BLACK WAVE // Communist Collective

The Global Influence of Anarchism?

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:08:18 -0400

Anarchism is often portrayed as an isolated group of angsty teens smashing a Starbucks window. However, Anarchism historically has been a vibrant movement active in nearly every corner of the world. In this reading group we will discover the movement that is Anarchism, its history and culture, as a force for total liberation. This is a great opportunity to explore your curiosity about a widely misunderstood ideology and to learn its fundamental beliefs. For this reading group we’ll be reading Black Flam

e: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism by Michael Schmidt and Lucien Van Der Walt.

Black Flame (Counter-Power, Volume 1) is the first of a two-volume set examining the democratic class politics of the worldwide anarchist movement, its vision of a decentralized planned economy, and its impact on popular struggles on five continents over the course of the past 150 years. From anarchism’s first glimmers as a nineteenth-century ideology to today’s anti-capitalist struggles, Black Flame traces anarchism’s lineage and contemporary relevance, outlining the movement’s insights into questions of race, gender, class, and imperialism.

When? Monday, September 24 (Ch. 1 – 3), Monday, October 22 (Ch. 4 – 6), Monday, November 26 (Ch 7 - 8 ), and Monday, December 17 (Ch 9 – 11)

What Time? 6PM on each of those dates!

Where? Libertalia Autonomous Space, 280 Broadway, Providence

To get a copy of the book, call or text Cam @ 401.529.7068 or email providence@commonstruggle.org.

Hosted by Common Struggle / Lucha Común
www.commonstruggle.org

For A New Fanaticism: Analysis Will Never Be Enough

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 09:59:00 -0400

For A New Fanaticism: Analysis Will Never Be Enough:

A new essay by a member of Black Wave was published to Ideas and Action yesterday — check it out!

Though I don’t believe there is a “death star” type scenario for capitalism – that there is one weak spot – there are definitely strategic areas that we should concentrate on if we want to build a mass movement that is truly popular and representative in nature. Not only that, but I believe it would be foolhardy to attempt to talk about class as if it only applies to the white, industrial proletariat. In combating white supremacy we must fight whitewashing in the workplace, repression in our communities, and strive for multiracial organization at all times. We must stand in solidarity with all proletarians regardless of immigration status and make it a point to be with the most oppressed – the black and brown community – in our struggles. This has practical applications in syndicalism, community antipoverty work, antiracist and antifascist organizing, and antipolice organizing.

A Clarification on Influential Minorities

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 04:53:00 -0400

The key difference between an influential, insurrectionary minority and a vanguard or a populist group is that the former values its principles and its horizontal relations with society and tries to spread its principles and models without owning them, whereas a vanguard tries to control them—whether through force, charisma, or hiding its true objectives—while a populist group offers easy solutions and caters to the prejudices of the masses in fear of being isolated. The populist group never actually overcomes isolation, as that would require forming strong relations that can abide a difference of opinion. Instead, it simply mimics the mass.

Because they both seek the warmth of the herd, the vanguard and the populist often become bedfellows, as the Stalinists and the UGT did during the Spanish Civil War. Within this partnership, the former will be more effective and will make use of the latter.

The influential minority, meanwhile, is prone to developing an antisocial tendency—as its idealism contrasts with the unprincipled pragmatism of the majority—and becoming accustomed to the role of gadfly. If this tendency manifests as a disdain for the rest of society and a commitment to realizing its principles despite and against the masses, it is likely to find common ground with vanguardist groups, who will probably use it as shock troops for carrying out offensives—as in the October Revolution. If, on the other hand, it takes the easier antisocial path of abstracting its principles, it will limit its influence, because nothing around it will reflect its ideals or invite its engagement. Only when they constantly relate their principles to the complexity of their surroundings can such minorities serve as a model for others to become actors in their own right.

The influential minority works through resonance, not through control. It assumes risks to create inspiring models and new possibilities, and to criticize convenient lies. It enjoys no intrinsic superiority and falling back on the assumption of such will lead to its isolation and irrelevance. If its creations or criticisms do not inspire people, it will have no influence. Its purpose is not to win followers, but to create social gifts that other people can freely use.

Alfredo Maria Bonanno - Some writings in chronological order

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:42:00 -0400

I am providing and improving this list of writings by Alfredo Maria Bonanno in the interest of charting the progression of that comrades anti-political progression over time. Of interest perhaps is his foundation in a very classic view early on regarding minority struggle and self-management. His later pieces get more diverse and start to focus more and more on the insurrectional struggle as well as developments in capitalism, jail time, and other various topics.

