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Love and Rage Electronic Edition April 04
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
LOVE AND RAGE
Electronic Edition
APRIL/MAY 1993
Part 4
Part 4: Letters to the Editor, Notices
A Few Words About Politics
Where's AYF?
Writers Wanted!
New Journal on Childhood Sexual Abuse
Spanish Section Synopsis
Letters to Love and Rage
A FEW WORDS ABOUT POLITICS
Love and Rage is a bi-monthly anarchist newspaper intended to
foster revolutionary anti-authoritarian activism in North America
and build a more effective anarchist movement. We will provide
coverage of social struggles, world events, anarchist actions and
cultures of resistance. We will support the struggles of oppressed
peoples around the world for control over their own lives. Anarchy
offers the broadest possible critique of domination, making
possible a framework for unity in all struggles for liberation. We
seek to understand the systems we live under for ourselves and
reject any prepackaged ideology. Anarchism is a living body of
theory and practice connected directly to the lived experiences of
oppressed people fighting for their own liberation. We anticipate
the radical and on-going revision of our ideas as a necessary part
of any revolutionary process.
A set of "working papers," encompassing the current debate about
our Political Statement is available from
Jodi, c/o AA
PO Box 10007
Columbus, OH 43201
For more information about these and other internal debates,
subscribe to our Discussion Bulletin and Network Bulletin.
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Where's AYF?
If you've read Love and Rage before, you might notice that this
issue has no Anarchist Youth Federation page. AYF is currently
trying to develop a more-collective way to produce the page. As
soon as they come up with a process they're happy with, we'll start
running the page again. For more info write to:
AYF Discussion Bulletin
PO Box 365
New York, NY 10013
-30-
WRITERS WANTED
Yes you. Time to fork over your news blurbs, articles, photos and
illustrations for us to print. Wimmin, people of color, young
people and people in regions we don't hear from much are especially
encouraged to contribute. We always want more cultural stuff -
book, film, music reviews and the like - as well as more reports on
positive community projects. The June/July issue will focus on
strategies for anarchy. Let us know what you're up to, who you're
working with, what struggles you're working around and why those
things are important. Deadline is April 15. The August/September
issue will focus on anarcha-feminism in theory and practice.
Deadline is June 15.
-30-
THE JOURNAL BODY MEMORIES: Radical Perspectives on Childhood Sexual
Abuse, is seeking submissions of articles, artwork, critical
analysis, personal stories and poetry. "We are not just looking for
a road to recovery, but also a road to revolution." (It is also a
great zine doing important work. You should read it.)
P.O. Box 14941
Berkeley, CA 94701
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SPANISH SECTION SYNOPSIS
PAGE ONE: Anarchist Black Cross
Included in this section are: an article on indigenous prisoners in
Mexican prisons, a short history of A.B.C., and a list of past and
current A.B.C. prisoner support campaigns.
PAGE TWO:
Represion contra Anarquistas Griegas is an article from Amor y
Rabia/Mexico that chronicles some history of the Greek anarchist
movement and updates the current situation there. Comedores
Populares is an article from Bandera Negra (Lima, Peru) about the
libertarian nature of community kitchens Peru's shantytowns.
PAGES THREE AND FOUR: Queer Focus Section
This section contains translations of K. Small's article Queer
Killings (Asesinatos revelan la hipocresia de la izquierda) from
page one and Paul Dalton's article Questioning (Queer) Authority
(Una perspectiva anarquista sobre la politica queer) from page
four. Also, there is an article about the situation of queers in
South America (Estados sudamericanos contra las queers), as well as
a list of queer contacts in South America.
PAGE FIVE: Notes of Revolt
The Spanish page of Notes of Revolt contains translations of
various notes from the International pages of the English section.
-30-
Letters to Love and Rage, April-May 1993
FIGHTING WHITE SUPREMACY
Comrades,
I was very excited to see a copy of Love and Rage. This is the best
revolutionary anarchist publication I have ever seen, including
Canada's Open Road. What I especially like is that contrary to most
anarchists of the 1970s and 80's, when my revolutionary pamphlets
"Anarchism and the Black Revolution" was published, your group
seems to understand the dynamics of white supremacy and why it must
be fought. You can't imagine the kind of "cop-out" racist
capitualtionism that the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.)
and most anarchist groups were guilty of then.
