Perspectives on Anarchist Theory - Vol 2, No 1 - Spring 1998

7/30/2019 Perspectives on Anarchist Theory - Vol 2, No 1 - Spring 1998

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The Institute forAnarchist StudiesContentsIAS UpdateBeing a Radical Professor

Spring 199

Radical Cities and Social Revolution:An Interview with Janet BiehlThe abstractness and programmatic emptiness socharacteristic of contemporary radical theoryindicates a severe crisis in the left. It suggests aretreat from the belief that the ideal of acooperative, egalitarian society can be madeconcrete and thus realized in actual socialrelationships. It is as though - in a period of changeand demobilization - many radicals have ceded the

right and the capacity to transform society toCEO's and heads of state.Janet BiehFs new book, The Politics of SocialEcology: Libertarian Municipalism, is an affront tothis. It challenges the politically resigned with adetailed, historically situated anti-statist and anti-capitalist politics for today.I asked Biehl about her new work in the fall of1997 by email . - Chuck Morse7 our book is essentially programmatic: you setibertarian municipalism in a historical context and offer concrete suggestions for practice.What political circumstances made it seem especially important to produce this book now?As the political dimension of social ecology -the body of ideas developed by Murray Bookchinsince the 1950s - libertarian municipalism is alibertarian politics of political and social revolution. It constitutes both a theory and a practice forbuilding a revolutionary movement whose ultimateaim is to achieve an equal, just, and free society.My book is intended as a simple articulation ofthese ideas, which Bookchin himself has expounded elsewhere.Briefly, for readers who do not know, libertar

ian municipalism calls for the creation of semanaged community political life at the municiplevel: the level of the village, town, neighborhooor small city. This political life would be embodiein institutions of direct democracy: citizens' assemblies, popular assemblies, or town meetings. Whesuch institutions already exist, their democratpotential and structural power could be enlargewhere they formerly existed, they could be reviveand where they never existed, they could be createanew. But within these institutions people acitizens could manage the affairs of their owcommunities themselves - rather than relying ostatist elites - arriving at policy decisions througthe processes of direct democracy.To address problems that transcend the bounaries of a single municipality, the democratizemunicipalities in a given region would formconfederation, sending delegates to a confedercouncil. This confederation would not be a statsince it would be controlled entirely by the citizenassemblies. The delegates that the assemblies senwould have the power only to advance decisionmade by their assemblies; they would be mandateand easily recallable.As the libertarian municipalist movement greand as ever more municipalities became democraized and confederated in this way, the confeerations would hopefully become powerful enougto constitute themselves into dual power, one thcould finally be pitted in opposition to the natiostate. At that point either a confrontation wouensue, or the citizenry would defect to the ne

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IAS Grant AwardsThe IAS annually awards $6000 in grants towriters whose work is important to the anarchistcritique of domination, who exhibit a clearfinancial need, and whose piece is likely to be[ widely distributed. On January 17, 1998 the IAS| Board of Directors was pleased to award grantst to the following individuals:Ij S2000 to Chris Day for Anarchism and the| Zapatista Revolution. This book will develop arevolutionary, anti-authoritarian analysis of! Zapatismo as expressed in the words and deeds of

the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN)and Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico. Itwill have three main components: an empiricalinvestigation of Zapatista theory and practice, aconsideration of the two main forms of libertarianthinking in Mexico - the traditions of indigenousautonomy and European anarchism; and finallyan investigation of the more recent historicaroots of the EZLN in the Mexican New Left andthe indigenous struggles of Chiapas in the pasfew decades. It will draw out. some of theContinued on Page 12


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Perspectiveson anarchist theorOn Choosing to Be a Radical Professor

by John SchumacherAt a time when anti-authoritarian social critiquemust be reevaluated and developed, it is especiallyimportant to engage, challenge, and transform theinstitutional settings in which this work takesplace. John Schumacher helps us understand someof the dilemmas faced by those in the university.How do you, as a radical, expect to influencepeople? Will people read what you have to write?Or hear what you have to say? Will they be readyto read or hear it? Or do their lives have to ceasebeing smooth first, so that they ask questions wherebefore there were only routine answers? A radicalneeds a nose for situations in which people areready for a radical lesson, or alternatively, needs tobe a facilitator of that readiness.So, why not choose to be a radical professor? Youwill work with people at the most liberal time oftheir lives (though one wonders how long such atime will survive, as today only 27% of first-yearcollege students - less than half of what it was 30years ago - think that keeping up with politics is aworthy life goal), and the residue of academicfreedom and tenure provides more opportunity forbeing radical than you will find in, for example,secondary education. Being a professor also

provides a living, not the "decent poverty"advocated by Paul Goodman, but typically notembarrassingly more either.You can be a radical professor in various ways, butthe primary divide, again, is between those whostress writing or speaking and those who stresshelping people get ready to read or hear. Few doboth well, but only the latter is necessary to being asuccessful radical professor. Headstrong, I startedout by trying to change the minds of my students,rather than making it possible for them to changetheir own minds. I needed to learn how to be afacilitator.Anarchism is just one subject among others at thelevel of writing or speaking, but has no peer whenit comes to learning how to be a facilitator. I willtry to explain this, but first I want to say a fewwords about the university context.

The University ContextHow can you influence young people if you can'tsing? In 1971 I chose to teach college-age youngpeople at a research university in the USA. I hadmore opportunity then to develop my radicalagenda, both in and out of the university.

