Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 01:25:16 -0400
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: Re: wither -AT--list


Ali Kazmi wrote:

> Chuck0, is anarchism's current popularity in the west only linked to the
> anti-imf demonstrations, or is it a wider movement reaching into colleges
> and unions and stuff? If tomorrow, the IMF stops meeting! or something, and
> there are no more demos, will these anarchists still exist? meaning, are
> they only anarchists when they demonstrate?

I can only speak to anarchism's growing popularity in the USA. I'm
probably the best person to judge this, given the amount of email I get
at Infoshop.org and all the travel that I do. I get emails from the
smallest towns in the US, people asking about anarchism and how they can
plug into the movement. I frequently have to get an atlas out and figure
where these towns are. Last week I got an e-mail that detailed an
extensive anarchist youth network in a major Midwest city. College
students seem to be more interested in anarchism and many of the young
people I know are reading all the anarchist literature they can get
their hands on. The number of anarchist magazines, newspapers, and zines
here continues to grow exponentially. One of the magazines I'm involved
with, Alternative Press Review, continues to increase in circulation.
You can find copies at major bookstores, where APR is displayed next to
Newsweek and Time. Our sell-through rate (around 55%) is much better
than those magazines.

The interest in anarchist events is quite strong. The San Francisco
anarchist bookfair, which was held last month, was attended by several
thousand. The ANarchist Cafe they had the night before had over 400. The
conference they had that weekend had several hundred.

Our online media efforts continue to be popular. I can't speak for other
anarchist websites, but Infoshop.org reached a new record of 2.6 million
hits last month.

Media interest in anarchist activities continues with most of the
coverage still being positive. We've been having some problems with
distortions about anarchist in the Canadian media, which is hyping the
upcoming FTAA protests, but there are signs that they are aware they've
overstepped our openness and honesty. The media coverage can get quite
bizarre. I was flown to Florida last month to do an interview with
Canadian TV. At one point I was sitting on the beach, looking at the
Gulf of Mexico, and musing about how the black bloc in Seattle made it
possible for me to be enjoying that moment.

It's hard to say how well we are reaching into unions and other
movements. We aren't as opportunistic as the Left groups in this
coalition work, which is winning many people to us as sympathizers.
Younger activists seem to be savvier about protest methodology and
hierarchies within groups and campaigns. I bet that this is causing
mucho problems for the traditional Left groups. 

If the World Bank, IMF and WTO go away tomorrow, American anarchists are
still busy with many other projects and campaigns. Infoshops are being
set up everywhere and community counter-institutions are in the works.
The IWW's Industrial Worker is now being edited by anarcho-syndicalists
and was redesigned by our General Secretary, Alexis Buss. The most
recent issues are outstanding and it's nice to see that publication
dissing the boss unions very effectively. Other anarchists are
organizing Anarchist Black Cross groups and others are putting together
Ya Basta! groups and Reclaim the Streets parties. We continue our fight
against the media monopoly through pirate radio stations, Internet
audio, websites, and helping the Indymedia network.

There's alot more, but that's my overview for tonight.

<< Chuck0 >>

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

Mid-Atlantic Infoshop    -> http://www.infoshop.org/
Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/
Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/

Homepage -> http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/

"A society is a healthy society only to the degree 
that it exhibits anarchistic traits." 
        - Jens Bjørneboe