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diff --git a/a/as/anonymous-stalking-the-earth-en.muse b/a/as/anonymous-stalking-the-earth-en.muse index 51dc8ce..9d8ff5b 100644 --- a/a/as/anonymous-stalking-the-earth-en.muse +++ b/a/as/anonymous-stalking-the-earth-en.muse @@ -1,10 +1,9 @@ #title Stalking the Earth -#subtitle stalking the earth +#subtitle a collection of data, past and present - distilled. composted. #author Anonymous #source Retrieved on January 11th, 2020 from https://stalkingtheearth.net/ #lang en -#notes Texts included Anarchist News editorials for podcast, The Anvil Review essays, Stalking the Earth originals, and some miscellaneous stuff -#DELETED deleted +#notes Texts included: Anarchist News podcast editorials, The Anvil Review essays, Stalking the Earth originals, and some miscellaneous stuff ** Hello world @@ -26,15 +25,12 @@ I will die facing the sun. <quote> -Part of <em>Versos sencillos</em> by José Martí </quote> -<quote> - -</quote> José Martí, the famous Cuban revolutionary and prolific writer whose published works fill 28 whole volumes, including - children stories, letters, poems, journalism, theater, translations, notes, and essays on a variety of subjects ranging from anarchists to white roses. Martí is often credited as the "father of modernism", especially in regards to Spanish-American literature. He was born in Old Habana, Cuba in 1853 and died in 1895 fighting against the Spanish there. Martí was and continues to be the haunting spectacle of Cuba. What follows, are some thoughts and minor research about Martí, specifically - his ten years spent living in New York City, his views on capitalism and work, and his thoughts about anarchists. At the age of 16, Martí was sent to prison for treason against the Spanish government, then in control of Cuba. He was soon exiled to Spain where he studied law and philosophy, but in the coming years he returned to Cuba, where he was again exiled to Spain. Eventually, in 1880 Martí found himself in New York City (NYC) writing journalism, translating articles, and working as joint consul for Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina. His time in NYC proved to be critical- as he helped launch Cuba's third war of independence while there, by fund raising and organizing against the Spanish. Soon afterwards, as history has come to tell - Martí was killed near Palma Soriano, Cuba in the very first battle of independence. The legend goes that he charged into battle on a white horse, while wearing a black overcoat, making him a prime target, and soon after dying. In comparison to the sword, the pen was the mightiest for Martí, as the 30+ volumes of his collected works attest to. -*** Being clever is a good way to start being free, rough translation +**** Being clever is a good way to start being free, rough translation For me, this exploration of Martí began when I visited Habana, Cuba and ventured into some of the many used book shops there. Book shops are interesting in Cuba, because there is often a somewhat limited selection amongst public sellers due to state censorship, but at the same time there is a plethora of old inexpensive books floating around, both above and underground - the most unusual, often dust covered little bookshops one can imagine with discounts on already inexpensive books. Of course, it is mostly all Spanish, but there is also old Russian language books and some English language books. @@ -57,28 +53,30 @@ The workers in the USA were uprising – demanding better working rights, and un Martí states that he believes non-violence and actions within the law were most just. Interestingly enough, soon afterwards Martí picked up a gun to help fight against the Spanish in Cuba. While I'm not exactly certain what changed his mind, it is clear his opinions had changed or he is the ultimate hypocritic. On this note, I think Martí was in line with the demonstrations - but stopped at the point of NYC's gun slinging anarchists and others around the USA. More so, he was part of the press and the time was ripe for yellow journalism. <quote> -Martí’s first articles on the Chicago anarchists are in step with the North American press and the xenophobia it promoted: anarchist terror is the work of monstrous Eastern European immigrants who have brought the violent ways of the Old World to the New. The notion of “America” as a democratic alternative to barbarous “Europe” stands. After the execution of the anarchists, however, Martí does an about-face and re-writes his earlier account of events. He turns his rage on the political and justice system and softens his earlier critique of the anarchists. The U.S. is now as unjust and violent as despotic Europe.[1] +Martí’s first articles on the Chicago anarchists are in step with the North American press and the xenophobia it promoted: anarchist terror is the work of monstrous Eastern European immigrants who have brought the violent ways of the Old World to the New. The notion of “America” as a democratic alternative to barbarous “Europe” stands. After the execution of the anarchists, however, Martí does an about-face and re-writes his earlier account of events. He turns his rage on the political and justice system and softens his earlier critique of the anarchists. The U.S. is now as unjust and violent as despotic Europe.[2] </quote> It goes on to say that: <quote> -In his initial reactions to Haymarket, Martí had celebrated the heroism of the police and demonized the European anarchists in terms similar to those found in the mainstream U.S. press. In “Un drama terrible,” however, he retells the story of what happened on May fourth in a way that was much more sympathetic to workers and anarchists. He indicts the police, the national media and the justice system for their lies and corruption. If before he had referred to the anarchists as beasts, now it was the Republic as a whole that has become savage like a wolf (795). Martí’s newfound solidarity with the working class, and his sympathetic representation of the anarchists he had previously rejected, results in a powerful identification with the working class, where a new community emerges out of the ruins of the Haymarket Affair.[1] +In his initial reactions to Haymarket, Martí had celebrated the heroism of the police and demonized the European anarchists in terms similar to those found in the mainstream U.S. press. In “Un drama terrible,” however, he retells the story of what happened on May fourth in a way that was much more sympathetic to workers and anarchists. He indicts the police, the national media and the justice system for their lies and corruption. If before he had referred to the anarchists as beasts, now it was the Republic as a whole that has become savage like a wolf (795). Martí’s newfound solidarity with the working class, and his sympathetic representation of the anarchists he had previously rejected, results in a powerful identification with the working class, where a new community emerges out of the ruins of the Haymarket Affair.[3] </quote> José Martí and his on-again, off-again relationship with the anarchists never made it to see the “new community” emerge from the ruins of the old, but then again neither has any revolutionary of the past or present. His writings, full of illusion and splendor, are a somewhat enjoyable introspective into one aspect of the late 19th century revolutionary thinkers. For many, Martí has withstood the test of time and his influence on contemporary thought is evident today in Cuba, but outside as well – even if with different interpretations. -*** Other articles by Martí about New York: +**** Other articles by Martí about New York: <em>La ciudad, el viaje y el circo</em> - <em>La vida neoyorkina</em> - <em>Los indios de Norteamerica</em> - <em>La diversion norteamericana</em> - <em>El problema industrial en los Estados Unidos</em> - <em>La escuela en Nueva York</em> - <em>El puente de Brooklyn</em> - <em>The Dedication of the Statue of Liberty</em> -*** Footnotes: - [1] The Limits of Analogy: José Martí and the Haymarket Martyrs by Christopher Conway - University of Texas—Arlington +[2] Ibid. + +[3] Ibid. + *Author's note: Originally, some years ago, there was another article about José Martí, Cuba, and the Anarchists; that was, looking back - pretty bad. This version is an attempt to fix that and never look back again. -*** The revolution is just a Che t-shirt away +**** The revolution is just a Che t-shirt away <quote> There are perhaps four large categories of American thought which provide definitions of the fifty years of Castro rule: 1) the right-wing which views the island as a totalitarian, communist police state where starving people live under daily repressive rule, and the government is involved in drug trafficking and terrorism; 2) the center through to the liberal left which agrees, perhaps in the mode of Michael Moore’s movie, Sicko, that the Revolution has provided good social services for the poor and resisted U.S. hegemony in the hemisphere, but needs to install more democracy and private investment; 3) the organized left which sees very little wrong with the island and views all criticism of it as aid to the U.S. empire, and 4) the anarchist view which, indeed, sees the island as a police state needing a second revolution to install workers democracy, but has no use for calls for returning to private forms of ownership or foreign investment. @@ -116,14 +114,6 @@ by Walker Lane <br> $4.00 -For some further reading: - -Democracy Now! Interview with Assata Shakur's lawyer - -Self Steering Without A Windvane - -The Anarchist Library Cuba category - *** The species being of anarchist economics <strong>Capitalist Crisis and Anarchist Economics, a talk by Wayne Price on August 20th, 2013 in Rochester, New York at the Flying Squirrel Community Space</strong> @@ -136,7 +126,6 @@ Price began his talk by stating that he is retired (from what he didn't say) and According to Price, capitalism has been in decline since after World War II. This can be seen in the creation of the Bretton Woods system, which lead to the International Monetary Fund and what was called the World Bank, both of which aim to stabilize business as usual. Overall, I was more than a bit disappointed in his talk because I felt like everything he mentioned could have also been discussed in a Political Science college somewhere. It was almost as if he completely left out the anarchist economics half, and instead choose to talk to the large group in a general history leading up to the crisis. And on to the question and answer we went... - Why would anyone want a new society? For the most part, the answer is that they don't. So what should we do as anarchists? Organize! But, around what? Price mentioned strikes and supporting them, supporting workers, taking over factories, and having worker run co-ops “from the bottom up, run by the workers.” He also mentioned that many of these <em>alternative</em> ideas are still within the system, like for example co-ops still being under the capitalist market. One of the more heated questioning and answering of topics came when Price used the term “terrorism” to describe anarchist sabotage. It almost started to look like the Crimethinc. / Chris Hedges debate up in there. Perhaps instead, Price should have used the often anarchist term of propaganda of the deed (POD) to describe his distaste for it instead of the catch all often government term of terrorism. It turns out, Price is not in favour of small group POD, and instead believes that we need to win the “battle of ideas” (again this sounds like a military term from Iraq and Afghanistan). In the end, Price's answer was that you can't stop capitalism without a “mass movement” to end it. @@ -145,13 +134,384 @@ And what about anarchist economics? Well, someone asked if he could define anarc On a last note, Price often used the term “democracy” in discussing these anarchist alternatives and it would have been great to hear more of a critique of democracy from him or his specific ideas on the subject. Inside of me, I couldn't help but cringe while thinking of the JM Barrie from <em>Peter Pan</em> (1928) quote: "<em>Every time an anarchist says</em>, "I believe in democracy," there is a little fairy somewhere that falls down dead." +*** Letters of Insurgents: A brief commentary + +authors note: <em>This text was originally an attempt at an online book reading & discussion over at http://insurgentsummer.org/ . The site is unfortunately currently down as of December 2013 (and before), but one can still process the gems of wisdom from the wonderful Internet Archive page lookup. It was a series of blog entries that have since been edited with many revisions and changes made, but still keeping the overall flavour. Times have changed, my writing was really bad - it hopefully is a little better here; it's still really bad, but the pictures are nice.</em> + +**** Part One + +So, things are heating up over at "Insurgent Summer", a participatory reading of <em>Letters of Insurgents</em>. Tomorrow is the deadline for the first letters to be completed, and I've just finished them, so I'll try and write down some thoughts to get the ball slowly rolling. I'm going to try and do this for every set of letters, so we shall see how that goes. It is really exciting for me to be reading this book again (I first read it last summer), since I consider it to be within my current top all-time favorite books. <em>Finnegans Wake</em> by James Joyce and <em>One Hundred Years of Solitude</em> by Gabriel García Márquez are my other two favorite books currently, so it has good company. This will be my second time reading the book, but I'll only be commenting on the weeks reading section (or the previous sections, when related) - so I'll try not to bring up any <em>spoilers</em> before their time. + +What I'd really like to do, and what I wanted to do before when I read the book, was write an all-encompassing review of the work - however, this never <em>really</em> happened - and instead we're left with this. Perhaps, these weekly posts along with other commentary from individuals will help in the overall creation of an in-depth review of the book someday [unfortunately it looks like with the site offline, this information is no longer readily accessible except with the way back machine https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://insurgentsummer.org]. If you don't have a copy of the book, which is out of print and can be difficult to obtain, you can read it from The Anarchist Library here http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/sophia-nachalo-and-yarostan-vochek-letters-of-insurgents. The original book was scanned, machine read, human edited, and uploaded to the library for specifically for this online reading. + +The book takes the form of a series of incredibly touching letters between two long lost friends, Yarostan and Sophia. Do you write letters to your friends? Prisoners? How has letter writing has changed with the advent of computers, e-mail, cell phones, and text msg? It would seem there is much less of this actual long-form letter writing, and much more of the short instant msg shared by technology. It is a lost art. As much as I enjoy the fact of being able to quickly communicate with friends; at the same