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A Message to Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists
by kero
Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2003 at 2:01 PM
keroism@hotmail.com pittsburgh
for pittsburgh indymedia. this is an article copied from one written to the AA folks in northeast ohio. i think it has a lot of relevence here, and at least could spark some important discussion.
A Message to Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists
(Note: this article was originally posted by "Class War" on the cleveland indymedia page, and aimed at the AAs there, but i thought it had some points that are very relevent here in PGH. hopefully it will at least spark some discussion. again, these aren't MY opinions per se, but i do agree with a lot that the original poster had to say)...
This is a message to all Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists in North East Ohio. If the movement for libertarian Social Revolution is to move forward we must analyze the work we have been currently doing. I am putting forward the opinion that the work that we all have been doing so far has been a joke. If we wish to become a serious revolutionary force we must change many of the ways we operate.
The first thing which we must start doing is taking ourselves and the Social Revolution which we dream of seriously. Many of us behave as if this struggle is only a hobby, and only put in the amount of work necessary for a hobby. This is unacceptable. The struggle for Social Revolution must become central to our lives, or it will never be achievable. This doesn’t mean that we can’t have personal lives, but it does mean that we often have to make sacrifices. Sometimes you need to give up the expensive luxury you wanted in order to help finance the cause. Sometimes you need to skip the event you wanted to attend because your help in the struggle is needed. We must learn to function as if the Social Revolution is not only attainable, but is possible within our lifetimes.
The Anti-Authoritarian and Anarchist movements are currently weighted down with destructive bourgeois and middle-class attitudes and ideas. These must be rooted out of us and whipped out. For our movements to move forwards they must be grounded in the working class. How are the people who have a material basis for the destruction of capitalism supposed to take you serious while you’re telling them about the evils of consumerism when they’re trying to decide which bills they can actually pay that month. By grounding ourselves in the working class I do not mean middle-class activists making choices to be poor. What I mean is for those of us with privileges to use those privileges to attack the systems that oppress people. Take that well-paying job, live thrifty and use the excess money you are paid to fund revolutionary projects.
Another thing that we are missing from our movements is any kind of strategy. How do we get from where we are currently to that Social Revolution that we all so desperately want and need? We are up against some very complex and pliable forms of oppression: White Supremacy, Patriarchy, Capitalism, and the State. To be able to attack and destroy them we must think strategically about how to go about it. We must make important decisions about what our battles will be. Much of what people currently decide to work on will not do this. Riding bikes and telling people to buy organic produce will do nothing to destroy oppression.
Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists in North East Ohio greatly outnumber any of the commie groups that exist here. So why do we tend to be so much weaker in revolutionary significance? I suggest that it is because we don’t have the slightest organization amongst us. There is currently only one explicit anarchist organization functioning in all of North East Ohio. This shows how weak we are right now. I’m not suggesting that we all join up in one organization. Our politics vary far too much for that. But there must be some way for all of us to work together better to form a strong Anti-Authoritarian and Anarchist movement here. During the Spanish Revolution, the CNT, the FAI and the FIJL would meet as the Libertarian Movement to discuss how to move the revolution forward.* Perhaps this is something we could learn from.
Hopefully this short message will spark some discussion within our movements. Please send this to any and all Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists in North East Ohio, along with anarchistic projects like Food Not Bombs.
Onward to the Social Revolution!
carpe diem
by che
Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2003 at 10:49 PM
i agree, we must stand up and loudly defend the constitution and bill of rights, we must support the citizen groups who are defending the borders (americanborderpatrol.com) and expose both the neo-liberals and neo-cons as global agents. Its not about left or right, its about freedom.
Mass murderers agree, gun control works, its always those with power who abuse power. Get your kids out of those corporate/gov't re-education camps u call publik skool. we must fight the future and resist
RFID before RFID is in your forehead.
observation
by c.
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 5:13 AM
Is the talk of capital and working class a communist principle, not anarchist? Just a thought...
Otherwise I agree also.
economic/ state Socialism
by wheatpaster
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 6:38 AM
...Many anarchists believe in financial equality for all people, i.e. the elimination rich and poor, or economic class distinction. Its considered economic socialism. This is not the same as state socialism, which many who identify as 'anarchists' frown upon.
Huh?
by lost me
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 7:07 AM
Defend the constitution and the bill of rights? I don't recall signing any social contract. Those are meaningless documents which curtail human rights, by claiming to guarantee civil rights. Those are paper rights which are up to the discretion of the armed state employee.
Helping deluded wackos such as border vigilantes defend imaginary things like borders makes little or no sense.
i
by i
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 7:10 AM
Give it up, no one is buying into you so called anarchists. In the US you folks are considered to be nothing more than spoiled children throwing tantrums to get attention. Head to North Korea and start preaching anarchy and then you might be taken seriously.
