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Title: Queer Ultra Violence Subtitle: Bash Back! Anthology Date: 2011 Source: Retrieved on July 12, 2022 via PDF Notes: Edited by Fray Baroque and Tegan Eanelli.<br> Ardent Press is a group engaged in research, publishing, and local projects. More information at: ardentpress.org. Cover Art and Book design by The Institute for Experimental Freedom www.politicsisnotabanana.com. Type set with ITC AVANT GARDE, our contribution to the abuse of the family (no <em>pun intended),</em> Milo Serif, who will grow up to be a <em>big boy</em> some day and <strong>Adelle,</strong> who continues to dominate the headlines. You can find an abridged version of the book here: [[https://littleblackcart.com/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=387][Little Black Cart]] Authors: Various Authors, Anonymous, Fray Baroque, Tegan Eanelli, Bash Back!, An Alleyway Tranarchist, Mary Nardini Gang, A Gang of Criminal Queers, Gender Mutiny, Pink and Black Attack, Politics is Not a Banana, Some Totally Artificial Bitches, Some Deceptive Trannies, Not Yr Cister Press Topics: identity, Little Black Cart, theory, religion, analysis, organization, the State, black bloc, interview, Bash Back!, queer, Ardent Press, attack, communique, convergences, report back, fashion, The Boulevardier, Vengeance Journal, Pink and Black Attack, identity politics, Politics is Not a Banana, sex, social war, the left
For Anthony DiGeronimo
anarchist, witch, satanist, queer, cop possessor, and killer
With this Anthology we intend to tell an accurate and holistic story of Bash Back! In doing so, we continue our struggle to construct the queer commune. The profits from this book will be distributed to trans and otherwise queer anarchists in prison as well as those facing legal cases and criminal charges. Subsequent speaking tours will provide financial support to sustain pre-existing projects and create new transqueer models of resistance.
Through collections of essays, communiques, narratives, images, and interviews, this anthology hopes to account for what Bash Back! was and what happened to it. We have included a number of actions, theories, and other essays that were not explicitly or implicitly related to Bash Back! as a name. In this context, if we do not recognize the actions of related tendencies and publications, then we fail to tell the complete history of Bash Back! as a network and as a tendency.
The term **queer** in this book is used both loosely and inclusively. We view queer as the blurring of sexual and gender identities. Queer is the refusal of fixed identities. It is a war on all identity. In line with the Bash Back! tendency, for the uses of this anthology queer is **trans** because the gender binary is inherently oppressive. More often than not, our use of the term queer is interchangeable with our use of trans, though that is not necessarily true of the way in which trans-whatever is used. We acknowledge that society ensures Queer is an oppressed identity. Anti-Queer oppression is the systematic violence encountered by people who fall outside of traditional sexual or gender categories. This terminology might be confusing, but it is likely that the content within this anthology will clear the air. Admittedly, it might create more confusion among our straight counterparts. With revolution complete and the black flag burned, the category of queer must too be destroyed.
We, anti-capitalist queers, dedicated to dismantling oppression, refuse to recognize any copyright of this book. While we encourage individuals to purchase this anthology as a donation to anarchist and queer prisoners and projects, we understand that many cannot afford to spare what little money they have. We give permission to any and all interested queers to reproduce, and freely distribute this publication. With this in mind and in order to fend off would-be profiteers, we use the Creative Commons License. Fuck intellectual property.
Bash Back! originated as a haven for queers already involved in anarchist struggles, and it intended to carve a space for those often disenfranchised from direct action-oriented straight anarchist space. Bash Back! arose in a context in which patriarchy ran rampant in anarchist circles. While comfortable, white college kids dominated the so-called radical queer scene, political correctness was an epidemic illness among the potluckgoing, craft-obsessed queer âradicals.â It was this frustration with the straight anarchists and queer so-called radicals that gave way to the unique anti-identity politics form of separatism that became rooted in Bash Back!
Bash Back! was not just a group or organization, but a militant tendency on the part of queer individuals. While Bash Back! was occasionally public and campy, bashing back was more of an everyday evolutionary occurrence than any sort of activist entity. Most of what can be attributed to the Bash Back! period never made it onto the internet or into newspapers. Bashing back meant bar fights, outrunning lynch mobs, glamdalization, attacking the homes of heterosexist murderers, outright chaos, alleged lootings, theory discussions, self-defense tips, social gatherings, beatdowns, the acquisition of large quantities of pepper spray, and attempts at sexual liberation. It was a temporary counter-culture amongst friend groups and peers that called for nothing short of direct confrontation with the (mostly) straight, (mostly) white and always normative society: the ultimate queer propaganda by queer deed.
We chose to divide this anthology into two parts, Communiques and Essays. However, to view Bash Back! as either theorists or actors is a false dichotomy. There were few, if any, boundaries between those who acted and those who wrote.
Complicating the division within this book even more is that much of the theoretical content of Bash Back! came out of action. Communiques that followed militant actions were a regular mode of communicating theory.
The essays part of this anthology is indicative of the many theories that both birthed **Bash Back!** and ones ultimately shat from its corpse. The writings speak for themselves. They represent hard-line separatists and negation-obsessed whores. Some of the essays are accurate expressions of what most of **Bash Back!** collectively understood. Others illuminate the divides between comrades as a way to overcome our differences and push for a new queer disorder. For better or worse, there are writings that intentionally draw lines within the tendency and post-**Bash Back!** sects. To grasp **Bash Back!** in its totality, it is imperative to comprehend all of these ideas.
The communiques provide a healthy portion of what Bash Back! conveyed to the world and to each other, via actions or ideas and were distributed online. To specify, and tell the complete story, we have further broken down this part into the following nine subsections.
â**Understandably, we needed a reason to get excited. We needed a chance to position ourselves as a force. We needed to feel strong. Above all else, we needed to find one another as individuals who wanted this world's head on a platterâwe needed folks to dance with atop the rubble."**
- act up! bash back! an analysis of the radical queer organizing surrounding the 2008 RNC And DNC
At the âOctober Rebellionâ march against the World Bank in Washington, DC, radical queers and feminists were disgusted by the behavior of straight, white participants. Many straight-passing individuals deliberately put queer and trans people in danger in an attempt to save themselves from the police. Cowards co-opted the Anarcha-Feminist identity by creating a ânon-violent blocâ that worked with the police, which effectively thwarted the efforts of the larger black bloc (see internet appendix ardentpress.com/bashback). The culmination of these two outrageously inappropriate scenes infuriated many transfolk, queers, womyn, and people of color at the march. The Georgetown march was certainly not the first or last time âanarcho-liberalâ straights moved into queer space in an attempt to water down queer militancy. Nor was it the first or last time that so- called anarchist men sought to control the bodies of oppressed people.
The Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul, Minnesota was set to take place eleven months after the anti-World Bank actions. Radical queers and transfolk in the Midwest frequently networked to share ideas about the planned disruption of the 2008 RNC. It was not until a radical planning consulta in Milwaukee, though that an explicitly trans and queer blockade was proposed. The idea immediately caught fire.
Word spread around the United States that the newly formed Bash Back! Chicago would host a Radical Queer Convergence the following April to continue planning queer resistance to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Over two hundred people attended the convergence. The weekend of organizing culminated in a march of hundreds against assimilation, the first large radical queer action in Chicago in three years. The 2008 Convergence lead to the creation of Bash Back! Memphis, Bash Back! Lansing and the Queer Action Network out of Milwaukee taking on the name Bash Back! Milwaukee. It was not long before Bash Back! Denver was born (by announcing radical Queer actions to counter the 2008 Democratic National Convention). A number of other groups and individuals from around the country began to informally associate themselves with the growing Bash Back! Network.
The texts compiled under the heading âUnconventional Queers" are noteworthy because the events in them mark a shift in queer radicalism. The strategy of Bash Back! when it started to organize against the conventions was not to apply militant tactics to so-called queer issues but rather to develop new queer spaces within militant anarchist milieus. It maintained an uncompromising queer attitude while insisting that, like our militant anarchist comrades, we too are against everything. This strategy triggered everything that would represent Bash Back! and everything to come out of it. It also solidified the Midwest as a hotbed of queer-anarchist activity.
"We **want to destroy everything, in diamond encrusted high heels. The violence of our desire tastes unlike any other bodily fluid; it is a poisonous venom that only the most masochistic of bodies can encounter and crawl towards for a second helping. We invite men in, waiting for the degradation that will warrant vengeance and until then we just shove their cocks in our mouths and swallow. What-ever."**
- whore theory
From its beginning, Bash Back! was closely aligned with the insurrectionary anarchist milieu in the United States. Moreover, historically and currently, some of the most influential voices within insurrectionary anarchism happen to be queer. The earliest and fiercest defenders of queer liberation were militant, mostly individualist, anarchists (see internet appendix: ardentpress.com/ bashback). It is not surprising then, given its close affiliation with insurrectionary anarchism, that the Bash Back! tendency was rooted in a politics of vengeance and that Bash Back! served to further articulate this vengeful praxis.
The Bash Back! tendency manifested itself by building a culture of attack. Time and again non-violent detractors have raised questions regarding the validity of tactics rooted in anger. These dogmatic agents of control cannot grasp why the queer proletariat would be motivated to adopt a position of attack at any time and without hesitation. At various points more academic or liberal- minded individuals or groups would attempt to change and in certain ways pacify the tendency. These agents of control, although proficient in disruption, were rarely successful.
The systemic and individual oppression of queer people is rooted in the violence of capitalism. Our oppressors use this violence in the most unimaginable and ruthless ways. Their actions are meant to beat us into submission. Vengeance is our reaction to that violence. It is the queer way of beating back those who commit violence against us. It may or may not spur Social Changeâ˘, but that is neither here nor there. Vengeance, as a motivation for liberatory action, allows us to overcome the fear their violence has instilled in us. Vengeance is the refusal of submission.
Vengeance-motivated crimes associated with Bash Back! or the Bash Back! tendency usually meant direct conflict with street-level oppression, and were mostly unreported, either by the Media or through communique. The communiques in âForging a Praxis of Vengeance" display the violent confrontations with discriminatory businesses, transphobes in bathrooms, nazis in the streets, murderous police, and rapists. Queers fought misogynist gay bartenders. Wealthy straight and gay neighborhoods were subject to nightly vandalism. Religious people were accosted at their places of worship. An anti-trans murderer had his house attacked with rocks and fire. Democratic offices had their windows broken all over the country. Bash Back! was a culture of attack, one that surfaced every single day.
<em>"There is a class of people who, if they do not believe, must at least make a semblance of believing. This class comprising all the tormentors, all the oppressors, and all the exploiters of humanity; priests, monarchs, statesmen, soldiers, public and private financiers, officials of all sorts, policemen, gendarmes, jailers and executioners, monopolists, capitalists, tax-leeches, contractors and landlords, lawyers, economists, politicians of all shades, down to the smallest vendor of sweetmeats, all will repeat in unison those words of Voltaire: 'If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. For, you understand, 'thepeople must have a religion;' That is the safety-valve."</em>
<em>-</em> bakunin, <em>god and the state</em>
Capitalists, seeking to privatize the Commons of medieval Europe (typically utilized by women to organize anti-authoritarian attacks on feudal lords), manipulated the language of religious texts to unleash a wave of violence against queers and women. Medieval criminalization and enclosure, enacted by the Church and motivated by greed, is the root of patriarchal religion and its development into what we now call capitalism. Capitalist Christianity can only exist if it maintains control of the Commons by enacting systematic violence against queers and women.
In recent times a large majority of monotheistic religions have continued their war on all that is queer. Christians in the North, Central, and South Americas have enacted legislation and created a broad heterosexist culture to ensure the survival of the nuclear family. In Africa, it was the imperialist armies of Catholic or Anglican nations that created the culture which has led to the appalling violence against women and queers used to maintain a patriarchal capitalist rule. Prior to, and in many places since, the Arab Spring, authoritarian religion protects capital at the expense of women and queers in the Middle East. The same is true for much of Asia, although one cannot discount State Communism's behaviorâfor example the disgusting use of reeducation camps to uphold the nuclear family to create legions of so-called liberated workers. The nuclear family ensures the type of procreation that creates workers and slaves for the capitalist and state communist machines. If an absolute queer or feminist analysis were to go unchecked, as was the case prior to the destruction of the Commons, capitalism, and much of the Church would be unable to function.
Few queers can escape the effect religion has had on their lives. When bullies harass and beat young queer people it is in the name of God. When preachers at the pulpit advocate the criminalization of queer acts it is in the name of God. When missionaries tell people at high risk of contracting HIV that the use of condoms will result in eternity in hell, it is in the name of God. When thousands of transwomen and effeminate gay men turn up in ditches in Sadr City, Iraq, it is in the name of God. When queers take their own lives it is because of those who act in the name of God. When trans and queer people in Honduras take a forefront position in their country's fight against neo-liberal capitalism they are disappeared and murdered in the name of God. When queers are brainwashed into the belief that marriage or military service is a step toward egalitarianism it is in the name of God and Country. Rape, murder, silence, erasure, imprisonment, torture, assimilation. God, God, God, God, God, God, God.
With this in mind, it is logical for any anti-capitalist queerâwhose ultimate goal is to destroy capitalismâto conclude that a war on God must also be waged. Unless a theoretical and material war on the historical and contemporary notion of God is won there can never be queer liberation. A disavowal of all religion is common amongst radical queers, and Bash Back! was no different. The reason that many queers have embraced radical politics is because of our disillusionment and eventual hatred of God. Once we realized that God must go, it became clear that all of the institutions that administer His will must burn as well. First the Church, then capitalism, and finally the State.
Many young queers are forced to attend evangelical megachurches, which have the sole purposes of creating divisions amongst the poor and profiting off the proletariat's naivete. The Church must have scapegoats to uphold divisions amongst the oppressed who ensure its survival. Mount Hope Church was disrupted because of the real trauma people within Bash Back! live with, as a result of its specific anti-queer indoctrinated self-hatred. Though this particular offensive of the war began in the Midwest, it was the autonomous cells located the Pacific Northwest of the United States that engaged in the most confrontational anti-God actions.
We determined that communiques about disruptions and sabotage that specifically targeted churches should comprise their own section. In this section we are not interested in disproving the existence of God. We are not saying that God does not exist. In fact, God is made real through the actions of His servants. God lives and breathes through His supporters and as such He cannot be simply disproven. Rather He must be destroyed.
â**...Queer means struggling against the racists, the patriarchs, the rich. Queer is questioning the role of white Queers in the displacement of poor people of color. It is stealing from the wealthy, redistributing the stolen booty, and laughing all the way. All of that said, it is undeniable that some Queers uphold the very system that keeps all of us down. Let it be known that we reject the notion that ruling class Queers are queer at all. In fact, we reject their humanity entirely. Queer is solidarity with marginalized people in the war for total liberation. To be Queer is to attack capitalism, utilizing any and all means necessary."**
-from an anonymous flier distributed at the occupy oakland queer march.
Assimilation has created housewives out of militant field-keeping women. It has turned fags into âPresidential Advisors.â It has made white Christians out of entire races, cultures, and religions.
Assimilation, spurred by capitalism, guaranteed rich and straight- acting gay men were the ones to survive the early AIDS crisis, while poor queers were left to rot. With so many anti-capitalist fags dead, **The Advocate** was able to get what it finally wanted - the âwe are just like straightsâ narrative. Today gay men are assimilated into nothingness. The vast majority of lesbians who witnessed the early years of AIDS have become social justice dictators, turned insular, gained power, become liberalized and/or assimilated. With the assimilation of lesbians and gays, there is no more dominant queer counter-culture. There is no more love and no more queer common space.
Assimilation is the master tool for the liberal ruling class. Assimilation is typically initiated by the discourse of **rights.** The gay cowards grovel. They kiss the clean toes of the straights and beg for their scraps of normalcy. As rights have been secured, the money pie is sliced and served to the gay elite. The capitalist establishment, though shy one slice of pie, can again run its course. Liberals then pat themselves on the back, having adopted yet another community into their war on the poor. Although she may be the radio princess of liberal leftism, Amy Goodman would gladly shake the hand of any gay bomb- dropping President.
Bash Back! saw physical, anti-queer violence and the violence of assimilation as one and the same. There was no separation of struggles against the Church, fascism, and capitalism. To attack the assimilation of our supposed kin into a system that destroys **queerness** by disrupting a corporate Pride⢠parade was seen in the same light as smashing a military recruitment window or a Nazi's face. In Milwaukee, Chicago, Buffalo, and Modesto anti-corporate Pride⢠demonstrations turned into physical altercations with hetero-supremacists. The largest assimilationist Gay and Lesbian organization, the Human Rights Campaign, was attacked in Washington D.C. and San Francisco.
In Minneapolis a Military Recruitment Center was vandalized on at least two occasions in the name of anti-assimilation. The Bash Back! tendency maintained that to destroy assimilation radical queers must build a queer counter-culture rooted in militant direct action.
â**Issues of privilege and identity are incredibly important to us and we wholeheartedly agree that they should be talked about. But as it stands now, identities like 'person of color' and 'woman' are being invoked in order to mask reactionary politics, and furthermore, are being employed in ways that contribute to the erasure of our identities as active participants in militant struggle."**
pushed by the violence of our desires
A year and a half of explosive growth, action, and culture set the stage for the 2009 Bash Backâor Radical QueerâConvergence in Chicago. By the time the 2009 convergence rolled around, there were Bash Back! chapters in Chicago, Milwaukee, Lansing, Memphis, Philadelphia, Olympia, Seattle, Portland, the Twin Cities, the East Bay of California, Washington D.C., South Florida, and Southern California. These chapters do not include the autonomous individuals or groups that took action in the name of Bash Back! and of queer anarchy all over North America and the world. All that said, few people would view the 2009 Bash Back! Convergence as a success. The lackluster organizing by some BB!ers in Chicago, the willful ignorance of some attendees, and the handful of disrupters guaranteed the 2009 convergence would end in flamesâbut only figuratively.
Like most organized groups, there were certainly problems and divisions within the convergence organizing committee. Some of the organizers committed to taking on important tasks but rarely followed through. Others were simply overloaded with the stresses of organizing a large gathering of people. At the convergence, disruptions of workshops to address âmore pressing issuesâ happened on at least one occasion. Though it was incomplete, to say that the organizing for the convergence was a failure would be inaccurate. Prior to the convergence, a multiple page communique entitled âCreating Safer Spaces at the 2009 Bash Back! Convergenceâ was widely distributed. The Safer Spaces statement issued guidelines for all attendees and encouraged feedback in order to open a space to express concerns with the statement. At the convergence itself, space was made for a number of caucuses to meet, discuss issues of oppression within Bash Back!, and organize around shared identities. Huge parties and sex gatherings contributed to the counter-culture being built. The convergence space, though located in a yuppie neighborhood, was completely accessible to all bodies.
The defining moment of the 2009 Convergence came as a result of conflict regarding a rather uneventful spontaneous march on Boystown, Chicago's gay neighborhood. Despite months of propaganda describing the convergence as a space for militant and insurrectionary queers to meet, party, and organize, some who attended were put off by the inflammatory nature of the convergence. It is important to note that the majority of these splits did not happen within Bash Back! but between those who were not deeply involved in Bash Back! and those who were.
To this day, forever and always, there is debate regarding the 2009 Convergence. The 2009 Bash Back! Convergence and subsequent drama were probably the most influential events during Bash Back!'s short life. The convergence resulted in the implosion of Bash Back! Chicago, yet chased away who-knows-how- many left-leaning anarchists. It opened the door for a diffuse, militant queer nihilism that dovetailed with Bash Back! between 2009 and its demise.
We believe that, as a result of all of this, the 2009 convergence is more historically important than the 2008 convergence, when Bash Back! made its official debut as a national phenomenon, or the 2010 convergence, when Bash Back! officially killed itself. In this section we included internet debates between high-profile, supposed radicals and actual radical queers, the Safer Spaces statement, questions from the People of Color Caucus, initial reports from the spontaneous march, information about the Fabulous 4, and general reactions to the convergence. Take what you will, form your own opinions, and burn the rest.
<em>"Fairy wands, tiaras, hammers, and masks were annexed into our limbs as dangerous prosthetics. Rocks, dumpsters, and black-sequined-dresses were profaned and put into use</em><em>âthrown through windows, set on fire, and draped over our shoulders as a more fabulous take on riot-attire. Our thresholds-of-self dissolved further into a flood of shattered glass and smoldering garbage across the field of play."</em>
- my preferred gender pronoun is negation
To be queer is to defy the laws placed on our bodies by the State, the Church, and all authority. In breaking these laws we demonstrate that our bodies are our own and belong to nothing or no one else. This criminality marvelously extends itself to the queer riot. The intentions of the queer riot are to collectively destroy the property of those who use authority against the oppressed, and to become empowered in the process. It can be of the few, or it can be of the masses. In either instance, the queer riot is a beautiful painting of the reality that our bodies, especially in riot, are indeed uncontrollable.
It is true that a riot is not accessible to all bodies, but within Bash Back! there were attempts to create space for all people, despite societal marginalization, to express their rage in such riotous manners. A conscious effort was made by fellow queers to assist those who took larger risks at the queer riot. In the streets comrades were pushed along in wheel chairs; those with the ability to hear made sure queers who were hard of hearing had clear lines of communication; rioters did not judge those who were unable to participate in the physical manifestation of the riot. This is not to say that the queer riots were not flawed or that the Bash Back! riots were completely inclusive. Rather we acknowledge that the separation that the State and Leftists recommend in regards to the types of people who can âsafelyâ participate in militant struggle is irrelevant to the Bash Back! queer riots. The practice of the tendency is that people who are oppressed due to race, gender identity, body type, immigration status, occupation, or most other prescribed or chosen marginalized identities or conditions have the strongest desires to see this society fall and therefore are quicker to take confrontational roles to eliminate capitalism.
Those who engaged with the Bash Back! tendencies were witness to, and in some cases took part in, riotous events. When BART cop Johannes Mehserle gunned down Oscar Grant in cold blood, radical queers were in the streets of Oakland raising hell. In reference to the rowdy protest of the RNC in St. Paul, the Bash Back! contingent at Chicago's Matthew Shepard March chanted, âWe'll smash your windows, just like in St. Paul.â
Bash Back!âthe tendency, the whatever, and the organizationâformed just prior to the latest global economic crises. As the wealth of nations disappeared, the Group of 8, comprised of the eight most wealthy nations, was overshadowed by the Group of 20, made up of the twenty most wealthy nations. Anti-capitalist radicals began to place more focus on G20 summits and the crisis of capitalism. Some of the largest actions taken by Bash Back!âwith its hard anticapitalist stanceâcentered around resistance to global capitalism and specifically the G20 summits.
As part of the anti-capitalist demonstrations against the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Bash Back! led a violent riot in a notoriously racist, misogynist, and anti-queer college neighborhood. The neighborhood, called Oakland by Pittsburgh residents, is home to every fraternity in the city and has the city's highest rate of reported sexual assaults. Racial slurs have been thrown at radicals and activists in the neighborhood for years and are commonplace in Oakland. The Garage Door Saloon, owned by a white supremacist and located in this disgusting neighborhood, once came under fire by anti-fascists for hosting a weekly party with discounted tacos and Coronas. The weekly party was called âWetback Wednesdays.â In the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, anti-Queer attacks are relentless. Calls of âFag!â and âDyke!â are trite. Nearly every fast food chain and many corporate clothing retail stores have storefronts in the neighborhood. Each branch of the United States Military has a recruitment office in Oakland. Carnegie Mellon University, located in the same neighborhood, has received billions of dollars in defense contracts, and designs artificial intelligence to be used by the US military and domestic law enforcement agencies. Animal vivisections, weapons research, and general tackiness all have a special place in the heart of Oakland, Pittsburgh. There is even a âLesbian-Ownedâ diner that lovingly welcomes Obama, the corporate lap dog, during each of his visits. In other words, Oakland, Pittsburgh is a festering ground for imperialist capitalism.
The Bash Back! riot at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh obliterated attempts to liberalize the organization. Gone were the days of crying over overturned newspaper boxes. The only controversy that erupted from the Pittsburgh riot came when straight anarchists staged a revisionist coup. The straights claimed that the riot was simply âan anti-capitalist marchâ or âBash Back! themed,â or refused to mention it all together. A communique circulated entitled âDear Straight Anarchists WTF?! A Radical Queer Complaint from Queens of the Trailer-Trash.â The communique lays out the frustrations of queer anarchists with the erasure perpetrated by straight anarchists in their rewrite of the queer narrative at the G20 riots. âDear Straight Anarchists...â sparked a long-running debate within anarchist circles about identity, negation, and riot. Amidst all of this glory, one should remember that the Bash Back! riot manifested itself on only a few special occasions and was not without controversy. Though lacking in quantity, these events were particularly spectacular. The large assemblies of violent queers drew the necessary lines in the sand between those who talk about queer radicalism and those who are willing to act for queer anarchy. Pictures of the queer riots were spread via social networking sites, video sharing sites, and the corporate media. The images of queer anarchists committing crimes of mob passion illuminated a new world for disempowered and isolated queers. This new and sexy face of queer militancy drew back the curtains of rage and proved to disenfranchised queers that many of us are willing to unapologetically act according to our violent desires. As such, it is incredibly important for us to highlight the queer riots that took place during the Bash Back! Years.
â**...as soon as you begin to act in harmony with nature the Law garrotes and strangles you****âso don't play the blessed liberal middle-class martyrâaccept the fact that you are a criminal and be prepared to act like one."**
- hakim bey
Crime has been the core of queer since queer came into existence. The Church and State criminalize our bodies and sex. We, in turn, embrace this criminalization as a means of survival in the capitalist economy. Ed Meade and Bo Brown robbed banks to fund the George Jackson Brigade, an anti-racist and queer guerrilla cell. Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) turned tricks and mugged straights. They distributed the wealth so younger trans people would not have to resort to the same measures. The list of crimes perpetrated by queers in resistance to capitalism goes on and on. Bash Back! chose not to confuse the criminality of capitalism with the supposed criminality of survival of queer people within capitalism.
At many points in time queer challenged the nuclear family and threatened the capitalist work force. Bash Back! sought to create a strong queer counter-culture, which could again challenge capitalism. Resistance was to be made sexier than Abercrombie ad campaigns and corporate standards of beauty. If we were to foster a deep and criminal counter-culture, we could ultimately destroy assimilation. Everything Bash Back! touched was soon overtaken by sex, criminality, violence, and genderfuckery.
It is difficult to separate the criminal queer culture from vengeance and assimilation. In Chicago, Bash Back! âGlamourQueer Sextravaganzaâ parties attracted hundreds. After Chicago police broke up one "Sextravaganza," a cop cruiser had its fuel tank punctured. In Seattle, three criminal queer dance parties to counter corporate pride resulted in smashed windows and one in a long stand off with the police. Guelph has seen more than one "Queeriot Fest." Queers in Baltimore dressed in drag and wheat-pasted images of fisting onto bank windows. With these intersections in mind, we found criminality to be so crucial to our queerness, this section had to comprise a sizeable part of the anthology.
Death to straighty.
No, seriously.
â**When the prison bars stop our hands from throwing the fire of anarchy into the world of power, our words become the sharp rasp of escape."**
- a flame of solidarity from the ccf to the brothers and sisters in chile
At the end of summer of 2009, just before the Pittsburgh riots, well- known queer and trans anarchist Ariel Attack was arrested by the Denver Police Department. The Denver Police accused Ariel of smashing eleven windows at the Democratic Party Headquarters of Colorado. What ensued was nothing short of a shit show.
The window-smashing propelled issues of transphobia into the spotlight. Everyone, from Democrats and Republicans to self-proclaimed anarchists, was guilty of transphobic verbal assault. Ariel was smeared in the conservative and liberal press throughout the country. The Democrats insisted Ariel was a Republican operative, sent to take revenge on the Democrats after the house passed Obama's Health Care Bill. The Republicans claimed Ariel was in fact a Democratic double operative, who smashed the windows to discredit the Tea Party movement. Many people who we would have expected to distrust the corporate media instead bought the slanderâ hook, line and sinker.
We decided to highlight this case because Ariel Attack's defense strategy reflected the larger radical queer counterculture Bash Back! worked so hard to create. Ariel and her entourage prepared for each court date spending hours doing make-up and perfecting costume choices. There was never an appeal to straightsâ anarchist or otherwise. Ariel did not straighten out by adopting a manly appearance to appease the court's ruler. Her public genderfuckery remained intact as a militant anti-capitalist trans person. Ariel challenged the Denver court system directly.
Also, unlike many anarchists or radicals, Ariel did not shy away from her charges or her anarchist principles.
Ariel's devotion to vengeance and direct action was never hidden or glossed over. A silhouette resembling Ariel gripping a hammer and painted with the words, âIt's hammer time!â were screen printed on t-shirts and sold for her legal defense fund. Images of Ariel, impeccably dressed, shards of broken glass in hand and a fuck-eye glance as if she were about to make love to the camera, were posted on countless internet sites.
The results of Ariel's uncompromisingly queer defense strategy were profound. After proudly admitting she did indeed smash the windows of the Democratic Party Headquarters, her original felony charge was dropped to misdemeanor âcriminal mischief', and she was sentenced to eleven months of unsupervised probation, and payment of restitution. With no jail time and a slap on the wrist, Ariel Attack undeniably came out on top.
Ariel's case sets an example for how radicals, queer or otherwise, can handle their own trials. Since Ariel's arrest other anarchists have taken more confrontational positions in the courts. Amelia Nicol, another Denver anarchist, was falsely accused of attempted murder against a police officer. Nicol stuck to her guns, refused bail and fought the charges down to simple misdemeanors. Scott Demuth was brought up on charges for an animal liberation action, and eventually took a plea deal. Scott's decision to take a plea deal, though landing him in prison for six months, prevented the state from imprisoning others who would have refused to testify at his trial. A jury convicted David Japenga for smashing several windows during the Bash Back! riot in Pittsburgh. He served six months in the Allegheny county jail. Less than a year after his release, David was rearrested for violating his parole when he participated in an illegal march in Pittsburgh, a march in response to two queer people held at gunpoint in an anti-queer attack. David remains in Alleghany County Jail, where he will be held until trial. These and other anarchists should be commended for their valor. Anarchists who pander to our political enemies and water down our beliefs to shave a couple months off an already short sentence sicken us. We do not seek to dictate the terms for each person's legal defense nor do we want to create a monolithic approach to court battles. We do however encourage a braver, more radical approach. After all, fire to the prisons.
It should be relatively obvious what is to be found in this portion of the anthology. So, just fucking read it.
The fight to destroy tomorrow has just begun. Our biggest enemies are the State, the Church, the basher, and capitalism. However, our most heartbreaking enemies are those who subscribe to the purist liberal and academic notions of what it is to be a radical queer, those who spread lies, made wild assumptions and fought tooth and nail to bring down Bash Back! The speculation as to why is endless. Some believe more established radicals and academics were uneasy with the attention Bash Back! received. If Bash Back! continued to hog the spotlight it would potentially take attention away from the radical queer establishment's own self-serving projects meant to catapult them into fame through radical academia. Some think it is because many of those engaging with the new tendency did not want to fuck those entrenched in the radical queer establishment, and made this clear on **several** occasions. Still some believe their hatred of Bash Back! came from discomfort with the new tendency to turn **queer** into a negative army to destroy everything, including the academic and nonprofit governance of **queer.** Either way, these wannabe queer rulers see no room for our revolt, and will stop at nothing to destroy the new queer tendency.
Many believe Bash Back! went too far in alienating progressive allies in the struggle for liberation. In reality Bash Back! did not go far enough. The âbetter world' liberals and radical academics speak of is impossible for queer and trans people. The progressive, liberal, and academic establishments are religious capitalists. They profit off our oppression and our resistance to oppression. Progressives and reformists closed the bathhouses, gentrified our neighborhoods and welcomed straights into our strongholds. Radical academics make tens of thousands of dollars a year yet claim to speak for the queer proletariat while simultaneously labeling the queer proletariat as oppressive. It becomes clear when viewing civilization and society through this lens that everything âbetter' is actually in one way or another a hetero-social construct aimed at annihilating trans and queer criminal counter-cultures. As long as academia, the Church, the State, capitalism and civilization exist there can be no truly better world. To that end, everything must be destroyed.
Bash Back! and the tendency it spawned did not have the numbers to wage a vengeful war that so many long for. It was barely a significant battle in a war yet to come. A war against progress, regress, and tomorrow. We, the neutralized generation, must lay the groundwork for radical queers who will come after us. Capitalism is collapsing and we must be ready to pull the final nail. If we create the conditions and provide the resources there will be a massive anticapitalist, trans feminist revolt. Do not disengage with struggle. Queer cannot fall victim to genocide or plague. Our revolt is unstoppable. Trannies and queers, you are warriors, whether you like it or not.
<em>Actualize queer commune-jism.</em>
<em>With love and arms we will be liberated,</em>
- fray baroque
November 9th through the 11th, Milwaukee hosted the Midwest Anti-RNC Planning consulta. During the Sunday break-out strategizing session, a group met to discuss the possibilities of militant Trans and Queer action against Republican National Convention in 2008. Those involved in the discussion expressed their desire for a Trans and Queer bloc to play an integral and aggressive role in the strategy to shut down the RNC. It was proposed that such a bloc could hold one of the key intersections surrounding the convention center or could crash the parties of especially grievous religious fundamentalists. The strategy of creating 15-20 blockades in downtown St. Paul on the first day of the convention is one that allows almost infinite possibilities. Behind the barricades, we will have the opportunity to create the world we wish to see; a world without restraint.
To pursue the goal of gender- fucking the RNC, it has also been proposed that a convergence should take place in Chicago the weekend of April 5th. Radical Queers, Transfolk, Anarcha-feminists, and allies from all over the Americas are invited to come to Chicago to ensure the end of the old world, and the beginning of ours. More information will be announced when the details of this convergence have been worked- out. We are looking forward to seeing all of you in Chicago in April, and the Twin Cities in September.
<em>For the liberation of desire and for dance parties amidst the ruins</em>
Members of Bash Back! must agree to:
1. Fight for liberation. Nothing more, nothing less. State recognition in the form of oppressive institutions such as marriage and militarism are not steps toward liberation but rather towards heteronormative assimilation.
2. A rejection of Capitalism, Imperialism, and all forms of State power.
3. Actively oppose oppression both in and out of the âmovement.â Racism, Patriarchy, Heterosexism, Sexism, Transphobia, and all oppressive behavior is not to be tolerated.
4. Respect a diversity of tactics in the struggle for liberation. Do not solely condemn an action on the grounds that the State deems it to be illegal.
In 2004 the party conventions were nothing more than disempowering for queers and transfolk. Boston turned out a large, festive, yet nearly invisible queer kiss-in. The Gays Against Bush Contingent of the UFPJ march in NYC was hurried to the cattle pens and filled its place at the very end of a 500,000+ person march. Queer Fist's Queer Kiss-in saw extreme police brutality and the arrests of nearly everyone involved. If radical Trans-Folk, Queers and Allies are to confront the oppression we face on a daily basis in the streets from Memphis to Denver to Minneapolis/St. Paul we must learn from the past, plug into the pre-existing overall strategies and be prepared to Bash Back!
Bash Back! is a newly formed group of radical TransFolk, Queers, Anarcha-Feminists and allies (that started in Chicago). Bash Back! Chicago's current focus is hosting a Convergence in April to facilitate radical Queer and Trans organizing against the Party Conventions. Bash Back! Chicago is anticipating that the Convergence will play an essential role in action planning and give us a solid grip on the presence Radical Queers and TransFolk will have at the Conventions this summer. By organizing against the conventions we all hope to pave the way for a long lasting network of radical Transfolk, Queers and Anarcha-Feminists. Bash Back! Chicago folks encourage all like minded radical TransFolk and Queers in other cities to form their own Chapter of Bash Back! and are calling for Trans-Folk, Queers, Anarcha-Feminists, and Allies to join in Chicago April 5th and 6th.
As well as strategy sessions, the weekend of April 5th will include workshops, a large party/show/fundraiser, and a rowdy yet fabulous action. Bash Back! is committed to providing safe housing and food to out of town attendees throughout the weekend. With any luck the Chicago convergence will be just as smashing as the Sweaty Southern Queer and Trans Convergence in the Spring of 2006.
Calling All Anti-Authoritarian/Anarchist People of Color (APOC) to caucus, network and organize at the Bash Back! Convergence. On, Saturday, April 5th at the Bash Back! Convergence in Chicago, IL there will be an Anti-Authoritarian People of Color caucus. The proposed starting time for the caucus is at iiAM(during lunch). Bash Back! is a newly formed group of radical TransFolk, Queers, Anarcha-Feminists and allies (that started in Chicago). Calling All Anti-Authoritarian / Anarchist People of Color (APOC) to caucus, network and organize at the Bash Back! Convergence.
(People of Color refers to folks who self-identify as a person of color, whether it be yellow, red, brown, black or mixed skinned people. Please be respectful of oppressed and disenfranchised peoples' right and freedom to organize and network safely amongst themselves. People of Color can include, but is not limited to African, South American, Central American, American Indian, Caribbean, Southeastern Asian, Arab, Mediterranean, Indigenous Turtle Island and Aboriginal descent.)
The weekend of April 4th-6th, radical transfolk, queers, and anarcha-feminists, from all over the country converged in Chicago for the Bash Back! anti-DNC/RNC convergence. In attendance were folks from Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Tennessee, New York, Georgia, Missouri, Colorado, California and elsewhere. Groups including Bash Back!, Queer Action Network, the Revolting Queers, Unconventional Denver, The RNC Welcoming Committee, Anarchist People of Color, Roadblock Earth First!, the Pomegranate Health Collective, and Code Pink were represented. The convergence succeeded in creating a safe space for queer, trans, gendervariant and womyn anarchists to meet and articulate our plans to crash the conventions.
Friday night, representatives of Roadblock Earth First! shared information about the current situation in Indiana, where activists are working to stop the construction of the âNAFTA Superhighwayâ, Interstate-69. On Saturday, transgendered activist Midge Potts spoke about her experiences with creative activism and as the first transperson to run for a federal office. Later, Eric Stanley discussed the relationship of queer and trans people to the prison industrial complex followed by a screening of his film **Homotopia** and the short **By Any Means Necessary.** Later that day, several people attended a DIY sex toy workshop.
On Sunday, representatives of the RNC Welcoming Committee and Unconventional Denver discussed the proposed strategies for the Republican National Convention (Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul) and the Democratic National Convention (Aug. 25-28 in Denver).
At the convergence, space was created for a people of color caucus, a transgender caucus, and a womyn's caucus. The POC caucus discussed the need for a future anti-gentrification conference to discuss strategies to oppose gentrification. In their reportback, the POC caucus also asked that anyone distributing the zine Go **Light** and three anti-RNC stickers featuring a white hunter and dead elephants, indigenous people, and ninjas stop doing so immediately. During the POC caucus, a white auxiliary caucus met to discuss strategies to confront white privilege and white supremacy. The trans caucus discussed several issues and challenges that needed to be addressed at the strategizing session to ensure the safety of transpeople during the conventions. Simultaneously a cisgendered caucus met to discuss what it meant to be a trans-ally. While the womyn's caucus met, a caucus for male privileged folks and a caucus for those who didn't feel comfortable in either met.
During the Sunday strategizing session, two proposals were consensed upon for the Democratic National Convention. Unconventional Denver has proposed themes for the actions each day of the convention. It was thus determined that trans and queer action at the DNC should fit within those themes. After the immigrants rights march on âNo Borders Day,â it was agreed that there should be a âno gender bordersâ action targeted at assimilationist and transphobic elements of the convention such as the Stonewall Democrats. It was also decided that during the âFree Political Prisoners Dayâ there will be an action focused on freeing the New Jersey 4.
The strategizing session then shifted towards addressing proposals for action at the RNC. Bash Back! Chicago proposed a reclaim the streets style dance party blockade to fit within the three-tiered strategy. More specifically, a dance party coupled with hard defenses. The declared intention is to create a situation wherein it is possible to have liberating and festive action, an empowering situation that we can defend and maintain. This will be an action for the first day strategy of the convention. The idea was also proposed that the Log Cabin Republicans be targeted by actions. The session also endorsed an idea proposed by the Revolting Queers of Minneapolis. They described an underwear bike ride action. This will be a more relaxing action to happen later in the convention.
Coming out of the trans caucus, it was very clear that transfolk (and womyn and queers) all face increased dangers in participating in direct action. While being arrested is a miserable situation for anyone, it can be especially horrific for trans and gendervariant folks. Thus we are determined to creating safe infrastructure for supporting transfolk at the conventions and within our movement. First, getting transfolk out of jail will be the first priority of jail solidarity. Secondly, in mass arrest situations, we will refuse to be separated by gender and will give gender neutral aliases such as âJesse Doeâ as opposed to John or Jane. It should be noted that this is not only a tactic that will be practiced by those involved with the trans and queer bloc, but should be endorsed by all groups participating in direct action. Bash Back! will work to educate other groups on this tactic leading up to the conventions. Thirdly, we will work very closely with local DNC and RNC organizers to ensure that legal, medical and housing infrastructure all take into account the specific needs of transfolk.
Saturday night, over 100 convergence attendees took to the streets of Chicago. The action was a response to the one trans and/or queer person murdered every eight days in this country. We are being systematically murdered, and we set out to show that we are done with the violence and invisibility forced on our bodies. Starting in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, we took the road and marched all the way through and into Boystown. Along the way, we first stopped to confront the Republican party headquarters of Chicago. There, we broke into a dancing and chanting. âWe're here! We're queer! Republicans, don't fuck with us! We're here! We're queer! And we don't fuck republicans!â
The procession then marched to the district police station. Despite the cops' rhetoric about being âLGBT friendly,â the reality is that those very cops are complicit in violence against queer and trans people. Thus, we marched to the police station and confronted the perpetrators of anti-queer and anti-trans violence. After obstructing the movement of traffic (including a Hummer limousine), for ten minutes, we marched to the LGBT center. There, we confronted the center for its trans-exclusion, its erasure of sex workers in the queer community, and its involvement with AIDS profiteers and vivisectors. After we had marched through the roads for approximately two miles, police forced the march to stop. We then broke out into a dance party near Wrigley Field. After continuing right in the face of the police for quite some time, the dance party disbanded and everyone got home without a single arrest.
This action was extremely empowering. It was the largest radical trans and queer action in Chicago since 2004. Beyond that, it was a march that was uncompromisingly confrontational, yet extremely fun. We took our rage and grief to the doorsteps of those responsibleâcops, republicans, assimilationists and AIDS profiteersâand we danced in their faces.
After the strategizing session, three break-out groups met: communications, legal and logistics. The people involved with the communications group bottom-lined reportbacks, calls to action, regional call-outs and working on a website and listserv (bashback@lists.riseup.net). Those in the logistics group talked about the specific medical and housing needs of queer and trans folks. The legal group further discussed the jail solidarity tactics, and the need for know your rights workshops and to raise legal funds.
We now have a little less than five months to the conventions, and we have a lot of work to do until that point. In May, we'll be meeting in the twin cities for the pReNC 5.3. In June, during the weekend of Milwaukee's pridefest, Bash Back! Milwaukee will host a gathering to further articulate the strategy for September. Thus, we must put out a call for transfolk and queers on the west coast, in the mountains, and in the sweaty south to host convergences and consultas. We've laid out the strategy: now we all need to find out how to plug in, work out the details, and shut this shit down.
On the weekend of April 5th around 100 radical Trans, Queers, Feminists, and allies gathered in Chicago to discuss what our presence at the political Conventions would look like. After hours of discussion, decisions and creating working groups the newly formed Bash Back! network came up with some fantastic plans.
In addition to regional convergences it was determined that Bash Back! would make call outs for groups of radical Trans and Queer people to continue discussions at ALL major anarchist gatherings throughout the spring and summer. In accordance with this decision we are calling for Trans/Queers/Feminists/Allies to have a breakout group at the pReNC 5.3 in Minneapolis on May 5th. This will be a great time for working groups to come together, report back, and continue hammering out our action plans and logistical needs.
Finally, Trans/Queer Minneapolis locals have set up housing specifically for Trans and Queer people. Should people feel they need a safer space and would like to request housing at the Trans/Queer space they should check out http://rncwc.informe.com/a-place-for-queeeers- dt51.html or email bashbackchi@riseup.net. There are only a limited amount of spaces at this time so reserve your space ASAP.
See you in May, **Bash Back!**
June 25, 2008
At the most recent Bash Back! meet up in Milwaukee, Queermos came together to hammer out details about what we want our street party blockade to look like.
In recent years, large groups of protesters wearing festive, bright, and outrageous costumes have been able to hold it down longer than the 100 conspicuous people wearing all black with sticks (that was not a slam on the black bloc). Radical Cheerleaders, the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, Reclaim the Streets Parties, Marching Bands, and similar tactics have been pushing the boundaries of confused police for quite some time. Take for example the World Bank/IMF protests in Prague 2000. Three marches consisting of the blue bloc (similar to the black bloc), Ya Basta (padded bloc) and the Pink/Silver bloc (fabulous motherfuckers) were determined to surround the convention center and shut the meetings down. Not only was the Pink and Silver bloc the only march to make it to the convention center but video footage confirms that entire groups of terrified riot police ran at the sight of the march. Never underestimate the power of hundreds of pissed off pink and silver wand waving faeries.
After reviewing this and other historical evidence the Bash Back! Milwaukee Consulta is calling for our Street Party Blockade to adopt the colors Pink and Blue.
Light Pinks and Blues are calming colors that can bring out a passive nature in people. When being confronted by angry cops wielding tasers and batons, this can come in handy.
Pink and Blue have been assigned to âmaleâ and âfemaleâ sexes for quite some time now. Although it wasn't until recently that Blue was associated with âboysâ and Pink with âgirls. Before this, Pink was actually seen as a very âstrong/masculineâ color and Blue was a âweak/feminineâ color. In keeping with our âNo Gender Borders,â theme we will use society's bizarre color standards to challenge, alter, reinvent and/or destroy their idea of gender and sexuality. This does not mean y'all should leave the pink/purple and black flags at home. Fly those fuckers high!
Also remember to keep safety in mind when preparing your costumes. As much as we may want to look fabulous, or fabulously butch, we must be ready for possible chemical warfare attacks by the terrorists aka various law enforcement agencies. We suggest bringing along shatter-resistant goggles, soaked bandannas/ masks, a hat, waterproof outerwear, your typical mass demo attire. One may incorporate these measures into one's costume OR bring along a light/handy backpack allowing one to pull them out at a moments notice.
Bash Back! attendees of the Milwaukee Consulta were approached by organizers from the Midwest Region about claiming Sector 5 along with the Midwest Cluster(s).
We came to the conclusion that we would join onto Sector 5 while still maintaining our decision-making independence. We are NOT a part of the Midwestern Cluster(s) but rather we will be jointly staking claim to sector 5. While many people from all corners of the country will be joining the Bash Back! blockade, at this point in time it seems the majority will be from the Midwest. As there will be a large number of Midwestern Trannies and Queers, we can effectively serve as a middle ground of trust between Midwest Blockades in our sector and Trannies/Queers from other regions in Spokescouncil situations.
Keeping it Fierce,
<em>Bash Back!</em>
Free the **New Jersey 4!**
<em>Free all Prisoners!</em>
Bash Back! against corporate power and mindless consumerism. Assimilationist, capitalist politics are not looking out for the interests of queer and trans folx. Reject economic oppression and celebrate real alternatives to hetero-normative capitalism.
On Monday August 25th of the DNC the streets of Denver are going to get queered up. Radical queer and trans folx will crash the parties and fundraisers to demand no business as usual. The Democrats (straight and gay) will be out on the town to bask in the glory of their mainstream politics and corporate sponsorships. We too will be out on the town. Maybe we'll feel like checking out where the Stonewall Democrats are partying... or maybe we'll visit the HRC's corporate donors. Where ever we end up, we're gonna smash their spectacle.
Show the Dems what a real party looks like (one where you don't need $1000 to get in the door)! Wear your pink. Bring some black. Wear your cutest capitalism-smashing shoes. Bring your cutest tumult-causing tools. Make anti-capitalist banners, noise makers, music and whatever else you can imagine will be useful to smash the spectacle of corporate queerwashing.
Against Capitalism!: interested parties will gather at 6PM at Civic Center Park. Keep on the lookout for spritely elves in orange bandanas who will be giving out top-secret information on a couple of the choicest fundraisers and parties in Denver. Most of these parties will be starting after 9 or 10, so that gives folks and affinity groups a chance to chill for a few hours, finalize their plans, dress for success, mingle with the crowd. Or folks can play some of the fun direct action games we'll have set up from 6-8 that night, to get some last- minute training before going into action.
For Tumultuousness!: When they least expect it, at the appointed time Monday night, we'll emerge from the shadows to reconvene in downtown and get down and dirty. What surprises and successes will the night hold? That depends on you and what you bring to it.
In just over two weeks time Bash Back!, manifesting in the form of a pink and blue bloc, will bring the Republicans to their knees (Kisses Senator Craig!!!) in the streets of St. Paul. This is a final call to action.
<em>We're getting ready!</em>
Those of us stationed in the Twin Cities are working on hammering out the details of a convergence space for LGBTQ radicals. If all goes well, this safe(r) space will be open Friday the 29th through Friday the 5th. As of now we are still negotiating sleeping arrangements with the possible convergence space. On a separate note, our crew will also be assembling dozens of pink and blue masks to complement the wickedly sexy costumes we hope out-of-towners are preparing. The Revolting Queers are planning to reclaim Gay Space and the Twin Cities Avengers are gathering as many safer sex supplies they can get their hands on!
<em>Are you?!</em>
Flying Faeries of these awful states, the time to plug in is now! We have heard whispers of radical transfolk and queers coming in from all corners of Turtle Island, but only a small portion have let us know they need housing. If the Bash Back! Convergence gives us any idea, our blockade should be massive. However, some of us are getting nervous due to the lack of formal RSVPs we have yet to receive in regards to fucking up of this grand ole party. What's going on? Let us know who you are, when you are coming and how many of you there are. It is extremely important that we know what our capacity is when hammering out the final details of our blockade!
<em>Goings on in the Cities:</em>
- On Monday August 25 th those BB!ers already in the cities will be holding a spokescouncil at a time and place to be announced.
- That same evening a Trans Health Advocacy training will take place at 720 Washington Ave. South in Minneapolis
- Saturday August 30th we will hold the second and possibly final BB! spokescouncil somewhere in the Twin Cities.
- September 1st, all hell breaks loose.
- We are down to the wire. Straighties and HomoNorms beware, your time is near!
Calling on you radical queermos, trannies, and allies!
This friday, the forces of assimilationist gay capitalism are throwing themselves a little party. The Stonewall Democrats' meet-n-greet is bound to be a blast for mainstreamers, assimilationists, corporate sponsors and all the affluent politicos who can afford the ticket price.
Bash Back! Colorado has something else in mind. Join us and come on out to crash the Stonewall Dem's party.
<em>when:</em> THIS Friday!! 25 July, 6pm <em>where:</em> parking lot at Marczyk Fine Foods, 770 E 17th Ave we'll head over to the party from there
<em>why:</em> for liberation not state sanction!
<em>Bring some pink & some black & some noise makers & some banners.</em>
After we've had our fun, we'll adjourn to an undisclosed location and further strategize how to continue confronting the dems and the capitalists during the DNC.
rawr,
<em>bash back! Colorado</em>
Tonight, August 26, at around 7pm, four members of BASHBACK! were detained with one arrested while demonstrating against a Human Rights Campaign party.
According to one witness, the four were approaching the demonstration in a group and police called them over and began to question them. Approximately 10 police in full riot gear surrounded the four and then searched them, took their names, and held them for about 30 minutes at the intersection of E. Colfax Ave. and Clarkson St. Police ran their names through their computer and found an outstanding warrant against one demonstrator. The person was arrested at the scene. Members of I-Witness Video and Indymedia gave the arrestee the legal number (303-830-0277) and were able to record the detention and arrest. The other three were released.
According to their flyer, BASHBACK! was demonstrating against HRC because, âInstead of supporting a united queer community, the Human Rights Campaign dumped transgender people from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation but not gender identity."
The flyer continues, âHRC's betrayal of trans people is just the tip of an oil-slicked iceberg. Since HRC receives funding from Shell, BP and Citibank, you can bet their vision won't stray far from corporate agendas. And that includes the Iraq War. Rather than saving the lives of queers here and in Iraq, HRC fights to stockpile the military with queer fodder for Bush's Crusade."
At 4:00pm today a clandestine troupe of crusty** radical Queers dropped a banner over I-94 in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis.
<em>The Queers Are Cumming 9-1-08 (A)</em>
Let this be a warning to all anti-sex, heter/homo- normative fucks.
On September 1st, every intersection of Downtown St. Paul will be filled with AssFucking , CuntLicking FREAKS!
Since November of 2007, a gang of trannies, queers and miscreants had made clear their intentions: they were going to fuck up the conventions. From as early as discussions at NCOR in March, the criticism was made that organizing around the conventions was somewhat irrelevant to queer anarchist struggle.
True. Struggles for queers have largely, and rightfully so, been rooted in the desires and needs of queer bodies. From Stonewall, to the White Night Riots, to STAR, to the battles with AIDS, the struggles of radical trannies and queers have always involved matters of empowerment and immediate survival. In that context, it is understandable why many queers would not be quick to put a year of work into the RNC or DNC. After all, our bodies would still be in prison and we'd still be killed on the street without regard for the events of four days in St. Paul and Denver.
We get that. But we don't live in 1969. Queers aren't engaged in four-day-long street-battles with police anymore. We haven't burnt cop cars or attacked capitols lately. We aren't occupying federal buildings, and public sex in enormous squatted buildings is sadly a matter of envious nostalgia for our generation. Rather, we have the banal regurgitation of heterosexuality and patriarchy in the form of campaigns for marriage and military service.
Understandably, we needed a reason to get excited. We needed a chance to position ourselves as a force. We needed to feel strong. Above all else, we needed to find one another as individuals who wanted this world's head on a platterâwe needed folks to dance with atop the rubble.
The author of this tragically incomplete analysis cannot attest to anything that happened in Denver, but really hopes someone else will.
While fun, and a worthwhile experience, what happened with the Bash Back! blockade in the streets of St. Paul was neither outstanding, nor as wild as it could have been.
A lot of shit was put in the roads; shit in the roads got broke, one persyn was arrested, another got fucked up by a horse. The blockade created a situation that kept buses from entering the Excel on Kellogg for about 40 minutes. Later, folks got into a few scuffles with the Westboro Baptist Church. Oh, and a terrified and bewildered corporate journalist got a great story about a "funnel cloud" of tire slashing, cop terrorizing, genderfuckers.
From the perspective of this participant, more could have happened. The conflict could have been escalated, and the ante could have been upped. I can say, though, that standing down a charging line of horse cops, linked arm-in-arm with friends and lovers in their sexiest attire has left me with a certain taste for conflictâa taste not easily satisfied.
Over a year in advance of the conventions, it was articulated that the most important reason to organize against them lay in their potential as catalysts to create lasting networks and to escalate social conflict in this country.
For this reason, the conventions were an enormous success for Bash Back! and for radical queers. Bash Back! as a network, was born entirely out of anti-convention organizing. This organizing made possible the outrageously successful Radical Queer Convergence in April, and the formation of a slew of new queer anarchist groups throughout the country. There are now Bash Back! groups in at least six cities or areas (Chicago, Denver, Memphis, Michigan, Milwaukee and Upstate New York), as well as crews of radical trannies and queers in several other towns.
To be clear, the relationships and networks we've built are here to stay. We've fucked one another, we've slept on each others' floors, we've sat for hours in lovely parks applying glitter to our costumes. That doesn't go away after four days. The only place we're going is forward.
The work we've done to create a network of queer and trans anarchists has been amazing. Now the next few months and year will truly tell how well we've done. We have a lot of momentum and a lot of passion. With that, we have an opportunity to invigorate and embolden queer organizing in this country.
We don't intend to let that opportunity pass.
We know what we want, and in the flurries of kicking horses and streams of pepper spray, we've found others who want it just as bad. We have only one direction: the queerest of insurrections.
May 16, 2008
The National Socialist Movement (NSM), A racist neo-nazi organization, has announced its intentions to protest Milwaukee's Pride Fest the morning of Saturday June 7th. Coincidentally, Bash Back! Milwaukee had put out a call for radical transfolk and queers to come to Milwaukee the very same weekend.
Thus, Bash Back! Milwaukee and Milwaukee Anti-Racist Action are calling for all radical trannies, queers and allies to go all out against the Nazis the weekend of June 6th - 8th. Following our previous call-out, Bash Back! will still be hosting an RNC strategy session the night of Friday the 6th. Plans are also still in the works for guerrilla workshops and anti-capitalist/ anti-assimilationist actions all throughout Pride weekend. Sunday the 8th a Radical Trans/Queer contingent will join the Pride Parade. The difference is that now our plans for the weekend will have the added fun of fucking with the American Nazi Party.
We can use all the help we can get for the weekend. We would love canned food, pink and black flags, banners, rotten vegetables, sex toys, drums, more canned food, and anything else you can bring. If you are planning to stay the weekend in Milwaukee, Bash Back! MKE will arrange places for y'all to stay and some stuff for y'all to eat.
in love and rage,
<em>Bash Back! Milwaukee</em>
June 9, 2008
In the afternoon of Saturday, June 7th. Bash Back! and other anti-fascists confronted the neo- Nazi group, the National Socialist Movement, who had come to protest Milwaukee's Pridefest. The leaders of the LGBT Community asked that people simply ignore the Nazi threat to our communities. These same leaders ensured that police would be in full force to defend the NSM and to arrest and assault those who came to oppose the Nazis.
In short, the organizers of Pridefest and the âleadersâ of the LGBT community sold out all of us. Neo-Nazis are not a group of passive Christians who want only to condemn our abstract souls to hell. These people want us dead. If given the chance, they will kill us. Nazis (uniformed and otherwise) have murdered thousands upon thousands of trans and queer people, and millions of others. We haven't forgotten their intentions. We haven't forgotten of what they are capable. We will never allow their tyranny again.
We will never accept any threat to our bodies and our community.
The same people who ask us to ignore these thugs demand our composure and complacency when our friends and lovers are murdered. The âleadersâ of this community have shown they will never stand with those they claim to serve. They would rather see well-protected neo-Nazis than a well-defended queer and trans community. Nobody will protect us if not ourselves.
In the last year, reported violence against us had risen by 25%. One queer or trans person is murdered every eight days in this country. Nazis move freely into our neighborhoods to terrorize us on the streets. Police brutalize queer and trans people on a regular basis. Yet still, the supposed leaders and politicians of the LGBT community do nothing and ask us to do the same. When will we bash back?
On February 12, 2008, Duanna Johnson was brutally beaten by a Memphis police officer after she refused to respond when the fucker called her âhe-sheâ and âfaggot.â
That night, Johnson became yet another of the countless trans women of color to be targeted and severely beaten by police in this country.
The media coverage of the incident was enormous, after Duanna's mother went to MSNBC with the attack. To seem as though they gave a fuck in front of the media, the department fired two officers, although neither was prosecutedâŚ
This past Sunday, Duanna Johnson, a close friend and comrade was found murdered on the streets of Memphis. Already, there is speculation that one of the officers is behind the murder, as countless evidence has simply vanishedâŚ
Bash Back Memphis will be holding a meeting Thursday November 20th, at a location TBA to decide how the Memphis radical queer and trans community will address this situation.
In the evening hours of Saturday, November 22nd, anonymous BB! Memphis operatives called in to request that a hearse, a casket, and a dozen pink daisies be delivered to Officer Bridges McRae, Duanna Johnson's attacker, as he dressed for church on Sunday.
A note attached to the flowers read:
âSee you soon...
-Duanna BB!â
Officer Bridges McRae is responsible for beating Duanna Johnson with handuffs and fists just months prior to her âmysteriousâ death. It is clear that McRae and others in the notoriously anti-trans/queer Memphis Police Department had it out for Duanna. Bash Back! News, clandestine queers, and above ground activists know that the MPD murdered Duanna. Anyone who denies this fact is living in the bubble that Bash Back! is dedicated to bursting.
In the frigid night of November 20th, a cadre of Bash Back! miscreants in Milwaukee dropped a banner from a bridge that read âR.I.P. Duannaâ in memory of Duanna Johnson, a transwoman murdered by police in Memphis. The 20th was National Transgender Day of Remembrance and we couldn't let the atrocity of Duanna's murder go unrecognized. Let it be known to all racist, transphobic thugs: âyour days are numberedâ. Act up! Bash Back!
In response to the recent murder of of Duanna Johnson, Philly's incompetence in trying Erika Keels' murderer, and to show our love to all the Trans Folks who lost their lives to hate, Bash Back Philly took to the streets in our first action to mark the beginning of our existence.
