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Title: Rogues Against the State
Author: Crudo
Date: February 27, 2007
Language: en
Topics: anarchist movement, Modesto Anarcho, activism, insurrectionary, critique of leftism
Source: Retrieved on 12th August 2021 from https://anarcho209.proboards.com/thread/40/rogues-state-notes
Notes: From Modesto Anarcho #3

Crudo

Rogues Against the State

“We do not assume that our world is inevitably heading toward a

libratory transformation of social relations. [However], if there is a

choice between cynicism and hopelessness or a determined and focused

attack on the present institutions of domination, we choose the latter.”

— A Murder of Crows, Issue #1, March 2006

Revolution is still possible — yet hardly inevitable

As those of the oppressed and excluded we must abolish class society

and work. This is our project. We must reject the idea of building a

mass movement directed by a single line of thought or ideology, group or

organization, and instead think about how we can participate in (let

alone foster) a complete social transformation. The desire to create one

monolithic anarchist organization reflects the same desire as that of

the Marxist-Leninist version of “the Party”, even if it is veiled under

the description of “directly democratic” and “decentralized”. This is a

desire to direct, convert, and manage “the mass”, as opposed to existing

and acting within our class, community, or bioregion, (with other proles

and militants) towards a self-organized existence. To me however, a

rejection of the approach of ‘activism’ doesn’t mean that we should

exclude ourselves from daily life and those around us, hiding in little

ghettos to become masters of what Makhno called, the “paper revolution”.

Far from it, we need to realize that we are of the oppressed and

excluded and of those apart from the ruling elites. We need to act along

side and with the oppressed for we are of them and show through our

actions and relationships what our anti-politics are. It is through

struggle and personal affinity that we will gain more people interested

in our ideas, spaces, and projects. It is also through struggle that we

will find more in common with others that may have the same desires and

be engaging in a similar praxis, yet not with the same set of labels.

Our task is to be able to act within various social tensions that exist

within society and connect with others, to create and maintain

autonomous zones so we can grow, build, learn, stay sane, and also to be

able to defend and expand ourselves and those zones by any means

necessary. Let our tendency spread like a virus, leaving dead

authoritarians (of all stripes) in it’s wake.

The grouping of all oppressed people into one set organization may

have made sense when it was thought that the only thing necessary for

revolution was taking over the means of production. However, since

industrial capitalism (or if you prefer ‘civilization’) is a threat to a

wild healthy planet, people’s lives, other species (and all the other

nasty and alienating things that come from the industrial workplace)

then we should abandon any hopes of “self-managing” it through our own

labors. Many ‘class struggle anarchists’ have also forgotten that living

in cities, working in factories, the creation of private property and

the imposition of class society in general was all done to subjugate

people into a division of labor (and thus classes) for the sake of

gaining surplus, capital, and power. Organizing around class lines is a

possible strategy for social revolution, but if we aren’t against the

basic foundations of class society in general, then what is the point?

The current infrastructure (which constitutes the present

technological apparatus) was meant to serve capital, not us.

Decentralization of production and increased technological automation

has in part been implemented to halt the possibility of workers

revolting at a centralized point of production and hurting the flow of

capital. Therefore, using the same infrastructure that is meant to keep

the gears of capital and state humming should be totally abandoned.

Also, production for things like computers is based around ‘harvesting’

resources that are found in certain geographic regions throughout the

world. In a future society of various autonomous regions, production and

resource abstraction would require the destruction of certain areas to

provide the materials for things like cell phones and computers, even if

it was done collectively and via self-management. We cannot continue to

warp our world around industrial culture, it is as un-ecologically sound

as it is non-congruent to anarchy.

