AUGUST 2013 • www.bolobolo.co.za/it • ISSUE #1 • PRICE: R10 - R20 according to means INCENDIARY TIMES THE PETIT-BOURGEOIS ANARCHIST COUNTER-REVOLUTION YOUR MOTHER WARNED YOU ABOUT

in·cen·di·ar·y: (a device or attack) designed to cause fires, e.g., ‘incendiary grenades’ / tending to arouse strife, sedition, etc., e.g., ‘an incendiary speech’ / tending to inflame the senses, e.g., ‘an incendiary extravaganza of music and dance.’

In this issue

Walking Featured interview: Reflections on the state of We talk to Biko Mutsaurwa, activism in Cape Town. an anarchist from Uhuru Network in Zimbabwe. We can’t educate our way out of inequality + Writing on: radical What would a truly radical environmentalism, education look like? capitalist realism, Abahlali baseMjondolo, black Beyond Bolivaria consciousness and more. A critical look at the fetishising of South + Creative writing | poetry | Art | Events | Book reviews American socialist leaders Radical/anarchist views by the South African left. from around the world

Anarchists: basically just a bunch of wild-eyed, angsty teenagers...

A love letter from Walking some anarchists. The bolo bolo collective contemplate the state of political activism in Cape Town in 2013, exploring the attendant class Welcome to the very first edition of Incendiary Times, a joyous labour of love undertaken by and race divisions and asking how best we can move forward. the bolo’bolo collective and collaborators. Before you read any further, it’s only fair to warn you of something: we’re anarchists! In boldly stating this we realise “Comrades!” and down along the sidelines of the away and, after a couple of final aluta that we’re jumping in the deep end; although anarchism march, tirelessly photographing the continua‘s, the buses begin their long has been around for over 160 years now (and much longer, proceedings and stopping now and drive down the highway while the if radical anthropologists are to be believed), it has received The cheap sound then to make important calls. sunburned Europeans and Ameri- far less attention than it ought to have and remains largely maligned and misunderstood by people all across the so-called system crackles When we arrive at parliament the cans dissipate into the city to seek out gates are closed, as they always are on open bars and restaurants. 'political spectrum’. In our own small way we hope to remedy to life, a shrill, this by exploring anarchist theories and practices and applying distorted voice a Saturday. Undeterred, one of the leaders reads aloud our memoran- • Interlude: a leisurely stroll them to our contemporary situation–to concrete, everyday life piercing the dum, with its modest demands and in no specific direction in South Africa and beyond–in as broad and non-sectarian Saturday morning rousing conclusion, and then passes a way as possible. In doing so we also hope that you will see air. it through the closed gates to a minor A few months later, a group of large- our latest project for what it is: not yet another collection of official who promises to leave it on ly white middle-class activists will marketing leaflets from a cultish organisation trying to recruit “Comrades, we must not the desk of the appropriate member march a similar route to protest you into their ranks but love letters, tied to bricks and hurled of staff for perusal on Monday morn- against Monsanto. Their banners and across the barricades towards the grey facade of spectacle and march yet. There are five corporate hegemony that one day, soon, we hope to smash. more buses coming.” ing. Most of us will never see the con- costumes will be more colourful and tents of the memorandum; fewer still the speeches will sound less like The For us, anarchism entails opposition to capitalism, the state, will have had a say in them. Communist Manifesto and more patriarchy, racism, ableism, speciesism, ecocide and all other • Long walk to nowhere The symbolic task now accom- like an Alex Jones radio show about relations of hierarchy and domination. In place of these shitty plished, we gather around the self-ap- secret cabals and Jacque Fresco and ways of relating to each other and the natural world, we work e wait, like untold thousands pointed vanguard of professional the Freeman Movement. Have you to create a world of ludic conviviality based upon the principle Whave waited before us at this socialists for more speeches. A man seen Zeitgeist? The gathering has the of equal-liberty and characterised by voluntary social relations square, for another hour, but the bus- dressed like Trotsky – with a beard atmosphere of a Waldorf School re- of mutual aid and solidarity. If this ethos resonates with you es do not arrive. They never do. Then to match – talks about material con- union or an Afrika Burn fundraiser; then read on – you might be an anarchist too! we march, a thin, mostly red-shirted ditions and the means of production. some reminisce fondly about Occupy trail of 500-odd people (although the Whenever the audience grows restless Chapman’s Peak. Words like ‘peace’, Participate! media will later report us as 2 000 or an awkward silence descends, a cry ‘pacifism’ and ‘we are all one’ are liber- As an independent, non-commercial project, Incendiary Times strong), through the streets of Cape and response of “Amandla! Awethu!” ally employed. Here there are no aca- comes out as frequently as we can manage or whenever we feel Town and towards parliament. The is delivered to lift our flagging spir- demics along the sidelines, although we have something worth saying. If you’d like to contribute path is lined with riot police whose its. More speeches follow, including there are a lot more photographers. content of any kind to future editions–articles, reviews, poetry, listlessness matches that of more an angry screed (mostly inaudible art, letters, pressing questions or recipes for revolution–then than a few of the protestors. There’s through the megaphone) and a mes- • Pacing in circles get in touch with us at: [email protected] a sense of dull resignation to the pro- sage of solidarity from a union leader ceedings. A troubling tokenism. The who drives a BMW. With a few exceptions (most notably most enthusiastic participants are By mid-afternoon, it’s time to head the recent Marikana settlement), this the white academics – mostly Euro- back home. The weather-worn ban- pean and American – who run up ners and cardboard signs are packed / continued on page 2

Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 1 “Our masters have not heard the people’s voice for generations and it is much, much louder than they care to remember.” - Alan Moore

Words in revolt. This issue’s definition from the CrimethInc Contradictionary*. pre·fig·u·ra·tion (n)

e must be the trouble we wish to see in the world. Anarchists have long sought to demonstrate the virtues Wof their vision through prefigurative projects: free food distribution, do-it-yourself health care, collective living arrange- ments. If only a working model of a better world could be creat- ed in microcosm, the thinking goes, everyone who experienced it would become partisans in a revolutionary struggle. Yet in a capitalist society, these experiments can only be carried out at the margins: the dregs making the best of debris. Walking Meanwhile, at the Googleplex, cafés staffed by world-famous / continued from page 1 chefs offer healthy organic food in all-you-can-eat buffets. Goo- gle employees drop their children off at free day-care, avail is the tone of activism and ‘radical’ with each other or liking Facebook we don’t want to be beaten with the themselves of free hairstylists and laundromats, take their pets politics in Cape Town in 2013. pages. They are seldom aware of the people’s stick then, we shouldn’t beat to work, and play Ping-Pong or volleyball on pristine facilities. On the one hand, there are the un- struggles of the poor, beyond de- each other with it now. After they ride in on the free shuttle or park their electrical cars imaginative protests led by the usu- riding their protests as violent and Perhaps most encouragingly, there’s at the charging station, free scooters wait to convey them from al Leftist suspects: a small gaggle of counter-productive. also a growing engagement from one shining example of sustainable architecture to another; aging Trotskyist, Marxist-Leninist younger people, along with a re- they are encouraged to decorate their workspaces however they or, more often, vaguely socially dem- …and never the two do meet. newed enthusiasm for fresh ideas. wish, and whimsical features ornament the campus, including ocratic organizations. A generation after The Struggle, a tyrannosaur skeleton and a rocket ship. Massage therapists Donor money is used to bus in • A dérive perhaps we’re finally ready to begin remedy their every complaint; a personal lifeguard watches a the poors and to pay for t-shirts and looking at more sophisticated forms single swimmer exercising in a swim-in-place pool the size of a sound system rental. A tedious, obe- If there are grounds for deep cyn- of radical praxis that aim beyond the bathtub, with different speed settings for water flow. The bright- dient march towards closed gates, icism in this admittedly contrived old Leftist tropes. est luminaries in every field are brought in on a daily basis to peppered with rhetorical and of- dichotomy, then there is also at least present free seminars to which everyone is invited—everyone, tentimes grandiose speeches. The some reason for cautious optimism. • New maps that is, who produces enough profit to keep a foothold in this city specialist organizing clique behind Experiments with new creative forms on a hill, and doesn’t flinch at swimming through a sea of blood these marches, who write all the of contestation – like the Marikana However cynical, optimistic or wild- to hold onto it. memorandums, also analyze the un- settlement occupation and the recent ly unrealistic we are though, it is clear If corporations can prefigure a world of abundance more ef- derlying issues in their publications, intervention at Open Streets (where that the time has come to explore fectively than revolutionaries can, what does that tell us about spilling copious ink on discussions members of Abahlali baseMjondolo new possibilities. As people passion- this strategy? Perhaps that the important thing is not to prefigure of how many radical possibilities can Western Cape built a shack in the ate about creating grassroots radical utopia—which is already available to the winners of the rat race, dance on the head of a tripartite alli- middle of the festivities to draw at- social change, we need to admit to albeit intramurally—but rather to prefigure the offensive that ance in-between reviews of the latest tention to their plight) – suggest that ourselves that what we have been do- would render it accessible to all. Žižek book on Hegel and odes to the people are tiring of stale repetition ing has not been working and that Bolivarian Revolution (did you know of the same spent forms and the cre- whatever answers we think we have that Chavez once quoted Kropotkin?) ativity and festive spirit of the March are the result of posing the wrong These professionals are also the arbi- Against Monsanto, however non-rep- questions. In asking new questions, it For more definitions, ters of legitimacy: for the most part resentative its class and race compo- is vital that we ask them together and *visit www.crimethinc. they determine whose voice is to be sition, is perhaps a tiny reminder of that they emerge from practice: we com/books/contra.html heard and which issues are worth fo- Deleuze and Guattari’s provocative need to experiment with new forms cusing on. Everything else is at best suggestion that true revolutions have and new content. petit-bourgeois irrelevance, at worst And what would happen if, turning counter-revolutionary. a corner, our two marches met and In some sense, this democratic left is “In asking new merged into one? What would hap- a kind of historical reenactment club, pen if middle class organic food en- a chance for old struggle comrades to questions, it is vital that thusiasts joined forces with the peo- wax mythical about the noble work- we ask them together ple of Marikana settlement to help ing class and a brief respite from their and that they emerge grow food on their occupied land, NGO jobs and comfortable senior or even just acknowledged solidarity positions in local unions. There are from practice: we need with them, in whatever token way? few people under the age of forty to experiment with new How could our marches against cor- at their talks and workshops, apart porate hegemony be strengthened by from the usual members of the white forms and new content.” the radicalism and bravery of those savior industrial complex who, fresh who are used to being on the receiv- from overseas, are here to participate ing end of capitalism and the state in the struggle through the lenses the atmospheres of fetes. every day of their lives? What could of Tiqqun, or Negri and Hardt, or While not explicit, there’s also an be achieved if we were willing to lis- Alain Badiou (or to lecture other emerging anti-authoritarianism and ten, for once, to stories of each oth- white saviors on how they should be grassroots spontaneity evident in ers’ struggles and the lessons learned uncritical allies of the fetishised mass these actions. Perhaps we’re final- from these? What could the radically of huddled poors). ly recognising what the anarchist egalitarian politics of anarchism and And then, on the other hand, there Mikhail Bakunin meant when he anti-authoritarian leftism, slowly but is the Occupy-inspired concerned observed that “when the people are surely spreading across South Africa citizens group – blindingly white and being beaten with a stick, they are not in their own modest way, contribute often disturbingly politically igno- much happier if it is called ‘the Peo- to all this, beyond a bunch of dry rant given that they live in the most ple’s Stick’.” While Bakunin was re- tomes by dead white European males unequal society on the planet. Most ferring specifically to authoritarian and hamfisted class analyses from a often their pacifist (some might say communist states, we anarchists and century ago? Arizona police assist Food Not Bombs in prefiguring a world in which everyone has pacified) form of activist participa- autonomists have long known that Walking, as the Zapatistas say, we enough to eat. tion involves sharing Avaaz protests our means need to reflect our ends: if ask questions.

Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 2 “School has become the world religion of a modernized proletariat, and makes futile promises of salvation to the poor of the technological age.” - Ivan Illich

own limits, but radically changing it ed, not because people are uneducat- would not be in their interests. ed. Trying to educate people out of We can’t educate our way In addition to the inequality poverty is like treating a symptom created by capitalism, the schooling to a disease; it may help, but without system (when it does function) is targeting the cause of the disease, out of inequality designed to churn out little capital- you will never cure it. Education is ists ready to compete in the world of important, of course, but it needs to business. Almost as soon as learners change from being focussed on the Robbyn Banks debunks some of the myths surrounding education enter high school they are encour- success of the individual in a capi- and its role in social upliftment, and asks just whose interests current aged to make subject choices that talist society to being determined by will ‘set them up for their careers’. the needs of the community within models of education serve. Thirteen year-olds can study Busi- a classless society. Only then will ness Management, Accounting and education help end inequality, but working computer. The wealthiest jobs we can create so that we can Computer Science. Arts subjects are until capitalism is eradicated (or at schools, on the other hand, will keep on generating money...and viewed by many parents, schools least until people realise that it needs boast fully resourced science labs, so forth. But the sad truth is that (and even learners) as cute distrac- to be), this will not happen. theatres with plush red velvet seat- capitalism creates inequality; in fact tions. School outreach programmes If we are really passionate about ing, and pristine hectares of sports its very existence is dependent upon are a voluntary afterthought. No trying to cure the ills of our society fields. The difference in learner -per inequality. This is because there is a matter what your subject and extra through education, we need to take formance between these two groups finite amount of wealth in the world; mural choices however, the most it into our own hands instead of is also vast and it is not only because in order for me to have more, you important thing is that you excel rel- waiting for governments, schools of the difference in the quality of ed- must have less. Furthermore, those ative to your peers. And in privileged and higher education institutions to ucation received. Children attending who start off with more wealth are schools, even sporting and cultural reform the current system. We don’t dysfunctional schools are more likely likely to create even more wealth for activities are highly competitive need their resources to educate the ost people think they know to come from homes where they do themselves, often at the expense of (because imagine how good ‘Cap- adults and children in our commu- Mhow to solve the problems not have access to educational re- those with less. Those children born tain of Netball Team’ will look on nities – all the most important skills of our society. It’s simple: people sources (such as television, comput- into wealthy families will be sent to your CV!). for maintaining a free and liberated need to get educated, work hard so ers and newspapers), or even water or the best schools, study at the best There is no doubt that good society are already known to us. that they can go to university, get electricity. They are also more likely universities, and land the best jobs. education is correlated with higher Set up free schools. Teach a group a job, buy a house and (only then) to go to school hungry, which affects There is very little upward socio-eco- income, but this can never be a of children how to read, or how to start a family. Governments and their ability to learn. It is therefore write poetry. Ask your neighbour civil society also hold this view, as not enough to pump resources into to show you how to grow vegetables evidenced by the huge amount of schools; indeed, increased govern- “...the truth is that, even with all the good intentions and distribute your surplus crops to resources pumped into education ment spending on education (even in the world, equal education and opportunity are the community. Give free first aid programs and by government’s fetish when it is properly administered) is classes in your community hall. Set for promising job creation. Since not correlated with improved learner not possible in a capitalist society.” up a neighbourhood watch. Teach getting an education and finding a performance. What many govern- a friend how to knit and sew. These job helps people get out of poverty, ments and NGOs fail to realise is nomic mobility for people born poor reality for all learners no matter how actions of mutual aid and solidarity then education and jobs must be the that school-focused interventions are and there is no ‘trickle-down effect’ good their schooling. Even if we may seem small, but they give power solution to ending poverty, right? unlikely to have any lasting impact of wealth. Those who are born on could magically provide every learn- to our communities to create change In South Africa class inequality is if learners and teachers still go home the top tend to stay there with little er in the country with an excellent for ourselves, without waiting for an mirrored in the schooling system. to impoverished communities, with benefit for those on the bottom. education, capitalism cannot provide oppressive and ineffective govern- It has been said that we have two all of their associated hardships, at Even if the South African govern- each one of them with a job. Job ment to make changes for us. separate education systems: one dys- the end of the school day. ment were efficient and corruption opportunities and wealth cannot be functional (containing the majority The sad truth is, as long as we live free (yeah right), they would never expanded indefinitely in a capitalist Do something now! of schools) and the other functional in a capitalist society, these impov- be able to remove inequality in a system which relies on finite re- (characterised by wealthy, former erished communities will continue capitalist society; it is simply not sources to survive, which almost all Model C ‘white’ government schools to exist and our children will not possible. And they certainly won’t industries in a capitalist society do, and private schools). One only has have access to equal education. want to smash capitalism – they are either directly or indirectly. to visit schools from both systems This may sound contrary to the too invested in neo-liberal econom- The only effective way to address Further reading: to see the difference. Step into any promises of the capitalist: that ics, either personally or at a policy inequality (as with many social Books: poor rural school and you’ll likely be capitalism is good for a country’s level. Our politicians could not problems) is to focus on its causes. confronted with classrooms devoid economy and is therefore good for travel in fleets of BMWs or collude Inequality exists because we live in • Anarchism and Education by Judith of desks, books or even teachers, pit the people of that country. The with big business without capital- a hierarchical class society where Suissa. toilets with no doors, and an admin more money we generate, the more ism. At most they can reform the wealth, resources and the means of • Capitalism and Education: Strug- office without electricity, let alone a schools we can build and the more current education system within its production are not equally distribut- gles for Learning by Jeff Bale and Sarah Knopp. • Class Dismissed by John Marsh It's simple: any time you have a discussion about • Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich • Pedagogy of the Oppressed by anarchism with someone, mark off any clichés they Paulo Freire It's...ANARCHIST BINGO! spout. See how long it takes you to fill in your sheet! • Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault Anarchist Catalonia and Anarchists are just Ukraine were defeated What have the Online: Go live in Somalia if petit bourgeois in war, so this proves 'Anarchist Anarchists ever you like Anarchy so white middle-class Anarchism can’t work. organisation'? Isn't that achieved? The • Toward the Destruction of School- much. hobbyists. Unlike us, Democratic France being an oxymoron? “Haymarket affair”? ing by Jan.D. Matthews (http:// defeated in WW2 doesn’t theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ right, comrade? count. Never heard of it. anonymous-toward-the-destruc- tion-of-schooling) People are too stupid Why don’t you create Who would control the huge You’re a Utopian. Anarchy • The Promise of Deschooling by Who would maintain and evil to voluntary corporations if the state your own political work together. They need will never work the way Matt Hern (http://theanarchistli- the roads and gather benevolent leaders to do it didn’t exist? Today they’re you idealize, unlike brary.org/library/matt-hern-the- party and run in the perfectly regulated and kept the garbage? for them. What do you mean in check by our incorruptible Capitalism and the State promise-of-deschooling) next elections? “who would choose the leaders. • Why Not To Trust Your School by leaders”? which work perfectly now. Anonymous (http://theanarchis- tlibrary.org/library/anonymous- Future By Design! Re- You’re not a true Your ethical arguments If you oppose Capitalism so why-not-to-trust-your-school) source-Based Economy! anarchist unless you on how humans should Jacque Fresco! Zeitgeist! much, then why are you still • Here I Stand - a speech by Erica Anonymou! Isn't my V mask support the rights act in an anarchist using a computer and the in- Goldson (http://americaviaerica. to private property, HUMAN NATURE! society makes you as bad awesome? No, I didn't realise ternet, huh? And why do you blogspot.com.au/p/speech.html) V for Vendetta was written capitalism and wage as Stalin and Pol Pot. Evil by an anarchist... slavery. collectivist! buy groceries? Hypocrite!

The state is required because Whenever your revolutions I demand to know the exact An anarchist society Let’s say tomorrow humans don’t exercise were attempted, they ended details of an anarchist doesn’t exist right now, voluntary organization. up in brutal dictatorships society of the future. People we magically had an therefore it could never Much like shoes are required after a bloody civil war. because our feet lack the Unlike all democratic could easily predict 20th Anarchist society… work. No, I don't know century Capitalism during how old Capitalism is. callouses one would develop revolutions which were by not wearing shoes. peaceful and never failed. the 19th.

Why don’t anarchist start Humans need hierarchy. We are all one! -isms are I agree with you, All human societies their own communes right bad! Let's just change the now? Just buy the land from Libertarian Socialism but nothing can throughout history were world by reflecting endlessly the state or capitalists and is an oxymoron. on ourselves in a non-violent ever change, so why hierarchical. prove it works. Of course no- and pacifist way. But quickly, ...anthro-what? body will try to mess with it. I have a yoga class to get to... bother…

Adapted from www.dbzer0.com website.

Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 3 ‘Today, Western imperialism is the imperialism of relativism, of the “it all depends on your point of view”; it’s the eye-rolling or the wounded indignation at anyone who’s stupid, primitive or presumptuous enough to still believe in something, to affirm anything at all.’ - The Coming Insurrection

ll of this land was once our he Abahlali baseMjondolo Ahome. Fertile and rich, we were T (shack wellers) movement sustained. We knew the seasons and grew out of a road blockade understood the elements, we could organized from the Kennedy The grain Road shack settlement in the read the stars. Our children knew their kin and shared in our stories. who continue to rape and torture, city of Durban in early 2005. Without shame or judgement they In this poetic piece, Mikey Wentworth reflects on the struggles of prolonging the suffering of parents grew; but now no more. Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shack dwellers movement. who must live so that they can repay Having since grown to include This is where I used to live. The all of their debt with interest. branches in Pietermaritzburg, wall along the boundary, the garden, State sanctioned suppression Cape Town and elsewhere, it the path; the door upon which and the clouds. Bankers and corporations and condoned murder; the brutal is currently the largest shack visitors knock, the hall, the rooms The bricks, the mortar, the glass buttering bread for an exclusive accomplices of this insecure tenure. dweller's organization in and windows; the ceiling and rafters and the wood; each a moment banquet to which we were never And in the end I know that you South Africa and campaigns and roof; the jaded, faded memories carefully constructed. There a invited, but are expected to serve: will also want this tiny little grain to improve the living of birth and death and life: was once smile, or a tear or some laughter; a where they discuss the economy and that houses me and the misery that conditions of poor people and mine but is no more. celebration, mourning, the sound foreign investment between trips to is all that remains of our once lofty to democratize society from These walls were once our of a baby crying, the final sigh of an the toilet to make way for yet more ideals. below. The movement refuses sanctuary; a habour from the elder dying. gluttonous gorging where you and This single, tiny grain that is the party politics and boycotts tempests; keeping safe my family This grain of sand is all that is left I are never mentioned except in last vestige of resistance. elections. AbM's key demand who I love most dear; a humble of my birthright. passing. Woodstock, Schubert Park, is that the social value of urban haven against the ravages of the Once a mighty mountain of Itireleng, Skurweplaas, Mooiplaas, land should take priority over relentless, blustering winds that resistance: now a lone wailing in the Debonair Park, Thembelihle, its commercial value and have swept so much rubbish to these distance. Lawley, Ennerdale, Khayelitsha... it campaigns for the public shores: our refuge no more. Shivering outside, exposed to the expropriation of large privately This grain of sand is now my estranged elements, dying inside Abahlali baseMjondolo! owned landholdings. Their key home. Just a single, tiny grain that on the sandy wastes of cinderblock organising strategy, according contains all of me: my history, my tenements. to AbM, is to try to recreate the reality, my dreams all contained This land is no longer my home. I commons from below through within this single grain. have been evicted and abandoned, Mikey Wentworth has been writing the formation of a series of A single grain that is the sacrificed for a corporate profit poetry and prose pieces since the linked communes. According mountains and the valleys, the which purchased my vote and 1970s. He honed his craft on the to The Times, the movement oceans and rivers and the land: a my hopes and the dreams of my streets and in the gutters; in the "has shaken the political grain so mighty and yet so small in children who now live here with me ghetto and the ghetto hotels; with landscape of South Africa." which the seed of my existence was in this grain of sand upon which you I know that no one speaks about passion and certifiable insanity. He According to Professor Peter planted and nourished and where I stand without noticing my suffering. my cupboard that is bare and broken has written for a wide range of stage Vale, Abahlali baseMjondolo grew; but seemingly no more. My life and my living became an beneath the rubble that was once productions, documentaries, television is "along with the Treatment My afterbirth lies buried here obstruction: to your views, your the walls supporting my roof. The and radio pieces, newspapers and Action Campaign the most in this grain with the murdered plans, your safety and your justice. constitution and education is failing magazines and is currently working effective grouping in South bones and the miserable torture and These walls which were once because already the children have on his debut novel, entitled ‘A Tale African civil society." However, indignity and the tragic joy of my my home were bulldozed again, learned how to mistrust and hate of Extra-Ordinary Madness’ whilst the movement has faced ancestors. burying my plight along with fate; learned that only money can simultaneously co-ordinating an arts considerable repression. Now this single, tiny grain once my rights: another District 6, change circumstance and financial project at an underprivileged primary again contains all of my living, all of another Sophiatown, another Cato success can be attained through school in the Eastern Cape. You can read more about AbM what is me. Manor; in the name of a gentrified criminal gain. at: www.abahlali.org I am this land, the air; the Woodstock, a Slum Act for Kennedy A police force skilled in bullying You can read more of Mikey’s writing mountains and the skies; the Road and State corruption in and harassment: supposedly on his blog: http://michaelwentworth. sunshine and the moon and the stars Lenasia. civilized men in uniforms and suits blogspot.com

