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GGRREEEENN AANNAARRCCHHYY
.. .. .. .. WWhheerree ttooddaayy aarree tthhee PPeeqquuoott?? WWhheerree aarree tthhee NNaarrrraaggaannsseetttt,, tthhee MMoohhiiccaann,,
tthhee PPookkaannookkeett,, aanndd mmaannyy ootthheerr oonnccee ppoowweerrffuull ttrriibbeess ooff oouurr ppeeooppllee??
TThheeyy hhaavvee vvaanniisshheedd bbeeffoorree tthhee aavvaarriiccee aanndd tthhee oopppprreessssiioonn ooff tthhee WWhhiittee MMaann,,
aa ssnnooww bbeeffoorree aa ssuummmmeerr ssuunn..
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ddeeaadd aanndd eevveerryytthhiinngg tthhaatt iiss ddeeaarr aanndd ssaaccrreedd ttoo uuss?? II kknnooww yyoouu wwiillll ccrryy wwiitthh mmee,, $$44 UUSSAA,, $$55 CCAANNAADDAA,,
$$66 EEUURROOPPEE,, $$77 WWOORRLLDD
‘‘NNeevveerr!! NNeevveerr!!’’
FFRREEEE TTOO PPRRIISSOONNEERRSS
––TTeecchhuummsseehh
ooff tthhee SShhaawwnneeeess
GGRREEEENN AANNAARRCCHHYY
PPOO BBOOXX 1111333311 AAnn AAnnttii--CCiivviilliizzaattiioonn JJoouurrnnaall ooff
EEuuggeennee,, OORR 9977444400
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TThheeoorryy aanndd AAccttiioonn
. . . . Endure
Last rush in Babylon
The people cry out tears of anger tears of sorrow
flowing giving birth to resistance Young ones to remember struggle
Voices catching up Voices catching up
for the people cry out tears of happiness tears of joy washing the pain
cleaning the spirit giving strength The generations remembering the
Watch out child Watch out child past to rebuild the future for weeping is another way of laughing
and resisting and outlasting the enemy
Babylon falling down Falling down
. . . . It took the times we didn’t care about living to learn survivors
survive whether they want or not It took the pain, the grief, and
the dying to remember what gets forgotten in the living It took the
Society a broken promise Economy’s war Citizen whores Political pimps leaving us
lessons of a thousand generations to get through the time of
flat on our backs trading today waiting for the promised land Roles playing roles
yesterday It took the joyful songs of laughter to last beyond
covering every day’s fear Going off to work having the job done on us In the
eyes of god building the bomb Loving thy self hating thy self in the illusion today and to tomorrow It took the fragrance of a women’s
touch to realize brothers and sisters are never alone It
Voices catching up Voices catching up Watch out child Watch out child
Babylon falling down Falling down took the joining of earth and sky to create centering the
universe
Caligula laughs loudly through time Twisting love to get at the sexes
Classes Material Consumed Designer worlds create electric impulses
. . . . This time I almost wanted to believe you when you
Turning down life The real goodbye See it in our face See it everyplace
said it would be alright You wanted to end the suffering
Last rush in Babylon Voices catching up Voices catching up Watch out child
and the deliberateness of the wrongs
Watch out child Babylon falling down Falling down
were only in my imagination This
Arms race Jackboots pounding earth Military precision Dissecting elements
time I almost wanted to believe you
of life Taking apart instead of healing Generals and Gods Fascists and oil wells
Man images and machines Petrochemical societies Trying to hide the sun when you implied the times of
Jackboots pounding earth Creaking leather boots Dead cows crying in a sorrow were buried in the past
world turned to a planetary slaughter house
Never would we have to
Wandering amongst the opulence Wondering what not to touch worry about shadows and
Times not knowing Times getting bit Times of temptation Times of
memories clinging and
seduction Wandering in the poverty Touched by everything
draining the strength from
Knowing the bite No time for temptation only time for doing
Babylon in terror World run over by machines The economics our souls This time I almost
of captured dreams The rich are the poorer while the poor are
wanted to believe you
waiting Everyone pretending to live Calling exploitation
when you spoke of peace,
progress Calling submission freedom Calling madness profit
Calling earth a plan-et Plaguing her with civilization and love, and caring, and
duty, and god, and destiny
Alone We see you in your loneliness Sometimes we wonder
which is lonelier being alone together or being lonely alone but somehow the death in
With no protection that you know of Principles replaced by nothing your eyes and your bombs,
The lies becoming desperation Outrageous violence internal
and your taxes, and your
and external Forming distractions from life making the loneliness
greed, and your facelift told me
a new type of alone Alone with your machines Alone with your
fear Alone with your oppressor Alone with roles played Alone This time, I cannot afford to
from the past Alone from the future Stranded in the universe believe you
Separated from earth, sun, moon, sky With only god to comfort
you while he sanctions war and greed Messengers clubbing you
–John Trudell,
Heavenly threats and promises a basis for exploitation of every-
NNuuhhlliimmkkiillaakkaa ((bbrriinnggeerr ooff ccoonnffuussiioonn)),, 11991144;; tthhee ffoorreesstt thing even yourself Giving up together Surrendering Alone from Living In Reality
ssppiirriitt tthhaatt ccaauusseess oonnee ttoo bbeeccoommee ccoonnffuusseedd aanndd lloossee oonnee’’ss wwaayy.. MMaasskk –John Trudell,
Voices Catching Up
uusseedd iinn tthhee nnuunnhhlliimm wwiinntteerr cceerreemmoonnyy ooff tthhee QQuuaattssiinnoo SSoouunndd ttrriibbeess.. Delaware man and son, 1906
s
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Issue #19/Spring 2005
e
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n