-Sabotage

Revolution, Violence, Anti-authoritarianism: A few notes - 1974, 1977, 1984

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/revolution-violence-anti.html

A Critique of Syndicalist Methods - 1975

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/critique-of-syndicalist-methods.html

Workers’ Autonomy - 1975, 1976

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/workers-autonomy.html

Anarchism and the National Liberation Struggle - 1976

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/anarchism-and-national-liberation.html

Why a Vanguard? - 1977

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-vanguard.html

Fictional Movement or Real Movement? - 1977

http://pantagruel-provocazione.blogspot.com/2011/06/fictitious-movement-and-real-movement.html

Looking Foward Towards Self-Management -1977

http://pantagruel-provocazione.blogspot.com/2010/07/looking-forward-to-self-management.html

Armed Joy - 1977

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/armed-joy.html

From Riot to Insurrection - 1985

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/from-riot-to-insurrection.html

Propulsive Utopia - 1987/1988

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/propulsive-utopia.html

A Few Notes on Sacco and Vanzetti (From Revolutionary Solidarity) - 1989

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/search/label/Revolutionary%20Solidarity

Dissonances - (Late 80s early 90s)

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/dissonances.html

Let’s Destroy Work, Let’s Destroy the Economy - (Late 80s to mid 90s)

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/lets-destroy-work-lets-destroy-economy.html

The Anarchist Tension - 1996

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/anarchist-tension.html

Locked Up - 1997

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/locked-up.html

Apart from the Obvious Exceptions - 1997, 2000

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/apart-from-obvious-exceptions.html

Insurectionalist Anarchism - 1999

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/insurrectionalist-anarchism-part-one.html

The Insurrectional Project - 2000

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/insurrectional-project.html

Palestine, mon amour - (Various Dates)

http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/palestine-mon-amour.html

Some Writings of Alfredo Maria Bonanno in English

http://pantagruel-provocazione.blogspot.com/

Even My Dreams These Days Have Work-Related Scenes

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:21:28 -0400

Even My Dreams These Days Have Work-Related Scenes:

An essay from a member of Black Wave Communist Collective that was shared on Recomposition as part of a series on work and sleep.

Even My Dreams These Days Have Work-Related Scenes
by Lou Rinaldi

I’m stuck there in a chair in my kitchen. It’s like I can’t move, I guess I really can’t explain it, but I’m looking up at the clock (wait, I don’t have a clock!) and the time changes nearly every minute to something completely different. I’m starting to feel nauseous and disoriented. And then – there it is! The right minute. I’m allowed to go now. I can get up and I leave my apartment and hop onto the bus. It’s strange to me because I don’t remember the bus going right to my apartment before. Oh well, I don’t really have think of how absurd this is because of the overwhelming feeling of dread and nervousness I have looming over me. You see, I’m three hours late for work!

I finally arrive and it’s packed. I work at a restaurant and it’s the busiest night of the week, I promptly get a scolding from each of my coworkers and the manager. I forgot my work clothes, but there are some that fit me just right in the dish room (strange, they have my pants and everything), so I hurry to change. As I punch in I see them all staring at me with a glare that sees right through me – they know I’m afraid. For some reason, they went into three sections before I arrived – they’ve put section two, the largest, aside for me. The customers have been waiting there for hours to eat, waiting for me.

I get out my pad and pen and go up to the first party, there are two tables put together so that ten people could sit together. All of the other tables and booths are packed. I introduce myself with my usual line:
“Hey everyone, how’re we? I’m Lou and I’ll be taking care of you tonight. Our soups are–” I don’t know the soups. Red faced, I scurry over to check. I continue, “clam chowder, beef stew, and french onion. Could I start you off with some drinks and an appetizer?” All ten of them look at me, glaring, and finally one says bluntly, “we’re all set to order.” A give a anxious smile. “Go right ahead.” They start to go around with the usual stuff. It’s a burger cooked medium on rye with fries. A hot dog and relish with coleslaw. Oh no! Each of them tells me the order but I can’t remember it, even as I try to write it down, it slips from memory and I am stuck asking over and over again for them to repeat the order. Each time I only pick up fragments. This is only the first table and my section is full – shit! I move on even though I don’t have the order, the thought goes through my head that I’ll just piece it together when I need to.

This gets repeated at every table I go to. I notice now that the rest of the restaurant is emptied out. I have a full section and the other servers are just sitting around because they don’t have any customers. I’m swamped and about to sink so I ask my coworkers for help, but they shake their heads. My manager comes up to me and tells me I have to go into the basement to stock paper products and it has to be done this very minute! I try to explain I’m busy, but he insists, so I head downstairs. The basement is completely different than what it looks like. It’s a huge warehouse with rows and rows for supplies and it extends so far that I can’t even see the other wall. Nothing is labeled and I start getting really nervous! I haven’t put all my food orders in and besides I mostly just guessed at what they wanted! I start running around like a nut looking for what I need until I run into my manager. He starts screaming at me about everything I’m doing wrong and I’m getting more and more angry. I snap, or something, because before I know it I’ve pushed him to the ground and I’m beating him to a pulp, before I know it the guys dead.

I’ve been having this dream or other dreams like it for several years now. When I was younger, at my other jobs, I never really had dreams about work, but now I’ve been working at the same restaurant for three years and it is a regular occurrence. I picked this one to describe, because it’s the most extreme one I’ve had. It makes me look a bit nuts and now no one will want to fuck with me probably, because I’m clearly crazy as hell. But seriously, it’s after dreams about work I seriously question the legitimacy of my work. Why is this?

Speaking from my experience, I’ve never had a positive dream involving work. I’m always being scolded or attacked in my work-related dreams. They’re always fantastical, unrealistic, exaggerated, but based in them is a kernel of truth. My subconscious is taking the very real alienation I feel at work every day and running with it. The result, often, is a very bad nights sleep and this scares me. I commute on the bus to work, all and all my commute takes 40 minutes, one way. I consider that to be a part of my work-time, in that it cuts into my reproduction as a worker. Now entire nights are essentially disrupted – I’m doing work in my sleep and I don’t even get paid. A whole new aspect of the theft of my reproduction has just come into my life.

