dangerous trends (was re: Post-Left Anarchy)

[Tom Wheeler]

From: "Brian O. Sheppard x349393" <bsheppard at bari.iww.org>
> Chuck, you said you wanted infoshop.org to be like a "big tent" of
> anarchism (your words). It is more like the Big Top. And you are situated
> as the PT Barnum of it all, deciding which sideshow freak attractions can
> showcase themselves inside, and which cannot. You have a token article
> about dock workers here or there (usually a newswire), but this is wholly
> inconsistent with the rest of the website's contents, which are at turns
> anti-"workerist," Primitivist, and post-left anarchist. It is not a broad
> survey of anarchism or of the libertarian left wing of the anti-capitalist
> movement. It is Chuck0's Cavalcade o' Curious Critters and Deviant
> Delights. A MIDI file should be inserted into the page to play the Big Top
> theme when the page's contents load into peoples' browsers.

Part of Chuck's "Calvalcade o' Curious Critters and Deviant Delights" at the
Infoshop site include a favorite links section that lists AK Press,
Anarchist Black Cross, Anarchist People of Color, The Anarchist
Communitarian Network, Class Struggle Online, Colours of Resistance,
Crimethinc, Flag!, Institute for Social Ecology, MicroRadio.net, NEFAC,
Slingshot, Institute for Anarchist Studies, MutualAid.org, RTMark.com,
Anti-Capitalist Convergence, along with APR and Anarchy mag, among others.
Quite a collection of deviant delights!

There's also stuff on Sacco and Vanzetti, resources on activism, CopWatch,
drugs, health, McLibel, MAI, anti-war, radical and progressive cartoons,
Enron, Big Mountain, biotechnology, patriotism, terrorism, war against Iraq,
the Anarchist FAQ, a directory of infoshops, anarchist teachers and
librarians, community organizing, labor and anti-work resources, propaganda
and PR, feminism, Critical Mass, the Free Software Movement, pirate radio,
etc. Lots of freak shows and attractions there!

I checked the last 40 stories posted to Infoshop News. They include an essay
from Norman Solomon, an update on Peltier, an article on indigenous
Philippinos, "Why Primitivism Makes Me Nervous (which appeared in your Axis
of Evil #1 - Anarchy: AJODA magazine!), a couple of stories from the
NYTimes, a CBS Money Watch article "Wake-up call sounds for US workers", the
upcoming march on Washington for slave reparations, a couple of pieces from
Fisk on Afghanistan, one from Cockburn on Iraq, a Human Rights Watch report
on rights being trampled in the US, DIY publishing, news on Canadian
squatters, a piece on biotech from Ronnie Cummins, "Schooling: Liberation or
Mind Control?" from Richard Heinberg, a story on Ashcroft's desire for camps
for US citizens, info on the strike at Quebec's biggest cable distributor, a
piece on Polish workers at the Szczecin shipyard, "Targeting the Innocent"
by Starhawk, and so on. Lots of whacko stuff here! Shame on you Chuck! Stop
publishing all this freakshow stuff! This is all irrelevant primitivist
gobblegook!


> 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":
>
> 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.

Thank you for considering Alternative Press Review as an example of
providing "sensationalism in spades." Let's review some of the contents of
APR over the past couple years, shall we? APR has reprinted articles and
essays from the following sources: ZNet/Z magazine, CounterPunch, eXile,
Left Business Observer (Hey Doug - you are officially part of the "shock
rock of anarchy." Congratulations!), Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly,
Fifth Estate, Red Cloud Thunder, The Sun, MuseLetter, IF Magazine (Robert
Parry's defunct investigative mag) , The Baffler, Rock&Rap Confidential,
Draft Notes (anti-war newsletter), New Abolitionist, Angry Thoreauan,
A-Infos, Active Transformation, PR Watch, Barsamian's Alternative Radio, SF
Bay Guardian, several items from Noam Chomsky, one from Mumia Abu-Jamal,
Michael Parenti, Synthesis/Regeneration (from the Green Party), Alternet,
Red Pepper, Slingshot, World Socialist Web Site, Peaceful Tomorrows (a
support group for the victims of 9-11 who do not support the war), Food &
Water Journal, LiP, Turning the Tide, Eat the State!, Bad Subjects, Guinea
Pig Zero, The Shadow, Indymedia, CorpWatch, Luddite Reader, Lyn Gerry on
Pacifica Radio,Clamor, Prison Legal News, as well as a few book excerpts
from such books as Snitch Culture (Jim Redden), Stauber&Rampton's "Trust Us,
We're Experts", William Blum's "Rogue State", Karl Grossman "The Wrong
Stuff: Nukes in Space" and Ron Sakolsky's "Frequencies of Resistance,"
interviews with Grandpa Al Lewis (very entertaining!) Leonard Peltier,
Christian Parenti interviewing Doug Henwood (more sensationalist
anarcho-shock rock!) - and John Zerzan. What a narrow clique of
sensationalist material! This must be vigorously condemned! Get these
deviant and sensationalist-mongering freaks out of the movement! - Tom