Sections
o
C Welcome to Green Anarchy, pg 3
The Garden of Peculiarities: Fragment 35, pg 45
The Nihilist Dictionary: #4–Feral, pg 55
State Repression News, pg 56
Articles Reviews, pg 60
News from the Balcony with Waldorf and Statler, pg 66
We Were All Indigenous, And Can Again Become…
Letters, pg 67
by Homer Bust, pg 2 Green Anarchy Distro, pg 74
Anarchy in Our Bones by Emory Wilder, pg 4 Subscriber and Distributor Info, pg 75
The Ever-Shifting Terrain of Creative-Destruction, pg 5 Ads and Announcements, pg 76
Locating an Indigenous Anarchism by Aragorn!, pg 6
Direct Action
Paleolithic People Survive Tsunami Waves, pg 9
An Interview with Ward Churchill – Part I, pg 10
Indigenous and Campesino Resistance, pg 20
The Same Old Song by Russell Means, pg 12
Anti-Columbus Actions, pg 23
John Trudell: In His Words, pg 14
Earth Liberation and Anti-Genetix Actions, pg 30
Savage Eloquence by Chrystos, pg 15
Anarchist Resistance, pg 35
Black Mesa: Resistance, Harassment,
Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Colonial, and Anti-Government
and Solidarity, pg 16
Battles, pg 42
Resistance from the Tropics, pg 17
Prisoner Escapes, Uprisings, and Revolts, pg 49
Resistance Without Reservation! by Harsha Walia, pg 18
Symptoms of the System’s Meltdown, pg 52
Update from Botswana, pg 21
Let There Be Light!, pg 25
Update from West Papua, pg 24
Hmong: Betrayal, Yellow Rain, and Resistance
by Killa T, pg 26
Resistance to Development in the Philippines, pg 28
Too Marvelous for Words by John Zerzan, pg 32
Primal Guerilla Warfare by Kevin Tucker, pg 34
Contributing to Momentum Against Civilization
by Felonious Skunk, pg 38
Jacques Camatte: And the New Politics of
Liberation (Part II) by Dave Antagonism, pg 40
Operation Civilization: 2–The Colonial Petri Dish
by Saura Agni, pg 46
National Anarchism: Trojan Horse for White
Nationalism by Nick Griffin, pg 58
Practical Re-wilding by Skunk, pg 70 Front Cover: Apache Ghost, Yanozha, Apache warrior during their final
campaign of armed resistance, 1886.
We Are Not Separate by A.R. Son, pg 72 Back Cover: Acoma warriors guard their village from the edge of the mesa
against Spanish invaders, 1599.
Page 1 SPRING ‘05 ISSUE
WWee WWeerree AAllll IInnddiiggeennoouuss,,
AAnndd CCaann AAggaaiinn BBeeccoommee……
I did not fall from space… and above our surroundings, or for that matter, plant the first corn, irrigate the first field,
even view them as surroundings, and not as part domesticate the first animal, subjugate the first
However alien I may appear to this planet, this
of us. At some point I think it is important to woman, support the first stratification, fabricate
land, these people, I come from this earth. From
find a place, a bioregion, a home (though not the first weapon, construct the first city, build
its water, its soil, its people, its blood. It has
necessarily a sedentary location). the first ship, enslave the first foreigner, kill the
provided me with a life, which I willingly and
first indian, assemble the first railroad, erect
humbly direct. Despite all attempts by the I have much to learn from those deeply connected
the first factory, split the first atom, plant the
civilized logic to separate me, to dislocate me, to the place I call home, those who have an intimate
first flag on the moon, genetically produce the first
to destroy my connection, I am still part of relationship with the land, animals, plants, people,
clone, and like Al Gore, I didn’t invent the
this fusion of life, this deeply integrated and patterns of this specific environment. I have
internet. But I am also profoundly tied to their
accumulation of living beings. most to learn from those who have evolved with
legacy and their innovation and expansion. And
this place; whose bodies, minds, spirits, and
I, like all of us, have direct lineage to a different I am also the victim of their legacy of death,
culture have developed alongside these mountains,
way of being, to a direct experience with the domination, and destruction. “Pleased to meet you,
birds, trees, and rivers. I do not wish to “play
world. We once lived unmediated from the earth, hope you guessed my name [civilization]. But
native” or co-opt traditions, but to tap into and
ate directly from the forest, drank straight from what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game.”
learn from a physical and spiritual knowledge,
its waters, slept touching the ground, healed
so that I can live respectfully and sustainably with I know in my heart and in my bones that we can
ourselves with its plants, made all of our decisions
this particular part of earth (which is comprised live differently, that we have lived differently,
concerning our lives with people we loved. We
of infinitely diverse forms of life). and that those possibilities can come together in
are still these people, only scarred, with cold and
beautiful ways. I have no expectations within
clunky armor created for us by a culture of death I have much to learn from the survivors. Those
this nightmare; my/our only hope is to wake up
that we have reluctantly accepted when and who were forcibly converted to patriarchal gods.
from the confusion. There is no future in this
where we have grown too tired and weak. We Those who were burned at the stake. Those
failed experiment; all I can do is reject it. There
have been tamed. We have been domesticated. who were given blankets with smallpox.
is no possibility of readjustment; it can only be
But, we are still connected under this baggage, Those who were stolen from their homes and
destroyed. I must find a place, people, and a way
this defensiveness, this disposition. families and chained in the bellies of ships.
to live differently; to reconnect and to dream.
