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Contents Fall 1997 IAS Update Emma Goldman Papers Dimensions of Chinese Anarchism: An Interview with Arif Dirlik From 1905 to 1930, anarchists exerted a broad influence on Chinese culture and politics. They were at the center of the emerging social radicalism of that period and their activities left a significant mark on later decade's revolutionary movements. Arif Dirlik is among the few historians writing in English to treat the Chinese anarchist movement, which he has chronicled and analyzed in several works, most notably his Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution. He has also written numerous explorations of contemporary problems in radical politics and theory. I spoke with Dirlik on May 19, 1997. I asked him about Chinese anarchism, his experience as a radical social theorist in the university, and the future of his work. ~ Chuck Morse Most histories of anarchism begin by establishing the principles of anarchism and then narrate the lives of those who embraced these principles. You chose a different approach in Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution. You describe the Chinese anarchists as both subjects and objects - products and shapers - of the larger revolutionary process in China, and your book traces the dialectic between the anarchists and this process. Why did you choose this form of exposition? Is there something about the Chinese anarchists that makes this necessary or does it reflect larger methodological commitments? It's the latter. I believe in approaching concepts, theories, or political orientations historically. While some kind of notion of what one means by these concepts is necessary for analysis, establishing first principles tends to dehistoricize the approach to them. In other words, you establish first principles - as if they were true everywhere at all times - and then begin to analyze people in terms of those principles. This leads to ahistorical judgments, in my opinion, on "who is or isn't a true anarchist" or "who is or isn't a true Marxist?" It leads inevitably to unproductive questions of orthodoxy - unproductive both intellectually and politically. This also results in certain kinds of sectarianism, since it leads to a question of truth fulness rather than historical variation. So, this didn't have anything to do with Chinese anarchism per se, but rather my approach to intellectual hist ory and concepts. T Tnlike Peter Zarrow in Anarchism and \J Chinese Political Culture, you de-emphasize the role of Daoism and Buddhism in the constitution of Chinese anarchism. Why is this? There is a methodological problem here ... There has been a long-standing tendency - I'm tempted to call it an Orientalist tendency even - to attribute everything new in China to Chinese tradi tion, which is another way of saying that there is never anything significantly new in China, anything that cannot be explained in terms of the past. I have been a critic of this tradition in Chinese historiography. I believe that Chinese society was as subject to change as any other society, whether or not we are willing to recognize it. So, I was hesitant, therefore, to attribute the emergence of continued on page 6 IAS Grant Awards The IAS awards an annual total of $6000 in grants to writers whose work is important to the anarchist critique of domination, exhibit a clear financial need, and whose piece is likely to receive wide distribution. On June 15, 1997, the IAS Board of Directors was pleased to award grants to the following individuals: SI000 to Zoe Erwin and Brian Tokar for the production of Engineering Life: A People's Guide to Biotechnology. This anthology of essays will bring a comprehensive and radical perspective to current debates on biotechnology. It will emphasize the urgent need for an activist response to biotechnology and that efforts against it must also challenge larger structures of social domination. $500 to Frank Adams for the essay, The Educational Ideas and Management Practices of I91 and2(f Century Anarchists in Labor-Owned Cooperatives. This essay will explore the practical educational efforts made by anarchists Continued on Page 10
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Perspectives.on Anarchist Theory - Fall 1997 - Vol 1, No 2

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Page 1: Perspectives.on Anarchist Theory - Fall 1997 - Vol 1, No 2

Contents Fall 1997IAS UpdateEmma Goldman Papers

Dimensions of Chinese Anarchism:An Interview with Arif Dirlik

From 1905 to 1930, anarchists exerted abroad influence on Chinese culture and politics.They were at the center of the emerging socialradicalism of that period and their activities left asignificant mark on later decade's revolutionarymovements.

Arif Dirlik is among the few historians writingin English to treat the Chinese anarchist movement,which he has chronicled and analyzed in severalworks, most notably his Anarchism in the ChineseRevolution. He has also written numerousexplorations of contemporary problems in radicalpolitics and theory.

I spoke with Dirlik on May 19, 1997. I askedhim about Chinese anarchism, his experience as aradical social theorist in the university, and thefuture o f h is work. ~ Chuck Morse

Most histories of anarchism begin byestablishing the principles of anarchismand then narrate the lives of those who embracedthese principles. You chose a different approach inAnarchism in the Chinese Revolution. Youdescribe the Chinese anarchists as both subjectsand objects - products and shapers - of the largerrevolutionary process in China, and your booktraces the dialectic between the anarchists and thisprocess. Why did you choose this form ofexposition? Is there something about the Chineseanarchists that makes this necessary or does itreflect larger methodological commitments?

It's the latter. I believe in approachingconcepts, theories, or political orientationshistorically. While some kind of notion of what one

means by these concepts is necessary for analysis,establishing first principles tends to dehistoricizethe approach to them. In other words, you establishfirst principles - as if they were true everywhere atall times - and then begin to analyze people interms of those principles. This leads to ahistoricaljudgments, in my opinion, on "who is or isn't a trueanarchist" or "who is or isn't a true Marxist?"

It leads inevitably to unproductive questions oforthodoxy - unproductive both intellectually andpolitically. This also results in certain kinds ofsectarianism, since it leads to a question of truthfulness rather than historical variation. So, thisdidn't have anything to do with Chinese anarchismper se, but rather my approach to intellectual history and concepts.

T Tnlike Peter Zarrow in Anarchism and\J Chinese Political Culture, you de-emphasizethe role of Daoism and Buddhism in theconstitution of Chinese anarchism. Why is this?

There is a methodological problem here ...There has been a long-standing tendency - I'mtempted to call it an Orientalist tendency even - toattribute everything new in China to Chinese tradition, which is another way of saying that there isnever anything significantly new in China, anythingthat cannot be explained in terms of the past.

I have been a critic of this tradition in Chinesehistoriography. I believe that Chinese society wasas subject to change as any other society, whetheror not we are willing to recognize it. So, I washesitant, therefore, to attribute the emergence of

continued on page 6

IAS Grant AwardsThe IAS awards an annual total of $6000 ingrants to writers whose work is important to theanarchist critique of domination, exhibit a clearfinancial need, and whose piece is likely toreceive wide distribution. On June 15, 1997, theIAS Board of Directors was pleased to awardgrants to the following individuals:

SI000 to Zoe Erwin and Brian Tokar for theproduction of Engineering Life: A People'sGuide to Biotechnology. This anthology of essayswill bring a comprehensive and radical

perspective to current debates on biotechnology.It will emphasize the urgent need for an activistresponse to biotechnology and that efforts againstit must also challenge larger structures of socialdomination.

$500 to Frank Adams for the essay, TheEducational Ideas and Management Practices ofI91 and2(f Century Anarchists in Labor-OwnedCooperatives. This essay will explore thepractical educational efforts made by anarchists

Continued on Page 10

Page 2: Perspectives.on Anarchist Theory - Fall 1997 - Vol 1, No 2

Perspectives-1- on anarchist theoryon anarchist theory

Perspectives - OnAnarchist Theory

Institute for Anarchist Studies Update

Fall 1997, Vol. I, No. 2Newsletter of the Institute

for Anarchist Studies

Editorial Committee:Rebecca DeWitt, Chuck Morse

Grammatical Specialists:Diva Agostinelli, Brian Wells

Hay, Chris Robinson

Subscription Rates(Two issues per year)

I A S D o n o r s - F r e eI n d i v i d u a l s - $ 5I n s t i t u t i o n s - '■ $ 1 0Bulk Subs (25 Copies) - $25

(Please make checks payable to theInstitute for Anarchist Studies)

Disclaimer: the views expressed inPerspectives do not necessarilyrepresent the views of the IAS as awhole.

