Towards a Society based on Mutual Aid, Voluntary Cooperation & the Liberation of Desire
“ #48/Fall-Winter 1999-2000 $4.95 Vol.17, No.2 q
The Collapse of the Ecology Montreal Party
Self-Management
Alex Trotter Lawrence Jarach John Zerzan Manolo Gonzalez
First Prison Interview
in & =< The Congress of Clowns, | | x Cs Film & the Anarchist Imagination, WU and All-American Anarchist
7
Post-Left Anarchy?
here remain large numbers of anarchists who con- tinue to identify closely with the political left in one form or another. But there are increasing numbers ready to abandon much of the dead weight associated with the left tradition. Many pages of this issue are devoted to beginning a new exploration of what is at stake in considering whether or not identification with the political left has outworn any benefits for anarchists.
For most of their existence over roughly the last couple centuries, consciously anar- chist activists, theorists, groups and move- ments have consistently inhabited a mi- nority position within the eclectic world of would-be revolutionaries on the left. In most of the world-defining insurrections and revolutions during that time—those which had any significant permanence in their victories—authoritarian rebels were usually an obvious majority among active revolutionaries. And even when they were- aie n't, they often gained the upper hand rcaeh other means. Whether they were liberals, social-democrats, nationalists, social- ists, or communists, they remained part of a majority current within the political left explicitly committed to a whole constel- lation of authoritarian positions. Along with an admirable dedica- tion to ideals like justice and equality, this majority current favors hierarchical organization, professional (and, too often, cults of) leadership, dogmatic ideologies (especially notable in its many Marxian variants), a self-righteous moralism, and a widespread abhorrence for social freedom and authentic, non-hierarchical community.
Especially after their expulsion from the First International, anarchists have generally found themselves facing a hard choice. They could locate their critiques somewhere within the political left—if only on its fringes. Or else they could reject the majority opposition culture in its entirety and take the chance of being isolated and ignored.
Since many, if not most, anarchist activists have come out of the left through disillusionment with its authoritarian culture, the option of clinging to its fringes and adapting its themes in a more libertarian direction has maintained a steady allure. Anarcho- syndicalism may be the best example of this kind of left-anarchism. It has allowed anarchists to use leftist ideologies and methods to work for a leftist vision of social justice, but with a simultaneous commitment to anarchist themes like direct action, self-manage- ment, and certain (very limited) libertarian cultural values. Murray Bookchin's ecological anarcho-leftism, whether going by the label of libertarian municipalism or social ecology, is another example. It is distinguished by its persistent failure to gain much of a foothold anywhere, even in its favored terrain of Green politics. A further example, the most invisible (and numerous?) of all types of left-anarchism, is the choice of a great many anarchists to sub- merge themselves within leftist organizations that have little or no
commitment to any libertarian values, simply because they see no possibility of working directly with other anarchists (who are often similarly hidden, submerged in still other leftist organizations).
Perhaps it's time, now that the ruins of the political left continue to implode, for anarchists to consider stepping out of its steadily disappearing shadow en masse. In fact, there's still a chance, if enough anarchists can dissociate themselves sufficiently from the myriad failures, purges and “betrayals” of leftism, that anarchists can finally stand on their own.
Along with defining themselves in their own terms, anarchists might once again in- spire a new generation of rebels, who this time may be less willing to compromise their resistance in attempts to maintain a common front with a political left that has historically opposed the creation of free community wherever it has appeared. For the evidence is irrefutable. Libertarian revolutionaries of any type have consis- tently been denied a presence in the vast majority of leftist organizations (from the break in the International on); forced into silence in many of the left organizations they have been allowed to join (for example, the anarcho-Bolsheviks); and persecuted, imprisoned, assassinated or tortured by any leftists who have attained the necessary political power or organizational resources to do so (examples are legion).
Why has there been such a long history of conflict and enmity between anarchists and the left? It is because there are two fundamentally different visions of social change embodied in the range of their respective critiques and practices (although any particular group or movement always includes contradictory elements). At its simplest, anarchists—especially anarchists who identify least with the left—commonly engage in a practice which refuses to set itself up as a political leadership apart from society, refuses the inevitable hierarchy and manipulation involved in building mass organizations, and refuses the hegemony of any single dogmatic ideology. The left, on the other hand, has most commonly engaged in a substitutive, representational practice in which mass organizations are subjected to an elitist leadership of intellectual ideologues and opportunistic politicians. In this practice the party substitutes itself for the mass movement, and the party leadership substitutes itself for the party.
In reality, the primary function of the left has historically been to recuperate every social struggle capable of confronting capital and state directly, such that at best only an ersatz representation of victory has ever been achieved, always concealing the public secret of continuing capital accumulation, continuing wage-slavery, and continuing hierarchical, statist politics as usual, but under an insubstantial rhetoric of resistance and revolution, freedom and social justice.
The bottom-line question is, can anarchists do better outside the left—from a position of explicit and uncompromising critique, than those who have chosen to inhabit the left have done from within?
Jason McQuinn, Editor
2 Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Discontents
25
27
35
40
43
50
52
57
Future Primitive Update
By JOHN ZERZAN
The Collapse of the Ecology Montreal Party, Part Two
By MICHAEL WILLIAM
Self-Management By ALFREDO BONNANO
Anarchy Going Post-al?
By ALEX TROTTER
Don't let the Left(overs) Ruin your Appetite
By LAWRENCE JARACH
New Movement
on Horizon By JOHN ZERZAN
When We Looked at the World with the Left Eye
By MANOLO GONZALEZ
Ted Kaczynski's first
Interview from Prison By T.K.
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Departments
Openers 2. Post-Left Anarchy? 5 Inside Anarchy
The Sad Truth
8 Anti-Panhandler Repression in Gay Villages
Alternative Media Review
10 Anarchist Press Review
11 Anarchist/Alternative Web Sites 2s
12 The Congress of Clowns
13 Film & the Anarchist Imagination
14 All-American Anarchist 15 Resurrection 2027 & A.D. 16 Off the Map
17 The EXIT Collection
18 Alternative Press Review
International Anarchist News 20 Robert Thaxton: Who He is
and the Struggle He is Part of 22 Nikos Maziotis convicted 60-80 Letters
Cover Collage: Keith Rozendal
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Anarchy #48
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Press run: 6,600 ISSN 1044-1387 LC 88-13329 OCLC 11733794 Printed in USA
PUBLISHED BY C.A.L. Press
EDITOR Jason McQuinn
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Mr. Fish, Ardmore, PA.
Johann Humyn Being, San Francisco, CA. James Koehnline, Seattle, WA. Phillip Lollar, San Francisco, CA. Mark Neville, Seattle, WA.
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Manolo: Gonzalez, San Francisco, CA. Doug Imrie, Montréal, Quebec Lawrence Jarach, Berkeley, CA. Alex Trotter, Brooklyn, NY. Michael William, Montréal, Québec John Zerzan, Eugene, OR.
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE Jonathon Baker * Billy Burg °
’ CrimethInc. * Derf * Alaan DeVuyst *
John Filiss * Julie Herrada:'* T.K. * Rob los Ricos * Unapack * Universal Aliens ¢ Wolfi
Special thanks to A. Hacker.
The views expressed in the articles, graphics, letters, etc. published in Anarchy do not necessarily reflect the views of C.ALL,, or the editorial & production staff.
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Reclaim the Trains!
By the Collective Without Money
n June 29th a group of 80 Dutch radical activists jumped the train from Amster-
dam to Cologne without a ticket. Their demand was free transport to the demonstration against the anti-social EU-project in Cologne. The Dutch “Collective Without Money” states that public transport exists to serve people and not to make profit.
Free train actions to anti-capitalist. meetings and demonstrations are happening a lot in countries like Italy, France and, recently, Bel- gium. The Dutch action was the first one the Netherlands has seen since the anti-nuclear protests in the early eighties when free trains transported hundreds of thousands to huge demos.
_ Getting on the train went surprisingly easy and the cops were not able to stop the first 60 activists from entering the train. Afraid of chaos—and delays—in the train stations, they made a first attempt to separate the first pas- senger car (the one with activists) in Arnhem. The attempt failed totally since the emergency break was pulled and people forced their way ,out of the train—accidentally demolishing an emergency exit. The train activists demanded that their colleagues from Arnhem enter the train and that the train leave for Germany. Both demands were granted by the cops who were ‘panicking since they couldnt do anything without causing a huge delay for the interna-
tional train and the other trains passing through Arnhem station (near the Dutch/German bor- der). In Emmerich, Germany a small number of German cops pulled a trick on the Dutch ac- tivists separating their car from the rest of the train and moving it outside of the train station. The cops however were not able to stop the then 80 activists from getting out of the cap- tured train. The activists were just to late to block the passage of the international train to Cologne and saw this train leave before their eyes. So the group occupied the railway tracks and demanded a new train to Cologne. The local cops initially granted this demand and half an hour later emptied the first car of a new train to Cologne. Surprise, surprise the top cops then changed his mind. The train suddenly took off without the activists, leaving the activists behind with one illusion less (being able to make deals
e-mail: jmequinn@mail.coin.missouri.edu
with cops). |
One more serious attempt was made to block the next train to Cologne, but it failed because the cops, dealing only with the activ- ists, started beating people up. They flew in two huge Chinook helicopters with more cops and negotiations started again. The cops refused further travel in Germany, claiming we had caused them enough shit for one day. The cops said the group would be send back after an identity check. The activists, tired of playing a cat and mouse game with the cops for hours, then demanded a free train back all the way to Amsterdam, and said to the cops they would only go as one group (including the 7 people who did not have passports with them) and only after the had confirmation that the one person arrested was released. Both demands were answered in a positive way and the whole group went back to Arnhem (NL). From their 15 people took a specially arranged bus to Co- logne. The rest went directly home.
For a first free train action it all went quit well and, although we lost the demo, we were part of a strong action and all had a good time. Most of all, we learned a lot for our campaign to have free trains and we are positive that the Dutch railway company eventually will under- stand that it is better to come to an understand- ing with us, like the Railway companies did in Italy, France and Belgium.
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Inside Anarchy
lot has happened since the
Spring/Summer issue of Anarchy showed up last April. Most notably, the June 18th “Reclaim the Streets!” demon- strations in London, England and Eugene, Oregon. I mention London for the obvious reason that it successfully shut down the financial district with a maximum of festivity and chaos, along with a minimum of arrests and injuries! Yet, though the Eugene march and riot were very small in comparison, their ramifications for the North American movement may in the end be as important, as John Zerzan points out on page 50 in “New Movement on Horizon.”
Certainly, fallout from the June 18th events has had a great effect on this maga- zine, though not the kind we'd prefer. Com- rade Rob los Ricos (aka Rob Thaxton)— who played a large part assisting in produc- tion of the last issue of Anarchy back in Missouri—was arrested, tried and impris- oned for throwing a rock at a cop who was charging at him after the Eugene march. See the account by Wolfi on page 20 for details of the vicious criminal (in)justice sys- tem attack directed at him—in presumed retaliation for his alleged participation in the combative, yet festive, rioting there which made Eugene police look powerless for a few brief moments. Please support Rob's defense so that he can appeal his conviction by the violently anti-anarchist Oregon court.
As this issue goes to press, many anar- chists will be amongst the thousands con- verging on the Seattle World Trade Organi- zation talks, hoping to turn radical opposi-
tion to global capital up another notch in this country. If the events in Eugene help inspire a more contentious approach to protests in Seattle, the promise of a re- newed anarchist movement may already begin bearing more visible fruit.
In Southeastern Europe the militant anarchist movement in Greece continues to provide an incredible example of the kind of radical pressure that can be applied when enough anarchists take the initiative and decide not to tolerate global capitalist busi- ness-as-usual. Besides providing some of the boldest and most effective opposition to the US-NATO war against Serbia earlier this year, Greek anarchists took the lead in fighting the recent visit of US President (and mass-murderer) Bill Clinton. Hundreds of anarchists participated in the trashing of downtown Athens, where more than 60 banks and businesses were damaged during fighting between thousands of demonstra- tors and police. According to the Associated Press account, more than 10,000 marchers chanted “Clinton, Fascist, Murderer.”
But, while aggressive opposition to global capital seems like a minimum we should expect from a renewed anarchist movement, where should we attempt to go beyond such opposition? With this issue, Anarchy is opening up a new discussion on the rela- tionship of anarchists to the left, which may help clarify past mistakes and future poten- tial directions. Anarchy contributing editors, Alex Trotter, Lawrence Jarach, John Zerzan and Manolo Gonzalez have initiated this discussion of post-left anarchy beginning on page 39. The next issue will continue this
discussion with both essays and (we highly encourage) letters on this subject. The deadline for the next issue will be March 1st, so don't wait too long if you'd like to contribute.
In related veins, Michael William contin- ues to detail the sordid practice of real- existing “Libertarian Municipalism” in Part Two of “The Collapse of the Ecology Mon- treal Party” (on page 27). While Alfredo Bonnano argues that without self-manage- ment of struggles and revolutionary move- ments, the idea of workers' self-management of production is not just incomplete, but worthless where genuine liberation is con- cerned (see page 35).
And, finally, the features of this issue are rounded off with a unique interview with Ted Kaczynski, showing the human side of a man often portrayed in the mainstream media as a monster. (While these same media portray the monsters who torture, maim, kill and enslave on a vast scale —whether presidents, congressmen, generals or CEOs—as pillars of the national and international community.) Whether or not
one agrees with Kaczynski's thoughts or
acts, it is obvious that the man is serious about his critique and willing to take re- sponsibility for it, even if it means standing alone against the onrush of modern techno- logical society. We stand in his support as a political prisoner who was refused the op- portunity to speak directly in his own de- fense by an (in)justice system afraid of the many hints of mass public sympathy for the “Unabomber” simmering just below the surface of our media-portrayed normality.
CONSPIRACY
IS UNNECESS
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Moving to California?
This issue has been edited and produced in Alameda, California, where I've tempo- rarily relocated since the end of the sum- mer. There's a possibility Anarchy magazine may make a more permanent move, possibly to Berkeley in the next year. (Any Bay Area anarchists interested in the possibilities of a relocation of this magazine are invited to get in touch.) For now all contact informa- tion remains current, though please keep in mind that the move to California (and the resulting chaos) has resulted in longer mail response times. Until Anarchy #49 appears in early April, it may be faster to reach me at this temporary editorial address:
Jason McQuinn 2532 Santa Clara Ave., PMB 189 Alameda, CA 94501
In other magazine news, it should be noted that, apparently following in the footsteps of another recent Anarchy editor, Paul Z. Simons has disappeared without leaving a forwarding address. This explains the absence of the conclusion to his account of the Paris Commune in this issue.
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Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
#48
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
a
C.A.L. Press Books
Elements of Refusal
John Zerzan's first collection of essays is back in print in a new, expanded Second Edition! “Here it is axiom- atic that art, language, time, industrialism, number, technology, work and other aspects of our social lives—all hailed as the liberators of humanity—are, in fact, the co-conspirators of domestication and domina- tion.” -from the Preface. 320pp. $14.95 paper.
Anarchy after Leftism
Bob Black’s newest book fresh off the press. An intelligent, witty & compelling demolition job on both Murray Bookchin's atrocious Social Anarchism vs. Lifestyle Anarchism and his overall philosophical and radical pretensions. Highly recommended. (C.A.L. Press, 1997) 176pp. $7.95 paper.
Future Primitive & Other Essays
John Zerzan's latest book, collecting recent essays from Anarchy & Demolition Derby, including “Future Primitive,” “The Mass Psychology of Misery,” “The Catastrophe of Postmodernism” and “Tonality and the Totality,” along with his “Nihilist's Dictionary.” (C.A.L. Press & Autonomedia, 1994) 185pp. $6.95 paper.
Revolution of Everyday Life
Raoul Vaneigem’s still-explosive masterpiece on radical subjectivity in a world of things and their prices. This book has been serialized in Anarchy, but it's well worth reading & re-reading. One of the two major works of the Situationist International, this text played a role in the gestation of the general strike of May, 1968 in France. (Left Bank & Rebel Press, 1967, 1994) 279pp. $15.95 paper. ;
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Against His-Story, Against Leviathan
Fredy Perlman’s most important work presents his account of the world history of civilizations from their origins as they devoured primitive peoples and other civilizations on their way to the dead-end we know too well as the present day. A poetic and deeply subver- sive reversal of perspective on history. (Black & Red, 1983) 302pp. $9.95 paper.
Letters of Insurgents
Fredy Perlman's fascinating & compelling novel of letters between continents revealing and concealing what is subversive and what is recuperated in the personal & public lives of two radicals—one American and one in Eastern Europe—from the upheavals of the ‘60s through the reaction which followed. (Black & Red, 1976) 831pp. $12.95 paper.
The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism
Fredy Perlman's penetrating critique of nationalism left and right. This is an essential essay for understanding nationalism without illusions. (Black & Red, 1985) 58pp. $2.75 paper.
History of the Makhnovist Movement
Peter Arshinov's inspiring firsthand account of the most important anarchist movement of the Russian Revolution, centered on the anarchist partisans orga- nized by Nestor Makhno in the Ukraine, as they fought for their lives under attack from the Ukrainian national- ists, the Bolshevik counter-revolution and the Czarist White armies from 1918 until their defeat in 1921. This is an amazing and inspiring story. (Black & Red, 1987) 284pp. $9.95 paper.
Society of the Spectacle
Guy Debord's highly important masterwork updating Marx's theory of commodity fetishism for an electroni- cally-mediated world. “Everything which was once lived has moved into its representation.” One of the two central works of the Situationist International. (Black & Red, 1967, 1983) unpaginated $6.95 paper.
Situationist International Anthology
Ken Knabb's definitive translation and collection of the most important articles from the S.I.’s French journal, including those by Asger Jorn, Ivan Chtcheglov, Guy Debord, Raoul Vaneigem, Attila Kétanyi, René Viénet & others. (Bureau of Public Secrets, 1981) 406pp. $14.95 paper.
Journey through Utopia
Marie Louise Berneri's thorough and perceptive study of the most important utopian writings since Plato's Republic. (Freedom Press, 1950) 339pp. $9.95 paper.
Against Civilization
A new anthology of “Readings and Reflections” put together by John Zerzan, including Hesiod on through to the “primitivists” of today, by way of Rousseau, William Morris, and Fourier, among others—51 selec- tions in all. (Uncivilized Books, 1999) $9.95 paper.
Begin at Start
Su Negrin’s simple, straightforward & unpretentious primer for integrating the personal and the political, written from a 1960s-70s perspective. (Times Change Press, 1972) 173pp. $5.95 paper.
Passionate and Dangerous: Conversations with Midwestern Anti-authoritarians & Anarchists Well, maybe not all that “dangerous,” but this new survey of the midwestern anarchist scene will give you a lot better idea of who is active and what's going on out there! (1999) 70pp. $4.00 magazine format.
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Fall/Winter 1999-2000
« Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
The Sad Truth
Anti-Panhandler Repression in Gay Villages
Michael William
ly of a 10-block strip along Sainte-
Catherine. Most of the village spots | rarely go to. But | do frequent a couple dance places | like, or if the weather is warm, | sit on benches on Sainte-Catherine or in a small park.
One night | was coming back through the strip following a long walk. | stopped outside the Presse Cafe, where two benches stand adjacent on the sidewalk. The side of the cafe facing the street was open, its windows removed, and several men were sitting with their legs dangling over the sidewalk. Other seemingly gay men were sitting on one of the benches, and several stood on the side- walk.
A woman of about eighteen, sitting on the other bench, spare changed me and others as they walked by. A man in his 40s who was standing on the sidewalk told the wom- an in an authoritative voice to stop spare changing there.
“Who are you?” the woman asked.
“The owner,” the man said.
The woman hesitated several seconds, moved a short distance down the street, sat down against a fence and continued to panhandle.
The exchange was over within seconds. However, | subsequently attempted to reach the owner to ask him questions about the incident. Despite several calls | was unable to contact him (he runs four businesses, | later learned). When | did finally reach him and set up a meeting, he ultimately canceled it. As my deadline loomed, he remained too busy. He had, though, outlined his basic position: “No solicitation in or in front of the cafe.”
Mi ontreal’s Gay Village consists primari-
kkk
The power trip above occurs in the context of a queer milieu turned _ stiflingly mainstream—when it is not openly conserva- tive. Articulating this neo-conservatism are ideologues such as Bruce Bauer, author of A Place at the Table: The Gay Individual in American Society. As the title indicates, the emphasis here is on mainstream acceptance. Featured by spokespeople of this ilk are issues such as gay marriage and gays in the military. On a street level, this neo-conserva- tism translates into anti-panhandler sentiment in North American gay villages.
