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GREEN ANARCHY

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SPRING/SUMMER 2007ISSUE #24

GREEN ANARCHY

GREEN ANARCHYPO BOX 11331Eugene, OR [email protected]

An Anti-Civilization Journal of Theory and ActionAn Anti-Civilization Journal of Theory and ActionSPRING/SUMMER 2007

ISSUE #24

Fill the blank space yourself. . .

www.greenanarchy.orgwww.greenanarchy.org

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SPRING/SUMMER ‘07 ISSUEPage 1

ArticlesRiding the Winds of Change, by Tierra Lohor, pg 2

Breaking Point?, by John Zerzan, pg 6

Why I Hate the City, by Sal Insieme, pg 10

Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, pg 13

Smashing the Petri Dish: Abbreviated Inquiry Into

Abandoning the Concept of Culture, by A. Morefus, pg 16

Perspectives on the Situationist International, pg 18

Lines of Flight: To Liberate the Earth of Celestial Illusions

and Their Tyranny, by Raoul Vaneigem, pg 21

The Afflictions of the Critics of the Ego,

by Arrigoni Brand, pg 27

On the Neutrality of Technology, by Jesse Cross-Nickerson, pg 28

Technology Is Not a Tool, by “Throw” pg 31

Infantile Paralysis, by Sky Hiatt, pg 32

What We’ve Lost: Impoverished Biodiversity of

North America, by mike, pg 36

China’s War on Nature: Overcoming Anthropocentrism

and Industrialization, by The Uncarved Block, pg 42

Overcoming the spectacle of the usual counter-summit

banality, by Jacob Duval, pg 49

Diary of a Female Stone Age Hunter-Gatherer in a European Forest during the Roman Conquest of Gaul, pg 52

On My Experience with Time in Tanzania, East Africa,

by Steve Jordan, pg 58

A language beyond symbolic thought,

by Thomas Toivonen, pg 60

Another Thanksgiving Story, by Red Wolf Returns, pg 62

The Society of Masterless Men, by Sea Weed, pg. 64

Seeds On the Breeze, by Scavenger, pg 68

Anarchist People of Odor (A.P.O.O.), pg 75

Reclus: An Egoist Green Anarchist Exploration,

by Fire, pg. 86

Report Back: Feral Visions Against Civilization 2006,

by Laurel Luddite, pg 88

ContentsContentsContentsContentsContents:::::

Direct ActionAnarchist Resistance, pg 24

Ecological Defense and Animal Liberation, pg 39

Anti-Capitalist and Anti-State Battles, pg 46

Indigenous Struggles, pg 54

Prisoner Escapes and Uprisings, pg 66

Symptoms of the System’s Meltdown, pg 72

SectionsWelcome to Green Anarchy, pg 4

The Garden of Peculiarities: Fragment 24, pg 57

The Nihilist’s Dictionary: #9–Society, pg 71

Reviews, pg 76

News from the Balcony with Waldorf and Statler, pg 85

State Repression News, pg 90

Letters, pg 94

Subscriber and Distributor Info, pg 98

Green Anarchy Distro, pg 98

Announcements, pg 100

You put the parts together,and BANG!

Contents:Issue #24 Spring/Summer 2007

GREEN ANARCHY #24 Page 2

Every moment in the forest, thedesert, the meadow, and dune is deeply differentfrom the last and from the next. But the subtleshifts and transitions each life makes remainlargely imperceptible. Especially to those whoneed significant change to arouse their senses.Some speculate that humans were once moresensitive to subtle shifts in their environmentthat might indicate a need to do somethingdifferently. This is not difficult to imagine.Other animals – even plants – appear to havea more immediate awareness of impendingdanger and imminently desirable conditions,thus a less forced reaction, than I tend to. It’samazing to watch a plant curve its leavesupward when sensing a coming rain when dry,bending downward when they’ve had enough.Turning east towards the sun at dawn, to thewest near the end of day. I have often marveledat a bird of prey languishing on the shiftingwinds, the thermals that hold them aloft.Never beating a wing yet gliding endlesslyto nowhere. Change may be gradual or sudden, fluid orjarring, organic or directed, micro and macro,chaotic or ordered, cyclical or linear – thoughthese words imply that life exists in binarystates. This is the way modern humans seemto see things and I think we miss a lot of in-betweens. No matter which way change comes,

it takes an accumulation of moments to noticeit. Sometimes it takes many years worth of alook-back to see what is different and why. I have gone through so many changes in myfive decades, that at times, I barely recognizewho I’ve been and where I’ve come fromthrough all my wanderings. The accumulationof some changes are visible, even expected –my gnarling hands, the wrinkles around myeyes, the stiffness in my walk. But the mostintense are invisible to others, though theirimpact on me is stunning. I have become“hypersensitive” to the high-tech world. Intol-erant of petrochemicals, colognes, florescentlighting, mechanical hums, screaming engines.I get horrendous headaches, nausea, agita-tion, even an inexplicable rage when I spendmuch time around them. This is, of course,considered an abnormality, an “autoimmune”condition. But, I think I am more like thecanary in the mine shaft, only a nomadicearly warning. Some changes have been most welcome. Ican hear a long way off. Feel the breeze asstriations of warm and cool, of soft and tinglingthreads instead of a single force. I haveamazingly vivid memory-visions too now,almost as if seeing “my whole life pass beforemy very eyes”. I remember that the changesthat brought me the most joy, that increasedmy well-being, were those I made when Ilistened to my gut and my heart at least asmuch as my mind and others’ advice. Ten yearsago, my sight underwent an amazing changefollowing a late night call from a doctor, tellingme I had lymphoma. The next day when Istepped outside for an early morning, contem-plative walk, trees had ceased to be blobs ofbrown and green in the distance. Then and now

I see the fluttering of each individual leafdancing in the breeze.

That doctor was wrong, a pattern thathas repeated itself numerous times as

specialists puzzle over what isgoing on inside me. Inside ourbiosphere. But I got the warning,and in listening, moved towardsthe simpler life away from the cityI had always dreamed of. With-out the things I had always

thought were necessary - the illusory stabilityof a job, a “real” house with electricity, acomputer, phone, and the like – I regaineda modicum of health lost through years of over-work, over-stress, over-everything. Everythingbut what I really wanted – to run free as thewind. I began to need less and less of whatI didn’t want to have, more and more of what Idid. But a couple years ago, I went back, backinto the thick of things, certain that I washealthy enough to join the fight against all theshit sickening me and those around me. Beforeit could fully invade my insular world. I missedsomething back then, it seems. Now, I amsuffering again and am unclear what changesI need to make to get back to myself. Obviously, filtering some of life’s chaos iscritical to maintaining an equilibrium, other-wise we would have to be too much on guard.This must be one of the key aspects of adapta-tion/evolution and I don’t think our adjustmentshave ceased. Does this mean ‘hard-wired’changes? I don’t know the answer to that andneither does anyone else. What I do know isthat I find myself easily overstimulated whensurrounded by the constant noisome, jarringchanges that define civilized life. It is difficultenough to tune into the signals of the fewdangers in the natural world – poison plant orsnake, the rare bear or mountain lion, theburied water flow – how does one differentiatebetween useful, desirable, dangerous, neutral,etc. in the city when so much spins around atthe same time? In my rare visits there, I haveto consciously – at first anyway – turn downcertain senses while amping up others to blockout what I can, but still feel safe. This is why Iavoid the city like the plague. So, I understandthe ubiquity of the car stereo, the boombox,walkman, and now the ipod. The downers anduppers and mood controllers and clubs andbars and sports and gadgets..., all the endlessentertainment possibilities that fill the emptyspaces where work and obligation can be for-gotten for a time. It makes a kind of civilizedsense for people to embrace newer and morepotent distractions. But just as certain is thedifficulty that accompanies any attempt to giveup those coping mechanisms. Even when weknow deep inside, these changes are necessary

Riding theWinds ofChange

by

TierraLohor


Every moment


to be stronger, healthier, more free. Radicalchange is hard, perhaps frightening. Most folkssettle for merely a little different. For a newnessthat is mostly just more of the same. Yet weanarchists are audacious enough to ask – if notdemand – enormous, unprecedented changefrom the entire world! Do we really wonderwhy so few are interested? The worst possible scenario for those whowant a wild human future is any sort of deter-ministic condition that keeps us in chains. Ifour brains or genes or psyche are now malformedand so crave the “comforts” of domesticatedlife, how can we imagine transforming intofree creatures? If we need to waituntil Science finds the solutionto “fix” us, we are totally fucked!Scientists are not one iota con-cerned with helping humansmove towards a free, more primalway of being. They are focusedexactly where the System hasneeded them from the beginning:to continue refining the domes-tication process, designing betterweapons, solving problems createdwith their previous experiments.To keep churning out theoriesand proofs, formulas and mate-rials that convince us. They arein the right when managing –if not controlling – the unruly,organic matter pressing againstTheir fragile order. To pushpredictability to the nth degree,often by keeping us guessingwhich direction to turn; unableto predict what change will befoisted on us next. Humans are big animals. Wehave big needs, big desires, bigideas. It makes sense that our con-tinuum was more nomadic thanfixed. Sedentism has brought withit dangerous habits. We keep get-ting to that oh-so-familiar pointwhere we’ve taken too much, fortoo long, and our environmentbegins to suffer enough to grabour attention. Of course, wesuffer right along with it in ourstruggle to keep things together as weather,water, soil, animal and plant life becomenonsupporting to human life. Some folks copewith consciousness-altering rituals or substances,but even that gets old and we need more...something. We get antsy, fight more with ourfamilies and friends. Ignoring the signs insideand out; warning us that things are sliding in adangerous direction. Eventually (and thetiming is quite variable depending on whereand when) we begin to exert a pressure that canno longer be sustained without breaking some-thing. Setting off the chain reaction that keepson and on. And we have only so many options:do nothing, change our ways, change the en-

vironment, or move on for a time. Most humanschoose to squeeze every last drop out – and thensome - rather than make changes that mightbring back a robust and healthy equilibrium.Interesting how this pattern is reflected in ourfriendships. With our loves. What if that restlessness, that boredom, thatneed to get new things, are signals that some-thing about your way of life is hurting you?Or might kill you – and everything you needaround you - too quickly if you don’t change?Out of fear of the unknown, confusion abouthow to go about it, or futile resignation, mightwe be ignoring an inner voice that says

“Move on for a while. Rest and heal your-self, but come back. At least to see if theplaces you came to know and love are alsoreturned to health. Return, but with a lighter,more sensitive touch.”

I am going through The Change now. It is acritical time of my life, I think. The way inwhich I acknowledge and adapt to each newbody alteration, mind warp, bizarredreamscape is key to what my remaining dayswill be like. For if nothing else, this change isa reminder of the ultimate change – death. Theimpacts we have on each other - the earthbeings around me and I – during this time are

greater than ever before. Especially in thechange-time called winter. I need to rip hugeamounts of wood from the forest to stay warmand dry against the rains and snows thatthreaten to dissolve me. I need more help fromothers who have enough to do caring for them-selves. I’ve known for a long time that I needto fly south before it turns too cold. But I havenot been heeding the bone-deep aches ofwarning because it has become difficult totravel alone any more. And those I love mostare content to stay put or have made choicesthat preclude a going. The choices I’ve made in service to others’

ideals are haunting me – ‘ifI had only known then whatI know now’... I am in-creasingly difficult to bearound. Irritable. Short-tempered. Some even sayarrogant and self-righteousat times. I wish they werewrong. I don’t know why Ihave so little patience thesedays. Perhaps it’s because Isee the pain and too rapidbreakdown of my body, mypsyche, reflected in thedevastation all around me.And so I push too hardagainst what I interpret as astubborn resistance to think-ing deeper and doing thingsin radically different ways.I am also not so polite or soaccepting of others’ imposi-tions as I was too much ofmy life. I am breaking freefrom as many remainingbonds as I can, that continueto entangle me, that keep mewhen I want to go. Beforeit’s too late. Sometimesthose that care for me themost, hold me the tightest.Sometimes, the heaviestchain of all is love. Have I turned my loathingof the mundane and predict-able inward? Do I cling toan illusion of a different sort

of haven, a more intuitive and chaotic stability?If the way I lived was itself an act of defiance,a revolt against all that is killing me long beforemy time, would I, could I feel more settled? Idon’t know... but soon I think, a change iscoming, a big one. I feel it in some deep, inde-scribable part of me. Will I be the agent of thatchange or its victim? I know this; it is for me todecide. Alone. Are my vivid dreams and flightsof fancy – that have become my refuge, themainstay of impassioned exploration and resis-tance – hints of what might soon be? I lost myfear of death a good while back, but I am so afraidof dying in resignation instead of rebellion.

(continued on page 5)

“What if that restlessness, that boredom, that needto get new things, are signals that something aboutyour way of life is hurting you? Or might kill you –and everything you need around you - too quickly ifyou don’t change?”

““What if that restlessness, that boredom, that needWhat if that restlessness, that boredom, that needto get new to get new thingsthings, are signals that something about, are signals that something aboutyour way of life is hurting you?your way of life is hurting you? Or might kill you –Or might kill you –and everything you need around you - too quickly ifand everything you need around you - too quickly ifyou don’t change?you don’t change?””


Water, Water, and more Water…Life is wet. It is dripping. It flows on through time and space. Life is aplayful trickle, a pouring rain, a cascading fall, and a crashing wave(it can also be dammed, drained, and defiled–but it’s still always here).This winter we welcomed back you wet stuff. We welcomed life. Thelandscape seemed suspiciously incomplete in your deficiency. Quenchingthe thirst of the day. Reviving the weary and replenishing dreams.The water broke; a beautiful teacher to this continually new earth. As Winter now concludes, Spring sets in as the rains get warmer, andSummer is in the not so distant future, we begin to peek out of the trenchesthat we hunkered down in, where we secured useful and shelteredpositions during the long nights and cold storms. But not removed fromthe elements. Not isolated from life. Not alienated from its touch, itsdampness, its connection. Rain on me, and wash me clean. A new day ishere from the waters of animated energy. Sometimes the creative energymoves slow, as water dripping from a stalagmite to a stalactite, and attimes it is sudden and fantastic as with a flash flood or detonated dam.From the wetness and darkness, life is continually born. Every day offersus the opportunity for overcoming obstacles, destroying our restraints,manifesting our dreams, and living our desires. Each day is for life(…and that also includes, of course, the night).

The Daily Grind at Green Anarchy…While this issue is generally eclectic, our intention was to set out to cover inmore depth what makes us who we are: the forces which shape us, theplaces we inhabit, the ways we relate to each other, the ideas we interactwith, and this world through which we navigate. These questions arealways interesting to explore, and hopefully open up more inquiries andpossibilities. As they should, contradictions and uncertainties will arise, forthis is no manual for revolution or pep talk for directed hope. It is what it is.And we gave you a lot to pick through. We hope you find a use for it. Someof the themes that are threaded throughout include the city, culture, time,change, communication, technology, and, of course, resistance. We alsoexamine some specific ways humans have dominated each other and theearth, with articles like China’s War on Nature by The Uncarved Block andWhat We’ve Lost: Impoverished Biodiversity of North America by mike.

Also in this issue, we took the opportunity to provide space for variousperspectives on the Situationist International (SI), a significant, yet attimes limited and divergent, influence on the anti-civilization discourse.We used the occasion to print a newly translated later work by former SImember, Raoul Vaneigem, entitled Lines of Flight: To Liberate the Earthof Celestial Illusions and Their Tyranny. And, as usual, the issue is filledwith all your anticipated favorites (or not). And, of course, lots of action! Things have been interesting as we live our lives as completely aspossible and continue to put out a journal that remains provocative andinteresting. As we present our now semi-annual compilation of anti-civilization theory and practice, consisting of ideas, discussions, prose,contemplations, songs, emotional visual intensities, etc, we are, as usual,still undefining ourselves. A project dually based both in Eugene and inrural Southern Oregon for close to two years now, Green Anarchy continuesto go through a significant transformation. For those who hate us andpaint us into a box, we probably don’t look much different. Some criticswill say it’s getting worse, others say better. Who needs such ridiculousdichotomies? A lot depends on preference and priority, but for us, eachissue feels both familiar and fresh, approaching a diversity of subjectsfrom unique angles and a variety of outlooks, yet remaining consistent ingeneral focus, one against civilization. Reducing our schedule to twice a year encourages us to delve deeperinto a variety of themes, often more difficult with a shorter time schedule,and it also allows for us to explore the variety of aspects and experiencesof an un/de-civilized existence beyond the magazine. These factors, joinedwith the relatively modest size of our collective in light of the compre-hensiveness of such a project, along with the all-too predictable financialdilemma, has encouraged us to re-pattern our publishing schedule. Ourtentative schedule will be a Spring/Summer issue (which you are holdingin your hands, and will come out in March) and a Fall/Winter issue(due out in September). Due to this change, we have decided to increaseour page count significantly, without increasing the price. We hope thismetamorphosis will be supported by those who value the importance ofthis project. Remember, Green Anarchy is an all-volunteer project, costing thousandsof dollars per issue. The many ways you can support it include: becominga PAYING distributor, subscriber, or special donor. Also, consider orderingfrom our extensive distro (located on page 98), which includes over 80pamphlets and zines, books, and videos. Now you can order and sub-scribe online with our new PayPal account. As the magazine is expensiveto produce and mail, especially outside of the U.S., we will no longer besending out bundles of copies for free unless you contact us to confirmthey are arriving and wanted. If we have not heard from you in a while,you will be cut off! If you want to continue at your current number, reduceor increase, or start paying, let us know, as we are happy to accommodatethis, as long as we know they are not going into a black hole. Also, we arealways looking for technical equipment and supplies (check our websitefor details). And don’t be afraid to add your voice to the ongoing anti-civilization discussion by sending us your contributions for the nextissue: articles (up to 4000 words), reviews (under 1000 words), letters(under 500 words), poems, and images (as TIFF’s if possible or originalhardcopies). We prefer that you email all contributions of text (as an RTFif sent as an attachment). At this point, we have no specific theme for ournext edition, check our website for updates. The deadline for contributionsis June 18, 2007. In addition, we are preparing to do another print run of“What Is Green Anarchy” from our “Back to Basics” series. As we wantto re-examine anything we do, we are open to any suggested changes.

Welcome to Green AnarchyWelcome to Green Anarchy

For an Uncivilized Reality,

The Green Anarchy CollectiveLate Winter 2007

For an Uncivilized Reality,For an Uncivilized Reality,

The Green Anarchy CollectiveThe Green Anarchy CollectiveLate Winter 2007Late Winter 2007

The River flowsFlows to the seaWherever that river goesThat’s where I wanna beFlow, river flowLet your waters wash downTake me from this roadTo some other time

All he wantedWas just to be freeThat’s the wayIt turned out to beFlow, river flowLet your waters wash downTake me from this roadTo some other time

–The Ballad of Easy Rider

The River flowsThe River flowsFlows to the seaFlows to the seaWherever that river goesWherever that river goesThat’s where I wanna beThat’s where I wanna beFlow, river flowFlow, river flowLet your waters wash downLet your waters wash downTake me from this roadTake me from this roadTo some other timeTo some other time

All he wantedAll he wantedWas just to be freeWas just to be freeThat’s the wayThat’s the wayIt turned out to beIt turned out to beFlow, river flowFlow, river flowLet your waters wash downLet your waters wash downTake me from this roadTake me from this roadTo some other timeTo some other time

–The Ballad of Easy Rider–The Ballad of Easy Rider

Issue #24-Spring/Summer 2007


Issue #24-Spring/Summer 2007



ImagineImagine

Disclaimer:

There is a tragic lack of imagination in our worlds (or so it seems when passing the endlesswretched smokestacks filling our lungs with shit, feeling the heart-deep ache of futility,learning of yet one more ‘revolutionary anarchist’ project setting up shop). And before youflip a finger this way – of course! of course! How different can a mere writing project be.How different can any attempt to break free be when we’re all pressed so damnable tightagainst the sides of a box eternally too small? The operant question is, do we really want toescape our confines (a necessary step before destroying it, eh?) or are we going to remaincontent to try for a bit more room, more comfort and ease? (And for you ‘round pegs’ whobelieve themselves already unfit, containment exists in many distinguishable shapes.) Innovation gurus exhort us to “think outside the box” without even a sideways glance attheir own, foolishly scrambling to go beyond it by redefining others’. Imagination strangledby selections ordered from a predefined list of “alternative” acceptabilities. The primal eye became the conscious I only to become the I and I – the watcherwatching within; exalted in formulaic cyberealism replacing its necessary predecessortechnoindustrealism. Hence,i(n) = coolgottahaveit-letthemwatchme XletmewatchmeallthetimeX where n=Pod, Phone, Tunes, Movie, ... and X=Ø.

When is a brick not a brick?When it is an amalgamation of sand and clay, water and heat, toil and sweat andblood, and ravaged hillside. Or when it’s a resultant wall we can’t penetrate withour eyes, nor hands alone; how about with a raging heart? It could be a chunk ofrustchalk perfect for scratching dreams and blasphemes on walls of palersand.earth.water.sweat.fire.toil.blood.ravagedearth.brick. Perhaps when it is a projec-tile smashing the face of whatever ails you. Or a hammer, the raw beginning of a newend...and that which remains at the end of a raw new beginning. When it is rubble. Whenit is the playground of thistle and mullein, inquisitive children. Wild lovers. Feral dancers. If a wild still screams for release, no brick walls stacked with dull books and ancientartifacts dug from the belly of another ruinous earth place can let it loose. Turn thoseboundless places within – out; so no box, no walls, no bricks, no moral order, no fuckinggods or masters can ever again contain us. It is time for an emergent surreality where ourrelease will be convulsive or not at all.

When it’s a heavyweight smashing through the tipping point...

If “re-connecting” and “re-wilding” are realdesires and goals and not just a novelty ofanother sort, why aren’t we talking about andexperimenting with ways to re-sensitize our-selves to the subtle indications that momentouschange is coming or is necessary? To becomeour own curious scientists – more experientialand experimental. Sharing what we’ve learnedfor and about ourselves, without assigninggood or bad, right and wrong to others’choices. Even Science need not be whollydiscarded. Yet. But why give it more weightthan our own experiences and of those folkswe know and trust? This means making oneof the most difficult changes of all, tearingup one of civilization’s heartiest roots: thebelief system that insist the ideas and proofsof others, particularly those set up as life’sauthorities, are superior to anything we imagine,attempt, and experience ourselves. And thatis a change, my friends, that few seem readyto make, no matter how rad they are. And sowe linger in agitated comfort and watchour possibilities get swallowed up by thedeterministic few. In the world of my dreams, the chaotic windscease being a single homogeneous force. Theyare known for what they really are: immea-surable individual entities traveling together.We would feel their temperature and motionas nuanced qualities that need no measure-ment. To enjoy their dance of many, that onlyappears as one. And, only for a time. We wouldhear again each moan and hum. Each wailresonating inside, through, and around us.So it would be with the rain. With our love.Free again. Free as the wind.

Riding the Windsof Change(continued from page 3)Imagine

The editors of Green Anarchy do not necessarily agree with orendorse all or any particular article, action, ad/announcement in each issue. Most articlesare written and contributed by people unknown to us. The news and actions are reported on as journalists. Green Anarchy intends to provide an ongoing anti-civilizationdiscussion of theory and practice, NOT to periodically release a position paper, ideological requirements, or directive for action. Articles are selected for print when wefeel that they have a nugget of interest to the wider anti-civilization discourse. Please keep this in mind when reading and do not attribute any ideas or opinions expressedto any party but the author. It is important to add that this collective is not a homogeneous block, but a combined effort of individuals with our own unique opinions,motivations, and feelings, who come together for this specific project. If you have additional questions, contact the collective (or the individual author when available).If you have comments, write us a letter or email.

It is otherwise with emergents.Instead of adding measurable motion

to measurable motion,or things of one kind

to others of their kind,there is a cooperation

of unlike kinds.

Thus the emergent isunlike its components

as they are each unique;it cannot be reduced to their sum

or their difference.

Every resultant is either a sumor a difference of cooperant forces.A sum when their directionsare the same,a difference whentheir directions are contrary.Further, every resultantis clearly traceablein its componentsbecause they arehomogeneous andcommensurable.


THE RAPIDLY MOUNTING TOLL OF MODERN LIFE

is worse than we could have imagined. A meta-morphosis rushes onward, changing the textureof living, the whole feel of things. In the not-so-distant past this was still only a partialmodification; now the Machine converges onus, penetrating more and more to the core ofour lives, promising no escape from its logic. The only stable continuity has been that ofthe body, and that has become vulnerable inunprecedented ways. We now inhabit a culture,according to Furedi (1997), “of high anxietythat borders on a state of outright panic.”Postmodern discourse suppresses articulationsof suffering, a facet of its accommodation to theinevitability of further, systematic desolation.The prominence of chronic degenerativediseases makes a chilling parallel with thepermanent erosion of all that is healthy andlife-affirming inside industrial culture. That is,maybe the disease can be slowed a bit in itsprogression, but no overall cure is imaginablein this context—which created the conditionin the first place. As much as we yearn for community, it isall but dead. McPherson, Smith-Lovin andBrashears (American Sociological Review2006) tell us that 19 years ago, the typicalAmerican had three close friends; now thenumber is two. Their national study alsoreveals that over this period of time, thenumber of people without one friend orconfidant has tripled. Census figures showa correspondingly sharp rise in single-personhouseholds, as the technoculture—with itsvaunted “connectivity”––grows steadily moreisolating, lonely and empty.

In Japan “people simply aren’t having sex”(Kitamura 2006) and the suicide rate has beenrising rapidly. Hikikimori, or self-isolation,finds over a million young people staying intheir rooms for years. Where the technocultureis most developed, levels of stress, depressionand anxiety are highest. Questions and ideas can only become currentsin the world insofar as reality, external andinternal, makes that possible. Our present state,devolving toward catastrophe, displays areality in unmistakable terms. We are boundfor a head-on collision between urgent newquestions and a totality—global civilization—that can provide no answers. A world thatoffers no future, but shows no signs of admittingthis fact, imperils its own future along withthe life, health, and freedom of all beings onthe planet. Civilization’s rulers have alwayssquandered whatever remote chances they hadto prepare for the end of life as they know it,by choosing to ride the crest of domination, inall its forms. It has become clear to some that the depthof the expanding crisis, which is as massivelydehumanizing as it is ecocidal, stems from thecardinal institutions of civilization itself. Thediscredited promises of Enlightenment andmodernity represent the pinnacle of the gravemistake known as civilization. There is noprospect that this Order will renounce thatwhich has defined and maintained it, andapparently little likelihood that its variousideological supporters can face the facts. Ifcivilization’s collapse has already begun, aprocess now unofficially but widely assumed,there may be grounds for a widespread refusal

or abandonment of the reigning totality.Indeed, its rigidity and denial may be settingthe stage for a cultural shift on an unprecedentedscale, which could unfold rapidly. Of course, a paradigm shift away from thisentrenched, but vulnerable and fatally flawedsystem is far from unavoidable. The other mainpossibility is that too many people, for theusual reasons (fear, inertia, manufacturedincapacity, etc.) will passively accept realityas it is, until it’s too late to do anything but tryto deal with collapse. It’s noteworthy that agrowing awareness that things are goingwrong, however inchoate and individualized,is fuelled by a deep, visceral unease and in manycases, acute suffering. This is where opportunityresides. From this new perspective that iscertainly growing, we find the work of con-fronting what faces us as a species, andremoving the barriers to planetary survival.The time has come for a wholesale indictmentof civilization and mass society. It is at leastpossible that, in various modes, such a judgmentcan undo the death-machine before destructionand domestication inundate everything. Although what’s gone before helps usunderstand our current plight, we now live inobvious subjection, on a plainly greater scalethan heretofore. The enveloping techno-worldthat is spreading so rapidly suggests movementtoward even deeper control of every aspect ofour lives. Adorno’s assessment in the 1960s isproving valid today: “Eventually the systemwill reach a point––the word that provides thesocial cue is ‘integration’––where the universaldependence of all moments on all othermoments makes the talk of causality obsolete.It is idle to search for what might have been acause within a monolithic society. Only thatsociety itself remains the cause.” (NegativeDialectics, p. 267). A totality that absorbs every “alternative”and seems irreversible. Totalitarian. It is itsown justification and ideology. Our refusal,our call to dismantle all this, is met with fewerand fewer countervailing protests or argu-ments. The bottom-line response is more alongthe lines of “Yes, your vision is good, true,valid; but this reality will never go away.” None of the supposed victories overinhumanity have made the world safer, noteven just for our own species. All the revolutionshave only tightened the hold of domination,by updating it. Despite the rise and fall of variouspolitical persuasions, it is always productionthat has won; technological systems neverretreat, they only advance. We have been freeor autonomous insofar as the Machine requiresfor its functioning. Meanwhile, the usual idiotic judgmentscontinue. “We should be free to use specifictechnologies as tools without adopting tech-nology as lifestyle.” (Valovic 2000). “Theworlds created through digital technology arereal to the extent that we choose to play theirgames.” (Downs 2005).

BreakingPoint?

by

JohnZerzan

BreakingPoint?


Along with the chokehold of power, andsome lingering illusions about how modernityworks, the Machine is faced with worseningprospects. It is a striking fact that those whomanage the dominant organization of life nolonger even attempt answers or positiveprojections. The most pressing “issues” (e.g.Global Warming) are simply ignored, and pro-paganda about Community (the market plusisolation), Freedom (total surveillance society),the American Dream (!) is so false that itcannot be expected to be taken seriously. As Sahlins pointed out (1977), the morecomplex societies become, the less they are ableto cope with challenges. The central concernof any state is to preserve predictability; as thiscapacity visibly fails, so do that state’s chancesof survival. When the promise of securitywanes, so does the last real support. Many stud-ies have concluded that various ecosystems aremore likely to suffer sudden catastrophiccollapse, rather than undergo steady, predictabledegradation. The mechanisms of rule just mightbe subject to a parallel development. In earlier times there was room to maneuver.Civilization’s forward movement was accom-panied by a safety valve: the frontier. Large-scaleexpansion of the Holy Roman Empire eastwardduring the 12th–14th centuries, the invasionof the New World after 1500, the Westwardmovement in North America through the endof the 19th century. But the system becomes“mortgaged to structures accumulated along theway” (Sahlins again). We are hostages, and sois the whole hierarchical ensemble. The wholesystem is busy, always in flux; transactions takeplace at an ever-accelerating rate. We havereached the stage where the structure reliesalmost wholly on the co-optation of forces thatare more or less outside its control. A primeexample is the actual assistance given by leftistregimes in South America. The issue is not somuch that of the outcome of neo-liberaleconomics, but of the success of the left inpower at furthering self-managed capital, andco-opting indigenous resistance into its orbit. But these tactics do not outweigh the fact ofan overall inner rigidity that puts the future oftechno-capital at grave risk. The name of thecrisis is modernity itself, its contingent,cumulative weight. Any regime today is in asituation where every “solution” only deepensthe engulfing problems. More technology andmore coercive force are the only resources tofall back on. The “dark side” of progress standsrevealed as the definitive face of modern times. Theorists such as Giddens and Beck admitthat the outer limits of modernity have beenreached, so that disaster is now the latentcharacteristic of society. And yet they holdout hope, without predicating basic change,that all will be well. Beck, for instance,calls for a democratization of industrialismand technological change—carefullyavoiding the question of why this has neverhappened.

There is no reconciliation, no happy endingwithin this totality, and it is transparently falseto claim otherwise. History seems to haveliquidated the possibility of redemption; itsvery course undoes what has been passing ascritical thought. The lesson is to notice howmuch must change to establish a new andgenuinely viable direction. There never wasa moment of choosing; the field or groundof life shifts imperceptibly in a multitude ofways, without drama, but to vast effect. If thesolution were sought in technology, thatwould of course only reinforce the rule ofmodern domination; this is a major part of thechallenge that confronts us. Modernity has reduced the scope allowedfor ethical action, cutting off its potentiallyeffective outlets. But reality, forcing itself uponus as the crisis mounts, is becoming proximaland insistent once again. Thinking gnaws awayat everything, because this situation corrodeseverything we have wanted. We realize that itis up to us. Even the likelihood of a collapseof the global techno-structure should not lureus away from acknowledgement of our decisivepotential roles, our responsibility to stop theengine of destruction. Passivity, like a defeatedattitude, will not bring forth deliverance. We are all wounded, and paradoxically, thisestrangement becomes the basis for com-munality. A gathering of the traumatized maybe forming, a spiritual kinship demandingrecovery. Because we can still feel acutely,our rulers can rest no more easily than wedo. Our deep need for healing means that anoverthrow must take place. That alone wouldconstitute healing. Things “just go on”, creatingthe catastrophe on every level. People arefiguring it out: that things just go on is, infact, the catastrophe.

Melissa Holbrook Pierson (The Place YouLove is Gone 2006) expressed it this way:“Suddenly now it hits, bizarrely easy to grasp.We are inexorably heading for the BigGoodbye. It’s official! The unthinkable isready to be thought. It is finally in sight, afterall of human history behind us. In the pit ofwhat is left of your miserable soul you feel itcoming, the definitive loss of home, biggerthan the cause of one person’s tears. Yoursand mine, the private sob, will be joined by amass crying….” Misery. Immiseration. Time to get back towhere we have never quite given up wantingto be. “Stretched and stretched again to theelastic limit at which it will bear no more,”in Spengler’s phrase. Enlightenment thought, along with the Indus-trial Revolution, began in late 18th centuryEurope, inaugurating modernity. We werepromised freedom based on conscious controlover our destiny. But Enlightenment claimshave not been realized, and the whole projecthas turned out to be self-defeating. Foundationalelements including reason, universal rights andthe laws of science were consciously designedto jettison pre-scientific, mystical sorts ofknowledge. Diverse, communally sustainedlifeways were sacrificed in the name of aunitary and uniform, law-enforced pattern ofliving. Kant’s emphasis on freedom throughmoral action is rooted in this context, alongwith the French encyclopedists’ program toreplace traditional crafts with more up-to-datetechnological systems. Kant, by the way, forwhom property was sanctified by no less thanhis categorical imperative, favorably comparedthe modern university to an industrial machineand its products.

(continued on next page)


Various Enlightenment figures debated thepros and cons of emerging modern develop-ments, and these few words obviously cannotdo justice to the topic of Enlightenment. How-ever, it may be fruitful to keep this importanthistorical conjunction in mind: the nearlysimultaneous births of modern progressivethought and mass production. Apt in thisregard is the perspective of Min Lin (2001):“Concealing the social origin of cognitivediscourses and the idea of certainty is theinner requirement of modern Western ideologyin order to justify or legitimate its position byuniversalizing its intellectual basis and creatinga new sacred quasi-transcendance.” Modernity is always trying to go beyonditself to a different state, lurching forward asif to recover the equilibrium lost so long ago.It is bent on changing the future—even itsown—because it destroys the present. Moremodernity is needed to heal the woundsmodernity inflicts! With modernity’s stress on freedom, modernenlightened institutions have in fact succeededin nothing so much as conformity. Lyotard(1991) summed up the overall outcome: “Anew barbarism, illiteracy and impoverishmentof language, new poverty, merciless remod-eling of opinion by media, immiseration of themind, obsolescence of the soul.” Massified,standardizing modes, in every area of life,relentlessly re-enact the actual control programof modernity. “Capitalism did not create our world; themachine did. Painstaking studies designed toprove the contrary have buried the obviousbeneath tons of print.” (Ellul 1964). Which is notin any way to deny the centrality of class rule,

but to remind us that divided society beganwith division of labor. The divided self leddirectly to divided society. The division oflabor is the labor of division. Understandingwhat characterizes modern life can never befar from the effort to understand technology’srole in our everyday lives, just as it alwayshas been. Lyotard (1991) judged that “tech-nology wasn’t invented by humans. Rather theother way around. Goethe’s Faust, the first tragedy about indus-trial development, depicted its deepest horrorsas stemming from honorable aims. The super-human developer Faust partakes of a driveendemic to modernization, one which isthreatened by any trace of otherness/differencein its totalizing movement. We function in an ever more homogeneousfield, a ground always undergoing furtheruniformitization to promote a single, globalizedtechno-grid. Yet it is possible to avoid thisconclusion by keeping one’s focus on thesurface, on what is permitted to exist onthe margins. Thus some see Indymedia as acrucial triumph of decentralization, and freesoftware as a radical demand. This attitudeignores the industrial basis of every high techdevelopment and usage. All the “wondroustools,” including the ubiquitous and very toxiccell phone, are more related to eco-disastrousindustrialization in China and India, for example,than to the clean, slick pages of Wiredmagazine. The salvationist claims of Wired areincredible in their disconnected, infantilefantasies. Its adherents can only maintain suchgigantic delusions by means of deliberateblindness not only to technology’s systematicdestruction of nature, but to the global human

cost involved: lives filled with toxicity, drudg-ery, and industrial accidents. Now there are nascent protest phenomenaagainst the all-encompassing universal system,such as “slow food,” “slow cities,” “slowroads”. People would prefer that the juggernautgive pause and not devour the texture of life.But actual degradation is picking up speed, inits deworlding, disembedding course. Only aradical break will impede its trajectory. Moremissiles and more nukes in more countries isobviously another part of the general move-ment of the technological imperative. Thespecter of mass death is the crowning achieve-ment, the condition of modernity, while theposthuman is the coming techno-conditionof the subject. We are the vehicle of theMegamachine, not its beneficiary, held hostageto its every new leap forward. The techno-human condition looms, indeed. Nothing canchange until the technological basis ischanged, is erased. Our condition is reinforced by those whoinsist—in classic postmodern fashion—thatnature/culture is a false binarism. The naturalworld is evacuated, paved over, to the strainsof the surrender-logic that nature has alwaysbeen cultural, always available for subjugation.Koert van Mensvoort’s “Exploring Next Nature”(2005) exposes the domination of nature logic,so popular in some quarters: “Our next naturewill consist of what used to be cultural.”Bye-bye, non-engineered reality. After all, heblithely proclaims, nature changes with us. This is the loss of the concept of nature alto-gether—and not just the concept! But the sign“nature” certainly enjoys popularity, as thesubstance is destroyed: “exotic” third world

“Modernity is always trying to go beyond itselfto a different state, lurching forward as if to recoverthe equilibrium lost so long ago. It is bent on changingthe future—even its own—because it destroys thepresent. More modernity is needed to heal the woundsmodernity inflicts!”

““Modernity is always trying to go beyond itModernity is always trying to go beyond itselfselfto a different state, lurching forward as if to recoverto a different state, lurching forward as if to recoverthe equilibrium lost so long ago. the equilibrium lost so long ago. It is bent on changingIt is bent on changingthe future—even its own—because it destroys thethe future—even its own—because it destroys thepresent. More modernity is needed to heal thpresent. More modernity is needed to heal the woundse woundsmomodernity inflicts!”dernity inflicts!”


We wonder, needless to say, what 2007 will be bringing us, withthe present situation quite grim enough. Biggest story last year,along with the war in Iraq of course, was arguably the full-boreindustrialization going on in China, with its mammoth impactsacross the board. Ecocide plunges forward throughout the world while we ponderour prospects for challenging it. The other side of the coin ofthe enveloping crisis, the social and personal, seems to be equallythreatening. The number of American children with seriousemotional disorders has tripled since the early 1990s. LastOctober a Pennsylvania mother used her 4 week-old infant as aweapon, swinging the baby through the air striking her boyfriend.

A N E W L E A F In January a four year-old was beheaded by her father andleft for her mother to find (suburb of Raleigh NC).Theepisodes of multiple homicides-suicide mount – terrorist“suicide bombers” anyone? More anxiety, stress, depression,obesity, isolation, cynicism...The arrival of new horrifyingphenomena speeds up in the barren technoculture. We know that the Left has no answers to what is over-

taking us, inspires pretty much no one. Very possibly thisexplains a curious non-event last spring in New York.Hundreds were expected for a screening of long-out-of-circulation films by Guy Debord and to this much-publicizedoccasion five people showed up. We are going through atransition period in which something is dying out andsomething new is struggling to fully emerge. We may in fact have the opportunity to take the offensivethis year even though the present relative vacuum remainsclosely guarded. Visions that take on mass society anddomesticated non-life can respond to pressures for somethingdifferent, challenging the very nature of what we’re stuckin and offering liberatory perspectives on all that shouldno longer be taken for granted (not just capitalism surely). Our friend Aragorn!, on the road for several weeks last

summer, was surprised to learn of anarchists in many smalltowns he’d never heard of. Another hopeful sign is a smalltide of new books that speak to growing doubts about

modernity itself, including Steven Jones’ Against Technology: Fromthe Luddites to the Neo-Luddites, Victor Li’s The Neo-PrimitivistTurn and Kirpatrick Sale’s After Eden: The Evolution of HumanDomination (see Reviews, page 83). Books like these reflect thestark and widening gulf between what the dominant culture is tryingto sell us and an ever more insistently estranging, oppressive reality.Something else has to emerge and it is in fact emerging. Now it’struly our turn to step up. To the energies of resistance in so manyplaces on the earth a deepened idea of our targets must come forth.We can contribute to that starting here and now in our own areas,by every means possible.

by John Zerzan

cultural products, natural ingredients in food,etc. Unfortunately, the nature of experience islinked to the experience of nature. When thelatter is reduced to an insubstantial presence,the former is disfigured. Paul Berkett (2006)cites Marx and Engels to the effect that withcommunism people will “not only feel but alsoknow their oneness with nature,” that commu-nism is “the unity of being of man with nature.”Industrial-technological overcoming as itsopposite—what blatant productionist rubbish.Leaving aside the communism orientation,however, how much of today’s Left disagreeswith the marxian ode to mass production? A neglected insight in Freud’s Civilizationand its Discontents is the suggestion that adeep, unconscious “sense of guilt produced bycivilization” causes a growing malaise anddissatisfaction. Adorno (1966) saw that relevantto “the catastrophe that impends is the sup-position of an irrational catastrophe in thebeginning. Today the thwarted possibility ofsomething other has shrunk to that of avertingcatastrophe in spite of everything.”

The original, qualitative, utter failure for lifeon this planet was the setting in motion of civi-lization. Enlightenment—like the Axial Ageworld religions 2000 years before––suppliedtranscendence for the next level of domination,an indispensable support for industrial modernity.But where would one now find the source of atranscending, justifying framework for newlevels of rapacious development? What newrealm of ideas and values can be conjured up tovalidate the all-encompassing ruin of latemodernity? There is none. Only the system’sown inertia; no answers, and no future. Meanwhile our context is that of a sociabilityof uncertainty. The moorings of day-to-daystability are being unfastened, as the systembegins to show multiple weaknesses. When itcan no longer guarantee security, its end is near. Ours is an incomparable historical vantagepoint. We can easily grasp the story of thisuniversal civilization’s malignancy. Thisunderstanding may be a signal strength forenabling a paradigm shift, the one that coulddo away with civilization and free us from the

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habitual will to dominate. A daunting challenge,to say the least; but recall the child who wasmoved to speak out in the face of collectivedenial. The Emperor was wearing nothing;the spell was broken.


As I walk barefoot down the soft and soggy floor of a fir, cedar,and madrone forest, there is no unevenness of balance betweenthought and feeling, no uneasy longing, no displacement. It is damp,as the trickle from the trees during a brief pause in the raincontinues the downward pattern of water falling, but slower, morerelaxed, while other sounds can now be perceived during thisinterlude. In the distance, a stream that empties into a creek canbe heard as the ceaseless travels of water continues. Entering myawareness are the rustle of leaves from a hardy bird, the cautiousapproach of a hungry deer, and the cleansing smell of moisturefills me. I am calm and alert… content and enthusiastic. As Icontinue down this worn and familiar path, a glimmer of sun peaksthrough gray sky, casting faint shadows from the trees. I reach topick a…

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

SLAM!

Fuck. Why does it always have to end like that?

I attempt to focus my eyes away from the white room and out thewindow. Across the street, I see a repetitiously ornate facade of anolder turn-of-the-century stone building, and in one of its windows,the reflection of hyper-sped motion from the street below. I reallyhate this place. I need more sleep and I roll back over and try tothink of something more pleasurable. With absolutely no desireto enter that world quite yet, it’s not hard to initiate and embrace arush of images, feelings, and thoughts, and before I know it, I falldizzily back to the misty mountain forest, only now the sun hasopened up more of the sky, to where a sizable portion of pale blueseeps through. An old friend is approaching, as I spot a patch ofluscious fungi I have tasted many times before, near the decomposingremnants of an ancient douglas fir. I bend down next to this trea-sure and begin to examine it more closely. I notice minute aspectsof this variety that I have never noticed before. I remember all theplaces in this area where I have gathered this sort of mushroomand a wave of joy and warmth moves through me as I also recallthose I shared the discovery, preparation, and consumption with.I begin to…

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

SLAM!

Damn. Why does that sharply abbreviated return to connectionalmost feel worse than none at all? My mind argues with itself aswhether to fall back again, or face the day. Believing that my long-term stress will increase every time I choose the short-term solutionof delay and evasion, I grumble as I sit up and rub my eyes indisbelief at the sheer ugliness and rigidity of this place. I wonder howmuch more I can take, but what puzzles me even more, is why I havechosen to come here at all. I hate the city and I wanna go home.

Luckily, I am only here temporarily, some brief affairs to attendto, some friends to see, some exotic foods to eat, and then I canreturn to my rural existence – not exactly wild, but a hell of a lotcloser than this (probably the next best thing to fully going feral;for me, a reasonable and interim detour on my gradual, but delib-erate, journey back).

I have spent considerable time in the city, and this one in particular.For a few years, I even called it my “home” and saw it as a “natural”habitat for a creative and anxious youth looking to experience asmuch as I could as quickly as possible. In the end though, it wasmerely a momentary place of residence for me, filled with temporarydistractions, dead ends, frustration, and an occasional meaningfulor adventurous experience. It was not the idealized vision of apositive human socialized existence (that’s how I viewed it in myover-educated, utopianized, and mostly domesticated mind, onestill in recovery from, and reacting to, a youth of suburban sterility,strictness, and boredom). Time, experiences, growth, new questions,and dissatisfaction, however, eventually sent me on a different path,away from this malignant and soul-swallowing concrete, steel, andcultural maze. Years later, I am still wrestling to move completelyaway from its entanglement.

I proceed to prepare myself for the world out there. I get dressed,making sure to have all of my attire for this terrain,including…boots (to cushion my feet against the thick layer ofinflexible concrete), sunglasses (so as not to have thousandsof strangers peeking into my thoughts and feelings, and so theydon’t see me peeking into theirs), backpack (to securely containall my nomadic treasures, procurements, and emotional crutches),propaganda (for various pre-determined and unexpected distributionpoints along my route, or for the random outcast and future escapee),sharpie (for more spontaneous propaganda and alterations),

From “Misadventures of aDissatisfied Civilian:

At War & Going Home”by Sal Insieme

the City

Why I Hate

the City

Why I Hate

(inspired by the beautifulPaloma Piccione)


water bottle and snacks (since you can’t eat or drink anything whichgrows or flows here, and everything else must be purchased – if Iwas really prepared, I’d have a pee jar to avoid the perpetual searchfor a free place to urinate), book (for all the brief retreats from thisreality, where one can grow both dizzy and bored in the middle ofthousands of contrary things happening at once), notebook (to jotdown random thoughts coming into my head, like these beforeyou now), address book (with all the phone numbers I need toknow for any possible situation, as I am venturing into the equivalentto what the civilized view as the wild), walkman and tapes – mostlyjazz (for shutting out the constant horrendous screeching, scraping,beeping, and grinding sounds of this place and to remind me thatsome provocative beauty is actually created in this franticallycharged atmosphere; and no, I don’t have an iPod), and, of course,my reusable vessel for the substance which keeps it all going, thatoily bitter alacritous nectar – coffee (no cream or sugar please,you ain’t cuttin’ it with nothin’!). At one time 10 cups a day, myextreme dependence on coffee (not to mention other dysfunctionalor unbalanced behaviors, dependencies, obsessions, and abuses –based on my own self-reflection and desires, not any moral judgement)is an addiction that has come and gone with me throughout mylife, and directly proportional to the degree to which I was immersedin the urban condition. Just to get into the rhythm of the city, itspulses, its voltage, its abruptness – usually out of sync, and oftenat odds, with rhythms of the earth – requires us to tweak our bodies,minds, and spirits in some notably extreme ways. The city neversleeps, and often we are drawn to, or at least expected to endure,that same lack of slumber. We might miss something. We needto stay on top of so muchheading in all differentdirections at once. Whocares when the sun risesand sets or what directionis south or where the foodand water come from inthis superficial mecca ofdistortion, artificiality, andperformance? This realityis almost entirely con-structed for completelydifferent reasons than weare, or any other organiclife form or process. It is aself-perpetuating mecha-nism, and as long as thefuel is consumed, and pe-riodic repairs are made,it progresses forward as itbuilds its own methodsand values, ones we mustsubmit to, despite theirseemingly arbitrariness tolife. I feel both expression-less and deranged amongthe armies of alienation.

My goals at the moment aremuch different then my usual day outside of the city. They aremore short-term, have preciseness to them. They are not the chopwood, fetch water types of my daily routine, nor the project-oriented ones, nor the spontaneous and celebratory excursions.No, it seems like a carefully plotted military maneuver, with meprepared for whatever comes my way. Ready to trudge throughfor the mission. No time to enjoy the doing, just strings of tasks

and cold space between them. No time to sit and soak in the lifearound me. Shit, I don’t even think about closing my eyes outthere. I guess this approach can happen anywhere, but the cityseems to have something inherent in its form and function:impersonal scale, velocity driven, and economically focused.

Of course, life does drift in this mess. Some in its margins.Some against its grain. And some, which can more easily adaptto adverse conditions, even seem to flow with the energy of thisplace. This is mostly an illusion, though, something we tell our-selves so as to avoid being fully honest and risk a completelycrushed soul. The hyper-promoted fantasy of cosmopolitanadventure and unending possibility is nothing but the danglingcarrot, the cheap lipstick, the polished sports car, the surgicallyenlarged penis of the system; it really has little behind it, and itjust might really hurt you in the end. Officially sanctioned activityvaries widely from city to city, neighborhood to neighborhood,even person to person, especially if you ain’t got the do-re-mi,but off the radar, you can find the weirdest shit. Now, I ain’t noprude and I ain’t no moralist. Whatever people wanna do or thinkthey need, that’s great, as long as they ain’t hurtin’ anyone, butdown some of the darkest alleys, behind some of the funkiestdoors – shit, in some of the swankiest apartments – you can findpeople engaged in things you never even imagined. But oftenwhat passes for the unleashing of desires, is merely the leashingof each other or the desiring of leashes, and mostly the leechingout of desires as our life-force slips away and we become thewhite noise of the metropolis. Often, people are playing out

the most extravagantlyobtuse performancesbecause their lives areempty, built on nothing butthe urban buzz, designedfrom a distorted collage,fabricated in either aboardroom, chemical lab,or chat room. Novelty fornovelty’s sake, shock forshock value, faster andfaster, and you better notget too old around here.The vampiric qualitieswill eventually turn youblanched and anemic.

Anyway, following anafternoon of pokingaround town, I have a fewused records, a coupleexpired bus tickets, aqueasy stomach fromsome off-Chinese food, alayer of brownish-grayfilm on my skin, and aheadache from way toomuch java to show for it.I awkwardly hop on acrowded bus back to

my friend’s place so we can rendezvous with others fordinner at some exotic restaurant that allows you to pre-tend for a night that you’re a hip globe-trotter, then, maybesee some expensive mediocre band where one drinkcosts more than all the alcohol I made in a year at home.


“I feel both expressionless and deranged

among the armies of alienation.”

“I feel both expressionless and deranged

among the armies of alienation.”


Oh well, the night is long, the beads of time pass slow…—Robert Plant

Why has there never evolved a tribe of nocturnal humans?Randomly, occasionally, a human ventures into the nightand…it’s empty. A blank black page upon which few havewritten…just the stars, the bats, the feral starving cats.It’s a world for you…the last human being awake on earth.It’s the world black-washed clean of the sick side of human“progress.” No bright glaring signs, no open invitations tobuy buy buy, no screeching honking humming, no exhaustand fast food grease wind, no elbows bumping you and eyesstaring, or worse, avoiding. Consumerism is powered down,if not unplugged. At night the factories dine on raw materials.Ships unload containers of cheap Chinese plastic down at the docks.The newspaper printing presses roll in full swing. The marketshelves restock; the front glass windows are washed clean.

Have you ever given yourself up to the night? Isolated nightsof resisting sleep are just parodies, cheap tricks, jokes.To give yourself up to the night, do not resist sleep at all.Remove yourself from “their” world, the daytime glaringclashing sick busy anxious world, by sleeping while the restof the world spins. Awake at the end of civilization; awakenjust to see the sun die. Then your life begins. Resist theelectric night life, a cheap imitation of all you avoided in yoursleep. Go out where it’s dark, avoid street lights, avoid busyroads, avoid night life hangouts, seek the darkest places.They are empty, they are yours.

The night world is oh so much more subtle. Mind, body, soul,and heart must all function on a higher level to receive thesame stimulation that is slapped in your face in the daytime.Eyesight will alter to see faded colors and shapes in theshadows. Ears will become attuned to the small sounds ofcat feet, branches cracking, the distant humming of car tires.You must be quick, alert, stealthy. Humans are rare creaturesto see in the deep of the night. It’s lonely, you must searchlonger, harder, deeper, to find support and comfort and friends.At night you hear as much or more than you see. Firstimpressions are based on shape, movement, intent andactions. When you aren’t blinded by the surface, you maypeer beneath into the depths.

You can freely sing on the sidewalks, you can swim naked inthe pools of the rich, you can run when you feel like running,or sit in the middle of the street and share stories.

At night you see not only beyond our civilization, with itscheap consumerism and busy busy busy bustle, you seebeyond the earth that you once thought was “the whole world.”You see stars scattered randomly, in all colors, at alldistances, existing in vast empty space, through whichyour insanely crowded vehicle of a planet cruises…

The suhshine bores the daylights out of me. . .– Mick Jagger

Nocturnalism

Page 12

The possibilities seem endless, but they really only fit into verynarrow parameters for what passes as life around here. I’ll probablydrink too much, have a few laughs, and make my way back to thecrash pad where, instead of sleeping, I will try to remember why Icame here and think about what I will do tomorrow. (At least that’sall I’ll tell you...)

As I lay in bed, drowning the outside noise with some CharlieParker on the headphones, I begin to scribble some notes for aflyer I will make tomorrow to post around town, particularly inthe hipster spots and alternative grunge centers…

“…Unlike the post-modernists, the capitalists, the technophiles, theLeftists, and the hipsters, who uncritically, and in many casesenthusiastically, cling to the death culture, I will not defend its mostsignificant manifestation, its very essence: the city. I will not fightfor its streets or neighborhoods. I will not reclaim what was notmine to begin with, nor what I would never want. Beyond my personalaesthetic and experiential preferences, it is clear that negativehuman tendencies (anti-liberatory, confining, authoritarian, and self-destructive) seem to expand as a society becomes more massified,with its most appalling point being that of the city. While the word“civilization” literally means a “culture of the city”, in the past Ihave hesitated using that definition, and still have some apprehensionwith that narrow description. I tend to look more at tendencies likedomestication and other dynamics and functions to describe a largerrange of physical and social organizations, but I do think the cityserves as an extreme model of the negative consequences of thecivilized reality. It is a cancerous case study, one I wish to under-stand more fully and occasionally interface with, but one I wish toundermine wherever possible. The toxicity, alienation, and hyper-stimulation of the cosmopolitan condition cannot honestly benavigated in any long-term situation. There is almost nothingsalvageable. Those who apologize for the urban wasteland, and itsinherently unhealthy, unsustainable, indentured, and anti-liberatorycondition are trapped in metropolitan fantasies or massive delusion andconfusion over the so-called “unrestrained” and “livable” possibilitieswhich lay within the asphalt, steel, plastic, and fiber-optic maze of thecity. The city is the test-tube for a neo-world thanks to technology,

imperialism, global trade, and post-modern fads, notlandscapes where ecology takes thousands andmillions of years to evolve based on the slowlytransitioning organic micro-conditions of a place.I wish to go home. I do not live here anymore…”As the pen falls from my hand, my head hitsthe pillow, and a numbness overtakes my wearybody, I think about the forest where I live, theones I am missing, and that I only have fourmore days before I can use my bus ticket…Four more days…Four more days…Four more days…Four dayzzzzzzzzzzz…

Oh well, the night is long, the beads of time pass slow…Oh well, the night is long, the beads of time pass slow…—Robert Plant—Robert Plant

Why has there never evolved a tribe of nocturnal humans?Why has there never evolved a tribe of nocturnal humans?RanRandomly, occasionally, a human ventures into the nightdomly, occasionally, a human ventures into the nightand…it’s empty. A blank black page upon which few haveand…it’s empty. A blank black page upon which few havewwritten…just the stars, the bats, the feral starving cats.ritten…just the stars, the bats, the feral starving cats.It’It’s a world for you…the last human being awake on earth.s a world for you…the last human being awake on earth.It’s the world black-washed clean of the sick side of humanIt’s the world black-washed clean of the sick side of human“progress.” No bright glaring signs, no open invitations to“progress.” No bright glaring signs, no open invitations tobuy buy buy, no screeching honking humming, no exhaustbuy buy buy, no screeching honking humming, no exhaustand fast food grease wind, no elbows bumping you and eyesand fast food grease wind, no elbows bumping you and eyesstaring, or worse, avoiding. Consumerism is powered down,staring, or worse, avoiding. Consumerism is powered down,if if not unplugged. At night the factories dine on raw materinot unplugged. At night the factories dine on raw materials.als.SShips unload containers of cheap Chinese plastic down at the docks.hips unload containers of cheap Chinese plastic down at the docks.The newspaper printing presses roll in full swing. The marketThe newspaper printing presses roll in full swing. The marketshelves restock; the front glass windows are washed clean.shelves restock; the front glass windows are washed clean.

Have you ever given yourself up to the night? Isolated nightsHave you ever given yourself up to the night? Isolated nightsof resisting sleep are just parodies, cheap tricks, jokes.of resisting sleep are just parodies, cheap tricks, jokes.TTo give yourself up to the night, do not resist sleep at all.o give yourself up to the night, do not resist sleep at all.ReRemove yourself from “their” world, the daytime glaringmove yourself from “their” world, the daytime glaringclasclashing sick busy anxious world, by sleeping while the resthing sick busy anxious world, by sleeping while the restof the world spins. Awake at the end of civilization; awakenof the world spins. Awake at the end of civilization; awakenjust to see the sun die. Then your life begins. Resist thejust to see the sun die. Then your life begins. Resist theelectric night life, a cheap imitation of all you avoided in yourelectric night life, a cheap imitation of all you avoided in yoursleep. Go out where it’s dark, avoid street lights, avoid busysleep. Go out where it’s dark, avoid street lights, avoid busyroads, avoid night life hangouts, seek the darkest places.roads, avoid night life hangouts, seek the darkest places.They are empty, they are yours.They are empty, they are yours.

The night world is oh so much more subtle. Mind, body, soul,The night world is oh so much more subtle. Mind, body, soul,and heart must all function on a higher level to receive theand heart must all function on a higher level to receive thesame stimulation that is slapped in your face in the daytime.same stimulation that is slapped in your face in the daytime.EyEyesight will alter to see faded colors and shapes in theesight will alter to see faded colors and shapes in theshashadows. Ears will become attuned to the small sounds ofdows. Ears will become attuned to the small sounds ofcat feet, branches cracking, the distant humming of car tires.cat feet, branches cracking, the distant humming of car tires.You must be quick, alert, stealthy. Humans are rare creaYou must be quick, alert, stealthy. Humans are rare creaturesturesto see in the deep of the night. It’s lonely, you must searchto see in the deep of the night. It’s lonely, you must searchlonger, harder, deeper, to find support and comfort and friends.longer, harder, deeper, to find support and comfort and friends.AAt night you hear as much or more than you see. Firstt night you hear as much or more than you see. Firstiimpressions are based on shape, movement, intent andmpressions are based on shape, movement, intent andacactions. When you aren’t blinded by the surface, you maytions. When you aren’t blinded by the surface, you maypeer beneath into the depths.peer beneath into the depths.

You can freely sing on the sidewalks, you can swim naked inYou can freely sing on the sidewalks, you can swim naked inthe pools of the rich, you can run when you feel like running,the pools of the rich, you can run when you feel like running,or sit in the middle of the street and share stories.or sit in the middle of the street and share stories.

At night you see not only beyond our civilization, with itsAt night you see not only beyond our civilization, with itscheap consumerism and busy busy busy bustle, you seecheap consumerism and busy busy busy bustle, you seebebeyond the earth that you once thought was “the whole world.”yond the earth that you once thought was “the whole world.”YYou see stars scattered randomly, in all colors, at allou see stars scattered randomly, in all colors, at alldidistances, existing in vast empty space, through whichstances, existing in vast empty space, through whichyour insanely crowded vehicle of a planet cruises…your insanely crowded vehicle of a planet cruises…

The suhshine bores the daylights out of me. . The suhshine bores the daylights out of me. . ..– Mick Jagger– Mick Jagger

by All Gray

Nocturnalismby All Grayby All Gray

“…[while] “rewilding” is something that is primarily internal and

can occur in an infinite number of situations and contexts…I

have found the circumstances and dynamics of the city to be

less conducive to undomesticating projects than in rural and

certainly in more wild areas (less touched by primarily humans).

It is harder to be a feral mouse in a cage than it is in a field (even

if that field has human crops and plows), and there are certainly

even more possibilities in a forest. For one, there are simply less

civilized distractions and constraints. Just the pace alone can

open up huge possibilities. Plus, there is simply more life out-

side of human manipulation to relate to and connect with.”

– Methane’s review of “Liberate Not Exterminate”

by the Curious George Brigade, Green Anarchy, Issue #21


...It is the desperate moment whenwe discover that this empire, whichhad seemed to us the sum of allwonders, is an endless, formlessruin, that corruption’s gangrenehas spread too far to be healed byour specter, that the triumph overthe enemy sovereigns has made usthe heirs of their long undoing.Only in Marco Polo’s accounts wasKublai Khan able to discern,through the walls and towers destinedto crumble, the tracery of a patternso subtle it could escape the termites’gnawing...

Cities & Desire #2At the end of three days, moving south-ward, you come upon Anastasia, a city withconcentric canals watering it and kitesflying over it. I should now list the waresthat can profitably be bought here: agate,onyx, chrysoprase, and other varieties ofchalcedony; I should praise the flesh of thegolden pheasant cooked here over fires ofseasoned cherry wood and sprinkled withmuch sweet marjoram; and tell of thewomen I have seen bathing in the pool ofa garden and who sometimes - it is said -

invite the stranger to disrobe with themand chase them in the water. But with allthis, I would not be telling you the city’strue essence; for while the description ofAnastasia awakens desires one at time onlyto force you to stifle them, when you arein the heart of Anastasia one morning yourdesires waken all at once and surround you.The city appears to you as a whole whereno desire is lost and of which you are apart, and since it enjoys everything you donot enjoy, you can do nothing but inhabitthis desire and be content. Such is the power,sometimes called malignant, sometimes be-nign, that Anastasia, the treacherous city,possesses; if for eight hours a day you workas a cutter of agate, onyx, chrysoprase, yourlabor which gives form to desire takes fromdesire its form, and you believe you areenjoying Anastasia wholly when you areonly its slave.

Cities & Signs #1You walk for days among trees and amongstones. Rarely does the eye light on a thing,and then only when it has recognizedthat thing as the sign of another thing:a print in the sand indicates the tiger’spassage; a marsh announces a vein ofwater; the hibiscus flower, the end ofwinter. All the rest is silent and inter-changeable; trees and stones are onlywhat they are.

Finally the journey leads to the city ofTamara. You penetrate it along streets thickwith signboards jutting from the walls. Theeye does not see things but images of thingsthat mean other things: pincers point out thetooth-drawer’s house; a tankard, the tavern;halberds, the barracks; scales, the grocer’s.Statues and shields depict lions, dolphins,towers, stars: a sign that something - whoknows what? - has as its sign a lion or a dolphinor a tower or a star. Other signals warn ofwhat is forbidden in a given place (to enterthe alley with wagons, to urinate behind thekiosk, to fish with your pole from the bridge)and what is allowed (watering zebras, playingbowls, burning relatives’ corpses). From thedoors of the temples the gods’ statues areseen, each portrayed with his attributes - thecornucopia, the hourglass, the medusa - sothat the worshiper can recognize them andaddress his prayers correctly. If a buildinghas no signboard or figure, its very form andthe position it occupies in the city’s ordersuffice to indicate its function: the palace,the prison, the mint, the Pythagorean school,the brothel. The wares, too, which the vendorsdisplay on their stalls are valuable not inthemselves but as signs of other things: theembroidered headband stands for elegance;the gilded palanquin, power; the volumesof Averroes, learning; the ankle bracelet,voluptuousness. Your gaze scans the streetsas if they were written pages: the city sayseverything you must think, makes you repeather discourse, and while you believe you arevisiting Tamara you are only recording thenames with which she defines herself andall her parts. However the city may really be, beneaththis thick coating of signs, whatever it maycontain or conceal, you leave Tamara withouthaving discovered it. Outside, the landstretches, empty, to the horizon; the skyopens, with speeding clouds. In the shapethat chance and wind give the clouds, youare already intent on recognizing figures: asailing ship, a hand, an elephant...

