War is the Health of the State An Interview with Howard ZinnWar is the Health of the State An Interview with Howard Zinn Howard Zinn has been a pivotal ﬁgure in the American Left

ContentsI A S U p d a t e . . . 2Violence of Everyday Life in the

Occupied Palestinian Territories ... 3What's Happening: Books &. Events ... 9

Spring 2003

War is the Health of the StateAn Interview with Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn has been a pivotal figure in the American Left for decades. As an activist andwriter, he has influenced generations of leftists and helped encourage a strong commitmentto direct democracy, anti-racism, and grassroots action.

We asked Zinn about the current changes in the political environment, his theoreticalcommitments, and some of the challenges faced by radical intellectuals. This interview wasconducted by e-mail in the spring of 2003. ~ Paul Glavin & Chuck Morse

How would you define the "War on Terrorism"?What kind of war is this and whom is it directedagainst?The notion of a "War on Terrorism" makes no sense.You cannot make war on terrorism: it is an ideologythat springs from many sources and one that canbe located in many countries. The terrorism ofSeptember 11* was real, but the United States isusing it as an excuse to first bomb Afghanistan,now Iraq, and to expand American power in theMiddle East.

So, the "War on Terrorism" is just a cover toperpetuate US global hegemony?Exactiy. It is also a way to cover up the failure tosolve domestic problems and build support for aPresident who got into office through a politicalcoup and needs to show he has a mandate he doesn'tdeserve.

Today there is all sorts of talk of war: the "War onTerrorism" and the war on Iraq and a possible warwith North Korea. At the same time the economy isin trouble, unemployment is up, and localgovernments are cutting back education, health

care, and other social services. Have we seen thisdynamic before in history and how can radicals drawout the connections between the two?War against an enemy abroad is always simultaneouslya war against people at home, because war alwaysdraws the resources of the nation into militaryactivity. One reason why there were Black uprisingsduring the Vietnam War was that the needs of theghettos were neglected in order to carry on the warin Vietnam. How to draw the connections? Simplypoint out how much money is going to the militaryand what human services are being diminished. Forexample, just the other day, along with stories ofthe increased military budget there was a storyabout the Bush administration taking money awayfrom the school lunch program.

But in the 1960s the Johnson Administration, whilepursuing the War in Indochina, tried to placate thepopulation with a simultaneous War on Poverty andGreat Society programs. How is today different thanthat period?Clearly, Bush is not trying to placate the population,

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IAS Grant Awards

The Institute for Anarchist Studies annuallyawards $8000 in grants to writers whose work isimportant to the anarchist critique ofdomination, have a clear financial need, andwhose piece is likely to be widely distributed. InFebruary 2003 the IAS Board of Directors waspleased to award grants to the followingindividuals:

$1000 to Josh MacPhee for three essays onanarchism and aesthetics collectively entitled"Building New Contexts for Anarchist Graphics,Videos and Films." These essays will focus onhow anarchist cultural products are produced in

a world defined by visual literacy, how this relatesto capitalism's use of design and art to "brand"ideas and products, and how anti-authoritariansigns and signifiers compare and compete.MacPhee is an artist and activist living in Chicago.

$1200 to Errol Schweizer for his novel "Rageat Dawn." Two major themes will be present inthis work of historical fiction: the attempt toreform and organize against the present structureof oppression and construction of a libertarianand egalitarian alternative. Schweizer hopes topresent anarchist ideas in a way that can be related

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PerspectivesJL nn nnnrrhht thenrvon anarchist theory

Institute for Anarchist Studies UpdateAnarch is t Theory

Spring 2003, Vol. 7, No. 1Newsletter of the

Institute for Anarchist Studies

Editorial CommitteeChuck Morse, John Petrovato

Copy EditorsMichael Caplan, Paid Glavin,

Chuck Morse

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(Please make checks payable tothe Institute fir Anarchist Studies)

Disclaimer: the views expressed inPerspectives do not necessarilyrepresent the views of the IAS as aw h o l e . ■ " ' " '

*** .■' - '-,•'■IAS Board of DirectorsAshanti Alston, Alexis

Bhagat, Dan Chodorkoff,Rebecca DeWitt, Paula

Emery, Paul Glavin, CindyMilstein, Chuck. Morse,Darini Nicnolas,John

Petrovato

General DirectorMichael Caplan

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

Institute forAnarchist Studies73 Canterbury, -

D.D.O, Quebec, CanadaH9B2G5

Phone: 1 (514) 421-0470;,Email: [email protected]: www.anarchist-studies.oig

The IAS is a nonprofit,tax-exempt organization.

Welcome to the spring 2003 issue of Perspectives*.We are pleased to announce that the Institute forAnarchist Studies (IAS) has successfully completedits sixth year of existence. Once again we haveprovided grants to exciting anarchist writers, metour fundraising goals, and published our bi-annualnewsletter, Perspectives.

The IAS has experienced some major changesover the past year. In February, we added AlexisBhagat to our board of directors and also electedMichael Caplan of Montreal as the IAS's newgeneral director. We believe Alexis and Michaelwill make important contributions to the IAS andhelp us improve its effectiveness and vitality.

The addition of Michael Caplan, our newgeneral director, is extremely exciting for us.Michael is very well suited for the position, as hehas extremely strong administrative skills as wellas a deep commitment to the development ofanarchist theory. We expect that Michael willencourage the IAS to expand in new and improveddirections. (Please note that we have also changedour mailing address, indicated in the box below.)

Our new board member, Alexis Bhagat, is alsovery exciting to us. Like Michael, Alexis has skillsand experiences which we believe will contributeto the IAS. He has a long background in prisonactivism, the arts, and is a devoted writer. Wewelcome the two of them aboard.

As always, we must give thanks to all thegenerous friends of the IAS, both new and old, whohave contributed to our fundraising campaigns. Itis difficult to communicate how inspiring it is forus to see the anarchist community rallying aroundprojects such as the IAS.

In February, we also awarded grants to fourindividuals. The projects range from historicalanalyses, to art criticism and literature, to anarchistcultural studies. More detailed information aboutthese funded projects is available in the "GrantsAwarded" section on the first page.

As the IAS ages, we expect that the work thatwe do, along with the myriad other importantanarchist projects in existence today, will begin tohave an effect and impact on social change ingeneral and the anarchist community in particular.While anarchists already have an important role toplay in new social movements around the globe andhave provided key critical analyses, we expect thatthe work that we do today—both written andparticipatory—to have an essential impact in thecoming years.

We believe that the IAS, by providing muchneeded financial support to radical writers; byoffering moral and technical support to bothgrantees and others; and by encouraging the growthof critical anarchist studies in general, is animportant asset to the growing anarchist movementin the United States as well as in the world. Weencourage those with an interest in furtheringanarchist aspirations to join us and help supportour work.

This issue of Perspectives interviews historianand radical critic Howard Zinn. Also included is apiece on what everyday life is like for Palestinianswho live under a military occupation: whattechniques are used to maintain control; howviolence and the threat of such differs from othercolonial regimes; and how anarchists mayunderstand this conflict and contribute tounderstanding and resistance.

Also included is Chuck Morse's regularcontribution, "What's happening: Books andEvents," which reports on new books, articles, andother resources that are relevant to the anarchistcommunity.

It is our hope that you find the essays, articles,and organizational updates included in this issueof Perspectives to be valuable. As always, weencourage people to contact us with questions orconcerns.

Lastly, on a personal note, I would like to thankall the board members who had assisted me overthe past year as general director. I resign from theposition knowing that the organization will be ingood (indeed better) hands. I also feel as hopefulas ever that the IAS will continue to evolve andbecome ever more relevant in contributing to thedevelopment of critical anarchist thought.

~ John Petrovato

New IAS Address!Website www.anarchist-studies.orgEmail [email protected] 1(514)421-0470Mail 73 Canterbury, D.D.O., Quebec,

Canada, H9B 2G5

Perspectives•*• on anarchist theory

The Violence of Everyday life in theOccupied Palestinian Territories

By John Petrovato

The events recorded here occurred on a single day,November 7,2002, in the occupied West Bank. Thefollowing occurrences are daily ones, and November7th might have been December 2, July 17th, orJanuary 10th. The report below will hopefullyilluminate the scale of unreported violence dailyinflicted upon the Palestinian people.

Balata Refugee CampAt three in the morning on this day of November7th, undocumented military operations would bewaged throughout the camp. Sleep would becomeimpossible as heavy gunfire would be sprayed inthe streets and alleyways. The darkness of thebuilding where I slept would be disrupted byconstant flashes which lit up the night from bulletsand other artillery racing past windows. In the firstfew minutes of listening to this searingly loudcacophony, I could not decipher what it was. Othersin my apartment whispered in panic; four Japanesemen, an American woman, and I fearfully crawled tothe safety of a windowless room in the center ofthe apartment. For the next couple of hours, wesat in silence and listened as soldiers yelled ordersback and forth immediately outside the window.Everywhere, near and far, one heard the dark,ominous sound of tanks creeping around in the city.Though all the residents of the city were surely awake,all houses remained shrouded in darkness andsilence until the troops finally pulled out around fiveA.M. People then filled the streets to investigateinjuries and assess the damages of the long night.

Such late night operations are routine,occurring as many as four or five times per week.No explanation for the operations is ever given,though people take it as a signal that a curfew isabout to be reimposed.

At 7 A.M. on that same morning, I, along withtwo other international observers, accompanied somechildren to school in the hopes of saving them frombeing tear gassed. Along the way, one could see themany bullet holes that have pierced houses' walls andwindows throughout the main streets. Residentsseemed to be accustomed to the nightly violence andits morning evidence. The streets were full of peoplegoing to market and school—children, dressed inneat uniforms, holding their books and totingbackpacks, on their way to school. For these children

going to school is the highlight of their day and theywalk with excitement. The city had only recentlyrecovered from a three month, 24 hour curfew inwhich these same children were forced to remainindoors interminably; today, as far as anyone couldascertain, there was no curfew in effect.

