Green Anarchy #15

76 Pages·2004·16.3 MB·English

by  Green Anarchy Collective

GGRREEEENN AANNAARRCCHHYY
Winter Reflections
It is possible that 2004 will be a pivotal year, a
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play no significant role.
The new movement, generally called “anti-
globalization”, is now four years old, counting from
anti-WTO Seattle. Though adversely affected by
9/11/01, we may be at or near a “make-or-break”
time. Can we go forward against the might of empire
on its various fronts, or will we back down and begin
to fade?
It’s very clear that empire faces resistance around
CCOONNTTEENNTTSS::
the globe. Even if the capture of bin Laden were to
follow the mid-December bagging of Saddam
Hussein, the picture would not change. But thank-
fully neither the theocratic statism of the one nor the
secular dictatorship of the other in any way exhausts
the varieties of opposition to the dominant powers.
The Psychopathology of Work, pg 2 In our hemisphere, the rise of indigenous move-
Fawda (An Anarchist Look At the Struggle in Palestine), pg 4 ments, from British Columbia to Chile, constitutes
the most important development in recent years.
Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, pg 8
This varied insurgence is vastly more significant
The Way of History — Today, pg 10 than the half-dozen new leftist regimes in South
America, which have appeared in response to
Impassioned Violence, Justified Violence, pg 11
neoliberal economic pressures. Now they run
Recovering From Western Civilization: their respective national economies in no funda-
An Interview with Chellis Glenndenning - Part II, pg 12 mentally different ways than did the politicians who
preceded them.
Electric Funeral: An In-Depth Examination of the Our green anarchy or “primitivism” orientation
Megamachine’s Circuitry, pg 16 seeks to learn from indigenous modes, from that
which runs counter to the murderous modern world
Notes On Summits and Counter-Summits, pg 24
system. Rather than seeking a place in the hive of
Riding the High of Cancun and the Dangers of a Crash, pg 27 global production and consumption, we seek a
different way of living.
Under the Palms of Miami…This Season’s #1 Tourist Trap, pg 29
We face two challenges: to create and implement
it’d feel so funny to be free, pg 41 tactics, and to understand the prevalent anti-life
Feral Visions: A Journal of an Anti-Civilization Roadshow, pg 42 reality and its motive forces. Creative, effective
tactics can only stem from a clear understanding
Notes on the Function of the Outlaw as Anti-Role, pg 48
of our situation. In this sense it’s very heartening
Resisting the Neoliberal Discourse of Technology, pg 54 that in many quarters, people are engaged in a
deeper questioning of all the assumptions behind
Reclaiming Thoreau for Anarchy, pg 56
the madness. This exciting quest, looking way beyond
Colonization, Self-Government and Self-Determination a failed leftism, inspires a renewed hopefulness and
sense of urgency even as the crisis worsens. There
in British Columbia, pg,57
may be a way to understand and solve our problems,
to live differently, to heal and preserve this beautiful
Back To Basics
The Problem of the Left planet for our children and grandchildren!
vol. two:
The web of armed power may now be not much
The Nature of the Left, pg 33 more than that. Domination resorts to naked force,
Leftism 101, pg 34 having no answers, no real prospects for its future.
It has always been the case that we need to think
Liberation, Not Organization, pg 37 incisively and act wisely. Perhaps we also need to
The Left-Handed Path of Repression, pg 38 be able to see through the system’s image of
strength to its rotted, bankrupt foundations.
Direct Action Reports
Sections
Ecological Resistance, pg 20
Anti-GE Actions, pg 22 Welcome to Green Anarchy, pg 33333
Indigenous and Campesino Resistance, pg 23 The Garden of Peculiarities, Fragment 18, pg 43
Anarchist Resistance from Around the World, pg 30 State Repression News, pg 49
Political Assassination Attempts in 2003, pg 31 Political Prisoner Listings, pg 50
Anti-Capitalist and Anti-Imperialist Resistance, pg 32 Reviews, pg 58
The Wild Ones Fight Back, pg 44 News from the Balcony with Waldorf and Statler, pg 63
Animal Liberation Actions, pg 45 Letters, pg 64
Further Symptoms of the System’s Meltdown, pg 46 Ads and Announcements, pg 70
Prisoner Uprisings and Revolts 53 Green Anarchy Distribution Center, pg 72
Page 1 WINTER ‘04 ISSUE
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our deepest desires is implanted during committed by children or teenagers
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acontradictions, but also a commodity like intolerable dullness, that they were so
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iand credit card can afford, and is thus know how or where to look for something

sindefinitely postponed. And each post- different, or how to rebel in such a way
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ponement contributes to the reproduction that it might actually make a difference.
