Book Review of Black Flame: The revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism. Oakland, CA: AK Press. By Michael Schmidt and Lucien van der Walt.
by Deric Shannon

At the outset, after reading Black Flame, it's impossible not to reflect on the massive amount of research that such a work must have entailed. The book is a narrative about anarchism and, with interest in anarchism on the rise worldwide, it could not have come at a better time. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, we need new narratives of the anarchist tradition to understand where we've been. Secondly, Black Flame contains critiques of the ways that "radical" circles contemporarily have too often turned away from the radical class politics that have always defined the socialist movement.

Ironically enough, this is both a major strength of the book, but also, in my opinion, one of its weaknesses. As Schmidt and van der Walt state their case early in the book, "'(c)lass struggle' anarchism, sometimes called revolutionary or communist anarchism, is not a type of anarchism; in our view, it is the only anarchism" (19--emphasis theirs). This essentially leads to the authors deciding throughout the beginning of the book who the "real" anarchists are and who gets defined out.

Again, there are strengths and weaknesses with this approach.

Queer is many things. It’s a critique of identity– critiquing/questioning the boxes and categories we are given to cage ourselves with. Example, we can be gay, straight, or bi. These are the choices we have. But they don’t describe reality and they do more to contain us than to liberate us. (Although, I have to note that people do find empowerment and community within these identities and I don’t mean to downplay that.) It’s a critique of the construction of sexuality– formed by the ideas we have to conceive of it. If who you fuck is what you are (i.e., “gay”) — then that’s a sexual identity. Or we can do sexuality differently– it’s not who we are but what we do– our acts.

by Buckles

Building democratic mass movements in our workplaces and communities should be the strategy for combating the capitalist economic crisis and advancing revolutionary struggle. An alternative economic sector does not have the capacity to win short-term reforms or fundamentally transform society.

Wayne Price and Eric Larsen at the New York Anarchist Bookfair, 4/11/2009

Calling Labor and Community Supporters:

RALLY!
FOR 1199 SPECTRUM STRIKERS

SATURDAY, APRIL 24
11:00 AM TO 12:00 NOON

PARK PLACE HEALTH CENTER
5 Greenwood Street, Hartford
(off Park St. Parking on Amity, Madison, Grace, and nearby streets)

*Please forward widely!*

STOP THE RAIDS! Students of Trinity College present:

Let's Discuss Immigration Reform

Tuesday, April 20th
5:00pm
Terrace Rooms A, B & C
Mather Hall, Trinity College
300 Summit Street
Hartford CT

Friday, April 16, 2010 -- Nurses, nursing assistants and elder-care support staff at skilled nursing homes operated by Spectrum Healthcare are hitting the picket lines again this morning in four Connecticut towns.

Almost 400 caregivers at the four facilities - Birmingham Health Center in Derby, Hilltop Health Center in Ansonia, Laurel Hill Health Center in Winsted and Park Place in Hartford went on strike over Unfair Labor Practices on the part of their corporate operator, Spectrum. Caregivers at the four striking homes have been working under the terms of their previous contracts, which expired more than a year ago (March 15, 2009).

Recent events have raised many important questions: What does a real and vital movement look like? What is the nature of leadership in struggle? Is there a ‘correct’ way for us to fight against our conditions? Below is a statement from some friends addressing theoretical and practical concerns that have arisen in the last month or so...

Occupation, as a particular tactic, has become such a frequent topic of conversation in recent time only because it has resonated highly with workers and students across the country. People tend to forget that student occupiers’ inspiration came directly from workers in Chicago who occupied their factory in December of 2008 against the theft of their pay. Soon after the New School and NYU occupations, the students and non-students involved were heading regularly up to the Bronx to reciprocate the support of the Stella D’Oro strikers on their picket lines, and offer support for the potential occupation that the workers were considering. Today poor and homeless people are “occupying” empty land, foreclosed homes, and warehoused properties. So much for occupation as the ‘fetishized’ plaything of privileged elites!

Part of the reason for the resurgence of occupation – and land takeovers more generally – are the particular necessities that it addresses. Not merely a means or an end, an occupation or a land takeover becomes a venue for transforming the use of space for self-directed activity, and forging new bonds of material solidarity. It directly addresses the contradictions of a class society in which privatized space lays empty while public common space is closed and policed, and homelessness surges alongside a startling swell in home foreclosures and warehoused condos. By seizing space and holding it hostage from those who would control it, occupation creates a venue for collective action on a greater scale and can also significantly disrupt the normal functioning of institutions. Workers, students, and the homeless effectively put this form of direct action back on the table in the United States, where it has become the most notable feature of recent mass struggle.

(This reply posted on take the city is a response to The Politics of Impatience and references events at Hunter College in New York City on March 4th.)

http://fadge.wordpress.com/

A Partial List of Upcoming Workshops for F.A.D.G.E. Fest 2010:

Sexual Assault in the Activist Community: A How-To of Accountability- Description to follow…

DIY Speculum Exam Workshop-