Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Volume 8, Number 2 – Fall 2004 Price $5.00 Act Like Nothing’s Wrong—Nicolas Lampert

2 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Volume 8, Number 2 – Fall 2004

Welcome 4

ARTICLES What’s Happening: Books & Events by Chuck Morse 5 “Walking We Ask Questions:” An Interview with John Holloway by Marina Sitrin 8 Testimonio by María Esther Tello 12

IAS WRITERS The Resurrection of Vampiro by Ramor Ryan 14

BOOK REVIEWS Days of Crime and Nights of Horror by Ramor Ryan 17 From Theater Groups to Bank Robberies: The Diverse Experience of Uruguayan Anarchists by Astrid Wessels 22 Remembering Frantz Fanon by Kazembe Balagoon 28 “The World Is Made Up Of Stories, Not Atoms” by Uri Gordon 34 Reading Class: Something of the Who, What, Where, Why, When and How of Consciousness by Andrew Hedden 38 The New Anti-Imperialism by Chuck Morse 44

FEEDBACK Is There a Postanarchist Universality? A Reply to Michael Glavin by Saul Newman 49 Anarcho-Pluralism: A Reply to Saul Newman by Michael Glavin 53 Joel Schalit Responds to Sureyyya Evren 55

IAS UPDATES Summer 2004 Grants Awarded 56 Grant Updates 57 The IAS’s 2004 Fundraising Campaign 58 Latin American Archives Project Update 61 Great Books for IAS Donors 62 Contributors 63

Editorial Committee Subscription Rates Michael Caplan, Chuck Morse, Andréa Schmidt Subscriptions are free for IAS donors. USA and Canada: $10 Copy Editors U.S. per year. $15 U.S. per year all other countries. Institu- Chuck Morse, Alfredo Pérez, Andréa Schmidt tions $20 U.S. per year. Bulk copies are available at a dis- count. Please make checks payable to: Layout and Design Michael Caplan Institute for Anarchist Studies 73 Canterbury, D.D.O, Québec, Canada H9B 2G5 IAS Board of Directors Ashanti Alston, Alexis Bhagat, Paul Glavin, Brooke Lehman, 1 (514) 421-0470; [email protected]; Cindy Milstein, Chuck Morse, Darini Nicolas, John Petrovato www.anarchist-studies.org IAS General Directors The views expressed in Perspectives do not necessarily Michael Caplan, Andréa Schmidt represent the views of the IAS as a whole. Perspectives on Anarchist Theory is published by the Institute for Anarchist Studies.

fall 2004 / 3 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Welcome

his issue of Perspectives goes to press to the relentless invigorating weekend of discussion and debate. sounds of empire encroaching. It is the sound of US Our newsletter, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, has also T fighter planes bombing cities across occupied Iraq, and grown, as you may already have noticed. This issue is a special the drone of the helicopters that shadow our borders to prevent experiment; it is a merger of Perspectives with The New Formu- people from crossing them. By the time you read this, the heli- lation: An Anti-Authoritarian Review of Books, which the IAS copters policing the skies of New York City will have dispersed, adopted as a project last winter. The merger was partly driven by along with the hundreds of thousands who came to protest the practical concerns, but it also reflects the developing aspirations Republican National Convention, but the deepening struggle of the IAS, and of the movement(s) it serves. between popular movements and the executives of empire and When it was first published eight years ago, Perspectives exploitation will persist. sought to make a case that theoretical inquiry could be related in Those of us involved in the Institute for Anarchist Studies relevant and even vital ways to anarchist practice, and to encour- (IAS) understand our support for the development of anti-au- age the development of forums and institutions in which such thoritarian visions as a modest but indispensable contribution to theorizing could take place. these movements, and I offer this account of our recent efforts in Sixteen issues of Perspectives later, it seems unnecessary to a spirit of solidarity. continue arguing this point; there is clear interest and participa- The IAS underwent an internal change in July, when the tion in theoretical debates and projects from a range of anti-au- board voted to make me co-director with Michael Caplan. I look thoritarian tendencies. We’re faced instead with the question of forward to collaborating with Michael and the rest of the board what sort of publication would best contribute to nurturing those in order to support the IAS and its various programs and projects. debates, and best support the interventions of a range of voices The IAS’s granting program is central to our mission, and reflecting on the theoretical questions at hand. The provisional with that in mind, I am happy to announce that we are making merger is one step in that direction. significant progress toward meeting our 2004 fundraising goal. In this issue, you’ll find the usual IAS updates incorporated This year we need to raise $24,000 to sustain our granting pro- into a more substantive publication that includes IAS grantee gram and other projects. At the back of this issue of Perspectives, Marina Sitrin’s interview with John Holloway, author of Change you will find more information about how to donate to the IAS the World Without Taking Power; an excerpt from Ramor Ryan’s and about the great books that donors will receive thanks to the forthcoming book Clandestine Voyages Through the Global Rebel good people at Raven Books. Please donate to the IAS today if Underground (for which he was awarded an IAS grant in July you have not already done so. 2002); María Ester Tello’s first person account of participation It is with pleasure that I report that the IAS awarded $4,875 in Resistencia Libertaria, the clandestine Argentinean anarchist in our summer round of granting, in support of three important group; as well as book reviews and debates sparked in past issues and exciting projects. Congratulations to Melissa Forbis and of the New Formulation. Cale Layton, who were awarded a grant for their project, Anar- We would very much appreciate your feedback on this merger. chist Trade Unions in Bolivia: 1920-1950; to Trevor Paglen for his Should it be permanent? Are there features that you would project, Recoding Carceral Landscapes; and to Stevphen Shukaitis like to see in a future IAS publication? Or particular themes who received an IAS grant for his project, Between Sisyphus and you would like dealt with? Please email your comments to Self-Management. Please see page 56 for more information about [email protected]. these projects. Above all, we hope you enjoy this experimental issue of Per- The fourth annual Renewing the Anarchist Tradition confer- spectives, and that you will consider supporting the IAS as we ence, co-sponsored by the IAS, will take place on the last week- continue to develop forums in which to build radical visions of end in September, at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. free and just societies. RAT organizers (and IAS board members) Cindy Milstein and John Petrovato, have put together a rich program of panels and presentations, and this year RAT will double in size, welcoming up to two hundred participants. We hope to see you there for an

4 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

What’s Happening Books & Events

by Chuck Morse

HE WINNER of the next US presi- dential election will ascend to the T heights of power in an empire beset by deep crisis. Internationally it is entrenched in conflicts that it can neither win nor lose and domestically it has only a tenuous grip on the legitimacy neces- sary to secure its rule. It is at war, which is the eternal companion of revolution. Anarchists can help turn the former in the direction of the latter by radical- izing the growing discontent with the established order and by deepening the integrity of the alternatives we advance.

THE BATTLE OVER BAGHDAD by economic and political interests, with Meeropol (et al) focuses on the wave of raq remains a flash point for global little regard for human rights. He traces racial profiling, detentions, and deporta- I capital and its mercenaries and thus the events of the past decades, beginning tions unleashed by the government after should be studied with urgency by with the West’s support for the highly the terror attacks of September 11th. It anti-authoritarians. In Oil, Power and repressive Shah of Iran, his subsequent brings together detainees’ own testimo- Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda usurpation by the Ayatollah’s Islamist nies with a comprehensive framework Larry Everest explores the history of US regime, and the West’s consequent sup- for understanding the issues outlined intervention in Iraq and its devastat- port for Saddam Hussein and his regime. by constitutional scholars working for ing consequences for the people and the Sponsoring Saddam’s tyranny—a self- their release. Going beyond the prevail- region. He shows how the present war is serving tactic intended to provide a stra- ing accounts to a detailed exploration of continuous with that history, but also a tegic counterbalance to Iran—included detention—the forms currently in use, radical leap toward more direct military supplying him with technology to build and the conditions of each—the authors control in Iraq and around the world. weapons of mass destruction as well as authoritatively refute its alleged justifica- He argues that the “Bush Doctrine” is tacit complicity with his government’s tions, while pointing to its human costs built on the US’s imperial history and use of them against Iranians and Kurds (Seven Stories, 2004, 120 pages). Super- yet also new and uniquely dangerous (New Society, 2003, 368 Pages). Chris- patriotism by Michael Parenti provides (Common Courage, 2003, 224 pages). tian Parenti’s forthcoming The Freedom: context by examining how hype, fear, and Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed’s Behind The Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied mindless flag-waving supplant informed War On Terror: Western Secret Strategy and Iraq should also be worth consulting debate and commitment to democracy the Struggle for Iraq shows that the true (New Press, December 2004, 160 pages). and social justice. Parenti explores ques- goals of US-British policy in the Middle tions such as: What does it mean to love East are camouflaged by spin and can LOCAL CONSEQUENCES one’s country? Why is it so important only be comprehended with knowledge wo new books treat dimensions of to be “Number One”? What determines of the history of Western intervention in T the war at home. America’s Dis- America’s “greatness”? What is the mes- the region. He demonstrates that such appeared: Secret Imprisonment, Detain- sianic message behind so much national- intervention has been ruthlessly dictated ees, and the “War on Terror” by Rachel ism? He also examines how US leaders

fall 2004 / 5 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory and media fan the flames of fear to win tivist movements across North America. the tradition as a whole, Spanish readers support for huge arms budgets, military Antliff was awarded a grant by the IAS will want to check out Anarquismo Para interventions, and global aggrandize- in January 1997 in support of his Anar- Principiantes (Anarchism for Beginners) by ment, as well as to insure political ortho- chist Modernism: Art, Politics and the First Marcos Mayer with drawings by Sanyu doxy at home and abroad. Challenging American Avant-Garde (University of (Longseller, 2003, 176 pages). the nationalistic hype propagated by offi- Chicago Press, 2001, 292 pages). Similar Two small new books attempt to cialdom, the media, the sports world, and aspects of the North American anarchist broaden anarchism’s theoretical sweep. the military, Parenti argues for policies movement will likely be covered in the David Graeber’s Fragments of an Anar- at home and abroad that genuinely serve soon to be released Anarchism in America: chist Anthropology explores the links be- the needs of humanity (City Lights, 2004, an updated version of the 1982 tween anarchism and anthropology and 2004, 168 pages). documentary by Pacific Street Film’s Ste- tries to imagine what a truly anarchist ven Fischler and Joel Sucher (see http:// anthropology might look like (Prickly TOWARDS A NEW VISION www.psfp.com/ for more info). A more Paradigm Press, 2004, 100 pages). I Am he renewal of anarchism that has exclusively theoretical treatment of the Not A Man, I Am Dynamite! Friedrich Ni- T occurred in recent decades needs new movement can be found in Chang- etzsche and the Anarchist Tradition, edited to be appreciated in its fullness. Only a ing Anarchism, an anthology edited by by John Moore, contains eleven essays Beginning: An Anarchist Anthology, com- Jonathan Purkis and James Bowen. This that claim to find an anarchist perspec- piled and edited by IAS grant recipient collection attempts to reposition anar- tive implicit in Nietzsche’s work and/or Allan Antliff, is the first comprehensive chist theory and practice by documenting the Nietzschean impulse in historical and overview of anarchist theory and practice contemporary anarchist practice and by contemporary anarchism (Autonomedia, in North America from 1976 to the pres- providing a viable analytical framework October 2004, 192 pages). ent (Consortium, November 2004, 352 for understanding it. The essays it con- pages). Lavishly illustrated with original tains, written by academics and activists, THE LIVING TRADITION artwork and photographs, it documents raise challenging questions about the AS grant recipient Murray Bookchin over a quarter-century of grassroots ac- complex nature of power and resistance I has released the third volume of his tivism, including protests and gatherings, to it. Areas covered include: sexuality Third Revolution: Popular Movements art exhibitions, street theater, Internet and identity; psychological dependency in the Revolutionary Era. This major sites, and squats, as well as specific move- on technology; libertarian education; four-volume project is a comprehensive ments such as environmentalism, anti- religion and spirituality; protest tactics; account of the great revolutions that globalization, feminism, queer rights, mental health and artistic expression; and swept Europe and America during the indigenous struggles, and prisoners’ the ongoing “metaphorical wars” against past three centuries. Throughout the rights. Included are the histories of ma- drugs and terror (Manchester University work, he places emphasis on the popu- jor anarchist journals as well as essays on Press, December 2004, 256 pages). For lar movements that propelled the great specific anarchist practices relevant to ac- a short and very general introduction to revolutions to radical peaks, the little-

A poetic barricade proclaiming “Existence Resistance” thwarts a line of riot cops during protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Québec City, Canada, 2001. Photo from We Are Everywhere by John Jordan

6 / fall 2004 What’s Happening: Books & Events known leaders who spoke for the people, and orator whose scathing critique of FROM THE SOUTH: THEN AND NOW and the liberatory social forms to which hypocrisy in all realms of life and politics atin America is rich in struggles the revolutions gave rise. This volume would eventually capture the attention L against capitalist globalization. At begins with the Russian Revolution of and imagination of America. Likewise, 634 pages, Ya Basta! Ten Years of the Za- 1905, moves to the crisis faced by in- The Voltairine de Cleyre Reader, which is patista Uprising, will provide the most ternational socialism at the outbreak of the first collection of de Cleyre’s work comprehensive collection of English the Great War in 1914, and then to the published since 1914, brings together translations of texts by Subcomandate Russian Revolution of February 1917, the best of de Cleyre’s writings, includ- Marcos and the EZLN. It is edited by the Bolshevik Red October, and the ing never before published material. Ziga Vodovnik, and includes Forwards crucial German Revolution of 1918–19 From acclaimed essays like “Anarchism by Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky (Continuum, 2004, 416 pages). The final and American Traditions” and “The (Consortium, 2004). Cochabamba! Water volume will explore of the Spanish Revo- Dominant Idea” to lesser known pieces Rebellion in Bolivia by Oscar Olivera re- lution of 1936-1939. In 1997 Bookchin on feminism, marriage, direct action, lates the selling of the city of Cochabam- was awarded a grant by the IAS to sup- education, and other topics, this fully an- ba’s water supply to Aguas del Tunari, port his research for this work. notated collection captures the breadth a subsidiary of US-based transnational Two major figures in the anarchist and intensity of de Cleyre’s literary out- Bechtel, the subsequent astronomical tradition will now be easier to study put. It is edited by A J Brigati, with an rise in water prices, and the refusal of thanks to the appearance of a pair of introduction from Barry Pateman of the poverty-strapped Bolivians to pay them. new releases. The second volume of Emma Goldman Papers Project (AK It explains how the people organized an Emma Goldman: A Documentary History Press, 2004, 256 pages). opposition and recounts the dramatic of the American Years, edited by Barry Matthew Thomas’s Anarchist struggles that eventually defeated the Pateman, Candace Falk, and others, Ideas and Counter-Cultures in Britain, privatizers. Olivera also reflects on the will appear in November (University of 1880–1914: Revolutions in Everyday themes that emerged as a result of the California Press, 2004, 430 pages). This Life should offer a valuable corrective to war over water, such as the fear and volume, Making Speech Free, 1902-1909, often superficial treatment of anarchist isolation the Cochabambinos overcame chronicles Goldman’s pivotal role in cultural achievements (Ashgate, January through a spirit of solidarity and mutual the early battle for free expression. It 2005, 256 pages). This book examines aid and the challenges of democratically highlights the relationship between the how British anarchists effected change administering the city’s water (South development of the right of free speech through the creation of counter-cul- End Press, November 2004, 160 pages). and turn-of-the-century anarchist ideas. tures and networks of co-operation and The early history of anti-authoritarian The enactment of anti-anarchist laws self-organization. It looks at their con- movements in Latin American is slowly and the organization of groups in protest struction of alternative institutions and being documented. Cristina Guzzo’s occupy center stage among the primary cultures: free schools, which encouraged Spanish language Las anarquistas rio- documents. The volume also presents learning by desire and responsiveness to platenses, 1890-1990: Ensayo investigativo Goldman’s evolving attitudes toward vio- individual needs; factories based on the (Anarchist Women of Rio Plata, 1890- lence in both its European and American principles of self-management and work- 1990: Investigative Essay) studies a cen- contexts, the emergent revolution in Rus- ers’ control; communes, which pooled tury of anarchist women’s activism in the sia, and the beginnings of the Modern resources and shared skills; and revolu- River Plate area of Argentina, Uruguay, School educational movement in Amer- tionized personal and sexual relations. and Paraguay (Orbis Press, 2003, 104 ica, the social significance of European Thomas argues that while the anarchists pages). It explores the contributions of modern drama, and the right of labor to did not realize their long-term aims, they Virginia Bolten, Juana Rouco Buela, Sal- organize against unfair working condi- did go some way towards revolutionizing vadora Onrubia, and Luce Fabbri. For tions in the United States. In addition, the everyday life of individuals, through a introduction to Latin American anar- the volume features the early evolution the diverse strategies they mobilized to chism as a whole, Spanish readers will of Goldman’s magazine, Mother Earth, expand human freedom in the here and welcome the re-edition of David Viñas’s which promoted the blending of modern now. By analyzing the various anarchist long out of print Anarquistas en América literary and cultural ideas with her radical counter-cultures, Thomas demonstrates Latina (Anarchists in Latin America), and social political agenda and became a that anarchists were at the forefront of which offers a very topical overview of platform for the articulation of her femi- campaigns that challenged the existing anarchism in the region (Paradiso Edi- nist critique, an expression of her inter- social, economic, and cultural values of ciones, 2004, 242 pages).  national reach, and a marker of her desire British society. to spread anarchist ideas beyond the immigrant left. Making Speech Free also tracks Goldman’s emergence as a writer

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“Walking We Ask Questions” An Interview with John Holloway

by Marina Sitrin

OHN HOLLOWAY and Marina Sitrin Marxism. Of course, this idea was very tempts to change the world through the exchanged questions, answers, and much bound up with the experience of state have failed. The collapse of the J more questions during the month 1968, of the struggles in the 1970s and of Soviet Union made that very clear. But of August. John Holloway is the au- the anti-Poll Tax movement in Britain in it is not just the so-called “communist” thor of Change the World Without Taking the later 1980s. countries—it’s also the experience of the Power (Pluto Press, 2002) and co-author I came to live in Mexico at the be- reformist or social-democratic govern- of Zapatista! Rethinking Revolution in ginning of the 1990s and so was lucky ments all over the world. Lula in Brazil Mexico (Pluto Press, 1998). Marina enough to be here when the Zapatista is just the latest in a long line of disap- Sitrin is completing an oral history (in uprising took place. That transformed pointments. Spanish and English) of the autonomous everything, of course. It put previous But it’s more than that. It’s not just social movements in Argentina, a project theoretical reflections and fragmented that all the “Left” governments have for which she received a grant from the experiences in a new context. Here was a failed to realize the expectations of their Institute for Anarchist Studies. major movement saying clearly “we want supporters. It is also the experience of The following interview is an ap- to make the world anew, but we do not activists that building for taking state petizer to various theories, experiences, want to take power.” power involves us in a bureaucratic, hi- and questions as well as an invitation to Like millions of others, I felt and feel erarchical, alienating sort of politics that further exploration of our theories and that that is absolutely right. But how do is a long way from the sort of society practices. we make sense of it? What does it mean that we want to create. Directing our in terms of the way we think about the anti-capitalist anger towards winning in- world, and about power in particular? fluence or power within the state means Could you explain what events or activities How can we change the world without channeling our activity into the logic of in your life brought you to the point where taking power? power, and the logic of power is the logic you are now doing considerable theoretical of reconciliation with capital. as well as practical work on the question of Exactly. Your questions are mine, and I There is another reason too for people power and, specifically, to challenge the con- imagine those of countless others around the turning away from the state. And that cept of taking power? world, especially now. Over the last ten is that the state itself is changing. The years, and the last few in particular there are growing aggressiveness of capital means think the most obvious starting point more and more people in communities and that there is less and less possibility of Iis a theoretical one. Trying to think movements who are saying: “no, we do not achieving any sort of meaningful reform about the state from the perspective of want state power.” For me Zapatista com- through the state. The welfare state Marxist theory, I got into the so-called munities in Chiapas, and the autonomous was a way of integrating people into the “state derivation debate,” a mainly Ger- movements in Argentina are reflecting this system, but there is now very little room man theoretical debate that took place in not only in their ideology, but also in their for that. I don’t think we should try to the early 1970s. The main emphasis in practice, or are showing it in their practice re-create a welfare state, but rather build the debate was on trying to understand and the ideology is following. What do you upon the anti-state space that is opened the state as a specifically capitalist form make of all sorts of people all over rejecting by the narrowing of the state itself. of social relations. Although the actual the idea of taking power and particularly participants in the debate developed this the Argentines and the Zapatistas challeng- Your response makes me smile, a reminiscent, notion in different directions politically, ing it concretely? Why now? though not so happy one. (Were you never to me it always seemed clear that the im- a Guevarist or a Trot?) I was once among plication of the debate was that we could hy are more and more people the ranks of those who think that the only not think of revolution as taking place W turning their back on the state way to rid ourselves of capitalism and its through the state, or in other words, that now? Partly I think it is a question of horrors is to overthrow the state and replace we had to try and develop an anti-state accumulated experience. All the at- it with something else, something better of

8 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

course. I no longer think that we need to, or in fact should, take power. As a friend in the movements in Argentina reminds me, what would we do with it even if we had it? “The concept of taking power is an archaic one, and not something we want. We are going back to the neighborhoods.” I have so many questions, and am not sure where to begin. At the most fundamental level, what do we want? What do we create For more than a year Zapatista women in Amador Hernádez have demanded daily that the Mexican as we are struggling against centrism and military leave the communal village landholdings. Photo from We Are Everywhere by Tim Russo. the state? What do we do when the state comes into our communities? I believe in what we do is so tightly integrated with the depth of the social relations of sup- prefigurative politics, but then what do we what others do. The drive to collective port that they have woven both in their do when the state comes in and tries to shut self-determination should be the guiding own communities and beyond. The same us down? This is not so much an abstract principle, the utopian star that lights up can be said of the piqueteros, or of some question, as one based unfortunately more our questions and our experiments. That of the Social Centers in Italy, or lots of and more in the realities of the Argentine means, of course, an anti-state politics, other struggles. MTDs (Movimiento Trabajadores Desocu- not in the sense of having nothing at all pados—Unemployed Workers Movement) to do with the state (which would be very I believe each day more and more people and the Zapatistas. difficult for most of us), but in the sense around the world agree with the vision you of recognizing that the state is a form of are reflecting with your words. I believe as think we have to start by admitting social organization which negates self- well that this is part of a new politic, based Ithat we don’t have the answers. The determination. in new experiences. Do you see this articula- fact that we think that taking state power What do we do when the state tries tion as new? While new, I do not believe is the wrong way to go does not mean to shut us down? I think violence is one anything is absolutely new, and that ev- that we know the right way. Probably of the central problems. How do we erything is related in some way to previous we have to think of advancing through confront state violence? Not by trying to experiences, thoughts and feelings. What do experiments and questions: “preguntando gain control of the state—simply because you think? What sort of influences does the caminamos” [“walking we ask ques- control of the state always turns out to be current movement(s) draw upon? I ask both tions”], as the Zapatistas put it. To think control by the state; and not by confront- about articulated ideas as well as feelings of moving forward through questions ing violence with violence, both because and experiences. rather than answers means a different we would lose and because that involves sort of politics, a different sort of or- us in a sort of politics that reproduces ne thing that is new and exciting ganization. If nobody has the answers, what we are struggling against. But then O about the re-articulation of ideas is then we have to think not of hierarchical what? Self-defense is important in many that the old divisions between anarchism structures of leadership, but horizontal cases, not so much to “defeat” the state and Marxism are being eroded. The fall structures that involve everyone as much forces as to make it unattractive for them of the Soviet Union and of the commu- as possible. to intervene. But the most effective nist parties has given a new momentum What do we want? I think we want form of self-defense is the density of the to the long and distinguished tradition self-determination—the possibility of social relations that the struggle weaves. of heterodox Marxism. I am thinking of creating our own lives, the assumption What has protected the Zapatistas is not people like Bloch, the young Lukács, Pa- of our own humanity. This means col- so much their organization as an army shukanis, Adorno, Marcuse, Pannekoek lective self-determination, just because (though I don’t dismiss that) but rather and the whole tradition of council com-

fall 2004 / 9 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory munism, the Italian autonomists. These state from society). That means under- mean to folks that are in different stages of for me are the most exciting influences, standing struggle as being rooted in ev- creation? How do we speak of being anti- but clearly Hardt and Negri, Foucault, eryday experience, and that includes af- political, while a lot of our work is in the Deleuze and Guattari are also important fective relations. That implies a different realm of talk? How do we give expression to voices in the current development of the understanding of the meaning of theory, rebellion in our every day experiences? And, movement. and of the relation between theory and how do we not get impatient? experience. It means too, of course, a Your response, while I agree with it, also radical critique of Leninism. ut I think we should get impatient. I makes me wonder about the various ways One of the most important things B think we have to be impatient. The theory is articulated. For example, in many that the Zapatistas say is “we are ordinary state means patience, in both senses: pa- MTDs in Argentina people are talking people, that is to say, rebels.” I think that tience in the sense of waiting, waiting for about the importance of organizing first is, theoretically and politically, the most the next election, waiting until we build from a base of affection, “política afectiva.” challenging statement of the whole Zap- the party or organization that can win, As well, many in the autonomous move- atista uprising. influence, or take state power; patience ments speak of “horizontalidad” (horizon- How do we understand rebellion to be too in the sense of passivity, in the sense talism) as a tool and a goal for their rela- an everyday feature of ordinary people’s of accepting to be the objects and not tions as well as vision. To me, these are not lives? How do we give expression to that the subjects of social change. We cannot only styles of organizing, but are theories as rebellion? wait: the process of human self-destruc- well. Do you think there are different and tion is too rapid. Also we cannot wait new ways of articulating theory? Yes, anti-political. My friend Cándido is because waiting is in fact active complic- part of an occupied printing press in Buenos ity: we make capitalism every day and es, Raúl Zibechi puts a lot of em- Aires. He is quite explicit in stating that he we have to stop making it. Refusal. The Y phasis on “política afectiva” in his is not political, and yet is part of a horizon- first question is how are we refusing and book on the Argentinean revolt, Gene- tally run factory and spends his spare time how do we strengthen those refusals? alogía de la Revuelta [Genealogy of the Re- speaking to workers all over about how they And refusal means impatience, breaking volt]. I think that’s very important. For too can take over their work place. Anti- time, breaking history. our struggles to be strong, I think that political. This feels much more clear to me But the obvious problem with refusal they must be anti-political, in the sense when discussing movements that are at a is that, if we refuse to serve capital, we of aiming to overcome the separation of high level of creation, such as the Zapatistas, are threatened with starvation. Subor- politics from everyday life (that is, anti- the Argentines, South African autonomous dination to capital is our access to the political if one understands the political groups, the Sem Terra Movement in Bra- means of survival. If we refuse to sub- to be constituted by the separation of the zil and others. What does anti-political ordinate ourselves, how can we survive? Here I think refusal has to be comple- mented with developing an alternative doing, a doing through alternative social relations. And yes, here it is a question of patience. This is the difficult part. But the patience has to be understood as reinforcing the impatience, not as sup- pressing it. Traditional revolutionary theory is the other way around: we must wait till the time is ripe, wait for the next major crisis of capitalism, wait until the party is built, and so on: impatience is subordinated to patience. I think that’s the wrong way around. Patience has to be subordinated to anti-capitalist impa- tience, the wisdom of experience must serve the impatience of youth. This double temporality is very clear in some of the major movements today. The Zapatistas say ¡Ya Basta!, but also Zapatista insurgent stands guard at the first InterGalatic Encounter For Humanity and “caminamos, no corremos, porque vamos Against Neoliberalism in rebel territory in Chiapas, Mexico. Photo by Tim Russo. muy lejos” [“we walk, not run, because

