April 2009

Some Anarchist Principles


anarchist-handThe local (Chicago) group I am involved with, Four Star Anarchist Organization, recently celebrated its one-year anniversary by publishing its guiding Statement of Principles. This is meant to be a short and accessible overview of our politics and goals, without going into detail on strategy or specific ideological points (we’ll address those, as they arise, in other published statements). It’s rather difficult to collectively write political statements –especially short ones — that aren’t laden with jargon or anarchist in-group terminology, but I think we did a decent job. We also made an effort to talk more about what we want, rather than just throwing out a laundry list of things we opposed.  Feedback is, of course, appreciated.

Here is the statement in full:

The Four Star Anarchist Organization believes all people must have control over the basic conditions of their lives. Core values of cooperation, equality, and direct democracy guide our struggle toward a free society that transforms our relationships with our neighborhoods, workplaces, culture, the world in which we live, and each other.

  • In our families, women, children, and all members must have equality and freedom from violence. We must be free to develop healthy, supportive relationships of our choosing as opposed to living conditions and arrangements resulting from economic, religious, cultural, or government coercion.
  • In our neighborhoods, community and economic development must be freely decided by all. All people are entitled to quality housing, safe communities, healthcare, education, and other necessities of life.
  • In our workplaces, we must have direct democratic control over the conditions of our labor and effort. Bosses must be replaced by the cooperative decisions and actions of those who work in homes, stores, offices, hospitals, schools, factories, and all other workplaces. This work must be based on fulfilling real needs rather than creating profits for the wealthy.
  • In our communities, people must be free to develop and maintain culture–art, music, sport, and food–that reflects the best part of daily life in our society. Justice, respect, and passion can only thrive in a world where our popular culture is both social and cooperative.
  • In our world as a whole, we must engage scientific principles and appropriate technologies to ensure a thriving and sustainable planet for all. Most people are experts on their own needs and we are able to solve even the biggest problems when we work together.

Four Star is committed to struggling against the lethal combination of oppression and domination that characterizes life in our society: capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, environmental devastation, and the state. Our vision is to help develop affinity and empower people by providing direct support to groups, communities, and individuals who are identifying solutions in their lives. To make this happen, we involve ourselves with social movements and promote anarchism, direct democracy, and militant direct action.

Categories: Anarchism

Molly'sBlog (30 April 2009 8:45 pm)


INTERNATIONAL LABOUR:
THE ORIGINS OF MAYDAY-A WOBBLY VIEW:
Tomorrow, Friday May 1, will be May Day, the day that most of the world considers to be the real Labour Day. The origins of this commemoration are quite often unknown, sometimes deliberately in the case of Communist parties who want to obscure its anarchist ancestry. Here from the website of the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW- often referred to as "the Wobblies") is a capsule history of the birth of May Day. Go to the IWW website for a list of some of the events that wobs will be participating in on this day.
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May 1: International Worker’s Day - Día Internacional De Los Trabajadores:
Yet again May Day quickly approaches. Since 2006 the immigrant rights marches- made up of millions of undocumented migrant workers along with their supporters, families and children- has brought back May 1st to its original roots in the US. But many are still unaware of its origins in US labor history and the impact this commemorative day still has internationally- such as you can still walk into neighborhoods in Mexico and find streets such as “Calle Los Mártires de Chicago” (Martyrs of Chicago Street).

Below is a short, pamphlet length piece I edited on the origins and radical history of May Day. For an in depth look you might try Paul Avrich’s classic “The Haymarket Tragedy” and AK Press offers a listing of books they carry on the subject here. -AW
What is May Day and why is it called International Workers Day?
May 1st, International Worker’s Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United States and Canada. This is despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880’s in the United States, with the fight for an eight-hour work day led by immigrant workers. The recent historic marches and protests for immigrant rights, which began with “El Gran Paro Americano 2006,” have brought back into our memories May 1 as an important day of struggle. Although the history of the day has largely been forgotten in the United States, it is still actively remembered and celebrated today by workers, unionists and oppressed peoples all over the world. In fact you can still walk through neighborhoods in Mexico and find streets such as Calle Los Martires de Chicago in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, commemorating the leaders of the eight-hour day movement who were imprisoned and executed.