Buying? Who's for sale?
by i-poker
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 7:55 AM
I thought Syria was going to be the new boogey man, but you say North Korea? Do you have some insider info.
i, you would be very happy in in North Korea. The country is run by a brain-dead megalomaniac who got the job from his father. You'd feel right at home kissing his ass.
BTW Bush unplugged the matrix yesterday on the idiots who believe Iraq had ties to 9/11.
On a personal note, i, I liked you better as 2beers.
HAHA
by laugh
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 10:15 AM
>For our movements to move forwards they must be grounded in the working class.
It's been pointed out to these assclowns that the only way to move forward is to do those things that would cause the working class to want to join them. But, they're too damn hardheaded.
"Whatda ya mean we gotta dress in a way that working class people want to be seen with us? Whatda ya mean we can't scream "FUCK" at a ralley? Whatda ya mean we can't carry signs that say "Bush is Hitler"? Whatda ya mean we gotta take a bath and wash our hair?"
>The first thing which we must start doing is taking ourselves and the Social Revolution which we dream of seriously.
With these dipweeds, you can kiss that dream off.
"Bush is Hitler"
by nothing personal
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 10:32 AM
The "Bush is Hitler" thing really has your yamulke in knots, 2beers?
I think it's unfair to Hitler, hell, his use of the Bush name is unfair to his terrible father. They are real fascists, not a wannabe like Dumbya.
i
by i
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 10:54 AM
Thanks for the responses kiddies! Now straighten those Che berets and raise hell at your local Starbucks! Yessir, you're living life on the edge!
Since North Korea is such a wonderful place, how do they deal with their illegal immigration problems? Maybe the US could learn a thing or two. I don't know WHY the US has such a problem with illegal immigrants since it's such a fascist state. Can't people hear the jackbooted thugs as they pound in the stakes of the FEMA guarded concentration camps?
Flaming you idiots is so easy, that's why even a blowhard like Rush has a field day with it.
np
by answer
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 12:34 PM
>The "Bush is Hitler" thing really has your yamulke in knots, 2beers?
I'm not 2 beers. 2 beers can speak for himself I'm quite confident. I know I can.
I use it as an illustration of just how out-of-touch the pro-Saddam crowd can be. If you haven't figured out how frickin' stupid it was when those of your peers did such silliness, that's your problem.
Same with using the word "fascist", which apparently has never clicked on anything in that pea-sized lump of shit you call your mind as to how stupid saying that is. Think about it! What's the average person going to think of when they hear the word "fascist"? Nazi Germany, right!?! Then you say stuff like "Bush is a fascist", and people go "OK, our whole economy is not a giant war-machine, we're not invading Canada or Mexico like Hitler invaded his neighbor Poland, we're not trying to take over our continent and rule it, we're not rounding up Jews and putting them into concentration camps and then shoving them into gas chambers and ovens, we're not raising our arms and doing a Hitler salute, we're not goose-stepping, our government is not requiring young boys to join the 'Bush Youth', so NO!, we're nothing like Nazi Germany. These people are fucking MORONS."
But, keep it up! You and your movement are doing all the right things. Everything you've done to this point has been perfect. You have completely connected with the working people. Great Job! Way To Go!
for the idiots
by johnrpgh
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 12:56 PM
For all you idiots who always use the argument "we dont put jews in deathcamps and invade our neighbors!"... No, we don't. Our neo-fascist state is smarter than idiots like hitler. If we threw all illegal immigrants into death camps and invaded Mexico, we would be frowned upon. Instead we secretly fund other people to put our enemies in death camps, and we invade countries thousands of miles away and fund terrorists to help take over sovereign nations. We wouldn't want to dirty up beautiful america, would we?
hello
by jfk
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 1:32 PM
hello, your gov't is totally controlled by the globalists, the private 100's of years old banking families, bush and clinton are puppets, you owe your nat'l debt(not deficeit) to the federal reserve, the same banking families that print the euro print your notes.
you used to have gold/silver coins and certificates now u have tin and notes, your worse than slaves your debtors. your already numbered, your cell phones and cars already have tracking chips, jfk signed executive order 11110 to abolish the federal reserve and the treasury printed United States Notes, any coin shop owner will tell you this.
Every other show on TV has occultism, wild sex reality shows, Viacom focuses on promoting teenage whores while Fox focuses on retarded dad sitcoms. Most fortune 500 companies use the pyramid and all seein eye as their logo.