As people left the hollow towers that cover our world in shadows to go home to another day of gray, we here at Bash Back Philly had a different plan for them. Slowly, block by block, we reclaimed the streets, blocking traffic to leave the pink body outline of our murdered family member and the words âStop Trans Murderâ, passing out flyers to raise awareness to the most recent of our people's murders and the lack of respect our city shows for us. As the snow and rain beat down on our backs we continued our Reclaim The Streets avoiding potential arrests and angry cars trying to run us down. The people out in the streets were with us though, which was inspiration enough to continue our action. Passersby, wage slaves, and of course upper class gays were all learning that our queerstory is not all about San Francisco. That we are everywhere and we will not lose our lives and family without a fight.
This Message brought to you by
<em>Bash Back Philly</em>
(the city that cracked the Liberty Bell)
April 26, 2009
On Saturday, a memorial was cemented into a wall along Cooper Street in honor of fallen trans warrior Duanna Johnson by an autonomous cell of BB! Memphis. Located just two blocks from the Gay and Lesbian âCommunity Centerâ and around a number of gay bars and yuppie hang outs, the site was chosen over the site of her murder. This was in protest of the gentrification of Cooper-Youngâ once the major hub of all queer sex workers and their clientsâby rich white gays, and their subsequent economic and forced removal of trans people, people of color, and sex workers.
Further, we contend that these gay gentrifiers and their co-conspirators, the police, are responsible for destroying the centralized trans sex worker community of Cooper/Madisonâmaking them at least **partly** responsible for her murder.
On Sunday, at 9:10AM, another action was undertaken by another autonomous Bash Back! operative, a self-proclaimed âSatanic trannyâ, while Bridges McRae and his wife attended Sunday church services at Calvary Chapel in Brandon, MS. The operative pulled out a knife and accidentally sliced all four tires of McRae's SUV as well as one tire of a Sheriff cruiser parked in the church parking lot, escaping into the countryside.
March 28, 2009
On March 21st, Lovelle Mixon shot five police officers, killing four before dying in the gunfire. In Oakland we see the fabric of capitalist normalcy being ripped to shreds. Daily instances of racist police violence are transformed into rupture and thrown back in the faces of our oppressors. In January, days of rioting followed the police murder of Oscar Grant. This week, people danced in the streets as cops were shot. At the hospital, others snuck into the emergency room to chant that the shooting was vengeance made actual upon the police. People rallied to honor the memory of Oakland's newest folk hero. Oakland, reterritorialized as a terrain of war against the social order.
In 1959, we fought the street battles with the police as they harassed queers at a donut shop in Los Angeles. In 1966, police brutality against street queens in the Tenderloin mutated into queens beating cops with their purses. In 1969, a seemingly-ordinary police raid on a queer bar in New York erupted into four days of sustained rioting. In 1979 we burnt cop cars in the streets of San Francisco. We meet queerbashers with bricks, mace and batons.
To bash back is to reverse the flows of power and violence; to explode the hyper-normal into situations of previously- unthinkable revolt. We thus find the deepest affinity with all who fight back against the affective poverty and oppression of this world.
As the police and media work to defame and slander Lovelle Mixon, we express our total solidarity.
Until every queerbasher is beaten to a pulp and police are but a memory.
Yours for the social war,
<em>An Unknowable Cell of Bash Back!</em>
On March 26th, Bash Back! operatives dropped a banner from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union. The banner read only: âWe (heart) Lovelle Mixonâ.
R.I.P. Lovelle Mixon
June 29, 2009
Early afternoon, punktime, in Chicago, Illinois, a carful of trans, genderqueer, queer, POC, cismale submissives and female-bodied insurrectionists started driving down the road towards the highway. We didn't care that we were driving because the environment is already destroyed and 2012 was an inside job, so we co-opted the technological beasts of our masters to use for our own means, speeding towards the northern suburbs. We hoped to smash straight into anarchists protesting nazis protesting socialists, in the absurdity that has become our realityâpoliced by... police.
Leaning out the car window with our teenage angst anthems playing full blast, we looked straight into the eyes of the guilty pleasure of our childhood, none other than Blink 182's Travis Barker. U-turn! Parking lot! Out we jump! Followed him by foot into the doughnut hole of capitalism, âHey!,â we yelled, âCome beat up nazis with us!â After canceling a few appointments, he agrees to jump into the speeding steel vehicle. Off we go again, with our black flag flowing majestically out the window, it's folds fluttering in the cloudless sunny sky like a butterfly.
Into the barren wasteland that is suburbiaâNot only suburbia, but one which is constantly bombarded by metal cages which explode with the fumes of the rich. More parking lots, a Target, hotels, dotted here and there with moving smudges of human. Cop cars! Lots of black clothing! No, these are not the BDUs and helmets so common to police, the military, and neo-nazis. These are the masks and hoods of our friends! Countless bodies mingling, waiting, scheming. Some engage in dialogue with the cops, most do not. The scene is one like that of the most melodramatic Battle In Seattle spin-off filmsâhostility, tension building up. We arrived at just the right time! A sign above the heads of our enemies flashes: âJONAS BROTHERS! DEMI LOVATO!â But our American Apparel looks better than those of the pre-teen Disney channel stars outing the National Socialist Movement's pedo- affiliation. Did you read Bill White's resignation letter?
The polished heads of our enemies hide behind the thinning hair of other enemies, nazis behind cops... Kind of a tragic equation: 20 and 5. We surged forward like a tidal wave of destruction, and the thin blue line broke like a popped balloon. Cops scattered! Some took sides. After the previous dialogue with those who had arrived prior to punktime, an officer throws his badge to the ground and dons his shirt like a mask! He screams âANARCHY! CHAOS!â, and lives all the burning desires he has waited so long to imagine. We charge, but not to the cops, or the nazis, towards the cars!!! Into the trunks we reach! Out we return, with bullet-proof vests, with helmets and snazzy face shields, with tasers, with teargas, with cool little walkie-talkies. This is dispensed to the crowd; those without protection seek it, those who came with it, break it out.
We are beyond verbal confrontation. Not a word is uttered as brass knuckles, knives, rotten fruit, stale muffins, and flag poles fly through the air! Panes of glass are broken over heads! The silence ends: âFIST FIGHT YOUR OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR
OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR
OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR
OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR
OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR
OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR
OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR OPPRESSORS! FIST FIGHT YOUR
OPPRESSORS!â These words scratch our throats abrasively, like the granules of concrete which roadrash the faces of those we're confronting.
The ISO, a monolithic political organism that acts as a parasite, born in the bowels of some Marxist theological hell-laboratory, feeds on babytape and dreadlocks. It begins with a rash, and quickly transforms into a thick red sludge that enters through the ear canal to cloud autonomous thought. It turns its hivemind to the melee. Out of the hotel erupts a group of zombified college students. Upon closer inspection we realize they have ISO! Communist philosophy oozes from their eyeballs. They run, with arms outstretched, schedules in hands, cameras and microphones dragging behind them. Thank yous are drowned out by the sounds of the original crowd. They are pulled in.
We make no distinction between national socialist or international socialist. All feel the power of our collective fight. The cops have deserted us. Here and there, bodies drop to the ground... Their bald heads, red armbands and shiny boots adorn the pavement. One small masked, hooded figure removes the boots from a fallen douchebag, ties the laces together, and hits the last Xbox fanatical Youtube-using racist in the face, knocking him to the ground! They drape the boots over their shoulders and yell âI was the 16 year old blonde-haired Aryan chick you friended on New Saxon!â On second glance, the small figure appears to be a rather androgynous queer POC destroyer of worlds.
We look around as the dust settles. None of us has fallen. There are a few scrapes. Travis Barker has a broken leg. We attend to the wounds of our companions and walk away. As we look over our shoulders and the sun sets, we see one of those ridiculous metal cages explode fumes into the hotel full of Trotsky cookies and matching tracksuits.
Onward ho! Your town next!
Today 30 or so people gathered, in response to a call put out by What Queer?!, Providence's radical queer organizing collective, and marched, funeral- procession style, between locations ofstate violence. We delivered speeches and memorials, paying tribute to those effected by state violence. We reminded Bank of America, TEXTRON, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Providence Police Department, and the Army National Guard Recruiting Center of their roles as perpetrators of this violence. Today we mourned Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Today we mourned Oscar Grant III. Today we mourned the 800 dead in Gaza. Today we mourned all of our fellow Rhode Islanders who are incarcerated and awaiting deportation for the crime of working the state's least appealing jobs.
Today we mourned the American teenagers who are coerced into joining the military, whether it be out of economic necessity or sparkly false advertising. Today we mourned every person who has ever been raped, murdered, and beaten by the police. Today we mourned the environmental devastation perpetuated by Bank of America. However, we won't just mournâwe will continue to struggle towards a better world, fighting the fight all these people were taken away from all too soon. Our collective grief was witnessed by many passersby, who were given funeral-style fliers explaining our presence. A coffin was carried, and a brass band played. âShrinesâ were left at the buildings of each purveyor of state violence, piles of flowers and framed statements calling out their atrocious acts. This procession was called for by What Queer?!, and was coordinated with the help of Providence Students for a Democratic Society, Brown SDS, Northeast Anarchist Network, individuals from the Industrial Workers of the World, Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Olneyville Neighborhood Association, the What Cheer! Brigade, International Socialist Organization, and other autonomous individuals. We hope this will be the first of more frequent coordinated actions between many groups in Providence. As queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming people, we recognize that the violence that is ever-present in our lives is also perpetuated around the world. There are no single issues. Collective liberation = collaborative triumph over our common oppressors.
To those who have threatened to kill us in the past week:
<em>You have put us in camps.</em>
<em>You have imprisoned us otherwise.</em>
<em>You bombed our bars and clinics.</em>
<em>You helped pass anti-Gay legislation.</em>
<em>You have killed us in the streets and beat us in your schools.</em>
<em>And that one time when we were 13 you let us jerk you off in your tree fort.</em>
<em>So get the fuck over it!</em>
Trans and Queer Folk face threats of violence on a daily basis. We have dealt with this shit our entire lives. As a result, we find your rhetoric to be unoriginal and frankly a bit stale. Furthermore, your yelps of legal repercussions, hell, and even murder do not deter us. They just fuel our fire, baby.
Bash Back! is devoted to exposing, confronting, challenging, and smashing our oppressors to itsy bitsy pieces. We're fixing to tear this world of heteronormative control to shreds. We are everywhere and will meet you at every opportunity. There are now BB! Chapters in Milwaukee, Chicago, Colorado, Memphis, Upstate New York, Lansing, DC, Philly, and Olympia. It won't be long before we come for you.
(Shout out to the non-BB! radical Queermo groups in NYC, Maine, SF, and other places!)
We know that you call us terrorists because our very existence terrorizes you. This makes us proud, but you ain't seen nothing yet. Nevertheless, we must remind ourselves that your bizarre delusions are not enough to liberate us from patriarchy. One day, soon enough, the secret Tranny sleeper operatives posing as your spouses will wake, and oh what a day that will be!
So you want a real social war? Bring it! We can fuck you up while we're fucking each other. We pack heat in our bedrooms and on the streets. Bet you can't do that, KKK.
<em>Bash Back! News</em>
<em>PS Next time yâall decide to flood us with death threats it might be a good idea to refrain from giving us your full names and email addresses...just a thought.</em>
Yesterday, March 14th, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) was forcibly evicted from the San Francisco Anarchist Book Fair. Surprisingly some âAnarchistsâ have criticized the move and have even defended the Maoists' right to free speech. These Anarcho-Liberals have gone so far as to suggest that throwing water on the RCP's literature is violence. Soon after the incident, the RCP started a petition denouncing their eviction. Dozens of so- called âAnarchistsâ signed the petition.
These Bash Back!ers think the petition is a fantastic idea, and we want to thank those who signed the petition of a historically heterosexist organization. Now we know whose side you all are really on.
Until 2003 the Revolutionary Communist Party held the position that Homosexuality was a product of Capitalism. Lesbians, they claimed, were a reaction to the sexist society that Capitalism created. Gay men were a reflection of patriarchy and the dominant bourgeois culture. After the Revolution queers would be eradicated.
The RCP and other state communists are not allies of Queer people or Anarchists. While we do admit there are bigger and better battles to fight, any space that is safe for the RCP is not safe for Queer people. Respect should not be shown to bigots masquerading as revolutionaries. They are our enemies, and should be treated as such.
Freedom of speech is a liberal construct. Oppressors already have their stage. The oppressed must steal it from them.
We want to thank those who evicted the RCP and destroyed their literature. We also want to give a big Fuck You to everyone who signed that stupid fucking petition.
March 4, 2010
<em>Some Pissed Off Members of Multiple Bash Back! Chapters</em>
An autonomous cell of Bash Back! is calling for solidarity with sea criminal Tillikum, the orca responsible for killing a trainer at Sea World, Orlando at the end of February. We consider the attack on Dawn Brancheau to be an act of social war, as Tillikum gave new breadth to the waves he monotonously created through his awe-inspiring splashes. Tillikum destroyed what destroyed him by transforming his commodified body into an organ of the war machine; thus, enacting an **orcan-strike**. For too long he had been confined as a spectacle for the American populace to consume. The affect of his bodily revolt has aided in helping us all realize the potentiality of realizing our underlying desires. Members of the American Family Association have come out in favor of stoning Tillikum to death for this strike against systems of domination. In response, the nonhuman political prisoners at Sea World Orlando have organized the first chapter of Splash Back!, an insurrectionary tendency of sea animals dedicated to destroying all forms of oppression. Bash Back! must be allies in the struggle for animal liberation, as well as against the religious right which has sought to criminalize the bodies of queers and orcas for so long. We are calling for solidarity actions with Tillikum across the country to support animal autonomy and resistance. Orcas have been criminalized for too long; the time for sea animal liberation is now.
<em>Solidarity with all Trainer Killers!</em>
June 16, 2009
We found 41 year old âSpanish Blue Blood,â a self proclaimed âstormtrooperâ of the National Socialist Movement and senior moderator of the NSM's official party forum, sitting on a bus bench waiting for a crew that never showed. The second he saw us he split for the street but didn't get far til we caught up with him and gave him what he deserved.
âSpanish Blue Blood,â who lives in the Colonie area of Albany, had been trying for weeks to draw up enough people to stage a counter protest of Albany's Capital Pride march but apparently he couldn't even get a single person out. He recently celebrated his 41st birthday on June 9th so we delivered some belated giftsâin the form of tightly balled fists. The gang beat him until the cops showed and we made our way back into the park with no arrests.
<em>A motley crew of queers, anti-fascists, and anarchists</em>
October 15, 2009
Listen up bitches!
The 77th Precinct is fucked up, and here's why:
- officers of the 77th are responsible for consistent harassment of transpeople, sex workers and queers
- the assault of two lesbians outside of the Ife Lounge on May 16th
- like all police officers, they colonize poor neighborhoods and threaten the safety of everyone
We act in solidarity with Duanna Johnson, the patrons of Fort Worth's Rainbow Lounge, Ariel Attack, Bash Back! Lansing, New Jersey 4 and countless other fabulous queers and trannies bound by the prison-industrial complexâ with no safe words. We want not just accountability for these specific cops but the complete abolition of police and prisons.
In a fabulous act of resistance and exterior design, we have beautified the squad and personal cars of the 77th Precinct with a simple, yet classy, application of spray paint, stencils and glitter everywhere. (We're still queefing glitter.) Fine images of cops on fire and such fierce phrases like: âThis is what happens to transphobic cops,â âA change I can believe inâ and âA very simple solution.â are proudly displayed on the windows and doors of New York's Finest.
Just as a reminder to them and all of us: these pigs are vulnerable, and they're only as powerful as we let them be. They can and will be challenged and held accountable.
That's some real shit.
Yours queerly,
farosha shakure
<em>Press Secretary of Homoexplosion, Aries, and licensed switch blade carrier.</em>
<em>Homoexplosion is a radical queer/ trans group of fly fatherfuckers. We advocate people fucking in the street and burning shitâespecially cops.</em>
IMPORTANT NOTE: Trans-people deal with an unbelievable amount of bullshit every day from trans-phobes. So many spaces (that most everyone else takes for granted) are directly dangerous for trans-people. Bathrooms are one of the most dangerous and uncomfortable of these spacesâŚ
On Wednesday November 19th a group of Lansing queers went out to the local gay club to dance and get their drink on. The night was full of cheap beer, sexxxy strippers, and a super gay beat. It seemed as though the night would end as nicely as it had began. At bar close, everyone decided to hit the bathrooms before heading out the door. Two of the kids in the Lansing group were trans-guys. One decided to use the âwomen'sâ bathroom and the other chose to risk the âmen'sâ (we'll call him Dru). Sure enough, just as he was leaving the âmen'sâ bathroom, a large man blocked the door way.
âExcuse me,â said the Lansing queer.
The man leaned down and forward and said, **âI know youâre a bitch"!**
This lead to an inevitable argument, which quickly escalated. Eventually a womyn appeared in the doorway and pleaded that the trans-phobe was just drunk, so therefore excusable. She then pulled the man into the âwomen'sâ restroom, where Dru chased after. Here, the other Lansing queers still happened to be. : ) As the argument was going on between Dru and the man's friend, the man turned to look himself in the mirror and say to his reflection, âok, so you are about to fight a bitch.â At this point, Dru flew around the womyn grabbing the phobe, slamming him up against the wall. At the same time the other Lansing kids came out from the stalls. A struggle ensued where both Dru and the tranny- basher exchanged a slew of punches. The man eventually ended up pinned to the floor of a stall with Dru on top of him bashing back! and another queer stomping him between his legs!
One hilarious statement from a friend who assisted in the brawl was, âAt one point after [the tranny-phobe] was losing the fight, he yelled 'OK OK, IM SORRY! CAN WE BE FRIENDS!?' Dru replied with 'FUCK NO!', and hit him again.â The fight lasted some 2-3 long minutes with the man sustaining serious facial injury and ball crushing! Bouncers eventually removed Dru, but agreed it was instigated by the queer-basher. It is believed the tranny-hater came out of the fight with a broken nose and multiple other injuries, as well as possible âpoppedâ testicles and a majorly broken ego. Dru sustained a black eye and bruised knuckles. No one else was injured.
LET IT BE KNOWN, we are not backing down, we will not retreat! If you threaten us we will BASH BACK! If you fuck with us in the bathroom, we will make it a place where YOU no longer feel safe! Time for a taste of your own fucking medicine! Your time of power is over! We are the menace now, give us our space or we will fucking take it by ANY means necessary.
BB! Lansing supports this action of defense, and hopes it inspires all oppressed people to resist the norm and BASH BACK!
January 1, 2010
In Pittsburgh's Strip District, a shop ironically named Peace, Love, and Little Donuts is run by a a bigoted, right-wing asshole named Ron Razete.
Ron's queer-bashing, misogynistic, and racist rhetoric was once publicly available on his blog which he has since deleted to hide his shameful views. However, thanks to Google cache and local bloggers, his words live on. Here are some gems:
Razete called gays and lesbians an âimmoral minority.â
âThis crowd will not rest until Homosexuality is mainstream; until the Second Amendment is done away with; until abortion on demand is as common and accepted as going to the dentist.â
âSadly, McCarthyism (he was right, by the way) was successfully so demonized.â
âEveryone doing his or her part to wrestle the future of America away from crazies, kooks and freaks. If not, trust me, Sarah is going to have way more than two Mommies.â
When Razete's views came to the attention of Pittsburghers last fall, many people took passive actions like sending emails and writing bad reviews of the place online. Many boycotted, but the place stayed in business just fine and the reviews on the website Urbanspoon were censored and deleted. Though things seemed to die down as winter approached, radical queers would soon take matters into their own hands.
At 11AM on January 16th, around twenty queers and allies occupied the tiny donut shop and the space in front of it. Our pink and black flag waved while our boombox blasted âYou Made Me Gayâ and other catchy tunes guaranteed to queer even the straightest of passersby.
We danced, sang, chanted, and had a wondrous time creating space for ourselves, all while handing out informative and celebratory flyers, signed with love by âthe crazies, kooks, and freaks.â Razete protested, denied the quotes we had taken from his own blog, and claimed he âhated the sin but not the sinner.â With all of the love Ron had for the partiers, he still asked us all to leave, at which point a major queer make-out fest ensued inside his hateful donut shop. Ron's discomfort angered him so that he physically pushed four occupants out into the street and slammed the door.
With a donut shop in distress, it was no surprise when its blue-clad protectors came swiftly to the scene. With queers endangering their donut-dipping freedom, we knew they were gonna come down on us hard. Unfortunately for them, the queers knew more about the law than they did and the po-po were unable to break up the party.
The group pressed on shouting, âHate tastes like shit! No queer bashers in the Strip!â as onlookers joined in to dance down the Soul Train or take our amazing flyers. Several potential customers of PLLD turned around to find breakfast elsewhere and others went inside to confront Razete about the quotes. Angry about this, Ron threatened to press charges. The cops' demands to know âWho was inside?â were left unanswered. Nobody talked, everybody walked. After our music CD ended and our flyers were all gone, the group dispersed for the safety of all involved just before Ron could come out and identify anyone.
Austin, Minnesota-Twin Cities and Austin antiracists joined forces Saturday afternoon in this southern Minnesota town of 25,000 to confront the same four neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement members who tried to protest a Minneapolis âConfronting White Supremacyâ workshop last month. The crowd of about 50 at the Mower County Veteran's Memorialâon the lawn of the local law enforcement centerâboisterously drowned out the Nazis with their chants, and a few rotten vegetables and glitter bombs were hurled in their direction. Several Austin veterans passing by the demonstration heckled the Nazis with cries of âbald-headed assholes.â
Soon, howeverâseemingly without direct provocationâAustin city police and Mower County Sheriff's deputies sprayed mace and charged the crowd, arresting three of the anti-racist protesters. Moments earlier, the police had done nothing when one of the Nazis broke a demonstrator's phone by swatting it to the ground.
About half an hour later, police suggested to the Nazis that they leave, then escorted them inside the law enforcement center, presumably to be accompanied to their car at a later time. All three of the arresteesâtwo from the Bash Back! Twin Cities and one from Austin - were quickly released; at least two were charged with unlawful assembly and obstruction of property, both misdemeanors.
Despite their claims of neutrality, police officers' actions led many to the conclusion they sided with the neo-Nazis. Also stirring controversy was the presence of the Minnesota Peace Team, an organization which sends members to act as self-proclaimed peacekeepers but which some demonstrators felt escalated the conflict.
March 24, 2010
Dirty anarchists queers of Portland, OR, alongside other anarchists, have spent the last two nights in the streets exploring the rupture caused by the second murder by the Portland Police in as many months. We have been engaged in direct confrontation with the force of the police state while sharing our rage at our social conditions and the organized campaign of violence enacted upon our city by the armed enforcers of the Totality.
These murderous agents of the Totality have been impotent to silence or contain our rage. Through our rage, we strike out against Normalcy. Through shattering Normalcy, even if only in the moments of rupture, we become humyn. Through expressing our rage we learn to become social war.
<em>Here is the original reportback from the first march: "We don't give a fuck, the time is now."</em>
by a Portland anarchists
When word spread that the Portland police had just shot a man to death at the Hoyt Arboretum, we knew we had to make a choice: to allow ourselves to be human, or to participate in our own murders, to hide away in sleep and the unfolding of a routine that ends, for all of us, in death. It's a choice that has been made for us so many times before: by the media, by community leaders, professional activists, bosses, teachers, parents, friends who do not push us to confront this fear with them. We are killing ourselves with so much swallowed rage.
Tonight, we would not go to sleep with this sour feeling in our stomachs. Tonight, we gave a name to what we feel: rage. This is how it started.
(This is what it means to be human. Refreshing change.)
Within hours of word getting out, local anarchists met in a park, and decided we had to march on the police station. Not the central precinct: that neighborhood would be dead at this hour. We wanted to shout at the police, but also to find our neighbors, to talk to the other folks in our community, to let them know what happened and call them down into the streets with us. To not let them find out about this murder in the sanitized commentary of the glowing screen but to meet them and cry out to them, the rage and sadness plain in our faces: we cannot live with what has happened. We cannot allow this to go on.
The march left the park and headed through a residential neighborhood, interrupting the dead Monday night silence of consumer-workers recovering from another day ripped from their grasp. Chanting at the top of our lungs, we encountered our own anger, our own sense of power. âAnd now one slogan to unite us all: cops, pigs, murderers.â
Many expected this march to be only symbolic. Few were prepared for anything more. But we encountered a collective force that amplifies the individual rather than smothering each one of us in the mass. The two who took the initiative to drag a dumpster into the street changed the history of this city. This small sign of sabotage spread. We all made it our own.
When the first little garbage containers were brought into the road, a couple people put them back on the sidewalk, trying to clean up the march, to make it respectable. They were confronted, shouted at. âThis doesn't send a message,â they said. âYou can do that if you want, but go somewhere else,â they said. But we have nowhere to go, except for the spaces we violently reclaim. And our message is unmistakable: we are angry, and we are getting out of hand. People continued to be uncontrollable, and soon those who had appointed themselves the censors of our struggle saw that it was they who were in the wrong place. No one attempted to control their participation. They were not allowed to control ours.
Once we got on Burnside Avenue, dumpsters were being turned over every hundred feet, blocking both directions. Folks had scavenged rocks and bottles and sticks and drums. One person had had the foresight to bring a can of spraypaint, also changing the history of our moment. We were no longer a protest. We were vengeance.
When the crowd passed the first bank, a few individuals erupted into action, while others watched their backs. The ATM got smashed. A window got smashed. Rocks and bottles were thrown. Sirens began ringing out behind us. A Starbucks appeared one block ahead. A race: could we get there before the pigs arrived? We won. More windows broke.
When the police tried to get us on to the sidewalk, they were shocked by the intensity of rage they faced. âFuck the police!â âMurderers!â Their lights and sirens had no effect. Someone shoved a dumpster into the lead cop car. They were temporarily speechless.
Only when the cops outnumbered the people did they try again, with some pepper spray and brute force finally succeeding to push us onto the sidewalk. But we were smart. We knew we couldn't win a fight just then, and every chance we got we took the street again. We didn't surrender: they had to work for it. And never did we surrender our power over the mood of the night. Louder than their sirens were our ceaseless screams, our chants, focusing our rage and wiping the arrogant smiles off the pigs' faces. They were visibly upset by the level of hatred they encountered.
We got to the police station and yelled at the line of police waiting there for us, yelled at the media parasites standing by with their cameras, calling out their complicity in police violence and racism. Most of us didn't worry about sending the proper message or appearing respectable. We expressed our rage and the power of our analysis, our ability and willingness to take initiative and change this world.
The first TV news clips, ironically, were the best we could have hoped for, but we do not put our hope in the media. We will communicate our critique of the police to the rest of the city with our protests, our fliers, our bodies, our communiques. With graffiti and smashed windows.
It should also be noted that the police have not yet released the race of the person killed. We don't know yet which community is âmost affectedâ by this murder. We respond because police violence affects all of us, because we want to show solidarity every time the State executes someone. We know that racism is a critical feature of control in this society, and we also believe we must find ways to act responsibly as allies to communities that are not our own. But solidarity must be critical, and it can only be practiced by those who are struggling for their own freedom. It is clear from tonight's actions that we fight against police violence because we feel rage and sadness whenever they kill someone.
We fight in solidarity with everyone else who fights back. And by fighting, we are remembering what it is like to be human.
In these moments when we surprise ourselves, we catch little glimpses of the world we fight for. Running down the streets, stooping to pick up a rock, we realize that in our hand we have nothing less than a building block of the future commune.
Our commune is the rage that spreads across the city, setting little fires of vengeance in the night. Our commune is the determination that comes back to the public eye the next day, meeting in the open, not letting the rest of society forget this murder, not letting our neighbors numb themselves with routine. Our commune rattles the bars of our cages, and this noise is our warcry: âout into the streets.â
We identify the police as a linchpin that maintains systems of domination. While we act from our own positionalities, and we recognize that those who are queer, those who are trans, those who are people of color, those who are poor, those who are houseless, and/or those who are labeled as mentally ill are the favorite targets of these state-sponsored murderers, all but a very privileged few are vulnerable to the not-so-tender attentions of the thugs with badges and guns.
In Portland, we express our rage at the murders of the houseless man gunned down on Monday, Aaron Campbell, and Kendra James. We express our rage at the daily targeting of queers by the Portland Police and the queerbashers they enable. We express our rage at the murder of Oscar Grant of Oakland, and the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos of Athens. We express our rage at all murders committed everywhere by police, we express our rage at the very existence of police.
We dirty queers of Portland express our solidarity with all those engaged in resistance against police everywhere, and request the solidarity of all dirty queers, everywhere. We request that all queers everywhere engage in resistance today and every day against the police and the whole of the Totality. Every exploration of rupture, every act of solidarity inflames the rage in our hearts and gives us strength in struggle.
<em>Solidarity means attack!</em>
April 9, 2010
<em>"She takes a loss cos she don't wanna see her child lose So respect her, and pay up for the time usedâ</em>
- lil wayne
It seems the local Sheriff's Department (known for getting slapped with fat lawsuits for sexual harassment and getting their own guns stolen from under their pig noses at the local Honor Farm) came upon a slow night in Modesto several days ago. Instead of doing what most of us do while at work during a slow day (nothing), they decided to âmake the most of itâ and went down to 9th Street and arrested several sex workers after waiting for various johns to take them to motels. More sickening, the Modesto Bee printed the names of these people in their disgusting corporate publication, further humiliating them and vindicating the police in their story.
Sex workers, like all workers, sell their labor for wages. As women in a patriarchal society, they face attacks from customers and often from police. The same system which seeks to criminalize them is the same force that shut down production at the Modesto Bee building itself, and threatens people across the Central Valley. The police, the protectors of the rich. The media, their mouth piece. Fuck you all.
With super glue, we gave you a likkle sumthing, knowing that hopefully not being able to collect money from people that buy your horrible publication will be a thorn in your side. In total, 10 newspaper boxes were sabotaged last week. These actions are easy. They are simple to reproduce. Fuck the Modesto Bee, from its ongoing layoffs and horrible wages, to its boss and cop loving content. We up in yo honey pot, what?!
Against patriarchy and its police!
Destroy capitalism!
<em>Bee Killaz</em>
March 11, 2010
Three members of the Fierce and Fabulous Collective based out of Guelph, ON, Canada were arrested on Friday, March, 6th, 2010 with charges of allegedly assaulting a peace officer (campus cop) outside of a drag show at the University of Guelph on Friday night. They were held over night at the Guelph police station. All were released with conditions. Two have curfews of 11PM and one has a curfew of 9PM. All three of the kidnapped queer/ trans folk have conditions to not associate with each other. One of the folks arrested who is trans identified is also charged with a breach of probation. The specifics of the arrests are not being talked about due to legal reasons.
The folks arrested were brutally fucked up by the cops. One person was slammed into the ground, had their head smashed onto the cruiser multiple times, and was kept in tight handcuffs to the point of having cuts and bruising on their wrists.
These violent actions towards our people will NOT be tolerated, nor will the choices of the university security (The Brass Taps) who called them. The cops hope to serve their role by instilling fear into us and repressing us. Together we need to stay strong and make sure that not only their repression backfires, but that we also gather strength from these experiences.
Although Fierce and Fabulous can't say a whole lot about the context of the arrests, the real reasons for these arrests and the police violence are very clearly not because of the alleged charges of âassaulting a peace officer.â It wasn't a coincidence that the arrests happened outside of a drag show or that they were harassed by a private security company beforehand. These arrests are yet another ridiculously obvious attack on queers/transfolk. The war against us all becomes even more apparent, and makes seeing through the state's and the university's âqueer positiveâ (but only if yer assimilationist and straight) bullshit facade even more transparent.
Up The Queers, Up The Trannies!
In Love And Even More Rage,
<em>The Fierce and Fabulous Krew</em>
March 23, 2010
Two of the 3 queer/trans folk who were charged with assault police have made their first appearance in court.
One person had court on March 15th, the court had no information on the matter and was confused as to why all three of the coaccused did not all have court on the same day. Her court was adjourned until April 19th.
Today on March, 22nd another one of the persons charged made his first court appearance. He received a screening form and the disclosure. The crown is proceeding summarily and is asking for 1. Probation, 2. Firearms prohibition, 3. DNA Databank Order, and 4. Jail Time. His next court date is also April 19th, 2010.
The other person who has yet to make her appearance in court is also scheduled to be in court on April 19th.
April 15, 2011
On Friday, April 15th, 2011 an anti-fascist in AntiRacist Action learned of the location of the National Socialist Movement's national conference for rank promotion and five-year planning. A group of 30 of us decided to march to where the Nazis were strongest, to bodily and boldly confront them, and we were decidedly victorious. After the dust settled, six Nazis were hospitalized, more were injured, their vehicles and property were damaged, and their conference was ended. On the other side, one anti-fascist required moderate first aid.
Many of us at the melee were people of color, working class, immigrants, women, queer, transgendered, and/or people on parole or probation. The logic of the victim is constantly thrust upon us. We are said to be **at risk** and must be protected and pandered to. It is said that we need others, usually the State, to protect and stand up for us. But, through the action of splitting Nazis' heads open, we rejected the logic of victimization. We will continue to do so; we will be victims no longer. We do not need others to stand up for us; we have each other. When we are attacked, we will find each other and counterattack, so hard and so fierce that we will surprise even ourselves.
If the Nazis call us bitch ass faggots, they might not be that far off the mark. But if they conflate those slurs with weakness, the six hospital visits they faced would prove otherwise.
June 14, 2011
So the National Socialist Movement came outâno pun intendedâto protest the Milwaukee, WI Pride Fest last weekend, and as usual were met by those who were none too fond of them doing so and were waiting for them to show. This is a small report of what went down.
Back in April, Nazis from the National Socialist Movement held a conference in Pemberton, NJ, but not before a huge melee between them and anti-fascists that involved bats, hammers, pepper spray, and folding chairs left several NSM members gushing blood and sent four to the hospital with one apparently having a shattered cheekbone. Now, months later, a follow- up attack left the Milwaukee unit of the NSM in a fury. Harriet and Paul Paletti and about three other Nazis from the NSM held a demo at the pride parade in downtown Milwaukee. As always the NSM was heavily protected by police but this didn't stop a few anti-fascists from making sure they didn't go home without interruption. Aside from infiltrating the Milwaukee NSM through Harriet Paletti (20225 W. Coffee Road, New Berlin 53146) anti-fascists had been watching the NSMs since early in the morning and had clear descriptions on all cars and attendees. Once it was clear that they were going to hide behind police protection, antifascists decided to go for their cars that were in the parking lot. Their grey astro van was parked directly in front of their smaller red car which had an NSM member inside âguardingâ the van. After being confronted at his car he cowardly denied being a Nazi and did nothing to protect the vehicle of his comrades. During the confrontation of this low life scum anti-fascists made sure to pop both of the NSMsâ front tires leaving them stuck in the lot and out a few hundred bucks, not including the tow we are sure they needed. Although we realize this was no huge defeat, the reality is, after such a beat down in Pemberton you would think the NSM would tighten their security and assure nothing at all happened. Most importantly it should be assumed that this is not the last hit the NSM will face.
This war is not over and so far this years score board says
anti-fascists: 2 NSM:0
November 13, 2011
In the wee hours of the morning of November 13th, a banner was dropped on a bridge over the I-90/94 in Chicago reading, âDon't Mourn, Attack! Avenge Shelley!â and three police vehicles were disabled in response to the brutal murder of a young trans woman named Shelley âTreasureâ Hilliard, whose torso was found next to the same highway (I-94) in Detroit this past week.
It is easy to become lost in the sorrow of the brutal violence of gender that exposes the bodies of trans women to a one-in-twelve chance of violent death at the hands of the partisans defending this wretched society. But our violence is the alchemy that can turn our tears into a potent poison dripping down the throat of the social order. Take action to avenge Shelley's death and to remind us all that in the face of the terror of prisons, police, and queer-bashing, that it is our obligation to bash back against all that would destroy us. We look forward to hearing about more attacks for Shelley and for us all in the coming weeks.
<em>Solidarity to all the trans women and gender rebels surviving and rebelling in the belly of the prison and under the guns of the pigs!</em>
<em>Solidarity to all our comrades in the US, Mexico, Greece, Chile, and many other places that have chosen to attack and now face the violence of the law!</em>
<em>Solidarity with those whose survivals have been made criminal who are reclaiming their ability to struggle!</em>
yours in the gender strike,
<em>Some ticked off trannies with knives.</em>
November 28, 2011
As thousands of people in cities all across the world gathered on November 20th to memorialize the 23 transgender women that were murdered in the past year as named by transgenderdor.org, some of us decided to skip the opportunity of silently listening to the politicians of the âtrans communityâ recite the names of our dead over candlelight, romantic as it sounded. Instead we ventured into the mist and fog of a Northwest autumn night and put up some graffiti as small gestures of antagonism towards the state, the bashers and the leftists who use the blood of trans women to build campaigns of hate crime legislation and reform. We are against hate crime legislation because we are against prisons, against the infuriating portrayal of police as protectors, against rising for their judges in their detestable courtrooms, against (though not surprised in the least by) the way that such legislation is used to defend those in positions of power and because we are, at heart, hate filled criminal enemies of civilized society.
By the end of the night several walls and surfaces had been subject to the vandalism of the trans symbol, circle a's, the largely sprayed proclamation âToo Many Trans Deaths, Not Enough Dead Pigsâ and 20 feet of silver letters across a darkly painted business rooftop reading âVengeance for Shelley Hilliard!!!! (A) Bash Back!â
Shelly Hilliard, also known as Treasure, was a 19 year old trans woman from Detroit who was identified by a tattoo earlier this month after her burned torso was found on the side of the highway. Krissi Bates was found stabbed to death in her Minneapolis apartment in January in a brutal murder that was described as âoverkill.â Tyra Trent was strangled to death in her Baltimore apartment in February. Miss Nate Nate Eugene Davis was shot and left behind a Houston dumpster in June. Lashai Mclean was shot in the street in Washington, DC in July. Camila Guzman was stabbed to death by a john in New York City in August. Gaurav Gopalan died from trauma to the head in September and Chassity Vickers was shot in Hollywood just four days ago, on November 16th.
These are just a few examples of transsexual homicides in the US alone that made headlines this year. Women whose lives and deaths get summed up by reporter after snake-eyed reporter who can barely manage to contain their contempt for the queer and make no effort whatsoever to disguise their disdain for anyone alleged to have been a criminal or whore. Funeral services become the rushed lowering of mangled corpses into the ground, in anticipation of a grave on which to spit. This was exemplified by the pastor of Lashai Mclean's funeral, who repeatedly referred to her by male pronouns and went as far as to incite a mass walk out of the many trans attendants by claiming that âWhen you live a certain lifestyle this is the consequence you have to pay.â
While we remember our dead, let us not forget about those still struggling, especially those who are facing charges and/or living lives in cages.
In June Catherine Carlson was sentenced to ten years in an Idaho prison after being convicted of first degree arson, unlawful possession of a bomb, using a hoax destructive device, and indecent exposure. Before her conviction she had locked herself in her trailer for years and left only when necessary, approximately once every ten days when she needed food and could no longer subsist off of coffee alone. Every time she left her home she was taunted by police. Despite having had her name legally changed for over three decades, she couldn't get her given name removed from her license. She was jailed on four occasions for driving without a license in her stubborn and inspiring refusal to acknowledge the state's attempt at controlling her gender. Eventually this torment led to rupture. Catherine constructed what appeared to be four pipe bombs, left them next to a propane tank, set her trailer and her truck on fire, and walked down the highway naked until being stopped and arrested. She is currently being held in the hole of a men's prison despite having had sex reassignment surgery.
On the night of June 5th in Minneapolis, Chrishaun âCeCeâ McDonald was harassed outside of a bar for being black and trans and had a glass smashed in her face. A fight broke out and minutes later her attacker, Dean Schmitz, had been fatally stabbed. CeCe was arrested, charged with murder, got bailed out after a month in isolation and is currently awaiting trial.
Three trans women were arrested in connection to a flash mob attack on a New York City Dunkin Donuts that happened on Christopher Street the night of May 16th. Christopher Street has a rich history of queer and trans resistance (including the Stonewall Riots) and an apparent inability to rid itself of the fierce homeless trans youth it is known for despite decades of gentrification and âquality of lifeâ campaigns. During the flash mob, two dozen transgender youth stormed the shop, threw chairs, destroyed expensive coffee machines and looted goods. Those arrested have been charged with assault, criminal mischief, menacing, rioting and criminal possession of a weapon.
In August, off duty officer Kenneth Fur took it upon himself to remind us that police are the absolute enemy. He became angry when three trans women in DC refused complicity in his entitled assumption that his pig salary could buy any trans body he encountered on the street. So angry, in fact, that he climbed onto the roof of their car and shot the passengers inside. One woman was grazed by a bullet, one was shot in the hand and the brother of one of the women was shot in the chest. The cops were kind enough to show up and escort the injured individuals to the hospital... in handcuffs.
A few days ago Brooke Fantelli was repeatedly tased in El Centro, CA by a Bureau of Land Management ranger. Brooke was stopped for public intoxication while taking pictures in the desert. After being ID'ed the ranger told her, âYou used to be a guy,â and then tased her with her hands up. Once she was on the ground he tased her again, this time in the genitals.
Also this month, Andrea Jones was arrested for indecent exposure, or more accurately, for exposing the legal system as the brutally illogical apparatus of control that it is. Andrea went topless in a Tennessee DMV after they refused to change the gender on her ID to female. As a âmaleâ, she said, she had the legal right to take off her shirt. She was jailed for three weeks, lost her job, and will most likely have to register as a sex offender. As usual, cops and COs are free to rape us and expose us to sexual violence meanwhile charging those they take hostage as âsex offenders.â Those most vulnerable to this tactic of the state are the gender variant, queer inmates and black men who are demonized in racist smear campaigns by the media as ârapistsâ every time a cop gets shot.
Finally, we want to mention Amazon, a transsexual lesbian who has been in prison for the past 30 years and is serving life in California. In a letter that was published in a Black and Pink newsletter earlier this year she says âI am from Gender Anarky Collective in the prisons. We are a militant organization fighting for transsexual medicine in the form of female hormones and sex-corrective surgery, and against all forms of hate, genocide and discrimination by cops or prisoners alike, and are also a self defense structure and will fight, have fought, and are fighting for ours on the yards. I am currently in the hole for 'battery on an inmate with a weapon.' Two other girls are here with me, one for three counts of assault on staff who jumped on her. We survive by aggressive self defense.â She then proceeds to denounce activism and engagement in politics, describing instead the necessary âpost-apocalyptic civil war madnessâ that the myth of social peace works desperately to keep us from. âPrison is government. No government in the world is going to allow anyone to deconstruct its prisons, come what may. Therefore, to actually abolish prisons, the government must be destroyed, overthrown.â
Here's to the end of the capitalist system that the police imprison us to protect and to freedom for trans women, and freedom for us all. As our hearts burn with the loss of our loved ones, may their cities burn as well.
Dean Schmitz was not the first and he will not be the last!
<em>VENGEANCE NOT REMEMBRANCE!</em>
<em>WE WILL NOT REST IN PEACE!</em>
On Saturday the Westboro Baptist Church once again demonstrated in Chicago. It was reported that people hounded the Christian Fascists at every stop. Allies of Bash Back! involved with the more mainstream demonstration have notified us that people covering their faces were seen egging members of the Westboro Baptist Church as they scrambled to leave.
<em>Bash Back! News received this Communique Sunday afternoon:</em>
S.I.N. Confronts Westboro Baptist Church
After a week of waiting, on December 13th, members of the Sodomite Insurgent Network finally got the opportunity to have a reunion of sorts with members of the Westboro Baptist Church (God Hates Fags). Unable to hide any longer, this scum first emerged at the busy North Loop intersection of Wacker and Michigan. About ten sodomites immediately disrupted their proselytizing, marching into the intersection in the height of militant queer fashion, behind the beautiful âFags Hate Godâ banner to the tune of âRise and shine and give Satan glory!â After recognizing us rowdy queer fuckers were not willing to tolerate their presence, the WBC members left after only fifteen minutes. Members of the Christian Cult JPUSA were present, âholding signsâ about how God loves everyone, but no one fucking cared (peaceful protest doesn't get the job done). With our appetite for fresh Christian fear still unsatisfied, we pursued the scum to their next stop, the Queer Youth Center in Chicago's Boystown neighborhood.
At Halsted and Waveland, about 100 members of Chicago's gaystream were already waiting for the WBC members, and goodness gracious, these liberal queers were pissed because, after all, who would dare challenge their right to assimilate! They did, however (by no small miracle), manage to prove useful today. Shortly upon arriving, with S.I.N. operatives already dispersed throughout the crowd, the WBC members felt so threatened they had to take shelter in the pig station! They barely even lasted ten minutes.
To the WBC scum, this is only the beginning.
Because militant pink and black is so fucking sexy,
<em>The Sodomite Insurgent Network</em>
November 15, 2008
Last night, under the veil of fog, we visited the Church of Latter Day Saints. We left their locks glued with anarchist messages scrawled in spray paint over their boring veneer.
We did this to show our solidarity with all who are resisting heterosexism everywhere, hopefully to spur them into action; and also because we are angry at the amount of money and propaganda that the Mormon church pumped into the homophobic Proposition 8 campaign. From their disgusting commercials to their despicable sermons to those gross lawn signs, we are sick of this parade of bigotry. The Church has to pay.
We as anarchists are opposed to marriage but we see this blatantly anti-gay act as a threat to all us gay, lesbian, transgendered and queer folk. The Proposition 8 campaign was used as a medium to instill homophobic fear into the population of California so as to squash queer culture; it is dangerous to let these actions go unchecked and not confronted.
Liberating our sexual fantasies and desires is dangerous to this rigid system, because free people enjoying themselves in a plethora of ways sexually will eventually want to enjoy themselves in other areas of life too. Capitalism doesn't want sexually liberated people because they ask too many questions and may not show up to work on time (or at all).
The Mormon church (just like most churches) is a cesspool of filth. It is a breeding ground for oppression of all sorts and needs to be confronted, attacked, subverted and destroyed. The church reinforces sexism, transphobia, homophobia, racism, capitalism, and leaves its members emotionally wounded and unable to engage in critical thinking. The Mormon church teaches us to hate our bodies, not to trust ourselves or our desires. This ends up deforming us as healthy sexual and communal beings. This is unacceptable.
These are a few reasons why an affinity group of the Olympia, Washington Chapter of Bash Back! decided to attack their church with glue and paint. Let this be a warning to the Mormon church: dissolve completely or be destroyed. The choice is yours..
<em>Bash Back! Olympia</em>
We had a great last night sneaking about in snow covered Olympia.
We paid another visit to the bigots over at the Mormon Church. We covered their building with messages in spray paint, such things as âthere is no sin in your desireâ, âlove who you want to love and love how you pleaseâ, âsex is fun! It's not shamefulâ, âqueer and trans insurrectionâ and many, many, many, many others. We also left them a surprise, it's a pretty big one, we think they'll notice it within a few days.
The Mormons are an atrocious bunch and, well, it just felt amazing to fuck up their holy place, especially on an early Sunday morning with the snowflakes glistening in the street lamps. They have been so active in suppressing their flocks sexual urges through instilling bankrupt ideas of morality and shame, we hope that a few people read that and went home to commit loving acts of sodomy.
We're also pretty fucking fed up with the way those Mormons have been giving us queer and trans people so much shit, they treat us like we're some sort of plague that they need to quarantine before it spreads. When actually this plague is something innate in us as humans, you can't quarantine us, cause we already exist inside of everyone. We are desire, we are freedom, we are acting on urges and possibilities, we are passion, we are a break from the routine, from the expected, from the drudgery, we are the nibble on your earlobe, the sex in the forest or the kiss under the stars. We are sexy, sexy, anarchists.
Around the world people are breaking away from their dreary slumber, rejecting the tediousness of their boring lives and finding meaning in attacking systems of misery. Let this be a call out for more actions, bigger ones, and bigger still. We want nothing from their world to stand, we want to create our own world, where everything is possible and everything is permitted.
We did this in solidarity with those sexy Greek rioters we've been hearing so much about. Damn, those kids really know how to turn us on, they get us all warm inside on these cold winter nights. We wish we could grab a few of those Greeks by the balaclava and just, well you know.
More attacks to cum.
<em>An underground cell of Bash Back!</em>
January 14, 2009
Late last night I paid a visit to the Catholic Church. I super-glued every single one of their locks and smashed up a few windows. I'm sure everyone who's ever committed an act of sabotage knows how amazing that feeling is. If you don't, you should really just try it for yourself.
I am just fed up with the atrocities committed by the Church and it's time to make them suffer for all the misery they have imposed on the world: the witch killings, the genocide of the indigenous, the negation of the body, slavery, the wars of conquest, the destruction of the wild, their complicity in the Nazi holocaust, and everything else they've ever done. I'm sick of it and I'm not going to take it anymore.
Now they've called for a peace after Oscar Grant's murder in Oakland, saying he was in a better place now (away from his girlfriend and child) and then had the nerve to denounce the following riots. The Church are murderers, they killed every single culture whose path they've crossed and now they're calling for peace? Fuck that, I want war.
Christianity needs to be burnt at the stake.
All this action took was stolen super-glue, a bicycle, a face mask, some gloves and a hammer. I approached the building at night through the side entrance, left my bike near the road by some trees and then put a tooth pick into a lock and then squirted in the glue (so as to help the glue stick better) and repeated this five more times. Then I got out the hammer and smashed a few windows, ran to my bike and rode back home. On the ride home I threw away the super-glue containers in a dumpster.
This action is in solidarity to the rioters in Oakland and Greece, Bash Back!, native warriors still resisting the church and the 2010 Olympic Games, and to whoever burned down Sarah Palin's church.
Smash Things Up in the Night!
<em>A Renegade Angel</em>
April 20, 2009
Bash Back! responds to Ken Hutcherson's connection to Watchmen on the Walls and the Puget Sound community's failure to hold him accountable. They do it by spray painting his church and gluing all of the doors shut.
<em>To Everyone:</em>
Last night the Bash Back Unwelcoming Committee greeted the Worldview Apologetics Conference attendees. The conference is being held today through Saturday at Crossroads Bible Church in Bellevue, Washington.
When we first read of the conference we were excited. We thought the Christian Right was finally going to apologize for all the shit we've been put through lately, from the imprisonment of the New Jersey 4 to the execution style murder of trans woman Duanna Johnson, to the death this past week of eleven-year-old Carl Walker-Hoover who committed suicide after consistent unchecked homophobic bullying at school... But alas, appearances are deceiving. We looked up the Apologetics and that's not what it means.
We looked further into the host church more and found out that Pastor Ken Hutcherson, is a known supporter and colleague of Watchmen on the Wall, whose members who are responsible for the death of Satendar Singh in 2007.
As we write these three effigies, we remember the countless others that have been murdered as a result of the sick bigotry spewing from Ken Hutcherson's pulpit. He may not have tied the noose, pulled the trigger or thrown his fist, but his words have encouraged others to do so.
The Worldview Apologetics Conference was another opportunity for well-known queer haters to spread their bullshit. With titles like, âThe Difference Between Boys and Girls; Exposing the Lies of Feminism and It's Cost to Societyâ and âIt's Not Like Being Black; Why Homosexual Marriage is Not a Civil Rights Issueâ these workshops promised a slanted view from a sick few.
<em>To Queer Haters Everywhere:</em>
Starting with last night's action, we're re-writing the âplaybookâ. âSmear the Queerâ may be your favorite pastime, but honey let me tell you, we fucking reclaimed the word Queer 15-fucking-years ago and we've got a diversity of tactics. When we wrote âUp Anarchist Queersâ, âWatchmen Are Killersâ, âWe Are Beautyâ and glued all the doors shut, we threw open our own doors and tattooed those words on hour hearts. Welcome to our world shitheads. We may have written on your walls, but you've written anti-queer rhetoric into law.
We hope your homophobic and transphobic hearts continue to sink as you are met with more resistance. Ours continue to beat, stead and strong as we dance in the streets and continue to make our liberation movement irresistible. We don't need permission from the government to build our families. WE build communities where gender self-determination, healthy bodies and open sexuality are loved. We walk with confidence and know our inherent self-worth. Our queer brilliance and fabulousness will always outshine the stink of shit you throw our way.
We would never settle for equality with you, we want liberation and nothing less. Queers around the world take note, the bigger the church, the bigger your canvas. We are here, among you, we are queer, every-fucking-where and we didn't start this war but we are BASHING BACK!
Sodomy in the ashes of Ken Hutcherson's âplaybookâ,
<em>BASH BACK!</em>
May 4, 2009
At 9AM on Tuesday April 28th, somewhere between fifty and seventy people came to the iconic Park Street Church across from Boston Common to attend an Exodus Ministries training. Attendees watched a video wherein âformer homosexualsâ and âformer lesbiansâ spoke of the power of god to heal âsexual brokennessâ and restore heterosexual desires to the most fallen of souls. During the âmale homosexualityâ portion of the training, âformer homosexualâ Jeff Buchanan shared his experience of having turned from his homosexual past, as well as the causes of male homosexuality, which include resentment of male authority and lack of bonding with fathers. This had been going on for quite some time when Jason Lydon, pastor of the Community Church of Boston, whom the event organizers had foolishly invited, stood up and informed the attendees of their culpability in the suicides of two eleven year old boys in April 2009, both prompted by anti-gay bullying. As security moved to stop him from distributing JESUS WAS GAY flyers, he continued: âIf Jesus Christ walked into this church today, he would overturn your tables because you have turned his house into a den of thieves!â As he was removed from the building, attendees' ears rang with the echo of âGod loves QUEEEERS!â Attendees were very shaken indeed, with one calling for a prayer to refocus the event, which continued. After Buchanan, Melanie Spinks, a âformer lesbian,' took the lectern to address the essence of womanhood, the causes of 'female homosexuality,' and which profiles of women tend to struggle with same-sex attraction. Event-goers had just been informed that lesbians can be attractive when an attractive young woman stood, declared her rejection of Exodus Ministries and her affection for another young woman two tables away. The two ran to each other in an affectionate, snogular embrace, held hands and skipped out the door before security could reach them. Ever mischievous, the two ran around back outside the giant window of the conference room, bringing them into the Granary Burying Ground, final resting place of such patriarchs as Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, visiting place of hordes of schoolchildren. What better setting to engage in gratuitous homoerotic canoodling?
It is not known to the authors what transpired in the conference room after this, as, to the best of their knowledge, all radical queers had excised themselves from the training at this point in the program.
So what is Exodus Ministries? According to their website, âExodus is a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian organization promoting the message of Freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ.â Yes, they're awful, but perhaps not quite in the way an outsider might envision. Exodus * Fred Phelps; these folks are incredibly polite and sweet, diverse and intergenerational, and they are convinced that they love all us rug munchers and peter puffers. In fact, they are âformer homosexuals" themselves. They reject a surprising number of harmful notions, though, as might be expected, they have their own set of harmful notions with which to replace them. They teach that attraction is involuntary and âhomosexuality meets legitimate emotional needs.â Naturally, however, they believe that same-sex pairings are âillegitimateâ and âwrongâ ways to meet these legitimate needs, and teach that all people can and should engage in none but the most godly, heteromonogamarital sexual relationships. It is not surprising that Exodus and other ex-gay ministries frequently drive their quarries into suicide, a phenomenon well enough known that it made its way onto **South Park.**
As the conference disrupters sat on the Common and reflected on what had transpired inside, they marveled how vitally crucial a monomaniacal insistence on gender binarism was to Exodus' concerns; while the two are not mutually exclusive, gender conformity nevertheless seemed to be elevated above sexual conformity on their list of priorities. Exodus' discussion of the causes of homosexual behavior involved parental influences and the centrality of male authority. Melanie Spinks explained that fathers should always approach their daughters; for a girl to approach a man and to take initiative is a masculine trait and she might grow up with an appetite for box lunch. Jeff Buchanan nauseated the radical queers when he insisted that the role of a father is to impart masculinity to male children and to affirm femininity in female children. He recommended that fathers take their daughters on dates, tell them they're beautiful, that they're princesses. It was a strange, alternate universe wherein fundamentalist Christians proclaim radical feminist assertions, here eerily echoing Twisty (of the blog I Blame the Patriarchy), who once wrote, âMasculinity is what [men] do to keep women feminized. Femininity is what women do to keep from being pathologized, criminalized, ostracized, jailed, raped, and butchered.â
âIf gender roles are so natural,â queried a disrupter, âwhy do they need to work so hard to make sure people fit into them?â
Exodus' hatred of women was on abundant display throughout the session. In proclaiming his own heterosexual success, Jeff Buchanan drew attention to âhisâ wife staffing the check-in table and, speaking in the imperative, demanded, âWave, honey!â While male-perpetuated abuse featured prominently in their discussions as causes or galvanizing influences of homosexuality, they presented absolutely no analysis, systemic or otherwise, on why men feel entitled to the bodies of children or women. Melanie Spinks proclaimed gender essentializing stereotypes as fact, averring that ârelationship is essential to femaleness, further insisting that this is a âgift, not a weakness.â On the value of women, Spinks asserted, âThere is not a woman on earth who can give you a sense of identity, purpose and security.â
Between the sections on male and female homosexuality, national speakers stepped down and allowed local queer-hating organizations to speak. One such, the Massachusetts Family Institute, had their white cotton panties in a twist over a bill pending in the Massachusetts state legislature, An Act Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes. This bill aims to include gender identity and expression in Massachusetts' non-discrimination statute and amend existing hate crime laws to include trans and gender variant folks. Inexplicably, our fundy friends and media have termed it The Bathroom Bill, shrieking that, if this bill passes, men will be able to go into women's bathrooms and rape the shit out of everyone inside. We hate to break it to them, but, as chromosome checks are not in place outside public facilities, there is currently nothing stopping men from doing this as things now stand. Meanwhile, as much as these radical queers support whatever it takes to end discrimination against trans and gender non-conforming people, we cannot support hate crimes legislation. To quote the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, âRather than serving as protection for oppressed people, the hate crimes portion of this law may expose our communities to more dangerâfrom prejudiced institutions far more powerful and pervasive than individual bigots.â (Read the whole thing.)
The disrupters sat waiting on the Common until, right at noon, protesters showed up from Join the Impact, a promarriage LGBT rights group. Choosing a spot on the Common far from Park Street Church, Join the Impact brought signs and chants, delivered through a bullhorn. The three radical queers ran over to join the energetic crowd and tell them of their deeds. Would the disrupters like to speak over the bullhorn? And how! The three took turns attempting to impart a liberationist, pro-feminist, pro-trans message and to encourage the crowd to move closer to the church where they could be heard by Exodus attendees. The leadership's response was that they had a permit and that the lady trying to talk about trans issues ought to give the bullhorn back. As the protest wore on, the disrupters were disheartened to observe that only cis men were asked/ permitted by the leadership to speak over the bullhorn and that they kept to androcentric messages generally. Considering the violent misogyny of Exodus, which the protest was called to counter, more attention needs to be given to the alarming ways in which gay/queer organizing can replicate the very unsavory power dynamics against which we are struggling. None of us will be free until we are all free.
This story has a happy ending, however! After a while, disregarding their leadership, the protesters were enticed by the idea of abandoning their permitted spot and marching over toward Park Street Church where Exodus could hear that they were not welcome in Boston. After a minute or so in front of the church, the crowd was amenable to marching around back into the Granary Burying Ground. There, on the final resting place of Crispus Attucks and Mother Goose, Exodus attendees were forced to hear high-octane, righteous queer rage against their poisonous message. With chants resounding, with sirens wailing, with queer faces peering down at them and cameras snapping at them, a much-shaken Exodus audience sought window coverings. We've got news for you, Exodus: we don't go away when you close your eyes.
<em>Bashing Back in Boston</em>
We are hanging out together. Talking. Reading. Eating. Watching a movie. The door slams open. âHey, I just drove by the Pride festival and there's a bunch of anti-gay Christian protesters out there with signs.â âLet's ride,â one of us replies. We do. We're off. In a couple separate cars we drive to the festival. We get there and look around. The stage is being taken down. People are trickling out. Christian fascists stand around with signs screaming about sin and proclaiming that we are going to hell, reinforcing capitalist modes of sexual reproduction and patriarchal society. People stand around, just looking. Some of us yell at them. Security tells us to be quiet. One of them approaches and tells us in a hushed voice, âJust ignore them and they'll get the message.â One of us looks at them and replies, âThat's what Hitler said. The only way he said that his enemies could have stopped him is if they would have fought them in the streets. Which is what we aren't doing right now.â The security guard looks down at the ground.
We are in the car again, driving. We arrive at our house. Our hands reach out for a blank banner, some spray paint, and video camera equipment. A text message is sent out to friends that reads, âChristian fascists at the park. Throw down. Tell friends.â Quickly a message upon the banner is written that reads: âReclaim Pride - Bash Back!â We arrive again at the park. We approach our enemies and start chanting for them to get out. A buzz is spreading throughout the crowd. People shake hands, meet old friends, and rush in from elsewhere. The police look worried; more people are coming to meet the zealots head on.
