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Home , Anarchist Black Cross, David Graeber

HAOL, Núm. 21 (Invierno, 2010), 123-131 ISSN 1696-2060

THE REBIRTH OF IN NORTH AMERICA, 1957-2007

David Graeber

University of London, . E-mail: [email protected]

Recibido: 1 Julio 2009 / Revisado: 29 Julio 2009 / Aceptado: 5 Septiembre 2009 / Publicación Online: 15 Febrero 2010

Abstract: Anarchism has undergone a broad organization, voluntary association, direct renewal in the US and Canada in recent action, and mutual aid. The centrality of decades, flowering most spectacularly in the anarchism in this sense only really became alter-globalization movement in the years after fully apparent to those on the radical Left in the protests against the WTO ministerial in North America in the early days of the global Seattle in November 1999. At the time, the justice movement from 1999-2001, but by movement seemed to outsiders to have spring now—as increasingly in other parts of the out of nowhere. In fact, it was the product of a world as well—it has become impossible to long development of transformation where deny. movements of the ‘60s confronted internal dilemmas highlighted in the rise of , Impossible, at least, for activists or anyone and experiments with new organizational actively engaged with social movements or models drawn from many different global radical campaigns... For activists, “anarchist contexts. A brief glance at debates concerning process” has become synonymous with the consensus decision-making and decentralized basic principles of how one facilitates a organization during the ‘50s and ‘60s civil meeting or organizes street actions. For most rights movement and ‘70s anti-nuclear of those outside—intellectuals, for example, or movement highlights how this came about. even readers of the Left press—all this is much Keywords: Anarchism, North America, less apparent. There are various reasons for antinuclear movement, civil Rights movement, this. One is the way the mainstream media, and feminism. to some degree, the Left press itself, tend to ______speak of “anarchists” only when discussing militant street tactics, particularly, hat I’d like to do in these brief pages destruction. When anarchists in is to outline some of the broad broke windows in Seattle during the WTO Whistorical context for the rise of protests in November, 1999, they were referred anarchism, in the United States, to the position to as “anarchists”; when other (far more it now holds as the effective center of the numerous) anarchists organized pirate radio revolutionary Left. By “anarchism” here I am collectives, facilitated meetings, made puppets, speaking less about anarchism as a political or locked down in non-violent street identity, about explicitly “anarchist” blockades, the fact that they were anarchists organizations, individuals who refer to went entirely unremarked. This has been a themselves as “anarchists” of one variety or consistent pattern. Nonetheless, the fault another—though these have, certainly, cannot be laid completely at the feet of the increased dramatically in number in recent media. Another persistent problem has been decades—so much as anarchism as a form of the anarchist press itself, which remains practice, an ethical system that rejects the dominated by Primitivists, Platformists, seizure of state power, and, to the extent sectarians, and hyper-individualists— possible, any appeal to or entanglement in proponents of strains of anarchism that are institutions of state power, and that relies almost completely unrepresentative of the instead on classical anarchist principles of self- movement as a whole. Someone casually