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awho is not a multimillionaire or a masochist notions from bible school, Hollywood and model of the “chain of command.” It
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ihas come to loathe. TV which promised a few minutes of continues the sanction of male supremacy
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o That is the problem facing us all: How to meaningless “excitement” followed by lots as a time-honored tradition dating back to
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obreak the pattern of work — of week-to-week of publicity — also meaningless. Each time a mandate of God, no less. In the nuclear
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slavery, that habit of family, he works at a job, and
y “Work, now? Never, never. I’m on strike.”
thabits, that addiction of she works in the home (and
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s addictions; how to detach —Arthur Rimbaud increasingly also at a job). As
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k Especially ingrained is that pattern of work- “violence” on TV. Rarely, however, does Children too learn to work, or at least
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ping for someone else: making someone else’s anyone criticize the bible or the Christian how to suffer boredom. From the earliest
a“goods,” producing the wealth that someone churches, despite the fact that Christianity age they are taught to obey orders. School
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else enjoys, thinking someone else’s thoughts — by far the bloodiest of the “world’s great and church teach them the necessity of
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e(sometimes actually believing them one’s religions” — is far more to be blamed. going to and staying at a particular place
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aown), and even dreaming Similarly, one for a prolonged period, even when they
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someone else’s dreams — rarely hears would rather be anywhere else. All the
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ein short, living someone criticism of the classic parental admonitions — “Sit still!”
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ielse’s life, for one’s own armed forces — a “Do what I tell you!” “Don’t talk back!”
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wlife, and one’s own dream gang of profes- “Stop behaving like a bunch of wild Indians!”
h of life, have long since sional killers — are part of the education of the well-
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ebeen lost in the shuffle. whose influence behaved, uncomplaining wage-slave…
Cz The systematic sup- on children can- The world today is confronted by greater,
pression of a person’s not be anything more earth-shaking, more life-threatening
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breal desires — and that other than baleful. problems than ever before: wars all over,

1is largely what work And even less massive pollution, global warming, the
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9consists of — is exacer- often does one return of slavery, white supremacy,
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bated by capitalism’s encounter criti- oppression of women, ecological disaster,

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iincessant manipulation cism of another neocolonialism, state terrorism, the prison

dof artificial desires, “as intrinsically vio- industry, genocide, cancer, AIDS, the traffic
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nadvertised.” This gives lent institution: death-toll, xenophobia, pesticides, genetic
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odaily life the character the nuclear engineering — the list goes on and on.
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of mass neurosis, with family. Indeed, Ceaselessly bombarded by news reports
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tincreasingly frequent at this late date in and sound-bytes of one catastrophe after
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orelieve the all-embracing boredom of daily this relic of patriarchy is still held up as do, and lapse into paralysis. On the
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“life, society offers an endless array of dis- some sort of ideal. Replacing the extended ideological front, this widespread passivity,

dtractions and stupefactions, most of them family, the nuclear family as we know it itself a major social problem, is main-
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o“available at a store near you.” The trouble today is an invention of the nineteenth tained by what André Breton called
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is, these distractions and stupefactions, century. Constructed by white bourgeois miserabilism, the cynical rationalization

elegal or illegal, soon become part of the Europeans to meet the needs of expanding of misery, suffering and corruption: the
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Tboredom, for they satisfy no authentic desire. industrialization, it reflects capitalism’s dominant ideology of Power in our time.
GREEN ANARCHY #15 Page 2
Every hour, moreover, countless billions
are spent on propaganda, advertising and WWeellccoommee ttoo GGrreeeenn AAnnaarrcchhyy
other mystifications to sustain the delusion
that the crisis-strewn society we live in
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today is the best and only one possible.
What is most important to grasp is that work
is at the center of all these problems. It is work Winter is here. In Oregon, that means We have been debating this change amongst
that keeps the whole miserabilist system about five more wonderful/depressing months ourselves and our supporters for more than
of darkness and rain (after almost three a year, and have not come to any definitive
going. Without work, the death-dealing
already)! It is a good time to reflect on the conclusion, so we figured the best way to
juggernaut that proclaims itself the “free
past year, and plan for the next. It is an determine the most effective format is to try
market” would grind to a halt. (“Free inward time to question ourselves, look at our it out. If we feel this change is not beneficial
market” means freedom for Capital, and accomplishments, and examine our failures. for the goals of this collective, or in the
unfreedom for those who work.) Until the It is a time for strategizing and debate. interest of our readers, we will go back to
problem of work is solved — that is, until work the tabloid format. Our content will not
is abolished — all other problems will not only In this issue, we have an extensive change, no sections will be cut, and the size
section focusing on the anti-globalization and consistency will remain the same. While
remain, but will keep getting worse…. In a
movement and the demonstrations/battles the cover price will go up slightly for those
world too busy to live, work itself has become
that have occurred outside economic summits. who order GA by mail (the price increase will
toxic, a form of “digging your own grave.”
