textfiles/magazines/LNR/lnr393.pt4

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

                          LOVE AND RAGE
                        Electronic Edition

                       FEBRUARY/MARCH 1993
                              Part 4




                    A FEW WORDS ABOUT POLITICS

Love and Rage is a bi-monthly anarchist newspaper intended to
foster revolutionary anti-authoritarian activism in North America
and build a more effective anarchist movement. We will provide
coverage of social struggles, world events, anarchist actions and
cultures of resistance. We will support the struggles of oppressed
peoples around the world for control over their own lives. Anarchy
offers the broadest possible critique of domination, making
possible a framework for unity in all struggles for liberation. We
seek to understand the systems we live under for ourselves, and
reject any pre-packaged ideology. Anarchism is a living body of
theory and practice connected directly to the lived experiences of
oppressed people fighting for their own liberation. We anticipate
the radical and on-going revision of our ideas as a necessary part
of any revolutionary process.

A set of working papers, encompassing the current debate about our
Political Statement is available from

Jodi, c/o AA
PO Box 10007
Columbus, OH  43201

For more information about these and other internal debates,
subscribe to our Discussion Bulletin. [See page 9.]

                               -30-

                     CHANGES AT LOVE AND RAGE

                by Ms. Tommy Lawless & Dema Crassy

THE LOVE & RAGE ANNUAL CONFERENCE in Atlanta, November 26-29, was
a veritable hotbed of actions, parties, workshops, forums, and
caucuses. NOT! It was a seventy-two hour sweaty meeting marathon.
But many changes were agreed upon: changes in the paper and
changes in the direction of the Network. As the new
co-facilitators for Love and Rage, we're here to tell you a little
bit about those changes.

CHANGES IN THE PAPER

Like any radical project, Love & Rage has had some financial
difficulties. Because we couldn't gauge when or how much money we
would have, it was hard to come up with an accurate production
schedule. Naturally, that hampered coming out monthly: seven
issues the first year, ten issues the second year, seven issues
the third year. In an attempt to keep on an accurate schedule this
year, the paper will be coming out every two months, and will be
twenty pages long, rather than sixteen. 

You've probably already noticed that the cover page has changed to
magazine format. This gives an extra page for text and potentially
allows the newspaper to be carried by more distributors (because
of the way it sits on a magazine rack).

The Production Group (PG) will be more aggressive about soliciting
articles from a wider range of people. We'll be in contact with
the supporting groups, the new Regional Contacts, (more on those
later in the article), and anybody we know, to get a better
representation of the type of work that goes on in the Network.
Also, a zany new box will go into the paper each issue, begging
you to please, please, please send us info, articles, photos, and
graphics.

The On Gogol Boulevard (OGB) page, which was produced by Neither
East Nor West (NENW), will no longer appear in the paper. Instead
of OGB, we'll be running an International Page, which will seek to
cover news from our contacts all over the globe, including
continued coverage from the East. Members of NENW plan to continue
contributing to the paper and working in the PG. [Anarchy: A
Journal of Desire Armed will carry the OGB feature. See page 14
for their address.] 

At the conference, Anarchist Youth Federation (AYF) members
outside of New York complained about their lack of representation
on the (New York produced) AYF page in the paper. Therefore, the
AYF feature has been temporarily suspended. There is an open
invitation to the Federation to take up production of the page
again, as soon as they come up with a process they're happy with.

Although the New York-Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) group, which has
been producing the ABC page in the paper, will be taking a six
month vacation, the page will continue. This issue's ABC page was
produced by the NY group, but, for the next two issues, the page
will be produced by the PG. ABC chapters in other cities have
agreed to contribute to this feature.

News coverage will broaden to include more world events and
anarchist analyses of them.

The Spanish section of the paper will carry more articles from
Spanish- speaking communities, some of which will be translated
for the English section. Groups in Mexico have already committed
to send in a lot of material and are working towards autonomously
producing a Spanish edition of Love & Rage, and perhaps the
Spanish section.