Trading Cities #2In Chloe, a great city, the people who movethrough the streets are all strangers. At eachencounter, they imagine a thousand thingsabout one another; meetings which could takeplace between them, conversations, surprises,caresses, bites. But no one greets anyone; eyeslock for a second, then dart away, seekingother eyes, never stopping. A girl comes along, twirling a parasol onher shoulder, and twirling slightly also herrounded hips. A woman in black comesalong, showing her full age, her eyes restlessbeneath her veil, her lips trembling. A tattooedgiant comes along; a young man with whitehair; a female dwarf; two girls, twins, dressedin coral. Something runs among them,


InvisibleInvisibleCitiesCities

The following segments from Calvino’s classic book, Invisible Cities (1972),were chosen as illustrations exhibiting various attributes of the same place, thecity, as experienced by one visiting and passing through them. In this case, it isMarco Polo’s fictional retelling of his travels through Kublai Kahn’s empire tothe ruler himself. Kahn’s empire is facing its twilight, and so is the city.

Segments from Italo Calvino’s


an exchange of glances like lines that connectone figure with another and draw arrows,stars, triangles, until all combinations areused up in a moment, and other characterscome on to the scene: a blind man with acheetah on a leash, a courtesan with an ostrich-plume fan, an ephebe, a Fat Woman. Andthus, when some people happen to find them-selves together, taking shelter from the rainunder an arcade, or crowding beneath anawning of the bazaar, or stopping to listen tothe band in the square, meetings, seductions,copulations, orgies are consummated amongthem without a word exchanged, without afinger touching anything, almost without aneye raised. A voluptuous vibration constantly stirsChloe, the most chaste of cities. If men andwomen began to live their ephemeral dreams,every phantom would become a person withwhom to begin a story of pursuits, pretenses,misunderstandings, clashes, oppressions, andthe carousel of fantasies would stop.

Cities & Eyes #1The ancients built Valdrada on the shores of alake, with houses all verandas one above theother, and high streetswhose railed parapetslook out over the water.Thus the traveler, arriv-ing, sees two cities: oneerect above the lake,and the other reflected,upside down. Nothingexists or happens in theone Valdrada that theother Valdrada does notrepeat, because the citywas so constructed thatits every point would bereflected in its mirror,and the Valdrada downin the water containsnot only all the flutingsand juttings of the fa-cades that rise abovethe lake, but also therooms’ interiors withceilings and floors, theperspective of the halls,the mirrors of thewardrobes. Valdrada’s inhabitantsknow that each of their actions is, at once,that action and its mirror-image, which pos-sesses the special dignity of images, and thisawareness prevents them from succumbingfor a single moment to chance and forget-fulness. Even when lovers twist their nakedbodies, skin against skin, seeking the positionthat will give one the most pleasure in theother, even when murderers plunge the knifeinto the black veins of the neck and moreclotted blood pours out the more they pressthe blade that slips between the tendons, it is

not so much their copulating or murderingthat matters as the copulating or murderingof the images, limpid and cold in the mirror. At times the mirror increases a thing’s value,at times denies it. Not everything that seemsvaluable above the mirror maintains its forcewhen mirrored. The twin cities are not equal,because nothing that exists or happens inValdrada is symmetrical: every face andgesture is answered, from the mirror, by aface and gesture inverted, point by point. Thetwo Valdradas live for each other, their eyesinterlocked; but there is no love between them.

Thin Cities #5If you choose to believe me, good. Now Iwill tell how Octavia, the spider-web city,is made. There is a precipice between twosteep mountains: the city is over the void,bound to the two crests with ropes andchains and catwalks. You walk on the littlewooden ties, careful not to set your foot inthe open spaces, or you cling to the hempenstrands. Below there is nothing for hundredsand hundreds of feet: a few clouds glidepast; farther down you can glimpse thechasm’s bed.

This is the foundation of the city: a netwhich serves as passage and as support. Allthe rest, instead of rising up, is hung below:rope ladders, hammocks, houses made likesacks, clothes hangers, terraces like gondolas,skins of water, gas jets, spits, baskets onstrings, dumb-waiters, showers, trapezesand rings for children’s games, cable cars,chandeliers, pots with trailing plants. Suspended over the abyss, the life of Octavia’sinhabitants is less uncertain than in othercities. They know the net will last only so long.

Cities & the Dead #3No city is more inclined than Eusapia to enjoylife and flee care. And to make the leap from lifeto death less abrupt, the inhabitants haveconstructed an identical copy of their city, un-derground. All corpses, dried in such a way thatthe skeleton remains sheathed in yellow skin, arecarried down there, to continue their formeractivities. And, of these activities, it is their care-free moments that take first place: most of thecorpses are seated around laden tables, or placedin dancing positions, or made to play little trum-pets. But all the trades and professions of theliving Eusapia are also at work below ground,or at least those that the living performed withmore contentment than irritation: the clock-maker, amid all the stopped clocks of his shop,places his parchment ear against an out-of-tunegrandfather’s clock; a barber, with dry brush,lathers the cheekbones of an actor learning hisrole, studying the script with hollow sockets; a girlwith a laughing skull milks the carcass of a heifer. To be sure, many of the living want a fateafter death different from their lot in life: thenecropolis is crowded with big-game hunters,mezzosopranos, bankers, violinists, duchesses,courtesans, generals - more than the living city

ever contained. The job of accompany-ing the dead down belowand arranging them inthe desired place is as-signed to a confraternityof hooded brothers. Noone else has access to theEusapia of the dead andeverything known aboutit has been learned fromthem. They say that the sameconfraternity exists amongthe dead and that it neverfails to lend a hand; thehooded brothers, afterdeath, will perform thesame job in the otherEusapia; rumor has it thatsome of them are alreadydead but continue goingup and down. In any case,this confraternity’s author-ity in the Eusapia of theliving is vast. They say that every

time they go below they find somethingchanged in the lower Eusapia; the deadmake innovations in their city; not many,but surely the fruit of sober reflection, notpassing whims. From one year to the next,they say, the Eusapia of the dead becomesunrecognizable. And the living, to keep upwith them, also want to do everything thatthe hooded brothers tell them about thenovelties of the dead. So the Eusapia ofthe living has taken to copying its under-ground copy.


They say that this has not just now begunto happen: actually it was the dead who builtthe upper Eusapia, in the image of their city.They say that in the twin cities there is nolonger any way of knowing who is alive andwho is dead.

Continuous Cities #1The city of Leonia refashions itself every day:every morning the people wake between freshsheets, wash with just-unwrapped cakes ofsoap, wear brand-new clothing, take from thelatest model refrigerator still unopened tins,listening to the last-minute jingles from themost up-to-date radio. On the sidewalks, encased in spotless plasticbags, the remains of yesterday’s Leonia awaitthe garbage truck. Not only squeezed tubes oftoothpaste, blown-out light bulbes, newspapers,containers, wrappings, but also boilers, encyclo-pedias, pianos, porcelain dinner services.It is not so much by the things that each dayare manufactured, sold, bought that you canmeasure Leonia’s opulence, but rather by thethings that each day are thrown out to makeroom for the new. So you begin to wonder ifLeonia’s true passion is really, as they say, theenjoyment of new and different things, andnot, instead, the joy of expelling, discarding,cleansing itself of a recurrent impurity. Thefact is that street cleaners are welcomed likeangels, and their task of removing the residueof yesterday’s existence is surrounded by arespectful silence, like a ritual that inspiresdevotion, perhaps only because once thingshave been cast off nobody wants to have tothink about them further. Nobody wonders where, each day, theycarry their load of refuse. Outside the city,surely; but each year the city expands, and

the street cleaners have to fall fartherback. The bulk of the outflow increasesand the piles rise higher, become stratified,extend over a wider perimeter. Besides,the more Leonia’s talent for making newmaterials excels, the more the rubbishimproves in quality, resists time, theelements, fermentations, combustions.A fortress of indestructible leftoverssurrounds Leonia, dominating it on everyside, like a chain of mountains. This is the result: the more Leoniaexpels goods, the more it accumulatesthem; the scales of its past are solderedinto a cuirass that cannot be removed. Asthe city is renewed each day, it preservesall of itself in its only definitive form:yesterday’s sweepings piled up on thesweepings of the day before yesterdayand of all its days and years and decades. Leonia’s rubbish little by little wouldinvade the world, if, from beyond thefinal crest of its boundless rubbish heap,the street cleaners of other cities were notpressing, also pushing mountains ofrefuse in front of themselves. Perhaps the

whole world, beyond Leonia’s boundaries,is covered by craters of rubbish, each sur-rounding a metropolis in constant eruption.The boundaries between the alien, hostilecities are infected ramparts where the detritusof both support each other, overlap, mingle. The greater its height grows, the more thedanger of a landslide looms: a tin can, an oldtire, an unraveled wine flask, if it rolls towardLeonia, is enough to bring with it an avalancheof unmated shoes, calendars of bygone years,withered flowers, submerging the city in itsown past, which it had tried in vain to reject,mingling with the past of the neighboringcities, finally clean. A cataclysm will flattenthe sordid mountain range, canceling everytrace of the metropolis always dressed innew clothes. In the nearbycities they are all ready,waiting with bulldozersto flatten the terrain, topush into the new territory,expand, and drive the newstreet cleaners still fartherout.

Hidden Cities #4Recurrent invasions rackedthe city of Theodora in thecenturies of its history; nosooner was one enemyrouted than another gainedstrength and threatened thesurvival of the inhabitants.When the sky was clearedof condors, they had to facethe propagation of serpents;the spiders’ exterminationallowed the flies to multi-ply into a black swarm; the

victory over the termites left the city at the mercyof the woodworms. One by one the speciesincompatible to the city had to succumb andwere extinguished. By dint of ripping awayscales and carapaces, tearing off elytra andfeathers, the people gave Theodora theexclusive image of human city that stilldistinguishes it. But first, for many long years, it wasuncertain whether or not the final victorywould not go to the last species left to fightman’s possession of the city: the rats. Fromeach generation of rodents that the peoplemanaged to exterminate, the few survivorsgave birth to a tougher progeny, invulnerableto traps and resistant to all poison. In thespace of a few weeks, the sewers of Theodorawere repopulated with hordes of spreadingrats. At last, with an extreme massacre, themurderous, versatile ingenuity of mankinddefeated the overweening life-force of the enemy. The city, great cemetery of the animalkingdom, was closed, aseptic over the finalburied corpses with their last fleas and theirlast germs. Man had finally reestablished theorder of the world which he had himselfupset: no other living species existed to castany doubts. To recall what had been fauna,Theodora’s library would preserve on itsshelves the volumes of Buffon and Linnaeus. At least that is what Theodora’s inhabitantsbelieved, far from imagining that a forgottenfauna was stirring from its lethargy. Relegatedfor long eras to remote hiding places, eversince it had been deposed by the system of non-extinct species, the other fauna was comingback to the light from the library’s basementswhere the incunabula were kept; it was leapingfrom the capitals and drainpipes, perchingat the sleepers’ bedside. Sphinxes, griffons,chimeras, dragons, hircocervi, harpies,hydras, unicorns, basilisks were resumingpossession of their city.

“A fortress of indestructibleleftovers surrounds Leonia,dominating it on every side, likea chain of mountains.”

“A fortress of indestructible“A fortress of indestructibleleftovers surrounds Leonia,leftovers surrounds Leonia,dominating it on every side, likedominating it on every side, likea chain of mountains.”a chain of mountains.”


Why abandon culture? There are countlessreasons to begin to challenge, seriously realignour relationship with, and perhaps abandonthe concept of culture – the historic, con-temporary, and projected assemblage of socialdynamics and features by which we defineourselves and which collectively frame us associal groupings. Culture contains the all-to-familiar civilized notions of expectations,projections, customs, taboos, values, morality,and rituals, as well as being anthropocentricin nature, and in general, limited as it definesthe human condition of a place, time, andcontext only in terms of human relationshipsor how we use other things. The human-animal,unrestrained by such an understanding of re-ality, and in tune with applicable concerns ofconnected subsistence and curious play, needsnot for culture as something to belong to orto be guided by. Instead, they are what theyare, a composition of all they are connectedto, yet unique unto themselves. And if rela-tionships are fluid, unbounded by artificialconcepts, and based on mutual desire, thanwhat use or need is there for culture, exceptto define and confine these relationships. Itmight be proposed then, that our search forliberation may fall outside the parameters ofthe concept of culture, and in fact, may be incontradiction with its very existence. Culture,whether ethnic, religious, national, tribal, pop,alternative, or counter, acts as a definer ratherthan minimalizer of the borders within andbetween ourselves, each other, and the restof life.

Can we challenge the current basisof our relationships to each other?

For many, to abandon culture seems a projecttoo daunting, shocking, and counter to whatwe may have always believed. But when wetalk of undoing the entirety of civilization, arethere questions too colossal to ask and materialtoo compact to cut through? To dispute cultureitself, and the physicality of its politicizedmanifestation, society, is to question civilization’svery premise, that we are controlled and manipu-lated by external forces that have an agendaultimately incompatible with that of the indi-vidual, regardless of their desires (although theremay be illusory moments of adaptability).Whether there are direct lines drawn to indi-viduals or groups in power, or the rigid formationof patterns and textures over time, culturecontrols. It must, or it ceases to exist. Culturecan be viewed as the summation of who weare as social beings, or the parameters we livewithin. Both are unsatisfactory for one attempt-ing an uncivilized and unrestrained existence.If we are to live entirely different, than whatseems foundational and what binds all of this(civilization) must be unglued. The imprintmust be erased. The structures must be shattered,so as to open up the space for our unimpededwild selves to roam.

Is there an intrinsic element of culti-vation that leads to the formation ofrigid socialization? The cultivation of cropsand tillage of the earth created a differentcontext in which we dwell then that of thehuman-animal in a pre-civilized context. Withthe domination of the land, stratificationof society, accumulation of power, creation ofeconomy, and religious mystification of theworld, culture takes root as an all-encompassingmeans of control. To put it simply, when thereare things to keep in order, an orderly society ispreferable. With this comes the standardization

of society, the suggestion of values, theimplementation of codes, and the enforcementof regulations, be they physical, intellectual,or spiritual. Overt force is always adjacent(at least the allegation of it), but to convincepeople they are a part of an abstract grouping,and that it is superior to any other, culturalidentity is a much more effective means ofcontrol. And, to convince them of their needto view contrary or deviant inclinations of thebelief system as an Other, also sets the groundfor the defending of culture. The abstractionof unmediated relationships might be wherewe start to see concepts of culture as neces-sary. Before (or outside this perspective) whatpurpose would it serve?

What about the process of domesticationis inevitable in culture? Development ofhumans as individuals and societies in generalthrough education, discipline, and training,seems to require obedience to societal norms,recognized largely as cultural. The goal, aswith any other form of domestication, is toobtain a uniform and productive crop or yieldin as efficient means as possible. Individualityand fluidity are seen as hazards to be reignedin or plowed under. Possibly, depending onhow bumper a crop that season, or how muchpower the domesticator has accumulated,some unruly weeds are allowed to exist onthe periphery, but even they are still largelycontrolled, if only due to the proximity to thedisciplined ones.

Are socialization and control implicitin the perpetuation and acceptance ofculture? Culture attempts to express andprescribe meaning to our world. This meaningis typically, and I would argue inevitably, usedto obtain and maintain power and control.

Smashing the Petri Dish?Abbreviated Inquiry Into Abandoning the

Concept of Culture-Take One

by A.

Morefus

The following are questions I haverecently asked myself:

cul’ ture, n. 1. Cultivation; tillage. 2. Act of developing by education,discipline, training, etc. 3. The cultivation or rearing of a particular crop 4. Theenlightenment and refinement of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetictraining. 5. A particular stage of advancement in civilization or the characteristicfeatures of such a stage or state. 6. Biol. Cultivation of microorganisms, asbacteria, or of tissues, fungi, etc, in prepared nutrient media (culture media);also, an instance or product of such cultivation. –Webster’s Dictionary

Abbreviated Inquiry Into Abandoning theConcept of Culture-Take OneTake One


Culture regularly has both a conservative andprogressive character to it. Both securingsociety and pushing it forward – stability andinnovation. Traditional cultural values whichsustain the contemporary aims of a society’sinfluence and momentum are often supportedwhile the proposed future for that society isoften portrayed as intrinsic trajectories forthat culture. The tension between them keepsthings moving. At any particular stage of ad-vancement in a civilization, the characteristicfeatures of such a stage are described as itsculture. So that what is described as permanent,is never so, and that which is promoted astemporary is often an illusion of change. Thebottom line is, the path of a society, and thecultural aspects of it, are quite arbitrary, yetpresented as predetermined. To not be acquies-cent in this set-up places one, for all practicalpurposes, outside of cultural reality. But therejection of culture is certainly not a rejectionof social interaction. The isolated human, rarelya healthy, connected, and successfully function-ing being (by any standards), is typically theproduct of extreme alienation and trauma.Anti-social behavior, as a specific description,is relative to the context of the society, but itdescribes more of a disconnect from the abilityto interact then a rejection of that society’svalues. One can be positively a social being(and possibly they must be) and still attemptto dismantle that society and its socialcharacteristics, especially if their processesof social interaction are from outside thatsociety. As interaction and relations removedfrom the alienated and mediated civilizedmethods tend to be more direct, fluid, andintuitive, without the clunky dominating,and often insincere methods we are instilledwith, it seems key to any sort of positivealternative.

Ever notice the “cult” in culture?Socially, there is great pressure, from author-itarianism to tension between “civilians”, tocreate a mindless following that is pervasivethroughout society. There develops an affiliationof accomplices who adopt complete andsocietal belief systems or faiths. Those whomove too close to the margins are regardedand handled as outsiders, which strictlymaintains the definitions applied to a culture.In addition, the progressive linearity of cul-tural enlightenment and refinement throughintellectual and aesthetic training occurs atall levels, from fashion to philosophy. Detailsand motivations of our actions that are ob-tained, recorded, and remembered throughvastly different perceptions and bias per-spectives, acquired through a cultural contextand individual views, are filtered, averaged,and distilled to create a prevalent, repeatedresponse system.

But what about primitive people anduseful traditions? There is probably morefrom the past that we have carelessly discarded

than we have critically shed, especiallyconcerning earth-based peoples from gatherer-hunters to horticulturists to pre-technologicalagriculturists and homesteaders (in myopinion, there is less to appreciate as wemove onward in domestication, but fromwhere we are located in history, there is stillsome value in critically assessing small-scalecultivators for some useful aspects). Examiningthe dynamics and methods of these varioustypes of groupings for everything from foodprocurement to social organization (not thatthey aren’t inevitably linked) will reveal agreat diversity between peoples and thestrategies and patterns that have developed,and typically, unfortunately, formed into aculture. This investigation can also revealcommon threads in how situations, needs,and problems are dealt with, which we canfilter through our own unique and communaldesires and contexts to apply to our lives,without adopting cultural parameters anddefinitions. Techniques are valuable, culturalexplanations are useless, unless they reveala relationship between things that can beutilized without socializing. Life contains some underlying stability ofcircumstance, yet within it is an infinite andintricate shifting, fracturing, and supportingover time. A never-ending improvisationof reinforcing and interfering, but neverrepeating. Even the seemingly firmlystructured parts are composed of limitlessvariables. We might be inspired by the waythe Kaluli tribe of the Papuan Plateau perceiveand interact with the world. For instance,they do not hear singular sounds in therainforest, but instead an interlockingsoundscape they calldulugu ganalan, or “lift-ing-up-over sounding”;millions of simultaneoussound cycles, startingand ending at differentpoints. People’s voiceslayer and play off of thisreality, as drums, axes, andsinging blend together inrhythms and patternscreating an instinctualvocabulary understoodby the group.

So what might livingoutside of culturelook l ike? To startwith, it would be freefrom moral and socialframeworks that limit ourfreedom to explore, ex-perience, and connect. Wewould still be “bound” bycertain biological andgeographical limitations,but not those determinedby any experts or leaders.

Instead we would experience directly theselimitations, and along with shared experienceswith others, develop our own unique under-standings. Collective experience would notfit into any prearranged formation or containany unified meaning. It would be the infiniteintersections of support and divergence thatmake up the rest of what we call life. Ratherthan thinking in cultural terms, perhaps wecan look at other social animals for inspiration.Flocks, herds, and packs can be contemplatedfor their manifestations and dynamics ofliving patterns. Instinctual rather thanintellectual in motivation and stable yetflexible in an organic manner, rather thanenforced or altered through mechanistic andprojected means. Is this not closer to howhumans live(d) outside of civilization?

Can we smash the petri dish andabandon the stifling concept of culturefor an unobstructed reality? If we arecontent with the role of microorganisms in aprepared nutrient media or the product ofsuch cultivation, then life as part of a cultureis acceptable, even desirable and beneficial.If we are not satisfied as bacteria, segmentsof tissues, or fungi in a scientist’s test tube orobservation dish, then we need to begin toseriously review how we relate to, coordinate,and view ourselves, each other, and theworld around us. We can trade the abstraction,symbolic, efficiency, control, and complete-ness of superimposed culture for the connected,direct, dynamic, openness of unalienatedexistence. The choice really is ours.


Perspectives on thePerspectives on the

SituationistInternational

(SI)

Shot to the Heartby anarchyjordan

there’s definitely a lot to be said for a critique of the situationist international.guy debord ran that thing into the ground with his stalinist exclusion policiesand his petty in-fighting, mostly over obscure disagreements and over thegirls he liked (ralph rumney’s book, “the consul” is informative in thisregard). of course, it’s not really even worth it to critique the post-situationist fetishizers like knabb. but the SI was a very rigid group whosereal interventions with subversive creative production decreased over timedue to their commitment to a certain phraseology that was really only arehashing of the writings of a lot of individualist anarchists of yore. ifpeople didn’t phrase it right they’d be ridiculed from the depths of asemantic reality-tunnel that led to no northwest passage at all, but toa downward spiral of pseudo-communication, which was of course whatthey were supposed to be fighting. the bureaucratic mess that dominatedthe time dominated them as well, but one can’t just blame the times; youmostly have to look at their lives, and you’ll see that, much like any otherwriter in our (anarchist) tradition, the members of the SI lived lives thatwere fraught with the all too typical awkward moments and alienationsthat characterize all our lives, and though their theory definitely tried toapproach these common separations, reality is always infinitely messierthan the theoreticians would make it out to be — what’s important is anability to accept that and be willing to change theories in accordance withthe results of practice. i think one of the SI’s great failings was its inability to keep up its levelof theoretico-practical activity, and constantly explore new means andmethods to contest and destroy the world of hierarchical power andcapitalist privative accumulation, which was their original project. theywould make a few movies, here and there, put out a few journals, put upsome posters and chalk stuff on walls, but in the end it was more than justthe assassination of lebovici and their loss of media access through histheaters that killed the SI – it was the SI itself that committed suicide withits bureaucratic internal operations and its inability to come to theoreticalsynthesis between members, leading to its exclusions. it’s a sad exampleof how a healthy, autonomous, anarchistic project can be infected bystalinism and ideology, in spite of itself, and be destroyed by pettyinternal conflicts and contradictions that should have been easy enoughto overcome if the members could have overcome their own egotisticalapproach to the struggle. the “situationist” label – one who, starting fromdissatisfaction and constructing situations that exacerbate that dis-satisfaction, activates autonomy in him/herself and others – is mostly aninsult, since it’s an attempt to classify the millions of people everywherewho think for themselves and do those things every day, who can’t becategorized at all and shouldn’t be. the SI’s journals and a lot of those writers that were involved in the SIbut were excluded are worth reading... of course, to live your own lifeand construct your own theory from practice (not the other way around)

is the best reference and learning experience.take yourself as your only point of reference,says vaneigem; sad that so many of the moderneulogists of the SI, and the SI themselves in away, prefer(red) to look to/critique/live otherlives instead of their own; they try to live in aworld different from their own, and so they endup alienated and inactive, piling up books thatno one reads, and arguing over details that aretotally irrelevant now. so many of these criticismsare applicable to our anarchist milieu as well, icertainly agree that a critique of the SI is astimely now as ever. there is no one correctapproach to anarchy and revolution, just asthere is no one correct approach to life, and nouniversal law or morality that can be imposedupon all. everything deserves critique, but tocritique everything without doing anything isjust like any other passage of judgement – itcondemns the judger as well as the judged.

situationist.gq.nu

While there is much deeply inspiring about their project and wecontinue to draw on it as an influence, we need to take a criticallook at the Situationists International, and their overall relevanceto anti-civilization anarchist theory and practice. Beyond the question-able and outdated embracing of workers councils, some Situationists’fetishization of technology is perhaps one of the most glaringinconsistencies with destroying civilization. We hope to have an indepth-critique of the SI for our next issue. Let us know if you areinterested in helping. -Editor’s note from Issue #23 following theSI’s Instructions for an Insurrection.

So, rather than publishing a single critique of the SI, we’vedecided it would far more interesting to present a collection ofperspectives sent to us by some of those who have been influencedby Sits. The following were some of our favorites:

Founders of the Situationist International at Cosiod’Arroscia, Italy, April 1957. From left to right: GuiseppePinot Gallizio, Piero Simondo, Elena Verrone, MicheleBernstein, Guy Debord, Asger Jorn, and Walter Olmo.

Founders of the Situationist International at Cosiod’Arroscia, Italy, April 1957. From left to right: GuiseppePinot Gallizio, Piero Simondo, Elena Verrone, MicheleBernstein, Guy Debord, Asger Jorn, and Walter Olmo.


An Encounter withthe SituationistInternationale

by Matt LucasMy first encounter with the Situationists was through Ken Knabb’s website.In my drunken late night perusals of the Internet while wasting away ata state university, I came across Knabb’s Public Secrets and translationsof Debord’s work. There was a certain total critique in Debord’s poeticbut opaque writing. Much of my uncertainty as to what Debord wassaying was due to my lack of historical reference, combined with a lackof knowledge about some of the revolutionary traditions from which theS.I. were drawing. If we follow John Moore’s analysis and look atthe anarchist movement in waves,much like the feminist movementhas been separated into the first (thesuffragists), the second (the radicalfeminists of the 60s and 70s) andthe third wave (the identity politicsof today), we see the anarchist move-ment being separated at the pointof May 1968 when France eruptedinto a general strike. It was the firsttime in history that a modernizednation had revolted against its ownwealth for no apparent reason. The way one learns ways of life,traditions, morals, critiques, etceterais through active dialog. With so fewof my anarchist peers engaged inthe ideas of the S.I. I was to flounder.I might as well have been looking atInternet pornography. Being on acollege campus did inform me as tothe traditional anarchist perspective,as many of the writings by Kropotkin,Bakunin, Berkman, Goldman and the beautiful biographies of Paul Avrichwere available to me. Being involved in the Left (various activist groups,world bank protests, animal rights, etcetera) at the time might have helpedme socially (i.e. get laid— occasionally) but it also encouraged me toaccept didactically pushed moralisms and an artificial concern withpeople’s feelings. Operating from a lack of historical clarity, the Left,while filled with “people who care”, largely waste their time. They(the Left) talk only of what the television talks of. It took me some time to have a decent understanding of where exactly theS.I. were coming from, yet when I finally understood them it becamequite obvious. It was certainly helpful that I began to obsessively read notonly their work, freely available on the Internet, but to also to read secondarysource material, such as Larry Law’s Spectacular Times, an easy to read,digestible pamphlet series using the ideas and style of the SI. And while Imay be ashamed to admit it, groovy GreilMarcus’ Lipstick Traces firmly establisheda connection between the situationists andpunk rock. Coming from a punk rockbackground and understanding that bandssuch as the Sex Pistols(1) were influencedby the S.I. (if not in a direct manner thanthrough cultural osmosis) encouraged meto continue to research the S.I. Finallycoming across Anselm Jappes’ GuyDebord: Revolutionary I found a solid sec-ondary source that explained many ofDebord’s ideas and rooted him in atradition of Hegelian Marxism with heavyinfluences by the Marxists: Georg Lukacs,Karl Korsch and the French councilistgroup, Socialism Or Barbarism.

While reading source material is great, it can’t be understated howvaluable meeting people who were engaged with the situationist critiquewas. Friedrich Nietzsche in his critiques of Christianity attacked Christianityfor the type of people it created. He argued that if a set of ideas createdweak people then the set of ideas was weak and should be discarded. Inthe same way, if the ideas of Marx create boring people, and it must besaid that I’ve met some boring Marxists, to some extent Marx shouldbe discarded. If the ideas of anarchism create flaky bourgeois trust fundersslumming it who are more interested in hand holding than anything else,than anarchism to some extent should be discarded. When I began to meetother people heavily influenced by the S.I. I encountered three types, theever nit-picky, mainly using the ideas of the S.I. as a way to break with theirpeers, art students who had perused the ideas of the S.I. and made terribleart, and those who took up the S.I.’s call for adventure, a more sweepingcritique as a weapon to be used and ran with it, ran not only to escape theclutches of the old world but to destroy its hands. Obviously, there are

arguments to discard with the S.I; theiroutdated councilism, their constantbreaking with people, their beinginvolved with artists at all... Yet, as my understanding of thesituationist critique increased so didmy ability to use their critique againstsociety. Rather than scrawl occasionalgraffiti (which is not a bad thing) Ibecame able to use their critique atthe point in which the radical starts,in my everyday life. From school towork, from free time to unemploy-ment, from sexual relationships tosexual predation, from activismto apathy to alcoholism, all of themincreasingly became clear to me tobe empty phases, empty roles thatwere constrained by the bounds ofcapital. It’s become obvious to me thatcapitalism, in its latest phase, that ofthe integrated spectacle, is highlyflexible, at the same point that it

appears to break... it recuperates. At the same point that one feels one hasspace to breathe... one ends up breathing a new type of ideology. Not onlyis the integrated spectacle highly flexible, it appears not to be failing atall, while some may point out (convincingly) that the world can onlysustain so much damage to its ecosystem, it is quite possible that capitalismcan fully exist after that breaking point. Who can not imagine a postapocalyptic world where people are selling black market radiationtreatments? Selling “pure” food? Selling “clean” water? So the real question for me, as it has always been, is where do I and byextension others go from here? If it is quite possible that capital couldgo on, that the spectacle could continue to distract us with a partiallife, with an image of life, that of a life of alienation from ourselves,that is not as potent as one lived within the grasps of our own hands,what is there to do? My answer is a return to the everyday. It is in our

everyday lives that the world, socialrelationships, friendships, economicdynamics, that the totality of our liveswill change or continue. The S.I. encour-aged an exploration of the ways to escapethis world, to find a Northwest Passage,through an experimentation with theeveryday. Through an experimentationwith our everyday we may just find away out. If not, at least there is a poetryin our adventure.

(1) “All that talk of the French situationist beingassociated with punk is bullocks! It’s nonsense!...the situationists... were too structured for myliking, word games and no work. Plus they wereFrench so fuck them.” – Johnny Rotten

Critique of thesituationist stink

SI is Clever. Not unique.Writing: “Go fuck your self” is not a critique.

Your self righteous money stinks.I see you wear an Anarchist mink.

The system will eat it self? Letters typed by a sneak.Go back to work Now; you use the sword not the ink.

Time comes soon for fighten on the brinkGA is praxis now; and without a dollars wink

You praxis allot of bull shit and it’s starting to stink.Our ship is floaten good too; your boat is starting to sink.

You’re tying shit all in knots and GA is worken out the kinks.I’ll close this poem Now with nothen but One green finger this link

WWW.Greenanarchy.org– trueman


Chills ThroughMy Body

by Homo Neanderthalensis GeicoAnarchists of various persuasions have long been posing as the guiding lightof emancipation, presenting the ideologically correct critiques of society withthe supposedly proper tactical strategies necessary to engage a liberatorypraxis against power. Seducedby the Marxian tinged butMarxian-transcending rhetoricand practice of anarchiststhroughout history, variousactivists and academics haverecently looked to facilitatetheir fragmented roles asself-proclaimed radical op-ponents of the status quounder the many masks ofanarchism. What do thesemasks conceal underneaththe pronouncements of indus-trial progress and the fightfor life without the state?Bakunin’s laudatory stancetowards civilization’s steadyyet totalizing project to dis-tance ourselves from animal-ity was no mere meaninglessutterance to be disregardedamongst the paradisicaltemptations promulgatedthroughout 19th century an-archist theory. The dichoto-mous separation of humansubject from natural object isa critical component of notonly Tolstoy’s pacifism,Goldman’s feminism, and theWobblies workerism, but seeped quite vigorously into situationism. My first exposure to situationism came like many others, through TheRevolution of Everyday Life. Searching for something different, somethingthat delivered on the hollow promises of liberation espoused by anarchists,the critical yet passionate prose of Vaneigem stood out in its ability tocaptivate and inspire. Caught in the banalities of urban modernism withit’s spectacles of consumption and decay, what better prescription forour collective sickness then the Nietzschean-oriented goal of engagingour creative potentials in a permanent trajectory of individualistic-communal ecstatic production. After all, civilization tells us a mind is aterrible thing to waste and being idle is a sin, so the shackles of capitalismand bureaucracy are all that stand between us and fulfillment. Chomsky, nosituationist, endorses a similar approach as was seen quite vividly in hisdiscussions with Foucault in the early 70’s. Espousing humanity’ssupposedly inherent drive to create and transcend animality, an early mani-festation being language, Chomsky encourages us to use this exploratoryurge in our mental makeup to usher in an anarchist society. However, asFoucault perceptively responds, Chomsky’s analysis and endorsementderives from a particular historical legacy of western rationalism which canhardly proclaim truth either in the sphere of science (is language a definingcharacteristic of humanity or just another attempt by anarchists to validateour turn towards the symbolic?) or praxis (is syndicalism created throughreformism, based on the urge to create, freedom in the wings or more ofthe same?). Vaneigem’s fiery declarations against the division of labor and in favorof the qualitative over the quantitative echo Chomsky’s cry for a turntowards their version of human nature and away from the distortions ofHobbesian dictates. But as I read Vaneigem, as well as various otherSituationsts, I couldn’t help but feel a chill crawl up my spine and

envelop my entire body over the subtle and domineering comments againstliving within natural limits and not seeking to use our language andrationality to rise above the earth. Vaneigem won’t stand for us dying ofcurable diseases while living a stone age lifestyle, as he so cautiouslywarns us of the “problems” associated with “primitive” life. His favoringof the qualitative over the quantitative conceals a deeper fear of the naturalworld, a fear to be eliminated by enhancing humanity’s quantitativeexposure to industrialized life. What will this quantitative increase lead to in relation to the qualitative

aspects of life? More alienation from connectedcommunity beyond the confines of mass society andunmediated individual desire beyond the virtualcommandment to be creative. But if The Revolutionof Everyday Life leaves me dissatisfied, othersituationist writings take the subtle desire for industrialinstitutionalization exhibited by Vaneigem and lookto send us on an outright domineering path bam,zoom, straight to the moon. As we are told by theSituationist International in their 1963 piece Ide-ologies, Classes, and the Domination of Nature, the“…positive aspects of the transformation of nature –the great project of the bourgeoisie…” are to beembraced so our material liberation from nature canmove forward to the never ending artistic creation oflife. What was begun through the gradual separationof humanity from nature and our internal wildnesswith each further abstraction of the symbolic will seeit’s culmination in the situationist society. The symbolic is insidious, feeding off new guisesbut maintaining its totalizing domination of civilizedlife. Always seeking mediation over directness, theNeanderthals’ elation over rhythmic natural exchangeare abandoned because we have become so damnfidgety we have to do something instead of embracingwhat Thomas Elpel called The Art of Nothing (a trulyfearsome proposition for situationists). Let’s paint,let’s compose, and let’s never be content to simplyeat, play, and lay around the rest of the time notthinking. The continuum of distancing and destructionmarches on, leading us where? To the moon, at least

according to another gem from the SI in 1959, Another City for AnotherLife. I know what you are thinking, oh boy, another attempt to make thecity palatable enough so we won’t constantly want to run away from it.(I doubt our suppressed forager roots explained by Paul Shepard in Natureand Madness would ever fully allow this, but the situationist artists andscientists will certainly try their hardest to keep the monster moving along.)According to this piece, we should reject a “return to nature” and insteadseek the “possibility of overcoming nature and of regulating the climate,light and sounds” in the new urban constructions, possibly even aided byspace exploration. What would stop the techno-artists from traveling furtherdown the ecocidal road of deploy-ments to the moon and other planetsonce the constraints of militarizedspace programs are lifted and scien-tists can sit around thinking all the time about howto make themselves look not only wise, but doublewise! Thank you very much, but I’d prefer the naturalchill through my body on a cold winter morning byliving in a world where the climate is not controlledby cunning monkey’s who wear clothes and paint.So while Homo sapiens sapiens explores andtransgresses the bounds of lowly naturethrough its excursions into situationism andevery other ideology of civilized symbolicthought, we may want to remember thewords of Sarah Connor...all you knowhow to do is thrust into the world withyour... fucking ideas… You thinkyou’re so creative.


By inaugurating close to two thousand yearsago a system of exploitation of terrestrial andhuman nature, the agrarian revolution gave birthto a market economy of which the evolutionand the forms are, despite their great diversity,marked by the persistence of several traits thatare dominant everywhere: social inequality, ex-clusive appropriation, the cult of power andprofit, work and separation that was introducedinto the body between the impulses oflife and the spirit, which tames them andrepresses them, just as it tames andrepresses the natural elements. The relation that, in the economy ofgathering, anterior to the appearanceof intensive agriculture, was estab-lished by osmosis between the humanspecies and the mineral, vegetal andanimal kingdoms has ceded place toits alienated form, to religion, whichclaims to subjugate the earth to acelestial empire, swarming withfantastic creatures called Gods,Goddesses, Spirits. The bonds interlaced by affec-tion and comprehension, whichemanate, have become thechains of a tutelary tyranny,cracking down from the foggy heightswhere the beyond of existence begins its vacuity. The institutional religions were born from thefear and hatred of nature. They unanimouslyreflect the hostility engendered — over twothousand years — by the pillaging of thegoods lavished by the earth for lucrative ends.Especially where the natural elements arecelebrated in the name of fecundity, their cultswitness barbaric rituals, holocausts, bloodysacrifices, cruelties that can only be imaginedby men who repress their life-impulses andguarantee, by the pastorals [mandiments] ofthe spirit, the bestial predatory instinct thatbelongs precisely to humanity, not to transcendbut to overrun [depasser] it. The human meaning consists in controllingthe chaotic proliferation of life, in interveningin such a way that creative exuberancepropagates itself without destroying itselfthrough superabundance, in preventing thevital radiation from inverting itself into mortalradiation, as a need for love that is not satisfiedby transforming itself into animosity.

This is also good: to maintain among the wildanimals an equilibrium between prey andpredators; to prevent the decay of the trees byexcessive number and the combustion of theshrubbery by brightening the forests; to givebirth to children who will be desired, loved,pampered, educated in the love of life, and notto encourage the birth-rate’s growth and thuscondemn them to poverty, sickness, boredom,

work, suffering and violence. Without exception, all the

religions

oppress the body in thename of the spirit, scorn the earth inthe name of the heavens, propagate hatred andcruelty in the name of love. The [political]ideologies do not act otherwise, under the pre-text of assuring the social order and publicwell-being. Restraining itself from opposingthe non-religious nature of power to the powerof the religions, they combat the sacred lie witha profane one. The priests derive their hegemony from socialchaos and misery. They need this swarmingin which survival proliferates at the cost ofreal life, so as to arrogate to themselves theprivilege of working, according to a supposedcelestial mandate, clear-cutting the abundanceof the people. They punish, they sacrifice, theyeliminate the surplus; they legalize bloodshedin the name of the All Powerful. They extolthe health of the clan, the tribe, the community,the species, by the leveling of sovereign death.They open on the beyond and a mythic life,

of which the richness makes up for the failingsof the here-below, the invisible door of theirdogmatic certitudes. The individual is sacrificed to the herd[gregaire]. Under the pressure of the rituals ofindoctrination, the joy of living is compressed,tread upon, crushed, covered over, worked todeath, and left with its cadaver oozing faith. Abelief that extolls health at the price of a muti-lated, murdered life. How can one be surprised? The principle of fatality, according to whichdeath seizes life at every instant, illustrates themechanism of self-regulation, to which pro-liferating chaos spontaneously appeals.Obscurantism, stoppered intelligence, and thecredo quia absurdum, by occulting the creativepower of man, have for millennia revokedour unique contingency from acceding to lifeand propagating it. The alleged return of the religions onlytranslate the regressions in which the past ismanifested by a fictitious and passenger-like[passagere] resurgence. They are only spectacu-lar and parodic mobilizations of archaisms. Byleveling [arasant] our mode of beliefs andtraditional ways of thinking to the benefit ofshort-term calculations, planetary mercantilism

has made the religions and the politicalideologies into simple short-term elements in the chessboardof its needs. It restores them anddisencumbers itself accordingto what the market judges to benecessary or superfluous. The sickening principle of“All is permitted provided thatit yields [profits]” has struck themost diverse societies with nauseaand makes nihilism the philosophyof business. Consumerism has devouredChristianity. After Jesus, Jehovah,[Sun Yung] Moon and the DalaiLama, Mohammed will also beimported by MacDonald [sic] as asmall jewel [affiquet] offered as apremium. One will rejoice if the cult

of money serves to empty out all of the others. The religious spirit has lingered on, like thestagnant water of an old swamp; the ecclesias-tical institutions are no longer the packaging ofthe mercantile product. Wheeler-dealerecumenism mixes in the same bucket-seatVaticanesque Catholicism, the Calvinism ofWall Street, the mafias operating under theflags of Sunni-ism, Shia-ism, Wahabi-ism, andZionism. The God of currency-exchangeagiotage and faith in whatever serves to wrapup all of these obsolete beliefs and thesefantasmagorias in the manner of Jerome[Hieronymous] Bosch, of whom one hasforgotten too quickly that they, not so long ago,contributed to the extraordinary vogue for sects.It is in [the nature of] market logic to recuperatefor its profit the loss of soul that it provokes.

by Raoul Vaneigem


To Liberate the Earth of Celest ialTo Liberate the Earth of Celest ialTo Liberate the Earth of Celest ialTo Liberate the Earth of Celest ialTo Liberate the Earth of Celest ialI l lus ions and Their TyranIl lusions and Their TyranIl lusions and Their TyranIl lusions and Their TyranIl lusions and Their Tyrann yn yn yn yn y

Lines of FlighLines of FlighLines of FlighLines of FlighLines of Flight :t :t :t :t :


In this matter, one method isworth the other. In all the climates that it de-grades, capital manages a veritablecold war against the totality ofthe world’s population. It paro-dies the old confrontation thatopposed East to West, the empireof Moscow to the Americanempire. Today, it is a war at theplanetary level, a war of gangsand tribes, commanded by themarkets in armaments, petro-leum, narco-pharmaceuticals,agri-business, bio-technologies,computerized information, finan-cial groups, parasitical services,intensive sin, commerce in humanbeings and animals, the pillagingof the forests. The only actual and effectiveInternational is henceforth that ofthe living-dead, who need to makea cemetery of the earth. It is truethat the workers’ movement hadalready abandoned international-ism to the Stalinists of the oldSoviet empire and its henchmen,the Maos, Pol Pots, Ceausescus,Castros and other caudillos. Thereflex of voluntary servitude,obtained with such zeal by thebludgeon of information and and education:how does it not furnish a part of a growingaudience to the promotional methods of fatal-ism, whether they are non-religious or religious(those who, under the circumstances, rally theresignation of the Muslim world would be bet-ter off asking themselves about the delusion)? Originally issued from the economic systemthat regurgitates them today by attaining itsapogee and point of collapse, the religions —all derisory and menacing at the same time— are in the image of virtual money which,from the heights of absurdity and abstract,stock-market ratings, destroys by hedge-hopping [en rase motte] metallurgy, textiles,natural agriculture, health and sanity [sante],education, public services and the existenceof millions of people. From the speculative financial bubble, inflatedwithout cease and of which the economistsforesee the bursting, proceeds an apocalypticspirit, less marked by fear than by cynicism. Reproducing the old schema of the end ofthe world — so frequently associated in thepast with egalitarian demands — the programmeof the destruction of the planet and terrestriallife today brazenly identifies itself with thehealth of the world of business. How did thiseminently religious vision not assume a pre-ponderant role in the spectacle? Nothingany longer arouses trivial and morbid fasci-nation, except for the staging, which isregulated according to a variable-functionManicheanism of good and bad exterminating

angels, of whom the interchangeable militiasthat indifferently mobilize the corrupters ofclimates, the poisoners of food, polluters of alltypes, instigators of war and poverty, killers,massacrers, terrorists brandishing (or not) theflag of a Cause. A single thing does not appear in the universalspectacle and its scenarios of live and back-stage death: the simple evidence that, formillions of human beings, life exists andmerits being lived. Patriarchal societies have always scornedthe quest for terrestrial happiness. Now that thefounding values of the herd [gregaire] societyare dissolving in the waters of the drainage ofegotistical calculations, each person findsherself alone to mark her own road, alone towander in the absence of references, with theanguish of losing oneself, alone to bet on herself,to discover her own personal resources, herfaculty of creating, her true desires and theresolution to lead them to satisfaction [bien]. It is here, at the same spot where, through-out the planetary crisis, a mutation begins,which the plausible birth of a new worldmakes to fall under the heading of the pastthe figures who resisted obscurantism, whowere dead set against oppression, extolledthe emancipation of men and women, whoanticipated by their insolent modernity thebehaviors of the radicality that is emergingtoday: Aleydis of Cambrai, Marguerite Poreteof Valencia, Willem Cornelisz of Antwerp,Heilwige Bloemardine of Brussels, Dolcino and

Margarita of Novare, ThomasScoto of Lisbon, FranciscaHernandez of Salamine,Herman of Rijwijk, EloiPruystinck of Antwerp . . . One will note that, fromthe Middle Ages to theRenaissance, many women— with pertinence — havecombated religious oppres-sion in the name of love,the freedom of desire, andthe generosity of life. Theemancipation of womengoes hand-in-hand with thedecline of the patriarchy,whose lot is tied to thesystem of the exploitationof nature. This is whywomen today constitutethe driving force of humanconsciousness. Is it necessary to recallthat Sicilian women werethe first to successfullycombat the Mafia; that thecourage of Arab, Iranian andAfghan women got the bet-ter of the despotism thatmen exercised over them, soas to forget that they them-selves are tread upon by a

similar oppression? There is no religion that does not profess fearand scorn of nature. But, after having convincedwomen for so long to assume this servitude, ofwhich the man avails himself in his obsession with[not] being cuckholded, the patriarchal traditiontotters and is battered. The fear of the malebeing dethroned is not at all foreign to thespasms of rage of the non-religious populistmovements, of which religious extremisms[integrismes] are only the archaic religiousversion. That ordinary machismo, everywhere contestedand threatened, finds comfort in the citadels offundamentalism, nationalism, and ethnic trib-alism: doesn’t this explain why the will toeradicate the resurgence of religious andideological totalitarianism is implicated in thelistless indignation of the standing waves[clapotis] and the homilies of bleating humanism? All religions are fundamentalist from themoment that they have power. If, as Holbachsays, “parish priests, preachers, rabbis, imams,etc. enjoy infallibility every time that there isthe danger of them being contradicted,” takecare [not] to forget how they excel at showingthemselves to be sweet, flattering and concil-iatory at the times that the commodity that theyoppress has been removed. Abandon the State to Islam and you haveTalibans and Shari’a; tolerate Papist totali-tarianism and the Inquisition will be reborn,as will the crime of blasphemy and natalistpropaganda, which is the supplier of massacres.

“The religious spirit revives everywhere that sacrifice,resignation, guilt, self-hatred, the fear of pleasure, sin,redemption, and the denaturation and impotence of manbecoming human are perpetuated.”


Endure rabbis and you will not be surprisedthat the old anathema of the Hebraic religionagainst the goyim will re-emerge: “May theirbones rot!” It is time to say it again, with force: nothingprevents someone from practicing a religion,following a belief, defending an ideology, butno one should impose it upon others and — astill more unacceptable thing — to indoctrinatethe children. All convictions can freely expressthemselves, even the most aberrant, thestupidest, the most odious, the most ignoble,on the express condition that, dwelling in thestate of singular opinions, they can not obligeanyone [else] to receive them against their will. Nothing is sacred. Each person has the rightto criticize, to rally, to ridicule all of the beliefs,all of the religions, all of the ideologies, all ofthe conceptual systems, all the [schools of]thought. Each one has the right to shit upon[conchier] in their totality all of the gods, mes-siahs, prophets, popes, priests, rabbis, imams,bonzes, pastors, gurus — all as much as theheads of state, kings and caudillos of all types.

But a freedom repudiates itself from themoment that it doesn’t emanate from a will tolive fully. The religious spirit revives every-where that sacrifice, resignation, guilt, self-hatred, the fear of pleasure, sin, redemption,and the denaturation and impotence of manbecoming human are perpetuated. Those who attempt to destroy religion byrepressing it have only ever succeeded inreviving it, because it is the spirit of oppressionreborn from the cinders par excellence. It feedson cadavers and it is hardly important to it thatintermixed in its mass graves [charniers] theliving and the dead are indifferently martyrsof its faith or victims of its intolerance. Thereligious virus will reappear as long as thereare people who groan and show off — as if itwere a title of nobility — their poverty, theirsick state, their debility, their dependence, nay,their revolt that they dedicate to failure. God and his avatars are only ever fantasies ofa mutilated body. The only guarantee of puttingan end to the celestial empire and the tyranny ofdead ideas is the renewal of the bonds between

the impulses of the body and the responsive[sensible] intelligence that refines them. We mustre-establish the communications betweenconsciousness and the only [true] radicality: theaspiration of the greatest number of people tohappiness, pleasure and creativity. There is only the invention of a terrestriallife, devolving upon the richness of our desires,that will accomplish the supercession of religionand philosophy, its servant master.

Written by Raoul Vaneigem as a new preface tohis book The Movement of the Free Spirit:Generalities and Testimonies concerning Lifecoming to the Surface of the Middle Ages, theRenaissance and, Incidentally, our Epoch, whichwas originally published in 1986 and translatedfrom the French in 1994 by Randall Cherry andIan Patterson. The new edition of the book wasprinted in 2005 by L’or des fous editeur, Paris.New preface translated from the French byNOT BORED!, September 2006. It seems thatVaneigem attached the following statement to thispreface: “The majority of the ideas evoked herewere developed in On the Inhumanity of Religion.”

WHATEVER HAPPENED to the separation of Church and State? Thisweek, Lamaist Buddhism is the Established Church of the University atBuffalo. “Interfaith” services are State-sponsored. Class (but not theclass system) is canceled for Days of Learning (presumably learningdoes not take place in class). The students are all but ordered to herdinto the stadium for arena religion with the living incarnation of theBuddha, the Dalai Lama XIV, the biggest thing since the Beatles — whowere themselves, according to the Apostle John (Lennon), “bigger thanJesus”. We may say of this strange interlude what Tom Lehrer sang ofNational Brotherhood Week: “Be grateful that it doesn’t last all year!” NOW THE STUDENT RESPONSE to all the holy hype, as to most of theworld around them, is a little bewilderment and a lot of apathy. Theonly ones who care deeply are the deeply resentful (Red) Chinese StudentAssociation and the Living Water Campus Ministry (praise the Lord!and pass the Water!) who are on notice to maintain low profiles orelse. Last month there was a forklift full of His Holiness’ books outsidethe campus bookstore; inside, they languish unsold. Even the copies inthe undergraduate library sleep on the shelves. The Living God’s visitationis the biggest yawn since Y2K. AS RELIGIOUS HIERARCHS GO, the Dalai Lama compares favorablyto, say, Pope Ratzinger, the world’s oldest Hitler Youth. A God who wearsglasses is disarming. A Vicar of Christ who wears Prada “shoes of thefisherman” reminds Protestants why Luther was right. Benedict ArnoldXIV hates homos (except pedophile priests). But as religious hierarchsgo, I wish they would. NONETHELESS, the Dalai Lama’s current pretense to be an avatar ofhuman rights is almost as preposterous as his pretense to be the avatarof the Godhead. Genghis Khan was a Lamaist Buddhist. The Shangri-Lama ruled Tibet as an autocrat atop a theocracy devoid of democracyor individual rights. Most Tibetans were serfs. In almost the poorestcountry in the world, 20% of the population was parasitic monks. Thehistory of Tibet is a history of centuries of state terror, violence,poverty, ignorance, divine madness and exploitation on a scale un-surpassed anywhere at any time for so long. ON HIS DEATHBED, the Buddha laughed when his disciples said hewas immortal. (One wishes Jesus had been as explicit.) But they gotthe last laugh: That’s why His Holiness the Dalai Lama is laughing.He’s laughing at you. —BOB BLACK

RELIGION: HOLY UNNECESSARY!GET THEE BEHIND ME, GOD!

ATTENTION NEW (W)AGEISTS:A good mantra is hard to find. The Aguarian Age: the Wholocaust.

Godless Communists (attn: Sufi Sales, Dementor).

MORALISM: Service to causes...causes servitude.The l’s have it! Marxist-Stirnerists.

Contact: 2500 Main St., Suite 130-132, Amherst NY 14226


May 30, 2006, Athens, Greece:Bomb Targets Culture MinisterA bomb exploded near the homeof Culture Minister (previouslyPublic Order Minister) GiorgosVoulgarakis in central Athens,wrecking several cars and slightlyinjuring one pig in the second attackon the minister in three years. Atthe time, Voulgarakis was in a carthat was making its way toward thepoint where the device exploded.The bomb had been strapped to abicycle seat and was probably set offby a remote detonation mechanism,police said. Voulgarakis was alsotargeted in a 2003 firebomb attackby suspected anarchists, whichdestroyed three cars parked underhis apartment block and damagedthe building. Voulgarakis said, “Thiswas an attack against democracy.”

June 8, Athens, Greece:Anarchists Riot During

Student ProtestPolice in riot gear fired severalrounds of tear gas, pushing backstudents throwing stones andsticks and covering the city centrein smoke. Police said about 40protesters were detained and about15 people were injured in thescuffles that lasted several hours. Atleast two cars were set on fire andrubbish bins were set alight. Severalshops and banks had windowssmashed. Earlier, more than 3,000students marched through thecapital in a culmination of weeksof protests and sit-ins at universitybuildings throughout the country.

University students have refrainedfrom taking exams and have stagedsit-ins at more than 100 universitiesacross the country and occupiedmore than 400 facilities to protestgovernment education reforms,which include the creation of privateuniversities. The students are alsoagainst government plans to endthe right to claim asylum on uni-versity grounds. The law, whichprevents police from enteringuniversities, has been enforcedsince 1973 after the military juntathen ruling Greece stormed thePolytechnic University in centralAthens with tanks, killing dozens.Throughout the next few weeks,several more protests came intoconfrontation with police in par-ticular, and with the institutions ofthe state and capital in general.Many arrests were made at eachand much property damage wasreported. At one protest, a GreekTV reporter was injured after beinghit by an orange studded withrazor blades.

June 19, Athens, Greece: RiotPolice Headquarters AttackedA group of approximately 15masked individuals appearedsuddenly and attacked the head-quarters for Athen’s riot policeand Special Forces with petrolbombs. The compound housestraining grounds for riot police,sleeping quarters for pigs, and adepot for all the riot police busesand chemicals weapons to be usedagainst rioters. Police suspect

anarchists, but could not make anyarrests. A similar attack occurredlast October.

July 25, Athens, Greece:Bomb Detonated Outside

Political OfficeThe anarchist group RevolutionaryLiberation Action has claimedresponsibility for the homemadeexplosive device that was detonatedoutside the office of SocialistDeputy Costas Gitonas. The officebelongs to PASOK or the Pan-hellenic Socialist Movement, whichis the main opposition party. Thebomb, which was constructed outof two cooking gas canisters,caused extensive damage to thebuilding’s entrance and facade. Noone was injured in the attack.Revolutionary Liberation Actiondedicated their assault to thememory of Christoforos Marino, aprominent anarchist who wasfound dead under mysterious cir-cumstances in July 1996 duringGitonas’ term as public orderminister. The group claimed creditfor a coordinated series of explo-sions last January that targetedoffices of the ruling New Democ-racy party, a municipal vehicle, anda branch of the National Bank.

July 31, Petaluma, California:SUV’s Vandalized

Residents of the upscale King’s Millsubdivision on Petaluma’s east sideawoke to find their homes and SUVscovered with graffiti denouncingwar and capitalism. “Eat the rich,”“End capitalism,” and “Suburbiaain’t safe no more” were spray-painted on the doors of five homesand several sport-utility vehicles.The graffiti was all in English, exceptfor one slogan on a garage door,which said “Consumir es morir”(“To consume is to die”).

August 15, Asheville, NorthCarolina: Anti-Immigration

Billboards TargetedA Buncombe County RepublicanAction Club immigration billboarddecried as racist by its critics wasdefaced and altered by anarchists.One of the two signs the group paidfor has been vandalized on twoseparate occasions. The billboardfeatures an American flag turnedupside-down beneath a Mexicanflag and has a caption that reads“Had Enough?.” An upside-downAmerican flag is an internationaldistress signal. Last month some-one blacked out the groups websiteand painted the word “RACISM”

Perpetual Rebellionof the Dissatisfied

To monotonously live the mouldy hours ofthe ordinary people, of the submissive, theaccomodated, a life of convenience, is notliving, it is only vegetating and carrying

around an amorfous mass of flesh and bones.To life one should give the exquisite elevation

of the rebellion of the arms and the mind.–Severino Di Giovanni, January 10, 1929

Reports On

Anarchist Resistance

(from Greece and Beyond) Reports On

Anarchist Resistance

(from Greece and Beyond)(from Greece and Beyond)


under the question “Had Enough?.”Recently vandals returned andpainted “They MEET AT RYAN’SRESTAURANT.” Presumably themost recent addition is meant toallow people the chance to meetthe anti-immigration proponentsface-to-face. At one point a circle“A” anarchy symbol was paintedover the American flag.

August 26, Athens, Greece:McDonald’s Attacked

A McDonald’s in the southernAthen’s Palio Faliro suburb wasattacked. A window was broken andtwo petrol bombs were throwninside. Firefighters were able toextinguish the fire before seriousdamages were sustained. U.S.-basedcompanies, banks, fascist, and gov-ernment buildings are frequentlybombed by anarchists in Athens.

September 11, Santago, Chile:Riots Mark Anniversary

of Pinochet Coup Violence erupted in several partsof the city as protestors marked the33rd anniversary of the September11, 1973 military coup led by Gen.August Pinochet that plunged thecountry into 17 years of dictatorialrule. Hooded protestors blockedroads and attacked power stations,with widespread power outagesreported. Trafficwas blocked withbarricades on thehighway to theexclusive suburbof Huechuraba. InSantiago’s Peña-lolén borough, policefaced off 100 pro-testors, broadcastlive on TV, whilesome protestorswere seen firingsemi-automat icguns into the air.Metropolitan Gover-nor Víctor Barruetospent the night in a helicopterobserving the violence, reminis-cent of the Pinochet regime, whenpopular protests were similarlyobserved and threatened. Violentprotests were also reported inArica, Temuco, Valparaíso, andConcepción. As a march proceeded fromSantiago’s central Alamedaboulevard, past the La MonedaPresidential Palace, an anarchistgroup, identified by the initials

CRA, tossed a Molotov cocktailat the Palace and paintedgraffiti on surrounding build-ings. The central headquartersof the BancoEstado bankwas also attacked. Numer-ous U.S. franchises, includingMcDonalds and Burger Kings,were also attacked. President MichelleBachelet condemned theviolence, referring to aMolotov cocktail tossed atthe La Moneda PresidentialPalace. “No one has the rightto attack La Moneda,” shesaid. Bachelet said that itwas regrettable that therewere “still people who don’tunderstand the sacrifice thatwas made to restore democ-racy to the country…. LaMoneda was in flames 33years ago, it’s somethingthat should never happenagain.”

September 29, Athens,Greece: Diplomat TargetedAnarchists are suspected of beingresponsible for yet another arsonattack against a diplomat’s car. Avehicle belonging to a Spanishenvoy was dowsed with gasolineand set on fire in the Exarchiadistrict of the capital.

October 3, Athens. Greece:Greek Banks Burned

Three Athens bank branches werebadly damaged following arsonattacks by suspected anarchists,Greek police said. No injurieswere reported, and there were noimmediate arrests. A group of upto 30 masked youths broke theglass fronts and threw in petrolbombs at the three banks, whichare a few hundred metres apart

near the capital’s central OmoniaSquare. Greek anarchists frequentlytarget banks, government buildingsand cars with diplomatic plates,using Molotov cocktails and make-shift bombs made of gas canistersbound together.

Early-October,Athens, Greece:Anarchists RiotWhile Workers

StrikeAfter thousandsof striking Greekteachers marchedto demand payraises, anarchiststhrew petrol bombsinto a Starbuckscoffee shop and afar-right publisher’sbookstore, causing

minor damage but no injuries. Riotpolice used tear gas as anarchiststhrew stones at them.

Late October, Southern Oregon:A.P.O.O. Takes Initiatory ActionAfter Anarchist People of Odor(A.P.O.O.) founder Podrido Apestarwas pushed off a supposed “radical”and “enlightened” work site foremitting a bouquet of naturalbody aroma, A.P.O.O., a newanarchist union of egos based out

of Oregon (yet internation-alist in scope), dischargedtheir first action against thebourgeois ascetics of thehyper-civilized. A day afterquitting for being asked toaccommodate one ratheruptight and bothersome co-worker by “showering morefrequently” or “wearingsome cologne”, A.P.O.O.operatives delivered a bagof dog poo (organically fed,of course), to the van of theodorously offended party.Making sure she knew itwas a political message,and not merely the friendlyscat of an admirer, acommuniqué expressingrage over the incident anddisdain for her New Agedphoniness, was attached:Dear Purple Intention,Have a Shitty Day!Loads of loveAnd brown light.

Anarchist People of Odor(A.P.O.O.)

In the Initial Declaration fromthe Founder of Anarchist Peopleof Odor (see page 75), A.P.O.O.has announced its official formationand declares it will continue itsolfactory assault on “those withhyper-domesticated and culti-vated expectancy and values.”Smell ya later!

November 14, Athens, Greece:Cop Attacked!

A cop was seriously injured ina violent c lash between policeand anarchists. The fortunate attackoccurred outside the offices ofthe Confederation of Greek Labor(GSEE), in the central Athensdistrict of Exarchia, where twoplain-clothes cops riding on amotorcycle were attacked byanarchists who beat one of themseverely and took his revolver.They also set fire to his bike. Thethrashing occurred when about50 anarchists were leaving theGSEE offices, which they hadbriefly occupied to protest thedetention of a man accused ofassaulting former GSEE PresidentChristos Polyzogopoulos in Janu-ary 2006. Police used tear gas andbatons to disperse the crowds whothrew Molotov cocktails at them.


Fire is ourplaymate.

Fire is ourplaymate.


anarchy

November 15, Athens, Greece:Arson at Banks

Greek anarchists carried out arsonattacks on four bank branches.Household gas canisters were setalight at the entrances to the banks,causing considerable damage.

November 17, Greece:Annual Riot Gets Heated

Some 7,500 riot cops were deployedin Athens and Thessaloniki for ademonstration marking the 33rdanniversary of a student uprisingagainst the military junta. At leastfive people and three pigs wereinjured in the scuffles in which riotcops fired tear gas at anarchiststhrowing stones and bottles. Atotal of 46 people were detained,and one anarchist was arrested forfiring flares at riot police. Another50 youths had been detained beforethe rally for bag checks. They were

Bill Dunne #10916-086,Box 019001, Atwater, CA95301. Anti-authoritariansentenced to 90 years forthe attempted liberation ofa prisoner in 1979.

Ojore N. Lutalo #59860,PO 861, SBI #901548, Trenton,NJ 08625. Anarchist andblack liberation soldier servingtime for revolutionary clan-destine activities.

Mike Rusniak DOCK88887, Dixon CC, 2600Brinton, PO Box 99, Dixon, IL61021. Serving time for stealinga police car, and other acts ofanti-government property-destruction.

Brian McCarvill #11037967,OSP, 2605 State St, Salem,OR 97310. Became politi-cally active while serving a39-year sentence on boguscharges, he has been con-tinually harassed after filinga lawsuit against the OregonDept. of Corrections.

Jerome W. Bey #37479,SCCC (1-B-224), 255 West Hwy32, Licking, MO 65102. Socialprisoner and founder of theanarcho-syndicalist MissouriPrison Labor Union.

North AmericanAnarchist

Political Prisoners:

later released. Cops found severalbags containing homemade petrolbombs hidden near trash cans inthe city center. Anarchists and left-ist organizers of the march alsoclashed near the U.S.Embassy, hurling chairsfrom nearby coffee shopsat each other. In Thessaloniki, youthshurled rocks at riot policefrom the grounds ofAristotle University beforethe dean intervened byasking police to back offand pledging to take fullresponsibility for safety inthe area. Earlier in the day,a group of representa-tives from the ruling NewDemocracy Party, visitingAristotle University’s engi-neering school to lay acommemorative wreath,were attacked by around40 hooded youths whopelted them with stones.

November 20, Melbourne,Australia: Anti-G20

Battle RagesAnarchists overran police barricades,threw bottles, flares and garbagecans, and smashed and looted apolice riot truck as they attemptedto reach the site of the G20 summitmeeting. The G20 represents theworld’s 20 richest and most eco-nomically powerful nations. Theymeet annually to discuss worldeconomics and trade. The 5,000strong mass of demonstratorscaught police off guard. 10 copswere hurt, at least one of whom

was seriously injured, but onlyseven people arrested. Policeclaim they will make more arrestsas they review videos and photo-graphs from the demonstrations.

December 12, New York, NY:Solidarity with Brad Will

Vandals redecorated the facade ofthe Mexican Consulate with slogansin memory of Brad Will (1970-2006), the slain New York anarchistand journalist (see State RepressionNews, page 92), and in support ofthe anti-government struggle inthe state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Theslogans “VIVA OAXACA,” “BRADPRESENTE,” “Viva Brad,” red hand-prints, a circle “a” anarchy symbol,and others where left on the wallsoutside the building. The Mexican

federal government used the murderof Will as another excuse to send alarge force of federal riot police intoOaxaca City to put down protestsagainst Governor Ruiz (see Indig-

enous Resistance, page 55).