These dreams don’t just exaggerate my own alienation, they take many truths from the real social relations in restaurants – they exemplify why restaurants are so difficult to organize. Despite the fact that we’re a “team” there isn’t really anything unifying about the different sections of a restaurant, or even the coworkers in one part of the house. The servers bitterly compete for shifts and tables. A long-term clique gets the best shifts – I’ve been working there three years and I still can’t become part of the day crew, or become first-in on Fridays or Saturdays. We go to the takeout and ice cream area only to find the counterperson making up an excuse as to why they can’t help you make the twelve sundaes your need. The dishwasher brings up dirty silverware. It’s hard to build past these inconveniences, especially as a server, who relies on being quick, outgoing, and having everything ready for them in order make a livelihood. Bringing out dirty silverware to a customer is embarrassing and they can take note of these things when tipping.

So many of us rely on tips we see the customer as the enemy more than the manager, even though so often we are set up to fail by the boss. Maybe I realized that in my dream and took it to the only logical conclusion I could make in that setting?

I’m not really that surprised, because even if I wasn’t a convinced communist I figure I’d still feel the same off the clock. Work is exhausting, not always physically (though sometimes), it takes a mental toll. Especially in a position where you a “server” – there’s an implied relationship there that, given the way we’re sometimes treated by customers (never mind the boss), is difficult to go back in face day after day. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve got more bills to pay, and that means more time at work. At my worst, I feel so bad that I’ll stay in bed all day until I have to get up to go to work. On a good day, it seems I still don’t have enough time to be productive for my own means and feel fulfilled.

This post is part of a series of stories on work, sleep, and dreams. Lou is the one who originally came up with the idea for this series – thanks Lou. He’s a member of Common Struggle Libertarian Communist Federation and writes a blog of his own.

The Clamshell Hour -- Pilot Episode!

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:40:55 -0400

The Clamshell Hour -- Pilot Episode!:

A new radical radio show from Hartford, CT. An interview with the National Secretary of Common Struggle - Libertarian Communist Federation and member of Black Wave Communist Collective. News about the political work being done by Black Wave and other locals of Common Struggle, specifically about the General Strike on May First.

Chris Hedges Welcoming Committee in Providence

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:44:00 -0400

Chris Hedges Welcoming Committee in Providence
by Red Zarathustra

Wednesday April 11th, Chris Hedges gave a lecture at Brown University.
The topics included civil liberties, state repression, and the
so-called “liberal class” and its demise. In light of the recent
article describing black bloc tactics as the “cancer” of the Occupy
movement, a number of Providence anarchists attended the talk.
Throughout his talk these comrades stood up and one by one adorned
black attire and bandanas. Hedges noted, “it seems we have some Black
Bloc Anarchists [sic] here, either that or some people are very cold.”

The point of this action was not to intimidate Hedges or the largely
old, white liberal audience, but to show them just how wrong their
analysis of black bloc is. That there are, in fact, faces behind the
masks – normal proletarians – who are willing to engage in discussion
on tactics. The questions and answers section reflected this, even
though the hosts of the event attempted to deny the anarchists the
right to speak.

Hedges made it quite obvious what his opinion on discussion and
challenging his own ideas are. Simply put, he openly told of his
frustration of going to general assemblies only to encounter chants of
“diversity of tactics” rather than tactical discussion. It was
apparently because of this that he felt there was absolutely no
discussion needed then. He himself merely needed to chant
“non-violence” and the matter was settled. No discussion, no desire
for discussion.

His arrogant handling of critique was perhaps a side-note to his
prescribed vaccine to the pathologized black bloc. He purported that
we must acknowledge the police are the 99%, that we must not taunt or
harass the police, nor must we be bold and take actions that could
potentially cause repression. This struck me wrong two-fold. First,
it misunderstands solidarity. It implies that solidarity has
terms, that it is only given when actions meets a check-list and there is no room for autonomy. What this does, leading into my second point, is
disenfranchises significant portions of the 99% – namely people of
color. It enforces what the late Joel Olson called the White
Democracy. Put succinctly by Olson, “When people of color have to
enter a movement on white people’s terms rather than their own, that
is not the 99%. That’s white democracy.”*

At Brown University, Hedges gave an apocalyptic view of the past and
present conditions of resistance to capitalism. Given this and his
inability to have a constructive discussion with the very people he
wishes to call a “cancer” (some of whom have been the backbone of
resistance in the past 20 years!) it becomes more and more obvious
that he stands in the camp of the bourgeoisie. Hedges and others like
him are the same people who would put his enemies against the wall if
he somehow inherited state power. Though he denies being a dogmatic
pacifist he also believes that the black bloc is morally wrong, that
physical resistance to american imperialism should only occur when it
is a minute before midnight and it is seemingly too late. If the
movement was made up solely of people like Chris Hedges we’d be dead
and gone by now.

We hope Chirs Hedges enjoyed his stay in Providence and his welcoming committee at the lecture.

*Whiteness and the 99% by Joel Olson.

Our friends from the AWG...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:30:45 -0400

Our friends from the AWG...:

…wrote this piece about the different myths going around about May Day and the General Strike.

elitc: “Art is no longer for its own sake; we are being taught...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:27:00 -0400

elitc:

“Art is no longer for its own sake; we are being taught by a capitalist university to succeed in a capitalist society.”