© Historia Actual Online 2010 123 The rebirth of anarchism in North America, 1957-2007 perusing a shelf of anarchist magazines at an principles of . Many of those who , would be left with the impression thus contributed to the rise of anarchism in that the overwhelmingly majority of American America did not, in fact, consider themselves anarchists were either proponents of positions anarchists. But they were, one might say, and forms of organization that had barely anarchists in practice, and as in so many areas, changed since the ‘20s and ‘30s (as for theory has followed practice here rather than example with the Northeast Confederation of the other way around. Anarchist Communists, or NEFAC) or, alternately, opposed to all forms of 1. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH organization and looking forward to a collapse of civilization and return to a world of tiny The ‘60s kicked off with a call for bands of hunters and foragers. The impression “participatory democracy” in the famous Port would be completely inaccurate. According to Huron Statement of 1962, the founding Chuck Munson, who as manager of document of Students for a Democratic www.infoshop.com, has conducted the most Society. Its principle author, , was comprehensive surveys of the North American inspired ultimately by John Dewey and C. anarchist community, roughly 90% of Wright Mills1 and the document was notable American anarchists do not identify with any for calling for a broad democratization of all particular sect or tendency at all. They are aspects of American society, to create a what I have elsewhere referred to as “small-a” situation where people are making for anarchists, non-sectarian or even anti-sectarian, themselves the “decisions that affect their tending to operate outside of anarchist-only lives”. One might see this as a very anarchistic groups, and whose ideological practice largely vision, but SDS, as its inception, certainly did consists of teaching by example. If such people not. Actually, their original political program are little represented in official anarchist was to radicalize the Democratic Party (they literature, it is largely for this reason. only abandoned it when placed in an Another reason, I think, that the rise of impossible position by the Democrats’ pursuit anarchism might seem invisible to some is of the Vietnam War). Even more crucially, that—in part because of its growing small-a those who framed the statement seemed to orientation—it has become so entangled with have only the sketchiest ideas of what other political traditions outside observers are “participatory democracy” might mean in never quite sure what they’re looking at. practice. This is most evident in the “Anarchist process” can also be referred to as contradictory character of SDS’s own “feminist process”, it’s entirely unclear where structure. one begins and the other ends or if indeed there is a difference. Even more confusing for those As Francesca Polletta has pointed out,2 SDS used to earlier anarchism’s hostility to was on paper a quite formal, top-down anything associated with God, churches, and organization, with a central steering committee religion, the history of anarchist practice in and meetings run according to Roberts Rules North America has become entangled with of Order. In practice, it was made up of largely alternative spiritual traditions, from autonomous cells that operated by a kind of Quakerism, to Paganism. crude, de facto consensus process. The emphasis on consensus, in turn, appears to What I am going to do in the following pages, have been inspired by the example of SNCC, then, is to provide a brief history of the rise of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating what I’ve been calling small-a anarchism in Committee, the student wing of the civil rights America, beginning with the civil rights movement. SNCC had originally been created movement in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. It is, on the initiative of Anita Baker and a number of necessity, a brief and partial narrative. No of other activists who had previous been doubt it could be told very differently. Since I involved in the South Christian Leadership am not primarily interested in anarchism as Conference (SCLC), and were hoping to create identity, I am also not interested in tracing the an alternative to SCLC’s top-down structure history of specific anarchist organizations. and charismatic leadership (embodied, of Rather, I am interested in the origins of course, in the figure of Dr. Martin Luther anarchist process, and particularly, the King.) Famous for organizing lunch table sit- convergence between concerns to develop new ins, freedom rides, and other direct actions, forms of and dedication to SNCC was organized on a thoroughly

124 © Historia Actual Online 2010 David Graeber The rebirth of anarchism in North America, 1957-2007 decentralized basis. Ideas for new projects did, as Mattick emphasizes, like their were expected to emerge from individual equivalents in the Global South, ultimately see chapters, all of which operated by a kind of themselves as a kind of breakaway fragment of rough-and-ready consensus process. the administrative elite. This was, he suggests, crucial to understanding the limits of the New This emphasis on consensus is a bit surprising, Left. Activists invariably saw themselves as since at the time there was very little model for “organizers”, social workers5: What united all it. In both SNCC and SDS, it appears to have factions of the left was the conception of their emerged from a feeling that, since no one relationship to actual or fantasized should be expected to do anything against their communities as organizers—after the example will, decisions really had to be unanimous. of trade unionists and social workers—rather However, there doesn’t seem to have been than as “fellow students” or workers with a anything like what’s now called “consensus particular understanding of a situation shared process” in the formal sense of the term. The with others, and ideas of what to do about it. problem was there was no obvious model for Despite the disagreement over the primary one. The only communities in North America target for organizing—unemployed, blue-collar with a living tradition of consensus decision- workers, white-collar workers, dropout making (the Quakers, and various Native youth—in each case the “community” was American groups) were either unknown, seen as a potential “constituency” (or, in PL’s unavailable, or uninterested in proselytizing. language, “base”). The radicals saw Quakers at the time tended to see consensus themselves as professional revolutionaries, a was essentially a religious practice; they were, force so to speak outside of society, organising according to Polletta,3 actually fairly resistant those inside on their own behalf. Thus the to the idea of teaching it to anyone else. activist played the part reserved in liberal theory for the state, a point not to be neglected The New Left was as we all know essentially in the attempt to understand the drift of the based on campuses. Jr.4 has New Left from an orientation to liberal argued that the wave of ‘60s activism seems to governmental reform to leninist-stalinist have emerged from a kind of social bottleneck. concepts of .6 The Welfare State ideal of the time had been to defuse class tensions by offering a specter of The contradictions of this situation became perpetual social mobility (in much the same increasingly apparent as the decade wore on. way the frontier had once done); after the war, The crisis was sparked first in groups like there was a very conscious effort on the part of SNCC, when demands for civil rights began to the government to pump resources into the give way to calls for Black Power. The radicals higher education system, which began to in SNCC, who were eventually to inspire the expand exponentially, along with the number Black Panthers, called on white activists to of children attending university. stop trying to organize black communities but The problem of course is that such growth to return to their own: specifically, to organize curves invariably hit their limits, and as any white communities against racism. SDS Third World government that has attempted activists always greeted such calls with this strategy has learned, when they do, the profound ambivalence.7 The main reason, I results are typically explosive. By the ‘60s this think, was because most of them were never was starting to happen. Millions of students quite clear on what ‘their own communities’ were left facing without any realistic prospect were supposed to be. One could say something of finding that bore any relation to their along these lines had been attempted in the real expectations or capacities—a normal early ‘60s with ERAP (the Economic Research prospect in industrial societies, actually, but Areas Project), intended as the white suddenly hugely exacerbated. At first, of equivalent to grass roots civil rights course, the crunch came largely in the form of organizing, that brought SDS activists into type of employment (in the ‘60s, the sky still poor white communities and tried to mobilize seemed the limit in terms of economic them around matters of common concern. The prosperity): people were being trained as problem was this most activists had found this creative thinkers, and left with the prospect of project rather uninspiring. Some ERAP becoming soulless functionaries. Matters were projects scored victories in gaining local further complicated by the fact that the reforms, but organizers rarely felt a part of the students who first became involved in SDS communities in which they worked, soon