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Recommended ReadingWe asked two authors to tell us about their

favorite books on a vital topic: radical politicsafter the fall of the Soviet Union?Arif Dirlik, author of many works includingAnarchism in the Chinese Revolution (California,1993) and After the Revolution: Waking to GlobalCapitalism (Wesleyan, 1994), writes: "In thesedays of globalization craze, it is difficult often todistinguish critiques from celebrations ofglobalization. While there are many books onglobalization, I am particularly fond of WilliamGreider's, One World, Ready or Not: The ManicLogic of Global Capitalism (Simon & Schuster,1997) for its comprehensiveness, its revelationsabout globalization through the eyes of those whoare creating it, and its keen critical edge. In thesame vein. Manuel Castell's, The Power ofIdentity; Vol.2 of The Information Age: Economy,Society and Culture (Blackwell, 1997), offers amost sensitive analysis of the various kinds ofpolitics bred by globalization, and the levels at

which an appropriate resistance politics may beformulated. Finally, place-based resistance is thetheme taken up by Jeremy Brecher and TimCostello's Global Village or Global Pillage:Economic Reconstruction From the Bottom Up(South End, 1994).Kathy Ferguson, author of A Feminist CaseAgainst Bureaucracy (Temple, 1985), writes:"Two thoughtful recent books represent for metwo contrasting dimensions of politics with whichanarchism has historically engaged: broadphilosophical efforts to conceptualize keyconcepts in politics; and specific, groundedinquiries into practices of political change. One isWendy Brown's States of Injury: Power andFreedom in Late Modernity (Princeton UniversityPress, 1995). Brown's book is highly theoretical,drawing intellectual tools from Nietzsche, Marx,Foucault, Weber, and contemporary feministtheory. Brown targets the liberal regulatory state

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Biblioteca Popula'Jose Ingenieros'The Biblioteca Popular 'JoIngenieros' in Buenos Airesa remarkable counteinstitution dedicated to popueducation, the preservationanarchist history, and radicopposition.Founded in 1935, it has servas a consistent center anarchist activity in BuenAires and Argentina as a whoIt provides meeting space anarchist groups, a lendilibrary for neighborhood chren, and a film program nowits thirtieth year. It also holwhat is probably the secolargest archive of anarchmaterial in South Ameri(surpassed only by the EdgaLeuenroth collection at BrazUniversidade Estadual Campinas).The Archive has been open afunctioning for five yearsholds material dating fro1895 to the present andthirteen languages. They ahave a particularly larcollection of anarchist matein Yiddish.You can help the library sending anarchist publicatioof any sort, books for thlending library, as well financial contributions. Cotributions can be made in Udollars and correspondence cbe handled in most malanguages. Please make sureenclose a contribution if yare requesting informationphotocopies.

Please contact the library aBiblioteca Popular 'Jose"Ingenieros'J. Ramirez de Velasco #95

(1414) Buenos AiresArgentina


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Perspectiveson anarchist theoryContacts &Addresses

AK PressPO. Box 40682San-Francisco, CA 94140Web: http:/Avww.akpress.orgBlack Rose Books1*800-283-3572; Welx&ttp://www.web.net/blackrosebooks/orderingJitm

The Kate Sharpley LibraryBM HurricaneLondon, WC1N 35^ UK;Web:http:/ymembers;aol;com/wellslake//Sharpleyaitm

TfteMeltzerEressPOBox^ Hastings,East Sussex,. MmmM, UK.DoulasJ&rMcIn{$re.16a5V*JbSbles Steetancouver;:BCV5L2H1 Canada1-800-667-6902

'Seeking i^wtiMGnyon the-ivheredboitb^f helqng lost,final bronze cast of the Saccoand 'VanzettV bas-rditf byGulzman Borglum. The mayorof Boston recenfry accepted acopy of this sculpture '(one* ofthree copies made from the-plaster cast dlaiteaElifer; .Versionof scdptur ) ; r ,ftshaxi 'beenrepeatedly refi^ed" ' both thecity and the state sincV 1-937. Ithad been found by a junkman in1960 in an abandoned warehouse and now hangs in theBoston Public.Library. However, only photosiirefnain of thefmal, bronze sculpture /and thelast known Ideation\af ifliesculpture was the Borglumestate in Stamford, CT, where itwas shipped m T940. If youhave any leads please contactJerry Kaplan at P0 Box381323, Cambridge,MA 02238orjerry_kapIan@harvardidu. .

