The Institute forAnarchist Studies

Contents

I A S U p d a t e . . . 2S t u d y G r o u p s . . . 3What's Happening: Books & Events ... 4Interview with Sam Mbah ... 9

Spring 1999

CZ)b Capitalism, Marxism, and the Black Radical Tradition:An Interview with Cedric Robinson

It is the task of the radical critic to illuminate whatis repressed and excluded by the basic mechanismsof a given social order. It is the task of thepolitically engaged radical critic to side with theexcluded and repressed: to develop insights gainedin confrontation with injustice, to nourish culturesof resistance, and to help define the means withwhich society can be rendered adequate to the fullbreadth of human potentialities.

Cedric Robinson has embraced these tasks.His work explores the relationship between oursocial order and its negations, particularlyMarxism and the Black Radical Tradition. He hasexamined this relationship in historical, political,and philosophical terms with an orientation that isas comprehensive as it is anti-authoritarian.

I interviewed Robinson by e-mail in January1999.-ChuckMorse

/n the conclusion of Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition you writethat "the evolution of Black radicalism has occurredwhile it has not been conscious of itself as atradition." Your writings (especially Black Marxism and Black Movements in America^ are attempts to introduce a level of self-consciousness tothis tradition. Why is this important now and whatdo you hope this can offer to the development ofBlack radicalism and radical movementsgenerally?

My work is in a sense notational - reinscribinghistorical experience - for a political objective.Present generations must know, at the very least,

what has been known in order to achieve greaterclarification and effectiveness. Just as Thucydidesbelieved that historical consciousness of a peoplein crisis provided the possibility of more virtuousaction, more informed and rational choices, so do I.

At the time I was writing Black Marxism andBlack Mass Movements I felt strongly that Blacknationalism as it was beings pursued byspokespersons like Stokely Carmichael and LouisFarrakhan was a failed enterprise. As a peevishand perverse inversion of the political culture andracialism which had been used to justify the worstexcesses of the exploitation and oppression ofBlack people, it served as a fictive radicalism, asurrogate mirage of the Black struggle. So both ofthese works, politically, were written to addressthe miscomprehensions and conceits of Blacknationalism in historical terms: to examine howour ancestors responded to the seductions of thisconstruction of the struggle and their visions of thefuture social order.

Black Marxism is not a chronological narrative of Black radicalism but a dialecticalanalysis of the development of racial capitalism,Marxism, and Black opposition. What is it aboutthe Black Radical Tradition that requires thismethod of analysis?

There are several rationales for theemployment of dialectical analysis to the RadicalTradition: they relate to the subject matter, to theaudience, and to the method itself.

Continued on Page 6...

JBffiE'fesa faiSirsissaterraffifflfiiMdiH

The Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) annuallyawards $6000 in grants to writers whose work isimportant to the anarchist critique of domination,have a clear financial need, and whose piece islikely to be widely distributed. In January 1999,the IAS Board of Directors was pleased to awarda grant to the following individual:

$2000 to Samuel Mbah for his book MilitaryDictatorship and the State in Africa (co-authoredby I.E. Igariwey). This book will utilize ananarchist critique to analyze military dictatorship

on the African continent It is intended to followup their previous book, African Anarchism: TheHistory of a Movement (See Sharp Press, 1997).

Mbah and Igariwey will use libertarian analyticaltools to lay bare the problems of militarydictatorship. They will demonstrate that militarydictatorship is a logical, if perverse, extension ofthe state system (despite liberal and state socialistcriticisms). They will also show that overthrowingmilitary dictatorship does not remedy the

Continued on Page 10...

PerspectivesA on anarchist thenrvon anarchist theory

Perspectives onAnarchist Theory

Spring 1999, Vol. 3. No. 1Newsletter of the Institute

for Anarchist Studies

Editorial Committee:Rebecca DeWitt, Chuck Morse

Grammatical Partisans:Paul Glavin. Greta Schwerner

Subscription Rates(Two issues: per year)

I A S D o n o r s - F r e eI n d i v i d u a l s - $ 5I n s t i t u t i o n s - $ 1 0Bulk Subs (25 Copies) - $25

(Please make checks payable to the jInstitute for Anarchist Studies)

Disclaimer: the views expressed inPerspectives do not necessarilyrepresent the views of the IAS as awhole.

IAS Board of Directors:Dan Chodorkoff, Maura Dillon,Rebecca DeWitt, Paula Emery,Paul Glavin, Michelle Matisons,Cindy Milstein, & John Petrovato

IAS Coordinator:Rebecca DeWitt

General Director:Chuck Morse

For more information or a grantapplication, please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:

Institute for Anarchist StudiesP.O. Box 1664

Peter Stuyvesant StationNew York, NY10009-USA

Phone: (718)349-0438E-mail: IASludy@aol.comWeb: h ttp ://home.;newyorknet.

net/ias/Defaukhtm

1 "he IAS is a nonprofit,tax-exempt organization.

Institute for Anarchist Studies UpdateWe anticipate that 1999 will be an exciting yearfor the Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS). Inaddition to awarding grants and publishing thisnewsletter, we have begun a concerted effort tostrengthen and expand the Institute.

Specifically, we intend to raise 510,000 for theIAS endowment by the end of the year. Althoughbuilding the endowment has always been apriority, we are making an extra push because weare eager to enhance the IAS's durability and toestablish the financial basis necessary to increaseour grant awards and fund additional projects insupport of anti-authoritarian social criticism.

Building our endowment is essential to this for tworeasons. First, when our endowment reaches acertain size it will produce a significant annualincome that we can use to fund our present grantprogram, thus freeing us to raise money to increaseour grants and/or other initiatives. Second, as adefensive measure, it is important to build theendowment because its annual income will providea financial safety net for the IAS should it ever beneeded (one that will enable us, for example, tocontinue awarding grants even if we confront afinancial crisis).

Our intention to increase the endowment by$10,000 has its origins in two very welcome andrelated events. Last November an extremelygenerous IAS supporter pledged to donate $8000to our endowment upon the success of our 1999fundraising campaign. In response to this excitingpledge we have decided to increase the amount ofmoney we intend to raise for the IAS this year inorder to place a greater percentage of fundraisingincome into the endowment. We have thus set aSI 0,000 1999 fundraising goal and havedesignated S2000 (20%) for our endowment. Thecombination of these sources will result in a$10,000 addition to our endowment.

I am happy to note that Perennial Books ofConway, Massachusetts - long time IAS supportersand distributors of high quality radical literature -have stepped in to help us meet our 1999fundraising challenge. They have not only pledgedto continue making books available to IAS donorsbut have also expanded the list of available titlesfrom eight to forty-eight (please see the insertaccompanying this issue). In addition, they haveincreased the discount they offer to IAS donors byfive percent: now all IAS supporters contributing$25 or more will receive a twenty percent discount

on Perennial's entire stock.

We hope that everyone who values radicalscholarship will help us meet our 1999 fundraisinggoal. It is the generosity of comrades around theworld that has enabled us to award $6000 in grantsevery year, publish Perspectives biannually. andbuild a small but growing endowment. It is thissame generosity that will enable us to build theIAS's organizational strength, increase our grants,and offer other contributions to the development ofradical social criticism.

It would be hard to convey our enthusiasm for thefuture without mentioning some of thedevelopments that have occurred since the lastissue of Perspectives. We completed our 1998grant cycle with a $2000 grant award to Sam Mbahfor his Military Dictatorship and the State inAfrica (see page 1). I am also excited to report thatWill Firth and Melissa Burch have recentlycompleted their IAS supported projects and thatPaul Fleckenstein has just published his. Weanticipate the completion of many more IASsponsored works in the near future (see page 3 fordetails).

