Anarchy: a journal of desire armed. #39, Winter '94. LETTERS -includes "Letters", "Anarchist Contacts". =20 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ _Have_something_to_say?__Write_us!_ We would like to encourage you to write us in order to continue this dialogue, whether you are sympathetic or critical of anarchist theories and practices. All letters will be printed with the auth- or's initials only, unless it is specifically stated that her/his full name may be used or that s/he wishes to remain anonymous, or the name already appears in Anarchy - as in the case of an author of an essay or creator of artwork published here. We will edit letters that are redundant, overly long, unreadable, excessively boring or contain threats. (Ellipses in italicized brackets [...] indicate editorial omissions.) Limit length to three double-spaced, typewritten pages. Address your letters to C.A.L., POB 1446, Columbia, MO. 65205-1446. ZIONIST GESTAPO Dear friends, [...] This [...] deals with Shin-Bet, the zionist Gestapo branch in charge of Israeli society. Like the other branches of the zionist Gestapo [note: Mossad & Shabak] it too is clandestine. The job assigned to it by the chiefs of the zionist Gestapo is to protect the zionist apartheid regime of Israel from any anti-zionist chal- lenge from within, preventing, in the process, any possible alliances with the Palestinian resistance. "Shin-Bet" is the Hebrew acronym for Security Service (SS), whereas "Shabak" is the Hebrew acronym for General Security Service (GSS). In reality it is a secret political police operating under the facade of a "Democracy," and under the pretence at the rule of law in Israel. Therefore it could not afford the open brutality of the Shabak, although in some cases, published in the Hebrew press in Israel, Israeli people were murdered by the Shin-Bet. Such was the case of an Israeli who had been suspected of selling arms to the Palestinians during the first months of the Intifada. He was murdered while in detention, and without ever having been charged in court. Although dissent is officially tolerated, and legally permitted in Israel, it is very likely that every dissenter=FEincluding loyal zionists=FEwould get a Shin-Bet file, where all his/her activities and contacts would be monitored, with some "punitive" action against those considered "dangerous" by the Shin-Bet hierarchy. Shortly after the Intifada began some dissenting zionists, including a few public figures, added their voices to the demand that the 1967 conquered lands be returned to their owners: the Palestinians. All of a sudden they had their home front doors burnt down, with death threats added. It all happened very "mysteriously," as police investigations "could not" find the culprits. Much more brutal, yet well hidden, has been the zionist Gestapo's drive to destroy or silence anti-zionist Israelis. Matzpen, an Israeli anti-zionist organisation, used to be very effective during the '70s. Its activists abroad (ISRCA), most of whom left Israel following the June 1967 war which they opposed, successfully ex- posed the zionist propaganda lies in Europe, North America and Aus- tralia. In early 1972 ISRCA activists mobilised worldwide support for a group of 18 year old Israelis who were jailed because of their refusal to be conscripted into the zionist army of Israel, labelled by them: an army of occupation (rather than "Defense Forces," the official name). As an activist of ISRCA in Australia, I recall getting an urgent phone call from my mother in Israel. She told me she was extremely worried by what her "friends" told her. She said that if I did not stop my political activities I would be shot dead and nobody would ever know where the bullets came from. This phone call was made in mid-January 1972, shortly after my successful hunger strike outside Israel's embassy in Canberra, to draw attention to the struggle of the four Israeli draft resisters. However, killing me would have caused the zionist-apartheid regime of Israel damage far in excess of any "benefit" that could be de- rived from such assassination. So the zionist Gestapo would be determined, instead, to silence me, and to destroy my family in the "process." Using its strong ties with the Australian secret police (ASIO) the zionist Gestapo of Israel had me black-listed in Australia. Thus, I would be denied Australian citizenship, despite the fact that I had migrated to Australia on Assisted Passage, with automatic permanent residence status granted upon arrival, and almost automatic citizenship to be followed after 3 years. I had no police record and there was no valid reason for refusing me citizenship. Being here without citizenship meant that I could be deported any time at the will of the authorities. It also meant that I could not work here in my profession as a lawyer. It also meant that my chances to get any other work were very slim. Ten years of a stressful public campaign had to pass before my application for citizenship would be approved by the federal gov- ernment. The zionist Gestapo had made itself and my family the target of hatred and boycott within the zionist ghetto, where most Israeli migrants live, and further isolated me and my family on all sides. Simultaneously with this direct pressure on us in Australia my family and my ex-wife's family in Israel came under continuous pressure which they passed on to us here, with devastating effects on my children. I would find out some years later that other ISRCA activists suffered similarly at the hands of the zionist Gestapo. Some of them committed suicide, all of them got divorced and their families=FElike mine=FE torn to shreds. What makes the zionist Gestapo jobs so easy is the secured support of fanatical zionists within the zionist ghettos, as well as full collaboration of political parties outside the ghetto. The zionist Gestapo's huge hard drugs money reserves allow them to bribe political parties and make corrupt or gullible politicians toe the zionist line. But the zionist rulers of Israel cannot stop the slide of zionism into history's rubbish tip, where zionism belongs. Benjamin Merhav c/o Malvern P.O. Malvern, Vic. 3144 Australia MISERABLE APOLOGETICS Jason McQuinn, Regarding, once again, your miserable apologetics for holocaust revisionism (sorry, but that is what you are doing, like it or not): Your response to J.R. of North Hollywood only confirms my earlier observation that your understanding of history is severely one-sided and lacking. You obviously know nothing of the socialist Zionist tradition represented by Martin Buber and the Jewish anti- fascist partisans who gave their lives resisting the Nazis throughout Eastern Europe. Chomsky's The Fateful Triangle and Brenner's Zionism in the Age of Dictators are well worth reading, but don't kid yourself into thinking that you've got the straight poop on Zionism after flipping through two books. I consider myself an anti-Zionist, but I believe in historical accuracy. Like all too many "leftists," you seem to be allowing anti-Semitic mythology to slip into your anti-Zionism. In Palestine, those Zionist guerrillas which cut a deal with Fascism were a marginalized minority, contrary to the impression one would get from reading Brenner's book alone. Lehi (the so-called Stern Gang) considered Fascism to be less of an enemy than British imperialism, and did in fact seek Axis support=FEwhich resulted in a bitter (and sometimes violent) split between the Lehi faction and the main Zionist guerrilla army, Haganah. It was Haganah's leadership, including Ben-Gurion, who founded the state of Israel. The extremist tendency represented by Lehi was actually persecuted by the Ben Gurion government, later found a shadowy niche in Mossad and the police apparatus, and did not achieve state power until the 1980s, when former Lehi militant Yitzak Shamir became Prime Minister. In Europe, Zionists were deeply divided over the proper response to Nazism, rather than being the monolithic "Nazi collaborators" you simplistically portray. Once again, spend some time inn a library before you dig yourself any deeper into your hole. You can start with They Fought Back: The Story of the Jewish Resistance in Nazi Europe, edited by Yuri Suhl, a highly revealing collection of documents and personal accounts from the anti-fascist Jewish underground groups which functioned even within the death camps themselves=FEand were invariably either Communist or Zionist, or both. The grain of truth behind your repugnant statement that "`The Holocaust' has been magnified into a larger-than-life tale of historical persecution" is that the Holocaust has, in fact, been reified, removed from political context, and inaccurately portrayed as history's only example of genocide. The mainstream media and (mainstream) Zionism have allowed the Holocaust to serve as an excuse for pompous and deluding self-congratulations on the supposed niceties of our "democratic" system, rather than a warning of where racism and militarism can lead unless resisted everywhere. The Holocaust has been exploited by a propaganda system which leads us to ignore, rather than resist, the death-squad terror in Central America, or the repression and disenfranchisement of the Palestinians. However, merely going to the opposite extreme by claiming that the Holocaust has been "exaggerated" (your word), and equating it with virtually every example of state terror in the history of the twentieth century, is equally abhorrent. Maybe my last letter arrived too late to be printed. I trust that this one will arrive with sufficient lead time. Please spare your poor readers a self-righteous diatribe of "response" such as that which you unleashed on J.R. until you've done a little reading. Finally, sincere kudos for your review of The Other Israel, an important newsletter. You should also check out Israel-Palestine Political Report, BP 130, 75463 Paris Cedex 10, France. It provides an example of the kind of intelligent and rational anti-Zionism which the left in this country is in dire need of. Yours, Bill Weinberg, New York, NY. Jason comments again: Another clarification I'm glad to see that you at least agree that there is an immense "grain of truth behind (my) repugnant statement that `"The Holo- caust" has been magnified into a larger-than-life tale of histori- cal persecution,'" even if you seem to have missed the major intention of the statement by leaving off the rest of my original words qualifying its application to those using it "largely in order to justify the continuing atrocities