What happened? Why has organizing in the workplace degraded again into a (gasp!) pinko commie scheme or unpatriotic dissidence? While I do think that it's mostly due to how demonized socialism has become in lieu of the Obama presidency, I also think that the economy is at the heart of it too. Labor Unions and the wages they could procure were seen as excessive, etc. But the most integral point here is that the modern union is nothing like the revolutionary collective-minded unions of the late 18th and early 19th century.
Where once there was talk of changing the world through capitalism's demise and the birth of the collective, now we have endless bureaucracy and infighting. The same syndicates and collectively owned and run farms and factories that were shaping the landscape for future workers were the ones spearheading radical ideas. What happened? Now we just have more hierarchy and more egocentric leadership. The head of the union is no better now than the factory taskmaster was. The whole point was to not be micro-managed by anyone....and that's obviously fucking gone.
Voluntary association within the Union was a major idea. Now you can't get a job if you don't pay the dues, and that's not voluntary. There's less autonomy for the worker in these unions, and there's another strike against the unions of today.
I just want less semantics, contracts, rules, regulations and over-specialization, and it's sad to see the ideas that changed world degrade and decay into more of the same.
Our culture is what impedes us from progress on a social and even economic scale. The old traditions, the old standbys, all are ingrained into our heads from birth and for some reason held to a lofty standard of superior and prime validity. This is particularly evident to me in the assumed gender roles. Man works, woman tends etc. It's evident in many things however. Regional racism and bigotry, ideas about sex, drugs, politics and more. The culture we inherit (or are forced to inherit) is dangerous. Not just American culture, but ALL culture. Culture is the enemy of progress and of a better society. As long as we keep pushing what we've been pushing for a thousand years, we'll never get out of the Dark Ages.
I am not saying nothing good can come from culture. Certain values can be stolen and used to your advantage, the good ones. Every culture has some good values. Take them and use them for yourself, but let go of all of the things repulsive about culture (and there are a lot in my opinion). Most of all, never fall static, never become lazy and accept what cultural traditions are imposed upon you by your parents, your peers or yourself. Homophobia might seem culturally acceptable in your High School. Reject it. Sexism might seem culturally acceptable in the office. Reject it.
Force yourself to fearlessly question everything anyone tells you is right. Don't fall in line behind a mouthpiece, saying, "This is right because s/he says it is." Question everyone, even those you agree with. Not only will this develop a philosophy and culture all your own, unique to you, but it will refine your ability to think critically and give you more control over your own life. The ones who lose the fight are the ones who give up and accept what society is piling on them.
It's not easy to reject culture and make your own. Besides the lack of passivity necessary to accomplish this, we have the TV's, Internet, movies, billboards, magazines, commercials, churches and schools working against us. That's a mountain of opposition. Still, I know that people can overcome and develop their own culture in the face of these odds. If I did it, I know that you can do it.
This is a call. Make your own culture. Write your own commandments and your own constitution, but always leave space on the paper, because nothing can ever be totally forced to stay the same.
It's an obligatory post for me. Patriotism, faith in the state, it's all the same and it's all bullshit. Don't be proud just because you mother shot you out of her vagina in the USA or wherever. Be proud of yourself and what you can do as a human being. Be proud of other humans. Don't love America, the state, love Benjamin Franklin. Love the people that push us forward, not the state that we assume facilitates our progress and our very lives. Don't celebrate our forced bondage to laws and passive resignation to societal norms by lighting fireworks or waving flags dripping with oil and sweat and blood. We live among hungry pigs and wolves, snorting and oinking in congress or howling at the moon after grabbing up more cheap foreign labor. I pledge allegiance to no flag. For me, there is no authority but myself, and that's it. I move to make a difference every day through my lifestyle. I question the legitimacy of my flag and yours. I question the authority of every flag and every state and every fucking president or masked dictator or politician or priest. I don't submit to lighting sparklers in honor of something vile.Solidify your rage in words or stones or fire and do something with it. Rage is a creative force. Don't simmer, blow the lid of the pot off. Coercion doesn't need to rule your world, and you don't need to be gradually softened to the idea of hopelessness in your own abilities by FOX news or CNN. This shit is in your hands, human hands. Let's do something together, not divided into nations, bred to hate each other. United as humans, we could achieve so much, yet we stay divided up into countries, loyal to a few colors on a piece of cloth.My flag is black. It is every color.
wrench
Neda is dead. Students and people protesting the sexist, fascist dictatorship of Ahmadinejad are being fired on. A media blackout is underway. We don't know how many people are dead, arrested, or imprisoned. The people assemble in the streets and burn trash, throw rocks, smash windows. Insurrection might be at hand, all because of the measures used by the state in an attempt to quell defiance. Neda, a protester among the throes of Iran's disenfranchised, was shot in the chest, dead on the streets. Her death was the biggest mistake the state could have made.
How many other revolutions have been started by a martyr, galvanized and hardened by loss of life? By challenging the institution of the supreme leader, Neda died. By questioning authority, for wanting her voice heard, Neda was shot. How much blood will be spilled on the streets before the people win or lose their fight against social control? How much blood has already been spilled?
It has happened before. The people outnumber the police and the military. The people don't have all the guns, but they do have the resolve, and the ingenuity to topple this completely top-down system so prevalent and clear in Iran. It's time for a counter-strike, it's time to rip down the quasi-religious fascist dictatorship currently in place, and then rebuild a new society. It's happened before, and it can happen again. The climate is perfect to wipe away the fundamentalist garbage and clear the way for change. The people have taken up arms.