Those who were pushed out of their lands and
I have been severely damaged from generation
herded into camps. Those who were marched and We were all indigenous to somewhere, someone,
after generation of upheaval, defeat, and domes-
dragged down trails of tears. Those who were and somehow...and can become so again. The
tication at the hands of colonizers, and at times
stripped down, re-educated, and assimilated. Those old ways are gone, but I am still going home,
I did the colonizing. But this was only after I
who became beasts of burden. not necessarily where I started, but maybe
had been sufficiently separated from the earth,
Those who were pitted against somewhere I began.
others, and myself. But mostly, I have been just
one another. Those who were put
a pawn and a tool in the ongoing war against life. on trains, and again, herded into Wish us luck!
I have suffered greatly: in the direct brutality
camps. Those who were gassed and
inflicted upon me in my own life, through more
burned. Those who were lynched.
subtle institutionalized methods, as an accumula-
Those who were bombed. Those who
tion of my ancestors’ pain, and from missing out
were raped. Those who were
on a penetrating and more integrated connection
beaten. Those who have been
to the world.
virtually destroyed, yet con-
I have been moved so far from where my relations tinue to endure. Those
once dwelled, yet I can still feel connected to who have been whipped,
place. Maybe not in the same way that my yet amazingly continue to
relations did to the land they were indigenous to, thrive. Those who attempt
or the people who were/are connected to where to regain their ancestral
my feet currently rest, where I inhabit. But I can knowledge. Those who
still go deep into the ground, take the air into my raise healthy children.
lungs, learn from the whispers of this place, offer Those who burn down
my respectful and modest influence to this land, the suburbs. Those who
and unite the world around and within me. reconnect with the earth.
Those who remember.
I have always felt dislocated within civilization.
Those who survive. And, I
Whether the suburbs, the cities, or small towns,
have much to learn from my-
I have always felt suffocated, empty, and lost.
self. I have much to remember.
Traveling from one location to the next, always
over-idealizing the succeeding context. The I did not create this monstrosity, this
grass always seemed greener. In this postmodern leviathan, this death culture. I am
reality, dislocation is not the exception but the both a by-product and survivor of it.
norm, and even the sought-after condition. We I was not the first to step out of the forest.
bbyy HHoommeerr BBuusstt
can never be whole as long as we live outside I did not create the first separations,
GREEN ANARCHY #19 PPaaggee 22
Welcome
Green Anarchy

to
Issue #19/Spring 2005
“At the approach of Spring the red squirrels got under my house, two at a Spring! Spring! Spring! What more could be said to supplement
time, directly under my feet as I sat reading and writing, and kept up the the eloquent tone of Thoreau as he meditates on the magical and
eternal metamorphosing from the solitary dark season of winter to
queerest chuckling and chirruping and vocal pirouetting and gurgling sounds
the peculiar germinations and illuminations of spring? On one hand,
that ever were heard; and when I stamped they only chirruped the louder, as if
not much, but on the other hand, here we are with another 76 pages of
past all fear and respect in their mad pranks, defying humanity to stop them. anti-civilization theory and action for you to digest!
No, you don’t–chickaree–chickaree. They were wholly deaf to my arguments, For this edition,
we decided on the theme of “Indigenous
or failed to perceive their force, and fell into a strain of invective that was
Resistance to Civilization”, and while the issue doesn’t exclusively
irresistible. focus on this critical theme, it is highly present and deeply informs
The first sparrow of spring! The year beginning with younger hope than ever! these pages. We got all sorts of great contributions on this, and other
topics, much of which we were simply unable to use due to space
The faint silvery warblings heard over the partially bare and
(and financial) limitations. We sifted through it all, and the
moist fields from the bluebird, succeeding pages are filled with some of our favorites. It is
the song sparrow, and the always more pleasurable (but also difficult) as editors to have
too much stuff rather than not enough – the time has long passed
red-wing, as if the last flakes
for filler! While we are not putting forth a “green anarchist
of winter tinkled as they
position” or “expert opinion” on the ongoing and inevitable
fell! What at such a time conflict between indigenous people/life-ways and civilization,
are histories, chronologies, we do feel there are some potent ideas contained here, ones
which can be built upon (and challenged) as anti-civilization
traditions, and all written
critiques become deeper and more intertwined.
revelations? The brooks sing
We Need Your Help!
We hate to bring this up once
carols and glees to the spring.
again, but this issue almost did not come out (at least on
The marsh hawk, sailing low over
time or to its characteristic extent), and you may have
the meadow, is already seeking noticed we have dropped the color cover (for now). If it were
the first slimy life that awakes. The not for the generosity of certain people, the cutting of many
corners, and us reaching slightly into the red space of
sinking sound of melting snow
borrowing from tomorrow, you would not be reading this.