Since Seattle, these events have become the be less for subscribers), we hope to be able
Renewed scarcities and engineered most outwardly visible and public forms of to continue to give away as many as before
economic crises notwithstanding, society anarchist resistance, but many feel that they locally, to prisoners, and to those who are
today has the capacity to reduce work to a have become stale, predictable, ineffective, unable to pay. We made this change in the
tiny fraction of what it is now, while or otherwise limited. Some anarchists have hope of providing a more durable and
continuing to meet all human needs. It is suggested that we abandon these activities long-lasting piece of propaganda, and to
obvious that if people really want paradise for more underground and illegal action, attempt to get the magazine into larger
while others wish for anarchists to become circulation through distributors (who would
on Earth, they can have it — practically
more autonomous, elusive, prepared, and not carry GA in newspaper form due to its more
overnight. Of course they will have to over-
destructive at these events. Many of us wish flimsy qualities). Let us know what you
come the immense and multinational “false
to embrace a holistic approach in which we think of the new format.
consciousness” industry, which works very are able to successfully strike on multiple We are happy to announce that due to the
hard to make sure that very few working fronts, without depending entirely on one demand of our last issue, we had to do an
people know what they really want…. tactic or single event. We hope the debates additional over-run of 2000 copies, bringing
Work kills the spirit, damages the body, in- in the pages of GA will help further these our print-run up to 7500. For this issue, we
sults the mind, keeps everyone confused and and other much needed tactical discussions. have decided to print 9000 copies, with the
Issue #15 also features a special “Back to anticipation of an increase for our next
demoralized, distracts its victims from all the
Basics” section (also available as a pamphlet) issue. This increase in demand for GA, and
things that really matter in life…. Our struggle
which focuses on “the Problems with the our ability to keep up with it, is exciting to
calls for labor organizers of a new kind….To
Left” (including leftist anarchists). This is our collective. We feel that getting Green
bring about the meltdown of miserabilism we part two of an ongoing series that we hope Anarchy as far out there as possible can only
need awakeners of latent desires, fomentors will clarify some basic assumptions and ideas be beneficial for this project, the proliferation
of marvelous humor, stimulators of ardent in Green Anarchy and the broader anti- of the anti-civilization critique, and general
dreams, provokers of the deepest possible civilization analysis. Our next issue’s “Back increase in anarchist awareness.
yearning for a life of poetic adventure. to Basics” will focus on “Re-wilding and We need your help! This project can
Primitive Living”. We look forward to any
— From “A Brief Rant Against Work,” contributions along these lines. In this issue, not succeed without your help. We are
in Surrealist Experiences: 1001 Dawns, we are honored to present the second part always looking for contributions of articles,
221 Midnights (2000) of an amazingly provocative interview with rants, poetry, images, action reports, prisoner
eco-psychologist, political activist, and updates, and ideas for future issues. We are
writer, Chellis Glendinning. The Winter issue especially interested in articles from indig-
also contains: an involved tactical analysis enous and eco-feminist perspectives. Some
on the targeting of the techno-grid’s infra- possible topics for upcoming issues include:
structure, an update and analysis on the class struggle and the anti-civilization
continuing resistance in Iraq, a look at the critique, the phenomenon of war from a
Palestinian struggle from a radically anti- green anarchist perspective, a radical look
authoritarian perspective, an assessment at the prison industrial complex, and a look
of technology in the Neoliberal nightmare, at the connections between patriarchy and
and a number of other articles, special civilization. We are always in need of local
sections, and of course, a ton of reports on distributors (at any level) of GA, subscribers,
resistance from around the world to update and financial supporters. We thank those
and hopefully inspire our readers. who have contributed to this project, in any
form, in the past.
We have a new format! After
For the Destruction of Civilization,
fourteen issues (and many changes) as a
and the Reconnection to Life!
newspaper, we have finally decided to publish
CCoonncceeaall DDeessppaaiirr The Green Anarchy Collective
in magazine format. This is a trial issue.