What is to be done by the Anarchists all over the world? I say solidarity with Neda and the oppressed of Iran. I say actions need to be taken to pierce the media-blackout that the Iranian state has put into place. We need people over here in the states and Europe and Africa to participate and get the word out about just what the fuck is going on in Iran.
What can we learn from Iran? When it's all over, we'll see.
Solidarity for Neda!
Solidarity for all!
wrench
What can I believe in when I see countries funding genocide in Africa and the Middle East? Where can I retreat to when I see squalor, poverty, and hunger in the richest nation on the planet? What can I say in defense of humans when we blindly uphold an economic system that keeps every "developing" country's nose in the mud? What can I say when we enforce this economic system with police in every town, with soldiers invading other countries and policing the people there, with boot and gun? Bullets and baton?
It's hard to be a humanist when sometimes, I want to scream, fight, punch, kick, break my monitor, pull my hair out at what we fucking do to ourselves. People that thrive off of total control and oppression might always be around, but they don't need to rule the streets with badges and guns, and they don't need to police foreign lands in camo either, much less be the ruling CEOs/Politicians. I have faith in humans, I have seen what we can do when we use our labor voluntarily, with good intent and to achieve a mutually beneficial end for everyone. I see Anarchy work every day, because I implement it into my life. Still, I wretch at the racism, fascism, inequality, and the class gap. I twitch in dejected anger at the greed some can display, and how this greed can keep the majority of our population impoverished. It makes me sick. It stirs me to action.
Am I strong enough to keep pushing Humanism, the main precept of Anarchal Philosophy, even if I sometimes just want to reject it and everything, and fall into Nihilism? I won't. I won't become marred in that sand-trap. I will stay strong to the philosophy that I love and understand and want to see realized in practice the world over.
Our fight won't be over until the guts of the last priest hang the last politician. Our fight won't be over until coercion implemented by the state ceases to be. Our fight won't be over until the state and the church burn like trash in a dank Philadelphia alley, warming the hands of the homeless that they keep there to further their profit margins. Our fight sure as fuck isn't over yet.
What will it take to make the people become self-aware? A complete economic collapse? A lack of food and goods? An environmetnal degradation so severe it changes everything we know? a lack of the fossil-fuel that we subsist on like gluttonous pigs? I don't know. but when it does happen, I will be the one breaking into the supermarkets and tossing the food out to those who had to go hungry. I will be the one waving the red & black. I will be the one armed with bricks and fire and hammer and wrench, ready to end the fascist's hold on the people forever. I will be the one building hospitals and libraries and housing where there once stood churches and office space. Will you be the person too?
Fight forever, everyday. We are moving towards a Revolution for everyone, for freedom.
Who is it that becomes an Anarchist? Do they possesses inherently noble characteristics? Generosity, faith in humans, pride in our ability to overcome, adapt, succeed and live? Do they live by the precepts of mutual aid, shunning debt and loan, but providing help and kindness regardless of issue? Do they shun all inequality, racist, sexist, homophobic or classist? Do they want change for the better, change for good? Do they possess a proud solidarity and union with their comrades and the masses still hypnotized by convention, religion and tradition?
Yes.
Are they crazed from the seemingly hopeless struggle that they nonetheless fight every day? Are they desperate for any chance to gain ground in an absurdly one-sided fight? Do they throw bricks, light molotovs, plant bombs, vandalize, destroy property and assault police? Do they violently protest fascism and authority? Are they insurrectionists, revolutionaries? Do they organize Direct Actions to combat the systems of oppression so rife not just in America, but all over the world?
Yes.
Are they every frustrated day-laborer, every disgruntled accountant, office-worker or code-monkey? Do they hate their jobs, and realize that they are squandering their lives away in pursuit of the carrot that is really a stick? Are they the students, bullied, picked on, fucked with, reviled for being different or too normal? Are they the college kids, crushed by debt in vain pursuit of an education and a way out of middle-class purgatory?
Yes.
Are they the addicts, the junkies, the alcoholics, the drug-users who have given up in the face of a hopeless future and now find solace in chemicals? Are they the gangs of urban cities, lost to the world, but connected and unified in the fact that at least they are lost together? Are they the thieves of necessity, the criminals of life, the embezzlers, the victims of decades of the same cycle of economic repression?
Yes.
Are they the gays, lesbians, transfolk, queers, the sexually repressed and hopeless? Are they the rebels of sexuality, true to themselves and humanity, but against the way things are? Are they radicals themselves, on the homefront and in front of the barricade? Are they greens, environmentalists, animal liberators? Are they the new face of the movement, emerging and making their presence known whilebeing welcomed with open arms by me?
Yes.
You are all in my revolution. You are all my comrades, all my friends, even if I haven't met you yet. You are all Anarchists, you are all cells of the revolution inherent within all of us. You are all me, and I am you. We are all in this together.
We are all in this together
In solidarity
for liberation
for revolution
//wrench
While Anarchy is a philosophy of practice, we need theory and written dialectic on our aspirations. Here is a list of places to find info about what anarchy really means. Check it out!!
www.zinelibrary.info -- This place has thousands of independent and traditional radical pamphlets, magazines and essays.
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/index.html --- This provides essays, works and letters from major anarchist theoreticians that are famous and have political backgrounds.
www.crimethinc.com --Arguably the most modern, awesome and resourceful haven for anarchists on the net. these guys are great, and all of the books they publish are extremely affordable, and great for breaking into theory.
Those should get you started. As far as names go, let me drop a few.
Pierre Joseph Proudhon
Mikhail Bakunin
Peter Kropotkin
Emma Goldman
George Woodcock
Rudolf Rocker
Lucy Parsons
so, check those names out, look at some of the essays, and by all fucking means, respond back iwth discussion questions, problems, thoughts and theories!!
wrench