I was one of a small number of anarchists or libertarian socialists
of African descent. Since I alone was not numerically powerful
enough to influence events I wrote my revolutionary pamphlets on
building an international social revolutionary movement, the
importance of an anarchist anti-racist movement, a Black
revolutionary libertarian movement, an anarchist prisoner support
group (A.B.C.), and other subjects. My model for the pamphlets was
"Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets," edited by Roger Baldwin. It
shocks me to find that my pamphlets have been reprinted for years
after I wrote them. I am now considering rewriting and updating the
pamphlets, and issuing them in book form. If I can find a publisher
I will push right ahead.
This is an historical period that anarchists must develop a
coherent philosophy to challenge the descent of Marxism-Leninism as
a revolutionary ideology, and to create a world socio-political
movement to challenge existing institutions. Clearly, we must
create counter-institutions to propagate the new doctrine, do mass
political re-education, and challenge the capitalist authorities.
This is real, not just my ideas or desires. New revolutionary
formations must have the germ of the new society within the belly
of the beast.
So what is this debate about "confrontationist" versus "gradualist"
struggle really about in my estimation? It is about building
larger, more representative "mass" formations on the one hand, and
just mindless smallgroup protest engaged in by most anarchists. We
should not become static "educational" societies, nor should we go
over to street fighting/commando tactics as our primary approach.
I am opposed to the sort of petite-bourgeois individualist
anarchism that the north american movement is noted for; clearly we
must be grounded in the working class. There is too much bourgeois
scholasticism in the anarchist movement. I have always had ties
with the Workers Solidarity Alliance (W.S.A.) and the International
Workers Association (I.W.A.), along with other syndicalists,
council communists, and libertarian socialists.
So, what have I been doing since my release from prison in 1983? I
have been a full-time community organizer almost since my first day
on the streets. I have been the president of a small activist
coalition which has been fighting racism and police brutality in
Chatanooga, Tennessee for years. Our struggle has driven the Klan
out of the city, forced a murderous police commisioner to resign in
disgrace, and to topple the local racist government. Our tactics
have included civil rights lawsuits, mass demonstrations, armed
self-defense, rallies, conferences, door-to-door organizing, and
any other effective tactics. We have turned this small conservative
town upside-down! We've got the cops and the Klan on the run!
Finally, I am writing my autobiography, and only need a publisher.
If you know anybody who can do the job, let me know.
Once again, I love the paper. Please send some back issues.
In love and struggle
Lorenzo Komboa Erwin
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ANTI-ZIONISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM
Dear Leprechauns and Roarers,
Although I've tried to avoid taking part in your letter-page
debates in the past, the Raven's Banner Collective's "Lyin' About
Zion" letter demands a response.
Their letter seems to criticize the anarchist movement in general
and Love and Rage in particular, for being soft on Zionism.
Throughout the letter Zionism is equated with fascism, a
proposition which leads to some interesting conclusions and
statements: one Jew (Rabbi Schneerson) is described as a "fuhrer,"
Jews are described as the ethnic community most infected by
fascism, and the racist right is described as a "feeble fart"
compared to international Zionism. Anarchists are criticized for
not spending enough energy opposing Zionism, and it is insinuated
that they spend too much energy opposing the anti-Semitic extreme
right. Despite a confusing analysis, what R.B.C.'s letter makes
very clear is that some anarchists lack an understanding of Zionism
and Anti-Semitism, and for this reason they write letters which
could (and should) be condemned as anti-Semitic.
Their are four main ways in which the "Lyin' About Zion" letter
distorts history or uses weak analysis in a way which is
anti-Semitic.