Last year's Political Statement has been suspended. We acknowledge
in the paper that we are currently debating the future of the
Political Statement. This debate includes questions of whether or
not to have a statement, the content and scope of our statement,
what kind of statement (if any) should go into the paper. We are
making available a set of working papers, which include all
previous years' statements, all new proposed statements, and all
dialogue around this published in the Disco Bull on an ongoing
basis. For a copy of these working papers, write to the Info-Share
Coordinator. Send a small donation if you can. [See page 8]

CHANGES IN THE NETWORK

We, Dema Crassy and Ms. Tommy Lawless, have been elected as
co-facilitators for the Network this year. We bid a fond farewell
to Matt Black, who did a superb job these last eighteen months.
Although a similar arrangement for two facilitators was attempted
in 1991, the second person didn't work out. So this is the first
year with two people doing the facilitator job, and this is the
first year with WIMMIN in the job.

Out of the conference came a general commitment to decentralize
the Network. This, in part, means creating regional structures
that would both strengthen local groups and provide a means for
sharing resources.  There was a sentiment that the regional
structures should grow naturally and be self-defined. For this and
other reasons, no concrete proposal was adopted at the conference
as to how this decentralization process would occur. Proposals and
processes will be discussed and developed in the Disco Bull over
the next year. Nine coordinators were elected to help us
communicate better as a Network and to help share the burden of
work. Four of those nine elected are located outside of the NYC
area. The positions include: International Communications, Network
Communications, Interorganizational Communications, Fund-Raising,
Finance, Disco Bull [Discussion Bulletin two people], Info-Share,
and Regions. Also, an informal group of people volunteered to be
temporary Regional Organizing Contacts for their areas. [See
sidebar.] 

We need more. How 'bout you?

The Coordinating Group (CG) of (now) eleven members, including one
political prisoner Ojore N. Lutalo was elected. The CG is
continuing this year for immediate decision-making, but with the
goal of the Network Council (NC) becoming the main decision-making
body for the following year. The NC, made up of two delegates from
each supporting group, will meet in Washington DC this April 23 -
24. If you belong to a supporting group, send us the names of two
voting delegates who will attend. (Everyone with a genuine
interest in the project is welcome to come.)

An Urgent Response Network (URN) phone/fax/e-mail tree is in the
process of being established in order to mobilize people in the
Network quickly in emergency situations. If you're interested in
being a part of the URN, contact the Network Communications
Coordinator. The CG is empowered to decide when the URN will be
activated. If you wish to activate the URN, call any CG member
with the information.

The Disco Bull, our internal discussion bulletin which comes out
every six to eight weeks, has been an effective means of
communication for the Network and will continue this year. In
addition, a Network Bulletin will be dashing out hot and timely
newsflashes every two weeks! (Several issues are out already.) The
Network Bulletin really speeds up communications and saves on
phone bills. Individuals and groups who send in a monthly pledge
receive both bulletins, periodic mailings, and a year's
subscription to the paper.

Unfortunately, all this paper and postage costs money. The Disco
Bull costs about $600 an issue to produce and mail out. People who
don't pledge, but want to receive these bulletins and other
periodic mailings, will be required to pay a sliding scale
communications fee of $20 - $50 per year.

The Network adopted quite a few strategy and action projects for
this year. The Wimmin's Health Tour will happen this year. [See
page 4.] We will endorse and have an open anarchist contingent to
the Queer March on Washington in April. [See page 3.] A proposal
to produce a Direct Action Manual was supported and endorsed [See
page 9.] A working group is contacting ABC groups, with the goal
of forming an ABC Network. An Info-Share project is underway to
act as a clearinghouse and to compile information for possible
publication and internal education. Send any info you'd like to
share to Jodi, the project coordinator.

In addition to the above projects, suggested topics of ongoing
discussion for the Disco Bull this year include: queer issues and
politics, strategies for anti-fascist organizing, political
statement ideas and controversies, and debating the structure of
the Network.

The next Love and Rage Network Annual Conference will be in San
Diego this summer.

For more complete information and further discussion about these
projects, proposals, and ongoing debates, subscribe to the Disco
Bull and Network Bulletin. [See page 9.]

Thanks everybody, for stopping by.

by Rachel Rinaldo

[Not Published in the printed Feb/Mar Issue, but worth reading  ]

                               -30-


CHANGES: ABC AND OGB PAGES

[Note:  This article appeared on the ABC Page, which has been 
autonomously produced by ABC - New York.  ]


AS OF THIS ISSUE THERE ARE TWO MAJOR CHANGES IN TWO OF THE
AUTONOMOUS SECTIONS, THE ABC AND OGB PAGES. THIS IS THE LAST TIME
THE ABC page will be done by NY ABC, which for all intents and
purposes no longer exists.  

