Joke of the Day: Phoenix Cops banner drop removal FAIL!

Yesterday's wildly successful confrontation with the National Socialist Movement had many highlights and it's hard to pick out just one. Everyone really brought their 'A-game', for sure. The barricades, the rocks raining down on fascists' heads, the smoke bombs, the fact that we held the NSM at a standstill in the street for well over an hour (past the expiration of their original permit) -- there was a lot to celebrate. In the second in our occasional "joke of the day" series, I thought I would share what I thought was one of the day's funnier moments.

I should say, however, that there was some tough competition for today's prize. The RCP showed up at the rally, sporting matching Bob Avakian shirts (or is it John Goodman?) and hawking their pathetic little rag to unsuspecting victims. An audible laugh went out from the crowd when, just as things were really heating up in the street, someone noticed that the RCP was sitting idly by on the sidewalk holding a banner. "Where's 'the leadership we need' when we need it?" the call went out. The RCP, useless and backward, had no answers. Typical. I can't wait to read their imaginative little write up about the action. I'm sure the anarchist bloc will be transformed into steady Maoist cadre and the anarchist and anti-fascist banners and flags will become the RCP's "flag on a flag" and Avakian stencils. Hi-larious, to be sure! So, RCP gets an honorable mention.

But on to the winner. Before the NSM showed up, some enterprising anarchos dropped a fantastic anti-fascist banner off the parking structure across the street from where the boneheads were going to rally. It took a while for the dimwitted cops to notice it up there but when they did, a troop of riot cops was dispatched to remove it. Stomping up the stairwell, they split up into a couple groups and attempted to pull it down.

Hilarity ensued. Congratulations PPD on your well-deserved award! Enjoy:

Things to think about regarding Saturday's anti-NSM action.

As Saturday's creative and diverse response to the National Socialist Movement's pathetic racist rally draws closer, I thought I'd do a short "inside baseball" post for anarchists and anti-authoritarians covering some of my thoughts on what is to come as well as to suggest some video for review from past anti-fascist formations in England.

Above I have posted above the first part of a five part documentary about the group Anti-Fascist Action, which in England in the 80's and 90's fought back Nazi attempts to take over the punk scene and stood up in defense of themselves, foreigners and people of color. The video does a really good job showing the various ways they challenged the boneheads, talking about what worked and what didn't, as well as showing how the fascists tried to exert their influence and build their power.

There are some problems with anti-fascism as a political orientation, however, that deserve pointing out. This is not to say that fascists should not be opposed! They should be. The important thing to look out for is to prevent the formation of common or popular fronts. Authoritarian leftists often try to use the cover of anti-fascism to try to neutralize libertarian organizing and to impose their own sad Stalinoid politics on movements, seeking to consolidate and centralize them and, in the end, to destroy their revolutionary or insurrectionary potential.

In a sense, even though it's a bit of a sequel, it's might be helpful to look at Saturday's event as a one off. That is, relations between people and groups that go beyond already existing affinity at the action should be thought of as autonomous relations that are not permanent or binding but exist temporarily at the event. These relations can be informative and supportive, and they can build trust. But while people may have similar short-term goals, this should not be mistaken for long-term unity. True, we want unity against the NSM in that everyone there on Saturday stands against them, but we must watch those who would seek to coalesce the forces of resistance under their banner or to seek to thrust their face in front of the media's cameras.

Generally those kinds of demands come from authoritarians who want unity on their own narrow terms, and under their firm control. Think of the RCP, always there with the "leadership we need" when we don't need it! We have faith in the creativity and self-activity of people, not in self-appointed leaders. So, we must maintain our autonomy. Liberals and leftists and anarchists (and even right libertarians and constitutionalists if last year is any indicator) may come together for this action, and there is every reason to believe that we will complement each others' tactics like we did before, but this does not mean we give up our own politics or longer term goals. We make progress when we understand and respect each others' differences as well as our similarities, not when we form permanent alliances, become superficially more like each other or sublimate our politics to those of others.

And, as for tactics, I think we should be prepared to defend the idea of a diversity of tactics. This is not to say that we advocate or demand any particular response to the NSM, just that we should reject the tendency of some people, activists and leftists in particular but not limited to them, to generalize and impose onto others their own personal choices in terms of how best to oppose the fascists. Let's face it, the liberal activist generally has a very limited experience with the tools in the resistance toolbox, so there's no reason why they ought to be telling anyone what to do. Tactics are by nature situational, so there is no sense permitting ideology to ossify resistance into certain pre-determined ideological forms.

So be vigilant for the activist! Also, be prepared for the fact that no matter what anarchists do or do not do, or what individual anarchists do or do not do, we will likely be denounced by everyone with authority or seeking authority. That's just par for the course. And didn't many of them embarrassingly denounce us before the Inglourious Basterds Bloc last year? I sure haven't forgotten. Look for them this time. As those who refuse to be governed, we anarchists and anti-authoritarians are always frowned upon by those who seek to govern, whether they be activists, media, police or government. These people are not our audience, so don't worry about them.

See ya on Saturday! Fuck the NSM!

Coming soon: Resistance Rising Tour!