1. A routine comparison of Zionist atrocities to Nazi atrocities.
It is common practice for people who want to belittle the
experience of oppressed peoples to imply that they have no right to
claim to be oppressed and to compare them to their opressors. Who
hasn't noticed how many anti-feminist men get off talking about
mothers abusing their children, or how many white people like to
talk about the miserable, violent, and patriarchal nature of
pre-contact Native peoples? If you've never noticed this, just read
some stuff from V.O.C.A.L. (Victims Of Child Abuse Laws), or that
Revolutionary Communist Party position paper on Native culture
(reprinted in ''Marxism and Native Americans'', edited by Ward
Churchill and published by South End Press). And have you ever
noticed how straight white men will simultaneously criticize the
Gay mens movement for being sexist and the Wimmin's movement for
being homophobic?
Unfortunately, some leftists engage in this same parctice when it
comes to Jews: Jews are the most racist and sexist, Zionism is
genocide, Israel is a fascist, even a Nazi, state.
Transference (the mechanism of transfering the percieved sins of
one's own community onto others) is at work once again.
Historically, European communities were full of religious,
economic, and child-rearing practices which contradicted the
Christian ideal, and anti-Semitism was one way that these tensions
could be transferred, if only symbolically, outside the community.
Social mobility was occurring and small-scale capitalism was
developing within a Christian culture which had previously opposed
rising above one's rank and had a vested interest in a feudal
social system, so Jews became known as greedy, usureres, etc. In
communities which had historically practiced infanticide and child
abandonment, Jews were suspected of kidnapping Christian babies and
making matzoh (unleavened bread) out of their blood. In Christian
communities uneasy with fresh memories of natural religions and the
worship of nature deities (many of which had horns and goat legs,
such as Satyrs), Jews were rumored to have horns hidden under their
hats, to practice witchcraft, and to enter into pacts with a
satyr-like devil. The list goes on and on, and lets just say that
it is not surprising in a world which recently witnessed the
burning of millions in what was essentially an anti-Jewish
phenomenon of unprecedented proportions, Jews are accused of doing
the same things to Palestinians as the Nazis did to them, Zionists
are compared to Nazis, Rabbi Schneerson is described as a fuhrer .
. .
2. Zionism = Fascism. Besides the above analysis of why so many
people of Christain descent might want to equate Zionism with
Nazism, there is a valid question of whether or not 20th century
Zionism is racist, and whether or not Zionists are fascists. The
above explanation of why so many might wish it were so does not
refute the basic claim. i.e. that Zionists (and thus the majority
of Jews) are fascists.
But first what is Zionism?
Zionism is no more and no less than the political project of
securing a land base in Israel for world Jewry. Prior to the
Holocaust it was a minority tendency amongst Jews, but having
European Jewish society destroyed, along with an estimated six
million Jews, many former non-Zionists had a change of heart. The
strategy of cohabitation, long the majority tendency amongst
European Jews, had left them vulnerable to a catastrophe which
effectively destroyed their society. Those who survived the
Holocaust often languished in Displaced Persons camps for months or
even years. Those who managed to return "home" were often met by
anti-semitic violence, such as the pogrom at Kielce in Poland,
where several hundred Jews were murdered in 1946. At the same time
the "civilized" victor nations remained just as adamant after the
War as they had during it to keeping out Jewish refugees. Even the
Soviet Union, which had tried to act as a haven for Jewish refugees
during the war, was quick to embark upon an anti-Semitic campaign
against so-called "rootless cosmopolitanism." Under these
circumstances, is it fair or even humane (in the broadest sense of
the word) to equate the many Jews who left post-Nazi Europe for
Israel with the Nazis who had butchered their loved ones, or even
with "respectable" anti-Semites who continued to block their
emigration to America, Canada, and so many other countries? It has
been said that it was easier for a Nazi to enter America after the
war than it was for a Jew. Indeed, the factors which can lead a Jew
to identify with Zionism are very different from those which have
lead white Gentiles to become Nazis.
Is Zionism inherently racist? Zionism is certainly racial, inasmuch
as Jews are a race (I won't bother to quibble with R.B.C.'s
semantic problems with the word "race"), because it seeks to secure
a landbase for Jews. Zionism does not racialize matters any more
than various other nationalisms though, be they Irish
Republicanism, New Afrikan, or Puerto Rican nationalism. That is,
Zionism is not racist per se.