IAS Board of Directors:Paula Emery, John Petrovato,

Dan Chodorkoff, Cindy Milstein,Michelle Matisons, Maura Dillon,

Paul Glavin

IAS CoordinatorRebecca DeWitt

General Director:Chuck Morse

For more information or a grantapplication, please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:

Institute forAnarchist Studies

P.O. Box 7050Albany, NY12225 - USA

Phone: 518-465-3062E-mail: [email protected]: http://members.aol.com/

iastudy/Defaulthtm

The IAS is a nonprofit, tax-exemptorganization.

In the last issue of Perspectives I introduced theInstitute for Anarchist Studies and our goal toencourage the development of radical socialcriticism and ideals of freedom. I am pleased toreport that we have pursued this goal vigorouslyand even expanded our activities in small, butsignificant ways.

The IAS has continued to help radical writersproduce high quality, critical scholarship with itsgrant awards. The IAS awarded its second set ofgrants this July to authors whose projects willexamine attempts to build social alternatives andconfront urgent, contemporary issues with an anti-authoritarian perspective. It was with pleasure thatwe provided assistance to these individuals,knowing that our grants will help them afford timeand resources that are typically scarce for thosewho challenge social hierarchies. Likewise, it hasbeen gratifying to see our grants yield concreteresults, as previous recipients bring their projectscloser to completion. They have worked diligently:Allan Antliff is finishing the last chapter of hisbook, The Culture of Revolt: Art and Anarchism inAmerica. Kwaku Kushindana and PaulFleckenstein have also nearly completed theiressays ("Avoiding New Forms of Repression: AnAfrican-American Reply" and "Civic Space andthe Anarchist Dream," respectively). And, finally,Murray Bookchin is immersed in exhaustivepreparatory research for the second volume of hisSpanish Anarchists.

We have not only continued to award grants buthave also worked to refine our ability to identifyand select the most germane and far reachingprojects. Specifically, the IAS Board of Directorsrecently decided to expand the types of workeligible for IAS support. Grants were previouslydirected toward non-fiction works, although wecame to regard this as both an unnecessaryrestriction and one that could prevent us fromsupporting an extremely valuable project (forexample, the next Homage to Catalonia). The IASBoard thus decided to make IAS grants available toall written works, whether they are fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, etc..

We have also expanded our efforts to encouragedialogue about anarchist scholarship, keep peopleinformed about developments in the field, andpublicize the IAS. First, we have added four pagesto Perspectives in order to provide more in depthnews and analysis, particularly longer interviewsand "What's Happening" reports. We have also

posted an IAS web site on the Internet. It is ourhope that this site will help the IAS reach out topotential grant applicants, supporters, and alliesaround the world, thus enabling the IAS to embodyits internationalist commitments in practice. It isalso a cost-effective way to distribute informationabout the IAS, thus helping us reduce operatingexpenses to an even smaller percentage of ourannual budget. Although we will continue to addIAS literature to the site as it becomes available,you can already download a grant application, readIAS publications, and find links to a variety ofuseful resources and complementary projects. Ifyou have Internet access, please set aside a fewmoments and take a look. The address is: http://members.aol.com/iastudy/Default.htm.

Finally, it is important to emphasize that the IAS'sability to sustain and expand its efforts presupposesthe generosity of groups and individuals who valueour efforts to support radical scholarship and builda radical social institution. In particular, the IASmust raise $8500 by January, 1998 to award $6000in grants, pay for daily office expenses, and - byplacing 10 percent of every donation in the IASendowment - continue laying the foundation forfuture generations of dissenting, Utopian authors.Please consider making a donation to the IAS ifyou are not already among those who havegenerously donated to our 1997 fundraisingcampaign (see page 11). Contributions are taxdeductible for US citizens and, thanks to PerennialBooks of Montague, Massachusetts, we are able tooffer a selection of exceptional books in exchangefor any contribution of $25 or more (see page 11).This will also entitle you to a 15 percent discounton any item in Perennial's extraordinary catalogue.

The IAS is working hard to help radical authors,encourage dialogue about anarchist scholarship,and build an organization that will be there for thenext generation of dissidents. Although our effortsunfold in an era of uncertainty and change, the IAShas emerged as a solid project that is tangiblyenriching attempts to confront the challenges of ourtime with searching critique and radical ideals offreedom.

~ Chuck Morse

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Perspectivesi. on anarchist theorv

Anarchism and the Emma Goldman Papers Projectby Rebecca Dewitt

Archives are an essential resource for radicalscholarship and certainly most studies of anarchismwould not be possible without them. Most archivesare supported by the federal government oruniversities, while some archives are established byanarchists as self-consciously radical projects.Anarchist run archives are less numerous but theytend to more accurately preserve the history ofanarchism because they function from anarchistprinciples, whereas archives that collect anarchistmaterial but do not function from anarchistprinciples tend to misrepresent anarchist, history.The Emma Goldman Papers Project (EGPP)focuses exclusively on an anarchist figureesteemed, quoted, and upheld by the anarchistcommunity, but nonetheless does not embraceanarchist principles. The EGPP provides a goodillustration of the problems that occur when anarchive of anarchist material is run in a non-anarchist manner.

The EGPP all started with a dog, a guitar shop, and

a shoebox. In the 1970's, Candace Falk and herdog, Red Emma, were visiting a friend's guitar shopwhen he offhandedly mentioned a shoebox he'dfound full of love letters from Ben Reitman toEmma Goldman. This discovery eventually led tothe publication of Falk's book Love, Anarchy, andEmma Goldman, which Falk hoped would"inscribe a more complete picture of her[Goldman] into the historical record.'" As a resultof the book, the National Historical Publicationsand Records Commission of the National Archives(a federal agency) asked her to oversee the task ofcollecting Goldman's writings for archivalpurposes. Over a twelve-year period, Falk andothers collected correspondence, writings, andgovernment documents to establish the EGPP atthe University of Berkeley.

The collection is mainly structured aroundGoldman's correspondence with radical figuresand, with over 20,000 documents, it is impressive.

continued on page 10

Recommended ReadingWe asked two authors to tell usabout their favorite books on avital topic: the relationshipbetween radical social theoryand political opposition.

Kathryn Addelson, author ofImpure Thoughts; Essays onPhilosophy, Feminism andEthics (Temple, 1992) andMoral Passages: Toward aCollectivist Moral Theory(Routledge, 1994) writes:"Anarchism is a philosophy ofhow we might live in freedomand respect, and practicallytransform everyday life in theface of opposition. For thisreason. I like Ursula LeGuin'sThe Dispossessed (Avon, 1974).

The novel tells the story oftwo worlds: Annares, the aridplanet where exiled Odoniansput anarchism into practice; andUrras, the parent globe thatincludes a capitalist democracyamong its hostile states. Shevek,a brilliant physicist from

Annares, makes the trip toUrras. There we see theanarchist and capitalist democratic societies, the conflicts andresistances, and the failings andsuccesses as they emerge inpractice, not merely theory.LeGuin imagines the anarchistsociety in detail, helping us seean anarchist life inside a capitalist democracy.

Another book, Images forChange: The Transformation ofSociety by Rosemary LulingHaughton (Paulist Press, 1997),suggests we see our world andcommunities as homes andsuggests ways we might changethese homes. Haughton andothers have spent years puttingimagination into practicethrough community organizingat Wellspring House inGloucester, Massachusetts. Herearlier book, Song in a StrangeLand (Templegate. 1990), tellsof those experiments and howopposition was overcome. The

basic politics of WellspringHouse is called 'hospitality' andresembles the politics ofAnnares where there is noproperty and people's needs arefilled in common. As whenShevek arrives among the'propertarians' of Urras he tellsthem, 'I come like a goodOdonian, with empty hands.'They must care for him with'hospitality', not by profit orexchange."

