Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.vol 6- No 1. Spring 2002

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Inside this issue: Volume 6, No. 1 Spring 2002Grant Awards & Updates...

Update on the IAS..._ The Same New World After September 112 By Cindy Milstein

Whats Happening: Books and Events

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Page 2 PERSPECTIVES ON ANARCHIST THEORY

Perspectives onAnarchist TheoryIAS Update

Spring 2002, Vol. 6 No. 1Newsletter of the Institute

for Anarchist StudiesEditor: John Petrovato

Subscription Rates(Two issues per year)IAS Donors FreeIndividuals $5Institutions $10Bulk (25 Copies)- $25(Please make checks payableto the Institute for AnarchistStudies)

Disclaimer: . the views expressed in Perspectives do notnecessarily represent the viewsof the IAS as a whole. The material in this newsletter is theInstitute for Anarchist Studies.

IAS Board of Directors:Paula Emery, Rebecca DeWitt,Chuck Morse, Paul Glavin,

Cindy Milstein, Ashanti Alston,Dan Chodorkoff,Brooke Lehman

General Director:John Petrovato

P.O. Box 482Arnherst, MA. 01004USA

E-mail: [email protected]: http://flag.blackened.net/iasPhone: (413) 369-8037

The IAS is a nonprofit,tax-exempt organization.

Welcome to the Spring, 2002 IASnewsletter.. Much has happened at theIAS over the past year. We completed asuccessful 2001 fundraising campaign inwhich we were able to provide $8000 ingrants (see grant awards and updates fordetails). The IAS also has a new generaldirector along with a new home.As of February 15, Rebecca Dewitt has

stepped down from the position of GeneralDirector and is now an IAS board member.She has done an excellent job over the pastcouple of years guiding the IAS, and all of uson the board thank her for her dedicationand hard work. I was appointed as generaldirector by the board and am extremely enthusiastic about my new role with the IAShaving already served as a board member fora number of years. Professionally a bookseller in Amherst, Massachusetts, I have alsobeen involved in the anarchist movementsince the early 1980s and, along with IASboard member Cindy Milstein, coorganizethe annual Renewing the Anarchist Traditionconference.With my appointment as general director, the IAS office has relocated to 98 Mainstreet, Conway, Massachusetts. Housed in aformer Masonic temple, the IAS will nowhave access to more additional space forother projects.It is my hope that the IAS can becomemore engaged in activities beyond grant giving and our newsletter over the comingyears. Besides offering support to radicalwriters, which will always remain our primary focus, I would like to see the IAS helpto organize conferences and seminars, putout additional publications, and set upspeaking tours.

This issue of Perspectives, our bi-annualnewsletter, seeks to create a forum to opendialogue among anti-authoritarian leftists onthe difficult questions as well as concernssurrounding the events of September 11 th.Anarchist writers, from different theoreticalbackgrounds, were asked to contribute anessay that deals with specific issues of importance to them. They were also asked towrite in whatever style they felt comfortablewith and from whatever vantage point(theoretical, practical, or personal) theywished. The opinions expressed in the following essays do not represent the views of

the IAS but they do illustrate the many waysin which anarchists explore such worldevents. Lacking an "official position," anarchists create vibrant intellectual debates, as Itrust these essays as a whole reveal. It is,after all, such debates and the questions theyraise that allow anarchism to remain a dynamic, relevant political movement.

The Board of directors and myselfwould like to thank all the donors for theircontinued generosity. Such generosity istruly inspiring, and it enables the L\S in particular and the anarchist community' in general to have an ongoing voice in contemporary discussions.We encourage contributors, donors, andall others to contact the L\S with suggestions and comments. As always, we lookforward to hearing from you.John PetrovatoMarch 2002Grant Awards Spring 2002The IAS Board of Directors waspleased to award grants to the following individuals for February,2002:$2000 to Lorenzo KomboaErwin for a rewrite oi Anarchism andthe Black Revolution. The book, first published in 1989 as a pamphlet, has had asignificant impact within the anarchistmovement. The work argues that a"class and economic analysis for thereconstruction of society is not possibleif racism as a social impediment is notfully considered, and the concerns ofpeople of color are not included in asocial revolutionary agenda". Beyondhis important written contributions,Lorenzo has also been active in prisoner rights work, the Black Autonomy/"people of color" tendency within contemporary anarchism, ant i - rac ismmovements, and other social changeprojects.Continued on page 3


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VOLUME 6, NO. I Page 3

Grant Awards continued$1000 to Ali Sauer for her book-length piece tided: Voicing Exclusion(s): A Critical Examination of CurrentDiscourses on the "Anti-Corporate Globalisation" Movement. In what promisesto be a fascinating study, Ali will investigate how social movements ingeneral, and the "anti-globalizationmovement" in particular, reproducecertain structures of domination bythe very way such movements arearticulated and by the way they definethemselves - - by a discourse of in-clusivity. Her project, which will consist of interviews and research, willattempt to understand the limitations

of such discourses, and also suggestways in which they may be redefinedto become more relevant and powerful. One of the many contributionsthat will emerge from this work willbe, as Ali puts it, to "encourage aradica l redefini t ion of ant i -globalization activism that recognizes, in a non-colonial manner, therange of people engaged in thiswork".$1000 to Sean Gauthier for hisunique book Many Manifestations: Blueprints for a Bricoleurs War Machine. Asopposed to most contemporaryscholars, Sean questions whether the

Grant UpdatesKevin Doyle has finished his three-acttheater play, Orange Fire, about the life,beliefs and struggles of Irish activistCaptain Jack White (1879-1946), whostrongly identified as an anarchist. He iscurrendy working on finding a venue forhis play. He was awarded $1000 in June2000.Mike Staudenmaier has finished hisproject, Towards a New Anarchist Theory ofNationalism, which has taken the form of twoessays: 'Towards a New Anarchist Theory of Nationalism", published in issue#3 ofArsenal: A Magazine of AnarchistStrategy and Culture (Winter 2001) and"Nationalism: Definitions and Clarifications", to be published in the March2002 issue of Onward. In addition, he isworking on a new piece about the theories of Bakunin, Landauer, and Rocker,which he hopes to have done this summer. He was awarded $1500 in January2000. .Jessica Lawless has finished her article and documentary, "Racializing Anarchism Then and Now." Her documentary is available for viewing upon rquest.She was awarded $1500 in January 2001.Andres Perez and Felipe del Solarhas completed an 81 page draft of thefirst chapter of their book Chile: Anarchist Practices Under Pinochet. This chapter

covers the 70's and political developments including anarcho-syndicalist activities, anarchist involvement in thestudent movement and counter-culture,and armed anarchist action. This information is especially interesting since ithas never been studied before. Thechapter also provides information onvarious anarchist organizational initiatives as well as the relationship betweenanarchists and other members of theleft. They were awarded $2000 in January 2001.Carlos Fernandez and JenaCephas are working on their two-partproject The Quilombo Project (originallytided Anarchists of Color). They have received many responses to their initialsurvey and have set up a web site, whichfeatures their work in progress as well asother people's writings. Several interviews are in progress and they expect tohave both parts of the project,(interviews and analysis) done by theend of this summer. Visit their websitefor more frequent updates, http://www.quilomboproject.org. More resourcesand links relating to their project can befound at http://www.illegalvoices.org/apoc. They were awarded S2000 injury2001.Lucien van der Walt for "Anarchismand Revolutionarv Syndicalism in South

process and development of globalization inherent in late capitalism isunavoidable (as it is often assumed).Informed by such thinkers as Foucault and Deleuze, Sean will critiqueglobalization and the argumentswhich maintain it, and in turn, drawout effective strategies for resistance.In many ways, his project may beviewed as a "poststructuralist anarchist response to Hardt and Negri'sEmpire".If you are interested in applying for a grant, pleasesend a SASE to the IAS at P.O. Box 482, Amherst; NLA 01004; or print an application from ourwebsite

http://flag.blackened.net/ias.

Africa, 1904-1921", which expandsupon a project previously funded by theIAS. Currendy, he is working on thequestion of race, examining how theSouth African movement sought toweld the struggles of the multi-racialworking class to the struggle for a post-segregation, stateless, and self managedSouth African society. Material from hisproject has been presented at numerousconferences, and articles have appearedin Direct Action (Australia) among others. He was awarded $1000 in June2000.Fernando Gustavo Lopez Trujillohas completed the introduction and sixchapters of his project, The FACA andthe Anarchist Movement in Argentina, 1930-1950, and is almost finished with an additional two chapters and three appendixes. He was awarded $2200 in June1999.Joe Lowndes is currendy researchingand writing on the crystallization of racial anti-statism on the right in andaround the 1964 Goldwater campaignfor his piece, Anarchism and the Rise ofRightwing Anti-statism. Since his projecthas evolved into a larger, book project, this summer will see the publication of ashorter, focused article on conservativeanti-statism for the anarchist audience.He was awarded S1000 in June 1998.