January 1, 2004
......MMoovvee aass AAuuttoommaattoonnss
Our deadline for contributions for Issue #16/Spring 2004 is February 29th (Leap Day)
Page 3 WINTER ‘04 ISSUE
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“Let’s remember the way lay claim to our shock for the lack of light (as, in conclusion, Israel is)? And then, having

and life of an aspiring Palestinian head of state been victims of the genocide carried out
other people have treated us
enclosed within his bunker; and for those who by the Nazis, having suffered infamous
and how they still treat us try to place the indiscriminate violence of persecution, how could Jews today, who
desperation and the indiscriminate violence recognize themselves in Israel, wear the
everywhere, as foreigners, as of institutions on the same level, with the aim butcher’s apron and do to others what they
of justifying the latter as a form of defense were forced to suffer in the past? All this
inferiors. Let’s guard against
against the former; and for those who simply comes into conflict with our security, with our
considering what is foreign want this all to end so that they can continue need for order, with our cogent bookkeeper’s
to fill their cars with fuel without having to logic that determines our quiet bookkeeper’s
and insufficiently known as
spend too much. existence. The tranquility of our sleep and of
inferior! Let’s guard against our affairs requires it, state propaganda
Let’s admit it. Upon hearing the news that confirms it: there is no genocide underway
doing ourselves that which comes from the Palestinian territories, the in Palestinian territories, there is only a hunt
word that continually comes out of our mouth without quarter in the face of cruel terrorists
was done to us.”
is not the same one that first comes to our mind. that, due to circumstances that are as tragic
—Martin Buber, 1929 At most, our tongues say extermination — as they are fatal, is having harsh
ruthless and sometimes methodical de- repercussions for the civilian population
At the time in which we are writing these struction and suppression of a large as well. But if this is how things are,
lines, the whole world is watching with bated number of people — while our brain what can be said about the numbers
breath the events that stain the Middle East thinks genocide — tattooed on Palestinian prisoners, a
with blood. We don’t know if the tension the methodical chilling reiteration of one of the most
caused by the military occupation of Pales- destruction and nauseating Nazi practices? What can
tinian territory by Israeli troops will be so high suppression of be said of the destruction of houses
by the time you read these lines, or if the an ethnic, racial and entire villages, again some-
pressure from international chancelleries will or religious thing that was practiced
have managed to cool the boiling militaristic group, carried against the Jews (specifically,
spirit of the Sharon government. out through by English soldiers)? What
That which we know, that which urges us the extermination of individuals can be said about all the dead
to speak, cannot be exhausted in the facile and the annihilation of cultural values. — women, children, old people
humanitarian attitude of blame and indig- Genocide is much more than extermi- — that could surely not be
nation. In the face of all that has happened, is nation. But this is a term that we somehow included in the media stereotype
happening and is being prepared in these refuse to use, because its use in such a of the fanatical terrorist extolling
apparently distant places, we feel only context would undermine the foundations Holy War? As is clear, there are not
repugnance for those who live in anguish that of many of the certainties on which we have built many alternatives in the face of the massacre
the sanctity of the basilica of Bethlehem could our world, its tranquility and its prosperity. that is going on: either the silence of consent,
be profaned, worried that the divine manger How can we call that which the Sharon which is at the same time the result and the
could be soiled by Arab blood; and for those government has undertaken genocide after guarantee of social peace, or the questioning
who accuse all who protest against the being told over and over again so many times that springs from dissent. But, if it is carried
operations of the Israeli state of anti- that genocide is an atrocity of the past, fruit to its conclusion, to its extreme consequences,
semitism, as if this state were synonymous of the worst obscurantism, that could not what will this questioning leave us? Will we
with the Jewish people; and for all those who find legitimacy in a Western democracy be able to listen to the answers?
GREEN ANARCHY #15 Page 4
Actually, if the Nazi genocide against the Jews which systematically proceeds to standardize which in the course of history has imposed
was the first to be judicially condemned, social relationships. The state does not the customary dilemma: either start walking
nevertheless it was not the first to be recognize individuals with differences on the path of productivity or disappear.