L. Susan Brown, author of ThePolitics of Individualism:Liberalism, Liberal Feminismand Anarchism (Montreal:Black Rose, 1993) writes: "Adear friend and former teacherof mine, Luiz Costa-Pinto, oncesaid, 'If violence is the midwifeof history, then it is ideas thatmake history pregnant.' Thisstatement captures the relationship between ideas and actionfor me: meaningful political

Continued on Page 12

Kate SharpleyLibrary

The Kate Sharpley Library is anextraordinary archive. Namedin honor of a WWI anarchistand anti-war activist, it holdswhat is probably the largestcollection of anarchist materialin England. Their collectionincludes several thousand pamphlets, books, newspapers,journals, posters, flyers, unpublished manuscripts, monographs, and essays in over 20languages, covering the historyof the anarchist movement overthe last century.

For example, the KSL possesses detailed reports from theIWA (AIT/IAA), the AnarchistFederation of Britain (1945-50), the Syndicalist WorkersFederation (1950-79) as well asrecords from anarchist publishing houses such as Cien-fuegos Press, ASP, and others.Newspapers include near complete sets of Freedom, Spainand the World, Direct Action,Black Flag, and countlessothers dating back 100 years.The Library also has a sizeablecollection of libertar-iansocialist and council communist material.

You can help the KSL expandtheir collection. Please addthem to your mailing list if youare active in an anarchist groupor publish anarchist material.Also, please consider donatingany suitable material you mighthave. It will be welcome andcan be collected.

If you would like to use theirfacilities or donate material,please contact the KSL at: KateSharpley Library, BM Hurricane, London, WC1N 3XX,UK. Their web address is: http://members.aol.com/wellslake/Sharpley.htm

Page 4: Perspectives.on Anarchist Theory - Fall 1997 - Vol 1, No 2

PerspectivesAon anarchist theory

Contacts andAddresses

Anarchist StudiesWhite Horse Press,

1 Strond, Isle of Harris,HS5 3UD, Scotland

Web: http://www.enca.demon.co.uk/AS.html

AK PressP.O. Box 40682,

San Francisco, CA94140-0682

Web: http://www.akpress.org/

Black Crow BooksPO Box 414, Station E,

Toronto, Ontario,M6H 4E3. CanadaWeb: http://www.

web.net/~blcr/

Cassell Academic:P.O. Box 605

Herndon,VA 22172;Web: http://www.bookshop.

co.uk/cassell/default.htm

E.G. Smith DistributionP.O. Box 82026

Columbus. Ohio, 43202Web: http://www.infinet.

com/~egsmith/welcome.htm 1

Freedom Press84B. Whitechapet High St.,

London El 7QX, U.K.

Protocol Press4722 Baltimore Ave.,

Philadelphia, PA 19143

Social Anarchism2743 Maryland Avenue,Baltimore, MD 21218

Web: http://www.nothingness.org/sociala/

Visions of FreedomCollective

P.O.Box, 13,Enmore 2042, Australia

Web: http://www.cat.org.au

What's Happening: Books & EventsColin Ward and Murray Bookchin, two of the mostdistinguished anarchist authors of the second halfof this century, continue to enrich radical politicsand critique. Ward, author of Anarchy in Action(Freedom Press, 1973) as well as numerous otherworks, has recently published Reflected in Water:A Crisis of Social Responsibility (£12.99, CassellAcademic). This book provides an "account of theimmense social issues raised locally and globallyby our universal need for water, and of the variouswater crises now facing the world." The politicaldimensions of Bookchin's social ecology areelaborated by Janet Biehl in The Politics of SocialEcology: Libertarian Municipalism (Black RoseBooks, SI9.99). This work focuses on the historicaland philosophical context of libertarian municipalism and practical questions pertinent tobuilding a libertarian municipalist movement. Anextensive interview with Bookchin is also included.In addition, many of Bookchin's essential writingsare collected in the Murray Bookchin Reader. Thiswork, edited and introduced by Janet Biehl, issoon-to-be released by Cassell Academic (£15.99).Also, stay tuned for the second volume ofBookchin's Third Revolution: Popular Movementsin the Revolutionary Era.

Attempts to refine a contemporary anarchismcontinue. In Twenty-First Century Anarchism:Unorthodox Ideas for the New Millennium (CassellAcademic, £13.99) Jon Purkis and James Bowenhave collected essays that explore issues such ashuman nature, technology, culture and power,identity, and consumerism. Also included is aglossary of anarchist figures, movements, andevents. Sydney, Australia's Visions of FreedomCollective is commemorating the Visions ofFreedom Conference held there in 1995 with theproduction of an anthology of talks given at theconference. This includes Noam Chomsky's"Goals and Visions" as well as essays addressingfree speech, the relationship between feminism andanarchism, and other issues. They have alsoproduced a magazine containing a variety ofarticles, reports, and photographs related the event.Both are available from the Visions of FreedomCollective.

IAS on the Web• IAS Publications• Grant Applications• Helpful Links

http://members.aol.com/iastudy/Default.htm

The literature on the history of anarchism is alreadyexpansive and it grows with three new booksexamining fairly specialized dimensions of themovement. These are David Morland's Demandingthe Impossible: Human Nature and Politics inNineteenth-Century Social Anarchism (£13.99,Cassell), Michael Forman's Nationalism and theInternational Labor Movement: The Idea of theNation in Socialist and Anarchist Theory (Penn.State University Press), and Alexander Varias'Paris and the Anarchists: Aesthetes and

Subversives During Fin-de-Siecle (St. MartinsPress). These will becomplemented by AKPress's new translationand publication of DanielGuerin's two volume,documentary history ofAnarchism, Neither GodNor Master ($16.95 pervolume).

Daniel Guerin

The Kate Sharpley Library continues to producework from their collection with the pamphlet "TheCNT and the Russian Revolution" by IgnacioLlorens (available from AK Distribution and theKSL). Another pamphlet on the RussianRevolution has just been (re)released by E.G.Smith and AK Press: G.P. Maximov's Bolshevism:Promises & Reality. This analysis of the Marxistdictatorship was originally published in 1935 bythe Free Society Group of Chicago. Also availableis Degrees of Freedom: Anarchist Essays By andAbout Jens Bjorneboe, a noted Norwegiananarchist author (S4.00 from Protocol Press).

Anarchist journals are still important forums fordebating and developing anarchism. The Raven, ananarchist quarterly from London, has a new issueout (Number 33) on the arts. Copies are availablefrom Freedom Press. The next issue of AnarchistStudies, due out in October, includes articles suchas "Kropotkin and Spatial Social Theory:Unfolding an Anarchist Construction" by ShaunHuston and "Max Stirner: The Last Hegelian or theFirst Poststructuralist?" by Andrew M. Koch.Copies are available from The White Horse Press.The next issue of Social Anarchism will bededicated to the memory of David Wieck and willinclude, among other things, an article on Ebonics,reading Godwin, and a special symposium onbuilding an anarchist agenda.