âWhy did they shut down Pride? Where's the party at? Get out of the park! Whose Park? Our Park!â The chants change, but the message remains the same: leave now, or we'll confront you. The police inform us that we are on the verge of starting a riot and to not confront the protesters. Others tell us we're as bad as the fascists. We smile and laugh. We've heard this before. No. Actually, we're worse, because we are prepared to stand and fight. The crowd continues to grow. The protesters look at each other nervously as they attempt to preach to us despite the fact that we're yelling so loud no one can hear what they're saying at all. The police stand around the zealots and protect them and the social peace that hides the everyday social war. The protesters look at each other. They pack up. They leave. We've won.
People smile and slap each other on the back. We've had a victory. We later learn from talking to friends who had already been at Pride that when the protesters first showed up, the event organizers responded by shutting the event down. We also heard rumors that before we arrived, people threw bottles and confronted those attacking them. but thanks to the organizers of the event, so much for Pride. âThis is where your liberal leaders lead you,â declares one rebel, as some of us make our rounds of the park after the fascists have left. Over fifty people participated in the confrontation. For these people, for a few moments they felt what it is like to come together as a group and push back not only against the police and our oppressors, but also experience something so much more than just listening to boring speakers and staring at the booths of non-profits and food vendors. They felt what it was like to win. To push back against what class society forces against us.
This is what it means to intervene. To stand up for ourselves. At work. In the streets. In our neighborhoods. Everywhere. To all the haters who are tripping off of everyday people bringing da ruckus - you're the ones that are just as bad. We see you, hi hater. We have begun, where you at? This is Modesto muthafucka. 209. Holla.
<em>Some of those accused of inciting a riot.</em>
November 9th!
Queers and Trannies
Bash Back! is going to be doing a very creative and fun action on Sunday November 9th. There is space for all levels of involvement and risk. We need people to do anything from just engaging in conversation, to tossing some glitter, to playing spin the bottle, to a more âmilitantâ-looking presence outside of the building. I can tell you that we are targeting a well-known anti-queer, antichoice radical right-wing establishment. However, we can't give you really any detailed information due to the cop whose ridiculous job it is to do surveillance over this blog. If you are interested, trust us, it's going to be amazing!
Either dress in casual clothes so you can blend with general people and have a pink or blue mask or bandanna or flag or something that you can hide and then use to distinguish you as a protester later. Or if you want to be a part of the outside action, wear pink and black and have a mask. The outdoor action isn't going to be a presence that is necessarily going to do anything more than look scary to grab attention. So: masks, noise makers, and flags, etc.
Some things we need: video camera, a megaphone, noise makers, condoms, glitter by the bucket load, confetti, pink fabric. yeh. If you got any of this stuff let us know.
âONLY ONE DIRECTION! TRANS AND QUEER INSURRECTION!â
<em>-Bash Back! Lansing</em>
The Mount Hope Church is a deplorable, anti-queer megachurch in Lansing, Michigan. The church works to institutionalize transphobia and homophobia through several repulsive projects including organized âex-gayâ conferences and so- called âhell housesâ, which depict queers, trannies and womyn who seek abortions as the horrors. Mt. Hope is complicit in the repression of queers in Michigan and beyond.
Bash Back! ain't down with that. And so on Sunday November 9th, about thirty radical queers from Lansing, Chicago, Memphis and Milwaukee disrupted the church's most well- attended sermon.
At noon, a small group of folks dressed in pink and black, equipped with a megaphone, black flags, picket signs, and an upside- down pink cross began demonstrating outside the church. The group was extremely loud and wildly offensive.
The demonstration drew a majority of Mount Hope's security staff outside to watch them.
Meanwhile, with the guards preoccupied by the distraction, over a dozen queers had put on their Sunday best and infiltrated the church's congregation. At the signal that the guards had been lured outside, the infiltrators sprang into action.
A group stood up, declared themselves fags, and began screaming loudly. Upon hearing the loud interruption, other affinity groups went into action. A team that had been hiding under the pews in the closed-off balcony dropped a banner and pulled back the curtains to reveal âIT'S OKAY TO BE GAY! BASH BACK!â Another group threw over a thousand fliers to the entirety of the congregation. The fire alarm was pulled. Queers began making out in front of the pastor. And within a matter of minutes, everyone had evaded the guards and made their escapes.
Bash Back! operatives, still hidden among the congregation, observed a person screaming that Satan had come to Mount Hope, that the end was here, that the queers were everywhere. She then began speaking in tongues. The dumbfounded pastor, after regaining his composure, went on to speak of the decadent, depraved wolves that menace his flock of sheep.
Let it be known: so long as bigots kill us in the streets, this pack of wolves will continue to BASH BACK!
We are everywhere.
<strong>A member of BB! Lansing explains why Mount Hope Church was the target: What was that noise!? Bash Back! Responds to the backlash</strong>
In the past weeks there has been an unprecedented amount of controversy and reaction to the Bash Back! action at Mount Hope Church, in Lansing Michigan. Thanks to the media (who have failed to cover this with any amount of effort or concern for the truth), as well as incessant bloging, many important pieces of information have been lost, and at times, changed completely. We would like to set some things...âstraightâ!
<em>Why Mount Hope Church?</em>
The first issue we would like to address is the nationally wide-spread question of, âWhy Mount Hope Church?â (MHC) Good question. The first thing to realize is we did not just randomly pick a place, nor did we pick the biggest place. A lot of issues went into our decision; I will discuss the major ones: First, MHC's stance on queer identities. In their recent press release, Dave Williams (or D-Willy as we affectionately refer to him) states that they simply see being gay as a sin equal to any other, such as, lying or stealing. This is a sneaky way of getting off the hook. You can see for yourself that they take it much more seriously.
According to one of MHC nearly all forms of sexual expression (and specifically homosexuality) are considered âsexual addictionâ. Openly lumping homo's in with such sinners as peeping-Toms, flashers and even rapists!!! These âaddictionsâ they work to âcureâ through strict âsupport groupsâ such as Dunamai. And at times they even send men to live in brainwashing camps such as Pure Life Ministries. They also organize with other ex-gay organizations such as Love in Action, Homosexuals Anonymous, and L.I.F.E. Ministries. It is clear that MHC takes an active approach to repressing queer identity and all forms of sexual expression outside of the Christian, straight, married and husband-controlled structure. This ruins people's whole lives and families by making them repress their desires so completely that they grow to hate themselves and/or act out against or ignore their spouses and families. This church is nothing short of a disease in the community, and in the minds of those who attend.
âD-Willyâ, Pastor of Mount Hope, (and personal enemy of Bash Back!) stated that he did not âchoose to identify MHC as anti-choice.â However, every Halloween the Church puts on the heavily protested âHell Houseâ, an extremely offensive and yes **radical** approach to shock people into their right wing belief structure. One of the rooms within this Hell House completely inaccurately depicts a womyn receiving an abortion. In the act, the doctor uses dirty tools, and horrible machine sounds play over loud speakers. With the presence of demons, and her screams of pain, one leaves feeling like they just witnessed a most violent atrocity. How is this not actively anti-choice?
Another important reason that MHC was chosen, was the deep personal tie many organizers have to the church. Some members of Bash Back! have been members of MHC. Others were raised in evangelical churches very similar in message and method. For them, this was a liberating step. A personal confrontation with those who had made the journey to adulthood and personal identity a struggle wrought with self-hate, repression, guilt and loneliness. All of which eventually evolved into healthy anger, strength, free sexual expression, and activism. This has helped to build a strong community within Bash Back! And we support their choice to confront those that would choose to put them back in that dark place of self-hate!
From here I could go into all the other reasons MHC should be confronted. For example, the undeniable fact that megachurches are really just big business. This can be seen in the way they pressure their congregation (or audience) to buy their books and DVDs and other products. Or the incredible amount of money grossed by that church in a year. Another reason is the international church plantings. MHC has no regard for indigenous culture. There are dozens of reasons we chose Mount Hope Church.
âOur culture is permeated with sexual imagery. Magazine racks offer pictures of girls in teensy bikinis. Prime time situation comedies almost continually revolve around sexual storylines involving teenage promiscuity, extra-marital affairs, homosexuality and worse.â
âAt times, a pastor or counselor may very well find himself helping men who frequent adult bookstores, strip clubs, massage parlors and prostitutes. On occasion, he may also be compelled to minister to men involved with peeking in windows, exposing themselves to women, making obscene telephone calls, sexually assaulting others, or even having sex with animals. He will most certainly deal with promiscuityâamong teenagers and adults. More than likely he will minister to homosexualsâboth male and female.â
<em>What did Bash Back! hope to accomplish? Why these shocking tactics?</em> There were a few main points and goals of this action:
- To confront the oppressors that run the church and show them some of us are unafraid and will resist them. Calling them out **in front** of their congregation was an important part of that. Showing that we are angry with their destructive behavior was also an important part of the message.
- To provide a space for those who had been mentally tortured by MHC and other places similar to confront their âdemonsâ and fight back! Their emotional health was a very real concern of this action.
- To show the youth we are not alone! With an action of great energy and helpful fliers we wanted to send a message of acceptance and understanding. We realize that thinking you might be queer in a church like that is terrifying. And unbearably lonely. By tossing out a thousand flyers we provided a way âoutâ. Or at least planted the seed.
- And to generate visibility for Bash Back! To build momentum and give us energy to our movement. I think we nailed that one.
This letter was sent to us via the comments section under the Hate Mail Page. We have not edited any of the language or content.
âAs a person who lives within a 1/4 of a mile directly East of Mount Hope on Michigan Ave, I received a gay hate letter that beyond the fact called me a hatemonger, intolerant and referred to me and Nazi's.
The hate letter also said I **was** directly involved in the disruption at the Mount Hope Church Services by the Bash Back group. **Something that is completely untrue!!!!!!** Just for the record, I did not even know about the event until 2 weeks after it occurred.
I went to file a police report with the Eaton County Sheriffs and they denied me the opportunity to file a complaint.
Understand, the hate mail (yes, mail) contained my license plate number and was mailed to my home. It was totally directed at me.
The letter stated out as saying, âWhere is your hate sign?â The hate sign they were talking about was the HRC's sign âStop Hate Crimes Now.â
Since I have lived in Delta Township I have not been active in the gay community. I am disabled and rarely leave my home. There is **no** reason why I would have received this hate letter but for the fact I had the nerve to say to everyone, including the member's of Bash Back âStop Hate Crimesâ I have now become the victim of a hate crime by either a member of Mount Hope or at the least a supporter of Mount Hope.
Considering the fact that the Eaton County Sheriffs, FBI, Post Office Inspector General, Mount Hope Church, Bill Donahue of the US Catholic Church, Bill O'Reilly, Fox News or any MSM outlet, gay advocacy groups that suck money out of gays to help hate crimes victims all have turned their backs on the queer.
Given that frustration and knowledge that at any time I could be the victim of a more escalated act of unprovoked violence, only because I dared ask that hate crimes be stopped, I have adjusted my opinion of Bash Back.â
At least twenty-three people associated with Bash Back! are named in a subpoena that has been served to people in Milwaukee and Lansing. As of right now we believe Feds are trying to serve queermos in Chicago and other Midwestern Cities. Agents have been showing up at the homes of friends and family of Bash Back! Members. BB! News is under the impression that this has something to do with the BB! Consulta in Lansing, Michigan last fall. When we know more we will let y'all know.
Remember we are members of a loving, tight knit community. While we have our differences we also have our friend's backs. Don't let them scare you. Loose Lips Imprison Queers.
With Love, Solidarity, and Rage,
<em>Bash Back! News</em>
The work of devoted Bash Back!ers and allies determined that this morning's hysteria is the result of the Alliance Defense Fund, a notorious anti- womyn, anti-queer, racist organization. The ADF decided to sue Bash Back!, Bash Back! Lansing and individuals because the authorities would not file a single criminal complaint regarding an action at the Mount Hope Church in Lansing last fall. But that's not all! Those pesky evange-fascists are trying to identify and out up to twenty other people involved with Bash Back! in the hopes that criminal charges will be placed against them. Fourteen people and one to twenty Jesse âJohnâ Does are named on the complaint.
Bash Back! and radical transfolk/queers cannot and will not be intimidated. Some of us face life and death on a daily basis. This lawsuit ain't shit.
BB! News will be setting up an account to raise funds in the near future. Let's fill our pocketbooks and resist this suit.
Attached to this posting is a copy of the complaint so the entire world can see that it is riddled with inaccuracies and outright lies.
Disclaimer: This lawsuit does **not** respect the chosen identities of the people named. Names, gender pronouns, and identities were purposely disrespected by the complaint. Please keep this in mind when reading and discussing the lawsuit.
That's Some Bull Shit!
<em>Bash Back! News</em>
by An Alleyway Tranarchist
<em>This was originally written for the queer issue of</em> Maximum Rocknroll <em>and is intended for an audience that hasnât heard of BB! BeforeâŚ</em>
In the fall of 2008, the Lansing, Michigan chapter of national queer and trans anarchist group Bash Back! descended upon anti-queer mega church Mount Hope in two strategically placed groups of disruptionists. The first of these groups diverted the attention of security, pink and black blocked up and waving sings which read such things as âDykes of the Damnedâ and âSatanic Trannys 666â. Inside, others waited patiently in their best Sunday drag until at once they rose, interrupting the service with cries of âJesus was a homo!â, a banner drop from the balcony that said âIt's Okay to Be Gay! Bash Back!â, queer kiss-ins, over a thousand strewn fliers with queer-positive content aimed to console potentially queer youth of the church, and pulled fire alarms. Afterwards, a communique was written, proclaiming âSo long as bigots kill us in the streets this pack of wolves will continue to BASH BACK!â
Cross-country chapters and cells of Bash Back! have since emerged at a rapid and steady pace. Several churches have been attacked, spray painted and glued shut, transphobes have been beat down, the officer responsible for the brutal beating of trans womyn Duanna Johnson who was shot and killed in the process of suing the Memphis Police Department has been sent caskets and death threats, corporate pride events have been stormed, a queer and trans squat has been opened in response to the disproportionate rate of queer and trans homelessness, dance parties have spilled out of convergences transforming the trains of Chicago into queer-fucking, crowd-surfing and graffiti-writing modes of public transportation, which then spilled into the streets along with a couple trashcans and newsstands, leading to four arrests and several unarrests. And to top it off they state that they âknow you call us terrorists because our very existence terrorizes you. This makes us proud but you ain't seen nothing yet.â
Yet as the queerest hours of the night are lit by the fuchsia flames of insurrection and liberation, and as the candlelit vigils of the soon to be past erupt into wild infernos which reach urgently into the sky, we must not forget that there are also sirens wailing in the not-so-distant background.
Bash Back! has received the attention of endless right wing wingnuts, the Ku Klux Klan, disapproving assimilationist gays, the FBI, Bill O'Reilly and the Alliance Defense Fund, who are a right- wing rights group that is currently in the process of suing over twenty subpeonaed, alleged Bash Back! members in connection to the action at Mount Hope Church. Bash Back!'s response? âBash Back! and radical transfolk/queers cannot and will not be intimidated. Some of us face life and death on a daily basis. This lawsuit ain't shit.â
Even so, with resistance comes repression. And while there is such an overwhelming, immediate need to bring the entire atrocity known as the prison industrial complex to its heartless fucking knees, there is also an urgency in keeping gender variant populations free and out of the transphobic, gender binary segregated cages of the state. So let's get fucking organized! Solidarity means attack. It also means fundraise! Legal expenses are unreal, but networks of support and creativity can warm hearts and give queers in kourt a fighting chance. Organize a benefit show! Play one! Distro! Have a bake sale! A secret cafe! Donate online by searching Bash Back Legal Defense Fund at fundable.com.
Let us join the wolf pack, have each other's backs. Sing our howling warcries to the moon, and continue to make clear that queer and trans oppression is part of a system of oppression, and that no part of that system will be spared the fierceness of our fury!
April 13, 2010
Queer activists need your help to defend against the Alliance Defense Fund.
On November 9th, 2008 activists from the international queer liberation group Bash Back! protested the stance and actions of the notoriously anti-queer megachurch, Mount Hope at their headquarters compound in Lansing, Michigan. While some of the group danced, chanted and held signs out side of the building, a small group proceeded into the church to conduct a demonstration by hanging a banner that read âIt's OK to be GAY!â, and handing out support leaflets targeted toward the queer youth. As the activists had been careful to remain legal, the police made no charges. So in May of 2009 a right-wing legal group, the Alliance Defense Fund filed a federal law suit on behalf of Mt. Hope Church under the Freedom of Access to Clinical Entrances Act, naming thirteen individuals, as well as Bash Back! as a whole, Bash Back! Lansing, and twenty John and Jane Does (yet to be identified). The suit seeks an injunction that could seriously hinder future activism that resists the institutionalization of religious fundamentalism, as well as an unknown sum of money in supposed damages and trial costs. Thankfully, we can count on our community and allies to step up. Tracie Dominic Palmer, an activist attorney with the National Lawyers Guild has been wonderful in supporting the group and has been diligently attempting to negotiate as well as building a defense, pro-bono! But as everyone knows, this is far from free. In the end, even in victory, it will have cost her as well as everyone involved in the defense a great deal emotionally and monetarily. Bottom line: we need your help.
The ADF and Mt. Hope are working double time now to oppress queer people and crush all those that oppose them. To be clear, the main objective of their efforts is to plant fear and hesitation in confronting bigotry. This is why they also subpoenaed twenty John and Jane Does (whom we have chosen to call Jesse Does to remove the gendering of anyone) in addition to the thirteen named defendants, allowing them to pick anyone they want, whenever they want, and claim affiliation with Bash Back! This is why the defense is called the âMt. Hope Infinityâ. Again, it is extremely important to understand that the injunction seeks to set legal precedents that would seriously restrict future activism of this nature. Imagine it being legally impossible to protest anti-choice organizations or âex-gayâ conferences. In fact, as attorney Tracie Palmer has stressed, we may very well be making new law regarding these types of demonstrations. This is a serious concern, not just for the individuals involved, but for all liberation activism.
-With the queerest love and rage
Bash Back! Infinity
It is important to note that, since the action, some of the websites have been altered. For example, you now have to input personal information and complete a phone interview to find out details regarding the Dunamai sexual âsupport groupâ.
Lansing, Michigan - Nov 5, a visible radical queer organizer in Chicago was added to the lengthy list of defendants in the Mt. Hope Infinity lawsuit.
On November 9th, 2008 activists from the international queer liberation group, Bash Back! protested the notoriously anti-queer megachurch Mount Hope at its headquarters in Lansing, Michigan. The church preaches an antiqueer stance and runs a coercive program designed to turn queer youth straight.
While some of the protesters danced, chanted, and held signs outside of the building, a small group proceeded into the church to conduct a demonstration by hanging a banner that read âIt's OK to be GAY!â, and handing out support leaflets directed towards the queer youth. As the demonstration was legal, the police gave no citations.
In May 2009, the multi-million dollar right-wing non-profit Alliance Defense Fund filed a federal law suit on behalf of Mt. Hope Church under the Freedom of Access to Clinical Entrances Act. The lawsuit named 13 individuals, as well as Bash Back! as a whole, Bash Back! Lansing, and 20 John and Jane Does (who the ADF is in the process of identifying). ADF and Mt. Hope Church seek, first, a broad injunction that could dramatically hinder future activism that resists the institutionalization of religious fundamentalism. Second, they asked for an unknown, but assuredly large, sum of money in supposed âdamagesâ and trial costs.
The injunction, if granted, would set legal precedent. Imagine it was legally impossible to protest anti-choice organizations or âex-gayâ conferences. With this lawsuit we may be making new law regarding these types of demonstrations.
Last week the ADF identified one of the âJesseâ Does. There are still 19 more spots.
September 10, 2010
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - A Fort Wayne church's van and garage were vandalized Saturday.
Pastor Joe Gutierrez said the head trustee of the Church on Fire, at 9019 Stellhorn Road, discovered it around 7AM when he saw the front garage door partially open and the back door completely open.
Several tools, including air tools, framing and finishing nailers and hand tools were missing from the garage and the vandals poured oil all over the ground, on the push mower and on boxes filled with library books.
The words âBash Back, 6-6-6â and an upside down cross were spray painted on the inside of the garage door. The van was also graffitied.
Gutierrez explained that âBash Back' refers to pushing for rights of same-sex marriage and homosexuality through the constitution. Same-sex marriage and homosexuality are two topics the Church on Fire does not support.
âWe are a very conservative church, Pentecostal church, where we believe same-sex marriage is an abomination of God and one that clearly states it's wrong in the eyes of God. We do teach against that and we do admonish people in our church to refrain from homosexuality,â said Gutierrez.
Pastor Gutierrez thinks the vandals could either just be kids or someone taking an issue with the church's beliefs.
âIt lets me know that the individual(s) that have done this have too much free time. They aren't involved in the community and it lets me know one of two things: 1. that just some kids have come through and did it or 2. that they are individuals that actually support this group that want to scare tactic me and so on to try and get us from the viewpoints that we hold that or and (sic) they just don't like anybody that's against it. I really don't know,â said Gutierrez.
Pastor Gutierrez not only preaches at the Church on Fire, he is involved in ministry at the county jail. He said he is looking on the bright side if the vandals ever get caught. He said if they go to jail, he'll have an opportunity to teach and study with them. The damage is estimated at more than $3,000.
May 28, 2010
An Evangelical church has opened its doors in the Mt. Washington area of Pittsburgh. The church is part of The Evangelical Free Church of America whose âpoliciesâ on homosexuality refer to queers as perversions of God's plan for human sexuality and as people who need to be cured as well as bars anyone who so much as accepts queers from involvement in the church. While we love perversion, and have no interest in involvement with the church, a cure is the last thing we need. As a result, within days of the church opening behind a storefront in a Mt. Washington business strip, filling their windows with posters about Jesus, âQueer Haters Not Welcomeâ was painted across their windows on the front of their building.
A Donut Shop in Pittsburgh called Peace, Love, and Little Donuts makes a living by masquerading behind a facade of Peace and Love despite being run by a homophobic and misogynistic right wing evangelical named Ron Razette. The Donut Shop was host to a Queer Explosion Dance Party back in January where queers occupied and made out in his shop to some fun tunes. Nonetheless, Razette's business continues to expand and he is due to open two more locations in the city, hiding behind a message of love while being run by those who spew hate.
In April of 2010, queers visited Razette's shop and glued his locks. They then painted âBIGOTâ in large red letters under the rainbow sign that lovingly declares âpeace, love, and little donuts.â Of course, Ron was eventually able to continue business as usual after taking care of these things. But recently, he stirred things up again.
In the May issue of **Cue Magazineâa** local mainstream GLBT magazineâa favorable article was printed about PLLD and Razete's business. The author of the magazine apologized profusely when contacted and said he had no idea about the shop's ownerâ showing that more visibility is needed. He plans to write a follow-up article that will show more truths about Razette's character. But for local queers, this was another conniving move by Razette to use queer communities to obtain more capital.
In response, queers revisited his shop in May 2010. His locks were glued and âQUEERS BASH BACK (A)â was painted in large letters covering the front of his shop. Businesses run by queer bashers will continue to be exposed in our city, especially when they use queer communities here to further their capitalist agenda.
Gluing locks is an easy, relatively safe, and effective action that anyone can do with super glue that can be used on metal. Insurance rarely covers things like locksmiths and it can really put a damper on the morning opening process of any business. Painting along with this can help make your message more clear.
The purpose of both these actions was to create visibility, expose these places for what they are, to disrupt their operations, and of course, to have a little fun.
April 8, 2008
With chants of âOnly one direction: Trans and Queer** Insurrection!â and â 1-2-3-4 Smash down the closet** door! 5-6-7-8 We will not assimilate!â marchers** made it clear that the radical Trans and Queer** movement was a force to be reckoned with.**
The first target on the route was the local Republican Headquarters on Halsted and Diversey. It was at this point that the first dance party of the night kicked off. Dozens of people danced on the sidewalk and street screaming: âWe're here, We're Queer, Republicans Don't Fuck with Us! We're here, We're Queer and We don't fuck Republicans!â While marching away from the building participants yelled: â We're here, We're Queer! On September 1st we'll fuck you up!â in reference to the massive direct action protest being planned at the Republican National Convention on September 1st, 2008. Making it clear that radicals will also target the Democratic National Convention, the march then altered the chant to say, â...DNC, we'll fuck you up!â
Next on the list, was the âGay friendlyâ Police Station in the Assimilationist neighborhood of Boystown. In June of 2004 radical Queers who had been arrested earlier in the day for confronting homophobes disrupting the Pride Parade were beaten and abused by these âGay friendlyâ officers in the âGay friendlyâ cop shop. Upon arrival the angry protestors stopped traffic for a number of minutes, to the dismay of a Hummer stretch limo, and refused to let the police ignore their voices. A person on a bullhorn cited numerous examples of police brutality in the Boystown neighborhood and marchers took up the chant, âWho do you serve? Who do you protect?â
After about ten minutes of blocking traffic outside of the station, Bash Back! continued one block north to their final target. The Center on Halsted, Chicago's multi-million dollar Gay and Lesbian Center, has repeatedly denied access to young Trans and Queer people who do not belong to the rich, white Gay community. Two years ago the Center partnered with the Salvation Army in an anti-homeless campaign that called on people to stop giving money to homeless people on the street and instead donate money to them. Despite an international boycott by AIDS groups against Abbot Labs for their hostilities toward Thailand for producing generic AIDS drugs, the Center on Halsted still does work with Power Construction, who have contracts in the millions with Abbott Labs. The protestors called the Center out on much of this before being surrounded by the police and pushed on the sidewalk.
Under the close eye of police, who were blocking traffic for them, the radical Trans and Queer folk ended the night with a festive dance party underneath the El Tracks in the neighborhood that is home to Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field, and MORE CONDOS!
With all of this energy and action one can only speculate that Bash Back! will ensure the summer's convention protests will be fierce, fabulous, and history-making.
Join Bash Back! as we celebrate queer and trans brilliance and resistance this weekend at the Chicago Dyke March and Pride Parade.
On Saturday, June 28 Bash Back! will be marching in the Dyke March in Pilsen. We will meet between 1-2PM at S. Halsted and 18th Street. The march begins at 2:30PM. Look for our banner about gentrification.
The day after, on Sunday June 29, we will descend upon the glorious Boystown gayborhood for the 39th Annual Pride Parade. Join us in a theatrical display of resistance to the corruption of the Daley Administration, as we bring attention to his exploitation of the gay dollar and his unwillingness to hold the Chicago Police Department accountable for the torture of over 100 black men, as well as the CPD's continued abuse and harassment of youth, people of color, the homeless, and queer and transgender people in our neighborhoods.
In light of the appointment of a gay Iraq war veteran and Human Rights Campaign (remember them and their deliberate exclusion of trans people?) spokesperson as Grand Marshal of the parade, we will also bring attention to the issue of gays in the military. We will publicly advocate the idea that the right to kill and the right to serve in one of the most blood-thirsty imperialist armies in the world is **not** progress.
And don't worry, in case you get sick from all those advertisements we will be passing out barf bags so you can vomit out your corporate pride! Isn't that thoughtful of us?
We will meet at the corner of N. Halsted and Wellington at 11AM in the morning on Sunday June 29. All are welcome to join in the fun! Costumes and props of any kind are strongly encouraged. Dress to impress! This will be a Pride weekend not to forget!
Nearly fifty people joined the Bash Back! contingent at the Dyke March on Saturday June 26th. Behind a banner that read, âBash Back! Against Gentrificationâ the radicals chanted slogans against the prison industrial complex, assimilation, and the HRC. Radical Cheerleaders Chicago and Bash Back! brought a much needed message of militant resistance to Homonormativity to the crowd of over one thousand people.
Bash Back! had a blast at Gay Pride on Sunday showing pride-goers that being queer is more than floats with men in skimpy outfits. We assembled on Halsted shortly after 11 in our designated space, bringing with us our contribution to the parade: a cage containing everyone's favorite mayor, Richard M. Daley. Like his father before him, Dick has presided over some of the worst police brutality in the country, including the Jon Burge case during his tenure as State's Attorney. In light of Chicago's Olympics bid, Amnesty International even came out with a report that cited queerbashing cops as a primary reason that Chicago should not hold the Olympics in 2016. In addition to that, our wonderful mayor's record of cutting AIDS funding, funding for the Rape Crisis Hotline, and support for the rapid gentrification of Chicago neighborhoods prompted Bash Back! to bring Daley's crimes to the forefront and insist that he be locked up as soon as possible. We also distributed barf bags to parade-goers just in case the blatant corporate nature of pride didn't sit well in their stomachs. Toward the end of the march, we joined the GLN (Gay Liberation Network) in confronting some of the jesus-fascists behind a well-stacked line of police officers.
Although the Chicago Police roughed up some of our members (shocking, i know), we still managed to have a dance party in front of the fascists and beat our bucket drums till you could barely hear the cries of âYou're going to hell, homo-nazis!â and âYour hero Heath Ledger sent me a message from hell! Repent!â from the christian bear with the bible and the megaphone. Overall a fun time was had by all and an important action in the face of the dual threat of the growth of hetero-supremacist bigotry and of assimilationist trends in the LG movement.
<em>P.S. Somewhere in the scuffle a Radiqueer managed to rip a Bible out of the hands of the Christians.</em>
Last night, a couple hundred people held a rally and march in Chicago to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the murder of Matthew Shepard. Much to the dismay of some of the more mainstream elements in the crowd, Radical Cheerleaders Chicago performed on stage at the the rally in front of a large banner that read, âWe're Here, We're Queer, We're Anarchists, We'll Fuck You Up!â However, a large portion of the young people up front and other march organizers enjoyed the fabulous display of resistance.
Thirty radical Transfolk, Queers and allies marched behind a sparkling silver banner that read âBash Back!â We banged on pans, blew whistles, screamed, moaned, and chanted. As to be expected, some liberals in the crowd were infuriated when people began chanting, âWe're Here, We're Queer, Fuck the police!â and âWhen the Police Attack, We Bash Back!â
One person even asked us why **we** were bashing the **police,** after all they are here âto protect us.â As this person is clearly ass-backwards some felt like it was not worth answering the person's question. Others quickly took up the chance, âDid you see the presentation at the rally of the cops murdering that queer kid?!â âI work with sex workers in this neighborhood. Trans and Queer sex workers are raped, beaten and arrested in this city on a regular basis. Get the fuck out of your bubble!â another person yelled.
As the march went on and began to be heckled by drunk, Yuppie, baseball fans a chant arose, âDie Yuppie Scum! We'll fuck you in the bum!â At one point the crowd even began yelling such fun slogans as: âMake Total Destroy!â and âWe'll smash your windows, just like in St. Paul!â (clearly parody).
Overall the evening was quite a success. A number of people were exposed to Bash Back! and seemed quite interested in our messaging. Others were outed as nothing less than assimilationist trying to co-opt true resistance into the Obama campaign.
One thing many Midwestern radical Transfolk and Queers have learned in the passed year of organizing, is cops have absolutely **no** idea how to respond to a large crowd of pissed off Trans and Queer people. Lets keep it up. Remember, our beloved sluts, do not hesitate! Fight on our terms.
To Fucking on the Corpses of Corporate Whores,
BASH BACK!
June 21, 2009
On Saturday, June 20th, Nike hosted a pride event to shame all others. Complete with HRC floats, âprogressiveâ politicians, overpriced concessions, corporate advertising, army recruiters (?!?), police, and speakers calling to send even more folks into the prison industrial complex with hate crime legislation, Memphis
Pride provided us with a glimpse of the dreadfully dull world we would live in if the mainstream gay and lesbian âmovementâ had its way.
Luckily, BB! Memphis was there to remind folks that a queer community exists that isn't funded by Budweiser, that doesn't settle for politicians' empty promises, and doesn't treat the BTQ in LGBTQ as an afterthought.
Friday June 19th
- BB! lines Cooper Street with anti-police and anti-Nike fliers, even flyering around the Cooper-Young police substation.
Saturday June 20th
- BB! drops a banner near the assembly point for parade goers and the Nike float, which reads âLabor, Just Exploit Itâ in response to this year's theme âOUR RIGHTS ARE CIVIL RIGHTSâ and the choice to allow Nike to become the major sponsor. Some folks cheer while others look on, confused what racism and sweatshops have to do with rich white gay civil rights.
- BB! file in behind MAGY (Memphis Area Gay Youth) and HRC, and eventually form a breakaway group. Carrying a banner that reads âFABULOUSLY FIERCEâ, a boom box, and signs commemorating murdered transwomen, they begin militantly chanting, which riles up the crowd
- When the BB! marchers approach the Cooper-Young railroad trestle, a giant banner is dropped over the trestle by BB! operatives which reads âTHE MPD KILLED DUANNA JOHNSON! END RACISM & TRANSPHOBIA, BASH BACK!â
- When the banner is dropped BB! marchers play âFuck the Policeâ on the boom box and a dance party under the railroad trestle ensues. The march stops, police look bewildered, and other folks start cheering and joining in.
- BB! reunites at Peabody Park where the festival is being held and begins passing out queer counter-recruitment literature (thanks BB! Denver!) in front of the Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell folks.
- BB! confronts Michigan Womyn's Festival who is tabling at Memphis Pride and call them out on their transphobia.
- A BB! operative interrupts Congressman Steve Cohen while he is on stage saying he supported ENDA, calling him âTransphobic Liberal Scum,â Some folks cheer on the protester, some transphobic folks boo them.
The big story for the past two months in the Memphis gay âcommunityâ and local mainstream media, has been the supposed anti-gay vandalizing of an assimilationist gay billboard put up in a poor people of color neighborhood outside of downtown Memphis.
The billboard read âI'm gay and I protected your freedom,â and featured a white, straight-presenting man in uniform. It was put up by the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center and cost an estimated $3,500. The so-called homophobic vandals ripped up the billboard, leaving no trace that it had ever even been there, only the pieces of a fabulous Patti Labelle advertisement in its place.
The gay âcommunityâ was so outraged, of course they had to do something; so they staged a prayer vigil on National Coming Out Day to pray for the individual(s) who carried out this âgruesome act of homophobiaâ, as well as throwing in some veiled racist remarks that hinted that the black community hates the gay community; as if they are mutually exclusive.
I'm here to dispute the claim that this action was an anti-gay act.
First, sending gays to be military fodder is **not** pro-gay or conducive whatsoever to gay liberation. State militarism only reinforces the dominant structures, and the racism/heterosexism they perpetuate, as well as reducing the number of gay people in the world (both those in Amerikkka and the countries Amerikkka is colonizing/conquering).
Second, we accuse the MGLCC of being flat-out racist/ anti-queer/anti-trans, and we furiously question how the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center can squander $3,500 on military billboards, when Memphis has the highest trans-murder rate (eleven trans women of color, one white transwoman and one transman of color), as well as one of the highest queer youth homeless rates in the nation. How can they justify putting a pro-military billboard in the overwhelmingly POC neighborhood of Morris Park, when the poor Black community in Morris Park is disporportionately preyed upon by the military (through the court system's âprison or military serviceâ rule for minor felonies as well as recruiters' false promises of otherwise impossible economic/education opportunities)?
On Saturday Bash Back! DC paid a visit to the HRC's lavish annual fundraising dinner. Radical queers and trannies descended upon the forces of gay assimilation today at the convention center where the HRC's annual fundraising dinner was held. At $2 50/plate, we sex workers, genderfuckers, transfolk, queers of color, and allies certainly had no place at the HRC's table, so we had our own party outside, one in which everyone was welcome rather than only white ritzy-looking upper class cisgendered men. While it seems that many dinner- goers this year were supportive of trans rights (or least willing to give token support), attendees were more than a little unsure about the place of working class queers and queers of color. One woman even said that marriage rights were the âlast step towards gaining full equality in American society.â Maybe that's so for the kind of folks that can afford this dinner, but for queer street kids getting kicked out of gay neighborhoods and queers of color being denied community resources, liberation can't be obtained through the marriage lobby.
Assimilation will not save us. It will only end in the decimation of our community. Society must change to accommodate us, queers and transfolk must refuse assimilation and cultural erasure at the hands of the homonormative gay elite and build a world where we can liberate ourselves.
For dance parties amidst the ruins,
<em>dandee lyon of bb!dc</em>
October 11, 2009
HRC headquarters was rocked by an act of glamdalism last night by a crew of radical queer and allied folks armed with pink and black paint and glitter grenades. Beside the front entrance and the inscribed mission statement a tag now reads, âQuit leaving queers behind.â
The HRC is not a democratic or inclusive institution, especially for the people who they claim to represent. Just like society today, the HRC is run by a few wealthy elites who are in bed with corporate sponsors who proliferate militarism, heteronormativity, and capitalist exploitation. The sweatshops (Nike), war crimes (Lockheed Martin), assaults on working class people (Bank of America, Deloitte, Chase Bank, Citi Group, Wachovia Bank) and patriarchy (American Apparel) caused by their sponsors is a hypocrisy for an organization with âhuman rightsâ in their name.
The queer liberation movement has been misrepresented and co-opted by the HRC. The HRC marginalizes us into a limited struggle for aspiring homosexual elites to regain the privilege that they've lost and climb the social ladder towards becoming bourgeoisie.
Last night, Obama spoke at the HRC fundraising gala and currently the HRC website declares, âPresident Obama underlines his unwavering support for LGBT Americans.â The vast amount of organizing resources the HRC wastes on their false alliance with the Democratic party leaves radical queers on the margins to fend for themselves. Our struggle has always had to resist the repression of conservative tendencies in government and society to gain liberation in our lives.
The gourmet affair was sponsored by forty-eight corporations including giants Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, and Wachovia Bank. At $250 dollars a plate, the HRC served our movement a rich, white, heternormative atmosphere that purposefully excludes working class queer folks.
REMEMBER THE STONEWALL RIOTS! On the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, pigs raided a queer bar in Texas, arrested and beat our friends, and we looked towards politicians and lawyers to protect us. This mentality is what keeps the money flowing to the HRC and their pet Democrats, and keeps our fists in our pockets.
Most of all, we disagree that collective liberation will be granted by the state or its institutions, such as prisons, marriage, and the military. We need to escalate our struggle, or it will collapse.
<em>Love and Solidarity</em>
December 18, 2009
<em>Banners read: "Trans Folks Are Under Attack" and "Act Up, Bash Back</em><em>â</em>
Communique:
Don't let them tell you it's about being gay. Murdering someone for their gender identity is transphobia. We're done with trans people's lives being used as tokens in the fight for cisgay assimilation into marriage and the prison industrial complex. Remember Jorge Mercado. Bash back against all oppressorsâstraight and gay.
Bash Back! AU
June 27, 2009
Friday, June 12 was the second scheduled Free Speech march demanding an end to the recent wave of police dispersals (by force) of unpermitted street marches. This being Pride weekend, queer liberation was the chosen theme, with a focus on targetting âcorporate Prideâ.
One chant was âCorporate Pride makes me sick.â The march began at P St. Beach, the traditional gay woods,stepping off a little after midnight and taking P St. heading towards Dupont Circle.
When marchers passed the offices of the HRC (Human Rights Campaign), a major mainstreaming gay lobby, the chants changed to âThat's bullshit! Get off it! The HRC's for profit!â AIDS and oppression will not be solved by gay marriage, followed by calls for âGay Divorce!â Finally, marchers went to the 18th st bar area in Adams-Morgan, chanting âout of the bars, into the streetsâ.
February 21, 2009
Last night at a minute to midnight, a ragtag group of queers and allies, trans folks and brass band friends, some decked out in their most scandalous (over thermals, of course), danced through the streets of Providence, Rhode Island, stopping to flirt with and provoke our local gay bars.
We are sick of the majority of queer spaces in our city revolving around consumerism and intoxication. We are sick of **queer** meaning âassimilated white gay menâ when there are a whole lot of us who don't fit with that identity. We are sick of monogamous relationships being the accepted norm. We are sick of feeling like we have to prove our love to our partners by showering them with unnecessary mass-produced crap. We are sick of feeling like crap for being single. Instead of sitting around and complaining, we decided to throw our own party!
On Valentine's day at midnight, we took to the street, to create a free, all-ages, festive queer space that for once, didn't revolve around alcohol.
We danced to brass provided by a few members of the What Cheer! Brigade and had signs with slogans such as, âI have straight friends,â âWe recruit,â and âBreak up with patriarchy.â
Our reception was varied. At some gay bars, they were all about it, and in some places there was quite a bit of tension. As we snaked through Providence, our numbers grew; spectators became active participants.
Despite some aggressive invitations to suck dicks from drunk bargoers, some beer thrown by the queers in the club at the queers who can't afford the seven dollar cover charge, and being called dummies and threatened with teargas by some pitifully incompetent Providence police, (and learning firsthand that they âdon't care about killing peopleâ after threatening to teargas a crowd of kids in a packed staircase), a great time was had by all. There were no arrests.
Greetings ass-pirates and carpet-munchers,
As we're sure you've already been made aware, the newly elected president of the United States has committed to repealing the âDon't Ask, Don't Tellâ policy, and will allow queers to serve openly in the military. In the past, we at Bash Back!, have been extremely critical of queer military service. We've been known to refer to DADT activists as âracist, assimilationist fucksâ or âimperialist toolsâ or simply âwhat fucking idiots.â Those familiar with our past position on the issue will be surprised to learn that we have had a change of heart.
We are now completely in favor of queer military service! We have come to several realizations and applaud the repeal of DADT for the following reasons:
The military has **big** weapons. In our efforts to arm queers, BB! crews have been working insidiously to obtain amounts of pepper spray and other self-defense weapons. However, if our operatives can infiltrate the military, we will have access to bigger and better toys (not to mention the training that goes with them). We're already fierce as fuck; imagine us with military training.
1. After doing some research on the issue, we've discovered that right-wing christians, politicians, and military officials are in consensus on the fact that queers in the military will completely compromise unit cohesion, battle readiness, and the overall strength of the armed forces. Being that Bash Back! opposes militarism, imperialism and ALL forms of state power, we are ecstatic about the opportunity to destroy the military from the inside!
2. We've been watching a lot of military porn and reading a healthy amount of barracks-themed erotica lately. Needless to say, we've developed a bit of a collective military fetish. Our walls are already covered in pre-cum at the very possibility of the orgies we can instigate once we're bunking up with a bunch of sex-deprived sailors.
In short, thank you, Barack Obama
and the assimilationist gay establishment!
Truly yours,
<em>the birds of a cumming storm,</em>
<em>Bash Back!</em>
P.S. DADT activists are still racist tools of empire.
P.P.S. Come to the radical queer convergence in May!
So this Saturday at 1PM is Columbus' annual corporate-sponsored Pride Fest, whose sponsors include: Bud Light, the Hampton Inn, American Family Insurance, Target, Time Warner Cable, State Farm Insurance, Macy's, Fifth Third Bank, and drumroll please. Starbucks coffee. You know, just to name a few.
Bash Back! says: Fuck corporate pride! End gay assimilation! Us queers won't be relegated into some pro-capitalist free market bullshit.
Being queer is about a lot more than shacking up with a same-sex partner and begging the state for approval, and it certainly has nothing to do with assimilating ourselves into a system of free markets that keeps queers, people of color, womyn, and the working class under the thumb of bosses and corporations. Being queer is about re-defining and creating new spaces free from **all oppression.**
So with that in mind, we invite other radical queers to queer up the pride march with us!
Bash Back! will be at Pride Fest to pass out our âBarf out your Corporate Pride Bagsâ Please feel free to reprint and distribute our little leaflet as you please as well. It is posted below. And show up in your finest pink and black!
âHey Gurl,
Listen honey, i just want to know when the hell did the âgay agendaâ get so tragically boring? i don't know about you, but my queer wet dreams didn't involve going off to war and then settling in the suburbs.has our liberation movement really come down to this? Really? Also, don't you get just even a weensey bit tired of all the hetero muzak blasting in the supposed âgayâ clubs? i'm queer for a reasonâi get enough of the straights at work. Is it asking too much for âour communityâ to support queer artists? Tired of whoring yourself out on craigslist cuz you can't afford to go to the bath houses/sex clubs.. oh wait.. there's only one left. shit. what ever happened to sex in public anyway? And don't even get me started on HRC! Those bitches are just Hindering Real Changeâyou can't dump the âTâ in LGBT and say you're **my** advocate!!! If you find the gay-main-stream/Short North as tired as Laura Bush's ensemblesâthen i say BASH BACK sugar!â
November 11, 2009
<em>Dear Diary</em>,
My, how this month has flown by! I have been so busy bringing the queer insurrection, I've hardly had time to write everything down. Where to begin.
When the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) held its annual Gala Dinner and Silent Auction Saturday, Sept, 12th, autonomous queerz Bash Back: Twin Cities, The Revolting Queers, and the Twin Cities Avengers were there to welcome them even though we had not been invited and had no intention of paying the $200 entrance fee.
This year's Gala was themed âSpeak the Truthâ, a truth which congratulated rich gay celebrities and gave them expensive âvisibilityâ awards, while Duanna Johnson, Leeneshia Edwards, Tiffany Berry, and the thousands of other murdered transwomen didn't even receive an honorable mention.
It was clear from the bourgeois atmosphere, and the serious lack of dancing, that this Gala was meant to be some sort of overpriced support group for whiny elite gays and lesbians to express their dreams of a bigger prison industrial complex (hate crime legislation), heteronormativity (gay marriage), and more state militarism (don't ask, don't tell).
But Bash Back! Twin Cities, was fed up with the ridiculous state-lovin' of the HRC lobby and its distance from our own lived realities, so we decided to do what all rich queerz do in a time of crisis: we got gay married! The Gala had been billed as a âfestive, all styles welcome eventâ so we dressed in our hottest wedding attire and stormed into the dinner.
Despite heckling from HRC security, we stood our ground and held a brief marriage ceremony and handed out leaflets inside. Before the HRC corporate hacks could push us out the door we were able to read the following vows:
âDo you, Bash Back! Twin Cities, take one another to be insurrectionary radical queerz, to resist and to liberate ourselves from all systems of domination, for glitter and for cupcakes, for unicorns and for rainbows, in genderless bathrooms and in the streets, in love and in rage, from this dance party forward?â
âWe do!â We held our wedding reception dance party outside and consumed our marital cupcakes to the beats of Janet Jackson, Cher and Lady Gaga. We look forward to the HRC inviting us to its annual Gala next year for our one year anniversary.
On October 11th we glamdalized a bridge the night before it was used for a local âequalityâ rally in conjunction with the National March for Equality in DC. The bridge was beautified with phrases such as âLiberation Not State Sanction - No To Heteronormative Assimilationâ. During the rally, we attached a banner to the bridge that read simply âLiberation not Assimilation!â This action was not only meant to disrupt the complacent rally for (rich, white, homonormative) gay and lesbian ârightsâ but also to coincide with National Coming Out Day.
Bash Back! Twin Cities resists National Coming Out Day because it is reformist and forces the production of gender- deviant subjects into rigid identity categories that do not disrupt the regime of white heteronormativity. BB! Twin Cities asks the questions: âWho gets to come out,â and âwhy are there so few identity choices when you doâ? BB! Twin Cities rejects the idea that your sexual practices equal your sexual identity and asserts that any group that thinks this is true needs to check its cultural privilege. We disagree with mainstream LGBT movements in general because they reinstate systems of domination through their state-sponsored tactics and politics, and frankly, their inefficiency to yield material change is simultaneously enraging and a snooze cruise.
On Saturday, October 17th, Bash Back! Twin Cities organized a radical queer bloc to confront a racist neo-Nazi rally in Austin, a small town in Southeastern Minnesota. Aside from making the counter-demonstration more fierce and fabulous, the National Socialist Movement Twin Cities Unit Leader Corporal Erik Flann was successfully glamified with a green glitter bomb on their disgusting Nazi uniform.
While one of the Nazis hit a demonstrator's hand and broke their camera and another showed up to the rally with a stun gun, baton, and body armorânot surprisinglyâthe police were only interested in going after counter-demonstrators while protecting the Nazi scum.
The police indiscriminately pepper-sprayed the crowd a few times and made three arrests. The first person arrested was an Austin local who tripped over the Nazis' loudspeaker while the crowd was trying to move forward. The second was a Bash Back! member who police allege threw a glitter bomb at Eric. The third was a Bash Back! member, and was arrested for simply telling police that he was not a âma'am,â that he was a transboy, when an officer asked him: âGet back, ma'amâ.
The two Bash Back! members arrested were charged with disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly, and obstruction of legal process. We need your help to raise money to cover their legal expenses. Please check out the support website we set up at: http:// bashbacklegal.weebly.com/.
Love and Rage,
Bash Back! Twin Cities
<em>Dear Diary,</em>
Sorry we've been too busy to write. We've got three more actions to catch up on.
On the afternoon of October 31st, 2009âa night that would go down in Bash Back! TC history as âHalloqueenââa crew of radical queers dressed in our most fabulous costumes and convened at the Lake Street light rail station. Scary costumes abounded, with folks dressed as clipboard-wielding HRC representatives, Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama-worshipping liberal lesbians, and camo-clad DADT military gays!
Once our posse assembled, we boarded a train bound for the most terrifying place in the Midwestâthe Mall of Americaâthe setting for a racistly named event called âNick or Treatâ put on annually by Rosie O'Donnell's children's media conglomerate Nickelodeon.
When we arrived, we found that we weren't on the invite list and that this safe haven of American capitalism was filled to capacity with megacorporations, consumers, assimilationists, tourists, and security. But that didn't stop us. We pushed through the crowds, avoiding security, and found ourselves peering over the fifth floor balcony.
From there, we threw down thousands of fliers (which condemned consumerism and outlined the link between capitalism and the oppression of trans people, people of color, womyn, and queer people) to the massive assembly of people on the first floor. Thinking this was a âplanned event,â folks began pushing and shoving like greedy Wall Street bankers to get their hands on a flier. Here's the text from one of the leaflets:
<em>Queers continually have our desires, bodies, and genders policed in public spaces and privatized sites of capitalism. Queer and trans folksâespecially queer and trans people of colorânot only face queer- bashing but are also targeted and brutalized by police on a regular basis. Aside from targeting queers who are out in public, the state continues to raid gay bars and other queer spaces.</em>
<em>There are no safe spaces except those temporary sites of community that we struggle to create and defend for ourselves. This is one of those spaces.</em>
<em>Liberation Not Assimilation - Queers Bash Back!</em>
It wasn't long before a security guard got a hold of a flier and called over the radio for âheightenedâ security, and that there be a âmanhuntâ (or transhunt, if you'd rather) for the individuals who threw this âdisgusting literature.â
But we had been braving heteronormative society for a lifetime and the bitter cold weather all night, so we weren't going to let a bunch of mall cops get the best of us. Using our charm, our costumes, and our cunning to our advantage, we escaped security checks and boarded the train towards downtown.
Upon departure, we brought out a boombox and massive amounts of glitter, and convened a dance party. While it started off as just our queer crew dancingâand giving MetroTransit riders their money's worth for onceâthings eventually spun out of control and turned into a full-fledged train party, as astonished passengers joined in, showing us their best dance moves. It wasn't long before the train floor was covered in glitter confetti, the boom box was playing at full volume, folks were singing along, and passengers were hanging from the rails dancing.
When we arrived back at the Lake Street station, we parted from the worked-up light rail passengers, who were still dancing, shook some of the glitter out of our hair, and said our goodbyes.
On Sunday Nov. 15th, Bash Back! Twin Cities participated in our own way in a march and demonstration put on by Join The Impact Twin Cites, a reformist front group founded and controlled by straight folks from one of the local Trotskyist groups (Socialist Alternative). The rally and march was called âLegalize Loveâ and began with speakers in front of the government center and later marched to the Bedlam Theatre for more speeches and slam poetry. Its fliers boasted âinspiring report backs from the National Equality Marchâ, a question asking readers if they are âOutraged by the vote to ban same sex marriage in Maine?â, and an appropriated quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. Being tired of the way gay marriage has coopted our identities and utterly sick of this new trend to assimilate the Civil Rights Movement, we decided to attend to make it known that legalizing straight family models and having them reflected in our own families is **not** at all conducive to gay rights.
We burst onto the scene in the middle of their premarch rally in a pink and black bloc, and were immediately approached by one of the speakers who said they wanted us to make our point on the megaphone because the âmovement is severely lacking the voices of womyn, people of color, and trannysâ; when this speaker approached one of the straight organizers about that possibility, that organizer reportedly said we could not and called us fascists and âa shame to our movementâ.
After the rally, people began assembling to march. As the march proceeded, and chants became increasingly assimilationist, we responded to their chants with our own such as âSmash the church! Smash the state! Don't get married, fornicate!â, âGay marriage, gay rights. Same struggle? Not quiteâ, and âQueers who seek equality with straights lack ambitionâ.
While chanting âQueers don't deny it, Stonewall was a fucking riot,â one persyn turned around and screamed, âshut the fuck up, you backwards fucks, you're hurting the cause!â at us.
The police were blaring their sirens at us and told the marshals that we could only take one lane. Bash Back! was told by the marshals to get out of the other lanes but we held our ground even as the police tried to herd us into one lane using their squad cars. As police presence grew, we changed the chant to âQueers don't deny it, Stonewall was a police riot!.â We wish it was done in irony, but once the cops were trying harder to suppress the march the group started chanting: âShow me what democracy looks like! **This** is what democracy looks like!â We agreed later we should've responded: âshut the fuck up, you backwards fucks,â but instead countered with: âshow me what a police state looks like, **this** is what a police state looks like.â As we approached the Bedlam, police began blaring their sirens, and cutting into our march. At this point the main marshal (one of the straight organizers from the Trotskyist group) ran to the front and diverted the march from the street over a curbed shortcut which left a queer persyn in a wheelchair attending alone with Bash Back! in the streets to go the long way around, not only leaving that persyn behind but leaving them vulnerable to cars and arrest in the street. Near the end, police came up to us in the streets and told us that back a ways someone's knee had given out and they needed help getting up and getting to the train station. The police officer then looked at one white persyn and said, âYou should hurry, this is a rough neighborhood, she might get robbedâ (referring to Minneapolis' largest Somali neighborhood). At this point some Bash Back!ers began calling the officer and his comments racist and classist. Unsurprisingly, liberal gays attempted to interrupt us by saying: âhe's on our side.â
Once at the Bedlam we walked inside to find a white persyn on stage repeating âWe shall overcome, we shall overcome.â At that point we decided we couldn't take any more of this âGay is the new Blackâ cultural misappropriation bullshit, and left.
During and after the march, a few liberals tried to start criticizing our views by starting with the premise that we have the same goals, and that although marriage is a terrible institution, expanding it is a step in the right direction. We also argued with them that productive dialogue does not take place in the streets while being surrounded and âsupportedâ by cops. We passed out some literature explaining our views, which some people (mostly organizers) tore up and threw on the ground, but most people read eagerly and with interest.
We've thought it necessary to take our collective rage to the streets more than once in the past few months. On Wednesday, December 2nd, hundreds of individuals convened on Loring Park in Minneapolis in response to Barack Obama's announcement of a troop surge in Afghanistan. Autonomous queerz from Bash Back! Twin Cities along with other individuals representing various groups then marched in the middle of rush hour traffic, chanting and dancing and ignoring the honks from angry drivers. Hundreds of people took over the streets of downtown Minneapolis to disrupt business as usual and to oppose escalation of war.
We also brought a mobile sound system called the Funk Mobile, which kicked out some amazing beats like Testament's remix of âRun This Townâ. Bash Back! Twin Cities had a militant presence in the march, interrupting liberal chants with revolutionary classics like âBring the War Home!â and other radical chants and cheers. We helped keep folks together, calm and collected, taking up as much of the streets as we could despite police trying to break up the crowd and herd us over with police horses. We were somewhat on edge because of police provocateurs in the black bloc (among other things, the provocateurs detoured the march and asked us if we had hammers and encouraged us to go break bank windows) but we kept their interference to a minimum and made sure that others were aware of them and didn't say or do anything that would be obviously incriminating.
As the march came to 3rd Avenue and 10th Street, several dozen individuals formed a âsoft blockadeâ by sitting in the intersection and unfurling a banner. Eleven people were arrested and the march continued in different directions. No one affiliated with Bash Back! was arrested. Bash Back! played a crucial role in making jail solidarity happen that night for those arrested. We put out a call for jail support and went to get food, drinks, and warm clothes and then we waited outside for our friends to be released as it began to snow. Nine of the eleven folks arrested were released that night were charged with misdemeanor unlawful assembly and released on bail. The other two were released the following day. Aside from having their cuffs on too tight, one persyn having their chin slammed in the pavement during their arrest and the police interrogating folks individually for being anarchists, all those arrested were ok and are doing fine now.
Sinqueerly yours,
<em>BB! Twin Cities</em>
March 1, 2010
On the night of February 10th, crews of anarcha- queers glamdalized an Army reserve complex, an Army recruiting center, and two Navy recruiting centers in the Twin Cities with posters that read: âQueers Out of the Military! (We Need You in the Streets.) BASH BACK!â with a picture of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson and a comic of a soldier saying: âWhat? But I feel so Gay Liberated when I kill people in the Third World!â
For one, it was fun.
Secondly, the posters are purty and we wanted to share them with the world.
But most importantly, we are utterly disgusted by assimilationist queers who want to join in the imperialist pillaging and occupation of other peoples' lands and commit atrocities on behalf of the state and gross corporations.
Obama potentially abolishing Don't Ask, Don't Tell in the near future and the clamoring of mainstream GLBT groups for that sort of equality makes us want to vomit.
Queers (and everyone else!) should be working to smash the state, not join in military conquest and occupation.
We also carried out this action in solidarity with the Direct Action to Stop War and Occupation unpermitted march in Minneapolis on Thursday February 11th.
Love and Rage,
<em>An Autonomous Cell of Bash Back! Twin Cities</em>
In September 2009, Madison APOC made its grand entrance into the world with an action against David Carter, a self-proclaimed historian who denies any significant participation of trans folk and people of color in Stonewall. He also frames the queer liberation movement in the US as a gay white man's movement, not to mention he shit-talks Sylvia and Marsha to no end. (feel free to Google his name and read the transcripts of his speeches). The University of Wisconsin-Madison had invited Carter to speak on campus, and as the room started to fill with white intellectuals and college students, madAPOC got into position and.
<em>"Trans, women, POC- you can't write us out of history!"</em>
Copies of a communique were thrown into the air and scattered across the lecture room. It read:
<em>We are a group of autonomous individuals collectively known as APOC (Anarchist/</em><em>Autonomous/Anti-Authoritarian People of Color). We are not affiliated with any other local groups or organizations. We strive to smash every form of oppression, including white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, heterosexism, speciesism, transphobia, queerphobia, environmental racism, ageism, classism and authoritarianism. This is our response to this fake historian</em><em>âs "interpretation" of history.</em>
<em>The Stonewall uprising was a series of actions by queer and transfolk, both whites and people of color. The queer and trans population of Greenwich Village acted boldly to defend themselves against police brutality in their own neighborhood.</em>
<em>We are disgusted by David Carterâs blatant racism and transphobia. Transfolk, women, and people of color have been crucial to not only the Stonewall uprising, but also to the bigger struggle for queer and trans liberation. With his interpretation, Carter has attempted to write us out of our own history. If he takes it upon himself to talk about a movement, he should be held accountable for getting that shit right. Queer insurrection is not only for white males, and we are here to make sure he doesnât forget it.</em>
<em>David Carter, we hope you get what you deserve.</em>
<em>Love, APOC</em>
Smack 'em all, let's spread the Madness.
<em>WEâLL SEE YOU IN MILWAUKEE!</em>
February 8, 2009
On January 30, 2009, queers and transfolks of Bash Back! Denver led a queer revolt against Wells Fargo to decry the bank's institutionally racist and classist banking practices. The action coincided with NGLTF's Creating Change Conference, the largest LGBT organizing gathering in the country. Wells Fargo donates $50,000+ annually to NGLTF.
In Denver and elsewhere, Wells Fargo has worked to institutionalize white supremacy and reinforce poverty by offering predatory loans specifically through branches located in poor communities and neighborhoods of color. Wells Fargo has also actively withheld millions of dollars in back wages owed to Chican@ workers for more than fifty years and funds the construction of ICE detention centers through GEO Group.
On the day of the action, bank security agents stood outside the door while multiple motorcycle cops were stationed across the street and two plainclothes police watched from unmarked cars. With a low turnout from conference-goers and the high police presence, the action failed to meet its goals of disruption. It did, however, meet and surpass its goals of awareness by distributing hundreds of fliers around the conference, drawing attention from the police and the bank, and talking directly to the director of NGLTF, who approached Bash Back! operatives about the action. Wells Fargo's efforts to maintain a âgay-friendlyâ image by sponsoring NGLTF have been undermined by queer muckraking of Gay Shame and others.
In response, NGLTF has made efforts to cover it up by removing the bank's logo from its website and hiding the bank deep in its list of donors. Another funder of this year's Creating Change Conference was CH2M Hill. Headquartered here in Denver, CH2M Hill Corporation is in the business of war- and disaster-profiteering. They have received cushy no-bid contracts from the US government in Iraq, New Orleans, and tsunami reconstruction. As the US government's war on black people around Katrina has shown, disaster and war go hand in hand with privatization and profit. In related news, inmates in a West Texas detention center have staged two uprisings in the past six weeks to demand proper medical care. The detention center is privately owned and run by the GEO Group, of which Wells Fargo Bank is one of the largest single stockholders. (More info at nnirr.blogspot.com)
And in July 2007, the inmate of a similar ICE detention center, an immigrant transwoman named Victoria Aurellano, died of AIDS, shackled to her bed after being denied medical treatment.