© Historia Actual Online 2010 125 The rebirth of anarchism in North America, 1957-2007 David Graeber began to feel isolated from the company of Each strategy involved a return to direct action, other activists, and few saw the results as but, simultaneously, a jettisoning of the whole worth the sacrifice. The project fell apart in project of creating egalitarian decision-making 1965. The call to return to their own structures. Hippies and yippies might be communities, then, could only lead to considered a bit ambivalent in this regard, as ambivalence. Many in fact saw their natal small and many alternative “communities”—whether alienated institutions created in the process generally did professional-class suburbs, or racist working usually operate on democratic principles. Still, class ones, as precisely what the kind of the Yippies, with their wild acid-inspired environment they were trying to flee. Instead, pranks and media stunts, tended to turn into a as Mattick so keenly observed, many began to platform for charismatic impresarios like realize that if there was a way to overcome the and Jerry Rubin, in a style that alienation of dead-end jobs, to find work that proved notoriously alienating to many actually lived up to their imaginative members of the white working class. The capacities, it was in activism itself. Other Weathermen, in turn, attempted a series of activists, in effect, were their communities. bombings directed at military and corporate targets, meant to inspire spontaneous The crisis initiated by Black Power ultimately emulation and drive society towards a led to a kind of split. Again, at the cost of gross revolutionary confrontation—though with the simplification: once their allies in the civil significant limitation that they did not want to rights movement had abandoned them, white kill anyone. They ended up mainly blowing up activists were effectively left with two options. empty buildings. Interestingly, both had a They could either try to build countercultural profound effect on later media policy, since institutions of their own, or they could focus mainstream journalists began to feel complicit on allying with communities or revolutionary in what began to happen, eventually coming to groups in struggle overseas: i.e., the Viet Cong the conclusion that revolutionaries were or other Third World revolutionaries, who feeling obliged to continually ramp up the would take pretty much whatever allies they wildness or destructiveness of their acts in could get. As SDS splintered into squabbling order to continue making headlines. I have Maoist factions, groups like the Diggers and heard persistent rumors from ‘60s veterans, for Yippies (founded in ‘68) took the first option. example, that the Weather Underground’s Many were explicitly anarchist, and certainly, bombing campaign was far more extensive and the late ‘60s turn towards the creation of devastating than has ever been recorded, but autonomous collectives and institution- that there was a conscious decision by the building was squarely within the anarchist national media to stop reporting on it. I have tradition, while the emphasis on , no idea if this is true. Still, one thing that is psychedelic drugs, and the creation of clear is that since this period, the American alternative forms of pleasure was squarely in mainstream media has become—more than the bohemian tradition with which Euro- that of any other I’m American anarchism has always been at least aware of—extraordinarily reluctant to report tangentially aligned. The Yippie slogan, on activist stunts of any sort, or even, for that “ for the hell of it” could be seen as matter, demonstrations. emerging directly from the realization that activism itself could become the prime means This point will become important later on. For of overcoming alienation. The other option now, though, the key point is that none of these was to see oneself as primarily allying with groups combined their interest in direct action revolutionary communities overseas: hence the with an emphasis on decentralized decision- obsession with glorifying revolutionary heroes making; to the contrary, whether because the in Cuba, Vietnam, China, and elsewhere (men focus turned on the one hand to charismatic who, as Situationist and Autonomist critics figures who were at least potential media stars, pointed out, were essentially icons of the sort or to the kind of cell-like, military structure of new radical administration elites with which able to carry out guerilla-style attacks—the the SDS had always tacitly identified), and the impulse was in the other direction. Moreover, feeling the need to strike back against the both strategies flared up for a few years and empire from within the Belly of the Beast. very rapidly faded away (though the alternative institutions created around this time often lasted considerably longer).