* Photo by Sophie Bassouls from Guerin's The Brown Plague

Page 5: Perspectives.on Anarchist Theory - Fall 1997 - Vol 1, No 2

Perspectivesa on anarchist theory

Anyone interested in buying anarchist books andmeeting anarchist book lovers will want to attendone of the upcoming book fairs. The SixteenthAnnual London Anarchist Bookfair will be held onOctober 18, 1997 at 10 am in Conway Hall, RedLion Square, London WCI (nearest tube isHolborn). For more information contact: NewAnarchist Review, C/O 84b Whitechapel High St.,London E l 7QX o r send e -ma i l t [email protected]. The Third Annual BayArea Anarchist Bookfair will take place on March28,1997. More than 50 exhibitors from all over theU.S. will sell radical and anti-authoritarian books,records, posters and tee-shirts, with speakers to beannounced. For more info contact: Bound TogetherBooks, 1369 Haight Street, SF, CA 94117 or AKPress.

The 25th Annual Reunion of the Friends of theFerrer Modern School will be a greatopportunity to see old friends andmake new ones. It will take place onSept. 20, 1997 at Brower Commonsof Rutgers University, NewBrunswick, NJ. Themes are laborunions and education and art and theModern School, featuring talks byJohn Bekken, Allan Antliff, andJames Wechsler. For moreinformation and to reserve a buffetlunch ($11 per person) contact:Friends of the Ferrer ModernSchool, 200 Sumack Ridge Lane,Altamont, NY 12009; phone 518-8 6 1 - 5 5 4 4 ; o r e m a i [email protected]. Also,anarchism's influence on the artsfrom the turn of the century to thepresent will be the subject of "Anarchism andVisual Culture," a special session at the CollegeArt Association's 86th Annual Conference to beheld in Toronto, February 25-28,1998.

Jura Books, an Australian Anarchist bookstore, isboth celebrating its 20th year and relocating, withfestivities being planned at the new location: 440Parramatta Road, PO Box N32, Petersham NorthNSW 2049, Australia.

The Internet continues to grow as resource fordiscussion and scholarship on anarchism. Theremarkable Anarchy Archives is always expanding,and new additions include various works byGodwin, Bakunin, Kropotkin, and Goldman. Acompletely new section of the site has been createdentitled "Bright, But Lesser Lights" featuringmaterial by and about figures such as Ricardo

Flores Magon, Rosa Pesotta, and other lessprominent anarchists. Anarchy Archives can befound at http://www.pitzer.edu/~dward/Anarchist_Archives/archivehome.html. Also, theKate Sharpley Library now has a web site, whereyou'll find a listing of KSL pamphlets and otherpubl icat ions. The address is ht tp : / /members.aol.com/wellslake/Sharpley.htm. Finally,the Anarchist Archives Project of Cambridge,Massachusetts now has a small web site now athttp://members.aol.com/wellslake/AAP.htm.

Harold Barclay, author of People WithoutGovernment: An Anthropology of Anarchism,recently published a collection of 14 essays andbook reviews entitled Culture and Anarchism(Freedom Press, £6.95/

Radical struggle is the focus of The Heart ofProgress by PaulKlem. Composed of 60"social expressionist,polemical etchings"and accompanied byprose poems, it addresses issues such astechnology, pedagogy, race, class,gender, work, andculture. It is availablefor $13Can/$llUS/£6UK from BlackCrow Books.

The Rabble Review is anew magazine providing a voice for ideasand ac t iv i t ies o f

activists, disgruntled workers, anti-authoritarians,corporate resisters, whistleblowers and otherassorted malcontents. For a sample copy, send $4to P.O. Box 471 VA 22204.

Temma Kaplan, author ofAnarchists of Andalusia,has a new book out, Crazy for Democracy: Womenin Grassroots Movements (Routledge), whichfocuses on women activists in Central and SouthAmerica. Also, Dennis Sullivan, co-author of TheStruggle to Be Human: Crime, Criminology, andAnarchism (Cienfuegos Press, 1980) recentlyhelped establish the Institute for Economic andRestorative Justice. The Institute held a conferencein June and will also publish a journal, TheContemporary Justice Review. For moreinformation contact: The Institute for Economicand Restorative Justice at P.O. Box 262,Voorheesville, NY, 12186.

From Paul Klem's The Heart of Progress

A f r i canAnarchism

See Sharp Press has just re-Xos^AfricmvAf^chism: TheHistory of a Movement Thislong awaited -^ofkllby SaraMbah and HE. Igariweymakesa significant contribution toanarchist as well as Africanhistory. The authors explaintheir intentions as follows:

"Though not abundant anywhere, anarchist literature isespecially scarce faiAfrica. Thisfeet, in part, explains whyanarchist ideas are not spreadingas rast as .they^should inAfrica andelsewhere in spite ofthe crisis of state socialism.

"Anarchist development hasalso .been retarded for decadesfor other reasons,, including thetheoretical weakness of: anarchism. JHowever historically correct anarchist positions mightbe, without a rigorous theoretical foundation, most workers, peasants and other potentialanarchists wilt^inajn indifT-erehtto the^philpsophy:%;.]

"It is against this backgroundmat we, members of the Awareness League, have elected totrace the relationship betweenAfrica and anarchism. In doing&£ we; are, impeUealjy. a two-fold sense of historical responsibility: .to enrich anarchism andanarchist principles with anAfrican perspective and tocarve out a place:ribr Africawithin the framework of theworldwide anarchist movement" ~fromi^efinfrojduction.

African Anarchism: The History:of a Movement is availablefor $11.45 (post,paM);from SeeSharp ;Press, PiO^lpx 1731,Tucson, AZ, 85702^31, It isalso available from-AK Pressand E.G. Smith Distribution.

Page 6: Perspectives.on Anarchist Theory - Fall 1997 - Vol 1, No 2

PerspectivesAon anarchist theory

Arif Dirlik intended to be anuclear physicist Born inMersjn,: i nflkey m .1940 (or1941, if|r6u ik:Jife^ofoer);heTeceived'ii rT; undergraduate

to America to;study science atthe University of Rochester.

Shortly after arriving atRochester, Dirlik decided to, abandon the sciences entirely; and. apply himself to history.He was welcomed intolKe fieldby a group of intellectualhistorians there, who expressedno surprise that he would makesuch a transition.

It was here that his interest inChmese history developed, andhe completed his dissertationon the origins of Marxisthistoriography> In. Chinai Fhlswork was the beginning of alarger investigation intoChinese political thought,particularly the origins of theidea of social revolution inChinese radical movemerits. Itwas also me springboard for hisengagement with me Chineseanarchists; which he began tovigorously research in the early1980's.

In addition to writing numerousbooks and articles, Dirlik hastaught at DuJce University sincejoining their 'History department in i9|4. He is-alsormefather ofirwb *sons, one ofwhom is a graduate student infibn and, theother, an aspiringrock musician.

When I asked Dirlik to identifythe main influences on hiswork,:he.^a^^^rjaimiomentand then cited Marx, Mao, andDostoevsky. He did notmention an engineer or aphysicist.

Dimensions of Chinese Anarchism:... Continuedjrom page I

anarchism, Marxism, or anything for that matter, tosome Chinese tradition or another.

The problem is that the Chinese tradition hasbeen used to explain everything, from communismand Maoism to anarchism, and these days it'sfashionable to explain Chinese capitalism in termsof tradition. I don't know how valid that is as anexplanation, that notion of tradition, when it canexplain so many different and contradictory things.

I came to study Chinese anarchism by tracingthe origins of this notion of social revolution, and Ibelieve that Chinese anarchism was a radical, newidea. There may be Taoist elements in it, there maybe Buddhist elements in it there may even -through Tolstoy - be Christian elements in it:nevertheless, my concern was with the new ideasthat anarchism brought into the Chinese intellectualscene, chief among them this idea of a socialrevolution. So, I think this emphasis explains someof the differences.