The IAS's 1998 fundraising campaign was also agreat success thanks to the generosity of IASsupporters. Their contributions allowed us toexceed our $9200 fundraising goal by $700,enabling us to award another set of grants totalented and committed radical writers, publishtwo issues of Perspectives, and build the IASendowment by $1315. We are very grateful toeveryone who made this possible. The fact that wemet and exceeded our 1998 goal (and everyfundraising goal we have set thus far) is atestimony to the continued vitality of the anarchisttradition of mutual aid.

The IAS has developed a track record ofsignificant contributions in its three years ofoperation. We are excited to build upon this andbelieve that with careful planning, hard work, andthe support of allies that we will increase the IAS'slong-term strength and our ability to support thedevelopment of radical social criticism and idealsof freedom.

~ Chuck Morse

PerspectivesJL on anarchist theorv

Study GroupsStudy groups have always been important tothe left, although their purpose and structurehas changed as the left has evolved.

An awareness of the history of study groupscan help us develop contemporary educationaland political strategies. The excerpt reprintedbelow gives an overview of study groups in theOld Left, New Left, and the Women'sLiberation Movement. It is reprinted fromRevolutionary Theory by William Friedland (etal).

Serving a variety of purposes at different times, thestudy group demonstrates a combination oforganizing, recruiting, and mobilizing concerns.The way in which study groups have served thesefunctions has varied considerably in differentcontexts.

The Old LeftParticularly within the vanguard elements of theOld Left, the study group was viewed as animportant educational and training device forrecruitment. Consideration of the way Lenindefined the character of the vanguard organization[...] shows how this conception of organizationrequires intermediate training grounds withinwhich people can be educated and tested prior toadmission to the revolutionary party.

Members of Old Left organizations such as theCommunist Party, the Socialist Party, or theSocialist Workers Party functioned in a variety ofbroader organizations such as unions, publicprotest groups, and "front" organizations. Withinsuch wider public environments revolutionariessought to identify individuals who might bepotential members of their group. Attempts wouldthen be made to bring such people into studygroups and other similar organizations where thejreducation could be furthered and they could betested through their participation in various kindsof activities.

When an individual appeared to have somepotential, in the initial phases he or she wasreferred to as a "contact." As individual studygroup members became better known, oftenbecause of their participation in the group and inactions undertaken by the group, a person wouldbecome considered a "prospect," that is, aprospective member. With the continuation ofactivity and study, an individual might apply for or

be suggested for membership.

At all stages, from contact to member, theeducational development of the individual wasconsidered of first importance. Since the vanguardconcept requires a highly developed cadre ofprofessional revolutionaries, the capability ofindividuals to understand and apply revolutionarytheory and experience was regarded as vital. Thestudy group constituted a major entity withinwhich this educational process could unfold.

Old Left study groups would typically set out acourse of study in the marxian classics. [...] Thespecific works to be studied varied according tothe experiences and capabilities of the students andthe skill of the study group leader in recognizinghow fast students could be moved into the moreabstract and difficult revolutionary works. At alltimes, the going might become too difficult forsome participants or they might find themselves inpolitical disagreement and drop away.

Old Left study groups would often turn to currentideological issues and, in particular, the kinds ofissues that delineated the specific organizationalconcerns of the study group sponsor. Trotskyistgroups, for example, focused much discussion onthe Russian Revolution, its degeneration, and thecharacter of Stalinism. As students becamesophisticated with ideas and with the speciallanguage of revolutionary analysis, the study groupwould move to works of increasing difficulty.

Study groups, in and of themselves, wereinadequate preparation grounds. Participants, asthey developed knowledge and sophistication,would be asked to translate their information intoconcrete action. This might range from beingcalled on to distribute newspapers at some factorygate to representing the organization's viewpointwithin one's own union. Sophisticated people wereexpected, in turn, to bring new contacts into theperiphery of the organization and perhaps help toorganize new study groups. The study group thusserved the function of education, but individualswere expected to translate their new knowledgeinto concrete strategies for action before theycould demonstrate their worthiness to belong tothe vanguard organization.

The New LeftMany aspects of Old Left study groups werereproduced in those created by the New Left in the

Continued on page 12 ...

IAS GrantUpdates

Melissa Burch has completedher project, -Autonomy^Cu l tu re , and Na tu ra lResources in the Neo-liberalAge. It has been distributed tonon-profit groups andcommunity resource centers inthe US, Nicaragua, andMexico. The chapter onsoutheast Mexico has beencondensed into a small bookletand will be published anddistributed by; ACERCA(Action for Community andEcology in the Rainforests ofCentral America). It will alsobe used as a study toolaccompanying the NativeForest Network video aboutChiapas. She was awarded$800 in January 1998.

Paul Fleckenstein publishedhis project on contemporarymunicipal development policyand practice in Burlington. VT(initially entitled "Civic Spaceand the Anarchist Dream"), astwo articles in the Septemberissue of 05401, a Burlingtonbased magazine. These articlesare entitled "Most LivableCarnival" and "Filenes,Felines, Felon, Foe: Who Decides Which Way This TownWill Go?". He was awarded$500 in January 1997.

Allan Antiffs book, TheCulture of Revolt: Art and Anarchy in America, is underconsideration at University ofChicago Press. An articlebased on chapter five of hisbook, entitled "Cosmic Modernism: Elie Nadeiman, AdolfWolff, and the MaterialistAesthetics of John Weichsel"is forthcoming in the Archivesof American Art Journal,March 1999. He was awarded$1000 in January 1997.

Continued on page 10...

PerspectivesJ- on anarchist theory

Contacts &addresses

AK PressPO Box 40682

San Francisco, CA 94140Web: www.akpress.org/

Bound Together Books1369 Haight Street

San Francisco, CA94117

Friends of the Modem School200 Sumac Ridge LaneAltamont, NY 12009

Ph: (518) 861-5544/emailjscott@atmos.albany.edu

Fundaci6n AlumbrarSantiago del Estero 264 Piso 5

(1075) Buenos Aires, .ArgentinaWeb: members.aoLcomywellslake/alumbrar.htm

Institute for Social EcologyP.O. Box 89

Plainfield, VT 05667Phone: (802); 454-8493E-mail: ise@igc.org

International History ReviewEAA 2015, Simon Fraser Univ.

Burnaby, British ColombiaCanada VS A 1S6

Web: www.sfu.ca/ihr

Kate Sharpley LibraryBM Hurricane

London, WC1N 3XX EnglandWeb: members.aol.com/wellslake/Sharpley.htm

Libreria Asociativa'Traficahtes de Sueffos'

C/Hortaleza, 19 1° Dcha.28004 Madrid, Spain

Web: wrww.nodo50.org/lucha-autonoma

Politics of Social Ecology:Libertarian Municipalism

ConferenceP.O. Box 111

Burlington, VT 05402Web: www.web.net/-anarchos / e-mail:anarchos@web.net

What's Happening: Books & EventsTwo new books promise to broaden ourconception of the anarchist tradition as well as itsinfluence upon twentieth century intellectual life.Carl Levy's forthcoming anthology, Gramsci andthe Anarchists, treats Italian anarchism from thebeginning of the century to the rise of fascism,charting its relations with Antonio Gramsciand the Turin-based Ordine Nuovo group.This book will deepen our understandingof Gramsci as well as the history ofanarchism (320 pages, NYU Press, 1998).German readers will want to explore LouMarin's Ursprung der Revoke: AlbertCamus und der Anarchismus (trans: TheOrigin of Revolt: Albert Camus and Anarchism, 328 pages, Graswurze Ire volution,1998). Marin argues that anarchism shaped theessence of Camus's response to the Algerian Warof Independence. It draws upon his lectures onanarchism, contributions to anarchist journals, andlifelong contact with the French anarchist movement. It concludes with a discussion of contemporary efforts to rehabilitate Camus as an anarchist.