A new player in the panhandler debate on a local level is the Village Merchants and Professionals Association. The Association's founding meeting was held in a Village restaurant on August 16, 1999. An article on
the meeting published in Les Faubourgs, a neighbourhood journal, said the Association would be putting on a number of events in the Village. Association members also “in- tended to act to ‘clean up’” Sainte-Catherine street, the piece ominously reported. | called Les Faubourgs to try to get an account of what was said about panhandlers at the meeting. The person | talked to was a mem- ber of the organization who had attended the meeting but refused to tell me what was said. Instead he referred me to the Associa- tion spokesperson, Rofanne Normandin. | interviewed Normandin and _ Sylvain Toussignant (the Association's President) at an early September fund-raiser put on in the Village by the new organization. Speaking in a low, insistent voice, Toussignant set the tone by stating that panhandlers are “mal vu” (“looked upon in a poor light”) in the Village. It was not a question of driving them out, he said at the beginning of the interview, but he later contradicted himself, referring to a clean-up in “all senses,” panhandlers includ- ed. A “crystal-clear image” (“une image
Moose.
claire et nette”) of the Village was needed, he said. Squeegees “could be doing other things,” he stated. At one point he referred to organizations which deal with poor and marginal people, saying perhaps they could intervene, Since the Association has just been founded, it does not have an official position yet, he said.
A source of several problematic articles has been the Montreal gay monthly AG. Ina July '97 piece, editor Alain Bouchard com- . plained of dirt and graffiti in the Village and what he termed “harassing squeegees and multiplying beggars.” The situation has become “demoralizing,” opined Bouchard.
The following month another piece was — published, written this time by RG journalist Roger-Luc Chayer under the title “Police More and More Handcuffed.” Citing “innu- merable” punks, prostitution, drug use, squeegees and homeless people, Chayer complained that a “major infestation” was taking place. He then emits a cry of anguish: “What the devil is the police doing with respect to this proliferation of socio-criminal
r ?
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
problems?” In the article Chayer recounts an 11-hour stint he did accompanying cops in their patrol car. The cops duly complain that prisons are revolving doors and people are let out because there isn’t enough space. Taxpayers’ money is used to paint defen- dants as victims, the cops beef.
Another RG article denounces numerous tags someone had done in the Village. The incident is used by Chayer to encourage people to snitch on anyone doing graffiti in the Village: “Any person seeing an individual, man or woman, doing a graffiti [in the Vil- lage] is asked to communicate immediately with 911.”
Another collaboration with the police is recounted by Michael Hendricks in his col- umn in the now-defunct tabloid Village. The cops had asked the anti-violence committee Hendricks was a member of to lend assis- tance following a heated public debate concerning arrests of gays in a cruising area. Hendricks’s organization agreed to produce a flyer outlining the current laws on nudity and sexual activity. In the incident Hendricks describes, three gays and two lesbians troop off to gay and nudist beaches to hand out flyers—to mixed reaction from those leafleted. The cops were “delighted” with the collaboration, Hendricks wrote. In the piece he not surprisingly takes a jab at “the clique of 1970s-style liberationists who defend our ‘right’ to do anything, anywhere.”
During the 1998 municipal elections, three gays and a lesbian ran for the New Montreal Party. The party is headed by former Montre- al Chief of Police Jacques Duchesneau, best known for having instituted community polic- ing in Montreal. Douglas Buckley-Couvrette, one of the candidates, had stood in the previous election for the Democratic Coalition (centre-left). Another party-switcher was Louise Roy, former president of the Montreal Citizens Movement (another centre-left party). A third candidate was Serge Lareault, former editor of L'Itinairaire, a paper sold by street people. In an interview in AG, Lareault criti- cized the ruling Vision Montreal Party for cuts to the police force, saying New Montreal intends to hire 500 more cops. Community policing is hailed as a success for gays, and New Montreal is praised for having more gays and lesbians (he claims). In an inter- view Duchesneau has said he wants to seal off abandoned buildings in the Village, in part to keep out the homeless.
The four queer New Montreal candidates received the endorsement of a local gay and lesbian umbrella group.
Toronto
In Ontario (which adjoins and is to the west of Quebec), the Conservative Party was recently re-elected on a tax cut and law and order programme. In early September 1999, Attorney- General Jim Flaherty was quoted as saying
Ontarians should not have to put up with “inter- ference with people on the sidewalk” or what he termed “aggressive, intimidating behavior.” Jailing offenders was not ruled out, Flaherty said.
An important player in the Toronto Village is gay city Councillor Kyle Rae. Concerning curb- ing squeegees, Rae’s line is that he is just reacting to local complaints: “I've had about 30
calls: from businesses and residents in the
Church and Wellesley area [the Toronto Gay Village]. That's a high number of calls on any particular issue.”
Shortly before the '99 Toronto Pride celebra- tions, Rae became the object of a denunciatory poster campaign. A series of nine posters took Rae to task on issues such as the closing of a downtown hostel for the homeless in his riding and restricted access for street people to a community centre. “Kyle Rae led a city campaign against street kids’ efforts to support them- selves through squeegeeing,” one poster charged, while another read, “Kyle Rae supported a police campaign to close back rooms at gay bars along Church St. Thanks for nothing, Kyle.”
The posters were a “rather cowardly exercise,” Rae predictably responded, confirming, however, that he is against public sex. He has also asked people not to go nude at the annual Pride March.
Some gay village panhandlers of course are queer themselves. In an interview in the Toronto biweekly Xtra!, Moose, a bi, trans- sexual panhandler excoriated the “childish recreational war against squeegees” occur- ring in Toronto. His squeegee was taken away and broken by the cops, he recount- ed, and he was threatened with arrest if he is seen squeegeeing. He now avoids cer- tain areas he used to frequent. “Cops have gone to any lengths to stop panhandling and squeegeeing in Toronto,” he says.
The Toronto Village has also had to deal with gay...nazis! Shortly before the ‘99 Pride events, several flags were hung out along a seventh-floor Village balcony. They included a Canadian flag, a rainbow one with a white swastika on it, and a flag with an iron cross. A large sign denounced the annual Dyke March as “hypocritical to gay pride.”
Hitler, of course, put gays into concen- tration camps. But present-day gay nazis can lay claim to a lineage—the original Storm Troopers, the SA. Numerous SA higher-ups were gay, including the leader, Ernst Roehm, who was executed soon after Hitler took power. The need for a street- brawling force had come to an end and Hitler intended to shunt aside the SA in favour of the more elite, ideologically pure (and loyal) SS.
Michael Kihnen is an example of a modern-day gay nazi who uses the SA as a model. Kihnen became perhaps the most influential German neo-nazi organizer until his death from AIDS. He sponsored and hand-picked the leader of National
Alternative, the first East German neo-nazi organization to emerge as the Berlin Wall fell. He would later author a manifesto entitled “National Socialism and homosexuality” in which he said that anti-gay sentiment among neo-nazis was caused by the influence of “Jewish-Christian petit-bourgeois morals.” A faction of disillusioned former KUhnen disciples eventually emerged, denouncing gays as “trai- tors to the People.”
But nazis remain marginal in the queer mi- lieu. It is the mainstream that is the bigger problem. Sorely needed is an explosion of radical queer voices.
DE MONTREAL 7
ACPYV.
Association des cornmercants et professionnels du village.
Surveillez le lancement
de l’Association des commergants et professionnels du village inc.
Plusieurs festivités pour cette occasion
du 3 au 6 weasscicees
| 30 es 1999
| défilé monstre pour | CHALLOWEEN
Nombreux prix par catégories: groupes ou individus
Participe en deena nombre ! Tous les détails du concours seront publiés dans les principaux médias.
Pour information: Tél.: (514) 525-4545 Fax: (514) 525-1519
Flyer for the Village Association of Merchants and Professionals.
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Alternative Media Review
Anarchy is once again exchanging with all other anarchist and genuinely radical (anti-state, anti-capitalist) periodicals. And we will continue to try to review all such periodicals received in future issues. All reviews in this issue are by Jason McQuinn, except those marked [LJ] for Law- rence Jarach or [RIR] for Rob los Ricos.
Publishers please note: To ensure that your publications are reviewed in future issues, send all zines and mag- azines to our current reviewer address: C.A.L. Press, POB 1446, Columbia, MO 65205-1446, USA.
ACTIVE TRANSFORMATION
A Direct Action
Anarchist Newspaper Vol.2,#5/Sept.-Oct.'99 (POB 11508, Detroit, Ml 48211; or POBB 6746, Lansing, MI 48826; e-mail: activetrans@hotmail.com) is a 20- page tabloid featuring activist news from around the world. In this issue: updates on imprisoned Krasnador (Russia) anarchists, United Freedom Front prisoners, Mumia Abu-Jamal's case, and Shell in Nigeria, along with a centerfold section. titled "Youth Power: Fight for the Future." Sub- scriptions are $6/6 issues. [JM]
ANARCHY
The Way | See It
undated (Robert Ogman, POB 2671, Gainesville, FL 32602-2671) is a small, unpaginated mini-pamphlet laying out one person's views on anarchy—with an emphasis on per- sonal morality and a critical view of leftism. Send a contribution for a copy. [JM]
ANNARKIA
Experimental issue zero/undated (c/o Kacper Jarecki, 4114 9th Ave., #4F, Brooklyn, NY 11232) is a two-page "zine," which has a chaotic lay-out to fit its folded format. Has a brief rant "Anarchy is Now," a few reviews of other teen-zines and not much else. Free. [RIR]
THE BLACK-CLAD MESSENGER Actualizing Industrial Collapse #2-#3/undated (POB 11331, Eu- gene, OR 97401) is an energetic, promising new 8 to 16-page zine that “wants to hasten the disappearance of this whole stinking order." No truck with liberalism or leftism here. The third issue has an impressive overview of “What's Happening in Kosovo? An Anarchist's Perspective,” a reprinting of the “Preface to the Second Edition of Elements of Refus- al” by John Zerzan, and a centerfold insert consisting of posters for the Free Skool in Eugene and against war. Send a contribution for a copy. [JM]
COM-PLETE CON-TROL #3/undated (POB 5021, Richmond, VA 23220) is an unpaginated little
Compiled by J. McQuinn, L. Jarach & Rob los Ricos
personal/political zine featuring ac- counts of squatting, road trips, re- cent demos attended, a revolutionary tourist trip to Chiapas, and an inter- view with George Jackson Brigade member Ed Mead (released from 18 years of prison in 1993) on “Armed Struggles in America.” This is a sim- ple, amusing, entertaining zine. Sam- ple copies are 55¢ each or 2 for $1. [JM]
THE DEFENESTRATOR
throwing power out the window #7/Aug.98 & #8/Nov.'98 (POB 30922, Philadelphia, PA 19104) is an 8-page tabloid newspaper featuring news about anarchist activities, with a focus on—but not limited to—Philadelphia. Free. [RIR]
DISCUSSION BULLETIN #93/Jan.-Feb. & #94/Mar.-April ’99 (POB 1564, Grand Rapids, MI. 49501) is a 32-page assortment of letters and reprinted articles primarily from the anti-market, non-statist radi- cal milieu. Each issue usually in- cludes several ongoing debates over the meanings of communism, Marx- ism, unionism, democracy and revo- lution, with some occasionally inter- esting and enlightening comments. The March-April issue includes John Bekken's (mild) criticisms of Noam Chomsky, and a_ debate over whether the ruling class “conspires” or “does what comes naturally.” Wide open to participation from read- ers. Subscriptions are $3/year (6 is- sues). [JM] :
FERAL
a journal towards wildness #1/Spring '99 (530 Divisidero, #321, San Francisco, CA 94117; e-mail: highwater@hotmail. com) is a beauti- ful new quarterly, 30-page zine (with a very nice full-color cover) that wants to put a lot more wildness into the ecology & anarchist movements. Unfortunately, the contents are dis- appointing, with poor writing, a lack of editing, and less than consistent reasoning evident in’ too many arti- cles of this first issue. Contents in- clude Joanne Lauck on “The Trans- formative Power of the Wild” (speak- ing primarily of insect/human en- counters), Patricia Freund's incoher- ent tract on “Endangered Species: Techno-Humanism and Vanishing Humanity—A Beginner's Guide” (in dire need of editing and re-writing), James Barnes' absurd sermon on “Biocentrism as a Moral Imperative,” and David Orton's confused attempt at the amalgamation of leftism and
t
deep ecology in “My Path to Left Biocentrism.” On the brighter side, this issue also includes a couple pages of often-stimulating questions titled “The Politics of Daily Life,” along with a couple decent reprints from Anarchy magazine by Feral Faun (“Feral Revolution”) and John Zerzan (“Postscript to Future Primi- tive: On the Transition”). This zine shows some promise. Let's hope for more coherent writing next time. The cover price is $3. [UM]
FIFTH ESTATE
#353/Summer ‘99 (4632 Second Ave., Detroit, Ml 48201) is the long- running, 28-page _ anti-civilization, anarcho-primitivist tabloid, often pub- lishing some of the more intelligent writing in the radical milieu. Unfortu- nately, though, the Summer'99 issue includes one of the more bizarre cover stories I've ever seen in any established anarchist periodical, Montezuma's “The State: A Space Alien Experiment Gone Wrong?” Also included is some more conventional coverage of protests against the continuing attempts to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal, John Zerzan on “Anarchy in Eugene,” and Noam Chomsky on “Kosovo: The Empire at War.” Single copies are $2; subscrip- tions are $8/4 issues. [JM]
FREEDOM
Anarchist Fortnightly Vol.60,#5/Mar.'99 thru #13/June 26 '99 (84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX, England) is a long-
running 8-page tabloid of anarchist news and comment covering interna- tional, as well as British, social strug- gles. The June 26th issue includes a rough analysis of the British anar- chist movement titled “Bedsit anar- chists and provincial anarchism,” as well as an interesting account of “The Libertarian Ideal in Bolivia: The situation in El Chapare” (in which coca-growing peasants have had to organize for military self-defense against Bolivian government at- tempts to monopolize the drug trade. North American subscriptions are £22/year (24 issues).
GREEN ANARCHIST
For the destruction of Civilization #54-5 (double issue)/Spring '99 (BCM 1715, London WC1N 3Xx, England) is an always interesting 28- page eco-anarchist, anti-civilization tabloid with a big emphasis on direct actions, but unfortunately-small type. The Spring issue has a GAndALF court case update by co-defendant Paul Rogers titled “Breaking the Teeth of Leviathan” (for those who haven't yet heard, the GAndALF de- fendants were all released after a £10 million prosecution!), a reprint from John Zerzan's “Nihilist's Dic- tionary” column, Glenn Parton's call for “Humans-in-the-Wilderness,” a reprint of John Moore's less thari convincing essay on “Bewilderness,” along with his more coherent call to “Maximalist Anarchism, Anarchist Maximalism.” Each issue also in- cludes a “Diary of Ecodefense,” a “Diary of Animal Liberation,” and a “Diary of Community Resistance” (for those patient enough to sort through hundreds of headlines), as well as reviews, commentary and much more. This zine is well worth the price at £5/5 issues.
HARBINGER
Leaving the 20th Century #2/undated (Crimethinc, 2695 Rangewood Dr., Atlanta, GA 30345)
' is an important new 12-page tabloid
which takes the idea of a “revolution of everyday life” more seriously than most. An interesting mix of provoca- tion, critique, radical evangelism & anti-evangelism, and calls to utopian action. This issue includes an amus- ing rant aimed at anarcho-lettists titled “Face it, your politics are bor- ing as fuck” by Nadia C., an analysis of spectacular culture titled “We Look for Life in the Image of Life,” and a lengthy examination of “What's so Bad. about Capitalism?” Here's a sample quote from the latter: “Don't be paralyzed by the seeming vast- ness of the forces arrayed against us, or be tricked into serving other forces agaist them. Find ways to escape...in your own life, and take others with you when. you can....” Send for a copy today. The price is right. It's free for the asking, though it might be nice to include a dona- tion. [JM]
Si a a TE ememrte reesei eae IE Le TE EE HS RE hE Is |
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
10
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Alternative Media Review
THE LEVELLER
For Class War Anarchism
Vol.3,#2/Autumn 1999 (POB 712191, 2 Los Angeles, CA 90071) is a 40-page photocopied zine advocating "the methods of Revolutionary Syndical- ism to win the class war against the corruption of the rich and powerful." Included in this issue are internation- al news updates on the brewing U.S. war against the people of Colombia in the name of the "War on Drugs," recent labor news. shorts from around the world, and a few an- nouncements of the dissolution of anarchist groups (incongruously including a reprint of the Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade's wicked parody of the Love & Rage group's break-up announcement). There's also a commentary on "Political Cor- rectness," a confession of a "Commie Dupe," and a jumbled list of "What Anarchism Is Not." Sample copies are $3; subscriptions are $12/4 is- sues.
SLINGSHOT
Issue #66/Autumn '99 (3124 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705, web: http://www.tao.ca/ slingshot; e-mail: slingshot @tao.ca) is a long- running, 12-page tabloid quarterly now sponsored by the Long Haul Infoshop and focussing on anarchist action in the East Bay area. This issue includes a call to shut down Seattle during the November WTO (World Trade Organization) summit, updated information on the Lori Berenson arrest in Peru (a United States citizen charged with aiding Tupac Amaru, the MRTA), an argu- ment for more "Radical Porn: Com- bining the Absurd with the Vulgar," S.F. Bay Area Critical Mass (a mili- tantly pro-bike, anti-auto activist group) coverage, and coverage on the Jubilee 2000 international debt forgiveness campaign, along with much more. Subscriptions are still cheap at $1/issue ($2/issue by First Class mail).
UTOPIAN ANARCHIST PARTY #82/undated (POB 12244, Silver Spring, MD 20908; www.overthrow. com; e-mail: nrkybill@erols.com) is a provocative 10-page newsletter tar- geted primarily at high-school age youth, promoting angry anti-cop, anti-school, anti-authority actions, and celebrating anti-cop violence just about wherever it comes from. This issue, the first since the Columbine school shootings last Spring, fea- tures inflammatory coverage of the Eugene June 18th Reclaim The Streets protest, a "Malignant Chemist" how-to column on impro- vised shotguns, a reprint of an essay encouraging cops to desert their jobs (titled "What Do You Think You're Doing Officer?") by Rob Thaxton. Many people with a visceral hatred of cops will enjoy this zine, while others may be appalled at the fairly indiscriminate cheerleading for . anti-cop violence. Subscriptions are free.
A small selection of anarchist/alternative Web sites
Compiled by Alex Trotter
can t make any pretense to putting together a comprehensive list that
would cover everything of interest to anarchists and their friends. These
sites all have their own lists of linked sites, so the adventure of exploration is yours, if you feel that the Internet(WWW has any value (and not all anar- chists do). From time to time |'ll add sites to this list, or correct addresses that have changed or disappeared.
Spunk Press Anarchist Archives www.spunk.org
USENET groups and mailing lists of interest to anarchists flag.blackened.net/liberty/lists.html
Blackout Books (New York City) www.panix.com/ blackout/index.html
Mid-Atlantic Infoshop (anarchist librarians, pirate radio, and much more) , burn.ucsd.edu/ mai
Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade world.std.com/ bbrigade
Max Stirner related material pierce.ee.washington.edu/ davisd/egoist/stirner
Zerowork www.disgruntled.com
AUT-OP-SY (autonomist and ultraleft marxism) lists,village.virginia.edu/ spoons/aut_htm!
Grassroots Environmental Index www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/ rhouston/index/index.cgi
GreenNet www.gn.apc.org
Situationist archive www.nothingness.org/Sl/index.html
“The Ultimate Luther Blissett Web Site” www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/6812
The Daily Bleed (sinners and saints galore) www.eskimo.com/ recall/bleed/calmast.htm
Emperor Norton www.notfrisco.com/nortoniana
Victor Serge users.skynet.be/johneden
Wilhelm Reich www.orgone.org
Society for Human Sexuality www.sexuality.org
Surrealist writers
www.creative.net/ alang/lit/surreal/writers.sht
Cabaret Voltaire
www. mital-u.ch/Dada/cabvolte.html
New Social & Cultural Movements
www.lancs.ac.uk/users/csec/shiftingground/
Communitas (news around the world)
www.ecn.org/communitas/
The Post-Technology Project www.bestweb.net/ jfitiss/
Bindlestitf Family Cirkus
(erotic fire shows, sword swallowers, bug eaters, etc.)
www.atomicage.com/bindle
Witches, wiccans and pagans www.witchvox.com
-Cypherpunks home page
ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/cypherpunks/Home.html
List of anonymous remailers
www.cs.berkeley.edu/ raph/remailer-list.html
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
11
The Congress of Clowns
Reviewed by Alex Trotter
The Congress of Clowns and Other Russian Circus Acts by Joel Schechter (Kropotkin Club of San Francisco, 1998) 96pp., $10.00 paper.