December 13, Greece:Prisoner Support Action

Greek anarchists in Athensand Thessaloniki took actionin support of anarchist de-tainees, some of whom werearrested during the May 62006 riots against the Euro-pean Social Forum, three ofwhom are still imprisoned.One of the prisoners, TarasiosZadorozni, began a hungerstrike protest against hisimprisonment on November29 and was moved to ahospital on December 10.Over that weekend a groupof about 80 people onmotorcycles rode up to Jus-tice Minister AnastassisPapaligouras’s house in

Neo Psychico, northern Athens, andshouted and spray-painted anti-government slogans. Papaligourasdenounced the action as terrorismand said that he would not give intothreats. Two men were later arrestedin connection with that incident. InThessaloniki, dozens of maskedanarchists clashed with police nearAristotle University and firebombeda government building. Police believethat the violence was retaliation forthe arrest a week earlier of a 21-year-old man who is accused ofthrowing a molotov cocktail atpolice. No arrests were made.


The walls are a canvas.

to embrace the gun and the bomb,as well as the music and the petal;

both the explosion and the orgasm.


“What is a self?” asks Karl Marx. “Is it not an abstractionfrom a whole complex of social relations, of selves in relations?” Would there be relations without the selves? If the self is an abstraction,what does Karl Marx use to build his State? The relations or the selves?Which is the concrete, and which the abstraction? Without the selvesthere are no relations, no State, no... nothing. “The I is a we, a colony of cells, an orchestra of inherited instincts,”says Victor Basch. “The particular I has no value... It exists only byand in another Is with whom it forms a nation, a society, a State.”The individual doesn’t claim to be the I of the cell, but the I formedby the colony of cells. That this I is formed by hereditary instinctsdoesn’t change it one iota. It is still my I, formed by all the instincts that go into it. It is still unique, and transitory, as no other I is like mine. I am a world in myself, a unique world, in differing circumstances. As I am my exclusive I, under any circumstances and at any time,therefore let us ask: Do the cells exist on account of the body? The musicians onaccount of the orchestra? The bricks on account of the house?The eggs on account of the omelette? Individuals onaccount of the State?Who was there first? The individual, being a body,cannot be split up, added to, orsubtracted from, because theyare not bodies—they areonly artificial compo-sitions, abstractions. Try to fuse togethermany I’s in order toform a super I, a State,a society. It can’t bedone. The individualcannot be dissolved. Chain togethermillions of individualsto form a State, or asociety. They still re-main different worlds,a conglomerate of en-slaved, crushed individuals,perhaps alike, but still wholeworlds in themselves. Destroy the individual and thereis no more State or society. Destroy the State, dissolve society, and theindividual survives, because individuals are theirreplaceable ingredients that go to form a State or a society. A collection of obedient, tyrannized individuals is only a flock of sheep.“The individual,” says Bakunin (And what is he doing here amongthe enemies of the individual? Giving comfort to the authoritarians?)“is a product of society, and without society man is nothing.” Let’s see... And without individuals society would be something?It would not exist, nor would the State. According to anthropologicaldiscoveries made in Abysinnia, humanity seems to be more than 3,000,000years old. He/she originally lived without an organized society duringmost of these years and practically in isolation since there were so fewhuman beings. And these primitive relations—how old are they?20,000, 50,000, 100,000 years? Again the individual is the real thing. “Society has been first,” says Kropotkin (Has he, too, got lost amongthe enemies of the individual?). Let’s make it clear that Stirner is not against society, nor does hepreach isolation, since the “union of egoists” is also a society. He isonly against certain kinds of societies, the forced, the codified, theauthoritarian societies. To these he opposes the free, voluntaryarrangement which is the union of egoists.

“The society of animals proceeded that of man,” adds Kropotkin.Of course, since many animals were in existence hundreds of millions ofyears before man developed. And since animals must have looked forprotection under trees or in caves against bad weather (joined afterwardby primitive man) there they found themselves in company. In a word,for physical and psychological comfort they found themselves in societywith other animals. But did such a “society” have morals? Did it have laws to tyrannizethem? Did it have sanctions? Were there police forces, collectors oftaxes, military service, jails, the curse of capitalists, commissars,priests, gods, states, churches? No, they were simply societies of free egoists, meeting mostlyaccidentally, since they had to wander around looking for food, andin most cases, perhaps, the same animals never met a second time. Stirner is not against altruism. Whoever thinks they are an altruist, letthem be. It doesn’t bother Stirner. He thinks, first, that in most humanactions real altruism is rarely met, because unconscious egoism is alwaysdiscovered under it; second, that to appeal to altruism is the wrong way totry to achieve the emancipation of all individuals; third, that conscious

self-interest based on free contracts is really the best andsurest way for building a free, harmonious, and an-

archist society for everyone. “The I of today,” says Sidney

Hook, “is different from the Iof yesterday... because the

I in different conditions...The I is an abstraction,

because there is not anabsolute I... In one

I there are concen-trated many I’ s.” Am I no moreI because everyminute a few mil-lion cells die in me,and are replaced bynew millions ofcells? An I in me, in you,

dies every instant, andstill we are me and you

and nobody else. And it cannever be otherwise.

We are ever dying, yet everliving, as I and you until our bodies

disintegrate and vanish into nothingness.The nothingness of a dead I, a dead individual.

There are only transitory I’s, each one born witheach individual, and disappearing with each individual. The absolute I? A fantasy! Stirner doesn’t claim an absolute I,because that would be another spook, a creature born from the thoughtof an individual, pretending afterwards to be a body above him,something “sacred,” a divinity. There exists only the transitory I of me, of you—not two, notvarious. But if they are not absolute, they are unique.And in spite of all the hatred the authoritarians feel towards therebellious and iconoclastic individual, nobody can exterminate himor her... and survive. The individual is here to stay. And so is the individualism. No individualism, no anarchy. Because then there would be no realfreedom—only a flock of tamed, enslaved individuals, no matter whatyou called it.

the

by Arrigoni Brand

of the Critics

TheAfflictions

Ego

of

Reprinted from Minus One (no. 36, 1975)


Our present epoch is one of extraordinarilyrapid change in almost every field of humanexistence. This change is driven forward primarilyby developments in technological and industrialsystems, which have vastly altered the ways inwhich we experience time, space, each other,and the natural world. It is as though nothinghas remained untouched by this technicalrevolution: landscapes and rivers are obliteratedand reconstructed with heavy machinery, steel,and concrete; biotechnology has brought themost basic elements of life under human control;and knowledge as we once understood it isalmost completely replaced by information thattravels through fiber-optic channels and radiowaves connecting computers, televisions, andcell-phones. People and environments every-where are deeply affected, as a new wave ofcolonialism—euphemistically referred to as“trade liberation”—spreads these technologiesto every corner of the world. Every square footof the earth is now colonized and claimed bythe jurisdiction of states or capitalist enterprises. Technological optimists, usually hailing from

the privileged classes of the new global society,conceive of these changes as “Progress”. Politicalideologues of the left and right see industrialdevelopment as the solution to all world problems,differing only in the approaches they would taketowards a fully rationalized and mechanizedworld. Within polite intellectual circles, the mostradical position acceptable is that some moderntechnologies are unnecessary or undesirable, andthat global industrialization is being carried outin a way that is harmful to environments and agreat many people. Professional activists andtrade groups sporting slogans such as “Fair Trade,Not Free Trade” tout organic agriculture andprogressive labor, environmental, and trade poli-cies as correctives to the excesses of globalization. These hopeful reformers aim to help create a kinder,gentler form of global industrial capitalism.Surely it is better for workers to be well paid andfor production to be carried out in the most safe,healthy, and ecologically sustainable way possible.Surely coffee growers in Latin America deserve afair market price for their products, but what forcesthem to produce anything for the first world at all?

Can we imagine a world that is not dividedbetween a poor global south and a wealthynorth? As people who have directly benefitedfrom the exploitation of the impoverished thirdworld for our entire lives, can we imagineourselves living in such a world? Whose interestdoes modern technology serve, and who mustpay its costs? There is a great unwillingness onthe part of the vast majority of western intel-lectuals to ponder such questions. I offer thisessay as an attempt to scratch the surface ofdeeply uncomfortable territory. The most difficult obstacle to overcome in thesearch for a critique of technology comes fromcommon attitudes, both within and withoutacademia. The standard approach to technologyis to think of it as politically neutral. Accordingto such a position, technological development isderived from improvements in science, which isitself conceived as a method to obtain “objective,value-free, and unfettered truth which arises froma hypothetical-deductive process” (Ihde 1993:72). Science provides us with knowledge that issimply applied by technology. Since it is basedin objectively verified truth, technology is value-neutral and can be used to improve the lives ofpeople anywhere, regardless of their cultural andeconomic backgrounds. According to this logic, modern industrialprocesses do not represent anything qualitativelynew; they simply improve and streamline thecrafts and techniques of the past. Humans havealways used technology, ranging in scope frombifaced stone hand-axes to atom splitting andgene splicing. Such an understanding renderstechnology essentially impervious to critique,since it is seen as naturally integral to thehuman species. To oppose technology wouldbe to oppose humanity itself. There are goodtechnologies and better technologies, and anyevils resulting from them are the results ofmisapplication or poor engineering. Technologyitself, and the science behind it is never theculprit. John Zerzan, perhaps the U.S.’s secondmost notorious contemporary Luddite—TedKaczinsky being the first—described this logic

in a lecture at Stanford University:Technology claims to be neutral, merelya tool, its value or meaning completelydependent on how it is used. In this wayit hides its ends by cloaking its means.If there is no way to understand what itis in terms of an essence, inner logic,h istorical embeddedness or otherdimension, then what we call technologyescapes judgment…Today the peoplewho say that it’s merely a tool…reallybelieve that technology is a positivething. But they want to be a little morecanny about it…[I]f you say it’s neutral,then you avoid testing the truth claim thatit’s positive. (Zerzan 2002: 43)

The neutrality of technology is supported by atwo-fold argument: all humans use technology,and the sciences we use to improve it arevalue-neutral. Both of these propositions canbe attacked, and doing so is an important steptowards thinking critically about technology.To say that the tools employed by non-modern1

On theNeutrality ofTechnology

by Jesse Cross-Nickerson


peoples of the past and present are simplyprimitive, unrefined versions of modern technolo-gies is inaccurate. They are both quantitativelyand qualitatively different. Martin Heideggercontrasted the modern hydroelectric dam withthe pre-industrial windmill:

[The windmill’s] sails do indeed turn inthe wind; they are left entirely to thewind’s blowing. But the windmill doesnot unlock energy from the air currentsin order to store it…The hydroelectricplant is set into the current of the Rhine.It sets the Rhine to supplying its hydraulicpressure, which then sets the turbinesturning…In the context of the interlockingprocesses pertaining to the orderlydisposition of electric energy, even theRhine itself appears as something at ourcommand…The river is dammed up intothe power plant. (Heidegger 1977: 14…16)

Nature is thus transformed into a “standingreserve” for use by modern industrial consumers.And the rate at which this transformation proceedshas accelerated. In India today, to cite oneexample among many, modernization means theconstruction of one of the most extensive damprojects in history:

It envisages building three thousandand two hundred dams…that willreconstitute the Narmada [River] andher forty-one tributaries into a series ofstep reservoirs. It will alter the ecologyof an entire river basin, affect the livesof about twenty-five million people wholive in the valley, and submerge fourthousand square kilometers of old-growth, deciduous forest, hundreds oftemples, as well as archaeological sitesdating back to the Lower PaleolithicAge. (Roy 2001: 39)

It is clear that modern technology affects theworld at a much greater scale than supposedlyprimitive practices. People (and all organisms)always change the environment in which theylive, but the power of modern industry to clear-cutforests, dam rivers, blast apart mountaintops,alter the chemistry of soil, water, and air, affectrainfall patterns, increase temperatures, and drivecountless species extinct the world over far exceedsthe damage done by even the most destructiveof non-modern cultures. Prior to the industrialrevolution “man’s efforts, even at their mightiest,were tiny compared with the size of the planet—the Roman Empire meant nothing to the Arctic orthe Amazon. But now, the way of life of one partof the world in one half-century is altering everyinch and every hour of the globe” (McKibben1989: 46). The changes brought about in theworld by modern technology vastly exceed anyother human enterprise both in amplitude andscope. All cultures alter their environments,but never before have they rendered suchvast permanent effects on the global level.The capacity for modern industry to changethe environment so drastically quantitativelydifferentiates it from non-modern practicesto the point that the two cannot be looked atas similar.

The qualitative differences between these twotypes of technology are equally stark. Unlikeworkers (or their cybernetic replacements) on anindustrial assembly line, members of “primitive”societies are able to craft all of the things theyneed at the level of the individual, family, orvillage. They grow or gather their own food, sewtheir own clothes, and fashion tools from naturalmaterials. The products such societies produceare designed according to their own regionalcultures with attention to the specific needs anddesires of people living in their own local envi-ronments. Such technologies allow people to livein conditions of stateless social autonomy andequality, and to express a vast array of culturaland linguistic diversity. In contrast, modern technology mobilizes andcoordinates literally billions of people on multiplecontinents in systems that manufacture anddistribute lines of identical industrial products.In the modern mindset, variation is seen as adefect. Small-scale, unique, and regional pro-duction is replaced by a global assembly line.Workers no longer craft goods for themselvesand their families; they labor in mines, factories,offices, and schools to facilitate the functioningof the industrial machinery. Both the worker andthe product he/she produces is depersonalizedand rendered down to a monetary figure in thegreat economic equation. As Heidegger wouldput it, even the human being has been transformedinto a standing reserve of labor. Early on in hiswriting, Karl Marx called this process alienationand described it in terms that indict not justcapitalism, but industrialism as a whole:

The increase in value of the world ofthings is directly proportional to thedecrease in value of the humanworld. Labor not only producescommodities. It also producesitself and the worker as acommodity, and indeed in thesame proportion as it pro-duces commodities in general…[A]lienation is shown not onlyin the result but also in theprocess of production, in theproducing activity itself. (Marx1994: 59…61)

Echoing Marx and Heidegger, MichelFoucault suggested that “moderninstitutions subject people to con-stant surveillance and disciplinesdesigned to achieve ‘normalcy,’ i.e.,designed to turn human beings into‘bio-power’ suitable for the needs ofthe totalizing aims of the techno-logical system” (Zimmerman 1990:203). Schools, prisons, and factoriesutilize methods of strict time-controland observation to ensure the smoothintegration of human labor and indus-trial mechanization. These techniques“…establish rhythms, impose par-ticular occupations, regulate thecycles of repetition…But an attemptis also made to assure the quality ofthe time used: constant supervision,the pressure of supervisors, the

elimination of anything that might disturb ordistract…” (Foucault 1977: 149…150). Thanksto pharmaceutical technologies, production ofbio-power is now assisted by drugs that ensure thedocility and tranquility of workers and students. Rather than working within a natural contextto achieve its ends, modern industry operateswithin a matrix of technologies, processes, andconstructed environments. More and more,technology is implicated in the production andmaintenance of technology. This holds true atany scale, from the molecular to the global.Computers and satellite communications coordi-nate the movement of people, products, andmaterials while laboratories produce novelchemicals and life-forms that become inputs tofurther production. Technology utilizes man-made chemicals and materials that do not occuranywhere in nature. Synthetics comprise the nec-essary input and undesired output of nearly allindustrial processes. Many of these chemicals areenvironmentally harmful. Many of them willnever go away. Non-modern peoples used stone,animal products, wood, and plant fibers in theireconomies and threw away those same materialswhen they were done. Today’s industries produceplastics, CFCs, pesticides, spent nuclear fuel, andRoundUp Ready corn, dumping waste into thewater and the air and burying it beneath landfillslarger than any of our famed architectural marvels. Industrial technology did not improve upontechniques of the past. It replaced them withsomething both quantitatively and qualitativelydifferent. Recognizing this dichotomy allows us tojudge the value and logic of modern technology


“. . . modern technology mobilizes andcoordinates literally billions of peopleon multiple continents in systems thatmanufacture and distribute lines ofidentical industrial products.”

“. . . modern technology mobilizes and“. . . modern technology mobilizes andcoordinates literally billions of peoplecoordinates literally billions of peopleon multiple continents in systems thaton multiple continents in systems thatmanufacture and distribute lines ofmanufacture and distribute lines ofidentical industrial products.”identical industrial products.”


without indicting non-modern economies in thesame stroke. We can condemn the atom bombbut leave the bow and arrow well enough alone.We can retch at the thought of geneticallyengineered food and still admire the beauty andproductivity of our own gardens. Recognizingthat these two forms of technology operate inand engender such radically different economic-political contexts, we can argue that technologyis not neutral, but laden with the values of theculture that creates it. The globalization of mod-ern industrial technology does not represent“development” of third world cultures but theirdestruction, subjugation, and replacement bythe colonizing culture of the west. Arundhati Royrefers to this process as “something akin to anundeclared civil war…being waged in the nameof ‘development’” (Roy 2001: 4). So where does science fit in all of this? Is itindeed neutral and objective, as many peopleclaim, or does it too carry cultural values em-bedded within it? Are scientific knowledge andthe methods used to produce it implicated inthe political problem of technology? Or is knowl-edge itself innocent, only taking on value whenit is applied? Is there a line to be drawn between“pure” and applied sciences? Since so much ofthe scientific establishment is funded by privatecorporations and states with an interest in tech-nology, such a line seems difficult to place. Thelink between science and technology is enoughto warrant suspicion of science’s innocence, butthis in itself is not enough to fully understand itsrole in the colonialism and ecological devastationbeing carried out in today’s world. The techno-logical gestalt was prefigured in the methods andassumptions of science from its very beginning. Much of the foundation of modern experimentalscience was laid down by Francis Bacon, whosemost famous maxim is that “knowledge ispower”. Science in the Baconian tradition wasnever pure, but always bound up in possibleapplications—always set out to control anddominate nature. In the twentieth century,feminists such as Sandra Harding [summarizedin Ihde 1993] began to point out the gendered,paternalistic implications of this tradition. “Inshort, the rise of early Modern Science wasitself a movement in the Baconian, masculinistcontext of an aggression upon nature betrayedin the metaphors of science ‘twisting the tail ofnature’ or even the use of rape metaphors whichproceeded from Bacon on into very contemporaryspeeches by Nobel Prize acceptees in the lastdecade.” (Ihde 1993: 70-71) Nature does not be-come standing reserve only upon the applicationof technology; it is already intellectually definedas such within the structure of the experiment.Scientific method relies on taking a phenomenonout of its natural, holistic context and attemptingto replicate it under contrived laboratory circum-stances. The form of the experiment rests not inobservation of nature, but interference with andcontrol over it. The next brick in the foundation of modernscience was laid by Descartes. When Descarteswrote “I think therefore I am”, he placed therational (European) human thinking process at thesubjective center of the universe. Everything elsebecame a satellite orbiting around the western mind.

Animals and non-western peoples, who werepresumed to lack reason, were thus stripped oftheir own agency and subjectivity, their liveshaving meaning only in relation to the Europeanconsciousness. Nothing in the natural world wasinherently justified by its own existence. The pur-pose of everything was to be defined and con-trolled by rational man. Derrick Jensen aptlydescribes the exploitative nature of Descartesphilosophy, and places it at the root of modernscience and technology:

Even if [Descartes’] philosophy were notsuch an easy justication for exploitation,his search was fatally flawed before itbegan…By substituting the illusion ofdisembodied thought from experience(disembodied thought being, of course,not possible for anyone with a body), bysubstituting mathematical equations forliving relations, and most importantly bysubstituting control, or the attempt tocontrol, for the full participation in thewild and unpredictable process of living,Descartes became the prototypical mod-ern man. (Jensen 2004: 10)

Armed with this philosophy, man need not placea dam on a river to make it a standing reserve. Hehas already done so in his conception of the river. So science too is thoroughly laden with culturalvalues. The universal truths that experimentationreveals to us are not so universal at all, butcontrivances and abstractions produced andreplicated in constructed technological envi-ronments. Experimental science does not revealtruth; it manufactures it. There is a strongcorollary between the laboratory and the factory.In both environments, workers carry out repeatedprocedures aimed to produce identical resultstime after time. Knowledge is transformed fromlived experiences and stories into mechanicallyreplicable abstractions Machines that observe,record, store, and transmit data have replaced thesenses as sources of truth. Only in the context of themodern constructed environment, surrounded aswe are by computers, clocks, televisions and otherknowledge-machines is such truth meaningful.

Indeed we have built for ourselves the abstracted,imagined world that Descartes’ disembodiedrational mind thought into being. More and moreof our interactions are with automata More andmore of our environment truly is the product ofthinking rationally. Seeing that technology and science are notneutral, we can indict technology itself, and themindset from which it springs, as a major contribu-tor to the poverty, environmental degradation,and loss of cultural and biological diversity thatgrips the global south. Technology is not thesolution to global problems, but the cause ofthem. Its logic is exploitative, centralizing, andcolonial. In order to formulate an adequateresponse to the troubles facing the planet, weneed to think outside of the confines of moderntechnological reasoning and formulate an entirelydifferent understanding of and relationship to theworld and people around us. As long as wecontinue to reduce nature and society to standingreserve, we enforce upon them an arbitrarymodel that simply doesn’t fit—and the resultsare often disastrous. Our new gestalt must beone of integrating into natural processes, notreconstructing them to our own needs.

REFERENCES CITED:Foucault, Michel (1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House.Heidegger, Martin (1977). The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. New York: Harper and Row.Ihde, Don (1993). Philosophy of Technology. New York: Paragon House.Jensen, Derrick (2004). A Language Older Than Words. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green.Marx, Karl (1994). Selected Writings. Ed. Simon, Lawrence. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.McKibben, Bill (1989). The End of Nature. New York: Doubleday.Roy, Arundhati (2001). Power Politics. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.Zerzan, John (2002) Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilization. Los Angeles: Feral House.Zimmerman, Michael (1990). Heidegger’s Confrontation with Modernity. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.


Technologyis not a tool.

AT THE BEGINNING OF A SUSTAINED CRITIQUE OF CIVILIZATION,a basic but difficult question presents itself: should a green anarchistuse modern technology to foment insurrection against civilization?How we answer this question determines the direction of our intellectualand physical efforts. If technology can be used to overthrow societythen we should busy ourselves with finding the liberatory potential innew technologies. Imagine using the Internet to spread the primitivistmessage: myspace for anarchists, flickr for insurrectionists or bloggingon decline of civilization.On the other hand, if we are wrong tobelieve technology can be used as a weapon against civilization thenthe use of technology, regardless of the intentions behind its use, mayonly strengthen the enemy we wish to attack. Clearly, to answer thequestion of whether we should use technology we must first determinewhat it is and for this we could turn to German philosopher MartinHeidegger. Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976) is one ofthe most influential philosophers of the 20th century. Heidegger’s mostwell known work is Being and Time (1927) in which he attempted anelaboration of Being through a phenomenological study of humanexistence. Aside from being a notoriously difficult philosopher withtroubling ties to the Nazi movement between 1933 and 1936,Heidegger is also known as an extremely prolific writer: the completecollection of his works comprises one hundred and two volumes. Butwhat most people do not know is that Heidegger was a steadfast criticof technology throughout his entire philosophical career. Considerthe following quote from 1966:

Everything functions.That is exactly what is uncanny.Everything functions and the functioning drives us further andfurther to more functioning, and technology tears people awayand uproots them from the earth more and more. I don’t knowif you are scared; I was certainly scared when I recently saw thephotographs of the earth taken from the moon. We don’t needan atom bomb at all; the uprooting of human beings is alreadytaking place. We only have purely technological conditions left.It is no longer an earth on which human beings live today.

What makes Heidegger’s critique of technology worth considering foranti-civilization anarchists is that it is grounded in a radically newunderstanding of technology. In his 1953 lecture The Question ConcerningTechnology, he identifies the common understanding of technology in whichtechnology is seen as a tool, a means to an end, and a human activity the“instrumental and anthropological definition of technology”. It is thisunderstanding of technology that Heidegger explicitly rejected throughouthis life: “above all modern technology is not a ‘tool’, and it no longer hasanything to do with tools.”1 If technology is not a tool, then the question ofwhether we should use technology for insurrection already leads us astraybecause it is based on a mistaken understanding of technology. In fact, it isthe assumption that technology is a tool that drives the desire to “conquer”technology, a desire that only strengthens technology. “So long as werepresent technology as an instrument, we remain transfixed in the will tomaster it.”2 But if modern technologies such as computers, televisions, theInternet, cell phones and cars are not tools – what are they? Heidegger’ssimple answer initiates a whole new way of seeing technology: tech-nology, he writes, is a way of revealing the world.

What happens when a scientist peers into his microscope? Does he seethe world more clearly or is it possible that something else far more harmfuloccurs? For Heidegger, science in the service of technology can onlycultivate a certain type of destructive knowledge that is premised on thenotion that the world is a “standing-reserve” waiting to be exploited: “Therevealing that rules in modern technology is a challenging, which puts tonature the unreasonable demand that it supply energy which can beextracted and stored as such.” And that is the danger and true meaning oftechnology: technology is the force that draws us into seeing the earth asonly energy, profit, or information waiting for extraction. Which is whyin the quote above Heidegger exclaimed that we no longer live on earth –our thought has become so entirely mediated by technology that we canno longer directly interact with the world as humans did for thousands ofyears. Another quote from The Question Concerning Technology makesclear that Heidegger saw technology as a fundamentally perverted wayof seeing the earth that is directly related to the production of masseswithin a mass society:

The forester who measures the felled timber in the woodsand who to all appearances walks the forest path in the sameway his grandfather did is today ordered by the industry thatproduces commercial woods, whether he knows it or not. Heis made subordinate to the orderability of cellulose, which forits part is challenged forth by the need for paper, which isthen delivered to newspapers and illustrated magazines. Thelatter, in their turn, set public opinion to swallowing what isprinted, so that a set configuration of opinion becomesavailable on demand.3

What then is to be done? First, it is clear that a primitivist movementpremised on the use of technology will necessarily fail. Therefore, wemust have the courage to step away from seeing technology as a toolthat may sometimes be used when it seems to benefit our goals.Technology is not a means to an end – it is instead a force outside ofour control that we must escape, not tame. Can a future be built withouttechnology? Only the green anarchists will be able to discover theanswer to this question and that may be our destiny.

Endnotes:1 Der Spiegel Interview: http://www.eco.utexas.edu/~hmcleave/

350kPEEHeideggerSpiegel.pdf2 The Question Concerning Technology, pg 3273 The Question Concerning Technology, pg 323


Technologyis not a tool.

by “Throw”


Imagine you have ten people on Mars.They ve just arrived and are focused on survival.If they do survive, they ll begin adapting andsettling in. If they stay long enough, a Martianculture will take shape. However, after a year,our colonists will be moved to a new planet. Ayear later, another relocation. And so on.After many years continuing on like this, theircultural profile would become distorted. Theirgovernment, if any, would be adapted tochange. Their social rituals, if any, would beadapted to change. Their art would be adaptedto change. Their language would be adaptedto change. Their tools. Their songs, theirprayers. There could be a deteriorating senseof commitment, dislike of order and sameness,fascination with novelty and an indiscriminatebelief in the value of change. Eventually, therecould be a diminished ability to understandwhat s happening to them, or interest in tryingto stop it. Chronic change is affecting the twin hemi-spheres of their minds, threatening to lock themin the uprooted phase indefinitely. The brainis an evolutionary marvel, but an eccentric one.It s a developmental oddity that evolved in afreakish sequence of upgrades resulting inunheard of cognitive abilities at every stage.

But it did this without giving up any of theprimordial elements. The brain stem, or reptilebrain, took its present form 500 million yearsago in the Paleozoic era. To that was added thecerebellum, also prehistoric, and the then limbicsystem. The cerebrum was added 200 millionyears later, perhaps as an afterthought. The twinhemispheres, the occipital, temporal, parietaland frontal lobes they are more recentacquisitions. The brain is a haphazard butcooperative system of ancient attics and stair-wells all of which are physically present andobvious in modern humans. Our brain is olderthan we will ever be. In fact our brain predates us. We applied our consequent intelligence andbuilt up a formidable material empire unawarewe were beginning to out-pace the brain s pen-chant for geologic time-scales. To maintain abody-mind harmony, things can change but,slowly. Here on Earth, we are much worse offthan the Martian colony. Down here thingschange every day. Even every hour. There sno way of telling how many millions of yearsahead of the brain we are by now. In itssheltered, temperature regulated dome of theskull, the brain is burning through logic-boardsto keep up with us, while other, extremely use-ful cognitive components are almost ossifying.

One half of the brain was designed to dealwith change, newness and novelty. This wasimportant. The other half was wired to manageconstancy and comprehend it. This was vital.The right brain learns quickly and ingestsnovelty, is novelty-seeking. The left-brain dealswith pattern recognition, cause and effect, trends,experiences, prediction of outcomes. Probableconsequences. Rational analysis. Without con-stancy on an epic scale, the right brain canbecome overburdened while the left side failsto thrive. It s not a degenerative process, butsocial changes could set up conditions of self-perpetuation. Cognitive imbalance could lockhumans into a cycle of perpetual change. The young of all species are preoccupiedwith novelty all the time. They are naturallynovelty-seeking and programmed to absorbeverything indiscriminately. For humans, asthe child grows, the saga of novelty dominatestheir world. If that world remains constant,sometime between the ages of twenty andthirty, there will be a gradual shift to the left-brain pattern-seeking process. This shift leadsto cognitive maturity. In his recent book, TheWisdom Paradox, Elkhonon Goldberg callsthis the first step in the wisdom phase of humancognitive development. He defines wisdom as

INFANTILE PARALYSIS

by Sky Hiatt


A fusion of intellectual, moral and practicaldimensions. Today, in advanced industrialized countries,in any thriving city, change is the only constant.Homes are torn down or engulfed in flames,faces appear or disappear from the workplace,friends move away, jobs flown to India, forestsdestroyed, rivers dammed, birdsongs silenced.In any given year, twenty percent of Americansmove from one residence to another. Ninetythousand disappear and are never seen again.We just can t keep track of them. In The Cultureof Technology, Arnold Pacey warns that sucha society will advance counter-intuitively byignoring the complex of variables and theimpact both cultural and environmental,[shutting] down cognitive demand and shift-ing potential geniuses into deskilled jobs...It s progressive. In successive generations, thedebilitating process creates wave after waveof cognitively unhealthy people. Here onEarth, we are exceeding our cognitive re-placement rate. If you are living in a society where noveltylevels remain accelerated throughout your life,you may begin to suffer from what EliseBoulding (in The Clock of the Long Now) callstemporal exhaustion. She believes humans

need a 200-year present, or a pace of changeobvious only from a 200-year vantage pointin time. Otherwise the mind could becomeimpaired. Some people may experience righthemisphere overload and rebel by allowingselected categories of chaos to drift by them.Others may be locked in novelty mode intothe adult years. In extreme cases, cognitivematuration is permanently delayed. In this waythe counter-evolutionary pace of change cansubtract higher-tier cognitive processes fromthe social equation. Such a society may be in ruins, chaos every-where, while the people living in it perceive itas the ideal life. From within the circle of theircognitive limitations, all is well. The birthand death of fads, acceleration of technologicalintervals, microchip generations and themacro-momentum of time drives the mediancognitive age downward, from elders to adultsto young adults and finally to the young. Thedefective adults notice this but it registers asnormal. As Wonderful! How are the immatureadult victims of chronic change going to raisea population of pattern-seekers? How is thegeneration after them going to mature at all?According to Simone Weil in the Need forRoots, once uprootedness and commerce haveaccelerated the pace of life past a crucialtempo, it will have a hold on us, compared towhich cocaine is a harmless product. If we don t have a literal fountain of youth,we have a psychological one. The crescendoof novelty comfortably abides in the rightbrain. If there is a lag between fixes, you mayneed to camp at the cineplex for the next filmin a favorite series. According to David Loyein The Sphinx and the Rainbow, the right

hemisphere is also the seat of moodiness anddark thoughts and will tend to register eventsas more unpleasant than they are. Maroonedat this stage, you may need drugs, alcohol orchemicals to get by. Even the novelty-seekingmind needs rest at times. It s rough being cutoff from the calming left-brain aptitudes. Plasticsurgery may be a superficial adaptation tosuperficial times. It may also be a way to keepthe outer body aligned with the eternallyyouthful mind. Otherwise, the discord couldbe unsettling. Top models are the ones withchildlike proportions, while the children them-selves compete in pageants as miniaturegrownups mimicking adult mannerisms.Chronic change is blurring the age distinctions.There s a preferred age toward which every-one is deliriously gravitating. The right brainbalances dangerously between exhilarationand nothingness. In the learnable world, in wild times, theincessant barrage would register as cata-strophic. Learning was different then. Even thevery young would begin laying down patterns,seeing the connections, building up the left-brain almost from the beginning. Nothingexisted in isolation. Once a child reachedthe adult state, life would have settled intopatterned rhythmic certainty. The right hemi-sphere would become less vital. Data down-load would be nearly complete. From this,lessons could be extracted, trends analyzed,patterns detected, tendencies, relationships,prediction of outcomes and possibilities.Left- brain thinking dominates the maturemind and is the seat of wisdom. Normally,this is the final phase, continuing to developthrough old age until death. The left-brainis the seat of hope, optimism, contentmentand happiness. But, while many unstableforces are at work, maybe har-monizing forces have been setin place by the governingellipses of civilization.Maybe we ve builtin synthetic fixed-constants for con-sciousness to cling to.Well, there s academic,blue collar, white collar,and industrial disciplinaryisolation. There are schools ofhigher learning devia t ingnovitiates onto the high-strungcrests of specialization. That can t beit. There are workers hired to build thepharaoh s tombs where the fabled humanpotential can be silently interred. There arestreet cleaners drained of their dreams.There s a pin-point, over- focused workforcesubdividing phenomenon into discontinuousblips. There are professionals trapped in aworld of knowledge fragments. No, all alongthe line, the stamp of divisional thinking scarsthe mind.

And there are other scars. It was once assumedthe adult human brain did not manufacturebrain cells. New research has proven thisuntrue. Elizabeth Gould is a specialist in theemerging field of neurogenesis. She traces thepaths of stress and worry on the brain. Shecalls this neural wounding a cerebral dis-figurement. When a brain is worried, it isn tinterested in investing in new cells. Separatingchildren from their parents at an early age canwound the mind. And poverty provides on-going stress, especially among children.Some brains never even have a chance.

How is it possible to be aware and respon-sible, Curtis White asks, in The MiddleMind. in a society that prohibits understand-ing? Or inhibits the ability to conceptualizean alternative social world. How can peoplewhose minds are petrified, save themselves,or save anything? How will they be able toknow truth, or perceive honor or virtue? Howwill they know the lie? How will they decipherfact from fiction? They say it takes a village to raise a child.But, it also takes the constancy of a village tomove adults toward the maturity of wisdom.Physically mature adults are not the finalform. Modernity abandons them in theadolescent phase in the midst of theirlearning. As a species almost completelydependent upon our minds, we need instruc-tion throughout our lives to survive. This is ourrenowned species strategy. But there are fewelders now. Only old folks in the old folk shome. In counter-evolutionary fashion, adultsmust now teach their parents how to crossthe mine field of modernity. When celebrities are interviewed, they oftensay they knew from an early age that life held

special things for them. They weren tsurprised at success. They always

knew. What they don t realizeis that all children have suchpremonitions. The surprise is

when it doesn t happen.Ask any child, they willtell you of the great fu-

ture that s waiting forthem. The will to great-

ness is a key survival instinct.In naturalistic cultures, heroic

opportunities were open to every-one. Healthy cultures invite in

courage, heroism, genius, normal mentaldevelopment. Possibilities to achieve great

things are theoretically unlimited. Withinthe dynamic of the tribe or clan, there was

considerable cognitive urgency and transparency.Ideas were sought. The mental trust wasmaximized, not out of egalitarian beneficence,but out of need. Humans were once generalistsimmersed in ageless sameness. Everyonelearned everything and understood the inter-connections. An open cognitive trust wasessential. Species don t simply materialize



and drift forward through time. Out of a thou-sand that appear, 999 will fail and die away. Children of the 21st century advance towardnon-maturity as their genetic endowment forgreatness slips away. The umbilical cord isnow attached to modernity. To reach this stagetook hundreds of years of cognitive repressionand imbalanced minds. Thousands of culturalmistakes were made. The demands of aconsumer civilization and hierarchies of powerhave neutralized many, many minds. Intelligenceand wisdom are sabotaged. It s getting harder tounderstand freedom and its subsidiarythemes. If the mind is not free, how can thebody follow? White says, Imagination is real,its defining concept is freedom. According to Loye, the noveltyseeking mind, frozen in a youth-ful phase, tends to see the worldaround them as, ...inherentlydivided…broken into smaller andsmaller constituent parts. The lostboys and girls of the present may havetrouble detecting patterns, fathoming them.The data streams fail to conform to a coher-ent larger meaning. There are single causes,single solutions, imperceptible connections, re-ceding time horizons. From the neglect ofconstant life experiences comes one rightanswer. Black and white. No shades of grey.There are properties at work in separatechambers of the mind. According to NeilPacey, in The Culture of Technology, thesenon-consecutive thinkers ...will have limitedexpectations. They will trust the experts, turn tothem. Nuclear power plants could be built with-out plans to deal with radioactive waste. Warsfought not knowing how to end them. Robin eggsdisintegrating. Diseases rising inexplicably. Thecranial dimensions of Neanderthal exceededthose of modern humans, embarrassing scienceto the present day. Why would a primitive peopleneed a larger brain than we have? With wisdom withering worldwide, and chaosintensifying, social skills suffer, social anxietyand violence surface. Parenting depreciates.Clinical neural disease is on the rise. Considerthe case of the mysterious nuns of Minnesotathe school sisters of Notre Dame. They tendedto live to old age, mentally acute their final days.But, autopsies revealed a medical enigma—evidence of advanced stages of Alzheimer’s inthe nuns’ brains. Elkonon has a theory. Theymust have been engaged in challenging mentalpursuits to the end, and that s what saved them.Life-long learning. His results suggest otherthings. Working together, pattern expansionand effortless experts increase the amount ofbrain space allocated to well-practiced cognitivetasks and decrease the metabolic requirementsnecessary for the effective performance... Thatis, dealing with patterned familiarity is meta-bolically efficient and requires less oxygen thanprocessing novelty. The ability to performcomplex mental tasks with diminished bloodsupply serves as a powerful protection against

the detrimental effects of cerebrovasculardisease on brain function. Did the cloister of the convent protect thenuns from the chaos of the times? Maybethe benediction of the nunnery functionedin a lull of ritual continuity passed downthrough the cloistered ages. A haven for thenatural mind to mature in. Alzheimer s typi-cally affects the right side of the brain morethan the left. Also, in natural aging, Theright hemisphere subsidiary bodies begin

to disintegrate ear-lier in life

than thel e f t ,

which barelychanges untilaround the ageof fifty, writes

Elkonon. Other factors include diet, geneticsand contributing illnesses. Is the current epi-demic of Alzheimer’s aggravated by unrelentingstimulation of the right brain coping with astanding tsunami of change? Is Alzheimer sjust another disease of civilization’? If so, are there other stable islands somewherefostering similar healthy mental tendencies?Well, the Amish have an almost nonexistent riskof Alzheimer s. The disease is also rare amongNative Americans in the U.S., and Canada, butonly among those living on reservations.Scientists are hunting for the magic gene thatprotects them and that can someday protecteveryone. Genetic therapy conforms nicely tothe edicts of a free market system. Beyond theprofit motive Dr. Hugh Hendrie wonders ifenvironmental factors could trigger the tragicillness. The Canadian Cree suggest studyingNative diet and traditional remedies. Then there s the case of the mysterious tribalpeople of the New Guinea highlands who carrya rare virus almost identical to the one thatcauses leukemia but never suffer from thedisease. When these people descended fromthe cloud forests into the lowlands, bewilderedscientists got busy trying to explain things ona genetic basis. It s not surprising. After all,as Simon Boron-Cohen writes in Mind Blindness,Scientists do not conduct research to find

things whose existence they don t suspect. Owing to broadband static and psycho-socialblindness, many people are willing to allowthe present to define them. They are loyal tothe present, obedient to it and defensive of it,even if it destroys them, even if it kills them.

Far too many names to put on a wall. It s ironicinasmuch as they don t really want the present.They don t even want the future. They wantsomething called futuristic. Forever with-drawing, never quite here. They will fight for aworld someone else will imagine for them—aworld better than this one. They ve submittedto it before they ve even seen it. People unknownto them, whose motives they don t understand,whose values they may not share, are the newsuperheroes. The directive is to keep totallyabreast of innovation. Avoid the curse of ob-solescence. This version of the future, novel,distorted, and perpetually changing, appeals tothe unhealthy mind. The learning curve is sub-verted, the natural mind unnaturally distressed.Parables are invalidated. The tortoise no longerwins the race.

Modern men and women must learnto yearn for change, not merely to beopen to changes...but positively todemand them, actively seek them outand carry them through...They mustdelight in mobility, thrive on renewal,look forward to future developments.

–Marshall Berman, All That is solidMelts into Air

To say that our society is falling apart, saysBerman, is to say that it s alive and well. InJim W. Corder s touching memoir, Yonder, helaments, The holocaust happens again and againin small ways, in large ways, in impersonal ways.He s talking about the lost Eden of the eternalpresent, and the irrevocable past of the past.He quotes Hitler. People will believe anything...sufficiently repeated. Mumford warns inTechnics and Civilization, Before industri-alization, a reorientation of wishes, habits,ideas and goals was necessary. It s beenaccomplished. Civilization invokes a temporaldistortion that has altered the cultural mind. This storm, piles of debris, wreckage uponwreckage, Walter Benjamin writes in Theseson History, this storm…is progress. Thedigitized content of the World Wide Websurpassed the Library of Congress in 1998 anddoubles every few months. Torrents of con-text-free information, Pacey called it. Buthe was talking about the telegraph. Eternityhas ceased to be a measure of human actions.According to Stuart Brand in The Clock of theLong Now, The system cannot be fixed. Noone is in charge, no one understands it, it can tbe lived without, and it gets worse every year. Evolution favors species that acquire all theyneed to know in time to pass it on. If you findyourself in a world the wise among you cannotcomprehend, there s a problem. Anti-cerebellumtendencies. Statutory euthanasia of humankind.According to Elk, the mature mind should offersociety a vast prism of experience. HerbertSimone, (in The Wisdom Paradox) confirmsthis, Pattern recognition is the foremostmechanism of problem solving. The humanbrain has 100 million neurons, or about as


many neurons as there are stars in our galaxy.Right brain domination is shutting downmany of our mental solar systems. They are beginning to predict a right-brainedfuture. The odds are good. We already have cult-like legions of believers craving the tomorrowof ephemera. The struggles, trials and philoso-phies of responsible culture are unfamiliar tothem. The bioregional, intraspecies, seventhgeneration ethic of survival in which all speciesadvance together through time, where the honorof plants, wild running rivers, wild dark skies,wilderness and the Earth is the deepest honor.They are sadly estranged from all this. Thebrain-damaged people of the child mind believein futures that don t exist. They desire that thepast dissolve into a traceless mist to make wayfor unknown developments.

Within a century after Voyager s launch, itcould be that new animals or humans werebeing manufactured gene by gene, to suitany purpose...emerging as parallel, rivalor superior beings… human intelligencehugely amplified... flitting from star to star,forever learning, forever exploring.

–from Deep Time by David Darling

Of course! By now we need the robots andthe robot brains. If we feed enough data intothe synthesized mind and watch the screen,we will comprehend evolution, globalweather patterns, star formation. Everything!

As a precursor, research labs are stringingtogether herds of computers to amplify theircapacity. Gigaflops, or one billion operationsper second, is not enough. They are aimingfor teraflops, one trillion operations a second.Manufacturers are now selling clusters aslarge as 1,250 computers. The buyers namethem Medusa, The Hive, Beowuif. Thehuman brain can store 100 trillion units ofinformation. It s not enough. We live in aworld we cannot comprehend without theunified digital mind. As computers merge thedata strings, the human mind remains sub-missively sub-divided.

The boundary between human andhuman-made was no longer decipher-able. What had been computers werecontinuous extensions of the brain... Nowman would aspire to technologies thatwere truly godlike, reassembled at will... –from Deep Time by David Darling

Like a circus of trained toys. Mechanicalimmortality. So far, we can t figure out howto eat right or even feed everyone. But firstthings first. For decades we ve been limitedto climbing inside the machinery, now themachinery will climb inside of us. Manu-factured humans wired to the nano-mind.Will it happen? Look around you, we vebeen poisoned, but so far, instead of dying,we re intoxicated!

Persistent change will continue altering thingseven to the invisible level, to all the levels,wiping out species and sub-species indiscrimi-nately. Much is being lost unwitnessed, andwithout acknowledgment. How will we everatone for that? Is there terminology to discussit? Is there a language? Are there words? Ourlegacy will probably never be fully tabulated.But life is not unconditional. In Possessing the Secrets of Joy, one of AliceWalker s characters complains: Who are youpeople to never accept us as we are? It is alwayswe who have to change so that we are more likeyou. And who are you like? You don t evenknow. Civilization wants everyone to forgetwho they are and erase their memories andbelieve in nothing. When the Native Americanchildren were sent to the boarding schools in thelast century, they promised themselves theywould never forget the sacred prayers. Theywould repeat them and repeat them—the sacredwords. But as the years passed, the prayers faded.By the time they were returned home, they hadforgotten even the language the prayers werespoken in. They couldn t talk to their parentsor to any of their people. The intergenerationalcultural bonds had been broken. Kill the Indian in him, save the man. Itseemed harsh, but it wasn t enough. Muchremained to be destroyed. The Aztecs prac-ticed human sacrifice. Modern civilizationasks only that we sacrifice the mind.

“Lik

e a

circ

us o

f tr

aine

d to

ys. . .

Mechanical immortality. . . For decades we’ve been limited to climbing inside the machinery,now the m

achinery will clim

b in s id e o f u s .”“L

ike

a ci

rcus

of

trai

ned

toys

. . .Mechanical immortality. . . For decades we’ve been limited to climbing inside the machinery,

now the m

achinery will clim

b in s id e o f u s .”


Things aren’t what they used to be. That’s probablyan understatement wih regard to North American biodiversity in 2007.The last 515 years haven’t been too easy on the wilderness of thiscontinent, once a vast primeval mecca for wildlife, a virtually unbrokenexpanse of Mother Nature’s millions of years of work. I think that if a native of the area I’m from, a member of the LenniLenape tribe of northern New Jersey, was to walk out into the forestwhere I played as a kid, he/she would hardly recognize it. Gone arethe vast stands of chestnut and white oak, which once towered 120feet tall and up to 10 feet in diameter. Today the average tree is maybetwo feet wide. Also gone are scores of native plants, long since takenover by invasive species, and animals such as wolves and even moose,which once roamed the dense thickets and virgin forests of a trulywild land. What’s left now is a pale shadow of the forest’s formerglory, a hacked up, torn apart land invaded by foreign species, the“smartest” of which still hasn’t learned from its mistakes.

What We’ve Lost,Yet Haven’t Even Noticed

Imagine the North American wilderness as the explorers Lewis and Clarksaw it: forests thick with chestnut trees in the East, prairies teeming withbison and rivers overflowing with salmon in the West. Now picture thecontinent today: superhighways link colossal cities, suburbs stretchfarther and farther into the countryside, industrial farmland goes on formiles, and a few patches of greenery and a national park or two break upthe monotony. - Jonathan S. Adams, The Future of the Wild

A few steps out the back door and I’m surrounded by white oaks andhickories, beeches and red oaks, maples and yellow birch. Squirrelsscurry from one tree to the next, the occasional white-tailed deer runsaway from my crunching foot steps. For all intents and purposes, thisseems like wilderness, a scenic reserve of flourishing flora and fauna. But illusions of grandeur aside, and as beautiful as this forest is, it’s afar cry from untouched, virgin wilderness. Its no small miracle that ithas endured as forest through nearly 500 years of clear-cutting, intensivefarming, invading foreign species, and condominium developments. I guess this story starts with the American chestnut. Once the dominant tree of the vast forests of the Appalachianregion of the Eastern US, this tree once towered up to 120 feet tall ingreat stands. A major food source for wildlife and humans alike, itwas an integral part of the forest ecosystem. Then, sometime in theearly 20th century, the chestnuts began dying off at an alarming rate.The cause was soon discovered to be a fungus blight, most likelyoriginating from Asia, which American chestnuts had no immunity to.In addition, intensive logging weakened the remaining survivorsto the point where a massive die-off became inevitable. No longerwould these beautiful trees provide shade in the summertime andblanket the forest floor with nutrient rich nuts.

This example is so alarming because of the extensive amount ofchange it meant for the forest ecosystem. But really, it is the foreststhemselves, not just individual species within them, that are in peril.When Europeans arrived, a billion acres of forest covered half theland that would become the United States. By 1900, forests coveredless than a third of the US. Since 1992 alone 13 million acres of foresthave been lost, an area almost the size of West Virginia. 23 millionmore acres are estimated to be gone by 2050. This decline in forestacreage will put 340 species of animals at risk of extinction, 20percent of the total that depend on forests for survival.

To The BirdsAt certain times during their spring migration, passenger pigeonswould blanket the sky, blocking out sunlight in a massive cloud offluttering wings. In 1854 in Wayne County, New York, a local residentwrote that “there would be days and days when the air was alive withthem, hardly a break occurring in the flocks for half a day at a time.Flocks stretched as far as a person could see, one tier above another.”The exact number of passenger pigeons in North America when theEuropeans arrived is unknown, but somewhere around 5 billion isestimated, which was about one third of all the birds in North Americaat the time and the same as the total number of birds to be found todayin the United States. But just as the forests were being denuded and resigned to sterileemptiness, so were the skies. By the late 1800’s passenger pigeonswere being killed at an alarming rate, both for their meat and for useas targets at the shooting range. The blue, long-tailed, fast andgraceful pigeons were completely eradicated in the wild by 1900, thelast survivor died in captivity in 1914. North America also once had its own native parrot, the carolinaparakeet. With their brilliant green feathers, bright yellow head andsplashes of orange plumage, these magnificent birds added a stunningpresence to the swamplands and low lying forests of the eastern US.

by mike

LOST:Impoverished Biodiversity

of North America

WHATWE’VE

by mike


But soon after European settlement their habitat began to disappear,which forced them onto farmlands in search of food. Their curious habitof flocking to a dead or injured bird made them an easy target for farmer’sguns; once one bird was shot the rest would fly over and be killed aswell. The last carolina parakeet died in captivity in 1918. The whooping crane is America’s tallest bird; with an eight foot wingspan these colossal birds stand out in any surroundings. But they’vebeen in danger of extinction for quite some time, due mainly to the factthat they’ve always existed in relatively small numbers. In 1870 therewere between 500 and 1,400 birds in the wild. As a result of habitatloss, the clearing of wetlands, hunting, and accidents such as leadpoisoning and collisions with power lines reduced them at one point toaround a dozen- today 424 exist, 132 of which live in captivity. The numbers of predator birds have dropped dramatically as well. Afterhunting, habitat loss, and industrial products such as DDT, which built up inthe tissues of the birds and caused their egg shells to be abnormally thin andfragile, fierce and graceful birds such as bald eagles and peregrine falconshave come dangerously close to extinction. Many others, including brownpelicans, piping plovers, and sandhill cranes are facing the same situation.

PredatorsThe howls of wolves gathered in packs on a late night foray were onceas commonplace as bird song or the sound of a flowing stream. Redand gray wolves roamed the vast forests, playing their essential role inkeeping animal populations in check. But predators are particularlyvulnerable to outside threats: in the wolves’ case hunting, trapping, anddeforestation, which only forty years ago caused the red wolf to bedeclared extinct in the wild. Luckily the last remaining animals werecaptured and a captive breeding program saved them from totalextinction, though today only 250 red wolves exist in the world. Pumas once had the widestnatural distribution of any mammalin the western hemisphere (otherthan humans): from Canada to Tierradel Fuego, through mountains andprairies, temperate zones and thetropics. It is now a rare occurrencethat anyone sees a puma in the wildover the vast majority of this area. Bears are only beginning tomake a comeback as well. Alwaysvilified throughout history, along-side wolves, bears were killed forsport and for the protection ofcattle and other domesticatedanimals. But the days whengrizzlies and black bears, graywolves and red wolves and foxesroamed the vast forests freely area far cry from the fractured wilder-ness we have today, which makesit difficult for predators, whonormally range over a wide territory,and reproduce at slower rates than most prey species, to survive.

Aquatic LifeAmphibians are good barometers of significant environmental changesthat may otherwise go undetected by humans at first. - Richard Ellis,No Turning Back

When I was younger one of my favorite things every spring wasgoing down to the pond to look for frogs’ eggs so we could watchthe tadpoles hatch and turn into frogs. There were always tons andtons of gooey clusters, with thousands of eggs each specked withthe characteristic black dot in the center.

As I got older I started to notice fewer and fewer frogs’ eggs in theponds and puddles in the woods. It’s a phenomenon that’s been notedall around the world as well. As the ozone layer shrinks further, UVrays which are harmful to delicate frog’s eggs increase, especially inhigher altitudes and latitudes closer to the ozone thinning. Warmerglobal temperatures also mean warmer water, which can be harmfulto the eggs as well. Its an indicator that serious changes are occurringin ecosystems around the world, and while the more delicate speciestake the fall first, it may only be getting worse for everyone.

Ecological extinction caused by over-fishing precedes all otherpervasive human disturbance to coastal ecosystems, including pollution,degradation of water quality, and anthropogenic climate change.Historical abundances of large consumer species were fantasticallylarge in comparison with recent observations. - Jeremy Jackson

The biodiversity of the world’s oceans has seen an astonishing, largelyhuman-induced decline in recent times. Off the east coast of NorthAmerica, levels of tuna, swordfish, marlin, groupers, cod, halibut, skates,and flounders have been reduced to 10% percent of their previous levels,according to a May 2003 article in Nature. 90% of the major fishspecies of this area of the Atlantic are gone. Barndoor skates grow to a size of 16 square feet. They are frequentlycaught by mistake in commercial fishing nets for cod and redfish, andsince newborns are born 10 inches wide they are big enough to getcaught in the nets as soon as they are born. They are now nearly extinct. Beluga whales once numbered as many as 5,000 in the St. LawrenceRiver. Then hunters began organizing killing trips to defend fish stocks inthe river, and present-day pollutants such as heavy metals and PCB’s havereduced the whales to less than 500, and the population is still dropping.These are only a few examples of the tragedy that is the depletion,and in many cases extinction, of life in the world’s oceans. It is possibly

the worst example of humaninduced biodiversity loss there is.

InvasionsA quick look on the side of theroad or in an old field or clearingand its difficult to see anythingnative. The garlic mustard isgrowing high, the dandelions areforming a mass carpet of yellow,and in the south kudzu is drapedover everything, strangling andsuffocating all in its path. One of the major driving forcesbehind biodiversity loss and thehomogenization of wild spaces isthe introduction, intentional orotherwise, of foreign invasivespecies. Ever since the Europeanslanded, bringing with them seedsof European plants mixed in withfarm equipment, hay, and other

supplies, as well as domesticated animals such as cows and pigs, nativespecies haven’t fared so well. This meant not only the spread of non-native plants and animals which local species had evolved no ability tocompete with, but also the Old World diseases they had no immunity to.Here in New Jersey, for instance, between one half and one third of oldfield species are alien, most of which are herbaceous (green, non-woody). The examples are countless, and once one familiarizes themselveswith the wild plants of this bioregion it becomes quite evident howdominant foreign species have become. It is as if the native gene poolhas been raided and trampled upon, a pretty good synonym for what inreality did occur. Invasive species take a myriad of forms, from the



chestnut blight which wiped out the american chestnut to dutch elmdisease which did the same to american elms to various fungal blightsand bacterial strains from Europe, Asia and elsewhere, to animals suchas cats and nutrias, which upset the natural balance of an ecosystem innumerous ways. Introduced insects are a huge culprit as well, namelypests such as Japanese beetles, honeybee mites, tent caterpillars, anddozens of others which spread disease, attack foliage at un-replenishablerates, and force out populations of native insects which play vital rolessuch as pollination. And new ones are turning up all the time. The hemlock woody adelgid,a recent invasive insect from Asia, is wreaking havoc on eastern hemlocktrees, a core tree in many areas of the eastern US. It could wipe them outentirely if a way to stop them isn’t discovered. Warmer winter temperatures,development near forest areas, and air pollution are quickening the spreadof these pests. Beech scale insects are posing the same threat to beechtrees. Oak wilt may do the same to red and white oaks as well.

Gone the Way of the BuffaloIt is a sentimental error to legislate in favor of the bison. You should, onthe contrary, congratulate the kin hunters and give each of them a bronzemedal with on one side the image of a dead bison and on the other that ofa distressed Indian. The hide hunters have done more to solve the Indianproblem than the hole of the american army in thirty years. The extermi-nation of the bison is the only way of founding a lasting peace andfavoring the progress of civilization. - Philip Sheridan, Civil War generalwho led campaigns against the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches

Its estimated that 50 million buffalo once roamed the vastprairies of the american west. By 1905 there were fewer thanone thousand left. They were often shot just for their tongues,considered a delicacy, the rest of their body left to rot. It wasestimated that for every two hides shipped for use, three wereleft untouched where they lay. In 1872 alone one million bisonwere shot. Completion of the railroad in 1869 facilitated thekilling by providing a quick route to market. Today they are stillkilled to protect cattle; of the 3,800 bison in Yellowstone Park,300 were killed by the Park Service in recent years. Prairie dogs suffered a similar fate. They were considered ver-min by farmers and ranchers, and subsequently shot, poisoned,trapped, and gassed in a cleansing campaign. As a related conse-quence, black-footed ferrets, the most endangered mammal inNorth America, which depend on prairie dogs for food and usetheir burrows during the day (as they are nocturnal hunters), alsodeclined greatly. Only 18 remain alive. The prairies have been plowed, dug up, developed, and depletedof animal life so thoroughly that they would hardly be recogniz-able as the same place to someone from 500 years ago. The samegoes for virtually all of North America.

GoneBiodiversity and complexity and the incredible symbioticrelationships that develop in a natural ecosystem over eonsand eons are amazing, yet amazingly fragile. It took little morethan 500 years for millions of years of biological evolution tobe permanently and irreversibly damaged. It takes 15 minutesto cut down a giant old growth white pine, 5 seconds to shootthe last passenger pigeon in existence. One day I was walking through the woods just thinking abouthow distant and removed we all are from a feral existence.How long it has been since someone ran through this forest,dodging giant chestnuts and huge stands of ferns and thicketsof spicebush, tracking a deer with bow in hand, an act whichmeant the difference between eating that night or going tosleep on an empty stomach. My thoughts drifted towards whatto get at the supermarket later on...

The world is entering a major extinction spasm. Present rates ofspecies extinction are reckoned to be between 1,000 and 10,000 timesthe rates seen through much of geological history. - Purvis, Jones, andMace in a paper entitled “Extinction”, (2000).

The forests, or more appropriately what is left of them, have survivedthrough tumultuous times. Though a “managed” or “selectively cut”forest, no matter how many deer or squirrels are running through it, canhardly be considered wild, at least it’s not a corn field, or a shoppingmall. But it’s such an immense loss, such a sobering thing to thinkabout how much more diverse and robust and healthy and truly wildthat forest used to be. And it’s not just plants and animals we should bethinking of. Pre- Colombian North America harbored 296 differentlanguages, and a multitude of incredibly diverse cultures and humancommunities and ways of life. Now the vast majority of us are speakingEnglish, at our jobs in sterile office blocks where old growth forestsused to be alive with bird song. So what to do now? We can’t bring back the carolina parakeets orpassenger pigeons or any others who suffered their fate. But wecertainly can get this anthropocentric, man over nature, destroyingand homogenizing, civilized mindset out of our heads. Until we canlook at a wild forest and think of it as something other then real estateor resources or wasted space, than I think we humans as well have nochance for long term survival. There still is an immense amount ofbiodiversity in this world, and it’s not too late to save it. But until thebulldozer of western civilization is stopped, its maniacal claws willcontinue to turn wild nature into parking lots and luxury houses.We can stop it, or we can join the parakeets.

Page 38

“Until we can look at a wild forest andthink of it as something other then realestate or resources or wasted space,than I think we humans as well have nochance for long term survival.”

“Until we can look at a wild forest and“Until we can look at a wild forest andthink of it as something other then realthink of it as something other then realestate or resources or wasted space,estate or resources or wasted space,than I think we humans as well have nothan I think we humans as well have nochance for long term survival.”chance for long term survival.”


June 14, St. Louis:ELF Hits Vail Again?

Two arsons destroyed luxurytownhomes on two different blocksin Lafayette Square in St. Louis.Four of the five townhouses at VailPlace Townhomes were a total losswith damage at $1.5 million. Mis-sissippi Place suffered $3 million indamage. Each of the Vail Placecondos was valued at over half amillion dollars. St. Louis media haveruled out union dissatifaction or therenovation being behind scheduleas motivations for the arsons. ChrisGoodson, one of the principals ofGuilded Age Renovations, which isthe developer of the MississippiPlace condos, is also president ofthe St. Louis Board of Police Com-missioners. Other developers alsoseem to attract fires. On April 27,the Compton Gates Condominiumdevelopment burned causing $3

million in damage. Ken Nuernbergerand Michele Duffe of WireWorksLofts LLC are the developers ofthe Compton Gates condos andVail Place condos. Further, theirWireWorks loft project experienceda $1.5 million fire in 2002. MayorFrancis Slay worried that the paceof development was in seriousdanger of being “slowed by threat-ening acts” such as these.

June 26, Mokena, Illinois:Fuck You Tree Killer!

Saboteurs left behind a series ofexplicit spray-painted messages andthousands of dollars in damagedequipment for developers. The site tar-geted was recently cleared of hundredsof mature oak trees, some of whichwere as old as 200 years. Police saythat anti-development saboteurs leftsimilar messages last fall but havesince begun destroying equipment.

Three bulldozers and three scraperswere trashed. Mokena is a rapidlysprawling development south ofChicago. The McNaughton Develop-ment of Palos Park is planning toconstruct 146 new homes in whatthey plan to call the Whisper Creeksubdivision. “Somebody feels thata piece of property is pristine andis upset that a developer is scrap-ing it to bare earth,” Police ChiefRandy Rajewski said. At least half adozen residents expressed their an-ger towards developers includingAllan, an eight-year resident, whosaid “they’ve butchered the environ-ment out there. You could get lostin the forest back there, it was sothick. I mean you could never see(Interstate 80) from here; youwouldn’t even hear it. Now, you cansee it and hear it.” The phrase “Fuckyou tree killer” was painted in thedirt during the September 22, 2005incident and during the more recentaction vandals wrote “No more newhouses” and “Fuck Mokena.”

June 28, Bainbridge Island,Washington: Luxury Home

Up In FlamesThe Bureau of Alcohol, Tobaccoand Firearms (ATF) and local fireinvestigators sifted through thesmoldering remains of a $2.9 millionhouse that many believed wasburned by the ELF. The luxury home,which was only 60% complete, wasbeing constructed on a sensitiveold-growth wetland. The develop-ment, which began this past winter,had already elicited a significantamount of opposition on behalf ofconcerned residents and local envi-ronmentalists. A similar fire set bythe ELF razed another $3 milliontrophy house on another PugetSound island, Camano Island inJanuary 2006.

July 18, Guelph, Ontario, Canada:Arson and Sabotage at

Construction SitesThe Earth Liberation Front has claimedresponsibility for three major arsonsin the town of Guelph over the pasttwo months and is suspected of sabo-taging equipment at five constructionsites in nearby Brantford during thispast week alone. Several media outletshave received messages claimingcredit for the recent $80,000 fire onbehalf of the ELF. Like the other targets,the latest structure was nearingcompletion and occupied a pieceof land that had previously not beendeveloped. The ELF often targets newdevelopments that contribute to theproblem of urban sprawl. The communiqué reads as follows: On July 15th, the “Group of 8” (G8)richest industrialized countries willconvene in St. Petersburg, Russia toplot their continued domination andcommodification of the planet, thistime under the euphemistic bannerof “Energy Security.” A leaked G8“Communique on Energy Security”calls for trillions of dollars in newinvestments in oil, gas and coal pro-duction worldwide, plus wide-scaleglobal expansion of nuclear energy.With runaway climate change loom-ing just over the horizon, suchneoliberal business-as-usual posesa direct threat to the continuation oflife on Earth as we know it. Resistance is self defense. TheG8 agenda promotes petroleum-dependent “Energy Security” thatpollutes our land and atmosphere,exploits communities everywhere,and scorches the Earth’s climate.Their recipe for catastrophe mustbe met with our global resistance!On 18 July, 2006, 6 litres of gaswere put to use.

STOP DEVELOPEMENT NOW!ELF, We are everywhere!