When we were approached at the inception of the paper to write a
prisoner support section there were 5 of us who were to work on
the project.  For more than a year now I have been doing it by
myself.  It's impossible for me to continue.  The production group
will be including prisoner news in the paper, and I trust that
they will do a good job with it.  In a few months I hope to be
able to contribute to what ever they have going.  

Thanks to everyone who wrote, especially the prisoners who took
the time to contribute to the ABC page and the paper.  Input from
prisoners, like Larry Giddings, and their supporters made the
project more than just a sterile news sheet.  Also, thanks to
everyone who responded to our requests for letters and calls on
behalf of individual prisoners.

The second change is definitely one for the worst.  The On Gogol
Boulevard section, edited by Neither East Nor West is gone.  The
OGB page , which carried news and networking info, focused on the
Ex- Eastern block but also printed news on US political prisoners,
Green movements in Cuba, etc.  OGB has always offered itself as a
networking tool to Easterners and has run many documents and
letters on their behalf.

The decision to discontinue the OGB section was reached by
consensus at the recent Love and Rage Network conference in
Atlanta. The feeling, as I understand it, was that the focus
needed to broaden, from primarily Eastern news to more of a world
view.  I agree that the paper should carry more global news.  But
then why not have both?  If space is an issue, why not rotate
sections?

The loss of OGB as an autonomous section of the paper is serious.
This is a big loss to the Easterners who used the page for
out-reach; they were not given any notice as to the discontinuance
of the section.  It's also a loss to the prisoner support groups
who used the information , and the folks who put together the
demo, strikes, and campaigns that got coverage on the page.

 - Neither East Nor West has a years-long history of prisoner
support.

 - They organized demos at the Polish embassy in support of draft
resisters.

 - They helped free anti-war activist & Moscow Trust Group 
member Nina Kovalenko from a Soviet mental hospital.

 - They campaigned for the release of Soviet prisoner Sergei
Troyanski and US prisoner Rainbow Hawk, both arrested on
fraudulent drug charges in politicized trials involving their
Rainbow affiliations/Peace activism.

 - When several East German left-oppositionists, including
Wolfgang Templin, were arrested, they immediately picketed the
East German Embassy, in conjunction with protests in Europe,
culminating in their release.

Neither East Nor West is one of the few anarchist groups who have
been around for years, consistently getting results through their
actions.  They had access to info no one else had, and to groups
no one else had contact with.  Their contribution to the paper was
important.

The OGB folks will be contributing info to the paper in the
future, but will no longer have autonomy, or editorial control.
They can't offer their contacts the use of the page space.

The cancellation of the OGB page was a mistake I hope it returns.

                              -30-

Where's AYF?

If you've read Love and Rage before, you might notice that this
issue has no Anarchist Youth Federation page. AYF is currently
trying to develop a more-collective way to produce the page. As
soon as they come up with a process they're happy with, we'll
start running the page again.

For more info:
AYF Discussion Bulletin
PO Box 365
NY, NY 10013

                               -30-


LETTERS TO LOVE AND RAGE, FEB/MARCH 93


L&R GIVES BAD HEADLINE

Dear Love and Rage,

As a gay man, I've been annoyed all my life by hearing people say
that such-and-such unpleasant thing sucks. This common piece of
slang contributes a steady drip of anti-gay prejudice into all our
lives, mostly by people who never think about the meaning of what
they say.

The dictionary defines suck in the slang sense as to be extremely
or disgustingly unpleasant or objectionable. "Disgustingly" makes
the connection to cocksucking. That sucks gets its emotional force
from the idea of cocksucking as dirty and disgusting. Of course,
when we say this we're not usually thinking directly about
cocksucking. Like many terms in the language, this one has lost
its direct connection with the idea that lies behind it. But if
you think about sucks as a figure of speech, what is it referring
to? There are several different slang uses of sucking or sucker
(never give a sucker an even break; he comes sucking around when
he needs a favor; that sucks). With a little thought they can be
traced to different actions. The idea of sucking as degrading,
disgusting, or unpleasant probably relates to cocksucking. The
idea is not just that the act is disgusting, but that the person
who does it is disgusting too.  Someone will say of a particularly
nasty task, That job was a real cocksucker, or for short, That job
sucked.