November is a busy month for us. The 13th, of course, marks the triumphant return of the Inglourious Basterds Bloc, as we go for round two against the National Socialist Movement at the Sandra Day O'Conner Federal Courthouse. As comrade Jon Riley pointed out in his recent preview of the action, the dare is on: can we do better than last time? Although it will be tough to exceed last year's clear victory, it looks promising indeed! Handing those fascists a second defeat will feel good and being in the street with friends from last year will feel great! For those interested in some of our thoughts on the NSM, you might want to check out our essay, "The NSM offers nothing for the white working class but more exploitation and misery".

After the 13th, PCWC is happy to be bringing the rawkus Holy! Holy! Holy! to town to present their Resistance Rising tour to Valley anarchos. H!H!H! is performing at various spots on their tour, including a house show here in town, but in addition to the jams they're also hoping to set up discussions and presentations, including extended excerpts from Franklin Lopez's (subMedia, End of the World As We Know It...) soon to be completed End:Civ film. Initially we had planned to book the whole event, including a show the night of, but as things worked themselves out it seemed like it would be better to host the discussions and film. We have the date (Tuesday, November 23rd) but not the venue quite figured out yet, so this post is just a teaser for now. Check back for the details in a few days.

This week on John Zerzan's Anarchy Radio broadcast, H!H!H! joined him and discussed their tour and what they hope to accomplish. They were kind enough to give a shout out to PCWC and the DO@ Bloc from last January, and expressed what seemed like quite a bit of interest in the goings on here in Arizona. I recommend listening to the show to get an idea of what they're going to bring to town. Given that, I thought it would be a good time to take the opportunity to explore some of the potential commonalities we may have with these soon-to-be new comrades from the Northwest.

It's perhaps quite appropriate that the DO@ bloc was mentioned, as our community, though undeterred, is still suffering the repercussions from the police/liberal attack that day. Some face jail terms in the near future and others still face trial. The combination we projected that day, calling out both the cops and the liberal organizers that collaborate with them while forging the beginnings of new alliances not seen in this region, was too much for the state to bear, and as we all remember the cops brought out the horses, pepper spray and truncheons at the end. The irony of that attack, from my perspective, is that the only conflict we expected that day was with the Nazis and other racists, who had announced that they were going to intercept the march. Is it any surprise, then, in hindsight that the same leftists who denounced us as "crazies" for taking on the NSM in November of last year, would join forces with the cops to attack us that day in January?

So, one thing that appeals to me about the Resistance Rising tour is the rejection of the left. Regular readers of this blog will know that we find a lot of value in the post-leftist analysis, as well as fanatical politics. Which is to say that we reject the notion of the common front, or that we necessarily have anything beyond perhaps short term and incidental goals from time to time in common with the left. This doesn't mean we have moved to the right, however it does mean that joint projects with the left, when they must happen, should be engaged in from a critical and autonomous perspective, and they must be temporary. When we look at anarchy and compare it to the various leftist tendencies, we don't see a lot in common in terms of the world we want or how we want to get there (or when we want to get there). In other words, just because we may both be critical or even opposed to capitalism doesn't negate our other differences.

PCWC sometimes gets some shit for this, and we are occasionally denounced as sectarian and other such things by refusing to support authoritarians on the left. Somehow we're supposed to go after the Nazis, but leave the RCP alone. We're allowed to call out the libertarians but not the liberals. But, as the reaction from the left in Phoenix to the police attack on the DO@ bloc goes to show, they have little, if any loyalty to us. Why we should defend what is at best an abusive relationship and a political compromise, and at worst a suicide pact, is quite beyond us. What fanaticism then brings to the table is the advocacy of attack on the middle. In some ways it even goes beyond post-leftism, pointing a way for its implementation, perhaps. The goal of the revolutionary, in our eyes and informed by fanaticism is simple in the end: polarize and mobilize!



Beyond the rejection of the left as a defacto point of alliance, another thing that I like about the Resistance Rising tour is its situating of primitivist ideas within the context of resistance. For us at PCWC, while primitivism has been influential, as with most political tendencies, we take what we think is interesting and do not necessarily feel wedded to the rest. For instance, we see connections to primitivism in our hatred of work and our fears for the planet's survival, among other things. We don't see it in contradiction to our desire to bring class war to the capitalists and bureaucrats.

For PCWC, primitivism has always been most useful as a critique of the existing order rather than an identity or an ideology. It points to a time when humans didn't suffer the hierarchical domination that, once introduced with copious fire and blood, but the boiling reduced to a simmer for now, has become the lukewarm bath in which we all soak, hardly even noticing at times. In this day and age of high tech controls, extreme alienation, genocide, global unending war and environmental collapse, I think anarchists ignore primitivism at their own peril. I suppose it'd be fair to say that for us those old Red/Green arguments of the last decade really didn't make much sense. As usual, we say take what's worth taking and leave the rest.

In fact, what primitivism says most of all is that humans evolved to be anarchists. That is, they evolved to be egalitarian in egalitarian conditions. It also points anarchists in directions where we can begin to appreciate indigenous ways of living, which in turn intersects with imperialism, colonialism, white supremacy and the collapsing environment. In my opinion, I think it would have been unlikely that the DO@ would have emerged, considering our part in it at least, had we not already been primed for it through our race traitor politics, but also because of our appreciation for the ideas we got from primitivism.

Anarchism is not alone amongst political ideologies in terms of having taken far too long to look and consider the lives and struggles of Native peoples, but I think that primitivism has helped open many, especially white, anarchist's eyes to it, whereas more industrial-oriented politics have ignored, condescended or sometimes worse. This is also not to say that primitivism as an ideology does not have its own issues, as it sometimes romanticizes indigenous peoples and their societies in ways that are worthy of criticism.