However, the fact that a curfew is not in effectdoes not mean that getting to school is an easy task.We discovered this as we walked with schoolgirls asthey made their way to Nablus, an adjacent city. Forthem, the normal way of getting to school meantby-passing the check points by a path cut throughpeople's backyards, construction sites, and behindthe bombed-out debris of the former PalestinianAuthority building. While the Israeli military knowsthat these routes exist, they don't usually interferesince the goal is not to disrupt attendance at school,but merely make it more difficult.

This morning was different. The entrances tothese alternative paths were blocked with jeeps andtanks, while soldiers informed children overloudspeakers that travel to Nablus was prohibitedand they should return to their homes. Whenquestioned, the soldiers would not give a straightanswer as to whether there was a curfew in effectthat day. I later learned that such noncommittalcomments on completely arbitrary decisions werepart of the routine harassment on everyday life.Desperate to attend school, some of the childrenattempted to negotiate with the soldiers. Inresponse to this "defiance," soldiers began to throwtear gas canisters and sound grenades at the"offending" children. Many of these children wereonly six or seven years old, and all ran in panic toescape. Some were handcuffed and thrown intothe back of jeeps, to be taken to the military baseand interrogated. Those who escaped ran downthe streets with their faces and eyes ablaze withthe pain of tear gas. Some turned to throw stones atthe armored jeeps and tanks, an act of defiance which,as some children lucidly explained to me, wassomething which they—but not adults—could do.

While all of this was taking place, just up thestreet the Israeli military had stopped traffic in alldirections near the main intersection between Nablusand Balata. Like the arbitrary decision to cut offsafe passage for school children to their schools,the military had also decided that there would beno travel in or out of Nablus on that day. Drivers

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From the NewI A S D i r e c t o r

It is with great honor that I havebeen elected the new generaldirector of the Institute forAnarchist Studies. I haveadmired the IAS's work forsome time and I am very excitedto have the opportunity to workclosely with the project. I firmlybelieve that the IAS is aninvaluable resource for theglobal anarchist community.

I come to the IAS with abackground in communityactivism and organizationalmanagement. As an activist, Ico-founded the Montreal Foodnot Bombs chapter, whichbrought the battle against theexclusion of homeless peoplefrom public spaces in Montrealto a new level. Within therealm of organizationalmanagement, I was a coordinator of a student activistorganization, the QuebecPublic Interest Research Groupat Concordia University and acollective member of the 29-year-old self-managed anarchist bookstore LibrairieAlternative. Presently, I hold apart time position as the MediaCoordinator for Vermont'sInstitute for Social Ecology.

I hope that my fulfillmentof the IAS directorship, alongwith our board of directors, willprovide the IAS with the energyit needs not only to sustain itselfbut also develop to new heights.I look forward to building newrelat ionships wi th IASsupporters and allies, as it is youwho make this organizationviable and worth-while. Iwelcome any comments fromyou on what you believe mypriorities as the new directorshould be.

I'm looking forward to avibrant year!

~ Michael Caplan

Perspectives*■ on anarchist theory

IAS Gran tUpdates

Lorenzo Komboa Erwin hascompleted the rewrite of hisbook, Anarchism and the BlackRevolution. He has not yetsecured a publisher for therevised work, but several Leftand anarchist publishing housesin the United States and UnitedKingdom have expressedinterest. Lorenzo is nowmoving onto his next project,which will be an autobiographyentitled Years of Struggle, Yearsof Death. Lorenzo lives inKalamazoo, Michigan and wasawarded $2000 in July 2002.

Will Firth has completed hisRussian-to-English translations. The first piece isentitled "Russian Capitalismand the Global Economy" andsecond piece is a series ofbiographical essays and fragments on Nestor Makhno (tiedtogether with a foreword). Willlives in Berlin, Germany withhis son. He was awarded $500in January 2001.

Ramor Ryan is makingexcellent progress on hisupcoming book, The Revolt ofthe Globalized (originally tidedGlobalization and its Discontents). The book iscomprised of stories of resistance to capitalism based on hispolitical experiences and travelsover the past 15 years. Theychart the development (andshort-comings) of anti-imperialist struggles for national liberation and stories ofrevolt, revolution, and freedom.He writes with a personal voicethat expresses solidarity,compassion, and humor.

Residing for the past fiveyears in San Cristobal, Chiapas,Ramor has completed all butthe introduction and the final

cautiously waved their Israeli government supplieddocuments in the air; soldiers responded with such"civilized" communication techniques as aggressivehand gestures, screams, the repositioning of tankbarrels directly towards individuals or vehicles, andthreats to smash windows and hoods with the largesledge hammers they so visibly wielded. A large schoolbus carrying teenage schoolgirls was emptied ofpassengers and metamorphosed into a roadblock. Thedriver was told to return the following evening to seewhether he would be allowed to retrieve the bus.Meanwhile, as Palestinians turned their vehiclesaround in the crowded intersection, it becameevident that the roadblocks were only applicableto them. Israeli citizens, illegal residents in the WestBank, were waved through without inspection.

At roughly the same time, a temporarycheckpoint had been set up only a couple blocksaway where all men between the ages of fifteen andfifty were being taken into custody andinterrogated. Their identification papers wereseized, they had to pull up their shirts and unbuttonthe tops of their pants to prove that they were notwearing explosive belts, and finally had to standquietly in a straight line while the soldierspainstakingly reviewed their identification papers.The soldiers told me that they were being checkedas "possible suspected terrorists" (which evidendyincludes all men). Like many of the other daily"military operations" effected for "security reasons"in all parts of Palestine, the soldiers would soonabandon the operation and move on.

Amidst the daily harassment and chaos, thepotential for tragedy was realized, as it is foreveryone on the West Bank every day. On a roadleading toward the Askar refugee camp, a ten-year-old boy was found lying in the street and bleeding.Soldiers had opened fire on him with live ammunitionafter he attempted to hurl a bottle at a tank. Only afew hours after this incident, soldiers on duty at theAskar intersection laughed as they continued to "play"with live ammunition with some other hecklingPalestinian boys. This stone-throwing behavior onthe part of children has been characterized by manyAmerican journalists as a form of child exploitationor, in the words of Thomas Friedman of the NewYork Times, "You feel as if you are watching amodern form of ritual sacrifice." Such claimstypically distort and decontextualize this behavior,as well as negate the sawiness of Palestinianchildren who know that they can get away with morethan their adult counterparts. The Israeli humanrights organization B'tselem investigated the childexploitation allegations and found that "no evidence

of organized exploitation of children" during theIntifada.

All of the above occurred before three P.M. in aroughly six square block area. By mid-afternoon,the military with its tanks, jeeps, and soldiers pickedup and left. Residents walked safely down thestreets and vehicular transportation again becamepossible. Of course, this would be a short-livedfreedom as the solders, tanks, and jeeps wouldreturn at nightfall and re-impose a full curfew overthe entire area, and thus the pattern would continuein an endless cycle.

Later in the afternoon, students at NablusUniversity would celebrate the end of their fourthday straight of school. The University of 8,000 pupils,which specializes in sciences, economics andmanagement, has a student population which is 55%women. The university had been shut down for theprevious four months—three months due to the fullcurfew imposed on the city's residents, and the finalmonth because Israeli settler snipers were firing intothe university's courtyards.

Evening hours returned again. The starry skyof previous nights returned with the brisk cool airannouncing the onset of winter. Ramadan wouldbe celebrated throughout the West Bank, and feastswould be arranged at the "break fast" with familyand friends. Like the previous night, the childrenwould run up and down the streets with sparklersagain, almost oblivious to the fact that tanks andtroops were but a few blocks away imposing curfewin another neighborhood.

RamallaRamalla, the administrative center for thePalestinian Authority and a city of about 20,000, sitsabout twenty miles south of Nablus and ten milesnorth of Jerusalem. Like every other Palestinian city,invasions of troops and tanks have been going on sinceMarch of 2002. The invading army arrives, closesintersections, harasses people, searches houses andautomobiles, and detains random individuals. On thisparticular afternoon, the military applied full closuresto all entrances to the city. An ambulance carrying aPalestinian civilian "accidentally" wounded with liveammunition by Israeli soldiers was denied passage.The wounded man, lacking medical attention, wouldbe left to wonder whether he would be the next personto die in an ambulance denied passage at a checkpoint.

The Qalandya Roadblock, where this woundedindividual lay in the ambulance, is but one of 120permanent checkpoints in the West Bank. Along withthe hundreds of roadblocks between and within townand cities, some 300 separate areas have been created

Perspectives■*- mi atiarrhist thenrx,on anarchist theory

in Palestine in which travel from one place to anotheris extremely limited.

Thus, even on this day, a couple of hours afterthe military told everyone that no passage wouldbe allowed in or out of Ramalla, the soldiers startedallowing a few individuals to cross. They wouldsearch each closely and ask the usual questions:"Where are you going?" "What are you doinghere?" "What business do you have there?" "Whenwill you return?" "What is your occupation?" "Doyou know any terrorists?" Some people whoattempted to approach soldiers would be met withverbal abuses and physical threats; it was commonto have a machine gun pointed at your face forasking too many questions. If or when a personwas allowed through a checkpoint, it wasaccompanied by comments like, "Remember that Iam doing you a favor" and "Don't think that I willdo this favor for you tomorrow," although usuallythey are just dismissed with a flick of the hand.

Meanwhile, Ramallan construction workerscontinued to repair the Palestinian administrativecomplex which had been completely destroyed by anIsraeli military attack a few months before. A massivemural, painted at the time by the invading Israeli armyon a collapsed wall, read, "Israeli Victory"—in casethe Palestinians should ever forget.

TULKAREM

Tulkarem, a city in the northwest corner of the WestBank, sits along the "Green line," the 1967 borderwith Israel. The 1967 border does not representterritory originally granted to Israel by the Britishand the UN, but land taken after the 1948 war withArab countries. The 1967 border is now seen bythe international community (as well as thePalestinians) as the legitimate border between Israeland Palestine.

