What's
Happening: Books & Events
By
Chuck Morse
The Battle After Seattle: Politics
There is a growing body of literature
documenting and analyzing the most militant, anti-authoritarian
tendencies in the movement against global capital. This literature
reflects the increasing political importance of today’s
revolutionary movement and provides invaluable resources for
anarchists seeking to deepen and clarify its vision. The Battle
of Seattle: Debating Capitalist Globalization and the WTO is
one useful work (Soft Skull Press, 2002, 400 pages). This
anthology, edited by Eddie Yuen, George Katsiaficas, and Daniel
Burton Rose, places recent anti-capitalist protests in a broader
historical context that includes things such as resistance to the IMF and neo-liberalism in Venezuela, Korea, and Chiapas, the mass
organizing campaigns of the nuclear-freeze movement in the 1980s,
and the innovative direct action tactics of environmentalists in
the US. The book combines street-level reporting with inquiries
into questions such as: how can a movement that claims to be
global root itself in local communities? What happens to
non-violent tactics in an environment of increasingly ruthless
policing? Can NGOs be agents of social transformation or are they
only a mirror of the dominant society within the movement? How can
a predominantly white activist scene in the US and Europe form
respectful ties with activists of color? Does trashing Starbucks
damage capitalism itself? Another valuable contribution can be
found in
On Fire: The Battle of Genoa
and the Anti-capitalist Movement
(various authors, One-Off Press, 2002,
143 pages). This book contains reports and analyses from the most
militant elements of the anti-G8 demonstrations in Genoa in July
2001. It examines these protests to encourage the theoretical and
political growth of the anti-globalization movement’s most
confrontational wing. Spanish readers should pick up
Globalización Capitalista: Luchas y resistencias (Trans:
Capitalist Globalization: Struggles and Resistances) by F.
Durán, M. Etxezarreta and M. Sáez (Editorial Virus, 2001, 240
pages). This book is a analysis of the acceleration of capitalist
globalization, its social and economic costs, the present
situation of the anti-globalization movement, and its
possibilities for the future. Those who need a break from reading
should check out a new film from the Cascadia Media Collective:
A Year in the Streets: WTO Seattle to the Bush Inauguration.
This film criss-crosses the U.S. to provide a street-level view of
the clash between radical activists and the state. It covers the
anti-WTO protests in Seattle, protests against the IMF/World Bank
in Washington D.C., demonstrations at the Democratic National
Convention in Los Angeles, and many others.
And Theory
Two forthcoming books attempt to explicate some of theoretical
premises of a contemporary revolutionary perspective. John
Holloway’s Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning
of Revolution Today takes its point of departure from the
failure of state-centered revolutionary movements and the
emergence of revolutionary movements that do not aim to take power
(such as the Zapatistas, the anti-globalization movement, and
others). He asks: how we can reformulate our understanding of
revolution as the struggle against - not for - power? Holloway
tries to answer this question with an inquiry that draws on
“Western Marxist” thinkers such as Adorno, Bloch, and Lukacs and
Marx’s concept of "fetishization" (Pluto Press, March 2002, 240
pages). Another theoretical work with roots in the
anti-globalization movement is The Anti-Capitalism Reader (Akashic
Books, June 2002). This anthology, edited by Joel Schalit,
contains writings on the theory, practice, and history of
anti-capitalist politics from activists and scholars in the
movement. Among the topics explored are the presence of
anti-capitalist movements in everyday life, the history of
anti-capitalism, strategies of anti-capitalist resistance,
regionalism and anti-capitalism, and anti-capitalism and
intellectual property. It also includes a brief selection of some
of the most historically important criticisms of the free market
from theorists such as Marx, Gramsci, and other Marxist,
anarchist, and Situationist thinkers.
Chomsky
No one has greater stature in today’s radical movements than Noam
Chomsky. Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky
(edited by Peter Mitchell and John Schoeffel) assembles many of
Chomsky's recent talks on the past, present, and future of the
politics of power (published here for the first time). Chomsky
covers topics from foreign policy the during Vietnam War to the
decline of welfare under the Clinton administration. And, as he
explores the connection between America's imperialistic foreign
policy and the decline of domestic social services, he tries to
discern the necessary steps toward social transformation (New
Press, 2002, 432 pages). Jeremy Fox’s Chomsky and Globalisation provides
a summary of Chomsky's recently published views on globalization
and the “New World Order” (Totem Books, 2001, 80 pages).
The Return of the Repressed
Although we will never recreate the anarchist movement of
yesteryear, we must certainly learn its lessons to build a new
one. Fortunately, many of these lessons are being documented with
greater and greater thoroughness. David Berry’s The History of
the French Anarchist Movement, 1917-1945 is the first
full-length English-language history of France’s interwar
anarchist movement (Greenwood Publishing, April 2002, 296 pages).