by Zionists in the racist state of Israel." (And I have to assume that the statement is "repugnant" simply because you find it an unpleasant truth.) I have no desire to minimize the abhorrent persecution of Jews and others by the German Nazi regime. And I would have less concern about the Holocaust story being "magnified," if it was "largely" by people who were primarily interested in exploiting it for anti-fas- cist and genuinely humanitarian purposes. What I do find extremely distasteful and frightening is the persistent and very successful abuse of the Holocaust story in defense of the historical and cur- rent crimes of the state of Israel. In my experience (and even you confirm this with your letters), every time one criticizes the Israeli state and the (overt or covert) racism of the huge majority of current Zionists, one is automatically and vehemently labelled as an anti-Semite, attacked for any number of imaginary crimes and generally slandered. It is this type of overkill rhetoric, in my opinion, which is fueling whatever sincere interest in Holocaust revisionism current- ly exists (i.e. that part which isn't genuinely anti-Semitic). An increasing minority of North Americans are finally becoming aware that the huge, wealthy (and at times proto-fascist) pro-Israeli lobby is and has been a major reactionary influence on U.S., Middle Eastern, and international affairs. More and more of these people realize that much of the most vociferous Holocaust rhetoric comes from quarters which unflinchingly support even the most heinous Zionist practices, from the brutal murder of children in the Pal- estinian Intifada to the training of death squads in Latin America, from the massive support for South African apartheid to political abductions and torture (for example, the kidnapping and torture of the Israeli nuclear whistleblower Vannanu), from international as- sassinations (probably Alex Odeh=FEby the JDL=FEin Los Angeles, cer- tainly many PLO representatives in Tunisia and Europe) to character assassinations in the U.S. media. Until the climate has finally changed and people are no longer automatically (and deceitfully) denounced as anti-Semites for sin- cerely criticizing the inhuman practices of the Israeli state and its powerful international Zionist supporters, discussion of the subject will remain subject to immense misunderstandings. For my part, I'm willing to assume you have valid intentions in this debate only if you'll assume mine. Anything less means you've made a vastly erroneous prejudgment for which I will not sit still. CONCERNED ABOUT MALES Dear Anarchy, I like your magazine. I've been buying it at newsstands for a number of years now and think your development is right on with real possibilities for larger circulation at a time when there is a growing interest in and openness to anarchy, anarchism and anarchists. Hopefully anarchy will emerge, whether anarchism makes it or not. I think your "Support the anarchist press" column was a good thing. I try to buy all the @ publications i run into that i can afford. I rarely subscribe partly because i move around a lot and partly because i want to see newsstands do well with @ publications. Your reviews of publications, international news, "On Gogol Blvd.," and the letters columns are great. In that area I'd like to see even more news from all over because that's hard to find in one source with a nonsectarian attitude. I appreciate the openness of the letters section yet, i would opt for a selective approach. What to leave out is a problem. For instance i would say leave out Molly Gill. Yet the response to the Alternative Bookstore situation gave me a chance to hear a lot of history that i wouldn't have heard without Gill's initial lame provocation. So good luck with decisions on the letters. What i am most concerned about is the overwhelming predominance of male writers in your publication. Though I'm not into quotas and i don't consider the publication a sexist one i am still disturbed by this situation. Through the years i've heard almost every reason for these imbalances in a variety of projects. None of them are ultimately satisfying. The best way i know of to work our way out of this is through active recruitment and support of women writers as well as reprinting current and historical articles. Ya'll are obviously working in a committed way with this important publication and i believe attention to and action on this area would only strengthen what you're doing. I also have a personal interest in the possibility of "Anarchist Studies." Though many anarchists would reject the possibility of working in academia i believe there is potential in school settings for valuable work. In many areas the only visible activities and publications are by college students. Most teachers who are interested in anarchy seem to be closeted anarchists or left histo- rians who misrepresent our history. The out academics like Bookchin or Roussopoulos (the publisher?) are fucked up when encountered at close range. Chomsky talks about anarchy occasionally but is not about to hoist any black flags. Candace Falk who controls the Goldman papers is also someone who is controversial and may not even be an anarchist at all. Anyway i believe that it is not at all a lost cause. Gay and les- bian studies developed due to student pressure with faculty eventually coming out to one degree or another. It's now emerging as an interdisciplinary field that's offered a strong critique of traditional disciplines. Anarchist studies offers many possibilities to those of us with interests in academia and transformative education. In many ways the current turmoil of post-68 academia is an opportunity for anarchist scholars to address the disputes arising in all fields. I could rattle on but for now i'd like to hear from others on what they see as the possibilities of anarchy and education particularly in the university setting. Currently i am at my parents' house while preparing to return to school after ten years of being away from it. In the fall I'll put out my own address for those who are interested in the possi- bilities of anarchist scholarship. till then, Clyde F. Smith (No address by request) PRO-FEMINIST PRISONER Greetings, As an anarchist revolutionary, I would like to express revulsion towards the sexual exploitation and physical abuse of women, children, or anyone who is otherwise unable to defend themselves. I stand in solidarity with feminists in their fight for freedom and dignity. I respect and adore females, and truly appreciate them as equals in their own right with a very valuable contribution to make to the whole of the human race. I despise the system of patriarchy as just another manifestation of fascist authoritarian oppression and exploitation. Is it possible for a man to be a "feminist"? I would be proud to be called one, because I am definitely pro-female. I am tired of seeing them treated like trash, and it makes me sick to hear the way some men talk about women. It's tragically comical to hear these fat, soft, lazy men who smoke two packs a day, lie around watching TV, and don't do any sort of exercise talk about what accomplished lovers they are, bragging of their imaginary sexual prowess. I can't see how=FEthey don't even have the strength to get up in the morning and work out! Yet these immature little egomaniacs pretend to be God's gift to women. Then there's pedophiles. I hear these opinions expressed about children's "sexual freedom," and that they have a right to do as they please. I myself was sexually "educated" by a 25 year-old woman when I was 14 years old, and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me, making me totally uninhibited. I don't know where the line is drawn, though. I suppose if the child was mature enough to tell me that he/she knew what they were doing and wanted to be allowed to do as they please, I might have to respect that, because I know damn well that I knew what I was doing and knew full well what I wanted sexually, even at 10 years old. But then if that child told me they were being forced against his/her will, God help the sorry ass individual doing the forcing=FEbecause I absolutely do not call the police, under any circumstances. They may well wish that I did, though, by the time I am through with them. Sex offenders and child abusers, beware=FEif I ever catch you sick ass parasites preying on women, children, handicapped people, or anyone else who is otherwise unable to defend themselves and doesn't have that coming to them, I'll put a couple of .45 caliber slugs in your groin from point blank range, or else I'll do my very best to take you apart piece by piece with my bare hands=FEor I'll die trying. There's these excuses about pedophiles being sexually abused as a child, and that they're victims themselves, and that they're "suffering" from a compulsive disorder that they can not control. Fuck all that shit. That's really lame. Anyone that has been abused and victimized should be staunchly opposed to and against what they were forced to suffer, and not turn around and do it to someone else. Two wrongs don't make a right. The only "illness" that they have is being too weak-minded and perverted to get a grip on themselves. Perhaps they are products of their environment, deviant mutations created by this sick, warped, oppressive authoritarian regime we live under. But that doesn't excuse their conduct or make it all right. You don't allow a cockroach to wander around and do its thing, or catch it and house it in a cage indefinitely, or try to reform it into something that it can't be with some unreliable psychotherapeutic bullshit. You just squash it, eradicate it=FE terminate with extreme prejudice. I'm in a quandary, though, over the concept of age-of-consent. I know that the law and the legal system are wrong, and that "statutory rape"=FEin spite of willing consent=FEis bullshit. I've never met a teenager who wasn't capable of deciding for themselves whether to have sex or not, and can't see an adult being locked up half their life because the police coerce a minor into admitting that they had sex. I'm totally opposed to telling anyone what they can and cannot do, but then I'm equally opposed to an adult sexually exploiting a child. What to do? I don't know. Well, yes, I do=FEI'll know what to do. I'll Do The Right Thing. Gregory Waleski #47190 Arizona State Prison Florence, Arizona 85232 BEING BI NO PROBLEM Yo letterholics! This letter is in response to #36 and Michael William's in- teresting article on bisexuality, etc. I've