There is a growing body of literature on the natureand significance of radical social movements at theend of the millennium. Bill Weinberg's forthcoming Homage to Chiapas: The New IndigenousStruggles in Mexico will make an excitingcontribution (288 pages, Verso, August 1999). Thisbook focuses on contemporary social andecological activism throughout Mexico, with anemphasis on the South. It looks at popularstruggles against Pemex (the state-owned oilcompany) in the state of Tabasco; an Indigenousuprising against plans for a giant computer complex and golf course in Tepoztlan; the Zapatistas;the Ejercito Popular Revolucionario (EPR); andthe 'War on Drugs' as a post-Cold War counter-insurgency model. A forthcoming anthology byJohn Womack, author of Zapata and the MexicanRevolution, studies movements in this region froma different perspective. Rebellion in Chiapas: AnHistorical Reader (288 pages, New Press, March1999) looks not only at the five years of conflictsince the Zapatista's 1994 uprising but also at 500years of struggle and uneasy accommodation be

tween Chiapas' primarily Mayan population andthe Spanish conquerors and criollo landowners.For a perspective on dissent in another continentand social context, Spanish-readers will want toconsult Lucha Autonoma: una Vision de la Coord-inadora de Colectivos (1990 - 1997) (196 pages,

Libreria Asociativa 'Traficantes de Suenos',1998). This book contains interviews,pamphlets, theoretical texts, and debatesfrom the autonomous movement in Madrid.

Gramsci

IAS on the Web• IAS Publications• IAS Grant Application• Helpful Links

http://home.newyorknet.net/ias/Default.htm

Contemporary movements have a livingheritage in the older revolutionary tradition, one that still demands serious studyand explication. Proficiency in Italian isnecessary to appreciate one of the most

comprehensive efforts in this regard. At more thana thousand pages, Giampietro Berti's // pensieroanarchico: Dal Settecento al Novecento (Trans:Anarchist Thought from the 1700's to the 1900's)is quite literally a massive contribution to the history of anarchism with a special focus on its Italianstrains (1030 pages, Piero Lacaita Editore, 1998).

Although anarchists were among the mostcourageous and intransigent opponents of European fascism, there is very little historical work ontheir efforts. Two forthcoming publications fromthe Kate Sharpley Library (KSL) will help rectifythis problem. This spring the KSL will release apamphlet on Italian activities entitled AnarchistsAgainst Fascism (various authors). They will alsorelease a translation (by Paul Sharkey) of MicheleCorsentino's biography of Michael Schirru, anItalian-American anarchist executed in 1931 forplanning to assassinate Mussolini. Both works willbe available from AK Press.

Two new publications will nuance our understanding of Japanese anarchist history. VictorGarcia's forthcoming pamphlet from the KateSharpley Library, Three Japanese Anarchists,examines Osugi Sakae, Taiji Yamaga, and KotokuShusui (available from AK Press). Bakunin's 1861visit to Japan is the subject of a fascinating newarticle by Philip Billingsley entitled "Bakunin inYokohama" (pp. 532 -570, International HistoryReview, September 1998).

Nigel Anthony Sellars's Oil, Wheat, & Wobblies:The Industrial Workers of the World in Oklahoma,1905-1930 offers a critical appraisal of an important dimension of American radical history (320pages, University of Oklahoma, 1998). Sellarsanalyzes the I WW's role in Oklahoma from the

PerspectivesJ- on anarchist theory

founding of the union in 1905 to its demise in1930. He describes IWW efforts to organize migratory harvest hands and oil-field workers in thecontext of a broad social history of Oklahomalabor. He examines the relationship between theIWW and other left and labor groups and usescourt cases and legislation to explore governmentrepression of the IWW during World War I. Heconcludes with the IWW's decline after the war.He suggests that its decline should be attributedmore to the union's failure to adapt to postwartechnological change, an attachment to outmodedtactics, and internal policy disputes than topolitical repression.

Although historical work on anarchism continuesto grow, it has lost one of its enthusiasts: we aresaddened to note that Jerome Mintz, author of TheAnarchists ofCasas Viejas, died on November 22,1997 in Bloomington, Indiana after a long strugglewith leukemia. His final work, Carnival Song &Society: Gossip, Sexuality and Creativity in Andalusia (256 pages, NYU Press, 1997), exploresimportant facets of cultural life in one of the regional centers of the classical anarchist movement.

Anarchism has always had a productive relationship with the arts, especially the visual arts, andRichard Porton's forthcoming Film and theAnarchist Imagination will help unravel one of itsdimensions (320 pages, Verso, April 1999). In thiscomprehensive survey of anarchism in film, Portondeconstructs cinematic stereotypes of anarchistswhile offering an account of films featuring anarchist characters and motifs (from the early cinema of Griffith and Rene Clair to Ken Loach'scontemporary work). This is set in the context of abroad examination of the tradition of anarchistthought (from Bakunin to Bookchin). The relationship between anarchism and film continues to unfold thanks to Argentina's Fundacion Alumbrar,who will release two new films this year. The Strikeof Loonies is a documentary video by MarianaArruti examining the anarchist led strike of theShip-Building Workers Federation in 1956, knownas "the longest strike of the century." Their nextdocumentary will study Argentine anarchist Sever-ino Di Giovanni and his group around 1930.

The "Biblioteca-Archivo de Estudios Libertarios"will contain a good deal of information about theShip Builder's strike, Di Giovanni, and otheraspects of Argentina's rich anarchist history. Thisarchive was recently opened by the FederacionLibertaria Argentina, an anarchist organizationdating back to 1935. They are presently cataloguing and organizing their material, which in

cludes massive amounts of books, pamphlets,photographs, and other items collected over theyears. Please contact them to consult their collection at: Biblioteca Archivo de Estudios Libertarios, Brasil 1551, (1154) Buenos Aires, Argentina, Email: Fla@siscor.bibnaI.edu.ar.

Several upcoming events will provide great opportunities to meet friends and discuss contemporaryradical politics. Anarchists from around the worldwill browse literature tables and participate indiscussions at the Fourth Annual Bay AreaAnarchist Book Fair on March 27, 1999 at the SanFrancisco County Fair Building in Golden GatePark (contact Bound Together Books for information). Anarchists from Argentina and othercountries will gather at this year's EncuentroAnarquista on April 1-4, 1999 in Cordoba, Argentina. There will be a broad discussion with a focuson the theme 'Mechanisms of Domination/Mechanisms of Freedom.' For information contact Mariano Ceballos 2867, El Trebol, Cordoba 5010,Argentina, Fax: (54-351) 465 9720, email:granco@usa.net. The Institute for Social Ecologywill mark 25 years of radical education and activism at the 25th Anniversary Celebration Gathering on August 20-22, 1999 at the ISE. There willbe workshops, seminars, and social gatherings(contact the ISE for more information). Thesecond International/Inter polls Conference on ThePolitics of Social Ecology: Libertarian Mun-icipalism will take place on August 27-29, 1999 inPlainfield, Vermont. This working conference follows a previous meeting in Lisbon, Portugal and isheld for those interested in discussing and advancing libertarian municipalism (contact theInternational Organizing Committee, Burlington-Montreal for information). The 27'" Annual Reunion of the Friends of Ferrer Modern Schoolswill take place this September, most likely atRutgers University (for information contact theFriends of the Ferrer Modern School). FrenchSpeakers will want to attend the International Symposium: LAnarchisme a-t-il un Avenir? Histoirede Femmes, d'Hommes et de Leurs Imaginaires(What is the future for anarchism? The History ofWomen, Men, and Their Visions) at the UniversiteToulouse on October 27-29, 1999. This conference will draw upon anarchism's past, present andpossible future to explore answers to the question'What does it mean to be a revolutionary in the21s1 century?'. For information contact: GRHI,colloque Anarchisme, Maison de la recherche,Universite Toulouse-le Mirail, 5. Allee A.Machado, 31058 Toulouse cedex, France, email:jf.soulet@wanadoo.fr or atelierlib@aol.com. Web:www.multimania.com/ateliber/toulouse.htm ~

El Lokal is a self-managed,anti-authoritarian culturalcenter and meeting spacelocated in Barcelona's oldquarter.