And, indeed, the fact that the strongholds of primitivism -- while inspiring with night time actions in the early 2000's -- have seemed to suffer until recently at least from a lack of moving the politics from a generalized radical environmentalism to a genuine solidarity with indigenous peoples of the area (i.e., one that does not invisibilize them or romanticize them) highlights some of the weaknesses of a anti-totality politics that seems too often to turn inwards to re-wilding skillshares than towards action. But overall the rise of primitivism did, at least for us, help create a point of departure that had often been lacking within the anarchist milieu, and that's good.

When we consider it, this connection to a real history of egalitarian living, stretching from hundreds of thousands of years back until the present day in many, many parts of the world, help us explain why every new level of domestication imposed on us, whether the imposition of patriarchy, or white supremacy, colonialism or capitalism, has been violent to the extreme. The witch trials, the forming of the slavocracy, the imposition of capitalist relations and the destruction of the commons, the continuing invasions of the lands and lives of indigenous peoples, the rise of the imperialist system -- all of these have come against the will of vast numbers of people, often the majority.

But these systems weren't imposed violently merely because they are violent systems, although clearly they are. They were imposed through violence because we resist them, often with violence of our own, but also with shirking, stealing, sabotaging, escaping. Seeing the enemy, we join the fight. Our determination to remain free, or as free as possible, in the face of the many assaults of capital, the state, colonialism, patriarchy and white supremacy make the violence necessary to force us back in line, or to reorganize our ways in accordance with the desires of the new boss.

And this is what I take from primtivism: a memory thousands of years old of resistance and struggle against the imposition of domestication of all kinds. Of man over woman, human over nature, boss over worker, colonizer over colonized, and on and on. One need not be a primitivist to recognize this, I think. The message transcends ideology. At the end, it's a lesson in possibilities.

A Sneak Preview: The Inglourious Basterds Bloc returns this November 13!

Let's be honest, most sequels suck. With the obvious exception of a Terminator 2, or Empire Strikes Back, sequels rarely reach the creative apex of the source material, just ask anyone who sat through the follow ups to the Matrix. Still, I'd sit through another atrocious Ace Ventura before ever wanting to see one of those nazi goons from the National Socialist Movement (NSM) march in my town again.

Exactly a year ago, we at PCWC put out our first call for a demonstration, The Inglourious Basterds bloc, a tip of the hat to Tarantino's fantastic alt-history film about a group of Nazi hunters who take out Hitler and massacre the leadership of the Third Reich! We like the idea of creating our own mythology around our movement's successful struggles and actions, naturally we were quite taken by incorporating the mythology of the Basterds' victory into our anti-nazi bloc. Yeah, it was a bit meta, but it worked and it lent a good deal of enthusiasm to mobilizing a few hundred people to confront a white supremacist march, and shut it down an hour before their city march permit ended.

The NSM will be back in town to continue their "reclaim the southwest tour", a recruitment effort of theirs in which NSM activists from Texas to California amass in major cities in the southwest for NSM anti-immigrant rallies. They've been counting on their inflated numbers (fifty to seventy people) to give them the look of a growing fascist working class movement that has an actual base of support, so that when the mainstream media uncritically covers a white supremacist anti-immigrant rally, they neglect to mention that the majority of those attending the rally are racist agitators from outside of Arizona. It's in the spirit of last year's Inglourious Basterds Bloc, that we once again invite anti-racists and anti-authoritarians from across the state to converge in Phoenix in a mere two weeks to run these nazis back outta town!

Most movie sequels are just an excuse for studios to tap into the a successful concept and to milk it for every last dollar, and so in calling for a second mobilization against the NSM we were uneasy going "back to the well," to conceptualize the next manifestation of resistance to these damn racists. It got me to thinking, like any good sequel aren't there some "plot threads" left unresolved from the last year that beg for some resolution this time around?

Will the liberal and leftist organizers, who denounced the successful counter protest last year as a bunch of "crazies", come protest the NSM this time, or will they denounce us again? Can we provide the NSM a more disastrous exit this time than their car accident last year while fleeing the anti-nazi mob? Will we once again be standing alongside libertarians, constitutionalists, and veterans, who broke with the rightwing last year to oppose a fascist anti-immigrant rally? Can we bring out more people from across the state this time around and shut down this nazi shindig before it even kicks off?

There will also be a change in venue this time around, last year the NSM rallied at the state capitol, this time around they'll be rallying in support of the anti-immigrant law SB 1070 at the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. District court building in downtown Phoenix. The exact details are below.

The anti-nazi contingent will be gathering at Noon on Saturday, November 13 at the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. District court building located at 401 W. Washington St. in downtown Phoenix. According to their own web page, the NSM plan on marching at 1 PM, arriving at the courthouse by 2 PM for an hour of permitted speeches, before they leave at 3 PM, so plan on spending a few hours in downtown that Saturday.

Spread the word far and wide!

Against all borders, against white supremacy! See you in the streets!

And check out this trailer our comrades made!

New PCWC downloadable pamphlet thanks to Rise Like Lions!

Thanks to the new (at least to us) publishing operation Rise Like Lions for putting together a PDF pamphlet version of my recent essay "Union of Arsonists" faster than I could get one done myself. And it looks damn good, too! Cheers to them for a job well done.