So I was bothered to see Love and Rage, which ought to know
better, use sucks (spelling changed) in two headlines in the most
recent issue (Sept.-Oct.-Nov. 1992): Skool Suks, and on the same
page Oolskay Uksay. I'm not accusing anybody of sexism; nobody was
thinking cocksucking when they wrote the headline. Unfortunately,
nobody was thinking at all when they wrote the headline, and
that's what I'd like to change. I'm not asking us to PC each other
to death. I'd be quite happy if people were just to think about
the possible connections between the slang term and the actual act
that most of us approve of (whether or not we engage in it), and
draw whatever conclusions seem best.

Love (predominantly),
Chris Hobson
New York, NY

                                *

MAKING PUCKS A THREAT AGAIN

Hey,

The Profane Existence Collective challenges you hapless Love and
<R>Ragers to a game of hockey any day (street or ice) to determine
once and for all who is the coolest anarchist paper in North
America. Not that we really don't already know, heh heh.

Please get mohawks, especially Matt,

Joel
Profane Existence
Minneapolis, MN
                                *

RIGOROUS DEBATE

Paul,

I'm glad you wrote your letter in response to In the Belly of the
Beast. I have two things to say in response to your letter.  The
first is about what you wrote, and the second is about the fact
that you wrote.

You wrote that while you don't oppose confrontational politics,
you think it is necessary to bear in mind, particularly when not
in a revolutionary moment, that the ideological component of
conflict and order function such that confrontations and actions
can be counterproductive, misunderstood, or authoritarian, even as
they are perceived as revolutionary acts by some.

I don't have your letter in front of me as I write this, so I hope
I'm not misrepresenting your statements. Are we on the same
wavelength? I hope so, because, if we are, I agree with you about
this and commend your addition of this important and necessary
dimension to the recent debate about action.

I'm glad if your letter is a sign that we can start to move beyond
the armchair anarchist vs. cult of action dichotomy and begin to
transcend the moralistic view that actions have absolute meaning
and inherent effects (e.g. this is revolutionary while that is
bourgeois, or this is heretical while that is holy) in favor of a
relativistic, social definition of actions as playing this role in
this circumstance and having this or that effect then. (If I were
a little less abstract here, we could title this Streetfighting:
Utopian and Scientific. Get it? Little Engels joke.) I would hope
we could begin to think more strategically and less prejudicially
about using action instrumentally to effectively reach the goals
we seek, even as these goals develop and change dialectically
through our experiences with action. I'm being vague, but its a
start.

I guess it's useful to note something about the context of the
argument I was making. Its understandable that you took it as an
argument against the passiveists, since just about every
pro-action argument in the anti-authoritarian movement seems to be
just that; however, my arguments came from another context. I
wrote it as an argument against a different dichotomy. It was
given as a speech at the Class War conference last year, meant to
stress that we live in a global economic system and must each
struggle solidly from our own position in that system, whether
that means from the elite capitalist core of the empire, from the
advanced industrial working class, from the elite of the
tricontinent, or from the periphery in any state. I was writing
this in argument with those who said revolution is about class or
race, who said we have to have a working-class revolution or
support national liberation struggles. In part, too, I was trying
to articulate something about the specific location of
middle-class anti-capitalists in the United States and Europe. I
guess it only matters to point out the difference made by the
context (the emphasis on confrontation you perceived as compared
with the emphasis on class I meant), because that gives me a nice
chance to warn, once more, against the dangers of transplanting
politics. (Ah, see what an opportunist I am?!)

The second thing I wanted to say in response to your letter has
nothing to do with what you wrote. I was excited about your letter
well before I read it. We are not living in a revolutionary moment
in this country. In such a (revolutionary) moment, the immediate
reality of everyday lives would force on our thinking, as
revolutionaries, a rigor and depth uncommon in more settled times.
It is one of the tasks of a revolutionary movement to create the
conditions for revolutionary moments to result in the emergence of
a better society rather than in a new and greater dominance and
oppression. One of the ways such a movement can do this is by
demanding of itself that it approach in its thinking the rigor and
depth of the revolutionary moment.  To me, this is one of the main
purposes of a revolutionary paper.  Without it, many are drawn to
left parties precisely because these parties try to, and sometimes
do, provide this stimulus and this intellectual community. I watch
people go to these parties with a combination of sadness, disgust,
and a small bit of understanding. Afterward, I wander around in a
state of despair that the anarchist/radical movement can't seem to
fulfill these functions well enough. I am heartened and happily
reminded by your letter that it is not necessary to belong to a
party to have constructive, rigorous debate. Thanks.