Founded 10 years ago, ElLokal runs a library holdingmore than a thousand bookson anarchism, anti-militarism,sociology, ecology, feminism,libertarian pedagogy, and anti-psychiatry. It is also aresource for publications,documents, and reports fromcurrent campaigns againstmultinationals like McDonald's, the movementagainst Maastricht, and otheractivities taking place inCatalonia. The library is openand available to the public.

El Lokal also organizes talksand debates and offers theirspace to radical groups inneed of a meeting-place. Thefollowing collectives can befound there: CollectiveAgainst the Death Penalty andfor Mumia Abu-Jamal'sFreedom; the Zapatista Solidarity Collective; and theAssembly of Barcelona'sYouth who Refuse ObligatoryMilitary Service (Insumisos).

El Lokal also sells anti-a u t h o r i t a r i a n b o o k s(emphasizing independentpublishers) and produces LaLletra @, a quarterly anarchistp e r i o d i c a l , w i t h t h eLibertarian Athenaeum ofReus.

For information, pleasecontact El Lokal at Calle de laCera, 1 bis, ground floor,08001 Barcelona, Spain Ph:34-93-329 06 43, Web: www.pangea.org/ellokal

~ Eva Garcia

PerspectivesAon anarchist theorv

Cedric Robinson:Biography

Bom in Oakland, California in1940, Cedric Robinson's radical convictions were; first nourished ■by:his grandfather whoseradicalism had compelled himto flee from Alabama to California in the late 1920!s.

These [convictions becamepractical when - as a highschool and then university student in California's Bay Area -Robinson joined other Blackradical students to struggleagainst campus authorities andthe iniquities of American foreign and domestic policies.

His activist engagement founda complement in a rigorouscommitment to; study, inquiry,and critique. He received a BAin social anthropology from theUniversity of California at Ber-keley and completed his graduate work at Stanford Universityin political theory. He came tothe University of California atSanta Barbara with his wifeElizabeth in 1979, five yearsafter the birth of their daughterNajda.

At UCSB Robinson has servedas Director of the Center forBlack Studies; the chair of thePolitical Science Department;and then chair of Black Studies. In addition to academicwork, Robinson is a community activist in the Santa Barbara area where, among otherthings, he hosts a TV news program entitled "Third WorldNews Review."

When asked to identify individuals or thinkers who havehad the greatest influence uponhis work, Robinson sites hisgrandfather, Winston Whiteside, C.L.R. James, andTer rence Hopk ins . ~

Capitalism, Marxism, and the Black Radical Tradition:... Continued from page I

The Tradition's first stage of development isoppositional, i.e. the negation (resistance) of thenegation (slavery); the response to the attemptedcultural alienation and the effected physical,geographical and social alienation of slavery.

But slavery itself must be understood in a newway by readers familiar with the melodramatic andEurocentric narrative of slavery as the capture,impressment and exploitation of primitive peoples. Iattempted to intrude upon the familiar constructionof slavery as a superior culture overtaking aninferior culture. This narrative is hegemonic andmust be ruptured.

In order to present this to the readers it isimportant to recognize the cultural history of theenslaved, but this is not easily done. The BlackRadical Tradition is not a biological reflex, but areconstitution of historical, cultural, and moralmaterials, a transcendence which both transfersand edits earlier knowledges and understandingsamong the several African peoples enslaved.

The dialectical method is well suited to thesetasks.

/n Black Marxism you point to a distinctively'African consciousness' that informed thecommitments, insights, and politics of Blackradicals. What is this consciousness and what is itsimportance for Black radical politics?

I believe that the historical struggles in Africaand the New World culled some of the best virtuesof their native cultures. One such virtue wasdemocracy, the commitment to a social order inwhich no voice was greater than another (I wroteabout some of the precedents for this regime inThe Terms of Order).

This alternative to hierarchy also produced acritique of political order; and during the anti-slavery struggles, it achieved a rather sophisticatedcritique of the rule of law. And the core andtributaries of this moral philosophy were whatGreek classicists term the transmutation of thesoul. So, from the center of a world view in whichthe reiteration of names (an African convention inwhich the name of a recently deceased loved one isgiven to the next child bom) reflected theconservatism and responsibilities of a community,the resolve to value our historical and immediateinterdependence substantiates democracy.

This heritage gave Black Radicals manythings. For example, it gave them an ability toretain the value of life, a fact that had manyconsequences, such as presenting restraints on theuse of violence as a political instrument.

/n analyzing the contributions made by W.E.B.DuBois, C.L.R. James, and Richard Wright tothe Black Radical Tradition you highlightDuBois's emphasis on the peasants' revolutionaryrole, James's critique of the Leninist party model,and Wright's emphasis on the cultural dimensionsof revolutionary politics. These observations havebeen constitutive of the anarchist tradition and, toa lesser degree, libertarian socialism. Do theycreate a unique common ground upon whichBlack radicals and anti-authoritarians from otherbackgrounds can meet?

What these anti-authoritarian traditions havein common is that they confront and show thenecessity of avoiding certain conceits which followfrom the general theory of revolution in Marxism.

One conceit is class; another is determinancy;and another is the stage-construction of history. AsAmilcar Cabral argued thirty years ago, class is nota world-historical phenomena enveloping the histories of all peoples; and culture and consciousness are as powerful in determining choice andbehavior as the material reproduction of a society.Finally, the discrete stages of history which Marxborrowed from the Scottish Enlightenment of the17th century hardly corresponds with any humanhistory, even European's.

However, 1 do not believe that it is necessaryfor a convergence of these traditions to take place.They are all assaults on the same social and politicalauthority. We should remember, for example, thatthe Russian Revolution - despite its reconstructionas a consequence of the Leninist party - was theresult of many different revolutions (revolutionsfor which Lenin or Trotsky had no responsibilityor theoretical understanding). The Tsarist regimedid not collapse under the weight of a single force.

Black and other radicals originate and articulate distinct histories which converge and diverge depending on historical circumstance: this wasJames's conception of the confluences of the Haitian slaves and the French peasantry, etc.; a historicalcorrespondence which was broken by the timeFrantz Fanon wrote of French colonialism, Frenchworkers, and the colonized subject. These historiesof radicalism are neither determined nor dictated bythe world-system, merely given local impulse.

Marx believed that a communist societycould only emerge from the Europeanworking class. Black radicals and others excludedfrom world-historical significance by Marx confronted this claim and produced important insightsinto the nature of capitalist development and revolutionary agency. Are these insights developed by

PerspectivesJ- on anarchist theoryon anarchist theory

An Interview with Cedric RobinsonBlack radicals distinct from those generated bysimilar confrontations among other peoples?

