To the Editors:
In an article in the November/December 1994 issue of Love and Rage, I wrote that white people are those who enjoy the privileges of the white skin, among which are "expecting, if they are female, that the state will protect them from strangers." In a n ote appended to my article, the editorial board wrote that the women on it "strongly disagree" with my statement, which "runs contrary to the newspaper's commitment to recognizing the way in which state power is used to uphold patriarchy."
It is true that the state upholds the patriarchy, but like every other form of domination, the patriarchy is decisively shaped by white supremacy. In this society, the black woman is public property, the white woman is private property. The state prote cts the white woman from strangers (not from her husband, father, uncles and brothers), not because it cares for her as a person but because she is the property of a white man, and the job of the state is to protect private property. The state does not pr otect the black woman from strangers because it does not respect the property rights of the black man. Of course it does not completely protect the white man's woman, any more than it protects his car or his stereo; but it tries, and statistics show that the safest thing to be in this country is a white woman.
Those who disagreed with my statement offered as evidence their own experience of being harassed by police or physically abused in the presence of police who turned the other way. I don't question their accounts; indeed they prove my point: they come f rom women who show in their dress and manner that they have chosen not to be the property of any man, and therefore have placed themselves beyond the shield of whiteness.
That is a very un-white thing to do and I should think that as anarchists the women on the editorial board would consider it a badge of honor that they are not entirely part of the white race (an oppressive social formation). Instead, they insist on id entifying themselves as "white women." Well, they can't have it both ways: either they act like white women ("ladies") and subject themselves to the degrading protection of the patriarchal state that despises them, or they renounce that particular white-s kin privilege. If they renounce it, they must recognize that in doing so they are taking a big step toward becoming something other than white, and can expect to be fair game for every pig in and out of uniform who wants to assert his masculine right over public property. Surely, they don't think they can take part in revolutionary politics while continuing to be white, or that they can cease to be white without paying the price.
Noel Ignatiev, co-editor Race Traitor
PO Box 603
Cambridge, MA 02140-0005
October 30, 1994
To the Compañeras/os in the North American Anti-Authoritarian Zapatista Solidarity Community:
This letter concerns misunderstandings that have come up around material aid sent to the EZLN by members of anti-authoritarian circles in the US and México with varied political backgrounds. A successful, broad campaign has been carried out. Unfortunat ely, due to general misunderstandings which have not been clarified, rumors have circulated regarding the fate of aid sent to the EZLN. It has been said that some of the aid sent to the EZLN was appropriated by members of Amor y Rabia (Love and Rage) in M éxico. It has also been rumored that the aid which the EZLN received was misrepresented as being entirely from Love and Rage.
These rumors are not true. Aid specifically earmarked for the EZLN did indeed reach them and the sources of the aid were identified accurately. There were mistakes made as well as misunderstandings in the process that led to the confusion. A big part o f the problem was a lack of trust amongst anti-authoritarians with different focuses and opinions. The group of people participating in this project represented different tendencies within the anti-authoritarian movement. This was part of its success init ially (many people were involved in the effort), but later may have been the cause of some of the division and suspicion.
It is unfortunate and ironic that the anarchist/anti-authoritarian movement, with few existing structures and inexperienced in this kind of work, conducted a fairly successful solidarity project but is now discrediting itself with rumors, suspicion and sectarianism.
One of the saddest things about what has happened is that many of us seem to have lost sight of what we are struggling for. We would like to see a renewed effort to support the EZLN's struggle. We wrote this letter to clear up the rumors that are circu lating and reopen public forums of discussion so that we can continue the work we have already laid the groundwork for.
The Struggle Continues!