Kate Star
Chicago, IL

                                *

WOMEN AND CLASS WAR

Dear Love and Rage,

This is a late reply to Kate Star's article on the Class War
International Conference in a recent issue of Love and Rage (Vol.
3, #4), late because I only saw the article recently.

Although the introduction was one of the most accurate accounts of
the Class War Federation I've seen, I would like to refute nearly
everything else in the article. Here goes,

Because your political analysis does not include an understanding
of class you are doomed to go round in circles for eternity.  The
reaction of the white working class to immigration is not, as you
say, central to determining the power in the hands of the right!
Racism exists only to serve capitalism, and is used by them to
divide our class, just as is sexism, homophobia, etc. You argue
that German reunification has as one of its functions to provide a
native and white workforce to the country. It could be more
realistically argued that German reunification was more along the
lines of uniting Europe economically. The state itself doesn't
give a toss on how many black people are in the country, only in
so far as this can be used to promote division within the working
class.  The only color the state is interested in is the green
colour of currency.

As for your being offended by a male comrade at a conference
asking whether or not you were coming to a social that evening,
you only had to tell him to fuck off, as I would have done had I
seen it as an offence, rather than condemning the whole of Class
War as a bunch of revolting sexists. Your attitude to women
involved with Class War is particularly patronizing. Women members
of Class War are involved in the Federation at all levels: paper
group editorial, Heavy Stuff editorial, the lot.

American anarchists in particular seem not to understand the basis
of Class War. Our organisation is made up of working class people,
including many survivors of lifestylist anarchist politics. It is
a class struggle organisation whose main aims are to promote
revolutionary ideas and understanding whilst working alongside the
rest of our class (75% of the population!). You refer to the
inappropriateness of simplistic class-based organising... oh dear,
oh dear, oh dear. When I'm selling Class War in the town, and a
pensioner buys a copy, or someone on their lunch hour from work,
or kids stopping to make cheeky comments, or an upper class
hysteric takes the time to be offended, I know I'm going in the
right direction away from any lifestylist anarchist ghetto and

Towards Revolution!
Julie
Tyneside Class War member
UK

                                *

KILLING RAPISTS?

Dear Love and Rage,

Chiquita La Pistolera wrote in the last issue (Vol. 3, #6) of
Class War's exclusion of wimmin from their call to revolution.
The only women's issue they raised, she comments, is rape, which
they call an anti-social crime and advocate killing rapists.

I'm taking a deep breath because I have a lot to say.  O.K. First
off, what is rape? It is an act of terrorist violence against
women. The definition of rape which we use (forced intercourse) is
only one kind of rape, the most common in European nations.
Elsewhere, genital mutilation, forced marriage, purdah, etc. are
more common acts of terrorism.

Rape is so common that if every rapist were executed, the
Holocaust would pale in comparison. We are talking about the
system of patriarchy when we speak of rape. We are not talking
about a handful of maundering lunatics.

Killing is a patriarchal solution; it is not a revolution; it does
not value living. Passivity too (as in passive resistance) opposes
the revolutionary's basic agenda: life. Audre Lorde has written:
the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.  We
need to learn this; as anarchists and feminists we understand that
we need to overthrow the oppressive systems as well as the
individuals who enforce the systems. We know that the revolution
begins when we free ourselves from state/family/religion/language/
class/school teaching of obedience and submission and passivity.
The master's solutions to problems are part of the master's
system. Rape is part of (inherent in) patriarchy. So is killing.

I am an advocate of self-defense, absolutely. I would be hard
pressed to deny the validity of an attentat against Bush and the
Supreme Court (except the media would make them into Great
Martyrs). But I question whether a revolution fought in blood can
overcome the ideology of war which supports the oppressor.

Two other points I wanted to make: first, by excluding half the
human race, Class War dooms itself to failure; second the
assumption that class is the oppression around which the oppressed
will rally, so the-we-might-as well-forget-the-other-oppressions
ideology was already pass<73> in the 19th century. In the last couple
of issues, challenges have been thrown to the feminist movement to
cease all alliances with the fanatical right-wing (i.e.,
anti-porn). Radical men who exclude women , all people of color,
gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and organize in patriarchal ways also
have allied themselves with the right- wing. We must recognize and
fight this. Those who are against us cannot stand in solidarity
with us.

Whew...that's eeenuf for one letter.