There are some against civilization who think that a “collapse” will

lead to everyone being Robinson Crusoe, (or at least just the cool

anarchist kids), this is as misguided as self-managing the current death

culture. Even if the lights go out or the top soil goes bad, the global

elite will not stop being the global elite. Even now, many of them are

trying to figure out how they can ‘save our economy’ and ‘stop global

warming’, realizing that complete ecological disaster is a threat to

capital’s hold over the world. It is quite possible that ecological

collapse on some level could happen, (peak oil, dead oceans, etc) and it

is also possible that the elites will take major steps to make sure that

some of the damage is reduced (as so much damage has already been done).

Whatever the outcome, it remains clear that any environmental problems

will not signal the end of the elites hold over the earth and those

living on it. Moreover, as ecological and social problems become greater

and more open social tensions occur, the chances of the left launching

some sort of thrust for power is greater and we need to be able to be

strong enough to push for a total social transformation. Unwillingness

to engage in a revolutionary struggle against state and capital (and the

authoritarian left) will only signal a bleaker future with more of the

same.

Any modern class struggle needs to be against class itself and for the

total abolition and destruction of work (or wage labor, a division of

labor, industrialism, the format of the city, etc), even if our actions

occur in and around the workplace itself. Many ‘green anarchists’ have

failed to take any heed to the possibilities of the revolt against work

(sabotage, wild cat strikes, actions outside of the unions) and instead

perceive that anything existing in or around the industrial workplace is

nuts (even if it’s the people inside struggling). Within struggles such

as these there is a ‘selfish class desire’ that exists because people

are more willing to struggle for things that affect them directly.

However we need to take this thinking a step further and realize that it

is desirable to destroy work and the civilization that has produced a

society where all life must be bent around it. By this I mean that the

struggle against industrial society can be one of motivated class

interest and not just a desire to “save the earth”, (as well intended or

valid as that may be). The question now, as always, is how do we

proceed?

Against Activism

For most of my existence as a conscious anarchist, I was an activist.

Most of the organizing work that I did in my local area was through the

anarchist collective Direct Action Anti-Authoritarians, or DAAA

Collective for short. Most of our activity revolved around our

collective doing projects that largely repeated themselves and sought to

“build mass” by trying to get more people into the group. Meaning, we

wanted to be “the movement” as opposed to participating in an autonomous

social movement of various projects, individuals, and groups. Really

Free Markets, Food Not Bombs, literature distribution, Copwatch, etc,

drew in and ‘touched’ many people, but these projects often didn’t

reflect our direct needs and desires (other than to be active and to do

something as anarchists, but see the article in Modesto Anarcho #2 on

“Against Anarcho-Charity” for more on this subject). While these

projects gained us a lot of respect and notoriety as an activist

organization, we largely were seen as another charity that busied itself

with giving out food, clothing, and other needed items. This view of the

group as a charity meant that many people’s understanding of us was that

we were simply a resource to draw from and this meant that people

created connections with us not through physical struggle, but because

we had something that they needed. Energy and time was largely spent

toward keeping the collective simply alive, generally through the

continuation of a set checklist of repeating projects. Our time and

resources went into continuing these few set projects that we became

very good at continuing over the years (mainly literature distribution

with Anarchist Café, and variations of Food Not Bombs) and for many of

us, did not want to become critical of. The better we got at being an

activist group, the more distanced we got from those that we wanted to

revolt with and the more we became specialists in projects that did

little to actually challenge power.

Towards the end of DAAA Collective, I felt that our approach did

somewhat change as we worked to include ourselves in various local

struggles that were going on. This ranged from things like helping out

at strikes, to participating in Copwatch organized by migrant farm

workers. While all of this was great stuff, and I would do it again,

because we wanted to gain recognition to DAAA Collective as an

organization, we often were uneasy in trying to help various struggles

by doing anything more than just general support. This uneasiness

generally meant that we often did not try and find ourselves at odds

with left, union, church, or other set bureaucracies that were often

active in set struggles we were supporting, but instead tried to seek

their approval. Why were we even interested in there approval in the

first place? We should have been wheatpasting posters over town calling

for a general strike and autonomous resistance outside of the unions —

instead of talking to ALF-CIO leaders about how we could help. We should

have been fighting Nazis in the streets — instead of seeking approval

from churches that were vandalized by racists for a thumbs up about our

anti-politics. We should have been kicking in doors of abandoned houses

with friends to open squats — instead of wasting gas driving across town

to get vegetables for Food Not Bombs. In short, we should have acted

like our ideas meant something, instead of acting like just a bunch

of…activists.

