Singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, choreographer, actor, businessman, “King of Pop” — and Philosopher King — Michael Jackson is dead.
The intellectual legacy of Michael Jackson is complex and controversial. Best known as the author of Off the Wall and Thriller, James also made significant contributions in the fields of music criticism, African-American history, literary criticism, Pan-African politics and Marxist theory. Though many academics and political activists have attempted to do so, it is impossible to isolate any one period of Jackson’s life as his true legacy. Many have lamented the lack of “a coherent sense of Jackson’s life as an integrated whole“.
Jackson’s musical and political activities extended over more than four decades, crossing all continents. Such a long and extensive career easily lends itself to interpretative debate. Nevertheless, his key insight remains: “The success or failure of the working class to achieve victory depends upon the organization and consciousness of the struggling masses, i.e., on revolutionary leadership. The revolutionary party is the indispensable weapon of the working people for their victory.”
As an expression of political solidarity with The International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist) — “a proletarian, revolutionary and internationalist tendency committed to the task of building Leninist parties as national sections of a democratic-centralist international” — I re-publish the following.
Long live James Robertson and the intransigent revolutionaries of the ICL (FI)!
For the communism of Lenin and Trotsky!
Defend the advanced positions of Nina Hartley and the musical genius of Michael Jackson!
Michael Jackson and Racist America
Workers Vanguard, No. 940
July 31, 2009
On June 25, black megastar and musical icon Michael Jackson died at his home in Los Angeles. The “King of Pop,” as he has been known for decades, was one of the most successful recording artists of all time and has remained hugely popular throughout the world. Following his death, there were spontaneous gatherings of fans dancing to his music in Harlem and doing the “moonwalk” or holding tributes as far away as Mexico City, Hong Kong and Paris. Rio de Janeiro’s mayor announced the construction of a statue of Michael Jackson in the slums where he filmed one of his videos to “They Don’t Care About Us.” In Algiers, hundreds of singers and dancers from across the African continent performed the Jackson 5’s “Blame It on the Boogie.”
The tragedy of Jackson’s death is that an extremely influential music career was driven to the brink of destruction by a savagely racist and puritanical witchhunt spanning more than a decade. The mass hysteria whipped up against Jackson over charges of “child molestation” was an indictment of this anti-sex, bigoted capitalist society, where being an eccentric black celebrity is enough for the state to try to frame you up with something. The stunning hypocrisy of the bourgeois media—which hounded and scapegoated Jackson as a “pedophile” when he was alive, even after he was acquitted of all charges, but then teemed with adulation and tributes after he died—was captured by an article in the Los Angeles Times (27 June): “The tabloids that had baited him mercilessly, dubbing him ‘Wacko Jacko’ for his erratic behavior, increasingly strange looks and accusations of child molestation, were suddenly effusive in their praise of a man ‘who provided the soundtrack to a billion lives’.”
Victim of Racist Vendetta
During his highly publicized career—which soared when he was only eleven years old as the lead singer of the Jackson 5 under Motown Records, through his solo career as a songwriter, musician and performer up until age 50—Michael Jackson was famous not only for his talent and versatility, but also for challenging both racial and sexual identities. In the spirit of other “crossover” artists like Chuck Berry—who was one of the first artists to perform to multiracial audiences—Jackson was known for breaking down racial barriers and was the first black artist to get heavy airplay on MTV.
But the “inexcusable” racial barrier that he attempted to break down was his appearance. Whether due to vitiligo or to skin bleaching, the fact is that his gradual “whitening” and plastic surgeries did nothing to make him less black in the eyes of racist America—a twisted confirmation of the color-caste nature of black oppression. No money in the world, no changes to your “racial” appearance, could ever change the fact that, if you are born black, capitalist America will make sure to try to put you in your place. In a country where the white supremacist ideology of racial “purity” resulted in the “one drop of black blood” rule, Jackson’s physical transformation became a transgression that the bourgeois media and “public opinion” would not let him get away with.