been out to myself and various friends for 13 years, since age 20. I guess this year is the one for coming out on a broader scale. My entry into anarchism came 2 yrs after coming out, and except for a brief experiment in membership in a domestic socialist party, I'm still part of this wild and contentious fambly. From age 22-24 I lived in Wash., DC., as part of the Community For Creative NonViolence. Apart from that I would often greedily absorb whole issues of Off Our Backs, et al, and had done that before taking the plunge into activism. I say all this before commenting on recently reading Bi Any Other Name, one of the Bi anthologies William mentions, one that I needed badly to absorb, and enjoyed, and grew somewhat frustrated with also. I accept lots of what feminist analysis says about our world. I am not always consistent about how I live that acceptance, but it's part of my outlook on the world. That said, I feel like the more theory-oriented folks who contributed to and worked to get Bi Any Other Name published essentially reinvented the wheel without needing to. Too much diarrhea of the pen theorizing (this goes for the verbal version of this too) puts me to sleep; a rampaging dogmatic baby bi I am not. I did that dogmatic baby radical phase 10 years ago. Being bi isn't the problem for me, though being the usually shy slow blooming person that I yam, at age 33 I've kept too much out of the social/sexual arena for too long. I was confused throughout my 20s, didn't really know how to ask for or get what I wanted. I'm getting better, but being fat and rather thoroughly unclean-shaven tends to put me in an odd-man-out position, unless I become a "Bear." Don't ask, unless you really want to know! I feel pretty odd-out in the Seattle Bi Men's Union too, though that may have more to do with being new, at any rate the fat phobia of much of the gay community=FEand the imagism of society as a whole=FEkeeps me well away from bars, etc. Whoopie=FEI'm safe from AIDS. The "Bis and other sexual minorities" chapter of William's article is interesting. I wonder if butch/femme or top/bottom and/or S/M and B/D people are being classed here as "minorities-inside-a- minority" or what? Many bi/gay men call themselves tops or bottoms in the classified personals, a convenient shorthand way to look for them what's aggressive and them what's not. I'd rather be "me," but I do use "bi" and "bottomish" as labels (I'm not femme-ish or effeminate, but not sexually aggressive either and want my partners to be aggressive...at least when it comes to fucking) because those words more or less describe a part of me. So I gotta ask, what is PC about S/M and/or B/D? Is the best sex an anarchist could have only "vanilla" safe sex? Giving someone else power to do S/M or B/D things to you sounds to me, especially if you really trust the dominator, like sharing power. I've been curious about S/M, etc., for a while, but what changed my mind about it wasn't my anarchist fairy godcritter waving his magic phallus to disenchant me. A gay co-worker friend became a baby leather-S/M man. His stories about his adventures did the trick. They were funny stories, but I don't like pain or humiliation. I do admit that, while I want relationships where me 'n thee are equals, there's a strong impulse in me to want a partner who enjoys being aggressive and in charge. Does this make me a bad anarchist? I don't think so! I would very much enjoy hearing from other folks about this. And if you live in or are going to visit Seattle, I wouldn't mind sucking some caffeine or Stash Tea with you. Etc. Like I said, I'm in the market for good mail=FEthe pen pal oriented are most welcome even if you ain't comin' here. Thornton Kimes 605=AB So. Main #2 Seattle, WA. 98104 GETTING HIGH IS ESCAPE Hi Anarchy, I was given a copy of Anarchy, by one of my comrades, the #33 Summer '92 issue. I thought that it was "Excellent." It has a very wide range of people's views, on the political, cultural and per- sonal, from all age groups, covering all aspects of life. So I think a big Congratulations are in order for all those who make the publication of Anarchy possible. There are a few reasons that I am writing this letter, or should I say typing, by the way, it's taking me ages, as I'm using one finger hahaha. Anyway one is like I have said above, to praise you, for having such an interesting magazine. The others, well I'm an Irish P.O.W. in the H. Blocks of Long Kesh. I was wondering if you, or your readers, could help me. I'm looking for information on the Indians, their whole way of life, from cultural to spiritual, poetry, anything at all. I have little knowledge and would like to gain as much as I can. So if anyone can help, I'd really be grateful. Also any women in prison, who would like to write and give their views on gaol struggle, their treatment and life in prison, be it personal or whatever, everyday life in women's prisons, the system ect., ect., ect. Again any information on women in gaol, I would be grateful. In this issue I have, I'd like to comment on J.F. (pages 72-3), "Society is fucked." I realise that this issue I have is last year's, all the same I'd like to comment on it. He mentions that he wants to do something, but all his friends, sorry most of his friends, are poser stoners or fools. Also that he'd love to get high. Well J.F. there are loads of ways to get the high feeling, without using dope, or whatever is used. Look at it this way, you can say that society is fucked. I agree with you, as if a young lad your age can get his hands on dope or whatever, it has to be fucked. But to get high, is only to escape from what society has forced upon you, or to forget troubles you may have. But sooner or later you come down, then find nothing has changed, it also means that you would be letting the fucked up society beat you. Don't, life is what you make it or can make it. You mentioned that some of your friends are poser stoners and fools, dump them and make new friends. If people want to destroy their lives with drugs or whatever and are happy to do so, then leave them and move on, change your friends, because at some stage, they may mess your life up. You mentioned that you like music. The Sex Pistols, yea I like them also and have some of their tapes. Why not start a band and get a few of your friends who aren't like the above, or make new friends and start a group. You like music, also want to do something to change society, your songs could be a voice against the injustices society forces upon people. That way you'd be doing things you wish to do. It's only one way or one bit of advice. Others are to join a club, group that would help change the system for the better of others. I don't want to sound like a lecture. What I am trying to say, is you are young, don't let society mess you up. Life is a struggle, that we all must face, sure it may catch you on the chin, now and again, but get back up and continue to face it head on. Change it for the better, for those coming behind you, surround yourself with true friends, who will stand by you, and help with all aspects of life, drop the stoners. Whatever way you forward your life, I wish you all the best. Keep the head up, J.F. and take care and believe in yourself. That's about it, again you have a fantastic magazine, no doubt the future issues will be of the same quality. All going well I'll be able to subscribe through my clan soon. In the meantime keep up the great work and take care of yourselves. The struggle goes on. Slan Brian Gormley, 2325 H. Block 4. B. Wing Long Kesh Lisburn, Co. Antrim Ireland IN DEFENSE OF MAOISM The following is the Maoist Internationalist Movement's (MIM) response to a letter titled "Censorship disturbing" by Michael William, which appeared in the Spring 1993 (issue 36) Anarchy magazine. The letter is a response to another letter=FEfrom the Alternative Bookstore collective, written by Karl Levesque=FEwhich appears in the same issue of Anarchy. The Alternative Bookstore's letter berates Anarchy for printing an article from an independent fascist without accompanying disclaimer or criticism. The letter argues that anarchists in particular and anti-fascists in general should never provide free publication to fascists without seizing the opportunity to discredit them. Several readers responded to the collective's letter (written by one member) by explaining all the ways in which the letter-writer's politics fall short of anarchism citing this as the reason the collective's stance against this particular fascist should be discredited. William's response criticizes the author of the bookstore's letter as a fascist himself. Part of the "proof" William cites of Le- vesque's fascism is that Levesque at one time ordered copies of MIM Notes for the Alternative Bookstore's free lit section. In the course of his letter, William levels a number of false charges at MIM most of which amount to unsubstantiated gossip, all of them have been refuted by us already, either in practice or in correspondence to the Bookstore that remains unaddressed. Readers should check out the issue of Anarchy in question to get the full debate. The purpose of this letter is only to address the shit slung in our direction. MIM recognizes the importance of holding people and political organizations to standards they espouse. It's important to look out for groups who "wave the red flag to oppose the red flag." William claims that his letter is part of an attempt to distinguish genuine from phony anti-fascists: "it is always necessary to peel away the masks to reveal what (anti-fascism) is for as opposed to taking at face value what it claims to be against." William uses this stan- dard to run through the list of political stances Levesque supports to prove Levesque's "obvious" affiliation with fascism. These include Maoist, Stalinist, Leninist, leftist, nationalist. William never says anything about how any of these ideologies has in practice proven itself akin to fascism. To turn the question around: we know that William is opposed to the listed ideologies, but he never says anything about how anarchism in practice has been a truer friend to the oppressed than any of these ideologies. As MIM pointed out to the Alternative bookstore when they criticized us for authoritarianism among other things, "we give pages and pages of space in our newspaper to discuss anarchist newspapers and our critics"...We wonder what your contribution is to the distribution of Maoist work. "...The issue between Marxism and anarchism was interesting when