Contents Spring 1998 The Institute for IAS Update Anarchist Studies Being a Radical Professor
Radical Cities and Social Revolution: An Interview with Janet Biehl The abstractness and programmatic emptiness so ian municipalism calls for the creation of self- characteristic of contemporary radical theory managed community political life at the municipal indicates a severe crisis in the left. It suggests a level: the level of the village, town, neighborhood, retreat from the belief that the ideal of a or small city. This political life would be embodied cooperative, egalitarian society can be made in institutions of direct democracy: citizens' assem concrete and thus realized in actual social blies, popular assemblies, or town meetings. Where relationships. It is as though - in a period of change such institutions already exist, their democratic and demobilization - many radicals have ceded the potential and structural power could be enlarged; right and the capacity to transform society to where they formerly existed, they could be revived; CEO's and heads of state. and where they never existed, they could be created Janet BiehFs new book, The Politics of Social anew. But within these institutions people as Ecology: Libertarian Municipalism, is an affront to citizens could manage the affairs of their own this. It challenges the politically resigned with a communities themselves - rather than relying on detailed, historically situated anti-statist and anti- statist elites - arriving at policy decisions through capitalist politics for today. the processes of direct democracy. I asked Biehl about her new work in the fall of To address problems that transcend the bound 1 9 9 7 b y e m a i l . - C h u c k M o r s e aries of a single municipality, the democratized municipalities in a given region would form a confederation, sending delegates to a confederal 7 ourlibertarian book is essentially municipalism programmatic: in a historical you con set council. This confederation would not be a state, text and offer concrete suggestions for practice. since it would be controlled entirely by the citizens* What political circumstances made it seem esp assemblies. The delegates that the assemblies send ecially important to produce this book now? would have the power only to advance decisions As the political dimension of social ecology - made by their assemblies; they would be mandated the body of ideas developed by Murray Bookchin and easily recallable. since the 1950s - libertarian municipalism is a As the libertarian municipalist movement grew libertarian politics of political and social revolu and as ever more municipalities became democrat tion. It constitutes both a theory and a practice for ized and confederated in this way, the confed building a revolutionary movement whose ultimate erations would hopefully become powerful enough aim is to achieve an equal, just, and free society. to constitute themselves into dual power, one that My book is intended as a simple articulation of could finally be pitted in opposition to the nation- these ideas, which Bookchin himself has ex state. At that point either a confrontation would pounded elsewhere. ensue, or the citizenry would defect to the new Briefly, for readers who do not know, libertar continued on page 6
IAS Grant Awards The IAS annually awards $6000 in grants to the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) writers whose work is important to the anarchist and Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico. It critique of domination, who exhibit a clear will have three main components: an empirical financial need, and whose piece is likely to be investigation of Zapatista theory and practice, a consideration of the two main forms of libertarian [ widely distributed. On January 17, 1998 the IAS | Board of Directors was pleased to award grants thinking in Mexico - the traditions of indigenous t to the following individuals: autonomy and European anarchism; and finally I an investigation of the more recent historical j S2000 to Chris Day for Anarchism and the roots of the EZLN in the Mexican New Left and | Zapatista Revolution. This book will develop a the indigenous struggles of Chiapas in the past revolutionary, anti-authoritarian analysis of few decades. It will draw out. some of the ! Zapatismo as expressed in the words and deeds of Continued on Page 12 PerspectivesJLon on anarchistanarchist theory
Institute for Anarchist Studies Update Perspectives - On
Anarchist Theory This issue of Perspectives brings the IAS's first full some necessary equipment for the IAS office, an calendar year of operation to a close and thus investment that will permit us to work more Spring 1998, Vol. 2, No. 1 marks a milestone in our efforts to provide support effectively on behalf of radical authors as well as Newsletter of the Institute to anti-authoritarian social criticism. I am pleased the IAS's long-term development. (Please see page for Anarchist Studies to say that these efforts continue as vigorously as 11 for a list of those who made our 1997 campaign ever. a success). Editorial Committee: Rebecca DeWitt, Chuck Morse The IAS board awarded the third set of IAS grants All of these developments heighten the enthusiasm to another fine group of radical writers this with which we enter 1998, in anticipation of Grammatical Specialists: January. The three projects we supported bring another year of sustained activity and growth. The Lex Bhagat, Brian Wells Hay, anarchism to bear on some of the most important IAS's 1998 fundraising campaign, inaugurated John Schumacher issues facing radicals at the end of the millenium: with this issue of Perspectives, will be a central the global capitalist attack on communities Subscription Rates focus of our efforts. Specifically, the IAS must (Two issues per year) worldwide, the forms and implications of various raise S9200 by January 1999 to award another L A S D o n o r s - F r e e responses to these assaults, and, finally, the S6000 in grants, publish two issues of this I n d i v i d u a l s - $ 5 relationship of new communication technologies newsletter, and build the IAS endowment. Our I n s t i t u t i o n s - $ 1 0 (i.e., the Internet) to community and democracy. 1998 fundraising goal, as some readers may notice, Bulk Subs (25 Copies) - $25 (See page 1 for a fuller account.) is S700 above our 1997 goal. This increase reflects a demand we have placed upon ourselves: to put 15 (Please make checks payable to the Institute for Anarchist Studies) It is also with satisfaction that we watch previous percent - not 10 percent - of every contribution into IAS grant recipients bring their works toward the IAS endowment. Indeed, one of our primary Disclaimer: the views expressed in publication. There are many developments to objectives is to make sure that support is available Perspectives do not necessarily report in this regard: Murray Bookchin has finished to future generations of radical writers and it is our represent the views of the IAS as a whole. The material in this newsletter is the first and major chapter of the second volume of endowment that will make this possible. © the Institute for Anarchist Studies. his Spanish Anarchists; Allan Antliff has completed the first draft of his book, The Culture Please help us reach this goal by donating to the IAS if you are not among those who have already IAS Board of Directors: of Revolt: Art and Anarchy in America; Paul Paula Emery, John Petrovato, Fleckenstein has submitted his piece, "Civic contributed or pledged a contribution to our 1998 Dan Chodorkoff, Cindy Milstein, Vitality or Civic Mortality? Progress and Growth fundraising campaign (see page 11). Please also Michelle Matisons, Maura Dillon, in Burlington, VT" to publishers; Peter Lamborn note that Perennial Books has provided the IAS Paul Glavin Wilson has nearly finished his introduction to with books in support of our fundraising efforts Enrico Arrigoni's autobiography; and, finally, once again. Those donating S25 or more to the IAS IAS Coordinator: Mark Bohnert and Richard Curtis have almost are entitled to at least one of the great books Rebecca DeWitt completed their Post-Industrial Resources: they've generously made available to us. Perennial Anarchist Reconstructive Efforts and Visions in the has also renewed its pledge to discount items in General Director: their extraordinary catalogue by 15% to all those Chuck Morse Upper Midwest. (Note: there are more extensive accounts of previous IAS grant awards in earlier who give S25 or more. Please join us in our efforts Perspectives.) to support radical writers now and in the future.