126 © Historia Actual Online 2010 David Graeber The rebirth of anarchism in North America, 1957-2007 making was initiated by the emerging Black It has become conventional habit in liberal Power faction. Polletta’s careful analysis of the scholarship to contrast the serious activism of organizational history of the movement9 the early ‘60s New Left with the supposed shows quite clearly that consensus and childish extremism of the late ‘60s and early were not challenged because ‘70s. I don’t want to leave the reader with the they were actually inefficient. Rather, they impression I agree with this. The standard were used as a wedge issue. By challenging the liberal complaint is that the ‘60s supposed obsession with democratic process, —in effect, the first mass-based, White activists in SNCC and their allies could industrial bohemianism—destroyed itself in be identified with endless talk and fussing ultra-radicalism, and in doing so, provided an about; the more militant, Black Power faction opening for right-wing activists to adopt many could present itself as the model an ideal of the of the same grass-roots organizing techniques ruthless efficiency appropriate to a truly developed by SDS to reach out to the very militant organization. It’s probably also white working-class constituencies SDS had significant that Stokley Carmichael, soon to such a difficult time reaching, to mobilize them become the main spokesman for the Black against that very counterculture. There is Power tendency, was fond of saying things like certainly an irony here. But it seems to me it is “the only position for women in SNCC is better to see both periods as working through prone”. fundamental dilemmas that are still with us today. I myself suspect the real culprit in the The fact that, even by the mid ‘60s, such things rise and eventual hegemony of the New Right could be said in an organization that was is not the excesses of Maoists and Yippies but, originally founded by a woman as a revolt rather, the fact that the governing elites in the against charismatic male authority is itself US stopped seeing the higher education as a astounding. But it might give a sense of the means of creating the image of endless class sexual politics always lying not far below the mobility. As most of Mattick’s frustrated surface of the old New Left. Militant administrative classes were reabsorbed into a nationalist movements are of course notorious new, more flexible , the white for providing platforms for the vigorous working class was increasingly locked out of reassertion of certain types of masculine any access to the means of cultural production authority. But sentiments similar to at all. The result was a perhaps predictable Carmichael’s can be found coming from the resentment against the supposed mouths white activists of that time as well. The countercultural excesses of the “liberal elite”.8 feminist movement, in fact, began largely from within the New Left, as a reaction to precisely Be this as it may, the second period was far this sort of macho leadership style—or simply more complex and creative than critics are among those tired of discovering that, even usually willing to let on. Many of the ideas that during university occupations, they were still came out of it were really quite prescient. expected to prepare sandwiches and provide Consider, for example, Huey Newton’s notion free sexual services while male activists posed of “intercommunality”, that became the official for the cameras. The revival of interest in Black Panther position in 1971, and held that creating the practical forms of direct the nation-state was in the process of breaking democracy, in turn—in fact, the real origin of down as the main stage of political struggle the current movement—thus trace back less to and that any effective revolutionary politics these male ‘60s radicals than to the Women’s would have to begin by an alliance between Movement that arose largely in reaction to local self-organized communities irrespective them.10 of national boundaries. The real problem was how they were to be self-organized. The Black Contemporary American anarchist forms of Panthers, as typified by figures like Newton organization and processes of decision- himself, eventually came to embody an era in making, however, emerged more than anything which macho, chauvinist leadership styles else from a crisis in early feminism. When the themselves came to seem synonymous with feminist movement began, it was militancy. organizationally very simple. Its basic units were small consciousness-raising circles; the It’s probably significant that in SNCC, the first approach was informal, intimate, and anti- move towards rejecting decentralized decision- ideological. Most of the first groups emerged

