File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2000/anarchy-list.0008, message 10


Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 10:12:35 -0400
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: Re: First Black Bloc Recruiting Poster Ready for the Street!


Jaggi: Thanks for your comments. I had a long talk last night about the
poster with some anarchists in New York. At a recent conference in
Madison they had talked to some Minnesota anarchists about the poster.
so obviously it is pretty controversial.

I've decided to de-emphasize that poster on my website, in order to not
create anymore misunderstandings. The other one I still like.

This is partially my fault for not providing more feedback to the
artist, Mike Flugennock, who initiated these posters. Mike is a long
time activist here in D.C. and I suspect that he is a bit tired of the
sanctimonious pacifists in town. I'm not sure if Mike considers himself
an anarchist in this case, but in any case, he doesn't understand the
anarchist movement. I've heard from plenty of anarchists who are down
with property destruction and criticizing nonviolence dogma, but we're
disturbed by the wrong impression that this poster conveys about the
anarchist movement. Quite simply put, we are NOT anybody's movement
marines. If you look at the history of black blocs you will find a
variety of tactics and strategies, not all of which involved confronting
the police.

I've been hoping to ask Mike if he'd be interested in doing a few
different versions of that flyer series. My ideas for themes would
include 1) squatting; 2) guerilla gardening; 3) barricade building and
4) the clown bloc.

