I'm not surprised that this is your view, since you refuse to accept that fact that there are anarchists who aren't anarcho-syndicalists.
Frankly, I'm not surprised at your attitude toward Infoshop. If people aren't contributing labor news to the website, then the lack of labor news becomes a self-fulfilling deficit. I have always stated that the goal of Infoshop was to broadly promote and feature the range of anarchist and anti-authoritarian thought. I spend most of my waking hours working on the website and rely on people to contribute material. In fact, there is plenty of material on the website from your wing of the anarchist movement.
Brian, you really should look around the website before you make these baseless, silly accusations.
> Chuck, you made the "axis of evil" characterization yourself when I
> referred to the AJODA/Fifth Estate/Zerzan segment of what passes for the
> "anarchist movement" in the US. I'll go with your characterization; there
> are, however, really two "axes of evil":
I make this reference because there is this small group of cranks out there who blindly insist that there is some kind of cabal between these people in your "axis of evil." In fact, you'd be shocked to find out that two of these groups (APR and FE) are having a nasty flame war right now.
You know why I get so pissed off about this? Because it demonstrates the sloppy thinking and stupid mud-slinging that bring down the anarchist movement. I'm sick and tired of having my views lumped in with people I don't agree with all of the time. I have anarcho-syndicalist and social ecologist friends. I've done plenty of work to promote their work and projects. But no, some people ignore this and just focus on my association with the evil primitivists.
> 1) Your website - AJODA - Alternative Press Review - Green Anarchy - Fifth
> Estate - Deep Ecology, etc.
>
> The media has chosen to focus most often on this group because it provides
> sensationalism in spades. In fact, some of the public identify the whole
> anti-globalization movement with merely this clique. This group is the
> shock rock of anarchy. It gets media attention for the same reasons
> Siamese twins conjoined at the head get attention.
This is a false accusation. The media has focused on a wide variety of anarchist activities. If your tendency isn't getting media coverage, then go out and fucking do something! If anarcho-syndicalists spend their time whining about how nobody loves them, instead of going out there and causing trouble for Borders or Fresh Fields or whatever, then how can you expect to get any news coverage?
I don't recall Fifth Estate or deep ecology getting much media coverage. APR gets media coverage for different reasons. John Zerzan gets media coverage because of the journalism "rolodex effect." Before Seattle, Zerzan got attention because of several newspaper stories on the Unabomber. The journalists made a note: John Zerzan-articulate anarchist. After Seattle, media attention focused on the idea that the black bloc came from Eugene (it didn't). The media looked in their rolodexes for "anarchist" and "Eugene" and found Zerzan's name.
Incidentally, if I had allowed the NY Times to use my name in that one story on the Unabomber, the media might have come to me after Seattle. I did get alot of media calls and did lots of interviews, but the "superstar" of anarchism could have easily been mine if the situation had been different.
> The second "axis of evil":
>
> 2) Antistate.com - Rothbard - Objectivism - Free Market Anarchism - Ayn
> Rand idolaters, etc.
>
> This group has websites, magazines, etc., and they crank out their
> proclamations and communiques just like your group does. Like you, they
> boldly pronounce what anarchism is and isn't. But they do not favor the
> anti-intellectual riot porn approach so they don't get as much attention
> as you and your buddies do. They have no representatives on this list,
> which only makes sense; they, like you, consider themselves to be "beyond"
> left or right as well.
Whatever, Brian. In case it has escaped your notice, I've been publishing a magazine for over ten years called Practical Anarchy. As much as I like riot porn and understand it's vital importance for our political struggle, I also think that other methods are important.
> Here's what you should do:
>
> 1) Get out of the movement. You are doing more harm in it than good. Your
> bizarre statements - "anarchists avoid institutions" -coupled with your
> edicts - "there will be no computers in the future society" - compounded
> with your anti-intellectual bias - "it is academic therefore it is our
> enemy" - are a danger. You defend a Holocaust Revisionist. You are a wing
> nut. And you defend unthinking, uncritical gangs of hooligans who want to
> smash and destroy with no rhyme or reason, simply because they "feel
> strongly" about something. This kind of extreme sports activism is
> encouraged in most of the periodicals and circles I mentioned in 1) above.
LOL. You are really funny, Brian. I think you've shown your authoritarian and dogmatic tendencies rather nicely. I'm a threat because I say that there are many varieties of anarchism. This is bad for anarchists who want to define anarchism as only taking place among those who fetishize workplace organizing. I have nothing against workplace organizing, but working people have lives and concerns outside of work.
I stand by my statements about institutions and computers. Anarchists may form organizations, but they do so reluctantly. Having computer factories and semiconductor plants is impossible in a decentralized, anarchist society that values freedom and a life that doesn't involve alienating labor. I still don't understand why anarchists and other radicals scream about bosses and capitalism, yet tenaciously defend technology and industrialization which are still bad for people and the envrionment, even if run by the workers.
Brian, it's really irresponsible and uncomradely to call me a wingnut. My work is respected by many people and I think it speaks for itself.
Anti-intellectual bias? I'm sorry, but I consider myself to be an intellectual and I'm disturbed by anti-intellectualism just like many of you. However, intellectualism should not be synonymous with being an academic. And I think many of the academics on this list would be the first to complain about the vagueness and incoherent nature of most academic writing. Shit, if I can't read the stuff after getting a Masters degree, I wouldn't expect the normal working person to make any sense out of the stuff.
Hasn't Chomsky written lots of critical stuff about academics?
> 2) Give up ownership of Infoshop.org after radically changing its contents
> and emphasis. Using anarcho-syndicalist flags as "bullets" in your table
> of contents, while excluding anarcho-syndicalism, is bizarre. Your
> influence - along with the influence of all in group 1 above - is
> counter-productive to the anti-capitalist or anti-corporate globalization
> movements. It is dangerous and unhealthy. Get out of it.
LOL ;-)
This sounds like certain idiots in anarchist circles who offered Jason McQuinn money to change the name of Anarchy magazine.
Whether you like it or not, Infoshop includes a wide range of material from across anarchism, the left, and the anti-glob and anti-capitalist movements. There are plenty of links to anarcho-syndicalist websites, several of which are featured prominently on the home page. I'm currently helping some syndicalists in Canada with their website and I'm going to help Ben from Class Struggle Online set up a discussion board for his website. There are plenty of anarcho-syndicalists who post to Infoshop News.
If you'd like to see more anarcho-syndicalist stuff on Infoshop, I'd appreciate suggestions.
<< Chuck0 >>
Personal homepage -> http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/index.html Infoshop.org -> http://www.infoshop.org/ Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/ Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/ Anarchy: AJODA -> http://www.anarchymag.org/ MutualAid.org -> http://www.mutualaid.org/ Factsheet 5 -> http://www.factsheet5.org/ AIM: AgentHelloKitty
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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."
-- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)