Engels wrote about it. Since that time=FEand this is true of Trotskyism and `back to ML' trends as well=FEthe ideology of anarchism has become a sad joke perpetuated by intellectuals and other idealists." William says that "the shit really hit the fan when Levesque ordered a pile of MIM Notes, a Maoist/Stalinist journal, to give out in the free section (of the Alternative Bookstore). The issue in question contained a letter from an ex-Maoist and an edited response saying that Stalin was 70% correct!" MIM takes the 70% figure from Mao's rating of Stalin. Among other aspects of the 70% we point to Stalin's defeat of Hitler despite the treacherous behavior of the so-called democratic countries, and the technological advances in the Soviet Union through 1953. We also recognize Stalin's mistake in declaring the class struggle over. But unlike William we point to Maoism as an advance over Stalinism. The Chinese Cultural Revolution was a tremendous success while it lasted in mobilizing the Chinese masses to demolish class society. Even as we recognize Stalin's mistakes, where were the anarchists? Where is their superior historical alternative to Stalinism or Maoism for that matter? MIM does not know of any classless collective operating in Montreal at the time Stalin was defeating fascism in Europe. It seems reasonable to assume that the anarchists were doing then what they do today=FEcriticizing concrete work for classless, stateless society from the sidelines, without offering any better alternative. Theory without practice never makes practical mistakes. But then again theoretical perfection without practice never won any battles against fascism. "In practice, the only people doing anything this century to reach anarchism are people in Marxist-Leninist parties=FEin China, Albania, the Soviet Union, etc....Anarchism as practiced has become another tool of the status quo, usually for anti-communist propaganda." The Alternative Bookstore never responded to the above criticism from us, we now extend the offer to William. William goes on: "In practice, people focussing on anti-fascism tend to be leftists, often Leninists or Leninist sympathizers. In line with their vision of a preponderant role for the state, they predictably concentrate on petitioning the cops to be more vigilant and the state to ban neo-nazi activities." MIM recognizes this tendency among the pseudo-left as well; we call these people pseudo-left or revisionist or liberal because whatever they may claim to be they are not progressive or revolutionary in practice. But then again we have our standards. Our criterion for being "progressive" or "revolutionary" in practice is that groups not reinforce the power of the state through their actions. We see no such demarcation from William, who again criticizes from the sidelines, without proposing a better practice. Here Williams falls into our definition of pseudo-anti-fascist: he shits all over apparent practice, but by not offering a progressive alternative, he supports the status quo. William points out correctly that the pseudo-left's reliance on cops is hypocritical in light of the fact that these same cops "touched off the Oka crisis by firing indiscriminately at Mohawk men, women and children." He goes on to say that "as a result of the influence of Stalinism, Maoism, Castroism, etc., militant `anti-fascism' has a long history of homophobia and racism. The virulently homophobic Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a group supported by MIM Notes, is massacring native people who object to their hegemony." It demonstrates a lack of investigation to lump MIM and the PCP in here with the so-called anti-fascists. See MIM Notes issue 43=FEa special 20 page issue including on-scene reporting from Kahnesatake in July of 1990 plus interviews with Mohawk warriors, and subsequent coverage of the repercussions of the stand-off and the warriors' trials. Pick up any other issue of MIM Notes for coverage of anti-imperialist struggles internationally. But now we're confused. William recognizes the Securite de Quebec slaughter of Mohawk people as reactionary, yet he decries nationalist struggle. Part of the case against Levesque is his "supporting Leninists and various national liberation movements." So which is it going to be? The Mohawks have described the struggle that began at Oka and continues to date as nothing but revolutionary nationalism. So does William here recognize revolutionary nationalism for what it is=FEa blow against the imperialist state=FEor was that reference to the cops at Oka simply a demonstration of where anarchist purism will get you? (supporting neither side of a struggle, calling one side fascist and the other totalitarian?) William offers no source for the PCP brutality he claims. As for the charge of homophobia, see our own work and check out the PCP position before you go believing the New York Times. Again from our letter to the Alternative Bookstore: "MIM Notes has repeatedly criticized the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), USA for its position against gay and lesbian sexual orientations. That position of ours came out in the first issue of MIM Theory and then was repeated and developed... We have also sent an open letter to the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), which the Peru Maoists are apparently members of. You will notice that we are not signatories of the RIM for this an other reasons...In any case, our practice has demonstrated that we are willing to do a lot to demar- cate on the gay/lesbian issue." No wonder William shows no source for his indictment of the "virulently homophobic" Communist Party of Peru (PCP=FEwhom he does not even address by name), he isn't talking about them. His evidence is that "the rival Peruvian guerrilla organization MRTA (Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement) `executed' seven gay men in one of the streets." William does not say why this charge against the MRTA should also serve as evidence against the PCP when the two groups are unrelated. William goes on to rattle off a list of a few more anti-gay and racist incidents in Ireland and France in the same stream of=20 "proof" regarding his assertions about communists. This is op- portunism at its best. William holds up the ideological mirror to prove that Levesque is not a real anarchist. But he uses assorted acts by anyone calling themselves a communist as evidence against communism as an ideology. Finally towards the end of his letter William says that "(anti- authoritarians and anarchists) need to develop our own analysis of fascism (and anti-fascism)." As far as "developing" an analysis of fascism, time's running out. You trash Stalin with no argument, spitting in the face of the most successful military defeat of fascism to date and start to talk about "developing" an analysis? This explains in a nutshell why the majority of the world's people=FE in China, Vietnam, Korea, Peru, Eritrea, Albania, etc.=FEhave voted against anarchism as an "anti-fascist" ideology. You missed the outcome, as Lenin said the masses vote with their feet, and they voted for Stalin (and Lenin and Mao) and the reason was that four or six or ten revolutions later Marxists are engaged in concrete struggle, not splitting over stale ideology without respect for successful practice. MIM POB 3576 Ann Arbor, MI. 48106-3576 Michael William responds: Fascists and Stalinists MIM is in a predictable huff, indignant at any suggestion of a comparison between fascists and Stalinists. However I am hardly the first to draw a parallel; the list goes back to Orwell and before (for example Souvarine's ground-breaking Stalin in the '30s). With- out claiming that Stalinists and fascists are identical, there are enough similarities that I personally find it useful to group the totalitarian nationalists together. Some of the features they have in common are: The Totalitarian State: After seizing power, the fascist or Lenin- ist organization suppresses all rivals and deploys the totalitarian state apparatus to ensure its hegemony. F=81hrerprinzip: Incarnating the organization (and thus "the na- tion") is the omniscient leader. Here, in scientific socialismese, is Sendero's Presidente Gonzalo on the topic: "Such is the case in every revolution," says Gonzalo, concerning the inevitability of leaders and hierarchy, "therefore such is the case in ours. There are no exceptions. Here the maxim `there is always an exception to the rule' is inoperative; it is a question in this case of obeying laws. In each process, then, there are leaders. But there is always one leader who stands out from the rest or who leads them." Nationalism: So eager is MIM to corner the nationalism market they even deny that nationalism is a facet of fascism. Fredy Perlman's The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism, which appeared in Anarchy #37, remains the best overall critique of nationalism and contains a section on Maoism. A French version is available through my P.O. box number below. Big Lie Techniques and Rewriting History: Stalinist show trials, Hitlerian Jew-baiting and scapegoating; or, in the present case, MIM's hilarious assertion that the Leninists are the real anar- chists, inventing quotes (I never called Levesque an "obvious" fas- cist; because of his declared support for totalitarian nationalists I would, though, in my schema, term him a fascist sympathiser). Insane Cruelty: One need hardly be a pacifist to recoil at Stalino-Hitlerian blood-lust. Stalin for example implemented his own "family values" campaign, as his daughter recounts: "In 1937, my father did not hesitate to exterminate members of his own family: the three Svanidze, Redens, Enoukidze (my mother's godfa- ther)...The same thing happened in 1948 with my aunts. He consid- ered them dangerous because they `knew too much' and `talked too much'." Alexander Orlov, a former high-ranking member of the Cheka (the KGB precursor), notes the generalized nature of this phenomenon: "As a rule Stalin liquidated people who knew too much about his past and who, in light of the monstrous crimes of the final years, were in a position to remember and revise certain shady episodes...." Stalin's murder spree apparently being too much for even MIM to swallow, they acknowledge that "Stalin killed too many people"=FEbut immediately miss the boat by ascribing it to "class struggle" and to "having to fight World War II and deal with traitors." The Leninist campaign to suppress all rivals and, subse- quently, Stalin's campaign to eliminate his Party