IA Link Dump From @News

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:26:28 -0400

Insurrectionary anarchism

English:
http://actforfree.nostate.net/
http://waronsociety.noblogs.org/
http://continwar.noblogs.org/
http://thisisourjob.noblogs.org/
http://anarchistnews.org/
http://guerrillanews.wordpress.com/
http://325.nostate.net/
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/topics/insurrectionist.html
http://reocities.com/kk_abacus/
http://vastminority.blogspot.com/
http://feartosleep.blogspot.com/
http://pantagruel-provocazione.blogspot.com/
http://digitalelephant.blogspot.com/

Spanish:
http://liberaciontotal.lahaine.org/
http://vivalaanarquia.espivblogs.net/
http://materialanarquista.espiv.net/
http://hommodolars.org/
http://rojoscuro.blogspot.com/
http://amotinadxs.blogspot.com/
http://feartosleep.blogspot.com/
http://contrainformate.blogspot.com/
http://marginadxs.blogspot.com/
http://metiendoruido.com/
In english:
http://ourwar.org/
http://santiaskoanarquista.noblogs.org/

Italian:
http://culmine.noblogs.org/
http://finimondo.org/
http://iconoclasta.noblogs.org/
http://parolearmate.noblogs.org/
http://anarchaos.org/
http://chiusoperrapina.noblogs.org/
http://informa-azione.info/
http://edizionianarchismo.net/
http://macheteaa.org/
http://novatore.it/
In english:
https://sites.google.com/site/anarchyinitaly/
http://pantagruel-provocazione.blogspot.com/
http://renzonovatore.blogspot.com/
http://machetea.blogspot.com/

Greek:
http://rioter.info/
http://anarchypress.gr/
http://hitnrunner.blogspot.com/
http://bellumperpetuum.blogspot.com/
http://directactiongr.blogspot.com/
http://metatatrikala.blogspot.com/
http://blognonserviam.wordpress.com/
http://aixmi.wordpress.com/
http://pernongrata.wordpress.com/
http://halastor.blogspot.com/
http://a-politiko.espivblogs.net/
http://exnegativo.blogspot.com/
http://anarcores.blogspot.com/

French:
http://non-fides.fr/
http://suieetcendres.blogspot.com/
http://sabotagemedia.anarkhia.org/
http://cettesemaine.free.fr/spip/
https://juralib.noblogs.org/
http://cestdejatoutdesuite.noblogs.org/
http://journalhorsservice.blogspot.com/
http://lesliquidateursduvieuxmonde.wordpress.com/
http://pagheretetutto.blogspot.com/
In english:
http://polisson.blogsport.de/
http://stormheaven.wordpress.com/
http://acorpsperdu.wikidot.com/

German:
https://directactionde.ucrony.net/
http://unruhen.org/
http://unruhen.blogspot.com/
http://unruhen.wordpress.com/
http://revolte.blogsport.eu/
http://directactionde.blogspot.com/
http://anarchistische-aktion-zentralschweiz.over-blog.de/
http://andiewaisendesexistierenden.noblogs.org/
http://tearsandangergreece.blogsport.de/
http://noprisonnostate.blogsport.de/
http://abc-berlin.net/
In english:
https://directactionde.ucrony.net/en

Dutch:
http://rookenas.blogspot.com
http://oohv.wordpress.com/
http://krantbuitendienst.blogspot.com/

Russian:
http://blackblocg.info/

Croatian:
http://infoshopiskra.blogspot.com/
http://ispodplocnika.net/

Czech:
http://jailbreaking.noblogs.org/

Finnish:
http://takku.net/

Swedish:
http://dvm.webblogg.se/
http://kampenmotdetexisterande.forvilda.se/
http://batko.se/

Portuguese:
http://fogogrego.noblogs.org/
http://abordaxerevista.blogspot.com/

Turkish:
http://internationala.org/
http://isyananarsi.blogcu.com/
http://yasar.us/
http://karaisyan.blogspot.com/
http://yasamaevet.noblogs.org/
http://uyusmazlar.blogspot.com/
http://sokaktabirhayalet.blogspot.com/

Indonesian:
http://negasi-negasi.blogspot.com/
http://memorisenja.blogspot.com/
http://kokemi.blogspot.com/
http://kontinum.org/
http://timkatalis.blogspot.com/
http://uncivilized-uncivilizedimagination.blogspot.com/
In english:
http://hidupbiasa.blogspot.com/

brodiefosterhubbard: “I want to talk a little bit about...

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:41:14 -0400

brodiefosterhubbard:

“I want to talk a little bit about extremism in American politics today… I’m not entirely against it.”

The picture above is Dr. Joel Olson, author of The Abolition of White Democracy, speaking in December 2010 in Sedona, Arizona, giving a lecture entitled Extremism and American Politics: Abolitionists, Jihadis, and Tea Parties.

Joel has been on sabbatical from his position at Northern Arizona University, working on his next book (American Zealot: Fanaticism and Democracy in the United States), teaching classes at the University of Alicante in Spain, and was most recently vacationing in Nottingham, UK. Word started getting around last night that Joel passed away yesterday. I’m not sure of any of the details and I’d guess that very few know right now. I was only informed because I read it on the social network status updates of mine and Joel’s mutual friends.