I also like RLL's mission statement:

Rise Like Lions is an anarchist project with the aim to place beautiful and dangerous anarchist writing into the hands of the multitude. Our personal history is that of the lower class, the disposable class, and the texts that we select for publication are texts we wish had been put in our hands when we were young, full of hate and contempt for our jobs and society, and had no hope that another world was possible.

The texts we choose are texts that show that another world is possible, and that in fact, another world is inevitable, for better or for worse. These texts promote and document the attack on a society that is dead to us, a society that would crush every hope and dream we have of living wild and free, a society that is fit to be destroyed.

The pamphlets we create are meant to be placed into the hands of anyone that can identify with them: the workers, the drop-outs, those who are without, the dispossessed. They are to be handed out at community potlucks, anti-police rallies, social centers, and to be given to your friends, your neighbors, and your parents. This shit right here? This is for the proles on their strolls.

Though a good portion of the texts we choose to publish can be labeled as insurrectionary, we hesitate to label this project as such. We refuse any sort of dichotomy that would attempt to split the anarchist movement into different “factions” with essential characteristics, and we will never print any text that would promote a specific milieu at the expense of another. We recognize the necessity of both the daytime and the nighttime attack, the smashing of windows, the burning of cop cars, while also seeing the empowerment felt by communities coming together and organizing under a specific identity. Effective resistance can look radically different between differing geographical locations, circumstances, and cultures, and we choose to promote a complete diversity of tactics.

No war but social war!

From occupied Coast Salish territory,
rise like lions at riseup dot net

I like and share their recognition that different struggles in different places may have different characteristics and that these don't make one superior to the other. We need to evaluate each of our specific conditions carefully in the light of other struggles, but not dictated by them. RLL's similar rejection of the elevating of specific tactics over others sits just right with me, as well. While our actions are guided by our politics in specific ways, the right anarchist tactics are the anarchist tactics that work where and when you are, not necessarily the ones that are working somewhere else or at another time.

As a general looting of the broad anarchist canon and tactical manual has always appealed to my anarcho-sensibilities, I am also quite fond of their rejection of sectarianism within our movement and their wise determination to avoid playing into the what I think is a false game of division within movements and scenes over this or that particular anarchist politics (with, of course, the obvious exceptions when it comes to so-called 'anarcho-capitalists' and 'national anarchists', of course, who deserve the full force of our wrath).

Finally, I also like their determination to inspire with their publications. When the Greek anarchists were here they made a point to tell us that they showed images of victory in their presentations, not of police brutality or of defeat. That really struck a chord with us here at PCWC, because we've always thought it was very important to create and celebrate our victories. (And along those lines, here's some other reading material that might be relevant to upcoming events.)

So, cheers, Rise Like Lions! Here's to you, and good luck! A breath of fresh air, indeed!

***

In related news, I'm about halfway through putting together a pamphlet version of my examination of the anti-speed camera struggles in the Valley, "When the Border is Everywhere". Look for that to be posted up soon. I've also been having some thoughts about a Phoenix anarchist book/pamphlet fair some time this winter. No solid plans, but something to think about for the future. I'm interested in feedback on such a thing were one to be organized, so let me know your thoughts if you have any on it.

You can download RLL's delightful pamphlet version of "Union of Arsonists" here.

Phoenix stands with Oscar Grant: Film showing and discussion on police brutality

Oscar Grant

Is the police meltdown in full effect? Not a day goes by, of late, without news of some scandal, brutality, or murder coming from one of the valley police agencies. It's not just here either, across the country there appears to be a rise in the reports of increasing violence and abuse coming from the authorities, much of it coming to light because the people witnessing these incidents are recording it, sharing it on the internet, and a corporate news outlet eventually catches wise and reports on it.

In no case is this more clear than the murder of Oscar Grant, an unarmed man shot and killed by Johannes Mehserle, an Oakland transit cop, on a BART platform in the early hours of new year's day 2009. A friend, and activist from the Los Angeles solidarity efforts in the Grant case, is in town and is giving a presentation and showing a video on Oscar Grant's case to commemorate the annual October 22 national day against police brutality (albeit a day late, there was a scheduling conflict with the event being hosted on the 22nd). This will also be a good opportunity for anyone interested in meeting up and networking with others who are also interested in organizing and fighting back against the police.

If there's one lesson I've learned over the years of agitating against the police and in support of community control, it's that reform is a failure. Whether in the form of a citizen review board, or sensitivity training for officers, these are superficial changes to an institution that was created to protect the rich and their property, and to keep poor people down by force, when necessary. When we say we have to abolish the police, that includes this whole stinking system, the bureaucrats, politicians, and capitalists who demand social peace maintained by the police, so that workers go to work, pay the rent and bills, and line the pockets of everyone who controls where we sleep, what goods we use, and where we travel.

As anarchists, we having nothing but contempt for the social peace of the state, achieved through coercion and violence, which is why when we demand justice for those murdered by cops, we are demanding the abolition of those who seek to control and dominate.

A sign at a recent protest against killer Phoenix cop Richard Chrisman

The statement below was written up by the organizer of Saturday's Oscar Grant event in Phoenix, if you're interested in putting armed authoritarians in their place, this event is a good start.

STOP POLICE BRUTALITY!