perpetrated. The history of western colonial between them who are thus unique, but only Capitalist civilization deconstructs and
expansion into this century — that led to the citizens who are equal before its authority and destroys all non-capitalist social forms,
creation of great empires on the part of the therefore identical. A everywhere imposing
largest and most powerful European states — state can only claim the model of the
is first of all a succession of systematic massacres to be formed and atomized citizen —
of indigenous populations (the greatest of these proclaim itself the basic to democracy —
being the genocide of the Native American absolute and exclu- incapable of possessing
populations that occurred after 1492). sive holder of power a social existence
In a few words, genocide is a weapon that only where and when outside of the abstract
the state has always used. And it would be a the population over and homogenizing
gross error to think that recourse to mass which it exercises its mediation of money,
extermination on the part of the state could dominion speaks its work and the state. If
only have happened in the past, when the language, respects Israeli soldiers today
ambition to conquer new economic markets its laws, follows its behave in more or less
goaded the crowned heads of Europe to customs, uses its the same way toward
launch their subjects on adventurous enter- money, practices its Palestinians as German
prises beyond their borders. In reality, religious faith. When soldiers behaved to-
although the practice of genocide was more this reduction, this ward Jews sixty years
readily visible during colonial expansion, it homogenization can- ago, it is not because
also occurred — and still occurs – within the not be carried out Jews and Nazis are the
borders that a state gave itself in its formu- through formally same as boorish anti-
lation as well as its consolidation. peaceful methods, the semitic propaganda
The history of the United States is exemplary state uses violence. would have it, but
in this sense. Even the glorious and democratic Through genocide, because in every era,
United States was born through genocide, that the state merely soldiers are alike. It is
carried out against the Native Americans by brings the elimination of the Other to term, the task of the army to destroy everything that
an army sent out to protect colonists of an indispensable moment for imposing its might cause the ruin of the state. Hitler held
European ancestry in the name of a “freedom” authority and thus realizing the unity it needs. that Jews represented a threat to Germany and
obtained by destroying villages and slaugh- If the state was genocidal already in antiquity, therefore tried to exterminate them. Now the
tering entire populations of Indians (naturally things certainly didn’t change with the advent problem is not the Jewish people, but rather
arousing their resistance that sometimes of capitalism, which tends to always extend the state of Israel. Hypothetically, if things
assumed ferocious hues even against the its borders in the ongoing search for profit. The were to be reversed tomorrow, the problem
civilian population). We all know how it globalization that is so frequently denounced, would not be the Palestinian people, but its
ended: the United States government took in other words, the transnational capitalism state (that would probably try to exterminate
possession of all the territory once possessed that is transforming the entire planet into a single, the Jews if it were given the opportunity).
by Indians, while it giant supermarket, is a In other words, a solution to the Jewish-
allowed the few that perfect example of this. Palestinian conflict will never be able to
survived to live on Nowadays, instead be found if it remains within institutional
cramped and unhealthy of physically extermi- logic, political mediation and treaties
reservations, bewildered nating an indigenous between states.
by various kinds of population, it is pref-
western consumption erable to culturally After the attacks of September 11, 2001 — since
and reduced to folk- convert it after having now in the imagination of the western world,
loristic phenomena and economically and the “Arab kamikaze” inspires the same terror
tourist attractions. politically vanquished as the “scalping redskin” provoked at the end
The European states it. Capitalist society of the 19th century — the government of Israel
themselves were the is not only the most has decided to take advantage of the situation
first to know the relative formidable mecha- that has been created in order to take another
homogeneity of today, nism of production step toward the final solution to the Palestinian
but they also had to ever developed by problem. If the United States bombs Afghani-
come to terms with the humankind: It is stan and Iraq in the name of the struggle
resistance of numerous also the most terri- against Arab terrorism, why shouldn’t Israel
ethnic minorities. If the fying machine of raze Palestinian territories to the ground in the
Basque or the Irish destruction and name of the struggle against Arab terrorism?
question still has some standardization. One can understand how the western
currency, it is only Culture, society, states could not help but lean toward fa-
because these peoples’ individual, space, voring the Israeli state. How could they
struggles have managed nature… everything forbid it from doing what they themselves
to extend themselves to our times. is exploited; everything must be exploited. have done (against the Native Americans,
But what is it that makes the state intrinsically Here it is made clear why the state gives no the inhabitants of the Indies, the black
genocidal? It is its pretence of forcing that rest to social organizations that leave the Africans, the Algerians, not to mention the
which is in fact separate into a fictitious unity. world to its tranquil, native unproductiveness. beautiful Ethiopians with their black faces)?
The suppression of difference is part of the The fact that tremendous resources lie
(continued on next page)
normal functioning of the state machine, unexploited is intolerable for western culture,
Page 5 WINTER ‘04 ISSUE
This is where Arafat, the leader of the Pales- For us, as enemies of every state and father-
tinian Liberation Organization enters the land, it is easy to fall into the temptation of
scene, he who has been working as a shrewd setting the uprising of the Palestinian masses
politician for decades on the formation of a in radical opposition to the negotiations and
Palestinian state. Despite the hatred that the even the armed actions carried out by the various
Israeli rulers (as well as some Arabs) nurture groups linked to the PLO, in other words, to
toward him and the ostracism by American distinguish the Palestinian people from the
rulers, Arafat continues to have a central role rackets that claim to represent them. In reality,
in the path toward normalization. It is no it is undeniable that the nationalist demand
accident that all the governments of the world lives in the hearts of the Palestinian rebels,
have urged Sharon not to touch him. They just as it is undeniable that the more spirited
have reason. Just as an enlightened boss will military actions have contributed to creating
always prefer to negotiate with union leaders the mystique of the martyr in the entire
rather than meet with angry strikers, in the population and particularly among the youth,
same way, the more intelligent western rulers which has helped to excite the minds and
prefer to deal with an enlightened bourgeois generalize the courage that could be seen at
like Arafat than with a band of excited rebels work in the first intifada (that of the stones),
against modern reason. Despite everything, and that now feeds the second. This does not
he remains the leader of the only organization remove the reality that the existence of such
capable of enclosing the Palestinian revolt a mystique is, at the same time, one of the
within a framework. The PLO draws its clearest signs of the limits of this revolt in
strength from its ambiguous nature. With its nationalist form for the social spirit.