For more information or a grant I am also happy to state that the IAS's 1997 We are proud of what the IAS has accomplished application, please send a self- over the last year and regard these addressed, stamped envelope to: fundraising campaign was a complete success and that we even exceeded our S8500 fundraising goal. accomplishments as a foundation upon which to Institute for IAS donors were extremely generous and their build further contributions. It is immensely Anarchist Studies support - a source of encouragement to all of us gratifying to work on behalf of radical social RsQ^ox^OSfi here - enabled the IAS to provide real assistance to criticism, to participate in an emerging counter- AfcwyrNY radical writers, continue publishing Perspectives, institution, and, above all, to be active in a project 1-222^-USA and build the IAS endowment by 10 percent of that embodies the continued vitality of the ideal of every donation. In addition, we have used the a cooperative, egalitarian, and ecological society. Phone: 518-465-3062 excess from the fundraising campaign to purchase ~ Chuck Morse E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://members.aol.com/ Correction: iastudy/Default.htm In the last issue of Perspectives the date of the The IAS is a nonprofit, tax-exempt Third Annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair was organization. listed incorrectly. The correct date is March 14, 1998. PerspectivesA on anarchist theory
On Choosing to Be a Radical Professor Biblioteca Popular by John Schumacher 'Jose Ingenieros' At a time when anti-authoritarian social critique provides a living, not the "decent poverty" must be reevaluated and developed, it is especially advocated by Paul Goodman, but typically not The Biblioteca Popular 'Jose important to engage, challenge, and transform the embarrassingly more either. institutional settings in which this work takes Ingenieros' in Buenos Aires is You can be a radical professor in various ways, but a remarkable counter- place. John Schumacher helps us understand some institution dedicated to popular of the dilemmas faced by those in the university. the primary divide, again, is between those who stress writing or speaking and those who stress education, the preservation of anarchist history, and radical helping people get ready to read or hear. Few do How do you, as a radical, expect to influence both well, but only the latter is necessary to being a opposition. successful radical professor. Headstrong, I started people? Will people read what you have to write? Founded in 1935, it has served Or hear what you have to say? Will they be ready out by trying to change the minds of my students, to read or hear it? Or do their lives have to cease rather than making it possible for them to change as a consistent center for their own minds. I needed to learn how to be a anarchist activity in Buenos being smooth first, so that they ask questions where Aires and Argentina as a whole. before there were only routine answers? A radical facilitator. It provides meeting space for needs a nose for situations in which people are anarchist groups, a lending ready for a radical lesson, or alternatively, needs to Anarchism is just one subject among others at the be a facilitator of that readiness. level of writing or speaking, but has no peer when library for neighborhood child it comes to learning how to be a facilitator. I will ren, and a film program now in its thirtieth year. It also holds So, why not choose to be a radical professor? You try to explain this, but first I want to say a few what is probably the second will work with people at the most liberal time of words about the university context. their lives (though one wonders how long such a largest archive of anarchist material in South America time will survive, as today only 27% of first-year The University Context How can you influence young people if you can't (surpassed only by the Edgard college students - less than half of what it was 30 Leuenroth collection at Brazil's years ago - think that keeping up with politics is a sing? In 1971 I chose to teach college-age young Universidade Estadual de worthy life goal), and the residue of academic people at a research university in the USA. I had freedom and tenure provides more opportunity for more opportunity then to develop my radical Campinas). being radical than you will find in, for example, agenda, both in and out of the university. The Archive has been open and continued on page 10 secondary education. Being a professor also functioning for five years. It holds material dating from 1895 to the present and in Recommended Reading thirteen languages. They also We asked two authors to tell us about their which an appropriate resistance politics may be have a particularly large formulated. Finally, place-based resistance is the collection of anarchist material favorite books on a vital topic: radical politics in Yiddish. after the fall of the Soviet Union? theme taken up by Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello's Global Village or Global Pillage: Arif Dirlik, author of many works including Economic Reconstruction From the Bottom Up You can help the library by Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution (California, (South End, 1994). sending anarchist publications of any sort, books for their 1993) and After the Revolution: Waking to Global Capitalism (Wesleyan, 1994), writes: "In these Kathy Ferguson, author of A Feminist Case lending library, as well as Against Bureaucracy (Temple, 1985), writes: financial contributions. Con days of globalization craze, it is difficult often to tributions can be made in U.S. distinguish critiques from celebrations of "Two thoughtful recent books represent for me two contrasting dimensions of politics with which dollars and correspondence can globalization. While there are many books on be handled in most major globalization, I am particularly fond of William anarchism has historically engaged: broad Greider's, One World, Ready or Not: The Manic philosophical efforts to conceptualize key languages. Please make sure to concepts in politics; and specific, grounded enclose a contribution if you Logic of Global Capitalism (Simon & Schuster, are requesting information or 1997) for its comprehensiveness, its revelations inquiries into practices of political change. One is about globalization through the eyes of those who Wendy Brown's States of Injury: Power and photocopies. are creating it, and its keen critical edge. In the Freedom in Late Modernity (Princeton University same vein. Manuel Castell's, The Power of Press, 1995). Brown's book is highly theoretical, Please contact the library at: Biblioteca Popular 'Jose" Identity; Vol.2 of The Information Age: Economy, drawing intellectual tools from Nietzsche, Marx, Society and Culture (Blackwell, 1997), offers a Foucault, Weber, and contemporary feminist Ingenieros' most sensitive analysis of the various kinds of theory. Brown targets the liberal regulatory state J. Ramirez de Velasco #958 (1414) Buenos Aires politics bred by globalization, and the levels at Continued on Page 10 Argentina PerspectivesXon anarchist theory
What's Happening: Books & Events Contacts & Addresses The domination and exploitation of women by the Another radical life is recounted in the first person state is the subject of Race, Class, Women and the by William Herrick in his autobiography Jumping AK Press State: The Case of Domestic Labour by Tanya in Line: the Adventures and Misadventures of an P.O. Box 40682 Schecter. Focusing on the Canadian state, Schecter American Radical. He is the author of several San-Francisco, CA 94140 argues that the state "consciously acted to take novels, including the award winning Hermanosl, Web: http:/Avww.akpress.org advantage of [Third World] women's desperation, an anti-Stalinist book based on his experience in of their poverty, in order to find a cheap supply of the Spanish Civil War. Black Rose Books domestics for its own citizens while limiting its 1*800-283-3572; Welx&ttp:// own social expenditures...The end result... being The history of Spanish anarchism is explored and www.web.net/blackrosebooks/ a mistress-servant relationship." Due out in celebrated with two re-releases by AK Press. orderingJitm February 1998 from Black Rose Books. Murray Bookchin's The Spanish Anarchists: The Heroic Years 1868-1936 is now available in a new The Kate Sharpley Library The dimensions of anarchist thought