THE YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE EXECUTION OF OSCAR GRANT SHOCKED THE WORLD--WE HAVE A REAL CHANCE TO MAKE SURE THE COP WHO MURDERED OSCAR GRANT SERVES PRISON TIME --COME HELP MAKE IT HAPPEN!!

Showing of the Film, "Operation Small Axe"
Discussion of Police Brutality and the Oscar Grant Shooting

Moderated by Elizabeth Venable of the LA Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant & AZ Immigrants Rights Activist

Saturday, October 23 • 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Conspire Coffee Shop and Art Gallery
901 N. 5th St., Phoenix, AZ

Oscar Grant was an unarmed 22 year old father who was shot in the back by police even though he was fully restrained by two officers and unarmed. The shooting was captured on videotape by multiple people who were on the Oakland BART train.

The officer who shot Grant, Johannes Mehserle, was the first police officer to be tried for Murder for an on-duty offense in the state of California. Immediately before the shooting, one of the officers restraining Grant, Tony Pirrone called Grant the N-word multiple times.

The videos spread throughout the internet and Oakland residents became very angry at what they viewed as the execution of an unarmed man. You can see the video on Youtube.

The Murder trial of Mehserle was moved from Oakland to Los Angeles so that the jury would not be "biased". Judge Perry-- who the case was assigned to-- was the same judge that let off 81 corrupt officers in the RAMPART scandal. There were no African American jurors. The LA
Coalition worked directly with Oscar's family and friends to raise awareness when the trial of Mehserle, the officer who shot Grant, was moved from Oakland to Los Angeles.

Mehserle was convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter--with a weapons enhancement that could get him prison time. However the family of Oscar grant fears that the weapons enhancement will be thrown out so that Mehserle does not have to face prison time.

The sentencing is coming in November and it is critical that advocates pressure the Justice Department to investigate the court proceedings and ensure that the weapons enhancement is not thrown out.

IF THE WEAPONS ENHANCEMENT IS THROWN OUT HE WILL NOT GO TO PRISON.

We will have postcards to sign and send to the Justice Department and Judge Perry. We need pressure from the whole US to make it happen!

ARIZONA CAN HELP CALIFORNIA GET JUSTICE
PUT COPS WHO EXECUTE BEHIND BARS!

Some things of note from the last week

To the left of this article you can see our Reddit feed, which we update regularly with items, mostly articles and news, that we find interesting. That feed gets continually added to, usually several times a day, as we encounter ideas and information that we think are worth considering. If you sign up for Reddit, you can comment and discuss them.

But because of the volume of news that gets posted to the feed, sometimes things can get missed that I think deserve a closer look, so from time to time I like to highlight some of the more important things that showed up on our feed during the week.

(1) The first item I want to point out is Rowland Keshena's piece "J. Sakai and the Struggle for Onkwehonwe Liberation". I first ran into Sakai's ideas in early 2001 with his interview/pamphlet "When Race Burns Class", a deep critique of the revolutionary potentiality of the white working class (and whites generally). This essay, which takes what can only be said to be a deeply pessimistic view of whites' ability to engage in liberatory activity, led me to Sakai's book, "Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat" and then on to Red Rover and Butch Lee's "Night-Vision: Illuminating War & Class on the Neo-Colonial Terrain" and "The Military Strategy of Women and Children".

These works are interesting in their almost nihilistic assertion that the white proletariat represents a bought off labor aristocracy which, even when it appears to be defending larger libertarian goals, is in fact defending its privileged status within American imperialism, a deal it enjoys at the expense of the rest of the class. This stands in stark contrast to race traitor thought, for example, which recognizes the contradictory position of whites in society without writing them off entirely. Indeed, following the Settler logic, one inevitably comes to the same conclusions that Weather did in the 70's: if the white working class is reactionary by nature -- and unredeemable -- then what else can one do but "fight the people".

This is problematic for a variety of reasons, including, as the author points out, the obscuring of class differences within whites by painting them instead with a broad brush. But it also denies the agency of whites in their own liberation and the liberation of others. I find this particularly wrong-headed not least of all because US history provides plenty of examples of whites struggling against white supremacy and the cross-class alliance that it represents. Consider the Abolitionists, to use an example that PCWC is fond of. How does Sakai explain them? To him, they are exceptions, plain and simple. Keshena does a good job of taking on Sakai's arguments and showing their weaknesses.

One thing in particular that I think is worth considering that Sakai misses entirely is the power of the negative example of whiteness. Whiteness, constructed as it from the top and at the same time from below (as Sakai probably correctly points out), while not liberatory, is still a sign of the ability of the white working class to act politically. That is, whiteness is a political relationship to power (by the way, that's a main reason why the "national anarchists" are not anarchists at all, since they defend that relationship) and as such it shows that whites are capable of thinking and acting politically, however wrongly at times.

Indeed whiteness itself is precisely constructed to limit the political imagination of whites -- to ensure that their struggles reinforce rather than challenge power -- and this is in part why some of the most imaginative and transformative periods in American history have been times when whiteness was in crisis. However, this, combined with the examples of whites acting against white supremacy gives us direction where Sakai fails: it allows us to approach the problem of whites and politics from the perspective of tacking how we can change the basic facts and assumptions that lie beneath their choices, how we can frame a politics that doesn't revert back to the short-sighted politics of white supremacy.