How could the western states condemn the weapons, the financial power of the Palestinian One can understand how long decades of
Jewish state after all that their predecessors diaspora, its international support and its oppression and the lack of any prospects for
have done to the Jews? offices in the United Nations, the PLO is an living could be transformed into the love of
Not one impediment, not one condemnation. embryo and a caricature of a state, with all death in battle. But understanding does not
Only the requests for moderation and mild that this entails in terms of sordid appetites, mean sharing this feeling. The act of blowing
criticism. At worst, the application of a few struggles between functionaries, and direct oneself up in the middle of a supermarket
sanctions. “If you exterminate the population, oppression and fierce repression of dissidents doesn’t only lead to the suicide of a single
the importation of your grapefruits may in the zones that it administers. But since it combatant, it leads to the suicide of the entire
possibly be temporarily suspended.” But has not yet formed a nation state, it is also the struggle of the Palestinians for freedom.
since the endeavor of genocide against the political organization within which human Beyond being ethically repugnant, it is tacti-
Palestinian people is on course and no one relationships con- cally harmful. We are
can ignore it, there is only one path left for serve the signs of an not among those who
the western governments to follow. To save ancient solidarity. say that its error is that
Palestine by transforming it into a state, to One of its leaders, it provokes repression
offer the Palestinians the same compensation who will be nothing by the Israeli army,
offered to the Jews after the second world war. but a power-hungry which certainly has no
When a government exterminates an insub- politician in the future need for such pretexts
ordinate population down to its last member, Palestinian state, still in order to carry out its
this is a matter that can be justified and is manages to maintain violence, or that it
amply justified by the reason of the state. a direct relationship causes the peace treaties
History, as we have seen, abounds with with combatants to fail, since there can
analogous examples. But in the contemporary who acknowledge be no peace where
world, cannibalism between states is not him today. What is oppression reigns.
permitted (which explains the haste shown true of the PLO is Rather its error is above
by Sharon to definitively “clear out” the even truer for the all in annulling and
occupied territories… of Palestinians). If they organizations to adulterating the reasons
want to survive, the western democrats insist, which the population for the Palestinian
the Palestinians must become like us. It is has dedicated itself struggle behind the rage
necessary to help them in such a way that they on the spot. The of desperation. Despite
will have a proper parliament, police, cadres of the popular the flags and sacred
magistrature, factories, shopping centers, committees are texts in which they get
McDonalds, soccer championships, television generally made up of militants from the wrapped, these reasons are universal. The
with so many fine soap operas and — why various parties or sympathizers of the PLO, but desperation is blind, capable of great strength,
not? — perhaps their own music festival. the totality of the tasks (surveillance of the but deprived of an outlet. Palestinian terrorism
“Two people, two states” is the aberrant movements of the army, provisioning, medical — unlike that of Israel, which is an expression
slogan that is going around these days as the first aid) is carried out by all, young and old, of power — is synonymous with impotence,
panacea for the current conflict. In this way, men and women, and the mysticism of death in in the immediate sense because it is not
the Palestinians find themselves between the battle serves as the cement. capable of destroying the Israeli state, and in
devil and the deep blue sea; either they Despite being viewed with distrust by the the long run because it will end up alienating
disappear from the face of the earth or they Palestinian rebels themselves, and increasingly the solidarity of rebels throughout the world,
die under the Israeli army’s stick, or they so after the arrest of numerous extremists as including those in Israel. When they wreak
convert to capitalist civilization eating the carrot a sign of good will launched toward western havoc among bus passengers or market-
of American and European diplomacy. In either public opinion, the PLO nonetheless remains goers, they are not, in fact, attacking the
case, the outcome is the same: the Palestinians the central identifying point of reference for Israeli state, but rather the population. Giving
cannot choose for themselves how to live. the Palestinian people. substance to an indiscriminate violence only
GREEN ANARCHY #15 Page 6
corroborates the accusation of anti-semitism elite. To which of these two classes do the thirst, if this will signal the end of the
that is attributed to them, enclosing them more Jewish colonists who currently live within the Palestinian Authority. May the desperation
and more in a nationalist dead-end. Clouded occupied territories and are most exposed to break loose with rage, if it will know how to
by an understandable hatred, hundreds of Palestinian reprisals belong? They are direct itself against the Israeli army. May our
Palestinians are ready to die without asking Sephardic Jews, of course. Just as in past automobiles remain stalled in the middle of
themselves how or why or against whom or centuries colonialism also served the European the streets, if this will overturn our resigned
for what. The blindness of the method renders states splendidly as a method for averting complicity with the genocide that is going on.