We do not practice single-issue politics because there is no single-issue oppression.
In resistance to the non-profit industrial complex and the prison industrial complex alike,
<em>Bash Back! Denver</em>
June 17, 2010
Pridefest was recently held in Pittsburgh. Run by corporate and state sponsorship and pandering to the police, the festival is put together by the patriarchal, sexist, trans/queer-exclusionist, and genderist, mainstream, predominantly cisgendered male gay community.
Queers in Pittsburgh wanted to show another side of the queer community here. Thus we made a plan to create a pink and black bloc within the Pride parade, refusing to register or contribute to the corporate nature of the festival.
On the day of the parade, some folks noticed some cross-suckers protesting the festival with anti-queer messages. A make-out session ensued despite claims from the Christians that one of the genderqueers in the group would never be a real man. As the Christian protesters failed to stop the queers, the Pride parade began and the pink and black contingent rushed to the front, directly behind the Macy's float, where Macy's workers were handing out sweatshop rainbow bandannas with the Macy's logo on them. Queers and allies marched in pink and black holding a reinforced banner reading âStonewall was (A) Riotâ and signs reading âNot gay as in happy, queer as in fuck youâ, âAnarchy is for loversâ, âSodomize the stateâ, âQueer liberation nowâ, âQueers are revolting,â, and âHRC, not my advocateâ.
The group began loudly chanting. Chants included:
âWe're here. We're queer. We're not going shopping!â â2-4-6-8 anal sex is really great!â âQueers Yes! Macy's No! This corporate shit has got to go!â âWhen homophobes attack, queers bash back!â
âI support a rainbow of genitaliaâ and others.
We remained at the front of the parade, drowning out corporate floats and members for the entirety of the parade. A Macy's worker pushed one blocer and called them an asshole while another attempted to explain that pride was about âlove and acceptance.â The bloc pushed past them chanting: âWe're here. We're queer. We're anarchists! We'll fuck you up!â At the end of the march, a member of the Delta Foundation and Pride organizer threatened the pink and black bloc with violence and expulsion from future events.
But, don't worry. We'll be back next year.
Edmonton, AB - (Canada): On June 28th, 2009, a group of radical Queer activists will be marching to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the five days of rioting that began at the Stonewall Inn in New York City on June 28, 1969. In reclaiming the spirit of the Stonewall Rebellion, the Queer Recruitment Army (QRA) will also be taking a stand against the increasing commercialization of Pride.
Organized in protest of this year's renaming of the Edmonton Pride Parade to the âTD Canada Trust Pride Parade and Celebration on the Squareâ the Queer Recruitment Army challenges LGBTTIQQ communities to demand liberation and fight appropriation.
QRA member Mitchell Jones notes: âStonewall was a spontaneous and militant response to intense police repression, and symbolized a significant turn in U.S. and Canadian activism. Who in fact stood up to the police were communities often marginalized within the broader Gay movement, including people who were trans, drag queens, and People of Colour. Unfortunately, we see this marginalization continue today, which is why celebrating the 40th anniversary of Stonewall is so important.â
The origin of Pride parades and marches were in commemoration of the anniversary of Stonewall. However, each year, Pride celebrations around the world have become increasingly commercialized. Jones adds: âPride celebrations are more and more about selling products to LGBTTIQQ markets than they are about demanding equality for all, and celebrating our pride.â
The Queer Recruitment Army marched in this year's TD Canada Trust Pride Parade and Celebration on the Square, holding signs that read âOur Pride Is Not For Saleâ and âStonewall Wasn't Sponsored by TDâ. One participant wrote âMy Colours Don't Shineâ in lipstick on her body.
âOur intention was not to put down the Pride Week committee who I know care about equality. It is to challenge the impact and extent of sponsorship. We know that around the world, Pride sponsorship has squashed dissent. Here in Edmonton, our event was renamed after a bank!â QRA member Monika Penner claims. âI think it is great that a business wants to support Pride. In fact, all businessesâ and individualsâshould support Pride. But this rebranding turns a Queer event into a corporate event. And this has got to stop.â
QRA member Sleepflower adds: âWith increasing commercialization of Pride, the focus has shifted from liberation to acceptance. Stonewall wasn't about wanting straight people to simply 'accept' that âgay' people existâit was about demanding liberation from an oppressive culture. That's what we're demanding.â
The June 28th Stonewall Liberation march will follow the original Edmonton Pride Parade route. Participants will meet at 3PM outside of Corbett Hall (82 Avenue and 112 Street) and march down Whyte Avenue to Gazebo Park.
On November 14th of 2009, at the INSITE Arts and Resistance Conference at the University of Guelph a confrontation between campus pigs and conference tablers/organizers took place over a complaint about a supposedly hateful, offensive, and homophobic flyer. We can argue that two out of the three of these descriptions are clearly correct. Why? Because they are purposeful.
This flyer was a Bash Back! Guelph action. It involved no one affiliated with the university or any organizations. Although INSITE organizers' support during the confrontation on the day of and since then is greatly appreciated beyond words. The fact that organizers have been targeted because of this flyer is unfortunate and ridiculous! No one person is responsible for this action or its distribution.
So the real issues are, Is our flyer hateful? Yes. Is our flyer offensive? Damn right!
Did this flyer make you feel threatened? Did this flyer make you feel unsafe or oppressed? **Good.** Now maybe for one second of one moment you felt like many queer and trans folk do every fucking day, so stop whining. This flyer is a response to years of persecution and violence carried out by many religious institutions. You want to call this flyer hate propaganda? It is. You want to call it violent? It is. That is the fucking point. Have you reacted? Good. That is the fucking point. Do you find âFags Hate Godâ offensive? Try checking out godhatesfags.com. Then you tell us what you find more offensive or what is truly violent. And what does history show us?
The CSA's and campus media's response to this expression of speech, this action of taking back our fucking lives, is absolutely disgusting. Two wrongs don't make a right? How about standing up for yourself and all your loved ones raped, murdered and beaten because of their sexuality and lifestyle. Actually think about the words you use and who you're supporting for two fucking seconds! What's even more disgusting is this so-called investigation into the flyer. What would you like to do, persecute all queers who take issue with heteronormative assimilation and it's religious roots? Would you really like to charge us with a hate crime? We'd gladly make a queer circus out of your tribunal! Seeing as your investigation is such a joke to begin with. You're going after the wrong people. We call your bluff. Hate to tell you, but unless you want to attack **all** non-conforming, pissed off queers, you're shit out of luck! (And if that's the case... are you sure you're ready? Because we sure as hell are!)
This flyer is just the beginning. This communique is just a small response.
We're sick of being told how to react to what affects our lives. We're sick of taking people's shit (ahem, Brenda Whiteside). We will have our cake and eat it too!
We won't be bashed anymore. You think you have your hands full now? Just wait. It's our time now to Bash Back!
<em>Bash Back! Guelph</em>
<strong>O</strong><strong>n Saturday night Of the convergence</strong><strong>,</strong> a now-infamous queer dance party on the El train turned into a spontaneous and illegal march in the streets. Hundreds of people paraded through Chicago's assimilationist gay neighborhood, Boystown. The atmosphere was joyous, with people dancing wildly and wearing lingerie as masks. Some were completely naked except for their face coverings. The police subsequently attacked the peaceful yet illegal march. People near the back of the march began to place newspaper boxes into the street to stop the police from running queers down. At this point, shameful people in the crowd removed the boxes and screamed, âThis is not polite!â With the boxes back on the sidewalk, the pigs were able to injure participants with their cars. The march ended with four people in jail, and one person hospitalized after a police cruiser intentionally drove over their foot.
The following morning, leftist-seeming elements at the convergence flung wild conspiracy theories to disrupt the original radical predisposition of Bash Back! Although there was no black bloc and not a single window was smashed, spineless âoutside agitatorsâ claimed they were tricked into participating in a black bloc, and put into harm's way. Some thought the march was oppressive because there was no consensus to have a riot. First of all, if those people thought that march was a riot, they clearly have no idea what a riot is. Had there been a spontaneous riot, what are the rioters supposed to do? Are they supposed to sit in the middle of the street, in front of the police and vote on whether or not to fight the police?
Many white attendees who had flocked to Chicago from the coasts claimed the spontaneous Bash Back! action was racist. When queer people of color from the Midwest countered otherwise, they were met with a brief silence followed by white people proclaiming that the âblack blocâ was indeed racist. These âanti-racistâ whites added that the partiers on the train exposed Black people to queerness, which was also âracist.â By the logic of these white âanti-racists,â there must be no queer people of color. The whites and cisgendered people insisted the action was also transphobic, despite trans people telling them not to speak for trans people. Some men even went on to call the actions of women âmanarchist.â In a tone implying his guilt, Eric Stanley, of the defunct Gay Shame San Francisco, and now a lecturer at the University of California Santa Cruz, cattily said to a Bash Back! organizer, âJust so you know, people are descending upon Bash Back! to destroy it.â
Lez-be-real here. Propaganda for the convergence said things like, âYou bring the balaclavas, orgies, and riot.â There were posters with images of rifles, riots, and people brandishing assorted weapons. Had any one of the people who objected to the street march on the basis that it was oppressive or unsafe read a flier, poster, communique, or for that matter, anything Bash Back! produced? It was absolutely clear what kind of people would be attending the Convergence and the tactics Bash Back! advocated were even more clear.
Liberal provocateurs used any sort of identity politics to shade their own cowardice. When the very people these leftists claimed to represent (people of color, transfolks) countered the liberal narrative, they were silenced in the name of anti-racism and trans-solidarity. Rather than admitting their fear and guilt, âanarcho- liberalsâ fall back on racist tactics of refusal. They ignore, isolate, and alienate people of color (minus a few tokens) to create their own Twilight Zone anti-racist narrative. The Bash Back! tendency was always the antithesis of leftist identity politics. The 2009 Convergence was when these two tendencies finally came head to head.
Anarcha-Queers! Trannies! Fairies! Perverts! Sex-Workers! Sex-Radicals! Allies!
<em>Bash Back! is ecstatic to announce a national radical queer convergence to take place in Chicago, May 28th through May 31st of 2009! We're pleased to invite all radical queers to join us for a weekend of debauchery and mischief. The last weekend of May will prove to be four solid days of workshops, discussions, performances, games, dancing and street action!</em>
<em>We'll handle the food and the housing. Ya'll bring the orgy, riot, and decadence!</em>
We're looking for folks to facilitate discussions, put on workshops, organize caucuses, share games, tell stories, get heavy in some theory, or bottom-line a dance party. More specifically we're looking for workshops themed around queer and trans liberation, anti-racism, confronting patriarchy, sex work, ableism, self-defense, DIY mental and sexual health, radical history, pornography, or queer theory. We are also looking for copious amounts of glitter, safer sex products, zines, home-made sex toys, balaclavas, pink and black flags, sequins, bondage gear, rad porn, flowers, strap-ons, and assorted dumpstered goodies. You down?
June 7, 2009
At the Bash Back Convergence this year some QTPOC (queer/trans people of color) caucused and came up with a list of points for the white auxiliary to discuss, think about, etc.
Here is that list, spread it:
- Having non-western culture experiences is not the same as being POC.
- When planning conferences or doing anything, think about gentrification. Gentrification workshop while having gentrifying shows.
- What does it mean to date a POC? Does gender as well as skin tone affect the relationship?
- Do you find yourself hearing/making racist comments if there are not obvious POC in the room?
- How do you treat your friends depending on skin. What are your expectations of your POC friends?
- Why are self-proclaimed âradicalâ spaces & collectives often only mostly white? (Besides the false assumption that POC don't care.)
- Reconciling doing activism that should involve being an ally to POC (us) socializing and organizing being done by all mostly white people.
- Why are radical spaces in POC neighborhoods mostly white and sometimes looking like hipsters come into them / instead of being accessible/inviting to the POC in the neighborhood?
- Talk about how gender is informed by race and pluralize queer identities. How does miscegenation inform notions of queer?
- Personally, I have felt responsible for being the barometer for my white fellows as to whether or not complex racial situations are OK or not, whether they need to be addressed or not.
- Saying things like âfuck cultureâ when it comes to 'radical' issues like female mutilations in Africa, implying that it's OK for white privileged Americans to enter 'other cultures' and tell them mutilations are ânot okayâ you can't just be feminist and not actively anti-racist or anti-nationalist.
- It seems that some white radicals take security less seriously because they come from a place of privilege and POC have a hard time getting their security needs met and are met with resistance.
- What it means to be an ally vs. what it means to be in solidarity. POC defining what ally means not whites saying what it is.
- Cultural appropriation of indigenous genders âtwo-spiritsâ. after events of white hipster variation only.
- Cultural appropriation: dreadlocks/Mohawks (styles).
- Class-privileged nature of the convergence space.
- What's an anti-racist campaign look like? Where's BB lacking?
- Consciously seek out knowledge and theory by POC / queer female writers!
- Accept experience as a valid form of radical consciousness- raising. Don't be an intellectual elite anarchist.
love and solidarity,
<em>a BB!er</em>
On Saturday night, May 30th, a group of approximately one hundred queers disembarked the Red Line train at the Belmont stop into Chicago's Boystown area. Intending to march around a bit, the crowd found themselves too large to fit on the sidewalk (especially in an area where bars are frequent and patrons and tables spill out the front doors). Most of the crowd moved into the street, walking around cars and allowing cars to pass in the middle.
A few blocks down, the crowd took a left turn, and the police showed up from behind. In attempting to get their cars around the crowd, they repeatedly ran into people's legs, in some cases knocking the victim onto the hood of the car, then slamming on their brakes to cause the person to fall to the ground.
During this time a few queers at the back of the crowd moved one newspaper box and one trash can (without spilling the trash) into the road in front of cop cars. A few other queers, yelling things like âNo!â and âThis is nonviolent!â moved the items back to the sidewalk (see sibling article, âWhat Happened at Bash Back?â for more details on this incident).
<em>Kristin's note: In my opinion this was fucked up and endangered people in the street by providing a clearer path for the cops to attack and target people from behind, which is what happened. Discomfort with certain tactics is totally okay, but in these situations please disengage and direct your energies to something you feel more comfortable with, separate from the other action!!! Damn.</em>
A few cop cars got to the front of the crowd. The first car in the line stopped and the cop jumped out and ran at the crowd, which parted down a residential side street. The cop stopped, shook his baton at the crowd, then went back to his car. The first few cars followed the crowd onto the side street. More cops parked and began running into the crowd, grabbing queers seemingly at random (although they did catch a high percentage of non-gender-conforming folks) and proceeding to beat them with batons and extendable asps. At this time, there was a scream from the middle of the crowd, and then people shouting, âhe just ran her foot over!â The patient was helped out of the fray and a medic took over her evacuation.
During this time, at least eight cops were involved in the beating of at least ten queers in the crowd. They dragged queers into the street and proceeded to hit them with batons, the queers falling to the ground in attempts to protect their heads. Reports tell of at least five successful unarrests as queers watched each other's backs. One queer, after very nearly escaping a very determined cop, was cornered against a building. The cop, waving his baton in the queer's face, kept repeating, âIt's over, do you understand? It's over. Take your mask off.â The queer, obviously feeling like it was not over, took advantage of a lapse of attention from the cop and took off again, successfully escaping into the crowd.
It appears that the most-targeted**** individuals were those who conform less to binary systems of gender. This was evidenced in the continued targeting of one of the eventual arrestees, when a cisgendered person put herself between the cop and his target and, instead of being hit, was told, âMove it!â
A summary of the injuries suffered by people in the crowd (not just the arrestees): a broken big toe, bruised ribs (three people, one of which developed into pneumonia), bruised kidney, sprained fingers with accompanying infection, separated ligaments in the shoulder, soft tissue damage to the elbow, and uncountable bruises, cuts and scrapes.
In the end, four people were arrested, and spent the remainder of the night being harassed and tormented in the jail. At the holding facility, still in Boystown, the queers were mocked for their choices of hairstyle, questioned without being Mirandized, and threatened with rape (âyou won't like it when we leave you in a cell with Tyrone. He'll sure like you though.â)
Each of the arrestees, now called the Fabulous Four, is facing a misdemeanor charge of Aggravated Assault of a Police Officer with Hands/Minimal Damage. Three of them are also facing combinations of Obstructing Justice, Evading a Police Officer, Refusal to Obey an Officer, and Resisting Arrest. All of their charges can be summed up in layperson's terms as: Refusing to Allow Self to be Arrested for No Reason. For that, we must stand behind the Fabulous Four and support them throughout their court process. It could have been any one of us that was there that night, but certain people, even in a crowd of queers, were targeted based on their appearance, and we need to unite behind them.
The first appearance (arraignment) of the Fabulous Four will be on August 7th in Chicago. More information about how to best support them will come in the future. At this point we are not sure who will need travel fees, or if the charges will just be dropped altogether, opening the way for a quick civil case. In the meantime, take this month of the anniversary of Stonewall to think about what**** liberation of queers means, and at what cost to our community it comes, and look for things you can do, either as a queer or as an ally, to support us in our quest.
<em>"What Happened At Bash Back!?" is an anonymous reportback sent to Bash Back! News on June 16,2009. It was described as "a political analysis of the events causing in-fighting following the Bash Back national convergence in Chicago, written/collaborated on by people who were there and personally affected by the choices made by others.</em><em>â</em>
Even with the stories running around and the press releases having just gone out, it seems folks don't have a clear picture of what went down at the Bash Back convergence in Chicago last week. Many have developed opinions without knowing the full story, or understanding the implications of the side(s) they have chosen. Check out the press release âChicago PD attacks Queers in Boystownâ for a more neutral description of the event.
This article makes no attempt to pretend to be neutral. This article is just a more indepth look at some of the places where solidarity was missing, where we turned on each other instead of on the police state, and where we damaged instead of strengthened future relationships. Hopefully folks can read this, think about it, and learn from it, which will allow our communities to move forward without repeating the same mistakes.
During the march, folks at the back pulled a newspaper stand and a garbage can into the street to slow down the advancing police cars. Others in the crowd ran out, yelling âno!â and âthis is a nonviolent protest!â They then moved the objects back to the sidewalk. Moments later, the police cars began ramming those walking in the road, and a few minutes after that, someone's foot was run over by a police car.
<em>Points to consider about this seemingly simple action</em>
- Telling anyone no is inappropriate during an action happening under the guise of supporting a diversity of tactics. No is an ending and doesn't open up a dialogue or leave room for other people's opinions.
- The debate about whether property destruction is violence hasn't been solved even through numerous books, countless zines, and thousands of hours of discussion. But even before trying to make a decision on that topic, one should ask about this case: does the moving of mobile boxes even count as property destruction?
- This **wasnât** a nonviolent action. No matter what one's opinion on property destruction/violence is, this action was part of **Bash Back!** What part of **Bash Back!** sounds ânonviolentâ? This isn't to say anything done in connection with Bash Back! must use force or be violent, but the possibility is included in the name. Bashing back is about taking what's ours, working for liberation, and refusing assimilation. The Points of Unity do not include ânonviolenceâ and in fact include the phrase âa diversity of tactics.â
- Moving things back out of the road? Really? What difference is there between that and watering down the cement used in the hard barricade? Reread the âdiversity of tacticsâ section. You can disagree with what some people do, but to actually, physically undo what they've done.
- On the flip side, some have claimed âthose who moved the blockades out of the roads allowed the police to catch up and hurt people with their cars.â It's important that we remember what side we are all on. It is **not** the fault of any of the queers on the street that night (those arrested, those âleadingâ the march, the organizers of the weekend, or the folks who moved the blockades) that the police chose to be police and bash and arrest us. It is the fault of the police state for existing, and as long as we remember that, we have the most important Point of Unity there is: the realization that we are all on the same side, fighting against the same thing.
Another situation that night was the jail supportâor more accurately, the lack thereof. Five people went down to the police station in Boystown in the wee hours of the morning where the four arrestees were being held. We didn't even know who all of them were. When they were moved to a paddy wagon, we had to shout across the road to them, âWhat are your names?â
After they were moved to the jail, three of us sat out front and watched the sun come up while the other two went to bring more folks down to the jail. These other folks, however, weren't very into the idea of supporting their comrades in jail. The folks who had gone to get them were persistent and got a few carloads to come, but most people brushed them off and went back to sleep.
We understand that folks were tired and stressed after the events of the night before. But the four people in jail were tired and stressed, too. We weren't even asking much of folks. Wake up, get in car. No worrying about the location of the jail or how to take the train there. No worrying about what to bring. Just yourself. We had coffee, food, water, blankets and pillows at jail. Some folks who came down just curled back up and went to sleep. Their presence still mattered, though, as did the absence of those who were able to take such easy comfort in their own relative safety and turn off any emotion for the folks in jail.
We had been told when our four arrived there at 6 AM that it would be âmost of the dayâ before they were released. They would have to be fingerprinted, and the fingerprints had to be run, and then Central Station had to do the paperwork to get them out because it was a Sunday. âMost of the day.â When queers started showing up by the carload at 6:30 AM, an officer asked those inside, âWho are those people? Are they your friends?â The four didn't answer, but took comfort in hearing that they had friends massing outside. The first of our comrades was released at 7:30 AM, and by 8 AM, all four were released into our waiting arms. All day, huh?
Anyone who thinks jail support doesn't matter, even after having arrestees run out and leap into the arms of their comrades, crying with the joy of finding such a party outside, should remember this as a time when jail support mattered to those who run things, and caused the expedited release of our friends.
Something to take away from the weekend is the realization that we are stronger together. We may have slightly different opinions on how an action should go down (or on what an action even is) or different priorities when it comes to self-care, but we are closer to each other than we are to the police state, and we would do well to remember which side we're all on in the future.
In the days following the 2009 convergence a woman of color and a mixed-race gender variant persyn involved with Bash Back! wrote, âA Response To...â The communique was a public calling out of the mostly white people with liberal tendencies who have caused major divisions at the Bash Back! Convergence during and after the impromptu Saturday night march.
This a response to dynamics and altercations that occurred after what certain individuals are referring to as an âactionâ Saturday night of the convergence. This response was written by an autonomous cell of the Chicago Bash Back! chapter, and though it by no means represents the group as a whole, it addresses it as one, including ourselves and others who consider themselves to be members and organizers of BB!.
First and foremost, Bash Back! is not an organization. BB! is a non-hierarchical group of autonomous individuals under the guise of a common purpose. The only thing that really ties us together are the Points Of Unity, which is to say that there is no membership, no dues, no agenda, and no 501(c)(3) status. Those who want to come to consensus before taking action, who would rather undermine the autonomous nature of individuals bashing back should consider another group, or form their own. We are not the only radical queer group in existence, and we don't want to be.
To elaborate on what the nature of bashing back is, and what it means, we should start here. To âbash backâ is to protect oneself and our community both in the moment, and preemptively, by any means necessary. To âbash backâ is to stand in solidarity with those who are oppressedâin real solidarity, not attempting to make decisions for them along the lines of what you consider to be acceptable behavior. To âbash backâ is to take accountability for our own lives, to not be led, and not to lead. To âbash backâ is to destroy what destroys us.
Sometimes privileged viewpoints can cloud the idea of what âbashing backâ means. Playing into the activist mentality of constant mediation, watered-down emotions, consensus, and equality often leaves room for those with the most privilege to invalidate others' reactions to oppressions and strides for liberation. We are not writing this to those who took the night into their own hands, or those who sat beside phones to make sure people they don't even know were safe, or those who slept outside the jail and cheered for not only the four radical queers as they were released, but for everyone who was able to walk out of the concrete and steel cages that morning. We are writing this to those who claim that there was no consensus process, to those who pulled newspaper boxes back onto the sidewalk, and to those who stood by idly watching. You are not in solidarity with us, our struggles, or our identities.
Because of your privilege, you may have never had to fight. The actions of certain individuals made it seem as it they were waiting to be led, or told what to do. If bashing back scares you, you are free to leave. If the way autonomous individuals decided to vocalize long-standing oppressions they've felt scares you, you are free to leave. You are autonomous. This was not an action. It wasn't a planned march, it wasn't a coordinated along a political agenda. Claiming that Bash Back! takes a stance of non-violence, or that this so-called action was a peaceful protest is not only untrue, but infuriating. This was a spontaneous eruption of anger, joy, vengeance, and desire, more aptly referred to as âdoing being totally out of control.â
While we're speaking to commonly used radical phrases, another one comes to mind. Our Points of Unity include âRespect a diversity of tactics in the struggle for liberation. Do not solely condemn an action on the grounds that the State deems it to be illegal.â This does not only address your reactions to these tactics afterward, while reading and writing communiques. This addresses your interactions and reactions in everyday life, when confronted with situations where you can either choose to act or to stand in solidarity. Undermining struggles and necessary conflict, especially when the authorities are involved, is aiding them and tantamount to snitching. It **is** treacherous. It **is** breaking the Points of Unity. Being that the Points of Unity is the only thing that ties our group of radical autonomous individuals together, breaking them means you're **not** Bash Back!, you're **not** âbashing backâ, and you're **not** supporting our struggles.
Assuming you know what's best for a group is privileged and oppressive in and of itself. Assuming you know what's best for anyone else is not radical; it's authoritarian and fucked up. Of course you know what's best for yourself, and that's the point. Perhaps the actions of individuals that night should have reflected autonomy, not the idea that consensus in this situation could be reached, or that it should have been. Making claims about who participates in anything without concrete knowledge erases identities and experiences. It also shows a very obvious ignorance of the history of insurrection in oppressed communities, including those you claim to be speaking for. Basing your decision on whether something is acceptable or not on identities or assumed identities of those around or involved is the same as any fucked up -ism we claim to be against. Speaking for people with identities other than your own in a way that is used to push your political or moral agenda is the same as any fucked up -ism we claim to be against.
The picture at the top of this news site does not consist of props. It is not an iconic image. It is very real. It is not something to be appropriated and transformed into a liberal agenda for the future bureaucrats of America. In the future, if you don't agree to our Points of Unity, don't come to our convergences, don't start a fucking chapter, and don't clog up our meetings or inboxes. We might operate in the realm of semi-above ground activism, but we are not activists. We are people, and we are striving to break free from the chains of oppressionâall oppression. This is very real. These are our lives, and we're taking them back. We're BASHING BACK!
<em>The following is an internet con</em><em>versation between Evan Greer of RiotFolk, and someone identifying themself as a Queer Black persyn. Evan has been accused of tokenizing people of color and spouting incredibly racist and cis-supremacist rhetoric to justify their lack of comfort with militancy at the 2009 Convergence.</em>
3:12 pm
me: i heard you were a racist
3:13 pm
Evan: did you read it on the internet?
me: no i heard you say racist things you better check yourself before you get beat up
3:14 pm
Evan: listen, if you or anyone has a real problem with me and wants to call me out or talk to me about it, go for it
3:15 pm
but if yer just gonna keep making cowardly snipes on the internet, and threatening vague violence, then please go do something useful; and effective
3:19 pm
me: oh i think beating you up would be effective maybe you'd think before you spew racist shit
3:20 pm
Evan: i'm not sure what specifically you're referring to, but if you're talking about bash back, which i assume you are, y'all are taking stuff i said wayyyy out of context, and need to back off
3:21 pm
a whole lot of people thought that the shit that went down was wack
me: i dont care what other people thought
Evan: but irregardless, if you wanna beat me up, do
it sometime, quit posting on the internet
me: as a black person, and my experiences you are
outta control and need to check yourself
3:22 pm
Evan: what experiences with me do you have?
3:23 pm
me: i'm talking about how your racist, i'm talking from a place of my experiences and understanding of racism, which you will never have, and if you're unwilling to hear this shit, you may as well off yourself
3:24 pm
Evan: i agree i will never understand racism from any other perspective than mine as a white person. i definitely AM willing to hear shit about my racism, so if i hurt you i'm very sorry and would love to work on my shit.
3:25 pm
me: you need understand to be insolidarity with communities of color you cant just run around saying that you wont condone acts you consider violent. if it weren't for such acts, we wouldn't even be existing... most of us
3:26 pm
Evan: what???? i totally support violence and militancy, that's a huge part of my music, my politics and my public persona me: thats not what you said, at the meeting you said the people doing that shit put you and poc in danger
3:27 pm
Evan: which is totally different than saying that there's never a time and a place for violence me: of course that was echoed by tons of cis whites
Evan: also what was happening wasn't violence, it was property destruction
3:28 pm
my critique of what happened that night had nothing to do with the tactics employed and everything to do with the lack of coordination, consent, and effectiveness me: yea, you dont get it
3:29 pm
and your not willing to
i hope you come this year so i can beat your ass
3:31 pm
Evan: you know what, i'm getting really defensive, maybe cuz you're threatening to beat me up. but seriously, i do want to get what you're saying so could you flesh it out some more? me: um, it is not my JOB to educate your white ass!
Evan: agreed
3:32 pm
have a nice day.
3:33 pm
sorry again to have offended you. i will continue to work on my shit always. it's an ongoing process. if at any point anyone from BB wants to talk about this in a serious way, they know how to contanct me.
3:34 pm
me: empty apologies mean nothing to me
Call for Media Footage (Photo & Video) and Witness Accounts of the Events that Occurred on the Evening of May 30th, in Chicago in Boystown
Dear Everyone,
This is a call for the gathering of all of the documentationâvideo, photo, and eyewitness accountsâof the police brutality that ensued during a walk across Boystown in Chicago on the evening of Saturday, May 30th. There were many queers and trans folks who were walking with us on this evening, and we think that some of you may be reading this right now! The Fabulous Four (the four arrestees) and amazing legal support folks are collecting evidence and it is **vital** that we gather as much as possible in support of our cases. We are all facing trumped up chargesâthree felonies and five misdemeanorsâby the police. On August 7th the Fabulous Four have their first court date (an arraignment). This date is fast approaching and assessing how much evidence we have gathered by then will affect the Fabulous Four's legal proceedings. We must get a move on collecting this evidence! Having this evidence is **very** important for the cases, in proving that the police were completely unjustified in their actions.
Please send all information about video and photo documentation, including files and leads, to the media evidence coordinator at: bashbacklansing@gmail.com
<em>Anyone</em> able and interested in making a statement about your eye-witness account of the police brutality, <em>please</em> also send an email to:
bashbacklansing@gmail.com
For both, in the emails please include contact information (if you want to) other than just email address. (We're talking phone numbers and names). This way, we are less likely to lose touch with folks who have internet/email issues.
<em>Everything</em> helps. And we need yours! Keep your ear to the ground for the sound of the stampede!
In Solidarity,
one of the Fabulous Four
This September, the G-20 global elites will be coming to Pittsburgh to meet about furthering agendas that put world domination and corporate greed above the rights and desires of people. Radical queers in Pittsburgh will be meeting up too, but we've got different desires.
As Radical Transfolk, Queers and Allies, we reject capitalism, imperialism and all forms of state power. Basically, everything the G-20 stands for. We fight for liberation. Nothing more, nothing less. We believe that state recognition in the form of oppressive institutions such as marriage and militarism are not steps toward liberation but rather towards heteronormative assimilation. We also actively oppose oppression both in and out of the âmovement.â We respect a diversity of tactics in the struggle for liberation and do not condemn an action on the grounds that the state deems it to be illegal.
Therefore, some of us will be in the streets on Thursday, September 24, for the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project's march to disrupt the summit (http://resistg20.org/thursday). We're not calling for a formal Bash Back bloc, but if you're a gender pirate, gender outlaw, queer, transfolk, asexual, pansexual or homosexual, get at us if you'd like to roll together.
Love and Rage,
<em>Bash Back Pittsburgh</em>
<em>The following report is excerpted from an account of the first day of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh on September 24th. This particular manifestation of pure rage was the crowning moment of an entire day</em><em>âs worth of riotous activity. The whole text can be found at crimethinc.com. Further reports indicated that several queer anarchists jumped some would-be queerbashers in the midst of all the fun.</em>
Shortly after 10 PM, a Bash Back!-themed black bloc a hundred or more strong appeared on Forbes Street between Atwood Street and Oakland Avenue. The march was pushing half a dozen or more dumpsters, which were upended in the intersections while seemingly all the corporate businesses on the block lost their windows. Another dumpster was rolled further down the street and set alight before being upended as the bloc fled north.
We can imagine the atmosphere of the street at that instant: the running figures, the explosions of breaking glass reverberating off the buildings, the dim streetlights on masked faces, the sound of nearby sirens reminding everyone that militarized riot police in full force were on the way from only a couple blocks' distance.
Pamela's Diner, Panera Bread, McDonald's, Bruegger's Bagels, Subway, Rite Aid, FedEx Kinko's, American Apparel, the Pitt Shop, and other businesses suffered damage. An H&R Block nearby on Atwood also reported vandalism. The bloc moved north, encountering a police substation on which a particularly bitter revenge was exacted. Police vehicles were already in pursuit and presumably speeding ahead to surround the march; however, the terrain of the college district was too open, and too populated by civilians, for the police to easily entrap their prey. Some participants broke off from the march at this point; others continued together as far as Craig Street, where Quizno's Subs, PNC Bank, Irish Design Center, BNY Mellon, and Citizens Bank were damaged before the bloc finally dispersed.
Immediately thereafter, the police issued another pre-recorded dispersal order to the students gathered in Schenley Plaza and around the so-called âCathedral of Learning,â then fired several dozen tear gas canisters at the crowd. The following hours saw massive police occupation of the university area and ongoing clashes with students extending into their dormitories. As in St. Paul after the first day of the 2008 RNC, comparatively modest anarchist direct action provoked such a powerful police overreaction that the police ended up precipitating conflict with the public at large.
The following is an excerpt from an obscure communique circulated rather limitedly among the anarchist/communist milieu following the street fighting at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, PA in September of 2009.
<em>"Where is the real possibility for liberation in Germany? In the formation of a class with radical chains, a class of civil society that is not a class of civil society, a class that is the dissolution of all classes; a sector of society that has a general character because its sufferings are general, a sector that does not claim any particular right because the wrongs it suffers is not any particular wrong but a general wrong; a sector that no longer claims a historical status, but only a human one; that is not narrowly opposed to particular consequences, but is fundamentally opposed to the very foundation of the German political system; a sector, finally, that cannot liberate itself without liberating itself from all the other sectors of society, thereby liberating all those other sectors at the same time; a class, in short, that embodies the total loss of humanity and that can therefore redeem itself only through the total redemption of humanity. This dissolution of society as a particular class is the proletariat.â</em>
-Karl Marx,
<em>Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right</em>
Thursday Night, following a radical queer motivational speech about rioting, a black bloc emerged as the fourth round of the day's street fighting. This particularly vicious bloc (later named the Bash Back! black bloc) moved through Oakland smashing countless windows, overturning dumpsters and setting them on fire.
A friend remarks: what is so queer about that? People just wore black and burned things in the street.
We counter: the practice of wearing black and destroying everything may very well be the queerest gesture of all.
In fact, it cuts to the heart of the matter: to queer is to negate. At this intersection of our deviant bodies we experimented in becoming-mob, problematizing our very bodily boundaries. Fairy wands, tiaras, hammers and masks were annexed into our limbs as dangerous prosthetics. Rocks, dumpsters and black sequined dresses were profaned and put into use âthrown through windows, set on fire, and draped over our shoulders as a more fabulous take on riot attire. Our thresholds-of-self dissolved further into a flood of shattered glass and smoldering garbage across the field of play.
Without hesitation, queers shed the constraints of identity in becoming autonomous, mobile and multiple with varying difference. We interchanged desires, gratifications, ecstasies and tender emotions without reference to the tables of surplus value or power structures. Muscled arms built barricades and broke shit to the imagined anthems of riot grrl (or was it La Roux?)
If the thesis is correct that gender is always performative, then our performed selves resonated with the queerest gender of all: that of total destroy. Henceforth our preferred gender pronouns are the sound of shattering glass, the weight of hammers in our hands and the sickly-sweet aroma of shit on fire. Address us accordingly.
The march continued its rampage down Forbes, encountering some two-bit would-be queerbasher calling us faggots. Before he could realize his mistake, we enacted a particularly coldblooded sadism on the fool. He was shown his error in a shower of kicks, punches and a copious dousing of pepper spray. Before he even hit the floor, the immunitary logic of biopower was turned inside- out. His power to shape our bodies and to expose them to death was collapsed into itself. Yes, our bodies have been shaped, but into monstrous vessels of potential and revolt. He was instead made our object and was exposed to our violence.
An amalgamation of our crude delinquency and nasty desires unapologetically saturated the streets (and bathrooms and hotels and alleys) of Pittsburgh this past week. With ribald irresponsibility we wrecked, fucked, fought, and came all over politics' symbolic terrain, synchronized only in our lust for disorder. Using our bucking bodies against restraint itself, we had no messageâ choosing instead to leave behind ruins of boundaries and a tangible path of demolition. Our unleashing of violent aspirations upon homophobic frat boys and lifeless-daily-addictions spilled over as we pursued further stimulation onto each other. We got wet and came hard in a pile of dirty money, corrupting every inch of sterility with the funk of our perspiring bodiesâaching with impure satisfaction. Our scheming, pleasure-seeking bodies came into conflict with lesser realities and emerged victorious. We left stains of the queerest kind all over the broken bits of capital graced by our presence.
Two questions were raised this summer. In Chicago: âto barricade or not to barricade?â And in New York: âdoes she give a fuck about the insurrection?â Thursday answered both definitively in the affirmative. To the question of barricades we answer that we only correctly concern ourselves with how to make them taller, stronger, more terrible. To the latter, we offer a form-of-life that could be read as a reuniting of barricades and unshaven legs. But what's more, a synthesis of strap-on-cocks, hammers, outlandish wigs, bricks, fire, pepper-spray, licking, fisting and always ultraviolence.
A rock left from your beautiful hand into the Pittsburgh night searching for either a bank window, a storefront, or maybe even the visor of a riot cop's helmet to embrace. In a strange turn of events, my face obstructed the stone from reaching its final destination and, instead of the intended glass being shattered, my teeth were cracked into pieces and blood sprayed from my mouth like a scene from a â70s slasher flick. I ask you not to worry about my teeth. They are of little worth to revolutionaries; let's remember how Bakunin got along just fine with his scurvy-ridden chompers. In fact, I'd gladly lose all my teeth, have a few fingers severed, and even a leg amputated if it would ensure that stones would continue to fly at demonstrations. A simple revolutionary cost-benefit analysis like this must surely take into account the fact that teeth are just minuscule parts of the grand expression we call a smile and smiles can not blossom on our faces without riots consuming the metropolis. So, please keep hurling those bricks into the dark sky, for the world's happiness rests upon this.
My dear, I write you this love letter to also ask you, better yet, to implore you to never regret what happened this past Thursday in Pittsburgh. Despite what anyone might say, your aimâor your lack thereofâis not to blame and I insist that the fault belongs solely to my face, and to my face alone, for clumsily finding its way into the rock's path. Place all the guilt on my head... Literally. And in my throbbing skull, hypotheticals squirt out of my jarred brain. What is the exact nature of friendly fire but a combination of the two elements essential to the composition of any revolutionary: friends and fire? Yes! I can assure you that you will never hear liberal complaints about the irresponsibility of the black bloc or banal whining about the careless violence displayed in a riot come from my now disfigured lips. For I know all too well that gestures cannot be beautiful without victims.
And so, I gladly rejoice in my newfound victimhood. Because, clearly you don't have to be Octave Mirbeau to locate the uncanny semblance between pain and pleasure. Your brick toss became for me an erotic spanking par excellence. It was nothing less than a treat for me to feel your subjective will, set on battering alienated capitalist objectivity, instead rupture my class-conditioned proletarianized existence. My love, you unknowingly set into motion my own personal de-subjectification: your wild pitch broke my identity and my gum-line. Gorgeous it was, how the hard stone, your soft hand, and your sleek body coupled into a machine with a flow that caressed my lips, leaving traces of your desire around my mouth, and, at the same time, produced the strangest of Craigslist Missed Connections. I long for you, Anonymous Stone-Thrower, and I so badly want to tell you that you are my hero and also say thank you. Thank you for finally letting me experience a riot from another angle. Thank you for fulfilling this pressing need, described best by Baudelaire when he scribbled:
<em>I would be happy not only as a victim; it would not displease me to play the hangman as wellâso as to feel the revolution from both sides!</em>
If my burning wish to someday meet you is ever granted, please ignore my hideous, scab-covered lips, pretend they are casualties of sensual but nonetheless overzealous nibbling, and let us kiss like lovers deprived from each other for too long. I anticipate this day like I yearn for the day we all storm the heavens.
Till we find each other on the barricades,
Undying affection,
<em>Bleeding Gums Murphy</em>
After a short break in the form of a radical cabaret close to the University of Pittsburgh campus, Bash Back! contingents and their supporters donned their pink bandanas, glitter and banners and literally hit the town. What I thought was going to be a theatrical march quickly turned into a large band of roaming queers dawned in black. In the back of the march, I began to hear what I originally thought were rubber bullets being shot into the front of the crowd. However, the police had not yet responded to this quickly moving groupâthe sounds that I had been hearing were actually windows shattering. One after the otherâthe banks, the corporate chains, the police station, the University of Pittsburgh store were hit by various found objects, U-locks, rocks and wrenches. Bash Back! quickly disbandedâ not before setting a dumpster on fireâas the very long line of riot police began to move in on them and the thousands of college kids that were on the Pittsburgh University campus wearing togas, team jerseys and high heels. As the police moved closer to the congregation of protesters and college- goers alike, smoke bombs, pepper spray and police brutality began to show their faces on the well to do tuition payers lining the University lawns.
What seemed like just another Thursday night of fun, turned into a militarized police state that caused the entire police forceâ literally all available units according to a police scannerâto occupy the neighborhood of Oakland.
On September 24th some of the most militant politicized street protests the States have seen in nearly a decade countered the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Anarchist Queers and Trannies were on the frontlines of this struggle, bringing the numbers, the flare, and the wrecking crews. Radical Queers fought police and did everything they could, with what they had, not to back down. A day's worth of tear gas, rubber bullet attacks, and fending off straight-idiot-liberals set the tone for what would be a night of ravenous Queer revenge. A single march of 200+ Queers, Trannies, Womyn, POC, and some allies bashed the fuck back; causing the most property destruction contained to a single neighborhood in Pittsburgh during the protests. So, other Anarchists, why the fuck are you ignoring us? What Happened in Oakland on Thursday Night?
A week prior to the G20 protests Bash Back! Pittsburgh, a radical Trans and Queer Liberation group, called for a Queer Cabaret to be followed by a march through Oakland. Oakland has long been a neighborhood unfriendly to anyone not fitting into the straight-white-male category. By 10 PM on the 24th nearly 200 people gathered outside of the Queer Cabaret. The mood was set. There were no illusions. Everyone knew what was about to happen. It seemed that people were unified in their goal to terrorize straighty. Windows were smashed, dumpsters flipped and ignited, a frat boy homophobe and his friends were dealt with properly, and the vast majority of participants left feeling empowered and energized.
However, despite the fact that this march was called for by a local radical queer/trans group, took place immediately following a Queer Cabaret, was executed largely by radical Trans/ Queer people and was led by a banner reading âBash Back!â, most of the reportbacks describing the march include **none** of these important details. In all fairness, Crimethinc did state that the march had been Bash Back!-themed. Whatever that means. In the documentary, âDemocracy 101: Pittsburgh G20 Protests and the Police Occupation of Pitt University,â produced by Pittsburgh Indymedia, Chicago Indymedia, Twin Cities Indymedia, and the Glassbead Collective footage of the Radical Queer black bloc was preceded by the sentence, âThe protestors dispersed in the late afternoon, but they reconvened later in the evening.â This makes it seem as if the Radical Queer black bloc later in the night was merely an extension of the People's Uprising March that took place across town earlier in the day. It was not. We found it even more frustrating that not even a brief mention of the radical Queer/Trans organization that went into the march was included in the documentary. A person from Pittsburgh even went as far as to say that the march was not queer. Does this mean that in order for militant actions to be recognized by the broader Anarchist community as Queer all of the participants have to be laced in sequins and throwing glitter?
This is not an isolated incident!
Radical Queers made up a large number of people putting hours of work into creating a militant showdown at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. People with Bash Back! held multiple consultas in the Midwest and on the East Coast to carve out a radical Queer space in countering the Convention. Bash Back! sent queers to Minneapolis well over a month before the Convention to help with the organizing effort. However, in spokescouncils and personal conversations, the Bash Back! action was more often than not labeled as one of the âfluffyâ actions, while actions with similar tones were never labeled soft or fluffy. âTerrorizing Dissent,â a documentary created by Twin Cities Indymedia about the RNC completely ignored the Bash Back! action, which was the first publicly announced blockade in the lead-up to the RNC. Footage of the radical Queer blockade never made the final cut. In fact, the action was not discussed or even referenced. However, footage of the Funk the War bloc, a roving dance party called for by Students for a Democratic Society, was featured in a nauseatingly long segment. Let us remind you that Radical Queers put over a year into organizing our event and Bash Back! is the **only** national network that has maintained itself since the failure of the RNC protests.
Another incident that comes to mind is a recent incident involving the arrest of Ariel Attack. Ariel is a Trans/Queer person who has been involved in radical organizing for some time. Earlier in the year Ariel was picked up by Denver Police and accused of smashing eleven windows out of the Colorado Democratic Party Headquarters. Rather than write their own article, Anarchistnews. org reposted an article from an extremely right-wing blog riddled with anti-Trans rhetoric. Although there were literally thousands of other news articles about the sabotage, Anarchist News chose to run the disgustingly anti-Trans right wing one. Even after being asked and eventually threatened the mysterious people behind Anarchistnews. org refused to replace the article with a better one. They cited freedom of speech in defense of their actions. To this all we can say is. really? Other non-trans radicals went on to question the timing and message of the action. Would any of you Cisgendered white dudes be questioning the timing and message of the action if the person arrested for allegedly smashing the windows was a white male Earth First!er ? Our conclusion is: probably not.
So What the Fuck?
First we were Maoists. Then we were fluffy. Then we were not living up to our militant rhetoric. Now, at best you are ignoring our actions and the massive risks we are taking to carry them out. At worst you are co-opting what we do and rewriting history to claim our struggles as your own.
Are you neglecting to mention what we have done so you can maintain that our actions are Manarchist? It is clearly absurd to call militancy carried out by Womyn, Transfolk, People of Color, and Queers âManarchist.â Instead, you will just pretend that these actions were taken by straight white dudes.
OR
Are you refusing to give Radical Queers credit because you couldn't give a fuck? Maybe you just don't care that radical Trans people and Queers are finally, after more than a decade on hiatus, building a culture centered around fighting back.
OR
Are you living in a delusion? You are so far from reality that you still hold on to the idea that Queers, Trannies, POC and Womyn are at too high of risk to ever be taking these actions. So you pretend that you, the white-straight person, did the legwork and threw down.
AND/OR
You feel, as our self-appointed protector, you must act as if Trannies/Queers haven't taken these actions in an effort to avoid the state coming down on us.
OR
Are you not mentioning our actions because you feel ignorant as fuck when the actual radicals and actual queers prove you wrong time and time again? You might feel a bit put off that we are doing more to resist than you ever have and our actions are insanely more effective, fabulous, and daring than y'all's could ever be.
OR
When it comes down to it, do you think that we are just a bunch of fags too concerned with identity politics to ever contribute to a broad social upheaval, even though, as pointed out before, in the last two years Radical Queers have taken the lead in the push for a more direct action-oriented resistance?
In Conclusion:
It really is a shame that a band of radical Queers, involved with a variety of Anarchist organizing projects for many years, has had to use a public forum to call you all out. But nevertheless we feel we have to. It has become apparent to us that while many of you are our friends you still hold yourself on a higher pedestal because you are straight and we are not. You have mocked us, written us off and criticized us, when frankly you are in no place to do so. We are not trying to create divisions on tactical grounds, excluding our struggle to root out Anarcho-Liberals. Instead we are calling you out on your shit so we can all continue on this path toward insurrection and most importantly liberation. To those of you who will ignore these concerns we impolitely order you to stop breeding like goddamn rabbits and find the nearest cliff to jump from.
April 1, 2010
The G20 is invading Toronto from June 25th to 27th, 2010. This is a callout to militant queers everywhere: trans people, dykes, homos, faggots, cocksuckers, and genderfuckers, come to ATTACK!
We all know why the G20 needs to be opposed: world leaders getting together secretively to make destructive global capitalist advances from behind closed doors. The G20 represents the interests of the forces which oppress queers on a daily basis, from the state and police as tools of repression to fundamentalist, right-wing Christian agendas, to enabling more corporate power and environmental destruction. FUCK THAT.
We live in a world where queers are treated like absolute shit, where the rich are conducting a colonial and ecological genocide, where racial profiling is still acceptable, and where we are forced to live off the backs of others. We will never be able to fully express our identities or build supportive communities while we continue to live in this system of privilege and domination. And this will continue until we destroy the powers that stand between us and our decisions and dreams.
Luckily, queers come backed up with a long history of resistance. This will be especially poignant during the G20 because the 41st anniversary of the Stonewall riots falls on June 27! Our queer forebears taught themselves how to organize, how to resist, and how to fight the cops on the streets, all the while still living their own brave lives, which in itself is an act of love and revolt.
When the G20 comes to Toronto, we will make it evident that radical queers are powerful, fierce, and a tangible threat. That we are unpredictable, ungovernable, and pissed off. During the G20 summit, we have a special opportunity to show the powers that oppress us just how hard we are willing to fight for the world (and parks) we desire (to fuck in)!
So, queers, come to Toronto, bring your affinity groups, your pink-and-black bandannas, your heels, your ceramic dildos, your plans and your flaming, raging spirits. Stay tuned for specifically queer actions to come, and know that the G20 resistance will be full of queer anarchist comrades.
Check out this callout from the Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance: anarchistnews.org/node/10935
As well as what is being planned by the Toronto Community Mobilization Network at: g20.torontomobilize.org
DISCLAIMER: We are in no way encouraging you to do anything illegal or disruptive, because something like that could actually shift the power balance and change things, and that would be very very naughty of you. Please just sit at home, go to work, and watch your pass your life pass you by.
A formal invitation to all queers, transfolk, sex radicals, bi-sexuals, womyn, people of color, perverts, dykes, faeries, bois, sexworkers, queens, radical cheerleaders, fags, gender outlaws, daddies, gays, lesbians, bearded ladies, tranarchists, bears, cubs, pansexuals, men who have sex with men, polyamorous folks, riot grrls, genderqueers, ftms, mtfs, allies, drag royalty, and any other freaks we forgot to a fabulous queerspace dance extravaganza!
- ATTIRE: devastatingly, haphazardly, and genderfuckingly glamorous. We love you looking cheap, looking not for sale, or just covered in glitter. Cum sleazy.
- WHAT: DJ's, kissing booths, massage parlors, sweaty queermos dancing, DIY sex toy workshops, TWISTER (in your undies?), radical cheerleaders, body shots, gloryholes, vegan burritos, BEER, rad feminist porn, vegan cookies, candy, and lots of fucking shiny shit.
- WHY: for Bash Back! Chicago and radical queer resistance! To fuck up republocrats! To bring the binary to its knees!
- This space will be consent-oriented. This space is to be safe for womyn, queer and transfolks. If you fuck with us, we'll kick you out.
We're gonna party like it's 1999âand hella fucking queer.
Attention all queers, radicals, transfolk, riot grrls, dykes, bois, faggots, people of color, trannyfags, queens, femmes, bisexual folks, sex workers, genderqueers, perverts, butches, ladyboys, twinks, gays, lesbians, sluts, gender fuckers, bears, cubs, radical cheerleaders, drag kings, polyamorous folks, pansexual people, feminists, tranarchists, transvestites, whores, allies, tops, bottoms, leather daddies, street queens, shemales, bearded ladies, and anyone else in between: **get ready for the sleaziest night of your life...** again.
Glamourqueer Sextravaganza is a sex positive, consent-driven, safer sex, body positive dance party.
There will be glitter, booze for sale, radical porn, a picture booth, awesome DJ's, champagne, lube wrastlin', consensual spin-the- bottle, a safe space to hook up (also consensually of course), a dressing room, vegan baked goods, cage dancing, and **plenty** of hot queermos.
This is a fundraiser for Bash Back! Chicago and F.I.S.T.
February 15, 2009
Early Sunday morning, Chicago police broke up Glamourqueer, a massive fundraising dance party. It is rumored that as crowds poured into the street, the gas tank of one of the six police cruisers was punctured, rendering it inoperable.
June 15, 2009
In the blazing Memphis heat Saturday, several clandestine queers liberated a house from a notoriously homophobic real estate speculator in the heart of Memphis' gayborhood.
Our hopes for this space is to house runaways, trans and queer youth, sex workers, travelers, and provide a trans- and POC-friendly alternative to the transphobic/racist Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center two blocks north!
October 5, 2009
In the late hours of Saturday, October 3, while most Bash Backers were out running errands or partying the night away, a fleet of five or so cop cars made their way toward the Marsha P. Johnson Queer Collective (known to many as simply the BB! Memphis Squat) on Bruce Street.
Upon arrival, without any announcement to vacate or any eviction notice in tow, two of the cops promptly approached a side window, using their steel flashlights to break through.
With guns drawn, several cops entered the community room adjacent to the broken window, where two queer youth who had been staying at the collective were making love. They immediately ordered the partially-dressed duo outside, dragging them through the broken window pane.
By this time, several supportive neighbors had began to rally across the street in their defense, screaming things at the cops like âLeave our neighborhood, pigsâ and âLeave those kids alone!â At one point, one neighbor, an older person of color, was told that if he did not settle down and leave he would be arrested also.
Our next-door neighbors, however, who collaborated with the police in the sting, began screaming homophobic and racist obscenities and were never asked to âsettle down.â
The youth were questioned but refused to give the location of any other house members.
As of today the two youth were released to the custody of their parents without formal charges, while patrol cars have been seen cruising Bruce Street non-stop. The house has not been boarded up yet, and both the locks and our goals remain the same.
Fuck the cops,
<em>BB! Memphis.</em>
June 29, 2009
These kids wanted to put the âpunkâ back in âpunctualityâ so they promptly began at 11:55 PM. The first song was by Michael Jackson; the crowd of more than 250 people went crazy. They were kicking up dust and yelling. They had been enduring a costly, corporate 21+ pride for two whole nights; this was their moment, their time to shine.
Someone climbed to the top of the hill and asked the DJ to stop. âIt's midnight motherfuckers! Stonewall was a queer and trans riot and it happened 40 years ago as of right now! Maybe you didn't know Pride is supposed to be celebrating that moment in our history! Budweiser doesn't include that on the banners they have all over the place. Fuck 21+ venues, fuck covers, fuck corporate Pride. This moment is yours, its ours!â
Dolly Parton blasted and everyone cheered. We did it, we really did it.
At the other end of the parking lot two drivers had called the cops because of a minor wreck. The cop who was taking that report had been watching the goings-on and called for backup. The parking lot where a queer bar called Pony used to be suddenly got the swine flu as more and more cop cars showed up and began shining their lights on the crowd. The queers were not phased; they danced harder, used to the things they value being threatened by the systems that are supposed to protect them.
After five songs and much âyou need to leave the parking lotâ talk, the cops approached the speaker where the music was coming from. The DJ calmly unplugged his music player and walked away has he had been instructed. One person grabbed the cords connecting the device and disappeared into the crowd. The queer in charge of the power source flew into action and had everything in his bag in a matter of seconds. The kid who needed to take one part of the sound system ran with it clutched to their chest, riding away in car. All of this took seconds to happen. These well prepared folx had their shit on lock and the cops were too slow to stop them.
The woman in charge of getting the speaker that was providing sound was carrying it away. The cops grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back. She screamed. Witnesses saw the cop's hand come down hard on the woman's back. Another cop was shaking a man by his jacket, screaming, âI've worked for twelve hours and don't have to deal with this shit!â The cops had pushed the large crowd out of the parking lot by now. Cops yelled hilarious things like, âThere's still time to drink, go back to the bars!â Some of the crowd had disappeared leaving only 150 people to chant things like âgive us back our speaker!â, âup the punks!â, âfuck corporate pride!â, âout of the bars and into the streets!â
One man was arrested, a cop claiming he had keyed his car. The man's room mate was with him the entire night: âhe was standing with me, he didn't key anything. He was standing there and then he was gone.â People quickly formed a group around supporting the man until he got out on bail.
Last night's guerrilla dance party showed two things: that queers know how to throw a fucking party and that we're only allowed to celebrate Pride if a large company profits from our gatherings. But the cops came too late, we had proved to ourselves and others that queers don't need to be backed by a corporate sponsor in order to commemorate the queer and trans folx who came before us and made the shit we do daily possible. The folx at Stonewall would have been proud of us and recognized what we were doing because they did it themselves. Last night we made the world we wanted to see.
June 27, 2010
We are not interested in the choices of coffins the current system offers and we will not play along with Pride as it celebrates what kills us: the designated spaces of back-patting assimilationists, appeasing cops, being choked and asking for permission to breathe... We bring war through the designation of an infinite dance floor.
We killed Pride in an orgy of destruction because anything else would be giving in to asphyxiation. Pride is a funeral calling itself a parade; it wants us to be pallbearers of its corpse. We know better than to carry its dead weight. We want total liberation from every crushing part of this society. Hundreds of us gathered on the anniversary of the Stonewall riot of 1969 recognizing the emptiness of the sponsored Pride celebrations. The streets of Capitol Hill, the gay district of Seattle, vibrated with anticipation. We met at the stroke of midnight, conspiring on a dream to annihilate order. We poured into the street as the dull but persistent roar of Pride was drowned by our screams and moans. We do not want to be recognized as homosexuals in the sense of what that means to the LGBTIQ alphabet âcommunityâ colonized by heterosexual imperialism. We become, instead, parasites of this society, dripping with sweat, fleeing this world of death.
As 300 of us passed police, we roared with laughter. The pigs looked defeated, the couldn't fucking touch us; they threatened, but no one listened. They were afraid and they should be afraid. When they quiver, we laugh!
After an hour which flashed ecstatically, we vanished back into the night. We disappeared as quickly as we emerged, at the climax, hurled into darkness, still out of control, leaving a trail of destruction. In the crash of our bodies, the air singing its way out of the tires of luxury cars, the echoing crash of blows to banks, we left everything shattered, glittering and engorged because some things are only beautiful when breaking.
the end
<em>the 2010 bash back is dead convergence. denver, Colorado</em>
rapture, rupture
We don't really remember what we're supposed to say. Something about we're so excited to have you here, yay for glitter and smashing the state. Radical queerness, what.
Look, not only is it 2010 and we're so tired of our feces circulating as a form of capital, we pretty much gave up on this whole âBash Back Convergence' thing a couple days ago and just started having parties and fighting amongst ourselves. Then we pulled an all-nighter making this stupid zine, smoking fags, and doing OKCupid, so now our sore-ass bodies haven't rested from the other night's drinking and wrestling. Excuse us if we don't give a fuck.
While your organizers have totally crossed over into apathy, those of you who cruised into town on waves of queer revolutionary love can of course make of this weekend whatever the fuck you want.
There is plenty of space to get into what you're into, whether it be cruising, going to boring-ass workshops, twenty- something circle jerks, infighting, identity politicking, experimental opera, honing your DIY lifestylism, geeking on theory, banal critique, feeble wrecking, self-righteousness, or dancing till the break of dawn.
Public service announcements. Drink water, Denver is way hotter and higher than yr coast. If you see signs around the space calling this an INARQ conference, yeah it's a joke but don't tell anybody, cause we could get in trouble. And do be smart about what you talk about, assume there are infiltrators present and practice a culture of security.
We're whores but we ain't cheap. We worked hard to hook up plenty of free shit for this weekendâfood, space, housing, events, party favors, supplies. We wouldn't ask for anything in return if our friends the Mount Hope Infinity didn't need a load of legal money. Consider throwing down something like $10-15. It will all go to the Infinity or anyone facing legal troubles related to this convergence.
And if you've got a problem with us, bring it. Infight after infight, until we are all whatever singularities.
What?
Did you sleep last night?
<em>Yeah, thought so, bitches.</em>
Jean Genet consistently maintained a strong fidelity to outcasts and the socially marginal, stemming from his early life as a queer drifter and his investment in criminal subcultures and interest in the formation of dissident identities. None of his works best defines this solidarity and recapitulates the multiple identities one must possess, and also transcend, throughout a lifetime than **Our Lady of The Flowers.** Described as Genet's âepic of masturbation,â the characters are not only amalgamations of Genet but also his metaphysical idols of self-pleasure, leading him on an orgasmic odyssey not only to mentally forgo his torment as a prisoner but also to stage a minitheater of selfrealization and revelry of both his queer identity and sexual self.
With: blood-letting performance art, hip hop dance troupes, noise musicians, angry queer gogo terrorists, real witches, power witches, magic witches, avant-garde video art, meta- conceptual set designers, ritualistic sculptural fashion designers, theoretical philosophers, oh so many anarchists, drag kings queens and everything in between, and of course, opera singers.
In light of the border preventing many Canadian folks from attending the 2010 BB! Convergence... FIERCE & FABULOUS Presents..