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What's Happening: Books and Events By Chuck Morse

The Battle After Seattle: Politicshere is a growing body of literature documenting and analyzing themost militant, anti-authoritarian tendencies in the movement against globalcapital This literature reflects the increasing political importance of today'srevolutionary movement and providesinvaluable resources for anarchistsseeking to deepen and clarify its vision.The Battle of Seattle: Debating CapitalistGlobalisation and the WTO is one usefulwork (Soft Skull Press, 2002, 400pages). This anthology, edited by EddieYuen, George Katsiaficas, and DanielBurton Rose, places recent anti-capitalist protests in a broader historical context that includes things such asresistance to the IMF and neoliberalism in Venezuela, Korea, andChiapas, the mass organizing campaigns of the nuclear-freeze movementin the 1980s, and the innovative directaction tactics of environmentalists inthe US. The book combines street-level reporting with inquiries into questions such as: how can a movementthat claims to be global root itself inlocal communities? What happens tonon-violent tactics in an environmentof increasingly ruthless policing? CanNGOs be agents of social transformation or are they only a mirror of thedominant society within the movement? How can a predominandy whiteactivist scene in the US and Europeform respectful ties with activists ofcolor? Does trashing Starbucks damagecapitalism itself? Another valuable contribution can be found in Genoa and theAnti-Capitalist Movement (various authors, One-Off Press, 2002, 143pages). This book contains reports andanalyses from the most militant elements of the anti-G8 demonstrationsin Genoa in July 2001. It examinesthese protests to encourage the theoretical and political growth of the anti-globalization movement's most confrontational wing. Spanish readersshould pick up Globalisation Capitalista:Lttchas y resistencias (Trans: CapitalistGlobalisation: Struggles and Resistances) by

F. Duran, M. Etxesarreta and M. Sdes(Editorial Virus, 2001, 240 pages). Thisbook is a analysis of the acceleration ofcapitalist globalization, its social andeconomic costs, the present situationof the anti-globalization movement,and its possibilities for the future.Those who need a break from readingshould check out a new film from theCascadia Media Collective: A Year inthe Streets: WTO Seattle to the Bush Inauguration. This film criss-crosses the U.S.to provide a street-level view of theclash between radical activists and thestate. It covers the anti-WTO protestsin Seattle, protests against the IMF/World Bank in Washington D.C., demonstrations at the Democratic NationalConvention in Los Angeles, and manyothers.

And Theorywo forthcoming books attemptto explicate some of theoretical premises of a contemporary revolutionaryperspective. John Holloway's Change theWorld Without Taking Power: The Meaningof Revolution Today takes its point of departure from the failure of state-centered revolutionary movements andthe emergence of revolutionary movements that do not aim to take power(such as the Zapatistas, the anti-globalization movement, and others).He asks: how we can reformulate ourunderstanding of revolution as thestruggle against - not for - power? Holloway tries to answer this question withan inquiry that draws on "WesternMarxist" thinkers such as Adorno,Bloch, and Lukacs and Marx's conceptof "fetishization" (Pluto Press, March2002, 240 pages). Another theoreticalwork with roots in the anti-globalization movement is The Anti-Capitalism Reader (Akashic Books, I une2002). This anthology, edited by JoelSchalit, contains writings on the theory,practice, and history of anti-capitalistpolitics from activists and scholars inthe movement. Among the topics explored are the presence of anti-capitalist movements in everyday life,

the history of anti-capitalism, strategiesof anti-capitalist resistance, regionalismand anti-capitalism, and anti-capitalismand intellectual property. It also includes a brief selection of some of themost historically important criticismsof the free market from theorists suchas Marx, Gramsci, and other Marxist,anarchist, and Situarionist thinkers.

C h o m s k yo one has greater stature in today's radical movements than NoamChomsky. Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky (edited by PeterMitchell and John Schoeffel) assemblesmany of Chomsky's recent talks on thepast, present, and future of the politicsof power (published here for the firsttime). Chomsky covers topics fromforeign policy the during Vietnam Warto the decline of welfare under theClinton administration. And, as he explores the connection between America's imperialistic foreign policy and thedecline of domestic social services, hetries to discern the necessary steps toward social transformation (New Press,2002, 432 pages). Jeremy Fox's Chomsky and Globalisation provides a summary of Chomsky's recendy publishedviews on globalization and the "NewWorld Order" (Totem Books, 2001, 80pages).The Return of the RepressedAlthough we will never recreate theanarchist movement of yesteryear, wemust certainly leam its lessons to builda new one. Fortunately, many of theselessons are being documented withgreater and greater thoroughness.David Berry's The History of the FrenchAnarchist Movement, 1917-1945 is thefirst full-length English-language history of France's interwar anarchistmovement (Greenwood Publishing,April 2002, 296 pages). This book analyzes the anarchists' responses to theRussian and Spanish revolutions andthe creation of the international communist movement. It details the dilemmas facing anarchism at a crucial mo-


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VOLUME 6, NO. I Page 5ment in the movement's history, characterized by serious questioning of"traditional" anarchist theory and practice. During this key era, leading militants within the movement sought toclarify anarchist theory regarding thenature of 20th-century revolutions, tochallenge the rejection of organization,and to integrate anarchism more fullyinto the broader socialist and trade union movements. The anarchists werecapable of organizing large and efficient campaigns and their analyses ofdevelopments on the left and in thetrade union movement were oftenmore prescient than those of the socialists and communists. Barry takesseriously the anarchists' attempts tocome to terms with the challenges ofrevolution and to respond positively tothem in a distinctly libertarian socialistway. Ultimately, they were only partially successful in such efforts, and thisaccounts in large part for the failure ofthe movement.The sexual radicalism of the older anarchist movement has often been notedbut rarely explored in its complexity.This will be corrected to some extentby Xavier Diez's Catalan-language Utopia Sexual a la Premsa Anarquista de Cata-lunya (trans. Sexual Utopia in the Catalo-nian Anarchist Press, Pages editors, 2001,191 pages). This book focuses on theperiodical Etica-Iniciales (1927-1937) toexplore the anarchist attempt to construct a new morality that held sexualliberty as its premise.A n t i - f anarchist participation in antifascist resistance has been poorly documented, although fortunately some ofthis rich history is now being told. German readers should check out Anarchis-ten gegen Hitler. Anarchisten, Anarcho-Syndikalisten, Ratekommunisten in Wider-stand und Exil (trans: Anarchists AgainstHitler Anarchists. Anarcho-syndicalists, andCouncil Communists in the Resistance and inExile). This anthology, edited by Andreas Graf, seeks to rectify the omission of anarchists from historical accounts of workers' resistance groupsand activities during the Nazi period. Itfocuses on anti-Nazi resistance in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, and

avoids either glorifying or omitting anarchists by studying the roles anarchistsactually played in the resistance (LukasVerlag fiir kunst-und Geistes-geschichte, 2001, 317 pages). Spanishreaders should pick up Cuenta Atrds. LaHistoria de Salvador Puig Antich byFrancesc Escnbano (trans: The StoreBehind: The History of Salvador Puig Antich). This book tells the story of ayoung Catalan anarchist militant executed by the Spanish state for fightingFranco's fascist regime (Peninsula,2001, 204 pages)

Just Yesterdayhe recent history of the anarchistmovement is only beginning to bedocumented. Ann Hansen's Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban Guerrilla (AKPress, 2002, 490 pages) narrates thestory of a dramatic moment in themovement in the early 1980's. Hansenwas a member of Direct Action, a Canadian anarchist urban guerrilla group,that was responsible for a campaign ofdramatic actions culminating in thebombing of the Litton Systems Hydroelectric plant in Toronto and threepornographic video stores. Hansenserved seven years in prison and nowtells her story for the first time. Thebook contains a probing analysis of thepolitical context during those years thatwill doubdessly resonate with thoselived through the events as well asthose who did not. Also of interest is anew 140-minute double CD from AKPress: Mob Action Against the State: Collected Speeches from the Bay Area AnarchistBookfair (July 2002). The CD includesspeeches from Barry Pateman (KateSharpley Library/Emma Goldman Papers Project), Lawrence Ferlinghetti,Jello Biafra, Christian Parenti, RuthieGilmore, and others.More Bookshe New Formulation: An Anti-Authoritarian Review of Books is a new-biannual journal featuring comparativebook renews from an anarchist perspective. Its goal is to "help clarify thedistinctness of an anarchist approachto social affairs, to provide a forum forthe integration of new works and insights into the anarchist project, and togive authors struggling to redefine the

tradition a setting in which to sharetheir research and reflections". Thefirst 46-page issue contains reviews ofworks on the prison industrial complex, prison life generally, the anti-globalization movement, and the BlackPanther Party. It also contains a statement against the war. Annual subscriptions to the journal, which is edited bythe author of the article you are pres-endy reading, are $7 in the U.S. and$10 elsewhere (payable to CharlesMorse,). Write to The New Formulation,2620 Second Avenue, #4B, San Diego,CA, 92103 - U.S.A.. The full text of thefirst issue can be found online athttp://flag.blackened.net/nf/index.htm