What is similar is the historical tendency tosuccumb to the seductions of nationalism on thepremise that Marxism is essentially Eurocentric. Itis as a response to the denial of historical agencywithin Marx that many non-western radicals haveoften thrown themselves into nationalist projects.(Although many recent movements, such as theNicaraguan Sandinistas, are no longer concernedor consumed by that problem.)

But confrontations with Marx's historicalvision are also shaped by the social context inwhich they unfold. The Black Radical Traditionemerged in the belly of the beast, in a settingwhere physical and cultural problems were veryimmediate and the surveillance of Black radicalswas omnipresent. Black radicals thus took slavesociety, colonial, and post-colonial society at itsword and attempted to subvert in on this basis.Whereas Chinese Marxists, for example, sawcapitalism and the West as an invasive forcecoming from without. The Chinese revolutionariesnever conceded to the West its self-definition, andthus had a different relationship to Marx'shistorical vision.

rhe relationship between the West and Africa,mediated by the development of capitalism, iscentral to your discussion of Black radicalpolitics. However, at a time when capitalist firmsare increasingly globalized and various non-western economies are major factors of the worldeconomy, the 'West'plays a more ambiguous roleas a center of capitalism. How does this changethe character of Black radical politics?

Changes in capitalism have produced changesin Black Radical politics and they also providenew opportunities. For instance, racial capitalismin England and the US exposes the instability ofrace categories. In England, where South Asiansare Black as well as Africans and West Indians,this creates an opportunity for political allianceswhich were never anticipated by capitalism.

However, Marx and later Marxists were enthralled with the notion that capital would organizethe world into a single order and then the proletariat would inherit that ordered world. I havenever conceded the notion that the West hasordered the world in a rational whole: no coherentorder, no singular whole, has ever been forgedunder the authority of capital and the unifyinglanguage of world systems theory simply does notcapture the chaos of capitalism.

For the purposes of liberation, it is not

necessary for Black radicalism to shadow orreiterate the world-system. There will be no proletarian armageddon with capitalism. Centralism isanathema to revolutionary change for the courage,resolve, and intelligence necessary to defeatoppression issues from different historical andcultural sites.

I believe it is necessary for the Black RadicalTradition to remain focused upon the culturallegacies that have provided for its strengths. TheTradition is most powerful when it draws on itsown historical experiences while resisting thesimplifications of Black nationalism. This protocolallows for the emergence and recognition of otherradical traditions, drawing their own power fromalternative historical experiences.

/n Black Marxism you argue that racism isintegral to the development of capitalism.However, given the emergence of various Asianeconomies (including 'socialist' China), it appearsthat capitalism has taken on a much more multicultural character. Has the relationship betweenrace and capitalism changed in fundamental waysand, if so, what does this imply for a radical, anti-racist politics?

When we inspect the expansions of capital inJapan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. wediscover racial protocols. These are encrustedfrom much earlier histories (for example, athousand years of slavery in Korea).

What is important to remember is that capitalnever develops according to pure marketexigencies or rational calculus. Whatever theorganization of capitalism may be and whoeverconstitutes its particular agencies, capitalism has aspecific culture. As Aristotle first revealed, capitalaccumulation is essentially irrational. And as wasthe case in his time, race, ethnicity, and genderwere powerful procedures for the conduct ofaccumulation and value appropriation.

7ou describe a dialectic between Blackradicalism and the larger social order inwhich Black radicalism gradually evolves,understanding itself more deeply and articulatinga more incisive, revolutionary critique. However,revolutionary, anti-capitalist commitments are farless prevalent in Black politics and theory todaythan a decade or two ago. What does this indicateabout the evolution of the Tradition as a whole?

I do not believe that the Black RadicalTradition is at a low point. For example, there arevanguard movements in the Tradition: think of the

Continued on next page ...

Cedric Robinson:Selected Works

Black Movements in America.New York: Routledge, 1997.

Black Marxism: The Makingof the Black Radical Tradition. London: Zed Books,1983.

The Terms of Order: PoliticalScience and the Myth of Leadership. Albany, NY: SUNYPress, 1980.

"Mass Media and the USPresidency" in Questioningthe Media: A Critical Introduction, ed. by John Downinget al. Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage Publications, 1995.

"Wr. E. B. DuBois and Black:Sovereignty,' in ImaginingHome: Class, Culture, andNationalism in the AfricanDiaspora, ed. by Sidney J.Lemelle and Robin D. G.Kelly. New York: Verso, 1994.

"Race, Capitalism, and theAnti-Democracy" in ReadingRodney King/Reading UrbanUprising, ed. by RobertGooding-Williams. NewYork: Routledge, 1993.

"In the Year 1915: D.W.Griffith and the Whitening ofAmerica." Social Identities,Vol. 3, No. 2, June 1997.

"In Search of a Pan-AfricanCommonwealth." Social Identities, Vol. 2, No. 1 Feb. 1996.

PerspectivesJL on anarchist theorvon anarchist theory

... Robinson Continued

reception of Nelson Mandela in the US afterhis release from prison. He became a markerfor the advance of the Black RadicalTradition as a whole in the minds of manyBlack Americans. On the other hand, localconditions in places like the US have notproduced such world historical individualsin recent times.

But the world is dynamic, constantlychanging, constantly creating new possibilities (see, for instance, how far revolutionary agendas were pursued by youth gangs inChicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco inthe post-Civil Rights era). All over the US,Black Radicalism is manifesting itself inurban churches, in theory (i.e. doctrine) andpractice (i.e. volunteerism). What will be thenext phase, when the rule of law becomestransparently farcical, the Christian rightachieves its fascist perfection, and the Stateacquires a predominantly carceral posturetowards the majority of Blacks, Latinos, etc.?

rhe conflicted relationship betweenintellectuals and popular movementsis an important theme in your work Doesthe emergence of high-profile Black Studiesdepartments (at Harvard, example) and thepopularity of writers such as Cornell West,bell hooks, Henry Louis Gates Jr., etc. marka new stage in the relationship betweenBlack intellectuals and movements?

Hegemonic control of Black Studies isas important to capital as any other field ofknowledge production. The selective breeding of Black intellectuals in this country iseven older than the appearance of thephilanthropic Black colleges of the late 19thcentury; and the necessity of dominatingBlack knowledge production finds a template in the Gunnar Myrdahl enterprise in theyears of World War II.

However, Black Studies is revolutionary in its political and historical origins andintellectual impulses. To paraphrase C.L.R.James, who insisted that Black Studies wasthe study of Western Civilization, BlackStudies is a critique of Western Civilization.This is all too apparent in one of the firstarticulations of radicalism by David Walkerin 1829. Modern slavery, Walker demonstrated, was not like Ancient Mediterraneanslavery; modem Christianity could notoblige a Just God; education had to have arevolutionary emancipation as its centralvirtue, etc. So at those sites of its inception,

Black Studies was seen as preparatory to re-articulating justice and the Good.

The Tradition is by now well preparedto defend itself against attempts to colonizeit: after all Black revolutionists were working with George Washington Carver atBooker T. Washington's Tuskegee preserve.Imagine the contradictions!

As a new and controversial development-/1/w the analysis of ethnicity, what role doyou think 'Whiteness Studies' can play infighting white supremacy and what are itslimitations?

Whiteness Studies deconstruct anddecenter whiteness, showing that it is anartifice, that it has a history and one thatdoes not go back very far. The best of thework (like George Lipsitz's The PossessiveInvestment in Whiteness) is an extension ofradical Black Studies.