10 / fall 2004 “Walking We Ask Questions” we are going very far”]. In Argentina to address the gap I feel when reading theory things that point against-and-beyond too there is the impatience of the ¡Que about autonomous movements and how peo- capitalist social relations: love, friend- se vayan todos!, but also (at least some ple in these movements speak of their experi- ship, solidarity, mutual recognition, groups) a very strong sense of the im- ences. It is not an academic reflection versus dignity —all these fundamental aspects portance of doing things at their own an experiential one, but different languages of humanity that exist in spite of and, rhythm—that part of constructing an that are sometimes used to address similar increasingly, in open opposition to capi- alternative community is constructing an situations…. I will think on it more. talism. We cannot think just of “life after alternative temporality. Another question. Many hundreds, if capitalism” (as the conference in New I’m not sure if that answers your ques- not thousands, of people have been orga- York this weekend proposes), nor just in tions about smaller movements, but I feel nizing in New York over the past months terms of “life in spite of capitalism” (as that a similar logic applies—first refusal, against the Republican National Conven- the alternative European Social Forum then grounding that refusal in alternative tion, focusing particularly on Bush and the in London proposes). We have to think creation. To resist is to create, as our Ar- Iraq war. While many are saying “No” to in terms of life against-and-beyond gentinean friends say. Empire etc., there is also energy being placed capitalism. For more and more people, in trying to vision what we want, what our the most basic things in life (love, play- It does answer much of the question, while “yeses” are. What do you think of organizing ing with children, spending time with not prescribing. It brings one back to “walk- around Party conventions and the electoral friends) are becoming more and more ing we ask questions”. process more generally? Is it worth any time difficult to reconcile with capitalism. I have been thinking more about the or energy? Can one organize against the Beyond that, clearly the upsurge of earlier discussion we were having on the electoral system without somehow engaging struggle over the last ten years (especially different expressions of theory in our move- the state? Does Bush, et al, make any differ- since the Zapatista uprising of 1st Janu- ments, and still, well, wonder. I wonder ence in this conversation? ary 1994) is an enormous source of hope, why the articulation of these theories is not in part because it is so deeply rooted in being written, almost at all, by those in think there are bad states and worse everyday practice. the movements. I also wonder, then, if this Istates, bad governments and worse reflects a difference in approaches to theory. governments. And clearly the Bush And what do you dream? Historically there have been many social government is one of the worst and yes, protagonists reflecting upon their struggles, it is important to defeat it. In general I here’s a lovely answer to a similar ranging from Ricardo Flores Magón, Eliza- think it is important for us to set our own T question given by Marcos when beth Gurley Flynn, and Fredrick Douglass, agenda, to have our own sense of time, being interviewed in connection with to Louise Michel or Steve Biko. Does this but there are occasions on which we some film festival. He says he dreams question make sense? I guess I am wonder- have to try to turn the spectacle against that one day we can all live in a cinema ing why so few folks in the movements are the spectacle, to do everything possible programme (cartelera—how do you say writing about their experiences, and if this to show our disgust and refusal and to that?) where we could choose to live a represents a different approach to written present an alternative vision of a possible different film each day—the Zapatistas ideas. Are Negri and the Zapatistas really world. It is inevitable that we engage rebelled because they have been forced talking about the same things? Is it a ques- with the state: the important thing is not to watch the same film for the last five tion merely of articulation? to reproduce the logic and the forms of hundred years. organization of the state in this engage- I think that’s a lovely answer because ’m not sure that I understand the ment. it points towards absolute self-determi- I question. I think people are writing nation. Self-determination (that is, social about their experiences. Marcos, for What sorts of things in the world give you self-determination, because there can be example. Or in Argentina the Colectivo hope? no other) means liberation from the past, Situaciones together with the MTD liberation from history, the capacity to Solano. Probably a lot of what is being ny hope today has to be hope re-create ourselves completely each day. written is just on the internet. A against hope: hope that, in spite of (It also means assumption of our own Are Negri and the Zapatistas really all that points in the direction of human humanity with all the responsibility that talking about the same things? That’s self-destruction, we will be capable of that implies.) It’s hard to imagine a com- another question. Perhaps they’re talking creating a better world, a world worthy pletely self-determining society, because about the same things from quite differ- of humanity. Hope against hope but yes, it would imply living with a fullness and ent angles. definitely hope: being human means that intensity that is hard for us even to imag- we constantly drive towards the creation ine. That’s my dream.  I realize I may not be clearly articulating the of our own humanity. question, but feel it nonetheless. I am trying Hope lies in everyday life, in all the

fall 2004 / 11 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Testimonio

by María Esther Tello

N THE SPRING of 2003 The New Formulation published an interview with Fer- who were supporters of anarcho-syndical- nando López about Resistencia Libertaria, a clandestine anarchist organization ism or the anarcho-communism of the I founded shortly before the Argentinean military seized power in 1976.1 This FORA of the Fifth Congress.4 organization engaged in militant opposition in the labor, student, and neighborhood Although the Voluntad group dissolved, arenas, and also had a military wing with which it financed and defended itself. The my husband, myself, and other comrades group was crushed in 1978 and 80 percent of its more than 100 members perished in continued our activity in La Plata in a very the dictatorship’s concentration camps and torture chambers. López had been an ac- similar vein. Our group was clandestine tive member of Resistencia Libertaria (RL) and our interview with him was the first and did not have a name. Its methods of published account of RL’s history in any language. action were, in my opinion, more individu- Shortly after that issue appeared The New Formulation received a letter from María alist and intellectual than rooted in the Esther Tello. Writing from France, she informed us that she had been a member working class. Nevertheless, our diverse of RL and was the mother of three activists mentioned by Lopez: the beloved Tello ties—which had more of a friendship than brothers, who were among RL’s most active militants and now, like so many others, organizational character—permitted me to “disappeared.” meet and in some cases maintain friend- Her letter was forwarded to Argentinean comrades, our interview was made avail- ships with outstanding figures of Argen- able in Spanish, and Tello visited Argentina in the fall of 2003. Long overdue discus- tine anarchism, such as the aforemen- sions about RL occurred there and old bonds between comrades who had not seen tioned González Pacheco and Uriondo, one another in years began to be renewed. It was an honor to know that The New the anarcho-syndicalists Umberto Corre- Formulation had contributed to that process. ales and Carlos Kristof, and the veteran of The history of RL, and all the losses associated with it, must never be forgotten. the Spanish Revolution, Manuel Palanca, We publish the following testimony from Tello as a small attempt to help ensure that and his admirable companion Carmen. it is not. This was during the final period of Chuck Morse Perón’s rule. Perón was deposed in 1955 by a military coup that brought general Lombardi—a fervent Catholic—to power, MY FIRST CONTACTS WITH LIBERTARIAN als. It was dedicated to the distribution who in turn was later replaced by Aram- ACTIVISM of propaganda coming from the FORA,2 buru and the admiral Rojas. This was a was born in La Plata and the greater or what survived of it, to [the creation of ] powerful time for me. My comrades, who Ipart of my professional life transpired illegal murals (pintadas murales), and to were primarily from the University of La there. I worked in public education, theoretical discussions based in the clas- Plata, discussed the possibility of join- as a teacher in rural schools as well as sical literature. Our material came from ing the armed commandos—led by the in schools in working class and middle the Editorial Reconstruir and from La center-left and above all by the Radical class neighborhoods. I was also a school Protesta and Acción Directa or La Antorcha. Party—who were to come out in opposi- inspector in rural and urban areas and a Our most respected figure was Rodolfo tion to a possible working class uprising social worker of the Department of Uni- González Pacheco, in whose vacation in support of Perón. I knew the reality of versity Extension. This is to say that I house I met Emilio Uriondo, an anarchist these workers, through my students and was always linked to the disadvantaged or expropriator who had formed part of As- from own family, whose lives had been proletarian sectors of my country. caso and Rosigna’s group.3 objectively improved by the social laws I was very young when I entered into At that time, and much later as well, introduced by Perón—the Christmas bo- anarchist activism. At fifteen years old, marked opposition to Peronism and its nus, the loans for housing, the paid vaca- I began to link myself with an anarchist depiction as a fascist movement was char- tions, the support for health care—and I group called Voluntad (Will), together acteristic of the anarchist movement. It is also knew that the improvements in their with someone who later became my hus- for this reason that our practice remained conditions were not due to the struggles band and the father of my three disap- remote from the working class—which of their unions but rather were conces- peared sons. This group was made up of was largely Peronist—except for the rela- sions made by Perón to his supporters, in a dozen comrades who, for the most part, tions we maintained with the naval con- order to better manage them later. But, were university students or profession- struction workers and the plumbers’ union, still, they were authentic benefits that had

12 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory never been obtained—trying to suppress French May, as well as the more or less the dictatorship], which a group of Ar- them was to oppose the working class that close links with the old anarchist com- gentines had created in Paris. Later I was defended, in Perón, conditions of life to rades, were the breeding ground of ideas a member of and contributed to founding which they doubtlessly had a right. A lit- and debates. The Department of Archi- other solidarity groups that fought for tle later that military government executed tecture of La Plata was also a hotbed of the disappeared as well as Argentine and loads of workers, intervened in unions, groups and Left tendencies, and the place French prisoners. In 1978 my other two censured the press… from where many militants emerged who sons, Pablo Daniel and Rafael, were disap- I was the only woman in that group for joined the labor movement in some cases peared, together with Hernán and Elsa a long time, although we were joined by or the armed struggle in others. This is Ramírez and other RL comrades. La Turk Elsa Martínez, Amalia Peralta—Argen- how the initial group expanded, incorpo- was executed in 1976. tina’s first woman guerrilla, as a member rating young men and women that came I returned to Argentina in 1984 and of the Peronist Uturunco group, which from other tendencies or who were begin- joined the Madres de Plaza de Mayo she joined after leaving ours on friendly ning, more often than not, their activist of La Plata. That same year, I initiated terms—and other young women on a lives. Couples, who soon had children, a trial against those responsible for the temporary basis. This group eventually also emerged, which created strong links genocide. I first did this in Argentina and, became inactive and disappeared. and a sense of solidarity among all of these when then-president Ménem announced youths. the pardon of the military and police BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF Given the organization’s cellular struc- criminals, I returned to France, where I RESISTANCIA LIBERTARIA ture that we were obliged to maintain now live. I have again taken legal action ablo Daniel, my oldest son, entered during various military governments, I against those responsible for the genocide, P the Department of Engineering in never joined the same cell as my sons. We this time in the French courts. I am pres- 1967 and studied there for a year or two also did not discuss what occurred in RL ently a member of the CNT, to which I before going into architecture. He was ac- within the family, although sometimes we make a modest contribution.  tive in the student movement of La Plata shared responsibilities and resources. and twice arrested by the police during The particular composition of our Translated from Spanish by Chuck Morse. student demonstrations. group, with an equal proportion of women He and two other comrades began the and tasks not differentiated by sex, of- 1. Chuck Morse, “Resistencia Lib- nucleus of what later became Resistancia fered little ground for feminist objections. ertaria: Anarchist Opposition to the Last Libertaria. At the beginning it was a Macho attitudes seemed out of place and Argentine Dictatorship”, The New Formu- student group of three comrades—Pablo, totally untenable. I remember our dear lation Vol. 2, No. 1 (February 2003): 75- Tino, and el Tano—but little by little oth- Perinola and Elsa Martínez confront- 88. ers were incorporated. In the middle of ing the police during the repression of a 2. The FORA is the Federación 1969, my other two sons, Marcelo and demonstration in La Plata with the same Obrera Regional Argentina, an anarchist- Rafael, and their partners joined. Marcelo ardor and efficiency as their male com- led labor federation that played a leading studied theater and Rafael studied phi- rades. These two died tragically and their role in social struggles at the beginning of losophy in the Humanities Department. memory always fills us with emotion, as the 20th century. There was also myself, Perinola, Cristina, well as that of Yogurt and Cristina. 3. See review by Astrid Wessels la Turca, Yogurt, Hernán and Elsa (who Inside the organization, self-manage- in this issue for comments on Miguel had been part of the group from the ment was an essential and undisputed Rosigna. Francisco Ascaso was a Spanish 1950s), and others, many of whom I did practice. It functioned as a style of life and anarchist, best known for his close associa- not meet directly (I note here that half of as a solution to everything we embarked tion with Buenaventura Durruti. us were women).5 upon. I think that we all shared a strong 4. Tello refers here to the specifi- Almost all had finished or abandoned sense of fullness, of living thoroughly, of cally anarchist wing of the FORA, which their university studies, joined the work loving ourselves, and of loving the struggle emerged as the result of a split in the orga- force, and entered into labor struggles. In and all that it embodied. nization. the beginning, the organization was struc- 5. In a private letter, Tello explained tured around two areas of engagement (fr- ACTIVISM IN EXILE that “Yogurt” received his nickname “be- entes)—neighborhood and labor—and the ome weeks before the military dicta- cause he was very young when he joined group grew with the integration of other S torship took power in March 1976, my our organization, almost a boy “that would militants from Buenos Aires and especially son Marcelo disappeared. We were per- have to drink milk.” As for “Perolina,” Córdoba, who enriched it in every sense. secuted and I had to stay in France where this name was an “allusion to her strong Our home and library was the center I went in exile, on the decision of my RL inclination to ingest all types of liquids, of operations and study. The events of group. There I joined in the activities of alcoholic or not, and without order or Córdoba in 1969, the references to the the Support Committee [for victims of preference.”

fall 2004 / 13 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

The Resurrection of Vampiro

by Ramor Ryan Caracas, Venezuela, 1992

In July 2002, Ramor few days ago Ryan was awarded an during campus IAS grant to complete protests. She his forthcoming book, was popular, and Clandestine Voyages needless to say, Through the Global her death totally Rebel Underground. unwarranted. He has generously The mood of allowed us to preview the assembled a sample of that work students is sad. here. But that grief is transformed into rebel resilience EOPLE SPOKE and renewal of him in prompted by P quiet revered the passionate, tones. “Wait until infectious you meet Vampiro”, performance by they said, or, “things Autonomía and will become clearer their fiery cheer- when you speak to leading singer. Vampiro....” The obligatory Caracas chant El pueblo University radicals unido jamás seemed united in será vencido is their high regard transformed into for this legendary a ska-ed up bop. anarchist. And there And the show is he is now, on stage, closed with the the lead singer of a people chanting ska band Autonomía. and clapping and He is tall, skinny dancing as if they and dark-skinned, had just won all wearing a red and their demands black stripped t-shirt and a holiday to and black drainpipes, Cuba to boot. de-rigueur punky- Venezuela in mod style—topped 1992 was in a with short spiked state of turmoil. hair. He fills the The Pérez stage with his mischievous swagger and respond hundreds of young voices in government was acting as handmaiden the audience sings along every song like return. to IMF policies that were devastating an unruly choir. It is an afternoon memorial concert the economy. The cost of basic foods “Viva Anarquía!” he screams, “Viva!” for a student leader shot down a doubled overnight and riots broke out.

14 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

The military was sent in and hundreds is suitably staunch and heroic. That movement. With Vampiro, it was his of citizens were shot down in the streets. she was “a burning inspiration,” “an open spirit and sharp, immediate analysis Now the Pérez regime was hanging on unfaltering militant fighting for justice,” of the situation. And he embodied by tender hooks and revolt was palpable. these kinds of things. all that was seductive about the rebel The students were in the thick of it, and Then strangely, Vampiro’s voice milieu—smart, vigorous and passionately the campus was virtually a revolutionary breaks. He stops amidst the homology. committed to some great mysterious autonomous zone. The police were His head sinks. His clenched fist moves ideal. violating the traditional institutional to his nose. An uncommon silence grips autonomy of the university by entering the auditorium. OF A FRIDAY NIGHT IN and engaging in pitched battles with “And,” he says quietly, “...she was my BLACKOUT BOOKS rebel students determined to drive lover, and I will never forget her....” ome years later, three Venezuelans them out. Casualties were rising. A There is a strange rumble in the S walked into Blackout Books, the dozen students had been killed since crowd. Claudia’s boyfriend, surrounded New York Anarchist bookstore. It the uprising began. Military tanks were by a group of consoling mates, looks was my Friday night shift and I was stationed permanently outside the front quite aghast. And Vampiro launches arranging the Latin America section. A gates. into a slow song, like an Irish lament, a conversation began and it appeared they Inside the sprawling campus, all sorrow-filled, haunting ballad of love and were earnest anarchists who seemed concrete and steel—that depressing desertion, most uncanny for a ska band. to know everything regarding South modernist architecture—it was clear the Next day, I met him, the famous American revolutionary struggle. I think students were in control. Every wall Vampiro, and he was back to his upbeat, it was something of their aura of total was draped with graffiti and banners charismatic self. He is delighted to assuredness of the righteousness of their proclaiming allegiance to this or that meet a compañero from Ireland and cause that reminded me of someone I revolutionary organization. Tables immediately presents me with one of had met in the past, someone who also were thrown up everywhere as the the bundle of books he is carrying—one generated this complete sense of no- rainbow of movements and political on campesino struggle in the Venezuelan inner-conflict. parties hawked their line. Students of Highlands. I am bowled over by his “Compañeros” I asked, a shot in the various faculties met in assemblies and warmth and openness, one of those dark, “do you remember a compa called thrashed out issues and strategy. There people who make you feel spontaneously Vampiro who was active in Caracas in was a perceivable energy of revolt, as if embraced by their rich character. But the early 90s?” everyone was onside and down with the such are the likes of the popular Vampiro, “Hmmm.” A pause. The three program. Music played everywhere in that before we can really talk, he is looked pensive. the university, and it didn’t seem like besieged by a horde of friends, well- “A fine comrade,” said one. much studying was going on. Students wishers and admirers. We had enough “He had a lot of guts and balls,” said milled about and the cacophony of voices time to talk politics and he warned of another. filled the air with clamor. Everyday life the authoritarian tendencies within “Almost a local legend, no?” said the on the campus had become an ongoing the current rebellion. “This people’s third. rebellion. insurrection runs a very real risk of been “What happened to him?” I asked, Back at the auditorium, the crowd hijacked by a populist demagogue...” he hoping not to hear the worst. is chanting and demanding an encore. said, “We need to encourage and support They conferred amongst themselves. Autonomía return to the stage to much the barrio assemblies....” “Calle Insurgente?” applause. Vampiro takes the mic and And he was off, caught up in the “Maybe Calle Bolívar?” commands everybody to hush. Slowly urgency of the moment that was the “But they removed all the bodies, and carefully, Vampiro picks his words. 1992 rebellion of Caracas. Sometimes nobody was sure....” His eulogy for Claudia, the slain student, a figure personifies a moment, or a One turned to me. “We believe he

fall 2004 / 15 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

fell during the 1993 uprising. Was he a friend of yours?” I felt a horrible chill, and my heart dropped. “No, not really. I met him that was all....”

CHÁVEZ AND THE PUNK ROCKERS ugo Chávez was elected President H of Venezuela in 1999. He was one of the conspiring military officers in the 1993 uprising. Chávez was imprisoned, and subsequently released. He seemed a strange bedfellow on the streets that summer of insurrection in Caracas with struggle was at a low ebb. A remarkable GRACIAS A LA VIDA the likes of Vampiro and the anarchists. looking punk, dressed up in some And I thought of Vampiro, and his spirit But such is revolt; it takes all sorts quasi-Siouxsie and the Banshees Nazi of resistance, his legend. Compañeros and all forms. Chávez led a populist look, spoke to me in a quite incoherent whom we cherish and whom we miss. government, associating with Cuba, Caracas street vernacular. “Echando Why do all the best people perish? while at the same time accommodating vaina” punctuated her every sentence, Sometimes Latin America overwhelms the IMF and global capital. Anarchists street talk for something—what, I had no you, because it is a long history of like Vampiro were once again out in the idea. She passed over some inflammatory courage cut down, valiant aspirations streets protesting Chávez, but not with liquid and I felt its heat boil my insides. destroyed by brutish repression. Like a the bourgeois counter-revolution. These anarchists, although activists, were long opera falling inexorably towards a Caracas had also become an clearly, at this time, not. fatal finale, replenished with sufficient increasingly dangerous capital, the streets The drink overwhelmed my sense passion to sustain a sense of horror. We wrought by criminals and muggers. I of returning to Caracas and made me embrace the tragedy, because there is returned in late 1999, traveling from sentimental. “Is this what the rebellion nothing else left, just horror. Brazil. Our hosts, a bunch of strung out of 1993 was fought for?” I asked, “He must be dying of boredom up anarchists, put us up in their fortified referring to the Chávez Populist regime there in the mountains,” said one. apartment. Fortified because the area and our drunken revelry. “Years and years, doing nothing,” they lived in, near the city centre, was “No, no, no!” they said most said another. plagued with anti-social problems. With definitively, stumbling around. “Fucking school teacher,” said the its steel door and inner security bars, the “And talking of 1993, do any of you third. place resembled a jail. Inside there was remember a compañero called Vampiro?” “Echando Vaina,” said the Banshee, nothing to rob, there was little by way A pause. “Hmmm,” they said. “all these years, Vampiro, a rural of furniture, just a record player from “The singer from Autonomía!” said teacher.” which Crass and other dirge emanated, one. I smiled. Vampiro’s resurrection. Not extremely loud. The anarchists were “A good street fighter,” said another. all Latin American resistance stories atrociously drunk, falling around the “Disappeared, a long time ago, have a tragic ending.  place, but also falling over themselves echando vaina ?” said the Banshee to make us feel welcome and at ease. They were sound people, but clearly the

16 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Days of Crime and Nights of Horror

by Ramor Ryan

A STORMY NIGHT…. on the edge, to roam, to discover life by HE WILD Pacific Ocean pounds A review of: engaging the subterranean springs and the shore of the tiny Guatema- discover in the immediate present the lan port town of Champerico. Days of War, Nights of Love: CrimethInc revolution of everyday life. In this sense, T (CrimethInc Workers’ Overrun by gangs and drugs, Cham- for Beginners today’s little adventure—with its com- perico gets one line in the guidebook: Collective, 2001). ponent parts of love, conflict, rescue, and sweltering, dilapidated, dangerous—best resolution—was a moment of engaging avoided. My kinda town. Here, among Days and Nights of Love and War by life critically, a CrimethInc-esque situation the ghosts of Guatemala’s terrible recent Eduardo Galeano (New York: Monthly of sorts. This from the section entitled history and the tumultuous daily life of Review Press, 1983). “H is for History:” “If we dare to throw a lawless, desperado town as far removed ourselves into the unknown and unpre- from shopping mall America as can be dictable, to continually seek out situa- imagined, is a good location to begin CrimethInc, here is a place off the global tions that force us to be in the present considering the two books in question. map, a dérive from the usual, a place full moment, we can break free of the feelings Galeano’s book is a journal and his- of adventures and stories where books of inevitability and inertia that constrain torical memory of two decades of strug- could write themselves and one could, in our lives—and in those instants, step out- gle and perseverance in Latin America, the Situationist sense, take their dreams side of history.”2 I didn’t feel myself lifted revolving around the pivotal moment of for reality and really live. outside of history, but I understand what the military coup in Argentina in 1976. Days and nights of love and war in- they are getting at. CrimethInc’s book is a “cosmology” of deed. Strolling along the beach at dusk But as a prescription for rebellion, is radical criticism of contemporary US one evening, I came upon a middle-aged it enough to merely “shake off the dead (and Western European) society that couple in the midst of some appalling weight of the past” and “place our selves articulates a position of total rebellion drunken melee. The man slapped the and our present day existence where they toward everyday life. “Are there ways woman’s face, dramatically ripped off his rightfully belong, in the centre of our of thinking, acting, and living that may clothes and stumbled into the turbulent universe?”3 be more satisfying and exciting than the sea in what appeared to be a quite pa- Here Galeano’s wisdom, born of real ways we think, act, and live today?”1 is thetic attempt to drown himself. The struggle, of real days and nights of love the question they pose by way of intro- woman screamed and turned to me, hap- and war, is instructive: “Will we be capa- ducing their provocative tract. While less bystander, pleading that I rescue the ble of learning humility and patience? I Galeano’s book emerges from the New flailing man from the dangerous surf. am the world, but very small. A man’s Left, 1968 revolutionary wave, and Somewhat reluctantly, I entered the sea time is not history’s time, although ad- CrimethInc from the anarchist resur- and dragged the inebriated fool to safety. mittedly, we would like it to be.”4 gence of the 1990s, they are linked by We dragged the naked man by his heels their cut and paste aphoristic style, and up to a beachside bar; his head left a STEALING BEAUTY AS RECYCLED SHIT filled with vignettes, tales and nuggets of comical trail in the sand. The woman, f course, it is unfair to compare revolutionary or radical wisdom. Both who turned out to be the owner of the O CrimethInc’s rag-tag collection embrace philosophy and morality as bar, was apoplectic with gratitude, and of plagiarized ideas with Galeano’s rich weapons within a political superstructure. furnished me with endless sea food and testimony to struggle and survival—but Champerico evokes the spirit of both rum and a bevy of tales about her eclectic they brought it on themselves by inap- books. The fear and terror described life, while Mr Suicide slept off his dis- propriately ripping off his title for their in Galeano’s book lingers interminably grace. book. everywhere in a Guatemala struggling I remembered the incident as I ap- Why do CrimethInc call their book to deal with the aftermath of 30 years of plied myself to writing this review. Days of War and Nights of Love? There brutal internecine war. And in terms of CrimethInc implore us to live our lives is no war and scant love (maybe a little

fall 2004 / 17 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory teenage infatuation) in this tract. Instead martyr, nor cloaked in the sublime mystic we’re really fucking doing it!—giving out there is boredom with the world they of a clandestine revolutionary, but as a phony free tickets to the local cinema.9 live in, and a quest for something else, an kind, humble man: “I close my eyes and It soon becomes clear that the real crime impatient desire to live in a completely again see Raúl in front of the campfire, here is the way they plunder some of the different world. Galeano’s beautiful on the banks of the Río Uruguay. He finest and most invigorating ideas from title, which captures well the theme and lifts a live coal to my lips because, bun- the end of the 20th century, and render content of his work and evokes the fine gler that I am, I have let my corn husk them dull and inchoate. poetic sensibility of his prose, is typically cigarette go out again.”6 inappropriate for the CrimethInc book. CrimethInc employ the symbols of LOVE AND WAR IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST They should have called it something armed struggle—guns, bullets, grenades, ossibly the most creative and like The ABC of CrimethInc (Anti-) Ideol- petrol bombs—for no reason other than P probably the only original idea in ogy, a more fitting title for such a pedes- their spectacular effect, something like CrimethInc’s book is a blurb on the back trian, navel-gazing tract as this. the way advertising appropriates sex to cover written by JD Salinger:“If Henry The misrepresentation continues sell products: “This book is composed Miller had gone to fight with the anarchists with the images adorning the covers—a of ideas and images we’ve remorselessly in Spain while Orwell sought the caresses of masked Zapatista and a grenade—sug- stolen and adjusted for our purposes.…”7 beautiful women in France, and they had gesting some kind of handbook of guer- And what purpose would this be? Ger- collaborated to write a manifesto on war rilla insurgency. But CrimethInc for man RAF urban guerrilla Ulrike Mien- and love, this is the sort of book they might Beginners is no guerrilla manifesto. And hof, murdered in Stanheimn prison, is have produced…” However I think that it Galeano’s book is full of tales is Galeano, not Crime- of masked guerrillas with thInc, who has produced grenades, but this book is not that sort of book, and a handbook of insurgency it is Days and Nights of either. If anything, it is the Love and War. opposite—a grim chronicle of Like Orwell, Ga- the follies of armed struggle. leano has taken up arms Those who resist are not portrayed in portrayed with these incoherent words against fascism, in this case, the Argen- the heroic mode, à la Che, but as very pasted over her image: “You will find tinean dictatorship. As he flees for his ordinary men and women, flawed and your only safety is in danger—Crime- life, he finds solace in exile in the arms weighed down by their inevitable tragic thInc.”8 The mindless desecration of her of a variety of extraordinary women destiny. He spends a few days with memory to make a fatuous point reminds from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic some guerrillas in Guatemala: “They me of a joke. What do you get if you of Capricorn. For obvious reasons he were very young…the army was on their cross a situationist with a mafioso? A doesn’t spell out his direct involvement in tail and they told dirty jokes and roared guy who makes you an offer you can’t un- the armed movements in Argentina and with laughter… We slept on the ground, derstand. And what do you get if cross a Uruguay, although he does write about hugging one another, bodies glued to- CrimethIncer with a situationist? A bad a visit to a guerrilla camp in Guatemala gether for warmth and to keep the early photocopy of a good book. and conversations with Cuban veterans morning freeze from killing us…. Are Text, ideas, and graphics are borrowed in the Sierra Maestro. As he drinks fine any of the boys I met back then in the and pilfered from the Stoke-Newington wine on summer nights overlooking the mountains still alive?”5 fanzine Vague, British graphic artist Clif- River Plate, boozes in back street taverns, Galeano talks about real life, real ford Harper, French situationist Raoul or barbecues in the countryside, all his people, real situations, and the psycho- Vaneigem and indeed, the whole of the cronies seem to be well known guerrillas geography of the battlefield of war and Situationist pantheon. They sack the on the run, clandestinos or comandantes love. In the end, it seems like almost all archives of radical sub-culture to com- with a tale or two to tell. of Galeano’s friends, comrades, acquain- pound a falsehood, the basic premise of Galeano has been described as the tances, and lovers had been disappeared, this book, that it is an instrument for finest Latin American non-fiction writer tortured, exiled, or damaged beyond “total liberation.” In reality, CrimethInc’s alive. He employs wonderful lyrical recognition. Galeano’s achievement vision seldom rises above that of a sub- prose that mesmerized readers in his is to rescue from this carnage a sense urban kid rebelling against authority. now legendary historical trilogy Memory of the dignity and gentle humanity of Mired in the punk rock and crusty sub- of Fire with even greater passion here, those who fell, or those who somehow culture, the practical application of all for now he is chronicling the history survived. See how he remembers Raúl this revolutionary theory is apparently not just of his continent, but of his own Sendic, the legendary Tupamaros guer- realized by forming a band, fucking in comrades, friends, family, and lovers. A rilla commander—not as a deified heroic a park, going vegan or—oh my God now scathing critique of the Latin American