There is a real connection among blacks to someone who, no matter what he did, always had to respond to this society’s expectations of what a black person should look like, act like and sleep with. Even in death, the mud continues to be slung against this enormously talented and idiosyncratic man, with most black people defiantly coming to his defense. In the last few weeks, it was not rare for TV and radio commentators to ask why black people seem to identify with Michael Jackson since he “looked white.” Rabidly vile Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly ranted on his show The O’Reilly Factor against blacks seeing Jackson as their own when he looked white and “chose to have white children.” In pure O’Reilly fashion, this was a bitter and unfiltered expression of the American bourgeois psyche.
Update (August 12, 2009) : More Convergence Accounts, CrimethInc, August 8, 2009: “Here are four more accounts from people of color who experienced the disruption at the end of the CrimethInc. convergence in Pittsburgh. Further discussion of the convergence will appear here shortly…”
There’s a hella lotta stuff I wanna blog about, and will. (And in fact have: 1,966 posts, to be exact, generating 9,894 comments in reply — not all of them mine! — and over 1,300,000 spam goddamn.) But, being an anarchist (to be precise: believing ‘anarchism’ to be the political philosophy with which I feel the closest affinity), a leftist trainspotter, and devoting considerable time and energy to blogging about issues to do with race, (anti-)racism and (anti-)fascism, I feel compelled (and not only by my ZOG controllers) to blog some more about APOC ~versus~ CrimethInc.
To begin with, my previous post on the subject has generated very little in the way of dialogue (apart from an appreciative note by Aragorn!, an emotional one from Dr. Cam, and some useful fact-checking by Ernesto). “Will it be ever thus?” (“Ungracious wretches!”) Much of the remainder of the online commentary on the incident — @ anarchistnews.org, infoshop.org, various IndyMedia sites, blogs, email lists and so on — has been painful to read. Having considered the question ‘Why is this the case?’, it seems to me that there are at least three main reasons.
First, and most obviously, i can has trolls.
Secondly, and more importantly, anarchism (not only in North America, but perhaps especially so, and for various reasons), remains, in general, the domain of yoof. Further to this, there is a divide between the ‘yoof’ what are ‘active’, and the generally older (former) yoofs what are engaged in ‘serious’ forms of political analysis and social research; the production of forms of knowledge useful, perhaps even critical, to dismantling those forms of authority and expressions of power identified as being the primary obstacles to the realisation of anarchy.
In this context, a number of individuals have made the point that the kinds of cultural norms and practices which constitute ‘contemporary anarchism’ in North America (and not only there), including a reluctance to engage in open-ended, critical inquiry, tends to alienate many, who frequently find other, more welcoming — but not necessarily ‘safer’ — social spaces and political projects in which to explore and to enact their ideas.
Thirdly, because anarchism is a label, and not a warranty.
One, slightly odd development has been the extension of the practical critique on display in Pittsburgh to ‘Food Not Bombs’. According to one (and perhaps more) APOC, FNB is, like CrimethInc, “a white supremacist movement” (sic). This written, and as yet not practical, assault on FNB appears to be even more tendentious — even slightly unhinged — than the attempted eviction of CrimethInc (see : kilwaii.blogspot.com/). On another level, however, it is, in fact, its logical extension. That is, ‘race’, ‘whiteness’ and ‘white supremacy’ are viewed as being the product of moral failures, not history.
Like CrimethInc, there are criticisms to be made of FNB, some of which emanate from members of the hundreds of FNB collectives themselves. In any case, the criticisms being advanced by one (and perhaps more) APOC, being of little substance, do not require any serious response; a response which would, in any case, be best made by those involved in its activities.
Some might ask ‘Why do I bother?’ (I sure fucking do), and what interest is it of mine to pay any attention to the rather odd activities of ‘anarchists’ of one sort (or another) on the other side of the world. Certainly, the same criticism has been levelled with regards my interest in a range of other subjects, from documenting some of the similarly odd — but fascinating — antics of the far left and the far right in Australia; fascism and anti-fascist struggle in Russia; and the triumphant march of the Collingwood football club to ultimate victory in September.
For what it’s worth, and leaving to one side the fact that such incidents at least have the virtue of raising a number of interesting questions regarding the intersection of race and class in the United States — and the anarchist understanding of such matters — the fact is that in terms of the maintenance of global capitalism, the United States is at the heart of Empire. Given also that race (or racial segmentation) continues to form one of the fault lines upon which US society is built — and even, some argue, constitutes its principal social contradiction — how radical movements in the US tackle such questions is of enormous significance. (If I were a Marxist, I might declare it to be a question of ‘world-historical’ importance: I’m not and I don’t.)