It is not surprising that the government, business leaders, mainstream union leaders, and the media would want to hide the true history of May Day, portraying it as a “communist” holiday celebrated only in the Soviet Union. In its attempt to erase the history and significance of May Day, the United States government declared May 1st to be “Law Day,” and gave us instead Labor Day—a holiday devoid of any historical significance other than a three weekend holiday at the end of the summer.
The Story of the Eight-Hour Day Movement
In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day’s work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike (meaning a strike of all workers at all workplaces) to achieve the goal, since years of lobbying and legislative methods had already failed. With workers being forced to work ten, twelve, and fourteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders. By April 1886, 250,000 workers across the US were involved in the May Day movement.

The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People’s Association which believed in using education and direct action to create a free and revolutionary society based on the end of capitalism, the end of inequality based on class, race and sex, and where working and oppressed peoples and communities were able participate and have a meaningful voice in society. Their movement was based in the working class immigrant communities of the city, mainly among Germans, and was centered around a vibrant radical community that included daily and weekly newspapers in several languages, cultural clubs, youth groups, choirs, sports teams and especially within labor unions.

Businesses and the government were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly. The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons financed by local business leaders. Chicago’s Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. Nevertheless, by May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers. Many participated in strikes and hundreds of thousands- estimated between 300,000 and 1 million- participated in marches and parades on that day. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality of the police.

The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.
The Story of the Haymarket Martyrs
Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement. Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected anarchists and socialists and hundreds were arrested without charge. Anarchists in particular were harassed, and eight of Chicago’s most active leaders in the movement—Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden and Oscar Neebe—were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers’ platform). On August 19th seven of the defendants were sentenced to death and Neebe to 15 years in prison.

After a massive international campaign for their release, the government “compromised” and commuted the sentences of Schwab and Fielden to life imprisonment. Lingg cheated the hangman by committing suicide in his cell the day before the executions. On November 11th 1887 Albert Parsons, George Engel, August Spies and Adolf Fischer were hanged. Six hundred thousand working people turned out for their funeral. The campaign to free Neebe, Schwab and Fielden continued.

On June 26 1893, Governor Altgeld set them free because they were innocent of the crime for which they had been tried. They and the hanged men had been the victims of “hysteria, packed juries and a biased judge.” Evidence later came to light that the bomb may have been thrown by a police agent working for Captain Bonfield, as part of a conspiracy involving certain steel bosses to discredit the labor movement.
The Legacy of the Haymarket Incident
When Spies addressed the court after he had been sentenced to die, he was confident the repression of the government would not succeed. “If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement . . . the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in misery and want, expect salvation—if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread on a spark, but there and there, behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.”

Nevertheless, rather than suppressing labor and radical movements, the events of 1886 and the execution of the Chicago anarchists actually mobilized many generations of radicals. Two lesser known but inspirational revolutionary women emerged out of this legacy. Emma Goldman- who would become a famous anarchist speaker, feminist and labor activist from the 1910’s through the 1930’s- was a young immigrant from Russia at the time, later pointed to the Haymarket affair as her moment of political birth. Lucy Gonzalez Parsons, widow to Chicago Martyr Albert Parsons, was born in Texas as a slave and was of Black, Native American and Mexican ancestry, played a leading role in campaigning for the release of the imprisoned activists. Active in anarchist and labor movements long before the Haymarket incident, she continued to play a role in labor organizing (participating in the founding of the radical Industrial Workers of the World), advocated for women workers, published an anarchist newspaper The Liberator and fought for racial justice up until her death in 1942 at 89 years old.

