupiedterritory [at] riseup.net

* This gathering is for like-minded Anarchist, Anti-Authoritarians etc. Those who have employment or membership in law enforcement agencies, corporate news agencies, political parties or Racist organizations - are strictly forbidden to come to the occupied territory gathering June 18-20th. Those who purposely and maliciously disrupt this gathering, by coming will be removed.