Your being trained to accept the anti-christ, remember tell your kids it's cool to have a lightning bolt scar on your forehead like harry potter.
paranoid - johnrpgh & jfk
by mike
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 1:55 PM
I wouldn't be so paranoid if Bo Gritz would stop following me around. Also, why are there two moons in the sky? Has anyone read Dhalgren backwards? How many anarchists does it take to form a consensus that perhaps it's time to change the lightbulb? I'd never want to be part of a conspiracy that would have me as a plotter. Oh, I'm so alone. Where are the Cheez-its? When will this nightmare end. There's a little Area 51 in all of us.......
ummm-
by -----
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 2:30 PM
This article might be a little more relevant to NW Ohio then Pittsburgh. We have far more organization here then most places in the US. I don't think things are perfect, but I also don't see the effectiveness of articles like these. The tone is pretty insulting and pre-supposes that people are not thinking or acting in revolutionary terms. The rhetoric seems very seperatist and dogmatic. This article offers no real proposals for organization or advancement.
Can you point to any anarchist groups in the US who are doing what you propose? The anarchist groups that I can think of who are most following your line of thinking are not growing, they are not organizing large scale actions, and they are completely isolated from other groups/communities.
re: stragedy
by pineapple
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 2:42 PM
i think an idea would be build the our desired world right now. but you probably all know that already. but, at least what ive found is that "we" build "Things". thats certianly not detremental, but it also doesnt accomplish allot. i would suggest that we start building "Processes". the basis of the current world situation is a certian kind of process of social relation, if we want to change anything that is where i think would be a good idea to start. for instance: if you are hungry you go to the store and buy a sandwich. hunger necessitates going out and selling your labor so you can accumulate enough capital to buy the fruit of someone elses labor. this is the fundamental situation that "we" dont like. perhaps a stragedy could be to begin realigning social relation networks into a more favourable manner. starting simply and small and slow, and as the network gets larger the more people it can support and in more and more complicated and diverse ways.
Dreamers
by SAOIRSE
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 2:44 PM
Organization in Anarachism? How privileged are we in this country to sit around and engage in little trite leftist conversations. You're right, you do need to actually think your shit through and bring about your revolution, 'cause reading this comment on a webpage is not really liberating the oppressed...is it?
SAOIRSE
by activists community
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 3:10 PM
We wouldn't know how to start a revolution or liberate the oppressed if it came up and bit us on our acne pocked ass.
communication
by human alien
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2003 at 5:40 PM
Any movement starts with communication. So, although you might criticize these conversations, they are important to start something. And I do see a movement starting. We just need more involvement and communication with each other. My problem is that I am shy and am still thinking of ways to topple the pyramid.
And pay attention to logos... lots of them have pyramids on them.
who am i
by 420
Friday, Sep. 19, 2003 at 6:29 AM
how dare you idiots call everyone else names, by name calling u never get your point across and the morons will never accept your idea. and one more thing to all u goofy matha fuckers your enemy is the beast
anarchy
by no gods, no masters
Friday, Sep. 19, 2003 at 7:43 PM
anarchy is latin for without a leader. i am my own leader.
Class Emphasis in Anarchism
by Sam
Saturday, Sep. 20, 2003 at 1:04 PM
You could argue that class struggle isn't an intrinsically anarchist idea, but it's the only thing that makes sense as a principle of organizing. The proletariat -- those who have to work for someone who owns a mean of production and/or exchange in order to survive -- is the only class objectively capable of directly seizing control of capital, and thus building a new society.
This isn't to say that the non-proletarian working class, the middle class, or the lumpenproletariat can't be revolutionary. But the proletariat *must necessarily* form the nucleus of any successful revolutionary movement.
That's why, IMHO, we need to focus our energy in radicalizing movements built around the issues that most obviously affect the proletariat -- health care, housing, public transportation, etc.
Che's "Citizen Groups"
by Sam
Saturday, Sep. 20, 2003 at 1:05 PM
These groups have no interest in liberty, equality, and egalitarianism. They're racist vigilantes.
Immigrants aren't threatening our borders. Our worst enemies were born American.
laugh
by H.P.
Saturday, Sep. 20, 2003 at 1:12 PM
I agree with a lot of what you're saying, laugh. People shouldn't be expected to wear tuxedos to demos. But on the other hand, they should realize that if they look and act like clowns, people will only laugh at them.
Yes, you have a "right" to dress, speak, and act however you want. But if you want to successfully affect social change, you have to exercise some self-restraint, and take your target audience into account. Unless, of course, you just go to demos score some Punk Points.
re: ummm-
by Sam
Saturday, Sep. 20, 2003 at 1:15 PM
As far as I know, there are no explicitly anarchist organizations in Pittsburgh.
A Few Thoughts
by Sam
Saturday, Sep. 20, 2003 at 1:52 PM
I'll start by stating that I am not an anarchist. I consider myself a generic leftist or socialist. I'm influenced by anarchist ideas, but I'm also influenced by Marxist ideas. That said, I think both anarchist and non-anarchist groups have good things to offer.
Here are the biggest problems I see with the anarchist movement in the U.S. (or at least, in the Mid-Atlantic states) today.