This may seem like a radical state- Consciously black, ment; it is simply a fact, nothing more, nothing less. bell hooks, an consciously white African-American feminist scholar whose work focuses on race and Sakina Grimwood ponders the invisibility of whiteness and what gender, describes the currently dominant paradigm as 'imperialist it means to 'not see colour' in a society that is deeply racially divided. white supremacist capitalist patri- archy'. 2 According to this view, the fundamental tenet upon which hu- Underlying this statement is a sub- man society was established and is tle assumption that being of colour still based today turns on a cultural is something to be pitied, much like paradigm enforced, violently so, by being a woman, an animal, an Af- white men. You do not even need to rican or disabled is often pitied. As read between the lines of a history if being black is somehow shame- textbook, newspaper, Forbes' list of ful. the richest people in the world or More importantly, this statement list of the greatest philosophers of flies in the face of a basic fact. There all time to see this. are people who are black just like The point of acknowledging OLO’BOLO IS A COLLECTIVELY RUN ANAR- there are people who are white. It whiteness and blackness is nei- CHIST INFOSHOP, COFFEE HOUSE AND AL- is a matter of more or less melanin ther to demonise nor to victimise bTERNATIVE SOCIAL SPACE AT 76 LOWER in a person's body. To deny this, any race. It is to acknowledge that MAIN RD, OBSERVATORY, CAPE TOWN. would be to deny a scientific fact as there are both obvious and subtle WE STOCK A WIDE RANGE OF ALTERNATIVE LITERATURE, well as our history as humanity in ways in which society is still much WITH A FOCUS ON ANARCHISM, RADICAL POLITICS, GRASS- t some point during a conver- many parts of the world, especially easier to navigate, not only for men ROOTS ENVIRONMENTALISM, ANIMAL RIGHTS, VEGANISM, A sation a few weeks ago, while South Africa. but for white people too. This, ulti- LGBTQIA ISSUES, COUNTERCULTURE, CUTTING-EDGE PHI- confronting the issue of race as To deny colour is to deny slavery, mately, could allow for open and LOSOPHY, BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS AND MORE. WE ALSO the only black person1 in front of oppression and racism. To deny honest discourse around a new SELL ZINES, BADGES, T-SHIRTS AND STICKERS, MOST OF a group of white people, a mid- colour is to deny the reasons so paradigm outside of imperialist WHICH WE MAKE OURSELVES. dle-aged blonde lady looked lov- many of us black people, irrespec- white supremacist capitalist patri- THE SHOP ALSO SERVES 100% VEGAN COFFEES, TEAS, ingly over at me and said in a soft tive of class or education, carry low archy. The reality, after all, is that DRINKS, BAKED GOODS AND ROOTS AND IN THE EVENINGS voice, "Sakina, I know race clearly self-esteem. Black bodies were bru- any black South African aged 19 or WE OPEN UP THE SPACE FOR EVENTS THAT INCLUDE DOC- matters to you, but I really don't talised and degraded. This is fact. older lived under Apartheid, and UMENTARY SCREENINGS, READING GROUPS, TALKS, OPEN see colour." The statement made by this friend people who are younger have also DISCUSSIONS AND MORE. of mine denies the internal suf- experienced racist treatment or TO FIND OUT MORE, VISIT WWW.BOLOBOLO.CO.ZA, That ended the conversation. fering many of us face in a world JOIN OUR MAILING LIST, LIKE US ON FACEBOOK, SUB- been exposed to racist thought, ir- SCRIBE TO OUR TWEETS OR, MUCH BETTER, PAY US A VISIT! shaped – to this day – by white respective of race, after the (official) Translation: "I don't see the flaw men, a suffering not even white that is your colour." men themselves are immune to. / continued on page 6

Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 4 "The individual cannot bargain with the State. The State recognizes no coinage but power: and it issues the coins itself." - Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

His enemies say he was a king without a power in the hands of the 'boligar- of the millenium or how literacy has which the system has created crown, and that he confused unity with chy' and violently oppressed resis- more than doubled. Apart from the through the years and courage unanimity. tance? There is, it seems, a dangerous irony inherent in employing this kind is to do what you are scared of. polarisation of opinion in this regard, of hamfisted quantitative approach And you experience this. You are And in that, his enemies are right. an ideological clash between the lib- to measuring the complexities and leaning against the police and eral left, who remain almost entirely vicissitudes of life in contemporary you move forward as you lean. It has been several months since the uncritical of Chávismo and all that Venezuela – a market-logic reduc- The police is doing everything death of Hugo Chávez, president it signifies for them (that same fever- tionism leftists are usually the first to they can to stop you. Even though of Venezuela, predestined leader of ish dream of a benign state socialism balk at – it's also the case that much you slow down sometimes the Latin American anti-imperialist re- previously signified by Castro and of the underlying data and analyses sound of the other clashes are sistance to US hegemony, hero of the before him by the Soviet Union) and come directly from the Venezuelan whispering in your ear: “we are people, reincarnation of Simon Boli- neoliberal sentiment, with its dishon- state, or from non-governmental or- moving forward”. You are getting var and shining beacon of 21st Cen- est red scare style caricatures of the ganisations that retain only a dubious excited and you lean again and tury Socialism. Already, as it is with supposedly totalitarian regimes of independence from the state. again. On the final strike you see all revolutionary leaders, all great the Bolivarian bloc. Running alongside these econo- that the police is retreating, no men of the people, deification - both Is a more nuanced discussion metrics one can also find the occa- you see they escape maybe you in his homeland and in the glowing possible? More importantly, why sional glowing comparisons between are living what you have been eulogies of liberal Anglophone left- is the debate so polarised? Why do Chávez and Guerrillero Heroico3, expecting for a long time. ists - is now practically complete. even near-anarchist thinkers like readings that seem to mistake a few Indeed, even in death the chief cau- Chomsky as well as social democrats radical-sounding reforms and poorly You meet with others on Taksim dillo1 continues to haunt Venezuelan with communist tendencies – Mi- grasped political forms for the stir- Square, you are glad to see your politics; Chávez's party, PSUV (The chael Albert and Amy Goodman, for rings of the revolution; these, in a loved ones. After hugging each United Socialist Party of Venezu- example – promote such a rosy (and few exceptionally sad cases, are even other for a while you start build- ela - an ingenious merger between ethically dubious2) view of what are bought into by supposed anarchists 4 June 2013: WE ing barricades. Without losing various broadly left and social dem- essentially state capitalist projects? like the FAU (Federación Anarquista ARE WINNING! time. The ones with you start to - We have seen croon a song from 1930’s, the song the beach beneath of Spanish anarchists. You join the stones we have in. “For bread, justice, freedom carried the black flag everyone to the barricades...” As of the revolution the song gets louder the bar- ricades are build; with upside On İstiklal Street, around French down police cars, police buses, Consolate, 200 meters far from barriers of a “looted construction” Beyond police, holding the stones of the Let them come, let them come and beach in one hand and the flag see the communion and solidarity of the revolt in the other you are is increasing. Everyone wants to clshing with the police. A piece of move away from selfishness from cloth wet with talcid is your gas competition. The tables ar opened mask, police is spraying pres- the tents are erected. A people’s sured water, throwing gas bombs square is being created. There Bolivaria one and after, you are left in the are a few insincere ones but you middle of gas retreating throw- dont care. Because every moment Aragorn Eloff takes a critical look at the fetishization of Chávez and '21st century Socialism', moving ing stones you are out of breath from everywhere, from Anka- past the anti-imperialist and neoliberal rhetorics that form the respective poles of popular opinion on smothered, breatheless at that ra, from İzmir, Antalya, Dersim moment somebody run near you, rebellion. From Athens, Thessa- Chávismo and electing instead to listen to the groundswell of dissenting voices on the ground in Venezuela. spray water with antiacid on your loniki, Paris, Sofia... The news of face, asking “how are you, are solidarity are coming. Solidarity you okay?” You are not okay but is growing, one’s who share are immediately you get well. increasing. The revolt is spread- ocratic factions) will doubtless con- Most important of all, why do so Uruguay), who can be found proud- ing because we are winning. tinue to build a grotesque personality many within the South African left ly singing the Venezuelan anthem at You take a stone of the beach cult around him. Elsewhere in Lat- invest so uncritically into this view? gatherings, Chávez posters adorn- in one hand, taking the flag Now, a revolt is telling us about in America the so-called 'pink tide' ing the walls of their ateneos (a close of the revolt in the other. You herself a revolt is telling us what – the Bolivarian pseudo-revolution His enemies say he exercised pow- South American equivalent to an lean against the barricade with we had forgotten. Telling us – continues to wash up against the er speaking a lot and listening little, autonomous space / infoshop). All your half breath. Your breath is the importance of communion shores of the popular imagination: because he was more accustomed to that is still needed is the obligato- refreshing with the freedom of solidarity organisation and most Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Evo Mo- echoes than to voices. ry endorsement by Chomsky, who rebellion. Because everywhere important of all, freedom. Now the rales (Bolivia) and Daniel Ortega somehow, through some bizarre cult there is solidarity, this revolt is never ending cinder in our hands (Nicaragua) – these are the lesser And in that, his enemies are right. of identity has become the primary adorned with solidarity, you fall is glowing with a revolt. Now lights of Bolivarianism. arbiter of left-legitimacy, and the ar- but you are picked up, they are inside the rebellion we are look- At first glance it's clear that there's gument becomes unassailable: the asking when you are hitching, ing into our shimmering eyes in His enemies say if Napoleon had had a a simplistic 'enemy of my enemy' Bolivarian Revolution is proceeding you boo at the same time when other words to each other. We are newspaper like “Granma,” no French- mindset at work: to the extent that apace, Western imperialism and petit the sound bomb exploded, you holding each others hands which man would have ever learned of the Venezuela is anti-imperialist (and so, bourgeois intellectualism be damned! hold your breath together when carry the stones of the beach, disaster at Waterloo. for instance, will offer refuge to Ed- But Chomsky often gets even the gas bomb comes. When the blo- hold the flag of revolt, which were ward Snowden, a pro-Ron Paul free most basic facts about Venezuela cade fades out you sing together burned by the gas bombs. We 4 And in that, his enemies are right. market fundamentalist), then any wrong . He has only visited the coun- and shout out your rebellion. are hugging each others bodies criticism of Venezuelan politics must try briefly for some government-run which are carrying our hearts full What are we to make of the myth of automatically render one an agent of revolutionary tourism ala Cuba and, Never ending pressure water, gas of revolution. And although we Chávez and his regime? Was Venezu- neoliberalism. If you're not for 21st like Michael Albert, his experience and resistance. You got tired sit don’t say it aloud, we say thank ela under the PSUV an example of century socialism then, according to has consisted primarily of five star on a pavement to take a breathe you to each other with the happi- socialism from below – of the decen- this Cold War-style logic, you must hotels, along with some tokenistic one coming with water in her ness of sharing this moment. This tralization of power and the spread of be an apologist for unrestrained cap- sampling of the local working class hand and gives you water anoth- is a temporary thank you without democracy? Through this man, who italism. Echoing this, what you'll cuisine (a Chávez favourite, which er one brings a sandwich. You being content. Without being con- grew up in a mud hut and who was find in almost any leftist discussion must make him a noble worker and are not either thirsty or hungry tent we are waiting for tomorrow as seemingly comfortable discussing of Chávez is a little unexplained lip soldier, right?) and an equally token- because everywhere the people side by side from today. 5 Gramsci and Lenin as he was quoting service to 'some residual problems in istic sampling of local coops. share, there is no “mine” or “ours” Chomsky or Kropotkin, did Venezu- contemporary Venezuela' or 'a cou- And why does the Chomsky-Klein- here. Everyone is together. There The first statement on the uprisings in Turkey writ- ela succeed in warding off encroach- ple of small mistakes along the way' Goodman Left Liberal Industri- is no slackness, if you were to ing Western interests, uplifting the (this may all begin to sound famil- al Complex have so little to say on ten by Devrimci Anarchist fall the one next you would not. Faaliyet (DAF, or Revolu- poor, revolutionizing healthcare and iar). More often, what is offered is a Chávez's cozy relations with auto- There is no crestfallenness, if you tionary Anarchist Action) education and sustainably developing tedious unpacking of gini coefficients crats and dictators, including Putin were to fall your comrade would and originally published in its almost entirely oil-centric econ- and similar economic measures to (with whom he collaborated on an not. You are getting rid of the fear Meydan Gazetesi. omy? Or was Chávez a tyrannical bolster arguments around how in- dictator who massively centralized equalities have fallen since the turn / continued on page 6

Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 5 "Every society has the criminals it deserves." - Emma Goldman

/ continued from page 4 merely a reflection of various com- superficial markers of what is un- ever, ultimately about acknowl- There are also the continuous oil plex factors, including the desire derstood to be better. This is not a edgement, not blame. It is only leaks over thousands of kilometres, end of Apartheid. to be acceptable. Whiteness has matter of blame – instead, it is sim- through honest discourse, aware- The ease with which white men been associated with what is 'right' ply about cultivating awareness of ness, and not denying the facts that the open air petroleum waste beds, in particular navigate through the (the phrase "if you ain't white, the deeply disturbing fact that most we can grow beyond our demons the mercury contamination in the world, especially in South Africa, you ain't right" comes to mind), black people have low self-esteem and our victims and rest in a place headwaters of the Caroni river as is perhaps most visible on the lev- whereas Blackness is associated around their blackness and strive that is love. a result of the exploitation of gold, el of material wealth. On a more with deviance. Although this dates for better: the white ideal. I can see the contamination of aquifers and subtle level, there are innumerable back to archaic understandings, it that I am, as much as I'd like to think underground waters in the Orinoco social biases, assumptions and ex- is still seen today in far more sub- otherwise, no exception to this. It is Oil Belt, the contamination of agri- pectations around whiteness and tle ways. There may be those who this recognition that has allowed blackness that shape our ways of 1: The definition of which is the black con- culture lands and the destruction of challenge the influence of the dom- me to observe my own striving and sciousness, as stated by Steve Biko, being relating to one another: we prize inant culture, but the reality is that bring new understanding to the "those who are by law or tradition politically, marine, terrestrial and bird life from specific languages, accents, dia- for the most part we follow these beauty of being black. economically and socially discriminated against off-shore gas exploitation; all these lects, areas, educational institu- norms like sheep. Us black women In saying all of this, we should as a group in the South African society and are easily ignored, as are the lives of tions, dress codes, ways of wearing identifying themselves as a unit in the struggle straighten our hair, wear weaves embrace our diversity. In addition, towards the realization of their aspirations". the Wayuu, Barí, Yukpa and other our hair and lovers based on their and generally feel – or are made we should love both that which is (http://www.azapo.org.za/links/bcc.htm). perceived 'whiteness'. peoples. to feel less attractive the darker white and that which is black in Essentially then, whiteness and – 2: bell hooks "Rock my soul: black people and our skin. each of us. This statement does not blackness, though skin deep, have self-esteem" (2002). "They were so easy to fool, one might You may have friends who are diminish the suffering that black also shaped psyches and it is pos- black regardless whether or not people have historically faced in 3: Contrary to popular belief, the large dis- call their triumphalism willful igno- sible for someone to be 'white' with- parities between whites and blacks persist. you are black yourself; the ques- the world, especially in South Af- rance. When all the delegates came out their skin being so. The term Since the fall of Apartheid, the wealth held tion is though, how much do you rica. After all, whiteness showed by black households has increased by 169% to the Climate Change conference in 'coconut' is not arbitrary in this expect these people to conform to up as a demonic force, violently and by white households in South Africa has Tiquipaya, the government simply had regard and not merely a matter of behaviours that embody white- oppressing countless people over increased by 88%. White households still, defining people who portray the however, have six times more income than to cover up all the sawmills lining the ness? Often, we judge a person's several centuries in this country. behaviour of a white person whilst black households. These are findings from the main road from Cochabamba, and no- intelligence, worth and abilities on Blackness was a victim. It is, how- census 2012. not themselves being white; it is body asked what was behind the cur- tain." - Evo's Highway14