For the unfortunate cities located alongside thisborder, however, there are still daily invasions toendure, and a larger percentage of Israeli settlementsthan in other parts of the West Bank, in some districtstotaling 40% of the total population. Protection forthe illegal settlers requires a greater military presenceas well. The settlers are "illegal" in the sense that it isagainst International law in general and the Genevaconvention in particular to transplant one's populationinto an area or territory one has conquered.

At 8:00 in the morning, and for unclear reasons,the Israeli military raided a school run by the UN,resulting in confrontations between soldiers andPalestinian youths. The youths threw stones andbottles at the occupying army and were met with liveammunition in return, resulting in two teenagers being

hit by shrapnel. "Resistance" of any sort is usually metwith an escalated military presence and, in this case,the military called in American-made Apachehelicopters for assistance. Such hyperbolic use ofhelicopters, tanks, and other equipment is commonin response to minor or symbolic resistance.

QalqilyaQalquilya is another city which borders the Greenline, about ten miles south of Tulkarem. The city hasstruggled constantly for its very existence in recenthistory. It has experienced constant curfews andclosures which has resulted in travel being permittedin or out of the city only 72 days in the past two years.

On this day, the primary task of Qalqilya'sresidents will be to try to salvage anything fromfields which are in the process of being plowed inpreparation for the Israeli security wall. The securitywall was promoted to Israeli voters as a way to providea barrier between peoples. The wall also encloses thecity almost completely on four sides, allowing butone road into the city. Conveniently, a large Israelimilitary base sits at the mouth of that one road andcontrols all movement with the use of a metalswinging barrier for motor vehicles, and a walkingpath which require individuals to pass through tunnelsof barbed-wire fencing.

Setting aside the absurdity of walls and theirsymbolism, the wall was supposed to follow the 1967border. Yet, typical of Israeli policies, such is not thecase: it is being directed far into Palestinian lands. Itbasically became an opportunity for a "land grab" asit became evident that tremendous amounts of landand water resources could be annexed to Israel. Thewall would even end up isolating Palestinianvillages from each other. For some families, thewall would essentially put them on the Israeli sideof the border, unable to access Palestine. Thesepeople would basically be in no-man's land as theyare not Israeli citizens and have no legal rights orpolitical representation. They would also have litdemeans of earning a living.

Qalquilya farmers who harvest citrus fruitwould attempt to quickly pick the fruit ahead ofthe path of destruction following them in the fields.Families whose land would be being seized for thebuilding of the wall would scramble to salvage theircitrus crop. They would fill tractors, donkeys, andcars with their pickings in clear view of theconstruction company hired to plow under the land,the armed security company hired by theconstruction company, and the armored vehiclesand soldiers protecting both groups. Massive

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IAS Gran tUpdates (cont inued)

chapter. He plans to finish theapproximately 200 page bookshortly after the September2003 ministerial meeting of theWorld Trade Organization inCancun (material from thisprotest will be incorporated intohis work). Ramor was awarded$2000 in July 2002.

Andres Perez and Filpe delSolar have recendy finished thesecond part of their bookentided Chile: Anarchist PracticesUnder Pinochet. The firstchapter, running 81 pagescovers the 1970's and politicaldevelopments includinganarcho-syndicalist activities,anarchist involvement in thestudent movement andcounter-culture, and armedanarchist action. The projecthas been expanded to include achapter on anarchist practices inthe 1990's. The project has beenvery exciting for the IAS tosupport, given that this researchhas never been done before andwill assist in illuminating howanarchists have struggled underextreme authoritarian conditions. The project is expectedto be completed in April 2004.Filipe is a university studentcurrendy completing his studiesand Andres is a journalist whois a regular contributor topol i t ica l magazines inVenezuela, Bolivia, andGermany. They were awarded$2000 in January 2001.

Fernando Lopez has nearlycompleted his work, The FACAand the Anarchist Movement inArgentina, 1930-1950. Thispiece is a study of Argentina'sFederacion Anarquis taComunista Argentina (FACA).It examines the growth of the

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Perspectives■*■ on anarchist theory

IAS Gran tUpdates (continued)

FACA from 1935 and into the1940s and then its decline in thelate 1940s and 1950s. Ninechapters of this eleven chapterwork have already been written.The two remaining chapterswill cover the impact of theSpanish Civil War (1936-39)upon the FACA as well as itsactivity in the labor movementin the 1930s and 1940s. Thework will also contain anextensive biographical appendixand bibliography. Fernandolives in Buenos Aires, Argentinawith his daughter. He wasawarded $2200 in June 1999.

Murray Bookchin has nearlycompleted the third and lastvolume of his The ThirdRevolution: Popular Movementsin the Revolutionary Era(Continuum Publications).Bookchin was awarded $1000in January 1997 to write thesecond volume of his TheSpanish Anarchists, but materialthat would have comprised thatbook has been incorporated intothe Third Revolution. It isanticipated that the work will beavailable by the end of this yearor the beginning of the next.Murray lives in Burlington,Vermont.

If you are interested in applyingfor a grant, please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope tothe IAS. Grant applications arealso available at the IAS'swebsite: http://www.anarchist-studies.orgPlease note our new address:

Institute forAnarchist Studies73 Canterbury,

D.D.O, Quebec, CanadaH9B 2G5

What's Happening: Books & EventsBy Chuck Morse

From BaghdadThe U.S. government has now concluded a war thatfew wanted and that lacked legitimacy among thepublic as a whole. Although it won the militarystruggle in Iraq, it lost the battle for public opinionand is disdained by billions around the globe as aruthless instrument of ruling elites. The world'sonly super power is actually quite vulnerable.

Anarchists should exploit this vulnerability andradicalize the debate about the war. We must showthat the aggressions of the Bush administration notonly reflect the insanity of a particularly aberrantpresident but also the underlying barbarity of thepresent social order.

Numerous new books should help us exposethe bankruptcy of pro-war arguments. In AgainstWar with Iraq: An Anti- War Primer, three legalscholars from the Center for Constitutional Rightsargue that the war against Iraq is unnecessary forthe United States' national security as well as illegal (by Michael Ratner, Jennie Green, and BarbaraOlshansky, Seven Stories Press, 2003, 80 pages).Milan Rai's War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against Waron Iraq (Verso Books, 2002,256 pages) argues thatarms inspections are a genuine alternative to warand that the Bush administration has deliberatelyundermined the inspection process. War on Iraq:What Team Bush Doesn 't Want You to Know by William Rivers Pitt and Scott Ritter (Context Books,2002, 96 pages) attacks the Bush administrationspro-war rational and Iraq Under Siege: The DeadlyImpact of Sanctions and War, edited by AnthonyAmove, places the war against Iraq in the contextof the United States and the United Kingdom'ssanctions regime (Pluto Press, 2003, 264 pages).

Other books provide a radical perspective onsome of the longstanding contradictions fromwhich the war emerges. Shattered Illusions: Analyzing the War on Terrorism, an anthology edited byAftab Malik, examines U.S. policies and actions inthe Middle East, with a focus on its "war on terror." It addresses questions such as: is "terrorism"what really lies at the heart of the conflict betweenIsraelis and Palestinians, as the Sharon government

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

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contends? And what is driving the United Statestoward war with Iraq? It explores the histories andimplications of these conflicts for the United Statesand the peoples of the region (Amal Press, 2002,384pages). Noam Chomsky's Middle East Illusions takesup questions such as: What are the roots of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and how has it been influenced by the United States? Why has the U.S.brokered "peace process" repeatedly failed to deliverpeace? What are the prospects for a just resolution?What interests underlie U.S. strategic doctrines in theMiddle East and how do we look beyond them tofind more peaceful and viable alternatives? (RowmanScLittlefield, 2003, 304 pages).

To SeattleAlthough the anti-globalization movement haslargely disappeared from the U.S. political landscape since the September 11th terror attacks, weshould study its accomplishments and problemsand try to renew its presence in the current environment. Globalize Liberation: How to Uproot theSystem and Build a Better World, edited by DavidSolnit, aims to deepen, popularize, and update ideasderived from the movement and provide practicalideas for maintaining its spirit of resistance andinnovation (City Lights, June 2003, 248 pages).Naomi Klein's Fences and Windows: Dispatches fromthe Front Lines of the Globalization Debate (Picador,2002, 267 pages), a collection of her journalisticpieces from 1999 to 2002, also reflects some of theneeds and conflicts of the movement. Works onspecific demonstrations are also valuable. JonathanNeale's You Are G8 - We Are Six Billion: The Truthbehind the Genoa Protests is an account of the July2001 protests written by one of the organizers ofthe demonstrations (Vision Paperbacks, 2003, 288pages). There is also Resist: A Grassroots Collectionof Stories, Poetry, Photos and Analyses from the Quebec City FTAA Protests and Beyond, edited by JenChang et al, (Fernwood Books, 2001, 192 Pages).This work presents personal accounts, images, andanalyses of the April 2001 demonstration inQuebec City. It challenges readers to step beyondmainstream media reports and reassess their role inthe movement.

A treatment of some of the theoretical issuesraised by the anti-globalization movement can befound in Debating Empire, an anthology edited byGopal Balakrishnan (Verso Books, May 2003,288pages). Here various theorists analyze MichaelNegri and Antonio Hart's Empire from political,economic, and philosophical perspectives, andHardt and Negri respond.