What's Happening: Books & EventsThe domination and exploitation of women by thestate is the subject of Race, Class, Women and theState: The Case of Domestic Labour by TanyaSchecter. Focusing on the Canadian state, Schecterargues that the state "consciously acted to takeadvantage of [Third World] women's desperation,of their poverty, in order to find a cheap supply ofdomestics for its own citizens while limiting itsown social expenditures...The end result... beinga mistress-servant relationship." Due out inFebruary 1998 from Black Rose Books.The dimensions of anarchist thought continue togrow with new contributions by and about twoeminent anarchist thinkers. Continuing hishistorical analysis of revolutionary struggle,Murray Bookchin's second volume of The ThirdRevolution: Popular Movements in the Revolutionary Era is now available from CassellAcademic. In addition, Noam Chomsky's extensivework is examined in Chomsky's Revolution:Cognitivism and Anarchism by Carlos Otero. Dueout in March 1998 from Blackwell Publishers.The lives of anarchists and fellow radicals are thesubject of several new books this year. AlbertMeltzer is commemorated in The Albert Memorial:The Anarchist Life and Times of Albert Meltzer byPhil Ruff. A collaborative effort between theMeltzer Press and the Kate Sharpley Library(KSL), this remembrance of Meltzer'scontroversial and remarkable life includes photos,essays, and thoughts from close friends. Fiftypercent of sales go toward the KSL's publishingprojects (available from Meltzer Press or the KSL).Joseph Labadie, better known for the extensivearchival collection established in his name (theLabadie Collection), will be the subject of a newbiography, Ail-American Anarchist: Joseph A.Labadie and the Labor Movement, by hisgranddaughter, Carlotta Anderson (available inJune 1998 from Wayne State University Press).George Woodcock, one of the definitive historiansof anarchism, will be remembered in The GentleAnarchist: A Life of George Woodcock by DougFetherling (available in February 1998 fromDouglas & Mclntyre Publications).

IAS on the Web IAS Publications Grant Applications Helpful Links

http://members.aol.com/iastudy/Default.htm

Another radical life is recounted in the first peby William Herrick in his autobiography Jumin Line: the Adventures and Misadventures oAmerican Radical. He is the author of sevnovels, including the award winning Hermanan anti-Stalinist book based on his experiencthe Spanish Civil War.The history of Spanish anarchism is exploredcelebrated with two re-releases by AK PreMurray Bookchin's The Spanish Anarchists: Heroic Years 1868-1936 is now available in a edition with a new preface by Bookchin. A1936: The Spanish Revolution by The "anarchist-art-agitators", is available again 144 pages of photos, essays, and two 3" edstwo Spanish anarchist songs and two origcompositions performed by The Ex. Many otitles, new and old, are available from Aextensive (and free) 1998 catalog.The Labadie Collection, a large archivanarchist materials and other social proliterature, has recently received several donaof manuscript materials which include: a collecof research and biographical materials onanarchist writer/poet J. William Lloyd; origresearch notebooks and manuscripts of FraBartlett, the Marxist psychoanalyst; ABluestein's papers; a small collection of matewhich belonged to Emma Goldman (letters fBerkman and others, official documents, identification cards); and a collection of materelating to E.F. Doree, Secretary-Treasurer ofTextile Workers Industrial Union of the IWduring WWI, who was imprisoned with ninety-others for violation of the Draft and EspionActs of 1917. For information, contact the LabaCollection at: Special Collections Library, 7Harlan Hatcher Library, University of MichigAnn Arbor, Michigan 48109; tel. (313) 764-93Web address: http://www.Iib.umich.edu/libhoSpecColl.lib/labadie.html.Several conferences on radical social theory wiheld this year. The 16th Annual Socialist SchoConference will be held March 20 to 22, 1998Borough of Manhattan Community College, Chambers Street. The theme of the Conferenc"A World to Win: From the Manifesto to NOrganizing for Socialist Change." For minformation, call (212) 642-2826 or check out twebsite at http://www.soc.qc.edu/ssc/conference on "Work, Difference, and SoChange" is being held at the State Universit


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Perspectiveson anarchist theoork at Binghamton from May 8 to 10,1998.

omy. For more info: contact: Chuck Koeber at

's still a chance to find great anarchist books.place on Saturday, March 14, 1998,10am

Golden Gate Park by Ninth Avenue and Lincoln. Admission is free. Artists and Speakers, Pat Califia, and

ogether Books at

17,(415)431-8355 orct AK Press.recordings

lable from Radio Free Maine in both audio andinclude: Chomsky's "Mediaorship and Our Right to Know," "The Role of

ion or a catalog, contact Roger Leisner,Box 2705, Augusta, Maine8, (207) 622-6629 tel/fax.os on Argentine anarchist history are availableFundacion Almubrar. Works in progress0's - the anarchist-inspired and longest runninge history - and a piece on thetorship. Videos are $15 each. Write them at:iago Del Estero 2664 5 (1075) Buenos Aires,

s from 1896 to 1897, has

Quilmes, Roque Saenz Pena 180, Bernal, 1876,Buenos Aires, Argentina.For those interested in French-language, anarchistmaterial, Refractions is a new journal on anarchisttheory. It covers a variety of issues from ananarchist perspective, such as technology,democracy, gender, and ecology. Please contactthem at: Les Amis de Refractions, BP 33, 69571Dardilly cedex, France.The State Adversary, an impressive anarchistjournal from New Zealand, is a great source notonly on anarchist effortsin New Zealand but alsofor international coverage. It is published bythe State Adversary

Collective, an independent, autonomouscollective based inWell ington, NewZealand, and subscriptions are $10 for fourissues. Send subscriptions or inquiries to: TheState Adversary, PO Box9 2 6 3 , T e A r o ,Wellington, Aotearoa,New Zealand.Jura Books and the Lucy Parsons Center, twoanarchist bookstores and meeting places, are inneed of help. Jura Books, one of the few remainingradical bookstores in Sydney, Australia, recentlycelebrated its 20th anniversary. They needfinancial contributions in order to continue payingfor their building, increasing the Media RoomProject collection of books and pamphlets, payingfor daily expenses, and increasing book stocks.Send contributions to P.O. Box N32, 440Parramatta Road, Petersham North, NSW 2049,Sydney, Australia. The Lucy Parsons Center ofCambridge, Massachusetts, is facing eviction inearly 1998 due to their landlord's proposal todemolish 18 storefronts in order to construct a16-story plaza of chain stores and high-rentapartments. In order to move to a new locationwithout going under, the Lucy Parsons Centerneeds your help in the following ways: make atax-deductible donation; offer professional skills(such as experience in grant writing, fundraising,and accounting); offer expertise in real estate;donate radical books; or have the Lucy ParsonsCenter table at your event. Contact the LucyParsons Center at 3 Central Square, Cambridge,Massachusetts 02139, (617) 497-9934.