is heard in all dells, and the ice Frankly, we are broke. Half of the burden of this project
dissolves apace in the ponds. The is finding the money to pay for printing, mailing, supplies,
equipment, and rent. We desperately need your help if
grass flames up on the hillsides like
you want to see this project continue. We have some
a spring fire,–“et primitus oritur
ideas up our sleeves, but we can only do so much. We
herba imbribus primoribus evocata”– want to thank the many distributors, subscribers, and
as if the earth sent forth an inward supporters out there, but we need more of you. It’s time
for the hundreds of you who consistently receive this magazine for
heat to greet the returning sun; not
free or pick it up around town to start to kick something down (if only
yellow but green is the color of its flame;–the symbol of perpetual youth, mailing costs). Please, consider becoming a PAYING distributor, a
the grass-blade, like a long green ribbon, streams from the sod into the subscriber, or special donor. This project has continued to strive for
depth and consistency, and it has been well received around the world,
summer, checked indeed by the frost, but anon pushing on again, lifting its
but we need your help to persevere and to grow. Our survival is up to you.
spear of last year’s hay with the fresh life below. It grows as steadily as the rill
Finally,
oozes out of the ground. It is almost identical with that, for in the growing days in assembling this issue, many interesting ideas, concepts,
and feelings incidentally came up which were somewhat of an
of June, when the rills are dry, the grass-blades are their channels, and from
extension or outgrowth of this issue’s theme. While we have decided
year to year the herds drink at the perennial green stream, and the mower to not be strict with a theme for the next issue, we are especially
draws from it betimes their winter supply. So our human life but dies down to interested in contributions relating to spirituality, religion, world-views,
and ideology for the Summer Issue (#20). Let us know what you think.
its root, and still puts forth its green blade to eternity.”
Deadline for our next is May Day!
–Henry David Thoreau, Walden
For Springtime Creation and Destruction,
The Green Anarchy Collective
Page 3 SPRING ‘05 ISSUE
AAAAAAAAAAnnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrcccccccccchhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyy iiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnn OOOOOOOOOOuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrr
BBBBBBBBBBoooooooooonnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeessssssssss
bbbbbyyyyy EEEEEmmmmmooooorrrrryyyyy WWWWWiiiiillllldddddeeeeerrrrr
“If the entire natural universe is The Arawak Indians welcomed Columbus like the Crusades, and the Inquisition will some-
vibrantly alive, then no being in it a long-lost brother, wading into the ocean with how save you?), science, technology, time (hurry
should be chained or fenced in. gifts and open arms. He lined their children up and finish reading – don’t you have
The realization of this is anarchy.” up front to back to see how many heads he something else to do?), property, the whole
could cut off with a single sword stroke. interlocking web of institutions keeping us
–Feral Faun
What is it about civilized life that breeds under its heel. Our wild human spirit, like the
“As a group, authentic nature-based predators like Columbus, then makes the rest wild beautiful earth, became the fuel for the
people are not neurotic, repressed, or of us have parades every year in his honor? engines of destruction chewing us all up today.
burdened by psychopathology as we Humans evolved to live in deep relationship This predator loose upon the land goes by
with the land, to live wild, free, and happy. many names. The State. Empire. America. Busi-
know it; rather, they tend to be integrated
When we stopped trusting that the earth would ness. Production. Work. Authority. Civilization.
in thought, feeling, and spirit. Most
feed us, we started trying to control her. It is the perpetrator, the psychopath. It’s im-
pointedly, nature-based people manifest
personal, unfeeling, insatiable, violent,
the very qualities that contemporary
invasive, and absolutely remorseless.
psychotherapy, the recovery
It is the Machine. We’ve spent ten
movement, and spiritual practices thousand years creating a world in
continually aim for: a visible sense its image, and now it’s eating us and
of inner peace, unselfconscious everything it can reach.
humility, an urge to communal And it’s in our heads. The same split
cooperation, and heartfelt appre- that spawned civilization tore a hole
ciation for the world around them.” in our psyches that still wounds us
today. We’re born into the world wide
–Chellis Glendinning
open with passion. We smile, we laugh,
“No European who has tasted we play, we explore. We’re all Stone
Savage Life can afterwards bear Age babies bursting with life, natural
to live in our Societies.” anarchy throbbing with joy!
But when we primal babies meet the
–Benjamin Franklin
grinding machine of civilization, the
We’ve all had it beaten into our heads fate of the Arawaks and the !Kung San
that life outside civilization is nasty, becomes our own. Surging joy meets
brutish, and short, nature red in tooth civilized violence, and the assault
and claw. We’ve learned that the turns us against our true deep self. Just
“savages” had to struggle night and day to survive, we’re forced to accept
in a howling chaos just to scratch out insanities – time, money, “owning”
survival, and (simultaneously) that they things, boxes to live in, signs to tell us
were lazy and indolent, laying around what to do, chemicals in our food,
waiting for white men to put them to desks in rows, the idea that some
work. But civilization’s own experts in people or races or sexes or species are
the field, the anthropologists, tell us better than others, and so on – that are
about “primitive affluence,” about just not natural to us. We learn to hate,
people who work – if you can even call fear, destroy, and numb ourselves to
it work, walking in the woods gathering the pain, and we learn to lie, most
berries – two hours a day to have all they need. When we split tame from wild, we split from especially to ourselves. As the programming
They tell us that the hunter-gatherers were our own health and happiness in the bargain. sinks in deeper, we start to believe that this is
(and are) egalitarian and free of authority, This broken trust, this split, was and is progress, that we have to conquer everyone
owning nothing but having everything. That devastating. Pandora’s box opened wide, and else so they can see how good we have it.
