> Then what ARE you talking about, Chuck? The way you present it here, there
> are two factions on "the left," the anarchists and the sectarian
> paper-sellers. Where does Jobs with Justice figure in all of this? Or how
> about all of those former "paper-sellers" up at Labor Notes who've been
> organizing rank-and-file caucuses in unions for years, with precious little
> coverage from the bourgeois press, to be sure, but with not a little success
> considering what they're up against? And as for the student movement, how
> about USSA (no, not USAS; I mean USSA)?
Sorry. Yes, there are effective groups like Jobs With Justice and Labor Notes, both of whom do excellent work. I guess I should have differentiated between the "crackpot Left' and the "effective Left." ;-)
> Perhaps I'm being provincial by relating my personal experience, but where I
> am, I've met and know a lot of anarchists. They're overwhelmingly young,
> white, and very nice folks. They're sincerely outraged about social
> injustice. But they don't seem to want to participate in a lot of stuff
> that's organized by other people. They have their own ways of organizing:
> through punk benefit shows, vegan meals and such. All of which is well and
> good, and they can be good at mobilizing their own people. They'd like to
> "get more people involved," but they're not too interested in getting
> involved in stuff that's being done by other people, especially the stuff
> that's a little boring and mundane, but necessary. I've seen not a one
> involved in our local Living Wage Campaign, for instance, and it's not for
> lack of trying on the part of people like me.
You notice this because many of the older anarchists aren't out of the closet as anarchists. There are many in my generation who never felt comfortable wearing the label publicly, because of the Cold War, the Left's penchant for setarianism, and the recognition that political labels aren't that important when you work with community groups. Anarchists have never been comfortable with the idea of "recruiting." There are numerous examples of anarchists who have worked within communtiy groups, quietly, while some Left party group showed up, sold some newspapers, and never did any of the dirty work.
> I don't like the paper-sellers either, Chuck. But do you see why a lot of
> people who are doing the more systematic community and union organizing
> among working-class folks might just write off both the paper-sellers and
> the anarchists as irrelevant? Don't you think there's SOME kind of problem
> here, some level of truth to the criticism? Maybe things are different
> where you are, but this has been my experience, so I don't at all mean to
> bait you, I really would just like to know what you think.
You seem to be talking about black-clad punk anarchists. Yes, I can see why working-class folks would write them off. The problem that we anarchist face are there are far more of us who don't dress that way who aren't recognized as anarchists, by either working-class people or other members of the Left. That's why I'm working on the non-black-clad anarchists to come out of the closet.
<< Chuck0 >>
Infoshop.org -> http://www.infoshop.org/ Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/ Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/ Homepage -> http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/
INTERNATIONALISM IN PRACTICE
An American soldier in a hospital explained how he was wounded: He said, "I was told that the way to tell a hostile Vietnamese from a friendly Vietnamese was to shout ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ If he shoots, he’s unfriendly. So I saw this dude and yelled ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ and he yelled back, ‘To hell with President Johnson!’ We were shaking hands when a truck hit us."
(from 1,001 Ways to Beat the Draft, by Tuli Kupferburg).