^The Ihstitutef or Social Ecology.(ISE) has, Jbeen -.*a -center oecological activism, radicacommunity development, and-eco-anarchist;theory since was foundedin-1974.The ISE!s, programs, whichinclude summer sessions,: workshops, conferences, and;to July 24.;

.- Formoremfonnation:,Institute for Social Ecology:. "?"^&4BSpf;;" ''Plainfield Vitmoht ....'--';-05665;^usa. : ;Th: (802) 454-8493".Web: http://www ta6.ca/-rise/

mdexmtml .


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-on anarchist theory

JanetB ieh l

Janet Biehl has always goneagainst the prevailing fashions.Born in 1953 in Cincinnati,Ohio, she did not join the radical movements of the 1960'slike many of her peers. On thecontrary, she describes herselfas 'rather straight' during mistime.However, in early 1970's,when many were abandoningcultural radicalism, Biehl -wasinspired by avant-garde performance groups such as theLiving Theater and subsequently completed a degree inIheaterat Wesleyan University.The desire to become anactress led her to New YorkCity, where-BiehLbeganto tornto radicals thfeory iand politics.Although the New Left wasnow a thing.of ^he past, theelection of Ronald Reagan andher growing disenchantmentwith the arts made this a naturalchoice.While pursuing an MA inliberal arts at the CUNYgraduate center, she becameaware of Murray Bookchin'swork and attended the Institutefor Social Ecology in 1986.Bookchin's work helped Biehlarticulate her radical commitments with a new fullness.Shortly thereafter shesnoved toBurlington, Vermont, to workmore closely with Bookchinand became his companion andclosest collaborator. She livesand works withhim to this day,making her living as a freelancecopy editor. Unlike many ofher generation - whose livesconstitute a long retreat fromyouthful radicalism - Biehl hasgone consistently in theopposite direction.

Radical Cities and Social Revolution:... Continued from page 1system that gave them full control over their lives,"hollowing out" the power of the nation-state. Atthe same time the municipalities would take controlof economic life from private corporations, expropriating the expropriators. A rational, libertarian,ecological society could then be formed, wherestructural power would reside in directlydemocratic assemblies inhabited by an active, vitalcitizenry.My book lays out concrete steps by which amovement could be formed to create such a directdemocracy. It emphasizes the crucial role of aneducated group of committed individuals who,through study groups and local municipal electoralcampaigns, build a movement by spreading theseideas in their communities.The book has been needed for a long time, andI only regret that we didnt have it back when wewere working in the Left Green Network.1 Just howmuch it's been needed is indicated by the fact thatwithin only a few weeks of its publication, comrades in other parts of the world made arrangements to translate it into five European languages,and discussions are under way for several others.

7ou place libertarian municipalism in thenarchist tradition and embrace its anti-statistand anti-capitalist goals. However, your emphasison the conflict between the municipality and thestate (as opposed to the conflict between labor andcapital) is a departure from several dominanttendencies in the anarchist tradition. Why is thisdeparture important?First let me clarify that Bookchin does notoppose libertarian municipalism to the conflictbetween labor and capital. His intention is, rather,to broaden class struggle by connecting it to themunicipality-state conflict; to introduce transclassissues - especially hierarchical domination andecological dislocations - into formulations of classstruggle; and to give class struggle a direct democratic base, grounded in a self-managed civic political culture. Libertarian municipalism is an effortto make class conflict a civic issue as well as anindustrial one. It's actually not so unusual: after all,revolutionary class struggles have historically beenbased in municipalities. The uprisings in Paris in1848 and in 1870-71 were fought around barricades that were located in neighborhoods. Both inRed Petrograd in 1917 and in Barcelona in 1936-37, strong neighborhood civic cultures were crucialarenas for their respective revolutions.Within the anarchist tradition, the municipality-state conflict goes back at least to Proudhon's