they lived embedded in the deep rhythms of out came the buzzing madness of civilization: Driven further at every step from our
the earth, and that this made them radiantly agriculture, war, hierarchy, cities, rape, slavery, ancestral wholeness, we develop a false self
happy. The !Kung San in Africa lived on work, domestication, the population explosion, – subservient to authority, afraid of passion,
the same land for two million years before religion (do you imagine that the God which de- at war with the body, smiling while our hearts
white colonizers enslaved them in the mines. manded Manifest Destiny, the Middle Passage, cry out – to cover our horror about what is
GREEN ANARCHY #19 Page 4
happening to us. We try to conquer our deeper caught in its madness. We no longer believe you see, going to the root in your questioning,
selves in order to be good Americans, good in its rules and punishments, for we know and listening to your deepest passions, you will
citizens, good parents, good workers, good in our hearts that our dance is infinite. We know. You will find that your resistance runs
shoppers, good voters, good Germans, and we follow the earth’s rhythms and heal organically strong, whatever methods you choose, that your
identify with the Nazi predator as the fires of in her depths. Just as the tree crumbles the intuition sees well, your imagination flies free,
Auschwitz sear our souls. Desperately terror- sidewalk, we take root and burst through the your desire burns bright. In refusing the preda-
ized, we crucify our own humanity, learning chains caging our minds, the armor binding tor’s poison, you will find your NO anchoring
to use ourselves, others, the land, everything, our bodies, the masks hiding our brilliance. you to stand your ground, and in embracing the
as objects. We become disembodied, frag- Our basic relationship with life becomes blood of the tribes flowing in your veins, you
mented, incoherent heads racing around in listening. As the primal tide rises in us, we will find your YES enchanting all you touch.
machines looking for something, anything, to follow the desire burning in our hearts and the Some Indians say “today is a great day to
save us from ourselves, to deaden this constant instinct flowing deep in our bodies. We listen die.” And it is! Every moment could be your
unease gnawing away deep at our bellies. to those lower on civilization’s ladder of worth last. But the dead can dance! Dying to the
But what we’re looking for has been inside – other races, women, children, our bodies, civilized, we’re filled with a firestorm of
us all along. No matter how we repress our the air, the birds, the rocks, the trees – and ecstasy. What we have now we can never lose.
passions to appease the system, they never die. their wisdom guides us. We listen to each Our passions rage unbound even as our souls
Because our primal fire rages always within other and find in relationship and com- rest in the deep silence of the universe. Letting
us, we can never be civilized and be whole. munity levels of intimacy we could hardly go into the mystery of life, we find adventure
When we dis-identify with the predator, we before imagine. Opening our hearts, our in not knowing. Celebrating awestruck the
find a whole world of burning desire, radiant bodies, our senses, our whole being, we fall wonder of each precious moment, we free our
joy, and profound stillness waiting for us. in love with life again. We welcome the hearts at last from the predator’s grasp. Dancing
Long-buried tensions relax as we find what wild into our depths one tree, one river, one on the smoldering ruins of the techno-madness,
was always with us, and as we sink our feet in moment at a time, and warm, deep joy settles we laugh madly from deep in our bellies.
the ground, we awaken to strength and power in our bones as we return to the home we never Feeling the rhythm of Eros pulsing in our
we never knew possible. really could have left. bodies, we run wild in our play. Trusting the
This is the turning point. Living what we Becoming feral is different for everyone. I desires raging inside us, we grow whole once
know in our bones, we become renegades from don’t know what you should do or how you more. And becoming at last the wild we love,
civilization. Raging freely, grieving deeply, should live your life. But looking the predator we melt with delight into the flowing dance
dancing joyfully, we appear mad to those in the eye, telling yourself truth about what of the primal, ancient forest.
Muddled speechifying focused on some inanity or another, the
words rousing but not substantive since the goal is to unite. To
do this organizers focus on the holy grail of activism – hope.
The Evershifting Terrain Many see hope as a prerequisite for proper action and hope-
lessness the cause of apathy. This is a false dichotomy of course,
with either abstraction used as motivator or preventative. But,
O f C r e a t i v e - D e s t r u c t i o n haobpster a–c atiso rnasl lwyionrgk ffloarg os,r gsaqnuiezeezrisn g– ftohrem reigr h(ti fu bsainregl yfa) iitnhd,i vthideu laelfst
into a homogenous mass moving towards a single objective –
to unite us all towards their better world.
Be done with such quackery! Just as no single force moves
the great shelves of earth, no single motivator can harness a
collective movement towards a single, homogenous world.
If there is such a thing, it has been reserved in the depths of the
machine’s security apparatus for its own purposes of a unified
Earth. forgetting.
The many-colored and textured – always There are tangible, perhaps instinctual motivations to
unique – particulate matter from which all life emerges, is connect us to the full force of individual action. Action that
nurtured, and is returned. We give this vital element little cannot be scheduled and massified – thus rendered impotent –
notice; polluting it with manufactured toxins, burying it under as it is inspired by the complexity of our emotion, spirit, sense,
pavement, and depleting its essence with scientific agricultural intellect, experience, desire, and need. Moving to our own
practices – rendering it sterile, for now. But when these particles anarchic rhythms, we create the conditions for a massive wave
move in just such a way, at just some certain time and place, of creative-destruction. We are the subtle but potent cracks and
they are quite suddenly – noticed. Gaining our attention as fissures that cause the machine to tremble and quake. When
they respond to their conditions, naturally, in a great wave of we move from deeply individual passions – joy, rage, desire,
creative-destruction. revenge – our motivation is not so easily stolen by others in
This winter brought another American presidential inaugu- their quest to prop up the concrete sterility of collectivism.
ration, the spectacle where some gathered to celebrate the And sometimes, we will find ourselves alongside others who
victory of their tyrant, others to commiserate on the failure of will – with or without hope (or belief or faith) – spread the
their own. Outside, thousands of activists and ‘radicals’ – along rupture. Let’s live passionately – engaged, spontaneous, and
with some who call themselves anarchist – marched to protest whatever is our own instinctive wildness – feeling the great
the new regime, that is, if they weren’t corralled or caged. wave of creative-destruction rising to the surface.