continue to edition with a new preface by Bookchin. Also, BM Hurricane grow with new contributions by and about two 1936: The Spanish Revolution by The Ex, London, WC1N 35^ UK; eminent anarchist thinkers. Continuing his "anarchist-art-agitators", is available again with Web:http:/ymembers;aol;com/ historical analysis of revolutionary struggle, 144 pages of photos, essays, and two 3" eds with wellslake//Sharpleyaitm Murray Bookchin's second volume of The Third two Spanish anarchist songs and two original Revolution: Popular Movements in the Revo compositions performed by The Ex. Many other TfteMeltzerEress lutionary Era is now available from Cassell titles, new and old, are available from AK's POBox^ Hastings, Academic. In addition, Noam Chomsky's extensive extensive (and free) 1998 catalog. East Sussex,. MmmM, UK. work is examined in Chomsky's Revolution: Cognitivism and Anarchism by Carlos Otero. Due The Labadie Collection, a large archive of Dou£lasJ&rMcIn{$re. out in March 1998 from Blackwell Publishers. anarchist materials and other social protest 16a5V*JbSbles^Steet literature, has recently received several donations ¥ancouver;:BC The lives of anarchists and fellow radicals are the of manuscript materials which include: a collection V5L2H1 Canada subject of several new books this year. Albert of research and biographical materials on the 1-800-667-6902 Meltzer is commemorated in The Albert Memorial: anarchist writer/poet J. William Lloyd; original The Anarchist Life and Times of Albert Meltzer by research notebooks and manuscripts of Francis Phil Ruff. A collaborative effort between the Bartlett, the Marxist psychoanalyst; Abe 'Seeking i^wtiMGnyon the Meltzer Press and the Kate Sharpley Library Bluestein's papers; a small collection of materials -ivheredboitb^f^helqng lost, (KSL), this remembrance of Meltzer's which belonged to Emma Goldman (letters from final bronze cast of the Sacco controversial and remarkable life includes photos, Berkman and others, official documents, and and 'VanzettV bas-rditf by essays, and thoughts from close friends. Fifty identification cards); and a collection of material Gulzman Borglum. The mayor of Boston recenfry accepted a percent of sales go toward the KSL's publishing relating to E.F. Doree, Secretary-Treasurer of the projects (available from Meltzer Press or the KSL). Textile Workers Industrial Union of the IWW copy of this sculpture '(one* of three copies made from the Joseph Labadie, better known for the extensive during WWI, who was imprisoned with ninety-nine archival collection established in his name (the others for violation of the Draft and Espionage -plaster cast dlaiteaElifer; .Version Labadie Collection), will be the subject of a new of scdptur^) ;^r ,ftshaxi 'been Acts of 1917. For information, contact the Labadie biography, Ail-American Anarchist: Joseph A. Collection at: Special Collections Library, 711 repeatedly refi^ed"^' both the Labadie and the Labor Movement, by his Harlan Hatcher Library, University of Michigan, city and the state sincV 1-937. It had been found by a junkman in granddaughter, Carlotta Anderson (available in Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109; tel. (313) 764-9377; June 1998 from Wayne State University Press). 1960 in an abandoned ware Web address: http://www.Iib.umich.edu/libhome/ house and now hangs in the George Woodcock, one of the definitive historians SpecColl.lib/labadie.html. of anarchism, will be remembered in The Gentle Boston Public.Library. How Anarchist: A Life of George Woodcock by Doug Several conferences on radical social theory will be ever, only photosiirefnain of the held this year. The 16th Annual Socialist Scholars fmal, bronze sculpture /and the Fetherling (available in February 1998 from last known Ideation\af iflie Douglas & Mclntyre Publications). Conference will be held March 20 to 22, 1998, at sculpture was the Borglum Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 estate in Stamford, CT, where it IAS on the Web Chambers Street. The theme of the Conference is "A World to Win: From the Manifesto to New was shipped m T940. If you • IAS Publications have any leads please contact • Grant Applications Organizing for Socialist Change." For more information, call (212) 642-2826 or check out their Jerry Kaplan at P0 Box • Helpful Links 381323, Cambridge,MA 02238 website at http://www.soc.qc.edu/ssc/. A conference on "Work, Difference, and Social orjerry_kapIan@harvardi«du. . http://members.aol.com/iastudy/Default.htm Change" is being held at the State University of PerspectivesX on anarchist theory
New York at Binghamton from May 8 to 10,1998. Quilmes, Roque Saenz Pena 180, Bernal, 1876, It will explore the challenges and possibilities that Buenos Aires, Argentina. Institute for confront labor as a social movement in a global Social Ecology economy. For more info: contact: Chuck Koeber at For those interested in French-language, anarchist (607) 777-6844 or [email protected]. material, Refractions is a new journal on anarchist ^The Ihstitutef or Social Ecology theory. It covers a variety of issues from an There's still a chance to find great anarchist books. anarchist perspective, such as technology, .(ISE) has, Jbeen -.*a -center of ecological activism, radical The Third Annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair democracy, gender, and ecology. Please contact will take place on Saturday, March 14, 1998,10am them at: Les Amis de Refractions, BP 33, 69571 community development, and - 6pm, at the San Francisco County Fair Building -eco-anarchist;theory since it Dardilly cedex, France. was foundedin-1974. in Golden Gate Park by Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way. Admission is free. Artists and Speakers The State Adversary, an impressive anarchist The ISE!s, programs, which include Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Arther Evans, John journal from New Zealand, is a great source not include summer sessions,: work Shirley, Pat Califia, and only on anarchist efforts shops, conferences, and;
Radical Cities and Social Revolution: Janet Biehl ... Continued from page 1 1863 book on federalism, which called for a feder system that gave them full control over their lives, ation of autonomous communes. Bakunin absorbed Janet Biehl has always gone "hollowing out" the power of the nation-state. At this call and made it a central part of the programs against the prevailing fashions. the same time the municipalities would take control he wrote in the late 1860s. In those same years, Born in 1953 in Cincinnati, of economic life from private corporations, exprop communalist ideas were becoming widespread Ohio, she did not join the rad riating the expropriators. A rational, libertarian, among opponents of Napoleon Ill's centralized rule ical movements of the 1960's ecological society could then be formed, where in France. So in 1871, when Prussia defeated like many of her peers. On the structural power would reside in directly France and the French government collapsed, com contrary, she describes herself democratic assemblies inhabited by an active, vital munalist ideas were already in place to infuse the as 'rather straight' during mis citizenry. Paris Commune when it sprang up on the ruins of time. My book lays out concrete steps by which a the Second Empire. After only a few weeks' exist movement could be formed to create such a direct ence, the Commune met with a disastrous end, yet However, in early 1970's, democracy. It emphasizes the crucial role of an many radicals - not only anti-statists but also Marx when many were abandoning educated group of committed individuals who, for a while - were inspired by the Commune's cultural radicalism, Biehl -was through study groups and local municipal electoral audacious example and regarded the federation of inspired by avant-garde per campaigns, build a movement by spreading these autonomous communes as the model political formance groups such as the ideas in their communities. structure for a free, self-managed society. In the Living Theater and subse The book has been needed for a long time, and later 1870s the idea passed into the programs of the quently completed a degree in I only regret that we didnt have it back when we Jura Federation, which regarded the communal Iheaterat Wesleyan University. were working in the Left Green Network.1 Just how federation as integral to the post-revolutionary much it's been needed is indicated by the fact that society. The