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Title: Quiet Americans
Author: Anarchist Communist Federation
Date: 1999
Language: en
Topics: anarchist movement, North America, Canada, United States of America, Organise!
Source: Retrieved on May 13, 2013 from https://web.archive.org/web/20130513035405/http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue50/quiet.html
Notes: Published in Organise! Issue 50 — Winter 1998/99.

Anarchist Communist Federation

Quiet Americans

In the last year American anarchists have had the dissolving of Love and

Rage, an upsurge in industrial action by workers, and continued state

repression of members of Black Autonomy. So, what is going on, and what

is the hope for anarchist organisation in America? In this article we

attempt a round up of some of the current anarchist organisations in the

United States and Canada, based both on contacts that the ACF has built

in the last few years, and from anarchist press and internet sources.

Love and Rage

Bringing anarchists together on a continent wide basis in North America

has always been an uphill struggle, never mind the formation of robust

organisations such as federations, but the late 1980’s saw several

convergences, firstly at the “Haymarket International Anarchist

Gathering” in Chicago in 1986, followed by “Building the Movement

Anarchist Gathering” in 1987 in Minneapolis, the “Anarchist Survival

Gathering” in Toronto, Canada in 1988, and “Without Borders Anarchist

Gathering” in San Francisco in 1989. Out of the Minneapolis gathering

came an initiative known as the Mayday Network, involving several

anarchist groups and the trotskyist Revolutionary Socialist League, some

of who were embarking on a conversion to anarchism. At a subsequent

conference in Chicago in November 1989, Love and Rage newspaper was

launched, together with a new organisation with Statement of Principles,

which become the Love and Rage network in 1991. Opponents from the

beginning were wary of the involvement of the RSL, which in fact

dissolved itself on the same weekend that L+R was founded, but the

network was widely supported and groups not only in the US but also in

Canada, Mexico and South America identified themselves with the network.

L+R became the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation in 1993

in a attempt by some of the groups to tighten up the loose network,

resulting in the loss of some member groups. This point may be seen as

the start of a decline — some features of this being uncritical support

for the Zapatistas/ EZLN and a move away from anarchism as the key

ideology. On the other hand, being a loose federation, and never really

identifying itself as anarchist except in name, L+RRAF was pretty well

open to all comers from the beginning and was happy to embrace a wide

range of political views and religious beliefs. The situation came to a

head publicly in June this year with the press release announcement,

“ [...] After more than 8 years of hard work, the Love and Rage

Revolutionary Anarchist Federation voted to dissolve itself during a

brief conference at Hunter College in New York City on Saturday, May 23,

1998. some participants in the conference spent the weekend laying the

foundation for a new provisional organisation, the Fire By Night

Organizing Committee. Members of another faction at the conference also

announced their intention to launch a journal and a new organization.

Neither of those projects has a name yet.”

The press release went on to explain the dissolution in terms of

non-agreement on whether anarchism had all the answers to their

problems, on the theory of “white-skin privilege” and about practical

work. It appears that the FBNOC (who sent out the above release) have

taken what they see as a general anti-authoritarian position, which is

accommodating of Maoism and Marxism in addition to anarchism. Maoism

especially is being taken up by non-Marxists in the USA, and is also

finding its way into prisoner support organisations like ABCF and

Jericho ’98 (see below). Another faction is purported to be taking a

class-based anarchist position, and producing a discussion forum

document entitled Towards a fresh revolutionary anarchist group but in

spite of attempts to contact them at their Detroit address we have been

unable to verify this (Note: this has now appeared on-line). According

to the FBNOC press release, this other faction calls for “a federation

of collectives united around firm anarchist/anti-authoritarian politics

and outlook, oriented to the working classes and most oppressed, and

active in building Anti-Racist Action as an anti-authoritarian mass

movement”. FBNOC criticise their sacrificing of practice and mass

organising to ideological purity. It’s probably fair to say that for all

its faults, most American anarchists were sad to see the end of L+R. One

point in its favour was its managing to publish in both English and

Spanish (though the Mexican Amor y Rabia group) and so reach a wider

readership (and we have also found some on-line literature in Italian).

National Initiative

Around the time of the formation of L+RRAF, another national initiative

was launched. The Network of Anarchist Collectives was to be a “facility

for resource sharing, mutual aid, and communication” amongst anarchist

collectives in US and Canada. From the outset, there were disagreements

over whether the network should be restricted to “anarchist” collectives

and even over what a collective should be; an agitational group trying

to smash the state, or just a self-organised group of some kind? In

spite of these broad disagreements, a mission statement and member

policy were eventually formed, but then only three groups wanted to

join: the Chicago A-Zone, Critical Mass Media (Syracuse) and the Toledo

(Ohio) A-Zone.