<em>Queeriot!!! A summer convergence of radical queer insurgency!!!</em>
It's happening between the 10th and 13th of June. The events are generally looking pretty badass.
We're organizing workshops, dance parties, a queercore show, teen open mic, poetry slam, art show, folk show, sex toy auction, spandex wrestling and more.
June 26, 2011
Last night, some queer hooligans had the audacity to take the streets for the third year in a row. It was a smashing time!
Queers Fucking Queers, a free, all ages street party, erupted on the corner of 12th and Madison at midnight last night. The party quickly breached the confines of what's tame and legal during Pride weekend when somebody smashed the window of a Ferrari dealership near the meeting point. Then the homo hordes charged down Pike, the windows of two cop cars left shattered in their wake. Rainbow flags became weapons as the queers raged on down Broadway, the cops sniffing along after like rabid dogs on the prowl. But these fascist prudes were too slow to protect a Bank of America ATM and American Apparel from this hot mob of style vandals. The hood of a cop car briefly transformed into a dance floor, and queers fought the cops in the streets. One person was hauled off to jail for âpedestrian interferenceâ, but others fought off the pigs and escaped their nightsticks with the help of friends.
It's all too clear that those of us who refuse to press our lives into their pretty little boxes quickly end up in the ugly little boxes of the King County Jail.
The following leaflet was distributed during the event:
<center>
<em>NO HOMONATIONALISM, NO HOMOMILITARISM,</em>
<em>NO ASSIMILATION</em>
</center>
We're all being told that marriage equality and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is progress, and that the LGBT community is moving towards equality. But is it really progress? And is equality really what we need?
Some of us queers say no. We're not interested in buying into State-sanctioned monogamy. This is nothing less than assimilation into straight society, the same society that enacts violence against queer people every day. This is sold to us as equality, but what does that mean? It means becoming acceptably heteronormative, begging for tolerance from the same people who have criminalized, marginalized, and murdered us throughout history.
We're not interested in enlisting in the military so that we can kill, be killed, or both, for US imperialism. Whether it's queer people dying in the streets (or prisons or the medical system), or queer people dying in combat overseas, it seems that the system loves to see dead queers. Why should queer people fight for a country that brings both structural and interpersonal violence against us? What loyalty do queers have to people who want them dead?
They tell us to celebrate Pride because of how much progress we've made towards equality. We reject the idea that marriage equality or military service is progress, and we reject the goal of equality. We want an end to the system that keeps so many of us in poverty, facing violence every day. We will not fight for them; we will not fuck like them. And we certainly don't buy into a sanitized, corporate version of Pride.
Our desires and relationships will never fit into the categories the State recognizes. Our interests will never align with the interests of heteronormative, capitalist society. We will not join the march towards assimilation. We will not see queer history erased to promote whitewashed, upper-class causes. This society seeks to alienate us and control our desires, bodies, and relationships. We stand in conflict with all who maintain this alienation, and especially those who do so waving a rainbow flag.
- some queer hooligans
From A Never Published Issue of âTil it Breaksâ A Denver Insurrectionary Publication
Louis Vuitton is a Denver mansy with a passion for anarchy and a flair for fashion. **'Til it Breaks** presents an interview with the boulevardier himself.
<em>Please describe some of the anarchist projects youâve worked on in Denver and what inspired them.</em>
The projects that I'm the most proud of in Denver have been Louis Vuitton Nightâ anarchist variety show, and the Free Boutiqueâ fashion forward free store, with a special mention to Sparkle Anarchy, the dance collective that almost was but was never meant to be... I'm inspired most by our history, the history of queer anarchism, the French anarchist cabarets of the **fin-de-siecle,** the free box in the Cockettes' house, the young Jean Genet as a hustler drag queen, the culture of nurturing in the houses in the drag balls in the 90s, Vivienne Westwood dressing those boys in the 70s, that IWW guy that was Harry Hay's first fling and all those Wobblies that stood on crates and sung the early 20th century equivalent of bastardized Lilâ Wayne songs, 70s feminist performance art, these sorts of things. And in a negative way I'm inspired to create these projects because of how hostile and superficial, in a deeply masculine way, anarchist culture is these daysâŚ
<em>If you would kindly expound on that last point. Your writing has critiqued the material poverty of modern anarchist culture, the insistence on black bloc and dressing in tatters; you champion fashion and decadence. What is the grounding of your critique, and what does it gesture towards?</em>
I think it's a very mythologically masculine thing, in terms of feminism, to see yourself as this jesus figure, this holy warrior or ascetic monk, and that's what I'm reacting to with my column and whatnot. I feel like people aren't talking to each other, within the anarchist millieu or in the rest of the world, because they're so busy perfecting themselves, taking on the latest label fad, supporting the hippest cause, etc. If we recognized these things as the fashion trends that they are, I think we'd have a much more honest discourse about what's to be done about it all.
I have no problem with dressing in rags, or in all black, or whatever, so long as it isn't seen as something more than it is, a personal fashion choice and subject to the same aesthetic and tactical considerations as any other fashion choice, i.e. silhouette, palate, does it conform to gender roles, it is original, is it confrontational, that sort of thing. Crusties have always been one of my fashion inspirations, their attention to details is staggering and the dedication, the sheer time spent perfecting their look, sanding their bandanas and what not, it's a true example of demi-couture. And as amazing as they are at fashion, I think it's hard, if not impossible, to extend their aesthetic and lifestyle choices to a genuine politic or form of radicalism. Half of anarchist culture is about genuinely scraping by since we're all broke and trying to avoid working shit jobs, the other half seems to be posturing, and that posturing has this weirdly religious feel to it that totally undermines those good intentions. I think a lot of folks are using declasse as an excuse for getting off the hook, in terms of privilege, then sitting back and criticizing people who aren't playing poor like them. There's no aesthetic to poverty, and it's cruel to think that choosing to live in squalor and dressing in a particular way somehow creates solidarity with those that genuinely struggle to make ends meet. I'm not sure I've actually championed decadence, but I think it's a useful anarchist tactic that has its time and place and is an antidote for the kind of masculine/ femme-phobic superficiality that I just mentioned. Decadence to me is about embracing your vanity, your artificiality and not letting morals turn you into a bore. It has its drawbacks, naturally, but in my opinion, it's all about the multiplicities, anarchies, diversity of tactics that will make this thing work.
<em>Why do you say, "Black Bloc Fashion: Ya Basta!,â for those who have not read that essay?</em>
Whew. First of let's start by considering how many infinite fashion alternatives we have, I just recently ran across an article about how surgical masks are becoming a big fashion trend for rioters, but other than that, you can literally cover your face with anything, as we've seen in Paris 05 or the LA 92, not to mention the numerous other examples in any culture around the world living in areas with a lot of dust. There is the assumption that the Black Bloc was derived by these anarchist war generals in some shiny movie from 1999 where they're sitting in a room writing on glass walls and calling out data numbers, with a constant strobing red light for some reason. We think it's all about tactics, but it's not; in fact, tactics have nothing to do with it. That's a pretty bold statement, but it's true. If it were a tactical choice, it would be ever changing, like a river, or some other Sun Tzu-ism. As it is, it is a verifiable uniform. Europeans are masters at nation-building; they invented it, as we all know, and look at how every single European anarchist protest has the black bloc these days. They're building a nation, not abolishing all nations.
For the longest time there was a big debate about anarchists utilizing symbology. The black flag in particular was notoriously contested. It wasn't until the 1960s, I think, that the Circle A and the black flag were even considered anarchist iconography. The OG anarchists had a delightfully Islamic approach, now that I think of it: no symbols, no flags, no representation at all. You know, I'm not a purist in this sense, though, I was raised Catholic and happen to love me some crazy irrelevant iconography, but I can also see when it's gone too far, and for me the Black Bloc is the absolute limit. Especially when it comes to the performance of masculinity as logical, tactical, clear headed, action oriented, and invisible, the Black Bloc excels better than almost any other look.
I think we should just have a moratorium on the Black Bloc for a few years, like five to ten. It would give us a chance to experiment, innovate, challenge ourselves and if after those twenty or so years we said, "Hey what about that Black Bloc? That was a monster truck of an idea, no? Let's get that back." Then yeah, we'll give it another go. But at this point it's extraordinarily suspect.
<em>The black bloc is meant to embody confrontation, but it seems you have different ideas about confrontational fashion.</em>
Francis Bacon says, âFashion is the only attempt to realize living forms and social intercourse.â And in that sense fashion allows us to communicate in this visceral way, in a direct, artistic way. Before they were exiled and murdered by the Soviets, the Constructivists attempted to merge art making with everyday struggles to create radical utopias. They created a bunch of wonderful artworks and some absolutely incredible fashion as well. It's sort of their vision of fashion as both utopic and utilitarian, in an everyday way, that I'm most inspired by. If we consider anarchist art-making as something that is both subject to pause and reflection as well as something that should feed into our lives and spill out into the general public, then you would be hard pressed to find a better art form than fashion.
Which is not to say that all fashion is radical. The confrontational element comes in how we judge aesthetics. There are concerns of politics, feminism, style, effect, relevancy, etc., to consider and since it's such a utilitarian art form we also consider the situation it is presented in, the person wearing it, etc. One of my favorite examples is the Congolese Sapeurs who appropriated the garb of the French dandy to both assert their superiority to the European gentleman as well as to confront the horrible violence that was happening all around them. Their outfits all exude this anger, this powerful indignation, while creating a totally different notion of normality than that of the soldier or the general. It is the greatest possible extension of anarchist Oscar Wilde's notion of the dandy, or someone that in their vanity and intentional artificiality removes themselves from all notions of good citizenship, rendering them ungovernable.
<em>What do you think about hipster fashion?</em>
First off, I think the term hipster has a definite air of femme-phobia to it. All artists, non-crusty musicians, or people who dress fashionable, yuppies, and teenagers magically become a hipster at the drop of the hat. It's a defense mechanism for people who are afraid to see the world for what it is and afraid to step outside of their comfort prisons and explore new forms of expression. And its use as pejorative is not only rampant in anarchist circles but in conservative, yuppie, liberal circles... Almost every mainstream circle out there hates these damn hipsters, that should really tell you something. The criticism of hipsters is that they are not political and they're too coked up to smash the state, but in reality, most of these so-called hipsters are potential allies if not accomplished anarchists in their own right and are only a-political because some upper crust or elitist asshole made them think anarchism is a new religion.
With that said, I'm going to assume that by hipster we're referring to the ironic nostalgic fashion that the kids are wearing these days... Irony is dead to me. DEAD! I'm only interested in fashion for adults.
Fashion by The Boulevardier: Adult. Contemporary.
Anarchist.
One aspect of masculinity is the eternal man-child, which is perpetuated in some men through irony. Who is going to do the dishes when all the boys are out playing revolution? I'm interested in mature fashion, sober, pouty, serious. The type of fashion that is embodied by Kathleen Turner in **Body Heat.** Fashion that could kill a man. Fashion that is sensual, that is sophisticated... Sophisticated fashion can also be wild though, it can be exuberant and insane, look at Little Edie or Prince.
There's a quote that I heard a few years ago from a Black Panther rally, I can't remember for the life of me who said it, but he was saying that racism took away their innocence, their childhood. This quote has stuck with me because it highlights a serious difference when it comes to privilege: here are all these affluent kids in their early twenties with Mickey Mouse sweaters and Gameboys hanging from their necks, they want to relive their childhoods because they had a great time. I feel the same way, I'd love to relieve my childhood, but we have to realize this is a huge class difference. What seems like an universal emotional solidarity becomes a deeper form of privilege, and in that sense recreates an imagined identity based on kitsch and nostalgia that no one on the outside can crack into. This is why, in my opinion, a lot of DIY [do-it-yourself] youth culture is predominately white and affluent, and I think the neo-Americana thing has similar failings. If we're recreating this 19 th century white homestead culture, what about slavery? Or genocide of the Native Americans? They're totally erased from this vision of history... sigh. I digress.
<em>Gift economy: loot the free box or loot downtown?</em>
Well, I'm not really sure either is a very good example of gift economy... Gift economy as I understand it is about a complete symbolic and economic shift, and the best way of understanding that shift is by looking at rituals. In capitalism, rituals of consumption are all based on propagating alienation and individuality. One of our projects with the Free Boutique was based in an indigenous community in Ecuador that is a good example of a functional gift economy. Little things, like drinking at a party, were performed in a totally different way, where for example instead of having your own glass to drink from you walked around the party giving others little drinks from your bottle, getting very drunk in the process. It's little differences like that that make you wonder exactly how deep this capitalist thing goes and makes me a lot more interested in counter rituals based on gifting than projects of material appropriation. Both free boxes and hooliganism are potential sites of these counter rituals but without the intention of gifting they are useless.
In terms of free boxes, when the clothes are just sitting in a pile, essentially rotting, in a punk house, they are about as radical as the pile of wet cardboard rotting in a corner in the backyard of that said punk house. It's more about recycling than anything else, which is probably closer to eco-fascism than the anarchic gift economy we're talking about. With looting, it's similar. Anyone that reads **âTil it Breaks** can see that not only is hooliganism constant in our society but it is widespread and has been going on for forever and yet hasn't changed anything. I'm totally fascinated by the Lil' Wayne video my friend mentioned the other day, âGot Money.â Here's the classic scenario of bank robbing but with a twist that utterly subverts the capitalist impulse that we have to hoard that money for ourselves. In the video they take the money and throw it out the back of the getaway car, to the lyrics, âGot money, you know it, take it out your pocket and throw it like, this away, that away...â It's an ancient sentiment, like the potlatch or the Kula, yet updated for the 21st century in a way that feels totally natural, which is what I'm looking for when I talk about gift economy.
<em>Fashion, anarchism, gender. Have at it.</em>
What I've been thinking a lot about these days is how common it is for radicals to emulate compulsory masculinity. I recently read an article on Bash Back's site where the author was upset that the straight anarchist media had forgotten to mention the queer organizers when discussing a particular action. I don't know, it just feels like another form of assimilation, where not only are we looking for acceptance by straight anarchists and straight insurrectionists but we are recreating their actions so well they can't even tell the difference. You and I will no doubt disagree on this topic, but I can't help but read senseless violence as a form of compulsory masculinity. Which begs the question, what are we fighting against? For me fashion, anarchism and gender all revolve around feminism and the fight against femme-phobia. I'm interested in creating a society where femininity is dominant. This is not to say that it's another form of domination, as so many anti-feminists claim, but the fundamental principle of feminism as I understand it is the creation of a society where physical superiority, violence and domination are not the guiding principles. Whenever I read insurrectionist texts, especially from the Invisible Committee, they're not concerned with this at all. Their analysis reads like it's written by a bunch of little boys that want more play time, literally, not a serious document about destroying the state.
In that sense, I feel that fashion has traditionally been a tool of resistance by women, transfolk and feminist queers and I'm interested in exploring that, so that it is one of the tools that we as anarchists have at our disposal. We should be well versed in hooliganism, rioting, theory etc., but in my opinion they should be at the service of destroying patriarchy; otherwise, they're totally useless.
<em>Any winter fashion tips for our readers?</em>
Definitely. I think that there is a tendency for mansies in the winter to drop the ball and succumb to those hideous x-tremist garments for extra warmth. Unacceptable. You can get by just fine with a well chosen selection of layers, long underwear, and head wraps. I'm personally inspired by the 16th century, girl with a pearl earring style of head wraps for this season, and as I've been working a lot in the freezing cold as of late, I can say from experience, it's been working excellently. The japanese designer Kenzo has a fantastic take on exuberant layering that is applicable to mansies, which is basically a lot of dolman sleeves, long hanging shirts and sweater layers with leggings, tight pants and boots. In the winter I think a good practice is to create a specific palette of a select three or so colors and rigidly stick to them. This is also a great strategy when looting free boxes, because after a while you start to fetishize your palate and almost salivate whenever you see them. It's a great feeling. The winter is also a time of accessories: gloves, scarves, hats, sunglasses, everything is acceptable this time of year, so take it and run. For a fun project you can do right now, find a garment in your free box that fits your winter palette. Cut five finger holes and cut off a strip of cloth as long as possible; you might need to cut multiple strips and tie them together to get the desired length. Put your fingers through the holes and take the strap and wrap it around the garment on your hand then leading it up your arm to your elbow. Tie it off and cut the fabric there and repeat on the other hand. Voila! Fashion gloves!
Aside from fashion, the mansy or anarchist should always keep in touch with her or his body. Two very simple but wonderful things that you can do for your body are the foot soak and the face steam. For the face steam, just cover your entire head with a towel over a bowl or pot of freshly boiled water. Breathe in until you can't stand it any more. The face steam helps to clear the nasal passage, one of the best ways to fight off any potential cold or infection is through consistently keeping your sinuses clean (if viruses or bacteria don't have the opportunity to proliferate, you don't get sick!). For the foot soak, whenever you get home and are feeling cold to the point that you aren't sure you'll ever warm up, heat up some water, put it in a bucket and dip your feet in. You will need to repeat this at least twice, since your feet are so cold at first, the water cools very quickly and isn't as effective as it should be. Afterwards put your feet in some warm socks in a pair of mukluks, or the DIY equivalent, and you will feel amahzing! Don't be stingy; you can always reuse the water, but don't deny yourself the luxury of bodily comfort. Remember, you are only as cold as the coldest part of your body, which, after a long day in the cold is inevitably your feet, and so it is very efficient to focus on warming your feet in this way. For an exercise in gift economy and creating a culture of nurturing, prepare one of these for your comrade. It only takes a minute, but will give everyone a warm feeling of utopia in their hearts.
<em>Tell us of your dreams. Any crazy ideas bubbling up, things you want to experiment with, hopes for evolution?</em>
I'm starting a salon on Art and Anarchism. It will be two mini-talks by different people, one on an art topic, one on an anarchist topic, speakeasy style, conversation ensues. There's this anarchist fashion magazine in the works, as you know, and the ongoing legal/fashion defense for my friends that get arrested, in particular Noah. And I'm still trying to get this Sparkle Anarchy dance collective together which has sort of been morphing in my mind into this anarchist club night where we also do reperformances of art by Marina Abromovic and Carolee Schneeman, wear these outrageous outfits, pose and pout and all that, then dance all night. I want to do this installation in New Orleans based on sexuality and gift economy and there's a fashion performance coming up in February that will be this glacier kingdom, apocalyptic ice queen warrior thing. We also might style El Centro Humanitario's catering cooperative soon and have been working on a design to turn old bike frames into permanent outdoor free boutiques. Oh, we might also start wrapping public sculptures with free clothes...more on that to come.
<em>Oh! one last thing: could you point us to some of the sources for the history you mentioned earlier: the French anarchist cabarets, Jean Genet, the Wobblies, and so on, where our readers could find out more if they so desire?</em>
For the **fin-de-siecle** cabarets: **Anarchism and Cultural Politics in Fin de Siecle France.**
Jean Genet: **Our Lady of the Flowers,** and various sources... sorry to not be more specific, can't remember the source!
Wobblies: Harry Hay's biography, not sure what it's called, he was pretty open about his first love with a Wobbly. As for the Wobblies and pop songs just read their little red song book, most of those were bastardized pop songs and popular gospel songsâŚ
The Cockette's have a wonderful documentary out that basically spells out their political upbringing with the Diggers and talks briefly about their lifestyle. I wish there was more, I was talking with Rumi Missabu, former Cockette about an interview but never got around to it, but you know, I really should, shouldn't I?!
Harlem Balls: yeah **Paris is Burning,** but a lot of those houses still exist or there are others that are around that are in the same vein. But the movie is what I was mostly talking about with the structure of nurturing and basically radical solidarity.
Vivienne Westwood designed the clothes for the Sex Pistols, it's like her claim to fame and there are tons of resources out there on the internet about it. It started as a rocker revival boutique then turned into a fetish boutique, called SEX, where she started dressing pretty boys using Tom of Finland drawings and what not. I'm not sure where I read all this, I could probably dig it up, but I think it's pretty common knowledge.
Oscar Wilde as an anarchist: âSoul of Man under Socialismâ is his political theory, where he advocates socialism with the understanding that socialism creates a non-hierarchical, decentralized, anti-authoritarian utopia. He advocated for the release of Sacco and Vanzetti, signed his political affiliation as anarchist at several points and publicly stated he was an anarchist and he wrote his first play, **Vera, or, the Nihilists** about Sergei Nechaev and the tendency for revolutionaries to distance themselves from their humanity and their compassion.
Constructivists: Varvara Stepanova wrote the "General Theory of Constructivism" in 1921 theorizing that constuctivism was a way of looking at art as almost a science, as something that should be incorporated into everyday life, while maintaining the autonomy of the artist. This was popular in the USSR for about three years then socialist realism was determined to serve the ârevolutionâ better and the former constructivists were put in work camps, one was executed and the rest fled to Paris. Varvara also designed some pretty amazing clothes, these jumpers which are actually a little reminiscent of our Sundress Bloodbath collection, though we weren't thinking it at the time. Also the movie **Aelita,** the first socialist science fiction movie, had fashion designed by constructivists for the scenes on Mars and it is totally unbelievable, very epic.
The best resource for info on the Sapeurs is Hector Mediavilla, a documentarian that has worked with them for like ten years and has some really amazing photos of their fashion as well as a great summation of their history.
<em>Is there anything else youâd like to add or talk about?</em>
Last words are for fools who haven't said enough... ! **Well then thank you kindly for your time. It was a pleasure.**
By now most of you have probably heard that a person affiliated with Bash Back! Denver was arrested for allegedly trashing the Democratic Headquarters in Denver . Today we received this update from Ariel's support folks.
August 27: Ariel has been released on $5000 bail, and we are not posting new stories until the media hullabaloo has died down. Ariel is doing well and is tremendously grateful for all of your support.
You've heard it by now. A Denver anarchist named Ariel Attack and a second vandal who got away allegedly trashed the Democratic Party Headquarters a couple of weeks ago. Here's the update and plea for cash via Friends of Ariel:
On 9/9/09 at 9 AM, Denver anarchist Ariel Attack made her first court appearance in fine form and fashion. Ariel was charged with Felony 4 Criminal Mischief and faces two to six years in prison plus $$ if convicted. Legal defense could help reduce these costs as well as prison time. Legal costs are estimated at $1,500-2,500 and restitution could be as much as $11,000.
Please steal some money from your boss this week and help keep our comrade out of prison. You'll be glad you did! (T-shirts and other commodities are on their way.)
Actions of solidarity are also welcome! The real struggle is against the courts, not in them. And while solidarity with our anarchist comrades is important, we need to work for solidarity with all prisoners and everyone oppressed by the legal system to bring it crashing down.
<em>Up the hammers, down the slammers!</em>
December 23, 2009
In Denver, we have cause to celebrate as one warm body became secure in its relative freedomâthe sort of freedom that reminds us of what we still must do in order to be free. Yesterday morning, Ariel Attack pled to Class 2 Misdemeanor (Criminal Mischief) in return for the dropping of the original Felony charge, and the court set the sentence at eleven months (?!) of unsupervised probation and full payment of $5,600 restitution, allowing Ariel to stay on the streets and in the arms of friends. This is much better than the possible 2-6 year bit they were facing. The restitution had to be paid in full and up front (by taking out a loan) for the deal to go through.
A year unsupervised is not a bad deal considering the circumstances of Ariel's arrest and their refusal to name the 'accomplice'. In case you're just tuning in, Ariel was involved in an attack against the Colorado Democratic Party Headquarters in August by means of hammers and the resulting media clusterfuck. We feel there has been a lot of luck mixed up in this situation, but we'll publish a narrative of the events so that anarchists out there can see if there's anything they can learn. Look out for that in the next couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, friends close by and far away are feeling the cold grip of state repression, and the struggle continues. There are two Denver-based anarchists facing felony charges and massive legal fees, and we extend our solidarity to Jeff and Noah, along with Carrie and Scott, David Japenga, the RNC8, all of our imprisoned comrades; the list is far too long to finish.
While Ariel's legal battle has wrapped up, we are making one last request for donations to help cut away at Ariel's debtâabout $6,000âand we still have some of these fly Hammer Time t-shirts to move. Friendsofariel@riseup.net to get hooked up.
A brief message from Ariel:
<em>To everyone who has had my back these past months, with everything from letters and cash to screenprinting, fashion advice, words, and all of that intangible "I got your backâ stuff, Thank you! And, yeah, it was fun.</em>
Freedom, however, is not something stable on which we can place our feet. It is a struggle we fight day by day. Yesterday was not a shallow victoryâthere is nothing shallow about the warmth of friends' arms, the taste of good food, the drag of fingernails across skin. Still, this sense of freedom is nothing compared to what we will experience when we destroy the prisons.
In solidarity,
Friends of Ariel Attack
So, as you're probably aware, the main reason why I started this column was because I am concerned with the representation of anarchistsânot only in the media but on the streets, and in this case, in court. As I've written before, anarchists tend to fall into the same semiotic traps time and time again, whether it's the practically compulsory hyper-masculine all black uniform at mass demonstrations, the declasse âhobohemianâ neurosis or the broken record that is punky punk punk fashion.
While these fashion choices are often portrayed as based on necessity, more often than not, they are nothing more than a desire to fit in and feel a part of a subculture. With such a diverse politic as anarchism, being interpreted and enacted in thousands of different cultures around the world, not to mention the contributions of anarcha-feminism and queer anarchism, it's totally unacceptable to let one or two subcultures dominate the look and the feel of this movement. It's not like subcultures don't have their place and don't have anything to offer to anarchist fashion, it's just that we should be aware of how often we pigeon hole (wait, why is a pigeon in a hole!) ourselves and how exclusive these representations can seem to the uninitiated.
So, when Ariel approached Kate and I to see if the Free Boutique could help her dress for her court dates (stemming from these allegations), from my end of things, I felt inspired to help because it was such a good opportunity to subvert the media portrayals of anarchism and of course to help my friend look mahvelous!
For this first look, we decided to go for something more reserved, merging Ariel's own punk aesthetic with something more formal and appropriate for court, while still maintaining personal autonomy and disregard for conservative court fashions. While elements of her love for le punk remain in the boots, and a little in the pants, we wanted to push the look into more experimental territory, confusing gender lines and creating an elegance that is unique and confrontational.
At first, I wanted to really go for this MMM-inspired shiny black top with giant villain shoulders and have her wear this large circle A pendant, playing off the whole anarchist villain/evil tranny thing, but Kate reminded me that when Marc Jacobs dressed Winona Ryder in court, his inspiration was, not surprisingly, âinnocenceâ and that we should probably tone it down... like a lot. Which is what we did, as you can see, and I think it turned out beautifully. It gives her the air of a sophisticated bank robber, a classic, classic look to be sure. As well, in this case, it's obvious that the overdressed look is the only route that can subvert the sobriety and bad fashion that is seemingly demanded in court without reifying the court's power over us and undermining our agency as adults. Transcendence by the Free Boutique.
Here's the latest look from the series I'm doing on court fashion for Ariel Attack. If you remember, she was arrested for smashing the windows at the Democratic Headquarters a couple months back, and today was her second court date. For this session we decided to go for something related to Guy Fawkes, it being November 5th and all. Not wanting to look too costumey we wanted a more muted palette, once again harkening back to the notion of innocence that I discussed last time.
The cape, or piece de resistance, was made from a suit jacket that had a matching skirt and is sort of my take on a formal fall cape. Underneath is the classic tie, oxford and cardigan getup, albeit keeping within a strict monochromatic palette.
This look once again addresses the formality demanded within court, but, because she is overdressed, she has a greater freedom to express her resistance to both gender norms and the sobriety of the state. This is certainly a truism for court fashion, but can be applied to most situations. I find that the âcasual" look is only comfortable in its acquiescence to the status quo, whether it be through militaristic, gender normative or cultural appropriative garments. With a little planning, you can choose a set of confrontational and attractive staples that you can wear continuously as your own regalia. No matter how âformalâ they appear, clothes have a long life and when worn in this manner gain a certain **wabi-sabi,** a term that I believe finds a comfortable home in fashion.
Here's the third installment of Ariel's court fashion series.
Note the shard of glass fan... We'll be selling accessories made from glass shards to benefit Ariel's court fees; they're a little pricey, starting at $200 for a necklace, and significantly more for the glass fans, but they are genuine Democratic Headquarters glass, so they are totally collector items.
I can't even explain how great it's been dressing Ariel; it's really reinforced my passion for. um... fashion, just in the sense that having the opportunity to share clothes and style with someone is so warm and intimate. It's such a great way to make and deepen friendships. I just love the whole process! I can see why fashion is at the heart of so many gift-based indigenous communities: it's because caring for someone's image is the collective celebration of that person's agency and self-mythology and in that sense it is a perfect metaphor for the intersection of individuality and collectivism.
Ariel and I were discussing the fucking Maoists walking back from this photo shoot and she remarked that fashion parties are perhaps a uniquely anarchist activity, something that would be difficult to imagine happening in any other political persuasion, and I think it's because of the reasons above. It's because both fashion and anarchism are this perpetual discussion of combining DIY or die egoism with consensus decision-making and concerns for personal image within the greater community. That and because everyone knows how much queers love looking sexy! Psh... But yeah, the next court date is in late December, so keep supporting Ariel and buy one of our glass shards!
July 28, 2008
This year the US has seen an explosion in Radical Trans/Queer organizing. From Maine to the Midwest to the Bay Area, RadiQueers are holding it down. Pride events have been crashed, glitter bombs have been thrown, and militant marches have taken the streets. In a month's time, Trannies and Queermos will play a major role in crashing both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.
BB! News has been launched in an effort to collect stories and disseminate information to radical Trannies and Queers throughout the US and beyond.
BB! News is not limited to Bash Back! chapters. Any and all radical trans/queer folk are welcome to use this site to plug actions/ events, report back, distribute propaganda, release manifestos and communiques, etc.
BB! News has a section specifically devoted to the providing y'all with all of the information you need to plug into the strategy for crashing the Conventions.
April 30, 2008
This June, the forces of assimilationist gay capitalism are throwing themselves a little party. Pridefest is set for the weekend of June 6th-8th on Milwaukee's lakefront. It's bound to be a blast for log cabin republicans, corporate sponsors and all the affluent festival-goers who can afford the $75 tickets to see Wanda Sykes. The organizers and corporate sponsors have planned a weekend of assimilation, trans-exclusion, consumer-frenzy and devotion to the state.
Bash Back! Milwaukee has something else in mind. We are calling for Bash Back! folks from all over the Midwest to come to Milwaukee for the weekend of the 6th-8th to crash Pridefest's party and to strategize for the upcoming Republican National Convention.
Friday night, BB!MKE will facilitate a strategizing session to further the RNC strategy developed at the recent Bash Back! convergence in Chicago. We will advance our strategy and articulate the finer details of our plan to crash the convention. Following the serious work, there will definitely be a dance party.
Saturday will be a day of action. We're planning guerilla workshops, street theater, and actions targeted at homophobic protesters, politicians, and other grievous corporate sponsors.
On Sunday a rowdy and festive radical trans and queer contingent will join in on the Pride Parade through downtown Milwaukee.
The strategizing session will be a âvouched for' event. This means that those desiring to attend should come with people or the contact information of people who will vouch for them. Anyone vouching for someone should be able to ensure that the person they are vouching for is not a law enforcement officer, will not cooperate with law enforcement, and has a working knowledge of security culture. This measure isn't meant to be exclusive, but rather to guarantee the security of the strategy session and those involved. The remainder of the weekend is not âvouched for' and will be open to anyone.
We can use **lots** of non-perishable foods, pink and black flags, pies, glitter-filled water balloons, drums, banners, and even more non-perishable food.
See ya'll in June!
Love,
<em>Bash Back! Milwaukee</em>
October 12, 2008
Having lost Kirsten Brydum, Bash Back wants to start a long over-due Really Really Free Market.
We recently lost an amazing activist. Close friends report that the body of San Francisco activist Kirsten Brydum was found two weeks ago in New Orleans, where Kirsten had traveled as part of a popular education tour. Kirsten was known locally as an organizer of the Really Really Free Market in Dolores Park, a monthly gathering to freely exchange goods and services with no money, trade or barter.
In memoriam Bash Back would like to put on a Chicago Really Really Free Market!
October 26 from noon to 5 PM
February 25, 2009
<em>With a fist raised high in the cunt of oppression we</em> <em>second the motion for an anti war black bloc.</em>
<em>Dictated but not written,</em>
<em>Ba</em><em>sh Back!</em>
<em>Original Call:</em>
No, we are not the police. Yes, we are serious.
We are Illegal:
Black Bloc Manifestation
Chicago, March 14, 2009
Marshall Boulevard & Cermak Road
We are an affinity group making this call in hopes of meeting others at the mass Chicago anti-war/proimmigrant demo in Pilsen on March 14 to form an anarchist black bloc.
We've been too busy and too frustrated to join the planning committee, and to be honest we never really believed we would be taken seriously.
The ruling classes have again revealed their cruelty and incompetence. The call for the dissolution of government and the dismantling of capitalism has taken on a fresh urgency. The current Crisis and the coming insurrection demand radical preparation and experimentation here and now.
Economic crisis spreads and deepens it becomes social, political, moral. The takeover of Republic Windows whetted our appetites for possibilities beyond the Law. All around us we are inspired by our neighbors' collective and adventurous responses to the Crisis and global resistance to occupation and deportation. We see neighborhoods plotting to resist the International Olympic Committee, and we wish to contribute by opening new currents to feed and spread social struggle. We are a part of the gathering storm.
It is important to recognize the massive police presence at such events and the hindrance they cause, but that is no reason to stay away or hide. Our bodies desire space and the total freedom of movement. We are attracted to crowds because we need to scream and shout, we want to break our isolation and become powerful.
The black bloc is an expression of our power, an organic outgrowth of our experiences together. In the mass, anonymous crowd we find our individuality, we hide in plain sight. In becoming whatever we are becoming ourselves.
Together we've cooked and shared food, thrown parties, traveled across the country, sneaked past ticket counters and lost ourselves in orgy. We've run together from police, confronted racists, stormed churches, disrupted conventions and lingered flirtatiously nose-to-nose after a kiss. We have yet to truly see everything of which we are capable together.
black tops // black bottoms
Meet around the black flags and anarchist banners
October 4, 2009
Midwest showing some love for UCSC. If you don't like what you get set the barricades on fire as an act of revolt, if you do get what you want set the barricades on fire as a sign of celebration.
Some radical kids in Chicago hung a banner on UIC's campus as a small sign of solidarity to the kids at UCSC, and an even smaller sign of things to come. We don't demand a thing, we will have it all.
<em>An autonomous cell of Bash Back!</em>
Calling all DC, Maryland, and Virginia radical queers, trannies, genderqueers, and @-feminists!
We find ourselves living in the heart of an empire that would have us as colonial subjects, terrorized into the closet, or even worse, normalized into a heteronormative culture. But we don't need to hide, and we don't need to have our identities torn apart by assimilation. Choose to resist by any means necessary. Choose to Bash Back rather than remain a victim!
Bash Back! DC is a newly forming group of radical queers, trannies, @-feminists, and allies. We will fight both against heterosexism as well as the assimilationist gay mainstream.
The HRC is having a big ole party soon, and we wouldn't want to be unprepared to thank them for all the years they've ârepresentedâ us!
From the frontlines of the culture war xoxoxo,
<em>The queer insurgency</em>
November 7, 2008
Dear queers, trannies, freaks, perverts, and other fabulous folks out there,
Greetings from the heart of the occupied territory we call home! You may have heard something about capitalism collapsing over these last few weeks. Well honey, it's happening! Unfortunately the same straight, white dudes that are always running the show are trying to fix it up again. Bash Back! DC wants to see you next weekend in DC to show that queers say âAW HELL NO!â to continued neoliberal domination. On November 14th, we'll see ya'll at the People's Banquet, 5-7 PM in Lafayette Park. At 10 AM on the 15th there's a Rally and Carnival at Judiciary Square Metro, and we'll have a rowdy, raucous queer prescence at the march immediately following, which'll be themed around a festive celebration of the downfall of capitalism. And don't miss the Shadow Summit at 2 PM where we can talk about alternatives to this incredibly unfabulous system. Hope radical queers from all over this crazy land will join us!
With x's, o's, and molotovs
till we get real hope and change,
<em>Bash Back! DC</em>
Bash Back! News is pleased to announce the formation of the first âofficialâ West Coast chapter.
It seems that the trannies, dykes, and faggots of Olympia, Washington have had enough of this bullshit we call Patriarchy (vomit). This morning Bash Back! News recieved this email from the Bash Back! Olympia chapter:
âfilthy deviants- this is how we can send each other war letters. love, lead pipe chapter of the olympia BB! gangâ
We are a rapidly spreading cancer in this hell hole called the United States (double vomit!!)
Radical queers, transfolk, and anarcha-feminists in the East Bay, California, have formed a Bash Back! Chapter.
We hope that instead of being in 'competition' with groups like SF's Gay Shame, we can work with them to network and organize with other radicals (queer and otherwise) within our area.
To our fabulous anarchist-comrades and fellow radicals alike:
As you are well aware, Bash Back! has been fucking shit up fierce and looking damn sexy in the process. Queer and Trans insurrection is hot right now; we've been infecting this country with something a lot more meaningful and glittery than obama fever. New chapters are springing up all over the country. As expected, the reaction has begun hitting back. Harassment, intimidation, and other forms of persecution are intensifying on behalf of both agents of the state and citizen fuckheads. Known houses are frequented by marked and unmarked cars. We are receiving a constant stream of threats. Police have contacted three different individuals' parents in Milwaukee as well as others in Lansing; unable to pin any charges on us, their questions instead focused on gathering information pertaining to our organizational structure, personal relationships, as well as other things. Since the situation is such, we are making a call for solidarity. We hope your unending support will manifest itself thru attacks even more sparkly than ours. We wish to say to you and our oppressors that any and all forms of repression only work to intensify our efforts. We will not stop until all capitalist, statist, and heteronormative institutions are destroyed, and the ruins bedazzled.
Until sodomites are squatting the White House;
Yours from the wettest
wildest dreams you've ever had,
<em>Bash Back!</em>
Update!
Pop sensation and teen heartthrob Soulja Boy Tell âem was recently outed by what the ignornant mainstream media believes simply to be a bitter exgirlfriend, Megan Good. One gorgeous bash backing diva is here make sure that each and every pop consumer knows the truth and juicy details about Soulja Boy's sordid affairs.
At the age of 18 this young cutie was comfortable with his repulsive heterosexuality as much as he was his ability to make entire high school proms bust out ridiculous dance moves and start cranking the soulja boy. Little did he know that one moment would not only blow his mind but make him instantly blow his load. One foggy night after an album release party the successful artist was settled down comfortably in the backseat of his limo when the car came to a screeching halt. Soulja Boy, demanding to know why the driver had stopped, happened to glance out his window and was confronted with the most beautiful image he had ever seen. A body glittered and tattooed bash backer flew past his window at an unmatchable speed; in their golden heels they ran past at a velocity that no one but a glorious radical queer could ever hope to achieve in eight- inch stilettos. This raving lunatic of a fag hurled towards the window of a Human Rights Campaign store and proceeded to smash it with a pink and black flag; they annihilated the storefront with a passion that would cause any riot cop or wall street banker to instantly drop to his knees and pray to the virgin. When the window was completely gone the frenzied queer grabbed hold of the nearest rainbow flag and lit the fucker up. The image of this gender-fucked agent of chaos waving a burning flag over so many shards of sparkling glass paralyzed both Soulja Boy and his driver. The monstrous queen, finally noticing Soulja Boy, calmly walked up the the limo and tapped on the window. When the hypnotized pop star inched down the glass the queer calmly tossed Soulja Boy their number and confidently strutted away into the fog.
From that point on Soulja's life changed completely. The encounter with a most dangerous of queers left him insecure in his masculinity and the way that society shaped him. He could no longer look at his girlfriend the same way after he had seen the beauty of gender fucking. Not soon after the affair began Soulja Boy fell deeply in love with numerous riotous queers from all over the country (we are everywhere, keep in mind) genderless, female, male, and multigendered alike, and he had a harder and harder time keeping up with the demands of his career and clueless girlfriend.
Of course the hit song Kiss Me Thru the Phone was written about many lovers, but specifically to calm the jealousy of his lonely model/actress girlfriend. Yes Megan, Soulja Boy will have to kiss you through the phone because he can't be at home. Why can't he come home you ask? Well, probably because he's in the middle of a lube soaked orgy in some squatted warehouse.
Not capable of dealing with Soulja Boy's numerous week long absences or his lingering smell of flax seed oil, Megan finally broke it off with the pop sensation, leaving him free to do as he pleases. Soulja now has all the time in the world to brew kombucha, knit nice socks, read zines, and get his swag on.
Soulja Boy's awakening is perfectly indicative of the goals and aims of Bash Back! We are everywhere, and with every opportunity presented we will attack the slightest insecurities in your disgusting heteronormative institutions. Even the most socially and monetarily elite are vulnerable to our desires and, if ever exposed to both the beauty and filth of our lives, they will be driven to either suicide or personal liberation. We hate the patriarchal system that chokes the happiness out of our lives and despise the capitalist parasite that drains the youth and freedom from our blood. As of now we may only exist on the fringes of your consciousness, we might only reach you through subtle rumors. Presently, radical queers are just brief visions of the future in your peripheral vision, the embodiment of every closeted desire in your nightmares. The Machine has embedded Order so deeply in every consciousness and we are the organic chaos that will dismantle the machine, we are what your subconscious has been taught to fear above all things. We won't be submitting to the terms of dictators or playing by the rules of oppressors any longer. We're no longer content lingering on the sidelines and soon we will be in your direct line of vision, filling your mind with color, music, and dance. When you least expect it, there will be no escape.
We're coming for you, straighty.
<em>Bash Back! Home-Wrecking Committee</em>
June 14, 2010
In case anyone missed it, the plug of any remnants of an organization known as Bash Back! was finally pulled in Denver (Woohoo Death Driveeeeee!). As such, please stop emailing BB! News if trying to contact any type of activist organization which lives only in your minds. Instead, get yr crews together and do some bashing back of your own. BB! News will continue to exist as a place for the latest reports of queer insurrection and social war, so keep sending yr news in, but BASH BACK! IS DEAD, and we'd like to keep it like that way.
Towards the destruction of all activist organizations, vanguards, nonprofits, recuperators of struggle, and all other forms of domination,
<em>BB! News</em>
January 1, 2011
BB! News has been hacked for the final time. The new password will be destroyed with this site.
We, the mysterious originators of Bash Back! News, have risen from the dead and upon returning to our graves this website will accompany us. We will leave the last two years of content online as a reference point for any and all who wish to understand what BB! was. The glorious days of BB! are over. What this website has become is a clear indication that it, the website, must die.
We, the ghosts of BB! News, hope that one day massive decentralized anarchaqueer action will spread like a sexually transmitted infection all over this heteroland. We, the ghosts of BB! News, hope that one day a new hub dedicated to the dissemination of information related to transqueer resistance will be birthed from the dripping asshole of this site. When that day comes, the day of reckoning if you will, our corpses will once again be resurrected and the TransQueer Apocalypse will wait on our collective doorsteps.
Death to Christianity. Death to religion. Death to all state and corporate infiltrators. Death to the turncoats. Death to academics. Death to rapists. Death to liberal provocateurs. Death to the collegiate co-opters of gendervariancy.
Death to the HeteroInsect that preys on the blood of the TransQueer resistance!
BB! and BB! News was once something great. Let us remember those days of holy glory and forget the day that this website became the playground for those masquerading as something they are not.
Children, do not attempt to be cool. Strive to become beautiful.
To fucking on the glittery, torched
corpses of the rich, normative, straight, and boring,
<em>The Ghosts of Bash Back! News</em>
Hello Tranny-fags, boi-dykes, riot grrls, gender fuckers, sluts, and all queers and actual allies!! Hope you all have had a chance to rest and decompress from the DNC and RNC actions. Hope your report backs have gone as well as ours and you have had a chance to continue building your groups and starting new projects.
New Bash Back chapters are popping up all over the country! The network of radical queers that has been built out of Anti- DNC and RNC organizing is growing and gaining momentum. Its time for another convergence.
Michigan's newly formed chapter of Bash Back has volunteered to organize and provide for a Post-action Bash Back Convergence in Lansing. The main goal is to work through the actions, and pre-action work to learn as much as we can from it all while it is still fresh in our minds. A second goal of this convergence will be developing strategy for anti-Olympics organizing in Chicago, as well a a general goal of maintaining and building this radical queer network. There will also be workshops, caucuses and an action. Lansing will provide housing, food, and structure.
We feel that post-action organizing is just as important as pre-action. It tends to get neglected because the action is 'over' and people want to get back to our lives and other projects. But this raises trouble when the next action comes along and we have to recount everything that happened in the year(s) previous. We end up making a lot of the same mistakes and, let's face it, we don't have time for that. Even if Michigan it is far for you, please at least send one or two representatives from your affinity groups to this convergence so that we can be more than ready for the next action. The State is already planning for our next move so we should at least be doing the same.
So please join us in Lansing for a rad weekend of organizing, actions, parties and the usual anarcho-sluttiness!
<em>WAY IMPORTANT!!</em>
<em>Please RSVP with how many need private spaces. I.e. Trannies needing to take off binding, relax from tucking etc... That space will be limited, so hit us up as soon as you can!</em>
SEE YOU IN NOVEMBER!!!
RISE UP! BASH BACK!
<em>Bash Back Lansing</em>
March 15, 2009
The Red Cross flyers seen around the Twin Cities were posted by Humans Opposed to Medical Oppression (H.O.M.O). Much like commonly seen blood drive flyers, this flyer explains who is a potential candidate for blood donation:
âAll blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or driver's license, or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Donors must be at least 17 years old, 16 years old with a signed Red Cross parent/guardian consent form, and must weigh at least 110 pounds. No faggots.â
Since 1985, it is Red Cross policy to exclude donations from men who have had sex with other men since 1977, as well as women who have had sex within the last twelve months with a man who has had sex with another man since 1977. This policy came up for review in 2000, with the FDA proposing a change to reflect a twelve-month waiting period for men who may have had unsafe sex with another man. The American Red Cross testified against this policy change, and it currently stands as it did in 1985. This exclusion is unnecessary, as all blood entering hospitals, research labs, blood banks, and the mainstream is tested before distribution.
This policy reinforces the stereotype that all gay men engage in unprotected sexual behavior. Instead of excluding donations from people who engage in unsafe or unprotected sexual behaviors, the Red Cross and the FDA have chosen to exclude an entire segment of the population.
This policy is also detrimental to the blood supply volume. According to the University of Minnesota, âOnly 37 percent of Americans are considered acceptable donorsâ (Feb 5, 2008: wwwi. umn.edu/umnnews/Feature_Stories/Blood_donor_pool_shrinking. html). This is down from 60% in the 1990s. â'We don't have a blood- supply problem, we have a blood-donor problem,' said Teresa Solorio, spokeswoman for American Red Cross Blood Services of Southern California.â (Sept 6, 2007: seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ health/2003870936_bloodshort06.html). With the dwindling blood supply, the Red Cross would benefit from reviewing and revising their policy. According to Center for Disease Control, the fastest growing HIV infection rates are occurring in high risk heterosexual persons.
If the American Red Cross was actually concerned about the health and safety of the general public and about âsaving a lifeâ they would overturn their homophobic policies, publicly support comprehensive sexual education and actually educate the public about infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS with culturally appropriate information and statistics.
The Anti-War movement in the US today is a pathetic and polite plea to the rulers of the nation to listen to their conscience and pray for peace. Enough pandering to liberal politicians who talk about change and hope but then uphold the status quo once they are elected. Enough standing on the sidewalk in orderly rallies waving peace signs.
Enough permitted marches that do nothing but express opinions that those in power ignore. We are five years into this war and the same old tactics are not getting us anywhere. People have dropped out of the movement in droves because of the ineffectiveness of these tactics. If we want to build an effective movement that could actually end the wars and infuse some life and energy into the corpse of the US Anti-War movement, we have to get more creative, disruptive, and empowering. Enough is Enough!
In order to end the war, we have to act from the premise that corporations and politicians do not give a shit whether we want the war or not. The only way the war will end is if weânot the politicians and corporationsâdecide to end it. Politicians and corporations care about two things: power and money. History is quite clear; those in power will end the war only when it becomes unviable due to public unrest and direct action. We have the power to end the wars as soon as we come together to exercise that power.
We at Bash Back! are still optimistic about the opportunities for queers to bring down the military (and the state and capitalism along with it.) from the inside out (see Bash Back! Communique #666), but we are not content to sit back and wait for the cumming insurrection.
We are asking our fellow anti-authoritarians in the Twin Cities to come together to build community in the streets and bash back against all systems of oppression. Let's up the sexy, fun, mischievous militancy in this town and the anti-war movement in general.
<em>No war but the social war.</em>
<em>Bash Back! es una red de proyectos queer radicales</em> <em>y antiautoritarios dentro de los Estados Unidos.</em>
<em>Bash Back! se esfuerza por criticar la ideologia del movimiento GLBTQ dominante, que este grupo considera entregado a conseguir privilegio heterosexual por asimilacion en las instituciones dominantes de una sociedad heteronormativa. Agrupaciones de Bash Back! usan accion directa para luchar contra el capitalismo y todas las interrelacionadas formas de opresion, especialmente centrandose en desenmascarar el dominante movimiento gay y los peligros de asimilacionismo y homonormativismo. Bash Back! es obviamente inspirado por el movimiento anarquista y otros grupos radicales queer tales como ACT UP y Gay Shame, y por eventos como los disturbios Stonewall y White Night.</em>
Being in Califas, our struggle for queer liberation is more complicated than it may be elsewhere. Many of us are undocumented, and we organize in cities where up to 25% of the population may be undocumented. Undocumented transpeople face even greater difficulties, as their status can make surgery and other necessary therapies unobtainable. There are also added pressures due to family dynamics, racist police, and anti-immigrant hostilities.
Undocumented and non-white queers and transfolk have been abandoned by the Human Rights Campaign and other mainstream, middle class, white assimilationist organizations, who have been too focused on gay marriage and not enough on the real needs of our communities. And hate crime legislation has done nothing while people of color and queers are so frequently murdered and bashed by police, neo-Nazis, religious fundamentalists, and homo/transphobes. We formed Bash Back! SOC(A)L because of the understanding that only by bashing back, only by defending ourselves by any means necessary against individuals and institutions that wish to exterminate usâas queers and transfolk, people of color, immigrants, and workersâcan we achieve true liberation.
<em>LIBERATION NOT ASSIMILATION!</em>
<em>ITâS OK TO BE GAY!</em>
<em>BASH BACK!</em>
London, 2009
Welcome to the struggle of all genders to be free.
We are the burning rage of millions trapped within a dying gender binary. The war against gender expression ravages our spirits and gender-free people are killed and assaulted every day. Gender Liberation Front works to encourage the collapse of the gender binary, to scare the genderstraights, and to undermine the foundations of the state. We embrace genderfuck as an absurd resistance movement. We show the enemy that we are fucking serious about destroying the binary they hold sacred. Together we have the fabulousness and genderjuice to match our dreams. Our greatest weapons are imagination and the ability to strike when least expected.
Since 1995, a series of mass gender attacks and has been unleashed on the genderstraight population of the world. All GLF actions have been kept secret, until now. We are finally speaking out to incite others to take action.
We've used soy to make kids gay, we've introduced gender-bending hormones into milk, and now the authorities have just discovered that the entire bottled water supply is contaminated with gender-bending chemicals. We aren't finished yet, not by a long shot.
We take inspiration from the Compton's rioters, the Stonewall rioters, the Street Action Transvestite Revolutionaries, ALF, ELF, and all of the fairies and gender pirates of yore. We build on their struggles and resistance and move from the streets and into the water supply.
Authorities can't see us because they don't believe in fairies. We are invisible to them. We have no leaders, no genders, no pronouns, just many small groups working separately, seeking vulnerable targets and unleashing chaos.
Form genderfuck action groups, encourage friends you trust. A tight community of love is a powerful force.
<em>Attack:</em>
- Water supply: introduce gender bending chemicals
- Food supply: introduce gender bending chemicals
- Cosmetics: introduce gender bending chemicals
- Pesticides and herbicides: introduce gender bending chemicals
- Other products of capitalism: introduce gender bending chemicals
We are not very diverse in tactics at this point, but we have accomplished a lot.
Some **results of clandestine GLF actions:**
- Phthalates: Found in vinyl flooring, shower curtains, solvents, plastics, PVC. Banned in cosmetics made in EU.
- Parabens: Preservatives used in cosmetics, creams, lotions and deodorants.
- Triclosan: Anti-bacterial chemical used in soaps, toothpaste and chopping boards.
- PCBs: Found in electrical circuits, paints, brake linings and flame retardants. Banned in EU.
- Bisphenol A: Used in clear plastic baby bottles, tin cans, mobile phone casings. Banned in baby bottles in Canada.
- Linuron/Diuron: Herbicides used to control weeds on roads, forests and farms. Traces found on food.
- Vinclozolin: Fungicide banned in EU, but found on imported fruit and vegetables.
- Penta-BDE: Flame retardants, now banned in EU, found in old foam mattresses and car seats.
- Prochloraz: Fungicide used on fruits and vegetables.
- Procymidone: Fungicide banned in EU last year, traces found in UK beans, fruit smoothies and breakfast cereal.
Til genders run as free as rivers with no dams,
<em>the Gender Liberation Front</em>
The following texts, toward the queerest insurrection, whore theory, criminal intimacy and what is it to become beautiful? all surfaced in Milwaukee, WI in the time between 2008 and 2010. The texts are all attributed to an elusive group referring to itself at times as the **Mary Nardini Gang** and at others simply as **a gang of criminal queers.** However it describes itself, this group published only ephemeral tracts of negative queer theory (at times as one-off zines, at others in the Milwaukee-based anarchist publication, **total destroy).** Beyond these texts, we're including an interview with an associate of this enigmatic group, printed in the journal **vengeance** 3.
by The Mary Nardini Gang
Some will read âqueer" as synonymous with âgay and lesbianâ or âLGBTâ. This reading falls short. While those who would fit within the constructions of âLâ, âGâ, âBâ or âTâ could fall within the discursive limits of queer, queer is not a stable area to inhabit. Queer is not merely another identity that can be tacked onto a list of neat social categories, nor the quantitative sum of our identities. Rather, it is the qualitative position of opposition to presentations of stabilityâan identity that problematizes the manageable limits of identity. Queer is a territory of tension, defined against the dominant narrative of white- hetero-monogamous-patriarchy, but also by an affinity with all who are marginalized, otherized and oppressed. Queer is the abnormal, the strange, the dangerous. Queer involves our sexuality and our gender, but so much more. It is our desire and fantasies and more still. Queer is the cohesion of everything in conflict with the heterosexual capitalist world. Queer is a total rejection of the regime of the Normal.
As queers we understand Normalcy. Normal, is the tyranny of our condition; reproduced in all of our relationships. Normalcy is violently reiterated in every minute of every day. We understand this Normalcy as the Totality. The Totality being the interconnection and overlapping of all oppression and misery. The Totality is the state. It is capitalism. It is civilization and empire. The totality is fence-post crucifixion. It is rape and murder at the hands of police. It is âStr8 Actingâ and âNo Fatties or Femmesâ. It is Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. It is the brutal lessons taught to those who can't achieve Normal. It is every way we've limited ourselves or learned to hate our bodies. We understand Normalcy all too well.
When we speak of social war, we do so because purist class analysis is not enough for us. What does a marxist economic worldview mean to a survivor of bashing? To a sex worker? To a homeless, teenage runaway? How can class analysis, alone as paradigm for a revolution, promise liberation to those of us journeying beyond our assigned genders and sexualities? The Proletariat as revolutionary subject marginalizes all whose lives don't fit in the model of heterosexual- worker.
Lenin and Marx have never fucked the ways we have.
We need something a bit more thoroughâsomething equipped to come with teeth-gnashing to all the intricacies of our misery. Simply put, we want to make ruins of domination in all of its varied and interlacing forms. This struggle inhabiting every social relationship is what we know as social war. It is both the process and the condition of a conflict with this totality.
In the discourse of queer, we are talking about a space of struggle against this totalityâagainst normalcy. By âqueerâ, we mean âsocial warâ. And when we speak of queer as a conflict with all domination, we mean it.
See, we've always been the other, the alien, the criminal. The story of queers in this civilization has always been the narrative of the sexual deviant, the constitutional psychopathic inferior, the traitor, the freak, the moral imbecile. We've been excluded at the border, from labor, from familial ties. We've been forced into concentration camps, into sex slavery, into prisons.
The normal, the straight, the american family has always constructed itself in opposition to the queer. Straight is not queer. White is not of color. Healthy does not have HIV. Man is not woman. The discourses of heterosexuality, whiteness, and capitalism reproduce themselves into a model of power. For the rest of us, there is death.
In his work, Jean Genet asserts that the life of a queer is one of exileâthat all of the totality of this world is constructed to marginalize and exploit us. He posits the queer as the criminal. He glorifies homosexuality and criminality as the most beautiful and lovely forms of conflict with the bourgeois world. He writes of the secret worlds of rebellion and joy inhabited by criminals and queers.
Quoth Genet, **Excluded by my birth and tastes from the social order, I was not aware of its diversity. Nothing in the world was irrelevant: the stars on a generalâs sleeve, the stock-market quotations, the olive harvest, the style of the judiciary, the wheat exchange, flower-beds. Nothing. This order, fearful and feared, whose details were all inter-related, had a meaning: my exile.**
A fag is bashed because his gender presentation is far too femme. A poor transman can't afford his life-saving hormones. A sex worker is murdered by their client. A genderqueer persyn is raped because ze just needed to be âfucked straightâ. Four black lesbians are sent to prison for daring to defend themselves against a straight-male attacker. Cops beat us on the streets and our bodies are being destroyed by pharmaceutical companies because we can't give them a dime.
Queers experience, directly with our bodies, the violence and domination of this world. Class, Race, Gender, Sexuality, Ability; while often these interrelated and overlapping categories of oppression are lost to abstraction, queers are forced to physically understand each. We've had our bodies and desires stolen from us, mutilated and sold back to us as a model of living we can never embody.
Foucault says that **power must be understood, in the first instance as the multiplicity of force relations immanent in the sphere in which they operate and which constitute their own organization; as the processes which, through ceaseless struggles and confrontations, transforms, strengthens or reverses them; as the support which these force relations find in one another, thus forming a chain or system, or on the contrary, the disjunctions and contradictions which isolate them from one another; and lastly, as the strategies in which they take effect, whose general design or institutional crystallization is embodied in the state apparatus, in the formulation of the law, in the various social hegemonies.**
We experience the complexity of domination and social control amplified through heterosexuality. When police kill us, we want them dead in turn. When prisons entrap our bodies and rape us because our genders aren't similarly contained, of course we want fire to them all. When borders are erected to construct a national**** identity absent of people of color and queers, we see only one solution: every nation and border reduced to rubble.
The perspective of queers within the heteronormative world is a lens through which we can critique and attack the apparatus of capitalism. We can analyze the ways in which Medicine, the Prison System, the Church, the State, Marriage, the Media, Borders, the Military and Police are used to control and destroy us. More importantly, we can use these cases to articulate a cohesive criticism of every way that we are alienated and dominated.
Queer is a position from which to attack the normativeâmore, a position from which to understand and attack the ways in which normal is reproduced and reiterated. In destabilizing and problematizing normalcy, we can destabilize and become a problem for the Totality.
The history of organized queers was borne out of this position. The most marginalizedâtransfolk, people of color, sex workersâhave always been the catalysts for riotous explosions of queer resistance. These explosions have been coupled with a radical analysis wholeheartedly asserting that the liberation for queer people is intrinsically tied to the annihilation of capitalism and the state. It is no wonder, then, that the first people to publicly speak of sexual liberation in this country were anarchists, or that those in the last century who struggled for queer liberation also simultaneously struggled against capitalism, racism, patriarchy, and empire. This is our history.
If history proves anything, it is that capitalism has a treacherous recuperative tendency to pacify radical social movements. It works rather simply, actually. A group gains privilege and power within a movement, and shortly thereafter sells their comrades out. Within a couple years of stonewall, affluent-gay-white-males had thoroughly marginalized everyone who had made their movement possible, and abandoned their revolution with them.
It was once that to be queer was to be in direct conflict with the forces of control and domination. Now, we are faced with a condition of utter stagnation and sterility. As always, Capital recuperated brick-throwing street queens into suited politicians and activists. There are log-cabin-Republicans and âstonewall" refers to gay Democrats. There are gay energy drinks and a âqueer" television station that wages war on the minds, bodies, and esteem of impressionable youth. The âLGBT" political establishment has become a force of assimilation, gentrification, capital, and state power. Gay identity has become both a marketable commodity and a device of withdrawal from struggle against domination.
Now they don't critique marriage, military, or the state. Rather we have campaigns for queer assimilation into each. Their politics is advocacy for such grievous institutions, rather than the annihilation of them all. âGays can kill poor people around the world as well as straight people!" âGays can hold the reigns of the state and capital as well straight people!" âWe are just like you".