Arvo not a comprehensive history, this brief anecdotal account, hand-
somely produced, of Russian circus acts over the last century introduces several important figures and describes some of their pantomimes and other acts, against the backdrop of the machinations of Soviet and post-Soviet politicians, who themselves appear as clowns. Many of the anecdotes are drawn from the author’s several visits to Russia. The book is not strictly about the circus, and also deals with political theater and literature of the absurd. Writers, play- wrights, poets, and other artists such as Bulgakov, Brodsky, Meyerhold, Stanislavsky, Mayakovsky, Komar & Melamid, and many others make their appearances in Schechter's circus.
Throughout most of the history of the USSR, circus performers, like other artists, had to be inventive in adapting to, and-cir- cumventing wherever possible, the censori- ous demands of the regime. This often ne- cessitated the use of Aesopian language, to which the circus was well suited. The latitude for political satire was especially restricted under Stalin, and again under Brezhnev. The need for this kind of subterfuge ended with the glasnost era, but with the arrival of free market capitalism, everyday life in Russia has continued to be painfully absurd and the political life of the country more of a circus than ever. Examples cited are a drunken Boris Yeltsin taking the baton away from an orchestra conductor to conduct the musi- cians himself, and Vladimir Zhirinovsky threatening to sue a satirist who impersonat- ed him.
We meet Vladimir Durov, a figure whose career began in czarist times, who worked with trained pigs and ridiculed politicians. Durov was run out of many towns across Russia, and arrested in Germany for making fun of the kaiser. After the Revolution of 1917, Durov and other circus performers such as Vitaly Lazarenko supported the Bolsheviks, but even in the early days of the USSR, when a lot of experimental culture was going on, there was tension between the Soviet government and circus artists. In the 1920s a clown act by the name of Bim and Bom performed a routine called The Laugh, in which a Red Army detachment becomes paralyzed with laughter. A satirical novel by lf and Petrov called The Twelve Chairs, writ- ten during the New Economic Policy period, featured a character named Ostap Bender, a
capitalist rogue NEP-man who has a Midas-touch of decay and disintegration. Anatole Lunacharsky, the People’s Commis- sar of Education, who was sophisticated enough to have appreciated such humor, nevertheless felt compelled to warn that popular sympathy for such a type assumes the nature of anarchism.
Schechter provides a lengthy description of a production from 1929 titled Makhno’s Men as a prime example of state-directed political circus in the transition toward com- plete Stalinized mummification. This produc- tion broke no ground artistically, but is un- usual in that it was specifically dedicated to the theatrical calumnification of Nestor Makhno years after his defeat on the battle- field, a testament to the Bolsheviks’ continu- ing insecurity and nightmare that they might once again see black flags flying in Ukraina. Makhno’s Men featured action scenes, with Red Cavalry chasing anarchists on horse- back in the circus ring, and vilified Makhno as a coward, drunkard, womanizer, and spokesman for kulaks, but avoided any mention of his anarchist politics or his brief alliance with the Red Army against Denikin’s White forces in 1919.
At several points Schechter mentions that Russian circus directors treat their animals well, training them in a gentle manner, but then he jokes (?) that this would still not live up to today’s standards of animal liberation in Western society. The question of circus animals’ welfare arose during a food shortage in 1991, when the animals of the Moscow Circus were close to starvation. The circus director Yuri Nikulin vowed to lead a demonstration in Red Square, complete with animals in cages, if the animals were not provided with rations. If police came to confront the demonstrators, the cages would be opened so the animals could fight the police. Gorbachev agreed to give the ani- mals enough food.
Schechter says that, for all the travails the Russian circus has had to endure, the state of mainstream circus in the United States leaves much to be desired. The old vaude- ville tradition is dead, and mainstream acts like Ringling Brothers are primarily entertain- ers of children, avoiding controversial sub- jects like sex and politics.
The Congress of Clowns is a quick and pleasurable read, informed by the spirit of Groucho Marx and Charlie Chaplin as well as Bakhtin’s Rabelaisian carnivalesque, and spiced with wry chuckles, even if some of the humor centering around the cold war already seems dated and therefore flat. May this book generate more interest in Russian clowns and political satire in general.
JOUN ZERZ AN
“Everyone can feel the nothingness, the void, just beneath the surface of everyday routines and securities.” -from the Preface
Elements of Refusal is the first collection of John Zerzan's writings—and this Second Edition of the collection is long overdue. No less than as they first appeared, these essays are provocative and important.
Present day “reality,” as constituted by those with vested interests in maintaining this domina- tion, is touted as the “best” possible reality. Accordingly, history is shaped like a monstrous land-fill to legitimize this hoax.
Daily life, with its intensifying alienations and psychopathology becomes more spectacular and bizarre. All is not well in Utopia. We grow more dependent on glitter and diversion to fill the void where all that is human is gutted. Life is reduced to a game. But there is nowhere to play. Every technological innovation promising to bring us closer together drives us further apart; every revolution promises to liberate us from want, but leaves us more in need.
Elements of Refusal spells it all out. Here it is axiomatic that art, language, time, industrialism, number, technology, work and other aspects of our social lives—all hailed as the liberators of humanity—are, in fact, the co-conspirators of domestication and domination.
Columbia Alternative Library
C.A.L. Press/Paleo Editions POB 1446, Columbia, MO 65205 $14.95 + $2.05 p&h = $17.00 total
12
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Film and the Anarchist Imagination
Reviewed by Lawrence Jarach
Film and the Anarchist Imagination by Rich- ard Porton (Verso, 180 Varick St., New York, NY, 10014-4606, 1999) 314pp., $20.00 paper.
' watch films from a couple of different perspectives. First, | watch as a movie spectator; does the story make sense, are the actors believable? Second, | watch as a person who knows a little film/theater theory; are there interesting/unusual things happen- ing cinematically, are the shots/tableaux set up well? Third, | watch as an antiauthoritar- ian; does the story reinforce hierarchical social relations, capitalist morality, American supremacy, or does it promote self-activity, mutual aid, and other values consistent with an anarchic vision? In short, is the film enter- taining, is it esthetically pleasing, and is it consonant with my values? | ordered Porton’s book merely because | liked the title: both Film and Anarchist are in it. Finally, | thought, a study of anarchist cinema, and a serious one at that.
But there are some problems with it on the same level. Verso is a leftist publishing house, but since Porton situates anarchism on the left, he doesn’t take the usual hostile stance of leftists towards anarchists. Porton is on the editorial board of Cineaste, a maga- zine of film theory and criticism, and he teaches cinema studies (not film studies, but cinema studies). As a serious high-brow art- cinema critic, he really likes the highly intel- lectual Cahiers du cinema folks from France, which is why he spends so much time on an analysis of the not-very-anarchist Tout va bien by the Maoist Godard, even though Godard wasn't then, isn’t now, and won't ever be an anarchist.
Not many American films are aiachic except in a screwball sort of way (like movies starring the Marx Brothers), but Porton privi- leges European films as a matter of course. No mention is made of the notorious flop Heaven’s Gate, which had the word “anar- chist” thrown around all over the place, and had a climax of armed self-defense, which is fully consistent with anarchist politics. Be- hold a Pale Horse, admittedly a second-rate film, is given short shrift even though it’s loosely based on the exploits of the famous Catalan anarchist activist/propagandist/ saboteur/guerrilla Sabate, while some French musical, A nous la liberté, without any por- trayal of anarchists and without an anarchist theme gets a bunch of pages of laudatory analysis.
Another problem is that by privileging often obscure European films, Porton makes it difficult for interested anarchist film-lovers to track them down in local video stores. The
. outlet, but most of
ones that are more famous might be available at a better rental
the titles are either not available in the US or they aren't available on video at all. Porter is in line with most high-brow intellec- tuals in this re- spect; those of us who aren't on the same level can't get access to the knowledge _ that’s in the field of his expertise, so we just have to take his word for it. Such a differential in power is unac- ceptable to anti- authoritarians. Porton has a decent grasp of anarchist politics, but his devotion to cinema—artistic and sophisticated cinema—is more powerful. He lauds ques- tionable (not very anarchist) works while ignoring others that are either specifically about, or written by, anarchists. The comedy S*P*Y*S (directed by Irwin Kershner, who also directed The Empire Strikes Back) is ignored, even though half the film is about a trio of French anarchists (for a more detailed review of S*P*Y*S see Black Badger #3 available for $2.00 from POB 508, Berkeley, CA 94701). And how can he have overlooked one of the finest American films of the '50s, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, based on the novel written by noted anarchist B. Traven? Other film adaptations of Traven’s novels have appeared in Mexico, and. are only rarely shown in the United States, but almost everyone knows the famous lines from Treasure: “Badges? Badges?...We ain't got to show you no stinking badges!” There is one chapter that stands out in terms of dealing with current anarchist theo- ry; it deals with anarcho-syndicalism and the revolt against work. While not taking too seriously the anti-work discourse (he is, after all, a leftist), Porton nevertheless acknowl- edges that it is part of anarchist theory. He does have a patronizing dismissal of “primi- tivism”: “...the term ‘primitive’ [has] been appropriated—and pushed to a frequently
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richard porton.
absurd limit—by self-styled ‘future primitives’ such as John Zerzan, an anti-work advocate whose contempt for modernity encompasses such disparate targets as agriculture, tonality, postmodernist theory, and even speech” (my italics). In fact, Zerzan has constantly at- tempted to show the interconnectedness of these “disparate” features of modernity in his critiques.
Another quibble | have is that he incorrect- ly quotes Bob Black’s essay “Anarchism and Other Impediments to Anarchy”: “...Black claims that even anarchists have become prey to ideological rigidity and argues that ‘we need anarchists unencumbered by anarchy’ [sic!].” Of course Bob said “we need anarchists unencumbered by anar- chism.” There's a world of difference be- tween Porton’s incorrect quote and the actual quote from Bob's essay; |’m willing to give Porton the benefit of the doubt on this mistake since it appears in a footnote, but © I'm not certain that he understands the difference.
With all that said, it’s worth checking out this book if you like movies and are interest- ed in seeing where anarchist theory and cinematic . entertainment and education intersect. ~
ee ee eT SD TESTS EES TOO OB
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All-American Anarchist |
Reviewed by Julie Herrada
All-American Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement, Carlotta R. Ander- son (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1998) 324pp., $34.95 hardcover.
A: a native Detroiter, | was raised with a belief in the strength of the labor move- ment, the power of the unions, and the importance of the Almighty Henry Ford to the economic life of Detroit.
For many labor radicals, the era of the Model T is when the industrial history of Detroit began. However, Anderson’s book about pre-Ford Detroit breathes life into a generation of radicals whose names today are obscure. Even when | came to work as Assistant Curator at the University of Michigan's Labadie Collection, the foremost collection of anarchist materials in North America, | was not aware of the significance of the people whose names filled its. shelves. | am grateful to Anderson for sharing the history, because Henry Ford doesn't deserve so much recognition.
Jo Labadie (1850-1933) began life among the remnants of the Pottawatomi tribes in Paw Paw, a small southwestern Michigan outpost, with his father, Anthony Cleophis Labadie, of Ojibway and French ancestry, and a French-Canadian mother, Euphrosyne Angelique Labadie. (His parents were distant cousins). Labadie’s godmother was Ojibway.
The story Anderson (Labadie's grandchild) tells of her French-Indian pioneer ancestors, living in the wilderness, is one we don't often hear. The fragments she has painstakingly pieced together to tell this story had been saved by Labadie, a notorious packrat, and ~ carefully preserved by his devoted wife and companion, Sophie, and passed down to the author by her uncle, Laurance Labadie, Jo’s son, also an anarchist, who died in 1975.
The Labadie family moved from Paw Paw to East Sandwich, Ontario, a small settlement on the Detroit River, when Jo was a boy. Reading of the Labadie family’s friendships with the Indians of Walpole Island—Chippe- wa, Ottawa, and Pottawatomi—brought to mind Fredy Perlman’s The Strait, with its dreamy and captivating imagery of life along the banks of the Detroit River, and eventual demise of the indigenous tribes at the hands of the ‘“bluecoat” invaders. Although Anderson's story is more prosaic and less violent, its telling evokes a similar picture of this region's history.
The Labadies, the first non-Indian settlers on that land, eventually lost their home to land speculator and whiskey baron, Hiram Walker, who built the distillery which is still in existence today. The ousting of the Labadie family resulted in their move back to south-
western Michigan, among the Potta- watomi, again living a pioneer exis- tence.
This is the life Labadie would al- ways long for, and later help form his individualist anarchist ideals. Simple tribal life, with its emphasis on com- munal responsibility and economic equality, made a lasting impression on him. The Labadie family’s long friendship with the Walpole Island Indians may have even saved their lives during a violent uprising, when the native people spared the lives and homes of those who had befriended them.
As Michigan changed rapidly from pioneer to industrial society, young Jo Labadie, who was trilingual (English, French and Pottawatomi), but with no formal education, learned the printing trade and went on the road as a “tramp printer,” in the Northeast. He joined printer’s unions in each city where he worked, before settling in Detroit in 1872. This youthful work and wandering formed an indelible mark on this “backwoods boy's” sense of justice, illustrating clearly to him the disparities between the class- es, His wandering lifestyle offered valuable lessons in class struggle and social justice.
Like most anarchists, there were contradic- tions between Labadie’s personal and politi- cal lives, He was an atheist legally married to a pious Catholic, his first cousin, Sophie Archambeau. However, this unlikely union seemed to pose no threat to his principles. Both Jo and Sophie remained true to their ideals, respectful of the other's and totally devoted to each. other. Sophie, in fact,
helped Jo by organizing and preserving the.
vast array of materials which would in 1912 become the birth of the Labadie Collection.
Although Labadie'’s printing skills offered mainly itinerant work and a sporadic pay- check, it allowed him to promote his political ideology. He rallied around many causes of the day, including socialism, Greenbackism, the single-tax, and unionism, finding it “diffi- cult to resist any project organized to cure society's ills.”
He, along with fellow printer Judson Grenell, published a number of socialist newspapers and pamphlets, and early on was very active in the Socialist Labor Party. His indefatigable drive led to political and journalistic activity which would keep Labadie busy all his life, first as an ardent socialist, working to gain “more now” for all workers, then by 1883, as an anarchist, “emerging as
™, reader
a proponent of extreme individual freedom in a stateless society.”
Anderson rightly questions some of Labadie's inconsistencies, which ranged from reformist to revolutionary, pointing out curi- ous un-anarchistic remarks and actions to reveal a paradox common among anarchists in capitalist society. “Non of us are really anarchists, only believers in anarchism” he explained. Anderson carefully maps for-the Labadie’s political development, tracking his socialist tendencies and support of trade unionism to his eventual abhorrence of party politics and support of the natural laws of individualist anarchism.
Anderson traces the historic events of the day, from the post-civil war Panic of 1873, which lasted six years, to the anti-union fervor of the mid-1880s, culminating in the 1886 Haymarket tragedy, and Labadie’s reaction to these tumultuous times. After meeting Johann Most, following an 1883 Detroit speech by the German-born fire- brand, Labadie defended the radical anar- chist with uncharacteristically fierce rhetoric, signaling a turn in his own political thought.
After the execution of the four anarchists convicted of the Haymarket bombing, Labadie went head-to-head over the issues
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with those whom he previously thought were his closest allies. Even though the Haymarket martyrs hadn't committed the crime for which they died. Labadie’s unflinching support of free speech led him to promote even bomb- making if it meant protecting the rights of workers to organize and speak freely.
His insistence on the right of individual expression frequently gained him public attention. Anderson describes an incident in 1908, when Labadie began pasting anarchist stickers on his correspondence before mail- ing. They were not the broadly interpreted and simplified circle A, but often quotations from venerable authors such as George Bernard Shaw and Lao-Tze.
The Detroit postal inspector, J.J. Larmour declared these pieces “unmailable.” Labadie protested and even the Detroit Journal, a
mainstream daily, rallied to his cause, accus- ing the postal authorities of censorship. The inspector relented, and Labadie continued using the stickers.
Labadie’s convictions are well documented throughout his vast collection of correspon- dence. It is rare that such a comprehensive collection of a radical’s life remains, let alone is so well-preserved. Anderson uses them
_ skillfully to describe his individualist anar-
chism, comparing it with the communist anarchism of Most, Emma Goldman, and Lucy Parsons, all of whom Labadie knew,
‘respected, and was influenced by.
Anderson's portrayal of the Labadies could not be more insightful. Because of her place in the family, she not only had most of their papers, but also had knowledge of Jo's disappointment in his children, and the
siblings’ own feelings about each other. Her account of Labadie’s reflections in his later years are particularly poignant.
In 1911, Labadie donated his voluminous papers, correspondence, _ self-published pamphlets and poetry to the University of
‘ Michigan due to its proximity to his home, as
well as its conservative reputation. Jo be- lieved “old moss-back Michigan” could use a little balance on their shelves.
Anderson's lively description of both large and small events in Labadie's life makes for an engaging account of Detroit's historic personalities and politics. This exciting vol- ume has done a great service to the memory of an early anarchist and colorful character, Joseph Antoine Labadie, who has done more to inspire me than any of Detroit's official labor leaders.
Radical fiction:
Resurrection 2027 & A.D.
Reviewed by Rob los Ricos
Resurrection 2027 by J.G. Eccarius (III Publishing, POB 1581, Gualala, CA 95445, 1995) 192pp., $7.00 paper.
A.D. by Saab Lofton (III Publishing, P.O. Box 1581, Gualala, CA 95445, 1995) 316pp., $12.00 paper.
i t's good to see dissident literature making a comeback. It's especially good to see someone with the imagination of J.G. Eccarius continue to grow as a writer, espe- cially when that growth takes him further into the dissident viewpoint rather than the mainstream's. Both these novels have some common themes—set in the (already, by now) recent past and near-distant future(s), they trace the development of fascistic/reli- gious societies from out of the current politi- cal scene. Saab Lofton's book takes a great leap forward into the 25th century while Eccarius' story ends in 2027. In Lofton's book, there has arisen an egalitarian/liberal technological utopia. Eccarius' book only hints at something better arising from the religiously inspired apocalypse he describes.
Resurrection 2027 tells of the growth of religious warfare in America which leads to nuclear combat, which leads to a nearly sterile planet. A weird cult of Mary-the-moth- -er-of-god becomes supreme and reigns over a small group of survivors of the above- mentioned warfare (and a plague that nearly annihilates the human. race). The book's strongest point is the author's faith in (some) people's trust of their own intellect, even in the face of horrendous propagandic pres- sures to conform to a very rigid social order.
This book is much better written than The Last Days of Christ the Vampire, his previous foray into blasphemous noveldom, though he falters ever so slightly in the first few pages. You'd think he'd have smoothed out the roughness in the beginning, considering how the rest of the book flows smoothly along. This book wasn't quite as much fun to read as LDCY, but it has it's moments and will not disappoint the reader who sees it through to the end.