time, I really miss the personal touch of the post. Reading <em>Letters of Insurgents</em> kind of makes me envious of friends who can write such eloquent long-form letters, and express themselves so-well in this manner. + +**** Visions of horror are inverse utopias so beautiful tears come to my eyes + +There is so much to comment on in the first letters alone, if one is to really delve in (a bit of a cop out on my part, no?). But, that's tough, and it's only Thursday - so we can leave it for the easy going... for the moment at least. + +If anything, I will try and comment a bit further in comments on the first part and continue with some posts on the other letters. And most of all, have fun this summer. Saludos! + +<quote> +"In a context where any word or gesture can lead to the dreaded arrest there's no freedom" +</quote> +<quote> +- an excerpt from Yarostan's first letter +</quote> + +**** Part Two: losing your illusion in the land of gigantic objects and monstrous toys + +Hello there world. It has been a busy week, with the official start of summer, and one more set of letters. + +One idea that really sticks out in this set of letters that of <em>illusion</em>. In true Gunz 'n Rose's fashion, we find ourselves losing our illusion, only to shed it off for another illusion. + +<quote> +Since we all know we'll eventually die, since any of us might die tomorrow, are all our hopes and dreams illusions? +</quote> +<quote> +- Sophia (2) +</quote> + +How does one + +go about shedding their illusions, + +losing them, + +like death, + +nothing else is imaginable + +<quote> +Shedding our illusions, repressing our wants, forgetting our possibilities: these are the slogans of the ruling order; coming from you they sound bizarre. +</quote> +<quote> +- Sophia (2) +</quote> + +I recall the time some years ago, when I was living in La Habana, Cuba seeing a distinctive orange cargo truck with the words "viva la ilusión" spray painted on it, toting the circled A for anarchy meandering through the city streets. + +**** What is your life project? + +The following are headlines from the media: (of course only jokes, but actual quotes, just with titles that define them from the get-go!) + +Yarostan, the killer: + +<quote> +"At first I shot to avenge my parents. Later I just shot; my only concern was to hit." +</quote> +<quote> +- Yarostan (2) +</quote> + +Sophia on friendship: + +<quote> +"A complete lack of human warmth, understanding, sympathy, comradeship. A cold, dispassionate disection of an animal." +</quote> +<quote> +- Sophia (2) +</quote> +Sophia on Hakim Bey: -** ANEWS: +<quote> +Can you really be saying that insurgents only rise against the ruling order so as to reimpose it? Can you really be saying that the only dreams of rebels are dreams of authority and submission? +</quote> +<quote> +- Sophia (2) +</quote> + +Sophia on the radio: + +<quote> +The radio is an instrument which kills communication; it robs people of their tongues; it broadcasts the voice of a single individual to millions of listeners, reducing them to passive receptacles. If communication has the same root as common and community, the radio is an instrument for uprooting all three. +</quote> +<quote> +-Sophia (2) +</quote> + +Sophia on teaching: + +<quote> +"I decided during my first teaching job that I wasn't going to let myself be reduced to a means of production for the production of means of production." +</quote> +<quote> +- Sophia (2) +</quote> + +Sophia on life: + +<quote> +"I've tried to show you that my whole life has revolved around the experience I shared with you and that all my life I've sought to communicate with you." +</quote> + +Well, goodnight all. Till, next week and then some. Saludos... + +ps. sophia = much sweeter? love struck? and regretting leaving paradise? + +**** Part Three (y más): Dancing in the Dark (<em>you can't start a fire, without a spark</em>) + +If you haven't been paying attention, the folks over at Insurgent Summer have made some great posts about the book so far and I've really enjoyed reading their thoughts, as an addition to the book. Some things we have in common, and other things I probably would have never realized if I hadn't read their thoughts. + +I'd like to briefly comment on one area that is really important for me. It's dancing, and to be honest I'm a terrible dancer (in terms of official dance, a la salsa, etc). But, I love to dance - I mean, I love to go wild and lose myself in the music, in the passion of movement/moment, and going crazy with your friends, basically having a good time (don't stop me now!). It makes me feel good. I think one of the problems with society is that people forget how to <em>dance</em>. My mom, who is a warrior - has really helped me realize how important stuff like this in life. + +<quote> +"But you just said, 'It takes doing.' Dancing is doing! Poor Jasna is always so sad, and she was so happy when she danced." +</quote> + +Jasna is the sad, lonely, solitary being that loves to lose herself in books. She literally loves books and they are her extreme, reading. And read. And read for days on end, nothing is more important - on being caught up in the life of books. + +I feel in love with the Daft Punk album <em>Homework</em> when it first came out, and I was in my very early teens then and it made me want to dance. Music, plays such an important part of so many peoples lifes. + +**** You can do anything you want + +<quote> +"impossibility is a term of logic and reality doesn't observe the limits of logic" +</quote> +<quote> +- Sophie (page #382) +</quote> + +Don't get me wrong, I actually really enjoy writing on a keyboard/screen/computer, but at the same time there are things about handwriting stuff that just blows me out of the water. There are so many things I like about handwriting - a few of them are, looking back upon, reading it years later, in your hands, no screen, the writing style and way of forming words / fonts that develop and begin to show with time. Plus, I don't know - but it just seems that something is different when you hit keys vs. actually writing the words out with your hand, certainly not as fast - but none-the-less refined. + +Today, after I woke I spent the entire day riding bikes with a friend out to the country, escaping from the city. I thought about Sophia and Ron (plus Sabina) riding their bikes out as far as they could go. We found things that we never knew about before, and traveled to places unknown - it was wonderful. Then tomorrow, (now today) one more day before the world of <em>work</em> resumes. + +These <em>days off</em> vs. days of work, are special for me - and I'm sure many feel the same way, unless you're a Luisa. Some of us work much more than others, and sometimes I think it is one of the most important things to spend a day doing <em>nothing</em>, like a days spent walking around aimlessly on city streets like Sophia or weeks on end spent reading books like Jasna. Actually, Jasna is kind of funny - it seems she reads to lose herself from reality and create something that is unreal, like an imaginary illusion. Or, just as Yarostan remembers, it's not my life project to find myself in death, looking back realizing that I never really was <em>alive</em>. + +Here are some quotes that I marked along the way: + +Yarostan on species being: + +<quote> +All around me human beings are attempting to come to life as human beings, as universal individuals, as species beings, each advancing with all and all with each. (page #193) +</quote> + +Zdenek on representation: + +<quote> +I think humanity is finally rejecting what has always been an impossible project, the project of representation. The present proliferation of major and minor pharaohs around the world is the final and ludicrous stage of that impossible project. My life can't be lived as a representation; my representative can't realize my aspirations, take my steps or engage in my actions. The pharaohs are the final and definitive proof of the impossibility of representation. I think we've all finally learned what took me so long to learn, namely that I'm robbed of my enjoyment if my representative enjoys himself for me, that my hunger remains when he eats for me, that I don't express myself when he speaks for me, that my mind and my imagination stagnate when he thinks for me, and decides for me, that I lose my life when he lives for me." (page #199) +</quote> + +Hugh on friends [to Sophie]: + +<quote> +My new friends don't need you. What you carry inside you, what surrounds you, whether you intend it or not, is all the rot we've started to shed. (page #409) +</quote> + +Imagine someone saying this to you. Sometimes, we all need a bit of a reality check, some more than others - and I suppose really in the end this is what it must have felt like to have this said about you. I like this because even if it sounds pretty mean, it also feels like inspiration. Where do we find what moves us each day? Is it <em>anger</em> that drives you? Something else, or perhaps better a combination of things? Do you even know what drives you? Or what you drive for? + +Sophia on school newspaper: + +<quote> +That group of students didn't disperse at the end of the school year, the way we did. They kept their publication going. +</quote> + +I think this is an interesting quote to think about, because it actually seems like a constant problem among student groups (or even other groups who may have some form of seperation) who have a running publication. I imagine the time and distance of a summer to be huge gap between doing and non-doing - so how does one, keep the metaphorical ball rolling? + +Sabina on what it all means: + +<quote> +There's nothing to understand, Sophia, and nothing to fit into. It's your life to do with as you will. There's no structure. Nothing is banned. Everything is allowed. No holds are barred." +</quote> + +And I will leave you with that, and now that I've caught up again with the reading, after a monstrous never-ending summer took hold - I look forward to keeping a more steady grasp on the writing, and thinking a little more critically about the book. Cheers! + +**** Letters of Insurgents: Just Dance + +A rather funny comment, yet touching - that was said the other week was something like this: "gosh, I think it was worth visiting just to see [insert name here] going wild on the dance floor." I don't know about that, but I can appreciate the sentiment, obviously dancing around with your friends is wonderful. And, how could it not be? + +Zdenek on dancing: + +<quote> +"I dream of nothing else! I haven't danced for over twenty years and I'm bursting with the desire to dance!" +</quote> + + *** + +Mirna on the real Mirna: + +<quote> +"you might not like her as well as you like your shepherdess" +</quote> + +Out of the other parts of what I've read so far in <em>Letters #6</em>, this quote was one that stuck with me. In many ways, this book is fascinating because each one of us can relate to it in some way with the characters. As for Mirna - a shepherd growing up on our small family farm in the middle of the countryside. Although, I think for Mirna, she didn't really like the animals that much - and almost secretly dreamed of the city. We imagine growing up on a farm to be one of the best possible situations today, although it is up in the air. Rewilding, falling off the map, going off-the-grid, is the anti-civilization dream, but you can't escape everything. We barely ever made any money. + + *** + +Justice - "Dance" + +Broken Social Scene - "Meet me in the basement" (video inspired by G8/G20 in Toronto, check out all the dancing!) + +**** Reality is starting to incorporate our dreams + +<quote> +Maybe what's happening is that we're all becoming children again. Our rigid roles and characters are dropping off like dried skin. We're fascinating to each other because each one of our acts might be a total surprise, at any instant our personalities might change completely. Like children, we're not exhausted by what we've been and are; life is ahead of us; we're no longer dead. +</quote> +<quote> +- Sophie, (page #561) +</quote> + +Yesterday, August 20th was Fredy Perlman's birthday. Are birthdays important? I don't know, but they are nice. It also marks the end of Insurgent Summer, and even though I still haven't finished the book yet (so close!), here is a brief post. Like Yara, I will be spending the next week going to the mountains, or rather you could say - someplace far away in the middle of <em>nowhere</em> Adirondacks. Goodbye Internet, and goodnight neverland. Perhaps, I may finish the book there, and even write my final thoughts, upon a rock somewhere like Lem. Or not. Lem, IRL would freak me out in some ways and seems a bit wing nut - or crazy/insane (almost) as society may think. Don't hold your breathe. + +<quote> +"The contradiction between the subject of those books and my own mindless drift became unbearable to me." +</quote> +<quote> +- Sophie (page #570) +</quote> + +Oh, really? + +<quote> +no army can be "popular" +</quote> +<quote> +- Yarostan, (page #510) +</quote> + +This quote reminds me of something my mom always told me growing up - that "no one ever really wins a war". + +<quote> +How about something less lethal... like, books - you say? +</quote> + +Sure. On a totally different note, although when put through Kevin Bacon's nine degrees, things seem alright. + +**** Drawing a line between love and (anti)politics + +<quote> +What's a book? Is it a self-realization of an individual's life in the context of living others? Or is it self-realization as a closed compartment, for example an "insurgent," a category that remains separate from all the other separate categories? +</quote> +<quote> +- Sophie +</quote> + +*** Review: Genesee River Rebellion + +**** Your friendly neighbourhood anarchists + +The Genesee River Rebellion(GRR) is a new quarterly publication from the Rochester Black Rose Anarchist Federation. It's a large 4-page newspaper with 6 articles of varying length that we picked up for free from the distribution bin inside a local Rochester restaurant. There was a stack full of copies placed in the distro and it appears that there are stacks of this paper around a handful of local establishments for the curious reader to find. There also appears to be a subscription based model along with some other perks for those that signed up via the GoFundMe page, which accordingly raised around $1,500 of a $2,000 goal for printing costs, etc. Aesthetically, the local publication looks nice and it was exciting to find an anarchist newspaper circulating around in hand on our way to get some food. On the other hand, there are also some gripes about the publication and the ideas behind it. Below is a brief review of the new publication, along with some shared experiences from the Black Rose Anarchist Federation. + +The front page main article is titled "The Shit List: Dregs of Our City" which is a recap of the the top nine worst people in the Rochester area. Certainly a clever idea and one that holds a lot of potential (especially for making powerful enemies), but after reading the article what stuck with me the most was amount of poor language used to convey their otherwise critical message. The audience is getting these (almost) beautiful ideas and papers into