Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 12:23:52 -0500
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: Re: [Fwd: AUT: Re: Perhaps Blissett Was Right]


Angela asked:

  most of us seemed to be just bored by the
> newspaper-selling.

Heh, heh.
 
> but there is a question i want to ask, and you might be able to help:
> can you (or maybe chucko) outline to me a little what the major debates
> amongst anarchists over the last few years have been?  is the issue of
> violence/non-violence a biggy?  or technology?  or?

The major debates depend on which circles you run in and this can very
according to where you live and what publications you read. It also
depends on what Internet lists that you read.

The "what is non-violence?" question has been an important debate this
year. This comes at a time when North American anarchists are starting
to have more experience with direct action techniques exported from the
U.K. The Brits have already been having the "fluffy vs. spikey" debate
for several years. This debate really heated up after the June 18th
riots, especially the one in Eugene where one of our comrades was
arrested and sentenced to 7 years in prison, for throwing a rock at a
cop.

There was alot of uneasiness about the militant Eugene anarchist
faction, based on at least a few concerns:

1) a dislike by many anarchists of the "primitivist" wing of anarchism,
which is well-represented in Eugene, of course
2) a concern that the Eugene J18 actions would create negative publicity
for anarchism and mislead people into thinking that all anarchists were
primitivists
3) The UAP factor: we have this nutcase here in Washington who fancies
himself as a one man revolution. He attacks other anarchists and
celebrates school shootings. The Eugene anarchists are fairly young and
new to the movement, so folks are wondering if they are just young
people acting on a misunderstanding (Anarchist Cookbook style) of what
anarchism is. After Seattle, I think we see them as fairly normal young
anarchists.
4) An understandable and correct condemnation of some of the J18 rioters
for attacking bystanders and car drivers.

Other debates? There has been a decade long debate between the
"anarcho-primitivist", represented by John Zerzan, Anarchy magazine and
Fifth Estate, and social ecologist Murray Bookchin. This is the biggest
debate, as witnessed by the numerous books on the subject.

Another large debate revolves around "lifestylism," which is one of
Murray Bookchin's big bogeymen. Unfortunately, Bookchin failed to make
his case about this tendency in his book on the subject. Other
anarchists make a more persuasive case.

Another debate revolves around the amount of "organizationalism" that is
appropriate to anarchism. Anarchism in North America has far fewer
organizations than anarchists in other parts of the world. This explains
why the Left, the ruling class, and even some anarchists, downplay the
number of North American anarchists. They are used to counting parties,
named organizations, and political functionaries. North American
anarchist just don't form parties like other anarchists do.

Some of this has to do with an understandable dislike of organizations
that are purely political in nature, that just have members of one
political persuasion. Anarchists are more likely to join community
groups that are more diverse. I count myself as one of those who favor
networks and loose-knit groupings to formal groups with rules,
manifestos, mission statements, splits, and party functionaries. Over my
years as an activist, I've seen too much energy wasted on petty
arguments over group policies (the IWW being a good example), instead of
focusing on campaigns and direct action. Meetings are important, but I
didn't join the revolution to just go to meetings.

Another rising debate is over the question, "Are anarchists Leftists?"
This debate has been extended by Bob Black in his book "Anarchy after
Leftism." I sense a growing interest in purging the lame Leftist tactics
that are boring North American activism to tears. Seattle demonstrated
what is possible. I know many of my friends are tired of marches,
speakers, and those damn chants. "2, 4, 6, 8, we don't want your boring
Leftist chants." I also sense that people are getting tired of the
Leftists who peddle their papers to each other at events like Mumia
demos. Next year you will see more frequently these people get booted
from demos. They just dont' seem to understand that they should go sell
their papers out in the burbs, not to people who are already
sympathetic.

The debate over "workerism," i.e. syndicalism, vs. the anti-work
tendency will continue to heat up. As an anti-work Wobbly, I have hopes
that the two tendecies can be united. I don't consider myself a
syndicalist, but I can see how it would be a good intermediate step to a
future world where wage slavery disappears. The syndicalists also need
to remember their anti-work history, which was embodied in the
8-hour-day movement of the late 19th century.

There is an emerging debate, post-Seattle, which has to do with
coalition-building. Anarchists have idffering opinions about working
with community members who aren't Leftists; examples of successful
contemporary community coalitions include the micropower radio movement
and the fight against Frankenfoods. However, there are new questions
being raised about alliances with Leftists, especially those who belong
to authoritarian political organizations. We've already seen some
anti-anarchist Seattle reporting coming from Left tabloids and we've
seen some misunderstanding of anarchists from a wide variety of
non-aligned Leftists (such as Michael Albert of Z Magazine).

Believe me, it made me cringe the other night, when I attended a
report-back sponsored by several Public Citizen-friendly organizations,
to hear several people complain about how the "cops refused to arrest
those window-smashing anarchists."

We're supposed to work with people who will call the cops on our
comrades?

There are other controversies, which I can't recall, since I haven't had
any caffeine yet today.

-- 
Chuck0
http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/

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