desire to become an within only a few weeks of its publication, com Libertarian municipalism draws on historical actress led her to New York rades in other parts of the world made arrange communalism, both in its anarchist and Marxist City, where-BiehLbeganto torn ments to translate it into five European languages, theoretical forms, as well as its concrete tradition in to radicals thfeory iand politics. and discussions are under way for several others. revolutionary history, going back to the French Although the New Left was Revolution of 1789. At the same time it takes now a thing.of ^he past, the historical communalism further. Where early com election of Ronald Reagan and 7ou anarchist place libertarian tradition and municipalism embrace its anti-statist in the munalism saw the communes as mainly administ her growing disenchantment and anti-capitalist goals. However, your emphasis rative in function, merely providing "public serv with the arts made this a natural on the conflict between the municipality and the ices," and gave actual decision-making power over choice. state (as opposed to the conflict between labor and to workers' associations (whose federation would capital) is a departure from several dominant parallel that of the federated communes), libertar While pursuing an MA in tendencies in the anarchist tradition. Why is this ian municipalism envisions the commune as a liberal arts at the CUNY departure important? direct democracy that controls the economy. And graduate center, she became First let me clarify that Bookchin does not where anarchist communalists thought people aware of Murray Bookchin's would form communes spontaneously after the work and attended the Institute oppose libertarian municipalism to the conflict between labor and capital. His intention is, rather, state collapsed by other means, libertarian municip for Social Ecology in 1986. to broaden class struggle by connecting it to the alism provides for a revolutionary transition, in which the federation of communes would become a Bookchin's work helped Biehl municipality-state conflict; to introduce transclass issues - especially hierarchical domination and dual power against the nation-state. articulate her radical commit ecological dislocations - into formulations of class ments with a new fullness. My point is that the communalist tradition, of struggle; and to give class struggle a direct demo which libertarian municipalism is a development, Shortly thereafter shesnoved to cratic base, grounded in a self-managed civic pol isn't by any means alien to the anarchist tradition - Burlington, Vermont, to work itical culture. Libertarian municipalism is an effort in fact, it was present at the creation. more closely with Bookchin to make class conflict a civic issue as well as an and became his companion and industrial one. It's actually not so unusual: after all, closest collaborator. She lives fXne way anarchists have distinguished them- and works withhim to this day, revolutionary class struggles have historically been V_y selves from others in the socialist tradition is based in municipalities. The uprisings in Paris in by emphasizing the importance of counter-cultures making her living as a freelance 1848 and in 1870-71 were fought around barri as well as counter-institutions for a general revo copy editor. Unlike many of cades that were located in neighborhoods. Both in her generation - whose lives lutionary strategy. What is the relationship, in your Red Petrograd in 1917 and in Barcelona in 1936- constitute a long retreat from view, between these efforts and the struggle for the 37, strong neighborhood civic cultures were crucial youthful radicalism - Biehl has radical, directly democratic political institutions arenas for their respective revolutions. described in your book? gone consistently in the Within the anarchist tradition, the municip It's been much to the detriment of anarchism opposite direction. ality-state conflict goes back at least to Proudhon's and the left generally that so much attention has PerspectivesJ- on anarchist thenrvtheory
An Interview with Janet Biehl Janet Biehl: recently been given to cultural change at the irrational for a society predicated on the fulfillment Selected Works expense of institutional change, to the point that of the potentialities of all its members to suppress today it overshadows politics altogether. I don't the potentialities of some. One of the fundamentals The Politics of Social Ecology: mean to suggest that cultural work is bereft of of social ecology, of which libertarian mun Libertarian Municipalism. political meaning, but it can't stand on its own - it icipalism is the political dimension, is a con Montreal: Black Rose, 1997. must be part of a larger political movement. Art demnation of all kinds of social hierarchy and class and culture and self-expression by themselves pose rule and a call for their dissolution. The Murray Bookchin Reader no threat to the existing social order, because by (editor). London: Cassell Aca themselves they can very easily be coopted and demic, 1997. marketed. In fact, the alienation and dissent that a rhe your idea book. of potentiality You refer to appearsthe "political throughout potential radical work of art expresses can sometimes make of the municipality," our "uniquely human potent Ecofascism: Lessons from the it all the more marketable, as something with a iality" for a rational society, etc. Please tell me German Experience (with Peter "dangerously" hip frisson. more about this concept of potentiality? Staudenmaier). San Francisco: Without a political movement that opposes This question touches on the philosophical AK Press, 1996. commodification as such - and hence capitalism - dimension of social ecology, dialectical naturalism, as well as hierarchical domination, art too easily a topic too complex to explore thoroughly here; I'd Rethinking Ecofeminist Poli becomes just another commodity. The 1960s refer interested readers to Bookchin's Philosophy tics. Boston: South End Press, counter-culture has famously deteriorated into of Social Ecology (2nd ed. revised). I'll merely say, 1991. nostalgia merchandising and New Age spirituality, in brief, that as a developmental philosophy (as with all their many marketing possibilities, and hip opposed to an analytical philosophy), dialectical advertising has coopted much of its sensibility (see naturalism focuses on processes unfolding in both the recent anthology Commodify Your Dissent). natural evolution and social history, especially For example, the Beatles' 'Revolution' is now used those that tend, however obliquely and tortuously to sell sneakers and my local bike shop sells and even abortively at times, toward greater freed Anarchy brand sunglasses. Within anarchism the om, self-consciousness, and reflexivity. emphasis on culture and self-expression and As a developmental philosophy, dialectical lifestyle - at the expense of a revolutionary politics naturalism uses a vocabulary that reflects develop (in the sense of community self-management) - has mental processes: potentiality, emergence, unfold become so acute that social ecologists have had to ing, growth, actualization, fulfillment. Where ana distinguish themselves from it, to try to retain for lytical philosophy presupposes fixity, dialectical anarchism a core socialist imperative to transform philosophy presupposes movement, and not merely society at the level of social and political kinesis but directional movement. institutions as well as sensibility. By focusing on the potentialities of a situation, dialectical rationality encourages us to examine what kind of future could logically emerge from 7ou arguedemocratize that to andcreate expand a free the society political we realm. must that situation. Thus, the municipality as it exists "Militia Fever: The Fallacy of What role does the struggle against hierarchies today contains the potentiality to become demo 'Neither Left nor Right"' Green often relegated to the private sphere - such as cratized and part of a rational society; the achieve Perspectives, No. 37,1996. patriarchy and white supremacy - play in this ment of a libertarian municipalist society would effort? mark the fulfillment or actualization of that "European Greens: From During the course of a political and social potentiality. Movement to Party," Society revolution, people's personalities will doubtless be and Nature, No. 3, 1993 changed, especially as they experience the