them blind with regard to the purpose of the social tensions that existed within them, May the Jewish-Palestinian dispute that
struggle as well. This is why one becomes creating an external safety valve, so today the enflames the Middle East change into the
either a soldier of the PLO or a social dispute capable of blazing
devotee of the Party of God throughout the planet, if this is the
(Hezbollah) or the tool of a sheikh only possibility for putting an end to
and his zeal (Hamas). This is not, in the slavery that is imposed every-
fact, due to any supposed “nature” where by money and power.
of the Arabs, a conception that tries - the Friends

to hide its racism — Arabs, you
of Al- Halladj
know, are reactionary! — behind the
recognition of cultural differences.
For centuries, Palestine has been a Editors’ Note: The word “fawda”
crossroads for people, a site of can be loosely translated as
thousands of cultures that were able “sedition” and was referred to by
to live together without tearing each Mohammed the Prophet as “even
other to bits by turns. If it has graver than assassination.” This is
become the land of the most extreme the first half of a much longer
fanaticism, it is because this situation essay called fawda that analyzes
responds to specific interests. And the struggle in Palestine from an
while a sixteen-year-old girl blows herself state of Israel finds its national unity in the insurrectional anarchist perspective. The
into the sky, the political and religious leaders struggle against the Palestinians. complete essay is available in pamphlet form
who indoctrinated her expect to collect these As long as the exploited Jews and Palestinians for $3.00 from Venomous Butterfly
interests, fruit of sacrifice as well. Palestinian will not acknowledge their shared condition, Publications, 818 SW 3rd Ave PMB 1237,
terrorism thus ends up being useful only to that is to say, will not acknowledge it together, Portland, OR 97204, or from the Green
the state: the Israeli state because it allows both of their struggles will be crippled, Anarchy Distro.
this state to demonize the Palestinians, and deprived of the possibility of intervening in the We would also like to recommend The
the future Palestinian state because it invokes ongoing conflict in a revolutionary direction. Continuing Appeal of Nationalism, a concise
the recognition of this state as the only way As for ourselves, in affirming our solidarity and critical look at national liberation
to avert the terror. with the oppressed Palestinians, we have no struggles from an anarchist perspective,
intention of romanticizing their condition. and Anti-Semitism and the Beirut Pogrom, a
Naturally, there is a line of rupture between Instead, we intend to show what is universal look at the inherent racism within Zionism,
the potential for revolt against the totality of in their resistance and to oppose the pacifism and the condition of an oppressed people
a world that has produced unbearable conditions that wants a smooth transition toward the becoming an oppressor. Both essays are
of existence for the Palestinians and the eternal silence of the market with the social also available from the Green Anarchy
attempt to snatch a niche within this world war against all those who support the genocide Distro. For horrific photographic docu-
(the Palestinian state) from this revolt. But of the Palestinians or their institutional civil mentation of Israeli military brutality,
this line is subtle and continually changes. It domestication (all other states including the PLO). See: www.alkhilafah.info
uncoils inside the base organizations, the As is evident, it is not a question of supporting
social groups, the moments of struggle and a Palestinian state. We do not want to find
through the individuals themselves, their ourselves one day united with old victims who
thoughts, their feelings and their activities. have become butchers, with a national
But for now, there is no use in hiding it, it capitalism that oppresses the proletariat on
doesn’t have much possibility of taking place its own account, with rulers who were
considering the lack of non-nationalist social indulgent in the face of the intifada and later
movements with which to associate. Above transformed themselves into bureaucrats,
all, the absence of any possibility for common exploiters and torturers. We don’t want to
struggle with Israeli exploited must be support a Palestinian state that follows the
considered. It would be a mistake to think of example of the Israeli state by drawing the
Israel as a homogenous and monolithic society. justification of its future atrocities from the
In reality, its structure is forcefully differen- substantial memories of the misfortunes of
tiated. For example, behind the beautiful the past. Thus, it is not about forcing the
rhetoric about the unity of the Jewish people Israeli state to respect the rights of Palestinians,
hides the division between the Sephardic and nor supporting the formation of a new
the Ashkenazi Jews (not to mention the Israeli Palestinian state. Rather it is a question of
Arabs, the lowest rank on the social pyramid). starting to practice desertion, refusal, sabotage,
The former are those who originate in attack, destruction against every constituted
Mediterranean lands and form the poorest authority, all power, every state.