Perspectives■*• on anarchist theory

Democracy From the Bottom UpA defense of participatory, democratic organizingcan be found in Francesca Polletta's Freedom Is anEndless Meeting: Democracy in American SocialMovements (University of Chicago, 2002, 296pages). This book offers portraits of American experiments in participatory democracy throughout thetwentieth century. Polletta challenges the claim thatparticipatory democracy is worthy in purpose butunworkable in practice by showing that socialmovements have often used bottom-up decisionmaking as a powerful tool for political change. Shetraces the history of democracy in early laborstruggles and pre-World War II pacifism, the CivilRights, New Left, and Women's Liberation movements, and in today's faith-based organizing andanti-corporate globalization campaigns. Polletta uncovers neglected sources of democratic inspiration—Depression-era labor educators and Mississippi voting registration workers, among them—as well as practical strategies of social protest. Thebook also highlights obstacles that arise when activists model their democracies upon familiar non-political relationships such as friendship, tutelage, andreligious fellowship

AnarchismTwo new books engage the anarchist tradition assuch. Lewis Call's Postmodern Anarchism (Lexington Books, 2003) delves into Nietzsche, Foucault,and Baudrillard, and the cyberpunk fiction of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, to examine newphilosophical currents where anarchism andpostmodernism meet. His perspective moves beyond anarchism's conventional attacks on capitaland the state to criticize forms of rationality, consciousness, and language that implicitly underwriteall economic and political power. There is also Anarchism by Sean Sheehan (Reaktion Books, 2003,224 pages). Sheehan presents anarchism as muchas an attitude as a set of formulated doctrines, describes anarchism's history through anecdote anddramatic events, and offers explanations of the issues behind this movement. He looks at instancesof anarchist thinking and influence in politicalthought, the history of ideas, philosophy, theoriesof education and ecology, as well as film and literary criticism. Systems of thought such as Buddhism and Taoism, art movements such as Dadaand Surrealism, literary treatments of anarchistideas in the work of Blake, Wilde, Whitman, Kafkaand Eugene O'Neill, anarchism in relation to sexand psychology in the work of Reich and Fromm,as well as aspects of Nietzsche's philosophy as expressions of anarchist individualism—all these and

other topics are also tackled. Readers interestedin anarchism's literary influence may wish to checkout Simon Casey's Naked Liberty and the World ofDesire: Elements of Anarchism in the Work ofD.H.Lawrence (Routledge, 2003, 160 pages).

Anarch a-Fem i nismThe anarcha-feminist tradition has always been vibrant, but we have lacked comprehensive statements of the perspective for a long time. QuietRumours: An Anarcha-Feminist Reader should helpchange this. This anthology, edited by the DarkStar Collective, contains works by anarcha-femi-nists from the Old Left, New Left, and the contemporary period (AK Press, 2003, 120 pages).And of course the most well known anarcha-feminist, Emma Goldman, continues to attract the attention of researchers and activists. An importantnew resource is Emma Goldman: A DocumentaryHistory of the American Years, Volume One: Made forAmerica, 1890-1901, edited by Candace Falk, BarryPateman, and Jessica Moran (University of California, 2003, 696 pages). This work, the first of amulti-volume series, tracks the young Goldman'sintroduction into the anarchist movement, featuresher earliest known writings in the German anarchist press, and charts her gradual emergence fromNew York's radical immigrant milieu into a figureof national and international importance.

SpainAnarchist contributions to the Spanish Civil Warof 1936-1939 are an inexhaustible source of interest for historians. Anarchism and the Spanish CivilWar by Julian Casanova (Routledge, December2003, 224 pages) is a synthesis of political, social,and cultural history concerning the anarchist revolution by one of Spain's leading historians of theperiod. Red Barcelona: Social Protest and LabourMobilization in the Twentieth Century, edited byAngel Smith should be rewarding to those interested in radical urban politics and anarchist history (Routledge, 2002, 272 pages). Class, Cultureand Conflict in Barcelona by Chris Ealham(Routledge, May 2004,240 pages) investigates urban conflict, popular protest, and social control inBarcelona from the mm of the century to 1937.His work focuses upon the sources of anarchistpower in the city and the role of the organized anarchist movement during the Second Republic andconcludes with an analysis of the decline of theanarchist movement during the civil war and thelocal conditions that made Barcelona the capitalof European anarchism. ~

CULTURAL i b r e

Although Mexico has a richhistory of anarchist activity anda dynamic anarchist movement,Mexican comrades have notbeen able to sustain regularpublishing activities. This hasmade it difficult for anarchiststo debate ideas amongthemselves as well as introducenew ideas into the broaderpolitical culture.

This should change soon:comrades associated withMexico City's CollectivoAutonomo Magonista haverecently initiated a newpublishing endeavor under theimprint Cultura Libre (FreeCulture).

They will publish books andpamphlets designed to nourishthe discussion of revolutionaryalternatives in Mexico and theSpanish-speaking worldgenerally. They have alreadypublished a critical pamphlet onthe university (Universidad: LaEspecializacion de la Muerte)and, in the near future, willpublish pamphlets on thepopular struggle in Mexico'sSan Salvador Atenco, the PlanPuebla Panama, as well asGianfranco Sanguinetti'sTerrorism and the State and ananthology on libertariansocial ism [Augestion &Socialismo Libertaria).

They request that comradessend books , financ ia lcontributions, and buy anddistribute their publications.Although they are presentlymoving their office, they can bereached at [email protected] their website here: http://pagina.de/culmralibre-coop

Perspectives•I nil anarchist thr>nr\,on anarchist theory

Howard Zinn:Mini-Biography

Born and raised in Brooklynslums by Jewish immigrantparents, Howard Zinn grew uparound a rich popular culture aswell as sharp economic inequalities.

As a young man Zinnworked a New York Cityshipyard for a number of yearsbefore joining the military andbecoming a decorated bombardier in World War II. Zinnreturned to New York after thewar and earned a doctorate inhistory at Columbia University.Zinn's first teaching position wasat Spellman College in Atlanta,Georgia where he becameimmersed in the Civil Rightsmovement and directly observedthe power of mass, popularmobilization to effect great socialchange. He later became activein the movement against theVietnam War and spoke andwrote widely on the topic. AfterSpellman he accepted a job atBoston University, where heworked until retiring.

He has written over a dozenbooks and his now classic APeoples History of the UnitedStates has gone into more than25 printings and doubdessly reshaped the perception of thehistory of the United States.Zinn is also an accomplisheddramatist, and his play aboutEmma Goldman (Emma) hasbeen performed in New York,London, and other cities aroundthe world.

When pressed to identifythe three people who have hadthe greatest influence upon hislife as a thinker and activist, hementions Upton Sinclair, EmmaGoldman, and Alan Watts(author of The Way of Zen). ~

War is the Health of the State... Zinn from page 1but he is trying to placate his corporate supporterswho will benefit hugely from military contracts andfrom his tax program. Also, Johnson was responding to powerful social movements which weredemanding reform: the Civil Rights Movement; the Black Uprisings in the cities (such asWatts 1965). Bush faces no such popular upsurge.

What would you say to those who believe the USgovernment, if not directly involved in the attacksof September 1 Vh, at the very least let them happenin order to justify everything that has happenedsince? What is it about conspiracy theories thatcaptivates the imagination of people on the left andright so much?It's always intriguing to talk about conspiracies. Butit's a diversion from real issues. They are attractivebecause they simplify problems and enable peopleto focus on a handful of people instead of oncomplex causes.What is your assessment of the anti-war movement,particularly its more radical wing? Drawing fromyour study of history, what advice would you havefor today's radical activists and thinkers?Don't get involved in internal squabbling,concentrate on what unifies you, allow differentgroups to pursue the common anti-war agenda intheir own way. But concentrate on fundamentalprinciples: war is terrorism, war is always a waragainst children. War always has unpredictableconsequences.

Certainly ANSWER is one of the most importantgroups in the anti-war movement This group hasbeen criticized for its link to the authoritarianCommunist group, the Workers'World Party. Do youthink such criticisms are important and do youbelieve that ANSWER'S link to this group is aproblem?I don't believe in setting political tests for a broad-based movement that is centered on one issue, likeending the war. The labor movement at its best, inthe 1930s did not worry that Communists led someof the organizing drives. The Lawrence textilestrikers of 1912 weren't bothered by the IWWorganizers who came in and led them to a successfulstrike. The Civil Rights movement did not respondto red-bating. My own attitude is: if there is ademonstration against the war, and I believe in thegoal of ending a war, I won't ask who organized thedemonstration. You march with people who havesigns representing many different groups andideologies but you are all there for the same purpose,

stopping the war. I distrust the sincerity of peoplewho peck away at broad-based movements bypointing to organizers or participants who havespecial political positions.So do you believe that it has been a mistake forgroups on the left-from Z Magazine writers, toNation writers, to anarchists-to criticize ANSWER?Yes. We should not give political tests to peoplewho do good organizing work. A broad movementmust include all sorts of groups, including anarchists.

Regardless of our opposition to the US government,al Qaida does not distinguish between our rulingclass and ordinary citizens. Certainly US policy inthe Middle East contributed to the birth ofal Qaida:the US provided direct support for bin Laden andother Islamic fundamentalists fighting the SovietUnion, not to mention other policy initiatives, suchas uncritical support and funding for the repressivepolicies of Israel and the stationing of US troops inSaudi Arabia. Yet now we are all potential targetsin al Qaida's campaign against the UnitedStates. What is the best way to address thisproblem?Yes, the terrorists don't discriminate betweenleaders and ordinary people. One thing we mustmake clear: we will not be guilty of the same thing.Therefore we will only direct our anger at theterrorists themselves, and at no one else. As foraddressing terrorism, it means looking at its roots,the grievances behind that, and if those grievancesare legitimate, act to relieve them.

The emergence of the anti-globalization movementwas one of the most exciting developments in recentyears (which you celebrated in your essay, "Seattle:A Flash of the Possible"). However, this movementhas largely disappeared from the political stage inthe US since the terror attacks of September 11th.Do you think there is something about themovement that makes it particularly vulnerable tothe post-September 1 1th changes in the politicalenvironment? Also, do you believe that the anti-globalization movement will be renewed or has itsmoment passed?I do believe the anti-globalization movement, whilegiven a temporary setback after September 11th, iscoming to fife again. The Port Alegre meetingrecendy is one sign.Do you think that there is a possibility that the antiwar movement could contribute to the revival of theanti-globalization movement?Yes, by energizing people. There is a long historyof one movement stimulating other movements. Forexample, the anti-slavery movement stimulated the

Perspectives-*■ on anarchist theory

An Interview with Howard Zinnfeminist movement and the Civil Rights movement,which lead into the anti-Vietnam War movementand also the Feminist and Gay Rights movements.