Joel was not a mentor to me. We were not close friends. I know that he was a wonderful husband and father, a beloved professor, and role model for the activist community. But I can only claim an acquaintance at best. Here’s the thing - Joel was such a kind, intelligent, passionate person who contributed so much to this world, that even my tenuous connection to him still makes this loss devestating. If I feel the impact, I can only imagine how deeper that feeling runs for those close to Joel, those for whom he has played pivotal roles in their lives.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Joel was an editor for the zine Hippycore, from which the influential vegan cookbook Soy Not Oi was spun off. When he moved to Minneapolis for graduate school, he became an editor of the legendary zine Profane Existence and a member of the collective behind the publication. He was also a drummer with some P.E. comrades in a band called Pissed that was supposed to tour Europe with seminal crust band Doom. The performances didn’t happen, but Joel was along for the ride anyway.

Having returned to the state where he was born, Joel founded Phoenix Copwatch, a grassroots movement for civilian monitoring of police to keep them accountable, in 1998. This is about the time I first met Joel, and my memory of him from then is how I always remember him, even as I followed his exploits for the next fifteen years. In my mind, he was always the friendly anarchist dude I used to run into at punk shows. He was that guy who passed around a newsletter called Bring the Ruckus that I just didn’t understand. For me, before Cornel West, before Peggy McIntosh, before Tim Wise, before social justice activism blogs on Tumblr, there was Joel. He was talking about something called “white privilege” that I just couldn’t wrap my head around at that time in my life.

Joel got married, started a family, wrote and got published more, and moved up in the ranks of academia, eventually becoming Associate Professor at NAU’s Department of Politics and International Affairs. But he never gave up the struggle against oppression and never shirked from the responsibilities he took on as an ally of oppressed people. If you look at his home page, you can see all the work he has continued doing against racism and the destructive social construct known as “whiteness,” including his actions to protest the anti-Latino/anti-Latina/anti-immigrant Arizona Senate Bill 1070.

I used to think I was a smart guy. I used to think it was enough that I wasn’t a racist. As you get older, you learn a lot and you realize how little you actually know, how much you missed out on over the years. I look back at everything Joel has done and everything he was saying when I met him that didn’t click then, but rings so true now. It’s not enough to merely refrain from slurs or hateful thoughts. That deserves no cookie, no pat on the back, no pass from communities of color. We do not live in a post-racial society. White people still benefit from undue privilege and need to become more aware of how the system works, how race actually functions. My understanding of these issues are now leaps and bounds beyond when I met Joel, but it was him planting the seed, and it was his writings and speeches, that helped these ideas germinate for me.

As his path took him to Flagstaff, AZ and mine took me to Los Angeles, I stayed connected to Joel through social network sites. One day, he solicited feedback on the first couple chapters of his new book, asking friends to submit their emails if they were interested. I am honored to have been one of the folks he was comfortable sending his writing to and I regret not responding to thank him for that. You just take for granted that people are going to be around and you’ll catch up with them later. I’m too late for that now, but I’m thankful for the small interaction I had with Joel and envious of those who got to know him on a more personal level.

This morning, I pulled up Joel’s email, addressed to me and others. Joel signed off on that email, “Yours for freedom fanatically, Joel.” Joel was a writer. A zinester. An activist. A teacher. He was one of ours. And we are all together in this. At least, Joel saw that we could be.

“Revolutionaries don’t make revolutions. Millions of ordinary and oppressed people do.”

Thank you, Joel, for inspiring us to be better people by being one of the best.

Adrienne Rich was not "a product of her time": Daisy's Dead Air on Andrea Dworkin and Transgender People (from 1974)

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 13:39:19 -0400

Adrienne Rich was not "a product of her time": Daisy's Dead Air on Andrea Dworkin and Transgender People (from 1974):

hellfireandredredcommunism:

So, for anyone trying to claim Adrienne Rich was just a product of her times in regards to her hatred of trans women, I dug up a blog post from Daisy’s Dead Air from a few years years ago, in which she gives Andrea Dworkin’s views of trans people in a book published in 1974. Things to note: the third point is descriptive, not prescriptive, and alludes to the obviously very different experiences of everyone in a world without gender; this was written in 1974 (five years before Janice Raymond’s ~~hate-filled rant~~ book), and terminology used reflects that; and that abolition of gender does not signify the end of all expression that is currently gendered, or the end of all bodily alterations, but rather the end of the division of labor and society, and exclusion and domination of people who have certain sets of traits that are currently gendered.

Anyway, to quote Daisy:

In conversations with trans feminists, I have continually assured them that many Second-Wave radical feminists were NOT transphobic, and actually empathetic to trans people. However, I’ve had trouble finding any proof, other than my own memory and a few trans friends of Kate Millett’s. Depressingly, the more I searched, I found much more proof that radical feminists were mean and vicious (i.e. Robin Morgan’s lynch-mob rhetoric concerning trans women in her book titled Going Too Far). The Janice Raymond/Robin Morgan/Mary Daly faction seems to have “won” the transgender round of radical feminist theory, by default.

And so, it brings me great pleasure, after a very long search, to finally have the following quote IN MY HAND, not just from memory. Thank God for Amazon.com and the used books option, since this is long out of print.