Assimilationists want nothing less than to construct the homosexual as normalâwhite, monogamous, wealthy, 2.5 children, SUVs with a white picket fence. This construction, of course, reproduces the stability of heterosexuality, whiteness, patriarchy, the gender binary, and capitalism itself.
If we genuinely want to make ruins of this totality, we need to make a break. We don't need inclusion into marriage, the military and the state. We need to end them. No more gay politicians, CEOs, and cops. We need to swiftly and immediately articulate a wide gulf between the politics of assimilation and the struggle for liberation.
We need to rediscover our riotous inheritance as queer anarchists. We need to destroy constructions of normalcy, and create instead a position based in our alienation from this normalcy, and one capable of dismantling it. We must use these positions to instigate breaks, not just from the assimilationist mainstream, but from capitalism itself. These positions can become tools of a social force ready to create a complete rupture with this world.
Our bodies have been born into conflict with this social order. We need to deepen that conflict and make it spread.
Susan Stryker writes that the State acts to **regulate bodies, in ways both great and small, by enmeshing them within norms and expectations that determine what kinds of lives are deemed livable or useful and by shutting down the space of possibility and imaginative transformation where peoples' lives begin to exceed and escape the state's use for them.**
We must create space wherein it is possible for desire to flourish. This space, of course, requires conflict with this social order. To desire, in a world structured to confine desire, is a tension we live daily. We must understand this tension so that we can become powerful through itâwe must understand it so that it can tear our confinement apart.
This terrain, born in rupture, must challenge oppression in its entirety. This of course, means total negation of this world. We must become bodies in revolt. We need to delve into and indulge in power. We can learn the strength of our bodies in struggle for space for our desires. In desire we'll find the power to destroy not only what destroys us, but also those who aspire to turn us into a gay mimicry of that which destroys us. We must be in conflict with regimes of the normal. This means to be at war with everything.
If we desire a world without restraint, we must tear this one to the ground. We must live beyond measure and love and desire in ways most devastating. We must come to understand the feeling of social war. We can learn to be a threat, we can become the queerest of insurrections.
To be clear:
We've despaired that we could never be as well- dressed or cultured as the Fab Five. We found nothing in Brokeback Mountain. We've spent far too long shuffling through hallways with heads-hung-low. We don't give a shit about marriage or the military. But oh we've had the hottest sexâeverywhereâin all the ways we aren't supposed to and the other boys at school definitely can't know about it.
And when I was sixteen a would-be-bully pushed me and called me a faggot. I hit him in the mouth. The intercourse of my fist and his face was far sexier and more liberating than anything MTV ever offered our generation. With the pre-cum of desire on my lips I knew from then on that I was an anarchist.
In short, this world has never been enough for us. We say to it, âwe want everything, motherfucker, try to stop us!â
<em>FILTH IS OUR POLITICS!</em>
<em>FILTH IS OUR LIFE!</em>
1. ) Cooper's Donuts was an all night donut shop on a seedy stretch of Main Street in Los Angeles. It was a regular hangout for street queens and queer hustlers at all hours of the night. Police harassment was a regular fixture of the Cooper's, but one May night in 1959, the queers fought back. What started with customers throwing donuts at the police escalated into full-on street fighting. In the ensuing chaos, all of the donut-wielding rebels escaped into the night.
2.) One weekend in August of 1966, Compton'sâa twenty-four-hour cafeteria in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhoodâwas buzzing with its usual late-night crowd of drag queens, hustlers, slummers, cruisers, runaway teens and neighborhood regulars. The restaurant's management became annoyed by a noisy young crowd of queens at one table who seemed to be spending a lot of time without spending a lot of money, and it called the police to roust them. A surly police officer, accustomed to manhandling Compton's clientele with impunity, grabbed the arm of one of the queens and tried to drag her away. She unexpectedly threw her coffee in his face, however, and a melee erupted: Plates, trays, cups, and silverware flew through the air at the startled police who ran outside and called for backup. The customers turned over the tables, smashed the plate-glass windows, and poured onto the streets. When the police reinforcements arrived, street fighting broke out all throughout the Compton's vicinity. Drag queens beat the police with their heavy purses and kicked them with their high-heeled shoes. A police car was vandalized, a newspaper box was burnt to the ground, and general havoc was raised all throughout the Tenderloin.
3.) What began as an early morning raid on June 28th, 1969, at New York's Stonewall Inn, escalated to four days of rioting throughout Greenwich Village. Police conducted the raid as usual; targeting people of color, transpeople, and gender variants for harassment and violence. It all changed, though, when a bull-dyke resisted her arrest and several street queens began throwing bottles and rocks at the police. The police began beating folks, but soon people from all over the neighborhood rushed to the scene, swelling the rioters' numbers to over 2,000. The vastly outnumbered police barricaded themselves inside the bar, while an uprooted parking meter was used as a battering ram by the crowd. Molotov cocktails were thrown at the bar. Riot police arrived on scene, but were unable to regain control of the situation. Drag queens danced a conga line and sang songs amidst the street fighting to mock the inability of the police to re-establish order. The rioting continued until dawn, only to be picked up again at nightfall of the subsequent days.
4.) On the night of May 21st 1979, in what has come to be known as the White Night Riots, the queer community of San Francisco was outraged and wanted justice for the murder of Harvey Milk. The outraged queers went to city hall where they smashed the windows and glass door of the building. The riotous crowd took to the streets, disrupting traffic, smashing storefronts and car windows, disabling buses, and setting twelve San Francisco Police cruisers on fire. The rioting spread throughout the city as others joined in on the fun!
5.) In 1970, Stonewall veterans, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera founded STARâStreet Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. They opened the STAR house, a radical version of the âhouseâ culture of black and latina queer communities. The house provided a safe and free place for queer and trans street kids to stay. Marsha and Sylvia as the âHouse Mothersâ hustled to pay rent so that the kids would not be forced to. Their âchildrenâ scavenged and stole food so that everyone in the house could eat. That's what we call mutual aid!
6.) In the time between the Stonewall Riots and the outbreak of HIV, the queer community of New York saw the rise of a culture of public sex. Queers had orgies in squatted buildings, in abandoned semi-trucks, on the piers and in bars and clubs all along Christopher street. This is our idea of voluntary association of free individuals! Many mark this as the most sexually liberated time this country has ever seen. Though the authors of this essay wholeheartedly believe we can outdo them.
For the whore, it is of extreme importance to be at all times stunning, both in appearance and intellect. As faithful deviants of femininity, we have a certain responsibility to display a well-versed hatred towards everything pristine and bland. Little boys and girls need more examples of filth in their life; crazy beautiful cunts to admire. They must learn what it is to want, to be whores incapable of holding in and repressing their emotions.
Becoming-whore does not mean anything, so put your fucking notebook down. We are strutting contradictions and we do not care. If you cross us, we will annihilate you and everything you love. If you fuck us, we will break your heart or maybe fall in love and hate you forever. We are addicted to the disgust of society, corrupted Jeune-Filles that know no restraint.
We want to destroy everything, in diamond encrusted high heels. The violence of our desire tastes unlike any other bodily fluid; it is a poisonous venom that only the most masochistic of bodies can encounter and crawl towards for a second helping. We invite men in, waiting for the degradation that will warrant vengeance and until then we just shove their cocks in our mouths and swallow. What-ever.
We gaze at our body's image in every reflection we find and can't help but fuck ourselves all day long, because we are so incredibly beautiful. Our insecurities are displayed like sparkling gold crowns on top of our pretty heads; we couldn't be more proud (or ashamed) of our many imperfections. We are horribly vain, and every whore knows that only another whore can satisfy her needs.
Whore is not a sexuality, such a thing does not exist. Our orgasms are inseparable from our hatred, from our fashion and fears; nothing makes us cum that doesn't also revolt us in some way or another. We experience this world as an ugly little playground for our fantasies, and these dirty thoughts cannot possibly be contained within any designated arena of âsexâ. Sex for us is turning heads, scraping knees, and pissing anywhere but in a toilet.
If you see a whore swinging her hips down a busy street, you may notice a furrowed brow while she mutters angrily under her breath. This is because you annoy her with your presence. Every insignificant body that brushes past her is at risk for her hatred. Hatred makes her erect. She wastes no time in forming assumptions about you based on what you're wearingâyour shoes are not fierce enough, your walk is not sexy enough, your eyes are not burdened enough. You are nothing compared to the beautiful people that hide in the alleyway, waiting to mug you.
Politics does not interest the whore, it is the whore. Seduced by the incessant pain of living and dying and aching, she is simultaneously afraid of every little thing and fueled with the exhilaration of having nothing to lose. She thinks that to speak logically of this world is pure delusion: rationality is an unnecessary indulgence typical of mumbling pricks. Attempting to define her context or articulate her existence is utterly futile; absolutely nothing about her makes sense. The whore critically engages only with astrology, preferring the opinion of our sky's constellations over the utterance of some dying old white man.
Brilliantly bitter, the whore holds onto grief and anger like precious gems wrapping around her heart; her traumas lovingly swim and pulsate through her veins like tiny shards of glass. A part of her longs for the sadness and disappointment she knows as truth; she is full of emptiness and boredom in its absence. For her, seeing the world through sorrow is seeing in full color, feeling the sensation of life tingle through each nerve ending on her body. Without it, joy eludes her as well.
The whore is utterly exposedâa raw wound dripping sweet, deadly excrement onto each thing, each person she comes into contact with. She is naked, forever tucking what is sacred into the crevice between her legs for no one else to see. If you look too close, be prepared to lose a limb, a lip, a piece of your fucking heart because what is precious to her is untouchable to you. You worthless shit of a human race.
A proper whore knows, deep down inside of her, why this world pretends to detest her. All her life she has had an irresistible charm that, when coupled with an unbecoming volatility, has the power to reveal to those around her their most unwanted desires. Her ass makes married gentlemen (and their bored wives) fidget incessantly, and her vulgar wit causes dry academics to wet their lips with excitement. Upon her exit, entire rooms breathe a heavy sigh of relief that they are no longer forced to face their quivering perversities. Alone in their modern bedrooms they shamefully jerk off to her image, quietly hating themselves and their crass routine of living.
She is as quick to laugh as she is to cry. When Mercury is in retrograde, she knows that getting out of bed means catastrophe. But even the fucked up alignment of the planets, working hand in hand with this mundane and despicable society, cannot stop her lunacy from being cast onto her surroundings and those around her. The circumstances which make her and fellow whores weep also create potent hysterics, and islands once isolated in insanity come together for a good laugh, and maybe a little revenge.
The whore is a slut, yes, but she is also a bum and a young delinquent; she is a faggot, a queen, an angry dyke, an insurrectional manarchist in heels, a tyrannical tranny. She is everything and nothing, everyone and no one. Glamorous in her many disguises and transparent in her filthy desires. She overflows with love for those spilling over with hatred, forever enchanted with the beauty hidden beneath this sterile economy of bodies. She enjoys nothing more than spitting on the face of humanity, laughing as her stinking spittle drips down pointed chins to make a satisfying splat on the dirty pavement beneath her feet.
by A Gang of Criminal Queers
<em>Because the night belongs to lovers. Because the night belongs to us.</em>
-Patti Smith
To live in this culture is to be dead, bare. Deadness is the affect and the aspiration of dominant social membership. It is the social relationship wherein life is reduced to exchange and capital. It is everywhere; in those walking the streets without ever meeting the eyes of another, in the exchanges of service work, in the aisles of a department stores and the pews of church. In capital, in heteronormativity, in law, in moralityâeverywhere it is the logic of death.
The unthinkability of our desires is reiterated over and again. Power and control are written on our bodies. What is passion? Desire? Adventure? Play? What, but such catchy slogans for adverts. Our love and our appetites and our very bodies are inscribed with this culture. Capital is written on our bodies. We dare not dream. How could we conceivably want more than this?
And the agents and exertions of biopowerâthe boots of queerbashers, the panoptical ever-present surveillance cameras with the flashing blue lights, the sirens and guns of the police, the campaigns for gay marriage and military service, the lingering pains of monogamy, and such shapely mannequins, ad nauseumâstand everywhere erected as checkpoints guaranteeing the impossibility of anything else. Life, stripped bare, is nothing more than raw survivalâ banal, cold, numbing. Could it be more clear? Hetero-capitalism, this culture, this totality: It is out to destroy us.
The machinery of control has rendered our very existence illegal. We've endured the criminalization and crucifixion of our bodies, our sex, our unruly genders. Raids, witch-hunts, burnings at the stake. We've occupied the space of deviants, of whores, of perverts, and abominations. This culture has rendered us criminal, and of course, in turn, we've committed our lives to crime. In the criminalization of our pleasures, we've found the pleasure to be had in crime! In being outlawed for who we are, we've discovered that we are indeed fucking outlaws!
Many blame queers for the decline of this societyâ we take pride in this. Some believe that we intend to shred-to-bits this civilization and its moral fabricâthey couldn't be more accurate. We're often described as depraved, decadent, and revoltingâbut oh, they ain't seen nothing yet.
Let's be explicit: We are criminal queer anarchists and this world is not and can never be enough for us. We want to annihilate bourgeois morality and make ruins of this world. We're here to destroy what is destroying us.
Let's be speaking of revolt. We are tracing the lineage of our queer criminality and charting the demise of the social order. And oh the nectar from which we drink: lesbian pirates raging the seas, queer rioters setting cop cars ablaze, sex parties amidst the decay of industrialism, bank robbers wearing pink triangles, mutual aid networks among sex workers and thieves, gangs of trannyfags bashing-the-fuck-back. We've been assured that each day could be our last. As such we've chosen to live as if every day is. In turn, we promise that the existent's days are numbered.
In our revolt, we are developing a form of play. These are our experiments with autonomy, power, and force. We haven't paid for anything we're wearing and we rarely pay for food. We steal from our jobs and turn tricks to get by. We fuck in public and have never come harder. We swap tips and scams amid gossip and foreplay. We've looted the shit out of places and delight in sharing the booty. We wreck things at night and hold hands and skip all the way home. We are ever growing our informal support structures and we'll always have each other's backs. In our orgies, riots, and heists, we are articulating the collectivity of, and deepening, these ruptures.
The ecstasy and electricity of crime is undeniable. We've felt the sweetest adrenaline rushes as we've dashed from security and blown each other on the bus. And nothing offers up the feeling of being alive more than the weight of a hammer through the facade of capital. Crime helps me get out of bed every morning.
We queers and other insurgents have developed what good folks might call a criminal intimacy. We are exploring the material and affective solidarity fostered between outlaws and rebels. In our obstruction of law, we've illegally discovered the beauty in one another. In revealing our desire to our partners in crime, we've come to know each other more intimately than legality could ever allow. In desire, we produce conflict. And in conflict with capital, we may have found an escape route from the deadening of our lives. Our gang's discourse is conflict.
The real power expressed in our crimes isn't in the damage caused to our enemies or even in the various improvements of our material conditions (though we take pleasure in both). The power we express is in the empowerments and relationships we're creating. In our sex and our attackâwhen we pull down our masks and share our cache of bricksâwe are expanding the possibilities of our affinity. In our crime, we create dynamic new relationships of criminal intimacies. In these possibilities, we are learning how we might, together, reduce this world to rubble.
We must make ourselves bodies without organs. Within each of us is contained a virtual pool of everything we are capable of becomingâour desires, affects, power, ways of acting, and infinite possibilities. To embody and activate these possibilities we must experiment with the ways our bodies act in conjunction with others. We commit crime together so we can unveil our criminal becoming.
We do not offer âcriminal' or âqueer' as identities, nor as categories. Criminality. Queerness. These are tools for revolt against identity and category. These are our lines of flight out of all restraint. We are in conflict with all that restricts every and each desire. We are becoming whatever. Our sole commonality is our hatred for everything that exists. Held in common, such a revolt of desire can never be assimilated into the state-form.
Right-wing talking-heads invoke the imagery of a âculture war', waged between civil society on one side and queers on the other. We reject this model of war. Our war is a social war. The nexus of domination and class society is everywhere. Yet everywhere, too, are ruptures and points of conflict. In these fissures we exist in rebellionâwe queers, criminals, whatever.
Our dirty talk and our nighttime whispers comprise a secret language.
Our language of thieves and lovers is foreign to this social order, yet carries the sweetest notes in the ears of rebels. This language reveals our potential for world making. Our conflict is space for our possible other-selves to blossom. By organizing our secret universe of shared plenty and collective-explosive possibility, we are building a new world of riot, orgy, and decadence.
Convicts' garb is striped pink **and white. Though it was at my heartâs bidding that I chose the universe wherein I delight, I at least have the power of finding therein the many meanings I wish to find: there is a close relationship between flowers and convicts. The fragility and delicacy of the former are of the same nature as the brutal insensitivity of the latter. Should I have to portray a convictâor a criminalâI shall bedeck them with flowers that, as they disappear beneath them, they will themselves become a flower, a gigantic and new one. Toward what is known as evil, I lovingly pursued an adventure which led me to prison. Those doomed to evil, of their own volition, or owing to an accident which has been chosen for them, they plunge lucidly and without complaining into a reproachful, ignominious element, lie that into which love, if it is profound, hurls human beings. Erotic play discloses a nameless world which is revealed by the nocturnal language of lovers. Such language is not written down. It is whispered into the ear at night in a hoarse voice. At dawn it is forgotten. Repudiating the virtues of your world, criminals hopelessly agree to organize a forbidden universe. They agree to live in it. The air there is nauseating; they can breath it. Butâcriminals are remote from youâas in love, they turn away and turn me away from the world and its laws. Theirs smells of sweat, sperm, and blood. In short, to my body and my thirsty soul it offers devotion. It was because their world contains these erotic conditions that I was bent on evil. I do not want to conceal in this journal the other reasons which made me a thief. With fanatical care, "jealous care," I prepared for my adventure as one arranges a couch or a room for love; I was hot for crime.**
- Jean Genet in âThe Thief's Journal"
<em>In June 2010 people in Oakland, Ca revolted, even if only for a few hours. This resulted in the trashing and mass looting of a beauty supply store. The owner of the shop was quoted as saying. "There were tons of them! Not just a few. And they went for the most expensive wigs I had!â No Justice, No Peace for the hoarders of beauty.</em>
Despite the kindergarten notion that all people are beautiful, most are not. There are many heinous, despicable, and horrifically ugly people in this world. If society views someone as peaceful, honorable, and gorgeous, a Beauty in Becoming must assume the enshrined subject is exactly the opposite. Those seen positively by the ugly at large are most often trying to rip off your snatch, steal from you, or doom your life to misery (See Ghandi-child rapist/state collaborator, Mother Teresa- that anticondom bitch was responsible for the rapid spread of HIV, and FDRâa fucker who ordered japanese americans to concentration camps). To become beautiful is to constantly challenge colonialism and oppression internally and in creative ways externally. Should any person not take up these challenges then they most certainly are not beautiful. In fact they arent even average. They are fucking ugly.
For those seeking beauty, accept your mind and sex for what it is, in addition to what you want it to be. The desire to modify one's features to conform to the âbeautyâ of the public pupil is worthlessness instilled. Beauty is not the fraudulent norm. Conversely the desire to fuck who you please or to swap out that tired cock with a brand new pussy is pricelessness willed. Modify your body to complement your soul. Ravish yourself in brilliance. Beauty is the violent and persistent confrontation between your body and Cosmo. Crave it.
Unfortunately becoming beautiful is more complicated than it may seem. Truth be told a total makeover may not be possible at all. Our exterior beauty has been so rudely taken hostage by patriarchal greed. This Commodification of Beauty may be one of our deadliest enemies. We all feel the need to be fake-pretty. To vomit here, lift weights there, to purchase mascara, or eat practically nothing. Commodified beauty negatively effects every person, anyone who says otherwise is a liar. As long as we chase commodified beauty, and not beauty in actuality, we are cursed to depression, illness, and weakness. No one can pay to become beautiful, only to accentuate their becoming.
Becoming beautiful is the most precious tool in combating liberal extremism. Liberals are ugly, fucking ugly, or fugly. The liberal is terrified of a beauty in becoming. They will lie, cheat, and steal to maintain their dominance over oppressed public relations. Real beauty lies in the truthful. The established liberal fears the truth and the tactics that real change requires. Beauty shits on the hypocritical and foul idea that is the respect for a diversity of tactics. Never respect the tactics of a liberal and do not conflate âliberalâ with those actually at higher risk of state repression. Have no patience for those who do. Ultimately, the beautiful threaten the established liberal's class, privilege, and racial superiority.
The beautiful are the only true enemies of fascism. Barack Obama could never successfully wage a war against corporate fascism. He is corporate fascism. He is hideous. The right does not fear the âleftâ In American politics. Scratch the surface of their pale- dry skin and you will find Nancy Pelosi and Ron Paul dry humping in the back rooms of Congress. Beautiful means targeting everything Hetero in nature. Devote your lives to committing Straight Crime after Straight Crime. Understand that Straight does not mean One Man and One Woman, Gays and Lesbians straddle the upmost rungs on the Latter to heterosuperiority. Straightness is the product of Patriarchy and Assimilation. It is the white picket fence in the suburbs, the Gays on television blaming Trannies for their unsuccessful bids at marriage, No Fats No Femmes, rape, and English Only education. Straight Crimes are the beautiful's physical manifestation in our war on Straightness and towards our ultimate goal of creating a dictatorship of the beautiful.
Fucking-Uglies will claim to be allies of the pretty; they are not. Straightness will stop at nothing to thwart a confrontation between the Queer and a fellow Hetero. Straights may even use peace and protection as fog to hide their real intentions, maintaining their status quo. Truth be told the queer does not require (and should not desire) the protection or the peace that the straight offers. The same is true for all other oppressed that comprise the beautiful.
Becoming beautiful means becoming fearless. Do not associate this beautiful fearlessness with the common definition. Accept all emotions as legitimate and powerful. To the beautiful, fearlessness does not mean without fear but fear without the possibility of stagnancy and paralysis induced by possible consequences of revolt. Instead the beautiful would Allow fear to signal caution, thought, and wisdom prior to any altercation with the Ugly. This type of fearlessness will insure a stable and safe route of travel for Beauties in Becoming.
The queer or whore or native or person of color is the sword of those on the road to Beauty. Oppression has given a resentment to these particular factions that the pimpâorâwhiteyâ orâstraighty will never know. An advantageous position to hold. If the oppressed embraced the rage that only they know, and used it as the most powerful weapon that it is, then nothing ugly could ever truly stop the beautiful. This rage is what ensures survival. It is why, regardless of millennia of colonization, the native, the whore, the person of color, the tranny, and the queer still exist.
The Beautiful know liberation is as fictitious as god in heaven. Liberation w/could only be achieved if time, as understood by the mentally inferior ugly, was rewound. Upon completion of such a strenuous feat, the guns would have to be dispersed evenly amongst the beautiful and the ugly would have all limbs disposed of. Being that time travel, at this point, is unfortunately an impossibility there will never be liberation. A partial and superficial liberation could come from a round up of all the uglies; to be tortured in re-education camps. This hypothetical yet equally unattainable situation might in fact turn beautiful people on and dispose of the ugly. Revenge of this type is still not complete liberation. Complete liberation is a condition only occupy-able by people, animals, or things that have never been subject to commodification. In this terrible world of the ugly ass fascists, everything beautiful has been used as a pawn for too long to ever be absolutely out-of-play. Becoming beautiful means fighting a liberatory struggle without a utopian illusion of liberation.
Revolution is as fictitious as Jesus on the cross. The Ugly has perfected the art of cooptation and recuperation. At this point ugliness is able to connaturalize itself with most emotional or philosophical states. Consequently, the beautiful are left with a nonwar but certainly not a peaceful desire. All there is to be embraced by Beauties in Becoming is a debauched nihilism, a collective hedonism; not to be confused with an apathetic debauchery. It is rage that ought to be harnessed, if not gorgeously abused, to ensure survival and happiness.
Under the thumb of an omnipotent yet hidden in- plain-sight fascism, utmost stealth is something to be considered by Beauties in Becoming. Travel down the yellow brick road of struggling beauty is sometimes only accomplished by donning the master's clothes. This is true for whores of all types, whether assimilationist or counter-cultural, whether corporate or street, whether on the path of fraudulent beauty or pounding the yellow brick. We all sacrifice ourselves to manipulate the enemy. The mirror is a weapon, smash it only after the black flag has burned. To this end, nothing is more important than keeping goals set high and consciences guarded. Discover your beauty. Keep your beauty close to your heart. Have faith in your beauty. Hold onto your beauty. Feel your beauty. Know your beauty. Caress your beauty. Finger your beauty. Eat your beauty. Fuck your beauty. Beauty is your only secret. Parade it as you must. Become as beautiful as you can. Above all, be your beauty.
Those deserving of beauty know that one day the world will belong to the beautiful. Becoming beautiful is the youth's only hope. Becoming beautiful is an extreme measure, sure, but it is the only path to happiness, love, self fulfillment, and revolt. The war may not be here, it may never come, but the beautiful have almost arrived.
Although sharpening the sword's blade while living in the non-war is essential; Becoming Beauties must dust off time's old layers of illusion. The illusionary layers being: Revolutionary War against ugly people resulting in ultimate liberation of trannies and queers. So, illuminate rage and resentment. These distinct emotional logics are the only weapons accessible to pretty people that can never be incorporated into the army of ugly pricks. Dispel your illusions for the sake of beauty. Revolutionary War is impossible. Liberation is unattainable. QueerUltraViolence is beauty.
from Vengeance 3
<em>VENGEANCE: Does being a proletarian change for you being a militant queer?</em>
MARY NARDINI: Being queer complicates the way we experience our role within capitalism. Queer bodies are often forced to sell their labor in ways that would be excluded from traditional marxist narratives of what it means to be a worker. This includes service workers and sex workers. These forms of exploitation problematize the often heteronormative and patriarchal ideas surrounding what is or isn't labor. Ultimately, the positions of queers and proles intertwineâwe are the class that has no control over our bodies. This means different things in various situations. But the bosses that manage our time and the queer bashers that manage our gender are clearly all class-enemies.
<em>V: Why does both the Spectacle and also the mainstream gay and lesbian movement seem to only identify with the middle and upper classes, and never with working and poor people? Who benefits from such a narrative?</em>
MN: It is abundantly obvious that the politicians who lead the âlgbt communityâ are only interested in preserving power for the ruling class. Political campaigns for gay marriage, gays in the military, and hate crime legislation, only reproduce the capitalist institutions of marriage, military, and the prison industrial complex.
And it goes much deeper than that. Representations of queers portray and capitalize on images of wealthy, affluent, white, able-bodied gays and lesbians. You only need to look as far as Will and Grace or a copy of any LGBT magazine to see the way that queer bodies and desires are shaped by capital.
<em>V: Within anarchism, there seems to be a coming clash (or a current clash) between activists and hooligans. Why do you think this is? What are the tensions that have given rise to this division?</em>
MN: To be cheesy and quote **The Coming Insurrection:** âEveryone finds herself forced to take sides; to choose between anarchy and the fear of anarchy.â The divide that is happening in the broader anarchist milieu is also happening among radical queers. I think that a lot of the tension is rooted in that a lot of people have confused radical queer struggle as a safe haven for the worst form of identity politics. They're really sorely mistaken. This isn't about sustaining identities, it is about destroying them.
<em>V: Can you speak about the actions that occurred around the time of the Bash Back Conference and your disappointment with some of the people who responded to those actions?</em>
MN: At the Bash Back! Convergence, a dance-party train occupation. The temporary occupation was an absurd mix of dancing, making-out, and a cacophony of ridiculous chants and singing. This created a situation where people caused a lot of havok, vandalizing the train and reclaiming it as a queered space. A spontaneous street march then erupted from the train. The march attacked luxury cars and pulled shit into the streets.
Someone within the march began pulling newspaper boxes out of the streets and back onto the sidewalk while yelling âthis is a peaceful protest.â After the newsboxes were removed, a police cruiser literally ran over someone's foot and officers began beating people with their telescoping batons. Four people were arrested.
The next day, all of the liberal, activist types went on a tirade to denounce the previous nights events.
A telling anecdote: Three white people stand up in a row, and denounce the occupation as racist, because there were people of color on the train. âThere were people of color who actually live in Chicago on that train! They are actually part of the community! That's racist! People were being rude!â Then, two female-bodied people of color who live in Chicago respond, saying that they find everyone disgusting. âBash Back! isn't about being polite, or nice. Bash Back! means challenging and destroying normalcy. This is going to be rude. It's going to be messy! If you aren't into this, then you're in the wrong place.â Everyone is silent for a moment. Then the stack continues. They are ignored and more white activists continue to talk about how the action was racist and alienating to people of color. It continued as folks talked about all the âwhite dudes with passing privilegeâ who instigated the situation.
I'm really disgusted by people's actions and sentiments that day, because of their complicity with the police and their silencing of all the bodies that weren't white, cisgendered, and male.
<em>V: Where would you like to see Bash Back! go in the next several years, if the network is going to continue?</em>
MN: I would like to see groups of queer anarchists working to build autonomous power and get more conflictual. I'm really excited about the squat that BB! Memphis just opened for homeless queer/trans youth. I'm really excited about groups distributing free pepper-spray and teaching people to fight. I'm excited about queers kicking the shit out of queer bashers, and always about fighting in the streets. Whether people continue to organize under the name âBash Back!â or not, I think that the network of wild-ass queers who hate everything is going to keep growing and building autonomous power.
What follows is a compilation of the original works of the nihilist-queer-theorists calling themselves Gender Mutiny. As with the Mary Nardini Gang, GM has been a highly influential, if faceless, force in negative and stylish queer theory. We've included three essays by GM: hell hath no fury, how is it to be done in the ass? and preliminary notes on modes of reproduction. In addition to these three essays we have included an interview with a scumbag associated with the group.
by Gender Mutiny
<em>Hell hath no fury like a drag queen scorned.</em>
- Silvia Rivera
The chronology below requires little introduction; the actions of all these rioters speak for themselves. Suffice to say that this chronology is a small attempt to address a fallacy in popular conceptions of insurrectionâthat insurrection is âmacho,â masculine, or that it reinforces gender norms. It should also address another fallacy in the commonly understood chronology of queer and trans resistanceâthe one that says âStonewall was first.â
A note on language. Any terms we apply anachronistically will fail to reflect the ways these individuals and collectives identified. Moreover, we have first-hand accounts from none of these rioters, except some of the participants from Stonewall and Compton's. Since any language we choose for such a broad span of time, place, and culture will be historically inaccurate, we just say genderfuck insurrection. It has the nicest ring to our ears.
Genderfuck is an active term; it speaks of a force that acts upon gender normality. This is more interesting to us than other terms that are passive and speak of identity, which attempt to freeze and quarantine gender transgression into special individuals.
Our tour begins in Greece, the cradle of democracy and the location of the most recent massive insurrection against the false hope of democracyâŚ
In Thessalonica, Greece, Butheric, the commander of the militia, arrested a popular circus performer under a new law that punished âmale effeminacy.â The people of Thessalonica, who loved the performer, rose up in rebellion and killed Burtheric. In response to the insurrection, authorities rounded up and massacred three thousand people.
In Southern France a small crowd of cross-dressed males pranced into the home of a wealthy landowner. They sang âWe take one and give back a hundred,â and ignored the protestations of the lady of the house as they looted the estate of every possession.
These were the years of Cade's Rebellion in Kent & Essex, England. Led by the âservants of the Queen of the Fairies,â the peasants broke into the Duke of Buckingham's land and took his bucks and does.
During his campaign of conquest against communities of resistance in western portions of âNew Spain,â Spanish conquistador Nuno de Guzman wrote of a battle. The very last indigenous warrior taken prisoner after the battle was, in the conquistador's words, âa man in the habit of a womanâ who had âfought most courageously.â
Urban carnivals throughout Europe integrated cross-dressing and masks as key elements. The festivals were organized by societies of unmarried âmen' with trans personalities. They were called the Abbeys of Misrule, Abbots of Unreason, Mere Folle and her children, etc. During festival, they would âhold courtâ with mock marriages, and issue coins to the crowds. They made fun of the government, critiqued the clergy, and protested war and the high cost of bread.
In Essex, England, a grain riot was led by âCaptainâ Alice, who was trans.
In Dijon, France, Mere Folle and her Infanterie went beyond throwing carnivals and mocking elites. They led an uprising against royal tax officers. As a result, a furious royal edict abolished the Abbey of Misrule.
Riots against enclosure in England was led by Lady Skimmington, at the head of a mob in drag.
In Montpellier, France, a tax revolt was led by La Branlaire, a term used for masculine women.
Untold numbers of trans pirates sailed across the open seas in the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean. It was not altogether uncommon at the time for âwomenâ to âpass as menâ while sailing in the navy, on mercantile ships, and as pirates. The two most well-known trans pirates of the era are Read and Bonn. They sailed together with Captain John Rackham, and their stories are known from when they were put on trial for piracy. They were said to be the most fierce and courageous fighters in their crew. Like most pirates, they were faggots.
Since 1707, the Societies for the Reformation of Manners carried out systematic attacks on London's queer underground. More than 20 âmolly housesâ were raided by police in London and many âmolliesâ (mtfs) publicly dragged and hung for cross-dressing. But on one day in 1725, the police attempted a raid of a Covent Garden molly house, and the crowd of mollies, many in drag, fiercely and violently fought back.
âTo cite but four examples, toll gates were demolished by bands of armed men dressed in women's clothing and wigs in Somerset in 1731 and 1749, in Gloucester in 1728 and in Herefordshire in 1735.â
â[T]he Porteous Riots, which were sparked by a hated English officer and oppressive custom laws and expressed resistance to the union of Scotland and England, were carried out [in Edinburgh, Scotland] by men disguised as women and with a leader known as Madge Wildfire."
This was the decade of the White Boy commons restoration movement in Ireland. The White Boys, a peasant guerrilla group who called themselves âfairies" and did mischief at night, were a central feature of the rural class war. They destroyed enclosures, sent threatening letters to elites, reclaimed properties seized by landlords, and freed bound apprentices. They were finally put down by armed force. Their spirit inspired the formation of the Lady Rocks and Lady Clares in the 1820s and 1830s, and the later Ribbon Societies and Molly Maguiresâall of whom cross-dressed, and were involved in Ireland's anti-enclosure and anti-colonial struggles.
In Beaujolais, France, âmale" peasants dressed as women attacked surveyors who were assessing their lands for a new landlord.
One of the early Luddite Rebellions against the Industrial Revolution was led by âGeneral Ludd's wives," two cross-dressed workers. The mob of hundreds broke windows, stoned the house of Joseph Goodair (a factory owner), and later set fire to his house. They destroyed the products in the steam loom factory, smashed the looms, and burned the factory to the ground. The rioting went on for four days until it was stopped by the military at Stockport, but then broke out again at Oldham.
The Lady Rocks militant Irish resistance group was active during this time; they were inspired by the White Boys, and wore bonnets and veils.
The War of the Demoiselles in the Pyrenees was a peasant uprising against restrictive forest codes in which the peasants cross-dressed.
The Lady Clares a militant Irish resistance group, was active in this decade; they were inspired by the White Boys; their official' costume was cross-dressing.
The Welsh Toll-gate Riots, were carried out by âRebecca and her daughters.â One well-documented instance was on May 13, 1839. At dusk, a call of horns, drums, and gunfire are heard across the western Welsh countryside. Armed male peasants, dressed as women, thunder up on horseback, waving pitchforks, axes, scythes, and guns. As they storm the toll gate their leader roars: âHurrah for free laws! Toll gates free to coal pits and lime kilns!â These demands are punctuated by a cacophony of music, shouts, and shotgun blasts. The rebel troops smash the toll barriers and ride away victorious. They call themselves âRebecca and her daughters.â The Rebeccas are active for four years in Wales, leading thousands of cross-dressed âdaughtersâ in the destruction of turnpike toll barriers. They receive widespread popular support.
The militant resistance group the Molly Maguires were active in Ireland during this time. Inspired by the White Boys, the word âMollyâ was the equivalent of what we might call âqueenâ today.
In Los Angeles in May, police attempted a raid on Cooper's Doughnuts, a late-night hangout for drag queens, butch hustlers, street queens, and johns. The cops demanded IDs. The queers fought back. Doughnuts and coffee cups become projectiles. Fighting spilled out onto the street. The cops, taken by storm, called for backup. Rioters were arrested and the street was closed off for a day.
In August 1966, the management at Compton's Cafeteria (an allnight San Francisco hangout for drag queens, and hustlers in the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco) called the police on a group of young queens who were being rowdy. A police officer who was used to roughing up Compton's regulars grabbed a queen. She threw her coffee in his face. A fight broke out. Plates, trays, cups, and furniture were thrown. The plate-glass windows of the restaurant were smashed. Police called for backup as the riot took the street. The windows of a cop car were smashed and a newspaper stand went up in flames.
On June 28, the police conduct a âroutineâ raid of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York. They began to round up trans people, drag queens and kings to be arrested for cross-dressing, which was illegal. Hostility grew and grew until an officer shoved a queen, who responded by hitting him on the head with her purse. The crowd became fierce. Cops were pelted, first with coins and then with bottles and stones. When a bull-dyke resisting arrest called to the crowd for support, the situation exploded. The crowd tried to topple the paddy wagon while the police vehicles got their tires slashed. The crowd, already throwing beer bottles, discovered a cache of bricks at a construction site. Cops were forced to barricade themselves inside the Inn. Garbage cans, garbage, bottles, rocks, and bricks were hurled at the building, breaking the windows. Rioters ripped up a parking meter and used it as a battering ram. The mob lit garbage on fire and sent it through the broken windows; squirted lighter fluid inside and lit it. Riot police arrived on the scene, but were unable to regain control of the situation. Drag queens danced a conga line and sang songs amidst the street fighting to mock the inability of the police to re-establish order. The rioting continued until dawn, and for the next four days. Crowds filled the streets and smashed more cop cars, set more fires, and looted stores.
Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, veterans of the Stonewall riots, formed the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in New York City. Marsha and Sylvia opened the STAR house for homeless drag queens and runaway queer youth to stay in. The house mothers hustled to pay rent so their kids wouldn't have to. The youth, in turn, stole food to bring home. STAR linked up with the Young Lords, a revolutionary Puerto Rican group, and with the Black Panther Party.
by Gender Mutiny
<em>The urge to shit is also a whatever urge.</em>
-Bakunin
We have been robbed of our anuses, just so they can turn them into parts for their ignominious machine which produces Capital, exploitation, and the Family. Reduced to its most practical biological functions the anus is becoming fortressâimpenetrable, singular, productive. Our very excrement is assigned commercial valueâso many nutrients per cubic foot, average moisture content, cost of processing.
To reject the commodity logic of shit, we embrace the anus becoming flowerâpleasurable, penetrable, commune. The anus has five muscles; the flower, five petals; the fist, five fingers. The anus is the common sexual nexus, an enclosure in the commons of pleasure. We refuse the mediation of our anuses under the logic of biopower, instead unveiling their insurgence by elaborating a logic of scat. In other words, the anuses of our revolt are scatological rather than biological.
The human strike blossoms at every point of rupture; which is to say, at every point of emergence. Let us speak of the anal rupture, the emergence of fecal matter from our bodies. The human scatological strike will produce nothing in the act of defecation; while leaving nothing behind but an empty rectum. In the space of this void, we become whatever singularities. Our feces, freed from the logic of capital, take lines of flight toward police, while our anuses, no longer mere appendages of flesh upon a machine of nitrate circulation, are filled with found objects. Our anuses becoming... cumming glitter, shit, whatever.
SHiT oN eVeRYTHiNG,
<br>
_ | _
./\
<em>the pentagon bumfuck committee</em>
by Gender Mutiny
<em>You had me at necrophilia...</em>
Q---
<em>we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,</em>
<em>the only Son of God,</em>
<em>eternally begotten of the Father,</em>
<em>God from God, Light from Light,</em>
<em>true God from true God,</em>
<em>begotten, not made,</em>
<em>of one substance with the Father.</em>
<em>Through Him all things were made.</em>
The Nicene Creed
No logic is more complete than that of monism, though none is more often protested. As long as all Creation is derived from God and His written Word, no assault can breach the walls of its castle. In Truth the logic of monism contains everything, and it can have no enemy. The cries of atheists and non-believers cannot reach the ears of its inhabitant, because heresy is logically not possible.
God's reproduction adds nothing to His perfect self. God can only reproduce Himselfâman in His image, Son in His imageâcopies, not offspring. God's Creation is made by Him only, it cannot surpass Him nor exist beyond Him.
When God masturbates, He reproduces. Wherever His jism is spilled, life bursts forth.
In a flash, it's as if you were born, flung into dark. Restless space, utterly foreign to the Last Times. No idea where you are naturally, you are shipwrecked, you have only the word shipwreck as lantern and explanation, for the rest you are in the dark. All is lost. This lostnessâa state you knew nothing about. You are adult and biped, but the species is unknown. You know nothing about being. We don't remember this world at all.
In monism, there is only one gender, that of man. Man who was made in God's image and, like God, reproduces by spilling his seed onto the fallow earth. The earthâwhat we would call womanâ does not constitute a distinct gender to herself, rather, she is without singularity or soul, an empty material form like the earth itself.
To speak of woman in the ideology of monism is an impossibilityâthat is, unless one speaks of a nothingness, an absence, a ghost. Not being a man, woman cannot exist in God's Creation because that which is not One, that is not God, is not. The void is woman's ontological origin. She emerges from nothingness because her existence is not only impossible but quite impermissible in monist logic. If a woman did exist (which, of course, she could not), she would have to be a nothingness. And so it was only by continuously asserting her very nonexistence that she was able to exist. She could not, in monist Truth, be, and so she was a ghost when she lived in the garden, and it was a void that suffered the pain of childbirth, and a specter that passed through the halls of the king to leave behind traces of desire on his body.
<em>When girls and boys reach puberty, their bodies start to change and become more mature. From this time, if a male and a female have sexual intercourse (often called</em> <em>âmaking loveâ, or âsleeping with someoneâ), it is possible that the girl could get pregnant, i.e. a baby could start to grow.</em>
How Babies Are Made
From the moment we begin to speak of woman as such, we are not speaking of God and His world, but rather the world of opposition. Once woman existed as even a thought, in fact in any form exceeding nonexistence, monism's ontological center could not hold. It must be said that in this crisis lay an intimate potential for the utter annihilation of the existentâ would woman, as yet nonexistent herself, a being of the void, who came from nothing and returned all to nothingness, could she negate the existent that was her own negation? But so fierce was woman's affirmation of her own existence that her force would not cause monism to stagger and collapse under the weight of the impossibility of something truly outside itself, but rather would balance and harmonize Man.
All that separates modernity from what existed before it is the radical shift from a monolithic existent to a dichotomous one.
We don't stop killing ourselves. We die one another here and there my beloved and it's an obsession, it's an exorcism, it's a feign what we are feigning. I have no idea is it a sin a maneuver a vaccination the taming of a python the fixing-up a cage, it's an inclination, we don't stop rubbing up against our towers touching our lips to them... eroticism to the nth degree lips on the sacred scroll, the innocent handle of the book, the saint, the simpleton, we know all about it, we always thought it, we'd also always feared for our towers, such striking clarity, and naked, but what terror when the real planes really crashed into them, a black terror that bit into our hearts, so this in reality can happen, in reality there was a tomb on one of our bodies, this was a fact and no waking, we'd awakened assassinatedâŚ
The Promethean feat is accomplished. The act of creation stolen from God and spread before mere mortals for their defilement. They engage in carnal desire and, when small, wet, stunted humans emerge from their loins, they marvel at their godlike power to create life.
The image of the one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth no longer prevails. His Creation has forsaken Him, and now they bow down before false idols and genuflect before the image of the Child.
God still lingers here. With His masturbatory acts of Creation derided, He puts auto-eroticism aside and panders to the heresy of His flock. He constructs His procreative Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spiritâfather, mother, and Child. This divine mimicry of the people's profane procreative acts is too queer. He has not admitted the existence of woman, of dualism, of the Other; and in the binary regime, heterosexuality is sacrosanct. From now on, they worship the Child.
While before the Creator had been the object of adoration, procreationism displaces the focus to that which is created. The act of sex is banal enough that only the conservative thinkers, attached still to the old ways of praising God, could envision it as a divine act. The parent is imbued with no shroud of mystery or the unknown. But the Childâwho can remember his childhood?â the Child is an image that could stand for the sacred mystery of reproduction.
The image is singular but its source is binary. Now the myth that subjectivities come from God is pushed aside by the idea that one exists simply because one's parents fucked at some point and didn't use birth control. Religious faith in an event one didn't experience now shattered, only a scientific and historically rigorous explanation will suffice. One still does not remember one's conception or birth, but the scientific method confirms that other babies are made this way, and so âI was too.â
The procreative mythâor factâstructures and gives meaning to the binary opposition of the sexes. The categories of male and female have meaning and power because their stability and duality is generative. Like God's potency to make life spring from Himself, the male and the female, in their opposition and union, have the power to create life. No longer âGod made me, therefore I am,â but now âmy mother and father made me, therefore I am.â
The family constitutes the procreative apparatus, distinguished from the creative apparatus by a binary opposition inherent in the inclusion of woman into the realm of substanceâ while from God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost were begotten, not made, and remained of one substance with the Father, it is only through the union of opposite sexes that babies are made. A monist world could self-reproduce in perfect singularity and sameness, but once woman had posited herself in her difference, the force of her Otherness was established as a procreative force. And so it would be with the reproduction of the future, of the political order, and of capitalism.
The apple that Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge may have initiated the fall from monist grace to dualist profanity in the mythology we know; in history it was the apple that fell on Newton's head which ushered in dualistic thought. Newton's theory identifies the forces which hold and harmonize the dualistic world in the void against threat of collapse (much as the high walls of God's castle held the monist world together). Namely, for each force there is a reaction of equal force and opposite in direction. A simple example in the system of Newtonian physics explains how two heavenly bodies of sufficient velocity can orbit each other in harmony through the dynamic of their relative forces of gravity without collapsing into each other and spreading their dust into the void. So does dualist thought balance and harmonize the world of procreationism.
Modernity is Newtonian physics is dialectics is liberalism is binary reproduction is capitalism. It is unnecessary to draw the connections between each of these, when each is an aspect of the self-same logic. The triumph of the logic of two over the logic of one defines the world we inhabit, though this world is being supplanted by the world of plurality.
From the image of the Child comes the image of the Future, our hopes and dreams, our investment in a better world for future generations. Towards the image of the Future the political project is always aimed. The Child is the Future, and just as the Family produces the Child, the political apparatus produces the Future.
The political order of modernity is liberalism. Monarchy ruled the monist world, and the binary world requires something more balanced. With one gesture the sovereignty of the state is balanced against the rights of the people while the state deploys opposing political parties and systems of checks and balances to oppose it itself against itself. The liberal system of government, quite simply, is the state-form wrapped in the logic of dichotomy. Each and every political ideology that exerts itself in the effort to combat another political tendency or to assert the power of the people in resistance or opposition to that of the government participates in the discourse of liberalism.
The world of opposition is the world of dialectics. Just as the opposition of the sexes produces the Child and together these constitute the Family, so does capitalism reproduce itself through the opposition of the classes.
In dialectics, the existent contains its own contradictionâthe proletariat. The proletariat is the negative force that could destroy capitalism; rather than excluding its enemy, as woman was excluded by monism, capital locks its negative force in struggle with itself and thereby exploits its labor for production, manages its reproduction as the source of more labor, and reproduces capitalism through class struggle.
Dialectics dictate that the negative project of the proletariatâthe abolition of capitalâentails the destruction of the proletariat-as-such. The stakes have been raised. The negative force is no longer a logical impossibility in the realm of the existent, but a machine integral to the reproduction of the latter. At the same time, however, the former is validated, reproduced, and fed by the same order that exploits it. In the end, the desire of the proletariat for liberation and autonomy from the control of the bourgeoisie, like woman's desire to assert her existential being in the realm of man, would overpower its desire to abolish the present state of things.
Each and every stage of class struggle gave birth to another stage of capitalism, and every new manifestation was more perfect than the last. The latest high point in class struggleâMay 1968âwith its radical demands to sever the workers' movement from the management of union bureaucrats (that is, its project of autonomous, liberated labor) was the most significant of these, and it birthed the postmodern era along with a mode of reproduction that surpassed dialectical opposition.
The Tower of Babel had fallen long ago; now it was the
Twin Towers' turn.
<em>Discover the new you...</em>
<em>It's your world...</em>
<em>A phone that gets you...</em>
<em>It's so youâŚ</em>
One can hear it on the street and in the workplace, in the college classroom and the executive boardroom, at the latest radical convergence and at the beach, at dance parties and in underground venues: the logic of duality is so last millennium.
We are living in a postmodern world, and you are a postmodern girl. Which is to say, you are not really a girl as such.
Postmodernism posits a social order in which binary structures are **destabilized.** Foremost of these is the structuring of sexual difference, the very structure which constituted the means by which life was created.
The destabilization of binary oppositional sexes constitutes a crisis in the family and in the reproduction of life, but this crisis is not one that must spell the end of reproduction. A whole assemblage of techniques of biotechnology, cyberproduction, and social work are being deployed to enable, among other things, âqueerâ reproductive possibilities as well as overcome the limits of the human womb which too easily ceases to function, especially under the stress of postmodern life. This analysis falls short, however, of recognizing the way that the central questions of reproduction have been displaced from the act of baby-making to the construction of the self, just as the centering of baby-making in procreationist thought usurped the former importance of the question of cosmic creation.
The primary mode of reproduction in a post-dialectic world is the reproduction of the individualâthat is, re-creationism. The postmodern singularity is not created by God or its parents, but constructed through a pluralistic process that is increasingly âartificial," "social," and, paradoxically, self-realized. This process is the process of identification.
The pluralistic reproductive process could not suffer limits. Each time it reproduces itself exists on an ontological scale. There is no need to speak of the modes of reproduction constituted by three, four, or fifty-four towers because, once there are three, the towers reproduce not themselves and not the relation between themselves, but more and more towers, not twin but unique and individuated, marching across the landscape at an ever-increasing rate. The World Trade Center has fallen but today there stand more skyscrapers than ever before.
Since their death, all their suffering... our store of poisons entrusted to the Towers, counting of course on the jumbo apparatus of the American passions, in some the whole anxious and malificent gameâof our lives, our primitive beliefs, our frissions, the deadly Greek and Bible-inspired phantasms, all that ghastly archivery we'd intuitively conserved in our Towersâhence unconsciously used as the colossal envelopes of all ideas of catastrophe, coffins costumed as the temples of our death wishes.
Diversity is the scientific imperative imposed by the evolutionary science and post-modern theories of becoming.
The stresses of the rapid evolution of commodities and commodity-forms in late-capitalism impose rapid shifts in the labor market which manifest in the postmodern worker's life as the condition of precarity. Precarity, in turn, is the impetus for the workers' continual re-creation of themselves. This process is experienced in the worker's life as the scarcity of jobs he already knows how to do; the creation of ever more numerousâand ever more abstractâjob titles; the drive for continual education and training (âupgrading" himself); the loss of long-term salaried career possibilities as well as benefits and pensions; and the increase in part-time, short-term, piecemeal or waged work.
The ability of capitalism to reach new markets, now that geographical and material expansion are complete, is based on its ability to reach ever-new identities. Thus identities must be produced, and produced as commodities. Identificationâthat is, the process of re-creationismâis the apparatus that produces these identities.
Each new identity is a new tower to which consumers can flock to escape the passe nature of the old ones. Eventuallyâthat is, soon and very soonâthere will have to be a tower for each person (âYou know, there could be as many genders as there are people...â), probably more, and the scale of such production far surpasses the limits of the old workplaces, which are based on the assembly-line's ability to make multiple, identical products. In the late-capitalist economy, however, each commodity must have the air of the unique, and this goes doubly for identity-commodities. The labor of this âcreativeâ work is displaced from the old workplaces; by social imperative and desire, the individual is put to work, unpaid (reproductive workâ baby-making, class struggle, Facebookâis always unpaid), to create new identities âfor himselfâ.
The postmodern Spectacle is a collection of images that must increasingly be constructed uniquely for each individual, the ghost of reproduction must not linger on the screen; but it must also afford him to interact with others. An apparatus of Spectacle- production that is socially-networked affords its consumer a profile and newsfeed unique to him but also the ability to âconnectâ with his ârealâ friends. Reality, in the end, is the product.
Political struggle is no longer epitomized by a war of one party or class against another, nor the people against the state, but becomes the battlefield of social war fought between many identities or forms-of-life against one another. Just as the war between parties within the government served to mask class struggle, today the war over identities masks the war of forms-of-life.
In the war over the towers, identity is the basis for political struggle as well as its aim. Struggles fought over control of the creation and maintenance of identities is no more a threat to the existent than struggles over the making of babies.
The war between forms-of-life is not a war between identities, though it may often manifest as if it were. In this war the negative party is that of the queer, the abnormal. Queer constitutes the negative force that is centrally involved in the proliferation of identity through its struggle to assert itself positively outside of the realm of the normal (each positive queer act yields yet another position within normalcy), yet only for the queer does the overcoming of its limits in struggle threaten to demolish all the towers. This is because queer is positioned to destroy the mechanism of reproduction that it inhabits and assertsâthe mechanism of **difference,** of **abormality,** of **queerness.**
Let us be clear: the queer revolt is yet the avant-garde of capitalism, and that is because it is the positive queer revolt and not yet the purely negative one. The latter does not distinguish itself from the former by its violence and destruction aloneâan assault on existing identities is inherent in the production of new ones â but by its gestures of abortion and its rendering of impotence.
The fact that we are writing these notes is evidence enough that the purely negative tendency has yet to reveal itself sufficiently to destroy the world as we know it.
<em>Aneantir le neant.</em>
<em>Annihilate the void.</em>
Up to now, every critique of the social order has been more or less successful while every proposal to negate it has only accomplished a strengthening or reconfiguration of it. The existent is readily described by the discourse it contains, but the purely negative force is truly unspeakable. There is no reason to believe that the discursive elaboration of the purely negative project is at all possible. Nevertheless...
The common essence of monist, binary, and pluralist ontology is the elevation of the subject to a (singular or multiple) substanceâthe failure to grasp the nothingness that defines subjectivity. The question of âwhy am I?â contains its own answer. Without a subject to pose the question, the question could not be posed. No reproductive apparatus is necessary to create or explain subjectivity. The origin and definition of subjectivity is the abyss; all else consists of substance that is constructed around the void and mistaken as the self. When we say that the self consists of a nothingness, this is the same as the assertion that **there is no self**.
The **avant-garde** of capitalism has been misconstrued as its enemy. Granted that the destruction of reproduction is the project of queer negation, what has come to be known as âradical queernessâ is a largely positive, rather than purely negative, project. In opposition to the world of binary gender, procreationism, the family, politics, modernism, structuralism, dialectics, &c., the âqueer revoltâ posits pluralist gender, re-creationism, the identity group, identification, postmodernism, post-structuralism, multiplicitous struggle,&c. The latter constitute the reproductive apparatuses of the pluralist existent.
In a crucial point of emergence long ago, woman established herself as existent rather than plunge the monist world of Man into the void from which she came. In another, the proletariat struggled to secure its autonomous liberation from the bourgeoisie rather than destroy the bourgeoisie and itself entirely. On the stage set by the present order, the queer force is making itself busy with the proliferation of identities rather than the utter negation of them.
In the re-creationist order, life is experienced as void and death as the only escape. Such is not far from the truth. For those singularities which are born or incorporated into the reproductive order of identificationâwhich now includes even woman, the proletariat, the queer, the hipster, the anarchist and all the restâthe void is no longer experienced as something outside the castle, but as **dwelling within**.
Like the negative project of the proletariat, the negative queer project entails the negation of the existent, of the existent's reproductive apparatuses, and of itself. What's more, the latter's self-abolition must take place not only as death, but also the murder of a certain kind of death. This is because even suicide, or selfabolition, has been subsumed under the process of re-creationism. Death is necessary in the process of self-creation because in the act of becoming, one kills the old version of himself. In order to destroy the reproductive process of re-creation, the queer must destroy the latter's false version of suicide. The queer death-drive is an urge for **pure** suicide, which is also **pure murder**.
It is no coincidence that those who theorise on themes of pluralist gender identity, postmodernism, and intersectionality, encourage the reader/subject to not kill himself and instead to kill **a part of himself in order to reinvent himself anew.**
Man's fall from grace and the collapse of the Twin Towers pale in comparison to the purely negative project of today, so awful are its manifestations. These are yet unspeakable, but if we could imagine the entire world rendered as an aborted fetus, the plunging of the universe into an abyss that opened in the space-time continuum, or the people of the world digging corpses out of their graves and fucking them endlessly, we would catch a glimpse of the death it seeks to unleash. To those who love this world, human strike will appear as no thing of beauty, but to those who hate it there is nothing as beautiful.
Pure suicide is not the suicide of the individual motivated by hopelessness, though it is **antithetical to hope**. It is not the suicide that comes from a moment of despair, but from **an entire world of despair**. It is not decided in the turn of an instant, but carefully considered over time. For before it destroys itself, the purely negative singularity strives to destroy this world, render impotent its apparatuses of reproduction, and bring to an end its sense of the Future.
<em>If the Tower our mother our body our sex burned down tonightâthe hypothesis cannot be rejected, the whole castle has already burned down except for the Tower, the Towerâs turn will come, since what else remains to burn? Whatâs more to explain than that such a Tower, such a perfect gem of human grandeur not be condemned and executed in these days of perverse criminality? For sure itâs a target, plans are afoot... She is there, round, delicious, appetizing, eternal, pregnant with genius and with books, and she is not there. One gulp of the plane. We are already killed. Read all about it in tomorrowâs paperâif the Tower has burned, we are already dead and tomorrow we shall die of it</em>
<em>If the Tower has not yet burned, it will burn in a day or two.</em>
<em>1. What is Gender Mutiny? What is gender mutiny?</em>
âGender mutinyâ is a theory group that does not exist. The contradiction between gender mutiny's actual nonexistence and the false appearance of existence which it maintains is a deliberate parallel to a similar contradiction between the lack of any true self and the dogged assertion of existence so often made by various nonexistent individuals and groups.
There is a whole world of circulating appearances, and these images are mistaken as being. Gender is one of the forms among the many forms of apparent-being. Following this, gender mutiny is a practice of rejecting this particular form of appearance. But the practice is actually suggestive of much more, a beautiful and joyous annihilation, the wholly negative revolt of the true self (which is nothing) against all that is not its own (which is everything).
<em>2.</em> <em>What is the relation between queer theory and nihilism?</em>
That is an interesting question for you to ask. I believe it is a question that is absolutely incomprehensible in the realm of heterosexuality.
Why? Well, because you have essentially asked what are the relations that a void could have with another void. Nihilism is quite literally nothing. That's what it means. Nothing. And queer theory, it's a little less clear cut, but it originated with literary critics reading queerness into texts. Queer theorists felt that they could do this because of the postmodern rejection of an objective truth existing âout there" in the âreal world" and the idea that the meaning of a text is not imbued by its creator but culled out by its reader. So although queer theory has a lot of surface appearances (as does nihilism: black clothing and cigarettes and such), it is based upon a sense that nothing in the world has any objective meaning or truth. So queer theory has a certain kind of nothingness that it holds dear to its heart, even if its active project of queering is something pretty different.
So the question is how can a nothingness relate to another nothingness. This has never been a heterosexual question, because heterosexuality is mainly concerned with relations between the void and the phallus. (And I'm afraid I'll have to make a diversion here in order to eventually answer your question.)
Most people know that there was a time when people believed that something called âman" existed. If you disbelieve my claim that such a time existed, just read some of their texts; they go on at great length about âman." But what's important here is that the establishment of the supposed existence of man was a truly revolutionary feat of philosophy that was totally axiomatic - that is, the claim was not only unfounded but unfoundable (it was foundational). Back in those days what we call âwoman" did not exist at all. Reproduction took place through a relation between a substantial, positive force (the phallus) and a nothingness.
Feminism intervened here to posit the existence of âwoman," and this too was a pretty revolutionary feat, but it more or less ripped off the totally axomatic philosophical process of before. Eventually most people believed that âwoman" existed, and it became pretty accepted (because of scientific inquiry as well as feminism) that reproduction was the result of relations between men and women. These relations were no longer understood to involve a nothingness and a phallus, but rather a phallus and another phallus. This is because âwoman" had been established in the image of âman," as a phallus. (The phallus is simply that which exists. The theory of woman-as-phallus has been very well established by Freud and others.)
It is interesting to note that around this time there were some who rejected feminism and the existence of âwoman.â Some of them simply believed that man and man alone existed, but others were deeply skeptical of the whole sketchy notion of being anything at all. This tendency has been called ânegative feminismâ even though it has little at all to do with feminism.
More recently, post-feminist interventions went on to posit the existence of more than two genders (perhaps infinitely- many genders), and these are gradually gaining social acceptance. This process of positing more and more genders, which go on to gain social acceptance, is generally called âqueering.â These post-feminist ideas also make claims concerning reproductionânamely, that it can take place in various configurations between these various genders.