peoples hands, unfortunately it also seems that the language used is quite poor and specifically poignant as a group. The school-yard insults, remarks about peoples appearances all seem distasteful and out of touch with the possible audience (building a mass movement?). Perhaps in the next issue, we can hear less name-calling and more from GRR about what it means to be an anarchist (especially in Black Rose) in Upstate, New York, their projects, and thoughts on the Federation. How is it to be done? One answer from GRR appears to be that "the world is bad, and here is how to fix it" possibly by subscribing to our quarterly newspaper and donating money to the organization. + +Some of the noteworthy "radical" lexicon used from the article follows: + +To begin lightly, by describing Danny Wegman, CEO of Wegmans, a popular grocery store, as a "poverty pimp" and calling him "our own coked-up, Ferrari-driving, billionaire savior of Rochester's poor!". Then following up with Joel Seligman, President of The University of Rochester (U of R) who is described as an "over-sized fetus" and "1st among people who look like a Q-tip in human form." It goes on to say that "Though it may be difficult to discern exactly where Seligman's neck ends and his head begins" and finally finishes up by stating "It should come as no surprise that in order to pay for the vast quantities of warm milk he drinks before bed each night". Bob Lonsberry, who is a radio talk-show host on WHAM 1180 AM is called out for his penis size, "Sources close to Lonsberry confirm that he is indeed compensating for something" and later described as "a man who looks like a human butt plug." Howie Nielsen, who is the owner of Sticky Lips BBQ is told "fuck your boats! Oh, and the ribs at Sticky Lips suck." Sande Macaluso, City of Rochester Marshal is described as having a "Hitler-esque mustache and sporting a big cigar" who is also a "living Garbage Pail Kid". Maggie Brooks, the Monroe County Executive is called "a turtle-faced charlatan". It goes on with Lyjha Wilton, a developer in Rochester by saying "If you still don't want to hold him down and take a giant shit in his mouth". And lastly, Bob Duffy, former Police Chief and Mayor of Rochester, etc is described as having a "jerk-off muppet face". + +This is an intriguing list of the rich and powerful in Rochester - and, aside from the "you're an idiot" writing, there are solid points to be made about each individual. But, is this the kind of writing that is appealing to their audience and other anarchists? What is the common denominator between the anarchist audience and their non-anarchist friends? Is the general sentiment towards this "turned off" or "on"? For us, we're out of lulz and unimpressed; reading and digesting abusive and insulting language masked up as anarchist critique is not something we like to spend time doing. Alas, the review must live on, so we read. + +To others, this may seem funny and not an important aspect to focus on, but it makes their overall idea appear <em>un</em>sexy, immature, and a sad reflection of GRR. On a larger scale, this seems to be the trend of not only the local GRR group, but of the federation as well. While the bad-faith arguments, poor critiques, and lack of ability to have and build relationships among the terrible community has been a point of contention forever, it seems to be amplified by certain hanger-ons. It's no wonder platformists in North America have such a bad reputation internationally as being some of the most reactionary, sectarian, and partisan "anarchists". The common phrase from them sounds something like "they have absolutely nothing in common with us, they're not real anarchists, so fuck 'em." Too bad, so sad - as the pot signals the kettle, time for a coffee break. + +Here is a quick rundown of the other articles: The <em>Editorial: Tragedy in Orlando: An Anarchist Queer's Response</em> is a welcoming quick read about the the state, police, society, guns, violence, justice and LGBTQ. <em>What if Pride Were Run by Anarchists?</em> concludes that "an anarchist-run Pride event would be an anti-capitalist celebration of the struggles of all LGBTQ people. It would be designed to challenge the status quo of mainstream LGBTQ "rights" while calling forth the true history of Pride." In <em>First Edition: Storming the Bastille</em> it sums up why they decided to release the newspaper on July 14th (national holiday in France much?). <em>The Old World is Dying</em> is a text about the prefigurative politics of building "a new world from the shell of the old." It goes on to touch upon the strikes in France surrounding the new laws about the 35-hour work week, the Rojava Revolution, and the 2012 student strikes in Quebec. They also share some ideas regarding the overall practice of GRR - work call ins, tenant unions, rent strikes, and the Fight for $15. It was also mentioned that "we're not just planning to relentlessly mock those power - as fun as that is - we're going to share a vision for the world with all of you", which does somewhat respond to our earlier question regarding the audience and future direction. And the last article <em>Pigs in Shit</em> is a very brief report-back from a recent Black Lives Matter demonstration in the City of Rochester that saw 70+ people arrested and a lot of attention from the community. + +One last area to look at is the <em>Online Anarchist Resources</em> sidebar provided in the newspaper. Overall, it lists 13 websites and here are a few of the more polemical: AK Press who seem to be the mainstay "anarchist" publisher; while AK doesn't have the best track record working alongside other anarchists over the years, they seemingly have improved a bit. Recently, they found themselves under fire during Schmidt-gate. Another link, Zabalaza Books whose mothership, Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) of South Africa have also found themselves caught up in the same controversy re: Michael Schmidt and the two AK Press authors who wrote the exposé. Thought Crime Ink is an anarchist non-profit that provides ephemera. Libertarian Communism A website that continues to have controversy surrounding it for being run / supported by cop-collaborators (see On Why Dr John Drury Is A Collaborationist Asshole & cop-out – the significance of Aufhebengate (2013)). Anarkismo of course. Anarchist Platform A WordPress site that hasn't been updated since 2012. And finally, Common Cause, an organization that dissolved itself this past Spring (2016). A rather eye-opening list of links for the curious audience - especially those with little or no prior reference to anarchist ideas. + +Anarchist media needs to exist and the GRR is a welcome addition to a sparse North America anarchist newspaper lineup, even if the "you're an idiot" and overall party approach to anarchy-ism seems more grumpy and unattractive than revolutionary. One recent anarchist newspaper (+online) project particularly stands out for aiming above all of the ridiculousness, called The Blast. In the about us, they write: "For those new to the struggle we present some of the rich stories of what has come before us - tales of our gains and losses, of what is possible in the future and in our daily lives today. For those who have been here a while, we’d like to reimagine familiar issues with a critical eye while maintaining no (or at least shifting) sacred cows." + +How will the GRR respond to this review? Disastrously we imagine, as unfortunate it becomes when one looks at the GRR website "About us": + +<quote> +Odds are, we’re just going to read your complaints aloud at a meeting and laugh at you. +<br> +- GRR +</quote> + +**** Real Anarchists Have Day Jobs: A brief visit with the Black Rose Anarchist Federation + +<quote> +Whilst I know there are many decent but mistaken individuals who pride themselves on their party membership I consider that the best job pro-revolutionary organisations do is to contain all the idiots in one place, permitting to everybody else the luxury of avoiding them. - Nihilist Communism +</quote> + +Around a year or so ago, I decided to attend a General Interest Meeting (GIM) of the locale Black Rose Anarchist Federation. I went because I was curious to meet and see what other anarchists in the area were working on. The meeting was very well attended for a city that isn't known for having a bunch of wild-eyed anarchists. People were interested and the anarchist outreach game was on point as the meeting began in an old church, whose member(s) had invited the anarchists to use the space. + +The presentation was dry, awkward at times, and not one that seemed to be overly appealing to the packed room of listeners, although many faces did continue on into the first part of the "integrating process." This overall bland tone carried on into future meetings, discussions, and direction of the group, with at times showing life, but mostly seeming basic and at times even hostile to anarchist ideas. Since (or before) 1999, the platform in North America has gained a reputation of being the sectarian comrades you never wanted and unwelcoming to other anarchists. At the time of the GIM, Black Rose was around 1 year old, as it had previously combined various anarchist organizations throughout the USA into one group to rule them all. The north-east of the USA and North America, with the exception perhaps being Montreal, seem to really favour this platformist, syndicalist, and especifismo approach to anarchism (class / work). Why is that? + +The most intriguing part of the GIM was their explanation and discussion of the platform vs. especifismo. A basic summary would be that the platform after the Russian Revolution (ATR) is like "hey, we lost" - how do we change our specific anarchist organization, tactics, and strategies to ensure we stop losing (A: federalism?). Especifismo has a huge overlap with the platform and appear quite similar - although over our short stay; it was explained to that Rochester Black Rose "isn't actually a specific platformist or especifismo group, or even how the group describes itself", but the alternatives and exacts were never quite clear enough. Organizationalism, social insertion, and other trademarks on the platform / especifismo always seemed to be the most stressed. + +Previously, the group had started as Rochester Red and Black and then changed their name to Rochester Black Rose when they joined the new federation. Rochester Red and Black had been around a few years prior, mainly focusing on housing issues, education, and "political work." They've since continued in other areas with some of the main projects being the Fight for $15, the IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), and the new publication mentioned above called the Genesee River Rebellion. + +As explained in the GIM, membership into the Federation would come after a 3-6 month integrating process. The process included attending the monthly General Assembly (GA), paying dues to the Federation, a monthly reading group, and overall participation in Black Rose. During this period, one was assigned a "mentor" or a standing member of the group. These mentors also had bi-weekly(?) or so meetings with the locale about their thoughts on their mentees. While we have a lot of "feelings" about the whole process, it mostly felt like a popularity contest amongst a closed clique of people who were already close friends. Curiously, our adoration was not as esteemed as some and we were eventually informed around 5 months in, the vote would be a big "no" to become a member in good standing. Ouch! As individuals interested in and working on anarchist projects, it felt a bit awkward and sad to have such a hard time building lasting relationships with other anarchists that live only a few blocks away. + +So, what happened? Well, a lot over the course of those months, although we've also known some of them for years prior and have attended their workshops, conferences, and meetings on a number of previous occasions. However, it was mostly over recent discussions, readings, and observations that changed our mind about working alongside this locale of the Black Rose Federation. For those so interested in building the mass movement of community, affinity, and solidarity together - life seemed far away. Discussion of this and other concerns were never really actualized or received genuine replies. The responses we did receive didn't seem to come from people who were interested in having good-faith arguments, working with other anarchists, or possibly seeing life outside the blinders. Along with their unwillingness to have us, the departure was just as much on our end. After everything, we somewhat quietly left the group and went back to <em>doing nothing</em>. The next time we ran into our "mentor" was at a music show after they were coming back from the local Bernie Sanders rally, where they may have also just given a speech. + +Some of the forks-in-the-road we encountered and are willing to share here are as follows. Facebook was used to organize pretty much everything. Within Facebook, it's possible to have "secret" groups and this is how the majority of integrating and standing members communicated and shared information with each other. Of course, nothing is illegal and the type of anarchism that the Black Rose Federation is associated with is largely public, above ground organizing. Still, it was tough to take seriously and understand why not use other more anarchist friendly alternatives to communicating and sharing? The answer seems to lay somewhere in-between it's convenient, everyone had a Facebook account; and the naive, we don't care if our enemies can see everything we're talking about. Even after Occupy, the Arab Spring, and other uprisings greatly aided by social media - it has been tough to take seriously people who organize specifically over it. Google was also used to keep track of supporters, membership, and dues. From these Google files, which everyone could see, we can get a more personal view of members finances. How much do you make? Check the anarchist spreadsheet and do the math. Whose supporting us? It all seemed a bit intrusive, especially in an anarchist organization where things are more-often-than-not open and accountable, but especially revealing for those who are tasked with monitoring and destroying anarchist organizing. Sometimes we make other peoples jobs way too easy. + +<quote> +Most (repressive, dividing, and controlling) State activity works by identifying individuals and relating them through organisational structures, all membership organisations, therefore, are built with flaws present from the outset which the State is able to exploit, usually to the detriment of the whole “movement”. (Look at the film, The Battle of Algiers.) -Nihilist Communism +</quote> + +Another fork-in-the-garden-of-irregularities is that of the relationship between the union staffers and the Federation. The North Eastern Federation of Anarchist-Communists (NEFAC) was often criticized for having various union flags waving at their demonstrations, metaphorically and real, and it was often difficult to tell where the line was being drawn by the anarchist participants and their union day jobs. During our brief stay with the Federation, this issue seemed to