The same can be said of Lofton's book, though, in this case, the rough start contin- ues through the first 124 pages. To think that the Nation of Islam and the White Aryan Resistance will one day come to rule over much of present-day America and that peo- ple would willingly go along with it is a bit far-fetched. Not any more so than, say, the election of the Jerry Brown/Jesse Jackson third-party Presidential ticket, which produces the backlash that leads to the NOI/WAR ascendancy. Lofton tries to lend an air of credibility to the rest of the story by giving it a solid foundation in the more familiar-look- ing present, but he ends up painting a ridicu- lous, completely unplausible scenario which makes it difficult to continue reading. For instances, missing from his Black-and-White portrait of America are Native Americans and Hispanics, with only a hint of Asians and not much mention of how the changes in Ameri- ca affected Canada and Mexico or the rest of
. the world, either. However, once he passes
the story into the realm of science-fiction, with the protagonist Elijah Isiah/Fred Hampton Rush being sacrificed to science
for thoughtcrime against the Nation of Islam, the story gets much more interesting. Isiah/Rush wakes up some 380 years later, where everyone he meets still speaks in 20th-century colloquial English and are well- versed in 20th century pop culture and history. It's like no one is aware of all the changes that have taken place to make the modern world of the 25th century the won- drous, green place it is portrayed as being. You'd think these people would know more about the efforts to clean up the mess of the 20th century than they would about the slobs that made it so fucked up in the first place. No, it would seem as if the past happened mostly in the years just prior to and after Fred Hampton Rush went to sleep and nothing that came afterwards, not even the Earth's contact with and admission to the Intergallatic community-at-large was as personally relevant as 70's TV and comic books. The amount of life-lessons that can be derived from comic books is the subject of further inquiry, to be sure, but here it only seems to soften the central character's shock upon entering a future so different from the one he left behind. The lack of cultural growth envisioned by the author is also evidenced by his fawning over technology and the worldwide Berkeleyization of the society—singular, as in nothing else really exists, as in total assimilation of every cul- ture. We are the Borg! Everyone sing! Resis- tance is useless! Despite all my criticism of this book, | enjoyed it, but often for reasons that | think would offend the author's (obvi- ously) liberal sensibilities.
5 UGE SSA eh Ge sean Se he PME alec eI ene See ese PSTD A ees eA Sree eee
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Alternative Media Review
Off the Map
Reviewed by John Filiss
Off the Map (An Expedition deep into Imperi- alism, Global Economy, and Other Earthly Whereabouts) by Chellis Glendinning (Shambhala Publications, POB 308, Boston, MA 02117, 1999) 200pp., $21.95 cloth. -
f mpressive. After reading Chellis Glendinning’s excellent When Technology Wounds, and her more ambitious (if less focused) My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization, | wasn't prepared for a book as stylized and poetic as Off The Map. A refreshing sense of inven- tion marks the writing: the abruptness of staccato sentences offset by longer, dream- like passages...sudden but intelligible shifts in narrative on nearly every page...dystopian imagery, but in a work that never makes you lose hope.
The book's theme, er leitmotif, is maps. Its focus is the immiseration and spiritual aridity of what we call progress.
We are all aware of what technological society has done to the natural world; Chellis pushes further, revealing what our culture has done to us, how it drains our capacity to feel, to experience, to live. We become semblances of human beings, unaware of the earth beneath our feet, the sky above us, . the trembling of branches beneath the breeze. The real world in which we live becomes increasingly lost to us, off the map of our society's renderings and requirements.
Off The Map ranges over topics as diverse as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Chellis's desert wanderings with her friend Snowflake Martinez, Winnie The Pooh, highlights in the history of English colonial- ism, the vicious molestation of her and her brother by their father, bicycles and roads and Manifest Destiny, etc. Despite the range, it is notable that not only is the narrative thread never lost, but each topic seems, without contrivance, to be part of a greater whole,
History itself is recounted with concision, and to real effect. Here is a look at the hor- rors of the Industrial Revolution in England.
“The empire turns on itself. It always has. The blatant turning against the people and land in faraway places mir- rors the same turning within the empire itself. Hinc Abundant Leones. The year is 1770. Lancashire County, England, heartland of Britain, where tales of the infamous Robin Hood still pass from mother to daughter by the crackling hearth. Find it on the map. Life here is good. The weaver is working in his stone cottage. His little ones play as they clean the weft; the weaver's wife
cards and spins. The older girls hoe their vegetable garden and walk about the village, gossiping and showing their skirts. The weaver climbs onto his roof to repair the thatching. His family is growing their own carrots and herbs, raising chickens and turkeys, earning twenty shillings a week.
“The year is 1820. Lancashire County. The empire turns on itself. Life is no longer good. In a single generation, the land has been made unrecognizable by the assault of industrialism. The houses, now better described as hovels, are blackened by smoke belching from six- story textile factories. Gardens are dry from neglect and overrun by char-faced vagrants. Just as in India, the local weavers are taxed, and the lower prices of factory-made goods force them to give up. They labor now sixteen hours a
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day at machines that dictate the pace in filthy little rooms, earning five shillings a week. For any spinner found with his window open, the penalty is one shil- ling. For a spinner late to his machine, two shillings. Everything seems lost. The community is broken. The weaver’s chil- dren are strapped to their stations with © hemp, and the foreman stomps down the aisles using a leather piece to whip those who are slumped over, hysterical with fear, or numb with boredom.”
Chellis’s past works have been important—in fact, her When Technology Wounds is still without peer in its category. But Off The Map brings her work to a new level, and marks her maturation as one of the most important writers focused on the most important issue of our time—escaping the bondage of our civilization.
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t
The EXIT Collection
Reviewed by Lawrence Jarach
The EXIT Collection edited by George Petros (TaciT, Chicago, 1998) $25.00 paper.
“We are Hate in search of celebrity.” -from the title page
“EXIT—outlaw Liberal Fascist Sci Fi Pop Art magazine, fusion of Social Realism and Surrealism, born of frenzies of beauty and anger, died in hazy sunset of Western history, sustained throughout by dire necessity and the fires of Marijuana & Absinthe and the coolness of cool music & cool sex...pornographic fusion of social hygiene and surly decadence, born in frenzies of Revolution and Crystal Meth...sustained throughout by stolen money...and the excite- ment of sacrilege...”
-from the introduction by the editor
LS) © what do the likes of Henry Rollins, H.R. Giger, Anton LaVey, Marilyn Man- son, Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, and many others have in common? They've all contributed to the now-defunct EXIT at one time or another. Serial killers, satanists, artists, poets...quite a mixture. According to the review copy cover letter, “back issues of the magazine commonly trade hands be- tween collectors for upwards of $100, with $200 or more not.being unheard of.” There's no accounting for taste; EXIT is definitely not mine. When dealing with a project like this, an important question might be “what is the function of transgressive art?”
The texts and graphics in the collection definitely stretch the limits of “good taste” (with their boringly consistent Nazi iconography and violent sexuality), thereby transgressing bourgeois standards of art and morality. Transgression is meant to shock, and much of the material in EXIT probably succeeds, if the target audience is a relative- ly complacent white middle class crowd unfamiliar with the ugly underbelly of Ameri- can suburban life. The rebellion against American puritanical culture is nothing partic- ularly novel; every generation flirts with some form of it: socialism, free love, radical theater and art, feminism, drug use, "Negro music," unconventional scienceand/or spirituality...all these things have been around to irritate staid parents and authority figures for the past hundred years or so. What distinguishes the EXIT gang from the rest of the crowd is that there appears to be nothing inherently liberating about any of the stuff they have produced; they seem to revel in extremism for the sake of extremism, shock for the sake of shock.
The attempts at social satire, in the form of false historical New York Times front pages, fall flat. They are not satire so much as
nonsense. Satire relies on a keen critical ability and a serious awareness of what the real issues of the day are. Then a searing wit is needed, as well as a propensity for being clever and skillful with colloquialisms. All of this is painfully absent in EXIT. For all the shortcomings of the Church of the Sub- Genius (and there were shortcomings aplen- ty), those who partook of its scandals and pranks had humor in their arsenal. Even if the Church was always a self-parody and a colossal inside(r)-joke, it was a joke. EXIT took itself far too seriously as Art. Transgression of cultural norms only re- quires a passing acquaintance with the icons and symbols of what is loathsome to domi- nant morals. Nearly everyone who survived the public school system has an idea of what are the most hated symbols and trappings to those who control us; we got in trouble with teachers, counselors, psychologists, cops, and our parents because of our interest in them when we were younger. Many of us grew out of that sort of instinctual attention- grabbing. Some of us didn't. For those who are still stuck in juvenile nose-thumbing, there's EXIT. For more sophisticated eurocentrics, there's de Sade. The main problem with antimoralism, however, is that its adherents (whether cruel or indifferent, sadists or nihilists) remain wedded to the constraints of moralism. All they have accom-
plished through their postures of rejection is the creation of a mirror-image of bourgeois morality: bourgeois antimorality. They are totally dependent on the continued existence of bourgeois morality in order for their peers and fans (to say nothing of themselves) to continue to recognize them as rebels and troublemakers.
There's a section in the EXIT Collection with quotes and aphorisms by Nietzsche (probably put in because of most people's incorrect association of him with Nazism) and graphics by an assortment of freaks. But the EXIT gang, like most others who only read a smattering of his philosophy, miss the most interesting part of Nietzsche's ideas: the transvaluation of values. The more authenti- cally radical and revolutionary project is the transvaluation (not just turning it upside- down) of morality. When humans dispense with the confines of moralism (whether bour- gecis or leftist), we can start acting like free individuals; we can base our behavior on solidarity and mutual aid—not because some smart person said we must in order to be in their club, but because we can perceive it to be in our interest.
Even if it is a commitment to the ugliest parts of it, the people who created, contribut- ed, sustained, and paid for EXIT, are just another bunch of folks committed to the infinite continuation of the status quo.
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Although the “Alternative Press Review” column has been missing from recent issues of Anarchy, we will attempt to resume exchanges with selected non-anarchist, “alternative” periodicals. And we will continue to review periodicals received in future issues. All reviews in this column are by Jason McQuinn.
Publishers please note: To ensure that your publications are reviewed in future issues, send all zines and mag- azines to our current reviewer address: CA.L. Press, POB 1446, Columbia, MO 65205-1446, USA.
THE BAFFLER
#11/1998 (POB 378293, Chicago, IL 60637) is another kick-ass issue of this 128-page must-read _literary/critical journal. This issue features editor Thom- as Frank's “Triangulation Nation: Affirm- ing Mediocrity in a Jaded Age” (with its excellent exposure of the insidious success of the Gannett newspaper chain—publisher of USA Today and a slew of mediocre monopoly rags), Paul Maliszewski's hilarious (although almost unreadable due to too-small type) “| Am a Fugitive from Business Journalism,” Marc Cooper's personal account of his escape from. the CIA/ITT coup against Allende's Chile, and Kim Phillips-Fein's succinct summary of “The Wages of Credit” (on the significance of Chapter Eleven bankruptcy in the modern do- mestic economy). Past numbers have already sold out, so send these folks $6 immediately for a sample copy, or bet- ter yet $20 for a 4-issue subscription.
THE BODY POLITIC
Vol.9,#3/May-June ‘99 (POB 2363, Binghamton, NY. 13902; web: www.bodypolitic.org) is an informative 36-page, bimonthly “National Pro- Choice News Report,” including a “Leg- islative Watch” in each issue. In the May-June issue editor Anne Bower recounts the Spring anti-abortion ac- tions in Buffalo (a shadow of the 1992 Operation Rescue blockades there), and interviews secular humanist Tom Flynn. Single copies are still $4 post- paid; subscriptions are now $25/year.
BROKEN PENCIL
The Guide to Alternative Culture in Canada
#8/Winter '99 (POB 203, Station P, To- ronto, Ontario, M5S 2S7, Canada; e-mail: halpen@interlog.com) isnow an 90-page, semi-annual review magazine, basically aiming to do purely for Cana- dians what Factsheet Five & Alternative Press Review have attempted to do for pretty much the entirety of the English- speaking world. And given its much more modest aims, it does better at ap- proximating its goal. This issue's cover story, “Zine Writing the the Death of Literature,” is a somewhat pretentious introduction to a new generation of Canadian writers and publishers. The issue includes an assessment of the current state of independent Canadian book publishing, a brief history of the Montréal alternative zine scene from the perspective of the editor of Fish Piss,
18
Compiled by Jason McQuinn
and_a “Special Fiction Supplement,” along with the usual province by prov- ince listing of Canadian zines. Sample copies are $5; subscriptions are $12/3 issues in Canada & $14/3 issues in the U.S.
CAMPUS
Vol.10,4#3/Spring :'99 (I.S.1., 3901 Centerville Rd, POB 4431, Wilmington, DE 19807-0431; phone: 1-800-526- 7022; web site: www.isi.org) is a profes- sionally produced, 24-page right-wing tabloid that bills itself as "the only na- tional student-edited, student-written newspaper for college students." This issue features Marc Levin's "Closing the Pocketbook: Eliminating Mandatory Fees for Political Groups" (aimed at defunding black, ethnic, gay rights, PIRGs, and social activist student groups). Subscriptions are free with (free) 1.S.1. membership or $10/3 issues for non-members.
COVERT ACTION QUARTERLY
. #66/Winter '99 (1500 Massachusetts
Ave. NW #732, Washington, DC. 20005) is an essential magazine cover- ing the hidden political and economic machinations which maintain US hege- mony behind the scenes around the world—every issue containingimportant revelations. This issue’s cover story is Greg Speeter's “More Bucks for the Bang: Tomahawks, Technology and Terror” (on the high-dollar Pentagon budget sending resources down the drain), but the best articles cover the massive US government lies about last years US bombing of a Sudan pharmaceuticals factory, the current state of the farcical prosecution of two Libyans for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the long-term goal of Bosnian leader lzetbegovich to create a fundamentalist Islamic state, and the implications of the Pinochet prosecution by Spain. And, of course, there's lots—too much to list it all. You don’t know what the real score is or how the US government actually operates if you don't read this magazine: Check it out today! Subscrip- tions are well worth the $22/year.
EXTRA!
Vol.12,#1/Jan.-Feb. & #3/May-June'99 (Subscription Services, POB 170, Congers, NY 10920-9930; www.fair. org) is the 28-page bimonthly magazine of FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Report- ing), a “national media watch group that offers well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship,” published from a left-liberal perspective. The March-April issue covers Senate Majori- ty Leader Trent Lott's longstanding association with the racist Council of Conservative Citizens (successor to the old White Citizens Councils which
fought the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s & 1960s), along with the covert racism of the conservative American Enterprise Institute “think tank.” The May-June issue features criticism of the asinine coverage of Social Security by the corporate press, along with editor Jim Naureckas' attempt to resituate the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia within a more revealing historical context in “Rescued from the Memory Hole.” Rec- ommended. Subscriptions are $19/year (including the bimonthly newsletter, EX- TRA! Update).
FREE INQUIRY
Celebrating Reason and Humanity Vol.19,#2/Spring '99 (Box 664, Buffalo, NY 14226-0664) is a slick, professional- ly-produced 68-page quarterly maga- zine published by the Council for Secu- lar Humanism. The Spring '99 issue fea- tures a series of articles once again warning us about “The Population Bomb" (typically, treated as though the question of population has no wider social or political context beyond that of monopoly capitalism), a short interview with science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, and a reprint of Barbara Epstein's “Why Postmodernism is Not Progressive” (from the Socialist Re- view). Despite the often shallow level of most articles, including the irritatingly conservative assumptions that capital- ism and statism should never be ques- tioned, this magazine remains an im- portant source for current humanist thinking. Subscriptions are $28.50/year.
GIRLFRIENDS
Vol.5,#7/July '99 (3415 Cesar Chavez St., Suite 101, San Francisco, CA 94110) is a super-glossy, colorful, 48- page advertising-saturated, magazine of “Lesbian Culture, Politics, and Enter- tainment.” The July issue features a cover spotlight on the band Luscious Jackson, and an exploration of the ins and outs of lesbian identity when you start sleeping with men by Joann Loulan. Single copies are $4.95; sub- scriptions are now $29.95/year.
GNOSIS
A Journal of the Western
Inner Tradition
#50/Winter '99 & #51/Spring '99 (POB 14820, San Francisco, CA. 94114-0820; web: www.gnosismagazine.com & www.lumen.org) is a_ well-crafted, nonstuffy, 74 to 80-page quarterly jour- nal of gnostic spirituality. Unfortunately the Spring issue is the last that will appear, as publisher Jay Kinney has announced that “a confluence of cir- cumstances and people that have en- abled Gnosis to exist up till now have been unraveling at an ever-increasing pace.” However, current and back issues remain available. The Winter
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
issue, on a theme of “Good & Evil,” features Jack Boulware on Anton LaVey's disintegrating Church of Satan, and an interview with loose cannon Robert Anton Wilson on conspiracies, aliens, media and Timothy Leary. The Spring issue covers the theme of “The Grail.” Sample copies are $10 postpaid, but back issues are now half price at $5 each.
HERMENAUT The Digest of Heady Philosophy #14/Winter '98 (POB 141, Allston, MA
02134; www.birdhouse.org/words/ hermenaut/; -mail: editors@ hermenaut.com) is a handsome 170-
page journal of pop philosophy, or the philosophy of pop-culture, or pseudo- philosophical pop, or something like that. In practice it consists of highly personal visions—from wise to witty and from wilted to worthless—woven around themes you may well never have wanted to think about, even if they're tapping you on your shoulder. Readers may find it charming or chime- rical. It's your call. The cover theme for this issue is “Anorexia/Technology.” Look here if you have a hankering for a mini-bio of (fanatically) saintly seer Simone Weil by editor Joshua Glenn, Lisa Carver's predictably sanguine “In- terview with an Anorexic,” an exhuma- tion of Karen Carpenter by John Marr, or Clarke Cooper's erudite put-down of pumped up asteroid flicks in “My Life as a Wookiee.” The cover price is still $6; subscriptions are $20/4 issues.
INDY UNLEASHED
Our National Dialogue on Race #7/Spring '99 (Owen Thomas, POB 9651, Columbus, OH 43209; e-mail: vlorbik@delphi.com; web: http://people. delphi.com/viorbik) is a 12-page zine consisting of literate reviews of zines and comics. Enjoyable, light reading. Too bad it's not longer. Sample copies are $1.65.
IN THESE TIMES
Vol.23,#14/June 11,'99 (Institute for Public Affairs, 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647; web: www.inthese times.com) is a_ professionally-pro- duced, 30-page fortnightly “alternative newsmagazine” providing an ongoing left-liberal perspective on major national and international news stories in a uniquely timely manner—impossible for periodicals appearing less frequently. The June 11th issue includes a compar- ison of Bill Clinton with Woodrow Wil- son and David Moberg's reformist sug- gestions-of “New Rules for the Global Economy.” Subscriptions are $34.95/ year (26 issues), or $18.95/6 months.
LIBERTY
Vol. 13,#3/March thru #7/July '99 (POB 1167, Port Townsend, WA. 98368) is now a 64-page monthly “libertarian” magazine which attempts to make something of an intellectual case for its religious faith in “free market” econom- ics and “private property.” The March issue includes a warning that govern- ment Y2K preparations include military options for dealing with potential dis- content, a look at the frenzied acquisi- tion of Ayn Rand's manuscripts (who'd
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Alternative Media Review
want to own such inferior prose besides cultists and speculators?), and an inter- esting update on "The Politics of Mari- juana: The People Strike Back" by Paul Armentano. The July issue includes an excellent, skeptical look at the absurdity pro-NATO-bombing propaganda by David Steele. Subscriptions are now $29.50/year (12 issues).
LIP #11/Jan.-Feb.'99 (1400 West Devon #243, Chicago, IL 60660; e-mail: lip@entteract.com) is a very nicely- produced 64-page magazine of “radical common sense.” My major complaint is the exceedingly small typeface which makes reading it a pain. But if you have good eyes, this is an interesting, some- times provocative read. The Jan.-Feb. issue includes a good overview by Kari Lydersenn of the “Shame of the Cities: Gentrification in the New Urban Ameri- ca” (though it unfortunately doesn't cover wider historical connections of capitalist development), an interesting “where are they now” update on 1970s - urban guerrillas now out of prison and back in the midst of mainstream U.S. society by Daniel Burton-Rose, and Greg Ruggiero on “Pirate Radio vs. Corporate Piracy: Who Owns the Air?” Subscriptions are $24/year (six issues).
LOVING MORE
#17/Spring ‘99 (POB 4358, Boulder, CO 80306-4358; e-mail: ryam@lovemore.com; web _ site: www.lovemore.com) is a comfortably readable, quarterly 40-page polyfidelity magazine for all those unhappy with the limitations of monogamy, whether it be lifetime or serial! This issue's theme is ‘New Relationship Energy,’ including many short pieces like Roma Weiss’ on "My Husband's Girlfriend," Leanna Wolfs interesting research on "African Polygamy," and Deborah Anapol's ‘On Jealousy.’ Also included in each issue are reviews, personal ads and news briefs. Cover price is $6; subscriptions are $24/year.