rivals are not about class struggle. And abolishing classes implies removing the Party, the new ruling clique/class from power=FEstarting with Mao and Stalin. In other words, being a "traitor" from the viewpoint of the Party. Ethnic Cleansing: Entire ethnic groups, totalling 4-5 million peo- ple, were deported to Siberia (from the Caucasus and the Crimea, for example). The Ukrainians, Khrushchev claimed, "escaped this fate only because there were too many of them...." Activity certainly worth noting for the Mohawks and other indigenous groups. Anti-Semitism: MIM issues a blanket denial in their "Stalin Study Pack" (no two-four to party with from the Party, this offering is a two-by-four that bludgeons common sense). However, there is no lack of examples to support such an accusation. In the mid-'20s, Robert Tucker reports in Stalin in Power, Stalin used "anti- Semitism in the fight against a left opposition whose major figures, Trotsky and afterward Zinoviev and Kamenev, were Jews...He encouraged the baiting of the opposition leaders as Jews in factory cells. He was identifying his faction as the Party's Russian fac- tion," and his opponents "as the Jewish one." This sort of activity did not escape the attention of the Nazis, attracting praise, for example, in Nazi "theorist" Alfred Rosenberg's organ Weltkampf. Jew-baiting in effect became a recurrent feature in Stalin's career. During the great purge trials of the '30s Chief Prosecutor Vyshinsky repeatedly referred to Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Radek as "people without a fatherland." After the war Stalinist nationalism culminated in a campaign against "rootless cosmopolitanism" that was often virtually indistinguishable from fascism in tone and content. An article in The Bolshevik, for instance, railed, "Our people brand with shame the rootless cosmopolitans who lack the slightest feeling of patriotism." To make sure readers understood that many or most of those denounced were Jews, if they had changed their names to Russian-sounding ones, their original names would be placed afterward in parentheses. Yiddish schools and Jewish theatres, periodicals and publishing houses were shut down by the Stalinists. But it is perhaps when the question touched closest to home that Stalin's anti-Semitism comes into focus most sharply, i.e. his out- raged reaction when his daughter became involved with a Jew. In their more lucid moments the Stalinists and fascists were quite aware of the similarities between their ideologies. Hermann Rauschning quotes Hitler as predicting that "...Bolshevism will turn into a kind of National Socialism. Besides, we have a lot more in common than differences." As Souvarine notes, "Mussolini did not conceal that he discreetly admired Lenin, and mutual exchanges between the totalitarian regimes multiplied." At the time of the great purge trials in the late '30s Mussolini wondered out loud in Popolo d'Italia whether Stalin had "secretly turned fascist." Mao himself backhandedly acknowledged Stalinism's and fascism's close proximity when he said that if a lurch towards "revisionism" occurs, a "Communist Party can turn into a fascist party." Moving from an ideological to a practical level, Hitler and Stalin also shared an admiration for their respective abilities to run a totalitarian state and to crack the whip. Stalin, Souvarine reports, "admired the way Hitler had liquidated his old comrades in arms=FEthose troublemakers=FEduring the `Night of the Long Knives' in 1934, and Hitler returned the favor when the Red Army was decapitated." This mutual respect extended to a personal level as well. Nazi armaments minister Albert Speer says that Hitler "talked of Stalin with a great deal of respect...Above all he thought of Stalin as a kind of colleague." According to Souvarine, Stalin also "considered Hitler a colleague. He was convinced that the two of them would get along. Thinking himself infallible he became inconsolable about having fooled himself to such an extent about Hitler, and that Hitler had fooled him to such an extent" (concerning the 1939-41 Hitler-Stalin Pact). "Ekh, together with the Germans we would have been invincible," he would reminisce, according to his daughter. In this already overlong response I am unable to deal with other accusations and challenges churned out by MIM. Briefly, however, concerning Sendero, gays and massacres of indigenous peoples: MIM's line, according to a BBS exchange, is that Sendero has no line on gays. Information I received from MHOL, Peru's gay and lesbian rights group, however, contained a document which dealt exclusively with Sendero, an article from France's gay weekly Gai Pied Hebdo (October 4, 1990). Homosexuality is a "creation of imperialism," the article quotes Presidente Gonzalo, which "must be stamped out". Gays are typically given one or more warnings by Sendero, according to the article, the message being: get straight or get out of town. The article says that in 1989 thirty gays were killed by Sendero. Concerning massacres of members of indigenous groups: Eighty members of the Lucanamarca community were killed by Sendero in 1983 after they resisted Sendero efforts to control production and to shut down peasant fairs. "The top leadership planned the action and oversaw its implementation," says Presidente Gonzalo. "The main thing was to make them understand that we were a hard nut to crack and would stop at nothing, at absolutely nothing." On September 10, 1984 Sendero carried out a raid against the Huamangilla community, slaughtering 21 men, women and children, the youngest of whom was 10. In December, 1987, 24 members of the Rumirumi community in the province of La Mar, Ayacucho, were taken to a local school and beaten, shot and hacked to death. Sendero frequently "tortures its victims," according to a human rights group; and between August 1990 and July 1992, only 7.8% of those killed by Sendero were sol- diers or cops. Michael William C.P. 1554 Succ. B, Montreal, Quebec Canada H3B 3L2 NO 2,000 WORD REPLY Dear Anarchy, I would like to reply, in part at least, to Bag of Water, Min- neapolis, Anarchy #34, Fall '92, p.76. Bag asked for a 2,000 word minimum reply from Lev on whether there would be legal coverage if sewers left a needle in a shoe with trauma to the foot. In anarchy, Bag asks, are there any factories, hospitals or shoes, or suing? What Bag must understand is that either the state or anarchy is the choice. It is an entire system, not bits and parts. Why have anarchy if we are going to also have the pernicious ills of this society? If we have such ugly, oppressive things as factories (implies bosses); artificial upkeep of the human body (hospitals), which makes most of our overpopulation and torture of humans now; suing=FEexpensive and authoritarian lawyers who turn potentially amicable divorces into combat zones; and items which torture the human foot, like shoes, throw women's bodies out of balance and pinch toes; and needles to stick the foot in the second place. I see anarchy as a primitive society having abandoned all the ills of civilization long ago. They are living as primitive tribes on the banks of a respectable river, growing or gathering their food, and maybe hunting a little. They are barefoot and pregnant and have little of the stress and alienating strain of present-day society. They live in communal groups much as rainforest people before civilization encroached on them and despoiled, seduced and decimated them (with a little help from the World Bank). In this riverbank, rainforest society-type place, children are not nagged and hounded to death with toilet training, homework, rules, and physical, sexual and emotional abuse. They are not exploited. Will women be exploited? Only as to doing the hard agricultural work as everywhere and always. But there won't be any poisonous makeup, girdles, high heels, or plastic baby carriers. They will nurse their children=FE body contact which produces more healthy children and women, free from neuroses. Men and women will not be run ragged day and night going to PTA meetings, coaching Little League (a nightmare for children), or the garden club or spending their days in the dull drudgery of dusting and sweeping, which no human being was ever intended to do. All capitalist shit. Now I hope this answers your question, just in case Lev never did write that 2,000 word reply. I don't see how one can have anarchy piecemeal or by halves. Either we have anarchy and nature or today's nightmare or technology, spaceships, cities, bourgeois pastimes, bars and grills (we make our own brew with manioc and spit), traffic and stoplights, go-go dancing (ersatz sex), miserable human beings, or we have anarchy and peace. Remember what happened to the woman who traveled to the U.S. to have an abortion, and on her way back the Canadian border patrol searched her baggage, found a sanitary pad, and forced her to a hospital to determine if she'd had an abortion, for which she was penalized? If that doesn't send you to the rainforest, nothing will. Any revolution takes planning, organizing and above all=FEaction! In remembrance of Diogenes, Molly Gill, Largo, FL. MORE FROM ``OBLANDO'' Dear Jason, Toni, and friends, WORD!, again from "Oblando." Since I wrote in April, I've received notification from the Orlando city attorney that the city still prohibits the distribution of printed materials inside city hall. He says this allows the orderly conduct of the public's business while reasonably accommodating Free Speech activities. He says those activities are subject to "time, place and manner" restrictions, and in a rambling 20 minute phone interview with the publisher of the Orlando Spectator 'zine, he went on trying to rationalize how saying (or handing out) "political satire" in a crowded city hall could relate somehow to the old "fire" in a theater argument. Sounds pretty lame. I think, with a qualified plaintiff, the ACLU could get more dough out of them. Oh yeah, before I forget, how about this: When the story broke on the front pages of major daily papers across the country, our no- competition Orlando Sentinel (owned by the Chicago Tribune buried the news of Walt Disney being an FBI informant/fink for thirty years. Although they boxed it, they stuck it way in the back of section A. That display of cowardice closely approximates the amount required by Walt to rat all those names to J. Edgar "Mary" Hoover. Love, and please tell all your comrades, friends, & lovers in the US, Canada, and abroad not to come to Orlando or spend one fucking