To end: ‘Smack A White Boy: The Sequel’ may be considered to have been an ill-conceived stunt, performed by a small number of non-local Pittsburgh APOC, reflective of an impoverished analysis and — irrespective of whatever degree of personal satisfaction was obtained by those who participated — on the whole, counter-productive in terms of challenging either gentrification in (the East End of) Pittsburgh or ‘white privilege’ in the North American anarchist movement or the United States in general. Secondly, the action is the responsibility of those who took part in it: not ‘APOC’ as a whole. Thirdly, the action has the virtue of forcing other APOC to clarify their views. Fourthly, it exposes (or helps to further expose) the political tensions inherent in the APOC project, especially in regards to issues of racial or ethnic nationalism. Finally, while it is alleged that ‘CrimethInc’ and ‘Food Not Bombs’ are ‘white supremacist’ institutions, the real white supremacists, such as those belonging to fascist groupuscules such as BANANAS, are laughing.
This afternoon the redoubtable Dr. Cam & I saw a film called Defamation. Leaving aside some rather annoying technical flaws, it was very enjoyable, funny, and sad. I intend writing a fuller review later.
By some strange force of synchronicity, at approximately the same time I was sitting down to watch Defamation, I was sent an email alleging that I had made some defamatory remarks on my blog.
Apparently, a handful of nutzis in the UK have issued a title challenge to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade! Their brave attempt to become real-life martyrs follows Brüno’s scathing criticism of Osama bin Laden’s fashion sense; a joke which fell flat as far as Ayman Abu Aita — a Christian and a member of Fatah, but featured in the film as the leader of an un-named (Muslim) terrorist group — is concerned.
Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade issues death threat against anti-fascism activist Weyman Bennett, while student attacked after BNP protest
Far-right activists have launched a campaign of intimidation and violence against political opponents including a series of death threats and physical attacks.
Hardline fascists are targeting students and leading anti-racism activists who campaigned against the British National party in June’s European elections.
A group calling itself the Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade has issued threats including a “death warrant” sent to Weyman Bennett, the joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, stating he will be killed before the end of the year “for crimes against all loyal white patriots and British nationalists”.
The threat, which the police are investigating and has a picture of Bennett in cross hairs, states: “We know exactly what you look like and what venues you frequent and can strike at will. The police, special branch, MI5, Searchlight cannot save you from the bullets coming your way. No matter where you are, we will get you, all we need is a lock on your mobile phone signal and you are one dead nigger”…
This is not the first time that the ‘Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade’ has popped up on The Guardian‘s radar. In January 2004, Matthew Taylor wrote:
A rightwing splinter group calling itself the Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade has launched a hate campaign against black, Asian and Jewish MPs.
The organisation, which is believed to be linked to the extreme-right website Redwatch, has sent letters to a number of MPs threatening them and their families.
Yesterday, Scotland Yard confirmed it had launched an investigation, and said that the threats were being taken seriously.
“We can confirm that in November a number of members of parliament received malicious communications,” a spokeswoman said. “Police currently investigating the incident are treating them seriously, and have sent the A4 leaflets off for forensic examination.”
The police confirmed the letters were “offensive and racist”…
Prior to this, the Brigade made an appearance in Searchlight magazine (December 2003), as well as an issue of TUFS News (No.11, Autumn 2003), the newsletter of ‘Trade Union Friends of Searchlight’ [PDF].
The December 2003 article links the Angry Aryans to Kevin Watmough’s ‘Redwatch UK’ site, which in turn is portrayed as being a vehicle the BNP uses(/used) to intimidate its political, ‘anti-fascist’ opposition. In summary: “The [Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade] does not exist. Its name is just a cover for the Redwatch and BNP thugs who are setting out to silence media critics.” Watmough himself lives in Leeds and is a member of the British Peoples’ Party: a tinpot BNP which is dedicated to re-enacting the Third Reich and saving White children from the pernicious effects of listening to ’90s rap music.