In PCWC's opinion, this has always meant fighting to foster the crisis in whiteness. Or, as the race traitors say, to create situations where whiteness cannot be counted on to resolve in the favor of the powers that be. When that crisis happens, dramatic change becomes possible.

(2) The second piece I want to single out is the article "Leninist front-groups and the problems of 'tail-ending' the Left", posted at PropetyIsTheft. As was pointed out at our most recent Beer & Revolution featuring Lawrence Jarach, I think a lot of us here in Phoenix have had a refresher course this summer in the failures, opportunism, obstructionism and parasitism of the left, delivered free of charge by out of town organizations like the so-called Revolutionary Communist Party and local leftists, Puente and Tonatierra.

Time and time again groups like these have proven their unfailing ability to head off militant and radical action, to collaborate with the police in attacks on anarchists, to co-opt grassroots struggle and to divert actions into useless and ineffective petition drives and inane marches. Nothing epitomizes this more than the idiotic attempt by Left party apparatchiks to divert the migrant struggle away from broadly democratic and empowering tactics like general strike and into voting and boycotts. Voting, for instance, is a silly waste of time in any movement, but in this one, composed as it is of such a high percentage of non-citizens who by definition cannot vote, reaches heights of absurdity not seen around these parts in quite some time.

This feature of anarchist history (indeed, general history) -- that tendency to be sold out and attacked by our supposed "comrades" on the Left -- remains a difficult lesson for anarchists to learn, it appears, because the tension reoccurs in every movement. In my organizing experience over the last decade and more, it has been a constant feature of the anti-globalization movement, the anti-war movement and the migrant struggles of today. Such problems have bedeviled anarchists since time immemorial, from the splits of the First International to the Spanish Civil War to the various uprisings in Eastern Europe against communist domination and on through the French May Days of 1968 into the present day. Indeed, I just read John W. F. Dulles' "Anarchists and Communists in Brazil, 1900-1935", and the same thing went on then. It turns out that anarchists and communists don't really want the same thing at all. Who knew?

This simple fact, as obvious as it may seem, still remains very hard for many anarchists to grasp. Post-leftism within anarchy, as I understand it, is an attempt to struggle to recognize this basic truth and to consider ways of relating, supporting and opposing various tendencies and organizations in society as we struggle to overthrow the state and capitalism. Primarily, what post-leftism does is bring into question these generally accepted but also undiscussed quiet alliances, maintained for a variety of reasons (habit seeming prominent among them), between anarchists and the Left that often work not just to our detriment as anarchists, but also to anyone who seeks out genuine self-organization as opposed to that imposed by bureaucratic socialists and capitalists.

"Leninist front-groups and the problems of 'tail-ending' the Left" doesn't identify as post-Left, but it is essentially grappling with the same issues, the problems that come from orienting oneself and the movement towards the Left, especially the authoritarian Left. Finding one's way through disentangling the various biases and reflexive relationships of support and opposition that come with an uncritical relationship with the Left is hard. It requires considering one's moves carefully because one doesn't want to risk, by unshackling oneself from the Left, the danger of adhering somewhere even worse, like the Right, as has obviously happened with the racist unanarchist "National Anarchists".

With PCWC, we have opted to engage critically in all directions. We have reached out to libertarians on the right, and received some criticism for it within the anarchist and Left milieu -- criticism that essentially boils down to the knee-jerk opposition to all elements on the Right that comes with the default affiliation with the Left. This even though our appeals and interactions with the libertarians have been exclusively around anti-racism, anti-fascism and the defense of free movement. And despite our deeply critical and open discussion of what we view as the flaws in the Right libertarian movement in Arizona. The Leftist is concerned primarily with contagion, as if one can engage with authoritarians on the Left without fear but that any association with libertarian elements on the Right is inherently dangerous.

Likewise, when we have stood up in solid opposition to movement hacks and outside authoritarian communist groups, we have been similarly attacked for the Leftist sin of sectarianism, as if remarking on the fact that a group wants a society that is distinctly un-anarchists is a crime against the movement. But which movement? As is pointed out in the piece, maybe it all comes down to how you look at it.

Are anarchists merely a minority wing of a movement that we concede to the more authoritarian, manipulative sections? Or, instead, are we a movement unto ourselves, tireless defenders of self-organization, and participants in a broader struggle that we refuse to allow to be dominated by authoritarian factions. A movement that overlaps various other groups and individuals, but which has its own distinct aims and objectives? Answering this question is at the heart of the way forward, I think, if anarchists are to be anything but the alternating conscience and punching bag of whatever movement happens to be in vogue at whatever time.

(3) Lastly, I want to share an excellent little film (about an hour long), entitled "The Betrayal by Technology" about French theorist and technology critic, Jacques Ellul. Despite the long description of our group in the sidebar, PCWC has always sought to remain un-ideological about our anarchy. We may have a very specific kind of anarchy, with regards to the general anarchist milieu, but we try to avoid getting ourselves too wedded to a particular set of ideas. That's why you see a wide variety of perspectives at our Beer & Revolution night: not because we are big tent anarchists, but because we want to promote ideas that we find valuable and useful, even if we don't agree with the entirety of the rest of the presenter's politics. We've tended, I think, to take what's worth taking and ditch the rest from various strains of anarchism.