How often is this discussed in the Beyond Bolivaria off-shore reserves of the Plataforma This mad rush to industrialise, papers and gatherings of the interna- / continued from page 5 Deltana. If Venezuela's relationship much of it forming part of the tional left, save for some token ges- with the forces of capitalist globaliza- FTAA-style 'South American Region- tures towards the ameliorative poten- arms deal worth around R150 bil- workforce, service provision crises, tion begins to seem somewhat more al Infrastructure Integration Initiative' tial and dubious anti-authoritarian lion), Saddam Hussein, Robert Mug- education and health systems again servile in light of this, one can at least (IIRSA)13, a huge regional develop- prospects of a Kovelian eco-social- abe, Muammar Qaddafi and Bashar in decline, a housing shortage, failing find some small solace in the fact that ment bank project requiring contin- ism15? This is clearly insufficient in Assad? public works, on-going privatization there are also a host of regional en- ued investments and commitments the face of the on-going ecocide and If we want a more detailed view, and enclosure of public space and ergy-sector mergers in various stag- from every country on the continent, displacement taking place – in Vene- perhaps we should stop paying so a demagogic approach which pays es of development – joint ventures has an almost plantation economy zuela, Bolivia and everywhere, in the much attention to a clique of ten- attention to only the most extreme between state oil and mining com- logic to it: IIRSA seeks to tie together service of the global industrial econ- ured Western intellectuals (remem- scarcities experienced by the most panies and private Latin American all the major industrial infrastruc- omy. bering, of course, to grant event less desperate people. firms that include Petrocaribe, Petro- ture across South America, including One possible reason for the silence credence to the rabidly neoliberal Although there has been a massive suramérica and Carbosuramérica. Ei- transportation routes, water, dams, is the widespread assumption that US mainstream press) and start lis- economic boom due to growth in ther way it amounts to puntofijismo6 ports, hydrocarbon pipelines and under Chávez such injustices, even tening to the peoples' movements, the oil economy (with concomitant as usual, especially for the bolibour- energy grids, in order to facilitate when they are so glaringly obvious the grassroots organisations sold out growth in GDP, that most useless of geoisie7. the massive exploitation and expor- as to be near impossible to ignore, by Chávez, the independent labour measures), the structural causes of tation of the continent's vast natural must nonetheless be impossible given organisers, the indigenous and the poverty remain unaddressed; what “National and international capital resources, with scant regard for the the strong support for direct democ- radicals that have suffered from the are instead promoted are a variety headed by oil companies have donned livelihoods of the workers, the indig- racy in the Venezuelan constitution, double-edged sword of oppression of short-term and largely symbolic the red beret and sash and advancing enous and the rural poor (does this which enshrines high levels of state and incorporation. palliatives (and yes, successful lit- with triumphant strides impose their sound familiar?) support for cooperatives and estab- eracy programmes, the creation of privatization program under the guise As Cesáreo Panapaera, a Yucpa lishes a framework for community But his enemies do not say that he was primary medical care units in poor of socialism for the 21st century.” community leader from the moun- platforms where the poor can voice posing for history when he exposed his neighbourhoods, some subsidies for - Pablo Hernandez Parra8 tain region of Tokuko puts it, "They their grievances and practice people's chest to the bullets when the invasion basic foodstuffs and, something we are destroying our farming practices, power. According to political ana- came; that he confronted hurricanes in South African can especially relate There are serious ecological impli- they are going to destroy our water, and lysts like Rafael Uzcátegui, a long- on equal terms, from hurricane to to, programs for substituting slum cations to all this. The fossil fuel they will end up destroying our lives." time Venezuelan anarchist and social hurricane; that he survived six hundred huts for houses). If this were not the economy of the region is framed in Panapaera argues that coal ex- justice activist, however, it is more the ploitation has already destroyed thirty-seven assassination attempts; case then one would be hard-pressed terms of sustainable development case that the social movements have many rivers, contaminated the air that his contagious energ y was deci- to explain the serious increase in vio- and the rights of nature and indig- been heavily co-opted and have even, and displaced many farmers and in- sive in transforming a colony into a lence during the same period and the enous people, but what emerges in more than a few cases, turned into when we scratch beneath the surface digenous people from their lands. the government’s first line of defence. homeland, or that it was not due to a continued exclusion of large sectors Not that this should surprise anyone. is rampant over-industrialisation Mandinga spell or a miracle from God of society. After all, while the nationalization of that the new homeland could survive The speculative Bolivarian bubble, and displacement and a slew of en- And they don’t say that despite all the resources may appear to be an attrac- grief, despite the aggressions from ten presidents of the United States, it seems, has either burst already or vironmentally devastating projects tive alternative to the ravages of free who had each tucked in their napkins is rapidly approaching critical size. including the grandiose (albeit cur- market privatization, States, of what- abroad and the inconsistencies from to serve it up as lunch, with knives and The more one engages with the an- rently shelved due to the economic ever stripe, have seldom respected within, that this suffering but insistently forks. archists and the independent unions crisis) Harvesting Oil for Integration the lives of indigenous peoples even persevering island has generated the 9 in Venezuela the more it seems as and Life plan that aims to convert when, like Bolivia's Evo Morales, the least unjust society in Latin American. For far left and anarchist movements though President Chávez was in fact Venezuela into the biggest energy heads of state are themselves indig- in Venezuela, 21st century social- primarily focused on creating attrac- supplier of the world10 and entails the enous, dress in traditional garb, eat On paper, the vision of decentralised ism looks very much like what came tive conditions for further foreign construction of continent-wide gas- peasant food and gather with the ru- communal councils and a quarter of before: a wide range of inequalities corporate investment and economic ducts, pipelines11, ports and refiner- ral poor to celebrate cultural rites (is a million new coops cannot fail to both exacerbated by and supporting globalization. Major players in the ies; the expanded exploitation of coal any of this sounding familiar?) warm the heart of even the most cyn- a drive for hypermodernisation based nominally nationalized Venezuelan in indigenous territories of the Sierra ical radical. In practice, however, the on the extraction and exploitation of oil economy (in reality a collection de Perijá; gold and diamond mining And they don’t say that this revolution, top-down implementation of these energy resources, this in turn sup- of mixed business ventures with in the Imataca Forest Reserve and the having grown up under punishing so-called 'organs of peoples power' has ported by a political system based multinationals, with the government ill-termed Return to the Land/Vuelta conditions, is what it could be and served primarily as an apparatus of on populist domination and under- retaining a slightly larger cut), for ex- al Conuco program that promotes not what it wanted to be. Nor do they capture: geniune grassroots move- pinned by military strength. In stark ample, include Petrobras, Chevron- agro-ecology and prohibits the use of say that, to a great degree, the wall ments are incorporated into the logic contrast to all the rhetoric, what is Texaco, BP, ExxonMobil, Shell and a GMOs but at the same time “stimu- between desire and reality was being of the state bureaucracy, encouraging experienced by millions of Venezu- variety of other corporate behemoths lates the planting of large mono-culture made higher and wider thanks to the a relationship of dependency and elans is rampant inflation, currency with known anti-environmental his- plantations like pines trees and Afri- imperial blockade that drowned the de- submission. The communal councils, devaluation (the bolivar was revalued tories and human rights abuses. To can palm, promotes the importation of velopment of a Cuban style democracy, all of which remain legally, function- just before Chávez's death, rendering these flagships of Empire have been trans-genetic soy, allows the use of toxic that forced the militarization of society ally and financially answerable to many in vogue economic arguments granted concessions to, among other agro-chemicals and advances the con- and turned it over to the bureaucracy, the State, are essentially a new coat moot), rising unemployment, labour things, heavy crude and natural gas struction of petrochemical plants for the which has a problem for each solu- precarity and the casualisation of the from the Orinoco Belt and the large fabrication of synthetic fertilizers.”12 tion - the alibis it needs to justify and / continued on page 7 perpetuate itself.

Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 6 "Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners." - Edward Abbey

When people find out I'm an anarchist, some of the first things they inevitably ask me are:

...but who would take out the garbage? ...but what would we do without police? ...but how would we manage the roads and energy provision and sewage systems? ...but what about lazy people?

Us anarchists have always been good at coming up with answers to these kinds of questions and so when people pose them to me, whether disingenuously or not, I'm usually quick to respond:

We'd all take out our garbage as we each have an interest in being a part of a thriving, healthy community. We'd look after each other using the principles of restorative justice and communal self-defence if there were no police. We'd use all sorts of decentralized models like federalism and consensus to coordinate our social affairs on whatever scales we decided to organise and collaborate on. We'd have less lazy people in a society that was premised upon empowering and supporting every person to explore their unique individual becomings without judgment, and we wouldn't persecute poets and dreamers for 'wasting' time that could be spent pursuing more 'valuable' or 'responsible' ends.

Lately however, I've been asking another question in return:

What would our lives look like if we all got to come up with answers to these questions together? our maps, their territories

Because in the world we currently live in, the simple truth is that most of us don't get to have a say. We don't get to propose alternatives or share our answers, however profound, in any kind of meaningful way beyond idle fantasizing and speculation – coffeeshop chatter and internet debate. We have deferred our power and responsibility - or had it taken from us in ways both forceful and insidious - to a set of abstractions that we have reified and which now serve to rearrange every part of our lives in their own codified, hierarchical image, alienating us both from each other and from ourselves - from our collective capacity to determine our own trajectories.

In the face of all this, the real question we should be asking each other is not how would your ideal world work, but rather, how can we take power back so that we can decide together?

Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 7 "Is anarchism possible? The failure of attempts to attain freedom does not mean the cause is lost." - Johann Most