According to Searchlight, the Redwatch site was originally established by a trio of racist losers — Watmough and ‘The Two Tonys’: Tony Foy and Tony White. (Sadly, Simon Sheppard, another fascist bizarro who maintained/registered the site, is currently a guest of Her Majesty, following his imprisonment for talking shit.) In its original, ‘offline’ form, Redwatch was a circular, published in the early 1990s by ‘Combat 18’ by way of US-based nutziHarold Covington.
The internet version of Redwatch emerged in 2001 from a group of men then associated with the National Front. Soon it became clear that their politics were too extreme for the NF. At first they regrouped themselves separately as Aryan Unity. Later they became the White Nationalist Party. The WNP was then, to all intents and purposes, the political wing of Combat 18. Led by Eddie Morrison, a lifelong nazi from Leeds, and its supporters included Simon Shepherd [sic] from Hull. In 1999, while Shepherd [sic] was the local organiser for the BNP, he was arrested and later imprisoned for producing antisemitic material. The contact name on all three is Shepherd [sic] but while Shepherd [sic] might give some technical advice and support, the men who are really behind Redwatch are based in Leeds. They include Kevin Watmough, White and Tony Foy. All three are diehard nazis with a history of violence.
And again: “…a letter was delivered to the offices of the local paper threatening to blow up the building if the paper continued to run anti-BNP stories. The letter was written in the name of the Aryan Martyrs Brigade. This is the same group that sent a threatening letter to a journalist from Wales on Sunday, whose crime had been to write an article about the BNP. The group does not exist. Its name is just a cover for the Redwatch and BNP thugs who are setting out to silence media critics.”
BNP’s ‘Red White & Blue Festival’
The publication of Taylor’s article comes just a few weeks prior to the BNP’s ‘Red White & Blue Festival’, scheduled to take place in a village called Codnor in Derbyshire, on a farm belonging to some bloke called Alan Warner (an ex-Tory councillor), on the weekend of August 14–16. (On the 2008 RWB, see : Unite Against Fascism is a weird mob, August 1, 2008.) UAF has declared that they will be protesting against the Festival on August 15; the threat against Bennett (UAF joint secretary) has also been noted by his party’s publication, Socialist Worker:
“We won’t be intimidated by Nazi thugs—we will step up our campaign to build a mass movement to drive back the fascists.”
This is the defiant response of Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism (UAF), to a Nazi hate campaign that has targeted prominent anti-fascist activists.
Weyman himself has received a number of direct threats, including a “death warrant” from a group calling itself the Aryan Martyrs’ Brigade…
UAF will be joining a number of other groups at the protest, including the ‘Amber Valley Campaign against Racism and Fascism‘, Midlands TUC and (seemingly) the main, local organisers, ‘Notts Stop the BNP’. In February, 2008, the Notts mob described itself as follows: “The Stop the Red, White and Blue campaign is a politically independent network of anti-fascists, dedicated to ideological opposition to, and direct action against the BNP’s Red, White and Blue festival.”
Besides these legal manouevrings, chances are high that several hundred or possibly several thousand people will, under the watchful eye and with the permission of police, gather somewhere nearby the Festival, listen to some speeches, perhaps go for a stroll (under the watchful eye and with the permission of police), and then go home. The effect this will have on the BNP’s organisational efforts may reasonably be considered as being rather minimal, but the protest will almost certainly attract media attention.
Which is, of course, the whole point as far as I can see. In fact…
Protesters banned from Red, White and Blue event Ripley & Heanor News
August 6, 2009
Amber Valley Borough Council has banned protesters from the British National Party’s Red White and Blue event this year.
The council’s order to prohibit ‘trespassory assemblies’ of 20 or more people on land owned by Alan Warner on Codnor Denby Lane, between August 14 to August 18, was granted by the Home Office following an application by Derbyshire’s Chief Constable Mick Creedon.
A spokesman for the borough council said: “The trespassory assembly order is aimed at preventing large numbers of protesters attending the event. A similar order was made last year.”
Orders to close the footpaths in the area have also been made by Derbyshire County Council.