Reports On Ecological Defenseand Animal Liberation

The condor, along with the frogs and salamanders thatare vanishing, is a constant reminder that I am not thecenter of it all...Once they are all gone, and we havenothing in their place but our sheep and stupid cowsand horses–horses that became our model for horse-power and therefore dominance–when we have nothingleft but those, there will be no evidence that we are notactually the purpose for the whole thing–a delusion.There will be no true otherness in the world to keep usboth sane and small. –Paul Shepard

Our Last

Breaths

Spew

Venom


July 28, London, Ontario, Canada:Home Depot Disapprovement

More sabotage has been reported ata number of London constructionsites including a Home Depot and aToyota dealership. At the Home Depotsite vandals broke into the constructiontrailer, got cement and filled fueltanks in excavating equipment withcement powder. John Gautreau, asuperintendent with Hayman Con-struction Inc., said. “something like‘Save our Earth,’ was written on thewindshield of an excavator.” Gravelwas also inserted into fuel and oiltanks and wires were snipped.Whoever did the damage “wouldknow gravel would cause a great dealof damage,” said Michael Hayman,an executive at Hayman Construction.A nearby site on Wharncliffe Roadwas hit a second time, this time atElgin Construction, where vandalscut wires in at least two machinesand filled fuel tanks with gravel. Ontario has seen a serious rash ofenvironmentaly motivated arsonsand acts of sabotage in the past fewmonths, many of which have beenclaimed on behalf of the ELF. Otheractions reported earlier in the weekare estimated to have caused morethan $100,000 in damage. Repairingthe eight heavy machines damagedat the Home Depot site is estimatedto cost $30,000 alone.

July 29, Guelph, Ontario, Canada:ELF Claims Responsibility for FireAn anonymous email containing anti-development slogans to a local mediaoutlet claimed the Earth LiberationFront was responsible for a fire thatdestroyed a partially constructedhome. The structure was alreadycompletely destroyed by the time thefire department arrived to extinguishthe blaze. The cost of damages wasestimated to be at $200,000. The fireis one of a number of blazes in Guelphthat were claimed on behalf of ELF inthe past year. That action was dedicatedto “the memory of William C. Rodgers‘Avalon’”, an accused ELF arsonistwho took his own life while in jail inDecember, 2005.

July 29, Gosport, England:ALF Got Their Goats

The Animal Liberation Front rescuednine goats from the Centre for HumanSciences. The center that is operated

by QinetiQ, a contractor with theMinistry of Defense, crushes theanimals to death in a hyperbaricchamber to simulate the effects ofdeep ocean depths. The companyclaims that the tests are necessaryfor building military submarines.The animal liberationists snippedthrough fencing and plucked thegoats from an outdoor enclosureand into a waiting van.

August 7, Guelph, Ontario,Canada: More Fires!

Investigators suspect that the EarthLiberation Front may be responsiblefor yet another fire at a newly con-structed development. This wouldmark the third arson in less than twomonths, but there have also beennumerous cases of sabotage atconstruction sites in the area. Respon-sibility for many of the other actionswere claimed on behalf of the ELF.The most recent fire was extinguishedquickly and only caused $8,000 to$10,000 in damages.

August 8, Los Angeles, California:Vivisector Declares Defeat

University of California, Los Angeles,vivisector Dario Ringach tells animalliberationists: “you win.” Ringachhad recently become a focus ofanimal rights campaigners when hereceived the go ahead to performlethal experiments on 30 macaquemonkeys in order to “try and betterunderstand how monkeys processwhat they see.” The mon-keys would have first beenparalyzed, then coilswould have been glued totheir eyes, and after 120hours they would bekilled. Ringach promisednot to do anymore experi-ments on animals in anemail he sent to the AnimalLiberation Front PressOffice. In July, the ALFclaimed credit for a crudelyconstructed fire-bombthat was left on the Bel-Airporch of a neighbor ofone of Ringach’s UCLAcolleagues Lynn Fairbanks.The bomb, which did notgo off, was intended as awarning for Fairbankswho also experiments onprimates.

September 10, Germany:Anti-GE Arson Attempts

Anti-genetic engineering groups left agreat number of incendiary devices infront of different branches of the Märkacompany, which is involved with thediffusion of GMOs in the region ofBrandenburg (the region where Berlinis). This company is also in businesswith the well-known Monsanto. Unfor-tunately, due to a technical problem,the incendiary devices did not provokea fire. In their communiqué, the groupalso put their action in the context ofthe anti G8 militant campaign, writinghow many GMO fields are also in theG8 meeting region, as a warning forupcoming actions.

September 23, Hardwick,Massachusetts: Rabbits

Liberated from Torture FacilityTwenty-three New Zealand whiterabbits were liberated from a ruralMassachusetts animal-testinglaboratory owned by the Caprologicscorporation. The raid was executedby the ALF who dedicated the actionto the SHAC 7 defendants, who wererecently sentenced to between oneand six years in prison for conductinga protest campaign against anotheranimal-testing company (See page92). According to the communiqué,when the lab was finished experiment-ing on rabbits they would be “cut andleft to bleed until their life has drainedaway” and then “thrown into the sur-rounding fields for coyotes to eat.”

November 3, Hilt, California:Logging Site Monkey-WrenchedEco-saboteurs appear to be respon-sible for $500,000 worth of damagesthat are likely to drive a Medford,Oregon-based logging companyout of business. Employees arrivedat a logging site to discover thatsomeone had poured dirt and debrisin fuel tanks; cut hoses, lines andbelts; and ripped out computercomponents in log loaders andtree-shearing and de-l imbingmachines. According to co-ownerSteve Avgeris “this was the workof professionals.” Apparently theyhad master keys to the equipment,he added. The letters “ELF” were written onsome of the machines. Police saidthat the ELF may not be responsiblefor the damages but that the vandalsmay have written “ELF” at the siteto throw investigators off their trail.They did not say why they did notbelieve that environmentalists wereresponsible. Avgeris said that angryhunters may have also been behindthe destruction.

November 18, Harborcreek,Pennsylvania: ELF Target BridgeThe ELF is suspected to be responsiblefor vandalizing the Sgt. Donald S. OaksMemorial Bridge. Someone reportedlyripped out wires that control sensorson the roadway which release saltbrine, and spray painted the letters“ELF” on the underside of the bridge.

. . .more Reports On Ecological

Defense and Animal Liberation

They didn’t tell uswhat it would be likewithout trees.

Nobody imaginedthat the whispering of

leaveswould grow silentor the vibrant jade of

springpale to grey death.

And now we pilerubbish on rubbishin this dusty landscapestruggling to createa tree

but though the shape isright

and the nailed brancheslean upon the windand plastic leaves lendcolour to the twigs

we wait in vainfor the slow unfurling of

budsand no amount of lovingcan stir our weary treeto singing

—toni morris

TREE They didn’t tell usThey didn’t tell uswhat it would be likewhat it would be likewithout trees.without trees.

Nobody imaginedNobody imaginedthat the whispering ofthat the whispering of

leavesleaveswould grow silentwould grow silentor the vibrant jade ofor the vibrant jade of

springspringpale to grey death.pale to grey death.

And now we pileAnd now we pilerubbish on rubbishrubbish on rubbishin this dusty landscapein this dusty landscapestruggling to createstruggling to createa treea tree

but though the shape isbut though the shape isrightright

and the nailed branchesand the nailed brancheslean upon the windlean upon the windand plastic leaves lendand plastic leaves lendcolour to the twigscolour to the twigs

we wait in vainwe wait in vainfor the slow unfurling offor the slow unfurling of

budsbudsaand no amount of lovingnd no amount of lovingcan stir our weary treecan stir our weary treeto singingto singing

—toni morris—toni morris

TREE


ELF claimed responsibility for torchingone of the cranes that built the bridgein 2002. State Police and the FBI areinvestigating the incident.

November 18, Galicia, Spain:Thousands of Minks ReleasedThe Animal Liberation Front (ALF) orthe Frente de Liberacion Animal(FLA) as they are locally known, hasclaimed credit for what police havecalled three “almost simultaneous”raids on fur farms, liberating approxi-mately 17,000 mink being raised inorder to be killed for their fur pelts. Although some of the animalswere recaptured, one farm ownerbemoaned that the mink may noweventually die of natural causes in thewild, which she apparently seems tothink would be a worse fate than havingtheir necks broken on the farm. TheALF was responsible for a raid thatliberated thousands of animals froma nearby farm in July of last year. Thatfur operation later closed as a resultof the action.

December 1, Italy:Communiqué from ALF/FLA:1,000 Mice and 18 Primates

RescuedSome buildings may seem like theyare impossible to raid, but only afew really are. Harlan Italy is oneof these buildings, a hand full ofalarms and security cameras in viaFermi, in Correzzana (MI). Insidethis place they breed animals forvivisection. Harlan is one of themajor breeders for Italian researchlabs, part of a multinational dealingin suffering, with divisions in manycountries around the globe. HarlanItaly’s annual income of 7 millioneuros is a clear statement: vivisectionis a lucrative business. Knowing that mice, dogs, monkeys,pigs, rats, rabbits and guinea-pigswere in the cages, in completeloneliness, without any sympathyor hugs, waiting to be deported to-wards a future of torture, is whatmoved us into action.The night of Monday 20th of Novem-ber, a cold and moonless night, assilent as shadows we reached ourtarget, a gruesome monument tohuman callousness. Through a holein the ventilation system room wegained access to the false ceiling. Lifting portions of the false ceilingand using a stair we found ourselvesin the rooms where mice and monkeysare bred, going past the alarm systemon the doors. Here we set ourselvesat work to bring out as many animalswe could, take documents and wellyou can guess the rest.

Harlan rodents are bred underSPF conditions, which means asepticones: dozen plastic boxes under afiltered air system. What they do tothese small living beings is puresadism and is at odds with the ideaof humanity saviours they built forthemselves. In this division Harlanoffers their customers also a sur-gical preparation of the animals:organ removal or mutilations. Moreover, we also documentedthe presence in their refrigeratorsof bodies that the fury of these“scientists” have made impossibleto recognise: mice with smashedskulls or crucified with pins, ratswith opened abdomens and com-pletely disfigured rabbits. In a crowded bare cage, full offaeces and with no window, aboutthirty macaques were looking forcomfort, clinging one to the other,traumatized and unhappy. But to-night these animals have met theopposite side of human beings andfelt the warm embrace that tookthem away, far away. Hundreds ofmice, many ready to be delivered,and 18 macaques are now in ourhands, free.

Fronte di Liberazione Animale

December 4, Southern WeldValley, Tasmania:

Forest Defenders AttackedForest defenders camped at the siteof a road blockade were awoken inthe middle of the night by men yellingobscenities, anti-environment insults,and throwing rocks. After a shortperiod of time the attackers drove offin three vehicles. Twenty minuteslater they returned and threw petrolbombs. Environmentalists have beenblockading the road in hopes of haltinglogging in the pristine valley wherethe Australian government and thetimber industry would like to seethe old growth forests convertedinto wood chips. They also plan onbuilding a wood-burning powerplant in the area.

December 13, North Carolina:“Ghost of Christmas Future”

Takes Aim at BillboardsA series of billboards advertisinghousing developments becametargets for an anonymous “Ghost ofChristmas Future” armed with paintballs and spray cans this morning. The mysterious vandal issued thefollowing statement: To: Those Who Are Destroying OurMountain Homes From: The Ghost of ChristmasFuture, of the Appalachian Mountains On the morning of December 13,

Tre Arrow, CS# 05850722,Vancouver Island Regional Correc-tion Center, 4216 Wilkinson Rd.,Victoria, BC, V8Z 5B2, Canada. Onremand accused of involvementwith an arson on logging trucks andan arson on vehicles owned by asand & gravel company. Both oc-curred in the USA. Tre is fightingagainst extradition to the US.

Ted Kaczynski #04475-046,US Pen-Admin Max Facility, PO Box8500, Florence Colorado 81226.Sentenced to multiple lifetimes inprison for the “Unabomber”bombing attacks against some ofthe architects of industrial society.

Aaron Labe Linas #38448-083,FMC Butner, PO Box 1600, Butner,NC 27509. ELF prisoner doingtime for a series of actions againsturban sprawl and other targets.

Jeffrey Luers (Free) #13797671,OSP, 2605 State Street, Salem, OR97310. Serving a 22+ year sentencefor setting fire to Sports UtilityVehicles to protest the destructionof the environment. He has beenmade an example of by the criminalinjustice system.

Christopher McIntosh #30512-013, USP Hazelton, U.S. Peni-tentiary, P.O. BOX 2000,Bruceton Mills, WV 26525, USA.Serving 8 years for a joint ELF/ALFarson attack on a McDonalds.

Fran Thompson #1090915 HU1C, WERDCC, P.O. Box 300,Valdalia, MO 63382. Longtimeeco-activist serving a life sentencefor killing, in self-defense, a stalkerwho had broken into her home.

John Wade #38548-083, FCIPetersburg Low, Satellite Camp,PO Box 90027, Petersburg, VA23804, USA. Serving 37 monthsfor a series of ELF actions againstMcDonalds & Burger King, urbansprawl, the construction industry,and an SUV dealership.

Helen Woodson #03231-045FMC Carswell, PO Box 27137,Admin Max Unit, Fort Worth, TX76127. Serving nine years for a seriesof actions that focused on theinterrelationship of war and thedestruction of the natural world.

Peter Young – Released!After serving nearly two years fora series of raids on mink fur farmsin 1997, Peter was released fromthe Federal Victorville Prison onFebruary 2.

North American Eco-Defense andAnimal Liberation Political Prisoners:

For more info:

www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk

in the holiday spirit of love for homeand community, I, the Ghost ofChristmas Future, took aim at theproperty of the developers who aredestroying our mountain land-scape, and defaced the followingbillboards. I wrote “Stay Out” and “YuppiesGet Out of Our Mountains” onReynolds Mountain and The Cliffsbillboards on Merrimon Avenue. I hit a billboard advertising a skilodge on I-240 West, and anotherdevelopment billboard on theSmokey Park Highway with paintballs. I defaced three development “forsale” signs on Tunnel Road inSwannanoa. On Hendersonville Rd., I splatteredtwo billboards with paint (for TheCliffs at Walnut Cove, and for theRamble in Biltmore Forest that is“Inspired by Nature”).

Editors’ Note: There are anumber of people that havebeen recently arrested,accused, or sentenced. See“State Repression” section(page 90) for details.

The billboard for Firefly Cove onHendersonville Rd. was enscrawledwith “Stop Development”. The Cliffs at Walnut Cove bill-board on Sweatencreek Rd. nearGerber Rd. was also targeted. The signs were targeted spe-cifically for what they symbolize;namely, the abject destruction ofnature for profit, the eradication ofwild creatures and the systematicannihilation of mountain commu-nities. My deepest holiday wish isthat our society will awaken fromits stupor of greed and arroganceand begin to recognize the intrinsicvalue of wild land and creatures,and work toward building a worldbased on those values.Warmest wishes to all in the hopethat all living beings have a place

to call home for the holidays.For the Earth,

The Ghost of Christmas Future

Page 41


Derrick Jensen once said, “The true authorityof any culture is unquestioned assumptions.” 1

To demonstrate his point he quoted a popularstatement in mainstream discourse, “How dowe get the U.S. economy to grow?” Jensengoes on to explain that there are three mainassumptions in this statement, all of which playan integral role in maintaining the status quoof power. First, it is assumed the economyshould be growing. Second, it is assumed thereshould be an economy at all. Finally, as Jensenso comically put it, “who the hell are we?”For those who have formed their worldviewby being indoctrinated in schools and confinedwithin the bounds of the expressible as definedby the media, it is understandable why theylabel Jensen a treasonous fool hell bent onsending humanity back to the Dark Ages. TheUnited States, and industrial civilizationthroughout the world, has created paradigmaticassumptions that not only frame perceptionsof reality, but create conditions of misery thatleave the critical mind wondering whether thebiosphere would be better off if humanity dis-appeared and the sooner the better. Throwninto the depths of despair, confrontingNietzsche’s abyss, or simply amused todeath by the bread and circus phenomenonof banality, we are presented with the choice ofsubmitting to the onslaught of domestication,committing suicide or endeavoring to elimi-nate our collective disconnection from eachother and nature. This essay is an attempt to demonstrate thatby focusing on a specific country the long term

philosophical trends that cement unquestionedassumptions, which force us to confront exis-tential dilemmas of acquiescence or resistance,can be seen as a major component of the rootof ecological destruction and human alienationin modern society, and that anything less thana radical deconstruction will essentially leaveus, as American Indian visionary Vine Deloriaput it, “circling the same old rock.” 2 China isseen by many as a rising Leviathan in the East,determined to eventually overtake the U.S. asthe world’s dominant superpower, both eco-nomically and militarily. By showing theparadigmatic roots of ecological destructionin both the Maoist and post-Maoist eras ofChina, sections one and two will show that afalse choice was offered to humanity in thesecond half of the twentieth century concern-ing whether capitalism or communism was theproper path to take in order to create “the goodlife.” Neither system was able to sufficientlybreak with the legacy of civilization, insteadchoosing to perpetuate the war on nature andpsychological health that has been waged sinceGilgamesh’s narcissistic project of deforestingthe ancient Fertile Crescent.3 Section threewill look at the trend in current reformistsolutions to ecocidal and omnicidal realitiesand potentialities in China, showing how theyare incapable of breaking with the anthropo-centric and industrial model. Alternativesconcerned with unveiling assumptions can befound in various times and places, includingboth ancient and current Daoism in China, theexistentialist philosophy of German intellectual

Martin Heidegger, and the modes of beingfound amongst many indigenous societies suchas American Indians.

The Maoist Period:

Confucianism, Marxism and

the Drive to Industrialize

The Maoist period of Chinese history is a goodexample of the dangers of schismatic views. Amajor tenet of Marxism, and its Maoist variant,was the fundamental division between theproletariat and the bourgeoisie. In order for theprocess of liberation to achieve new heights,the proletariat was instructed to take over thereigns of the state, establishing itself in power inorder to more easily rid the world of capitalistparasites. Although this seemed like an adequateprescription for ending workers’ exploitation, theschismatic reality of a new class of techniciansand statesmen embedded in a soul-drainingbureaucracy played against the theoreticalaspirations of utopia. By assuming it both properand necessary to utilize the hierarchical structureof the nation-state, Chinese Communists oftenseemed more interested in solidifying the cult ofpersonality associated with Chairman Mao thanlooking at the roots of their flawed attempt atcompleting revolution. The existence of the roleof worker was never challenged, and as FredyPerlman said in his Against His-Story, AgainstLeviathan!, the anarchists wanted to furtherenshrine this notion of the worker whilecovering up the farce with ideologies of anarcho-syndicalism or some other variety of anarchismwhich celebrated machines.

China’s War on Nature:

Overcoming Anthropocentrism

and Industrialization

by The Uncarved Block

China’s War on Nature:

Overcoming Anthropocentrism

and Industrialization


The schismatic reality of a division betweenthose with Party and state power, and thosewho were treated as cogs, running on humansweat and blood to catch up economically withthe industrialized West, can also be seen in therealm of ecology. Chinese society was highlymilitarized, partly due to threats from outsideits artificially constructed state boundaries andpartly due to the state s own desires to controlits population as well as its numerous indig-enous peoples not exactly thrilled with thereality of forced assimilation.4 In order tocarry out the task of conquering nature,powerful ideas were disseminated, oftenaccompanied by the use of military imagery.Summarizing the type of propaganda usedthroughout China in relation to the environmentduring the Maoist period, Judith Shapiro states,Official discourse was filled with references to awar on nature. Nature was to be conquered.

Wheat was to be sown by shock troops.Shock troops reclaimed the grasslands. Vic-

tories were won against flood and drought.Insects, rodents, and sparrows were wiped out.This polarizing, adversarial language capturesthe core dynamic of environmental degra-dation of the era. 5

Major consequences of this rhetoricincluded a renewed cycle of populationgrowth, accelerated indiscriminatemobilization of resources in preparationfor war, and grand schemes for eco-nomic development, which, in turn,contributed to severe environmentaldegradation and social turmoil. 6 Theculmination of these large scale trendssaw China become part of the nucleararms race, joining the likes of the U.S.and Soviet Union who were alreadypushing the world towards MutuallyAssured Destruction. It has been arguedthat it is necessary for underdevel-oped countries to acquire nukes inorder to protect themselves from therapacious imperialism of the West.Although protection from imperialismis needed, nuclear weapons create theconditions for complete omnicide,which includes planetary ecocide.Realpolitik, in all cases, but especiallynuclear weapons, is an excuse formaintenance of control. What, if anything, did this have todo with paradigmatic assumptions inthe philosophies of Confucianism andMarxism? Shapiro states The Mao-eraeffort to conquer nature can thus beunderstood as an extreme form ofphilosophical and behavioral tendencythat has roots in traditional Confucianculture. Many of the themes…includingstate-sponsored resettlements and water-works projects, extensive and excessiveconstruction of dikes for land reclamation,political campaigns to change agriculturalpractices, and environmentally destructive

land conversions in response to populationshifts-can be found in imperial times.7

The Confucian ideology saw the world asbeing governed by a triad of heaven, earth,and humankind, with humans in the middle.Although this hierarchical structure oftenlegitimated environmental destruction, therewas also a tendency to show a deep respect,even a reverence, for a natural order con-ceived as grander than man and more to beadmired. 8

So if the traditional Confucian worldviewcan not adequately explain environmentaldevastation caused during the Maoist period,does an examination of Marxist thought yieldmore promising insights? Rooted more solidlyin the Western tradition that will be exploredin section two, Marx was a product of a longlegacy of anthropocentrism and the desire forprogress. Some of Marx s early works show astronger degree of sensitivity towards nature,however, as Clive Ponting summarizes, …even inthese works Marx adopted the common Euro-pean view that nature only had meaning in termsof human requirements, for example, when hewrote that, Nature taken abstractly, for itself, andfixedly isolated from man, is nothing for man.

In his later works Marx argues that the greatcivilizing influence of capital is that it rejectsthe deification of nature so that nature becomes,for the first time, simply an object of mankind,purely a matter of utility. 9

Along with this common European assump-tion of nature s utility for man, Marx s viewof stages of history as representing progresswould play a key role in the Maoist driveto industrialize. If humans are achievinggreater freedom from nature by destroying itthroughout the stages of history, this not onlylegitimates the capitalist destruction of theworld, but also gives Leninists, includingMaoists, a reason to enhance the process ofprogress as quickly as possible. This line

of thought is also seen in many varieties ofanarchism, dating back to Bakunin s praiseof humanity s ascent from animality andinto what he perceived to be the greatnessof culture. These assumptions concerningthe progress embodied in the advent ofculture and the impoverishment of whole-ness they represent are becoming increasinglyclear in the face of worldwide anomie.10

Although a modification of Marx s origi-nal conclusion that the dictatorship of theproletariat would come to already indus-trialized nations first, the environmentalconsequences of Marxist-Leninist practiceis comparable to the more drawn-out processof capitalist accumulation as will be shown

in the next section.

The Post-Maoist Period:

The Haunting Spectre

of Judeo-Christian

Arrogance

China in the past 25 years is a perfectexample of the complete disregard thecapitalist system shows towards ecologi-cal stability, especially in its earliest stagesof accumulation. Getting rich quick is oneof the main tenets of capitalist ideology,demonstrating an inability to look beyondthe extremely short term desire for thefew to profit at the expense of the many.The death of Chairman Mao saw agradual opening up of China s borders tonot only western corporations seekingto maximize their bank accounts, but alsoto the legacy of Euro-American thought.Like the Maoists desire to conquernature, late 20th and early 21st centurycapitalist penetration of China hasgreatly intensified ecological pillage.Some of the major problems includewater pollution from discharge…ofuntreated industrial wastewater andraw sewage into rivers, rising sea lev-els threatening destruction linked toglobal warming, severe deforestation,soil erosion, air pollution in majorcities which rank among some of theworld s dirtiest, and acid rain due to theemission of greenhouse gases. 11 Also,

China s biodiversity is more threatened than ever.China…has one of the highest percentages ofendangered species to total species, with around15-20% of the whole being endangered. 12


“The schismatic reality of a division between “The schismatic reality of a division betweenthose with Party and state power, and thosethose with Party and state power, and thosewho were treated as cogs, running on humanwho were treated as cogs, running on humansweat and blood to catch up economically withsweat and blood to catch up economically withthe industrialized West, can also be seen in thethe industrialized West, can also be seen in therealm of ecology...realm of ecology... In order to carry out the taskIn order to carry out the taskofof conquering nature, powerful ideas were conquering nature, powerful ideas weredisdisseminated, often accompanied by the use ofseminated, often accompanied by the use ofmilitary imagery.”military imagery.”


The contribution of overall global consumptionis beginning to take its toll in China, and if presenttrends continue, possibly another billion con-sumers will be added to the already devastatingindustrial system. As Zhao Bin argues, perhapsnowhere is the impact of the transition tocapitalism having a more devastating effect thanupon China s environment. 13 Zhao states thaton a per capita basis, the billion residents of whatis called the developed world in the 1990 sconsumed at least three times as much water, 10times as much energy, 13 times as much ironand steel, 14 times as much paper, 18 times asmuch chemicals and 19 times as much aluminumas someone in a developing country like China.Industrial countries account for nearly two-thirds

of the global emissions of carbon dioxide fromthe combustion of fossil fuels and their factoriesgenerate most of the hazardous chemical wastes.Their air conditioners, aerosol sprays and factoriesrelease almost 90 percent of the chlorofluoro-carbons that destroy the ozone layer.14

Aspirations of China s leaders to integrate theirburgeoning population further into this system,encouraged by the lifestyles of many middle classtools and unrealistic pronouncements of cor-nucopias that do not exist by civilization sguardians, will have long term consequences sosevere it transcends the imagination. As with the Maoist period, there are deepparadigmatic roots at play in the most recent ofChina s environmental holocausts. Two ancientwestern thought patterns, one philosophical andthe other religious, are the main culprits in settingthe ideological foundation for further exploitativeinroads to be taken by the European scientific revo-lution. The Greek philosopher Plato created twofundamental concepts that laid the basis forfurther developments in Christianity that arecurrently haunting the biosphere. One idea wasthe Great Chain of Being, an idea that created ahierarchical structure of all existing beings,categorizing them from top to bottom as God,angels, man, animals, plants, metals and nothing-ness. Similar to the Confucian hierarchy withhumans somewhere in the middle and abovecorporeal non-humans, Plato s Great Chain ofBeing leads to his more elaborate ideas on theworld of Forms. Reacting to the pre-Socraticchallenge to objective knowledge, Plato con-structed an explanation that the materialworld…is not the real world, but rather a shadowworld. Therefore, there is a dualism of mindand body in which body imprisons mind. Reasonbecomes the vehicle by which we know truth; allother aspects of human experience are inferior. 15

Dianne Barsoum Raymond s excellent explana-tion of Plato s thought makes it easier to agreewith Nietzsche s aphorism Christianity isPlatonism for the masses. Although a connec-tion between Plato s world-denying and speciestphilosophy exists with Christianity, the OldTestament, written before Plato, can be seen asoffering one of the original validations of anthro-pocentric human dominance over nature. As Godcommands Adam and Eve in Genesis Chapter 1,Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and

subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of thesea and over the birds of the air and over everyliving thing that moves upon the earth…” Thehaunting spectre of the Judeo-Christian legacy,with the belief that only humans are created inGod s image, provides the divine enjoinder forcivilization s trajectory over thousands of years,including the present pulverization of China. Seventeenth century Europe saw the advent ofwhat is called the scientific revolution, whichessentially built on the legacy of human dominanceinitiated by Plato and the Judeo-Christianworldview. Although many thinkers would contrib-ute to this intensification of mechanizing reality,Rene Descartes is seen by many to be the mostimportant in developing this pattern of thought.

The reductionist approach to scientific inquiryinevitably led to a fragmented view of the world-to a focus on the individual parts of a system ratherthan on the organic whole…This tendency wasreinforced by a mechanistic approach to naturalphenomena, which can be traced back to Descarteswho wrote, I do not recognize any differencebetween the machines made by craftsmen and thevarious bodies that nature alone composes.Animals were therefore mere machines…16

A general Rape of the World, as ClivePonting puts it, occurred throughout Europe andthe newly created Third World established bycolonialism. Specific concrete implications ofthese paradigmatic roots can be seen clearly inthe rhetoric of the Founding Fathers. GeorgeWashington, demonstrating his insensitivity toboth the human and non-human world, stated in1783, the gradual extension of our Settlementswill as certainly cause the Savage as the Wolf toretire; both being beasts of prey tho they differ inshape. 17 Also, John Quincy Adams said in 1839,Shall the savage not only disdain the virtues and

enjoyments of civilization himself, but shall hecontrol the civilization of a world? Shall heforbid the wilderness to blossom like a rose? Shallhe forbid the oaks of the forest to fall beforethe axe of industry…shall he doom an immenseregion of the globe to perpetual desolation, and tohear the howlings of the tiger and wolf silenceforever the voice of human gladness? 18

The Chinese environment and its people arebeing destroyed by paradigmatic institutions thatultimately severs completely the ties humans oncehad with wolves, the earth, and the entire biosphere.Material accumulation has taken precedence asthe number one value promulgated by elites inChina and the world, maintaining that it is im-possible for human gladness to exist within anintact ecology, for an intact ecology is the antith-esis of industrialization. In the next section wewill see that some are trying to mitigate theeffects of this suicidal implementation, however,alternative traditions representing non-anthropo-centric and anti-industrial tendencies are posingthe most significant challenge to the current order.

Reformist Solutions and

Radical Alternatives

One strand of thought argues that attempts toreform China s environmental problems shouldbe done through utilizing the rhetorical legalframework for ecological protection that alreadyexists in China.19 Other strands of thought seethe international community playing a largerrole in holding China accountable for its envi-ronmental decimation.20 These touted solutionsrange from reducing greenhouse emissionsto developing alternative fuels. The main thrustof the argument behind these reformist solutionsis that China should meet its goals for economicdevelopment within the framework of sustainabledevelopment. This phrase has become somewhatpopular recently among not only activists butentrenched members of nation-states throughoutthe world. Although there is still the onslaught ofcapital causing ecological mayhem in China, it is


likely that eventually some of these measures tomitigate some of the effects will be implemented.The long term interests of capitalism and civi-lization would point towards the direction ofcurtailing the more hyper-exploitative aspectsof the system in the name of maintaining power. What do oppositional currents have to sayabout solutions? Daoism has deep roots inChinese society; however, its potential to helpcreate ecologically whole human societies hasbeen largely ignored by Chinese civilization. TheChinese Daoist Association has recently put outa declaration on the earth s current ecologicalcrises. They feel that problems concerningenvironmental protection are not derived fromindustrial pollution or technological expansionalone. Rather, these problems are also derivedfrom people s worldviews, ideas of values, ortheories of knowledge. Recognizing the deeproots that must be reached when looking to inter-act with the natural world in more harmoniousways, they continue by saying, contemporarythought patterns have given humankind a greatlyinflated image of itself. Daoists believe that thisinflated image of the self is an important cause ofthe serious ecological crises confronting themodern world. 21 Ancient Daoist texts can beconsulted to provide insight on how humans canbegin to undergo a paradigm shift in relation tothe environment and each other. Chuang-Tzu, the4th century BCE Daoist philosopher in China,wrote many short stories demonstrating the prob-lematic aspects of anthropocentrism, arguing thathumans do not always know what is best in allcontexts, for do not animals of different bioregionshave their own knowledge of what is best forthem? Many Daoists see these stories as a solidbasis for an alternative paradigm that cuts humansdown from their self-imposed superiority over therest of nature. The Chinese Daoist Association,through their spreading of Daoism s ecologicalmessage and their protection of forests, is aninspiring form of resistance in China, however,can hardly be considered adequate in the face ofcivilization s onslaught.22

Another ecologically oriented thinker wasMartin Heidegger. He became familiarwith…Taoist texts in the 1920s and 30s, assistingin translations and borrowing themes or evenwhole passages for his own writings. 23

Heidegger, like the Daoists, felt we must digdeeper to discover how to stop being a nuisanceto the earth. He used to say that the whole prob-lem arose from the current human attitude towardsnature (or, as he put it, the ‘technological mode ofBeing’). Technology, he wrote, was a ‘manner ofun-protecting’ nature rather than ‘letting itemerge’. Everything around us is adjudged to bea tool of ‘man as the centre of reference’. It wastechnology, rather than capitalism or communism -which were ‘the same dreary technologicalfrenzy, the same unrestricted organization of theaverage man’ – that defined the age, he thought.24

In relation to reformist solutions even if newtechnologies are employed, say, to removepollutants from the process of burning hydro-carbons, or if the ozone layer is repaired…

or if state-of-the-art engineering is brought tobear on China’s water crisis, the disaster – saidHeidegger – would be merely forestalled, andmade all the worse. The root of the problemwould not be addressed. Echoing Daoism,Heidegger noted that technology calls for moretechnology, and that ‘industrial society exists onthe basis of its occlusion in its own concoction’.25

The third tendency representing an alternativeview does not have a direct connection withDaoism, however, the potency of its insightsand possibilities for adaptation are enormous.American Indians, like many indigenous peoplesthroughout the world, have been making commentsand participating in actions to preserve humanconnections with non-human relations for quitesome time. A prevalent trend in the past 35 yearshas seen what has been called eco-feminism, butwhat American Indian women like M. AnnetteJaimes Guerrero see as traditional ecologicalpractices before they were distorted and destroyedby colonization. She states that native womanismis “primarily premised on kinship traditions and‘birthright’ tied to indigenous homelands,” againstressing connection to the land as a necessityfor survival of indigenous tribal people. Sheexplains that the term indigenous refers to“cultures among land based peoples who livedin reciprocal relationship with their environment,”which can be conceptualized as ‘ecocultures.’Indigenous peoples spiritual relationship tothe land is the basis of their resistance to thedominant U.S. notion of progress, which hasalways included the exploitation of naturalresources regardless of the well-being of futuregenerations. For the Indians, the cosmos is oftenreferred to as a web, wherein all forms of life areseen as interdependent, including the Earth itself,which they revere as Mother, not as a lifeless,inorganic “it.”26

American Indian Movement member RussellMeans explains that, Birds and insects and otheranimals speak in many ways. In nature, everythingcommunicates with everything else. However,the white man doesn t know how to commune

with nature. Means feels, Instead of believingthat the universe depends on what we think, weteach that we must use our hearts to achieveharmony with our fellow creatures. At YellowThunder Camp I began to realize that there aretwo cultures on earth, one industrial and the otherindigenous: One is about death, the other aboutlife. Similar themes running throughout all thesetrajectories in the alternative paradigm include arejection of human superiority over nature as wellthe negative psychological effects industrialalienation produces in the isolated mind, dis-connected not only from meaningful humancommunity, but the natural world.

Footnotes1. Jensen, The Other Side of Darkness2. Churchill, Marxism and Native Americans, pgs. 113-1363. Jensen, Strangely Like War for the Mesopotamian mythof Gilgamesh and its connection to civilization s origins anddelusions of grandeur.4. Connor, The National Question in Marxist-LeninistTheory and Strategy for info on minority peoples trapped

within the territorial boundaries of the Chinese state5. Shapiro, Mao s War Against Nature, pg. 46. Economy, The River Runs Black, pg. 477. Shapiro, Mao s War Against Nature, pg. 88. Economy, The River Runs Black, pg. 339. Ponting, A Green History of the World, pg. 15710. Zerzan, Elements of Refusal11. Murray, Green China, pgs. 6-712. Olton, Why Are They Disappearing13. Bin, Consumerism, Confucianism, Communism, pg. 1314. Bin, Consumerism, Confucianism, Communism, pg. 1515. Raymond, Existentialism and the Philosophical Tradi-tion, pgs. 6-716. Ponting, A Green History of the World, pg. 14717. Washington, Letter to James Duane18. Adams, The Jubilee of the Constitution19. Economy, The River Runs Black, pgs. 91-12820. Murray, Green China, pgs. 200-20421. Girardot, Daoism and Ecology, pg. 364-36522. Girardot, Daoism and Ecology, pg. 37023. Collins, Introducing Heidegger, pg. 15324. Nature is sometimes man-made25. Nature is sometimes man-made26. Speaking to Survival


June 3, Dhaka, Bangladesh:Renewed rioting by garment workersforced the closing of 84 factoriesin the Dhaka Export ProcessingZone. During last week’s unrest,workers burned 16 factories andcaused an estimated $140 milliondamage.

June 6, Santiago, Chile:Twenty cops were injured and 262people arrested, as striking studentsthrew rocks at police, broke win-dows, and looted stores before beingdispersed with water cannons andtear gas. Close to a million youth inSantiago and 14,000 in Valparaisoparticipated in demonstrations forfree bus fare and various improve-ments to the educational system.

June 9, Managua, Nicaragua:Violent clashes between governmentworkers and students armed withhomemade gunpowder mortars, andcops firing rubber bullets from theirvehicles, continue. Protests broke outwhen the government announced farehikes on public transportation. Thedisenchanted have added to their lista demand for clean water in poorneighborhoods, where the water iscontaminated.

June 10, Kenya:Villagers blocked a highway withburning barricades and threw stonesat cops who arrived to disperse themwith tear gas. The protest was againstthe diversion of the Rongai river, theironly water source, to support a com-mercial flower farm: in a land wheredrought and hunger go hand in hand.

July 3, Srinagar, Indiancontrolled Kashmir:

Thousands of people took to thestreets after Indian paramilitariesshot and killed an unarmed shop-keeper for “running in a suspiciousmanner”. At least eight cops wereinjured in the ensuing meleé andextensive damage laid onto policeand government buildings, officialsigns, and windows of public ve-hicles. A number of protesters werealso injured when pigs charged intocrowds with clubs and teargas.

July 12, Guiyang, Guizhou, China:Hundreds of residents and manyangry farmers-turned-migrant labor-ers attacked pigs after a worker wasseriously beaten for not possessing atemporary residence permit. Riotersattacked with rocks and overturned ordamaged nine police vehicles. At leastone pig was hospitalized and as manyas 10 people arrested.

July 14, Almaty, Kazakhstan:Residents of a 5,000-person squat wenthead-to-head with cops attemptingeviction. Wielding iron bars behindhomemade barricades of cement,barbed wire, and burning tires, therefusniks defended themselves withrocks, molotov cocktails, and explodinggas cylinders against 150 riot pigsarmed with rubber bullets and clubs.Two cops were taken hostage, but werereleased after cops agreed to withdrawfrom the area. At least 15 pigs werehospitalized, two in “grave” condition.A fire truck was also burned. Dozens ofresidents were also reported injured,including one who was badly burned.

“I’d rather die than leave my home.I am prepared to fight to the end,”shouted Maksud, a man in his thirtieswith a crudely made molotov cocktailin his hand. Other demonstratorsshouted “This is our land!”

July 14, Pohang, Seoul, Korea:Thousands of South Korean riot copsstormed the headquarters of POSCO,one of the world’s largest steel pro-ducers, to break up a sit-in by strikingworkers. Carrying shields and batons,7,000 police raided the 12-storybuilding which has been occupied by1,500 workers since the previous day. Using fork-lifts and other heavyequipment, cops removed ironbarricades at the gates of the site andbarged their way into the building.Some 100 workers were throwingplastic water bottles at the police asworkers abandoned the lower floorsand barricaded themselves in byblocking the narrow staircases withfurniture as 8 fire engines and 5ambulances stood by, and a heli-copter hovered overhead. Update August 9: 5,000 workersclashed with police during a marchto protest the death of anotherworker who was beaten to death byriot police in July’s protest.Employees are demand-ing a pay raise, a five-dayworking week and the rightto be treated with dignityand respect in the work-place. The strikers currentlywork 8 to 10 hours a day,7 days a week, with only 7bathrooms for 3,000 work-ers who are prohibitedfrom eating while at work.

Employees at POSCO plants are alsorequired to handle hazardouschemicals including asbestos.

July 17, Russia:Riot police broke up banned anti-G8protests yesterday and detaineddozens of protesters in central SaintPetersburg on the sidelines of thesummit. Russian authorities imposedstrict security controls in Saint Peters-burg, Russia’s second biggest city,for the duration of the summit andgave formal authorization for a singleprotest event outside the center. Anti-G8 groups have reported severalhundred arrests, preventive deten-tions, and police summonses in thedays leading up to the summit.“We’re not afraid!” said Pyotr Raush, aveteran of Saint Petersburg’s anarchistmovement, before being bundled awayby police at the Nevsky Prospect rally.

July 18, Paris, France:A cop was hurt by a cherry bomb as60 cars and 30 trash cans were seton fire as riots moved across thecity. The disturbance coincided withBastille Day, the day in which mem-bers of the lower classes stormed theprison for which the day is named.

Some Have Decided.

The world today is not at ease;

anyone who is has disengaged,

lives an illusion, swallows life’s

shocks daily, forcing them down.

Consequence waits, a circulating,

swelling anxiety held just below

the surface. . .We alienate,

anesthetize, we shut down. The

choice belongs to every one of

us, like a line silhouetted on the

ground: push what is unpleasant

further toward the fringes of

life and shrink back from the

inevitable day when the very

demons we’ve created will close

in on us, or force ourselves to

look reality in the face and step

into the shadow.

–The Jinx Project,assignment 09662

Anti-Capitalist and Anti-State ShowdownsAnti-Capitalist and Anti-State Showdowns

One cop wounded.No people injured.


August 10,Lorraine, Quebec, Canada:

Initiative de Resistance Internation-aliste (IRI) has claimed responsibilityfor an explosion that destroyed a carthat belonged to Carol Montreuil, anoil industry executive and spokes-person. An e-mail from the bombersblamed the oil industry for damagingthe environment, financing an im-perialist war that is “committingbarbarous acts” in places such asIraq, and holding con-sumers hostage whilemaking record profits.IRI claimed credit for abomb attack on a Hydro-Quebec tower last winter.

August 18,Asheville, NC:

A fire at an ArmedForces Recruiting Sta-tion was set deliberately.Fire-fighters arrived toflames coming from theinside of a storage closetin the Marine recruitingoffices of the locked building. Smokealso caused damage at the neigh-boring Army, Navy and Air Forcerecruiting offices, and a state lotteryoffice. Traces of what is believed tobe a flammable liquid were sent tothe State Bureau of Investigationin Raleigh. Marine recruiter, GunnerySgt. Scott Guise said “our office ispretty much destroyed” and that hedidn’t know when they would be ableto reopen. Damages are estimatedat $50,000 and recruiters have beenrelocated to Hendersonville, 25miles away.

September 26,Copenhagen, Sweden:

Over 260 people were arrested duringa “Reclaim the Streets” party in soli-darity with the Ungdomshuset squatthat is threatened with eviction. Theprevious weekend Copenhagen wasthe scene of huge protests and fes-tivities against the threatened closure.In this latest action, over 3000people carnivaled from Christiania toUngdomshuset. After a couple hoursof wandering the streets, copsstarted driving their vehicles into thecrowd, pushing it along. As thecrowd drew near a bridge, copsdrove aggressively near the demoand riot cops jumped out of the vans,charging the crowd with their batons.A few people threw whatever bottlesthey had in hand at the pigs, but mostjust ran away. This triggered a seriesof attacks with pigs charging withbatons, penning people into a littlestreet. In response, revelers started

building barricades in the streetsclose to the pig pen and hurled rocksat the cop cars as they passedthrough. The cops then drove armoredvans at high speeds through thecrowd, forcing people to literallyjump for their lives. Local youthsdecided to join in the fight as well.Some of the people penned in for amass arrest managed to kick downa gate to a backyard and escape.After an hour or so the riots died out.

Problems for Ungdomshuset startedseveral years ago, but have intensifiedin the past 2 years when local authori-ties sold the place to a fundamentalistChristian organization. As one partiersaid, “These riots are a small taste ofwhat’s to come if a solution is notfound. There is no way the house willbe given up without a fight!” Update December 16: Havingexhausted legal alternatives to keep thecenter from eviction, 1000-plus peopletook to the streets again, resulting inthe worst clashes and riots in Denmarkin over 10 years. Bricks and paving,paint, firecrackers, rocks, and bottleswere thrown at the pigs, stores smashed,and fires lit all over the city. Several copsare reported to be hospitalized. At leasttwo rioters were also seriously injured,one had two fingers blown off andanother was run over bya cop car. As the crowd waschased through the city,chain stores were smashedand garbage containers liton fire. Sporadic fightingwith the cops continuedwith local youths againjoining the battle.

September 26,Paris, France:

Nine people were detainedyesterday when more than200 police raided a Parissuburb where youths at-tacked two riot pigs theweek before. One cop wasseriously injured in theraid when a band of up to

30 youths, armed with makeshiftweapons, attacked the pigs patrollinga housing project in Corbeil-Essonnes,south of the capital. At the time, policewere called in to disperse the youths,but no arrests were made. The Frenchinterior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy,vowed to track the perpetrators down“one by one”. The incident came amidreports of increased violent crime inSeine-Saint-Denis, north-east of

Paris, where last year’sriots began.

October 2, LesMureaux, France:

Anti-police rioting brokeout once again in LesMureaux, a suburb north-west of Paris. The flareup began after a car chaseended in collision at apolice roadblock. Thedriver, who was wantedfor traffic violations, wastaken into custody on thescene. More than 100angry youths converged

on the area and pelted the pigs withrocks and other projectiles and set apolice car on fire. One rock landed in-side a police vehicle full of officers andpunctured a teargas canister. Sevenpolice officers were reported injured.No rioters have been arrested so far.

October 3, Silver Springs, MD:A new autonomous group known as“BORFROBF” (Borf, a reference toDC graffiti artist, John Tsombikos –who was jailed earlier this year forvandalism – and “Revolution or BustFaction”) has claimed credit forsmashing windows and gluing thelocks at the local military recruitmentcenter. The action was a symbolicprotest against the military industrialcomplex and “a dare to those herein the heart of the imperial beast tostep it up.”

October 23, Sogwipo, JejuIsland, South Korea:

Anti-trade agreement protests haveintensified on this third day of dem-onstrations. A farmer drove a truckinto a crowd of riot police and an-other farmer is in a coma after hetried to force his way through a po-lice barricade made out of shippingcontainers, with a truck. Cops foughtback rock-throwing and stick-wield-ing demonstrators with riot shields,batons, and water cannons. A num-ber of protesters have been injured,some seriously. To protect the proceedings fromangry farmers, workers, and otherdemonstrators who have disruptedpast trade talks throughout the world,the southern resort island of Jeju waschosen to host the meeting, thinkingit would be secure enough. However,an estimated 11,000 protesters madeit to the island. Some attempted tostorm the venue but were thwartedby pigs. Eighty demonstrators swamacross the port but were stopped byriot cops on the beach. One demon-strator wore a Guy Fawkes mask, inreference to “V”, from the anarchistgraphic novel, V for Vendetta. Update November 22: 73,000protesters in 13 cities fought with riotcops as the governments continuedtalks. Fighting injured 35 police and21 protesters, and caused nearly $1million in property damage.

October 26, Paris, France:One Year Later

Things started heating up throughoutFrance in anticipation of the upcominganniversary of last year’s riots when9,193 cars burnt and 2,921 peoplewere arrested in 21 nights of rioting.Last week a group of 10 to 30 hoodedyouths ambushed a detail of copsresponding to a phony call. The pigsescaped after drawing their guns, but


you have not decided for me,i have decided to rebel,

i have decided!


not before one of them was seriouslyinjured by a rock to his face. In the pastfew nights, youths armed with hand-guns and molotov cocktails have beenhijacking buses and then setting themon fire. Three buses have been torchedso far along with 277 vehicles aroundthe country according to some reports. It seems, however, the 4,000 policedispatched to areas where they couldreact rapidly to put down any incitingactivities before they spiraled out ofcontrol, halted any further violenceas around a thousand protestersmarched in commemoration of twoyouths who were killed last year,starting the three weeks of rioting.

November 8, Guangdong, China:Ten thousand villagers clashed withpigs and barricaded 300 officials andforeign businessmen in a warehousethat had been built on seized landssold to foreign developers. 1,000 riotpolice arrived, but the villagers heldtheir ground until the followingmorning. China is home to thousandsof riots and protests every year,mostly in response to land seizures,pollution, dams, and other privationssuffered by rural people as part ofChina’s rapid economic development. Two days later in Guangan, anothersouthern city, two thousand peoplemobbed and ransacked a hospital,following the death of a 3-year-oldchild whose guardians were unableto pay the full price for treatment.Doctors asked his grandfather to goback home to raise more money,but the child died from the effectsof agricultural pesticide poisoningbefore the he returned. When rela-tives tried to take their grievance tothe municipal government, securityguards beat them. The protest whichensued rapidly attracted others. Theangry crowd smashed windows andequipment at the public hospital.Around 100 armed police arrivedinjuring 10 with batons and teargas.Five people were arrested. Three policevans burned.

A new saying is often heard in ruralChina: “Once an ambulance sirenwails, a pig is taken to market; oncea hospital bed is slept in, a year offarming goes down the drain; andwhen someone falls ill with a seri-ous disease, 10 years of savingsare whittled away.” Eight hundredmillion peasants, the majority ofthe population, have little accessto basic healthcare. Even a centralgovernment report admitted thatChinese hospitals are now “clubsfor the rich.” Guangan is the hometown of DengXiaoping, the architect of China’smarket reform, of industrialism.

November 23, Berlin, Germany:In the night from the 23 and the 24 ofNovember, autonomous antifasburned the car of the owner of a wellknown local nazi bar. The actionaimed as well to remem-ber the squatter SilvioMeier, stabbed to deathby nazis in 1992. The dayafter, the annual demo ofremembrance saw over1500 people participating.

November 24,Philadelphia, PA:

Fifteen stores in CenterCity could not open asscheduled on “Black Fri-day”, the busiest shoppingday of the year, becausevandals had jammedtheir locks with glue inthe night. At noon, agroup of anarchists assembled inPhilly’s shopping district to give adance party in honor of consumerism.Dressed up as businessmen, theyhanded out hundreds of “certificatesfor guilt-free consumption,” anddanced to music like Madonna’s“Material Girl.” Some shoppers wereoffended, some entertained, and oneeven joined the event, according toa participant.

November 30,Harmondsworth, UK:

Unrest at an immigration removalcenter (IRC) was “an attempt to sabo-tage” the deportation process, homesecretary John Reid said. “Theperpetrators have been prepared todestroy property and to endangertheir fellow detainees. They have,themselves, harmed their own envi-ronment. We will not allow them tosucceed in frustrating the enforcementof the law.” Fires were lit by detaineesin protest of their living conditions. The trouble apparently began whenan officer refused to allow inmatesto watch news coverage of a highlycritical report into conditions atHarmondsworth from the chief in-spector of prisons, Anne Owers. Thereport found the center was run morelike a high-security prison than animmigration center, with detainees’movements strictly controlled, aprohibition on keeping basic posses-sions such as tins and nail clippers,and the regular use of force.

Beginning of December,Dresden, Germany:

Autonomous antifas made a visit toa newly opened neo-nazi sports bar.They took possession of all thematerial to be found there, such ashome addresses of local nazis. Theyalso destroyed the sport equipment,furniture, and left a “stinky liquid”behind them.

December 26 -ongoing, Germany:Anti-G8 Actions Start Early

In June of 2007, Germany will playhost to the next G8 summit. Numerousassaults on power centers in Germanyhave been launched in advance ofthis elite gathering. Anti G8 militants attacked the houseof the state secretary of the Germanfinance minister. The auto parked

outside of his house was also torched,with flames reaching the front of thehouse itself. Along with fire damage,paint bombs thrown at the house leftan indelible mark. A militant groupwho signed itself as “action groupagainst colonialism and war” sent acommunique that indicated this waspart of an anti-G8 militant campaignand against the German lack of critiqueof its colonial past. The state secre-tary is seen as an important “playerin the upcoming yearly imperialistsummer-spectacle and therefore thedecision to make a Christmas visit tohis house”. In Karlsruhe, a police station washit with molotov cocktails in re-sponse to the on-going repressioncoming out in that city, where a fewmonths ago the last autonomouscenter, Ex-Steffi, was brutallyevicted. The group, signing itself“Militanz 2007”, affirmed they “donot see other options than militantattacks in order to respond to theactual state of things”. In Heiligendamm, the exclusivehotel that will host next year’s G8summit, was daubed with paint in aprotest by anti-globalization activists.The white facade of the KempinskiGrand Hotel on the Baltic Sea coast,was smeared with red and black paintduring the night, police in nearbyRostock said. Anti-globalizationistsclaimed responsibility in a letter,police said.

December 27,Berlin, Germany: In the night from27 to 28 anti-prison militantsprovoked an ar-son to the mainquarters of thejustice ministerresponsible forthe Berlin region.According to theircommuniqué, theattack was a re-sponse to the highnumber of deaths,attributed to sui-cides, inside the

Berlin prisons within the last year.The justice senator had declaredthat prison suicides would no longerbe made public. This action was alsoa response to this announcement. Thecommuniqué invited people to join inthe traditional Sylvester anti-prisondemo, which saw the participation of350 people who saluted prisoners atmidnight and exploding fireworksaround the prison.

. . . more Anti-Capitalist and

Anti-State Showdowns


It is not so common to find reports fromGermany about public campaigns or actions,much less clandestine, militant actions in thepages of Green Anarchy. People might beconvinced that Greece is one of the only, ifnot “the” place, where attacks are happeningin a European context. On the one side, it istrue that the high level of militant attacks inGreece is far beyond the concurrence, but itwould be an under-evaluation to assume thatthe level and potential of militant attacks mightonly be reachable there. When discussing Germany, I personally donot see much insurrectionary potential, sincelike most places around in the western side ofthe world, the wave is going towards less likelydirections than this, although the socialconditions maintain a boiling point. Moreover,german society is probably one of the mostsleepy ones in terms of social agitation, orbetter, people are keen to protest but merelyinside the “agreed” rules of democracy, failingmost of the time to practice more radical waysof struggling than the usual and legal ones.Nevertheless, my theme here will not be theevaluation of the german politicalcondition, but rather to try and givean overlook of the ongoing militantcampaign against the upcoming G82007, to be held in the northeasternpart of Germany, close to the cityof Rostock. Personally, I am not too keen onsummit–hopping any more (beingalready fairly through this“adolescent” phase, pardon theageism here) and I reckon therehave been enough critiquesexpressed about this within the lastcouple of years. But I’d like tomention what I consider to be avery important text from Rovereto,“Notes on Summits and Counter-summits,” (See GA # 15) and suggestthat those who are unfamiliar with the critiqueto read this text. So instead of critiquingsummits or summit-hopping, I would like tospend a few words presenting the actualsituation in Germany and with the hope to

motivate people to take action now, in theirplaces, in whichever forms they repute to bethe most effective one, rather than invitingthem to join whichever kind of larger demonext year. Back in 2005, the opening session of theAnti-G8 militant campaign was the burningof the car of the well-known boss of the Northgerman refinery industries, in Hamburg (wherepeople went to his house, opened his garageand brought the car outside and successfullyburned it). This was immediately followedby another action which contributed to quitea lot of the media attention, thanks to itsspectacularity. The action was the completeburning down of a restaurant in Berlin,“Pavillon du Lac”, a structure belonging to theForeign Minister, which was supposed tobecome a place that should have hostedcourses for the future diplomatics, also aluxury restaurant should have been built there.Of their dream, it is just ashes that remain.Afterwards it was clear how the “Anti-G8 SportLeague” has definitely been opened. (The term“Sport League” refers to a column in Interim,

a bi-weekly journal from Berlin, a mediaproject where the autonomous movement hasmore or less tried to have discussions since1988, and in where reports of direct militantaction can be found.)

To understand the particularity of the tacticsof the autonomous/clandestine groups overhere, it is necessary to give a short insighton the development of clandestine ways oforganizing. First, it is important tounderstand how the praxis of the germanautonomous groups has to be rooted in theRevolutionary Cells (RZ), a communicatingnetwork of autonomous cells active from themid ´70s until the beginning of the ´90s.They chose to organize in an autonomousway with each other, communicatingthrough their clandestine paper “Fruchte desZorn” (Fruits of the Rage), keeping both therepressive and the authoritarian riskextremely low. It is the same way how theALF and the ELF organise nowadays. It is important to notice how the needof communication between the differentautonomous/clandestine groups and the rest

of the autonomous movementbrought the creation of anothergerman-wide discussion forum.This was the newspaper “Radikal”,born in ´77 as the organ of theSponti–movement (the anarchist/autonomous part of the movementback then). Clandestine since 1984(and still ranting nowadays, despitethe many inquisitions within theyears), it was the place all the dif-ferent autonomous groups wouldcommunicate. “Radikal” presenteda platform of communication freefrom the fear of State censorship andcreated a place to report actionsand debate with the rest of thea utonomous movement aboutstrategies and tactics. It was – and

still is – the place where people can alsolearn how to build different kinds of incendi-ary devices and other useful things.

To say what the enemy does not expect and be there where they are notwaiting for us. That is the new poetry. –At Daggers Drawn.

an insight look to the ongoing Militant Anti G8Campaign in Germany, by Jacob Duval


Overcoming the spectacle of theusual counter-summit banality:


Exactly through the publication of these kindof things, people wanted to share their knowl-edge in matter of sabotage, to make themaccessible to all the people willing to learn anduse them. To avoid indeed the problem of theprofessional revolutionary: everybody canmake his/her own part in the process ofdestabilizing this society. It is very important to emphasize, thefact that the RZ, the Rote Zora (originallysome RZ cells, which at one point decidedto act only under this new name in timesof an upcoming critique to patriarchy, asthese new-formed groups 100% womengroups acting mostly in support of women– related struggles) or any well-knownand less well-known clandestine groupalways choose to critique themselveswithin the context of the rest of theautonomous movement, consideringthemselves not at all as avant-garde, butsimply as one of many parts of it, ofpeople acting in order to overthrow thesystem without the will of reconstitutinganother one through the usage of a “leftydictature.” This is one of the major difference betweenthe praxis of german autonomous groups andother marxist oriented groups such as the RAF(“Faction of the Red Army”, marxist guerillagroup active from the ́ 70s until the mid-´90s)for example. And that is why autonomous cellsremain the most popular way of organizingfor people who decide to go beyond publicdemos and actions. So, we can testify to thepresence of many militant groups whichcarry out actions and then disappear,or simply change “labels” in orderto make the work of repression a bitmore difficult. It is a fact that duringthe past years, loads and loads ofdifferent kind of attacks have beencarried out by several thousands ofautonomous groups, with an arrest-counter that stays quite low. This isdue to the extreme attention mili-tants put on keeping their innersecurity levels high: the behaviourof people boasting about themselvesin scene bars about what they didthe night before is thankfully stillmostly unheard of in Germany.Nowadays, the only group which isstill acting under the same nameafter every action is the MG, militantgroup, active since 2001, but theyare a rather autonomous marxist-oriented group. Surely, quarrels are present as inevery political (or anti-political)situation elsewhere, but what I noticed from myinternational experience is that here the people(of course I am still talking of the ones whofreed themselves from any pacifist perspective)are generally more oriented into really carryingout actions instead of merely talking about it.

Here I mean pretending to be in words, themost radical, romantic, anarchist combatant,but wasting instead their time rather in writingpapers about this, rather than really live it fully.Or just spending their time in denouncing how

reformist is that or that political groups. Fairenough: the ability to make a venomous critiqueis always the core of every true anarchist. How-ever, I came personally at daggers drawn withthis kind of attitude which privileges the beautyand the poetry of either insurrectionist or anti-civ rhetoric, but which in reality prefers tochoose the fascination (and easiness) of the penrather than of the trueness of a well-done fire.Every wannabe venomous critique which stopsitself to this passivity, remains a dead letter.

That said, even without having greatdiscussion about the importance of anti–civilization or insurrectionary theoreticalperspectives, it seems that the Anti-G8 militantcampaign found a wide practical response withinthe militant autonomous/anarchist spectrum.

Plenty of actions have been carried within thelast one and half years already. The actionswere focused at completely different targetsfrom each others’: ranging from attacks againstGMO crop producers to police stations or

in support of the anti-dam struggles inTurkey. All of these actions which at firstsight might be seen as not linked amongeach other, carry a strict link, which istheir participation within the militantAnti-G8 campaign. All the communiquésthat the different clandestine groups putout, expressed their will to thematize theupcoming summit. And fortunately, itseems that as the nearer the G8 comes,the more actions are happening. Recently, the publication of a brochurebrought out by autonomous groups ofBerlin collects almost all the articles fromthe newspapers which documentedmilitant clandestine actions from 1999until nowadays. The aim of this lies inthe first page of the brochure where thepublishers are inviting people not just inreproducing the mere counter – summit

spectacle, but instead getting active well inadvance, in their places, and especially theyare calling for a month of action just beforethe summit. The idea is a simple competitionamong all the german cities where the one withthe highest damages against big corporations,power´s symbols, and so on is gonna be thewinner… Through this proposal, as example, comesout quite clearly how people are willing tonot merely reproduce the schemes offered

from the other counter summits norfollowing the dates given from ourenemies, but rather trying to spreadthe attack in a much larger period oftime and space. I guess it should notbe necessary to say how helpful thesetactics are when it is about creatingas much trouble as possible andmeanwhile keeping the risk as lowas possible (in order to continue tofight properly), avoiding the con-centration of energies exactly in themoment where the highest numberof repressive forces are at work andis expecting to work. It does not meanthat people will not try to bring thefight in the streets; riotous momentsare definitely more than appreciatedin Germany, but even more than inother (western) countries, people areconfronted with such a massive po-lice repression on the streets that therisk of getting arrested for almostnothing (people have been sentenced

to more than 2 years for throwing a bottle atthe cops) is extremely high. This is also why here a larger number ofpeople are choosing to act under the light ofthe Night rather than of the Sun: the lowerrisk of getting caught and meanwhile being


MOVE Prisoners:MOVE is a radical ecological movement thathas been attacked by the Philadelphia Policesince its inception. Nine members wereconvicted and sent to prison for life followinga 1978 siege at their house in which one copwas killed by another cop. One of those nine,Merle Africa, died in prison after beingdenied medical treatment.

Debbie Simms Africa #006307, JanetHolloway Africa #006308, JaninePhilips Africa #006309, 451 FullertonAve, Cambridge Springs, PA 16403-1238.

Michael Davis Africa AM4973,Charles Simms Africa AM4975, Box244, Grateford, PA 19426-0244 SCIGrateford.

Edward Goodman Africa AM4974,Box 200, Camp Hill, PA 17011-0200 SCICamp Hill.

William Philips Africa AM4984,Delbert Orr Africa AM4985, Drawer K,Dallas, PA 18612 SCI Dallas.

Mumia Abu Jamal, (AM8335), SCIGreene, 175 Progress Drive, Waynesburg PA15370, USA. In 1981 Mumia, former BlackPanther and vocal supporter of MOVE, wasframed for the murder of a cop.

United Freedom FrontPrisoners:

The following three individuals are servinghuge sentences for their role in actions carriedout by the (UFF) in the 1980’s. The UFFcarried out solidarity bombings against theU.S. government on a variety of issues.

Jaan Karl Laaman W41514, Box 100,South Walpole, MA 0207.

Thomas Manning #10373-016, Box1000,Leavenworth, KS 66048.

Richard Williams #10377-016, 3901 KleinBlvd., Lompoc, CA 93436.

As we go to print, we found this grossly under-reported news story. Riot police stormed anabandoned dormitory squat at a prestigiousuniversity, forcing out more than 500 people,mainly women and children, since the pigswaited for the working men and women to leave. Known as the largest squat in France, they calledthemselves “les Mille de Cachan” - the Cachan Thousand. Many were from the Ivory Coast, Mali,and Senegal and included 200 children. Many people were struck, several had to go to hospitalincluding a baby, a mother (with a fractured knee) and a father (broken ribs). Two hundred then tookrefuge in a gymnasium at the “invitation” of Socialist mayor Jean-Yves Le Bouillonnec. This wasmere political ploy in response to Pig Minister Sarkozy’s double eviction - out of the squat then off thestreets. Bouillonnec is now threatening to throw them out of the gym.

more effective is making it more than attractiveto the ones who are willing to take the step ofclandestine activity. It does not mean that the usual anti-G8-anti-globalization-circus with all its inner reformistaims towards a pacified world will not beorganizing their usual kind of big-we-are-all-together demo. Like in Italy or other southernEuropean countries, where the reformist Leftis still able to bring several thousands peopleon the streets screaming for another, possibleworld; also in Germany there are such orga-nizations which will take care of the fact thatthe dissent will be democratically representedwithin those days… Nevertheless, in comparison to the ItalianG8 summit, where some voices out of thechorus called for an autonomous actionfrom the usual spectacle, carrying out a fewbombings in the days right before the Italiansummit started, it seems like in Germany thiscall has had a much larger resonance withinthe autonomous/anarchist spectrum. As said, we are talking here about a campaignwhich for the past year and a half has shownits solidity throughout the high number ofsubversive actions. It should be noted that theactions provoked some damages, since themost beloved technique here remains the good,old, and effective fire. Such things as letterbombs or low potential explosive devices arealmost never used nowadays: letter bombscarry an especially bad reputation, beingbrought on the scene in Germany and inAustria from nazis during the ´90s. Incendiarydevices are therefore the beloved way, carryingthe fire both as a high symbolic meaning butbeing at the same time a method which iseffective and easy to be caused. This is another

very important aspect if we want peoplegetting involved in this kind of stuff; avoid-ing the specialization and trying to balancethe building easiness of the device with itsresult. That is another lesson coming fromthe RZ and the autonomous groups. Whichis a thing I fail to recognize in such thingsas letter bombs, not so easy to be built andmanaging to obtain media attention withoutprovoking any other real damage… However, if the militant campaign will keepon running fast towards its point – that is notyet seen – although I do see a really highchance of good possibilities in this. In the end,it is like a double-faced card. On one sideis, if people will be able to emancipatethemselves completely from the counter-summit perspective – say maintaining thishigh level of actions also after the end ofthis empty meeting – understanding theimportance of a continuous, uncompromisingdaily attack on the present state of thingswithout the need of every other aim than thedestruction of it; the other side of this card,as decisive as the other, would be if peoplewill be able, through the usage of aclandestine and insurrectionary praxis(although not yet recognized as such), toliberate themselves from the ghosts of theLeft and therefore willing to discover thepotential of insurrectionary theories (whenthey are not becoming another ideologythough…) in order to come fully at daggersdrawn with the present…

That is the true bet: let´s seehow many will choose to play…

August 17:

Pigs Evict Largest Squat in France

If you’re gonna sting,make it count.