Chuck0

l'ombre n o i r e wrote:
> 
> i wish i checked out the "gandhi is dead" poster earlier, but i guess it's
> better to respond later than never ...
> 
> [for those who haven't seen it, it's at:
> <http://www.sinkers.org/DC-streets/gandhi_is_dead.jpg>.
> it shows a gandhi-figure getting run over by a dc cop's motorbike. the
> caption reads "gandhi is dead, because he didn't strike back! support your
> local bl-AT-ck bloc!"]
> 
> i'm writing to seriously object to the poster. it's not that i'm offended
> ... it's just that the poster is misguided and stupid. not to mention that
> the gandhi figure is a stereotype of an indian male -- specifically, a
> caricature of cowardly-looking gandhi -- which i find racist (so ya, i am
> offended!). the caricature reminds me of something howard stern would
> develop a skit around.
> 
> here's something for comparison: could you imagine if instead of gandhi,
> anarchists went around washington, philadelphia, los angeles or wherever
> putting up posters that read "martin luther king is dead ... because he
> didn't strike back! support your local bl-AT-ck bloc!" accompanied by a
> cowardly-looking mlk caricature? when you choose which battles to pick, is
> that really an important one to start? you can disagree with king and
> civil rights pacifists of the 50s and 60s on many fronts, but they were
> our comrades, and they were for the most part courageous. cheney, goodman
> and schwerner, and hundreds of others, including mlk, are not dead because
> they "didn't strike back", but because of racism and white supremacy.
> 
> mlk or gandhi are not the problem, but the people who mystify them today.
> 
> pardon the history lesson, but gandhi is not dead "because he didn't
> strike back", but because he was murdered by fascist hindus. the political
> descendants of those same fascists are alive-and-well in today's india.
> 
> [some contemporary background: the indian fascists hold power federally,
> and in several states in india. their multifold organizations -- grouped
> together as the sangh parivar -- are responsible for a litany of abuses
> (including assaults, torture, bomb attacks, rape and murder) against
> muslims, christians, communists, feminists and all sorts of radicals and
> progressives. their front organizations operate in the u$a, canaduh and
> britain, raising millions and spreading propaganda. many radical desi-s
> (people of south asian ancestry in the west) are active in organizing
> against them in those countries. these radical desi-s are also open to a
> lot of the anti-authoritarian ideas within the anarchist milieu.]
> 
> just a word about where i'm coming from, before anyone assumes anything:
> 
> i'm an anarchist and anti-authoritarian, and a desi (punjabi-indian, born
> in toronto). i'm also NOT a pacifist (as it so happens, some of the most
> authoritarian people i've come across in activist circles are pacifists).
> i have nothing against "direct actions becoming less passive and more
> direct", and have actively organized along those lines. i've publicly
> defended black blocs in various forums. moreover, i recently returned from
> india, where based on my encounters with activists there (especially
> friends in faridabad), and much critical reading, i'm hoping to write up
> an article called "de-mystifying gandhi".
> 
> when i talk about "de-mystifying gandhi", i mean taking apart the way his
> myth is used by middle-class, pacifist liberals in the west (including
> many parts of the non-violent direct action movement). it means critiquing
> gandhi's stifling and irrational moralism, his views on caste, his
> hypocrisy, his authoritarianism, and yes, his pacifism. de-mystifying
> gandhi also means contextualizing gandhi, acknowledging that while he was
> in many ways an important and courageous figure (like mlk), he did not
> embody the anti-imperialist, freedom movement in india as many uncritical
> westerners assume. (bhagat singh and uddham singh, who were hung by the
> british, are two lesser-known freedom-fighters that come to mind, much
> like king's very "un-civil" counterparts in the black panther party and
> elsewhere.)
> 
> "de-mystifying gandhi" includes a critique of his elitist collaboration,
> along with nehru and the congress, with the british. i used to argue with
> my indian friends that gandhi perhaps prolonged "independence" with his
> collaborationist non-violence campaigns (if that's what 1947, ninety years
> after the 1857 uprising, could really be called). it's the same argument
> that many historians have made. in some moments of bluster, i'd say that
> any self-respecting freedom fighter should have sent lord mountbatten home
> in a box, instead of letting him salute the lowering of the union jack.
> 
> "de-mystifying gandhi" also means remembering his famous quote
> (paraphrased): "if i have to choose between being violent and being a
> coward, i will choose to be violent". no better critique of unthinking
> pacifism than that.
> 
> now i don't expect one poster to present a well-developed critique of
> gandhi or pacifism, but what the "gandhi is dead" poster does do is tap
> into simplistic, regressive feelings towards gandhi and pacifism in
> general. the poster reflects a frat-boy mentality and sense of humor,
> which ties into a lot of the stereotypes of who actually participates in
> black blocs (young, white, middle class males). that caricature is
> overblown, but the poster sure does play into it (unless of course, the
> poster IS meant to recruit young white men with a similar sense of humor).
> 
> i'm all for a concerted, fun, biting, uncompromising, intelligent critique
> of pacifists and pacifism, including the whole gandhi myth. i also have
> nothing against being offensive, if you're offending the right people. but
> while potentially offending pacifists with "gandhi is dead", you're also
> offending me (an anarchist who's not white), and potentially lots of other
> sympathetic non-pacifist radicals and progressives (the vast majority of
> whom come from communities of colour in this world).
> 
> again, for some context, how would a "martin luther king is dead" poster
> go over, even among radical, non-pacifist blacks? strategically speaking,
> that kind of poster is a non-starter (even if it's not objectionable
> in-and-of-itself), if we're seriously interested in building the anarchist
> movement, and not revel in self-imposed, mainly white, ghettos.
> 
> when i was in washington for the anti-imf/wb demos, some protesters smugly
> carried portraits of gandhi above their heads. the portrait was
> accompanied by a quote that i can't exactly remember, but it was a
> gandhian platitude about not following his personality, but his deeds. i
> approached the pacifists, and confronted them on the portraits, and their
> whole mystification of gandhi (not to mention the irony of them holding
> the portraits while the quote exhorts the opposite kind of behavior). the
> protesters and their demeanor reminded me of those "free tibet" types who
> uncritically carry portraits of "his holiness" the dalai lama.
> 
> needless to say, i found the gandhi worshippers to be liberal morons. more
> importantly, i find the "gandhi is dead" poster to be the other side of
> the same proverbial coin - white and macho, and equally liberal and
> moronic.
> 
> on a related note, what's with the black blocs being "the marines of the
> movement"?! that phrase was presumably meant as a compliment, but for
> fuck's sake, let's be a little more self-critical of appropriating the
> marines, not to mention talking about "recruiting posters" that are meant
> to attract "A Few Good Anarchists". pardon me while i puke ...
> 
> in solidarity,
> 
> -- jaggi singh <lombrenoire-AT-tao.ca>
> montreal
> 
> On Tue, 18 Jul 2000, Chuck0 wrote:
> 
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 01:15:17 -0400
> > From: Mike Flugennock <flugennock-AT-sinkers.org>
> > To: chuck munson <chuck0-AT-infoshop.org>
> > Subject: for posting asap: First Black Bloc Recruiting Poster Ready for
> > the
> >     Street!
> >
> > Mike Flugennock's "Mikey'zine" presents the first in a planned short
> > series of "Black Bloc Recruiting Posters" in which your artist questions
> > the viability of traditional passive nonviolent protest in the present
> > environment, and calls for direct action to become less passive and
> > more...well, _direct_. DC A16 activist Adam Eidinger has referred to the
> > Black Bloc anarchists as the "Marines of the Movement" in commemoration
> > of the courageous action of the Black Bloc in street protest in Seattle,
> > DC, Eugene and elsewhere! So, your artist figured the Movement Marines
> > are going to need some shit-kickin' recruiting posters if they expect to
> > attract A Few Good Anarchists!
> >
> > Created on a Macintosh with Macromedia FreeHand 8.0, from scanned pencil
> > underdrawings, at 11x17 inches:
> > http://www.sinkers.org/DC-streets/gandhi_is_dead.eps .eps 1.5mb
> > http://www.sinkers.org/DC-streets/gandhi_is_dead.pdf .pdf 323k
> > http://www.sinkers.org/DC-streets/gandhi_is_dead.jpg .jpg 387k
> >
> > The "formal" posting at the "When I'm Out On The Street" main page
> > should be up sometime this weekend. Thanks in advance for posting this
> > at infoshop.org asap for all the Philly and LA flypasters.
> >

-- 
<< Chuck0 >>

This was the year *everything* changed.
      -- Commander Ivanova, 2261

Mid-Atlantic Infoshop    -> http://www.infoshop.org/
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Homepage -> http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/

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