leader, a political opportunist who nism—anarchy—and not just tepid struggle. Instead, what is required if Beyond Bolivaria was happy to collude with interna- social democracy or crypto-Leninist we are to reach a free and equal soci- / continued from page 6 tional capital and the local bour- vanguardist 'democratic' socialism ety is the fomenting and expansion of paint on local government and of a hundred poor peasant families geoisie even as he sang the praises of – we need to do some serious soul of the autonomous initiative of the the whole structure resembles noth- squatting land in a neighbourhood Castro and argued for the national- searching in order to locate the ex- broad masses of society that make ing more than a top-down charade ironically named 'Bolivarian Para- isation of key industries. Whatever act origins of, and drivers for, the up the working class and poor, man- of participation – not the autonomy dise' (sounding familiar yet?) to the loyalty he may have had towards the left's fawning adulation of 21st cen- ifesting in a thousand different ways of participatory democracy but a criminalisation of street blockades in people, whatever sincerity and com- tury market socialism, even if that in a thousand different places. much shallower participation in what the reformed penal code, it is obvious passion was in his heart, however means challenging the ideologically As Venezuelan anarchist group El amounts to little more than the im- that, as with every post-revolutionary true his ideals remained, have we not dominant views of Chomsky and Libertario says: “we are not, nor do plementation of state policies.16 state project, brutal and endemic op- seen enough of these cults of 'revo- friends. Second, we need to engage we want to be, contenders for the con- Trade unions are similarly com- pression forms part of a subterranean lutionary' leadership? Hasn't this all in a full critique of the operations of trol of institutionalized power: we are promised through this logic of in- disciplinary mechanism that allows played out enough times already? these regimes in order to disentangle anarchists and we aspire to the disap- corporation and the workers council for the smooth functioning of the Does this not all sound strikingly fa- the rhetoric from the reality; this in- pearance of state power and any other project seems almost purposefully spectacle of daily life (...) miliar? Perhaps there's more conti- cludes listening to dissenting voices oppressive hierarchical structure. This designed to eradicate the threat of nuity between colonialism and these on the ground regardless of any a pri- is not just a profession of faith; our ac- small oppositional unions; Chávez And his enemies don’t say this feat was fetishized post-colonial, anti-imperi- ori inculcated aversions many might tions here and now mean assuming the went so far as to explicitly threaten the work of the sacrifice of his people, alist regimes than we are willing to have to listening to anarchists, au- commitment to promote and empower striking workers with nullification but it was also the work of the stubborn acknowledge. tonomists and others suffering from the autonomy of any social movement through inclusion when he told strik- will and the old-fashion sense of the So why do we continue to uncrit- the 'infantile disorder' (which is still consistent with our ideals....We bet on ing transport workers that he would honour of this gentleman, who always ically promote the Bolivarian pseu- better, it must be noted, than an in- social movements that build the dy- turn them into a cooperative if they went to bat for the losers, like that do-revolution in South Africa? Why fantalising order). Finally, and most namics for independent action and didn't call off the strike. And when famous colleague of his from the fields does the Morales-Chávez-Kirch- crucially, we need to loosen the long organization, based on the widest par- this doesn't work, unionists can al- of Castilla. [18] ner-Castro bloc form the horizon of stranglehold authoritarian Marxist ticipation on all levels that will allow ways be killed.17 our own utopian political yearnings? orthodoxy has had on South Afri- the formation of different modes of di- In short, and no matter where we Is it perhaps because of the failure of can leftist and radical politics, with rect action and self-management away “In revolution, trade unions must dis- look, there's a massive disparity be- our own post-struggle government, the result that our forms of political from the state’s control or any other in- appear ... trade unions were born with tween rhetoric and reality. For anar- with all its revolutionary communist engagement have become increasing- stance of oppression; it is the only way to the same poison of the autonomy. The chists, this does not come as a sur- rhetoric (as muddied and incoherent ly wooden and anachronistic19, even consolidate spaces of freedom, equality trade unions can not be independent, prise. We've always argued that a as the simultaneous state capitalist when they are given a new lick of and solidarity that will be the seed and we should finish with that.” - Hugo genuine people's democracy has to and pro-privatization rhetoric might Zizek-coloured paint. support of the future we struggle for... Chávez speech at the launch of the come from below, not from elected render it), to live up to its promises? In undertaking this challenge we We call for the organisation of mani- PSUV, Caracas, 24 March 2007 representatives with their own eco- Have we simply, in a stunning act of would do well to spend some time festations of the genuine desire to be nomic and power-centric interests. disavowal, displaced our misguided familiarising ourselves with the gen- free and equal in every possible space, Which brings us to the criminally Not only does real people's power hopes onto the Bolivarian revolution uinely ecological, genuinely pro-in- in solidarity with base-level, indepen- ignored levels of state repression in come from below, it stays below too, as a way of ignoring our own plight, digenous anti-authoritarian left and dent organisations of workers, women, Venezuela. refusing to incorporate itself into any fetishizing a noble socialist other so anarchist movements in Venezuela peasants, indigenous, the young, the From the 2010 broadcasting law form of bureaucratic abstraction – that we're not forced to confront the and the rest of Latin America and cultural sector and all who find them- amendments, the so-called “reform state, market or otherwise. Until this fact that the form itself, as the Sovi- their desire not for a socialism 'from selves socially excluded, in order to be- bill for social responsibility on radio is acknowledged there will never be et Union, Cuba, Zimbabwe and so below' (and flowing ever upwards) gin the search for the emancipation of and television,” which aimed to clamp a true break from the legacy of cap- on have so amply demonstrated, in but a radical horizontalism that has our society.”20 down on anti-government criticisms italist imperialism and the logic of all their different ways, is inherently no above or below, simply a togeth- in the media (sound familiar?) to the conquest and domination, hierarchy flawed? er. The changes we need will never In short, to borrow a phrase popu- violent crushing of demonstrations – and control. For all his faux commu- The challenge is threefold: a diag- be won through elections, regardless larized in Argentina in recent years, the El Callao miner protests for exam- nism-lite, his friendliness with auton- nosis, a critique and a renewed (anti-) how radical the party, nor will they ¡que se vayan todos! - get rid of all ple – with rubber bullets, tear gas and omous Marxist Antonio Negri and, political project. First, if we are seri- be achieved through military coups, of them! live ammunition (sound familiar?) to irony of ironies, his ex-Situationist ous about direct democracy, people's reforms, nationalisation or single is- the framing of anarchist and liber- Minister of Information and Propa- power, egalitarianism and all those sue anti-imperialism, all disavowals Escualidos21, unite! Somos equalés! tarian socialist groups in Venezuela ganda, Chávez was, in the end, just other old staples of radical discourse and mechanisms of capture and in- as CIA collaborators to the eviction another macho ex-military populist – if we really want full commu- corporation that serve to neutralise

Further research: ers to go and tour round. But this is quite the car- ever in The New Petroleum, Gas, and Mining quently, these Councils, which are meant to NOTES: icature: they organise international conferences policy (la Nueva Apertura Petrolera,Gasifera y be part of civil society, become dependent on on occupied factories without the participants Minera) and made concrete by the issuing of and conditioned by a paternal state. Chávez • Chomsky as Chávez's clown - Oc- 1: A caudillo is an authoritarian political mil- visiting a single occupied workplace...Celebrities licenses for 35 years with the option of renew- often uses the ideas of the iconic Italian Marx- tavio Alberola itary leader. like Noam Chomsky and Naomi Campell come, ing for 30 more to trans-national companies ist thinker Antonio Gramsci to explain his • Anarchism in Latin America in are led around some barrio under construction for the exploration and exploitation of these policies. Conversely though, Gramsci’s ideas Organise! Issue 80 (http://www. 2: In 2007, when pro- Chávez paramilitaries for the benefit of the poor, to some co-operatives resources. During a ceremony which granted about civil society absorbing the state seem to shot student and anarchist protestors during or to some state farm. Their visits are filmed in ChevronTexaco one of these licenses, Chávez have been inverted by Chávez to be about civil afed.org.uk/org/org80.pdf) demonstrations against a public referendum order to make propaganda...We know that most cheerfully stated: "Welcome to Paraguaná, society being absorbed by the state! • Venezuela: Revolution as Spectacle that would have extended welfare and made people who come here want to see what they ex- misters. Somos buenos amigos, buenos socios y - Rafael Uzcátegui Chávez president for life, Democracy Now! pect to see. Like those who visit Cuba. So it all buenos aliados de muchas empresas estadoun- 17: In many industries the law obliges the • Refuting the Deafs: Chávism refused to run the story. depends on their ideological training. Visitors idenses que trabajan con nosotros y cada dia state to give priority of tenders to co-opera- and Anarchism in Venezuela - El from more libertarian and critical backgrounds estamos mas alineados en el trabajo." ("We are tives above private enterprises with the result 3: A nickname for Che Guevara. can accept seeing the good and the bad, while good friends, good partners, and good allies of that many people have started creating co-op- Libertario those from more traditional Marxist Leninist many U.S. companies who work with us and eratives in order to win contracts with govern- • Venezuela Behind the Smoke- 4: For example, Chomsky states that only groups, Guevarists and Maoists, tend to confirm every day we are more aligned in our work.")" ment bodies. That as the case with the public screen - Lorenzo Vidal-Folch under Chávez did healthcare become free in in their heads what propaganda has told them." roads. Private enterprise is transformed inter Duch Venezuela, whereas according to local an- 11: The Chávez-Lula-Kirchner Project: a mega a co-operative to win tenders and. at a stroke, archists, healthcare has always been free in • El Libertario magazine / website 6: According to Wikipedia, puntofijismo “is natural-gas pipeline that will span 12.000 ki- workers lose their rights and bonuses. They Venezuela since 1958 or has been, at least, an aimed at preserving Venezuelan democracy by lometers, extending its destruction all the way now have three-month renewable contracts • The revolution delayed: 10 years of obligation of the state. Chomsky also falsely respecting elections, by having the winners of from Venezuela to Argentina,passing through and co-operatives (in reality, the new name Hugo Chávez's rule – El Libertario claims that Chávez nationalized Venezuela’s said elections consider including members of Brazil and Uruguay, irreversibly harming the for the boss!) has no duties towards them. interviewed by Charles Reeve oil; oil was nationalized in 1975 and Chávez the signing parties and others to positions of fragile ecosystems of the Venezuelan Guayana Thanks to this lie, after a few months it was actually took steps backward with respect to • An Anarchist At the World Social power in bids for national unity governments, and the Amazonian headwaters. said that there were 200,000 co-operatives in such nationalization. and by having a basic shared program of gov- Venezuela.All this in order to make propagan- Forum – Walker Lane ernment. According to others, the pact bound 12: From The Bolivarian Developmente Model da showing that society has changed. But it is • Macho Men and State Capitalism “How can Chomsky commit the same error the parties to limit Venezuela’s political sys- in Venezuela: Its Enviromental and Social Im- all artificial, created by decree. the casualisa- - Is Another World Possible? - Han- as some famous intellectuals of the past centu- tem to an exclusive competition between two pacts by the Society of Friends in Defense of tion of work. na Dahlstrom ry, some praising Stalin and some, years later, parties." the Gran Sabana. revering Mao and his “Little Red Book”? They • Venezuela: the myth of "Eco-so- Also, the 2007 Report of PROVEA states did so because they believed that in Russia and 7: In Venezuela such networks have always 13: South American Regional Infrastructure that after Colombia, Venezuela is the country cialism of the XXI Century" - Maria in China they were building the “true commu- been integral to the functioning of society. Integration Initiative (IIRSA). This conti- where trade union activity is riskiest. Pilar Garcia Guadilla nism” and he does so now because he believes that Initially the Chávistas tried to break with this nental-wide project financed by the Andean • The Bolivarian Government Against in Venezuela “a new world, a different world” set-up but in reality there were only minor Corporation Fund(CAF) —one of the largest 18: Excerpts from 'Fidel', first published in is being created. How can he forget that later all Union Autonomy - Rafael Uzcáte- changes in the structures of bureaucracy and recipients of financial support from the Inter- Eduardo Galeano's 'Mirrors: Stories of Almost those intellectuals were forced to confess a “mea corruption and patronage continued. national Monetary Fund. Everyone'. gui culpa” for their ideological blindness that pre- • Neither mourning nor celebrating: vented them from seeing what was behind the 8: Parra is an oil expert; this quote is from an 14: From the online article Evo's Highway, by 19: See, for instance, the new WASP party: time for social struggles to become Stalinist and Maoist revolutionary discourse? article of his on www.soberania.org. John Severino. http://workerssocialistparty.co.za autonomous! - Venezuelan anar- That totalitarianism, responsible for the death of millions of people, inspired Castro to im- chist statement on the death of 9: From The Bolivarian Developmente Model in 15: Joel Kovel is a Marxist and psychoanalyst 20: The crisis in Venezuela by the Editorial pose for fifty years a dictatorship in Cuba that Venezuela: Its Enviromental and Social Impacts who focuses on combining Marxism with Collective of El Libertario Hugo Chávez (March 4, 2013) Chávez devoutly imitates.” - Octavio Alberola, by the Society of Friends in Defense of the something similar to social ecology. • Our oil and other tales (film) Chomsky as Chávez's Clown Gran Sabana. 21: 'Squalids,' a nickname used by Chávists to 16: The Communal Councils funds are hand- describe their opponents. 5: As Rafael Uzcátegui states, "the régime 10: Rafael Uzcátegui states that "the open ed out from government institutions whose chooses a certain number of sights for sympathis- veins of Venezuela are more visible today than directors are handpicked by Chávez. Conse-

Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 8 "Anarchism is not a concept that can be locked up in a word like a gravestone. It is not a political theory. It is a way of conceiving life, and life, young or old as we may be, old people or children, is not something definitive: it is a stake we must play day after day: When we wake up in the morning and put our feet on the ground we must have a good reason for getting up, if we don't it makes no difference whether we are anarchists or not." - Alfredo Bonanno

