r ii’ if I? ‘T - .-I ." -:1-Ii-“'- __,,,._...> -r- expect no gratitude from the authoritarian almost always nonviolent but they got long BOOK REVIEWS left and no better climate in which to terms of imprisomnent anyway. Anarchist Economics. Building Successful advance their distinctive project. Russian Bufe is big on vague foggy generalities Social Alternatives, by Roger Hallam A4 80 anarchists enjoyed far more freedom of but weak on particulars - a serious default in pages. action under the Czars than under the an essay about "getting there." Repeatedly HAVING spent a good deal of energy commissars. he holds up ZEGG, apparently a German trying to encourage more discussion around After a perfunctory review of some commune, as an exemplar but he never tells economics, I was delighted to come across economic statistics, Bufe moves on to us a damned thing about what ZEGG is (or this substantial private publication on identify the mechanism of social control as even what the initials stand for). Bufe thinks Ereedom ,Bookshop's shelves. However, it's fundamentally psychological. It is the that "model communities" are the way to a pity that its physical weight is not matched authoritarian conditioning imposed above go, but he has nothing to say about the by the economics, for alas the latter is very all in the "patriarchal" family which reduces history of the htmdreds of anarchist or slight indeed, and indeed, the subtitle is the masses to servitude, primarily through utopian socialist intentional communities much more descriptive of the contents. sexual repression. "Patriarchal" religion which were set up in America in and atter Roger has a lot of experience working reinforces familial repression. The everyday the 1840's. Anybody thinking of starting up Volume 2 Number 2 Spring 2000 £1.00 with Housing Co-ops, and it is in that authoritarian conditioning imposed by state such a community should, at the very least, context that he writes best, giving an functionaries (including schoolteachers) is become acquainted with the experiences of interesting account of Radical Routes, slighted, and that imposed by wage-labour its predecessors. Some risks are inherent, where successful co-ops have been is mostly ignored. Bufe has not only but others are avoidable. If the point of an indirectly financed through housing benefit! vulgarized Wilhelm Reich, he has severed anarchist intentional cormnunity is to set a He goes on to discuss DIY co-operative the link which Reich strove to sustain good example, then everything possible banking and the Mondragon group of between society and psyche. If he should be done to ensure that the example is of these violent acts were often at also confuses the issues at stake. The Spanish co-ops. Unfortunately these CONTENTS virtually point blank range resulting in real issues: opposition to environmental understood the logic of his own position, good. Bufe doesn't do this. Page I Editorial A | sections fill only pages 51-65. serious injtny. The conduct of the Bufe would have to concede that what most Page 2 Thoughts on Co-operative and ecological destruction, the growing Much of what remains are rambling people (who, he reports, don't "think very prison authorities in their treatment of global opposition to the unrestrained discourses on the problems of small Anarchist Economics by Ed Stamm well") need is not revolution but therapy. Letter Page 4 hrdividualism, Anarchy and around 500 arrested protesters is also power of globalised corporate anarchist ventures like cafes. These parts Whereas I think revolution is the best Dear Editor open to condemnation. American civil properly edited and structured around the Compassion by the Boston Anarchist capitalists, the global reach of the state, therapy there is. In her article Wherein does Wrongness Drinking Brigade liberties personnel carried out risk being lost amid the broken glass Radical Routes material could have made a The main message of Bufe's essay is that Lie? Wendy McElroy makes the all-too- Page 5 Human Rights? Not Likely! by interviews with those arrested as they and the tear gas. much more lively read. The economics, "any realistic movement toward real social comrnon mistake (as did Tucker) of where you can find it, is at best simplistic, Jean Pollard were released and this revealed many However, it is a moot point that some change must address sexual issues." Bufe thinking that Stimer's The Ego And His Page 6 Pragmatic ‘Anarchism’ or and at worst tediously banal, and the use of identifies no such issues, except for Own is an anarchist work. It is not. Not only violent and oppressive acts and assaults issues are not being thought through by terminology is sloppy: "wages" and Anarchism: a response to John Griffin had been carried out on a large certain opponents of the WTO. The implying that teenagers should be allowed does Stirner