NAC produced several issues of a magazine (Dis)Connection, and organised

a few gatherings. The network is no longer operating as such, though

(Dis)Connection is soon to be restarted by some of the original members.

One other recent loss was the Demanarchie group in Quebec, Canada in

March, which previously translated ACF pamphlets into French. Members of

the group have since met with other Quebec anarchists to discuss the

formation of a new organisation though we are waiting to hear the

outcome. (we are now pleased to hear they have resurfaced as a new

group, Emile Henry).

On a happier note, a New England anarchist-communist federation may be

in the making. Boston-based We Dare Be Free newspaper was launched in

the Spring 1998 and the authors are keen to promote class struggle

politics on the East Coast. They have also begun an International

Solidarity Campaign to support international anarchist struggles,

notably against the repression of Italian anarchists, and literature

distribution by Insurrection Mailorder. As well as covering news, the

editors of We Dare Be Free have reprinted texts by Bakunin and

Malatesta, which has also been the approach of a smaller local project

by the Anarchist Voice of Cambridge. These and other anarchists along

the East Coast (from Virginia up to Montreal, Canada) are attempting a

wider linkage “in the spirit of NAC” by means of the Atlantic Anarchist

Circle.

Active Resistance

In 1996 a new series of gatherings was begun under the name Active

Resistance, “an anarchist gathering of organizers and activists to share

and discuss strategies and tactics to build and support radical left

movements against capitalism and the state”. The first AR continental

conference was in Chicago in August 1996 which was attended by 750

people, the second in Toronto in August 1998. AR98 was hosted by Toronto

Anarchists with some help from regional contacts. The 7 day event, which

attracted 600–800 people, was mainly attended by “young punks/young

people [...] aspiring towards anarchism”, though members of IWW and

members of the AAC and other networks were also present. Part of the

event involved a conference (not unlike Bradford Mayday 98) with 4

schools/core groups; “Building Revolutionary Movements, Art and

Revolution, Community Organising, and Alternative Economics”. The AR98

organisers are due to produce a “zine” to bring together views and

feedback about the event, but already one criticism has been that the

groups were unable to discuss things in much depth since so many were

coming across ideas for the first time. Informally however, links

between organised anarchists are said to have been strengthened. Another

view is that whilst events like AR98 are significant as gatherings, they

are not as important to many people as local and regional actions,

although the event as a whole has given people “energy, inspiration and

ideas”. The next AR gathering is due to happen in Texas, early in 1999.

Another new initiative is calling itself the Heatwave

communist-anarchist federation, which is based in Forth Worth/Dallas.

Heatwave is calling for people to set up “Heatwave collectives” in other

parts of the US, but apart from an internet web-site, we do not know

much about them.

Prisoner Support

We have previously referred to the prisoner support organisations. One

in particular, Raze The Walls! deserves a special mention, as the ACF

has had good links with its members for quite some time. Unfortunately,

RTW! Network dissolved in October 1997 over a messy disagreement over

the support or otherwise of a prisoner, but the Georgia group maintained

the name RTW! and in conjunction with Florida based Orlando Anarchist

Black Cross-Support Group, they recently expanded their remit to general

issues by the launch of the magazine RTW! Quarterly at the end of 1997.

The first issue reprinted Working Class Times, seemingly unaware of the

rows carrying on in the UK between its authors and Class War (note, this

is the old federation — CWF has been continued/relaunched by some of its

ex-members) over the issue of whether there is a ruling class or just a

middle class, but the second carried a consolidation of their own class

based anarchist position. The discussion of class politics in the US in

prisoner support circles must be seen in a positive light. However, even

here the question of Maoism has raised its ugly head, with a report by

Orlando in the April 1998 ABCF Update #19 about their meeting of the

recently bailed former Black Panther Party leader Geronimo ji-jaga Pratt

(who advocates the setting up of Black Militias) at the Jericho ’98

prisoner support march in Washington DC. The report said, “Geronimo also

added [...] that we should engage in ideological struggle based on the

guidelines set forward by the late Mao-Tse Tung. We are in total

agreement with this. The fact that Mao was not an anarchist means little

to nothing to us, his theories on combating liberalism have been tested

in practice and we feel it would be incorrect for us to not to integrate

this in our practice. We also think its incorrect for people to refuse

to learn from Mao because he wasn’t an anarchist, while at the same time

learning from the wisdom of Political Prisoners/Prisoners Of War who by

and large are not anarchists”. This statement is typical of the

ideological mishmash which we are hearing from the USA.