So, no, it’s not that “everyone was in a sea of transphobia” or “all radical feminists were intensely transphobic”, and it’s not like Rich held some transphobic views and perhaps wrote some transphobic statements in letters, but never spent energy furthering the hatred and exclusion of trans women; she helped put together a manuscript, and encouraged it, and was a source for ideas in it, that has been a blueprint for the exclusion of trans women from feminist movement and shelters, clinics, and other resources. And not every thinker in her tradition held those views, because Andrea Dworkin and Kate Millett were both hugely important.

The points:
1) No one is saying to throw out everything Adrienne Rich did; we’re saying that her other work needs to be examined in the context of the work she actively took that has resulted in suffering and exclusion.
2) No one is perfect, but the degree to which flawed ideas shaped a person’s work and how actively they carried out views we rightly regard as hateful and/or reactionary needs to be considered; on this, Adrienne Rich did far more than just have hateful views of trans women.
3) There is never just one set of ideas that people have, that everyone is forced to hold; yes, there are dominant ideas, but there are also radical ideas, arising out of the material conditions of the dominated, exploited, and excluded’s lives, and it is the duty of any “radical” thinker to not just accept the dominant ideas - which are always the ideas of the dominators, exploiters, and excluders - but to rather critically consider the ideas they are surrounded with and not let their blindspots blossom into themselves carrying out the processes of dominance, exploitation, and exclusion.

Social Anarchism and Organisation

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:43:08 -0400

Social Anarchism and Organisation:

fourstaranarchists:

This document, first published in Portuguese under the title Anarquismo Social e Organização and adopted at the first Congress of the Federação Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro in August 2008, seeks to map out the FARJ’s theoretical conception of an organised, class struggle anarchism and, “More than a purely theoretical document, […] reflects the conclusions realised after five years of practical application of anarchism in the social struggles of our people”.

6 Ways to Get Ready for the May 1st GENERAL STRIKE

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:17:41 -0400

6 Ways to Get Ready for the May 1st GENERAL STRIKE :

fourstaranarchists:

“This winter, we refocused our energies on fostering ties with local communities, saving homes from corrupt banks and jobs from greedy corporations, and building and expanding our horizontal infrastructure. This #GlobalSpring, we will take the streets again. On May 1st, Occupy Wall Street has called for a General Strike. We are calling on everyone who supports the cause of economic justice and true democracy to take part: No Work, No School, No Housework, No Shopping, No Banking - and most importantly, TAKE THE STREETS!”

Photo

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:27:03 -0500

Which Way Forward for the 99%?

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:22:52 -0500

Which Way Forward for the 99%?:

fourstaranarchists:

Build Power & Show Power through Mass Participatory Bold Action

To show our power, on May 1st, 2012, we will be organizing for such a mass participatory and bold collective action: a national general strike, mass boycott, student strike/ walk-out and mass day of action. We will be organizing within our unions- or informal workplace organizations where there’s no union or the union isn’t supportive- to hold a one-day general strike. Where a strike is not possible, we will be organizing people to call in sick, or take a personal day, as part of a coordinated “sick-out”. Those who are students will be walking-out of their schools (or not showing up in the first place). In the community, we will be holding a mass boycott and refusing to make any purchase on that day.

We, the 99%, will build our power and show our power until we’ve occupied our workplaces, our communities, our schools, our lives, our world… until we’ve occupied everything!

breeatlast: My banner portfolio. 2004 - Present, chronological...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:13:09 -0500

Abolish Wage Slavery

Down With King George

Liberals: Can We Riot Now?

No Laws, Just Love

If You Don't Like Who We Fuck . . .

Republic Workers Got It Right

Remember Anthony Kyser.

Quennect 4: Create Beauty + Defend It

breeatlast:

My banner portfolio. 2004 - Present, chronological order.

"CrimethInc’s hostility to organised anarchists and their reluctance to acknowledge workplace..."

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:05:25 -0500

“

CrimethInc’s hostility to organised anarchists and their reluctance to acknowledge workplace struggle combine to make their discussion of Wisconsin one of the weakest parts of the piece. They declare that “anarchists and fellow travelers occupied a university building in Milwaukee in an attempt to spread the unrest; rumors circulated about a general strike”, which is certainly one way of putting it. Another way of putting it might be to suggest that, rather than rumours about a general strike just circulating out of thin air, they might have had something to do with the huge push for a general strike made by the Industrial Workers of the World, including the IWW dual-carders who made two proposals to the South-Central Federation of Labor:

“first, to endorse a general strike and create an ad-hoc ‘Education Committee’ which could instruct affiliated locals on how they could “prepare for a general strike”; and second, to officially oppose all of the cuts that were contained in Walker’s bill. These proposals passed nearly unanimously.”

The IWW’s intervention has been described as:

“what is likely the largest, most concerted, and most successful intervention in a working-class struggle that the IWW has undertaken since the working-class ferment of the 1930s, at least. From mid-February to mid-March, the idea of a general strike was ever-present, such that nearly everyone in Wisconsin had to form an opinion on whether it would be feasible, successful, or justified. Even in many other parts of the country, from New York to California, the notion of a general strike became a legitimate topic for debate outside of the leftist milieu. It is very doubtful whether this would have happened without the activity of the IWW. IWW members from across the union coordinated their activity, and as a result the organization had an impact in the overall mood of the working-class greater than anything in decades.”

