[lbo-talk] David Graeber interview on OWS

shag carpet bomb shag at cleandraws.com
Tue Oct 4 09:35:03 PDT 2011



> On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 10:24 PM, <wrobert at uci.edu> wrote:
>>     Adding to Eric's analysis, which I largely agree with, I also
>> think
>> that there have been some changes within the broad terrain of
>> subcultural anarchism itself.
>
> Yes, both your points here are right. I had meant to add that I
> simplified and was assuming a certain kind of anarchist in what I
> wrote: direct action, alterglobo type; basically, the name in the
> subject line. But Robert's right that in the last decade anarchism has
> also moved in other directions, more syndicalist directions, to give
> it a name. (Someone should notify Jodi Dean of this; apparently the
> news moves slowly up to Geneva. ) This seems to have opened a rift
> (overstated though it is sometimes) between insurrectionist/direct
> action types and syndicalist types, one that can be productive and
> that also reveals what Robert says here: that anarchism can and does
> produce institutions and can be self-critical.

Graeber says something to that effect already, doesn't he? He wrote a comment on Daily Kos detailing the history of OWS's origins that indicate heavy involvement with syndacalists, as well as working with DAN folks who'd learned lessons from the last two decades, and then goes on to talk about how the point is to create institutions and organizations on the ground - alternative organizations and institutions. He uses those words at any rate.

I've never kept up with anarchist thinking since i signed off the A list a decade ago, so I wouldn't begin to know whether Graeber's just handwaving at creating alternative organizations and institutions, actually pointing at a leadership, etc, in a way that looks a lot different than, for example, what feminists of the late sixties have described: a really stupid form of anarchism that was hostile to even specialization in a profession. E.g., if you were a good writer, the goal was to keep you from writing a lot so you wouldn't get too good at it and oppress others with your domination and monopoly on professional knowledge... @@

Instead, Graeber speaks directly about a handful of people who are keeping this whole thing together and how, if you could just reproduce six more of these people, we might have revolution. I about fell off my chair to read that! that kind of talk would have been totally rejected by the feminist strands of anarchism with which i'm familiar.
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