Black Autonomy

Black Autonomy Collective/Black Autonomy International is an anarchist

influenced organisation based in Seattle, and produce the paper Black

Autonomy edited by ex-BPP member Lorenzo Komboa Ervin. In their

statement “Anarchism + Black Revolution = New Black Automonous Politics”

printed in the Aug-Sept 1997 issue of the paper, the BAC attempted to

reconcile class-struggle anarchism with the “super-oppression” of people

of color, and a rejection of the “race nationalism” of black nationalism

whilst “sharing many basic ideas with them”. They continue, “So-called

“white” people are a super-contrived nationality designed to help the

capitalists keep the workers of color in their place and safeguard the

status quo. So rather than see the “white” industrial working class as a

potentially revolutionary class, instead we see it as an opportunistic,

collaborationist body which must be redefined and reorganized if it is

to constitute a reliable ally and have any ability of fighting in its

own interest.” Like the Black Panthers before it, BA believe in the

turning of working class communities into dual power communes to enable

a protracted struggle with capitalism. Though they criticise

“euro-centric” anarchism, Black Autonomy, through Ervin, have attempted

to make links with anarchists internationally by a series of speaking

tours in Europe, and also in Australia where he was locked up and nearly

deported for remarks made on TV. Back in the States, BA continue to

involve themselves in promoting the “Copwatch” program, which patrols

and documents police racism, and aims to try and prevent killings (by

presence of cameras), to obtain releases from arrest, and to aid court

cases. Most recently Ervin and 2 other BA members were arrested in May

1998 during a Copwatch protest in Chattanoga Tennessee, over 2 separate

killings of black men by cops within one week. They blamed their arrests

on a sell-out by the “Nation of Islam, NAACP, Black preachers and

Operation PUSH, who made a secret deal with the cops and politicians”.

The Chattanoga 3 now face 6 months prison or a $2000 fine, but Ervin has

only just escaped sentencing under the Tennessee “3 Strikes and you’re

out” statute which would have meant an automatic prison sentence up to 5

years, highlighting the precariousness of his and BA’s position, and

their continued need for international solidarity.

The Wobblies

So far we have not considered the labour movement organisations. The

largest of these, the Industrial Workers of the World, is currently

experiencing a boom in membership (now several hundreds), which is

indicative of a growth in industrial action by US workers in general

over the last few years. Their monthly paper Industrial Worker reported

in its October 1998 issue on the IWW General Assembly which was attended

by 87 members, the largest meeting for many decades. General

Secretary-Treasurer Fred Chase reported a more than doubling of

membership since 1995 and an increase of one third in the last year

alone. The assembly identified organising strategy as a key issue,

especially as international sections are growing. The USA has seen some

large scale industrial actions over the last couple of years, including

a national strike of United Parcel Services workers, a plant shutdown at

General Motors, construction workers striking and fighting police in New

York City and a walkout/lockout at Detroit News and Free Press. Although

much of the action was supported and orchestrated by the Teamsters, some

of it has had a rank-and-file flavour, which has undoubtably given a

boost to organisations like the IWW, who have also taken the opportunity

to critique the ‘business unions’. Parallels between the US and UK are

also apparent especially over privatisation of transport and welfare,

and against casualisation. The IWW was extremely supportive of the

Liverpool Dockers and is benefiting from strengthened international

links as a result. Whilst the IWW is revolutionary syndicalist in a

general sense and deliberately avoids ties with specific ideological

groups, anarchism remains a strong current within it. It also has a

loose linkage with the US Earth First and some members of IWW are

supporters of the Food Not Bombs organisation which distributes free

vegetarian food to the destitute. The more politically orientated

journal Libertarian Labor Review — “Anarchosyndicalist Ideas and

Discussion” presents an approach in favour of building the One Big Union

in the USA, and has recently reported on a debate within the IWW (first

printed in Australian magazine of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Network, Rebel

Worker) about whether or not activities like Food Not Bombs are too

marginal and detract from the main task of building unions. Certainly

the FNB campaign is part of the wider ‘movement’ such as it exists, and

has supporters who do not have class struggle politics.

Workers Solidarity Alliance

The American section of the IWA is known as the Workers Solidarity

Alliance. Unlike the IWW, the WSA-IWA is not a union, but more like the

Solidarity Federation in Britain, it is a propaganda organisation

promoting anarcho-syndicalism, and supports workers struggles. Its most

recent continental initiative is the I99 International Solidarity

Conference which will be taking place in San Francisco on 1–5 June 1999.