MSRRT NEWSLETTER Vol.12,42/Summer ‘99 (Chris Dodge/Jan DeSirey, 4645 Columbus Ave. S., Mpls, MN. 55407) is a quarterly 12-page “socially-responsible” librari- ans' newsletter. Each issue includes li- brary news, interesting alternative peri- odical reviews and a few capsule small press book reviews. The Summer issue features a note on the scandalous forced retirement of long-time activist librarian Sandy Berman. from the Hennepin County Library (over attempts to muzzle his outspoken activism) where he worked as head cataloguer since 1973. It also includes the text of a hilariously evasive dialogue with the Li- brary of Congress concerning its lack of interest in establishing appropriate cataloguing headings for the "NAFTA" and "MAI" treaties. Subscriptions are $15/year.
THE NEW ABOLITIONIST
“Abolish the White Race—
By any Means Necessary” Vol.2,#2/April & #3/May '99 (c/o D.C. Abolitionists, 32612 16th NE, Washing- ton, DC 20002; web: www.newabolition.
Wa be
Mark Neville
org) is an 8-page newsletter critical of the white race as socially-constructed, rather than a biological or natural phe- nomenon. “The key to solving the so- cial problems of our age is to abolish the white race....” The April issue mainly consists of anecdotes about racist mistreatment of North American blacks, along with “Eight Questions for the Free Mumia Movement” asking why more people supporting Mumia don't extend their critique to call for the abolition of the entire “legal system.” Cover price is 50¢; subscriptions are $10/year.
NORTH COAST XPRESS Vol.7,#3/Summer '99 (POB 1226, Occi- dental, CA 95465; phone: 707-874- 3104; website: www.north-coast- xpress.com/ doretk/; e-mail: doretk@sonic.net) is an excellent 48- page special issue of this newsprint magazine covering the NATO/KLA war in Yugoslavia, featuring Michael Parenti's searing NATO exposé titled “The Destruction of Yugoslavia,” two anti-war columns by liberal media critic Norman Solomon, Sam Smith on “Rea- sons to Stop the War” (Russian disgust with NATO aggression), Ramsey Clark on “The Bombing of Yugoslavia & Iraq,” and Mark Eptstein's important “Unmask- ing NATO.” Everyone should have a chance to read this issue of this signifi- cant voice of the alternative press. Single copies are $5; subscriptions are $20/year.
OFF OUR BACKS
Vol.29,#5/May '99 (2337B 18th St. NW, Washington, DC 20009) is a long- standing 18-page feminist news tabloid with a strong emphasis on international coverage and lesbian separatist issues. The May issue focusses on “Women and War in Kosovo,” with views (mostly) for and against the disastrous NATO bombing campaign, including a sadly naive and ahistorical vote for imperialist war by longtime oob collective member Carol Anne Douglas. The issue also in-
cludes “Liberal Feminists Sell their Souls for Clinton” by radical feminist Judith Paige. Each issue now includes a long listing of “Festivals and Meet- ings.” Subscriptions are now $25/year (11 issues).
PR WATCH
Vol.6,#1/First Quarter '99 (3318 Grego- ry St, Madison, Wi 53711; website: www.prwatch.org) is a very important 12-page newsletter of “Public Interest Reporting on the Public Relations In- dustry,” certainly one of the pillars of capitalist ideological strength. This issue features a profile of Peter Sand- man, whose unorthodox PR “risk com- munication” strategies are influencing many major corporate polluters in their choices of how best to co-opt commu- nity opposition. This is valuable stuff— of which every activist should be aware. Subscriptions are $35/year.
SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Vol.23,#3/May-June '99 (Box 703, Buf- falo, NY 14226-0703) is the always readable and often interesting 72-page bimonthly “Magazine for Science and Reason,” published by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). Although its writers too often promote a dogmatic scientism, they nevertheless occasion- ally provide genuinely unbiased evi- dence to debunk many of the non-sci- entific targets that they investigate and analyze. The May-June issue includes debunkings of Bigfoot (in “Bigfoot's Screen Test” and “Tracking Bigfoot on the Internet”) and urban legends (“The Snuff Film: The Making of an Urban Legend” and “Bitter Harvest: The Or- gan-Snatching Urban Legends”), along with a valuable review of Philip Davis' The Goddess Unmasked. Despite its often overt biases and conflicts of inter- est, this journal includes worthwhile & critical information for our amazingly gullible society. Subscriptions are $35/year. :
SOUNDINGS
Summer '99 (Friends of the Federation, 1309-13th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144) is the 12-page newsletter of the Federa- tion of Egalitarian Communities, now “an association of fourteen intentional communities which hold land, labor and other resources in common,” consisting of short reports on activities at individu- al communities and a calendar of events. Subscriptions are included with a $50 Friends of the Federation mem- bership, which also gets you a copy of — the huge Communities Directory or an accompanying subscription to Com- munities Magazine. The newsletter alone is available for $25/year. Well worth the price if you want to know about the wide range of intentional communities now operating in North America.
UTNE READER
#91/Jan.-Feb. thru #93/May-June ‘99 (POB 7459, Red Oak, IA 51591-2459) is by now a mostly-mainstream, advertis- ing-infested, 128-page _ “alternative press" reader for new age/baby boom liberals, concentrating on reprinting arti- cles from mainstream & marginally "alternative" publications, along with a very small number of genuinely alterna- tive pieces thrown in. The Jan.-Feb. issue features a cover theme of “Good Work: Find your Way to a Job that Matters” (don't look for any critique of capitalism here, just remember that “We must be patient with ourselves and others as we being the difficult personal and collective search for good work.”) Subscriptions are $19.97/year (6 is- sues).
THE VOLUNTARYIST i #98/June '99 (POB 1275, Gramling, SC 29348) is a nicely-printed, 8-page bi- monthly newsletter promoting voluntary social relations and private property (and "not voluntary communal proper- ty"). This issue features John Hasnas' “The Myth of The Rule of Law: Part Il,” which argues the unavoidable truth that law is intensely political and not an objective or natural phenomenon (if only this same critique could be turned on the rule of capital & market as well, this zine would be a whole lot better). Subscriptions are $18/year (or .0450z or 1.4gm of fine gold!).
THE WASHINGTON FREE PRESS ° #39/May-June '99 (1463 E. Republican St., #178, Seattle, WA 98112; web: www.speakeasy.org/wfp) is a bimonthly 16-page alternative community tabloid serving the Seattle area. This issue features a section of “War News,” in- cluding information on the reckless disregard NATO has shown for the human, cultural and ecological results of its bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. Greg Bates interviews media critic Nor- man Solomon. And Greg Turner con- tributes his “Confessions of a Corporate Bookseller,” recounting all the petty compromises he was forced to make during his years working at Borders and Barnes & Noble stores. There's no excuse for missing this paper if you live in Seattle, but it's worth a read wher- ever you live. Subscriptions are still $12/year.
See eS ae ea Ne ESC nS nk SIL EES BSUS eT RE
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
}
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
19
Robert Thaxton:
Who He is and the Struggle He is Part of
by Wolfi
“1 must rise in revolt to rise in the world.” -Max Stirner, from The Ego and Its Own
T he October 13 verdict of seven years
and four months in prison for Robert Thaxton was no surprise to anarchists here in Eugene, and elsewhere for that matter.
Anarchists, the true enemies of the state.
should expect no leniency from the judge's gavel, no favors, no warm feelings from those who uphold authority. No surprise at all. For that is just one of many reasons why we are anarchists, why we foster the desire to live our lives to the fullest extent possible, to experience love, beauty, nature, feasts, all unhindered by authority that is not our own.
The state of the planet is not a welcome one as nature continues to be paved over and shit upon and our daily life represents more and more that of a machine. How drab and monotonous so many lives have be- come. Yet there are those who refuse to be made into machines, who refuse to become one of the living dead. And. in this refusal, they experience real adventure and come closer to owning their own lives, and living them to the fullest, the way we were intended to do.
The June 18th riot in Eugene was just one more collective refusal. The leftist spin put on the day of protest against capital couldn't contain the emotions that so many felt, and the cops efforts to quell those emotions only fanned the flames. Protesters did not play by the rules that day and outflanked the cops on a few occasions. But for all the excite- ment and victories that were had on that day, there were some losses. Twenty people were arrested, the stiffest sentence thus far has been handed to Rob. Another person arrest- ed on that day, Christopher Smith, was convicted of riot and has yet to be sen- tenced.
That day has been highly controversial in Eugene. Even anarchists have mixed feelings about it. But as many still continue to sit around and bicker about whether the riot was good or bad, death is still outrunning life.
Sgt. Larry Blackwell is known throughout the Whitaker neighborhood as a menace, specializing in threats, racism, and intimida- tion. HQ joined the Eugene Police Depart- ment directly from the LA County Sheriff's Dept after the 1992 rising. “I got to shoot some of those motherfuckers,” is one of his utterances in reference to Hispanics in L.A.
es
—— = 1! Bis = ——
==
eee
i \
= ——=.
== ==
Toward the end of “Reclaim the Streets” on June 18 he charged Rob Thaxton, who threw a rock at him in an effort to get away. Blackwell had made no order to stop or any other comment and was coming at Thaxton with obvious violence, against one with no record of violence.
In a two-day trial marked by outrageous prejudice from the bench toward the defen- dant, he was convicted July 3 of Assault 2 and Riot and acquitted of Attempted Assault 1. Sentencing occurred on October 13 when Rob was sentenced to seven years and four months in a penitentiary (because of a man- datory minimum of 70 months in the Assault 2 conviction).
Judge Beard distinguished herself ‘by consistently siding with the prosecution and denying every defense motion. She refused to acknowledge the stated bias of several jurors against anarchists—seating them anyway, having already refused defense counsel's (Charlie Porter) request to be allowed to interview prospective jurors indi- vidually. Also denied was a defense motion to admit into evidence material on Blackwell's personal record or allow any witnesses about his behavior or character. Two witnesses were going to discuss the historical record and nature of anarchism, to address the bias against Thaxton as an anarchist. This, too, was not allowed.
Slurs about anarchists, however, were permitted by Prosecutor Gorham, who also
brought in extraneous, unsupported charges (e.g. that Thaxton also threw a bottle at Blackwell) and committed other irregularities. The local injustice system went all-out to make Rob an object lesson in what to ex- pect. This one-sided affair was a total sham. An appeal of his conviction is underway.
Please write to comrade Rob Thaxton at: Robert Lee Thaxton #12112716 0.S.P.
2605 State St. Salem, OR 97310.
All mail sent to Rob must have a return address. All donations to Rob's legal defense should be sent to:
Anti-Authoritarians Anonymous
POB 11331
Eugene, OR 97440
Checks should to be made out to “John Zerzan.”
Donations to Rob personally must be sent in the form of money orders only mailed to: Department of Corrections Central Trust 2575 Center. St. NE Salem, OR 97310 They must be made out to “Department of Corrections Central Trust for Robert Lee Thaxton #12112716.”
Letters should be sent separately from literature and all literature must come directly from the publisher or a bookstore. Zines, in this instance, should have the same address printed on the envelope (if any is used) as is printed on the Zine itself.
a eee eee eee
20
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Tanaclaatchatelars) My- Vals medalkoy amy (ea Wks
Who is Rob Thaxton?
| first met Rob Thaxton—better known to his anarchist comrades as Rob los Ricos—in 1991 in Austin, Texas. For as long as | have known him, he has been involved in anar- chist activities. In Texas, he had connections with Earth First! and helped to organize anarchist gatherings in Houston and Austin. While living in Portland, Oregon a few years
ago, he was involved with the anarchist info- ©
shop that existed at the time. This past winter, he lived in Columbia, Missouri helping to publish Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed and Alternative Press Review, as well as working on book projects of the Columbia Alternative Library Press. Rob has also shown interest in indigenous and Chicano issues, being Chicano himself. He spent the summers of 1997 and 1998 on a piece of land in southern Oregon where several people, including some anarchists, are ex- perimenting with natural, low impact garden- ing techniques, permaculture, eco-friendly architecture and low-tech living. Rob views this project as a part of becoming a person more capable of living without the industrial monster, and so better able to fight it. He had planned to stay on the land again this summer and had been there one month before his arrest. He had spoken of settling there long-term to really learn the skills he wanted to gain. Rob also has a 3-year-old daughter who is living, with her mother in Portland. He views his revolutionary activity, as well as his experiments in low-tech living, as in part, a gift to his daughter whom he loves dearly.
Rob has no desire to be a martyr. He wants and, to the best of his ability, acts toward anarchist revolution for himself and those he loves. But the police and prosecu- tors wanted a scapegoat for June 18. Rob was not a local. The authorities believed he was a transient. Add to this that Rob was a Chicano, and that one of his arresting officers, Larry Blackweil, has been heard to make slurs and threats against Chicanos, and Rob begins to look like the perfect scapegoat. So after being beaten to the ground, his nose broken, his eye blackened, his scapulae injured, his brain concussed, he found himself facing charges of rioting, first- degree assault and second degree assault. This last sentence has a required 6-year minimum sentence. His bail was set at $240,000, keeping him from the land he loves and the friends he loves.
Revolutionary Solidarity
With a friend and comrade in a situation like Rob's, of course, basic support work is necessary—building a defense, getting together funds for a lawyer, all the banalities that come up in such a situation. But, from an anarchist perspective, revolutionary soli-
darity is equally or even more essential.
Revolutionary Solidarity is expressed through the continuation of the struggle against this society, the continuation of the attack against the institutions which judge and imprison ourselves and our comrades. So, although we will certainly not deny Rob all the tools he can use to defend himself, we will not let our struggle be deflected into petitions to the authorities. Rather we will battle the authorities with all means that can be used in an anarchist way.
As anarchists, we have no interest in the justice system. Rob says he did not commit the crimes of which he was accused, and we will certainly do what we can to prove this. But from an anarchist perspective, the guilt or innocence of a comrade is not important in determining our solidarity with him or her. This concept of guilt and innocence is just another aspect of the democratic system of justice and law which we reject.
The justice system, justice as it exists in the present society, is a system of judge- ment, a system which allows certain people to determine that others—whom these judg- es have never met and know nothing about— should be locked up, forced to give up certain freedoms, even killed. Such a system is beyond any sort of reform that could be acceptable to an anarchist, because at its heart it is authoritarian. Thus, an expression of revolutionary solidarity with an imprisoned comrade would be a struggle aimed at the destruction of the justice system.
This requires an understanding of the jus- tice system. It is courts, judges, prosecutors, the entire trial process; but it is also prisons, police, and laws. There is no use in pursuing prison reforms. No matter how gentle and homely a prison becomes. it remains a prison, a place for locking up one who of- fends the law. Nor are better behaved police of interest to us. No matter how well be- haved the cop is, he or she remains the armed protector of state power and private property, both of which the anarchist seeks to destroy. And better. laws only reinforce state power. Their purpose is to protect the present social order, to maintain social peace. And social peace is based in the violence of domination and exploitation, the violence of power.
So our struggles in solidarity with specific prisoners such as Rob base themselves in our struggle against the social order. They use the anarchist methods of attack against that social order, not the democratic meth- ods of accommodation and negation. This does not mean that we won't use every weapon we can to get Rob free. But we will leave it to the lawyer to battle on the terrain
of law—an appropriate terrain for liberals and’
civil libertarians whose interest is “justice.” Our interest is the destruction of the present social order and the flowering of individual
freedom in the context of equal access of all to the condition of life and free creation—this calls for another sort of struggle, a destruc- tive upheaval against all the institutions of power.
The True Nature of the Justice System
The democratic justice system is intended to maintain social peace. It does this through the use of institutionalized terrorism. The acceptance of state and corporate power, of private property and of every other form of domination and exploitation upon which so- cial peace is built can only be maintained by the patrol of armed thugs with the right to abduct anyone they think is not conforming to the needs of society. The abductee is then brought before a court which puts a veneer of social consensus over this terrorism while deciding how to violate the abductee. Since terrorism is the systematic use of terror in the form of violence or threats of violence to coerce conformity to the terrorists’ will, this system must be considered straightforward terrorism.
Master terrorist Bill Clinton has said “There can be no compromise with terrorists.” As a master of that art, he should know, and we should take him at his word. If we are inter- ested in the freedom to live our lives to the full, we cannot accommodate to a system of terror intended to turn us into cogs in the social machine. There is no room for negoti- ation. Only in attack against this monster can the struggle have a chance.
June 18th and the Nature of the Riot
When the street party of June 18th stepped up a notch to become a riot, this was not a matter of anyone lying to the pigs about what was going to happen. The riot of June 18th, like most riots, was a spontane- ous expression of rage and rebellion. There is no place for apologies when such events happen. Rage and rebellion are healthy responses to the present ‘social order, and apologies simply play into the hands of the authorities. When laws are broken, as they will be in such an uprising, apologies are a kind of confession, a way of telling the authorities (whose conceptions of right and wrong anarchists reject) that “we” did wrong. Furthermore, since the actual perpetrators of illegal acts are rarely the ones to apologize, the apologies also amount to authoritarian auto-delegation of the right to speak for oth- ers to oneself and a form of snitching. | know its harsh in this world of tact and good man- ners to call things by their real name, but as long as we continue to euphemize, we will continue to be ignorant of the real signifi- cance of our acts.
RS
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
21
Tanasiaatcndce)atsl mae Vor-) mevalkoy amen (=a a
So-called radicalsin this country, including most “anarchists,” prefer to keep insurrection at a distance. Even people who are not ethical pacifists prefer that we remain safely nonviolent, using tactics which guarantee the continuance of their role as “opposition” (is this why even the most militant of this sort of activist prefer to talk of resistance rather that attack?). So they relegate insurrection to exotic lands like Palestine or Chiapas, or distant times like Paris, 1871 or Catalonia, 1936. This keeps the violence of such events distant and abstract, and allows them to believe that we can remain nice, polite, moderate people and still be radical because we give verbal support to the right causes.
But anarchist revolution has its basis in uprisings against authority, in insurrectional attacks on the present social order. Willing- ness to apologize for such events indicates a willingness to compromise and for us, compromise is defeat. We do not have the upper hand against power. and every time we compromise it is a step forward in power's control and a step backward for us.
What is Anarchy?
Behind the willingness to apologize and to accommodate that far too many so-called anarchists exhibit, is a fear for the good im- age of anarchy. This is laughable because anarchy has never had a good public image. The state and capital control the image-mak- ing apparatus and would never allow a truly good (in the sense of both positive and in- spiring to action) image of anarchy to exist. But this desire for a good image is most troubling because it reflects a lack of under- standing of the nature of anarchy.
Anarchy is not a religion or a god to which.
we want to convert people. Its essence is not idealistic in the Platonic sense—that is, it is not an ideal above us to which we aspire. A nice, clean image, a pie-in-the-sky vision is of no practical use to us since our purpose is not to convert. All such attempts to transform the world are schemes which guarantee that real transformation never happens because that would destroy these ideologues' com- fortable role as loyal opposition in the pres- ent world.
Anarchy is not a product to be sold, anoth- er flat opinion in the ideological marketplace. A media-palatable image of anarchy is, thus, an unworthy goal. Mass media serves the state in two ways which make it useless to anarchists. It is the processor of democratic opinion. It takes any idea presented to it, however vital and dynamic, and flattens it into just another opinion separated from life, another of the many ideologies that demo- cratic discourse can allow to be discussed. For this reason trying to make a media-palat- able version of anarchist thinking upholds the present social order by reinforcing the image of our tolerant dernocratic institutions.
22
eae - Ly ritings by Poli , : Thaxton oa itical Prisoner
“4. Rob los Ricos
The other task of mass media is to create images for consumption. When anarchists play into this, they merely become another one of the many sub-groups of this society, separated from the general mass and put on stage to perform. Such performance doesnt
‘inspire. It simply entertains and enforces
passivity.
The best image the media has ever grant- ed to anarchy is that of an eccentric, anach- ronistic philosophy. Even this image is only granted so long as anarchists remain impo- tent. Apologies and a willingness to accom- modate one’s enemies are signs of impo- tence. A strong anarchist movement, no mat- ter how small, will always be vilified in the mass media. The alleged horrors of every uprising will be trumpeted as this institution does its job of helping to maintain social peace and the state monopoly on violence.