18 / fall 2004 Days of Crime and Nights of Horror dictatorships is interspersed with inti- While CrimethInc would probably for yourself in its place is in your hands, mate vignettes relating the struggle and consider themselves a mixture of Miller’s although we have offered some general pain of his compañeros and compañeras. In libertarianism and Orwell’s direct action, ideas of where to start.…”14 quiet moments of introspection, his mind here they have written a book more akin And so what does CrimethInc offer? moves on philosophical themes—love, to Miller’s escapism and individualistic “F is for Freedom… In the summer of death, commitment, betrayal, good wine. nihilism. They too fiddle while Rome 1999, CrimethInc special agent Tristan The book is a testimony to surviving pain burns. There is no analysis of the macro- Tzarathustra...had eaten only garbage all and violence with a capacity for love and political situation; no capitalist globaliza- year as a consequence of his oath not to tenderness still intact10—a manifesto of tion, or US hegemony, or imperialism. participate in, add fuel to, or encourage hope despite the times, or dreams undi- Even US domestic issues—social control, in any way the economy of world capital- minished despite the sorrow. ism...”15 Oh dear. This guy would make Galeano is at once Orwell in a great naga sadhu, Hindu holy man, the Spanish trenches facing fascist stand naked on one leg up a pole for 20 bullets, and Miller, if not cavort- years, tow a freight train with his ing in lascivious depravity with penis, that kind of thing. Tristan Parisian whores, at least reveling Tzarathustra, crusty holy man. in the pleasure of nocturnal embrac- “H is for Hygiene.” The right es. Although even here, the shadow to be dirty, etc. “Try violating a of war haunts the joy of sex: “ ...Morn- few of the ‘common sense’ rules of ing comes and the aroma announces Western sanitation some time; you’ll tasty, steamy, freshly made coffee. Your find that eating out of garbage cans and face radiates a clean light and your body going a few weeks without a shower smells of love juices.... We count the aren’t really as dangerous or difficult as hours that separate us from the night to we were taught.”16 Try this for fun?! To come. Then we will make love, the sor- make a statement? Or as an experiment rowcide.”11 to feel empathy with the downtrodden? Salinger’s reference to Orwell and Eating out of garbage cans is not the Miller in the CrimethInc blurb refers answer to any thing except spectacular to Orwell’s famous essay, “Inside the depravity and in terms of CrimethInc’s Whale” (1940). Orwell reviews Miller’s general strategy, making feral love in a work and is appalled that the Ameri- graveyard under the stars is no fun with can, although a radical, is concerned really smelly people. solely with the celebration of individual “S is for space.... Try exploring in liberation. Miller, we learn, dismisses milita- riza- your own neighborhood, looking on Orwell’s notion of going to fight fascism tion, the war on rooftops and around corners you never in Spain as “sheer stupidity...the act of drugs, and the pris- noticed before—you’ll be amazed how an idiot.”12 Miller chooses the vagabond on system— don’t merit much adventure is hidden there wait- life of poverty and deprivation as a means a mention. CrimethInc’s anarchism “as a ing for you.”17 Endless days of war and of seeking personal salvation, cavorting personal approach to life” reflects Miller’s nights of love awaiting all you intrepid in the streets and whorehouses of Paris quietism and mysticism. Their quest for neighborhood CrimethIncers out there! in search of individual liberation while individual freedom in the form of squat- Don’t get caught! Europe burns. As the threat of Nazism ting, shoplifting, jumping trains, and Having disassembled the world, and Fascism loomed over Europe, Miller eating out of garbage cans could be con- CrimethInc leaves the rebel outside the had removed himself into the safety of sidered a way of living off the belly of the system, isolated and alone in personal the metaphorical belly of a whale, a com- beast, if not inside the whale. As tactics revolt, further from the general popula- fortable space to escape from the storm and strategy, these don’t get us very far tion without the social formation or outside. For Orwell, marching off to the toward the goal of “total liberation.” tools to start building collective projects trenches Spain from “a sense of obliga- Anticipating this criticism, a or the ability to organize concretely. In tion,” Miller’s stance is “the final unsur- CrimethIncer writes: “we have limited plagiarizing the Situationist pantheon, passable stage of irresponsibility.” “He is ourselves for the most part here to they have ignored the most relevant part fiddling while Rome is burning,” fumes criticism of the established order, because towards for really changing the world Orwell, “and unlike the enormous major- we trust you to do the rest. This book and aspiring towards “total liberation”: ity of people who do this, fiddling with is supposed to help you analyze and “Radical Criticism has merely analysed his face towards the flames.”13 disassemble this world—what you build the Old World and its negation. It must

fall 2004 / 19 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory now either realize itself in the practical CrimethInc are not socialists and the indicates that armed struggle achieved activity of the revolutionary masses or question that remains is whether they are nothing except getting everyone killed. betray itself by becoming a barrier to that indeed anarchists, or merely libertines. But this is not the lesson the book activity.”18 And then there is their irresolute intends to teach. Indeed, Galeano of- class analysis, stuck in at the end of fers no critique of the failures of the DETOURNING ANARCHY the C is for Capitalism section entitled resistance movement, or of its tactics and A is for Anarchy... You don’t want “Post script: A Class War everyone can strategy. He focuses solely on the car- “ to be at the mercy of governments, fit in.”22 The author argues that there nage wrought by the dictatorship. This is bureaucracies, police, or other outside is no class distinction before the misery understandable considering the massacres forces, do you? Surely you don’t let them of modern life, and that rich and poor and atrocities perpetrated against anyone dictate your entire life.”19 Surely? Firstly, share the same suffering: “It does not who didn’t support the regime, but a little this kind of self-righteous sermonizing matter if a woman is buried alive in a dishonest. For example, he lists con- sounds a lot better in its original French, prison, in a sweat-shop... in a prestigious tributors to his magazine Crisis who were and secondly, how can we be, like, an- university, or in a mansion with a private killed or disappeared.25 One is Rodolfo archists, if you keep telling us how we swimming pool, so long as she is buried Walsh. Walsh was a well-known writer, should be, Reverend CrimethInc? alive.…”23 This criminal assertion defies but the probable reason the state assas- CrimethInc feel the need to resur- comment. The writer concludes: “So we sinated him was that he was an officer in rect anarchism “as a personal approach to must all, rich and poor, band together the Montoneros. A number of successful life.” Here they are borrowing more than to transform our situation.…”24 Is this guerrilla operations have been attributed an idea, but a historical tendency that something Bono said to Bill Gates at the to Walsh, including the masterminding they are “adjusting for their own purpos- recent World Economic Forum? H is for of a canteen bombing that killed 42 cops. es.” “Anarchism is the revolutionary idea History and a long-standing problem of Galeano excludes this part of the story, that no one is more qualified than you are human history is that the rich have been no doubt to protect his comrades, living to decide what your life will be.”20 There unwilling to give up their wealth, privi- and dead—but the book suffers from are many definitions of anarchism, but lege, or power to the poor. It is a situa- an incomplete account of the events. It to reduce the definition to such a purely tion that the rich, even if they are miser- shies away from examining the armed personal sense is to do it a grave injustice. able in their mansions, have not been struggle and its consequences. We would Anarchism as a historical tendency, as a willing to change, which has given rise to be all the wiser if we were presented with form of anti-authoritarian community class struggle. “A class war everyone can the full picture. or workers’ self-organization is a concept fit in” is OK if you remember that the that CrimethInc throws out the window. rich and poor are on opposing sides. CHAMPERICO REVISITED Work is the problem for them, not how Here I can’t use Galeano’s book as ack by the Champerico sea, the plot workers organize. (Maybe workers are a stick with which to beat CrimethInc. B thickened. I returned to breakfast the problem for these freewheeling non- Galeano is not an anarchist and I search “on the house,” and an offer from the workers.) Days and Nights of Love and War for some gracious woman to come live with them. Movements too are a problem for indication of his politics but none reveals Mr Suicide appears, hung-over, and CrimethInc. This from CrimethInc itself, apart from the broadest possible somewhat sheepishly apologizes for yes- heavy-hitter Nadia C: “Total revolution anti-dictatorship, human rights agenda. terday’s incident. As we share breakfast, will not come merely as a result of proper This is a serious problem with the book. the woman explains that her husband planning and hard work but out of a leap One of the reasons the state went into was formerly a colonel in the Guatema- of faith.... Each of us must be faithful to overdrive was the fact that the resistance lan army. Now forced to live as a humble the yearnings of her heart for things too was really threatening their power. The fisherman, nobody treats him with the extravagant to ever fit in this world, and resistance, armed and widespread, in the respect he feels he deserves. She herself pursue them to such lengths that others form of the Argentinean Montoneros, the is from El Salvador, and I notice she is are inspired to their own pursuits. It is largest guerrilla army in Latin American, wearing a T-shirt supporting the Arena this alchemy we need, not another move- or the smaller Uruguayan Tupamaros, in- party—basically, the fascist death-squad ment.”21 Apart from the quaint mysti- spired by the Cuban Revolution and the party during Salvador’s long anti-insur- cism expressed here, the more perplexing Guevarista insurrectionary model, were gency war. thing is the idea that we don’t need to capable of destabilizing the state and So must we really, as CrimethInc organize together, or struggle together. even aspired to seize power. Kid gloves urge, “shake off the dead weight of the It’s enough that we inspire others to their were off, and all kinds of atrocities were past”? own pursuits. CrimethInc challenge the tolerated in the name of the saving the My spontaneous adventure on the truism that every anarchist is a socialist, “homeland” from communism. Galea- Champerico sea front becomes compli- but not every socialist is an anarchist. no’s testimony, without spelling it out, cated by the weight of contextual infor-

20 / fall 2004 Days of Crime and Nights of Horror mation. These people are not simply part name, and ends with the relentless of my rich engagement with the present merchandizing of “radical” products on ENDNOTES moment, but people with heavy pasts, their website. In between there is, as pasts that are intractably connected to exhibited by this book, an individual- 1. CrimethInc, Days of War, Nights of the killing fields of these places, and sud- ist, selfish, and inchoate rebel ideology Love: CrimethInc for Beginners (Cri- denly I regret becoming involved. May- that eschews work, political organizing, methInc Workers’ Collective, 2001), be I should have let the fucking drunken and class struggle. In a world at war 8. Colonel drown. and facing terminal crisis, CrimethInc’s 2. CrimethInc, Days of War, Nights of Galeano again, this time a soliloquy transcendental philosophy and ahistorical Love, 113. on the state’s solution to eliminate resist- lightness is a form of intellectual mas- 3. Ibid., 114. ance, that is as relevant to the Argentine- turbation. Like rootless ex-pats uncon- 4. Eduardo Galeano, Days and Nights of an and Uruguayan situations in the 1970s nected to the daily life around them, Love and War (New York: Monthly as to Guatemala and El Salvador in the CrimethInc’s lifestylism is a form of self- Review Press, 2000), 172. 1980s: “Extermination plan: destroy the imposed exile within their own society. 5. Galeano, Days and Nights of Love and grass, pull up every last living thing by Without a base, without a movement War, 23. the roots, sprinkle the earth with salt. to critique, they speak with a corpse in 6. Ibid., 43. To colonize consciences, suppress them; their mouth. It’s not enough to merely 7. CrimethInc, Days of War, Nights of to suppress them, empty them of the past. identify with the dispossessed; the task Love, 11. Wipe out all testimony to the fact in this is to find common voice and organize 8. Ibid., 259. land there ever existed anything other with them. Without a relevant discourse 9. Ibid., 193. than silence, jails, and tombs. It is for- on the daily life of the potentially insur- 10. Galeano, Days and Nights of Love and bidden to remember.”26 rectionary multitudes of here and now, War, 42. The problem with CrimethInc is not CrimethInc remain mere historical archi- 11. Ibid., 175. their spirit of unfettered romanticism and vists, trainspotters of radical discourse, a 12. George Orwell, “Inside the Whale,” irreverent passion—we can’t get enough superannuated hobby with no practical http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/ of that—but the unbearable lightness and application. whale/. depthlessness of their philosophy and 13. Ibid. praxis. Wherever passionate acts of refusal 14. Crimethinc, Days of War, Nights of In their haste to embrace wild aban- and a passionate consciousness of the Love, 11. don and “live as the subject rather than necessity of resistance trigger stoppag- 15. Ibid., 103. the object of history”27 they beat their es in the factories of collective illusion, 16. Ibid., 125. wings frantically like Icarus toward the there the revolution of everyday life is 17. Ibid., 210. sun, hopelessly flawed. Their wings of underway.28 18. Raoul Vaneigem, “Postcript: A toast desire, born of a rich tapestry of radical to revolutionary workers” in The Situationist and anarchist discourses, are Vaneigem gave examples of this revo- Revolution of Everyday Life (London: employed inappropriately for their indi- lution underway: Watts, Prague, Stock- Rebel Press, 2003), 275. vidualist and egotistical project. holm, Stanleyville, Turin, Mieres, the 19. CrimethInc, Days of War, Nights of Dominican Republic, Amsterdam, flash Love, 35. POSTSCRIPT: points in that era of violent insurrection, 20. Ibid., 41. PASSIONATE ACTS OF REFUSAL wildcat strike action, the resurgence of 21. Ibid., 172. t heart, CrimethInc’s Days of War workers’ councils, and general self-man- 22. Ibid., 81. A and Nights of Love is a manifesto agement. Not the apolitical hedonism of 23. Ibid., 81. against complacency, passivity, and pes- individuals saying, “Fuck this, I’m hitting 24. Ibid., 81. simism. They exhibit a great capacity to the road,” or “I’m going to make love in 25. Galeano, Days and Nights of Love and produce large amounts of high quality the park,” or “I’m forming a punk rock War, 174. propaganda (including their free broad- band.” CrimethInc don’t think collec- 26. Ibid., 178. sheet Harbinger, and the popular Fight- tively, just individually, and this forms the 27. CrimethInc, Days of War, Nights of ing For Our Lives pamphlet, with a re- whole deceptive nature of the book. The Love, 14. puted print run of 250,000 copies). One work of revolutionary insurgency must be 28. Raoul Vaneigem, The Revolution of can’t begrudge their productivity, or their done by the revolutionary insurgents— Everyday Life, 271. fervent desire to spread their plagiarized that is, the workers and non-workers in word, but to what end do they do it and mass revolt. for what purpose? One more push nihilists, if you want to CrimethInc begins with the brand be revolutionaries. 

fall 2004 / 21 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

From Theater Groups to Bank Robberies The Diverse Experience of Uruguayan Anarchists

by Astrid Wessels

HILE I was walking down the ngel Cappelletti notes in his book street in Buenos Aires, think- A review of: Á on Latin American anarchism that ing about the Uruguayan the Uruguayan movement, despite its W Historias robadas: Beto y Débora, dos Anarchist Federation’s defense and use long history of continuous activity, has of violent direct action, a large explosion anarquistas uruguayos (Stolen Histories: yet to attract the attention of historians.1 suddenly shook me out of my reverie. Beto and Débora, Two Uruguayan Aspects have been studied (primarily Because I had just passed a small piquet- Anarchists) by Hugo Fontana its early years), as have the lives of some ero demonstration blocking traffic at a (Montevideo: Cal y Canto, 2003). participants, but the literature is far from major intersection, I briefly attributed abundant. In this sense, though we must the explosion to the small, handheld fire- Acción directa anarquista: Una continue to lament the lack of a more works often used to get people’s attention historia de FAU (Anarchist Direct Action: general work, any book on the movement during these events, something now so A History of the FAU) will contribute something new. Those common that most people, including by Juan C. Mechoso (Montevideo: reviewed here are important attempts to myself, barely notice it any more. But, Editorial Recortes, 2002). put at least a few more pieces of the puz- when I returned to the same corner an zle of Uruguayan anarchism into place. hour and a half later, I saw that the place Hugo Fontana’s book Historias ro- was crawling with police and a special ex- another focus of the day’s 124 roadblocks badas: Beto y Débora, dos anarquistas plosives brigade. I also saw that the Rep- (piquetes) was opposition to the law that uruguayos (Stolen Histories: Beto and sol-YPF (oil company) building across recently declared piquetes illegal. The Débora, Two Uruguayan Anarchists) deals the street had big black burn marks on it, protesters were actively breaking the law primarily, as the title suggests, with the and that a lantern on the building hung by blocking traffic, and even by uproot- lives of Luis Alberto “Beto” Gallegos twisted and useless. ing street signs to feed the fires that and Débora Céspedes, born in 1920 and Later that evening I heard an inter- traditionally burn at the piquetes, but ex- 1921 respectively, and active anarchists view with Raúl Castells, a piquetero lead- plosives are another matter. since their teens. Through extensive in- er, on the news. When asked about the The two books reviewed here are terviews with Beto and Débora, shorter events at the Repsol-YPF building, he largely composed of the first-hand tes- interviews with other Uruguayan anar- accused government agents of attempting timony of Uruguayan anarchists who chists, and his own research and reflec- to discredit the movement, which was have played active roles in the Uruguayan tion, Fontana constructs a somewhat protesting, among other things, a massive anarchist movement for over fifty years. nostalgic vision of life in Uruguay and increase in petroleum gas prices from 10 Their rich and varied experience covers a the anarchist movement as seen through to 30 pesos. The increase affects all those wide spectrum of anarchist practice, from the lives of two participants from the not connected to the gas network, that union-building, to theater groups, to 1920s to the present. The book seems to is, the poor and lower middle class. The cooperatives, to publications, and yes, to be aimed at a non-anarchist reader, and same program later reported that some the destruction of the property of those the first half mixes material on the histo- people, unable to purchase gas, had be- considered responsible for the miserable ry of Uruguay and its capital city, Mon- gun using charcoal. living conditions of large sectors of the tevideo, with Beto and Débora’s personal Castells’ indignant reaction to the population. In fact, at one point in its memories, and also attempts to provide suggestion that they might have set off history, the Federación Anarquista Uru- general information on Uruguayan and the explosion reveals popular limits to guaya (Uruguayan Anarchist Federation, world anarchism. The second half fo- acceptable and unacceptable tactics of FAU), would have considered the contro- cuses more specifically on the anarchist direct action: people may be living in versial explosion described above as little movement and its concerns from the conditions that ceased to be tolerable one more a than a practice drill used to train 1950s onwards, and expands outwards hundred years ago, but that doesn’t justify its members in the complexities of armed from Beto and Débora’s personal visions the destruction of property. Interestingly, struggle. to include others.

22 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Acción directa anarquista: Una historia ship of the proletariat and allied itself organizing. Both she and Beto Gallegos de FAU (Anarchist Direct Action: A History with the Communist Party despite its were active members of Juventudes of FAU) is also a partial view, by FAU reformist activities and attempt to con- Libertarias (Libertarian Youth), and member Juan Carlos Mechoso, who was trol the labor movement. The other re- sold and distributed the anarchist pe- born in 1935 and, like Beto and Débora, jected the idea of a revolutionary party, of riodical Voluntad,10 affiliated with the has been active in the anarchist move- holding power for even a limited period, International Workingman’s Association. ment since his teens. This book recounts and opposed the Communist Party.5 A Juventudes Libertarias actively supported the story of one group, the FAU, and its similar division again split the anarchist the unions’ direct actions through pub- activity during one period: 1965-1973. movement after the Cuban Revolution. lic meetings, postering, pamphlets, and In the future, the FAU intends to publish By 1936 there were three national sometimes “scab catching” and sabo- three further volumes covering 1870- labor organizations: the anarchist tage.11 1949, 1950-19642, and 1974 -1976. FORU, the communist-led Unión Beto was one of the founders of the Both books begin by briefly outlining Sindical Uruguaya (founded in 1923) Plumber’s Union, and describes its prin- the early history of anarchism. Much of which included some anarchists,6 and ciples and methods, saying they were this commentary will probably not inter- the communist Confederación Central de generally representative of the anarchist est, and may even exasperate, a unions. The main goal was to get reader looking for more than a the employers to recognize the very superficial introduction. In union and its right to distribute Historias robadas, for instance, work among its members through Hugo Fontana summarizes the a work pool, where work was dis- origins of anarchist thought from tributed in strictly chronological the 6th century B.C. to 1920 A.D. order.12 Cultural activities played in ten pages, and later the Span- an important part in the union, ish Revolution in another ten. and all anarchist unions had both Mechoso, in Acción directa anar- theater groups and libraries. All quista, dedicates about twenty- conflicts were resolved through the five pages to the history of anar- union, which made its decisions in chism and workers’ movements weekly general assemblies. There in the Río de la Plata3 up to the was a strong rejection of union bu- 1960s in an attempt to provide reaucracy and any attempt at gov- some background for the eight years that Trabajadores del Uruguay (founded in ernment interference. When manage- are the main focus of this volume of the 1929), the precursor of the communist ment hired scabs during strikes, strikers FAU’s history. Unión General de Trabajadores (founded approached them and tried to convince Both books also trace the presence in 1942).7 them that the strike was in their interests. of anarchist ideas in Uruguay back to Both Historias robadas and Acción If dialogue failed, more energetic means the mid-nineteenth century, beginning directa anarquista refer to the labor were used, and the scabs were physically with the influence of Proudhon’s mutual- movement and its struggles, to the cam- prevented from breaking the strike.13 ism and later Bakunin and Malatesta’s paign to free Sacco and Vanzetti, to the views. A regional workers’ federation Spanish Revolution, to the anarchist he original FAU was founded in was founded in the 1870s and joined the periodical Voluntad, and to admiration of T 1956, and dissolved in 1963. Beto Bakuninist International Workingman’s and collaboration with the Argentine an- and Débora were in Argentina at the Association in 1877. The anarchist archist Miguel Rosigna8 and his compan- time, and returned just after the dissolu- Federación Obrera Regional del Uruguay ions in Uruguay. Rosigna’s most famous tion. The creation and dissolution and (FORU) was founded in 1905, and had act in Montevideo was the construction the reasons for them are only mentioned ninety thousand members by 1911.4 In of a tunnel from a charcoal shop to the in passing in Acción directa anarquista, the first half of the century there was an Punta Carretas prison to allow anarchists since the book does not discuss events enormous amount of union activity, cen- held there to escape.9 The escape in prior to 1965 in detail. Historias robadas, tering on issues such as the right to orga- 1931 was successful, but its engineers however, devotes a great deal of space nize, the 8-hour work-day, health issues, were captured and jailed, ironically, in the to the matter in what is, in my opinion, and the abolition of child labor. same prison. one of the richest sections of the book. Within the anarchist movement, two Débora Céspedes’ experiences of Fontana interviews anarchists from dif- tendencies emerged as a result of the anarchism have been both through its ferent tendencies and generations, and Russian Revolution of 1917: one sup- cultural activities, like theater and peri- their perspectives on the reason for the ported the idea of a temporary dictator- odicals, and through union and student break up provide a fascinating picture of

fall 2004 / 23 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory the different conceptions of anarchism at party and supported by the state mili- ginning with chapters for each year; then the time of the division.14 tias.18 The other viewpoint, summarized moving to thematic chapters: security, What emerges is a portrait of the by Juan Carlos Mechoso, among others, FAI-ist violence, armed struggle, ideolo- brief confluence of different approaches basically celebrates the revolution as an gy and structure, expropriations, support to the practice and dissemination of example of the possibility of an immedi- services (forgery, auto body shop, clinic, libertarian ideas. The founding groups ate rupture with the capitalist system and spaces for hiding secret and illegal goods were involved in disseminating the prac- stresses the need to defend the Cuban and kidnapped people), kidnappings; and tice and theory of autonomy: work and people’s right to self-determination in the then skipping between years and themes consumers’ cooperatives, community face of US imperialism.19 To this group, towards the end. This structure is con- organizing, the attempt to meet needs the rupture was more important than the fusing, as it leads to both repetition and outside the capitalist system, grassroots internal structure which resulted from it. omissions: some things become clear only education, seminars on the role of anar- To the former group, the internal struc- after reading the thematic chapter, others chism, strike support, and publications. ture that had resulted from the rupture are mentioned in much the same terms The newly federated groups included demonstrated that rupture in and of itself twice. All chapters rely on a combination Voluntad, Juventudes Libertarias, Comité was no guarantee of revolution. of Mechoso’s own explanations, internal Popular del Barrio Sur, Ateneo Libre Cerro- The question was not one of revolu- FAU documents,22 public fliers and ar- La Teja, Comunidad del Sur, and vari- tion versus reform, but of which road led ticles, and interviews with participants in ous unions, and apparently many other to revolution, and the FAU, despite its an attempt to provide context, do hom- groups not specified. The book does federal structure, found that it could not age to dead activists, describe the FAU’s not, unfortunately, discuss what the FAU take both roads at once, and decided to activities, and justify these activities. actually did in the few years that it really dissolve. What happened next is not al- The focus is unquestionably on armed functioned as a federation.15 together clear: according to Rubén Prieto struggle, probably due to the fact that In mid-1961, according to Fontana, and to Beto and Débora, the pro Cuba, the writer was one of the people most the short honeymoon ended and the pro armed struggle, pro revolutionary involved in this area of the organization’s fundamental differences in focus and anarchist party faction agreed to dissolve activities. methods came to a head in the debates the FAU and then simply took over its The Organization, as the FAU refers surrounding the Cuban Revolution and name, meeting space, and library.20 The to itself, actively recruited members for its implications. The basic split might other side speaks of the division as an both its public and armed campaigns, be described as Kropotkin and Proudhon “internal division,” and does not mention and assigned members to tasks that the versus Bakunin, Malatesta, and Che the decision to dissolve or the struggle junta, or leadership, deemed they were Guevara; between a focus on building over the library. In any case, the result best suited for. At first the reader feels new forms of horizontal association and of the division/dissolution was that impatient with the haphazard accumula- transforming society through culture, and some, including Juan Carlos Mechoso tion of information and the scant atten- a focus on confrontations with and the and Gerardo Gatti, continued to use the tion paid to spelling, punctuation, the destruction of the existing order through FAU’s name, space, and library, but radi- explanation of acronyms, and general strict organizing and armed struggle, cally changed the organization’s focus, clarity. Some things are never explained, with the corollary need for secrecy and while Rubén Prieto, Alfredo Errandonea, others are repeated ad nauseam. As temporary sacrifice of consensus proce- Luce Fabbri, and Beto and Débora con- the book advances and more and more dures. tinued their activities and started other space is devoted to armed robbery and Cuba became a permanent topic groups, including one called Asociación kidnappings, the experience becomes of debate, and FAU member Alfredo Libertaria Uruguaya (ALU).21 more disconcerting due to the plethora of Errandonea even traveled there to bring code names used for everything: people, back a first hand report of what was go- he “new” FAU rapidly got to work cars, recruitment, security. At one point ing on.16 In an attempt to clarify the T on increasing its presence in the la- it seems that the entire leadership has FAU’s position on Cuba after Fidel bor movement, and established working changed, and then suddenly it dawns on Castro publicly declared himself a relationships with the revolutionary left. the reader that the same people are sim- Marxist-Leninist, the FAU published A new structure emerged, with a public ply being referred to by their code names. a bulletin with four different points of wing for labor activities called Resistencia Mechoso includes a list of code names view. Fontana cites only Luce Fabbri.17 Obrero Estudiantil (ROE), and a se- and the actual people they refer to and She calls for support for the struggle cret wing dedicated to armed activities, a glossary of other code words, but both against the Batista dictatorship and for eventually called Organización Popular are incomplete.23 By the time I reached the workers and peasants who occupied Revolucionaria 33 (OPR 33). page 502, my head was reeling. fields and factories, but condemns the Mechoso uses a mixed approach to Uruguayan social and political life in reign of terror installed by the single reconstruct the history of the FAU, be- the 1965-1973 period are described as