And, more often than not, we've likewise tried to use anarchist ideas as critiques rather than reifying them as holy writ. For instance, PCWC is deeply critical of technology, but we approach it from a variety of angles. Our range of influences with regard to technology start first and foremost with our own lived experience, but are also informed by technology critics as varied as labor historian David F. Noble, who focuses on technology as a class war attack on workers and our ability to self-organize our own lives; by technology critics like Kirkpatrick Sale and his analysis of the early resistors to industrialism; and by primitivists like John Zerzan and his deeper questioning of the nature of technological society and the inherent alienation that derives from it.

We do not necessarily identify as primitivist explicitly, although I do think that PCWC falls within the anti-civilization current in a lot of ways, or at least we are not in opposition to it. However, what we do appreciate is the criticisms that primitivism makes possible, both of society and history, but also of movements and the often unstated goals and assumptions that frequently underlie movements, such as ideas about work, resource extraction and the faith in progress. By merely using primitivism as a tool rather than an ideology, we are free to consider the questions it raises, but at the same time to free ourselves from the burden of defending it as a part of our identity. We recognize that there are various ways of looking at technology, even from within the anti-tech current (hell, even from within the labor movement), and each offers something useful when it comes to understanding our relationship to capitalism, the state and technology.

In this film, Ellul makes a point that really resounded with me. Discussing a friend of his, a surgeon, who was confronted with a person amazed at the wonderful advances in transplants made possible by modern medicine, the doctor replies that all those wonderful transplants must be done with healthy, young organs, which means that people with those organs -- young people, naturally -- must die. And most of those young people die in auto accidents. In that sense, as the safety of car travel improves, the availability of organs and the miracles of modern science, diminishes. At the very least, there is a hidden relationship between the two which, if not interrogated, remains obscured largely because of the blind ideology of progress hides it.

At several points in the film Ellul expounds on his general thesis that, despite any sentiments to the contrary, in reality technology is at odds with freedom, a point he drives home most clearly in his analysis of the automobile, that most revered symbol of modern capitalist, industrial freedom. A car on fire at a demonstration is shocking, he says, because it is an attack on the central symbol our modern religion, a technology that purports to deliver us to freedom, but instead drives us to the surgeon's table to be parted out under the knife.

Summing up, I'd like to invite people interested in the ideas PCWC puts out there to join our Reddit feed. There discussion can be had about various issues, political and otherwise. We've considered various other ways to engage with people, including a message board, but until then hopefully the Reddit can be one more way that those of us interested in these kinds of politics can find each other and debate, and hopefully move the anarchist movement out of the activist ghettos and university classrooms, beyond the cliques and scenes and towards something approaching relevant to people and movements outside ourselves, where we can deliver an updated, meaningful anti-authoritarianism as a viable option to the boring, limited movements and ideologies of the present day.

Until all are free: Two political prisoner support events in the valley this week.

State repression is nothing new to anarchists, it has been a facet of revolutionary and liberatory movements throughout history because, let's face it, systems of power react with hostility to those who desire a reordering of relationships. We saw this earlier this year with the notorious police attack on the DO@ bloc, resulting in a large number of people near the bloc being hit by pepper spray, and five Phoenix anti-authoritarians and anarchists getting arrested and facing a number of serious charges. We also have six other comrades who locked down at the Border Patrol HQ in Tucson and are still facing charges for their act of resistance to the militarization of land and movement along the border, they too need our support.

The further we look back, the longer and longer the list gets of our anarchist and anti-authoritarian comrades who are locked up or facing trial across the country. Some of the most notable examples from the last few years are also the most outrageous examples of the lengths the state will go to disrupt our movements' activities, from the resistance to grand juries on fishing expeditions, to the criminalization of organizing protests, and the distressing pre-crime conviction of Eric McDavid.


Keeping our comrades' spirits high while locked up means that they need support from those on the outside, and I'm glad to help get the word out about two events happening this week that are supporting political prisoners.

Above is a flier for a new political prisoner support event being held tonight in Phoenix, organized by our friends at Stronghold, this event will help those attending network and share information on writing to and supporting political prisoners. This event kicks off at 6:30 at Conspire in central Phoenix.

The second event this week will be held in Tempe as the Phoenix Anarchist Coalition (PAC) is once again sponsoring a 5k Running Down the Walls event this year. PAC has maintained a longtime political prisoner support fund, and has organized a number of events to support and get the word out on our comrades locked up for nearly 10 years. For the last few years PAC has organized a solidarity run/walk/ride with other events organized by the political prisoner support organization, the Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCF), all funds raised at this run will be sent to the ABCF for their prisoner support Warchest. It is scheduled for Saturday Oct. 16 at Mitchell Park in Tempe, people will be gathering at 5:30pm. Organizers request that you bring your favorite (preferably vegan) covered dish as there will be a potluck picnic after getting back to the park from the 5k.

Beer and Revolution Archives: The Greek Insurrection audio is up!

With the debut of Beer and Revolution "Season Two" last night, featuring Anarchy Magazine contributor and editor Lawrence Jarach, it seemed like a good time to get off our asses and put up some more audio from last year's sudsy symposiums. A couple weeks ago I posted the audio to John Zerzan's presentation at last January's Beer & Rev and this week I finally got around to adding the presentation on the Greek insurrection by Sissy, Tasos and Peter (which was a big hit). Below I've embedded the first part of what was a wide-ranging and very entertaining discussion below.