PPaaggee 55 SSPPRRIINNGG ‘‘0055 IISSSSUUEE
Locating an
Indigenous
Anarchism
It’s easy enough to hedge about politics. Once we get beyond the
It comes naturally and most of the time the flames we will have to craft a life
straight answer isn’t really going to satisfy the together. We will have to recall
questioner, nor is it appropriate to fix our what social behavior looks and
politics to this world, to what feels immovable. feels like. We will have to heal.
Politics, like experience, is a subjective way to When we begin to examine
understand the world. At best it provides a deeper what life could be like, now bbyy
vocabulary than mealy-mouthed platitudes about that all the excuses are gone,
being good to people, at worst (and most com- now that all the bullies are of
monly) it frames people and ideas into ideology. human size and shape, we will AArraaggoorrnn!!
Ideology, as we are fully aware, is a bad thing. have to keep in mind many
Why? Because it answers questions better left things. We will have to always
haunting us, because it attempts to answer keep in mind the matter of
permanently what is temporary at best. scale. We will have to keep in mind the The principle of mutual aid is a very traditional
It is easy to be cagey about politics but memory of the first people and the people anarchist concept. Peter Kropotkin laid out a
for a moment let us imagine a possibility. who kept the memory of matches and where scientific analysis of animal survival and (as a
Not to tell one another what to do, or about an and when to burn through the past confusing corollary to Darwin’s theory of evolution)
answer to every question that could arise, but age. For what it is worth we will have to described a theory of cooperation that he felt
to take a break from hesitation. Let us imagine establish a way to live that is both indigenous, better suited most species. As one of the fathers
what an indigenous anarchism could look like. which is to say of the land that we are actually of anarchism (and particularly Anarcho-
We should start with what we have, which on, and anarchist, which is to say without Communism) Kropotkin’s concept of mutual
is not a lot. What we have, in this world, is the authoritarian constraint. aid has been embraced by most anarchists. As
memory of a past obscured by history books, a principle it is generally limited to a level of
of a place clear-cut, planted upon, and paved First Principles tacit anarchist support for anarchist projects.
over. We share this memory with our extended Voluntary cooperation is the anarchist
First principles are those perspectives that
family, who we quarrel with, who we care for principle that informs anarchist understandings
(adherents to) a tendency would understand
deeply, and who often believe in those things of economics, social behavior (and exclusion),
as immutable. They are usually left unstated.
we do not have. What we do have is not enough and the scale of future society. It could be stated
Within anarchism these principles include
to shape this world, but is usually enough to simply as the principle that we, individually,
direct action, mutual aid, and voluntary coop-
get us by. should determine what we do with our time, with
eration. These are not ideas about how we are
If we were to shape this world (an opportunity whom we work, and how we work. Anarchists
going to transform society or about the form of
we would surely reject if we were offered), we have wrestled with these concepts for as long
anarchist organization, but an understanding
would begin with a great burning. We would as there has been a discernible anarchist
about what would be innovative and qualitatively
likely begin in the cities where with all the practice. The spectrum of anarchist thought on
different about an anarchist social practice
wooden structures of power and underbrush of the nuance of voluntary cooperation ranges
vis-à-vis a capitalist republic, or a totalitarian
institutional assumption the fire would surely from Max Stirner who refuses anything but
socialism.
burn brightly and for a very long time. It would total autonomy to Kropotkin whose theory of a
It is worth noting a cultural history of our
be hard on those species that lived in these world without scarcity (which is a fundamental
three basic anarchist principles as a way of
places. It would be very hard to remember what premise of most Marxist positions) would give
understanding what an indigenous anarchist
living was like without relying on deadfall and us greater choices about what we would do with
set of principles could look like. Direct action
fire departments. But we would remember. That our time. Today this principle is usually stated
as a principle is primarily differentiated from
remembering wouldn’t look like a skill-share most clearly as the principle to freely associate
the tradition of labor struggles, where it was
or an extension class in the methods of survival, (and disassociate) with one another.
used as a tactic, in that it posits that living
but an awareness that no matter how skilled This should provide us with enough informa-
‘directly’ (or in an unmediated fashion) is an
we personally are (or perceive ourselves to be) tion to make the simple statement that anarchist
anarchist imperative. Put another way, the
we need our extended family. principles have been informed by science (both
principle of direct action would be an anarchist
We will need each other to make sure that social and physical), a particular understanding
statement of self-determination in practical
the flames, if they were to come, clear the area of the individual (and their relation to larger
aspects of life. Direct action must be under-
that we will live in together. We will need to bodies) and as a response to the alienation of
stood through the lens of the events of May
clear it of the fuel that would end up repeating modern existence and the mechanisms that
’68 where a rejection of alienated life led large
the problems we are currently having. We will social institutions use to manipulate people.
sections of French society into the streets and
need to make sure that the seeds, nutrients and Naturally we will now move onto how an
towards a radically self-organized practice.
soil are scattered beyond our ability to control. indigenous perspective differs from these.