24 / fall 2004 From Theater to Bank Robberies: The Diverse Experience of Uruguayan Anarchists a seemingly endless series of strikes, re- mentality” in all members. Those were in Uruguay led many people to return pressive legislation, economic deteriora- difficult times, in which people were from exile, and in 1986 some of them tion, and popular struggles: the FAU de- frequently arrested and tortured, but came together in a new attempt to make scribes it as “constitutional dictatorship.” even so, it is hard to imagine anarchists the FAU function as a true anarchist In 1973 the dictatorship would cease to submitting to the strict discipline the federation. The federated groups soon be constitutional. FAU imposed. There was a secret school clashed over matters such as the autono- The FAU attempted to keep the to train members in security, explosives, my of each group and its freedom to pur- Convención Nacional de Trabajadores weapons, psychology, and philosophy, sue its own goals even if they were in a (CNT), which was founded in 1965 and at which students wore hoods so that minority position, however, and the FAU grouped the majority of labor unions, they would not be able to identify one eventually dropped the federal structure focused on direct action and revolution another.24 Weekly, four-hour team meet- in favor of a more centralized one.28 rather than government mediation and ings, and shorter individual meetings Meanwhile, other anarchist groups, reform. Although their non-armed ac- with the team leader, were mandatory, among them ALU, participated in the tivities are only mentioned in passing, and included evaluations of each person’s Centro de Acción Popular (CAP), which they appear to be the justification for performance on a series of points ranging tried to bring together anarchists and all the armed actions; either to obtain from security to humility to theoretical non-anarchists working on issues of finances, to force factory owners to agree knowledge.25 autonomous community organizing.29 to workers’ demands, to get journalists to In spite of its extreme security mea- Historias robadas does not clarify what publish their version of the armed actions sures, many of the FAU’s members happened to the CAP, but in 1985 that had been carried out, or to obtain were jailed and tortured, and increasing ALU became Grupo de Estudio y Acción wigs, watches, weapons, and clothes numbers of activists went into exile in Libertaria (GEAL), the group in which needed to carry out more armed actions. Argentina, where many of them even- Beto and Débora, now in their 80’s, still None of the armed actions attacked tually disappeared during Argentina’s participate.30 government, police, or military targets, dictatorship. The FAU continued to be Uruguayan anarchism continues to at- though they were seen as practice for fu- active in Argentina, and, with help from tempt to find some common ground, as it ture actions of that nature. They robbed Argentine anarchists, carried out a kid- has since its earliest days. Today’s anar- banks, stores, and factories on pay-day, napping that, according to the organiza- chists span the full spectrum of ages and and kidnapped factory owners, execu- tion, yielded ten million dollars in 1974. activities, and groups form and disband tives, and journalists, obtaining, except The kidnapped person, Manuel Hert,26 in a continual flurry of activity. Uruguay in the case of the journalists, large sums refused to collaborate with his kidnap- is a small country, and Montevideo a of money and sometimes goods for the pers for several months, and the FAU small city, and the close physical proxim- poor or promises of improved conditions used complicated techniques to break his ity of vastly distant visions makes the for workers. FAU members also carried will. The episode, which closes the book, contrast between them even more strik- out actions that were intended to demon- is troubling due to the cold pride with ing. FAU and GEAL are just around strate popular power: they destroyed the which participants narrate the success the corner from each other, but so distant mainframe of a bank whose workers were and “neatness” of the “operation” and the in their approach to anarchism that they on strike, and stole a flag that was the pleasure they felt when they found they often prefer working with non-anar- oldest symbol of the Uruguayan indepen- had made “46 kilos of dollars.” In fact, chists to working with each other. Many dence movement. the kidnapping is included despite the other groups, including a fair number In order to undertake armed activity fact that it occurred after the period the of insurrectionalists, are also active in and protect its members, the FAU had book covers, as something they just could Uruguay. The insurrectionalists take me to develop a complicated structure that not bring themselves to omit. back to the piqueteros and the desire for was based on a series of teams whose direct confrontation with the forces of members did not know one another and cción directa anarquista does not repression and oppression. The insur- whose activities were coordinated by oth- A include information about the rectionalists’ methods are not those of er teams made up of delegates from the FAU’s activities after 1974, but some of armed struggle that the FAU used in the first in a kind of pyramid. At its summit the interviews in Historias robadas take sixties and seventies, but they do have a was a group called Fomento, responsible up the subject. Apparently several FAU healthy disrespect for private property, for making decisions and trying to incor- members founded a Marxist party called which they publicize both by deeds and porate the opinions and suggestions of Partido por la Victoria del Pueblo in 1975 words (in a periodical called Aullido para the rest. Great pains were taken to limit while in exile in Argentina, thus confirm- la guerra and in their edition of Ai Ferri people’s knowledge to the bare minimum ing the direction that many Uruguayan Corti, printed on “expropriated” paper necessary for a particular task, and to anarchists feared the FAU was headed and distributed free of charge, for in- instill what was called the “conspirator’s in.27 In 1985 the end of the dictatorship stance).

fall 2004 / 25 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

istorias robadas and Acción directa la Carbonería “El Buen Trato”, crónica the FAU’s character to publish ma- H anarquista: Una historia de FAU del asalto y la fuga, 2nd ed. (Montevi- terials such as secret documents and attempt to tell at least a part of the rich deo: Fundación de Cultura Universi- interviews describing secret activi- history of Uruguayan anarchism, and, as taria, 1994). ties. According to Pepe Carballo, such, are valuable documents. The con- who was a part of ROE, the public 10. This paper appeared from 1938 to at flicts within the movement and within part of the FAU, most people in the least 1965, though it seems to have individual groups that these two books FAU did not even have access to the changed hands in 1956. describe will probably never be resolved, newspaper Lucha Libertaria, let alone but they are productive conflicts, born of 11. Fontana, Historias robadas, 35. secret documents, in the early seven- the desire to transform the world along 12. Each member would sign up for ties (Fontana, Historias robadas,131). libertarian lines.  work, receive it in the order in which In this sense the decision to publish he or she signed up, and upon com- this material represents a new phase pleting it await his or her turn for of openness in the organization. another job. 23. Mechoso, Acción directa anarquista: ENDNOTES 13. Fontana, Historias robadas, 67-68. Una historia de FAU, 240. 1. Angel J. Cappelletti, Hechos y figuras 24. Ibid., 278. del Anarquismo Hispanoamericano 14. Unfortunately, like Mechoso, Fon- (Móstoles: Ediciones Madre Tierra, tana fails to provide the reader with 25. Ibid., 301. 1990), 46. information such as the date and 26. I searched Google for information place of interviews. In fact, he does 2. On page 29 Mechoso reports that about this person, but found no re- not even say the quotations he in- work on the book corresponding to sults. It is possible that his name was cludes are interviews, and I only the period 1949-1965 (earlier report- changed, accidentally or on purpose. know this because I asked some ed, on the same page, as 1950-1964) Uruguayan anarchists. Apparently, 27. Fontana, Historias robadas, 142. is in progress, and that the group except when he mentions a book, all hoped to have it out by October 28. Ibid., 146. quotations are from interviews. 2002. When I visited the FAU in 29. Ibid., 130. November 2003, however, it had not 15. Fontana cites Luce Fabbri in Marga- yet been released. reth Rago’s book Entre a história e a 30. Ibid., 145. liberdade. Luce Fabbri e o anarquismo 3. The parts of Argentina and Uruguay contemporâneo (São Paulo: UNESP, which lie on the shores of the River 2001), saying that in 1958 or 1959 Plate, including the capital cities of differences of opinion about the both countries, Buenos Aires and structure of the FAU itself emerged, Montevideo. with some insisting on the need to 4. Hugo Fontana, Historias robadas: expand the powers of the coordinat- Beto y Débora, dos anarquistas uru- ing committee to increase efficiency, guayos (Montevideo: Cal y Canto, a change that Fabbri opposed, but 2003), 19. which was made. Fontana, Historias robadas, 111. 5. Ibid., 27. 16. Ibid., 106. 6. Juan C. Mechoso, Acción directa an- arquista: Una historia de FAU (Mon- 17. Daughter of Luigi Fabbri, Italian tevideo: Editorial Recortes, 2002), anarchist and Malatesta’s companion 26. Fontana, Historias robadas: Beto y and biographer. Lucce Fabbri was a Débora, dos anarquistas uruguayos, 27. key figure in Uruguayan anarchism from the 1930s to her death in 2000. 7. Fontana, Historias robadas, 38. 18. Ibid., 111. 8. Rosigna planned many of Durruti and Oliver’s expropriations in Ar- 19. Ibid., 108-109. gentina. 20. Ibid., 106, 120, 123. 9. Gonzalo D. Fernández published an 21. Ibid., 107. entire book on this episode: Historia de Bandidos: Del “Cambio Messina” a 22. It is unusual for an organization of

26 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

The New Feudalism—Nicolas Lampert

fall 2004 / 27 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Remembering Frantz Fanon

by Kazembe Balagoon

OME FORTY years after his death, countries) constitute new forms of Frantz Fanon remains one of the A review of: resistance and could lead to a break most influential revolutionary between imperialism and authoritarian S Frantz Fanon: A Biography by David thinkers of our time. As a writer, socialism. his books Black Skins, White Masks; Macey (New York: Picador Press, The Wretched of the Earth; A Dying 2001). FANON: REVISITING HIS LEGACY Colonialism and Towards An African rantz Fanon has been the subject of Revolution, provided a theoretical Fanon: A Critical Reader edited by T. F three biographies; the most recent framework for understanding race, Denean-Sharpley, Lewis Gordon and is David Macey’s tome Frantz Fanon: A class, and gender oppression while fore- Renée T. White (Cambridge, MA: Biography. Macey’s study is admirable grounding a uniquely Third World Blackwell Publishers, 1996). in its depth and research (close to 400 politic. pages, including 100 pages of endnotes). No mere armchair revolutionary, Fanon: The Postcolonial Imagination by The Fanon which emerges from these Fanon survived two assassination Nigel C. Gibson (Cambridge, U.K.: pages is a man created by the historical attempts as a member of the Algerian Polity Press, 2003). circumstances of colonialism. Macey National Liberation Front (FLN). As goes through great pains to describe the editor of its newspaper El Moudjahid conditions in Martinique (where Fanon and active gunrunner, Fanon created ties Post-Colonial Imagination, by Nigel C. was born) from slavery to the present. between Algeria and the burgeoning Gibson.2 Perhaps the weakness of Macey’s anti-colonial movements around the These works help unpack the biography is that Fanon the man gets lost world. Fanon’s influence could be seen in myriad of contradictions and flesh in his own history. This is not entirely the decision of the Algerian government out the significance of Fanon’s body Macey’s fault. Fanon, never conducted to allow the Black Panther Party to (both life and text) for anarchist and an interview, always signed his articles establish an international section in anti-authoritarian organizers. Fanon’s anonymously, and never kept a journal.3 Algiers between 1969-1973. primary texts and the subsequent His wife and closest comrade Josie Fanon While Fanon’s legacy has not been secondary work serve as tools for was reluctant to discuss her husband’s as iconic as his contemporary Ernesto understanding the interconnection legacy, and later committed suicide. “Che” Guevara (as of yet there are no t- between race, class, and gender within Given these research challenges, we can shirts blazed with Fanon’s image), Fanon movements for national liberation. understand why Macey relies primarily peeks through mass culture in other Although Fanon himself was not a self- on secondary sources. ways. Rage Against the Machine’s single identified anarchist, I maintain that he What we do glean from Macey’s “Guerrilla Radio” is a an ode to Fanon’s belongs within the anti-authoritarian text is a life filled with hope and essay on pirate radio “This is the Voice tradition because of three major contradiction. Frantz Fanon was born of Algeria.” Cinematically, the films of assertions in his work: (1) The primacy the fifth of eight children to middle Isaac Julien, Haile Germina, and Marlon of national liberation movements and class parents in the French colony of Riggs all bear some debt to Fanon’s colonized/Third World people as Martinique, on July 20th 1925. At an writings.1 agents of social revolution as opposed early age, Fanon was taught to distance Relatively unknown in his own time, to Marx’s concept of the proletariat himself from blacks and to consider Fanon has been the subject of three in the metropoles; (2) The need for himself akin to French colonialists. This biographies and countless critical essays, spontaneity within movements and was certainly reinforced by the French a fraction of which are under review that political organizations must lead school system, which forced black-brown here: David Macey’s Frantz Fanon: A by following; and that (3) Third World children to recite “Our ancestors the Biography; Fanon: A Critical Reader, liberation movements (and movements Gauls…” while only showing Tarzan edited by Lewis Gordon; and Fanon: The of oppressed groups in the mother movies at the cinemas.4 Despite this

28 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory cultural malaise, there were attempts at “Le Surréalisme,” that explores the dentistry waned with further study of resistance. Fanon’s school teacher and development of surrealism and cubism phenomenology and philosophy, Fanon writer Aimé Césaire began to edit the through the poetry of Apollinaire and would study and receive his doctorate in surrealist magazine Tropiques (along with André Breton.7 psychiatry. Committed to working with his wife Suzanne). Filled with imagery Perhaps the greatest influence people of color, he directed the Bilda- and poetry inspired by African and on Fanon during this period was Joinville Mental Hospital in Algeria in indigenous art forms, Tropiques would the publication of Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1953. There he created a community be the opening salvo in the Negritude Being and Nothingness, which for both patients and staff, removing movement. Negritude asserted pride popularized existential philosophy and strait jackets and cells. Fanon also gave in black heritage, seen mostly clearly phenomenology. As Macey notes, “The aid to the FLN, supplying medicine and in Césaire’s epic poem Return to My attraction of Sartre’s philosophy was its treating those who suffered the torture Native Land.5 Though Fanon was immediacy and its concentration on the of French armed forces. Indeed, Algeria relatively isolated from racism, the category of experience. It was also a was one of the crown jewels of the establishment of a pro-Vichy regime philosophy of freedom, but it still had to French empire, so much so that President in Martinique would profoundly alter be adapted to the experience of a black De Gaulle granted independence to his political universe. Convinced of the Martinican.”8 Morocco and Tunisia to concentrate need to defeat fascism, Fanon escaped Sartre’s work led Fanon to write forces on defeating the Algerian to Guadeloupe to join the Free French his first book, Black Skins, White liberation movement. Forces. However, placed in a segregated Masks (1952), an analysis of the “lived Fanon’s role in the FLN increased. unit and forced to “liberate” collaborators, experience” of black people in a colonial His role as a public intellectual led Fanon grew deeply bitter and radical. “If society. As his him to give speeches on revolutionary I don’t come back,” Fanon wrote to his interest in culture at the Black Writers Congresses mother, “[never] say ‘he died for a good in Rome. Chastising the French left cause.’ Say: ‘God called him back for their silence on Algeria, Fanon to him.’ This false ideology that would become friends with Sartre, who shields the secularists and idiot contributed the preface to The Wretched politicians must not delude us of the Earth. Fanon was known for his any longer. I was wrong!”6 ability to engage in long discussions, After World War II, so much so that Simone De Beauvior Fanon stayed in France asked Fanon to give Sartre a rest after to study dentistry, a move a marathon conversation. Fanon encouraged by his parents who replied, “I don’t like people who hoped Fanon would return spare themselves.”9 to a safe middle class life in These were words Fanon took Martinique. However, Fanon to heart. After two assassination was drawn to the vibrant attempts, he continued to work, Parisian culture that nurtured despite being diagnosed with rebellion and avant-garde art. leukemia. Failing to receive the At the time jazz, poetry, medical care he needed in the Soviet and surrealism were all part Union, Fanon flew to the United of the cultural milieu of postwar States. Fanon died at the National French life. The presence of Institute of Health at the age of 36. thousands of black and brown GIs, Fanon left a rich legacy both former colonial soldiers, students, and in his writings and his example of revolutionaries transformed the internationalism. Yet, as Macey French métropole into a points out, Fanon is hotbed of revolutionary problematic in terms of activity. Fanon soaked the cultural memory of the up this atmosphere like countries he called home. a sponge. As early as As Macey points out 1949, Fanon gave lectures “Whether he should be on black poetry and regarded as ‘Martinican’, jazz and is believed to ‘Algerian’, ‘French’ or have penned an article, simply Black is a not a

fall 2004 / 29 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory question that can be easily decided.”10 Fanon: A Critical Reader is an recognition is to see one’s experiences Indeed the problem of “remembering” invaluable book that looks at how Fanon’s mirrored in the world and creating a self- Fanon is closely allied to the betrayal work can be accessed both by activists image is key to struggles for liberation. of the ideals that he held so steadfast. and intellectuals. The editors, Lewis While Fanon’s definitions of the Soon after his death, Algeria would Gordon, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, other are radical in the development become a one party military state, and Renée T. White are scholars in the of that concept, he often fails to apply rejecting its initial bent towards Third new field of black existentialism.12 As the concept in a progressive way when World revolution. In 1988, strikes and such their major point of inquiry is addressing issues of gender, in particular, rebellions broke out in reaction to years Fanon’s seminal text, Black Skin, White with black women. Fanon’s construction of frustration with the FLN. These Masks (BSWM). of race deals primarily with men; that is, actions were met with violence and When first published, BSWM white men use black women as a means over 500 people died in the streets. As received little or no attention from the of projecting their sexual fantasies while François Bondy wrote, “The men who French intellectual community. The black men sleep with white women for run Algeria today would have little use reason, perhaps, lay in the radical nature recognition. But what about women for Fanon’s exhortations; and Algerian of the book, both in terms of its form of color? Fanon responds “As for the ‘masses’ would make a Martinican negro and content. BSWM owed heavily to woman of color, I know nothing about feel foreign in ways he would have never Sartre’s idea of “lived experience” as her.” 14 experienced in Paris. The prophet of the starting point of all knowledge. As The erasure of women of color within Algeria’s national revolution would such Fanon utilized poetry, dialogue, Fanon’s text mirrors the masculinist have found himself an exile from his and personal anecdotes. In “Make Me tendencies of early Third World chosen homeland, in search of another a Man Who Questions” Fanon engaged liberation movements. Dominated revolutionary war with which to identify in a radical Cartesian exercise—echoing by men, they often viewed women as himself.”11 Descartes famous declaration “I think, subjects to be dominated and disciplined Given the failure of the Algerian therefore I Am”—stripping colonialism in the process of nation building. This revolutionary project, it would be from its economic roots, laying bare the contradiction is also linked, perhaps, tempting to argue that Fanon was relationship of whites and blacks. In to the fact that Fanon was married to a hopelessly naïve about politics. However, particular Fanon used the term “Other” white woman. it is important to realize that Fanon’s to describe how black people were Despite Fanon’s blatant sexism, the concept of revolution was not limited over-determined by a white gaze that writers in the Critical Fanon Reader to Martinique, France, or Algeria, but reduced black personality into tropes attempt to establish space for feminist expressed a firm commitment to the of inferiority. The gaze is imminent in discourse in Fanon’s work. In “Violent liberation of all people under colonialism. this famous passage: “‘Dirty nigger!’ Or Women: Surging into Forbidden As such, Fanon transcended the simply ‘Look A Negro!’ I came into the Quarters,” Nada Elia applies Fanon’s boundaries of nationality to embrace world with the will to find meaning in theories of decolonization outlined a Third World persona. Similar to things, my spirit filled by the desire to in Wretched of the Earth to feminist Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Fanon’s identity attain the source of the world and then I struggles. Elia outlines the need for and politics had no borders. Instead, found that I was an object in the midst of women to engage in ruthless criticism he found a home in the struggles of all other objects.”13 of masculinist tropes, while being oppressed people. The above passage is reminiscent of willing to engage in armed struggle for WEB Dubois’ Souls of Black Folk where liberation. In “To Conquer the Veil: “I DON’T KNOW HER”: INVISIBILITY, he asks rhetorically “How does it feel to Woman as Critique of Liberalism,” Eddy RACE AND GENDER TROUBLE be a problem?” Issues of surveillance and Souffrant confronts Fanon’s controversial rantz Fanon has certainly found gazing have been present since slavery. essay “Algeria Unveiled” in A Dying F a home in the emergent field of Currently, the prison industrial complex Colonialism. The veil represented Africana/Post-colonial Studies. Scholars serves as another means of “gazing” upon cultural resistance to French hegemony like Henry Louis Gates, bell hooks, and the black body. in Algeria. When French authorities Stuart Hall have cited Fanon’s work In BSWM, Fanon racialized the attempted to remove the veil, both in their analysis of film, literature, and Hegelian dialectic of “Master versus Muslim and secular women wore it in a gender politics. Whereas previously Slave.” In Hegel’s scenario the Master sign of revolutionary solidarity. The veil scholars would have focused on Fanon’s demands recognition from the Slave. For was also useful as a means of disguise theories of Third World revolution, there Fanon, in the colonial experience, the and transporting guns and information. has been an attempt to reinterpret Fanon Master demands recognition and work While Souffrant is correct to cast the to make him more inclusive of issues of while the Slave demands recognition veil as a means of resistance and de- gender and sexuality. of his or her humanity. The battle for veiling as an attempt by the French to

30 / fall 2004 Remembering Frantz Fanon further subjugate the Algerian people, of Master versus Slave to its logical Postcolonial Imagination takes its cue the veil also had its faults. Without a conclusion, Fanon held that the process from both Wretched of the Earth and A clear feminist politic within the Algerian of decolonization did not only imply Dying Colonialism in foregrounding liberation struggle, the veil also led to a a political liberation, but a mental Fanon’s anti-authoritarian leanings. sense of invisibility. For example, many liberation as well. The threat to the vitality of women combatants were unable to A Dying Colonialism is a collection of anti-colonial movements was the collect army pensions Fanon’s writings on separation of the native intellectual because they could not cultural resistance in the urban areas from the peasants prove they fought in in Algeria. The in the countryside. What causes this the war. A majority of formation of a separation is what Fanon called “the women were confi ned fi ghting culture for fetish of organization.” The notion of to the army in roles of Fanon was key to the political party is “a notion imported cooks and tailors and from the mother country” after the war were often whichwhich is ofoftenten implemented told to get married and without considerationconsideration of the start a family.15 conditions of a given country. The absence of Obviously Fanon in this women in Fanon’s instance is speaking of the work is a tremendous traditional Marxist vanguard weakness that mirrored party, which seeks to organize itself in the black “proletarians” over any other liberation movement social strata. But what Fanon stateside. The concept discovered, as did many other that the women’s AfricanAfrican rrevolutionaries,evolutionaries, was that position in the the power often lay in the hands movement was prone of peasantry and the lumpen or in the home making proletariat, those outside the revolutionary children system. In many cases, these was refuted by the work of forces were the ones creating Barbara Smith, Michelle supply routes, gathering Wallace, Audre Lorde and the information, and fi ghting in the Combahee River Women’s cities. Once politicized, these Collective.16 forces became the backbone of the revolutionary movement. GUERILLA RADIO: The role of culture is to act as BROADCASTING DEMOCRACY mediation between organizations and AND IMAGINING NATION the mass activity of the people. In f Black Skins, White Masks the process a new consciousness is I dealt with the effects of constructed. racism on individuals, then There is perhaps no better example Wretched of the Earth and A than the role of underground radio in the Dying Colonialism deals with Algerian war. Popular radio in Algeria collective action. Wretched was dominated by French language and of the Earth was Fanon’s last culture and, as such, the rejection of book, written while he was undergoing the creation of a national consciousness. radio represented a conscious resistance treatment for leukemia. When Thus nationhood not only denoted to colonization. However since the fi rst published, it caused an uproar certain boundaries and borders but a way masses of people could not read, and the throughout the Third World, so much so of being. Fanon’s take on the imagined purchasing of anti-colonial newspapers that the French authorities confi scated community expanded the concept of indicated a sympathy for the rebels, the every copy after his death. the nation in such a way that would FLN believed radio had the potential to What made Wretched such a powerful open space for the discussion of anti- broaden their propaganda network and book was Fanon’s exhortation of authoritarianism and spontaneity within also help create a collective “Algerian” violence by the oppressed as a “cleansing liberation movements. identity. force.” Taking the Hegelian dialectic Nigel C. Gibson’s Fanon: The The broadcast of “The Voice

fall 2004 / 31 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory of Algeria” marked a new stage of and ultimate victory. liberation fronts, they participate in consciousness. In less than twenty days class fronts which may or may not be the stocks of radios were sold out. The FANON AND THE ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN involved in national liberation struggles. creation of “Voice” lead not only to a new TRADITION The struggles must spread to establish means of communication, but turned ccessing Fanon’s work may be economic, political and social structures an entire population into participants A diffi cult for many within the anti- in the liberated territories, based on in the process of revolution. “Algerian authoritarian federalist and libertarian society made an autonomous decision and anarchist forms of organizations.”20 to embrace the new technique and tune movement(s). As Given the objections to itself into the new signaling systems national liberation fronts by brought in by the Revolution.”17 anarchists both in theory and In “Radical Mutations: Towards practice,practice, hohoww should anti- a Fighting Culture,” Gibson holds authoritarians and anarchists that the radio broadcasts also created engage the legacy of Frantz the conditions for a participatory Fanon? More to the point, democracy. “The listeners’ invention perhaps,perhaps, hohoww ccanan we engage involves a productive dialogue, and access the legacy of imparting meaning both to the national liberation struggles fragments of information and to that marked the radical the nascent national consciousness; uprisingsuprisings of the 1960s and this dialogue is an engagement that 1970s? prefi gures a possible Well, Fanon should be democratic form for accessed on two levels. One, the new society.”18 Fanon articulated the Third One could see the WorldWorld as not oonlynly cocomprisingmprising connection between nations of the global south, but also the act of listening in as a space of mediation that seeks Algeria and what Black liberation both from authoritarian Panther Fred Hampton socialism and imperialism. Fanon called “observation and warnedwarned nenewlywly independent countrcountriesies participation.” The not to imitate Europe and also revolutionary organizer called for these countries “to advance doesn’t tell the masses a step further, if we want to bring what they should do, but it up to a different level than that demonstrates through whichwhich EurEuropeope has shoshownwn it, then action. In the process, we mustmust ininventvent and we mmustust make this activism erases the discoveries.”21 distinction between a It is also important that Fanon community of spectators understood national liberation and active involvement. a revolutionary as one part of the larger process of As Gibson illustrates, nationalist, Fanon revolution against imperialism. Indeed, Fanon understood the necessity of worked within the confi nes of a Fanon’s work in creating Pan-African creating multiple forms of resistance traditional party structure and called consciousness in particular and a which allowed community participation for the construction of a nation-state, larger Third World consciousness in on different levels. The victory of the an idea vigorously opposed by many general stemmed from his belief that Algerian revolution occurred not only anarchists. Indeed, as Andréa Schmidt independent countries represented because of the armed struggle (indeed, noted in “Anarchist Approaches to Anti- “liberated territory.” Similar to Che there were several military setbacks, colonial Struggles: French Anarchists Guevara, who articulated the theory of particularly the Battle of Algiers) but also and the Algerian War” many anarchists “One, Two, Many Vietnams,” Fanon’s because of massive resistance on other opposed the FLN on the basis they were revolutionary nationalism contained the levels. not anti-statist, while other groups gave germ of the international solidarity of The creation of community support conditional support.19 The anarchist oppressed people in the métropoles and institutions and new ways of being Alfredo Bonnano held that anarchists the colonies. became the basis of the Algerian nation “refuse to participate in national Second, Fanon’s theories of