It would be wrong to pretend that the State of Israel has not acted
in an incredibly racist manner, but so has every other State that
has existed since I was born. And I don't want to be unfair or
cynical, but many of these States were the result of national
liberation movements which were strongly supported by the left of
my parent's generation, and there is no reason to believe that any
states created by today's national liberation movements will be
much better. It is the nature of a State set up by a liberation
movement identifying itself with one or a few particular ethnic
groups to be racial in nature, if not racist. However, when the
alternative is death and business-as-usual-imperialism, it takes a
peculiarly alienated person to equate these nationalisms with the
racism of W.A.S.P.s, or to oppose them simply because they have not
transcended the racial and national oppression from which they are
born, even though this must remain the ultimate goal.
So yes, Zionism as practiced by the State of Israel is racist.
There is a Zionist left wing, which is similar to the Cabadian, or
American left wing: not revolutionary, but not quite as bad as it
is sometimes described by anti-Semites. Contrary to what R.B.C.
says, there is a section of the Zionist left which fights for a
two-state solution to the Palestinian national question, a solution
which would not amount to Palestinian bantustans. The equation of
Zionism with racism, or fascism, is only valid if you're willing to
apply these terms to all nationalist movements. In that case why
even bother singling out Zionism, why not just express it as many
anarchists do, as a problem stemming from all nationalisms, not
just Jewish nationalism? Too often, it seems, people support the
right to self-determination for nations, but then play word-games
and insist that Jews (as well as other "loser nations") are not a
"people," but merely an "amalgam of ethnic communities and
individuals."
3. Anti-Semitic stereotyping. Throughout "Lyin' About Zion" Zionism
is described as insidious, molding public opinion, and as the most
stealthy fascist movement worldwide. Although no expert on the
subject, it does cross my mind that all of these characteristics
are traditional sterotypes used to vilify Jews. Whether or not
various claims about Zionism are true, we should all be aware of
the power of stereotypes and racist images, and should try to
refrain from using them in our diatribes.
4. Anti-fascists should pay less attention to fighting the Gentile
racist right, and more attention to fighting Zionism. The claim is
also made that American Jews do not constitute an oppressed
community, ostensibly because they have too much money.
Firstly, many American Jews live well below the poverty line, but
even if they didn't, class alone does not automatically stop
someone from being oppressed (queer people are oppressed, despite
the fact that gay men as a group are well represented in the middle
and upper-middle classes). German Jewry was generally well-to-do,
but I challenge anyone to show me how dying in a concentration
camp, or surviving but being the only one in your family to do so,
is an example of anything but oppression. And for those of you who
feel that anti-Semitism is a German, or old-fashioned, ideology,
please consider the folllowing:
- Pat Buchanan, amongst other prominent Americans, has denied the
existence of the Holocaust. So has David Irving, a man whose books
on World War II are required reading in many universities.
- Anti-Semitic attacks are on the increase in every province across
Canada (I'm afraid I have no statistics for the U.S.A.).
- Most left wing groups which support the right of nations to
self-determination make a point of insisting that Jews are not a
nation, they are either a religious group or a people-class, both
of which which would be abolished in a secular, classless,
socialist world.
The Gentile racist right, far from being ineffective, has more
clout that either the left or the anarchist communities in many
parts of the world.
In Montreal, two gay men were murdered by homophobic gangs last
December. One of these gangs has been linked to the German
N.S.D.A.P./A.O. (the self-styled heirs of Hitler's N.S.D.A.P, or
Nazi Party). Since New Years, almost ten Synagogues have been
vandalised, as has a centre which helps African immigrants. All of
this in a city of three million in one of the provinces with the
lowest amount of reported hate crimes in Canada.
On your side of the border, Colorado has passed homophobic
legislation following a reactionary Christian crusade to save the
straight world. Police forces in L.A. and elsewhere are infiltrated
by neo-Nazi and racist organizations. The U.S. war machine is
aiding, abetting, and occasionally instigating genocides across the
globe (many of which we are probably ignorant of), often with the
support of the majority of white Americans, and often in collusion
with fascist and anti-Semitic groups in the U.S.. (Remember
Civilian Military Assistance and Don Black's Klan sending fascist
brigades to fight in Nicaragua alongside the Contras).