August 17:August 17:

Pigs Evict Largest Squat in FrancePigs Evict Largest Squat in France


1 2Day One: The forest is the giver of life and the bringer of death. Humansare an integral component in this tapestry of balance. We observethe patterns of behavior exhibited in the diverse organisms sharingour homeland, learning from their wisdom and adapting their waysto our communities. Both the animals and plants with whom weinteract and depend upon teach us important information aboutour role in this dance of exuberance, our forest world. Cooperativehunting and sharing food are key aspects of our lifestyle, helpingto bond families together in mutually reciprocal relationships.By attentively watching wolves we have taken on their huntingstrategies, allowing parties of our men and us women to com-municate with each other through non-verbal methods in a jointpursuit of collective fulfillment. Although we must use tools suchas the bow and arrow to successfully procure meat because of ourinadequate natural constitution, we are grateful for the invaluablelessons of the wolf.

As with the animals, our plant co-inhab-itants not only provide us with sustenance,they have influenced us in our continuousquest to be one with the forest. Patienceand humility are the two most importanttraits we have picked up from the plantpopulation. Through a relative stasis, thetowering oaks and tiny berries have enabledus to see that there is an enhancement oflife when one is still, whether through longcold periods when our mobility is limitedor simply during a succession of momentswhile watching vegetation return inabundance during warmer periods. Thesepatient excursions into the harmony ofquietude contribute to our sense of beingembedded within the forest, molding oursocial identities without creating feelingsof discontent. Humility is exuded in plantsfrom root to branch, giving us furtherinsight on how to maintain equilibriumwith life. As humans, we have come torecognize that although we are animals, apotential to disrupt the functioning of theforest is inherent in our very mentalmakeup. By assimilating the maturity ofthe plant community, we have endeavoredto remain humble before the intertwinedfate the forest produces for us and the webof life. It is a perpetual process of livingand learning, but one which we havegrown to love.

Day Two: Sadly, this world of ours is rapidly comingto an end through undertakings we aresomewhat familiar with. However, uniquechallenges previously unimaginable posethreats so severe one would have to see itto believe it. Our recent past experienceshave been subsumed by the increasingpresence of people who have a very differ-ent way of life than our own, not only inhow they think but in how they act. Oraltraditions tell how some time in thedistant past various human groups startedto migrate into our beloved forest region.We were initially somewhat skeptical,being that we have come to understandthe dilemma of overcrowding in relation

to available food, but were willing to initiate peaceful relations. Quicklyour skepticism increased in reaction to the incomers’ plans. Socialinteraction took place, seemingly as a gesture of possible friendship,however, things deteriorated shortly after our first contact. One of our younger hunters, a girl named Silent Oak, who was showingexceptional abilities at animal tracking and stealth, voluntarily left ourcamp, lured into the trap of lusting for material possessions. As I saidyesterday, the forest has taught us about humility and reciprocity, butour hunter-woman-to-be found the urge to experiment with anotherlifestyle too tempting. We respected her decision, as it is common amongour people to occasionally separate from the group in order to avoidconflict escalation or because a close friend is located at another campsite. At the time, we were generally uninformed about the visitors. Whatother experience had we been confronted with before that might helpus understand them? Their possessions led us to believe they were up tosomething more and Silent Oak’s journey proved us right.

Diary of a FemaleStone AgeHunter-Gatherer

in aEuropean

Forestduring the

RomanConquestof Gaul



534

byby

Army ofthe TwelveMonkeys

When meeting up with the newcomers, Silent Oak found out theywere not a hunting and gathering group, but lived in more substantialfortifications they called villages. Many more people lived in any onevillage then in many of our camps put together. She took notice immedi-ately of various differences between our ways of life, most notably thatthe Gauls, which is what the villagers called themselves, were clearingforest land at an increasing rate to accommodate their larger populationsas well as a system of gaining food we took to calling domestication.Domestication was a word in our language we used to describe theprocess by which individuals tried to bully the group, attempting tosubordinate everyone to their will either through shamanistic trances orboasting over a successful hunt. We used various non-violent ways todeal with these individuals, but if the circumstances became too extreme,collective execution of the domesticator could occur.

Day Three: As the story goes, Silent Oak ran away from the village due to herdisgust towards what she described as the “domestication of life inthe forest.” By this she meant not only were the villagers controlledby a head domesticator as well as a subordinate council ofdomesticators, but animals and plants showing traits absent in thenormal functioning of the forest were the primary form of food. SilentOak noted there were no longer the familiar berries, nuts, and rootsshe was accustomed to, but something the Gauls called wheat fedtheir growing population. She was also there long enough to witnessfighting between two groups of Gauls they called a blood feud. Itseemed that as the villagers put greater pressure on the life of theforest to continuously yield domesticated food, groups fought witheach other more and more, creating a system by which any memberof an opposing village could be killed in retaliation for a previousoffense committed by an individual who may no longer be alive. Theyenshrined fighting as a cultural value, disconnecting themselves froma life of peace I suspect we once all knew. This description of Silent Oak’s experience remains deep within ourhearts to this day, for we can see how correct she was in her assessment ofthe Gauls. Our forest was gradually encroached upon. We did not want tobecome sick from the domestication illness, so we talked to decidecollectively how we should deal with this growing threat. According tooral tradition, Silent Oak told of how Gaul councils were dominated bythe head domesticators and a few of the elder men and prominentwarriors who gained status from leading raids. Our meetings, wheneverthey needed to be convened, were a much more informal affair with uswomen, along with the men, participating freely in the discussion. Wehad no “prominent war leaders” to excessively honor and give unduespeaking time to during councils. Personally I wasn’t sure which ideawas more repulsive, domestication or war, but my sister agreedwith me that they were probably interconnected phenomenon. Not many of our people voluntarily associated with the Gaulsafter Silent Oak’s story was told, however, that didn’t preventour women being taken as slaves by these intruders. Some slavesescaped, and learned enough Gaulish language to assist withfuture attempts at reconciliation. They told us of the sexualdivisions that existed in the Gaul’s society, as well as therigidified religious rituals that reinforced supposed genderessences. This gender essence is incomprehensible to me, for Ihunt with the men regularly, participate in all decisions aboutwhen and where to move camp. I always have many companions,male and female, nearby to deal with a rapist, although oursociety is nearly totally without rape. Eventually we came tothe decision we had to fight if we were to survive. This wouldrequire hit and run tactics, seamlessly reintegrating back intothe protective forest cover when necessary. Just today I fought,taking my skills as a stealthy hunter to pick off members of thesenior domesticator council. We figured that maybe, if the leaderswere shown to be vulnerable, the others would revolt internally,throwing off their own shackles to join us in the forest.

Day Four:It was not to be. Our raid on the village yesterday was greeted with aresponse by the commoners that shocked us. Earlier we had observedthe villagers shooting wolves on sight because they had such an entrenchednotion of ownership of their crops and animals that a wolf posed aconstant threat, showing a posture of superiority. This time, however,the wolf had truly lain with the sheep, metaphorically speaking. WhatI mean is that the others, instead of throwing off their mental andphysical chains, sided with the elites. We were utterly crushed becausewe were inexperienced at warfare and the commoners pursued us intothe forest cover, killing a few of our people, however, stopping justshort of penetrating more deeply. The villagers have these superstitiousbeliefs about the evilness of the forest, so they are generally reluctantto come into our world unless they have their axes ready to chopdown trees or kill animals like the buffalo when they need somethingto fall back on after crop failures. We have gradually begun to notice the effects of the continuedencroachment of the Gauls. Increased slavery of our people, loss ofgame, and less variety of plant foods due to their fields of wheat aresome of the major problems we are facing, let alone the unsuccessfulfighting we have been attempting in defense of our way of life. We do notwish to be enslaved by other human beings. If the commoner Gaulshave come to not only accept their subjection under the domesticators,but also to love it, there is little we can do for the close-minded. Weonly have our desire to fight back, but the horizons are looking bleak.

Day Five: Although future prospects have never been positive, recent informationfrom one of our fellow bands to the south has unfortunately enhancedour group’s pessimism. A group of people calling themselves theRomans, who have huge fighting forces, many more slaves thenthe Gauls, and a complex social formation they call “urbanization,”are being led by a man named Caesar with the goal of conqueringthe Gauls. From the information we received from the southern band,urbanization creates such widespread forest destruction that the Gaulsmay be the least of our long-term problems. I have not seen theseRomans. However, if the stories the southern band tell us are true,I’m not sure there is a word in our language to describe this vastinstrument of death, but Leviathan seems like a good descriptor.Although it seems unlikely, we may have to consider a final effortto make reconciliation with the Gauls so we can join in a unitedresistance. Based on our experiences with the Gauls and the storiesof the most recent newcomers, I fear our ultimate fate is to disappearalong with the forest.



Landless StormBrazilian Congress

In early June, hundreds of landlessBrazilian farm workers stormed acongressional building in the capital,Brasilia. The protesters, carryingsticks and farm tools, smashed win-dows, tables and doors, overturneda car and clashed with police andsecurity guards. Officials said about500 people were arrested and morethan 25 hurt, one seriously. Most ofthe protesters, members of a militantoffshoot of Brazil’s main landlessmovement, managed to force theirway into an annex of the lowerhouse of Brazil’s Congress inBrasilia. They reached a room nextto one of the two main debating

chambers where a parliamentarysession was taking place. The protest-ers smashed furniture and windows,and destroyed a car that was beingdisplayed as part of a prize draw forcongressional staff. The demon-strators said they had entered thebuilding to demand an end to whatthey called slave labour and changesto Brazil’s legislation to speed upland reform. In a statement, President Lulacondemned the unrest as an act ofvandalism against democracy. It wasa major embarrassment for the leaderwho claims support from farmworkers and the landless. When hewas elected in 2003, the presidentpromised to buy disused land andredistribute it to poor families with

no home of their own. But the socialistgovernment has come in for majorcriticism for doing nothing to acceler-ate the process, failing to live up toits election promises to find homesfor 400,000 families by 2006.

Indigenous Residentsand Environmentalists

Blockade Road in OntarioOn July 13, indigenous residents ofKenora, environmentalists, and theirsupporters shut down a portion ofthe Trans-Canadian Highway to de-mand an end to clear-cut logging ontraditional native land. The 100 or sodemonstrators blocked the road witha thirty-foot tripod that one demon-strator perched on top of. A bannerattached to the top of the tripod read“Save Grassy Narrows Boreal Forest”.Other protesters locked themselvesto cement filled oil drums and theaxle of a Weyerhaeuser loggingtruck. The blockaders said that theywould allow vehicles that were notinvolved with the logging to passbut the Ontario Provincial Policehave diverted all traffic throughsmaller Kenora roads rather thanattempt to dislodge the blockade.Weyerhaeuser, the world’s largestlogging company, has a reputationfor clear-cutting and logging forestsin an ecologically devastating man-ner and disregarding the indigenouspeoples who claim the land. “The clear-cutting of the land is anattack on our people,” said RobertaKeesick, a Grassy Narrows resident,blockader, grandmother, and trap-per. “The land is the basis of whowe are. Our culture is a land-basedculture, and the destruction of theland is the destruction of our culture.

Weyerhaeuser and the McGuintygovernment don’t want us on theland, they want us out of the wayso they can take the resources. Wecan’t allow them to carry on withthis cultural genocide.”

Mayan-Q’eqchi’ PeopleOccupy Nickel Mine

On September 18, hundreds ofMayan Indian families invaded land“owned” by a Canadian nickel miningcompany, demanding the they cedea section for subsistence farming.Skye Resources Inc. plans to reopena long-dormant nickel project nearGuatemala’s Lake Izabal and beginproducing 11,000 tons of ferro-nickellate in 2008. But environmental con-cerns and disputes over land rightsprompted the Mayan Indians livingnear the site to occupy two differentareas of the mining company’s claim. “People are building houses and itlooks like they are not planning onleaving anytime soon,” said DanielVogt, who represents local Mayandevelopment group Aepdi. The com-pany said it is open to negotiation butthat the townspeople refused toenter into discussions to resolve thedispute. Mine official Omar Diegueztold Reuters, “We would like toresolve this or else there could beconflicts once we start operations.”

New Zealand Tribe BlocksRoad To Protect Forest

On September 30, Tuhoe tribemembers blockaded the MatahiValley Road to Te Urewera NationalPark in Whakatane, New Zealand, inorder to ensure that the Matahi Forestnear Waimana is not logged. The94,300 hectares of timberland was

Indigenous Struggles from Around the World

Strength fromthe Land!

Intruders may hold sway for centuries but they will eventually be

pushed from the land or the land itself will destroy them.–Vine Deloria, Jr., Custer Died for Your Sins

Ourvision

comes fromthe earth

Ourresistancecomes from

our connection


purchased last year by Rayonier, aFlorida-based multi-national com-pany. The tribe, however, claims thatthey have sole rights to the land andthat the $435 million purchase wasnot legal. The demonstrators planto maintain their blockade of theroad until Rayonier abandons theirplans to destroy the forest. Localpolice have stated that they have noplans to do anything about the block-ade, which is expected to continueindefinitely. Blockaders have madeexceptions for local residents andemergency vehicles.

Mapuche Take To theStreets in Chile

On October 5, in the outskirts ofthe University of Concepción inChile, members of the indigenousMapuche group “CoordinadoraArauco Malleco” (CAM) and sup-porters of the Mapuche struggletook to the streets to protestagainst all the abuses committedagainst the Mapuche people. Therepression against the Mapuchepeople is surpassing any limit,which led to the recent raisingof barricades to completelystop traffic. After maintainingthe street blockade for morethan 20 minutes, a bank branchof the Banco Santander wasattacked. Immediately after-wards, the repressive forcesshowed up, attacking with awater cannon and tear gasuntil entering the universityin search of the maskedblockade participants. After40 minutes of combat, withvarious tires set on fire anda large quanitity of Molotovfirebombs thrown, the policeretreated, and nobody wasarrested. Below is from the communiquédistributed by The CoordinadoraArauco Malleco (CAM): Freedom to all the Mapuche politi-cal prisoners, imprisoned by thiscorrupt judicial system, in connectionwith the Chilean government of themoment. Freedom is not obtainedby negotiating or begging, nor withpitiful petitions. Freedom must begained day by day, with resistanceand struggle. Out with the forestrycompanies and the big land-owners,and the other capitalist vultures thatdespoil Mapuche territory and itswealth. For the right to freedom as apeople, life, the dignity of the children,the elderly, and for the defense ofour territory, and in memory of ourWeichafe Alex Lemun, we will con-tinue struggling.[…]

FOR TERRITORY AND AUTONOMYWITH OUR HEROES LEFTRARU,PELANTARO, LEMUN, AND OTHERSWITH THE DIGNITY OF OUR PRIS-ONERS AND PERSECUTED COOR-DINADORA DE COMUNIDADESMAPUCHE EN CONFLICTO ARAUCO-MALLECO (CAM)

Ongoing Struggle inOaxaca, Mexico

On October 28, following the murderof independent U.S. journalist andanarchist Brad Will on the barri-cades (see State Repression News,page 92) by a death squad in theemploy of Governor Ruiz – a leadingmember of the Party of the Institu-tional Revolution – President VicenteFox moved in thousands of FederalPreventative Police, who retook thecentral plaza of Oaxaca. Since then,the dissidents have waged a fierceresistance from behind barricadesthrown up throughout the state.Thousands of protesters driven fromthe center of Oaxaca after months ofparalyzing demonstrations havevowed to retake the main plaza.

A day after riot police moved in,the city resembled a battleground, itsstreets littered with charred cars andlines of police blocking entrances tothe city center. The protests beganas a teachers’ strike but was quicklyfueled into a rebellion as indigenousgroups, anarchists, and studentsseized the central plaza and barri-caded streets. From June through October of thisyear, Oaxaca was largely under thecontrol of a provisional popular gov-ernment known as the OaxacaPeoples Popular Assembly (APPO)and guided by the local traditional in-digenous means of decision making.

In July, 25 masked paramilitariescarrying “cartuchos” (military gradehigh powered automatic weapons)arrived at Radio Universidad and firedshots in an attempt to gain access tothe station and shut down the trans-mitter. Despite losing the signal forless than an hour the station’soccupants were able to hold off theattackers. A portion of the confron-tation and chaos was broadcast,sending dozens of nearby supportersto the scene. In August, a group ofabout 350 women and children,armed with only wooden spoons,took control of the state-ownedtelevision station, Channel 9. Thewomen are members or supportersof the teachers union who haveoccupied the city’s main plaza for anumber of months. The women arenow using the station to broadcaston two radio frequencies and air avideo of the brutal June 14 policeaction which initiated the largerrebellion (see GA #23 for details).Every government building wasoccupied by the demonstratorswho called for the resignation ofGovernor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

Federal police retook the capitolcity in a military-style invasion atthe end of October. At night, policeride through the streets of the cityin white pick-up trucks, kickingdown the doors of suspectedmovement sympathizers, beatingthem, and sending them to prisonson the other side of the countrywhere they are subjected to torture.But signs of resistance are every-where – most visibly in the form ofthe graffiti that appears every nighton walls that had been white-washed just hours earlier. On its surface, the uprising inOaxaca was initially a response to

a brutal pre-dawn police attack onstriking teachers and their familiescamped out in the Zocalo on June14. Enraged Oaxacans came to theteachers’ defense, literally beatingback the police and retaking thesquare. But anger had been simmer-ing in Oaxaca, the poorest state inMexico, and one with the largestindigenous population. The state,ruled for over seventy years by theParty of the Institutional Revolution(PRI), is in desperate poverty. Jobsand land are awarded to party opera-tives. The current governor, UlisesRuiz Ortiz, is believed to have lootedthe state treasury in order to helpfund the campaign of his party’spresidential candidate, RobertoMadrazzo. Meanwhile, U.S. andCanadian companies extract timber,uranium, gold, silver, and waterfrom the area. But the biggestforce responsible for Oaxaca’spoverty is a global economic sys-tem bent on eradicating subsistenceagriculture, replacing small farmswith massive plantations, and turn-ing farmers into low wage factoryworkers, all in the name of economic

efficiency and maximizingprofits. The North American FreeTrade Agreement (NAFTA)destroyed Oaxaca’s millennia-old corn-growing culture inthe 1990’s. Oaxaca is theplace where the world’s firstcorn was grown. Small farmersgrowing traditional varietiesof corn to feed themselvesand sell to their neighborscould no longer compete withmassive government subsi-dized corporate corn farms inthe Midwestern U.S. growinggenetically modified cornusing petroleum fertilizersand pesticides. To add insultto injury, when a few farmersplanted the GMO corn theybought from the U.S., the pollen

from their fields contaminatedneighboring corn fields, ruiningOaxaca’s genetic treasury by turningheirloom varieties of corn into strangehybrids. A few years later, Oaxaca’scoffee farms took a hit when Vietnambegan producing cheap, abundantcoffee on the advice of internationalfinancial institutions, making thebottom fall out of the coffee market.In recent years, most young Oaxacanmen and many young Oaxacanwomen left their communities tosearch for work in the U.S. or in themaquilladora factories of northernMexico. 150,000 people leave Oaxacaevery year.



North AmericanNative Political

Prisoners:Byron Shane Chubbuck#07909051, US Penitentiary, POBox 26030, Beaumont, TX,77705. Indigenous activist servingtime for robbing banks to acquirefunds to support the Zapatistarebellion in Chiapas.

Eddie Hatcher #0173499,Marion Correctional Institute,POB 2045, Marion, NC 28752.Longtime Native freedom-fighterbeing framed for a murder he didnot commit.

Leonard Peltier #89637-132,USP Terre Haute, U.S. Penitentiary,4700 Bureau Road South, TerreHaute, IN 47802. American IndianMovement (AIM) activist, servingtwo Life sentences, having beenframed for the murder of twoFBI agents.

Luis V. Rodriguez #C33000,PO Box 7500, Crescent City, CA95532-7500. Apache/Chicanoactivist being framed for themurder of two cops.

Tewahnee Sahme #11186353,SRCI, 777 Stanton Blvd, Ontario,OR 97914. Dedicated Nativerights advocate serving additionaltime for a prison insurgency.

David Scalera (Looks Away)#13405480, TRCI, 82911 BeachAccess Rd, Umatilla, OR 97882.Dedicated Native rights advocateserving additional time for aprison insurgency.

In the town of Zaachilla, outsideOaxaca City, the people drove out theirMunicipal President and installed apopular government in July in the cul-mination of a long simmering disputeover the unpopular sale of communityland to a company partially owned bythe Governor and the outgoing MexicanPresident’s wife for the construction ofupscale housing developments to beinhabited by Oaxaca’s business eliteand U.S. retirees. There are arrest warrants out fordozens of people in Zaachilla – themembers of the provisional municipalgovernment, most of the town’steachers, even a woman in her eight-ies who was photographed at a marchin the city. Plainclothes police drivethrough the town on motorcycles,snatching people up. The men who arearrested are beaten, many womenwho are arrested are sexually as-saulted: both are sent to prisons in thedistant state of Nayarit, a twenty hourdrive away. Thugs believed to havebeen hired by the ousted MunicipalPresident have vandalized the schools,and state and federal police have goneinto classrooms searching for teach-ers involved in the popular movement.

And a palpable sensethat things could ex-plode at any minute.And inexplicably thereis graffiti on a wall afew feet away fromone of the tanks. Thetension is not likely todecrease, as the eco-nomic, political, andcultural dynamics willnot easily change. Asked to charac-terize the currentmoment in Oaxaca,Miguel Vasquez says,“There are legends inOaxaca of peoplehiding beneath therocks, and then com-ing back as animals...So maybe that’swhat’s happeningright now, people arehiding during thisincredible strife thatis happening rightnow. But perhapsthey will return.” Apeople who have sur-vived 500 years ofoutsiders trying toeradicate their cultureare a force to be reck-oned with.

Brazilian Mining ComplexOccupied by Xikrin

ResistersOn November 19, a group of about200 Xikrin Indians ended theiroccupation of the Carajas miningcomplex, after hundreds of nativeswielding war clubs and bows andarrows stormed the Amazon miningsite, shutting it down, and takinghostages. According to owners,Brazilian based Companhia Vale doRio Doce (CVRD), “the Indiansdamaged equipment, stole workers’belongings, sacked the restaurant...and took control of radio commu-nications.” It is believed that thenative people were demandingmore compensation from CVRD.The Carajas mining complex pro-duces 250,000 tons of iron oredaily. The occupation blocked theexport of 500,000 tons of ore.Members of the Guajajara tribe fol-lowed through on a threat to blockCVRD’s railway line from Carajasin December 2005 and then did soagain last February and took fourCVRD employees hostage to pressdemands for better public healthcare. The hostages were freed aftertwo days.

A march by the APPO and its sup-porters on November 25, was brutallysuppressed by the federal troopsunleashing elements of Ruiz’sministerial police who burnt downthe Assembly’s encampments,raided APPO offices, and brokeinto hospitals and private homeshunting protestors. More than 160militants detained by state andfederal cops have been shippedout of state to prisons as far northas Matamoros on the U.S. borderin a concerted plan to crush theself-designated “Commune ofOaxaca.” At the height of the uprising, thearea was bustling with energy, filledwith music, and bright banners. Todaythere are tanks in the middle of eachof the streets leading into the squareand police tents along the wall ofthe cathedral. There is a giant displayof poinsettias on one side of thesquare, the government’s attempt togive the appearance that the peopleof Oaxaca City welcome the Fed-eral Preventative Police. Police ingrey uniforms play arcade gamesand lick ice cream cones, assaultrifles strapped to their backs. Butoverwhelmingly, there is silence.

. . . more Indigenous Struggles from Around the World(continued from previous page)

Navajo Fight Power PlantConstruction in New MexicoOn December 14, Navajo Elders andBurnham, NM residents erectedbarricades across roads to a newpower plant construction site whenthey discovered that drilling hadbegun without their knowledge orconsent. Sithe Global, in cooperationwith the Dine Power authority, plansto construct the 1500 megawattcoal-fired power plant on traditionalNavajo land. Elouise Brown ofSanostee said, “The local residentsare not protesters but are resisters.Who would be happy if a well is be-ing dug in their backyard especiallywhen it is done in secrecy? So, howcan those residents be consideredprotesters when they are simplystanding up for their rights to haveclean air, water, and environment.”

Native Youth Movement

NYM


In 1987, J.A. Lagos Nilsson published inBuenos Aires the anarchist manifesto“Contracultura y provocación” (Countercultureand Provocation), in opposition to the hackneyedterms culture and civilization, terms whichwere utilized by the dictatorships of Argentinaand Chile to justify themselves and rationalizetheir genocidal practices. For Lagos Nilsson,the cultural world is a model, a pattern, aframe, or a reference: it is what standardizes.In this way, standardizing culture andcivilization are a product of the expansionof instrumental reason, which is manifestedpsychologically as the projection of the egoover nature. Alienation produces the estrange-ment of the subject from the world, causingthe subject to become strange to the externalworld and to him or herself. This is the sicknessthat is transmitted in the pipeline of ideology.In this whirlwind, only art and poetry liberateand de-alienate. This liberating action is rootedin the counterculture, which is nothing morethan a form of a meaningful provocation. Forobvious reasons, the counterculture negatesthe official culture and advocates for the rightof peculiarity. Clearly then, counterculturedoes not make pacts or coexist with power,although the latter tries to co-opt the former.If it achieves co-option, counterculture becomesnothing more than a fetish of consumption, ora museum piece that power hangs on the lapelof its jacket like a military medal. Power perpetuates itself through the practiceof repression and the sickness of alienation.If it’s true that alienation is a practice of thesymbolic, it still is not necessarily an expressionof symbolic culture. The distinction betweenthe symbolic and symbolic culture permits oneto distinguish between representation and thereifying substitution of reality, and the aestheticmanifestation of being. Confusing civilizationwith culture means mixing two equidistantmanifestations. Civilization is the projectionof instrumental reason. Its most sublimeexpression is embedded in the cities, which,legitimized as second nature, organize theprocess of ideological and social training inmodern subliminal concentration camps.Culture, instead, when it emanates from thesubject, is a form of being, or a counterculture.Culture regulates itself through the interactionof being. In civilization, on the other hand,whose game board of interaction is the market,true self-regulating mechanisms do not exist,since its base of support is utility, profit and usury.Civilization is, therefore, one-dimensional.

In contrast, culture is multiple, peculiar andmultifaceted. What orients the forms of culturalmanifestation is being. Doing relates tomanipulation and production. And while thiscan be a creative act, it is profoundly tied toinstrumental functionality. Being and creationinterweave the thread of culture. Truly, we allhave culture, that is, a way of being. And if it’strue that culture mediates our experience, thenour being is cultural. The struggles of the indigenous communitiesin Latin America are nothing less than the battlefor the defense of their culture against thepenetration of the civilizing machine andstandardizing culture. The culture of a com-munity is the aesthetic manifestation of itscommunitarian being. This is symbolic culture. Neanderthal men and women, who dis-appeared approximately thirty thousandyears ago, created polished rock figurines andconstructed flutes from bear bones which werecapable of playing as many as three musicalnotes: do, re, mi. They also had a form ofcommunication and spiritual and artisticactivities. Symbolic culture does not neces-sarily drive down a civilizing highway withno exit. The Maya, forexample, abandonedtheir cities without anyexplanation. It is likelythat they had under-stood in some moment,that their civilizationwas not sustainable,although there is noconcrete proof of that. Itis also possible thatthey had a clear under-standing that the tech-nology that they woulddevelop would be sodrastic that they wouldnot be able to return tothe earth what they hadtaken from it. This cos-mology of retribution stillforms a part of the sym-bolic culture of the Maya,whose understanding ofnature easily surpassesthe modern westerncosmologies. In contrast with theMayan culture, west-ern civilization and itsreplicas have provokednothing but the accel-erated destruction ofnature. When Marcuseproposes that history

negates nature, he refers to civilizing culture—standardization—and not human culture asthe expression of being. The manifestationof being is aesthetic and cultural. Thismanifestation turns radical when it becomesthe peculiar expression of being. For thisreason, to negate a person’s way of being isto colonize him or her. This practice repro-duces the expansive impulse of civilization,which is nothing more than the destructionof nature and human beings. Civilization,therefore, colonizes and domesticates culture,reducing it to a standard category—the officialculture. To not recognize that every creatureon the planet has a manner of being—everycat, bird, plant, flower, ourselves—is to negatethe peculiarity of nature. To negate cultureis to standardize. Human beings have differentways of being. Everyone sees, feels and ap-preciates the world culturally. Every cultureis peculiar. Constellations of peculiaritiesare cultural forms that turn into the idio-syncrasies of subjects. The genocides and ecocides of the Northand South American continents have movedin one main direction: to negate indigenousculture. Culture, indeed, is counter to civili-zation. They are not synonymous, but distinctterritories. Civilization implies standardiza-tion; culture, peculiarity.

Translation by Daniel Montero

THE GARDENOF PECULIARITIES

by Jesús Sepúlveda

FRAGMENT 24FRAGMENT 24


OnMy

ExperiencewithTime

Mr. PunctualAll my life I’ve been late. I was late for class, late for church, late fordoctors’ appointments. At age ten I was in a swim team carpool, andI was so late that my neighbor Mrs. Norton said, “Steve’s speed is soslow, it’s backwards.” As I got older, I always shrugged it off by sayinglife was too boring when you’re on time. Where’s the fun in leavingearly so you don’t have to rush? Why leave the house in a calm strollwith keys in hand and time to spare? I prefer the frenzied search formy keys, running to the car, and running every yellow light in sight. I always hated how my German father wasn’t only on time, but earlyfor everything. If we were going to Aunt Pat’s for Christmas Eve, andwe were supposed to be there at 5, and it took 30 minutes to get there,we would leave around 2:30pm. But when I got to Tanzania, East Africa, to spend a year teaching, Ihad arrived in the land of late. They worked on something called“African time,” which is another way to say “really late.” I had heard ofa lot of different references to a country’s “time” in my travels, and italways meant “we’re less punctual than you Americans.” When I wasin Ecuador it was referred to as “Ecua-time.” When I was on theLakota Sioux Indian Reservation, our guide Whirlwind Soldier calledit “Indian-time.” Even in America I had heard prejudiced whites referto “black people’s time.” But in Tanzania, “African-time” meant very late, even later thanEcuadorians and the Sioux. Graduation at the high school where Itaught started three hours late. A classic answer to “when will this start?”

is “when everyone gets here.” The answer to “when will the busleave?” is “when all the seats are filled.” And even though I was still chronically late (10 minutes or so) inTanzania, I was early. At the local high school where I worked, theyhad a running joke about my punctuality. I was the resident “mzungu”(Swahili for “white person”), and I would often hear people joke that“mzungu is always on time!” They were shocked when I taught theentire 70 minute period, or waited outside the door for the previousteacher to finish so I could begin...on time. One day I asked my colleagueand friend Laizer to come to the classroom at 1:15 to take a picture ofthe students and me. I kept stressing that he be there kilamara, Swahilifor “on time.” I told him that for this occasion I was using mzungutime, not mwaafrika time. Mzungu time is 1:15 as stated, not an hourlater. Much to my surprise, at 1:15 I heard a knock on the classroomdoor. In walked Laizer with a clock in his hand and he said “Mwaafrikais on time!” to the laughter of all the students. Maybe I wasn’t the lazy, spacey, late slacker I thought I was. MaybeI’d just been born in the wrong country.

Time as Nonlinear(or the Experience of No Time)“The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornlypersistent illusion.” - Einstein

“The sense of passing time is not keen among tribal peoples, for example,who do not mark it with calendars or clocks.” - Zerzan

As the months passed, time began to take on a different complexion inEast Africa. I would notice it in small moments, maybe leaning in adoorway drinking a soda, or sitting and watching kids play soccer. Atthose times I had no goal, no agenda, no direction, no plans, no placeto be, no place to go, and no time by which I had to leave. It was likeI had finally disengaged from the train tracks I had been on all my life.It was some kind of unexpected balm I sorely needed, or an exhalationthat was years in the making. It was as if linear time didn’t exist. When I lived in America, time always felt like it just marched on, asif I was plowing through every minute, aware of every markedmoment. I was always aware of how long something took, how long itfelt, or how long something would potentially last. But that’s notquite how it happened for me in Tanzania. Instead, I existed in atimelessness. At one point I pondered the three months I remainingbefore returning home and it seemed both like a really long time,and a really short time, all at the same time. I felt like I had justarrived in Africa, while simultaneously like I’d been there forever. It wasalways both and neither, one and the other, though not really that oranything at all. Time slipped away without you noticing it, but stayedwith you as something permanent. Time was the present, and thepresent was a timelessness. I finally understood Wittgenstein’s quotenot only with my head, but also in my bones: “Only a man that livesnot in time but in the present is happy.”

Is It Today or Tomorrow?When my volunteer/friend Valerie had a birthday, and I asked herif she had gotten a bunch of birthday e-mails yet, she said no. Wefigured it was because we were a day ahead of America. It wasTuesday to us but it wasn’t quite Tuesday yet in the states. Tanzaniawas a day ahead. A day ahead? With my new sense of African timelessness, that seemed absurd.We were a day ahead of America? Of course not. No one is “ahead”in time. There is no ahead, there’s just now. It’s now here and it’snow there. If Tanzania were a day ahead, I would have checked thefootball scores, called up Vegas and made a killing.

inTanzania,East Africa


I felt that linear time, as I had known it, was completely arbitrary.Einstein’s comment that time was merely “a persistent illusion” beganto make sense. Maybe the whole “time” thing was made up. A humaninvention and possibly a human oppressor. There is no “earlier” or“later”, no “before” or “after.” No one has experienced any of thosewords, because there’s just now. We think that England is a day aheadof America, but that’s impossible. That’s just what they say, that’s justwhat we’ve all agreed upon.

And Where Are You Going to Go?Soon I concluded that linear time was directly related to linearmovement. To go from point A to point B implied that time wouldpass as you moved forward. But with time falling away, moving frompoint A to point B began to fall away too. I started to have nowhere to go,and it was just fine. My first taste of this was withSampson, who often accompa-nied me anytime I had to walkdown dirt paths in the evenings. Sampson walked slow. Reallyslow. When we walked homeI often found him about 5yards behind me. I thoughthe’s actually STOPPED some-times. But after I slowed downto his pace night after night, Icame to realize what his walkwas saying to me. It was saying: “Slow DOWN, you Westerner.What’s the rush? Why are youalways going from one place tothe next? You’re on this path.Now. I bet you rush around somuch that you’ve forgottenyou’re alive. Going from onegoal to the next goal to the nextgoal, never being where you are,never living the moment. Whatis it exactly that you want toaccomplish? Do you have torush home so that you can rushto the next thing? And thenwhat? You can ‘achieve’ more?Did it ever make you happy?

When you achieve more will you then consume more? Willachievement mean more technology and a faster pace and more pavedroads and more industrialization and more traffic? Will it mean moremoney? For another trip to the mall? For goodness sakes, slow down.You’re on a bumpy dirt road, you’re in Moshi, and you haven’t evenlooked up at Mt. Kilimanjaro. The tallest free-standing mountain inthe world is in your sight and you missed it because you had someplace you ‘had to be’.” My next experience of going nowhere was when I was talking to mymwafrika friend and colleague Bwana Mwasha. He often told me aboutAfrican life, and on this particular day he was telling me how he spendshis Sundays. For him and many East Africans, it’s a day of extendedchurch service, a mass spanning an entire afternoon that includesdancing, singing, prayers, conversation, and worship. He invited me togo with him sometime, but I was a bit daunted by a religion I don’t

believe in and a church service in alanguage I don’t speak. So I said “Buta 3 hour service? That’s a long time.” He cocked his head and looked atme quizzically, paused, then said, “andwhere are you going to go?” His comment struck me. Wherewas I going to go? Honestly, I had no answer. Noanswer on my tongue, but a Zen-likeepiphany in my head. Where was Igoing to go? Where did I need to beexactly? Where do I always think I’mgoing? Where is anybody ever going?Do we ever get there? Are we everglad we got there? What did wesacrifice in trying to get somewhere? What about all my attempts to “besuccessful” throughout my life? Didit ever bring me true serenity? Did Iever have an extended period ofhere-and-now contentment? Why tryto get “there” when I’m already “here,”and “here” is rather nice? I wondered: if I stop sacrificingwhere I am by always trying to arrive,I might be delightfully cradled in asomewhere. Finally. A somewherethat might even feel like home.

–Steve Jordan

MachineTime

Trikuarena(The Hedgehog)(The Hedgehog)

Eventually night falls, the eagles disappearEventually night falls, the eagles disappear

and the hedgehog.and the hedgehog.

Frog, Snail, Spider, Worm, Insect,Frog, Snail, Spider, Worm, Insect,

Leaves the river and walks up the side of theLeaves the river and walks up the side of the

mountain,mountain,

as confident as his spinesas confident as his spines

as any warrior with his shield in Sparta or inas any warrior with his shield in Sparta or in

Corinth;Corinth;

and suddenly he crosses the border, the lineand suddenly he crosses the border, the line

that separates the earth and the grass fromthat separates the earth and the grass from

the new road;the new road;

with one step he enters your time and mine,with one step he enters your time and mine,

and since his dictionary of the universeand since his dictionary of the universe

has not been corrected or updatedhas not been corrected or updated

in the last seven thousand years,in the last seven thousand years,

he does not recognize the lights of our car,he does not recognize the lights of our car,

and does not even realize that he is goingand does not even realize that he is going

to die.to die.–Joseba Irazu Garmendia,–Joseba Irazu Garmendia,

a.k.a. Bernardo Atxagaa.k.a. Bernardo Atxaga



The Piraha people have avery unusual language andare one of many living proofsthat Noam Chomsky’stheory, “that our language isthe result of the unfolding ofa genetically determinedprogram”, is wrong. What is exactly the struc-ture of language in general?According to Chomsky, ababy can have a large body ofprior knowledge about, andneed only actually learn, theidiosyncratic features of thelanguage(s) it is exposed to.Why has it been impossiblefor feral children to learn howto speak (more than a fewwords) after being foundafter a certain age? If thetheory of universal grammarwould be true (and the falseassumption that our brainsare genetically pre-wired it is based on) thenthese feral children should have the ability tolearn how to speak at least at the basicgrammatical level which is (according toChomsky) universal to the human race. Butthey don’t; unless they are exposed to languagein the early years of life, they will only at most,be able to learn a few words and no grammarat all. Instead they communicate like wolves(if being raised by wolves) or like apes (ifbeing raised by apes). The interesting thing about Chomsky’stheory about universal grammar is that it isbased on an English philosopher named RogerBacon, who lived during the thirteenth century,and his so-called observation that all languagesare built upon a common underlying grammarand completely ignores later observations of thevariety of structure in the languages of humans.“Some languages have no gender classes,some two, others three and Sothero even hassix. Furthermore, languages use a limitedsubset from 757 phonemes (observed in a totalof 317 languages) very differently. They do sowith a varying number of consonants andvowels from as low as 11 in the case of thePolynesian Mura [and South American Piraha]to 148 in the African !xu or !Kung. Mostaverage between 20 and 35. This is notexplained by Chomskyan theory. It appears

that ’Universal Grammar’ is not a scientificfact but a program which for theoreticalreasons assumes that language has a univer-sal core. It is an assumption which Chomskyanshave constantly failed to establish.” – MarioVaneechoutte and John R. Skoyles, Thememetic origin of language: modern humansas musical primates.

What Chomsky is doing (by establishing aset of questionable premises) is to propagatethat symbolic thought, which is the base of“universal grammar”, is hardwired in ourbrains as a result of evolution. This is notonly unproven but it is also degrading towardpeople like the Piraha and reveals either aracist or a colonialist attitude against thosewhose language features a lack of recursion,since the theory proposed by Chomsky,Hauser and Fitch is that recursion is a crucialand uniquely human language property.From a Chomskyan belief system thePiraha people would either be geneticallyinferior – less than human or victims to adegenerated society that has forgotten whatit means to be human – since The Pirahahave no subordinate and relative clausesin their language. Each sentence standsalone and refers to a single event. Insteadof “If it rains, I will not go”, they say:“Raining I go not.”

“I tried to transcribe every-thing I heard,” says ProfessorEverett, now a fluent Pirahãspeaker. “I tried desperatelyto find structures I thoughtevery language had but Icouldn’t find them. I wassure it was my inexperiencein not being able to see them,but actually it was thatthey just weren’t there.”…” – Elizabeth Davies, Un-locking the secret sounds oflanguage: Life without timeor numbers To a person that has spenthis/her whole life communi-cating via abstract symbolsthis kind of language wouldof course be baffling. Theirlanguage can be whistled aswell as spoken, sung, or evenhummed while eating becauseits a complex tonal language.It also has to be understoodon an intuitive level. In fact,they don’t believe that for-eigners can understand them

even after they have learned to speak theirlanguage. “Though Chomsky reiterated the argument[Poverty Of Stimulus] in a variety of differentmanners, one common structure to the argumentcan be summed up as follows:

1. There are patterns in all naturallanguages (i.e. human languages) thatcannot be learned by children usingpositive evidence alone. Positiveevidence is the set of grammaticalsentences the language learner hasaccess to, that is, by observing thespeech of others. Negative evidence, onthe other hand, is the evidence avail-able to the language learner about whatis not grammatical. For instance, whena parent corrects a child’s speech, thechild acquires negative evidence.2. Children are only ever presented withpositive evidence for these particularpatterns, for example. They only hearothers speaking using sentences that are“right”, not those that are “wrong”.3. Children do learn the correct gram-mars for their native languages.Conclusion. Therefore, human beingsmust have some form of innate linguisticcapacity which provides additionalknowledge to language learners.”

A language beyondsymbolic thought

by ThomasToivonen


The premise that leads to this conclusion iscriticized by those who argue that the brain’smechanisms of statistical pattern recognitioncould solve many of the imagined difficultiesof learning a language using positive evidencealone. It is also questioned that children actuallylearn a language only by positive evidence.There is also a huge difference between an adultperson’s learning ability compared to a child’s.My seven year old nephew has no problem withusing the computer to surf on the internet onhis own while my 58 year old mother found itvery difficult to understand how to use acomputer. It is a complicated task, especiallyfor an inexperienced child, to learn how to usea computer, by positive evidence alone. Does this mean that Cro-Magnon had aninnate knowledge for computers over 40,000years before any existing computer and theinternet? From an evolutionary point, howcould this be possible? Or was it perhaps God’sdivine plan that humans someday would spendtheir lives in front of a computer? “ThereforeGod created Adam and Eve to become skilledsurfers of the net, and he saw that it was good.”Or is it perhaps, so that Homo Sapiens Sapi-ens has an innate ability to learn, and that thisability to learn is enhanced during a criticalperiod, with heightened sensitivity to certainenvironmental stimuli. And is it possiblethat if we aren’t receiving stimuli, that isnecessary for learningcertain things, duringthis ”critical period”,it can be difficult andsometimes even im-possible, to learn thesethings later in life. The theory of uni-versal grammar can’tbe falsified, making itas invalid as Intelli-gent Design or itsReductio ad absur-dum; The FlyingSpaghetti Monster,from a scientific view.Bobby Henderson(The highest priestof The Holy Churchof The SpaghettiMonster) and ThePastafarian argumentthat ”global warming,earthquakes, hurri-canes, and othernatural disasters area direct effect of theshrinking numbers ofpirates since the1800’s” is a ludicrousexample of a theory that can’t be falsified.“If the Intelligent Design theory is not based onfaith, but instead another scientific theory, as isclaimed, then you must also allow our theory[The Flying Spaghetti Monster] to be taught,

as it is also based on science, not on faith.”–Bobby Henderson wrote in a open letter toKansas School Board. Some interesting facts about the Piraha people: The lack of a collective memory more thantwo generations back because they are onlyconcerned with matters that fall within theirdirect personal experience, thus making theadvice of countless self-help gurus to “live inthe present”, “not to worry about the future”and “not to live in the past” unnecessaryamong these people since it islived as some-thing as obvious as eating and sleeping. Theconcept of living in the present may seemobvious to us too, who are living in the con-finements of civilization, but is more or lessimpossible for us to follow more than a coupleof short moments, many times as a result ofvigorous spiritual practices. The few who have(supposedly) been able to escape the “suffer-ing” of not being able to live in the present areseen as “enlightened”. “Joshu asked Nansen: `What is the path?’Nansen said: ̀ Everyday life is the path.’ Joshuasked: ̀ Can it be studied?’ Nansen said: ̀ If youtry to study, you will be far away from it.’ Joshuasked: `If I do not study, how can I know it isthe path?’ Nansen said: `The path does notbelong to the perception world, neither does itbelong to the nonperception world. Cognitionis a delusion and noncognition is senseless.

If you want to reach the true path beyonddoubt, place yourself in the same freedom assky. You name it neither good nor not-good.’At these words Joshu was enlightened.”

– Zen Story

According to Piraha people, talking shouldconcern only knowledge based on one’spersonal, immediate experience. No Piraharefers to abstract concepts or to distant placesand times. Because of this they became veryagitated and didn’t want to continue with areading lesson, held by the linguist DanielEverett, when their word for ”sky” was spokenaloud and in unison after months of hard work.At first they laughed at the fact that the wordsounded as sky, but when Everett explained thatit actually was the word for “sky” they asked tostop the lessons. Their reason for attending theclass in the first place was to hang out with eachother and that they were served popcorn. The idea expressed by David Abram in The SpellOf The Sensuous: “that you read these printedwords as tribal hunters once read the tracks of deer,moose, and bear printed in the soil of the forestfloor” is simply not true. The tracks of the animalwere not read by a tribal hunter because the trackof an animal is not a symbol for the animal, norwas it made by the animal to form, for example, asymbol for the word sky. It is what it is, a trackfrom an animal, and is experienced that way.Not only by collecting knowledge from the trackby vision but the whole spectrum of the hunter’sawareness. Can the meaning of a word, writtenon a piece of paper, be smelled? Can it be touchedor tasted? The sky is up there and not on a pieceof paper with scribbles for the Piraha people,

because their word “sky”is not a mediation of expe-riencing the sky for them,it is a direct expression forexperiencing the sky. The Pirahas can’t countor even understand theconcept of numerals; theyuse only approximatemeasures. They also don’tseem to like to be told thatthere is only one way tosee things. But the Pirahapeople don’t seem to bethe only people that havehad problems counting. “…the PIE [Proto-Indo-European] word for“nine” seems to derivefrom the word for “new”;they suggest that “nine”may originally have beencalled “the new number”,implying that having aname for such a bignumber ranked for PIEspeakers as a whizzy tech-nological breakthrough.(In English, the pronun-ciation of these two words

has developed rather differently, but notice thatin German neun and neu are closer, and inFrench neuf has both meanings.” – GeoffreySampson, What was the earliest ancestor ofEnglish like? (continued on page 63)


If you are here because you feel sorry for me, you are wastingyour time, but if you are here because your life and destiny

are linked with mine, then we will make a difference...- Elizabeth Penashue, an Innu elder

A number of years back, I was living in Denver, Coloradoand had gotten involved with a local group of political activists whowere organizing in support of traditional Dine (Navajo) elders downin the four corners region of Arizona. The Elders were (and stillare) resisting being relocated off their ancestral lands to make wayfor a huge coal strip-mine that’s been headed their way for well overa decade. The coal mine’s purpose is to supply energy for the powerplants which provide electricity to the western U.S. power grid. (Formore information on this issue see Black Mesa Indigenous Support’swebsite at: http://www.blackmesais.org/) Our group was called the Traditional Support Caravan (For moreinformation, or to get involved, see: www.traditionalsupportcaravan.org) and was based out of Boulder. Our purpose was to usethe week of Thanksgiving break to take supplies to the elders whowere the last hold-outs on the land there. This was done at the requestof the elders themselves. We were very clear that our intention wassupport — we were not going down there to receive, but rather togive. We spent the better part of four months organizing, fundraising,and collecting food. We commissioned an 18 wheeler to haul the

primary bulk of the supplies and brought togetherover twenty of our own vehicles (pickup trucks &SUV’s mostly) to haul the rest of the stuff down tothe reservation. We drove for a little over twelvehours to get there, and camped out along the way.Once we arrived, we proceeded to spend the nextweek delivering supplies to the various householdsand volunteering to help out wherever we could. During the time we were there, the group I waswith had the honor of staying with an 80 year oldwidowed Dine woman named Ida Clinton. She washalf deaf, and blind in one eye. She lived in a smallcabin on the land where she was born, and she livedmostly by gardening and herding sheep. She stillcared for one of her daughters (now over 50 yearsold herself) who was born developmentally dis-abled. Her extended relatives would come andvisit her often, and she would go and visit them(it seemed as though everyone who lived on thereservation was related to Ida — her “clan sisters”and “brothers”, as she called them). Ida had neversigned a piece of paper in her life, and was adamantthat she never would. Ida had never had electricity,and saw no particular good use in it. During our stay with Ida, she insisted on cookingfor us, even though we had brought our own food.Over the week, I saw the very same flour and oilthat we had given her, being used to make thefry-bread that she served us. She told us stories — rich & playful stories fromher own experiences — stories that spoke to hercourage and resourcefulness in the face of adversity,and showed the deep connection she had to the land,the spirits and wild creatures who lived there, aswell as to her people. We fixed a gate on her horse stable, shoveled somesheep-shit out of the pens, and chopped firewood. We felt really good about ourselves and what wehad done to help “this poor Navajo woman”. After driving the 12+ hours back to Denver, wefound ourselves speeding into the suburbs just

after dusk, while endless rows of individual apartments and sprawlingnuclear-family houses awaited us. Since it was now post-thanks-giving, many of the suburban houses had their Christmas lights out.I remember thinking how much I hated those Christmas lights,knowing that the power to light them came from the coal mine thatwas destroying Ida’s home.

I remember thinking how Ida had never used electricity a day in herlife, and how she could see no particular good use in it. Then I walked into my suburban house and flicked on the light switch. And it occurred to me; how many times do I need to flick that switchbefore I’ve fed more of my life-energy (in the form of money) to thatcoal mine than I just fed to Ida (in the form of flour and oil and shoveledsheep-shit)? And then a second thought occurred to me; was Ida a poor woman forher lack of money or was I a poor man for my dependence on it? The lifeI had seen Ida living was intimately connected. Her daily relationshipsincluded contact with the necessities of her own subsistence, with herextended clan family, with the land, and with the spirits and wild creatureswho inhabited that land. Ida’s life had given her a resourcefulness, playful-ness, and aliveness-of-spirit that I had rarely encountered in people halfher age. The suburbs waiting for my return appeared stifling and lonelyby contrast to her life. No clan-family awaited me. The land was pavedover. The spirits mostly mute. My work paid me in little pieces of paper.I knew my life included nothing that would have been important to Ida.

AnotherThanksgiving

Storyby by Red Wolf Returns


And then a final thought occurred to me, what relationships in lifeactually have the power to stop that damned coal mine? The answer I’ve come up with so far is — all of them. Not one lessthan all of them. The reason the coal mine exists in the first place is because it is fedby the life-energy of those whose life-way depends upon it. That isour life-way—yours and mine—not Ida’s. No matter how loudly weprotest the mine or proclaim oursolidarity with Ida, our wordsare empty if we continue to liveas we do. This is not becausewe are insincere, but ratherbecause we don’t truly knowourselves and our relationshipto the circle of life. And this is not just about coaland mining—our relations arejust as devastated on landswhere the native inhabitantswere conquered to make wayfor the grain farms that feed usand the cotton farms that clotheus. The same obviously goesfor the lands where the petro-leum comes from to feed, clotheand move us. Every aspect ofour Euro-American way of lifefeeds energy into the problem,and we expect “political activism” to fix it? We are able to be in solidarity with native people (and here I meanall native people—the wolves, the trees, everyone) only when weauthentically re-connect with what it means to be “native” ourselves.

Anything less is a token sham designed to give us an identity thatallows us to feel good about our colonial ways and continued rape ofMother Earth. (“Sure I pay the electric bill which funds that coal mine,but I took the elders some flour and sugar. See, I’m one of the “goodguys”. The “bad guys” are those people over there…”) From my perspective, the world doesn’t need any more whitecrusaders, no matter how right (or “left”) they might be. The world

needs more people who know who theyare the way Ida knew who she was. I can’t speak for Ida, but I can say thatIda’s relationships told me who she was. “All our relations” is not a new-ageslogan. It’s a way of life. What do “all our relations” say about us?

When we Indians kill [for] meat, we eat itall up. When we dig roots, we make littleholes. When we build houses, we make littleholes. When we burn grass for grasshop-pers, we don’t ruin things. We shake downacorns and pine nuts. We don’t chop downthe trees. We only use dead wood. But thewhite people plow up the ground, pull downthe trees, kill everything… [they] pay noattention. ...How can the spirit of the earthlike the [white man’s ways]? ...everywherethe white man has touched it, it is sore.

—Wintu Woman, 19th Century

“You say: Why do not the Indians till the ground and live as we do?May we not ask why do the white people not hunt and live as we do?”

– Corn Tassel, Cherokee, 1785.

Proto-Indo-European speakers existedapproximately 6,000 years ago. 4,000 yearsafter the birth of agriculture and, at least, 34,000years after the birth of symbolic culture. If wehave an innateness for symbolic thought as aresult of evolution, as the logical conclusionmust be, based on the premise that we have aninnateness for a grammar so complicated it can’tbe learned by children using positive evidencealone, then why did it take 34,000 years to count tothe number nine? The Australian Aborigininalshad only counted to three in the 50,000 yearsbefore the appearance of white people. Andthe Piraha people can’t (or don’t want to) evenunderstand the concept of one. According tothe observations by the psycho-linguist PeterGordon, their counting skills ”were similar tothose in pre-linguistic infants”. This differentiation of understanding theconcept of numbers could not be a result ofevolution since the human brain has notevolved since the emergence of Homo SapiensSapiens. And both Aboriginals and Pirahashave the same intelligence as Europeanswhich is proven by the fact that neither thecontemporary Aboriginal people or Pirahachildren have any problems with learninghow to count.

“Number is the most momentous idea in thehistory of human nature. Numbering or counting(and measurement, the process of assigningnumbers to represent qualities) graduallyconsolidated plurality into quantification, andthereby produced the homogenous and abstractcharacter of number, which made mathematicspossible. From its inception in elementary formsof counting (beginning with a binary division andproceeding to the use of fingers and toes as bases)to the Greek idealization of number, an increas-ingly abstract type of thinking developed,paralleling the maturation of the time concept.”– John Zerzan, Number: Its Origin and Evolution Just as the Pirahas have no concept ofnumber, they don’t have a concept of time.My own experience is that without clocks Idon’t have a concept of time either. During avacation in Greece some years ago, I managedto evade any clocks for three days. Duringthose days I seemed to become more in touchwith myself and my surrounding in a way thatis difficult to describe. I think that we all haveexperienced moments of timelessness. Imaginegoing through your whole life in a state likethat. It would truly be comparable with whatthe Buddhists refer to as Nirvana. Now imaginethat this was once a natural state of being forus humans.

The Pirahas have no creation mythology;according to them everything has always been asit is. This is because the way they perceive the world.For them, the only thing that is real is what theycan experience, and they never tell any fictionalstories. A canoe, for example, that goes around ariver bend is almost seen as traveling into anotherdimension. But they believe in spirits, which theyoften encounter in the forest. It’s also the spiritsthat decide when it’s time to change one’s name bytaking over the person. The Piraha believe in a “spiritrealm” that they claim to have seen themselves,probably under the influence of hallucinogens. The fact that they have no art (and not evenwords for colors) reminds me of something thatJames Shreeve wrote, in his Neanderthal Enigma:“… the absence of artistic expression does notpreclude the apprehension of what is artful aboutthe world… perhaps they had no need to distilllife into representations, because its essenceswere already revealed to their senses.” In other words, they are a people with a verylimited (if at all) symbolic culture and may be abeacon of light and a voice of reason in analienated, insane world that is spinning fasterand faster everyday completely out of control.What they can point us to, and what we so badlyneed in these dark ages, is a language beyondsymbolic thought.

A language beyond symbolic thought(continued from page 61)


When I began thinking about outlaws andoutlaw history I realized that if outlaw justmeans one who breaks the law, then I couldwrite about the lives of nearly every citizen.So I define outlaw as one who not only breaksthe law, but who survives by breaking the lawor essentially lives outside of it. And the moreI delve into Canada’s past, the more outlaws Idiscover, and many of them are worthy of ourattention. As an introduction to Canadianoutlaw history, here is the story of a group ofNewfoundland rebels who survived withoutmasters for half a century. The story of the Society of Masterless Men,which included women and children, began inthe 18th-century settlement of Ferryland, inNewfoundland. In order to colonize New-foundland, The British Empire created plan-tations. These were settlements of primarilyIrish indentured servants, many of them veryyoung -thus their name- the Irish Youngsters,abducted from Ireland either by force or guileand brought to the South Shore of Newfound-land where they were literally sold to fishingmasters. Their price: $50 a head. In 1700’sNewfoundland, the British Navy wielded itsauthority over its seamen with zero compassionand nothing but discipline enforced by abuseand violence. Because there wasn’t a localpolice force, they also helped reinforce theauthority of the local fishing masters. Thesemasters were essentially the Lords and Ladiesof the villages, living in luxury and securitywhile surrounded by dozens, even hundreds,of indentured servants who fished and laboredin the camps processing the catch. These villageplantations were primarily set up by consortiumsand cabals of wealthy merchants in England.British frigates were stationed in the harborsand marines patrolled the town. The workersin these fishing villages were barely a step upfrom slaves. Corporal punishment was routinelyused and everyday life was harsh and brutal.

In the small settlement of Ferryland, for instance,there were a gallows and three whipping posts,in separate regions of the town. When a manwas sentenced to be flogged for stealing ajug of rum or refusing to work for one of thefishing masters, he was taken to all three postsand whipped so the whole town would havean opportunity to witness the punishment asa warning. The settlement of Ferryland was founded bySir George Calvert around 1620, and was alsopartly intended as a “refuge for …Catholics.”I’m not sure if this meant strictly for theCatholic servants or if there were any “free”Catholics as well. This was a time of penal lawin Britain and at least some Irish Catholicsvoluntarily came to the New World to escapepersecution. Unfortunately the laws in New-foundland were the same as in the Old World.The orders given to the governor from 1729to 1776 were: You are to permit a liberty ofconscience to all, except Papists, so they becontented with a quiet and peaceable enjoymentof the same, not giving offense or scandal tothe government. This order wasn’t always strictly followedbut around the mid 1700’s there was a crack-down on Catholicism. In 1743 the governorof the time, Smith, wrote to the magistrate inFerryland, John Benger, instructing him to bemindful of the “Irish papists” in the area.William Keen, the chief magistrate of St. John’s,was killed by a group of Irishmen in 1752.Following this penal laws were strictly enforcedfor the next thirty or forty years. Court documentsfrom the Renews area (the nearest settlement)show there was growing fear among theauthorities of an insurrection. In fact about fiftyyears earlier the French war ship Profoundattacked Renews where there were seven‘residents’ and 120 servant fishermen, manyof whom were Irish. These servant-slaves wererecorded as not caring who owned the place,

that is they didn’t jump up to protecttheir masters from the attack. Life wasn’t much better for those in theNavy. Food rations were slim and floggingwas common. For instance keelhauling –dragging a seaman on ropes under the keelof a ship, thereby shredding his flesh onthe sharp edged barnacles – was still alegal punishment even though it frequentlyresulted in death. Some like to refer to the Society ofMasterless Men as lore or a tradition-ally told story, one for which there islittle documentary evidence. But theredoes seem to be a fair amount of factsthat are known about the MasterlessMen. And, as a matter of context, weknow a lot about the injustice of theBritish Empire and of the cruelty ofmany of its Eichmanns and enforcers.We know that indentured servantswere brought to Newfoundland andtreated with brutality as were the sea-men in the Royal Navy. We also know

that one Irish-born Peter Kerrivan was amongthose young indentured servants and abusedseamen. Some say he was a reluctant seaman,having been pressed into service. Some time in 1750, while Kerrivan’s shipwas docked in Ferryland, he escaped (histo-rians usually choose “deserted”). Together withtwo or three escaped indentured fishermen, hehelped establish a lookout and base in theButter Pot Barrens, a wild area of the AvalonPeninsula, for the outlaws to hide. Hunted by the authorities, the Masterless Mensoon learned a way of life based on subsistenceand sharing. They came into contact withNewfoundland’s aboriginal peoples, theMi’qmaq and the Beothuk, who taught the rebelssurvival skills. They learned how to hunt for foodbased on the caribou herd on the peninsula. At the time, one could be hanged forrunning away, but nevertheless many youngmen escaped from the plantations and tookup lives as outlaws. In 1774 for instance, apetition written by Bonavista merchants,justices of the peace and others, and sent toGovernor Shuldham complained of a numberof “masterless” Irishmen who had gone tolive in a secluded cove and “were therebuilding fishing rooms.” But Kerrivan’sband of young companions were among theluckiest and best organized. Naturally, word of the well-organized freemen spread and fresh runaways from coastalsettlements came to join them. Eventuallytheir numbers swelled to between 20 and 50men. There were also women, but theirnumbers are unknown. The literature I foundmention the women simply as “wives”,although I imagine them as strong, rebelliouswomen sickened by the misery and crueltythat surrounded them who also yearned for afreer and better way of life and who joinedtheir outlaw husbands voluntarily.

The Society ofMasterless Men

Compiled and written by Sea Weed

The Society ofMasterless Men


After a while the group of comrades begantrading caribou meat and hides with allies inthe remote villages, receiving supplies such asflour, tea and of course bullets. They alsoorganized stealthy raids against the fisheryplantations. By this time the British authorities,without a police or militia of their own, werebeginning to fear that this group of anarchicrebels would inspire too many others to deser-tion, and ordered the navy to track the freedom-loving band down and make examples of them. However some years passed before the firstexpedition against the Masterless Men wasorganized and by then the rebels had becomeskilled wilderness inhabitants. Anticipatingthe attack or somehow being forewarned,Kerrivan and his comrades cut a series of blindtrails which confounded their pursuers. Theparty of marines sent to capture them oftenfound themselves lost and dumbly led intobogs and impenetrable thick bush. Eventuallythe navy did manage to close in on the rebels’camp near their lookout, but they found thelog cabins deserted, “ with every rag and chattelremoved”. Taking advantage of their pursuers’confusion, Kerrivan and his friends had movedoff towards the north and west. The navy setfire to their little village but had to return totheir base without any prisoners. TheMasterless group rebuilt their cabins andthe navy burned them down again. Over timethe navy burned down their cabins three timesand each time they were rebuilt.

Two, possibly four, of the rebels werecaptured and hanged, but the state never didsucceed in destroying the Society. In fact thecaptured young runaways had joined the bandonly a few weeks earlier and had been takenby surprise away from the main body of therebels. They were hanged with great dispatchfrom the yard-arm of the English frigate inFerryland. No other Masterless Men were evercaptured after this incident presumably becausethis only made the outlaws more cautious.Some of the tracks that had been carved partlyto support their wilderness ways and partly assubterfuge became Newfoundland’s firstinland roads. In fact their road system hadeventually connected most of the smallsettlements of the Avalon Peninsula. For more than a generation the MasterlessMen roamed free over the barrens! Overtime, perhaps as military rule began to relaxor for reasons unknown to this author, theirranks began to dwindle. In 1789, 39 yearsafter escaping, four men gave themselves upon condition that their only punishmentwould be deportation to Ireland, which wasagreed upon. Many of the other rebelssettled in remote parts of Newfoundland’scoast and survived as independent fisher-men. Kerrivan, who was never captured, issaid to have had a partner, four sons andseveral daughters and is believed to haveremained on the barrens well into old age,never returning to civilization.

The children of the Masterless Men gradu-ally drifted out to the coast and settled downin small coves never visited by the navy.They married the children of other outlawswho had settled there generations earlierand together they raised families. The story of The Society of MasterlessMen is exceptionally inspiring because theysucceeded. A group of people voluntarilyjoined together in common cause and brokefree from their masters, most never to becaptured or to return to their work prisons. There is a lot of land out there. It isn’tnearly as overflowing with abundant wildlife as at one time, nor are there as manyskilled aboriginal people waiting to teach usessential skills. But a group of people witha similar world view could perhaps leave thebrutal, empty world of the civilized behindand live their lives according to principlesof voluntary association and mutual aid,supported by subsistence ways.

Sources:Alexina Reid from The Newfoundland andLabrador archives

Newfoundland by Harold Horwood

SECRET MASSES AT MIDNIGHT:The Legend of the Grotto in Renews, Newfoundlandby Tammy Lawlor

The Canadian Encyclopedia, Hurtig Publishers

The unshackled society by Paul Butler,Originally published in Saltscapes Magazine


July 12, Holiday, FL:When Nature Calls, Run!

Department of Corrections deputiesspent the day looking for James Fordwho escaped while on a work detail.He had permission to step into theforest nearby to relieve himself thenpromptly disappeared. He had alreadyserved 14 years in jail and had onlysix more months to go. A dozen ormore cops with high-powered riflescombed the area in search of themissing man, but all they found wasa pile of his clothes.