© Historia Actual Online 2010 127 The rebirth of anarchism in North America, 1957-2007 David Graeber directly from New Left circles. Insofar they group process to ensure greater equality, and in placed themselves in relation to a previous fact, most of her concrete suggestions— radical tradition, it was, generally, anarchism. clarifying what tasks are assigned to what While the informal organization proved individuals; finding a way for the group to extremely well suited for consciousness- review those individuals’ performances; raising, as groups turned to planning actions, distributing responsibilities as widely as and particularly as they grew larger, problems possible (for instance, by rotation); ensuring all tended to develop. Almost invariably, such have equal access to information and groups came to be dominated by an “inner resources—were clearly meant to precisely circle” of women who were, or had become, that end. close friends. Within the feminist movement itself, most of The nature of the inner circle would vary, but these arguments eventually became moot, somehow, one would always emerge. As a because within mainstream feminism at least, result, in some groups lesbians would end up the anarchist moment was relatively brief. feeling excluded, in others the same thing Especially after Roe v. Wade made it seem would happen to straight women, other groups strategically wise to rely on government would grow rapidly in size and then see most power, mainstream feminism was to take off in of the newcomers quickly drop out again as a liberal direction and rely increasingly on there was no way to integrate them. Endless organizational forms that were anything but debates ensued. One result was an essay called egalitarian. But for those still working in “The Tyranny of Structurelessness”, written by egalitarian collectives, or trying to create them, Jo Freeman in 1970 and first published in feminism had effectively framed the terms of ‘72—a text still avidly read by organizers of all debate. If you want to keep decision-making to sorts in the present day. Freeman’s argument is the smallest groups possible, how do those fairly simple. groups coordinate? Within those groups, how to prevent a clique of friends from taking over? No matter how sincere one’s dedication to How to prevent certain categories of egalitarian principles, the fact is that in any participants (straight women, gay women, activist group, different members will have older women, students... in mixed groups it different skills, abilities, experience, personal soon became, simply, women) from being qualities, and levels of dedication. As a result, marginalized? some sort of elite or leadership structure will, inevitably, develop. In a lot of ways, having an The origins of the current direct action unacknowledged leadership structure, she movement go back precisely to attempts to argued, can be a lot more damaging than resolve those dilemmas. The pieces really having a formal one: at least with a formal started coming together in the anti-nuclear structure it’s possible to establish precisely movement in the late ‘70s, kicked off by the what’s expected of those who are doing the founding of the Clamshell Alliance and the most important, coordinative tasks and hold occupation of the Shoreham nuclear power them accountable. plant in Massachusetts in 1977, then followed by the Abalone Alliance and struggles over the One reason for the essay’s ongoing popularity Diablo Canyon plant in California a few years is that it can be used to support such a wide later. The main inspiration for anti-nuclear variety of positions. Liberals and Socialists activists—at least the main organizational regularly cite “The Tyranny of inspiration—came from a group called the Structurelessness” as a justification for why Movement for a New Society (MNS), based in any sort of anarchist organization is bound to Philadelphia. MSN was spearheaded by a gay fail, as a charter for a return to older, top-down rights activist named George Lakey, who—like styles of organization, replete with executive several other members of the group—was both offices, steering committees, and the like. an anarchist, and a Quaker. Lakey and his Egalitarians object that even to the extent this friends proposed a vision of nonviolent is true, it is far worse to have a leadership that revolution. Rather than a cataclysmic seizure feels fully entitled to its power than one that of power, they proposed the continual creation has to take accusations of hypocrisy seriously. and elaboration of new institutions, based on Anarchists, therefore, have usually read new, non-alienating modes of interaction— Freeman’s argument as a call to formalize institutions that could be considered

