To defeat the present structure of global human oppression, as anarchists, we must unite with the people around us, be they communists, liberals, conservatives, or far-right libertarians. Unity is a subject which we must embrace to succeed. And right now, the forces are rallying in every camp to defeat these structures of oppression.

Below, for this entry, are comments specifically about how the political right and left are sliding now towards anarchism and that as anarchists, we need to be making allies and uniting with them. Internet media is used for references.

There is much to be said of the value of violence as the contemporary oppressors of society use violence themselves to enforce their will upon us. And additionally, although violence itself has a romantic appeal that some anarchists embrace, it is a challenge, I think, to many anarchists, how to address the transformation of society into some utopian anarchy in the context of violence or non-violence.

A lot of dialogues are presently occurring. On a recent episode of the anarchist podcast Bottom Up Radio Network (B.U.R.N.) on Dec. 13, 2009, they had on John Zerzan talking about such things. One of the hosts is Rabble Rouser.

In the interview, Zerzan said of anarcho-primitivism, “"They use to say "Our ideas are in everybody’s heads, even though you don’t read about it."” He went on later:

Zerzan: “I’ve been in some of those giant cities like San Paulo, Istanbul, and, you know, just recently, last week, you know, Calcutta, Bombay, it seems to me, we are the ones who are concerned about those tens of millions of people who are gonna get snuffed, they’ll be dead in a few days if this thing crashes, or when this crashes, when it fails. And it’s the people who don’t want to talk about this stuff, it seems to me, they’re the irresponsible ones, if anybody is a genocidist, then it’s the people that -- You don’t want to block the discussion -- what’s going to happen to all these people? You know, how are we gonna start moving away from this suicidal course? How are we gonna re-skill ourselves and reconnect with the earth and abandon the cities and all that stuff that I think is pretty necessary. It’s time to talk about it and it’s not time to just rule that out. If we want to just go on pretending that this whole nightmarish course of industrialization and all the rest of it is just gonna work out fine, well that’s the head in the sand attitude that the dominate society is all about. But that’s not what we’re talking at all.”

In a recent anarchist broadcast of Submedia, the host, the Stimulator said:

“When the climate talks in Copenhagen failed to deliver anything serious, may people including me were not surprised, why, because the biosphere does not fit within the capitalist context. In order to save the environment, capitalism and the state must cease to exist, this includes socialism and any other manmade artifice that hyper exploits nature. If we want to stop runaway climate change we need to stop climate emissions. If we want to stop carbon emissions, we need to stop coal mining, coal fired power plants, SUV factories and dealerships, we need to stop the motherfucking tar sands, we need to stop lumber industry. All of the things just mentioned are the capitalist economy; and that is why you cannot hope that Obama will accept the change that we need. Why? Because he’s a fucking capitalist. Patron, as in bastard George Monbiot, who repeatedly bashes anarchism and who fully endorses the state as a partner in saving the planet, is throwing in the towel. Monbiot wrote in his blog this week, “Goodbye Africa, goodbye south Asia; goodbye glaciers and sea ice, coral reefs and rainforest; it was nice knowing you, not that we really cared. The governments which moved so swiftly to save the banks have bickered and filibustered while the biosphere burns.” With all due respect Monbiot, go fuck yourself. This is no time to act like crybabies. Just because your plan to put pressure on the state failed miserably, doesn’t mean that all is lost. We also need to wake up to the fact that protests, banner drops, and pranks serve a purpose but can only go so far. For all of you who are falling into despair, now you must change your tactics and bi-pass the state completely. Find out where the carbon is flowing in your community, and stop it. There’s not a lot of time left yall, so stop fuckin’ around and get to work.”

In another recent episode of B.U.R.N. (I forgot to write down the date) Rabble Rouser exclaimed:

“And I don’t mean to disregard anybody who wants to fight non-violently because I do too. I would love to fight this non-violently, I would love for tomorrow if all of this shit would just stop being so fucking destructive. I’d love nothing more than to hang out with my kids at a fucking park and play kickball and things that I love to do with them and not have to fucking fight these sons of bitches. Unfortunately, these sons of bitches are there and they’re not going away, because they’re getting paid to be there. They’re getting paid to be there because it’s okay to kill something that you don’t love. And we’re even taught not to love ourselves, not to love nature. It’s we’ve been taught that to fight is not love, it’s not love to fight. I know I disagree. I know my wife disagrees. I think, you know, every animal in the wild disagrees when you try to kill it’s children. To love is to fight. To fight is to show love. To fight back and protect and resist is love. And there’s no two ways about that.” .... “And I know that we don’t all agree and that’s what’s so fucking beautiful about coming together. Cause one day we will all agree, because dead people don’t argue. So, until we agree that we have to bring this fucker down, we do agree that we are all going to die because of it, whether you want to say that or not so ah: yeah! We have common ground, we’re all gonna die!”