This book analyzes the anarchists' responses to the Russian and
Spanish revolutions and the creation of the international
communist movement. It details the dilemmas facing anarchism at a
crucial moment in the movement's history, characterized by serious
questioning of "traditional" anarchist theory and practice. During
this key era, leading militants within the movement sought to
clarify anarchist theory regarding the nature of 20th-century
revolutions, to challenge the rejection of organization, and to
integrate anarchism more fully into the broader socialist and
trade union movements. The anarchists were capable of organizing
large and efficient campaigns and their analyses of developments
on the left and in the trade union movement were often more
prescient than those of the socialists and communists. Barry takes
seriously the anarchists' attempts to come to terms with the
challenges of revolution and to respond positively to them in a
distinctly libertarian socialist way. Ultimately, they were only
partially successful in such efforts, and this accounts in large
part for the failure of the movement.
The sexual radicalism of the older anarchist movement has often
been noted but rarely explored in its complexity. This will be
corrected to some extent by Xavier Díez’s Catalan-language
Utopia Sexual a la Premsa Anarquista de Catalunya (trans.
Sexual Utopia in the Catalonian Anarchist Press, Pagès
editors, 2001, 191 pages). This book focuses on the periodical
Etica-Iniciales (1927-1937) to explore the anarchist attempt to
construct a new morality that held sexual liberty as its premise.
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Salvador Puig Antich |
Anti-fa
Anarchist participation in anti-fascist resistance has been poorly
documented, although fortunately some of this rich history is now
being told. German readers should check out Anarchisten gegen
Hitler: Anarchisten, Anarcho-Syndikalisten, Rätekommunisten in
Widerstand und Exil (trans: Anarchists Against Hitler:
Anarchists, Anarcho-syndicalists, and Council Communists in the
Resistance and in Exile). This anthology, edited by Andreas
Graf, seeks to rectify the omission of anarchists from historical
accounts of workers' resistance groups and activities during the
Nazi period. It focuses on anti-Nazi resistance in Germany,
France, Italy, and Spain, and avoids either glorifying or omitting
anarchists by studying the roles anarchists actually played in the
resistance (Lukas Verlag für kunst-und Geistesgeschichte, 2001,
317 pages). Spanish readers should pick up Cuenta Atrás. La
Historia de Salvador Puig Antich by Francesc Escribano (trans:
The Store Behind: The History of Salvador Puig Antich).
This book tells the story of a young Catalan anarchist militant
executed by the Spanish state for fighting Franco’s fascist regime
(Península, 2001, 204 pages)
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Ann Hansen |
Just Yesterday
The recent history of the anarchist movement is only beginning to
be documented. Ann Hansen’s Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban
Guerrilla (AK Press, 2002, 490 pages) narrates the story of a
pivotal moment in the movement in the early 1980’s. Hansen was a
member of Direct Action, a Canadian anarchist urban guerrilla
group, that was responsible for a campaign of dramatic actions
culminating in the bombing of the Litton Systems Hydroelectric
plant in Toronto and three pornographic video stores. Hansen
served seven years in prison and now tells her story for the first
time. The book contains a probing analysis of the political
context during those years that will doubtlessly resonate with
those lived through the events as well as those who did not. Also
of interest is a new 140-minute double CD from AK Press: Mob
Action Against the State: Collected Speeches from the Bay Area
Anarchist Bookfair (July 2002). The CD includes speeches from
Barry Pateman (Kate Sharpley Library/Emma Goldman Papers Project),
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jello Biafra, Christian Parenti, Ruthie
Gilmore, and others.
More Books
The New Formulation: An Anti-Authoritarian Review of Books
is a new biannual journal featuring comparative book reviews from
an anarchist perspective. Its goal is to “help clarify the
distinctness of an anarchist approach to social affairs, to
provide a forum for the integration of new works and insights into
the anarchist project, and to give authors struggling to redefine
the tradition a setting in which to share their research and
reflections”. The first 46-page issue contains reviews of works on
the prison industrial complex, prison life generally, the
anti-globalization movement, and the Black Panther Party. It also
contains a statement against the war. Annual subscriptions to the
journal, which is edited by the author of the article you are
presently reading, are $7 in the U.S. and $10 elsewhere (payable
to Charles Morse). Write to The New Formulation, 2620 Second
Avenue, #4B, San Diego, CA, 92103 - U.S.A.. The full text of the
first issue can be found online at:
http://flag.blackened.net/nf/index.htm
La Ciudad de México
The Institute for Social Ecology is sponsoring a special Mexico
City Study Tour from May 19th to May 27th. This program will
use classroom lectures and participatory tours throughout the city
to explore the evolution of Mexico City’s social structures and
the opposition movements that have challenged them. Special
emphasis will be placed on the contributions and dilemmas of
anti-authoritarian activists in the city’s history. More
information is available here:
http://www.social-ecology.org/programs/winter/mexico.html
and from the ISE at 1118 Maple Hill Road, Plainfield, VT, 05667,
USA. Tel/Fax.: 1 (802) 454-8493
Mexico City’s Biblioteca Social Reconstruir is suffering a grave
financial crisis and needs the support of sympathizers around the
world to continue their work. Please send a donation to:
Biblioteca Social Resconstruir, A.P. 9090, C.P. 06002, Mexico 1
D.F. (make checks payable to Martha Cecilia Garcia Juarez). More
information about the library can be found here:
http://www.libertad.org.mx/