On Tuesday night, Mr Creedon held a meeting at John Flamsteed School for the residents of Codnor and Denby to hear their views about the forthcoming festival.
A spokeswoman for Derbyshire police said: “Police are expecting a large number of people to come to this part of Derbyshire, both to attend the Red, White and Blue event, and also to protest against it.
“The police’s main aim for the weekend is to ensure that it passes off peacefully and with the minimum of disruption for local people.
“Officers are also consulting with the organisers of the festival and a number of groups who have indicated that they will be taking part in a protest against it.”
Last year, more than 400 anti-BNP protesters took part in a peaceful rally and protest march, organised in Codnor and 1,000 are expected this year.
The net is beginning to close in on the men behind the notorious Redwatch internet site. The site, which reproduces pictures of anti-racists, and a closed email discussion group where participants plan and discuss violent attacks are now the subject of a police investigation.
Last month Searchlight exposed the men behind Redwatch and the vital part it plays in the British National Party campaign to silence its critics. Our revelations, together with the fact that several trade unions have taken up the case, are forcing the authorities to act…
In Oldham, several anti-BNP activists have complained to police after Tony Wentworth, the BNP youth organiser, took pictures of them during the Failsworth by-election and promised to post them on the Redwatch site.
However, it is events in Liverpool that have been instrumental in forcing the authorities to look into Redwatch. In the past few weeks there have been two serious threats against an individual and a newspaper that highlights the role and purpose of Redwatch.
The first was a verbal threat left on the mobile telephone answer service of one leading Anti Nazi League activist. The mobile was a contact number for people wanting to get involved in the anti-BNP campaign.
Addressing the anti-fascist by his real name, the caller gave him a tirade of abuse and said: “This call is from the BNP and we stand for the white people of Great Britain. If you ever go to Liverpool city centre again we will cut you up.”
A week later, a new Liverpool section appeared on the Redwatch site, containing photographs and personal details of those behind the newly formed Merseyside United Against Racism and Fascism.
When the Liverpool Echo contacted the local BNP organiser for his comments, he had little to say. Literally hours later a letter was delivered to the offices of the local paper threatening to blow up the building if the paper continued to run anti-BNP stories.
For the local BNP organiser, this was personal. It was, after all, the Liverpool Echo that had put a picture of him on the front page in April with the headline: “Vote Scum”.
The letter was written in the name of the Aryan Martyrs Brigade. This is the same group that sent a threatening letter to a journalist from Wales on Sunday, whose crime had been to write an article about the BNP.
The group does not exist. Its name is just a cover for the Redwatch and BNP thugs who are setting out to silence media critics.
There is now a clamour for action. It is deplorable that so far the police have not moved against those behind Redwatch. Given the evidence that the perpetrators also discuss and plan violent assaults, it can only be hoped that action will finally be taken.
The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, is studying a dossier on Redwatch and several MPs have promised to take up the issue. But the matter must not be left there. Searchlight readers need to continue to write letters of complaint to their local MPs and support anti-racist campaigners, journalists and newspapers under attack.
Bonus!
Alan Warner
The Bungalow
Codnor Denby Lane
Denby Village
Derbyshire, DE5 8PT
Having successfully collected evidence that there are leftists in Berlin, and that they sometimes engage in sabotage (who knew?), Paola Totaro can now read about how tricksy Citizen journalism counters police propaganda (Paul Lewis, The Guardian, August 4, 2009). Alternatively, Totaro can re-examine the photographs of ‘persons of interest’ her employer published 30 months ago (in what was certainly not a propaganda exercise) and which remain online, despite the fact that the last (?) trials arising from the protest have concluded. Or, perhaps, contemplate the following:
The theory that Tomlinson’s assailant was an imposter was short-lived. Within 24 hours of the broadcast, the TSG van driver gave himself up. When he watched footage of his attack on Tomlinson on the evening news on 7 April, he had collapsed in front of his partner. The same TV bulletins were being watched in Derbyshire by Alan Edwards, the 34-year-old man seen in the video helping Tomlinson to his feet.
Edwards came forward to recount Tomlinson’s last conversation. “I didn’t talk to him straight away. I was more concerned the police wouldn’t get at him. They’d already pushed him over,” he said, adding he was particularly wary of the officer who struck him.
