💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › paul-z-simons-pure-black.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 13:32:07. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
➡️ Next capture (2024-07-09)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Pure Black Author: Paul Z. Simons Date: April 23rd, 2017 Language: en Topics: black anarchy Source: Retrieved on April 4th, 2018 from http://modernslavery.calpress.org/?p=1162
The term “black” anarchist has been thrown around recently in a number
of international milieux and journals. Indeed during the last few years
of my travels throughout North and South America and Europe I have noted
repeated attempts to define, through action and theory, the ideas
associated with black anarchy. Following is a brief, incomplete outline
of some of the more common aspects of what black anarchists think and
do. These tendencies are numbered for convenience, and not to show
priority or importance.
Red Excursus: I will not discuss “red” anarchy as it seems well defined
by the collectivist, syndicalist, communist variants of anarchist ideas
that were developed more than a hundred years ago and still enjoy a
great deal of popularity and adherents. I emphasize that I don’t see the
two various strains as being mutually exclusive, opposed, or even
necessarily very different at the macro level. The old sectarianism and
exclusion, a gnawing symptom of Marxism and the Social Democracy, plays
no role in this essay. I am attempting to describe and provide some
topography to a growing, relatively new agreement among a particular
group of my comrades, in doing so I support and encourage those who
follow different anarchist ideas and paths. No one is wrong, no one is
right. The best we can hope for is clarity, not hegemony.
In this context violence is defined as a tactic, whether applied to
insurrection, riot, attentat, or simple refusal. There is an almost
overwhelming consensus among the black anarchists that the use of
violence is necessary, indeed desirable, perhaps essential. The
international growth of the various FA(I)-IRF cells, the example of the
Greek CCF and Revolutionary Struggle, the concomitant growth of the
non-anarchist but equally engaging actions of the eco-extremists in
Mexico, Chile and Brazil, and the myriad anonymous burnings, ATM
destruction, and attacks that populate the current global anarchist
media echo this resonance. Whether it is the Molotov arching gracefully
through the night air, the flaming barricade, or the flagpole—turned
truncheon—crashing into fascist bone, the black anarchist greets all
with approval.
There is a strong individualist strain in black anarchism, mostly as a
function of activity and less due to long nights breathlessly reading
Stirner. In essence when engaged in actions it’s easier to work in small
groups, and sometimes alone rather than attempt to build large or even
medium sized organizations. These small groups which I’ll call teams, a
word taken from our Athenian comrades, bring into clear relief the
importance of individual initiative, they decentralize decision and
action, they emphasize clearly that while there is no I in team, there
is an “m” and an “e.”
In this instance, nihilism I’ll interpret as the realpolitik of
anarchism in 2017—all the various ideas, concepts and conceits of an
anarchist victory via revolution or insurrection in the current context
are nothing more than political heroin. Once this simple, obvious fact
is accepted there are two courses, resignation and lassitude or savage
attack without any real hope of success. The black anarchist chooses the
latter, always.
A part of the black anarchist consensus is the desire to completely
reject any compromise or cooperation with nation-state, Capital, and
markets. Leading many in the milieu to undertake consciously political
illegal activity. This varies from place to place but includes the
positive activities of squatting, occupations, shoplifting, out-right
store robbery, burglary and more. In terms of negative activities this
new variant of illegalism includes refusal of all taxes, tolls, welfare,
NGO handouts, and state-run free clinics.
There is a real and healthy fear among the black anarchists of formal
organization. The anti-organizational tendency is not new in the
historical anarchist milieu, nor in the various anarchisms that saw
first light since the 1970s in the USA, Canada, and parts of Western
Europe. The open espousal of informal, temporary structures and limited
adherence to organizational tenets is, however, very new. This loosening
of the organizational form, the inclusionary laissez-faire stance
adopted by black anarchists and their organizations may be one of the
tendencies most lasting contributions. In most historical cases
anarchists have constructed organizations that virtually ooze the ideas
and characteristics of the dominant society. In a few short years the
black anarchists have done a great deal of theoretical violence to such
organizational nonsense, in the future I hope they do more.
This outline of black anarchism is brief, incomplete, and a piece of
journalism, not conjecture. This is what I saw, what I experienced in
the past several years visiting and working with anarchists on three
continents. It is both memoriam and prospectus.