surprisingly come up a few time as disagreements between the various locales in Black Rose. Of course, anarchists have all kinds of jobs and work just like everyone, along with a strong past and present of being involved with struggles of the syndicalist nature, however bringing your liberal-leaning union / job into an anarchist organizations practice became a point of contention. A story related to us, was that in one anarchist meeting, support papers for the local social justice organization were handed out that made it feel like you were being recruited. In other times, anarchists were being asked to do the volunteer work for the main project of the locale - the Fight for $15; while a few within the locale got paid a salary for working on it via their day job. A rather weird repulsive dichotomy and one that seems to be becoming a more acknowledged issue within the platformist struggle. If only we too had an anarchist army to do our day job! Yes, these gripes were certainly not all we encountered in our stay, but a few we felt comfortable briefly mentioning here; we could go on and perhaps down the road we can find a way to write some meaningful words towards this end. + +Until then, why write this? This brief review is simply a way of looking back and can hopefully be understood as a work of care, as in we care because we're talking about you. We still live in the city and work on (different) anarchist projects and aren't interested in creating more drama or frenemies; there is already way too much of that. What we hope and aim for is extending a warm and welcoming hand to other anarchists in the region and the larger anarchist space in general. There are some lessons to be taken away about how anarchists create and maintain long-term working projects, friendships, and the world we'd like to see. Anarchists don't need a nation-wide Federation to organize and spread anarchist actions, we especially don't need groups like GRR ridiculing other anarchists and their projects for their opposing beautiful ideas. Of course, it's not possible to do what is to be (un)done with everyone in the terrible community. Our projects need to be fun and a reflection of the large, healthy, and vibrant international anarchist space we desire. + +Rochester Black Rose on The Anarchist Library: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/topic/rochester-red-and-black + +*** A [draft] response to: An Anarchist Survey + +<strong>A response to a survey posted on Encounters with Anarchism, exploring our beautiful ideal</strong> + +<em>1. — How would you most succinctly define anarchism? Is there a shared “anarchist project” — and, if so, how would you characterize it?</em> + +At the heart anarchism is anti-state / anti-capitalist, or as the old saying goes “no gods, no masters.” The explanations from this can go on for a bit, but overall the shared “anarchist project” is a life project that is characterized by anarchy. + +<em>2. — What is the relationship between anarchism and the concept of anarchy?</em> + +Anarchy is the idea, while anarchism is the ideal. Ideas change and develop over time, whereas the ideals of anarchism are defined concepts at a specific time and framework; the -ism also implies a prior movement towards something. + +<em>3. — What is the value of tradition within the anarchist milieus and what might be its uses?</em> + +Of course!, tradition and non-tradition are valued within the milieus, spaces, and movements of anarchy. Anarchist history (against Leviathan), it’s human resistance, insurrections the world over and revolution, and other important anarchist pursuits. + +<em>4. — What, specifically, is the role to be played in the present by the anarchist literature — whether theoretical or artistic — of the past?</em> + +Anarchist literature knows it’s roll, and that is to… Attack! But, also remember; a remembrance of anarchist things past. The documenting of the usual and unique past, as well as the more famous historical events from an encompassing perspective. It's everything. + +<em>5. — What are the most significant challenges facing anarchists — and anarchism, as you understand it — in the present?</em> + +Building a mass movement of anarchists and friends… like a federation. Just kidding, but maybe. If that’s where you’re at, nothing wrong. Do it. Neighborhood anarchist friends are the best. + +Most of all, building that life project. + +<em>6. — How would you characterize the present state of anarchist activity (outside the realm of theory and propaganda)?</em> + +Depends on where you look and how far recently back into time you go. In North America, the current state of anarchist activity seems largely centered around antifa, although the high water mark for that may have been a year ago. Before that, it was Occupy everything(!) in 2011 and the summit hopping years of anti-globalization from 1999 on into the 2000s. What is today? The anarchist gathering as camping adventure over book fair over meetings over riot!? It looks different across the world, but seems especially defined by region and anarchist tent affiliation. Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Harvey, the Ferguson insurrection, Standing Rock, and other events, to name only a few, have painted an alternative picture of possibilities. + +<em>7. — How would you characterize the present state of anarchist theory and propaganda?</em> + +With the Internet, social media, and communication as it is today, brings with it a characterization of speed an ability to share ideas over large distances instantaneously. Quality conversation and dialogue seems to have deteriorated a bit over letter correspondence; but it also may just be more difficult to find, as there are so many things out there. The act of writing letters, the time involved in the previous literary boom of magazines and correspondence does seem to have unfortunately largely faded away, for a different more modern approach of communication and typing. The technology of communication and learning, sharing, critiquing, and comments. + +<em>8. — What are the most urgent changes to be made in anarchist practice moving forward?</em> + +Perhaps , a step away from the infighting and attacking of other anarchists and ideas in an uncritical and non-productive manner. Critique is healthy, but having good faith conversations over the all-to-common sectarian squabbles becomes too much over time, especially for new people. The poor critique is a turn off. Next, after we’ve solved all the relationship problems ;), the commune, the collapse, and the forest garden. + +<em>9. — What is the role of some kind of “anarchist unity” moving forward? What form could or should that unity take?</em> + +We don’t all have to get along, but perhaps some shouldn’t relate other anarchist thinkers as a demigod to their only god of whatever. The platform federation or the union of egoists, down to the neighborhood affinity groups and friends / individuals, let’s do it all. + +<em>10. — What are the greatest needs with regard to new anarchist theory, propaganda, literature and art?</em> +<br> +Anarchist spaces offline and online to share these things IRL with other anarchists and friends. + +<em>11. — Do you currently identify with any particular anarchist current or tendency — and, if so, how do you characterize your position?</em> + +Anti-civ much younger growing up, post-left, green anarchy, but today just an anarchist. The tent is big, come on in and hang out for a bit, say hi. Perhaps, the oft said quote by Fredy Perlman, that they’re just a “violinist” or something like that, although violins are perhaps a bit too bluegrass and unplayable here. + +<em>12. — What additional questions would it be useful to pose to a broad anarchist audience?</em> + +Offline: How is it to be done? (this is the age old question, rephrased, so many ways, again) + +Online: How do we organize the international anarchist __________ work flow? Helping ________ and____________ anarchist _____ around the world? + +<em>13. — Would you be interested in participating in future surveys, perhaps addressing more specific elements of anarchist theory, practice and culture?</em> + +Perhaps. And specifically, how anarchists like yourself use this information gathered from an international survey of this sort. Does it change anything for you? And, if so, how so? What do you think that looks like for everyone else? What are some gems to share from the takeaway? Thanks for doing this, - stalking the earth + +** anarchistnews dot org podcast editorials: *** Local and World Politics -May 5th, 2017 +(May 5th, 2017) The world of politics has certainly been a wild ride for the books this year. This week alone, with elections coming up in France and the ever ongoing process of governments across the world making drastic headlines with the love-hate relationship of mainstream media, we look towards how this pertains to the world of anarchism. @@ -279,13 +639,13 @@ Let’s dig a little deeper and visit another controversy from some years ago th Soon after, in 2014 longtime anarchist writer Charlatan Stew responded herein: -“In the midst of the flood of conflicting sources of information and analysis, one of the collective members of the new journal, “Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics”, [1] George Ciccariello-Maher, recently wrote an article titled: “El Libertario: beware Venezuela’s false ‘anarchists’”. [2] It is not irrelevant that Ciccariello-Maher is an unashamedly Chavista government and “Bolivarian Revolution” supporter, as is clear from his book, <em>We Created Chavez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution</em>, and several articles and interviews. Reading what he writes it becomes clear that we cannot take him seriously as a significant critic of centralized rule from the top down, nor as an advocate of anarchist goals or methods of egalitarian self-governance from the bottom up. The article is meant to convince us of the revolutionary credentials of the state he supports by discrediting <em>El Libertario</em> in the eyes of anarchists and anti-authoritarians, and to convince us that those “false anarchists” are endangering this good state and the gains made through it.” +“In the midst of the flood of conflicting sources of information and analysis, one of the collective members of the new journal, “Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics”, George Ciccariello-Maher, recently wrote an article titled: “El Libertario: beware Venezuela’s false ‘anarchists’”. [2] It is not irrelevant that Ciccariello-Maher is an unashamedly Chavista government and “Bolivarian Revolution” supporter, as is clear from his book, <em>We Created Chavez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution</em>, and several articles and interviews. Reading what he writes it becomes clear that we cannot take him seriously as a significant critic of centralized rule from the top down, nor as an advocate of anarchist goals or methods of egalitarian self-governance from the bottom up. The article is meant to convince us of the revolutionary credentials of the state he supports by discrediting <em>El Libertario</em> in the eyes of anarchists and anti-authoritarians, and to convince us that those “false anarchists” are endangering this good state and the gains made through it.” In all of this, who do you believe? I can honestly say I’m not well versed enough in the Venezuelan space to tell exactly who is being the most dishonest here. Ciccariello-Maher is a pretty well-respected professor who just left their job and Charlatan Stew is a long-time writer who also seems to make some convincing points. I’m sure many people already have their minds made up and have chosen their side in the battle of ideas, between the good and bad anarchists. Obviously I have my research cut out for me. Maybe I’ll write a book about it. I guess that’s 2017 for me. Welcome to the hate factory, where people on the same team treat their co-conspirators like the enemy. Of course, this is not everyone, but I must say it feels more and more prevalent nowadays, at least online, than the previous occasional snide comment in a meeting somewhere. Happy New Year everyone! -*** Abolishing the Borders from Below< +*** Abolishing the Borders from Below (January 26th, 2018) One of my favorite books from 2017 was “No Wall They Can Build: a guide to borders and migration across North America”. It intertwines insightful commentary on borders with explicit personal narrative wrapped up in that seemingly always beautiful graphic design that has come to be expected, from the CrimethInc. ex-Workers’ Collective. It’s a 200+ page turner that felt like one of those rare occasions where you almost read it all in one sitting. @@ -338,9 +698,7 @@ For Cubans living on the island, in order to make a living under the Marxist-Len The majority of Cubans make more money in the informal (grey and black market) and provide for themselves rather than those working formal State jobs. The most popular job in Cuba currently is helping distribute El Paquete Semanal or “The Weekly Package” as it was recently recognized as the largest employer on the island. What is El Paquete? -“Internet access in Cuba is heavily restricted. However, millions of Cubans still engage with digital content through an informal, pervasive, offline internet known as El Paquete Semanal -<br> -or “The Weekly Package”. Every week, a new version of El Paquete (EP) becomes available, and includes a one terabyte (TB) collection of digital content that is distributed across Cuba on external hard drives, USBs, and CDs. This collection includes a variety of television, music, movies, apps, educational programs, YouTube videos, magazines, and news, and costs between between 2-5 CUC” +“Internet access in Cuba is heavily restricted. However, millions of Cubans still engage with digital content through an informal, pervasive, offline internet known as El Paquete Semanal or “The Weekly Package”. Every week, a new version of El Paquete (EP) becomes available, and includes a one terabyte (TB) collection of digital content that is distributed across Cuba on external hard drives, USBs, and CDs. This collection includes a variety of television, music, movies, apps, educational programs, YouTube videos, magazines, and news, and costs between between 2-5 CUC” 2-5 CUC equals the exact same as $2-5 US dollars, as the currency is fiat and pegged one-to-one with the US dollar. “Although EP is not formally sanctioned by the Cuban government, the network has been allowed to continue and thrive. As a result, it not only provides an alternative to state-controlled media, but also offers a way for Cubans to sustain their livelihoods [8]. This has led to thriving media-sharing practices in Havana, to the point that social gatherings often revolve around media-sharing” The Cuban practice of being inventors or known as “los inventos” carries on as they have turned the lack of information and Internet into the largest informal economic provider via human infrastructure. This is nothing new and after the Special Period of the 1990s, the informal economy has always had a greater share of economic activity rather than the official formal state economy. In many ways, I’ve always thought of the informal economy of Cuba as an extreme of