“I tried to eyeball him to see if I would remember who he was but he was balaclavaed up. All you could see was his hands and his eyes.” When the officer walked off, Edwards lifted Tomlinson from the ground. “I said: ‘You OK, mate?’ He said: ‘No, I live down there – that’s where I live. I can’t get there any other way. I’m trying to get home.'”
See : APOC ~versus~ CrimethInc (August 2, 2009) for background | Note : In a comment on the post, Ernesto, one of the individuals I make reference to, has pointed out a few factual errors.
From the Department of More Compelling Arguments for the Enslavement of All White Liberals & Why Isn’t The Left Talking About This?…
APOC is an acronym. APOC is Asia-Pacific Optical and Wireless Communications ConferenceAssociation of Postal Officials of Canada Anarchist / Anti-authoritarian / Autonomous People of Color (see also : APOC, the roof restoration experts provide… products and information for contractors, building owners, facility managers, consultants, and specifiers.)
‘Anarchist People of Color’ has its origins in late 2000, when a ‘People of Color Caucus’ formed within the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. (Note that the ABCF continues to produce an excellent quarterly, available for download from their site.) Then in early 2001 a bloke called Ernesto Aguilar established a site (illegalvoices.org) and email list specifically for the use of anarchist people of colo(u)r, and later that year (October 2001) the Houston ABCF resigned from the ABCF and the ABCF ‘People of Color Caucus’ dissolved itself into APOC. The APOC site died several years later (2006), but before it sailed off into the ether, APOC also organised a coupla conferences in Detroit, Michigan in October 2003 and in Houston, Texas in March 2006. During this period, APOC also organised a number of other, regional conferences, events and projects, published agitprop, and done all the other stuff what forms a routine part of political activism.
APOC had its first shit-storm at its first conference, which pitted the ‘Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizers’ (BANCCO) against another mob. (BANCO still exists, apparently.) BANC(C)O was also preceded by a very similar mob known as AANCO — the ‘Anti-Authoritarian Network of Community Organizers’ (see : ‘Poor People’s Survival Movement: Community Organizers Call For A Real War On Poverty’, Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, Black Fist, No.9, 1995). I dunno if there’s been any reconciliation since then, but to the extent that the issues raised were important, and unresolved, they will no doubt arise again at some point in the future.
Following the departure of Ernesto and (it seems) a range of others, APOC was resurrected in June 2007 as illvox. “Illvox.org does not replace illegalvoices.org and is not affiliated with APOC. It is intended to provide access to documents for/by/of this important anti-authoritarian tendency, and to support discussion.” Despite this disavowal, illvox, in re-publishing the contents of illegalvoices — including two ace books, African Anarchism: The History of A Movement by Sam Mbah and I.E. Igariwey (See Sharp Press, 1997) and Cuban Anarchism: The History of A Movement by Frank Fernández (See Sharp, 2001), as well as scores of useful essays — and re-branding itself ‘Anarchist People of Color (APOC)’ suggests that it — the site, those who maintain it and those associated with it — retains a strong, if informal, relationship to APOC in its original iteration.
Of course, the term ‘APOC’ may be applied to a variety of ventures and, insofar as ‘APOC’ consists of or refers to a network of groups and individuals spanning a country the size of the US, is is impossible to attribute any one action or event to ‘APOC’ as a whole. Further, any action by ‘APOC’ (or claimed on its behalf) raises questions of re-presentation and accountability: questions not peculiar to ‘APOC’ as a political project, but of relevance to any mode of political organisation and social movement, of whatever flavour.
Two recent, controversial actions that a number of APOC participated in were the cheekily-titled ‘Smack A White Boy I’ and ‘Smack A White Boy II: The Sequel’. The first took place in Washington in March 2009, and the sequel played in Pittsburgh last week — to (more) mixed receptions.
Identity Politics and The Politics of Identity
The impromptu screening of SAWB: The Sequel @ the CrimethInc convergence has been described as a skirmish in an ongoing ‘War of Representation’ (see the last of four accounts at About the Controversy at the CrimethInc. Convergence, Twin Cities Indymedia, August 3, 2009). Which comment brings to mind — naturally — the writings of Nancy Fraser, in particular those on the politics of representation and redistribution (see : Rethinking Recognition, New Left Review, No.3, May/June 2000).