32 / fall 2004 Remembering Frantz Fanon organization should be a point of “The Black Rosseau,” New York investigation for anti-authoritarians. ENDNOTES Review of Books, 31 March 1966. Though he was a member of the 1. The use of Fanonian ideas like split 12. For more information on black FLN, Fanon was a harsh critic of the associations, double consciousness, existentialism read Lewis Gordon, vanguard model of organization. In the and reclamation of identity all ed., Black Existence (Routledge Press: chapter “Spontaneity: Its Strength and marked the development of New York, 1997). Weakness,” Fanon rejected “the fetish of an avant-garde Black cinema, 13. Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White organization” and wrote, “The notion of which flourished in Los Angeles, Masks (Grove Press: New York, the party is a notion imported from the particularly at UCLA. For more 1967), 109. mother country.”22 Fanon’s perspectives information, see Marlon Rigg’s 14. Ibid., 179-180. on organization were based on the class Tongues Untied (San Francisco: 15. Marie-Aimée Heile Lucas, “Women, contradictions in African society; that California Newsreel, 1989); Ethnic Nationalism and Religion in the is, movements for national liberation Notions (San Francisco: California Algerian Liberation Struggle” in Re- were often articulated by a native elite Newsreel, 1986); Isaac Julien, Black Thinking Fanon, ed. Nigel Gibson formed in the métropole. Fanon’s call Skin, White Masks (San Francisco: (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2003). for the creation of a national culture was California Newsreel, 1995); Hailie 16. For more on the question of sexism a means to orient political organizations Gerima’s Sankofa (Washington, in the Black Liberation movement, to the rhythm and needs of the people D.C.: Mypheduh Films, 1995); I would suggest Michelle Wallace, they sought to serve. As we can see in and Charles Burnett’s To Sleep With Black Macho and the Myth of the the Gibson texts, this meant the creation Anger (New York, N.Y.: SVS, 1990). SuperWoman (New York: Verso, of alternative forms of communication 2. I would also suggest reading Fanon: 1999); Barbara Smith, ed., Home and governance that allow for greater For Beginners, by Deborah Wyrick Girls (New York: Kitchen Table/ spontaneity and participatory democracy. (New York: Writers and Readers, Women of Color Press, 1983); bell In this sense Fanon is not calling for a 1998) and Alan Read, ed., The Fact hooks, Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women vanguard party but for organizers to lead of Blackness: Frantz Fanon and Visual and Feminism (Boston: South End by following. In the African experience Representation (Seattle, Washington: Press, 1984); and Audre Lorde, this was most clearly articulated by the Bay Press, 1996). Sister Outsider (Trumansburg, NY: revolutionary Amilcar Cabral, the leader 3. Fanon’s refusal to sign articles Crossing Press, 1984). of the revolution in Guinea-Bissau submitted to El Moudjahid reflects 17. Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism who used popular power and popular a concern for collective practice and (New York: Grove Press, 1970), 84. education as a means of creating liberated against the cult of personality. We 18. Nigel Gibson, Fanon, The Post- territory. can see this in practice today with Colonial Imagination (Cambridge, Those in the anti-authoritarian the Zapatistas, who also practice UK: Polity Press, 2003), 150. tradition should take from Fanon the collective speaking through their 19. The review can be found in The need to recreate a culture of resistance masks. New Formulation, Vol. 2, Number 2, that develops a new sensibility among 4. David Macey, Fanon: A Biography Winter/Spring 2004. the oppressed. Today in France, millions (Picador Press: New York, 2000), 62. 20. Alfred M Bonanno, Anarchism of Arab women are rejecting calls by 5 . Macey, Fanon: A Biography, 75. For and National Liberation Struggle the government to “de-veil” themselves more on Aimé Césaire read Robin (London: Elephant Editions, 1990), in public schools. As we can see in this D.G. Kelley’s excellent essay “Keepin 13. case, much of what Fanon wrote still has it (Sur) Real” in Freedom Dreams: The 21. Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the relevance for today. Radical Black Imagination (Boston: Earth (New York: Grove Press, We must accept that outsiders (i.e. Beacon Press, 2002). 1964), 315. people of color, women, students) are 6. Ibid., 104. 22. Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 84. forces of revolutionary change. But in 7. Ibid., 132. 23. Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, 206. the final analysis, we must rise to the 8. Ibid., 162. 24. I would like to thank Ashanti challenge that Fanon left to us in The 9. Ibid., 459. Alston, Kai Lumumba Barrow, Wretched of the Earth: “Each generation 10. Ibid., 7. and Saulo Colon for their helpful must out of relative obscurity discover its 11. Ibid., 7, cited in François Bondy, comments and suggestions. 23 / 24 mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” 

fall 2004 / 33 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

“The world is made up of stories, not atoms”

by Uri Gordon

INCE THE best-seller success of No movement told by those who are actually Logo, the non-fiction market has A review of: part of it: seen a veritable torrent of books S We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise about “The Movement.” Fascinated with We wanted a way to document, the first wave of grassroots resistance to of Global Anti-Capitalism edited by broadcast and amplify these unheard present a truly global face in real-time Notes from Nowhere (London/New stories coming from the grassroots rather than in retrospect, scores of jour- York: Verso, 2003). movements that have woven a glo- nalists, academics, commentators, and bal fabric of struggle during the last self-appointed “leaders” have taken a stab One No, Many Yesses: A Journey to the decade.... These are moments both at publishing their own accounts and Heart of the Global Resistance Movement intimate and public, charged with analyses. Thus, faced with the present by Paul Kingsnorth (London: Free inspiration, fear, humour, the every- publications, one might naturally want Press, 2003). day, and the historic. to ask: “Do we really need another two books about global anti-capitalism?” In Like this movement, we relish these instances, the answer is perfectly to join him on his own journey “into the intimacy, subjectivity, and diversity, clear: given the combination of inspiring heart” of the movement, a journey that and we think that personal stories text, poster-perfect photography, and in- takes him around the world from one site have as much (if not more) to teach clusive anti-authoritarianism, it would be of resistance to another; his own experi- us than any manifesto. In this we hard to get enough of them. ences and descriptions are bound to- differ from many past traditions of The key to what makes both We Are gether by the narratives he gathers from struggle. We are part of a new, radi- Everywhere and One No, Many Yesses so interviewees. We Are Everywhere is even cal, transformative politics based on attractive is their shared point of depar- more centrally about telling good stories: direct democracy; one that values our ture, captured in the title of this review the voices are entirely those of the move- individual voices, our hopes, our joys, borrowed from poet Muriel Rukeyser. It ment itself. Far more than an anthology, out doubts, our disasters, and requires is the understanding that what makes the it is an attempt to allow as many of these no sacrifice from us except that we global movement tick—more prosaically, voices as will fit between two covers to sacrifice out fear.1 what enables the global sense of solidar- do their own talking, directly out of the ity that connects diverse struggles around struggles of the past ten years. From the start, We are Everywhere was the world—is not shared structures, Some points worthy of criticism do an inside job. The editorial collective is agendas, or even enemies, but stories. remain, but overall these books represent composed of Katharine Ainger, Graeme At protest camps and social centers, in two of the most encouraging contribu- Chesters, Tony Credland, John Jordan, zines, and online, the first thing rebels do tions to the project of charting the di- Andrew Stern, and Jennifer Whit- when they meet is tell each other their versity of global resistance, and anti-au- ney—all seasoned activists from Europe stories—where they’re coming from, why thoritarians are bound to enjoy and learn and North America, variously involved they struggle, what they have done, and from them. with Reclaim the Streets, Indymedia, how they imagine the future. Instead of Peoples’ Global Action, and similar anti- standing back from the stories or trying WE ARE EVERYWHERE authoritarian formations. The materials to read them selectively in the service n the foreword, the members of the are truly global in scope, containing eve- of one agenda or another, both of these I aptly named Notes from Nowhere edi- rything from the declaration of the Thai books do what nobody has really tried torial collective describe their effort as “Assembly of the Poor” to interviews before: they honestly attempt to immerse falling “somewhere between an activist with Argentinean workers and piqueteros themselves in the movement’s polyphony, anthology and a grassroots history, agita- to post-summit dispatches, and analyses making the stories their primary sub- tional collage and direct action manual,” culled from websites and activist e-lists. ject-matter. Paul Kingsnorth invites us bringing together accounts of a global The richness of stories and documents is

34 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory staggering. Such a load of raw material takes a lot of intelligence to put in semblance of order, but to their credit the editors have managed to do so coherently and attractively.2 Instead of deliberating between a chronological and a thematic approach, they have seamlessly combined the two by arranging the material in five interweaving threads. The bedrock of the book is a time-line of events, “The Restless Margins”, which runs from cover to cover at the bottom of the page. It chronicles every major protest, occupa- tion, and strike that has taken place around the world over the past decade, beginning on New Years day 1994, with the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas.3 The bulk of the book, fifty-odd stories and documents from around the world, roughly corresponds to this time-line, but February 11, 2002 – Piqueteros provide security on a major road blockade during the economic col- at the same time they are sorted in six lapse and popular uprising in Argentina. Piqueteros are a movement of the poor and unemployed thematic sections entitled “Emergence,” who use road blockades and the economic disruption they cause to demand better jobs, food and “Networks,” “Autonomy,” “Carnival,” housing. Photo from We Are Everywhere by Andrew Stern / AndrewStern.net. “Clandestinity,” and “Power.” Each sec- tion opens with an introductory essay by Cruz de Reboucas, begging the MST a broader issue, namely that the inspira- the editors, who also provide background to send another bus to the shanty tion we garner from the global nature of material at the opening of some of the town to pick them up, but Cicero was present-day struggle is in most cases a stories as well. Finally, interspersed adamant: “The bus came for you on mediated experience, passing through the among the stories in each section are two Sunday morning, and you weren’t filter of the written word and web-based further types of material: thirteen one- there. If you want to join our camp communication. Where this experience page “shorts” on different aspects of di- now, you’ll have to find your own is more immediately accessible—at glo- rect action (among them affinity groups, transport.” Somehow, they managed bal convergences like summits or social guerrilla gardening, culture jamming, and a dozen or so families arrived a forums—it remains largely a privileged and jail solidarity); and summaries of the few hours later. More commissions one. I do not mean to channel these major “Global days of action,” beginning were set up ... to build more tents; to considerations in the direction of a fruit- on May 16th 1998 (the first Global Street set up communal kitchens; to organize less guilt trip, but rather to occasion some Party) and concluding with October 12th literacy classes for adults and children; reflection on how to compensate for 2002 (solidarity with Argentina). to set up a women’s collective.... Eve- these limitations. One possibility is to It is clearly impossible to do justice ryone was busy.”4 read We Are Everywhere as a book which to over five hundred pages of stories, points the reader, Zapatista-style, to what but here is a brief selection to give you a One difficulty with the material it is not—prompting us to recall, and cre- taste. On page 122, the Brazilian Land- representing movements in the global ate, our own stories of resistance at home. less Worker’s Movement (MST) squats South, acknowledged by the editors, is Thus, in matters of inspiration just as in a corporate plantation and spends the that much of it was actually written by matters of action, we are called upon to night resisting the owners’ strongmen in Northern activists working with those remember that the global retains its value their Toyota vans: movements. To be sure, this is merely only inasmuch as it leads us back towards the inevitable if unfortunate result of lan- the local, towards the inspiration each The next day was full of activity. guage and distance, and of the fact that of us can draw from our own everyday The camp had survived the first cru- people struggling for their livelihoods resistance. cial 24 hours and the news spread like and homes often have better things to It is quite hard to absorb the wealth of wildfire in the region. People began do than write materials for a Northern materials included in We Are Everywhere, pouring in from the neighbouring publication that they can’t afford to and the editors probably intended to villages. A delegation arrived from purchase. However, this also points to convey just such an impression—a swarm

fall 2004 / 35 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory of events, pictures, and voices that tries tion and solidarity not on the basis of a this activism thing is all about. Unlike to come as close as possible to represent- capital-A banner, but rather on the basis other books on the movement intended ing an adequate picture of the diversity of a recognition of shared values such as primarily for the “general reader,” King- and spontaneity of global anti-capital- self-organization, spontaneity, creativity, snorth decided not to employ any the ism. As a result of this ordered chaos, decentralization, direct action, and the usual formats of second-hand reportage, We Are Everywhere is best taken in small rejection of both reform and seizure of highly opinionated writing, or academic tastes, one story or section at a time. Or, state power. Whatever we choose to call data-crunching. Instead, he has written a as one member of the editorial collective their sum-total (and for me “anarchism” travelogue. recently told me, “Keep it in the toilet.” is as good a label as any), the point we Starting in 2001 Kingsnorth trekked This approach to the book betrays a little encounter again and again throughout the world over, visiting all the famous secret about We Are Everywhere: it isn’t this book is that it is these values rather anti-capitalist hot-spots (Chiapas, Dur- only a book about the movement, it is than any vanguardist pipe-dreams that ban, Cochabamba, Porto Alegre, New also written in large part for it. Somehow define social resistance today. York, Genoa), playing “participating ob- the book comes across as an activist ex- Finally, perhaps the most important server” and conducting interviews with travaganza, a celebration of all the ruckus aspect of affinity between We Are Ev- activists. Backing this up with plenty we’ve caused over the past few years and, erywhere and contemporary anarchist of facts and a down-to-earth analysis as the title suggests, a call to pride and accounts relates to the dual nature of the of his topics, the result is a thorough, solidarity that becomes tangible through revolutionary project—a double move- well-researched, and eminently readable the perception of a common struggle. ment of resistance and creation, destruc- presentation of the movement and its key Nonetheless, the book will also appeal tion and constitution of alternatives. In agendas on a global scale. to a general audience. Its opulent design the final thematic essay, “Power”, the After an introductory chapter set and “high production values” make it an editors write: in Chiapas, the book is divided in two attractive candidate for any non-fiction parts. The first, “One No,” begins with section. At this point, I might add that “‘We renounce power,’ says activist Genoa and the third global conference precisely because of its lavish presenta- Raul Gatica, from the Mexican In- of the PGA in Cochabamba, moving on tion and epic scale, We Are Everywhere digenous People’s Council of Oaxaca, to post-Apartheid South Africa, anti- would have greatly benefited from a ‘and build in the immediate now a consumerism and culture jamming in larger format (it is only 5’’x7’’ in size) different way of being.’ Keeping the the US, and the West Papuan resistance and from the printing of at least a few of balance between resistance and recon- movements. The latter was, for me, the its spectacular inner-page photographs struction, between saying no to ‘pow- most interesting chapter in the book. in colour. Considering that the book er over’ and building our collective Still “off the map” for many activists in is going for a sweet £10.99 / $16.99 on ‘power-to’ at the same time, is key the North, West Papua is a region where retail and that the editors are donating all to the success of our movements. In some of the worst abuses of human rights royalties to the movement, the cocktail- other words, we say no by construct- and ecological balance are occurring to- party socialists at Verso could have been a ing our yeses.... When those resisting day. Suffering under Indonesian occupa- little less stingy. on the streets are also involved in the tion for over forty years, West Papua has Politically speaking, the book rep- creative acts of building new ways more recently been opened up to almost resents as much of a diversity as can be of living, we reduce the danger that limitless exploitation by multination- expected from the editors’ inclusive ap- our radical political analysis might als. Kingsnorth does a very good job of proach to the basic anti-authoritarian become disconnected from the every- presenting the reality of this very surreal spirit of the movement. While there are day needs of ordinary people. When place, meeting with members of resist- certainly some contributions from a self- those working to develop alternatives ance groups and clarifying the relation- defined anarchists, much of the inspira- participate in moments of confronta- ship between the colonial and neoliberal tion for We Are Everywhere comes from tion and conflict, they are reminded of aspects of the situation.8 the larger part of the movement, one that the system of oppression, they reaffirm The second part of the book, “Many espouses a grassroots version of bottom- their identity as different and they Yesses,” naturally begins at Porto Ale- up social power without viewing itself in remember what it is they don’t want gre, the supermarket of alternatives, and terms of the western anarchist tradition. to build.” 6 moves on to the exploits of the MST in This broad approach to the movement, Brazil and of U.S. citizens undermining as a network of affinities that transcends One No, Many Yesses large corporations and building com- any strictly-defined political perspective, f We Are Everywhere is ideal reading munity power. The manifold examples underlines the resistance to orthodoxy I for the toilet, then Paul Kingsnorth’s of such efforts, especially in the global that has become a linchpin of the new book is exactly what you’d want to give South, remain an important source of anarchism. This makes way for coopera- to your grandmother who wonders what insight—not necessarily because of the

36 / fall 2004 “The world is made up of stories, not atoms” particulars of this or that form of action, man, all of them grinning madly, movements in accessible, intelligent and but more fundamentally because such most of them dancing badly and me interesting ways, faithful to their own alternatives invariably remain grounded worst of all. realities. Kingsnorth lets neither figures in the very tangible, pedestrian needs It’s when I look around and see nor polemic obscure the living voices of and desires of those who create them. that everyone who surrounds me—all the people he encounters on his journey, Prognostic blueprints, as most of us are colours, from all corners, all together and weaves together the stories of resist- realizing, never match the flowering of even as they are so far apart—all ance from around the world with skill. the unexpected. When people decide to of them, all of these people, are de- His human touch makes One No, Many take matters into their own hands for a termined and somehow together. I Yesses simply a good read for mainstream change, anything can happen. realise that they have between them audiences, which is what is most miss- Kingsnorth takes on something of a something too powerful to wash ing from a lot of the literature. Ask your literary approach in this book, at least away.... I can’t see anything that grandmother.  as far as his own person is concerned. will shut them up, shut them down, As someone who was involved in road make them go home quietly and stop protests in the early nineties, helped set causing so much trouble. Apart from ENDNOTES up the Free West Papua Campaign, and winning.7 1. Notes from Nowhere, eds., “Opening worked for two years as deputy editor Salvo,” in We Are Everywhere (Lon- of The Ecologist (where he was a blessed The book closes with a concluding, don: Verso, 2003), 14. thorn in the side of Monsanto), I seri- “what do we do?”-type of chapter, which 2. Fair disclosure: an excerpt from my ously doubt whether he knew as little as is the only real disappointment. King- own report after Genoa is also in- he pretends to have known about capi- snorth is still wedded to the ideas that cluded somewhere in We Are Every- talism, and the movements resisting it, NGOs and lobbyists were trumpeting where, and I’m friends with three of when he set out to write this book. But around the time of Seattle, namely that the editors. But neither circumstance Kingsnorth not only makes the entirely the problems all boil down to bad gov- is the cause for my very favourable reasonable decision to assume no prior ernance. Thus, the extent of systemic response to this book. knowledge or involvement on the part of change he proposes is to replace present- 3. More than a convenient starting the reader, he also internalises this posi- day institutions with better ones—a glo- point, it seems that the Zapatista tion in his own presentation. Thus his bal fair trade regime instead of the WTO trajectory—extending through the account reads as the discovery quest of a and IMF, a reconstructed UN with real Encuentros, the beginnings of Peo- sympathetic outsider, an average British power for the Third World, no privati- ples’ Global Action and the first bloke who just wants to know what this zation for public goods. All of which is large-scale global protests—firmly is all really about. By sounding curi- supposed to clear the ground for people grounds both these books’ meta-nar- ous, he draws the reader’s curiosity. This building their own solutions from the ratives. is, I think, largely a show—Kingsnorth ground up—solutions like a bias in fa- 4. Sue Branford and Jan Rocha, “Cut- masters his material, and can conjure up vour of local businesses and trade, politi- ting the Wires: the landless move- all the facts and figures he needs when cal parties that actually speak in different ment of Brazil,” in We Are Every- he needs them. But the effect, in liter- voices. You get the picture. It is curious where, 131-2. ary terms, is successful and actually quite that Kingsnorth so openly celebrates 5. Rowena Kennedy-Epstein, “The pleasing: the anti-hierarchical sensibilities of the Anticipated First,” in We Are Every- global movements, but gives them only where, 210. As the dancing goes on, and the lip service when it comes to appreciating 6. Notes from Nowhere, “Power,” in We night draws in, and everyone gets the degree of change that they prefig- are Everywhere, 392-393. progressively more drunk, including ure. As for the possibility of achieving 7. Paul Kingsnorth, One No, Many Yess- me, I look around me and I realise these goals—it is sometimes hard to say es: A Journey to the Heart of the Global something. It’s when everyone is up who is more naïve, the “radical reform- Resistance Movement (London: Free and moving, ripping and running ers” of global governance or those of us Press, 2003), 84-5. around in mad circles to the Che who believe that in a fight that often 8. A good online portal is http://www. Guevara song, under a waving, mul- seems hopeless, we might as well put westpapua.net/. ticoloured, chequered flag; the symbol our energies into abolishing governance of the campesino farmers of Latin altogether. America. I’m being swung from But these proposals, for all their limi- South African to Colombian to ecolo- tations, are hardly the point of the book. gist to anarchist, from Brazilian to Overall, they don’t cloud the book’s Bangladeshi, from cocalero to tribes- main agenda, which is to present the

fall 2004 / 37 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Reading Class Something of the Who, What, Where, Why, When and How of Consciousness

by Andrew Hedden

WHERE I STOOD ney. In Boob, getting down on corporate FIRST WENT anarchist in high school, A review of: culture and faux-freethinking becomes which put me at odds with a lot of but one thread in a larger yarn dissecting things—at least intellectually. Capi- Boob Jubilee: The Cultural Politics of the a different contemporary conundrum: I New Economy edited by Thomas Frank talism, domination, the ridiculously enor- How in the hell did Rich White Males mous student parking lot: all were targets and David Mulcahey (New York, NY: manage to become political pariahs in of my trenchant critique. Then there W.W. Norton & Company, 2003). popular culture? 2 were the times when I’d hear students Culture War, The Baffler says, that’s discussing consumerism, which always Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell how. This larger thesis emerges in the came back to a certain paradox: shop- hooks (New York, NY: Routledge, work of co-editor Thomas Frank, who ping at the alternative “punk” store in the 2000). contributes three pieces to this anthology, mall was invariably the same as shopping along with the two supporting essays by at the “preppy” stores. Somehow, this Thinking Class: Sketches from a Cultural Chris Lehmann. “Mention ‘elites’ these conclusion invalidated the need to be Worker by Joanna Kadi (Boston, MA: days,” Frank explains, “and nobody thinks critical, and consumerism remained the South End Press, 1996). of factory owners or gated-community framework of our lives. But I knew bet- dwellers. Instead, they assume that what ter than to stop the discussion there and you’re mad as hell about is the liberal continue shopping. In that oh-so-for- Where We Stand: Class Matters and Joanna media, or the pro-criminal judiciary, or mative senior year of high school, I read Kadi’s Thinking Class have been espe- the tenured radicals, or the know-it-all Commodify Your Dissent, an anthology cially helpful to me in figuring out this bureaucrats.”3 In an ever-increasing on- of writings from The Baffler magazine.1 difference, which has inevitably led me slaught of pundits, publishing, TV, and The Baffler was (and is) devoted to harp- to think differently too, about anarchism, radio programs, the American Right has ing on all things business in American capitalism, domination, student parking sought to efface economic reality with culture—something I quickly picked up lots—and also The Baffler. cultural claims. Lehmann offers a spir- on, particularly their point that hipness ited history of one tactic in this strategy, and rebellion haven’t just been co-opted THE CULTURE WAR DID NOT the charge against “liberal media” which by corporate salesmen: they’ve become TAKE PLACE he dates back to a speech by then Vice the very ideology of free market capital- he best thing about The Baffler that President Spiro Agnew in 1969. Those ism itself. So I knew what was up. Some T the previous anthology Commodify were the days, of course, that saw the of my friends turned to rock bands to be Your Dissent showcased was the remark- height of the struggle of the 60s, but different—I turned to anarchism. able wrath its writers could unleash also the inklings of the larger backlash to Several years later and I’m still an on tripe like Wired magazine, Nike or come. “In the backlash vision,” Lehm- anarchist, still have a beef with capital- MTV-sponsored poetry readings through ann writes, “owner and worker stood in ism, domination and big student parking words and sentences alone. If you liked defense of the besieged values of Ameri- lots—and since I got this new anthology, it at all, it was probably for the writing. canism; whatever differences they had Boob Jubilee, I guess you could say I still And if you like Boob Jubilee at all, it will were dwarfed by the colossal arrogance read The Baffler. But I’m no longer in probably be, again, for the writing. Yet of the real class enemy, the media.” 4 Yet high school, I’m in college, which—quips something about the overall thrust of while Good Ol’ American Values have about the maturity of student life aside— Boob suggests that the editors realized served as the weapons of the Right for is very much different from K-12 educa- there’s more to critiquing capitalism than the past 30-odd years, the battle itself has tion. Reading books like bell hooks’s proving the culture of business is balo- largely been rhetorical. “Shout though

38 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

they might,” Frank writes, “they never War. The victims of consumerism, Great Debauch.” I had to look it up, got cultural history to stop”—that is, the meanwhile—those would-be “revolu- but once I found that a “cyclorama” is a Right never did repeal rock ‘n’ roll. “But tionaries and creative individualists and “large composite picture placed on the what they did get was far more impor- prude-defiers and boss-shockers”6—treat interior walls of a cylindrical room,” I tant: political power.”5 the Culture War like “The Real Thing,” found the title pretty appropriate. For a As is hinted by a comparison of the when it’s as real a thing as the carbonated large composite picture of today’s United old anthology’s subtitle with the new one, sugar water known for that slogan. The States we are offered essays like Christian this is in many ways just an extension aim of the previous anthology Commodify Parenti’s “Bring Us Your Chained and of The Baffler beef with the “Business of Your Dissent was shown in the bulldozer Huddled Masses,” on the prison industry Culture” to the “Cultural Politics” of the on the cover—pushing past all the intel- in Crescent City, California;7 and Nelson American Right. In both scenarios, the lectual bullshit of consumerism to get Smith’s “A Partial History of Alarms,” real inequities of capitalism get ignored at the reality of the class society under- which discusses how “alarms illustrate as politics becomes a matter of personal neath. Boob Jubilee does its share of bull- the appeal to force implicit in the very attitude and lifestyle, rather than con- dozing, but goes a step further and starts concept of property.”8 Both essays offer cerned with the true efforts needed to looking at all they’ve uncovered. a great illustration of, in Smith’s words, challenge inequity (whatever those are). Turns out, what they find is, as usual, “the attachment of private property [and The deal with the Right though, is that described really, really well. Of the capitalism] to a larger, more brutal entity: it employs Culture War consciously as seven sections this anthology is broken the state.”9 a tactic of diversion in the larger Class into, one is entitled “Cyclorama of the Still, some essays detailing “the

fall 2004 / 39 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Great Debauch” are more wanting. Ben ing new for them, it’s also what they’re supposedly indistinguishable from “the Metcalf ’s “American Heartworm,” for best at. Paul Maliszewski’s I, Faker re- global market’s rhetoric of shopping-as- instance, offers a tale of Metcalf fam- ally stands out in this regard. It retells liberation.”14 Many of The Baffler’s au- ily poverty along the Mississippi River, the author’s experience having satirical thors are insiders in business culture, but where “a high degree of emotional suffer- articles and guest columns published as they aren’t necessarily asking how to re- ing and moral decay has become almost business wisdom in The Business Journal ject it, or bring it down; it seems they just a point of pride,” lawsuits are “the height of Central New York. Some of the things want to get cynical about it for a while, of glamour and achievement,” and “a he managed to get in print—including a in essay-length equivalents of bull-shit- food stamp is met with less suspicion School of America’s torture manual very ting at bars on Friday nights. But come than a five or ten dollar bill.”10 While thinly rewritten as a manager’s advice Monday, one can bet they’ll still return to there is a satire of Americana somewhere column—almost single-handedly put their day-job. Of course, there’s that pos- in this essay—Heartworm as opposed the lie to the common claim that irony is sibility they’re all doing more than just to Heartwarm—it’s still rather unclear dead. working and writing for The Baffler—but what Metcalf is doing. It’s clear enough After clearing away the intellectual if that’s the case, it’s about time they how he’s doing it: Metcalf ’s Twain-esque bullshit, The Baffler finds a society in- made it part of the conversation. eloquence makes the essay a pleasure to evitably full of shit itself, where the gap read. But it’s less of a pleasure to pon- between rich and poor is incredibly large, THINKING CLASS MATTERS der its politics. It works as an unfortu- and only getting larger. Yet when it iven my high school’s location in a nate contrast to the piece preceding it, comes to doing something about all the G mostly white suburb, students’ par- Mike Newirth’s “Give the Millionaire a shit, The Baffler doesn’t do much. Maybe ents tended to have incomes that were, Drink,” which fictitiously recounts the they nudge it a bit, but then they pass on shall we say, above average. The student patriarchal depravity of the wealthy in the clean-up job to government and fed- to car ratio was large as a result, so that East Hampton, New York. Whereas eral regulation. In the introductory essay, the school’s student parking lot knew a Newirth’s piece illustrates drug abuse they grieve that in the Nineties, “We all gigantism that Lewis Mumford could and sexual assault where we’re not sup- had ‘tude by the ton, but no dissent to have had a field day on. posed to find it, i.e. on the playgrounds speak of.” The “we” they’re referring to As it was, my ideas about capitalism of the rich, Metcalf illustrates “moral might as well be The Baffler itself.12 They and domination were big, too—but my decay” where popular culture is always hint that had there not been “a cata- solutions were small. Outside of school, telling us it’s at: backwoods poor coun- strophic failure of critical intelligence” in I was busy learning a thing or two in an try. If Metcalf is trying to put the lie intellectual life over the past few decades, anarchist collective—so that in school to American myths about the majestic the Right wouldn’t be having its way I felt like a special outsider. Everyone Mississippi, he’s doing so without paying with America right now.13 But the no- commuted by car—so what better way to much heed to the possibly less majestic tion that intellectual activity could really fight the system than to commute by bi- but no less vacuous lies about poor whites pull this country out of the shit-house cycle? With my abstract take on capital- and trailer parks. Metcalf ’s piece is also is something they never really explain. ism, this was my abstract solution. telling for whom he chooses not to paint In all, what could pull us out is a Left Now in college, I still ride a bicycle into the picture—himself. One wonders unexplored. The closest they come, per- now and again, but I no longer see it how Metcalf is related to the family he is haps, is Christian Parenti’s “Us Against as the mode of expression for any sort so eloquently lamenting, if indeed he is Them in the Me Decade,” an account of radical, anti-capitalist critique. I at all. The failure to locate himself in the of labor struggles in the early 1970s, or see things differently. Sitting in a col- picture ultimately contributes to a greater maybe Thomas Frank’s take on the 1996 lege classroom, I can see what most of failure to put the Metcalf family itself Detroit newspaper strike in “When Class the students have in common—they’re in a larger picture. Any possible social Disappears.” But add all these pieces mostly white, middle to upper class like origins of their problems are eschewed together and what you have is little more myself. I’m also noticing who is not in favor of blaming the Mississippi River than a love letter to the labor struggle of here—namely, friends I’ve left back home itself: a great metaphor, perhaps, for a lit- yesteryear. who can’t afford college as I can. What erary editor at Harper’s Magazine (which Given that the bulk of these essays I’m finally conscious of in school and Metcalf is), but not an effective critique were written during the opening rounds elsewhere, after all this time, is not a stu- of capitalism (which The Baffler aspires to of the anti-globalization movement, dent parking lot: it is class. make).11 Seattle included, it really makes one While this consciousness has primar- Many of the works spread throughout wonder why all that’s said about contem- ily been—thanks to a few rather radical Boob Jubilee do the usual Baffler thing— porary organized resistance amounts to professors—the product of class-con- tearing apart business culture and laying Chris Lehmann’s cheap jabs at “our atro- scious curriculum, I know this is hardly into popular culture. While it’s noth- phied left’s allegiance to Lifestylismus,” a norm. Reading bell hooks’s Where We

