Based upon my observations and Lorenzo Komboa Erwin's and others' criticisms (Cf. Elizabeth "Betita" Martinez, "Where Was the Color in Seattle?: Looking for Reasons Why the Great Battle Was So White," <http://www.arc.org/C_Lines/CLArchive/story3_1_02.html>), I'd be pleasantly surprised if I find 7 blacks among 100 anarchists.
At 2:31 PM -0500 1/1/03, Chuck0 wrote:
>leftists with their tokenism and opportunism
You complain of criticisms of anarchism by non-anarchists, but the way you and Thomas write about other leftists, it appears that you have nothing but contempt for them. Not an auspicious approach to building respectful alliances, coalitions, etc. Besides, people of color in other left organizations would bristle at your representation of them as dupes and victims of "tokenism and opportunism" of white leftists. Maybe you think people of color are not as intelligent as whites, therefore easily exploited as "tokens." Where is respect for us that you say you hope to emphasize?
>At 2:31 PM -0500 1/1/03, Chuck0 wrote:
>>What would it have meant to "tame" the 1991 LA riot? What form
>>would dissent have taken if "tamed" in the sense you mean? You
>>mean fewer individuals would have been killed, deported, arrested,
>>etc. because of the riot?
>
>You know, the WWP goes out and gets a permit and asks all the
>rioters to come back to the meeting hall to hear what the Beckers
>have decided for them.
>
>Read up on the recuperation of dissent. It's a time-honered tactic
>that the ruling class always uses successfully against us.
The LA riot resulted in 52 deaths, more than 200 injuries, more than 800 deportation of Latinos, 12,545 arrests (45% of the arrested were Latinos, 38%, blacks, and 14%, whites), and 2,300 Korean-American businesses that were looted, burned or destroyed (Cf. <http://www.cityresearch.com/pubs/la_riot.pdf>, <http://www.hhh.umn.edu/pubpol/pubpol-d/199505/0064.html>, <http://web.nmsu.edu/~dboje/speech93.html>, and <http://www.interrupt.org/L.A._Anniversary_Chron.html>), without being able to force any significant concessions from capital and the state in response to the riot:
***** December 19 [1994]: Los Angeles is passed over for a federal program inspired by the riots that will establish 9 "empowerment zones"--each receiving a package of tax breaks and direct federal grants worth as much as $375 million over the next five years. Federal officials say Los Angeles' application was "too vague".
<http://www.interrupt.org/L.A._Anniversary_Chron.html> *****
The riot basically functioned as a safety valve for anger of the exploited, oppressed, and marginalized and recuperated their dissent; and the temporary eruption of anger mainly victimized none other than the very ranks of the exploited, oppressed, and marginalized (especially Latinos and blacks), hardly causing any damage to capital and the state (the rich business owners were well insured -- the only business owners who lost everything were small shopkeepers in the depressed neighborhoods -- mainly relatively recent immigrants -- who couldn't afford expensive insurances). One might say that it is the very riot and its aftermath that tamed the exploited, oppressed, and marginalized.
It would have been much better if the anger of the exploited, oppressed, and marginalized had been directed at the right targets in a way that would allow them to work toward radical social change. That's impossible without the work of organizing (meetings and all that), though.
It would be politically dumb to call a community meeting to stage a protest or demand a reform, when the community in question is about to get on with revolution -- _that_ should be properly called the "taming" or "recuperation" of dissent, if any organization even attempted such a thing.
It would be even dumber, though, to mistake a riot for a revolution and glorify it without considering its actual human toll and political effect. Riots like the LA riot are futile and self-destructive expressions of political powerlessness of the unorganized, not unstoppable revolutionary ferment of the self-organized. -- Yoshie
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