solidar ity of common struggle, fight on behalf of a 7ou and call the upon state, people and toto overthrowcreate a free capitalism society "Women and the Democratic common ideal rather than their own particular informed by reason, solidarity, and an ethos of Tradition," Green Perspectives, interests, and socially empower themselves. During citizenship. However, your discussion of the No. 16 & 17,1989. such experiences we could expect that racism and colonization of social life by capitalism, the assault sexism would be reduced. But insofar as they on communities, and the dissolution of the political "Goddess Mythology and Eco persist, either in mindsets or in social arrange realm seems to describe the destruction of the logical Politcs" New Politics, ments, the community members - in the political sources from which we could derive the capacity to Vol. 2, No. 2, 1989. realm, in the democratic citizens' assemblies - build a social alternative. From where, under these would make decisions about how to address them conditions, can we find the strength and insight "Critique of the Draft Program in whatever ways they deem appropriate. needed to create a free society? of the Left Green Network" The danger exists that a community could set Today's society of instant gratification (with Murray Bookchin), Green policies that are racist and sexist, but it would be Continued on Next Page Perspectives, No. 23, 1991. PerspectivesJ- on anarchist theory
... Biehl Coninued or die. Bookchin has added that this imper eity, his revolutionary hardihood, and that perpetually gives us the message that our aim ative puts capitalism on a collision course troublesome and savage energy characteristic in life is to maximize our personal happiness, with the natural world. Even as global warm of the genius, ever called to destroy tottering within the framework of capitalism. It gives ing is poised to wreak enormous havoc in the old words and lay the foundations of the new. little or no cultural support to subordinating next century, the discrepancy between rich He undoubtedly gains in politeness, in util immediate personal needs to the pursuit of a and poor is widening. To maximize its profits itarian and practical wisdom, what he lacks in larger goal. It shrivels our imagination from on a global basis, capitalism is rendering power of originality. In a word, he becomes expansively envisioning a better world to whole categories of people useless - by some corrupted."21 think this passage is too harsh; submersing itself in matters of practical sur estimates, about three-fifths of the world's many academics from all parts of the pol vival and the consumption of goods and serv population. itical spectrum do try to participate in public ices. It systematically strips us of what earlier I also think we might take another look political culture, writing books and op-ed centuries would have called our better nature. at Marx's "immiseration" thesis. He argued pieces and articles for a popular readership. Not only does this social order commod that the logic of capitalism was to reduce And the research that radical historians in the ity and exploit us, it obscures our historical wages to the lowest possible level; when academy do on revolutionary movements and memory and thereby stupefies us. It would people were pauperized, he thought, they socialist-anarchist ideas is certainly inval like us to forget that for centuries people would be impelled to revolt against the uable to those who are trying to build on participated in efforts for social transform bourgeoisie exploiting them. This prediction those traditions. ation mat did not bear fruit in their lifetimes. was not fulfilled, in part because welfare But it's hard for professors to write Not only did they not need immediate grat states were created that softened the impact works that directly advance revolutionary ification, they did not expect it and were of capitalism somewhat. Now that many of movements, works that will educate and in willing to risk exile and punishment, know the social welfare benefits upon which the spire revolutionary activists and intellectuals. ing it served the creation of a better society. social peace has come to depend are being In a university, most of the writing one does We therefore have to recognize that the whittled away, the prediction that immis must help consolidate one's career, especially immediate gratification of desire is part of eration will lead to social revolution may yet by demonstrating scholarship. Writing a the system we are fighting. We have to hold turn out to be correct. movement-building work could jeopardize on to our historical memory and resist social Whatever the cause of the crisis, when it that career. So academics tend to address amnesia. We must be willing, on some level, does develop, its social outcome will by no each other, more than the general public, and to put the cause of creating a better society means necessarily be a rational, ecological, certainly much more than the revolutionary before the cause of putting an espresso and libertarian society. Its outcome could be public. In this country, the mass exodus of machine on the kitchen countertop. a dictatorship, or chaos. If the crisis is to leftists from public life into the academy has If we don't find the strength to persist result in emancipation, at least some degree undoubtedly vitiated radical political culture. and maintain our ideals, then our lives will be of consciousness of the liberatory alternative meaningless too, and we will become trivial will have to be in place beforehand. ized. We will, as William James once put it, This is where voluntarism comes in. Pre- r'ell meyou abouthave new the projectsfuture of planned your work or new Do "relapse into the slumber of nonentity from revolutionary periods are usually quite short. issues you intend to explore? which [we] had been momentarily aroused." We are unlikely to have a lot of time to do I'm happy to say mat The Murray Book So we have to look for other people the painstaking, molecular work of education chin Reader, which I edited, is now available who, like us, want to uphold human dignity, that a liberatory movement will require. in the U.S. Currently I'm helping Bookchin and who understand that the worst problem That's the kind of work we should be doing put together a collection of recent interviews our society feces is not El Nino or incomp now: especially building a libertarian munic and essays, to be called Anarchism, Marx etent nannies but the social order itself. We ipalist movement, showing people how they ism, and the Future of the Left (published by fight that social order because a diminution can take their political and economic lives A.K. Press next year). of our humanity and our best aspirations into their own hands, showing them how they Some of your readers may be interested would be insufferable. can build a society that will allow them to to know that an international conference on reclaim their humanity. It requires endless libertarian municipalism will be held in Port patience, but it must be done. If it is not, then ugal in August 1998. Its purpose will be to Marx essentiallyunism would emerge argued from that the comm matur the crisis that comes will result in tyranny. discuss and advance the ideas of libertarian ation of capitalism's internal contradictions. municipalism, as defined by this book and by Do you regard the creation of a libertarian Bookchin's own writing. Those interested in municipalist society as an act of will or a /t's dayshard not to ensconcedfind a radical in the theorist university. these You advancing libertarian municipalism may con culmination of a larger historical process? are an exception and have deliberately tact the conference organizers at P.O. Box Ifs both. I have no doubt that our society remained outside of academia. Why is this? 111, Burlington, VT 05401 USA or is heading toward a crisis - the only question The other night I came accross a passage [email protected] or [email protected]. is whether its immediate cause will be social in Bakunin, where he talks about "the history or ecological. As Marx pointed out in Capit of all academes." "From the moment he be Footnotes: 1. Biehl and Chuck Morse were co-coordinators of the al, capitalist enterprises must either maxi comes an academician," Bakunin wrote, " . . Left Green Network Clearinghouse from 1990 to 1991. mize their profits and therefore expand, or . the greatest scientific genius inevitably 2. Sam Dolgofi; ed., Bakunin on Anarchy (New York, else succumb to their rivals and perish - grow lapses into sluggishness. He loses spontan Alfred Knopf, 1972), p. 228. 8 PerspectivesJ- on anarchist theorytheorv