40 / fall 2004 Reading Class: Something of the Who, What, Where, Why, When and How of Consciousness

Stand: Class Matters and Joanna Kadi’s worse—and the endless struggle against class childhood, hooks follows her life Thinking Class has told me as much, and it. In essays like “Making Sense of My through college and into a place of class more. Both books are the personal stories Happy Childhood/Creating Theory,” privilege in academia. From there she of working-class women of color engag- Kadi seeks to theorize her experience as analyzes the conceptions of rich and poor ing with class: Kadi as a “working-class a survivor of sexual abuse, exploring child in popular culture, of and among blacks Arab halfbreed queer girl”15 from a Gen- abuse through its connections with other and whites as well as in feminist circles, eral Motors city, and hooks as a working- forms of oppression, namely racism, clas- and then outlines a few tentative steps class black woman from Kentucky. sism, and ablism. She brings this same towards “living without class hierarchy.”16 The contents of Kadi’s Thinking Class balance of experience and analysis to dis- Kadi and hooks both recall finding can be roughly categorized as analytical cussions of working class culture, cultural great pleasure in books and ideas from essays, personal memoirs, and poetry—I imperialism, and classism. a young age. They both followed their say roughly, because each piece includes hooks’s Where We Stand: Class Matters desire for more into the hallowed walls elements of all three. In a series of takes a similar approach, weaving togeth- of academia, only to discover, once they sketches entitled “Catholic School Days,” er the analytical with the personal. Over got there, a world more hollow than Kadi describes through her earliest mem- the course of fourteen short essays, hooks hallowed. “At the university where the ories of grade school the often brutal takes her memories of class as a starting founder, Leland Stanford, had imagined socialization of class and gender—some point, then works in the necessary links different classes meeting on common boys tracked for jail, for instance, some to race and gender. From her parents’ ground,” hooks recalls, “I learned how girls tracked for teenage pregnancy, or class backgrounds, to her own working- deeply individuals with class privilege

fall 2004 / 41 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory feared and hated the working classes.”17 of privacy. If one of these, such as working-class people are somehow more Kadi’s “overwhelming feelings of con- education, shifts dramatically, class homophobic than the middle and upper fusion, depression, inadequacy and identity doesn’t change.22 classes, an argument she extends to the shame”18 drove her to leave after just four Left as a whole. Thanks to these played- months of university, only to reluctantly WHAT REALLY MATTERS up images of bigoted workers, “rich return to women’s studies years later. hen hooks and Kadi’s definition people have continued to bask in the hooks stuck out her years at Stanford, but W of class collides with The Baffler, glow of the winners’ circle lights, as pro- had no easier time of it. a perennial Leftist difficulty results: what gressive middle-class people consistently For both women, to enter the uni- is the working-class, anyway? At least cast working-class people unfavorably.” versity was also to enter a hostile realm implicit in The Baffler’s work is that class Kadi illustrates an important difference of class privilege. Having weathered is economic, and that to say otherwise is in terms of the homophobia of the rich the struggle and come out on the other cultural obfuscation. “Those endlessly and of the working-class: side with college degrees, they both find debatable matters of attitude, language themselves facing a personal crisis of pitch, and representation, they [the Truck drivers and garbage men class identity—“Am I working-class now Right] have found,” contends Lehmann, don’t determine social policies. We that I have a university degree?”19 While “always trump mundane questions such don’t make laws and decide what’s hooks’s allegiance to the working class as ownership and allocation of corporate acceptable and what’s not. Wealthy remains intact beyond graduation, she resources.”23 Yet I find it interesting that people hold that power. They don’t notes how the experience “had planted The Baffler, for all its grumbling about wait outside queer bars to beat us up; my feet on the path leading in the direc- who the real elites are in this country, that’s a working-class response for tion of class privilege.”20 Much of her had nevertheless helped orient me to- sure. But wealthy people do occupy book is—in accord with its title—deter- wards my high school peers in a—dare I judges’ benches and presidents’ offices mining where she stands, based on her say—elitist manner. Fighting capitalism and corporate boardrooms, and devise effort to forge a place in academia as a was about riding my bike or abhorring policies that ensure our children will woman from the working-class, without consumerism, not clocking a boss, or be stolen, our relationships outlawed, at the same time abandoning solidarity even contesting the oft-overheard classist our jobs taken, our partners denied with the poor. contention conveyed to failing students health insurance.26 Kadi shares hooks’s allegiance to the by teachers: “Well, I’ll always need some- working-class. But she wonders: why one to fix my toilet.” While deploring hooks found similar class attitudes do we assume university degrees cancel lifestyle (and in many ways, rightly so), among feminist circles, as among white out working-class identity in the first The Baffler either waxes nostalgic over peers who wore trips to the Third World place? Degrees, she concludes, confer “the revolutionary legacy of the Thir- as badges of honor. “Like a charity one more than knowledge and experience: ties”24 or explores working class culture has donated capital to and need never they establish who is smart and who is in ambiguous ways à la Metcalf, all the give to them again because the proof stupid. “But working-class people can’t while getting by on—but never quite elu- of generosity was already on record, be smart,” or so goes the prevailing social cidating—the assumption that class is all their one-time contribution could take logic. “Therefore, since we’ve earned a about the economy. the place of any on-going construc- college degree, we are no longer working- The Right points the finger at the tive confrontation with class politics in class.”21 Kadi knows that’s bullshit: “rich Left and accuses “Elitists!” The Baffler the United States.”27 It is a common people aren’t necessarily smart,” nor do points the finger back and cries, “No, practice among mostly white middle- working-class people “acquire privilege, you’re the elitists!” In light of the Right’s class liberals, it would seem, to project entitlement, and arrogance after slogging success in popular culture, it would seem problems onto outside targets beyond it out in the university.” In all, it begs more helpful to acknowledge that the their everyday lives. Incubated in privi- a larger question: “does class location Left has, in fact, an elitist streak a mile lege, elitism is what hatches. The liberal change if one factor governing class loca- wide, instances of which hooks and Kadi weekly newspaper for the town in which tion alters?” Echoing similar conclusions provide in spades. As hooks notes, “Lack I live—which thrives solely on the col- by hooks, Kadi answers in the negative: of concern for the poor is all the more lege-student driven economy—prints possible when voices on the left ignore entire issues devoted to the local anti- …I believe class identity comes this reality while focusing primary atten- war movement, yet has no qualms about from many places: education, values, tion on the machinations of the power- printing jokes lambasting the poor. Then culture, income, dwelling, life-style, ful.”25 there was the complaint of a fellow stu- manners, friends, ancestry, language, In her essay “Homophobic Workers dent—who considers himself a socialist, expectations, desires, sense of entitle- or Elitist Queers?” Kadi challenges the incidentally—deriding a “white trash” ment, religion, neighborhood, amount assumption in the queer movement that themed party (a popular college hap-

42 / fall 2004 Reading Class: Something of the Who, What, Where, Why, When and How of Consciousness pening, I’ve noticed), not as classist, but critique to the streets—atop a bicycle. In Climbed Mount Nasdaq,” in Boob as “gay.” So much for the working-class a way, I was really missing The Baffler’s Jubilee, 5. being the sole homophobes. point about lifestyle as resistance, evad- 7. Anyone who has read Parenti’s im- As they draw their analysis from per- ing the need for more concrete organiza- portant class analysis of the U.S. sonal experience, hooks and Kadi haven’t tional efforts by championing my isolated prison industry, Lockdown America: the privilege to leave out the connections bike ride. But if I was going to learn Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis to race and gender. All but three of the anything about concrete organizing, it (New York: Verso, 1999), will not twenty-nine writers in The Baffler an- wasn’t going to be from anything I read find anything new in this piece, thology are men, while race is never ad- in The Baffler, and that still holds true to- which is more or less an adapted dressed directly. This doesn’t necessarily day with Boob Jubilee. Setting ourselves chapter of that work. invalidate what The Baffler has to say, but outside resistance, or projecting ourselves 8. Nelson Smith, “A Partial History of it certainly limits it. For instance, Chris onto the past leaves us lost, searching for Alarms,” in Boob Jubilee, 48. Lehmann notes that Pat Buchanan wrote what to do and where to begin. With- 9. Ibid, 45. Agnew’s 1969 liberal media speech, but out the essential evaluation of where we 10. Ben Metcalf, “American Heart- fails to acknowledge the importance of stand in the scheme of domination, we worm,” in Boob Jubilee, 30, 39, 42. this fact. Those “cultural” appeals the remain baffled, unable to discern what 11. There is, of course, the question of Right makes to the working-class are of- is required for enduring social change whether Metcalf ’s essay is just sa- ten along racial lines, and Buchanan’s fre- —including the need for true solidarity tirical fiction, which The Baffler has quent anti-immigrant tirades are a case with oppressed groups of which we’re not been known to print; if that is the in point. The lack of this connection in a part.  case, it certainly leaves one to won- Boob Jubilee is enough to make one won- der where all these accounts of the der whether race and gender might fall poor are coming from, other than under “Lifestylismus” in The Baffler tax- Endnotes Metcalf ’s imagination. onomy. If so, they certainly wouldn’t be 1. Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland, 12. Frank et al., “This Car Climbed the first leftists to do so, as so many “pro- eds., Commodify Your Dissent (New Mount Nasdaq,” in Boob Jubilee, 5. gressives” already efface real oppressions York, NY: W.W. Norton & Com- 13. Ibid., 6. with the broad epithet “identity politics.” pany, 1997). 14. Chris Lehmann, “Boom Crash Op- 2. In this review, I take the anthol- era: Shadowboxing in the Culture EVASION ogy as my only point of reference Bubble,” in Boob Jubilee, 283. ’m no stranger to broad epithets. I for critiquing The Baffler. I’m writ- 15. Joanna Kadi, Thinking Class: Sketches I took to anarchism easily because ing under the assumption that the from a Cultural Worker (Boston, MA: domination seemed such a blanket ill. anthology is meant to reach a larger South End Press, 1996), 6. My error was in thinking opposition to audience than the magazine, and 16. bell hooks, Where We Stand: Class domination in-and-of-itself could serve that the pieces that constitute it were Matters (New York, NY: Routledge, as a blanket solution. Domination is a thus chosen because they best repre- 2000), 157. broad, insidious problem; but it exists in sent what The Baffler is about. I’m 17. Ibid., 35. particular forms—capitalism, racism and well aware that there are some pieces 18. Kadi, Thinking Class, 42. sexism among them—and each of these in the magazine that counter my 19. Ibid., 52. demands an understanding and practice critiques, which is probably to say I 20. hooks, Where We Stand, 37. of their own as well as in the context of think they should have been includ- 21. Kadi, Thinking Class, 53. other oppressions. The Baffler, hooks ed in the anthology. Many thanks to 22. Ibid., 53. For an almost identical and Kadi alike bring affecting prose to a Jeff Purdue for helping me to clarify definition of class from hooks, see particular problem: all are writing about nearly all that appears in this review. her quotation of Rita Mae Brown, capitalism and the realities of a class 3. Thomas Frank, “The God That hooks, Where We Stand, 103. society in an innovative and engaging Sucked,” in Boob Jubilee, eds. Thomas 23. Chris Lehmann, “The Eyes of Sprio way—particularly when measured against Frank and David Mulcahey (New Are Upon You,” in Boob Jubilee, 141. the dry rhetoric in most leftist writing on York, NY: W.W. Norton & Com- 24. Thomas Frank, “When Class Disap- class. Unlike The Baffler, however, hooks pany, 2003), 9-10. pears,” in Boob Jubilee, 295. and Kadi put themselves into their work, 4. Chris Lehmann, “The Eyes of Spiro 25. hooks, Where We Stand, 46. and thus have an easier time making con- Are Upon You,” in Boob Jubilee, 134. 26. Kadi, Thinking Class, 151. nections to other oppressions, as well as 5. Thomas Frank, “The God That 27. hooks, Where We Stand, 148. finding grounds for resistance. Sucked,” in Boob Jubilee, 10. Misunderstanding capitalism as an 6. Thomas Frank, Greg Lane, David evil beyond me, my middle class ass took Mulcahey, Emily Vogt, “This Car

fall 2004 / 43 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

The New Anti-Imperialism

by Chuck Morse

EFTISTS OFTEN point out that the movements swept the globe in the 1960s. terror attacks of September 11th A review of: This new movement is also deeply 2001 were an enormous gift to conflicted. Quasi-fascist religious mili- L The New Imperialism by David Harvey President Bush: they created the political tants, liberals, and anarchists all uneasily context he needed to launch the repres- (New York: Oxford University Press, share a place on the new spectrum of sive campaigns long planned by his aides 2003). dissent; despite this newfound common and that now characterize his presidency. cause, we remained divided in important It was a golden opportunity and he Incoherent Empire by Michael Mann ways. seized it. (New York: Verso Books, 2003). How should we respond to the diver- Yet it is important to remember an- sity of this movement? First of all, we other fact of equal or perhaps greater Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of should not allow it to “shock and awe” significance: Bush’s “War on Terror” Iraq by Tariq Ali (New York: Verso us. Significant historical changes always has also been a gift to us. Specifically, his Books, 2003). produce contradictory responses that hyper-aggressive, ultra-brutal neo-colo- draw, to an extent, from the same source: nialist policies have nurtured the growth the old labor movement had its fascist of massive international resistance to and socialist wings, there were neo-Mal- American imperialism. From thusian as well as anarchist Baghdad to Madrid, and in tendencies in the ecology endless cities and towns across movement, and both the Black the globe, ordinary people have Panthers and Ron Karenga’s risen up to denounce the center US organization grew out of world power and now genu- of America’s black liberation inely restrain if not threaten its movement. activity. What we need to do is Opposition to US imperial- engage this new movement ism has grown to such propor- and nurture the worldwide tions since the start of the Iraq mobilization against American war that Noam Chomsky now imperialism. We must fight its describes world public opinion regressive tendencies, radicalize as “the second super-power.” and deepen its discourse, and However, we are actually wit- press it towards the most sys- nessing something much more temic and utopian solutions to exciting than the term “public the present crisis. Specifically, opinion” suggests: the begin- we must devote ourselves to nings of an international anti- cultivating a vision that articu- imperialist movement. This lates a coherent critique of the movement is mobilized against “War on Terror” and a positive a common enemy and has be- view of ourselves as revolution- gun to forge a shared discourse ary—or potentially revolution- about imperialism, self-deter- ary—actors. mination, and the destructive Unfortunately few works effects of the market. Some- are available that will help us thing of this scale has not oc- in this effort. The established curred since national liberation theorists, as often happens

44 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory when new movements emerge, are of lecturing to graduate students. ism, which must occur in order to lay little use. They tend to wave the flags of The book’s first and best chapter, “All the foundation for the inevitable emer- defeated causes, are resigned to the status about Oil,” demolishes the various claims gence of the proletariat as the agent of quo, or simply lack the depth necessary made to justify the war on Iraq and situ- world revolution. This would be a very to embrace the fullness of the potentiali- ates it within political pressures facing orthodox Marxist reading and he seems ties before us. the Bush administration (both domestic inclined towards this when he notes It is our responsibility to write the and international). This prompts the (elsewhere) that he shares “with Marx, literature of future revolutions and, as reader to consider the deeper, systemic the view that imperialism, like capitalism, daunting as that is, we can begin now by reasons for the adventure and it is here can prepare the ground for human eman- critically examining some of the existing that the most substantive—and labor- cipation.”2 However, Harvey backs away books on the “War on Terror.” At mini- some—part of the book begins. After from this and even divorces himself from mum, this can help us identify some of long detours through the history of the key Marxist claim that the proletariat the theoretical challenges we face. imperialism, capitalism, and conceptual (or any other social force) will emerge The books reviewed here—all written distinctions of varying relevance, Har- as a transformative, revolutionary class. around the time of the US/UK invasion vey comes to his main point: the war in Although I share his pessimism about of Iraq—offer insights into the nature Iraq is a super-structural expression of the revolutionary destiny of the industrial of present international conflicts and long-standing pressures in the economic proletariat, Marxism—a theory of class contain premises that either enhance or base (stated in non-Marxist parlance: the struggle—falls apart when not linked to undermine our capacity to envision our economy is making states fight each oth- a theory of the proletariat’s revolution- activity as dissidents. er). These pressures have been maturing ary agency. Harvey’s reworked Marxist since the 1970s, were intensified in the vision only accords historical agency DEFEATED CAUSES 1990s, and now must be resolved: specifi- to the capitalist—but not the dispos- avid Harvey, a British-born scholar cally, it is necessary to find a way to avoid sessed—class and thus depicts capital- D now residing in the United States, a crisis of overaccumulation that could ism as an overwhelming, unstoppable is the author of significant interdisciplin- potentially threaten the future of capital- force that does not contain the seeds of ary studies in contemporary social theory, ism (this occurs when the system pro- its own negation. And of course this per- such as The Condition of Postmodernity duces more commodities and capital than spective also deprives those who oppose (his best known book). His work is char- it can profitably absorb). The leaders of capitalism of any theoretical framework acterized by a non-dogmatic, Marxist the system thus undertake what Harvey in which to ground their efforts. analysis of changes in political, cultural, calls “accumulation by dispossession,” This is why it makes sense that and economic circumstances and, accord- which he regards as a “primary contradic- Harvey’s proscriptions for the future are ingly, it is easy be excited by the publica- tion.”1 This term describes the process so dismal. Instead of demanding a radi- tion of The New Imperialism. There is wherein capitalism destroys areas of the cal transformation of social affairs, he good reason to hope that he would relate world and/or parts of the social structure meekly calls for “the construction of an the “War on Terror” to a broader critique to create new areas for the investment of updated ‘New Deal’ led by the United of capitalism as well as the oppositional surplus capital and labor, thus forestall- States and Europe, both domestically forces generated within the social order. ing generalized breakdown and ensuring and internationally, [which] in the face Although Harvey does link his analy- the continued accumulation of capital. of the overwhelming class forces and sis of the “War on Terror” and the “new Although the state and capital partake special interests ranged against it, is imperialism” to a critique of capitalism, of different logics—what he calls “the surely enough to fight for in the present readers will find little of significance in logic of territory” and “the logic of capi- conjuncture…. [T]his might… actually his commentary on the war or the broad- tal”—they often act in concert to produce assuage the problems of overaccumula- er theoretical perspective with which he singular historical results, such as war. In tion for at least a few years and diminish frames it. Only two of the book’s five other words, Harvey explains the war in the need to accumulate by dispossession chapters treat current militarist cam- Iraq with the stunning insight that capi- and might encourage democratic, pro- paigns in any detail and the others really talism destroys in order to create. gressive and human forces…. This does only exist to set the stage for his very Harvey’s truism about capitalism is seem to propose a far less violent and far Marxist argument that the Iraq war is an only meaningful in the context of broad- more benevolent imperial trajectory than expression of underlying developments er assertions about the trajectory of the the raw militaristic imperialism currently in the economic base. Unfortunately the social order. Presumably, as a Marxist, offered up.”3 book is also terribly ponderous, devoid he would be inclined to locate the war in Of course Harvey should be com- of a narrative center, and awash with the Marx’s teleological vision of history: he mended for relating his analysis of the sort of pompousness typical of those who could argue that the war is a necessary “new imperialism” to systemic pressures spend the greater portion of their lives step in the universalization of capital- emerging within capitalism, as they are

fall 2004 / 45 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory doubtlessly among the key factors driv- the war in Afghanistan, the “War against political schizophrenic and ideologi- ing the Bush administration’s adven- Terrorism,” the United States’ response cal phantom. The result is a disturbed, tures. However, the core assumptions to North Korea and “rogue states” gener- misshapen monster stumbling clumsily of Marxism cannot be sustained here or ally, and the war against Iraq. across the world. It means well. It in- elsewhere, and Harvey’s version is par- The new imperialists’ attempt to tends to spread order and benevolence, ticularly corrosive for those who would build an American empire is restricted but instead it creates more disorder and nourish the new anti-imperialist move- in manifold ways, both domestically and violence.”5 That is, it will become an ment unfolding across the globe. internationally. Ideologically, Mann Incoherent Empire if Bush’s planners con- writes, “American democratic values are tinue to pursue their imperial designs. ALL HAIL THE STATUS QUO flagrantly contradicted by an imperial- Mann’s sharp analysis of the indi- ichael Mann is a noted social ism, which is strong on military offense vidual campaigns paints a picture of an M theorist of British ancestry as well. but weak on ability to bring order, peace Administration that is stupidly pursuing His two volume Sources of Social Power (A and democracy afterwards [which the polices that actually undermine its own History of Power from the Beginning to AD Bush administration claims it will do].”4 ambitions. Among other examples, he 1760 and The Rise of Classes and Nation Likewise, internationally, the new impe- shows that the brutal, indiscriminate States 1760-1914, respectively) is a lead- rialism is at variance with the principle nature of the “War on Terror” actu- ing work of comparative sociology. We of national self-determination, which is ally creates more terrorists and that the also have good reason to expect that he imbedded in very structure of world poli- increasingly military (as opposed to will place the “War on Terror” in a deeper tics and leads people to oppose imperial- diplomatic) response to “rogue states” historical context. ist ventures. Economically, the United actually prompts states to acquire weap- Mann’s Incoherent Empire is a power- States is a formidable power, but still ons of mass destruction (because they are ful indictment of the “new imperialism” only what Mann calls a “back-seat driver” threatened). advanced by the Bush administration of the global economy, because it cannot This book is also well written and (and the American government gener- control foreign investors or economies fortunately not plagued by the same pon- ally). Mann’s central thesis is that the at- and is incapable of fully overcoming re- derousness found in The New Imperialism tempt to create an American empire—a sistance to its global economic policies. (although there are an unusually large goal articulated by many of Bush’s ideo- Politically, he describes American power number of errors—like “The strong are logues and advisors—is doomed to fail- as schizophrenic because of its oscillation become fearful,”6 etc—that presumably ure and that pursuing it will needlessly between unilateralism and multilateral- reflect the rush to publish the book). damage the United States and produce ism. The US is a giant on the military But Mann is no radical. In contrast unnecessary suffering worldwide. terrain, but still unable to commit the re- to David Harvey, Mann does not ques- Drawing on his previous work, Mann sources necessary for real imperial control tion the market economy; the idea that distinguishes between four types of pow- (specifically, as we now see in Iraq, it can there could be an alternative to capital- er—military, political, economic, and ide- win wars but cannot provide the much ism is simply beyond consideration for ological—and, in the first four chapters larger number of troops and materiel nec- him. He believes that “the Age of Class of his book, examines the United States’ essary to sustain imperial domination). Struggle is in decline”7 and, in this spirit, possession of these powers and argues According to Mann, the consequence sums up his feelings on the issue by writ- that the country does not possess them of the US’s unique possession of these ing that “Sweatshops are better than no to the degree required for full imperial powers is that the longed-for “American shops, child labor is better than child dominance. The later half of the book il- Empire will turn out to be a military mortality. To be exploited by capitalism lustrates this through the examination of giant, a Back-seat economic driver, a is better than to be excluded from it.”8 He also has a well-de- veloped commitment to the American state. For Mann, “getting back to the Clinton years would now be a great achievement. But if we have learned any- thing, it should be to move toward a better future through combining Ameri- can leadership and the ac- ceptance of international law and norms regulating