GREEN ANARCHY #19 Page 6
In the spirit of speaking clearly I hesitate An indigenous anarchism is an anarchism The most obvious answer to this question is
in making the usual caveats when principles of place. This would seem impossible in a that anarchism is part of a European tradition so
are in question. These hesitations are not world that has taken upon itself the task of far outside of the mainstream that it isn’t gener-
because, in practice, there is any doubt as to placing us nowhere. A world that places us ally interesting (or accessible) to non-westerners.
what the nature of relationship or practice nowhere universally. Even where we are born, This is largely true but is only part of the answer.
should look like. But when writing, particularly live, and die is not our home. An anarchism of Another part of an answer can be seen in
about politics, you can do yourself a great place could look like living in one area for all the surprisingly large percentage of anarchists
disservice by planting a flag and calling it of your life. It could look like living only in who hold that race doesn’t matter; that it is,
righteous. Stating principles as the basis for areas that are heavily wooded, that are near at best, a tool used to divide us (by the Man)
a politic usually is such a flag. If I and at worst something that will
““AAnn iinnddiiggeennoouuss aannaarrcchhiissmm iiss aann
believe in a value and then articu- devolve society into tribalism [sic].
late that value as instrumental for aannaarrcchhiissmm ooff ppllaaccee.. TThhiiss wwoouulldd Outside of whether there are any
an appropriate practice then what merits to these arguments (which I
sseeeemm iimmppoossssiibbllee iinn aa wwoorrlldd tthhaatt
is the difference between my believe stand by themselves) is the
completely subjective (or self- hhaass ttaakkeenn uuppoonn iittsseellff tthhee ttaasskk violation of two principles that have
serving) perspective and one that not been discussed in detail up until
ooff ppllaacciinngg uuss nnoowwhheerree..””
I could possibly share usefully? this point – self-determination and
This question should continue radical decentralization.
to haunt us. life-sustaining bodies of water, or in dry places. Self-determination should be read as the
Since we have gone this far let us speak, for It could look like traveling through these desire for people who are self-organized
a moment, about an indigenous anarchism’s areas. It could look like traveling every year (whether by tradition, individual choice, or
first principles. Insert caveats about this being as conditions, or desire, dictated. It could look inclination) to decide how they want to live with
one perspective among many. Everything is like many things from the outside, but it would each other. This may seem like common sense,
alive. Alive may not be the best word for what be choice dictated by the subjective experience and it is, but it is also consistently violated by
is being talked about but we could say imbibed of those living in place and not the exigency people who believe that their value system
with spirit or filled with the Great Spirit and of economic or political priorities. Location supersedes that of those around them. The
we would mean the same thing. We will assume is the differentiation that is crushed by the question that anarchists of all stripes have to
that a secular audience understands life as mortar of urbanization and pestle of mass answer for themselves is whether they are capable
complex, interesting, in motion, and valuable. culture into the paste of modern alienation. of dealing with the consequences of other
This same secular person may not see the Finally an indigenous anarchism places us people living in ways they find reprehensible.
Great Spirit in things that they are capable of as an irremovable part of an extended family. Radical decentralization is a probable outcome
seeing life in. This is an extension of the idea that everything to most anarchist positions. There are very few
The counterpoint to everything being filled is alive and therefore we are related to it in the anarchists (outside of Parecon) that believe
with life is that there are no dead things. sense that we too are alive. It is also a state- that an anarchist society will have singular
Nothing is an object. Anything worth directly ment of a clear priority. The connection between answers to politics, economy, or culture.
experiencing is worth acknowledging and living things, which we would shorthand to
(continued on next page)
appreciating for its complexity, its dynamism calling family, is the way that we understand
and its intrinsic worth. When one passes from ourselves in the world. We are part of a family
what we call life, they do not become object, and we know ourselves through family.
they enrich the lives they touched and the earth Leaving aside the secular language for a
they lie in. If everything is alive, then sociology, moment, it is impossible to understand
politics, and statistics all have to be destroyed oneself or one another outside of the spirit.
if for no other reason but because they are anti- It is the mystery that should remain outside
life disciplines. of language that is what we all share
Another first principle would be that of the together and that sharing is living.
ascendance of memory. Living in a world
where complex artifices are built on foundations Anarchist in
of lies leads us to believe that there is nothing
spirit vs.
but deceit and untruth. Our experience
would lead us to believe nothing less. Com-
Anarchist in word
pounding this problem is the fact that those
who could tell us the truth, our teachers, our
Indigenous people in general and
newscasters and our media devote a scarce
North American native people spe-
amount of their resources to anything like
cifically have not taken too kindly
honesty. It is hard to blame them. Their
to the term anarchist up until
memory comes from the same forgetfulness
this point. There have been a
that ours does.
few notable exceptions (Rob los
If we were to remember we would spend a
Ricos, Zig Zag, and myself
far greater amount of our time remembering.
among them) but the general
We would share our memories with those we
take is exemplified by Ward
loved, with those we visited, and those who
Churchill’s line “I share many
passed by us. We will have to spend a lot of
anarchist values like opposi-
time creating new memories to properly place
tion to the State but…” Which
the recollection of a frustrated forgetful world
begs the question why aren’t
whose gift was to destroy everything dis-
more native people interested
similar to itself.
in anarchism?
