96 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
96 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
BLOOMINGTON ANARCHIST UNION: WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE AIN'T
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by Joseph Average
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October, 1994
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BLOOMINGTON ANARCHIST UNION: WHO WE ARE AND WHO WE AIN'T
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The Bloomington Anarchist Union (BAU) does not exist in the sense of a
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traditional organization or revolutionary cell, dedicated to little more than
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its own self-preservation. Rather, it is a tidy local umbrella for a number of
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Bloomington activists who happen to be anarchists as well, and who need a place
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to go now and then to share food, talk, and views. A typical get-together
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includes a potluck dinner, lounging on the porch, and discussion of the
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varieties of activities in which we find ourselves involved.
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BAU was formed in the winter of 1991-92 when a number of anarchists
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decided to host a Midwest Anarchist Gathering in Dunn Meadow. Held in October
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of 1992, the gathering drew more than 200 visitors for three days,
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demonstrating to us the power of ad-hoc organization, or organization-as-
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needed. Since then, we have more or less chosen to follow that principle, and
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remain loosely affiliated, only tightening our arrangement when we need to get
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something done as anarchists. The general day-to-day activism, however, takes
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place in the variety of grass roots organizations, affinity groups, and special
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projects to which we devote much of our time.
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As many people know, Bloomington anarchists have a deeply pragmatic
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streak, and a constant desire to accomplish goals set primarily at the local
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and regional level. Rather than forming an anarchist enclave or group that
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would do little outside of flyering and polemicizing, and therefore have little
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impact on the community at large, most of us are involved in other
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organizations, groups, or projects in which we can hope to see tangible results
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for our hard work. In this way, we not only gain from our experience with
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diverse projects and learn from grass roots organizers, but we offer our own
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anti-authoritarian strategies and visions to those projects. Far from the
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RinterventionsS typical of the old left, in which Leninist drones infiltrate an
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organization in order to either recruit members, take it over, or destroy it,
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we aim to respect, learn from, and contribute to grass roots projects. And,
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equally far from the isolationism and provincialism which characterizes the
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anarchist presence in North America, we find strength and solace in the company
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of activists from a diversity of backgrounds and political beliefs. It is this
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kind of reciprocity, flexibility, pragmatism, and willingness to learn from
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others that we find lacking in the anarchist scene generally.
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The projects we are involved with are many and varied, and range from
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successful to faltering. We definitely have our ups and downs! A number of us
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work intensely on housing issues, as organizers for co-operative housing, as
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tenant organizers for self-managed public housing, as grant writers and city
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government watchdogs, and as critics of standard urban planning and economic
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development. Others work on issues of womenUs health and domestic violence.
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Local anarchists have been instrumental in the foundation of the Bloomington
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WomenUr;.s Health Collective, a group dedicated to empowerment, self-education,
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direct action, and the proliferation of womenUs health information. Many
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anarchists are involved in building support and numbers for Critical Mass
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Rides, and harnessing the demonstrative power of these non-motorized vehicle
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fests toward leveraging real and significant changes in urban planning and
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arrangements.
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Through the years here in Bloomington you could always find some
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anarchists within the variety of progressive and radical grass roots projects,
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such as: the battle against Westinghouse and its toxic waste incinerator, the
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inauguration and maintenance of an activist/community center (which struggled
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for a year and a half but is now defunct), the campaign to open the secret
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books of the Indiana University Foundation and stop its sale of Mississippi
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lands to toxic waste "management" corporations, the creation of a community
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kitchen, opposition to the Gulf War, Latin American solidarity work, the penal
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abolition movement, Crane Naval Base shut-downs, community sponsored
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agriculture programs and the development of consumer co-operatives.
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At present we are working on a number of projects through affinity
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groups or with other grass roots organizations. Besides the activities already
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mentioned, we are consolidating a much-needed anti-gentrification group to
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parallel the more "respectable" work we do in the housing field. Moreover, HUD
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disinvestment has forced local activists to step up tenant organizing, as the
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Federal government pulls public funds out of the projects to sell them off.
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Anarchists in Bloomington are also trying to organize a coalition to produce a
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grass roots newspaper dealing with issues of housing, labor, and economic
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development from a radical perspective, and are working in a coalition to
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establish a Free School. The Bloomington Womens' Health Collective is
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mobilizing to challenge the intervention of abstinence-based (i.e.ignorance-
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based) sex education curricula in the schools, and continues to lead the way in
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creative income-generation schemes: selling stickers, magnets, self-produced
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pamphlets, and herbal tinctures, suppositories, and salves. Local anarchists
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are also involved in Queer groups, agricultural extension/draught-power/tech
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transfer/sustainable agriculture work and Community Sponsored Agriculture.
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@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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@ ...go now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall @
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@ come upon you. Your riches are corrupted...your gold and silver is @
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@ cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you... @
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@ --James 5:1-6 @
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@ BLOOMINGTON ANARCHIST UNION PO BOX 3207 BLOOMINGTON, IN 47402 @
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