46 / fall 2004 The New Anti-Imperialism world conflict.”9 And, in the book’s last Unfortunately he is fully resigned to the ous figures and to see that at least one sentence, he writes “Luckily, the United status quo. prominent writer is willing to dispense States is a democracy, with the politi- with academic pleasantries. For example, cal solution close at hand in November A MILE WIDE, AN INCH DEEP he describes Kofi Annan as “a dumb- 2004. Throw the new militarists out ush in Babylon by Tariq Ali—a Paki- waiter for American aggression”18 and of office. Otherwise the world will re- B stan-born writer who now lives in points out that “the British prime minis- duce American’s power still further.”10 London—aims to place the present war ter now seems to regard the posterior of His convictions are also evident in his against Iraq in the long history of con- a US president as his natural habitat.”19 constant us of the pronoun “we” when flicts between that country and the West (This is a welcome contrast to Mann’s referring to the United States govern- and to encourage resistance to the occu- sympathies for Blair). ment—e.g., “We cannot simply remove pation. “Without knowing the past,” he One of Ali’s objectives is to help ori- him [Saddam Hussein] and bring order explains in the Introduction, “it is impos- ent opponents of the occupation and he to Iraq”11—and he seems to think he is sible to understand what is happening provides explicit proscriptions for ac- giving advice to policy makers (the book today, and the history is presented here as tion. He states that “the immediate tasks is full of policy recommendations like a warning to both occupier and resister. that face an anti-imperialist movement “The US should leave alone conflicts The occupier will learn from it that Iraq are support for Iraqi resistance to the involving national liberation fighters…. has a very rich history of struggle against Anglo-American occupation, and op- The US should denounce terrorism and empire. The resister will, I hope, avoid position to any and every scheme to get state terrorism equally.”12) the mistakes and not repeat the tragedies the UN into Iraq as retrospective cover His naturalization of capitalism that permitted the occupation to hap- for the invasion and after-sales service makes it impossible for him to explain pen.”16 for Washington and London. Let the things that Harvey would regard as an This book contains a sweeping history aggressors pay the costs of their own inevitable consequences of the dominant of the Iraqi encounter with colonialism imperial ambitions.”20 He also calls for social relations. Whereas Harvey casts from the 13th century to the contem- the strengthening of opposition in the the “War on Terror” as a necessary, in- porary era. After setting the stage with imperial homeland and the expansion of eluctable result of the existing patterns of a discussion of the present conflict and the World Social Forum’s agenda from social development, Mann believes that citations from many fine Iraqi poets, Ali its economic focus to the political issues many important aspects of our present jumps into the earliest historical accounts of imperialism and war. However, his predicament merely reflect inexplicably of Iraq, traces the emergence of modern recommendations raise more questions dumb choices. For Harvey the “War on Iraq from British colonial rule, analyzes than answers: for example, he does not Terrorism” is part of a broader strategy to the ouster of the British puppet regime elaborate on what it means to “support carry out “accumulation by dispossession” in 1958, looks at the emergence of the the resistance” or indicate how we could in order to open up more of the world Baath Party and Saddam Hussein’s rise distinguish between different tendencies to capitalism and, for example, he would to complete dominance, and, in the final in the resistance or between genuine re- presumably regard the fact that it has chapters, examines the war and the pros- sistance and simple jockeying for power. become a war on Muslims as a predict- pects for resisting it. Likewise, his demand that the UN not be able aspect of the overall project. But, for Ali’s work is much more amenable to allowed into Iraq is premised on the idea Mann, the fact that the “war on terror” activist concerns than the previous two. that its absence would incur greater po- has become a war on Muslims as a whole Unlike Mann, he is explicitly hostile to litical costs for the occupiers—not upon is simply “stupid.”13 In a similar vein, he capitalism and, unlike Harvey, convinced what might or might not be good for describes British participation in the Iraq that we need not limit ourselves to the Iraqi people. Unfortunately he does war as “tragic mistake”14 as opposed to meager demands for a “New Deal.” He not speculate on the existence of Iraqi the expression of systemic imperatives. explicitly calls for militant action against democratic traditions or practices that (He even declares that he feels “sympa- the United States and UK’s imperialist could provide the basis for a non-coercive thy” for Blair, given his entanglement in aggressions and even writes that “if there alternative.21 American foreign policy.15) is one area where the cliché that classi- There are several other problems with Although the parameters of Mann’s cal revolutions are a thing of the past is his analysis. First, his book is largely critical stance are far less appealing than likely to be proved wrong, it is the Arab a study of political parties, states, and Harvey’s, his emphasis on the frailty of world.”17 His commitment to activist in- politicians, specifically those representing the new imperialist project is refreshing tervention is also implicit in the empha- the imperialist West, which is bent on when compared to the former’s depiction sis he places on political struggles in the destroying the Arab world, and those of of the inexorable march of capitalism. history of Iraq (i.e., they matter). the Arab elites, who invariably sell their Mann does identify real vulnerabilities, Ali is sharp stylist and it is hard not people out. The only other category he but wants to rectify, not exploit them. be pleased by the barbs he throws at vari- advances—and the only one referring

fall 2004 / 47 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory to popular social action—is “the Arab colonial rule in India was fundamentally worldwide movement against American street,” an entity he does not define and, progressive. Their various responses to imperialism and find a way to advance a as such, has no more content than we colonialism and demands for national coherent critique of the prevailing social find in the nineteenth century “mob.” liberation reflected broader estimations order as well as a positive vision of our- His analysis is not built upon a deeper of the meaning of these things within the selves as revolutionary agents. Although vision of the social forces that drive the historical trajectory of the social order the established theorists may, in the end, actions of the various parties, such as the as a whole. And, although we do not only indicate problems to avoid, that conflict between classes or the impera- want to resurrect their formulations, they alone is instructive and something we tives of state power and, as a result, his point to an enduring question we must should learn from as we press ourselves sweeping treatment tends to remain on answer if we are to do more than chat- to imagine a revolutionary response to the surface. ter about the world and actually advance the “War on Terror.”  I suspect that the lack of theoretical compelling solutions to current social depth explains his tendency to romanti- problems. What is and is not histori- cize communists (like so many thinkers cally progressive? Is it capitalism? Is it ENDNOTES who emerged from the New Left and the emergence of old tribal forms in a 1. David Harvey, The New Imperialism now reject communism’s politics, he modern guise? Is it something else? Ali (New York: Oxford University Press, holds onto the tradition as an aesthetic does not speculate on these questions and 2003), 176. or myth). Although he offers many criti- thus his outrage at the occupation lacks 2. Nader Vossoughian, “Interview with cisms of the Iraqi Communist Party—he a solid foundation. Although the strong David Harvey: Questions about The notes its presence in the Governing aesthetic virtues of the book—his stylis- New Imperialism” http://agglutina- Council created by the US after victory tic strength and use of poetry—hint at a tions.com/archives/000013.html and points out its deference to the So- connection to a larger totality of human 3. David Harvey, The New Imperialism, viet Union during earlier years—he does experience, this is only implied. 210-211. tend to present it as the only genuinely Ali’s book is the least rich theoretical- 4. Michael Mann, Incoherent Empire oppositional force. This is reinforced by ly and yet the most rewarding politically. (New York: Verso Books, 2003), 120. repeated references to Che Guevara and Despite its problems, it at least brings us 5. Ibid., 13. his (admittedly moving) eulogy for Kha- to the threshold of some of the compli- 6. Ibid., 43. lid Ahmed Zaki, a Communist Party ac- cated and compelling enduring problems 7. Ibid., 88. tivist whom he knew and whose death in we must confront. 8. Ibid., 66. struggle, he says, “symbolized the defeat 9. Ibid., 265. of an entire generation.”22 hese books will not provide the re- 10. Ibid., 267. His failure to present a deeper analy- T sources we need to strengthen and 11. Ibid., 87. sis of social affairs is not an issue of mere radicalize the anti-imperialist movement 12. Ibid., 189. academic interest, but of great strategic that Bush’s “War on Terror” has helped 13. Ibid., 178. and political importance for our response forge for us. Harvey offers a critique of 14. Ibid., 263. to the war. It is not enough to merely capitalism, Mann points to the fragility 15. Ibid. denounce the greed, stupidity, or brutal- of American imperial designs, and Ali 16. Tariq Ali, Bush in Babylon: The Re- ity of the imperialists—as Ali does so depicts the long history of conflicts in colonisation of Iraq (New York: Verso eloquently—because that is not, in itself, and over Iraq, but the two works with Books, 2003), 17. an argument against the occupation: real depth are antagonistic to revolution- 17. Ibid., 166-167. would the occupation be just if it could ary action, while the one that cultivates 18. Ibid., 160. be ascertained that the occupiers are a sense of revolutionary potential only 19. Ibid., 137, Note 80. less greedy, stupid, or brutal than other skates on the surface. 20. Ibid., 168. potential governing forces in Iraq? Our These books’ shortcoming have less 21. Ali advances a particularly sharp resistance must be grounded in a broader to do with their respective analyses of the critique of the UN, which I regard vision of the historical potentials at hand “War on Terror” than problems inherent as a useful corrective to the tendency if it is to be genuinely cogent. in the theoretical frameworks they use among Leftists to appeal to the UN It is instructive to think about how to make these analyses. This is to be ex- and international law in times of the revolutionaries of the classical period pected, although we should also remem- crises. He writes that “the world has framed this issue. They had rich debates ber that the world’s response to the “War changed so much over the last two on the national question: some supported on Terror” will have an effect on what is decades that the UN has become an national independence (Lenin) and oth- regarded as permissible in the theoretical anachronism, a permanent fig leaf ers did not (Luxemburg); and Marx, realm. for new imperial adventures.”(194) for example, even believed that British It is imperative that we engage the 22. Ibid., 100.

48 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Is There a Postanarchist Universality? A Reply to Michael Glavin

by Saul Newman

HAT IS IT about the conserva- father says—that if you have nothing to tive fathers of radical sons? hide, you have nothing to fear; and that W Glavin’s account of the con- he doesn’t care what the government does versation he had with his father recalls as long as it keeps the terrorists and “mad the ongoing arguments I have with mine. mullahs” as far away from him as possible. I am constantly bringing up issues such In other words, he, like many others, is as the growing power of the state, the un- prepared to accept, in return for some precedented levels of surveillance and so- illusion of security, measures of control cial control, the overturning of legal prec- and surveillance that would have been edents, and the continual infringements unthinkable a few years ago. on civil liberties and human rights—all That these sorts of measures could of which are being sold to us under the take place in liberal-democratic societies, dubious label of “security.” I think that however, should not necessarily surprise by sticking to the generally acceptable us. The paradox of liberalism has al- discourse of rights, laws and civil liber- ways been that freedom must have limits ties, this will sway him. But to no avail. I placed upon it for it to be realized—that ask my father if he thinks it is legitimate the state itself is based on a social con- for governments to be able to check tract, whereby a degree of freedom is what books citizens are borrowing from sacrificed in return for security. Of course public libraries, to monitor their email many liberals are outraged by the obvi- and mobile phone communication, to ous abuses of power by governments—for fingerprint them at airports, etc. But he instance, the detention camps in Guanta- says exactly the same things that Glavin’s namo Bay that have no legal sanction or legitimate authority. However, when it comes to more sophisticated techniques of control and surveillance, such as DNA kunin and Kropotkin, in particular—was testing, the language of liberalism may precisely to detect, behind the ideological be of little help. It may be, as Giorgio simulacra of both liberalism and Marx- Agamben suggests, that modern societies, ism, this brutal reality of state power. whether liberal-democratic or totalitarian, The state takes on a number of forms and already move on the terrain of biopower guises, and reveals itself in a number of and biopolitics.1 This is a form of power, ways—from the liberal state to the Marx- first detected by Foucault, that takes bio- ist workers’ state—but at its heart, it em- logical life, “bare life” as its target—seek- bodies the inexorable logic of sovereignty. ing to regulate, monitor and control it. From the anarchist perspective, neither The very language of human rights, upon liberalism nor Marxism were able to pro- which liberalism is based, is already in- vide a sufficient analysis of the state: the scribed within this logic, and marks the former was trapped in the flimsy language modern subject’s inclusion within, and of the social contract, in which the rights subordination by, the structure of the that supposedly protected the individual modern state. from the state were the very same rights that were guaranteed by the state; the lat- ter made the fatal mistake of seeing the he great theoretical innovation of state as a neutral tool that could be used T classical anarchism—that of Ba-

fall 2004 / 49 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory to revolutionize society, and thus neglect- sume that there is a subject with a human mous and specifically political dimension; ed the fact that state power had its own essence, and so on? Instead, poststruc- on the other hand, it is because anarchism logic, and was not simply determined by turalist thinkers, or those grouped under sees political transformations as being class interests. Only anarchism focused this label, have stressed the linguistic and determined by historical forces that this on state power itself, seeing it as the fun- discursive construction of social identity, potential for an autonomous political di- damental impediment to a free society. thus challenging the positivist conviction mension is effectively eclipsed. In other However the question that goes to the that there is an empirically observable words, if the revolution against the state heart of this discussion—and indeed to objective social reality. Moreover, what is conditioned by a sort of rational, dia- the whole postanarchist problematic—is separates poststructuralism from struc- lectical unfolding of society, then where the ontological basis upon which a cri- turalism as such, is that poststructuralists is the space for contingent political inter- tique of this state power is mounted. For also stress the indeterminacy and instabil- ventions? Postanarchism is therefore the the classical anarchists, it was based on a ity of the discursive structures that shape attempt to theorize a specifically political fundamental human essence with distinct social reality and identity. dimension within anarchism itself, and it rational and moral properties, whose de- These insights have crucial implica- contends that this is impossible without a velopment was thwarted by the operation tions for radical politics, not least of thoroughgoing deconstruction of the es- of state power. Bakunin’s critique of the all because they highlight both the au- sentialist conceptions of subjectivity and state, for instance, was framed in a kind tonomy and contingency of the political society that anarchism is based on. of Manichean imaginary that conceptu- domain. For instance, Ernesto Laclau, ally separated “natural law” and “artificial whose thinking is informed by perspec- n outlining certain theoretical aspects law,” the essence of humanity from the tives such as deconstruction and Laca- I of this deconstruction of anarchism, I institutions and mechanisms of power. nian psychoanalysis, has argued that the will attempt to answer some of Glavin’s This way of thinking was part of an problem with Marxism was its economic criticisms. What Glavin objects to, Enlightenment-positivist paradigm that and class essentialism, and its dialectical broadly speaking, is the attempt by me, informed all the progressive and socialist determinism. This meant that Marxism Todd May and Lewis Call, to find some political philosophies of the eighteenth was unable to theorize a truly political kind of common ground between anar- and nineteenth centuries—from the early dimension, despite the fact that through- chism and postmodern or postructuralist utopian socialists like Fourier, to the out the history of Marxism, increasingly theory. When Glavin says that we have historical materialist prognostications of political solutions—such as the Leninist “created intersections” between these Marx and Engels. Classical anarchism, intervention—had to be found to deal discourses, he is in a sense right: these despite its radical intervention on the with the central crisis of Marxist theory: intersections did not exist before—at least theory of the state, was also part of this why the proletariat wasn’t becoming to the extent that they were not written epistemological tradition—a tradition “class conscious” and revolutionary in about widely before. The point about that held that man could be liberated the way that Marx predicted. The aim postanarchism or postmodern anarchism, from political domination, and ideologi- of the post-Marxist project is therefore or whatever one chooses to call it, is that cal and religious obscurantism, through to theorize a dimension of “the political” these links have to be constructed. This the use of his rational faculties; and that which is autonomous, contingent, and not is not to say, however, that there is no society itself was governed by a rational determined by historical and economic basis for this intersection—poststructur- logic and organic order that could be forces. This is based on the idea that alism is, as I have suggested before, an revealed through scientific investigation. society itself is not an objective reality inherently anti-authoritarian discourse, Despite Bakunin’s suspicion of scientists, with its own scientifically verifiable laws and for this reason it has clear implica- he claimed that the revolution would and mechanisms. From a post-Marxist tions for anarchism. It is more the case of be a “scientific” one—that is to say, it perspective, “‘Society’ is not a valid object asking oneself what is there in poststruc- would conform to the laws of science and of discourse.”2 In other words, there is no turalism that allows us to re-engage with nature, and lead to the emergence of a essential identity or fixed principle at the anarchism, and what is there in anarchism society freed from the mystifications of base of society: it is constituted through that still speaks to us today? power, authority, and religion. a series of ultimately unsuccessful discur- Glavin’s main objection is that by Now from the perspective of post- sive and ideological representations. bringing together poststructuralist theory structuralist theory, some of these asser- Now I believe that a similar “decon- and anarchism, we deny ourselves an tions become problematic: can we assume structive” critique can be applied to anar- universal ethical and political dimension that there is a rational order to society or chism. The paradox of anarchism is that, that would allow us to resist power today. that society is even transparent to itself; on the one hand, its attempt to see the This is an important point, and one that can we assume that social developments state as autonomous from economics and I am becoming increasingly concerned are determined by dialectical forces or the class, and as having its own logic, creates with. There is no doubt that anarchism, “immutable” laws of history; can we as- the theoretical conditions for an autono- and radical politics generally, needs some

50 / fall 2004 Is there a Postanarchist Universality? A Reply to Michael Glavin kind of universal emancipative dimen- objection here that if there is no essential language; there is always a lack or gap in sion—more so today than ever. However, subject to liberate, then how do we actu- the symbolic order itself where we cannot at the same time, I would argue that ally resist these practices of control—be- find ourselves. Paradoxically, this void anarchism cannot simply turn its back on yond a simple transgression which, he or lack in symbolization is the place of important theoretical developments like suggests, only reaffirms what one is the subject—the place from which desire poststructuralism, deconstruction, and transgressing? In other words, what is emerges. psychoanalysis, which, on the surface at the ethical and ontological foundation for The reason why I find this theory of least, would appear to place this universal resistance? However, the first thing to the subject appealing, and why I see it as dimension in jeopardy by questioning mention is that, while transgression can applicable to anarchism, and radical polit- the idea of the universal human subject. indeed reaffirm the law and power struc- ical theory generally, is because it has the Instead, I would suggest that it is possible tures, it can also destabilize them and cre- benefit of going beyond both essentialism to theorize a universal dimension within ate new openings for political action, new and constructivism. It is non-essentialist the poststructuralist problematic itself, possibilities for freedom. For Foucault, because it sees the subject as being consti- and that this can inform a postanarchist power and resistance exist in a very unde- tuted through external structures of lan- politics. cidable relationship, in which one incites guage. At the same time, it is not entirely One of the central propositions of the other, but at the same time, resistance constructivist because the subject’s place poststructuralist theory is the constructed can also lead to a reversal and destabi- in this external structure is always unsta- nature of the subject. What this means lization of current power arrangements. ble. The subject is positioned in relation is that our understanding of ourselves as While we cannot hope to escape the play to the “real”—but the real is not some subjects, with a social, political, cultural, of power entirely, our action can lead to a natural, pre-symbolic essence that one or even sexual identity, is constituted rearrangement of power relations in ways can return to; it is, rather, something that through our interaction with certain that are less dominating and hierarchi- is paradoxically created by language itself discursive structures—whether they be cal. As Glavin himself points out, radical as its empty place, an empty place that networks of power/knowledge, or linguis- democratic practices are never absolutely is impossible to symbolize or fill. What tic and symbolic systems. This doesn’t free from power—they still involve cer- this amounts to is a radical indetermi- mean that we aren’t flesh and blood hu- tain relations of exclusion; but they are nacy in the structure of the subject. This man beings with desires and impulses, much more decentralized, and allow for indeterminacy introduces to the political but that the way we make these desires much greater reciprocity, than current po- field a radical freedom and contingency of and impulses intelligible depends on our litical arrangements. agency. As Laclau puts it: “The freedom immersion in the world of language and Despite this, however, I would argue thus won in relation to the structure is discourse, and through this, our social that Foucault’s account of power and re- therefore a traumatic fact initially: I am interactions. Let’s take the concept of sistance is ultimately inconsistent without condemned to be free, not because I have the human: what it means to be human is some notion of subjectivity. Indeed, it no structural identity as the existentialists something that has changed throughout could be suggested that this was perhaps assert, but because I have a failed struc- history. As Foucault has argued, the very behind Foucault’s later focus on subjectiv- tural identity.”3 idea of us having a sexuality that consti- ity and ethics. It is for this reason that I So, to respond to Glavin’s character- tutes the core of our being is a relatively have found it fruitful to read Foucault and ization of my Lacanian (and also Stirneri- recent idea. Moreover, for Foucault, this Lacan together: the former provides the an)-inspired notion of the subject, it is construction of the subject is also linked latter with a theory of power, while the not so much that the subject can simply to practices that dominate him. In other latter provides the former with a theory of create his or her own subjectivity ex nihilo, words, the subject is constructed in such the subject. Psychoanalytic theory devel- in an existentialist sense. It is more that a way that the expression of his freedom oped a highly innovative account of the the subject’s identity—because it seeks and autonomy can often mean the op- subject, starting with Freud’s discovery of a full representation which is ultimately posite. For instance, the paradox of the the unconscious, which undermined the impossible—is continually reconstructed liberal subject—the autonomous subject Cartesian account of the transparent and discursively through social practices. In with formal rights and freedoms—is self-determining individual based on the other words, we do not simply choose to that he is at the same time a disciplined, Cogito. Lacan radicalized Freudian psy- become anarchists in a vacuum; nor does normalized subject. Indeed, as Glavin choanalysis by combining it with struc- anarchism emerge from some kind of hu- himself points out, modern practices of turalist linguistics. The unconscious was man substratum or natural ethical sensi- surveillance and control operate in a very “structured as a language” through a series bility. We become anarchists through an Foucauldian way, not to actually repress of signifiers, so that we form an under- involvement in different political and ide- the subject as such, but to construct him/ standing of ourselves as subjects through ological struggles. Glavin invokes May’s her as a constantly self-policing subject. language. At the same time, however, reading of Foucault—saying “we are sub- However, Glavin raises the important we are never completely represented in jects”, “we think of ourselves as subjects”,

fall 2004 / 51 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory etc. However, from a Lacanian perspec- fore involve forming contingent alliances, sal idea of emancipation. However, this tive, this subjectivity is never guaranteed, or ‘chains of equivalence’ as Laclau says, relationship, as I have suggested, is not and it only occurs against the background with other groups and identities—a pro- guaranteed in advance. It is the result of absence and negativity that make it cess which contaminates the particularity of a temporary constellation of circum- inherently unstable. Our subjectivity is of this group. To give an example, the stances, which gives anarchism an ability always incomplete and structurally lack- demand of students for better conditions to appeal at certain moments to other ing, and because of this we seek out dif- and more funding cannot remain within identities engaged in political struggles. ferent ways of securing an identity. this specificity for long; these demands However, I would contend that an- will eventually overlap with the demands archism is especially suited to this hege- herefore to say, as Glavin does, that of other political identities while form- monic logic of universality/particularity. T rather than ground resistance in an ing relations of united opposition to the For instance, central to the ethics of “empty space” we can ground it “in our power that denies them. In this way, the classical anarchism is the insistence on own particularity,” doesn’t really tell us groups in this chain are increasingly un- combining the two principles of equality much about how this particularity itself able to maintain their own particularity, (universality) and freedom (particular- emerges, and how it is understood. One’s as they become united in opposition to a ity/difference)—refusing to see them resistance to the “dominant values of so- common enemy. A political identity or as mutually limiting, as liberalism did. ciety” might take any number of different group cannot get very far without engag- This suggests a logic of contamination forms, from communism, to fascism, or ing in this process, and that is why the between two traditionally opposed princi- some form of populist politics. In other politics of pure difference, which has long ples, seeing one as only realizable through words, there is nothing to say that this been mistakenly associated with post- the other. Perhaps contemporary radical resistance will be understood in the anar- structuralism, is ultimately self-defeating. politics can take from this a notion of chist sense. A specific anarchist identity Rather than asserting purely differ- what Étienne Balibar’s calls “equaliberty” does not emerge simply from the position ential identities, poststructuralism seeks as an unconditional and necessarily excessive of resistance. It has to be constructed to destabilize and make inconsistent any ethical demand.5 Furthermore, this com- through certain practices, whether they identity, particular or universal. What bination of equality/liberty and universal- are radical democratic activities, or an poststructuralism rejects is essential- ity/particularity might also be seen in the engagement in certain broad social and ism—the idea that there is a constant, anarchist idea of revolution, involvement political struggles—struggles that might unchanging substance at the base of in which was to be left open to differ- involve other groups, identities and ide- identity. From this perspective, the asser- ent identities—workers, peasants, the ologies, such as feminists, Marxists, trade tion of a purely differential identity and lumpenproletariat, intellectuals déclassé, unionists, consumer advocate groups, and a separatist political position based on etc—not just limited, as was the case so on. this—whether by gays, or women, or eth- with Marxism, to the proletariat (led by In this sense, there is no such thing nic minorities—is simply another form of a vanguard party). One might speculate as a pure particularity which can serve as essentialism. Difference can only emerge that the contemporary anti-globalization an ontological ground for radical politics, in a fragmented, incomplete way through struggle is an example of both classical as Glavin seems to suggest. Particularity a universal dimension that contaminates anarchist and poststructuralist hegemonic always occurs against a universal back- and destabilizes it. politics, particularly in the way that it ground that contaminates its identity and However, this universal dimension, is open to different identities and posi- makes it indeterminate. The example by the same token, is itself fragmented tions, and yet, at the same time, invokes that Laclau gives is that of an ethnic mi- and contaminated by the fact that it is a universal struggle against the state and nority that is asserting cultural autonomy formally empty—an empty signifier, as capitalism. and differential rights. This particular Laclau would say—which means that it demand and position is only possible can only be articulated through particular he purpose of this discussion has against a universal dimension. For in- identities which stand in for it. This pro- T been three fold. Firstly, it has tried stance, the demand for the right to be cess, whereby a particular identity comes to show that Glavin’s idea that particular- different is also a demand for equal rights to represent a universal horizon, is what ity “as it is” can serve as the ontological with other groups: “The assertion of one’s Laclau refers to as the logic of hegemony. basis for a politics of resistance is unten- own particularity requires the appeal to In political terms, what this means is able, because it neglects the unstable something transcending it.”4 Thus, the that a certain political identity or ideol- construction of this subjective position. assertion of specific rights by one group, ogy must come to represent this universal Secondly, it has shown that particularity on the basis of its own particularity, in- dimension. Anarchism itself may be seen can only emerge through a political di- evitably involves an appeal to a universal in this way—along with Marxism and mension of universality that contaminates discourse of shared rights and equality. other socialist discourses—as a certain it. Thirdly, it has attempted to theorize Political activity by this group must there- symbolization or articulation of a univer- this universal dimension in terms of a

52 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory postanarchist politics of emancipation. despite our different approaches, I would Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist My contention here is that, far from a say that poststructuralist anarchism—or Strategy: Towards a Radcial poststructuralist reading of anarchism postanarchism—is an attempt to free Democratic Politics, 2nd ed. (London: denying it the possibility of a universal anarchism from this essentialist bedrock, Verso, 2001), 111. political dimension, as Glavin suggests, and open it to the indeterminacy of po- 3. Ernesto Laclau, “New Reflections it is the only way that it can be realized litical struggles today.  On the Revolution of Our Time,” in without returning to notions of human New Reflections on the Revolution of nature and universal rationality. This Our Time, ed. Laclau (London: Verso, universal political dimension might be ENDNOTES 1997), 3-96, 44. the discourse of rights and freedoms, and 1. See Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: 4. Ernesto Laclau, Emancipations resistance against domination—but the Sovereign Power and Bare Life, trans., (London: Verso, 1996), 48. point is that these rights and freedoms Daniel Heller-Roazen. (Stanford 5. Étienne Balibar, “Ambiguous are mobile because they are no longer an- Ca.: Stanford University Press, 1998), Universality,” Differences: A Journal chored in an essentialist identity or posi- 121-122. of Feminist Cultural Studies, 7 no.1 tion. I cannot speak for May or Call, but, 2. See Ernesto Laclau and Chantal (1995): 48-72, 72.

