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ANARCHY IN THE USA (AND CANADA)
Anarchist politics take root among the young
By Brian Ahlberg
From Utne Reader Nov/ Dec 1988
Clashes between young anarchists and police in three different cities during the past few months offers some evidence that a new North American anarchist “movement” now exists.
Anarchists played an active role in recent confrontations in Minneapolis, and New York City, but in both cases they were a minority faction within broader protests. The third imbroglio, however, pitted hundreds of anarchists, who came from across Canada and the United States to Toronto for a July “unconvention,” against police. According to Ecomedia Bulletin (July 12, 1988) Toronto’s anarchist biweekly, 28 protestors were arrested and three police officers were hospitalized. The newsletter accused police of beating demonstrators who had gathered at the local American consulate, where they were protesting the U.S. downing of the Iranian commercial jetliner. Although the anarchists initiated no violence, claims the Bulletin, “When we get attacked, we will fight back regardless of anyone’s so-called ‘authority’”.
The Minneapolis incident follows the sending of U.S. troops to Central America last March. A large but conventional civil disobedience action aimed at disrupting traffic in the city’s fashionable Uptown district was jolted into front-page prominence by youthful punks and skinheads, many organized under the banner of the Revolutionary Anarchist Bowling League (RABL). RABL militants burned an American flag, pelted police cars with paint bombs, and hurled a bowling ball through the window of a nearby military recruiting station- all described in glorious detail in the pages of the group’s small, sporadic, but stylish tabloid, the RABL ROUSER (Issue #3). The young protestors also danced in the streets and conscientiously cleared all the litter from the area before leaving the scene. One RABL insider explained to the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch (March 27, 1988) that the group’s name was chosen not only for its acronym and humor, but also because “bowling appeals to the working class, and revolution does not but should”.
“A little ragged rally” against curfews in Tompkins Square Park- a nighttime hangout for youths and homeless people on Manhattan’s Lower East Side- led to a melee one night in August that the Village Voice (Aug 16, 1988) termed a “police riot,” which cost two ranking New York City police officers their posts. Rally leaders sported a black flag and “Class War” banner, and shouted slogans like “Die Yuppie scum!” to protest the area’s gentrification. Early morning pedestrian traffic and local residents joined the demonstration as 450 officers and a police helicopter were called to the park. Police swept through the crowd on horseback and used unnecessary force against bystanders, according to the police commissioner’s report.
Approximately a thousand committed, active anarchists are part of this new North American movement- a majority of whom are between the ages of 15 and 30. Drawn largely from young people mobilized by the twin threat of military and ecological holocaust, and to a lesser degree from the disaffected mainstream protest movements and the hierarchical Marxist left, new anarchists seem driven more by the desire to live anti-authoritarian lives than by commitment to anti-statist ideology. The organized groups are concentrated in San Francisco, New York City, Minneapolis and Toronto, with some activity going on in other cities such as Atlanta, Albany, Philadelphia and Lawrence, Kansas.
Punks, squatters, workers, students, and food co-op members have created a “political patchwork” from “hippie communalism, anti-war activism, punk culture, ecology, animal rights, sexual liberation, and tribal spiritualism,” according to the Toronto magazine NOW (July 7, 1988). The magazine points to young anarchists “composted ideology” and traces its lineage to the expressions of such diverse figures as Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Sid Vicious and Yoko Ono. New anarchists mention the influence of the Spanish Civil War, the Italian writer Malatesta, and the Situationists (radical leaders of the 1968 student/ worker uprising in Paris famous for their slogan, “All power to the imagination”).
But far more often than relying on classic texts or received wisdom, new anarchists use their own experiences in attempting to create independent communities based on self-reliance, voluntary simplicity, and mutual aid. Decentralized anarchist networks communicate in person or through newsletters so they can feel connected with their young counterparts in Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Athens and Gdansk.
One 27-year old protestor from the Tompkins Square Park riot in New York City embodies the spirit of political non-conformity and direct action bred from desperation. He explained to the Village Voice (Aug 23, 1988) that he has lived his entire adult life under Ronald Reagan. “So when I have a problem, I do not write my congressman.” When things get bad, he takes his grievances to the streets. “And so do my neighbors, like we did Saturday night.”