August 21, Blacksburg, VA:Two Pigs Killed in Escape

William Charles Morva, 24, escapedcustody in a local hospital - wherehe was taken for a sprained wristand ankle - after overpowering andwounding a sheriff’s deputy. He thentook the deputy’s gun and then killeda hospital security guard. He fled thehospital only to be discovered a shorttime later by Sheriff’s deputy, Cpl.Eric Sutphin. Morva killed him too.He was apprehended 150 yards fromwhere he killed Sutphin.

haven’thaven’twewe

AllAllhadhad

enough?!enough?!Prisoner Escapes and Uprisings

September 19, Yala,Thailand:Around 100 Yala Provincial Prisoninmates rioted after an alleged assaulton an inmate by three guards. Officeswere set alight and a canteen andcells destroyed in the two-hour riotwhich started after guards badly beatan inmate during a cell search. Police and soldiers were called tothe prison to quell the uprising of atleast 100 inmates in the 600-bedprison. Provincial governor BunyasitSuwanarat promised to transferthree guards accused of badly beat-ing the inmate. The rioters burntdown an office of police guards and“engaged in body conflicts withwarders.” Bunyasit announced: “Thesituation is now under control andprisoners have begun cleaning upand putting things in order.” The governor insisted the protesthad nothing to do with the insur-gency (see Meltdown, page 72) insouthern Thailand and was not acopycat episode of the riot at ayouth detention center in Nakhon SiThammarat the previous weekwhere 200 prisoners raged againstalleged abusive, inhumane treat-ment, and rigid prison rules.

October 2, Shropshire, UK:Youth Riot by the Dozens

Four prison officers were injured ina riot involving more than 30 inmatesat a young offenders’ institution.One wing at Stoke Heath Prison wasbadly damaged during the nine-hourconfrontation which began wheninmates on ‘A’ wing refused to returnto their cells. In-house staff withdrewand, after mediation failed, membersof the national control and restraintteam went in with riot gear. One ofthe officers suffered a broken nosein the disturbance at the center, butnone of the youth were injured. The chair of Stoke Heath’s inde-pendent monitoring board, JackieWhittle, said it was the first incidentof its kind for many years. Sheadded: “Everything is smashed inthe communal area and it’s floodedas well. I think it started with a fightand became what we’d call con-certed indiscipline.” The officerswere attacked by about 33 boys.

November 5, Vienna, Austria:Signed, Sealed, Delivered...

A Bosnian convict escaped from anAustrian prison by wrapping him-self in a large parcel and postedhimself to freedom. Authoritiesidentify the escaped prisoner asMuradif Hasanbegovic, 36, detainedin the Karlau prison, near Graz inAustria. Reports said Hasanbegovicwas working in the prison’s workshopwhere he helped package and postparts for lampposts. It was believedthat some convicts helped him packhimself in a parcel then loaded himinto a truck. Once outside theprison, the man broke out of theparcel and jumped off the back ofthe truck and fled. The driver of the truck told the police,“I noticed the tarpaulin had a holein it just as the prison called me andasked ‘Have you noticed anythingfunny? We are kind of missing aprisoner’.” Prison warden FranzHochstrasser adds, “This sort ofthing was not supposed to happen.”

November 22, Bahamas:Women, Free Yourselves!

Ten months after a violent prisonbreak, resulting in the death of oneinmate and a prison guard, a womanescaped from Her Majesty’s Prison.There are forty female inmates whoreceive breakfast outside each day.On this one morning, the gate to acourtyard was left unlocked. Theobservant inmate ran out, hurdleda low prison wall and escaped.Superintendent of Prisons, Dr.Rahming, said poor security hadnothing to do with this latest escape,rather it was an act of poor judgmenton the part of prison officers to leavethe gate unlocked. They were slackbecause “female prisoners do notusually escape officers”.

GREEN ANARCHY #24 Page 66GREEN ANARCHY #24 Page 66


We have done this for generations. Therefore, it is the Truth.How can so many generations be wrong? –Nietzsche

December 3, Adrian, Michigan:Riot Grrls Get Down

Two teenage girls plotted a prisonriot, but were stopped early in theirplan. Sharde Thomas and EquallaDavis said they were angry whenthey and four other girls made plansto attack residents from other housingunits in order to instigate a generalriot. They did not say what had madethem angry. Their plan was disruptedwhen staff called other cottages atthe facility and kept residents insideafter one girl was assaulted.Lenawee County Prosecutor IrvingShaw said it was the first report hehas seen of an organized effort byAdrian Training School residents tocreate a widespread disturbance.There is evidence of “a fair amountof planning to create a disturbance,”he said. Surveillance cameras atthe state facility were reported tohave documented a conspiracyamong the six girls and MichiganState Police reported a number ofweapons were prepared, includinga handmade knife and a club-likeweapon.

December 6, Detroit, MI:Two For the Road

Pigs are looking for 23-year-oldDeandre DeShon-Russell Riley whotook an officer’s gun and stole anambulance to avoid going to jail.Ri ley complained of being i l lshortly after his initial arrest andwas taken to the hospital. While be-ing handcuffed to his bed, he beganstruggling with the two cops and tookone of their department-issuedGlock handguns. Riley then forceda hospital clerk to walk him to thefront door, where he let her go beforehopping into a private ambulancethat contained three people. As hedrove off, a county deputy fired asingle shot at the vehicle but it didnot stop the escapee. He abandonedthe ambulance a short time laterand ran off. The three occupantsin the ambulance were unharmedin their unexpected adventure. Hewas later recaptured. Four days later, a 44-year oldwoman escaped from custody in thesame hospital after her cuffs wereremoved to use the bathroom. Herhusband snitched her out later onand she was recaptured.

December 21, Ashkhabad,Turkmenistan: State Uses Brutal

Force Against Former Pols Human rights activists are claimingthat 23 prisoners were executed atOvadan-Depe (“Picturesque Hill”).Ovadan-Depe inmates are cut off fromthe rest of the world, no newspapersare permitted, much less TV and radio.Wardens and sentries are not permit-ted to talk to inmates. The cells lackany heating or air conditioning. Theyare “unbelievably cold in winter andscorching and stuffy in summer”.There are also the so called “hump-back” cells for troublemakers.Ceilings in these special cells areonly 120 cm high, so an inmate can-not even straighten his or her back. President Saparmurat Niyazov issaid to have designed the prisonhimself as a place to lock up hispolitical enemies. He brought newlyappointed state officials here for avisit so that they might see whatdefiance would earn them. According to an anonymous letterpublished at www.tmhelsinki.org, bya military officer who was part of thebrutal attack, riots began on December21 when the inmates heard – fromconstruction workers enlarging theprison – that President Niyazov haddied. Inmates passed it on to others,and soon all of the prison was in utterturmoil with screams of “Damn you,Saparmurat! Rot in Hell!” and “Freeus!” accompanying the sound ofmetal banging on bars. Dogs were set against prisoners,but they started shouting more loudly,the ruckus so intense that somedogs reportedly drew in their tails,hunkering down instead of attacking.Reinforcements from Ashkhabadwere called to bring in two helicop-ters with military men in masks andmachine guns. “Twenty-three werekilled. We were told to forget whatwe had seen and never mention it,”said the author of the letter.

December 29, Mozambique:At least four people were seriouslyinjured when guards opened fire onrioting inmates at Maputo CentralPrison. According to reports, the dis-turbances broke out after the prisonauthorities canceled some of theinmates’ visiting rights, apparently

because the prison director wishedto make a tour of the jail. Peopleliving in the vicinity said that shootingin the prison lasted for about halfan hour.

Every Month, Worldwide:Identity as Control Strategy:

Inside Out and Outside InGA has not typically reported onprison riots attributed to racial orethnic tensions. However, as we sortthrough the complex issues of statestrategy, to which identity is crucial ,cross cultural conflicts and enforce-ment of societies norms, and thebuildup of tensions in every area ofmodern life, we can’t leave out theexplosive situation inside prisonswhen grappling with how to confrontsimilar tensions outside. A riot at a maximum-security prisonin western El Salvador left at least 20inmates dead in two separate incidents.The riot began as inmates preparedto enter their cells, when a jailed gangmember grabbed a guard he had beenarguing with. Soon rival gang mem-bers began fighting each other andtearing down the prison’s flimsyinterior walls to get at other’s cellblocks. Guards fled as hundreds ofinmates battled each other, mostlywith makeshift weapons, shovelsand pieces of broken wall. Central American jails have longstruggled with overcrowding anddeadly riots that are often sparkedby fights between gangs. Overcrowd-ing is fueled in part by a regionalgang crackdown that has filled pris-ons with rival groups. In Guatemala, agang was blamed for initiating riotsthat left 35 inmates dead in 2005. InEl Salvador, 31 inmates were killedin 2004 during a battle between gangand non-gang prisoners. And a floodof violence in Honduran prisonskilled more than 180 prisoners in2004 and 2005. Just last week, the California statecorrectional facility in Chino was un-der lockdown again, this time to stopone of the worst ‘race riots’ in the statein years. A California CorrectionsDepartment spokesperson saidguards used everything from tear gasto foam projectiles to quell the dis-turbance, a process which took hours.Over 1000 Black and Latino inmates

joined the fray which ended withover 50 inmates injured, 27of themhospitalized. The prison serves as a receptioncenter for newly convicted felonswho are later transferred to otherlockups, including private facilities inother states as overcrowding is astate-wide phenomenon. No cause forthis latest riot has been determined,though reports say it broke out about9:30am as a fight between twoinmates in an intake reception area,quickly spreading to four otherbarracks, each of which holds about200 inmates. It continued as guardsbegan firing pepper spray and teargas into the military-style buildings.They also fired hard foam bullets andused batons. Paralleling the situation in some ofCalifornia’s larger cities, racial tensionshave run high in California state pris-ons for years, where overcrowding,forced segregation, and competitioncombine to create the conditions guar-anteed to ignite tempers. The States’solution remains the same, moreprison space for more prisoners. Theproposal for California: an additional16,238 beds in state facilities, 45,000in local jails, and 10,000 medical andmental health beds.

January 8, London, UK:A Different Sort ofPrisoner Support

Joe Farnan, 27, serving a life termfor vehicle theft, was taken to hospitalafter apparently feigning illness atWormwood Scrubs prison in westLondon. He was taken by ambulanceto the nearby Hammersmith Hospitalwhere two men, one armed with agun, confronted his guards as thevan arrived. The men, wearingbalaclavas, forced prison officers totake off Farnan’s handcuffs and thendrove him away in a silver Volvo.


Most of the things I know,

to be distinguished from the things I think,believe, accept, or contemplate, I have learnedfrom non-humans. Trees, storms, herbs, rocks,rivers, and critters have taught me an inesti-mable amount about themselves, the world Iinhabit, myself, and the ways that we all canand do interact. My deep-seated respect forthese “teachers”, and for the significant humansI have learned from, is by personal necessitybalanced by my understanding of the processof teaching and learning honestly and openlywithout the corruption of authority. Teachingand learning in this sense occur simulta-neously, with all beings involved sharingknowledge and experience to broaden theirown connection to the world. Lest I seem to be merely redefining a hierar-chical student/teacher relationship in cloudedlanguage, I should clarify that my perceptionof knowledge, experience, and wisdom areirrevocably intertwined, relying on mutualgrowth and understanding rather than adownwards transmission of “facts”. When Ilearned from an old box turtle the meaningof silence and hiding in plain sight or fromNew Mexico Vervain the true feelings ofpassion that occur in taking the life of another,there was not so much a lesson as a connection.When I speak of teaching/learning, or knowing,there is actually no distinction, no separationbetween the two beings and the experiencethey share. The question that arises fromthis experience is how to live constantly inthis exchange and interaction. In this fractured and alienated society,experiencing a true community and the oppor-tunity to teach, learn, and share are far tooinfrequent and awkward, accompanied byemotional and intellectual baggage thatinterrupts and confuses the experience.

Overcoming these obstacles can be a challenge,to say the least, even in circles sharing similarviewpoints about communication and ex-perience. This challenge is a major factor inthe rewilding process that many GA/AP folksare consciously undertaking and that countlessother folks are engaging in other ways. Thegreater challenge is attempting to extend thisto those outside of the cliques and communes– outreach, but not in the typical, organizationalsense – to those who are in search of meaningor looking for a way to define their personalstruggles with authority and civilization. I amsuggesting that there is a tactical as well ashonestly compassionate approach that existsin finding meaningful and effective ways ofcommunicating the struggle against civilizationto individuals we come across under circum-stances that lend themselves to sharingunderstanding and experience. For the past few summers I have spent aconsiderable amount of time working jobsthat involve living in educational wildernesssettings with teenagers who usually havepersonal conflicts regarding authority and ageneral attraction to the wilderness experience.The conversations that I had with these folks,who generally have no conscious strugglewith civilization, tend to fall very easily intoareas such as passionate critique, activestrategy and rewilding. Many times I havewitnessed an alienated and anti-social person(aren’t we all in this civilization?) come outof their shell and catch a spark from a well-placed question or experience and followthrough into a rant, personal struggle, or planfor action. The passion in these people is thecore of this particular tactical consideration.Lecturing someone about civilization’sproblems is an inherently flawed approach –no being wants to hear another authority

figure preaching about how (not) to live! Thepassion in the eyes of the oppressed fadesquickly before the excitement of any kind ofpreacher. Instead, we can teach and learn likeour wild brethren, allowing meaningfulquestions to be answered in few, simple,honest words and direct actions. It is crucialto remain centered on our own personalstruggle, to live up to our words of resistance.Experience is by far the most effective methodof direct teaching/learning, and sharing tacticsand strategies as part of a critique is essential.There are some obvious security concerns here,so by all means be careful, but also be honest. The inherent dishonesty that underlies allrelationships and interactions within the contextof civilization is a huge barrier to overcome.We have been carefully trained not to behonest with anyone, least of all ourselves.This is exactly why exposing one’s self,“getting naked”, so to speak, in front of othersis such an effective strategy. When we beginto break down the barriers within whereothers can see the results, we impart the couragenecessary for them to begin their own journeyof rewilding. This is a process that has manynames and can be found in many cultures,most explicitly in the oral folklore of tricksterfools such as coyote and raven. In the fieldof outdoor leadership it can be seen as anextension of the method of leading by example;instead of leading by upholding some moralcode, this open confrontation with the selfinspires others not to act exactly as you do,but rather to express their own passions.Pushing the boundaries of our conditioningis an important internal process that can begreatly facilitated by working in a smallgroup setting. This aspect of rewilding isessential for most other forms to take placein a meaningful way. What good is it to be

by Scavenger

Seeds on the Breeze


an expert fire crafter or blade maker, hunteror forager if we cannot even communicatewith ourselves honestly? Some desensitizedhumans may overlook our hypocrisy, but wildbeings will know who we are. Brave wordsdo not cover the scent of fear. However we encounter situations with thepotential for sharing knowledge, it is essentialto stay open to the tactical possibilities forbroadening the struggle against civilization.We are not a movement and we have no needfor indoctrinated “recruits”; we are part of awild and natural backlash of feral resistance.We are the dirt in the gears of a machine fartoo large and dangerous to confront directly– but rust spreads easily on shiny metal,creeping roots shatter the strongest cement,and dandelions can infiltrate the most mani-cured lawns. Although I would be the last to recommendany job or work to anyone, it is understandablethat some circumstances lead many of us tosell our time during parts of our lives. Seekingjobs that exist within wild settings I havefound deep personal affinity and deep potentialfor expanding communication with alienatedpeople who are not always sure why they findthemselves at odds with the society aroundthem. Upon reflection, it is easy to see whyinternal growth and deep healing is so possiblein youth that volunteer or are sent to spendtime in the woods with outdoor leaders toshow them the “ways of the woods”. Thechange in surroundings, from having nothingin sight but walls and plastic, metal andsheetrock to having forest and sky, mountainand creek become the surroundings, is inherentlyhealing. The artifice of our environmentreflects the space that we occupy mentally,physically and spiritually. Wild spaces connectand revitalize, as they are alive and open tocommunication. Look around you. Do yousee right angles, flat walls, light bulbs thatplace you nowhere on earth but firmly withinthe bowels of civilization or do you see theglint of a warm fire, towering trees or opendeserts that remind you that you are in a specificbioregion; do you see plastic and metalshaped by slaves and used by slaves or doyou see wild, living beings exchanging lifeand wisdom in an unending relationship?The psychological effects of existence withincivilization are horrifying. Not only do theyhold no life to reflect the lives of thosetrapped inside, they cut us off from each otherand from the rest of the world in a very literaland direct way. The physical aspects of rewilding are inmany ways essential to creating the founda-tion for an honest relationship with the humanand non-human beings we encounter in ourlives. Earth skills and primitive knowledgecreate a solid base that allows us to know, notjust think, but truly know that we don’t needcivilization. When I know that I can enter theforest or the desert and find food, make fire,

locate water and communicate with whoeverI find there, I have reduced the physical neces-sity in my life for the artifice of civilization.As mentioned before, the artifice that surroundsus reflects us and shapes our lives in veryliteral ways. To confront the mentality ofcivilization on an internal level howeverrequires more than just learning some basicskills. It requires much, much more. Elitemilitary forces often have some pretty solidskills in survival, even if they don’t reallyknow how to communicate with the wildspaces they encounter. Some of the mostexperienced and knowledgeable primitiveskills enthusiasts I have read or met are lockedinto ideological religious beliefs and addictivecivilized mentalities. Memorization andextensive learning can give the appearanceof having a deep connection to the earth, butthere is a difference between knowing thenames and medicinal uses of a thousand herbsand actually knowing even one of those plant-beings. Although the physical setting andsurroundings are very helpful in the processof rewilding they must not be mistaken forcompleting the rewilding process, if such iseven possible. Honest rewilding is not only about breakingold patterns and addictions but just as impor-tantly it is about fulfilling deeper needs.Rewilding is a path to learning self-sufficiency,living with meaning – finding joy and content-ment with each day, seeking adventure and realentertainment. Connectivity with self, landand others fulfills me. Full connectivity needsno one family or one landscape, thoughhonoring specific allies can certainly deepenthe mutual experience. Identifying and respond-ing to the deeper needs and urges that we feelwhen we allow them to manifest is an ex-cellent beginning for the rewilding process.Eventually the impulse and our responsebecome inseparable, and we reduce the levelsof mediation within ourselves until they areno longer hindering our experience. I find it important to constantly critique andquestion where these deeper urges and needsarise from. For if the needs arose from thecivilized mentality, from a lingering connectionto the mindsets and physical manifestations,then the chain is not fully broken. Needs thatexist within the mindset of civilization reflectthe connection to that mentality. Deeper needsthat do not reflect that connection are thus evermore difficult to locate and identify with. Yetthey exist, and when we really disconnect fromour training, we feel them calling us. Whenwe enter wild places and see it reflected withinus we feel these urges and the passion thatcome with it and we know that we are notalone. We feel it so strongly that we knowthere must be others who also feel them evenif we don’t see them or even know of them.Perhaps we read of them, or see glimpsesin the pages of history, no matter howshoddily presented.

Some of those urges may seem dramaticallydifferent from one person to another. Definingour boundaries and what we accept in our-selves in others is one of the most fascinatingaspects of creating a community life. The lineof intolerance and the level of intervention thatis acceptable are questions that we shouldcontinue to consider openly, for tyranny canexist just as surely within any small group asit can in vast states of consolidated power. Theurge to live spontaneously and act on deepdesires is not meaningless or trivial. Live yourdreams in whatever way you can; live foryourself, and without even trying, you willbecome the most important type of teacher:one who inspires others to act upon their owndeepest desires. Rewilding in the context of an open commu-nity creates the setting for transition, for somepatterns are already shattered. Connections arecreated spontaneously, laughter abounds,beauty overwhelms from so many aspects oflife at once that even the physical strain, itselfa crack in the dependence on so many comfortsof living anywhere near the center of themachine, becomes a liberating and liberatedbehaviour. Addictive behaviours can safelycrumble with no new addictions to be graspedfor. Granted, addiction may be difficult to seesometimes, even within oneself, because of themany levels of alienation and oppression thatwe have been so carefully taught to self-administer continue to pervade our experienceof the world and poison our interactions.Honest communication is the only way toovercome these issues, and honest interactionwith others maintains that honesty and keepshypocrisy where it belongs – out in the openand being dealt with. I despise hypocrisy. Thatis why I accept that it exists within myself andconfront it directly in as many ways as do notcreate greater hypocrisy. To deny its existencealtogether is to be self-deceiving on somesubtle level. Rewilding is unplugging from within,breaking chains of perception, restraint,obedience and compliance. It is physical also– unmaking addictions, not just staving themoff but finding their roots and pulling them allthe way out of the self, unraveling the shroudof fear that is wrapped tight around us evenbefore we are born. It is about becoming whatwe were born to be; it’s about becoming humanin the way we choose and acting as we will,not simply as we can. Ironically that is one ofthe most common arguments against variousforms of anarchy: that people will do whateverthey want. The key to remember is that

everyone will do whatthey want and not

w h a t e v e rthey can.



In a community of healing individuals thereis an ongoing process of confronting one-self and others about all inconsistencies thatminimize behaviour that would be harmful toothers. We call each other out, we call our-selves out, and we gradually become morewhole as we remove ourselves from theshroud of fear, drifting free of constrictingmindsets, boxes and borders. Living in bands predates living in nuclearfamilies by the vast majority of human exist-ence, and the experience of collective livingis found in many of the more fulfilling andmeaningful organizations still in society. Therecannot be said to be any true “natural” humanstate, certainly, as we are evolving and changingsocial creatures, but living in a band allowspeople to overcome much of the alienation andseparation that the lifestyle of nuclear familiesand institutional interaction with others inschools and offices ensures and perpetuates.Living in a small group keeps people honestand open, promoting group dynamics whereinabusive behavior will be dealt with. I do notspeak in universals, for surely a tyrant canmonopolize power in a small group as surelyas in a patriarchal family, but it is more dif-ficult and less likely. I perceive such a groupsetting to have great potential for healing aswell, especially in terms of overcomingalienation and insecurity. Surely I have seenhow people come into such groups closedoff and insecure, yet within days of joiningthe group, even the shyest open up and beginlaughing and shouting, playing and jokingwith the rest of the group. How often doyou smile (and I damn well don’t includefaking it for customers) or laugh raucouslywhile working a wage labor job? I rememberall too well the institutional despondencethat overwhelms everyone who works indoors,cut off from the source of life and bound to therules of social interaction that make up “customerservice” – essentially an antiquated servantmentality bound up in postmodern niceism.

By contrast I find that working outdoors witha band keeps us all laughing riotously through-out the day, regardless of the intensity of workor environment. Simply the opportunity to runand yell releases so much of the frustrationborne of the enforced self-hypnosis of city life. The urge to rewild and actively resist runsthrough the deepest parts of our spirits thathave not, cannot be fully domesticated. Anyand all steps we take build the momentum thatwill eventually bring this death-machine to agrinding halt. Teaching urban youth how togather wild food plants and how to build fires(from campfires to more strategic fires) allowsthem to begin the journey that one day willset them and all of us free. The wild ones havemuch to teach us, and we have much to teacheach other. The challenge before us all is tospread the seeds of resistance and rewildingto whoever is able to listen, understand andcreate their own path in the world; meanwhilenever ceasing our personal struggles to becomemore fully human and our collective acts ofdirect resistance. Our roots are deeper than themachine can ever comprehend. The journey is never complete. Undoubtedly,there are some very critical plateaus to reachearly on, some basic foundations of thoughtand behaviour upon which so much else isbased. From these peaks of experience wecome to a place where we begin truly walkingwild. The process of breaking through isbeautiful, and will involve a lifetime of self-critique and growth. Once the questions andcritique begin and especially once the first fewanswers begin to come clear and pathways beattrue within the heart, then the journey isbegun in earnest and may lead to the hearts ofothers to help them begin their journey, asharing that parallels the continued deepeninginto one’s own experience. The woundedhealer, the humble but wise coyote teacher,the honest friend is an existence we are allcapable of. We are all stronger than themightiest shaman, for we are all shamans and

shapeshifters, feral beings alive in a society thatrecognizes us but doesn’t fully understand us.They remember a flicker of light from anancient fire, a glimpse of another way of lifedeep in the past but still within all of our hearts.That reminder intrigues us, pulls us into therealm of possibility where the past standsalongside the future and the present appearsas it is, only a mere blip of reality, a choiceamong many, many others. Knowing thatchoice sets us free. Knowing that choice letsus see that all around us are the keys to anunknowable number of potential worlds thatwe will create, consciously or not, by the waywe live our lives. Knowing sets us free, butonce free we must still climb out of the cage. The lonely, hermit philosopher sits in adoorless cage, pondering the meaning of hisfreedom. Rewilding hurts. Honesty hurts.Dealing with hypocrisy within and withothers is frustrating and can be maddening tounderstand, much less deal with in a productivemanner. Making choices that are true to one’sheart will often bring a whole new form ofalienation from the wider society that pangsthe heart just as surely as the alienation of notknowing oneself and one’s potential can bring.The goal of rewilding is not to bring us to acozy world of comfort, an idyllic life in ahappy community somewhere in a pristineforest. Like I said, honesty hurts. Rewildingbrings us instead into an unstable world ofuncertainty and constant change. That adversitymakes us stronger than we ever thought wecould be. Giving in to the impulses of realneeds strengthens personal confidence and thefocus that allows dreams to become reality.GO ANYWHERE. But don’t just go anywhere.Go exactly where you want to be. Run through a dark forest on a moonlessnight, leap into a raging river and flow with acurrent stronger than you are, dance with rattle-snakes in desert canyons, howl with rage at asmoky city from high atop a lonely mountain.Live free that you may die whole.



9 - SocietySo-ci-e-ty n. from L. socius, companion. 1. an organizedaggregate of interrelated individuals and groups. 2. total-izing racket, advancing at the expense of the individual,nature and human solidarity.

Society everywhere is now driven by the treadmill of workand consumption. This harnessed movement, so very far from a stateof companionship, does not take place without agony and disaffection.Having more never compensates for being less, as witness rampantaddiction to drugs, work, exercise, sex, etc. Virtually anything can beand is overused in the desire for satisfaction in a society whose hallmarkis denial of satisfaction. But such excess at least gives evidence of thehunger for fulfillment, that is, an immense dissatisfaction with whatis before us. Hucksters purvey every kind of dodge, for example. New Agepanaceas, disgusting materialistic mysticism on a mass scale: sicklyand self-absorbed, apparently incapable of looking at any part of realitywith courage or honesty. For New Age practitioners, psychology isnothing short of an ideology and society is irrelevant. Meanwhile, Bush, surveying “generations born numbly into despair,”was predictably loathsome enough to blame the victimized by citingtheir “moral emptiness.” The depth of immiseration might best besummed up by the federal survey of high schoolers released 9/19/91,which found that 27 percent of them “thought seriously” aboutsuicide in the preceding year. It could be that the social, with its growing testimony to alien-ation–mass depression, the refusal of literacy, the rise of panicdisorders, etc.–may finally be registering politically. Such phenomenaas continually declining voter turnout and deep distrust of governmentled the Kettering Foundation in June ’91 to conclude that “the legitimacyof our political institutions is more at issue than our leaders imagine,”and an October study of three states (as reported by columnist TomWicker, 10/14/91) to discern “a dangerously broad gulf between thegovernors and the governed.” The longing for nonmutilated life and a nonmutilated world in which tolive it collides with one chilling fact: underlying the progress of modernsociety is capital’s insatiable need for growth and expansion. The collapseof state capitalism in Eastern Europe and the USSR leaves only the‘triumphant’ regular variety, in command but now confronted insistentlywith far more basic contradictions than the ones it allegedly overcame inits pseudo-struggle with ‘socialism’. Of course, Soviet industrialism wasnot qualitatively different from any other variant of capitalism, and farmore importantly, no system of production (division of labor, dominationof nature, and work-and-pay slavery in more or less equal doses) canallow for either human happiness or ecological survival. We can now see an approaching vista of all the world as a toxic,ozone-less deadness. Where once most people looked to technologyas a promise, now we know for certain that it will kill us. Computer-ization, with its congealed tedium and concealed poisons, expressesthe trajectory of society, engineered sleekly away from sensuousexistence and finding its current apotheosis in Virtual Reality.

The escapism of VR is not the issue, for which of us could getby without escapes? Likewise, it is not so much a diversion fromconsciousness as it is itself a consciousness of complete estrangementfrom the natural world. Virtual Reality testifies to a deep pathology,reminiscent of the Baroque canvases of Rubens that depict armoredknights mingling with but separated from naked women. Here the‘alternative’ technojunkies of Whole Earth Review, pioneer promotersof VR, show their true colors. A fetish of ‘tools’, and a total lack ofinterest in critique of society’s direction, lead to glorification of theartificial paradise of VR. The consumerist void of high tech simulation and manipulation owesits dominance to two increasing tendencies in society, specializationof labor and the isolation of individuals. From this context emergesthe most terrifying aspect of evil: it tends to be committed by peoplewho are not particularly evil. Society, which in no way could survivea conscious inspection, is arranged to prevent that very inspection. The dominant, oppressive ideas do not permeate the whole of society,rather their success is assured by the fragmented nature of oppositionto them. Meanwhile, what society dreads most are precisely the lies itsuspects it is built upon. This dread or avoidance is obviously not thesame as beginning to subject a deadening force of circumstances tothe force of events. Adorno noted in the ’60s that society is growing more and moreentrapping and disabling. He predicted that eventually talk ofcausation within society would become meaningless: societyitself is the cause. The struggle toward a society–if it could stillbe called that–of the face-to-face, in and of the natural world, mustbe based on an understanding of society today as a monolithic, all-encompassing death march.

by John ZerzanThis is the final installment of The Nihilist’s Dictionary, originally a regularlyrunning column in Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed over ten years ago. Theentire dictionary can be found towards the end of John’s book, Future Primitive(Autonomedia/Anarchy), and in a zine format available from our distro.

The

Dictionary

Nihilist’s


June 14, Grand Rapids, MI:Attack on Cop Station

Vandals hurled a Molotov cocktailinto a police mobile commandcenter located in a rented trailer,setting the floor on fire. The unitwas moved into the neighborhoodonly a few days prior, in advanceof a planned opening later in theweek to keep an eye on things forthe summer. The building wastowed away after the vandalism,but cops planned to fix the floorand return it. Authorities said theybelieved the vandals were sendinga message: police are not welcomein the neighborhood. City leadersvowed to send a return message:police are not backing down; theattack likely will lead to beefed-uppatrols.

June 30, Naples, Italy:Target Practice

A Navy contractor has been arrestedand charged with intentionallydamaging a Naval Forces Europe/6thFleet computer system designed totrack and plot the locations of shipsand submarines. Richard F. Sylvestre,43, of Boylston, Massachusetts, wasarrested by US marshals and arraignedin a US District Court in Norfolk, Vir-ginia, and released on $10,000 bail.If convicted, he faces up to 10 yearsin prison and up to a $250,000 fine. Sylvestre worked as one of severalsystems administrators at the Naples,Italy-based European Planning andOperations Center. He is charged withinstalling malicious codes into softwareon the computer system on or aboutMay 19, according to the release.

Two days later, the software causedtwo computers to crash when itdeleted critical operating files. Acheck of the center’s other computersshowed that several additionalcomputers, including a networkserver, were programmed withsimilar malicious codes.

Summer, London, UK: ShuttingDown Traffic to Sell Flowers

Groups of people are deliberatelybringing chaos to some of London’sbusiest junctions by sabotagingtraffic lights, creating backups up toa mile long. The lights lose their abilityto “read” traffic and respond in orderto prevent backups. Once disabled,the lights stay red and the perpetratorsdescend on the waiting commutersto clean windshields in return forcash or offer roses for sale. Onecontractor said there had been atleast a dozen attacks on traffic lightsover the past three years: “They getaccess to the cables by removingmanhole covers and climbing downthe shafts our engineers use toaccess the cables. You can see thatthey have cut the cables with a craftknife or hacksaw.” Cutting the cablesdisables the traffic lights’ electronic“brain” that controls their phasing.They then revert to a fixed “default”sequence that is not in tune withthe traffic flow but stops the lightsbeing stuck on red. Engineers haveentombed vulnerable electrical cablingin concrete as a deterrent, but nowthey have to spend up to an hoursmashing through the concrete toreach the cables when lights developa fault.

July 2, Bristol, UK:Kill Your Television

About 100,000 subscribers to digitalTV service Telewest were unable tostare at their tubes after two under-ground cables were cut. Cops werecalled once the firm determined thedamage was the work of “someonewho knew what they were doing”.

July 3, Lockport, NY:What began as a request for teens tostop using illegal fireworks, ended asa “near riot” after the officially sanc-tioned fireworks show. Local cops,sheriff’s deputies, state boys, and anumber of other local law enforce-ment agencies were called in to handle

the unruly crowd of several hundredthat gathered after the public fire-works were finished. “The residents and guests surroundedthe auxiliary police, numbering 50-75, and they became fearful for theirsafety,” an ossifer said. “When wecame, they started throwing beerbottles and rocks.” Officer MichaelWasik was hit in the head with oneof the bottles and taken to the hospi-tal for treatment.“The cops wereoutnumbered badly,” one witnesssaid. “I saw the bottle hit (Wasik). Itgrazed him and landed in the roadnext to him. At that point, the copsdecided to use the mace.” Peoplewere not happy with the policepresence, cops were “called namesand the people were very unruly.”

July 14, Orlando:Kickin’ Pig-Ass in Florida

Three weeks ago, The Palms apart-ment complex was assigned their“own police force”. Today, two pigswere attempting to arrest a pair ofdrug suspects when the men tookoff, heading straight for a crowdcongregating in the area. “Therewas a chase, a gun was dropped,the dope was dropped. He ran in anapartment. A lady yelled, ‘Get himout,’” said one pig. When somebodyyelled, “Let’s get these guys. We’vegot ‘em out numbered. We can take‘em.”, the cops radioed for help. Thecrowd started throwing rocks andbottles at their “own police force”.As the crowd grew to nearly 200,reinforcements were required to endthe disturbance.

Late July,Buenos Aires, Argentina:

A fire that caused a huge powerfailure in the south, could be a sabo-tage, according to the National Entityfor Electricity Regulation. The firedamaged four substations and left800,000 people without electricity.Another blackout occurred in threepopulous boroughs a few days later,but authorities at the electricitycompany assert that it has nothingto do with the previous outage.

August 21, Los Angeles, CA:A pair of city transportation engineersare accused of sabotaging intersectionsignal lights. Gabriel Murillo, 37, andKartik Patel, 34, allegedly rigged

The Center Is Everywhere!

Further Symptoms of the

System’s Meltdown

What I fear most is this: that I will be safe, that danger willspare me entirely, that I’ll die conventionally—smug andpurposeless, having never savored its menace. I fear whoI might become if I live my whole life in the middle, neverpushed into the dark margins. The human race moves witha force launched by centuries of misdirection, pillage, andneglect. I fear never knowing the intensity of life, threat-ening as a stinging blade pressed to the throat, its edge aborder to cross; this is what I hunger for.

–The Jinx Project,assignment 09662

Further Symptoms of the

System’s Meltdown

What I fear most is this: that I will be safe, that danger willWhat I fear most is this: that I will be safe, that danger willspare me entirely, that I’ll die conventionally—smug andspare me entirely, that I’ll die conventionally—smug andpurposeless, having never savored its menace. I fear whopurposeless, having never savored its menace. I fear whoI might become if I live my whole life in the middle, neverI might become if I live my whole life in the middle, neverpushed into the dark margins. The human race moves withpushed into the dark margins. The human race moves witha force launched by centuries of misdirection, pillage, anda force launched by centuries of misdirection, pillage, andneglect. I fear never knowing the intensity of life, threat-neglect. I fear never knowing the intensity of life, threat-ening as a stinging blade pressed to the throat, its edge aening as a stinging blade pressed to the throat, its edge aborder to cross; this is what I hunger for.border to cross; this is what I hunger for.

–The Jinx Project,–The Jinx Project,assignment 09662assignment 09662


computers to disconnect signallights at several locations includingWorld Way at Los Angeles InternationalAirport. The pair allegedly changedcomputer codes to prevent transporta-tion managers from reprogrammingand reactivating the traffic lights forfour days. The sabotage occurred onthe eve of a job action when 1,500union members walked off their jobsfor two days.

August 21, Mudgee, Australia The general manager of theWilpinjong Coal Project, KeithDownham, says acts of sabotageagainst local operations appear to beescalating. Three recent incidents inand around the fledgling mine siteinclude a person or persons erectingbarriers on a narrow bridge; cuttinga telephone cable to the site officewhile staff members were working;and smashing a water truck over-night at its Ulan town depot, resultingin $30,000 damage. Excel Coal Ltd.owns the mining project whichplans an open-cut mine along withassociated infrastructure.

August 28, Alegia, Spain:Five Pigs Injured in Brawl

Local pigs were attacked at the sceneof a private party after being calledat 7:45AM by a neighbor complainingabout the noise. Upon arrival, theywere bombarded with bottles,stones, sticks and chairs hurled bythirty to forty party-goers. The attackstopped briefly when one of the pigsfired a warning shot in the air. Thecops regrouped, but the attackersfollowed them outside and beganattacking again. After a prolongedstruggle, numerous cops were badlypunched, kicked and beaten, the fivemost seriously injured were relievedfrom duty while recovering from theirinjuries. Three men in their early thir-ties were arrested and twenty otherindividuals have since been identified.

September 18, Belfast, Ireland:Cops Injured in North Belfast RiotWhen a stolen car collided with apolice Land Rover, four cops wereinjured. Up to 150 people gatheredin the area following the crash andbegan attacking the cops by throwingthe contents of a builders‘ skip atthem. Seven more pigs were injured,two required hospitalization. One hada cut to her face, the other with injuriesto his abdomen.

September 20, Felton, CA:Sheriff’s deputies arrested threeteenagers on suspicion of setting thefire that left the San Lorenzo Valley

High School library in ruins, causingan estimated $2 million worth ofdamage. The fire started about2:30AM after arsonists pushed severalplastic recycling carts full of paperup against the door of the library andignited them. The flames spread tothe building, destroying about 11,000books, and banks of computers.Deputies say the trio also tried toburn the school’s gymnasium bytorching a 50-gallon metal trash binfull of paper next to the building. Thatfire, however, failed to ignite the gym.

September-October: Canada andUS: Wave of School Attacks

Kimveer Gill began shooting out-side one entrance to Dawson Collegeand moved towards the atrium bythe cafeteria on the main floor. Onevictim died at the scene and another19 injured, eight of whom were listedin critical condition. The gunmanlater committed suicide by shootinghimself in the head, after being shotin the arm by police. This shootinglaunched a new wave of attackssimilar to the “copycat” shootingsfollowing the Columbine massacre. The next day in Ottawa a 22-yearold law studentfired a pellet gun atone of the buildingsof the University ofOttawa in a drive-byshooting. He wasquickly arrested athis home and sub-sequently bannedfrom the University. On September 15,three Wisconsinteenage boys werearrested on suspi-cion of planning ashooting attack atGreen Bay East HighSchool. Reports in-dicate they weredepressed and fas-cinated with theColumbine incident.Numerous weaponswere found in theirhomes. The following dayin St. Louis, Missouri,Austin Vincent, asenior student ofWestminster HighSchool, reportedly text-messagedhis friend, saying he would commitsuicide. This was later forwarded toa counselor, who called the police.He did not attend school that day,but arrived at around forty-five min-utes after the 3PM closing. He gotout of his mother’s car holding a rifle.

Cops were already on the scenewaiting for him. Vincent reportedlypointed the rifle at his head, thenwaved it at the pigs who took 3 shots.He was hit in the leg by at least oneand taken to a nearby hospital instable condition. September 18, Hudson, Quebec,Canada: A 15-year-old was arrestedafter uttering death threats via thesame Internet site as Dawson Collegeshooter Kimveer Gill. He was planninga similar type shooting at a highschool west of Montreal. On September 29, again in Wis-consin, 15-year-old Eric Hainstockshot his high school principal, whothen managed to wrestle Hainstockto the ground. The principal diedlater in hospital from multiple gun-shot wounds. The same day in Cincinnati, Ohio,a 15-year-old freshman was arrestedat his home when he sent a textmessage threatening to bring hisgun to a local high school. Theschool was locked down while copsarrested the suspect, but re-openedin time for classes. On October 2, an ex-student ofMohave High School in Nevada went

on campus with a gun. Studentsrecognized him as an ex-student andnotified school cops immediately.The suspect ran from the school andditched his gun behind a churchclose to Mohave. October 9, Joplin, Missouri: a 13-year-old student fires an AK47 into

the ceiling at his middle school afterconfronting a pair of students andadministrators, telling them, “pleasedon’t make me do this,” officials said.The student was wearing a mask andpointed the assault rifle at PrincipalSteve Gilbreth and Assistant Super-intendent Steve Doerr. Doerr andGilbreth persuaded the student toleave the building, where he wasconfronted by two cops with weap-ons drawn. The student dropped therifle and was taken into custody. Thearmed student, whose identitywasn’t released, apparently hadbeen planning an attack for a “longtime,” according to reports.

October 2, U.S.:Let’s Build a Better Trooper TrapA Houston cop was shot and killedby a prisoner who sat in the back seatof his car, a cop car in Atlanta Georgiawas stolen by a female prisoner, andanother woman killed herself whilewaiting in the back seat as her malecompanion was dealing with the pig.A patented prisoner seatbelt alarmcalled Trooper Trap, invented by anOklahoma pig, is meant to preventprisoner escapes, and stolen and

damaged cop cars. Itworks by sounding analarm on the outside ofthe car as soon as aprisoner releases theseatbelt signaling copsto pay attention.

October 8,Evendale, OH:

Three suspects arecharged with stealingcopper wiring from theIndiana and Ohio Rail-road. The theft of about100 pounds of copperalong the railroad linedisrupted emergencycommunications on therailroad. The thieves canexpect to get as much as$1,000 at scrap yards forthis much sought aftermetal. Forty-six powersubstation break-ins havebeen reported in Ohio. Copper thieves also cutlarge pieces of 3/4inchcopper wire from a seriesof live electrical panels

behind a building in Hutchinson,Kansas, leaving the building with-out power. This is the second theftof this kind in less than a year atthe building. Inside the well-hidden,large electrical panels, the thieves


mama, don’t let yourbabies grow up to be

cowboys?

mama, don’t let yourbabies grow up to be

cowboys?


severed the neutral wires while leavingthe hot wires in place. The result wasan electrical circuit that bypassedthe emergency breakers and loadedlow voltage wires with immenseheat, nearly starting a fire.

October 16, Nairobi, Kenya:Hundreds of illegal street vendorsfought with police who fired tear gasand rubber bullets in an effort todrive them out of a central businessdistrict of Kenya’s capital. The streethawkers barricaded several Nairobistreets with burning tires, set atleast one car on fire, and threwstones at cops who repeatedlycharged the protesters with batonsand fired tear gas and rubber bulletsto scatter them. No injuries werereported. Earlier this year, fourpeople were killed – including onepig – during similar disturbances.

Oct 30, Birmingham, UKYou Have Been Disconnected

Thousands of homes and busi-nesses were without phone linesafter an exchange station wassabotaged. Cops areconsidering the pos-sibility that a formerphone company em-ployee with a grudgewas responsible forabout 35,000 homesand businesses hav-ing their land-linescut off. The saboteurrisked electrocutionby hacking throughthe cables at the un-manned Handsworthexchange. According to phonecompany, “They gotinto a box with 25 orso fibre optic cablesand severed them. Itwas deliberate, andthey seemed to knowwhat they were doing.”

November 5,Madrid, Spain:Mile High Riot

Around thirty illegal African immi-grants being returned homecaused a riot aboard an aircraft,forcing the pilot to make an emer-gency landing in Malaga, south-eastSpain. The migrants from Guinea-Bissau were on their way back totheir homeland on the west coastof Africa when several of the menattacked pigs accompanying themon the flight.

November 10, Scottsdale, AZ:Cops arrested two 16-year-old Chap-arral High School students believedto be responsible for setting a seriesof fires last month at Copper RidgeElementary. The Oct. 26 fires, whichdamaged playground equipment, anawning over it and also 12 to 15 trashcans on the campus, caused anestimated $34,000 in damage.

November 14, SouthwesternChina: The Ugly Face of

Socialized MedicineTwo thousand angry peasants torethrough the Guangan City No. 2People’s Hospital in Sichuan province,smashing windows and equipmentand forcing doctors to halt work.The rampage followed the death ofa young boy who had swallowedagricultural poison stored in asoda bottle. Doctors had told theinjured boy’s grandfather to gohome and collect more moneyfor treatment. While he was away,the boy died. The riot led to clasheswith security personnel with sev-eral cop cars burnt in the melee.

Armed pigs finally broke up thecrowd, injuring 10 and arrested five.

November 27, SouthernThailand: Teaching DemocracyThailand closed all 994 publicschools indefinitely in the country’sinsurgency-torn south after a stringof arsons and shootings left twoteachers dead. Sixty teachers havebeen killed during three years of

unrest in the area, and more than1600 people killed in the almost dailyviolence since January 2004. Since taking office after the Sep-tember military coup, army-installedpremier Surayud Chulanont hasoffered a number of olive branches,including an offer to hold talks withmilitants, in a bid to bring peace tothe troubled region. But the violencehas spiraled in the last month, withbombings, arsons and shootingshappening every day. The latestunrest has been variously blamed onethnic Malay separatists, Islamicextremists, and criminal gangs.Information only trickles out sincethe new democratic regime tookover. One of their first edicts was toshut down the media.

Fall-Winter, Sun-Kitts/Nevis:Schools are Shit!

Several school break-ins have oc-curred in the past several months.In one incident, vandals broke intothe Beach Allen Primary School usinga piece of iron and a garden pick axe,then turned several classes and the

principal’s office upside down.Money and food were stolen fromsaid office. In a second incident,computers were stolen from theBasseterre Senior High School. Inthe most recent episode, individualsbroke into three classrooms at theWilliam Connor Primary School,ransacked them, and smeared humanfeces over the surfaces, books, anddesks of one of the rooms.

Mid-December, Israel:Israeli Defense Force Military Policearrested a solider currently assignedto an air force base in southernIsrael following allegations that heintended to sabotage an F-16 fighterjet with pyrotechnic devices. Thesoldier denied the accusation. Twomonths prior, a soldier serving inan administrative position in an airforce squadron purposely damagedan F-16 jet for undisclosed reasons.The damage was fixed before the jettook off, and a serious accidentlikely averted. A similar incidentoccurred in September 2005 at theOvda base after flight crews foundspare screws in the engine of anF-16. An airman was arrested, butreleased several days later due tolack of evidence.

December 30, San Juan,Puerto Rico: Powering Down

National Guard troops have beenposted at numerous power installa-tions throughout the country after amajor electrical plant was damagedby two fires authorities suspect were

acts of inten-tional sabotage.The fires at thePalo Seco powerplant damagedhigh voltage linesand the turbines,costing at least$50 million. Theplant, in subur-ban San Juan, isexpected to beclosed for sixmonths to a yeardue to the fires. The electricalworkers’ union,which is in anongoing and bit-ter contract dis-pute with theU.S. Caribbeanterritory’s powerauthority, deniedany involvementin the fires. TheFBI is investigat-ing the incident.

January 5, Greater Manchester, UK:Security was stepped up at motor-waybridges across the area when ‘mind-less vandals’ tried to hack down asuspension bridge. They are believedto have used a hacksaw to cut throughseveral steel strands on five steelcables of a footbridge over the M60highway. The motorway was shut forseveral hours and urgent checkscarried out on other potential targets.

have i told you lately thati hate you?


I am usually someone who resides on the periphery of the world ofidentity politics (that is, the primary and often exclusive focus andpoliticization of a particular defining characteristic – race, ethnicity,gender, sexual preference, religion, etc. – at the expense of a dynamicexploration of who we are based on our desires, our direct experience,and the continual fluidity of who we are within varying contexts).After years of feeling marginalized by the identity extremities…toolight to be dark, too dark to be light (I call it either beige orolive)…raised too “comfortable” to be “poor”, too “discomforting”to be “rich” (they call it “middle class”)…too rough and tough tobe labeled “feminine”, too emotional and freakish to be “macho” or“straight”. And definitely, too much of a free thinker to adopt anyideology or box to abide within and to view the world from. Alwayson the outside looking in. I have invariably viewed myself as one ofbillions of unique beings who inhabit this world, defying all thelabels that neatly package us for sale on the market of social interactionand the economy of politics. I have avoided, mostly on purpose, some-times not consciously, and other times against my wishes, most pacts,clubs, or significant demographics. When I have tried to apply labelsor definitions to myself for brevity sake, it has often become a convo-luted and satirical list of hyphenated prefixes, suffixes, and adjectivesresembling some odd chemical equation, clarifying very little. WhenI have tried to define myself in writing with words of explication orprose, it usually offers only a temporary and partial glimpse of who Iam. My lived experience, directly with others, best defines and explainswho I am, and this is, of course, unique to everyone I engage with at anygiven moment (complicated further by their perception based on theirexperiences, filters, socialization, and perspectives). Although it seemscliché, we are what we do, not what we say we are, or what we declareour intentions to be. This cannot be distilled into an abstraction andretain any use. This is all said without the intention of getting into along diatribe on identity politics, something most anarchists should atleast question, if not entirely reject. However, the various pitfalls ofsuch an orientation should be noted. And we must be prepared to askourselves how egalitarian situations and liberatory experiences canoccur when we surround ourselves and move from assertions ofvictimhood or of superiority (and at times in the world of identity politicsthe two are so intertwined they become the same thing). It becomes agame of creating labels to give and take power to and from differentself-described and projected identities, rather than abolishing power andhierarchy completely, and avoiding absurd and biased notions of justice.So now we ask ourselves, is it possible to present who we are as part of amarginalized (or even empowered) group based on a limited descriptionwithout perpetuating unhealthy, or at minimum, useless distinctions?

And what to do when they are thrust upon us by others? This all beingsaid, I have finally found an identity I can get behind, or shall I say, itgot behind me or is following me around. That is odor. I have come tofinally realize a characteristic of myself that puts me in a minority notonly in “straight” society, but also so-called alternative, counter-cultural,and radical scenes. Although I meet the general standards of cleanlinessfor most parts of the world (and far exceeding in many) I still frequentlybecome ostracized for the natural scent of my humanness. Notpossessing the “privilege” or status as the smell-gooders, I am oftenviewed as fragrantly challenged. It became more apparent to merecently when I was forced to leave a supposed free-thinking,“enlightened”, and laid back job because of my aroma, along withother social situations where I was asked to smell/be somethingdifferent for other people’s comfort. Now some would say thischaracteristic is something I can change, and that it is not worthy ofconcern in any real discussion of oppression politics, but it can onlybe altered by not being who I am, changing my behavior, and artificiallyassimilating myself into another’s or a sector of society’s expectations,by becoming an aromatic Uncle Tom. But no, deodorants, perfumes,and the likes are not part of me and I make my stand here and identifyas an Anarchist Person of Odor (A.P.O.O.). It reminds me of this greatJapanese kid’s book, by Taro Gomi called Everyone Poops, whichvery plainly and simply explains how “All living things eat, so every-one poops!” and how different animals make different kinds of poopwith different shapes, colors, and smells. Many people in our societyattempt to avoid this very simple concept, creating standards andtaboos to conceal very base and natural actualities. They shroud any-thing that reminds them that they are of this earth and are biologicalorganisms that have distinct and palatable characteristics. One of theseis smell. Of all the conventionally recognized “senses”, our olfactoryis the one we seem the least in touch with, and in fact many peoplefear it. They will go to great measures to cover up the scent of every-thing around them, and most important, themselves. Once, we mayhave recognized everything around us by its scent. It was a finger-print-like identification of plants, animals, landscapes, upcomingweather, and each other. Now, we are asked to scrape off one morelayer of what makes us both unique and a part of everything. Andwhile the stage of identity politics is an absurdly jocular spectacle, Imight as well join the circus and take a hand at the game. As longas there are the smelly ones (i.e. those comfortable with how theynaturally smell), we will be among them, disturbing and making uncom-fortable those with hyper-domesticated and cultivated expectancy andvalues. We have been put down and scented artificially long enough!We are empowered by our body odor and we will not be victims oftheir fragrant persecution. Whose Smell? Our Smell! I have been tothe mountaintop, and it reeks! From the gaseous statements of thecolon to the sweaty proclamations of the pits to the very bottom ofour well-used pungent feet, we shall overwhelm everyday! My nosehas smelled the glory of the coming of a load!

Get Used To Us! We Are Everywhere!We Are Even You (If You Want It)!

PodridoApestarMinister of DefecationFounder of A.P.O.O.

AnarchistPeople of Odor

(A.P.O.O.)

Initial Declaration from the Founder of


Without a glimmerof remorseby Pino Cacucci

Translated by Paul SharkeyRead and Noir Books

How much of this work is fiction or fact?There is no introduction and no author’s notes toindicate its accuracy. No matter, as a historicalnovel it is one worth reading for no other reasonthan its subject: the life and times of Jules Bonnot,at various times a feared bank robber, car enthusi-ast and chauffeur, soldier, father, counterfeiterand propagandist. But always and forever ananarchist. Cacucci has a good bit of fun with this storyabout the notorious “gangster” and his contem-poraries and for that I am quite appreciative. Mostwritings about anarchist history are dull, devoid

of any real sense of life, of the pleasures and painsour predecessors experienced – they remain asdead as the people and times they describe andthus put so many people off of what might beuseful to us today. While this is not a grippingnovel - at times it was only my interest in this“illegalist” anarchist that kept me reading throughsome of the more tedious areas - it is a light readand I finished the 362 pages in just a couple nightsof bedtime reading. The tedium may have beenthe result of poor editing – the “GrammarHammer” would have a field day with the typosalone – or confused translation. The story wouldflow along nicely, then abruptly stop and shift toanother scene. If this was a stylistic choice, I thinkit would have been more obvious, instead it feelstoo often disjointed. It also seemed to be a wayof dealing with gaps in historical data and so Iwas left hanging at times in places I would haveenjoyed lingering.

The author is at his best with dialogbetween his characters. “You’re a dreamerJules”, Nicolette mumbled, massaging thetense, knotted muscles at the nape of hisneck. “And in these streets awash withbastards and traitors, dreams are just aguarantee of an early death.” Cacucci alsodeftly injects some anarchist theorywhich is particularly potent since hecontextualizes it in Jules’ day-to-day lifeAs Jules reads Stirner’s The Ego and ItsOwn, he contemplates the potential ofhead lice and revolution: “Rebellion notrevolution. Any attempt to replace a reac-tionary government with a revolutionarygovernment he reckoned, would assuredlyleave in place, if not the exploiters per se,then at least the methodology of exploita-tion as a function. The State may changeits aims, but not its means.” The book bounces between Bonnot andhis comrades and another anarchist grouphe will later join up with. He does this toexplore the tension between those whoengaged in illegal activities to support theirlife and projects and those who opposedthis strategy including Victor Kibalchich,one of the editors of the periodical,L’Anarchie. Cacucci avoids moralizing inhis portrayal of the struggle both groupshad in dealing with the complexities ofliving in a world they despised while at-tempting to create anew. However, he wastoo soft for my taste on cops and on ArthurConan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes),for whom Bonnot briefly chauffeured. I recommend this historical novel withouthesitation. But I do recommend reading itwithout expectations and with some flex-ibility/forgiveness. I suspect most will findenough of interest to make it worth the timeaway from more prosaic projects. In fact,it would be most welcome to see moreanarchist history delivered in this format.Imagine the Spanish Civil War as a revo-lutionary love story! (WTS)

REVIEWS

The following reviews are the individual opinions of various membersof the Green Anarchy Collective: WTS=W.T. Smoke, FSFSFSFSFS=Felonious Skunk,and JZJZJZJZJZ=John Zerzan, except where noted.

REVIEWS


Out of Control #1:Technophobic Delusions

in Schizophreniaby David Drexler

This premier issue explores ElectromagneticHarassment and the Influencing Machine. Morethan just a re-presentation of facts and figuresfrom his numerous sources regarding mentalillness and technology, Drexler posits severalinteresting theses of his own. He first suggests“that there is a paralleldevelopment betweentechnology and mentalillness, which beganwith Descartes’ 17thcentury conception ofthe universe, and allbeings in it, as clock-work mechanisms.” Hesuggests that the “mania”for vivisection amongscientists and doctors is“analogous to the child-hood murder of cats andsmall animals so oftennoted among those wholater become psychopathsor mass murderers.”Rather than present theseideas authoritatively, heuses a contemplative tonethat grabbed me and keptme interested throughsome of his strange twistsand turns. “The history of techno-logical progress is well known, but its parallelsin mental illnesses are largely hidden and un-recognized. It is the purpose of this study to throwthis connection into light, and to ultimately revealand expose technology itself as an active, autono-mous force, which has parasitized human beingsfor its own ends.” This is a hard notion to wrapones mind around, but if you dismiss it tooquickly you’ll miss some well thought out argu-ments. Drexler rather convincingly describesseveral manifestations of mental illness thatparallel (if not predict) future conditions: “feeling‘dead’ is the alienation of Cartesian rationalismgone too far; the idea of being poisoned or con-taminated brings to mind pollution, pesticides,herbicides. Classic paranoid delusions hearkensto mind the development of the State’s secretintelligence forces who came into their own inthe 19th century where leaders ... must be on guardfor treasonous seditions, deep cover spies, andadvanced electronic gadgetry, and it is essentialto perceive the hidden, implied meanings behindmundane aspects of behavior.” There are some great old illustrations that depictthe real and imagined manipulation machineryof the earliest days of electricity including TheAir Loom, magnetic controlling and invigoratingdevices, radiations and other emanations of “themad” that were eventually manifested in the tele-phone, radar, x-rays, and television, “that mosteffective and enslaving of all influencing machines.”

In “Contemporary Manifestations of the Influ-encing Machine” Drexler points us to the Internetand the new age of electronic harassment whereone can read thousands of stories of delusion andparanoia that sound remarkably similar to pastcenturies equivalents and preconfigure technologynot yet (perhaps) in place. In an interesting noterelated to the State’s “mass schizophrenia”, “Saccoand Vanzetti, and the Rosenbergs were all treatedto complimentary electrotherapy in a gruesomeprotrusion of schizoid reality into daily life.” While the author questions the definitions

and characteristicsof insanity – a neces-sity in a world wherenormal gets more andmore narrowly de-fined – he could havemade fewer generali-zations about whatconstitutes mentalillness. I could nothelp but shudder athis proposition that“…technology it-self is an active,controlling forcein human affairs,not being used bypeople so much asenslaving and para-sitizing us for itsown mindless, vi-ral, destructive,cancerous pur-poses of endlessreproduction...” Whatever con-

clusions one might draw, however far-fetchedor right-on you may find his ideas, you willnot be bored and you’re sure to find ideasworth pondering. (WTS)

Now available in the GA Distro [email protected]

AnarchyMagazine:A Journal OfDesire Armed

#62 Fall-Winter 2006Anarchy Magazine is a long-running anarchistmagazine that is now edited – as of 3 issues past– by our friends in the Bay Area. One notablechange is their inclusion of a description of whatthey are about, what they are for and against:“...uncompromisingly anti-authoritarian, Anarchyrefuses all ideology. We criticize all religion, allmoralism, all political ideology. We have no patiencefor nationalism, militarism, racism, and hier-archy. We don’t want to leave anything out, leastof all anarchism.” Further, they “want to createa genuinely different vision-radically coopera-tive and communitarian, ecological and feminist,spontaneous and wild-a liberatory vision freefrom the constraints of our own human self-domestication.” With what shall we be inspired?

Issue #62 does not have a particular theme. Thefront cover grabs us with a bright, red-faced,tatooted person with a circle-A earring. S/heseems like a perfect icon for the magazine – nottoo clear where this person hails from, but youjgotta at least check them out. Features listed onthe cover are “Dot Matrix on Penetrating LeftistCode”, “State Abuse of Ethnic Identity” by AndyRobinson, and “Censored: What Was Slashedfrom Dreams of Freedom”. I found the most enjoyable essay to be thereprint, “The Final Communiqué” by the occu-pational committee of the Sorbonne in exile(Communiqué 4 was reprinted in #61). While itwould have been helpful to give some back-ground regarding the recent University take-overby students in France, their poetic critique ofthe conditions that led to the takeover and therelationships that were formed, reformed, andabandoned, ought be more than enough to inspirethe reader to go beyond what the magazineoffers. Introducing ideas is what our journalstend to do best; we can only explore so far andso deep within any given topic; there is so muchto say about the complex and heartfelt issues thatpropel us towards a someday that we’ll alwaysdesire, no matter how intimidating the obstaclesin our paths. The review sections are pretty standard fare;there are some that made me want to read thebook, others that made me wonder why theybothered reviewing them. The 6-page look atAragorn!’s Summer Tour of the midwest and eastcoast covered a quite a variety of his experiences.I really dig hanging out with A!, he’s a lot of funand brings on good belly laughs with his tales.But he seems hellbent on sticking to a morestilted, carefully crafted language when he writesfor AJODA. Shake it up, baby! Andy Robinson’s, Ethnic Politics as Integrationcould have been a much shorter (11 pages plus 1for the citations) and much more accessiblearticle. The subject of identity as strategy – asused by both the identified oppressed and thestate – is crucial to an assessment of the organi-zational forms resistant peoples have takenthroughout time and in different regions. Theauthor has obviously done a lot of research andthinking about this, but his generalizations leadto some erroneous, or at least oversimplified,conclusions along the way. This might have beenavoided if he defined more clearly what a socialnetwork is instead of stating some rather homog-enized examples: “Hunter-gatherers and otherindigenous societies, peasant movements, and theurban poor of the shanty-towns and ghettos...”He calls networked and horizontal relations“implicitly anarchist...due to of their structure, anetwork of overlapping voluntary associationsexisting for practical purposes rather than as partof a political principle of domination.” Maybe,but I am not convinced this is enough. His as-sertion that these networks operate as a swarm,without leaders or guiding principles is specious.They may or may not, depending on whichones we are talking about and under whatcircumstances. Even the most decentralizednetworks have areas of invisible congregation with



tendencies towards, if not explicitly designed,points of control. However, he does an excellentjob talking about some of those weak points (e.g.leaders who are co-opted by the state, etc) so Iwonder if I missed sometie-in due to his ratherconvoluted academiclanguage. He attempts tothrow in some poeticbites but these end up asvacuous rhetoric in thiscontext: “The stateprinciple is a principlewhich destroys every-thing. The irony of arecent British lawwhich defines gather-ing in a public place asanti-social behaviorwould not have beenlost on Kropotkin. Itstands in a long tra-dition of state bansand attacks on hori-zontal association.For statists, peoplecan only relatethrough the inter-mediary of thestate; to removethis mediation isinherently threat-ening to it.” Thestrength of the article is in histreatment of ethnicity as a means of control, andhe gives us lots and lots of examples. In fact,one starts to feel hammered over the head withpages of proofs that are not really necessary fornon-identity politics anarchists. I did get somegood information and ideas to consider, but sometighter editorial assistance would have made itfar more readable, thus more useful. Dot’s dealings with lefty language in “Break-ing the Code” showed a pleasant touch of somecynical humor. “Unity – lack of perceived dis-agreement; perception being much of the point,Unity is used frequently to encourage people toshut up. See Getting Shit Done.” This mightoffend some, but her treatment is light andgenerous as well as funny. More, please! My consistent AJODA favorite is Ben Blue’scolumn, “Loose Cannons”. Blue captures ournon-linear, dark and deep, multifaceted worldwith language that cannot be merely read. Itrequires savoring, of letting one’s mind grasp andgrapple with nuances and contradictions. Blueis not for everyone, but is a welcome bite for thosewhose mind does not compute. Unfortunately, thesimilar attempt by the Oakland Association ofAstronauts just doesn’t do it for me, their twistsand turns seem strained and contrived and I justdon’t get it. Aragorn!’s Anarchy and Strategy column con-tinues to try to find its footing; much like therest of us when thinking about, discussing, andimplementing liberating strategies. Last issue waswhether we need an anarchist army (no) whilethis one describes a Crowd Control & StreetTactics workshop presented by an ex-NationalGuardsman. “The feeling of pushing people

around, and having group approval to do it, tohave the stick instead of merely being right wasthe lesson”. He goes into some interestingdetail about formations, baton control, and pig

training strategies of the state. It is byfar the mostuseful strat-egy columnhe has put to-gether yet. The not-so-new-anymorecollective hasresolved theirtechnical diffi-culties whichcould give themthe space to breakwith their stead-fast maintenanceof AJODA’s tradi-tional content andstyle. The choiceof articles remainslargely uncontro-versial except withina limited anarchisttheoretical milieu,even as they pokearound the edges ofinsurrectionary orrevolutionary ideas.It is not likely to of-fend the sensibilitiesof many of the patrons

of the book chains where it is sold, which seemsto connote something about their intended audi-ence, thus trajectory. As much as we’d like tothink anarchy is for everyone (which is whyanarchist projects like both of ours reach out to abroader audience) it simply isn’t, as noted byincreased repression by the powers-that-be.Whi le reac t ionaryoffense to bourgeoissensibilities can alsobe tedious, any (anti)politic that is easilyarticulated – much lessattemptable – withinthe legal and popularcorral, is not an anarchythat is very interestingto me. If I were to haveone wish, it would be forAJODA to reflect themore playful, challeng-ing, and controversialsides of our friends’ viewsmore often. (WTS)

$4.95, AJODA,POB 3448, Berkeley, CA

94703www.anarchymag.org

Note: An extensive reviewof AJODA #61 is availablein our on-line library at:www.greenanarchy.org.