cyberpunk and chaos magick through us in a cynical way that performs our the language of the free market. Top- DEAD DOLL reaction for us, allowing us to avoid Is there no ics on his new blog include every- HUMILITY: change. For example, the animated thing from a bizarre concern about THE UPRISING films Wall-E and Avatar perform our peak humans (what do we do once by shan't tell resistance to the destruction of the our capacity to create highly dense natural world, also acknowledging alternative? living spaces exceeds our capacity to CAPITAL MADE A DOLL WHO LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE HER- the negative effects this has for each increase the human population) to a SELF. IF YOU PRESSED A BUT- of us. This then leaves us free to de- Aragorn Eloff interrogates our acceptance of capitalist much more predictable cheerleading TON ON ONE OF THE DOLL’S stroy the natural world and wallow of the Singularity. Whether his new CUNT LIPS THE DOLL SAID, “I in the consequences, this all despite realism and challenges us to move beyond its false impasse. AM A GOOD GIRL AND DO EX- work is partly intended as parody ACTLY AS I AM TOLD TO DO.” the fact that, as Žižek has observed, or, instead, Land has merely spent so ‘cynical distance is just one way to blind I heard it again renegade philosopher-occultist Nick long trawling the voodoo depths of WROTE DOWN “PRAY FOR US ourselves to the structural power of ideo- Land, there is no possibility for resis- hyper-capitalism that he has simply THE DEAD,” THE FIRST LINE IN logical fantasy: even if we do not take the other day: ‘if THE FIRST POEM BY CHARLES tance – capitalism has become some become a parody of his earlier self, his OLSON SHE HAD EVER READ things seriously, even if we keep an iron- you’re not a socialist sort of self-perpetuating, ever-accel- recent writing perfectly captures the WHEN SHE WAS A TEENAG- ical distance, we are still doing them.’ by age 19, you have erating cybernetic feedback system disturbing absurdities that result from ER. ALL THE DOLLS WERE The loss of value caused by this cyn- that, virus-like, infects everything in taking free market ideology to its rad- DEAD. DEAD HAIR. WHEN SHE no heart. If you’re LOOKED UP THIS POEM, ITS ical distancing results in a disenchant- its path. We should submit to its dark ical conclusion while buying into the FIRST LINE WAS, “WHAT DOES ed world view Fisher calls ‘reflexive not a capitalist by will. assumption that there really is no lon- NOT CHANGE/IS THE WILL TO impotence’; a tacit acceptance of the age 29, you have no Land co-founded the entirely un- ger an outside. CHANGE.” impoverishment of capitalist realism Co-founder of the CCRU, theorist brain.’ likely Cyber Culture Research Unit at POLITICS MADE A DOLL WHO that is characterised by ‘depressive he- the prestigious Warwick University in and writer Mark Fisher, challenges all LOOKED DIFFERENT BUT WAS donia’: the compulsive seeking out of the mid-90s; their university-funded this in his newly-published Capitalist EXACTLY THE SAME. IF YOU dulling consumer pleasures (comfort 1. What fascinates me about this ‘truism’ activities included producing collaged Realism: Is there no alternative? PRESSED A BUTTON ON ONE foods, mainstream television, video – and those who spout it – is its sense OF THE DOLL’S CUNT LIPS Viva the uprising, viva insurrection! Beauty is found on streets. texts of continental philosophers, In Fisher’s words, capitalist realism THE DOLL STILL SAID, “I AM A games, narcotics) at the expense of of utter resignation. Not only are we William Burroughs and binary code, is ‘the widespread sense that not only GOOD GIRL AND DO EXACTLY all else, even though there remains a to regard as peripheral or jejune all theorising the voodoo / occult under- is capitalism the only viable political AS I AM TOLD TO DO.” lingering feeling that something im- the impulses, desires and preferences pinnings of markets, composing abra- and economic system, but also that it WROTE DOWN “PRAY FOR portant is missing. deemed valuable through their associ- sive electronic music and, ostensibly, is now impossible even to imagine a THEM THE DEAD,” THE FIRST So how do we resist something so ation with the heart, the implication consuming inhuman doses of psy- coherent alternative to it’. From this LINE SHE CHANGED IN THE insidious? Neither, according to Fish- is also that we’re supposed to accept chedelics as often as possible. Land’s starting point, he proceeds to explore, FIRST POEM BY CHARLES OL- er, by appealing to sentiment nor by that there is indeed no alternative – SON SHE HAD EVER READ WHEN SHE WAS A TEENAG- questioning the specifics of capitalist that the ‘right’ life consists of a single ER. ALL THE DOLLS AROUND ideology. These critiques are easily predetermined trajectory from the " the long, dark night of the end of history has HER WERE DEAD. DEAD HAIR. absorbed because ‘the role of capitalist youthful sentimentalist folly of social- WHEN SHE LOOKED UP THIS ideology is not to make an explicit case ism to adult capitalist rationalism. POEM, ITS FIRST LINE WAS, to be grasped as an enormous opportunity. “WHAT DOES NOT CHANGE/IS for something in the way that propagan- This uncritical position has been The very oppressive pervasiveness of THE WILL TO CHANGE.” da does, but to conceal the fact that the internalised not just by individuals operations of capital do not depend on approaching their 30s, but also by ANARCHISTS REFUSED TO capitalist realism means that even glimmers of MAKE DOLLS AT ALL. THE ONLY any sort of subjectively assumed belief.’ so-called ‘oppositional’ groups like alternative political and economic possibilities BUTTONS ON THEIR CUNT LIPS What we have to do then is to Greenpeace and the WWF, original- AND COCKS WERE PIERCINGS challenge the very assumption that ly set up to challenge the hegemonic can have a disproportionately great effect." OR TATTOOS. WHEN ASKED, capitalism is indeed some kind of ravages of capitalism; they have now THEY SAID, “WE ARE BAD GIRL- BOYS AND DO EXACTLY WHAT post-ideological view from nowhere, accepted the ‘only game in WE WANT TO BUT WITHOUT that it’s ‘just how things are’. In part, town’ hypothesis, temper- OUR FREEDOM ENCROACH- we do so by exposing the hypocrisies ing their activism until it ING ON THE FREEDOM OF OTHERS. WE SAY ‘NO!’ TO HI- of its functioning, specifically, how amounts to little more than ERARCHY, ‘NO!’ TO GODS AND it depends on what it disavows. For a PR campaign for big busi- RULERS, ‘NO!’ TO THE PSEU- instance, says Fisher, observing the ness. DO-FREEDOM THAT GOVERN- effects of the move away from state There is a profound tension MENTS, CAPITLISTS AND ALL OTHER INSTITUTIONS DOL- intervention and towards the neo- here: capitalism (relatively LY-UP IN DEAD DOLL HUMILI- liberal business model in his native unrestrained market forces, if TY AND PRESENT TO US ON A UK, capitalism cannot work without you prefer) sells itself as the PLATE SO THAT WE MIGHT EAT THEIR PUKE. WE SAY ‘YES!’ TO bureaucracy. It also requires constant most flexible, effective way to REAL FREEDOM, ‘YES!’ TO FIND- coercion in the form of marketing, obtain all that we can possi- ING SOLUTIONS TOGETHER advertising and PR. Additionally, it bly imagine, beyond any ar- AND ‘YES!’ TO THE BREAKING breeds a generalised malaise – as well bitrary limitations imposed DOWN OF CONSTRUCTED HIERARCHIES MAKING SOME as an increase in serious psychological by the specificities of time or EQUAL AND OTHERS MORE dysfunction (see, for instance, Oliver place…and yet the logic of EQUAL. WE SAY ‘NO!’ TO DEAD James’s The Selfish Capitalist) – that the market simultaneously DOLL HUMILITY AND ‘YES!’ TO runs wholly counter to the happy, permeates everything, until it THE UPRISING. MAY THE DAY OF CRUCIFIXION BE EVERY healthy, freely exchanging rational becomes a kind of view from DAY THAT WE MIGHT FEEL subject always presented as the inexo- nowhere, the only way for us THE BURDEN OF THE BURN- rable result of freeing markets. to relate to each other and ING DESIRES OF THOSE WHO ARE RULED – THE BURDEN WE We also need, according to Fisher, participate in the social and ALL AWAKEN TO CARRY EVERY to rethink revolutionary politics: we material worlds. The inimi- DAY. WE SAY VIVE LA RÉVOLTE, cannot continue to be satisfied with table Deleuze and Guattari VIVE LA L’INSERRECTION! LA BEAUTÉ EST DANS LARUE.”1 mere reaction but must also move to say it best in their A Thou- create alternatives, even if these are sand Plateaus: Capitalism merely prefigurative, alternatives to and Schizophrenia: capitalism TAGGED “PRAY FOR NOBODY; capitalism that challenge its claims of deterritorializes all flows; it CALL FOR THE DEAD TO LOOK AND SEE!” THE FIRST LINE ubiquity and in doing so undermine allows the exchange of any- THEY CHANGED IN THE FIRST its hold on our collective imagination. thing and everything to flow POEM BY CHARLES OLSON This project might be hard, but at freely across the surface of THEY HAD EVER READ WHEN the same time, as Fisher concludes, the earth while shunning any THEY WERE TEENAGERS. MOST OF THE DOLLS AROUND THEM ‘the long, dark night of the end of his- traditions, codes or laws that professional career was cut short by through everything from popular WERE DEAD. DEAD HAIR, DEAD tory has to be grasped as an enormous might limit this flow. In doing this, his disavowal of academia in 1997 films like Children of Men to the EYES. WHEN THEY LOOKED UP opportunity. The very oppressive perva- however, a capitalist axiomatic takes and subsequent ‘disappearance’, but theory du jour of Žižek and Badiou, THIS POEM ONCE MORE, ITS siveness of capitalist realism means that hold of and subsumes all our interac- FIRST LINE WAS, “WHAT DOES during those few years he produced the symptoms of late capitalism and, NOT CHANGE/IS THE WILL TO even glimmers of alternative political tions until it seems as though there is a singularly provocative body of work more vitally, why there is so little re- CHANGE.” and economic possibilities can have a no outside to capitalism at all. that is becoming increasingly influ- sistance to it. Fisher’s ‘realism’ is the disproportionately great effect. The ti- For Deleuze and Guattari, both ential within the burgeoning specu- ironic distance of postmodern culture ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: niest event can tear a hole in the grey socialists of a libertarian strain, this lative realist movement, culminating – a weary, ‘nothing too serious’ cyn- Acker, Kathy. 1990. “Dead doll humili- curtain of reaction which has marked observation, far from inducing de- in the recent publication of the 666 icism that staves off totalitarianism ty.” Postmodern culture 1(1). the horizons of possibility under capital- spair, merely calls for new tactics, and page compilation of his ‘hyperstition’ and fanaticism and is also a capitula- Orwell, George. 1945. Animal Farm. ist realism.’ much of their collective work explores London: Martin Secker and Warburg. (Land’s term for his blend of Love- tion to the ‘view from nowhere’ of the Sellers, Susan (ed.). 1994. The Hélène Through this hole we can already see such exotic possibilities for resistance craftian theory-fiction),Fanged Nou- market: a perennial Hobbesian each Cixous reader. Canada, London, New some distinctly possible – and social- and change as micropolitics, lines mena. against all. York: Routledge. ist, in its best, most radically demo- of flight, war machines and creating As interest in his work grows, Land This desensitization to the world cratic sense – alternatives. Bodies without Organs. himself has reappeared in a slightly results in what Robert Pfaller calls For one of their most adroit in- modified form, filtering his perenni- ‘interpassivity’: we collectively ac- terlocutors however, the legendary al interests in Deleuze and Guattari, knowledge how our behaviour affects

Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 9 "Anarchism is no patent solution for all human problems, no Utopia of a perfect social order, as it has so often been called, since on principle it rejects all absolute schemes and concepts. It does not believe in any absolute truth, or in definite final goals for human development, but in an unlimited perfectibility of social arrangements and human living conditions, which are always straining after higher forms of expression." - Rudolf Rocker Greenscream Energy crisis? What energy crisis? Muna Lakhani of Earthlife Africa explores local environmental issues in this regular column. In this issue, Muna looks at South Africa's flawed energ y policy and traces its political and economic roots.

ne gets so tired of hearing “cri- herently anti-poor (look who lives Osis” everywhere we look, but next to mines) with all its attendant when you look closely, almost every problems of radiation, mining and crisis is rooted in stupidity, the blind contaminated water and land. There following of so-called economists by are also the myths of “safe nuclear our leaders and extortion by big busi- power” (the Chernobyl and Fukushi- ness. ma disasters are but the tips of the Take electricity, a popular topic iceberg of daily radioactive emissions of discussion in South Africa today, along the nuclear chain) and long nearly 12% from 2006's peak. The remembering that Eskom is a pa- timelines - if we started today, they average construction time of the ra-statal i.e.100% “owned” by our would be unlikely to come on stream units that started up between 2003 government (and is therefore ours, in less than 12 to 15 years. This is and July 2013 was 9.4 years and costs or at least in theory). Do you believe even more ludicrous when you con- have skyrocketed from US$1,000 to that we have an electricity crisis? If so, sider that in 2010, solar power (PV) US$7,000 per Kw installed. The Vog- you have been well and truly made became cheaper than nuclear, with- tle project in the USA was supposed a fool. Claims are often made that out any of the massive subsidies that to cost US$660 million, but the lat- countries are run for the benefit of nuclear receives, directly and through est cost is US$9 BILLION. Urani- only 1,5c per kWhr more than they companies, mainly Trans-National environmental and social costs. In um, used for fuel, is set to run out are currently paying, still well below The only real beneficiaries seem to be Corporations / Multi-National Cor- fact, all nuclear reactors are only sooner rather than later, according cost of generation. One wonders if the subsidised smelters and other in- porations (TNC’s / MNC’s). Consid- made possible by being underwritten to industry sources, and no solution this is likely to happen… dustries, and certainly not ordinary er this: One company, BHP Billiton, by governments. One of the key ad- has been found for nuclear waste as And what about “expensive, inter- South Africans. uses nearly 10% of our electricity; vantages of solar and wind power is of yet. Perhaps the forced “nuclear mittent” renewable energy? Solar and Given that the majority of our var- they pay 13c to 22c per kWhr when that they can be deployed in as little renaissance” in SA is occurring sim- wind power can and do in fact supply ious industrial production systems it costs Eskom 41c to generate 1 unit as four years, confirmed by the then ply because the estimated budget for reliable industrial baseload electric- produce for export, “cheap” South (what was the figure on YOUR last Acting CEO of Eskom, P.M. Mak- the proposed nuclear chain would ity, but of course, Eskom does not African electricity is effectively sub- electricity purchase or bill? R1 per wana. Adding insult to injury, plans be over R1 trillion and represents an want to lose their monopoly, so re- sidising the lifestyles of the Global unit?). Eskom pays them 75c per unit are afoot to build and licence 3 nu- unparalleled opportunity for corrup- newables get little government atten- North. If anyone still believes that NOT to use electricity and as if this clear waste metal smelters, which will tion, especially if linked to the “se- tion. In spite of the ridiculously small the West and the Global North owe were not bad enough, BHP Billiton smelt radioactive metal with uncon- crecy” bill. portion of renewables “allowed” by nothing to Africa, that the very life- generate only 0.01% of GDP (despite taminated metal, and then release it South Africans are supposed to government to date, businesses have styles they enjoy are not at the cost to GDP being a poor way in which to into our local market. Just this year get 50 free kWhrs of electricity per massively oversubscribed the govern- Africans, or that the various “crises” measure an economy, more of that alone, a company in the USA and in month, not necessarily applied across ment quota for renewables energy are not a product of overconsump- later) and only creates 0.005% of jobs the UK had to recall products as they the board, and is in fact, being re- production, with not one business tion by the rich, then their myopia in the economy. Is this worth 10% of were radioactive – one being a belt duced by the City of Cape Town touching nuclear. Makes you think, reigns supreme. our electricity? buckle – do you want radiation near for most beneficiaries. Research by doesn’t it? Claims are often made that coun- your nether region? Earthlife Africa shows that for a bare- The Medupi (and almost certainly, tries are run for the benefit of com- It seems that government will sim- ly liveable standard of living requires Kusile) mega-coal fired power sta- Muna is a volunteer for activist social panies, mainly Trans-National ply not look at the facts. According at least 200 kWhrs per month for the tions are already massively over bud- and environmental justice organisation Earthlife Africa (www.earthlife.org.za) Corporations / Multi-National Cor- to the World Nuclear Industry Sta- average poor home. For Eskom to be get at a massive R105 billion (exclud- for more than 20 years, and is found- porations (TNC’s / MNC’s). tus Report 2013, global electricity able to afford the additional free basic ing interest during the construction er and national co-ordinator of the In- Eskom’s latest plans to build generation from nuclear dropped electricity, would mean that the large period) making it one of the most ex- stitute for Zero Waste in Africa (www. 9600MW of nuclear power is in- 7% in 2012 in one year, and is down users of electricity would need to pay pensive coal fired plants in the world. izwa.org.za).