But for those who are ready to rebel and struggle against their oppression, exploitation and alienation, those who are enraged and ready to act on their rage, there is no need to paint a clean, prettified picture of anarchy. It is precisely the rage, the violent passion of anarchy to which they can relate. The num- ber of people who fit this description is rising. One need only look at the letters to the editor in the Register-Guard or the Eu- gene Weekly that were sympathetic to the June 18th riot...or the recent editorials in the Portland homeless paper...or listen to the anger expressed at the August 24th People's Forumin Eugene. In southern Oregon, where | live in the summers, anti-government senti- ment is strong and sympathy for outlaws high. Some even refer to Ted Kaczynski as a hero. The rage is there; the hatred of authori- ty is there. What do anarchists actually have
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
to offer?
To figure this out, we must figure out what anarchy is. It is, in part, a utopian idea, a vision of a world in which there are no institu- tions of power, domination and exploitation, and individuals are free to explore all of their capabilities and fully develop themselves as they desire. But such visions, such ideas, are only useful to the extent they move one to act. So anarchy must also be a personal ethic: to refuse to delegate one's life away, to project one's life for oneself, to refuse ever to be ruled or to rule. The refusal to be ruled is particularly important as this is the real source of our strength in the struggle. But, most importantly, as a tool to be used by insurgent people, anarchy is a methodology for struggle. This methodology is an insurrec- tional methodology incorporating a few es- sential elements:
1) Direct action—The struggle against the institutions of power, in order to be effective, cannot use petitions to any authority. Rather, those in struggle act directly to realize the objective they have chosen.
2) Autonomy—Those in struggle refuse to delegate decision-making to any formal organization such as unions, parties and the like. Specific organizations for a particular struggle with a clear aim that dissolves once the aim is met and that serve only as a means for coordinating the autonomous efforts of individuals and small groups based on real affinity, not as a decision-making bodies.
3) Permanent Conflictuality—Those in struggle have to recognize the reality of their conflict with the exploiters, and always act against them. The struggle needs to consist of constant and effective action against the authorities aiming toward the specific objec- tive that has been chosen. The terrain of capital and the state is everywhere, so there are targets everywhere. Thus, we can be doing small actions that can be easily imitat- ed across the social terrain, keeping the pressure on and building insurrection without recourse to leaders or vanguards.
4) Attack—There is no place for compro- mise or accommodation with the state and capital in any aspect. They are our enemies
and we are out to destroy them. This is re-
flected in our actions by our practice of attack against the specific physical manifes- tations of power.
This methodology is anarchist in its refusal of any form of authority, but can be used by all in struggle whether they call themselves anarchist or not. It prevents the recuperation of the struggle by any power structure and strengthens those who use it.
What Is Revolution?
Anarchists hope that the struggle for spe- cific aims using the methodology outlined above will expand and lend to a revolution-
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Tandclaakchite) ars) Maye Vals) ced alksy am (okies
ary break. Revolution is not something that
drops from the sky, but rather something that .
develops from real struggles as the aware- ness of the need to destroy the present social order becomes increasingly conscious in the course of struggle. The insurrectional anarchist methodology has within it the seeds of such an awareness.
Although revolutions are not spontaneous eruptions, they tend to catch us by surprise.
It is in this light that we need to be aware of ©
the nature of revolution. There. is no such thing as a non-violent revolution, any more than there can be a non-violent storm. A revolution is an upheaval of social condi- tions, the chaotic opening up of the un-
known. An anarchist revolution would involve the destruction of all institutions of power, an upheaval of social relationships comparable to the natural upheavals brought about by tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes. Even if no blood were shed, such an upheaval would have violent effects, destructive ef- fects. Those who are afraid of this would do well to avoid anarchist ideas and practice. But the upheaval of revolution is necessary to bring about the end of the present social order which is, by its nature, a constant up- heaval forced upon all of those without power by the forces of the state and capital. This constant upheaval fucks over most of us leaving us to feel like unhappy puppets of a
THE STATES ARE THE ONLY 5 oe
T ER R O
i ’ Mle 3 : FREEDOM TO ANARCHIST NIKOS MAZIOTIS
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
hellish fate. The upheaval of anarchist revolution places people's lives into their own hands, making people the creators of their own destinies. This is the case because anarchist revolution can only grow out of struggles which use an anarchist method- ology and that methodology bases itself in the autonomy of individuals and small groups, and their increasing ability to act for themselves. Thus, the upheavals of anarchist revolution are intentionally created by those in struggle in order to destroy the institutions that enslave them.
This essay is reprinted from Rob the Rich! Jailhouse Writings by Political Prisoner Robert Thaxton aka Rob los Ricos. All proceeds from distribution of the Rob the Rich! pamphlet will go towards Rob's legal defense. For copies of the pamphlet, or for more information on Rob Thaxton, Anarchy, Revolutionary Solidarity and related topics please contact Anti-Authori- tarians Anonymous, POB 11331, Eugene, Oregon 97440.
Nikos Maziotis convicted
he trial of 28-year-old anarchist Nikos T Maziotis in Athens, Greece, started
amid heavy security on July 5th, during atime when the Greek government has been facing increasing US pressure to clamp down on anarchist “terrorism.”
Maziotis has taken full responsibility for planting a small bomb at the Greek Industry Ministry in Athens on Dec. 6, 1997, aimed only at damaging the building. While the US and NATO continue to admit no responsibili- ty for massive casualties inflicted in this year's nearby bombing campaign over Kosovo—including the deaths of thousands of Serb and Kosovar civilians and police—as well as the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure.
With absolutely no irony intended, the Associated Press, reporting on Maziotis' trial, noted that the US government has “led demands that Greece take stronger mea- sures against the arsonists and bombers that frequently hit foreign targets and other sites.”
Addressing the court, Maziotis said he had planted the bomb in a show of solidarity with residents of several northern Greek villages who have been protesting the operation of a gold mine in the area by the Canadian-based TVX Gold Inc.
With the exertion of immense US pressure, Greek leaders have been putting increased resources into the hunt for Europe's most elusive armed-struggle group, “November 17,” which takes its name from the date in 1973 when the fascist military junta ruling Greece—with the direct support of the US government—crushed a student uprising.
Four Americans.at the US Embassy have
allegedly been killed by “November 17.”
23
24
Jonathon Baker
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Future Primitive
Update}
John Zerzan
n the past couple of years there have been some very remarkable findings concerning the capacities of early humans.
These discoveries have reinforced and even considerably deepened some aspects of the general paradigm shift under- way in recent decades. The work of Thomas Wynn and others has shown that Homo around one million years ago had an intelligence equal to our own. Anthropological orthodoxy now also views Paleolithic humans as essentially peaceful, egalitarian, and healthy, with considerable leisure time and gender equality.
The most recent material has to do with mental achieve- ments and has radical implications similar to those in the other areas of pre-civilized life.
In late August, 1999 University of Minnesota and Harvard anthropologists disclosed a narrowing of the size differential between men and women that began about 1.9 million years ago. The key factor was not so much the use of fire, which began then, but cooking of tuberous vegetables. Cooking reduced the need for bigger teeth, which predominated in males, and the sexes began to equalize in size. The fact of cooking, so long ago, is a considerable datum in terms of the capacities of early Homo. An upcoming issue of Current Anthropology will discuss this research in depth.
M.J. Morwood et al., in the March 12, 1998 issue of Nature, revealed evidence that humans used seagoing vessels 800,000 years ago in the western Pacific. The earliest previous evidence for sea crossings dates from about 50,000 years ago. This enormous revision of how long ago humans were able to construct vessels and guide them over miles of ocean actually elicits, according to the authors, a complete reap- praisal of the cognitive capacity of early humanity.
In a related vein, a one-million-year-old skull found in Eritrea that possesses Homo sapiens features pushes back such an occurrence by 300,000 to 400,000 years. The Septem- ber 1998 Discover magazine called this find a “breakthrough
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
in human origins,” noting that prior to this discovery, the earliest fossils with H. sapiens features dated to only 700,000 to 600,000 years ago.
The February 27, 1997 issue of Nature recounts the
. discovery of the world's oldest hunting weapons, a trio of
400,000-year-old wooden spears found in a German coal mine. It is not clear whether this repudiates the prevailing view that Homo engaged almost entirely in foraging or scavenging until about 100,000 years ago, but the find does clearly demonstrate high intelligence. The 6 to 7-foot long spears “required careful planning,” utilizing the hardest ends of young spruce trees, with the thickest and heaviest part of the carved shaft about one-third of the distance from the spear point for optimal balance.
- What these reports establish is that humans were cooking, traveling over seas, and skillfully making tools at generally much earlier times than previously suspected, and very much prior to any known existence of symbolic culture.
We are trained to equate intelligence with symbolic culture, though clearly this assumption is at variance with the record of human existence. Likewise, we tend to measure intelli- gence in terms of division of labor and domestication, those benchmarks of basic alienation. We are finding out a bit more about an intelligence that we know lived with nature instead of dominating it, and lived without hierarchy or organized violence. (Head-hunting, cannibalism, slavery, war all appear only with the onset of agriculture.)
On one level or another it seems, humans so very long ago and for so many millennia understood what a good thing they had. Healthy and free, they many have sensed that division of labor erodes wholeness and fragments the individual, leading to social stratification, imbalance, and conflict. They resisted it for more than a million or two million years, succumbing to civilization only quite recently, along with its consolation, symbolic culture.
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed 25
Municipal Festival of Pigs:
“The voting booth is our slaughterhouse... We're not voting.”
Klections municipales:
5 = 5 Fosse a purin! L’isoloir c’est De voter pour un ancien cochon t iE tt a ou pour tel autre pore sans mous- LLU re a a oir!
laches ou tel autre gros lard de
jardin, ce sera toujours dabdiquer
notre pouvoir accux et celles qui, copains comme cochon avec les riches, s'engraissent a nos dépens. Ne perdons pas de temps aux urnes, i faut agir au lieu d’élire! Ils se “goinfrent” de nos vies. Tranchons dans — I’gras!
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
@ aaa
Dar lilveradspirrers Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Michael
y the Fall of 1997, the Ecology Montreal Party (EM) was un- dergoing much inter- nal conflict. An anti-Roussopoulos faction had emerged in response to Dimitri Roussopoulos, the owner of Black Rose Books and a self-described anarchist. Some party members were not in either the pro or anti-Roussopoulos camps.
Also present were divisions over
political outlook. Anarchists (at least 14 I’ve been able to document have been involved), social democrats, and typical green party types coexisted uneasily under the EM big tent. Some of the EM anarchists were influenced by the “libertarian municipalism” theories of Murray Bookchin, who says that anar- chists should run for city council. Other local anarchists such as myself have opposed EM from the outset. - In October, an article on EM ap- peared in the Montreal weekly Hour. Following the article, Hour published a. letter by Roussopoulos’s companion Lucia Kowaluk who defended him and accused their adversaries of attempting a coup d’état. Hour then printed a joint letter by 5 Roussopoulos opponents who termed him overbearing and ma- nipulative and denied the coup d’état charge.
The conflict would have further ech- oes in the media in coming months. Perceptible in the coverage was a change in attitude toward Roussopoulos at Montreal’s English-language week-
a
* Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Part Two
lies. As late as December 95 Hour published an article on Roussopoulos and Black Rose which was little more than a puff piece. The weeklies’ shift to a more critical attitude toward Roussopoulos derived in part from contact with people who had worked under him. Innumerable stories are floating around about Dimitri, and the weeklies eventually heard about some of these as well.
At the October EM assembly report- ed on in Hour, the party had decided not to field candidates in the coming election. Instead, party members would back “progressive candidates” in several ridings. Which candidates to back was put off to a subsequent meeting.
The next meeting occurred 5 weeks later, in mid-November. The number present—10 people—was considerably lower than the previous meeting. In attendance were Bernard Cooper and
. Patrick Borden, anarchists who were
strong opponents of Roussopoulos. Also present were other opponents of Roussopoulos as well as people who were not part of this group. Some of those present were members of Le Monde a Bicyclette, a group involved with bicycle activism and ecological issues.
A letter of resignation had been received from Roger Caron. Caron had been elected to a coordinating commit- tee post at the previous meeting. Also conspicuously absent were Roussopoulos and Kowaluk. In the letter to Hour Kowaluk had been up-
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
William
beat about the future of EM. Behind the scenes, however, conversations were taking place about how to handle the conflict with the Cooper-Borden group. Roussopoulos consulted Phillip Chee, an anarchist strongly influenced by the theory of libertarian municipalism. Chee had penned a piece on EM in the Fall 93 issue of the Canadian anarchist journal Kick it Over. In 1994, he was one of half a dozen anarchists who ran for municipal office. By the Fall of ’97, he had moved out of town and was no longer an active EM member. Chee quotes Roussopoulos as saying, vis-a-vis EM, that he had enough fight left to fight another battle. Chee replied that he thought it a waste of time. Roussopoulos’s group was outnumbered and was going to lose, he said. Ulti- mately Roussopoulos would also come to the conclusion that it was better to abandon EM.
At the November EM meeting, the coordinating committee was mandated to carry out the split with the Demo- cratic Coalition, EM’s electoral partner in the 94 elections. This followed up on the decision to separate made at the previous EM meeting. A motion pro- posed by Borden was adopted which allocated up to $4,000 for candidates running green campaigns consistent with the outlook of EM. Monies were also allocated to a number of activist projects. No future EM meeting was scheduled. A coordinating committee remained in place which distributed monies allotted at the meeting.
27
monies allotted at the meeting.
The withdrawal of the Roussopoulos group had made it possible in theory for the party to forge off in a different direction. No new start, however, took place. The unity of the anti-Rousso- poulos faction flowed from opposition to Roussopoulos rather than a shared outlook. In the description of John Penner, an EM social democrat at the November meeting, both the pro- and anti-Roussopoulos groups were “dying” by this time. As well, numerous mem- bers had abandoned the party at one point or other during its 8 years of existence.
In March ’98, the EM coordinating committee was jolted into action when Roussopoulos and Kowaluk attempted to seize the EM archives and deny others access. The archives were housed in a space controlled by two organiza- tions, each of which had a member of this duo as its president. An EM coor- dinating committee meeting was held and a press release about the situation was prepared. The press release noted a new twist: Kowaluk had joined a centre-left party, the Montreal Citizens Movement (MCM): “We are not aware of any other political organization in the world which allows its archives to be held by members of a competing political party.” The press release was finally not sent; an agreement had been worked out allowing both sides access to the archives.
Kowaluk’s decision to join the MCM was a move other EM members were also contemplating. Yolande Cohen, mayoralty candidate in the ’94 elections and a former Anarchos Institute mem- ber, called a press conference in No- vember ’97 to announce that she would stand for the MCM in the next elec- tions. “All forces must unite to give hope back to Montreal, and the MCM is the only political party that’s capable of working in the interests of the citi- zens,” she said, flanked by four MCM councillors and the party president.
However, Cohen’s flirt with the MCM would be of short duration. She
would soon be hosting a think tank in -
her downtown apartment. The project was “unaligned,” she told the Montreal daily La Presse. She eventually would become a candidate for Team Montre- al, a party formed around Jean Doré. Doré had served as mayor for the MCM during their two terms in office.
When he was not automatically invited to stand for a third term, he founded a new party, taking some councillors and party members with him. A motor- mouth technocrat, Doré is a formerly left-leaning lawyer who has moved progressively to the centre right.
In April °98, a new MCM leader, Thérése Daviau, was elected. Soon after she would leave the party during a split that would further deplete party ranks. Daviau’s intention had been to merge the party with New Montreal, another recently created party con- structed around a former chief of the Montreal Police.
This reshuffling of the political deck left the municipal scene as follows: 2 centre-left parties (MCM, Democratic Coalition); 3 centre-right parties (the ruling Vision Montreal Party of Mayor Bourque, and the two recently created parties, Team Montreal and New Mon- treal). Also present were several inde- pendent councillors.
MCM AHOY
On July 30 1998, an article entitled “Ecology Montreal rallies to MCM” appeared in La Presse. The article said that former EM member Roger Caron would be standing as a candidate for the MCM and that a nomination cere- mony marking the event would take place that evening. Roussopoulos was quoted in the article, but exactly who was involved was impossible to tell. This was clarified in the letter of invita- tion to the ceremony. The missive was signed by Roussopoulos and Kowaluk, Bernard Bourbonnais, Angel Martinez, an older Spanish anarchist, and Andrea Levy, who later said she had not signed and had not joined the MCM. The letter hailed the revamped party programme as an “important evolution of the MCM,” adding, “Murray Bookchin also replied saying that ‘if he were 15 years younger and lived in Montreal’ he would support the MCM.” Bookchin’s statement about the MCM was also mentioned by Rousso- poulos in the interview with the report- er from La Presse. Bookchin’s approval was evoked as well in Roussopoulos’s bimonthly Place Publique column. Roussopoulos was clearly maximizing the mentions of Bookchin in order to justify the shift to the MCM.
Bookchin’s support for the MCM
The letter hailed
the revamped party
programme as an “important evolution of the MCM,” adding, “Murray Bookchin also replied saying that ‘if he were 15 years younger and lived in Montreal’ he
would support the MCM.”
caused raised eyebrows locally, within and outside the small libertarian municipalist camp. From talking to several people who consulted Bookchin about the question, the following pic- ture emerges. The quote about the MCM, it was verified, is accurate. An- archists should form a faction within the party, a student was told by Bookchin (shades of Trotskyist entryism). According to another stu- dent, Bookchin said his perception of developments in the MCM came to a large extent from Roussopoulos. Roussopoulos for his part has written in Place Publique that Bookchin’s enthusi- asm comes from reading the MCM programme. However, Bookchin would later state what he had supported was an MCM pre-programme commission report. Roussopoulos for his part con- tinues to affirm that Bookchin supports the programme. ©
Bookchin is also saying that he does- n’t remember the statement about join- ing the MCM if he were younger. But there seems to be little doubt in this case because he was called the day the statement was reported in a local daily, and he confirmed making it. Getting to the bottom of these claims and counter- claims is no easy task. What is clear is that supporting any party programme— or pre-programme party report—is absurd from an anarchist viewpoint.
What is it then about the MCM programme that has Roussopoulos’s knickers in a knot? Well, this is an enigma. The programme calls primarily for a reshuffling of power among politi- cians. The document criticizes the cur- rent situation in which the Executive Committee makes decisions behind
a
28
Anarchy: A Journal, of Desire Armed
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
closed doors, and it recommends that considerable power devolve to “Stand- ing Commissions” of elected council- lors. The proposed new structure would “give the Standing Commissions a cen- tral role in elaborating the master poli- cies of the City, including administra- tion of public funds, administrative and policy restructuring, economic develop- ment strategies, revitalization of neighbourhoods and the downtown, socio-economic orientation, cultural communities and housing.” This is re- stated by MCM mayoralty candidate Michel Prescott in an interview in a local daily: “We want to give more tools to city councillors to control every aspect of the city’s finances.”
Although the above makes clear that the bulk of power remains with elected politicians, the program also calls for a certain amount of decentralization. This will not be a “massive transfer” of pow- er, though, I was told by MCM Presi- dent Abe Limonchik. In effect the MCM did not implement substantive decentralization during their two terms in office.
The programme also calls for refer- enda under certain conditions. But according to Limonchik, it is not a question of city-wide referenda but rather of neighbourhood ones on local questions such as sports and recreation.
(Nor, as well, are referenda a pana- cea.)
THE NOMINATION CEREMONY
In late July, the nomination ceremony for Roger Caron was held. Previously a candidate for EM, Caron was now running under the MCM banner in a riding in the north of the island. The event attracted 35 people and took place on a rented upper floor of a sports bar. Roussopoulos, Kowaluk, Caron and Levy were in attendance, as well as another former EM member, Frangoise Thériault. Cooper and Borden also showed up.
MCM President Abe Limonchik spoke first, stating that the nomination ceremony was an MCM tradition signi- fying that the candidate has the support of the local MCM group.
MCM mayoral candidate Michel Prescott took the floor and praised Caron’s “integrity” and “very stimulat-
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
ing” vision. An outburst of laughter occurred when Prescott humourously noted that he and Roussopoulos had been candidates and adversaries in the previous election campaign when Prescott had run as an independent. The situation in effect had turned quite heated. In a press release Prescott had accused Roussopoulos of using Place Publique (a biweekly Roussopoulos runs) for free EM publicity, calling for an enquiry from the chief electoral officer. There remains no love lost on Roussopoulos’s part: shortly before the 98 elections he tqok a swipe at Prescott’s mayoralty candidacy, terming it a “liability” for the party.
MCM President Abe Limonchik took the floor again, exhorting all progres- sive forces to rally to the MCM, the
“only democratic party.”