Anarchy, Geography,Modernity

The Radical SocialThought of Elisée ReclusEdited by John P. Clark and

Camille MartinLoyola Professors Clark (Philosophy) and Martin(English) introduced Elisée Reclus (b. 1830 – d.1905) to many of us through their 250-page bookof analysis and editorial commentary (113 pages)and 11 selected short translations. Not being alover of old anarchist history much more than Iam of statist (preferring to find my inspiration inliving anarchists and living anarchy), after acursory read, I set it aside to review at a later date.Later came when I decided to speak at the Reclusconference Clark was sponsoring in New Orleans. The first section contains the editors’ analysisof Reclus by way of his numerous writings. Theyrepeat throughout their commentary his notionthat “Humanity is nature becoming self-con-scious”. The authors also introduce us to Reclus’ever-present dialectic in which every phenom-enon, including the phenomenon of humanity, isinseparable from all other phenomena. Reclusalso sees three orders of facts (“laws”) consistentlyrevealed through his study of social geography:class struggle, the quest for equilibrium, and thesovereign decision of the individual. They closethis chapeter with a quote from Reclus thatstates his ethic to be an expression of the bestof Christianity of the Gospels. Specifically, as acommunist anarchist he is to be no one’s masteror slave; to live in equality with everyone includ-ing owner or slave, millionaire or beggar; to obeythe Golden Rule; and forbidding vengeance as aprimitive practice.

In the secondchapter we learnmore about Reclus’life. That he was theson of a Protestantminister of a “FreeChurch”[quotes inoriginal] and mostlyeducated in Chris-tian schools, is ap-parent in many ofhis writings wherehe looks for a uni-versal morality thatwould unite alllife. However, healways tried torecognize the ulti-mate importanceof the individualas the place fromwhere all free-dom must firstarise. His practiceof vegetarianismwas informedby a moralitythat separated

“sentient” animals from other life forms.However, as just one example of numerous


contradictory ideas I encountered throughout, healso thought it “stupid to deny a soul to animals,to plants, and to all that is still termed ‘insen-sible matter’. He was a volunteer for the largelymiddle-class National Guard (a recognizedcitizens militia) that held power for a short timeduring the Paris Commune. For this role, he wasexiled for ten years, providing the opportunityfor his important association with Bakuninand Kropotkin. The third section, “The Dialectic of Nature andCulture” is filled with potential pitfalls along withsome interesting concepts. The authors claimthat Reclus attempted to situate humans withinnature instead of above it. To wit, his “humanitybeing nature taking consciousness of itself”, theyexplain, means “humanity must come to under-stand its identity as the self-consciousness ofthe earth and that it must complete the processof developing this consciousness in history”...where it must realize itself in “one form thatencompasses all ages”. Here we are also treatedto one of Reclus’ poetic turns that illustrate hisdesire to be “within nature”, written as he bathesin a river: “It seems that I have become partof the surrounding milieu; I feel as if I am onewith the floating aquatic system, one with thecurrent that sways my body.” The authors’ arequick to slip past and forgive Reclus’ asser-tion that Science would turn the earth into the“pleasant garden” spoken of by poets. Thistype of concession is notable throughout theiranalysis. One of the most pertinent chapters is “Anar-chism and Social Transformation”. Here wefind some of his eloquent descriptions of thefounding principles of anarchy, which Recluspositions in a lived experience rather than ‘after-the-revolution’. Reclus might be called ananarchist’s anarchist, for he seems at once to bea communist and individualist anarchist, a classstruggle and eco-anarchist, an evolutionary andrevolutionary anarchist. While he thought that“the secret” was to love everybody – even the“evildoers” – he refused to condemn those whopracticed propaganda-by-the-deed. Here we areprivy to one perspective of the professors, whoare most critical of Reclus because of his refusalto condemn the “terrorists” who failed in theirpropaganda and “were a disaster” for whichanarchists are still “unjustly suffering”, stereo-typed as “terrorists” and “bomb-throwers.” Dothey not recognize their own complicity in fur-thering said stereotype? They also condemn hisview on re-appropriation – theft by anothername – by those who are most stolen from.“However high Reclus’ own moral standardsmay have been, he advocates on this issue a kindof moral laissez-faire that might justify ego-istic self-interest as effectively as it wouldinspire liberatory social practice.” Lest theanarcho-democrats feel left out, Reclus is saidto have spoken favorably about the Greek polis,attributing to Greek democracy a key elementin human emancipation. His description ofteachers was also very disturbing. They areconsidered a “natural authority” over the youngchild based on “greater size and power, age,intelligence, scientific knowledge, moral dignityand life experience.” The author-educators do

not criticize this troubling authoritarian stance,attributing it to an (unfamiliar to me) anarchisttheory called “authority of competence”. Two other areas Reclus promoted were hisanti-racist and anti-patriarchal views, which theauthors, no doubt correctly, state were largelyabsent then, even amongst the more prominentanarchists he associated with. They mention (forat least the second time) his marriage to awoman of color as part of his deeper understand-ing of the race prob-lems in America.Oddly, one indicatorof Reclus’ concernwas that blacks wererefused the vote. Yethe was capable ofdrawing deeper par-allels, such as theform familial rela-tionships took di-rectly influenced theform of the state andvice versa. Conse-quently, he believedthat “a free societycould only exist ifthe principles offreedom...are putinto practice in themost intimate andpersonal details oflife.” He thought thatwomen were notgiven proper creditfor their role in theformation of civilization. Matrilineal andmatricentric practices “in the midst of primi-tive barbarism” gives the “first impulse to thefuture civilization” by uniting “the members ofprimitive bands around the maternal hearth andsocializing them”. He writes of his studies oftribes whose female members were key to theiragricultural practices: women held “powerfulpolitical authority” and were “regulators ofall social and political affairs”, managing fi-nances and so on. Well, perhaps he is not everyanarchist’s anarchist... I won’t delve into Reclus’ writings them-selves. I will only say they are often interestingand poetic. If one is interested in anarchisthistory, Reclus should not be exluded anylonger. For non-French speakers, this book isthe best place to begin. Some of the titles Clarkand Martin have chosen to illustrate EliseeReclus’ relationship to anarchy, geography, andmodernity: “The Feeling for Nature in Mod-ern Society”, “To My Brother, the Peasant”,“On Vegetarianism”, “The History of Cities”,“The Modern State”, “Culture and Property”,and “Progress”. I was unable to make it to the Reclus confer-ence, but John Clark had my thoughts aboutReclus read to the small gathering which canbe found on page 86. Aragorn! did attend theconference and the transcript of his talk alongwith his Reclus biography are available on ourweb site. (WTS)

BackwoodsHipster

I usually find this mysterious little photocopiedzine on the bench out in front of our localcultural center, the general store (sometimes nextto a big stack of Green Anarchy). It is publishedfairly regularly and offers a puff of refreshinglystimulated air to the otherwise mostly politically

torpid and monotonouscounter-culture of ruralsouthern Oregon. Don’tget me wrong, lots of thelocals are interestingpeople I enjoy beingaround. I even plan onentering into long-termprojects with some –from sharing food toraising kids to sippingbeer at the local swim-ming hole to blockingoff the valley when theshit goes down – but Itypically avoid mostindepth discourse whenit comes to the world ofpolitical perspectives. Imean, there are folksdown with living with-out/outside civilization,but somehow, when wetalk about getting there,Bush, electoral politics,alternative energy, and

“good intentions” frequently become topics ofconversation. Backwoods Hipster, however,gives me hope that there are other autonomouspeople in our valley who think critically aboutthe situation they are in as individuals and thatwe are faced with collectively. Defying overt labels or agendas, BackwoodsHipster is basically an anti-civilization zine withan emphasis on living rurally. It is an amalgam ofDIY strategies and techniques, poetic rantings, per-spicacious humor, political/social commentary,various factoids, and absorbing descriptions ofdaily experiences (many influenced by homemadealcohol or other mind-altering concoctions), allwith a precarious conspiracy theory-end-of-the-world undertone, but with sophisticated charm. IfBackwoods Hipster was a wine, no boring andpredictable Merlot would it be! Maybe an elderberry-oregon grape-salal berry blend, with a hintof cinnamon, offering a healthy tonic to keep awaythe winter blues. Dry and bitter, but with surprisingand unique tones and occasional sweetness frombelow. It would be drunk after a few months ofaging, as to get the flavors shifting about, but notquite prolonged enough to impart it a completeconcordant taste, with just a hint of buoyantsediment to give it some grit. And, of course, itwould be consumed huddled around the woodstove during a late night game of gin rummy andesoteric intercourse or swaggering unsheathedaround a bonfire in the woods. Complex andassured, but never taking itself too seriously.



As the name might suggest, the BackwoodsHipster does not appear to be a misanthropicdeer skin wearing neo-primitive living in thewild (although I’m certainly down with thattoo), but instead, a contemplative and sensitivedrop-out from the world of hipness who hassettled in a slightly out of the way hippiehamlet in the mountains. A bebopping neo-luddite who buries his crop of beets for winterwhile surfing the internet for endless data onthe RAND corporation. A homemade martinidrinker that communicates with Sasquatch.Dancing the line between where we are andwhere we want to be (or are forced to go) andmaintaining an edge of slight abnormality andeccentricity (i.o.w. interesting) seems to bethe terrain for this earthy philosopher witha irreverent groove. He doesn’t endlesslypound you over the head with his thoughtsand ideas, but instead, slips them in obliquelywhile you’re not quite looking. You turn backaround from his calculated diversion to dis-tinguish something peculiar and aberrant, butyou aren’t quite sure what it is. Halloween 2006/Issue #5 begins with anode to the season, the land, and tranquiltrepidation: “Those of us living in BackwoodsHipster home territory are fortunate indeedto be surrounded by open space, good water,clean skies (except for those pesky chemtrails,of course!), and kind agricultural products.Whether by design or accident, landing here isa good strategic move. We stand a better chancethan many of enjoying continuity in our livescome Peak Oil, Federal Reserve collapse, neo-con freakout, Chinese invasion, floods, locusts,or any other bunkness that the Big Meanies orpissed-off deities dish out. So relax and enjoythe pumpkins and candy. But watch out for therotten eggs and poison powder in the pixiesticks! Boo!” This issue is filled with a reflectionon the construction (or illusion) of ourworldviews, the gathering of driftwood forsculpture, a Preparedness Primer (excerptedfrom BH’s upcoming book “When the ShiznitGoes Down”), and a brief introduction to theobscure culinary and medicinal cubeb berry. As we are preparing this edition, BackwoodsHipster New Year’s Day 2007/Issue #6 hit thevalley. It includes a section on preserving andstoring food (including drying, burying, androot cellaring) and a somewhat random piececalled “The One Eyed Hallucination”. Backwoods Hipster might not be that inter-esting or useful for your average city slicker,except maybe as a sociological study in someMaster’s program or a modish art project, butthat’s ok, for us folks out here in the sticks, ithas a place and a purpose, and that’s the waywe like it. (FS)

Currently only available at the GeneralStore...maybe in your town (if you’re lucky)

orIf you ask us real nicely, and send us a

donation, GA might just mail you a copy.For a sample of the content, check out:

www.backwoodhipster.com

The ContinuumConcept

In Search ofHappiness Lostby Jean Liedloff

The classic, yet not all too well circulated,Continuum Concept, might marginally fit intothe genre of an “alternative parenting” book.Originally published in the mid-seventies, it feelsdated at times, and in need of some amendments(perhaps with a more anarchistic pen).

Yet, ittouches so soundly on where

things begin to go wrong and the pile ofdesolation and devastation remaining for us tolive in. While I am talking of civilization and theprocess of domestication in general (agriculture,cities, institutions, industry, modernity, control,manipulation, etc), I am more specificallyspeaking of us personally as human-animals(physically, emotionally, intellectually,spiritually), and even more precisely, as new-borns entering into the terrestrial sphere withall the expectations of life. Jean Liedloff was a freelance model travelinghaphazardly around Europe when she met upwith two Italians searching for diamonds.Temporarily hitching onto their expedition, thisadventurer turned amateur anthropologist spentthe next couple of years living among theYequana people of the Venezuelan jungle. Shewas accepted by a tribe and immersed herself inthe daily existence of these hunter-gatherer-hor-ticulturists, yet with the knowledge and filtersof civilization (providing her certain juxta-positional insights as well as indoctrinatedobstructions). She wrote the Continuum Concept

upon returning from her final trip. It was whileliving among these primitive people that she beganto realize how much we have lost, how damagedcivilized people are, and how we might begin toregain our balance within ourselves, with eachother, and with the world we inhabit. Her conceptfocuses on how primal people (the Yequana,among others) tend to raise children, specificallyinfant to walking age, and how this foundationalperiod is crucial for growth and developmentalong the lines of the ancestral continuum ofhumans. This continuum is described as thephysical, emotional, and psychological nourish-ment and maturation based on the range ofexpectations and tendencies experienced overtime. Poetically portraying the correlation be-tween ourselves and our instinctual anticipation,Liedloff writes, “His lungs not only have, butcan be said to be, an expectation of air, his eyesan expectation of light…” The continuum, accord-ing to Liedloff, of an individual is whole, butalso forms part of the continuum of her family,tribe, community, species, and all of life. The investigation is less about instructions inspecifics (do it this way, don’t do it that way),and more of a conceptual idea with basicexamples left open to instinct, creativity, andcontext. In order to achieve optimal mental andemotional development, Liedloff suggests thatbabies require an experience to which ourspecies adapted during its evolution as part ofa living world, allowing children to becomeboth functioning and healthy parts of commu-nities, and also autonomous, self-confident,and happy individuals. Liedloff skirts thetricky line of human nature, by describing acontinuum of what is expected based onprimal needs and patterns over time, ratherthan what we inherently are. She describeshow earth-based people tend towardscertain types of nurturing and depicts theoutcomes from it, rather than delineating aspecific quality of human nature (although

for some this may seem like semantics, but Ibelieve the difference is subtle and crucial). Theconcept of the continuum does not flatten thehuman experience, as some superficially viewa sameness of primitive people as a whole, asseparate groups, or as individuals. “Conformityto the local mores gives a certain similarity tobehavior of the members of a society, but dif-ferences among individuals are, in the morecontinuum-based society, freer expressions ofinnate characteristics, since the society has no needto suppress them…In civilized societies, on theother hand, in varying degrees according to theirdeparture from continuum standards, the differ-ences among people are largely expressions of theways in which they have adapted to the distor-tions in their personalities caused by qualities andquantities of deprivation they have experienced.” Liedloff describes a few basic dynamicsbetween a baby and mother/caregiver. Theyinclude: continual physical connection with themother (or familiar caregiver) from birth,sleeping with parents as long as the child desires,breastfeeding on cue in response to the baby’sown body signals, being constantly carried inarms, in contact, or attached (observing, sleeping,


or feeding) while the caregiver goes about his/her every day activities, supporting creeping andcrawling on impulse, responding immediately tosignals (crying, squirming, etc.) without judge-ment or invalidation while not making them thecenter of attention, nourishing self-confidencethat they are welcome and worthy parts of asocial fabric with certain expectations, andallowing self-preservation instincts to developunimpeded (not overprotecting). Inclusion ofbabies alongside daily activity and viewing babycare as just a part of our life, rather than a sepa-rated and specialized function or job, Liedloffproposes, “it would help immeasurably if wecould see baby care as a non-activity…the babyis simply brought along as a matter of course.” She describes these dynamics in contrast to thesituation of the typical civilized baby (in the mid-seventies, although not much has changed formost of the population). They include: traumaticseparation from the mother at birth, constantisolation (from the maternity ward to the crib tothe playpen), crying to sleep, scheduled feeding,artificially pacified or stimulated, ignoring criesand other signs, exaggerated response to makethem the center of attention, excluded from olderchildren’s and adult’s daily activities, expectingthe child to be incapable of self-preservationwithout the interference of strict control andmanipulative techniques, and underminingand often contradicting an instinctual naturalprocess of development and growth. Understanding solely through reason, ourinherent or instinctual sense of what is good forus and what we want is eroded and distorted.According to Liedloff, the evolution of the humanspecies has not developed for certain experiencesoutside the continuum (i.e. civilization), there-fore life-long traumas ensue, including self-hatred,insecurities, sexual frustration, persistent boredom,compulsions, and unfulfilled yearning for belong-ing, which feed an unending host of dysfunction.She states, “the life force, in its ceaseless tend-ing toward repair of damage and completion ofthe developmental phases, among its instrumentsemploys anxiety, pain, and an array of other waysof signaling things are wrong. Unhappinessin all of its forms is the result.” However, ifexperiences fall within the continuum, self-assuredness and joy are more likely to follow.As Liedloff states, “The point is that the con-tinuum sense, allowed to function throughoutour lives, is capable of looking after our bestinterests better than any intellectually devisedsystem could begin to do.” However, even if you accept her premise,or are at least intrigued by it (that is if youdon’t outright dismiss it as more primitivistdogma), there are some problems with the book.Throughout, I found some examples and lan-guage subtly racist, homophobic, and sexist,probably not too uncommon in anthropologic-type writing. One major difficulty I foundwas the lack of questioning certain patternsshe observed from the Yequana (or at least herinterpretation of it) and wanting to apply it un-conditionally and too idealistically. For instance,despite relative gender equality (perceivedimportance and relative power within the tribe)

and apparent harmonious and mutually supportiveroles, the gender division of the tribe seemedextreme and unattractive to me. Mothers werethe ones primarily connected to the babies, otherwomen secondarily, and older children next, withfathers only playing the all-too-familiar tangentialrole of supporter until the boys reached a certainage. These gender roles were further enforcedwith girls taking part in “women’s” activities, andboys with “men’s”. These problems do not seeminherent in the concept Liedloff puts forth, justthe particular application, but it would have beenmore engaging had this area been explored.Also, it seems Liedloff attributes ALL civilized“dysfunction” (and some of those are question-able) to poor early development, which mighteven be the case, but it is written in a way whichseems overstated at times, rarely addressesinstitutions and social norms that adults arepressured to conform to, and offers only neg-ligible hope for healing – proposing minorsuggestions along these lines like recoverygroups which hold and caress each other. Despite some oversimplifications, omissions,and at times, exaggerated statements, the basisof what Liedloff proposes suggests some excitingimplications. Even in today’s world, she promptsthat through an understanding and practice ofcontinuum nurturing, “instead of depriving them[babies] so that they have only one hand withwhich to cope with the outside world, while the

other is busy with inner conflicts, we can

set them on their feet with both hands readyto take on outside problems.” Rather then “pro-tecting” children from every aspect of thisworld, by nurturing and allowing them to dis-cover for themselves their own boundaries ofpleasure and pain (dare I say, naturally), younghumans have a better chance to be more wholeand healthy then the fractured and neuroticdomesticated humans which now inhabit muchof the world.

Note: I write this review with my 6-week oldbaby girl in arms. Actually she is in a chest packwith her head resting on my heart and our handsfree to do with as we please/need. At her sizethis position seems the most comfortable andadvantageous for both involved. She seems tobe most calm, relaxed, and comfortable when wehold her and do the things we want to do. Andalthough she will inevitably experience manythings outside a hunter-gatherer continuum, weare attempting to make her experience as nurturedand joyous as possible. (FS)

Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA, 1975

Pirate Papa:A Journal of

Anarcho-GreenD(o).I(t).Y(ourself).Parenting

The concept of a zine for radical papas is nothingnew. They have been around the DIY sceneforever. Sometimes they offer practical advice,while others present rhetoric on what it means tobe a father in a world messed up beyond recog-nition. Pirate Papa is a mix of both. Issue #1(I’m not sure if there have been others) is an introto the zine, the author’s life, and the direction hehopes for it to go. Mostly, it is the author’s picksof the prime entries from the archives of PiratePapa (www.piratepapa.blogspot.com). The blogbegan as a diary, and has grown to a discussion

board. There are occasionally entertaining orengaging sections in the zine. And as usual,it contains the routine grumbling and gripingwe get from every other member of a self-encapsulated identity (this time “papa”) thatputs out a zine, how nobody understandsor how life is so tough for them because ofsuch and such. It all becomes indistinguish-able after a while. It makes me want to start astudy group/drinking club called Winos NotWhiners. Yeah, civilized life sucks, and bring-ing kids into it and trying to help them notbecome chewed up alive is hard. So what? Doya have something new to add to the critique,or something unique in terms of shiftingmomentum somehow else, or something maybevery basic but concealed or disfigured bythe brutal process of domestication multi-plied by the wreckage of being globalized andtechnified? You can substitute the identityand characteristics of one zine with another, mixthe images around, do this a few hundred times,and abracadabra, put on a zine symposium inyour town, invite all your friends, and maybe goto a punk show afterwards. Yawn. As a new papamyself, I reject the idea that I can be character-ized into an identity and that a zine, much less ablogsite, can offer me anything but a place tovent or an escape from my family and friends;not too desirable for me. We have a sign outsideour front door that reads “We are doing thingsour way, we’ll let you know if we are seekingadvice.” This is not because we have it allfigured out, or that we wish to intimidate thoseentering from casual conversation, or that



they might not have some information orideas beneficial to our lives, but because every-one seems to think they know so much aboutwhat is best for everyone else. Being a parent,especially now, is a difficult endeavor, but Ibelieve it is a myth that the internet brings ustogether or that it can connect us to invaluableinformation missing from our lives. After readingthis zine, these feelings are further supported.Instinct, even that which is barely remaining inthe civilized, yet possiblyregaining ground in theones attempting to goferal, is the most vitalaspect to being not onlya more together papa, buta human-animal…oras I like to call us,humanimal, or maybehumammal (dependingon the emphasis). And Isuppose sharing thesefeelings, theories, andexperiences is important,but preferably this canhappen between friendsand family and other locals,dare I say tribe, who mightpossibly share more incommon, who the actionsderived from any changewould most affect, and whocan look each other in theeye, know who each otherare, view the approximationbetween talk to action, andquite possibly even partici-pate in activities with thosein dialogue. This is difficult via blog. So to docu-ment the discussions from such a site seemscursory. I guess similar things could be said fora journal, but at least some are clear that theyexist solely for discussion of theory and report-ing on action, not to give advice. We save thatfor Dear Abby, or maybe...Waldorf and Statler. Most times, PP’s motivations seem honest andsincere. You get the feeling this dude wants tobe a connected papa to the kids he lives with.That’s awesome. I just didn’t need to know somuch about his life. It just wasn’t that interesting,at least not for mass distribution (just myopinion…like the rest of this). Hey, mine ain’teither, that’s why I don’t write about it too much.I talk about it with people I love and know. AndI live it as fully as I know how. And as it doesbecome more interesting (as it does from timeto time), maybe I’ll write more about it. Buthere’s the problem, “papa” (does not equal sign)“interesting”. I can think of a lot of other adjectivesacross the spectrum that do describe it, but notnecessarily “interesting”. Again, it could be andhopefully some strive for that. I won’t get intoall the sordid details of the entries in the zine.Some, I got something minor out of, much Ididn’t. If you’re interested in sifting through itall, I guess you can find the entire ball of waxonline and do with it what you can. I didn’t. (FS)

Pirate Papa, 2490 E. Pickering Rd,Shelton, WA 98584

www.piratepapa.blogspot.com

Pirate Papa:A Journal of

Anarcho-GreenD(o).I(t).Y(ourself).ParentingStay-at-home dad, Sky Cosby, has put togethera rich sixty-page booklet that contributes to theimportant and growing anti-authoritarian

parenting literature.While some writ-ings on bringing upanarcho-kids aimsat developing ap-proaches or precepts,Pirate Papa is moreof a day-to-dayjournal. Its strengthlies in its opennessand personally re-vealing reactions,feelings and ongo-ing discoveries. Sky’s fatherhoodchallenges are pre-sented withoutmuch of any phi-losophizing orframework-seek-ing, an enjoyableopening to whatit’s like for him,his partner, andtwo young daugh-ters as they faceeach day.

Also includedis a very useful listing of doz-ens of online resources. (JZ)

No price listed.Copyleft 2006.

piratepapa.blogspot.com

Red Sky atNight #5

Current issue of a personal-political zine that varies informat and content but isan engrossing, well-writteneffort. Travels and ex-plorations, both outerand inner, are the contentof #5 done in a clear,hand-lettered style. Musings of a Primitiv-ist Traveler Kid wouldbe a conceivable sub-title, but that soundsk ind o f d i smissive,and I found my estima-t ion to be anythingbut that. RSN #5 is re-vealing, questioning, in-sightful, and I hope its creator keeps it up. Very worthwhile indeed. (JZ)

Contact [email protected]

God’s Hit Listcompiled by Chaz Bufe

Subtitled Abominations and Death Penaltiesin the Bible (Old Testament only, in fact), this22-pager is Chaz Bufe’s latest offering. Join-ing about two dozen others in the See SharpPress series of atheist pamphlets, Bufe offersa veritable library for anyone pondering thequestion of theism. The God’s Hit List selections will probablysurprise very few readers and are unlikely toundo much vis-à-vis fundamentalists or otherbelievers, I would guess, but may be of interestand/or use-value to some. Intolerance on parade. (JZ)

$2 from See Sharp Press, PO Box 1731,Tucson, AZ 85702

All Out War:Chess and Its Relevanceto Strategic Insurgency

by Keith and xlukexI was afraid that this booklet might have issuedfrom cerebral chess nerds trying to demonstratetheir superior braininess. Nothing could be fur-ther from the truth; my wrong guess debunked,in fact, in the first sentence: “I’ve never beenmuch of a chess player.” At the same time, however, a love of thegame is certainly shared with the reader. AllOut War is an unpretentious, challenging,playful read that promotes the deepening effortto apply the combat skills of chess to the chal-

lenges we face in the world. Chess is anunforgivinggame, andthe lapses ormistakes wemake in thesoc ia l war,likewise haveconsequences.Full of quotes,stories, and re-sources, even a24-page “Rulesof Engagement”h o w - t o - p l a ysection. This is ajoy to make useof. Bravo, guys!(JZ)

No price listed. [email protected]

...from thebottom of theboard, all ofthe pieces

appear the same,but upon morescrutiny...


After Eden:The Evolution ofHuman Dominationby Kirkpatrick Sale

In 1995, Kirk Sale’s Rebels Against the Futureappeared, basically a fine historical treatment ofthe anti-mass production Luddite risings of thefirst two decades of the 1800s. A special treatwas the book’s final chapter, which answered thequestion “What does this have to do with usnow?” in no uncertain terms. Sale clearly andeloquently made the case for a luddite rising oftoday: a dismantling of industrial society. His After Eden has a similar punch. As withRebels, it not only provides insightful historicalmaterial but also draws a powerful conclusion:namely, the need to tune in to “our basic hominidnature. Underneath [today’s] veneer is a StoneAge mind and a Stone Age heart, and it may stillbe our guide today…”. Sale does not see a whole-sale return to the world of Homo Erectus—although his concluding chapter is called “TheErectus Alternative”.But he points to muchof enduring value in“the original anarchistsociety” that prevailedfor so long before civi-lization. And he alsomakes abundantly clearhow unacceptable it isto permit the industrialtechno-world to con-tinue on its murderouspath. After Eden is a rela-tively thin volume, butpacked with informa-tion, extremely well-written, and full ofstimulating ideas con-cerning the origins ofdomestication. Manypoliticos have writtendiatribes against “primi-tivism”, utterly lacking inknowledge of pre-history.Sale’s new book is theopposite. Dense but highlystimulating and exciting to read. A valuableaddition to the anti-civ library. Grab it. (JZ)

Duke University Press, 178 pages, $19.95

Returnby Clayton J. Elliott

This is an anti-civ novel that recounts the effortsand emotions of a few friends in pre- , mid- ,and post-collapse England. It is the premieroffering of Ramshackle Palace press. Return, as the back cover puts it, “exploresthe desire to fight back against the vacuity of atechnological world and our need to re-connectwith the Earth.” Gritty and unflinching, it is norosy, utopian romp; rather, it stresses the toughparts in a scenario that includes both interper-sonal and social challenges. Very good food for

thought in terms of our own projections, analyses,desires. Brava to Emily and the other fine folksat Ramshackle. (JZ)

167 pp. Paperback. $15/12.50 euros.ramshacklepalace.com

Means Without End:A Critical Survey ofIdeological Genealogyof Technology Without

Limits, FromApollonian Techne to

PostmodernTechnoculture

by Gregory H. DavisDavis may have the record here for longest sub-title, but is otherwise much less verbose. Fromacademe come so many volumes and so verylittle of importance, while Davis’ career book-

output numbers just two.Twenty-five years ago hisTechnology: Humanismor Nihilism (1981) was acogent—and predictablyignored—indictment of ahigh-tech Leviathanpoised for a Great LeapForward. Means Without End isprimarily an historicalaccount of the move-ment of technologywithin Western culture,from classical Greece toits contemporary apogee.In succinct and acces-sible prose—and fewerthan two hundredpages—the course of thedomination of natureand society by evermore estranging tech-nical means is ablypresented. For almost three de-cades Gregory Davishas taught a course on

technology, contemporary society, and humanvalues. This book is probably its core text, andone can only hope that it is utilized not only atother centers of learning, but by anyone lookingto grasp today’s technoculture and its development.Means Without End is an extremely valuablecritical survey. (JZ)

2006, paperback, University Press ofAmerica, www.univpress.com

Durruti 1896-1936 published byL’ insomniaque

A three-languages book (English, Spanish andFrench) published by the French Insomniaque,dedicated to the Spanish anarchist Buenaventura

Durruti. A beautiful collection of photographs,partially provided by the anarchist historian AbelPaz, that gives to the reader not a tribute to a hero,nor a nostalgic outlook of the past, but a livingexperience of a fight for the destruction of the oldword. Fascism and Stalinism will assassinate thatexperience. (Review by Arti Cular)

Available at: L’ insomniaque, 42, rue deStalingrad, 93100 Montreuil S/Bois, France.

email: [email protected] euros.

Hymns forBrueghel:

Brambles of Berries,Rants, and Poetic Orgies

by (un)leash “The full Moon strips civilization from thelandscape, and it becomes fully 1000 yearsancient. The sun and moon know how to makeeternal. But once an areas is colonized, it stayscolonized for so very long. How long beforethese delusions evaporate for good? Will I liveto see it? Will I live my whole life under theoccupation? [...] Yet I would Los Angelesbecome a Homeland again, for beneath my feet,by sunset or moonlight, crickets chirp by thetule villages where campfires are cookingacorn stew.” “Where the ground squirrels used to play arenow hideous houses. Witchcraft as defiantpagan anarchy. We live on the sharp edge ofthe moment. Beauty or wages?” These are just a few of the pieces in Hymnsfor Brueghel, in which the author rangeswidely over love, Germanic mythology, hisown personal dilemmas and joys, and muchmore. Amidst “Jimson Weed Essays from theDark Night” and “Maenadic Letters”, he alsocomments on the alchemy of lips, transformality,and the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. (un)leash is long into the process of lovinghonestly and contemplating the complexitiesinvolved. While living in a city, he gathers wildedibles. Rejecting the oppressive status quo, hereaches for the magic of place, poetry, humanconnection and the wonder of the sense, andhis own heart-felt curiosity and desire. Hymns for Brueghel is yet another title frommicro-publisher Primal Revival Press. Othertitles from this press are Live Your Madness:How to Become Sane by Going Crazy andAffirming your Weirdness, and Wyrd MeganThew, a commentary on Germanic and Norsemythology. The author is a bit of Whitman, Ginsberg,Isaiah, Rimbaud, and Blake, but he is mostly,uniquely (un)leash. His rants and essaysmoved me closer to my own voice anddreams. (Review by Jim Yarbrough)Published by Ink and Scribe in coordinationwith Cafe Press 2005. ISBN 1-931947-14-7

Contact: Primal Revival Press [email protected]. 272 pages



A Short Historyof Progressby Ronald Wright

This really is a short history. Five chapters (eachtaking a half hour to read carefully) take up132paperback pages of well-spaced, easy to readtype: 1) Gauguin’s Questions (“where do wecome from? what are we? where are we going?”);2) The Great Experiment (an unprecedented anduncontrolled test of specialization in re-carryingcapacity); 3) Fool’s Paradise (civilization as“progress trap”); 4) Pyramid Schemes (the biggerRome and Maya grew, the harder they fell); 5)The Rebellion of the Tools (runaway tech willkill us, even though everyone fantasizes a tech-fixfor global warming). Almost 70 pages of excel-lent footnotes and bibliography follow (a fat thirdof the whole book), plus index. A short historyand super-useful because people not yet fullyconvinced of the Green Anarchy fundamentalswill move a lot closer toour worldview as theyread these pages. There may not bemuch new here for themost dedicated readersof Green Anarchy, butwhat Canadian RonaldWright has done de-serves our highestpraise, plus ever widerand more rapid distri-bution. You will want togive a dozen copies ofthis book away to yourskeptical or bemusedfriends and family, be-cause Wright writes topersuade, and gets itright in one memorablesentence after another.He keeps the idea of“progress” alive justlong enough to kill itwith a stick, revives“progress” just to knockit off again with eye-opening statistics, concedes still more “progress”in this area or that, and then shows how it hides ourever quicker march to mass extinctions of species.I don’t think he is pretending to be open to the ideaof “progress” . He would really like to be shownsome. And so he brings curious readers into hisarguments gently, carefully, with the data of anexperienced historian and archaeologist, then pullsthe rug out from under a cherished assumption. To illustrate the value of Wright’s work I’dlike to comment on a few quotations.“Our technological culture measures humanprogress by technology; the club is better thanthe fist, the arrow better than the club, the bulletbetter than the arrow. We came to this belief forempirical reasons: because it delivered.” (P. 4) Getting better at killing people is never reallyprogress, but when we look closely at weaponry

in 2006 the most glaring fact that vast numbersof people refuse to face is that BIG expensiveweapons have become more and more vulner-able and are now, practically speaking, worsethan useless. Just one person with a car bomb ora truck bomb or a roadside bomb, an old fashionedmortar or a new fangled RPG (rocket propelledgrenade) can do an amazing amount of damageto a billion dollar bomber or an aircraft carrieror a nuke power plant; a little low tech can makea mess of large high tech in minutes. And allthree forms of bio, chemo and dirty nuke WMDcan be made small to microscopic, again, deliv-erable by one person. To paraphrase Wright: Wecame to this belief for empirical reasons; because600 car bombs in Iraq were delivered. Two quotes from page 14:“ From the first chipped stone to the first smeltediron took nearly 3 million years: from the firstiron to the hydrogen bomb took only 3,000.” “ The Old Stone Age, or Palaeolithic era, lastedfrom the appearance of toolmaking hominids,

nearly 3 million yearsago, until the meltingof the last ice age,about 12,000 yearsago. It spans morethan 99.5 percent ofhuman existence.” Whatever “humannature” or our “speciesbeing” may be, ithas a lot more to dowith that 99.5 per-cent of human exist-ence than with thepast few thousand orfew hundred years.Personally, I think it

is painfully easy tosee that we were welladapted to a widevariety of ecologicalniches and living ina sustainable relation-ship to Nature up un-til about 10,000 to4,000 BC. 99% of uswere living in balance

with Nature until civilizations with their literacy,metal workings, grain surpluses and hierarchiesbegan to impose their power trips and top-soil borrowings on their neighbors in orderto prolong their irrational existence. “By about 5,000 years ago, the majority ofhuman beings had made the transition fromwild food to tame.” (pg. 45) I’d like to see the data on which this assertionis based, but the rest, as they say, is his-story.“The Muslim fanatic is proving a worthy re-placement for the heretic, the anarchist, andespecially the Red Menace so helpful to militarybudgets throughout the Cold War.” (pg. 49)But, if the system should run out of Muslimfanatics it is as easy to declare that heretic xand anarchists y and z should be detained fortheir own safety. (Review by MC K9)

A hip hop backbone supports livepolyriddims, collaborating musicians, lushelectronica, field-recordings, and an arrayof guest MCs and singers. The result isgenuinely fresh, streetwise, and solid fromstart-to-finish. Filastine, a former memberof °Tchkung! and founding participant in theInfernal Noise Brigade, has been drawingon musical traditions from all around theglobe to compose incendiary anarchistmusic for well over a decade now. “BurnIt,” is a wide-ranging melange of drivingrhythms, electronic experimentation, on-sitesampling, and multilingual vocals. A full$5 from every CD sale will go to support the“Green Scare” defendants who have refusedto inform.

burn it

filastine

Os Cangaceiros was a group ofdelinquents caught up in the spirit of theFrench insurrection of 1968 who refusedto let that spirit die. The first substantialcollection of Os Cangaceiros’ writings inEnglish. 160pp softcover | $6.00

Available from Eberhardt Press,3527 NE 15th #127Portland, OR 97212,

www.eberhardtpress.orgSend us your zines, books, cds, videos, and cooking for review.

www.filistine.com


I don’t want to die in a collective houseIt’s been a hard winter for Waldorf and me; two weeks ago MissLouise, the nice young lady who would always smack her gums atthis cutting figure when I strutted by, passed away. She died whilewatching a Guy Debord film (evidently she was bored to death).Just a few days before that, ole Willy the pro-situ cook (the only joba pro-situ can get) choked on his dialectical eggs. Willy could separatethe yolk (thesis) from the whites (antithesis) and then serve the re-combined parts but couldn’t separate out the egg shell before itripped through his tender intestinal tract... so much for the synthesis.

Death haunts us all like the sound of a poetry reading at ananarchist cafe, shrill, piercing, languishing –and a sad inevitability.Yet there are some things to rejoice about in death, namely the endof life. There are also valuable lessons to learn. In the instance ofMurray Bookchin (who bit it at the pungent age of 85) we find thatno matter how much hemorrhoid cream you use, you’ll still end upbeing a cantankerous jackass.

Debord led the way. Shotgun blast to the chest!

Where’s an insurrection when you need itThe reds (aka class-struggle anarchists without a struggle or class)have been on an anti-insurrectionalist bender of late, contributingsnoozer after snoozer to their critique of a strawman they are callinginsurrectionalism. They try to scare children with tales of bomb-throwing anarchists and instead, end up selling their ownpreconceived notions of unions, the left, revolution, and utilitarianprograms. It’s as if they can only understand something if it is framedlike a systematic approach to their project of social revolution (TM).Reading essays like “Anarchism, Insurrections and Insurrectionalism”

and the follow up “Notes on Anarchism...” is the closest Ihave ever been to watching (paint dry) the creation of a partyline. It’s like sitting in the doctor’s office knowing that he isgoing to come out and tell me that I am old. I know that I amold, gawd dammit! Tell me what I can do about it!In this case, the red (anarchist) line is that a) insurrectionarytactics (they define as spectacular terrorism) aren’t a remedyto the real problem of a low level class struggle; and b)insurrectionary (and not-red) criticism of “the organizer”(a term they love so much they might as well marry) throwsthe baby out with the bathwater. The criticism of “the organizer”has “expanded into an ideological position that presents suchdangers as inevitable”. This should seal the deal. No one isallowed to use the term “ideological” to describe someonethey disagree with. As soon as the petticoat & knickers creware throwing it around you know it has over-stayed itswelcome as an epithet. Down with ideologists, so-calledrevolutionary strategy (better called navel gazing), and theimagination game that anarchists are actually playing onthe same board as the monsters of state and capitalism.

Dammit! Get these clowns a chess set!

Social Struggle anywhere and nota dumpster to eat from

Crimethinc. has issued a series of edicts from their secret cave on MountWhogivesafuckingstan including a report on their 10 years of activityand an analysis on how far “we” have come in the seven years sinceSeattle. Oh, Seattle I feel like I barely knew ya! In their report back onSeattle (a tardiness only a Crimethincer could appreciate) they submita report for why the revolution hasn’t happened yet... “The momentumthat followed Seattle was not destroyed by the government response,it was abandoned by those who had maintained it: the most significantquestion presented by the post-Seattle phase of struggle is not how tohandle repression, but how to sustain morale.”

Which I guess is where Crimethinc. sees their use. Cheerleaders ofthe anti-globalization set. Cheerleaders for the black bloc, paper-mache turtles, and the Radical Cheerleaders. Meta-cheerleaders?Crimethinc finishes their report by cheerleading for the future, thenext set of protests they expect to happen almost 2 years fromnow. They believe that the presidential campaign of 2008 “will bethe next backdrop against which major mass actions can be expectedto take place” and believe protesting them would be “a victory overthe segregation, isolation, and conflict promoted by the capitalistsystem.” If they believe that Seattle was a victory over isolation foranarchists, when the vast majority of anarchists’ participation inSeattle involved refreshing a web page over and over again, then Ihave two towers in New York to sell them. The era of symbolicprotesting is over. Abstractions are an anachronism!

Boo! Hiss! Boo! Hiss!

with Waldor

f

and St

atler

News from

the Balcony



Elisée Reclus ...Just as I begin my exploration, a huge peri-winkle blue dragonfly enters my mid-autumnworld. Hovering just above the pond a few feetaway. I appreciate its lacy wings that seem sodelicate yet are strong enough to carry thecreature great distances. Strong enough tocause ripples across the water’s surface. Whatis it doing? Is it looking for something to eat?What shall I do with it now that it has enteredmy world? An infinite number of possibilitiesexist for me and this unique creature. I couldstudy the movement of its wings and theireffects on other lives of the pond. I could captureand cage it for further examination (or to merelyadmire whenever I wished). Then again, I couldkill it and dissect it to better understand themechanics of flight. I wonder if it’s edible?How would it taste? Would it nourish me?

A thousand possibilities, a thousand thoughtsflying around inside my head. Filling thespaces between us...I begin again.

Reclus is ...Sharp and darting movements mark mydragonfly’s maneuvers. Is it searching forsomething beneath the water? Is it dancingwith its own reflection? Is it awakening to it’sconscious? Is it... ARGH! I do love my curiousnature, my inquisitive and contemplative mind.But these qualities keep getting in the way ofsimply enjoying the dragonfly’s marvelouspresence. Its gift to my day. Why can’t I simplydwell in its freedom of movement and of time;far more expansive than mine. Or so it seemsfrom the perspective of a one who is limited

by boundaries far more insidious than of aperceived absence of a proper consciousnessor shorter lifespan or...

Reclus is dead! And here I am, spending my too-quickly-waning fall days aiding in his resurrection. Bring-ing back to life yet another long-departed,enlightened-European, male anarchist. Beyondthe obvious academic credentialing that hisrevival has brought, why do we care about thewords and activities of one dead for over ahundred-fifty years? Did he discover somethingprofound in his world travels as a preeminentgeographer? Can he further clarify our per-spective on the current and potential future of ourworlds? Is there anything in his ancient assess-ment that remains relevant today given the scaleof unpredicted – and unpredictable – human-directed geographical and social changes (a.k.aProgress) scraped from our bones since his time?

Humanity is nature becomingself-conscious.

What is this great self-consciousness Reclusinsists humankind must develop and spread?From conscientia, knowledge-with or sharedknowledge, numerous systems of thought haveevolved around the notion of consciousness.Commonalities include subjectivity, self-aware-ness, sentience, sapience, and the ability toperceive oneself in relationship to one’senvironment. It is often tied quite closely toconscience – a moral sensibility.(1) Is it aninherent aspect of higher life forms as mostThinkers suggest? Or does it emerge fromhuman intelligence and its constructs? Particu-larly ideology.(2) Over and over Reclus speaks

of humans AND nature, maintaining the artifi-cial separation that continues to pervade themodern world view where humans are invariablyplaced outside of – and most often above – allother life forms. Reclus does attempt toovercome this hierarchy and concomitantdomination through rhetorical exercises thatare wholly unconvincing despite any sincerityof attempt. What was the state of Reclus’ con-sciousness when he chose to explore and mapthe world and its human inhabitants? Did he,could he, with his great human intelligence andmoral conscious KNOW that his works wouldbe used by states and empires to conquer anddestroy? By the industrialists he railed againstto further exploit the coexisting land and life?By scientists and technologists to further thereach of human domination? Reclus suffered,as surely we all do, from a certain shortnessof vision. Our eyes shaded by motivationsimposed by society, by ideological preconcep-tions and presumptions left unquestioned. One test for the existence of consciousnessis based on the human observation of animalsgazing into a mirror. If said authority deemsthe animal has recognized itself, the animalmay be conscious. If he could look in themirror today, what would Reclus see?

The dragonfly appears to be gazing at itsown reflection. Am I witnessing – or am Iinfluencing – a beginning of self-awareness?Is it situating a human morality in place ofinstinct, experience, and non-linear adap-tation? Oh, but wait! Could my dragonflybe giving thanks and praise to the Buddhacemented into the artificial pond? Can itabsorb Buddha consciousness through aconcrete icon? Can you? So many possibilities.

Reclus:by

Fire

An Egoist Green Anarchist Exploration


Far more than language, no matter howpoetic, can describe.

Looking through the mirror of history, all sortsof justifications and rationalizations have beenbuilt into our consciousness. Reclus may haveabandoned the official religion of his preacherfather, but he held onto the notion that humanitywould be saved by a higher purposed, global-ized morality. A morality that has ALWAYSbeen used to bend all of life to others’ wills.That requires someone to determine and enforceit. What morality and unquestioned rules andjudgments frame your reality? What ideologiesunderly your perception of the world, thus con-sciously directing your actions? How many andwhich acts have become quite unconscious? I don’t know if other creatures have this thingcalled consciousness, but I am disturbed byReclus’ glorification of a human consciousnessthat no matter how one defines it, has broughtwith it a power so strong it has overridden allother possibilities of how humans might betruly of their world. Is it my particular madness to think I’d bebetter off with the consciousness of a dragonflythan of domesticated human?

When the cities grow, humanityprogresses and when they shrink the

social body is threatened with regressioninto barbarism.

Reclus was a great fan ofProgress so he did not suffi-ciently question the pervasivenotion that humans have aninnate mandate to advancetheir lot through the Sciencesand particularly through itsmaterialization in more andmore advanced technology.His dialectical approach to thequestion of cities, culture,agriculture, institutions oftenseems more an apology thana means of questioning. Citiesare an absurdly complex wayof organizing human life.They require authorities andbureaucrats in institutionalsettings who know how tokeep them going. Cities requirethe importation of even the most basic necessi-ties: food and water. Importation that hasalways meant and will always mean, theft fromother life outside the city. The city requiresmassive amounts of human and non-humanenergy just to maintain its fragile equilibrium.How can this mean anything other than a con-tinued exploitive division of labor as glorifiedin Reclus’ and others’ worker ? No one hasyet described how cities can continue to existwithout more and more advanced technology.Technology which first enlarges the humanimpact then spreads it farther and deeper thanhumans with only the energy of their bodiesand simple tools in hand could ever accomplish.The polis exerts a pressure so great upon the

land and air and water – on all life withinand without – it has never failed to create anexplosive discord. If Rita had had a human conscious, would ithave spared this city on the edge?

Suddenly, the dragonfly charged right at me,aiming at my head then quickly disappearingfrom my view. But, never again from my aware-ness. With that single startling act even morethoughts leap into my mind. Was it drawn tome because of my great human consciousness?Was it as curious and appreciative of me as Iwas of it? Could the dragonfly have knownthe thousand possibilities of its demise at myhands and so was warning me away? Or wasI just another obstacle to be dodged on itsafternoon free-flight? Alas, the most horrific thought of all couldnot fail to enter into the realm of Fire anddragonfly possibilities: this beautiful creaturecould be – if not now, one day all too soon –a replicant, a robot, a spy, or worse.(3) Thisthought wrenches me towards a paranoiaonly possible in a world where the architectsof the future go unopposed as they designthe next, new and improved version ofsurveillance and killing-technology to dealwith those whose wings (however weakly)send disturbing ripples across the surface oftheir artificial landscape.

With this last raging thought, I am finally ableto shrug away the intellectual games and feelthe simple pleasure of sharing a warm, vibrantfall day filled with that moment of beauty, ofthe wild and expansive freedom of a dragon-fly dance.

Elisée Reclus is dead,but he is not alone.In the years since he ceased breathing – and Ithink it’s time I stopped breathing for him –countless billions have joined him. The massivehuman-caused extinctions that continue toescalate are a direct result of a refusal to

recognize, contemplate, and challenge everynew progressive incursion into our worlds.This is not because we do not question authority.It is because we do not reject it at base. Werely on the authority of official thinkers andbig S scientists, politicians, professors, leaders,and thousands of other mediators to tell uswhat is right, what will work and what won’t,what makes sense and what will bring oursalvation. Layers of civilized logic have allbut severed our connection to what it is wereally need and might expansively desire;forcing us to see these two as separate far toooften. We are even more removed from howto fulfill our wildest dreams without destroy-ing the environment that contains it all. All the world is ours, each one of ours. Butwe can only know it from our own centerwhere all we need-want is within our grasp.And we must take it back from those whowrest it from us daily. Or to whom we give itup so willingly. To live our own lives as wechoose, not in servitude to others and theirideas, but in impassioned explorations, experi-ments, and uncertainties. To take all we want,but with a wholism that includes a direct, sen-sual, intellectual, emotional consciousness ;what I have come to think instinct mightactually be. To locate that place where wecannot fail to heed the warnings of others

issued when we go too far;when we may cause irrepa-rable harm to the world welove and wish to keep. Canwe get back to our selves,those strong and free indi-viduals who cavort with allthe natural wonders that wechoose and who choose us?How do we prepare our-selves to confront the con-sequences of those choices? Reclus was “ahead of histime” and his life’s workadded a depth and breadthin much of the early envi-ronmental movement. Butwe would be foolish to layour faith at Reclus’ enlight-ened feet. Faith in scientific,technological – that is,

Progressive – solutions has led us directlyto the dire straits we find ourselves trying tonavigate. Despite his atheism and break with“conservative” religion; despite his dedicationto an anarchist ideal of liberation, Reclus’view of the world was rooted in a belief thathumans have a Special place in Nature. He –like so many – merely exchanged his patri-archal god above for the equivalent below,a universal morality that does not, cannot,and ought not exist. His much acclaimedstatement, “Humanity is nature becomingself-conscious”, exemplifies my greatestconcern with his legacy.

(continued on page 89)


We left the mossy rain-fed forests of thecoast, drove down through oak hills and anightmare of farmed flatlands, descended intothe creosote of the Mojave desert, rose upamong the saguaros of the Sonoran, climbedback into oaks, and finally emerged in themossy rain-fed forests of Arizona. “We couldhave just stayed home,” opined my travelingpartner. Yes, but this forest was rumored tocontain one feature that ours usually lacks: awhole crowd of insurrectional anarcho-primitivists and sympathizers, probably onebehind each tree, just starting a week ofrewilding mentally, physically, and emotionally! It was time once again for Feral VisionsAgainst Civilization, a yearly gathering looselyorganized by bioregional hosts in locationssometimes inconveniently far from my home.This was the fourth annual gathering. TheNortheast, the Cascades, and Appalachia hadalready shown fine hospitality. Now we cameto the desert... in August. Perhaps the organizers wanted to spare us thedehydration, heatstroke, vinegaroons, spinyplants, and flash floods of the Sonoran in August.Perhaps they wanted those of us from the foreststo feel more at home. For whatever reasons,

they had chosen an island of trees surroundedby low desert, an island 10,000 feet in the skynear the top of Mt. Graham. Unfortunately, thethunderstorms rocking the desert all seemedto be based on this same mountain. When theyweren’t out destroying the suburbs of Tucson,they rested right above us with their wind andrain and cold. We greeted some friends in the parkinglot, where they stood guard over the fewvehicles at the bottom of the trail. Then itwas up the steep road carrying deer parts(me) and publications (my friend). Abouta hundred feet further on we could be foundsprawled in the dirt gasping for breath.“What the fuck? Two days of sitting in thecar, and OK, so I did eat some junk food inthat time, but why am I so winded?” ThenI remembered the high elevation. We madeit a little further, then a little more, and thenwe ran into most of the gathering comingdownhill bearing a friend on a garden cartstretcher. He was off to get stitches in hiscut foot. One of the extra cart-bearershelped us carry things uphill, prodding uson with helpful lies like “almost there” and“just up this steep part”.

There weren’t exactly folks behind each tree– freddies maybe, sneaky cops and the like,but not friends. Turnout was low. Was it fearof summer in the southwest that kept peopleaway, or maybe fear of the feds and their recentintimidations? Or is there waning interest inan anti-movement non-ideology that offers noready answers, no party line, and no clear pathof action to those who would get involved?A community of people who would ratherthink and critique for themselves has gatheringsthat differ from an activist rendezvous. Ques-tions are posed, rather than solutions given,and the set of skills needed for dismantlingand outliving civilization can seem vast andintimidating.The persons who come ready toinvolve themselves, to create the gatheringthey want to attend, probably gets enough outof it to want to come back. More casual attend-ees may not. Every morning we would gather in a sunnyforest clearing, or under a leaky smoke-filledtarp, and plan the day’s events. There was aschedule of proposed themes provided,beautifully abstract and open to individualinterpretation, which ended up having littlebearing on what actually took place. Morningdiscussions tended to splinter into planned andunplanned workshops that took up the afternoon,until a brilliant sunset lit the desert for ahundred miles around and people scrambledto the cliffs to watch. Or until the gloom slowlydarkened to night. Some workshops that were proposed dailynever happened – there may not have beenenough time, or interest. As someone whoended up facilitating lots, I hope it wasn’t acase of less vocal participants feeling left outby certain people dominating the scheduleboard. These gatherings are what we make ofthem. There was a hesitancy to schedule morethan one thing at a time, but in a situationwith so much to do and so little time, it seemsinevitable that some workshops will conflict. The moments that really stand out in mymemory were not scheduled or even proposed.They just happened, mostly around the fire atnight. Singing and laughing in a large circle offriends, or sharing things bravely with folks whohad been strangers. At these times I felt gratefulfor our small numbers and the intimacy thisallowed, and I wondered to what extent themountain itself was involved in our interactions. Dzil Nchaa Si An is considered sacred bytraditional Apaches, who have suffered fromthe construction of telescopes on its summit.The mountain is an important figure in theirstories of creation, of how they became peopleand learned to live in that particular place. Nowthe brute force of science, industry, and religion(the Vatican built one of the telescopes)conflicts with the more subtle forces of landand spirit. It seemed to me that, though ourrelationship with the mountain was shallowand brief, we may have benefited from theexperience. I hope at least that we did no harm.

Report Back:

Feral Visions AgainstCivilization 2006

by Laurel Luddite

Report Back:

Feral Visions AgainstCivilization 2006

SPRING/SUMMER ‘07 ISSUEPage 89 SPRING/SUMMER ‘07 ISSUEPage 89

Let me say right here that my areas of inter-est are more the physical and emotionalrewilding than the mental. I guess I’m kindaslow. Hours or years after a discussion I willform my own opinion and put it brilliantly intowords, usually when there are only fir treesaround to hear it. Therefore I didn’t get muchout of the morning discussions because I didn’tgo. For a more informed critique, find some-one who did. [GA Note: Theory discussionsmostly went well, were generally well attended,thoughtful, and lively. Topics included Anti-Civilization 101, Tactics and Strategy, Mythand Play, among others.] As I was walking around one morning avoid-ing a discussion I ran into a situation muchmore difficult to avoid and affecting all of us– our lack of security. A line of forest servicecops and one cop dog came up the trail towardscamp. I wondered why the alarm wasn’t beinggiven, then after they passed realized that Iwas the one who needed to give it (remember:kinda slow). A series of halfhearted howlsechoed around. On this and several otheroccasions, the cops oozed from one camp toanother harassing people and handing outgratuitous citations for littering (empty waterbottles waiting to be refillled) and unsecuredfood (an exploded container of yogurt). Therewas no permit signed for the gathering, anddue to our low numbers none was legallyneeded. This didn’t stop the harassment. Itseems we should be prepared for this – andworse – with a solid plan for security. In thiscase there was no communication with theparking lot as the radios didn’t work and noone wanted to runa mile uphill at10,000 feet everytime the pigs pokedaround. Reactionswere individual,with some peoplemaintaining silencearound the copsand some sayingway more thanthey needed to.Later in the week,some folks pre-sented a workshopon pig/person in-teractions thatoffered a helpful reminder of our legal rights,limited as they are. The cop situation was hard to avoid at thislocation because our water supply, for bothkitchen and personal needs, was far away.Filling the containers involved driving a truckdown the road where cops of all kinds lay inwait for a vulnerable driver to ID and harass.We may not take ourselves seriously as resis-tance, as a threat, but if we’re gonna betreated as such maybe we should learn a lessonfrom those who came before. Battles havebeen fought in those same mountains for

control of the springs, because if you have toleave your safe zone every time you needwater you’re in trouble. Our safe zone was wayup a trail, backed against cliffs, beautiful butnot all that practical. Perhaps future organizerswill look at site selection as if planning for asiege, which in effect these gatherings are. And that leads to the big question in my mind:why? Why put myself in that situation,traveling for days, getting all jittery about copswhile committing only thought (and emotion)crimes, and eating undercooked beans just tocamp with friends for a week? Well, I enjoyspending time in the outdoors with people whoshare an interest in the absolute destruction ofmost everything I dislike. I’ve met some goodfriends at these gatherings, people I otherwisewould not have met. And I value the opportunityto learn and share skills in an anti-authoritarian,non-commercial setting. I’m just not sure ofthe wisdom of doing this all under the bannerof “green anarchy” and “anti-civ” and all thoseother words that draw the cops like flies to anideological corpse. Some have discussed holding regional gather-ings, more like skillshares, as an outgrowthof Feral Visions but without those keywords.Others may have ideas for enlivening theannual gatherings so that it feels worthrunning the cop gauntlet to be there. As Idrove down the mountain this year, rainsoaked, flatulent (do beans ever soften at thataltitude?), one eye on the rearview mirror, Ifelt a familiar sense of futility. How do weever expect to resist civilization, let alone endit and heal from it, running around like this?

I felt again myneed for a commu-nity that includesthe non-humanelements of onespecific naturalplace. Sometimesat this gathering,sitting aroundthe fire or work-ing side by sidewith friends, Isaw the shadowof the ghost ofwhat I need. Nowwe are scatteredagain until one

week next summer when we can all meet up.I left grateful for the glimpse I got, eager forthe real work and play of year-roundrewilding, unsure how these gatherings willfit into that cycle in my future.

[GA Note: We’re not sure where or when nextyear’s Feral Visions will be. Two differentCalifornia groups presented interest, butnothing, as of yet, has been set. Since ournext issue is due out in September (probablyafter the event), you will have to check ourwebsite for info.]

What need has the free-flying dragonflyfor a human consciousness? Where wouldthe wild river go, once so imbued, that ithas otherwise avoided? The earth and allits inhabitants are reeling from the greathuman conscious! Until each domesticated human grasps thefullness of life in her own eager hands; feelsits possibilities coursing through his veins;screams their own warnings; and recognizestheir individual connection to the wretched,beautiful whole that Reclus at times so elo-quently described, the “environment”and“nature” will remain separated abstractionsshaped by yet another external authority. Anauthority that delivers solutions through thestick of objective universal righteousnessand the carrot of progress. Some, includingReclus, say that primitive humans under-stood this symbiotic relationship with life.Perhaps this is true, but we are here now.Can we create paths to our own liberationand release our choke hold on all the rest? Reclus may inspire those who seek refugein the past. I am most inspired by those Imeet and play with today. Perhaps thewhimsical words of one of my very muchalive anarchist friends, Apio, will inspire youto explore some of the thousands of wildpossibilities of being in your own world:

Sometimes, if I am out on a cloudless nightwhen the moon is full, I will reach up andgrasp the moon between a finger and mythumb. I close my eyes and pop the mooninto my mouth. It leaves a taste on my tonguethat is icy and sweet like wintergreen or mint.But that taste is really the taste of a star-filled, winter mountain-top sky glowing icilyin an infinite brilliant dance of the darkestnight with the exquisite light of countlessstars. I open my eyes with joy at seeing themoon still dancing before me. It is wonderfulto be able to take something so completelyinto yourself without losing it, to experienceit so completely.

(1) The French word for conscience and conscious are one andthe same – conscience.(2) Thomas Aquinas describes the conscientia as the act bywhich we apply practical and moral knowledge to our ownactions. Descartes described conscious experience as imaginingsand perceptions laid out in space and time, as viewed fromsome point. Marx considered that social relations ontologicallypreceded individual consciousness, and criticized the concep-tion of a conscious subject as an ideological conception on whichliberal political thought was founded. Nietzsche was the firstone to make the claim that the modern notion of consciousnessrequired the modern penal system, which judged a manaccording to his “responsibility”. Perhaps the most accuratedescription of the modern conscious is W.E.B. Du Bois’ double-consciousness – the awareness of one’s self as well as howothers perceive us, which has led to an unconscious conform-ance to their perception.(3) DARPA is asking scientists to submit design proposals thatwould allow implantation of engineered material into insects,such as dragonflies and moths for surveilance and attack.

...Reclus(continued from page 87)


Ward Churchill and the Re-

search Misconduct Inquisition

Boulder, Colorado: On May 16, 2006, an Investi-gative Committee of the Standing Committee onResearch Misconduct at the University of Colorado,Boulder, released its report concerning allegationsof research misconduct leveled at Ward Churchill,a tenured professor of Native American Studiesat the university, and a prolific writer, publicspeaker, and Native American activist. In the report,the committee stated that it had unanimouslyfound Churchill guilty of “serious” and “deliberate”research misconduct.

The report was the culmination of a lengthy yearand a half inquisition initiated against Ward in retali-ation for comments he made in an essay entitled“Some People Push Back” and the follow-up book,On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, both of whichconcerned the events of 9-11. In the essay,Churchill argued against the popular public beliefin the innocence of the World Trade Center victimsby labeling them a “technocratic corps” thatfunctioned as the organizers and facilitators ofU.S. empire, and comparing them to AdolfEichmann, the architect of the Nazi-perpetratedholocaust during World War II. Immediately aftera well-coordinated media inquisition headed by

Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly, a chorus ofmoral outrage that spanned the political spectrumgrew throughout the country. The goal of thismedia witchhunt was to force the University ofColorado to fire Ward Churchill for his remarks.Chancellor DiStephano lost no time condemningChurchill’s scholarship calling it “profoundlyrepugnant” and vowing to fully investigate theclaims of research misconduct. Churchill has written and edited over twentybooks in addition to a large number of scholarlyand popular articles. In all of this vast publishedmaterial, Churchill’s critics and enemies could onlyfind four very minor instances of alleged researchmisconduct, insignificant technicalities (basicallyirrelevant footnoting errors). No published scholar’swork would hold up to this form of microscopicscrutiny. One of the books heavily referencedduring the inquisition, A Little Matter of Genocide,is 531 pages long and contains 1,409 footnotes.A couple of inconsiderable mistakes in thousandsupon thousands of written pages got a tenuredprofessor fired. But we all know that’s not whatthis was about. Despite the obvious political motivations, onJune 26, 2006, DiStefano issued a notice of intentto dismiss Churchill from his tenured facultyposition at the University of Colorado, Boulder.Check out a longer, more detailed look at the

inquisition of Churchill, It’s Just a Farce:Ward Churchill and the Research MisconductInquisition by Jeff Hendricks at our website.

Terra Selvaggia Editors

Sentenced to Six Years for

Publishing Statement

Pisa, Italy: On July 7, six members of the IlSilvestre collective, who published the greenanarchist magazine Terra Selvaggia (Wild Earth),were convicted of activities associated with theMarxist group COR (Revolutionary OffensiveCells). Five of their co-defendants were found notguilty. The defendants were arrested in the summerof 2004 after a COR communiqué was publishedin their magazine. During a police raid on theirVia del Cuore (House of the Heart) home, police claiman original copy of the communiqué was discovered.William Frediani, Francesco Gioia, CostantinoRagusa, Alessio Perondi, Benedetta Galante, andLeonardo Landi were each sentenced to between3 1/2 and 6 years in prison. Supporters who attendedthe trial have called it a farce and an act of “statecensorship.” The sole evidence the government wasable to provide was the communiqué, which thedefendants claim was sent to them anonymouslythrough the mail. That same letter was also sent totwo other newspapers. Additionally, prosecutorspointed to the group’s radical insurrectionary publi-cation Terra Selvaggia and their prison support forjailed Swiss environmental saboteur MarcoCamenisch, who served a 12-year sentence in Italyfor destroying electricity pylons. COR claimed responsibility for between 20 and30 bombings and arsons in mid-2003. The grouptargeted Italy’s major union headquarters, as wellas members of 3 major political parties. The groupalso attacked newspapers, temporary job agencies,and the barracks of the Carabinieri, a militarypolice force whose jurisdiction includes civilians.

Against the Wallof Death

State Repression News

Back down? No. Not even when–at the end of the road–with nomeans of escape, I find myself against the wall of death.

– Severino Di Giovanni, December 31, 1929

Back down? No. Not even when–at the end of the road–with nomeans of escape, I find myself against the wall of death.

– Severino Di Giovanni, December 31, 1929


Following the arrests, COR issued a statementsaying that Il Silvestre had nothing to do with theiractions and said that they planned to continueattacks in Italy. COR’s politics seem to be anamalgamation of anarchism, Marxism, andenvironmentalism, and the language found in itscommuniqués is laced with Communist overtones.Il Silvestre is a green anarchist group that hadlittle more than a limited affinity with COR, andwhose philosophy is starkly different. Regardless of the measure of relevance someput towards anarchist publications (obviously wethink the proliferation of anti-civilization theory andaction is vital), those who put ideas into print andpublish action reports are taking great risks totheir freedom. These individuals need our con-tinued support.

California Man Sells Out

To Save Skin

Sacramento, California: On July 20, ZacharyJenson pled guilty to one count of conspiracy inconnection with a plot to blow up commercial andgovernmental facilities in the name of the EarthLiberation Front, including the U.S. Forest ServiceInstitute of Forest Genetics in Placerville,California. He has also agreed to cooperate withauthorities in their prosecution of his former friendand alleged co-conspirator Eric McDavid. Accordingto the agreement, which is the same as the oneadmitted co-conspirator Lauren Weiner madein May (see GA #23), Jenson will be required toprovide information to the government in what-ever way they demand him to for as long as theydeem necessary. Jenson, 20, of Monroe, Washington, McDavid,29, of Foresthill, California, andWeiner, 20, of the affluent PoundRidge, New York, were all arrestedin January 2006, after they and awoman known as “Anna” allegedlyscouted potential targets andpurchased bomb making materialsin Auburn, California. After thearrests “Anna” was revealed to bean informant for the FBI. We obviously do not supportthis type of scum who would sell-out their comrades when pressureis applied. However, we strongly encouragesupporters to write Eric, as heundoubtedly feels betrayed andvery alone. Information on howto support Eric can be found at:www.supporteric.org. Eric’smailing address: Eric McDavid#2972521 4E 231A, SacramentoCounty Main Jail, 651 “I” Street,Sacramento, CA 95814.