What is clear from some of these recent dialogues is that we will die if this capitalist/authoritarian beast continues to cut out and consume the life of ourselves and planet — and if violence does occur to stop this beast we may probably die too. That’s the dialogue I’m hearing.

And even the much talked about Avatar film is still on the tongues of many.

But, if violence, then what violence ought to occur? In the past few months I have been tuning into quite a few dialogues in the far political right, particularly in the patriot/common-law/militia/sovereignty movement. Essentially, from my understanding of the far right, what is occurring is that presently the political right is dramatically waking up to the perception that the elections are pretty much all rigged (even local elections), that the common law freedoms of this nation have been overtaken by centrists and leftists bent on implementing a civil law, totalitarian tyranny in which the population is completely enslaved to a global power structure.

By a simple look at the anarcho-primitivist perspective on society, one can understand that already, by way of a global techno-industrial super-structure, we are all pretty much enslaved already to that structure. The political right is simply waking up to it and it’s seemingly deep and controlling infiltration into our lives. On both the left and the right, the localization movement is growing. People are waking up the need to grow their own food and move toward local independence as much as possible, disconnecting themselves from the techno-industrial beast of global tyranny.

I attend a local, quite liberal, Episcopalian church and even there, I am hearing dialogues of the need to seek as much as one can to disconnect from or transform the structure of power and domination that is literally taking ourselves and the eco-systems around us on a death march to total ecological destruction. And actually any perambulation through liberal media reveals a movement toward such localization and independence.

As well, at a recent convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles the diocese invited Brian D. McLaren to speak on hir book Everything Must Change: When the World’s Biggest Problems and Jesus’ Good News Collide. In the book, hir perspective is towards a critique of both the capitalist system and the tyranny of the police/security state to enforce that system — a rather anarchist perspective in many ways. And one of hir main points in the book is if we don’t transform/change these system around, we are going to commit ecological suicide and destroy ourselves in the process. And now the book is being discussed in Sunday School classes throughout the Los Angeles Diocese.

Primarily, on the right, is the movement for localization to disconnect from tyranny, on the left, for localization to disconnect from ecological destruction. Whatever the case may be, as anarchists, we understand both perspectives and of such perspectives, truly we ought to unite with such comrades. Yes, in many respects, the left may still be clinging to government/authoritarianism, the right to personal ownership constructs, but they are both on the verge of seeing the light of anarchy, and as politically enlightened souls seeking to transform the world, truly we ought to seek every opportunity to push them to the brink and into anarchism.

As well, as I look at the dialogues of the far right and particularly the militia movement, I believe that anarchists unifying with them may have the potential to bring the downfall of both the government and corporate structures which we seek. Perhaps, (and I pray for a non-violent solution), perhaps unifying with them, even if violence does not occur as we unify with them, it will help to create a greater force unto which the police/military powers will have to reckon with. Again, I am not saying to take violent action, but that unifying with others as militias, may help to put down the insurrection which the powers that be have already accomplished over us through both technological tyranny and ecological destruction.

Presently there are many in the far right who are meeting, developing, and practicing tactics to repel and put down such tyranny. Below are some audio from a militia-oriented radio show in California, The Dutch Joens Show, specifically concerning strategies of not merely “resistance” but “battle strategies”:

dj_03-23-10.mp3 (108 MB)
dj_03-25-10.mp3 (108 MB)

Those in the far right may often also say some rather biblically hateful things about especially queer folks (and the above broadcasts are no different), but as anarchists, if you’re not really queer, or can get along okay under such feelings by others, the far right is a group unto which as anarchists we might potentially gain a lot of very good knowledge from, and help to build greater networks of resistance.

On the left, there are a lot of pacifists and non-violent folks. In unity with both them and with the right, we can absolutely help them all to disconnect through growing home gardens, riding bicycles instead of driving, developing local building methods and other skills and ways for living locally, and through simply reasoning with them.

I believe that there can be found much hope in the present conditions around us, but also, we need to look around us to non-anarchists and unify, if we are to bring these machines of human and ecological oppression and destruction to transform into the social and ecological paradise for which we so long. Know your strengths, interests, and talents, look at the spectrum of people around you, choose those with whom you can best make allies, and build your networks of resistance and transformation.

April 7, 2010