Anarcho-Pluralism A Reply to Saul Newman

by Michael Glavin

n trying to respond to Saul New- ground.” For me, particularity stands in nal will profoundly affect the future of man’s comments, it was hard to get relation to other particularities. New- anarchist practice. I over just how completely he mis- man—thinking in terms of his universal read my review. I was baffled because I categories—elevates my notion of par- et me start by underlining the differ- thought that I was being pretty clear in ticularity to a “pure particularity” and L ence between Newman and myself putting forth an anti-essentialist anar- gives it a status that I never would. He concerning power. In his response, New- chist perspective; so how could Newman transposes his universal category onto my man has come to admit that power is a think that I was against bringing together category of particularity and so misreads regrettable necessity: “While we cannot poststructuralism and anarchism? How my writing by thinking that I put forth hope to escape the play of power en- could he think that I wanted a universal the absurd notion of “an ontological basis tirely….” I still think that this statement dimension to anarchism when in fact I for a politics of resistance.” To clarify, does not go far enough and, at base, is ill- argued in favor of “a conception of ethics in my review I do not root resistance in conceived. Power is a medium; it is not without grounding and without universal ontological difference; I put forth a cul- something to be eliminated or “escaped.” claim?” tural/ideological basis for resistance. Such All organizations involve a power struc- It eventually occurred to me that a basis is anti-essentialist, contingent ture of some sort, implicit or explicit. although Newman and I are both anti- upon historical circumstance, and open The problem, from an anarchist perspec- essentialists and anti-authoritarians, he to redefinition. At the end of the day, tive, and from Foucault’s perspective as misunderstood my review because we Newman and I differ on three central well, is not power as such, but rather, have vastly different perspectives. Sim- areas of debate: the nature of the sub- domination. The problem is the ossi- ply put: Newman is a dualist of sorts, ject—and so, agency; universalism—and fication of hierarchies. Anarchism is a whereas I am a pluralist. Newman’s so, the scope of the anarchist ethical practice of power wherein domination is primary categories are the universal and and political project; and the nature of minimized through the constant exercise the particular; my primary categories are power—and so, the form of anarchist of both restrictive and productive forms the one and the many. We both agree organizations. Newman and myself are of power. One can see the productive that each term stands in relation to and but lone representatives of larger trends and the negative aspects of a democratic is “contaminated” by the other, to use his within the anti-authoritarian movement organization as being the body politics’ phrase, but for Newman “particularity as a whole and how this argument gets form and shadow respectively. Where always occurs against a universal back- played out beyond the pages of this jour- Newman concentrates on the power/re-

fall 2004 / 53 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory sistance dichotomy—seeking to limit should immediately be split between the ful existence. I don’t think that we power—I, as a pluralist, concentrate on male and female varieties–gay and lesbian can say that this kind of ethics was an more and less desirable power formations sexualities are quite distinct as are male attempt to normalize the population.3 and seek to encourage power structures and female versions of hetero or bi sexu- that foster freedom and empower groups ality. But these categories are themselves It seems to me that this is precisely and individuals or, more specifically, ones rather broad and arbitrary. In discussing the ethical form that anarchists should that produce anarchist subjects. sexuality one could just as easily look at adopt. I am not advocating that we sexual practices rather than the gender of become Stoics, but that Stoic ethics are hen Newman writes about sub- an individual’s partner. “What you do” is an example of ethics without universal W jectivity via Lacan, it just does not as legitimate a demarcation of sexuality claim. It is a non-proselytizing way to strike a chord with my self-conception. as “who you do it with.” When one looks engage the world—a way to respect the When he looks at the human psyche, he through these multifarious lenses of sex- values and customs of other cultures. It sees particularity in relation to a univer- ual practices, one sees a kaleidoscope—a is from this respectful stance that we can sal. I see multiplicity. My understanding continual realignment of individuals into engage in coalitions and alliances and of the human psyche is much more in different categories. The notion of a continue to build counter-hegemony. line with Lewis Call’s rendering. Al- “universal” here seems quite arbitrary and We can join together with groups who though I do not think that identity is even ridiculous; worse, if evoked it strikes may have different ethical systems, but as fluid as Call asserts, I agree that the me as being a political move used to el- who share many common goals. This is individual is the site of multiple subject evate one form of sexuality over, above the form of ethics proper to anarchism; positions. When I read Kropotkin who and against another form of sexuality. I it is a recognition that anarchists are but wrote in 1897 that, “man is nothing but know this is a move that Newman would one group among many.  a resultant, always changeable, of all his not choose to make, but I think that this divers faculties, of all his autonomous is the siren’s call of all universal claims. tendencies,”1 or Nietzsche who refers Newman wants to maintain the proj- ENDNOTES to the soul as a “subjective multiplicity” ect of universal emancipation. As I have 1. Peter Kropotkin, “Anarchism: Its and as “a social structure of drives and stated in my review, I think that such a Philosophy and Ideal,” in Fugitive affects,”2 I see my self reflected in those project is fundamentally flawed. I think Writings, ed. George Woodcock words. I have both a love of driving and that we need to abandon that project (Montréal: Black Rose Books, 1993), an environmental consciousness about because it leads to a form of domina- 102. the destructive consequences of com- tion wherein its protagonists are blind 2. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good bustion engines. This internal conflict, to the nature of their deeds. I think that and Evil, trans. Walter Kaufman between driver and environmentalist, this is one of the ethical contributions of (New York: Random House Inc., creates the space within which action poststructuralism, as Todd May himself 1966), 20. takes place. I do not think that Newman pointed out (and then quickly forgot). In 3. Michel Foucault, “On the Genealogy can account for this embodied multiplic- its stead, we need a form of ethics that of Ethics: An Overview of Work in ity. Where Newman derives agency out Foucault tried to sketch out later in his Progress,” in The Foucault Reader, ed. of the play between the gap between the career—a non-universal form of ethics. Paul Rabinow (New York: Pantheon universal and the particular, my under- As he states: Books, 1984), 341. standing of freedom on an individual level, as it is on an organizational level, I don’t think one can find any stems from plurality. Freedom for me is normalization in, for instance, the the mediation of conflict through creative Stoic ethics. The reason is, I think, action. that the principal aim, the principal target of this kind of ethics was an ust as when I look at an individual, I aesthetic one. First, this kind of eth- J see a composite and when I look at ics was only a problem of personal society, I see a plurality of groups, when choice. Second, it was reserved for a I look at sexual identity I see multiplic- few people in the population; it was ity as well. I do not see a universal from not a question of giving a pattern which a particular difference is derived; of behavior for everybody. It was a rather I see several forms of sexuality personal choice for a small elite. The all playing off each other. Superficially, reason for making this choice was the there is heterosexuality, bi-sexuality, and will to live a beautiful life, and to homosexuality; but those sexualities leave to others memories of a beauti-

54 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Joel Schalit Responds to Sureyyya Evren

T’S NOT OFTEN that I feel com- ume as an anti-vanguardist, distinctly munist literature, is interviewed in the pelled to reply to a review of one of heterodox Marxist text, in the “bour- volume. Or similarly, that there is an my books. However, a number of geois” intellectual tradition of Western empathetic discussion of the sources of I 1 Sureyyya Evren’s criticisms of my collec- Marxism—the Frankfurt School, Grams- religious fundamentalism in the book tion, The Anti-Capitalism Reader: Imagin- ci, what have you. such as my article, “Secularization and ing a Geography of Opposition (New York: As the statement about the ACR’s its Discontents,” which is formulated as Akashic Books, 2002) are loaded with attention to culture makes very clear in a critique of traditional Marxist readings problematic assumptions which merit the book’s introduction, from an ortho- of religion. a reasoned response. Though Evren is dox Marxist perspective, the ACR’s focus My sense is that articles like these absolutely entitled to his opinions, his on problems of superstructure make it further conflict with Evren’s attempt to conclusions are at times based on an in- entirely suspect. The book’s position on put The Anti-Capitalism Reader in a con- correct reading of the book. In the spirit Marxist orthodoxy could not be spelled venient ideological box. Sadly, they com- of collegial, inter-Left dialogue, I would out any clearer than in Doug Henwood’s pound his inability—or reluctance—to like to offer the following thoughts. article criticizing the revival of Lenin- appreciate the sectarian divisions within Evren begins his review by stating ism in a post-Cold War context. While the greater Marxist tradition. While I that The Anti-Capitalism Reader (ACR) Henwood expresses antipathy towards appreciate Evren’s desire to polemicize is a collection of orthodox Marxist writ- anarchism in his interview with Zizek, and take into account socialist theory, I ings that seeks to co-opt the anti-global- this does not automatically imply he is a am also a firm believer in reading texts a ization movement for sectarian ideologi- member of the Socialist Workers Party. little more closely. Ideological differenc- cal purposes. While most of the contrib- Like myself and the rest of the volume’s es between a book and its reader should utors to the volume identify themselves contributors, he maintains an indepen- never get in the way of that. in one way or another as Marxists—Jason dent Marxist perspective, which while di- Myers, Paul Thomas, for example—the verse in its understandings of other Left Best Regards, book’s introduction makes a very clear traditions is always open to dialogue. case for this vol- In this light, I wonder why Evren Joel Schalit chooses to omit from his review the fact Associate Editor that Ramsey Kanaan of AK Press, one of Punk Planet Magazine the largest English-language distributors www.punkplanet.com and publishers of anarchist and left-com-

ENDNOTES 1. Sureyyya Evren, “Appropriating ‘An- other World,’” The New Formulation Vol. 2, No 2 (Winter-Spring 2004): 17-20.

Josh McPhee

fall 2004 / 55 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Summer 2004 Grants Awarded

WICE A YEAR, the Institute for Anarchist Studies awards $4,125 US in grants to radical writers from around the T world who are in need of financial support. In fact, in the summer 2004 granting round, we had $4,875 US to award. We are very pleased to announce the recipients of the summer 2004 IAS grants:

$2,275 to Melissa Forbis and Cale Layton for Anarchist Trade Unions in Bolivia: 1920-1950, a translation of Los artesa- nos libertarios y la ética del trabajo by Zulema Lehm and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui (1988). The book presents the history of anarchism in Bolivia and includes numerous interviews with trade union participants from the period of 1920-1950. Be- cause the trade unions organized sectors of the working class neglected by traditional industrial unions, and brought together mestizos and indigenous peoples, men and women, along liber- tarian lines, they were perceived as a significant social threat by the state. The translation will include a new introduction that links this history of anarchist organizing to the recent uprising and continued resistance in Bolivia, and will be the first Eng- lish translation of a book on Bolivian anarchism and libertarian trade unions. $1,600 to Trevor Paglen for Recoding Carceral Landscapes. The completed book will offer a collection of images and texts that make visible the social, political, and economic relation- ships that constitute California’s massive prison system. In showing how prisons are connected to the foundational struc- tures of society itself, Carceral Landscapes will suggest that prison abolition isn’t simply about closing prisons, but about fundamentally transforming the relations that order contempo- rary American society. In addition to serving as a companion book for an art show by the same name (projected to open at San Francisco’s “The Lab” in February 2005), it will be used by the prison-abolition organization Critical Resistance for out- reach and education. $1,000 to Stevphen Shukaitis for Between Sisyphus and Self-Management: The Relevance of Autonomous Organization in a Globalized World. This book-length project is an effort to reflect, in the domain of economics, on the question: “What structures and practices could sustain the creation of a new so- cial order?” The author will examine the historical legacies and practices of worker self-management to assess the usefulness of the concept under the current conditions of economic globaliza- tion. He will draw on examples of self-management in 1930s Spain, 1960s Yugoslavia, and Argentina in 2001, as well as cur- rent organizing efforts, to elaborate a contemporary theory of self-management.

56 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Grant Updates

Kolya Abramsky has almost com- Sandra Jeppesen is nearing comple- near future. This collection of essays on pleted the translation of Global Finance tion a first draft of her book-length anarchism and aesthetics will focus on the Capital and the Permanent War: The Dol- project Anarchy Revolution Freedom: ways in which anarchist cultural products lar, Wall Street and the War Against Iraq Anarchist Culture, which she expects to are produced in a world defined by visual by Ramón Fernández Durán. In this finish in February 2005. Jeppesen exam- literacy, how this relates to capitalism’s book, the author shows how financial ines mainstream and explicitly anarchist use of design and art to brand ideas and institutions force global capitalism into representations of revolution to come to products, and how anti-authoritarian a permanent state of war to maintain its an understanding of anarchist culture and signs and signifiers compare and compete. hegemonic control of international mar- to develop a way of theorizing it that is McPhee’s first book, Stencil Pirates: A kets. The English translation includes significantly different from Marxian cul- Global Study of the Street Stencil was pub- updates to the original text, as well as a tural studies. Jeppesen has expanded the lished by Soft Skull Press in June 2004. new epilogue by the author. Abramsky project to include a chapter entitled “Net- McPhee was awarded $1,000 in February hopes the translation will be published in works in Anarchist Culture,” in which 2003. spring 2005. He was awarded $1,000 in she will use Deleuze and Guattari’s work Andrés Pérez and Felipe del Solar July 2003. on the rhyzome in A Thousand Plateaus to have completed a preliminary version of Robert Graham has nearly completed examine the flows, lines of flight, and de- their book Chile: Anarchist Practices Un- the manuscript for the first volume of territorializations among nodes, lines, and der Pinochet. The study spans Pinochet’s Anarchism: A Documentary History. The the field of anarchist culture. A section reign by tracing the social expression, two volume project assembles the de- of this chapter, which uses Ann Hansen’s organizational relationships, and political finitive texts of the anarchist tradition book Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban contributions of anarchists. The authors and organizes them chronologically Guerrilla as a case study, has been pub- expect a final version, complete with a and thematically. Graham has acquired lished on the IAS website’s “Theory and prologue and a substantial appendix of English translations of classical anarchist Politics” section under the title “Where relevant documents, to be published in essays for inclusion in the first volume does Anarchist Theory come from?” 2005. Pérez and del Solar were awarded of the project that have never before Jeppesen was awarded $800 in July 2003. $2,000 in January 2001. been published. These include substan- Marta Kolárová has completed her Marina Sitrin has completed a draft tial selections from Chinese, Japanese, project Gender in the Czech Anarchist of the Spanish manuscript of her project Korean, and Latin American texts, as Movement. The article describes the Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in well as essays by Otto Gross, Gustav Czech anarchist movement from a gender Argentina. This collection of interviews Landauer, and Diego Abad de Sántillan. perspective, and analyzes the movement with different activists involved in Ar- Anarchism: A Documentary History will be in terms of women’s participation in gentinean autonomous social movements published by Black Rose Books. Graham movement organizations, the gendered will help represent the movements to an was awarded $2,500 in January 2004. division of activist labor, and the repre- international audience while contributing Nate Holdren expects to complete his sentation of women in anarchist publi- to an ongoing and international conversa- translation of the Colectivo Situaciones’ cations. Kolárová argues that there is a tion about methods of resistance. The 19 and 20: Notes for the New Social Pro- significant gap between the egalitarian Spanish manuscript is currently being re- tagonism by December 2004. Holdren’s aims of the Czech anarchist movement, viewed by participants of the autonomous translation of the radical Buenos Aires and the fulfillment of those aims in prac- social movements and will be ready for collective’s account of the social move- tice. The article will soon be published printing at Chilavert, an occupied print- ments that exploded in Argentina on in pamphlet form and on the IAS and ing press in Buenos Aires, by early fall of December 19th and 20th 2001 will make Czechoslovakian Anarchist Federation’s 2004. Once published, it will be used as a the book available to an English-speaking website (www.csaf.cz). Kolárová was tool for Argentinean activists to meet and audience for the first time. The transla- awarded $750 in January 2004. dialogue with other movements across tion will include a special introduction to Josh McPhee is working on drafts of the Americas. The English version of the the English edition written by the Col- two essays for Building New Contexts for book will be published later in 2004. Si- ectivo Situaciones. Holdren was awarded Anarchist Graphics, Video and Film, and trin was awarded $2,000 in July 2003. $1,000 in July 2003. hopes to begin work on a third in the

fall 2004 / 57 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

The IAS’s 2004 Fundraising Campaign Promoting Critical Scholarship on Social Domination and Radical Social Reconstruction

INCE THE IAS’S inception in the spring of 1996 we have worked hard to support radical, anti-authoritarian scholarship on contemporary social contradictions and S the possibilities of meaningful social transformation. Although the anti-authoritar- ian Left has become an increasingly important presence on the streets, radical theoretical work is just as important now as it was eight years ago. We need to clarify the anarchist alternative, deepen our critique of the present society, and study the victories and dilem- mas of our movement if we are to build upon its accomplishments. The IAS is a means toward this goal. Although there certainly are many organizations doing much needed and important work, the IAS makes contributions that are not made by any other organization on any continent. We really are unique. Our grants are an invaluable source of support for radi- cal writers around the world and there is no other organization, anywhere, devoted to supporting dissident authors. Over these past eight years we have supported over forty projects by writers from around the world, including authors from South Africa, Nigeria, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, the United States, and Canada. We have funded movement research, transla- tions, historical studies, and even a play. Many of these projects would not have been completed without our assistance. The IAS has been able to support this important work for all these years thanks to the generousity of our comrades and allies around the world and we need to ask for your assistance once again. Specifically, we must raise $24,000 by January 2005 in order to keep awarding grants to radical writers, develop our publishing efforts, and cover administrative expenses. Your contribution will help the IAS meet its 2004 fundraising goal and thus help us make the following contributions to the development of anarchist studies:

• The IAS will award $8,500 in grants to writers struggling with some of the most pressing questions in radical social theory today. IAS grants help radical authors take time off work, hire childcare, purchase research materials, pay for travel expenses, and other things necessary to produce serious works of social criticism.

• The IAS will publish Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, our biannual magazine. Perspectives is a unique source of interviews, publishing news, reviews, and commentary pertaining to anarchism. It helps keep people informed about anarchist scholar- ship and encourages dialogue among those interested in this work.

• The IAS will support the study of Latin American anarchism through its Latin American Archives Project and the discussion of radical alternatives at the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference.

• The IAS will strengthen its web presence so that it becomes a more valuable resource to the milieus that we serve.

In appreciation for your support of the IAS, we are offering book gifts care of the good people at Raven Books of Amherst, Massachusetts. All IAS donors giving $25 or more are entitled to receive at least one great book from their collection as well as a year long subscription to Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.

It has been a great eight years and we are excited about the future of our work! Please help make this work possible by making a donation today. 

58 / fall 2004 I Support the IAS!

Thank you for contributing to the IAS’s annual fundraising campaign. Your donation will be invaluable in helping us meet our development goals for 2004. As an expression of our appreciation for your support, we are offering book gifts to IAS donors residing in the US or Canada care of the good people at Raven Books of Amherst, Massachusetts. IAS donors giving $25 US or more are entitled to receive at least one great book from their collection. All donors will receive an annual subscription to Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.

CONTRIBUTION INFORMATION I want to make a one-time contribution of ______I want to make a monthly* contribution of ______

* Monthly donations can be automatically deducted from a credit card and will run for a renewable twelve-month period.

CONTACT INFORMATION Name: ______Address: ______Zip/Postal Code: ______Country: ______City: ______Phone: ______State/Region/Province: ______Email Address: ______

 I prefer to make this contribution anonymously  Please keep me informed of IAS activities via e-mail

PAYMENT TYPE  Check  Money Order

CREDIT CARD DONATIONS The IAS accepts donations with most major credit cards through our website at http://www.anarchist-studies.org/support.

BOOK GIFTS (See page 62 for a complete book list) Choose as many as apply.

1 ______2 ______3 ______4 ______5 ______6 ______7 ______Please mail this form and your donation to:

INSTITUTE FOR ANARCHIST STUDIES 73 Canterbury, D.D.O, Québec, Canada H9B 2G5

Thank you for your support! Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Latin American Archives Project Update

n the winter of 2004 the IAS launched the Latin Ameri- cal Character Recognition for all the documents we submit. can Archives Project. The goal of this initiative is to en- In practical terms, this means that individual scans will be I courage the study of Latin America’s rich anarchist history viewable as images and as ordinary text which, in turn, will by making important documents from that history available render the archive searchable by keyword. on-line in a searchable, multilingual website. It is a collabora- tive effort of the IAS and the Biblioteca Archivo de Estudios • The comrades in Buenos Aires have been hard at work scan- Libertarios and the Biblioteca Popular José Ingenieros (both of ning key documents and publications from their archives. Buenos Aires). They presently have 16,000 individual scans and we are in We have already made important progress in the first phase the process of transferring those scans to our computer and of this project. organizing them into a user-friendly, online archive.

• This spring the IAS signed an agreement with the Uni- We plan to launch the site this fall and believe it will provide versity of Michigan, who will generously host the Latin an invaluable resource for anyone interested in investigating the American Archive Project’s website as well as provide Opti- history of anti-authoritarian movements in the Americas. 

Zapatista support members celebrate the first anniversary of the founding of the Caracoles, cultural centers of resistance, and the formation of the Coun- cils of Good Governments in the highlands village Oventic. Photo by Tim Russo.

fall 2004 / 61 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory The IAS’s 2004 Fundraising Campaign Great Books for IAS Donors Raven Books of Amherst, Massachusetts has generously made the following books available to contributors to the IAS’s 2004 fundraising campaign. Please help us meet our $24,000 fundraising goal so we can continue awarding grants to radical writers, publishing Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, supporting our other vital programs, and building a community of people interested in strengthening the anarchist vision.

• For a $25 USD donation to the IAS, we will mail you any one of the following books & an annual subscription to Perspectives. • For a $50 USD donation, we will send you any two & an annual subscription to Perspectives. • For $100 USD, you get five of these great books & an annual subscription to Perspectives. • For $500 USD, you get all of them & an annual subscription to Perspectives!

Books will be delivered to US and Canadian destinations free of charge. Other destinations will require that the donor pay for shipping expenses.

David Barsamian, The Decline and Fall of Richard Fenn, The Spirit of Revolt: Etienne de La Boetie, The Politics of Public Broadcasting (South End, paper, 2002, Anarchism and the Cult of Authority Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntay Servitude 99 pp., $8.00) (Rowman and Littlefield, cloth, 1986, 179 (Black Rose Books, paper, $15.99) Jens Bjorneboe, Moment of Freedom (Dufour, pp., $55.00) Manning Marable, Black Liberation in paper, 1999, 217 pp., $15.00) Daniel Fischline and Martha Nandorfy, Conservative America (South End, paper, Jens Bjorneboe, Powderhouse (Dufour, paper, Eduardo Galeano: Through the Looking Glass 1997, 285 pp., $16.00) 2000, 201 pp., $15.00) (Black Rose Books, 228 pp., paper, $24.95) Elizabeth Martinez, De Colores Means All of Jens Bjorneboe, The Silence: An Anti-Novel Al Gedicks, New Resource Wars: Native Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century and Absolutely the Very Last Protcol (Dufour, and Environmental Struggles Against (South End, paper, 1998, 264 pp., $18.00) paper, 2000, 195 pp., $15.00) Multinational Corporations (South End, NACLA, Haiti: Dangerous Crossroads (South paper, 270 pp., $18.00) Jeremy Brecher, et.al, Globalization from End, paper, 1995, 256 pp., $15.00) Below: The Power of Solidarity (South End, Dale Hathaway, Allies Across the Border: John Pilger, Heroes (South End, paper, 2001, paper, 2000, 164 pp., $13.00) Mexico’s “Authentic Labor Front” and Global 628 pp., $16.00) Solidarity (South End, paper, 2000, 267 pp., Jeremy Brecher, Strike! (South End, paper, $19.00) Holly Sklar (ed.), Trilateralism: The 1997, 421 pp., $22.00) Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning Chaia Heller, Ecology of Everyday Life: Wendy Chapkis, Beauty Secrets: Women and for World Management (South End, paper, Rethinking the Desire for Nature (Black Rose 1980, 599 pp., $22.00) the Politics of Appearance (South End, paper, Books, paper, 204 pp., $19.99) 1986, 212 pp., $15.00) Virginia Smith, Reshaping the World for bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women Noam Chomsky, Necessary Illusions: Thought the 21st Century: Society and Growth (Black and Feminism (South End, paper, 202 pp., Rose Books, paper, 2001, 216 pp., $19.99) Control in Democratic Societies (South End, $15.00) paper, 1989, 422 pp., $22.00) Brian Tokar, Earth for Sale: Reclaiming bell hooks, Black Looks: Race and Noam Chomsky, Propaganda and the Public Ecology in the Age of Corporate Greenwash Representation (South End, paper, 200 pp., (South End, paper, 1997, 269 pp., $18.00) Mind: Interviews with David Barsamian $15.00) (South End, paper, 2001, 247 pp., $16.00) Gore Vidal, The American Presidency M. Annette Jaimes (ed.), The State of (Odonian, paper, 1998, 91 pp., $8.00) Ward Churchill, From a Native Son: Selected Native America: Genocide, Colonization and Essays on Indigenism, 1985 - 1995 (South Resistance (South End, paper, 1992, 450 pp., Mark Zepezauer, The CIA’s Greatest Hits End, paper, 1996, 588 pp., $22.00) $20.00) (Odonian, paper, 1994, 93 pp., $8.00) Gene Desfor (ed.), Just Doing It: Popular Joao Freire, Freedom Fighters: Anarchist Howard Zinn, Marx in Soho: A Play (South collective Action in the Americas (Black Rose Intellectuals, Workers, and Soldiers n Portugal’s End, paper, 1999, 55 pp., $12.00) Books, paper, 204 pp., $24.95) History (Black Rose Books, 216pp., paper, Howard Zinn, The Southern Mystique Martin Duberman, Left Out: The Politics of $24.95) (South End, paper, 1967/2002, 267 pp., Exclusion: Essays 1964 - 2002 (South End, Ken Knabb, Public Secrets: Collected $15.00) paper, 2002, 504 pp., $22.00) Skirmishes: 1970 - 1997 (Bureau of Public Howard Zinn, Vietnam: The Logic of Martin Espada, Zapata’s Disciple: Essays Secrets, paper, 1997, 408 pp., $15.00) Withdrawal (South End, paper, 1967/2002, (South End, paper, 1998, 143 pp., $14.00) 131 pp., $15.00)

62 / fall 2004 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Contributors

Kazembe Balagoon is a black/queer/ poster maker for over a decade, he also runs communities. He has written for a wide va- writer/educator engaged in the ancient art a radical art distribution project, justseeds. riety of radical newspapers, magazines, and of revolutionary Afro-hermeneutics. He org, as a way to develop and distribute t- books. His forthcoming book, Streets, Seas, studied Philosophy/Africana studies from shirts, posters, and stickers with revolution- and Plots: Tales of Rebellion and Resistance Hunter College, where he was a member of ary content. He organizes the Celebrate from Across the Globe will be published later the Student Liberation Action Movement. People’s History Poster Project, an ongoing this year. He is a member of Estación Libre, a people poster series in which different artists create Tim Russo is an independent photo- of color organization in solidarity with the posters to document and remember mo- journalist, radio reporter, and media activist people of Chiapas. Currently he teaches at ments in radical history. He also collectively based in Chiapas, Mexico. Tim has worked the Brecht Forum/New York Marxist School organizes agit-prop cultural actions with ad- extensively in Latin America and covered and is at work on Queering the X: James hoc groups of artists under various organiza- international conflicts and struggle from Pal- Baldwin, Malcolm X and the Third World. tional names such as “Department of Space estine to Prague to Argentina for a little over Eric Drooker’s paintings are seen on and Land Reclamation” and “Street.Rec.” a decade. He is a co-founder of Chiapas covers of The New Yorker, The Progressive, Chuck Morse lives in Brooklyn, New Indymedia, and the COMPPA (Coalition The Village Voice, the cover of this magazine, York. of Popular Communicators for Autonomy) and numerous other magazines, as well as Andrew Hedden is an undergraduate projects. For more information about these books and music albums (Rage Against student in Bellingham, Washington. His projects visit http://www.comppa.org. the Machine). He is the author of Flood! current focuses include a study of local Marina Sitrin is an anti-authoritarian A Novel in Pictures, Illuminated Poems (with developments around the economy, law activist, writer and dreamer. Over the past Allen Ginsberg), Street Posters & Ballads, enforcement, and incarceration, as well as a 17 years Marina has been searching for, and and Blood Song: A Silent Ballad. He gives local history of anarchism. engaged with, various efforts to end capital- slide lectures at schools and cultural centers Nicolas Lampert is an artist and a musi- ism and create a new society. Most recently worldwide. www.Drooker.com cian whose focus is merging art and radical she has worked with the Direct Action John Jordan is artist and activist who political thought. He views art as a way to Network, the People’s Law Collective, and spends his time trying to find a space where build a community of resistance culture. Re- worker’s struggles. Marina is currently fin- the imagination of art and the social engage- cently, he co-organized the group art show ishing an oral history in Spanish and Eng- ment of politics can be brought together. Drawing Resistance, a traveling political art lish on the autonomous social movements Since 1994 he has worked in the direct ac- show. Nicolas teaches in the Liberal Studies in Argentina titled Horizontalidad: Voices of tion movements, principally with Reclaim Department at the Milwaukee Institute of Popular Power in Argentina. the Streets (1995-2001). He has written Art and Design. Examples of his collage art Andrew Stern is a media activist and and lectured extensively about the anticapi- can be seen at www.machineanimalcollages. documentary photographer whose work talist movement and was a senior lecturer com. focuses on social and political issues around in fine art at Sheffield Hallam University Saul Newman is a Postdoctoral Research the world. The fusion of art and politics is a (1994-2003). He lives in London and mixes Fellow and Lecturer in Politics at the Uni- primary goal in anything he does, along with his time between trying to creatively over- versity of Western Australia. His research collecting and sharing stories that are not throw capitalism and looking after his son is in the area of radical political and social normally told. His work has been shown Jack. theory, particularly that which is informed in galleries throughout the world and can Michael Glavin has been an active part by perspectives such as poststructuralism, be found on various Indymedia web sites as of various anarchist projects over the years discourse analysis and psychoanalytic theory. well as in the many different publications he including the Youth Greens, Free Society, and He has written extensively on post-anarchist works with. www.AndrewStern.net the Anarchist Black Cross. He currently theory and anti-authoritarian politics gen- Astrid Wessels lives in Buenos Aires and lives and thinks in Brooklyn, New York. erally—including From Bakunin to Lacan: is active in the Federación Libertaria Ar- Uri Gordon is an Israeli activist currently Anti-authoritarianism and the Dislocation of gentina and its archive, Biblioteca Archivo based in Oxford, UK. He juggles his time Power (Lexington Books, 2001); and Un- de Estudios Libertarios. She is currently between working at Corporate Watch (www. stable Universalities: Poststructuralism and working on cataloging documents from the corporatewatch.org), building solidarity with Radical Politics (forthcoming, 2005). Spanish Revolution for the archive’s forth- Israeli resistance movements, and writing a Ramor Ryan is an Irish anarchist writer coming catalog of its collection of Spanish PhD about contemporary anarchist debates. living between Chiapas, Mexico and New periodicals, pamphlets, and documents. Josh MacPhee is a street artist, designer, York City. In Chiapas he works with an curator, and activist. A street stenciler and international organization serving Zapatista

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