To be against activism and for a complete social transformation means

that we desire the destruction of hierarchal society and openly desire

it’s abolition. We seek anti-politics, meaning the rejection of

representative forms of struggle and a praxis of insurrectionary attack,

or the use of actions which seek to destroy any existence of the state

and capital and allows for the self-organization of revolt and life.

This does not mean that people shouldn’t use activist approaches from

time to time (for instance organizing events to fundraise for political

prisoners). But in general we need to find a strategy that exists

outside of going from protest to protest and from issue to issue. We are

in the middle of a social war, not a disagreement between various sides

that can reach a compromise.

Beyond Activism

One of the joys of realizing that class and social struggle is

everywhere is being able to see this as a social war, (or a violent

confrontation between hierarchal and autonomous forms of social

interactions). Modern society creates various tensions within it and

these are tensions that we can act within and work to expand into wider

attack and critique. We can see (historically and presently) that there

are tendencies within oppressed and exploited people’s struggles towards

self-organization and a desire to fight for their own interests through

insurrection, sabotage, direct action, and self-activity. In fact, many

of the historical reference points for the current anarchist movement

have all been social uprisings in which almost hardly any anarchists

were involved. Hungry 56’, Paris 68’, Argentina, Oaxaca, Albania,

Algeria, etc. This is not to say that anarchists didn’t play a part in

this struggles, but that overall these examples showed largely anarchist

tactics in action without them being first “taught” to the ‘awaiting

masses’. Sometimes self-organization can happen in small groups like

with rent strikes, wildcat strikes, appropriating land and goods,

killing cops, etc. Sometimes this happens in mass, as in the anti-HR

4437 student walk outs. If we are active participants within these

struggles and are approaching them in the context of revolutionary

solidarity (and not seeking to absorb them into an existing organization

or represent them), then we have a starting place for possible action.

Some actions did take place over the years while I was involved in

DAAA Collective in the local area that did fit other patterns outside of

activism. For instance, during the SBC strike in Modesto several years

ago, anarchists vandalized an SBC corporate office with slogans like,

“Off the Boss”, and “We Don’t Need the Bosses — They Need Us!”. Although

this was a small action, the desire was to push for a greater critique

of the situation beyond simply a desire for higher wages. During a

recent rally called by local rent strikers, anarchists showed up and

passed out stickers (reading: Rent is Theft, Solidarity with all Rent

Strikers), passed out flyers (see the article in Modesto Anarcho #2) and

also distributed food and herbal medicine. While our message was way

more radical then anything that the rent strikers had put forth, many of

them were extremely glad that we had shown solidarity with them and

taken the time to come out with materials and supplies. Many of the

protestors stuck the ‘Rent is Theft’ stickers on their shirts and passed

out our flyers. Conversations were struck up, and new relationships were

made. When asked if we were an organization, we replied that we were a

group of friends that was organized and wanted to help and expand the

strike. They respected our position because it was one of genuine desire

and respect. We were fellow people facing the horrors of everyday life

and we were trying to find ways to change that. This should be our

heading. Connections with real people building real relationships

through struggle and personal affinity.

A point needs to be made that applying more insurrectionary tactics to

various struggles as opposed to more activist variants is not ‘vulgar

vanguardism’, as some would put it. Meaning, we do not seek to create a

vanguard of “the most militant” or to steer struggles out of the hands

of those who initiate them in the first place. In the case of the rent

strikers in Ceres, it probably would have served no one if we had shown

up in ski masks and started breaking things during their protest.

