On an anarchist coming out. Of the vast majority of radicals out there in the United States, and even the anarchists specifically, there are but a small minority who make up the young, white, black clad male that the media has sold to us – and we’ve believed. In countless TV news stories, magazine articles and even blog posts from anarchists themselves, we joined this image, violent and ridiculous, together with the definition of anarchy, anarchism. For all that we are willing to discard as told to us by the corporate media, this we’ve instead accepted like lemmings. Even many of us anarchists are ashamed of how we come across, act, exist.
But wait… if I stop and think for a moment, i know that it’s not true. I mean, sure, there are the young and black clad rolling along with their dumpsters ablaze. And I try and accept all people for what point they’re at in struggle. Of course, I’d like to dialogue about goals, strategies for meeting those goals, tactics applied as part of these strategies, etc. But I’m not also here to tell them what to do. More importantly, there are thousands and thousands of anarchists out there who are of all ages, genders, races, sexualities, abilities and dress styles. Anarchism isn’t a proscribed method, it’s the antithesis of rigid doctrines based in hierarchy, oppression and violence. We’re not all gonna get it right but we’re also not gonna try to get it all the same. And… we’re gonna try.
Additionally, and to the point, we (because of our overblown disdain of a few of us) are shamed into closeting ourselves through the world. I’m not talking about family (i.e. the one you group up with) or work or school, though those are equally important spaces in which to pose these questions. I’m talking rather about in our organizations, collectives, cooperatives, etc. I’m talking about in our political lives.
Here’s the kicker. Most of these types of spaces (outside of the authoritarian communist or socialist groups and the corporate non-profit world) are built on not only the very principles of anarchism but have instituted processes and structures and cultures directly and openly put forth by anarchism.
People and groups use words like horizontalism or non-hierarchical… what do y’all think those are synonyms for? Anarchism, anarchy. Anarchist Direct Action Network affinity groups in the 1990s were the some of the most recent proponents and disseminators of these processes.* Around the world from the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico to the horizontalist movement throughout Argentina to countless autonomous movements in the Americas and beyond, people are implementing these ideas. Including a diversity and variety of groups in the US. Different cultures give them different names or no name at all and, to be honest, the ‘name’ is, on a wider scale, not that important.
The question is: why, despite our support of/admiration of these movements, can we not accept folks in the US with the same ideals because we don’t like “anarchists?” Are we that brainwashed by the corporate media that we let them define who we are for us?
And there’s more. Let’s step away from movements in other cultures and countries. In the last 10-15 years in the US, “anarchists” have come to have a particular definition – read: image. Remember, Seattle to Pittsburgh, masks and broken windows. But what about the last 150 years or more?
For decades and decades of US history, anarchists were undefinable by race or class or gender. They were immigrants from the Europe and Mexico (in fact for awhile immigration law specifically barred anarchists from entering the country), they were poor women working the looms in factories, they were black women coming out of Southern Slavery like Lucy Parsons, they were Wobblies. They fought and died for free speech and abolition and women’s liberation; for birth control, the 8-hour day and the list goes on. They were mostly working class but also academics; they were otherwise, hard to categorize.
For me, well, I carry this history, this herstory, with pride. Sure it’s not perfect and lately we screw it up sometimes. But we also have shown an undeniable capacity to learn and grown and change.
But we have found ourselves in collectives and organizations and groups where we’re respected because we’re committed to “real work.” Social change in the day-to-day, community support and creation as a way of life. Separately or simultaneously, many of us find ourselves in ideology-based groups that are isolated from other organizing. Living these parallel lives, when we are not in the safety/comfort of the group with a stronger base in anarchism, we are silent about these ideas
When we’re not, we’re often demonized. This past New Years, a young, black man in Oakland, Oscar Grant, was shot close range and killed by BART Police.* The city and area erupted in riotous response at the ongoing violence against the black community from policing forces. As organic riots broke out in fury at this, anarchists from around the bay, participated and supported people in their communities, in our communities showing their anger.
The media and (mostly white) liberal, progressive types were outraged and condemned the anarchists for provoking the response. Simultaneously pigeon-holing anarchists and condescending to the rest of the (black) crowds as if they were so blindly led astray, these “activists” and “do-gooders” of the left reinforced once again why anarchists have to fight every step of the way. This was in turn dwarfed by the clearly racist response to justified anger. Neither was acceptable. You know who gave a shit about people revolting in the Oakland streets? Community organizers including anarchists. I watched as meetings happened across lines of race, class, political and religious belief. I watch these supposed demons of young anarchists work tirelessly to try and find all arrested, do legal support and continue to push the issue of injustice handed out by the cops and state. They were an active piece of a large collaboration of many groups. At the end of the day, they were still portrayed as the bad guys. They were peace-policed by people who should’ve been comrades and were talked shit about by hipsters without context outside of the quickly dispersed racist liberal scolding.
While I’ve seen moments and examples that contradict this experience, they are rare, whereas this is one that feels all too common. So we anarchists keep quiet as we walk through a world we have been dedicated to and helped to build. And I think, haven’t some of us, haven’t most of us earned more respect than that? Hasn’t the historical legacy earned the right to have the word ‘anarchism’ taken seriously?
People on the right, in the middle, hell, all over the political spectrum always challenge: we know what you’re against but what are you for? What’s your solution? Anarchism offers a solution; better yet, it offers an infinite number of possible solutions. We’re against capitalism and neoliberalism and state violence and oppression (institutional and individual). Sounds familiar right? Most of us are on that page. Anarchism adds to that the principle of collectivism and mutual aid, the reinvention of the individual and the dismantling of all oppressions, direct democracies and consensus models. It’s a base upon which to build a new world – new worlds – and communities.
In all it’s flaws, it always has tried to be this. Anarchism is whatever we want it to be, it has a million names, a million faces. Those of us who identify with it do so with conviction and thought and hopefully self-critique. And I believe that the more we accept an openly radical alternative, the more we can build strong, diverse, powerful and long-lasting movements for social change.
I’ve never been very good at keeping closeted in any facet of my life and I’d like to believe this is no different. I’m coming out today – I’m an anarchist and I’m proud of that. I’d like to encourage all of you out there to join me in coming out and bringing an ongoing, day-to-day, hard-working, hard-organizing, radical vision to the table. May we always listen and learn and challenge ourselves to change; may we build new worlds in the shell of this dying one.
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