First of all, as the article stated, most anarchists come from middle class and even bourgeois backgrounds. Many of them are students. A significant number are part of the lumpenproletariat, summit-hopping punk kids who've never held a steady job.
As I explained in another post, the proletariat must necessarily form the nucleus of a truly revolutionary movement. People without jobs can hardly be revolutionary.
Another problem is that a lot of people who call themselves anarchists are really liberals. By liberals I don't mean reformists necessarily, but individualists. They're concerned with doing what they want to do, when they want to do it, to such a degree that they harm the movement. An example is people who chant "fuck" this and "fuck " that, people who never bathe, etc.
I don't have a problem with people personally making these decisions -- many people who do make such decisions are my friends. But in my view, this kind of behavior alienates revolutionaries further from the working class. I'm not asking that people dress like they're going to prom every time they come to a rally. But people need to consider the public they're supposedly trying to influence.
These people rightly criticize reformists for not wanting to do direct action and/or civil disobedience, saying that reformists see attending demos as an exercise to make themselves feel better rather than a vehicle for real social change. But when these same people engage in behavior that will obviously alienate the working class, they are themselves turning actions into nothing more than feel-good actions.
Another problem I see is anarchism's theoretical scizophrenia. There are so many different varieties and conceptions of anarchism that it's very hard to ascertain any kind of a coherent, unifying view.
Far more harmful to anarchist theory, are three trends that have recently gained some steam: neo-individualism, primitivism, and ultra-leftism.
By neo-individualists, I mean people like Bob Black and Hakim Bey, who seem to think we can just sit in a circle and imagine the system away. They've infected anarchism with useless Eastern mysticism and irrationalism. See Murray Bookchin's "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm".
Primitivism is just the most ridiculous idea I've ever encountered. NO ONE will EVER find primitivism appealing. If you like the idea of picking lice out of each other's hair and dying at age 30, so be it. Understandably, most people never will. Furthermore, the modern technological infrastructure is necessary to sustain the level of production necessary for the survival of the Earth's 6 billion people. The abolishment of technology would mean mass starvation and disease.
By ultra-leftism, I mean the rejection of reform entirely. I reject reformism, but reforms must be critically supported by revolutionaries ever, for fairly obvious tactical reasons.
I've been thinking about the actual possibility of revolution in the U.S. The possibility is now probably less than it has been at any point since World War II. Why? 9/11. That tragedy has stirred up a misplaced nationalistic fervor that will linger for a while, maybe for generations.
Three things could counteract this trend: 1.) the revelation that the Bush gang was at least somewhat complicit in the 9/11 attacks (which may or may not be true) 2.) a severe economic crisis or 3.) somehow, people are made totally aware of the terror that this government has itself inflicted upon the Third World.
If none of these things happen, then I think we can only hope for reform in our lifetimes. In that case, we should continue working for both reform and revolution -- however futile -- and look to the Third World. Generally speaking, the West has the means for successful social revolution, but little interest in it. The people of the Third World are always interested in social revolution, but pretty much lack the means to successfully carry out such a revolution.
Gramsci
by Sam
Saturday, Sep. 20, 2003 at 2:01 PM
Antonio Gramsci's writings are incredibly relevant to radicalism today, especially in the West. His ideas about cultural hegemony on incredibly important. They have the potential to bring the movement forward in a very significant way. He was a Marxist, but don't let that discourage you -- radicals of all stripes should familiarize themselves with his ideas.
http://www.charm.net/~vacirca/
http://www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/index.htm
hit the reset button
by ...
Sunday, Sep. 21, 2003 at 10:00 AM
<p>
<a href='http://www.geocities.com/efac5/'><b>Effort For A Clean Slate</b>
</p>
<p>
So, here's how we fix it. Let's just start over. There's no reason to continue with all this crap, this blind machine we've left to consume us. All we have to do, is press the reset button and try again. We're a grown up species; we know when it's time to try something else.
</p>
<p>
So, how do we do this as quickly as possible? Well, our simplest solution is of course our favorite weapons of mass destruction: the Nuclear Warhead and all of its siblings.
</p>
Your anarchism is weak and amusing
by SAOIRSE
Wednesday, Sep. 24, 2003 at 3:03 PM
Your movement has done nothing to change the world. I find that most of you are nothing but middle class anarchist wannabes. You are enthralled by anarchism's ideals, but that's where your involvement ends. You show up to a demonstration, dress like an artsy leftist hippie, and make the rest of the american constituency laugh at you while your ideas and concerns go unheard. Is that all your movement is? Is that the anarchism you want to be a part of? If this is the way the movement is going to stay, I'm ashamed to call muself an anarchist! And another thing, all this peace crap has got to go..."They ignore a protest, but can they ignore a burning police car?" all you pitt punx should know that!
![[masthead]](/images/masthead_140.png)