The more I reflect on the Greek tour, especially having spent some time with them (and quaffed more than a few beers together here and in the Bay) and seeing their presentation twice, I think it is very likely that their visit will be remembered as one of the more remarkable and influential events in recent American anarchist history. Already I have heard the "Cops, pigs, murderers!" chant ring out at more than one anarchist action across the country. In a time where police murder seems more and more the norm, I expect to hear it a lot more. I certainly feel lucky to have had the chance to learn from our Greek comrades about their struggle.

Follow the link back to our youtube page for the rest of it (it's almost two hours total). As usual, to get the full experience, you really need to come to the event. Since it takes place in a very social atmosphere, the sound quality on the recording is not always the best, especially during the q and a. All the more reason to come out and join in the conversation yourself! While you're at our youtube page, check out the favorites section, because there's some interesting talks there that we think are worth checking out. We add to it periodically, so check back from time to time.

Last night's B&R with Lawrence drew a little more than forty people and was a raucous affair. I hope to have that online for your enjoyment in a few days if all goes well. As usual, if you're coming to town or if you're already here and have something that you think may fit in the Beer & Rev format, hit us up. Maybe we can work something out. These are irregular affairs, in that rather than stick to an arbitrary calendar, we do them when we think there's something worth talking about. As of right now, we do have another tentatively planned for March or April. We'd love to do another one (or more) before that, so hit us up if you're interested.

One of the things we want to do with Beer & Rev is to encourage the discussion of anarchist ideas and the development of critical anarchist thinking here in Phoenix, and to do it in a social way that breaks out of the stale lecture model that so often dominates the genre, as well as to challenge ourselves and our ideas. Suggestions, tips, criticisms and comments are always welcome.

Beer and Revolution is back this Sunday! Featuring Lawrence Jarach on Anarchism with(out) the Left

Beer and Revolution returns for the eighth installment this Sunday after taking a lengthy hiatus since we hosted our Greek comrades from the VOID Network back in March. We're pleased to have Lawrence Jarach, a long-time anarchist and a regular contributor to and co-editor of the magazine Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed. He'll be giving a talk on one of the more influential anarchist critiques of the left-wing, something Lawrence has described as along the lines of "What's this Post-Left Anarchy Thing I Keep Hearing About?"

Lawrence has written pretty extensively on the historical roots at the base of the modern conflict between authoritarian socialists and libertarian socialists, beginning with the split in the First International over the question of the state. This conflict is summarized in his essay Anarchists, Don't let the Left(overs) Ruin your Appetite:

The initial place where the rivalry between leftists and anarchists occurred was the First International (1864-76). Besides the well-known personal animosity between Marx and Bakunin, conflicts arose between the libertarian socialists and the authoritarian socialists over the ostensible goal of the International: how best to work for the emancipation of the working class. Using parliamentary procedures (voting for representatives) within a framework that accepted the existence of the state was the main tactic supported by the authoritarians. In the non-electoral arena, but remaining firmly within a statist agenda, was the demand of the right of workers to form legal trade unions. In contrast, direct action (any activity that takes place without the permission, aid, or support of politicians or other elected officials) was promoted by the libertarians. Strikes and workplace occupations are the best examples of this method. The leftists preferred persuasion and the petitioning of the ruling class while the anarchists, recognizing the futility of this approach, preferred to take matters into their own hands: peacefully if possible, more insistently if necessary.

The question of the state was just the beginning of a long and contentious relationship between anarchists and the Left, as there have been notable disagreements over other potential "deal breakers" for any anarchist-left unity, specifically over questions on nationalism, self-organization, or political representation. We've seen our ideological differences play out in the battlefields and barricades of a number of revolutions and civil wars in Russia, Spain, Mexico, and Cuba to name a few, as anarchists were attacked, betrayed, and murdered by our "comrades" on the left.

For valley anarchists, we've seen the Left groups dissolve and absorb the popular responses that broke out to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more recently with the immigrant movement, into the electoral process. My buddy Phoenix Insurgent took note of this on his old blog on a few occasions, and regular readers of this blog have probably come across our criticisms of the leadership of the immigrant movement, specifically their ongoing working relationship with the Phoenix PD, who, it should come as no surprise is no friend to immigrants. As throughout history, we have seen in our own struggles and movement those anarchists who continue to defend, and even justify the actions of left-wing groups whose ideas and actions run counter productive to an anarchist or anti-authoritarian vision. So, needless to say I have great interest to see what Lawrence will have to say when it comes to the possibility of an anarchist movement sans the Left.

Come and join us this Sunday for some beer (if beer's not your thing, perhaps some iced tea or water) and politics. I believe this latest installment of B&R promises to be another challenging and engaging discussion for freedom minded people!

Beer and Revolution will be held at Boulders on Broadway, a restaurant and bar located on the NE corner of Roosevelt and Broadway in Tempe. We have the upstairs section reserved, and this is an all ages event. We'll be there at 8:30 and things will kick off soon afterward, hope to see you there!


***
I also want to give a shout out to our friends up north at the Taala Hooghan Infoshop in Flagstaff, the inaugural Root Beer & Revolution is happening this month, a sober take on our own night of suds and politics. Their first installment will see folks from Black Mesa Indigenous Support speaking, it all goes down at 6 pm on Tuesday, October 26. $3 gets you in the door, along with a glass of root beer, as I hear it additional root beer and root beer floats will be for sale as well.

I've always been a Groucho Marxist anyway...