La Ciudad de Mexicohe Institute for Social Ecology issponsoring a special Mexico City StudyTour from May 19th to May 27th. Thisprogram will use classroom lecturesand participatory tours throughout thecity to explore the evolution of MexicoCity's social structures and the opposition movements that have challengedthem. Special emphasis will be placedon the contributions and dilemmas ofanti-authoritarian activists in the city'shistory. More information is availablehere: http://www.social-ecology.org/programs/winter/mexico.html andfrom the ISE at 1118 Maple Hill Road,Plainfield, VT, 05667, USA. Tel/Fax.:1 (802) 454-8493Mexico City's Biblioteca Social Recon-struir is suffering a grave financial crisisand needs the support of sympathizersaround the world to continue theirwork. Please send a donation to: Biblioteca Social Resconstruir, A.P. 9090,C.P. 06002, Mexico 1 D.F. (makechecks payable to Martha Cecilia Garcia Juarez). More information aboutthe library can be found here: http://www.libertad.org.mx/


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The Same New World After September 11Contnued from page JOnly by understanding the complexities ofthe world, both the heightened samenessas well as disconcerting newness, can anarchists again serve as voices of conscience. What follows are some thoughts,far from answers and further still fromsolutions, along two intertwined yet divergent paths.The Poth of Least ResistanceWall Street shut down, for the longest period in its history. On any other day, in thecontext of a widespread social movement,this would have been cause for celebration. But it was impossible to feel joygiven the circumstances. This is the paradox at the heart of the film Fight Club.The alienation that we in the glitteringconsumer society of the West feelatleast those of us fortunate enough to havematerial plentycan go in either libertarian or fascistic directions. Either maybring transnationals to their knees, but themeans are quite different and the endseven starker. As Fight Club implies, aworld opposed to or ultimately even outside of capitalism could look equally ugly,equally violent.No one can really say why the suicidal hijackers of September 11 targeted theWorld Trade Center and Pentagon, but it'ssafe to venture that it had something todo, at least in part, with the unease causedby a world in transition. (That in no wayjustifies the means used, nor in all likelihood, the equally brutal and authoritarianends.) Yet ironically, rather than slowingor halting the dizzying transformationknown as globalization, the one-twopunch aimed at the great symbols of capitalism and militarism has only increased itsvelocity, and from an antiauthoritarianperspective, sent it in the wrong direction.The tectonic shift known as globalization,still so difficult to define, is in large partabout a shift in power relations. It is ashift that is far from setded. As globalization breaks down all sorts of barrierssocial as well as spatial, real as well as virtualit carves out a world just as open tothe free flow of resistance as of capitalism.Capitalism's internal compulsion to continually expand is gready helping to remap the world as one without borders,

but so too are the growing bonds ofsolidarity between the earth's displaced,dispossessed peoples. The powerful andpowerless are both influential in thisglobalizing process; both are also verymuch at its mercy. Because as old divides crumble, up for grabs is where andwith whom power will ultimately resideonce the world is fully globalized"power" here referring to what and whowill ultimately decide the shape of thatfully globalized world. Thus is globalization creating a power vacuum.Authoritarians and antiauthoritariansalike have stepped into this vacuum in astruggle for very different notions ofhow decision making should be structured. Those presendy in command obviously have a greater advantage. Butbecause the power struggle takes placewithin, not outside, the globalizationprocess itself, everyone is forced to playby the new rules being created by aglobalizing world. These rules mandatesuch strategies as mobility, flexibility,openness, networking, and cooperation.Our old mind-sets, however, haven'tcaught up to these new rules, and henceit is difficult to see that even the powerful are destabilized. This is the unease ofglobalization even for a superpower aspreeminent as the United States, thenation-system central to creating a globalized world yet vulnerable to being unraveled by the very process of gettingthere. Two examples from the new "waron terrorism" will hopefully suffice here:the open borders-closed borders dilemma, and the need for internationalcooperation before launching strikesagainst, for now, Afghanistan.Long before the eleventh of September,as far back as the mid-1940s and certainly since the 1989 fall of the BerlinWall, the nation-state as a tightlybounded entity has been in decline. International bodies from the EuropeanUnion to the Hague Tribunal are helping to capture more and more of the"traditional" functions of individualstates at the supranational level. Certainstates benefit and others lose out in theshort run, but all states must increasingly forfeit elements of their autonomyin this new world community. A related,

though different breaking down of thenational boundedness of capitalism hastaken place, and supranational corporations and financial institutions are nowthe norm. This upward consolidation ofgovernance and economics, to name justtwo key spheres, has made borders between countries and even continentsincreasingly irrelevant.Yet unlike capitalism, which happily assists in tearing down walls in order togrow, borders are necessary for states ifthey are to remain a distinct set of institutions with powers all their own. Inshort, if they are to remain a distinctstate.. As quickly as the globalizationprocess irrevocably chips away at borders, then, states must just as quicklyengage in keeping up appearances thatthey do, indeed, control their own territory. For this patina of control is whatmakes the difference being legitimacyand illegitimacy7 for states. When individual countries are forced by a globalizing world to ease border restrictions,they must maintain this illusion of control by promoting and/or signing agreements that ratify what is, to a certainextent, already the on-the-ground reality.And so seeming paradoxes abound. TheU.S. government promulgates an agreement to fling open borders throughoutthe Americas to trade, and is even willing to consider a quasi-citizen categoryfor Mexican "guest" workers in theUnited States, but (vainly) tries to staveoff border crossings for illegal drugs orirnmigrants, or for those anarchists whowanted to join the Anti-Capitalist Convergence in Quebec last April. Thisparadox has only been accentuated sinceSeptember 11. For instance, it is nowmuch more difficult for U.S. citizens toget back into the States after visitingCanada, but Bush is trying to do an endrun around activists by getting Congressto agree to fast-track the Free TradeAgreement of the Americasto patriotically show those terrorists they can'tstop business as usual (which, of course,they haven't). As globalization congealsinto a globalized world, however, thiscontradiction will likelv be resolved asborders blur and perhaps even dissolve.Unfortunately, such a "no borders"

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VOLUME 6, NO. 1 Page 7campaign is a frightening prospect whenwaged by nation-statesthe victor potentially being competing networks ofsuprastates or even a one-wodd government monopoly.But that is the possible totalizing worldof tomorrow. For now, another exampleof the post-September 11 accelerationin this blurring of borders relates to policing. The terror perpetrated on U.S.soil brought the world home. It is, ofcourse, a positive development thatAmericans now realize they are part ofhumanity. Yet Bush and companywould have us believe that means thereis now "no place to hide," neither forterrorists nor us many, lowly civilians.Or more precisely, everywhere is now apotential hiding place, everyone a possible suspect, for September 11 showedthat fear and terror know no borders.They don't tell us that states, too, alsohave no safe refuge. They would ratherhave us think that if the earth is indeedeveryone's home, we must defend itagainst intruders, and that means callingthe police. Anticapitalist activists knowfull well that "domestic" police like theFBI had already gone global to lend ahand against protesters in Prague; andDutch and German police in one smallregion recentiy built a station that straddles both their countries' borders. Whatmight have been a gradual process,though, has now been telescoped sincethe suicide attacks. "Homeland security"involves European NATO planes policing U.S. skies; police "wiretaps" will follow individuals across borders ratherthan staying put on a phone. Enter theage of the supra-police state.The processes of globalization still placelimits even on these new forms of domination, at least for the moment. Cooperation is one of the restraints, for cohabitation on a globalized planet necessitates that wethe "we" running thegamut from police to states to fundamentalists to leftistsget along out ofm e r e s u r v i v a l . S u c h g l o b a l"cooperation" could already be seen inrelation to flows of capital; national currencies giving way in Europe to a regional one, the Euro, are just one instance. But the war on terrorism ushersin a heightened sense of cooperation, inthis case between nations. The U.S. government can no longer get away with

being the world's police. As one part ofwhat's becoming a police world, it toomust now seek out and actually getmoral and material cooperation from aplurality of states, nominally democraticor not. "An attack on one is an attackon all" affirms NATO in a grand subversion of the Wobbly slogan. "Not inour name," chant peace activists in theUnited States, but "our name" is muchlarger and more dangerous than simply"America." This global war will involvea consensus much harder to combat inthat it stretches across cooperatingstates, not between competing ones, in abattle against "rogue nations" and stateless "evil."This is a small, still shadowy part of theworld emerging after September 11. It isa changed world, perhaps, but only because the changes already underwaywere so fast-forwarded as to appear assomething completely new. The samenew world's novelty, however, lies in itsability to throw everyone and everythingoff balance. Old assumptions have beenshattered, but they were shattered longbefore September 11, and unless wecarefully shift through the rubble, wewill find neither cause nor effect.The Path off Renewed ResistanceThe Statue of Liberty shut down, for thelongest period in its history (other thanfor renovations or repairs). If we aresupposedly returning to "normal," if theU.S. government is allegedly defendingthe liberties that make this country exemplary, why protect Liberty Enlightening the World, as she's officially called,from the public? It's only one statue,and a contentious one at that, but whatbetter symbol of the irony of the war onterrorism to guarantee "enduring freedom" than its continued closure?For this statue was intended to stand for"universal political freedom"; it wasmeant to welcome all peoples of theworld into a purportedly democraticsociety. The fact that unlike the stockexchange, this icon has still not beenable to be reopened makes plain the U.S. government's values. And certainly,there are many in the United States whoshare the government's increasingly na-tivist, undemocratic sentiments.But there are manv others who don't.