sector of the population; the latter are those May the Church of Bethlehem get razed to
with origins in western Europe and the United the ground if this will serve to free the
States and form the political and economic Palestinians. May Arafat die of hunger and
Page 7 WINTER ‘04 ISSUE
Within the Realm
of a Dying Sun
The U.S. Military
Continues to Get
Hammered in Iraq!
Here’s our brief, somewhat obligatory, update on the U.S. war Washington Post and other devoted upholders of the spectacle,
against the Iraqi people. Or should we be saying: the Iraqi peoples’ certain encoded “information fractals” begin to appear between
fight against the bloodthirsty, Amerikan imperialist powers? the lines. One of the most persistently recurring of these
Because it is the Mass Media — the symbol system of newspapers, “subtracks” is that the “all-powerful” U.S. war machine is drowning
radio, television, magazines, etc., to which most people are in a sea of guerrilla resistance.
subjected — that manipulates word and image to create alterations
in the reader’s/viewer’s consciousness and implant an unquestioned Iraqi Insurgents Gain a Deadly Edge
trust and obedience in the “reality” of what they are seeing/hearing.
on the Information Front
Thus, CNN or Fox News can string together lines of visual and
linguistic associations (mixed together with a mass of contradictory Desperate for a cheap and easy victory in Iraq (and eager to
data) to control the thoughts and emotions of those who still butcher the uncooperative, recalcitrant Baathist power structure
regard them as objective, neutral “news sources.” By emphasizing there), the U.S. military rained upon their former “lapdog” state
the “courageous,” “determined,” and “freedom-loving” coalition with sophisticated instruments of death, their stealth bombers
forces of “liberation” and downplaying the vehement resentment darkening the sky like a swarm of locusts. Spouting a mouthful
most Iraqis feel toward their occupiers (and towards fellow Iraqi of contemporary military tropes such as “new technology is the
collaborators), the government — through the mass media — decisive edge in battle” and “information is the most important
paints the world in its own image and dictates the precise force multiplier,” Bush and Rumsfeld expected no serious
parameters of people’s perceptual and conceptual assumptions opposition in their drive to realign and tighten up their sphere
regarding the naked gangsterism of the New World Order of influence in the Middle East. But the “superiority” of the U.S.
and its motley collection of Arab forces is proving to be a deadly mirage
bootlickers. in relation to an increasingly organized
The chief difficulty in seeing the guerrilla struggle that uses stealth,
grisly plunder and bloody feeding spies and surprise to inflict punishing
frenzy of the “war on terrorism” for casualties.
what it really is (an undisguised U.S. military intelligence and law
rampage, in our opinion!) lies in the enforcement officials say that after six
fact that most of the information we months of intensifying guerrilla warfare,
have access to comes from the mass Iraqi insurgents know more about the
media, the penultimate modern control U.S. and allied forces — their style of
system. As William S. Burroughs put operations, convoy routes and vulnerable
it: “The control of the mass media targets — than the “coalition” forces
depends on laying down lines of know about them. Indeed, U.S. intelligence
association. When the lines are cut has had trouble simply identifying the
the associational connections are enemy and figuring out how many are
broken.” People see and hear what Iraqis and how many are foreign fighters.
Rebels burn police truck during
they expect to see and hear because With local knowledge and the element
uprising against U.S. occupation,
The Word Lines Keep Thee in Slots... of surprise on their side, the guerrillas
Fallujah, Iraq, October 31st.
Burroughs advocated launching a are exploiting their intelligence edge to
counteroffensive against the “reality studio” of the control machine overcome the “Coalition’s” overwhelming military might.
and developed a deprogramming/descrambling technique he Insurgents routinely use inexpensive explosives to destroy
called “the cut-up method,” which involved cutting up newspaper multimillion-dollar assets, including tanks and helicopters.
articles and re-arranging the sections so that hidden (and in some Using surveillance and inside information, the guerrillas have
cases, portentous) messages are revealed. Applying these assassinated many Iraqis helping the Coalition, gunned down a
techniques to the nationalistic rubbish of the New York Times, member of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, killed the top
GREEN ANARCHY #15 Page 8