However, if groups on the other side of the country took initiative and

conducted actions against the firm that owns the mobile home park where

the rent strikers are currently struggling in, (a company which was

raising their rent, causing them to go on strike), those actions could

have the possibility to lead to very positive results. It is through

action (and the propaganda work of explaining the anti-politics behind

those actions) that we wish to use to push various isolated revolts into

possibly wider open war.

Creating Autonomous Space

The creation of autonomous space is crucial if anarchist and

revolutionary anti-authoritarian ideals are going to survive and create

what many of us desire: a multi-generational movement. By this I mean a

movement that can replicate itself again and again and retains the older

generation while creating the next one. In some countries this has meant

squats and social centers, in the U.S. infoshops and collective houses

(to a certain degree). Autonomous space allows for a variety of

participation within movements from people with various degrees of

comfort and ability when it comes to action and allows more individuals

to plug into social movements that just a core group of people. It also

allows ‘drop-out’ counter-culture to form. By this I do not mean the

negative “lifestylist” escapism that is rampant within the anarchist

subculture, but I mean autonomous masses of people who reject the

current society and instead try and build their own “within the shell of

the old”, in defiance and resistance to authoritarian society. The more

people that drop out, the more energy people have to put into destroying

the current frameworks of domination.

I do not mean to fetishize one specific form of autonomous space, be

it the infoshop, collective house, squat, forest village, what have you.

I simply mean a self-organized area (or liberated zone that radicals

inhabit) where people can unplug from the current system and work

towards abolishing it. This could be a hang out spot, your room, a back

yard garden, or whatever you have in your abilities. In this sense, I

think that it is impossible to separate creating autonomous space from

creating a revolutionary “culture”, (or perhaps “folk culture” to use

CrimethInc. terms). How you go about creating a culture I don’t know and

to some degree an anarchist culture already does exist, although the

common reference points are only to those existing in the current

milieu. This is largely the “culture of the scene” and often is simply

full of punk, vegan, and activist reference points that seem to keep

others out and isolate us in our own little ghettos. If industrial

culture produces individuals which recreate the current society, we must

create a revolutionary culture which seeks it’s total destruction and

yearns for a new liberatory one.

Creating insurrectionary communities I think is also part of a crucial

revolutionary process. This goes beyond just setting up collective

houses, squats, and such. Meaning, to create social groupings that can

expand themselves out and conquer more space (thus more autonomous

breathing room) and also use that space to attack the forces of

hierarchy that are in turn attacking it. We need to use the islands of

autonomy as the (decentralized) command centers for attack. This is the

real ‘dual power’ in my opinion, not just a set standard organization,

but really alive and vibrant communities of living beings that are

standing strong together, active in revolt, and are supporting each

other (mentally, physically, and as revolutionaries). We cannot separate

insurrection (or the creation of moments where state power and authority

disappear, and the situation becomes ungovernable) from the creation of

autonomous spaces. In fact, the very act of insurrection creates

autonomous space, so why not use autonomous space to foster

insurrection? The state will not allow us to build without trying to

destroy us and our projects. At this point, we must either defend

ourselves our be demolished. Community gardens, squats, and other

communal collective projects have all learned this the hard way over the

years. We must be prepared to defend our movement from the forces of

repression. We must also seek to create and perpetuate a culture of

permanent conflict with the systems of domination, so as to not allow

our autonomous spaces to e co-opted by the left or agents of

recuperation.

In a Sea of Alienation

In the “glory days” or anarchism, everyone was only oppressed by class

(or at least, that’s mostly what the white men tell us). The negatives

of class society was simply that of a physically impoverished existence

(poverty, hunger, etc). However, modern life is much more complicated

than that. We have become alienated beyond (or on top of) class. We have

become alienated to simply being individuals in a sea of other alienated

isolated individuals. Capitalism has separated us into classes, yet

divided us again and again into service workers, blue and white collar,

sex workers, professors, social workers, state workers, middle managers,

supervisors, union and non-union workers, teachers, etc. Many of us now

work with some sort of control over others. Micromanagement and the

modern workplace has made many of us some sort of boss, whether it is

over animals, other workers, children, ecosystems, or groups of people.

