Suppose you are interested in alliances, coalitions, etc.; then you should be also interested in what "people from other groups" -- not at all limited to leftists -- think of your group.
At 4:32 PM -0500 12/31/02, Chuck0 wrote:
>some non-anarchist Leftists start criticizing the demographics of
>the anarchists
In the article I posted here, Lorenzo Komboa Erwin identified himself as an anarchist and stated what he saw as a problem. It's not as if criticism only comes from non-anarchists.
At 4:32 PM -0500 12/31/02, Chuck0 wrote:
>I really hate when people make broad generalizations about
>ideologies and social movements
If the generalizations are false, yes, you'd be right to hate them, but we can't ignore patterns and tendencies that actually exist by relating anecdotes such as: "a friend here in D.C. has told me about an African-American woman nurse who liberated medical supplies for the April 16, 2000 (A16) protests in Washington." I'm sure that this particular African-American woman with "strong anti-statist views" exists and perhaps there are more of such black men and women than many of us notice. That doesn't make the overall whiteness of the anarchist movement go away, though.
>At 3:52 PM -0500 12/31/02, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>Why then do the Democrats and the Republicans include more blacks
>>and other people of color than anarchists do?
>
>I suspect that an anti-government message doesn't always play well
>among poorer people who look to government for social benefits and
>public education - and some years back, to federal troops to
>overpower racist state and local officials. Yes, police brutality
>could inspire antistate attitudes, but poorer nonwhite people also
>complain about how cops ignore their neighborhoods. (And if you're
>afraid of the cops, you're not going to want to join movements that
>sometimes taunt them.) I have a lot of respect for anarchism but its
>popular image - not fairly - is a bit like the libertarian attitude
>someone once characterized as "I got mine so fuck you." For people
>who look to the state's redistributionist function it's hard to be
>antistatist.
I think Doug's on the mark here. Perhaps, anarchists can begin by clearing distinguishing their opposition to police repression from their support for social programs provided by the government (unless they do oppose the latter also in principle), eschewing simplistic slogans like "smash the state."
At 4:46 PM -0500 12/31/02, Chuck0 wrote:
>Around 800,000 people lost their unemployment benefits this weekend.
>That's a huge amount of poor, pissed off people. The amount of
>homeless are skyrocketing and local municipalities are implementing
>Dickensian programs against the homeless. Shelters are stacking
>people three deep and shelters are being closed. The social safety
>net sucks. I tried to get food stamps last month, but couldn't
>navigate the paperwork, even with my M.A. degree. I gave up.
Here is actually a task for left-wingers, not just anarchists. There used to be many welfare rights organizations in the USA that functioned as community service organizations that help the unemployed and the working poor navigate the system and/or staged vigorous protests so that the government would loosen up the eligibility criteria in response. Today, few organizations are doing such jobs, though the needs are just as great or greater. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>