Page 7 SPRING ‘05 ISSUE
Native People are
LLooccaattiinngg aann not gone
IIIIIIIIIInnnnnnnnnnddddddddddiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnoooooooooouuuuuuuuuussssssssss For many readers these ideas may seem worth
pursuit. An indigenous anarchism may state a
AAAAAAAAAAnnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrcccccccccchhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiissssssssssmmmmmmmmmm position felt but not articulated about how to
live with one another, how to live in the world
and about the decomposition. These readers
will recognize themselves in indigeneity and
ponder the next step. A radical position must
embed an action plan, right?
No, it does not.
This causality, this linear vision of the
progress of human events from idea to articu-
lation to strategy to victory is but one way to
understand the story of how we got from
there to here. Progress is but one mythology.
((ccoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm pprreevviioouuss ppaaggee))
Another is that the will to power, or the spirit
More than a consequence, the principle of The anarchist analysis of the Zapatistas is of resistance, or the movement of the masses
radical decentralization means it is preferable a case in point. Anarchists have understood transforms society. They may, and I appreciate
for there to be no center. that it was an indigenous struggle, that it was those stories, but I will not finish this story
If anarchists are not able to apply the prin- armed and decentralized but habitually temper with a happy ending that will not come true.
ciples of self-determination to the fact that their enthusiasm with warnings about a) This is but a sharing. This is a dream I have
real living and breathing people do identify valorizing Subcommandante Marcos, b) the had for some time and haven’t shown to any
within racial and cultural categories and that differences between social democracy and of you before, which is not to say that I do not
this identification has consequences in terms anarchism, c) the problems with negotiating have a purpose…
of dealing with one another can we be shocked with the State for reforms, etc. etc. These Whether stated in the same language or not,
that native people (or so-called people of color) points are valid and criticism is not particu- the only indigenous anarchists that I have met
lack any interest in cohabitating? Furthermore larly the problem. What is the problem is (with one or three possible exceptions) have
if anarchists are unable to see that the conse- that anarchist criticism is generally more been native people. This is not because living
quence of their own politic includes the creation repetitive than it is inspired or influential. with these principles is impossible for non-
of social norms and cultures that they would not Repetitive criticisms are useful in getting native people but because there are very few
feel comfortable in, in a truly decentralized every member of a political tendency on the teachers and even fewer students. If learning
social environment, what hope do they have same page. Criticism helps us understand the how to live with these values is worth anything
to deal with the people with whom they don’t difference between illusion and reality. But it is worth making the compromises necessary
feel comfortable today? the form that anarchist criticism has taken to learn how people have been living with them
The answer is that these anarchists do not about events in the world is more useful in for thousands of years.
expect to deal with anyone outside of their shaping an understanding of what real Contrary to popular belief, the last hope for
understanding of reality. They expect reality to anarchists believe than what the world is. native values or an indigenous world-view is
conform to their subjective understanding of it. As long as the arbiters of anarchism not the good hearted people of civilized society.
This problem extends to the third reason that continue to be the wielders of the Most It is not more casinos or a more liberal Bureau
native people lack interest in anarchism. Like Appropriate Critique™ then anarchism will of Indian Affairs. It is not the election of
most political tendencies anarchism has come continue to be an isolated sect far removed Russell Means to the presidency of the Oglala
up with a distinct language, cadence, and set from any particularly anarchistic events Sioux Tribe. It is patience. As I was told time
of priorities. The tradition of these distinctions that happen in the world. This will continue and time again as a child “The reason that I sit
is what continues to bridge the gap between to make the tendency irrelevant for those here and drink is because I am waiting for the
many of the anarchist factions that have very people who are interested in participating white man to finish his business. And when
little else in common. This tradition is not a in anarchistic events. he is done we will return.”
recruiting tradition. There is only a small evan-
gelical tradition within anarchism. It is largely ““OOnnee ttiimmee II wwaass vviissiittiinngg wwiitthh mmyy rreellaattiivveess TThhee cclloouuddss,, tthhee mmoouunnttaaiinnss,, tthhee sskkyy,, tthhee ttrreeeess
an inscrutable tradition outside of itself. MMyy rreellaattiivveess ttoouucchheedd mmyy ssppiirriitt NNuuddggeedd iitt lloovviinnggllyy LLiisstteenn ttoo uuss iimmppaattiieenntt oonnee WWee aarree ffoorreevveerr
This isn’t a problem outside of itself. The YYoouu mmuusstt rreemmeemmbbeerr tthhee ggeennttlleenneessss ooff ttiimmee YYoouu aarree ssttrruugggglliinngg ttoo bbee wwhhoo yyoouu aarree YYoouu ssaayy yyoouu
problem is that it is coupled with the arrogance wwaanntt ttoo lleeaarrnn tthhee oolldd wwaayyss SSttrruugggglliinngg ttoo lleeaarrnn WWhheenn aallll yyoouu mmuusstt ddoo iiss rreemmeemmbbeerr””
of the educated along with the worst of radical –– JJoohhnn TTrruuddeellll,, LLiisstteenniinngg
politics’ excesses. This is best seen in the
distinction that continues to be made of a
discrete tradition of anarchism from actions
that are anarchistic. Anarchists would like to
have it both ways. They would like to see their
tradition as being both a growing and vital one
along with being uncompromising and deeply
radical. Since an anarchist society would be
such a break from what we experience in this
world, it would be truly different. It is impossible
to perceive any scenario that leads from here
to there. There is no path.
GREEN ANARCHY #19 Page 8