Abe Bluestein: An Anarchist Life Works by Abe Bluestein, a lifelong anarchist, passed away on by the Wobblies with iron pipes wrapped with Abe Bluestein December 3, 1997, at the age of 88. We should handkerchiefs." However, the highlight of Abe's remember him as someone who fought to embody anarchist activities was the Spanish Civil War, as it Although Abe Bluestein was anarchist principles all his life, and celebrate the was for many anarchists who yearned to practice primarily an activist, he made inspired example he offers to the present anarchist principles. valuable literary as well as generation. practical contributions to the In May, 1937, Abe and his life-long partner Selma anarchist movement. Like many anarchists born in the early 20th Cohen, a fine-artist and radical herself, traveled to century, Abe came from a radical, immigrant Spain and took part in the revolution. He He translated Agustin Souchy's family. His Russian parents, Mendel and Esther conducted radio broadcasts and sent out weekly important With the Peasants of Bluestein, were active in the anarchist group in the bulletins to U.S. and British publications and, Aragon: Libertarian Commun International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and informally, worked as an information officer for ism in the Liberated Areas (Soil also became part of the Modem School of Stelton, the CNT. A year later they returned to America and of Liberty and Cienfuegos NJ, which Abe attended until junior high. Abe was Abe translated Augustin Souchy's With the Press, 1982). He also strongly influenced by his family life: "I was Peasants of Aragon (a book on the peasant assembled and edited Fighters brought up in an anarchist milieu, and was an collectives in Aragon, Spain), among many other for Anarchism: Mollie Steimer anarchist already as a child. 1 had many lengthy works. and Senya Fleshin (Libertarian discussions with my father - even before I was in Publications Group, 1983) and my teens - over whether society could exist without Abe found himself caught in the dilemma that tore wrote Forgotten Men, What government or laws...Our house was filled with apart the anarchist movement: WWII. He was a Now?: New Deal "Security" anarchist literature, and Kropotkin's works - pacifist and could not bring himself to support the (Libertarian Publishers, 19-). especially the Conquest of Bread, Mutual Aid, and war. The standoff between the pacifists and those Appeal to the Young - made the strongest who supported WWII in order to fight fascism impressions on me...my father, the Modern School, caused many groups, including Abe's, to fall apart. and Kropotkin's writings - combined to shape my The controversy led to massive inactivity among anarchist upbringing." the anarchists, and Abe became less and less involved. When Abe left Stelton for public school he became valedictorian of his junior high class like so many During the post-WWII political era, Abe worked as Stelton students before him. His family then left for a reporter for the Jewish Daily Forward and the New York City, eventually moving into the American Labor Union. In the 70's, Abe helped Amalgamated co-ops (a housing development) in edit News from Libertarian Spain and worked with the Bronx. After graduating from City College, the Libertarian Book Club. At this time, Abe Abe encountered the Libertarian Center and mostly made his living in the social services and, participated in the Vanguard Group, a prominent for a while, managed the United Housing anarchist group during the thirties. Within this Foundation, an organization that included the forum Abe began to grow into his own as an Amalgamated co-ops where he had lived as a anarchist and test the political currents. teenager.
As a young, questioning anarchist, he confronted Though he became less active as he grew older, his the established beliefs of the older generation. He constant passion for the spirit and ideals of described himself as having "the arrogance of anarchism stayed with him throughout his life, and youth and ...criticized the more Utopian aspects of he sought to instill them wherever he could. Abe, anarchism and of libertarian education." Yet, Abe when interviewed in 1972, said: "the answer lies was responding to the need for anarchism to be primarily in education - 'freedom through April 1, 1937 (aboard the critical of the present and not just rely on the past. education', as Elizabeth Ferm (one of the founders Atonia): Abe Bluestein & Selma Cohen on their way to Spain.* However, Abe did not give up anarchism, but of the Stelton School) put it. All my life I have put immersed himself in the movement and its my faith in trade unions, cooperatives, and controversies. education as constructive channels. Is this * Photo courtesy of the Labadie inconsistent with anarchism?" Collection, Special Collections ~ Rebecca DeWitt Abe was an editor of the anarchist magazines Library, University of Mich Vanguard and Challenger, and recalled how the igan. Special thanks to Julie anarchists "conducted forums, lectures and made Note: Abe Bluestein's comments are taken from Herrada, who also provided the Paul Avrich's Anarchist Voices: An Oral History soapbox speeches on street corners, getting into bibliographic information. fights with the Communists all the time, protected of Anarchism in America (Princeton, 1995) PerspectivesJL on anarchist theorv
... Radical Professor Continued shut down a radical directly, but rather indirectly, Recommended Everywhere you turn today the capitalist bottom through what look like the routine application oi Reading line is taking over. Let me give an analogy. academic standards and the routine competition for scarce funds. Oh sure, you are always subject to the ... continues from page 1 Recently two university professors from Uruguay established hierarchies of other professors and (e.g., the contemporary U.S.) spoke to my department about the problems of administrators who will decide your case, and they for collapsing our ideas of developing a successful research university in their may well be more in need of a radical lesson than citizenship and identity into country. They were concerned with the quality of your students are. But today it is easier not to hire narrow bureaucratic channels. the science faculty, but the same can be said of any someone in the first place, or not to support Looking at some contemp faculty: (1) to achieve prestige, one must meet someone in the competition for scare prestige and orary identity: politics,. Brown international standards, and (2) to do research, one support, than it is to say someone is too radical and finds what Nietzsche called must have funding. The dilemma is that, for (1), risk one's own reputation, no matter how small the 'ressentiment' a debilitating international standards pull scientists way from risk. Only 1/4 of college instructors have tenure, politics in which 'paralyzing addressing specifically Uruguayan problems, and, and 1/2 of the positions at four-year universities are recriminations, arid toxic for (2), given the financial status of Latin American filled by adjuncts! resentments.., [parade] as countries (old hands at dealing with the IMF radical critique' (p. xi). She restmcturing that now focuses on Southeast Asian But the deepest irony is that the necessary challenges feminism to be rad countries), funding for science is increasingly condition for being a successful radical professor ical; to contest the dominant international - read, "foreign capital" - pulling tends to drop out of the picture along with the terms of debate ratherthan just scientists away from Uruguay as well. The old minimization of teaching. Let me now explain. ^demand a share of the existing one-two punch, as we say. pie." A Facilitator in a University Context "The second book enacts I am sure I do not need to spell out this analogy, I understand being radical, first, as getting at the this process of contesting the though certainly one thing to note is that (2) is root questions underneath the answers we live out dominant terms of political increasingly a factor in (1), no matter where you in the routine of our society and, second, once debate. In Streets of Hope: are. I was joking