capitalism, as people finding any way possible to provide for themselves and their families. @@ -470,7 +828,7 @@ In “The New Nihilism” by Peter Lamborn Wilson, they write: “At least ten times as much money now exists than it would take to buy the whole world—and yet species are vanishing space itself is vanishing, icecaps melting, air and water grown toxic, culture grown toxic, landscape sacrificed to fracking and megamalls, noise-fascism, etc, etc. But Science will cure all that ills that Science has created—in the Future (in the “long run”, when we’re all dead, as Lord Keynes put it); so meanwhile we’ll carry on consuming the world and shitting it out as waste—because it’s convenient & efficient & profitable to do so, and because we like it. Well, this is all a bunch of whiney left-liberal cliches, no? Heard it before a million times. Yawn. How boring, how infantile, how useless. Even if it were all true... what can we do about it? If our Anointed Leaders can’t or won’t stop it, who will? God? Satan? The “People”?” ” -<br> + What about us? The anarchists. HUGS. *** Road to Nowhere @@ -536,16 +894,15 @@ On giving up so easily: Did it ever really matter to Dr. Bones? It doesn’t see *** Quijote Against the World - <quote> “it’s not like it used to be… nobody cares about change… it don’t matter…” – <em>My First Soul</em>, by Auld Lang Syne </quote> -Published during the Spanish Golden Age in two parts (1605/1615) <em>The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha</em>[1] by Cervantes has become one of the most famous books in the world and is considered by many to be one of the most respected fiction pieces of all time. The story relates an epic adventure taken on by two main characters, Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. Quijote goes off adventuring, lead completely by his horse Rocinante, who goes where ever it wants, leading Quijote and eventually Panza to fight injustice, reclaim the world, battle everything that is “bad”, and (for Quijote) win the love of his life [Dulcelina]. The entire book, originally written in Spanish is quite lengthy and full of misadventures depicting the frequent failures (perhaps great success?) during the early 1600′s, Spain. There are many English language translations, but perhaps one of the best (that I recommend) is by Edith Grossman, published in 2003. There are also, some abbreviated versions of the story, with the editors choice of parts – so this may be more advantageous for the time strapped or for those wanting to get a feel for the book. Setting up for a complete and in-depth review, would be quite the research project due to the books length and complexity – this is a greatly abbreviated review of the book, and by no means are all things touched on. There have been many reviews before this one, and maybe many more after. The overall purpose of this review is to briefly compare and contrast the ideas and attitudes of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza surrounding their thoughts upon essential materials vs. that of spirit. +Published during the Spanish Golden Age in two parts (1605/1615) <em>The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha</em>[4] by Cervantes has become one of the most famous books in the world and is considered by many to be one of the most respected fiction pieces of all time. The story relates an epic adventure taken on by two main characters, Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. Quijote goes off adventuring, lead completely by his horse Rocinante, who goes where ever it wants, leading Quijote and eventually Panza to fight injustice, reclaim the world, battle everything that is “bad”, and (for Quijote) win the love of his life [Dulcelina]. The entire book, originally written in Spanish is quite lengthy and full of misadventures depicting the frequent failures (perhaps great success?) during the early 1600′s, Spain. There are many English language translations, but perhaps one of the best (that I recommend) is by Edith Grossman, published in 2003. There are also, some abbreviated versions of the story, with the editors choice of parts – so this may be more advantageous for the time strapped or for those wanting to get a feel for the book. Setting up for a complete and in-depth review, would be quite the research project due to the books length and complexity – this is a greatly abbreviated review of the book, and by no means are all things touched on. There have been many reviews before this one, and maybe many more after. The overall purpose of this review is to briefly compare and contrast the ideas and attitudes of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza surrounding their thoughts upon essential materials vs. that of spirit. First, I’d like to define a few things. The essential key materials are thought of as water, food, and rest – which lack thereof results in a deprived state and eventually death, they are the things you <em>really</em> can’t live without. Obviously on the other hand, you have non-essential material goods such as gold, silver, clocks, games/toys, ect. That aren’t truly necessary for survival. As for the spirit, one can consider it to mean belief in <em>something</em>, even if that something is <em>nothing</em>. Some more clear examples are things of the supernatural sort, like the belief in god, or even bits and pieces of ideas – like the existence of heaven and hell, ghosts, majik, and other oddities/occult. It is important to note and define these ideas because Quijote and Sancho each display varying characteristics and perspectives throughout the novel on these topics. -So, the story goes: Don Quijote begins reading books about the adventures of various 14th/15th century knights-errant and their “heroic” deeds. Quijote, who is an older man, begins to spend all his time reading, and literally cares for nothing else, other than those old tales about “saving the world” and “falling in love.” Food, water, and rest seem of little importance to him, and eventually his reading habits drastically change his life. He begins to sell his land and other property, in order to buy more books to read. After sometime, Quijote emerges from the obscurity of his house believing – that in fact, he is a knight-errant, and his mission is to save the world and win the love of his life. Imagine someone sneaking out of their residence, after weeks of reading, hiding away, and building the most absurd self-styled armor a la knights-errant, to confront the world with, kind of sounds like some <em>funny</em> friends you may know. Yet, in the beginning of the end, Quijote gallops, or more like meanders out of town unseen and hidden, with his most unlike battle ready horse – Rocinante[2], not to be seen in town until his uneventful, yet dramatic return sometime later. He has no clue where he is headed, as he just lets Rocinante blaze the trail of his life. +So, the story goes: Don Quijote begins reading books about the adventures of various 14th/15th century knights-errant and their “heroic” deeds. Quijote, who is an older man, begins to spend all his time reading, and literally cares for nothing else, other than those old tales about “saving the world” and “falling in love.” Food, water, and rest seem of little importance to him, and eventually his reading habits drastically change his life. He begins to sell his land and other property, in order to buy more books to read. After sometime, Quijote emerges from the obscurity of his house believing – that in fact, he is a knight-errant, and his mission is to save the world and win the love of his life. Imagine someone sneaking out of their residence, after weeks of reading, hiding away, and building the most absurd self-styled armor a la knights-errant, to confront the world with, kind of sounds like some <em>funny</em> friends you may know. Yet, in the beginning of the end, Quijote gallops, or more like meanders out of town unseen and hidden, with his most unlike battle ready horse – Rocinante[5], not to be seen in town until his uneventful, yet dramatic return sometime later. He has no clue where he is headed, as he just lets Rocinante blaze the trail of his life. And so the story begins… @@ -571,7 +928,7 @@ Even the infamous Bill “NOT BORED” Brown has wrote an essay on the subject S Quijote and Panza are two very different characters, yet at the same time they are similar in the fact that they both can create some pretty wild dreams and become one another. They each have a great effect on one another, like any friend may have on your daily experience, and while at first Quijote seems to be the only one struggling against everything modern – soon his friend joins him, although it is already too late for Quijote. He has already returned to the miserable grind of reality and material goods and will soon die. -*** Cinema +**** Cinema Among the many movies made about the book, Orson Welles’s Don Quixote is one of the more intriguing ones to take a look at, one that truly deserves an entirely separate review in order to touch upon everything. For the purpose of this review though, I will only focus on one aspect of the film. In <em>Rolling Thunder: An Anarchist Journal of Dangerous Living</em> #6 (fall-2008), the following page appears: @@ -592,57 +949,25 @@ What shall we do with our fantasies? Love them, believe them–to the point wher - Giorgio Agamben, <em>Profanations</em> </quote> -Leaving the actual text aside for a moment, concentrate on the author, Giorgio Agamben of the above quote for a moment. If one were to see the text in the <em>Rolling Thunder</em> journal (image above), you will see that the quote is attributed to the authors Brener and Schurz. To my knowledge, the truth is that the editor’s of <em>Rolling Thunder</em> were duped into believing the quote was from Brener and Schurz. Perhaps, as the thinking may have went, if they knew it was really from Giorgio Agamben it may have not been published[3]. Not to get too far off topic here, but it is interesting to note that it appears at least to some extent, that another joke may have been played in return here (although, pure speculation). Recently, a new <em>Politics Is Not a Banana</em> #3 was released, however many have come to doubt that this new issue was actually created by the original folks involved in the journal, leading some to point fingers at the <em>Rolling Thunder</em> journal (CrimethInc.) folks. Whoever is it, or whatever the purpose – the humor and funnies are certainly appreciated! +Leaving the actual text aside for a moment, concentrate on the author, Giorgio Agamben of the above quote for a moment. If one were to see the text in the <em>Rolling Thunder</em> journal (image above), you will see that the quote is attributed to the authors Brener and Schurz. To my knowledge, the truth is that the editor’s of <em>Rolling Thunder</em> were duped into believing the quote was from Brener and Schurz. Perhaps, as the thinking may have went, if they knew it was really from Giorgio Agamben it may have not been published[6]. Not to get too far off topic here, but it is interesting to note that it appears at least to some extent, that another joke may have been played in return here (although, pure speculation). Recently, a new <em>Politics Is Not a Banana</em> #3 was released, however many have come to doubt that this new issue was actually created by the original folks involved in the journal, leading some to point fingers at the <em>Rolling Thunder</em> journal (CrimethInc.) folks. Whoever is it, or whatever the purpose – the humor and funnies are certainly appreciated! Moving back to the actual context of the quote, the lovely titled “Six Most Beautiful Minutes in the History of Cinema” regards a clip of the unfinished Orson Welles’s movie that was left out of early versions, but was included eventually later on in some versions. Overall, this cinema experience of Don Quijote is quite intriguing, especially when considered with the movie as a whole. In many ways, it is understand to be like the post-modern movie version of Quijote, instead of attacking ancient 16th century technology and society, he is battling 1940ish motorized scooters and movie screens. One interesting thing from the movie is some footage of a religious procession, framed along and sliced with footage of the Klu Klux Klan, which Don Quijote goes to attack. Overall, it is definitely worth checking, especially if you’ve enjoyed the book. -*** So what is the big deal? +**** So what is the big deal? Who knows, maybe this book may be of little importance to you. At times throughout it, I find it to be rather “fluffy” sprinkled with blossoming flowers that never end. Like, ever try reading some old Shakespeare alongside José Martí with some bananas thrown in. However, I do find some gems that are really good within the book for me. Perhaps, most intriguing – to playfully read the adventures against everything that life as we know it has become, to see through our imaginations, rather than with our misleading desires for the most trivial things in life. As someone wrote recently, the greatest thing of all is <em>saving the world</em>! A lot of the time, I find myself taking in and fully enjoying those moments of non-thought and thinking, where it has been shown that our brain is actually most active and full of energy. Don Quijote in a lot of ways, is the definition of tragic hero – even though I may disagree with what he actually fought against for the most part, (the Moors) and alongside (Christianity). Blame can be placed on Cervantes here, maybe not so much Quijote, after all he is just a character. Cervantes wasn’t exactly the most upstanding character, but still a tragic-hero in himself. It can be all be too confusing, seeing Quijote for nothing other than love, and against everything that might actually make sense – then applying some sort of reasoning to it. Quijote was certainly a radical in his time, just what kind of radical is up in the air… -Footnotes: +[4] please note that I decided to remain with “Quijote” instead of “Quixote” throughout the rest of the text, mostly because I prefer to leave names and locations in the original language / untraslated. Title originally in Spanish: Aventuras del ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha -[1] please note that I decided to remain with “Quijote” instead of “Quixote” throughout the rest of the text, mostly because I prefer to leave names and locations in the original language / untraslated. Title originally in Spanish: Aventuras del ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha - -[2] - -<quote> -<em>Dialogue between Babieca and Rocinante</em> A Sonnet -<br> -B: Why is it, Rocinante, that you’re so thin? -<br> -R: Too little food, and far too much hard labor -<br> -B: But what about your feed, your oats and hay? -<br> -R: My master doesn’t leave a bite for me. -<br> -B: Well, Senor, your lack of breeding shows because your ass’s tongue insults your master -<br> -R: He’s the ass, from the cradle to the grave. Do you want proof? See what he does for love. -<br> -B: Is it foolish love? -<br> -R: It’s not too smart. -<br> -B: You’re a philospher -<br> -R: I just don’t eat enough -<br> -B: And do you complain of the squire? -<br> -R: Not enough. How can I complain despite my aches and pains if master and squire, or is it majordomo, are nothing but skin and bone, like Rocinante? -</quote> - -[3] “The editor of Rolling Thunder has expressed his disdain for the works of the author of the aforementioned essay, however, when the essay was sent to him under the name of a more palatable writer, it was prominently reprinted in the magazine.” — from <em>Life is Definitely Elsewhere-A Response to “Say You Want an Insurrection” [a Crimethinc. text]</em> [ http://www.anarchistnews.org/?q=node/10435 (this link has since expired and the archive is currently offline) ] +[5] <em>Dialogue between Babieca and Rocinante</em> A Sonnet<br>B: Why is it, Rocinante, that you’re so thin?