128 © Historia Actual Online 2010 David Graeber The rebirth of anarchism in North America, 1957-2007 “prefigurative” as they provided a foretaste of them. In the ‘90s, there was an effort to create what a truly democratic society might be like. a North American anarchist federation around Such prefigurative institutions could, gradually a newspaper called Love & Rage that at its replace the existing social order.11 The vision peak involved hundreds of activists in different in itself was hardly new. It was a non-violent cities. Still, it’s probably accurate to see this version of the standard anarchist idea of period less as an era of grand mobilizations building a new society within the shell of the than as one of molecular dissemination. A old. What was new was that men like Lakey, typical example is the story of Food Not having been brought up Quakers, and acquired Bombs!, a group originally founded by a few a great deal of experience with Quaker friends from Boston who had been part of an decision making processes, had a practical providing food during the vision of how some of these alternatives might actions at Shoreham. In the early ‘80s veterans actually work. Many of what have now of this group set up shop in a squatted house in become standard features of formal consensus Boston and began dumpster-diving fresh process—the principle that the facilitator produce cast off by supermarkets and should never act as an interested party in the restaurants, and preparing free vegetarian debate, for example, or the idea of the meals to distribute in public places. After a few “block”—were first disseminated by MNS years one of the founding members moved to trainings in Philadelphia and Boston. San Francisco and set up a similar operation there; word spread (in part because of some The anti-nuclear movement was also the first dramatic, televised arrests); and by the mid- to make its basic organizational unit the ’90s autonomous chapters of Food Not Bombs affinity group—a kind of minimal unit of were appearing all over America, and Canada organization first developed by anarchists in as well. By the turn of the millennium there early twentieth century —and to hold were literally hundreds. But Food Not Bombs action spokescouncils. As those involved is not an organization. There is no overarching frequently pointed out to me, all this was at structure, no membership or annual meetings. first very much a learning process, a kind of It’s just an idea—that food should go to those blind experiment, and things often seemed to that need it, and in a way that those fed can go very wrong. At first, organizers were such themselves become part of the process if they consensus purists that they insisted that any want to—plus some basic how-to information one individual had the right to block proposals (now easily available on the internet), and a even on a nationwide level. Needless to say, shared commitment to egalitarian decision- this proved unworkable.12 At the same time, making and the spirit of DIY. Gradually, direct action proved spectacularly successful in , anarchist , clinic putting the issue of nuclear power on the map. defense groups, If anything, the movement fell victim to its prisoner collectives, pirate radio collectives, own success. Though it rarely won a battle— squats, and chapters of Anti-Racist Action that is, for a blockade to prevent the began springing up on a similar molecular construction of any particular new plant—it basis across the continent. All became very quickly won the war. US government workshops for the creation of direct plans to build 100 new generators were democracy. But especially since so much of it scotched after a couple years and no new plans developed, not on campuses, but within to build nuclear plants have been announced countercultural milieus like the punk scene, it since. Attempts to move from nuclear plants to remained well below the radar of not only the nuclear missiles, and from there to a social corporate media, but even of mainstream Left revolution, however, proved more of a journals like The Nation. This, in turn, explains challenge, and the movement itself was never how, when suddenly such groups became to able to jump from the nuclear issue to become coalesce and coordinate in Seattle, it seemed, the basis of a broader revolutionary campaign. for the rest of the country, as if a movement After the early ‘80s, it largely disappeared. had suddenly appeared from nowhere.

This is not to say nothing was going on in the By the time we get to the birth of the late ‘80s and ‘90s. Radical AIDS activists globalization movement, which debuted in working with ACT UP, and radical North America in the November 30, 1999 environmentalists with groups like Earth First!, actions against the WTO Ministerial in Seattle, kept these techniques alive and developed though, it’s impossible to even pretend such