I suppose there are some thoughts in queer theory that attempt to address the nature of relations between nothings. But queer theory has, for the most part, been a sort of hyperactive version of feminism which is super-interested in positing more and more genders and bringing more hyper-subjective, virtual worlds into being through processes of queering the social. For these reasons, which are all of major concern of our critique of queer practice/theory, the queer tendency can be considered as the obsessive thrusting of ever-more phalluses into the social arena. And given that the queer will readily admit to the inherent emptiness of the social but continue in its creative attempts of world-building, the whole thing ends up being a huge âtowards the voidâ circle-jerk or gang-bang of sorts. So while it's all pretty queer, it still involves the relations between phallus(es) and nothings, not between one nothing and another, so it has little to say on this question.
I can tell that I have certainly gone on too long by now, and so I will simply conclude by stating that the relations between queer theory and nihilism (or any two nothings for that matter) are a necessarily mysterious endeavor of which I hesitate to speak directly.
<em>3.</em> <em>What influences GM?</em>
Ah, well, the murders of crows that roost in the trees outside our windows and blacken the sky with their wings are of primary importance to our sense of mystery of the void, and to them we are truly and deeply indebted. We are also influenced by all of the gorgeous and revolting queers who have come before us, who went to their graves in complete abject failure and whose bones cry out for our lips. Every flame that leaps from a prison is as a breath of air to us. That singular joy which springs from the taking up of weapons is dear. As is all that remains unseen. And more... much, much more.
<em>4.</em> <em>What are GMâs complicities to insurrection and its various articulation?</em>
It occurs to me that, of all the words you might have used in posing a question to me, âinsurrectionâ is the one that is perhaps the most difficult regardless of context. This word stands in for something. There is insurrection happening, I know, but when I watch a video from Egypt this is not insurrection, not for me, because I am not in it. There are only some images on a screen. I experience the absence of insurrection. The absence of insurrection, rather than its presence, is what we are familiar with. The presence of this absence is familiar because it is everyday life. So it would follow that insurrection, in its absence, stands in for everything that is not the normal, not here. (Except that of course it has nothing to do with the possible reconfigurations of this world such as, say, a new green energy technology.)
Now it seems there are two main trajectories in dealing with the absence of the insurrection. On the one hand there are those prophets with their coming insurrection. The âcomingnessâ of the insurrection becomes a mantra. The comingness of the insurrection is the absence of the insurrection. Tomorrow, as an orphan named Annie once recognized, is always a day away.
On the other hand are the ones who say the insurrection is here. The others are rank-and-file prophets, but these are frothing zealots, convinced that the apocalypse has already come and trying to get everybody to realize it by pointing to the âsignsâ. A particular kind of lunacy that is not insane by virtue of being wrong exactly, but more by its extremist fringe status. Everyone knows that the insurrection is not here. Besides, if this is the insurrection, then fuck it, because it feels like everyday life, and if insurrection means anything at all, then it can't be everyday life.
I would reject futurism as well as the mystical selfhelp approach about the potential of reclaiming the present moment reworked for insurrection. There's no time for any of it.
I will say a bit more about time, though. From the past I get a vague sense, if I do not poke too much at the waters of memory, that I have already found what I am now trying to find. So I also must have lost it. It would seem that everyday lifeâthat time itselfâis simply everything that makes up and weaves the fabric in which what I'm after can be the hole. I do hope to find one again soon, and I hope to find you there as well.
<em>5. How has GM been received?</em>
I suppose that I wish I knew. But to know would require gaining entrance to someone's most inner depths, thereby violating him. Moreover, I am afraid of what I would find thereâ something not intended for myself. Something beyond my knowing. And yet, I certainly wish I knew that as well.
The following questions were written as an attempt to begin critical conversations about the continued existence of Bash Back! before the convergence in 2010. Originally circulated through the Bash Back! News blog and other anarchist websites, we're reproducing it, as it is the first public and written critical evaluation of the network's role and the intentions of its participants. Themes surrounding organization laid out in this text would later be expanded upon in conversations at the convergence, and in subsequent discourse around Bash Back! and its disintegration.
"That train occupation was just so fucked up. Everyone was kissing and being so queer around all of these poor People of Color who couldn't possible understand what that meant"
- A racist, who fancies themselves as âan allyâ or something.
"Twinkle Fingers"
- Evan Greer, of Riot Folk
"This is a NON-VIOLENT protest!!!"
- Someone dragging rubbish out of the street to allow police vehicles through.
"I mean, it was just really fucked up. All of these people with passing privilege were rioting and I didn't have a buddy with me, so I had to take my skirt off to walk back to where I was staying. I was forced to pass!"
- Evan Greer (certified expert in the oppression of transpeople) in regards to a rowdy march where several transpeople were arrested and/or attacked by police while they were getting wild.
"The 'riot' in Oakland after Oscar Grant was murdered was not a riot. It was just a bunch of privileged white anarchists, A riot isn't a riot if it isn't in your own neighborhood."
- Eric Stanley of Gay Shame, displaying that he knows about as much about Oakland as he does about what constitutes a riot.
White Person: "that march was so racist and so fucked up"
Another White Person: "that march was so racist and so fucked up. There were people of color in the neighborhood and womyn and transpeople."
Several female-bodied, people of color who live in Chicago: "Actually, it wasn't fucked up. Bash Back! isn't supposed to be polite. Destroying capitalism and normalcy won't be pretty or polite. It will probably be very rude. That's what "Bash Back!" means. I mean, we are anarchists right?!"
Silence for a bit
Another White Person: "We aren't all anarchists"
Yet Another White Person: "That march was so fucked up! Everyone needs to work on their shit!"
What is Bash Back!? Is Bash Back! a network? An organization? A gang? A tendency?
If we are a network, what do we find in one another? What do we hold in common? A desire? A passion? A strategy? An Ideology? or simply an identity, a name?
If BB! is an organization, we are doomed from the start. We can expect a future filled with heavily moderated consensus meetings upon heavily moderated consensus meetings until we are nothing but arrogant hipsters meeting in a bookstore and taking nearly six months to plan or write anything. If we are ever to have a member-list, count us off of it.
If we are a gang, what is our ritual? How should we fight? How do we measure in/exclusion? In what ways can we share the means of our existences? What are the best ways to have each other's backs? How do the trappings of activism and organization limit us? More importantly, how cute is our outfit? Have we worked out our dance-moves? If we are to be a gang, we have so much to do.
If we name a tendency, how do we make that tendency spread like fire? How can we make that tendency escape the dead-ends of liberal identity politics and/or academia and/or activism? How will we find commonality with other forms-of-life that bash back? How can we make this world explode?
Is our violence of substance or of image?
Are we joking when we write about violence? What is meant by that picture of beautiful people holding baseball bats and sledge hammers? Is this symbolism? Is it real? Does it mean anything to bash back?
The road forks here. Will radical queers continue down the path of the image of militancy; of irrelevance? If so, we can expect many more films and photoshoots displaying a glamorous armed struggle (like the red army faction with glitter). We can expect more celebration of riots forty years ago and uprisings across the ocean (accompanied, of course, by condemnation of riot in the here and nowâby crying over broken windows and over-tipped newspaper boxes). Violence will be acceptable as long as it takes the form of abstraction, an artform, a historical occurrence, or a blip on the global news feedâwhen it is separate from us. It will always be refused on the level of our daily lives, when we become its agents.
Or we can locate ourselves within the violence of daily life in capitalism. The knowledge of violence felt on our skin will translate to a violence felt in our fists, our arms, our voices. From here, bash back! can only ever conceivably name the praxis. Self defense networks, fight clubs, complicity, intimacy, pepper spray, bodily fluids, and a healthy amount of glitter. We'll choose the latter.
The question of barricades.
In the ongoing global civil war between capitalism and its negation, we are left to choose sides. There is the side for the barricades (where you'll always catch me) or the side opposed. To be clear: the opposition to barricades is always an endorsement of order; always to side with the police, the queerbashers, the judges and juries, the prisons, the state. So where will we find you? Amongst the rabble or in line with the snitches and good citizens of empire?
A friend wrote from Greece concerning a newly translated piece on the insurrection:
âI worry as to whether it's even worth presenting a text that celebrates barricades to readers that condemn their constructions in Chicago streets. In my eyes, what could only be worse is for âInstead of a Conclusionâ to be looked at as an exotic applause to blockades, riots, and street fights only in places and lives far from our own. Gladly and on the other hand, there were those who neglected the banal criticism from the âanarcho-liberalsâ and erected barricades to for once impede the State's grip on their entire existence. Let be. For better or for worse, a split is inevitable. A split so that the tired discussion about whether or not to build barricades can be silenced like a drunk giving an inappropriate eulogy at a solemn funeral. A scission so that we get on with the important questions, refuse to consider the morality of barricades, and only correctly concern ourselves with how to make them taller, stronger, more terrible, so that metropolitan avenues can become as uncontrollable as an element of nature.â
What does it mean to resist oppression?
Will our anti-oppression work take the same tired forms of caucuses and guilt-ridden ally workshops? Will we simply be the extreme vanguard of the same useless identity politics regurgitated by liberal studies professors in every university in the land? Will we repeat the formulas that fail us over and over? Or can we imagine something else?
To emphasize: the forces occupying our lives are at the same time all pervasive and minute. Terrible and yet invisible. A totality and a multiplicity. The monster that is destroying the world is the very same monster that makes us hate our bodies, that enslaves us to gender, that ravages our desires. To refuse this society will require new weapons. Let's begin with human strike; all else has yet to be developed.
What is our purpose?
The answer to this question prefigures and determines all the rest. Do we want a nicer, friendlier, more diverse, inclusive, radical, hyper-mediated, less-fucked-up version of this society? Or do we want to watch it burn? Are we interested in progress or are we interested in rupture? Will we settle for all this but a little different? Or are we insatiable? If you desire a queer capitalism, please stay home. If you want to destroy capitalism, we'll see you in Denver!
The four essays that follow are taken from issues 4â6 of the publication, Pink And Black Attack. PABA was a regular anti-assimilationist, queer- anarchist publication that came from the Pacific Northwest and was closely tied to the explosion of Bash Back! The journal consistently reproduced communiques from clandestine queer actions, and publishes new essays and reflections on the role of anarchist queer theory. As an example of queer projects surviving the Bash Back! network, PABA continued after the BB! ended, but has since ceased to be published or circulated. We've included the essay destruction not separation: some thoughts on the church and state as well as identity, politics, and anti-politics, thoughts on developing anarchist queer theory and reflections on the demise of Bash Back! Following these essays, the reader will find an interview with one of the publication's editors.
From **Pink and Black Attack 4**
The same-sex marriage debate, for the political mainstream, has essentially split into two camps: the Right, which is against it, and the Left, which is for it. These, of course, only represent the mainstream discourse and marginalize other positions. Anarchists and other radicals, for example, have been historically opposed to the institution of marriage in general, and more recently have specifically come out against same-sex marriage because of its assimilationist nature. Another position that has been gaining popularity in recent years is a libertarian argument that the state has no business in the institution of marriage, and that marriage should be stripped of legal status and instead be simply a matter for churches.
At first glance, this argument seems to fit with the anarchist critique. It essentially promotes a non-state solution to the question of marriage, taking government and state regulation out of the equation. However, this is a false alternative precisely because it is a non-state solution. What is needed is an anti-state solution.
There are two main parts to the libertarian argument: an economic side and a social side. The economic argument asserts that the tax breaks and other financial benefits to marriage amount state. As anarchists, we are not simply concerned with the abolition of government, but also with the abolition of all hierarchy and domination. Making marriage simply a religious commitment does nothing to address the patriarchal nature of marriage, nor does it attack the widespread heterosexism that finds a base of support in the church.
If we want the abolition of hierarchy and authority, the destruction of oppression and domination, then our targets must include all institutions that support, promote, or rely on these things. A stronger separation of church and state does nothing for this, and thus the non-state solution for same-sex marriage is useless at best. It only solves the political question of rights, of proper government, and of equal protection. These are of little interest to those of us who seek queer liberation.
We do not appeal to government as its subjects, seeking the equality that it has long promised but never delivered. We do not seek to adjust the role of government in our lives to a proper level. We do not seek to make marriage a strictly religious institution. These are all political solutions to the political question of same-sex marriage.
The modern marriage equality movement has its roots in the queer liberation movement of the 1960s. This movement was a response to the structural heterosexism that continues to function as a pillar of American society. However, when the movement turned to political activism as a vehicle for change, it adopted the logic of the political system. The political system has definite rules and structures that limit both the ways in which demands are framed, and the solutions to these demands. These demands, because they have to adhere to an abstracted system of rules, become abstracted because they must be defined in the terms of the political system. Thus, same- sex marriage becomes a political demand, necessitating a political solution. These political solutions must also adhere to the rules of the to a subsidy for those who marry. Essentially, those of us who do not marry are paying for those who do. The social argument claims that government should not have any say in who marries who, as consenting adults should be allowed to enter into a marriage without state intervention. Both of these arguments are persuasive, but the problem is not in the arguments themselves. Rather, the problem lies in the assumptions that they rest upon, and by extension the issues they do not address.
Perhaps the biggest difference between an anarchist and a libertarian perspective is the role of the state. As mentioned above, the contrast is between anti-statism and non-statism. The difference may appear to be simply a matter of terminology, but this is not the case. Rather, the divide between the two positions is stark; because the entire libertarian argument is based on a critique of government intervention into people's private lives, rather than a critique of government itself. The libertarian-economic argument, for instance, implicitly asserts that equal protection under law is a virtue that is currently not being achieved, because of the subsidies available to those who choose to marry. Similarly, the libertarian- social argument rests on the assumption that government should not determine who can and cannot marry, as that is an intrusion on people's liberty.
What both of these arguments do not address is the idea that government itself is the problem. Instead, the problem is framed as a matter of too much government; as if a mere reduction in government meddling is enough to solve the problem of same-sex marriage. Furthermore, an argument that is premised on finding an appropriate role for the state in our lives carries with it an acceptance of whatever this appropriate role may be as subjects of the state. That is, if we are to petition for a better government, we are arguing as citizens, as people with a stake in governed society.
Another failing of the libertarian perspective is that it fails to critique civil society, and all of its connections to the system, meaning that it cannot subvert the political process (the rule of law).
The political system and political process thus preclude solutions outside of its rules and limits. The libertarian solution to the demand of same-sex marriage falls within these limits, and does nothing to challenge them. It does not issue a challenge to the political system, or the larger social system. It solves the demand without the state, but only in a way that leaves the political process untouched.
To move towards an anti-state solution, we must first argue for a new understanding of the question of same-sex marriage. As noted above, the momentum that has manifested itself in political activism for marriage equality has its roots in a struggle for liberation. This struggle, through its politicization, was reduced to a series of demands on the state. We must reject and fight against the politicization of struggle, the transformation of our lives into a political question.
from **Pink and Black Attack 4**
I am a __________ who seeks the destruction of class society. That blank can be filled with a variety of words, from worker to queer to individual to mixed-race person to anarchist. What each of these terms has in common is that they each signify a certain identity. While identity politics have gained traction in both anarchist/radical scenes and society more generally, the very idea of identity politics is a problem. Identity politics, as a political force, seeks inclusion into the ruling classes, rather than acting as a revolutionary force for the destruction of class society. However, this does not mean we should dismiss identity or identity-based organizing and action. The institutions that create and enforce class society (capital, work, the state, police) rely on identities in their strategy of control, by attacking some identities and not others, or by pitting various identities against each other, to compete for access to the privilege of acceptance by the dominant classes. In their use of repression based on identities, those in power also create affinity among the dominated. Let this be made clear: I do not contend that every person who identifies with or is identified by a particular social identity has a common experience. Similarly, I do not argue that these identities are anything other than socially constructed. However, I do argue that people who share an identity can find stronger affinity with others who share that identity. This is due to the ways that capitalism and the state enforce identities. While these identities are socially constructed, this does not lessen their importance or their reality. Indeed, it is critical in the struggle for total liberation to understand the ways identities are constructed to subjugate people.
The academics have been speaking for years of âthe Otherâ as the most abstract identity, defined in opposition to the dominant forces. While this abstraction works in the most general comparisons of various identities, it is in the specificities of distinct identities that affinities are built. A discussion of every socially- enforced identity would be impossible; instead, I will focus on an analysis of queer identity. Specifically, I will attempt to articulate an anti-assimilationist and anarchist/communist perspective on queer identity, with implications for other identities as well. This is a perspective critical of identity politics as well as a false unity under any one identity (citizen, human race, proletariat). It is critical of assimilationist politics and practice, and perhaps most importantly, it is explicitly anti-state and anti-capitalist.
To understand identity in the context of the present social order, one must understand the concept of social construction. This concept, in short, refers to the ways in which social institutions establish, regulate, and enforce various identities. One especially telling example is the way in which those labeled âinsaneâ are then forced into institutions which serve only to reaffirm a supposed insanity. Homosexuality was once considered a mental disorder, after all.
The term âsocially constructedâ carries an unfortunate connotation, however. It is assumed that if an identity is socially constructed, then it differs in some way from a more authentic, natural identity. This assumption resembles religious dogma in that we are asked to accept an unchanging human nature as defined by someone else. In reality, to say identity is a social construction means that identities are defined and enforced by social institutions such as governments and businesses. Thus, identity becomes social fact in the sense that it materially affects people. From queer-bashing to abortion bans, certain identities carry with them material disadvantages. From property rights to Jim Crow, certain identities carry with them material advantages. These identities are socially constructed, and thus become social facts. These inequalities are not expressions of some pre-existing natural order. Instead, the cause of these material inequalities can be traced to the socio-economic context in which they existed. This context is determined by the dominant social order, which continues to be that of capitalism and state power.
Not every act of discrimination or oppression, however, can be considered a direct act of the state or capital. This is particularly true when one considers specific manifestations of patriarchy. Sexual assault and domestic violence are often considered interpersonal disputes, rather than having a larger meaning in the context of a deeply patriarchal social order. However, even if there is not an agent of the state or an agent of capital directly involved, one cannot ignore the social framework which normalizes such behavior. One must only consider the fact that the institution of marriage was originally a property relationship, and even until recent decades rape was acceptable, as long as it was in the context of marriage. This is not to say that perpetrators have any excuse. They still enforce the social system of patriarchy, despite (usually) not acting in an official capacity on behalf of the state or capital.
We can thus trace identity-based oppression to either the official business of state power and capitalism, or else to the power of the statist, capitalist social order. The distinction, however, becomes academic. The problem clearly lies in this society, in the social order and the institutions that create, maintain, and enforce it. Much as identity is social, so is the oppression around it: it is a result of human interactions, not any sort of higher power.
The term social construction means also that identity is not fixed, but rather changes according to a variety of factors. Particularly, there exists a tension between those who benefit from inequality, and those who are oppressed by inequality. In the United States, this tension is demonstrated by the range of identity-liberation movements that have been active in the United States. With a few notable exceptions (women's suffrage being one), identity movements rose to prominence in the 1960s, as chants of black power, gay is good, and sisterhood is powerful became fixtures at demonstrations and protests. These demonstrations and conflicts were sites of struggle over what was meant when the terms black, gay, or woman were used. To be assigned any of these terms meant that one was not fully human, that there was a defect that nobody could correct. The Black Power, Queer Liberation, and Women's Liberation movements contested the idea that people were to be defined by these identities and thus undeserving of equality. These contestations (as each movement was, to a large degree, focused only on one specific identity) meant that not only could political inequality be challenged, but also the very definitions of identity. In other words, people began to actively and consciously construct their identities and explore identity in relationship to the larger social structure.
The initial exploration of identity proved useful, providing a greater understanding of the ways in which domination and its specific manifestations (racism, sexism, homophobia) are connected to the state and capitalism. The 1960s were also years of resistance and uprising more generally. These events did not happen separately; instead, they were a part of a larger discontent with society as a whole. However, much as the energy of the 1960s was dissipated into the traditional, rigid forms of activism and managed dissent, so was the revolutionary potential of exploring identity.
Over time, these movements have left us with organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and National Organization for Women (NOW) as the self-proclaimed leaders in the struggle for equality under the law. However, what is interesting to note is that these organizations serve as explicitly political organizations, seeking political equality through political processes. These groups can thus be understood to engage in identity politics.
Given the political effectiveness of these organizations, their model has been emulated by others seeking to reform the current socio-economic order. This has led to identity politics becoming a central part of the contemporary United States political order. This is especially true in the liberal reformist movement, where organizations such as the NAACP, HRC, and NOW are prominent. With their successes in political reform, they (and many other identity-politics organizations) have become embedded in the dominant political discourse. It is here that we encounter one of the main problems of identity politics: the groups which sought to challenge identity-based oppression have instead merely entered into a partnership with those who benefit from oppression. This partnership concerns the ability to define the political agenda for a certain identity. This is clearly demonstrated in the queer community by the HRC, with their push for hate crime laws, marriage, and military service. These demands show that the HRC has accepted the logic of and requested partnership in the government and the marketplace. Essentially, the HRC is fighting for assimilation into, rather than the destruction of, a system that creates and enforces the very oppression they are allegedly struggling against.
However, even identity politics does not have unfettered power in the political mainstream. Even the appearance of altering power relations in this society is, to some, a threat. These reactionaries claim that identity politics seeks special rights for certain groups. This flawed logic rests on the idea that, since people are guaranteed equality under the Constitution, then the problem of legal inequality is non-existent. Even if one accepts the logic of the state, the discrepancy between legal/political equality and social equality is telling.
Another reaction to the Left's adoption of identity politics is the rise of hard-Right identity politics. This leads to absurdities such as men's rights movements, white rights movements, and groups dedicated to preserving Christian culture and identity. One can see a connection between these reactionary positions, despite their apparent contradictions. Each position represents a different tactic towards the same goal: maintaining a class-based society along with the homophobic, white-supremacist, and patriarchal structures that uphold it. This stands in contrast to identity politics, which seeks to mildly reform class society and its institutions.
In short, there today exists a tension between progressive identity politics and reactionary anti-identity politics. The failure of both rests in their reliance on the state and capitalism as basis for their vision of society. Both seek to better manage the present order. It is clear: there exists a subset of people in this society that benefit from the current social order. These people include queer people, people of color, women, and every other identity. Politicians, police, prison guards, landlords, and bosses: these are our enemies. They come in all forms.
It is equally clear that queer-bashers, rapists, and racists are similarly enemies of liberation. While in some cases these are not people with access to and backing of institutional power, the violence they inflict is no less real or important. Indeed, their tactics are taken directly from the state, and uphold systems of control even after the formal powers officially abandon them.
Identity is meaningful in that it marginalizes us in different ways, and the affinity that comes from similar or shared experiences is powerful. However, it must always be remembered that such affinity is useless when it is integrated in a system of domination and control. Such affinity ought to be encouraged as it strengthens our bonds to one another and promotes conflict with the social order, be it bombing police cars or expelling rapists from one's community.
A specific sort of affinity is generated between people who are faced with similar oppression based on socially constructed identities. However, problems arise when this affinity is expanded to mean something else, such as an idea of racial unity or gender unity. Affinity cannot be reduced to mere identity: for example, simply because I am mixed-race does not mean I have affinity with all people of color. While we are likely to share similar experiences, merely having such experiences does not constitute affinity. The question of âwhat constitutes affinity?â is a large one, and well beyond the scope of this work. What is clear, however, is the problem of identity politics to those of us who seek total liberation.
By working within the political arena, identity- politicians work within accepted notions of power, change, and struggle. They become another lobby, another special interest that some politicians are beholden to while others rail against them. The people that constitute these identities are lost in all of this, become a voting bloc to be traded around rather than people.
This model fails us. Our lives are not political questions, positions to be taken, or votes to be won. We cannot be reduced into discrete categories of identity, each with its own set of lobbyists to win over the bourgeois politicians. This is the dead-end of assimilationism. This is the dead-end of politics. Rather than more politics, more money for lobbyist, and more ad campaigns, we need an end to the political process.
It is, after all, the politicians who had us criminalized or killed. It is the capitalists who make us work to survive, or sometimes keep us out of work. Why do we petition those who marginalize us for an end to our marginalization? They are interested in expanding their power over us, or at the least maintaining it. It is true that they occasionally allow moderate concessions, but these concessions should not pacify us. These concessions are not liberation, and sometimes they're not even liberating. The expansion of marriage rights? Being allowed to fight in the military? These goals are useless because they are simply political goals; they seek to alter the way the political system functions.
The point is not to achieve equality by the political process. The point is to destroy the political process, and with it the apparatus that props up class society. This requires an anti-political outlook. Identity must be treated not as a political concept, but as a facet of our everyday lives. My experiences have convinced me that the current socio-economic order has to be destroyed. I find stronger affinity with other queer people because of my understanding of homophobia, but I will not vote for gay marriage. I find stronger affinity with other mixed-race people because of my understanding of racism, but I will not vote for harsher hate crime laws.
It is clear that, because identities shape our experiences, we cannot write off identity as unimportant. However, it is equally clear that we cannot afford to maintain the identities imposed upon us. Thus, an apparent contradiction arises between the necessity of recognizing socially constructed identity while simultaneously trying to destroy the class society that enforces those identities. This contradiction proves difficult, with a range of responses from a disregard for the destruction of class society to a disregard for identity, and many other arguments somewhere between these two positions. The problem is that there is no contradiction. Indeed, the former necessitates the latter. In order to destroy class society, an analysis of how it functions is critical. In short, we must know our enemy. However, it is important to avoid the pitfall of essentialism; it must always be understood that these identities are constructed by the larger socio-economic structure. The oppression that affects people with various identities is enforced by state power and the power of capital. Understanding this generates a premise for solidarity, as those marginalized find affinity within their communities with those who face similar struggles. Additionally, the understanding of connections between one's experience with identity and one's experience with the larger socio-economic order allows for a solidarity that goes beyond any specific identity.
The importance of identity lies not in identity politics, but rather in the fact that identity is socially constructed by the dominant system in order to maintain capitalism and state power. In turn, the oppression that follows is an integral part of the social order as a whole, whether the violence is on an interpersonal, institutional, or structural level. Oppression also helps build affinity, through shared experiences or through shared struggle. Recognizing identity and identity-based oppression as social facts allows for stronger affinity, and the connections between one's experiences and the larger social order similarly allows for a solidarity between people who want to abolish the state, abolish capitalism, and abolish the domination that both maintain over our lives. This abolition requires not political negotiation, but anti-political organizing and action.
from **Pink and Black Attack 5**
In the past two decades, queer theory has developed as an academic pursuit and gained considerable acceptance within the realm of higher education. While some of the concepts from this branch of study have trickled into radical queer thought, it has remained primarily an academic pursuit. I believe that queer theory can be useful, but it must be expanded to be accessible to those outside of academia. Furthermore, problematic tendencies within queer theory should be addressed, and it is my contention that the development of an explicitly anarchist queer theory would be beneficial. In this essay, I hope to lay out a basic explanation of queer theory, a critique of the current state of queer theory, and to propose a basic framework for developing anarchist queer theory. Ultimately, I seek to open up a discussion within the queer anarchist community on building anarchist queer theory. Far from being the last word on the subject, I hope that this piece instead generates discussion and further writing and conversations.
Queer theory is one of the latest currents of critical theory to gain widespread academic acceptance. It developed out of the field of Gay and Lesbian Studies, itself a product of the period that saw the birth of interdisciplinary studies programs such as Women's Studies and Ethnic Studies. However, queer theory takes a radically different approach to identity than other theories about identity. Unlike most other identity-based studies, and even in contrast to some queer studies, queer theory specifically seeks to question the idea of identity itself.
One concept that is central to the project of queer theory is the essentialism vs. social construction debate. The essentialist perspective relies on the argument that identities are inherent and fixed. For example, an essentialist position would argue that the binary of man/woman is legitimate, that those identities are natural and that the differences between them are likewise natural. Social construction, on the other hand, argues that identity has no basis in nature and is constructed entirely by social forces and discourse. While essentialism takes as its starting point a fixed identity and then analyzes how society as a whole impacts and is impacted by people with that identity, social construction argues against the fixed identity, claiming instead that identity is continually constructed and reconstructed by social forces.
Perhaps the best known queer theorist is Judith Butler, a professor at Berkeley. Her book **Gender Trouble** has achieved some degree of success unusual for an academic text. Due to the popularity of her work, Butler is a large influence on queer theory. One of her major contributions is the idea of gender performativity. For Butler, gender is a collective fiction that consists of the aggregated performances of individuals. People act according to this fiction to perform their gender. Individuals are punished for acting contrary to this fiction, either by law or by social norms. Butler also counters the traditional understanding of sex as biological and gender as social by arguing that outside of gender, sex has no meaning and is thus equally socially constructed.
Queer theory can thus be seen as a deconstruction of identity itself, specifically in the case of sex and gender but with broader implications. However, these broader implications are often lost because of the degree to which queer theory is an academic pursuit, with all the disadvantages that come with this status. Notably, the language used by many theorists is very inaccessible, and the works themselves are difficult to find. Queer theory also tends towards elitism, precisely because there is little chance to study or theorize outside specific academic contexts. I do not believe that we ought to discard queer theory, however; instead I hope to see queer theory break out of the academy with its lessons and debates becoming a part of general discourse.
Queer theory brings a critical approach to questions of gender and sexuality, as well as identity in a broader sense. However, as theory it is not explicitly anarchist. Given that my aim is to offer a framework for anarchist queer theory, I wish to make clear the operating principles of anarchism that I will be basing my framework on. What follows is not a final definition of anarchism, nor is it an attempt at one. Instead, I will give a basic explanation of anarchism in order to provide a basis for the rest of this essay.
Anarchism aims for the abolition of hierarchy and authority, placing anarchists against the state, against capitalism, and against social oppression. While all three systems act in different (yet overwhelmingly complementary) ways, queer theory is relevant to anarchist critique of each. State power, for example, regulates and criminalizes various identities. Capitalism represents a force that, by its nature, seeks to commodify human relationships and identities. Capital also plays a central role in the ideology of the family, which has become central to mainstream political debate. Social oppression is abundant, with extralegal violence against queer people common, as well as discrimination and general intolerance.
This is admittedly a very basic description of anarchism, and in no way represents the breadth or depth of anarchist analysis. However, a more detailed explanation would require venturing into debates that are well beyond the scope of this essay. Resources are widely available for those desiring more information about anarchist thought and anarchist theory.
Queer theory, as mentioned above, is critical of traditional notions of identity, and seeks to deconstruct the processes by which identity is constructed. The conflict of anti-assimilationist queer thought against assimilationist LGBT politics is a shining example of the relevance of queer theory. Assimilationism, in a queer context, is represented by the campaigns of mainstream, reformist organizations. Issues such as gay marriage, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and hate crime laws are at the top of the LGBT agenda, according to groups such as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Marriage Equality USA. This, along with cultural assimilation in the form of corporate-sponsored Pride parades, demonstrates a commitment to embracing the statist logic of citizenship and rights, as well as the capitalist commodification of culture. Assimilationism, then, seeks integration into capitalism and state power in exchange for being loyal subjects. The LGBT movement is thus, on the whole, an assimilationist effort.
The anti-assimilationist critique of the LGBT movement begins with the difference in terminology. The term LGBT is fundamentally about establishing a fixed identity for representational purposes. This is evident even in its historical progression: from lesbian and gay, to adding bisexuality, and finally to adding trans to the acronym. Each of these additions was met with resistance by the gay establishment, demonstrating the exclusionary nature of the term. Queer, on the other hand, is a purposefully ambiguous term that was reclaimed as a positive description instead of the slur that it used to be.
As indicated by the terminology, the LGBT movement seeks to construct a coalition of defined identities in order to participate fully in the political process. This requires identities whose definition can be counted on to remain stable, in order to give rights or take them away. Queer theory consciously rejects the idea of fixed identities, with queer itself being a term that deliberately provides no stable identity. Thus, queer liberation has little to do with the LGBT movement's goal of assimilation and their narrow identity politics.
Queer theory, as an academic pursuit, has followed a different trajectory than other academic studies based on identity (ethnic studies and women's studies, among others) in that queer theory developed in the academy, rather than developing out of mass struggle. Because of this, queer theory has largely remained in the academy instead of spreading into the general population. However, the confinement of queer theory to the ivory tower is not total. Indeed, within anarchist circles certain concepts have become fairly popular. The prime example of this is the notion of genderqueer and the larger critique of the gender binary. Drawing from Butler's theory of performativity, being genderqueer indicates a refusal of the traditional male/female dichotomy, as gender is constructed according to one's individual desire.
However, there are also aspects of queer theory that deserve a critical examination, and lead to further questions. One such aspect is the individualism of performativity, as it mainly analyzes an individual's gender identity in relation to the collective fiction of gender that is imposed. The question that is then prompted is, if gender is a collective fiction used to control people, then how do we as anarchists abolish this tool of domination? Is an individual-based approach enough, or is collective action required?
Another issue is the essentialism vs. social construction dichotomy, which has become oversimplified. While the philosophical basis of essentialism is clearly problematic, does that mean analysis using fixed categories is equally problematic? Can the state be seen as an essentializing force, with queer theory then analyzing the relation of the state to those who are essentialized and simultaneously seeking to subvert the very process of essentialization?
I hope to see the development of anarchist queer theory to discuss these questions, among others. While there are inherent challenges to this project (given the academic nature of queer theory), such theory has much to offer anarchist theory and practice. Indeed, even in the limited ways that it has already reached anarchist thought, it has proven liberating and useful. I hope that this essay serves as a starting point for further discussion and debate around the topic.
from **Pink and Black Attack 6**
Bash Back! was started in 2007 as a network of queer anarchists, in order to have a specifically queer presence at the Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention protests in the summer of 2008 noticing this absence at past mobilizations. Bash Back! quickly expanded, with chapters across the United States. One of the main themes of the 2010 Bash Back! convergence was the assertion âBash Back! is dead.â I would like to offer some thoughts on this assertion and its implications.
Bash Back! formed as a network with a specific goal in mind: the DNC/ RNC convention protests. At the time of BB!'s formation, there were no national organizations/networks specifically for queer anarchists. While long-standing queer anarchist groups have existed in specific cities and regions for years, these groups have a local focus. Bash Back! formed to fill a need for a national network of queer anarchists, which was demonstrated by its rapid growth and popularity. The establishment of a national network was deemed useful at the time for its ability to gather a large number of anarchist queers in the resistance of the previously mentioned conventions/summits. This also demonstrates the desire for a large number of people to rally specifically around this identity.
Points of unity were adopted and more chapters popped up across the country. The only requirement for membership was adopting the points of unity, which led to the creation of a decentralized, very informal network of chapters (with some international presence). The structure of the network also facilitated quick expansion, because it did not operate on traditional, formal principles of organization and instead focused on building a network between autonomous local chapters. Emphasis was placed upon taking action. Ideological and tactical unity was not prioritized beyond the points of unity. Even these points offered only a basic framework of broadly defined anti-oppression, anti-assimilation, liberation, and diversity of tactics. Bash Back!, as a network rather than a formal organization (such as a federation), did not make any formal attempts to define its political analysis.
The local chapters that comprised Bash Back! were far from homogeneous. Chapters were linked only by a name and perhaps some social connections, with each chapter being unique in how they formed, how they operated, and what they did. For this reason, it is difficult to speak of Bash Back! members as a distinct group, since there was no ideological unity implied by membership in Bash Back!, nor was membership controlled or tracked in any way. Some chapters were more active than others, with the Midwest having a high concentration of especially active chapters.
While there was no central organization for Bash Back!, there have still been national convergences after the founding convergence. These are different from conventions or conferences, as participation was not limited to members of the organization, and no decisions about the network itself were made. Rather, the convergences focused on the strengthening of the network in an informal sense.
â**Is our violence one of substance or of image?****â**
Questions to be Addressed Before the Bash Back! Convergence in Denver
Once BB! began its rapid expansion (after the summer of 2008), questions of political unity began to arise, culminating in conflict at the 2009 convergence. One reason is that, with the growth of Bash Back! across the continent, the personal connections that had been established due to the relative proximity of the first chapters were no longer in place. While there has been no formal political position for the organization, informally it seemed that the first chapters had strong affinity with the others, especially tactically. At the 2009 convergence, strong disagreements (both political and tactical) arose between participants in an action. In the absence of strong personal connections, these conflicts were intensified.
By the time of the 2009 convergence, Bash Back! actions that involved multiple chapters had also become less frequent. Actions were taken by individual chapters, rather than the multiple chapters that had been involved in the DNC/RNC protests, the Mt. Hope Church action, and the Avenge Duanna campaign. While it is impossible to pinpoint a reason for this decline, it is likely that the decrease in multichapter actions contributed to the declining tactical unity.
The formation of personal connections from taking action together declined as BB! grew. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it could indicate a shift of focus to working locally or to clandestine activity. In any case, it points to a weakening of the interchapter bonds that had characterized Bash Back!'s origins.
Political and tactical differences, unable to be resolved by any organizational process within Bash Back!, grew into competing visions of the organization. At the 2010 convergence, this culminated in a discussion regarding the future of BB! The competing visions of Bash Back! centered on the organizational form of the group. Some people advocated an organizational form more akin to a federation, with formalized relations between chapters and a stronger emphasis on political/theoretical unity. Others claimed that Bash Back! was dead/ought to die as an organization.
Many points would come into question later: the question of organization versus anti-organizationalism, affirming queer identity versus negating identity, the nonviolent versus those calling for a diversity of tactics, autonomy versus revolt, building an autonomous queer liberation that displaces state/heterosexual power versus destroying the existent. It is necessary here to make clear the role of identity in creating these tensions. Those who felt that selfidentification was the necessary basis for entering into struggle clashed with those who saw understandability and identification as necessarily the recuperation of struggle.
Bash Back! was declared by some people to be dead immediately before the 2010 convergence in Denver. While the veracity of the statement is still a point of contention, the idea of Bash Back! being dead provides an excellent starting point for a discussion of the role of Bash Back!
As an informal network, BB! was never focused on the tasks of formal organizations, such as signing up members, conducting political education, or defining campaigns or strategic directions. These tasks, if they were to be done, were left up to each chapter. Thus it is difficult to speak of BB! as a whole, because it did not have explicit organizational positions or policies.
Indeed, the chapters across the country varied in size, activity, and organization. Some chapters openly recruited while others were established from preexisting networks of friends and comrades. The wide differences between chapters makes discussing BB! problematic, because what constituted BB! was never clearly defined beyond an agreement with the points of unity. The ease of joining BB! allowed for tremendous growth in visibility and numbers, with actions across the country being claimed by BB! chapters and members.
â**If we are ever to have a member-list, count us off of it."**
Questions to be Addressed Before the Bash Back! Convergence in Denver
The extremely decentralized organizational form that Bash Back! adopted at its inception brought with it limits and trade-offs. These limits, coupled with the identity-based nature of BB!, can provide some theoretical insight into the rise and fall of Bash Back!
Political and theoretical unity was not a priority for Bash Back!, with action and networking as the main impetus and expression. While this position is not inherently problematic, the internal contradictions of queer identity resulted in complications in the attempt to build a network of queer anarchists. Because queer is widely understood to be an explicitly social identity rather than an explicitly political identity, the actual political views of the people who constituted Bash Back! varied tremendously. This occurred despite the anarchist principles of BB!; âanarchistâ was used in a sense of a passive political identity, rather than asserting any specific political unity. The lack of political affinity became problematic when membership was based on a social identity. This limited the options that Bash Back! had for organizational form, as any shift towards formalized structure such as a federation model would be hampered by the lack of ideological unity amongst the loosely-defined members. Bash Back!'s organizational form also had implications for the longevity of the group. Lacking strongly defined membership, delegated responsibilities, and specified strategy and goals, BB! had no processes by which to sustain itself in any official sense. As stated earlier, the group was founded with an emphasis on networking for a specific set of actions (the DNC/RNC protests), that is, to fulfill a specific need. Rather than focusing on organizational permanence for its own sake, Bash Back! relied on the minimum amount of structure needed to achieve its goal of building a network of queer anarchists.
Organization in response to a specific need makes organizational permanence unimportant once the need has been satisfied. If organizational permanence becomes a secondary concern, then the demise of an organization is not undesirable. Indeed, dissolution is a preferable alternative to continuing an organization for its own sake. The product of a shift from a highly decentralized network to a more formal organization would irrevocably change the character of the organization. The desire to attempt such a radical restructuring of an existing organization indicates that a premium has been placed on the name and legacy of the organization, instead of the actions that created its reputation. If an organization is not meeting people's needs because of structural limits, it seems more reasonable to discard it.
â**Fuck, Just Fuck"**
writing on a wall during action planning debate BB! convergence May 2010
Bash Back!, at its inception, was an attempt to fill a voidâthe lack of a queer anarchist network. Bash Back! was constituted by the affinity of its participants, and this affinity was expressed through action, and new chapters emerged as a result of a certain resonance carried by Bash Back! actions. While the origins of Bash Back! as a tendency based on resonance fostered its growth, it also allowed for different chapters to re-envision Bash Back! from their particular political desires and local situations of struggle. Bash Back!'s status as a network imposed certain limits; limits that could not be broken without fundamentally shifting from the model that allowed for its initial success.
To speak of the death of an organization generally connotes a negative event, but this relies on the assumption that organizational permanence is a good thing. Moving past this assumption, the question becomes: have we accomplished our goals with this organization, this means, this tool? If the answer is affirmative, if the organization has been pushed to its limits, perhaps its death is deserved. If Bash Back! is dead, the resurgence in anarchist queer activity and networking remains. Relationships now exist that would not have existed had Bash Back! never formed. When our projects reach the end of their usefulness, letting them go is no cause for concern.
<em>1. What is</em> Pink and Black Attack? <em>What is a pink and black attack? What are its intentions?</em>
<em>Pink and Black Attack</em> is a queer anarchist periodical. I'm not sure what a pink and black attack is, I just chose the name because it rhymed. Looking back, I would have picked something different. The intention of the project has always been to create queer anarchist literature that had a focus on attacking the existing order, instead of being a personal zine or something like that.
<em>2.</em> <em>How has PABA been circulated? How has it been received?</em>
<em>PABA</em> has been circulated mostly through the internet, every issue goes up on zinelibrary. I've tabled it at local bookfairs, and put a few copies on consignment at some bookstores. But most of the circulation has been through the internet. As for reception, what feedback I've heard has been mostly positive. It's hard to say, though, because it's impossible to get an accurate count of how many people are reading each one.
<em>3.</em> <em>What was the journalâs relation to BB! and how has the journalâs project changed since BB!âs demise?</em>
The journal never had an official relationship to BB!, but it was inspired by the existence of BB!, and everyone who has been involved with the journal has been involved with BB! in some capacity as well. **PABA** was started in order to publish information, news, and analysis for radical queers, as queer anarchy had been gaining popularity because of BB!. The initial target audience was, basically, BB! people. Of course, this was never in any official capacity, but we were the only ones doing a consistent periodical.
Because action and news has been such an important part of **PABA,** it's been harder to make the zine since BB! died. Issue 7, which should be out soon, is actually going to be the last zine. This is for a variety of reasons, but the demise of BB! certainly played a role in this decision.
<em>4.</em> <em>To what extent and how has</em> PABA <em>informed and been informed by queer anarchist activity in the Pacific Northwest?</em>
Like I said earlier, everyone who's ever worked on the zine has been involved with Bash Back!, and for that reason it's of course been very informed by queer anarchist activity in the area. As for informing activity, I'm not sure that it really has.
<em>5.</em> <em>What do you see as the limitations of other forms of radical queer publications?</em>
I see a lot of queer zines that focus on personal experiences only. I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I think that it's important to have radical queer material that advocates attacking capital and the systems of domination that dictate our lives. I guess I'm used to seeing queer zines that are more directed at a specific zine-culture that I've never really felt involved with. People's individual experiences are, of course, important and, in the end, the basis for struggle. But I think that there's a need to get material out that goes beyond the personal and addresses theory and practice for queer anarchists.
I think another problem with radical queer publications is that many are stuck in the mentality of having to always stick to the basics. I mean, I understand that everyone has to start somewhere, but I also think it's important not to limit ourselves to a cursory understanding of queer identity. That was another motivation for **PABA,** to expand queer anarchist discourse beyond the introductory, 101 workshops.
<em>6.</em> <em>What has negative feedback been like?</em>
Well, there was some controversy around issue number 4, when we included a racist image that we were not aware of the origins of. So we caught a lot of criticism for that, but we apologized and wound up changing the image and re-releasing the issue. So that was definitely the biggest incident of negative feedback.
Other than that, our design has been criticized, especially in regards to the first couple of issues. Most of the criticism has been constructive, and the first couple issues did have pretty terrible design. But I think that, as it progressed, the design on **PABA** got better. As far as content, people have been critical of various pieces that we've published, but that's to be expected. Some people like certain articles, others don't.
<em>7.</em> <em>What are some of the other reasons to stop making</em> PABA?
I've changed a lot since I first started the project, and my ideas are pretty different than when I was putting together issue number 1. I'm not sure that the periodical model is appropriate for the ideas that I'm interested in exploring and disseminating these days. Also, like I mentioned earlier, it's been harder to do the zine since BB! died, because the milieu that it came out of and responded to has grown much quieter. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it's just a reason that I'm giving up the zine.
One of the first goals I had when starting **PABA** was to articulate an explicitly anarchist queer analysis, and create material to fill a gap in queer anarchist publishing. I'm not so arrogant as to say that **PABA** filled that gap, but I do think that the contributions of **PABA** and the distro were meaningful. A lot of material came out from many different projects in a relatively short time, and I'm glad that **PABA** was a part of that.
<em>8.</em> <em>In what ways has the project fulfilled your ambitions and in what ways has it failed?</em>
This is a difficult question, because I'm not quite sure what my ambitions were. I mean, a lot of people read it, and some of those people found value in it. On the other hand, publishing it didn't destroy class society and cis-heterosexism. I certainly don't regret doing the project, and I'm glad that it contributed to a resurgence in queer anarchist activity and literature. But, in the end, **PABA** is just another short-lived anarchist periodical. Of course I would have liked to have more readers, but I think it did pretty well for being distributed mostly online.
I guess, in the end, I can't really say whether **PABA** was a success or failure. I know that it taught me a lot, and helped me to build some of the friendships that I value most today.
The following essay was originally in the cute little book Politics is Not a Banana; What Are You Doing After the Orgy or the Insurrection or Whatever? published by the Institute for Experimental Freedom. A theoretical exploration of the confrontational potential of public sex, it was written when Bash Back! was organizing public sex occupations and various efforts to subvert public space.
Piers trace the edge of the metropolis, penetrating the harbor. Drawing near, it becomes apparent that dozens of bodies are melting into one another, creating circuitry of pleasure upon the since-abandoned conduits of capital. Each night and everywhere, exoskeletons of post-industry are ripped open; buildings are squatted for nights of precarious orgy. An entire lot of parked semi-trucks becomes a labyrinth of cavernsâwithin each pitch-black-truck erupting a cacophony of anonymous touch, thrust, and come. Derelict spaces as zones of play for bodies-in-becoming. Making-eyes in a park or on a subway train as arrangement for a lunchtime fuck in an alley or stairwell. Potential meeting gesture.
Some have named this period of public sex, between the stonewall riots and the onslaught of AIDS, as **the most sexually liberated, period in history.** We read this instead as **a moment of resistance to social control** or **an unleashing of power** sandwiched at either end by specters of biopower. More importantly, we see this as a sweat-stained lineage of subversion which we've oh-so-rightfully inherited.
We mark the public as the realm of the metropolisâthe space wherein social control is the most amplified and thorough. Biopower is the name we give to the force that governs not simply our bodies, but the space between our bodies. The logic of publics is that of alienation. A disjunctive synthesis that traces atoms through the flows of capital.
Millions of organs producing an abysmal cohesion, yet the forty people in the light rail car wouldn't dream of making eye contact. The most banal-ass rhythm dictates the public. This shit is the factory.
âI don't care what those faggots do so long as I don't have to see it.â The public is desexualizedâa desert of sterile bodies. âWhat one does in the privacy of their own bedroom is their own business.â The conclusion being that our public selves are the business of the agents of biopower.
Public sex, then, is a biopolitical strikeâan attack of desiring bodies against this world and the shit we live in. In fucking wherever we please, we act to sabotage the mechanisms of social control. We refuse our relationship to the factory, and cease to workârather we choose to act only in the capacities that bring us the most explosive and dangerous joys. In making orgy of the public we create zones of indeterminacy, wherein unheard-of forms-of-life are coupled with wild affects and liberated desires. The pubic orgy as an autonomous zoneâas the erotic ungovernability of biopower's bastard children.
A sexual counterpublic becomes that of an expansive, inclusive synthesis. Buildings lose their ascribed meaningâinstead becoming the spots for tonight's sordid affairs. Parks, bridges and piers are re-inscribed with meaning as limitless playgrounds for desire. Beautiful singularities ride together on a train, imbued with other-worldly potential as co-conspirators in insurrection against the sterility and horror of postmodern capitalism. The metropolis is seen from the perspective of its potentialâthe ways it can make us come. The streets no longer direct the flows of empire. Rather they become points-of-departure for bodies finding one another in ecstatic revolt. Craigslist is rendered irrelevant as the flows of decadence are reterritorialized. To declare âoccupationâ of anything less, means little-to-nothing.
We're fixin' to materialize an indistinction between **modes of pleasure** and **the rest of our miserable lives.** That is to say, collapse the categories of âsexâ and âdaily lifeâ into a seminal breakdown of normalcy. To chart a line-of-flight into yet impossible pleasurability and criminal orgasm.
Such lines-of-flight, if joined by others, can lead to crisis as entire populations are sensitized to the singularities of their participants, combining potentials and creating new ones. If meaning is a **meeting of forces,** and a thing can have as many meanings as there are forces capable of seizing it, then the force of your your lips on my neck and the weight of your hips against mine creates a region of clarity, coming meaning upon the walls. We might call it an infusion of life.
We call this becomingâan accelerating dance of genesis and annihilation; carnal invention, as they say. As we orgasm in conjunction, we extract from one another immense virtual affects: ways which bodies connect with themselves and the world. We combine and actualize them in flesh. Becoming-monstrosity.
Becoming, beginning as desire beyond bodily limitation, creates an unhinging of habit; a widening of a gap and the gap being fillingâover and overâwith potential. Re-becoming undomesticated. Re-eroticizing publics. In orgy, we can rip wide the fabric of social control, creating wider and wider zones of autonomy populated by more and hotter singularities, each containing a virtual- sexual geography unknown to this world.
We're seventeen and fucking in the public museum. I'm on my knees with your cock in my mouth, surrounded by mayan art and tiger statues. Our hushed whispers and frenzied breathing becomes a secret language of power. And us, becoming monstrous, eating-whole restraint and apology. The world ruptures as we come, but it isn't enough. We want it all, of courseâto expropriate the public as a wild zone of becoming-orgy, and to destroy what stands in our way.
The two following texts âLet the Trans Women Speak!â and âTowards an Insurrectionary Transfeminismâ both emerged out of a grouping of people involved in the Bash Back! milieu, particularly surrounding Chicago. These texts were circulated through the internet in the summer of 2010 primarily through Bash Back! News but also through the blog of the Chicago-based distro Not Yr Cister Press, an insurrectionary transfeminist literature distribution project. Following these pieces is a previously unpublished letter to the editors of Pink and Black Attack responding to the texts. Additionally we've conducted and included an interview with an editor of Not Yr Cister (formerly of BB! Chicago).
by Some Totally Artificial Bitches
<em>We bitches have frayed nerves. Over the past week, everything, or almost everything, has wounded us, and what didn't was at the very least irritating. What follows is a brief analysis of the events of this year's Camp Trans, and a resulting dialogue on the moments of hostility which have been brought into openness due to these events. We're not shy of conflict, and this is our attempt at elaborating the civil war that underlies the fracturing of Camp Trans:</em>
While the story could likely begin many years ago, it perhaps suffices to say that Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, with its âwomyn-born- womynâ attendance policy, was born of a feminist desire to police the bodies to ensure that they were adequately Woman enough to build a positive âsisterhoodâ away from patriarchy, the political power of which apparently cums from the barrel of a penis. Camp Trans began as a âcommunityâ based in its support of trans women's inclusion into the virulently transphobic festival under the banner âRoom for all Kinds ofWomyn.â It is these legacies that bring us to last week. Conflict begins at the annual vigil at MichFest gates: after being approached to turn his engine off while a history of Camp was being recounted, a tow truck driver threatens two trans people's lives, aggressively misgenders a trans woman, and ultimately wields a large tow chain threatening to kill all of the trans people who had surfaced to protect their friends. MichFest workers act as barriers between Camp-goers and the driver all while commending him for his valor. All of this, in many ways, is a regular occurrence for those who unthinkably defy the gendered violence of society every day. The basis of conflict lies not in this confrontation, but rather the response of the larger âCamp Trans community" in response to the bashing. Community meetings began with calls to process how those enraged at the bashing were âtriggeringâ to people because of the âaggressive yellingâ and âviolent energyâ of those directly involved in defending their friends against patriarchal violence, a group made up of mostly trans-female identified and genderqueer people. While those threatened with their lives sought to immediately respond, the community consensus meeting pushed off the question of responding until finally refusing to take up a response because âtrans women feel uncomfortable about the situation.â This culminated in a âtrans women's caucusâ which stated their intention to assimilate into MichFest and build their own camp there, despite the fact that they had visibly seen trans women almost killed with no response from MichFest. When other trans female campers spoke to voice their indignation about complicity in this violence, another camper yelled, âLet the trans women speak!â This silencing is the context in which we write. While The Voice of the Trans Women has spoken, we, some of the abjected and artificial trans females, remain discursively erased from the conversation in sacrifice to the politics of identity. But we are not shutting the fuck up any longer.
Ultimately, we see the events of this year's Camp Trans as yet another failure of identity politics and its correlative form, the Community. In the events of this year's Camp Trans, we once again see community used as an apparatus to recuperate the potentiality of radical struggle. We watched as the most reactionary and assimilationist trans female voices were said to âspeak for most of the trans women at Campâ in wanting to ignore getting bashed and to join the festivities of MichFest. Some went as far as saying in the caucus that they âwant to pass as women and women are not violent.â Consequently, rumors circulated that those trans female folks espousing a non-pacifist response to being almost bashed to death were secretly âcis men appropriating women's experiences to justify their violent attitudes.â For us, in the words of an obscure journal from Europe, violence is what has been taken from us, and today we need to take it back, from tow truck drivers and transphobic music festivals and all those who seek to use our bodies as political capital to advance liberal politics.
The stakes of continuing on the line-of-flight of liberal activism seems clear to us now. Trans activism has not moved us toward the destruction of gender terror. We have moved from woman- as-womb to woman-as-estrogen-levels and woman-as-peaceful- loving-responses-to-oppression. In this way, Camp Trans represents the new cutting edge of patriarchy, one in which citizens of the Community replace the Patriarch or men-as-a-class as police to quash resistance outside of legal processes and make sure that there is only one resounding Voice of the Trans Women through gender-policing. We remain committed to the struggle to unleash our power on those who would enforce on us the worst forms of gendered violence, be they on the hallowed Land of MichFest or in our own âcommunity.â From now on, the only force that stands a chance at ruining the forces which ruin our lives is one built on friendship, affinity, and shared desires to end domination. Fuck gender essentialism, recuperative consensus meetings, privileged feminist pacifism, and those apparatuses or people who seek to speak for any of us on behalf of women or trans people or anything. We will demolish it all. We're mean bitches, we have our own voices and from now on we will only be speaking our own power or nothing at all. Get with us or get the fuck out of the way.
by Some Deceptive Trannies
a note on gender **This essay deals with the discursive and material histories of people I refer to as âtrans women,â which I broadly define as anyone not assigned female at birth who experiences their bodies as female, lives their gender in a way that could be taken as female, and/or identifies as woman/trans-female-spectrum/transfeminism. I rather begrudgingly use this term with a degree of hesitance as it certainly erases the complexities of my gender experience, but I aim to broadly relate to those who have been coercively assigned a gender category other than Woman but who still inherit much of the legacy of such a category.**
Trans people remain strangers and outcasts within much of the contemporary discourses of insurrectionary feminism. Essays about âmale-bodiedâ perpetrators of sexual assault and âsocialized men and womenâ seem to leave much to be analyzed about the ways in which trans people have historically related the functioning of gender systems and the development of capitalism as a system. It is in this context that we discursively intervene with that which we might term insurrectionary trans-feminism, an analysis which distinctively analyzes the ways in which trans bodies relate to the legacy of capitalism and the possibilities of living communism and spreading anarchy. This is distinctly *not* a plea for inclusion, not is it an articulation of identity politics, but rather an articulation of why we might be invested in insurrection and communization with those who share our desires and perhaps a preliminary set of ideas on how our positionalities might be used in such processes. In order to imagine the possibilities of subversion, however, we must first recognize the historical relations of capitalism to the formulation of the trans subject.
The relation between capitalism and the trans subject is a contentious one. While many theorists such as Leslie Feinberg have sought to piece together a universal, ahistorical narrative of trans people throughout history across the world, we see such a task as ultimately failing to take into account the precise economic and social conditions which gave rise to each specific instance of gender variance. Gender nonconformity is not a stable or coherent phenomenon which appears in history due to the same conditions, rather it contextually can have a multiplicity of meanings. While it could certainly be useful to analyze the ways in which capitalism has instituted binary-based gender systems as a means to organize reproductive labor in colonial contexts with different gender systems, for the purposes of this essay we will begin with the notion of the transsexual in context of the early 20th century United States, where the first narratives of transsexuality began to appear. These narratives are intimately tied to the rise of capitalist ventures in experimental medical procedures which gave rise to the the first forms of gender reassignment surgery. By the 1950s, transsexuality had gained public attention in the United States with gender reassignment surgery of Christine Jorgensen. Jorgensen's narrative, as some narratives just twenty years before her, became a model for the transsexual identity narrative, in which the subject feels that she is in the âwrong bodyâ and that surgery has made her feel whole and relieved the immense feeling of body dysphoria by making her a real woman. It is in this narrative that we find the experiences of gender dysphoria taking shape to define a concrete subject position of âtrans.â
At the same time, as capital has created the ability for trans individuals to modify their bodies in the ways that they see fit, it has also, with biomedical and psychological apparatuses, proliferated the means by which to discipline the trans body. Two of the most notable apparatuses to this effect are the Standards of Care, which enforce rigorous standards of femininity and passibility as a necessary first step towards access to medical technologies of transition, as well as the âcharm schoolsâ that accompanied many GID clinics which sought to properly resocialize trans women as âproper ladiesâ with manners, grace, and all of the feminine wiles of ânatural women.â The trans subject's desires are easily molded into that which can be profitable to capitalism, whether it is countless sessions of laser hair removal sessions, gender reassignment surgeries, or hormone therapy. That is, trans subjectivity is bound to the conditions of capitalism and disciplinary techniques which have given rise to it. We deploy these words carefully, however, as we also recognize the ways in which âradicalsâ and âfeministsâ have deployed the very same as a means of constructing trans women as capitalist-created penetrators of vanity and artificial artifacts of femininity. Yet the constructedness of the trans subject and the trans body is no more tied to the history of capitalism and domination than the constructedness of woman as an identity and a body, or the constructedness of racialized identities and bodies.
We do not mean to imply that trans identity is based upon a particular form of body modification or access to medical technology, but rather that these early narratives of trans experience and the disciplinary techniques shaping such identities are foundational in the ways in which trans identity has grown, whether in the broadening terms of constituting a political âtrans communityâ on the basis of sharing a feeling of dysphoria or the emergence of genderqueer as a politicized subjectivity which has become the delight of postmodernism. Transfeminism, then, has emerged as theory dedicated to an articulation of the trans speaking subject. Yet capitalism has an ever-expanding amount of room to incorporate an infinite amount of gendered subjectivities which can be rendered value-creating to capital. In this way, trans theory faces limits similar to feminist theory, which has produced a feminized form of capital that is no less brutal in its form. The task, then, is to create an insurrectionary theory which is based on rendering trans bodies without function in the process of value creation, which necessitates their very identity as trans, as woman, as human. As trans people, we feel corporeality forcibly pushed onto us in an attempt to render us intelligible, to use the state of our bodies to comprehend our gender and sell us âmore natural-lookingâ bodies. We feel our bodies outweigh our chosen identities when we interact with others and do not pass. As trans women, as we experience the legacy of trans subjectivity within capitalism, we also feel the weight of the corporeality of women in capitalism crush our existences. We experience the implicit violence in gendered division of labor every time we are raped and beaten and condescended to and treated as a hot she-male sex toy. Yet it is in this experience that we might see the possibilities of human strike for the trans woman.
Trans women experience corporeality in a unique way. While capital hopes to continue to use the female body as proletarian machine to reproduce labor-power, trans women's bodies cannot produce more workers and are constantly already viewed as denaturalized. Perhaps in valorizing this inoperability in reproduction, and willfully extending it to all forms of reproductive labor, we see the potentiality of human strike. Ways of extending this remain to be seen, but in this affront to capitalist-produced nature and matrices of heteronormativity which are crucial to the functioning of capitalism, we see the kinship between the human strike of trans women and the materialization of a non-reproductive, purely negative queer force. It seems that the trans woman too has no future, and thus through the building of this negative force might have a stake in wrecking everything and abolishing herself in the process. In any case, we do not have the answers that will render society inoperable, that will end the social reproduction of this world. Yet as trans women, we know that every strike against capital is a strike against the mechanisms of gender oppression, and that every strike against the gendered violence in our lives is a strike against the machinations of capital.