Witness those moments on 9-11-2001and there were manywhen peopledidn't fulfill notions of humanity asgreedy, xenophobic, or power hungry.When voluntarism along with numerousacts of kindness were as overwhelming,if not more so, a response. When thesenseless deaths of that morning mademany turn both inward to reflect on themeaning of their own lives, on how theycontribute to society, and also outwardto explore other cultures, religions, histories. And when many people recognized just how fragile concepts like"freedom" and "democraq'" are, even ifthose notions are hollowed out or oftenfalse in these United States.It will be, and indeed it has been, difficult for people to get back to normal,especially when "normal" is defined asshopping and returning to work. Thegenuine emptiness of life-before-September- 11 has hit hard for many,particularly in contrast to the genuinecommunity most felt in the days justafter the attacks. Millions have (re)turned to religion, others to friends andfamily; some to a peace movement.They have sought company and valuesin a world that now seems lonely andvalueless, and many long for an ethicalorientation that is about a greater goodthan chasing the American dream.All that meets the ear, however, is adeafening silence. People are at a lossfor words as well as ideas to explainSeptember 11 and beyond. The silenceis so deep that it will be harder than everto break, especially since we too havebeen quieted. Cries of "U.S. imperialism" or "imagine peace" have just asabrasive a ring as "God Bless America"in the stillness that now engulfs bothunity and dissent. It is a silence thatmust end, but only when we are ready toserve as insightful, articulate voices notafraid to speak truth to the powerful,not fearful of playing with unendingcontradictions that may defy simple responses, not in a hurry to work throughthe complexities that are today's scarednew world.For there is a world stuck between thebin Ladens and George Bushes of todaydesirous of something better. Bur theremust be something better to consider.

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Same New WorldContinued from page 7That means making sensefrom a libertarian Left perspectiveof fundamentalism, the war of terror and war on terrorism, supranational alliances, and ahost of other phenomena connected toand sometimes separate from the process of globalization. It also means takingaccount of these new global dynamics inour praxis. Such a renaissance ofthought within anarchist circles will allow us to re-create the space we struggled so hard to build prior to September11, for we will have something profoundto say and hopeful to offer. Only fromthis place of critical thought can weagain press ahead, even if by baby steps,as educators and agitators.Since September 11, antiauthoritarianshave defied media stereotypes by exhibiting patience, grace, and great sensitivity. Canceling the long-planned directactions against the IMF/WB in Washington, D.C. during a period of collective mourning is just one of the manyrecent acts that offer a hint of our ethical orientation and prefigurative politics.It is "diversity of tactics" coming to maturity. Now we must broaden this notionin the days ahead, reaching out to thosenewly politicized and newly touched byworld events in ways we might not haveimagined or embraced on September 10.We know that any move toward peacemust understand that peace did notreign prior to September 11, that peacecan never be approximated without astruggle to continually root out domination while providing alternatives. Weknow that a peace movement can't operate as if the world were pre-globalization. The best sort of antiwarmovement would be one that sees itselfas an extension, indeed an expansion ofthe anticapitalist, antistatist struggle thatpreceded it. The best sort of movementfor peace would be one calling for a freesociety of free individuals.Our project is, and must be, the sametoday as it was before the horrific acts ofviolence on September 11 and retaliatoryones since October 7. Cooperation between heads of state in a war against terrorism must be contrasted to mutual aidbetween peoples in a struggle againstauthoritarian rule, be it bv states or self-

appointed martyrs. The evisceration ofcivil liberties calls more than ever for alibertarian alternative. A widening circleof ethnically motivated attacks begs yetagain for a substantive notion of humanity and diversityfrom the East Coastto the Middle East. The immiserizationof people demands even more that production and distribution be structuredaround desire not domination. And perhaps most compellingly, the greater consolidation of hierarchical networks ofsuprapowers in the post-September 11world must be thwarted by a direcdydemocratic, confederal politits at theglobal grass roots. Far from over, ourproject is now more crucial than ever,and potentially bears more resonance inand outside any peace movement.Nevertheless, we now find ourselves inthe rather awkward position of havinggood ideas under increasingly bad circumstances. In this globalizing world,we too have no place to hide, we too areincreasingly vulnerable. Thus we mustcontinue to solidify our own infrastructure, including but not limited to independent media, physical spaces, a material base, and political organizations. Wemust distance ourselves from positionswithin our milieu that either glamorizeacts of terror, like setting police on fire,or condone it, like supporting the Una-bomber's deeds. We must reach out beyond our counterculture, both globallyand continentally, yet also by workingwhere we live. It is a good thing that theworld is opening up, that borders areblurring and power is shifting, but onlyif we begin to create living examples ofhow to organize power in ways thatglobalize freedom.Capitalism was not brought down bySeptember 11; it forges on in a macabrethough hypocritical tribute to the victimsof that morning. Authoritarians from alQaeda to G. W. Bush retain their powerto command, to stir up wars in the nameof God, albeit different ones. The WTOwent ahead with its fall meeting, shamelessly dangling the newly poor in thewake of September 11 as the reason,without mentioning its own deeper complicity in this impoverishment. Theworld looks bleak, the good societyseems distant. But small openings stillappear. It is up to us to raise alternativebeacons of light in the coming storm. -

Imperialism andAnti-authoritarianby Mark LanceContinued from page 1extended wherever possible.) Meanwhilethe US will establish permanent militaryinstallations throughout the region.Eventually natural gas. and oil deposits inCentral Asia will be exploited with thehelp of these regimes, as oil is now in theMiddle East.With significant but for our purposesunimportant variations, this is thesituation currendy with Saudi Arabia,Kuwait, the small gulf states, Egypt,Pakistan, and others. Current US actionsare leading in the same direction forUzbekistan (where a new permanent USbase at Khanabad houses 1,500personnel), Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,Kyrgyzstan (where the US is currendybuilding a transportation hub capable ofhandling thousands of troops) andAfghanistan. In terms of new aid, SimonTisdall reports in the Guardian thatunder new economic aid packages"Uzbekistan received $64m in USassistance and $136m in US Export-Import Bank credits in 2001. In 2002,the Bush administration plans to handover $52m in assistance to Kazakhstan,some partly for military equipment."Israel is slighdy different as it is notmerely militarized, but a country with anuclear capable, highly effective modemmilitary, and with a popular government.And of course levels of US aid to Israeldwarf those to other countries. Further,it has traditionally been useful fordifferent reasons. But Israel remainspartially dependent on the US, given itscomplete isolation in the region, andlargely subservient to US interests. Stateslike Iraq, which do not function well inthe US imperial scheme are effectivelydestroyed, though still held out as threatsto justify further imperial actions. (Thisfunction - serving as a constant "threat"that can be tossed out to the press andpublic whenever an imperial project is inneed of justification is being taken overby the "war on terrorism," leaving one towonder whether the comple tedestruction of Iraq isn't now on theagenda.)

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VOLUME 6, NO. 1 Page 9There is nothing subde about any ofthis, and it is not hard to see the pattern.The US now has military bases acrossthe globe, in well over 100 countries, invirtually every major region of everycontinent. It has recendy built bases in13 locations in nine countries in CentralAsia, bases that Deputy Secretary ofDefense Paul Wolfowitz recendy saidwould involve a long-term commitment.In addition, the US now excersisessubstantial control over the economiesof the majority of states in the worldand effective veto power over politicaldecisions taken by small countriesthroughout the world. This is anempire, the largest and most powerful inhuman history. And the forefront ofexpansion is the Middle East andCentral Asia.Neither the empire nor the strategy ofmanaging that empire throughmilitarized insecure states is. new, butthe level of commitment to the strategy,the rate of expansion, and the sheerrecklessness of its implementation haveall risen enormously since 9-11. Thedanger inherent in this strategy issignificant for the people of the world.Most of the countries in the Middle Eastand Central Asia are so weak that theircollapse is a real possibility. The crisis isparticularly frightening in countries likeSaudi Arabia and Pakistan. Nor wouldthe likely successor regimes be palatable.In most cases the principle insurgency isa repressive religiously focussedmovement and no anti-authoritariancan hope for such a change. Assignificant would be the immediatehuman cost of widespread civil war inthe region. At least Israel Pakistan, andIndia are nuclear powers. Othercountries have nuclear reactors, andmany have stockpiles of advancedweapons. So the potential human costof a regional meltdown are staggering.I don't think there can be any questionof whether anti-authoritarians need toconfront the advancement of animperial project that threatens millionsof lives (not to mention one that isproviding cover for a massive increasein police and state power in the US andEurope). I don't think there can be anyquestion that this must be at the centerof our work. The question, of course, ishow to confront it. What would an