Rather than acknowledge that an organisation with many anarchists in its membership intervened in a mass movement to push its politics in a radical direction, CrimethInc just assert that:

“Anarchists of a more insurrectionist bent gravitated to the occupation in Milwaukee, which failed to pick up steam, while anarchists in Madison largely focused on providing infrastructure”, and complain that anarchists in Wisconsin were just “looking on from the margins”.

Since the CrimethInc ideology has decided that formal organisations are useless and workplace struggles are irrelevant compared to seizures of public space, a movement towards a general strike is seen as hardly worth discussing, and if there is anything important about it, it must have arisen spontaneously, so the activity of IWW members isn’t even worth mentioning. For a collective supposedly dedicated to opposing ideology, CrimethInc find it very difficult dealing with events that don’t fit neatly into their worldview.

”

- A trip down CrimethInc’s memory hole: 2010-2011 in review, reviewed by Cautiously Pessimistic (via hellfireandredredcommunism)

majsaleh: “All property should be held in common (OMNIA SUNT...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:43:10 -0500

majsaleh:

“All property should be held in common (OMNIA SUNT COMMUNIA) and should be distributed to each according to his needs as the occasion required. Any prince, count or lord who did not want to do this, after first being warned about it should be beheaded or hanged.” - Thomas Müntzer

Practical Platformism: Revolutionary Cadre Organisation

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:54:00 -0500

By Red Zarathustra

Common Struggle – Libertarian Communist Federation (LCF), formerly known as the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist-Communists (NEFAC), has been in existence for nearly eleven years now. From its inception it has billed itself as Platformist: that is to say, generally following the guidelines of the Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists (or, General Union of Anarchists). Needless to say, any organisation grows and evolves over time and this is often healthy – but I’d like to take a moment to examine our relationship to Platformism and to determine if we have strayed from that model, and if this desirable. I wish to rehash elements of an old debate: the Bring the Ruckus (BTR) – NEFAC debate, specifically in regard to revolutionary cadre organisation and dual power. I wish to go back to the Platform, as well as the memoirs of Nestor Makhno himself, where he lays out numerous lessons we must heed.

Nestor Makhno, who was one of the main theoreticians of the Platformist tendency, was proponent of cadre organisation, which is typically associated with Marxism. Perhaps, then, it is no surprise that many in the anarchist milieu have called the Platform “authoritarian” – though this is completely unfounded. This is a case of anarchists fetishising form over content, something unfortunately common within the anarchist milieu. That is to say, to consider the way things function organisationally or aesthetically as opposed to the libertarian content in their work. We see this in the incessant demand for things like infoshops, for instance, or other cultural projects that, while not bad in themselves (counterinstitutions are necessary), cannot substitute for organising and do not require the collective discipline that serious organising requires (ie, revolutionary libertarian cadres). Another example of this demand for form over content is those anarchists who reject Marxism so outright that they will not even read Capital, though their entire critique of capitalism was formulated mostly in the first volume of that book. It is for lack of critical analysis that this attitude is taken towards cadres.

To my dismay, during the BTR-NEFAC debate those arguing on behalf of NEFAC chose to attack BTR on the grounds that it is a cadre organisation (that is not the only thing their critique focused on, but it was a major aspect of it). I don’t believe the points raised, specifically in Nicolas Phebus’s article “Differences of Strategy and Organization”, were particularly helpful in critiquing cadres, because they did not address the type of organisation that BTR was hoping to create – libertarian cadres. Why? What is typical is the dismissal of the Leninist concept of cadre and vanguard that is hierarchical and patronising. I believe that from a Platformist point of view, which naturally gravitates towards cadre organisation, it is impossible to dismiss such cadres. Unlike the Leninists, Libertarian cadres “[do] not seek to control any organization or movement, nor does it pretend that it is the most advanced section of a struggle” and “it assumes that the masses are typically the most advanced section of a struggle.”ⁱ BTR concludes by stating, “the organization would not actively support any kind of activism but only those struggles that hold the potential of building a dual power.”ⁱⁱ What is questionable is BTR’s strategy towards achieving dual power, which was rightfully critiqued by Wayne Price in his article “What, if anything, is a dual power strategy?”, not the idea of creating a dual power situation itself, and destroying the state and capital simultaneously through social-revolutionary action. Price argued that their race-reductionist politics are, in fact, not as strategic for building a desired situation than the solid class-based politics of (at the time) NEFAC.

Much of Phebus’s article was designed to point out supposed “contradictions” in cadreorganisation, but it does not. Firstly, it begins by defining what BTR and libertarian cadres are based upon old definitions that are irrelevant to the reality of what is practiced – the article insists that they are a bourgeois, authoritarian leninist-appropriated method of organisation. It does not define BTR’s project on their own terms. The article claims that by having prefigurative politics that are then spread to the masses, it is authoritarian and believes the masses “dumb”. No, BTR is simply realistic about revolutionary organisation and building power. Because it is true what Platform said of anarchism, that “the outstanding anarchist thinkers, Bakunin, Kropotkin and others, did not invent the idea of anarchism, but, having discovered it in the masses, simply helped by the strength of their thought and knowledge to specify and spread it.”ⁱⁱⁱ However, it is naive to believe that because anarchism was discovered in the masses that, in bourgeois society which does everything in its power to suppress it, the proletariat will magically come to this idea. Some of them will, someone of them will not. We revolutionary anarchists are an example of those who did. Those at Occupy are an example of those who are close to it, but lack the clarity to articulate their true desire – libertarian communism. At work we find reactionary working class people: racists and sexists who reinforce the worst aspects of the capitalist system.