Gender strike is human strike.
Submitted to **Pink and Black Attack**
<em>To the editor:</em>
The essay ââLet the Trans women speak!â: A Response to Camp Trans 2010â **(Speak!)** by anonymous authors (Anon) appears in the most recent issue of your periodical **Pink and Black Attack** (September 2010). **Speak!** is a prime example of what seems to be a growing trend in the anarchist milieu in which certain popular insurrectionist theories are mangled beyond recognition and misapplied for the purpose of propagating a more militant form of the sort of politics that the original theory critiques. In this case, the authors of **Speak!** take as their inspiration **Introduction to Civil War** (Intro) by Tiqqun and go on to radically betray, even while appropriating, that text's stated intention. I am writing not only to highlight the misuse of Intro by **Speak!** but also to clarify the divergent politics of each set of authors andâif this is not too bold of a hopeâto encourage anarchists to take greater care in their reading and use of theory.
I will reveal that although **Speak!âs** authors profess their intention of âelaborating...civil war,â this pretense is belied by their actual obscuration of civil war; and that another layer of pretense is their granting of far more importance to the âeventsâ of Camp Trans than those âeventsâ duly warrant.
<em>We bitches have frayed nerves. Over the past week, everything, or almost everything, has wounded us, and what didn't was at the very least irritating.</em>
<em>Speak!</em> begins by copying <em>Intro's</em> first sentence almost verbatim (the word âbitches' replaces the original âdecadents'), an amusing Freudian slip. Anon immediately reveal their nakedness. While it goes without saying that Anon must have a copy of <em>Introduction to Civil War</em> on their bookshelf or bedside table (probably the 2010 edition translated and published by Semiotext(e), to which the page numbers in my letter will refer), it is just as obvious that they must not have understood it.
When **Intro's** first paragraph names the decadents with their frayed nerves and susceptibility to wounds, it names all of us, the modern subjects who âcan only stand smaller and smaller... doses of truth, and much prefer... narcosis by the pound and above all: no war, above all, no warâ (pii). The âweâ of Tiqqun serves to convey that we are all decadents, but they also strive to make a radical break from the decadents' âdesire for a positive anthropologyâ (pii). âBut we,â Tiqqun writes, âthose of us who refuse to settle for any sort of comfort, we who admittedly have frayed nerves but also intend to make them still more resistant...we need something else entirelyâ (pii). That something is a âradically negative anthropologyâ (pi2) and they call it âcivil war.â
The authors of **Speak!** maintain a âweâ that is notable for its weakness, its victimization and its desire for comfort. Although they declare their attempt to âelaborat[e]... civil war,â they will fail to depart from the powerless âweâ of the decadents. In the end, they will reveal themselves as wedded to their victimization, wedded to their identities, and wedded to each other; they will come down solidly (though with some confusion and perhaps a twisted ankle) on the side of positive anthropology.
Positive anthropology is defined by Tiqqun as âpositive first and foremost because it assigns âMan' qualities, determined attributes and substantial predicatesâ (pi2). It is, therefore, **identity-based** anthropology, and it serves as the basis for all politics of identity. Although Anon seem to âtake a position against identity politics,â they participate in the politics of identity throughout **Speak!,** though they do so on the unstable ground that could be called âanti- essentialist identity politics.â
If there is anything substantial about the argument made in **Speak**!, it is its reliance on predicates. The political argument it makes (in favor of symbolic action âagainstâ MichFest âin response toâ the truck driver's actions or threatened actions) tries to convince the audience almost entirely on the basis of identity â in this case, the âtrans-femalenessâ of the narrative's victims/protagonists. What could better exemplify identity politics than Anon's analysis of the âeventâ in which âLet the trans women speak!â was shouted over the protagonists? Anon say they were thereby âdiscursively erased,â that âthis silencing is the context in which we write,â that âwe are not shutting the fuck up any longer,â and later, âwe have our own voices.â (And yet they pointedly attack throughout the âidentity politicsâ and âliberal politicsâ of the others, as if to convince us they are âagainstâ such things.) Here too they diverge from Tiqqun, who warn against âspeaking our powerâ and âmaking ourselves knownâ; the Imaginary Party can never manifest itself such that it is captured by the Spectacle. What Anon demand is to **speak their own power**âto secure their **autonomous** representation in the Spectacle.
Why do they speak without acting? Why is their militancy linguistic but not physical? We know that they failed to manifest their violence on the body of the truck driver, why do they now try rather desperately to make up for it with tough words and verbal attacks on âpacifistsâ? Why complain that âthe communityâ held consensus meetings in which a response was pushed off and then abandoned âwhile those threatened with their lives sought to immediately respond,â when in fact the opportunity for âimmediateâ response had been when the truck driver was swinging his hook around; or later, when the truck driver had parked his truck in a known location; or even later, when the truck driver had returned to his home; or even a month or a year later â the opportunities with which they did nothing and continue to do nothing?
Shame: shame at being confronted with their original sin, with the knowledge that they had already foreclosed on the possibility of retributive violence against the truck driver and they are never going back, not everâsuch is the thundercloud from which their deluge of rhetoric pours. The flood of their shame is loosed upon the earth, and it takes the path of least resistance and greatest victimization. The truck driver âthreatened to kill all of the trans people,â they cry; people âhad visibly seen trans women almost killed with no response from MichFestâ; and of course all this is âa regular occurrence for those who unthinkably defy the gendered violence of society every day.â Grand exaggerations, but who would dare contest them? Ah, yes, well, those apolitical masses who come to Camp every year just to get laid and couldn't care less (How unlike our protagonists, whose comings and goings are motivated by higher, political forms!), let them be swept up in our river of vengeance or let them be dashed against the rocks. âGet with us or get the fuck out of the way.â Liberals and pacifists, all of them. They must pay. âWe will demolish it all.â
One would imagine that all this water would justify some seriously epic retribution, especially since the protagonists claim to be so familiar with everyday violence, but the âmilitantâ protagonists end up getting wet mostly with their own spittle and coming off as more than a little unpracticed in violence.
That âweâ are unused to violence would be easier to admit if Anon reads **Intro** carefully. Tiqqun writes, as Anon quotes them, âviolence is what has been taken from us, and today we need to take it backâ [p34]. Here Anon mistakenly believes that it is our enemies who have snatched violence from us, that we must âtake violence backâ from tow truck drivers, music festivals, and activists! Preposterous. Our capacity for violence is not taken by our enemies; instead, all intensity and relation are denied us by the âhostility that, within Empire, orders both the non-relation to self and the generalized non-relation between bodiesâ [pi78; cf. pi87].
This is a crucial point. For Tiqqun, Empire is the force that diminishes the intensity of civil war [pi20]; Empire is like an environment that is hostile to us [pi7i]; this hostility is a nonrelation [p46] that distances us from our power [p52]. Empireânot our enemiesâhas taken violence from us. In fact, the spread friendship and enmity is the reduction of the sphere of hostility [pi79], and this is **what we must do** [pi78] in order to increase our power. Anon's empty pledge of allegiance to friendship notwithstanding, there is little indication of the protagonists' elaboration of civil war along the lines proposed by Tiqqun. That would have required **something else entirely.**
Not only do Anon comically misread the text they quote, but if we hold them to the theory of civil war they themselves claim to be âelaborating,â they are doing quite the oppositeâthey are spreading the sphere of hostility that is the domain of Empire. Anon seems to agree. âMoments of hostility,â they write, were âbrought into openness due to these events.â Whether or not Anon intended for the term âhostilityâ to reference Tiqqun's usage remains uncertain; what is clear is that Anon's statement holds true if we read âhostilityâ through the lens of Tiqqun.
In the final assessment, we should not be particularly surprised nor upset that Anon so misunderstand and obscure civil war. The author of **Intro** accurately predicted that the term **civil war** would be used by those who do not understand it:
<em>The impossibility of predicting anything about this relentless freedom</em>
<em>forces us to designate it with an undefined term, a blind word, that ONE</em>
<em>has the habit of using to name whatever ONE knows nothing about,</em>
<em>because ONE does not want to understand it, or understand that the world</em>
<em>cannot do without us. The term is civil war. This move is tactical; we want</em>
<em>to reappropriate, in advance, the term by which our operations will be</em>
<em>necessarily covered. ,</em>
[p12-13]
In their failures at Camp Trans and in their writing of **Speak!,** Anon have covered our operations, and, if we continue to read Tiqqun closely, **necessarily so.** Take heart now, dear Imaginary Party, and take what cover presents itself on this battlefield.
Ultimately, we should note that the âeventsâ of this year's Camp Trans were not, as Anon declare, a âfailure of identity politics and its correlative form, the Communityâ; they were, first and foremost, **not even events.** Furthermore, the nonevent of Camp Transâ its being a non-event rather than an eventâwas in fact the success of both identity politics and âthe communityâ as elaborated by all partiesâthe protagonists of **Speak!** being far from exceptional in this.
1. **Not whose cister?**
Well, not anyone's cister. We are opposed to the feminist thesis that there is a universal sisterhood that unites all women, and the idea that this could possibly be a starting point for revolutionary action. In short, it's a disavowal of identity politics, especially most strands of feminism, as a means to liberation. We can see that the thesis of sisterhood has rapidly decomposed along racialized, gendered, and class lines as feminism has mutated over the decades. âCisterâ is specifically referential to the feminist movement's policing of trans bodies, especially trans women's bodies, and it is this kind of normalizing violence that has influenced our understanding of the failing of identity politics as a strategy. We instead aim to produce and/or disseminate writing with the purpose of exposing the violence of gendering processes that maintain the categories of man/woman, cis/trans, and natural/artificial, among other things, and theorizing the ways in which these identities can be destroyed.
<em>2.</em> <em>What was NYCPâs relation to BB! and its demise?</em>
Bash Back! was a pretty formative moment in the (anti-?)political development of all those involved in NYCP. Seeing the decay of Bash Back! and the transformation of a project that began as something completely anti-identity into the same liberal LGBT discourse with some minor ideological twists. The 2nd BB! convergence showcased that transformation best, when trans identity was invoked as a way of tactically policing the more insurrectionary- minded currents of Bash Back! and bolstering the identity politics within the minds of convergence-goers. Since then, we've devoted ourselves to exposing moments like this when our identities have been used against us as a form of containment and control.
<em>3.</em> <em>In what ways was BB! haunted by traditional LGBT politics? In what ways was this development a betrayal of BB!?</em>
Well I suppose most obviously the manifestation of liberalism within Bash Back! began with the capturing of queer as a form of identity rather than the destruction of it. The rest really followed from there: Bash Back! then became a kind of stagnant breeding ground for politics that centered themselves around this âqueer identity,â which really just reproduced this subcultural, lifestylist brand of politics that was about âsafe spacesâ and orgies and genderfucking as some kind of sublime resistance to the status quo rather than trying to connect those actually attacking at different points of social rupture. When queerness began to mean little more than âpansexual activistâ, Bash Back! became a liberal social scene rather than a space from which to attack, which i think had been the whole point of bashing back all along. Actually attacking and bashing back was cast aside to the degree that in Denver there were comments like âWell, I think it's like a metaphor, ya know? Bashing back can be anything, like providing safe spaces or wearing gender nonconforming clothes in public.â
<em>4.</em> <em>What are your influences?</em>
Theoretically speaking, we've been influenced by a variety of philosophical tendencies, including pieces of queer theory, autonomism, critical theory, and anarchism. Susan Stryker's writing on monstrosity and trans identity in âMy Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounixâ was the first zine we formatted and is highly influential in our understanding of gender and insurrection, as are the works of Lee Edelman, Silvia Federici, Tiqqun, and other contemporary negative feminist projects like Petroleuse Press and Gender Mutiny.
<em>5.</em> <em>How does insurrectionary transfeminism relate to other insurrectional feminisms?</em>
I think in many ways we see ourselves as some blend of the insurrectional feminisms more influenced by European autonomism and all of the queer negation-influenced theoretical projects around these days. Insurrectionary transfeminism as a set of ideas partially arose from more Marxist-oriented projects touting really gender-essentialist texts like **The SCUM Manifesto** and Luce Irigaray without really deconstructing how this writing was still coming from a place that was a really simplistic and naturalized take on how gender/sex is maintained. A lot of trans folks were totally on board with being a part of this recent upsurge in insurrectional feminism and had a ton of affinity with and respect for those projects and the people involved with them, but were nonetheless rather put off by this uncritical take on publishing some really transmisogynist texts. NYCP began as a way of trying to fill the theoretical void where an anti-essentialist, totally negative insurrectional feminism could take root. Some other writing, like âDictatorship of the Postfeminist Imaginationâ by IEF and the communique from San Francisco anarcha-feminists, have made a lot of really interesting contributions in this area that I think complement a trans-centric, anti-essentialist take on these ideas, and we can only hope that these ideas continue to grow and become a force to be reckoned with.
<em>6.</em> <em>Is there an inherent tension in trying to destabilize identity-based feminism through the centering of theory around the identity of Transwomen? Expand on some of these tensions.</em>
Well I suppose that we don't exactly want to center theory around the identity of trans women, but rather expose the violence of identity normalization within the lives of people within that category, as well as others who experience some degree of resonance with the experiences that can come along with being placed in this kind of category. I think the most interesting and important tension is instead the one between wanting theory that can lead to the obliteration of identity and theory that can speak to the material conditions of those who are affected by apparatuses of discipline that are creating people as certain kinds of subjects. We want to expose that the misery that many trans women are exposed to on a daily basis is directly related to the totality of social relations under capitalism, and simultaneously show that in order for trans women to destroy these social relations they must also end up destroying themselves as trans and as women. This isn't a stand-alone theory in any way; rather it is one part of the project, which I think Frere Dupont described rather well in **species being** as âinvit[ing] others to reflect upon the truth of their own personal anguish, and thereby recognize their own relation to the world,â and consequently âattuning their own feelings of revulsion for this world.â We are one small part of such an invitation, and hope to expand and maintain connections with others at different nodes of social struggle.
<em>7.</em> <em>Is ITF a movement for inclusion into these insurrectional feminist discourses (a correction to this project) or is it an altogether different discourse?</em>
I guess we're partially already regret creating this kind of â-ism,â because insurrectionary transfeminism is really less about creating this new ideology that everyone should care about or follow or something as a coherent set of ideas, and more about adding thoughts that will expand insurrectionary ideas to a group of people that has every reason to hate the conditions in which they live. I'm hesitant to make it seem like insurrectionary transfeminism needs to be a correction to some totalizing image of one coherent set of insurrectional feminist ideas, but similarly hesitant to make it seem like what we're doing is separate from what Petroleuse Press, the IEF, and others are doing with these discourses. So partially this is about growing the trends of insurrectional feminism (that we're already down with) and negativity and rejecting gender essentialism, but it's also about asserting new philosophical discourse within âradical transâ spaces, which are really mostly plagued by the same kind of liberal queer politics that ended up destroying Bash Back! I guess maybe that intervention within trans narratives that we're a part of is what separates us from these other discourses.
The following essay was anonymously circulated amidst queer/anarchist circles in the Pacific Northwest. It is reproduced here in its entirety. Its initial circulation sparked much controversy among its readers. Here's hoping for more!
First, let's clear a few things up: Bash Back! is deadâold history. We're all still fucking its corpse, totally disinterested while the filthy body falls apart, starting to smell. Whatever. Here's the real point: if at the moment of BB!'s disappearance this queer virus fails to spread, if we aren't proliferating terribly, then we're kidding ourselves, calling what we experienced a death (despite our nihilist- woo-woo-insurrecto fantasy's)âif this is our case, then what we chose was to survive things as they are, making our peace- even with our noted bad attitude. Doing-Being Assimilation, by other means. And that cool, right? Jay/kay~<3lulz<3~Fuck You, Fuck That Shit. If your making your peace, we were enemies from the startâGet fucked. For whoever is still insatiable: your glee, hatred and friends are waiting; so get your shit together and begin again. Crazy insurrecta-bitches had it rightâbut once or twice âaffinity groupsâ are cheap shitâlet's get it constant. Some of us were stepping to that shit before the first convergence, and some of us have been rolling hard since, licking our lips at that âWarâ in Social War. Here are a few of our notes.
We think that survival, fighting back and fucking shit up should be step one; getting food, finding shelter to live in, starting fights, staying fly, making people hurriedly cross the street, keeping het's mouths shut, scamming hormones, networks to get the benefits of your crime where it should go, names of who needs to get smacked down, looking out for each other when we're out escorting, taking from anyone in our way. Actively not giving a fuck means starting right in the thick of conflict, daily life, rather than going through the tired tradition of looking to meet people with a bunch of activists, keeping calm, teaching the poor unknowing queers and good citizens what they really need. This is about doing what we want right from the startâbuilding the means to our autonomy for ourselves. Here's the last argument anyone needs: Wouldn't you have rather started your intro to anarchism-in-action off with a fly ass gang of queer criminals who've got your back, instead of charity activists? Yeah, we fucking thought so.
Forming a crew is a splitting offâits giving up the entire feel better, join the milieu, talk to hearts and minds, radical offsetting bullshit that the rest of anarchism is obsessed with. Learning to act means a coming togetherâfucking shit up, endlessly. But our splitting off always seems to begin our contact with other people who seem a little more like us, outside the anarchist circuit.
So. First things first, find some wild ass queers who just wanna run amokâalternatively, queers who are sick of everything and full of cynicism. Simple enoughâyou're almost certainly friends with a few of these, but assuming you don't just look up and say âoh, right, there's my crewâ don't fret, it's not like it's hard to find queers who can't wait for a way to get back at the world. Plenty of us are getting fucked over constantly, and the only things people come to look forward to is their group-therapy meeting. Uuuugh. Something as simple as being those loud queer kids brings people from unexpected places.
Learn each other's strengths and interests by hanging out together. Go everywhere with each other. Dance/sex parties like every week. Share your shit. Free time spent and carved out with each other might be the most important element in starting to speak to each other. Egg each other on, and support your friendsâslowly, you will grow comfortable acting with each other, and responding to each other's needs quicklyâspeaking means a few minutes till acting. Our coming together looks fly, and builds a common feeling along our sense of moving through this world. It's this endearment to each other that builds trust, that teaches us how to say what we need, and get angry enough to go get it. Our bonds put us out of the grasp of people wanting to direct us away from each other, away from our needs and wants, trying to manage, regulate and make useful our hatred for everything. Instead, this bond puts us in a position to build our own power and autonomy.
Crew logic is different from everyday logic. You start stepping with an eye to how everything around you can be put to use for you and yours. Building your power is its own end, self justifyingâ all the other political shit offered just get annoying, engaging with it, boring. Fostering in common the ability to meet our needs and bring the conflict on our terms will always remain obscured to our enemies and their confusion only fuels us on. Laughing hyena queerz. If you hate everything, fuck everything up. Hit back, make them hurt. Pointing out that people are attracted to you when you bring force and win is anarchist heresy, apparently, but that's soooo useless. Cause enough waves and they'll come to you, or better by far, imitate you. âAffinity groupsâ only wish they could be as hot as us.
Open hostility is the name of the game. When it's you, and your friends, it only takes one person to make things hectic. Those first nights out will be difficult, painful, and uncertain. Then things get interesting. Push come to shove, just start walking around in groups ~ you're bound to find trouble. No snub should go unanswered, pushing your bonds harder and harder, getting into conflict that offers you no way outâNot the least of its virtues. You might be nervous, you might get furious and wild out; either way, your crew will grow, your togetherness change, and you'll be (more) ready for whatever.
A part of this will be the many ways you begin taking up spaceâwith the outside world and with each other. We don't pretend to know your situation or the best way for you to attack; so what we offer is a look at some key things distilled from our experience we think might be of use to you. So before going anywhere else with this writing, know that we respond to our situations primarily out of sense and intuition; there were plots, plans, and some ideas, but we didn't know where any of them would go, how they would play out: neither do you. Everything happens differently in different contexts, be ready to shift.
That said, here is what we think is useful in any context: Liberals exist, have money, and frequently want our hot social capital to legitimize their enterprises, socially or business wise - in most cases, both. So feel free to turn, exploit, corrupt, use and dispose of them to the ends of attacking domination and building your power.
Squats are incredibly usefulâas shelter, safe houses, or simply free space. Becoming a known spot for queer/trans people to stay safely can fill up a space quickâone of the houses we were holding had up to 40 people at one point. We just spread mats out, and covered the floor. And we often find ourselves houseless or almost so, or barely able to cover rent, or know other queer/trans people in abusive situationsâit's good to be able to give someone (or ourselves) a way out. Creating a strategic network of spaces around your city opens up crazy possibilities, and if one spot gets raided, shut down, evicted or whatever, you will already know another few places to go. Even if you're not going to use a spot, someone else might. Getting into a place is pretty easy with a little practice (one memorable night we got into i2 empty houses before sunrise without any prior planning,) and after you've opened a space you can spread the word out about where and how to get in to who needs it.
Also, Bump Keys. Important enough to get their own line. If you're not familiar with them, look them up. They give you very quick access to a lot of places.
The way your crew attacks together will likely have a distinct character to it, one reflecting different strategies put into play ~ there are many different ways to practice/ spread/live war. Here are some examples: they are reflections of our practice and lives, not a program. Simplifying, different approaches could be said to be between open and visible forms, and closed and obscure forms. Again the best way to know what works for your context is to go by conversation, experience through experimentation, intuition, and your sense of what would work.
Open ties are visible. Take group strolls, pick fights, write up on walls, vandalize everythingâespecially people. Jump people, Start parties, talk about how cops suck scams you know, and how boring straight cis people are; jump people in to the conflict between sex in squats and wild dance parties. Be loud, obnoxious and annoying. Being seen from a block or two awayâa similar style of dress may be adopted, or not. A way of flagging what your down for might come into playâone group tied a pink bandanna over a black one to single that they were down to ride on someone. Walk into stores in groups of i0, fill your bags, make a mess and leave, dominate clubs and bars. Take over street corners, or wherever people can still congregate near you; enforce your spot as you please. Act wild, because you canâwhatever is a rush. Live a presence built over time. When others see you, encourage them to set up their own group and support other sets.
Closed forms are much more obtuse and opaque. This doesn't mean any less conflict, crime, corruption or any of that good shit, nor cutting off your ability to act with other people against a common enemy, simply quieter forms, and very distinct in-group/ out-group divides. Of course, this entails talking about your criminal shit in private only, learning to signal ever so subtly, and having a lot more planned out attacks and goals setting. Generally, this looked two different waysâon the one hand, you could just be that group of queer/trans people hanging out all the time, no one having any clue about what you're up to when they don't see you. On the other hand, no one has to be aware that they are surrounded by a hateful queer squad with plans for them. Our enemies always know how to lay out just the strategies to undo them, if you listen just the right way.
We've got one of the best tactics around, the secret potential of the closets. Something we used. You could appear to all the world as just isolated, normative cis-hetero people, and they will never see it comingâlooking like a fucking queer later can throw off any description cops have when they come looking.
Mixing up open and closed formulations created a powerful dynamic for conflict. Being open ended allowed us to slip between different situations and approaches and take whatever form exploited our enemies and allowed us to keep on the attack. For infiltration, blackmail, targeted attacks against rapists and pimps, and working together to rip off our jobs, the closed form was indispensable. For open conflict, intimidation, creating space, inspiring other angry queer/trans kids to link up and grab a weapon, the open form was key. Walking between forms can (and should) be as quick as a stroll from one block to the next.
On the question of leadership: lots of gangs have leadership roles. Obviously, we've found this useless: chains of command are the quickest way for one person to try and âcalm downâ or rally up everyone else for their personal benefit. So yeah, not interested. However, this doesn't mean that there can't be different levels of âinâ in your crewâbut this is formed on the basis of who's shown themselves comfortable with what. This is mostly an issue for more open formulations; some people are down, but only by degrees. You might collectively trust some people more or some less than others. Some people you might trust, but you've yet to act together- especially on risky shit. It's important that everyone know that not everyone needs to know everything. Also, some people are liberals, and they really don't need to know shitâunless that tranzqueer swagger you got gets them hot, then *shrug* maybe they have potential.
<em>"Friendship, Vengeance and Contempt</em><em>âthese are the only guides worth following"</em>
The lived reality of the participants in a riot/black bloc/situation where you and everyone around you is just out to fuck shit up, then you've felt that maniacal pull towards smashing anything your sick of. You've felt how the only act worth anything in those moments is multiplying that sense of power. This sensation is the sensation of the gangâthe embedded relation between you and your friends, making it your daily context, the medium you talk and live through. There is no program for friends bonded between each other; goals become apparent relative to the force and corruption you can wager. With each other, with anything in your wayâshare the gift of your violence.
Our âtheoryâ is really simple: self protection and exploding social war by communalizing violenceâto multiply, not exhaust our terror. Build a material social force by living together with relationships between us that build our autonomy and destroys theirs. Start the fight, bring the bashing first; attack and hit back and find others already fighting and build bonds between youâthe anarchist scene, outside of the bonds we already share, is mostly a husk to be shrugged off. It's not like our enemies are hard to come by; neither then are accomplices. Of course, generalized social war is our goal in writing you these sweet things, sooo... nothing resembles our desire so much as an endless irritation.
<em>We knew this was his house. We knew he was inside, and after a week of watching, strolling by every couple hours looking dirty and forgettable, we knew he was alone. This rapist fuck was a known scum bag, but after raping one of our own a few years back, this little shit went and bragged about it and other times he'd fucked people after they said stop to his bro's a bit too loudlyâand one of us overheard, because you never know who your friends are. Honestly, we didn't even know he'd made it back into town, but whatever, his loss. We'd been sitting on this alley block opening to the street, waiting around for our friend to hit us up on whether the coast was clear, got that yes and we just rolledâhoods up, pink masks on walked right up to the front door while two of us went into his back yard with the back door (ya know he kept it unlocked) and like that we busted out the lock, kicked in the door, ran up on his screaming ass from both sides and dazed him with a piece of plywood. We dragged him to the back of the house, taped his mouth shut, tied his hands and feet to a chair, handed a bat to the survivor and laughed while they knee-capped himâit took a couple of swings, but I don't think hospitals can fix that. After that we put a few cuts on his face and someone sprayed bright pink spray paint into his face and eyes.</em>
Some people like to make themselves into a message to show the dumb queer proles the way. We'd rather skip the years of anarcho-activism and get to open conflictâinvite only orgies might help speed things along. Some people like to say all of what they are going to do, sprayed up on the walls. Broken bones sends a better message. âSafe spaceâ is a practice of war, or else the concept is worthless. Something that looks like going on the offensive wherever; not pacified, brief back room group therapy. With each other, acting togetherâagainst anything that makes themselves a target.
<em>Nothing burns like getting tricked by a trick and after one too many times I was ready to quit sex work but how the fuck was I going to get money? Rich chaser fuckers all married with kids and cars and shit getting uppity and treating a girl like shitâI know they hate loud trannys except when they wanna fuck me so after talking with a few people we got an ideaâso you know, after a couple days of scheming up craigslist I had more work lined up for the weekend, but things went a little different this timesâI'd already let everyone know where I was going, so when he brought me into his big nice house in his nice neighborhood, I left the door open, snapped his picture, and put a small gun to his head. Then all my grrrls rushed in and took what shit was oursâthe trick just looking helpless and he knew we had blackmail so kept his trap shut. Once everyone was done we thanked him for helping a girl out and left him pistol whipped n bleeding. The next time, knocking the trick out was just how it started. THEY HAVE A LOT MORE MONEY WHEN YOU TAKE WHAT YOU DECIDE YOU'RE WORTH LOL!</em>
These âactionsâ will become casual, normalâand writing a communique about all your criminal ultra-queer-violence and destruction might feel out of place. Who else do you know who could really do with a hit squad with analysis? Playing fair means just playing. Sell shit to your enemiesâLater, someone else from your crew robs them of what they were just sold. Repeat on and on and on. Throw the driver out of fancy cars, sell the parts. When things are awryâ cops concentrated in one area, power outages, storms, house fires, whateverâis an opportunity to run wild~ maybe you can provoke them. Break into a condo, party, and burn it down. Knock some asshole out when their alone and leave them on their friends doorstep.
<em>Three of us were just walking around for about 2 hours on some business</em> <em>after a party, just venting to each other when this flashy white SUV pulls up alongside us. Now we always look good, and he want to know how much we was, we asked "all together?" and he was like "yeah" so we got into his car and it was just something about how this motherfucker talked that I donât really know how but we knew what just what we wanted to do with this guy so we put the knife to his throat and robbed his ass clean then slapped his head on the steering wheel till he passed out. Then it was just a free car so what else would we do but ride till the tank was empty?</em>
Anarchists have this bad tendency to shy away from powerâmostly because they really want to keep themselves useless- something about vested class interests and trace liberalism. Rebel's for play. For us, as we get worse, our hunger only grows. I WANT all the dumbass queer haters to start shit. Sometimes, you get tired of waiting around, and just start throwing things first because fuck em'. You get all urgent and relentless, and just want to explode tensions and push things beyond their breaking point so you can laugh together afterwards and do it again. And that's when things get good.
Fight everywhere, stay in the thick of it, get tight with your crew.
We were serious when we said BB! should die and be reborn as a hella vicious street gang. Really, we've been veering towards this from day one.
It's what all the anarcho-managers have been wringing their hands trying to stave off.
A couple of us already went there, we just didn't write the communiques because this shit got normal. Of course, none of this means you suddenly isolate yourself into crews and crew only, never speaking with anyone else, we hang out with whoever all the time. But you might find that the more your crew makes the war visible, the more it will resonate with other people you might not have expected; excitement is the medium of social war generalized.
Also, don't act like a preacher. Go ahead and start raising money now for when you or someone you know gets arrested. Not everyone knows the anarcho-lingo, and while some words are worth going to war over, most language politics are middle-class preoccupations.
A final clarification: When we say âanarchistâ we mean living in conflict with capital, and all the social relations created therein. Until class society is ended, we want nothing but eternal war.
If you're still doing that anarcho-activist manager thing, whether in its liberal or the recent reactionary insurrectionist version: go die.
<em>Further reading:</em>
<em>*Towards the Queerest insurrection *Vengeance 1-3 *Interview with the Class Warriors *The Coming insurrection *Cabal, Argot * Catechism of a Revolutionist *Not Yr Cister press *Enemies We Know</em>
Read less, fight more
It is awkward to speak of Conclusionsâto announce the end of a project, to walk away. What's harder is to reflect on our activity, to learn from our mistakes and recognize our achievements. Regardless, this is a skill anarchists need to develop. At a time when the old models of anarchist organizing are decaying, and bizarre permutations of anarchist tactics and ethics are spreading like wildfire, a practice of self-criticism could prove to be a most dangerous weapon. What follows is one participant's attempt at such a balance sheet of the broadly defined Bash Back! tendency, written in the pursuit of a more ferocious queer insurrectionary tendency. If you find my words chaotic, I hope you'll understand this chaos to be a reflection of the queerness and anarchy intrinsic to this project.
<em>To speak of the death of an organization generally connotes a negative event, but this relies on the assumption that organizational permanence is a good thing. Moving past this assumption, the question becomes: have we accomplished our goals with this organization, this means, this tool? If the answer is affirmative, if the organization has been pushed to its limits, perhaps its death is deserved. If Bash Back! is dead, the resurgence in anarchist queer activity and networking remains. Relationships now exist that would not have existed had Bash Back! never formed. When our projects reach the end of their usefulness, letting them go is no cause for concern.</em>
- on the demise of bash back!
The difficulties of conclusion are exponentially complicated when dealing with a subject as diffuse and evasive as Bash Back! Throughout its existence, there were always a plethora of interpretations of what Bash Back! was. A network of queer anarchists, a gang, a tendency, a gay terrorist organization, a **form-of-life,** a theory group: the answer differs depending on who one asks. Perhaps the correct answer is that Bash Back!, true to queer form, problematizes each of these categories. Any analysis of Bash Back! fails if it doesn't recognize the need to understand each of these possibilities independently and yet all at once.
As a formal network (one that, say, could be named as a defendant in a lawsuit) Bash Back! is certainly dead. As the terrorist- lovely ofthe christian right and queer left alike, it ofcourse never existed outside of a spectacle. As a theoretical tendency, the core assumptions at the heart of Bash Back! continue to thriveâ**queer negation, gender mutiny, not yr cister, baedan, filth and glitter, outlaw bodiesâso** many vessels and masks for an invariant and unrelenting commitment to what is negative and rebellious at the heart of queerness. As a set of gang tactics, Bash Back! undoubtedly lives on. Even as we do the work of anthologizing, our task is endlessly proliferated: more nazis getting their skulls opened by faggots, more queers rioting simply for the joy of it, another church attacked, a bewildered journalist reporting about a particularly violent queer gang in the inner city. Lawyers to pay, re-imprisoned comrades to write to, relationships to heal, friendships to sustain, lovers to embraceâin many ways this eulogy for a name only conceals a zombie-intercourse that is ongoing for many involved with the project. In as many ways as Bash Back! can be declared dead, its essence thrives beyond the grave; haunting the straight world. This is why we say that âBash Back! is deadâ and at the same time âBash Back Forever!â
<em>What is our purpose? The answer to this question prefigures and determines all the rest. Do we want a nicer, friendlier, more diverse, inclusive, radical, hypermediated, less-fucked-up version of this society? Or do we want to watch it burn? Are we interested in progress or are we interested in rupture? Will we settle for all this but a little different? Or are we insatiable? If you desire a queer capitalism, please stay home. If you want to destroy capitalism, weâll see you in Denver!</em>
- questions to be addressed before denver
While the unique and indeterminate form of Bash Back! is largely responsible for its rapid spread and also its unpredictable energy, it surely also carried within it the seeds of its eventual schisms and ultimate disbanding. Other pieces in this anthology do a thorough job of articulating the rise and fall of Bash Back! as a project and are worth reading in their entirety (namely âOn the Demise of Bash Back!â and âQuestions to be Addressed Before Denverâ). Rather than continuing to quote these analyses at length, I've attempted below to draw out and navigate the specific problems and tensions that flourished within Bash Back! and to celebrate the potential within them. Toward this end, in the following pages I articulate a narrative of these conflicts specifically around the issues of Violence and Identity.
It should be noted that perhaps one of the most dangerous indistinctions in Bash Back! was related to the form itself. More noteworthy than any schisms over violence and identity were the oscillations between above ground and clandestine activity. From a security perspective, the attribution of the same name to both potlucks and felonious attacks is probably not very wise. And yet from the perspective of wild experimentation in conflict, it is precisely this indistinction that made Bash Back! so interesting.
<em>In our revolt, we are developing a form of play. These are our experiments with autonomy, power, and force. We haven't paid for anything we're wearing and we rarely pay for food. We steal from our jobs and turn tricks to get by. We fuck in public and have never come harder. We swap tips and scams amid gossip and foreplay. We've looted the shit out of places and delight in sharing the booty. We wreck things at night and hold hands and skip all the way home. We are ever growing our informal support structures and we'll always have each other's backs. In our orgies, riots, and heists, we are articulating the collectivity of and deepening these ruptures.</em>
- criminal intimacy
A way to describe this potential would be through the concept of form-of-life, defined by Giorgio Agamben as a life that can never be separated from its form. âIt defines a lifeâhuman lifeâin which the single ways, acts, and processes of living are never simply **facts** but always and above all **possibilities** of life, always and above all power.â In following this definition I wish to articulate a non-activist and non-identitarian way of understanding and talking about the subject that was shaped through the Bash Back! Project.
In describing those participants in Bash Back! as a **form-of-life** I'm making an effort to discard a whole range of concepts and ways of thinking that should be entirely useless to us moving forward. In particular, I want to totally be done with the notions of identity politics and identity activism. Bash Back! shouldn't be understood as a sequence of activist endeavors, nor as an articulation of a militant identity politic (to the extent that it can be identified that way, it was a failure). Bash Back! was never about queer issues or queer politics. Instead, the project took as its point of departure the lives of its participants. Rather than the motifs of victimization and charity regurgitated ad nauseum in activist circles, the Bash Back! tendency took as its starting point queer life itself. Those within the tendency organized a space within which they could genuinely live, and a network by which to defend that space. I experienced Bash Back! as an amalgamation of desires, dispositions, acts, processes, gestures, and complicities. Bash Back! is as much wrapped up in criminal acts as in sexual practice, as much in strategy as in style. The process of Bash Back! and the emergence of its corresponding form-of-life demands to be read less as a what or a who but instead as a how. This **how,** is the **how** of organization, but also of survival, of violence, of love, of life itself. And so, whatever the limitations of what Bash Back! was, it is the **how** that truly demonstrates the insurrectionary potential that I celebrate.
<em>A fag is bashed because his gender presentation is far too femme. A poor transman can</em><em>ât afford his life-saving hormones. A sex worker is murdered by their client. A genderqueer persyn is raped because ze ââjust needed to be fucked straight". Four black lesbians are sent to prison for daring to defend themselves against a straight-male attacker. Cops beat us on the streets and our bodies are being destroyed by pharmaceutical companies because we canât give them a dime.</em>
- towards the queerest insurrection
As I sit to write these concluding notes, a troubling sequence of events is unfolding around the world. A bizarre left-populist movement has emerged, one which appropriates anarchist language (âoccupy everything!â) and form (consensus, assemblies, etc) and yet has emptied these vessels of any anarchic content. Rather the majority sentiment among the new occupiers appears to be some extremely confused yet dogmatic adherence to ânon-violenceâ. In most of the new occupations this has played out as strict almost obsessive obedience to the police; an absurdly a-historical refusal of past resistance struggles, and a vehement (and ironically, violent) denunciation of anyone who dares challenge the pacifist hegemony.
In the context of such sycophantic shit and malaise, it is refreshing to revisit the texts anthologized in this book. Bash Back! the name bears within itself everything that is to be said about violence; a violent set of activities that responds to a primary violence. Rather than something to be feared or rejected, Bash Back! takes as its starting point the reality of violence in the context of queer life. This is why we say that within the Bash Back! tendency there really wasn't a question of violence. Not a moral or political issue, for the participants within the network, violence has been experienced as a lived reality, a set of tactical questions, an ethics of war.
This anthology carries with it an entire discourse on violence that is unique to the milieu it arose from. These voices locate themselves within a reading of the history of queer resistance, a reading that embraces the overflowing of violent moments. Texts such as **Toward the Queerest Insurrection** and âChronology of Genderfuck Insurrectionâ explore overlapping and divergent historical tendencies of forgotten queer violence, from genderqueer medieval uprisings in Europe to the Compton's Cafeteria riot and the White Night rebellion in San Francisco. Though such attempts to chronologize this resistance will always suffer from generations of silence and erasure, they succeed in articulating a trans-historic current that streams through the present and washes over the lived experience of the authors and readers. This reading of history could prove to be a valuable tool for queer anarchists as they attempt to navigate and disrupt the sea of shit that is the Pacifist rewriting of resistance blanketing current social struggles.
The daily use of violence by queers for the purposes of survival, self-defense, or vengeance is often hidden or obscured through a whole array of closeting apparatuses. Generations of queer street gangs, armed whore communes, bank-runs to support AIDS victims, brick-hurling queensâthese have been forgotten by all, except in the form of heretical mythology passed from lover to lover. More than anything, this collection of communiques should serve to illustrate a new way of communication regarding violence. For Bash Back!, the use of violence as a part of resistance and survival is always something to celebrate. The violence claimed in these communiques spans from the hyper-personal to the overly political: bar fights with assaulters, bats to homophobes and fascists, distribution of pepper spray to queers, queer summit riots. At times, the oscillation from personal to political can make one's head spin: queerbashers attacked within a riot or a police station attacked as atonement for a lifetime of trauma. In sharing these stories, Bash Back! acted to expose the silent yet raging social war that permeates the lived experiences of many queers. This communication itself is a radical act, one that seeks to draw lines to connect individual struggles into a constellation of ultraviolence in the service of queer life. Teen suicide, queerbashing, AIDS genocide, exclusion at borders, enslavement in prisons: the violence experienced by queers is multiform and evolving. As such, resistance to that violence must also be fluid and diffuse. This collection doesn't pose a singular answer, but it offers a whole lot of suggestions.
It is also worth noting that Bash Back! didn't solely concern itself with explicitly queer violence. Rather the discourse emphasized a **queering of violence.** This is to say that participants sought to highlight and show solidarity with all who rupture the fabric of hegemonic violence. Starting from the insurrectional maxim that **solidarity means attack**, Bash Back! cells carried out solidarity actions with a variety of other struggles. They made destroy in solidarity with the December Insurrection in Greece, despite straight people insisting that insurrection had nothing to do with queerness. They celebrated the rebellions in the streets of Oakland and on University of California campuses, even when their struggles were often ignored by anarchist participants in those same struggles. They were the first anarchist groups to issue statements in support of the shooting of five police officers in Oakland, while many others were too timid to do so. All of this is to show that a queer theory of violence must concern itself with the ways that the attack-form can destabilize static identity, and chart paths toward unheard-of channels of communication and solidarity.
<em>Is our violence of substance or of image? Are we joking when we write about violence? What is meant by that picture of beautiful people holding baseball bats and sledge hammers? Is this symbolism? Is it real? Does it mean anything to bash back? The road forks here. Will radical queers continue down the path of the image of militancy; of irrelevance?If so, we can expect many more films and photo shoots displaying a glamorous armed struggle (like the red army faction with glitter). We can expect more celebration of riots forty years ago and uprisings across the ocean (accompanied, of course, by condemnation of riot in the here and now - by crying over broken windows and over-tipped newspaper boxes). Violence will be acceptable as long as it takes the form of abstraction, an artform, a historical occurrence or a blip on the global news feed - when it is separate from us. It will always be refused on the level of our daily lives, when we become its agents.</em>
- questions to be addressed before denver
While the editors of this anthology, and the pieces we have selected, present a coherent tendency relating to violence (bashing back!), it is important to contextualize this coherence as a result of a very real conflict within Bash Back!, one that was centered primarily around the 2009 convergence in Chicago. Though it was the second such gathering in Chicago, it was the first since Bash Back! had taken center stage in the theater of queer revolt. Consequently there was a remarkable influx of people who hadn't been involved with the initial emergence of Bash Back! in the Midwest. Many of these people came from the coasts. More significantly, they came from a different world of queerness. The initial project of Midwestern and Southern Bash Back! chapters was to carve out queer space within anarchist struggles in primarily straight and heteronormative anarchist space. To the contrary, these coastal newcomers largely came from established âradical queerâ social scenes and/or gender studies programs at liberal arts colleges. For many, their backgrounds hopelessly marred their analysis of violence. Rather than strategies of active and autonomous resistance, they emphasized non-violent communication, stifling consensus process, and tame (if perhaps colorful) sidewalk marches and street theater. In Chicago, these worlds collided.
The centerpiece of the ensuing shit show was a train dance-party occupation that turned into a spontaneous march through boystown. As is to be expected, partiers threw shit in the street and got wild. But to the utter horror of the Bash Back! insurgents, participants in the march dragged objects back out of the street and wailed about peaceful protest (not unlike those dogmatic pacifists currently attempting to police an occupation movement that is rapidly spinning out of their control). The result of this exchange was a firestorm of screaming matches and internet tirades that signaled the first major split in Bash Back! Other works in this anthology more thoroughly document this division (specifically A Response to the Anarcho-Liberal Takeover of Bash Back! and Questions to be Addressed before Denver.)
For those who fell on the total-destroy side of things, the conflict was entirely unexpected. We were aware of the existence of tired leftist queers, but we didn't realize that so many of them disguised their pacifism within confrontational aesthetics. As a matter of fact, many of these sheep-in-wolves-clothes had previously been the inspiration for many within Bash Back! (Groups such as Gay Shame in San Francisco and the Naughty North in Maine speak endlessly of histories of queer revolt and make films and texts glorifying violent resistance, and yet denounce those who sought to struggle with them in the here and now. They celebrate revolt that is separated from them by decades or oceans, all while actively sabotaging such efforts where they live.) We were shocked that those who make films about bombings and jailbreaks or wear patches of guns would demonize those who engage in property destruction or violent self-defense. The reality: the hip queers who seek to make their careers as radical queer academics and filmmakers are in fact servants of abstraction. They seek to socially and monetarily capitalize on the image of queer revolt while contributing nothing to its possibility.
This attitude, the one that silences and forecloses on the possibility of queer violence, is not unique to so-called radical queers. It is equally prevalent among straight people, even our straight anarchist comrades. Notable examples of this trend can be seen in the behavior of straight-dominated anarchist groups such as the RNC Welcoming Committee and CrimethInc. Prior to the riots at the Republican National Convention in 2008, members of the Welcoming Committee (the aboveground anarchist organizing body for the protests) publicly referred to the planned Bash Back! blockade as âfluffyâ compared to the presumed militancy of the hetero-barricades. This was in spite of the fact that all propaganda for the Bash Back! blockade leading up to the convention made explicit reference to historic queer riots, and to the intention of Bash Back! folks to fiercely resist the Republicans and the police. The blockade went on to clash with horse cops and to attack members of the Westboro Baptist Church. The blockade gained but a single mention in an entire issue of **Rolling Thunder** (CrimethInc's magazine) that was dedicated to resistance to the RNC. This was only the an early example of CrimethInc's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that their queer comrades were capable of insurrectionist activity. In their magazine-length coverage of the rioting at the G20 protests in Pittsburgh, they describe the march for queer liberation (which went on to be the wildest and most destructive at the summit) as âbash-back-themedâ, their only acknowledgment of the riot's queer content. That is to say, queer struggle was a token slogan for rioters, rather than the elan of the riot. While offering endless analysis of the organizing and strategy that went into said street conflict, they ignored the fact that this was the most violent queer riot in America in a generation. The insult was further exacerbated by CrimethInc's article âSay You Want an Insurrectionâ. In their critique of american insurrectionary anarchism, there is not a single mention of Bash Back! or the tremendous sequence of insurrectionary activity by self-declared queer-anarchists. The article went on to absurdly critique the valorization of violence by âinsurrectionistsâ who CrimethInc describes as having never experienced violence - a critique that is only possible to make by totally ignoring the existence of Bash Back! and the experiences of its participants. Some will perhaps point out that in the third issue of **Rolling Thunder** CrimethInc published an article about queer riots that happened decades ago. We applaud them for their gesture, but the questions remain: why would an anarchist publication focusing on contemporary anarchist struggles ignore what is one of the largest anarchist networks in the United States? Why is it safe to acknowledge queer insurrectionists of previous generations, but not to show solidarity or report on their struggles in the present? Puzzling.
While we have no interest in offering excuses for this attitude on the part of either âradical queersâ or straight anarchists, they are simply pawns in what is a much larger hegemonic discourse surrounding violence. Queers are marked as victims while violence is understood to be only the tool of the masters. The queer anarchist project embodied by Bash Back! is first and foremost a refusal of victimhood and a reclamation of the violence taken from us by progressive ideology and used against us by queerbashers and the State. It was a crucial shift for Bash Back! to break with those who refused to recognize the importance of this reclamation. It served to cohere and solidify the insurrectional queer tendency around the question of violence while foreshadowing the coming splits. From this point, conflicts between tendencies (specifically around the question of identity/politics) were disputes between differing theoretical dispositions wherein a disposition towards violence was assumed.
<em>It is clear that, because identities shape our experiences, we cannot write off identity as unimportant. However, it is equally clear that we cannot afford to maintain the identities imposed upon us. Thus, an apparent contradiction arises between the necessity of recognizing socially constructed identity while simultaneously trying to destroy the class society that enforces those identities. This contradiction proves difficult, with a range of responses from a disregard for the destruction of class society to a disregard for identity, and many other arguments somewhere between these two positions.</em>
- Identity, Politics and Anti-Politics
As mentioned in the above section, after certain circles within Bash Back! had thoroughly rid themselves of liberal-pacifist tendencies, future conflict would be staged between militants or insurrectionists who differed in regard to the question of identity. Though the above conflicts over violence often played out in ways that were parallel to discussions of identity, I concern myself with those discussions of identity that take violence as a given. This will serve to illuminate a set of questions and conflicts that emerged as unique to Bash Back! A way to view this conflict is to understand the partisans as, on the one hand, Militants of Identity Politics - and on the other, anti-identitarians. One side takes identity as a given and a precondition that must shape our organizing and struggle, the other locates identity as the enemy itself. Positions within this conflict were not stable - individuals and groups within the Bash Back! tendency could embody either of these positions or both at once. I'm going to avoid a lot of the specifics of these conflicts, as many of them need to remain abstract, and others are not mine to tell. Rather I'll focus on the theoretical grounding of this confrontation and will leave space for those who experienced it to locate themselves within this reading.
This problem within Bash Back! is quite fitting insofar as it is a queer problem. Queerness itself is a contested territory, open to endless debate and critique. For a certain camp of people, queerness is a positive project, with it own set of norms and community-forms. For others, queerness can only be conceived of negatively, as that which exceeds or fails to meet a set of norms. In this way Queer comes to be a catachresis, or a name wrongly given to that which cannot be named. A label given to that which cannot be labeled. Positions within Bash Back! took their starting points from any number of positions within this complex theoretical matrix. There is an argument to be made that one's position on the debate was often directly descendent from one's own (anti-political) background. Those who came to Bash Back! from gender studies tended to conduct themselves as the militant shock- troops of whatever doctrine they picked up from their professors. Those enmeshed in insurrectionary anarchist circles tended to have a strong (if at times perhaps too harsh) aversion to identity-based struggle, focusing instead on locating points of conflict within identity. Those who came from established queer scenes brought with them a whole range of expectations in regard to people's behaviors and language - expectations that were often alien to those not familiar with such cliques. What is so queer about the set of conflicts at play within Bash Back! is that each of these positions was permeated with the other, and a wide array of perversions emerged.
I'd like to offer that a certain synthesis emerged out of many of these conflicts that could prove beneficial for anarchists in coming struggles: experience must be the basis of struggle. If we expect to engage in material struggles against the social order, we must begin from the ways in which we experience that order. This means that those who share a set of experiences under capitalism will have a natural head-start in forging alliances against society. This is the kernel of truth at the heart of identity. Sadly, this kernel is obscured by layer upon layer of abstraction and mystification produced by identity politics. Any effort to build autonomous power based on one's position within and against society must begin by disillusioning itself of the baggage of Identity Politics.
<em>Here is a quick sketch of certain anti-identity politics positions distilled from Bash Back!.</em>
- Identity Politics are always based on flattening out experience, making the critique of society abstract rather than lived.
- Identity Politics promote cross-class alliances, thus offering those with more power (and thus an interest in the proliferation of class society) to silence the most marginalized within these alliances.
- Identity Politics are rooted in the ideology of victimization, and thus celebrate and comes to enforce norms surrounding what activity people are allowed or able to participate in. This plays out by reinforcing certain mythologies about struggle (i.e. âonly cis-white-men participate in black blocs or âoppressed people are incapable of certain strategies of revoltâ).
- Identity Politics are always based on the fallacy of coherent communities. Some French people once said that âthere are greater ethical differences within communities than between them.â That is to say that those trapped within certain âcommunitiesâ or identity confines often have less in common with one another than they do with those who they are purported to be opposed to. This fallacy thrives on abstraction of experience rather than analysis of lived experience itself. A queer in prison has more in common with their straight cellmate than with some scumbag gay senator, and yet the mythology of the âqueer communityâ serves to suffocate enemies of society and subjugate them to their self-appointed representatives.
- Identity Politics are fundamentally reformist and seek to find a more favorable relationship between different subject positions rather than to abolish the structures that produce those positions from the beginning. Identity politicians oppose âclassismâ while being content to leave class society intact. Any resistance to society must foreground the destruction of the subjectifying processes that reproduce society daily, and must destroy the institutions and practices that racialize and engender bodies within the social order.
- Identity Politics are deployed by, inherently refer to, always valorize and are in and of themselves the State.
Taking this analysis to heart, Bash Back! can be seen as an attempt to forge a resistance practice of lived experience outside the logic of Identity Politics. Though not authored by participants in Bash Back! we've included a text by anarcha-feminists in San Francisco entitled âAnarcha-Feminists take to the Streetsâ. This piece, published concurrently with the identity crisis of Bash Back! offers an outstanding and unique way to conceptualize patriarchy and resistance to it. To quote:
Ironically, despite our critiquesâand sometimes hatredâof identity politics, we find ourselves coming together around a (somewhat loose) identity: We are some people who no longer want to be victims of gender tyranny and misogyny. Within this grouping we are hoping to circumvent, to a certain extent, our gender and what that means for us when we are living our lives in this Man's World so we might gain some insight as to what it might look like to not have gender dynamics influence every interaction. We come together to fight for a reality where identities such as âman,â âwoman,â and âtransâ are logical impossibilities.
I'll follow the author(s) of the Anarcha-Feminist communique as they understand themselves to be unified in their desires and dispositions, rather than their identities. Without reference to a shared or stable subject, the authors of this piece offer a starting point for the construction of an anti-essentialist, anti- identitarian force to combat patriarchy. In the context of the reemergence of second wave feminism in insurrectionary anarchist/ communist circles, this way of thinking is beautiful. It offers a roadmap to how we might build the type of war-machine that can destroy gender. This is why I do not conceive of Bash Back! as being rooted in queer identity. Rather, I understand it to be an experiment in building an offensive constellation of queer positions.
We are the people who aim to destroy the social order from which we've been excluded. We are the people seeking to end our imprisonment. We are the people who hate gendered-capitalism and heteronormativity. Our position is hyper-attuned to our lived experience. Our understanding of ourselves and our position names our enemies!
<em>In a crucial point of emergence long ago, woman established herself as existent rather than plunging the monist world of Man into the void from which she came. In another, the proletariat struggled to secure its autonomous liberation from the bourgeoisie rather than destroy the bourgeoisie and itself entirely. On the stage set by the present order, the queer force is making itself busy with the proliferation of identities rather than the utter negation of them.</em>
- preliminary notes on modes of reproduction
While outsider perspectives may only be able to understand Bash Back! through the logic of identity, I understand it as a series of experiments toward identity's undoing. In the same way that the Oscar Grant Riots in Oakland, CA created unlikely alliances against the racial order, so too did Bash Back! result in a sequence of material attacks against all the subject positions within the hetero- normative identity matrix. Many who began their engagement with the project found themselves seduced by its way of war. Straight people found themselves destroying gender alongside gender-freaks of all stripes. Many found themselves unburdened of their previous subjective attachment to Straightness. Queers and all those assigned- victim-at-birth, engaged in a practice of refusing victimization, and in doing so refused the foundational principle of their role in this gendered society.
Insurrectionary theory tells us that an insurrectionary process is based on attack and experimentation to open up the way to society's undoing. Queer theory tells us that queering is a verb, a process which eternally problematizes and undoes normative roles. I locate Bash Back! at the intersection of these processes and understand them to be the same.
I celebrate many achievements of Bash Back!, but for me the greatest is the way in which Bash Back! shows the possibility for a queer-anarchy that has no attachment to the dinosaurs of queer leftism. Radical queers will critique reform, the State, and non-profit organizations endlessly. And yet, at the end of the day their politics are still focused on different issues to be reformed, different demands upon the state and the same tired rhetoric and reliance on the non-profit industrial complex. Bash Back! concerned itself with none of this.
In attempting to articulate this form of queer antipolitics, I'll borrow briefly from Selma James in her introduction to Mariarosa Dalla Costa's **The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community**. James locates two mainstream trends within the Women's Movement of the â70s. On the one hand, there are the Marxist Men who happen to be Women and on the other are the militants of women's issues. Women in the first camp simply reiterate the party line, but without specific reference to the position of women under capitalism. Women in the second focus on this or that issue concerning women, but without indicting capital itself as âa social relation which we struggle to destroyâ. The position of James, Dalla Costa and other autonomist-feminists is to refuse both of these positions, to seek an analysis of capitalism that is specifically rooted in women's position within it and then from that position to discover its undoing.
While there are strong criticisms to be made of autonomous marxism as well as of essentialist notions of the category of women and their position within capitalism, autonomist methodology is helpful here. In the tradition of Selma James, I'd like to identify two major currents of queer activity. On the one hand, anarchists who happen to be queer; on the other, queer people who are militants of queer issues. To understand Bash Back! the first way would be to reproduce CrimethInc's assertion that such activity is âqueer themedâ or to just ignore it altogether. To understand Bash Back! within the second current reduces it to the level of Gay Shame's issue- specific, reform-oriented street theater. We refuse both conceptions.
Bash Back! must be understood to be a concrete attempt to critique society from the perspective of queer experience, and then to find methods of attack that stem from that position. In this way, Bash Back! Is the queer answer to autonomist-feminism. The experiments can be categorized into two broad strategies. The firstâto open up queer space within conflictual action. The secondâto apply insurrectionary strategies to the daily struggle intrinsic to queer life. Examples of the first would be the queer blockade at the RNC, the riots at the G20, solidarity attacks with other struggles and insurrections, etc. The second is exemplified in attacks on queer bashers, arson at the houses of murderers, the dissemination of self defense information, distribution of pepper spray, squatted queer-youth centers and queer dance parties that ended in broken police cruisers. The synthesis of these categories is the beginning of a living-and-fighting practice that I call queer autonomy.
I want to take a moment to emphasize that this queer- anarchy after leftism must also mean a total break from activist logic. At a time when its former proponents have backed away from so- called âlifestylism', Bash Back! is a return to hyper-lifestylism! I refuse to see queer life as secondary to queer politics. Rather, I'm interested in documenting, exploring, and articulating an anti-politics that takes life itself as its field of struggle. Toward this end, Bash Back! was successful in locating the crises within the lives of its participants and materially acting to resolve each. Queers needed housing, selfdefense, nice things, and pleasure. Consequently they occupied houses, communized weapons, and trained together, looted as much as possible, and organized parties and riots and orgies. At this point, any struggle that doesn't immediately implicate the very lives of its participants is doomed to irrelevance.
One can see these developments thriving to this day: queers squats, sex worker self-organization, queer street gangs, transgender prison gangs, queer contingents within militant street marches, marches that leave occupations and auto-reduce the cover as they reach the party. One can imagine ways that these strategies could be deployed as more and more aspects of life under capitalism are thrown into crisis. When funding disappears for AIDS drugs, new forms of expropriation will become appropriate. As the nuclear family is not an option for manyâthe crisis will force queers to forge new, non-familial modes of communal existence. As reactionary groups begin to assert themselves on the street, queers will strike back with new weapons and self-defense formations. As society falls apart, we will discover ever more decadent ways to push the contradictions and dynamite the ruptures.
<em>123 - The proletarian revolution is predicated entirely on the requirement that, for the first time, theory as the understanding of human practice be recognized and directly lived by the masses. This revolution demands that workers become dialecticians, and inscribe their thought upon practice; it thus asks much more of its men without qualities than the bourgeois revolution asked of those men with qualifications that it enlisted to run things... It is thus the very evolution of class society into the spectacular organization of non-life that obliges the revolutionary project to become visibly what it always was in essence.</em>
<em>124âRevolutionary theory is now the sworn enemy of all revolutionary ideologyâand it knows it.</em>
- society of the spectacle
Those who keep up with academic queer theory will surely be aware of the self-described âanti-social turnâ in Queer Theory. It seems that the newest trend within the queer academy is to focus on the queer negativity, to critique society, and to refuse traditional politics. At a time when society itself is falling apart, when unprecedented amounts of human beings are recognizing that they have NO FUTURE and are proceeding accordingly, we must call this academic trend by its name: recuperation.
Some idiot tries basing his thesis on the queer riots at the G20; Judith Butler delivers a speech at a conference at the New School about âqueer anarchismâ; Jack Halberstam seeks to valorize the negative and trace the anti-social turn; a class at the University of California is called âcriminal queerâ (yet the instructor denounces the activity of insurrectionaries on that very campus)âone after another queer academics line up to jump on the negativity bandwagon. Each appropriates the activity of insurgents toward the ends of strengthening their own careers. They take anti-social activity and use it to reproduce the Academy as a central engine of society itself. This is the ultimate treason. In theorizing about the activity of Bash Back! it is my ambition to demonstrate real queer assaults upon the social order. In doing so, this collection should clearly expose those for whom negativity and revolt are mere matters of image.
Queer insurrection demands that each of us become a theoretician. More importantly, it demands that the anti-social turn, the turn against society, remains in the streets. Our revolt and our theory must be inseparable from our daily life. Toward this end, Bash Back! can be read as an attempt to expropriate queer theory from the Academy and put it toward the service of queer revolt; to dynamite the distinction between theory and life. For the sake of organizing this book, we split the texts between essays and communiques. To a large extent this is a false dichotomy that doesn't accurately describe the activity of Bash Back!, which never recognized a distinction between its theorists and its combatants. Rather, it sought to queer this distinction and offer a praxis wherein theory is embodied in the very activity of those who theorize. A book that declares NO FUTURE offers only words. A riot that declares the same demonstrates a step toward insurrection.
<em>Death to the Academy!</em>
Tegan Eanelli
Fall 2011