anti-authoritarian movement against USimperialism in the Middle East andCentral Asia look like? How wouldsuch a movement differ if it were to bebuilt with an eye toward our eventualgoal of an anti-authoritarian world,marked by mutual aid and solidarity?These are hard questions. My goal inwhat follows is to impart a sense ofurgenq' upon questions that arise foranti-authoritarian activists in light ofthese features of the current politicalsituation. While I have a few modestsuggestions regarding answers, I haveno settled views. Those we need to seektogether.C er t a i n l y an t i - c ap i t a l i s t , an t i -authoritarians should continue to workfor the global justice movement,cont inue pushing for an ant i -authori tarian agenda and ant i-authoritarian structures within it, and tryto do a much better job than they havein the past of integrating an oppositionto militarism, war, and military supportof repressive states into that movement.The hard part, it seems to me, is theinternationalism.We absolutely must reach out to thepeople of the region. Not only is itarrogant and contrary to principles ofmutual aid to think that we can justorganize among ourselves on behalf ofpeople half a planet away, but it is alsoclearly a losing strategy. Another effectof the whole process of powerextension since 9-11 is a massivepolarization in the populations of theMiddle East and Central Asia. InPakistan, for example, secular resistanceto the current military regime has all butdisappeared, while repressive Islamicopposition is increasing. The reason isquite simple: any opposition to Islamicgroups is effectively portrayed as pro-US, a portrayal that radically discreditsthe group in question. Thus, any groupwith a progressive or liberal agenda ofany sort is finding itself less and less ableto play a role in the pol i t icaldevelopment of the region while powersplits into a horrifying binary oppositionof author i tar ian c l ients of USimperialism, and fundamentalism.Clearly this is a process we must try toconfront by way of internationalsolidarity. We cannot simply organize at

the center of empire while a wholeregion of the Earth spirals into disasterthat could have profound effects on usall. If the ideals of anarchism meananything, they require of us solidarityand mutual aid with people in the midstof such a situation. But how, and withwhom?These, as I see it, are the hard questionswe must now face. More specifically: H o w d o w e f i n d g r o u p s ,organizat ions, movements, andindividuals interested in working insolidarity with an anti-authoritarian,anti-imperialist movement? (In theextreme case, what if there are none?What if, say, the Palestinians simply optfor Jihad against Israel, and turn theirbacks on secular solidarity? How do we navigate the deepproblems that will arise from theprofound political differences betweenour own groups and any movements weally ourselves with? How do we work collaborativelywith these movements, without trying todictate our own theories and techniquesinto contexts in which they areunfamiliar? How do we navigate the verydifferent security and safety issues inthese countries? How can we makepolitical work safer for comrades insuch regions of the world. How do we make ourselves moreopen a range of issues that we prefer notto engage with?I'll close with some brief remarks on theways these questions arise in twocontexts: Lebanon and Palestine. (I usethese examples because they are the twocases in the region with which I'm mostfamiliar.)In Palestine, there are many obstacles tointernat ional sol idar i ty . One isobviously Israel and the devastatingdestruction of Palestinian society that ithas wrought. The Occupied Territoriesare divided by an occupying military intoan array of banrustans; the Palestinianeconomy is near collapse; human rights

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Fireflies in the Night By Kevin Van MeterThis is a brief, but strategic look at ourpresent crisis, the potentialities that areunfolding within it, and the terrains ofstruggle that are opening before us.This is an attempt to go beyond theideological limitations of anarchism inits present form. Here the poet, the romantic, and the revolutionary make upour new trinity.1. The Poet. "Against this monster, peopleall over the world, and particularly ordinaryworking people in factories, mines, fields, andoffices, are rebelling every day in ways of theirown invention." - CLR James, Grace C.Lee & Pierre Chaulieu. In the presentcrisis we find the anti-authoritarian leftlost in the night, donning ideologicalblinders, preventing it from seeing thefireflies dancing right before their faces.It has lost the simple power of observation, it no longer sees the paths out ofthe woods, or the strategic approachesthat are build on the immanent actionsof the oppressed.1.2 A revolutionary approach to the present crisis. With the above said, I would,for strategic reasons only, like to approach the different facets of the crisiswe are now faced with. To begin, thiscrisis is the first of its kind, in the post-globalized world, to be taking placewithin the system. There are no barbari:ans at the gates; these "enemies of thewestern world" are inside the casdewalls. Empire is everywhere. It isfound at the genesis of this crisis; itsform is reflected in this crisis and "// iscalled into being and constituted on the basis ofits capacity to resolve conflicts", hence it justifies itself in this crisis; we are witnessinga new stage of the development of capitalism.Power itself has become raw, direct, andimmanent, but it is the massive production of information and images in thewake of September lllh that shields thisfact from the populace. This crisis isalso a test of immaterial production, forif it fails, the ghost of power will benose to our nose. But what about nationalism or the hyper-patriotism thatwe are now witnessing? Once again wesee the corporation dressed in red, whiteand blue, but this time it is the media

multi-nationals, and not just LockheedMartin, who is hiding behind the robes.Finally we must remember this crisis, aswith globalization, is an attempt and notan absolute. The guardians are constructing a new order even after thecracks have appeared.1.3 War against terrorism, dissentThe war against terrorism is an attack onour present cycle of struggle; against allthose who resist, be they the ruling classof Islamic Fundamentalists or those ofus un-Americans who dare to questionthe interests at play here. The processof globalization has created a diverse setof antagonists, not all with the same liberatory purpose. The guardians haveattacked our newly constructed commons in an attempt to marginalize andrestrict our movements. We see an apparent crisis of the state-form, uneasy inits footing, and straining its power networks; its over-response is a compensation for this.'It has realized that it cannot contain the multitude.The Haitian Revolution in its time was apowerful example of the abilities of theslave population not only to resist, butalso to construct their own society. Itsmere existence was a threat to the system of slavery that existed in the UnitedStates, South America, and the rest ofthe Caribbean. Subcomandante Marcos(among others) is our own ToussaintL'Ouverture. While the guardians haveclosed our commons, they have not, andcannot wipe out our grog shops, networks, relationships, everyday resistances, temporary autonomous zones,and the multiplicity of examples that areanticipating a better world. It is thesespaces that we need to facilitate, expand,and organize from. But we must knowhow to find them first.2. The Romantic. "One of the gravest obstacles to the achievement of liberation is thatoppressive reality absorbs those within it andthereby acts to submerge human beings' consciousness. Functionally, oppression is domesticating. To no longer be prey to its force, onemust emerge from it and turn upon it. Thiscan be done only by means of praxis: reflectionand action upon the world in order to transformit. "-Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

CLR James, Mutual Aid, and the Crisis of Anarchism: "... there was a parallelbetween Kropotkin's insistence on the way thetendency of mutual aid asserted itself andMarx's insistence that workers expand theirown self-organisation in response to capital'sexploitation." When theory blinds us tothe simply observable social phenomenaand this theory no longer applies to thereality that we are confronted with, thistheoretical form must be challenged,furthered, and expanded. Additionallytheoretical developments always followed social reality or cycles of struggle.The ideological blinders of my anarchistcolleagues have prevented them fromapproaching this situation theoreticallyand they have missed the proverbialboat on the revolutionary potentials ofthis crisis. Anarchism, in its presentform, needs to be pushed to its theoretical limits and beyond.Viewing this crisis in this form, whereour once illuminated spaces have turnedpitch black has prevented anarchistsfrom seeing the numerous potentials,opportunities and terrains of strugglethat exist. In defining our views onthese ideologically anarchist grounds,and seeing every situation in terms of an'anarchist movement', and hence defining our space in a limited fashion, wehave self-marginalized the anarchist andanti-authoritarian viewpoint. Here myargument against the limits of anarchismin its present form takes on two distinctaspects. The first involves a substantivecritique of the form itself and the second is a critique of the application ofthe present form. Anarchism, especiallyAmerican anarchism, has not been partof the larger philosophical developments of the past 40 years since theworld-wide movements of 1968. Forexample it has reinforced the cult of theworker instead of revolting against workitself. As a post-Enlightenment theoretical development whose major theorists were militant social actors ratherthen arm chair philosophers, anarchismhas remained a simple set of principlesand has not throughly developed itsconcepts. While its major strength hasbeen these militant social actors, thisform has not been conducive to answering the challenges of a changing world


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VOLUME 6, NO. 1 Page 11and the philosophical developments thatare reacting to these changes. Also, bynot reacting to these changes, theseprinciples have solidified into a limitedideology. For anarchism to be a viableand fruitful methodology it must shedits present ideological form and in doingso, develop its concepts and a synthesiswith other theoritical developments.Anarchism has become an ideologicaltotality, defined against other ideologicaltotalities. This is a totality, not as in totalitarian, but in one system as definedagainst other 'one' system (s), as a wholedefined against other wholes. Anarchism has become an absolutist dogmabased upon objective 'truth claims', justified outside of the experience of everyday social actors. This is what Deleuzeand Guattari refer to as 'tree thinking'.Trees are singular, where every development or deviation is unified in a singlenorm. The anarchist tree is definedagainst other trees of the state, capital,police, war, etc. This anarchist treemust relate everything, every development to itself. To sum up these relatedcritiques, anarchism in this form hassolidified to a simple oppositional ideology7 incapable of reacting within realityand our present crisis.Anarchism is justified as the point ofdeparture rather then the endpoint ofthe thinking process or dialog. To state"I am an anarchist! So XYZ..." reflectsthe process of solidifying anarchism as atotalizing ideology. To counter this itrequires that we see anarchism as a conclusion in our thought process and theend of an argument. In this way ourthought process is immanent, of us,rather than transcendent, or of a system,god or natural development that is justified and concluded before this thoughtprocess even begins. This is reflected inthe definitions and contexts we set inour approach to 'creating anarchists',specifically anarchist movements andorganizations. We are spreading theanarchist message as defined againstother messages, convincing others thatanarchism holds the golden kernel oftruth. This belief of objective truth, thatstands at the core of anarchism, liberalism, and the Enlightenment from whichit originates, has continued the d\7namicof the us vs. them, right vs. wrong.