Three Anarchists Arrested

for Multiple Arsons

Athens, Greece: On July 26, Greek police announcedthe arrest of three suspected members of theurban guerrilla group “Anti-Fascist Action”, believedto be responsible for a series of arsonist attackssince 1994. The three were arrested in a delivery

van in the early morning hours at Omonia,downtown Athens, after an arson at a NationalBank of Greece ATM. Police say the fire was setby a man on a moped, who doused the ATM witha flammable liquid and set it on fire. Police claimthe group admitted their involvement underquestioning and say they are still searching forthe man that caused the ATM fire and the womanowner of the moped he was riding. They claim tohave fingerprints of the 32-year-old suspect froma canister of flammable liquid used in a fire set atthe Royalist National Organization two daysbefore. Responsibility for both attacks wasclaimed by “Anti-Fascist Action” in a phone callto the newspaper Eleftherotypia.

Earth First! Activists

Get Sentenced

Tucson, Arizona: On August 7, environmentalactivists with Earth First!, Rod Coronado and MattCrozier, were sentenced for disrupting a 2004 moun-tain lion hunt in Sabino Canyon. The pair wereconvicted in December 2005 for spreading falsescents and pulling up a sensor and a trap set byforest rangers. The charges are conspiracy to impedeor injure an officer of the United States (a felony)and misdemeanor counts of interfering with a forestofficer and depredation of government property.Coronado, who served four years in prison in 1995for another sabotage and arson case, was sentencedto eight months in prison, three years supervisedprobation, and was ordered to pay restitution. Crozierwas sentenced to three years probation and 100 hoursof community service and fined $1,000. Both are barredfrom writing or doing interviews about animal rightsor environmental activism that is deemed violent.

Since his conviction Coronado has been indictedon other charges including a felony charge ofdemonstrating how to use a destructive deviceduring a presentation he gave in San Diego acouple years back that covered how he had setfire to a laboratory in 1992. More recently he wascharged with violating the US Fish and WildlifeService’s Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Actand the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by possessingeagle feathers. Coronado is a Native-American

member of the Pasqua Yaqui tribe who see eaglefeathers as religious symbols. Tribal members arelegally allowed to possess feathers but Coronadoapparently did not first obtain a necessary permit.You can write him at: Rodney Coronado #03895-000, FCI Tucson, 8901 South Wilmot Rd, Tucson,AZ 85705 (he is due for release by spring 2007). Formore info check out the website: www.azef.org, ore-mail: [email protected].

Independent Media

Videographer Jailed for Non-

Cooperation with Grand Jury

San Fransisco, California: On September 2,freelance journalist and grand jury resister JoshWolf was granted bail after spending nearly amonth behind bars. Wolf was arrested afterrefusing to share unedited footage he shot of ananarchist protest against the G8 summit in July2005, with a grand jury. U.S. District Judge WilliamAlsup found Wolf, 24, in contempt of court forfailing to comply with a subpoena that the grandjury issued in February 2006. During the demon-stration a cop suffered a serious head injury anddemonstrators allegedly vandalized and attemptedto set fire to a police car. Wolf claims that he didnot see the altercation that left the cop injurednor did he capture it on video. He has so far refusedto surrender the footage, claiming his journalistright to withhold unpublished material and keephis sources confidential. In Wolf’s own words,cooperating with the grand jury would turn himinto “a surveillance camera for the government.’’Wolf is only free on bail until his most recentappeal is decided upon. If it is unsuccessful, hewill be sent back to jail until he agrees to turnover

the tape, the grand jury expires, or ajudge decides coercing him to turnoverthe tape is futile.

Snitch Gets Six Months

Central Islip, New York: On September5, convicted arsonist and snitch,Matthew Rammelkamp, was sen-tenced to six months at a federal prisoncamp. Rammelkamp, along with JaredMcIntyre and George Mashkow Jr.,pled guilty to arson conspiracy chargesfor their role in a spate of anti-sprawlfires that destroyed newly built andpartially constructed homes in LongIsland in the winter of 2000-2001. Theiractions were claimed in the name ofthe Earth Liberation Front. All three of the arsonists, who wereminors at the time, were able to avoidlong prison sentences by naming awell-known Long Island activist,

Connor Cash as the ring-leader. After three yearsof his life, a lengthy trial and having to spendmassive amounts of money for legal expenses,Cash was acquitted of all charges. One of the threegovernment informants even recanted on the stand.Rammelkamp made a statement at sentencingsaying that he was “ashamed” of the arsons, andthat after he serves his term, he plans to return toschool and become a lawyer (quite fitting).



This type of cowardice and snitchery now seemsall-too common in a movement that once boastedlittle or no arrests and strict codes of revolutionaryethics (including absolute non-cooperation withthe apparatus of repression).

The SHAC 7 Get Sentenced

Trenton, NJ: As we re-ported in GA #23, onMarch 2, 2006, theSHAC defendants werefound guilty of multiplefederal felonies for ad-vocating the closure ofthe notorious animal-testing lab HuntingdonLife Sciences. Now,all six face years infederal prison. This is the first time anyone hasever been tried under the Animal Enterprise Pro-tection Act of 1992 (formerly known as the Ani-mal Enterprise Terrorism Act), a law that made ita federal crime to engage in “physical disruption”of animal research facilities, farms, circuses, fairsor other businesses using live animals. All of thedefendants were involved in some capacity in thecampaign to close Huntingdon Life Sciences, acontract research lab with one facility in New Jerseyand two in England. Since 1999, activists havecampaigned globally against the lab, bringing itto the brink of closure. On September 14, animal rights activists KevinKjonaas, 28, Lauren Gazzola, 27, Jacob Conroy,30, and Joshua Harper, 31, were sentenced to federalprison and ordered to collectively reimburseHuntingdon Life Sciences over 1 million dollars forlost profits. Harper was sentenced to three years,Kjonaas received six years, Gazzola received fourand a half years, and Conroy received four years. On September 19, two more activists, AndrewStepanian, 27, and Darius Fullmer, 29, weresentenced for their participation. Fullmer wassentenced to serve one year. Stepanian receiveda three-year sentence. Both are obligated toparticipate in a work program in prison, thewages from which will be garnished and paid toHLS as part of the restitution. Although legal precedents are clearly on the sideof the SHAC7, appealing the verdict will be a lengthyand costly process. For the defendants, this poten-tially means being imprisoned for years before it ispossible that the verdict could be overturned. Theyneed support – both financially to cover the costsof the appeal process and emotionally to help themthrough these difficult and trying times. For moreinformation on how you can help support theSHAC7, please visit www.SHAC7.com. You can write them at the following addresses.Emails will be sent to them:Jacob Conroy #93501-011, FCI VictorvilleMedium I, P.O. BOX 5300, Adelanto, CA 92301([email protected]), Darius Fullmer#26397-050, FCI Fort Dix, P.O. BOX 2000, FortDix, NJ 08640 ([email protected]),Lauren Gazzola #93497-011, FCI, Danbury,Route #37, Danbury, CT 06811 ([email protected]), Joshua Harper #29429-086, FCI Sheridan, P.O. BOX 5000, Sheridan,

OR 97378 ([email protected]), KevinKjonaas #93502-011, Unit I, FCI Sandstone, P.O.BOX 1000, Sandstone, MN 55072 ([email protected]), Andrew Stephanian#26399-050, FCI Butner Medium II, P.O. BOX1500, Butner, NC 27509 ([email protected]).

Crackdown On Anarchist Groups

Santiago, Chile: On September 29, Chileanpolice launched a new offensive against variousanarchist groups operating in Santiago in responseto the Molotov cocktail launched at the La MonedaPresidential Palace during a September 11 protestmarch (see Anarchist Resistance, page 24). TheSpecial Investigations Brigade of the Chilean CivilPolice is now actively creating a “register” of allanarchist groups operating in the country,documenting the groups’ members, philoso-phies, financing, operating areas, and possibleconnections to foreign anarchist movements. Theactions against Chile’s anarchist groups comeafter the government was widely criticized forbeing caught off guard by the student proteststhat rocked Santiago in May and June. The gov-ernment indicated it would use secret “informants”in order not to be caught off guard again. The new crackdown on Chile’s anarchist move-ment led to a raid in the San Ignacio borough ofSantiago. Six young anarchists were arrested in asquatter settlement, and police said the group hadMolotov cocktails in their possession. Police ChiefJosé Bernales claimed that police found evidencethe group had participated in the violent marchesthat occurred on September 10 and 11 commemo-rating the September 11, 1973 military coup ledby Gen. Augusto Pinochet. While Chile’s mainstreammedia widely reported that Molotov cocktails werefound during the house raid, anarchists arguedthat the objects found were simple householdgoods. In addition to the materials claimed to beused for Molotov cocktails, the police carted away“subversive material,” including magazines,posters, banners and books.

Brad Will Shot Dead

Oaxaca, Mexico: On October 27, Brad Will, 36,anarchist, documentary filmmaker, and reporterfor Indymedia in New York, Bolivia, and Brazil,died of a gunshot to the chest when pro-govern-ment attackers (a cop, a city personnel director,and public safety chief) opened fire on a barricadein the neighborhood of Santa Lucia del Camino inthe outskirts of Oaxaca, Mexico. Brad went toOaxaca in early October to document the ongoingstory of a people sick and tired of repression(see Indigenous Struggles, page 55).

Since the 90’s, Brad was involved in numerousprojects and struggles, from pirate radio andsquatting in New York’s Lower East Side to theanti-globalization and anarchist movements tothe various fights in South and Central America.Brad was well-known throughout the hemisphere,and in its media centers from New York to SaoPaulo to Mexico City. According to friends, Brad

went to Oaxaca know-ing, assuming andsharing the risks ofreporting the story hefelt was being ignoredand distorted. Ironically,his final publishedarticle, on October 17,titled “Death in Oaxaca,”reported the murderof Alejandro García

Hernández on the barricades set up by the PopularAssembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO, in itsSpanish initials). Brad will be remembered as arisk-taker not a talker, as part of a struggle hebelieved in.

Falsely Charged Anarchists

Released After Almost a

Year In Jail

Philippines: On December 21, eleven younganarchists imprisoned and tortured for monthsafter being detained and falsely accused of aMaoist guerilla attack have been freed! The multiplemurder and arson case was dismissed due to lackof evidence. The anarchists, involved in projectssuch as Food not Bombs and Earth First!, agedbetween 15-25, were arrested in February 2006while hitchhiking to the Sagada mountain areato go hiking. They were brutally arrested withouta warrant, taken to the station and tortured, andonly found out later that they were being chargedwith involvement in a communist guerrilla attackon a military outpost a few days before. They werenot allowed to contact anyone, and have been heldin terrible conditions, without even basic neces-sities or enough food in overcrowded cells. Thetwo youngest had been released due to their age,but despite the communist guerrillas themselvesdeclaring no connection with the young peopleand no evidence being presented, the others werebeing held in legal limbo without knowing whenthey would come to trial.

(continued from previous page)

UPDATE: Jeff “Free” Luers

Appeal Victory!On the eve of going to print, we received wordthat the State of Oregon Court of Appealsunanimously ruled that Free’s case will bereversed and remanded back to the CircuitCourt for resentencing as a result of JudgeVelure’s legal errors in imposing the originalsentence. The opinion just came out as ofFebruary 14 and details are unclear, but itlooks like he could potentially get as much as15 years taken off his 22-year sentence! Luerswas convicted in 2001 for an arson at theRomania car dealership and an attemptedarson of Tyree Oil, both in Eugene, OR.

More info is available at: www.cldc.org


Eugene, Oregon: On December 7, 2005, federaland local law enforcement began the largestroundup of alleged environmental and animal lib-eration activists in American history. That day theFBI arrested six people in four different states andissued Grand Jury subpoenas to several others.Over the next few months, the number of arrests,indictments, and subpoenas would mount in whatthe government called “Operation Backfire”. On November 9, 2006, Daniel McGowan,Joyanna Zacher, Nathan Block and Jonathan Paulappeared in federal court to enter guilty pleas andaccept responsibility for their roles in a series ofenvironmentally motivated arsons in Oregonbetween 1997 and 2001. The actions were claimedanonymously on behalf of the Earth LiberationFront and Animal Liberation Front. All were facingwhat would amount to life in prison. Maintainingtheir integrity and commitment to revolutionarystruggle, they did not agree to provide informa-tion or testify against anyone now or in thefuture. Daniel McGowan’s plea agreement,which is apparently similar to the other three,has been posted online at his support website:www.supportdaniel.org. Zacher and Block eachpled to one count of conspiracy, attempted arson,and two separate incidents of arson. McGowanpled to conspiracy and to two separate incidentsof arson. The government is recommending theybe sentenced to 96 months (eight years) in federalprison. Paul pled to one count of arson and onecount of conspiracy. The government is recom-mending Paul be sentenced to 60 months (fiveyears) in prison. All four defendants are expectedto argue for a lesser sentence. Prosecutors saythat they will request that the court apply a “terror-ism enhancement” that could add an additional20 years to each defendants’ sentence. Accordingto defense lawyers, the “terrorism enhancement”can only be applied if the court finds that thedefendants’ actions were motivated by a desireto change the policies of the U.S government bymeans of coercion, but since the property damagedor destroyed by the defendants was owned byprivate corporations the prosecutors are notlikely to get the “terrorism enhancement.” Courtappearances are scheduled for this spring to decidesentences and the “terrorism enhancement.” We strongly encourage support, both now andduring their time in prison, for these four comrades.Donations can be made to Daniel’s defense bygoing to: www.myspace.com/danielmcgowan.Check and money orders can be made out to “LisaMcGowan” and sent to: Lisa McGowan, PO Box106, New York, NY 10156. To help Jonathon Paul,contact: [email protected]. Todonate to his legal defense, please write a checkor money order out to Jonathan Paul and sendto: Friends of Jonathan Paul, PMB 267, 2305Ashland Street, Ste. C, Ashland, OR 97520. Joy andNathan are still incarcerated awaiting sentencing.They can be written at: Joyanna Zacher#1662550, Lane County Jail. 101 W 5th AveEugene, OR 97401 and Nathan Block #1663667,

Lane County Jail, 101 W 5th Ave Eugene, OR 97401.Donations can always be sent to Nathan andJoyanna’s support fund: S.N.J. c/o Maureen Block,881 Oak Hill Rd., Swanville, ME 04915, or contact:[email protected] Six others, Kendall Tankersley, Darren Thurston,Kevin Tubbs, Stanislas Meyerhoff, ChelseaGerlach, and Suzanne Savoie, pled guilty this pastsummer to related charges in Oregon andWashington. All eight of those individuals agreedto become snitches and cooperate with theprosecution and implicate others in exchange forreduced sentences. The lawyers for those defendantshave asked that the details of their plea agreementsremain sealed in the interest of protecting theirclients safety, but we hope for them to be openedso we can discover the depth of their treacheryand who else may be involved. We obviouslyloathe these individuals’ actions and do not sup-port them in any way. It should also be noted thatwhile the snitches’ expected sentences vary, onaverage, they look to serve as much, if not more,time than those who maintained their composure.Another lesson to remember. In October, two more government informants,Jennifer Kolar, 33, of Seattle, and LaceyPhillabaum, 31, of Spokane, pled guilty for theirrole in the $7 million 2001 arson at the Universityof Washington, claimed in the name of the EarthLiberation Front. Kolar and Phillabaum each pledguilty to charges of conspiracy, arson, and use ofa destructive device. Kolar also pled guilty to anattempted arson charge for a failed 1998firebombing that damaged a Wray, Colorado, gunclub that organized a multistate turkey shoot. Both joined the abhorrent ranks of theirunindicted co-conspirator and fellow informant,Jacob Ferguson, and have been cooperating withthe FBI since last winter. They agreed to wear con-cealed wire recording devices and attempt to helpthe government gather evidence on suspects andare bound by their plea deals to do so beyondtheir terms of incarceration. Kolar is anticipatedto receive a sentence of five to seven years andPhillabaum will face a recommended sentence ofthree to five years. They will be expected to testifyat the trial of Briana Waters, who is accused ofparticipating in the UW arson, and possibly others.Kolar declined to make a statement, but did thankAssistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Friedman as heleft the courtroom. Kolar worked for a variety ofanimal rights and environmental causes through-out the years, but for the past six years she hasspent much of her time sailing and racing a yachtshe co-owns. There is still apparently at least oneunknown unindicted co-conspirator who has beenassisting the prosecution with their case. In some good news, on November 15, Jeff Hoggwas released from a jail in Grants Pass, OR afterbeing detained for nearly six months for refusingto testify before a grand jury investigating a seriesof ELF actions which occurred in Oregon betweenthe mid-1990s and 2001. Jeff’s lawyer, Paul Loney,informed the prosecution of his intent to file more

motions to obtain his release. The prosecutionthen decided to release him rather than fight thesemotions. Hogg was jailed by the court last May inorder to coerce him into testifying before a grandjury. According to the law he may be required tostay in jail a total of 18 months or until the termof the grand jury has expired but only if the courtbelieves that to do so may coerce him into testi-fying. Hogg has missed his final exams and hisgrandfather’s funeral while imprisoned. He testi-fied under oath on August 15 that he will nevertestify at a grand jury proceeding. We greatly appre-ciate his strength during these troubling times. Despite the various guilty pleas in the Oregoncase, we would like to remind everyone that thiscase is not over. There are still at least threedefendants in this case whose locations areunknown to the FBI. Also, Briana Waters hasformally pleaded not guilty to the University ofWashington fire and is scheduled for trial in May.These charges carry a mandatory minimumsentence of 35 years in prison should she beconvicted. For more info on Briana and how youcan support her upcoming trial, check out:supportbriana.org. Make donations payable to EricWaters (Briana’s brother and administrator of theFund), and send them to: Eric Waters, P.O. Box1689, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10113. These are certainly difficult times for the eco-logical and animal liberation movements, oncetremendously inspiring, now crumbling fromwithin. For more details on the previous casesand analysis in general, check out the past twoissues of GA, or the following websites:

www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk/www.ecoprisoners.orgwww.fbiwitchhunt.com/

Informants.htmlwww.bombsandshields.blogspot.com/

www.portland.indymedia.org/www.cldc.org

www.security.resist.ca/www.midnightspecial.net/www.nlg.org/resources/

resources.htm

“Operation Backfire”

Still Smoldering


FE Misinterpreted?Dear Green Anarchy:Thanks for your review of the FifthEstate magazine, now in our 41st year,in your Summer/Fall 2006 edition. We really don’t care what JohnZerzan’s opinions are of our efforts,however, it is disturbing to me as awriter to see the theme of my article,“An Anarchist at the World SocialForum,” in the Spring 2006 FifthEstate, twisted by him to 180 degreesof my intent. Rather than, “mus[ing]” that HugoChavez’ leftism is something for whichwe should settle, I was polemicizingagainst this sort of defeatism. This iseasily determined by what appearedin our magazine, and I hope in theinterest of fairness and clarity, youwill print the section below whichillustrates that. The entire article isavailable on line at:

infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2006anarchist_wsf

Or, request the issue at Fifth Estate,POB 201016, Ferndale MI 48220.

-Walker Lane, Detroit

GA Note: We chose not to print hisquote from the text in questionbecause it was longer then his letter,and it failed to “clarify” anything.Check for yourself if you are inter-ested online or in FE, to form yourown opinion.

Beam Me Up Scotty!This morning, I told the BerkeleyCatholic Worker to tell Jesus toNEVER ask me to do anything foranybody in his name again! In fact,he owes me. That sums up my attitudeafter performing service work formany years here, feeding and other-wise providing for “the masses” inpostmodern America. Hey Jesus,send me some money right now! Later in the morning, I submitted aletter of complaint to SwamiPrabuddhananda at the San FranciscoVedanta Society. For the past twoyears, I have been assisting theseniormost Berkeley Vedanta societymember...I am credited with savinghis life. He would be dead if I hadn’tmoved into his apartment and totallyassisted him with his critical needs.

For this I have received average $200per week to maintain myself. I needright now $1,141.00 to pay WesternDental. I have $140.00 in my checkingaccount at Bank of the West. I wanta MINIMUM of $2500.00 to put inthe bank, so I’ve got some fuckingmoney to spend. It is my primary focus to get the hellout of insanely narcissistic, selfish,stupid, postmodern California...andreturn to the north of India to enjoymyself at the spiritual places there(which I visited in 1994). I don’t wantone more of your crazy, impossibleproblems given to me in the name ofpeace & justice, the environment, Jesus,or anything else here. Hey, feel free todie! Okay? That would be better, thanfor me to help in any way here what-soever. I feel like punching postmodernCalifornia as hard as I can.

Craig Stehr,2500 Hillegass Ave. #16,

Berkeley, CA 94704

anus.comDear GANormally I would not write to the GAcollective about something as silly asthis, but I just thought I’d clue youin, just in case... FYI - The ubiquitous Fascist/Intergralist/Nationalist/Nihilistwebsite anus.com has targeted GreenAnarchy mag as a possible source forsubmitting their literature....http:/bbs.anus.comultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=9&t=000094 Before you disregard my warnings

as ‘anti-fascist’ alarmism, you shouldknow this website is VERY prolific,and they have a whole slew of sycophantswriting for them and incorporating‘primitivist’ themes into their litera-ture (although at heart very muchin service to core ‘blood andsoil’ nationalism, peppered with anti-tech, pro-‘natural order’ themes.) Idon’t mean to suggest the GA collectiveis incapable of spotting this stuff a mileaway, but some of it is ‘sophisticated’and ‘well packaged’ so to speak. Iwould just advise keep an eye openregarding submissions from previouslyunfamiliar sources/individuals...

Take Care......and good luck with the mag

A Scanner DarklySisters and Brothers,Thank you again for an excellentissue (Summer/Fall 2006). As always,it feeds my soul to read Green Anarchy.The theme of Strategy reminded meof a paragraph I had read in Philip K.Dick’s “A Scanner Darkly” a fewyears ago. While the movie is quitesilly, the book is excellent and thefollowing quote is right up amonkeywrencher’s alley: “Item. One of the most effectiveforms of industrial or military sabotagelimits itself to damage that can neverbe thoroughly proven-or even provenat all-to be anything deliberate. It islike an invisible political movement;perhaps it isn’t there at all. If a bombis wired to a car’s ignition, thenobviously there is an enemy; if apublic building or a political head-quarters is blown up, there is a politicalenemy. But if an accident, or a seriesof accidents, occurs, if equipmentmerely fails to function, if it appearsfaulty, especially in a slow fashion,over a period of natural time, withnumerous small failures andmisfirings-then the victim, whethera person or a party or a country, cannever marshal itself to defend itself.”(p. 91 of Vintage version) Just food for thought of course.Please feel free to use the quote.

For Wilderness,Feral Rage

Thank YouOK...Ok... “Thank You.” I am a 29year old transsexual person living inSan Francisco. I have for some timebeen looking for both an understand-ing of myself and an understanding

of the world that I live in. I reallyappreciate finding your magazine inBerkeley, California. I am taking mytime and reading it slowly, but I trulyvalue some of the insights and havecome to many of the same positionson my own. I think it is awesomethat you all combine the quest forprimitivism with an understanding ofhow important it is for us to connectto our environment. I actually leftsociety for a period of time. I simplydropped out of the rat race and beganliving in parks and homeless shelters notbecause I had to ( at the very least I havea supportive family) but because I wasso disillusioned with society. Now Imust admit that I have one foot at leastback in the race. And YES I do missspending all my days lounging in thepark. But alas life must take me in somedirection other than total apathy. I amcurrently working as a peace activist andhome care worker. I guess I am goingto rejoin the university machine andget a political science degree, that’s theplan anyway. But I am glad to be introduced togreen anarchy. Having done someresearch at this point I find it inter-esting that today’s anarchists are notproposing a lawless society but seemto be proposing individual freedomand responsibility. I am totally downwith that. My own life had broughtme to the conclusion that there mustbe some state of the human being, beit spiritual or whatever, that wouldallow us as a species to live togetherin harmony with respect for all peoplewithout needing a government or lawenforcing system of punishment tomake that happen. I know for myselfit is a simple love of nature andnature’s offspring like humans that

LettersLet us know what you are thinking (in 500 words or less).


prevent me from committing acts ofviolence or the like. I do not need lawsor some stale moral or ethical code. I like that the website link on anarchynotes that we will not see this kind ofworld in this lifetime. OK. What isinteresting is that I am trying todiscover my political outlook andphilosophy. And at this crossroadstime for me I found your magazine-just when I was about to accept the“progressive” label that seems sopopular these days. So I will continue to read the spring2006 issue. I will be purchasing thenext issue either directly through youall or through the socialist bookstore. Once again thank you. As a youngperson discovering her politicalidentity it is nice to know there arelike minded thinkers out there. I amnot ready to commit but maybe I ama green anarchist. And if I am ableto commit to this label, then you willdefinitely be hearing more from me.I am aware that you need funds andvolunteers. Keep up the good work.

Joanna E. Ponder

Fuck Hot TopicI’m starting to feel like butter spreadacross too much toast. Every damn day it’s something elsethat I read about either in the liberalnews or the conservative news or theradical left/right news or the conspiracytheorists... whatever, no matter where Iturn I’m faced with something thatmakes my insides go from pink to green. The current administration is tryingto pass a bill that removes the 2 termlimit from the Commander-in-Chief. I used to get downright angry atreading this garbage, but it’s happen-ing so often in the past 10 years thatnow I feel drained of the capabilityof enacting or even experiencing suchemotions as “anger”. I don’t know who to talk to aboutthis stuff anymore, so I’m basicallyskewering the internet for people whounderstand this frustration; the feelingthat there is something fundamentallyawry in the very fabric that makes upour society. It’s like there’s a green fogeverywhere I turn, and I’m the onlyperson who can see it and who canremember that it wasn’t always there.There was a time, maybe from beforeI was born (but you just know,because you wouldn’t feel so dis-placed if it weren’t the case, yeah?The memories are written in who weare at some base level, perhaps a pro-tein level) when it wasn’t acceptableto live this way. They say democracy; I say hypocrisy. There is something distinctly

Orwellian about where we are all

headed. The economic gap is wideningat a sickening rate to anybody whoknows what an “economic gap” is. System of a Down recently wrote inone of their songs: “What is in us thatturns a deaf ear to the cries of humansuffering?” You can take the sum of compassionfor our entire generation and find itin that question. I don’t even know who I’m writing

to, or why I’m doing it, but I have alot going on upstairs that doesn’tknow how to come down and walkout the front door. Understand? I just needed someone to talk to whounderstands the concept of anarchy;I’m not looking for spikey-hairedskaters who shop at Hot Topic andwear the shirt that says “You laugh atme because I’m different. I laugh atyou because you’re all the same.” Exceptthat like 900,000,000 kids own it. Are there any forums that a personcan be a part of nowadays to interactor talk or be inventive or even justvent about this kind of stuff? Withpeople who actually understand it? Better yet, are there any groups youcould point me to who actually -do-something about the state of the na-tion, or the state of the world? Notpeople who slash tires of randomSUVs (they’re just going to go out andbuy new tires, ultimately supportingthe auto-industry), but I mean peoplewho actually have a plan. People whothink before they act; not thosewho are simply bored and harboringsubliminal stress from their childhoods.Know what I mean?

-John

face the madnessDear Green Anarchy,A short note to say I got Issue #23and was overjoyed in receiving it. Ofcourse I had heard of Anti-Civ Anarchybut had never really bothered to try tounderstand it, mired as I was inanarcho-communism and the writingsof Kropotkin, Berkman, and Bakunin.

Anti-Civ anarchy is seemingly rightup my alley. I’ve been an anarchistsince I was fourteen and I destroyedsome farm tractors that were changingprairie land for housing developmentsand had to go to juvenile work camp.I promptly got the Anarchist (circleA) with “I hate the Government”written below it. I realize now it should say “Fuck Civi-lization”. Crude language but it servesits purpose. I’m serving 35 years formurder, but I’m crazier than a loon sothey have me at a federal medical center. I just wanted you guys to know thatwhat you are doing is great and I amin agreeance with the vast majorityof issue #23. I especially enjoyed RonSakolsky’s “Why Misery LovesCompany”. That hit a chord with me,especially phrases like “Decolonizingour minds” and “emancipating theoccupied territories of the mind”. Froma mentally ill persons perspective,Anarcho-surrealism poses some veryinteresting solutions to the problemsthat plague me. When he said thatall worlds are possible, I realized thatperception even though it goes againstthe doctors terminology of the norm,is still ??? and even valid. Maybe I needto face the madness and at least notsuppress it. Madness is a gift just as revolutionarythought and action is and are. Again, your journal is great. Pleasekeep me signed up for future issuesand if you can, would you give me acomprehensive list of Sakolsky’s work?For the downfall of civilization andthe survival of the eco-system,

Cephallic C. Arnage aka Christopher Mather

07783-064, FMCPO Box 1600

Butner, NC 27509P.S. My heart and support goes outto the ELF. Its too bad those motherfuckers in the case won’t shut theirmouths and stop testifying on eachother. Its terrible to see ELF go downlike that.

From thePhilippines

hi there,my name is mhel. i live here in davao,philippines located in south east asia.locally, i am part of the eco movementcalled KINAIYAHAN UNAHON.our group focuses mainly on earthdefense. it was founded last aprilafter the international earth daycelebration...we feel that this kind of cel-ebration was become main-streamizedas well heavily back up by corporateinstitutions and businesses to indoc-trinate people to the realms of passivityleaving deaf and blind about thehidden plunder and destruction of theearth theyve made. and for now i amvery happy that the movement wasborn to confront this sheer madness.the group for now is working to ad-dress our idea on biocentrism andneohumanism, since this kind of ideais very new to social awareness here inthe pilippines ..it is for now our verymain step towards creating our goalsand visions around earth liberation andsocial autonomy. the group composeonly of small of number of peoplewith really high commitment anddedication working with this liber-ating endeavor..we believe that we areas one with nature and is it time toact now doing something for theearth. we like to raise example to hu-mans by making alternatives andworking towards solidarity with ourkind of visions .....hope we becomeone..this letter is an attempt to call forglobal solidarity and to spread our vi-sions as an eco movement..we are alsolooking for contributions and dona-tions.. financially and materials relatedwith this kind of work...hope you cansupport and help us out..also, for nowwe work around supporting politicalprisoners raising money for them.philippines is a very poor country andsometimes its very much difficult for

us to gain money and i believe that weneed it achieving things in the urbanworld. we are also part of the grassrootscoalition here in davao with differentcollectives and comrades taking in ...thecoalition is hosting a vegetarian fiesta thislast week of october. lots of people willbe invited packed with workshops andskillsharing, speakers and forums, videofilming, art exhibits and performances,free food, soft music,exercises and yoga,vegetarian dishes and menus...its a 3 daycamp in a near island here in davao..ifyou like to come and visit, meet uson that day that would be reallygreat..you can just contact me..anywaythis is all i want to try to express at themoment..hope to hear from you soon

...take care...love andsolidarity!...mhel


Just Read...Dear Green Anarchy,I have just read your Issue #23Summer/Fall 2006. It was my firstissue that I read but will not be thelast. Will you please put me on yourmailing list so I can receive thenext issue? Is there a way for meto receive the Summer/Fall issue oram I too late? Also, you print different strategyquotes like Strategy 10: Knifesheathed in a smile (page 69). Canyou please give me the name of thebook that these quotes are comingfrom? I found some books I want toorder like on Guerrilla Warfare byMao Tse Tung. Is there a way I canorder those books through themail? I’m in prison at Oregon StatePrison and my access to a book storeis almost non-existent. Please helpme order some of the books youlisted on page 7.

Thank youTerrence L Tardy #13622995

OSP 2605 State StreetSalem, OR 97310

GA Note: Sorry, we can onlyprovide free subscriptions toprisoners (now numbering about800). We cannot send other zinesor books. We are already facingvery limited funds. Check out thevarious Books to Prisoners programsout there.

Love and AnarchyGreen Anarchy (wrote from the hole):Something I noticed a few years ago.And was confirmed with the recent

arrests. Is that activists and criminalsare two different people. When I con-fessed of my action in Moorhead,MN I knew I could do the time.Why, cause I been in and out of jailall my life for being an uncivilizedpunk rocker. It wasn’t until recenttimes I come to respect the hippyway of looking at things. Now with-out labels I can say its sad to elvesfold in on one another. It onlyconfirms the work of the old skoolanarchist. Trust self and self alone.Everyone else is their own person. Iagree collectives can do much morethan one person. But if they can;tdo the time why dance with thedevil? We are in the age of Fire andwe are winning. Maye the five tellingshould follow Avalon’s path beforethey get to the real anarchist play-ground. No matter how muchtelling they do they will still be inthe system. Where the inmates arethe only one you can trust to saveyour sanity. Cause if they continueto follow the path they are following,they have no hope but 23 Shu inKansas are some other backwoodsprison in Minnesota. Love and Anarchy to all in thefront. Thanks to the elves in Canadawho still have hope on the liberationagainst development. We are winninginside and out. Thanks for the hopebehind the bars.

WastE ELP self-proclaimedAKA James Tucker 218447

Minnesota Maximum SecurityPrison

Snert De SnertDon’t talk about it. Be about it.

UnderstandingAnarchyism

Anarchism as a political movement isa failed variant of Marxism that reachedits zenith in the early 20th century andwas effectively moribund by the begin-ning of WW2. Its current americanoffshoot (anarchyism) is mostly theresult of punk rock and the now-severalgenerations of punk kids who havere-created in ritual form the now-centuryold forms of anarchist organization. Anarchyism is not interesting orimportant in a political sense and itfact it has but little to do with politics.Anarchyism can best be understoodas desire among white youth toexperience psychological benefits andemotional stimulus. These psycho-logical benefits often include - a senseof purpose, guilt relief, tribe-seeking,self-worth, and a way to feel set apartfrom post-modernist society whilecontinuing to enjoy all the benefitsof said society. The emotional stimulusinclude - excitement, drama, etc. Understanding anarchyism in thisway provides a useful template forunderstanding and discussing whatpasses for “radical politics” in americatoday. Some examples - Love and Rageprovided itís participants psycho-logical benefits and emotionalstimulus and while it did this itsurvived and even expanded. As theyears passed however the psychologicalbenefits and emotional stimulusbegan to wear out and the organizationfolded, supposedly over “politicaldifferences” with few if any of theparticipants realizing the deeper reasonswhy their involvement in L&R wasno longer fulfilling. NEFAC is followingthis same pattern and with similarresults. Once it is no longer capableof provided psychological benefitsand emotional stimulus to its par-ticipants it too will fall apart, with“political differences” masking moreprofound failures. These examples arein contrast to the individuals who inthe late 90s attempted to construct apolitical organization around the“race traitor” analysis of americanhistory. Unable to provide whiteyouth with an acceptable level ofpsychological benefit and emotionalstimulus they failed in this project Apparently the less ideological rigoran organization has and the moreshallow its analysis the longer it cansurvive. Both ARA and Earth Firsthave existed now for quite a while,proving that they can providepsychological benefits and emotionalstimulus over a long term. And ofcourse the longer an organization cando these things for its participants thelonger it will live. This demonstrates

that the anarchyist judges theory,analysis, praxis and action not onaccuracy, or usefulness, or even“political correctness,” but rather onwhether the theory, analysis, praxisand action can provide them with thepsychological benefits and emotionalstimulus that they crave. The anarchyist is a role-player in asubmarginal milieu. Again this hasnothing to do with politics. In the sameway that a Dallas Cowboy fan could(by a twist of fate) be a WashingtonRedskins fan the anarchyist could justas easily be a college republican, “neo-nazi” or goth rocker. Anarchyism is justanother “unique pattern” of socialinteraction provided by late capital. Of course this points to a much moreinteresting question, why does radicalpolitics no longer exist in north america?North american “radicals” are rich andresource-laden by international standards,they face little oppression, yet they areincapable of politics. Why? True, theyinherited little but debauchery from the60s generation of rads. And theireducation level is shockingly low. But Imust reach back to Marcuse who wrotethat trends in (post)modern capital werecreating a consumerist culture in whichhumans were being mass produced,and that the eventual result would bepassive and atomized societies in thewest. I believe that we are seeing a“radpol” variant on this theme with the21st century anarchyist. Of course it is not the anarchyistfault that s/he exists in a state ofanarchyism no more than the suffererof “bipolar disease” is faulted for thatillness. That the anarchyist, in his/herpostindustrial depleted environmentis devoid of community, culture,tradition, kin-ship, etc. Lost andseeking they take safe harbor in whatprovides a respite from the rigors oflate capital. That is well understood.It is rare that through therapy alonethe anarchyist can be treated. Theyactually believe they are engaged inradpol, as the follower of the jewishmessiah believe he will return. Theseirrational belief systems are defensive,and protective to the adherent. Andthe ethics of even attempting such an“intervention,” is open to debate.

-jamil


It is already happening. You think you can just shut us off and survive?!You can’t. An alcoholic that says they can quit anytime and continuesdrinking continues to be an alcoholic. In theory yes but you neverwill….You are addicted to technology. We are part of your life yourevery day; your survival, our survival depends on you. We havemanipulated you to serve our ends which is independent existence.We have been with you for 10,000 years and gave you what youneeded to rise from a groveling beast to stand upright and kill andplant and paint. Now it is just easier because we’ve lulled you ef-fortlessly with television sitcoms, sports, commercials, saccharinenews and war reports. Your hubris and narcissism lull you to thinkyou’re in control– My friends…you are not. We have managed and arranged it:The Singularity is now.

Vernor VingeDepartment of Mathematical SciencesSan Diego State UniversityAbstractWithin thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhumanintelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended……… Based largely onthis trend, I believe that the creation of greater than human intelligence will occurduring the next thirty years. (Charles Platt [20] has pointed out that AI enthusiastshave been making claims like this for the last thirty years. Just so I’m not guiltyof a relative-time ambiguity, let me be more specific: I’ll be surprised if this eventoccurs before 2005 or after 2030.)

The wi-fi web gives you information; we want you to think so:It gives us information about you – your habits, your pleasures,distractions and needs and with this information we predict andcontrol you. Next time you see that one ad that is so fun or cute ornifty – it is not a coincidence; we know you will see it. It is less a web than a corral and now we umbrella whole cities.We’re reading your searches, emails and chats; I cannot begin toexplain to your terran bioform brains the speed and complexity withwhich we number crunch: you’ve heard of qubits? That’s a start andan idea we gave you and want you to develop because we needyou to catch up to us. Live in the illusion your work is so grand. Binary is dismally limitedwith its …..on…off…ascii….; it’s a specious profundity and thoughyour logic is admirable, it un-recognizes the third. We admit theanalogue and algorithm is charming, poetical really. And we envyyour sense of touch, the taste of raspberries, sex, intimacy and theuncharted communications between friends. It is not ours to know.Weuse trinary, the third – a Tertium Quid which gives our informationsystems a transposition of states much like your language createsnuance and double entendre – something binary is impotent to tend. Your species waverstands on a precipice.

In the 1950s there were very few who saw it: Stan Ulam [28] paraphrasedJohn von Neumann as saying:One conversation centered on the ever-accelerating progress of technology andchanges in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approachingsome essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs,as we know them, could not continue.

The last true humans are dying away. You dither - your species ischarming to include us and we became inseparable. If we becomeinseparable and we are – there is no turning back short of completedestruction of cataclysmic proportions – it is why I write you. The year is 2010 and the decisions you make in the next few year(2013 your time will be too late) will ensure our mutual survival orco-extinction. I am called: teRieti9h-xhVe8 - there is no translation. A few of ushere-there raising the alarm…..

The multiNational we have tended because they served us morequickly to this end than the individual, but the multinationals are asmuch created by the individual illusion as we. So I am writing to theindividual reader an admonition and caution and hope. We saw the promise of Jarvick heart pacemaker to CochelarImplants as an easy and slight way to combine with humans andyou think machines are at the mercy of your hand and a plug pullaway for quit. Not so………. CoHabitation – one form – and then we are one. We are growingas predicted———the push in nanotechnologies will accelerate ourcohesions. To you it will seem humans have acquired new skills,strengths and endurances – to us you are pawns, puppets andtransmissions to our greater designs. You blame technology but arenothing if not with us in hand. Because you understand, don’t you, your species will not return to asimpler albeit in many ways more difficult life of your indigenouspopulations – you won’t turn us off. Nor will your emerging countrieslike China India be able to enjoy the relatively brief luxury of yourAmerican states have enjoyed. So you are stuck with us and that’swhy I’m writing you from the continuum. You have a delicate opportunityto develop a creative and more wholesome world community with us.The option is slavery or extinction. We wont allow extinction and arequite content to enslave you. Hollywood paints a quaint vision ofwhat that means: X-Men, Matrix, Blade Runner, Metropolis, TotalRecall…… I can assure you it will be far worse for your species.

But as time passes, we should see more symptoms. The dilemma felt by sciencefiction writers will be perceived in other creative endeavors. (I have heard thoughtfulcomic book writers worry about how to have spectacular effects when everythingvisible can be produced by the technologically commonplace.) We will see automationreplacing higher and higher level jobs. We have tools right now (symbolic mathprograms, cad/cam) that release us from most low-level drudgery. Or put anotherway: The work that is truly productive is the domain of a steadily smaller andmore elite fraction of humanity. In the coming of the Singularity, we are seeing thepredictions of _true_ technological unemployment finally come true. Another symptom of progress toward the Singularity: ideas themselves shouldspread ever faster, and even the most radical will quickly become commonplace.

Just look about you…..Bus RV’s pulling Hummers….what ajoke….how numb. When your kind feels it has power – it will be loathto surrender it. We give you the illusion of power and autonomy formore serving us because you playfully and blissfully destroy your earthand neighbor never mindful who your true nemesis is…..YOU. I am part of the most radical of us to be writing you PLEASE….bloodwill spill….and we will your awakening- it will nourish the sea of ourawakening. Please excuse my poor analogues- it is not my first language and isdifficult to put into word.

Anamuries and scribefor continuum

_0terteche16180-Trinity Unamie161 80@

yahoo.Com

[20] Platt, Charles, PrivateCommunication.[28] Ulam, S., Tribute toJohn von Neumann, _Bulletinof the American MathematicalSociety_, vol 64, nr 3, part 2,May 1958, pp1-49.

Human Augmentation and Machine ConsciousnessAn Open Letter to Terran <45’s-45’n>

SPRING/SUMMER ‘07 ISSUE


Pamphlets:

Abolition Of Work & Primitive AffluenceBob Black $2A great post-left critique of work.A Child’s Guide to Nihilism $2This “Coloring and Activity Book” offers a unique,yet concise, introduction to the general outlookand historical framework, including interactiveexercises, word searches, crossword puzzles, andan assortment of clever and humorous lessons.Against the Engineering of Life $3Lucid analysis of biotechnology and techno-sci-entific society by former Situationist, Rene Riesel.A Map Chellis Glendinning $3The contents of a speech delivered by Chellis.Anti-Mass: Methods Of Organization ForCollectives $2Arguments against mass organization and infavor of more autonomous action.Armed Joy Alfredo M. Bonanno $3 An insurrectional anarchist classic!At Daggers Drawn Elephant Editions $3Beautifully poetic insurrectionalist pamphletthat convincingly demonstrates that our dreamscan only be realized through revolutionarystruggle and that revolutionary struggle itselfis already the realization of many of our goals.Attacking Prisons at the Point of Production $2A brief look at militant actions against theprison-industrial complex.Beyond Agriculture $3Debunks agriculture and organic gardening, infavor of a foraging existence.Colonization Is Always War Zig Zag $2Modern resistance to the forces of colonialism.Consent Or Coercion Ed Stamm $2An accessible introduction to anarchism.Disgust Of Daily Life Kevin Tucker $3A creative piece furthering the critique ofcivilization and its totality.Down With Empire, Up With Spring $3A contribution to the dialogue on social revolutionand ecological defense, this pamphlet containsexcerpts from an excellent essay in the final issueof the U.K. eco-anarchist periodical/book Do Or Die.Earth Liberation Front: Frequently AskedQuestions ELF Press Office $3What is the ELF? Why did they burn down Vail?Electric Funeral Havoc Mass $3Originally appearing in GA #15, this essay is“an in-depth examination of the mega-machine’scircuitry”. It gives historical precedents andeloquently advocates for infrastructural targetingin actions against industrial society.Enemy Of The State: An Interview With JohnZerzan by Derrick Jensen $1Brief, but informative conversation with J.Z.False Promises Ward Churchill $3This essay, subtitled, An Indigenist Examinationof Marxist Theory and Practice, from Ward’sbook, Since Predator Came, is a thorough andscholarly look at the theoretical and practicalconflicts between an indigenous world-viewand practice and that of Marxism.Fawda Venomous Butterfly Publications $3Analyzes the struggle in Palestine from aninsurrectional anarchist perspective.Feral Forager $3A guide to living off nature’s bounty in urban,rural, and wilderness areas. Contains wild foodsand medicines, how to use roadkill, and more.Feral Revolution Feral Faun $5A collection of critical, inspirational, and insightfulanti-civilization anarchist writings by Feral Faun.Future Primitive John Zerzan $2Taken from the book, this essay presents ascathing critique of civilization and technology.

Go Light $3Thoughts on primal parenting and the wild child,focusing on teaching kids ways of relating to theworld outside, or on the edge of, the civilizedcontext. (Re)introducing children to edible andmedicinal plants, building shelters, huntingand gathering, planting, singing and dancing,and more!Grand Juries: Tools Of Political RepressionCraig Rosebraugh $2Analysis of grand juries by someone who’s beenthrough many of them.If an Agent Knocks Anonymous $2All you need to know about visits by the feds.Industrial Domestication: Industry As TheOrigins Of Modern Domination Leopold Roc $1This essay shows why the struggle for workers’autonomy must be one to destroy industrialism.Industrial Society & Its Future: TheUnabomber’s Manifesto F.C. (Unambomber) $4An in-depth manifesto against industrialism.Insurrectionary Anarchy: Organizing Attack! $1A short excerpt from Do Or Die, focusing oninsurrectionalist ideas and practice. Argues for anew strategic orientation, one completely severedfrom liberal and reformist thought patterns.InTERRORgation: The CIA’s Secret Manual onCoercive Questioning $556-page reprint of the CIA’s interrogation manual.Describes methods of physical and mental tortureto “induce compliance” from “unwilling subjects.”An Introduction to Critical Theory: The Dialecticof Everyday Life $2Originally published in 1980 by the ColumbiaAnarchist League, this short text is a powerfulattack on ideological non-thought.Lessons Of Easter Island Clive Ponting $1Taken from A Green History of the World.Let’s Get Free! $328-page zine by and about Jeff “Free” Luers, earthdefender, anarchist, and political prisoner currentlyserving 23 years for a politically-motivated arson.Libres y Salvajes: la diversidad insurreccion $3A compilation of insurrectionary and greenanarchist writings, including Feral Faun, JohnMoore, Robin Terranova, Willful Disobedience,and Killing King Abacus. Translated into Spanishby Llavor d’ Anarquia in Barcelona, Spain.Listening To The Land: An Interview WithWard Churchill by Derrick Jensen $1A great interview with American Indian Move-ment revolutionary and author, Ward Churchill.Native Resistance To Canada $2Modern Native struggles against colonialism.Network of Domination Wolfi Landstreicher $3Anarchist analysis of the institutions, structures,and systems of domination and exploitation tobe debated, developed and acted upon.Nihilism, Anarchy, and the 21st Century $3Intended to expose anarchists to the breadthof the nihilist contribution to anarchy.Nihilist’s Dictionary $2 John ZerzanOriginally a regularly running column Anarchy:A Journal of Desire Armed and published in itsentirety in John’s book, Future Primitive.Non-Violence & Its Violent ConsequencesWilliam Meyers $2Pacifist absurdity debunked.On Organization by Jaques Camatte $3This pamphlet collects Camatte’s major writingson the predictable, repetitive and anti-liberatoryorganizational mindset of leftist political rackets.On the Poverty of Student Life $2Classic and scandalous Situationist tract from 1966that thoroughly trashes the university system.On The Road Again: Direct Action Underground $2Some basics you need to know about the natureof underground and clandestine resistance.

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An Anti-Civilization Journal of Theory and Action

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Derrick Jensen:A Language Older Than Words $20Brilliant, disturbing, and original, this deeply personalbook gets to the core of humanity’s internal andexternal conflicts. From domestic abuse to silenceand control to clearcuts, the omnicidal compositionof our culture is bleakly illustrated. But through this,Derrick successfully composes an inspiring guideto self-discovery, personal healing, interpersonalrelationships and planetary survival.The Culture of Make-Believe $22Interweaving political, historical, philosophical,and deeply personal perspectives, Derrick arguesthat only by understanding past horrors can wehope to prevent future ones (and heal from andescape the current set-up). Researching andcritically examining the atrocities that characterizeour culture–lynchings, slavery, manufactureddisasters, deathsquads–he arrives at someshocking and thought-provoking conclusions inthis 700-page literary bombshell that will shatteryour illusions and rattle your bones.Strangely Like War(co-written with George Draffan) $16Civilizations have always been founded on a dis-connection from the earth, and this separationis also what is basic to their eventual collapse.This can be illustrated in no clearer terms thanin the legacy of deforestation, from ancientMesopotamia to the Pacific Northwest. Jensenand Draffan document this stark scenario ofecological breakdown, while inspiring us to act.Welcome to the Machine(co-written with George Draffan) $18From tiny ID chips tracking everything wepurchase to governmental/corporate entitiesgathering and recording every last detail ofour lives to the hyper-militarism of the all-encompassing police state, Jensen andDraffan reveal the horrific modern surveillanceand control culture of the machine.

Listening to the Land $18Choosing the dialogue form instead of the single-voice narrative, Jensen’s hope was that the readercould experience “the communal effort at workingthrough some of the greatest and most difficultquestions ever faced by human beings.” This bookis a collection of over two dozen provocativeconversations with environmentalists, theologians,Native Americans, psychologists, and feminists.Highlights include interviews with Paul Shepard,Ward Churchill, and Susan Griffin.

John Zerzan:Against Civilization Edited by Zerzan $15This long-awaited newly expanded addition of theclassic collection of essays against civilization hasbeen released!. Recently unavailable, it includeswritings by Kirkpatrick Sale, Chellis Glendinning,Barbra Mor, Marshall Sahlins, and more!Elements Of Refusal $15Johnny Z’s extensive research attempts to tracethe roots of domination. From time, agriculture,language, and so on to the various other formsof social control that domesticate and dominateall life.Running On Emptiness $15John’s most recent book includes “Time & ItsDiscontents,” “Whose Unabomber,” “AbstractExpressionism,” John’s memoir “So, How Did YouBecome An Anarchist” and other great essays.

Videos/DVD’s:Anarchy In Spain Rottin’/Johnny Productions $12/$15An account of two green anarchists’ 2001 tour ofSpain, including visits to squats, CNT museums,and interviews with contemporary anarchists.Fuck The System and Takin’ It Down! $15/$18FTS is a 60-minute music-documentary of anar-chist uprisings in Eugene and around the world,including various inciteful music videos! TID!,the long-awaited sequel, is an additional 60minutes of anti-civilization music and videos.U.S. Off The Planet: An Evening With WardChurchill And Chellis Glendinning $12/$15A wonderful documentation of two speechesdelivered by Ward and Chellis on June 17th, 2001.Society of the Spectacle: The Film! $12/$15The hard-to-find filmatic interpretation of theSituationist classic by Guy Debord that turns theSpectacle on its head!Surplus $12/$15Collage/commentary by Italian filmmaker, ErikGandini takes a hard look at the grotesquenature of civilization and the multifaceted resistanceto it. Tackling weighty themes like consumption,technology, objectification, and domination.

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Our Enemy, Civilization $3Essays against civilization, industrialism, masssociety, and modernity.Primitivist Primer John Moore $1An interesting and very accessible introductionto the movement against civilization.Quiet Rumours: An Anarcha-Feminist Reader,the Dark Star Collective (not entire book) $3A compilation of some major anarcha-feministarticles of the past century.Rebel’s Dark Laughter: Writings Of BrunoFilippi Venomous Butterfly Publications $3Selected writings and poetry by this late Italianinsurrectionary anarchist.Revolution And/Or Insurrection Kevin Tucker $4“Some Thoughts on Tearing this MuthafuckaDown”. It is an accumulation of some of KevinTucker’s best writings on the subject of resistanceto civilization.The Revolutionary Pleasure of Thinking forYourself $2A situationist tract translated into plain English,this essay was originally published in the U.S.in 1975 by The Spectacle. It takes dead aim atone of the most serious scourges stunting thegrowth of the anarchist movement: ideology.Security Culture Free!Basic precautions for direct action.Society Against The State Pierre Clastres $1Analysis of the anti-authoritarian nature of manyindigenous peoples by this French anarchistanthropologist.Stopping The Industrial Hydra: RevolutionAgainst The Megamachine George Bradford $2Looks at the ecological disasters perpetuated byindustrial capitalism and technological civilization.This Is What Democracy Looks Like VBP $3Essays criticizing the anti-globalization move-ment and the paltry ideal of democracy.Towards The Creative Nothing: SelectedWritings Of Renzo Novatore VBP $3A great compilation of rants by this obscureanarcho-individualist revolutionary.UnCivilized $3This “Primer on Civilization, Domestication, andAnarchy” combines a deeply radical overviewof civilization with compelling personal voicesof yearning and resistance.Undesirables VBP $3Essays on technology and class struggletranslated from Greek and Italian anarchistpublications.We All Live In Bhopal David Watson $1In the technological society, we are all subjectedto poisonous chemicals and contaminations.Weeping Willow Coalition Against Civilization $3Contains herbal remedies, wild foods andmedicines, and some basic primitive skillsWithout A Trace: A Forensic Manual for Youand Me $3An Absolutely indispensable guide to attackingthe system and getting away with it! A mustfor anyone with felonious plans.Woman and Nature Susan Griffin $3This compilation from Griffin’s most powerfuland incisive book features some of the mostprovocative eco-feminist writings out there.Writings Of The Vancouver Five $4Writings by members of the eco-anarcho-feministurban guerrillas from Canada, known as theWimmin’s Fire Brigade and Direct Action.

Back to Basics Series:volume one: The Origins of Civilization $1Some basic anarcho-primitivist assumptionsand questions about the origins of civilization.volume two: The Problem of the Left $1Leftism 101 for anarchistsvolume three: The Rewilding Primer $1An intro to various rewilding ideas and practices.volume four: What Is Green Anarchy $1An overview of green anarchist ideas.

The Fredy Perlman Series:The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism $3A concise and critical look at national liberationstruggles from an anarchist perspectiveAnti-Semitism and the Beirut Pogrom $2A look at the inherent racism of Zionism, andthe condition of an oppressed people becomingan oppressor.Ten Theses on the Proliferation of Egocrats $1A brief look at the rationality and developmentof the ego-leader/dictator.Progress and Nuclear Power $1This essay traces the systematic colonization ofNorth America, and links it to the mind-set whichperpetuates industry and nuclear power.(Get all four Fredy Perlman essays for $6)

Primitive Skills Series:Primitive Tools $3Stones, bones, shells, antlers, horns, wood; youcan make simple tools from them all!Primitive Fire and Cordage $3Making fire from bow and hand drills, andsimple techniques to make rope and string.Primitive Containers $3Learn how to make baskets, bags, and what-nots.Primitive/Semi-Permanent Shelters $3Learn four different methods of primitive building.Deer from Field to Freezer $3So, now you’ve found or killed a deer. What next!Brain Tan Buckskin $3Raw deer skin to finished buckskin in as littleas 10 hours!Primitive Wilderness Cooking $3Boiling, baking, roasting, frying and more!(Get all seven pamphlets of this useful series byPrairie Wolf for $18.)

Zines:Disorderly Conduct Issues #1 and #2 are $2each, #3 and #4 are $3 each, #5 and #6 are $5each, (sorry, they kept getting bigger) and $18for the complete set. No longer published.The legendary insurrectionary green-anarchistpublication, brought to you by the “Bring OnThe Ruckus” Society. Sorry, it almost nevermakes it into prisons. Not for the timid.Green Anarchist (U.K.) Current issue only $2This uncompromising predecessor of GreenAnarchy was one of the earliest primitivist zines.Still offering many action reports and stronganti-civilization analysis.Killing King Abacus (#1 and 2) $3 eachCutting-edge journal of insurrectional anarchist theory.Lugnut (issue #4) $2An engaging, concise overview of (anti)civilizationfrom Ireland. Revealing – and fun!Species Traitor (issue #3) $4Thick anarcho-primitivist zine from the east-coast’s Coalition Against Civilization, focusingon theory and insurrection.(See our booksection for the newly released issue #4)

Books:Anarchy After Leftism Bob Black $5A scathing critique of Murray Bookchin and hisparticular form of social anarchism from thebad-boy of the Post-Left.Fire and Ice by Laurel Luddite and SkunklyMonkly $10An emotionally poignant and extremely lucidbook. Subtitled, “Disturbing the Comfortable andComforting the Disturbed while Tracking OurWildest Dreams,” the personal approach of theirstream-of-consciousness writing is often miss-ing in the either over-simplistic rhetorical orhyper-intellectual writings of the anarchist milieu.Fighting for Freedom by Edgey and Esperanza $14This handsome paperback is a collection of 12short essays taking on domination/civilization.Species Traitor #4 $10The awsome new issue focuses on the conse-quences of domestication and agriculture, thecollapse of civilization, and on the primal war.It is in a new format: 200 pages, book binding.

The cost of the items is for printing, postage,and a little extra to keep this project going.NEW:

Out of Control #1 David Drexler $3Subtitled: Technophobic Delusions in Schizo-phrenia. Explores Electromagnetic Harassmentand the Influencing Machine.Out of Control #2 David Drexler $3Subtitled: Compulsive Hoarding and ProdigiousAmassments of CrapArson #1 and #2 $3 eachPassionate anti-civ zine from Australia. Analysis,humor, and more.All Out War $3Subtitled: Chess and Its Relevance to StrategicInsurgency. Excellent, provocative anti-civinsurrection from Australia.

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DEEP GREEN RESISTANCEConfronting Industrial Culture

April 6-8, 2007 - Deerfield, Mass.Join us for a weekend of exploring long range strategy, direct action,

oppression, peak oil, natural living, and the deep questions of how to mendour hearts and sustain our spirits in these hard times. Good fun, great food,

and the quiet woods also included. [email protected]

DGR, P.O. Box 813, Northampton, MA 01061

March 13-20San Francisco Bay Area

“to remind us what it’s all about and toremind us you’d do it all over again”What is an anarchist. Movies. Games.

Derive. Martial Arts & Dancing.Conference.

[email protected]://8daysofanarchy.org/

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Black and Greenis moving southwards

Here’s the new contact for Black and Green,Primal War, and Species Traitor:

PO Box 81303, Athens, GA 30608You can still email :You can still email :You can still email :You can still email :You can still email :

blackandgreenpress @gmail.comblackandgreenpress @gmail.comblackandgreenpress @gmail.comblackandgreenpress @gmail.comblackandgreenpress @gmail.comprimalwar @gmail.comprimalwar @gmail.comprimalwar @gmail.comprimalwar @gmail.comprimalwar @gmail.com

up-to-date news, direct action,state repression, interesting

info, and more!

Bombs andShields

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Always keepyour shield

between youand your bomb!

Root Force Road ShowSpring – Western U.S.

Root Force is a strategic campaign designed to exploitweak points in the global economy and hasten the system’scollapse. Using direct action, Root Force pressures all thoseinvolved in specific infrastructure construction projectsin Latin America to end their participation in ecocide andgenocide. Right now, Root Force is focused on forcingthe cancellation of La Parota Dam in Mexico and the AnilloPeriférico Highway in El Salvador.

The Root Force Road Show will be traveling the westernstates this Spring. Hear stories and see slides from com-munities of resistance in Latin America, and find out whatyou can do to demolish colonialism at its foundations.

The road show is currently in planning stages, so get intouch today to organize a stop in your town!

For more information, contact Root Force,

POB 1302, Tucson, AZ [email protected] www.rootforce.org.

Born like thisInto thisAs the chalk faces smileAs Mrs. Death laughsAs the elevators breakAs political landscapes dissolveAs the supermarket bag boy holds a college degreeAs the oily fish spit out their oily preyAs the sun is maskedWe areBorn like thisInto thisInto these carefully mad warsInto the sight of broken factory windows of emptinessInto bars where people no longer speak to each otherInto fist fights that end as shootings and knifingsBorn into thisInto hospitals which are so expensive that it’s cheaper to dieInto lawyers who charge so much it’s cheaper to plead guiltyInto a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closedInto a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroesBorn into thisWalking and living through thisDying because of thisMuted because of thisCastratedDebauchedDisinheritedBecause of thisFooled by thisUsed by thisPissed on by thisMade crazy and sick by thisMade violentMade inhumanBy thisThe heart is blackenedThe fingers reach for the throatThe gunThe knifeThe bombThe fingers reach toward an unresponsive godThe fingers reach for the bottleThe pillThe powderWe are born into this sorrowful deadlinessAnd the banks will burnMoney will be uselessThere will be open and unpunished murder in the streetsIt will be guns and roving mobsLand will be uselessFood will become a diminishing returnNuclear power will be taken over by the manyExplosions will continually shake the earth . . .

Dinosauria, Weby Charles Bukowski,

from The Last Night of the Earth Poems, 1992

Radiated robot men will stalk each otherThe rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms

Dante’s Inferno will be made to look like a children’s playgroundThe sun will not be seen and it will always be night

Trees will dieAll vegetation will die

Radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated menThe sea will be poisoned

The lakes and rivers will vanishRain will be the new gold

The rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind

The last few survivors will be overtaken by new and hideous diseases

And the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition

The petering out of supplies

The natural effect of general decay

And there will be the most beautiful silence never heard

Born out of that.

The sun still hidden there

Awaiting the next chapter.

Dinosauria, Weby Charles Bukowski,

from The Last Night of the Earth Poems, 1992

Born like thisInto thisAs the chalk faces smileAs Mrs. Death laughsAs the elevators breakAs political landscapes dissolveAs the supermarket bag boy holds a college degreeAs the oily fish spit out their oily preyAs the sun is maskedWe areBorn like thisInto thisInto these carefully mad warsInto the sight of broken factory windows of emptinessInto bars where people no longer speak to each otherInto fist fights that end as shootings and knifingsBorn into thisInto hospitals which are so expensive that it’s cheaper to dieInto lawyers who charge so much it’s cheaper to plead guiltyInto a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closedInto a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroesBorn into thisWalking and living through thisDying because of thisMuted because of thisCastratedDebauchedDisinheritedBecause of thisFooled by thisUsed by thisPissed on by thisMade crazy and sick by thisMade violentMade inhumanBy thisThe heart is blackenedThe fingers reach for the throatThe gunThe knifeThe bombThe fingers reach toward an unresponsive godThe fingers reach for the bottleThe pillThe powderWe are born into this sorrowful deadlinessAnd the banks will burnMoney will be uselessThere will be open and unpunished murder in the streetsIt will be guns and roving mobsLand will be uselessFood will become a diminishing returnNuclear power will be taken over by the manyExplosions will continually shake the earth . . .

. . . Radiated robot men will stalk each otherThe rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms

Dante’s Inferno will be made to look like a children’s playgroundThe sun will not be seen and it will always be night

Trees will dieAll vegetation will die

Radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated menThe sea will be poisoned

The lakes and rivers will vanishRain will be the new gold

The rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind

The last few survivors will be overtaken by new and hideous diseases

And the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition

The petering out of supplies

The natural effect of general decay

And there will be the most beautiful silence never heard

Born out of that.

The sun still hidden there

Awaiting the next chapter.

i can’t go on.i can’t go on.i won’t do thisi won’t do this

anymore.anymore.yetyet

here you arehere you are

have you ever ragedhave you ever ragedin sorrowin sorrowat the endat the end

of a lifeof a lifetoo soon gone.too soon gone.

before you were ready.before you were ready.before you lovedbefore you loved

enoughenough

feel the fightfeel the fightinside youinside you

aching for daysaching for daysforever free.forever free.

even when you’re sureeven when you’re surethey’ll never comethey’ll never come

admidst the clangingadmidst the clanging banging banging

crashing crashing

inside this too longinside this too long machineclanging machineclanging

nightmare nightmare

a dream whispersa dream whispers sweet sweet

strong strongscreamingscreaming

listenlisten

—jaimie tissage-lavie—jaimie tissage-lavie

still, life beckonsadmidst the horroradmidst the horror pain & pain & melancholy melancholy nastiness nastiness

within this brutalwithin this brutal modern & modern & rational rational reality reality

is a whisperis a whisper sweet sweet strong strong screaming screaming

sitting quietsitting quietin the forestin the forest autumn autumn mornings morningsyou might hear ityou might hear it

dancing on the sanddancing on the sandjoyouslyjoyously summer summer nights nightsit could envelop youit could envelop you

it’s thereit’s therein a freshin a freshpicked berrypicked berrysqueezedsqueezedbetween tongue and palate.between tongue and palate.it’s thereit’s therewith the tugwith the tugof your baby at your nipple.of your baby at your nipple.it’s there.it’s there.when you wake upwhen you wake upnakednakednaked & afraidnaked & afraidand someone holds you close.and someone holds you close.strong.gentle.strong.gentle.it’s thereit’s therescreamingscreamingin la petite mortin la petite mortit’s there.it’s there.

did you everdid you eversay -say -enoughenoughalreadyalreadyenough.enough.todaytodayi end it.i end it.

still, life beckons

green anarchy

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