To turn our energy from fighting these forces, in order to
concentrate on fighting Zionism as a fascist movement, would be to
ideologically disarm ourselves in the fight against neo-Nazism and
anti-Semitism, and could also lead to sections of our anti-fascist
movement falling within the orbit of the extreme right. If you
think this is far fetched, just read the recent self-criticism of
the Revolutionary Cells, which describes how anti-semitism and
authoritarianism influenced their anti-Zionist actions (Arm The
Spirit #12, March-May 1992). There are much worse examples, though,
for instance firebombings of synagogues, cooperation with "third
position" fascists, Holocaust revisionism, and much more, all of
which have been undertaken by "left wing" or "anarchist" groups
eager to justify and act upon their opposition to "Nazi Israel."
Given the history of anarchism and leftism in North America and
Europe, it is particularly important that we all come to terms with
anti-semitism in all its various guises. Many of the figures we may
identify with (such as Bakunin and Marx) were anti-Semites, and
many of the organizations within the Left and anarchist scenes have
been influenced by anti-Semitism (for instance, the Social
Revolutionary Anarchist Foundation, la Vielle Taupe in Paris, David
Crowbar's Popular Reality, etc.). At the same time. a deeper
understanding of anti-Semitism can make our critique much stronger.
The historic similarities between the persecution of Jews, queer
people and heretical movements (which were often anti-statist and
sometimes anti-authoritarian) by Christian Europe are many. The
development of genuinely non-chauvinistic, anti-authoritarian and
anti-racist (as opposed to anti-Semitic) critique of Zionism, and
of all ethnic nationalisms, would also strengthen our movements and
our understanding of racism.
I feel that, instead of following R.B.C.'s advice, the anti-fascist
movement should instead try and incorporate a greater understanding
of the different forms of racism and the various contradictions in
European history. Anti-Zionism has it's place within the field of
anti-nationalism, not anti-Semitism, and Palestinian support work
is a matter of anti-imperialism, not of fighting Jewish Nazis.
R.B.C. would do well to rememer this.
This said, I should point out (for those of you who don't know it
already) that there are extreme right wing Zionist groups. The
Kahane (Rabbi Meir Kahane was a Jewish fascist ideologue
responsible for setting up the Jewish Defense League and the racist
Kach party in Isreal. He was assainated a few years ago.) Chai
movement and the J.D.L .(as well as various splinter groups) are
operating across North America. These groups are virulently rascist
and right wing, and when not engaged in paramilitary acts against
Palestinian support activists and Arab diplomats they spend their
time trying to spread their hatred throughout the Jewish community.
They are examples of how nationalism can lead to fascism, but to
claim that Jewish nationalists are more prone to this kind of
fascism than nationalists of other cultures betrays a certain
naivet about modern nationalist movements. It also betrays a
certain ignorance about the internal working of the Zionist state
itself: after all, while Bo Gritz, Lyndon Larouche, Pat Buchanan
and David Duke all get to play at electoral politics in the U.S.A.,
the Israeli Kach Party has been outlawed for promotong racist
hatred in supposedly fascist Israel. Indeed, to claim that the
J.D.L., etc. represent the purest expression of Zionism (which they
would if it was a genuine version of fascism) conveniently avoids
the question of why so many Jews, eager to fight the Klansmen and
Nazis of the nineties, will wind up in these Jewish hate groups
instead of in the anti-fascist movement. Could it be because the
anti-fascist movement, like the Left from which it has gotten most
of it's ideological baggage, has such an inadequate understanding
of anti-Semitism, Gentile chauvinism, Zionism, and the Holocaust
that it alienates many of these young fighters? A question that
should be dealt with at greater length, perhaps some other time .
. .
I also feel that an explaination would be in order as to who P.A.
Ward, and what R.B.C., is, and what their relationship to the Love
& Rage Network is. Are these people anarchists, leftists, or some
other variety of political animal? And what is their basis for
regarding Jewish nationalism as such an omnipotent and fascistic
force?
Yours in revolutionary anti-fascism,
another bisexual friend of Roman Catholic descent
-30-
TO THE NETWORK FROM OGB
So were we only a novelty? And now the excitement with us is over?