It is this very anarchism to which thespace to organize has been closed. Thisform that the limited analysis of our present crisis has stemmed. It is this anarchism that has lost its ability to observeexisting social phenomena that are taking place far from the tree and can notbe defined or related to it. Ideologicalanarchism has ignored its own methodological developments, even thosethat are similar to the philosophical developments of the last 40 years.So what is this social phenomena that Iam speaking of? It is a diverse set ofeveryday resistances, self-organized activities, networks, relationships, and terrains of struggle. Some phenomena arerelated, while others are not. Some areconnected underground, often with noknowledge of the other similar activities.We can listen to conversations, dialogues, and discussions that run counterto the context set for this crisis, most ofwhich are separate from any organized'movement' or the leftist critique. Wesee relationships being forged and newways of being coming into existence.We see the desire for community and alife beyond work. We see human solidarity and expressions of grief that arenot defined by nationalism or patriotism. In addition, new potentialities arebeing created by this crisis. New alliances and relationships can be formed.New spaces are being carved out thatcan be used as staging grounds for resistance. New issues and campaigns organized. And new possibilities for a freesociety. But these activities and spaces,our fireflies in the night, cannot be defined by and tied to an ideology; evenone as liberatory as anarchism.Our only task now is to create a newanarchist methodology7; many, manyanarchism(s), a multiplicity of anarchism(s); influenced by the theoretical developments post-1968 and by the immanent activities of social actors today. Inthis CLR James, among others, offers usa smorgasbord of possibilities, all contained within the general foci of immanence. Here we see the bridge betweenKropotkin's Mutual Aid and James'work. James looked at the revolutionary activity of the slaves of Haiti and itseffect on world politics (especially herein the United States where the blackpopulation was still enslaved), the struggles of African people and women in his

own day, and the workers' councils ofthe Hungarian Revolution of 1956.James believed that all of these illuminated the self-activity of oppressed peoples, and their ability to organize then-own activities. Once the "(Hungarian)people erupted spontaneously, the rest followedwith an organic necessity and a completeness ofself-organisation that distinguishes this revolution for all previous revolutions" It is theworkers councils that developed out ofthese spontaneous activities; workerscouncils against the union, the party, thestate, work and the social factory.To conclude this section, our task asanarchists is to understand thesebroader theoretical developments, thepower of observation, of self activity,and the rejection of anarchism in its present form: that of ideology. Anarchism,if it is going to be a vibrant form ofstruggle, needs to move away from justifying itself outside of the self-activityand mutual aid of ordinary7 people. Inthis return to its methodological form,its immanent form, a place of whichthose in the autonomist Marxist schoolhave been chewing over for the past 50years, I am proposing a new synthesis.A form of anarchism made up of a series of interconnected concepts. Multiplicity is nothing, with out non-heirarchical organizing, anti-statism, mutual aid, and direct democraq-.The Plane of Immanence and Revolutionary Strategy Today: Immanence,the space where struggles are takingplace on the most basic level and whereorganized resistances develop out ofthese struggles, already exists. We seethis brighdy in the example of the Reclaim the Streets movement. Thismovement is obviously a developmentout of, and is affected by, previousstruggles, it has blurred ideological linesin favor of methodological and henceimmanent ones. The need for such tactics in the anti-road struggles (where itrises from in England), the creativityand mode of struggle that emanatesfrom this is not immediately translatedto the climate here in the United Statesor, more specifically, New York City,where I was first introduced to them, oreven in suburban Long Island where theorganization diat I work with first usedthem. Each of these actions, each loca-Continued on page 12


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Page 12 PERSPECTIVES ON ANARCHIST THEORYFire FliesContinued from page 11tion, is different, is immanent, is particular. It is the general form that is translatable. Also within this cycle of struggle we see the hope and strength thatanti-authoritarian movements havetaken from the Zapatistas, a strugglewhich also cannot be copied and developed in another locale.Food Not Bombs, Radical Cheerleaders,Critical Mass, Pirate Radio, our Temporary Autonomous Zones, Free Skoolsand the thousands of activist collectivesand projects that make up this newmovement don't have rigid ideologicallitmus tests, exclusive membership, orother forms of activism that would bedefined as something separate, something outside of society acting upon it tochange it. "Do-it-yourself ethics is a callto an anarchism that is 'in the here andnow\ Here 'activism' is no longer limited to the activist. No longer limited tothe forms of social change that seek totranscend the existing social order or tothose which are justified outside of theexperience of the oppressed multitude.To return to our original purpose ofdealing with our present (post-Sept.11th) crisis, the anti-authoritarian movement has fallen back on its old ideological foundation for answers and approaches to this crisis. No one can faultthem for this, but unfortunately theseideological roots are based upon transcendents; on principles that are outsideour own experience. Be they justifiedby evolution, primitive societies, material production, or human nature, they are all insufficient in approaching this crisis. Developing forms of struggle on the plain ofimmanence, through our experience andthe eveiyday resistances happening everywhere and always will not only forgethis new anarchism but it will create acounter-existence to that of the system.It is this plane of immanence, this self-activity that will form the base of ournew methodologies, our new anarchism(s). The fireflies in our neighborhoodwill light their own paths, communicatewith other fireflies, create their own little rebellions, and multiply.Rhizomes tw ink l ing in themoonlight: ieRl)ispmic thinking' is about

multiplicity, living in/with variety and difference, cultivating productive schisophrenia (the'cop' and the 'revolutionary aren't the onlyvoices in our heads). 'Rhispmic people' aremultiple, fluid, shape shifting always resistingthe temptation of this or that. They are this,and that, not this, not that, and then some. "Statement from the Maine Center forJustice, Ecology, and DemocracyThe firefly is the perfect metaphor forthis project. It carves space out of thenight while communicating in subdeways with its brothers and sisters. Ourfireflies are not limited in their action,flight pattern, or intensity. Our firefliesare rhizomes, twinkl ing in themoonlight They are the in-between,without center, they are networks ofinterconnected roots. Our fireflies arenot the negative of the night; they arepart of the night, dancing outside andagainst the night, ignoring the night, andcreating the day to their own rhythms.Our first task as anti-authoritarians, asrevolutionaries, is not to orchestratethese fireflies or invite them to ourdance, but to facilitate, expand, further,and create our own dances and hencethese spaces and resistances. In this,power is being confronted and created,and we have maintained our immanence, our ontology. We have not separated our theory from reality with thepurpose of finding the one true tune.Our second task is to inspire. Thesedances, and tunes are infectious, alongwith our series of principles and concepts, visions and dreams.Our project is a fundamentally new wayof looking at the world, a way to deepenour politics. Here we are organizing outof reality; out of already existing resistances, our struggle becomes immanent.3. The Revolutionary. "I take my desiresfor reality because I believe in the reality of mydesires!"- May 1968, ParisApproaching Mass Powerlessness:In the wake of September 11th , themass powerlessness felt by the populaceis the ghost of power butting up againsttheir daily reality. In a society with fewavenues of participation this reaction isone that can be expected. We also seethe desire for community, for communication, to be with others facing this crisis. All of these are opportunities tooffer deeper relationships, deeper possi

bilities and avenues for participation.(Beyond "1,2,3,4 we don't want yourracist war" Who is "we"? Who is"your"?). Community dialogs, especiallythose of Paulo Friere's Popular Education where participants confront, analyze, and act out of their experiences, arethe beginning of these new relationships. The simple act of communication with our neighbors and fellow community members is a powerful act. Thecreation of space for dialog is anotherplateau to reach. Talking with people,not at them is a revolutionary act!The opportunity to question the definitions of this crisis has also arisen, andthis is already taking place on many terrains. Whose quality of life are we protecting by bombing Afghanistan, by this"war on terrorism"? Similarly the opportunity has arisen to create deeperrelationships with those who we havenot before; with Muslims, Arabs, immigrants in our own communities, with theolder peace movement. We should not,however, confront the unity of the statewith our own unity. Rather we confronttheir misused solidarity, their unity withmultiplicity, with difference, hybrididentities and dynamic potentialities.The whole desire for an 'anarchist presence' in the anti-war movement is misplaced. The anti-war movement is amiddle class construct in itself. Aunited left against the war is the limitation of voices, of vision and of the potential for revolutionary change. The"revolutionary" voice becomes oneamong many; one of the voices againstthe war. It is not just what we areagainst that separates us from the authoritarian left but also what we are for.Leave the left to have their demos, theslogans, and shitty newspapers all ofwhich don't have the basic elements tocommunicate with ordinary people.For the anti-authoritarian, the possibilityof dialog, deeper relationships, positiveinstitutions and projects, and movements for justice, are just too numerousto ignore. The potentialities for community building, for organizing deeperin our communities, for creating accountable democratic structures, localpolitics and projects, and for expandingour existing circles cannot be ignoredeither. We must not allow this crisis tocover up all of the other vital issues,