<br>R: Too little food, and far too much hard labor<br>B: But what about your feed, your oats and hay?<br>R: My master doesn’t leave a bite for me.<br>B: Well, Senor, your lack of breeding shows because your ass’s tongue insults your master<br>R: He’s the ass, from the cradle to the grave. Do you want proof? See what he does for love.<br> +B: Is it foolish love?<br>R: It’s not too smart.<br>B: You’re a philospher<br>R: I just don’t eat enough <br>B: And do you complain of the squire?<br>R: Not enough. How can I complain despite my aches and pains if master and squire, or is it majordomo, are nothing but skin and bone, like Rocinante? +[6] “The editor of Rolling Thunder has expressed his disdain for the works of the author of the aforementioned essay, however, when the essay was sent to him under the name of a more palatable writer, it was prominently reprinted in the magazine.” — from <em>Life is Definitely Elsewhere-A Response to “Say You Want an Insurrection” [a Crimethinc. text]</em> [ http://www.anarchistnews.org/?q=node/10435 (this link has since expired and the archive is currently offline) ] <em>Note: Originally published over at</em> The Anvil Review<em></em> http://theanvilreview.org/print/quijote_against_the_world/ . <em>This text has been edited slightly from that, in order to better reflect and fix some grammar & wording.</em> - *** Jorge Luís Borges, Infinity, and the Internet - <strong>Jorge Luís Borges, an Argentinean writer who is well known for his many short stories, some of which discuss such fantastic themes like dreams, libraries, labyrinths, god, and the less fantastic –<em>see also</em>, more real – like los gauchos (imagine Argentinean cowboys) and tigers.</strong> Borges’s works of fiction, intertwined with the metaphysical have made him one of the most well known writers to come out of the western hemisphere during the 20st century. For the sake of this review, we will look at the relation between Borges, infinity, and the Internet. Five different short stories by Borges which relate to these ideas will all be briefly mentioned; the stories include The Aleph, The Library of Babel, The Garden of Forking Paths, Funes, the Memorious, and the Theme of the Traitor and Hero [all available for free reading on the Internet at the above links]. @@ -751,397 +1076,8 @@ Peace and happiness have vanished. And, what if things had turned out a little d He told the Invaders that human beings weren’t made to languish in prisons of their own making. He told them no animals crippled and stunted its own kind, and no animals embarked on a war against any and all creatures that were unlike itself. He warned them that any who embarked on such a war would turn the very elements against them and would gag on the air, be poisoned by the water and be swallowed up by earth. (p. 303) </quote> -Fredy Perlman at the Anarchist Library +Fredy Perlman at the Anarchist Library: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/fredy-perlman The Strait in <em>Having Little, Being Much</em> <em>Originally published at The Anvil Review</em> http://theanvilreview.org/print/keepers-of-the-fire/ and posted here with some major fixes & editing. - -*** Letters of Insurgents: A brief commentary - -authors note - -<em>This text was originally an attempt at an online book reading & discussion over at http://insurgentsummer.org/ . The site is unfortunately currently down as of December 2013 (and before), but one can still process the gems of wisdom from the wonderful Internet Archive page lookup. It was a series of blog entries that have since been edited with many revisions and changes made, but still keeping the overall flavour. Times have changed, my writing was really bad - it hopefully is a little better here; it's still really bad, but the pictures are nice.</em> - -*** Part One - -So, things are heating up over at "Insurgent Summer", a participatory reading of <em>Letters of Insurgents</em>. Tomorrow is the deadline for the first letters to be completed, and I've just finished them, so I'll try and write down some thoughts to get the ball slowly rolling. I'm going to try and do this for every set of letters, so we shall see how that goes. It is really exciting for me to be reading this book again (I first read it last summer), since I consider it to be within my current top all-time favorite books. <em>Finnegans Wake</em> by James Joyce and <em>One Hundred Years of Solitude</em> by Gabriel García Márquez are my other two favorite books currently, so it has good company. This will be my second time reading the book, but I'll only be commenting on the weeks reading section (or the previous sections, when related) - so I'll try not to bring up any <em>spoilers</em> before their time. - -What I'd really like to do, and what I wanted to do before when I read the book, was write an all-encompassing review of the work - however, this never <em>really</em> happened - and instead we're left with this. Perhaps, these weekly posts along with other commentary from individuals will help in the overall creation of an in-depth review of the book someday [unfortunately it looks like with the site offline, this information is no longer readily accessible except with the way back machine https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://insurgentsummer.org]. If you don't have a copy of the book, which is out of print and can be difficult to obtain, you can read it from The Anarchist Library here http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/sophia-nachalo-and-yarostan-vochek-letters-of-insurgents. The original book was scanned, machine read, human edited, and uploaded to the library for specifically for this online reading. - -The book takes the form of a series of incredibly touching letters between two long lost friends, Yarostan and Sophia. Do you write letters to your friends? Prisoners? How has letter writing has changed with the advent of computers, e-mail, cell phones, and text msg? It would seem there is much less of this actual long-form letter writing, and much more of the short instant msg shared by technology. It is a lost art. As much as I enjoy the fact of being able to quickly communicate with friends; at the same time, I really miss the personal touch of the post. Reading <em>Letters of Insurgents</em> kind of makes me envious of friends who can write such eloquent long-form letters, and express themselves so-well in this manner. - -*** Visions of horror are inverse utopias so beautiful tears come to my eyes - -There is so much to comment on in the first letters alone, if one is to really delve in (a bit of a cop out on my part, no?). But, that's tough, and it's only Thursday - so we can leave it for the easy going... for the moment at least. - -If anything, I will try and comment a bit further in comments on the first part and continue with some posts on the other letters. And most of all, have fun this summer. Saludos! - -<quote> -"In a context where any word or gesture can lead to the dreaded arrest there's no freedom" -</quote> -<quote> -- an excerpt from Yarostan's first letter -</quote> -*** Part Two - -*** losing your illusion in the land of gigantic objects and monstrous toys - -Hello there world. It has been a busy week, with the official start of summer, and one more set of letters. - -One idea that really sticks out in this set of letters that of <em>illusion</em>. In true Gunz 'n Rose's fashion, we find ourselves losing our illusion, only to shed it off for another illusion. - -<quote> -Since we all know we'll eventually die, since any of us might die tomorrow, are all our hopes and dreams illusions? -</quote> -<quote> -- Sophia (2) -</quote> - -How does one - -go about shedding their illusions, - -losing them, - -like death, - -nothing else is imaginable - -<quote> -Shedding our illusions, repressing our wants, forgetting our possibilities: these are the slogans of the ruling order; coming from you they sound bizarre. -</quote> -<quote> -- Sophia (2) -</quote> - -I recall the time some years ago, when I was living in La Habana, Cuba seeing a distinctive orange cargo truck with the words "viva la ilusión" spray painted on it, toting the circled A for anarchy meandering through the city streets. - -*** What is your life project? - -The following are headlines from the media: (of course only jokes, but actual quotes, just with titles that define them from the get-go!) - -Yarostan, the killer: - -<quote> -"At first I shot to avenge my parents. Later I just shot; my only concern was to hit." -</quote> -<quote> -- Yarostan (2) -</quote> - -Sophia on friendship: - -<quote> -"A complete lack of human warmth, understanding, sympathy, comradeship. A cold, dispassionate disection of an animal." -</quote> -<quote> -- Sophia (2) -</quote> - -Sophia on Hakim Bey: - -<quote> -Can you really be saying that insurgents only rise against the ruling order so as to reimpose it? Can you really be saying that the only dreams of rebels are dreams of authority and submission? -</quote> -<quote> -- Sophia (2) -</quote> - -Sophia on the radio: - -<quote> -The radio is an instrument which kills communication; it robs people of their tongues; it broadcasts the voice of a single individual to millions of listeners, reducing them to passive receptacles. If communication has the same root as common and community, the radio is an instrument for uprooting all three. -</quote> -<quote> --Sophia (2) -</quote> - -Sophia on teaching: - -<quote> -"I decided during my first teaching job that I wasn't going to let myself be reduced to a means of production for the production of means of production." -</quote> -<quote> -- Sophia (2) -</quote> - -Sophia on life: - -<quote> -"I've tried to show you that my whole life has revolved around the experience I shared with you and that all my life I've sought to communicate with you." -</quote> - -Well, goodnight all. Till, next week and then some. Saludos... - -ps. sophia = much sweeter? love struck? and regretting leaving paradise? - -*** Part Three (y más) - -*** Dancing in the Dark (<em>you can't start a fire, without a spark</em>) - -If you haven't been paying attention, the folks over at Insurgent Summer have made some great posts about the book so far and I've really enjoyed reading their thoughts, as an addition to the book. Some things we have in common, and other things I probably would have never realized if I hadn't read their thoughts. - -I'd like to briefly comment on one area that is really important for me. It's dancing, and to be honest I'm a terrible dancer (in terms of official dance, a la salsa, etc). But, I love to dance - I mean, I love to go wild and lose myself in the music, in the passion of movement/moment, and going crazy with your friends, basically having a good time (don't stop me now!). It makes me feel good. I think one of the problems with society is that people forget how to <em>dance</em>. My mom, who is a warrior - has really helped me realize how important stuff like this in life. - -<quote> -"But you just said, 'It takes doing.' Dancing is doing! Poor Jasna is always so sad, and she was so happy when she danced." -</quote> - -Jasna is the sad, lonely, solitary being that loves to lose herself in books. She literally loves books and they are her extreme, reading. And read. And read for days on end, nothing is more important - on being caught up in the life of books. - -I feel in love with the Daft Punk album <em>Homework</em> when it first came out, and I was in my very early teens then and it made me want to dance. Music, plays such an important part of so many peoples lifes. - -*** You can do anything you want - -<quote> -"impossibility is a term of logic and reality doesn't observe the limits of logic" -</quote> -<quote> -- Sophie (page #382) -</quote> - -Don't get me wrong, I actually really enjoy writing on a keyboard/screen/computer, but at the same time there are things about handwriting stuff that just blows me out of the water. There are so many things I like about handwriting - a few of them are, looking back upon, reading it years later, in your hands, no screen, the writing style and way of forming words / fonts that develop and begin to show with time. Plus, I don't know - but it just seems that something is different when you hit keys vs. actually writing the words out with your hand, certainly not as fast - but none-the-less refined. - -Today, after I woke I spent the entire day riding bikes with a friend out to the country, escaping from the city. I thought about Sophia and Ron (plus Sabina) riding their bikes out as far as they could go. We found things that we never knew about before, and traveled to places unknown - it was wonderful. Then tomorrow, (now today) one more day before the world of <em>work</em> resumes. - -These <em>days off</em> vs. days of work, are special for me - and I'm sure many feel the same way, unless you're a Luisa. Some of us work much more than others, and sometimes I think it is one of the most important things to spend a day doing <em>nothing</em>, like a days spent walking around aimlessly on city streets like Sophia or weeks on end spent reading books like Jasna. Actually, Jasna is kind of funny - it seems she reads to lose herself from reality and create something that is unreal, like an imaginary illusion. Or, just as Yarostan remembers, it's not my life project to find myself in death, looking back realizing that I never really was <em>alive</em>. - -Here are some quotes that I marked along the way: - -Yarostan on species being: - -<quote> -All around me human beings are attempting to come to life as human beings, as universal individuals, as species beings, each advancing with all and all with each. (page #193) -</quote> - -Zdenek on representation: - -<quote> -I think humanity is finally rejecting what has always been an impossible project, the project of representation. The present proliferation of major and minor pharaohs around the world is the final and ludicrous stage of that impossible project. My life can't be lived as a representation; my representative can't realize my aspirations, take my steps or engage in my actions. The pharaohs are the final and definitive proof of the impossibility of representation. I think we've all finally learned what took me so long to learn, namely that I'm robbed of my enjoyment if my representative enjoys himself for me, that my hunger remains when he eats for me, that I don't express myself when he speaks for me, that my mind and my imagination stagnate when he thinks for me, and decides for me, that I lose my life when he lives for me." (page #199) -</quote> - -Hugh on friends [to Sophie]: - -<quote> -My