Mechanisms by Anâh Moorad This is not to say one should lose the drive - - echanisms that are used for ‘truth’ in to gain a sense of individuality. But individu order to entertain a reality imbued with- ality for individuality’s sake has put the col M lective’s needs up on the stake. Fuelled by a- meaning, what purpose do they serve? Oth powerfully seductive system that manipula- er than an attempt to soften the questioning tively – barely noticeably – instils a subcon voice that echoes in the mind, wandering lost scious greed, a hidden desire to ‘be better’, in time-suspended, they dull the anxieties ‘do better’, earn more, give less, love less and of our existence. Clutching to the intangible feel the exhilaration of independence more - wisps of ideas, dreams and hopes; ‘signs’ through the use of these mechanisms. A sys coming together to light a path – for what? To tem fearful of group-realisation, for numerous comfort, to ease, to calm... To burn away any - - reasons, promotes ‘self beyond entirety’ and semblance of responsibility, of care external ‘healthy’ competition. Conversely, self-real - to the desire of seeing these lanterns. Even - isation with the aim of fitting into and ben tually blinded by conceptions of self within efiting the wider ecological puzzle calls for whole, beyond entirety, above presence – for - an appreciation of symbiotic relationships. It getting the presence of the entirety within calls for an awareness that without the other, self. Of community. Mechanically, almost rit in all forms, we are lost. ualistically, stepping out of the horizontal in order to fuel the vertically inclined ego.

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Featured interview: the community gardens the permaculture Biko Mutsaurwa (Uhuru Network, collective helped found, none of the pro- duce was sold to anyone; all the members Harare, Zimbabwe) would come and harvest together. Beyond that there were some families that were Every issue we ask an anarchist from South Africa or abroad to tell us about themselves, their views on very desperate in those times who would receive vegetables all the time from the contemporary anarchism, the ways in which they apply anarchist principles in their communities and their gardeners. The point here being that one did not have to produce a piece of paper hopes and concerns for the future. For this issue, Stefanie Noire and Aragorn Eloff talked with Biko money or to necessarily do a specific ac- Mutsaurwa, an anarchist and radical hip-hop artist from Zimbabwe. tivity to benefit from a communal project. The whole arrangement of it defied the capitalist way of doing things because it was driven instead by human need. Those advantage of a clause in the media laws them, only an ultra-leftist. The opposition the nationalist bourgeoisie and the impe- who needed it the most, got those items. that allows for organizations to have in- movement, however, tends to brand you rialist forces as a fight between the work- Background: Biko was born ternal newsletters that are for members as unruly, disorderly, a rebel without a ing classes and the imperialist forces, but in Harare, in Kazuma town- You mentioned traditional society and I and are not sold. The media collective also cause. They perceive it as chaotic – mere there is a marked difference. A concrete ship and has stayed in town- wonder if you could say a bit more about trains community members on how to anarchy. example is the mere fact that of the land ships all his life. He became communal living and traditional African write and publish their own stories, how expropriated from the transnational com- an activist in college and family structures. to film using video recorders and so on. So what IS anarchism then? panies and white farmers in Zimbabwe, The African family structure is indeed joined the Socialist Workers Anarchism to me is the absence of any the settler farmers, about 90% of that Organization. He worked very broad - it's radically different from Then we have a collective that focuses on form of oppression, the absence of hierar- land has gone to the nationalist bourgeoi- the traditional European structure. In the with them for two years be- worker's consciousness. Most of the mem- chy basically. Wherever there is hierarchy sie and they're farming in exactly the same fore breaking with their African sense, the word 'cousin' does not bers in that collective are trade unionists there is someone on top and someone be- way the white capitalists did before. It's exist: either you are my brother or sister brand of authoritarian so- and they hold study circles that are also low and, to use the Rasta lingo, whoever still capitalist production and, in fact, be- everywhere in one generation. The words cialism in 2005 and joining attended by members of other collectives. is on top is “downpressing” the one who cause of the play at ethnic identity and pa- 'uncle' or 'auntie' don't exist either: you the Uhuru Network, with That's where we cultivate anarcho-com- is below. So we're all for equality, horizon- triotism, the farm workers under the new are either my little father or my bigger whom he has been working munist ideas, in these study circles. tal existence, horizontal live-it, to borrow black capitalist farmers are worse off than father, little mama or bigger mama. So ever since. from the Rasta again. they were when they had white farmers. it is broad in that sense but it still has a Finally, we have a collective that runs a The union of farm workers is much weak- division of labour around sex, so basical- community library from a social center. Why do you think we need anarchism? er and much more prone to victimization ly in that context a boy like me can grow Can you tell us about some of the stuff Uhu- There are books there for community If we are to be free and eliminate oppres- than it was when it was fighting against up and never ever wash a plate or clean ru Network does? members to come and borrow and a col- sion, poverty and malnutrition, and also if the white capitalists. In summary, the the clothes. So there are certain conserva- The permaculture collective was built over lection of anarchist books and leaflets. we are to allow everyone full freedom so land gains of the black capitalist class have tive family structures that still perpetuate the last five years in response to a lack of We've been able to attract a number of that we all benefit from everyone's contri- left the peasantry and black farm workers certain forms of oppression. This is where service delivery. There was recently a huge people into the network through the li- butions in this life, we need to ensure that worse off - the working class is basically it radically differs from the social center, cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, probably brary. no one is oppressed. in retreat from the advances of the black from the commune we set up. Basically due to lack of provision of clean water, capitalist class. when I was a student activist and expelled and this affected mostly the working class How did you discover anarchism? The faith behind our devotion to anarchy form college I started living in a commune and poor township residents. Electricity I was a student radical when the Move- is a faith that stems from the belief in ev- Let's talk practical stuff. We'll start with an and one time also - I think this played an cuts are also a regular thing and public ment for Democratic Change was at its ery single individual's uniqueness and in easy one: how can we bring about an anar- important role - we had no women living places like community halls have become height and we had very strong branches that uniqueness a gift, a special gift to the chist society? with us. Therefore, male comrades were dysfunctional because of economic de- within the International Socialist Orga- human society. We feel that past societies The first task is to raise our levels of con- forced to do the washing and cooking and cline and the government following the nization. We felt that some of the ideas have not flourished to the fullest primarily sciousness. We've been conditioned by they developed a love for these art forms, World Bank's advice and cutting spend- that we were pushing for in the organi- because some of those gifts have been de- capitalism to think in a capitalist mode, as we now call them. When we noticed ing on social services. zation were being disregarded and every nied the opportunity to manifest. People to believe that the society we live in is the this shift, we started engaging our female time when we were pushed down the don't exist in conditions that allow them only one that can be. The educational pro- comrades more seriously and they start- So, what the permaculture collective has argument that was advanced was that of to offer their gifts to humanity and we be- cess is primary and then beyond that there ed participating more in our struggles. been doing is reclaiming public space for Through this we could see that people community gardens. This has become "The first task is to raise our levels of consciousness. We've been conditioned by had changed their outlook with regards to a key program given the fact that many capitalism to think in a capitalist mode, to believe that the society we live in is tasks and how to be together. It even af- people in townships are HIV positive and fected the way we held conversations - we have no access to ARV's. The only alterna- the only one that can be. " started using the circle more as a form of tive remedies that are available are herbal being together, and that kind of placed us medicines and so the collective has been democratic centralism. So we were basi- lieve that humanity itself can only contin- is a deceptive persuasion a lot of people on an equal footing. It is a difficult thing growing these outside community halls cally disillusioned by what we perceived ue if everyone has a chance to offer their fall into that it cannot be now. I think that to move from an African lifestyle that you and vacant lots in townships, along with as a Stalinist way of running the organi- gifts. Otherwise, humanity perishes. we need to move beyond and start living have been conditioned with your whole vegetables. These are all freely distributed zation. We realised that we can have one that vision now, becoming the change we life to not only advocate but also to em- to those who need them. big No! to capitalism but it does not nec- One often hears the charge that anarchism seek, changing our patterns of interaction, body the ideas of gender equality. essarily mean that we have to go back to is a Eurocentric import that's irrelevant in embodying the ideals and values that we The collective also runs a refuse manage- Stalinist socialism. We therefore started an African context. How would you respond hold dear, challenging the capitalist soci- How optimistic are you about reaching an ment program where they sort waste to reading about alternatives to capitalism to this? ety at every turn and every twist, whether anarchist society? biodegradable waste and stuff that needs that weren't Stalinist or state capitalist or Definitely, the term anarchism is from it be in the workplace whether it be in the Not in my lifetime but it's the only path. I to be sent to recycling plants; the biode- about building the Revolutionary Party a European language. When we were community, starting to create organs that shudder what to think what it will be like gradable stuff is used for composting and and around 2005/2006 we discovered forming the network, the best we could hold a different form of power from the if that doesn't happen: it means Armaged- organic manure for community gardens. anarcho-communism, partly through in- do in trying to localize it was to translate power that we are challenging. The com- don or the destruction of humanity. It's teraction with anarchists from the South the meaning of the term and that's when bination between these two aspects - our either freedom or death, and if I wasn't We have also set up two social centers African Zabalaza Anarchist Communist we felt that the word that could replace new culture and our new forms of holding so optimistic I wouldn't devote my life to where comrades have been living commu- Federation. anarchy in our language, as African peo- power - is in itself an advancement of the its pursuit. nally. The mere fact of living in a differ- ple, was “uhuru”. But then again uhuru anarchist struggle, and all we need to do ent type of setup to a traditional family What was the appeal of anarchism for you? is not a new word, it's not a word we in- then is expand until it takes over all facets What can each of us do? structure cultivates an alternative lifestyle. For starters, we hadn't been exposed to vented. The very existence of this words of human living. I think we need to ensure that it's not We see ourselves as, in these social centers, forms of organizing that acknowledged from times before, from epochs before, only us. In the words of the Black Pan- creating an embryo for the countercul- that we as regular Zim people, who were indicates that the dream was alive back Can you talk a bit about some of the ways ther Party, each one teach one. We need to ture. We think it's a learning experience experiencing these harsh struggles direct- then and that, therefore, the dream itself in which people in Zimbabwe are living the increase the ranks in the anarchist move- vision now, as you put it? for comrades who have been living in ly, could also have something import- is not Eurocentric. Admittedly, the most ment and ensure that we learn from the these centers. ant to contribute. We felt that within solid theoretical formulation of the anar- What the Zimbabwean experience has mistakes of the old movement, mistakes the anarchist forms of organising each chist struggle were made in the 1800s in taught us most is that the system of cap- that have led to a belief that the anarchist The Toyi Toyi Artz Kollective runs a com- of us is respected. Anarchism also ap- Europe, but this is merely because of ob- italism cannot provide for all the people. movement is the most disorganised, that munity recording studio. In Zimbabwe, peared to explain the gap we could see jective conditions shaping the subjective The devaluation of the Zim dollar and the anarchist movement is in disarray be- there's only state-owned media: they con- between the national liberation strug- formulations of people. At that time in ridiculous inflation rates led to an abso- trol the four radio stations and two TV gle, the collapse of the Soviet Union and Africa the struggle was fighting colonial- lute collapse of the money system; mon- cause of our reluctance to embrace some stations, and it's either state newspapers the need to advance a leftist struggle. It ism and therefore, as one would expect, ey as a form of exchange became useless kind of organisation. The challenge for or corporate newspapers. So the Artz all came together because before that Africans were preoccupied with formulat- and people had to find alternative ways of the movement today is to concretise the Kollective has been producing radio pro- it was either Stalinism or capitalism. ing a vision beyond colonialism. sustaining themselves. I remember what emergence of an anarchist movement on grams that are packaged onto CDs. It's made our permaculture project more rel- a global level that is also linked to a global illegal to broadcast in Zimbabwe, but we What is it like to be an anarchist in Zim? National liberation is frequently spoken of evant in our community was that at one network of anarchists, because that's the can argue that radio CDs are really music You are able to attack the ruling party in a revolutionary, pan-Africanist context. point food was a serious problem and so only way we can bring energies that can albums and through this we've been able from the left and see them unable to re- What are your views on national liberation what we called for was for people to come destroy the capitalist system...at the move- to disseminate alternative ideas. spond to your argument. Robert Mugabe struggles? together and utilize land and from then ment the capitalist system is the most or- and his party ideologues want to paint an For an anarchist to confine their struggle on the food would be shared. Now this ganised one there is. The media collective has been producing image that they are the most radical force or even to frame it within the nationalist was in itself very radical in the sense that five monthly community newsletters for in society, but they can't be as radical as discourse is to contradict themselves to people would work together collectively, Thanks Biko! Is there anything else you'd like the five communities we've been working anarchists are! So, they can't face up to it the extent that they are actually shooting but it wasn't even new, it was a concept to add? with in Harare and a sixth for Bulawayo. and don't know how to respond to you themselves in the foot! One can easily be that we borrowed from traditional society These are my last words...I couldn't resist They've been able to do these by taking because they tend to think you are one of confused if they mistake the fight between called nhimbe - collective work. Of all saying: FUCK CAPITALISM!