In Solidarity,

Jackie Goldmyn
Albany, NY

                                *

KILLING FASCISTS?

Dear Love and Rage,

Although the two page spread on German anti-fascism in the last
issue (Vol. 3, #7) was generally good, it was marred in a couple
of places.  First of all, the headline Nazis Raus Aus
Deutschland!, which translates as Nazis get out of Germany!, has
never been a German antifascist slogan.  Even the chant Nazis
Raus! (Nazis get out) has been criticized by some who ask, and
where should they go?  Antifascists are internationalists; they do
not want to export German fascists to cause problems elsewhere.

Second, I find the graphic The only good fascist is a dead one
very problematic.  Indeed, we should fight fascism with any means
necessary.  In Germany this can include antifascist street patrols
who beat the fascists off the streets.  

Killing fascists is not necessary.  At the present, it would be a
dangerous escalation, a bad strategy.  Furthermore, we must always
take care to uphold our humanity.  Using deadly force against
fascists might at some point be appropriate, but it would not be
desirable.  The average fasho skin in east Germany is not a
dedicated nazi, but a working class youth who has been victimized
by the East German society and state, by their family, and now by
west German capital.  This is not an excuse; but to call for their
death, with blood in our eyes, only serves to brutalize us.

Thirdly, in the article by Jan Kraker, Nazis are compared with
cancer.  This type of dehumanizing the enemy is the same used
during the Third Reich against Jews and communists.  We must be
very careful of these terms.  If we convince ourselves that our
enemy is inhuman, on the level of a germ or a disease, what is to
prevent us from advocating the torture and barbarisms practiced by
Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot?  We must never loose sight of our
humanity.

An antifascist

                                *

LYIN' ABOUT ZION

Dear Anarchist Comrades,

Your editorial note to my letter on Zionism featured in the Jan.
92 issue of Love and Rage, in which you stated that the
Lubavitcher Jewish sect is not Zionist, obscures the fact that the
Lubavitchers are intimately, actively involved in bolstering the
most reactionary institutions and policies of the Zionist state.

Under the command of their fuhrer Rabbi Schneerson, these
authoritarian fanatics have not only supported Zionism's
imperialist wars of aggression, they regret that more Arab
territory hasn't been seized. They reject all so-called land for
peace deals, and consider it an abomination to even think about
granting any kind of autonomy to the Palestinians.

Although disdainful of Zionism's secular establishment, the
Lubavitchers nevertheless permeate Israeli society and politics.
They spearheaded the recent unsuccessful effort to change Israel's
Nazi-like Law of Return so as to allow only Orthodox-sponsored
conversions to Judaism. And the Lubavitchers are effective power
brokers in the Israeli Knesset, acting to force Shamir's fascistic
Likud bloc even further to the right.

In contrast, genuinely non-Zionist Orthodox Jews, like the
Satmars, are explicit and consistent in their rejection of
Zionism's statist edifice.

Funded primarily by American Jews, the Lubavitchers rake in well
over $100 million in donations yearly - hardly indicative of an
oppressed community.

The failure of Love and Rage to bring these facts to the attention
of its readers is simply one facet of its overall failure, or
refusal, to unambiguously address the problem of Zionism - an
oversight which for some reason seems to typify far too many
anarchist publications and anarchists in general.

Love and Rage has no direct anti-Zionist assertion in its
Political Statement; yet therein specifies opposition to
"anti-Jewish racism" - a curious bit of phraseology which implies
that Jews are a race (strangely enough, the position of Nazis and
right-wing Zionists alike), rather than, as most anti-racists
would agree, an amalgam of ethnic groups and individuals accepting
or acknowledging a heritage of certain religious and/or cultural
traditions. Moreover, anti-Jewish bigotry can manifest itself as a
purely religious phenomenon, in addition to its more usual
expression as misdirected anger over socio-economic inequities,
and its less common but most virulent appearance as ideological
racism.

The sickening antics of David Duke and of a relative handful of
thuggish Klansmen and neo-Nazis frequently seem to be the primary
focus of attention for much of the anarchist press and for many
anarchists personally; and granted, these racist freaks do pose a
danger, for their hatemongering can and often does have murderous
consequences. As a present threat and an even greater possible
future menace, they can not and must not be ignored. However, the
racist right, either here or abroad, is a feeble fart compared to
the dynamo of international Zionism, which is backed by wealthy
Jewish elitists and closely allied with the ruling class in the US
and in other countries.