cent at anything owned by Disney. Michael Camarata 1917 Oregon St. Orlando, FL. 32803-3373 FEEDING THE HOMELESS Destroy capitalism immediately, Following a year helping to run a soup kitchen in New York's Lower East Side, I returned to California, and went to Los Angeles to do some food service work there. Would you believe 800 for lunch at the L.A. Catholic Workers' "hippie kitchen" in skid row? We took soup out Wednesday night and served to hundreds in the park with street campfires and the routine police cruiser headlights for illumination. I went out to Santa Monica to visit the beaches, and arrived to find the police arresting homeless and their supporters en masse. Every night in East L.A. was punctuated by automatic weapon fire, followed by the investigative helicopter (which wakes up those who slept through the shooting). An anaesthesiologist from the nearby East L.A. hospital spend a week at the C.W. house of hospitality, and did a personal retreat. He told me that the shooting victims just never stop coming into the emergency room. He said in a few years, due to seniority, he'll be working one day per week and making over 40 thousand bucks annually. I thought that was interesting. After two months in L.A., I went to Santa Cruz and am working with Food Not Bombs and Homes Not Jails. There are roughly 2,000 homeless in the county, with the shelter program providing beds for 300. The other 1,700 illegally "camp". Last night I was a guest of a squatters' encampment in the woods, which surround the campus. There are many small groups in these woods, who congregate at communal campfires. They've taken discarded wood and built tree houses, wickiups, and yurts. Very ingenious, really. I met some of the people who put out that "even more radical than Earth First! publication entitled Live Wild Or Die! They are happy squatting in the woods, and have no plans of ever re-entering urban life. I tell you that I experienced much pure joy in their company. These are free, happy people who have really exited the so-called American mainstream culture. Meanwhile, in the town of Santa Cruz, FNB is regularly tabling on the courthouse entrance to support the squatters and persons given "camping tickets." This is totally ridiculous, the whole asinine way that the city here fails to even address the severity of the growing problem. It makes them look foolish, giving those caught under bridges or near the beaches these tickets. Nearly everyone I meet is doing 100 hours of community service. The activist groups of a moderate persuasion are getting "volunteers" this way. I'm not sure which is worse, the ticketing harassment or furthering local liberalism. For myself, I've had enough of bankrupt El Dorado (California's early nickname). "You can't eat the scenery," locals will tell you. I'm going to return to the beautiful anarchist revolution in New York City, write more, serve more, and liberate desire. Basically, everybody alive is a squatter on planet Earth. Some understand this, and some do not. C.S., Santa Cruz, CA. SEVERAL LEGAL VICTORIES @ Chara, Hey how yah doing? I hope that this letter finds you well and energized in the struggle. Writing today to let you know about several legal victories that have been won around the battle for Peoples Park. During the last week of March, three yes count 'em three summary judgements were awarded against the University of California Police. The first two were in regards to the U.C. cops busting people for holding a candlelight vigil. The third concerned the October 6, 1992 arrest of local folk singer Carol Denney. Carol's heinous (?) crime was that she kicked a volleyball. After her arrest she was slammed against a wall, hogtied, and left in a holding cell for several hours. In her summary judgement, the judge suggested strongly that the U.C. reconsider their decision to prosecute, and summarily ruled that the arrest was unwarranted. Consequently any action taken by U.C. police against Carol was done so outside their authority. This ruling can only help Carol's six figure brutality lawsuit against the Regents. These judgments coupled with two others present an overall picture that political activists are being targeted for special treatment and that some are living in fear that their lives may are in jeopardy or at the least are being falsely accused both in the media and the judiciary. On April 2, 1993 another significant victory was won in regards to the University of California's SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suit against four named activists. On that day during a settlement conference (as if the Uni was interested in anything but kicking our ass) the Judge ruled that he saw no reason not to advance the trial date. This he did from September 1994 to September 10, 1993. Yeah maybe this portion of the battle will be resolved by Christmas. What was surprising was that I personally was hoping for an advancement of six months, but instead it was advanced a whole year and then some. The significance of this is that while awaiting trial on the issues at hand there is a restraining order which forbids us from engaging in acts that are already prohibited by the criminal code. It also restrains us from engaging in user development. Plant a tree in Peoples Park and it's a one way ticket back to court and then a short step to jail. This order is specifically aimed at the four of us. While I have continued to defend myself with a small amount of success, the issues that have been raised over the last year are becoming way to complex for my poor little anarchist brain. Things like challenging the U.C.'s assumed ownership of the land, police surveillance, false arrest, the use of provocateurs, etc. are things way of my personal knowledge. Thus I have made the decision to retain a lawyer to assist me in presenting these issues. This was and still is a hard decision for me to make. For I've always taken the position that we are not going to win this battle in the courts but in the streets. I still feel this way but because of recent court rulings in our favor as a movement, there exists now a real possibility that presenting political issues in open court will have a lot more chance of being heard. Another reason that I up till this point have not hired a lawyer, is that the movement is hard pressed to pay the rent anyway. I would not want to further burden "the cause" by spending 30 or 40 thousand dollars on a case that has limited criminal penalties. That is still my desire and I have asked people to assist me in finding a sympathetic lawyer who isn't going to gouge us. The next six months are going to require that some additional funds be spent. It is my personal wish that the search for a lawyer be done quickly and without having to throw out any money. To hire an attorney once one is identified will cost approximately $3,000. If this were a criminal trial the state would be providing me some chicken shit PD as counsel. Since it is a civil (to them at least) matter the state has no such obligation. It is my hope and desire that folks who are able to can extend a bit of support to help us close this chapter of history. It is only with others' help that we can put this issue to rest and get on with other work that needs to be done. Personal contributions of time, money, and energy would help quite a bit. If you are in a band or know of people who are, please consider doing a benefit to help defray these legal costs. Just as important please do not lose sight that we are all out and about to build a better world. The ruling class would like us to give up hope that a world sanitized of authoritarian decision making process can never be built. Let us never stop dreaming that you and I together with countless others can and will build a society Without Borders. This lawsuit is designed from the ground up to try and intimidate all of us into silence whether the issue be Peoples Park, environmental, anti-racist, animal rights, anti- sexism, etc. It doesn't matter whether you're here or there. If you dare to stand up and fight back, you will be attacked by murder, false arrest, political terror, and now civil lawsuits. In closing I'd like to wish you all of my best in advance. Thank you for your help. If there are any questions, or you just want to chat a bit my address can be found below. Better yet call me at (510) 84-UNION. Looking forward to hearing from you. Governments don't fall by themselves! Michael Lee 537 Jones #1584 San Francisco, CA. 94102-2007 THE SAME ENEMIES Dear Anarchy, I think that John Galliers (issue #36/Spring '93) may be as mistaken as those he criticizes for referring to Cuba etc. as "leftist". The real dichotomy of socio-political thought is between Authoritarianism and Libertarianism, which essentially means between those that claim a "higher good," e.g. The Party, The State, God, The Race etc. and those who view that the only real and meaningful measure of anything is the individual and his or her happiness. Both these two groups contain people who would be considered=FEand probably consider themselves=FEon either the "left" or "right" of economic and political thought as we normally define it, and others who have the most profound differences on such things as the nature of human psychology e.g. free-will versus determinism. Indeed in my experience fellow Libertarians may more often find themselves as opponents than allies. However, from whichever "wing" of Libertarian thought we come from we all have, to some degree, the same enemies=FEthose that wish to control our lives for their own cause's sake. I can do no better than to quote the Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1793) as follows: "The time will come, then, when the sun will shine only on free men on this earth, on men who will recognize no master but their own reason." Faithfully yours, N.M., Bromley, Kent, U.K. WHAT'S THE FUSS? To the Editor, I don't understand what all the fuss is about Anarchy not responding to the Molly Gill letter (Anarchy #33). I mean, anybody who needs Jason McQuinn or Anarchy magazine to tell them that it was racist drivel needs to get their head (and their anti-racist creds) checked. If i ran an "alternative" bookstore, i think i would trust my customers to recognize racism when they see it. I certainly wouldn't be so patronizing as to staple a notice within the maga- zine to tell them about it. Molly Gill doesn't need Anarchy or the Librairie Alternative to expose her as a racist fool=FEshe does it more than adequately herself. B.M., Toronto, Ontario ISRAELI STUDY GROUP Dear Anarchy, This here is a letter like none you have ever received=FEbecause it is from Tel-Aviv, Israel. I am writing with greetings from the All is Lies Direct Action Study Group. We recently decided to make connections with groups & individuals across the world. If you want to write to us, we want to write to you. Enclosed is $2 for an issue of your paper. We don't know what it actually costs, and we're short on currency. Please let all your Hebrew-reading readership know that our 'zine, All is Lies, is available for trade or $2 from All is Lies, c/o A. Lenchner, 38 Richbell Rd., White Plains, NY. 10605. Now for a humble contribution to debate: The "movement" has 2 kinds of revolutionaries=FEthose chained to ideological labels and those who aren't. What kind are you? C., Tel-Aviv, Israel On Jesus' side When the Roman State came to capture Jesus a certain young man, a nudist, a naturist, a nuditarian, a NAMBLA type, was on Jesus' side. St. Mark 14:51, 52 K.J.V., Sanata Ana, CA. SIDESPLITTINGLY HILARIOUS Greetings Anarchy! It's not every day I decide to write a letter to an anarchist journal, but strangely enough I feel moved to do so. I as going to write Slingshot on the subject of mental illness and the dangers of basing treatment methods on long-disproven theories about schizophrenia (viz. that it doesn't exist or that it's a sane response to an insane world, or that, it can be treated through psychoanalysis=FEall of which is nonsense), but my letter to them is still in extended rewrite. But I digress...