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This does not mean that we don't makedemands. We demand by becomingvisible. We demand reform and revolution. For example, to demand that this"police action" be taken to the UnitedNations for resolution, is a demand withmany pressure points. Contained withinit is the realization, and demand, that theUN is itself an undemocratic institutionbased upon undemocratic nation states.Similarly demanding that all of the nuclear reactors be turned off plays on theexisting concerns of the populace andcontains the fact that nuclear power isdangerous, destructive to our environment, etc. Demand that our civil rightsbe maintained, demand respect and dignity for immigrants, demand a safe foodsupply, demand the end of work.Finally these demands, spaces, dialogs,struggles, community building activities,and fireflies in the night are furtheringthe accumulation of contradictions. They arefurthering the stresses on our hyper-reality, on the production of images andinformation, on the systems of power,and on the system itself. All of our activities are forcing open the contradictions in our society. As these contradictions accumulate, as the system attemptsto compensate for them, deal with them,commodify them, new possibilities fillthese cracks, new worlds become visibleand are realized.New potentialities, New terrains ofstruggle: This crisis has created newpotentialities and new terrains of struggle. Exploring these potentialities andthe new possibility for relationships willlead us down interesting and challengingpaths. To not seek out these potentialities is to ignore the immanent reality andto lose opportunities to challenge ourexisting order and to create new ways ofbeing. Seismic shifts have created new-mountains for guerillas to fight on; newterrains to struggle on. These guerillaarmies are tactics rather than organizations; they are fighting binary opposites,against transcendence. They are multiple, hybrid, always and everywhere,struggling for immanence, for reality.On many mountains the fireflies aredancing. -

Resisting Panic, Resisting ForgettingBy Alejandro de AcostaI remember thinking: finally, it's happened. Starhawk said that she had a premonition and perhaps I did as welLOver the next few days I expressed thesentiment in many different ways: for alot of us, because of our politics, because of our backgrounds, because ofsome unusual sensitivity, in short, because of ways of living that cross overfrom history to what pushes into beingfrom beyond history (call it the future,or becoming), there was ultimately littlesurprise in what happened.I remember thinking on September11th... odd expression, isn't it? There arefew days about which one can say thatone has not forgotten the particulars ofwhat one might have been thinking. Onthe other hand, surely you and I haveforgotten a lot of what we thought onthat day. That is to say that I cannotdeny that the day's occurrences impressed themselves upon me in a certainway. They provided for dated realizations.But the event is already dust. I have tostruggle to recall, for example, two very7troubling messages, wherein loved onessaid litde more than: did you hear theunhappy news? The tone of their voicestore me up. And I remember visualizingthe planet Earth, Buckminster Fuller'sSpaceship Earth, and the planes and thebuildings from some sort of solar system perspective. It's as though my immediate reaction was not to panic, or tobe angry7, or sad, but to imagine thisevent from an ecological-geological-galactic perspective. A terrible sadnesswas circulating that day, a panic whichhad to be resisted.I was unsurprised about the brutality ofthe day. Like many of my friends andcompaneros and compaiieras, I am wellaware of the insistence of violence inour everyday lives, and in the everyday-lives of others, in the U.S. and throughout the rest of the earth. Some of uscultivate this awareness because it is important to us. Others do it we have nochoice. In both cases we cultivate it aspart of our politics. Those of us who

live this way in the modern "security"state called the U.S. prefer not to separate ourselves from the rest of the worldpopulation. Again, for some of us this isbecause we do not in fact live very differendy than they do (and here I amthinking of so-called "third worldzones" in North America). For others ofus it is a point of solidarity and politicalconscience to refuse to inhabit the"here" of "it can't happen here." I thinkthat I have always felt this way7, but theneed to remember it, to resist the forcesthat bid me to forget* it, began to growafter the attacks.On the night of September 11th, I wroteto myself: "it is not a surprise, but anordeal that is beginning. The question ishow to remain politicized in the times tocome." My immediate reaction seemedto be one of contemplation, so I begangathering information from the Internetand circulating it in the form of a digest.I called these digests "already we mustbe thinking and feeling," and sent outnineteen in all from September throughDecember, with texts in EngUsh,French, and Spanish. This is what Iwrote on the 13th: "Friends, companeros y companeras: This is in hopesthat we can begin thinking criticallyabout what has happened, and what issurely beginning to happen. These arethe first attempts I've seen at theorizingwhat is going on in the U.S. and aroundthe world right now. Needless to say,these texts come from very differentperspectives and I don't agree with everything I am sending you. The point isnot to get over our shock or our sadness. It's to couple those feelings withthe hfe-affirming activities of thinkingand continuing to create joyful relationswith each other."I consciously became an informationgatherer and filter, combing throughwebsites and forwarded messages forradical and alternative viewpoints. I included texts from friends and acquaintances as well as from well-known theorists or analysts, trying to unhinge theprejudice in favor of "expert analysisContinued on page 14


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Resisting Panic, Resisting PanicContinued from page 13and to promote the possibility of folksjust saying what was going on withthem. During its lifetime, the list of people who received the digest grew steadily, from a select group of friends andacquaintances to a large mass of people,at least half of whom I have never met.The aim was to promote critical thinking and feelings of joy and solidarityduring a time when both seemed to meto be in very short supply. Binghamton,New York, the small city where I live,responded much as any working-classpost-industrial zone would: with a morass of flags covering all available displayareas on cars, buildings, and bodies. Iwalked and ran past these markers ofallegiance (to what exacuy?). Towardsthe end of September, I wrote: "Let meonce again emphasize that I don't takethis to be a news service. It's up to all ofus to find the news that matters to usinstead of allowing any network(channel, station, website, paper) to tellus what is important. It's also up to usto make the news while we make history - and then find ways to tell eachother about it."

During those months, I countered myintake of mainstream coverage of theattacks and the "war" with far more alternative and independent sources. Theonly television I took in was the week ofthe attacks: about an hour of live feedprojected on to a large screen at the university, and Bush's speech a few dayslater. On the internet discussion list net-time, Wade Tillett posted a brilliantanalysis which summed up most of whatI was thinking at the time. The government, suggested Tillett, reserved for itself the privilege of distributing positions on to two sides: with us or againstus. In the grotesque either/or that wasbeing imposed, there was litde room forpolitical pluralism, let alone anarchistwayrs of life.I spent a lot of time reading alternativecoverage on the internet. A friend and Ihad begun doing a "public affairs" radioprogram on the university's station, andwe dedicated several shows to the war.By the first week of October, the time

of our first program, the call was to"return to normal" This is where myattitude changed from resisting the imposition of panic to resisting forgetting:the forgetting of alternatives, of everything that was being threatened in thereturn to normal. The first programconsisted of readings of texts from myfirst few digests. As time went by, wetried to develop a theory and practice ofindependent and alternative media ascounter-memory. We tried to process, talkthrough, conceptualize as well as feelwhat was occurring and we tried to beaware that we were doing it live and onthe air. I began to think of creating ourown live feed, an "it's happening hereand now" that referred not to eventsauthoritatively described as importantbut to our own perspectives on them asa resistant activity. We constandy reminded ourselves and the listeners thatwe were speaking and thinking in public.There was some risk in doing that. Wemade the risk part of the example; wesaid, "everyone should find a way to dothis," because we hoped for strength innumbers, and because we knew that it isvasdy more powerful to become themedia than to consume it, even when itis alternative media.When we read alternative media coverage from the internet on the air we weretrying to cross the digital divide whichlimits many folks' access to independentand especially radical perspectives. Wealso experimented with call-in showswhere friends from around the country7and world reported on activism and perspectives from their region. There wassomething quite electrifying for me inusing the radio show as a time for livesharing of information. It spontaneouslygenerated great feelings of solidarity.Become the media before...

We laughed, joked, and played music aswell as discussed the week's occurrences. Other times, we refused to discuss the week's occurrences and readpoems. This too was a resistance: resistance to a certain focusing of attention. .An independent media tactic: when youpay attention to the mainstream media,always know from where you are listening; do not accept their authoritariannon-place. When you have had enough,or are not in the mood, by all means, ignore it. Resisting forgetting and resisting

panic.In the university environment where Imove, there had been five or six "teach-ins." As of the last few years, the word"teach-in" was used to describe whatamounted to an irregular seminar with achanging cast of professors who providedetailed but not particularly positionedinformation on whatever the international situation of the moment is. Somefriends and I talked about how the tradition of the "teach-in," which goes backto the Vietnam War protest scene, if notearlier, began from a need to gather in amoment of political crisis, possibility,and action so as to collectively understand what is happening. It seemedironic that the "teach-in", which wasresistant to the way in which universitiescirculate knowledge, had been takenover by what amounts to a very7 traditional monological setting, with professors as the sole authorized speakers, andstudents reduced to asking questions.We planned our alternative to this eventa "dialogue circle." We made a packet, athree hundred page photocopied book,out of texts from the digests and otherssent by friends. It was called Tools forThinking About and Beyond the "War": Perspectives for Cruel Times. The idea was tofind another way to circulate alternativeperspectives and information, beyondthe Internet, beyond college radio, andto propose a different setting than theinstitutionalized "teach-ins." The"dialogue circle" was based on the technique of the reading circle, often used inpopular education. A large group ofpeople is divided into smaller groups,each of which chooses one essay. Someone reads the text line by line, and theemphasis is on comprehension. There isa lot of repetition and slow analysis.Discussion of opinions is kept to a minimum (because it is supposed it will happen spontaneously beyond the readingcircle). Our first event was small, but italready felt like a real change comparedto the sorts of conversations we had allbeen having. For my circle, I chose toread an article on anti-authoritarian responses to the war efforts, which proposed a form of global popular justice asan alternative to the war. It met with alot of interest from the non-anarchistsgathered with me. They also posed somedifficult questions about how such justice would be carried out, and we spent