--Agnes Hochberg, Hungarian anarcho-feminist
We protest the authoritarian and chauvinist (to the easterners)
manner in which the On Gogol Boulevard (O.G.B.) page (produced by
Neither East Nor West-NYC (N.E.N.W-N.Y.C.) in conjunction with
easterners) was canceled in Love and Rage at Love and Rage's
Atlanta Nov 1992 conference: with no prior consultation with
N.E.N.W-N.Y.C., nor with any easterners, nor with the effective
representation necessary of N.E.N.W.-N.Y.C. in Atlanta
(N.E.N.W.-N.Y.C.'s O.G.B. coordinator was too ill to attend).
(Readers, please understand, WE DID NOT QUIT, as some abroad are
interpreting it!)
N.E.N.W.-N.Y.C. is a popular and well known group of longevity and
substance. Among our mandates are to print the activist oriented
text of alternative radicals in Communist/ex-Communist countries.
The east is still very much the east and no less relevant. Now
suddenly the rug has been pulled out from under us disrupting our
unique work. (And the technical and political problems that arose
with our text in the first Love and Rage without OGB proper (Vol.
4 No. 1) underscores our need for autonomy. See end of article to
get our take on it.)
The opposition to this is substantial and visceral. Many other
publications have come forward to ongoingly/temporarily fill in the
gap (Profane Existence, Anarchy, Fifth Estate, the Anarchist Youth
Federation Bulletin). But we want our proper place back in Love and
Rage (whom we helped found and who have the activist bent and
international distribution relevant to our work).
We're seeking support for our demand of restoration of our
autonomous section, and will ask that this be put on the agenda of
this summer's Love and Rage Network gathering.
In the meantime we're collecting signatures of individuals/groups
supporting us (please send them directly to NENW-NYC). And we need
a subsidy to mail the other publications carrying our news to the
east/third world, none of whom have the type of foreign circulation
that Love and Rage has. Checks can be made to On Gogol Boulevard,
or tax-deductible contributions can be made to: the Aspect
Foundation (and again mailed to us).
For $1 and an S.A.S.E. we've a much longer and detailed version of
this letter (votes in the Production Group were going against it,
so we pulled it), plus a lengthy criticism of the Atlanta decision
by an individual N.E.N.W.-N.Y.C. member.
We also have available petitions supporting our case in English and
Russian.
The members of Neither East Nor West-N.Y.C.:
Matt Lore, Mary Shelly, Ivo Scoric, Eldon Garcia, Neil Farber,
Agnes Hochberg, Tom Mauer, Bob McGlynn, Alexandre Rubchenko, Bill
Weinberg, Mike Harris, Polina Mograchyova, Malgorzata Tarasiewicz,
Adam Jagusiak
(In our present membership are reps from Croatia, Russia, Hungary
and Poland who've moved here, are here on extended stays, or visit
often)
Neither East Nor West, 528 5th St., Brooklyn, NY 11215
Tel (718) 499-7720
-30-
@ _Love & Rage_ is a Revolutionary Anarchist newspaper produced
@ by the Love and Rage Network. The Love and Rage Network is a
@ continental network of groups and individuals in Canada, Mexico,
@ and the United States. Subscriptions to the newspaper cost:
@ $13 for first class (fast, envelope), $9 third class (slow, no
@ envelope), $13 international (outside of United States), free for
@ prisoners, GI's, published bimonthly.
@
@ Please write to us at POB 3, NY, NY 10012
@ email: lnr%nyxfer@igc.apc.org
@ or: loveandrage@igc.apc.org
@
@ Electronic Edition subscriptions are available for e-mail
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@ we would appreciate a donation to help us and the NY Transfer
@ News Collective to continue this service.
@
@ Send your e-mail address along with a $10 suggested donation
@ in US dollars payable to: Blythe Systems
@ Attn: Kathleen Kelly
@ NY Transfer News Collective
@ 235 East 87th Street
@ New York, NY 10128
@ e-mail: lnr%nyxfer@igc.apc.org
@
-end Part 1 of 5-
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