(or perhaps obsess).... Anyway. I'm writing to you all on the subject of the Librairie Alternative and the Fascist Molly Gill. I find it at once appalling and sidesplittingly hilarious that a wingnut like Gill could wield enough power to possibly bring the downfall of an anarchist/left bookstore collective. Right about when all of that backbiting up in Montr=82al was occurring, I can assure you that Gill was in front of her portrait of Hitler, prostrate, chanting, "Thank you, F=81hrer, thank you!" (not that I was there or anything, but she was no doubt quite pleased with the news, we can assume...). Librairie Alternative folx, sorry to say, you really looked like a bunch of lame-os who probably got what they deserved in the form of a "pedantic" crisis. Vous me sembliez tellement, voire, vachement d=82bilissimes. Les faschos ont d=82j=85 gagn=82s, selon votre exemple. Pardon me for not seeming to have any sympathy for any of the underlying causes of the L.A. crisis, but if you are going to allow one letter in one issue of one magazine break you apart, it's most likely because you've avoided dealing honestly with each other politically as well as socially=FEa very difficult order as I've found out from experience. As for Molly Gill, you may be feeling safe and smug right now, but wait until someone beats down your door and busts your jaw. You also will get what you deserve. Besides your letter, especially the part about blacks and whites hating each other but not admitting it, contains more bullshit than either you or I could consume at one sitting. It seems that one statement holds the key to your premise for much of your racist/racialist ranting and raving. It's a very flimsy and very presumptuous premise. I'd suggest a social worker for you, preferably an African-American woman, if only to just meet "one of them." You probably need your head examined (or bashed in if you're too far gone, as I'd suggest for any white power asshole), and more contact with blacks and their everyday realities...or more contact with "non-whites", especially Jewish people. They don't really control international finance, much less with world domination in mind, so go ahead and eat your copy of The International Jew for the roughage. I also hear it makes for good kindling. And stay the fuck away from the anarchist milieu. We're wise to you. I prey for your salvation from hateful and ignorant ideologies. Back to the subject of backbiting anarchists. I've just about had it with dysfunctional elements within the anarchist "milieu" (for lack of a better word) who prefer to wage their napoleonic struggles against other anarchists, thus wasting precious energy and allowing the fascist milieu to make tremendous gains at our expense. Nothing new under the sun, to be sure. I'm tempted, with all that's been said and done, to form a new communist party of sorts to appeal to disillusioned anarchists. The ideology will consist of a bunch of stuff from anarchism, Greens-ism, Nietzsche (except the part about taking a whip unto wimmin=FEany man who womyn- bashes in my Party will be shot, no questions asked), Abbie Hoffman, Monty Python, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, plus anyone who strikes my fancy. Since it is I who shall be Grand Pooh-Bah Chairboy, there will be no backbiting allowed. Everyone must say the nasty things in front of those people who they talk about. All disputes must be settled in my presence with socker-boppers as weapons. I love a good duel to the death with inflatable plastic cudgels. We will unabashedly and unashamedly agitate for pudding on the steps of City Hall, we will openly advocate and carry out assassinations=FE real ones, not like the one that supposedly killed JFK=FEof reac- tionary politicians and Hollywood celebrities so they don't eventually become president. We will give free candy to people who join our mass movement and not bologna sandwiches (fine, join a bologna sandwich and see if it promises you the end of capitalism and all the red jelly beans you can eat). Yes, in my Party the ends will justify the means because our enemies seem to think so and it tends to work for them. Yes, this will be an authoritarian movement for a libertarian society. Why? Because I said so. That, and be- cause it seems that authoritarian organizations hold more appeal than libertarian ones. I'm willing to wager that there are more commies in the world than anarchists. I'm also willing to raise large sums of money by conning dumb rich liberals out of it. Playing the stock market, playing the ponies, all the while under- mining its very support base. Conning multinational corporations into funding their own undoing. Sneaking in the back doors of mega- rich CEOs while they're asleep, their trusted valets (all deep cover party operatives) slitting their throats ear to ear, and collecting their life insurance benefits! We don't have the foggiest how we're going to accomplish this all, but when you're an aspiring megalomaniac like myself it becomes mere details, mere details I say. And here's the kicker: as the party becomes an unavoidable juggernaut at the doorstep of world dictatorship, I'll just disappear. You see, I'm very bad at finishing what I start. I'll just hand my title over to everyone in the Party. Voil=85! Instant anarchy! Since I will have instated my multi-point plan (with capricious changes along the way to secretly prepare for my departure) fully and flawlessly, everything will be carried out in my absence. I'll retire into obscurity, probably join Bob Avakian and L. Ron Hubbard on that yacht of theirs, or open up a falafel joint in Canc=A3n after the plastic surgery and under an assumed name. And everyone else will have smashed the state and have a nice day, finally, forever after. [....] Monkey Boy, Detroit, MI. REJOIN THE WILD Greetings from within the machine. I've been accused of participating in the June 1/92 Animal Liberation Front action at the University of Alberta's Ellerslie Research Station where 29 cats were liberated and $100,000 damage was done to the facility. After being charged with the U of A liberation. I was also charged with nine additional charges related to five previous ALF actions in Edmonton during 1991 and 1992. Grant Horwood, also arrested and charged with the U of A liberation, had his charges stayed at his preliminary trial November 12/92 due to lack of evidence. At my preliminary trial January 11-14/93 Grant refused to take the stand and testify, the judge has ordered him to appear at my trial. If Grant refuses at my trial he may face jail time himself. At the end of my preliminary trial I had three of my additional charges dropped and was ordered to stand trial on the remaining charges. Our so called "just-us" system has kept me caged much like my animal Sisters and Brothers for the last three hundred thirty six days. Denied bail now six times on the grounds that I am a "threat to society"! Oblivious to the fact that I have no previous criminal record and whatever happened to "Innocent until proven Guilty?" Although the real issue here is not whether I am "guilty" of the charges, the important question is: Why is nonviolent action in defence of living beings that are imprisoned and scheduled to be tortured and killed a crime? Why are the vivisectors allowed to roam free while activists working for those that cannot help themselves are jailed? What are the real crimes here? My beliefs were strong before and now they are even stronger. Stronger than the concrete and steel cages where they try and break us. My tears have dried up, I am strong, I am angry. Sisters and Brothers this is a plea, one that you have heard others speak lately. Now is the time to rejoin the wild. Go forth and find your roots, be at one with the eagle, cougar and black bear. Forget your placards, signatures and speeches. For the few that have the strength, the time is here...direct action in defence of Mother Earth. Run free, move fast. Life underground. Be silent, be strong. Fighting the good fight, Darren Thurston Edmonton, Alberta ACCEPT ONE'S DESIRES Dear Folks, I couldn't help but get a kick out of the juxtaposition of two articles in the Spring '93 Anarchy: Raoul Vaneigem's discussion of "Roles" and Michael William's "review" of bisexuality. (Titling it a "review" is charmingly perverse, perhaps a series of such "reviews" could be printed to guide us through the various sexuality options.) On the one hand, Vaneigem discusses the oppressive function of all assigned roles in the Death Culture, then we are treated to gays, lesbians, and bi-s discussing the allowability and very reality of one another's roles in the feminist and gay liberation milieus. I am happy that Anarchy doesn't hold any truck with the "hob- goblins of foolish consistency"; this is not an attempt to hold anyone's feet to the fire of Logic, but perhaps the very profound lessons of the first piece could be applied to the subject of the second. To begin, there is a very real sense that the gay rights movement is not only