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VOLUME 6, NO. 1 Page 15

6 Years and Over Twenty five Projects from Six Different CountriesThe IAS' 2002 Fundraising Campaign

Six y7ears ago, the IAS was created bycommitted activists who believed inthe necessity of supporting theircomrades in the face of incredibleresistance to radical change. The resistance part hasn't changed andthat's why we're still here. What haschanged is that the IAS has nowsupported over twenty-five projectsby audiors from six different countries, projects diat might have beenput on the back burner due to financial difficulties. We've funded contemporary research, Spanish language pieces, historical studies, andeven a play.It's been a great six y7ears and we'relooking forward to many more!Most importandy7, because of ourgenerous supporters, many more

years of LAS funded projects is a reality. And, die IAS needs your continued support to achieve this. Wemust raise $20,000 by January7 2003to continue awarding grants to radical writers and publishing Perspectives.Your contribution will help the IASmeet its 2002 fundraising goal andthus make die following contributions to the development of anti-authoritarian social criticism: The IAS will award $8000 in

grants to writers struggling withsome of the most pressing questions in radical social theory7 today. IAS grants help radical authors take time off work, hirechildcare, purchase research materials, pay for travel expenses

and other things necessary7 toproduce ser ious, thought fulworks of social criticism.

The IAS will publish Perspectiveson Anarchist Theory, our biannualnewsletter. Perspectives is a uniquesource of interviews, publishingnews, and commentary pertaining to anarchism. It helps keeppeople informed about anarchistscholarship and encourages dialogue among those interested indiis work.

Please make checks payable to:Institute for Anarchist Studies

P.O. Box 482Amherst, MA. 01004U SA

Donate to the IAS and Get Great BooksThis year Raven Used Books is offering 38 new titles to L\S donors in addition to carrying over 9 tides from lastyear. Raven Used Books specializes in used and discount books in philosophy, history, cultural studies, labor history, and women's studies. They carry over 17,000 books, including more than 200 titles on anarchism (many ofwhich are out of print and hard to find). Raven Used Books is located at 71 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002. Phone: (413) 253-9780. You may also e-mail them at [email protected]

IAS Supporters Over the Past Six YearsI-rank AdamsDiva AgostinelliI famish AlcornRandal AmsterAnonymous I & IIJerry AskerothAlison BaileySandy BairdJon BekkenKspiritu BeothukDavid BerberickMarc BernhardPhil BillingsleyMatt BlackCraig BoltonSara BrodzinskyJon BuellManuel CallahanEric ChesterDan ChodorkoffJesse CohnGatsbv ContrerasTom CopelandCindv & Katv Crabb

Deema CrassyRoger DcGaris &Carolyn FrancisDaniel DeweesRebecca DeWittDr. James DickMaura DillonChris Dodge|ohn & [olene DubosePeggy DyeMiranda EdisonBree EdwardsHoward EhrlichDavid EisenElizabeth ElsonPaula EmerySalvator & DeborahEngle-DimauroTony EpicenoRichard EvanoffColin EverettManuel Fcrreir.iSteven FischlerPaul Flecenstein

David FreedmanI larold FrenchFrank GerouldGrace GetshunyCraig GilmoreMichael GlavinPaul GlavinBrian GoldbergBret GoldinAudrey GoodfriendTom GoyenIan GrimmerJohn GruchalaLuz GuerraCindy I laagGreg" HallDennis I lenkeMatt 1 lernBrian I Ierberilulie I lerrad.iBlake I low eAlison JaggarLawrence JararchThomas Johansson

Qayvum |ohnsonPeter KalberaJerry Kaplanleniter KinkeleRichard KostclanctzDavid KovenAndrew Lee &Elizabeth WolfElaine FeederBrooke l.ehmannAlison LewisRobin LloydMike LongJoe LowndesPeggy LuhrsSusanna MartinEnid MastnonniMichelle Matisons &Gardner FairPeter McGregorPainck McNamaraBob MclcombcGabe MetcalfAndrea Miksic &

Peter BurnsCindy MilsteinCaroline MorseChuck MorseJames MummLynn OlsonJoel OlsonSandra (IpdyckeCasey ()rrSue OstfietdCharles PerroneFernanda PerroneJoan Peruga|ohn PetrovatoDavid PorterWayne Price-Man QuestMargarcth RagoMegan ReynoldsRachel RinaldoEugene RodriquezStanley RosenBruno RuhlandJoshua Rumschlag

Gate SandilandsRon SakolskyJack SchlessingerSonja SchmitzMilly SchocnbaumRichard Schram

John SchumacherJon Thoreau ScottMichael SeidmanMarc SilversteinGary SiscoJulia SmcdlcySidney Solomon &Clara SolomonBob Spivy &Beverly NaidusPatti StankoPeter StaudenmaierPeter StoneRose SterlingLiza SuttonElizabeth SullivanGabriel ThompsonBrian Tokar

Dimitri TroaditzKevin Van MeterAnthony WalentDana WardYvcttc WestLaura WhiteDiva Agostinelli WieckDave WitbrodtPriscilla Yamin

GroupsLove & Rage (N\")Blackout.BooksCollectiveAutonomediaBound Together BooksRainbow Books CoopKate Sharpley I abrary(iuelph Social EcologyWorking GroupSocial AnarchismPacific Street FilmsChumbawambaI ura BooksMoviemiento LibertarioCubanoRiverside harm


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Imperialism and Antiauthoritarianism Continued from page 9are non-existent in the territories.Another obstacle, unfortunately, is thePalestinian National Authority. Arafat'sgovernment has proven itself to becorrupt, directionless, and more thanwilling to serve as a client of the US,even to the extent of shooting unarmedprotestors of the US war in Afghanistan.If he thought the population wouldallow him to get away with it, Arafatwould, it seems to me, be happy to ruleover an economically dependent andmilitarily threatened apartheid state.Finally, one must deal with the variousArab states which try to use thePalestinian cause for their own ends,and various religious movements suchas Hamas. The latter, though easy tocriticize from a non-authoritarianperspective, must be understood interms of the role it plays in Gaza.Hamas provides the majority of socialservices to the people of this oppressedand overpopulated strip of land.Brutalized by Israel, and neglected bythe PNA, Hamas has been the onlygroup to take up the slack. Thus,organizing that rejects them out of handor in all respects is simply impossible.

This applies even more to the role ofHizbullah in the south of Lebanon.They provide medical, pension, andmost other social services there. As aresult, they are treated as the de factogovernment by the vast majority ofpeople. They, as well as a deepcommitment to religion, are a fact of lifein the area.I recendy spent a week in Beirutmeeting with numerous activists whoare trying to put together a non-religious, non-aligned progressivemovement in the country. All wereeager to build connections with theGlobal Justice Movement and thePalestinian solidarity movement in thewest. But the obstacles are enormous.Direct and open protest can result inimmediate arrest. Communication isalways subject to surveillance. It isenormously di fficul t to remainindependent . of dominant politicalparties, which are generally tied toparticular religious groups. Thus, somestudents at American University inBeirut told me of trying to start a smallweekly student paper. Within a week of

meeting, before publishing any copies,they were contacted by three nationalparties trying to pressure them toaffiliate.The main point is to give a sense of justhow different activist politics are in theMiddle East and Central Asia. Thethreats, opportunities, factional lines,assumptions, etc. are very different fromwhat we are used to. Above all, andbefore anything, we need to learn aboutthis. We must send delegations tocountries at the front lines of USimperialism, simply to learn from localactivists, and to hear their ideas abouthow we can work together forliberation. We need to be open to formsof discourse especially religious ones -that are uncomfortable for manywestern anarchists. We need to thinkcreatively, openly, and together, aboutways to connect our work, for ourmutual liberation. What the results ofthat thinking will be, I cannot predict. Ihave no easy answers to any of this, butI know that much rests on our ability tomake progress on these issues.-

Resisting Panic, Resisting Forgetting continued from page 14an interesting couple of hours discussingthe possibility of international communication among masses of people andthe problems with parliamentary forms.Call it another strategy for resisting forgetting or creating resistant counter-memory. Call it the forging of a publicspace under difficult circumstances! Forthose far from the academic milieu, believe me: it is not so easy to find a spaceto gather and talk openly in. This notonly compounds but is direcdy linked tothe exclusion of poor and disadvantagedfolks from this space. My friends and Ineeded very badly to do our resistantthinking in a public and shared space, tocam- what had been private, personalized, and thus almost necessarily sort ofparanoid and alienated talking into apublic space where it could be transformed in dialogue with others.

Resisting forgetting and resisting panic.In both cases it's about maintaining ourpriorit ies as anarchists or anti-authoritarian thinkers and activists. It isa matter of living in resistance to thenation and the state; not confusing itspriorities with ours. As always, this is amatter of resisting the spread of fearthat comes from both

Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.vol 6- No 1. Spring 2002

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Transcript of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.vol 6- No 1. Spring 2002