Tearing Down the Walls: A No Borders Camp Reportback

This will be a report-back that will cover: (1) the concept and history of No Borders Camps; (2) what went down at the No Borders Camp in November of 2007, the first in the Americas and the first to take place on both sides of an international border; and (3) how in our North American context, the No Borders Camp presents another approach to organizing across significant boundaries of privilege and oppression. Though it occurred far from NYC and in a very different context, the questions folks tangled with at the No Borders Camp are relevant for radicals across the continent. Participants organized against the U.S. border regime in direct collaboration with those on the other side of the guns; they maintained accountability and built relationships between far-flung groups, separated by geography and vastly different experiences of privilege/oppression; and they did it all in a purposeful, anti-authoritarian manner. The successes and lessons of the 2007 No Borders Camp would be relevant to anyone hoping to organize across lines of color, class or gender in New York.

Elliott Liu is a Michigan-born anarchist now living in New York City. He works with the Anarchist People of Color network (APOC), the New York Metro Alliance of Anarchists (NYMAA), and the Regeneracion childcare collective.


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For info about the upcoming 2011 NYC Anarchist Bookfair (9 April) see: www.anarchistbookfair.net

To contact the NYC Anarchist Book Fair organizing collective to volunteer, submit workshop and tabling applications, make a donation, or get more information, email us at info[at]anarchistbookfair[dot]net

More NYC Anarchist Book Fair archives can be found at www.anarchistbookfair.net/archives

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