the other day, as a take-off on the successful in the first phase, as living these The Falland:Risebf:anUrban renaming of Albany's sports and entertainment questions. In the course of my career I began to Neighborhood;(South End,: arena as the Pepsi Arena, that soon a university will present this understanding as having a radical 1954), Peter MedofTandMdlly become the Pepsi University. But the sponsor does conscience. I did not want my students to think that Sklar givea hands-on account not need to be up front, after all, to exert control. to be radical they needed to change their routine of the rebuilding of a blighted (See, for example, Peter Montague, Rachel's answers. No, they needed only to have radical urban aream -Boston by its Environment and Health Weekly #581, January 15, consciences: little birdies in their heads, so to udetenrimed.TesTdents. The 1998.) speak, chirping the root questions, reminding them Dudley Street Neighborhood that it is always possible to change their answers. Initiative brought together a Academic standards that you must meet for tenure, racially and ethnically diverse and continue to meet every year for raises, It is no easy task to keep this possibility alive. For grpup of residents to fightiiot promotions, and so on, are inevitably going to pull example, one day - yikes, now over 20 years ago! - only City Halibut capitalism you in the wrong direction. Blind peer review, for my first child came home from elementary school, ;and racism, ;?as;*we]l. They example, is a conservative process, working along and asked me why the boys were told to get off the confront the specific .obstacles the established hierarchical lines of a profession. bus first and help the girls off. She had noticed that and dilemmas familiar to most But longer odds do not mean no odds at all. And she was bigger than a lot of the boys, and that she people who have attempted here people who stress writing or speaking will could have helped them off. What a root question radical political; change on a have better chances than those who do not. at 6! But what happens if no one in her life helps 4ocal scale: friere.are endless Teaching, let alone helping young people to be her to keep it alive? What will she be like by the negotiations with funding ready for a radical lesson, is not high on university time she is a first-year college student? organizations,-city agencies, agendas these days. state and federal authorities, To be a facilitator of such young people, however, local landowners, banks, and Gaining support for your research is part of you cannot teach root questions, no matter how courts. While Brown's book is meeting standards for tenure and so on, even in the well you have developed them - and your helpful for pushing us to think humanities. And again the funding process is alternative answers - in writing or speaking. If radically (that is, to go to the problematic in the same way that the scholarship anything could be said to be the motto root of our ideas) about power process is. The IAS itself is an excellent example of George Dennison's First Street School - an and freedom, Street's of Hope of the right idea: provide some funding, no matter anarchist experiment (The Lives of Children, sketches concrete examples of how little, that will also count for professional Random House, 1970) - it was that "learning is not such radical pushing against review. the result of teaching." (See John Schumacher and our society's, dominant David Wieck, "Childhood and Authority: An institutions." So, it is not so much that a university will try to Continued on Page 12 10 Perspectives•JL on anarchist theory
The IAS's 1997 Fundraising Campaign 1998 Fundraising The following groups and individuals made the IAS's 1997 fundraising campaign a complete success. Campaign Their generosity enabled the IAS to meet its $8500 fundraising goal and thus award $6000 in grants, publish two issues of Perspectives, and build the IAS endowment by 10 percent of every donation. The IAS needs your support: wemustraise $9200.by January Diva Agostinelli* Paul Glavin Gabe Metcalf Julia Smedley 1998 to award $6000 in grants, Randall Amster Michael Glavin Cindy Milstein Sidney & Clara Sandy Baird Audrey Goodfriend Caroline Morse Solomon publish two issues of Per- Marc Bernhard John Gruchala spectivesy and continue building Chuck Morse Bob Spivy & the IAS endowment. Phil Billingsley Luz Guerra Casey Orr Beverly Naidus John Buell Cindy Haag Charles Perrone Patti Stanko Please help make this possible Dan Chodorkoff Matt Hern John Petrovato Rose Sterling Tom Copeland by donating to the IAS. Your Brian Hebert David Porter Peter Sills & Susan contribution will enable the IAS Cindy & Katy Crabb Dennis Henke Megan Reynolds Thomas to help authors confront some Deema Crassy Julie Herrada Eugene Rodriguez Brian Tokar of the most .difficult questions Daniel Dewees Thomas Johansson Stanley Rosen Anthony Walent raised by anarchism and radical Rebecca DeWitt Jerry Kaplan Bruno Ruhland Dana Ward social theory. Your donation Maura Dillon Jenifer Kinkele Richard Schramm Yvette West will^lso make itpqssible for us Miranda Edison Andrew Lee & Jon Scott Dave Witbrodt to publish Perspectives "and - Rebecca Ellis Elizabeth Wolf Autonomedia, Bound Together Books, Rainbow because we place fS^percent of Elizabeth Elson Elaine Leeder Books Coop, Kate Sharpley Library, Social Ecology every donation; in! the IAS, Paula Emery Robin Lloyd** Working Group, Social Anarchism, Pacific Street endowment - -make sure^tfiere Tony Epiceno Joe Lowndes Films. are resources for /future Richard Evanoff Michelle Matisons & generations-of radical writers. Colin Everett Gardner Fair Manuel Ferreira Peter McGregor * This donation is in honor of David Wieck. As an IAS donor you'll receive David Freedman Patrick McNamara ** This donation is in honor of Henry Demarest Lloyd. Perspectives, the lAS*s„ bi Please Note: The IAS is particularly indebited to Phil Billingsley, John Buell, Dan Chodorkoff, Miranda annual newsletter. Also, if you donate $25 or more, we'll send Edison, Micheal Glavin, Robin Lloyd, Michelle Matisons, Caroline Morse, Jon Scott, and John Petrovato. you at least one of the great books listed c% %is -page. fafimi Donations are ^-deductible for US citizens. Perennial Books - one of the best booksellers around - has generously donated the following books to the IAS in support of our efforts to raise money for anarchist scholarship. Those listed :iiere have either • For a $25 donation to the IAS, we'll mail you Martin Green, The Origins of Nonviolence: donated or pledged a donation to the IAS's 1998 fundraising any one of the following books. Tolstoy & Gandhi in their Historical Settings • For a $50 donation, we'll send you any three. (Penn State, hardcover, pp. 256). List: $27.95. campaign: Dan Chodorkoff; • For $100, you get all of them! Rebecca DeWitt, MauraDillon, Frank Harrison, The Modern State: An Anarchist Miranda Edison,;Patilafeiery, Paul Glavin^ Michelle "Mat- Kathryn Pyne Addelson, Impure Thoughts: Essays Analysis (Black Rose Books, paper, pp. 225). List: on Philosophy, Feminism, & Ethics (Temple $13.99. isons, Cindy Milstein, Caroline University, paper, pp. 256). List: $16.95. Morse* Chuck -Morse, John Jerome Mintz, The Anarchists of Casas Viejas Petrovato, Elizabeth'Sullivan, Patrick Coy (ed.), A Revolution of the Heart: (Indiana University, paper, pp. 336). List: $13.95 John-Schumacher, and the Kate Essays on the Catholic Worker (Temple Uni Sharpley Library. versity, hardcover, pp. 388). List: $39.95. Graham Purchase, Anarchism & Environmental Survival (See Sharp, paper, pp. 156). List: $10. Please make checks payable to Barbara Epstein, Political Protest & Cultural Rev the institute for -Anarchist Studies and mail mein|to:^; . olution: Nonviolent Direct Action in the 1970 's & Osugi Sakae, The Autobiography ofOsugi Sakae 1980's (CA Univ., hardcover, pp. 327). List: $30. (California University, paper, pp. 167). List: $14. •IAS' "... % Perennial is also offering a 15% discount on items in their extraordinary catalogues to anyone donating $25 or more P.O.Box.TOSO | to the IAS. They have an extensive collection of discount books on anarchism, Marxism, cultural studies, radical Albany, New York", history, gender studies, and radical social theory. To receive a catalogue write Perennial at P.O. Box B14, Montague, 12225-USA v MA 01351, or call 413- 863-2902. (Please state your subject interests when requesting a catalogue.)