1863 book on federalism, which called for a feation of autonomous communes. Bakunin absothis call and made it a central part of the progrhe wrote in the late 1860s. In those same yecommunalist ideas were becoming widespamong opponents of Napoleon Ill's centralizedin France. So in 1871, when Prussia defeFrance and the French government collapsed, cmunalist ideas were already in place to infuseParis Commune when it sprang up on the ruithe Second Empire. After only a few weeks' eence, the Commune met with a disastrous endmany radicals - not only anti-statists but also Mfor a while - were inspired by the Commuaudacious example and regarded the federatiautonomous communes as the model polstructure for a free, self-managed society. Inlater 1870s the idea passed into the programs oJura Federation, which regarded the commfederation as integral to the post-revolutiosociety.Libertarian municipalism draws on histocommunalism, both in its anarchist and Matheoretical forms, as well as its concrete traditiorevolutionary history, going back to the FreRevolution of 1789. At the same time it tahistorical communalism further. Where early cmunalism saw the communes as mainly admrative in function, merely providing "public sices," and gave actual decision-making powerto workers' associations (whose federation wparallel that of the federated communes), libeian municipalism envisions the commune direct democracy that controls the economy. where anarchist communalists thought peowould form communes spontaneously afterstate collapsed by other means, libertarian munalism provides for a revolutionary transitiowhich the federation of communes would becomdual power against the nation-state.My point is that the communalist traditiowhich libertarian municipalism is a developmisn't by any means alien to the anarchist traditin fact, it was present at the creation.fXne way anarchists have distinguished thV_y selves from others in the socialist traditioby emphasizing the importance of counter-cultas well as counter-institutions for a general relutionary strategy. What is the relationship, in yview, between these efforts and the struggle forradical, directly democratic political institutidescribed in your book?It's been much to the detriment of anarchand the left generally that so much attention


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Perspective- on anarchist then anarchist theAn Interview with Janet Biehl

larger political movement. Artthe existing social order, because bylves they can very easily be coopted anded. In fact, the alienation and dissent that al work of art expresses can sometimes make

sly" hip frisson.Without a political movement that opposesdification as such - and hence capitalism -

New Age spirituality,

le - at the expense of a revolutionary politicssense of community self-management) - hassocial ecologists have had to

emocratize and expand the political realm.

During the course of a political and socialn, people's personalities will doubtless bed, especially as they experience the solidar

particularts, and socially empower themselves. During

political

The danger exists that a community could setes that are racist and sexist, but it would be

irrational for a society predicated on the fulfillmentof the potentialities of all its members to suppressthe potentialities of some. One of the fundamentalsof social ecology, of which libertarian municipalism is the political dimension, is a condemnation of all kinds of social hierarchy and classrule and a call for their dissolution.

rhe idea of potentiality appears throughoutour book. You refer to the "political potentialof the municipality," our "uniquely human potentiality" for a rational society, etc. Please tell memore about this concept of potentiality?This question touches on the philosophicaldimension of social ecology, dialectical naturalism,a topic too complex to explore thoroughly here; I'drefer interested readers to Bookchin's Philosophyof Social Ecology (2nd ed. revised). I'll merely say,in brief, that as a developmental philosophy (asopposed to an analytical philosophy), dialecticalnaturalism focuses on processes unfolding in bothnatural evolution and social history, especiallythose that tend, however obliquely and tortuouslyand even abortively at times, toward greater freedom, self-consciousness, and reflexivity.As a developmental philosophy, dialecticalnaturalism uses a vocabulary that reflects developmental processes: potentiality, emergence, unfolding, growth, actualization, fulfillment. Where analytical philosophy presupposes fixity, dialecticalphilosophy presupposes movement, and not merelykinesis but directional movement.

By focusing on the potentialities of a situation,dialectical rationality encourages us to examinewhat kind of future could logically emerge fromthat situation. Thus, the municipality as it existstoday contains the potentiality to become democratized and part of a rational society; the achievement of a libertarian municipalist society wouldmark the fulfillment or actualization of thatpotentiality.

7ou call upon people to overthrow capitalismnd the state, and to create a free societyinformed by reason, solidarity, and an ethos ofcitizenship. However, your discussion of thecolonization of social life by capitalism, the assaulton communities, and the dissolution of the politicalrealm seems to describe the destruction of thesources from which we could derive the capacity tobuild a social alternative. From where, under theseconditions, can we find the strength and insightneeded to create a free society?

Today's society of instant gratificationContinued on Next Page

Janet Biehl:Selected WorksThe Politics of Social EcologLibertarian MunicipalismMontreal: Black Rose, 1997.The Murray Bookchin Read(editor). London: Cassell Acdemic, 1997.Ecofascism: Lessons from tGerman Experience (with PeStaudenmaier). San FranciscAK Press, 1996.Rethinking Ecofeminist Potics. Boston: South End Pres1991.

"Militia Fever: The Fallacy'Neither Left nor Right"' GrePerspectives, No. 37,1996."European Greens: FroMovement to Party," Socieand Nature, No. 3, 1993"Women and the DemocratTradition," Green PerspectiveNo. 16 & 17,1989."Goddess Mythology and Eclogical Politcs" New PoliticVol. 2, No. 2, 1989."Critique of the Draft Prograof the Left Green Networ(with Murray Bookchin), GreePerspectives, No. 23, 1991.