By covering up the history of May Day, the government, business, mainstream unions, and the media have attempted to hide an entire legacy of dissent in this country. They are terrified of what a similarly militant and organized movement could accomplish today, and they suppress the seeds of such organization whenever and wherever they can. As workers, students and community members committed to building a new and free society, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not only for its historical significance, but also as a time to organize around issues of vital importance to working-class people today.

Molly’sBlog 2009-05-01 04:14:00


CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
LINCHPIN #9 IS OUT AND ABOUT:
Linchpin, the regular publication of the Ontario platformist organization Common Cause, is now out with its ninth edition. There is a downloadable pdf version at the website. Here's the announcement.
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Linchpin Issue 9:

A newly designed issue of Linchpin, Common Cause's free paper, is now out for April/May.

As the recession deepens, employers continue to discard their workers, many of whom are experiencing the inadequacy of government safety nets for the first time. This issue reviews steel and auto worker responses in Hamilton and Windsor. It also provides an anarchist perspective on health care as the McGuinty government quietly leaves hospitals with no choice but to layoff staff, introduce service fees or allow services to erode.

Sarah Lawrance of Ottawa's EXILE Infoshop explains the staples of anarchist activity as educational and liberatory. Kim Mackrael of the Indigenous Peoples Solidary Network shines a light on the latest indications the Harper government wants to undermine Barriere Lake's autonomy.

Pick up a copy of Linchpin in Toronto at Toronto Women's Bookstore (73 Harbord), in Ottawa at EXILE Infoshop (256 Bank St), in Hamilton at Sky Dragon Centre 27 King William), and in London at Empowerment Infoshop (636 Queens Ave). Or download the pdf file linked below.
Solidarity,
Andrew Loucks
Editor

This paper is published by Common Cause, an Ontario wide anarchist federation. At the first Common Cause Ontario conference held in Toronto we agreed to a basic policy document, a constitution, and a basic publication plan both online in terms of a website (www.linchpin.ca), and a free printed newspaper which will be distributed in large numbers.

Peruvian, other amphibious assault forces invade Florida

The alabaster whiteness of the rugged Major’s teeth shone as fireflies in the aggravated heavens.

Oh, it was just an exercise.

From the comments to “Multinational forces storm Mayport beach for drills“, wherein commenter “tut tut” need not be forgiven for her/his use of the imperial first-person plural:

This is like one of those stories I used to write for my high school newspaper. I’d comment on everything but what the actual news in the the story was. And I’d have my thesaurus next to me to make it seem like I knew more than I actually did.

Why does the author not ask the obvious questions:

What the hell is this troop of military soldiers doing by running war games on our beaches?

Why is it a multinational group to begin with? Are we at war with Peru?  Is Peru at war with us?

Why is it US soldiers and soldiers from several different foreign countries are training to ‘jell’ and why is that ‘good’?

I’m surprised he didn’t write something like ‘The alabaster whiteness of the rugged Major’s teeth shone as fireflies in the aggravated heavens.’

Puff piece that tells me nothing of what I need to know about this curious incident.

SOUTHCOM press release (and Google cache).

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This Week at C4SS: What this Country Needs is a Good Pirated Version of Kindle E-Books

Book review: “Descent into Chaos” by Ahmed Rashid

Until final papers are finished, I won't have time to blog. But I figured I'd post this response I wrote for a class to Ahmed Rashid's book, Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.  It's timely, given what's happening in Pakistan and Obama's war-escalation plan for Afghanistan. As well, I couldn't find a single critical review of the book, which is troubling, especially as there is so little material out about the topic thereby giving Rashid's view more weight than it likely should have.

Rashid-chaos-cover


I had two main reactions to Rashid's book. One was frustration and the other was appreciation.  My frustration extended largely from his liberal viewpoint that the war on Afghanistan was a just war and could've gone swimmingly "if only" the various players had made the correct decisions and taken the appropriate actions. His main argument appeared to be that occupation (though he argued that it wasn't) and nation-building can be done successfully "if only" everyone is up front, genuine and on the level.  This strikes me as a painfully naïve way of interpreting world events and prescribing solutions.  Just as he tried to contextualize Afghanistan with other countries in Central Asia, the U.S. invasion and occupation needs to be contextualized within a discussion of hegemony and capitalism.  After the scores of countries the U.S. has invaded, I'm shocked people still think the U.S. actually cares about the Afghan, Iraqi, Guatemalan, Filipino etc., etc. people, and that the "if only" argument is still used.