not claim to be an anarchist, by Takis Fotopoulos "profits" for example are both used in to fuck. Most American teenagers do fuck, one of his main targets is the anarchist percentage of the protesters held in elites who control the corporate relation to the remuneration of co-op Page 8 lndividualist Anarchism or but that doesn't seem to have revolutionized theoretician Pierre Joseph Proudhon. lirec Communism'?. by Richard Garner custody. capitalist organisations and the State members. their thinking or stripped them of character- Certainly there are parallels between some There was some minor violence political structures and Governments Roger links his practical experience with Page 9 Evolution versus Revolution by armor. They don't need leftist organizations of his views and those of anarchists, but at Richard Griffin against property, particularly banks, are clear about their own agenda, Mondragon and the future free society, on to tell them that what they're doing is okay. bottom they do not meet. Anarchism is an ongoing practical approach which I like, Page 10 Communism and Decon- from a relatively small number of which is to set the rules of international The kids are alright, it's neurotic grown-ups essentially a creed of renuncz'ati012: structionism by John Griffm Anarchist protestors. These latter trade and relations to operate in their but it was a mistake to try to extend to like Bufe who have sexual hang-ups. domination of man by man is an evil and for economic content beyond the fmancing of Page 12 Book Reviews, Letters & images have been used by authoritarian interest at the expense of the poor and Bufe has a serious preoccupation with true relations between humans such a sin Subscription details. Radical Routes, without much more ground "violence," with "coercion." "You can't cannot be allowed. ln a nutshell: politicians and police to justify their powerless everywhere, but especially in work, and a lot of editing. achieve a non-coercive society through the Dominating People Is wrong. Stirner's own violent actions. The state the undeveloped areas of the world. John Griffin use of coercion," he says. Since we have authorities do not condemn the violence philosophy, however, has nothing against However, the opposition organisations never achieved a non-coercive society at all, my dominating another individual, or group of their own police and prison and groups at events such as Seattle and BUFE GOOF Reviewed through coercion or otherwise, there's no of individuals, if this is in my interest and EDITORIAL personnel, nor do the politicians point the J18 events in 1999 are at times by Bob Black way to verify or falsify this sweeping within my capacity. Indeed he explicitly Seattle 1999: a signpost out the overwhelmingly peaceful inconsistent in their means and ends. generalization. Violence is a natural and states that "I do not want the liberty of men, conduct of the protesters, Anarchists The broad opposition agenda is to normal dimension of social life. It occurs in nor their equality; I want only my power to beyond 2000? included. Clearly the violence of the reduce injustice and ecological damage A Future Worth Living: Thoughts on all forms of society, including anarchist over them." police and state forces was unjustified Getting There. By Chaz Bufe. Tucson, AZ: band and tribal societies. Most anarchists To properly understand The Ego Arid His and to restore local control and local See Sharp Press, 1998. hope and expect that in the anarchist society Own it needs to be read without the HE December newspapers and and the response of the State's forces democracy. Many Anarchists among This pamphlet purports to explain why the they strive for, violence would be preconceptions that ideologies such as | TV reports were full of news was disproportionate to the actions of them call for the ending of this abuse revolutionary left isn't rumiing the country. drastically reduced. l share their hope and anarchism provide. stories regarding the WTO this minority of protestors. A few and the bamring of that. But how can For Bufe, this is cause for regret; for most their expectation- But "getting there," in Yours sincerely meeting and accompanying protests in broken windows do not justify the supporting change via State actions and of us, it is cause for thanks. Although he Bufe's phrase, is something else again. S. E. Parker m=* Seattle. planned. systematic and violent attempt legislation be an acceptable means for claims to be an anarchist, Bufe makes clear Without glorifying armed struggle, it's As is now so often the case the event to suppress free speech and freedom of Anarchists? that he is a leftist first and foremost; his possible to point out that there has rarely if Subscriptions to TOTAL LIBERTY are was marked by organised and protest against the actions of global anarchism is an afterthought.