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Perspectives- on anarchist theory... Biehl Coninuedperpetually gives us the message that our aimin life is to maximize our personal happiness,within the framework of capitalism. It giveslittle or no cultural support to subordinatingimmediate personal needs to the pursuit of alarger goal. It shrivels our imagination fromexpansively envisioning a better world tosubmersing itself in matters of practical survival and the consumption of goods and services. It systematically strips us of what earliercenturies would have called our better nature.Not only does this social order commodity and exploit us, it obscures our historicalmemory and thereby stupefies us. It wouldlike us to forget that for centuries peopleparticipated in efforts for social transformation mat did not bear fruit in their lifetimes.Not only did they not need immediate gratification, they did not expect it and werewilling to risk exile and punishment, knowing it served the creation of a better society.We therefore have to recognize that theimmediate gratification of desire is part ofthe system we are fighting. We have to holdon to our historical memory and resist socialamnesia. We must be willing, on some level,to put the cause of creating a better societybefore the cause of putting an espressomachine on the kitchen countertop.If we don't find the strength to persistand maintain our ideals, then our lives will bemeaningless too, and we will become trivialized. We will, as William James once put it,"relapse into the slumber of nonentity fromwhich [we] had been momentarily aroused."So we have to look for other peoplewho, like us, want to uphold human dignity,and who understand that the worst problemour society feces is not El Nino or incompetent nannies but the social order itself. Wefight that social order because a diminutionof our humanity and our best aspirationswould be insufferable.

nism would emerge from the maturation of capitalism's internal contradictions.Do you regard the creation of a libertarianmunicipalist society as an act of will or aculmination of a larger historical process?Ifs both. I have no doubt that our societyis heading toward a crisis - the only questionis whether its immediate cause will be socialor ecological. As Marx pointed out in Capital, capitalist enterprises must either maximize their profits and therefore expand, orelse succumb to their rivals and perish - grow8

or die. Bookchin has added that this imperative puts capitalism on a collision coursewith the natural world. Even as global warming is poised to wreak enormous havoc in thenext century, the discrepancy between richand poor is widening. To maximize its profitson a global basis, capitalism is renderingwhole categories of people useless - by someestimates, about three-fifths of the world'spopulation.I also think we might take another lookat Marx's "immiseration" thesis. He arguedthat the logic of capitalism was to reducewages to the lowest possible level; whenpeople were pauperized, he thought, theywould be impelled to revolt against thebourgeoisie exploiting them. This predictionwas not fulfilled, in part because welfarestates were created that softened the impactof capitalism somewhat. Now that many ofthe social welfare benefits upon which thesocial peace has come to depend are beingwhittled away, the prediction that immiseration will lead to social revolution may yetturn out to be correct.Whatever the cause of the crisis, when itdoes develop, its social outcome will by nomeans necessarily be a rational, ecological,and libertarian society. Its outcome could bea dictatorship, or chaos. If the crisis is toresult in emancipation, at least some degreeof consciousness of the liberatory alternativewill have to be in place beforehand.This is where voluntarism comes in. Pre-revolutionary periods are usually quite short.We are unlikely to have a lot of time to dothe painstaking, molecular work of educationthat a liberatory movement will require.That's the kind of work we should be doingnow: especially building a libertarian municipalist movement, showing people how theycan take their political and economic livesinto their own hands, showing them how theycan build a society that will allow them toreclaim their humanity. It requires endlesspatience, but it must be done. If it is not, thenthe crisis that comes will result in tyranny./t's hard to find a radical theorist theseays not ensconced in the university. Youare an exception and have deliberatelyremained outside of academia. Why is this?The other night I came accross a passagein Bakunin, where he talks about "the historyof all academes." "From the moment he becomes an academician," Bakunin wrote, " . .. the greatest scientific genius inevitablylapses into sluggishness. He loses spontan

eity, his revolutionary hardihood, antroublesome and savage energy characof the genius, ever called to destroy totold words and lay the foundations of theHe undoubtedly gains in politeness, iitarian and practical wisdom, what he lapower of originality. In a word, he beccorrupted."21 think this passage is too hmany academics from all parts of theitical spectrum do try to participate in ppolitical culture, writing books and opieces and articles for a popular readeAnd the research that radical historians academy do on revolutionary movemensocialist-anarchist ideas is certainly uable to those who are trying to buthose traditions.But it's hard for professors to works that directly advance revolutiomovements, works that will educate anspire revolutionary activists and intellecIn a university, most of the writing onemust help consolidate one's career, espby demonstrating scholarship. Writmovement-building work could jeopathat career. So academics tend to addeach other, more than the general publiccertainly much more than the revolutiopublic. In this country, the mass exodleftists from public life into the academundoubtedly vitiated radical political cu

r'ell me about the future of your worou have new projects planned orissues you intend to explore?I'm happy to say mat The Murray Bchin Reader, which I edited, is now avain the U.S. Currently I'm helping Booput together a collection of recent intervand essays, to be called Anarchism, Mism, and the Future of the Left (publisheA.K. Press next year).Some of your readers may be interto know that an international conferenclibertarian municipalism will be held inugal in August 1998. Its purpose will discuss and advance the ideas of libermunicipalism, as defined by this book aBookchin's own writing. Those interesadvancing libertarian municipalism maytact the conference organizers at P.O111, Burlington, VT 05401 [email protected] or [email protected]:1. Biehl and Chuck Morse were co-coordinatorsLeft Green Network Clearinghouse from 1990 to 2. Sam Dolgofi; ed., Bakunin on Anarchy (NewAlfred Knopf, 1972), p. 228.