You describe a constant struggle between thepowerful and the powerless in the People's Historyof the United States. This struggle takes place indifferent historical contexts and is carried out bydifferent actors, but the struggle itself is continuous.A precept of the classical revolutionary perspectiveis that one day this struggle will come to an end,that there will be a qualitative change in socialrelationships and the division between the powerfuland powerless will disappear. Do you believe thischange can occur and, if so, how is this idea reflectedinto your historical work?I do believe this change can occur but it will nothappen "one day" or in one cataclysmic moment. Itwill happen over time as people, little by little, takeover the institutions of society—the economy, theuniversities, the neighborhoods—and run themdemocratically.But traditionally the Left has embraced the idea ofrevolution (in which sweeping historical changestake place in a relatively short period of time). Doyou reject the idea of revolution? Or, if not, how doyou conceive of it?I don't reject the idea of revolution, but I reject theidea of armed struggle, or a military action toachieve it. The revolution must be democratic inmeans as well as in ends, and this requires buildingmass support for change by long, persistentstruggle.Your work seems to be motivated by the idea thatpeople will change society if they are simplypresented with the facts of social injustice. However,countless authors before you have presented "thefacts" and yet deep social conflicts endure. What isit about your presentation of the facts that is uniqueand how would you respond to those who arguethat our problem lay not in the absence of facts butin the absence of theoretical frameworks with whichto comprehend the facts?

No, presentation of facts is not enough. Peoplemust then act on those facts. I don't thinktheoretical frameworks are necessary, that is, notnecessarily spelled out. People, given enoughinformation, themselves supply a theoreticalframework, which may not be put into language,but which informs their thinking and their action.

Your historical work has focused on the capacity ofordinary people to band together, fight for justice,and change society. However, you have written verylittle about the frameworks that leftists have used

Howard Zinn

to understand and theorize opposition, such asMarxist-Leninism, social democracy, anarchism, etcWhy is this? Is not reclaiming such a politicalvocabulary an essential part of rebuilding ademocratic culture?I don't see much point in abstract theorizing, orgetting into arguments about Marxism, Leninism,etc. When the issue comes up I try to deal with it.For instance, I don't make a big fuss over anarchism,but when it is brought up in a distorted way I tryto show what the distortions are. It is possible toget across anarchist ideas, socialist ideas, withoutusing abstract words that have different meaningsfor different people.

OK, but the idea of a free or just society is abstractAnd certainly the Left has been shaped by abstracttheoretical works, such as Marx's Capital,Kropotkin's Mutual Aid, or countless other works.Do you believe that such theoretical inquiry hasbeen a waste of time or do you believe that themoment for such works has passed?Theoretical analyses are useful but not crucial.There is a lot of wasted time in such endeavors,but not all is wasted. Marx's Communist Manifestowas a theoretical analysis, immensely useful andinspiring. His first volume of Das Kapitalwas usefultoo. His second and third volumes, and hisGrundrisse, were probably a waste of time!


Howard Zinn:Selected Works

A People's History of the UnitedStates:1492-Present. New York:Harper-Perennial; Revised andUpdated edition, 2001.

Declarations of Independence:Cross-examining American Ideology. New York: Perennial; Reprint edition, 1991.

You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History ofOur Times. New York: BeaconPress, 1995.

Heroes and Martyrs: EmmaGoldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, andthe Revolutionary Struggle. CD.San Francisco: AK Press, 2000.

Emma: A Play in Two Acts AboutEmma Goldman, American Anarchist. Boston: South EndPress, 2002.

Marx in Soho:A Play on History.Boston: South End Press, 1999.

Terrorism and War, ed. by Anthony Amove. New York:Seven Stories Press, 2002.

The Zinn Reader: Writings onDisobedience and Democracy.New York: Seven Stories Press,1997.

Howard Zinn on History. NewYork: Seven Stories Press,2000.

The Twentieth Century: APeople's History. New York:Harper-Perennial, 2003.

T h e P o w e r o f N o nviolence: Writings by Advocatesof Peace. New York: BeaconPress, 2002.

PerspectivesA an anarchist theorxon anarchist theory

You have consistently urged people to placemoral considerations at the center of theirengagement with society, to "not be neutralon a moving train" (to cite the title of yourautobiography). The idea that people'spolitical practice should be shaped primarilyby moral concerns is radical break fromclassical revolutionary theories, such asMarxism or anarcho-syndicalism, whichunderstand politics as something determinedby or subsumed under socio-economic contradictions. Do you believe that it is necessaryto break with the older traditions ofrevolutionary thought and, if so, how?Yes, socio-economic contradictions are basic,but behind any analysis of them must be a setof moral values—otherwise you can analyzethe society endlessly and not come toconclusions about what to do.

Do you regard this position as a break withthe classical socialist or anarchist tradition?And, if so, why is it important to make such abreak?No, I don't consider it a break from theclassical traditions, because there was alwaysa moral principle behind the most academicof radical analyses.

OK, while a moral principle may have beenimplicit in the classical traditions, isn't it truethat communists and anarcho-syndicalistsargued that "being determined consciousness" and disagreed that it was possible toadvance a moral position that was somehowindependent of or above "the development ofclass contradictions." If this is true, isn't yourposition a significant break with the tradition?Yes, although I think there has been somedistortion of the Marxist position andanarcho-syndicalist position on this or, to putit another way, that there are several Marxistpositions and several anarchist positions.What recent developments in the study ofsocial history do you find particularly excitingand amenable to a radical approach to socialaffairs and what tendencies do you findespecially troublesome?The recent developments in the study ofsocial history which are important to me arethe burgeoning of literature about socialmovements—the women's movement, thelabor movement, the African American andChicano movements, the gay and lesbianmovement. I only find troublesome thosestudies which are overly specialized, academic,designed to reach a small number of scholarswithout any connection to action.

In several works you note that your encounterwith anarchism (Emma Goldman in particular)only occurred after your period of intenseactivism in the anti-war movement Youdiscovered that although the term anarchismwasn't used, there were many connectionsbetween anarchism and the New Left (suchas the emphasis on decentralization, directaction, sexual liberation, etc). Your experienceseems to be common among leftists who cameof age politically during the 1960s. What wasit about the political culture of the New Leftthat discouraged people from discovering andinvestigating such an important tradition andone that was so close to their views? Why doyou believe that so many activists turned toMarxism-Leninism and Maoism rather thananarchism? What was H about authoritarianideologies that made them attractive and anti-authoritarian ideas less attractive, in thosedays?Some activists turned to Marxism-Leninismand Maoism. Most did not. Most continuedto act out the principles of anarchism withoutadopting it in a conscious way as a coherentphilosophy. Anti-authoritarian ideasdominated the movement of the sixties, andthe authoritarians were a small, loud minority.

While many practices may have been anti-authoritarian, certainly a significant number of activists defined themselves throughan authoritarian socialist ideologicalframework. This is true of the late SDS, theBlack Panthers, and countless other groups.What was it about authoritarian ideologiesthat made them attractive, and anti-authoritarian ideas less attractive, in those' days?

I doubt that it was the authoritarianism thatwas attractive—it was the other attributes, suchas the boldness, the militancy—but peopleaccepted the authoritarianism along with that,just as Communists accepted Stalinism for along time, not because they believed inauthoritarianism as such but because it camealong with certain social changes.

Why do you think activists during this perioddid not gravitate toward an anarchist or anti-authoritarian tradition if, in fact, it was moreconsistent with their activities?Because most activists are concentrated on themoment and don't see what they're doing aspart of long-term theories or traditions.How would you describe yourself politically?Do you consider yourself an anarchist or alibertarian socialist?

Something of an anarchist, something of asocialist. Maybe a democratic socialist.

This seems contradictory. Could you explain?I see no contradiction. Look at AlexanderBerkman's pamphlet, Communist Anarchism.

Anarchists and radicals are very good atcriticizing society and the state, as well asadvocating a vision of a different better world.Yet the question of how to get from our currentsociety to a free society is often unanswered.What is your perspective on questions ofstrategy for the Left? How do we create thechanges that we want in order to fully realizeour vision of a free society?

Organization, direct action to liberatedifferent aspects of the society. We can't havea blueprint, but we can know what we areaiming for, and move in that direction.Since the 1960s many leftist intellectuals havebecome ensconced in the university andindependent theorists (such as Paul Goodmanand Dwight McDonald, for example) are nowextremely rare. Do you believe this islamentable and do you think the academicenvironment has encouraged a moreconservative, timid posture among leftintellectuals?

Certainly, the academic environment isstifling, and often leads leftists into obscureresearch rather than into activism. But notalways. I believe there is no one place for leftintellectuals. They can function, and should,both inside and outside the academy.

The university tends to draw radicalintellectuals into the academic life. But itneedn't do that. Radicals who are in anyprofession or line of work face the sameproblem, of maintaining their ideas andactivity despite the pull of their profession andtheir need for economic security.

What projects are you working on now andwhat future projects do you have planned?I'm so involved in the anti-war movement nowthatl have hardly time to think about "projects."But, I'm interested in dramatizing politicalissues, for the stage, through screen-plays, andat the same time continuing to write columnsfor The Progressive, op-ed pieces for traditionalnewspapers, and speaking wherever I can toaudiences of all kinds. ~

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Perspectiveson anarchist theory

... Petrovato from page 5Caterpillar tractors would be accompanied byarmed security forces and armored vehicles andfoot soldiers to protect them from the farmers.