Roussopoulos took the floor. Hiss was at his most statesmanlike, which comes off primarily as pomposity in his case. He listed the names of the EM people who had come over to the MCM, speci- fying that each had been founding EM members. He supported the MCM programme, he said, and was pleased a deal had been worked out making Caron the party spokesperson concern- ing ecological matters. (In a further sign of the furious horse trading going on, former EM mayoralty candidate Yolande Cohen was appointed Team Montreal’s environmental spokes- person).
Andrea Levy, who in the past has termed herself a libertarian marxist, told the audience she was not a mem- ber of the MCM but supported Caron’s candidacy. She heaped praise on Caron, saying citizens will be happy if he is elected and ecologists will have a “faithful friend.” This stands in contrast to statements of hers in the weeklies, such as one in which she said the “par- liamentary route” had been tested and “hasn’t borne the best fruit.” Her faith in Caron and willingness to back indi- vidual candidates seem to have trumped her qualms about parliamentarianism. More recently, Levy was one of 13 signatories of a text advocating propor- tional representation. She is clearly mired in pointless reformist solutions.
Caron took the floor, saying he was touched by all the praise. The scene in effect had turned into quite the mutual admiration society. Caron said that he was in contact with resource people in
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Votre candidat dans Octave-Crémazie
SelLaefA
SLATE BOTTIEDTS FLOR IE IBS CIES ETOS et des Crroyenres ce Montraal
the ecology milieu and that several had offered to collaborate with him. He called on people to “put aside their cynicism and apathy” and urged them to join the MCM. He finished his speech. and walked over to shake Roussopoulos’s hand. Limonchik pro- nounced Caron the MCM candidate.
The meeting began to break up. Patrick Borden, a tall man with long black hair, strode to the podium. He stated that he was the EM co-president and complained that a misunderstand- ing had been created by the article in La Presse. He was also unhappy that EM had not been informed beforehand about the meeting that evening. What was the MCM going to do about the La Presse article, he asked. Prescott said that the question had been clarified vis-a-vis the media.
29
ee Kowaluk
Jeanne-Mance Colistiére de / Co-Candidate of Michel Prescott 8
i ravenir est
he future #§ her”
RGFa
Rassemblement des Citoyens et des Citoyennes de Montréal
The next day La Presse ran a follow-up by the same reporter. Ber- nard Cooper had called the daily and said that only some EM members had joined the MCM. EM had made no official decision to join the MCM, he said. The reporter also talked to Roussopoulos who said that the EM founders had joined the MCM. “There are only a handful of people in what remains of the group,” he said.
THE FINAL MEETING
In early September ’98, the EM coor- dinating committee sent out convoca- tion notices for an assembly. One of the agenda items would be the future of the party, the notice said, and another would be the possibility of endorsing one of the parties in the elections. To
that purpose representatives of the MCM and the Democratic Coalition would be in attendance to present their programs. “The $1,125.00 allocation to the campaign of Yolande Cohen has been suspended,” the notice stated, “siven that Ms. Cohen has joined the Team Montreal party, and that this party has not yet presented a ‘green’ or socially progressive campaign consistent with our ideals.”
Only Borden, Cooper and Judith Brown attended the meeting. Three observers were also present. Cooper called the two party representatives to tell them not to bother coming. The Democratic Coalition’s Marvin Rotrand was already on the way and arrived shortly after the meeting began. Rotrand delivered his come-on about why his party should be endorsed. Borden asked him questions about the party position on democracy and bicy- cles. Cooper said he was not interested in endorsing any of the parties. He offered instead to do a comparison of the platforms of the MCM and Demo- cratic Coalition. Rotrand was asked to forward a copy of the party programme. After Rotrand left the question of endorsements was discussed. Borden said he was not interested in endorsing the MCM. He would like to see the platform of the Democratic Coalition, he said. Cooper suggested: supporting an abstention campaign being mounted for the municipal elections. Borden disagreed about supporting the absten- tion campaign. No decision to do a statement or endorsement was made.
Borden said he saw no reason to continue to keep EM alive. Cooper said he was resigning. It was stated that two coordinating committee members who were not present had also resigned. Following the dissolution of the organi- zation, $6,580.00 was allotted to about a dozen activist projects. A considerable amount was allotted to specifically anarchist projects.
THE ELECTIONS
The election campaign triggered off a barrage of propaganda from the Roussopoulos camp. An MCM fund- raising letter on Black Rose stationery, signed by Roussopoulos, put the bite on potential marks: “But a successful cam- paign needs money and this is the ap- peal I am making to you. Or if you are
short of funds between now and the first week of November [the election date], perhaps you can offer some time.” Readers were informed that Lucia Kowaluk was running in the district of Jeanne-Mance, the riding in which Roussopoulos had unsuccessfully stood in the two previous elections. A family affair! Soon Kowaluk’s social worker mug would be grinning weakly from every second utility pole on my street.
Despite the above, an amusing wrin- kle is that Roussopoulos is not an actu- al signed-up member of the MCM. This is a manifestation of his long-time love-hate relationship with the party. While emphasizing during a talk that he is not a party member, he revealed that he is in fact deeply involved with the MCM, mentioning a party meeting he attended which was held in his apart- ment. He also said he has been invited to organize an MCM committee on ecological issues. This was confirmed by party President Limonchik.
Another amusing aspect is that Roussopoulos claims thet Bookchin has been egging him on to take the plunge and formally join the party: “Every time I talk to him on the phone, his opening question is, ‘Have you joined the MCM yet, Dimitri?”
But back to the elections.
Place Publique announced that the Urban Ecology Centre would host a “panel discussion led by Black Rose and Eco-société publisher Dimitri Roussopoulos on Libertarian Munici- palism.” In a later flyer the event had turned more modest and was now sans the panel: “Dimitri Roussopoulos, Publisher of Black Rose Books and president of SODECM, will present his reflections on The Montreal Elections and Democracy” (SODECM is the organization which runs the Urban Ecology Centre and Place Publique).
Only a half-dozen people were pres- ent, not counting SODECM staff. No one I recognized from the anarchist milieu had turned up. Roussopoulos’ was in fireside chat mode, while Kowaluk contributed occasional com- mentaries or anecdotes. The talk was a journey through the last 30 years of municipal politics. In the portrayal, Roussopoulos was always at the right place at the right time, in and out of the MCM during the ’70s, back sup- porting it during the 90s. We learned
Sp aR rs NR enn ern a SS
30
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
for instance that Roussopoulos had helped shape part of the MCM pro- gram during the ’70s. He has come full circle.
Interestingly, no mention of EM was made during the talk. According to
Cooper, though, EM had played a.
central role in Roussopoulos’s political universe and his hopes for the party at ‘one point were very high. Its disappear- ance surely has been a painful blow.
Following the talk, a revealing mo- ~
ment occurred when someone asked about the mayor’s role in the structure envisioned by the MCM. Roussopoulos was unable to come up with changes of any type. All he offered was that execu- tive committee meetings would no longer be held behind closed doors. This was termed “a step forward.”
At the end of the talk, Roussopoulos informed us that the event that evening was just a start: Place Publique would be holding a series of 6 election-related assemblies, including 3 candidates de- bates. The idea for the events came from Roussopoulos, according to Chris- tian Huot, then editor of Place Publique. A Place Publique article fol- lowing the series said that most of the candidates debates were poorly attend- ed. The one in Kowaluk’s district had to be cancelled when too few people showed up, leaving poor Lucia unable to uncork her spiel.
Roussopoulos meanwhile deluged Place Publique readers with 5 election- related editorials. One was datelined Lisbon, where he was attending a con-
' ference entitled International/Interpolis
Conference on the Politics of Social Ecology: Libertarian Municipalism.
Anti-electoralist protestors were on.
hand, such as members of the Portu- guese section of the AIT. At the con- ference a speech was delivered which Roussopoulos had co-written with Mar- cel Sévigny, a libertarian municipal- ist-oriented city councillor who serves as an independent. The Roussopoulos- Sévigny talk did not go unnoticed: the speech was mentioned in an article on the conference that appeared in the Lisbon newspaper Didrio de Noticiero. A subtitle stated that the most success- ful experience of libertarian munici- palism had occurred in Montreal. This was news to people here. Had a Bookchin-inspired upheaval occurred unbeknownst to us?
I was able to obtain a copy of the
speech. It contains considerable sleight- of-hand with roles and categories—a profusion of confusion! Most impor- tantly, the activities of neighbourhood groups are systematically mixed in with those of partyists or councillors, all the better to blur boundaries. At the same time, the speech gives an exaggerated impression of the libertarian character of the local community groups’ milieu, presumably to yank it into a more Bookchinist perspective. These groups have rarely proposed a truly anti-statist approach. The ’70s-80s movement for improved social services the text refers to, for example, was rife with national- ist social democrats and Maoists. In Montreal the polarizing effect of the Quebec independence issue causes almost everyone to either actively wish to preserve the present Canadian state or to create a new, independent one.
There is also an odor of opportunism surrounding the more recent projects referred to, at least concerning ones cited in Roussopoulos’s neighborhood. The Urban Ecology Centre and Place Publique, projects singled out in the text, have repeatedly been accused of being controlled in a hierarchical man- ner by Roussopoulos. Specifically anar- chist or anti-authoritarian projects in the neighborhood—ones Roussopoulos has been in conflict with—are not men- tioned. .
MARCEL SEVIGNY, ANARCHIST POLITICIAN
Swept into office in the 1986 MCM landslide, Marcel Sévigny was reelected in 1990 and left the party two years later to sit as an independent. Along with one other councillor, Ecology Montreal, and a handful of other peo- ple, he then took part in Alliance ’94, an organization set up to contest the 1994 elections. In a position paper during the Alliance period, he saw the organization as a loose one which would allow “each member group of the Alliance the opportunity to advance its own political programme as it sees fit.” Following the breakup of the short-lived Alliance, he delivered a speech at the politician/aspiring politician-inundated Social Ecology and Municipal Democracy Conference. The event took place in Montreal during the run-up to the 1994 municipal election
November 1s HES, a reelect :
campaign. In October 94, he was de- voted a 5-paragraph section in a por- trait of the Montreal anarchist milieu published in Voir, a high-circulation weekly. Though rarely spotted at specif- ically anarchist events, he has remained visible as a’conference giver, doing talks on libertarian municipalism at the Ur- ban Ecology Centre (hosted by Rousso- poulos) and at the Université Popu- laire, a weekly Quebec City discussion forum.
In 1988, Sévigny penned a preface to the French version of Bookchin’s com- panion Janet Biehl’s primer on libertar- ian municipalism. And seeing as Biehl devotes part of a chapter to bashing anarchist anti-electoralists, there is no reason for a sitting politician to feel uncomfortable prefacing this “anarch- ist” book. In it Biehl asserts that oppo-
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
31
Matraque Montréal
Le gout d'un grand tyran
Avec Matraque Montréal, vous ne reconnaitrezp méme plu 3 votre ville! "
sition to electoralism derives from indi- vidualism, a nonsense accusation since anti-electoralism has always spanned the anarchist gamut.
In the preface Sévigny confines him- self primarily to predictable rhetoric. He pointedly distances himself, howev- er, from Biehl’s belief that people would eventually have to arm them- selves for a confrontation with the state. This Sévigny puts down to Ameri- can culture. The Québécois national character, in contrast, he asserts, is
non-violent (“non-violence is part of .
our custom.”) A belief on his part, one notes, containing the reassuring perk that an insurrection will not be sweep- ing him out of office...
Further info about Sévigny’s ap- proach can be gleaned from his speech at the 1994 Social Ecology Conference mentioned above. Here he criticizes political parties, distancing himself in doing so from the party fetishism of the Roussopoulos faction. But Sévigny criticizes parties only all the better to
-Vous voulez un flic a chaque coin de rue; -Vous voulez un hélicoptere de police par quartier;
-Vous voulez dix informateurs pour chaque citoyen;
-Vous voulez des détecteurs de métal dans les écoles et dans le métro;
-Vous voulez des bar- rages policiers pour controle d’identitée des gens qui veulent vivre dans notre grande ville;
promote politicians who run as inde- pendents. He serves up the predictable shibboleth that elections are bursting with propaganda potential: “...the in- volvement at the electoral level for candidature offers possibilities to pro- mote ideas about a project fora differ- ent society.” He urges people to inte- grate more deeply into the electoral process: “The electoral periods are potentially effervescent animated mo- ments at the level of political action. The popular/community groups should be particularly active in promoting their demands and in taking the opportunity to strengthen the ties of the popular/ community interest within a district.” This desire to erase the distance be- tween electoralism and these groups is an attempt to resolve the problem of legitimacy. Instead of being answerable to a party, politicians are said to be answerable to community groups. The role of politician thus becomes legiti- mate.
But all this remains firmly imbedded
Phony poster for the “Billy Club Montreal” party of the former aS chief.
in the realm of representation. Sévigny’s complaint is not with repre- sentation itself. He accepts that politi- cians are supposed to represent groups and interests, he just disapproves of the way the current gang is performing in office. (The solution of course lies in not letting ourselves be represented by politicians.)
As a councillor who turns up his nose at parties, Sévigny finds himself in a bind. Montreal remains a city run by parties. He thus embraces an inevitable marginalization as an independent. He is not in a position to influence the broader policies of the city, which are decided by the mayor and the executive committee. His emphasis on local issues becomes a necessity; it’s not as if he has much of a choice. Unsurprisingly, one searches in vain in his campaign litera- ture for a broader vision or a truly radical thrust. Like campaign literature everywhere it is geared toward self- promotion and attempts to reap politi- cal capital from his state-enforced role
ern en A eR lI ea nS rene eS ree
32
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
ee ee ee me a ee Lr lll
as a mediator.
In a politician validating schema such as this, it comes as no surprise that other authority figures follow close behind. In an interview in a neighbor- hood paper Sévigny embraces commu- nity policing, which has recently been instituted in Montreal: “It is important to assure greater police visibility, which constitutes one of the major objectives of the new community police (police de quartier).”
eee
Which brings me to an anecdote about Lucia Kowaluk and the police. The incident concerns the CANEVAS Collective, a group which specializes in non-violent CD actions which aim at mass arrests. Needing a place to hold meetings, preferably at no cost, the collective requested access to a space run by the Milton Park Citizens Com- mittee, of which Kowaluk was presi- dent. The Citizens Committee does not grant free access to the space in ques- tion, and Kowaluk was mandated to write a letter explaining the policy. She included suggestions of other places to meet, such as tables at a mall or the “community room at Station 19”...the local copshop! True these CD actions are tame stuff. However they remain illegal and best not discussed in a police station!
ANTI-ELECTORAL ACTIVITIES
The election campaign was the setting for a variety of anti-electoral activities. Four anti-electoral posters were pro- duced, including several by one person. Disgust was also directed at police chief turned mayoralty candidate Jacques Duchesneau. Strips of paper with the word police were glued on Duches- neau’s blue and orange posters. And a poster appeared that consisted of a large photo of Duchesneau and the names of people killed by the police.
An ad hoc anti-electoral committee was created which produced two addi-
_ tional widely distributed posters and did
a couple of actions. During one, absten- tionists threw objects (tomatoes, eggs, compost matter and balloons filled with guck) at politicians during a leaders debate. No one was arrested but securi- ty goons went berserk. One abstention-
On November 1, Mayor Bourque’s Vision Montreal Party was reelected in a landslide. ... The opposition was in tatters. The Democratic Coalition was reduced from two councillors to
‘one. Team Montreal, the
party of former MCM mayor Jean Doré, took only 2 of 51 seats. Yolande Cohen was defeated and Doré came fourth in the mayoralty race....
The once-mighty MCM reaped 4 seats bunched together in one section of the city.
ist was grabbed in a headlock and his head was rammed against a wall. He managed to shake free and escape out a side exit but wound up with a golf ball-sized bump on his head. Another
person present, Bernard Cooper, decid- -
ed to hide under a car to escape pursu- ing security goons. Unfortunately this turned out to be a bad move. He was flushed out and his glasses were grabbed. He received a beating over the hood of a car and went home without his glasses.
The committee’s other action consist- ed of anti-Duchesneau agitprop which took place in a downtown park.
“Roussopoulos Ridiculed by Prank Posters,” announced the title of an article in the Mirror, a Montreal weekly. Posters from Roussopoulos’s 1990 elec- tion campaign were détourned and plastered all over his neighbourhood. Covering the Ecology Montreal logo at the bottom, a new strip of paper had been glued which said that Rousso- poulos was running for mayor and for leader of the MCM. “It’s meant to confuse the electors,” Roussopoulos grumbled to the Mirror. Former Black Rose employees were responsible, he hypothesized. Kowaluk was fuming
according to a Place Publique staff- person. Not using her real name, she exercised damage control by having a letter printed in Place Publique saying that the posters were a joke.
DISASTER
On November 1, Mayor Bourque’s Vision Montreal Party was reelected in a landslide. Though falling short of the 50% mark, Bourque himself placed well ahead of his nearest rival.
The opposition was in tatters. The Democratic Coalition was reduced from two councillors to one. Team Montreal, the party of former MCM mayor Jean Doré, took only 2 of 51 seats. Yolande Cohen was defeated and Doré came fourth in the mayoralty race. Ex-police chief Duchesneau hardly fared better. His New Montreal party won only 3 seats. Louise Roy, former MCM presi- dent turned New Montreal candidate, went down to defeat. Marcel Sévigny was reelected.
The once-mighty MCM reaped 4 seats bunched together in one section of the city. Mayoralty candidate Michel Prescott was not in the running at 15%. Interviewed shortly after the elections, Prescott regretted that the opposition had not been more united, saying Doré and Duchesneau could have stood as candidates for the MCM. He hoped Bourque would be facing a more united opposition next time.
In his first Place Publique editorial after the elections, Roussopoulos lam- basted the media for not paying enough attention to the MCM and its mayoral- ° ty candidate. He put the best spin on the MCM plight, noting Prescott had gone from fourth place to third during the campaign. “Today, the MCM forms the official opposition,” he intoned, although with 4 out of 51 councillors, it’s not saying much! More recently, the MCM has been having trouble achiev- ing quorum, including in 3 of the 4 districts won by the party. According to an April 99 article in La Presse, only 8 members showed up in Roussopoulos’s riding of Jeanne-Mance (quorum is 10).
PIE
Meanwhile, further resignations at Place Publique have earned Rousso- poulos more bad press. “I simply be- came tired of the hypocrisy, of the
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
33
eeeeereseesesseseoscosces
ime <t “eae
ortant
-ek SCOSHSSHSOSEHHSOSHSSHHLOSHSSEHEEHOSESHEOSESESESESEE
im.
wee eeceeseeseseseoes
ille de Montréal
undemocratic structure of the organiza- tion,” said former editor Christian Huot to one of the weeklies, referring to “important decisions on issues that affected the editorial team but were kept hidden from us.”
An additional embarrassing incident occurred in July 99 when Roussopoulos was pied at the Urban Ecology Centre. The pieing took place during a talk he was giving before a dozen. students from the Institute for Social Ecology. As the talk was about to begin, a local anarchist who had infiltrated the event retired to the washroom to prepare the pie. He emerged to find Roussopoulos and the students seated in a circle. Roussopoulos had his back to the pie man, making him a sitting duck. “Fuck all authorities” the pie man shouted with a strong French accent as he pied Roussopoulos. He then tossed up tracts about the action and hastily departed.
Roussopoulos cleaned himself up and ignored the pieing until a woman asked him about it during question period. On the tape of the talk Roussopoulos stutters and hems and haws for seconds and is clearly having considerable diffi- culty coming up with an explanation. He ultimately insinuates that the real motive of his Montreal opponents is
Elections Montreals
Liste électorale
eoeeeeeeseseseeese
La liste électorale est maintenant dressée et mise a jo!
depuis au moins un (1) an.
“Abstention” poster détourning an official city electoral information poster.
Uetre wom ost-ib sur la liste?
. Changement aad escsege
1 novembre _ Vous avez
voulez exercer votre d
1” septembre 1997, vous
droit de vote.
resentment about his success as a “builder”!
A short article about the pieing ap- peared in Hour, and several exchanges took place on the Internet after Cooper penned a piece about the pieing. Only one person wrote in to defend Rousso- poulos, Wolfgang Haug of Trotzdem- Verlag, a German publishing company which has put out some of Bookchin’s Books. Haug has. met Roussopoulos several times, he said, most recently at the Lisbon conference mentioned above. He defended anarcho-electoral- ism, the MCM, and Roussopoulos’s business practices, three of the targets of Cooper’s letter. Cooper countered with a long reply, quoting from. the MCM website and taking up each of Haug’s points.