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Perspective- on anarchist then anarchist theAbe Bluestein: An Anarchist Life

ein, were active in the anarchist group in theonal Ladies' Garment Workers' Union andModem School of Stelton,

had many lengthysions with my father - even before I was in

lly the Conquest of Bread, Mutual Aid, and

torian of his junior high class like so manys before him. His family then left for

College,

s on street corners, getting into

by the Wobblies with iron pipes wrapped withhandkerchiefs." However, the highlight of Abe'sanarchist activities was the Spanish Civil War, as itwas for many anarchists who yearned to practiceanarchist principles.In May, 1937, Abe and his life-long partner SelmaCohen, a fine-artist and radical herself, traveled toSpain and took part in the revolution. Heconducted radio broadcasts and sent out weeklybulletins to U.S. and British publications and,informally, worked as an information officer forthe CNT. A year later they returned to America andAbe translated Augustin Souchy's With thePeasants of Aragon (a book on the peasantcollectives in Aragon, Spain), among many otherworks.Abe found himself caught in the dilemma that toreapart the anarchist movement: WWII. He was apacifist and could not bring himself to support thewar. The standoff between the pacifists and thosewho supported WWII in order to fight fascismcaused many groups, including Abe's, to fall apart.The controversy led to massive inactivity amongthe anarchists, and Abe became less and lessinvolved.

During the post-WWII political era, Abe worked asa reporter for the Jewish Daily Forward and theAmerican Labor Union. In the 70's, Abe helpededit News from Libertarian Spain and worked withthe Libertarian Book Club. At this time, Abemostly made his living in the social services and,for a while, managed the United HousingFoundation, an organization that included theAmalgamated co-ops where he had lived as ateenager.Though he became less active as he grew older, hisconstant passion for the spirit and ideals ofanarchism stayed with him throughout his life, andhe sought to instill them wherever he could. Abe,when interviewed in 1972, said: "the answer liesprimarily in education - 'freedom througheducation', as Elizabeth Ferm (one of the foundersof the Stelton School) put it. All my life I have putmy faith in trade unions, cooperatives, andeducation as constructive channels. Is thisinconsistent with anarchism?" ~ Rebecca DeWittNote: Abe Bluestein's comments are taken fromPaul Avrich's Anarchist Voices: An Oral Historyof Anarchism in America (Princeton, 1995)

Works byAbe Bluestein

Although Abe Bluestein wprimarily an activist, he mavaluable literary as well practical contributions to tanarchist movement.He translated Agustin Souchimportant With the PeasantsAragon: Libertarian Commuism in the Liberated Areas (Sof Liberty and CienfuegPress, 1982). He alassembled and edited Fightefor Anarchism: Mollie Steimand Senya Fleshin (LibertarPublications Group, 1983) awrote Forgotten Men, WhNow?: New Deal "Securi(Libertarian Publishers, 19-)

April 1, 1937 (aboard tAtonia): Abe Bluestein & SelCohen on their way to Spain.** Photo courtesy of the LabadCollection, Special CollectioLibrary, University of Micigan. Special thanks to JuHerrada, who also provided tbibliographic information.


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L on anarchist theorv

RecommendedReading

... continues from page 1(e.g., the contemporary U.S.)for collapsing our ideas ofcitizenship and identity intonarrow bureaucratic channels.Looking at some contemporary identity: politics,. Brownfinds what Nietzsche called'ressentiment' a debilitatingpolitics in which 'paralyzingrecriminations, arid toxicresentments.., [parade] asradical critique' (p. xi). Shechallenges feminism to be radical; to contest the dominantterms of debate ratherthan justdemand a share of the existingpie.""The second book enactsthis process of contesting thedominant terms of politicaldebate. In Streets of Hope:The Falland:Risebf:anUrbanNeighborhood;(South End,:1954), Peter MedofTandMdllySklar givea hands-on accountof the rebuilding of a blightedurban aream -Boston by itsudetenrimed.TesTdents. TheDudley Street NeighborhoodInitiative brought together aracially and ethnically diversegrpup of residents to fightiiotonly City Halibut capitalism;and racism, ;?as;*we]l. Theyconfront the specific .obstaclesand dilemmas familiar to mostpeople who have attemptedradical political; change on a4ocal scale: friere.are endlessnegotiations with fundingorganizations,-city agencies,state and federal authorities,local landowners, banks, andcourts. While Brown's book ishelpful for pushing us to thinkradically (that is, to go to theroot of our ideas) about powerand freedom, Street's of Hopesketches concrete examples ofsuch radical pushing againstour society's, dominantinstitutions."

... Radical Professor ContinuedEverywhere you turn today the capitalist bottomline is taking over. Let me give an analogy.Recently two university professors from Uruguayspoke to my department about the problems ofdeveloping a successful research university in theircountry. They were concerned with the quality ofthe science faculty, but the same can be said of anyfaculty: (1) to achieve prestige, one must meetinternational standards, and (2) to do research, onemust have funding. The dilemma is that, for (1),international standards pull scientists way fromaddressing specifically Uruguayan problems, and,for (2), given the financial status of Latin Americancountries (old hands at dealing with the IMFrestmcturing that now focuses on Southeast Asiancountries), funding for science is increasinglyinternational - read, "foreign capital" - pullingscientists away from Uruguay as well. The oldone-two punch, as we say.I am sure I do not need to spell out this analogy,though certainly one thing to note is that (2) isincreasingly a factor in (1), no matter where youare. I was joking the other day, as a take-off on therenaming of Albany's sports and entertainmentarena as the Pepsi Arena, that soon a university willbecome the Pepsi University. But the sponsor doesnot need to be up front, after all, to exert control.(See, for example, Peter Montague, Rachel'sEnvironment and Health Weekly #581, January 15,1998.)Academic standards that you must meet for tenure,and continue to meet every year for raises,promotions, and so on, are inevitably going to pullyou in the wrong direction. Blind peer review, forexample, is a conservative process, working alongthe established hierarchical lines of a profession.But longer odds do not mean no odds at all. Andhere people who stress writing or speaking willhave better chances than those who do not.Teaching, let alone helping young people to beready for a radical lesson, is not high on universityagendas these days.Gaining support for your research is part ofmeeting standards for tenure and so on, even in thehumanities. And again the funding process isproblematic in the same way that the scholarshipprocess is. The IAS itself is an excellent exampleof the right idea: provide some funding, no matterhow little, that will also count for professionalreview.So, it is not so much that a university will try to