Falami and JayyousFalami is another village in the Qalqilyadistrict along the green line area of the WestBank. As in Qalqilya, Tulkarem and all theother villages along the northwestern "greenline," the "security wall" will continue to bererouted away from the line into ever newdirections east. Israeli officials will notifyindividuals and families that the land whichhas belonged to their families for over 2,000years will be confiscated, and that suchindividuals should attend meetings in whichsome form of "compensation" for the land willbe determined. The Palestinian familieslosing their land often refuse to legitimateboth the seizures as well as the erstwhileattempts at "compensation" and thereforerefuse to attend these meetings. The land willbe simply taken—an outcome horrible andtragic for Palestinians, but less horrible thanentering into a contract with a land-seizingstate.

On this November day in Falami, residentsengaged in a nonviolent protest against thebuilding of the wall Along with internationalpeace activists, they were attacked by Israelisoldiers using tear gas, sound grenades, andarrests to disperse these unarmed peacefulprotesters. Even the French Consul General,who visited Falami and attempted to negotiatewith the Israeli authorities over the apparentloss of investments in agricultural irrigationprojects, met with little success. Internationalsand others would continue to arrive in Falamithroughout the day to support the protests.

In Jayyous, a nearby village, residents werealso struggling with soldiers over land seizuresfor the security wall. Jayyous will be hitparticularly hard with the rerouting of the wall:it will lose 80% of its land and many of theirwells. This village, in existence for more than1,000 years and having survived many wars, willbe destroyed by a faceless zoning bureaucratdeciding that the land is needed to protect Israel.The town will have no means to support itselfwithout the land upon which it depends forcitrus and olive harvesting.

YanunUnlike cities such as Nablus, Ramallah, andJenin, the hundreds of villages throughoutPalestine like Yanun face a slighdy differentstruggle. With their numbers fewer, they are atthe mercy of hostile Israeli settlements whichsurround them. Settlements are usually built onhilltops in close proximity to Palestine villages.There is very little security for Palestiniansbetween the settlements and their villages (whilethe setdements have both their own internalsecurity force and nearby military bases forprotection). The short fence which usuallyseparates one village's land from the settlementdoes not deter settlers from crossing into landthey perceive as their own.

The settlement outside ofYanun is calledItmar. Like the settlers I encounteredelsewhere, these were extremely dangerous.Just a few days earlier, they had forced theentire village to leave, setting fire to theirhomes and electrical generator. When thevillagers returned with ISM (InternationalSolidarity Movement) activists, they foundthat many of their olive fields had already beenplowed for the settlers' own agriculturalenterprises. Four internationals— two of whomwere elderly—were viciously attacked with gunbutts, clubs, and blows as they attempted todocument this land seizure by Itmar settlers; allended up needing hospitalization. Meanwhile,Yanun residents watched in horror as settlersworked the dispossessed land under protectionof the Israeli army. It was only a few days laterthat they began to cautiously return to theirvillage.

JeninJenin, a city in the northern West Bank, hasbeen in a constant state of siege for manymonths now. On November 7*, a full curfewhad been in effect for eight consecutive days.Some residents and shop-keepers wouldbreak curfew to simply feed their families andothers. Otherwise, the streets were empty exceptfor the speeding jeeps and tanks looking forthese curfew breakers.

Over the past year, West Bank cities andvillages like Jenin have withstood 24-hourcurfews more than half of the time. Asreported by human rights organizations, theUnited Nations, and other internationalagencies, large parts of the city have beencompletely bombed out and leveled in recent

months. Residents must navigate their waysthrough piles of rubble where their homes andneighborhoods once stood. The streets are filledwith the remnants of vehicles set ablaze bysoldiers or run over by tanks. Metal telephonepoles lay broken on the streets, and sidewalkshave been intentionally crushed by the weightof the tanks. Since most of the water istransported in by trucks, it has becomeincreasingly scarce. The curfew meant thatpeople had to use what little water was availablejust for drinking, and not for cleaning, disposal,or other needs.

YasufOn this day, residents of the small village ofYasuf would begin finishing up the annualolive harvest in the midst of guns being fired atthem, physical harassment, and abuse by settlers.The military did its part in disrupting theharvest by creating "closed military zones" inthe olive fields—usually as collectivepunishments for any form of violence againstIsraelis in general, and in which these particularvillagers played no part. To enforce the closureof the fields, tanks sat on hillsides surroundingthe village with their barrels pointing direcdyat it.

On this day, Israeli peace groups sentactivists to various locations in the West Bankto support nonviolent actions against theOccupation. Groups such as Rabbis for HumanRights, Ta'ayush, Gush Shalom, liberalorganizations, and anarchist groups would joinwith each other and ISM activists in the WestBank. I was lucky enough to meet hundreds ofthese activists m the six weeks I was in the region.They were welcomed into Palestinian homes,fed, and engaged in lively debate before a directaction took place. To an outsider like myself, Iwas continually surprised by the level ofcamaraderie and solidarity between these twopeoples. Such Israeli individuals and groups,however, have been under increasing attack since9/11. They have been harassed and intimidatedby the state and media, and some have even losttheir jobs.

I witnessed these events while workingfor the ISM as an olive harvester andinternational observer during October andNovember of 2002. The ISM is a Palestinian-led movement which uses nonviolence as ameans to resist the occupation. The

Continued on next page.11

Perspectiyeson anarchist theory

IAS Gran tAwards

... Continued from Page 1to everyday life. He is a writerand activist and has workedwith youth in a Bronxcommunity center for the pastthirteen years.

S800 to Sandra Jeppesenfor her piece Anarchy,Revolution, Freedom: TowardsAnarchist Cultural Theory. Thisproject will expand uponanarchist cultural theory. It willlook at both mainstream andexplicitly anarchist representations of revolution to try tocome to an understanding ofanarchist culture and to developa means of theorizing in a waythat is significantly differentthan Marxian cultural studies,both in approach and politicalanalysis. Jeppesen is a doctoralstudent at York University inToronto.

$1000 to Justin Jackson forhis piece "Black Roses, BlackMasks: The American Anarchist Movement and itsMedia in the Vietnam Years."This project will be an editedcollection of writing, poetry, artand images from anarchist pressin the United States between1945 to 1980, with a focus onthe 1960s and 1970s, and willinclude a lengthy introductionon the underground anarchistpress of the 1960s. Jackson is awriter and activist whocurrently lives in Detroit,Michigan.

If you are interested in applyingfor a grant, please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope tothe IAS. Grant applications arealso available at the IAS'swebsite: http://www.anarchist-smdies.org/

12

organization is a model of directly democraticprocesses, and it uses the affinity group andconsensus decision making as its organizationalfoundation. The ISM works private with Israelipeace groups and internationals to give a voice tothose who resist the occupation. Much of the workwhich I did with the ISM involved observation:the monitoring of human rights abuses by theIsraeli military, check point watches, etc. I alsoparticipated in non-violent protests withPalestinian and Israeli groups. Non-violent protestsand marches, by the way, or any other events whichseek to empower Palestinians, such as symbolicactions such as even raising the Palestinian flag, isillegal and met with violence and arrests.

II. Israeli Occupation of the West BankOccupation and collective punishment for thepeople of Palestine has become a routine part ofeveryday life. For the past thirty-five years, Israelhas actively built settlements in the West Bank andGaza Strip. Today there are over 400,000 Israelisresiding in the Palestinian West Bank alone. Somehave chosen to reside there for purely economicreasons, such as cheap housing and subsistence checks,while others reside there for their ideologicalconvictions that Palestinian territory must bereclaimed as part of the historical heritage of Israel.Following up on these opportunities and convictions,people come from all over the world on any givenday—including this. Jointly, they contribute to theundermining of the Oslo Peace Accords as they moveinto their American style suburban homes, acquirejobs, and settle themselves in. Among the manywho come from Eastern Europe, Russia, and NorthAmerica, there will be some who will actively seekout and join radical right fundamentalist forces in thesettlements in a religious crusade against the nowdisplaced "others."

These people are granted a "right to return" bythe Israeli state based on their Jewish identity. Theydon't question the historical spuriousness of thisclaim—the fact that they are being granted a rightto "return" to a country in which many have neverlived—nor the fact that Palestinians are madesecond-class citizens in the process, denied a rightto return to a country which many in their immediatefamilies and forbearers have had a direct connectionwith. They also do not recognize the internationalcommunity's recognition of the territorial rights ofPalestinians and the illegal nature of settlements. Suchinternational assertions are regarded as anti-Semiticallowing, ironically, a complete denial of politicalresponsibility for current social events.

Though the settlements are located in thePalestinian West Bank and Gaza, residents of thesesettlements are rarely seen there. Israel has createdan immense transportation, consumption, andproduction infrastructure which connects thesetdements to each other and to Israel proper, thuseliminating any need for contact between the twopopulations. The "by-pass roads" may only be usedby Israelis and foreigners; they are forbidden toPalestinians. In areas where the by-pass roadcrosses a Palestinian's property, they still may notaccess it. If they do, they run the risk of being eithershot or arrested, although the occasional soldier willlet them pass without harassment. Currently, thereare 120 permanent Israeli checkpoints andhundreds of road blocks in the OccupiedPalestinian territories. In a place smaller than thesize of Massachusetts, over 300 separate areas havebeen created. These areas, which are basicallyislands, are cut off from each other making travelfrom one place to another nearly impossible. Itmust be remembered that travel prohibitions aredirected only at Palestinians. In addition to theclearly destructive effects such measures have onthe economy, there are other, less intuitive, effects.For instance, ambulances stopped at checkpointshave resulted in an average of one birth every threedays at a checkpoint itself. Numerous deaths havealso been attributed to the travel restrictions,although statistics illustrating occupation-relateddeaths rarely refer to this most mundane events ofnot being able to travel.