Although it is currently in fairlyprogressive hands, problems could emerge.For example, it could be used to challengethe very existence of Black Studies. It couldlend itself to arguments such as: "we'vegone too far: we've had Black Studies, nowwe have White Studies, what we need to dois prosecute a universal American identity".Or, in the same vein: "if you can't give usresources for White Studies then the youshouldn't provide resources for BlackStudies." These are possibilities.

rhe American University integratespeople into the capitalist social orderand is also the primary setting in whichradical, social criticism is (currently)developed. How has academia helped orhindered your work as radical social critic?

The academy is indifferent if not hostileto Black Studies. Since WWII the University has become very dependent upon statesupport and Black Studies has remainedoutside the pale of this support. For example, the most well funded research onBlack youth are essentially police studies.Racism simply remains a powerful break onBlack Studies and research in the academy.

The hostility and indifference to BlackStudies makes collaborative work verydifficult. So, too often, serious work is donein the singularity of private labor. This haspresented difficulties for me and manyothers working in the field. This obstaclefrustrates not only individual efforts but alsothe development of Black Studies as such.

Given the distinctions you have madebetween Marxism and the BlackRadical Tradition, how do you define yourown political commitments?

What name do you give to the nature ofthe Universe? There are some realms inwhich names, nomination, is premature. Myonly loyalties are to the morally just world;and my happiest and most stunningopportunity for raising hell with corruptionand deceit are with other Black people. Isuppose that makes me a part, an expression,of Black Radicalism.

Tj lease tell me about your forthcomingJ. book, The Anthropology of Marxism:A Study of Western Socialism?

This work attempts to extricate thehistory and origins of socialism in the Westfrom Marxism. This requires movingbeyond the chronological constraints imposed by Marx (socialism can only followcapitalism, etc.) and suggesting a more openepistemology of socialism. In a sense Irevisit familiar sites (Hegel, Kant, Engels,etc.) only to mark forgotten and suppressedwork (e.g. Hegel's study of British politicaleconomy) in order to proceed to theunexpected richness of the history ofsocialist visions and pursuits.

Tjlease tell me about future projects youJL have planned

My next project concerns the Americanracial imagination formed from and castthrough American films. This is anotherattempt to get at the social imagination,particularly how it relates to the changingconstruction of Blackness.

As someone fascinated with culture andits potentialities, interrogating film is another means of determining how popularcultures contest with mass cultures; the latterbeing stories about the world and humanexperience which are manufactured for themasses by elites. Aristotle once wrote thatthe many are wiser than the few. In the bestsense of this observation, the conflictbetween social history and popular cultures,on the one hand, and induced memories ofthe past on the other may be the mostimportant site of analysis in a civilizationwhose technicians can now design virtualreality. Under these changed circumstancesit becomes even more imperative that wecan distinguish authentic (historical)radicalism from imagined radicalism. ~

8

PerspectivesJ- on anarchist thenrvon anarchist theory

African Anarchism: Interview with Sam MbahAfrican Anarchism: The History of a Movement(See Sharp Press, 1997) by Sam Mbah and I.E.Igariwey is the first book-length treatment ofanarchism and Africa. The authors argue thatanarchism provides a coherent framework withwhich to comprehend and respond to the multiplecrises afflicting the continent. I met with Mbah onNovember 4, 1998 at the beginning of his NorthAmerican speaking tour. ~ Chuck Morse

7ou state that "the overall tendency in thedevelopment of human society has beentoward social equality and greater individual

freedom." Do you share Marx's belief thatcapitalism is a progressive development in world-history and a necessary precondition of moreadequate social forms?

The Marxist position is not completely accurate. Capitalism was a progressive developmentduring its own epoch: it provided the grounds forthe radicalization of the working class, which wasnot possible under feudalism and definitely a stepahead. It was based on this that the struggle againstcapitalism and the state-system intensified. However, I do not think every country or society mustpass through this process or that capitalism is aprecondition for human progress or development.

I also do not think that human history ispredictable or can be tied to sequences developedby historians and writers. I believe that thecapacity of ordinary people in a given society is sogreat that it can almost propel them to take destinyinto their own hands at any point in time. It doesnot have to wait until capitalist development hastaken root or the working class has been formed.The peasantry, for example, can also take destinyin their own hands if their consciousness is raisedto a certain level. I do not believe in thecompartmentalization of history into stages: Ibelieve in the capacity of the ordinary people tostruggle on their own and free themselves at anypoint in time.

7 our book is grounded in anarcho-syndicalism, a tradition derived primarilyfrom European historical experiences. Whatdistinctive contributions can the Africanexperience make to anarchism as a whole?

We attempted to point this out in our book.Although anarchism is not complete without theWestern European contributions, we believe thereare elements of African traditional societies thatcan be of assistance in elaborating anarchist ideas.

One of these is the self-help, mutual aid, orcooperative tradition that is prevalent in African

society. This society is structured such that there isreduced individualism and a collective approachtoward solving problems and living life: reducedto its essence, I think that is what anarchism ispreaching.

African traditional societies also offer somethings we should learn from. For example,leadership - especially in societies where feudalism(and thus chiefdoms) did not develop - washorizontal and diffused, not vertical. Almosteverybody in a given community or village tookpart in decision-making and had a say in anythingthat involved them. Even the elders wouldordinarily not declare a war against the nextvillage except if there was a consensus, which wasreally the binding force of African society. Also,the extended family system, in which your nephewcould come live with you and your wife, isdefinitely something we recommend to anarchism.So, these are areas in which we think that Africanideas could also be incorporated into anarchism.These ideas are enduring, almost in human natureas far as Africa is concerned.

rhe inability to combine a coherent critique ofthe state and capitalism with a critique ofracism has exacted an enormous toll onanarchism. In what sense must an analysis ofracism and white supremacy complement a classanalysis?

The capitalist system we inherited thrives onthe exploitation of workers and other non-dominant classes and also exploits racialdifferences. It has instituted a permanent racialdichotomy among workers, where there is a groupof privileged workers and another, not soprivileged group. There is a double exploitation:an exploitation of the working class in general andan even greater exploitation of the non-whiteworking class. This was not properly addressedeven by Marxism, because it assumed a unity ofinterests among the working class withoutreference to the specific kinds of exploitation anddeprivation faced by workers.

Racism is a key factor in this world and anyworking class analysis that seeks to deny this isonly being escapist. Racism is simply endemic incapitalism.

It is for workers to comprehend this, as a basisfor unity within their own ranks and to moveforward. This must be recognized by anarchistactivists and social movements, so as to integrateblacks and whites to face a common enemy, whichis capitalism and the social relations of productiont h a t i t p u t s i n p l a c e . ~

— i

SamMbah

Born in 1963 in Enugu, Nigeria, Sam Mbah embraced anarchism shortly after the collapseof the Soviet Union whilestudying at the University ofLagos. Like many radicals, heentered a period of deep political reflection after the breakdown of the Eastern Block, onethat prompted him to reexamine his previous Marxistcommitments and ultimatelyled him to the anti-statist, anti-capitalist politics that is anarchism. North American publications such as The Torch andLove and Rage were especiallyimportant to this process.

Mbah currently makes his living as the Lagos correspondentfor Enugu's Daily Star newspaper. He is also very active inthe Awareness League, an anarchist organization committed tothe libertarian transformationof Nigeria. I The .. AwarenessLeague is active in politicaleducation^ various social campaigns, and environmental protection. It presently has 600members and eleven branchesthroughout the country.

Mbah and I.E. Igariwey (theco-author of African Anarchism) ore currently workingon their next book. This will bean anarchist critique of militarydictatorship in Africa, whichthey intend to complete by theend of 1999 (see page 1).