This society separates us again into genders and rigid sexuality, and

again into races; reinforcing a systematic set of white privilege, and

pitting racial groups against each other. This is not to say that the

young white woman driving to work at Starbucks is in the exact same boat

as a black Katrina survivor, but what it does mean is that while

physically the system may attack us differently, we are all alienated

for our very existence by modern life. The destruction of natural

community and genuine systems of social interaction has made millions

flock to mega churches to find values, meaning, and a place to raise

kids, and billions to internet social networking sites, to find love,

life, and friendship. As the situationist slogan goes, “Even those that

escape physical poverty, can not escape the emotional poverty of

everyday life”. Modern existence has destroyed real social bonds and

meaningful relationships, yet recuperates this desire back to us.

While whole communities may be affected by capital and the state in

largely different ways (Mexicano immigrants vs. homeless people), the

thing that we all have in common is that we all suffer from the

totality. We are all affected by industrial capitalism in various ways

(some benefiting more or less, or hurting more or less) but we are all

affected. If those exploited and excluded from the system can see their

commonalities and common desires and base that into action, then as

Barry Pateman says, “Hey, anything is possible.” This of course is not

to say that it is likely the elites (ruling class) will see ‘the error

in their ways’ and come over to our side, but that various groups within

the exploited and the excluded have a common self-interest (although

they may not realize it) to stop the current state of affairs.

Affinities of Desire

The modern facets of domination reduce us down to mere individuals,

poked, prodded, destroyed, and broken in a million ways by race, gender,

class, sexual orientation, age, education level, and whatever else, then

we can start fighting back as individuals. We will start as militants on

the search for other individuals that we can share affinity with and

form the basic building block of the social war: the affinity group. Or

perhaps, the crew, the gang, your friends, your posse, or perhaps just

yourself acting in concert with the overall all social war. We say we

desire a life of real affinity and free association, well this is it. If

our vision of a world that is comprised of autonomous communities of

free association organized without hierarchy, then we should not

separate the ends from the means. When I say that we should express

ourselves through action, I mean that in a million different ways.

Opening up autonomous space, general propaganda work, fostering

anarchist community, carrying out militant actions, engaging in

solidarity work, etc. Our resistance should take the same organizational

structure of the society that we wish to create.

We will exist in contradictions and live through action. We will be

workers against work, with as much contempt for the boss as for the

union bureaucrat. We will love and fight for the wild earth and we will

tear down and sabotage the city. We will reject wage slavery and

industrial production yet spend hundreds of (wo)man hours on projects

that will benefit ourselves and those around us. We will try and

physically arm our desires in a real sense, to except our plans for

existence as real and meaningful and network with others doing the same.

We will respond with action when it is needed, sabotage when it is

possible, and revolutionary solidarity when it is called for. Our

anti-politics will be clear as day through our actions and relationships

with others. We will be irresistible because we will live like we want,

fight like we give a d**n, and show that our ideals are not an

abstraction, but a way to live. We will be race traitors, gender

benders, ex-workers, ex-students, a mass of anti-mass, a movement of

autonomous zones. We will support those behind bars, so possibly more

will do the things that make people wind up there in the first place. We

will create a resistance so enticing and wonderful that the reformists

and leftists will look like the dinosaurs that they are. We will blur

the line between revolution and actually living our lives, until they

are one and the same. While we are forced to live under kings, cops,

bosses, we will never relinquish our disgust for them or their system

and continue to sharper our knives for the moments when they turn their

backs. We will defend what we have and create what we don’t. A new

anarchist history is waiting to be written, go out and make it.