In contrast to these gross human rights abuses,there exists a widespread belief that the Palestinianshave, in fact, been the beneficiaries of a "generousoffer" on the part of Barak. Without knowing thedetails or the context in which the offer was made,Americans (and even Israelis) uncritically repeatthe phrase "But didn't Barak offer Palestinians 90%of what they wanted?" What fails to be discussedis how the offer so clearly ignored the demands andneeds of the Palestinian peoples: what was not offeredwas the removal of all the illegal settlements, the returnof valuable water resources to the West Bank, thereturn of East Jerusalem, or a Palestinian "right toreturn" for those displaced by the conflict. There isalso a general veil of ignorance surrounding the factthat Oslo Peace Accords required that Israel graduallywithdraw from the territories and grant furtherautonomy to the Palestinians. Instead, Israel usedthe nineties to further encroach on Palestinianterritories and, in fact, doubled the number of theirsettlements during this time. Understanding therelationship between the settlements and Israeli


foreign policy makes it clear Israel's actions havebeen directed toward further colonization andcomplete disenfranchisement of the indigenouscommunities from their land and, thus, theirsource of subsistence, hope, and resistance.

Why has the implementation ofinternational law failed so miserably in theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict? Why here and notelsewhere? With so many UN resolutionscondemning Israeli occupation and demandingwithdrawal, the opposite has occurred. Inaddition, the "right to return" is aninternational law and is granted to allrefugees—not just Israelis—and is guaranteedin the Universal Declaration of Human Rightsand the Fourth Geneva Convention. The UShas been an especially willful participant in themanipulation of international accords; while itused this "unalienable human right" asjustification for war in Kosovo, the very sameadministration declared that the Palestinians'right to return was "unrealistic" and merely anattempt to derail the peace process. Thus,although a Palestinian forced to flee at gunpointhas been denied the right to return by theinternational community, Israel's policy ofencouraging Jewish return from throughout theworld is formally condoned. Currendy withinIsrael, a growing right-wing movement has beenattempting to persuade voters to allow thepermanent "transfer" of Palestinians out ofPalestine.

III. Violence, Ideology, and the IsraeliState: Some Theoretical QuestionsThe picture I have painted above seeks toilluminate the scale of unreported andunderreported violence which is inflicted dailyupon the Palestinian people. It is impossibleto understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflictin general, and the motivation behind theIntifada in particular, without understandingthe extent of this systemic violence. It is bothan essential facet of everyday life, as well asan integral technique of Israeli attempts atrule. Everyday life for Palestinians, however,is woven with a seemingly inexhaustibleenergy to resist this particularly terrorizingform of rule.

Most media and other sources representthe conflict in ways which elide the basicnature of the conflict. They represent it as aconflict which is about either religion, as somekind of "primordial ethnic strife" which

afflicts the region or, worst of all, as a "clashof civilizations." This seemingly consensual andunanimous ^representation contributesindirecdy to the continuation of the conflictby deflecting attention away from the rootcause which, in my opinion, is theneocolonialist aspirations of the Israeli state.By ignoring the longer history of the Britishgovernment's involvement in the Israelistate—through establishment of the Britishmandate and its support of immigration—attention can be directed toward what arebelieved to be primordial dispositions towardviolence and internecine strife whichsupposedly afflict the peoples of the region.

The systemic violence of the occupiedterritories is not a reflection of Israel's needfor self-defense against a foreign enemy, asIsrael, the US, and the global media attemptto frame it. The argument of "self-defense"has historically been used by many states tojustify oppression of populations within or atthe frontiers of their respective borders. Anyonetraveling in the West Bank would quickly realizethat the sole reason for a military presence andits violent techniques of rule is the protectionof Israeli settlements and the Palestinian landswhich they have seized. These techniques servenot for the protection of the Israeli stateagainst foreign and dangerous operatives, butfor the extension of this state into foreign lands.The military invasions and oppression are not aresult of the need of Israel's need for internalsecurity, but rather a response to the Intifada,which itself is a "shaking off" of the Occupationby both nonviolent and violent means.

Thus, Israel might be understood as acolonial state using any and all forms oforganized state violence to crush oppositionto its settlement of a foreign territory. It isan expansionist state. In contrast to earlierexamples of colonial domination, thisparticular conflict is aggravated by the factthat Israel considers the land which itcolonizes to be a part of its historical andreligious heritage, therefore deflectingattention again from its status as a modern,colonizing power.

"Legitimate" and "Illegitimate" Formsof ViolenceThe question of how, and with what forms ofviolence the Israeli state attempts to achieveits objectives, is an intriguing one. As the

above makes clear, violence is ubiquitousthroughout the cultural, social, and politicalcontext of every day life in the occupiedterritories. This violence runs the gamut fromthe most rigidly state-organized andexecuted, to the "symbolic" violence of Israelisoldiers' "playful" antics. Nevertheless, I thinkthat these types of violence could be usefullygrouped into two categories which, throughtheir intertwining, contribute to some efficacyof Israeli rule in the territories.

These two groups could be called,somewhat roughly, "legitimate" and"illegitimate" forms of violence. "Legitimate"violence might be considered the structuraland systematic harassment and terrorformally condoned by the Israeli state andexercised through the military, this wouldinclude the military checkpoints, harassmentfor paperwork at checkpoints or in the streets,"episodic" but planned attacks by the Israeliarmy (for "retaliation" purposes), and thegeneral practice of military occupation,crackdowns, and invasions in and of themselves. "Illegitimate" violence is a term whichmight be used to describe that phenomenonwhereby the formalized and systematicviolence of the state withers somewhat at thefringes, and becomes replaced by somethingeven more arbitrary and unpredictable. Thequintessential symbol—and primarypractitioners—of this would have to be theindividual soldier. Wherever or however theyare located, individual soldiers sometimes seemto represent as terrifying a power as the wholeIsraeli army itself. They are moreunpredictable than tanks and states. On awhim, an Israeli soldier may decide to passsomeone at a checkpoint, not pass them, usea child for target practice, or throw tear gasat passing schoolchildren.

Thinking of violence in terms of different"types" brings up some interesting questionsregarding the nature and function of violenceas it relates to a modem, colonizing power. Howdo these two forms of violence intertwine, thusbetter enabling the Israeli state to achieve itsaims? The wayward and individual soldiercorrupts the totalitarian and formally uniformactivities of a state military, but at the same time,and on the ground in everyday contexts, theyperform the very important function ofterrorizing in a more human and proximate


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PerspectivesJL on anarchist theonon anarchist theory

way—with more intimacy and familiarity thana faceless army. It should be noted that theIsraeli state deliberately chooses young (andtheoretically more trigger happy) soldiers forpostings in the occupied territories, oldersoldiers—more tame and less unruly—aregenerally kept in the quiet of the Israeli cities.Is the episodic and unruly nature of sporadicviolence as powerful as a formal and controlledoccupation? Perhaps it is even more rxwerful?Is violence only exercised through guns andtanks, or does it also occur through dailyinteractions with a power (the individual soldier)more arbitrary and unpredictable than theweather? Which wreaks a more lasting senseof terror and victimization among a population?

What is the relationship betweensymbolic violence and real, physical violence?Checkpoints, for example, are important sitesfor symbolic violence. They are places wherethe military likes to flex its muscle andhumiliate in one turn. I have witnessed peoplebeing forced to stand in straight lines withoutspeaking, then sit down, then move back tenmeters, etc.—completely arbitrary ordersgiven with a sadistic thrill for dehumanizingothers. These events occurred in the directsunlight and 100 degree heat while soldierswere joking with each other, smokingcigarettes, and eating ice cream. Many reportsby human rights groups have also told ofPalestinians having to get on their hands andknees, or being forced to dance for thesoldiers. Is this kind of symbolic violencealways just representative of the potential"real" violence—as common wisdom wouldhave it—or does it exercise a specific form ofpower in its own right?

Settlement Patterns and Methods ofRuleThe very physical existence of the state in itsmyriad forms—military personnel andequipment, roads, checkpoints, the uses ofofficial Israeli sponsored paperwork for safepassage—also raises some interestingquestions regarding the relationship betweenthe state, space, and state formation activitiesin the most banal and mundane of places andpractices. The ways in which the Israeli statehas geographically expanded into theoccupied territories is interesting in thisregard. Israeli settlements are usuallyaccompanied by the construction of a military

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outpost, next to the entrance into thesettlement. Additionally, settlements andsettlers are generally of two types: first, thereare the planned setdements of the Israeligovernment whereby they hope—asgovernments throughout the world havehistorically done with "frontier" or ambiguouslyclaimed territory—that the mere physicalpresence of Israelis will increase the legitimacyof their claims upon the land. Thesesettlements consist of track houses built bythe government, they are provided withservices and utilities, and the settlers receivestipends in return for living there.

The second type of settlements are thespontaneous settlements. These aresettlements of Israelis who organize amongthemselves and spontaneously colonize an area.These settlements are different in the sensethat they spring much more direcdy from theideological convictions of the individualcolonizers. The type of settlers or settlercommunities that one is more likely toencounter here are those that are more looselyorganized, they practice a virtual citizens' militiafor protection of local lands and/or incursionsinto Palestinian ones (esp. in the case of theOlive Harvest), and they are much more unrulyand unpredictable precisely because of theirbrazenness and ideological convictions. All oftheir actions are ultimately cloaked with thepower of the Israeli state, however, and, as inthe case of the individual soldiers somewhatambiguously located between formal andinformal forms of terror, these informal formsof settlement ultimately serve the formalinterests of the Israeli state.

These settlement patterns and practicesraise interesting questions regarding space,settlement, ideology, and forms of rule. Howis the rule of the Israeli state in the OccupiedTerritories greatly enhanced by the merephysicality of an Israeli presence—whetherformal or informal? How does the bizarreoccupation pattern—with settlements,restricted roads, military outposts located nextto settlements, a vast grid laid across thePalestinian landscape—shape how we viewthe presence, geographical distribution, andvery spatialization of the Israeli state in thisinstance? How do these spatializing practicesenable its attempted rule in the occupiedterritories? And, how have these differentideologies and practices (of legitimate and

illegitimate forms of violence, legitimate andillegitimate settlement patterns) combined toproduce the very geography and landscape ofwhat we now understand as the "occupiedterritories"? In this instance, where does onedraw the line between "state," "space,""geography," or "landscape"?