11 Perspectivesi. on anarchist theorv
... Radical Professor Continued well, the culmination is a circle of reporting in Anarchist Theory," Human Affairs, 1983.) The which all sides of a root question become evident irony of the radical classroom is that students must to the participants. be free from the necessity of believing what the ... continued from page 1 professor says, or of doing what the professor asks It is precisely in the context of this kind of them to do, just because the professor says or asks conversation that I am freed to give a radical important lessons that the it. Yet because of the authority of power routinely lesson. Instead of being just another requirement - Zapatista struggle has to offer invested in our school teachers, all of us tend to or teaching - what I say is simply my contribution contemporary anarchism. Chris resist this radical ideal. to the conversation. Everyone will hear it! And, is currently in Chiapas, Mexico. ideally, the conversation will never stop, if only as Students have to ask root questions, again, in a way little birdies in peoples' heads. Occasionally people SI200 to Matt Hern and Stu that sticks with them, in their consciences! Because who are not my students come into my office just Chaulk for The Myth of the you cannot require someone to do this, that is, you because a class conversation carried over to the Internet: Private Isolation and cannot require someone to be free from your dorms. Or a former student writes years later to Local Community. This book authority — and here is the heart of anarchism — make my day: the chirping birdies got another will use a radically democratic, the authority of power is necessarily counter person to join the radical conversation - a domino anarchist perspective to invest productive. You must learn how to exercise merely effect. Indeed, 1 am a domino effect of one of the igate and critique the social and the authority of competence, though not even this best radical professors ever: David Thoreau Wieck cultural repercussions of the authority is required: my favorite technique is to (see the obituary I wrote in the last IAS Internet. It will argue that, while turn a class around a root question I myself am still Newsletter). the Internet appears to be a working on so that I am not tempted simply to "tell medium for genuine commun the truth"! As Caroline Estes (Social Anarchism, Oh sure, it is important to have something radical ication and democracy, it is 1985) put the principle of consensus so well: to say or write, and to say or write it well. If you are actually undermining the very everyone has a piece of the truth, and no one has all choosing to be a professor to develop a radical arenas in which actual freedom of it. (See my "Questions for Students of Justice," critique of our society, that is fine, especially if you and democracy can flourish. forthcoming in Contemporary Justice Review, can get it published in a way that passes academic Matt and Stu live in Vancouver, 1998.) muster — hard enough, without the double British Columbia. whammy: it will be useless in the classroom unless Though I cannot go into detail here, the very it can be worked into your facilitation of root S800 to Melissa Burch for physical arrangement of class activities must work questions, and even then a simple joke with a Autonomy, Culture, and Nat independently of what I say or ask: by itself the radical heart is often heard more easily. Whatever ural Resources in the Neo arrangement must indicate that what happens you say or write, you will need to bring it alive in liberal Age. This piece will between the students, face to face, is crucial - what the conversation of your students. present a comparative critique I call "the osmosis method" (Human Posture: The of the domination of global Nature of Inquiry, SUNY, 1989; and "Our To be defensive against root questions or radical capitalism and its devastating Responsibility for the Furture in Higher lessons is to fail to be inspired by Paul Goodman's effects on the local culture in Education," The Raven Quarterly, 1991). My concept of drawing the line (Drawing the Line, three regions: the Mexican State favorite technique here - the perfect complement to New Life Editions, 1977). Students and professors of Chiapas, the North Atlantic asking an unanswered root question - is to break alike must draw the line beyond which they will Autonomous Region of the students into small groups, preferably of 4 or 5 simply not give routine answers, but realize how Nicaragua, and the state of like-minded students, to work out their take on the the authority of power is implicated in these Vermont. It will bring to light root issue in question. If I facilitate this process answers. Lots of people, in lots of places, need to the fundamental incompatibility draw the line. For the most part, this has to happen of the neoliberal model with an on its own. Oh yes, you and I can help, again authentic, local, and ecological through the domino effect, and perhaps through our culture. Melissa lives in - Perspectives writing and speaking, but, again, there are lots of Plainfield, Vermont. , „«„.*»^«-«- JL on anarchist theory people and lots of places that are not likely to hear of us. We must have faith that, facilitated or not, If you are interested in applying :: v.u:-L-: Subscription Rates enough people will develop a radical conscience. for a grant, please send a self- '.:.'.':".:.' :T'.".'£—'i':;: One Year/Two Issues addressed, stamped envelope to the IAS. You may also n\• - •:::.-*■ ' r.-.. .wr-: $5 - Individuals -:.\V j 1 •.:^.-;:;".':^.'': ~;~|'._~j:f.;~ $10 - Institutions download a grant application 'f^f'ttl MilpS™ $25 -Bulk Subs John A. Schumacher is a Professor of Philosophy from the IAS's web site at: http:/ :••'" '?■:■ ~^:"^..:. (25 Copies) in the Department of Science and Technology /members.aol.com/iastudy/ Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is Default.htm. Grant deadlines are 12