new friends don't need you. What you carry inside you, what surrounds you, whether you intend it or not, is all the rot we've started to shed. (page #409) -</quote> - -Imagine someone saying this to you. Sometimes, we all need a bit of a reality check, some more than others - and I suppose really in the end this is what it must have felt like to have this said about you. I like this because even if it sounds pretty mean, it also feels like inspiration. Where do we find what moves us each day? Is it <em>anger</em> that drives you? Something else, or perhaps better a combination of things? Do you even know what drives you? Or what you drive for? - -Sophia on school newspaper: - -<quote> -That group of students didn't disperse at the end of the school year, the way we did. They kept their publication going. -</quote> - -I think this is an interesting quote to think about, because it actually seems like a constant problem among student groups (or even other groups who may have some form of seperation) who have a running publication. I imagine the time and distance of a summer to be huge gap between doing and non-doing - so how does one, keep the metaphorical ball rolling? - -Sabina on what it all means: - -<quote> -There's nothing to understand, Sophia, and nothing to fit into. It's your life to do with as you will. There's no structure. Nothing is banned. Everything is allowed. No holds are barred." -</quote> - -And I will leave you with that, and now that I've caught up again with the reading, after a monstrous never-ending summer took hold - I look forward to keeping a more steady grasp on the writing, and thinking a little more critically about the book. Cheers! -<br> - -<br> - -*** Letters of Insurgents: Just Dance - -A rather funny comment, yet touching - that was said the other week was something like this: "gosh, I think it was worth visiting just to see [insert name here] going wild on the dance floor." I don't know about that, but I can appreciate the sentiment, obviously dancing around with your friends is wonderful. And, how could it not be? - -Zdenek on dancing: - -<quote> -"I dream of nothing else! I haven't danced for over twenty years and I'm bursting with the desire to dance!" -</quote> - - *** - -Mirna on the real Mirna: - -<quote> -"you might not like her as well as you like your shepherdess" -</quote> - -Out of the other parts of what I've read so far in <em>Letters #6</em>, this quote was one that stuck with me. In many ways, this book is fascinating because each one of us can relate to it in some way with the characters. As for Mirna - a shepherd growing up on our small family farm in the middle of the countryside. Although, I think for Mirna, she didn't really like the animals that much - and almost secretly dreamed of the city. We imagine growing up on a farm to be one of the best possible situations today, although it is up in the air. Rewilding, falling off the map, going off-the-grid, is the anti-civilization dream, but you can't escape everything. We barely ever made any money. - - *** - -Justice - "Dance" - -Broken Social Scene - "Meet me in the basement" (video inspired by G8/G20 in Toronto, check out all the dancing!) - -*** Reality is starting to incorporate our dreams - -<quote> -Maybe what's happening is that we're all becoming children again. Our rigid roles and characters are dropping off like dried skin. We're fascinating to each other because each one of our acts might be a total surprise, at any instant our personalities might change completely. Like children, we're not exhausted by what we've been and are; life is ahead of us; we're no longer dead. -</quote> -<quote> -- Sophie, (page #561) -</quote> - -Yesterday, August 20th was Fredy Perlman's birthday. Are birthdays important? I don't know, but they are nice. It also marks the end of Insurgent Summer, and even though I still haven't finished the book yet (so close!), here is a brief post. Like Yara, I will be spending the next week going to the mountains, or rather you could say - someplace far away in the middle of <em>nowhere</em> Adirondacks. Goodbye Internet, and goodnight neverland. Perhaps, I may finish the book there, and even write my final thoughts, upon a rock somewhere like Lem. Or not. Lem, IRL would freak me out in some ways and seems a bit wing nut - or crazy/insane (almost) as society may think. Don't hold your breathe. - -<quote> -"The contradiction between the subject of those books and my own mindless drift became unbearable to me." -</quote> -<quote> -- Sophie (page #570) -</quote> - -Oh, really? - -<quote> -no army can be "popular" -</quote> -<quote> -- Yarostan, (page #510) -</quote> - -This quote reminds me of something my mom always told me growing up - that "no one ever really wins a war". - -<quote> -How about something less lethal... like, books - you say? -</quote> - -Sure. On a totally different note, although when put through Kevin Bacon's nine degrees, things seem alright. - -*** Drawing a line between love and (anti)politics - -<quote> -What's a book? Is it a self-realization of an individual's life in the context of living others? Or is it self-realization as a closed compartment, for example an "insurgent," a category that remains separate from all the other separate categories? -</quote> -<quote> -- Sophie -</quote> - - - -*** Review: Genesee River Rebellion - -*** Your friendly neighbourhood anarchists - -The Genesee River Rebellion(GRR) is a new quarterly publication from the Rochester Black Rose Anarchist Federation. It's a large 4-page newspaper with 6 articles of varying length that we picked up for free from the distribution bin inside a local Rochester restaurant. There was a stack full of copies placed in the distro and it appears that there are stacks of this paper around a handful of local establishments for the curious reader to find. There also appears to be a subscription based model along with some other perks for those that signed up via the GoFundMe page, which accordingly raised around $1,500 of a $2,000 goal for printing costs, etc. Aesthetically, the local publication looks nice and it was exciting to find an anarchist newspaper circulating around in hand on our way to get some food. On the other hand, there are also some gripes about the publication and the ideas behind it. Below is a brief review of the new publication, along with some shared experiences from the Black Rose Anarchist Federation. - -The front page main article is titled "The Shit List: Dregs of Our City" which is a recap of the the top nine worst people in the Rochester area. Certainly a clever idea and one that holds a lot of potential (especially for making powerful enemies), but after reading the article what stuck with me the most was amount of poor language used to convey their otherwise critical message. The audience is getting these (almost) beautiful ideas and papers into peoples hands, unfortunately it also seems that the language used is quite poor and specifically poignant as a group. The school-yard insults, remarks about peoples appearances all seem distasteful and out of touch with the possible audience (building a mass movement?). Perhaps in the next issue, we can hear less name-calling and more from GRR about what it means to be an anarchist (especially in Black Rose) in Upstate, New York, their projects, and thoughts on the Federation. How is it to be done? One answer from GRR appears to be that "the world is bad, and here is how to fix it" possibly by subscribing to our quarterly newspaper and donating money to the organization. - -Some of the noteworthy "radical" lexicon used from the article follows: - -To begin lightly, by describing Danny Wegman, CEO of Wegmans, a popular grocery store, as a "poverty pimp" and calling him "our own coked-up, Ferrari-driving, billionaire savior of Rochester's poor!". Then following up with Joel Seligman, President of The University of Rochester (U of R) who is described as an "over-sized fetus" and "1st among people who look like a Q-tip in human form." It goes on to say that "Though it may be difficult to discern exactly where Seligman's neck ends and his head begins" and finally finishes up by stating "It should come as no surprise that in order to pay for the vast quantities of warm milk he drinks before bed each night". Bob Lonsberry, who is a radio talk-show host on WHAM 1180 AM is called out for his penis size, "Sources close to Lonsberry confirm that he is indeed compensating for something" and later described as "a man who looks like a human butt plug." Howie Nielsen, who is the owner of Sticky Lips BBQ is told "fuck your boats! Oh, and the ribs at Sticky Lips suck." Sande Macaluso, City of Rochester Marshal is described as having a "Hitler-esque mustache and sporting a big cigar" who is also a "living Garbage Pail Kid". Maggie Brooks, the Monroe County Executive is called "a turtle-faced charlatan". It goes on with Lyjha Wilton, a developer in Rochester by saying "If you still don't want to hold him down and take a giant shit in his mouth". And lastly, Bob Duffy, former Police Chief and Mayor of Rochester, etc is described as having a "jerk-off muppet face". - -This is an intriguing list of the rich and powerful in Rochester - and, aside from the "you're an idiot" writing, there are solid points to be made about each individual. But, is this the kind of writing that is appealing to their audience and other anarchists? What is the common denominator between the anarchist audience and their non-anarchist friends? Is the general sentiment towards this "turned off" or "on"? For us, we're out of lulz and unimpressed; reading and digesting abusive and insulting language masked up as anarchist critique is not something we like to spend time doing. Alas, the review must live on, so we read. - -To others, this may seem funny and not an important aspect to focus on, but it makes their overall idea appear <em>un</em>sexy, immature, and a sad reflection of GRR. On a larger scale, this seems to be the trend of not only the local GRR group, but of the federation as well. While the bad-faith arguments, poor critiques, and lack of ability to have and build relationships among the terrible community has been a point of contention forever, it seems to be amplified by certain hanger-ons. It's no wonder platformists in North America have such a bad reputation internationally as being some of the most reactionary, sectarian, and partisan "anarchists". The common phrase from them sounds something like "they have absolutely nothing in common with us, they're not real anarchists, so fuck 'em." Too bad, so sad - as the pot signals the kettle, time for a coffee break. - -Here is a quick rundown of the other articles: The <em>Editorial: Tragedy in Orlando: An Anarchist Queer's Response</em> is a welcoming quick read about the the state, police, society, guns, violence, justice and LGBTQ. <em>What if Pride Were Run by Anarchists?</em> concludes that "an anarchist-run Pride event would be an anti-capitalist celebration of the struggles of all LGBTQ people. It would be designed to challenge the status quo of mainstream LGBTQ "rights" while calling forth the true history of Pride." In <em>First Edition: Storming the Bastille</em> it sums up why they decided to release the newspaper on July 14th (national holiday in France much?). <em>The Old World is Dying</em> is a text about the prefigurative politics of building "a new world from the shell of the old." It goes on to touch upon the strikes in France surrounding the new laws about the 35-hour work week, the Rojava Revolution, and the 2012 student strikes in Quebec. They also share some ideas regarding the overall practice of GRR - work call ins, tenant unions, rent strikes, and the Fight for $15. It was also mentioned that "we're not just planning to relentlessly mock those power - as fun as that is - we're going to share a vision for the world with all of you", which does somewhat respond to our earlier question regarding the audience and future direction. And the last article <em>Pigs in Shit</em> is a very brief report-back from a recent Black Lives Matter demonstration in the City of Rochester that saw 70+ people arrested and a lot of attention from the community. - -One last area to look at is the <em>Online Anarchist Resources</em> sidebar provided in the newspaper. Overall, it lists 13 websites and here are a few of the more polemical: AK Press who seem to be the mainstay "anarchist" publisher; while AK doesn't have the best track record working alongside other anarchists over the years, they seemingly have improved a bit. Recently, they found themselves under fire during Schmidt-gate. Another link, Zabalaza Books whose mothership, Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) of South Africa have also found themselves caught up in the same controversy re: Michael Schmidt and the two AK Press authors who wrote the exposé. Thought Crime Ink is an anarchist non-profit that provides ephemera. Libertarian Communism A website that continues to have controversy surrounding it for being run / supported by cop-collaborators (see On Why Dr John Drury Is A Collaborationist Asshole & cop-out – the significance of Aufhebengate (2013)). Anarkismo of course. Anarchist Platform A WordPress site that hasn't been updated since 2012. And finally, Common Cause, an organization that dissolved itself this past Spring (2016). A rather eye-opening list of links for the curious audience - especially those with little or no prior reference to anarchist ideas. - -Anarchist media needs to exist and the GRR is a welcome addition to a sparse North America anarchist newspaper lineup, even if the "you're an idiot" and overall party approach to anarchy-ism seems more grumpy and unattractive than revolutionary. One recent anarchist newspaper (+online) project particularly stands out for aiming above all of the ridiculousness, called The Blast. In the about us, they write: "For those new to the struggle we present some of the rich stories of what has come before us - tales of our gains and losses, of what is possible in the future and in our daily lives today. For those who have been here a while, we’d like to reimagine familiar issues with a critical eye while maintaining no (or at least shifting) sacred cows." - -How will the GRR respond to this review? Disastrously we imagine, as unfortunate it becomes when one looks at the GRR website "About us": - -<quote> -Odds are, we’re just going to read your complaints aloud at a meeting and laugh at you. -<br> -- GRR -</quote> - -*** Real Anarchists Have Day Jobs - -A brief visit with the Black Rose Anarchist Federation - -<quote> -Whilst I know there are many decent but mistaken individuals who pride themselves on their party membership I consider that the best job pro-revolutionary organisations do is to contain all the idiots in one place, permitting to everybody else the luxury of avoiding them. - Nihilist Communism -</quote> - -Around a year or so ago, I decided to attend a General Interest Meeting (GIM) of the locale Black Rose Anarchist Federation. I went because I was curious to meet and see what other anarchists in the area were working on. The meeting was very well attended for a city that isn't known for having a bunch of wild-eyed anarchists. People were interested and the anarchist