shut down a radical directly, but rather indirthrough what look like the routine applicatacademic standards and the routine competitscarce funds. Oh sure, you are always subjectestablished hierarchies of other professoradministrators who will decide your case, andmay well be more in need of a radical lessonyour students are. But today it is easier not tsomeone in the first place, or not to susomeone in the competition for scare prestigsupport, than it is to say someone is too radicarisk one's own reputation, no matter how smrisk. Only 1/4 of college instructors have teand 1/2 of the positions at four-year universitiefilled by adjuncts!But the deepest irony is that the necescondition for being a successful radical proftends to drop out of the picture along witminimization of teaching. Let me now explain

A Facilitator in a University ContextI understand being radical, first, as getting aroot questions underneath the answers we livin the routine of our society and, second, successful in the first phase, as living tquestions. In the course of my career I begpresent this understanding as having a raconscience. I did not want my students to thinto be radical they needed to change their roanswers. No, they needed only to have raconsciences: little birdies in their heads, speak, chirping the root questions, remindingthat it is always possible to change their answIt is no easy task to keep this possibility aliveexample, one day - yikes, now over 20 years my first child came home from elementary scand asked me why the boys were told to get obus first and help the girls off. She had noticeshe was bigger than a lot of the boys, and thacould have helped them off. What a root queat 6! But what happens if no one in her life her to keep it alive? What will she be like btime she is a first-year college student?To be a facilitator of such young people, howyou cannot teach root questions, no matterwell you have developed them - and alternative answers - in writing or speakianything could be said to be the mof George Dennison's First Street Schooanarchist experiment (The Lives of ChildRandom House, 1970) - it was that "learning the result of teaching." (See John SchumacheDavid Wieck, "Childhood and Authority

Continued on P10


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PerspectiveJL on anarchist thetheThe IAS's 1997 Fundraising Campaign

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The IAS needs your suppowemustraise $9200.by Janua1998 to award $6000 in granpublish two issues of Pespectivesy and continue buildithe IAS endowment.Please help make this possibby donating to the IAS. Yocontribution will enable the IAto help authors confront somof the most .difficult questionraised by anarchism and radicsocial theory. Your donatiowill lso make itpqssible for uto publish Perspectives "andbecause we place fS percentevery donation; in! the IAendowment - -make sure tfieare resources for /futugenerations-of radical writers.As an IAS donor you'll receivPerspectives, the lAS*s bannual newsletter. Also, if yodonate $25 or more, we'll senyou at least one of the grebooks listed c% %is -pageDonations are ^-deductibfor US citizens.Those listed :iiere have eithdonated or pledged a donatioto the IAS's 1998 fundraisincampaign: Dan ChodorkoRebecca DeWitt, MauraDilloMiranda Edison,;PatilafeierPaul Glavin^ Michelle "Maisons, Cindy Milstein, CarolinMorse* Chuck -Morse, JohPetrovato, Elizabeth'SullivaJohn-Schumacher, and the KaSharpley Library.Please make checks payable the institute for -AnarchiStudies and mail mein|to: ;

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Perspectives. on anarchist theorv... Radical Professor ContinuedAnarchist Theory," Human Affairs, 1983.) Theirony of the radical classroom is that students mustbe free from the necessity of believing what theprofessor says, or of doing what the professor asksthem to do, just because the professor says or asksit. Yet because of the authority of power routinelyinvested in our school teachers, all of us tend toresist this radical ideal.Students have to ask root questions, again, in a waythat sticks with them, in their consciences! Becauseyou cannot require someone to do this, that is, youcannot require someone to be free from yourauthority and here is the heart of anarchism the authority of power is necessarily counterproductive. You must learn how to exercise merelythe authority of competence, though not even thisauthority is required: my favorite technique is toturn a class around a root question I myself am stillworking on so that I am not tempted simply to "tellthe truth"! As Caroline Estes (Social Anarchism,1985) put the principle of consensus so well:everyone has a piece of the truth, and no one has allof it. (See my "Questions for Students of Justice,"forthcoming in Contemporary Justice Review,1998.)Though I cannot go into detail here, the veryphysical arrangement of class activities must workindependently of what I say or ask: by itself thearrangement must indicate that what happensbetween the students, face to face, is crucial - whatI call "the osmosis method" (Human Posture: TheNature of Inquiry, SUNY, 1989; and "OurResponsibility for the Furture in HigherEducation," The Raven Quarterly, 1991). Myfavorite technique here - the perfect complement toasking an unanswered root question - is to breakthe students into small groups, preferably of 4 or 5like-minded students, to work out their take on theroot issue in question. If I facilitate this process

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Perspectives on Anarchist Theory - Vol 2, No 1 - Spring 1998

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