not revolutionary, but is in fact anti-revolutionary in so far as it demands participation for more people in oppressive institutions such as marriage and the military, not to mention police forces and the halls of government. An openly gay soldier is as much a hired killer in the service of government as is his heterosexual buddy. A legal code that "allows" sodomy reserves its right to withhold and extend permission for its citizens to express their affection. That said, we move to the comments about the status of bisexuality. They seem to all believe that one's identity, one's legitimacy, springs from labels like "gay, bi-, hetero-." Not only that, but there seems to be some who would sit in judgment and decide who is allowed which label. A militant lesbian calling one woman an opportunist because she likes to play with both dicks and pussies is engaged in the same kind of judgmental name-calling as the old-fashioned patriarch calling another woman a tramp because she likes to play with different dicks on different days. Another point is that it doesn't seem entirely rational that anyone picks up a lifetime label from activity on a given day. If a man spends his entire life only making love with women, and one afternoon is seduced by his best friend, he is still the same man. Individual acts of love may fit names and categories, but fully human individuals do not. There is also the question brought up by the gap between desire and action. I may at times have the urge to kill someone, does this make me a murderer? If I at times have the urge to sleep with a woman not my wife am I an adulterer? What matters is whether one can accept one's desires without self- loathing or fear, and choose to act or not act on them in accordance with loving regard of the other creatures involved. As Krishnamurti says, "The desire itself is always honourable." What matters is whether one uses manipulation, deceit, violence or intimidation to take from another what they don't want to give. One other issue puzzles me. That is the question of "who can serve as appropriate role-model" for a given set of individuals. Again, who's supposed to judge? Is there some kind of licensing bureau for role models? Why would anyone want the job in the first place? If your problem is that you don't know how to act, why do you think you'd know who to pick as a model? If you attempt to fit your actions to any model you will end up denying some important part of yourself because there is no one out there who is everything you are, or who will be in the situations you find yourself. The key to freedom is knowing who you are and acting from that. Sincerely, David Fahl, Houston, TX. A HELL OF A BOOK I have just, belatedly, read Lance Klafeta's (a felicitous appellation worthy of a Randian hero!) critique of Ayn Rand (page 59, Fall '92). Unfortunately I lack the requisite brainpower to debate the dialectics of libertarianism with Comrade Klafeta but I would like to comment (I haven't yet read succeeding issues=FE pathological indolence and poverty having, so far, prevented their purchase=FEso I hope I will not cover ground already corresponded). I have only ever read one work by Rand and that is Atlas Shrugged but I think it's a hell of a book: a barnstorming, rabble-rousing, mind-blowing blockbuster of a novel. Whatever Ms. Rand's personality faults (and we all have 'em!) she was evidently a genius: maybe a misguided genius but wow=FEwhat a talent. As someone who's led a slothful and unproductive life I admire Ms. Rand's creative fecundity. Certainly Atlas Shrugged is very much a book of ideas. It stirred up the roily sediment of my mental torpor and=FE transiently=FE energised my mental processes. I feel that my life has been improved and edified thru contact with her work=FEand how many books can one say that about? I feel privileged to have read great novels by Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, etc., which temporarily, at least redeem me from a completely animalistic existence=FEand, in my ever so 'umble opinion, Atlas Shrugged merits inclusion in that canon. Lance (if I may be chummily informal) is probably correct when he points out Ms. Rand's errors of thought. But this does not vitiate her achievement and accomplishment in presenting political debate in a form more accessible than some turgid tomes such as Das Kapital and, thus, stimulating useful discussion of ideas relating to the way we live on Earth. My own feeling is that Ms. Rand's most egregious error is the assumption (shared by our own beloved ex-Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher) that we can all pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and rise above tribulation. Mrs. T. rose from a humble background to the highest office of state & her assiduity and hard work deserve recognition. But life is not fair. For every Maggie Thatcher or Bill Clinton who make it from the bottom of the woodpile up to the top are hundreds of thousands of "ordinary" people=FEso crushed and damaged by the exigencies of their lives that they are unable to clamber out of their despair. The central flaw of Ms. Rand's work (or, rather, Atlas Shrugged which, presumably, embodies & enshrines the generality of her thinking?) is her failure to see human weakness & failure with anything other than withering Nietzschean contempt. This nasty & churlish uncharitableness taints Ms. Rand's novel but I still recommend it to anyone who wants a rollicking rhetorical read. In regard to K.'s "anti-technology" letter and Lev's bizarre response that "we (sic) would like to see a world without elec- tronic computers...." (page 33, Winter '90-91) I cannot share this technophobia. Personally, I would like nothing better than to snuggle up in bed alongside an Apple Mac, or, better, a NeXT, or even better, a Control Data Cyber Sypercomputer (merely $950,000 on the second hand market!). Unfortunately, being a pauper, I have to rely on the mono-modal, lineal PEN. I fail to see any dysjunction between striving for a better world (equitable distribution of resources, etc.) and simultaneously, enthusiastically embracing wonders of silicon- chippery. One obviously deplores the fact of Asian slave labour having to spend hours each day in soulless factory labour churning out hi- tech machines for the affluent West=FEtho', perhaps, for them, it's preferable to whatever alternative would be available under their present political regimes=FE rural poverty=FEhoeing the soil all day for a pittance (agrarian toil may be romantic in the imaginations of some readers but the reality is back-breaking grind). However, in due course, production lines will be automated and (in Utopia?) self-replicating Neumann machines will service Homo sapiens' needs. Liberation of the masses is more likely to emerge from the spread of technology than jargon-laden political posturing. Best wishes, Michael Zehse London, England [I'm sure the Asian wage-slave laborers are even now all dancing around excitedly anticipating the automation of their production lines, so that you can have your computers and technology which will undoubtedly be distributed freely by some future benevolent technocracy! Talk about "bizarre" thoughts! -Lev] MINDS FOCUSSED Dear Jason and fellow brothers and sisters of the C.A.L., First of all, I do hope that this letter finds you all in the very best of health & happiness these days.[...] I would like to inform ya that I've been transferred to another prison due to my alleged "involvement" in the recent riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, which took place in April. There is so much I'd like to share with you regarding my experience with it but my lawyer has advised me against any type of media interviews at this time, but I will say that although un- fortunately I wasn't able to "save" my former collection of Anarchy (which consisted of issues #17 to #34) they did serve a vital pur- pose within the first day of the ordeal, in that, upon my passing them out to the men in the corridor, many folks really got into them, and kept their minds focussed on the real & positive issues behind it all. It's hard to explain in a way that won't be perceived as in- criminating to myself or anyone else, but in my opinion those issues of Anarchy were quite a bit of the glue that kept us united. And in good sense enough to make it through that shit without all of that "energy" regarding the issues surrounding the incident, turning "inward" and causing us to consume ourselves instead. Can ya dig it? Anyway, I just wanted to inform you of my transfer, and to assure you that if they put a ban on Anarchy from entering here, I will be sure to let ya know.[...] John Salyers #185067 POB 1368 Mansfield, OH. 44901 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Anarchist Contacts This is a listing of addresses of groups and individuals who would like to see the growth and development of anarchist practice of one form or another. The list may help those participating to make re- gional contacts and intercommunication links based on their self- defined perspectives. If you'd like to see your address added to this listing just write to us and we'll include your name, address, and a short (20 words or less) description of your perspective, practice and/or desires. Each contact address will be run in two successive issues. (Note: We are only compiling this list, we are not endorsing the positions of those who have asked to be listed.) Dan McGarrigan IIII 333 Springhouse Road Newtown, PA. 18940 "I like punk music, political rap, nature Wicca, and debating against right wing extremists." Mike Kelly #493005 & Victor Mendoza #410216 Clements Unit 9601 NE 24th Ave. Amarillo, TX. 79107 "Anarchist revolutionary artists." Pong Juie Jung 205 School Street Somerville, MA 02143 "Situationalist/zerowork/vegetarian/simple living/ urban survivalist/samurai/ Native American cultures." Bloodclot University of Houston Box 926113 Houston, TX. 77292-6113 "Campus-aired radical/ anarchist TV program seeks your political films, videotape footage and input." Adrienne 5515 South 362nd Auburn, WA. 98002 "Reaching for a world with FREE action, punk music, great films and RID of greedy brainwashing slave drivers with no point!" Chris Greene RR#1, Box 418 Moultonboro, NH. 03254 "Main interests are agriculture, diet, sexuality, intentional community, activism." William Smith #69359 Az. St. Prison, POB 3300 Goodyear, AZ. 85338 "Long-haired, tattooed, scarred-up convict; I've done 15 yrs with 5 more to go. Convicted murderer...looking for pen pals."