[lbo-talk] Young v Old Anarchists

Kenneth Campbell kkc at sympatico.ca
Tue Jan 6 15:58:44 PST 2004


marc rodrigues wrote (in that Ramsey Clark thread):


>and to the person who amde the snide remark about "young
>anarchists", why is it assumed that anarchists are young?

I was that person. (I think. I may have missed another's comment.)

Nothing snide about it. At least, not intended to be so.

I used the adjective "youthful" because there are two very distinct classes of anarchists. (Chuck wrote a good post about this in this thread. Though he needn't "cringe".) I covered, as part of my job, many things anarchists dealt with about 10 years ago. (Neo-Nazi groups in Toronto.)

Found there were two largely distinct groups of anarchists, each equally idealist in some ways:

1) Older: Labor oriented. Left wing of labor movements, often fighting blue collar social conservatism.

2) Younger: Often quoting punk lyrics. Sure that if we could just "remove" the influence of power structures, there would flourish decentralized communities (and better radio).

Personally, I think the first kind is more realistic. They often come up with syndicalist forms of organization. The second group usually has some kind of lumpenprole approach.

But as I said on another list... anarchists are exemplar at action. I have no problem with anarchists.

Ken.

-- He couldn't figure out how to pour piss from a boot if the instructions where written on the heel.

-- Lyndon Johnson



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