IV. Problems which the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Poses forAnarchist ThoughtThe Israeli-Palestinian conflict also raisesmany questions and issues which are bothfundamental to and somewhat problematicfor traditional anarchist thought and action.Anarchist theory may be enriched byconsideration of some of these questions and,at the same time, existing anarchist ideas maycontribute to an understanding of the conflictand its possible resolution. Some of theseissues might be listed as follows:

1. How can a peaceful and just resolutionbe achieved when vast power inequalitiesexist between two parties?

2. How and why are states and politicalparties (such as Arafat's) driven to quellpopular revolts? Is it in the nature ofpolitical power that control must be totaland totalizing, or not at all?

3. What are the points of connection anddisconnection between states andparticular ideologies? How or why is itthat certain ideologies are more enablingof state dogma and power (such aspolitical Zionism) than others? Are theseideologies merely "appropriated" by anautonomously acting state or do statessometime spring from the ideology itself?If or when the latter is the case, howmight that affect anarchist critiques ofthe state? What are the interveningcultural or structural variables which mayencourage or discourage certain relationsbetween states and particular ideologies?

4. Which circumstances are necessary forthe establishment of long-term peacebetween seemingly hostile groups? Doesanarchist thought have anything tocontribute to ideas of resolution?

5. Is the two-state solution which has beenadvocated by people on both sides of theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict the best oronly possibility for brining peace to the

region? Is the two state solution justanother contribution to the formation ofstates and nationalist ideologies? If so,does it not contribute to an ongoing andseemingly endless cycle of state-organized violence of which anarchistshave always been critical? Is it possibleto "imagine communities" in somethingother than a nationalist sense?

6. What set of circumstances—either in theIsrael-Palestinian conflict or elsewhere—are the most pressing for anarchists toaddress? Is it conflict-resolution, theformation or disruption of state-makingprocesses, the end of oppression, or allof the above? Which types of conflictsspeak more direcdy to interests whichhave historically been central to anarchistthought and how might anarchismcontribute to its own growth andreinvention by choosing to direct itselftoward these conflicts?

The above questions are all ones whichmy long involvement with the anarchistmovement, combined with my most recentexperience in the occupied territories, haveled me to ponder. Here I can venture answersto only the first two. With regard to thepossibility of peaceful resolution to a conflictbetween two unequal parties: These types ofnegotiations are always unstable becausepeople on both sides of the conflict usuallybelieve that their respective decision-makers areconceding too much in their negotiations.Glenn Robinson, in an essay entided "ThePeace of the Powerful," attempts to shed lighton this problem by advancing a concept whichhe calls "hegemonic peace." Robinson claimsthat, a hegemonic peace is defined as a peacebetween two significantly unequal powersthat nevertheless retains the autonomy toaccept or reject the terms of settlement. It isnot a peace between relative equals, nor is it a"peace" completely imposed on an utterlyvanquished enemy. Unlike these last twotypes of peace, a hegemonic peace tends tobe destabilizing to both the hegemonic andweaker party. The Israeli-Palestinian peaceprocess is clearly hegemonic in nature,accurately reflecting the broad imbalance ofpower between Israel and Palestine.1

In opposition to popular conceptions, heargues that "peace treaties invariably reflect

power, not justice." And in relation to theIsraeli-Palestinian peace treaties, he claimsthat in spite of the nature of Palestiniandemands, it was, in fact, Israel that held thereal political power to make the treatieshappen: "The peace process should beunderstood more as an internal Israeli debateabout how much to concede of all that itcontrolled, rather than as negotiationsbetween Israel and Palestine. Most of theinternal Israeli debate centered on how muchof the 22% of Palestine not captured in 1948should be returned to the Palestinians."^ Thistype of hegemonic peace is actually internallydestabilizing to both parties. For Palestinians,the negotiators—the Palestinian Authority andArafat—appear to have given away too muchbecause politically they were at the point ofbecoming irrelevant. They had lost groundto the Intifada (the popular resistance) andsought to regain it through "legitimate"politicking with an external nation. The PA,which did by the way agree to give up toomuch, would then have to put down theuprising to maintain authority. Indeed, theOslo accords which actually gready enhancedArafat's and his colleagues power, disrupted thepopular revolt.

For Israel, hegemonic peace createdinternal political instability as opposing partiesviewed any peace negotiations with the weakerparty as, also, unnecessarily relinquishing toomuch power. The 1993 Declaration ofPrinciples "specified that a strong Palestinianpolice force would cooperate with Israeli andUS security and intelligence units in crushingthe Intifada." Since Israel was already dominant,it was viewed by many as unnecessary andpremature to give up any power at alL It wasprecisely for this reason that Ehud Barak, theformer prime minister, was largely seen as a "sellout." The "hegemonic"—and thus inherendyunjust—peace resolution struck by the twocountries thus had deleterious effects on theinternal politics of each, as each suffered thecancerous effects of the unequal power relationswhich connected them in the first place.

The second question, which is intertwinedwith the first, relates to how states andauthorities attempt to maintain politicalcontrol by quelling popular dissent. The firstPalestinian Intifada (1987 - 1993) did notemerge from the Palestinian Authority or oldleadership but, rather, as a popular movement

Perspectives•*■ on anarchist theory

which reflected the changing relations of civilsociety in Palestine. Relations of civil societywere changing for a number of reasons, amongthem; the growth of a class of universityeducated students originally from the lowerstrata of society (rural areas, small villages, andrefugee camps), and the decline of traditionalauthority by large land owners. The politicalpractices of the Intifada were different fromthose of earlier or existing movements in theregion, largely because they were democraticand pluralist. Their decentralization made itdifficult for Israel to locate, control and suppressthem. Similarly, Arafat and the PalestinianAuthority were external to this popular revoltand, increasingly, becoming politicallyirrelevant because of it. When the Oslo peacenegotiations were organized, Arafat participatedlargely in order to recapture his decliningpolitical power among Palestinians. ThePalestinian Authority sought to solidify itspower base by challenging, attacking, anddestroying the decentralized and democraticnetworks of the popularly organized Intifada.

Arafat's strategy was and is common fora state seeking to centralize control and toeliminate competitors for political control. Byundermining the institutional networks,strengthening and vasdy enlarging police andlegal authority, and by the "personalization ofpolitics" around Arafat, the first Intifada waseventually dismanded. As a consequence, manyPalestinians believed and continue to believethat Arafat and the Palestinian Authority—in their determination to hold onto internalpolitical power—actually enabled Israel togain more control over Palestine. Indeed,Israel's doubling of the amount of settlementsin the occupied territories during this periodmay very well have been aided by the PalestinianAuthority's methods of controlling internaldissent.

V. ConclusionInternational activist groups provide awelcome disruption of and intervention intothese state-making activities. In contrast tothe media, international, and nationalgroupings which contribute to theencouragement of the conflict, internationaln e t w o r k s l e a p - f r o g a c r o s s t h emisrepresentations and divisive, violent,nationalist activities to try and forge a humane

Continued on the last page...

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Perspectrveson anarchist theory

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PerspectivesJL an anarchist theorvon anarchist theory

... Petrovato from page 15and more enlightened alternative to existingconditions. As such, their activities workcontrary to the nationalist and imperialistideologies of the Israeli state, and help todisrupt stereotypes of Palestinians propagatedthrough western media channels.

It should be mentioned that all of theseevents were occurring throughout Israel andthe Palestinian territories on the day ofNovember 7, 2002, despite a report whichAmnesty International's released in April,2002. The report, entided "Israel and theOccupied Territories: Shielded fromScrutiny," documented the sustained andsystematic nature of human right abuses bythe Israeli military. The abuses catalogued inthe report include, but are not limited to, thefollowing: unlawful killings; torture ofprisoners/detainees; intentional destruction ofhouses (sometimes with the residents stillinside); making medicine inaccessible by theuse of checkpoints; the denial of humanitarianassistance; using Palestinian civilians as"human shields" during military operations;preventing children from their right toeducation, and more. Specific events, suchas the military invasion of Jenin, in which4,000 people were displaced by thedestruction of their homes, were described.

Amnesty International stated that, "Up tonow the Israeli authorities have failed in theirresponsibility to bring to justice theperpetrators of serious human rightsviolations. War crimes are among the mostserious crimes under International law, andrepresent offenses against humanity as awhole. Bringing the perpetrators of thesecrimes to justice is therefore the concerns andthe responsibility of the internationalcommunity. All states who are parties to theGeneva Conventions must search for thosealleged to have committed grave breaches ofthe Conventions and bring them to justice."**

In the conclusion to their report, Alstates that, "There will be no peace or securityin the region until human rights are respected.All attempts to end human rights violationsand install a system of internationalprotection in Israel and the OccupiedTerritories, in particular by introducingmonitors with a clear human rights mandate,have been undermined by the refusal of thegovernment of Israel. This refusal has beensupported by the USA."4

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict illuminatesmany questions of importance to anarchistsregarding the state, law, power, and privilege.Might anarchists have something to contribute

to a resolution of this conflict? Or to anunderstanding of the state-making activities andnationalist ideology which fuels it? How dostates invent their history? What myths are thenation founded upon and why are such mythsso powerful? Can anarchists only supportmovements which have strong anti-authoritarian leanings or should they alsosupport movements which are simply for self-determination? Is there an anarchist moralresponse to which we should listen?

All these questions and others will needto be investigated as anarchists navigate theirway through and participate in popularresistance to state-making activities.

Notes1. Glen Robinson, "The Peace of the

Powerful," The New Intifada: ResistingIsraeli Apartheid, ed. Roane Carey (NewYork: Verso, 2001), 112.

2. Ibid.3. Amnesty International, "Israel and the

Occupied Territories: Shielded fromscrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin andNablus," 4 November 2002, http://web.amnesty.org/ l ib rary / Index/engMDE151492002

4. Ibid.

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War is the Health of the State An Interview with Howard ZinnWar is the Health of the State An Interview with Howard Zinn Howard Zinn has been a pivotal ﬁgure in the American Left

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