…Once the hegemonic grammar of political contestation, the language of distribution is less salient today. The movements that not long ago boldly demanded an equitable share of resources and wealth have not, to be sure, wholly disappeared. But thanks to the sustained neoliberal rhetorical assault on egalitarianism, to the absence of any credible model of ‘feasible socialism’ and to widespread doubts about the viability of state-Keynesian social democracy in the face of globalization, their role has been greatly reduced.
We are facing, then, a new constellation in the grammar of political claims-making—and one that is disturbing on two counts. First, this move from redistribution to recognition is occurring despite—or because of—an acceleration of economic globalization, at a time when an aggressively expanding capitalism is radically exacerbating economic inequality. In this context, questions of recognition are serving less to supplement, complicate and enrich redistributive struggles than to marginalize, eclipse and displace them. I shall call this the problem of displacement. Second, today’s recognition struggles are occurring at a moment of hugely increasing transcultural interaction and communication, when accelerated migration and global media flows are hybridizing and pluralizing cultural forms. Yet the routes such struggles take often serve not to promote respectful interaction within increasingly multicultural contexts, but to drastically simplify and reify group identities. They tend, rather, to encourage separatism, intolerance and chauvinism, patriarchalism and authoritarianism. I shall call this the problem of reification…
Fraser’s arguments have been taken up and responded to at length, but in the present context are germane given that, first, while lamenting the absence of social movements which place questions of the (radical, egalitarian re-)distribution of wealth and power at their centre, Fraser was writing at the time of the birth of a global movement to contest neo-liberalism;* secondly, APOC was born at approximately the same time. Fraser’s essay (and subsequent writings and the general discussion of her ideas which her writing provoked) can also be used to inform discussions of notions of ‘cultural’ — as opposed to ‘economic’ or ‘political’ — ‘appropriation’, another of the crimes for which CrimethInc, the (white) anarchist movement and whites in general come in for criticism/condemnation (hence references to “dread locked white punks”, “traveling college bros” and so on).
*Or rather, previously, largely subterranean movements in the West began to become more vocal and their activities more frequent and widespread — resistance to ‘neoliberalism’ may also, and more accurately perhaps, be located in those movements in the ‘Third World’ which fought the imposition of ‘Structural Adjustment Programs’ upon their governments and societies during the 1970s and 1980s; the evolution of this resistance is detailed in scores of books not written by me.
Beyond this, it is also useful to view ‘identity’ as something more- or other-than self-proclamation. Rather, ‘identity’ may be understood as having a ‘social’ composition, of arising from complex interactions, both ‘personal’ and ‘political’, involving processes of ‘interpellation’ (Althusser), of ‘performance’ (Butler) and of ‘discourse’ (of course). Secondly, as Uncle Noam noted in his ‘Notes on Anarchism’, ‘A French writer, sympathetic to anarchism, wrote in the 1890s that “anarchism has a broad back, like paper it endures anything” — including, he noted those whose acts are such that “a mortal enemy of anarchism could not have done better”.’ The point is not that the use of Smack by some APOC amounts to much more than a storm in a teacup full of chai; rather, that ‘anarchism’ endures all kindsa crazy stunts, including those which emanate, seemingly, from a misplaced vanguardism. For example…
At the 1985 London Anarchist Bookfair, the very dangerous Ian Bone (Bash the Rich, Tangent Books, 2006, p.178) writes:
Having sold shitloads of Class War with Martin I took the stage at the end of the day. Well, actually, there was already someone on the stage so I had to push them off it first. Unfortunately, that person was Donald Rooum — a veteran comrade I have a lot of respect for going back to his framing by the police for intending to throw a brick at the Queen of Greece in the 1960s. However, it wasn’t really Donald I was shoving off the stage but the old anarchist movement. Drunk as fuck I declared:
You liberals and pacifists have had our movement for too long, now it’s our turn. If we haven’t reduced the place to ruins in five years you can have it back!
Quite why I wanted to reduce the venerable Conway Hall to ruins was unclear. But what the fuck. I might have paraphrased [Durruti], but the point was clear. We were on a fucking roll.