No existing fascist movement so effectively dominates its ethnic
constituents, molds so favorable a public image, or projects its
military and political power around the world with such stealth as
does Zionism.

While many anarchists remain fixated on comparatively small
numbers of highly visible (and usually ineffectual) white racist
loudmouths, the Zionists, hiding behind religious respectability,
liberal phrases, and endless references to the historical
oppression of Jews, are committing genocide now against the
Palestinian people. Some so-called left or humanitarian Zionists
do occasionally speak out against the more obvious Israeli
brutalities and sometimes talk about autonomy schemes which would
amount to bantustans for the Palestinians. Citing these dubious
murmurs as proof of its democratic nature, militant Zionism
(including Labor as well as Likud) marches on toward its fanatical
goal of an imperial Jewish super power, from the Nile to the
Euphrates, with the shameful collusion of most of the Jewish
community world-wide.

Against these currents, the resistance of truly anti- Zionist
Jews, wherever they may be, stands out as all the more heroic and
inspiring.

Zionism is one of many authoritarian, statist, and fascistic
forces on the rampage in the world today and must not be
obsessively dwelt upon to the exclusion of other dangers. At the
same time, by virtue of its symbiosis with the US Establishment (a
symbiosis as strong as ever, despite the present lovers' quarrel
between Washington and Tel Aviv), and in particular, by virtue of
its amazing propaganda machine, Zionism must be recognized, if not
as the most successful variant of fascism, then surely as the most
insidious and thus opposed accordingly.

Why do so many anarchists seem reluctant to mount that opposition
or to even acknowledge this enemy of freedom?

On behalf of the Collective
Yours for an International Intifada,

P.A. Ward
Raven's Banner Collective
Pinellas Park, FL

                                *

ANARCHY AND RACE

Dear Love and Rage,

Does anyone out there in the anarchist movement know of anything
connecting the concepts of anarchy and race? 

I am looking for anarchist approaches to issues of racial
in/justice, anarchist theory which treats questions of race,
writings by anarchists of color, historical accounts of anarchists
of color, and related topics. I am mostly interested in what has
happened and what is happening in the US. I have been searching
anarchist bookstores, reading anarchist periodicals, and asking
people at anarchist coffeehouses and gatherings if anyone has any
ideas, but I have very few leads so far. I have a book (very
poorly written, I think) by Carolyn Ashbaugh called Lucy Parsons,
and I have been told to read up on the early years of S.N.C.C..
Otherwise people just shrug their shoulders and say ask so-
and-so. But the next so-and-so never knows anymore than the last
so- and-so.

Now I know that there are excuses, some more valid than others. I
also know that for the most part anarchists' hearts are in the
right place. However, I think that it is time to admit to
ourselves and to each other in public that the anarchist movement
in Europe, in North America, and even Latin America is
overwhelmingly white, and our future will be white unless we do
something to make it more colorful.

I think that it is lazy and irresponsible of us (especially those
of us who are white) to simply say as anarchists we are against
hierarchical relationships, and that obviously includes being
opposed to the idea that one race is superior and another
inferior, and leave it at that. Nor is it adequate to abstractly
proclaim that the struggle against ________ (choose one: state,
capital, megamachine, system, hegemony, technology, civilization,
alienation...) is a struggle for all people of any and all races.
I also don't think it suffices to print a few short articles on
the Black Panthers, the Mohawks, or on other non-white
non-anarchist radicals. I am not against such efforts, I am merely
saying that our efforts have not, as of yet, gone far enough. I
would embarrassingly add that from what I can tell Marxists,
feminists, and liberals seem to be more successful in addressing
these forms of racism within their movements than we are.

As a modest beginning towards a more honestly multi-racial and
multi-cultural anarchist movement, I would like to ask for an
inclusionary discussion of anarchy and race. I would like people
to write letters which share resources, experiences, knowledges,
ideas, proposals and anything else which seems like it will help
out. Please don't hesitate to point out something which may seem
obvious to you it may not be to me or someone else. 

I would hope that the character of such a discussion would be
safe, supportive, and encouraging. Too often we viciously attack
or attempt to intimidate each other instead of offering
constructive criticism of our theories and actions. We should be
able to admit mistakes, problems, and shortcomings, and it should
be alright to ask for help.

Sincerely yours
for a diverse anarchy,

Eric
Santa Cruz, CA

                               -30-

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