No govt only solution to govts debt: Swiss anarchists

It was a well-organized affair particularly for a bunch of people who bristle at the thought of rigid organization.The International Anarchism Gathering got underway Wednesday at the movements spiritual birthplace in Switzerlands western Jura mountains, its many loose parts moving like Swiss clockwork.They flocked by the hundreds, a well-mannered band of fringe thinkers and casually dressed youth aiming to create a world without rulers. The welcome in the lush mountain setting was a model of orderly and efficient hospitality, setting the stage for five days of alternative music, cinema and earnest discussions on topics such as utopia, revolution, militancy, sexuality and authority.In an era of harsh austerity in Europe, the congress drew libertarians from anarchist movements around the world to celebrate a radically different vision for the future.Organizers opened the meeting with a call for demonstrations, worker strikes and other acts of defiance. But they rejected the use of violence. That contrasts with the tactics of Italian anarchists who in the past couple of years have claimed responsibility for shooting a nuclear energy company official and sending letter bombs to embassies and a tax collection agency.Capitalism goes from crisis to crisis, so this is an opportunity for us, said Aristides Pedraza, part of a Lausanne-based movement and one of the main organizers.We think that we are in a period of continental crisis, and we think that there is no government solution to this crisis. There is no solution within institutional policy, he said. We want to build in Europe a public space of resistance and solidarity.Anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 people were expected to attend the gathering, which marked the 140th anniversary of the first anarchist worker congress in Saint-Imier in 1872.The Saint-Imier Anarchist International was created by anti-authoritarian members expelled from Karl Marxs movement and local workers mostly watchmakers from French speaking areas of the Swiss Jura mountains. One of its champions was the well-known Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin, considered the father of anarchist theory.Theres irony in the proletarian themes. The rolling pastures and green cliff-speckled hills of Saint-Imier gave rise to the Longines and Breitling luxury watch brands. The Swiss valley boasts skiing, alternative energy and an astronomical observatory.As the morning shops along the main street opened, it was not too difficult to pick out some of the scruffy out-of-town anarchists from the local residents who cheerfully greeted everyone in their path.From the beginning, the international anarchists organization struggled to abolish all forms of authoritypolitical, economic and social, religious, cultural or sexual, said Frederic Gautheron of Bescancon, France, close to the western Swiss border. As long as it eliminates the exploitation of man by man.