© Historia Actual Online 2010 129 The rebirth of anarchism in North America, 1957-2007 David Graeber matters can even be considered within a purely ostensibly revivals of much older institutions national framework. What the press insists on (the newfound efflorescence, Industrial calling the “anti-globalization movement” was, Workers of the World, or IWW, the revival of from the very beginning, a self-consciously SDS…) but now based on profoundly different global phenomenon. The actions against the principles of process and organization. In the WTO Ministerial were first proposed by PGA, meanwhile, the basic principles of “anarchist a planetary network that came into being by process” have, as noted in the beginning of this the initiative of the Zapatista rebels in Chiapas; essay, reached the point where they have the emphasis on the WTO reflected the become the very ground rules of organization concerns of farmer’s groups in India; the almost across the spectrum, with the exception tactics employed could equally well be seen as of most NGOs and old-fashioned, sectarian an amalgam of ideas drawn mainly from the Marxist groups. All reflect this same global South than as an indigenous American conjunction between direct action and direct development. It was the internet, above all, that democracy. It is precisely in the conjunction made all this possible. If nothing else, the between these two phenomenon, now pretty internet has allowed for a qualitative leap in much irreversibly established in the most the range and speed of molecular radical social movements in North America dissemination: there are now Food Not Bombs and increasingly, elsewhere, that the future of chapters, for instance, in Caracas and anarchism really lies. Bandung. The year or two directly after Seattle also saw the emergence of the network of NOTES Independent Media Centers, radical web journalism that has completely transformed the 1 The more immediate inspiration was his former possibilities of information flow about actions philosophy teacher Arnold Kaufman at University of Michigan. and events: activists who used to struggle for 2 months and years to put on actions that were Polletta, Francesca, Freedom is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social then entirely ignored by the media now know Movements. Chicago, Press, that anything they do will be picked up and 2002. reported instantly in photos, stories, and 3 Polletta op cit, p. 195. videos, across the planet—if in a form 4 Mattick, Paul, Jr. “Old Left, New Left, What’s accessible largely only to other activists. The Left?” Root & Branch No. 1 (1970): 15-24. great problem has been how to translate the 5 Demographic studies (e.g, Flacks, Richard, Youth flow of information into structures of and Social Change. Chicago, Rand MacNally, collective decision-making—since egalitarian 1971) tended to show that in the early years of decision-making is one thing that is almost SDS, the movement was largely composed of impossible to do on the internet. Or, more liberal arts students in elite universities, from affluent, left or left-leaning professional families: precisely, the question is: when and on what i.e., children of doctors, lawyers, teachers rather level are structures of collective decision- than businessmen; children of successful immigrant making required? DAN, and the Continental families rather than members of the old-money DAN network that was set up after Seattle, was elite. However after SDS expanded in the late ‘60s a first effort to address this problem. the social base became much broader, and began to Ultimately, it foundered. In doing so, however, include many students of working class it too played a key role in disseminating certain backgrounds as well. As we’ll see this latter pattern models of direct democracy, and making their is basically the one that always recurs in practice pretty much inextricable from the idea revolutionary movements: a convergence of of direct action. alienated and rebellious children of the professional classes with frustrated but upwardly mobile children of the working class with some experience After September 11, the level of repression in of higher education. the United States—already being ratcheted up 6 Mattick op cit, p. 22. steadily in the year and a half after Seattle— 7 Barber, David “‘A Fucking White Revolutionary began increasing quite dramatically. Most of Mass Movement’ and Other Fables of Whiteness, the structures created in the early days of the with Afterward by Noel Ignatiev.” Race Traitor, no alterglobalization movement crumbled or 12 spring 2001, pp. 4-93. 8 shrank radically in size. At time of writing In fact, those constituencies that most reliably (late 2007) this process has already begun to continue to vote democratic are precisely those who reverse itself: we have seen a plethora of new have some hope of mobility through education: immigrants, African-Americans, even women, who organizations and new initiatives, many are at this point attending university at far higher

130 © Historia Actual Online 2010 David Graeber The rebirth of anarchism in North America, 1957-2007 rates than men. There is certainly no parallel in communities of color to the explicit anti- intellectualism of so much of the radical right. 9 Polleta op cit. 10 See for example Freeman, Jo, “The Women’s Liberation Movement: Its Origins, Structures, and Ideas.” In Recent Sociology No. 4: Family, Marriage, and the Struggle of the Sexes (edited by Hans Peter Dreitzel), pp. 201-216. New York: The Macmillan Co, 1971; Evans, Sara Personal Politics: the Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left. New York: Knopf, 1979. 11 Lakey, George, Strategy for a Living Revolution. Philadelphia, Grossman Publishers, 1973. 12 Many of the standard complaints about the “impracticality” of consensus go back to this very early period.

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