From reading the initial “Bring The Ruckus” statement, I have gathered that they fundamentally understood what a cadre is meant to uphold: collective responsibility, theoretical and tactical unity, and direct democracy. What differences are there, then, between the Federation and Bring the Ruckus organisationally? This is a difficult question to consider without insider knowledge of BTR, which I simply do not have. They do, however, have a common strategy and specific criteria that defines the work cadres are able to carry out under the banner of BTR. This not something that Common Struggle has, but it is something discussed at the 2011 Federal Conference and is being moved forward on in a committee. Phebus’s closing statement on cadres is this utterly confusing as he claims: “NEFAC has chosen a platformist federation model, BTR has chosen a cadre; they are not the same thing, whether we like it or not.”^iv It is interesting, then, that the founder of the tendency of Platformism seemed to disagree with him. Makhno wrote in the first volume of his memoirs, The Russian Revolution in Ukraine: “Either we go to the masses and dissolve ourselves into them, creating from them revolutionary cadres, and make the Revolution; or we renounce our slogan about the necessity of social transformation, the necessity of carrying through to the end the workers’ struggle with the powers of Capital and the State.^v

There are legitimate issues with revolutionary cadre organisation, but I do not believe they are not critiqued in the BTR-NEFAC debate. Namely, while they are tight-knit and committed to revolutionary struggle, they tend to be insular and reject the building of revolutionary anarchist organisation. While acknowledging that we do not seek to dominate, but will lead when appropriate, we also believe in the validity of anarchist communism as the only system which can eliminate exploitation and domination. As such, it is not enough for us to have an “anarchistic movement” – such as the current Occupy movement, with elements of anarchism (albeit so-called “small a anarchist”) like consensus decision making and general assemblies – but in fact to eventually have a revolutionary anarchist communist movement that enacts a social revolution to end exploitation and domination. Thus, the question of how we relate to the rest of the proletariat crops up. I do not have an exact scientific formula for solving this issue, but I do believe the answer lies in self-reflection and political education. It’s important to understand that “doesn’t automatically give us a method to bring up the level of the left to the unity and strategy we seek”^vi but that this is something we are always striving for and challenging ourselves as revolutionaries to meet.

Cadres also tend to act as substitutionists, something which Phebus points out in saying, “of course, we must agitate for our idea and lead the battle of ideas, but as members of the class not as outside agitators.”^vii I completely agree with this statement – I think Bring the Ruckus does as well, and Phebus here is merely misconstruing words, but the point is valid. If cadres think this way, that they are outside the class, instead of dissolving themselves into the class, than they are approaching revolutionary organisation in the wrong way. However, were are libertarians and not Leninists – with proper political education and leadership building in our organisations that should never be a problem. Defining cadres as inherently substitutionist is incorrect, especially in this libertarian sense of them! It is important to reiterate Makhno’s words here – that revolutionary cadres are formed from masses themselves. If this is properly understood than there will be no confusion of so-called “substitutionism”.

So then, what do these so-called “revolutionary libertarian cadres” look like? It is simple: they are local unions of anarchist-communists committed to struggle, which “emphasizes not just the organizational positions, but also the capabilities and activity of militants.”^viiiThey strive for the central tenants of platformism, and keeping intact their libertarian ideology at all times they seek to politically educate their members to build leadership that is worthy of being the vanguard of the class struggle. Not only are they an organisation of organisers, because we cannot simple fetishise one strength that not everyone has, but an organisation of propaghandists capable of taking anarchism to the masses and building a revolutionary anarchist movement – backed by those toilers who the organisers build power with. This is not where Common Struggle is at, for now, but it is what we should be striving for if we are really Platformists.

It is with great interest we critically analyse the situations that occur in the struggle, to identify the most revolutionary aspects of the struggle and innoculate against reformism. In other words, the cadre seeks, at all times, to deepen and broaden the struggle to point of social revolution. The cadre is a serious organisation that requires discipline and commitment, because the task of creating an anarchist communist world is one of immense proportions.

iBring The Ruckus. Bring The Ruckus. Accessed 12/4/11. http://bringtheruckus.org/?q=about

iiIbid.

iiiThe Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists. Delo Truda. Accessed 12/4/11.http://www.nestormakhno.info/english/platform/general.htm

ivDifferences of Strategy and Organization. Nicolas Phebus. The North Eastern Anarchist. Accessed 12/4/11. http://commonstruggle.org/node/126

vThe Russian Revolution in Ukraine. Nestor Makhno. Black Cat Press. 2006.

viWe Are Not Platformists, We Strive To Be. Scott Nappalos. Recomposition Blog. Accessed 12/15/11. http://recompositionblog.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/we-are-not-platformists-we-strive-to-be/

viiDifferences of Strategy and Organization. Nicolas Phebus. The North Eastern Anarchist. Accessed 12/4/11. http://commonstruggle.org/node/126

viiiWe Are Not Platformists, We Strive To Be. Scott Nappalos. Recomposition Blog. Accessed 12/15/11. http://recompositionblog.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/we-are-not-platformists-we-strive-to-be/