outreach game was on point as the meeting began in an old church, whose member(s) had invited the anarchists to use the space. - -The presentation was dry, awkward at times, and not one that seemed to be overly appealing to the packed room of listeners, although many faces did continue on into the first part of the "integrating process." This overall bland tone carried on into future meetings, discussions, and direction of the group, with at times showing life, but mostly seeming basic and at times even hostile to anarchist ideas. Since (or before) 1999, the platform in North America has gained a reputation of being the sectarian comrades you never wanted and unwelcoming to other anarchists. At the time of the GIM, Black Rose was around 1 year old, as it had previously combined various anarchist organizations throughout the USA into one group to rule them all. The north-east of the USA and North America, with the exception perhaps being Montreal, seem to really favour this platformist, syndicalist, and especifismo approach to anarchism (class / work). Why is that? - -The most intriguing part of the GIM was their explanation and discussion of the platform vs. especifismo. A basic summary would be that the platform after the Russian Revolution (ATR) is like "hey, we lost" - how do we change our specific anarchist organization, tactics, and strategies to ensure we stop losing (A: federalism?). Especifismo has a huge overlap with the platform and appear quite similar - although over our short stay; it was explained to that Rochester Black Rose "isn't actually a specific platformist or especifismo group, or even how the group describes itself", but the alternatives and exacts were never quite clear enough. Organizationalism, social insertion, and other trademarks on the platform / especifismo always seemed to be the most stressed. - -Previously, the group had started as Rochester Red and Black and then changed their name to Rochester Black Rose when they joined the new federation. Rochester Red and Black had been around a few years prior, mainly focusing on housing issues, education, and "political work." They've since continued in other areas with some of the main projects being the Fight for $15, the IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), and the new publication mentioned above called the Genesee River Rebellion. - -As explained in the GIM, membership into the Federation would come after a 3-6 month integrating process. The process included attending the monthly General Assembly (GA), paying dues to the Federation, a monthly reading group, and overall participation in Black Rose. During this period, one was assigned a "mentor" or a standing member of the group. These mentors also had bi-weekly(?) or so meetings with the locale about their thoughts on their mentees. While we have a lot of "feelings" about the whole process, it mostly felt like a popularity contest amongst a closed clique of people who were already close friends. Curiously, our adoration was not as esteemed as some and we were eventually informed around 5 months in, the vote would be a big "no" to become a member in good standing. Ouch! As individuals interested in and working on anarchist projects, it felt a bit awkward and sad to have such a hard time building lasting relationships with other anarchists that live only a few blocks away. - -So, what happened? Well, a lot over the course of those months, although we've also known some of them for years prior and have attended their workshops, conferences, and meetings on a number of previous occasions. However, it was mostly over recent discussions, readings, and observations that changed our mind about working alongside this locale of the Black Rose Federation. For those so interested in building the mass movement of community, affinity, and solidarity together - life seemed far away. Discussion of this and other concerns were never really actualized or received genuine replies. The responses we did receive didn't seem to come from people who were interested in having good-faith arguments, working with other anarchists, or possibly seeing life outside the blinders. Along with their unwillingness to have us, the departure was just as much on our end. After everything, we somewhat quietly left the group and went back to <em>doing nothing</em>. The next time we ran into our "mentor" was at a music show after they were coming back from the local Bernie Sanders rally, where they may have also just given a speech. - -Some of the forks-in-the-road we encountered and are willing to share here are as follows. Facebook was used to organize pretty much everything. Within Facebook, it's possible to have "secret" groups and this is how the majority of integrating and standing members communicated and shared information with each other. Of course, nothing is illegal and the type of anarchism that the Black Rose Federation is associated with is largely public, above ground organizing. Still, it was tough to take seriously and understand why not use other more anarchist friendly alternatives to communicating and sharing? The answer seems to lay somewhere in-between it's convenient, everyone had a Facebook account; and the naive, we don't care if our enemies can see everything we're talking about. Even after Occupy, the Arab Spring, and other uprisings greatly aided by social media - it has been tough to take seriously people who organize specifically over it. Google was also used to keep track of supporters, membership, and dues. From these Google files, which everyone could see, we can get a more personal view of members finances. How much do you make? Check the anarchist spreadsheet and do the math. Whose supporting us? It all seemed a bit intrusive, especially in an anarchist organization where things are more-often-than-not open and accountable, but especially revealing for those who are tasked with monitoring and destroying anarchist organizing. Sometimes we make other peoples jobs way too easy. - -<quote> -Most (repressive, dividing, and controlling) State activity works by identifying individuals and relating them through organisational structures, all membership organisations, therefore, are built with flaws present from the outset which the State is able to exploit, usually to the detriment of the whole “movement”. (Look at the film, The Battle of Algiers.) -Nihilist Communism -</quote> - -Another fork-in-the-garden-of-irregularities is that of the relationship between the union staffers and the Federation. The North Eastern Federation of Anarchist-Communists (NEFAC) was often criticized for having various union flags waving at their demonstrations, metaphorically and real, and it was often difficult to tell where the line was being drawn by the anarchist participants and their union day jobs. During our brief stay with the Federation, this issue seemed to surprisingly come up a few time as disagreements between the various locales in Black Rose. Of course, anarchists have all kinds of jobs and work just like everyone, along with a strong past and present of being involved with struggles of the syndicalist nature, however bringing your liberal-leaning union / job into an anarchist organizations practice became a point of contention. A story related to us, was that in one anarchist meeting, support papers for the local social justice organization were handed out that made it feel like you were being recruited. In other times, anarchists were being asked to do the volunteer work for the main project of the locale - the Fight for $15; while a few within the locale got paid a salary for working on it via their day job. A rather weird repulsive dichotomy and one that seems to be becoming a more acknowledged issue within the platformist struggle. If only we too had an anarchist army to do our day job! Yes, these gripes were certainly not all we encountered in our stay, but a few we felt comfortable briefly mentioning here; we could go on and perhaps down the road we can find a way to write some meaningful words towards this end. - -Until then, why write this? This brief review is simply a way of looking back and can hopefully be understood as a work of care, as in we care because we're talking about you. We still live in the city and work on (different) anarchist projects and aren't interested in creating more drama or frenemies; there is already way too much of that. What we hope and aim for is extending a warm and welcoming hand to other anarchists in the region and the larger anarchist space in general. There are some lessons to be taken away about how anarchists create and maintain long-term working projects, friendships, and the world we'd like to see. Anarchists don't need a nation-wide Federation to organize and spread anarchist actions, we especially don't need groups like GRR ridiculing other anarchists and their projects for their opposing beautiful ideas. Of course, it's not possible to do what is to be (un)done with everyone in the terrible community. Our projects need to be fun and a reflection of the large, healthy, and vibrant international anarchist space we desire. - -Rochester Black Rose on The Anarchist Library - -[the end] - -<strong>A [draft] response to: An Anarchist Survey</strong> - -<strong>A response to a survey posted on Encounters with Anarchism, exploring our beautiful ideal</strong> - -<em>1. — How would you most succinctly define anarchism? Is there a shared “anarchist project” — and, if so, how would you characterize it?</em> - -At the heart anarchism is anti-state / anti-capitalist, or as the old saying goes “no gods, no masters.” The explanations from this can go on for a bit, but overall the shared “anarchist project” is a life project that is characterized by anarchy. - -<em>2. — What is the relationship between anarchism and the concept of anarchy?</em> - -Anarchy is the idea, while anarchism is the ideal. Ideas change and develop over time, whereas the ideals of anarchism are defined concepts at a specific time and framework; the -ism also implies a prior movement towards something. - -<em>3. — What is the value of tradition within the anarchist milieus and what might be its uses?</em> - -Of course!, tradition and non-tradition are valued within the milieus, spaces, and movements of anarchy. Anarchist history (against Leviathan), it’s human resistance, insurrections the world over and revolution, and other important anarchist pursuits. - -<em>4. — What, specifically, is the role to be played in the present by the anarchist literature — whether theoretical or artistic — of the past?</em> - -Anarchist literature knows it’s roll, and that is to… Attack! But, also remember; a remembrance of anarchist things past. The documenting of the usual and unique past, as well as the more famous historical events from an encompassing perspective. It's everything. - -<em>5. — What are the most significant challenges facing anarchists — and anarchism, as you understand it — in the present?</em> - -Building a mass movement of anarchists and friends… like a federation. Just kidding, but maybe. If that’s where you’re at, nothing wrong. Do it. Neighborhood anarchist friends are the best. - -Most of all, building that life project. - -<em>6. — How would you characterize the present state of anarchist activity (outside the realm of theory and propaganda)?</em> - -Depends on where you look and how far recently back into time you go. In North America, the current state of anarchist activity seems largely centered around antifa, although the high water mark for that may have been a year ago. Before that, it was Occupy everything(!) in 2011 and the summit hopping years of anti-globalization from 1999 on into the 2000s. What is today? The anarchist gathering as camping adventure over book fair over meetings over riot!? It looks different across the world, but seems especially defined by region and anarchist tent affiliation. Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Harvey, the Ferguson insurrection, Standing Rock, and other events, to name only a few, have painted an alternative picture of possibilities. - -<em>7. — How would you characterize the present state of anarchist theory and propaganda?</em> - -With the Internet, social media, and communication as it is today, brings with it a characterization of speed an ability to share ideas over large distances instantaneously. Quality conversation and dialogue seems to have deteriorated a bit over letter correspondence; but it also may just be more difficult to find, as there are so many things out there. The act of writing letters, the time involved in the previous literary boom of magazines and correspondence does seem to have unfortunately largely faded away, for a different more modern approach of communication and typing. The technology of communication and learning, sharing, critiquing, and comments. - -<em>8. — What are the most urgent changes to be made in anarchist practice moving forward?</em> - -Perhaps , a step away from the infighting and attacking of other anarchists and ideas in an uncritical and non-productive manner. Critique is healthy, but having good faith conversations over the all-to-common sectarian squabbles becomes too much over time, especially for new people. The poor critique is a turn off. Next, after we’ve solved all the relationship problems ;), the commune, the collapse, and the forest garden. - -<em>9. — What is the role of some kind of “anarchist unity” moving forward? What form could or should that unity take?</em> - -We don’t all have to get along, but perhaps some shouldn’t relate other anarchist thinkers as a demigod to their only god of whatever. The platform federation or the union of egoists, down to the neighborhood affinity groups and friends / individuals, let’s do it all. - -<em>10. — What are the greatest needs with regard to new anarchist theory, propaganda, literature and art?</em> -<br> -Anarchist spaces offline and online to share these things IRL with other anarchists and friends. - -<em>11. — Do you currently identify with any particular anarchist current or tendency — and, if so, how do you characterize your position?</em> - -Anti-civ much younger growing up, post-left, green anarchy, but today just an anarchist. The tent is big, come on in and hang out for a bit, say hi. Perhaps, the oft said quote by Fredy Perlman, that they’re just a “violinist” or something like that, although violins are perhaps a bit too bluegrass and unplayable here. - -<em>12. — What additional questions would it be useful to pose to a broad anarchist audience?</em> - -Offline: How is it to be done? (this is the age old question, rephrased, so many ways, again) - -Online: How do we organize the international anarchist __________ work flow? Helping ________ and____________ anarchist _____ around the world? - -<em>13. — Would you be interested in participating in future surveys, perhaps addressing more specific elements of anarchist theory, practice and culture?</em> - -Perhaps. And specifically, how anarchists like yourself use this information gathered from an international survey of this sort. Does it change anything for you? And, if so, how so? What do you think that looks like for everyone else? What are some gems to share from the takeaway? Thanks for doing this, - stalking the earth - - |