Mbah sites two Nigerians whenasked to recommend otherAfrican authors he findsparticularly sympathetic toanarchism: Ikenna Nzimiro andthe late Mokwugo Okoye.

You can contact the AwarenessLeague at: AL, POB 1920,Enugu State, Nigeria ~

PerspectivesJ- on anarchist thenrvon anarchist theory

IAS GrantAwards

... Continued from Page 1

instability, economic difficulties, and lack of freedominherent in the state S3'stemand neo-colonial capitalism.

Drawing on case studies ofNigeria^ Egypt, Zaire, andother countries, they willaddress the role of the militaryas an institution on theAfrican continent since the1960's. j They will j examinemilitary dictatorship in anhistorical context, therelationship between themilitary and state system,; andits connection to j theinternational political order.They will also ■ portray j therepression of free speech: andhuman rights, corruption i andeconomic mismanagement,and the destruction ofcommunal African values.

The authors will conclude thatoverthrowing: militarydictatorships will not put anend to the oppressiveconditions on the Africancontinent. They; will show thatmilitary dictatorships are notisolated aberrations of thestate system and that nothingshort of an anarchist responseto the state and capitalismwill fundamentally advancethe African people tofreedom.

The scheduled completiondate for this project isDecember 1999.

If you are interested inapplying for a grant, pleasesend a self-addressed,stamped envelope to the IAS.Grant applications are alsoavailable at the IAS's website:http://home.newyorknet.net/i a s / D e f a u l t h r m . ~

10

... Grant Updates continued from Page 3Will Firth completed his translation of threeEastern European anarchist writings. The first twoarticles are translations from Russian. They areentitled "A Survey of the Anarchist Movement inthe Ukraine 1987-1994" and "Under Fire Betweenthe Lines" (about the Volunteer Medical Brigadeformed by anarchists and socialists during the1993 seizure of the Russian parliament). The thirdis an excerpt from the Bulgarian language bookNational Liberation and Libertarian Federalismby Georgi Khadzhieff. He is currently securingpublication for the translations.He was awarded S600 in June1998.

Joe Lowndes continues research forhis piece, "Anarchism and the Rise ofRightwing Anti-statism." He isfocusing most recently on the history ofagrarian radicalism in the US as well as the declineof trust in the government since the Civil Rightsmovement and its link to the development of whiteclass resentment (from Wallace supporters toReagan Democrats to contemporary rightwing anti-government activists). His next focus will be thepolitics and strategies of current anti-statist movements on the right as both articulations of olderforms of agrarian protest and contemporaryresponses to the neoliberal state. The expectedcompletion date is May 1999. He was awardedSI000 in June 1998.

Lucien van der Walt has nearly completed threeout of five chapters for his project, Anarchism andRevolutionary Syndicalism in South Africa, 1904-1921, including work on the IWW of South Africa,the International Socialist League, and theIndustrial Workers of Africa. Sections of the workare under consideration at various academicjournals and he has also presented a seminar papertitled "'The Industrial Union is the Embryo of theSocialist Commonwealth': The InternationalSocialist League and Revolutionary Syndicalism inSouth Africa, 1915-1919." He was awarded $500in June 1998.

Patricia Greene continuesresearch for her book,Federica Montseny: TheWoman and the Ideal/LaMujer y El Ideal, and shehas recently traveled toSpain and France to accessarchives and conductinterviews. She has alsobegun creating the Federica

Montseny Web Page accessible at http://www.msu.edu/user/greenep/FedericaMontseny.html andrecently published an article entitled "FedericaMontseny: Chronicler of an Anarcho-FeministGenealogy" in Letras Peninsulares (Vol. 11, no. 2,1997: pp. 333-354). She was awarded S900 inJune 1998.

Mark Bonhert and Richard Curtis anticipate anearly 1999 completion date for their project"Passionate and Dangerous: Conversations withMidwestern Anarchists" (formerly "Post-Industrial

Resources: Anarchist Reconstructive Efforts &Visions in the Upper Midwest").

Left Bank has agreed todistribute their project. They

were awarded S250 in June 1997.

Matt Hern and Smart Chaulk secured a publisher,Broadview Press, a major Canadian publisher, fortheir book The Myth of the Internet: PrivateIsolation and Local Community. They wereawarded SI200 in January 1998.

Zoe Erwin and Brian Tokar continue working ontheir anthology Engineering Life: A People'sGuide to Biotechnology and anticipate a nearlycomplete manuscript by early 1999. They are stilllooking for a publisher. The Edmonds Institute(Edmonds, WA) has expressed interest in issuing alimited pre-publication edition for anti-biotechactivists. They were awarded SI000 in June 1997.

Murray Bookchin's work on the Spanish anarchistswill appear in Vol. 3 of the Third Revolution:Popular Movements in the Revolutionary Era(Castells). He anticipates publication by the end of1999. He was awarded SI000 in January-1997 forthe completion of the second volume of hisSpanish Anarchists.

Chris Day continues work on his book Anarchismand the Zapatista Revolution. He was awarded$2000 in January 1998.

Peter Lamborn Wilson's introduction to the newedition of Enrico Arrigone's (aka Frank Brand)Freedom - My Dream: The Autobiography ofEnrico Arrigoni, continues to take shape. He wasawarded $250 in June 1997.

Frank Adams continues historical research for hispiece "The Educational Ideas and ManagementPractices of 19th and 20th Century Anarchists inLabor-Owned Cooperatives." He anticipatescompletion by the end of 1999. He was awarded$500 in June 1997.

Montseny

PerspectivesJL on anarchist the.nrvon anarchist theory

The IAS's 1999 Fundraising CampaignThe IAS needs your support: we must raise$10,000 by January 2000 to continue awardinggrants to radical writers, publishing Perspectives,and building the IAS endowment.

Please help make this possible by sending adonation to the IAS today. Your contribution willhelp the IAS meet its 1999 fundraising goal andthus make the following contributions to thedevelopment of anti-authoritarian social criticism:

• The IAS will award $6000 in grants to writersstruggling with some of the most pressingquestions in radical social theory today. IASgrants help radical authors take time off work,hire childcare, purchase research materials,pay for travel expenses and other thingsnecessary to produce serious, thoughtfulworks of social criticism.

• The IAS will publish two issues ofPerspectives on Anarchist Theory, ourbiannual newsletter. Perspectives is a uniquesource of interviews, publishing news, andcommentary pertaining to anarchism. It helpskeep people informed about anarchistscholarship and encourages dialogue amongthose interested in this work.

• The IAS will add $10,000 to its endowment.We will place 20% ($2000) of fundraisingincome into the endowment and, upon thesuccess of our 1999 fundraising campaign, avery generous IAS supporter will contributean additional $8000 to the fund. Ourendowment strengthens the IAS as anorganization and will ultimately provide thefinancial means with which we can expand oursupport for radical writers.

As an IAS donor you will receive each issue ofPerspectives on Anarchist Theory. Also, all IASsupporters who donate $25 or more will be able tochoose from the great books listed on the insertaccompanying this issue and will also receive a20% discount at Perennial Books, an exceptionalradical bookseller located in Conway,Massachusetts. Donations are tax-deductible forUS citizens.

The following individuals and organizations havealready donated or pledged a donation to the IAS's1999 fundraising campaign:

Dan Chodorkoff - Rebecca DeWitt ~ MauraDillon ~ Miranda Edison ~ Paula Emery ~ PaulGlavin ~ Michelle Matisons and Gardner Fair~ Cindy Milstein ~ Chuck Morse ~ CarolineMorse - John Petrovato ~ Jon Scott ~ and theKate Sharpley Library.