Love and Rage Mexican Solidarity Working Group/New York City
Nightcrawlers Anarchist Black Cross
Dear Love and Rage,
I was very happy to see the article on Refugio del Rio Grande in your last issue. I have known one of the long time workers at the camp, Pio Celestino for many years (we met in jail in South Carolina back in '78). It is my view that such things as the camp are important to support because we anarchists should be directly involved in the struggles of the people. Modern anarchists, unfortunately, seem to isolate themselves from the world. Which brings me to all the new ABC stuff. I am happy to see an ABC network forming and the involvement of people of color is a step in the right direction. But I already see this new network repeating one of the major mistakes from the past. Of all the forms of struggle, prisoner support work, by its very nature, must r each out to those who will support that struggle. Now I have not talked to others who have been involved in prison struggles to find out why they are not involved, so I can only speak for myself. When I am trying to get the word out on a case or prison st ruggle, I try to get stuff out to every possible supporter, this is called outreach. When the first letter went out about the idea of a new ABC network I wrote back saying that I supported the idea. In the paper that I work on, Bayou La Rose, I plugged th e ABC conference. The first list of prisoner support groups that came out the Bayou was listed. Now it seems that I have been excluded. The only stuff I have seen for awhile has been printed in other papers. I read in one paper that the new ERN [Emergency Response Network] was activated on two cases, had they sent me information on those two cases it would have been printed in the last issue of the Bayou. It is my hope that my exclusion has more to do with the fact that I get way behind in my letter writi ng and I don't go to many conferences than any dogmatic factionalism. The fact is that most of my time and money goes into the cases I am working on and putting out Bayou La Rose. The point being is if one is serious about doing prisoner support work then you must learn to do outreach and connect with those who are also doing the same type of work. Anything less is just wasting time. The reality is that there ain't a lot of people involved in doing real prisoner support work, and if those who are involved in this work cannot unite without excluding people, how can a real solidarity movement ever be built? As an anarchist I have been involved in prisoner support work since back in the '60s, and I have seen this same mistake being made time after time. The new ABC network can go a long way in helping developing a solidarity movement, but only if it can overcome the tendency of isolationism.
In Solidarity,
Arthur J. Miller
Bayou La Rose
PO Box 5464
Tacoma, WA 98415-0464
Gdansk, Poland
19 November 1994
¡Hola Compas!
There's a really lively anarchist movement here in Gdansk. In the 3 days since I made contact with them, I've been to 2 meetings: one, of approximately 25 people was to plan a demonstration against new taxes going into effect next week; the other, of a bout 15, was for this magazine they publish, Mat' Pariadka. [...] They will be doing an English-language "Best of the last 2 years" of the magazine.
Most of the people in the group are young—early 20s or less—and pretty punk, but there are a small core who have been active since the communist days and the "heroic" period of Solidarnosc. (Incidental aside—I visited the Solidarnosc monument outside t he ex-Lenin Shipyards, which is very impressive, and just a stone's throw away was a big billboard advertising the Solidarnosc-Chase Bank! Unfortunately, I didn't have a stone handy.) Last night I watched a video of some of their recent actions. One was o n May Day, where they sat down and blocked a major intersection, and as they were being hauled off by the police there were lots of shouts of "Gestapo" from passersby. Another was a march they led into the city hall, disrupting the meeting, in protest of the water service being sold off to a private (French) firm, which included hundreds of "regular" people, many of them pensioners. November 9, which is sort of equivalent to July 4, they had a large anti-nationalism demonstration. All in all it's very imp ressive. (I just realized that I forgot to say that they're part of the FA (Federacja Anarchistyczna—Polish Anarchist Federation.)) Everywhere I go around here I see lots of circle A's and other anarchist graffiti, but also quite a bit from fascists as we ll. While not as bad as Germany and some other places (like the US?), there is a serious and dangerous fascist movement. Last week a punk in Szcecin was killed by nazis. [...]
As for the rest of my trip before this, my previous stop was in Berlin where I participated in a couple of demos: one large, fairly ordinary one commemorating Pogramnacht (Nov. 9); the other a full-fledged Autonome deal over the re-opening of a bridge in Kruezberg. Fun, but I never had much serious political contact there, so not much to say. Before that was Amsterdam, where I was in contact with the squatter/anarchist scene. It's quite large and active, but with the still-high level of social benefits and low level of repression seems awful privileged. Example: I went along on the opening of a new squat, broad daylight Sunday afternoon. Some neighbor informs the owner who calls the police who arrive as we're inside smoking a huge spliff, which I insta ntly and needlessly try to hide. They take information from people—and scold the owner for keeping a flat empty and go away.
London—[...] Think of the '89 SF gathering, only worse.
Con Amor y Rabia,
Bruce