My other frustration was that there was much that seemed to be missing from the book.  There was not much of a discussion of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda, what they thought, how they formed, why they were bad. It was just assumed that they were bad and needed no discussion.  I think labeling something as bad and worthy of being opposed without much discussion is dangerous, even if the label is appropriate.  I was also troubled by his other labeling of things.  He doesn't discuss what jihad means, but again it's taken to be bad. He claims "talib" means "religious student" and "madrassa" means "religious school" when both just mean student and school.  He doesn't explain his definition of Islamic "extremism" or "fundamentalism".  Finally, in the first three chapters (I stopped after that) I counted 16 claims that I felt warranted footnotes where none existed. It all seemed very attuned to inaccurate Western conceptions and instead of using his book as an opportunity to deconstruct them, he reinforces them, which is unfortunate.

However, I'm still glad that I read the book. I learned much about the area and it is certainly extremely topical.  Now hearing about how the Taliban is operating in the Swat Valley makes a lot more sense.  It also provoked some thinking about, well, what is the solution, what should be done? From my perspective, I oppose the US/European occupation, I think Karzai's an inept puppet, I certainly am not a fan of the Taliban or warlords.  I know nothing about Afghanistan's civil society.  Do I even know enough to have an opinion?  It got me thinking and I appreciate that.

Molly’sBlog 2009-05-01 00:55:00


INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-SWEDEN:
PROTESTING VATTENFALL:
The following communique is from the Anarckisterna group in Sweden, and their creative protest vehicle, the "Yellow Army Faction" (GAF). It's report of how they invaded the press conference of the Vattenfall (Waterfall in Swedish) company that was held after the annual corporate general meeting. According to the Wikipedia entry on Vattenfall, this company, wholly owned by the Swedish government is becoming one of the primary energy companies in northern Europe. To do this it has invested heavily in "brown coal" plants (46% of its generation) and nuclear power (28%). the charge that they are involved in "greenwashing" made by the GAF is more than backed up by the facts. Read the following comminiqué, and go to the link provided for video of the action and further information on the Vattenfall company and its actions.
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Yellow Army Faction invading press conference of Vattenfall:‏

Yellow Army Faction invading press conference of Vattenfall http://anarkisterna.com/blog/2009/04/30/yellow-army-faction-invading-press-conference-of-vattenfall/
Yesterday the Yellow Army Faction, GAF, invaded the press conference of Vattenfall after their annual general meeting. GAF issued this statement:
Today the Yellow Army Faction invaded the press conference of Vattenfall greenwashing Lars G Josefsson and Co, who were bullshitting the media at their annual general meeting, to raise awareness of how they are portraying themselves as holding the solution to the climate crisis, while in fact they are the problem. We refuse to stand silently by while they are pushing us further towards destruction.
Not for an instant do we believe that the same dirty company causing climate changes, or the political system backing it up, can solve the climate crisis. An industrialised capitalist economy cannot get by without fossil fuels. It is built on the access to cheap energy that is easily taken from the ground. All economic growth is directly linked to the growing consumption of oil and coal. Lars G Josefsson, vice of Vattenfall, clearly expresses this logic: “Developing renewable energy sources is expensive”, he says. “To afford doing so, Vattenfall has to invest largely into the profitable coal energy.” (It seems that this is some variant of the old' "I'll stop doing 'X', but I've got to keep doing it some more so I can afford to stop. This excuse is in wide circulation for a variety of behaviors-Molly)
To be able to continue with its lucrative coal energy, Vattenfall tries to hoax us by saying new technology will solve the problem. With the so called “Carbon Capture and Storage” technique coal carbon dioxide is to be captured and“decontaminated”.
But if one believes that new technology can solve the problem, one hasn’t understood what technology is. Technology is but a part of a whole society, in this case western industrial society, relying on cheap energy. A need for energy that won’t be satisfied before nature, humans and our life-supporting system has been exploited to the brink of extinction. Solving this problem is not included in the time frame that Vattenfall's quarterly economics allows.
The real solutions to the problems of energy and climate crises come from below. They are small scale, locally controlled and aimed at supplying our basic needs. To the people of Sweden! Vattenfall is owned by you. Lars G Josefsson is employed by you. It is time to revolt and take the power back!
The Yellow Army Faction consists of the 240 480 yellow plastic figurines that Vattenfall has created in their filthy “green washing” campaign. But we have fought loose and sworn to fight to the last figurine against Vattenfall and capitalism driving our Earth towards destruction!