Also, we need to make a distinction betweenthe past as a determinant of the present and the pastas a reservoir of ideas upon which people can drawto deal with the present. There is no question thatsome of the Chinese anarchists - Liu Shipei was theoutstanding one among them, and then Shifu - drewon Taoism and Buddhism. However, this is not justthe determination or constitution of Chineseanarchism by Daoism or Buddhism, but rather atwo way, dialectical process. In other words, theChinese past is being read in new ways with thehelp of anarchism and conversely there is a rereading of anarchism through Taoist and Buddhistideas. What is important to me is the dialectic, andI stay away from the notion that the Chinese weresomehow unconsciously under the sway of this orthat tradition that then shaped their readings ofanarchism.

7ou claim that the emergence of Chinesenationalism actually created many of thetheoretical and political preconditions for theemergence of Chinese anarchism. This seemscontradictory at first glance. How did this happen?

This reflects a particular appreciation ofnationalism on my part. While we obviously areconcerned with many of the negative manifestations of nationalism, it is a rather radical idea at itsorigins. It calls for both a new conception of state,a new conception of the relationship between stateand society, and a new conception of the politicalsubject as citizen. In that sense, it breaks radicallywith earlier forms of political consciousness thatrested legitimacy in the emperor and rendered the

subjects into passive political subjects, whereasnationalism called for active political subjects.Aside from the question of the citizen,nationalism's notion of the relationship betweenstate and society requires a new kind of accountingfor society, both in the sense of who's going toparticipate in politics, what are the qualificationsfor participation in politics, and what are thefactors that militate against political participation.As I argue in my book, in some ways these changeslead directly to questions of social revolution.

In the case of China, there is another element.There's at least some kind of historical coincidencebetween the emergence of a nationalistconsciousness and a new kind of supra-nationalutopianism, if you like. It's as if the building of anation becomes the first task but somehow not theultimate task; that once the nation has been builtand society has been reordered, there would, in thefuture, be a way of transcending that nationalism.

It's tricky ... I believe I described this as acounterpoint to nationalism. If you recall the partsin the book about Liu Shipei - and here thedifferences between anarchists become reallyimportant - there's a feeling that nationalism opensup new questions that prepare the ground foranarchism, if you like, but also created new kindsof threats. For example, someone like Liu Shipei,could see correctly that for all the theoreticaldespotism of the Imperial State, nationalismpromised far greater and far more intensiveintrusion in society than had been the case underthe imperial state. At this point anarchism becomesa way of asserting the autonomy of the societyagainst an intrusive nationalist society.

And, while I don't want to generalize toomuch, this may be a fruitful way of thinking aboutother circumstances. This notion of nationalism -representing a new kind of politics, raising newquestions, calling for new solutions, and playingsome part in the emergence of socialism andanarchism - may be relevant to more than China.

YXTas there something unique aboutVY circumstances in China at this time thatmade Kropotkin - as opposed to other anarchisttheorists - most pertinent or influential?

There are probably two reasons. First Kropotkin's anarchism is thoroughly tied to a program ofsocial transformation and, given the concernamong Chinese radicals with the question of socialrevolution, one can see why they would findKropotkin more relevant than some of the otheranarchists. Another interesting element is theimportance of Social Darwinism in Chinese

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An Interview with Arif Dirlikintellectual circles around the turn of the century.Chinese Social Darwinists almost adopted theEuro-American idea that the so-called progressivesocieties are progressive because they had won inthe conflict for survival, and through this there wasan element of the new world as a world of competition and conflict, where those who didn'tsucceed might in fact perish. They were very preoccupied with the examples of the American-Indians and Africans, and some Chinese wereconvinced that those two groups, the black and redraces as they called them, were doomed toextinction.

So, this called for a strengthening of China tostruggle in this new world, but the counter-part tothis was a dissatisfaction with this world viewbased on conflict. And, the discovery of Kropotkinunder these circumstances - with his argument thatit was not conflict and competition but rathermutual aid that served human progress - served asa significant antidote to this and also resonatedwith the Utopian strain to which I referred earlier.

Ty~ropotkin and Rectus were very important toJ\. Chinese anarchists and also quiteEurocentric thinkers, at least in their conception ofworld history. Did the Chinese anarchists takeissue with this or attempt to develop alternatives?

I don't think so. It was really not of muchconcern to the Paris anarchists. And the form inwhich Kropotkin and Reclus reached the Tokyopeople did not really suggest a Eurocentricinterpretation of Asia or China.

Although we are presently very sensitive toquestions of Eurocentricism, the Chinese anarchistsin Paris were much more down on Chinese traditions than anybody in Europe at the time. These

. . a r e p e o p l e w h owere calling for ar e v o l u t i o nagainst Confucius. So, if theylearned any ofthis in Europe,they were muchmore enthusiasticabout the repudiation of theChinese past forits backwardnessthan Europeansthemselves.

In the case ofLiu Shipei, whohad very high

Ba Jin, Chinese anarchist and novelist. (Photo: Anarchy Archives)

opinions of Chinese past, I think it was somewhatdifferent. There the influence of Tolstoy may havebeen quite important. Liu Shipei's objection wasnot so much to Europe as to a new idea of politicsand the idea of economic developmentalism thatcame with Europeans.

rhe anarchists took a strong stand against theanti-Manchu racism implicit in theRevolutionary Alliance's arguments against theManchu government. Was there an attempt todevelop an anarchist theory of ethnicity?

I'm not aware of any such attempt. I think theytook a stand against anti-Manchu racism becausethey thought it was a distraction from the wholeissue of politics. In other words, it was not theManchus that were the problem, but the centralizedpolitical state system and, to the extent that racismwas raised as an issue, it distracted from this morefundamental problem of the state.

ISeminism and anarchism have had a difficultJL and complicated relationship in Europe andAmerica, yet feminism was apparently integral toChinese anarchism and not even a contentiousissue within the anarchist movement. Is there areason why feminism was so easily integrated intothe anarchist movement in China?

I'm going to make a distinction between aconcern for women and feminism in answering thisquestion. The description of the Chinese anarchists, including people like He Zhen, as feministsmay be somewhat misleading: it fits in with currentfashions, but I think the concern was more with theoppression of women and what could be doneabout it than with a specifically feminist agenda.

The anarchist involvement in the question ofwomen, when we rephrase the problem in thatmanner, followed almost automatically from theirconcern with the family as an oppressiveinstitution. They were concerned with thatthroughout, and I think this brought them to thequestion of women, which was also a diffuseconcern in Chinese society around 1920.

7ou write that you wanted to facilitate theemergence or re-emergence of a moredemocratic socialism by recalling and examiningthe history of Chinese anarchism. Did you alsointend to assist in the revitalization orreemergence of anarchism?

When I began working on Chinese anarchismI sensed that there was a renewal of interest inanarchism, in a very broad sense, and I hoped to

Continued on Next Page

Arif Dirlik:Selected Works

Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1991,

Schools into Fields andFactories: Anarchists, theGuomindang, and the NationalLabor University in Shanghai,1927-1932 (with Ming Chan).Durham: Duke UniversityPress, 1991.

The Postcolonial Aura: ThirdWorld Criticism in the Age ofGlobal Capitalism. Boulder:Westview Press, 1997.

After the Revolution: Waking toGlobal Capitalism. Hanover,NH: Wesleyan UniversityPress, 1994.

Revolution and History:Origins of Marxist Historiography in China, 1919-1937.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

The Origins of ChineseCommunism, New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Chinese Postmodernism (Editorwith Xudong Zhang). Durham:Duke University Press, forthcoming.

Critical Perspectives on MaoZedong's Thought (Editor withPaul Healy and Nick Knight).Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1997.

Asia/Pacific As Space ofCultural Production (Editorwith Rob Wilson). Durham.N.C.: Duke University Press,1994.