The conference will aim to bring together union activists under the

banner “The working class and employing class have nothing in common,

the working class should take over the economy, and the working class

must organise into unions to fight the capitalist class”. Subjects for

discussion are the stopping of factionalisation, combating the World

Bank, connecting workers issues with those of the environment and

poverty, and exploration of alternative forms of organising and

cooperation. At its annual conference the IWW also endorsed the I-99

conference, which may strengthen links between the two organisations,

which already exist especially in San Francisco itself. The WSA-IWA has

also organised a US speaking tour for Sam Mbah, member of the Awareness

League in Nigeria and co-author of the book African Anarchism, published

in 1997. He will speak in several cities during November 1998 to “enrich

anarchism and anarchist principles with an African perspective, and help

to carve a place for Africa with the framework of the worldwide

anarchist movement”. Interestingly, the debates which occurred within

the RSL shortly before their rejection of orthodox Trotskyism and

involvement in the early Love and Rage, are also credited (in African

Anarchism) with influencing the similar transformation in the Awareness

League, which was formerly a leftist coalition but is now part of the

IWA.

Libertarian Municipalists

Moving on to the libertarian municipalists, their 2^(nd)

International/Interpolis Conference is due to take place in the state of

Vermont in August 27–29 1999. Hosted by the Institute of Social Ecology,

billed as “The Politics of Social Ecology: Libertarian Municipalism — an

anarchist agenda for the 21^(st) Century”, and with Murray Bookchin

expected to deliver the “keynote address”, it aims to build on the

“theoretical framework” established at the first conference which took

place in Lisbon, Portugal in August 1998, attended by 125 people. Though

still academic in structure, delegates are asked to treat it as “a

working conference [...] with the expectation of building a movement

with others who share their commitment”, the stated aim of this movement

being to build parallel institutional powers, via citizens assemblies,

either by participation in local elections or by extra-legal means. The

idea of social revolution would eventually be to take power in these

municipalities. This reformist approach has already been strongly

attacked by the IWA as being no more than replication of the bourgeois

state, typified by Bookchin’s “ignoring of the meaning of workers’

struggle”.

In addition to the above, there are the magazines such as the

anarcho-primitivist Fifth Estate, Anarchy, radical newspaper Slingshot,

and Profane Existance — “making punk a threat again” (note the latest

news is Profane Existance wound up in October 1998) . There are also

various council communist groupings who produce useful propaganda such

as Collective Action Notes, Red and Black Notes, and The Poor the Bad

and the Angry, and we have also had intermittent contact with Los

Angeles Workers Voice, who are sympathetic to the Communist Workers

Organisation in Britain.

Conclusions

What can we conclude about the American scene? The politics seem very

broad without much consensus, neither between groups nor within the

‘networks of collectives’ that are the preferred organisational form at

present. The few coordinated continent-wide events are limited to the

aptly named “gatherings”, rather than something which is able to be

taken forward organisationally. Some activists appear to see anarchism

as only one strand of their politics and seem happy to embrace what we

see as authoritarian ideas, but which they see only as a different type

of anti-authoritarianism. This is a resistance to “ideological purity”

amongst many American radicals, who as a result are more willing to

accept general leftist ideas. This is somewhat different to Britain,

where most activists still generally oppose any flavour of Marxism or

Maoism, though support of national liberation struggles is still

prevalent. On the other hand, local and regional activism is widely

supported, for example against globalisation and capitalist trade

agreements like MAI, something which may well find a resonance outside

of the US. Race is also clearly a major issue, and European class

struggle anarchists clearly need to understand how they are viewed by

groups such as Black Autonomy and by other anarchists who subscribe to

the theory of “white-skin privilege”. These are challenging ideas,

especially as BA is firmly in the class struggle mould, against

cross-class alliances and against separatism. The libertarian

municipalist agenda appears to be no more than a reformist strategy

based on smaller political units than the state, and seems unlikely to

strike any chord with the broader movement. The IWW, with a historical

tradition to live up to, is the most consistent of the organisations and

the only one capable of producing a regular paper, albeit without an

overt anarchist agenda. Many class struggle anarchists, whether in the

IWW or not, do refer to themselves as “wobbly” in recognition of the

importance of radical workplace politics. A few anarchists, mostly in

network organisations at present, seem interested in trying to work

towards a new continent-wide federation, possibly based on anarchist

communism, which is something the ACF would greatly welcome, though the

foundation for this does not look at all steady. The ACF has a

secretariat which is responsible for international contacts with

anarchist groups and individuals. We welcome exchange of publications

and ideas with anarchist organisations worldwide.