Most of the online commentary generated by The Pittsburgh Experiment has in turn generated more heat than light, and given that the issue concerns ‘race’, ‘racism’, ‘whiteness’, ‘white supremacy’ and so on, has naturally attracted trolls like flies to shit (see : BANANAS). It also is no doubt of interest to city officials and the US police/state, especially given the fact that Pittsburgh is soon to host a gathering of the G20. Some references have been made to that phase in the history of US state counter-insurgency known as ‘COINTELPRO’ (1956–1971), and speculation regarding the involvement or encouragement of agents provocateur. There is no evidence of any such government plot, but COINTELPRO is of relevance to the extent that one of its principal aims was to destroy ‘progressive’ social movements, and one of its tactics — reasonably successful, in my view — was to engender animosity among different groups, especially where there was scope for a common/communal articulation of ‘progressive’ politics.
Gentrification (The Flava of the Month)
One of the principal justifications offered by at least one (or possibly more) of the six (seven, eight or more) individuals who participated in the performance piece in Pittsburgh was that the CrimethInc convergence assisted the gentrification of that area of the city in which it took place. This is asserted rather than demonstrated, and appears to rest on a somewhat bizarre understanding of ‘gentrification’, as well as the forces responsible for it. Another rationale for the action refers to the fact that attendance at the CrimethInc convergence was majority white, and took place in a part of Pittsburgh that isn’t. This is further extended into a critique of the political perspectives of CrimethInc as a whole, in particular “CrimethInc has been/is the breeding ground for white anarchists”. This is a problem for APOC, because white anarchists embody white supremacy.
CrimethInc has itself been subjected to various critiques (see, for example, Ken Knabb’s reflections), but one important point to remember is that, like ‘APOC’, CrimethInc resists re-presentation, at least in the sense that CrimethInc may be understood as being an ongoing project involving sometimes disparate elements; further, that the Pittsburgh convergence was open to all. CrimethInc (or rather, those responsible for maintaining a CrimethInc website) have produced a brief statement on The Pittsburgh Experimenthere.
‘Anyway’, ‘whatever’ and ‘fuck this shit’ — my apathy has returned, and in conclusion: in April 2008, Harjit Singh Gill wrote In Support of APOC; in May 2008, Aragorn!, battling the torpor that comes from (over-)work, wrote down some of their thoughts on “the new-APOC tendency” in Context. It always comes down to context.
“Anyway… anarchy is a fag… that’s all I have to say to you Mr Moran…” ~ CHUNGA, September 24, 2007
“As I stated on the Bombshell forum Andy, you are a liar, a hypocrite and no better than the trash that you fight against.” ~ Dion, December, 2007
“No offence but honestly who gives a shit about some [gay] in [Israel].” Nowave, Melbourne Punx Forum, October 2008
“If [Israelis] are so interesting to you, move to [Tel Aviv].” ~ Fruitsalad, Melbourne Punx Forum, October 2008
Gunman kills 3, injures 11 at gay club in Tel Aviv
Ian Deitch (AP)
JERUSALEM — Israeli police say a gunman entered a youth club for gay teens in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night and sprayed the interior with automatic rifle fire, killing three people and injuring 11.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said it was “most likely a criminal attack and not a terror attack.” Tel Aviv has been a target for Palestinian militants in the past.
He said the gunman burst into the basement of the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association and opened fire on a support group for gay teenagers.
Police are searching the area for the gunman, who fled the scene, he said. Roadblocks were set up.
Rescue services said six of the wounded were badly hurt.
“This was a hate crime, a premeditated attack,” witness Yaniv Weisman told Channel 10 TV. He said Cafe Noir, the basement club, was popular with youth.
“Those hurt were very young,” he said.
Openly gay Knesset lawmaker Nitzan Horowitz said it was “without a doubt the biggest ever attack on the Israeli gay community, we are all in shock.”
Witnesses told Israeli media that the gunman was dressed all in black, and described the scene as a “bloodbath.”
Two Greek anarchists are making molotov cocktails. One says to the other: "So who will we throw these at then?" The other replies: "What are you, some kind of fucking intellectual?"