What Is in a Rim?: CriticalPerspectives on the PacificRegion Idea (Editor). Boulder:Westview Press, 1993.

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... Dirlik Coninued

write this book as a contribution to that. And,by the 1980's the failure of the promise of theChinese revolution was becoming more andmore evident and I found that anarchismprovided an interesting critical perspectiveon what had gone wrong. Also, to the extentthat anarchism is laden with such valuableinsights, obviously it is important to revive itand bring it to the forefront of discussions.

7ou are a unambiguously radical scholarof Chinese revolutionary movements anda full professor at a capitalist university inAmerica, the center of world imperialism.How could you be employed in such asetting? Have you been pressured to de-radicalize or depoliticize your work? If not,what does this reveal about the relationshipbetween the university and radical socialcriticism?

Contradictions (laughs) ... No, I'venever been pressured to deradicalize ordepoliticize my work. If there's pressure it'sindirect; you know, sometimes people say"what do you do?" and I'd say "I'm writing abook on Chinese anarchism" and all they cansay is "oh". There's a sense that you aredoing something marginal and playinggames. That kind of pressure doesn't botherme.

I think I've been lucky. You know, I'vehad friends who have suffered for beingradicals. There have been hints of slightdiscrimination with regard to salaries andthings like that, but I do not know whether toattribute that to the fact that I am a radicalscholar or because I'm of third world origin.There may be a number of explanations here.

We forget sometimes that elite universities really need their radicals. Eliteuniversities, committed to giving theirstudents the broadest education possible andmaking them function in the world, cannotafford to produce narrow ignoramuses whohave never heard of Marxism or anarchism.This may be why there's probably moretolerance for radicals in the elite universitiesthan in smaller places. That's what I had inmind when I jokingly said "contradictions."

In some ways, mis is the strength of theAmerican education system, in comparison,let's say, to the Chinese education systemwhere if something was politically undesirable it was kept out with theconsequence that you end up with a bunch ofpeople who didn't know anything about theworld other than what they've been fed by8

way of ideology. We are much more subtlewith our controls and, under currentcircumstances, so long as you are not anactivist there are not serious reprisals.

We have a very intelligent powerstructure here. For example, about ten yearsago somebody came to see me from the CIA.They were looking for students to recruit andwere particularly interested in my students,because they figured they would know aboutMarxism, anarchism, etc., and if you wantintelligent analysts you need well informedpeople who know about these issues. I thinkthat's where the power establishment herediffers, say, from the People's Republic ofChina or the former Soviet Union, whereundesirable knowledge will simply be castaside rather than incorporated into anunderstanding of the world.

7ou just published a book on post-colonialism, The Postcolonial Aura.How does this work relate to your studies onChinese anarchism? Also, please explainyour discussion of postcolonialism as post-revolutionary.

In The Postcolonial Aura I tried to raisethe question of third world intellectuals.There has been a preoccupation recently withEurocentricism and the Euro-American oppression of other peoples which sort ofsweeps aside the importance of capitalism inshaping the world and how many of thoserejected Euro-American values are actuallytransmitted to the rest of the world throughcapitalism. It seemed to me, to the extent thatcapitalism has globalized, it has globalizedthrough the complicity of third world intellectuals, professionals, states, whatever, and,therefore, a critique of power and authority inour day cannot be satisfied with a critique ofEurocentricism or Euro-American domination of the world, but rather must includea criticism of third world intellectuals,professionals, states, power structures, etc..That's what I seek to do in this work.

As for the post-revolutionary aspect thisgrew out of a historical curiosity about themeaning of postcolonialism: we have beenpost-colonials for some time now, whyshould postcolonialism gain such currency inthe late 1980's? After all, even when we hadthe radical movements of the 1960's, mostthird world societies were already post-colonial or clearly becoming postcolonial,and yet there was a sustainable radicalism inthose years, unlike the 1980's or 1990's. Thequestion became: What's the difference?

What's happening here? Why are we talkingabout postcolonialism, all of a sudden,instead of colonialism, domination, andcapitalism, etc?

The tendencies that have gained thegreatest popularity, in the United Statesespecially, are those which tend towards anobsession with ethnicity, inter-ethnicrelations, identity politics, etc., tendenciesthat question and even deny the possibility ofcollective identities. To me there is nomeaningful political activity, especially revolutionary activity, without the sense of acollective identity. It is this undermining ofnotions of collective identity, combined withthe circumstances I referred to earlier, thatled me to assert that what we are dealing withwas really a post-revolutionary, not justpostcolonial, orientation.

T Tow do you see your work developing inJTl the future?

Well, I think any radical has enoughreason to be depressed these days: theredoesn't seem to be anything happening andradicalism has sort of been highjacked byconservatives and liberals, and rendered intoidentity politics.

On the other hand, some of the recentwork I and others have done indicates thatthere is a great deal of resistance and protestgoing on which is not visible in the old waysbecause it isn't happening in major laborunions or big, visible communist parties, etc..There are people lighting for theirlivelihoods, trying to create new social formsfrom the bottom up. Some of it is dangerous,some can be right wing, but much of this hasto do with people's efforts at survival underwhat's happening with contemporarycapitalism. And there is a proliferation ofthese movements: women's movements,ecological movements, social justicemovements. They are happening all over andyet contemporary radicals, such as they are,are unwilling to see them.

These are not movements that you wouldassociate with conventional left (read:Marxist) politics. They are movements fromthe bottom up. I'm not going to call themanarchist - some are feminist, some areecological - but if there were anarchistmovements going on, they would be something like that. I think it is important to drawattention to these movements and theorizethem as much as possible. This is what I'mworking through: how to really conceptualizeradical movements from the bottom up. ED

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David Wieck: An Anarchist LifeDavid Thoreau Wieck, an anarchist theorist,educator, and activist, died on July 1, 1997 inAlbany, New York.

I met David 33 years ago, four years after hestarted teaching philosophy at RensselaerPolytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. I had noidea who he really was. He was just my professorin "Logic and Argument," an introduction tological analysis. He would come into class lookingneat, hair combed back and shirt tucked into hispants. But not long into class, he was drawing hishands through his hair, and twisting with suchexcitement, that his shirt would be out of his pantsand his hair would go in all directions. I had nevermet anyone who was so involved in his teaching-and this was about logic, not politics, remember!

David was bom in 1921, to parents who themselveswere notable activists of their day. His mother,about whom David wrote an unusually insightfulmemoir, Woman from Spillertown: A Memoir ofAgnes Burns Wieck, was known as "the MotherJones of Illinois" for her work as a labor organizer.David's own principles eventually led him into jailfor 34 months as a conscientious objector duringW.W.II. As he told it, there "I learned the methodsof non-violent resistance and ... what a hunger-strike is like by fasting for ten days in support ofother C.O.'s."

After the war David returned to New York City tojoin the editorial board of Why?, soon to becomeResistance, on which he played the leading roleuntil it ceased being published in 1954. This publication provided a crucial voice and support formany people, including Paul Goodman before hebecame famous in his own right. Another memberof Why?'s editorial board, even before David, wasDiva Agostinelli, whose life is a good story itself,including a family heritage of other anarchists. ToDavid she was also "my life-partner."

In 1958 David returned to Columbia University,his alma mater of 1941, to earn a Ph.D. inphilosophy and came to Rensselaer to teach. Daviddid not draw a line between theory and practice,between an intellectual life and an activist life. Ashe himself pointed out in his famous little piece,"The Habit of Direct Action": "the importantdistinction is between talk that it is mere moralassertion or propositional argument, and talk (infact: direct action) which conveys a feeling, anattitude relevant to the desired end." David wasalways challenging his students and friends alike to

think more clearly and deeply about everythingthey thought and did.