Printed by the bolo’bolo anarchist collective • we fight and play for a world beyond measure Page 11 “People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.” - Emma Goldman Anarchy101 Obviating the state by stating the obvious

In this regular column we answer all your gnawing questions about anarchism, anarchy and anarchists, either directly or by sharing classic anarchist texts. If you'd like to ask us something, simply drop a mail to [email protected] with the subject line anarchy101 and we'll get back to you.

Alfredo Bonanno - Originally published in Alfredo Maria Bonanno’s La dimensione anarchica in 1974 and translated into English by Jean Weir. For more what are anarchists? works by Bonanno (and other insurrectionary anarchists), visit: http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com. 1: Who do anarchists struggle against? to reduce man to an automat level of the workplace. always capable of working and family with life in common based leaflets, graffiti, etc. what the Anarcho-syndicalism, with all on love and reciprocal affinity intentions of the ruling structure Against the State seen as the obeying. its revolutionary declarations and on the basis of real sexual are and the dangers facing centralised organisation of power does not escape this reformist equality. the exploited. Also to supply in all spheres (administrative, Against humanitarianism which limitation. indications of the anarchist financial, political, military, etc.) calls for peace and safety of an abstract idea of man but does Organisation of life, such as struggle and show who that of production, based on free anarchists are, or to urge the Against government which is not act concretely to attack class associations differing according exploited to rebel, denouncing the political executive organ enemies. to the problems to be faced, the consequences of obedience of the State and makes all Against nonviolence which 3: What anarchists interests to be defended and and resignation. decisions concerning repression, affinities to be developed. The exploitation, control, etc. blocks the just violence of the want exploited which is their only arm whole of these organisations The struggle to claim better federated on a local basis, conditions — Although we are not Against Capitalism which can of liberation. by groups of communes, then reformists, the struggle to obtain be considered both as the flux widening the relations to a improvements in one’s immediate of productive relations in course Against patriotism which feeds larger federation until it reaches situation (wages, habitation, and individual capitalists, their the absurd idea of the homeland the maximum possible of health, education, occupational, activity, their projects and their in preference to other nations, the liberated areas of the etc.) sees anarchists present complicity in this form. whereas the exploited have no homeland but are revolution. although they do not see these moments as ends in themselves. Against the individual parts brothers of the exploited Education free They push the exploited towards that the State and capital are of the whole world. and aimed at this form of struggle so that divided into. In other words the an awakening they can develop the elements police, judiciary, the army, school, Against militarism of individual of self-organisation and refusal newspapers, television, trade which justifies aptitude which of the delegate which are unions, the large multinational the function of in a liberated indispensable in order to develop firms, etc. armies with the swindle that society will be direct action at all other levels. meaningful Against the family, which forms their role is the only in the Violent struggle to realise the the essential nucleus upon which defence of the limits in which social revolution along with the the State structure is based. homeland. this liberation exploited. The attack against the is realised. class enemy (State, government, Against the world of politics, Against racism capital, church, etc.) must therefore against political parties which defines The spreading necessarily be violent, in the (all of them), Parliament which a part of the of atheism and case of the contrary it would only is the expression of bourgeois human race as anti-religious be a sterile protest and would democracy, and the political inferior. propaganda, determine a reinforcement of ideology which serves to mask always necessary class dominion. This attack could real social problems. Against male chauvinism which because on these be: problems even the Against fascists and all the other reduces women to liberation that has • isolated attacks against instruments of repression used by sex objects. come about cannot individual structures the State and Capital Against feminism which exercise more than a or people who are limited clarification. responsible for repression Against religion and the Church closes itself within an • an insurrectional attack by which constitute a potent ally to asphyxiating inverted male Completion of the social a specific minority repression. chauvinism. revolution until all domination of • a mass insurrectional man over man be abolished. attack Against the army which is an Against the delegate which Abolition of the State, • a mass revolutionary armed force that is used against separates the exploited from Government, Capitalism, the attack the people, direct action. family, religion, the army, prisons, asylums and every form Each of these levels, starting Against prisons wh.ich Against hierarchy which of power which uses the law to from the first, may or may not institutionalise the repression educates towards social force others to do something. 4: The means create the conditions leading to of the poorest of the exploited stratification. Therefore refusal also of any kind anarchists want the successive one to develop. classes. of workers’ or socialist State and to use Against obedience which of any form of dictatorship of the Political and economic analyses can foresee this possibility within Against asylums which repress represses all individuality. proletariat. The specific anarchist certain limits, but cannot give the different. organisation which is an active Against authority which prevents Elimination of the private minority of conscious individuals an absolute response: action the autonomous development of property of land, the tools of who share personal and political itself is the only test for action. the individual. labour, materials, machines, affinity and give themselves the The moral foundation of violent factories, the land and anything aim of calling on the exploited to struggle already exists in the 2: What false Against progressivism, a modern else required for the production organise themselves with a view fact of repression as it has been version of evolutionism which of what is necessary in order to to revolution. exercised by power for centuries. ideas do is the ideological covering of live. anarchists reformism. A federation of different struggle against? Abolition of salaried work and anarchist groups who while Against economism which puts reduction of work to a minimum changing nothing of their Against reformism which wants the economics at the centre of the organised by individual groups particular specific structure, link to set social problems right by history of class exploitation. federated on the basis of their with each other with informal, using laws, political parties, own aptitudes and sympathies as federative pacts in order to better parliaments, referendums, votes, Against trade unionism which is well as on the basis of their own coordinate their own action. etc. the direct product of economism needs. and which means to limit the Propaganda to explain through Against efficientism which wants class struggle to claiming at the Substitution of the traditional books, pamphlets, newspapers,

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" Anarchism is the revolutionary idea that no one is more qualified than you are to decide what your life will be." - CrimethInc., Days of War, Nights of Love: Crimethink for Beginners

COMING UP IN AUGUST AT BOLO'BOLO (76 Lower Main Rd, Observatory)

Wed 7th 8 - 10pm a frail, highly unstable African Our monthly radical politics short demanded they choose a different Free screening: An Exceedingly nation. Posing as a well-to-do film night. Join us for a video path, as well as the simultaneously Dangerous Woman: The Radical diplomatic wannabe, Mr. Cortzen, update of grassroots activism and heartwarming and heartbreaking Life of Emma Goldman Brügger arranges to purchase projects from around the globe, stories of animals who have seen Earth Animal The remarkable life of the credentials from a shady Dutch followed by an open discussion on both sides of the cage. MTD aims immigrant christened "the most broker that entitle him to a position how we can apply the ideas and to re-ignite the debate about Communities: dangerous woman in America" within the Central African practices reflected in these films to animal testing by bringing these exploring collective is explored in this documentary Republic, ostensibly as a Liberian struggles in our own communities rarely-heard perspectives to the liberation focusing on noted birth-control representative. Employing a in and around Cape Town. fore. advocate and anti-military variety of ruses from simple letters 31 August & 1 September, UCT conscription activist Emma of introduction to “envelopes Sat 24th 2:30 - 5pm Sat 31st 6 - 10pm Goldman. A noted Russian-born of happiness” (i.e. bribes) and Ally/solidarity workshop Evening program for attendees Join us for a free two day con- woman who became a key part outrageously colonialist sartorial A roundtable discussion that seeks at the Earth Animal Communities ference hosted by The Institute of the anarchist movement upon guises (finely tailored suits, riding to explore the complexities, pitfalls conference, hosted at UCT by for Critical Animal Studies immigrating into the United States, boots, a ubiquitous cigarette and promises surrounding ally/ the Institute For Critical Animal Goldman, aka "Red Emma" was holder), Brügger manages to solidarity work from a variety of Studies Africa. All welcome. See (ICAS) Africa. renowned for her outspoken vocal gull most of the local elites into perspectives. The dialogue will www.icasafrica.wordpress.com attacks on the government and her believing he intends to set up a locate and address key issues for further information. This conference is the first in staunch opposition to World War I. match factory using Pygmies as that face people involved – or Africa and aims to bring to- the indigenous labor force. Most who are seeking to be involved gether academics, activists Fri 9th all day of his high-level contacts, like – in grassroots social justice Coming up in and anyone else with an inter- It's Woman's Day. We'll be Minister of Mines Dalkia Gilbert, movements. September est in animal rights and liber- celebrating in anarcha-feminist understand this would be a What the Foucault? ation, social justice and grass- fashion :-) cover for Cortzen’s real business Wed 28th 8 - 10pm A talk on French philosopher agenda: acquiring diamonds Free screening: Maximum Michel Foucault, with a focus on roots environmentalism. Sat 10th 4 - 5pm that he can, as a person with Tolerated Dose his relevance for contemporary Free: Live cello performance by diplomatic immunity, legally Equal parts found-footage mash- radical politics. We'll update You can find out more at www. Gidon Levenbach transport out of the country, along up, verité investigation, and artful the bolo'bolo website with more icasafrica.wordpress.com, or with millions in cash. meditation, the film charts the lives information on this talk (and other by searching for our event on Wed 14th 8 - 10pm of both humans and non-humans upcoming September events) Facebook. Free screening: The Ambassador Wed 21st 8 - 10pm who have experienced animal closer to the time. Max Brügger sets out to expose Free screening and open testing first-hand, with hauntingly Come join us in exploring the Western complicity in the illicit discussion: Radical Poltics short honest testimony of scientists and trade of blood diamonds within film night! lab technicians whose ethics many paths towards collective liberation!

words were ‘viva l’anarchia!’ Vanzetti's were, 'what I wish This month more than all in this last hour of agony is that our case and our fate may be understood in their real being and serve in anarchist as a tremendous lesson to the force of freedom so that our suffering and death will not history: have been in vain.' Shortly before his death, Vanzetti was interviewed by Aug. 23, 1927 | a reporter. When asked if he regretted anything, Vanzetti Sacco and Vanzetti said, 'if it had not been for these things, I might have lived out my life talking at Executed in Boston street corners to scorning men. I might have died, unmarked, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants brutal. When we talk about property, state, masters, government, laws, unknown, a failure. Now living in the US, were anarchists who were famously framed in courts and police, we say only that we don’t want any of them.' we are not a failure. This is a repressive show trial and executed as robbers, murderers and our career and our triumph. enemies of the state. As insurrectionaries, the Galleanisti had no faith in trade unions or Never in our full life could any formal organisations, which they thought would hold back and we hope to do such work for Having grown up in Italy in the 1890s, Sacco and Vanzetti left try to control the inevitable revolt. Revolt was what they praised and tolerance, for justice, for man's for America in 1908; their experiences there as overworked and practised: revolt against church, state and capitalism, from strikes up understanding of man as now underpaid labourers, of 'poverty and squalor in the midst of plenty,' to and including explosions and assassinations. we do by accident. Our words turned them into anarchists. They became militant followers — our lives — our pains — of Luigi Galleani, a leading figure among Italian anarchists in Arrested in 1920 under dubious charges of murder and robbery, Sacco nothing! The taking of our lives America and a captivating speaker. Galleani’s attitude was simple: and Vanzetti were tried in 1921 and then spent six more years in — lives of a good shoemaker 'We do not argue about whether property is greedy or not, if masters prison, enduring a long series of appeals and further trials. Finally, in and a poor fish-peddler — all! are good or bad, if the state is paternal or despotic, if laws are just April 1927, they were sentenced to death and, just before midnight on That last moment belongs to us or unjust, if courts are fair or unfair, if the police are merciful or the 23rd of August 1927, their execution was carried out. Sacco's final — that agony is our triumph.'

COLOPHON GENERAL Incendiary Times is typeset in INFORMATION Garamond 10/12 with asides in Akzidenz Grotesk; we've chosen Incendiary Times is published Memphis and its italic as our by the bolo'bolo anarchist primary display face, along with collective. Come visit us at a few guest appearances by Mrs our infoshop and vegan coffee Eaves and her italic. house at 76 Lower Main Rd., Our overwrought ramblings are Observatory, Cape Town, or printed on Envirotext using two online at www.bolobolo.co.za. colour risography. You can also search for us on Facebook or Twitter.

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