{"id":525,"date":"2006-12-27T03:29:19","date_gmt":"2006-12-26T17:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=525"},"modified":"2006-12-27T03:29:19","modified_gmt":"2006-12-26T17:29:19","slug":"anarchism-in-america-the-free-voice-of-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=525","title":{"rendered":"Anarchism in America \/\/ The Free Voice of Labor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fucking Americans<\/em>.*<\/p>\n

Kool Keith<\/em> recently lent me his copy of a DVD published by AK Press<\/strong>: Anarchism in America<\/a><\/em> (2006). It contains two films: the first is Anarchism in America<\/em> (1981, 75 minutes), the second The Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists<\/em> (1980, 55 minutes). Both were produced by Pacific Street Film Projects<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to the blurb on the back cover, Anarchism in America<\/em> (quoting Janet Maslin writing in The New York Times<\/em>) is “an exceptionally lucid and interesting documentary”. I found it to be quite the opposite: confused, and largely dull.<\/p>\n

Based on the travels of the two filmmakers Joel Sucher<\/em> and Steven Fischler<\/em> around the United States (in an RV), the film effectively collapses the distinction between anarchism and right-wing libertarianism, an almost-exclusively ‘American’ (United States) phenomenon. Thus Murray Bookchin<\/a><\/em> (1921–2006) is featured, as is Mollie Steimer<\/a><\/em> (1897–1980), but so too is Karl Hess<\/a><\/em> (1923–1994) and a trucker named Li’l John<\/em>, whose only claim to ‘anarchism’ is an (understandable) aversion to government regulation of his (independent) trucking business!<\/p>\n

Footloose and fancy free, the two filmmakers appear to have assembled their cast of characters — which, in addition to the above, includes homesteader Mildred Loomis<\/a><\/em> (?–1986) and poet Kenneth Rexroth<\/a><\/em> (1905–1982) — on the basis of (bad) luck rather than (good) planning. And, presumably, in keeping with their thesis that there is something innately ‘anarchistic’ about the character of ‘Americans’; a legacy of the myth<\/a> of the American Frontier.<\/p>\n

The Free Voice of Labor<\/em>, on the other hand, is wonderful.<\/p>\n

More later…<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

See also<\/em> : You want fries with that anarchy burger?<\/a>, The San Francisco Bay Guardian<\/em>, August 2006 | Travels on the Anti-State Highway<\/a>, Andrew, Lucid Screening<\/strong>, June 16, 2006<\/p>\n