He had a way of drawing humor out of people aswell. It was his laugh itself, I now realize: sodelightful was it to hear, I would do anything tomake it happen. And yet he could be intimidatingto people at the same time, as they were often sodistracted by his penetrating eyes and sharp tonguethat they could not hear the twinkle of playfulnessin his laughter. He was a truly wonderful person,and the world will sorely miss him.

David Wieck and Diva Agostinelli

David was fond of saying that, as an idea,anarchism is a negativity, because it can tell uswhat we need to unlearn in order to be free, but itcannot tell us how to use that freedom: anarchismdoes not impose a certain life on us, it challengesus to make a decent life together, to rid ourselves ofall vestiges of the authority of power, politicalauthority. To understand the mutual aid of our ownauthority of competence, David liked us to picturetwo sawyers, at either end of a two-person saw,cutting through a tree. For the work we need to dotogether, David had a special gift of description.

Right up to the end, even though he had sufferedfrom Alzheimer's for several years, David coulddisplay his customary insight. One of his caregivers, herself Black, told Diva that David had saidto her: "It's not the heritage of slavery that is theproblem for Blacks. It is their exploitation today."When the caregiver asked her own companion howhe understood David's remark, he replied, "Youearn $4.35 an hour."

~ John Schumacher

John Schumacher is a regular contributor to anarchistpublications and the author of Human Posture: TheNature of Inquiry (Suny Press, 1989). He lives in Troy,New York.

David Wieck:Selected Works

Woman from Spillertown: AMemoir of Agnes Burns Wieck,Carbondale: Southern IllinoisUniversity Press, 1992.

"The Negativity of Anarchism."In Reinventing Anarchy: WhatAre Anarchists Thinking TheseDays, ed. H.J. Ehrlich. NewYork: Routledge, 1979.

"The Habit of Direct Action."In Reinventing Anarchy: Again,ed. by H.J. Ehrlich. San Francisco: AK Press, 1996.

"Anarchist Justice." In Anarchism: Nomos XIX, ed. J.R.Pennock and J.W. Chapman.New York: New York University Press, 1978.

"Essentials of Anarchism." InAnarchism, ed. by R. Hoffman.New York: Atherton, 1970.

"William Empson, Some Versions of Pastoral." The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism,Vol. 1, 1960.

"Charles R Metzger, Thoreauand Whitman; A Study of TheirEsthetics." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol.2, 1961.

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IAS GrantAwards

... Continued from Page Ito end the exploitation of theirlabor by capital. It willexamine their accomplishments and failures in order toenhance our ability to organizework wisely, effectively, andin accord with anarchistvalues.

S250 to Peter LambornWilson for an introduction toFreedom - My Dream: TheAutobiography of EnricoArrigoni. Enrico Arrigoni(a.k.a. "Frank Brand") was ananarchist author and activist ofItalian descent who lived inNew York from 1924 until hisdeath in 1986. His remarkablelife included a stay in Russiaduring the early years of therevolution, participation in theSpanish Civil War, and alifelong commitment toanarchism. Wilson's introduction will analyze andintroduce elements of Arrigoni *s life and work.

S250 to Mark Bonhert andRichard Curtis for Post-Industrial Resources: Anarchist Reconstructive Efforts &Visions in the Upper Midwest.Bonhert and Curtis will writean oral history and analysis ofcontemporary anarchist effortsto rebuild community in areasof the Midwest devasted bycapital flight, urban neglect,and the repression of marginalized people.

If you are interested inapplying for a grant, pleasesend a self-addressed, stampedenvelope to the IAS. You mayalso download a grantapplication from the IAS'sw e b s i t e a t : h t t p : / /members.aol.com/iastudy/Default.htm

10

... Goldman Papers ContinuedLetters, as many biographers of Goldman havepointed out, were the mainstay of hercommunication with the world. Correspondentsincluded Alexander Berkman, Rudolf and MillyRocker, Max Nettlau, Sinclair Lewis, H.G. Wells,Paul Robeson, Agnes Smedley, Eugene Debs,Kropotkin, Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth GurleyFlynn, and Carlo Tresca. Historical periodscovered by these letters span from the Bolshevikrevolution in Russia to the Spanish Civil War,while government documents reveal the USgovernment's role in booting her and otheranarchists out of various countries.2 Overall theEGPP is an invaluable resourcethat documents not on lyGoldman's life but also one of themost active periods of anarchisthistory

The EGPP also has a formidablebase of financial support thatincludes the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley, the federalgovernment, the Ford Foundation,and well-known individuals suchas Howard Zinn, MichelleShocked, and Gloria Steinem.3 Ineffect, the EGPP appears to havecreated an impressive scholarlyresource, a niche for itself in theprogressive community, and also legitimizedEmma Goldman in the eyes of a dominant culturethat persecuted her during her time. Unfortunately,a conflict has emerged between the EGPP's goal topreserve the memory of Emma Goldman and theactual result.

To begin, the EGPP's relationship to anarchism hasalways been a problem. On the one hand,anarchists have attacked it for its lack ofradicalism. On the other hand, according to Falk,the EGPP was attacked by the federal governmentwhen the "intellectual atmosphere among mostfederal agencies was hostile to the ideas Goldmanchampioned,"4 enough so that its funding wasjeopardized in the early eighties. Ironically, theEGPP never seems to have been concerned with orcommitted to anarchism. Although the EGPP'sfocus is an anarchist figure, its Director, CandaceFalk, described anarchism in her book as an"unattainable political philosophy," an "elusivepolitical vision," and ultimately claimed that theimpossibility of anarchism was revealed byGoldman's failure to deal with such monstrousthings as jealousy. The EGPP celebrates a famousanarchist figure, claims no substantive belief in

Emma Goldman

anarchism, and accepts financial support fromsources such as the federal government and theFord Foundation. How does the EGPP manage todo justice to the anarchist life of Emma Goldman?Beyond collecting and cataloging historicaldocuments, it cannot, and this becomes moreobvious when reading through the middle and highschool curriculum the EGPP produced as part of apublic outreach effort.

The curriculum was produced with the goal ofeducating middle and high school students aboutGoldman and is made up of recommended readingsand exercises designed to draw out the implications

of Goldman's beliefs. One exerciseasks whether a group of studentshave had their first amendmentrights violated when they areforbidden by the school board towear black armbands in protest ofthe Gulf War. Another exerciseasks whether a student's firstamendment rights have also beenviolated when he is suspended formaking explicit sexual remarksduring a nomination speech againsthis opponent. Both exercisesdemons t ra te a comp le temisrepresentation of Goldman'sideals. The freedom Goldmanfought for is turned into the right to

free speech and, subsequently, advocacy of the firstamendment. The second exercise never bothers tomention the anarchist claim that patriarchy wouldbe the cause of sexist behavior.6 Goldman andother anarchists never fought for federallyguaranteed rights: they fought for freedom.

However, this curriculum is more than just aproblematic interpretation of Goldman's life andbeliefs. It also shows how the EGPP can collect animpressive array of anarchist documents and at thesame time bring a deradicalized image of anarchisthistory to the larger public. Perhaps thiscontradiction arises out of funding concerns, giventhe support the EGPP receives from the federalgovernment and the Ford Foundation (sources thatare anathema to anarchist principles but whichuphold federally sanctioned free speech). Thefunding cut in the early eighties certainly showsthat an archive is not independent from the largerpolitical climate, especially when money isinvolved. Whatever the reason, the EGPP is inconflict with its purpose to encourage historicalawareness of Goldman because it obscures theradical ideals that shaped her life.