Think GalactiCon


anarchistbookI’m thinking of putting together a panel/workshop for the ThinkGalactiCon radical sci-fi convention in Chicago (June 26-28). So far what I have in mind is along the lines of discussing feminism and transhumanism — specifically why, despite its emphasis on reproductive and morphological freedom, transhuman sci-fi, writings, and activism are all male-dominated areas. There is a lot of related material that could fit into such a discussion: eugenics issues, uploading/resleeving and gender identity, repro tech, and so on.

That’s one idea anyway. Another is to discuss sci-fi examples of using H+ technologies (specifically AI, nano, and communications tech) to achieve anarchist/horizontal/egalitarian societies and/or social change. Perhaps related to this could be the development of an anarchist approach to science and technology.

Any of our readers planning on going? Have an interest in any particular topic? You can see some of the other panel/workshop ideas being discussed here.

May Day reflections on a year of bloggery

1 May 2009 marks nostate.com’s first anniversary! It was a year ago today that the site went live, with my very first post, Stateless: “It’s great being free”.

I started the site, really, as my own soapbox, primarily intended to be a platform for publicity around my renunciation of US citizenship. Early on I did a lot more writing than I have been lately. Looking back in the archives will show up to 3 posts per day, back in the day, a lot of it reaction to current events. These days my level of engagement with the news has fallen to roughly zero, as it tends to every few years. Now, three posts in a week is a busy time around here. What the future holds is unclear, though I will make one promise: later this year, probably in the summer, there will be a semi-dramatic, fully-anarchist event starring — who else? — me, captured on video and posted here. Stay tuned!

What I did not expect when I joined the blogosphere was to become so much more engaged as a libertarian and anarchist. I did not expect to meet, make the acquaintance and even become friends with so many worthwhile, interesting people. This, truly, is a greater reward than I ever imagined. Thanks to all of you!!!

Significantly, nostate.com became (barely) self-funding in March 2009.

Some statistics, aggregating a year’s worth of data from Google Analytics and other data sources:

Unique visits: 64,381
Pageviews: 103,868
Visitors: 52,749
RSS subscribers: at least 120, counting only those using web-based readers

Top 5 countries, by number of visits:
United States: 45,149
Canada: 4,436
United Kingdom: 3,981
Slovakia: 1,334
Germany: 998

Top content, view count and top referrers thereto:

US government announces new logo: 24,288 (StumbleUpon)
The clown suit defense, and the excuses of symbols: 8,424 (StumbleUpon)
A declaration of separation: 4,141 (whatreallyhappened.com, davidicke.com)
I surrendered my US passport today: 3,872 (reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon)
The penalty is always death: 2,488 (StumbleUpon)
Press release: 2,267 (various)
Fuck the troops!: 2,034 (various)
An anarchist’s declaration: 1,911 (various)
Free Janine! And all political prisoners!: 1,878 (reddit)
Lèse majesté: 1,755 (StumbleUpon)

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eye of the storm (30 April 2009 2:53 pm)

saw the year's first hummingbird at my feeder today. seems very early!

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