Please join these generous individuals and help usmake our 1999 fundraising campaign a success.Your contribution will help the IAS continuesupporting radical writers and working to developthe critique of social domination and vision of acooperative, egalitarian, and just society.

Please make checks payable to the Institute forAnarchist Studies and mail them to:

Institute for Anarchist StudiesP.O. Box 1664

Peter Stuyvesant StationNew York, NY10009-USA

Discount at I^renisial Booksfor IAS Donors

Perennial Books - one of the best radical booksellers around - offer a 20% discount on theirremarkable stock to all IAS supporters donating$25 or more to the IAS?s 1999 fundraising campaign.

Perennial specializes inused and discount booksin philosophy, history,cultural studies, labor history, and women's studies.They carry over 17,000

books, including more than 275 titles on anarchism (many of which are out of print and hard tofind).

Perennial Books is open Wednesday throughSunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.. They are locatedat 98 Main Street, Conway, Massachusetts,01341. If you are unable to stop by the store,please feel free to call Perennial at (413) 369-8037 or write them at Perennial Books, P.O. Box715, Conway,-Massachusetts, 01341. Inquires arealways welcome.

1998 Fl NDRAISINC.Campaign

The following grbjps andindividuals made me IAS's1998 fundraising campaign agreat success. Their generosity helped the IAS raisemore than $9200 and thuscontinue to support radicalwriters, publish Perspectives,and build the IAS endowment.

Jerry Askeroth, Jon Bekken,Tom Copeland, Roger deGaris & Carolyn Francis, Rebecca DeWitt, Maura Dillon,John & Jolene DuBose,Miranda Edison, Bree Edwards, Elizabeth Elson, PaulaEmery, Tony Epiceno, RichardEvanoff, Manuel Ferrecra,Frank Gerould, Paul Glavin,Brian Goldberg, Luz Guerra,Thomas Johansson, ; QayyumJohnson, Peter Kalberer, JerryKaplan, Richard Kostelanetz,David Koven, Alison Lewis,Mike Long, Michelle Matisons& Gardner Fair, PatrickMcNamara, Gabe .= Metcalf,Cindy Milstein, Chuck Morse,Caroline Morse, Lynn Olson,John Petrovato, EugeneRodriguez, Stanley Rosen,Bruno Ruhland, Jon Scott,Sidney & Clara Solomon,P a t t i S t a n k o , P e t e rStaudcnmaier, Peter Stone,Elizabeth Sullivan, Gabriel Thompson,; Dana Ward,Laura White, Dave Whbrodt,and Anonymous I & -EL

Chumbawamba, GuelphSocial Ecology WorkingGroup, Jura Books, and theKate Sharpley Library.

The IAS is particularlyindebted to Anonymous I &n, Miranda Edison, MichelleMatisons & Gardner Fair,Caroline Morse, ChuckMorse, Jon Scott, Peter Staud-enmaier, and Chumbawamba.

11

Perspectives-L on anarchist thenrvon anarchist theory

... Study Groups continued from page 31960s. As with the old, the primary functionof study groups was seen as educational -providing opportunities for newcomers tofamiliarize themselves with classic socialistwriters. Because the New Left was largelyanti-vanguardist their study groups varied inpurpose and tone from the older versions.

• New Leftists were much moreconcerned about learning environmentsand the size of organization than werethe older generation. One aim of NewLeft study groups, therefore, was tocreate a smaller-scale atmospherewithin which people would feel morecomfortable than they could in largemeetings.

• Because there were few vanguardgroups for which to recruit, the studygroups were not considered intermediate organizations in which peoplelearned and were tested. Rather, thesegroups were intended to provideeducation and a linkage to action.Individual members were expected todetermine their own degree of activismand involvement rather than striving forultimate membership in the innervanguard organization.

As with the Old Left, the New Leftconsidered study groups to be useful butauxiliary devices to the main forms oforganization and activism. The Old Lefttended to be more thoroughly organizedwith respect to study groups and perhapsmore detached from them, regarding them asnecessary devices through which peoplecould be tested. New Leftists broughtspontaneous enthusiasm to their studygroups so that their atmosphere was lessserious and more personally engaging.Because of their lack of structure andspontaneity these groups often fell apartmore easily than did Old Left study groups.

Women's Consciousness Raising GroupsThe growth of the women's movement in thelate 1960s saw the evolution of the studygroup as a distinctive form of mobilizationwith different intentions from either the Oldor New Left. Although often ignoring arevolutionary perspective, some segments ofthe women's movement saw these groups asnecessary for the formation of women's self-

12

consciousness.

The women's liberation movement hasargued the need for personal liberationgroups as devices for mobilizing theenergies of women for change, whetherrevolutionary or not. Because women tendto be isolated from each other and becauseof the competitiveness imposed on them byAmerican society, women came to view thepersonal liberation group as the first step inmobilization and self-organization.

Generally, small groups of women (betweensix and twelve) would meet and begin toknow each other on a personal basis. At thisinitial stage, women were concerned withrecounting personal experiences with sexismand to release - to openly acknowledge -their bitterness, frustration, and anger. Theymight examine past experiences andinterpret them in terms of how they feltabout them. At this stage, participants stroveto admit their feelings about themselves,about other women, and about men. Theexpressions of individuals would be evaluated and discussed within the group, oftenby going around the room to seek commentsand questions. Once individual "testimonies" were obtained, the group ideallyattempted to locate common elements in theexperiences.

There were often reasonable fears for therefusal to develop a higher consciousness,fears of seeing one's life as wasted andmeaningless; or the fear of feeling the fullweight of the uncomfortable and painfulpresent; or despair for the prospects forchange in the future. Personal liberationgroups sought to articulate these fears andanalyze them in terms of the objectiveconditions of women's situations in the pastand present.

Study groups often reached a stage wherethey turned to a broader consideration of thesources of oppression. At this point thecommon experiences of other oppressedgroups might be examined and thesimilarities to and differences from those ofwomen would be analyzed. Broadeningconsciousness was regarded as importantsince the condition of women wasrecognized by most women's liberationistsas only one form of systemic oppression.Again, resistance might develop to this

broadening tendency. Some women mightremain committed solely to a women'sstruggle stance; others might again experience despair; still others would recognizethe broader elements of oppression and seethe opportunities to join with other groups ina common struggle, while protecting theintegrity of the women's struggle.

Finally, personal liberation groups oftenturned outward and moved toward action. Inthis mobilizational phase, women sought tojoin active struggles in their organizations orin common organizations with othersengaged in similar efforts. At this stage,women were expected to confront theiroppression and deal with it openly. Activismmight involve actions such as organizingnew personal liberation groups for novices,learning to express oneself in public throughwriting and speaking, developing politicalcampaigns on issues affecting women, andundertaking public relations activities toeducate the general public.

Women's liberation study groups weredistinctly different from those found in theOld and New Left. With personal liberationas a primary emphasis, they moved fromindividual therapeutic approaches to abroadening of consciousness before movingto public activism. Like the New Leftgroups, however, the emphasis was on theneed to create small-scale environmentswithin which individuals could feelcomfortable and grapple with their owne x p e r i e n c e . ~

Note: this excerpt is reprinted fromRevolutionary Theory by William Friedlandet al (Totowa, N.J.: Allanheld, Osmun &Co., 1982), pp. 133-136.

Perspectives on Anarchist Theory

Subscription Rates$5 — Individuals$10-Instimtions$25-Bulk Subs

(25 Copies)

Institute for Anarchist StudiesP.O. Box 1664

Peter Stuyvesant StationNew York, NY10009-USA