Agent Apple of the Biotic Baking Brigade sent an e-mail supporting the action to Cooper, and several exchang- es took place on the Institute for Social Ecology website. A one-paragraph letter from Howard French complained about the “VERY high” prices of Black Rose Books. While not supporting Roussopoulos vis-a-vis the accusations against him, Hamish Alcorn lashed out at the pie man, accusing him of “bitter- ness” and “envy.” Alcorn would appear
eeeoeese Bowne
léménagé et vous
le 1" novembre 199873
ne pourrez, selon la loi, exercer votre
Cependant veuillez communi- quer avec la Régie de I’assu- rance maladie du Québec afin que votre adresse soit corrigée pour une élection ultérieure.
Révisiogi:
1 800 461-0422.
— G-17.23/06/98.09:28
to be well coached, since this is precise- ly the impression Roussopoulos wishes to give of his opponents.
Then, three weeks after the pieing, Roussopoulos himself put forth a re- sponse—or rather a one-paragraph non-response. “I do not plan to answer the slanderous allegations made against me; it is not possible to answer them,” Roussopoulos said. He claimed he had received many e-mails and phone calls but offered no proof, as Cooper point- ed out in a four-paragraph reply. “It is not possible’ to answer the accusations, since to do so would be highly damag- ing to him,” Cooper charged.
And thus ends the EM saga, not with a bang or a whimper, but fittingly, with a pie.
Parts 1 and 2 of this essay will soon be published as a pamphlet along with other texts of mine on Ecology Montreal which appeared in Anarchy, Demolition Derby and Fifth Estate. Write to: Michael William, CP 1554 Succ. B, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3B 312.
34
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
elf-Management
Alfredo Bonnano
1.
he problem of self-man-
agement is not only a tech-
nical problem of how to
ensure the functioning of production before, during and after the revolution, but is a more complex prob- lem implicating the very dynamic of the revolutionary process. To study possible models of self-management without placing them in a revolutionary context means nothing at all as far as liberation is concerned.
To ask the meaning of self-manage- ment is to ask what the possibilities of the functioning of a society entrusted into the hands of the producers are. But at the same time it means to ask whether it is possible to self-manage the struggle at the present time, in the face of exploitation and genocide.
Self-management of the struggle comes first, then comes self-manage- ment of work and society.
If self-management is to serve State production, then we are against it. If it is to serve as an instrument for deceiv- ing the workers yet again, we are
against it. If it is to serve as an alibi for:
some party to come to power on the shoulders of the masses, then*we are also against it.
2
The exploited will bring about the revolution because they are trapped and suffer the progressive loss of every positive aspect of social life. The mass movement is developing on the deterio- ration of the economic, social and cul- tural conditions which rendered. the preceding administration of the State possible. The work of stimulus and clarification which the revolutionary minority is carrying out is a part of this contradictory structure, soliciting the
autonomous strength that exists within the masses, pushing them to construct the rudiments of self-managed organi- zation which, starting off from the struggle, can extend to the formation of a future generalized self-management through the self-managed revolutionary event.
3:
In the waning phase of consumerism world economic power has tried to use the Yugoslavian type model of self- management on a large scale. Such a solution would be of very great danger to the workers’ movement. If they were to fall into the trap they would accept the management of the places of pro- duction (only those most easily control- lable, never the fundamental ones such as the banks, finance companies, rail- ways or shipping lines), controlled by a bureaucratic political center or in the hands of party leaders—technocrats in the service of a capitalism ‘rendered absolutely anonymous—or under some new kind cf charismatic leader.
Self-management would remain in name alone. The workers, under the imperatives of a programming center, would only self-manage their own ex- ploitation. Strikes, for example, would be unthinkable when not specifically forbidden. This self-management would be equivalent to the militarization of production.
4,
In order to give themselves a per- spective of self-management workers must first oppose themselves to the present structure of collaboration be- tween the various elements involved in their exploitation. These are: a) the political parties, including those who define themselves “left-wing” and con-
sider themselves the holders of the revolutionary tradition; b) the unions, including those who refer to revolution- ary syndicalist doctrines and to anarcho-syndicalism.
The presence of this triple alliance, bosses, parties and unions, is pushing the workers to construct the bases of their own autonomy, to conquer the essential elements which render possi- ble the first steps towards self-manage- ment. This does not mean so much an advance in the level of the struggle as a qualitative leap which is attempting to attack the anti-worker alliance brought about by the forces of reaction and their collaborators. It is the class situa- tion in its complexity which is being put in question and examined in a new light. Workers’ autonomy is the first step towards self-management.
a
Another essential phase in the per- spective of self-management is the workers’ re-appropriation of their cre- ative capacity. The capitalist system, basing itself on the private ownership of the means of production, does not allow for the creative employment of those means by the worker. The activity of production is distorted and produces the phenomenon of alienation: produc- tion escapes the worker. His work is well and truly forced labor.
But the creative capacity of the work- ing man or woman can only be recov- ered through the availability of the product, that is through a revolutionary process of re-appropriation when a reactionary process of exploitation is in force. The revolution in work is there- fore the self-managed organization of these first elements of the future soci- ety, base production nuclei which in turn grow from the autonomy of the struggle.
oe]
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Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
35
6.
Information is a key element in the model of future exploitation. Moments of crisis in imperialist consumerism can be overcome by allowing co-manage- ment carried out while maintaining absolute control over information. Ev- ery form of counter-information, every deviation from the data furnished by the central directive would have to-be carefully excluded. What is known as “preventive censure” is a means to globalize the process and cause the fragmentation of the working class,
mination within the workers’ movement due to the effect of certain structural changes; or by an intervention prepared by a precise minority.
The action of an anarchist minority within the mass inserts itself, in our opinion, very well within the perspec- tive of self-management. This does not mean the hypothesis of a “guide” who, in any case would end up repeating social democracy’s program; ie, it means action within the workers’ move-
The action of an anarchist minority within the mass inserts itself, in our opinion, very well within the perspective of self-management. This does not mean the hypothesis of a “guide” who, in any case would end up repeating social democracy’s program; i.e., it means action within the workers’ movement itself, seeking to co-ordinate autonomous organizations in accordance with the interests of the workers, and aimed at safeguarding individual autonomy in the dimension of class autonomy.
thereby eliminating the non-productive strata (controls, time-keepers, etc), and of reducing the importance of some of the intermediate strata (civil servants, etc).
In this reactionary strata the element of struggle which fits in perfectly with the perspective of workers’ self-man- agement is that of the conquest of information. The workers organize the information themselves, from the base, taking over the elaboration and inter- pretation of this information and refus- ing the participation of any intermedi- ary whatsoever which would act as a filter—in the first place of course the unions.
Te
The project of self-management be- gins to take form through the essential points we have listed: a) workers’ au- tonomy, b) the recovery of creative capacity, c) the conquest of informa- tion. It remains to be seen how this will come about, ie. if by spontaneous ger-
36
ment itself, seeking to co-ordinate au- tonomous organizations in accordance with the interests of the workers, and aimed at safeguarding individual auton- omy in the dimension of class autono- my.
8.
The presence of an anarchist minority
within the mass, considers the problem
of the choice of instruments in the struggle and determines them in a certain way. We attack the interclassist and reformist parties, but not for this do we fall into a stale spontaneity. The points of reference are the workers’ interests and they must recognize them as such. A change in structure does not necessarily mean an “automatic recog- nition” of these, when it is based entire- ly on the economic event. For example, a struggle for an increase in wages led by the unions is not always in the inter- ests of the workers. It may be in their “apparent” interests. On the contrary, it may be in the “effective” interests of
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
their exploiters. To understand this is the necessary foundation for the self- management of the struggle and there- fore for the firm establishment of the prospect of self-management.
The choice of means for the struggle for example: direct action, sabotage, the destruction of work, carries a need for clarification and an identification of the “real interests” of the working class, and a need for this work cannot be denied by an ill-founded voluntaristic vision of the phenomenon.
The realization of one’s own interests is the most important condition for the realization of social revolution.
9.
Struggle formulae of the past such as co-operatives, factory councils, rank and file committees, sectorial committees, etc, in the way in which they have been tried out in past historical situations and under other types of production relations, must undergo severe analysis.
In substance, the limitations of these formulae is demonstrated by the fact that capitalist society still exists. The workers must analyze with precision the negative effect which this alienating situation has on instruments which in themselves contain valid elements of co-operation and self-management. For example, co-operatives can only produce—as they are organized today— an autarchic and corporative spirit, a spirit which denies the class struggle and every sentiment of solidarity. Who- ever thinks differently, and believes that from co-operatives can grow the seeds of a future society, mutual aid for the benefit of all, is deluding himself in that he is attributing to capitalism not only a utilizable technological component, but also a psychological component of self-management which, in our opinion, does not exist.
10. The passage from the pre-revolution- ary period to the revolution, and there-
fore to the construction of a new soci- ety, cannot come about in a sudden
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
brusque way, unless in the first phase care has been taken to construct the
essential elements of a self-managed -
structure of the struggle. Self-manage- ment precedes the revolution, it is not a consequence of it.
If self-management is considered in its productive aspect alone, there would be a temptation to realize it separately from the self-management of the strug- gle, resulting in the delegation of the struggle to a specific body (armed wing of the proletariat), to a specific party (workers’ party), or to a precise minori- ty in government (democracy in gener- al). Capitalism is very interested that this choice be made by the workers’ movement and it is exactly in this direc- tion that it pushed it with all the means at its disposal, in particular with a mas- sive use of the media. We must not fall into the trap.
In placing the organization of the struggle alongside the organization of production in the perspective of self- management, reactionary and capitalist forces are automatically expelled from the field of action of the workers’ movement. In fact, capital could never manage a struggle led by the workers autonomously, the instruments usually employed (parties and unions) would become useless in this case.
11.
The revolutionary project is based on the existing relationship between pro- ducer and product. In this relationship other elements exist which affirm and modify it at the same time without transforming it radically. Clearly this relationship must be egalitarian, that is each according to his needs and from each according to his possibility. It must be organized from the base, otherwise it will not be egalitarian. And it must be simple and elementary, that is it must spread to the abolition of the market mechanism which deforms needs as well as the financial aspect of production.
With the self-management of the struggle, organized from the base in small nuclei of workers at the level of
Co-operatives can only produce—as they are organized today—an autarchic and corporative
spirit, a spirit which denies the class struggle and every sentiment of solidarity. Whoever thinks differently, and believes that from co-operatives can grow the seeds of a future society, mutual aid for the benefit of all, is deluding himself in that he is attributing to capitalism not only a utilizable technological component, but also a psychological component...which...does not exist.
production, attacking the centers of exploitation, a movement of cohesion for the future development of the con- flict, and through the conquest of infor- mation will reach the definitive expro- priation of capital, ie. the revolution. The struggle for self-management and the independence of organizations of struggle means to fight at the same time for independence in the organiza- tion of production. It is impossible to make a difference between the two.
12
The prospect of self-management must be carefully constructed today, avoiding all the errors inherent in a separation between self-management of the struggle and self-management of production. The first to be interested in this separation are precisely the capital- ists. Separating self-management of the struggle from its logical consequences (self-management of production)
through which the important result of
tiring the conscious minority of the
proletariat is obtained, leaving them before a confrontation with no outlet, and drives them to remain in the “com- fortable” perspective suggested by the parties and unions. Separating self- management of production from its logical premise (self-management of the struggle), another important result is obtained for capitalism—emptying self- management of its revolutionary mean- ing, increasing production and profits, safeguarding institutions, and having the working class once again in the hands of the parties and unions.
Unity of the workers in the autonomy of the struggle, unity in the perspective of self-management, unity in the pro- cess of revolution and production. These are, in our opinion, the essential points of every correct analysis of self- management.
Alfredo Bonnano’s “Self-Management” was translated from the original Italian version appearing in the now defunct review Anarchismo in the early 1990s. This version was posted on the A-Infos News Service [http://www.ainfos.ca/org] in March, 1999.
Fall/Winter 1999-2000
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
37
a re.
gill
ao - ue Pw
* ate *
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed Fall/Winter 1999-2000
POST- eB ce ANARCHY
here remain large numbers of anarchists who continue to identify closely with the political left in one form or another. But there are increasing numbers ready to abandon much of the dead weight associated with the left tradition. The following pages of this issue are devoted to beginning a new exploration of what is at stake in considering whether or not identification with the political left has outworn any benefits for anarchists.
The bottom-line question is, can anarchists do better outside the left—from a position of explicit and uncompromising critique, than those who have chosen to inhabit the left have done from within? Or, alternatively, could we possibly do any worse?
Left: One part of the massive Krupp works complex at Essen, 1912.
Fall/Winter 1999-2000 ; Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed 39
POST-LEFT ANARCHY
Anarchy
Going
Post-al?
Alex Trotter
few thoughts on the subject of “post-left anarchy”: First of all, is an anarchy that is post-left also post-right (as in lifestyle monarchism, perhaps), or does that go
without saying?
The idea of a post-left anarchy seems to imply an ongoing half-life relationship with the left, just as the idea of the “postmodern” implies an ill-defined and incomplete rupture with the modern. I find post-al categories awkward, so I'll suggest calling it anarchy beyond leftism, rather than post-leftist. Another way of looking at it, I suppose, is that being after leftism is analogous to the position taken by the situationists in relation, to culture (“We take our stand on the other side of culture. Not before it, but after”), in other words, leftism is to be “realized and suppressed” in the manner of a Hegelian Aufhebung. But I won’t quibble too much over terminology. Better to establish what is meant by leftism (whether we’re after it or beyond it). Your Webster's will characterize the left (the sinister, from Latin) in very general terms as “advocating change in the name of the greater freedom or well-being of the common man” and having the “desire to reform or overthrow the established order.” Thus leftism runs on a continuum from reform to revolution. In its main stream, the left usually refers to bourgeois liberalism and social democracy, in its extremes to leninist sects of various kinds. It can appear under the banners of liberalism, marxism, anarchism, humanism, femi- nism, nationalism, and a host of other isms as well. It’s connected to the ideas of progress and democracy.
_reform/revolution (leftism) and
This is the leftism that Bob Black criticizes in his book Anarchy after Leftism (and other of his writings) for its organizational fetishism, repressive and obfuscating ideology, and merely piecemeal challenges to the system of domination maintained by Capital and the State that have the practical effect of strengthening that domination by correcting its most blatant, reactionary weaknesses and making it more efficient. But there is one other, somewhat different, use of the term “leftism” I’m aware of, and that appears in Richard Gombin’s The Origins of Modern Leftism, which presents an overview of the development of the most radical currents in France leading up to the great upheaval of 1968. In Gombin’s idiosyncratic definition, leftism refers to currents of mostly marxian inspiration, such as council communism, surrealism, the Situationist International, the Frankfurt School theorists, and such figures as Henri Lefebvre and Wilhelm Reich. These sources, some of which we might think of as ultraleft (although that term, too, is awkward), were partisans of revolution. The goal of revolution is shared by many repre- sentatives of both kinds of “leftism,” even if what is meant by the term “revolution” differs. There is revolution, and then there is revolution. Because of the unfortunate corruption that words undergo (or their inherent inadequacy as sym- bols), it might help to make a distinction between insurrection/revolution (revolution of everyday life, the project of casting off the totality of modern domination). The best efforts at revolution have been both “aristocratic” and egalitarian, embodying the hope that the cause of the common man could transform
ee eee
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itself into that of the uncommon man and woman. Because classical anarchism spent much of its career either tail-ending bourgeois liberalism or defining itself, albeit negatively, in relation to the Soviet Union, and competing with marxism for the title of the true “scientific socialism,” it was indeed leftist (in Black’s, not Gombin’s, description).
This takes us to the Russian question, for “post-left” means, to a large extent, post-Soviet. Post-left anarchism is the sound of the other shoe dropping after the collapse of the USSR.
In the 1970s Jacques Camatte, building on but also criticizing the work of Italian communist Bordiga, reexamined the Russian Revolution from a perspective that focused on the unfulfilled promise of the populist movement, which stood outside both marxism and anarchism. Camatte looked at populism in light of Marx’s interest in that movement late in his life. Marx saw a possibility of communism arising in Russia through the grafting of Western science and technolo- gy onto the village peasant commune, and not through the Marxist/progressivist program of capitalist industrialization. Camatte was interested in the Russian case as prime example of a predominantly agrarian society that, although partially connected to Western capitalism, nevertheless had the Opportunity to bypass the capitalist “stage” in its own development in moving directly to a libertarian communist society. Marx thought that this opportunity would not last forever, and that past a certain point some form of capitalist development would probably be inevitable for Russia. This opportunity was in fact lost, with some of the populists becoming marxists, some turning to terrorism, and others going on to form the nucleus of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. But the example of Russian populism offers insight for the situation of much of the world today, because capital has still not fully supplanted noncapitalist economies and culture through what Marx called “real domination.” The current “globalization” of neoliberal capitalism is in part an effort to sweep away the last barriers to a society made entirely in capital’s image and based entirely on its presuppositions. In order to do this, corporate capital must break up whatever rural communities and common lands still exist in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, so as to achieve the capitalization of all agriculture as the prerequisite for further conquests of in-
dustrialism. This process is done in the name of progress and, .
yes, revolution. The same Marx who eventually came to see virtues in avoidance of the “capitalist road” had praised capitalism and the bourgeoisie in the Communist Manifesto as the most revolutionary force the world had ever seen. There are movements in the less developed countries today, not to be confused with third worldism, that involve the resis- tance of communities to capitalist enclosure by corporations and/or the state. The nationalist, quasi-leninist fantasy of a “third world” revolution against the West, which was launched in the 1920s, and had rightist/fascist as well as leftist/bolshevik origins, has withered along with the Soviet Union, its chief sponsor. But can communitarian movements (e.g., peasants or native peoples in Brazil or Nigeria trying to fend off ranchers and oil companies backed by the state) be anything other than purely defensive, and doomed, struggles against the neocolonial encroachment of the technological society? Perhaps capital can only be defeated “at home” in the Western metropoles.
The paradigm of revolution seems exhausted in the West, however. All revolutions thus far have succeeded only in expanding
“Post-left” means, toa
the scope of capital’s reign. The large
revolution to end capital has —
remained a will-o’-the-wisp, and extent, revolutionary ideologies based on :
the privileged agency of the prole- post-Soviet. tariat have failed to deliver. The
“proletarian revolution” of the Post-left classic type never recovered from -
the derailment it suffered at the @Narchism
hands of fascism and bolshevism. After World War II situationists and others attempted to broaden the definition of proletariat be- yond the narrow sense of industri- al workers, and certain others coming out of the ultraleft, like Camatte, came to reject the theo- ry of the proletariat altogether. These developments in theory among French marxists take us in the direction of post-leftism (and for others in the direction of the postmodern, but that’s another, less interesting story). Perhaps revolution still has possibilities; I _ have a lingering attachment to it myself. Situationist and autonomist theory seem to represent the tail end of the best of the marxist tradition. If these theories have any liberating potential left in them, they can probably be expected to display it in the countries of their provenance in the past (primarily France and Italy). Other countries with great revolutionary traditions, such as Mexico, have shown that these traditions are still alive today in new forms like the Zapatista movement.
There is another paradigm besides revolution (or reform/revolution) to describe the outcome of resistance to the modern domination of Capital: collapse and abandon- ment. Modern technological civilization may be more likely to end in the manner that the empires of antiquity ended, rather than the manner in which the ancien régime of France, Russia, or China ended. The limits to capital appear to be more external (e.g., ruinous stresses on the natural environment) than internal (class contradictions). There were revolutionary risings of the slaves in ancient Rome, but none of them ever succeeded, although the Spartacus revolt did come damn close.
The United States began as an imitation of the Roman Republic; it may well end in bloated imitation of the Roman Empire. Today, with the end of the Soviet empire, the United States stands without rival for domination of the world, much as the Roman Republic did after the defeat of Carthage. The strategists among the U.S. elite now concern themselves with preventing the emergence or reemergence of any rival power, but the candidates are few and on a local/regional level: France in Africa, Germany in Eastern Europe, China in East Asia: Weak and humbled as it is,
is the sound of the other shoe dropping after the collapse of the USSR.
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed 41
The “right to however, Russia is still the wild
card in