Continued on Page 12

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The IAS's 1997 Fundraising CampaignThe IAS needs your support: we must raise $8500by January, 1998 to award $6000 in grants, publishtwo issues of Perspectives, and build the IASendowment.

Please help make this possible by donating to theIAS. Your contribution will enable the IAS to helpauthors confront some of the most difficultquestions raised by anarchism and radical socialtheory. Your donation will also make it possible forus to publish this newsletter and — because weplace 10 percent of every donation in the IASendowment — make sure there are alwaysresources for radical writers.

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The individuals listed belowmade the IAS's first fundraisingcampaign a complete success.Their generous contributionsenabled the IAS to meet its$6000 fundraising goal and thusaward its first set of .grants,publish. Perspectives, and buildthe IAS endowment by 10percent of every donation.

Frank Adams, Anonymous,Alison Bailey, Sandy Baird,Matt Black, Jon Buell, DanChodorkoff, Jesse Cohn,Gatsby Confreres, Cindy andKaty CraBb, Dr. James Eick,Maura Dillon, John & JpleneDubose, Peggy Dye, MirandaEdison, Bree Edwards, PaulaEmery, Richard Evanoff,Steven Fischler, David Freed-man, Grace Gershuny, CraigGilmore, Paul Glavin, BretGoldin, Ian Grimmer, JohnGruchala, Brian Herbert, BlakeHowe, Lawrence Jararch,Robin Lloyd, Joe Lowndes,Peggy Luhrs, Susanna Martin,Enid Mastrionni, MichelleMatisons, Andrea Miksic &Peier Burns, Cindy Milstein,Caroline Morse, SandraOpdycke, Sue Ostfield, Fernanda Perrone, John Petrovato,Rachel Rinaldo, Cate Sand-ilands, Jack Schlessinger, MillySchoenbaum, Richard Schram,John Schumacher, Jon Scott,Gary Sisco, Sidney & ClaraSolomon, Bob Spivy & BeverlyNaidus, Liza Sutton, RoseSterling, Dana Ward, YvetteWest, Diva Wieck, PriscillaYamin, Members of Love &Rage (NY), Members of theBlackout Books Collective.

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PerspectivesIT on anarchist theory

... Goldman Papers ContinuedOn the other hand, archives run by anarchists andfor anarchist purposes are built upon the desire toboth preserve anarchist history and provide toolsfor anarchism's development, not herald itsdemise. In doing so, an anarchist archive embracesanarchism as a living tradition unlike archives thatrelegate it to the dusty silence of library stacks ormisrepresent it. Two examples are the KateSharpley Library and Documentation Centre (KSL)in the UK and the Anarchist Archives Project(AAP) in Boston, Massachusetts. Both have closeties with the anarchist movement, draw theirsupport from the anarchist community, andmaintain a valuable historical resource withoutsacrificing the integrity of anarchist history.Because of this, they can provide scholars who areinterested in anarchism with a richer historicalperspective.

Anarchist archives also create a fuller picture of thehistory of anarchism than other archives because oftheir desire to function as both an anarchist projectand a historical resource. The KSL specificallyattempts to illuminate people and events that the"official historians"7 of anarchism perpetuallyleave out. Similarly, the AAP not only preservesthe many facets of anarchist history, includingcritiques of anarchism, but also collects currentanarchist material to link the past with the present.Unfortunately, anarchist archives, almost de facto,forego financial stability for adhering to theirbeliefs and therefore have fewer resources tomaintain their collection, to make it widelyavailable, and to make themselves known to thepublic. Despite these hardships, anarchist archivesmake the admirable choice to preserve anarchisthistory in a way that is consistent with anarchistprinciples.

The decision to ground an archive in the desire tocreate social alternatives is the right one.

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Obviously the EGPP cannot accurately portrayanarchist history because of its lack of commitmentto radical ideals. This causes the EGPP tomisrepresent anarchism and subsequentlyundermines its goal to encourage historicalawareness of Emma Goldman and her anarchistbeliefs. It is also clear that the EGPP has veryvaluable resources and should be used for scholarlypurposes. However, the usefulness ends therebecause the EGPP can provide no guidance for thedevelopment of anarchism when it begins from anegation of anarchist principles. For anarchiststoday, the past is our most direct link to thetangible achievements of anarchism and thereforeit is essential for anarchist history to be preservedin a framework of anarchist principles. Otherwisewe will lose the historical imperative this historypresents to us, not only for radical scholarship butalso for our radical ideals.

Archives such as the EGPP have more money tospend than anarchist archives and are thus able toafford state-of-the-art preservation techniques,salaried staff to facilitate access to their collections,and various promotional efforts. Many radicalsgive their books to archives such as the EGPP outof fear that the poorer, anarchist archives will beunable to preserve their books or make themavailable to the public. However, we must notforget the anarchist imperative to build alternativesto the present society and to support those who areconstructing such alternatives. This imperativedemands that we provide both financial supportand books to anarchist archives. This will helpthem expand, maintain, and make available theircollections, and most importantly it will make surethat anarchist history is not only preserved but alsopresented in a way that is consistent with anarchistprinciples.

Falk, Candace. Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman.Revised edition. New Brunswick, NJ: RutgersUniversity Press, 1990. Page xiii.2 Falk, Candace. "Reconstructing The DocumentaryHistory Of A Vibrant Life." The Emma GoldmanPapers Project 1994. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Guide/introduction.html (2 Sept. 1997)3 "Emma's List." The Emma Goldman Papers Project.1997. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Emmarabilia/Iist.html (2 Sept. 1997)4 Ibid5 Falk, page xiii6 "The Life And Times Of Emma Goldman. ACurriculum for Middle and High School Students:Freedom of Expression." The Emma Goldman PapersProject 1997. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Curricula/FreeExpression (2 Sept. 1997)The Kate Sharpley Library and Documentation Centre.

1997 http://members.aol.com/wellsIake/Sharpley.htm (2Sept. 1997)

RecommendedReading

action must be based on soundideas'. gAs; ah Anarchist, Tihavefgrj>^ide^my^^

in*ffie|id ip^yvriters ofxadical,'S9cTa^£e ry7^ ~;~ ,

. ./r^rou^i Anarchism andiOther,Ess$ys (Dover, 1969)Emma Goldman welcomed meintot^anarchlk^femily, show-ing,;fie: how in anarchism,communist and feminist principles could he transformed intoa humanism where we all canjivejmfi»e<fom.. ]C-Me Ethics of Ambiguity(Citadel, 1948}.by Simone deBeauyoir showed me how it ispossible „ to-:.base anti-author-itariamsm in freedom and stillmaintain the ability to critique: aJree^ojoi;whichis:mterested onlymcl^ying/freedom must bedemed. iEriedrich Sixel's Crisis:aMd .Critique: On the Logic ofLate Capitalism (EJ Brill, 1988)helped me understand why Icouldn't seem to make sense ofmuch:'«of- -what is 'new* insqciplo^y,; politics, and philo-fo|hv}|;despiie its supposed

^|^ism^.5§jfflii^ its '•■ mn-^||i^^seff^efefeiWal meta-lhe|Mesiisbbfti£ompa^blewimand essential to the continuationof a capitalism that *no longer!n^ej§sense^lf."

^^^bughithese and otherbopksgl fce;;foundohat J amfndpaiorie: jnj my;-opposition tohieraic^hy^pqwer and domin-^ajtioni^therv^•% am in goodcoj^^y-when Iquestion theright #th>boss, the .father, thelegislator, »the :king, the despotandtthe priest to tell me oranyone else how to live ourlives; -

The gift of iheir vrords hassupported me in, my on-goingstruggle for freedom.

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